“Mercy of the prince has confirmed Boniface as bishop of the city of Rome”: Emperor Honorius and the Legitimacy Crisis in the Church of Rome in 419

Abstract

This article examines the circumstances behind Boniface I’s ascension (418–422) to the See of Rome which was accompanied by rivalry between two candidates. Since his rival Eulalius had been initially approved as a legitimate bishop by Emperor Honorius (395–423), Boniface had to go through a complicated procedure of legitimation, whose decisive factor was the position of the emperor. The article examines the role of institutional factors in the legitimisation of church authority, in this case in relation to the See of Rome. By institutional factors the author means, first of all, state power represented by its regional and central authorities and the community of bishops united by the principle of conciliar functioning. The article examines the approaches of the imperial power to resolving the crisis of legitimacy of the Roman bishop. Based on the presentation of source data, it is demonstrated that Emperor Honorius intended to resolve the crisis through a deliberation by a council that was to include representatives of both prefectures of the Western Roman Empire. Despite his initial intention, the emperor was forced to resolve the crisis on his own and Boniface was confirmed as bishop of Rome by his personal decision. The author of the article draws a conclusion that the decisive role in the sphere of church administration belonged to the emperor and that the Roman bishop did not have an exceptional position among the bishops of the Western Roman Empire: the affairs of the See of Rome could be transferred by order of the emperor to the court of Western bishops, and the right of the final decision belonged to the emperor himself. Thus, the latter used the conciliar principle of administrating the church as a possible instrument for resolving internal church conflicts, but he also reserved the right of taking his own independent decisions in the ecclesial sphere, and the See of Rome was not an exception.