Pope Pelagius II
| Pelagius II | |
|---|---|
| |
| Birth name | Pelagius |
| Papacy began | 579 |
| Papacy ended | 590 |
| Predecessor | Benedict I |
| Successor | Gregory I |
| Born | ??? Rome, Italy |
| Died | 590 Rome, Italy |
| Other popes named Pelagius | |
Pope Pelagius II was pope from 579 to 590.
He was seemingly a native of Rome, but he was of Gothic (Ostrogothic) descent, as his father's name was Winigild.
The most important acts of Pelagius relate to the Lombards, or to the Schism of the Three Chapters. Pelagius appealed for help from Emperor Maurice against the Lombards, but the Byzantines were of little help, forcing Pelagius to initiate the practice of "buying" a truce. The pope therefore turned to the Franks, who invaded Italy, but left after being bribed by the Lombards.
Pelagius labored to promote the celibacy of the clergy, and he issued such stringent regulations on this matter that his successor Pope Gregory I thought them too strict, and modified them to some extent.
He ordered the construction of the Basilica di San Lorenzo fuori le Mura, a church shrine over the place where Saint Lawrence was martyred. During his reign, the Visigoths of Spain converted, but he also faced conflict with the See of Constantinople over the adoption of the title of "Ecumenical Patriarch," which Pelagius believed to undermine the authority of the papacy.
Pelagius fell victim to the plague that devastated Rome at the end of 589.
Biography
Pelagius II was seemingly a native of Rome, but of Gothic descent rather than Roman. His father's name was Winigild.
Pelagius II was elected to succeed Benedict I when the Lombards were besieging Rome, but his consecration was delayed in the hope of securing the confirmation of the election by the emperor in Constantinople. Before this could happen, however, the blockade of Rome by the Lombards and their control of the great thoroughfares proved effective. Four months after his election, Pelagius was consecrated on November 26, 579.
Theologically, the most important acts of Pelagius have to do with the northern Italian schism of the Three Chapters. Poltically, his most important acts have to do with relations between Rome and the Lombards.
Due in large part to Pelagius II's influence, the Lombards at length drew off from the neighborhood of Rome. His words in themselves were certainly part the reason for this, although monetary gifts from himself and the new emperor may have been an even more significant factor. After the Lombards withdrew, Pelagius at once sent an embassy to Constantinople to explain the circumstances of his election, and to ask that additional support should be sent to save Rome from the continued threat from the "barbarians." However, not very much in the way of help for Italy was forthcoming at this period, since the Eastern Roman Empire's finances were largely exhauster. Emperor Maurice, later (c. 584) sent a new official to Italy with the title of exarch, who was given combined civil and military authority over the whole peninsula. However, when he came to the capital at Ravenna, this new functionary brought with him an insufficient military force. Meanwhile both emperor and pope had turned toward another "barbarian" tribe, the Franks, for salvation from the Lombard military threat.
Toward the beginning of his pontificate (Oct., 580 or 581) Pelagius wrote to Aunacharius (or Aunarius), Bishop of Auxerre, a man of great influence with the various Frankish kings, and begged him to urge the Franks to come to the assistance of Rome. "We believe", he wrote, "that it has been brought about by a special dispensation of Divine Providence, that the Frankish princes should profess the orthodox faith; like the Roman Emperors, in order that they may help this city... Persuade them with all earnestness to keep from any friendship and alliance with our most unspeakable enemies, the Lombards."
Eventually, either the prayers of Pelagius or the political arts of the emperor—or perhaps a combination of the two—induced the Franks to attack the Lombards in Italy. However, their zeal for the papal and/or imperial cause was soon exhausted, and they allowed themselves to be bribed to retire from the peninsula. The distress of the Italians, once again vulnerable to the Lombards, deepened.
Pelagius had already sent to Constantinople the ablest of his clergy, the deacon Gregory (afterwards Gregory I) the Great. As the pope's nuncio, the deacon had been commissioned to haunt the imperial palace day and night, never to be absent from it for an hour, and to strain every nerve to induce the emperor to send help to Rome. Pelagius now dispatched to Gregory letter after letter urging him to increase his efforts on Rome's behalf. He also implored the new exarch at Ravenna, Decius (584), to aid Rome. Decius replied that he was unable to protect the exarchate, let alone Rome.
Failing to get help from Ravenna, Pelagius II sent a fresh embassy to Constantinople and exhorted Gregory to combine forces with this delegation in endeavoring to obtain the desired help. "Here", he wrote, "we are in such straits that unless God move the heart of the emperor to have pity on us, and send us a Master of the soldiery (magister militum) and a duke, we shall be entirely at the mercy of our enemies, as most of the district round Rome is without protection; and the army of these most unspeakable people will take possession of the places still held for the empire." Though no imperial troops came to Rome, the exarch finally succeeded in concluding a truce with the Lombards.
