Pope Boniface IX

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Innocent VII
Opposed toAvignon claimants:
Orders
Consecration9 November 1389
by 
Urban VI
Personal details
Born
Pietro Cybo Tomacelli

c. 1350
Died1 October 1404(1404-10-01) (aged 53–54)
Rome, Papal States
Previous post(s)
Coat of armsBoniface IX's coat of arms
Other popes named Boniface
Papal styles of
Pope Boniface IX
His Holiness
Spoken styleYour Holiness
Religious styleHoly Father
Posthumous styleNone

Pope Boniface IX (

Latin: Bonifatius IX; Italian: Bonifacio IX; c. 1350 – 1 October 1404, born Pietro Tomacelli[1]) was head of the Catholic Church from 2 November 1389 to his death, in October 1404. He was the second Roman pope of the Western Schism.[2] During this time the Avignon claimants, Clement VII and Benedict XIII, maintained the Roman Curia in Avignon, under the protection of the French monarchy. He is the last pope to date to take on the pontifical
name "Boniface".

Early life

Boniface IX was born c. 1350 in

excommunicated each other.[4]

The day before Tomacelli's election by the fourteen cardinals who remained faithful to the papacy at Rome,

King of Naples at Gaeta on 29 May 1390 and worked with him for the next decade to expel the Angevin forces from southern Italy.[4]

Pontificate

Map showing support for Avignon (red) and Rome (blue) during the Western Schism

During his reign, Boniface IX finally extinguished the troublesome independence of the commune of

Cardinal Bishop. In the Papal States, Boniface IX gradually regained control of the chief castles and cities, and he re-founded the States as they would appear during the fifteenth century.[5]

The antipope Clement VII died at Avignon on 16 September 1394, but the French cardinals quickly elected a successor on 28 September: Cardinal Pedro de Luna, who took the name

conciliar movement made no headway during Boniface's papacy.[4]

During the reign of Boniface IX two

jubilee of 1400 drew to Rome great crowds of pilgrims, particularly from France, in spite of a disastrous plague. Pope Boniface IX remained in the city nonetheless.[4]

In the latter part of 1399 there arose bands of

visions of the Virgin Mary abounded. They sang the newly popular hymn Stabat Mater during their processions. For a while, as the White Penitents approached Rome, gaining adherents along the way, Boniface IX and the Curia supported their penitential enthusiasm, but when they reached Rome, Boniface IX had their leader burnt at the stake, and they soon dispersed. "Boniface IX gradually discountenanced these wandering crowds, an easy prey of agitators and conspirators, and finally dissolved them", as the Catholic Encyclopedia reports.[4]

In England, the

Bulla of Boniface IX

In Germany, the

Count Palatine of the Rhine. In 1403 Boniface IX recognized Rupert as king.[5]

In 1398 and 1399, Boniface IX appealed to Christian Europe in favor of the

Manuel II Palaeologus, threatened at Constantinople by Sultan Bayezid I, but there was little enthusiasm for a new crusade at such a time. Saint Bridget of Sweden was canonized by Pope Boniface IX on 7 October 1391. The universities of Ferrara (1391)[5] and Fermo (1398) owe him their origin, and that of Erfurt (in Germany), its confirmation (1392).[4]

Coin depicting Pope Boniface IX, Bode Museum, Berlin

Boniface IX died in 1404 after a brief illness.[4]

Boniface IX was a frank politician, strapped for cash like the other princes of Europe, as the costs of modern warfare rose and supporters needed to be encouraged by gifts, for fourteenth-century government depended upon such personal support as a temporal ruler could gather and retain. All the princes of the late 14th century were accused of avaricious money-grubbing by contemporary critics, but among them contemporaries ranked Boniface IX as exceptional. Traffic in benefices, the sale of dispensations, and the like, did not cover the loss of local sources of revenue in the long absence of the papacy from Rome, foreign revenue diminished by the schism, expenses for the pacification and fortification of Rome, the constant wars made necessary by French ambition and the piecemeal reconquest of the Papal States. Boniface IX certainly provided generously for his mother, his brothers Andrea and Giovanni, and his nephews in the spirit of the day. The Curia was perhaps equally responsible for new financial methods that were destined in the next century to arouse bitter feelings against Rome, particularly in Germany.[4]

See also

References

  1. ^ "Vatican".
  2. ^ a b Richard P. McBrien, Lives of the Popes, (HarperCollins, 2000), 249.
  3. ^ Pastor, The History of the Popes: From the Close of the Middle Ages (1906), vol. i, p 165.
  4. ^ a b c d e f g h i  One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in the public domainHerbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Pope Boniface IX". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
  5. ^ a b c ""Pope Boniface IX". New Catholic Dictionary. CatholicSaints.Info. 15 August 2018".

Bibliography

External links

Catholic Church titles
Preceded by Pope
2 November 1389 – 1 October 1404
Avignon claimants:
Clement VII & Benedict XIII
Succeeded by