BON 



•n which were difplayed on both fides much cunning and ar- 

 tillce, and at the fame time an inflexible refolntion of retain- 

 ing the tiara. Boniface was arbitrary in the excrcife of 

 power, and towards the end of the year 1394 he would have 

 been maffacrcd by the people, if he had not been feafonably 

 refcued from the enraged multitude by the interpofition of 

 Ladifiaus, king of Naples, who happened to be then at 

 Rome. He afterwards retired to Perugia, and from thence 

 he removed to AfTifi ; but on the approach of the jubilee 

 year, 1400, the Roman people, apprehending, that in the 

 abfence of the pope it would not be celebrated with the 

 ufual folemnity, and the pecuniary intercfts affcCted, de- 

 puted an emhalfy to invite his holinefs to Rome Upon his 

 arrival he was received with joy and inverted with extraordi- 

 nary powers, in the exercife of which he repaired and forti- 

 fied the walls and towers of the city, and the caftle of An- 

 gclo, and alfo placed garrifons in them, fo that he ,made 

 himfclf abfolute mafter of the city. Some afcribe to Boni- 

 face the inl\itution of Aiinatcs (Sec Annates); but 

 though the origin of thefe is of more ancient date, he is al- 

 lowed to have been in a very high degree avaricious and 

 rapacious, to have fold church preferments to the belt bidder, 

 without regard to intrit or Icanuiig, and to have made it his 

 conilant ftudy to enrich his family and relations. He died 

 of a paroxyfr.1 of the Hone in 1404. Bi;wer's Hillory of 

 the I'opes. 



BoNUACK, called the " ApolUe of the Germans," was 

 a native of England, vhofe original nan:e was " Winifrid," 

