On 1st January 1300, in the Vatican basilica, the celebrant delivered a homily on the “hundredth year”, the jubilee year, as an occasion of reconciliation and forgiveness. The rumour spread that any Roman who visited the tomb of St Peter on that day would have obtained plenary indulgence for his sins, and on the following days, indulgence for one hundred years.
In a second, a huge crowd gathered in front of St Peter’s and the conviction spread that the secular year would have brought with it the possibility of gaining plenary indulgence and that Rome would have granted great forgiveness. Under the pressure of the events and an increasingly larger crowd that came rushing to the Apostle’s tomb, the idea of a jubilee year made its way in the mind of Pope Boniface VIII. After having asked the cardinals convened in a consistory for their opinion, on 22 February 1300 he published the bull “Antiquorum habet” with which he indicted the Holy Year. It appears clear in the text that the first Jubilee does not come from a biblical tradition, even though there are some references to it, but from the popular piety of the late Middle Ages.
