Bonifacius[1] (died in 1130 or later) was a Roman Catholic Cardinal and Cardinal-priest of the titulus of San Marco. In 1111, he was one of the cardinals captured by King Henry V at what was supposed to be his coronation, and was held prisoner near Rome along with the pope for sixty-one days. He was forced to subscribe to the oath taken by Pope Paschal II, according to the dictates of King Henry. He was then one of the cardinals who opposed the agreements struck by Paschal with Henry in the Lateran synod of 1112. He was not one of the cardinals who followed popes Gelasius, Calixtus, or Honorius on their travels. In the contested papal election of 1130, he supported Pope Anacletus II.

Paschal II

According to the seniority in signing documents principle (Anciennitätsprinzip) developed by Rudolf Hüls, Bonifacius should have been named a cardinal by 1100.[2] He first appears, however, in 1111, when, on 16 February, King Henry V took captive the pope and sixteen cardinals, including Cardinal Bonifacius; they were held captive for sixty-one days, while Henry pressed the pope to agree to his solution to the investiture controversy.[3] On 18 April, at Ponte Mammolo on the Anio River, Bonifacius was one of the cardinals ordered by Pope Paschal II to sign the oath which the pope was offering under duress to King Henry V.[4]

Paschal attempted to placate Henry, but he only made matters worse. Though asserting the separation of church and state in the institution to benefices, Paschal granted the emperor a privilegium in the matter of investiture.[5] Pressure from inside the empire and outside mounted on Paschal to summon a council, whose expressed purpose would be to annul the "privilege', which was a grave setback for the Gregorian reform movement. Cardinal Bonifacius of S. Marco was one of more than one hundred prelates who participated in the Lateran council in the following year, on 18—23 March 1112. The "privilege" was soundly condemned.[6]

Pope Paschal II died in Rome on 21 January 1118.

Gelasius II and Calixtus II

The meeting to elect a successor to Paschal II took place at the monastery of the Palladium (Santa Maria in Pallara, near the Arch of Titus and the Arch of Constantine) for reasons of security. Cardinal Bonifacius of S. Marco was one of those present.[7] During the enthronement ceremony, Cencius Frangipani and his supporters broke into the monastery, seized and abused the pope and others, and carried Gelasius off to one of their prisons. He was rescued, but, on the approach of Henry V to Rome, he fled to Gaeta, to Capua, and then to Pisa. Bonifacius is not mentioned in connection with the consecration of the new pope at Gaeta, or in the flight to Pisa and France.[8] He was evidently still in Rome in February 1119, when he was present at a public meeting at the church of S. Giovanni on the island, where the cardinals, clergy, magistrates, and people acclaimed the new pope, Calixtus II, and he signed the confirmation of the election by the cardinals and higher clergy of Rome that was sent to Cluny.[9] He was one of the authors of a letter to the electors of the new pope, Calixtus II, in Cluny.[10] Pope Calixtus, after holding several councils and synods in France, arrived in Rome on 3 June 1120. On July 16, he began a tour of south Italy, from which he did not return to Rome until early December.[11] Cardinal Bonifacius did not join the papal retinue, apparently, and therefore there are no subscriptions by his hand in 1119 or 1120.[12] He did subscribe regularly to papal documents at the Lateran, from 3 January to 17 April 1121.[13] On that same day, Pope Calixtus and his retinue departed for Sutri, where the antipope Gregory VIII (Maurice Burdinus) was already being besieged by Cardinal Giovanni da Crema. Bonifacius is not mentioned either in connection with the siege, or with the deposition and punishment of Burdinus after his capture.[14]

In March 1123, Pope Calixtus held a council at the Lateran.[15] He described the council in a letter to Bishop Odelric of Constanz, to which thirty-three cardinals subscribed, but not Cardinal Bonifacius.[16]

In 1124, Bonifacius subscribed again at the Lateran from 1 April to 26 May. In 1125, he subscribed from 4 to 6 May.[17]

Honorius II

In 1125, he was appointed by Honorius II to act as judge in a dispute between the Provost of the cathedral chapter of Città di Castello and the abbot of the monastery of San Salvatore de Monte Acuto, over the property of Guicciards, son of Albertini; he traveled to Castello, and was resident at the church of San Gregorio, where the case was settled in the presence of the bishop.[18]

