Pope St. Clement
I
Pope Clement I (called CLEMENS ROMANUS to distinguish him from the Alexandrian),
is the first of the successors of St. Peter of whom anything definite is
known, and he is the first of the "Apostolic Fathers". His feast is celebrated
23 November. He has left one genuine writing, a letter to the Church of
Corinth, and many others have been attributed to him.
III. THE EPISTLE TO THE CORINTHIANS
The Church of Corinth had been led by a few violent spirits into a sedition
against its rulers. No appeal seems to have been made to Rome, but a letter
was sent in the name of the Church of Rome by St. Clement to restore peace
and unity. He begins by explaining that his delay in writing has been caused
by the sudden calamities which, one after another, had just been falling
upon the Roman Church. The reference is clearly to the persecution of Domitian.
The former high reputation of the Corinthian Church is recalled, its piety
and hospitality, its obedience and discipline. Jealousy had caused the
divisions; it was jealousy that led Cain, Esau, etc., into sin, it was
jealousy to which Peter and Paul and multitudes with them fell victims.
The Corinthians are urged to repent after the example of the Patriarchs,
and to be humble like Christ himself. Let them observe order, as all creation
does. A curious passage on the Resurrection is somewhat of an interruption
in the sequence: all creation proves the Resurrection, and so does the phoenix,
which every five hundred years consumes itself, that its offspring may arise
out of its ashes (23-6). Let us, Clement continues, forsake evil and approach
God with purity, clinging to His blessing, which the Patriarchs so richly
obtained, for the Lord will quickly come with His rewards, let us look to
Jesus Christ, our High-Priest, above the angels at the right hand of the
Father (36). Discipline and subordination are necessary as in an army and
in the human body, while arrogance is absurd for man is nothing. The Apostles
foresaw feuds, and provided for a succession of bishops and deacons; such,
therefore cannot be removed at pleasure. The just have always been persecuted.
Read St. Paul's first epistle to you, how he condemns party spirit. It is
shocking that a few should disgrace the Church of Corinth. Let us beg for
pardon- nothing is more beautiful than charity; it was shown by Christ when
He gave His Flesh for our flesh, His Soul-for our souls; by living in this
love, we shall be in the number of the saved through Jesus Christ, by Whom
is glory to God for ever and ever, Amen (58). But if any disobey, he is
in great danger; but we will pray that the Creator may preserve the number
of His elect in the whole world.--Here follows a beautiful Eucharistic prayer
(59-61). The conclusion follows: "We have said enough, on the necessity of
repentance, unity, peace, for we have been speaking to the faithful, who
have deeply studied the Scriptures, and will understand the examples pointed
out, and will follow them. We shall indeed be happy if you obey. We have
sent two venerable messengers, to show how great is our anxiety for peace
among you" (62-4). "Finally may the all-seeing God and Master of Spirits
and Lord of all flesh, who chose the Lord Jesus Christ and us through Him
for a peculiar people, grant unto every soul that is called after His excellent
and holy Name faith, fear, peace, patience, long-suffering, temperance,
chastity, and soberness, that they may be well-pleasing unto His Name through
our High Priest and Guardian. Jesus Christ, through whom unto Him be glory
and majesty, might and honour, both now and for ever and ever, Amen. Now
send ye back speedily unto us our messengers Claudius Ephebus and Valerius
Bito, together with Fortunatus also, in peace and with joy, to the end that
they may the more quickly report the peace and concord which is prayed for
and earnestly desired by us, that we also may the more speedily rejoice
over your good order. The grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with you and
with all men in all places who have been called by God and through Him, through
whom is glory and honour, power and greatness and eternal dominion, unto
Him, from the ages past and for ever and ever. Amen." (64-5.)
The style of the Epistle is earnest and simple, restrained and dignified,
and sometimes eloquent. The Greek is correct, though not classical. The
quotations from the Old Testament are long and numerous. The version of
the Septuagint used by Clement inclines in places towards that which appears
in the New Testament, yet presents sufficient evidence of independence; his
readings are often with A, but are less often opposed to B than are those
in the New Testament; occasionally he is found against the Septuagint with
Theodotion or even Aquila (see H. B. Swete, Introd. to the 0. T. in Greek,
Cambridge 1900). The New Testament he never quotes verbally. Sayings of
Christ are now and then given, but not in the words of the Gospels. It cannot
be proved, therefore, that he used any one of the Synoptic Gospels. He mentions
St. Paul's First Epistle to the Corinthians, and appears to imply a second.
He knows Romans and Titus, and apparently cites several other of St. Paul's
Epistles. But Hebrews is most often employed of all New Testament books.
James, probably, and I Peter, perhaps, are referred to. (See the lists of
citations in Funk and Lightfoot, Westcott, Introductions to Holy Scripture,
such as those of Cornely, Zahn, etc., and "The New Test. in the Apost. Fathers",
by a Committee of the Oxford Society of Hist. Theology, Oxford, 1906.) The
tone of authority with which the letter speaks is noteworthy, especially
in the later part (56, 58, etc.): "But if certain persons should be disobedient
unto the words spoken by Him through us let them understand that they will
entangle themselves in no slight transgression and danger; but we shall be
guiltless of this sin" (59). "It may, perhaps, seem strange", writes Bishop
Lightfoot, "to describe this noble remonstrance as the first step towards
papal domination. And yet undoubtedly this is the case." (I, 70.)
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91 Romæ sancti
Anacléti, Papæ et Mártyris, qui, post sanctum Cleméntem
Ecclésiam Dei regens, eam glorióso martyrio decorávit.
At Rome, St. Anacletus, pope and martyr, who governed
the Church of God after St. Clement, and shed lustre upon it by a glorious
martyrdom.
Pope St. Anacletus
The second successor of St. Peter. Whether he was the same
as Cletus, who is also called Anencletus as well as Anacletus, has been
the subject of endless discussion. Irenaeus, Eusebius, Augustine, Optatus,
use both names indifferently as of one person. Tertullian omits him altogether.
To add to the confusion, the order is different. Thus Irenaeus has Linus,
Anacletus, Clement; whereas Augustine and Optatus put Clement before Anacletus.
On the other hand, the "Catalogus Liberianus", the "Carmen contra Marcionem"
and the "Liber Pontificalis", all most respectable for their antiquity,
make Cletus and Anacletus distinct from each other; while the "Catalogus
Felicianus" even sets the latter down as a Greek, the former as a Roman.
Among the moderns, Hergenröther (Hist. de l'église, I 542,
note) pronounces for their identity. So also the Bollandist De Smedt (Dissert.
vii, 1). Döllinger (Christenth. u K., 315) declares that "they are,
without doubt, the same person"and that "the 'Catalogue of Liberius' merits
little confidence before 230." Duchesne, "Origines chretiennes", ranges
himself on that side also but Jungmann (Dissert. Hist. Eccl., I, 123) leaves
the question in doubt. The chronology is, of course, in consequence of all
this, very undetermined, but Duchesne, in his "Origines", says "we are far
from the day when the years, months, and days of the Pontifical Catalogue
can be given with any guarantee of exactness. But is it necessary to be
exact about popes of whom we know so little? We can accept the list of Irenaeus
-- Linus, Anacletus, Clement, Evaristus, Alexander, Xystus, Telesphorus,
Hyginus, Pius, and Anicetus. Anicetus reigned certainly in 154. That is
all we can say with assurance about primitive pontifical chronology." That
he ordained a certain number of priests is nearly all we have of positive
record about him, but we know he died a martyr, perhaps about 91. |
98-107 Evaristus Pope St. Evaristus; Evaristus came of a Hellenic family, and was
the son of a Bethlehem Jew; laid to
rest in Vaticano, near the tomb of St. Peter; succeeded Clement in the episcopate of the Roman
Church
Date of birth unknown; died about 107. In the Liberian Catalogue
his name is given as Aristus. In papal catalogues of the second century
used by Irenaeus and Hippolytus, he appears as the fourth successor of St.
Peter, immediately after St Clement. The same lists allow him eight years
of reign, covering the end of the first and the beginning of the second
century (from about 98 or 99 to about 106 or 107).
The earliest historical sources offer no authentic data
about him. In his "Ecclesiastical History" Eusebius says merely that he succeeded
Clement in the episcopate of the Roman Church which fact was already known
from St. Irenæus. This order of succession is undoubtedly correct.
The "Liber Pontificalis" says that Evaristus came of a Hellenic family,
and was the son of a Bethlehem Jew. It also attributes to him the allotment
of definite churches as tituli to the Roman presbyters, and the division
of the city into seven diaconias or deaconries; in this statement, however,
the "Liber Pontificalis" arbitrarily refers to the time of Evaristus a later
institution of the Roman Church.
More trustworthy is the assertion of the "Liber Pontificalis"
that he was laid to rest in Vaticano, near the tomb of St. Peter. The martyrdom
of Evaristus, though traditional, is not historically proven. His feast
occurs 26 Oct. The two decretals ascribed to him by Pseudo-Isidore are forged.
107 ST EVARISTUS, Pope AND MARTYR
ST EVARISTUS succeeded St Clement in the see of Rome in the reign of
Trajan and governed the Church about eight years, being the fourth successor
of St Peter. The Liber Pontificalis says that he was the son
of a Hellenic Jew of Bethlehem, and, certainly incorrectly, that he divided
Rome into several “titles” or parishes, assigning a priest to each and
appointed seven deacons for the city. He is usually accorded the title of
martyr, but his martyrdom is not proved; it is probable that St Evaristus
was buried near St Peter’s tomb in the Vatican.
There is a notice
in the Acta Sanctorum, October, vol.
xi, but the text and notes of Duchesne’s edition of the Liber
Pontificalis tell us nearly all there is to be known. See, however,
an interesting comment by Father von Nostiz-Rieneck on the “Brevierlektionen
der Päpate Evaristos und Alexander I” in the Zeitschrift
für Katholische Theologie, vol. xxix (1905), pp. 159—165.
|
105-116 Pope St. Alexander
I Roman by birth ruled the Church in reign of Trajan (98-117). attributes
to him, but scarcely with accuracy, insertion in the canon of the Qui Pridie,
or words commemorative of the institution of the Eucharist, such being
certainly primitive and original in the Mass. He is also said to have introduced
the use of blessing water mixed with salt for the purification of Christian
homes from evil influences (constituit aquam sparsionis cum sale benedici
in habitaculis hominum). Duchesne (Lib. Pont., I, 127) calls attention to
the persistence of this early Roman custom by way of a blessing in the Gelasian
Sacramentary that recalls very forcibly the actual Asperges prayer at the
beginning of Mass.
St. Irenaeus of Lyons, writing in the latter quarter of the second century,
reckons him as the fifth pope in succession from the Apostles, though he
says nothing of his martyrdom.
His pontificate is variously dated by critics, e.g. 106-115 (Duchesne)
or 109-116 (Lightfoot). In Christian antiquity he was credited with a pontificate
of about ten years (Eusebius, Hist. Eccl. IV, i,) and there is no reason
to doubt that he was on the "catalogue of bishops" drawn up at Rome by Hegesippus
(Eusebius, IV, xxii, 3) before the death of Pope Eleutherius (c. 189).
According to a tradition extant in the Roman Church at the end of the fifth
century, and recorded in the Liber Pontificalis he suffered a martyr's
death by decapitation on the Via Nomentana in Rome, 3 May.
The same tradition declares him to have been a Roman by birth and to
have ruled the Church in the reign of Trajan (98-117). It likewise attributes
to him, but scarcely with accuracy, the insertion in the canon of the Qui
Pridie, or words commemorative of the institution of the Eucharist, such
being certainly primitive and original in the Mass. He is also said to have
introduced the use of blessing water mixed with salt for the purification
of Christian homes from evil influences (constituit aquam sparsionis cum
sale benedici in habitaculis hominum). Duchesne (Lib. Pont., I, 127) calls
attention to the persistence of this early Roman custom by way of a blessing
in the Gelasian Sacramentary that recalls very forcibly the actual Asperges
prayer at the beginning of Mass.
In 1855, a semi-subterranean cemetery of the holy martyrs Sts. Alexander,
Eventulus, and Theodulus was discovered near Rome, at the spot where the
above mentioned tradition declares the Pope martydom. According to some
archaeologists, this Alexander is identical with the Pope, and this ancient
and important tomb marks the actual site of the Pope's martyrdom. Duchesne,
however (op. cit., I, xci-ii) denies the identity of the martyr and the
pope, while admitting that the confusion of both personages is of ancient
date, probably anterior to the beginning of the sixth century when the
Liber Pontificalis was first compiled [Dufourcq, Gesta Martyrum Romains
(Paris, 1900), 210-211].
The difficulties raised in recent
times by Richard Lipsius (Chronologie
der römischen Bischofe, Kiel, 1869) and Adolph Harnack (Die Zeit des Ignatius u. die Chronologie der
antiochenischen Bischofe, 1878) concerning the earliest successors
of St. Peter are ably discussed and answered by F.S. (Cardinal Francesco
Segna) in his "De successione priorum
Romanorum Pontificum" (Rome 1897); with moderation and learning
by Bishop Lightfoot, in his "Apostolic
Fathers: St. Clement" (London, 1890) I, 201-345- especially by Duchesne
in the introduction to his edition of the "Liber Pontificalis" (Paris, 1886) I,
i-xlviii and lxviii-lxxiii. The letters ascribed to Alexander I by Pseudo-Isidore
may be seen in P.G., V, 1057 sq., and in Hinschius, "Decretales Pseudo-Isidorianae" (Leipzig,
1863) 94-105. His remains are said to have been transferred to Freising in
Bavaria in 834 (Dummler, Poetae Latini
Aevi Carolini, Berlin, 1884, II, 120). His so-called "Acts" are not
genuine, and were compiled at a much later date (Tillemont, Mem. II, 590 sqq;
Dufourcq, op. cit., 210-211).
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127 Sixtus I, Pope
survived as pope for about 10 years before being killed by the Roman authorities
M (RM)
Romæ natális beáti Xysti Primi, Papæ
et Mártyris; qui, tempóribus Hadriáni Imperatóris,
summa cum laude rexit Ecclésiam, ac demum, sub Antoníno Pio,
ut sibi Christum lucrifáceret, libénter mortem sustínuit
temporálem.
At Rome, the birthday of blessed Pope
Sixtus the First, martyr, who ruled the Church with distinction during the
reign of Emperor Hadrian, and finally in the reign of Antoninus Pius he gladly
accepted temporal death in order to gain Christ for himself.
(also known as Xystus)
Born at Rome; After the death of Pope Alexander I, when the emperor
Trajan ruled the Roman Empire, it was virtually certain that anyone who
succeeded the pope would suffer martyrdom, for this was an age when Christians
were savagely persecuted. Sixtus I took the office c. 117 knowing this,
and survived as pope for about 10 years before being killed by the Roman
authorities.
As well as displaying great bravery, Sixtus I must have been much concerned
with the liturgy of the church as the Liber Pontificalis details three
ordinances. It anachronistically says that at the Eucharist when the priests
came to the words 'Holy, holy, holy Lord, God of power and might; heaven
and earth are full of your glory. Hosanna in the highest,' Sixtus decreed
that all the people in the church should join in as well. (Unfortunately,
this cannot be true because the Sanctus was not added to the liturgy until
a much later date: it was not included in the Mass of Hippolytus. Therefore,
it is unclear how accurate the balance of the entry is.) It relates that
he issued a decree that only the clergy should touch the sacred vessels
and that bishops called to Rome should not be received back by their diocese
unless they present Apostolic papers.
The Roman Martyrology says that
Sixtus I was killed by the pagan Romans in the year 127 under Antonius
the Pious, but there are no acta (Attwater2,
Benedictines, Bentley, Delaney, Encyclopedia).
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125-136
pope St. Telesphorus
Romæ
sancti Telésphori, Papæ et Mártyris; qui, sub Antoníno
Pio, post multos labóres, pro Christi confessióne, illústre
martyrium duxit.
At Rome, in the time of Antoninus Pius, pope St. Telesphorus, who, after many sufferings
for the confession of Christ, underwent a glorious martyrdom.
Pope St. Telesphorus
(Lived about 125-136.)
St. Telesphorus was the seventh
Roman bishop in succession from the Apostles, and, according to the testimony
of St. Irenæus (Adv. hæreses, III, iii, 3), suffered a glorious
martyrdom. Eusebius (Hist. eccl., IV,
vii, xiv) places the beginning of his pontificate in the twelfth of Hadrian's
reign (128-129), his death in the first year of the reign of Antoninus Pius
(138-139). These statements, however, should be compared with Lightfoot,
"The Apostolic Fathers", I (London,
1899), 201 sq., section on "Early Roman
Successions", and Harnack, "Geschlichte
der alchristl. Literatur", pt. II, "Die Chronologie", I (Leipzing, 1879),
70 sq. In the fragment of the letter of Irenæus of Lyons to Pope Victor
concerning the celebration of Easter (Eusebius, "Hist. eccl.," V, xxiv), Telesphorus is
mentioned as one of the Roman bishops who always celebrated Easter on Sunday,
without, however, abandoning church fellowship with those communities that
did not follow this custom. None of the statements in the "Liber pontificalis" and other authorities
of a later date as to liturgical and other decisions of this pope are genuine.
In the Roman Martyrology his
feast is given under 5 January; the Greek Church celebrates it on 22 February.
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140-155
ST PIUS I, POPE AND MARTYR
Romæ
sancti Pii Primi, Papæ et Mártyris; qui martyrio coronátus
est in persecutióne Marci Aurélii Antoníni.
At Rome, Pope Pius I, who was crowned with martyrdom
in the persecution of Marcus Aurelius Antoninus.
ST PIUS I, POPE AND MARTYR
This Pius succeeded St Hyginus in the see of Peter, and
the Liber Pontificalis states that he was the son of one Rufinus and a native
of Aquileia; some authorities add further that he was a brother of that
Hernias who wrote the famous work called The Shepherd: if the account of
himself given by the author of this book be not a pious fiction, and if his
relationship to the pope be true, then St Pius will have been likewise born
a slave.
During his pontificate the Roman church was troubled by
the allied heresies of the Valentinians and Marcionites; Pius accordingly
had energetically to oppose these heresies, and in these controversies the
true faith had a great champion in the Jewish convert St Justin Martyr, who
was in Rome at that time.
St Pius ordained twelve bishops
and eighteen priests and is said to have turned the Baths of Novatus into
a place for worship. That he is venerated liturgically as a martyr
seems to be due to Cardinal
Baronius: there is no early reference
to his martyrdom. Nearly all that is known concerning St Pius will
be found in the text and notes of Mgr. Duchesne's edition of the Liber Pontificalis, vol. i, pp. 132 seq.,
and in his Histoire ancienne de I'Eglise,
vol. i, pp. 236 seq. For the historical situation cf. G. Bardy, "L'Eglise romaine sous
Le pontificat de S. Anicet" in Recherches
de science rellgieuse, vol. xvii (1927), pp. 481-511.
Pope St. Pius I
Date of birth unknown; pope
from about 140 to about 154. According to the earliest list of the popes,
given by Irenaeus ("Adv. haer.", II, xxxi; cf. Eusebius, "Hist. eccl.", V, vi), Pius was the ninth
successor of St. Peter. The dates given in the Liberian Catalogue for his
pontificate (146-61) rest on a false calculation of earlier chroniclers,
and cannot be accepted. The only chronological datum we possess is supplied
by the year of St. Polycarp of Smyrna's death, which may be referred with
great certainty to 155-6. On his visit to Rome in the year before his death
Polycarp found Anicetus, the successor of Pius, bishop there; consequently,
the death of Pius must have occurred about 154. The "Liber Pontificalis" (ed. Duchesne, I,
132) says the father of Pius was Rufinus, and makes him a native of Aquileia;
this is, however, probably a conjecture of the author, who had heard of
Rufinus of Aquileia (end of fourth century). From a notice in the "Liberian
Catalogue" (in Duchesne, "Liber Pontificalis",
I, 5), which is confirmed by the Muratorian Fragment (ed. Preuschen, "Analecta", I, Tübingen, 1910), we
learn that a brother of this pope, Hermas by name, published "The Shepherd"
(see HERMAS). If the information which the author gives concerning his
personal conditions and station (first a slave, then a freedman) were historical,
we should know more about the origin of the pope, his brother. It is very
possible that the story which Hermas relates of himself is a fiction.
During the pontificate of Pius the Roman Church was visited
by various heretics, who sought to propagate their false doctrine among the
faithful of the capital. The Gnostic Valentinus, who had made his appearance
under Pope Hyginus, continued to sow his heresy, apparently not without success.
The Gnostic Cerdon was also active in Rome at this period, during which
Marcion arrived in the capital (see MARCIONITES). Excluded from communion
by Pius, the latter founded his heretical body (Irenaeus, "Adv. haer.",
III, iii). But Catholic teachers also visited the Roman Church, the most
important being St. Justin, who expounded the Christian teachings during
the pontificate of Pius and that of his successor. A great activity thus
marks the Christian community in Rome, which stands clearly conspicuous
as the centre of the Church. The "Liber Pontificalis" (ed. cit.) speaks of
a decision of this pope to the effect that Jewish converts to Christianity
should be admitted and baptized. What this means we do not know; doubtless
the author of the "Liber Pontificalis", here as frequently, refers to the
pope a decree valid in the Church of his own time. A later legend refers
the foundation of the two churches, the titulus Pudentis (ecclesia Pudentiana)
and the titulus Praxedis, to the time of this pope, who is also supposed
to have built a baptistry near the former and to have exercised episcopal
functions there (Acta SS., IV May, 299 sqq.; cf. de Rossi, "Musaici delle
chiese di Roma: S. Pudenziana, S. Prassede"). The story, however, can lay
no claim to historical credibility. These two churches came into existence
in the fourth century, although it is not impossible that they replaced Christian
houses, in which the faithful of Rome assembled for Divine service before
the time of Constantine; the legend, however, should not be alleged as proof
of this fact. In many later writings (e.g. the "Liber Pontificalis") the
"Pastor" or "Shepherd" in the work of Hermas is erroneously accepted as the
name of the author, and, since a Roman priest Pastor is assigned an important
role in the foundation of these churches, it is quite possible that the writer
of the legend was similarly misled, and consequently interwove Pope Pius
into his legendary narrative (see PRAXEDES AND PUDENTIANA). Two letters written
to Bishop Justus of Vienne (P.L., V, 1125 sq.; Jaffé, "Regesta", I,
2nd ed., pp. 7 sq.), ascribed to Pius, are not authentic. The feast of St.
Pius I is celebrated on 11 July.
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167 to 175 Pope Soter
and Caius, Saints and Popes
They have their feast together on 22 April, on which day they appear
in most of the martyrologies, though Notker and a few others give Soter on
the 21st and Caius on the 19th or 21st.
Soter was pope for eight years,
c. 167 to 175 (Harnack prefers 166-174). We possess a fragment of an interesting
letter addressed to him by St. Dionysius of Corinth, who writes: "From
the beginning it has been your custom to do good to all the brethren in
many ways, and to send alms to many churches in every city, refreshing the
poverty of those who sent requests, or giving aid to the brethren in the
mines, by the alms which you have had the habit of giving from old, Romans
keeping up the traditional custom of the Romans; which your blessed Bishop
Soter has not only preserved, but has even increased, by providing the abundance
which he has sent to the saints, and by further consoling with blessed words
with brethren who came to him, as a loving father his children." "Today,
therefore, we have kept the holy Lord's day, on which we have read your letter,
which we shall always have to read and be admonished, even as the former
letter which was written to us by the ministry of Clement." (Eusebius, Hist.
Eccl., IV, xxiv.) The letter which Soter had written in the name of his church
is lost, though Harnack and others have attempted to identify it with the
so-called "Second Epistle of Clement" (see CLEMENT OF ROME). The reverence
for the pope's paternal letter is to be noticed. The traditional generosity
of the Roman Church is again referred to by St. Dionysius of Alexandria to
Pope Dionysius in the middle of the third century, and Eusebius says it still
continued in his time. Nothing further is known of this pope.
According to the Roman Martyrology, St. Sotor was martyred
on April 22 on the Appian Way in Rome. He is buried in the church of St.
Sixtus; in the cemetery of St. Callistus, there is a cella (a memorial
chapel) dedicated to his memory. |
199
Victor I, Pope African by birth, Victor succeeded Saint Eleutherius as pope
c. 189 the first to use Latin in the celebration of the liturgy (RM)
Probably an African by birth,
Victor succeeded Saint Eleutherius as pope c. 189. During his pontificate
Victor was embroiled in a dispute with a group of Christians from the province
of Asia who were in Rome. They celebrated Easter on a date of their own
choosing. Victor threatened the Asiatics with excommunication in a Roman
synod. He was also faced with the arrival of Theodotus from Constantinople
and his teaching that Christ was only a man endowed with supernatural powers
by the Holy Spirit. He is reputed to have been the first to use Latin in
the celebration of the liturgy. It is not certain that he died a martyr's
death (Benedictines, Delaney, Encyclopedia).
Victor I, Pope was
a native of Africa, succeeded St Eleutherius in the pontificate about the
year 189. Those virtues which had prepared him for that dignity made
him a true successor of the Apostles, and he vigorously grappled with the
difficulties of the times. Among these was a group of Asiatic Christians
at Rome who insisted on celebrating Easter on a date that accorded with
their own traditions, even if a week-day. Certain Asiatic bishops interfered
to support them, and were threatened by the pope with excommunication. St
Irenaeus of Lyons and others protested against this severity, pointing out
that differences of disciplinary custom had not hitherto been allowed to
compromise Christian brotherhood. The protest appears to have been
successful; but St Victor naturally insisted on maintaining uniformity of
observance in his own province without being meddled with by bishops from
outside it.
Other troubles were caused by the arrival in
Rome from Byzantium of a man called Theodotus, a leather-merchant, who taught
that Jesus Christ was only a supernaturally endowed man.
Pope St Victor died before the persecution of
Septimius Severus began, and there is no good reason to suppose he was
martyred; but his energy and zeal exposed him to persecutions for which
alone he might deserve the honours of a martyr which are accorded him liturgically.
This pope is named in the canon of the Ambrosian Mass, he is said
by St Jerome to have been the lint in Rome to celebrate the Mysteries in
Latin, and he was formerly held in special veneration in Scotland, being fabled
to have sent missionaries thither.
The little we know of St Victor
comes mainly from Eusebius and the Liber
Pontificalis. It is the latter authority describes him as a martyr.
See also the Acta Sanctorum, July,
vol. vi, and Duchesne. History of the
Early Church, vol. i, cap. 16
|
283, to 22 April, 296 Pope
Caius lived in the time of peace before the last great
persecution. He was pope for twelve years, four months,
and seven days, from 17 December, 283, to 22 April, 296, according to the
Liberian catalogue (Harnack, Chronol., I, 155, after Lipsius and Lightfoot);
Eusebius is wrong in giving him fifteen years. He is mentioned in the fourth-century
"Depositio Episcoporum" (therefore not as a martyr): X kl maii Caii in
Callisti. He was buried in the chapel of the popes in that cemetary. Nothing
whatever is known of his life.
He lived in the time of peace
before the last great persecution.
|
217 Pope Saint Zephyrinus
was pope from 199 .
He was a Roman who had ruled as head bishop for close to 20 years, and
was elected to the Papacy upon the death of the previous pope, Victor. Zephyrinus
was succeeded, upon his death on December 20, 217, by his principal advisor,
Callixtus.
Pope St. Zephyrinus
(Reigned 198-217).
Date of birth unknown; died 20 Dec., 217. After the death of Pope Victor
in 198, Zephyrinus was elected his successor and consecrated. The pope
is described by Hippolytus in the "Philosophymena" (IX, xi) as a simple
man without education. This is evidently to be understood as meaning that
Zephyrinus had not taken the higher studies and had devoted himself to the
practical administration of the Church and not to theological learning.
Immediately after his elevation to the Roman See, Zephyrinus called to Rome
the confessor Callistus, who lived at Antium and who had received a monthly
pension from Pope Victor, and intrusted him with the oversight of the coemeterium.
It is evident that shortly before this the Roman Christian community had,
under Victor, become the owner of a common place of burial on the Via Appia,
and Zephyrinus now placed Callistus over this cemetery which was given
the name of Callistus. Undoubtedly Callistus was also made a deacon of the
Roman Church by Zephyrinus. He was the confidential counsellor of the pope,
whom he succeeded. The positions of the Christians, which had remained favourable
in the first years of the government of Emperor Septimus Severus (193-211),
grew constantly worse, and in 202 or 203 the edict of persecution appeared
which forbade conversion to Christianity under the severest penalties. Nothing
is known as to the execution of the edict in Rome itself nor of the martyrs
of the Roman Church in this era.
More, however, is certain concerning the internal disputes in the Roman
Church over the doctrine of the Trinity. The adherents of the heretical teacher
Theodotus the Tanner had been excommunicated with their leader by Pope Victor.
They formed an independent heretical community at Rome which was ruled by
another Theodotus, the Money Changer, and Aselepodotus. These men persuaded
a confessor of Rome named Natalis, who had acknowledged his faith without
wavering before the heathen judge and had suffered torture, to permit himself
to be made the bishop of the sect for a monthly payment of 170 denarii.
Natalis, however, received many warnings in dreams. At first he paid no
attention to these visions, but on one occasion he believed that he had been
severely tortured by angels and now he began to ponder the matter. Early
in the morning he put on a penitential garment, covered himself with ashes,
and threw himself with tears at the feet of Zephyrinus. He confessed his
wrong-doing and begged to be received again into the communion of the Church,
which was finally granted him (Eusebius, "Hist. eccl.", V, xxxii). In the
same era the adherents of Montanus also worked with great energy at Rome.
The Montanist Proculus (or Proclus) published a work in defense of the new
prophecies. A refutation of Proclus in the form of a dialogue was written
by a learned and rigidly orthodox Roman Christian named Caius, wherein he
refers to the grave of St. Peter on the Vatican Hill and of St. Paul on the
Via Ostiensis. Caius rejects the Apocalypse of St. John, which he regards
as a work of the heretic Cerinthus. In opposition to Caius, Hippolytus
wrote his "Capita contra Caium" (cf. Eusebius, "Hist. eccl.", III, xxviii; VI, xx).
Hippolytus was the most important theologian among the Roman presbyters
of this era. He was an avowed adherent of the doctrine of the Divine Logos.
He taught that the Divine Logos became man in Christ, that the Logos differs
in every thing from God, that he is the mediary between God and the world
of creatures. This doctrine in the form in which it was set forth by Hippolytus
and his school aroused many doubts, and another theological school appeared
in opposition to it. This latter school was represented at Rome in this
era by Cleomenes and particularly by Sabellius. These men were rigid opponents
of the Theodotians, but were not willing to acknowledge the incarnation
of the Logos, and emphasized above all the absolute unity (monarchia) of
God. They explained the Incarnation of Christ in the sense that this was
another manifestation (modus) of God in His union with human nature. Consequently
they were called Modalists or Patripassians, as according to them it was
not the Son of God but the Father Who had been crucified. The Christian
common people held firmly, above all, to the Unity of God and at the same
time to the true Godhead of Jesus Christ. Originally no distrust of this
doctrine was felt among them. Pope Zephyrinus did not interpose authoritatively
in the dispute between the two schools. The heresy of the Modalists was
not at first clearly evident, and the doctrine of Hippolytus offered many
difficulties as regards the tradition of the Church. Zephyrinus said simply
that he acknowledged only one God, and this was the Lord Jesus Christ,
but it was the Son, not the Father, Who had died. This was the doctrine
of the tradition of the Church. Hippolytus urged that the pope should approve
of a distinct dogma which represented the Person of Christ as actually different
from that of the Father and condemned the opposing views of the Monarchians
and Patripassians. However, Zephyrinus would not consent to this. The result
was that Hippolytus grew constantly more irritated and angry against he
pope and particularly against the deacon Callistus whom, as the councillor
of the pope, he made responsible for the position of the latter. When after
the death of Zephyrinus Callistus was elected Roman bishop, Hippolytus withdrew
from the Church with his scholars, caused a schism, and made himself a rival
bishop.
Zephyrinus was buried in a separate
sepulchral chamber over the cemetery of Calistus on the Via Appia (cf.
Wilpert, "Die papstgruber und die Suciliengruft
in der Katakombe des hl. Kallistus", Freiburg, 1909, 91 sqq.). The
"Liber Pontificalis" attributes
two Decrees to Zephyrinus; one on the ordination of the clergy and the other
on the Eucharistic Liturgy in the title churches of Rome. The author of the
biography has ascribed these Decrees to the pope arbitrarily and without
historical basis.
|
Pope Callistus (Calixtus)
I 218 - 223
(Written by most Latins, Augustine, Optatus, etc. CALLIXTUS
or CALIXTUS).
Martyr, died c. 223. His contemporary, Julius Africanus,
gives the date of his accession as the first (or second?) year of Elagabalus,
i.e., 218 or 219. Eusebius and the Liberian catalogue agree in giving him
five years of episcopate. His Acts are spurious, but he is the earliest pope
found the fourth-century "Depositio Martirum", and this is good evidence
that he was really a martyr, although he lived in a time of peace under Alexander
Severus, whose mother was a Christian. We learn from the "Historiae Augustae"
that a spot on which he had built an oratory was claimed by the tavern-keepers,
popinarii, but the emperor decided that the worship of any god was better
than a tavern. This is said to have been the origin of Sta. Maria in Trastevere,
which was built, according to the Liberian catalogue, by Pope Julius, .
In fact the Church of St. Callistus is close by, containing a well into
which legend says his body was thrown, and this is probably the church he
built, rather than the more famous basilica. He was buried in the cemetery
of Calepodius on the Aurelian Way, and his anniversary is given by the "Depositio
Martirum" (Callisti in viâ Aureliâ miliario III) and by the
subsequent martyrologies on 14 October, on which day his feast is still kept.
His relics were translated in the ninth century to Sta. Maria in Trastevere.
Our chief knowledge of this
pope is from his bitter enemies, Tertullian and the antipope who wrote the
"Philosophumena", no doubt Hippolytus. Their calumnies are probably based
on facts. According to the "Philosophumena" (c. ix) Callistus was the slave
of Carpophorus, a Christian of the household of Caesar. His master entrusted
large sums of money to Callistus, with which he started a bank in which brethren
and widows lodged money, all of which Callistus lost. He took to flight.
Carpophorus followed him to Portus, where Callistus had embarked on a ship.
Seeing his master approach in a boat, the slave jumped into the sea, but
was prevented from drowning himself, dragged ashore, and consigned to the
punishment reserved for slaves, the pistrinum, or hand-mill. The brethren,
believing that he still had money in his name, begged that he might be released.
But he had nothing, so he again courted death by insulting the Jews at their
synagogue. The Jews haled him before the prefect Fuscianus. Carpophorus declared
that Callistus was not to be looked upon as a Christian, but he was thought
to be trying to save his slave, and Callistus was sent to the mines in Sardinia.
Some time after this, Marcia, the mistress of Commodus, sent for Pope Victor
and asked if there were any martyrs in Sardinia. He gave her the list,
without including Callistus. Marcia sent a eunuch who was a priest (or
"old man") to release the prisoners. Callistus fell at his feet, and persuaded
him to take him also. Victor was annoyed; but being a compassionate man,
he kept silence. However, he sent Callistus to Antium with a monthly allowance.
