Philip the Fair of France and his pagan-minded legal advisors were the chief examples of the problem that could develop by the late 1200s. They began to use the prestige of the monarchy of St. Louis to demand a complete and proto-totalitarian control over all aspects of religious and social life. Pope Boniface VIII sought to fend them off. Dr. John Rao shows that the ensuing crises led to the humbling of many international “pilgrimage” initiatives guided by the Papacy and its allies in Europe. Attempts to deal with the continuing crisis in France caused the popes to move their residence in and then near the Kingdom, in Avignon.
