But to return to Zosimus: As his Partiality to Pelagius and Cælestius occasioned a Quarrel between him and the African Bishops; his Partiality to Patroclus, who had usurped the See of Arles, as I have related above^[1561], occasioned, in like manner, a Quarrel between him and some Bishops of Gaul; and from the latter he reaped no more Credit or Honour, than he had done from the former. |The Occasion of this
Quarrel.| It arose on the following Occasion: The Bishops of Arles and Vienne had been long contending for the Metropolitan Dignity, and the Jurisdiction attending it, over the Provinces of Narbonne and Vienne: and the Decision of the Controversy having been referred, some Years before, to a Council that was held in Turin, it had been there decreed, that the Bishop who should prove his City to be the Metropolis of those Provinces, according to the Civil Division of the Empire, should enjoy the Metropolitan Dignity, and the Privileges annexed to it; but, in the mean time, to avoid any Breach of Charity, that both should exercise the Jurisdiction of a Metropolitan over the Churches that were nearest to their respective Cities^[1562]. Thus Matters continued, till Patroclus repairing to Rome, and there imposing upon Zosimus, who was quite unacquainted with the Merits of the Cause, prevailed upon him, by flattering his Vanity and Ambition, to decide, in his Favour, the Controversy, which had been so long depending. Zosimus censured very severely, as I have observed above, the African Bishops, for acting, as he pretended, with too much Haste and Precipitation, in the Case of Cælestius. But, surely, no Man ever deserved to be more justly censured, on that score, than himself: for, not to mention the Case of Heros and Lazarus, whom he excommunicated and deposed in their Absence, and without hearing what they had to plead in their Defence, he took upon him to decide the present Controversy, which a Council had left undetermined, upon the Information given him by one of the Parties concerned, without hearing the other: for, giving an intire Credit to all Patroclus said, or could say, in Behalf of himself and his Church, he writ a Letter, addressed to all the Bishops of Gaul, declaring, that, for the future, he would receive no Bishops or Ecclesiastics coming to Rome from those Provinces, unless they brought with them Letters of Communion, called Formatæ, from the Metropolitan of Arles, and excommunicating those who should transgress this Order^[1563][N63]. The Privilege of granting the Formatæ was only personal; for Zosimus did not grant it to the See of Arles, but to Patroclus, whom he styles his holy Brother, in Consideration of his extraordinary Merit. To such a Degree had he suffered himself to be imposed upon, by a Man, who was the Disgrace of his Order^[1564]. In the same Letter he vests him, as Bishop of Arles, with a Metropolitan Jurisdiction over the Province of Vienne and the Two Provinces of Narbonne, adjudges to his See all the Parishes and Territories that had ever been subject to the City of Arles, and grants him a full Power to decide and finally determine all Controversies that should arise in the Three above-mentioned Provinces, provided they were not of such Consequence as required them to be examined at Rome^[1565]. The only Reason Zosimus alleges for thus exalting the See of Arles to the Prejudice of the See of Vienne, is, because Trophimus, the First Bishop of Arles, had converted those Provinces to the Christian Religion. A Reason both false and impertinent: false, because Trophimus flourished in the Year 250^[1566]. and the Church of Arles was famous as early as the Year 177. when they writ, with their Brethren of Lions, to the Faithful in Asia^[1567]: impertinent, because it was to the Dignity of each City, and to nothing else, that the Dignity of the Sees was owing. Hence the Council of Turin wisely adjudged the Metropolitan Dignity to him who should prove his City to be the civil Metropolis, with respect to the contested Provinces, as I have observed above. Zosimus, however, writ a Second Letter, which he addressed to all the Bishops of Gaul, Spain, and Africa, confirming to the See of Arles all the Rights and Privileges which he had granted in his First, and rejecting, with Scorn, the Decree of the Council of Turin^[1568].

