THE LIVES AND TIMES OF THE POPES IN THE FIFTH CENTURY

 

SAINT BONIFACE I

A.D. 418-422

 

SAINT BONIFACE, a Roman, the son of Zucundus, was made cardinal-priest by Saint Damasus. When about to be proclaimed pontiff, he had not voluntarily accepted that dignity, but he had at length given his consent, when some deacons and a very few priests, opposing themselves to the wishes of the great majority of the electors, named Eulalius, who had been made cardinal-archdeacon by Innocent I. Symmachus, prefect of Rome, patronized
Eulalius, and prejudiced the Emperor Honorius in favor of that antipope. The emperor, being warned that Symmachus had written falsely to him upon the subject, thought fit to call upon both Boniface and Eulalius to attend before him at Ravenna. Eulalius, in contempt of the emperor's orders, left Rome for a short time and then secretly returned. That, of course, put an end to all dispute upon the subject of the pontificate, as Boniface was solemnly recognized.

Unhappily it resulted from that dispute that, as Honorius in that instance, so the kings of Italy and others subsequently interfered in the papal elections. Of Eulalius we may sum up all that it is necessary to say about him by merely adding that this intruder retired to Porto d'Anzo and was subsequently Bishop of Nepi.

Boniface, being firmly seated in the Holy See, ordered that no cleric should be ordained priest earlier than thirty years of age, as Saint Fabian had desired, and Boniface also followed Zosimus in excluding from that honor all impure men and slaves. He introduced the custom of singing on Holy Thursdays the Gloria in Excelsis.

This pope suppressed the vigils of the saints, which consisted in meeting at their tombs and passing the nights preceding their feasts in fervent prayer. Although those nights began, as it was fitting, in a holy manner, it must be confessed that they did degenerate into mere meetings for amusement. The pope, therefore, limited such meetings to the feast-days, but he did not suppress either the name of vigils or the fasting which was prescribed.

Boniface made a decree which forbade all canvassing in the pontifical elections; the true pope was to be he who should be elected by the divine judgment and the consent of all.

By apostolical and royal edicts he pursued the enemies of grace; he received the four books dedicated to him by Saint Augustine, which the latter had sent by Alipius. Those books refuted the letters of the Pelagians.

This same pope firmly maintained the rights of the Holy See over Illyria, which the Patriarch of Constantinople aimed at separating from the Roman jurisdiction. It was under this pope that Saint Jerome died, that brilliant light
that so long and so brilliantly illuminated all Christendom.

In one ordination, in the month of December, Saint Boniface created thirty-six bishops, thirteen priests, and three deacons; he governed the Church three years, eight months, and seven days. He died A.D. 422, and was buried in the cemetery of Saint Felicitas, on the Appian Way, and near the cemetery of Calixtus.

The Holy See was vacant eight days.