When Zephyrinus became pope, Callistus was recalled and set over the cemetery
belonging to the Church, not a private catacomb; it has ever since borne
Callistus's name. He obtained great influence over the ignorant, illiterate,
and grasping Zephyrinus by bribes. We are not told how it came about that
the runaway slave (now free by Roman law from his master, who had lost his
rights when Callistus was condemned to penal servitude to the State) became
archdeacon and then pope.
Döllinger and De Rossi have demolished this contemporary
scandal. To begin with, Hippolytus does not say that Callistus by his own
fault lost the money deposited with him. He evidently jumped from the vessel
rather to escape than to commit suicide. That Carpophorus, a Christian,
should commit a Christian slave to the horrible punishment of the pistrinum
does not speak well for the master's character. The intercession of the
Christians for Callistus is in his favour. It is absurd to suppose that
he courted death by attacking a synagogue; it is clear that he asked the
Jewish money-lenders to repay what they owed him, and at some risk to himself.
The declaration of Carpophorus that Callistus was no Christian was scandalous
and untrue. Hippolytus himself shows that it was as a Christian that Callistus
was sent to the mines, and therefore as a confessor, and that it was as
a Christian that he was released. If Pope Victor granted Callistus a monthly
pension, he need not suppose that he regretted his release. It is unlikely
that Zephyrinus was ignorant and base. Callistus could hardly have raised
himself so high without considerable talents, and the vindictive spirit
exhibited by Hippolytus and his defective theology explain why Zephyrinus
placed his confidence rather in Callistus than in the learned disciple of
Irenaeus.
The orthodoxy of Callistus is
challenged by both Hippolytus and Tertullian on the ground that in a famous
edict he granted Communion after due penance to those who had committed
adultery and fornication. It is clear that Callistus based his decree on
the power of binding and loosing granted to Peter, to his successors, and
to all in communion with them: "As to thy decision", cries the Montanist
Tertullian, "I ask, whence dost thou usurp this right of the Church? If
it is because the Lord said to Peter: Upon this rock I will build My Church,
I will give thee the keys of the kingdom of heaven', or whatsoever though
bindest or loosest on earth shall be bound or loosed in heaven', that thou
presumest that this power of binding and loosing has been handed down to
thee also, that is to every Church in communion with Peter's (ad omnem ecclesiam
Petri propinquam, i.e. Petri ecclesiae propinquam), who art thou that destroyest
and alterest the manifest intention of the Lord, who conferred this on Peter
personally and alone?" (De Pudicitia, xxi.) The edict was an order to the
whole Church (ib., i): "I hear that an edict has been published, and a peremptory
one; the bishop of bishops, which means the Pontifex Maximus, proclaims:
I remit the crimes of adultery and fornication to those who have done penance."
Doubtless Hippolytus and Tertullian were upholding a supposed custom of
earlier times, and the pope in decreeing a relaxation was regarded as enacting
a new law. On this point it is unnecessary to justify Callistus. Other complaints
of Hippolytus are that Callistus did not put converts from heresy to public
penance for sins committed outside the Church (this mildness was customary
in St. Augustine's time); that he had received into his "school" (i.e. The
Catholic Church) those whom Hippolytus had excommunicated from "The Church"
(i.e., his own sect); that he declared that a mortal sin was not ("always",
we may supply) a sufficient reason for deposing a bishop. Tertullian (De Exhort. Castitatis, vii) speaks with
reprobation of bishops who had been married more than once, and Hippolytus
charges Callistus with being the first to allow this, against St. Paul's
rule. But in the East marriages before baptism were not counted, and in
any case the law is one from which the pope can dispense if necessity arise.
Again Callistus allowed the lower clergy to marry, and permitted noble ladies
to marry low persons and slaves, which by the Roman law was forbidden; he
had thus given occasion for infanticide. Here again Callistus was rightly
insisting on the distinction between the ecclesiastical law of marriage and
the civil law, which later ages have always taught.. Hippolytus also declared
that rebaptizing (of heretics) was performed first in Callistus's day, but
he does not state that Callistus was answerable for this. On the whole, then,
it is clear that the Catholic church sides with Callistus against the schismatic
Hippolytus and the heretic Tertullian. Not a word is said against the character
of Callistus since his promotion, nor against the validity of his election.
Hippolytus, however, regards Callistus as a heretic. Now
Hippolytus's own Christology is most imperfect, and he tells us that Callistus
accused him of Ditheism. It is not to be wondered at, then, if he calls
Callistus the inventor of a kind of modified Sabellianism. In reality it
is certain that Zephyrinus and Callistus condemned various Monarchians
and Sabellius himself, as well as the opposite error of Hippolytus. This
is enough to suggest that Callistus held the Catholic Faith. And in fact
it cannot be denied that the Church of Rome must have held a Trinitarian
doctrine not far from that taught by Callistus's elder contemporary Tertullian
and by his much younger contemporary Novatian--a doctrine which was not
so explicitly taught in the greater part of the East for a long period afterwards.
The accusations of Hippolytus speak for the sure tradition of the Roman Church
and for its perfect orthodoxy and moderation. If we knew more of St. Callistus
from Catholic sources, he would probably appear as one of the greatest of
the popes.
|
236-250, Pope Saint Fabian succeeded Saint Antheros governed
as bishop of Rome 14 peaceful years
Died 250. On January 10, his martyrdom under
Decius. He was a layman, who, according to Eusebius, was chosen because a
dove flew in through a window during the election and settled on his head.
This 'sign' united the votes of the clergy and people for this layman and
stranger.
Pope St. Fabian (FABIANUS) Pope (236-250), the extraordinary
circumstances of whose election is related by Eusebius (Hist. Eccl., VI, 29). After the death
of Anterus he had come to Rome, with some others, from his farm and was
in the city when the new election began. While the names of several illustrious
and noble persons were being considered, a dove suddenly descended upon
the head of Fabian, of whom no one had even thought. To the assembled brethren
the sight recalled the Gospel scene of the descent of the Holy Spirit upon
the Saviour of mankind, and so, divinely inspired, as it were, they chose
Fabian with joyous unanimity and placed him in the Chair of Peter.
During his reign of fourteen years
there was a lull in the storm of persecution. Little is known of his pontificate.
The "Liber Pontificalis" says that he divided Rome into seven districts,
each supervised by a deacon, and appointed seven subdeacons, to collect,
in conjunction with other notaries, the "acta" of the martyrs, i.e. the reports
of the court-proceedings on the occasion of their trials (cf. Eus., VI,
43). There is a tradition that he instituted the four minor orders. Under
him considerable work was done in the catacombs. He caused the body of Pope
St. Pontianus to be exhumed, in Sardinia, and transferred to the catacomb
of St. Callistus at Rome. Later accounts, more or less trustworthy, attribute
to him the consecration (245) of seven bishops as missionaries to Gaul, among
them St. Denys of Paris (Greg. of Tours, Hist. Francor., I, 28, 31). St. Cyprian
mentions (Ep., 59) the condemnation by Fabian for heresy of a certain Privatus
(Bishop of Lambaesa) in Africa. The famous Origen did not hesitate to defend,
before Fabian, the orthodoxy of his teaching (Eus. Hist. Eccl., VI, 34). Fabian died a martyr
(20 Jan., 250) at the beginning of the Decian persecution, and was buried
in the Crypt of the Popes in the catacomb of St. Callistus, where in recent
times (1850) De Rossi discovered his Greek epitaph (Roma Sotterranea II, 59): "Fabian, bishop
and martyr." The decretals ascribed to him in Pseudo-Isidore are apocryphal.
|
235 Pope Saint Pontian
or Pontianus, was pope from July 21, 230 to September 28.
ST PONTIAN, POPE AND MARTYR
PONTIAN, who is said to have
been Roman, followed St Urban I as bishop of Rome about the year 230. The
only known event of his pontificate is the synod held at Rome that confirmed
the condemnation already pronounced at Alexandria of certain doctrines
attributed to Origen. At the beginning of the persecution by the Emperor
Maximinus the pope was exiled to Sardinia, an island described as nociva, "unhealthy“, whereby perhaps
the mines were meant; here he resigned his office. How much longer he lived
and the manner of his death are not known: traditionally life was beaten
out of him with sticks. Some years later Pope St Fabian translated his body
to the cemetery of St Callistus in Rome, where in 1909 his original epitaph
was found: PONTIANOC EPICK MPT, the last word having been added later,
In the fourth-century Depositio
Martyrum the name of St Pontian is coupled with that of Hippolytus, and
August 13 is the day assigned for the commemoration: Idus Aug. Ypoliti in
Tiburtina et Pontiani in Callisti.” Fr Delehaye has discussed the whole matter
very fully in his CMH, pp. 439—440. See also Marucchi in Nuovo Bullettino for 1909, pp. 35—50
Wilpert, Die Papstgraber und die
Caciliengruft (1909), pp. 17—I8 and E. Caspar, Geschichte des Papsttums, vol. 1(1930),
pp. 44 seq.
Pope
St. Pontian
Dates
of birth and death unknown. The "Liber
Pontificalis" (ed. Duchesne, I, 145) gives Rome as his native city
and calls his father Calpurnius. With him begins the brief chronicle of
the Roman bishops of the third century, of which the author of the Liberian
Catalogue of the popes made use in the fourth century and which gives more
exact data for the lives of the popes. According to this account Pontian
was made pope 21 July, 230, and reigned until 235. The schism of Hippolytus
continued during his episcopate; towards the end of his pontificate there
was a reconciliation between the schismatic party and its leader with the
Roman bishop. After the condemnation of Origen at Alexandria (231-2), a
synod was held at Rome, according to Jerome (Epist. XXXII, iv) and Rufinus (Apol. contra Hieron., II, xx), which
concurred in the decisions of the Alexandrian synod against Origen; without
doubt this synod was held by Pontian (Hefele, Konziliengeschichte, 2nd ed., I, 106
sq.). In 235 in the reign of Maximinus the Thracian began a persecution directed
chiefly against the heads of the Church. One of its first victims was Pontian,
who with Hippolytus was banished to the unhealthy island of Sardinia. To
make the election of a new pope possible, Pontian resigned 28 Sept., 235,
the Liberian Catalogue says "discinctus est". Consequently Anteros was elected
in his stead. Shortly before this or soon afterwards Hippolytus, who had
been banished with Pontian, became reconciled to the Roman Church, and with
this the schism he had caused came to an end. How much longer Pontian endured
the sufferings of exile and harsh treatment in the Sardinian mines is unknown.
According to old and no longer existing Acts of martyrs, used by the author
of the "Liber Pontificalis", he
died in consequence of the privations and inhuman treatment he had to bear.
Pope Fabian (236-50) had the remains of Pontian and Hippolytus brought to
Rome at a later date and Pontian was buried on 13 August in the papal crypt
of the Catacomb of Callistus. In 1909 the original epitaph was found in the
crypt of St. Cecilia, near the papal crypt. The epitaph, agreeing with the
other known epitaphs of the papal crypt, reads: PONTIANOS, EPISK. MARTUR
(Pontianus, Bishop, Martyr). The word mártur was added later and is
written in ligature [cf. Wilpert, "Die
Papstgräber und die Cäciliengruft in der Katakombe des hl. Kalixtus"
(Freiburg, 1909), 1 sq., 17 sq., Plate III]. He is placed under 13 Aug.
in the list of the "Depositiones martyrum"
in the chronographia of 354. The Roman Martyrology gives his feast on 19
Nov.
|
253 Pope Cornelius; predecessor, Fabian, put to death by Decius,
250. March, 251 persecution slackened, owing to absence of the emperor, (two
rivals had arisen); 16 bishops at Rome elected Cornelius against his will was; "What
fortitude in his acceptance of the episcopate, what strength of mind, what
firmness of faith, that he took his seat intrepid in the sacerdotal chair,
at a time when the tyrant in his hatred of bishops was making unspeakable
threats, when he heard with far more patience that a rival prince was arising
against him, than that a bishop of God was appointed at Rome" (Cyprian, Ep. lv, 24). Is he not, asks St. Cyprian, to be numbered
among the glorious confessors and martyrs who sat so long awaiting the
sword or the cross or the stake and every other torture?
Cornelius Martyr (251 to 253).
We may accept the statement of the Liberian catalogue that he reigned
two years, three months, and ten days, for Lipsius, Lightfoot, and Harnack
have shown that this list is a first-rate authority for this date. His
predecessor, Fabian, was put to death by Decius, 20 January, 250. About
the beginning of March, 251 the persecution slackened, owing to the absence
of the emperor, against whom two rivals had arisen. It was possible to
assemble sixteen bishops at Rome, and Cornelius was elected though against
his will (Cyprian, Ep. lv, 24),
"by the judgment of God and of Christ, by the testimony of almost all the
clergy, by the vote of the people then present, by the consent of aged priests
and of good men, at a time when no one had been made before him, when the
place of Fabian, that is the place of Peter, and the step of the sacerdotal
chair were vacant". "What fortitude in his acceptance of the episcopate,
what strength of mind, what firmness of faith, that he took his seat intrepid
in the sacerdotal chair, at a time when the tyrant in his hatred of bishops
was making unspeakable threats, when he heard with far more patience that
a rival prince was arising against him, than that a bishop of God was appointed
at Rome" (ibid., 9). Is he not, asks St. Cyprian, to be numbered among
the glorious confessors and martyrs who sat so long awaiting the sword
or the cross or the stake and every other torture?
A few weeks later the Roman priest Novatian made himself antipope, and
the whole Christian world was convulsed by the schism at Rome. But the adhesion
of St. Cyprian secured to Cornelius the hundred bishops of Africa, and
the influence of St. Dionysius the Great, Bishop of Alexandria, brought
the East within a few months to a right decision. In Italy itself the pope
got together a synod of sixty bishops. (See NOVATIAN.) Fabius, Bishop of
Antioch, seems to have wavered. Three letters to him from Cornelius were
known to Eusebius, who gives extracts from one of them (Hist. Eccl., VI, xliii), in which the
pope details the faults in Novatian's election and conduct with considerable
bitterness. We incidentally learn that in the Roman Church there were forty-six
priests, seven deacons, seven subdeacons, forty-two acolytes, fifty-two ostiarii,
and over one thousand five hundred widows and persons in distress. From this
Burnet estimated the number of Christians in Rome at fifty thousand, so also
Gibbon; but Benson and Harnack think this figure possibly too large. Pope
Fabian had made seven regions; it appears that each had one deacon, one subdeacon
and six acolytes.
Of the letters of Cornelius to Cyprian two have come down
to us, together with nine from Cyprian to the pope. Mgr. Merrati has shown
that in the true text the letters of Cornelius are in the colloquial "vulgar-Latin"
of the day, and not in the more classical style affected by the ex-orator
Cyprian and the learned philosopher Novatian. Cornelius sanctioned the
milder measures proposed by St. Cyprian and accepted by his Carthaginian
council of 251 for the restoration to communion, after varying forms of
penance, of those who had fallen during the Decian persecution (see CYPRIAN).
Beginning 252 a new persecution suddenly broke out. Cornelius
was exiled to Centumcellæ (Civita
Vecchia). There were no defections among the Roman Christians; all
were confessors. The pope "led his brethren in confession", writes Cyprian
(Ep. lx, ad Com.), with a manifest reference to
the confession of St. Peter. "With one heart and one voice the whole Roman
Church confessed. Then was seen, dearest Brother, that faith which the
blessed Apostle praised in you (Romans
1:8); even then he foresaw in spirit your glorious fortitude
and firm strength."
In June Cornelius died a martyr, as St. Cyprian repeatedly
calls him. The Liberian catalogue has ibi
cum gloriâ dormicionem accepit, and this may mean that he died
of the rigours of his banishment, though later accounts say that he was beheaded.
St. Jerome says that Cornelius and Cyprian suffered on the same day in different
years, and his careless statement has been generally followed. The feast
of St. Cyprian was in fact kept at Rome at the tomb of Cornelius, for the
fourth century "Depositio Martirum" has "XVIII kl octob Cypriani Africæ
Romæ celebratur in Callisti". St. Cornelius was not buried in the
chapel of the popes, but in an adjoining catacomb, perhaps that of a branch
of the noble Cornelii. His inscription is in Latin: CORNELIUS *MARTYR* whereas
those of Fabian and Lucius are in Greek (Northcote and Brownlow, "Roma sotteranea", I, vi). His feast is
kept with that of St. Cyprian on 14 September, possibly the day of his translation
from Centumcellæ to the catacombs.
|
254-257 Pope St. Stephen
I; defence of the validity of heretical
baptism against the mistaken opinion of St. Cyprian and other bishops of
Africa and Asia; In his days the vestments
worn by the clergy at Mass and other church services did not differ in
shape or material from those ordinarily worn by the laity. Stephen, however,
is said by the "Liber Pontificalis" to have ordained that the vestments
which had been used for ecclesiastical purposes were not to be employed
for daily wear; An assembly of African
bishops which he convoked renewed the condemnation of Basilides and Martial,
and exhorted the people to enter into communion with their successors. At
the same time they were at pains to point out that Stephen had acted as
he had done because "situated at a distance, and ignorant of the true facts
of the case" he had been deceived by Basilides. Anxious to preserve the
tradition of his predecessors in matters of practical charity, as well as
of faith, Stephen, we are told, relieved in their necessities "all the
provinces of Syria and Arabia".
Although there is some doubt as to the dates connected with
the pontificate of Stephen, it is generally believed that he was consecrated
12 May, 254, and that he died 2 August, 257. According to the most ancient
catalogues, he was a Roman by birth, and the son of Jovius, and there is
no reason to doubt the assertion of the "Liber Pontificalis" that Lucius
I, when about to be martyred, made over the care of the Church to his archdeacon
Stephen (254). Most of what we know regarding Pope Stephen is connected
directly or indirectly with the severe teachings of the heretic Novatus.
Concerning his most important work, his defence of the
validity of heretical baptism against the mistaken opinion of St. Cyprian
and other bishops of Africa and Asia, there is no need to speak now, as
the history of this important controversy will be found under BAPTISM and
SAINT CYPRIAN OF CARTHAGE.
Suffice it here to call attention
to certain newly discovered letters on the subject by St. Dionysius of
Alexandria ("Eng. Hist. Rev.",
Jan., 1910, 111 sq.), and to note, with the late Archbishop Benson of Canterbury,
that Stephen "triumphed, and in him the Church of Rome triumphed, as she
deserved" [E.W. Benson, "Cyprian, His
Life, His Times, His Works", VIII (London), 1897, 3].
In the early part of his pontificate Stephen
was frequently urged by Faustinus, Bishop of Lyons, to take action against
Marcian, Bishop of Arles, who, attaching himself to doctrines of Novatus,
denied communion to the penitent lapsi. For some reason unknown to us Stephen
did not move. The bishops of Gaul accordingly turned to Cyprian, and begged
him to write to the pope. This the saint did in a letter which is our sole
source of information regarding this affair (Epp. lxix, lxviii). The Bishop of Carthage
entreats Stephen to imitate his martyred predecessors, and to instruct the
bishops of Gaul to condemn Marcian, and to elect another bishop in his stead.
As no more is said by St. Cyprian on this affair, it is supposed that the
pope acted in accordance with his wishes, and that Marcian was deposed.
The case of the Spanish bishops Martial and Basilides also
brought Stephen in connection with St. Cyprian. As libellatici they had been
condemned by bishops of their province for denying the Faith. At first they
acknowledged their guilt, but afterwards appealed to Rome, and, deceived
by their story, Stephen exerted himself to secure their restoration. Accordingly
some of their fellow bishops took their part, but the others laid the case
before St. Cyprian. An assembly of African bishops which he convoked renewed
the condemnation of Basilides and Martial, and exhorted the people to enter
into communion with their successors. At the same time they were at pains
to point out that Stephen had acted as he had done because "situated at a
distance, and ignorant of the true facts of the case" he had been deceived
by Basilides. Anxious to preserve the tradition of his predecessors in matters
of practical charity, as well as of faith, Stephen, we are told, relieved
in their necessities "all the provinces of Syria and Arabia".
In his days the vestments worn by the clergy at Mass and
other church services did not differ in shape or material from those ordinarily
worn by the laity. Stephen, however, is said by the "Liber Pontificalis" to have ordained
that the vestments which had been used for ecclesiastical purposes were not
to be employed for daily wear. The same authority adds that he finished his
pontificate by martyrdom, but the evidence for this is generally regarded
as doubtful. He was buried in the cemetery of St. Calixtus, whence his body
was transferred by Paul I to a monastery which he had founded in his honour.
|
255 St. Venantius Bishop
martyr prelate serving Dalmatia, Croatia
Eódem die sancti Venántii, Epíscopi
et Mártyris. The same day, St. Venantius,
bishop and martyr.
Executed during the persecutions of the Church by the Roman
Empire.
His relics were translated from Split (Spalato), Dalmatia,
to the Lateran Basilica in Rome under Pope John IV (r. 640-642).
Venantius of Spalato BM (RM). Saint Venantius was a Dalmatian
bishop whose body was brought to the Lateran at Spalato by Pope John IV
in 641 (Benedictines). |
258 Pope
St. Sixtus II Elected 31 Aug., 257,
martyred at Rome, 6 Aug., 258
(XYSTUS).
During the pontificate of his predecessor, St. Stephen,
a sharp dispute had arisen between Rome and the African and Asiatic Churches,
concerning the rebaptism of heretics, which had threatened to end in a
complete rupture between Rome and the Churches of Africa and Asia Minor
(see SAINT CYPRIAN OF CARTHAGE). Sixtus II, whom Pontius (Vita Cyprian,
cap. xiv) styles a good and peaceful priest (bonus et pacificus sacerdos),
was more conciliatory than St. Stephen and restored friendly relations with
these Churches, though, like his predecessor, he upheld the Roman usage
of not rebaptizing heretics.
His origin is unknown. The "Liber Pontificalis" says that he was
a Greek by birth, but this is probably a mistake, originating from the false
assumption that he was identical with a Greek philosopher of the same name,
who was the author of the so-called "Sentences" of Xystus.
Shortly before the pontificate of Sixtus II the Emperor
Valerian issued his first edict of persecution, which made it binding upon
the Christians to participate in the national cult of the pagan gods and
forbade them to assemble in the cemeteries, threatening with exile or death
whomsoever was found to disobey the order. In some way or other, Sixtus
II managed to perform his functions as chief pastor of the Christians without
being molested by those who were charged with the execution of the imperial
edict. But during the first days of August, 258, the emperor issued a new
and far more cruel edict against the Christians, the import of which has
been preserved in a letter of St. Cyprian to Successus, the Bishop of Abbir
Germaniciana (Ep. lxxx). It ordered bishops, priests, and deacons to be summarily
put to death ("episcopi et presbyteri
et diacones incontinenti animadvertantur"). Sixtus II was one of the
first to fall a victim to this imperial enactment ("Xistum in cimiterio animadversum
sciatis VIII. id. Augusti et cum eo diacones quattuor"—Cyprian, Ep. lxxx).
In order to escape the vigilance of the imperial officers he assembled his
flock on 6 August at one of the less-known cemeteries, that of Prætextatus,
on the left side of the Appian Way, nearly opposite the cemetery of St.
Callistus. While seated on his chair in the act of addressing his flock
he was suddenly apprehended by a band of soldiers. There is some doubt
whether he was beheaded forthwith, or was first brought before a tribunal
to receive his sentence and then led back to the cemetery for execution.
The latter opinion seems to be the more probable.
The inscription which
Pope Damasus (366-84) placed on his tomb in the cemetery of St. Callistus
may be interpreted in either sense. The entire inscription is to be found
in the works of St. Damasus (P.L.,
XIII, 383-4, where it is wrongly supposed to be an epitaph for Pope Stephen
I), and a few fragments of it were discovered at the tomb itself by de
Rossi (Inscr. Christ., II, 108).
The "Liber Pontificalis" mentions
that he was led away to offer sacrifice to the gods ("ductus ut sacrificaret demoniis"—I, 155).
St. Cyprian states in the above-named letter, which was written at the
latest one month after the martyrdom of Sixtus, that "the prefects of the
City were daily urging the persecution in order that, if any were brought
before them, they might be punished and their property confiscated". The
pathetic meeting between St. Sixtus II and St. Lawrence, as the former was
being led to execution, of which mention is made in the unauthentic "Acts
of St. Lawrence" as well as by St. Ambrose (Officiorum, lib. I, c. xli, and lib. II, c. xxviii) and the poet Prudentius
(Peristephanon, II), is probably a mere legend. Entirely contrary to truth
is the statement of Prudentius (ibid., lines 23-26) that Sixtus II suffered
martyrdom on the cross, unless by an unnatural trope the poet uses the specific
word cross ("Jam Xystus adfixus cruci")
for martyrdom in general, as Duchesne and Allard (see below) suggest. Four
deacons, Januarius, Vincentius, Magnus, and Stephanus, were apprehended
with Sixtus and beheaded with him at the same cemetery. Two other deacons,
Felicissimus and Agapitus, suffered martyrdom on the same day. The feast
of St. Sixtus II and these six deacons is celebrated on 6 August, the day
of their martyrdom. The remains of Sixtus were transferred by the Christians
to the papal crypt in the neighbouring cemetery of St. Callistus. Behind
his tomb was enshrined the bloodstained chair on which he had been beheaded.
An oratory (Oratorium Xysti) was
erected above the cemetery of St. Prætextatus, at the spot where he
was martyred, and was still visited by pilgrims of the seventh and the eighth
century.
For some time Sixtus II was believed
to be the author of the so-called "Sentences",
or "Ring of Sixtus", originally
written by a Pythagorean philosopher and in the second century revised by
a Christian. This error arose because in his introduction to a Latin translation
of these "Sentences". Rufinus ascribes them to Sixtus of Rome, bishop and
martyr. It is certain that Pope Sixtus II is not their author (see Conybeare,
"The Ring of Pope Xystus now first rendered into English, with an historical
and critical commentary", London, 1910). Harnack (Texte und Untersuchungen zur altchrist. Literatur,
XIII, XX) ascribes to him the treatise "Ad Novatianum", but his opinion has been
generally rejected (see Rombold in "Theol.
Quartalschrift", LXXII, Tübingen, 1900). Some of his letters
are printed in P.L., V, 79-100. A newly discovered letter was published
by Conybeare in "English Hist. Review",
London, 1910.
|
264-5 Dionysius
of Alexandria (Bishop from 247-8 to
264-5.)
Called "the Great" by Eusebius, St. Basil, and others, was
undoubtedly, after St. Cyprian, the most eminent bishop of the third century.
Like St. Cyprian he was less a great theologian than a great administrator.
Like St. Cyprian his writings usually took the form of letters. Both saints
were converts from paganism; both were engaged in the controversies as
to the restoration of those who had lapsed in the Decian persecution, about
Novatian, and with regard to the iteration of heretical baptism; both corresponded
with the popes of their day. Yet it is curious that neither mentions the
name of the other. A single letter of Dionysius has been preserved in Greek
canon law. For the rest we are dependent on the many citations by Eusebius,
and, for one phase, to the works of his great successor St. Athanasius.
Dionysius was an old man when
he died, so that his birth will fall about 190, or earlier. He is said
to have been of distinguished parentage. He became a Christian when still
young. At a later period, when he was warned by a priest of the danger
he ran in studying the books of heretics, a vision–so he informs us–assured
him that he was capable of proving all things, and that this faculty had
in fact been the cause of his conversion. He studied under Origen. The latter
was banished by Demetrius about 231, and Heraclas took his place at the
head of the catechetical school. On the death of Demetrius very soon afterwards,
Heraclas became bishop, and Dionysius took the headship of the famous school.
It is thought that he retained this office even when he himself had succeeded
Heraclas as bishop. In the last year of Philip, 249, although the emperor
himself was reported to be a Christian, a riot at Alexandria, roused by
a popular prophet and poet, had all the effect of a severe persecution. It
is described by Dionysius in a letter to Fabius of Antioch. The mob first
seized an old man named Metras, beat him with clubs when he would not deny
his faith, pierced his eyes and face with reeds, dragged him out of the
city, and stoned him. Then a woman named Quinta, who would not sacrifice,
was drawn along the rough pavement by the feet, dashed against millstones,
scourged, and finally stoned in the same suburb. The houses of the faithful
were plundered. Not one, so far as the bishop knew, apostatized. The aged
virgin, Apollonia, after her teeth had been knocked out, sprang of her own
accord into the fire prepared for her rather than utter blasphemies. Serapion
had all his limbs broken, and was dashed down from the upper story of his
own house. It was impossible for any Christian to go into the streets, even
at night, for the mob was shouting that all who would not blaspheme should
be burnt. The riot was stopped by the civil war, but the new Emperor Decius
instituted a legal persecution in January, 250. St. Cyprian describes how
at Carthage the Christians rushed to sacrifice, or at least to obtain false
certificates of having done so. Similarly Dionysius tells us that at Alexandria
many conformed through fear, others on account of official position, or
persuaded by friends; some pale and trembling at their act, others boldly
asserting that they had never been Christians. Some endured imprisonment
for a time; others abjured only at the sight of tortures; others held out
until the tortures conquered their resolution. But there were noble instances
of constancy. Julian and Kronion were scourged through the city on camels,
and then burnt to death. A soldier, Besas, who protected them from the insults
of the people, was beheaded. Macar, a Libyan, was burnt alive. Epimachus
and Alexander, after long imprisonment and many tortures, were also burnt,
with four women. The virgin Ammomarion also was long tortured. The aged Mercuria
and Dionysia, a mother of many children, suffered by the sword. Heron, Ater,
and Isidore, Egyptians, after many tortures were given to the flames. A boy
of fifteen, Dioscorus, who stood firm under torture, was dismissed by the
judge for very shame. Nemesion was tortured and scourged, and then burnt
between two robbers. A number of soldiers, and with them an old man named
Ingenuus, made indignant signs to one who was on his trial and about to apostatize.
When called to order they cried out that they were Christians with such boldness
that the governor and his assessors were taken aback; they suffered a glorious
martyrdom. Numbers were martyred in the cities and villages. A steward named
Ischyrion was pierced through the stomach by his master with a large stake
because he refused to sacrifice. Many fled, wandered in the deserts and the
mountains, and were cut off by hunger, thirst, cold, sickness, robbers, or
wild beasts. A bishop named Chæremon escaped with his s&úmbios
(wife?) to the Arabian mountain, and was no more heard of. Many were carried
off as slaves by the Saracens and some of these were later ransomed for large
sums.
Some of the lapsed had been readmitted to Christian fellowship
by the martyrs. Dionysius urged upon Fabius, Bishop of Antioch, who was
inclined to join Novatian, that it was right to respect this judgment delivered
by blessed martyrs "now seated with Christ, and sharers in His Kingdom and
assessors in His judgment". He adds the story of an old man, Serapion, who
after a long and blameless life had sacrificed, and could obtain absolution
from no one. On his death-bed he sent his grandson to fetch a priest. The
priest was ill, but he gave a particle of the Eucharist to the child, telling
him to moisten it and place it in the old man's mouth. Serapion received
it with joy, and immediately expired. Sabinus, the prefect, sent a frumentarius
(detective) to search for Dionysius directly the decree was published; he
looked everywhere but in Dionysius's own house, where the saint had quietly
remained. On the fourth day he was inspired to depart, and he left at night,
with his domestics and certain brethren. But it seems that he was soon made
prisoner, for soldiers escorted the whole party to Taposiris in the Mareotis.
A certain Timotheus, who had not been taken with the others, informed a
passing countryman, who carried the news to a wedding-feast he was attending.
All instantly rose up and rushed to release the bishop. The soldiers took
to flight, leaving their prisoners on their uncushioned litters. Dionysius,
believing his rescuers to be robbers, held out his clothes to them, retaining
only his tunic. They urged him to rise and fly. He begged them to leave
him, declaring that they might as well cut off his head at once, as the
soldiers would shortly do so. He let himself down on the ground on his back;
but they seized him by the hands and feet and dragged him away, carrying
him out of the little town, and setting him on an ass without a saddle.
With two companions, Gaius and Peter, he remained in a desert place in Libya
until the persecution ceased in 251. The whole Christian world was then
thrown into confusion by the news that Novatian claimed the Bishopric of
Rome in opposition to Pope Cornelius. Dionysius at once took the side of
the latter, and it was largely by his influence that the whole East, after
much disturbance, was brought in a few months into unity and harmony. Novatian
wrote to him for support. His curt reply has been preserved entire: Novatian
can easily prove the truth of his protestation that he was consecrated against
his will by voluntarily retiring; he ought to have suffered martyrdom rather
than divide the Church of God; indeed it would have been a particularly glorious
martyrdom on behalf of the whole Church (such is the importance attached
by Dionysius to a schism at Rome); if he can even now persuade his party
to make peace, the past will be forgotten; if not, let him save his own soul.
St. Dionysius also wrote many letters on this question to Rome and to the
East; some of these were treatises on penance. He took a somewhat milder
view than Cyprian, for he gave greater weight to the "indulgences" granted
by the martyrs, and refused forgiveness in the hour of death to none.
After the persecution the pestilence. Dionysius describes
it more graphically than does St. Cyprian, and he reminds us of Thucydides
and Defoe. The heathen thrust away their sick, fled from their own relatives,
threw bodies half dead into the streets; yet they suffered more than the
Christians, whose heroic acts of mercy are recounted by their bishop. Many
priests, deacons, and persons of merit died from succouring others, and this
death, writes Dionysius, was in no way inferior to martyrdom. The baptismal
controversy spread from Africa throughout the East. Dionysius was far from
teaching, like Cyprian, that baptism by a heretic rather befouls than cleanses;
but he was impressed by the opinion of many bishops and some councils that
repetition of such a baptism was necessary, and it appears that he besought
Pope Stephen not to break off communion with the Churches of Asia on this
account. He also wrote on the subject to Dionysius of Rome, who was not yet
pope, and to a Roman named Philemon, both of whom had written to him. We know
seven letters from him on the subject, two being addressed to Pope Sixtus
II. In one of these he asks advice in the case of a man who had received baptism
a long time before from heretics, and now declared that it had been improperly
performed. Dionysius had refused to renew the sacrament after the man had
so many years received the Holy Eucharist; he asks the pope's opinion. In
this case it is clear that the difficulty was in the nature of the ceremonies
used, not in the mere fact of their having been performed by heretics. We
gather than Dionysius himself followed the Roman custom, either by the tradition
of his Church, or else out of obedience to the decree of Stephen. In 253
Origen died; he had not been at Alexandria for many years. But Dionysius
had not forgotten his old master, and wrote a letter in his praise to Theotecnus
of Cæsarea.
An Egyptian bishop, Nepos, taught
the Chiliastic error that there would be a reign of Christ upon earth for
a thousand years, a period of corporal delights; he founded this doctrine
upon the Apocalypse in a book entitled "Refutation of the Allegorizers".
