Boniface VIII elected after Celestine's resignation

1294

Benedetto Caetani was elected pope after the abdication of the hermit Celestine V. A trained canon lawyer with an extravagant sense of papal authority, he would soon clash with Philip IV of France in a confrontation that would damage the papacy's prestige for a century. His bull Unam Sanctam declared that submission to the pope was necessary for salvation, the most extreme claim of papal supremacy ever issued.