If the trial had been carried all the way through, the outcome would have been momentous: Boniface’s memory would have been sullied, his reign declared illegitimate, even his bones exhumed and burned; the king of France would have been justified and exalted; the institution of the papacy would have been further weakened. Yet it may be doubted whether either King Philip or Nogaret ever intended to push matters so far. Certainly they cannot have believed the charges against Boniface any more than they believed the charges against the Templars. This is proved by the outcome. By 1311 Pope Clement had yielded on all counts: the relevant bulls had been annulled, the Temple had been suppressed, and Nogaret had been absolved (subject to some rather hypothetical conditions). None of this would have made any difference to men who genuinely believed that the papal throne had been occupied by a heretic: they would have persisted. In the event, however, the charges against Boniface were quietly dropped.(2)
Some of the charges have a direct bearing on our theme.(3) A first hint of them was given already in June 1303. While Nogaret was away in Italy, preparing to kidnap the pope, Philip held a meeting of the Estates at the Louvre. On that occasion the king, the prelates and nobles of France, and the doctors of the University of Paris listened while one of Nogaret’s assistants listed Boniface’s crimes. The Colonna certainly had a hand in that speech — it even included passages lifted from a manifesto of their own.(4) And among the peculiarities attributed to the reigning pope is the following: “He has a private demon, whose counsel he takes in, and throughout, all matters. So that on one occasion he said that if all people in the world were in one region, and he in another, they would not be able to trap him, whether in law or in fact; something that would not be possible without the use of the demonic art. And this is said against him publicly.”(5)
By the time of the posthumous trial the theme had undergone considerable elaboration. In 1310 Nogaret presented Pope Clement with a document which was in effect a much amplified version of the speech of 1303.(6) Here too the Colonna were involved — particularly Cardinal Peter Colonna, who is specifically mentioned as a source of information. In this document Boniface’s demonic contacts bulk large.(7) He had, it seems, not one but three demons — one presented by an Italian woman; another, more powerful, presented by a Hungarian; a third, called Boniface, and the most powerful of the three, presented by Boniface of Vicenza — “Boniface given to Boniface by Boniface,” the pope is supposed to have jested. In addition, he carried a “spirit” in a ring on his finger; many cardinals and clerics had observed how that ring seemed to reflect sometimes a man, sometimes an animal’s head.**
The support given by these assorted demons was far more effective than the mere advisory service offered by the demon of 1303. After the election of Celestine V as pope, Benedict Caetani (as he then was) came home in a rage, filled the censers in his room, and locked himself in. As the room filled with clouds of incense his attendants, listening at the keyhole, heard him shouting, “Why have you deceived me?” and a treble voice reply: “It was impossible this time. Your papacy must come from us, you must not be a true, legitimate pope. It will come soon!” Often when great decisions were pending Boniface would shut himself into his room, forbidding anyone even to touch the door; and after an hour or so his companions would feel the earth shake and hear sounds of hissing and lowing, as of serpents and cattle, issuing from the room. They lived in fear that one day the demons he called up would strangle both him and them.
The pope expected his demons to involve themselves in his feud with the Colonna. He was often heard to exclaim furiously, “Where are the Colonna you promised to hand over to me? I gave myself to you, body and soul, for that purpose.” But the demons’ replies were unsatisfactory. They pointed out that whereas Boniface had the power to destroy the property of the Colonna, he was not permitted to harm their persons; so that the demons were not permitted to divulge their whereabouts. Yet in his hour of greatest need the demons did effectively oppose the Colonna: Boniface was supposed to have declared that neither God nor man, but the demons, had rescued him from the Colonna at Anagni.
Nogaret and his agents arranged for their accusations to be substantiated by witnesses. This presented no difficulties at all, for Boniface had made many enemies. A man of great abilities and energy, he had shown himself proud and arrogant, relentless towards those whom he regarded as standing in his way, abrupt and irascible even towards his adherents; a man who, with many of the qualities of a great ruler, failed to be one largely because he was less suited to gain than to forfeit loyalties. So during 1310 and 1311 a score of hostile witnesses, all selected or approved by Nogaret, offered their evidence to the pope and the papal commissioners. A first hearing took place at Groseau near Avignon in the summer of 1310; and there the witnesses, though they had some startling things to say about the late pope, made no mention of demons.(8) But at a second hearing, held in Rome in the spring of 1311, three monks specifically charged Boniface with demon-worship.(9) Most of the witnesses heard in Rome had previously appeared at Groseau; but these monks were added to the list only in Rome, as though to clinch the matter.
The evidence of Brother Berardus of Soriano is particularly instructive.(10) The first episode he describes is set in the period 1277-80, i.e. at least thirty years before the trial itself. At that time the future Pope Boniface was still Benedict Caetani, a notary of Pope Nicholas III. The evidence reads as follows:
Once when witness, along with another man called Constantius of Foligno, who was the chamberlain of the said lord Benedict (Caetani), were loitering, at a late hour, at a window of the palace where he was staying (at Viterbo), he saw how the lord Benedict went out into a garden adjoining the palace, drew a circle with a sword, placed himself in the middle of the circle, sat down, and pulled out a rooster, and also fire in an earthen jar. He saw the lord Benedict kill the cock and throw its blood on the fire. Smoke came from the mixture of blood and fire, while the lord Benedict read from a book and conjured up demons. After this conjuration witness heard a great sound, which terrified him. At length he heard a voice begging: “Give us a part.” And the above-mentioned Constantius saw the lord Benedict take the cock and throw it out of the garden, saying: “Here is your part.” Then the lord Benedict left the garden and passed witness and his companion without speaking to them, or to any member of his household, and went into an unoccupied room. Witness with his companion Constantius slept next to the room of the lord Benedict; and all that night he heard the lord Benedict talking, and another voice answering. Yet there was nobody else in the room.
**
In reality this was no doubt a ring with a talismanic stone, bearing the symbol of a planet. These symbols often comprised the image of a Greco-Roman god with animal’s features. To wear a talismanic ring showing Jupiter with a lion’s face and bird’s feet, for instance, was a way of winning the favour of a powerful person, increasing one’s reputation and seeing one’s enemies humiliated: Boniface may well have adopted it. Cf.