Part 21

Sylverius died, in 540, during his second exile, on the island of Palmaria. … Vigilius, who was ordained in 537, and who became lawful pope in 540, was compelled to remain in the east, from 546 to 554, sometimes a prisoner in Constantinople, and sometimes in exile. He died at Syracuse, on his return to Rome, in 555. Pelagius I, from 555 to 560, found difficulty in obtaining an acknowledgement of his election, as, by his condemnation of the three articles, he was considered in the west as a traitor to the council of Chalcedon, and because there existed a suspicion that he was accessory to the death of Vigilius.

John III, from 560 to 573, beheld the commencement of the Lombard dominion in Italy.

Benedict I, from 574 to 578, and Pelagius II, from 578 to 590, ruled the Church during the melancholy times of the Lombard devastations. One of the most splendid appearances in the series of the Roman pontiffs was that of Gregory the Great, from 590 to 604."

_J. J. I. Döllinger, History of the Church, volume 2, pages 213-217._

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"Pope Pelagius died on the 8th of February, 590. The people of Rome … were at this time in the utmost straits. Italy lay prostrate and miserable under the Lombard invasion; the invaders now threatened Rome itself, and its inhabitants trembled; famine and pestilence within the city produced a climax of distress; an overflow of the Tiber at the time aggravated the general alarm and misery; Gregory himself, in one of his letters, compares Rome at this time to an old and shattered ship, letting in the waves on all sides, tossed by a daily storm, its planks rotten and sounding of wreck. In this state of things all men's thoughts at once turned to Gregory. The pope was at this period the virtual ruler of Rome, and the greatest power in Italy; and they must have Gregory as their pope; for, if anyone could save them, it was he. His abilities in public affairs had been proved; all Rome knew his character and attainments; he had now the further reputation of eminent saintliness. He was evidently the one man for the post; and accordingly he was unanimously elected by clergy, senate, and people. But he shrank from the proffered dignity. There was one way by which he might possibly escape it. No election of a pope could at this time take effect without the emperor's confirmation, and an embassy had to be sent to Constantinople to obtain it. Gregory therefore sent at the same time a letter to the emperor (Mauricius, who had succeeded Tiberius in 582), imploring him to withhold his confirmation; but it was intercepted by the prefect of the city, and another from the clergy, senate, and people sent in its place, entreating approval of their choice. … At length the imperial confirmation of his election arrived. He still refused; fled from the city in disguise, eluding the guards set to watch the gates, and hid himself in a forest cave. Pursued and discovered by means, it is said, of a supernatural light, he was brought back in triumph, conducted to the church of St. Peter, and at once ordained on the 3rd of September, 590. … Having been once placed in the high position he so little coveted, he rose to it at once, and fulfilled its multifarious duties with remarkable zeal and ability. His comprehensive policy, and his grasp of great issues, are not more remarkable than the minuteness of the details, in secular as well as religious matters, to which he was able to give his personal care. And this is the more striking in combination with the fact that, as many parts of his writings show, he remained all the time a monk at heart, thoroughly imbued with both the ascetic principles and the narrow credulity of contemporary monasticism. His private life, too, was still in a measure monastic: the monastic simplicity of his episcopal attire is noticed by his biographer; he lived with his clergy under strict rule, and in 595 issued a synodal decree substituting clergy for the boys and secular persons who had formerly waited on the pope in his chamber."

_J. Barmby, Gregory the Great, chapter 2._

"Of the immense energy shown by St. Gregory in the exercise of his Principate, of the immense influence wielded by him both in the East and in the West, of the acknowledgment of his Principate by the answers which emperor and patriarch made to his demands and rebukes, we possess an imperishable record in the fourteen books of his letters which have been preserved to us. They are somewhat more than 850 in number. They range over every subject, and are addressed to every sort of person. If he rebukes the ambition of a patriarch, and complains of an emperor's unjust law, he cares also that the tenants on the vast estates of the Church which his officers superintend at a distance should not be in any way harshly treated. … The range of his letters is so great, their detail so minute, that they illuminate his time and enable us to form a mental picture, and follow faithfully that pontificate of fourteen years, incessantly interrupted by cares and anxieties for the preservation of his city, yet watching the beginnings and strengthening the polity of the western nations, and counterworking the advances of the eastern despotism. The divine order of greatness is, we know, to do and to teach. Few, indeed, have carried it out on so great a scale as St. Gregory. The mass of his writing preserved to us exceeds the mass preserved to us from all his predecessors together, even including St. Leo, who with him shares the name of Great, and whose sphere of action the mind compares with his. If he became to all succeeding times an image of the great sacerdotal life in his own person, so all ages studied in his words the pastoral care, joining him with St. Gregory of Nazianzum and St. Chrysostom. The man who closed his life at sixty-four, worn out, not with age, but with labour and bodily pains, stands, beside the learning of St. Jerome, the perfect episcopal life and statesmanship of St. Ambrose, the overpowering genius of St. Augustine, as the fourth doctor of the western Church, while he surpasses them all in that his doctorship was seated on St. Peter's throne. If he closes the line of Fathers, he begins the period when the Church, failing to preserve a rotten empire in political existence, creates new nations; nay, his own hand has laid for them their foundation-stones."

