BONIFACE II

born , Rome died Oct. 17, 532, Rome pope from 530 to 532. Of Gothic descent, he was the first Germanic pontiff. He was an archdeacon under Pope Felix IV, who designated him as his successor. Fearing Ostrogothic domination, however, the majority of the Roman clergy elected the deacon Dioscorus of Alexandria. Both popes were consecrated, and the resulting schism was terminated by Dioscorus' death (October 14). Boniface convoked three Roman synods: in that of 530 he received the submission of his opponents; in the first of 531 he proposed the right of a pope to select his successor; in the second of 531 he annulled the succession arrangement. He solemnly approved the conciliar decrees of the second Council of Orange (France), which condemned Semi-Pelagianism, the heretical belief in the power of man's innate will to seek God.