The Bishops of Gaul, viz. Simplicius of Vienne, Hilarius of Narbonne, and Proculus of Marseilles, amazed and astonished at the Temerity of the Bishop of Rome, openly refused to acknowlege his Authority, or submit to his Sentence. Zosimus, highly provoked at the Opposition he met with, writ several threatening Letters to Hilarius and Proculus, as if he were determined to cut them off from his Communion, if they did not yield, and acknowlege Patroclus for their Metropolitan. As for Simplicius, he seems to have acted with less Vigour on this Occasion than the other Two; and it was perhaps on that Account that he has been sainted. Hilarius too yielded at last, not to the Menaces of Zosimus, which he made no Account of, but to those of Count Constantius, the avowed Patron of Patroclus^[1569], whom he allowed, on that Consideration, to ordain a Bishop at Lodeve, within the Limits of his Province, which was owning him for his Metropolitan. But nothing could shake the Firmness and Constancy of Proculus. Zosimus, thinking he could frighten him into a Compliance, began with reproachful Language; from Reproaches he proceeded to Menaces; and from Menaces, to summon him to Rome, to answer there for his presuming to ordain Bishops in a Province (the Second Narbonnese) that had been adjudged by the Apostolic See to the Metropolitan of Arles. |especially by Pro-
culus Bishop of Marseilles.| But Proculus made so little Account of his Reproaches, Menaces, and Summons, that I do not even find he returned them an Answer. It is at least certain, that he did not obey the Summons, and that he continued to exercise the same Jurisdiction, which he had exercised before, opposing to the repeated and peremptory Orders of Zosimus a Canon of the Council of Turin, appointing him Metropolitan of the Narbonnensis Secunda^[1570]. Zosimus, transported with Rage in seeing his Authority thus slighted, writ Three Letters, all dated the 29th of September 417. viz. one to the People and Clergy of the Province of Vienne, another to those of the Second Narbonnese, and the third to Patroclus. In the Two former he inveighs bitterly against Proculus, and confirms anew to Patroclus the Metropolitan Dignity and Jurisdiction, which have been so unalterably intailed, says he, on the See of Arles, by the Decrees of the Fathers and Councils, that it exceeds even the Power and Authority of the Roman Church to transfer them to, or intail them upon, any other^[1571]. This was disclaiming, in the plainest Terms, the Power of dispensing with the Canons, which has since proved so beneficial to the Apostolic See. And yet Zosimus was acting the whole Time in direct Opposition to the Fourth Canon of the Council of Nice, vesting, as it was understood by the subsequent Councils, the Bishop of each Metropolis with the Metropolitan Dignity and Jurisdiction over the whole Province. Zosimus, in his Letter to Patroclus, encourages him to resume and exercise, in spite of Proculus, the Metropolitan Jurisdiction over the Second Narbonnese, which Proculus had so unjustly invaded and usurped. |Proculus excommunicated and deposed by Zosimus.| This Patroclus durst not attempt, tho’ seconded by the whole Power of the Apostolic See; which wrought the Pride, Ambition,and Resentment of Zosimus to such a Pitch, that, giving the Reins to his Passion, he thundered the Sentence of Excommunication against Proculus, declared him unworthy of, and degraded from, the Episcopal Dignity, and committing the Church of Marseilles to the Care of Patroclus, commanded him to exercise there the Jurisdiction with which he was vetted. The Power of the Apostolic See was now exhausted, and, what drove Zosimus almost to Despair, exhausted to no Effect: for Proculus, to shew how little Regard he paid to the Sentence pronounced against him at Rome, ordained a Bishop soon after he was acquainted with it. |But continues to discharge the Functions of his Office.| Zosimus, sensible that the Authority of his See was here at stake, would not abandon the Attempt. He writ Two Letters more on the same Subject, one to Patroclus, exhorting him to exert, with Vigour and Severity, the Power with which he was vested; and at the same time commanding him to declare, in his Name, that he should never be prevailed upon to acknowlege those whom Proculus had ordained. The other Letter was to the People, Clergy, and Magistrates of Marseilles; stirring them up against Proculus, and encouraging them to drive him out, and receive another in his room at the Hands of Patroclus. These Letters occasioned great Disturbances in the Church of Marseilles, which was now rent into Two opposite Parties, some refusing to acknowlege Proculus, and others declaring that they would acknowlege no other^[1572]. But, in spite of the utmost Efforts of Zosimus, of Patroclus, and their Partisans, Proculus still kept his Ground, still continued to exercise all Episcopal as well as Metropolitan Functions, as he had formerly done. He thought even the Evils attending a Schism of a less dangerous Tendency than those which he apprehended from the Encroachments of the Bishops of Rome. |His Steadiness in opposing the Encroachments of Rome.