Boniface

Boniface, the name of nine popes, most of whom are of no historic note.—Boniface I. (418–22) was the first who assumed as Bishop of Rome the title of First Bishop of Christendom.—Boniface III., who was pope only for ten months in the year 607, was the first to whom the title of Universal Bishop of Christendom was conceded by the Greek Emperor (Phocas).—Boniface VIII., previously Benedict Cajetan, a native of Anagni, was elected pope in 1294. His inauguration was distinguished by great pomp: the kings of Hungary and Sicily held the reins of his horse as he proceeded to the Lateran, and with their crowns upon their heads, served him at table. His tenure of the Roman see was marked by the most strenuous assertion of papal authority. In a bull of 1302 he claimed to possess supreme power alike in temporal and spiritual affairs. He failed, however, in his attempts to assert a feudal superiority over Sicily, and to exercise his papal authority in the disputes between France and England. He sought without success to call Edward I. of England to account for his attempted conquest of Scotland. Philip the Fair of France, supported by his states and clergy, maintained the independence of the kingdom, disregarding many bulls and briefs, and even the sentence of excommunication to which the pope proceeded. Philip at last, with the aid of Italian enemies of Boniface, made him prisoner at Anagni, to which he had fled; and though he was liberated by the people of Anagni, he died at Rome soon afterwards in 1303. For his simony Dante has given him a place in the Inferno (canto xxvii.). He instituted the Roman jubilee in the year 1300, granting a plenary indulgence to all who should visit the sanctuaries of Rome in that year.—Boniface IX. (Peter Tomacelli), a native of Naples, succeeded Urban VI. as pope at Rome in 1389, whilst Clement VII. was pope at Avignon. He became notorious for his shameless sale of ecclesiastical offices and benefices, and of dispensations and indulgences. He acquired, after a struggle, a most despotic power in Rome. The annates, which had previously been an occasional payment, were by him made permanent in 1392. He died in 1404.