Boso, Cardinal
BOSO, CARDINAL
Papal chamberlain; d. Rome, 1178. Boso was probably an Englishman who made a career for himself at the papal Curia. A Bologna necrology calls him English (the sole evidence for this), though it has been argued that he was of Lombard origin. A papal clerk and scriptor, he was made a chamberlain by adrian iv in 1154–55. In this office he was responsible for the Lateran treasury and the papal finances, and he drew up a revision of an earlier book of dues, the liber censuum. He became a cardinal in 1156 and was sent by Adrian on a mission of uncertain purpose to Portugal. In the disputed papal election of 1159, he held the castel sant' angelo in Rome for alexander iii against the antipope Victor IV. He wrote useful biographies of Adrian and Alexander.
Bibliography: f. geisthardt, Der Kämmerer Boso (Berlin 1936). g. albion, Dictionnaire d'histoire et de géographie ecclésiastiques (Paris 1912–) 9:1319–20. m. pacaut, Alexandre III (Paris 1956). j. sydow, Lexikon für Theologie und Kirche, ed. j. hofer and k. rahner (Freiburg 1957–65) 2:621.
[h. mayr-harting]