4 September 422 A.D. Boniface 1 Dies—Rome’s 42nd; Chaos in Rome
4 September 422 A.D. Boniface 1 Dies—Rome’s 42nd; Chaos in Rome
Elected 28
December, 418; d. at Rome, 4 September, 422.
Little is known of his life antecedent to his election. The "Liber
Pontificalis" calls him a Roman, and the son of the presbyter Jocundus. He is believed
to have been odained by Pope Damasus I (366-384) and to have
served as representative of Innocent I at Constantinople(c. 405).
Sources
Peterson,
John Bertram. "Pope St. Boniface
I." The
Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 2. New York: Robert Appleton
Company,1907. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02658a.htm. Accessed 8 Jul 2014.
Pope St. Boniface I
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At he death
of Pope Zosimus, the Roman Church entered into the fifth of
the schisms, resulting from double papal
elections, which so disturbed her peace during the early centuries. Just after Zosimus's obsequies, 27 December,
418, a faction of the Roman clergy consisting principally of deacons seized the Lateran basilica and elected as pope the Archdeacon Eulalius. The higher clergy tried to enter, but were violently repulsed by a mob of
adherents of the Eulalian party. On the following day they met in the church of Theodora and elected aspope, much against his will, the aged Boniface, a priest highly esteemed for his charity, learning, and good character. On Sunday, 29 December, both
were consecrated, Boniface in the Basilica of St. Marcellus, supported
by nine provincial bishops and some seventy priests; Eulalius in the Lateran basilica in the presence of the deacons, a few priests and the Bishop of Ostia, who was summoned from
his sickbed to assist at the ordination. Each claimant proceeded
to act as pope, and Rome was thrown into
tumultuous confusion by the clash of the rival factions. The Prefect of Rome, Symmachus, hostile to Boniface, reported the
trouble to the Emperor Honorius at Ravenna, and secured the
imperial confirmation of Eulalius's election. Boniface was expelled from the
city. His adherents, however, secured a hearing from the emperor who called a synod of Italian bishops at Ravenna to meet the rival popes and discuss the situation
(February, March, 419). Unable to reach a decision, the synod made a few practical
provisions pending a general council of Italian, Gaulish, andAfrican bishops to be convened in May to
settle the difficulty. It ordered both claimants to leave Rome until a decision was
reached and forbade return under penalty of condemnation. As Easter, 30 March, was
approaching, Achilleus, Bishop of Spoleto, was deputed to conduct
the paschal services in the vacant Roman See. Boniface was sent, it seems, to
the cemetery of St. Felicitas on the Via Salaria, and
Eulalius to Antium. On 18 March,
Eulalius boldly returned to Rome, gathered his partisans,
stirred up strife anew, and spurning the prefect's orders to leave the city, seized
the Lateran basilica on Holy Saturday (29 March), determined to
preside at the paschal ceremonies. The imperial
troops were required to dispossess him and make it possible for Achilleus to conduct the services.
The emperor was deeply indignant at these proceedings and refusing to consider
again the claims of Eulalius, recognized Boniface as legitimate pope (3 April, 418). The
latter re-entered Rome 10 April and was acclaimed by the people. Eulalius
was made bishop either of Nepi in Tuscany or of some Campanian see, according to the
conflicting data of the sources of the "Liber
Pontificalis". The schismhad lasted fifteen weeks.
Early in 420, the pope's critical illness
encouraged the artisans of Eulalius to make another effort. On his recovery Boniface requested the emperor (1
July, 420) to make some provision against possible renewal of the schism in the event of his
death. Honorius enacted a law providing that, in
contestedPapal elections, neither claimant should be recognized and a new election should be held.