 born in Devonlhire, A.D. 670, and was educated in a Bene- 

 diftine monaftery at^Exeter. This famous eccltfiallic, who 

 was ordained a piieft A.D. 700, with two companions, paflcd 

 over into Friefland in 70.;. in order to preach the gofpel among 

 the heathens ; but failing in his liill attempt, on account ot a 

 war which broke out between Radbod the king of that coun- 

 try, and Charles Martel,he returned to England. However, he 

 refumed his pious undertaking in 718 ; and at Rome he was 

 folenmly empowered by the Roman pontiff, Gregory II. to 

 preach the gofpel not oidy in Friefland, but throughout 

 Germany ; which commiffion he executed with confiderable 

 fiiccefs. In the year 723, he was confecrated bifliop by 

 Gregory II., who changed his name of Winifrid into that 

 of Boniface ; and he is faid to have been the firil who took 

 a folemn oath of obedience to the pope, which he did at this 

 time. Upon his return to Germany, with the inftruclions 

 of the pope, and the peculiar protection of Charles Martel, 

 he preached in Thuringia, Heflia, and Bavaria, and creded 

 a great number of Chriftian churches. As thefe were too 

 numerous to be governed by one bifliop, this prelate was 

 advanced to the dignity of archbiihop, in 732, by Gregory 

 III., under whofe authority, and the aufpieious proteflion 

 of Carloman and Ptpin, the fons of Charles Martel, he 

 founded in Germany the biflioprics of Wuitzboutg, Bura- 

 bonrg, Erfurt, and Aichftadt ; to which he added, in 74.1-, 

 the famous monafleiy of FalJa. His lall p-omotion, and 

 the lail rccompence of his afliduous labours in the propaga- 

 tion of the truth, was his advancement to the archiepifcopal 

 fee of Mentz, A. D. 746, by pojie Zaehary, by whom he 

 was at the fame time created primate of Germany and Bel- 

 gium. In his old age he returned again to Friefland, that 

 he might finifli his miniflry in the fcene of its commence- 

 ment ; but his piety and zeal were ill rewarded by that bar- 

 barous people, by whom he was murdered in 7 f;4, together 

 with fifty ecclefiaft:ics, who accompanied him, and who 

 fliared the fame fate. He was interred in the abbey of 

 Fulda, and canonized by the church of Rom.e, to which he 

 was ardently devoted. His zeal for the glory and authority 

 of the Romaa pontiff equalled, if it did not furpafs, his 



BON 



fdlicltude for the fervice of Chrifl:, and the propagation of 

 his religion ; and in combating the heathen fuperflitions, he 

 recurred to other weapons than thofe which Chriftiaaity re- 

 commended, em.ploying violence and terror, and fometimes 

 artifice and fraud, in order to multiply the number of 

 Chrillians. His epillles, and thofe of his coadjutors, firfl 

 publiflied with notes by Serrarius, in 1605, and re-pubhfhed 

 in 1629, are written in a barbarous ftyle, and dilcover an 

 imperious arrogant temper, a cunning and infidious turn of 

 mind, an exceflive zeal for increafing the honours and pre- 

 tentions of the facerdotal order, and a profound ignorance 

 of manv things, the knowledge of which was indifpenfably 

 necefiarv in an apoflle, and particularly of the true nature 

 and genius of the Chriftian religion. The Bcnediftincs have 

 publiihed his ftatutes, and fome of his fermons. Bower's 

 Hilt, of the Popes, vol. iii. Moflieim's Eccl. Hift. vol. ii. 

 p. 205, &c. Cave's Hill. Lit. t. i. p. 622. Dupin, Eccl. 

 Hift. cent. 8. 



Boniface, count of the Roman empire, one of the two 

 generals of Placidia, the mother of Valentinian III., Aetius 

 being the other (fee Aetius), v.'ho have been defervedly 

 named as the laft of the Romans ; was the intimate frjend of 

 St. Augulline, bilhop of Hippo, but incurred his difpleafure 

 by marrying a wife of the Arian fed, after a folemn vow of 

 chalHty, and a refolntion of retiring fi'om the wr.rld, and 

 by fome other inftances of licentious conduct with which he 

 was charged. However, the people applauded his Ipotlefs 

 integrity, and the army dreaded his impartial and inexorable 

 jultice. Of his jullice, the following Angular faiSt is re- 

 corded. A peafant, who complained of the criminal inti- 

 macy between his wife and a Gothic foldier, was direfted to 

 attend his tribunal the following day : in the evening, the 

 count, who had diligently informed himfelf of the time and 

 place of the affignation, mounted his horfe, rode ten miles 

 into the country, fjrprifed the guilty couple, puniflied the 

 foldier with inllant death, and filenced the complaints of the 

 hufband by prefenting him, next morning, with the head of 

 the adulterer. Boniface, having defended Marfeilles, when 

 attacked by Ataulphus, was rewarded by the emperor Ho- 

 norius with the command of the troops in Africa, which 

 province he refcued from the repeated attempts of John, 

 who ufurped the empire. Placidia, who affumed the go- 

 vernment of the empire during the minority of her fon, 

 highly pleafed with his bravery and loyalty, called him to 

 court upon the death of that ufurper, preferred him to the 

 poll of " comes domellicoruin," and fent him into Africa 

 with unlimited power. Thefe marks of favour excited the 

 jealoufy of Aetius (fee Aetius), who artfully contrived, 

 under the malk ot friendfliip, to engage Boniface in a revolt, 

 which took place in 427. Accordingly, Placidia declared 

 him a public enemy, and fent troops againll him. Having 

 defended him.elf for fome time, he found at length that he 

 was likely to be overpowered ; and therefore, after fome 

 hefitation, the laft ftruggle of prudence and loyalty, he dif- 

 patched a trully friend to the camp of Gonderic, king of 

 the Vandals, with the propofal of a Uriel alliance, and the 

 offer of an advantageous and perpetual fettlement. The 

 Vandals accepted the propofal, and Genfcric, who fuc- 

 ceeded his brother, and whofe ambition had neither bounds 

 nor fcruples, tranfpnrted his troops from Spain into Africa 

 in 429, and obtained, by the concurrence of feveral favour- 

 able circumftancts, an eafy conqueft. Placidia difcovered, 

 when it was too late, the artifice that had been pradifed by 

 Aetius ; and Boniface, who alfo perceived and lamented his 

 error, returned to his allegiance. But his efforts to recover 

 Africa were unavailing ; and he was under a neceffity of 

 abandoning the country, and of returning to Ravenna, 



where 



