ABSTRACT
From 1224, the first year in which it is possible to date the return of normal conditions in England, the steady promotion of administrators ceased. Boniface made the most systematic effort which had yet been made to define and enforce the full extent of the privilegium fort in England; and again, he succeeded where St. Edmund had failed. In short, Boniface is a striking illustration of how a bishop with the inclination and ability to listen to advice, learn by experience, and adapt the work of others, might adequately perform his office in spite of an inauspicious early career and entry into the episcopate. In successive assemblies from 12577 to 1258, some fully representative and one at least held in defiance of the royal prohibition, Boniface endeavoured to gain the support of the Church as a whole, bishops and abbots, exempt and unexempt, and cathedral and secular clergy.