| Had all the Prelates thus stood up in Defence of their just Rights and Privileges against the Papal Usurpations, the Church had never been reduced to that deplorable Thraldom, which she groaned under for so many Ages. But, alas! there have been in all Times but too many Simplicius’s, who, out of a mistaken Principle, have chosen rather to yield to an encroaching Power, than to raise Disturbances, and forego their own Ease, by withstanding it; but too many Patroclus’s, who, to gratify their own Ambition, have prostituted their sacred Dignity to the ambitious Views of the Pope, and raised him, at the Expence of their own Order, that they might be raised by him in their Turn. Proculus, though deposed, excommunicated, calumniated, persecuted by Zosimus and his Tools, kept to the last Possession of his See; nay, and was acknowleged for lawful Bishop of Marseilles, for Metropolitan of the Second Narbonnese, not only by the Bishops of Gaul, but likewise by those of Africa^[1573]. He was still alive in 427. when he condemned the Monk Leporius for maintaining Christ to have been born Man only, but to have deserved, by his good Works, to become God^[1574]. The Encomiums bestowed on him by the Council of Turin, by St. Jerom, and Tiro Prosper, as I have observed above, are a sufficient Confutation of all the Calumnies uttered against him by Zosimus, and the rest of his Enemies.

The last Letters of Zosimus, that is, his Letters to Patroclus, and the People of Marseilles, are dated the 5th of March 418. and he died in the Latter-end of the same Year, on the 26th of December, says Baronius^[1575], upon the Authority, we may suppose, of some antient Pontifical^[N64].

The Distemper which he died of lasted a long time, and was attended with such violent Fits, that he was often thought to be dead before he died. It was during his Illness that he writ his last Letters; and yet they are no less remarkable than the rest for that Fire and Vivacity, that Strength of Expression, and even that Elegance and Purity of Diction, that were peculiar to him. |His Character.| He was a Man of great Address in the Management of Affairs; well knew how to turn every thing to his Advantage; and in the several Disputes which he engaged in, he forgot nothing that could any ways distress those who opposed him. He was apt to engage too rashly, giving an intire Credit to those who, by a servile Submission, flattered his Ambition; and when he had once engaged in a Cause, as he was of a haughty and imperious Temper, impatient of Controul, passionate, headstrong, full of, and elated with, the Dignity of the Apostolic See, it required the greatest Art and Address in his Brethren to bring him into their Measures, and with-hold him from raising fatal Divisions in the Church. His whole Conduct and Behaviour towards them, the haughty and peremptory Style, which he assumed in writing to them, sufficiently shew that he looked upon them as infinitely below him, as bound to yield a blind Obedience to all his Commands, and submit, without Reply, to all his Decisions: and it is not to be doubted but, had he lived longer, and not met with the vigorous Opposition which he did from the Bishop of Marseilles, he would have made great Progress towards reducing his Fellow-Ministers and Fellow-Labourers, as they are styled by St. Cyprian, to that State of Dependence, not to say Slavery, which in the End they have been reduced to by his Successors. He was the first who made use of the Expression, For so it has pleased the Apostolic See^[1576], an Expression which his Successors have all adopted, as the Language of the highest Authority, and such as exempted them from giving any Account either of their Actions, or of the Motives, that prompted them so to act. But, to paint Zosimus to the Life, we want no other Colours than those, which the African Bishops, who were but too well acquainted with him, have furnished us with in the Letter which they writ to his Successor Boniface. We hope, say they, that since it has pleased the Almighty to raise you to the Throne of the Roman Church, we shall no longer feel the Effects of that worldly Pride and Arrogance, which ought never to have found room in the Church of Christ^[1577]. In the same Letter they complain of their having been made to endure such things as it was almost impossible for them to endure, which however they were willing to forget. Hard indeed and tyrannical must the Treatment have been, which they met with at the Hands of Zosimus, since it could extort from so many venerable Prelates a Complaint of this Nature, and that in a Letter to his immediate Successor. |Zosimus sainted by a Mistake of Baronius.