Clericis Laicos bars royal taxation of clergy

1296

Boniface VIII issued the bull Clericis Laicos forbidding lay rulers from taxing the clergy without papal consent. Philip IV of France and Edward I of England, both at war and needing money, retaliated by cutting off revenues to Rome, prompting a partial climbdown by the pope. The confrontation exposed the papacy's declining leverage over secular monarchs who now commanded standing armies and professional bureaucracies.