BONIFACE

the name of several popes. — ^Boniface I., elected 418 by a party of the clergy, and confirmed by the Emperor Honor i us, who declared the anti-pope Eulallus a usurper. Boniface persecuted the Pelagians, and extended his authority by prudent measures. A decree of the Emperor Theodosius deprived him, in 421, of the spiritual sovereignty over Eastern lUyria. He died 422. His history proves the Koman bishop to have been, in lus time, dependent on the secular power. — Boniface II., elected 530; died in 532. The death of his rival, the antipope Dioscorua, a few days after his election, left him in quiet po e ion of the papal chair. He acknowledged the supremacy of the secular sovereign in a council held at Rome.— Boniface III., chosen 607, died nine months after his election. — ^Boniface IV., elected 608. He consecrated the Pantheon (which see) to the Virgin and all the saints. — Boniface v., a Neapolitan, was pope from 619 to 625. He confirmed the inviolability of the asylums, and endeavoured to diffuse Christianity among the English.— Boniface YI., a Boman, elected 896, died of the gout a fortnight after.— Boniface VII., antipope, elected 974 during the lifetime of Benedict VI., whose death he was suspected of having caused. Expelled from Rome he returned on the death of Benedict VII., and found tiie chair occupied by John XIV., whom he deposed and threw into prison, where he allowed liim to die of hunger. Boniface died eleven months after hia return. — ^Boniface VIII. See the article. — Boniface IX., Pietro Tomaoelli of Naples, succeeded Urban VI. at Borne during the schism in the church, while Clement VII. resided at Avignon. He was distinguished for the beauty his person and the elegance of his manners, ratiier than for a profound knowledge of theology and canon law. Even the counsel of his experienced cardinals could not save him from the commi ion of gro blunders. He was more skilled in the arts of simony and extortion. He sold the same benefice repeatedly, made the annates a regular tax in 1392, and lavished the treasures thus procured on his relations or costly edifices — the fortification of the castle of St. Angelo, for instance, and the Capitol. He supported the pretensions of Ladislaus to the throne of Naples, and during the greatest part of hia pontificate was engaged in negotiations at Avignon with his rivals, Clement VII. and Benedict XIII. He died in 1404. 285