A

GENERAL HISTORY
OF THE

CATHOLIC CHURCH:
FROM THE COMMENCEMENT OF THE CHRISTIAN ERA
TO THE TWENTIETH CENTURY.

BT

M. L’ABBE J. E, DARRAS.
THIRTEENTH EDITION.

WITH Λ»

INTRODUCTION AND NOTES
BÏ THE MOST REV. M. J, SPALDING, D. D.,
ARCHBISHOP OF BALTIMORE.

VOL. II.

NEW YORK:

P. J. KENEDY.
PCBLISHER TO THE HOLY APOSTOLIC SEE.

EXCELSIOR CATHOLIC PUBLISHING HOUSE.
Nos. 3 and 5 Barclay St.

»
*
Μ

CONTENTS.

THIRD PERIOD.
CHAPTER I.

§ I. Pontificate of St. Simplioics (a. d. 476—483). Second Period. 1. General
view of the third period of Church History.—2. Political division of the
Western Empire.—3. Council of Arles.—4. Faustus, bishop of Reez.—5. Per­
secution of the Church of Africa by Hunneric.—6. Revolution in Constanti­
nople. The Emperor Zeno exiled by Basiliscus.—7. Restoration of Zeno.
Reaction in favor of orthodoxy against Entychianisrn.—8. Acacius, Patriarch
of Constantinople, embraces Eotychianism.—9. Zeno's Hcnoticon.—10. Theo­
logical estimate of the Henoticon.— II. John Talaia, lawful Patriarch of Alex­
andria, is driven from his see, and flies to Rome.—12. Death of St. Shnplicins.
Various acts of this Pope’s pontificate in the West. S Π. Pontificate of St.
Felix HI. (a. d. March 8, 483—Feb. 28, 492). 13. Election of St. Felix HI.
Odoacer, king of the Heruli, claims the right to confirm pontifical elections.—
14. Council of Rome. Apostolic legates sent to the Emperor Zeno.—15. The
legates weakly prove false to their mission.—16. Council ot Rome. Condem­
nation of the legates.—17. Deposition of Acacius. Other legates are sent to
Constantinople, who also apostatize, and are condemned by St. Felix III.—
18. Acepbali.—19. Council of Romo. Confirmation of the sentence against
Acacius.—20. Death of Acacius. Enpheinius, his successor.—21. St. Sabas.
St. Theodosius the Cenobite.—22. Gontamnnd in Africa. Council of Rome
in favor of the Catholic bishops of Africa.—23. End of the rnle of the Heruli.
Tbcodorio the Great, king of the Ostrogoths, in Italy.—24. Death of St. Felix
........................................................................................................................ Page 1
CHAPTER II.

§ I. Pontificate of St. Gei.asius I. (March 1, a. i>. 492—Nov. 19, 496). 1. Elec­
tion of St. Gelasiua I. Anastasias the Silentiary ascends the throne of Con­
stantinople. —2. Wise government of Theodoric the Great. St. Epiphaniiis,
Bishop of Pavia.—3. Letter of St. Gelasius I. to Euphemios.—1. Letter of the
Pope to Anastasias.—5. Council ot Rome. Decree fixing the Canon of Scrip­
ture.— 6. Various dispositions of Discipline, made by St. Gelasiua I. in Italy —
T. Socramonlor,
St. Geluiu, I.-8. Treat·,.·
Ileaül
of St. C.dn.i". 1. ; Π. 1'„,T,PIC„E
St
([J,,, S8i ,. Λ
480 Nov. 16, 408). 10. Persecution of tbs CUhollM io Armenia.—11

iv

CONTENTS.
Vahan.—12. Clovis and St. Clotilda.—IS. Victory of Tolbiac. Baptism of
Clovis.—14. Letters of St. Anastasins II. and of St. Avitus of Vienne to
Clovis.—IB. Death of St. Anastasins II. § HI. Pontificate of St. SymMACiirs (Nov. 22, a. d. 408—July 19, 514). 16. Election of St. Symmachus.
Anti-pope Lawrence.—17. Council of Italy. Synod called Palmari».—18.
Inquiry into the pretended right of Sovereigns over the Pontifical Elections.
—19. Letter of St. Avitus, in the name of the Bishop of Gaul, on the inde­
pendence of the Roman See.—20. Efforts of St. Avitus to convert Gundebald,
king of the Burgundians, from Arianism to the Catholic Faith.—21. Council
of Agde.—22. St. Cosarins of Arles.—23. Clovis entertains the plan of driving
the Visigoths from Southern Gaul.—24. Battle of Vouille.—25. Death of St.
Genevieve and of Clovis.—26. Thrasiinund’s Persecution in Africa.—27.
Council of Rome.—28. St. Cesarius of Arles at Rome.—29. Persecution of
the Eastern Catholics by the Emperor Anastasins.—30. Exile of Macedonius,
Patriarch of Constantinople.—31. St. Sabas in the Imperial Palace.—32. Death
of St Symmachus.................................................................................................... Page 40

CHAPTER III.
t

Pontificate of St. Hormisdas (July 26, a. n. 614—August 6, 523). 1. Elec­
tion of St. Hormisdas. Revolt at Constantinople against the Emperor Anas­
tasias.—2. Mission of St. Ennodins to the East.—3. Eutycliian persecution in
Illyria and Epirus.—4. Death of Anastasins.—5. Justin the Elder ascends the
throne of the East.—G. End of the Eutycliian schism in Constantinople.—
7. Theological Proposition of the Scythian Monks: Unus de Trinitate pasaut
esi.—8. Homerites. Martyrdom of King St. Aretha-s.—a. St. James the Doc­
tor, Bishop of Batnro or Sarug. St. Isaac, Bishop of Nineveh.—10. Country
of the Angles, Isle of Saints.—11. Saints of Scotland and Ireland.—12. Death
of St. Hormisdas. §11. Pontificate of St. John I. (August 18, a. d. 523—
May 27, 526). 13. Arian Reaction on the part of Theodoric the Great.
Journey of St. John I. to Constantinople.—14. Boêtius put to Death by Theo­
doric the Great. Symmachus.—15. Imprisonment and Death of St. John I.
Death of Theodoric the Great.—16. Councils of Arles, Valence, and Lerida.
§ III. Pontificate of St. Feux IV. (July 12, a. d. 526—October 12, 529).
17. Promotion of St. Felix IV. Justinian and Theodora.—18. Justinian’»
Legislation.—19. Conversion of the Heruli settled on the banks of the Danube,
and of Gordas, King of the Huns.—20. Athalaric, King of the Italian Ostrogoths.
—21. Death of St. Felix IV. § IV. Pontificate of St. Boniface II. (October
15, a. d. 529—December, 531). 22. Election and first acts of St. Boniface II.
—23. Councils of Rome, Orange, Vaison, and Toledo.—24. St. Benedict.—
25. Visit of Totilu, King of the Ostrogoths, to St. Benedict.—26. Death of St.
Boniface II. § V. Pontificate of St. John II. (January 22, a. d. 532—April
26, 535). 27. Athalaric claims a tribute for the election of the Sovereign
Pontiff.—28. New investigation of the Proposition : Unua do Trinitate passus
at.—29. Sedition of the Greens and Blues In Constantinople.—30. Belisarius
puts an end to the Vandal rule in Africa. Pharus.—31. Holy personages in
Gaul.—32. Murder of the son of Clodomir.—33. Suppression of the Order of
Deaconesses. Council of Orleans.—34. St. Medard of Noyon, 8L Radegun
*

CONTENTS.
den, St. Maroon, St. Evroul, 4o.—35. Disposition of Contumeliofte, Bishop
of Reez. Death of St. John II. § VI. Ponttfioatr op St. Aoafftts (Key
4, a. d. 535—April 22, 530). 30. Election of St. Agapetus. Adoption of th·
Christian Era, first need by Dionysius the Little, about the year 585.—
87. Letter of Justinian to St. Agapetus. Reply of the Pope.—33. Council of
Carthage.—89. Beliearine attack» Theodatus, King of the Gotha, in Italy.—
40. Journey of St Agapetus to Constantinople. Death of the Pope.. Pae· M

CHAPTER IV.
11. Pontificate of St. Sylverivs (June 8, a. d. 530—July 20, 538). 1. Election
of St. Sylveriua forced by Theodatus, King of the Ostrogoths.—2. Theodora’s
intrigues to contrive the election of a Eutycliian Pope.—3. Successes of Belisa­
rius in Italy.—4. Theodora induces Belisarius to banish St. Sylveriua to
Patara. Justinian orders the Pope to be restored.—5. Martyrdom of St. Syl­
veriua. § II. Pontificate of Vigilius (July 20, a. d. 538—January 10. 555).
6. First proofs of Apostolic energy on the part of Pope Vigilius,—7. Dis­
grace and death of Belisarius.—8. Totila's mildness toward the Neapolitans.
Siege and capture of Rome by Totila.—9. Ravages of Chosroes in the East.
—10. Justinian’s Decree of Proscription against the Three Chapters.—11.
Pope Vigilins visits Constantinople. Judicatum issued against the Three
Chapters. —12. Letter of Vigilins to Aurelins, Bishop of Arles, on this sub­
ject. The Pope’s firmness. He is outraged in the Church of St. Peter at
Constantinople.—Ϊ3. Fifth General Council held at Constantinople.—14.
Death of Pope Vigilius. § ΠΙ. Pontificate of Pelagtts I. (April 16. a. d.
555—March 2, 559). 15. Troubles attending the election of Pelagios I.—16.
Charity and prudence of Pelagius.—17. The Tuscan bishops refuse to receive
the condemnation of the Three Chapters. Religious spirit in Gaul.—18. Death
of Pelagius I. § IV. Pontificate of John III. (March, a. d. 559—July 23,
572). 19. Phantasiasts in Constantinople.—20. Death of Justinian. Acces­
sion of Justinian the Younger.—21. Nurses invites Alboin, king of the Lom­
bards, to Italy.—22. Death of John III. § V. Pontificate of Benedict L
(May 16, a. d. 573—July 81, 577). 23. Vacancy of the Roman See. Reli­
gious and political View of the Christian World.—24. Benedict I. The Dea­
con St. Gregory and the Angles. Death of Benedict I. § VI. Pontificate
of Pelagios II. (November 30, a. d. 577—February 8, Ô90). 25. Pelagius IL
treats with the Lombards for the release of Italy.—26. The Tuscan bishops at
length acknowledge the condemnation of the Three Chapter·.—27. St. Gregory
of Tours.—28. Councils of Cbülons-sur-Saône, Macon, and Lyons.—29. For
*
tunatus, Bishop of Poitiers, and other Gallic Sainis.—30. Scandalous behavior
of Sagittarius, bishop of Gap, and of Solonius, bishop of Embrun.—81. Death
of Pelagius II............................................................................................ ρ^β 14a
CHAPTER V.

if Pontifwate OF St. Gregory I. tue Gbeat (September 8. a. d. 590—March
f
r
L St’ Gregor-V the Great.—2. Plague in Rome.-3. Pastoral
regory. t. Letter ot Kecarede the Catholic. The Pope protects th·

CONTENTS.

perwcntcd African Churches, and restores their Hierarchical Unity.—B. Dia
topi» of St. Gregory the Great.—6. St. John Climacus. St. Theodoro of
Sioeon—7. Decree of the Emperor Mauritius annulled by St. Gregory.—8.
John the Taster’s claim to the title of Ecumenical Bishop.—9. Sentence and
submission of Maxiinns, bishop of Salonn. St. Gregory negotiates a peace between Agilnlph, king of the Lombards, and the exarch of Ravenna.—10. Mis­
sion of the monk St. Augustine to England.—11. St. Augustine made Arch­
bishop of Canterbury. Ecclesiastical Hierarchy in England.—12. St. Gregory’s
letter to Childcbert and Brnnehanlt. His efforts to restore ecclesiastical disci­
pline in the Chnrchesof Gaul.—13. Councils at Seville, Saragossa, Toledo,
Unesco. and Romo. St. Oolumban at Luxeuil.—14. The Paschal Question
raised in Gaul by St. Colnmbun.—16. Embassy sent to Rome by Brunehault,
and Theodoric, king of the Burgundians. St. Gregory confirms the Institu­
tione founded by Brunehault.—16. Sacramcntary of St. Gregory the Great.—
17. Phocas is raised bg a revolution to the throne of the East. st. Gregory’s
protest against the tax levied by the emperors of Constantinople on ecclesiasti­
cal nominations. Death of St. Gregory the Great.—18. Historical view of his
Pontificate. §Π. Pontificate of Sabinian (September 17, a. d. 604—Feb­
ruary 2, 605). 19. Accession and death of Sabinian. Famine in Rome.
|ΠΙ. Ροχτιποατε or Boniface 111. (February 25, a. d. 606—November 12,
W6). 20. Election of Boniface HI. In conjunction with the Emperor Phocaa,
be puts an end to the discussion respecting the title of Ecumenical Bishop,
usurped by the Patriarchs of Constantinople. § IV. Pontificate of Boniface
IV. (September 18, a. d. 607—May 27, 614). 21. Boniface IV. Defection of
Phocas.—22. Church matters in England. St. Columban in Switzerland.
Martyrdom of St. Didier, bishop of Vienne. Death of Brunehault.—23. Cap­
ture of Jerusalem by Chosroes. The true cross is carried into Persia. Charity
of St John the Almoner, Patriarch of Alexandria.—24. Death of Boniface IV.
|V. Pontificate of Decsdedit (November 13, a. d. 614—October 8, 617).
26. Deusdedit. Persecution in England.................................................... Page 173

CHAPTER VI.
11. Pontificate op Βονιραοε V. (December 29, a. d. 617—October 25, 625).
1. Victory of Beraclius over the Persians. Exaltation of the Iloly Cross.—
2. Mahomet. The Koran. -3. Religious condition of Englund and Gaul.—4.
Ecclesiastical writers; St. Sophronius, John Moschus, St. Isidore of Seville.—
5. Death of Boniface V. § Π. Pontificate of Honorius (May 14, a. i>. 626
—October 12, 638). 6. State of the Christian W orld at the accession of Ho­
norius.—7. Case ot Fortunatus, Metropolitan of Gradi. Intervention of Ho­
norius in favor of the Lombard king Adalonld.—8. Sergius, Patriarch of
Constantinople, author of the Monothelito Heresy.—9. St. Sophronius of
Alexandria, Patriarch of Jerusalem, opposes the Munothelite error.—10. Let­
ter of Sergius to the Pope.—11. 1’eply of Honorius.—12. Council of Jerusa­
lem held by 8t. Sophronius against the Monotbelitcs.—13. Embassy of St
Sophronius to the Pope. Death of Honorius and of St. Sophronius. Capture
of Jerusalem by Omar. The True Cross carried to Constantinople.—14.
Situation of the *W(
t
at the Death of Honorius, j III. Pontificate of Sev-

CONTENTS.

•ni

<ΒΙΝΠ« (May 28, a. d. 640—Augnst 2, 640). 15. Vacancy of the Holy 8ee>
E'theaia of Herncline.—16. Election and Death of Severing. $ IV. PonttftOATB of .Jons IV. (December 24, a. d. 640—October 22, 642). 17. Heraclit»
retracts the Ectheaia. Die Death. Burning of the Alexandrian Library by
Oinar.—18. Revolution in the Eaet. John IV. clears Honorine from th·
charge of Monothelitiam. Death of the Pope. St Eligitis, St. Ouen, St
Amandus, and St. Amnlphna in Gaol. The Salic Law. § V. Pontificat» or
Theodore I. (November 24, a. d. 642—May 13, 649). 19. Hereditary firmnee·
of the Popes in npholding the faith. Theodore I. renews the condemnation
of the Ectheaia.—20. St. Maximne. Interview of the holy abbot with Pyr­
rhus, Monotbelite Patriarch of Constantinople.—21. Pyrrhus makes his abjura­
tion into the hands of the Pope. Relapse of Pyrrhus. His deposition and
that of Paul, his successor, decreed by the Council of Rome.—22. The Type
of the Emperor Constans.—23. Persecution against the Catholics. Protesta­
tion of the Eastern Bishops.—24. Situation of the Western Church nnder the
Pontificate of Theodore I. Death of Pope Theodore........................ Page 202

CHAPTER VII.
? I

Pontificate of St. Martin I. (July 5, a. d. 649—September 16, 655). 1.
Claims of the Eastern emperor concerning Pontifical Elections.—2 Council of
Rome. Statement of the Monotbelite question by the Pope.—3. !>:- u-siou >f
the dogmatic question. Condemnation of Monothelitism.—4. St. Martin's let­
ter to Constans, acquainting him with the sentence against Monothelitism.—A
The Pope bestows upon John, bishop of Philadelphia, the title of Vicar Apos­
tolic in the East. Letter of St. Martin I. to the principal Churches of Palestine
and Syria.—6. Monotbelite profession of Paul, bishop of Thessalonica.—7.
Attempt to assassinate St. Martin, by Olympius, exaroh of Ra’enna, acting in
the name of the emperor Constans.—8. The Pope is carried off from Rome by
Theodore Call iopas, exarch of Ravenna.—9. Painful exile of St. Martin.—10.
Examination of St. Martin at Constantinople.—11 - The Pope dragged like a
felon through the streets of Constantinople. Death of the Patrian hs Paul and
Pyrrhus. St. Martin banished to the Tauric Chersonese.—12. Eugenius gov­
erns the Church of Rome during St. Martin’s exile.—13. Death of St Martin
I. § II. Pontificate of Eugenics I. (September 1G. a. d. 655—Juno 1. 658)
14. Eugenios refuses the Synodal Letters of Peter, new Patriarch of Constan­
tinople.—15. St. Maximus and the two Anastasiuses persecuted by the e uperor
Constans.—16 Death of Pope Eugenius. The Churches of Spain during his
pontificate.—17. Growth of Monastic institutions in Gaul.—18. Advance of
Christianity in Noricum, Vindelicia, Bavaria, Germany, and Belgium.—19.
Religious condition of England. § III. Pontificat» of Vitaxian (July 80»
a. d. 658—January 27, 072). 20. Death of Constans II
He is succeeded by
Constantino Poganatus. Efforts of the latter to crush the Monotbelite heresy.
21. Conference at Streaneshaleh (England) regarding the Paschal celebra­
tion. 22. Vitalian's letter. Oswiu, king of Northumbria. St. Theodor·
consecrated by the Pope archbishop of Canterbury.—23. Death of Viiaiian.
Page 28»

CONTENTS.

CHAPTER VIII.
11. Pontificate of Adeodatus (April 11, a. d. 072—Juno 17, 070). 1, Révolution in Gaul.—2. St. Leger, bisbop of Anton. Ebroin, mayor of the palace.
—8. St. Prix or Priest.—4. St. Lambert, bishop of Maeetricht.—6. Growth
of Monastic institutions in Gaul.—6. Warn ba, king of the Visigoths, in Spain.
—7. Eleventh Council of Toledo. Fourth Council of Braga. St. Julian of
Toledo.—8. Death of Adeodatus. This Pope confirms the right of the Vene­
tians to elect their doges. § II. Pontificate of St. Domnus I. (November 2,
a. d. 676—April 11, 689). 9. Accession of St. Domnus I.—10. Constantine
IV. Pogonatus repels the attacks of the Saracens. The Maronites.—11.
Letter of Constantine Pogonatus to the Pope, concerning the reconciliation of
the Greek and Roman Churches. Death of St. Domnus I. § III. Pontifi­
cate of St. Agatho (June 26, a. d. 679—August 17, 682).
12. Council of
Rome to restore St. Wilfrid to the see of York.—13. Letter of St. Agatho to
Constantine Pogonatus.—14. Sixth General Council, held nt Constantinople.
—16. Death of St. Agatho. § IV. Pontificate of St. Leo II. (August 17,
a. d. 682—June 28, 683).
16. St. Leo II. confirms the decrees of the sixth
General Council. Death of St. Leo II. § V. Pontificate of St. Benedict II.
(June 26, a. d 684—May 8, 685). 17. Election of St. Benedict II. Constan­
tine Pogonatus gives up the claim of the emperors to confirm pontifical elec
tions.—18. The Spanish Churches receive the sixth General Council.—19. The
Holy See adopts the son of Constantine Pogonatus. Death of St. Benedict
and of the Eastern emperor. § VI. Pontificate of John V. (July 25, a. d. 685
—August 2, 686). 20. Election, pontificate and death of John V. § VII.
Pontificate of Conon (October 21, a. d. 686—September 21, 687). 21.
Peter and Theodore, antipopes. Justinian II. revokes the decree giving free­
dom to the pontifical elections. Election of Conon.—22. Progress of the
faith in the North.—23. Death of Conon........................................... Page 264

CHAPTER

IX.

I L Pontificate of St. Sergius I. (December 15, a. d. 687—September 8, 701.