In 1127, Cardinal Bonifacius of S. Marco became involved in a dispute, which eventually reached the papal audience hall for a decision, with both Pope Honorius and twenty-three cardinals. The Archconfraternity of the Holy Cross of S. Marco was accused of usurping the title and precedence of the Archconfraternity of the Holy Cross of the Basilica of the XII Apostles. In the documents, Bonifacius is referred to as prior cardinalium (protopriest).[19]

Anacletus II

When Honorius died, late in the afternoon of 13 February 1130, the five cardinals gathered around him did not inform the cardinals of the Pierleoni faction that the pope had died. Neither did they inform the magistrates of the city of Rome, who only learned of the fact when they assembled after dawn at the church of S. Marco to pay a collective call on the pope, expecting his death or imminent demise.[20] After nightfall, the body of the dead pope was buried in the cloister of S. Gregorio and S. Andrea, by several laymen, without a funeral service.[21] Cardinal Petrus Senex stated firmly, "No mention can be made about a successor until the pope has been buried."[22]

During the night of 13/14 February, the cardinals inside the monastery held a meeting at which they elected Cardinal Gregory Papareschi pope. Cardinal Petrus of S. Susanna, who was present and in outraged disagreement with their actions, had a tart rebuke for the cardinals: "They gathered themselves together at some altar in the darkness, and, wishing to claim the title to an evil deed, they fabricated for themselves the deacon of S. Angelo as an idol in their rash boldness of zeal."[23] Gregorovius states, "The proceeding was entirely contrary to law, and Gregory's action was altogether uncanonical.[24]

At dawn, the body of Honorius was dug up again, and carried along with Papareschi to the Lateran Basilica. They were accompanied by the laymen of the Frangipani faction and the faction's cardinals.[25] The body was buried again, in the Lateran, with a full funeral, and Papareschi was consecrated a bishop and enthroned as Innocent II.

After dawn, the senior-cardinal bishop, Petrus Senex, met with the other cardinals, the important Roman clergy, the magistrates and leading citizens, and the people of Rome, in anticipation of the possible announcement of the death of the pope. They were prepared to give Honorius II a funeral befitting a pope. The meeting took place at the church of S. Marco, at the bottom of the steps to the Capitol, the titular church of Cardinal Bonifacio, which was also convenient for the Pierleoni, whose houses were nearby. When they heard of the doings at the Lateran, they began their own electoral meeting, in the light of the coup-d-état which was underway. Cardinal Pietro gave his nomination and vote to Cardinal Pietro Pierleoni, who became Pope Anacletus II. Anacletus was acclaimed as pope by the cardinals (including Bonifacio), clergy, magistrates, nobles, and people of Rome.[26] He was enthroned at S. Peter's Basilica on 15 February, and on 16 February he took possession of the Lateran.[27]

Cardinal Bonifacio of S. Marco was the first cardinal to sign the letter of Pope Anacletus II's cardinals to the Emperor Lothair on 14 February 1130.[28] Cardinal Guido de Castello was promoted from the deaconry of S. Maria in Via lata to the title of S. Marco by Innocent II in December 1133.[29] This might indicate that Bonifacius was dead by that time.

