Pope Pelagius I

From New World Encyclopedia

Pelagius I
Pope Pelagius I.jpg
Birth name Pelagius
Papacy began 556
Papacy ended March 4, 561
Predecessor Vigilius
Successor John III
Born ???
Rome, Italy
Died March 4 561
Rome, Italy
Other popes named Pelagius

Pope Pelagius I was pope from 556 to March 4, 561. His papacy is best known for its stormy beginnings under the suspicion that Pelagius was an agent of imperial policy in the Three Chapters controversy during the aftermath of the Monophysite conflict.

Pelagius came from wealthy Roman noble family. He had accompanied Pope Agapetus I to Constantinople, and was later known to be confidant of Emperor Justinian I during the controversy over the allegation that Pope Silverius had committed treason against the empire.

When Pope Vigilius was taken to Constantinople on the orders of the emperor, Pelagius stayed in Rome as the pope's representative. There Totila, king of the Goths, blockades the city and Pelagius used his own resources for the benefit of the famine-stricken people. He later influenced Totila to spare the lives of the people when he captured Rome in December, 546.

While before his ordination he opposed Justinian's efforts to condemn the Three Chapters Pelagius eventually adopted Justinian's position, as did Vigilius before him, by endorsing the Second Council of Constantinople. Pelagius was thus elected pope as Justinian's candidate, and amid serious opposition. This damaged the papacy's reputation in northern Italy, Gaul, and elsewhere in Western Europe. A schism over the Three Chapters issue in northern Italy would not be resolved for several decades after his death.

Before becoming pope

Pelagius I was born to a Roman of noble family; his father, John, seems to have been vicar of one of the two civil "dioceses," or districts, into which Italy was then divided. He first appears in the historical record at Constantinople in the company of Agapitus I, who, just before his death in that city (536), appointed Pelagius to act of nuncio of the Roman Church in the eastern capital. Through the intrigues of the Empress Theodora, ever portrayed in Catholic sources as scheming for the advancement of the Monophysite "heresy," conspired to have Agapitus' successor, Pope Silverius, deposed and banished from Italy by the Greek general Belisarius on grounds of treason in support of an the Ostrogoths' siege of Rome. Emperor Justinian I, hearing evidence that the charges against Silverius had been trumped up, issued orders that Silverius should be recalled to Rome, investigated, and reinstated if proved innocent. Then historian Liberatus reports that Pelagius was prevailed upon by the empress to travel to Rome to prevent Silverius's return to Italy. In this mission, however, he failed; but the new Pope, Vigilius, was able to prevent his arrival at arrival at Rome and send him to prison in Thrace, where he soon died.

While Vigilius reigned as pope, Pelagius acquired great influence with Justinian. In that capacity he selected the orthodox Patriarch Paul for the See of Alexandria (540) but deposed him and choose a successor two years later. The following year, after having brought about the condemnation of Origen, he returned to Rome. After Justinian published (about 544) his decree on the "Three Chapters" (brief statements of anathema upon Theodore of Mopsuestia, Theodoret of Cyrus and his writings, and the letter written by Ibas of Edessa to Maris, Bishop of Hardaschir in Persia), we find Pelagius writing to a certain Fernandus for his opinion on it. When Vigilius went, or was forced, to go to Constantinople (Nov., 545) in obedience to the emperor's orders, Pelagius remained as his representative in Rome.

The times were hard, for Totila, king of the Goths, had begun to blockade the Rome in order to retake the city from the Byzantines. The Pelagius reported used a substantial amount of his private fortune for the benefit of the famine-stricken people and endeavored to induce the Gothic king to grant a truce. Though he failed, he afterwards induced Totila to spare the lives of the people when he became master of Rome in December 546. However, it should be noted that the Gothic kings had long adopted a policy of cooperation with the popes of Rome, and indeed there may be a historical basis to believe that charges that Silverius, for example, preferred the Goths to the Byzantines. Vigilius was impressed enough with Deacon Pelgius that he sent him to Constantinople in order to arrange a peace with Justinian. However, the emperor sent him back to say that his general, Belisarius, was in command in Italy, and that he would decide all questions of peace or war.

Once more the energetic deacon returned to Constantinople, this time to support Vigilius, who was being shamefully treated by the emperor, in an attempt to make the pope do his will in the matter of the Three Chapters. Encouraged by Pelagius, Vigilius began to offer a stout resistance to Justinian (551) and issued his first "Constitutum" (May, 553). But in June, —after the Second Ecumenical Council of Constantinople, which had condemned the Three Chapters, was over and Pelagius and other supporters of the pope had been thrown into prison—the unfortunate Vigilius gave way, and in his second "Constitutum" (Feb., 554) confirmed the decrees of the Council.