1.
Antipopes Pascal and Theodore. Election of St. Sergius I.—2. Fifteenth and
sixteenth Councils of Toledo.—3. Seventeenth Council of Toledo.—4. Coun­
cil in Trullo. Attempt upon the life of Sergius I.—5. Taking of Carthage by
the Saracens, and extinction of the Roman rule in Africa.—Justinian IL,
Bhinotmetus, banished to the Tauric Chersonesus.—6. Antipope John in Rome.
Death of Sergius I. § II. Pontificate of John VI. (October 80, a. d. 701—
January 12, 705). 7. John VI. defended by the Romans from the attacks of
Theophylactus, exarch of Ravenna.
Attachment of the Italians to the
Sovereign Pontiffs.—8. Council at Nesterfield in England. St. Wilfrid ar­
raigned ns a criminal. He appeals to John VI. in a council held at Rome, and
is declared innocent.—9. Pilgrim to the Holy Land. Advance of the religious
movement in England.—10. Death of John VI. Mosque of Damascus.
£ III. Pontificate of John VII. (March 1, a. d. 705—October 18, 707).
11. Arribert II., king of the Lombards, makes over the Cottian A'ps to
the Holy See.—12. Restoration of Justinian II., Rhino‘metus.—13. John

•iontents

ix

VIT. refuse
*
to confirm the acta of the council tn Trulla. HI» death. i IV.
Pontificate of διβιχχΐϋβ (January 19, a. d. 708—February 7. 7r’8j· 14·
Election and death of Sisinnius. § V. Pontificate of Constantine (Much
25, a. d. 708—April 9, 715). 15. Ravenna plnndered by the troop
*
of Justinlan II. 16. The Pope goes to Constantinople.—17. Bardanea Philippico
*
de­
thrones Justinian II., and declares himself the protector of the Mon»tb' in-a
Hia successor L jastasius restores the true faith in the East.—18. The Moors
in Spain.—19. Death of Constantine....................................................... Page 288

CHAPTER X.
| 1. Pontificate of St. Gregory II. (May 19, a. d. 715—February 12, 731). 1.
Situation of the world at the accession of Gregory II.—2. Monastic discipline
in Italy. Progress of Christian missions in Germany. St. Boniface, arch­
bishop of Mayence.—3. Venerable Bede.—4. Leo the Isaurian drives bock
Soliman from the walls of Constantinople.—Leo the Isanrian becomes an
Iconoclast.—6. St. John Damascen.—7. The Pope opposes the impions m-iu
*·
nres of Leo the Isaurian.—8. The Pope besieged in Rome by the exarch of
Ravenna and the Lombard king Luitprand.—9. Death of St. Gregory II.
§ II. Pontificate of St. Gregory ΠΙ. (March 1-8, a. d. 731—November 29,
741). 10. Election of St. Gregory III.—11. The Tnconodast heresy most un­
popular in Italy.—12. St. Gregory III. places the Holy See under the protec­
tion of Charles Martel.—13. Invasion of Gaul by Abderahtnan.—14. Battle <>f
Poitiers.—15. Importance of the buttle of Poitiers with respect to the Holy
See.—16. Council at Rome against the Iconoclasts.—17. Charles Mart· ! uses
his influence with Luitprand on behalf of the Holy See. Death of Charles
’ Martel, of Leo the Isaurian, and of St. Gregory III.—13. Various acts of the
pontificate, j III. Pontificate of St. Zachary (December 3, a. t>. 744—
March 15, 752). 19. Election of St. Zachary.—20. Treaty of peace between
the Pope and Luitprand.—21. Labors of St. Bonifice. archbishop of Mayence.
—22. Heresies of Samson and Virgil.—23. Heresies of Adelbert and Cletneut.
—24. Council of Cliff. Penitentiary and pontifical codes of Egbert. Cere
mony of the royal coronation.—25. Revolt of Artabazus.—26. Carloman at
Monte Casino.—27. Pepin the Short, king of the Franks.—28. Death of St.
Zachary. § IV. Pontificate of Stephen III. (March 18, a. d. 752—March 20.
752). 29. Death of Stephen ΙΠ. before his installation............. Page 306

CHAPTER XI.
i I. Pontificate of St. Paul I. (May 28, a. d. 757—767). 1. Theophylactns Ant»
pope. Election of St. Paul I.—2. Embassy from Pepin the Short to Didiei,
king of the Lombards.—3. St. Paul I. sends legates to Constantine Coprony
mus.—4. Death of St. Paul I.—5. Council of Compagne. Institution oi
regular canons by St. Chrodegang, bishop of Metz. § Π. Pontificate of
Stephen IV. (August 7, a. d. 768—February 1, 772). 6. Accession of Charle­
magne and Carloman to the throne.—7. Constantine Antipope. Election of
Stephen IV.—8. Council of Rome.—9. Didier’s attempt against Stephen IV.
-Fruitless opposition of the Pope to Charlemagr e’s divorce.—11. Death >1

CONTENTS.
Stephen IV § III. Pontifioatr of Adrian T. fFebrnary 0, a. d. 772—Decem·
ber 26, 795)
12. Relations of Adrian I. and Charlemagne.—18. Defeat of
the Saxons. Fall of the Lombard Empire.—14. Conversion of WitikindCharlemagne's two jonrnoys to Rome.—15. Adoptioniet heresy.—16. The
empress Irene.—17. Seventh general connoil nt Nice.—18. Council of Frank­
fort. Carolin Books.—19. Death of Adrian I......................................... Page 852

CHAPTER XII.
Historical Rrvikw of the Third Period of the Onunon.
1. The Middle
Ages.—2. Barbarian inroads.—3. Protective authority of the Popes.—4. St.
Gregory the Great.—5. Temporal power of the Popes.—6. Benefit of this
power.—7. Form of government among the Barbarians.—8. Feudal Laws.
—9. Legislation.—10. Letters, arts and sciences.—11. Monastic orders.—12.
Ecclesiastical doctors and writers.—13. Religious monuments of the Third
Period.—14. Islamism. The Iconoclasts in the East.—15. Worship.—16. Missa
Catechumenorum.—17. Hissa Fidelium. The use of communion under one
kind established in the earliest ages of the Church........................... Page 875

FOURTH PERIOD.
CHAPTER I.
I I. Pontificate of St. Leo III. (December 26, a. d. 795— June 12, 816). 1. View
of the Fourth Period of Church History.—2. Accession of St. Leo III.—3. State
of the Catholic world.—4. Plot formed at Rome against the Pope. Leo III.
visits France.—5. Council of Rome.—6. Charlemagne crowned Emperor of the
West.—7. Banishment and death of the Empress Irene.—8. Court of Charle­
magne.—9. Charlemagne’s patronage of letters.—10. Alcuin.—11. Re-estab­
lishment of schools.—12. School of the palace.—13. Alcuin retires.—14. Char­
lemagne’s administration—15. Charlemagne the protector of the Church.—
16. Question of the Filioque.—17. Charlemagne shares with bis son Louis the
government of the Empire.—18. Death of Charlemagne.—19. Lamentable
condition of the Greek Empire.—20. Death o! St. Leo III. § II. Pontificate
of Stephen V. (Jone 22, a. d. 816—January 22, 817). 21. Promotion of
Stephen V. Louis the Mild.—22. Stephen V. crowns Louis the Mild at
Rbeims. Council of Aix-la-Chapelle. Foundation of ecclesiastical scnools.- 23. Council of Oalcuith in England.—24. Death of Stephen V... Page 397

CHAPTER II.
I 1

Pontificate of St. Pasoal I. (January 25, a. d. 817—May 11, 824).
tion of St. Pascal I.—2. St. Benedict of Aniano. Clerical and
deforms.—3. Revolt of Bernard, king of Italy.—4. Public penance
-he Mild, at Attigny.—5. Various forms of Judgments of God.—H.

1. Elec­
monastic
of Loni·
St. Ade·

CONTENTS.

Xi

lard. New Corbie. Progress of the faith.—7. Persecution of Leo the Amv·ninn in the East.—8 Revolution in Constantinople Michael the Stammerer.
—9. Death of St. Pascal I. § II. Ροντπποατβ OT SvdXWtffil Π.( -''in··
i. r>.
824—August 27, 827). 10. Eugenios Π. causes the Romans to swear fealty to
the Emperor.—11. Disguised Judaism of Michael the Stammerer.—12. Coun­
cil of Paris.—18. Heresy of Claudius, bishop of Turin.—14. The Capitularies.
—16. Council of Rome.—16. Death of Eugenios II. 5 III. Pontificate op
Valentine (September 1, a. d. 827—October 10, 827). 17. Election and
Death of Valentine. § IV. Pontificate of Gregory IV. (January 1, *. o.
828—January 11, 844). 18. The Saracens in Sicily.—19. Gregory IV. rebuilds
the city and walls of Ostia.—20. Revolution in France. Revolt of the sons of
Louis the Mild.—21. The field of the Lie.—22. Diet of Compïègne.—23.
Council of Aix-la-Ohapelle. Death of Louis the Mild.—24. War nf succes­
sion at the death of Lonis.—25. Theophilus the Unfortunate. Michael ΙΠ.,
Porphyrogenitus, emperor of the East. End of the Iconoclast heresy.—27
Norman invasion. Death of Gregory IV.—28. False decretals. Paschasins
Radbertus. Treaties on the Body and Blood of our Lord................. Page 431

CHAPTER III
I I. Pontificate of Sergius II. (January 27, a. d. 844—January 27,847). 1. John,
antipope. Election of Sergius II.—2. Numerous councils of the Gallic Churches.
—3. Convulsiouists of Dijon.—4. State of the Church in the East.—5. Ilincmar, archbishop of Rheims. Rabanus Manrus, archbishop of Mayence.—
6. Death of Sergius II. § II. Pontificate of St. Leo IV. (April 12, a. d. 847
—July 17, 855). 7. Leo IV. saves Rome and Italy from a Saracen invasion.—
8. Leonine city.—9. Gotescalc.—10. Nomenœ founds the independent kitgdom of Brittany.—11. Persecution of the Christians in Spain.—12. Norman
inroads.—13. Death of St. Leo IV. § ΠΙ. Pontificate of St. Benedict ID.
(September 1, a. d. 835—March 10, 858). 14. Anastasius, antipope. Election
of Benedict III.—15. Fable of Pope Joan.—16. Partition of the sons of the
Emperor Lothaire.—17. Michael III., emperor of the East—18. Photius.—
19. Death of Benedict ΠΙ...................................................................Page 468.

CHAPTER IV.
g 1 Pontificate of Nicholas I. the Great (April 25, a. d. 858—November 13,
867). 1. Election of Nicholas I.—2. Schism of Photins.—3. Deposition of the
Catholic Patriarch, St. Ignatius, by a schismatical council.—4. Hypocritical
letter of Photius to the Pope.—5. Photios excommunicates the Sovereign
Pontiff.—6. Basil, the Macedonian. Banishment of Photius.—7. Letter of
Pope Nicholas to the Gallic bishops in council at Troyes.—8. Lothaire and
Waldrada.—9. Council of Metz.—10. The acts of the council annulled <r
Nicholas. Excommunication of Lothaire and Waldrada.—11. Affair of Rothade, bisl op of Soissons.—12. Conversion of the Bulgarians.—13. Death of
Nicholas. S II. Pontificate of Adrian II. (November 13, a. d. 867 —No­
vember 25, 872). 14. Apprel ensious aroused by the accession of Adrian IL­
IA. Solemn protest of Adrian 11.—16. Lotbaire’s attempt to return to com

xii

CONTENTS.
mnnion with the Sovereign Pontiff.—17. Sacrilege and death of Lothaire.18. Dissensions and civil strifes attending the succession.—19. The emperor
Basil's ambassadors at Rome. The Pope sends legates to hie court.—20.
Eighth general council at Constantinople.—21. Queetion of the Bulgarian
Churches.—22. Death of Adrian IL
Norman invasion of England anù
France....................................................................................................................... Page 490.

CHAPTER V.
11

Pontificate of John VIII. (December 14, a. d. 872—December 16, 882)
1. State of the world nt the accession of John VIII.—2. Charles the Bald
crowned emperor of the Romans.—3. Saracen depredations in Italy.—4. Death
of Charles the Bald.—5. John VIII. at the council of Troyes.—6. Death of
St. Ignatius, Catholic Patriarch of Constantinople. Restoration of Photius.—
7. John VIII. agrees to the reinstatement of Photius.—8. Apostasy of the
papal legates at Constantinople.—9. John VIII. deposes the faithless legates,
and excommunicates Photius.—10. Death of John VIII. § Π. Pontificate
of Marinus I. (December 23, a. d. 882—February 28, 884).
11. Election and
death of Marinus I.—12. Alfred the Great, king of England.—13. The Nor­
mans in Gaul. The Saracens in Italy. § III. Pontificate of Adrian IIL
(March 1 a d. 884—July 8, 885). 14. Election and death of Adrian III.
£ IV. Pontificate of Stephen VI. (July 25, a. d. 885—August 7, 891).
16. Charity of Stephen VI.—1C. Book of Photius on the Procession of the
Holy Ghost and the Filioque.—17. Theodore Santabaren. Infamous machina­
tions of Photius.—18. Leo the Philosopher. Exile and death of Photius. His
works.—19. Death of Stephen VI. § V. Pontificate of Formosus (Septem­
ber 19, a. d. 891—April 4, 896). 20. Election of Formosus, bishop of Porto.
—21. Formosus ends the question of the schismatical ordinations of Photius.22. Political revolutions in France.—23. Council of Tribur.—24. Italian trou­
bles.—25. Holy solitaries in France. § VI. Pontificate of Boniface VI.
(April 11, a. d. 89G—April 26, 896). 26. Election and death of Boniface VI.
§ Vll. Pontificate of Stephen VII. (May 2, a. ». 896—August, 897). 27.
Election and death of Stephen VII. Disgraceful proceedings in the Council
of Rome. § VIII. Pontificate of Romanus (September 17, a. d. 897—Feb­
ruary 8, 898). 28. Election and death of Romanus. § IX. Pontificate of
Theodore II. (February 12, a. d. 898—March 3. 898). 29. Election and death
of Theodore IL § X. Pontificate of John IX. (March 12, a. d. 898—March
26, 900). 80. Council of Rome.—31. Council of Ravenna.—32. Death of
John IX. End of the ninth century................................................... Page 624

CHAPTER VI.
} 1. Pontificate of Benedict IV. (April 6, a. d. 900—October 20, 903). 1. His­
torical appearance of the tenth century.—2. Luitprand, bishop of Cremona:
Flodoard. canon of Rbeims.—3. Alphonso the Great in Spain. Lamentable
condition of the other States of Christendom.—4. Death of Benedict IV. -5.
Holy personages of the tenth century. § II. Pontificate of Leo V. (Octo­
ber 28, a. d. 903—December 6, 903). 6. Death of Leo V. in a dung» in.

CONTENTS.

xiii

fin. Pontificate of Serotos ΓΠ. (June 9. a.d. 905—Dt<eiuoer8. ill). 7. Un­
just aspersions cast npon the memory of Bergins TIT.—8. Testimonies of reject
and veneration to the Pope from the varions Churches of Christendom.—a.
Conncil of Trosly, near Soissons.—10. Scandal in the East Death of Sergius
III. § IV. Pontificate of Anastasius III. (December 6, a. d. 911—.Tune 8,
913). 11. Accession of Anastasias III.—12. Conversion of the Normans.—
18. Death of Anastasius III. § V. Pontificate of Lando (December!, a. d.
913—April 25, 914). 14. Election and Death of Lando. J VI. Pontificat»
of John X. (April 80, a. d. 914—-Inly 2, 928). 15. Calumnies ottered against
John X,—16. John X. defeats the Saracens upon the Garigliano.—17. Let'er
of John X. to Harvey, archbishop of Rheims.—18. Otho of Saxony. Conrad
of Franconia.—19. Romanns Lecapenus, Emperor of the East.—20. Death of
John X. § VII. Pontificate of Leo VI. (July 6, a. d. 9*28 —.January 20,
929). 21. Election and death of Leo VI. § VIII. Pontificate ofStepiien
VIII. (February 1, 929—March 12, 931). 22. Want of historical data on rhe
Pontificate of Stephen VIII.—23. St. Sigismund, bishop of Elberatadt.—24.
Persecution in Spain.—25. St. Gennadius. 5 IX. Pontificate of John XI.
(March 20, a. d. 931 —February 5, 936). 26. Election and captivity of John
XI.—27. Lamentable state of Europe at this period.—28. Monastic reform at
Cluny. § X. Pontificate of Leo VII. (February 14, a. d. 936—August 23,
939). 29. Virtues of Leo VII.—30. He calls St. Odo to Rome. ? XI. Pon­
tificate of Stephen IX. (September 1, a. d. 989—January 15, 048). 31.
Election and death of Stephen /X. S XII. Pontificate of Martin II. (Janu­
ary 22, a. d. 943—Angust 4, 946). 32. Otho the Great.—33. Roinonne Le­
capenus. Emperor of the East. Theophylactns, Patriarch of Constantinople. 34. Death of Martin II. § XIII. Pontificate of Agapetfs IT- (AagoK 9,
946—March 18, 956). 35. Councils of Moussin, Ingelheim, and Triers.—36.
Glorious administration of Otho the Great.—37. Atto, bishop of Vercel'i.
Saintly characters in the West.—38. Simon Metaphrastes.—39. Invasion of
the Magyars.—40. Mission of St. John of Vandiéres to Abderahman.—41.
Death of Agapetus II.................................................................................Page 554

CHAPTER VII.
f I. Pontificate of John ΧΠ. (March 23, a. d. 956—May 14, 964). 1. Condi
tion of Italy at the accession of John XU.—2. Election of John ΧΠ.—3. Otho
the Great, Emperor.—4. John XII. forsakes the party of Otho the Great.—
5. Hostility of Otho toward the lawful Pope.—6. A council at Rome de­
poses John XII. and elects an antipope, under the name of Leo VIII.—7. Re­
instatement and death of John XII. § II. Pontifiuate of Benedict V. (May
19, a. d. 964—July 5, 965). 6. Benedict V. banished to Hamburg. Usurpation
and death of the antipope Leo VUI. § III. Pontificate of John ΣΗΙ. (Octobet
1, a. d. 965—September 6, 972). 9. State of the Catholic world at the acces­
sion of John XIII.—10. The political life of Germany centres in the person ol
Otbo.—11. Otho’s efforts to extend the triumphs of Christianity.—12. Em­
bassy of Luitprand, bishop ui Cremona, to Constantinople.—13. Otho U.
espouses Theophano, a Greek princess.
IV. Pontificate of Bknediot VL

CONTENTS.
September 22, a. d. 072.—March, 074). 14. Benedict VI. dies by poison,
i V. Pontificate of Donus IL (April 5, a. d. 974—October, 975). 15. Elec·
«on and death of Donne II. St. Mayeul refuses the tiara. § VI. Pontifioat·
of Benedict VII. (December 19, a. d. 975—July 10, 984.) 16. Boniface VIn
antipope.—17. The Russians before Constantinople.—18. Social crisis in the
tenth century.—19. St. Dunstan, archbishop of Canterbury.—20. St. Bernard
of Menthon.—21. Roswitha.—22. Death of Benedict VII. § VII. Pontifi­
cate of John XIV. (October 19, a. d. 984—August 20, 085).
23. Election
and death of John XIV. § VIII. Pontificate of John XV. (December 1,
a. d. 985—December, 085).
24. Election and death of John XV. § IX.
Pontificate of John XVI. (April 25, a. d. 986—April 80, 996). 25. Hugh
Capet, King of France.—26. Persecution of Swein. Conversion of the Rus­
sians.—27. Apprehensions of the approaching end of the world.—28. Death
of St. Wolfgang and of John XVI. § X. Pontificate of Gregory V.
(May 19, a. d. 996—February 18, 999). 29. Election of Gregory V.—30.
Philagathas, antipope.—31. Robert the Pious. Bertha.—$2. Bermudo II.,
King of Leon.—33. Death of Gregory V...................................................... Pnge 590

CHAPTER VIII.
Historical Review of τπε Fourth Period. 1. Moral and political state of the
world during the Fourth Period of the History of the Church.—2. The clergy
—8. Rome and the Papacy.—4. Slanders of Luitprand against the Popes of
this epoch.—5. Elements of good ; examples of learning and holiness during
the Fourth Period.—6. Conclusion........................................................ Page C28

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.
THIRD PERIOD.
From the Fall of the Wcntern Empire (A.. D. 4-76) to Ite Rn wtefc
liehmont under Charlemaene (A.. D. 800).

CHAPTER I.
SUMMARY.

§ I. Pontificate

of

St. Simplicius (a. d. 470—483).

Second Period.

1. General view of the third period of Church History.—2. Political divisio·
of the Western Empire.—3. Council of Arles.—4. Faustus, bishop of Rees
—6. Persecution of the Church of Africa by Hunneric.—6. Revolution i»
Constantinople. The Emperor Zeno exiled by Basiliscus.—7. Restoratioa
of Zeno. Reaction in favor of orthodoxy against Entychianism.—8. Acacius
Patriarch of Constantinople, embraces Eutychianisrn.—9. Zeno’s Henotieon
—10. Theological estimate of the Henoticon.—11. John Talaîa, lawful Patri
arch of Alexandria, is driven from his see, and flies to Rome.—12. Death
of St Simplicius. Various acta of this Pope’s pontificate in the West
§ IL Pontificate

of

St. Felix III. (a. d. March 8, 483—February 28, 492).

18. Election of St Felix IIL Odoacer, king of the Heruli, claims the right to
confirm pontifical elections.—14. Council of Rome. Apostolic legates sent
to the Emperor Zeno.—15. The legates weakly prove false to their mission.
—16. Council of Rome. Condemnation of the legates.—17. Deposition of
Acacius. Other legates are sent to Constantinople, who also apostatize, and
are condemned by St. Felix IIL—18. Acephali.—19. Council of Rome.
Confirmation of the sentence against Acacius.—20. Death of Acacius.
Euphemius, his successor.—21. St. Sabas. St. Theodosius the Cenobite.—
22. Gontamund in Africa. Council of Rome in favor of the Catholic
bishope of Africa.—23. End of the rule of the Heruli. Theodoric the
Great, king of the Ostrogoths, in Italy.—24. Death of St Felix HL

§ I. Pontificate of St. Simplicius (a.
Period.

d.