| Zosimus however has been sainted, and is now worshiped by the Church of Rome as a great Saint, not so much in regard of his own Merits, as by a Blunder of Baronius in revising and correcting the Roman Martyrology. The Case is pretty singular, and may not be thought quite unworthy of a Place here, by reason of the Consequences, which every Protestant Reader may draw from it. In the Martyrology of Bede was marked, St. Zosimus Martyr, who suffered for the Confession of the Faith. This Martyr an ignorant Transcriber mistook for the Pope of the same Name, and, concerned to find so little said of so great a Saint, set down all he knew of him. This Copy Baronius perused, and, reading there what the Transcriber had added of his own, concluded the Saint mentioned in that Place to be Pope Zosimus, and accordingly, upon the supposed Authority of Bede, allotted him a Place among the other Saints in the Roman Martyrology. As for his being said to have suffered Martyrdom for the Confession of the Faith, Baronius ascribed that to the Ignorance of the Transcriber, making but one Saint out of two, though they lived at so great a Distance of Time from each other; for the Martyr lived in the earliest Times, and is mentioned by St. Polycarp, who flourished Two hundred Years and upwards before the Pontificate of Zosimus. To this double Blunder of the Transcriber and Baronius is Zosimus indebted for the Worship and Honours that are publicly paid him in the Church of Rome. Indeed that Church is not more grosly deluded in paying an idolatrous Worship to Saints, upon the Authority of her Infallible Guide, than in the Objects to whom that Worship is paid^[N65].

Zosimus being dead, great Disturbances arose about the Election of his Successor. Eulalius, whom Authors distinguish with the Title of Archdeacon, shutting himself up in the Lateran with Part of the People, and some Presbyters and Deacons, was there chosen by them in the room of Zosimus. At the same time a great Number of the People, many Presbyters, and some Bishops, assembling in the Church of St. Theodora, named the Presbyter Boniface to the vacant See. |Boniface and Eulalius both chosen.| Both were ordained the same Day they were chosen; Boniface, by Nine Bishops, and in the Presence of Seventy Presbyters; Eulalius, by Three Bishops only, and in the Presence of a very small Number of Presbyters; but the Bishop of Ostia was one of the Three; and he claimed, from a Custom which had long obtained, the Right of ordaining the Bishop of Rome. |The Governor of Rome and the Emperor favour Eulalius,| Symmachus, Governor of the City, did all that lay in his Power to prevent this double Election; but, not succeeding therein, he immediately dispatched an Express to the Emperor Honorius, then at Ravenna, with a Letter dated the 29th of December 418. acquainting him with what had passed. But his Account was not impartial: he represented Eulalius as lawfully chosen, and his Competitor as an Usurper. Honorius therefore, by a Rescript dated the 2d of January 419. ordered him to persuade Boniface to retire from Rome, to use Force, if Persuasions did not prevail, and to apprehend and punish the Ringleaders of the Sedition, if any should be raised on that Occasion. With this Rescript the Emperor dispatched Aphrodisius a Tribune and Notary; and Symmachus, having received it on the 6th of January, sent early next Morning his Primiscrinius, or first Secretary, with an Order for Boniface to attend him, and hear what he had to impart to him in the Emperor’s Name, letting him know, in the mean time, that he must not take upon him to exercise any Episcopal Functions; for such was the Will and Pleasure of the Emperor. This Order Boniface received while he was holding an Assembly in the Church of St. Paul without the Walls; but paid no Regard to it; nay, those who attended him, falling on the Secretary, who brought it, treated him very roughly; which Symmachus no sooner knew than he caused the Gates of the City to be shut, and kept Boniface out. |who takes Possession of the Church of St. Peter.| In the mean time Eulalius, improving to his Advantage the Absence of his Competitor, repaired to the Church of St. Peter, took Possession of it amidst the loud Acclamations of his Partisans, and exercised there all Episcopal Functions.