It was only after the death of Nepos that Dionysius found himself obliged
to write two books "On the Promises" to counteract this error. He treats
Nepos with great respect, but rejects his doctrine, as indeed the Church
has since done, though it was taught by Papias, Justin, Irenæus, Victorinus
of Pettau, and others. The diocese proper to Alexandria was still very large
(though Heraclas is said to have instituted new bishoprics), and the Arsinoite
nome formed a part of it. Here the error was very prevalent, and St. Dionysius
went in person to the villages, called together the priests and teachers,
and for three days instructed them, refuting the arguments they drew from
the book of Nepos. He was much edified by the docile spirit and love of
truth which he found. At length Korakion, who had introduced the book and
the doctrine, declared himself convinced. The chief interest of the incident
is not in the picture it gives of ancient Church life and of the wisdom
and gentleness of the bishop, but in the remarkable disquisition, which
Dionysius appends, on the authenticity of the Apocalypse. It is a very striking
piece of "higher criticism", and for clearness and moderation, keenness
and insight, is hardly to be surpassed. Some of the brethren, he tells
us, in their zeal against Chiliastic error, repudiated the Apocalypse altogether,
and took it chapter by chapter to ridicule it, attributing the authorship
of it to Cerinthus (as we know the Roman Gaius did some years earlier).
Dionysius treats it with reverence, and declares it to be full of hidden
mysteries, and doubtless really by a man called John. (In a passage now lost,
he showed that the book must be understood allegorically.) But he found it
hard to believe that the writer could be the son of Zebedee, the author of
the Gospel and of the Catholic Epistle, on account of the great contrast
of character, style and "what is called working out". He shows that the one
writer calls himself John, whereas the other only refers to himself by some
periphrasis. He adds the famous remark, that "it is said that there are two
tombs in Ephesus, both of which are called that of John". He demonstrates
the close likeness between the Gospel and the Epistle, and points out the
wholly different vocabulary of the Apocalypse; the latter is full of solecisms
and barbarisms, while the former are in good Greek. This acute criticism
was unfortunate, in that it was largely the cause of the frequent rejection
of the Apocalypse in the Greek-speaking Churches, even as late as the Middle
Ages. Dionysius's arguments appeared unanswerable to the liberal critics
of the nineteenth century. Lately the swing of the pendulum has brought many,
guided by Bousset, Harnack, and others, to be impressed rather by the undeniable
points of contact between the Gospel and the Apocalypse, than by the differences
of style (which can be explained by a different scribe and interpreter,
since the author of both books was certainly a Jew), so that even Loisy
admits that the opinion of the numerous and learned conservative scholars
"no longer appears impossible". But it should be noted that the modern
critics have added nothing to the judicious remarks of the third-century
patriarch.
The Emperor Valerian, whose
accession was in 253, did not persecute until 257. In that year St. Cyprian
was banished to Curubis, and St. Dionysius to Kephro in the Mareotis, after
being tried together with one priest and two deacons before Æmilianus,
the prefect of Egypt. He himself relates the firm answers he made to the
prefect, writing to defend himself against a certain Germanus, who had accused
him of a disgraceful flight. Cyprian suffered in 258, but Dionysius was spared,
and returned to Alexandria directly sentence against original--> when
toleration was decreed by Gallienus in 260. But not to peace, for in 261-2
the city was in a state of tumult little less dangerous than a persecution.
The great thoroughfare which traversed the town was impassable. The bishop
had to communicate with his flock by letter, as though they were in different
countries. It was easier, he writes, to pass from East to West, than from
Alexandria to Alexandria. Famine and pestilence raged anew. The inhabitants
of what was still the second city of the world had decreased so that the
males between fourteen and eighty were now scarcely so numerous as those
between forty and seventy had been not many years before. A controversy arose
in the latter years of Dionysius of which the half-Arian Eusebius has been
careful to make no mention. All we know is from St. Athanasius. Some bishops
of the Pentapolis of Upper Libya fell into Sabellianism and denied the distinctness
of the Three Persons of the Blessed Trinity. Dionysius wrote some four letters
to condemn their error, and sent copies to Pope Sixtus II (257-8). But he
himself fell, so far as words go, into the opposite error, for he said the
Son is a poíema (something made) and distinct in substance, xénos
kat’ oùsian, from the Father, even as is the husbandman from the vine,
or a shipbuilder from a ship. These words were seized upon by the Arians
of the fourth century as plain Arianism. But Athanasius defended Dionysius
by telaling the sequel of the history. Certain brethren of Alexandria, being
offended at the words of their bishop, betook themselves to Rome to Pope
St. Dionysius (259- 268), who wrote a letter, in which he declared that to
teach that the Son was made or was a creature was an impiety equal, though
contrary, to that of Sabellius. He also wrote to his namesake of Alexandria
informing him of the accusation brought against him. The latter immediately
composed books entitled "Refutation" and "Apology"; in these he explicitly
declared that there never was a time when God was not Father, that Christ
always was, being Word and Wisdom and Power, and coeternal, even as brightness
is not posterior to the light from which it proceeds. He teaches the "Trinity
in Unity and the Unity in Trinity"; he clearly implies the equality and eternal
procession of the Holy Ghost. In these last points he is more explicit than
St. Athanasius himself is elsewhere, while in the use of the word consubstantial,
‘omoo&úsios, he anticipates Nicæa, for he bitterly complains
of the calumny that he had rejected the expression. But however he himself
and his advocate Athanasius may attempt to explain away his earlier expressions,
it is clear that he had been incorrect in thought as well as in words, and
that he did not at first grasp the true doctrine with the necessary distinctness.
The letter of the pope was evidently explicit and must have been the cause
of the Alexandrian's clearer vision. The pope, as Athanasius points out,
gave a formal condemnation of Arianism long before that heresy emerged. When
we consider the vagueness and incorrectness in the fourth century of even
the supporters of orthodoxy in the East, the decision of the Apostolic See
will seem a marvellous testimony to the doctrine of the Fathers as to the
unfailing faith of Rome.
We find Dionysius issuing yearly, like the later bishops
of Alexandria, festal letters announcing the date of Easter and dealing
with various matters. When the heresy of Paul of Samosata, Bishop of Antioch,
began to trouble the East, Dionysius wrote to the Church of Antioch on the
subject, as he was obliged to decline the invitation to attend a synod there,
on the score of his age and infirmities. He died soon afterwards. St. Dionysius
is in the Roman Martyrology on 17 Nov., but he is also intended, with the
companions of his flight in the Decian persecution, by the mistaken notice
on 3 Oct.: Dionysius, Faustus, Gaius, Peter, and Paul, Martyrs(!). The same
error is found in Greek menologies.
|
283 Pope St. Eutychianus January, 275, until 7 December, 283
Romæ beáti Eutychiáni Papæ, qui per divérsa
loca trecéntos quadragínta duos Mártyres manu sua
sepelívit; quibus et ipse deínde sociátus, sub Numeriáno
Imperatóre, martyrio coronátus est, et in cœmetério
Callísti sepúltus.
At Rome, blessed Eutychian, pope, who with his own
hand buried three hundred and forty-two martyrs in various places.
He himself was joined with them, crowned with martyrdom under Emperor Numerian,
and was buried in the cemetery of Callistus.
283 Pope St. Eutychianus
January, 275, until 7 December, 283 the last pope buried in the
catacombs of St. Callixtus
He succeeded Pope Felix I a few days after the
latter's death, and governed the Church from January, 275, until 7 December,
283. We know no details of his pontificate. The rite for blessing the produce
of the fields, ascribed to him by the "Liber Pontificalis", undoubtedly
belongs to a later period. The statement also that he promulgated rules
for the burial of martyrs and buried many of them with his own hands, has
but slight claim to acceptance, since after the death of Aurelian (275)
the Church enjoyed a long respite from persecution. It is highly probable
that Eutychianus died not die a martyr. The fourth-century Roman Calendar
mentions him (8 December) in the "Depositio Episcoporum", but not in its
list of martyrs. His remains were placed in the papal chapel in the Catacomb
of Callistus. When this famous crypt was discovered the fragments of the
epitaph of Eutychianus were found, i.e. his name (in Greek letters): EUTYCHIANOS
EPIS(KOPOS). His feast is celebrated on 8 December. |
308-309 Pope St. Marcellus
I; a clear historical tradition
in support of his declaration that the ecclesiastical administration in
Rome was reorganized by this pope after the great persecution;
His date of birth unknown; elected pope in May or June, 308;
died in 309. For some time after the death of Marcellinus in 304 the Diocletian
persecution continued with unabated severity. After the abdication of Diocletian
in 305, and the accession in Rome of Maxentius to the throne of the Caesars
in October of the following year, the Christians of the capital again enjoyed
comparative peace. Nevertheless, nearly two years passed before a new Bishop
of Rome was elected. Then in 308, according to the "Catalogus Liberianus",
Pope Marcellus first entered on his office: "Fuit temporibus Maxenti a
cons. X et Maximiano usque post consulatum X et septimum" ("Liber Pontificalis",
ed. Duchesne, I, 6-7). This abbreviated notice is to be read: "A cons.
Maximiano Herculio X et Maximiano Galerio VII [308] usque post cons. Maxim.
Herc. X et Maxim. Galer. VII [309]" (cf. de Rossi, "Inscriptiones christ.
urbis Romæ", I, 30).
At Rome, Marcellus found the Church in the greatest confusion.
The meeting-places and some of the burial-places of the faithful had been
confiscated, and the ordinary life and activity of the Church was interrupted.
Added to this were the dissensions within the Church itself, caused by
the large number of weaker members who had fallen away during the long
period of active persecution and later, under the leadership of an apostate,
violently demanded that they should be readmitted to communion without
doing penance.
According to the "Liber Pontificalis" Marcellus divided
the territorial administration of the Church into twenty-five districts (tituli),
appointing over each a presbyter, who saw to the preparation of the catechumens
for baptism and directed the performance of public penances. The presbyter
was also made responsible for the burial of the dead and for the celebrations
commemorating the deaths of the martyrs. The pope also had a new burial-place,
the Cœmeterium Novellœ on the Via Salaria (opposite the Catacomb of St.
Priscilla), laid out. The "Liber Pontificalis" (ed. Duchesne, I, 164) says:
"Hic fecit cymiterium Novellae via Salaria et XXV titulos in urbe Roma constituit
quasi diœcesis propter baptismum et pœnitentiam multorum qui convertebantur
ex paganis et propter sepulturas martyrum". At the beginning of the seventh
century there were probably twenty-five titular churches in Rome; even granting
that, perhaps, the compiler of the "Liber Pontificalis" referred this number
to the time of Marcellus, there is still a clear historical tradition in
support of his declaration that the ecclesiastical administration in Rome
was reorganized by this pope after the great persecution.
The work of the pope was, however, quickly interrupted by the controversies
to which the question of the readmittance of the lapsi into the Church
gave rise. As to this, we gather some light from the poetic tribute composed
by Damasus in memory of his predecessor and placed over his grave (De Rossi,
"Inscr. christ. urbis Romæ", II, 62, 103, 138; cf. Idem, "Roma sotterranea",
II, 204-5). Damasus relates that the truth-loving leader of the Roman Church
was looked upon as a wicked enemy by all the lapsed, because he insisted
that they should perform the prescribed penance for their guilt. As a result
serious conflicts arose, some of which ended in bloodshed, and every bond
of peace was broken. At the head of this band of the unfaithful and rebellious
stood an apostate who had denied the Faith even before the outbreak of persecution.
The tyrannical Maxentius had the pope seized and sent into
exile. This took place at the end of 308 or the beginning of 309 according
to the passages cited above from the "Catalogus Liberianus", which gives
the length of the pontificate as no more than one year, six (or seven) months,
and twenty days. Marcellus died shortly after leaving Rome, and was venerated
as a saint. His feast-day was 16 January, according to the "Depositio episcoporum"
of the "Chronography" of 354 and every other Roman authority. Nevertheless,
it is not known whether this is the date of his death or that of the burial
of his remains, after these had been brought back from the unknown quarter
to which he had been exiled. He was buried in the catacomb of St. Priscilla
where his grave is mentioned by the itineraries to the graves of the Roman
martyrs as existing in the basilica of St. Silvester (De Rossi, "Roma sotterranea",
I, 176)
A fifth-century "Passio Marcelli", which is included in the legendary
account of the martyrdom of St. Cyriacus (cf. Acta Sanct., Jan., II, 369)
and is followed by the "Liber Pontificalis", gives a different account of
the end of Marcellus. According to this version, the pope was required by
Maxentius, who was enraged at his reorganization of the Church, to lay aside
his episcopal dignity and make an offering to the gods. On his refusal,
he was condemned to work as a slave at a station on the public highway (catabulum).
At the end of nine months he was set free by the clergy; but a matron named
Lucina having had her house on the Via Lata consecrated by him as "titulus
Marcelli" he was again condemned to the work of attending to the horses
brought into the station, in which menial occupation he died. All this is
probably legendary, the reference to the restoration of ecclesiastical activity
by Marcellus alone having an historical basis. The tradition related in
the verses of Damasus seems much more worthy of belief. The feast of St.
Marcellus, whose name is to this day borne by the church at Rome mentioned
in the above legend, is still celebrated on 16 January. There still remains
to be mentioned Mommsen's peculiar view that Marcellus was not really a bishop,
but a simple Roman presbyter to whom was committed the ecclesiastical administration
during the latter part of the period of vacancy of the papal chair. According
to this view, 16 January was really the date of Marcellunus's death, the
next occupant of the chair being Eusebius (Neues Archiv, 1896, XXI, 350-3).
This hypothesis has, however, found no support.
|
Eusebius 309 or 310 short reign
four months, from 18 April to 17 August, 309 or 310 baptized The Emperor Constantine; a
martyr, and in his epitaph Pope Damasus honours Eusebius with this title.
His feast is yet celebrated on 26 September.
Successor of Marcellus,
309 or 310. His reign was short. The Liberian Catalogue gives its
duration as only four months, from 18 April to 17 August, 309 or 310. We
learn some details of his career from an epitaph for his tomb which Pope
Damasus ordered. This epitaph had come down to us through ancient transcripts.
A few fragments of the original, together with a sixth-century marble copy
made to replace the original, after its destruction were found by De Rossi
in the Papal Chapel, in the catacombs of Callistus. It appears from this
epitaph that the grave internal dissentions caused in the Roman Church by
the readmittance of the apostates (lapsi) during the persecution of Diocletian,
and which had already arisen under Marcellus, continued under Eusebius.
The latter maintained the attitude of the Roman Church, adopted after the
Decian persecutions (250-51), that the apostates should not be forever debarred
from ecclesiastical communion, but on the other hand, should be readmitted
only after doing proper penance (Eusebius miseros docuit sua crimina flere).
This view was opposed by a faction of Christians in Rome under the leadership
of one Heraclius. Whether the latter and his partisans advocated a more
rigorous (Novationist) or a more lenient interpretation of the law has not
been ascertained. The latter, however, is by far more probable in the hypothesis
that Heraclius was the chief of a party made up of apostates and their followers,
who demanded immediate restoration to the body of the Church. Damasus characterizes
in very strong terms the conflict which ensued (seditcio, cœdes, bellum,
discordia, lites). It is likely that Heraclius and his supporters sought
to compel by force their admittance to divine worship, which was resented
by the faithful gathered in Rome about Eusebius. In consequence both Eusebius
and Heraclius were exiled by Emperor Maxentius. Eusebius, in particular,
was deported to Sicily, where he died soon after. Miltiades ascended the
papal throne, 2 July, 311. The body of his predecessor was brought back to
Rome, probably in 311, and 26 September (according to the "Depositio Episcoporum"
in the chronographer of 354) was placed in a separate cubiculum of the Catacomb
of Callistus. His firm defense of ecclesiastical discipline and the banishment
which he suffered therefor caused him to be venerated as a martyr, and in
his epitaph Pope Damasus honours Eusebius with this title. His feast is
yet celebrated on 26 September.
|
314 Pope St. Miltiades { also
written Melchiades), a native of Africa} 310 or 311; died 10 or 11 January, 314
The year of his birth
is not known; he was elected pope in either 310 or 311; died 10 or 11 January,
314.
After the banishment of Pope Eusebius, the Roman See was
vacant for some time, probably because of the complications which has arisen
on account of the apostates (lapsi), and which were not cleared up by the
banishment of Eusebius and Heraclius. On 2 July, 310 or 311, Miltiadea
(the name is also written Melchiades), a native of Africa, was elevated
to the papacy. There is some uncertainty as to the exact year, as the "Liberian
Catalogue of the Popes" (Duchesne, "Liber Pontificalis", I, 9) gives 2 July,
311, as the date of the consecration of the new pope (ex die VI non. iul.
a cons. Maximiliano VIII solo, quod fuit mense septembri Volusiano et Rufino);
but in contradiction to this the death of the pope is said to have occurred
on 2 January, 314, and the duration of the pontificate is given as three
years, six months and eight days; possibly owing to the mistake of a copyist,
we ought to read "ann. II" instead of "ann. III"; and therefore the year
of his elevation to the papacy was most probably 311.
About this time (311 or 310), an edict of toleration signed
by the Emperors Galerius, Licinius, and Constantine, put an end to the
great persecution of the Christians, and they were permitted to live as
such, and also to reconstruct their places of religious worship (Eusebius,
"Hist. Eccl.", VIII, xvii; Lactantius, "De mortibus persecutorum", xxxiv).
Only in those countries of the Orient which were under the sway of Maximinus
Daia did the Christians continue to be persecuted. The emperor now gave
Pope Miltiades in Rome the right to receive back, through the prefect of
the city, all ecclesiastical buildings and possessions which had been confiscated
during the persecutions. The two Roman deacons, Strato and Cassianus, were
ordered by the pope to discuss this matter with the prefect, and to take
over the church properties (Augustinus, "Breviculus collationis cum Donatistis",
iii, 34); it thus became possible to reorganize thoroughly the ecclesiastical
administration and the religious life of the Christians in Rome.
Miltiades caused
the remains of his predecessor, Eusebius, to be brought back from Sicily
to Rome, and had them interred in a crypt in the Catacombs of St. Callistus.
In the following year the pope witnessed the final triumph of the Cross,
through the defeat of Maxentius, and the entry into Rome of the Emperor
Constantine (now converted to Christianity), after the victory at the Milvian
Bridge (27 October, 312). Later the emperor presented the Roman Church with
the Lateran Palace, which then became the residence of the pope, and consequently
also the seat of the seat of the central administration of the Roman Church.
The basilica which adjoined the palace or was afterwards built there became
the principal church of Rome. In 313 the Donatists came to Constantine with
a request to nominate bishops from Gaul as judges in the controversy of
the African episcopate regarding the consecration in Carthage of the two
bishops, Cæcilian and Majorinus. Constantine wrote about this to Miltiades,
and also to Marcus, requesting the pope with three bishops from Gaul to
give a hearing in Rome, to Cæcilian and his opponent, and to decide
the case. On 2 October, 313, there assembled in the Lateran Palace, under
the presidency of Miltiades, a synod of eighteen bishops from Gaul and Italy,
which, after thoroughly considring the Donatist controversy for three days,
decided in favor of Cæcilian, whose election and consecration as Bishop
of Carthage was declared to be legitimate. In the biography of Miltiades,
in the "Liber Pontificalis", it is stated that at the time Manichæans
were found in Rome; this was quite possible as Manichæism began to
be spread in the West in the fourth century. The same source attributes to
this pope a decree which absolutely forbade the Christians to fast on Sundays
or on Thursdays, "because these days were observed by the heathen as a holy
fast". This reason is remarkable; it comes most likely from the author of
the "Liber Pontificalis" who with this alleged decree traces back a Roman
custom of his own time to an ordinance of Miltiades. The "Liber Pontificalis"
is probably no less arbitrary in crediting this pope with a decree to the
effect that the Oblation consecrated at the Solemn Mass of the pope (by which
is meant the Eucharistic Bread) should be taken to the different churches
in Rome. Such a custom actually existed in Rome (Duchesne, "Christian Worship,"
London, 1903, 185); but there is nothing definite to show that it was introduced
byMiltiades, as the "Liber Pontificalis" asserts.
After his death, on 10 or 11 January (the Liberian Catalogue"
give it as III id. jan.; the "Depositio Episcoporum" as IIII id. jan.),
314, Miltiades was laid to rest in the Catacomb of St. Callistus and he
was venerated as a saint. De Rossi regards as highly probably his [this]
location of this pope's burial-chamber (Roma Sotterranea, II, 188 sq.).
His feast was celebrated in the fourth century, on 10 January, according
to the "Martyrologium Hieronymianum". In the present "Roman Martyrology"
it occurs on 10 December.
|
336
Pope St. Mark; Constantine the Great's letter, which summoned
a conference of bishops for the investigation of the Donatist dispute,
is directed to Pope Miltiades and one Mark (Eusebius, Church History X.5).
This Mark was evidently a member of the Roman clergy, either priest or first
deacon, and is perhaps identical with the pope. The date of Mark's election
(18 Jan., 336) is given in the Liberian Catalogue of popes (Duchesne, "Liber
Pontificalis", I, 9), and is historically certain; so is the day of his
death (7 Oct.), which is specified in the same way in the "Depositio episcoporum"
of Philocalus's "Chronography", the first edition of which appeared also
in 336.
Date of birth unknown; consecrated 18 Jan., 336; d. 7 Oct.,
336. After the death of Pope Sylvester, Mark was raised to the Roman episcopal
chair as his successor. The "Liber Pontificalis" says that he was a Roman,
and that his father's name was Priscus. Constantine the Great's letter,
which summoned a conference of bishops for the investigation of the Donatist
dispute, is directed to Pope Miltiades and one Mark (Eusebius, Church History
X.5). This Mark was evidently a member of the Roman clergy, either priest
or first deacon, and is perhaps identical with the pope. The date of Mark's
election (18 Jan., 336) is given in the Liberian Catalogue of popes (Duchesne,
"Liber Pontificalis", I, 9), and is historically certain; so is the day
of his death (7 Oct.), which is specified in the same way in the "Depositio
episcoporum" of Philocalus's "Chronography", the first edition of which
appeared also in 336. Concerning an interposition of the pope in the Arian
troubles, which were then so actively affecting the Church in the East,
nothing has been handed down. An alleged letter of his to St. Athanasius
is a later forgery. Two constitutions are attributed to Mark by the author
of the "Liber Pontificalis" (ed. Duchesne, I, 20). According to the one,
he invested the Bishop of Ostia with the pallium, and ordained that this
bishop was to consecrate the Bishop of Rome. It is certain that, towards
the end of the fourth century, the Bishop of Ostia did bestow the episcopal
consecration upon the newly-elected pope; Augustine expressly bears witness
to this (Breviarium Collationis, III, 16). It is indeed possible that Mark
had confirmed this privilege by a constitution, which does not preclude
the fact that the Bishop of Ostia before this time usually consecrated the
new pope. As for the bestowal of the pallium, the account cannot be established
from sources of the fourth century, since the oldest memorials which show
this badge, belong to the fifth and sixth centuries, and the oldest written
mention of a pope bestowing the pallium dates from the sixth century (cf.
Grisar, "Das römische Pallium und die altesten liturgischen Schärpen",
in "Festschrift des deutschen Campo Santo in Rom", Freiburg im Br., 1897,
83-114).
The "Liber Pontificalis" remarks further of Marcus: "Et constitutum
de omni ecclesia ordinavit"; but we do not know which constitution this
refers to. The building of two basilicas is attributed to this pope by the
author of the "Liber Pontificalis". One of these was built within the city
in the region "juxta Pallacinis"; it is the present church of San Marco,
which however received its present external shape by later alterations.
It is mentioned in the fifth century as a Roman title church, so that its
foundation may without difficulty be attributed to St. Mark. The other was
outside the city; it was a cemetery church, which the pope got built over
the Catacomb of Balbina, between the Via Appia and the Via Ardeatina (cf.
de Rossi, "Roma sotterranea", III, 8-13; "Bullettino di arch. crist.", 1867,
1 sqq.; Wilpert, "Topographische Studien uber die christlichen Monumente
der Appia und der Ardeatina", in "Rom. Quartalschrift", 1901, 32-49). The
pope obtained from Emperor Constantine gifts of land and liturgical furniture
for both basilicas. Mark was buried in the Catacomb of Balbina, where he
had built the cemetery church. His grave is expressly mentioned there by
the itineraries of the seventh century (de Rossi, "Roma sotterranea", I,
180-1). The feast of the deceased pope was given on 7 Oct. in the old Roman
calendar of feasts, which was inserted in the "Martyrologium Hieronymianum";
it is still kept on the same date. In an ancient manuscript a laudatory poem
is preserved (unfortunately in a mutilated text), which Pope Damasus had
composed on a Saint Marcus (de Rossi, "Inscriptiones christ. urbis Romae.",
II, 108; Ihm, "Damasi epigrammata", Leipzig, 1895, 17, no. 11). De Rossi
refers this to Pope Mark, but Duchesne (loc. cit., 204), is unable to accept
this view. Since the contents of the poem are of an entirely general nature,
without any particularly characteristic feature from the life of Pope Mark,
the question is not of great importance.
|
336 St. Julius elected
Pope to succeed Pope St. Mark on February 6, 337 built several basilicas
and churches in Rome declared that Athanasius was the rightful bishop of
Alexandria and reinstated him
(337-352 ).
The immediate successor of Pope Silvester, Arcus, ruled the
Roman Church for only a very short period — from 18 January to 7 October,
336 — and after his death the papal chair remained vacant for four months.
What occasioned this comparatively long vacancy is unknown. On 6 Feb., 337,
Julius, son of Rustics and a native of Rome, was elected pope. His pontificate
is chiefly celebrated for his judicious and firm intervention in the Arian
controversies, about which we have abundant sources of information. After
the death of Constantine the Great (22 May, 337), his son Constantine II,
Governor of Gaul, permitted the exiled Athanasius to return to his See of
Alexandria (see ATHANASIUS). The Arians in Egypt, however, set up a rival
bishop in the person of Pistus, and sent an embassy to Julius asking him
to admit Pistus into communion with Rome, and delivering to the pope the decisions
of the Council of Tyre (335) to prove that Athanasius had been validly deposed.
On his side Athanasius likewise sent envoys to Rome to deliver to Julius
a synodal letter of the Egyptian bishops, containing a complete justification
of their patriarch. On the arrival of the Athanasian envoys in Rome, Macarius,
the head of the Arian representatives, left the city; the two remaining Arian
envoys, with the Athanasian deputies, were summoned by Pope Julius. The
Arian envoys now begged the pope to assemble a great synod before which both
parties should present their case for decision.
Julius convened the synod at
Rome, having dispatched two envoys to bear a letter of invitation to the
Eastern bishops. Under the leadership of Eusebius, who had been raised from
Nicomedia to the See of Constantinople, the Arian bishops had meanwhile
held a council at Antioch, and elected George of Cappadocia Bishop of Alexandria
in the place of Pistus. George was intruded forcibly into his see, and Athanasius,
being again exiled, made his way to Rome. Many other Eastern bishops removed
by the Arian party, among them Marcellus of Ancyra, also came to Rome.
In a letter couched in haughty terms, however, the Arian bishops of the
party of Eusebius refused to attend the synod summoned by Julius. The synod
was held in the autumn of 340 or 341, under the presidency of the pope,
in the titular church of the presbyter Vitus. After a detailed examination
of the documents, Athanasius and Marcellus of Ancyra, who had made a satisfactory
profession of faith, were exonerated and re-established in their episcopal
rights. Pope Julius communicated this decision in a very notable and able
letter to the bishops of the Eusebian party. In this letter he justifies
his proceedings in the case, defends in detail his action in reinstating
Athanasius, and animadverts strongly on the non-appearance of the Eastern
bishops at the council, the convening of which they themselves had suggested.
Even if Athanasius and his companions were somewhat to blame, the letter
runs, the Alexandrian Church should first have written to the pope. "Can
you be ignorant," writes the pope, "that this is the custom, that we should
be written to first, so that from here what is just may be defined" (Julii
ep. ad Antiochenos, c. xxii). After his victory over his brother Constantine
II, Emperor Constans was ruler over the greater part of the Empire. He was
entirely orthodox in his views, and, at the request of the pope and other
Western bishops, interceded with his brother Constantius, Emperor of the
East, in favour of the bishops who had been deposed and persecuted by the
Arian party. Both rulers agreed that there should be convened a general council
of the Western and Eastern bishops at Sardica, the principal city of the
Province of Dacia Mediterranea (the modern Sofia). It took place in the autumn
of 342 or 343, Julius sending as his representatives the priests Archidamus
and Philoxenus and the deacon Leo. Although the Eastern bishops of the Arian
party did not join in the council, but held their assembly separate and then
departed, the synod nevertheless accomplished its task. Through the important
canons iii, iv, and v (vii in the Latin text) of this council, the procedure
against accused bishops was more exactly regulated, and the manner of the
papal intervention in the condemnation of bishops was definitely established.
At the close of its transactions the synod communicated its
decisions to the pope in a dutiful letter. Notwithstanding the reaffirmation
of his innocence by the Synod of Sardica, St. Athanasius was not restored
to his see by Emperor Constantius until after the death of George, the rival
Bishop of Alexandria, in 346. Pope Julius took this occasion to write a letter,
which is still extant, to the priests, deacons, and the faithful of Alexandria,
to congratulate them on the return of their great pastor. The two bishops
Ursacius of Singidunum and Valens of Mursia, who, on account of their Arianism,
had been deposed by the Council of Sardica, now made a formal recantation
of their error to Julius, who, having summoned them to an audience and received
a signed confession of faith, restored to them their episcopal sees. Concerning
the inner life of the Roman Church during the pontificate of Julius we
have no exact information; all agree, however, that there was a rapid increase
in the number of the faithful in Rome, where Julius had two new basilicas
erected: the titular church of Julius (now S. Maria in Trastevere) and the
Basilica Julia (now the Church of the Twelve Apostles). Beside these he
built three churches over cemeteries outside the walls of Rome: one on the
road to Porto, a second on the Via Aurelia, and a third on the Via Flaminia
at the tomb of the martyr St. Valentine. The ruins of the last-mentioned
have been discovered. The veneration of the faithful for the tombs of the
martyrs continued to spread rapidly. Under the pontificate of Julius, if
not earlier, catalogues of feast-days of saints came into use — the Roman
feast-calendar of Philocalus dates from the year 336.
|
335 St. Sylvester
Pope (25 yrs) council of Aries and Nicea stand aside and let events
take their course, when asserting one’s authority would only lead to useless
tension and strife.
St. Sylvester, born in Rome,
was ordained by Pope St. Marcellinus
during the peace that preceded the persecutions of Diocletian. He passed through
those days of terror, witnessed the abdication of Diocletian and Maximian, and
saw the triumph of Constantine in
the year 312. Two years later he succeeded St. Melchiades as Bishop of Rome.
In the same year, he sent four legates to represent him at
the great Council of the Western Church, held at Aries. He confirmed it's decision and
imparted them to the Church.
The Council
of Nicea was assembled during his reign, in the year 325, but not
being able to assist at it in person, on account of his great age, he sent
his legates, who headed the list of subscribers to its decrees, preceding
the Patriarchs of Alexandria and Antioch.
St. Sylvester was Pope for twenty-four
years and eleven months.
When you think of this pope,
you think of the Edict
of Milan, the emergence
of the Church from the catacombs, the building of the great basilicas, Saint
John Lateran, Saint Peter’s and others, the Council of Nicaea and other critical events.
But for the most part, these events
were planned or brought about by Emperor Constantine.
A great store of legends has
grown up around the man who was pope at this most important time, little
can be established historically. We know for sure that his papacy lasted
from 314 until his death in 335.
Reading between the lines of
history, we are assured that only a very strong and wise man could have
preserved the essential independence of the Church in the face of the overpowering
figure of the Emperor Constantine. The bishops in general remained loyal
to the Holy See and at times expressed apologies to Sylvester for undertaking
important ecclesiastical projects at the urging of Constantine.
Comment: It takes deep
humility and courage in the face of criticism for a leader to stand aside
and let events take their course, when asserting one’s authority would
only lead to useless tension and strife.
Sylvester teaches a valuable lesson
for Church leaders, politicians, parents and others in authority.
|
366 384 Pope Saint
Damasus I commissioned Saint Jerome translate Scriptures in Latin
All lovers of Scripture have reason to celebrate this day. Damasus was
the pope who commissioned Saint Jerome to translate the Scriptures into Latin,
the Vulgate version of the Bible.
Pope Saint Damasus I (RM) December 11
Pope St. Damasus I
tt=21
Born about 304; died 11 December, 384. His father, Antonius, was probably
a Spaniards; the name of his mother, Laurentia, was not known until quite
recently. Damasus seems to have been born at Rome; it is certain that he
grew up there in the service of the church of the martyr St. Laurence. He
was elected pope in October, 366, by a large majority, but a number of over-zealous
adherents of the deceased Liberius rejected him, chose the deacon Ursinus
(or Ursicinus), had the latter irregularly consecrated, and resorted to
much violence and bloodshed in order to seat him in the Chair of Peter.
Many details of this scandalous conflict are related in the highly prejudiced
"Libellus Precum" (P.L., XIII, 83-107), a petition to the civil authority
on the part of Faustinus and Marcellinus, two anti-Damasan presbyters (cf.
also Ammianus Marcellinus, Rer. Gest., XXVII, c. iii). Valentinian recognized
Damasus and banished (367) Ursinus to Cologne, whence he was later allowed
to return to Milan, but was forbidden to come to Rome or its vicinity. The
party of the antipope (later at Milan an adherent of the Arians and to the
end a contentious pretender) did not cease to persecute Damasus. An accusation
of adultery was laid against him (378) in the imperial court, but he was
exonerated by Emperor Gratian himself (Mansi, Coll. Conc., III, 628) and
soon after by a Roman synod of forty-four bishops (Liber Pontificalis, ed.
Duchesne, s.v.; Mansi, op. cit., III, 419) which also excommunicated his
accusers.
Damasus defended with vigour the Catholic Faith in a time of dire and
varied perils. In two Roman synods (368 and 369) he condemned Apollinarianism
and Macedonianism; he also sent his legates to the Council of Constantinople
(381), convoked against the aforesaid heresies. In the Roman synod of 369
(or 370) Auxentius, the Arian Bishop of Milan, was excommunicated; he held
the see, however, until his death, in 374, made way for St. Ambrose. The
heretic Priscillian, condemned by the Council of Saragossa (380) appealed
to Damasus, but in vain. It was Damasus who induced Saint Jerome to undertake
his famous revision of the earlier Latin versions of the Bible (see VULGATE).
St. Jerome was also his confidential secretary for some time (Ep. cxxiii,
n. 10). An important canon of the New Testament was proclaimed by him in
the Roman synod of 374. The Eastern Church, in the person of St. Basil of
Cæsarea, besought earnestly the aid and encouragement of Damasus against
triumphant Arianism; the pope, however, cherished some degree of suspicion
against the great Cappadocian Doctor. In the matter of the Meletian Schism
at Antioch, Damasus, with Athanasius and Peter of Alexandria, sympathized
with the party of Paulinus as more sincerely representative of Nicene orthodoxy;
on the death of Meletius he sought to secure the succession for Paulinus
and to exclude Flavian (Socrates, Church History V.15). He sustained the
appeal of the Christian senators to Emperor Gratian for the removal of the
altar of Victory from the Senate House (Ambrose, Ep. xvii, n. 10), and lived
to welcome the famous edict of Theodosius I, "De fide Catholica" (27 Feb.,
380), which proclaimed as the religion of the Roman State that doctrine which
St. Peter had preached to the Romans and of which Damasus was supreme head
(Cod. Theod., XVI, 1, 2).
