Boniface Ix

BONIFACE IX. (Piero Tomacelli), pope from 1389 to 1404, was born at Naples of a poor but ancient family. He was able to re store Roman authority in the major part of the papal states, and in 1398 put an end to the republican liberties of the city itself. Boniface won Naples, which had owed spiritual allegiance to the antipopes Clement VII. and Benedict XIII. of Avignon, to the Roman obedience. In 1403 he ventured at last to confirm the deposition of the emperor Wenceslaus by the electors and the choice of Rupert. Negotiations for the healing of the Great Schism were without result. In spite of his inferior education, the contemporaries of Boniface trusted his prudence and moral char acter ; yet when in financial straits he sold offices, and in transformed the annates into a permanent tax. In 1390 he cele brated the regular jubilee, but a rather informal one held in 1400 proved more profitable. Though probably not personally avari cious, he was justly accused of nepotism.

BIBLIOGRAPHY.

Liber Pontificalis, Duchesne (1882) ; Regesta Bibliography.—Liber Pontificalis, Duchesne (1882) ; Regesta Romanorum Pontificum, ed. Jaffe (Leipzig, 1885) ; Potthast, Regesta Pontificum Romanorum (1875) ; Digard, Faucon and Thomas, Les Registres de Boniface VIII. (1884 ff.) ; Wetzer and Welte, Kirchen lexikon, vol. ii. (2nd e d., Freiburg, 1883) , 103 7-62 ; Herzog-Hauck, Realencyklopedie, vol. iii. (3rd ed., Leipzig, 1897), 291-30o contains an elaborate bibliography; J. Loserth, Geschichte des spateren Mittel alters (Munich, 1903) , 206-23 2 ; H. Finke, Aus den Tagen Bonifaz VIII. (Munster, 1902) ; Gdttingische gelehrte Anzeigen, Jahrgang 166, 8S7-869 (1904) ; R. Scholz, Die Publizistik zur Zeit Philipps des Schonen and Bonifaz VIII. (Stuttgart, 1903) ; K. Wenck, "War Bonifaz VIII. ein Ketzer?" in von Sybel's Historische Zeitschri f t, vol. xciv. (Munich, 1905) , 1-66.

Special literature on Unam Sanctam: C. Mirbt, Quellen zur Gesch ichte des Papsttums (2nd ed., Tubingen, 1901), 148 f.; Kirchenlexikon xii. (Igoi) 229-240, an exhaustive discussion; H. Finke, 146-19o; J. H. Robinson, Readings in European History, vol. i. (Boston, 1904), 346 ff. On Clericis laicos: Gee and Hardy, Documents Illustrative of English Church History (1896), 87 ff. (W. W. R.)