The avowed Partiality of Symmachus for Eulalius left no room to doubt but he had misinformed the Emperor. The Bishops therefore, with the Presbyters and People, who had chosen Boniface, thought it their Duty to transmit to him a candid and impartial Account of the late Transactions: and this they did accordingly, intreating the Emperor at the same time to revoke his former Order, and to summon both Eulalius and Boniface to Court, in order to try their Cause there. |who summons a Council to decide the Controversy.| Their Request appeared just; and Honorius, in Compliance with it, sent an Order to Symmachus, dated the 13th of January 419. commanding him to suspend the Execution of his former Order, and to notify to the Two Competitors, that they, and those who ordained them, must repair to Ravenna, on Pain to him who should fail to appear there on the 8th of the ensuing February, of having his Election declared null. Several Bishops were summoned to attend at the same time, Honorius thinking it proper, that a Dispute of that Nature should be decided by none but Bishops. However, to remove all Suspicion of Partiality on his Side, he would not allow those to sit as Judges, who had been any-ways concerned in the Election or Ordination of either of the Competitors. |A more full Council summoned.| The Bishops met; but not being able to agree among themselves, Honorius thought the Affair of such Importance, that he put it off to the 13th of June, with a Design to have it decided then in a full Council. He writ accordingly not only to the Bishops of Italy, but to those too of Gaul and Africa, inviting them to the Council, and acquainting them with the Time and Place of its meeting. In the mean while he strictly injoined both Boniface and Eulalius to keep at a Distance from the City, lest their Presence should occasion Disturbances there. But as Easter approached, he appointed Achilleus Bishop of Spoleti, who was of neither Party, to perform the Episcopal Functions at Rome during that Solemnity. |Eulalius disobeys the Emperor, and is driven from Rome.| This Eulalius could not brook; and therefore returning to Rome, in open Defiance of the Emperor’s Orders, he assembled the People, seized on the Lateran, and shutting the Doors against Achilleus, performed in that Basilic the Episcopal Functions usual at Easter. The Emperor, being acquainted by Symmachus with what had passed, was so provoked at his Disobedience and Temerity, that, by a Rescript dated from Ravenna the 3d of April, and received at Rome on the 8th of the same Month, he commanded Symmachus to drive Eulalius from the City, and to put Boniface in Possession of the disputed See; which was accordingly done^[N66].

Thus was an End put to the Schism; thus was Boniface placed on the Roman See, and vested with the Papal Dignity by the Clemency of the Emperor, as Largus Proconsul of Africa expresses it in his Letter to the Bishops of that Province^[1578]; and not by the Authority of a Council consisting of Two hundred and Fifty-two Bishops, which some have brought down from the Clouds, without even letting us know where or when they assembled^[1579].

