MAHAUT, COUNTESS OF ARTOIS 



castle, in which he says of the one that it is only 

 built for war, with ditches, palisades, and high 

 towers and walls, and of the other that it lies in 

 the midst of meadows and gardens, with large 

 painted chambers. 



Mahaut's cousin, the cold and impersonal 

 Philip le Bel, was on the throne. For the 

 most part war had ceased in the land, but still 

 there was war in high places, for Philip, 

 avaricious by nature, and finding himself a 

 king under altering conditions the Papacy 

 fallen into disregard, the Nobility weakened, 

 and the Nation growing, but without any adequate 

 provision made to meet the needs of this growth 

 left no stone unturned to supply this want 

 and gratify his greed. On the question of the 

 subsidies of the clergy and the relation between 

 things spiritual and temporal, he quarrelled with 

 the Pope, Boniface the Eighth, and brought 

 about the removal of the Holy See from 

 Rome to Avignon. He robbed and ruined the 

 Templars, and despoiled the Jews and Lombards, 

 the financiers of the day. With him no trickery 

 was too base, no cruelty too cold-blooded. 

 Gold was his God. Dante, who was his con- 

 temporary, refers (Purg. vii. 109) to "his wicked 

 and foul life " (la vita sua viziata e lorda]^ and 

 (Par. xix. 118) to his "debasement of the 

 coinage " (falseggiando la moneta)^ as well as to 

 his self-seeking greed. Such, with the added 

 glamour of art and learning, was the courtly 

 atmosphere of the Time. The bourgeoisie, 



