1 October 1404 A.D. Boniface IX Dies—Rome’s 203rd; Not Well Educated; Avignon Papacy & Schism
1 October 1404 A.D. Boniface IX Dies—Rome’s 203rd; Not Well Educated; Avignon Papacy & Schism; Opposed by Robert of Geneva ("Clement VII") (1378-1394), Pedro de Luna ("Benedict XIII") (1394-1417) and Baldassare Cossa ("John XXIII") (1400-1415), Called Antipopes; Worthless Cardinals, Bishops, and Clerks Recriminating Each Other
Oestereich,
Thomas. "Pope Boniface
IX." The
Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 2. New York: Robert Appleton
Company, 1907.
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/02670a.htm. Accessed 20 Sept 2014.
Pope Boniface IX
During the
reign of Boniface two jubilees were celebrated at Rome. The first took place in
1396, in compliance with an ordinance of his predecessor Urban VI, and was largely
frequented from Germany, Hungary, Poland, Bohemia, and England. Several cities of Germany obtained the privileges of the jubilee, but the
preaching of the indulgences gave rise to abuses and
to impositions on the part of unaccredited agents of the pope, so that he was obliged to proceed against them
with severity. The jubilee of 1400 drew to Rome great crowds of pilgrims, particularly from France. In spite of a
disastrous plague Boniface remained at his post. In
the latter part of 1399 bands of penitents, known as the Bianchi, or Albati (White Penitents), arose,
especially in Provence and Italy. They went in procession from city to city, clad
in white garments, with faces hooded, only the eyes being left uncovered, and
wearing on their backs a red cross. For a while their penitential enthusiasm had some good
results. After they had satisfied their spiritual ardour at Rome, Boniface gradually discountenanced
these wandering crowds, an easy prey of agitators and conspirators, and finally
dissolved them. In England the anti-papal virulence
of Wycliff increased the opposition
of both Crown and clergy to the methods of Boniface in the granting of such English benefices as fell vacant in the Roman Curia through the death or
promotion of the incumbent. The Parliament confirmed and extended more than
once the statutes of Provisors and Præmunire, of Edward III. Boniface protested vigorously,
particularly in 1391, but in the end found himself unable to execute his grants without the
king's consent and sanction. "Thus
ended", says Lingard (ad. an. 1393), "this long
and angry controversy entirely
to the advantage of the Crown."
Nevertheless, at the Synod of London (1396), the English Church condemned the anti-papal
teachings of Wyclif, and in 1398 the University of Oxford, consulted by Richard
II, issued in favour of Boniface an influential document,
while in 1390 and again in 1393 the spiritual peers upheld the right of the pope to excommunicate even those who obeyed the statutes of Provisors. In Germany the electors had deposed at Rhense (20 August,
1400) the unworthy Wenceslaus, King of the Romans, and had chosen in
his place Rupert, Duke of Bavaria and Rhenish Count Palatine. In 1403 Boniface abandoned his uncertain attitude
towards both, approved the deposition of Wenceslaus as done by papal authority, and recognized
the election of Rupert. In 1398 and 1399 Boniface appealed to Christian Europe in favour of Emperor Emmanuel,
threatened at Constantinople by Sultan Bajazet. St. Bridget of Sweden was canonized by Boniface, 7 October,
1391. The universities of Ferrara (1391) and Fermo (1398) owe him their
origin, and that of Erfurt its confirmation (1392). In 1404 Benedict XIII sent the last of his
embassies to Boniface, who received
the agents of Benedict 29 September, but the
interview ended unfavourably. The pope, highly irritated, took
to his bed with an attack of gravel, and died after an illness of two days.
Contemporary
and later chroniclers praise the political virtues of Boniface, also the purity
of his life, and the grandeur of his spirit. Some, like Dietrich of Niem, charge him with an
inordinate love of money, dishonest
traffic in benefices, the sale of dispensations, etc. But Dietrich is no impartial writer
and is blamed by Reynaldus for being bitter and unjust (acertus et iniquis). In his gossipy pages one misses a proper
appreciation of the difficulties that surrounded Boniface—local sources of revenue lost in the long absence
of the papacy from Rome, foreign revenue diminished by the schism, extraordinary expenses
for the restoration of papal Rome and the reconquest of the Papal States, the constant wars necessitated by French ambition, the inheritance of the
financial methods of Avignon, and the obligation of conciliating supporters
in and out of Italy. Boniface sought nothing for
himself and died poor. He is also charged
with nepotism and he certainly provided generously for
his mother, brothers, and nephews. It may be said, however, that in the
semi-anarchic conditions of the time good government depended
upon such personal support as a temporal ruler could gather and retain, i.e.
could reward, while fidelity was best secured by close domestic ties. Boniface was the first pope to introduce the form of revenue known as annates perpetuæ, or reservation of
one-half the first year's fruits of every benefice granted in the Roman Court, this in addition
to other traditional expenses. It must be
remembered that at this time the cardinals claimed a large part of
these revenues, so that the Curia was perhaps more
responsible than the pope for new financial methods destined in the next century to
arouse bitter feelings against Rome, particularly in Germany.
Sources
DIETRICH
(THEODERICUS) VON NIEM, De Scismate libri III, ed. ERLER (Leipzig,
1890); GOBELINUS PERSONA, Cosmidromius
(Cosmodromium), ed. JANSEN (1904);
RAYNALDUS, Ann. eccl. ad. ann.
1389-1404, containing many important
documents; others are found in D'ACHÉRY, Spicilegium (Paris, 1655), MARTÊNE
AND DURAND, Thesaur. nov.
anecdotorum (Paris, 1717); Vet. Script. coll.
ampliss. (Paris, 1724); Vita Bonifatii IX, in MURATORI, Rev. Ital. Script., III, ii, 830 sqq.; Liber Pontificalis, ed. DUCHESNE, II, 507,
530, 549; the histories of the city of Rome by GREGOROVIUS and by VON REUMONT;
JUNGMANN, Dissert. Selecta (1886) VI, 272;
CREIGHTON, A History of the Papacy
during the Period of the Reformation (London, 1892), I,
98-161; PASTOR, History of the Papacy; LINGARD, History of England, III, c. iv; ERLER, Die historischen
Schriften Dietrichs von Nieheim (Leipzig, 1887); HEFELE, Conciliengesch., VI, 812 sqq.; N. VALOIS, La France et le grand
schisme d'Occident (Paris, 1896-1902);
ROCQUAIN, La Cour de Rome et
l'esprit de réforme avant Luther (Paris, 1897); M. JANSEN,Papst Bonifatius IX.
und seine Beziehungen zur deutschen Kirche (Freiburg, 1904). For the
Bulls of Boniface concerning Hungary see Mon. Vaticana hist.
regni Hung. illustr. (Budapest, 1888), Ser. I,
III, 1389-96; for Bohemia, KROFTA, Acta Urb. VI. et Bonif.
IX, p. I, in Mon. Vaticana res
gestas Bohemiæ illustrantia (Prague, 1903), V.
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