When, in 379, Illyricum was detached from the Western Empire, Damasus
hastened to safeguard the authority of the Roman Church by the appointment
of a vicar Apostolic in the person of Ascholius, Bishop of Thessalonica;
this was the origin of the important papal vicariate long attached to that
see. The primacy of the Apostolic See, variously favoured in the time of
Damasus by imperial acts and edicts, was strenuously maintained by this
pope; among his notable utterances on this subject is the assertion (Mansi,
Coll. Conc., VIII, 158) that the ecclesiastical supremacy of the Roman Church
was based, not on the decrees of councils, but on the very words of Jesus
Christ (Matthew 16:18). The increased prestige of the early papal decretals,
habitually attributed to the reign of Siricius (384-99), not improbably
belongs to the reign of Damasus ("Canones Romanorum ad Gallos"; Babut, "La
plus ancienne décrétale", Paris, 1904). This development of
the papal office, especially in the West, brought with it a great increase
of external grandeur. This secular splendour, however, affected disadvantageously
many members of the Roman clergy, whose worldly aims and life, bitterly
reproved by St. Jerome, provoked (29 July, 370) and edict of Emperor Valentinian
addressed to the pope, forbidding ecclesiastics and monks (later also bishops
and nuns) to pursue widows and orphans in the hope of obtaining from them
gifts and legacies. The pope caused the law to be observed strictly.
Damasus restored his own church (now San Lorenzo in Damaso) and provided
for the proper housing of the archives of the Roman Church (see VATICAN
ARCHIVES). He built in the basilica of St. Sebastian on the Appian Way the
(yet visible) marble monument known as the "Platonia" (Platona, marble pavement)
in honour of the temporary transfer to that place (258) of the bodies of
Sts. Peter and Paul, and decorated it with an important historical inscription
(see Northcote and Brownlow, Roma Sotterranea). He also built on the Via
Ardeatina, between the cemeteries of Callistus and Domitilla, a basilicula,
or small church, the ruins of which were discovered in 1902 and 1903, and
in which, according to the "Liber Pontificalis", the pope was buried with
his mother and sister. On this occasion the discoverer, Monsignor Wilpert,
found also the epitaph of the pope's mother, from which it was learned not
only that her name was Laurentia, but also that she had lived the sixty years
of her widowhood in the special service of God, and died in her eighty-ninth
year, having seen the fourth generation of her descendants. Damasus built
at the Vatican a baptistery in honour of St. Peter and set up therein one
of his artistic inscriptions (Carmen xxxvi), still preserved in the Vatican
crypts. This subterranean region he drained in order that the bodies buried
there (juxta sepulcrum beati Petri) might not be affected by stagnant or
overflowing water. His extraordinary devotion to the Roman martyrs is now
well known, owing particularly to the labours of Giovanni Battista De Rossi.
For a good account of his architectural restoration of the catacombs and
the unique artistic characters (Damasan Letters) in which his friend Furius
Dionysius Filocalus executed the epitaphs composed by Damasus, see Northcote
and Brownlow, "Roma Sotterranea" (2nd ed., London, 1878-79). The dogmatic
content of the Damasan epitaphs (tituli) is important (Northcote, Epitaphs
of the Catacombs, London, 1878). He composed also a number of brief epigrammata
on various martyrs and saints and some hymns, or Carmina, likewise brief.
St. Jerome says (Ep. xxii, 22) that Damasus wrote on virginity, both in prose
and in verse, but no such work has been preserved. For the few letters of
Damasus (some of them spurious) that have survived, see P.L., XIII, 347-76,
and Jaffé, "Reg. Rom. Pontif." (Leipzig, 1885), nn. 232-254.
Born c. 304; died in Rome in 384. In short, St. Damasus
was a pope whose authority was challenged but who had great literary taste.
Damasus appears to have been born in Rome--the son of a priest of Spanish
extraction. He never married but became a deacon in the Spanish church
of St. Laurence, where his father served.
When Pope Liberius died in 366,
Damasus, then about 60, was chosen bishop of Rome. His election was highly
contested, and a minority elected an antipope, Ursinus, whom they supported
with violence. The opposition was put down by great cruelty by the civil
authorities, and Ursinus was exiled by Emperor Valentinian. The opposition
was not put down immediately, however, and as late as 378, a synod cleared
Damasus of a charge of incontinence cast against him by his opponents.
He enforced Valentinian's edict of 370 forbidding gifts by
widows and orphans to bishops. He was also a vigorous opponent of Arianism,
Apollinarianism, and other heresies. He sent legates to the Council of
Constantinople in 381, which accepted papal teaching, again condemned Arianism,
and denounced the view of Macedonius that the Holy Spirit is not divine.
The place of the Church was stabilized when, in 380, orthodox Christianity
was recognized by the emperors Gratian and Theodosius I as the religion
of the Roman state.
Damasus also devoted much effort to gathering the relics
and resting places of Roman martyrs, and to restoring the sacred catacombs,
and to drawing up instructions for their care. He composed many beautiful
epitaphs--many of which still exist--for the tombs of the martyrs and encouraged
pilgrimages to the tombs. Unfortunately, these epitaphs have little historical
value because the true histories of many Roman martyrs were already lost or
nearly forgotten by that time.
He had placed in the papal crypt of the cemetery of St. Callistus
a general epitaph that ends, "I, Damasus, wished to be buried here, but
I feared to offend the ashes of these holy ones." He was buried with his
mother and sister at a small church he had built on the Via Ardeatina.
By far the most influential action of Damasus was his patronage
of Saint Jerome. He commissioned Jerome to write his Biblical commentaries
and to revise the Latin text of the Bible, which yielded the Vulgate version
of the Bible. St. Jerome, who served as his secretary for a time, called
him "an incomparable man." (Elsewhere I read that St. Jerome left Rome when
Damasus was elected in preference to himself--Jerome was too irascible to
be pope.)
As a biblical scholar, Damasus published the canon of the
Holy Scripture, specifying the authentic books of the Bible as decreed by
a council in Rome in 374. He also saw to the collection and housing of papal
archives (Attwater, Benedictines, Delaney, Encyclopedia, White).
In art St. Damasus is a pope holding a ring. Sometimes he
is shown with St. Jerome; or restoring sacred buildings (Roeder). Or, he
may hold a screen with "Gloria Patri," etc., upon it; or be shown with a
church door behind him (White). St. Damasus is the patron saint of archaeologists
(White).
|
384-399 Pope St. Siricius; lector then Roman Church deacon during Liberius (352-66) pontificate; After death of Damasus, Siricius unanimously
elected successor: A letter, questions
asked on 15 different points concerning baptism, penance, church discipline,
and the celibacy of the clergy, came to Rome addressed to Pope Damasus by
Bishop Himerius of Tarragona, Spain. Siricius answered this letter on 10
February, 385, and gave decisions, exercising full consciousness his supreme
power of authority in the Church (Coustant, "Epist. Rom. Pont.", 625 sq.).
This letter of Siricius is of special importance because it is the oldest
completely preserved papal decretal (edict for the authoritative decision
of questions of discipline and canon law). In all decrees the
pope speaks with consciousness of his supreme ecclesiastical authority and
his pastoral care over all the churches. Siricius was obliged to take
stand against heretical movements; Jovinian
& 8 followers condemned /excluded from communion with the Church; Bishop Bonosus of Sardica (390), accused of errors
in the Trinity dogma & false doctrine that Mary was not
always a virgin; He sharply condemned
episcopal accusers of Priscillian because of that execution; took severe measures against Manichæans
at Rome; In the East Siricius interposed
to settle the Meletian schism at Antioch; At Rome Siricius with basilica
over the grave of St. Paul on Via Ostiensis rebuilt by the emperor as a
basilica of five aisles during pontificate of Siricius dedicated by in
him 390; Siricius's name is still to be found on a pillar not destroyed
in the fire of 1823, and now stands in the vestibule of the side entrance
to the transept.
Born about 334; died 26 November, 399, Siricius was a native
of Rome; his father's name was Tiburtius. Siricius entered the service of
the Church at an early age and, according to the testimony of the inscription
on his grave, was lector and then deacon of the Roman Church during the
pontificate of Liberius (352-66). After the death of Damasus, Siricius was
unanimously elected his successor (December, 384) and consecrated bishop
probably on 17 December. Ursinus, who had been a rival to Damasus (366),
was alive and still maintained his claims. However, the Emperor Valentinian
III, in a letter to Pinian (23 Feb., 385), gave his consent to the election
that had been held and praised the piety of the newly-elected bishop; consequently
no difficulties arose. Immediately upon his elevation Siricius had occasion
to assert his primacy over the universal Church. A letter, in which questions
were asked on fifteen different points concerning baptism, penance, church
discipline, and the celibacy of the clergy, came to Rome addressed to Pope
Damasus by Bishop Himerius of Tarragona, Spain. Siricius answered this letter
on 10 February, 385, and gave the decisions as to the matters in question,
exercising with full consciousness his supreme power of authority in the
Church (Coustant, "Epist. Rom. Pont.", 625 sq.). This letter of Siricius
is of special importance because it is the oldest completely preserved papal
decretal (edict for the authoritative decision of questions of discipline
and canon law). It is, however, certain that before this earlier popes had
also issued such decretals, for Siricius himself in his letter mentions "general
decrees" of Liberius that the latter had sent to the provinces; but these
earlier ones have not been preserved. At the same time the pope directed
Himerius to make known his decrees to the neighbouring provinces, so that
they should also be observed there. This pope had very much at heart the
maintenance of Church discipline and the observance of canons by the clergy
and laity. A Roman synod of 6 January, 386, at which eighty bishops were
present, reaffirmed in nine canons the laws of the Church on various points
of discipline (consecration of bishops, celibacy, etc.). The decisions of
the council were communicated by the pope to the bishops of North Africa
and probably in the same manner to others who had not attended the synod,
with the command to act in accordance with them. Another letter which was
sent to various churches dealt with the election of worthy bishops and priests.
A synodal letter to the Gallican bishops, ascribed by Coustant and others
to Siricius, is assigned to Pope Innocent I by other historians (P.L., XIII,
1179 sq.). In all his decrees the pope speaks with the consciousness of
his supreme ecclesiastical authority and of his pastoral care over all the
churches.
Siricius was also obliged to
take a stand against heretical movements.
A Roman monk Jovinian came forward as an opponent of fasts,
good works, and the higher merit of celibate life. He found some adherents
among the monks and nuns of Rome. About 390-392 the pope held a synod at
Rome, at which Jovinian and eight of his followers were condemned and excluded
from communion with the Church. The decision was sent to St. Ambrose, the
great Bishop of Milan and a friend of Siricius. Ambrose now held a synod
of the bishops of upper Italy which, as the letter says, in agreement with
his decision also condemned the heretics.
Other heretics including Bishop Bonosus of Sardica (390), who
was also accused of errors in the dogma of the Trinity, maintained the false
doctrine that Mary was not always a virgin. Siricius and Ambrose opposed Bonosus
and his adherents and refuted their false views. The pope then left further
proceedings against Bonosus to the Bishop of Thessalonica and the other Illyrian
bishops.
Like his predecessor Damasus, Siricius also took part in
the Priscillian controversy.
He sharply condemned episcopal accusers of Priscillian, who brought
the matter before the secular court and prevailed upon the usurper Maximus
to condemn to death and execute Priscillian and followers. Maximus sought
to justify his action by sending to the pope the proceedings in the case.
Siricius, however, excommunicated Bishop Felix of Trier who supported Ithacius,
accuser of Priscillian, and in whose city the execution took place. The
pope addressed a letter to Spanish bishops in which he stated conditions
under which converted Priscillians were to be restored to communion with
the Church.
According to the life in the "Liber Pontificalis" (ed. Duchesne, I,
216), Siricius also took severe measures against Manichæans at Rome.
However, as Duchesne remarks (loc. cit., notes) it cannot be assumed from
the writings of the converted Augustine, who was a Manichæan when
he went to Rome (383), that Siricius took any particular steps against
them: Augustine would certainly have commented on this if such had been
the case. The mention in the "Liber Pontificalis" belongs properly to the
life of Pope Leo I.
Neither is it probable, as Langen thinks (Gesch. der röm.
Kirche, I, 633), that Priscillians are to be understood by this mention
of Manichæans, although probably Priscillians were at times called
Manichæans in the writings of that age. Western emperors, including
Honorius and Valentinian III, issued laws against Manichæans, whom
they declared to be political offenders, and took severe action against
the members of this sect (Codex Theodosian, XVI, V, various laws).
In the East Siricius interposed to settle the Meletian
schism at Antioch; this schism had continued notwithstanding the death
in 381 of Meletius at the Council of Constantinople. The followers of Meletius
elected Flavian as his successor, while the adherents of Bishop Paulinus,
after the death of this bishop (388), elected Evagrius. Evagrius died in
392 and through Flavian's management no successor was elected. By the mediation
of St. John Chrysostom and Theophilus of Alexandria an embassy, led by Bishop
Acacius of Beroea, was sent to Rome to persuade Siricius to recognize Flavian
and to readmit him to communion with the Church.
At Rome the name of Siricius is particularly connected with the basilica
over the grave of St. Paul on the Via Ostiensis which was rebuilt by the
emperor as a basilica of five aisles during the pontificate of Siricius
and was dedicated by the pope in 390.
The name of Siricius is still to be found on one of the
pillars that was not destroyed in the fire of 1823, and which now stands
in the vestibule of the side entrance to the transept. Two of his contemporaries
describe the character of Siricius disparagingly. Paulinus of Nola, who
on his visit to Rome in 395 was treated in a guarded manner by the pope,
speaks of the urbici papæ superba discretio, the haughty policy of
the Roman bishop (Epist., V, 14). This action of the pope is, however, explained
by the fact that there had been irregularities in the election and consecration
of Paulinus (Buse, "Paulin von Nola", I, 193). Jerome, for his part, speaks
of the "lack of judgment" of Siricius (Epist., cxxvii, 9) on account of
the latter's treatment of Rufinus of Aquileia, to whom the pope had given
a letter when Rufinus left Rome in 398, which showed that he was in communion
with the Church. The reason, however, does not justify the judgment which
Jerome expressed against the pope; moreover, Jerome in his polemical writings
often exceeds the limits of propriety. All that is known of the labours
of Siricius refutes the criticism of the caustic hermit of Bethlehem. The
"Liber Pontificalis" gives an incorrect date for his death; he was buried
in the cæmeterium of Priscilla on the Via Salaria. The text of the
inscription on his grave is known (De Rossi, "Inscriptiones christ. urbis
Romæ", II, 102, 138). His feast is celebrated on 26 November. His
name was inserted in the Roman Martyrology by Benedict XIV.
|
401 Anastasius I, Pope condemnation of
Origen Saint Jerome helped him in his own way Saints Augustine and Paulinus
of Nola praised his model of sanctity (RM)
Born in Rome; died there in 401. Anastasius, the son of Maximus, was
elected pope on November 27, 399, and ruled the Church for two years. His
pontificate was marked by his condemnation of Origen in order to stop the
errors of those who followed and expanded upon Origen's teachings, his urging
the African bishops to continue their opposition to Donatism, and his personal
holiness and piety.
Saint Jerome helped him in his own way, and Saints Augustine and Paulinus
of Nola praised his model of sanctity. It is from Pope Anastasius that
priests have the instruction to read the Gospels standing and bowing their
heads. The laus in the Roman Martyrology reads: "At Rome, the death of
Pope Saint Anastasius I, a man of extreme poverty and apostolic solicitude.
Saint Jerome in his writings saith that Rome did not deserve to possess
him for long. . . ." (Benedictines, Delaney, Encyclopedia).
|
417 St.
Innocent I 401-417
Date of birth unknown; died 12 March, 417. Before his elevation
to the Chair of Peter, very little is known concerning the life of this
energetic pope, so zealous for the welfare of the whole Church. According
to the "Liber Pontificalis" he was a native of Albano; his father was called
Innocentius. He grew up among the Roman clergy and in the service of the
Roman Church. After the death of Anastasius (Dec., 401) he was unanimously
chosen Bishop of Rome by the clergy and people. Not much has come down to
us concerning his ecclesiastical activities in Rome. Nevertheless one or
two instances of his zeal for the purity of the Catholic Faith and for church
discipline are well attested. He took several churches in Rome from the
Novatians (Socrates, Hist. Eccl., VII, ii) and caused the Photinian Marcus
to be banished from the city. A drastic decree, which the Emperor Honorius
issued from Rome (22 Feb., 407) against the Manicheans, the Montanists,
and the Priscillianists (Codex Theodosianus, XVI, 5, 40), was very probably
not issued without his concurrence. Through the munificence of Vestina,
a rich Roman matron, Innocent was enabled to build and richly endow a church
dedicated to Sts. Gervasius and Protasius; this was the old Titulus Vestin&#aelig;
which still stands under the name of San Vitale. The siege and capture of
Rome by the Goths under Alaric (408-10) occurred in his pontificate. When,
at the time of the first siege, the barbarian leader had declared that he
would withdraw only on condition that the Romans should arrange a peace favourable
to him, an embassy of the Romans went to Honorius, at Ravenna, to try, if
possible, to make peace between him and the Goths. Pope Innocent also joined
this embassy. But all his endeavours to bring about peace failed. The Goths
then recommenced the siege of Rome, so that the pope and the envoys were
not able to return to the city, which was taken and sacked in 410. From the
beginning of his pontificate, Innocent often acted as head of the whole Church,
both East and West.
In his letter to Archbishop
Anysius of Thessalonica, in which he informed the latter of his own election
to the See of Rome, he also confirmed the privileges which had been bestowed
upon the archbishop by previous popes. When Eastern Illyria fell to the Eastern
Empire (379) Pope Damasus had asserted and preserved the ancient rights
of the papacy in those parts, and his successor Siricius had bestowed on
the Archbishop of Thessalonica the privilege of confirming and consecrating
the bishops of Eastern Illyria. These prerogatives were renewed by Innocent
(Ep. i), and by a later letter (Ep. xiii, 17 June, 412) the pope entrusted
the supreme administration of the dioceses of Eastern Illyria to Archbishop
Rufus of Thessalonica, as representative of the Holy See. By this means
the papal vicariate of Illyria was put on a sound basis, and the archbishops
of Thessalonica became vicars of the popes. On 15 Feb., 404, Innocent sent
an important decretal to Bishop Victricius of Rouen (Ep. ii), who had laid
before the pope a list of disciplinary matters for decision. The points
at issue concerned the consecration of bishops, admissions into the ranks
of the clergy, the disputes of clerics, whereby important matters (caus&#aelig;
majores) were to be brought from the episcopal tribunal to the Apostolic
See, also the ordinations of the clergy, celibacy, the reception of converted
Novatians or Donatists into the Church, monks, and nuns. In general, the
pope indicated the discipline of the Roman Church as being the norm for the
other bishops to follow. Innocent directed a similar decretal to the Spanish
bishops (Ep. iii) among whom difficulties had arisen, especially regarding
the Priscillianist bishops. The pope regulated this matter and at the same
time settled other questions of ecclesiastical discipline.
Similar letters, disciplinary
in content, or decisions of important cases, were sent to Bishop Exuperius
of Toulouse (Ep. vi), to the bishops of Macedonia (Ep. xvii), to Decentius,
Bishop of Gubbio (Ep. xxv), to Felix, Bishop of Nocera (Ep. xxxviii). Innocent
also addressed shorter letters to several other bishops, among them a letter
to two British bishops, Maximus and Severus, in which he decided that those
priests who, while priests, had begotten children should be dismissed from
their sacred office (Ep. xxxix). Envoys were sent by the Synod of Carthage
(404) to the Bishop of Rome, or the bishop of the city where the emperor
was staying, in order to provide for severer treatment of the Montanists.
The envoys came to Rome, and Pope Innocent obtained from the Emperor Honorius
a strong decree against those African sectaries, by which many adherents
of Montanism were induced to be reconciled with the Church. The Christian
East also claimed a share of the pope's energy. St. John Chrysostom, Bishop
of Constantinople, who was persecuted by the Empress Eudoxia and the Alexandrian
patriarch Theophilus, threw himself on the protection of Innocent. Theophilus
had already informed the latter of the deposition of John, following on
the illegal Synod of the Oak (ad quercum). But the pope did not recognize
the sentence of the synod, summoned Theophilus to a new synod at Rome, consoled
the exiled Patriarch of Byzantium, and wrote a letter to the clergy and
people of Constantinople in which he animadverted severely on their conduct
towards their bishop (John), and announced his intention of calling a general
synod, at which the matter would be sifted and decided. Thessalonica was
suggested as the place of assembly. The pope informed Honorius, Emperor
of the West, of these proceedings, whereupon the latter wrote three letters
to his brother, the Eastern Emperor Arcadius, and besought Arcadius to summon
the Eastern bishops to a synod at Thessalonica, before which the Patriarch
Theophilus was to appear. The messengers who brought these three letters
were ill received, Arcadius being quite favourable to Theophilus. In spite
of the efforts of the pope and the Western emperor, the synod never took
place. Innocent remained in correspondence with the exiled John; when, from
his place of banishment the latter thanked him for his kind solicitude,
the pope answered with another comforting letter, which the exiled bishop
received only a short time before his death (407) (Epp. xi, xii). The pope
did not recognize Arsacius and Atticus, who had been raised to the See of
Constantinople instead of the unlawfully deposed John.
After John's death, Innocent
desired that the name of the deceased patriarch should be restored to the
diptychs, but it was not until after Theophilus was dead (412) that Atticus
yielded. The pope obtained from many other Eastern bishops a similar recognition
of the wrong done to St. John Chrysostom. The schism at Antioch, dating
from the Arian conflicts, was finally settled in Innocent's time. Alexander,
Patriarch of Antioch, succeeded, about 413-15, in gaining over to his cause
the adherents of the former Bishop Eustathius; he also received into the
ranks of his clergy the followers of Paulinus, who had fled to Italy and
had been ordained there. Innocent informed Alexander of these proceedings,
and as Alexander restored the name of John Chrysostom to the diptychs, the
pope entered into communion with the Antiochene patriarch, and wrote him
two letters, one in the name of a Roman synod of twenty Italian bishops,
and one in his own name (Epp. xix and xx). Acacius, Bishop of Ber&#aelig;a,
one of the most zealous opponents of Chrysostom, had sought to obtain re-admittance
to communion with the Roman Church through the aforesaid Alexander of Antioch.
The pope informed him, though Alexander, of the conditions under which he
would resume communion with him (Ep. xxi). In a later letter Innocent decided
several questions of church discipline (Ep. xxiv).
The pope also informed the Macedonian
bishop Maximian and the priest Bonifatius, who had interceded with him
for the recognition of Atticus, Patriarch of Constantinople, of the conditions,
which were similar to those required of the above-mentioned Patriarch of
Antioch (Epp. xxii and xxiii). In the Origenist and Pelagian controversies,
also, the pope's authority was invoked from several quarters. St. Jerome
and the nuns of Bethlehem were attacked in their convents by brutal followers
of Pelagius, a deacon was killed, and a part of the buildings was set on
fire. John, Bishop of Jerusalem, who was on bad terms with Jerome, owing
to the Origenist controversy, did nothing to prevent these outrages. Through
Aurelius, Bishop of Carthage, Innocent sent St. Jerome a letter of condolence,
in which he informed him that he would employ the influence of the Holy See
to repress such crimes; and if Jerome would give the names of the guilty
ones, he would proceed further in the matter. The pope at once wrote an earnest
letter of exhortation to the Bishop of Jerusalem, and reproached him with
negligence of his pastoral duty. The pope was also compelled to take part
in the Pelagian controversy. In 415, on the proposal of Orosius, the Synod
of Jerusalem brought the matter of the orthodoxy of Pelagius before the Holy
See. The synod of Eastern bishops held at Diospolis (Dec., 415), which had
been deceived by Pelagius with regard to his actual teaching and had acquitted
him, approached Innocent on behalf of the heretic. On the report of Orosius
concerning the proceedings at Diospolis, the African bishops assembled in
synod at Carthage, in 416, and confirmed the condemnation which had been
pronounced in 411 against C&#aelig;lestius, who shared the views of Pelagius.
The bishops of Numidia did likewise in the same year in the Synod of Mileve.
Both synods reported their transactions to the pope and asked him to confirm
their decisions. Soon after this, five African bishops, among them St. Augustine,
wrote a personal letter to Innocent regarding their own position in the matter
of Pelagianism. Innocent in his reply praised the African bishops, because,
mindful of the authority of the Apostolic See, they had appealed to the Chair
of Peter; he rejected the teachings of Pelagius and confirmed the decisions
drawn up by the African Synods (Epp. xxvii-xxxiii). The decisions of the
Synod of Diospolis were rejected by the pope. Pelagius now sent a confession
of faith to Innocent, which, however, was only delivered to his successor,
for Innocent died before the document reached the Holy See. He was buried
in a basilica above the catacomb of Pontianus, and was venerated as a saint.
He was a very energetic and active man, and a highly gifted ruler, who
fulfilled admirably the duties of his office.
|
417-418 St. Zosimus Pope A Greek
Item Romæ sancti Zósimi, Papæ
et Confessóris. In the same city,
St. Zosimus, pope and confessor.
he succeeded Pope St. Innocent I (r. 401-417) on March 18,
417. He devoted most of his brief reign to advancing the cause of papal
supremacy, albeit with very little success.
While personally blameless in his private life, Zosimus did have a tactless
and hasty personality, so much so that he found himself embroiled in various
clashes with prelates throughout the Church. In fact he died while preparing
to excommunicate a group of troublesome clerics.
Zosimus wrote
Episiola Thactaria, condemning Pelagianism.
Since he was much disliked in Rome, his passing on December 27 brought
celebrations in the streets. |
432 Celestine I Pope treatise against semi-Pelagianism
(RM)
Born in Campania, Italy; died at Rome, July 27, 432; feast day formerly
on July 27 and/or August 1. Saint Celestine was a deacon in Rome when he
was elected pope on September 20, 422, to succeed Saint Boniface. He was a staunch supporter
of Saint Germanus of Auxerre in
the fight against Pelagianism,
and a friend of Saint Augustine with whom he corresponded,
and which demonstrates that the bishop of Rome was the central authority
even at that early date.
Augustine exhorts Celestine not to fall under the spell of Bishop Antony
of Fussala, who had been convicted by a council at Numidia of tyranny
and violence against his flock. Augustine was particularly concerned because
he had originally nominated Antony for episcopal consecration. Antony appealed
to Celestine's predecessor, who, unaware of the decision of the synod,
pressed for Antony's reinstatement.
The matter was not fully settled at Boniface's death,
but at Augustine's urging, Celestine deposed the unseemly prelate.
Celestine also wrote to the bishops of Vienne and Narbonne
in Gaul to correct several abuses, and ordered, among other things, that
absolution should never be refused to the dying who sincerely asked for
it. He stated that repentance does not depend on timing but rather on the
heart. In the beginning of this letter he says:
"By no limits of place
is my pastoral vigilance confined: it extends itself to all places where
Christ is adored."
After receiving two artful letters from Patriarch
Nestorius of Constantinople, and further information from Patriarch Saint Cyril of Alexandria regarding the
errors proposed by the first, Celestine convened a council in Rome, in
430, to condemn Nestorianism. He threatened Nestorius with excommunication
if he did not desist from his heretical teaching.
In 431, Celestine sent three legates to and appointed
Cyril president of the General Council of Ephesus, which formally condemned
the heresy.
Saint Prosper of Aquitaine
recorded that, acting on Saint Palladius's
suggestion, Celestine sent Saint Germanus of Auxerre to Britain
in 429 to deal with Pelagianism there.
He also wrote a treatise against semi-Pelagianism
and, in 431, sent Palladius to Ireland to evangelize that people. Some
scholars think that Celestine may also have sent Patrick there, but this
is unlikely.
Saint Celestine was buried in the cemetery of Priscilla
in a tomb decorated with paintings representing the Council of Ephesus.
Later his relics were translated into the church of Saint Praxedes. His ancient original epitaph
testifies that he was an excellent bishop, honored and beloved of every
one, who for the sanctity of his life now enjoys the sight of Jesus Christ,
and the eternal honors of the saints; however, very little is known of person
named Celestine (Attwater, Benedictines, Delaney, Husenbeth). In
art, Saint Celestine is a pope with a dove, dragon, and flame (Roeder).
Pope Saint Celestine I was pope from 422 until April 6, 432.
Celestine I was a Roman and was supposed to have been a near relative
of the Roman Emperor Valentinian III. Nothing is known of his early history
except that his father's name was Priscus. He is said to have lived for
a time at Milan with St. Ambrose. The first notice, however, concerning
him that is known is in a document of Pope Innocent I, in the year 416,
where he is spoken of as Celestine the Deacon.
Various portions of the liturgy are attributed to him, but without any
certainty on the subject. Though he did not attend personally, he sent delegates
to the Council of Ephesus in which the Nestorians were condemned, in 431.
Four letters written by him on that occasion, all dated March 15, 431, together
with a few others, to the African bishops, to those of Illyria, of Thessalonica,
and of Narbonne, are extant in retranslations from the Greek, the Latin
originals having been lost.
St. Celestine actively persecuted the Pelagians, and was zealous for
orthodoxy. He sent Palladius to Ireland to serve as a bishop in 431. Bishop
Patricius (Saint Patrick) continued this missionary work. Pope Celestine
raged against the Novatians in Rome, imprisoning their bishop, and forbidding
their worship. He was zealous in refusing to tolerate the smallest innovation
on the constitutions of his predecessors, and is recognized by the Church
as a saint.
St. Celestine died on April 6, 432. He was buried in the cemetery of
St. Priscilla in the Via Salaria, but his body, subsequently moved, now lies
in the Basilica di Santa Prassede.
|
440 Pope Saint Sixtus
III was pope from July 31, 432 to August 18 .
The name of Sixtus is often connected with a great building boom in
Rome: Santa Sabina on the Aventine Hill was dedicated during his pontificate
and he built Santa Maria Maggiore, whose dedication to Mary the Mother
of God reflected his acceptance of the Ecumenical council of Ephesus which
closed in 431. At that council the debate over Christ's human and divine
natures turned on whether Mary could be called the "Mother of Jesus" as
a human only or the "Mother of Christ" as both God and Man. The council
gave her the Greek title Theotokos ("God-bearer"), and the dedication of
the large church in Rome is a response to that.
Prior to being made pope Sixtus
was a patron of Pelagius, who was later condemned as a heretic. [1]
One of his main concerns was in restoring peace between Cyril
of Alexandria and the Syrians.
He also maintained the rights of the pope over
Illyria and the position of the archbishop of Thessalonica as head of the
Illyrian church.
Pope St. Sixtus III (XYSTUS).
Consecrated 31 July, 432; d. 440. Previous to his accession he was prominent
among the Roman clergy and in correspondence with St. Augustine. He reigned
during the Nestorian and Pelagian controversies, and it was probably owing
to his conciliatory disposition that he was falsely accused of leanings
towards these heresies. As pope he approved the Acts of the Council of Ephesus
and endeavoured to restore peace between Cyril of Alexandria and John of
Antioch. In the Pelagian controversy he frustrated the attempt of Julian
of Eclanum to be readmitted to communion with the Catholic Church. He defended
the pope's right of supremacy over Illyricum against the local bishops and
the ambitious designs of Proclus of Constantinople. At Rome he restored
the Basilica of Liberius, now known as St. Mary Major, enlarged the Basilica
of St. Lawrence-Without-the-Walls, and obtained precious gifts from the
Emperor Valentinian III for St. Peter's and the Lateran Basilica. The work
which asserts that the consul Bassus accused him of crime is a forgery.
He is the author of eight letters (in P.L., L, 583 sqq.), but he did not
write the works "On Riches", "On False Teachers", and "On Chastity" ("De
divitiis", "De malis doctoribus", "De castitate") attributed to him. His
feast is kept on 28 March.
|
440 Sancti
Leónis Papæ Primi, cognoménto Magni, Confessóris
et Ecclésiæ Doctóris, cujus dies natális recólitur
quarto Idus Novémbris.
In the Latin Church the
feast day of the great pope is held on 11 April, and in the Eastern Church
on 18 February.
Leo's pontificate, next to that of St. Gregory I, is the
most significant and important in Christian antiquity.
At a time when the Church was
experiencing the greatest obstacles to her progress in consequence of the
hastening disintegration of the Western Empire, while the Orient was profoundly
agitated over dogmatic controversies, this great pope, with far-seeing
sagacity and powerful hand, guided the destiny of the Roman and Universal
Church. According to the "Liber
Pontificalis" (ed. Mommsen, I, 101 sqq., ed. Duchesne, I, 238 sqq.),
Leo was a native of Tuscany and his father's name was Quintianus. Our earliest
certain historical information about Leo reveals him a deacon of the Roman
Church under Pope Celestine I (422-32).
Even during this period he was known outside of Rome, and had some relations
with Gaul, since Cassianus in 430 or 431 wrote at Leo's suggestion his
work "De
Incarnatione Domini contra Nestorium" (Migne, P.L., L, 9 sqq.), prefacing
it with a letter of dedication to Leo. About this time Cyril of Alexandria
appealed to Rome against the pretensions of Bishop Juvenal of Jerusalem.
From an assertion of Leo's in a letter of later date (ep. cxvi, ed. Ballerini,
I, 1212; II, 1528), it is not very clear whether Cyril wrote to him in the
capacity of Roman deacon, or to Pope Celestine. During the pontificate of
Sixtus III (422-40), Leo was sent to Gaul by Emperor Valentinian III to
settle a dispute and bring about a reconciliation between Aëtius, the
chief military commander of the province, and the chief magistrate, Albinus.
This commission is a proof of the great confidence placed in the clever
and able deacon by the Imperial Court. Sixtus III died on 19 August, 440,
while Leo was in Gaul, and the latter was chosen his successor.
Returning to Rome, Leo was consecrated on 29 September of
the same year, and governed the Roman Church for the next twenty-one years. |
468
St. Hilary, Pope from 461-468 guardian of Church unity sent decree to Eastern
bishops validating decisions of General Councils Nicaea Ephesus and Chalcedon.
Hilary consolidated the Church in Sandi, Africa, and Gaul
Rom
æ sancti Hílari, Papæ et Confessóris.
At Rome, St. Hilary, pope and confessor.
He was born in Sardinia, Italy, and was a papal legate to
the Robber Council of Ephesus
in 449, barely escaping with his life from this affair. Hilary
was used by Pope St. Leo I the Great
on many assignments. When Leo died, Hilary was elected pope and consecrated
on November 19, 461. He worked diligently to strengthen the Church in France
and Spain, calling councils in 462 and 465. Hilary also rebuilt many Roman
churches and erected the chapel of St. John Lateran. He also publicly rebuked
Emperor Anthemius in St. Peter’s for supporting the Macedonian heresy and
sent a decree to the Eastern bishops validating the decisions of the General
Councils of Nicaea, Ephesus, and Chalcedon. Hilary consolidated the Church
in Sandi, Africa, and Gaul. He died in Rome on February 28.
Pope Saint Hilarus
[Also spelled HILARIUS]
Elected 461; the date of his
death is given as 28 Feb., 468. After the death of Leo I, an archdeacon
named Hilarus, a native of Sardinia, according to the "Liber Pontificalis",
was chosen to succeed him, and in all probability received consecration
on 19 November, 461. Together with Julius, Bishop of Puteoli, Hilarus acted
as legate of Leo I at the "Robber Synod" of Ephesus in 449. There he fought
vigorously for the rights of the Roman See and opposed the condemnation of
Flavian of Constantinople (see FLAVIAN, SAINT). He was therefore exposed
to the violence of Dioscurus of Alexandria, and saved himself by flight.
