Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 4.djvu/43

Rh for export. They likewise carry on a considerable traffic in the mineral and vegetable productions of their country, Biich as gold dust, tortoise-shell, pearls, nutmegs, camphor, and various medicinal preparations. Their towns are regularly built, and they have schools of their own. The king is elected generally for life, and always from their owii number, by the chiefs of the eight petty states that compose the confederation, aud he cannot decide upon any public measure without their consent. In some of the states the office of chief is hereditary ; in others any member of the privileged classes may aspire to the dignity, and it not unfrequently happens that the state comes to be governed by a woman. The capital, also called Boni, is situated on the coast in 4 37 S. lat. and 120 30 E. long., and is the residence of the king. Various Dutch settlements have been formed round the bay. Of the history of Boni not much is known. According to Temminck, it first acquired importance in the year 1G66, when the rajah Palakkah, whose father and grandfather had been murdered by the family of Hassan, the tyrant of Sumatra, made common cause with the Dutch against that despot. From that date till the beginning of the present century the Dutch influence in the kingdom remained undisputed. In 1814, however, Boni fell into the hands of the British, who retained it for two years ; but by the European treaties concluded on the downfall of Napoleon it reverted to its original colonizers. See.  BONIFACE,, the Apostle of Germany, whose real name was Winfrid, was born at Crediton in Devonshire, in 680. He was of good family, and it was somewhat against his father s wishes that he devoted himself at an early age to the monastic life. He received his theological train ing in the convents of Exeter and Nutcell, and at the age of thirty became a priest. In 715 he set out on a missionary expedition to Friesland, but his efforts were frustrated by the war then being carried on between Charles Martel and Radbod, king of the Frisians. Despite the wishes of his brethren, who desired to make him their abbot, he again set out in 718, visited Rome, and was commissioned by Gregory II. to preach to the pagans of Germany. For five years he laboured in Thuringia, Hessia, aud Friesland, and then returned to Rome to report his success. He again set out for Germany, and, armed with full powers from the Pope, baptized thousands of the heathen, and brought back to the Church of Rome many Christians who had in a measure separated themselves from the fold. After another visit to Rome in 738 he proceeded to Bavaria, and founded there the bishoprics of Salzburg, Regensburg (Ratisbon), I reisingen, and Passau. He then resumed his labours in Germany, where he erected the districts of Wiirzburg, Erfurt, and Burburg into bishoprics. He also organized provincial synods in the Frankish Church, and obtained great influence over the king, Pepin, whom he crowned at Soissons. Boniface had been created a bishop by Gregory IE., and after the deposition of the bishop of Mainz in 745, that bishopric was converted into a metropolis and conferred upon him, much against his own inclinations. He had never relinquished his hope of converting the Frisians, and in 755 he set out with a small retinue for Friesland. He baptized a great number, and summoned a general meeting for confirmation at a place not far from Dokkuin, between Franeker and Groningen. Instead of his converts, however, there appeared a mob of armed pagans, who fell upon the aged archbishop and slew him. His remains were finally deposited in the famous abbey of Fulda, founded by himself.

1em  BONIFACE, the name of nine popes.

, bishop of Rome from 418 to 422, was a contemporary of St Augustine, who dedicated to him some of his works.

, 530-532, was by birth a Goth, and owed his election to the influence of the Gothic king. He had for some time an anti-pope, Dioscurus.

, 15th February to 12th November GOG, obtained from Phocas recognition of the headship of the Church at Rome.

, G08-G15, received from Phocas the Pantheon at Rome, which was converted into a Christian church.

, 619-625, did much for the Christianizing of England.

was elected in April 897, and died fifteen days afterwards.

, who attained the Papal chair in 974, is sometimes styled an anti-pope. He is supposed to have put his predecessor, Benedict VI., to death. A popular tumult compelled him to flee to Constantinople ; but he carried with him vast treasure, and in 984 he returned and removed, by murder, Jchn XIV., who had been elected in his room. He died in 985 or 986.

, Benedict Cajetan, a man of great ability, was elected in 1294, Celestine V. having been per suaded to resign. He meddled incessantly in foreign affairs, and put forward the strongest claims to temporal as well as spiritual supremacy. His bitterest quarrels were with the emperor, with the powerful family of the Colonnas, aud with Philip the Fair of France, whom he excommunicated in 1303. He was about to lay all France under an interdict when he was seized at Agnani by a party of horsemen under Nogaret, an agent of Philip, and Sciarra Colonna. After three days captivity he was rescued by the town s people, but the agitation he had undergone caused his death soon after, on the llth October 1303. In 1300 Boniface instituted the jubilees, which afterwards became such a source of profit and of scandal to the church.

was elected in 1390 and died in 140i. During his time the so-called Clement V. continued to hold state as pope in Avignon.  BONIFACIO, a town at the southern extremity of Corsica, in the arrondissement of Snrtene, near the strait to which it gives its name. It is one of the most pictur esque and interesting places in the island, its white houses being built on the top of a white calcareous rock that can only be reached on foot or on horseback. It is well fortified, has a secure harbour, carries on some trade, and has coral fisheries. The rock is hollowed out into vast caves that stretch below the town. Bonifacio was founded in 833 by the Tuscan Marquis whose name it bears, as a defence against the Saracen pirates. At the end oi the llth century it became subject to Pisa, and in 1195 was taken by the Genoese, whose influence continues to affect the character of the population to this day. In 1421 it heroically withstood a protracted siege by Alphonso of Aragori ; but in 1553 it fell into the hands of the Franco- Turkish army. Population in 1872, 3402. (See Gre- gorovius s Corsica, vol. ii. ; Lear, Journ. in Corsica, p. 62.)  BONN, the chief town of a circle of Rhenish Prussia, situated on the left bank of the Rhine, about 1G miles by rail S.S.E. of Cologne. The central part is mostly coin- posed of very narrow streets, but the outskirts contain numerous fine buildings, and the general appearance from the river is rather attractive. There are five Roman Catholic and two Protestant churches, the most important of which is the Minster or St Cassius, an old building in 