In the light of this explicit mention of a jubilee with great remissions of the penalties of sin to be obtained by full confession and purpose of amendment, it seems difficult to reject the statement of Cardinal Giacomo Stefaneschi, the contemporary and counsellor of Pope Boniface VIII, and author of a treatise on the first Jubilee, that the proclamation of the Jubilee owed its origin to the statements of certain aged pilgrims who persuaded Boniface that great indulgences had been granted to all pilgrims in Rome about a hundred years before.

On February 22, 1300, Boniface published the Bull " Antiquorum fida relatio ", in which, appealing vaguely the precedent of past ages, he declares that he grants afresh and renews certain " great remissions and indulgences for sins " which are to be obtained " by visiting the city of Rome and the venerable basilica of the Prince of the Apostles ".

He obtained several ecclesiastical appointments ( including as Vicar of St. Mary's Church, Horncastle ), but owing to the resistance of Pope Boniface VIII he failed to secure the bishopric of Ely in 1298, although he was supported by King Edward I of England and visited Rome to attain his end.

Born in Saint Boniface, Manitoba, he obtained a Bachelor of Arts ( BA ) from Lakehead University and a Master of Arts ( MA ) and Ph. D. from the University of Toronto.

The earliest record of a settlement at Ajaccio having a name ancestral to its name is the exhortation in Epistle 77 written in 601 CE of Gregory the great to the Defensor Boniface, one of two known rectors of the early Corsican church, not to leave Aleria and Adjacium without bishops.

Having done this, and unable to leave Germany in case there might be an uprising during his absence, Henry III directed Margrave Boniface to conduct the Pope-designate to Rome in person, and in the emperor's name to arrange for the enthroning of the new Pope.

The new Pope Boniface VIII, elected in 1294 at Naples under the auspices of King Charles, mediated between the latter and James, and the dishonourable Treaty of Anagni was signed: James was to marry Charles ’ s daughter Bianca and was promised the investiture by the pope of Sardinia and Corsica, while he was to leave the Angevin a free hand in Sicily and even to assist him if the Sicilians resisted.

Boniface was from a noble family of Querfurt ( now in Saxony-Anhalt ).

Jacopo refused ; in May, Boniface removed him from the College of Cardinals and excommunicated him and his followers for four generations.

The Colonna family ( aside from the three brothers allied with the Pope ) declared that Boniface had been elected illegally following the unprecedented abdication of Pope Celestine V three years previously.

The example, however, of Columbanus in the sixth century stands out as the prototype of missionary enterprise towards the countries of Europe, so eagerly followed up from England and Ireland by such men as Saints Killian, Virgilius, Donatus, Wilfrid, Willibrord, Swithbert, Boniface, and Ursicinus of Saint-Ursanne.

According to Bede, Justus received letters of encouragement from Pope Boniface V ( 619 – 625 ), as did Mellitus, although Bede does not record the actual letters.

Justus became Archbishop of Canterbury in 624, receiving his pallium — the symbol of the jurisdiction entrusted to archbishops — from Pope Boniface V, following which Justus consecrated Romanus as his successor at Rochester.

However, upon being elected Pope at the papal conclave of 1303, he released King Philip IV of France from the excommunication that had been laid upon him by Boniface VIII, and practically ignored Boniface's bull Unam sanctam, which asserted papal supremacy over secular rulers.

Pope Saint Boniface I was pope from 28 December 418 to 4 September 422.

Pope Boniface II was pope from 530 to 532.

Boniface changed the numbering of the years in the Julian Calendar from Ab Urbe Condita to Anno Domini.

Pope Boniface III was Pope from 19 February to 12 November 607.

On the death of Pope Sabinian in February 606, Boniface was elected his successor, although his return from Constantinople to Rome was delayed by almost a year.

Pope Saint Boniface IV ( c. 550 – 25 May 615 ) was pope from 608 to his death, and is also considered a Roman Catholic saint.

Son of Johannes, " a physician, a Marsian from the province and town of Valeria ; he succeeded Boniface III after a vacancy of over nine months.

Pope Boniface V ( died 25 October 625 ) was pope from 619 to 625.