In one of his letters to the Empress Pulcheria, found in a collection of
letters of Leo I ("Leonis I Epistolae", num. xlvi., in P.L., LIV, 837 sq.),
Hilarus apologizes for not delivering to her the pope's letter after the
synod; but owing to Dioscurus, who tried to hinder his going either to Rome
or to Constantinople, he had great difficulty in making his escape in order
to bring to the pontiff the news of the result of the council. His pontificate
was marked by the same vigorous policy as that of his great predecessor.
Church affairs in Gaul and Spain claimed his special attention. Owing to
political disorganization in both countries, it was important to safeguard
the hierarchy by strengthening church government. Hermes, a former archdeacon
of Narbonne, had illegally acquired the bishopric of that town. Two Gallican
prelates were dispatched to Rome to lay before the pope this and other matters
concerning the Church in Gaul. A Roman synod held on 19 November, 462, passed
judgment upon these matters, and Hilarus made known the following decisions
in an Encyclical sent to the provincial bishops of Vienne, Lyons, Narbonne,
and the Alps: Hermes was to remain Titular Bishop of Narbonne, but his episcopal
faculties were withheld. A synod was to be convened yearly by the Bishop
of Arles, for those of the provincial bishops who were able to attend; but
all important matters were to be submitted to the Apostolic See. No bishop
could leave his diocese without a written permission from the metropolitan;
in case such permission be withheld he could appeal to the Bishop of Arles.
Respecting the parishes (paroeciae) claimed by Leontius of Arles as belonging
to his jurisdiction, the Gallican bishops could decide, after an investigation.
Church property could not be alienated until a synod had examined into the
cause of sale.
Shortly after this the pope found himself involved in another
diocesan quarrel. In 463 Mamertus of Vienne had consecrated a Bishop of
Die, although this Church, by a decree of Leo I, belonged to the metropolitan
Diocese of Arles. When Hilarus heard of it he deputed Leontius of Arles
to summon a great synod of the bishops of several provinces to investigate
the matter. The synod took place and, on the strength of the report given
him by Bishop Antonius, he issued an edict dated 25 February, 464, in which
Bishop Veranus was commissioned to warn Mamertus that, if in the future
he did not refrain from irregular ordinations, his faculties would be withdrawn.
Consequently the consecration of the Bishop of Die must be sanctioned by
Leontius of Arles. Thus the primatial privileges of the See of Arles were
upheld as Leo I had defined them. At the same time the bishops were admonished
not to overstep their boundaries, and to assemble in a yearly synod presided
over by the Bishop of Arles. The metropolitan rights of the See of Embrun
also over the dioceses of the Maritime Alps were protected against the encroachments
of a certain Bishop Auxanius, particularly in connection with the two Churches
of Nice and Cimiez.
In Spain, Silvanus, Bishop of Calahorra, had, by his episcopal
ordinations, violated the church laws. Both the Metropolitan Ascanius and
the bishops of the Province of Tarragona made complaint of this to the
pope and asked for his decision. Before an answer came to their petition,
the same bishops had recourse to the Holy See for an entirely different
matter. Before his death Nundinarius, Bishop of Barcelona, expressed a wish
that Irenaeus might be chosen his successor, although he had himself made
Irenaeus bishop of another see. The request was granted, a Synod of Tarragona
confirming the nomination of Irenaeus, after which the bishops sought the
pope's approval. The Roman synod of 19 Nov., 465, took the matters up and
settled them. This is the oldest Roman synod whose original records have
been handed down to us. It was held in the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore.
After an address of the pope, and the reading of the Spanish letters, the
synod decided that the church laws must not be tampered with. In addition
to this Hilarus sent a letter to the bishops of Tarragona, declaring that
no consecration was valid without the sanction of the Metropolitan Ascanius;
and no bishop was permitted to be transferred from one diocese to another,
so that some one else must be chosen for Barcelona in place of Irenaeus.
The bishops consecrated by Silvanus would be recognized if they had been
appointed to vacant sees, and otherwise met the requirements of the Church.
The "Liber Pontificalis" mentions an Encyclical that Hilarus sent to the
East, to confirm the Oecumenical Councils of Nicaea, Ephesus, and Chalcedon,
and the dogmatic letter of Leo I to Flavian, but the sources at our disposal
furnish us no further information. In Rome Hilarus worked zealously for
the integrity of the Faith. The Emperor Anthemius had a favourite named
Philotheus, who was a believer in the Macedonian heresy and attended meetings
in Rome for the promulgation of this doctrine, 476. On one of the emperor's
visits to St. Peter's, the pope openly called him to account for his favourite's
conduct, exhorting him by the grave of St. Peter to promise that he would
do all in his power to check the evil. Hilarus erected several churches
and other buildings in Rome. Two oratories in the baptistery of the Lateran,
one in honour of St. John the Baptist, the other of St. John the Apostle,
are due to him. After his flight from the "Robber Synod" of Ephesus, Hilarus
had hidden himself in the crypt of St. John the Apostle, and he attributed
his deliverance to the intercession of the Apostle. Over the ancient doors
of the oratory this inscription is still to be seen: "To St. John the Evangelist,
the liberator of Bishop Hilarus, a Servant of Christ". He also erected a
chapel of the Holy Cross in the baptistery, a convent, two public baths,
and libraries near the Church of St. Laurence Outside the Walls. He built
another convent within the city walls. The "Liber Pontificalis" mentions
many votive offerings made by Hilarus in the different churches. He died
after a pontificate of six years, three months, and ten days.
He was buried in the church of
St. Laurence Outside the Walls. His feast day is celebrated on 17 November.
|
492 ST. FELIX III Pope helped to get the Church in Africa on its feet
483 - 492
St. Felix II has the extraordinary
distinction of being not only a pope and saint himself, but the great-grandfather
of another pope and saint, Gregory the Great. Felix had been married, but
his wife had died before he became a priest. He was a member of an old
Roman family of senatorial rank.
No sooner was he elected pope
than Felix faced the vexing problem posed by Emperor Zeno's ill-considered
attempt to unify the East by compromise. One of the evils which result
from politicians meddling in church matters is the tendency to make a deal.
And that is just what Zeno did. Alarmed by the hold that the Monophysites
had on Egypt and Syria, Zeno issued his famous Henoticon (act of union)
and ordered all to subscribe to it. This Henoticon was a creed drawn up
by Acacius, the hitherto orthodox patriarch of Constantinople, and Peter,
the Monophysite patriarch of Alexandria. It was orthodox in what it said,
but implicitly it condoned the Monophysite heresy by omitting the decision
of the Council of Chalcedon and the letter of Pope Leo to Flavian. Like
so many compromises it pleased few. The more ardent Monophysites refused
to follow their leader, Peter, and Pope Felix denounced it. With true spiritual
independence, he warned the Emperor not to interfere in theological matters
and "to allow the Catholic Church to govern itself by its own laws."
Pope Felix sent legates to Constantinople
to summon Acacius to Rome, but to his dismay the Pope discovered that his
legates had approved the election of the Monophysite Peter as patriarch
of Alexandria and had communicated with heretics--in short, had sold him
out. Felix held a synod at Rome in 484 at which he excommunicated the untrustworthy
legates. He also excommunicated Acacius, but the patriarch remained stubborn.
Thus started the Acacian schism in which Constantinople was officially
separated from the Roman Church over the Henoticon. Even after Acacius
died, the schism dragged on until the next century.
In the last years of this pontificate Theodoric
led his Ostrogoths into Italy to defeat Odovakar and take over the rule
of Italy--all in the name of Emperor Zeno. Though an Arian, Theodoric treated
the Church well. It was different in Africa, where in the early years of
his reign Felix heard anguished cries for help from the hapless Catholics.
Hunneric, the Arian Vandal, ruthlessly harried the poor African Catholics.
Pope Felix got Emperor Zeno to bring his influence to bear on the fierce
Vandal, but this accomplished little. After Hunneric died, the persecution
slackened, and the Pope then helped to get the Church in Africa on its feet.
He followed the usual papal policy of mildness towards weak brethren who had
given way in the storm.
Pope St. Felix died March 1,
492. He is buried in St. Paul's on the Ostian Way.
See Duchesne's edition of the Liber pontificalis, vol. i,
pp. 252-253; DCB., vol.
ii, pp. 482-485, s.v.
Felix III; and works of general ecclesiastical history.
|
492-496 Pope St. Gelasius I feast Nov 21 conspicuous for his spirit of prayer, penance,
and study. He took great delight in the company of monks, and was a true
father to the poor
Died at Rome, 19 Nov., 496. Gelasius, as he himself states
in his letter to the Emperor Anastasius (Ep. xii, n. 1), was Romanus natus.
The assertion of the "Liber Pontificalis" that he was natione Afer is consequently
taken by many to mean that he was of African origin, though Roman born.
Others, however, interpreting natione Afer as "African by birth", explain
Romanus natus as "born a Roman citizen". Before his election as pope, 1
March, 492, Gelasius had been much employed by his predecessor, Felix II
(or III), especially in drawing up ecclesiastical documents, which has led
some scholars to confuse the writings of the two pontiffs.
On his election to the papacy, Gelasius at once showed his strength
of character and his lofty conception of his position by his firmness in
dealing with the adherents of Acacius (see ACACIUS, PATRIARCH OF CONSTANTINOPLE).
Despite all the efforts of the otherwise orthodox patriarch, Euphemius of
Constantinople, and the threats and wiles by which the Emperor Anastasius
tried to obtain recognition from the Apostolic See, Gelasius, though hard-pressed
by difficulties at home, would make no peace that compromised in the slightest
degree the rights and honor of the Chair of Peter. The constancy with which
he combated the pretensions, lay and ecclesiastical, of the New Rome; the
resoluteness with which he refused to allow the civil or temporal pre-eminence
of a city to determine its ecclesiastical rank; the unfailing courage with
which he defended the rights of the "second" and the "third" sees, Alexandria
and Antioch, are some of the most striking features of his pontificate. It
has been well said that nowhere at this period can be found stronger arguments
for the primacy of Peter's See than in the works and writings of Gelasius.
He is never tired of repeating that Rome owes its ecclesiastical princedom
not to an oecumenical synod nor to any temporal importance it may have possessed,
but to the Divine institution of Christ Himself, Who conferred the primacy
over the whole Church upon Peter and his successors. (Cf. especially his
letters to Eastern bishops and the decretal on the canonical and apocryphal
books.) In his dealing with the emperor he is at one with the great medieval
pontiffs. "There are two powers by which chiefly this world is ruled: the
sacred authority of the priesthood and the authority of kings. And of these
the authority of the priests is so much the weightier, as they must render
before the tribunal of God an account even for the kings of men." Gelasius's
pontificate was too short to effect the complete submission and reconciliation
of the ambitious Church of Byzantium. Not until Hormisdas (514-23) did the
contest end in the return of the East to its old allegiance. Troubles abroad
were not the only occasions to draw out the energy and strength of Gelasius.
The Lupercalia, a superstitious and somewhat licentious vestige of paganism
at Rome, was finally abolished by the pope after a long contest. Gelasius's
letter to Andromachus, the senator, covers the main lines of the controversy.
A stanch upholder of the old traditions, Gelasius nevertheless knew
when to make exceptions or modifications, such as his decree obliging the
reception of the Holy Eucharist under both kinds. This was done as the
only effective way of detecting the Manichæans, who, though present
in Rome in large numbers, sought to divert attention from their hidden
propaganda by feigning Catholicism. As they held wine to be impure and
essentially sinful, they would refuse the chalice and thus be recognized.
Later, with the change of conditions, the old normal method of receiving
Holy Communion under the form of bread alone returned into vogue. To Gelasius
we owe the ordinations on the ember days (Ep. xv), as well as the enforcement
of the fourfold division of all ecclesiastical revenues, whether income
from estates or voluntary donations of the faithful, one portion for the
poor, another for the support of the churches and the splendour of Divine
service, a third for the bishop, and the fourth for the minor clergy. Though
some writers ascribe the origin of this division of church funds to Gelasius,
still the pontiff speaks of it (Ep. xiv, n. 27) as dudum rationabiliter
decretum, having been for some time in force. Indeed, Pope Simplicius (475,
Ep. i, n. 2) imposed the obligation of restitution to the poor and the
Church upon a certain bishop who had failed in this duty; consequently it
must have been already regarded as at least a custom of the Church. Not
content with one enunciation of this charitable obligation, Gelasius frequently
inculcates it in his writings to bishops. For a long time the fixing of
the Canon of the Scriptures was attributed to Gelasius, but it seems now
more probably the work of Damasus (367-85). As Gelasius, however, in a Roman
synod (494), published his celebrated catalogue of the authentic writings
of the Fathers, together with a list of apocryphal and interpolated works,
as well as the proscribed books of the heretics (Ep. xlii), it was but natural
to prefix to this catalogue the Canon of the Scriptures as determined by
the earlier Pontiff, and thus in the course of time the Canon itself came
to be ascribed to Gelasius. In his zeal for the beauty and majesty of Divine
service, Gelasius composed many hymns, prefaces, and collects, and arranged
a standard Mass-book, though the Missal that has commonly gone by his name,
the "Sacramentarium Gelasianum", belongs properly to the next century. How
much of it is the work of Gelasius is still a moot question. Though pope
but for four years and a half, he exerted a deep influence on the development
of church polity, of the liturgy and ecclesiastical discipline. A large
number of his decrees have been incorporated into the Canon Law.
In his private life Gelasius was above all conspicuous for his spirit
of prayer, penance, and study. He took great delight in the company of
monks, and was a true father to the poor, dying empty-handed as a result
of his lavish charity. Dionysius Exiguus in a letter to his friend, the
priest Julian (P.L., LXVII, 231), gives a glowing account of Gelasius as
he appeared to his contemporaries.
As a writer Gelasius takes high rank for his period. His style is vigorous
and elegant, though occasionally, obscure. Comparatively little of his
literary work has come down to us, though he is said to have been the most
prolific writer of all the pontiffs of the first five centuries. There
are extant forty-two letters and fragments of forty-nine others, besides
six treatises, of which three are concerned with the Acacian schism, one
with the heresy of the Pelagians, another with the errors of Nestorius and
Eutyches, while the sixth is directed against the senator Andromachus and
the advocates of the Lupercalia. The best edition is that of Thiel.
The feast of St. Gelasius is kept on 21 Nov., the anniversary of his
interment, though many writers give this as the day of his death.
|
Pope Anastasius II 496-498
A native of Rome, elected 24
Nov., 496; d. 16 Nov., 498. His congratulatory letter to Clovis, on the
occasion of the latter's conversion is now deemed a forgery of the seventeenth
century (J. Kavet, Bibl. de l ec. des Chartres, 1885, XLVI, 258-59). He
insisted in the removal from the diptychs of the name of Acacius, Patriarch
of Constantinople, but recognized the validity of his sacramental acts,
an attitude that displeased the Romans. He also condemned Traducianism.
|
498-514 Pope St. Symmachus In the city of Rome, according to the "Liber
pontificalis", the pope took severe measures against the Manichæans,
ordered the burning of their books, and expelled them from the city. He erected
or restored and adorned various churches. Thus he built a Church of St. Andrew
near St. Peter's, a Basilica of St. Agnes on the Via Aurelia, adorned the
Church of St. Peter's, completely rebuilt the Basilica of Sts. Sylvester
and Martinus, and made improvements over the Catacomb of the Jordani on the
Via Salaria. He built episcopal houses (episcopia) to the right and left
of the parvis of St. Peter's. These buildings were evidently connected with
the residence of the pope for several years near St. Peter's during the disorders
of the Laurentian schism. He also built asylums for the poor near the three
churches of St. Peter, St. Paul, and St. Laurence that were outside the city
walls. The pope contributed large sums for the support of the Catholic bishops
of Africa who were persecuted by the rulers of the Arian Vandals. He also
aided the inhabitants of the provinces of upper Italy who suffered so sorely
from the invasion of the barbarians. After his death he was buried at St.
Peter's. Symmachus is venerated in the Roman Church as a saint.
Date of birth unknown; d. 19, July, 514. According to the "Liber pontificalis"
(ed. Duchesne, I, 260) he was a native of Sardinia and his father was named
Fortunatus. Symmachus was baptized at Rome (Thiel, "Epist. pont. rom.",
I, 702), entered the ranks of the clergy of Rome, and was ordained deacon.
Directly after the death of Pope Anastasius II, Symmachus was elected his
successor by a majority of the Roman clergy at the Lateran Basilica on 22
November, 498. The election was approved by a part of the Roman senate and
he was at once consecrated Bishop of Rome.
Later on the same day a minority of the clergy who were friendly to
the Byzantines and were supported by a party in the Senate met in the Basilica
of Santa Maria Maggiore and elected the Roman archpresbyter Laurentius as
antipope. According to Theodorus Lector (P.G., LXXXVI, 193), the Laurentian
party was aided with money supplied chiefly by the rich Senator Festus, who
hoped that Laurentius would be influenced by this to sign the "Henotikon",
the edict of faith of the Emperor Zeno. The other authorities do not speak
of such motives, which are very probable, and the testimony of Theodorus
can very readily be accepted. Both parties, however, agreed that the two candidates
should appear at Ravenna before the Gothic king Theodoric, the ruler of Italy,
and abide by his decision. Theodoric pronouncing in favour of Symmachus on
the ground that he was elected first and by the majority of the clergy, Laurentius
submitted to the decision. At a synod held at Rome on 1 March, 499, the Acts
of which have been preserved, Symmachus, who was now universally acknowledged,
bestowed on Laurentius the Diocese of Nocera in Campania. The synod ordained
that any Roman cleric who sought to gain votes for a successor to the papacy
during the lifetime of the pope, or who called conferences and held consultations
for that purpose, should be deposed. King Theodoric was given a vote of thanks
by acclamation for his unpartisan decision.
When the king came to Rome in the following year he had a brilliant
reception both from the pope and the people. However, the Byzantine party,
headed by the two senators Festus and Probinus, did not abandon its hostility
and hope of overthrowing the pope and gaining the papal see for Laurentius.
The opportunity occurred in the following year, 501. Pope Symmachus celebrated
Easter on 25 March, following the old Roman cycle, while the Byzantines and
others observed the feast on 22 April, according to a new reckoning. The
Laurentian party appealed to King Theodoric against the pope, making other
accusations besides this digression in the celebration of Easter. Theodoric
summoned the pope and Symmachus set out to meet him. At Rimini Symmachus
learned the contents of the indictment and, refusing to acknowledge the
king as his judge, returned home. The opposing party now accused him of squandering
the property of the Church and other matters. It gained in strength and occupied
the Lateran palace, so that the pope was obliged to live near the Church
of St. Peter outside the city walls. His opponents requested the king to
call a synod for the investigation of the accusations and to appoint a visitor
for Rome. Symmachus agreed to the calling of a synod, but he and his adherents
protested against the sending of a visitor. Theodoric, however, sent as
visitor Bishop Peter of Altinum in upper Italy, who was to administer the
Roman Church in the place of the accused pope. Peter came to Rome and, contrary
to the commands of king, allowed himself to be won over by the adherents
of Laurentius, so that Theodoric at a later date dismissed him.
Not long after Easter, between May and July, 502, the synod met in the
basilica of Julius (Santa Maria in Trastevere). The pope declared before
the synod that it had been called with his consent and that he was ready to
answer the accusations before it, if the visitor were removed and he were
re-established as the administrator of the Church. To this the majority of
the bishops agreed and sent an embassy to the king to demand the execution
of these conditions. Theodoric, however, refused, and demanded, first of all,
an investigation of the accusations against the pope.
A second session of the synod was held, therefore, on 1 September, 502,
in the Sessorian basilica (Santa Croce in Gerusalemme), and the minority
had the indictment made by the Laurentian party read aloud. Symmachus desired
to go from St. Peter's to the synod in order to defend himself, but on
the way there he was attacked by his opponents and maltreated, and, escaping
only with great difficulty, returned to St. Peter's; several priests who
were with him were killed or severely wounded.
The Goths sent by Theodoric promised him a reliable escort but the pope
now refused to appear before the synod, although invited three times. Consequently
the assembled bishops declared at the third session, held about the middle
of September, they could not pass judgment upon the pope, because he had
appeared twice before his judges, and because there was no precedent showing
that an occupant of the Roman See had been subjected to the judgment of
other bishops. They called upon the opposing clergy to submit to the pope,
and requested the king to permit the bishops to return to their dioceses.
All these steps were in vain; the majority of the clergy and people sided
indeed with Symmachus, but a minority of the clergy and a majority of the
Senators were at that time partizans of Laurentius.
A fourth session, therefore, was held on 23 October, 502, called the
"Synodus Palmaris" (Palmary synod) either from the place where it was held
(ad Palmata, Palma), or because it was the most important session (palmaris).
At this session it was decided that on account of the reasons given earlier
the decision must be left to the judgment of God; Symmachus was to be regarded
as free from all the crimes of which he was accused, and therefore entitled
to the full exercise of his episcopal office; the whole property of the church
was to be transferred to him; whoever returned to his obedience should escape
punishment, but whoever undertook ecclesiastical functions at Rome without
papal permission was to be regarded as a schismatic. The decision was signed
by seventy-five bishops, among them the bishops of Milan and Ravenna. Many
bishops now returned to their dioceses. The majority, however, met with
the Roman priests in St. Peter's for a fifth session under the presidency
of Symmachus on 6 November, 502. The edict issued by the prefect Basilius,
in 483, regulating the administration of the possessions of the Church was
declared invalid and Symmachus issued a new edict respecting the administration
of this property, and especially in regard to its sale.
King Theodoric, not satisfied with the decision of the synod, although
the great majority of the Italian episcopate was on the side of the rightful
pope, did nothing to carry out the new ordinances. Consequently the opposition
called its candidate Laurentius again to Rome. He resided in the Lateran
palace, which was in the hands of his adherents, while Symmachus retained
the house of the bishop (episcopium) near St. Peter's. The division continued
for four years, during which both parties carried on a furious quarrel at
Rome. Laurentius had his portrait added to the series of popes in the Church
of Saint Paul Without the Walls. However, certain prominent persons exerted
their influence in favour of Symmachus, as Bishop Avitus of Vienne, who,
at the request of the Gallican bishops, addressed an urgent letter to the
Senate on behalf of the rightful pope and for the restoration of unity. Symmachus
gradually won over a number of adherents of the opposition.
The greatest factor in the healing of the schism was the interposition
of Deacon Dioscurus of Alexandria, who had come to Rome. He was commissioned
by Symmachus to go to Theodoric, and won the king over to the side of the
rightful pope. Apparently political motives were involved, as the king
wished to take action against the Laurentian party, which inclined to Constantinople.
He commanded Senator Festus, the head of the hostile party, to return all
Roman churches to Symmachus. Laurentius having lost many adherents among
the senators the king's command was executed without difficulty. The antipope,
obliged to leave Rome, retired to a farm belonging to his protector Festus.
Only a small party still held to Laurentius and refused to recognize Symmachus
as Bishop of Rome; but it was insignificant and was reconciled later to
Hormisdas, the successor of Symmachus. During the schism a number of polemical
writings appeared, as from the party of Laurentius the treatise "Contra
Synodum absolutionis incongruae", to which Deacon Ennodius replied in "Libellus
adversus eos qui contra Synodum scribere praseumpserunt" ("Mon. Germ. Hist.:
Auct. ant.", VII, 48 sq.). While the author of the life of Symmachus in the
completely preserved text of the "Liber pontificalis" is very favourable
to the pope, the writer of another continuation of the papal biographies
supports the cause of Laurentius ("Fragment Laurentine", ed. Duchesne in
"Liber pontificalis", I, 44-46). During the dispute the adherents of Symmachus
drew up four apocryphal writings called the "Symmachian Forgeries"; these
were: "Gesta synodi Sinuessanae de Marcellino"; "Constitutum Silvestri",
"Gesta Liberii"; "Gesta de purgatione Xysti et Polychronii accusatione".
These four works are to be found in Coustant, "Epist. rom. pontif." (Paris,
1721), appendix, 29 sq.; cf. Duchesne, "Liber pontificalis", I, introduction,
CXXXIII sq.: "Histoire littéraire des apocryphes symmachiens". The
object of these forgeries was to produce alleged instances from earlier times
to support the whole procedure of the adherents of Symmachus, and, in particular,
the position that the Roman bishop could not be judged by any court composed
of other bishops. Still these forgeries are not the first documents to maintain
this latter tenet.
Symmachus zealously defended the supporters of orthodoxy during the
disorders of the Acacian schism. He defends, although without success,
the opponents of the "Henotikon" in a letter to Emperor Anastasius I (491-518).
At a later date many of the persecuted oriental bishops addressed themselves
to the pope to whom they sent a confession of faith. Shortly after 506 the
emperor sent him a letter full of invectives, to which the pope sent a firm
answer, maintaining forcibly the rights and liberty of the Church (Thiel,
"Epist. rom. pont.", I, 700 sq.).
In a letter of 8 October, 512, addressed to the bishops of Illyria,
the pope warned the clergy of that province not to hold communion with heretics.
Soon after the beginning of his pontificate Symmachus interposed in the quarrel
between the Archbishops of Arles and Vienne as to the boundaries of their
respective territories. He annulled the edict issued by Anastasius II in
favour of the Archbishop of Vienne and later (6 November, 513) confirmed
the metropolitan rights of archbishop Caesarius of Arles, as these had been
fixed by Leo I. Moreover, he granted Caesarius the privilege of wearing
the pallium, the first-known instance of such a grant by the Holy See to
a bishop outside of Italy.
In a letter of 11 June, 514, he appointed Caesarius to represent the
interests of the Church both in Gaul and Spain, to hold synods of the bishops
in certain cases, to give letters of recommendation to clergy who journeyed
to Rome. More important matters were to be laid before the Holy See. In the
city of Rome, according to the "Liber pontificalis", the pope took severe
measures against the Manichæans, ordered the burning of their books,
and expelled them from the city. He erected or restored and adorned various
churches. Thus he built a Church of St. Andrew near St. Peter's, a Basilica
of St. Agnes on the Via Aurelia, adorned the Church of St. Peter's, completely
rebuilt the Basilica of Sts. Sylvester and Martinus, and made improvements
over the Catacomb of the Jordani on the Via Salaria. He built episcopal houses
(episcopia) to the right and left of the parvis of St. Peter's. These buildings
were evidently connected with the residence of the pope for several years
near St. Peter's during the disorders of the Laurentian schism. He also built
asylums for the poor near the three churches of St. Peter, St. Paul, and
St. Laurence that were outside the city walls. The pope contributed large
sums for the support of the Catholic bishops of Africa who were persecuted
by the rulers of the Arian Vandals. He also aided the inhabitants of the
provinces of upper Italy who suffered so sorely from the invasion of the
barbarians. After his death he was buried at St. Peter's. Symmachus is venerated
in the Roman Church as a saint.
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523-526 Pope St. John I
inherited the Arian heresy, which denied the divinity of Christ. Italy
had been ruled for 30 years by an emperor who espoused the heresy, though
he treated the empire’s Catholics with toleration. His policy changed at
about the time the young John was elected pope.
When the eastern emperor began imposing severe measures
on the Arians of his area, the western emperor forced John to head a delegation
to the East to soften the measures against the heretics. Little is known
of the manner or outcome of the negotiations—designed to secure continued
toleration of Catholics in the West.
When John returned to Rome, he found the emperor had begun to suspect
his friendship with his eastern rival.
On his way home, John was imprisoned when he reached Ravenna because
the emperor suspected a conspiracy against his throne. Shortly after his
imprisonment, John died, apparently from the treatment he had received.
Comment: We
cannot choose the issues for which we have to suffer and perhaps die. John
I suffered because of a power-conscious emperor. Jesus suffered because
of the suspicions of those who were threatened by his freedom, openness
and powerlessness. “If you find that the world hates you, know it has hated
me before you.”
Quote: “Martyrdom makes disciples like their Master,
who willingly accepted death for the salvation of the world, and through
it they are made like him by the shedding of blood. Therefore, the Church
considers it the highest gift and supreme test of love. And while it is
given to few, all however must be prepared to confess Christ before humanity
and to follow him along the way of the cross amid the persecutions which the
Church never lacks” (Dogmatic Constitution on the Church, 42, Austin Flannery
translation).
Pope St. John I
Died at Ravenna on 18 or 19 May (according to the most popular calculation),
526. A Tuscan by birth and the son of Constantius, he was, after an interregnum
of seven days, elected on 13 August, 523, and occupied the Apostolic see
for two years, nine months, and seven days.
We know nothing of the matter of his administration, for his Bullarium
contains only the two letters addressed to an Archbishop Zacharias and to
the bishops of Italy respectively, and it is very certain that both are apocryphal.
We possess information -- though unfortunately very vague
-- only about his journey to Constantinople, a journey which appears to have
had results of great importance, and which was the cause of his death. The
Emperor Justin, in his zeal for orthodoxy, had issued in 523 a severe decree
against the Arians, compelling them, among other things, to surrender to
the Catholics the churches which they occupied. Theodoric, King of the Ostrogoths
and of Italy, the ardent defender of Arianism, keenly resented these measures
directed against his coreligionists in the Orient, and was moreover highly
displeased at seeing the progress of a mutual understanding between the
Latin and Greek Churches, such as might favour certain secret dealings between
the Roman senators and the Byzantine Court, aiming at the re-establishment
of the imperial authority in Italy. To bring pressure to bear upon the emperor,
and force him to moderate his policy of repression in regard to the heretics,
Theodoric sent to him early in 525 an embassy composed of Roman senators,
of which he obliged the pope to assume the direction, and imposed on the
latter the task of securing a withdrawal of the Edict of 523 and -- if we
are to believe "Anonymous Valesianus" -- of even urging the emperor to facilitate
the return to Arianism of the Arians who had been converted.
There has been much discussion as to the part played by
John I in this affair. The sources which enable us to study the subject are
far from explicit and may be reduced to four in number: "Anonymous Valesianus",
already cited; the "Liber Pontificalis"; Gregory of Tours's "Liber in gloria
martyrum"; and the "Liber Pontificalis Ecclesiæ Ravennatis". But
it is beyond question that the pope could only counsel Justin to use gentleness
and discretion towards the Arians; his position as head of the Church prevented
his inviting the emperor to favour heresy. That this analysis of the situation
is correct is evident from the reception which the pope was accorded in
the East -- a reception which certainly would not have been kindly, had
the Roman ambassadors opposed the emperor and this Catholic subjects in
their struggle waged against the Arian sect. The inhabitants of Constantinople
went out in throngs to meet John. The Emperor Justin on meeting him prostrated
himself, and, some time afterwards, he had himself crowned by the pope.
All the patriarchs of the East made haste to manifest their communion in
the Faith with the supreme pontiff; only Timothy of Alexandria, who had shown
himself hostile to the Council of Chalcedon, held aloof. Finally, the pope,
exercising his right of precedence over Epiphanius, Patriarch of Constantinople,
solemnly officiated at St. Sophia in the Latin Rite on Easter Day, 19 April,
526. Immediately afterwards he made his way back to the West.
If this brilliant reception of John I by the emperor, the clergy, and
the faithful of the Orient proves that he had not been wanting in his task
as supreme pastor of the Church, the strongly contrasting behaviour of
Theodoric towards him on his return is no less evident proof. This monarch,
enraged at seeing the national party reviving in Italy, had just stained
his hands with the murder of Boethius, the great philosopher, and of Symmachus
his father-in-law. He was exasperated against the pope, whose embassy had
obtained a success very different from that which he, Theodoric, desired
and whom, moreover, he suspected of favouring the defenders of the ancient
liberty of Rome. As soon as John, returning from the East, had landed in
Italy, Theodoric caused him to be arrested and incarcerated at Ravenna.
Worn out by the fatigues of the journey, and subjected to severe privations,
John soon died in prison.
His body was transported to Rome and buried in the Basilica of St. Peter.
In his epitaph there is no allusion to his historical role. The Latin Church
has placed him among its martyrs, and commemorates him on 27 May, the ninth
lesson in the Roman Breviary for that date being consecrated to him.
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526-530 Pope St. Felix IV; On 18 May, 526, Pope John I died in prison at
Ravenna, a victim of the angry suspicions of Theodoric, the Arian king
of the Goths. When, through the powerful influence of this ruler, the cardinal-priest,
Felix of Samnium, son of Castorius, was brought forward in Rome as John's
successor, the clergy and laity yielded to the wish of the Gothic king
and chose Felix pope. He was consecrated Bishop of Rome 12 July, 526, and
took advantage of the favor he enjoyed at the court of Theodoric to further
the interests of the Roman Church, discharging the duties of his office
in a most worthy manner. Felix also took part in the so-called Semipelagian
conflict in Southern Gaul concerning the nature and efficiency of grace.
He sent to the bishops of those parts a series of "Capitula", regarding
grace and free will, compiled from Scripture and the Fathers. These capitula
were published as canons at the Synod of Orange (529). In addition Felix
approved the work of Caesarius of Arles against Faustus of Riez on grace
and free will (De gratia et libero arbitrio).
On 18 May, 526, Pope John I died in prison at Ravenna, a victim of the
angry suspicions of Theodoric, the Arian king of the Goths. When, through
the powerful influence of this ruler, the cardinal-priest, Felix of Samnium,
son of Castorius, was brought forward in Rome as John's successor, the clergy
and laity yielded to the wish of the Gothic king and chose Felix pope. He
was consecrated Bishop of Rome 12 July, 526, and took advantage of the favor
he enjoyed at the court of Theodoric to further the interests of the Roman
Church, discharging the duties of his office in a most worthy manner.
On 30 August, 526, Theodoric died, and, his grandson Athalaric
being a minor, the government was conducted by Athalaric's mother Amalasuntha,
daughter of Theodoric and favorably disposed towards the Catholics. To
the new ruler the Roman clergy addressed a complaint on the usurpation
of their privileges by the civil power. A royal edict, drawn up by Cassiodorus
in terms of the deepest respect for the papal authority, confirmed the ancient
custom that every civil or criminal charge of a layman against a cleric
should be submitted to the pope, or to an ecclesiastical court appointed
by him. A fine of ten pounds of gold was imposed as a punishment for the
violation of this order, and the money thus obtained was to be distributed
amongst the poor by the pope (Cassiodorus, "Variae", VIII, n. 24, ed. Mommsen,
"Mon. Germ. Hist.: Auctores antiquiss.", XII, 255)
The pope received as a gift from Amalasuntha two ancient edifices in
the Roman Forem, the Temple of Romulus, son of the Emperor Maxentius, and
the adjoining Templum sacroe urbis, the Roman land registry office. The pope
converted the buildings into the Church of SS. Cosmas and Damian, which still
exists and in the apse of which is preserved the large and magnificent mosaic
executed by order of Felix, the figure of the pope, however, being a later
restoration (see COSMAS AND DAMIAN).
Felix also took part in the so-called Semipelagian conflict
in Southern Gaul concerning the nature and efficiency of grace. He sent
to the bishops of those parts a series of "Capitula", regarding grace and
free will, compiled from Scripture and the Fathers. These capitula were
published as canons at the Synod of Orange (529). In addition Felix approved
the work of Caesarius of Arles against Faustus of Riez on grace and free
will (De gratia et libero arbitrio).