Pelagius himself did not submit at once, but wrote against the imperial policy toward the Three Chapters and blamed Vigilius for subservience to the emperor. Eventually, however, Pelagius rallied to the pope's side. His supporters hold that he did so because he saw that opposition to to Vigilius was endangering the unity of the Church, while his adversaries alleged that he wished to regain Justinian's favor, and thus to succeed Vigilius as pope. It is certain that Pelegius did re-enter into the emperor's good graces, shortly before he left Constantinople with the pope, about the beginning of 555. Vigilius died en route to Rome at Syracuse in June, 555, but it was not till the next year that Pelagius was elected his successor, being consecrated April, 16 556.

Pelagius' papacy

Pelagius encountered significant difficulty in procuring bishops to consecrate him, for there was great opposition to him on account of his capitulation to the imperial policy regarding the condemnation of the Three Chapters. Some of his enemies even accused him of being responsible for the death of Vigilius during the journey from Rome.

With a view to lessen the ill-feeling against him, he went to Saint Peter's, and, holding the gospels and "the Cross of Christ" above his head, solemnly averred that he had brought no harm to Vigilius. Then, to assert the purity of his conduct with regard to his accession to the papacy, he proceeded to denounce simony (buying ecclesiastical office).

Pelagius' principal recorded activities during his five years' pontificate seem to be aimed at overcoming the opposition, both to himself as pope and to the Second Council of Constantinople among the western bishops. He also worked to restore the material damage to the church's property in Italy, brought about by the war between the Byzantine Greeks and the Goths.

Pelagius was apparently able to convince the Romans of his personal value by using his own wealth for the city's advantage in the same generous manner as he had done when Totila's blockade had reduced them to the last extremity. He repaired and refurnished the churches and reorganized their possessions and revenues for the benefit of the poor.

However, Pelagius was not so successful in extinguishing the schism which the condemnation of the Three Chapters had excited in the West. It Italy especially, many had become embittered against the East the vacillation of Vigilius and his submission to the will of Justinian, the persecution to which he had been exposed, and the final adhesion of Pelagius himself to his predecessor's decree confirming the Second Council of Constantinople. They were too angry at the emperor's conduct to believe that with both Vigilius and Pelagius the whole question was rather one of policy and expediency than of religion.

Pelagius did all in his power to convince the bishops of northern Italy, where the schism had taken the deepest hold, that he accepted the first four General Councils as unreservedly as they did, and that the decrees of the recent Council of Constantinople, the Fifth General Council, should not be taken constituting opposition to canons Fourth General Council at Chalcedon. For these bishops, the anathematization of the Three Chapters constituted the encouragement of Monophysitism. Pelagius insisted that the differences between the two Councils were only on the surface, and the writings in question indeed deserved to be considered as heretical. However, his reasons left his correspondents unconvinced.

The pope grew impatient, especially when Bishop Paulinus of Aquileia, who had called a synod there and renounced communion with Rome. In several letters he exhorted the Byzantine general Narses to use his military power to seize Paulinus and thus suppress the schism. Narses, however, did not move against the pope's enemy, and it was not till the seventh century that the schism caused in Italy by the condemnation of the Three Chapters was finally healed.

Pelagius was more successful in Gaul than in Italy. In reply to a request from the Frankish King Childebert, he sent him a profession of faith, in which he proclaimed his entire agreement with the doctrines of Leo I, and expressed his hopes that no untruths about himself might cause a schism in Gaul. In response to a request from the same king, he appointed Bishop Sapaudus of Arles, as his vicar over all the churches of Gaul, as his predecessors had been in the habit of doing with other bishops of Arles. These actions seem to have prevented any schism from arising in Gaul.

Making use of a decree issued by Justinian in August 554, to regulate the affairs of Italy, organized ecclesiastical tribunals, suppressed abuses among clerics, put the finances of the Church on a new footing, and gathered money and clothes for the poor from Gaul and from "distant islands and countries." Before he died his regulations for the management of the ecclesiastical estates had begun to bear fruit, and we read of revenues beginning to come in to him from various quarters.

Known as the "Father of the poor and of his country" Pelagius I was buried in front of the sacristy in Saint Peter's the day after his death.

Legacy

Traditionally Pelagius is credited with the building of the Santi Apostoli in Rome, ordered to celebrate the complete victory of Narses over the Ostrogoths.

Due to the requirement of imperial confirmation of a papal election during this period of the papacy, five years elapsed between the death of Pelagius and the consecration of his successor, Pope John III. Very little is known of his pontificate, for it fell during the stormy times of the Lombard invasion, and practically all the records of his reign have been destroyed. During this time it appears the papacy remained caught between the rock of the barbarians on the one hand and the hard place of Byzantine ceasaropapism on the other. The Three Chapters schism which came about in northern Italy during Pelagius I's reign would not be healed until the next century.

References
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Roman Catholic Popes
Preceded by:
Vigilius
Bishop of Rome
556–561
Succeeded by:
John III


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