“ Philip was not a man of violent initiative, the planner of daring and fateful operations, otherwise there would have been some signs of it. His personality was that of a well-instructed, outwardly cold, because cool and calculating man, essentially receptive, afire for only one idea: the highest possible development of the French monarchy, internally and externally, as against both the secular powers and the Church. ”

“ The reign of Philip IV. is of peculiar interest, because Of the intrusion of economic problems into the spheres of national politics and even of religion. The increased cost of government and the growing wealth of the middle class, rather than the avarice of the king and the genius of his ministers, were responsible for the genesis and direction of the new order. The greatest event of the reign was the struggle with Pope Boniface VIII. (q.v.) ”

“ The conclave that met at Perugia on his death was divided between the partisans of the irreconcilable policy of Boniface VIII. and those of a policy of compromise with the new state theories represented by France. The election was ultimately determined by the diplomacy and the gold of Philip’s agents, and the new pope, Clement V., was the weak-willed creature of the French king, to whom he owed the tiara. When in 1309 the pope installed himself at Avignon, the new relation of the papacy and the French monarchy was patent to the world. ”