Boniface

Also known as: Bishop Boniface / Boniface, bishop / Pope Boniface · Family: Church · Role: pope · First appears: Book II · Chap. IV

Around c. 605, at Rome, Boniface assembled a synod of Italian bishops on monastic life and peace, at which Mellitus sat and signed its decrees for the English churches. He sent letters about the decrees to Laurentius, Ethelbert, and the English clergy, and obtained the Pantheon from the Emperor Phocas, purifying it and dedicating it as a church to the holy Mother of God and the martyrs: “He obtained for the Church of Christ from the Emperor Phocas the gift of the temple at Rome called by the ancients Pantheon”.

Around c. 624, Boniface sent Justus the pall and authority to ordain bishops. He also exhorted Edwin by letter to embrace the Christian faith, sending him a shirt of proof and a cloak, while to Ethelberg he sent a silver looking-glass and a gilded ivory comb. In the later account of Wilfrid’s time at Rome, Boniface appears as the archdeacon and counsellor of the Apostolic Pope who became Wilfrid’s friend and taught him the Gospels, the computation of Easter, and other ecclesiastical matters.