476—483).

Second

1. The third period of Ecclesiastical History opens at the
moment when the extinction of the Western Empire made
Vol. IL—1

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

room for the appearance of new nations hitherto shut out from
the pale of ancient civilization, and foreign to the intellectual,
political, and religious impulse given to the age by Christianity.
The Goths, Germans and Franks saw, in the Church, an inde­
pendent society, which had neither shared the overthrow of
the Roman Empire, nor been crushed by its fall. The influ­
ence of the Christian religion was, therefore, but increased by
this great political event; and the bishops found themselves
naturally at the head of the new world, which they controlled
by the superiority of a hierarchy which had proved stronger
than all other institutions—more lasting than the very empire.
The various provinces of the West were parcelled out by bar­
barians whose very name was a terror to the Roman race
everywhere oppressed as the weaker power. The Church
interposed between the victor and the vanquished, to afford
protection, mercy and peace; she was not unequal to the
mission. The Pope and the bishops became the connecting
link between the barbarian element and the old nationalities ;
and by opening the way for a fusion of the races, they became
the fathers of modern civilization. This is the political achieve­
ment described in a single word by the infidel historian, Gibbon,
when he compares it to the formation of the hive by the bees.
As the Church went on scattering broadcast her blessings,
grateful nations gradually clothed her with an almost unlimited
power, even in temporal matters ; and thus the Middle Ages
show us the Papacy controlling kings and people, not by any
usurpation of power, but by a necessary consequence, and as if
by the very logic of events.
2. After the fall of the empire the West was politically
divided as follows : the Arian Vandals held Africa ; the Suevi
and Visigoths were masters of Spain ; the Franks and Burgun­
dians had settled in Gaul, the Anglo-Saxons in Great Britain;
the Heruli, and after them the Ostrogoths, ruled Italy. The
East was still governed by the emperors of Constantinople; but
court intrigues, domestic strife and weakened authority, the
unfailing marks of an irretrievable decline, began to character-

ST. SIMPLICIUS (A. D. 416-4*3)

iae this sad period, which has been branded with the name
Lower Empire. Zeno, a weak and capricious prince, the tool
of men and the sport of events, though altogether unable to
uphold the rights of his crown, still tried to exercise, in spiritual
matters, an authority which he was powerless to shield from
contempt in the government of his states ; and in the attempt
to bring about a general reconciliation of opinion, only made a
wider breach. The Persians, who held sway over Armenia and
the provinces of Upper Syria, still carried on against the Chris­
tians the system of persecution which had furnished so many
victims to the fury of Sapor II. Such was the situation of the
political and religious world in 476, at the second period of the
pontificate of St. Simplicius—a period made memorable by the
fall of the Roman Empire, which had just yielded under th?
blows of Odoacer, the youthful barbarian who had received
the blessing of St. Severinus and had since become king of the
Heruli.
3. St Simplicius had not quitted Rome during this season
of confusion. He kept his post at the Church's helm, and by
words and means succored the Christian communities suffering
under so many revolutions. The Franks were destined to lead
the way for the barbarous tribes in bending submissively to
the yoke of faith. Among its high prerogatives, this nation,
called to so noble a destiny, was to bear the title of Eldest
Daughter of the Church. The Gallic provinces which were
now under the rule of the Franks, boasted a generation of holy
bishops in the various sees. A council held at Arles (a. d.
476), against the Predestinarian heresy, was illustrated by such
names as St. Patiens of Lyons, St. Sidonius Apollinaris of Cler­
mont, St. Euphronius of Autun, and St. Eutropius of Orange,
who were all present. This council had been rendered neces­
sary by the error of Lucidius, a priest of the province of Arles,
who had been misled by the teachings of Pelagius. The coun­
cil renewed the anathemas already pronounced against the
propositions of the sectary. “ If any one saith,” decreed the
council, “ that the damned had not, during life, received from

4

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

God the means necessary for salvation, and that men are thus
cast into eternal darkness by the divine foreknowledge, let him
be anathema.” “If any one saith that Jesus Christ did not
die for all men, and that He does not desire that all should be
saved, let him be anathema.” These formulas give very nearly
the text of the errors broached, in later times, by the Jansen­
ists. The Council of Arles was spared the necessity of pro­
nouncing a personal condemnation against Lucidius. He had
swerved, indeed, for a moment; but the voice of Faustus of
Reez recalled him to his duty. A private interview with that
prelate had dispelled all his doubts, and let in the pure light of
Catholic faith to illumine the intellect for a moment clouded by
Pelagian sophistry. Lucidius acknowledged his fault in a let­
ter to the council, in which the perfect sincerity of his confes­
sion is only equalled by the clearness and precision of hio
retractation. “ Your condemnation,” he writes to the Fathers,
“ is salvation to the faithful, and your judgment strikes but to
heal. I know no better means of redeeming my past errors
than humble acknowledgment; I offer this wholesome confes­
sion as my best defence.” The noble expression, in its very
humility, does him greater honor, if possible, than the most
splendid triumph. This submission to the voice of authority is
an old tradition in the Church of France.
4 Faustus himself had but lately given an example of the
same kind. In a work on the nature of spirits, more com­
mendable for purity of style than of doctrine, he had laid down
the proposition that God alone is a spiritual Being in every
sense of the term ; and that angels and souls are substances of
a higher order than bodies, but still belonging to the material
world. This heterodox teaching met with a spirited refutation
from Claudian, brother of St. Mamertus, bishop of Vienne
Claudian had been brought up in solitude, and there he had
gathered treasures of learning. He was familiar with the best
classical models of profane antiquity and deeply versed in
Scriptural knowledge : these mental acquirements were en­
hanced by the external qualities with which
had been alflC

ST. SIMPLICIUS (A. D. 416-483).

5

endowed. He was consulted as an oracle of learning and ho.iness. St. Mamertus, his brother, had secured him to his
church in Vienne, by the bonds of the priesthood, and intrusted
him with a part of the episcopal care. He was well fitted by
his earlier studies to explain the Catholic teaching on the nature
of the soul. His well-ripened notions on the highest questions
of philosophy were brilliantly displayed in his three books on
the Nature of the Soul; in which he goes to the very principle
of the question and overthrows the incorrect theories of Faustus
of Reez. Both parties profited by the issue of the contest.
Claudian bore his triumph with all meekness ; Faustus humbly
admitted his error without reservation. It may justly be ad­
vanced, as a partial palliation of the error of Faustus, that the
Church had not as yet pronounced on this subject. Thus the
heterodox tone of some of his writings did not hinder his popu­
lar canonization at Reez, where a church was placed under his
invocation. St. Sidonius Apollinaris held him in the highest
esteem and admiration : “ Faustus,” he says, “ would seem to
have wedded philosophy after having made it humble and
Christian. He led it to his monastery, and set the philosophy
of Plato to defend the Church of Jesus Christ. His eloquence
has outrun that of his masters and is only surpassed by the
holiness of his life.” The episcopal See of Limoges was, at the
same period, illustrated by the virtues of St. Ruritius. Though
sprung from a noble and wealthy family, he had cast off his
great wealth, the honors of the world and the marriage-tie
which bound him to Heria, daughter of the patrician Ommacius,
to serve God in solitude, poverty and continence. He was
soon drawn from out his retreat to assume the high but fearful
responsibility of the episcopate, which he had never sought or
desired; and he now consecrated his ample means to building,
in the neighborhood of Limoges, a church in honor of St. Augus­
tine, whose illustrious name had been more deeply fixed in the
hearts of the Gallic bishops by the Pelagian attempts to de­
fame the memory of the Doctor of Grace. Meanwhile Per­
petuus, bishop of Tours, had persuaded Paulinos of Perigueux,

6

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

a Christian poet, to write the life of St. Martin, in verse
Pomerius, a native of Mauritania, driven to Gaul by the Vandal
persecution in Africa, was chosen on account of his surpassing
qualities to govern a monastery near Arles. The fruits of his
studious retirement appeared in a dialogue on the Nature of the
Soul, and a treatise on the Institution of Virgins, neither of
which has reached us. The only writings of Pomerius still
extant are the three books on the Contemplative Life, long
attributed to St. Prosper.
5. Whilst the provinces of Gaul were thus rejoiced to see
the faith so flourishing under the care of illustrious and holy
bishops, closely united to the See of Rome, the Church of
Africa groaned under the tyranny of the Vandals who strove
to implant Arianism there by force of arms. Genseric died on
the 25th of January, a. d. 477, after a reign of thirty-seven
years, and was succeeded by his eldest son Hunneric, who had
married the Princess Eudoxia, sister of Zeno, Emperor of the
East. The Catholics at first entertained great hopes that the
influence of the new queen would be favorable to them. The
Church of Carthage, now twenty-seven years deprived of its
bishop, had been unable to obtain from Genseric the liberty to
elect another. Zeno’s intercession drew the desired permission
from Hunneric ; but the Vandal shackled his favor with such
restrictions as almost to annul its effect. The edict allowing
the election, and publicly proclaimed by the royal notary
Vitaritus, was worded as follows : “ At the prayer of the
Emperor Zeno and of the most noble Placidia, his sister, our
master permits you to elect a bishop of your own choice :
provided the bishops of our religion, at Constantinople and in
the other provinces of the East, are allowed to preach in their
churches in whatever language they wish, and to carry on
their manner of worship, as you are at liberty here and in
vour other churches in Africa, to celebrate the Mass, to preach
and to conduct your own worship. If this be not executed, the
bishop who may be consecrated here and the other bishops
ehall be sent among the Moors.” This was giving with one

ST. SIMPLICIUS (A. D. 4ΐβ-483).

7

htnd and taking back with the other. The bishop? present at
the publication of this insidious edict cried out that they
refused the election granted on conditions they were not at
liberty to accept, and which left a continual opening for the
tyranny of persecutors. But the people of Carthage, so long
deprived of a pastor, insisted upon the election being held in
spito of the restrictive clause. The unanimous vote fell upon
a holy priest of the city, named Eugenius. His humility and
the charity and compassion he showed toward the poor, had
recommended him to the suffrage of both clergy and people.
The fruits of his administration did not disappoint the hopes
entertained of him. His eloquent discourses and yet more
eloquent works were the means of conversion and salvation to
many souls. The Arian bishops thought to check the progress
of his apostolic work by obtaining from Hunneric a decree
forbidding him to admit into his church any Christian of the
Vandal race. They thought thus to shut in the holy bishop’s
zeal within the circle of native Africans who had long been
attached to Catholicity, and to hinder the conversion of the
Arians to the true faith. Eugenius refused to obey the unjust
order. “ The house of God,” he answered, “ is open to all ; no
one can drive out those who enter it.”
This was the signal for persecution. Guards were stationed
by Hunneric at the church doors, who plucked out the eyes or
the hair of the Vandals as they tried to enter. The Catholics
who held offices, honors or employments at court were ban­
ished to the plains of Utica, and made to share the hard field­
work of the slaves. The consecrated virgins were put to the
most cruel torture ; the most infamous means were used to
make them give testimony against the honor of the Catholic
bishops and clergy. A general decree of banishment was at
length issued against all bishops, priests, deacons and the
most faithful Catholics. They were exiled, to the number of
four thousand nine hundred and seventy-six, to the Maurita?
nian deserts. The people thronged the route by which the con­
fessors passed ; the valleys were filled, the hill-sides covered

8

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

by the faithful, bearing tapers in their hands and begging th·»
blessing of the holy martyrs for their little children. On a day
appointed by Ilunneric himself, the 1st of February, a. d. 484,
a conference was held in Carthage between the Catholic and
the Arian bishops. Since good faith had been the last of the
motives that suggested this meeting, it only afforded the royal
barbarian anew occasion of urging the persecution. The Cath­
olics had chosen ten of their principal bishops to uphold the
cause of the faith. They were not heard. The Catholic bish­
ops laid before Hunneric and the Arian prelates a clear profes­
sion of faith, embodying the true teaching on the unity of sub­
stance and the Trinity of the divine persons ; on the necessity
of the term consubsiantial, or όαοούσιος, the divinity of the Holy
Ghost, and, in fine, on all the dogmas attacked by the Arians.
The Vandal king answered by a decree closing all the Cath­
olic churches and confiscating their property, and handed
over all the orthodox bishops and clergy to the action of
the judicial tribunals. All the bishops who had been present
at the conference of Carthage were thrown on board some
vessels bound for the Island of Corsica, where they were em­
ployed in cutting timber for the building of ships. The
faithful who remained true to the last were rewarded with
the most painful torments. Whole cities were depopulated,
and the inhabitants dragged into exile when Hunneric’s
butchers had cut out their tongues to the very roots. St. Eugenius, bishop of Carthage, was banished to a solitude near
Tripoli, and placed under the tyrannical charge of an Arian
bishop who subjected him to a long imprisonment in a damp
cave, where he hoped to see him yield to ill treatment; but
God preserved the holy prelate’s hie. The Arian bishops
themselves became persecutors and torturers. They went
through the country with bands of armed soldiers, rebap­
tized all whom they could find on the highways, and every­
where multiplied the number of their victims. In the mean
time a fearful disease, which may well be deemed a pun­
ishment from God, was slowly wasting Hunneric’s body. He

ST. SIMPLICIUS (Λ. D. «»-483).

9

died in the moat torturing agonies, at the close of the year
484. This event put an end to the persecution, and recalled a
boat of exiles to their homes. The historian of this struggle
of the African Church against Arian Vandalism, Victor, bishop
of Vita, has preserved the names and recorded the sufferings
of the many martyrs who then shed their blood for the faith.
The fact that he was an eye-witness of what he relates, that
he shared the banishment and persecution, lends a thrilling
interest to his narrative. It is a long martyrology compiled
in a spirit of faith and charity by a martyr’s pen. In this
desolated Church, even when the very name of Catholic was
a title to proscription, the persecuted faith did not want for
apologists. With the uplifted sword of the executioner glitter­
ing over their heads they still wrote eloquent works which
have reached our own day. Antoninus, bishop of Cyrtha, ad­
dressed to the confessors a Justification of their faith, encour­
aging them to suffer for God and the truth. The errors of the
Arians and Donatists were refuted by Cerealis, bishop of Castela, in Mauritania Cæsariensis, the present Algeria ; Victor,
bishop of Cartenna, in the same province ; and Asclepias,
bishop in the territory of Bagai, in Numidia. But all '.hese
learned doctors were surpassed in religious polemics by Vigil­
ius, bishop of Tapsa. His numerous controversial works are
all written in the form of dialogues. The Catholic interlocutor
is represented as St. Augustine or St. Athanasius, names so
precious to the African Church, and which seem, by the very
authority of genius, to consecrate the truths of faith against
Arianism, Manicheism and Eutychianism. These heresies
speak through their authors, whom Vigilius introduces with
the very arguments in support of their errors that they had
used to make them popular. The Bishop of Tapsa writes in a
grave, simple, clear and natural style. His doctrine is sound
and established with solid arguments and unanswerable proof·
drawn from the Scriptures and the Fathers of the Church.
The objections proposed by the heretics are answered with a
wonderful ease and penetration. His Dialogues against Arius,

10

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH

Sabellius and Photinus, and his five Books against Eutyche
*
are particularly remarkable.
6. The works against Eutychianism were more immediately
useful, as the East was still a prey to its ravages. In the be
ginning of his reign, the Emperor Zeno had taken into familiar
favor an apostate monk called Peter the Fuller, from his orig­
inal trade. Peter made open profession of Eutychianism,
admitting only one nature in Jesus Christ. He endeavored to
give easier entrance to the error by adding to the Trisagion of
the Greeks, the words : Thou Who wast crucified for us, have
mercy on us ; thus ascribing the Passion to the three Persons of
the Trinity, by the unity of nature which he held to subsist in
the Person of Jesus Christ. The apostate succeeded, through
the favor of Zeno, in seizing upon the Patriarchal See of An­
tioch. But the emperor was at length undeceived by the prot­
estations of Gennadius, Patriarch of Constantinople and of
the other Catholic bishops,—and Peter the Fuller was ban­
ished to an oasis in the Theban desert. But the vicissitude
of the times was soon to recall him. Zeno held but with feeble
grasp the sceptre which he was too weak to defend against
external enemies or the intrigues of his own court, and it was
snatched from his hand by his brother-in-law, Basiliscus. The
imperial fugitive sought the shelter of a fortress in Cappadocia,
where he placed his life in the care of a few faithful soldiers,
leaving the usurper to enjoy his short and turbulent reign.
Basiliscus inaugurated his reign by recalling Timothy Ælurus,
who had spent twenty years of exile in the Tauric Cherso­
nesus. The murderer of Proterius now appeared in Constanti­
nople, strong in the power of a usurper. At his approach,
Timothy Solofaciolus, the Catholic Patriarch, withdrew to the
monastery near Canopus, where he had formerly followed the
solitary life. Peter the Fuller was at the same time recalled
to Antioch by the usurper’s order. Here he exercised patriar­
chal authority, ordained bishops for the various sees of the
province, and used all his influence to spread the Eutychian
error. Basiliscus, however, by his unrestrained abuse of power

8T. SIMPLICIUS (A. D. 476-Î83).

11

soon provoked an energetic resistance in the very heart of
Constantinople. This emperor of fortune, who seemed bent
on sowing trouble and confusion in the Eastern Church, pub­
lished an edict enjoining all the bishops and clergy to anathe­
matize the Council of Chalcedon, on pain of deposition. Aea­
cius, bishop of Constantinople, openly refused to sign the
impious decree ; and to warn the faithful of the danger which
threatened the faith, he laid aside his episcopal insignia, put
on mourning and spread a black veil over the altar and the
Patriarchal throne. Happy would it have been for him had
he preserved the same courageous attachment to the true faith!
The priests and the abbots of the neighboring monasteries
rallied around their bishop who wrote, in conjunction with
them, to tell the Pope, St. Simplicius, what the Church was
suffering in the East. The Roman Pontiff multiplied his
efforts and his zeal to meet the serious crisis. He simulta­
neously wrote a letter to Basiliscus, two to the Eastern Patri­
archs and one to the priests and archimandrites of Constanti­
nople (a. d. 476). He urges the emperor to follow in the
footsteps of Marcian whose memory was held in benediction
by the Church ; to remove the apostate usurpers from the Sees
of Alexandria and Antioch, and to protect the Catholic faith
against the Eutychian heresy. The Pope sent with his own
letter, one of St. Leo his predecessor, containing an explicit
development of the mystery of the Incarnation. “ The rule
of Catholic teaching,” wrote the Pontiff
*,
“ is ever the same in
the successors of him to whom our Lord left the care of His
fold with the promise of his unfailing help, even to the consume
mation of ages." In his letter to Acacius, Simplicius directs
him as legate at the court of Constantinople to use all hi.
influence to procure the banishment of Timothy Ælurus, and to
thwart the plan, then on foot in the East, for the meeting of
another council.
The final sentence against Eutychianism had been pro­
nounced at Chalcedon, and nothing now remained but simply
to carry it into execution. The Pope encouraged the priest»

12

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

ind archimandrites of Constantinople to resist the attempta
of the heretics, and sent them a copy of his letter to the
Rmperor.
7. Acacius, strengthened by the support of the Sovereign
Pontiff, left nothing undone to carry out his instructions. Ho
bad recourse to St. Daniel, the Stylite, whose holiness and
eminent virtue had the greatest power over the minds of the
people, and told him of the perilous position of the Church
and the faith. Basiliscus dreaded the effect of an accusation
coming from the column where the holy hermit preached so
eloquently to the multitude by the sanctity of his life ; he
therefore sent some of the officers of his court to complain
to the saint of what he called the insolence of Acacius, whom
he accused of stirring up the people against him. Daniel sent
back the reply to the emperor, that his reign would soon be
cut short as a punishment for his impiety, and that the hand
of God was already raised in anger against him. Moved by
I he urgent entreaties of Acacius, the holy old man thought
that he might follow the example of St. Anthony who had, on
a similar occasion, gone into Alexandria to defend the perse­
cuted Church. He accordingly repaired to Constantinople,
where the people were so moved at his presence that Basilis­
cus thought it prudent to quit the capital to escape the effects
of the popular emotion. From the palace into which he had
withdrawn, in the suburbs of the city, he sent messengers to
Daniel, but the hermit refused to receive them. The usurper
then came in person, hoping to win him over by this mark of
deference. Daniel publicly upbraided him for his fault and
added : “You shall soon feel the hand of Him who crushes
the mighty.” The prediction did not long await fulfilment.
Zeno, who was still an exile in Isauria, soon received profes­
sions of loyalty from some of the most powerful senators
whom the tyranny of Basiliscus had revolted. Relying upon
their support, he marched toward Constantinople at the head
of a constantly swelling army of Isaurians, Lycaonians and
mercenary adventurers. Basiliscus, as cringing and base in

ST. SIMPLICIUS (A. D. 476-483).

