PHILIP THE FAIR AND BONIFACE VIII: STATE VS. PAPACY

(EuropeanProblem Studies). Edited by Prof. CharlesT. Wood (History). New York: Holt,Rinehart and Winston, Inc., 1967. 116pp. $1.95 (Paper bound).

Today an important feature of survey courses in history is student analysis and discussion of controversial episodes and issues. Reading in pamphlet form providing a basis for this type of exercise has been made readily available by many of the publishing houses. A typical pamphlet is made UP of excerpts presenting conflicting views and intrepretations of writers old and contemporary. Philip the Fair and Boniface compiled and edited by Professor Charles Wood of the Dartmouth History Department is a recent addition to this instructional literature.

To present to the student the controversies of the aggressive French king, Philip IV (1285-1314), with the aged Pope Boniface III (1294-1303), Professor Wood has brought together selections from fourteen historical writers. In the case of most of the French historians he has himself performed the chore of translation. His passages are judiciously selected, and by succinct editorial comment they have been united into a clear narrative, tracing the events in the conflict from its beginning in 1296 to its dramatic climax in 1303, when William of Nogaret and his Italian confederates attempted to kidnap the pope at Anagni. It is, perhaps, too bad that the views of only a single writer from the period of conflict itself have been presented, and one misses the judgment of any German historian. Yet there are practical limitations on what can be included in a compendium of this sort.

Professor Wood's selections are well calculated to provoke animated and perhaps heated student debate. There is a very great issue involved here, the claims of the national state as against those of the universal papal monarchy. I suspect, however, that much of the discussion will focus oil the dramatic detail. There are so many conflicting accounts of what took place, and so many contrasting evaluations of persons and events! The questions posed are, of course, old ones and generations of students have been trying to answer them. This reviewer well recalls the first paper he wrote as a graduate student in 1920. It was entitled "What happened at Anagni on September 7, 1303?" He only regrets that he did not have Professor Wood's pamphlet at his elbow on that occasion.

Professor of History, Emeritus