_T. W. Allies, The Holy See and the Wandering of the Nations, from St. Leo I. to St. Gregory I., pages 309-335._

See, also, ROME: A. D. 590-640.

PAPACY: A. D. 604-731.

The succession of Popes. Sabinian, A. D. 604-606; Boniface III., 607; Boniface IV., 608-615; Deusdedit, 615-618; Boniface V., 619-625; Honorius I., 625-638; Severinus, 640; John IV., 640-642; Theodore I., 642-649; Martin I., 649-655; Eugenius I., 655-657; Vitalian, 657-672; Adeodatus II., 672-676; Donus I., 676-678; Agatho, 678-682; Leo II., 682-683; Benedict II., 684-685; John V., 685-686; Canon, 686-687; Sergius I.,687-701; John VI., 701-705; John VII., 705-707; Sisinnius, 708; Constantine, 708-715; Gregory II., 715-731.

PAPACY: A. D. 728-774. Rise of the Papal Sovereignty at Rome.

The extinguishment of the authority of the Eastern emperors at Rome and in Italy began with the revolt provoked by the attempts of the iconoclastic Leo, the Isaurian, to abolish image-worship in the Christian churches (see ICONOCLASTIC CONTROVERSY). The Pope, Gregory II., remonstrated vehemently, but in vain. At his signal all central Italy rose in revolt. "The exarch was compelled to shut himself up in Ravenna; for the cities of Italy, instead of obeying the imperial officers, elected magistrates of their own, on whom they conferred, in some cases, the title of duke. Assemblies were held, and the project of electing an emperor of the West was adopted." But another danger showed itself at this juncture which alarmed Rome and Italy more than the iconoclastic persecutions of the Byzantine emperor. The king of the Lombards took advantage of the insurrection to extend his own domains. He invaded the exarchate and got actual possession of Ravenna; whereat Pope Gregory turned his influence to the Byzantine side, with such effect that the Lombards were beaten back and Ravenna recovered. {2424} In 731 Gregory II. died and was succeeded by Pope Gregory III. "The election of Gregory III. to the papal chair was confirmed by the Emperor Leo in the usual form; nor was that pope consecrated until the mandate from Constantinople reached Rome. This was the last time the emperors of the East were solicited to confirm the election of a pope." Leo continued to press his severe measures against image-worship, and the pope boldly convened at Rome a synod of ninety-three bishops which excommunicated the whole body of the Iconoclasts, emperor and all. The latter now dispatched a strong expedition to Italy to suppress the threatening papal power; but it came to naught, and the Byzantine authority was practically at an end, already, within the range of papal leadership. "From this time, A. D. 733, the city of Rome enjoyed political independence under the guidance and protection of the popes; but the officers of the Byzantine emperors were allowed to reside in the city, justice was publicly administered by Byzantine judges, and the supremacy of the Eastern Empire was still recognised. So completely, however, had Gregory III. thrown off his allegiance, that he entered into negotiations with Charles Martel, in order to induce that powerful prince to take an active part in the affairs of Italy. The pope was now a much more powerful personage than the Exarch of Ravenna, for the cities of central Italy, which had assumed the control of their local government, intrusted the conduct of their external political relations to the care of Gregory, who thus held the balance of power between the Eastern emperor and the Lombard king. In the year 742, while Constantine V., the son of Leo, was engaged with a civil war, the Lombards were on the eve of conquering Ravenna, but Pope Zacharias threw the whole of the Latin influence into the Byzantine scale, and enabled the exarch to maintain his position until the year 751, when Astolph, king of the Lombards, captured Ravenna. The exarch retired to Naples, and the authority of the Byzantine emperors in central Italy ended."

_G. Finlay, History of the Byzantine Empire, book 1, chapter 1, section 2._

The Lombards, having obtained Ravenna and overturned the throne of the Byzantine exarchs, were now bent on extending their sovereignty over Rome. But the popes found an ally beyond the Alps whose interests coincided with their own. Pepin, the first Carolingian king of the Franks, went twice to their rescue and broke the Lombard power; his son Charlemagne finished the work, and by the acts of both these kings the bishops of Rome were established in a temporal no less than a spiritual principality.

See LOMBARDS: A. D. 754-774.