13

adversity as he had been haughty and proud in the moment
of power, hastened, at these tidings, to the Church of St.
Sophia, where he officially retracted all that he had done in
favor of Timothy Ælurus and Peter the Fuller. He anathemathized Nestorius and Eutyches and received the Council of
Chalcedon which he had hitherto rejected. But it was too
late. The Thracian troops he had sent with his palace-guards
against Zeno, after a bloody engagement under the walls of
Nice, went over to that prince’s standard and he entered Con­
stantinople in triumph (a. d. 477). Basiliscus was banished
to Cappadocia, where he died of starvation. Zeno’s first care
was to go with the empress, to visit the holy solitary, Daniel,
to whose prayers he ascribed his return. He wrote to St.
Simplicius, intimating his desire to crush the Eutychian heresy,
to enforce the decrees of the Council of Chalcedon and to re­
store Solofaciolus to the See of Alexandria. He accordingly
annulled all the decrees issued by Basiliscus to the detriment
of the faith and of the Catholic bishops. Peter the Fuller was
deposed and the See of' Antioch given to Stephen, a true
Catholic. Paul of Ephesus suffered the same fate. Timothy
Solofaciolus was restored to the throne of Alexandria. The
intruder Ælurus is said to have caused his own death. The
heretical bishops elected, as his successor, Peter Mongw, or
the Stutterer, archdeacon of Timothy Ælurus, hoping by this
means to perpetuate the schism in the Church of Alexandria.
But Zeno gave them no time to carry out their plans. Peter
Mongus was by the emperor’s order sent into exile. The
energetic measures adopted by the emperor to uphold the
Catholic faith in the principal Eastern sees, caused a violent
reaction on the part of the heretics. St. Stephen, legitimate
Patriarch of Antioch, who had succeeded the usurper Peter
the Fuller, was killed in his own church in the heat of a popu­
lar tumult; his mangled body was dragged through the streets
ef the city, loaded with outrages and then thrown inti the
Orontes. Zeno dealt by the ringleaders of th· sedition with
the utmost severity, and would have made the rebellium» city

14

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

feel the further weight of his indignation, had they not sent a
deputation of their chief citizens to solicit forgiveness. The
emperor granted it. A new Patriarch, Stephen the Younger,
was elected for Antioch and consecrated at Constantinople by
Acacius. This consecration was not conformable to canonical
rule ; it should regularly have been performed at Antioch, by
the assembled bishops of Syria. To secure the validation of
the act the emperor and Acacius wrote to Pope Simplicius.
They urged the great necessity in which they were placed to
act thus and to overlook the canonical observance in order to
establish quiet in Antioch. St. Simplicius received their ex­
planation ; and in a letter to the emperor, dated June 22, a. d.
479, he expressed himself as follows: “Since you have deemed
it necessary for the peace of Antioch to consecrate a bishop
for that see in Constantinople, still reserving to the assembly
of the Eastern bishops the right of consecrating the bishop of
Antioch for the future, the Apostle St. Peter receives youi
promise and your oath, provided that this exceptional case be
not hereaiuer adduced as a precedent.” The Sovereign Pontiff
at the same time addressed the same explanation and caution
to the bishop of Constantinople.
8. Peace was thus restored to the Eastern Churches. Injus­
tice to Zeno it should be stated that for the two years which
followed his restoration, he left nothing untried to bring about
this desirable result. But the uprightness of intention, for
which we must give him credit, was supported neither by pru­
dence, strength of mind nor connection of design ; in a word,
by none of the qualities which make a great prince. Guided
by Acacius, he was not long in spoiling his own work and
affixed his name to a too famous edict, the source of number­
less divisions in the Church. The first troubles were occa­
sioned by the death of Timothy Solofaciolus, Patriarch of
Alexandria (a. d. 482). The bishops, clergy and monks of the
city, elected, as his legitimate successor, John Talaïa, a zealous
priest, whose talents and virtue had won the appreciation of
Solofaciolus, by whom he was accordingly intrusted with the ad.

BT. SIMPLICIUS (A. D. 476-483).

15

ministration of the temporal affairs of the Church. John Talala
immediately wrote to St. Simplicius to obtain letters of com­
munion, and at the same time sent circulars to the bishops of
the great Eastern and Western sees to notify them of his elec­
tion. By an unfortunate combination of circumstances Acacius of Constantinople only received Talaia’s letter after hav­
ing already learned his election, though indirectly. This invol­
untary delay in the transmission of the Synodal letters was
enough to prejudice Acacius against John Talaia. He deter­
mined to use all his influence with the emperor to procure the
nullification of Talaia’s election. Without troubling himself
to reconcile his past conduct with his new-born resentment, he
urged upon the emperor the reappointment to Alexandria of
the intruder Peter Mongus whose banishment he had sc
strongly urged. He persuaded the emperor that the two fao
tions, Catholic and Eutychian, would continue to disturb Alex­
andria until a bishop was elected equally acceptable to both
parties. “ Peter Mongus,” he said, “ will perfectly fulfil this
condition. The Eutychians are devoted to him ; the Catholics
can urge no reasonable objection against him when he has once
abjured his error.” Peter Mongus was secretly informed of
the intrigue in his favor and had it seconded by all his friends
at court. He pledged himself to bring about a union of the
two parties, and Zeno, deceived by this skilful strategy, yielded
to the natural weakness of his character. He wrote to the
Pope, protesting the unworthiness of Talaia, and asked for the
restoration of Peter Mongus to the See of Alexandria, as the
only means of pacification. Simplicius returned no direct
reply to this communication of the emperor. On the 15th of
July, a. D. 482, he wrote to Acacius expressing his surprise and
grief at having received no letter from him in connection with
Zeno’s, in so important a matter. He adds : “ The acts of a
very full and orthodox council held in Egypt, were lately sent
to this See, according to the usual custom. They informed
us, at once, of the death of our brother of holy memory, the
Bishop Timothy, and of the unanimous choice of the faithful

16

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

which had placed John in the vacant see. As he was believed
to be gifted with all the qualities that make a good bishop,
it seemed that there was nothing left but to thank God, to
rejoice that a Catholic bishop had, without difficulty, succeeded
the deceased prelate, and to give to his authority, by the con­
firmation of the Apostolic See, the desired stability. Yet I have
just received letters from the emperor, in which he represents
Talaîa as unworthy of that exalted dignity. I have, therefore,
suspended the sentence of confirmation lest I be accused of
having acted too inconsiderately in a matter of so great mo­
ment.” These words are remarkable, inasmuch as they go to
prove the right of the Pope on the confirmation of bishops.
1st. We find a council, and a full council, asking the Pope’s
approval of an episcopal election carried on canonically and
without opposition. 2d. Though John had been consecrated
immediately after his election, still his authority, to be full,
entire, unshaken, needs to be confirmed by the approval of the
Holy See. St. Simplicius, in his letter to Acacius, formally
opposed the restoration of Peter Mongus to the Patriarchal See
of Alexandria. “ This promise,” says the Pope, “ to embrace
the true faith, can only secure his return into Catholic com­
munion, but not his elevation to the episcopal dignity.” The
Sovereign Pontiff wrote to the emperor in the same strain. The
energy and earnestness he ever displayed in the cause of faith
and sound doctrine, seemed to grow in the soul of St. Simpli
cius in proportion as a long and painful illness wasted his body.
He renewed his appeals to Acacias, but his letters remained
unanswered.
9. Acacius was a court-bred bishop, wily, proud, as obsti­
nate in his resentment as he was pliant and wavering in hia
affections ; unprincipled, effeminate, inconsistent ; in a word,
one of those degenerate Greeks who must stand at the foot of
the throne to hasten its downfall by their dark and secret in
trigues. He made no account of the Pope’s wishes, persisted
in urging on the emperor to pretended measures of conciliation,
and thus drew him into the performance of an action fraught

ST. SIMPLICIUS (A. D. Μβ-489).

17

with the most disastrous results. Like all weak-minded princes,
Zeno was easily led by those who would flatter his inclinationi»
or his secret wishes. He solaced himself with the hope of
settling religious disputes; and whilst proving himself utterly
unable to maintain peace in his own court, he thought himself
called to heal by a word dissensions which were altogether
out of his province. The famous edict known as the Henoticon,
Ένώηκον {formula of union), was published under the influence
of these ideas. “We are entreated on all hands,” says Zeno,
in this edict, “to effecta union of the Churches and to rem
edy the fatal effects of their division. For a vast number of
persons have thus been deprived of the benefits of baptism
and communion. Blood has even been shed in the domestic
strife. Who would not wish to see the end of such a state of
things? We have, therefore, determined to make a solemn
profession of our faith in the presence of the whole world.
We proclaim that we have never held and never will hold any
other profession or teaching, any faith or definition of faith
than that of the three hundred and eighteen Fathers of Nice,
confirmed by the hundred and fifty of Constantinople. Who­
ever holds any other is rejected from our communion; for this
profession alone is the hope of our empire ; in this profession
alone all nations are baptized ; it is the profession followed at
Ephesus by the Fathers who deposed the impious Nestorius
and his partisans. With them we also anathematize that heresiarch and condemn Eutyches. Their sentiments were op­
posed to those of the bishops assembled in those great coun­
cils. We admit, as a true exposition of faith, the twelve chap­
ters of St. Cyril of Alexandria. We confess that our Lord
Jesus Christ, God, only Son of God, Who became really incar­
nate, consubstantial to the Father, in His divinity; consubstantial to us, in His humanity ; the same Who came down from
Heaven to earth and was inc?mate by the operation of the
Holy Ghost in the womb of the Virgin Mary, Mother of God,
is a single Son and not two. He is the same Son of God Who
performed miracles and voluntarily suffered for us in the flesh
Vol. II.—2

18

GENERAL HISTORY Oh 1HB CHURCH.

We receive into our communion neither those who divide nor
those who compound the two natures, nor yet those who admit
only a simple appearance of incarnation. The holy Churches
of God, throughout the world, the pontiffs who ride them, the
whole extent of our empire, recognize no other faith. Join,
then, in the expression of this unanimous faith. This edict
brings no innovation into the various creeds ; it aims only at
uniting them. Whoever holds or has held a different belief
from that which we have just expressed, whether at the pres­
ent time or at any other, whether at Chalcedon or in any other
council, we pronounce against him a solemn anathema, as we
do against Nestorius and Eutyches.” Such are the most im­
portant passages of the Henoticon.
10. The spirit of Acacius, which inspired this instru­
ment, is visible throughout. Confusion, incoherence, contradic­
tion, abuse of power,—such are the most prominent features
presented by the very first reading of the edict. The emperor
asserts that all the Churches are with him in receiving no defi­
nition of faith other than that of Nice. He confounds two
essentially distinct things. Doubtless the Nicene Creed was then,
as now, the expression of Catholic faith ; but it was not the
only expression of this faith, since the bishops from all parts of
the world met together at Chalcedon, had published a defini­
tion of faith, more detailed, more extensive, in some points,
than that of Nice ; and the Catholic world had adopted the pro­
fession of Chalcedon. The emperor sets out with the declara­
tion that he follows only the Council of Nice, and in the space
of a few lines he has i ecognized, as expressions of the true
faith, the definition of the Council of Ephesus and the twelve
chapters of St. Cyril. He is unwilling to receive the Council
of Chalcedon, and yet he opposes Eutyches by a definition
which is substantially that of Chalcedon. Could incoherence
and contradiction be more glaring ? What else can we behold
in the prince who wields a dogmatic pen with the hand that
should have been more fitly armed to drive back the barbarian
invader from his bounds, than a usurper of the spiritual power,

ST. SIMPLICIUS (A. D. 476-483).

the leader of all the crowned heads who have tried to stretch
the sceptre of their temporal power over the domain of con­
science and of faith ? Who was Zeno that he should say to the
world : “ This truth you shall believe ; that error you must
reject!” (a. d. 482).
11. Whilst the emperor, by his pretended edict of union,
furnished fresh materials to the spirit of discord and dissension,
*
Theodoric,
king of the Ostrogoths, of the royal line of the
Amali, formerly Zeno’s ally, turned his arms against him and
besieged him in Constantinople. Hardly had the valor of his
troops rescued him from this peril than the emperor saw his
crown disputed by two pretenders : Marcian, son of Anthe­
mius, emperor of the West, and Leontius, commander-in-chief of
the Thracian troops. The Empress Verina, Zeno’s mother-inlaw, took part with the pretenders against her own son-in-law ;
she issued proclamations calling the citizens to arms and urging
them to dethrone one whom she should have looked upon as her
eon. Zeno finally triumphed iver his rivals rather by treason,
however, than through skill or courage. The gravity of politi­
cal events did not for a moment interfere with his religious
cares. The Uenoticon was published in all the cities of the
empire and made a public law. An order was sent to Alexan­
dria to banish John Talaia from the Patriarchal throne and to
give his place to Peter Mongos. The intruder now reappeared
athirst for revenge. The orthodox bishops and priests of the
Alexandrian province were maltreated and driven from their
sees. The names of the Catholic Patriarchs, Proterius and
Timothy Solofaciolus, were removed from the sacred diptychs
and replaced by those of Dioscorus and Timothy Ælurus. Peter
Mongus carried his resentment yet further : he caused the body
of Timothy Solofaciolus, which had, according to the usual cus­
tom, been buried in the Cathedral of Alexandria, to be disin­
terred and thrown into a desert place without the city. Mean­
while the heretic had sent synodal letters to Pope Simplicius,
• Th· eame who, under the title of 'Vieodorio the Great planted the Ostrogoth poww
< Italy.

20

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

bogging him to confirm his authority; but the Pontiff was far
from ratifying such a usurpation. Whilst the intruder thus
harassed the Church of Alexandria, like the hireling who
despoils the flock, John Talala, as another Athanasius, appealed
to the Apostolic See. Here he found help and protection. St.
Simplicius wrote a most energetic letter to Acacius of Constan­
tinople, upbraiding him with having contemned the orders
of the Holy See, brought about the restoration of Peter Mongus
and caused the deposition of the rightful patriarch, John Talala,
notwithstanding his innocence. Acacius replied that he did
not deem Talala a legitimate Patriarch, and that he had thought
himself justified in communicating with Peter Mongus since he
had signed the Henoticon. Simplicius retorted that the Henoticon was of no force ; that no one could be orthodox who reject­
ed the ecumenical Council of Chalcedon : in fine, that Peter
Mongus had been condemned as a heretic by the Holy See ;
that he could be freed from the condemnation only by the
same authority.
12. Such was the embarrassed state of affairs in the East
when St. Simplicius died (March 2, a. d. 483). The bearing of
the Holy Pontiff, in the most trying circumstances, shows a
charming combination of gentleness, condescension and firmness
That such commotion and trouble were not followed by a last­
ing peace was no fault of the Holy Pope. But the ever-grow­
ing pretensions of the bishops of Constantinople, the weakness
of Zeno and the ambition of Acacius gave him no leisure to
gather the fruits of his zeal and prudence. The firmness dis­
played in opposing the attempts of Eastern heretics was also
shown in the case of certain Western bishops. The prelate of
Ravenna had forcibly constrained the monk Gregory to accept
the bishopric of Modena. The newly elected bishop complained
to the Pope that he had been consecrated against his will.
Simplicius most energetically remonstrated with the bishop of
Ravenna, forbidding him to perform any such consecration for
the future, on pain of losing his metropolitical right over the
Churches of his province. Gaudentius, bishop of Auffinium,

ST. SIMPLICIUS (A. D. 478-4S3).

21

had also seriously transgressed the canonical rules by confer
ring orders on unworthy subjects. Simplicius deprived the
unlawfully ordained subjects of the right to exercise ecclesias­
tical functions, forbade Gaudentius to confer orders for the
future, and assigned that duty to a bishop near Auffinium.
These proofs of apostolic rigor and energy do honor to the
character of the Holy Pontiff. They also bear witness to the
respect and submission then paid to the spiritual authority of
the Roman See; and though the preceding centuries afford
many instances of the same kind, yet it will not prove useless
to mention those we meet at every onward step in history ;
for in spite of so many constant, authenticated facts, there are
still some minds that reject open evidence and treat the su­
premacy of the Roman Pontiffs as a thing of successive usur­
pation. St. Simplicius, jealous to preserve the direct action of
the Papacy in the Church, as the source of all power and juris­
diction, appointed, for the first time, a Primate for Spain, in
the person of the bishop of Seville. This was a purely per­
sonal prerogative which entailed upon that dignitary the care
of seeing to the observance of the canons throughout Spain,
under the direction of the Sovereign Pontiffs. The primacy
of the See of Seville lasted until the celebration of the Council
of Toledo, about a. d. 681. Though about the year 517, Pope
Hormisdas gave nearly equal powers to John, bishop of Tar­
ragona, yet this pre-eminence of the bishop of Tarragona was
but temporary, and the See of Seville soon again resumed the
privilege of having for bishops the vicars or legates of the
Holy See. St. Simplicius divided the alms of the faithful into
four portions : the first for the bishop, the second for the clergy,
the other two for the uses of the Church, for pilgrims and the
poor. This order was afterward renewed in a positive man­
ner by St. Gelasius I., by St. Gregory the Great, and by sev­
eral other Pontiffs.

22

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

§ 2. St. Felix III.
*
(March 8, a. d. 483—February 28, 492).

13. The Iloly See remained vacant but six days on the
death of St. Simplicius. The clergy of the Roman Church as­
sembled with the senate and people, in the basilica of St.
Peter, to proceed to the election of a new Pope. During the
preliminary proceedings the patrician Basil, præfect of the
praetorium, in the name of Odoacer, king of the Heruli, pro­
tested that his master claimed the right of regulating the acts
of the assembly and of confirming by his consent the election
it might make. Such a claim was not received. The docu­
ment was canonically examined only twenty years later, in a
council at Rome, when it was decided that the election of the
Roman Pontiffs was altogether foreign to the jurisdiction of
the kings of Italy. Basil’s communication failed in producing
the effect looked for by Odoacer ; and without regard to his
claims the assembly elected Pope Felix III., a native of
Rome and priest of the title of Fasciola.
14. The new Pontiff owed his first thoughts to the Eastern
Church. John Talaïa was still in Italy, entreating the protec­
tion of the Holy See for his cause. Felix saw no possibility
of his immediate restoration to Alexandria, and he conferred
upon the exiled Patriarch the provisional government of the
Roman Church in Campania ; but Talaïa was not to revisit his
Patriarchal See, and he spent the remainder of his life in his
present charge. To secure the wise and prudent execution of
the measures he proposed to take respecting the Emperor
Zeno, the Pope called a council in Rome. John Talaïa laid
• This Pope is usually styled Felix ITT., in the Catalogue oj Sovereign Pontiffs, and we
have kept the title. We have seen that before the death of Pope Liberius a Pontiff, who
assumed the title of Felix II., officiated at Rome, in the absence of the lawful Pope. Some
authors have asserted that Felix could lawfully exercise his ministry as Liberius's leg­
ate and by his consent; that on the return of the latter, he retired into private life and
deserved, by the practice of Christian virtues, the honors of canonization. As the name
of Felix II. is inserted in the Roman Martyrology, we leave to his homonymes the titles of
Felix HL and Felix IV., as a natural result, although we do not think that Felix Π. oould
be lawful Popo during the lifetime of the Sovereign Pontiff who had never abdicated

ST. FELIX HI. (A. D. 49'3-492).

28

before it a juridical accusation against Aeacius of Constantino­
ple. He exposed all the intrigues of the wily prelate, enu­
merated his inconsistencies, and made him responsible foi all
the troubles then disturbing the East. The council made these
charges the subject of a serious discussion. All the documenta
relating to the matter were examined, and it was decided to
send legates to Zeno, to inform him of the election of the
new Pope, and to urge him to pursue a course more worthy of
a Catholic prince and one devoted, as he pretended to be, to
the interests of the Church. The instructions given by Felix
to his envoys were contained under four chief heads. They
were : 1st, to hand to the emperor the letters relative to the
promotion of the Sovereign Pontiff ; 2d, to claim the expulsion
of Peter Mongus from Alexandria as a heretic ; 3d, to demand
the support of the Council of Chalcedon as ecumenical ; 4th, to
summon Acacius to defend himself, before the Holy See, against
the charges brought forward by John Talaïa, and to anathe­
matize Peter Mongus. If Acacius refused to give the required
satisfaction, the legates were ordered not to communicate with
him.
15. The mission was intrusted to the bishops Vitalis and
Misenus, to whom the Pope afterward joined Felix, with the
title of defender (or advocate) of the Roman Church. The
letter to the emperor was a model of mildness and energy
most happily blended. “ Remember,” said the Pontiff, “ to
what your enemies owed their fall and to what you are in­
debted for your restoration to the throne. They fell in the
attempt to impugn the Council of Chalcedon, and you recovered
your power by rejecting their errors. You are the only one
who now bears the title of emperor : whilst you behold king­
doms falling into ruins about you, seek the favor of God for
yourself. Bewaie of drawing down His wrath upon your em­
pire.” Such words were fraught with high and salutary teach­
ings at a time when the Roman Empire in the West had lately
crumbled to ruin and the only remaining power was the new
kingdom of Constantinople, of recent origin, and whose long

24

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

•gony already begun was to last through all the shameful
course of the Lower Empire. “ It was you,” added Felix,
,f who banished Peter Mongus from Alexandria ; you expelled
all who clung to his communion. Search the archives of youi
palace for the letters you addressed to my predecessor at your
restoration. You then made professions of devotion to the
faith of Chalcedon ; and now, by your order, the hireling, the
intruder so repeatedly condemned, Peter Mongus, is solemnly
reinstated in the See of Alexandria and the faith of Chalcedon
is condemned in your edict ! How can you allow the flock of
Jesus Christ to be again harassed by the wolf you yourself
drove away ? Has he not, for the last thirty years, stood
aloof from the Catholic Church and borne the title of teacher
of her enemies ? As God rescued the empire from the heret­
ical tyrant who had usurped your power,
*
it is for you now to
rescue the Church from the teachers of error and to bring
back the See of St. Mark to the communion of St. Peter.”
The legates started for Constantinople furnished with these let­
ters and with ample instructions of which we have given an
outline. In the course of the journey, Felix, defender of the
Roman Church, fell ill, and his two companions, Vitalis and
Misenus, pushed on to Abydos on the Dardanelles. Zeno and
Acacius had been notified of the arrival of the legates. It was
of vital importance to the Bishop of Constantinople that an em­
bassy mainly directed against his ambitious views and claims
should fail at the outset. He convinced the emperor of the
fatal effects that would ensue from the protestations of the Holy
See were they heard throughout the East. Zeno proved his
appreciation of the prelates’ secret suggestions by ordering the
arrest of the legates. Their letters and papers were taken
from them and they were cast into a dungeon. Some months
of rigorous confinement were followed by insidious overtures
from the imperial court. Zeno pressed Vitalia and Misenus te
communicate with Acacius and Peter Mongus, at first by ca­
resses, gifts and prayers, and, when gentle means failed, by
* Baailiecue.

