Unam Sanctam: papal absolutism at full stretch

November 1302

Boniface VIII issued the bull that declared submission to the Roman pontiff necessary for every human soul. It was the maximum theoretical claim of medieval papal power, written as that power was already collapsing under the pressure of increasingly assertive national monarchies. Philip IV of France read it as a personal insult and began plotting the pope's humiliation at Anagni the following year.