page_title: Boniface of Savoy (bishop)
section_title: Ecclesiastical career
hierarchical_section_title: Boniface of Savoy (bishop) / Ecclesiastical career
context_page_description: Boniface of Savoy was a medieval Bishop of Belley in Savoy and Archbishop of Canterbury in England. He was the son of Thomas, Count of Savoy, and owed his initial ecclesiastical posts to his father. Other members of his family were also clergymen, and a brother succeeded his father as count. One niece was married to King Henry III of England and another was married to King Louis IX of France. It was Henry who secured Boniface's election as Archbishop, and throughout his tenure of that office he spent much time on the continent. He clashed with his bishops, with his nephew-by-marriage, and with the papacy, but managed to eliminate the archiepiscopal debt which he had inherited on taking office. During Simon de Montfort's struggle with King Henry, Boniface initially helped Montfort's cause, but later supported the king. After his death in Savoy, his tomb became the object of a cult, and he was eventually beatified in 1839.
context_section_description: Boniface was the Prior of Nantua in 1232 along with the bishopric of Belley in Burgundy. When his father died, he received the castle of Ugine as his inheritance, and he surrendered any entitlement to any other inheritance in 1238. After the marriage of his niece, Eleanor of Provence to King Henry III of England, Henry attempted to have Boniface elected Bishop of Winchester, but was unable to get the cathedral chapter to elect Boniface. On 1 February 1241 he was nominated to the see of Canterbury. Pope Innocent IV confirmed the appointment on 16 September 1243, as an attempt to placate Henry.  Boniface did not, however, come to England until 1244 and was present, in the following year 1245, at the First Council of Lyon. There, he was consecrated by Innocent IV on 15 January at Lyons, but it was only in 1249 that he returned to England and was enthroned at Canterbury Cathedral on 1 November 1249. Before he returned in 1249, he helped arrange the marriage another of his nieces, Beatrice of Provence, the sister of Queen Eleanor, to Charles of Anjou, the brother of King Louis IX of France.
  The medieval chronicler Matthew Paris said that Boniface was "noted more for his birth than for his brains." He showed little concern for the spiritual duties of his office. His exactions and his overbearing behaviour, combined with the fact that he was a foreigner, offended the English. He was heavily involved in advancing the fortunes of his family on the continent, and spent fourteen of the twenty-nine years he was archbishop outside England. He made strenuous efforts to free his office from debt, as he had inherited a see that was in debt over 22,000 marks, but managed to clear the debt before his death. He did this by securing the right to tax his clergy, for seven years, from the papacy. When a number of bishops refused to pay, they were suspended from office. He also worked for the canonisation of Edmund of Abingdon while he was at the papal court-in-exile at Lyon from 1244 to 1249.
  In 1244, Boniface rejected Robert Passelewe, who had been selected as Bishop of Chichester, on the grounds that Passelewe was illiterate. Boniface then nominated his own candidate, Richard of Chichester, and although the king objected, Pope Innocent IV confirmed Richard's election. In 1258, Boniface objected to the selection of Hugh de Balsham as Bishop of Ely, and tried to elevate Adam Marsh instead, but Hugh appealed to Rome, which upheld Hugh's election. Boniface held church councils to reform the clergy, in 1257 at London, in 1258 at Merton, and in 1261 at Lambeth.
  During his archiepiscopate, a provincial court was established in the archdiocese of Canterbury, with a presiding Officialis appointed by Boniface.
caption: Henry III of England landing in Aquitaine. Boniface was the uncle by marriage of the king.
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