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guilders of gold in papal tithes; England with 600.000; and France, that was retaining a part
destined to the Crusade against Aragon, 200.000. It was about a guilder that for nothing in the
world could be renounced.
For what needed Boniface VIII such quantities? In part to finance the war with which he
wanted to break the Ghibelline fence that had been developing in Italy, where was still missing
the Sicilian issue; and in part to enrich himself and his family, due to Benedict Gaetani was
gifted with perfection of the features of the boundless ambitious, the unscrupulous climber,
the corrupt tyrant; worthy of these examples: when he acceded to the papacy he immediately
annulled the laws and decrees of Nicholas IV and Celestine V that benefited the Colonna’s,
transferring the titles in favor of his own familiars; the King Charles II obtained for his nephew
the title of Count of Caserta and many feuds; for the sons of him, of the Earl of Palazzo and
Earl of Fondí; for himself, he seized from the old palace of the Emperor Octavian, converted
then in the military Force of Rome, which he restored and rebuilt magnificently, employing for
it the money of the Church; same procedure continued with other castles and fortresses of
Campania and Maremma, and all passed to integrate his personal patrimony; he possessed
palaces, in Rome, Rieti and Orvieto, his habitual residences, although the most beautiful and
luxurious was undoubtedly the one of his natal city of Anagni, where he passed most part of the
year; so he lived in an environment of splendor and luxury that was in nothing coherent with
his condition of leading of the Church that exalts the salvation of the Soul by the practice of the
humility and poverty; he lacked of scruples to concede charges and favors in exchange for
money, i.e., he was simionac; he put his own money or of the Church, interchangeably, in hands
of the Lombard or Templar bankers to be borrowed at user interest; he lacked of any piety
when it was treating about to reach his purposes, quality that he demonstrated in first instance
when he ordered the assassination of Celestine V, and then confirmed the bloody persecutions
of the Ghibellines that he unleashed in Italy; and to complete this profile of his sinister
personality, perhaps be enough with a last example: as every Golem, Boniface VIII had affection
to the ritual sodomy.
Of course, just as the Golems had not disposed of a King of the height of Philip IV to
oppose him, neither they disposed of a Saint Bernard to seat in the pontifical throne: Benedict
Gaetani was the best they had and to him they entrusted the execution of their Strategy. And
the best Strategy seemed to be, before the toughness and courage of Philip IV, to go back one
step and prepare to advance two. In other words, would be attempted to calm the King
mitigating the sense of the bull Clericis laicos, through other bull, Ineffabilis amor, in
September 21 of 1296, and they will dedicate by all the possible available means of the Church
to end with the Ghibelline threat in Italy and Sicily; and concerning to the pretext of the war
with England, brandished by the King of France to justify his exactions, he would be
neutralized obeying the parts to pact the peace; pure logic: without war, the King would have
not motives to demand taxes nor contributions to the clergy.
The Ineffabilis amor is followed by the bulls Romana mater ecclesia and Novertis, in
which it threatens the King with excommunication, manifesting the total approval of the
tithes, only when the Kingdom be really in danger; But what stands out in all of them is the
arrogance with which is directed to the King, to whom he considers a mere minion. These bulls
would raise a wave of indignation in France, due to it they were openly read by order of the
King, and they would predispose even more the French bishops against papal

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