[N66]. The original Copies of the Letters from Symmachus to the Emperor, and of the Emperor’s Rescripts to Symmachus, giving a full and distinct Account of the present Schism, are lodged in the Vatican Library, and have been thence copied by Baronius.[[1]].
[1]. Bar. ad ann. 419. n. 1-42.
Boniface indebted
to the Emperor for
his Dignity.
Thus was an End put to the Schism; thus was Boniface placed on the Roman See, and vested with the Papal Dignity by the Clemency of the Emperor, as Largus Proconsul of Africa expresses it in his Letter to the Bishops of that Province[[1578]]; and not by the Authority of a Council consisting of Two hundred and Fifty-two Bishops, which some have brought down from the Clouds, without even letting us know where or when they assembled[[1579]].
All we know of Boniface before his Election is, that he was the Son of one Jucundus a Presbyter[[1580]], was stricken in Years, well versed in the Ecclesiastical Laws, of an unblemished Character; and, what enhances his Merit, chosen against his Will. |Boniface applies to the Emperor for a Law to restrain the Ambition of the Candidates to the Papacy.| Thus say his Friends, in the Letter which they writ in his Behalf to the Emperor Honorius[[1581]]. His first Care, after he found himself in the quiet Possession of his See, was to prevent for the future, so far as in him lay, the Cabals and Intrigues that might be formed at other Elections, as they had been at his, to the great Disturbance of the City, and Scandal of the Christian Religion. With this View he writ to the Emperor, intreating him to restrain, by some severe Law, the Ambition of those who, trusting more to their Intrigues than their Merit, aspired to a Dignity that was due to Merit alone[[N67]].
[N67]. This Letter bears Date the First of July 419.