Rendered anxious by the political dissensions of the Romans,
many of whom stood for the interests of Byzantium, while others supported
Gothic Rule, Felix IV, when he fell seriously ill in the year 530, wished
to ensure the peace of the Roman Church by naming his successor. Having
given over to Archdeacon Boniface his pallium, he made it known publicly
that he had chosen Boniface to succeed him, and that he had apprised the
court of Ravenna of his action ("Neues Archiv", XI, 1886, 367; Duchesne,
"Liber Pontificalis", I, 282, note 4). Felix IV died soon afterwards, but
in the papal election which followed his wishes were disregarded (see BONIFACE
II). The feast of Felix IV is celebrated on 30 January. The day of his death
is uncertain, but it was probably towards the end of September, 530.
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533-535 John II first
who changed his name on being raised to the papacy "Johannes
surnamed Mercurius" (2 Jan., 533). John
always remained on good terms with Athalaric, who referred to his tribunal
all actions brought against the Roman clergy. Justinian also showed his good
will to the See of Rome in John's person. He sent him his profession of faith
and many valuable presents.
The date of the birth of this pope is not
known. He was a Roman and the son of Projectus; if not born in the second
region (Coelimontium) he had at least been a priest of St. Clement's Basilica
on the slope of Mons Coelius. He seems to have been the first who changed
his name on being raised to the papacy (2 Jan., 533). The basilica of St.
Clement still retains several memorials of "Johannes surnamed Mercurius".
Presbyter Mercurius is found on a fragment of an ancient ciborium, and
several of the marble slabs which enclose the schola cantorum bear upon
them, in the style of the sixth century, the monogram of Johannes.
At this period simony in the election of popes and bishops was rife
among clergy and laity. After the death of the predecessor of John II there
was a vacancy of over two months, and during that period shameless trafficking
in sacred things was indulged in. Even sacred vessels were exposed for
sale. The matter was brought before the Senate, and before the Arian Ostrogothic
Court at Ravenna. As a result the last decree (Senatus Consultum) which
the Senate of Rome is known to have issued, and which, passed under Boniface
II, was directed against simony in papal elections, was confirmed by the
Gothic King Athalaric. He ordered it to be engraved on marble, and to be
placed in the atrium of St. Peter's (533). By one of Athalaric's own additions
to the decree, it was decided, that if a disputed election was carried before
the Gothic officials of Ravenna by the Roman clergy and people, three thousand
solidi would have to be paid into court. This sum was to be given to the
poor. John himself, however, always remained on good terms with Athalaric,
who referred to his tribunal all actions brought against the Roman clergy.
Justinian also showed his good will to the See of Rome in John's person.
He sent him his profession of faith and many valuable presents. Some time
before John became pope, the East was agitated by the formula, "One of the
Trinity has been crucified", which had been put forward as a means of reconciling
various heretical sects. Condemned by Pope Hormisdas, the formula fell out
of use. Afterwards revived, it was in a modified form defended by Justinian,
and opposed by the Acoemetæ, or sleepless monks. But they were condemned
by the pope who informed the emperor of his action (24 March, 534). The
crimes of Contumeliosus, Bishop of Riez, in Provence, caused John to order
the bishops of Gaul to confine him in a monastery. Till a new bishop should
be appointed he bade the clergy of Riez obey the Bishop of Arles. Two hundred
and seventeen bishops assembled in council at Carthage (535) submitted
to John II the question as to whether bishops who had lapsed into Arianism
should, on repentance keep their rank or be admitted to lay communion. The
answer to their question was given by Agapetus, as John II died 8 May, 535.
He was buried in St. Peter's.
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536-37
Pope St. Silverius
Dates of birth and death unknown. He was the son of Pope Hormisdas who
had been married before becoming one of the higher clergy. Silverius entered
the service of the Church and was subdeacon at Rome when Pope Agapetus
died at Constantinople, 22 April, 536. The Empress Theodora, who favoured
the Monophysites sought to bring about the election as pope of the Roman
deacon Vigilius who was then at Constantinople and had given her the desired
guarantees as to the Monophysites. However, Theodatus, King of the Ostrogoths,
who wished to prevent the election of a pope connected with Constantinople,
forestalled her, and by his influence the subdeacon Silverius was chosen.
The election of a subdeacon as Bishop of Rome was unusual. Consequently,
it is easy to understand that, as the author of the first part of the life
of Silverius in the "Liber pontificalis" (ed. Duchesne, I, 210) relates,
a strong opposition to it appeared among the clergy. This, however, was
suppressed by Theodatus so that, finally, after Silverius had been consecrated
bishop (probably on 8 June, 536) all the Roman presbyters gave their consent
in writing to his elevation. The assertion made by the author just mentioned
that Silverius secured the intervention of Theodatus by payment of money
is unwarranted, and is to be explained by the writer's hostile opinion
of the pope and the Goths. The author of the second part of the life in
the "Liber pontificalis" is favourably inclined to Silverius. The pontificate
of this pope belongs to an unsettled, disorderly period and he himself
fell a victim to the intrigues of the Byzantine Court.
After Silverius had become pope the Empress Theodora sought to win him
for the Monophysites. She desired especially to have him enter into communion
with the Monophysite Patriarch of Constantinople, Anthimus, who had been
excommunicated and deposed by Agapetus, and with Severus of Antioch. However,
the pope committed himself to nothing and Theodora now resolved to overthrow
him and to gain the papal see for Vigilius. Troublous times befell Rome
during the struggle that broke out in Italy between the Ostrogoths and the
Byzantines after the death of Amalasuntha, daughter of Theodoric the Great.
The Ostrogothic king, Vitiges, who ascended the throne in August, 536, besieged
the city. The churches over the catacombs outside of the city were devastated,
the graves of the martyrs in the catacombs themselves were broken open and
desecrated. In December, 536, the Byzantine general Belisarius garrisoned
Rome and was received by the pope in a friendly and courteous manner. Theodora
sought to use Belisarius for the carrying out of her plan to depose Silverius
and to put in his place the Roman deacon Vigilius, formerly apocrisary at
Constantinople, who had now gone to Italy. Antonina, wife of Belisarius,
influenced her husband to act as Theodora desired. By means of a forged
letter the pope was accused of a treasonable agreement with the Gothic
king who was besieging Rome. It was asserted that Silverius had offered
the king to leave one of the city gates secretly open so as to permit the
Goths to enter. Silverius was consequently arrested in March, 537, roughly
stripped of his episcopal dress, given the clothing of a monk and carried
off to exile in the East. Vigilius was consecrated Bishop of Rome in his
stead.
Silverius was taken to Lycia where he was went to reside at Patara.
The Bishop of Patara very soon discovered that the exiled pope was innocent.
He journeyed to Constantinople and was able to lay before the Emperor Justinian
such proofs of the innocence of the exile that the emperor wrote to Belisarius
commanding a new investigation of the matter. Should it turn out that the
letter concerning the alleged plot in favour of the Goths was forged, Silverius
should be placed once more in possession of the papal see. At the same time
the emperor allowed Silverius to return to Italy, and the latter soon entered
the country, apparently at Naples. However, Vigilius arranged to take charge
of his unlawfully deposed predecessor. He evidently acted in agreement with
the Empress Theodora and was aided by Antonina, the wife of Belisarius. Silverius
was taken to the Island of Palmaria in the Tyrrhenian Sea and kept their
in close confinement. Here he died in consequence of the privations and harsh
treatment he endured. The year of his death is unknown, but he probably
did not live long after reaching Palmaria. He was buried on the island,
according to the testimony of the "Liber pontificalis" on 20 June; his remains
were never taken from Palmaria. According to the same witness he was invoked
after death by the believers who visited his grave. In later times he was
venerated as a saint. The earliest proof of this is given by a list of saints
of the eleventh century (Mélanges d'archéologie et d'histoire,
1893, 169). The "Martyrologium" of Peter de Natalibus of the fourteenth
century also contains his feast, which is recorded in the present Roman
Martyrology on 20 June.
[Editor's note: According to the Liber Pontificalis, Pope St. Silverius
was exiled not to Palmaria, but rather to the Island of Palmarola, a much
smaller and more desolate island near Ponza, Italy, in the Bay of Naples.]
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537-555
Pope Vigilius
date of birth unknown; died at Syracuse, 7 June 555. He belonged to
a distinguished Roman family; his father Johannes is called consul in the
Liber pontificalis (ed. Duchesne, I, 298), having received that title from
the emperor. Reparatus, a brother of Vigilius, was a senator (Procopius,
De bello gothico, I, 26). Vigilius entered the service of the Roman Church
and was a deacon in 531, in which year the Roman clergy agreed to a Decree
empowering the pope to determine the succession to the Papal See. Vigilius
was chosen by Boniface II as his successor, and presented to the clergy assembled
in St. Peter's. The opposition to such a procedure led Boniface in the following
year to withdraw his designation of a successor and to burn the Decree respecting
it. The second successor of Boniface, Agapetus I (535-36), appointed Vigilius
papal representative (Apocrisiary) at Constantinople; Vigilius thus came
to the Eastern capital. Empress Theodora sought to win him as a confederate,
to revenge the deposition of the Monophysite Patriarch Anthimus of Constantinople
by Agapetus and also to gain aid for her efforts in behalf of the Monophysites.
Vigilius is said to have agreed to the plans of the intriguing empress
who promised him the Papal See and a large sum of money (700 pounds of gold).
After Agapetus's death on 22 April, 536, Vigilius return to Rome equipped
with letters from the imperial Court and with money. Meanwhile Silverius
had been made pope through the influence of the King of the Goths. Soon after
this the Byzantine commander Belisarius garrisoned the city of Rome, which
was, however, besieged again by the Goths. Vigilius gave Belisarius the
letters from the Court of Constantinople, which recommended Vigilius himself
for the Papal See. False accusations now led Belisarius to depose Silverius.
Owing to the pressure exerted by the Byzantine commander, Vigilius was elected
pope in place of Silverius and consecrated and enthroned on 29 March, 537.
Vigilius brought it about that the unjustly deposed Silverius was put into
his keeping where the late pope soon died from the harsh treatment he received.
After the death of this predecessor Vigilius was recognized as pope by all
the Roman clergy. Much in these accusations against Vigilius appears to be
exaggerated, but the manner of his elevation to the See of Rome was not regular.
Empress Theodora, however, saw that she had been deceived. For after the
latter had attained the object of his ambition and been made pope he maintained
the same position as his predecessor against the Monophysites and the deposed
Anthimus. It is true that there is an alleged letter from the pope to the
deposed Monophysite patriarchs, Anthimus, Severus, and Theodosius, in which
the pope agrees with the views of the Monophysites. This letter, however,
is not regarded as genuine by most investigators and bears all the marks
of forgery (cf. Duchesne in Revue des quest. histor. (1884), II, 373; Chamard,
ibid., I (1885), 557; Grisar in Analecta romana, I, 55 sqq.; Savio in Civilta
catt., II (1910), 413-422]. The pope did not restore Anthimus to his office.
It was not until the year 540 that Vigilius felt himself obliged to
take a stand in regard to Monophysitism which he did in two letters sent
to Constantinople. One of the letters is addressed to Emperor Justinian,
the other to the Patriarch Menas. In both letters the pope supports positively
the Synods of Ephesus and Chalcedon, also the decisions of his predecessor
Leo I, and throughout approves of the deposition of the Patriarch Anthimus.
Several other letters written by the pope in the first years of his pontificate,
that have been preserved, give information respecting his interposition
in the ecclesiastical affairs of various countries. On 6 March, 538, he
wrote to Bishop Caesarius of Arles concerning the penance of the Austrasian
King Theodobert on account of his marriage with his brother's widow. On
29 June, 538, a decretal was sent to Bishop Profuturus of Braga containing
decisions on various questions of church discipline. Bishop Auxanius and
his successor, Aurelian of Arles, entered into communication with the pope
respecting the granting of the pallium as a mark of the dignity and powers
of a papal legate for Gaul; the pope sent suitable letters to the two bishops.
In the meantime new dogmatic difficulties had been developing at Constantinople
that were to give the pope many hours of bitterness. In 543 Emperor Justinian
issued a decree which condemned the various heresies of Origen; this decree
was sent for signature both to the Oriental patriarchs and to Vigilius (cf.
ORIGEN AND ORIGENISM).
In order to draw Justinian's thoughts from Origenism, Theodore Askidas,
Bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia, called his attention to the fact that the
condemnation of various representatives of the Antiochene school, who had
championed Nestorianism, would make union with the Monophysites much easier.
The emperor, who laid much stress upon winning over the Monophysites, agreed
to this, and in 543 or 44 he issued a new edict condemning the Three Chapters
(see CONSTANTINOPLE, COUNCILS OF). The Oriental patriarchs and bishops signed
the condemnation of these Three Chapters. In Western Europe, however, the
procedure was considered unjustifiable and dangerous, because it was feared
that it would detract from the importance of the Council of Chalcedon. Vigilius
refused to acknowledge the imperial edict and was called to Constantinople
by Justinian, in order to settle the matter there with a synod. According
to the Liber pontificalis on 20 November, while the pope was celebrating
the feast of St. Cecilia in the Church of St. Cecilia in Trastevere, and
before the service was fully ended, he was ordered by the imperial official
Anthimus to start at once on the journey to Constantinople. The pope was
taken immediately to a ship that waited in the Tiber, in order to be carried
to the eastern capital, while a part of the populace cursed the pope and
threw stones at the ship. Rome was now besieged by the Goths under Totila
and the inhabitants fell into the greatest misery. Vigilius sent ships with
grain to Rome but these were captured by the enemy. If the story related
by the Liber pontificalis is essentially correct, the pope probably left
Rome on 22 November, 545. He remained for a long time in Sicily, and reached
Constantinople about the end of 546 or in January, 547.
Vigilius sought to persuade the emperor to send aid to the inhabitants
of Rome and Italy who were so hard pressed by the Goths. Justinian's chief
interest, however, was in the matter of the Three Chapters, and as Vigilius
was not ready to make concessions of this point and wavered frequently in
his measures, he had much to suffer. The change in his position is to be
explained by the fact that the condemnation of the writings mentioned was
justifiable essentially, yet appeared inopportune and would lead to disastrous
controversies with Western Europe. Finally, Vigilius acknowledged in a letter
of 8 Dec., 553, to the Patriarch Eutychius the decisions of the Synod of Constantinople
and declared his judgment in detail in a Constitution of 26 February, 554.
Thus at the end of a sorrowful residence of eight years at Constantinople
the pope was able, after coming to an understanding with the emperor, to
start on his return to Rome in the spring of 555. While on the journey he
died at Syracuse. His body was brought to Rome and buried in the Basilica
of Sylvester over the Catacomb of Priscilla on the Via Salaria.
|
536 Pope Agapitus
I archdeacon opposed Monophysites Pope (RM)
Constantinópoli sancti Agapíti Papæ Primi, cujus
sánctitas a beáto Gregório Magno commendátur.
Ipsíus autem corpus, póstea Romam relátum, in Vaticáno
cónditum est.
At Constantinople, Pope St. Agapitus the First, whose
sanctity was praised by St. Gregory the Great. His body was afterwards
taken to Rome and buried in the Vatican.
Died in Constantinople on April
22, 536. The Roman Agapitus, son of a murdered priest named Gordian, was
archdeacon of the Roman clergy and an old man when elected pope on May 13,
535. As pope he showed great vigor in opposing the Monophysites. He died
while on a mission for the Ostrogoth King Theodahad to convince Justinian
to forego a threatened invasion of Italy. Agapitus was unsuccessful, but
while there he convinced Justinian to remove Patriarch Anthimus, a Monophysite,
and replace him with Mennas, whom Agapitus consecrated. His body was taken
back to Rome on September 20, on which date a second feast is celebrated
in the Roman Martyrology. Like many other Italian saints on the period, he
owes his cultus to the devotion of Saint Gregory the Great (Benedictines,
Delaney).
|
590-604 Pope St. Gregory
I ("the Great")
Doctor of the Church; born at Rome about 540; died 12 March
604. Gregory
I. FROM BIRTH TO 574
Gregory's father was Gordianus,
a wealthy patrician, probably of the famous gens Amicia, who owned large
estates in Sicily and a mansion on the Caelian Hill in Rome, the ruins of
which, apparently in a wonderful state of preservation, still await excavation
beneath the Church of St. Andrew and St. Gregory. His mother Silvia appears
also to have been of good family, but very little is known of her life.
She is honoured as a saint, her feast being kept on 3 November. Portraits
of Gordianus and Silvia were painted by Gregory's order, in the atrium of
St. Andrew's monastery, and a pleasing description of these may be found
in John the Deacon (Vita, IV, lxxxiii).
Besides his mother, two of Gregory's aunts have been canonised,
Gordianus's two sisters, Tarsilla and Æmiliana, so that John the Deacon
speaks of his education as being that of a saint among saints.
Of his early years we know nothing beyond what the history
of the period tells us. Between the years 546 and 552 Rome was first captured
by the Goths under Totila, and then abandoned by them; next it was garrisoned
by Belisarius, and besieged in vain by the Goths, who took it again, however,
after the recall of Belisarius, only to lose it once more to Narses. Gregory's
mind and memory were both exceptionally receptive, and it is to the effect
produced on him by these disasters that we must attribute the tinge of
sadness which pervades his writings and especially his clear expectation
of a speedy end to the world.
Of his education, we have no details. Gregory of Tours tells
us that in grammar, rhetoric and dialectic he was so skilful as to be thought
second to none in all Rome, and it seems certain also that he must have
gone through a course of legal studies. Not least among the educating influences
was the religious atmosphere of his home. He loved to meditate on the Scriptures
and to listen attentively to the conversations of his elders, so that he
was "devoted to God from his youth up".
His rank and prospects pointed him out naturally for a public
career, and he doubtless held some of the subordinate offices wherein a
young patrician embarked on public life. That he acquitted himself well
in these appears certain, since we find him about the year 573, when little
more than thirty years old, filling the important office of prefect of the
city of Rome. At that date the brilliant post was shorn of much of its old
magnificence, and its responsibilities were reduced; still it remained the
highest civil dignity in the city, and it was only after long prayer and
inward struggle that Gregory decided to abandon everything and become a
monk. This event took place most probably in 574.
His decision once taken, he devoted himself to the work and
austerities of his new life with all the natural energy of his character.
His Sicilian estates were given up to found six monasteries there, and his
home on the Caelian Hill was converted into another under the patronage of
St. Andrew. Here he himself took the cowl, so that "he who had been wont
to go about the city clad in the trabea and aglow with silk and jewels, now
clad in a worthless garment served the altar of the Lord" (Gregory of Tours,
X, i).
II. AS MONK AND ABBOT (C. 574-590)
There has been much discussion
as to whether Gregory and his fellow-monks at St. Andrew's followed the
Rule of St. Benedict. Baronius and others on his authority have denied this,
while it has been asserted as strongly by Mabillon and the Bollandists,
who, in the preface to the life of St. Augustine (26 May), retract the opinion
expressed earlier in the preface to St. Gregory's life (12 March). The controversy
is important only in view of the question as to the form of monasticism
introduced by St. Augustine into England, and it may be said that Baronius's
view is now practically abandoned.
For about three years Gregory lived in retirement in the
monastery of St. Andrew, a period to which he often refers as the happiest
portion of his life. His great austerities during this time are recorded
by the biographers, and probably caused the weak health from which he constantly
suffered in later life.
However, he was soon drawn out of his seclusion, when, in
578, the pope ordained him, much against his will, as one of the seven deacons
(regionarii) of Rome. The period was one of acute crisis. The Lombards were
advancing rapidly towards the city, and the only chance of safety seemed
to be in obtaining help from the Emperor Tiberius at Byzantium. Pope Pelagius
II accordingly dispatched a special embassy to Tiberius, and sent Gregory
along with it as his apocrisiarius, or permanent ambassador to the Court
of Byzantium. The date of this new appointment seems to have been the spring
of 579, and it lasted apparently for about six years.
Nothing could have been more uncongenial to Gregory than
the worldly atmosphere of the brilliant Byzantine Court, and to counteract
its dangerous influence he followed the monastic life so far as circumstances
permitted. This was made easier by the fact that several of his brethren
from St. Andrew's accompanied him to Constantinople. With them he prayed and
studied the Scriptures, one result of which remains in his "Morals", or series
of lectures on the Book of Job, composed during this period at the request
of St. Leander of Seville, whose acquaintance Gregory made during his stay
in Constantinople.
Much attention was attracted to Gregory by his controversy
with Eutychius, Patriarch of Constantinople, concerning the Resurrection.
Eutychius had published a treatise on the subject maintaining that the
risen bodies of the elect would be "impalpable, more light than air". To
this view Gregory objected the palpability of Christ's risen body. The dispute
became prolonged and bitter, till at length the emperor intervened, both
combatants being summoned to a private audience, where they stated their
views. The emperor decided that Gregory was in the right, and ordered Eutychius's
book to the burned. The strain of the struggle had been so great that both
fell ill. Gregory recovered, but the patriarch succumbed, recanting his error
on his death bed.
Mention should be made of the
curious fact that, although Gregory's sojourn at Constantinople lasted
for six years, he seems never to have mastered even the rudiments of Greek.
Possibly he found that the use of an interpreter had its advantages, but
he often complains of the incapacity of those employed for this purpose.
It must be owned that, so far as obtaining help for Rome was concerned, Gregory's
stay at Constantinople was a failure. However, his period as ambassador taught
him very plainly a lesson which was to bear great fruit later on when he
ruled in Rome as pope. This was the important fact that no help was any
longer to be looked for from Byzantium, with the corollary that, if Rome
and Italy were to be saved at all, it could only be by vigorous independent
action of the powers on the spot. Humanly speaking, it is to the fact that
Gregory had acquired this conviction that his later line of action with all
its momentous consequences is due.
In the year 586, or possibly 585, he was recalled to Rome,
and with the greatest joy returned to St. Andrew's, of which he became
abbot soon afterwards. The monastery grew famous under his energetic rule,
producing many monks who won renown later, and many vivid pictures of this
period may be found in the "Dialogues".
Gregory gave much of his time to lecturing on the Holy Scripture
and is recorded to have expounded to his monks the Heptateuch, Books of
Kings, the Prophets, the Book of Proverbs, and the Canticle of Canticles.
Notes of these lectures were taken at the time by a young student named
Claudius, but when transcribed were found by Gregory to contain so many
errors that he insisted on their being given to him for correction and revision.
Apparently this was never done, for the existing fragments of such works
attributed to Gregory are almost certainly spurious.
At this period, however, one important literary enterprise
was certainly completed. This was the revision and publication of the "Magna
Moralia", or lectures on the Book of Job, undertaken in Constantinople
at the request of St. Leander. In one of his letters (Ep., V, liii) Gregory
gives an interesting account of the origin of this work.
To this period most probably should be assigned the famous
incident of Gregory's meeting with the English youths in the Forum. The
first mention of the event is in the Whitby life (c, ix), and the whole
story seems to be an English tradition. It is worth notice, therefore, that
in the St. Gall manuscript the Angles do not appear as slave boys exposed
for sale, but as men visiting Rome of their own free will, whom Gregory
expressed a desire to see. It is Venerable Bede (Hist. Eccl., II, i) who
first makes them slaves.
In consequence of this meeting
Gregory was so fixed with desire to convert the Angles that he obtained
permission from Pelagius II to go in person to Britain with some of his
fellow-monks as missionaries. The Romans, however, were greatly incensed
at the pope's act. With angry words they demanded Gregory's recall, and
messengers were at once dispatched to bring him back to Rome, if necessary
by force. These men caught up with the little band of missionaries on the
third day after their departure, and at once returned with them, Gregory
offering no opposition, since he had received what appeared to him as a
sign from heaven that his enterprise should be abandoned.
The strong feeling of the Roman populace that Gregory must
not be allowed to leave Rome is a sufficient proof of the position he now
held there. He was in fact the chief adviser and assistant of Pelagius
II, towards whom he seems to have acted very much in the capacity of secretary
(see the letter of the Bishop of Ravenna to Gregory, Epp., III, lxvi, "Sedem
apostolicam, quam antae moribus nunc etiam honore debito gubernatis").
In this capacity, probably in 586, Gregory wrote his important letter to
the schismatical bishops of Istria who had separated from communion with
the Church on the question of the Three Chapters (Epp., Appendix, III,
iii). This document, which is almost a treatise in length, is an admirable
example of Gregory's skill, but it failed to produce any more effort than
Pelagius's two previous letters had, and the schism continued.
The year 589 was one of widespread disaster throughout all
the empire. In Italy there was an unprecedented inundation. Farms and houses
were carried away by the floods. The Tiber overflowed its banks, destroying
numerous buildings, among them the granaries of the Church with all the
store of corn. Pestilence followed on the floods, and Rome became a very
city of the dead. Business was at a standstill, and the streets were deserted
save for the wagons which bore forth countless corpses for burial in common
pits beyond the city walls.
Then, in February, 590, as if to fill the cup of misery to
the brim, Pelagius II died. The choice of a successor lay with the clergy
and people of Rome, and without any hesitation they elected Gregory, Abbot
of St. Andrew's. In spite of their unanimity Gregory shrank from the dignity
thus offered him. He knew, no doubt, that its acceptance meant a final
good-bye to the cloister life he loved, and so he not only refused to accede
to the prayers of his fellow citizens but also wrote personally to the
Emperor Maurice, begging him with all earnestness not to confirm the election.
Germanus, prefect of the city, suppressed this letter, however, and sent
instead of it the formal schedule of the election.
In the interval while awaiting the emperor's reply the business
of the vacant see was transacted by Gregory, in commission with two or
three other high officials. As the plague still continued unabated, Gregory
called upon the people to join in a vast sevenfold procession which was
to start from each of the seven regions of the city and meet at the Basilica
of the Blessed Virgin, all praying the while for pardon and the withdrawal
of the pestilence. This was accordingly done, and the memory of the event
is still preserved by the name "Sant' Angelo" given to the mausoleum of
Hadrian from the legend that the Archangel St. Michael was seen upon its
summit in the act of sheathing his sword as a sign that the plague was
over.
At length, after six months
of waiting, came the emperor's confirmation of Gregory's election. The saint
was terrified at the news and even meditated flight. He was seized, however,
carried to the Basilica of St. Peter, and there consecrated pope on 3 September,
590. The story that Gregory actually fled the city and remained hidden
in a forest for three days, when his whereabouts was revealed by a supernatural
light, seems to be pure invention. It appears for the first time in the
Whitby life (c. vii), and is directly contrary to the words of his contemporary,
Gregory of Tours (Hist. Franc., X, i). Still he never ceased to regret
his elevation, and his later writings contain numberless expressions of
strong feeling on this point.
III. AS POPE (590-604)
Fourteen years of life remained to Gregory, and into these
he crowded work enough to have exhausted the energies of a lifetime. What
makes his achievement more wonderful is his constant ill-health. He suffered
almost continually from indigestion and, at intervals, from attacks of
slow fever, while for the last half of his pontificate he was a martyr
to gout. In spite of these infirmities, which increased steadily, his biographer,
Paul the Deacon, tells us "he never rested" (Vita, XV). His work as pope
is of so varied a nature that it will be best to take it in sections, although
this destroys any exact chronological sequence.
At the very outset of his pontificate Gregory published his
"Liber pastoralis curae", or book on the office of a bishop, in which he
lays down clearly the lines he considers it his duty to follow. The work,
which regards the bishop pre-eminently as the physician of souls, is divided
into four parts. He points out in the first that only one skilled
already as a physician of the soul is fitted to undertake the "supreme rule"
of the episcopate. In the second he describes how the bishop's
life should be ordered from a spiritual point of view; in the
third, how he ought to teach and admonish those under him, and
in the fourth how, in spite of his good works, he ought to bear in mind his
own weakness, since the better his work the greater the danger of falling
through self-confidence.
This little work is the key to Gregory's life as pope, for
what he preached he practiced. Moreover, it remained for centuries the
textbook of the Catholic episcopate, so that by its influence the ideal
of the great pope has moulded the character of the Church, and his spirit
has spread into all lands.
In the case of
St Benedict Joseph several volumes of beatification documents are accessible
at the British Museum. They were printed between 1820 and 1840 and anyone
who examines them will find that the circumstances of the saint’s unusual
career were subjected to very rigorous scrutiny and criticism. There are
many biographies. One of the best is that in German by N. Heim. There are
others in French by Desnoyers (2 vols.), E. Rosière, and F. Audiger
(1906), Canon Gaquëre (1906), and P. Doyere (1948); that in the series “Les Saints”
cannot be recommended without reserves. An account of Labre was translated
into English so soon as 1785 by the Rev. Mr James Barnard, vicar general
of the London district; the latest biography in English is by A. de la Gorce
(tr. It. Sheed, 1952).
(1) Life and Work in Rome
As pope Gregory still lived with monastic simplicity. One
of his first acts was to banish all the lay attendants, pages, etc., from
the Lateran palace, and substitute clerics in their place. There was now
no magister militum living in Rome, so the control even of military matters
fell to the pope. The inroads of the Lombards had filled the city with a
multitude of indigent refugees, for whose support Gregory made provision,
using for this purpose the existing machinery of the ecclesiastical districts,
each of which had its deaconry or "office of alms". The corn thus distributed
came chiefly from Sicily and was supplied by the estates of the Church.
The temporal needs of his people being thus provided for,
Gregory did not neglect their spiritual wants, and a large number of his
sermons have come down to us. It was he who instituted the "stations" still
observed and noted in the Roman Missal. He met the clergy and people at some
church previously agreed upon, and all together went in procession to the
church of the station, where Mass was celebrated and the pope preached. These
sermons, which drew immense crowds, are mostly simple, popular expositions
of Scripture. Chiefly remarkable is the preacher's mastery of the Bible,
which he quotes unceasingly, and his regular use of anecdote to illustrate
the point in hand, in which respect he paves the way for the popular preachers
of the Middle Ages. In July, 595, Gregory held his first synod in St. Peter's,
which consisted almost wholly of the bishops of the suburbicarian sees and
the priests of the Roman titular churches. Six decrees dealing with ecclesiastical
discipline were passed, some of them merely confirming changes already made
by the pope on his own authority.
Much controversy still exists as to the exact extent of Gregory's
reforms of the Roman Liturgy. All admit that he did make the following modifications
in the pre-existing practice:
In the Canon of the Mass he inserted the words "diesque nostros
in tua pace disponas, atque ab aeterna damnatione nos eripi, et in electorum
tuorum jubras grege numerari";
he ordered the Pater Noster to be recited in the Canon before
the breaking of the Host;
he provided that the Alleluia should be chanted after the
Gradual out of paschal time, to which period, apparently, the Roman use had
previously confined it;
he prohibited the use of the chasuble by subdeacons assisting
at Mass;
he forbade deacons to perform any of the musical portions
of the Mass other than singing the Gospel.
Beyond these and some few minor points it seems impossible
to conclude with certainty what changes Gregory did make. As to the much-disputed
question of the Gregorian Sacramentary and the almost more difficult point
of his relation to the plain song or chant of the Church, for Gregory's
connection with which matters the earliest authority seems to be John the
Deacon (Vita, II, vi, Xvii), see GREGORIAN CHANT; SACRAMENTARY.
There is no lack of evidence,
however, to illustrate Gregory's activity as manager of the patrimony of
St. Peter. By his day the estates of the Church had reached vast dimensions.
Varying estimates place their total area at from 1300 to 1800 square miles,
and there seems no reason for supposing this to be an exaggeration, while
the income arising therefrom was probably not less than $1,500,000 a year.
The land lay in many places — Campania, Africa, Sicily, and elsewhere —
and, as their landlord, Gregory displayed a skill in finance and estate
management which excites our admiration no less than it did the surprise
of his tenants and agents, who suddenly found that they had a new master
who was not to be deceived or cheated.
The management of each patrimony was carried out by a number
of agents of varying grades and duties under an official called the rector
or defensor of the patrimony. Previously the rectors had usually been laymen,
but Gregory established the custom of appointing ecclesiastics to the post.
In doing this he probably had in view the many extra duties of an ecclesiastical
nature which he called upon them to undertake. Thus examples may be found
of such rectors being commissioned to undertake the filling up of vacant
sees, holding of local synods, taking action against heretics, providing
for the maintenance of churches and monasteries, rectifying abuses in the
churches of their district, with the enforcing of ecclesiastical discipline
and even the reproof and correction of local bishops. Still Gregory never
allowed the rectors to interfere in such matters on their own responsibility.
In the minutiae of estate management nothing was too small
for Gregory's personal notice, from the exact number of sextarii in a modius
of corn, or how many solidi went to one golden pound, to the use of false
weights by certain minor agents. He finds time to write instructions on
every detail and leaves no complaint unattended to, even from the humblest
of his multitude of tenants. Throughout the large number of letters which
deal with the management of the patrimony, the pope's determination to secure
a scrupulously righteous administration is evident. As bishop, he is the
trustee of God and St. Peter, and his agents must show that they realize
this by their conduct. Consequently, under his able management the estates
of the Church increased steadily in value, the tenants were contented, and
the revenues paid in with unprecedented regularity.
The only fault ever laid at his door in this matter is that,
by his boundless charities, he emptied his treasury. But this, if a fault
at all, was a natural consequence of his view that he was the administrator
of the property of the poor, for whom he could never do enough.
(2) Relations with the Suburbicarian
Churches
As patriarchs of the West the popes exercise a special jurisdiction
over and above their universal primacy as successors of St. Peter; and among
Western churches, this jurisdiction extends in a most intimate manner over
the churches of Italy and the isles adjacent.
On the mainland much of this territory was in the hands of
the Lombards, with whose Arian clergy Gregory was, of course, not in communion.
Whenever opportunity offered, however, he was careful to provide for the
needs of the faithful in these parts, frequently uniting them to some neighboring
diocese, when they were too few to occupy the energies of a bishop.
On the islands, of which Sicily was by far the most important,
the pre-existing church system was maintained. Gregory appointed a vicar,
usually the metropolitan of the province, who exercised a general supervision
over the whole church. He also insisted strongly on the holding of local
synods as ordered by the Council of Nicaea, and letters of his exist addressed
to bishops in Sicily, Sardinia, and Gaul reminding them of their duties
in this respect.
The supreme instance of Gregory's intervention in the affairs
of these dioceses occurs in the case of Sardinia, where the behaviour of
Januarius the half-witted, aged Metropolitan of Cagliari, had reduced the
church to a state of semi-chaos.
A large number of letters relate to the reforms instituted
by the pope (Epp., II, xlvii; III, xxxvi; IV, ix,xxiii-xxvii, xxix; V,
ii; IX, i, xi, ccii-cciv; XIV, ii). His care over the election of a new
bishop whenever a vacancy occurs is shown in many cases, and if, after
his examination of the elect, which is always a searching one, he finds
him unfitted for the post, he has no hesitation in rejecting him and commanding
another to be chosen (Epp., I, lv, lvi; VII, xxxviii; X, vii).
