Pope Boniface IX (Latin:Bonifatius IX;Italian:Bonifacio IX; c. 1350 – 1 October 1404, bornPietro Tomacelli Cybo[1]) was head of theCatholic Church from 2 November 1389 to his death, in October 1404. He was the second Romanpope during theWestern Schism.[2] In this time, the Avignon claimants,Clement VII andBenedict XIII, maintained theRoman Curia inAvignon, under the protection of the French monarchy. He is the last pope to date to take on thepontifical name "Boniface".
Born c. 1350 inNaples, Pietro (also Piero or Perino) TomacelliCybo was son of Baron Giacomo Tomacelli and VerdellaCaracciolo, feudataries of Casarano and nearby Casaranello, from noble neapolitan families, and a descendant of Tamaso Cybo, who belonged to an influential noble family fromGenoa and settled inCasarano in the Kingdom ofNaples. He was baptized in the paleochristian church of Santa Maria della Croce (the church of Casaranello). An unsympathetic German contemporary source,Dietrich of Nieheim, asserted that he was illiterate (nesciens scribere etiam male cantabat). Neither a trained theologian nor skilled in the business of theCuria, he was tactful and prudent in a difficult era, butLudwig Pastor, who passes swiftly over hispontificate, says, "The numerous endeavours for unity made during this period form one of the saddest chapters in the history of the Church. Neither pope had the magnanimity to put an end to the terrible state of affairs" by resigning.[3] After his election at thepapal conclave of 1389,Germany,England,Hungary,Poland, and the greater part ofItaly accepted him as pope. The remainder of Europe recognized theAvignon Pope Clement VII. He and Boniface mutuallyexcommunicated each other.[4]
The day before Tomacelli's election by the fourteen cardinals who remained faithful to the papacy at Rome,[2]Clement VII at Avignon had just crowned a French prince,Louis II of Anjou, as king of Naples. The youthfulLadislaus was the son of KingCharles III of Naples, assassinated in 1386, andMargaret of Durazzo, scion of a line that had traditionally supported the popes in their struggles in Rome with the anti-papal party in the city itself. Boniface IX saw to it that Ladislaus was crownedKing of Naples atGaeta on 29 May 1390 and worked with him for the next decade to expel theAngevin forces from southern Italy.[4]
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 ofRome and established temporal control, though it required fortifying not only theCastel Sant'Angelo, but the bridges also, and for long seasons he was forced to live in more peaceful surroundings atAssisi orPerugia. He also took over the port ofOstia from itsCardinal Bishop. In thePapal 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 nameBenedict XIII. Over the next few years, Boniface IX was entreated to abdicate, even by his strongest supporters: KingRichard II of England (in 1396), theDiet ofFrankfurt (in 1397), and KingWenceslaus of Germany (at Reims, 1398). He refused. Pressure for anecumenical council also grew as the only way to breach theWestern Schism, but theconciliar movement made no headway during Boniface's papacy.[4]
During the reign of Boniface IX twojubilees were celebrated at Rome. The first, in 1390, had been declared by his predecessor,Urban VI, and was largely frequented by people from Germany, Hungary,Poland,Bohemia, and England. Several cities of Germany obtained the "privileges of the jubilee", asindulgences were called, but the preaching of indulgences led to abuses and scandal. Thejubilee of 1400 drew to Rome great crowds ofpilgrims, 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 offlagellants, known as theBianchi, orAlbati ("White Penitents"), especially inProvence, where theAlbigenses had been exterminated less than a century before. Their numbers spread toSpain and northern Italy. These evoked uneasy memories of the mass processions of wanderingflagellants of theBlack Death period, 1348–1349. They went in procession from city to city, clad in white garments, with faces hooded, and wearing on their backs a red cross, following a leader who carried a large cross. Rumors of imminent divine judgement andvisions of the Virgin Mary abounded. They sang the newly popular hymnStabat 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 theCatholic Encyclopedia reports.[4]
In England, theanti-papal preaching ofJohn Wyclif supported the opposition of the king and the higher clergy to Boniface IX's habit of granting Englishbenefices as they fell vacant to favorites in the Roman Curia. Boniface IX introduced a revenue known asannates perpetuæ, withholding half the first year's income of every benefice granted in the Roman Court. The pope's agents also now sold not simply a vacant benefice but theexpectation of one; and when an expectation had been sold, if another offered a larger sum for it, the pope voided the first sale. The unsympathetic observerDietrich von Nieheim reports that he saw the same benefice sold several times in one week, and that the Pope talked business with his secretaries during Mass. There was resistance in England, the staunchest supporter of the Roman papacy during theSchism: theEnglish Parliament confirmed and extended the statutes ofProvisors andPraemunire ofEdward III, giving the king veto power over papal appointments in England. Boniface IX was defeated in the face of a unified front, and the long controversy was finally settled to the English king's satisfaction. Nevertheless, at theSynod ofLondon (1396), the English bishops convened to condemnWyclif.[4]
In 1398 and 1399, Boniface IX appealed to Christian Europe in favor of theByzantine emperorManuel II Palaeologus, threatened atConstantinople by SultanBayezid I, but there was little enthusiasm for a new crusade at such a time. SaintBridget of Sweden was canonized by Pope Boniface IX on 7 October 1391. The universities ofFerrara (1391)[5] andFermo (1398) owe him their origin, and that ofErfurt (in Germany), its confirmation (1392).[4]
Coin depicting Pope Boniface IX,Bode Museum, Berlin
Boniface IX died on 1 October 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 thePapal States. Boniface IX certainly provided generously for his mother, his brothers Andrea and Giovanni, and his nephews in the spirit of the day. TheCuria 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]
Arnold Esch: Bonifacio IX. In: Massimo Bray (ed.):Enciclopedia dei Papi. Volume 2: Niccolò I, santo, Sisto IV. Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Rome 2000, pp. 570–581 (treccani.it).
Georg Schwaiger (1983). "Bonifatius IX".Lexikon des Mittelalters, II: Bettlerwesen bis Codex von Valencia (in German). Stuttgart and Weimar: J. B. Metzler. col. 416–417.ISBN3-7608-8902-6.
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