Boniface's
reign was marked by great zeal and activity in
disciplinary organization and control. He reversed his predecessor's policy of
endowing certain Western bishops with extraordinary papal vicariate powers. Zosimus had given to Patroclus, Bishop of Arles, extensive jurisdiction in the provinces of Vienna and Narbonne, and had made
him an intermediary between these provinces and the Apostolic See. Boniface diminished theseprimatial rights and restored the metropolitan powers of the chief bishops of provinces. Thus he
sustainedHilary, Archbishop of Narbonne, in his choice
of a bishop of the vacant See of Lodeve, against Patroclus, who tried to intrude another (422). So, too,
he insisted that Maximus, Bishop of Valence, should be tried for his
alleged crimes, not by a primate, but by a synod of the bishops of Gaul, and promised to
sustain their decision (419). Boniface succeeded to Zosimus's difficulties with the African Church regarding appeals to Rome and, in particular, the
case of Apiarius. The Council of Carthage, having heard the
representations of Zosimus'slegates, sent to Boniface on 31 May, 419, a letter
in reply to the commonitorium of his predecessor. It
stated that the council had been unable to verify
the canons which the legates had quoted as Nicene, but which were
later found to be Sardican. It agreed,
however, to observe them until verification could be established. This letter
is often cited in illustration of the defiant attitude of the African Church to the Roman See. An unbiased study of
it, however, must lead to no more extreme conclusion than that of Dom Chapman:
"it was written in considerable irritation, yet in a studiously moderate
tone" (Dublin Review. July, 1901, 109-119). The Africanswere irritated at
the insolence of Boniface's legates and incensed at being urged to obey laws which they thought were
not consistently enforced at Rome. This they told Boniface in no uncertain language;
yet, far from repudiating his authority, they promised to obey the suspected laws thus recognizing the pope's office asguardian of the Church's discipline. In 422 Boniface received the appeal of Anthony of Fussula who, through
the efforts of St. Augustine, had been deposed by a provincial synod of Numidia, and decided
that he should be restored if his innocence be established. Boniface ardently supported St. Augustine in combatingPelagianism. Having received two Pelagian letters calumniating Augustine, he sent them to him. In
recognition of this solicitude Augustine dedicated to Boniface his rejoinder contained
in "Contra duas Epistolas Pelagianoruin Libri quatuor".
In the East he zealously maintained his jurisdiction over the ecclesiastical provinces of Illyricurn, of which the Patriarch of Constantinople was trying to secure
control on account of their becoming a part of the Easternempire. The Bishop of Thessalonica had been constituted papal vicar in this territory, exercising jurisdictionover the metropolitans and bishops. By letters to Rufus, the contemporary
incumbent of the see, Bonifacewatched closely
over the interests of the Illyrian church and insisted on obedience to Rome. In 421 dissatisfaction
expressed by certain malcontents among the bishops, on account of the pope's refusal toconfirm the election of Perigines as Bishop of Corinth unless the candidate was
recognized by Rufus, served as a
pretext for the young emperor Theodosius II to grant the ecclesiastical dominion of Illyricurn to the Patriarchof Constantinople (14 July, 421). Boniface remonstrated with Honorius against the violation of
the rights of hissee, and prevailed upon him
to urge Theodosius to rescind his enactment. The law was not enforced, but it
remained in the Theodosian (439) and Justinian (534) codes and caused much trouble for
succeeding popes. By a letter of 11
March, 422, Boniface forbade the consecration in Illyricum of any bishop whom Rufus would not recognize. Boniface renewed the legislation
of Pope Soter, prohibiting women to touch the sacred linens or to minister at
the burning of incense. He enforced the laws forbidding slaves to become clerics. He was buried in the cemetery of Maximus on the Via Salaria, near
the tomb of his favorite, St. Felicitas, in whose honor and in gratitude for
whose aid he had erected an oratory over the cemetery bearing her name. The Church keeps hisfeast on 25 October.
Sources
Liber
Pontificalis,
ed. DUCHESNE (Paris, 1886), 1, pp. lxii, 227-229; JAME, Regesta Romanorum
Pontificum (Leipzig, 1885), 1,
51-54; ActaSS., XIII, 62*; LIX,
605--616; BARONIUS, Annales (Bar-le-Duc, 1866), VII,
152-231; TILLEMONT, Mémoires (Venice, 1732), XII,
385-407; 666-670; P.L., XVIII, 397-406; XX, 745-792; HEFELE, Conciliengeschichte and translation, §§ 120,
122; DUCHESNE, Fastes Episcopaux de
l'Ancienne Gaul (Paris, 1894), I 84-109; Les Eglíses Séparées (Paris, 1905), 229-279;
BUCHANAN in Dict. Christ. Biog., s.v.;
GREGORIUS-HAMILTON, Hist. of Rome in the
Middle Ages (London, 1894), I,
180-181.
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