The Great Dispute: Jacopone and Boniface VIII

San Fortunato. By Patriziabizzarri - Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=35140019

A Franciscan ‘Spiritual’

After ten years as a lay Franciscan, Jacopone had joined the main Franciscan Order of Friars Minor around 1278.  The Todi friars were definitely Conventual (pragmatic about the rule of poverty), although their friary was not then as grand as it would later become.  Jacopone’s time there coincided with the first steps toward the later construction of the magnificent church and convent of San Fortunato that still dominates the urban landscape of Todi.

Although part of this community, Jacopone took the side of the ‘Spirituals’ in the great Franciscan dispute over poverty, reflected in the laudi he composed praising the role of poverty in the spiritual life.  He gradually emerged as a prominent representative of the ‘Spirituals’ and may even have been part of a delegation that in 1294 obtained from Pope Celestine V a special status for the Franciscan ‘Spirituals’, free from the authority of the Conventuals.  Within months, however, this had been reversed by Celestine’s successor, Boniface VIII.

Alliance with the Colonna

Jacopone may not have been surprised; he had foreseen the difficulties Celestine would face in the Papal court.  Nevertheless he surely shared in the dismay and outrage of the ‘Spirituals’ at the downfall of Celestine.  But unlike most ‘Spirituals’, Jacopone was in a position to do something about it. 

Many indications suggest that Jacopone was in Rome in the period 1290-1292, during the papacy of Nicholas IV, the first Franciscan Pope.  Perhaps this was how he became acquainted with Cardinals Giacomo and Pietro Colonna – members of a powerful Roman aristocratic family, friends of Pope Nicholas IV and patrons of the Franciscan ‘Spirituals’.  By 1297 the Colonna cardinals were bitter rivals of Boniface VIII and seeking to remove him from the papacy. They may have looked for support from prominent ‘Spirituals’ in this effort.

Jacopone faced a huge dilemma.  He believed passionately in Francis’ ideal of poverty and was convinced that the Franciscan Order needed to be reformed in line with this – something Boniface, as Pope, would never permit.  Yet he was surely aware of the dangers (spiritual and physical) of becoming involved in the politics of the Papal court.  He may have sensed the danger of being used by the Colonna faction but whatever his reasoning, he decided to ally himself with them.  In May 1297 he was one of the signatories of the ‘Manifesto of Lunghezza’, a document produced by the Colonna that questioned the validity of Celestine V’s abdication and, therefore, the election of Boniface VIII.  In effect, it repudiated Boniface as the legitimate Pope.

It was probably around this time that Jacopone composed a laude directly attacking Boniface (LVIII, ‘O Papa Bonifazio, molt'hai iocato al monno/ Pope Boniface, you’ve had a good deal of fun in this world’).  Some writers have suggested that this laude has been tampered with and does not reflect Jacopone’s original composition.  Both opposing Franciscan factions may have had an interest in inflaming Jacopone’s rhetoric; the ‘Spirituals’ wanted definitively to enlist Jacopone in their ranks, while the Conventuals wanted to damn Jacopone as an extremist, deserving of excommunication and prison.  Whatever the truth, it certainly did not help Jacopone’s position.

"The Pope and his Cardinals", from the manuscript Les Très Riches Heures du duc de Berry, folio 197r (Musée Condé, Chantilly); public domain.

Jacopone in prison, from a 15th-century manuscript (Biblioteca Riccardiana, Florence, Manuscript 2762, fol. 89v)

Imprisonment

In  response to the ‘Manifesto of Lunghezza’ Pope Boniface went – literally – to war, besieging his opponents (including Jacopone) in the Colonna castle of Palestrina near Rome for over a year.  When the castle fell in 1298, Jacopone was captured, excommunicated and imprisoned by Boniface.  Most likely he was returned in chains to Todi and placed in a cell beneath his own friary of San Fortunato. 

While imprisoned, Jacopone wrote two laudi (LVI and LVII) – effectively two letters in poetry – asking Pope Boniface to absolve his excommunication that deprived him of the sacraments.  He did not ask to be released from prison; on the contrary, he invited the Pope to increase the penalty in exchange for readmission to the sacraments.  Boniface, however, did not respond or consider Jacopone worthy of the plenary indulgence granted to all pilgrims during the Church’s first Jubilee Year in 1300 (which probably inspired Jacopone’s appeal).  Boniface was interested in Church politics and in extending the power, both of the Church and of his own Caetani family: he had neither the desire nor the time to deal with Jacopone.

Release

Almost certainly Jacopone would have died in prison, but for the fact that Pope Boniface died first, in 1303.  The new Pope, Benedict XI, soon absolved Jacopone of his excommunication and released him from prison.  Probably unwelcome in his own community at San Fortunato, Jacopone spent the remaining years of his life in a small convent of Franciscan sisters (Clarisses) at Collazzone, about 15km north of Todi.  He died there in 1306, apparently on Christmas Day.  He was about 76 years old.

Jacopone and Boniface

One intriguing angle on the clash between Jacopone and Pope Boniface is the possibility that it was personal.  There are suggestions of a long-standing animosity between the two men, going back to their youth.  Certainly, Boniface had strong connections with Todi as a young man.  Born c.1230 as Benedetto Caetani, into a noble Roman family, he was almost exactly the same age as Jacopone.  When his uncle, Pietro Caetani, became Bishop of Todi in 1252, young Benedetto followed him there.  He even studied law in Todi and was made a canon in the Cathedral of Todi by his uncle in 1260.  Benedetto began a career as an official and diplomat at the Papal court in 1264, but kept close contact with Todi, even after becoming Pope in 1295.

So it is quite possible that Benedetto and Jacopone knew each other, as educated young men in Todi in the 1250s and 1260s.  There is no definite evidence for this – and there is certainly no evidence for any youthful conflict between them; this must remain a fascinating but unproven speculation.  During these years, however, Jacopone may have formed an opinion about Benedetto and his character that would, in later years, influence his reaction to Boniface as Pope.