ST. FELIX ΠΙ. (A. D. 483-W2).

26

threats and ill treatment. He always promised to refer the
whole matter, in the end, to the Pope’s decision. Vitalis and
Misenus were weak enough to yield, and promised to commu­
nicate with Acacius and the deputies of Peter Mongus, where­
upon they weie released from durance and solemnly celebrar
ted the Holy Sacrifice in the presence of the heretics. The
name of Peter Mongus was recited aloud in the public prayers.
In vain did the Catholics of Constantinople protest against the
disgraceful conduct of the legates ; Vitalis and Misenus still
continued to communicate with the heretics, and at their depar­
ture they received letters from Acacius for Felix III. The
third legate, Felix, the defender of the Roman Church, only
reached Constantinople after the shameful defection of his two
colleagues. Their base example, however, in nowise lessened
his courage. Neither captivity nor the emperor’s promises nor
threats could bend his constancy ; and his noble and generous
bearing, worthy of a representative of the Holy See, only
served to show in stronger relief the dastardliness of Vitalis and
Misenus.
16. The two bishops were to reap the fruit of their faith­
lessness at Rome. Simeon, a monk of Constantinople, was
dispatched by Cyril, archimandrite of the monasteries of that
city, to anticipate the returning legates and communicate to
the Pope the sad intelligence of their fall. A council of sixty
bishops was convened by the Pope, in the basilica of St. Pe­
ter (a. d. 484), and charged to inquire into the conduct of the
legates. They were confronted with Simeon and the other
monks he had brought with him. They were convicted of hav­
ing communicated with Acacius and Peter Mongus in spite of
the express order of the Pope. They urged in their defence
the violent treatment they had undergone at the hands of the
emperor and of the Bishop of Constantinople. Such a plea
cannot be admitted in the bosom of the Catholic Church, whoso
annals abound with examples of generous devotion on the part
of hosts of Christians who have confessed the truth at the price
of their blood. Vitalis and Misenus were deposed from the

zo

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

episcopacy and cut off from the communion of the Chinch,
Vitalis died suddenly without having been reconciled ; the sin·
oere repentance of Misenus obtained his restoration to the com·
munion of the faithful, in a subsequent council, under Pope 8t.
Gelasius (a. d. 495). After the deposition of the legates, the
Fathers of the council pronounced the solemn condemnation of
Peter Mongus, founded on the former anathemas pronounced
against him and his consecration by heretics.
17. The Pope still forbore to deal harshly with Acacius,
though late events could not leave him in ignorance of the prel­
ate’s dishonesty and double-dealing. There is always in the
Sovereign Pontiffs the father’s heart withholding the judge’s
arm. Felix III. now made a last appeal to the misguided soul,
hoping to move it by so marked a proof of condescension and
mercy. “ You have sinned,” said the Shepherd of shepherds,
to his wandering sheep : “ go no further in your wayward
course, but ask forgiveness for the past.” The bishop’s heart
was too full of its own ambitious schemes to admit the mild
appeal of authority. Without deigning even a reply, Acacius
continued in communion with Peter Mongus, and used all his
power to bring about the execution of the Henoticon in the
East. So much obstinacy drove the Holy See to the necessity
of using sterner measures. In the month of July, a. d. 484,
the Pope convoked sixty-seven bishops at Rome, and read to
them an act of deposition against Acacius of Constantinople.
“You have,” said the Pontiff to the unworthy bishop, “you
have countenanced the heretical opponents of the Council of
Chalcedon ; you have supported an intruder in the Patriarchal
See of Alexandria ; you have laid violent hands upon peaceful
ambassadors of the Holy See ; you have refused to obey the
holy canons which require you to answer before us the jurid­
ical charges brought to our tribunal by our brother and col­
league in the epif„opate, John, Patriarch of Alexandria; re­
main then, hereafter, associated with the heretics whose inter­
est you so readily embrace ; and know that by the present
sentence you are deprived of your priestly dignity and of Gath

ST. FELIX ΤΠ. (A. D. 483-493).

27

olic communion ; that you are condemned by the judgment of
the Holy Ghost and the authority of the Apostolic See." The
mission of bearing this judgment to Constantinople was in­
trusted to a cleric named Tutus, on whom the Pope bestowed
the title of defender of the Church. He also bore two letters,
one for the emperor, the other for the clergy and people of Con­
stantinople. The Pope complained to Zeno of the unworthy
manner in which his legates had been treated. “This vio­
lence, however,” he adds, “ has not been deemed a valid ex­
cuse for their conduct; they have been deposed. I leave it to
you to decide which of the two communions you should choose,
that of St. Peter the Apostle or that of Peter Mongus.”
He then notifies the emperor of the sentence pronounced
against Acacius, and begs him not to oppose its execution. The
letter addressed to the clergy and faithful of Constantinople
was intended by the Pontiff to retrieve, to a certain extent, the
public scandal given by the legates Vitalis and Misenus, by
making known their condemnation in the Roman Council. Tu­
tus, the bearer of these dispatches, succeeded in baffling the
watchful guards who kept the Dardanelles to cut off all commu­
nication with the Pope ; he reached Constantinople in safety,
and took up his abode in a monastery of Acœtngtes.
*
Acacius
obstinately refused to receive the letter addressed to him by
the Pope. That he might not plead ignorance of a sentence
which excommunicated him, one of the monks was daring
enough to fasten the decree to his pontifical mantle, as he was
entering the basilica, on a Sunday, to celebrate tho divine
office. This bold deed drew upon the monks all the vengeance
of Acacius. Some of the religious were murdered by his
agents : they thus proved, at the cost of their lives, their ur.
shaken devotion to the faith of the Church and their submis­
sion to the authority of Rome. Yet Tutus, whose bearing as
legate had been thus far unimpeachable, by an unaccountable
• This name was frequently given to the moose of Syria and Constantinople—<
They were so called because, in their monasteries, the religious exarcissa
oontinued day and night, without 'Dterruption.

(tu be ekeyku)·

28

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

weakness allowed himself to be won over by an agent of Aca­
cius. He accepted a considerable sum of money offered him
on condition of his communicating with the heretics ; and a
few months later the heart of the Pope was filled with grief
by the intelligence that his legate had sold honor, conscience
and the dignity of the Roman Church, which he had been
commissioned to represent. The archimandrites were deeply
grieved at this scandal which reopened a wound but partly
healed; and they hastened to acquaint the Pope with the sad
event. On his return to Rome, Tutus was juridically exam­
ined before a council and convicted on his own testimony ; he
was immediately deprived of his title of defender of the
Church and excommunicated. This sentence was at once
made known to the orthodox clergy and faithful of Constanti­
nople, lest they should be led to imagine that Rome could look
with indulgent eye upon the weakness and pusillanimity of
such legates as Vitalis, Misenus and Tutus, or yield to a feel­
ing of mercy which, in such a case, would Ire but connivance.
The zealous efforts of St. Felix III. were destined to fail be­
fore the wily schemes of Acacius. That prelate, excommuni­
cated by the authority of the Holy See, rejected by the whole
Catholic portion of his flock, in open communion with notori­
ous and condemned heretics, and deposed from the episcopal
dignity by a council, did not for a moment entertain the
thought of submitting. He continued to offer up the Holy
Sacrifice, erased from the sacred diptychs the name of Pope
Felix ΙΠ., and strong in the imperial favor, entered upon a
system of open hostility against the Catholics. The rightful
Patriarch of Antioch, the virtuous bishop Calendion, who had
shown himself an intrepid defender of injured innocence by
taking up the cause of John Talala, was driven from his see
by the same Acacius who, eight years before, had conferred
upon him the episcopal consecration. Peter the Fuller, who
had been so long a forgotten exile, found himself a second time
intruded into the See of Antioch, in the midst of general indig­
nation. The principal cities of the East were all deprived of

BT. FELIX ΙΠ. (A. D. 483-492).

2»

their lawful pastors. Nestor, bishop of Tarsis, Cvrus of Hierapolis, John of Cyra, Romanus of Chalcis, Eusebius of Samo­
sata, Julian of Mopsuesta, Paul of Constantina, Manus of
Himeria, and Andrew of Theodosiopolis, were all banished for
their loyalty to the true faith and to the authority of the Holy
See (a. d. 484).
18. The ambition of Acacius had thus opened a schism
between the Church of Constantinople and the Church of
Rome, the centre of unity, the source of authority and deposi­
tory of the faith. This unfortunate separation was to last
until a. d. 519, when, in the pontificate of St. Honnisdas, the
two Churches once more met in common communion. Zeno’s
Henoticon was the first cause of all the persecutions directed
against the Catholics. Their steady refusal to sign a formula
of faith composed by an emperor, supported by arms, con­
demned by the Holy See, were treated as obstinacy, as insin­
cerity, and as an insolence to the imperial majesty. The socalled edict of union not only carried trouble into the ranks of
the faithful, but the very heretics found in it a fruitful source
of dissension. The majority of them did not think it clearly
enough in their favor. They were indignant that Peter Mongus at Alexandria, and Peter tJe Fuller at Antioch, should
have agreed to sign it. In this concession the heretics saw
only a pretext under which those prelates would abandon
their leaders to form a new faction of Eutychians; these were
called Acephali (without a head), to express their separation
from those who had long led them on in the way of error. It
is not unworthy of remark that such disorder should have been
brought about by a prince who was by no means wanting in
uprightness of intention. The pages of history teem with
narratives of disasters unwittingly brought on by irresolute
and wavering characters ; and it might be well worth while to
study out the question, whether the greatest curse that God,
in His wrath, can hurl down upon a guilty people, be not to
give them a sovereign who is such but in name.
19. St. Felix HI- was not insensible to the complaints

ÔV

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

which daily reached him from all the Catholics in the East,
victims of Acacius’s tyranny. In a. d. 485 another council
was called at Rome once more to discuss this sad question.
The anathemas already pronounced against Peter Mongos,
Peter the Fuller and Acacius, were renewed. A synodal
letter to all the orthodox priests and abbots of Constantinople
and Bithynia, informed the East of the sentence pronounced
against these relapsed heretics. In the preceding year the
partisans of Acacius had tried to take exception to the validi­
ty of his deposition, on the ground that the act was signed by
the Pope alone. The fathers of the council give the reason in
their synodal letter. The words deserve to be quoted :
“ Whenever the pontiffs of the Lord meet together in Italy
to treat the cause and interests of the Church, it is a rule that
the successor of St. Peter in the Apostolic See, in the name
of the pontiffs of all Italy, decide and pronounce without
appeal, since he is charged with the care of all the churches.
He is their head ; to him our Lord has said, in the person of
the Prince of the Apostles : ‘ Thou art Peter ; and upon this
rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not
prevail against it.
Obedient to these words, three hundred
and eighteen Fathers of Nice acknowledged the right of the
Church of Rome to confirm and exercise jurisdiction over all
the others. Through the grace of Jesus Chrit
*
the succession
of our pontiffs has kept these two prerogatives down to our
own time. In the present case, the judgment pronounced upon
Acacius, by the Council at St. Peter’s, was confirmed by the
Holy Father, Felix, our head, who communicated it to the
East through Tutus, defender of the Church.” Felix added tc
the council’s dispatch a long and eloquent rescript addressed
to the faithful of the East, reviewing the whole seriep if sad
events which had darkened the last ten years of the Church of
Constantinople. He refuted all the arguments brought for­
ward in defence of Acacius’s conduct. His condemnation was
plainly proved to be regular and canonical; and the Pope
demanded that the lawful sentence should be immediately put

BT. FELIX ΠΙ. (A D. 483-40J).

31

nto execution. These energetic measures, proceeding irom
the centre of unity, hardly found entrance into the East.
Zeno, still bound by the wiles of Acacius, had forbidden all
communication between Rome and his states. Yet in spite of
the strict watch he kept upon his boundaries, especially at the
Dardanelles, justice and truth, ever slow, but equally sure in
their progress, were breaking upon the universal mind. The
very violence of the triumphant Eutychians, their persecu­
tions, injustice and cruelty toward the Catholics stirred up a
feeling of contempt and indignation in every honest heart.
Such was the outcry against the intruder Peter the Fuller in the
See of Antioch,'that Acacius himself, who had been chiefly
instrumental in bringing about the usurpation, was forced to
break off all open relations with him. Still this did not hinder
Peter from expelling, according to the impulse of his madness,
the Catholic bishops of the province of Antioch, and from
giving their sees to the most unworthy subjects. Thus he
conferred episcopal consecration upon a Persian slave driven
from his own country on account of his crimes, and who had
never been baptized. The bishop thus unlawfully set up by
an intruded Patriarch, was called Xenaias ; he was placed in
the See of Hierapolis, after the expulsion of Cyrus, the right­
ful prelate. When Peter the Fuller was blamed for a consecra­
tion so contrary to the first elements of the plainest theology,
he answered : “ The grace of the episcopate supplies the want
of the baptismal.” No further evidence was needed of the
ignorance of the wretched heretic. Xenaias was not more
learned. He spent the whole time of his usurped episcopacy
in overturning the statues of the saints, which he called idola·
trous images ; he thus made himself a worthy forerunner of
the stupid ferocity of the Iconoclasts.
20. Egypt was no better off under the despotic rule of
Peter Mongus. By the help of a few Eutychian bishops and
abbots, Peter held a kind of permanent cabal : every day he
renewed his anathemas against the Council of Chalcedon and
the august memory of St Leo the Great. Every cleric and

32

GENERAL· HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

monk who did not receive the writings of Dioscorus and Timothy
Ælnrus,was sent into exile. This persecution was carried to such
a pitch, that the archimandrite Nephalius resolved to undertake
the journey to Constantinople to lay the complaint of the desolate
Church at the feet of the emperor. Zeno had restored Peter
Mongus with the sole view of quieting Alexandria. It was visible
to him that the men of his choice were not more fit than his
decrees to carry out his purpose. lie positively ordered the
Patriarch to cease his persecution, and to recall the monks he
had banished. The three apostates, Acacius, Peter the Fuller,
and Peter Mongus, occupying respectively the Sees of Constan­
tinople, Antioch and Alexandria ; making free use of all the
influence they possessed at court; leagued in the same views
of independence of the Holy See, and the same attachment for
heresy, must have looked upon their triumph as certain and deem­
ed Eutychianism forever rooted in the East. But God was about
to put to confusion their proud conceits and ambitious projects.
Peter the Fuller was stricken down, the first, in a d. 488;
in the next year, 489, Acacius followed him to the grave; and
the year 490 brought the final summons also to Peter Mongus,
the usurper of Alexandria, the hoary persecutor who disgraced
the throne of a Cyril and an Athanasius. Peter the Fuller
and Peter Mongus were succeeded by heretics. But after
the short reign of Fravitas, who held the patriarchal throne
but. a few months, the See of Constantinople was filled by a
pious and holy priest named Euphemius. As his orthodoxy
had been proved, St. Felix admitted him to Catholic communion;
but he refused him episcopal communion because Euphemius,
out of regard for Zeno, refused to efface the name of Acacius
from the sacred diptychs. The conduct of St. Felix, on this
occasion, in granting the first and refusing the second com­
munion to Euphemius, clearly shows the distinction between
the two : the first regarding faith, and granted to all the faith­
ful ; the second, the episcopal communion, properly so called,
and solicited from the Holy See, by bishops elect, as a necessary
confirmation of their election. The death of Acacius, and

ST. FELIX HI. (A. D. 483-492).

33

the election of his two successors had naturally reopened
negotiations between the Holy See and the court of Constanti­
nople. The Sovereign Pontiff seized the occasion to make a
last effort and to recall Zeno again to Catholic sentiments
and conduct. The Pope’s letter is the outpouring of a most
sincerely affectionate heart: “ It is with abundant tears,
venerable emperor,” says the Pontiff, “ that I write these lines,
prostrate at the feet of your piety. How could I find any
trouble in humbling myself before the powers of the empire,
when the Apostle says of himself that he made himself the
outcast and reproach of all men ? I entreat you, well-beloved
son, not to reject my paternal entreaties, not to despise my
words ; for unworthy as I am, it is the Apostle St. Peter who
entreats you by my voice, and through him, our Lord Jesus
Christ Himself, who does not wish to see His Church torn to
pieces. The old and the new Rome
*
must be united in one
faith, that faith which, according to St. Paul, is preached
throughout the world ; so that the two cities may have but
one faith, as they bear the same name. My entreaties will
ever continue to present themselves before your throne as
long as the traces of these fatal divisions last.” The tender,
dignified, lofty tone of these words, shows the heart that bears
the charge of all the Churches. We must notice here the
title of son, given by the Pope to Zeno. This is the first
instance we find in history of a form since consecrated by
custom. The superscription was thus worded : “ Gloriosissimo
et serenissimo filio Zenoni Augusto, Felix, episcopus, in Domino
salutem." Zeno’s was not a mind to understand the mission of
a Christian emperor and the immense authority which would
accrue to kings and princes from a concord of the spiritual
and temporal powers. His last years were given up to infa­
mous pleasures and ceaseless orgies. Inebriety and voluptuous­
ness had made him cruel; his sceptre had fallen into the hands
of his eunuchs who now ruled in his name ; and the evils which
• The Popo calls Constantinople the new Rome,
imperial power of the old.
Vol. U.—3

as

it had, in fact, succeeded co the

34

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

wrung tears from the eyes of Jeremiah were now renewed in
the East. The words of Holy Writ were verified ;n thorn
now : “ Servi dominati sunt nostri." *
The death of Zeno, which occurred a. d. 491, was natu­
rally looked upon as a release. The modern Greeks have sur­
rounded his death with the most shocking details. They pre­
tend that the Empress Ariadne, his wife, had him buried alive
during a lethargy caused by intoxication. The account has
not been adopted by reliable historians. However this may
be, the memory of Zeno will ever remain charged with all the
dissensions, strifes and persecutions which distracted the
Church during his reign, and which he could so easily have
checked by a simple and true submission to the orthodox faith
with all the Catholics.
21. Whilst the East was torn by hostile factions, under
the influence of Eutychianism, the deserts about Jerusalem
bloomed with the most charming virtues of solitude. St. Sabas,
whose earliest infancy had been prevented by the graces of
the Holy Ghost, had entered a monastery near Cæsarea (Cap
padocia) at the age of eight years. His progress in religious
humility, patience, gentleness and obedience corresponded with
his early promise. A natural attraction toward the spot hal­
lowed by the Saviour’s sufferings drew him to Palestine, where
he fixed his abode in a natural grotto on the hank of the brook
Cedron (a. d. 478). Here he spent many solitary years, ever
absorbed, as he wove his mats, in the contemplation of divine
things. The example of Christian solitude is seldom fruitless.
The silence and seclusion of the desert supply so many wants
m the human heart! In the year 491 the Abbot Sabas saw
himself surrounded by more than a hundred and fifty disciples
who lived in lauras or private monasteries under the general
direction. The noise and tumult of the world were lost at the
foot of the mountain inhabited by these holy religious. The
names of Peter Mongus and Peter the Fuller were only uttered
as those of the Church’s enemies. One of the Armenian
• Lament Jerem. cap. 5, v. 8.

ST. FELIX ΙΠ. (Λ. D. 483-402).