_E. Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chapter 49._

ALSO IN: _P. Godwin, History of France: Ancient Gaul, book 4, chapter 15._

See, also, FRANKS: A. D. 768-814.

PAPACY: A. D. 731-816. The succession of Popes.

Gregory III., A. D. 731-741; Zacharias, 741-752; Stephen I. (or II.), 752; Stephen II. (or III.), 752-757; Paul I., 757-767; Stephen III. (or IV.), 768-772; Hadrian I., 772-795; Leo III., 795-816.

PAPACY: A. D. 755-774. Origin of the Papal States. The Donations of Pepin and Charlemagne.

As the result of Pepin's second expedition to Italy (A. D. 755), "the Lombard king sued for quarter, promised to fulfil the terms of the treaty made in the preceding year, and to give up all the places mentioned in it. Pepin made them all over to the Holy See, by a solemn deed, which was placed in the archives of the Roman Church. … Pepin took such steps as should insure the execution of the Lombard's oath. Ravenna, Rimini, Resaro, Fano, Cesena, Sinigaglia, Jesi, Forlimpopoli, Forli, Castrocaro, Montefeltro, Acerragio, Montelucari, supposed to be the present Nocera, Serravalle, San Marigni, Bobio, Urbino, Caglio, Luccoli, Eugubio, Comacchio and Narni were evacuated by the Lombard troops; and the keys of the 22 cities were laid, with King Pepin's deed of gift, upon the Confession of St. Peter. The independence of the Holy See was established."

_J; E. Darras, General History of the Catholic Church, period 3, chapter 10._

"An embassy from the Byzantine emperor asserted, during the negotiation of the treaty, the claims of that sovereign to a restoration of the exarchate; but their petitions and demands failed of effect on 'the steadfast heart of Pippin' [or Pepin], who declared that he had fought alone in behalf of St. Peter, on whose Church he would bestow all the fruits of victory. Fulrad, his abbot, was commissioned to receive the keys of the twenty-two towns his arms had won, and to deposit them as a donation on the grave of the apostle at Rome. Thus the Pope was made the temporal head of that large district … which, with some few changes, has been held by his successors."

_P. Godwin, History of France: Ancient Gaul, book 4, chapter 15._

"When on Pipin's death the restless Lombards again took up arms and menaced the possessions of the Church, Pipin's son Charles or Charlemagne swept down like a whirlwind from the Alps at the call of Pope Hadrian [774], seized king Desiderius in his capital, assumed himself the Lombard crown, and made northern Italy thenceforward an integral part of the Frankish empire. … Whether out of policy or from that sentiment of reverence to which his ambitious mind did not refuse to bow, he was moderate in claims of jurisdiction, he yielded to the pontiff the place of honour in processions, and renewed, although in the guise of a lord and conqueror, the gift of the Exarchate and Pentapolis, which Pipin had made to the Roman Church twenty years before."

_J. Bryce, The Holy Roman Empire, chapter 4._

"It is reported, also, … that, jealous of the honor of endowing the Holy See in his own name, he [Charlemagne] amplified the gifts of Pippin by annexing to them the island of Corsica, with the provinces of Parma, Mantua, Venice, and Istria, and the duchies of Spoleto and Beneventum. … This rests wholly upon the assertion of Anastasius; but Karl could not give away what he did not possess, and we know that Corsica, Venice and Beneventum were not held by the Franks till several years later. … Of the nature and extent of these gifts nothing is determined: that they did not carry the right of eminent domain is clear from the subsequent exercise of acts of sovereignty within them by the Frankish monarchs; and the probability is, according to the habits of the times, that the properties were granted only under some form of feudal vassalage."

_P. Godwin, History of France: Ancient Gaul, book 4, chapter 16._

_E. Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chapter 49._

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"Indefinite in their terms, these grants were never meant by the donors to convey full dominion over the districts—that belonged to the head of the Empire—but only as in the case of other church estates, a perpetual usufruct or 'dominium utile.' They were, in fact, mere endowments. Nor had the gifts been ever actually reduced into possession."

_J. Bryce, The Holy Roman Empire, chapter 10._

PAPACY: A. D. 774 (?). Forgery of the "Donation of Constantine."

"Before the end of the 8th century some apostolical scribe, perhaps the notorious Isidore, composed the decretals and the donation of Constantine, the two magic pillars of the spiritual and temporal monarchy of the popes.

See PAPACY: A. D. 829-847.

