BONOSO, bishop of NAISSO. — He is more commonly known as the bishop of Sardica, but this is an error on the part of Mario Mercatore. It is not known with certainty when he was elected to the episcopal see; he was certainly bishop in 391, since the synod held that year at Capua concerned itself with his doctrines.
From a letter of Pope Siricius it appears that B., like Elvidius and Jovinian, denied the perpetual virginity of Mary, asserting that she had had other children by s. Joseph; Gennadius further attests that B. also followed the error of Photinus, who denied the divinity of Jesus Christ. The Synod of Capua did not pass judgment on B.’s doctrines, but established that an inquiry should be conducted by the bishops of Illyricum under the presidency of Anysius (Anysius) of Thessalonica. The inquiry must have been unfavorable to B., since he was prohibited from exercising episcopal functions. Instead of submitting, B., although he appealed to s. Ambrose, who advised him to obey, continued to exercise his office, even ordaining clerics. At B.’s death, which probably occurred before 414, a controversy consequently arose concerning the validity of those irregularly performed ordinations. The bishops of Illyricum recognized them, and Innocent I himself, while approving the decisions of the synod presided over by Anysius, ordered Marcian, B.’s successor, to admit to communion two clerics ordained by him. Subsequently, however, following new evidence, Innocent, distinguishing between ordinations performed before and after B.’s condemnation, prohibited the admission of the latter.
B. later had followers, especially in his Christological doctrine, inclining more or less openly toward adoptionism; but they were always few in number and confined to the Danubian provinces, where they survived precariously until the sixth century.