With regard to discipline the pope was specially strict in
enforcing the Church's laws as to the celibacy of the clergy (Epp., I,
xlii, 1; IV. v, xxvi, xxxiv; VII, i; IX, cx, ccxviii; X, xix; XI, lvi a;
XIII, xxxviii, xxxix); the exemption of clerics from lay tribunals (Epp.,
I, xxxix a; VI, xi, IX, liii, lxxvi, lxxix; X, iv; XI, xxxii; XIII, 1);
and the deprivation of all ecclesiastics guilty of criminal or scandalous
offences (Epp., I, xviii, xlii; III, xlix; IV, xxvi; V, v, xvii, xviii;
VII, xxxix; VIII, xxiv; IX, xxv; XII, iii, x, xi; XIV, ii). He was also
inflexible with regard to the proper application of church revenues, insisting
that others should be as strict as he was in disposing of these funds for
their proper ends (Epp., I, x, lxiv; II, xx-xxii; III, xxii; IV, xi; V,
xii, xlviii; VIII, vii; XI, xxii, lvi a; XIII, xlvi; XIV, ii).
(3) Relations with Other Churches
With regard to the other Western Churches limits of space
prevent any detailed account of Gregory's dealings, but the following quotation,
all the more valuable as coming from a Protestant authority, indicates very
clearly the line he followed herein:
"In his dealings with the Churches of the West, Gregory acted
invariably on the assumption that all were subject to the jurisdiction of
the Roman See. Of the rights claimed or exercised by his predecessors he
would not abate one tittle; on the contrary, he did everything in his power
to maintain, strengthen, and extend what he regarded as the just prerogatives
of the papacy. It is true that he respected the privileges of the Western
metropolitans, and disapproved of unnecessary interference within the sphere
of their jurisdiction canonically exercised... But of his general principle
there can be no doubt whatever" (Dudden, I, 475).
In view of later developments Gregory's dealings with the
Oriental Churches, and with Constantinople in particular, have a special
importance. There cannot be the smallest doubt that Gregory claimed for the
Apostolic See, and for himself as pope, a primacy not of honor, but of supreme
authority over the Church Universal. In Epp., XIII, l, he speaks of "the
Apostolic See, which is the head of all Churches", and in Epp., V, cliv,
he says: "I, albeit unworthy, have been set up in command of the Church."
As successor of St. Peter, the pope had received from God a primacy over all
Churches (Epp., II, xlvi; III, xxx; V, xxxvii; VII, xxxvii). His approval
it was which gave force to the decrees of councils or synods (Epp., IX, clvi),
and his authority could annul them (Epp., V, xxxix, xli, xliv). To him appeals
might be made even against other patriarchs, and by him bishops were judged
and corrected if need were (Epp., II, l; III, lii, lxiii; IX, xxvi, xxvii).
This position naturally made it impossible for him to permit
the use of the title Ecumenical Bishop assumed by the Patriarch of Constantinople,
John the Faster, at a synod held in 588. Gregory protested, and a long controversy
followed, the question still at issue when the pope died. A discussion of
this controversy is needless here, but it is important as showing how completely
Gregory regarded the Eastern patriarchs as being subject to himself; "As
regards the Church of Constantinople," he writes in Epp., IX, xxvi, "who
can doubt that it is subject to the Apostolic See? Why, both our most religious
lord the emperor, and our brother the Bishop of Constantinople continually
acknowledge it."
At the same time the pope was most careful not to interfere
with the canonical rights of the other patriarchs and bishops. With the other
Oriental patriarchs his relations were most cordial, as appears from his
letters to the patriarchs of Antioch and Alexandria.
(4) Relations with the Lombards and the Franks
Gregory's consecration as pope preceded by a few days only
the death of Authari, King of the Lombards, whose queen, the famous Theodelinde,
then married Agilulf, Duke of Turin, a warlike and energetic prince. With
Agilulf and the Dukes Ariulf of Spoleto and Arichis of Benevento, Gregory
soon had to deal, as, when difficulties arose, Romanus, the exarch, or
representative, of the emperor, preferred to remain in sulky inactivity
at Ravenna.
It soon became clear that, if
any successful resistance was to be made against the Lombards, it must
be by the pope's own exertions. How keenly he felt the difficulty and danger
of his position appears in some of the earliest letters (Epp., I, iii,
viii, xxx); but no actual hostilities began till the summer of 592, when
the pope received a threatening letter from Ariulf of Spoleto, which was
followed almost immediately by the appearance of that chief before the walls
of Rome. At the same time Arichis of Benevento advanced on Naples, which
happened at the moment to have no bishop nor any officer of high rank in
command of the garrison. Gregory at once took the surprising step of appointing
a tribune on his own authority to take command of the city (Epp., II, xxxiv),
and, when no notice of this strong action was taken by the imperial authorities,
the pope conceived the idea of himself arranging a separate peace with the
Lombards (Epp., II, xlv). No details of this peace have come down to us,
but it seems certain that it was actually concluded (Epp., V, xxxvi). Dr.
Hodgkin (Italy and her Invaders, v, 366) pronounces Gregory's action herein
to have been wise and statesmanlike, but, at the same time, undoubtedly ultra
vires, being quite beyond any legal competency then possessed by the pope,
who thus "made a memorable stride towards complete independence".
Gregory's independent action had the effect of rousing up
Romanus the exarch. Wholly ignoring the papal peace, he gathered all his
troops, attacked and regained Perugia, and then marched to Rome, where he
was received with imperial honours. The next spring, however, he quitted
the city and took away its garrison with him, so that both pope and citizens
were now more exasperated against him than before. Moreover, the exarch's
campaign had roused the Northern Lombards, and King Agilulf marched on Rome,
arriving there probably some time in June, 593. The terror aroused by his
advance is still mirrored for us in Gregory's homilies on the Prophet Ezechiel,
which were delivered at this time. The siege of the city was soon abandoned,
however, and Agilulf retired. The continuator of Prosper (Mon. Germ. SS.
Antiq., IX, 339) relates that Agilulf met the pope in person on the steps
of the Basilica of St. Peter, which was then outside the city walls, and
"being melted by Gregory's prayers and greatly moved by the wisdom and religious
gravity of this great man, he broke up the siege of the city"; but, in
view of the silence both of Gregory himself and of Paul the Deacon on the
point, the story seems scarcely probable. In Epp., V, xxxix, Gregory refers
to himself as "the paymaster of the Lombards", and most likely a large payment
from the papal treasury was the chief inducement to raise the siege.
The pope's great desire now was to secure a lasting peace
with the Lombards, which could only be achieved by a proper arrangement between
the imperial authorities and the Lombard chiefs. On Queen Theodelinde, a
Catholic and a personal friend, Gregory placed all his hopes. The exarch,
however, looked at the whole affair in another light, and, when a whole
year was passed in fruitless negotiations, Gregory began once again to mediate
a private treaty. Accordingly, in May, 595, the pope wrote to a friend
at Ravenna a letter (Epp., V, xxxiv) threatening to make peace with Agilulf
even without the consent of the Exarch Romanus. This threat was speedily
reported to Constantinople, where the exarch was in high favour, and the
Emperor Maurice at once sent off to Gregory a violent letter, now lost, accusing
him of being both a traitor and a fool. This letter Gregory received in June,
595. Luckily, the pope's answer has been preserved to us (Epp., V, xxxvi).
It must be read in its entirety to be appreciated fully; probably very few
emperors, if any, have ever received such a letter from a subject. Still,
in spite of his scathing reply, Gregory seems to have realized that independent
action could not secure what he wished, and we hear no more about a separate
peace.
Gregory's relations with the
Exarch Romanus became continually more and more strained until the latter's
death in the year 596 or early in 597. The new exarch, Callinicus, was
a man of far greater ability and well disposed towards the pope, whose hopes
now revived. The official peace negotiations were pushed on, and, in spite
of delays, the articles were at length signed in 599, to Gregory's great
joy. This peace lasted two years, but in 601 the war broke out again through
an aggressive act on the part of Callinicus, who was recalled two years later,
when his successor, Smaragdus, again made a peace with the Lombards which
endured until after Gregory's death.
Two points stand out for special notice in Gregory's dealings
with the Lombards: first, his determination that, in spite of the apathy
of the imperial authorities, Rome should not pass into the hands of some
half-civilized Lombard duke and so sink into insignificance and decay; second,
his independent action in appointing governors to cities, providing munitions
of war, giving instructions to generals, sending ambassadors to the Lombard
king, and even negotiating a peace without the exarch's aid. Whatever the
theory may have been, there is no doubt about the fact that, besides his
spiritual jurisdiction, Gregory actually exercised no small amount of temporal
power.
Of Gregory's relations with the Franks there is no need to
write at length, as the intercourse he established with the Frankish kings
practically lapsed at his death, and was not renewed for about a hundred
years. On the other hand he exercised a great influence on Frankish monasticism,
which he did much to strengthen and reshape, so that the work done by the
monasteries in civilizing the wild Franks may be attributed ultimately
to the first monk-pope.
(5) Relations with the Imperial Government
The reign of Gregory the Great marks an epoch in papal history,
and this is specially the case in respect to his attitude towards the imperial
Government centered at Constantinople. Gregory seems to have looked upon
Church and State as co-operating to form a united whole, which acted in
two distinct spheres, ecclesiastical and secular. Over this commonwealth
were the pope and the emperor, each supreme in his own department, care
being taken to keep these as far as possible distinct and independent.
The latter point was the difficulty. Gregory definitely held
that it was a duty of the secular ruler to protect the Church and preserve
the "peace of the faith" (Mor., XXXI, viii), and so he is often found to
call in the aid of the secular arm, not merely to suppress schism, heresy,
or idolatry, but even to enforce discipline among monks and clergy (Epp.,
I, lxxii; II, xxix; III, lix; IV, vii, xxxii; V, xxxii; VIII, iv; XI, xii,
xxxvii; XIII, xxxvi). If the emperor interfered in church matters the pope's
policy was to acquiesce if possible, unless obedience was sinful, according
to the principle laid down in Epp. XI, xxix; "Quod ipse [se imperator] fecerit,
si canonicum est, sequimur; si vero canonicum non est, in quantum sine
peccato nostro, portamus." In taking this line Gregory was undoubtedly
influenced by his deep reverence for the emperor, whom he regarded as the
representative of God in all things secular, and must still be treated
with all possible respect, even when he encroached on the borders of the
papal authority.
On his side, although he certainly
regarded himself as "superior in place and rank" to the exarch (Epp., II,
xiv), Gregory objected strongly to the interference of ecclesiastical authorities
in matters secular. As supreme guardian of Christian justice, the pope
was always ready to intercede for, or protect anyone who suffered unjust
treatment (Epp., I, xxxv, xxxvi, xlvii, lix; III, v; V, xxxviii; IX, iv,
xlvi, lv, cxiii, clxxxii; XI, iv), but at the same time he used the utmost
tact in approaching the imperial officials. In Epp., I, xxxix a, he explains
for the benefit of his Sicilian agent the precise attitude to be adopted
in such matters.
Still, in conjunction with all this deference, Gregory retained
a spirit of independence which enabled him, when he considered it necessary,
to address even the emperor in terms of startling directness. Space makes
it impossible to do more than refer to the famous letters to the Emperor
Phocas on his usurpation and the allusions in them to the murdered Emperor
Maurice (Epp., XIII, xxxiv, xli, xlii). Every kind of judgement has been
passed upon Gregory for writing these letters, but the question remains a
difficult one. Probably the pope's conduct herein was due to two things:
first, his ignorance of the way in which Phocus had reached the throne; and
second, his view that the emperor was God's representative on earth, and
therefore deserving of all possible respect in his official capacity, his
personal character not coming into the question at all. It should be noted,
also, that he avoids any direct flattery towards the new emperor, merely
using the exaggerated phrases of respect then customary, and expressing the
high hopes he entertains of the new regime. Moreover, his allusions to Maurice
refer to the sufferings of the people under his government, and do not reflect
on the dead emperor himself.
Had the empire been sound instead of in a hopelessly rotten
state when Gregory became pope, it is hard to say how his views might have
worked out in practice. As it was, his line of strong independence, his
efficiency, and his courage carried all before them, and when he died there
was no longer any question as to who was the first power in Italy.
(6) Missionary Work
Gregory's zeal for the conversion of the heathen, and in
particular of the Angles, has been mentioned already, and there is no need
to dwell at length on the latter subject, as it has been fully treated under
SAINT AUGUSTINE OF CANTERBURY. In justice to the great pope, however, it
must be added that he lost no opportunity for the exercise of his missionary
zeal, making every effort to root out paganism in Gaul, Donatism in Africa,
and the Schism of the Three Chapters in North Italy and Istria.
In his treatment of heretics, schismatics, and pagans his
method was to try every means — persuasions, exhortations, threats — before
resorting to force; but, if gentler treatment failed, he had no hesitation
in accordance with the ideas of his age, in resorting to compulsion, and
invoking the aid of the secular arm therein. It is curious, therefore, to
find him acting as a champion and protector of the Jews. In Epp., I, xiv,
he expressly deprecates the compulsory baptism of Jews, and many instances
appear in which he insists on their right to liberty of action, so far as
the law permitted, both in civil affairs and in the worship of the synagogue
(Epp., I, xxxiv; II, vi; VIII, xxv; IX, xxxviii, cxcv; XIII, xv). He was
equally strong, however, in preventing the Jews from exceeding the rights
granted to them by the imperial law, especially with regard to the ownership
by them of Christian slaves (Epp., II, vi; III, xxxvii; IV, ix, xxi; VI,
xxix; VII, xxi; VIII, xxi; IX, civ, ccxiii, ccxv). We shall probably be right,
therefore, in attributing Gregory's protection of the Jews to his respect
for law and justice, rather than to any ideas of toleration differing from
those current at the time.
(7) Gregory and Monasticism
Although the first monk to become pope, Gregory was in no
sense an original contributor to monastic ideals or practice. He took monasticism
as he found it established by St. Benedict, and his efforts and influence
were given to strengthening and enforcing the prescriptions of that greatest
of monastic legislators. His position did indeed tend to modify St. Benedict's
work by drawing it into a closer connection with the organization with
the organization of the Church, and with the papacy in particular, but
this was not deliberately aimed at by Gregory. Rather he was himself convinced
that the monastic system had a very special value for the Church, and so
he did everything in his power to diffuse and propagate it. His own property
was consecrated to this end, he urged many wealthy people to establish or
support monasteries, and he used the revenues of the patrimony for the same
purpose.
He was relentless in correcting abuses and enforcing discipline,
the letters on such matters being far too numerous for mention here, and
the points on which he insists most are precisely those, such as stability
and poverty, on which St. Benedict's recent legislation had laid special
stress. Twice only do we find anything like direct legislation by the pope.
The first point is that of the age at which a nun might be made abbess, which
he fixes at "not less than sixty years" (Epp., IV, xi),. The second is his
lengthening of the period of novitiate. St. Benedict had prescribed at least
one year (Reg. Ben., lviii); Gregory (Epp., X, ix) orders two years, with
special precautions in the case of slaves who wished to become monks.
More important was his line
of action in the difficult question of the relation between monks and their
bishop. There is plenty of evidence to show that many bishops took advantage
of their position to oppress and burden the monasteries in their diocese,
with the result that the monks appealed to the pope for protection. Gregory,
while always upholding the spiritual jurisdiction of the bishop, was firm
in support of the monks against any illegal aggression. All attempts on the
part of a bishop to assume new powers over the monks in his diocese were
condemned, while at times the pope issued documents, called Privilegia,
in which he definitely set forth certain points on which the monks were exempt
from episcopal control (Epp., V, xlix; VII, xii; VIII, xvii; XII, xi, xii,
xiii). This action on Gregory's part undoubtedly began the long progress
by which the monastic bodies have come to be under the direct control of
the Holy See.
It should be mentioned that in Gregory's day the current
view was that ecclesiastical work, such as the cure of souls, preaching,
administering the sacraments, etc., was not compatible with the monastic
state, and in this view the pope concurred. On the other hand a passage
in Epp., XII, iv, where he directs that a certain layman "should be tonsured
either as a monk or a subdeacon", would suggest that the pope held the monastic
state as in some way equivalent to the ecclesiastical; for his ultimate
intention in this case was to promote the layman in question to the episcopate.
(8) Death, Canonization, Relics, Emblem
The last years of Gregory's life were filled with every kind
of suffering. His mind, naturally serious, was filled with despondent forebodings,
and his continued bodily pains were increased and intensified. His "sole
consolation was the hope that death would come quickly" (Epp., XIII, xxvi).
The end came on 12 March, 604, and on the same day his body was laid to
rest in front of the sacristy in the portico of St. Peter's Basilica. Since
then the relics have been moved several times, the most recent translation
being that by Paul V in 1606, when they were placed in the chapel of Clement
V near the entrance of the modern sacristy. There is some evidence that the
body was taken to Soissons in France in the year 826, but probably only some
large relic is meant.
Venerable Bede (Hist. Eccl., II, i) gives the epitaph placed
on his tomb which contains the famous phrase referring to Gregory as consul
Dei. His canonization by popular acclamation followed at once on his death,
and survived a reaction against his memory which seems to have occurred soon
afterwards.
In art the great pope is usually
shown in full pontifical robes with the tiara and double cross. A dove
is his special emblem, in allusion to the well-known story recorded by
Peter the Deacon (Vita, xxviii), who tells that when the pope was dictating
his homilies on Ezechiel a veil was drawn between his secretary and himself.
As, however, the pope remained silent for long periods at a time, the servant
made a hole in the curtain and, looking through, beheld a dove seated upon
Gregory's head with its beak between his lips. When the dove withdrew its
beak the holy pontiff spoke and the secretary took down his words; but
when he became silent the servant again applied his eye to the hole and
saw the dove had replaced its beak between his lips. The miracles attributed
to Gregory are very many, but space forbids even the barest catalogue of
them.
(9) Conclusion
It is beyond the scope of this notice to attempt any elaborate
estimate of the work, influence, and character of Pope Gregory the Great,
but some short focusing of the features given above is only just.
First of all, perhaps, it will be best to clear the ground
by admitting frankly what Gregory was not. He was not a man of profound
learning, not a philosopher, not a conversationalist, hardly even a theologian
in the constructive sense of the term. He was a trained Roman lawyer and
administrator, a monk, a missionary, a preacher, above all a physician of
souls and a leader of men. His great claim to remembrance lies in the fact
that he is the real father of the medieval papacy (Milman).
With regard to things spiritual, he impressed upon men's
minds to a degree unprecedented the fact that the See of Peter was the
one supreme, decisive authority in the Catholic Church. During his pontificate,
he established close relations between the Church of Rome and those of
Spain, Gaul, Africa, and Illyricum, while his influence in Britain was
such that he is justly called the Apostle of the English. In the Eastern
Churches, too, the papal authority was exercised with a frequency unusual
before his time, and we find no less an authority than the Patriarch of Alexandria
submitting himself humbly to the pope's "commands". The system of appeals
to Rome was firmly established, and the pope is found to veto or confirm
the decrees of synods, to annul the decisions of patriarchs, and inflict
punishment on ecclesiastical dignitaries precisely as he thinks right.
Nor is his work less noteworthy in its effect on the temporal
position of the papacy. Seizing the opportunity which circumstances offered,
he made himself in Italy a power stronger than emperor or exarch, and established
a political influence which dominated the peninsula for centuries. From
this time forth the varied populations of Italy looked to the pope for guidance,
and Rome as the papal capital continued to be the centre of the Christian
world.
Gregory's work as a theologian
and Doctor of the Church is less notable. In the history of dogmatic development
he is important as summing up the teaching of the earlier Fathers and consolidating
it into a harmonious whole, rather than as introducing new developments,
new methods, new solutions of difficult questions. It was precisely because
of this that his writings became to a great extent the compendium theologiae
or textbook of the Middle Ages, a position for which his work in popularizing
his great predecessors fitted him well. Achievements so varied have won
for Gregory the title of "the Great", but perhaps, among our English-speaking
races, he is honoured most of all as the pope who loved the bright-faced
Angles, and taught them first to sing the Angels' song.
HIS WRITINGS
Genuine, Doubtful, Spurious
Of the writings commonly attributed to Gregory the following
are now admitted as genuine on all hands: "Moralium Libri XXXV"; "Regulae
Pastoralis Liber"; "Dialogorum Libri IV"; "Homiliarum in Ezechielem Prophetam
Libri II"; "Homiliarum in Evangelia Libri II"; "Epistolarum Libri XIV". The
following are almost certainly spurious: "In Librum Primum Regum Variarum
Expositionum Libri VI"; "expositio super Cantica Canticorum"; "Expositio
in VII Psalmos Poenitentiales"; "Concordia Quorundam Testimoniorum S. Scripturae".
Besides the above there are attributed to Gregory certain liturgical hymns,
the Gregorian Sacramentary, and the Antiphonary. (See ANTIPHONARY; SACRAMENTARY.)
Works of Gregory; complete or partial editions; translations,
recensions, etc.
"Opera S. Gregorii Magni" (Editio princeps, Paris, 1518);
ed. P. Tossianensis (6 vols., Rome, 1588-03); ed. P. Goussainville (3 vols.,
Paris, 1675); ed. Cong. S. Mauri (Sainte-Marthe) (4 vols., Paris, 1705);
the last-named re-edited with additions by J. B. Gallicioli (17 vols., Venice,
1768-76) and reprinted in Migne, P.L., LXXV-LXXIX. "Epistolae", ed. P. Ewald
and L. M. Hartmann in "Mon. Germ. Hist.: Epist.", I, II (Berlin, 1891-99);
this is the authoritative edition of the text of the Epistles (all references
given above are to this edition); Jaffe, "Regesta Pontif," (2nd ed., Rome,
1885), I, 143-219; II, 738; Turchi, "S. Greg. M. Epp. Selectae" (Rome,
1907); P. Ewald, "Studien zur Ausgabe des Registers Gregors I." in "Neues
Archiv", III, 433-625; L.M. Hartmann in "Neues Archiv", XV, 411, 529; XVII,
493; Th. Mommsen in "Neues Archiv", XVII, 189; English translation: J. Barmby,
"Selected Epistles" in "Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers", 2nd Series, XII,
XIII (Oxford and New York, 1895, 1898), "Regula Pastoralis Curae", ed. E.
W. Westhoff (Munster, 1860); ed. H. Hurter, S.J., in "SS. Patr. Opuse. Select.",
XX; ed. A.M. Micheletti (Tournai, 1904); ed. B. Sauter (Freiburg, 1904);
English translations: "King Alfred's West Saxon Version of Gregory's Pastoral
Care", ed. H. Sweet (London, 1871); "The Book of Pastoral Care" (tr. J. Barmby)
in "Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers", 2nd Series, XII (Oxford and New York,
1895). "Dialogorum Libri IV": very many editions of the whole work have appeared,
and also of Bk. II, "Of the Life and Miracles of St. Benedict", separately;
an old English translation has been reprinted by H. Coleridge, S.J., (London,
1874); L. Wiese, "Die Sprache der Dialoge" (Halle, 1900); H. Delehaye, "S.
Gregoirele Grand dans Phagiographie Grecque" in "Analecta Bolland." (1904),
449-54; B. Sauter, "Der heilige Vater Benediktus nach St. Gregor dem Grossen"
(Freiburg, 1904). "Hom. XL in Evangelia", ed. H. Hurter in "SS. Patrum Opusc.
Select.", series II, Tom. VI (Innsbruck, 1892). G. Pfeilschifter Gregors
der Gr." (Munich, 1900). "Magna Moralia", Eng. tr. in "Library of the Fathers"
(4 vols., Oxford, 1844); Prunner, "Gnade und Sunde nach Gregors expositio
in Job" (Eichstätt, 1855).
Publication information
Written by G. Roger Huddleston. Transcribed by Janet van
Heyst. Dedicated to the Cistercian Fathers from the University of Dallas
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume VI. Published 1909. New
York: Robert Appleton Company. Nihil Obstat, September 1, 1909. Remy Lafort,
Censor. Imprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York
Bibliography
CHIEF SOURCES.—First of all come the writings of Gregory
himself, of which a full account is given above, the most important from
a biographical point of view being the fourteen books of his Letters and
the four books of Dialogues. The other early authorities are ST. GREGORY
OF TOURS (d. 594 or 595), Historia Francorum, Bk. X, and the Liber Pontificalis,
both practically contemporary. To the seventh century belong ST. ISIDORE
OF SEVILLE. De Viris Illustribus, XL, and ST. ILDEPHONSUS OF TOLEDO, De
Viris Illustribus, I. Next come the Vita Antiquissima, by an anonymous monk
of Whitby, written probably about 713, and of special interest as representing
an essentially English tradition in regard to the saint; THE VEN. BEDE, Hist.
Eccles., II, whose work was finished in 731; PAUL THE DEACON, who compiled
a short Vita Gregorii Magni between 770 and 780, which may be supplemented
from the same writers more famous work Historia Longobardorum; lastly JOHN
THE DEACON, who, at the request of John VIII (872-882), produced his Vita
Gregorii in answer to the complaint that no history of the saint had yet
been produced in Rome. Besides these direct authorities considerable light
on the period of St. Gregory's life may be gathered from the works of various
contemporary chroniclers and historians.
WORKS ON GREGORY. — (1) General. — GREGORY OF TOURS, Historia
Francorum, X, i, in P.L., LXXI; the best edition of this is by ARNDT AND
KRUSCH in Mon. Germ. Hist.; Script. Rerum Meroving., I; Liber Pontificatis,
ed. DUCHESNE (Paris, 1884), I, 312; ISIDORE OF SEVILLE, De Vir. Illustr.,
I, ibid.,XCVII; Vita It. Papae Gregorii M. (MS> Gallen, 567), written
by a monk of Whitby, ed. GASQUET (Westminster, 1904): see also on same work
EWALD, Die alteste Biographie Gregors I in Historische Aufsatze dem Andenken
an G. Waitz gewidmet (Hanover,1886), 17-54; VEN. BEDE, Hist. Eccles., I,
xxiii-xxxiii; II, i-iii; V, xxv; in P. L., XCV; PAUL THE DEACON, Vita Gregorii
M. in P.L.,LXXV; IDEM, De Gestis Longobard., III, 24; IV, 5; In P.L., XCV;
JOHN THE DEACON, Vita Gregorii M., ibid., LXXV; Acta SS., 12 March; VAN DEN
ZYPE, S. Gregorius Magnus (Ypres, 1610); SAINTE_MARTHE, Histoire de S. Gregoire
(Rouen, 1677); MAIMBOURG, Histoire du pontificat de S. Gregoire (Paris,
1687); BONUCCI, Istoria del B. Gregorio (Rome, 1711); WIETROWSKY, Hist. de
gestis praecipuis in pontificatu S. Gregorii M. (Prague, 1726-30); POZZO,
Istoria della vita di S. Gregorio M. (Rome, 1758); MARGGRAF, De Gregorii
I. M. Vita (Berlin, 1844); BIANCHI-GIOVINI, Pontificato di S. Gregorio (Milan,
1844); LAU, Gregor I, der Grosse (Leipzig, 1845); PFAHLER, Gregor der Grosse
(Frankfort, 1852); LUZARCHE, Vie du Pape Gregoire le Grand (Tours, 1857);
ROMALTE, Vie de S. Gregoire (Limoges, 1862); PAGNON, Gregoire le Grand et
son epoque (Rouen, 1869); BELMONTE, Gregorio M. e il suo tempo (Florence,
1871); BOHRINGER, Die Vater des Papsiiums, Leo I und Gregor I (Stuttgart,
1879): MAGGIO, Prolegomeni alla storia di Gregorio il Grande (Prato, 1879);
BARMBY, Gregory the Great (London, 1879; reissue, 1892); CLAUSIER, S. Gregoire
(Paris, 1886); BOUSMANN, Gregor I, der Grosse (Paderborn, 1890); WOLFSGRUBER,
Gregor der Grosse (Saulgau, 1890); SNOW, St. Gregory, his Work and his Spirit
(London, 1892); GRISAR, Roma alta fine del mondo antico (Rome, 1899), Pt.
III; IDEM, San Gregorio Magno (Rome, 1904); DUDDEN, Gregory the Great, his
Place in History and in Thought (2 vols.,London, 1905); CAPELLO, Gregorio
I e il suo pontificuto (Saluzzo, 1904); CEILLIER, Histoire general des auteurs
ecclesiastique, XI, 420-587; MILMAN, History of Latin Christianity, Bk. III,
vii; MONTALEMBERT, Monks of the West, tr. Bk. v; GREGOROVIUS, Rome in the
Middle Ages, tr., II, 16-103; HODGKIN, Italy and her Invaders, V, vii-ix;
GATTA, Un parallelo storico (Marco Aurelio, Gregorio Magno) (Milan, 1901);
MANN, Lives of the Popes in the Early Middle Ages (London, 1902), I, 1-250.
(2) Special. (a) The Patrimony. — ORSI, Della
origine del dominio temporate e della sovranita del Rom. Pontif. (2nd ed.,
Rome, 1754); BORGIA, Istoria del dominio temporale della Sede Apostolica
nelle due Sicilie (Rome, 1789); MUZZARELLI, Dominio temporale del Papa (Rome,
1789); SUGENHEIM, Gesch. der Entstehung und Ausbildung des Kirchenstaates
(Leipzig, 1854); SCHARPFF, Die Entstchung des Kirchenstaates (Freiburg im
Br., 1860); GRISAR, Ein Rundgang durch die Patrimonien des hl. Stuhls i,
J. 600, in Zeitschr, Kuth, Theol., I, 321; SCHWARZLOSE, Die Patrimonien
d. rom. K. (Berlin, 1887); MOMMSEN, Die Bewirtschaftung der Kirchenguter
unter Papst Gregor I, in Zeitsch, f. Socialund, Wirtschaftsgesch., I, 43;
DOIZE, Deux etudes sur l'administration temporelle du Pape Gregoire le
Grand (Paris, 1904). (b) Primacy and Relations with other Churches. — PFAFF,
Dissertatio de titulo l'atriarchoe (Ecumenici (Tübingen, 1735); ORTLIEB,
Essai sur le systeme eccles, de Gregoire le Grand (Strasburg, 1872); PINGAUD,
La politique de S. Gregoire (Paris, 1872); LORENZ, Papstwahl und Kaisertum
(Berlin, 1874), 23; CRIVELLUCCI, Storia della relazioni tra lo Stato e la
Chiesa (Bologna, 1885), II, 301; GORRES, Papsi Gregor der Grosse und Kaiser
Phocas in Zeitsche, fur wissenschaftliche Theol., CLIV, 592-602. (c) Relations
with Lombards and Franks. — BERNARDI, I Longobardi e S. Gregorio M. (Milan,
1843); Troya, Storia d'Italia del medio evo, IV: Codice diplomatico longobardo
dal 568 al 774 (Naples, 1852); DIEHL, Etudes sur l'administration byzantine
dans l'Exarchat de Ravenne (Paris, 1888); HARTMANN, Unters, z. Gesch. d.
byzant, Verwaltung in Italien (Leipzig, 1889); LAMPE, Qui fuerint Gregorii
M. p. temporibus in imperii byzantini parte occident, exarchi (Berlin, 1892);
PERRY, The Franks (London, 1857); KELLERT, Pope Gregory the Great and his
Relations with Gaul (Cambridge, 1889); GRISAR, Rom. u. d. frankische Kirche
vorneehmlich im 6. Jahr. in Zeitschr. kath. Theol., 14. (d) Monasticism and
Missionary Work. — MABILLON, Dissertatio de monastica vita Gregorii Papoe
(Paris, 1676); BUTLER, Was St. Augustine of Canterbury a Benedictine? in
Downside Review, III, 45-61, 223-240; GRUTZMACHER, Die Bedeutung Benedikts
von Nursia und seiner Regel in der Gesch. des Monchtums (Berlin, 1892);
CUTTS, Augustine of Canterbury (London, 1895); GRAY, The Origin and Early
History of Christianity in Britain (London, 1897); BRIGHT, Chapters on Early
English Church History (Oxford, 1897); BENEDETTI, S. Gregorio Magno e la
schiavitu (Rome, 1904). (e) Writings. — ALZOO, Lehrb. der Patrologie (Freiburg
im Br., 1876); HARNACK, Lehrb. der Dogmengeschichte, III (Freiburg im Br.,
1890); LOOFS, Leits. zum Studium der Dogmengeschichte (Halle, 1893); SEEBERG,
Lehrb. der Dogmengeschichte, II (Leipzig, 1898); BARDENHEWER, Patrology,
tr. SHAHAN (Freiburg im Br., 1908).
|
St.
Boniface IV 608-615 25 May converted Pantheon into a Christian Church,
the temple by Agrippa to Jupiter the Avenger, to Venus, and to Mars consecrated
by the pope to the Virgin Mary and all the Martyrs. (Hence the title S.
Maria Rotunda.) the first instance at Rome of a pagan temple into a place
of Christian worship.
Son of John, a physician, a Marsian from the province and
town of Valeria; he succeeded Boniface III after a vacancy of over nine months;
consecrated 25 August, 608; d. 8 May, 615 (Duchesne); or, 15 September,
608-25 May, 615 (Jaffé).
In the time of Pope St. Gregory the Great he was a deacon
of the Roman Church and held the position of dispensator, i.e., the first
official in connexion with the administration of the patrimonies. Boniface
obtained leave from the Emperor Phocas to convert the Pantheon into a Christian
Church, and on 13 May, 609 (?) the temple erected by Agrippa to Jupiter the
Avenger, to Venus, and to Mars was consecrated by the pope to the Virgin
Mary and all the Martyrs. (Hence the title S. Maria Rotunda.) It was the first
instance at Rome of the transformation of a pagan temple into a place of
Christian worship. Twenty-eight cartloads of sacred bones were said to have
been removed from the Catacombs and placed in a porphyry basin beneath the
high altar. During the pontificate of Boniface, Mellitus, the first Bishop
of London, went to Rome "to consult the pope on important matters relative
to the newly established English Church" (Bede, H. E., II, iv). Whilst in
Rome he assisted at a council then being held concerning certain questions
on "the life and monastic peace of monks", and, on his departure, took with
him to England the decree of the council together with letters from the pope
to Lawrence, Archbishop of Canterbury, and to all the clergy, to King Ethelbert,
and to all the English people "concerning what was to be observed by the
Church of England". The decrees of the council now extant are spurious. The
letter to Ethelbert (in William of Malmesbury, De Gest. Pont., I, 1464, ed
Migne) is considered spurious by Hefele (Conciliengeschichte, III, 66), questionable
by Haddan and Stubbs (Councils, III,
|
105-116 Pope St. Alexander
I Roman by birth ruled the Church in reign of Trajan (98-117). attributes
to him, but scarcely with accuracy, insertion in the canon of the Qui Pridie,
or words commemorative of the institution of the Eucharist, such being
certainly primitive and original in the Mass. He is also said to have introduced
the use of blessing water mixed with salt for the purification of Christian
homes from evil influences (constituit aquam sparsionis cum sale benedici
in habitaculis hominum). Duchesne (Lib. Pont., I, 127) calls attention to
the persistence of this early Roman custom by way of a blessing in the Gelasian
Sacramentary that recalls very forcibly the actual Asperges prayer at the
beginning of Mass. 
127 Sixtus
I 115-125 , Pope survived as pope for about 10 years
before being killed by the Roman authorities M (RM)
125-136 pope St.