All we know of Boniface before his Election is, that he was the Son of one Jucundus a Presbyter^[1580], was stricken in Years, well versed in the Ecclesiastical Laws, of an unblemished Character; and, what enhances his Merit, chosen against his Will. |Boniface applies to the Emperor for a Law to restrain the Ambition of the Candidates to the Papacy.| Thus say his Friends, in the Letter which they writ in his Behalf to the Emperor Honorius^[1581]. His first Care, after he found himself in the quiet Possession of his See, was to prevent for the future, so far as in him lay, the Cabals and Intrigues that might be formed at other Elections, as they had been at his, to the great Disturbance of the City, and Scandal of the Christian Religion. With this View he writ to the Emperor, intreating him to restrain, by some severe Law, the Ambition of those who, trusting more to their Intrigues than their Merit, aspired to a Dignity that was due to Merit alone^[N67].

The Emperor, in Compliance with so just a Demand, enacted a Law, well calculated to prevent effectually the Evil complained of, and keep the Ambition of the Candidates to the Papacy within due Bounds. For by this Law, when Two Persons were chosen, neither was to hold the Dignity, but the People and Clergy were to proceed to a new Election. This is the first Instance, that occurs in History, of Princes intermeddling in the Election of the Pope; an Evil, says F. Pagi, which, from small Beginnings, grew to such a Height as to reflect great Shame and Disgrace on the Roman Church.^[1582] But it must be observed, that the original Evil was the Corruption, the Violence, and the many Disorders which the Clergy and People were guilty of in those Elections. It was this which, at the Request of the Pope himself, called on the Emperors to interpose their Authority, as the only adequate Remedy to such Abuses. The succeeding Emperors followed the Example of Honorius, and the Gothic as well as the Lombard Kings, the Example of the Emperors, as we shall see in the Sequel of the present History.

Boniface was naturally a Lover of Peace, and an Enemy to all Strife and Contention. He did not claim, nor attempt to usurp, any new Power over his Collegues; but yet he would not part with any his Predecessors enjoyed, by what means soever they had acquired it; and those who attempted to curtail the usurped Jurisdiction of the Apostolic See, met with as vigorous an Opposition from him as they could have done either from Innocent or Zosimus. In short, he had not Ambition enough to inlarge his Authority, but thought himself in Conscience obliged to maintain the just Rights, as he styled and believed them, of the See in which it had pleased Divine Providence to place him, though unworthy of so great an Honour. |Dispute between him and the Bishops of Illyricum.| His Steadiness in asserting these Claims appeared chiefly in the Dispute that arose between him and the Bishops of Illyricum, over whom Damasus had usurped, as I have related elsewhere^[1583], and his Successors maintained a particular Power and Jurisdiction. The Transaction is thus related by the Writers of those Times. The See of Patræ in Achaia, one of the Provinces of Illyricum, being vacant, the Bishop of Corinth, Metropolitan of that Province, did all that lay in his Power to get Perigenes, a Presbyter of an unexceptionable Character, chosen in the room of their deceased Bishop. But his Endeavours proving unsuccessful, he returned to Corinth, and died soon after. Upon his Death the People and Clergy of Corinth, to honour his Memory, and shew the Regard they had for one whom he had favoured, unanimously named Perigenes to succeed him. But as they apprehended some Opposition from the Bishops of the same Province, they writ to Boniface, begging him to confirm their Election with his Authority. Boniface referred them to Rufus, then Bishop of Thessalonica, and his Vicar in those Parts, declaring that, as for himself, he had nothing to object either against their Election, or the Person elected. Rufus notified to the Bishops of the Province, and the Metropolitans of the Diocese, the Approbation of Boniface, and his own; but it was not received by all in the same manner. |Law of Theodosius concerning Disputes that should arise in Illyricum.| The greater Part indeed agreed to the Ordination of the new Bishop; but some opposed it with great Warmth, prompted, most probably, by the Jealousy they entertained of the growing Power of the See of Rome: for, at their Request, a Law was published by the Emperor Theodosius, dated the 14th of July 421. commanding all Disputes, that should arise in the Diocese of Illyricum, to be finally determined by the Bishops of that Diocese, after they had consulted the Bishop of Constantinople^[1584]. This was taking those Provinces from the Bishop of Rome, and, in some Degree, subjecting them to the Bishop of Constantinople, or at least opening a Door for such a Subjection. The Power of the Bishops of Constantinople was already grown very considerable, and their Ambition keeping Pace with that of the Bishops of Rome, neither let any Opportunity slip of extending the Jurisdiction of their own See at the Expence of the other. In the present Case the Bishop of Constantinople, availing himself of the Favour of the Emperor, and the Disagreement that reigned among the Illyrican Bishops, summoned, without Loss of Time, a Council to meet at Corinth, and there to examine the Ordination of Perigenes, though he had been ordained, and his Ordination approved of both by Rufus and Boniface. |Three Letters of Boniface.