ll was actually prepared at Rome
on the 5th of September, and was to be published on the 8th. It did not
expressly depose the king; it merely announced that measures would be
taken more serious even than excommunication. Philip had taken his
precautions. He had demanded and obtained from the great towns,
churches, and universities more than seven hundred declarations of
support in his appeal to the future council, and an engagement to take no
notice of the decree which might be issued by the pope to release the
king's subjects from their oath of allegiance. Only a few, and amongst
them the Abbot of Citeaux, gave him a refusal. The order of the Templars
gave only a qualified support. At the approaching advent of the new bull
which was being anticipated, the king resolved to act still more roughly
and speedily. Notification must be sent to the pope of the king's appeal
to the future council. Philip could no longer confide this awkward
business to his chancellor, Peter Flotte; for he had fallen at Courtrai,
in the battle against the Flemings. William of Nogaret undertook it, at
the same time obtaining from the king a sort of blank commission
authorizing and ratifying in advance all that, under the circumstances,
he might consider it advisable to do. Notification of the appeal had to
be made to the pope at Anagni, his native town, whither he had gone for
refuge, and the people of which, being zealous in his favor, had already
dragged in the mud the lilies and the banner of France. Nogaret was
bold, ruffianly, and clever. He repaired in haste to Florence, to the
king's banker, got a plentiful supply of money, established
communications in Anagni, and secured, above all, the co-operation of
Sciarra Colonna, who was passionately hostile to the pope, had been
formerly proscribed by him, and, having fallen into the hands of
corsairs, had worked at the oar for them during many a year rather than
reveal his name and be sold to Boniface Gaetani. On the 7th of
September, 1303, Colonna and his associates introduced Nogaret and his
following into Anagni, with shouts of "Death to Pope Boniface! Long live
the King of France!" The populace, dumbfounded, remained motionless.
The pope, deserted by all, even by his own nephew, tried to touch the
heart of Colonna himself, whose only answer was a summons to abdicate,
and to surrender at discretion. "Those be hard words," said Boniface,
and burst into tears. But this old man, se