Bonati
A Florentine astrologer who flourished in the thirteenth century. He lived in a most original manner, and perfected the art of prediction. When the army of Martin IV, beseiged Forli, a town of the Romagna, defended by the Count of Montferrat, Bonati announced to the Count that he would succeed in repulsing the enemy, but that he would be wounded in the fray. The event justified his prediction, and the Count who had taken with him the necessary materials to staunch his wound in case the prophecy came true, became a devout adherent of astrology. Bonati became a Franciscan towards the close of his life, and died in 1300. His works were published by Jacobus Cauterus under the title of Liber Astronomicus, at Augsberg, in 1491. , Boniface VIII., Pope, who gained an unenviable notoriety in Dante's Inferno has been regarded by many as an exponent of the black art, and so romantic are the alleged magical circumstances connected with him that they are worthy of repetition. Boniface, a noted jurisconsult, was born at Anagni, about 1228, and was elected Pope in 1294. He was a sturdy protagonist of papal sapremacy, and before he had been seated two years on the throne of St. Peter he quarrelled seriously with Phillippe le Bel, King of France, whom he excommunicated. This quarrel originated in the determination of the king to check in his own dominions the power and insolence of the church and the ambitious pretensions of the see of Rome. In 1303, Phillippe's ministers and agents, having collected pretended evidence in Italy, boldly accused Boniface of heresy and sorcery, and the king called a council at Paris to hear witnesses and pronounce judgment. The pope resisted, and refused to acknowledge a council not called by himself; but the insults and outrages to which he was exposed proved too much for him, and he died the same year, in the midst of these vindictive proceedings. His enemies spread abroad a report, that in his last moments he had confessed his league with the demon, and that his death was attended with " so much thunder and tempest, with dragons flying in the air and vomiting flames, and such lightning and other prodigies, that the people of Rome believed that the whole city was going to be swallowed up in the abyss." His successor, Benedict XI. undertook to defend his memory but he died in the first year of his pontificate (in 1304), it was said by poison, and the holy see remained vacant during eleven months. In the middle of June, 1305, a Frenchman, the archbishop of Bordeaux, was elected to the papal chair under the title of Clement V.
It was understood that Clement was raised to the papacy in a great measure by the king's influence, who is said to have stipulated as one of the conditions, that he should allow of the proceedings against Boniface, which were to make his memory infamous. Preparations were again made to carry on the trial of Boniface, but the king's necessities compelled him to seek other boons of the supreme pontiff, in consideration of which he agreed to drop the prosecution, and at last, in 1312, Boniface was declared in the council of Vienne, innocent of all the offences with which he had been charged. a
If we may place any faith at all in the witnesses who were adduced against him, Boniface was at bottom a freethinker, who concealed under the mitre the spirit of mockery which afterwards shone forth in his countryman Rabelais, and that in moments of relaxation, especially among those with whom he was familiar, he was in the habit of speaking in bold-even in cynical-language, of things which the church regarded as sacred. Persons were brought forward who deposed to having heard expressions from the lips of the pope, which, if not invented or exaggerated, savour of infidelity, and even of atheism. Other persons deposed that it was commonly reported in Italy, that Boniface had communication with demons, to whom he offered his worship, whom he bound to his service by necromancy, and by whose agency he acted. They said further, that he had been heard to hold conversation with spirits in the night; that he had a certain "idol," in which "
diabolical spirit" was enclosed, whom he was in the habit of consulting; while others said he had a demon enclosed in a ring which he wore on his finger. The witnesses in general spoke of these reports only as things which they had heard; but one a friar, brother Bernard de Sorano, deposed, that when Boniface was a cardinal, and held the office of notary to Nicholas III., he lay with the papal army before the castle of Puriano, and he (brother Bernard) was sent to receive the surrender of the castle. He returned with the cardinal to Viterbo, where he was lodged in the palace Late one night, as he and the cardinal's chamberlain were looking out of the window of the room he occupied, they saw Benedict of Gaeta (which was Boniface s name before he was made pope) enter a garden adjoining the palace, alone, and in a mysterious manner. He made a circle on the ground with a sword, and placed himself in the middle, having with him a cock, and a fire in an earthen pot (in quadam olla terrea). Having seated himself in the middle of the circle, he killed the cock and threw its blood in the fire, from which smoke immediately issued, while Benedict read in a certain book to conjure demons. Presently brother Bernard heard a great noise (rumorem magnum) and was much terrified. Then he could distinguish the voice of some one saying, "Give us the share," upon which Benedict took the cock threw it out of the garden, and walked away without uttering a word. Though he met several persons on his way, he spoke to nobody, but proceeded immediately to a chamber near that of brother Bernard, and shut himself up. Bernard declared that, though he knew there was nobody in the room with the cardinal, he not only heard him talking all night, but he could distinctly perceive a strange voice answering him.
Bonnevault, Pierre: A sorcerer of Poitou in the seventeenth century, who was arrested as he was on his way to the Devil's Sabbath. He confessed that on the first occasion he had been present at that unholy meeting he had been taken thither by his parents and dedicated to the Devil, to whom he had promised to leave his bones after death, but that he had not bargained to leave his infernal majesty his immortal soul. He admitted that he called Satan master, that the Enemy of Man had assisted him in various magical acts, and that he, Bonnevault, had slain various Book of the Dead persons through Satanic agency. In the end he was condemned to death. His brother Jean, accused of sorcery at the same time, prayed to the Devil for assistance, and was raised some four or five feet from the ground and dashed back thereon, his skin turning at the same time to a blue-black hue. He confessed that he had met at the Sabbath a young man through whom he had promised one of his fingers to Satan after his death. He also told how he had been transported through the air to the Sabbath how he had received powders to slay certain people whom he named, and for these crimes he received the punishment of death.
Bonnevault, Maturin de: Father of the preceding also accused of sorcery, visited by experts who found upon his right shoulder a mark resembling a small rose, and when a long pin was thrust into this he displayed such signs of distress that it was judged that he must be a sorcerer, indeed, he confessed that he had espoused Berthomée de la Bedouche, who with her father and mother practised sorcery, and how he had gone to seek serpents and toads for the purposes of their sorceries. He said that the Sabbath was held four times yearly, at the feasts of Saint John the Baptist, Christmas, Mardi gras and Páques.
He had slain seven persons by sorcery, and avowed that he had been a sorcerer since he was seven years of age. He met a like fate with his sons.