Anagni

Description

Anagni, called 'Alagna' by Dante, is recalled in the Purgatorio as the setting of the episode that marked the culmination of the dispute between Boniface VIII and Philip the Fair of France. On 7 September 1303 Guillaume de Nogaret, the king's minister, and Sciarra Colonna forced their way into the pontifical palace at Anagni, where the pope had shut himself after promulgating five bulls against the sovereign; Boniface awaited his attackers seated on the throne and clothed in the sacred vestments, was insulted and declared a prisoner, but a popular insurrection freed him, allowing him to return to Rome, where he died about a month later. Dante presents the event as a renewal of the passion of Christ in the person of the vicar of Christ and as the culmination of Angevin violence, which had already shown contempt for its own lineage.