The Three Chapters schism
Taking advantage of this "peace and quiet," Pelagius II renewed turned his attention to putting an end to the schism caused in Italy by the condemnation of the Three Chapters by Vigilius and Pelagius I. These popes had capitulated under pressure to the wishes of Emperor Justinian I that they condemn the supposedly Nestorian writings known as the Three Chapters and endorse the canons of the Second Council of Constantinople, also known as the Fifth Ecumenical Council. Western Christians not only resented this imperial heavy-handedness, but considered the papal acquiescence to Justinian to be an appeasement of the Monophysite heresy which was still a major force in the East. Northern Italy broke into open schism by refusing to condemn the Three Chapters and breaking off communion with Pelagius I, whom it considered now to be a heretic.
The bishops of Aquileia, Milan, and of the Istrian peninsula all had refused to condemn the Three Chapters, arguing that to do so would be to betray Chalcedon. These bishoprics and most of their territories were soon to become subjects of the Lombards in 568. They able to maintain their dissent largely because they were beyond the military reach of the Byzantine exarch at Ravenna, who enforced the imperial/papal religious policy.
The schism at Aquileia ended in 568. Around 581, the Bishop of Milan, Laurence, became dependent upon the Byzantines for support, and he consequently subscribed to the condemnation of the Three Chapters. This left Istria still in schism, along with the northwestern Italian city of Grado.
Pelagius II now recalled deacon Gregory from Constantinople. From Rome, Gregory assisted the pope in the correspondence which was initiated with Bishop Elias of Grado and the churches of Istria. In successive letters the pope bade these churches to remember that the "faith of Peter" could not be crushed nor changed. He insisted on a fact which the northerners had come to doubt: that faith of the Roman church was the faith of the Council of Chalcedon, as well as of the first three general councils. Acceptance of the fifth general council, namely the Second Council of Constantinople in which the Three Chapters were condemned, in no way contracted the canons of Chalcedon which clearly rejected both Monophysitism and Nestorianism. In highly emotional terms, he exhorted them to once again take hold of the principle of ecclesiastical unity, which must not be broken "for the sake of superfluous questions and of defending (the) heretical (three) chapters."
These were essentially the same arguments put forth by the pope's namesake, Pelagius I. He words, touching though they might be, were lost upon the schismatics. Even less efficacious was the violence of the Exarch Smaragdus, exerted at Pelagius II's behest, who seized Bishop Severus of Grado, Elias' successor, and forcibly compelled him to enter into communion with the "orthodox" bishop John of Ravenna (588). However, as soon as Severus returned to his see, he repudiated what he had done, and the schism continued for some 200 years longer.
Other actions
Pelagius was one of the popes who labored to promote the celibacy of the clergy. Indeed, he issued such stringent regulations on this matter with regard to the subdeacons in the island of Sicily, that his successor Gregory I thought them too strict, and modified them to some extent. Pelagius also protested against the assumption of the title "œcumenical" by the patriarch of Constantinople, a complaint that would be repeated with added emphasis by his former secretary Gregory.
Among Pelagius other works may be noted his adorning of the St Peter's, turning his own house into a hospital for the poor, and rebuilding the Church of St. Lawrence, where may still be seen a mosaic (probably commissioned by Pelagius) depicting the saint as standing on the right side of Christ. Pelagius II fell a victim to the terrible plague that devastated Rome at the end of 589 and was buried in St. Peter's.
Legacy
Pelagius II's most important legacy was he recognition of the talents of the deacon Gregory, whom he utilized to good effect as a diplomat and secretary. This training would stand Gregory in good stead when he became pope and earned the title of Gregory the Great. Pelagius' turning to the Franks for protection was also an important act with lasting implication, for the Franks would play a major role not only in the defeat of the Lombards, but in the future of Christian Europe. Even though the rise of Islam was yet to come, it may be said that from this point onward, the future of Christianity law not to the east and Constantinople, but to the rising empire of the Franks in the West.
ReferencesISBN links support NWE through referral fees
"Pope Pelagius II" in the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia.- Duff, Eamon. Saints and Sinners: A History of the Popes, Yale University Press, 2001. pp 62–63. ISBN 0300091656
- Maxwell-Stuart, P. G. Chronicle of the Popes: The Reign-by-Reign Record of the Papacy from St. Peter to the Present, Thames & Hudson, 2002, p. 47. ISBN 0500017980.
| Roman Catholic Popes | ||
|---|---|---|
| Preceded by: Benedict I |
Bishop of Rome 579–590 |
Succeeded by: Gregory I |
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