35

monks wished to sing the Trisagion, with the addition of Peter
the Fuller : crucified for us ; but St. Sabas enjoined a strict ad­
herence to ancient usage and Apostolic tradition, against which
neither heresy nor schism can prescribe. Another monastery
had been established at the foot of the mountain, near the
lauras, under the government of St. Theodosius, a fellow-coun­
tryman of St. Sabas. This establishment was to the first a
kind of novitiate. Young men were here formed to the austere
practices of the religious life and trained, at the same time, to
works of charity ; for the monastery had, under its dependence,
four infirmaries or hospitals for the sick poor and a lodging for
travellers and pilgrims who were brought in great numbers to
the neighborhood of the holy places. Four churches supplied
the religious wants of the monks of different nationalities.
The preaching and recitation of the divine office were held
separately ; but all assisted at the same sacrifice and commu­
nicated together. € atemporary historians compare the mon­
astery of the abbot Theodosius to a great city, where all the
arts necessary to life were practised. Happy production of
Christian faith ! Holy communities where obedience was the
joy of subjects, humility the crown of inferiors ; where virtue,
talent and merit found a deeper seclusion in proportion as
their lustre was greater—hoAV little do you resemble those
monstrous aggregations of men, the dream of a fruitless philos­
ophy, where equality was to be founded and supported on mo­
tives of interest, subordination established without religious
principles, devotedness inspired without faith !
22. Africa enjoyed a few moments of quiet under Hunneric’s successor, Gundamund. St. Eugenius, the courageous
bishop of Carthage, had been recalled in the year 487 ; but the
other Catholic prelates were not restored to their flocks until
a. d. 494.
St. Felix ΙΠ. was deeply moved by the situation
of the faithful in Africa, deprived of their lawful pastors, and
forced to depend upon the secretly-administered instructions
and spiritual succors of a few zealous priests who bad suc­
ceeded in eluding the vigilance of the persecutors. He ace rd

86

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

ingly called a council of the Italian bishops to provide meani
for their relief (a. d. 487). Four African bishops, Victor, Do­
natus, Rusticus and Pardalius were present at the council.
Particular attention was given to the question of public penance
The great number of defections caused by the Vandal persecu­
tion called for a decisive regulation of this question. Many
weak and timid Catholics had purchased exemption from the
persecution by allowing themselves to be rebaptized by the
Arians. They now asked to be received back into communion.
The canons of the Council of Rome require a consideration of the
penitent’s dispositions and contrition, and an inquiry into the
amount of violence inflicted ; so that one who yielded without a
blow be more severely punished than he who offered a long and
steady opposition. Then passing over to particular cases, the
Fathers prescribe a life-long penance for rebaptized bishops,
priests and deacons. They are only to receive lay communion,
and that in extremis, ihc inferior clergy, monks, religious and
seculars, who sho,/ a sincere sorrow for their fall, are to be
treated in the manner prescribed by the Council of Nice; that
is, they are to pass three years in the ranks of the catechumens,
seven among the prostrati, and two inter consistentes—that is,
among the lay faithfid who were present at the prayers. If they
have only fallen after undergoing cruel torture, they may be
admitted to communion after three years of penance. Bishops
and priests were also forbidden to receive into their cities any
penitents from another Church without a written testimony from
their rightful bishop, stating the motive of their penance, the
length of time already fulfilled and that yet to be made up.
The council adds that, should any unforeseen difficulties occur
in the application of these canons, the solution shall be asked
from the Holy See.
23. Meanwhile an important political revolution was prepai·
ing in Italy where Odoacer had established the power of the
Heruli, which, however, he himself was to survive. The em­
perors of the East, after the death of Romulus Augustulus, still
slaimed the right of sovereignty over Italy. The rank of pfr

ST. FELIX ΠΙ. (A. D. 48&-402).

37

trieian was bestowed by Zeno upon Odoacer, and Rome, thanks
to this forced investiture, could still imagine herself governed
by an imperial lieutenant. Odoacer, who was as prudent as he
was skilful, had not sought to contradict these claims which
were still in keeping with the popular feeling. He had availed
himself of the peace which his friendly relations with the By­
zantine court secured him from the East, to subdue the R-ugi
of Noricum (now Bavaria), and to give permanence to his late
conquests. As the power of the Heruli spread in the West,
its progress was paralleled in the East by that of the warlike,
haughty and restless Ostrogoths, at the very gates of Constan­
tinople. Their king was Theodoric, of the royal line of the
Amali. He was gifted with the high accomplishments which
form great men : brought up, from the age of seven years, at
the court of Constantinople, he had early made himself familiar
with the political a^d military establishment of the Greeks,
and had appropriated the refinement of his teachers without
adopting their vices or imitating their effeminacy. On his re­
turn among his fellow-countrymen he illustrated his youth by
victories won over the Sarmatians, and soon his deeds made
even Byzantium tremble. Theodoric’s character was aspiring.
Yet he was led on to feats of arms less by ambition or love of
adventure than by the unquiet nature of his subjects. They
had received the territories of Dacia and Mæsia ; but the sickle
and the pruning-hook seemed heavier on their hands than the
sword or spear in combat; and their king was forced to yield
to their warlike instincts. Whatever fear or affection could
bestow was profusely lavished by Zeno on the king of the
Ostrogoths (a. d. 478)—military adoption, the rank of patri­
cian and consul, a triumph, an equestrian statue. But if the
imperial bounty moved the heart of the king it could not cool
the ardor of the Ostrogoths for military exploits To reconcile
his debt of gratitude with the necessities of his position, Theo­
doric solicited the grant of the kingdom of Italy, reserving the
right of establishing it by force. “ Italy,” he said, “ belonged
to your predecessor : it is the cradle of your empire. Why

38

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

will you give it up to the Turci and Heruli? Let me conquer
it : should I succeed, you will share the honor ; if I fail, you
will gain the yearly allowance you have engaged to pay us."
Zeno was but too well pleased to rid himself of his undesira­
ble neighbors by granting them territory over which he really
had no control, and readily entered into the agreement pro­
posed by Theodoric. The Ostrogoths, with their families and
flocks, set out by way of the Julian Alps (a. d. 489). Twice,
at Verona and at Milan, did Theodoric defeat Odoacer’s Ital
ian troops who fought but tamely for their barbarian master.
The king of the Heruli knocked in vain for shelter at the
gates of Rome ; they were barred against him. He saw no
resource left but to shut himself up in Ravenna, a city built in
the midst of a marsh, carefully fortified and defended by a
garrison of twenty thousand men ; here he sustained a siege
of three years, during which Theodoric subdued the whole of
Italy. At length, destitute of provisions, the unfortunate
monarch was forced to capitulate (a. d. 493) to his rival, who,
on suspicion of treachery, stabbed him in the midst of a solemn
banquet. The power of the Heruli was thus supplanted in
the ancient capital of the Roman world by that of the Ostro­
goths. The military movements necessarily attendant upon
these struggles could not but prove disastrous to the inhab­
itants of city and country. The people of the districts thus
devastated had no other resource than to appeal to their
bishops. Hitherto these pastors had wielded ip the defence
of their flocks none but spiritual weapons, had provided no
shelter for them other than the churches. They now began
to build castles and fortresses to protect their people from open
violence. Honoratus, bishop of Novara, set the example.
Gundebald, king of the Burgundians, on the plea of helping
his ally Odoacer, had marched his troops into Liguria. Their
route was marked by pillage, devastation, ruin. Honoratus
succeeded in saving his episcopal city from the fury of these
barbarians. The charity of the bishops was ever the same;
but new evils drove it to seek new remedies ; now the new

8T. FELIX III. (A. D. 483-403).

39

evil was the want of an armed protection to shield the op­
pressed people. We shall yet see the force of circumstances
obliging the Pope, St. Gregory the Great, to take upon him
self the defence of Rome, and to require the bishops to do the
same for their respective dioceses.
24. Λ few months before the close of the struggle between
Theodoric and Odoacer, St. Felix III. had been called away
from the scene of blood and strife (February 25, a. d. 492).
Through eight years of administration, whilst the East was
disturbed by heresies and the West flowed with the blood
of the contending Ostrogoths and Heruli, the energetic yet
withal prudent and moderate character of this pious Pontiff
succeeded in maintaining the authority of the Holy See and
insuring respect for it, in spite of the defections, the intrigue·
and the passions of men.

40

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

CHAPTER II.
SUMMARY.

§ L Pontificate

op

St. Gelasius I. (March 1, a. d. 492—Nov. 19,496).

1 Election of St. Gelasius I. Anastasius the Silentiary ascends the throne of
Constantinople.—2. Wise government of Theodoric the Great. St. Epiphanius, Bishop of Pavia.—3. Letter of St. Gelasius I. to Euphemius.—4. Lot
ter of the Pope to Anastasius.—5. Council of Rome. Decree fixing the
Canon of Scripture.—6. Various dispositions of Discipline, made by St
Gelasius L in Italy.—7. Sacramentary of St. Gelasius I.—8. Treatise On tht
Anathema.—9. Death of St Gelasius I.

§ IL Pontificate

of

St. Anastasius II. (Nov. 28, a. d. 496—Nov. 16, 498).

10. Persecution of the Catholics in Armenia.—11. Vahan.—12. Clovis and St
Clotilda.—13. Victory of Tolbiac. Baptism of Clovis.—14. Letters of St
Anastasius II. and of St. Avitus of Vienne to Clovis.—15. Death of 8t
Anastasius II.
§ IIL Pontificate

of

St. Symmachus (Nov. 22, a. d. 498—July 19, 514).

16. Election of St. Symmachus. Anti-pope Lawrence.—17. Council of Italy.
Synod called Palmaris.—18. Inquiry into the pretended right of Sovereign!
over the Pontifical Elections.—19. Letter of St. Avitus, in the name of the
Bishop of Gaul, on the independence of the Roman See.—20. Efforts of St
Avitus to convert Gundebald, king of the Burgundians, from Arianism to
the Catholic Faith.—21. Council of Agde.—22. St. Cesarius of Arles.—
23. Clovis entertains the plan of driving the Visigoths from Southern Gaul,
—24. Battle of Vouillé.—25. Death of St. Genevieve and of Clovis.—
26. Thrasimund’s Persecution in Africa.—27. Council of Rome.—28. St
Cesarius of Arles at Rome.—29. Persecution of the Eastern Catholics by
the Emperor Anastasius.—30. Exile of Macedonius, Patriarch of Constanti
nople.—31. St. Sabas in the Imperial Palace.—32. Death of St Symma
chus.

§ I. Pontificate

of

St. Gelasius I. (March 2, a. d. 492—Nov.
19, 496).

1. The Holy See was but five days vacant. St. Gelasius I.
was elected Pope on the 2d of March, a. d. 492. His promo­

ST. OELA8IÜ8 I. (A. D. 4M-W»>.

41

tion was almost simultaneous with the elevation of the emperor
Anastasius to the throne of the East. The reign of the new
emperor was destined to be as inglorious as that which had pre­
ceded it. Anastasius was at best but an indifferent prince,
without settled character or fixed principles, and so inconsistent
that it is impossible to bold up any one of his virtues for admi­
ration without discovering the contrary vice to censure. It was
his maxim that a prince may He or even perjure himself—for
political purposes; this execrable doctrine he had borrowed
from his mother’s Manichean teaching. Ignorant of the first
principle of gratitude, he forgot the benefactor as soon as he
had obtained the favor. Once, when wrecked upon the coast
near Alexandria, he had been sheltered and most tenderly and
disinterestedly cared for by John Talaia ; nothing then fore
shadowed the high destiny of Anastasius. When John Talaia
was forced to fly to Italy, an exile and a fugitive, he thought
himself warranted to rely upon the protection of Anastasius,
and turned toward Constantinople; he was met, halfway, by
an order from the emperor enjoining him to leave the imperial
territory at once on pain of being treated as a rebel and a
fomenter of sedition. Thus did Anastasius requite the debt of
gratitude. The Eastern Church had but little to hope from the
reign of such a ruler.
2. Peace seemed to smile with more favorable promise
upon the West, where Theodoric had just won himself a throne.
This monarch managed to secure an ascendency over nearly
all the barbarian kings, by ties of family or protection. He
gave his daughter Theodegotha to the king of the Visigoths,
Alarie II. The name of Clovis, the young king of the Franks,
vas winning a wide celebrity. Theodoric sought and obtained
or himself the hand of that monarch’s sister. The contemporary
rulers placed such implicit confidence in the judgment of the
king of the Ostrogoths, that they often made him the umpire
of their difficulties. He spoke to them as a father to his chil­
dren. “You have received tokens of my good-will,” he write·
to them ; “ you are youthful and brave, but you need advio·

42

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

Tour disorders afflict me, and I cannot look with indifference on
yiur subjection to your passions.” Sicily, the Alps, Rhetia
and Geneva readily put themselves under the rule of a sov·
ereign whose chief aim was the good of his subjects. “ Let
others,” he wrote to one of his generals, “make war to plunder
or to destroy ; our aim must be so to overcome, by the help of
God, that the conquered may regret that they were not sooner
brought under our power.” Though like the rest of his nation,
an Arian, Theodoric respected the Catholic bishops. During the
first year of his rule in Italy, he had made a law declaring all
the Italians who had taken up arms for Odoacer and the Heruli,
unqualified to make a will or to dispose of their goods. Such
an edict was a source of general consternation, for Italy could
count the disqualified by the number of its inhabitants. The
grief-stricken people had recourse to their usual refuge, St.
Epiphanius of Pavia, and begged the illustrious prelate to in­
tercede in their behalf with Theodoric. Epiphanius associated
to his mission Lawrence, bishop of Milan ; and together they
set out for Ravenna, where the king of the Ostrogoths was then
holding his court. He granted their request, and revoked his
decree ; then calling St. Epiphanius aside, he thus addressed
him .· “ Glorious Pontiff, your great merit leads me to intrust
you with an affair of the highest importance. You behold Italy
now but a vast desert and its most fertile fields untilled for
want of workmen. The wretched inhabitants are disheartened
and the country wasted by the repeated inroads and ravages
of the Burgundians. Take upon yourself, then, with the help
of God, to go and sue for peace from their king, Gundebald.
He holds you in filial reverence and has long wished to see
you. Undertake the mission I propose ; your very presence
will pay the ransom that is to free Italy.” Epiphanius agreed
to act as mediator between the two kings. In the month of
March, a. d. 494, accompanied by St. Victor, bishop of Turin,
he crossed the Alps still covered with snow and ice. The
Pope had given St. Epiphanius letters for Rusticius, bishop of
Lyons, which city Gundebald had made his capital. Gelasiufl

8T. OELA8IÜ8 T (A. D. 492-49fi).

13

expressed bis gratitude for the provisions and money sent by
the holy bishop of Lyons for the relief of the suffering Italians
during the contest between the Ostrogoths and the Heruli. He
also entreated him to use his influence with Gundebald to fur­
ther the success of the embassy. Finally St. Epiphanius was
charged to sound the Gallic bishops relative to the religious
questions agitated in the East. Rusticius having been notified
of the approach of the two prelates, went out to meet them be­
yond the Rhone and accompanied them into his episcopal city
Whatever apprehensions might have been felt for the success
of this mission on account of the haughtiness and insincerity
of Gundebald, they speedily vanished under the influence of
the virtues of St. Epiphanius. “ Great prince," said the illustri­
ous bishop to the king of the Burgundians, “ it is through love
for you that I have undertaken so arduous a journey ; I have
dared the risk of death to bring you the price of eternal life.
Chosen by God to be the mediator between two great kings, I
ehall have the happiness to see the accomplishment of the mer­
ciful designs of which I come to speak to you. King Theodo­
ric desires peace; he intends to ransom the prisoners; return
them unransomed. Believe me, no one wins more in the trial
of generosity than he who receives nothing. Give back, great
prince, give back to their homes so many wretched exiles;
restore them to your glory !” Gundebald was moved by the
grace of persuasion which flowed from the lips of the holy
bishop. The prisoners were released. Six thousand cap­
tives went on their way to Italy, blessing the name of their
deliverer, St. Epiphanius. The mission of the two bishops had
proved a complete success. In obedience to the orders of the
Sovereign Pontiff, St. Epiphanius questioned the Gallic bis’:.·
ops, who protested that during the religious disputes in the
East they had always sided with the Holy See against the
claims of the Bishops of Constanfinople.
3. St. Gelasius had no sooner been raised to the chair of St.
Peter than his first glance, as Pontiff and Father, was directed
toward the East. He had written to the Emperor Anastasi us

44

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

to notify him of his election. Euphemius, Bishop of Ccnstantinople, had expected a like communication from the Pope ; but
Gelasius abstained from this attention, since Euphemius was not
admitted to the episcopal communion of Rome. The Patriarch
took this occasion to write two letters to the Pope, assuring him
of his attachment to the Catholic faith and of his earnest wish
to see peace and union existing between the Roman and Greek
Churches. He excused himself for not effacing from the diptychs * the names of Acacius and Peter Mongus, on the ground
that the people of Constantinople did not leave him at liberty
to do so (a. d. 493). St. Gelasius answered the letters of Eu­
phemius with Apostolic firmness. “ Can I allow,” wrote the
Sovereign Pontiff, “ mention to be made during the Holy Sac­
rifice, of the names of formally excommunicated heretics and
of their successors ? This is not showing the wise condescen­
sion which stoops to raise a fallen brother ; this would be but
an act of rash blindness, which throws itself into the abyss
Acacius has been convicted of leaguing with the Eutychian her­
esy and of communicating with its abettors. You may not,
then, imagine yourself true to the Catholic faith whilst his
name remains in your diptychs. Do not allege that you are
forced, in spite of yourself, to act as you do ; such words should
never pass a bishop’s lips when the triumph of truth is con­
cerned; for, as minister of Jesus Christ, he has pledged his life
to its defence. My brother, Euphemius, we shall both appear
before the judgment-seat of Jesus Christ. At that bar vain
are all empty discussions, delays and evasions. On that awful
day will it be known whether I am bitter and harsh, as you
complain, or whether you cast aside the wholesome remedy,
you who seek to draw the physician into the same disorder
with yourself rather than seek health by his ministry.” It is
a labor of love to transcribe such words. It is glorious to
meet in the Holy See that traditional loftiness of sentiment,
♦ We have already had occasion to explain the meaning of this word. The dipfycA.
formed a double catalogue of the deceased and living bishops admitted to the communie»
of the Church, and commemorated in the Holy Sacrifice.

8T. GELASIUS I. (A. D. 492—19ft).

46

that firm and noble bearing, which the Sovereign Pontiffs seem
to transmit as a lasting heritage. The emperor Anastasius had
no idea of renewing the ancient union between Rome and
Constantinople. The ambassadors whom he had sent to Italy
to congratulate Theodoric on the success of his undertaking
(a. d. 493) were under positive orders not to see the Pope, or
on any pretext whatever to hold communication with him. St.
Gelasius followed a directly opposite course. He availed him­
self of the opportunity offered by the departure of an embassy
sent by Theodoric to Constantinople, to address a detailed cir­
cular to all the bishops of the East. In this letter he reviewed
and confuted all the arguments brought forward by the parti­
sans of Acacius and Peter Mongus. He dwelt particularly
upon the obedience due to the authority of the Roman Church.
“ By what reasoning or on what grounds can the obligation
stand,” writes the Pope, “ of deferring to other sees, if the an­
cient respect due to the See of St. Peter is cast off ?—to that
first See, to which every sacerdotal dignity has always looked
for strength and confirmation ; whose supreme prerogative was
proclaimed by the unanimous and invincible judgment of the
three hundred and eighteen Fathers of Nice, recalling these
words of our Lord : ‘ Thou art Peter, and upon this rook I
will build my Church ‘ but I have prayed for thee, that thy
faith fail not ‘ feed my lambs, feed my sheep.’ ” From these
words it is evident that the Sovereign Pontiffs esteemed their
authority as the highest and holiest on earth. To deny or to
contemn it was to sap the very foundations of the spiritual
power and give up the Church to anarchy. The Greeks of
the Lower Empire, passionately given to theological quibbles,
were far below the comprehension of such language. They
called up a thousand pretexts to evade the Pope’s reasons.
4. This afforded Gelasius a fresh opportunity to give to
Theodoric’s ambassadors special instructions for combating
heresy. “ I can plainly see,” he says, “ that the Greeks have
no other end in view than the overthrow of the Catholic faith.
They repeatedly threaten to withdraw from the Church of

46

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH

Rome. It seems to me that this threat has long ago been ex.
ecuted. They have the effrontery to quote canons against us,
whilst they unceasingly violate them to satisfy their wicked
ambition. By what canon, for instance, did they expel John
of Alexandria from his Patriarchal See, without the shadow of
conviction against him ? By what canon was the Patriarch of
Antioch proscribed that his see might be given to an intru­
der ? By what tradition do they dare to call to judgment the
Apostolic See itself? And yet all these outrages comp from the
bishops of Constantinople, to whom the canons grant none of
the prerogatives of the great Sees ! When there is question
ofa judgment in matters of religion the supreme authority is
vested by the canons in the Apostolic See. No temporal sover­
eign, whatever his power, can arrogate to himself this right
without, by the fact, becoming a persecutor.” This prudent
firmness of the Sovereign Pontiff won the adherence of the
bishops of Dardania, who wrote to him to profess their devo­
tion to the Iloly See and to the Catholic faith. The noble ex­
ample was followed by the Province of Thessalonica (a. d. 494).
Anastasius, with a display of the most whimsical inconsistency,
complained that the Pope did not write to him directly ; and
yet he had expressly forbidden his ambassadors to hold any
communication with the Pope. Gelasius learned this from the
deputies of Theodoric, on their return from Constantinople.
He at once took measures to remove the new pretext for a
misunderstanding, by writing to the emperor in a strain of sur­
passing mildness and affection : “ I entreat your piety,” he
wrote, “ not to interpret as arrogance my fidelity to a duty of
which I must one day give an account to Almighty God. Let
it not be said that a Roman emperor has turned away from the
truth when it sough
*
him. As you well know, august prince,
the world is governed by two principles—the sacred authority
of the Pontiffs and the royal power. Now although you sway
the temporal destinies of the human race, you are still subject,
in the spiritual order, to the ministers of religion ; just as in
the public administration the pontilis of religion obey youi

ST. GELASIUS I. (A. D. 493-498).

|7

laws because they know that the empire has been given to
you by a disposition of Divine Providence." In complaining of
the Pope’s silence toward him, Anastasius was far from seek­
ing to open the way for a reconciliation. When putting on the
imperial purple the emperor had yielded to the urgent entrea­
ties of Euphemius and sworn upon the Holy Gospels to follow
henceforth the Catholic faith. But this was nothing more than
a sacrilegious farce. No sooner was he fairly seated upon the
throne than he threw off the mask and appeared in his true
character—a bitter heretic and persecutor of the faithful. Eu
phemius was the first victim of his resentment. His hatred
was increased by the remembrance of the oath pressed upon
him at his accession, and by the opposition which his wicked
projects ever met in the mildness of the holy prelate. The
"allure of an attempt to murder the bishop, made by some
assassins in the pay of the emperor, put a climax to his
thirst for vengeance. He called a council of bishops whom
he had previously won to his interest by favors and bribes.
They declared Euphemius unworthy of the episcopal dignity
and deposed him. The emperor at once confirmed the sen­
tence, in spite of the sensation caused by it throughout the
city and the imminent danger of a sedition. Euphemius was
banished to Ancyra (a. d. 495), where he died twenty years
later. He was succeeded by Macedonius, librarian and treas­
urer of the Church of Constantinople, and, in this capacity,
depositary of the act of adherence to the Catholic faith, which
had been signed by Anastasius. On taking possession of his
see the new bishop signed the Henoticon, as the only true pro­
fession of faith, and Anastasius took back his written abjura­
tion of Eutychianism, to destroy this public monument of the
imperial perjury.
5. Such were the phases presented by the Eastern schism
during the pontificate of St. Gelasius. The close attention
given by the Pope to their development did not lessen his
care of the other Churches. The Pelagian heresy gave signs
of returning life in some Churches of Dalmatia and Picenum

4b

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

(the Marches of Ancona). The Sovereign Pontiff wrote to
the bishops of these places, reminding them of the anathemas
already pronounced against this heresy by his predecessors
Innocent I., Zosimus, Boniface I., Celestin I., Sixtus TIL and
Leo the Great. The apostle of error in Picenum was an old
man named Seneca, who openly denied the dogma of original
sin and its natural consequence, concupiscence. He permitted
an unlimited obedience to the movements of free-will, and thus
justified the most shameful excesses. St. Gelasius wished to
held a personal conference with Seneca ; but the rude and igno­
rant pretender stubbornly persisted in his error : every effort
to enlighten his understanding or to touch bis heart proved
equally fruitless. The Pope was obliged to warn the bishops
of Picenum against his obstinacy, by bringing out before them
all the venom which lay secreted in the doctrine of Pelagius
(a. d. 493). In the following year (a. d. 494) Gelasius pre­
sided over a council of seventy-six bishops, held at Rome,
which regulated several questions of general interest to the
Church. Here the list of canonical books of the Old and New
Testament was fixed. It is similar to the one subsequently
published by the Council of Trent.
*
The council also estab­
lished the primacy and the supremacy of the Church of Rome,
by the words of our Lord Himself. The second rank is given
to the Church of Alexandria and the third to Antioch. Noth­
ing is said of Jerusalem ; doubtless because that unhappy city
had so far fallen from its former political greatness and influ­
ence that the purely nominal prerogatives of its bishops were
now contested by no one, simply because they could no longer
give umbrage. The number of ecumenical or general councils,
whose decrees were to be deemed the standard of faith and
morals, was fixed at four : Nice (a. d. 325), Constantinople
(a. d. 381), Ephesus (a. d. 431), and Chalcedon (a. d. 451)
• There is, indeed, a slight difference between the two canons, but limited to the form
The catalogue of Gelasius mentions but one book of the Machabees, whereas the Council
uf Trent numbers two. This difference is due to the fact that in the oarlier editions of
the Bible both books of the Maohabees are generally found in one.