Telesphorus
155-166
St. Anicetus pope a Syrian from Emesa actively opposed Marcionism and Gnosticism
189 -199 Victor
I, Pope African by birth, Victor succeeded Saint Eleutherius as pope
c. 189 the first to use Latin in the celebration of the liturgy Until
Victor's time, Rome celebrated the Mass in Greek. Pope Victor changed the
language to Latin, which was used in his native North Africa. According
to Jerome, he was the first Christian author to write about theology in
Latin. Latin masses, however, did not become universal until the latter
half of the fourth century.[(RM)
230 Pope Saint
Pontian or Pontianus, was pope from July 21, to September 28, 235
236, Pope Saint
Fabian succeeded Saint Antheros governed as bishop of Rome 14 peaceful
years; Died 250.
On January 10, his martyrdom under Decius. He was a layman, who, according
to Eusebius, was chosen because a dove flew in through a window during
the election and settled on his head. 
308-309 Pope
St. Marcellus I; a clear historical
tradition in support of his declaration that the ecclesiastical administration
in Rome was reorganized by this pope after the great persecution;
314 Pope
St. Miltiades { also written Melchiades), a native of Africa}
310 or 311 .Miltiades caused the remains
of his predecessor, Eusebius, to be brought back from Sicily to Rome, and
had them interred in a crypt in the Catacombs of St. Callistus. In the
following year the pope witnessed the final triumph of the Cross, through
the defeat of Maxentius, and the entry into Rome of the Emperor Constantine
(now converted to Christianity), after the victory at the Milvian Bridge
(27 October, 312). Later the emperor presented the Roman Church with the
Lateran Palace, which then became the residence of the pope, and consequently
also the seat of the seat of the central administration of the Roman Church.
The basilica which adjoined the palace or was afterwards built there became
the principal church of Rome.
335 St. Sylvester
Pope (25 yrs) council of Arles and Nice 
366-384 Pope
Saint Damasus I 384 Pope
Saint Damasus I Dec 11 commissioned Saint Jerome translate Scriptures
in Latin. At Rome, St. Damasus,
pope and confessor, condemned the heresiarch Apollinaris, and restored to
his See Peter, bishop of Alexandria, who had been driven from it. He
also discovered the bodies of many holy martyrs and composed verses in their
honour.
384-399 Pope St. Siricius;
lector then Roman Church deacon during Liberius (352-66) pontificate; After death of Damasus, Siricius unanimously
elected successor. Pope Benedict XIV added the name of St Siricius
to the Roman Martyrology, with the statement that he was “distinguished for
his learning, piety and zeal for religion, condemning various heretics and
strengthening ecclesiastical discipline by very salutary decrees”. 
401-417 St. Innocent
I 401-417
418-422 St.
Boniface I Boniface ardently supported St. Augustine in combating
Pelagianism. Having received two Pelagian letters calumniating Augustine,
he sent them to him. In recognition of this solicitude Augustine dedicated
to Boniface his rejoinder contained in "Contra duas Epistolas Pelagianoruin
Libri quatuor". 
483 - 492 492 ST. FELIX
III Pope helped to get the Church
in Africa on its feet
492 496 Pope
St. Gelasius I feast Nov 21 conspicuous
for his spirit of prayer, penance, and study. He took great delight in the
company of monks, and was a true father to the poor.
498-514 Pope St. Symmachus. In the city of Rome, according to the "Liber
pontificalis", the pope took severe measures against the Manichæans,
ordered the burning of their books, and expelled them from the city. He erected
or restored and adorned various churches. Thus he built a Church of St. Andrew
near St. Peter's, a Basilica of St. Agnes on the Via Aurelia, adorned the
Church of St. Peter's, completely rebuilt the Basilica of Sts. Sylvester
and Martinus, and made improvements over the Catacomb of the Jordani on the
Via Salaria. He built episcopal houses (episcopia) to the right and left
of the parvis of St. Peter's. These buildings were evidently connected with
the residence of the pope for several years near St. Peter's during the disorders
of the Laurentian schism. He also built asylums for the poor near the three
churches of St. Peter, St. Paul, and St. Laurence that were outside the city
walls. The pope contributed large sums for the support of the Catholic bishops
of Africa who were persecuted by the rulers of the Arian Vandals. He also
aided the inhabitants of the provinces of upper Italy who suffered so sorely
from the invasion of the barbarians. After his death he was buried at St.
Peter's. Symmachus is venerated in the Roman Church as a saint. 
536 Pope
Agapitus
I archdeacon opposed Monophysites Pope (RM)
590-604 Pope St.
Gregory I ("the Great") 
St. Boniface
IV 608-615 25 May
converted Pantheon into
a Christian Church, the temple by Agrippa to Jupiter the Avenger, to Venus,
and to Mars consecrated by the pope to the Virgin Mary and all the Martyrs.
(Hence the title S. Maria Rotunda.) the first instance at Rome of a pagan
temple into a place of Christian worship. 
615 618 Pope St. Deusdedit (Adeodatus I). 
625-638 Pope Honorius
640-642 Pope
John IV Saint Venantius a Dalmatian bishop whose body was brought to
the Lateran at Spalato by Pope John IV in 641
655 Pope St.
Martin I of noble birth, great
student, commanding intelligence, profound learning, great charity to the
poor Saint Martin the Confessor,
Pope of Rome native of the Tuscany convened Lateran Council at Rome condemn
Monothelite heresy last martyred Pope.
684-685 Pope
St. Benedict II distinguished knowledge of the Scriptures and by his
singing, and as a priest was remarkable for his humility, love of the poor,
and generosity; Many of the churches of Rome were restored by him; and its
clergy, its deaconries for the care of the poor, and its lay sacristans all
benefited by his liberality.
715 731 Gregory
II, Perhaps the greatest of the great popes who occupied the chair of
Peter during the eighth century; 89th Pope educated at the Lateran
restore clerical discipline, fought heresies helped restore and rebuild
churches (including Saint Paul-Outside-the-Walls), hospitals, and monasteries,
including Monte Cassino under Petrona outstanding concern of pontificate
-difficulties with Emperor Leo III the Isaurian 
731-741 Pope
St. Gregory III; Nov 28: held
two synods in Rome (731) in which the image-breaking heresy was condemned.
By way of a practical protest against the emperor's action he made it a point
of paying special honour to images and relics, giving particular attention
to the subject of St. Peter's; Gregory III extended to St. Boniface the same
support and encouragement which had been afforded him by Gregory II. "Strengthened
exceedingly by the help of the affection of the Apostolic See", the saint
joyfully continued his glorious work for the conversion of Germany. About
737 Boniface came to Rome for the third time to give an account of his
stewardship, and to enjoy the pope's "life-giving conversation", At Gregory's
order the monk and great traveller, St. Willibald, went to assist his cousin
St. Boniface in his labours; got help from Charles Martel against the Lombards.
741 - 752 Zachary
I, Pope known for his learning & sanctity chosen pope in 741 to
succeed Saint Gregory III a peace-maker and judged no man without
a hearing.
795-816 Leo
III
The large sums of money which Charlemagne gave to the papal treasury enabled
Leo to become an efficient helper of the poor and a patron of art, and
to renovate the churches, not only of Rome, but even of Ravenna. He employed
the imperishable art of mosaic not merely to portray the political relationship
between Charlemagne and himself, but chiefly to decorate the churches,
especially his titular church of St. Susanna. Up to the end of the sixteenth
century a figure of Leo in mosaic was to be seen in that ancient church; after Michael I came to the Byzantine throne,
he ratified the treaty between him and Charlemagne which was to secure
peace for East and West; 
820 867 Pope
St. Nicholas I; Nov 13; One of
the great popes of the Middle Ages, who exerted decisive influence upon
the historical development of the papacy and its position among the Christian
nations of Western Europe; At Rome,
Nicholas rebuilt and endowed several churches, and constantly sought to
encourage religious life. 
1048 1054 Leo
IX "the pilgrim pope" reformer deacon a stern bishop holy man &
army officer attempted stopping the schism (RM) During 20 years as prelate of Toul, known as
stern bishop, disciplined lax priests brought order into the monasteries
of his diocese. He took his spiritual advisor, Hildebrand (later Pope Saint
Gregory VII), with him to Rome.
What he had done formerly on
a small scale he attempted to apply to the whole Church. First began
earnest reform of curia. Leo combatted simony, enforced celibacy among clergy,
encouraged development of chant and liturgy, condemned Berengarius, strove
to prevent schism between Eastern and Western churches engineered by Emperor
Michael Coerularius. Tirelessly travelled throughout western Europe to enforce
reforms, became known as the pilgrim pope. Wherever he went he called together bishops
and clergy in councils, inspiring them follow his lead.
1055-157
Pope Victor II With
untiring zeal he combated, like his predecessor, against simony and
clerical concubinage. Being well supported by the emperor, he often succeeded
where Leo IX had failed. On Pentecost Sunday, June 4, 1055, he held a large
synod at Florence, in presence of the emperor and 120 bishops, where former
decrees against simony and incontinence were confirmed and several offending
bishops deposed. To King Ferdinand of Spain he sent messengers with threats
of excommunication if he should continue in his refusal to acknowledge Henry
III as Roman Emperor. Ferdinand submitted to the papal demands. Before the
emperor returned to Germany he transferred to the pope the duchies of Spoleto
and Camerino. Early in 1056 Victor II sent Hildebrand back to France to resume
his labours against simony and concubinage, which he had begun under Leo IX.
He appointed the archbishops Raimbaud of Arles and Pontius of Aix papal legates
to battle against the same vices in Southern France.
1058 1061 Pope
Nicholas II The papal electoral
decree was issued in Pope Nicholas II’s bull, In nominee Domini on April
13, 1059, and was renewed in 1061. Simony, the purchase or sale of
sacred or spiritual things, was halted, and the entire voting process was
revised so that only cardinal-bishops (not simply cardinals) would have the
right to vote with further affirmation of the Roman clergy and laity. 
1061-1073 Alexander
II Anselm of Lucca, leader of the reform party especially
in the Milanese territory, where he was born at Baggio, of noble parentage.
1073-1085 Pope
St. Gregory VII; One of the greatest
of the Roman pontiffs and one of the most remarkable men of all times (HILDEBRAND);
1086-1087
Pope Blessed Victor III; enter
the monastery of S. Sophia at Benevento where he received the name of Desiderius;
the greatest of all the abbots
of Monte Cassino with the exception of the founder, and as such won for
himself "imperishable fame" (Gregorovius); Peter the Deacon gives (op. cit., III, 63) a
list of some seventy books which Desiderius caused to be copied at Monte
Cassino; they include works of Sts. Augustine, Ambrose, Bede, Basil, Jerome,
Gregory of Nazianzus, and Cassian, the registers of Popes Feliz and Leo,
the histories of Josephus, Paul Warnfrid, Jordanus, and Gregory of Tours,
the "Institutes" and "Novels" of Justinian, the works of Terence, Virgil,
and Seneca, Cicero's "De natura deorum", and Ovid's "Fasti"; Undoubtedly the chief importance of Desiderius
in papal history lies in his influence with the Normans, an influence which
he was able repeatedly to exert in favour of the Holy See; refused the
Papacy several times due to his ill health.
1088-1099 Pope
Bl.
Urban II Under St. Bruno (afterwards
founder of the Carthusians) Otho studied at Reims, where he later became
canon and archdeacon. About 1070 he retired to Cluny and was professed there
under the great abbot St. Hugh. After holding the office of prior he was
sent by St. Hugh to Rome as one of the monks asked for by Gregory VII, and
he was of great assistance to Gregory in the difficult task of reforming
the Church. In 1078 he became Cardinal Bishop of Ostia and Gregory's chief
adviser and helper. During the years 1082 to 1085 he was legate
in France and Germany. While returning to Rome in 1083 he was made prisoner
by the Emperor Henry IV, but was soon liberated. Whilst in Saxony (1084-5)
he filled many of the vacant sees with men faithful to Gregory and deposed
those whom the pope had condemned. He held a great synod at Quedlinburg
in Saxony in which the antipope Guibert of Ravenna and his adherents were
anathematized by name. Victor III had already been elected when Otho returned
to Rome in 1085. Otho appears to have opposed Victor at first, not through
any animosity or want of good will, but because he judged it better, at
so critical a time, that Victor should resign the honour he was unwilling
to retain. After Victor's death a summons was sent to as many bishops of
the Gregorian party as possible to attend a meeting at Terracina. It was
made known at this meeting that Otho had been suggested by Gregory and Victor
as their successor. Accordingly, on 12 March, 1088, he was unanimously elected,
taking the title of Urban II. 
Pope
Paschal II
Succeeded Urban II, and reigned from 13 Aug., 1099, till he died at Rome,
21 Jan., 1118. He gave his approval to the new orders of Cîteaux
and Fontevrauld. On his numerous journeys he brought the papacy into direct
contact with the people and dedicated a large number of churches. If it
was not given to him to solve the problem of Investitures, he cleared the
way for his more fortunate successor. 
1145-1153 Bd
Eugenius III, Pope Cistercian monk at Clairvaux; he took in religion
the name of Bernard, his great namesake being his superior at Clairvaux
1159-81 Pope
Alexander III; In the estimation of Rome, Italy, and Christendom, Alexander
III's epitaph expresses the truth, when it calls him "the Light of the
Clergy, the Ornament of the Church, the Father of his City and of the World."
1198 - 1216 Pope Innocent
III; One of the greatest popes
of the Middle Ages; a learned theologian;
one of the greatest jurists of his time; held various ecclesiastical offices during short
reigns of Lucius III, Urban III, Gregory VIII, and Clement III; re-established papal authority in Rome; scarcely a country in Europe over which Innocent
III did not in some way or other assert supremacy he claimed for the papacy;
During his reign two great
founders of the mendicant orders, St. Dominic and St. Francis, laid before
him their scheme of reforming the world. Innocent was not blind to the
vices of luxury and indolence which had infected many of the clergy and
part of the laity. In Dominic and Francis he recognized two mighty adversaries
of these vices and he sanctioned their projects with words of encouragement.
He wrote "De quadripartita specie
nuptiarum" (P. L., CCXVII, 923-968), an exposition of the fourfold marriage
bond, namely, between man and wife, between Christ and the Church, between
God and the just soul, between the Word and human nature - - entirely based
on passages from Holy Scripture. 
1216-1227 Honorius
III he set his mind on the achievement of two great things, the recovery
of the Holy Land in the Fifth Crusade and a spiritual reform of the entire
Church; but quite in contrast with Innocent III he sought these achievements
by kindness and indulgence rather than by force and severity.
1227-1241 Pope
Gregory IX During the thirteen years and four months of his pontificate
he created about fourteen cardinals, many of whom were members of religious
orders. The best known among them are Sinibald of Fiesco, a learned canonist,
who afterwards ascended the papal throne as Innocent IV; Raynald of Segni,
a nephew of Gregory IX, who succeeded Innocent IV as Alexander IV; Otto
of Montferrat, who spent over three years (1237-1240) as papal legate in England;
Jacob of Vitry, an author, confessor of St. Mary of Oignies, whose life he
wrote (Acta SS., June, IV, 636-66); St. Francis Nonatus; and the learned
and pious Englishman, Robert of Somercote, who, it is said, would have succeeded
Gregory IX on the papal throne had he not died during the conclave (26 Sept.,
1241). Gregory IX was also a man of learning, which he encouraged in various
ways. He bestowed many privileges on the University of Paris, his Alma Mater,
but also watched carefully over its professors, whom he warned repeatedly
against the growing tendency of subjecting theology to philosophy by making
the truth of the mysteries of faith dependent on philosophical proofs. He
also possesses the great merit of having again made Aristotelianism the basis
of scholastic philosophy, after the Physics of Aristotle had been prohibited
in 1210; and his Metaphysics in 1215. The prohibition of Aristotle was meant
only for the perverted Latin translation of his works and their Averroistic
commentaries. Gregory IX commissioned William of Auvergne and other learned
men to purge the works of Aristotle of their errors and thus made them again
accessible to students. Among the greatest achievements of Gregory IX must
be counted the collection of papal decretals, a work with which he entrusted
Raymond of Pennaforte and which was completed in 1234 (see DECRETALS).
1243 1254 Innocent IV (Sinibaldo de' Fieschi) In England, Innocent IV made his power felt by
protecting Henry III against
the lay as well as the ecclesiastical nobility. But here and in other countries
many just complaints arose against him on account of the excessive taxes
which he imposed upon the people. In Austria, he confirmed Ottocar, the
son of King Wenzel, as duke, in 1252, and mediated between him and King
Béla of Hungary in 1254. In Portugal, he appointed Alfonso III administrator
of the kingdom, because the people were disgusted at the immorality and
the tyranny of his father, Sancho III. He favoured the missions in Prussia,
Russia, Armenia, and Mongolia, but owing to his continual warfare with Frederick
II and his successors he neglected the internal affairs of the Church and
allowed many abuses, provided they served to strengthen his position against
the Hohenstaufen. He approved the rule of the Sylvestrines on 27 June, 1247,
and that of the Poor Clares on 9 August, 1253. The following saints were
canonized by him: Edmund Rich, Archbishop of Canterbury, on 16 December,
1246; William, Bishop of St-Brieuc, in 1247; Peter of Verona; Dominican inquisitor
and martyr, in 1253; Stanislaus, Bishop of Cracow, in the same year. He is
the author of "Apparatus in quinque libros decretalium", which was first
published at Strasburg in 1477, and afterwards reprinted; it is considered
the best commentary on the Decretals of Gregory IX. The registers of Innocent
IV were edited by Elie Berger in four volumes (Paris, 1881-98) and his letters,
762 in number, by Rodenberg in "Mon. Germ. Epp. sæculi XIII", II (1887),
1-568. 
1276 Teobaldo Visconti Pope St. Gregory
X 1210-1276; 1283 BD JOHN
OF VERCELLI Immediately on his election to the see
of Rome, Bd Gregory X imposed on John of Vercelli and his friars the task
of again pacifying the quarrelling states of Italy, and three years later
he was ordered to draw up a schema for the second ecumenical Council of
Lyons. At the council he met Jerome of Ascoli (afterwards Pope Nicholas IV), who had succeeded St
Bonaventure as minister general of the Franciscans, and the two addressed
a joint letter to the whole body of friars. Later on they were sent together
by the Holy See to mediate between Philip III of France and Alfonso X of
Castile, continuing the work of peace-maker, in which John excelled.
1288-92 Jerome
Masci of Ascoli Pope
Nicholas IV second ecumenical Council of Lyons; 1st Fransciscan Pope;
In 1291 John of Monte Corvino (1247-1328) left Tabriz as a legate
of Pope Nicholas IV to the court of Kublai Khan. An Italian merchant, a
Dominican friar and John traveled to western India where the Dominican died.
When John and the Italian merchant arrived in China in 1294, Kublai Khan
had recently died.
1294
Pope St. Celestine V The
birthday of St. Peter of Moroni who, while leading the life of an anchoret,
was created Sovereign Pontiff and called Celestine V. He later abdicated
the pontificate, and led a religious life in solitude, where, renowned
for virtues and miracles, he went to the Lord. 
1304 Blessed
Benedict XI Servites were solemnly approved by Blessed Benedict XI
February 17 1304 Blessed Benedict
XI, OP Pope he had "a vast store of knowledge, a prodigious memory,
a penetrating genius, and (that) everything about him endeared him to all."
In 1295, he received the degree of master of theology As papal legate Nicholas
travelled to Hungary to try to settle a civil war there He worked to reconcile
warring parties in Europe and the Church and to increase spirituality.
His reign, short though it was, was noted for its leniency and kindness
Many miracles were performed at his tomb, and there were several cures even
before his burial (RM)
1389-1404
Pope Boniface IX; He lacked good theological training and skill in the
conduct of curial business, but was by nature tactful and prudent. His firm
charater and mild manner did much to restore respect for the papacy in the
countries of his own obedience (Germany, England, Hungary, Poland, and the
greater part of Italy); In the course of his reign Boniface extinguished
the municipal independence of Rome and established the supremacy of the
pope. He secured the final adhesion of the Romans (1398) by fortifying anew
the Castle of Sant' Angelo, the bridges, and other points of vantage. He
also took over the port of Ostia from its cardinal-bishop. In the Papal
States Boniface gradually regained control of the chief strongholds and
cities, and is the true founder of these States as they appear in the fifteenth
century. Owing to the faithlessness and violence of the Romans he resided
frequently at Perugia, Assisi, and elsewhere. Clement VII, the Avignon pope,
died 16 September, 1394. Boniface had excommunicated him shortly after his
own election, and in turn had been excommunicated by Clement. In 1392 Boniface
attempted, but in vain, to enter into closer relations with Clement for
the re-establishment of ecclesiastical unity, whereupon Boniface reasserted
with vigour his own legitimacy. Clement was succeeded at Avignon, 28 September,
1394, by Cardinal Pedro de Luna, as Benedict XIII. Suffice it to say here
that Boniface always claimed to be the true pope, and at all times rejected
the proposal to abdicate even when it was supported by the principal members
of his own obedience, e.g. Richard II of England (1396), the Diet of Frankfort
(1397), and King Wenceslaus of Germany (Reims, 1398); Contemporary and later
chroniclers praise the political virtues of Boniface, also the purity of
his life, and the grandeur of his spirit.
1417 - 1431 Pope
Martin V; Nov 28 his journey to
Rome, where he arrived on 28 September, 1420. He at once set to work, establishing
order and restoring the dilapidated churches, palaces, bridges, and other
public structures. For this reconstruction he engaged some famous masters
of the Tuscan school, and thus laid the foundation for the Roman Renaissance.
When practically a new Rome had risen from the ruins of the old, the pope
turned his attention to the rest of the Papal States, which during the schism
had become an incoherent mass of independent cities and provinces. After
the death of Braccio di Montone in June 1424, Perugia, Assisi, Todi and
Jesi freely submitted to the papal territory. Bologna again revolted in
1428, but returned to the papal allegiance in the following year. In these
activities, Martin V was greatly assisted by his kindred, the Colonna family,
whom he overwhelmed with important civil and ecclesiastical offices. In
his case, however, the charge of nepotism loses some of its odiousness, for,
when, he came to Rome, he was a landless ruler and could look for support
to no one except his relatives.
remarkable for his mortified life, his firmness of purpose, and prudence
in face of serious difficulties; proclaimed innocence of the Maid of Orléans;
chiefly concerned with the organization of Christian Europe against the
invasion of the Turks. Callistus III must ever be regarded as
a man of lofty ideals, of boundless courage, energy, and perseverance. He
realized the dangers which then confronted Europe, and made every effort
to unite its Christian princes for the defence of their own countries; if
he failed, the blame must fall not on the pope, but on those who refused
to hearken to his counsels.
1523-1534 Clement VII (GIULIO DE’ MEDICI) 
1534 1549 Pope
Paul III; contemporaries
praise his proficiency in all the learning of the Renaissance, especially
in his mastery of classical Latin and Italian; He wore the purple for over forty years, passing
through the several gradations, until he became Dean of the Sacred College.
In accordance with the abuses
of his time, he accumulated a number of opulent benefices, and spent his
immense revenue with a generosity which won for him the praises of artists
and the affection of the Roman populace. His native ability and diplomatic
skill, acquired by long experience, made him tower above his colleagues
in the Sacred College, even as his Palazzo Farnese excelled in magnificence
all the other palaces of Rome. That he continued to grow in favour under
pontiffs so different in character as the Borgia, Rovera, and Medici popes
is a sufficient proof of his tact. 
Pope Paul IV 1555 -- 1559 (GIOVANNI
PIETRO CARAFFA ). 
1559-1565 Pope
Pius IV (31 March 1499 – 9 December 1565), born Giovanni Angelo Medici,
was Pope from 1559 to 1565. He is notable for presiding over the culmination
of the Council of Trent.
1566-1572 St
Pius V
1572-1585
Pope Gregory XIII (January 7, 1502 – April 10, 1585), born Ugo Boncompagni;
No other act of Gregory
has gained for him a more lasting fame than reform of the Julian calendar
completed introduced 1578. Closely connected with the reform of the calendar
is the emendation of the Roman martyrology ordered by Gregory 1580.
In a brief, dated 14 January, 1584, Gregory XIII ordered that the new martyrology
should supersede all others. Another great literary achievement of Gregory
XIII is an official Roman edition of the Corpus juris canonici. Shortly
after the conclusion of the Council of Trent, Pius IV appointed a committee
to bring out a critical edition of the Decree of Gratian; increased to 35
(correctores Romani) by Pius V 1566. Gregory XIII a member from the beginning;
finally completed in 1582. In the Briefs "Cum pro munere", dated 1 July,
1580, and "Emendationem", dated 2 June, 1582, Gregory ordered that henceforth
only the emended official text was to be used and that in the future no other
text should be printed. 
1585-1590 Pope Sixtus V a Minorite: The talented young priest gained a high reputation
as a preacher. At Rome, where in 1552 he preached the Lenten sermons in
the Church of Santi Apostoli, his successful preaching gained for him the
friendship of very influential men, such as Cardinal Carpi, the protector
of his order; the Cardinals Caraffa and Ghislieri, both of whom became popes;
St. Philip Neri and St. Ignatius.
1592-1605 Pope
Clement VIII St. Philip Neri,
for thirty years was his confessor; To him we owe the institution of the Forty Hours'
Devotion. He founded at Rome the Collegio Clementino for the education
of the sons of the richer classes, and augmented the number of national
colleges in Rome by opening the Collegio Scozzese for the training of missionaries
to Scotland. The "Bullarium Romanum" contains many important constitutions
of Clement, notably one denouncing duelling and one providing for the inviolability
of the States of the Church.
1605-1621 Pope
Paul V; a canonist of marked
ability; watched vigilantly over
the interests of the Church in every nation. Paul V was no more free from nepotism than the
other pontiffs of that century. But if he seemed to show too many favours
to his relatives, it must be said that they were capable men of blameless
lives, and devoted their large revenues to the embellishment of Rome. Paul
had the honour of putting the finishing touches to St. Peter's, which had
been building for a century. He enriched the Vatican Library, was fond
of art, and encouraged Guido Reni. He canonized St. Charles Borromeo and
St. Frances of Rome. He beatified Sts. Ignatius Loyola, Francis Xavier,
Philip Neri, Theresa the Carmelite, Louis Bertrand, Thomas of Villanova,
and Isidore of Madrid. During his pontificate a large number of new institutes
for education and charity added new lustre to religion. His remains were
placed in the magnificent Borghese chapel in St. Mary Major's, where his
monument is universally admired. 
1655-1667
Alexander VII;
Fabio Chigi, At Münster
Barbarigo became acquainted with the apostolic nuncio, Fabio Chigi, who was so favourably impressed
with him that, after he had been raised to the papal throne as Alexander VII, he showed the young Venetian
many tokens of his esteem and became his strong Supporter. In 1657 he nominated
him to the bishopric of Bergamo, in 1660 he created him a cardinal, and
in 1664 he transferred him to the bishopric of Padua.
1667-1669 Pope
Clement IX; elected to
the papacy by the unanimous Sacred
College vote; idol of the Romans erudition application to
business, his extreme charity, and his affability towards great and small;
2 days/week occupied confessional in
St. Peter's church heard any one who wished to confess; frequently visited
hospitals, lavish in alms to the poor; he did little or nothing to advance
or enrich his family; aversion to notoriety, refused to permit his name to
be placed on the buildings erected during his reign; declared blessed, Rose
of Lima, first American saint, solemnly canonized S. Maria Maddalena dei
Pazzi and St. Peter of Alcantara;
death of the beloved pontiff was long lamented by Romans, who considered
him, if not the greatest, at least the most amiable of the popes. 
1689 Bl. Innocent
XI Benedetto Odescalchi
1700 1721 Pope
Clement XI Giovanni Francesco
was sent to Rome in his 11th year to prosecute studies at the Roman College.
He made rapid progress; known as an author at 18, translating from the
Greek into elegant Latin. He attracted the notice of the patroness of Roman
literati, Queen Christina of Sweden, who before he became of age enrolled
him in her exclusive Accademia. With equal ardour and success, he applied
himself to the profounder branches, theology and law, and was created doctor
of canon and civil law. So brilliant an intellect, joined with stainless
morals and piety, secured for him a rapid advancement at the papal court.
At the age of twenty-eight he was made a prelate, and governed successively
Rieti, Sabina, and Orvieto, everywhere acceptable on account of his reputation
for justice and prudence. Recalled to Rome, he was appointed Vicar of St.
Peter's, and on the death of Cardinal Slusio succeeded to the important
position of Secretary of Papal Briefs, which he held for thirteen years,
and for which his command of classical latinity singularly fitted him. On
13 February, 1690, he was created cardinal-deacon and later Cardinal-Priest
of the Title of San Silvestro, and was ordained to the priesthood. 
1724 Pope
Innocent XIII 1655 1724 Most Holy Name of Jesus extended this feast to the entire Church In
1721, Declared Isidore of Spain Doctor in
1711
1724-1730 Pope
Benedict XIII placed St John of the Crux on the list of the saints; In government
of his diocese, Cardinal Orsini unremitting in labours and zeal; visited
even the most remote hamlets and was not less watchful over temporal than
over spiritual things; provided needs of the people, repaired churches held
a diocesan synod, the decrees of which he published; In 1680, when Innocent
XI transferred him to Cesena, he left to the people of Siponto a memorial
of his apostolic activity, his devotion to the poor and his constant preaching
brought about a thorough-going reformation among both clergy and people.
Seeing on his frequent journeys the condition of the churches in even the
poorest parishes, he neglected none and by the promulgation of strict rules,
he abolished all known abuses; This
long delay weighed heavily on the soul of Orsini, who commenced a novena
of prayers to his patron, St. Philip Neri, that the election of a new pope
might be no longer delayed. Before the novena was finished he saw with terror
that he himself would be chosen, and, reluctant to accept a position which
filled him with dread, he sought by all means in his power to prevent his
election. Against his oft repeated protestations he was chosen 29 May, 1724,
and even after the final vote was taken he refused to yield, arguing that
his age, his physical weakness, his incapacity, and a resolution which he
made never to become pope, should exempt him from such a grave responsibility.
He yielded only when it was made clear to him that grave dangers were to
be feared if the conclave should be reopened. So with tears, and obeying
the command of the general of his order, he allowed himself to be proclaimed
pope; His first concern as pope was
to enforce rigidly ecclesiastical discipline. He issued several decrees on
ecclesiastical dress and was unsparing in his efforts to abolish any semblance
of luxury or worldly pomp among the cardinals; Benedict's theological writings were published
in three volumes (Ravenna, 1728). 
1730-1740 Pope Clement
XII (LORENZO CORSINI).
1740-1758 Pope
Benedict XIV is best known to
history as a student and a scholar. Though by no means a genius, his enormous
application coupled with more than ordinary cleverness of mind made him one
of the most erudite men of his time and gave him the distinction of being
perhaps the greatest scholar among the popes. His character was many-sided,
and his range of interests large. His devotion to science and the serious
investigation of historical problems did not interfere with his purely literary
studies. "I have been reproached", he once said, "because of my familiarity
with Tasso and Dante and Ariosto, but they are a necessity to me in order
to give energy to my thought and life to my style." This devotion to the arts
and sciences brought Lambertini throughout his whole life into close and
friendly contact with the most famous authors and scholars of his time. Montfaucon,
whom he knew in Rome, said of him, "Young as he is, he has two souls: one
for science, the other for society." This last characterization did not interfere
with his restless activity in any of the many important positions which he
was called on to fill, nor did it diminish his marvellous capacity for the
most arduous work. 
1758-1769 Pope
Clement
XIII; Oct
20; the Jansenist Abbé
Clément, a grudging witness, tells us that "he was called the saint
(by his people), and was an exemplary man who, notwithstanding the immense
revenues of his diocese and his private estate, was always without money owing
to the lavishness of his alms-deeds, and would give away even his linen"
1775 1799 Pope
Pius VI; Born at Cesena, 27 December,
1717; elected 15 February, 1775; died at Valence, France, 29 Aug., 1799.
He was of a noble but impoverished family, and was educated at the Jesuit
College of Cesena and studied law at Ferrara. After a diplomatic mission
to Naples, he was appointed papal secretary and canon of St. Peter's in 1755.
Clement XIII appointed him treasurer of the Roman Church in 1766, and Clement
XIV made him a cardinal in 1775. He then retired to the Abbey of Subiaco,
of which he was commendatory abbot, until his election as Pius VI.
the French took Rome on 10 Feb., 1798, and proclaimed the Roman Republic
on 15 Feb. Because the pope refused to submit, he was forcibly taken from
Rome on the night of 20 Feb., and brought first to Siena and then to Florence.
At the end of March, 1799, though seriously ill, he was hurried to Parma,
Piacenza, Turin, then over the Alps to Briançon and Grenoble, and
finally to Valence, where he succumbed to his sufferings before he could
be brought further. 
1846--1878
Pius IX (Giovanni
Maria Mastai-Ferretti, devotion to Mary led him to favor the Proclamation
of the Immaculate Conception (December 8, 1854)
20 February, 1878; 20 July, 1903; Pope
Leo XIII Gioacchino Vincenzo Raffaele
Luigi Pecci doctorate of theology; Civilization owes much to Leo for his stand
on the social question. The ecclesiastical sciences found a generous patron
in Pope Leo. Even among the Copts his efforts at reunion made headway. Under
Leo the Catholic Faith made great progress; With regard to the Kingdom
of Italy, Leo XIII maintained Pius IX's attitude of protest; in Portugal
the Government ceased to support the Goan schism, and in 1886 a concordat
was drawn up.
Pius_X_1903_14.jpg
1914 St. Pius X "I was born poor,
I have lived in poverty, and I
wish to die poor"
Benedetto XV), (21 November 1854 – 22 January 1922), born Giacomo Paolo
Giovanni Battista della Chiesa, reigned as Pope from 3 September 1914 to
22 January 1922; he succeeded Pope Pius X (1903–14).
1922-1939
Pope
Pius XI Ambrogio Damiano Achille Ratti declared St John of the Crux
a
doctor of the universal Church (1857 - 1939) Italian scholar & pope. He
issued the encyclical Quas Primas establishing the feast of Christ the King,
and took as his papal motto "Christ's peace in Christ's kingdom". Pius XI
fought the 2 ascendant ideologies of communism and fascism. Onetime librarian/
mountain climber; reorganized archives. Nevertheless, Pius XI was hardly
a withdrawn and bookish figure. A man of stature, he possessed an iron will
and did not hesitate to assert his position. Maria Soledad
Micaela Desmaisieres y Lopez de Dicastillo, often called Madre Sacramento
because she founded a religious Order of Sisters consecrated especially to
the Blessed Sacrament was beatified in 1925 and canonized
on March 4, 1934 by Pope Pius XI
1939-1958 Pope Pius XII; 260th Pius XII wrote, "I have seen the 'miracle of
the sun,'
this is the pure truth." four times; "4 p.m. on Oct. 30, 1950", again on "the 31st
of October and Nov. 1, the day of the definition of the dogma of the Assumption,
and then again Nov. 8, then after that, no more. Occurred during his, "habitual walk in the Vatican Gardens,
reading and studying," having arrived to the statue of Our Lady of Lourdes,
"toward the top of the hill […] I was awestruck by a phenomenon that before
now I had never seen. The sun, which was still quite high, looked
like a pale, opaque sphere, entirely surrounded by a luminous circle," he
recounted. And one could look at the sun, "without the slightest bother.
There was a very light little cloud in front of it." The Holy Father's
note goes on to describe "the opaque sphere" that "moved outward slightly,
either spinning, or moving from left to right and vice versa. But within
the sphere, you could see marked movements with total clarity and without
interruption."
1963 Pope_John_XXIII