Villani's Chronicle: Being Selections from the First Nine Books of the Croniche Fiorentine of Giovanni VillaniVillani, Giovanni
History
Villani's Chronicle: Being Selections from the First Nine Books of the Croniche Fiorentine of Giovanni Villani
Villani, Giovanni
Florence (Italy) -- History
Pope Boniface--hearing
the uproar, and seeing himself forsaken by all his cardinals, which
were fled and in hiding (whether through fear or through set malice),
and by the most part of his servants, and seeing that his enemies had
taken the city and the palace where he was--gave himself up for lost,
but like the high-spirited and valorous man he was, he said: "Since,
like Jesus Christ, I am willing to be taken and needs must die by
treachery, at the least I desire to die as Pope"; and straightway he
caused himself to be robed in the mantle of S. Peter, and with the
crown of Constantine on his head, and with the keys and the cross in
his hand, he seated himself upon the papal chair. And when Sciarra and
the others, his enemies, came to him, they mocked at him with vile
words, and arrested him and his household which had remained with him;
among the others, M. William of Nogaret scorned him, which had
conducted the negotiations for the king of France, whereby he had been
taken, 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. The high-spirited Pope answered him, that he
was well pleased to be condemned and deposed by Paterines such as he,
whose father and mother had been burnt as Paterines; whereat M.
William was confounded and put to shame. But afterwards, as it pleased
God, to preserve the holy dignity of the Popes, no man dared to touch
him, nor were they pleased to lay hands on him, but they left him
robed under gentle ward, and were minded to rob the treasure of the
Pope and of the Church. In this pain, shame and torment the great Pope
Boniface abode prisoner among his enemies for three days; but, like as
Christ rose on the third day, so it pleased Him that Pope Boniface
should be set free; for without entreaty or other effort, save the
Divine aid, the people of Anagna beholding their error, and issuing
from their blind ingratitude, suddenly rose in arms, crying: "Long
live the Pope and his household, and death to the traitors"; and
running through the city they drove out Sciarra della Colonna and his
followers, with loss to them of prisoners and slain, and freed the
Pope and his household. Pope Boniface, seeing himself free, and his
enemies driven away, did not therefore rejoice in any wise, forasmuch
as the pain of his adversity had so entered into his heart and clotted
there; wherefore he departed straightway from Anagna with all his
court, and came to Rome to S. Peter's to hold a council, purposing to
take the heaviest vengeance for his injury and that of Holy Church
against the king of France, and whosoever had offended him; but, as it
pleased God, the grief which had hardened in the heart of Pope
Boniface, by reason of the injury which he had received, produced in
him, after he was 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
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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