| This Step, quite unexpected, alarmed Boniface; he divested himself at once of his pacific Disposition, and, assuming the Air and Style of Authority, he writ Three Letters, all dated the same Day, viz. 11th of March 422. encouraging the Friends of the Apostolic See to maintain its Rights, and threatening those who dared to invade them. |He maintains, with Authority, his pretended Rights.| The first was to Rufus of Thessalonica, whom he animates not to suffer any Innovations, but vigorously to withstand those, who assumed an Authority that did not become them, and to which they had no kind of Title or Claim, meaning, no doubt, the Bishop of Constantinople. The Second Letter he writ to the Bishops of Thessaly, exhorting them to acknowlege the Authority of Rufus, and no other. The Third was addressed to the Bishops of Macedon, Achaia, Thessaly, Epirus, and Dacia, who had been summoned by the Bishop of Constantinople to assemble at Corinth, and there deliver their Opinion concerning the Ordination of Perigenes. In this Letter he complains, in the strongest Terms, of so bold and daring an Attempt, asking, in the Style of a Sovereign, What Bishop shall presume to question an Ordination approved by us? What Bishop could take upon him to assemble a Council with that View and Intent? Read, he adds, read the Canons, and there you will find, that the See of Rome is the First, the See of Alexandria the Second, and that of Antioch the Third. These are the Three great Sees; these the Sees which the Fathers have distinguished above the rest, with ample Privileges, and extensive Jurisdiction. Since he refers them to the Canons to shew, that these Three Sees are superior to the See of Constantinople, both in Dignity and Jurisdiction, it were to be wished he had, at the same time, acquainted them by what Canons his Predecessors had exercised over the Provinces of Illyricum the Jurisdiction which he now so zealously asserts. But that is more than it was in his Power to do. However, in the present Letter, he threatens with Excommunication such of the Illyrican Bishops as shall, in Defiance of his Orders, comply with the Summons which they have received, or presume to question the Ordination of Perigenes. What was the Issue of this Dispute is not recorded by any of the Antients; but a modern Historian^[1585] informs us, that the Emperor Honorius interposing, at the Request of Boniface, in Behalf of the See of Rome, prevailed upon Theodosius to revoke his former Law, and enact another in its room, confirming to the Apostolic See all its antient Privileges, and injoining the Præfectus Prætorio to see the latter Law put in Execution. The Historian quotes this Law from the Archives of the Roman Church. But as it is not to be found either in the Theodosian or the Justinian Code, its Authenticity may be justly suspected.

The same Year 422. Boniface gave a signal Instance of his Equity and Love of Justice, which redounds greatly to his Honour, and therefore ought not to be omitted. He was sensible, that his Predecessor Zosimus, abusing his Authority, had acted in the Affair of the Gallican Bishops, in a most partial and arbitrary manner; that the See of Arles had no just Title to the many Privileges, which he had been induced, by his Partiality for Patroclus, to heap on it, at the Expence of Two other Sees; and, consequently, that it was incumbent upon himself, now that he had the Power in his Hands, to rectify by a better Use of it, what his Predecessor had done amiss. The Love of Justice therefore prevailing in him over all other Considerations, he annulled, by a Letter addressed to Hilarius of Narbonne, whatever had been done by Zosimus in favour of the See of Arles, restored and confirmed to the Sees of Narbonne and Vienne all the Rights and Privileges, which they had been so unjustly divested of, and declaring all the Grants and Concessions made to the See of Arles repugnant to the Canons, strictly injoined the Bishop of Narbonne not to suffer his Brother of Arles to exercise, in virtue of them, any kind of Authority within the Limits of his Jurisdiction^[N68]. The Conduct of Boniface was afterwards approved, and that of Zosimus justly condemned, by Pope Leo the Great, declaring in a Letter which he writ to the Bishops of the Province of Vienne, that the Privileges, which the Apostolic See had granted to Patroclus, were afterwards revoked by a more equitable Sentence.

