Bonin
or (Japanese) OGASAWARA ISLANDS, a volcanic group in the Pacific BONIFACE V. succeeded Adeodatus in Ocean, 700 miles S. S. E. of Japan, 617, and died in 625.
BONIFACE VI. succeeded Formosus in 896, and died 18 days after his election.
BONIFACE VII., whose surname was Francone, assumed the chair after murdering Benedict VI. and John XIV. He was acknowledged sovereign pontiff in 974, and died in 984. His corpse was exposed in the public streets, and trodden under foot. a BONIFACE VIII., in 1294, terrified his predecessor Celestine into a resignation, by denouncing to him, at midnight, eternal damnation if he did not quit the pontifical chair. The credulous Pope, thinking this supernatural voice, obeyed the command next day, and the crafty cardinal was elected. He commenced his pontificate by imprisoning his predecessor, and laying Denmark under an interdict. He incited the princes of Germany to revolt against Albert of Austria; and also issued a bull, in which he asserted that God had set him over kings and kingdoms. Philip the Fair caused this bull to be burned at Paris; on which Boniface laid France under an interdict.
Philip appealed to a general council, and sent his army into Italy, which took Boniface prisoner. The pontiff's bestretching between 26° 30′-27° 45′ N. lat., and between 159°-155° E. long.
Area, 32 square miles; population about 4,000. Discovered by Quast and Tasman in 1639, they were taken possession of for Great Britain in 1827 by Captain Beechey; but in 1878 the Japanese reasserted their sovereignty, with the view of making them a penal settlement. The harbor is named Port Lloyd.