In May 1307 Philip IV was at the papal court in Poitiers, hectoring a reluctant Clement V to give him permission to put Pope Boniface VIII on posthumous trial for a familiar cocktail of ridiculous charges including heresy, sodomy, sorcery and murder.§ Blackening Boniface’s reputation served a dual purpose: it satisfied Philip’s grudge against the pope, and it pounded home the notion of the God-sponsored wondrousness of French kingship.
