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Dear catholic.com visitors: This Catholic Answers website, with all its free resources, is the world’s largest source of explanations for Catholic beliefs and practices. We receive no funding from the institutional Church and rely entirely on your generosity to sustain this website with trustworthy, accessible content. If every visitor this month donated $1, catholic.com would be fully funded for an entire year. If you’ve never made a gift, now is the time. Your donation will be matched dollar for dollar this week only. Thanks and God bless.

Ausculta Fili

Letter addressed by Pope Boniface VIII to Philip the Fair, King of France

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Ausculta Fill, a letter addressed December 5, 1301, by Pope Boniface VIII to Philip the Fair, King of France. Philip was at enmity with the pope. Under pretext of his royal rights, he conferred benefices, and appointed bishops to sees, regardless of papal authority. He drove from their sees those bishops who, in opposition to his will, remained faithful to the pope. This letter is couched in firm but paternal terms. It points out the evils the king has brought to his kingdom, to Church and State; invites him to do penance and to mend his ways. It was unheeded by the king, and was soon followed by the famous Bull “Unam Sanctam“.

M. O’RIORDAN


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