This memorable donation was introduced to the world by an epistle of Adrian I., who exhorts Charlemagne to imitate the liberality and revive the name of the great Constantine. According to the legend, the first of the Christian emperors was healed of the leprosy, and purified in the waters of baptism, by St. Silvester, the Roman bishop; and never was physician more gloriously recompensed. His royal proselyte withdrew from the seat and patrimony of St. Peter, declared his resolution of founding a new capital in the East; and resigned to the popes the free and perpetual sovereignty of Rome, Italy, and the provinces of the West. This fiction was productive of the most beneficial effects. The Greek princes were convicted of the guilt of usurpation: and the revolt of Gregory was the claim of his lawful inheritance. The popes were delivered from their debt of gratitude; and the nominal gifts of the Carlovingians were no more than the just and irrevocable restitution of a scanty portion of the ecclesiastical State."

_E. Gibbon, Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, chapter 49._

"But this is not all, although this is what historians, in admiration of its splendid audacity, have chiefly dwelt upon. The edict proceeds to grant to the Roman pontiff and his clergy a series of dignities and privileges, all of them enjoyed by the emperor and his senate, all of them shewing the same desire to make the pontifical a copy of the imperial office. The Pope is to inhabit the Lateran palace, to wear the diadem, the collar, the purple cloak, to carry the sceptre, and to be attended by a body of chamberlains. … The practice of kissing the Pope's foot was adopted in imitation of the old imperial court. It was afterwards revived by the German Emperors."

_J. Bryce, The Holy Roman Empire, chapter 7, and foot-note._

ALSO IN: _M. Gosselin, The Power of the Pope in the Middle Ages, volume 1, page 817._

_E. F. Henderson, Select Historical Documents of the Middle Ages, book 8, number 8._

PAPACY: A. D. 800. The giving of the Roman imperial crown to Charlemagne.

See GERMANY: A. D. 687-800; and 800.

PAPACY: A. D. 816-1073.

The succession of Popes. Stephen IV. (or V.), A. D. 816-817; Paschal I., 817-:824; Eugene II., 824-827; Valentine, 827; Gregory IV., 827-844; Sergius II., 844-847; Leo IV., 847-855; Benedict III.; 855-858: Nicholas I., 858-867; Hadrian II., 867-872; John VIII., 872-882; Marinus: 882-884; Hadrian III., 884-885; Stephen V. (or VI.), 885-891; Formosus, 891-896; Boniface VI., 896; Stephen VI. (or VII.), 896-897; Romanus, 897-898; Theodore II., 898; John IX., 898-900; Benedict IV., 900-908; Leo V., 908; Sergius III., 904-911; Anastasius III., 911-918; Lando, 913-914; John X., 914-928; Leo VI., 928-929; Stephen VII. (or VIII.), 929-981; John XI., 981-986; Leo VII., 936-989; Stephen VIII. (or IX.). 989-942: Marinus II.,942-946; Agapetus II., 946-956; John XII., 956-964; Leo VIII., antipope, 963-965; Benedict V., 964-965; John XIII., 965-972; Benedict VI., 972-974; Donus II., 974-975; Benedict VII., 975-984; John XIV., 984-985; John XV., 985-996; Gregory V., 996-999; John XVI., antipope, 997-998; Sylvester II., 999-1003; John XVII., 1003; John XVIII., 1003-1009; Sergius IV., 1009-1012: Benedict VIII., 1012-1024; John XIX., 1024-1033; Benedict IX., 1033-1044; Sylvester III., antipope, 1044; Gregory VI., 1044-1046; Clement II., 1046-1047; Benedict IX., 1047-1048; Damasus II., 1048; Leo IX., 1049-1054; Victor II., 1055-1057; Stephen IX. (or X.), 1057-1058: Benedict X., antipope, 1058-1059; Nicholas II., 1058-1061; Alexander II., 1061-1073.

PAPACY: A. D. 829-847. The False Decretals.

"There existed in each of the national churches, a collection of ecclesiastical laws, or canons, which were made use of as circumstances required. One of these collections was in use in Spain as early as the sixth century, and was subsequently attributed to Isidore, Bishop of Seville. Towards the middle of the ninth century, a new recension of these canons appeared in France, based upon the so–called Isidorian collection, but into which many spurious fragments, borrowed from private collections and bearing upon their face incontestable evidence of the ignorance of their authors, had been introduced. This recension contained also a number of forged documents. There were, altogether, above a hundred spurious decrees of popes, from Clement to Damasus (A. D. 384), not to mention some of other popes, and many false canons of councils. It also contained the forged Deed of Donation ascribed to Constantine [see above: A. D. 774?]. However, these decretals, which, as they stand, are now proved, both by intrinsic and extrinsic arguments, to be impudent forgeries, are nevertheless, in matter of fact, the real utterances of popes, though not of those to whom they are ascribed, and hence the forgery is, on the whole, one of chronological location, and does not affect their essential character."

_J. Alzog, Manual of Universal Church History, volume 2, page 195._