These views, and his chronic intervention in temporal affairs, led to many bitter quarrels with Albert I of Germany, Philip IV of France, and Dante Alighieri, who expected the pope to soon arrive at the eighth circle of Hell in his Divine Comedy, among the simoniacs.

Boniface had first entered into conflict with King Philip IV in 1296 when the latter sought to reinforce the nascent nation state by imposing taxes on the clergy and barring them from administration of the law.

Boniface excommunicated Philip and all others who prevented French clergy from traveling to the Holy See, after which the king sent his troops to attack the pope's residence in Anagni on 7 September 1303 and capture him.

[2] Benedetto took his first steps into religious life when he was sent to the monastery of the Friars Minor in Velletri, where he was put under the care of his maternal uncle Fra Leonardo Patrasso.

In later years Father Vitalis, the Prior of S. Egidio de S. Gemino in Narni testified that he knew him and conversed with him in Todi and that Benedetto was in a school run by Rouchetus, a Doctor of Laws, from that city.

Cardinal Simon had been appointed by Pope Urban IV (Jacques Pantaléon), between 25 and 27 April 1264, to engage in negotiations with Charles of Anjou, Comte de Provence, over the Crown of Naples and Sicily.

[9] He also commended to the Cardinal the Sienese bankers who had been working for Urban IV to raise funds for Charles of Anjou, and that he should transfer to them some 7,000 pounds Tournois from the decima (ten percent tax) of France.

On 20 March 1265, in order to expedite the business with Charles of Anjou, Cardinal Simon was authorized to provide benefices from cathedrals or otherwise within his province to five of his clerics.

[21] In the winter of 1289, he was one of Pope Nicholas IV's advisors as he decided on a settlement of the disputes over the election or appointment of Portuguese bishops, in which King Denis played a major role.

The regulations promulgated in the 1274 papal bull Ubi periculum had not envisioned an abdication, but declared that election proceedings should begin ten days after the death of the incumbent.

The latter three appealed to Pope Boniface VIII, who ordered Jacopo to return the land and furthermore to hand over the family's strongholds of Colonna, Palestrina, and other towns to the Papacy.

[40] These views, and his chronic intervention in "temporal" affairs, led to many bitter quarrels with Albert I of Germany, Philip IV of France, and Dante Alighieri, who wrote his treatise De Monarchia to dispute Boniface's claims of papal supremacy.

Dante settled his score with Boniface in the first canticle of the Divine Comedy, the Inferno, by damning the pope, placing him within the circles of Fraud, in the bolgia (ditch) of the simoniacs.

In the bull, Boniface states "they exact and demand from the same the half, tithe, or twentieth, or any other portion or proportion of their revenues or goods; and in many ways they try to bring them into slavery, and subject them to their authority.

And also whatsoever emperors, kings, or princes, dukes, earls or barons...presume to take possession of things anywhere deposited in holy buildings... should incur sentence of excommunication."

In the bull Ineffabilis amor of September 1296,[43] Boniface pledged approval of reasonable taxation for genuine emergencies but contested Philip's demands, asking him rhetorically: "What would happen to you—God forbid!—if you gravely offended the Apostolic See, and caused an alliance between Her and your enemies?.

In February 1297, the bull Romana mater ecclesia permitted voluntary clerical donations without papal approval in times of emergency as determined by the king.

On 3 April 1297, seven French archbishops and forty bishops, provided this authorisation, agreed to concede to the King the fifth part of their ecclesiastical revenues under the form of two tithes, the first of which to be paid by Pentecost, the second at the end of September.

[45] By July 1297, Boniface yielded completely in the bull Etsi de statu, conceding that kings could raise taxes on church property and incomes during emergencies without prior papal approval.

Philip rescinded his embargoes and even accepted Boniface's nuncios as arbitrators to delay and conclude his war with the English, with the 1303 Treaty of Paris restoring the status quo but obliging Edward to come to France in person to do homage for the return of Aquitaine.

[50] The Pope assented, condemning Edward's invasions and occupation of Scotland in the papal bull Scimus, Fili (Latin for "We know, my son")[51] of 27 June 1299.

The legate was arrested on a charge of inciting an insurrection, was tried and convicted by the royal court, and committed to the custody of the archbishop of Narbonne, Giles Aycelin – one of his key ministers and allies, in 1301.

[52] When the bull was presented to Philip IV, Robert II, Count of Artois, reportedly snatched it from the hands of Boniface's emissary and flung it into the fire.

[58] On Maundy Thursday, 4 April 1303, the Pope again excommunicated all persons who were impeding French clerics from coming to the Holy See, "etiam si imperiali aut regali fulgeant dignitati" ("even if they shone with imperial or royal dignity").

And in another document of the same day, he reserved to the Holy See the provision of all present and future vacancies in cathedral churches and monasteries, until King Philip should come to the Papal Court and make explanations of his behavior.

[60] On 7 September 1303, an army led by King Philip's minister Nogaret and Sciarra Colonna attacked Boniface at his palace in Anagni next to the cathedral.

Among others, William of Nogaret, who had conducted the negotiations for the king of France, scorned him and threatened him, saying that he would take him bound to Lyons on the Rhone, and there in a general council would cause him to be deposed and condemned.... no man dared to touch [Boniface], nor were they pleased to lay hands on him, but they left him robed under light arrest and were minded to rob the treasure of the Pope and the Church.

Pope Boniface... departed immediately from Anagni with his court and came to Rome and St. Peter's to hold a council... but... the grief which had hardened in the heart of Pope Boniface, by reason of the injury which he had received, produced in him, once he had come to Rome, a strange malady so that he gnawed at himself as if he were mad, and in this state he passed from this life on the twelfth day of October in the year of Christ 1303, and in the Church of St. Peter near the entrance of the doors, in a rich chapel which was built in his lifetime, he was honorably buried.He died of a violent fever on 11 October, in full possession of his senses and in the presence of eight cardinals and the chief members of the papal household, after receiving the sacraments and making the usual profession of faith.

[66] The body wore ecclesiastical vestments common for Boniface's lifetime: long stockings covered legs and thighs, and it was garbed also with the maniple, cassock, and pontifical habit made of black silk, as well as stole, chasuble, rings, and bejeweled gloves.

The pope is said to have been short-tempered, kicking an envoy in the face on one occasion, and on another, throwing ashes in the eyes of an archbishop who was kneeling to receive them as a blessing atop his head.