Christ's Faithful People
Christ's Faithful People
1303 - 1304 AD
It was a troubled group of cardinals who gathered in conclave after the death of Boniface. Charles II of Naples had entered Rome and was urging them to make a quick election. The aggressive Nogaret was still in Italy trying to raise another armed gang. Under the circumstances there was no dissension. The cardinals quickly elected Nicholas Boccasini, the man who had rescued Pope Boniface at Anagni. He took the name Benedict XI.
Nicholas Boccasini was born at Treviso around 1240 of a poor but pious family. At the early age of fourteen he entered the Dominican order. He loved his order deeply and always acknowledged how much he owed to it. A bright youngster, Nicholas was destined for higher studies and the professorial chair. He became prior, provincial of Lombardy, and finally in 1296, master general of the order. Boniface VIII made him a cardinal in 1298, and used him on peace missions to France and Hungary. When Nogaret and Sciarra Colonna made their swoop at Anagni, it was Cardinal Nicholas who rescued the old Pope from their clutches.
At his election, then, Benedict XI was a man of loyalty, learned, pious, of a sweet disposition, much more ready to forgive than to fight. Faced with the problem of whether to oppose or appease the rough, wily Philip of France, a man like Benedict naturally leaned towards appeasement as far as it was possible without loss of principle. The new Pope absolved right and left. Philip was addressed as "dear son," his excommunication not even mentioned. Even the Colonna family was partially restored. Only the actual perpetrators of the Anagni outrage, who indeed were still working against the Pope, were excluded from the general wave of pardons.
Appeasement, as usual, did not work. Philip, continued to oppress the poor Cistercians because they had been loyal to the Pope. He was to give more trouble later.
Benedict tried to promote peace, vainly in factious Florence, successfully between Venice and Padua. He had friendly relations with King Stephen Urosh of Serbia. Serbia at that time was growing to be the dominant Balkan power. Although Stephen was willing to allow his western Yugoslavs to remain loyal to Rome, he made no move towards uniting Serbia proper to the Holy See.
While staying at Perugia, Benedict was stricken with dysentery on June 22,1304; on July 7 he died. Many suspected that the Holy Pope had been killed by poison. Stories of how Benedict was given some poisoned figs were quite common. Modern scholars, however, believe that Benedict died a natural death.
Benedict XI was beatified by Pope Clement XIV in 1773. His feast is kept on July 7. Pious and learned, the author of commentaries on various books of both the Old and New Testament, Benedict richly deserved the honor. Whether or not his appeasement policy was justified by future events--and there is some dispute about it--Pope Benedict's sincerity and desire to do the best thing are unquestioned.