8T. 0ELA8IÜ8 1. (A. D. 492-498).

49

rhe most interesting result of the Council of Rome was the
catalogue of lawful and of forbidden books. This is the first
decree of the kind issued by a council ; and it is also the first
trace we meet in ecclesiastical history of an institution after­
ward extending by degrees, and now known as the Congrega·
tion of the Index, which is charged by the Sovereign Pontiff to
examine new works, as they appear, and to censure those which
are blameworthy. The Council of Rome names the Fathers
whose authority is admitted by the Church : St. Cyprian, St.
Gregory Nazianzen, St. Basil of Cæsarea. St. Athanasius, St.
Cyril of Alexandria, St. John Chrysostom, St. Hilary of Poi­
tiers, St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, St. Jerome, St. Prosper. St.
Leo the Great. It is allowed to read the works of Rufinas
and of Origen, provided the care and reserve prescribed by St.
Jerome be observed. Then follows a prohibition to read heret­
ical and apocryphal works ; amongst others, the Acts of the
Council of Rimini convoked by the emperor Constantius ; the
Travels of St. Peter, under the name of St. Clement; the Acts
of St. Andrew, of St. Thomas, of St. Peter and of St. Philip ;
*he Gospels of St. Thaddeus, of St. Mathias, of St. Peter, of
St. James, of St. Barnabas, of St. Thomas, of St. Bartholomew
and of St. Andrew. To the heretical and apocryphal works
the council adds some books written by Catholics, but in some
points a little at variance with orthodox teaching; such are
eome of the writings of Lactantius, Arnobius, Clement of Alex­
andria, Cassian and others.
6. St. Gelasius, in the course of the same year, gave to
the Italian bishops several particular regulations on points of
discipline or of canon law. The reins of discipline had been
sadly relaxed in Italy by the disastrous consequences of
the late war. The Pope renewed the old canons relating to
ordination and the choice of subjects, but shortened the inter
vale Hitherto observed in the gradation of orders. Thus the
candidate is first to be made lector, notary or defender, for these
three offices seem to have been conferred by the first ordina­
tion; three months later he may be made acolyte; six month»
Vou n —4

bU

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

must elapse before he can be ordained subdeacon, if he. have
reached the canonical age ; he may be promoted to the office
of deacon in the ninth month, and at the close of the year be
ordained priest. This rule applied to monks who were to be
raised to the priesthood. For seculars the period was longer;
they could only be ordained priests after eighteen months spent
in the various degrees of the ministry. Other canons concern
the qualities necessary for the candidates. They must be suffi·
ciently instructed, even in human learning ; they must be entirely
free from physical deformity or serious bodily defect ; they must
never have incurred any suspicion of crime ; they must not be
fugitive clerics, that is, having quitted their diocese without
the bishop’s leave. St. Gelasius decreed that all those should
be expelled from the body of the clergy who had been con­
victed of buying their ordination for money ; for simony is as
great a sin in the giver as in the receiver. He forbids women
to serve the altar, thus usurping the functions which belong
only to men. He confirms the prescription of St. Simplicius
relative to the division of ecclesiastical revenues into four por­
tions : the first for the bishop; the second for the clergy;
the third for the poor ; the fourth for the maintenance of the
churches, sacred vessels, &c. The seasons fixed for ordina­
tions are the ember days of the fourth, the seventh and the
tenth months, and the beginning of Lent. This is still the
rule of the Church. Solemn baptism is only to be conferred
at Easter and Pentecost. Virgins consecrated to God are tc
receive the veil only on the Epiphany, at Easter, and on the
feasts of the apostles ; except in case of a dangerous illness,
when this consolation may be granted them before death.
Priests shall not raise themselves above their proper rank.
They have power neither to bless the chrism nor to confirm,
nor are they empowered to ordain. These various regulations
are dated March 11 (a. d. 494).
7. In the following year St. Gelasius convoked a council of
forty-five bishops, at Rome. Misenus, one of the legates who
had betrayed the cause of the Church, at Constantinople, in

BT. OELA81Ü8 I. (A. D. 492-408).

51

a. D. 483, under the pontificate of St. Felix III., begged to he
restored. The Pope granted his petition after having made
him pronounce the anathema against Eutyches, Peter Mongus,
Peter the Fuller and Acacius. Not content with providing,
by these repeated councils, for the discipline and doctrine of
the Church. St. Gelasius kept a watchful eye on the regularity
and grandeur of the liturgy. He composed hymns, like St.
Ambrose, with prefaces and prayers for the Holy Sacrifice and
the administration of the sacraments
The Sacramentaru
which bears his name and which there is every reason to
believe authentic, is divided into three books, the first of
which is called The Courue of the Year ; the second The Feasts of
the Saints; the third The Sundays of the Year. It contains
the masses for the whole year and the formulas for all the
sacraments.
This precious monument of the early liturgy
establishes the existence, at the end of the fifth century, of
most of the usages now observed in the Church of Rome.
The name of St. Gelasius is also connected with the abolition
of an idolatrous ceremony which had outlived the fall of
paganism and had withstood the efforts of all the Sovereign
Pontiffs his predecessors. Christian Rome saw the yearly
renewal in her midst of the disorders attending the Lupercalia,
when young men ran through the streets in a state of obscene
indecency and gave themselves up to the worst excesses of
unbridled license. The peculiar characteristic of all abuses is
that they become so deeply rooted in the habits of the people
that it is next to impossible to overcome them ; and the task
is always the harder in proportion as they are more unreason­
able and absurd. By his efforts against the Lupercalia, the
Holy Pontiff made many enemies even among enlightened
men. Their recriminations found an organ in the senator
Andromacbus who wrote a treatise to uphold this untenable
cause. He attributed the plague then raging in Rome to the
suppression of this festival, which had, said he, irritated the
tutelary genii of the empire. Gelasius met these arguments in
i spirited and eloquent work. “Were not sacrifices offered te

b2

GENERAL HISTOkV OF THE CHURCH.

the god Februarius,” said the Pontiff, “ were not the Luper
calia celebrated when the Gauls took Rome? Tn the time of
the invasions, when Alaric sacked this city, why did not Castoi
and Pollux, whom the heathens continued to worship, give
favorable winds and sea, to supply Rome with grain in plenty
*
Tell me, you who are neither Christians nor heathens; you
who defend the Lupercalia and indecent songs worthy of 9
religion whose very rite is a disgrace ; what good can come of
a superstition that causes such a corruption of morals? But,
you will say, the Lupercalia have been tolerated since the
establishment of Christianity. Are you not aware that it is
impossible to heal all moral t/ils at once, just as no physician
can at once restore a shattered constitution to perfect health’
The most serious evils must be first attacked that, in the end,
all may be met. For my part, in exercising my authority, I
obey the voice of conscience ; I proclaim to the Christians that
such practices are vicious and fatal ; I forbid them henceforth
to take any part in them. Had my predecessors thought the
season well timed they would have acted as I have done.
But of my own actions and not of theirs must I give an account,
when I shall stand before our common Judge.” The zeal of
the learned Pontiff was ever renewed to secure the triumph of
justice and truth ; and yet in the midst of so many weighty
and harassing occupations he still found time to write valu­
able works against the Nestorian and Eutychian errors.
8. In a treatise on the Anathema, which was interrupted by
death, he proves the ecumenical character of the Council of
Chalcedon and the obligation binding on every Catholic to
submit to its decisions. He then proposes this objection:
“ If the Council of Chalcedon be received, it must be received
in full, and thus we must admit the prerogative of second
rank granted by its twenty-eighth canon, to the Bishop of Con­
stantinople.” Gelasius answers it himself : “ The whole
Church readily receives what the council ordains with the
approbation of the Apostolic See. But the decision passed in
opposition to the orders of the Roman See and at onco cud-

ST. 0ELASIU3 I. (A. D. 402-190).

53

Iradicted by the legates of the Sovereign Pontiff, was never
approved or ratified by the Pope, notwithstanding all the
solicitations of the emperor Marcian. Even Anatolius, then
Bishop of Constantinople, declared that the validity of the
canon depended upon the approval of the Roman Pontiff;
but the Roman Pontiff, far from confirming, has ever
steadily opposed it. The twenty-eighth canon of the Council
of Chalcedon is therefore null and void.” The manner in
which the Pope treats the division of the temporal and spirit­
ual authority is equally remarkable : “ Before the coming
of Jesus Christ," he says, “ it was not impossible for the
priestly and the royal authority to meet in the same person,
as we find in the case of Melchisedech. But since the advent
of Him Who is truly both King and Pontiff, the king no longer
bears the name of pontiff, nor does the Pontiff claim the royal
dignity. God has spared human weakness by dividing the
duties of the two powers ; that the Christian emperor may
submit to the spiritual authority of the Pontiff, and the Pontiff
obey the emperor’s ordinance in temporal matters.” This
definition of the two powers clearly shows that no bishop can
be bound or released, in spiritual concerns, by any secular
power; that therefore Peter Mongus, when under ecclesiasti­
cal censure, could not be lawfully absolved or reinstated by an
imperial decree of Zeno. This is the precise bearing of the
Pope’s argument. It has been attempted to stretch the appli­
cation of these words, and modern innovators claim to prove
them an indirect condemnation of the temporal sovereignty
now vested in the Holy See, as the times and the wants of
society have consecrated it in our midst. St. Gelasius referred
only to the special attributes of each individual power, neither
of which may encroach upon the other’s demesne. He by no
means intended to convey that the Pope, as spiritual sovereign,
was, by that very title, incapable of holding, as temporal
king, a territory which should secure his personal independence,
in so far as it tends to promote peace and quiet among all nations.
9. The life of this holy Pope was as worthy of admiration

54

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

as his erudition. The lofty dignity with which he had heen
invested was, in his eyes, a servitude rather than a claim to
power. His time was given to prayer and meditation on the
Holy Scriptures. His mind, rich in ecclesiastical learning,
displays itself in his immense correspondence and the works
we have quoted. His happiness was to be amongst the ser­
vants of God and to speak with them on spiritual subjects.
He practised the mortifications and fasts of the most austere
anchorets ; though himself a model of poverty, he yet fed
those poorer than himself. The least neglect of a, Pontiff he
looked upon as a great evil to souls. The greatest prudence,
moderation and patience marked his conduct in the midst of
the intricate negotiations that beset his pontificate. Such is
the portrait of this holy Pontiff, left us from the testimony of
eye-witnesses, by Dionysius the Little, who wrote his life.
St. Gelasius died on the 21st of November, a. d. 496, having
ruled the Church of God for four years. He had established,
as an obligatory custom, that all the faithful should receive
the Holy Eucharist under both forms. This ordinance was
chiefly intended to combat the doctrine of the Manicheans of
the day, who held wine in abhorrence, asserting it to be the
gall of the prince of darkness, and a creature of the devil. Such
were their own words. The custom of receiving under both
kinds was observed until the twelfth century, when it began
to fall into disuse, and was finally abolished by the Council of
Constance, in a. d. 1416. The Council of Trent, however,
granted this privilege to the kings of France on the day of
their coronation, and to the deacons and sub-deacons of certain
churches on Sundays and high festivals.

$ II. Pontificate

of

St. Anastasius II. (Nov. 28, a. d. 496—
Nov. 16, 498).

10. After an interregnum of seven days Anastasius, a
native of Rome, was raised to the Chair of St. Peter (Novem­
ber 28, a. d 496). The Church of God, long wrung with grief-*

8T. ANASTASIUS II. (A. D. *9*-498).

55

in the East, by the Greek schism; in Africa, Italy, Spain and
Gaul, by the inroads of barbarians, carrying along with them
Arianism or idolatry—was now raised up by two subjects of
great consolation. One was the heroic perseverance of the
first Christian nation of the East, the Armenians ; the other,
the conversion of the first Christian nation of the West, the
Franks. The Persian monarchs had long followed a system
of open and bloody persecution to destroy Catholicity in Ar­
menia. But there, as in the Roman Empire, the blood of mar­
tyrs had proved the fruitful seed of new conversions. Toward
the year 480, Nestorianism began to make its appearance in
Armenia, brought from Mesopotamia by the youths who had
gone to acquire letters and science in the schools of Edessa
One of the most energetic fomenters of the error was a cer­
tain Barsumas, a man of pliant, ingenious and enterprising dis­
position. He had, by means of intrigues, raised himself to
the bishopric of Nisibis. In order to ingratiate himself into
the favor of Perozes, king of Persia, Barsumas suggested to
him to change the aim of the persecutions hitherto inflicted
upon the Armenian Christians ; to oblige them now to embrace
the doctrines of Nestorius instead of those of Zoroaster.
With a view to draw into open error a number of questionable
and staggering vocations, Barsumas drew a decree from a false
council assembled by him, allowing all the clergy and bishops,
and even Patriarchs, to marry ; he began by setting the exam­
ple himself. The metropolitan of Seleucia excommunicated
Barsumas, who sent the decree to the king of Persia; the
monarch ordered the metropolitan to be suspended to a beam
by the annular finger and in that position scourged to death.
To complete his satisfaction, Barsumas obtained permission to
persecute the Catholics. Upward of seven thousand seven
hundred of them were immolated to the heretic’s thirst for
revenge. Christopher, Patriarch of Armenia, on learning
the progress of heresy and the disasters caused by the fury
of a wretched apostate, at once ’ssued a circular to all the
countries in his jurisdiction, to prepare them to meet the

06

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

Nestorian plague. So firm was their devotion to the true faith
that Barsumas was forced to back his preaching by the more
tangible argument of a Persian army. But the Armenians
putting their trust in the intercession of the glorious martyrs
who, for two centuries past, had given their blood for the faith
of their fathers, rose up, as one man, protesting that they
would rather perish in one day on the field of battle than
live to see the continual humiliations endured by the Church
under the Persian yoke. They conquered and cut to pieces
the army of Perozes (a. d. 481). In the spring of the follow­
ing year (482) a renewed attempt of the Persian king gave
to the Armenians a like triumph.
11. The hero of these combats, the Machabee of Armenia,
was the general Vahan, the descendant of a Chinese imperial
family which had taken refuge in this country. Vahan fol­
lowed up his success with untiring energy ; he was never cast
down by reverses ; and the triumphs which raised the courage
of his troops never betrayed him into the rash imprudence of
presumptuous confidence. Until the death of Perozes, in a. d.
484, he met the combined efforts of the whole of Persia. The
successors of the persecuting monarch were terrified at the
gigantic proportions of a struggle in which a whole people had
sworn to die rather than deny their faith ; they accordingly
proposed to Vahan the most honorable terms of peace. The
right of Armenia to retain its faith was recognized. All the
pagan temples were destroyed. The Persians pledged them­
selves to make no further efforts amongst the Armenians to
gain proselytes to the idolatry of Zoroaster. The treaty of
peace was drawn up on these terms, and Vahan signed it on
behalf of his countrymen who solemnly bestowed upon him
the rank of governor-general of Armenia. On the hero’s re­
turn to Dovin, the capital of Armenia, he was met by tho
venerable Patriarch John Mutakouni, followed by his clergy
in solemn procession bearing the relics of St Gregory the
Illuminator ; the procession was swelled by the people of the
city and of the neighboring country and by the army with

8T. ANA8TASIU3 Π. (A. D. ΐββ-408).

57

which he had won his country’s freedom. The whole multi­
tude proceeded to the cathedral of Dovin, to make a solemn
return of thanksgiving to God. Even here, notwithstanding
the majesty of the holy place, the people were unable to con­
tain their feelings, and broke out into long and loud acclama­
tions of indescribable enthusiasm : the object of all this mani­
festation of feeling, whose heroism was equalled but by his
modesty, could command a moment of silence only to depose
upon the altar of the God of armies the sword which bad won
such renown in His cause.
12. Whilst Armenia was thus gloriously asserting her right
to remain Christian, the nation of the Franks, one day to be
known as the eldest daughter of the Church, was entering the
true fold. Gregory of Tours, the early historian of this glo­
rious race, speaks in very modest terms of the first steps of
the Franks in Gaul : “ It is supposed,” says the historian,
“ that Clodion, a man of authority and distinction in his nation,
was at that time king of the Franks; they held their residence
at Dispargum, on the frontier of the Thuringian territory of
Maastricht. The Romans held possession of the country
stretching southward to the Loire ; beyond the Loire were the
Goths. The Burgundians, who also professed Arianism, lived
beyond the river Rhone which flows by the city of Lyons.
Clodion sent spies into the city of Cambray and received from
them a report of the state of the surrounding country ; he sub­
sequently defeated the Romans and took possession of the
country. After a short stay here he extended his conquests
as far as the river Somme. Some writers assert that king
Meroveus, father of Childeric, was of the race of Clodion."
Clovis (a d. 481), the son of Childeric, was in command only
of the small tribe of the Franks of Tournay when he defeated
the Roman patrician Syagrius at Soissons (a. d. 486). Clovis,
who was as skilful a politician as he was an intrepid warrior,
though still a heathen, made every effort to win the favor of
the Catholic clergy for his cause, as he held their holy mission
and salutuj y influence in the highest veneration. He avoided

58

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

in his march the great cities which had already submitted U
him. This was the only means of saving from plunder the
onvents and basilicas which the piety of the faithful had im­
mensely enriched. Yet one of the churches of Rhcims, of
which city St. Remigius, the most illustrious of the Gallic pre­
lates, was then bishop, could not escape the rapacity of a band
of marauding Franks. Amongst the articles which formed
their booty was a sacred vessel of unusual size and beauty.
St. Remigius was informed of the fact and sent to Clovis to
claim the prize. Delighted at the prospect of serving the
bishop, the king said to the deputies: “Come with me to Soissons, and if the stolen vessel be found among the plunder you
shall have it.” The precious article was soon found amid the
spoils heaped up under a tent in the public square. “ My brave
comrades,” said Clovis to the Franks who pressed around their
leader, “you will not take it amiss that I restore this vessel to
those who claim it.” The officers and soldiers exclaimed, in
reply : “ What ! cannot you take it without asking for it? Are
you not master, and is not ours also yours ?” “ Not so,”
answered a rude and jealous soldier ; “ you shall have this cup
only when it is yours by lot.” And with a blow of his battle­
axe, he shivered the costly object of dispute. Clovis silently
gathered up the fragments and gave them to the messengers
of St. Remigius.
*
A year had passed away since this event;
the king was one day reviewing the Franks in a field of Man
(a yearly gathering of the warriors), when he recognized the
soldier whose rude audacity had appealed to the right of divi­
sion : “Your arms,” said the king to him, “are in the worst
condition of any that I have seen in the army ; your mace,
your sword and your battle-axe all show your slovenly care­
lessness.” Then snatching away his axe, Clovis threw it upon
the ground. The soldier stooped to pick it up, but the king,
• ouch 'a the account of contemporary writers. Some modern authors, io their zeal W
show that perfect equality existed between the chief and h'S subjects, have distorted tht
account, and in order to press their own view upon the reader, have passed over the chief
incident, that is, the restoration of the vessel, although in fragments, to the deputies of St
B/unigiue.