Notes and references

  1. ↑ His name is also written "Bonifatius". "Bonifacius" means "doer of good" in Latin. In medieval scripts, 'c' and 't' are easily confused.
  2. ↑ Hüls, pp. 85, 186.
  3. ↑ Gregorovius IV, part 2, pp. 338-347.
  4. ↑ Gregorovius IV. 2, pp. 344-352. Watterich II, p. 65. Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Legum Sectio IV. Constitutiones Tomus I (Hannover: Hahn 1893), p. 143, no. 93.
  5. ↑ The "privilege" granted the emperor the right to invest a newly elected bishop with the ring and the staff of office before he was consecrated by the appropriate church officials. Pertz, Monumenta Germaniae historica. Legum. Tomus I, pp. 144-145, no. 96.
  6. ↑ Hüls, p. 186, with note 3. Charles Joseph Hefele, Histoire des conciles, second edition, Tome V (Paris: Letouzey 1912), pp. 532-535. J. D. Mansi (ed.), Sacrorum Conciliorum nova et amplissima collectio, editio novissima, Tomus XXI (in Latin) (Venice: A. Zatta 1776), p. 52. Monumenta Germaniae Historica. Legum Sectio IV. Constitutiones Tomus I (Hannover: Hahn 1893), p. 570, no. 399.
  7. ↑ Watterich II, p. 94.
  8. ↑ Ferdinand Gregorovius (1896), History of Rome in the Middle Ages. Volume IV. 2, second edition (London: George Bell, 1896), p. 378. J.B.M. Watterich (1862). Pontificum Romanorum qui fuerunt inde ab exeunte saeculo IX usque ad finem saeculi XIII vitae: ab aequalibus conscriptae (in Latin). Vol. Tom. II. Leipzig: G. Engelmann. p. 102.
  9. ↑ Watterich II, p. 123.
  10. ↑ Edmundus Martène et Ursinus Durand, Veterum Scriptorum et monumentorum amplissima collectio Tomus I (Parisiis: Montalant 1724), p. 645: "Cardinales Romae degentes Bonefacius tituli sancti Marci, Johannes tituli sanctae Ceciliae, Anastasius S. Clementis, Benedictus tituli Eudoxiae, Diviso tituli sancti Equitii, Tibaldus tituli Pammachii, Reinerius tituli SS. Marcellini et Petri, Desiderius tituli S. Praxedis, Gregorius S. [Laurentii in] Lucinae tituli, Hugo tituli apostolorum, karissimis fratribus et cardinalibus qui ultra montes sunt, salutem."
  11. ↑ Gregorovius IV. 2, pp. 394-395.
  12. ↑ Jaffé, pp. 795-797.
  13. ↑ Hüls, p. 186, with notes 11–16.
  14. ↑ Gregorovius IV. 2, pp. 395-396. Jaffé, p. 799.
  15. ↑ Jaffé, p. 810.
  16. ↑ Mansi, Tomus XXI, pp. 291-292.
  17. ↑ Hüls, p. 186, with notes 17 and 18.
  18. ↑ P. F. Kehr, Italia pontificia IV, p. 102, no. 7.
  19. ↑ P.F. Kehr, Italia pontificia (Berlin: Weidmann 1906), p. 72, no. 3. Francesco Liverani, Delle opere di monsignor Francesco Liverani Volume IV (Macerata: Alessandro Mancini 1859), pp. 258-264, at p. 262.
  20. ↑ Watterich II, pp. 187-188, from: Historia Compostelana III. 23, from a letter of Cardinal Pietro of S. Susanna: "Obeunte itaque papa IV feria post datas cineres circa solis occasum, ostia omnia clausa sunt, et nullus cardinalium est ad eum entrare permissus." Henrique Florez, Espana Sagrada Vol. XX (Madrid: E. Sanchez 1765), p. 515.
  21. ↑ Zöpffel, p. 336. Watterich II, p. 188: "subito per laicorum manus mortuus miserabiliter defertur; non deponitur feretrum nec ulla ei obsequia fiunt, sed recto gradu... in claustrum trahitur et in vilissimum sepulcrum immergitur." Gregorovius IV, pp. 410-411, who remarks, "The remains of Honorius were scarcely cold, when they were hurried into an open grave in the monastery, in order that the faction here assembled might proceed with the election."
  22. ↑ Zöpffel, p. 336, with note 226, quoting a letter of Petrus Senex to four cardinal-bishops, in Monumenta Germaniae Historia. Scriptorum Tomus X, p. 485: "haec fuit sententia mea semper, ut nonnisi sepulto papa de successoris persona mentio haberetur."
  23. ↑ Watterich, pp. 188-189: "colligentes se ad altare aliud in tyenebris, et maledictionis titulum erigere volentes, diaconum sancti Angeli sibi in simulacrum et in idolum zeli ausu temerario fabricaverunt."
  24. ↑ Gregorovius IV, p. 420.
  25. ↑ The number of cardinals in the faction never exceeded sixteen, out of a total of forty-three: Gregorovius IV, p. 420.
  26. ↑ Gregorovius IV, p. 420.
  27. ↑ Jaffé, p. 912.
  28. ↑ Watterich II, p. 185.
  29. ↑ B. Zenker, Die Mitglieder des Kardinalkollegiums von 1130 bis 1159 (Würzburg: Universität 1964), pp. 82-83.

Bibliography

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