ace endeavoured
to nominate his own successor, thus transforming into law, or at least
into custom, the proceeding by which he had benefited; but the clergy
and the senate of Rome forced him to cancel this arrangement.

BONIFACE III. was pope from the 15th of February to the 12th of November
606. He obtained from Phocas recognition of the "headship of the church
at Rome," which signifies, no doubt, that Phocas compelled the patriarch
of Constantinople to abandon (momentarily) his claim to the title of
oecumenical patriarch.

BONIFACE IV. was pope from 608 to 615. He received from the emperor
Phocas the Pantheon at Rome, which was converted into a Christian
church.

BONIFACE V., pope from 619 to 625, did much for the christianizing of
England. Bede mentions (_Hist. Eccl._) that he wrote encouraging letters
to Mellitus, archbishop of Canterbury, and Justus, bishop of Rochester,
and quotes three letters--to Justus, to Eadwin, king of Northumbria, and
to his wife Aethelberga. William of Malmesbury gives a letter to Justus
of the year 625, in which Canterbury is constituted the metropolitan see
of Britain for ever.

BONIFACE VI. was elected pope in April 896, and died fifteen days
afterwards.

BONIFACE VII. was pope from August 984 to July 985. His family name was
Franco. In 974 he was substituted by Crescentius and the Roman barons
for Benedict VI., who had been assassinated. He was ejected by Count
Sicco, the representative of the emperor Otto II., and fled to
Constantinople. On the death of Otto (983) he returned, seized Pope John
XIV., threw him into prison, and installed himself in his place.
(L. D.*)

BONIFACE VIII. (Benedetto Gaetano), pope from 1294 to 1303, was born of
noble family at Anagni, studied canon and civil law in Italy and
possibly at Paris. After being appointed to canonicates at Todi (June
1260) and in France, he became an advocate and then a notary at the
papal court. With Cardinal Ottoboni, who was to aid the English king,
Henry III., against the bishops of the baronial party, he was besieged
in the Tower of London by the rebellious earl of Gloucester, but was
rescued by the future Edward I., on the 27th of April 1267. Created
cardinal deacon in 1281, and in 1291 cardinal priest (SS. Sylvestri et
Martini), he was entrusted with many diplomatic missions and became very
influential in the Sacred College. He helped the ineffective Celestine
V. to abdicate, and was himself chosen pope at Naple