The king was excommunicated, and, in retaliation, he accused the pope, Boniface VIII., of atheism; demanding that he should be tried by a general council.

He sent some trusty persons into Italy, who seized Boniface in his palace at Anagni, and treated him with so much severity, that in a few days he died.

The succeeding pontiff, Benedict XI., was poisoned.
The French king was determined that the papacy should be purified and reformed; that it should no longer be the appanage of a few Italian families, who were dexterously transmuting the credulity of Europe into coin--that French influence should prevail in it.

He Therefore came to an understanding with the cardinals; a French archbishop was elevated to the pontificate; he took the name of Clement V.The papal court was removed to Avignon, in France, and Rome was abandoned as the metropolis of Christianity.
MOORISH SCIENCE INTRODUCED THROUGH FRANCE.

Seventy years elapsed before the papacy was restored to the Eternal City (A.D.