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Clericis laicos was a papal bull issued on February 5, 1296, by Pope Boniface VIII in an attempt to prevent the secular states of Europein particular France and appropriating church revenues without the express prior permission of the pope. The two expansionist monarchies had come to blows, and the precedents for taxation of the clergy for a "just war" if it was declared a crusade and authorized by the papacy had been well established. The position of Boniface was that prior authorization had always been required and that the clergy had not been taxed for purely secular and dynastic warfare.
At a time when the laity were taxed an eleventh on their movable goods, or a seventh if they lived in town or on a royal demesne, the clergy, under Archbishop of Canterbury Robert Winchelsey, offered a tenth for national defense. King Edward I declined and suggested rather a quarter or a third.
The Fourth Lateran Council of 1215 reiterated a principle, found in the Lateran Council of 1179, that a secular power might not tax Church property without first obtaining permission from the pope. It had become accepted practice. PhilipIV had himself observed it in 1288 in collecting a tenth over three years. With the war with EdwardI, however, he dispensed with the formality in his new decime and so triggered protests from the French clergy and complaints to Rome.
James F. Loughlin, writing in the Catholic Encyclopedia (1903), sees this as expressing two underlying principles: (1) That the clergy should enjoy equally with the laity the right of determining the need and the amount of their subsidies to the Crown; and (2) That the head of the Church ought to be consulted when there was question of diverting the revenues of the Church to secular purposes. Loughlin, James. "Clericis Laicos." The Catholic Encyclopedia Vol. 4. New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1908. 4 March 2016
The bull was criticized for the vehemence of its tone and exaggerated indictment of the laity of all times. Its opening statement asserted that "the laity have been from the most ancient times hostile to the clergy", which even modern scholars have called "a palpable untruth"Norman F. Cantor, The Civilization of the Middle Ages (1993), p. 493. given the enormous enthusiasm and devotion most laymen were still showing to many of the clergy. The bull was also attacked for its failure to make clear the distinction between the revenues of the purely ecclesiastical benefices and the "lay fees" held by the clergy on feudalism. The advisers of Philip were quick to take advantage of the Pope's hasty language and, by forcing him to make explanations, put him on the defensive and weakened his prestige.
Clericis laicos was a reminder of the traditional principle. Surprised by the strong reaction of the French crown and pressure from the French bishops seeking a compromise, John of Paris. On Royal and Papal Power, Intro., (John A. Watt, trans.), Toronto, PIMS, 1971 in July 1297 Boniface issued another bull, Etsi de statu, which allowed lay taxation of clergy without papal consent in cases of emergency.
Nonetheless, Clericis laicos was included by Pope Boniface in his collection of canon law, the Liber Sextus Decretalium. Only after the death of Boniface's successor, Benedict XI, would the canonists begin treating the bull as truly revoked.Thomas M. Izbicki, “Clericis laicos and the Canonists,” in Popes, Teachers, and Canon Law in the Middle Ages, ed. J. R. Sweeney and S. Chodorow, Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press, 1989,179-190; Izbicki, Thomas M. Izbicki, "Guido de Baysio's unedited gloss on 'Clericis laicos'," Bulletin of Medieval Canon Law (13 (1983): 62-67.
Clericis laicos had been chiefly directed at EdwardI of England and PhilipIV of France, who had levied taxes on the clergy to finance Gascon War over control of Duchy of Aquitaine. France had responded, however, with an embargo on export of gold or silver, effectively prohibiting Rome from accessing any of its revenues from France. At the same time, Boniface had to contend in Rome with a suspiciously convenient uprising against him by the Colonna family. Cavendish, Richard. "Boniface VIII’s Bull Unam Sanctam", History Today, Volume 52 Issue 11 November 2002 The Pope was obliged to back down and issue the more accommodating Etsi de statu.
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The bull decreed that all prelates or other ecclesiastical superiors who under whatsoever pretext or color shall not, without authority from the Holy See, pay to laymen any part of their income or of the revenue of the Church, likewise all emperors, kings, dukes, counts, etc. who shall exact or receive such payments, incur eo ipso the sentence of excommunication.
Etsi de statu
Etsi de statu was a papal bull issued by Pope Boniface VIII in July 1297. The bull was essentially a revocation of Clericis laicos, which had fully prohibited the taxation of clerical property by lay authorities without the explicit consent of the papacy. Etsi de statu allowed it in cases of emergency.
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