Editing Pope Boniface IX (section)

==Pontificate==
[[File:Western schism 1378-1417.svg|thumb|left|Map showing support for Avignon (red) and Rome (blue) during the Western Schism]]
During his reign, Boniface IX finally extinguished the troublesome independence of the commune of [[Rome]] and established temporal control, though it required fortifying not only the [[Castel Sant'Angelo]], but the bridges also, and for long seasons he was forced to live in more peaceful surroundings at [[Assisi]] or [[Perugia]]. He also took over the port of [[Ostia (district)|Ostia]] from its [[Cardinal Bishop]]. In the [[Papal States]], Boniface IX gradually regained control of the chief castles and cities, and he re-founded the States as they would appear during the fifteenth century.<ref name=ncd/>

The antipope Clement VII died at Avignon on 16 September 1394, but the French cardinals quickly elected a successor on 28 September: Cardinal Pedro de Luna, who took the name [[antipope Benedict XIII|Benedict XIII]]. Over the next few years, Boniface IX was entreated to abdicate, even by his strongest supporters: King [[Richard II of England]] (in 1396), the [[diet (assembly)|Diet]] of [[Frankfurt]] (in 1397), and King [[Wenceslaus, Holy Roman Emperor|Wenceslaus of Germany]] (at Reims, 1398). He refused. Pressure for an [[ecumenical council]] also grew as the only way to breach the [[Western Schism]], but the [[conciliar movement]] made no headway during Boniface's papacy.<ref name="Catholic"/>

During the reign of Boniface IX two [[Jubilee (Christian)|jubilees]] were celebrated at Rome. The first, in 1390, had been declared by his predecessor, [[Urban VI]], and was largely frequented by people from Germany, Hungary, [[Poland]], [[Bohemia]], and England. Several cities of Germany obtained the "privileges of the jubilee", as [[indulgence]]s were called, but the preaching of indulgences led to abuses and scandal. The [[Jubilee (Christian)|jubilee]] of 1400 drew to Rome great crowds of [[pilgrim]]s, particularly from France, in spite of a disastrous plague. Pope Boniface IX remained in the city nonetheless.<ref name="Catholic"/>

In the latter part of 1399 there arose bands of [[flagellant]]s, known as the ''Bianchi'', or ''Albati'' ("[[White Penitents]]"), especially in [[Provence]], where the [[Albigenses]] had been exterminated less than a century before. Their numbers spread to [[Spain]] and northern Italy. These evoked uneasy memories of the mass processions of wandering [[flagellant]]s of the [[Black Death]] period, 1348–1349. They went in procession from city to city, clad in white garments, with faces hooded, and wearing on their backs a red cross, following a leader who carried a large cross. Rumors of imminent divine judgement and [[visions of the Virgin Mary]] abounded. They sang the newly popular hymn ''[[Stabat Mater]]'' during their processions. For a while, as the White Penitents approached Rome, gaining adherents along the way, Boniface IX and the Curia supported their penitential enthusiasm, but when they reached Rome, Boniface IX had their leader burnt at the stake, and they soon dispersed. "Boniface IX gradually discountenanced these wandering crowds, an easy prey of agitators and conspirators, and finally dissolved them", as the ''[[Catholic Encyclopedia]]'' reports.<ref name="Catholic"/>

In England, the [[Anti-clericalism|anti-papal]] preaching of [[John Wyclif]] supported the opposition of the king and the higher clergy to Boniface IX's habit of granting English [[benefice]]s as they fell vacant to favorites in the Roman Curia. Boniface IX introduced a revenue known as ''annates perpetuæ'', withholding half the first year's income of every benefice granted in the Roman Court. The pope's agents also now sold not simply a vacant benefice but the ''expectation'' of one; and when an expectation had been sold, if another offered a larger sum for it, the pope voided the first sale. The unsympathetic observer [[Dietrich von Nieheim]] reports that he saw the same benefice sold several times in one week, and that the Pope talked business with his secretaries during Mass. There was resistance in England, the staunchest supporter of the Roman papacy during the [[Schism]]: the [[English Parliament]] confirmed and extended the statutes of [[Statute of Provisors|Provisors]] and [[Praemunire]] of [[Edward III]], giving the king veto power over papal appointments in England. Boniface IX was defeated in the face of a unified front, and the long controversy was finally settled to the English king's satisfaction. Nevertheless, at the [[Synod]] of [[London]] (1396), the English bishops convened to condemn [[Wyclif]].<ref name="Catholic"/>

[[File:SUSS-282956MedievalPapalBullaBonaface (FindID 442624).jpg|thumb|left|[[Bulla (seal)|Bulla]] of Boniface IX]]
In Germany, the [[prince-elector]]s met at [[Rhense]] on 20 August 1400 to depose [[Wenceslaus, King of the Romans|Wenceslaus]] as [[King of Germany]] and chose in his place [[Rupert of Germany|Rupert]], [[Duke of Bavaria]] and [[Count Palatine]] of the Rhine. In 1403 Boniface IX recognized Rupert as king.<ref name=ncd>{{cite web| url = http://catholicsaints.info/new-catholic-dictionary-pope-boniface-ix/| title = "Pope Boniface IX". New Catholic Dictionary. CatholicSaints.Info. 15 August 2018}}</ref>

In 1398 and 1399, Boniface IX appealed to Christian Europe in favor of the [[Byzantine emperor]] [[Manuel II Palaeologus]], threatened at [[Constantinople]] by Sultan [[Bayezid I]], but there was little enthusiasm for a new crusade at such a time. Saint [[Bridget of Sweden]] was canonized by Pope Boniface IX on 7 October 1391. The universities of [[University of Ferrara|Ferrara]] (1391)<ref name=ncd/> and [[Fermo]] (1398) owe him their origin, and that of [[University of Erfurt|Erfurt]] (in Germany), its confirmation (1392).<ref name="Catholic"/>

[[File:Bonifacius IX coin.jpg|thumb|right|Coin depicting Pope Boniface IX, [[Bode Museum]], Berlin]]
Boniface IX died in 1404 after a brief illness.<ref name="Catholic"/>

Boniface IX was a frank politician, strapped for cash like the other princes of Europe, as the costs of modern warfare rose and supporters needed to be encouraged by gifts, for fourteenth-century government depended upon such personal support as a temporal ruler could gather and retain. All the princes of the late 14th century were accused of avaricious money-grubbing by contemporary critics, but among them contemporaries ranked Boniface IX as exceptional. Traffic in benefices, the sale of dispensations, and the like, did not cover the loss of local sources of revenue in the long absence of the papacy from Rome, foreign revenue diminished by the schism, expenses for the pacification and fortification of Rome, the constant wars made necessary by French ambition and the piecemeal reconquest of the [[Papal States]]. Boniface IX certainly provided generously for his mother, his brothers Andrea and Giovanni, and his nephews in the spirit of the day. The [[Curia]] was perhaps equally responsible for new financial methods that were destined in the next century to arouse bitter feelings against Rome, particularly in Germany.<ref name="Catholic"/>