Pope Boniface VIII (above left) died today in 1303. One of the most assertive and controversial Popes of the Middle Ages, he attempted to control a number of European rulers, especially the formidable King Philip IV of France. In 1303, Philip sent an army against Boniface at his palace in Anagni, central Italy, where he was arrested and imprisoned, as well as being slapped in the face by Sciarra Colonna, whose family he had mortally offended. Although Boniface was released, the shock of the experience contributed to his death in Rome a month later. According to a popular rhyme, he came like a wolf, reigned like a lion, and died like a dog.
Today in 1531, the Swiss reformer Ulrich Zwingli was killed attacking Catholics with a doubleheaded axe in the Battle of Kappel in Switzerland. Way to go, pastor.
The choral anthem ‘Zadok the Priest’ by George Handel was sung for the first time today in 1727 at the coronation of King George II of Great Britain. The lyrics are taken from the Old Testament account of King Solomon’s coronation, and Handel’s anthem has found a permanent place in British coronation ceremonies ever since George II.
‘And Zadok the priest took an horn of oil out of the tabernacle, and anointed Solomon. And they blew the trumpet; and all the people said, God save king Solomon. And all the people came up after him, and the people piped with pipes, and rejoiced with great joy, so that the earth rent with the sound of them.’ King James Bible, First Book of Kings
Pope Leo X gave King Henry VIII the title Fidei Defensor (‘Defender of the Faith’) today in 1521. It was the Pope’s way of thanking Henry for being such a good Catholic by attacking Martin Luther in his book, The Defence of the Seven Sacraments. Ten years later, Henry took the English Church away from Rome, for which the Pope excommunicated him. But he and English monarchs ever since kept Fidei Defensor, taking the attitude: ‘Thanks for the title, we’ll hang on to it anyway.’
Today in 1551, the Council of Trent decreed that in the Mass, the bread and wine turn wholly and objectively into the body and blood of Christ.
‘If any one denieth, that, in the sacrament of the most holy Eucharist, are contained truly, really, and substantially, the body and blood together with the soul and divinity of our Lord Jesus Christ, and consequently the whole Christ; but saith that He is only therein as in a sign, or in figure, or virtue; let him be anathema.’ Council of Trent, Canon I on the Eucharist
Pope John XXIII opened another great Catholic council of the second millennium, the Second Vatican Council, today in 1962. He had no predetermined agenda other than telling the bishops to update and renew. The Council rewrote the Catholic religion as a friendly, modern, liberal faith.
The Virgin Mary received an expected promotion today in 1954, when Pope Pius XII declared her the Queen of Heaven in his encyclical Ad Caeli Reginam (‘To the Queen of Heaven’). The title is distinctly more classy than Grand Duchess of Lithuania, one of her lesser titles.
‘Let all Christians, therefore, glory in being subjects of the Virgin Mother of God, who, while wielding royal power, is on fire with a mother’s love.’ Pope Pius XII, Ad Caeli Reginam
Image: Yale Law Library