Pope Boniface VIII ( c. 1235 – 11 October 1303 ), born Benedetto Gaetani, was Pope of the Catholic Church from 1294 to 1303.

Much of the city still boasted intact buildings and monuments from ancient Roman times, but Boniface razed it anyway, even spreading salt on the site as the Romans did in Carthage 1500 years before.

When King Frederick III of Sicily attained his throne after the death of Pedro III, Boniface tried to dissuade him from accepting the throne of Sicily.

In the bull, Boniface states " they exact and demand from the same the half, tithe, or twentieth, or any other portion or proportion of their revenues or goods ; and in many ways they try to bring them into slavery, and subject them to their authority.

Boniface was beaten badly and nearly executed, but was released from captivity after three days.

In choosing such a burial, Boniface VIII was trying to show that he was a legitimate pope with the implicit support from the grave of a popular predecessor, Boniface IV.

Pope Boniface IX ( c. 1350 – 1 October 1404 ), born Piero Tomacelli, was the second Roman Pope of the Western Schism, from 2 November 1389 until his death.

Boniface IX saw to it that Ladislaus was crowned King of Naples at Gaeta on 29 May 1390 and worked with him for the next decade to expel the Angevin forces from southern Italy.

As riots and chaos ensued, Boniface VII took refuge in Castel Sant ’ Angelo where he robbed the treasury of the Vatican Basilica and fled to Byzantine territory in southern Italy.

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.

The Antipope Boniface VII, who had spend nine years in exile in the Byzantine Empire, joined forces with Byzantine nobles in southern Italy and marched on Rome in April 984 in order to claim the papal throne for himself.

While Boniface was considered the most probable choice, due to his connections with the Byzantine court, Baldwin was young, gallant, pious, and virtuous, one of the few who interpreted and observed his crusading vows strictly, and the most popular leader in the host.

Boniface and Alexios discussed diverting the Crusade to Constantinople so that Alexios could be restored to his father's throne ; in return, Alexios would give them 10, 000 Byzantine soldiers to help fight in the Crusade, maintain 500 knights in the Holy Land, the service of the Byzantine navy ( 20 ships ) in transporting the Crusader army to Egypt, as well as money to pay off the Crusaders ' debt to the Republic of Venice with 200, 000 silver marks.

In the winter of 1186 – 1187, Isaac II Angelus offered his sister Theodora, as a bride to Conrad's younger brother Boniface, to renew the Byzantine alliance with Montferrat, but Boniface was married.

In 1179, the Byzantine emperor Manuel I Comnenus offered his daughter Maria the Porphyrogenita as a bride to one of the sons of William V. Since Boniface, like his older brother Conrad, was already married, and Frederick was a priest, the youngest brother, Renier, married her instead, only to be murdered along with her during the usurpation of Andronicus.

However, in 1187, Conrad also left for the East: Isaac II Angelus had offered his sister Theodora to Boniface as a wife, to renew the family's Byzantine alliance, but Boniface had just married for the second time, while Conrad was a recent widower.

After the conquest of Constantinople in 1204, Boniface was assumed to be the new emperor, both by the western knights and the conquered Byzantine citizens.

However, the Venetians felt that Boniface was too closely tied to the Byzantine Empire, as his brother Conrad had married into the Byzantine royal family.

Boniface reluctantly accepted this, and set out to conquer Thessalonica, the second-largest Byzantine city after Constantinople.

In 609, the Byzantine emperor Phocas gave the building to Pope Boniface IV, who converted it into a Christian church and consecrated it to Sancta Maria ad Martyres, now known as Santa Maria dei Martiri: " Another Pope, Boniface, asked the same Phocas, in Constantinople to order that in the old temple called the Pantheon, after the pagan filth was removed, a church should be made, to the holy virgin Mary and all the martyrs, so that the commemoration of the saints would take place henceforth where not gods but demons were formerly worshipped.

At first, Michael allied with Boniface of Montferrat, but having lost the Morea ( Peloponnese ) to the Franks at the battle of the Olive Grove of Koundouros, he went to Epirus, where he considered himself the Byzantine governor of the old province of Nicopolis and revolted against Boniface.