One of the many Artifices, employed by the Popes to aggrandize their See, was to raise Divisions among their Collegues, or to foment underhand those that others had raised. For in such Divisions they never stood neuter, but, taking Part in the Quarrel, nay, and making themselves Principals, they warmly declared in favour of one Party against the other, that, by supporting them, they might be in their Turn supported by them in all their Pretensions. To this worldly Wisdom, this wicked Policy, Boniface was an utter Stranger: for he did not lay hold of a very favourable Opportunity, which the Division, that reigned at this time among the Bishops of Gaul, offered him, to improve his Authority, and extend his Jurisdiction. The Metropolitan Dignity was disputed there by the Bishops of Vienne, of Narbonne, and of Arles, as I have observed above. During that Contest the Clergy of Valence, quarreling with their Bishop Maximus, charged him with several Crimes; but not caring to accuse him at the Tribunal of any of the Three Competitors (for that had been acknowleging, in one of the Three, the Metropolitan Jurisdiction then in Dispute), they arraigned him at Rome, and summoned him to plead his Cause there before Boniface. Most other Popes would have eagerly embraced such an Opportunity of inlarging their Power; nay, and founded upon this particular Case the general Right of judging, and finally determining, all Causes of the like Nature. But Boniface declared, in his Letter to Patroclus, and the other Bishops of the Seven Provinces of Gaul, that though Maximus had been accused at his Tribunal, though he had not appeared to clear himself from the Crimes laid to his Charge, and might thereupon be thought guilty, and be justly condemned; yet he would not take upon him to pronounce such a Sentence, because that Bishop ought, according to the Canons, to be judged and condemned, or absolved, in his own Province. An Instance of Moderation that reflects no small Honour on the Memory of Boniface; the rather as he had before his Eyes the recent Examples of Innocent and Zosimus, the Two most ambitious and arrogant Popes the Church had yet seen. He closes his Letter with exhorting the Bishops of the Seven Provinces to assemble against the First of November, that Maximus may be cleared, if innocent, or condemned, if guilty.

Boniface died on the 4th of November 422. having held the Chair 3 Years, 9 Months, and some Days. He was buried in the Cœmetery of the Martyr St. Felicitas, on the Salarian Way; where he is said to have built an Oratory. He is worshiped by the Church of Rome among her Saints, an Honour which few of his Predecessors better deserved. But it is a Wonder that the last Instance I have given of his Moderation, and Regard to the Canons against the Claims of his See, did not exclude him out of the Calendar. His Festival is kept on the 25th of October; and Bede quotes a Book of Miracles wrought by Pope Boniface^[1586]; but whether by the First Pope of that Name, or the Second, he does not inform us, though he seems to give an intire Credit to every idle Tale that Legend contained. And here I cannot help observing, by the way, that the less necessary Miracles became, the more they were multiplied. In Bede’s Time, and the Three preceding Centuries, Men were rather inclined to believe too much than too little; and yet in no other Time was there a greater Profusion of Miracles. From an antient Epitaph quoted by Baronius^[1587], it appears that Boniface died very old; that he had served the Church from his tender Years; that by his engaging Behaviour he put an End to the Schism, and that he relieved Rome in the time of a Famine.