One of the many Artifices, employed by the Popes to aggrandize their See, was to raise Divisions among their Collegues, or to foment underhand those that others had raised. For in such Divisions they never stood neuter, but, taking Part in the Quarrel, nay, and making themselves Principals, they warmly declared in favour of one Party against the other, that, by supporting them, they might be in their Turn supported by them in all their Pretensions. To this worldly Wisdom, this wicked Policy, Boniface was an utter Stranger: for he did not lay hold of a very favourable Opportunity, which the Division, that reigned at this time among the Bishops of Gaul, offered him, to improve his Authority, and extend his Jurisdiction. The Metropolitan Dignity was disputed there by the Bishops of Vienne, of Narbonne, and of Arles, as I have observed above. During that Contest the Clergy of Valence, quarreling with their Bishop Maximus, charged him with several Crimes; but not caring to accuse him at the Tribunal of any of the Three Competitors (for that had been acknowleging, in one of the Three, the Metropolitan Jurisdiction then in Dispute), they arraigned him at Rome, and summoned him to plead his Cause there before Boniface. Most other Popes would have eagerly embraced such an Opportunity of inlarging their Power; nay, and founded upon this particular Case the general Right of judging, and finally determining, all Causes of the like Nature. But Boniface declared, in his Letter to Patroclus, and the other Bishops of the Seven Provinces of Gaul, that though Maximus had been accused at his Tribunal, though he had not appeared to clear himself from the Crimes laid to his Charge, and might thereupon be thought guilty, and be justly condemned; yet he would not take upon him to pronounce such a Sentence, because that Bishop ought, according to the Canons, to be judged and condemned, or absolved, in his own Province. An Instance of Moderation that reflects no small Honour on the Memory of Boniface; the rather as he had before his Eyes the recent Examples of Innocent and Zosimus, the Two most ambitious and arrogant Popes the Church had yet seen. He closes his Letter with exhorting the Bishops of the Seven Provinces to assemble against the First of November, that Maximus may be cleared, if innocent, or condemned, if guilty.
His Death.
Boniface died on the 4th of November 422. having held the Chair 3 Years, 9 Months, and some Days. He was buried in the Cœmetery of the Martyr St. Felicitas, on the Salarian Way; where he is said to have built an Oratory. He is worshiped by the Church of Rome among her Saints, an Honour which few of his Predecessors better deserved. But it is a Wonder that the last Instance I have given of his Moderation, and Regard to the Canons against the Claims of his See, did not exclude him out of the Calendar. His Festival is kept on the 25th of October; and Bede quotes a Book of Miracles wrought by Pope Boniface[[1586]]; but whether by the First Pope of that Name, or the Second, he does not inform us, though he seems to give an intire Credit to every idle Tale that Legend contained. And here I cannot help observing, by the way, that the less necessary Miracles became, the more they were multiplied. In Bede’s Time, and the Three preceding Centuries, Men were rather inclined to believe too much than too little; and yet in no other Time was there a greater Profusion of Miracles. From an antient Epitaph quoted by Baronius[[1587]], it appears that Boniface died very old; that he had served the Church from his tender Years; that by his engaging Behaviour he put an End to the Schism, and that he relieved Rome in the time of a Famine.
| Honorius, | CELESTINE, Forty-second Bishop of Rome. | Theodosius II., Valentinian III. |
Year of Christ 422.
Celestine chosen
without Opposition.
Upon the Demise of Boniface, Celestine was chosen in his room, without the least Disturbance or Opposition. Eulalius indeed, who was still alive, and led a retired Life in the neighbouring Province of Campania, was tempted by his Friends in Rome to try his Fortune a Second time; but he did not chuse to quit his Solitude, and involve both himself and them in new Troubles. Celestine was a Native of Rome, the Son of one Priscus, and a Deacon, if not a Presbyter, at the Time of his Election[[1588]].
Antony, one of St.
Austin’s Disciples,
appointed by his
Interest Bishop of
Fussala.