Editing Boniface of Savoy (bishop) (section)

==Ecclesiastical career==
[[File:BNMsFr2829Fol18Henry3LandsAquit.jpg|thumb|left|250px|Henry III of England landing in Aquitaine. Boniface was the uncle by marriage of the king.]]
Boniface was the [[Prior (ecclesiastical)|Prior]] of [[Nantua]] in 1232 along with the bishopric of [[Belley]] in [[Burgundy (region)|Burgundy]]. When his father died, he received the castle of Ugine as his inheritance, and he surrendered any entitlement to any other inheritance in 1238. After the marriage of his niece, [[Eleanor of Provence]] to King Henry III of England, he came with a [[Savoyard faction|number of her relatives]] to England.

Henry attempted to have Boniface elected Bishop of Winchester but was unable to get the cathedral chapter to elect Boniface.<ref name=DNB/> On 1 February 1241 he was nominated to the [[Archbishop of Canterbury|see of Canterbury]].<ref name=Handbook233/> Papal approval was delayed, however, by the opposition of [[Simon Langton (priest)|Simon Langton]], [[archdeacon of Canterbury]],<ref>John Le Neve and T. Duffus Hardy, [https://books.google.com/books?id=OMQAAAAAcAAJ&pg=PA13 ''Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae''], Volume 1 (Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1854), p. 13.</ref> and by the deaths of two popes.<ref>Pope Gregory IX died on 22 August 1241, and his successor, Pope Celestine IV, died on 10 November 1241. After a long ''sede vacante'', Innocent IV was elected on 25 June 1243. J.N.D. Kelly and M.J. Walsh, ''Oxford Dictionary of Popes'', second edition (OUP 2010), pp. 191-193.</ref> Pope [[Pope Innocent IV|Innocent IV]] confirmed the appointment on 16 September 1243, as an attempt to placate Henry.  Boniface did not, however, come to England until 1244 and was present, in the following year 1245, at the [[First Council of Lyon]].<ref name=DNB/> There, he was consecrated by Innocent IV on 15 January<ref name=Handbook233>Fryde, et al. ''Handbook of British Chronology'' p. 233</ref> at Lyons, but it was only in 1249 that he returned to England and was enthroned at [[Canterbury Cathedral]] on 1 November 1249.<ref name=BHOCant>Greenway "Canterbury: Archbishops" ''Fasti Ecclesiae Anglicanae 1066–1300'': Volume 2: Monastic Cathedrals (Northern and Southern Provinces)</ref> Before he returned in 1249, he helped arrange the marriage another of his nieces, [[Beatrice of Provence]], the sister of Queen Eleanor, to [[Charles I of Naples|Charles of Anjou]], the brother of King Louis IX of France.<ref name=DNB/>

The medieval chronicler [[Matthew Paris]] said that Boniface was "noted more for his birth than for his brains."<ref name=Moorman159>Quoted in Moorman ''Church Life'' pp. 159–160</ref> He showed little concern for the spiritual duties of his office. His exactions and his overbearing behaviour, combined with the fact that he was a foreigner, offended the English. He was heavily involved in advancing the fortunes of his family on the continent and spent fourteen of the twenty-nine years he was archbishop outside England.<ref name=Moorman166>Moorman ''Church Life'' pp. 166–167</ref> He made strenuous efforts to free his office from debt, as he had inherited a see that was in debt over 22,000 [[Mark (money)|marks]], but managed to clear the debt before his death.<ref name=Moorman172>Moorman ''Church Life'' pp. 172–173</ref> He did this by securing the right to tax his clergy, for seven years, from the papacy. When a number of bishops refused to pay, they were suspended from office.<ref name=Gibbs20>Gibbs ''Bishops and Reform'' p. 20</ref> He also worked for the canonisation of [[Edmund of Abingdon]] while he was at the papal court-in-exile at [[Lyon]] from 1244 to 1249.<ref name=DNB/>

In 1244, Boniface rejected [[Robert Passelewe]], who had been selected as [[Bishop of Chichester]], on the grounds that Passelewe was illiterate. Boniface then nominated his own candidate, [[Richard of Chichester]], and although the king objected, Pope Innocent IV confirmed Richard's election. In 1258, Boniface objected to the selection of [[Hugh de Balsham]] as [[Bishop of Ely]], and tried to elevate [[Adam Marsh]] instead, but Hugh appealed to Rome, which upheld Hugh's election.<ref name=Gibbs84>Gibbs ''Bishops and Reform'' p. 84</ref> Boniface held church councils to reform the clergy, in 1257 at London, in 1258 at [[Merton Priory|Merton]], and in 1261 at [[Lambeth Palace|Lambeth]].<ref name=Gibbs146>Gibbs ''Bishops and Reform'' p. 146</ref>

During his archiepiscopate, a provincial court was established in the archdiocese of Canterbury, with a presiding ''Officialis'' appointed by Boniface.<ref name=Smith207>Smith "Officialis of the Bishop" ''Medieval Ecclesiastical Studies'' p. 207</ref>