Vigilius

Pope Vigilius
Birth name	Vigilius
Papacy began	March 29, 537
Papacy ended	555
Predecessor	Silverius
Successor	Pelagius I
Born	??? Rome, Italy
Died	555 Syracuse, Italy

Pope Vigilius (d. June 7, 555) reigned as pope from 537-555. Vigilius , pope (537-55), a Roman; successor of St. Silverius. Empress Theodora exiled Silverius and made Vigilius pope in the expectation that he would compromise with the Monophysites. After Silverius' death, Vigilius' pontificate was legalized. Vigilius at first resisted coercion, refusing to condemn the Three Chapters in the quarrel over Monophysitism.

The controversy, was an attempt to reconcile the Christians of Syria and Egypt with Western Christendom, following the failure of the Henotikon. The Three Chapters consisted of propositions anathematizing: (1) the person and writings of Theodore of Mopsuestia; (2) certain writings of Theodoret of Cyrus; (3) the letter of Ibas to Maris in Persia.

Emperor Justinian forced Vigilius to come to Constantinople, where he eventually consented to their condemnation by the Second Council of Constantinople, provided that the canons of the Council of Chalcedon would not be thereby discredited. His action was intensely disliked in the West. He remained a virtual prisoner at Constantinople for eight years. He died on his way back to Rome, and was succeeded by Pelagius I.

Biography

Vigilius belonged to a distinguished Roman family; his father Johannes is identified as a consul in the Liber pontificalis, having received that title from the emperor. Reparatus, a brother of Vigilius, was a senator.

Vigilius entered the service of the Roman Church and was ordained 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 without consultation with the Roman senate. Vigilius was chosen by Pope Boniface II as his successor and was presented to the clergy assembled in St. Peter's Basilica. 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, Pope Agapetus I (535-36), appointed Vigilius papal representative at Constantinople. Vigilius thus came to the eastern capital. Empress Theodora, wife of Justinian I sought to win him as a confederate, to avenge the deposition of the Monophysite Patriarch Anthimus I of Constantinople by Pope 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 empress, who promised him the Papal See and a large sum of money (700 pounds of gold).

After Agapetus's death on April 22, 536, Vigilius returned 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, who were now in control of much of the west. Silverius acted against Theodora's interest by continuing Rome's policy of refusing to recognize Patriarch Anthimus. Soon after, the Byzantine commander Belisarius garrisoned the city of Rome, which was, however, besieged again by the Goths. Vigilius gave Belisarius his letters from the court of Constantinople, which recommended Vigilius himself for the Papal See. False accusations that Silverius was in league with the Goths now led Belisarius to depose Silverius. Owing to the pressure exerted by the Byzantine commander, Vigilius was elected pope in place of Silverius and was consecrated and enthroned on March 29, 537.

Silverius, meanwhile was reduced to the rank of monk exiled to Anatolia. There, he appealed to Justinian I the Great who sent Silverius back to Rome an launched an official inquiry. Vigilius, however, succeeded in having Silverius banished to the island of Palmaria. There Silverius soon died from the harsh treatment he received. After the death of this predecessor, Vigilius was recognized as pope by all the Roman clergy.

This apparent victory for Empress Theodora, however, was illusory as Pope Vigilius eventually maintained the same position as his predecessor against the Monophysites and the deposed Anthimus. In 540 that Vigilius took a stand in regard to Monophysitism in two letters sent to Constantinople. One of the letters was addressed to Emperor Justinian; the other to the Patriarch Menas. In both letters, the pope supported positively the synods of Ephesus and Chalcedon, the decisions of previous popes against Monophysitism, and especially the deposition of the Patriarch Anthimus.

On March 6, 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 June 29, 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.

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 544 he issued a new edict condemning the Three Chapters. 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 November 20, 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 November 22, 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.

Finally, Vigilius acknowledged in a letter of December 8, 553, to the Patriarch Eutychius the decisions of the Second Council of Constantinople and declared his judgment in detail in a Constitution of February 26, 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 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.

Legacy

Much of Vigilius' legacy is based on what proceeded from the Second Council at Constantinople called by the Emperor Justinian. Vigilius preferred it to be held in Sicily or Italy so that more Western bishops could attend. Nevertheless, it assembled in Constantinople on May 5, 553, at Hagia Sophia Cathedral, with the Patriarch of Constantinople presiding. Vigilius boycotted the council because the Eastern bishops outnumbered those from the West. While the council was approving the Three Chapters, Vigilius condemned them. 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.

On May 14, 553, Vigilius issued his Constitution, which rejected 60 propositions of Theodore of Mopsuestia. Vigilius's Constitution also refused to condemn either Theodoret or Ibas because the testimony of the Council of Chalcedon had removed all suspicion of heresy against them. But on June 2, 553, the council once again condemned the disputed writings, siding with Justinian.

After thinking over the matter for six months, Vigilius decided that ending the persecutions of the emperor against his clergy would be well worth the cost of his endorsement of the council. So after a residence of eight years in Constantinople, Vigilius reached an understanding with the emperor in which Vigilius agreed to censure the disputed writings while endorsing the canons of the Council of Chalcedon. Once again, his decision brought criticism in the West.

Justinian allowed Vigilius to depart for Rome with the promise that the pope would share temporal power there. Vigilius began his journey home in 555. But before reaching Rome, he died en route, leaving a troubled legacy to his successors.

References

ISBN links support NWE through referral fees

• Duffy, Eamon. Saints and Sinners: A History of the Popes, Yale University Press, 2002. ISBN 978-0300091656
• Loomis, Louise Ropes. The Book of Popes, Evolution Publishing, 2006. ISBN 1-889758-86-8
• Markus, R.A. Christianity and the Secular, University of Notre Dame Press, 2006. ISBN 978-0268034917
• McBrien, Richard P. Lives of the Popes: The Pontiffs from St. Peter to John Paul II, HarperOne, 2000. ISBN 978-0060653040

External links

• Catholic Encyclopedia: Pope Vigilius. Retrieved December 12, 2007.

Roman Catholic Popes
Preceded by: Silverius	Bishop of Rome 537–555	Succeeded by: Pelagius I

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