ST. ANASTASIU8 Π. (A. P. 49G-49B)

59

suddenly lifting up his own, clove in two the trooper’s skull
“ So," he exclaimed, “you did to the cup at Soissons!” This
bloody execution performed by the hand of the king himself
seems repugnant to our day and custom : then it was deemed
but severe, and was more powerful than laws to teach the vic­
tors that they should spare the vanquished. St. Remigius
entertained a strong hope of implanting the true faith in the
heart of a prince whose power kept pace with his renown, and
who was evidently destined to rule the whale of Gaul.
He deemed that this could be best brought about by giving
to Clovis a Christian wife. He therefore effected for him an
alliance with a princess as distinguished for vii
*ue
as for nobil­
ity of birth—one whose memory, perpetuated by the Church
in the calendar of the saints, is imperishably dear to every
French heart. Clotilda was the niece of Gundebald, king of
the Burgundians. Brought up in an Arian court under the
eye of an uncle who had murdered her father and mother to
gain possession of their wealth, she was still a Catholic, and
the holiness of her life corresponded to the purity of her faith.
As queen of the Franks, her virtue and her charms won her
husband’s heart; she made use of his perfect confidence in her
only to draw him gradually out of the darkness of heathenism.
He seemed already on the point of yielding to her wishes, when
an unfortunate event turned him suddenly back. Their first­
born son, baptized under the name of Ingomar, died whilst yet
in his baptismal robe. Clovis harshly reproached Clotilda, and
naid : “ Had the child been consecrated to my gods, he had not
died.” He was, however, appeased and allowed his second
son to be carried to the baptismal font and baptized under the
name of Clodomir. The illness of his child threw Clotild’
into a state of harrowing anguish. Clovis already accused her
of causing the death of both children. Clodomir however
recovered ; but Clovis was still distrustful. It was necessary
that a conversion, fraught with consequences so important,
should be effected in such a manner as to convince the world
that it was the work of Heaven—of the power of the Most High

60

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

13. Several bodies of Suevi or Alemanni ciossed the
Rhine at Cologne, a. d. 496, and invaded the dominions of
Sigebert, chief of the Ripuarii. Clovis armed his Franks and
hastened toward the Rhine, to the help of Sigebert. The two
armies met near Tolbiac (the present Tulpick in the duchy of
Juliers). Both nations were equally brave, equally jealous of
their glory and their freedom ; the shock of battle was fearful.
Sigebert was wounded and his troops thrown into a state of dis­
order ; the panic was rapidly spreading along the ranks, when
Clovis, seeing the desperate state of his cause, cried aloud:
“God, whom Clotilda worships, I have no refuge but Thee.
Come to my help, and I will believe in Thee, I will be baptized
in Thy name.” This vow, uttered in a loud voice, rallied his
scattered warriors about him. Clovis himself felt a new cour­
age within his bosom, and cheering on his Franks, rushed with
headlong daring upon the enemy. The consternation and ter­
ror the Burgundians had caused, now returned to their own
ranks ; and their king remained upon the field amid the flower
of his army (a. d. 496). On his return to his own domain
after this victory, Clovis put himself under the direction of St.
Remigius and of St. Vedastus, a holy priest from the neigh­
borhood of Toul. One day the holy bishop of Rheims was
reading to him the Passion of Jesus Christ ; Clovis, filled with
the honest indignation of a soldier whose soul is wrapt up
in arms, exclaimed : “Oh ! that I had been there with my
Franks!” On another occasion he said to St. Remigius: “I
would willingly go on listening to you, but I foresee an obsta­
cle ; my people will not give up their present belief; but I
will go and speak to them as you advise.” A general assem­
bly of the chiefs was accordingly called ; but the king had
hardly begun to speak when the Salians exclaimed : “We for­
sake mortal gods ; we wish for no other than the Immortal
God of Remigius.” The bishop joyfully made preparations for
the baptism of the king and the Franks, and, assisted by St
Vedastus, continued to instruct and to prepare them according
to the canons, by some days of fasting, penance and prayer

ST. ANASTASIÜ8 H. (A. D. 406-498).

61

The baptismal fonts of St. Martin’s, the great church of Rhe iras,
were magnificently adorned ; the nave was decorated with
white hangings ; the same emblematic color also appeared in
the dress of Clovis and the other catechumens chosen from
among the flower of the Salians. On Christmas night (a. d.
496) all the streets were tapestried from the king's palace to
the basilica ; the church blazed with a thousand fires shed from
richly perfumed tapers. The procession moved on towards the
basilica, preceded by the cross and the book of Gospels borne
in state. St. Remigius led the king by the hand; they were
followed by Queen Clotilda, and the two princesses Albofleda
and Lantilda, sisters of Clovis. Upward of three thousand offi­
cers and nobles of the court, all dressed in white ornaments,
were going to receive baptism with their king. Clovis, struck
by the splendor of this august night, asked the holy bishop :
“ Father, is this the Kingdom of Christ, into which you prom­
ised to lead me ?” “ No,” answered St. Remigius, “it is but the
opening of the path that leads to it.” Standing before the font
the king begged the grace of regeneration in this saving water.
The bishop addressed him : “ Bow down your neck in meek­
ness, great Sicambrian prince ; adore what you have hitherto
burnt, and burn what you have hitherto adored.” Then, hav­
ing made him profess his belief in the Holy Trinity, he bap­
tized him and anointed him with holy chrism. The three thou­
sand officers and soldiers who accompanied him, besides a great
number of women and children, were then baptized by the
attendant bishops and other clergy. Albofleda received bap­
tism ; and Lantilda, who was already a Christian, but had
fallen into Arianism, was reconciled to the Church and re­
ceived the unction of holy chrism. Clovis, unwilling to see
the rejoicings of so happy a night marred by the tears of the
unfortunate, ordered the release of all captives and made
costly offerings to the churches. That Christmas night which
lighted the birth of the Franks to the true faith, has always
been dear to France as a family festival. “Noël!” was ever
*he cheer and the battle-cry of our fathers.

62

GENERAL HISTORY OF ΤΠΕ CHURCH.

14. Tf we have seemed to dwell upon this event wilh some
complacency, it is because of a natural sentiment which must
be readily understood. Besides, at the time of its occur pence
it was hailed with joy by the whole Catholic world. Pope
Anastasius II. was particularly rejoiced at this conversion, as
ho hoped to find in Clovis a powerful champion of the Church.
He was then, in fact, the only truly Catholic sovereign. The
emperor Anastasius, in the East, was given up to Eutychian
*
ism ; Theodoric, in Italy; Alarie II., king of the Visigoths,in
Spain and Aquitania; Gundebald, king of the Burgundians,
in Gaul ; Thrasimund, king of the Vandals, in Africa, were all
Arians. The Pope wrote to Clovis in these words : “ We con­
gratulate you, most glorious son, that your conversion to the
Christian faith is simultaneous with our promotion to the pon­
tificate. Can the Chair of St. Peter be insensible to a feeling
)f joy that the nations are now gathering under its shadow,
when it sees the net which the fisher of men has been ordered
to cast into the sea of the world, filling up through the flow of
ages ? We have been moved to impart to your Highness some
of the joy we feel, that knowing your father’s heart, you may
increase in good works ; that you may perfect our consolation
and be our crown; and that your Mother, the Church, may re­
joice in the progress of so great a king whom she has borne to
God. Glorious and illustrious son, be then your Mother’s con­
solation ; show yourself in her defence an unshaken pillar ; for
in these days the charity of many has grown cold, and the
bark of Peter is beaten by a furious storm. Yet we hope
against all hope ; and we bless the Lord that he has drawn you
out of darkness, to give to the Church, in so powerful a p, ince
a protector able to defend her against all her enemies. May
Almighty God ever shower down His heavenly blessings upon
your person and kingdom ! May He give charge to His angels
to keep you in all your ways, and ever crown your arms with
victory.” St. Avitus, Bishop of Vienne, although a subject
of Gundebald, also writes to congratulate Clovis on his con­
version. “ It is not,” he writes, “ without a mystery of grace

8T. ANA8TA8IÜ8 II. (A. D. 4M- 408).

63

that the light of faith dawned upon your nation on the very
day of the Saviour’s birth. It was fitting that you should be
regenerated in the waters of baptism on the day that brought
down the Lord of heaven and earth for the salvation of the
world ! Oh, how full of consolation for the Church was that
hallowed night! What a sight to behold that head dreaded
by nations, humbly bowed before the servants of the Lord ; to
see those tresses which have grown under the helmet of war,
now crowned by the holy unction with the helmet of salva­
tion ; to see the warrior put off for a time his breast-plate, to
wear the white robe of the neophyte ! Doubt not, most illus­
trious of monarchs, the unpretending purity of this new habit
will give new power to your arms; and what, your good for­
tune has hitherto done for you, your piety will but do better
still. The world resounds with your triumphs. Though of
another country, your glory moves us also. Every time that
you engage in battle the victory is equally ours.” The hopes
expressed by St. Anastasius II. and St. Avitus of Vienne
were not deceived. From the days of Charles Martel to our
own the Church has ever safely leaned upon the sword of
France. St. Avitus, whose noble address to Clovis we have
just quoted, was grandson of the emperor Avitus, and son of
the senator Hesychius who had, after his marriage, been
raised to the See of Vienne, on the death of St. Mammertus.
St. Avitus succeeded his father in a. d. 490. His elder broth­
er, Apollinaris, also became bishop of Vienne. To the lustre
of noble birth, Avitus joined the brighter glory of virtue and
talents. He is particularly distinguished as z Christian poet.
Six remarkable poems of his are still extant : 1st, on the crea­
tion ; 2d, on the fall of man ; 3d, on the expulsion of our first
parents from the Garden of Eden ; 4th, on the deluge ; 5th,
on the passage of the Red Sea; 6th, on virginity. The first
three together form a complete epopee, and might be stylec
Paradise Lost. These works show a true poetic genius, and
deserve a wider reputation, at least in Christian schools
15. From such a page it is painful to turn again toward

fi4

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

the East, still a prey to lamentable dissensions. Pope Anaetfr
sins IT. had availed himself of the occasion offered by Theo·
doric’s embassy to Constantinople, to send to the East two
legates, the bishops Cresconius and Germanus. Their mission
was to make new efforts to obtain from the emperor Anastasius
the removal from the diptychs of the names of Acacius and
Peter Mongus ; they were also to demand the recognition of
the Council of Chalcedon, and consequently the extinction of
the schism. The arrival of the Pope’s legates in the East
caused a deep sensation. Two priests of the Church of Alex­
andria were sent to Constantinople to work together for the
reconciliation of the See of St. Mark with the Apostolic See.
The legates were charged to lay before the Pope the profes­
sion of faith of the Alexandrian clergy. Even Macedonius,
Patriarch of Jerusalem, seemed disposed to do his share in
bringing about a lasting reconciliation. He wished to send to
the Roman Pontiff synodal letters stating the grounds of
future negotiations. But all these brightening hopes were
crushed by the unbending obstinacy of the emperor Anastasius,
who opposed the desire of Macedonius and forbade him, on
pain of exile, to hold any communication with the Holy See;
“ not wishing,” he said, “ to hear of any accommodation, unless
the Pope consented to sign the Henoticon.” Some historians
assert that it was his aim to insnare the Sovereign Pontiff and
to bring him, by insidious wiles and promises, to betray the
cause of God and of truth. He little knew the unfailing
firmness of the Chair of Peter, against which the gates of hell
shall never prevail. Still less was he acquainted with the
noble character of St. Anastasius II., its occupant. When the
legates returned to Rome, the pious Pontiff was no more; ho
had gone to his reward on the IGth of November, a. d. 498.
His reign had been short; but it had sufficed to prove his
apostolic zeal for the progress of the faith ; wisdom and pin
dence characterized all his decisions. Having been consulted
by the Catholics of Constantinople concerning the baptisui
administered by Acacius and his partisans, the Pope answered

66

BT. SYMMACHUS CA. D. 499-6 4).

that the sacraments cf Baptism and Orders conferred by a
bishop who was excommunicated and suspended from eccle­
siastical functions, were still valid, and that those who had
received the sacraments from them were not to be disturbed
on that account.

§ III. Pontificate of St. Symmachus (Nov. 22,
July 19, 514).

a. d.

498—

16. On the 22d of November, a. d. 498, the deacon Sym­
machus was chosen to succeed St. Anastasius II. Meanwhile
the senator Festus, an agent of the Eastern emperor, had been
sent to Rome, with secret instructions to gain the approval of
the Holy See for the Henoticon. During the pontifical election
he bribed some clerics to elect the arch-priest Lawrence, who
was in communication with Anastasius. The two newlyelected candidates were consecrated on the same day—Sym­
machus in the basilica of Constantine ; Lawrence in that of
St. Mary Major. Thus this pretended edict of union, which had
already separated the East and the West, now threatened, by
miserable intrigues, to rend the Roman Church itself. The
schism brought from Constantinople to Rome bid fair to cause
a civil strife. An instant remedy was needed ; the most regu­
lar, and in fact the only canonical mode of action, would have
been to call a council of the Italian bishops ; but the convoca­
tion would have taken several months. The city had in the
mean time become the scene of bloody tumults. The urgency
of the case therefore drove them to seek another remedy; it
was agreed that Symmachus and Lawrence should go to
Ravenna and abide by the decision of King Theodoric This
monarch, though an Arian, had on numberless occasions proved
his high esteem for the Church ; besides, his prime minister,
Cassiodorus, was a fervent Catholic. The famous regulations
he had just published in his master’s name, his reputation for
virtue, justice and wisdom had established his renown in Italy,
and made him the model of great ministers. These consideraVol. II.—5

GENERAL IHSTORV OF THE CHURCH.

tions doubtless led the Roman clergy (o submit a purely eccle»
iiastical case to the court of Ravenna. The wisdom of the act
was proved by the issue. At the instigation of Cassiodorus,
Theodoric decided that the pontifical authority resided in him
who had been first elected and by the greater number of suf­
frages. These two conditions met in the election of Symma­
chus, who was at once recognized as Sovereign Pontiff and
entered upon the immediate discharge of his duties. His first
act of authority was the convocation of a council in the basilica
of St. Peter (March 1, a. d. 499), to regulate the manner of
pontifical elections, and thus to preclude the recurrence of the
canvassing and factions which had marked his consecration.
The council numbered seventy-two bishops, sixty-seven priests,
and five deacons. Three canons were drawn up relative to the
election of the Sovereign Pontiffs. The first ordained that if
any priest, deacon or cleric, during the lifetime of the Pope, and
without his participation, is convicted of having given or promised
his suffrage for the pontificate to any aspirant, whether in writing
or by a verbal promise, he shall be deposed from all ecclesiastical
functions. The second prescribes that if the Pope dies suddenly
without being able to provide for the election of his successor, he
shall be consecrated who has received the suffrages of all the clergy;
if there be a division, the majority shall carry the election. The
third decrees that any one who has any knowledge, in whatever
manner acquired, of culpable intrigues, shall make them known;
promising even to accomplices who may make such revelation,
the pardon of the crime in which they shared ; thus leaving to
the authors of these shameful dealings no hope of concealment,
and hence of impunity. These decrees were subscribed by all
the bishops, priests and deacons in the assembly. Among the
signatures appears the name of the arch-priest Lawrence, of the
title of St. Praxedes, the same who had been elected anti­
pope.
17. This ambitious priest had promised Festus that in case
he were placed upon the papal throne he would conform to the
wishes of Anastasius, and sign the Henoticon. When the elec­

ST. 8YMMACHÜ8 (A. D. 49S-614),

67

tion of Symmachus had been confirmed by the decision of Theodoric, Lawrence seemed to repent of his conduct; he shared
the labors of the council, and Symmachus bestowed on him the
dignity of bishop of Nocera. The schism -(•emed to be at an
end. But Festus felt the necessity of pieasing the emperor,
and not finding Symmachus as yielding as he would have
wished, he rekindled the flame of discord. In the year 500
he called Lawrence to Rome and they hired false witnesses to
oonvict Symmachus of adultery and of embezzlement in the
administration of Church property. These complaints were
brought to Theodoric The king of the Ostrogoths charged
Peter, bishop of Altinum, to go to Rome and examine on the
spot the grounds of the accusation. Peter, forgetting the im­
partiality due to the nature of his mission and the consideration
he owed to St. Symmachus, at once sided with the antipope and
his partisans. Symmachus saw himself beset with snares and
dangers, exposed to the insults of a faction paid in Byzantine
gold, and forced to shut himself up as a prisoner in the basilica
of St. Peter. In this extremity the Catholics of Rome had
recourse to Theodoric, and begged him to call a council of
Italian bishops from all the provinces. Theodoric accordingly
sent letters of convocation to the bishops of Emilia, Liguria,
and Venetia. But these prelates gave a noble proof of loy­
alty and devotion to the Holy See. To the king's summons
they returned the answer that the convocation of councils
belongs only to the Pope; that the Sovereign Pontilf derives
this prerogative from the primacy of the Chair of St. Peter, on
which he is seated ; that the canon law, in this particular, is
most explicit; and that it was an unheard-of occurrence in
the history of the Church that the Pope should be subject to
the judgment of his inferiors. To remove this objection, The­
odoric begged Symmachus to write in person to the bishops to
attend the council. In obedience to this canonical call one
hundred and fifteen bishops met at Rome in the month of
July, a. d. 501. As soon as they had assembled in the Julian
basilica, Symmachus entered the church, and having expressed

68

GENERAL HISTORY1 OF ΓΗί CHÜRüH.

his gratitude to Theodoric for the convocation of the council
declared that he had himself desired it, and, in the presence oj
all the fathers, gave them authority to judge the case. These are
the words used in the acts of the council. But the city con·
tinned to present a scene of unabated tumult; the sedition ex­
cited by Festus and the antipope Lawrence grew daily more
violent. A troop of furious rioters even dared to attack the
Pope as he was on his way to the council, and severely
wounded several priests who accompanied him. When Theo­
doric heard of these disorders he sent some of his officers to
repress them, with orders to use the sternest measures against
the guilty parties. He also wrote to the Fathers of the council
at the same time ; his letter shows the exalted sentimentsand
noble mind of his able minister Cassiodorus. “ Had it fallen
within the sphere of my powers,” wrote the king, “to take per­
sonal cognizance of this matter, I could, by the help of divine
grace, have brought it to a satisfactory close. But it is the cause
of God and of His ministers ; hence I called upon you to discuss
it; for I did not deem it my province to decide in ecclesiastical
matters. Pronounce your judgment, then, according to the dic­
tates of your conscience, and thus restore peace to the senate,
the clergy and the people of Rome.” After mature delibera­
tion and a thorough investigation of the charges, the council
was convinced that Symmachus had been lawfully and canoni­
cally elected and that he was perfectly innocent of the crimes
imputed to him. They then held a closing session, commonly
called Synodus Palmaris, perhaps from the name of the church
in which the bishops met. Here the authority of Symmachus
was solemnly recognized, his innocence proclaimed, and his
communion identified with that of the Church. “ Those cler­
ics who have separated themselves from him and taken part in
the schism,” says the decree, “ must make satisfaction to him
and obtain his pardon before they can be reinstated. Whoever,
after this decision, ventures t* exercise the functions of the
holy ministry without being in communion with Symmachus,
shall be canonically punished as a schismatic.”

HT. SYMMACHUS (A. D 198-514).

66

18. The questions arising out of the election of St. Symma­
chus had recalled the protestation presented at the death of St
Simplicius by the patrician Basil in the name of Odoacer. king of
the Heruli. It will be remembered that the barbarian claimed
the right to confirm or to annul the election of the Roman Pon­
tiffs. This document had never been juridically examined.
A council held in Rome (a. d. 502), by Pope St. Symmachus,
thus decides its value : “ Such a document could never bind a
Roman Pontiff, since no one has the right to make laws in the
Church without the Pope’s consent. If the canons and the tradi­
tions of the holy fathers nullify whatever the bishops of a prov­
ince may do without the metropolitan’s approval, how much less
value should be attached to any decisions of laymen in ecclesias­
tical matters, without the concurrence of the Sovereign Pontiff,
who holds, together with the prerogative of St. Peter, the pri­
macy of the priesthood in the whole Catholic world ; and whose
consent is indispensable to the legal force of even decrees of the
councils ?” Thus the unanimous judgment of the fathers re­
jected the patrician Basil’s protestation as opposed to the can
ons, as irregular and of no effect. In the following year (503)
Symmachus convoked another council at Rome, near the ven­
erated tomb of the Prince of the Apostles, which was even
then called the Confession of St. Peter. The discussions of this
council again turned upon the authority and prerogatives of
the Apostolic See, against which the schismatics raised many
objections. They were set forth in a treatise called Against the
Synod of the Irregular Absolution; for so they called the synod
in which the innocence of Symmachus had been proclaimed.
“ By asserting,” said they, “ that the Pope, as supreme judge,
can himself be judged by no one, is he not left free to com­
mit any crime with impunity? If it be true that the Pope
can never be subjected to the judgment of his inferiors, why
did Symmachus submit to the decision of the council assembled
at Rome by Theodoric ? How could this Pope refuse to admit
the authority of Peter, bishop of Altinum, sent by the king to
take cognizance of the difficulty, when he himself sends to

70

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

other Churches legates and bishops to settle all disputes and
provide for the maintenance of ecclesiastical discipline?” St.
Ennodius, then but a deacon, and subsequently bishop of
Pavia, undertook to refute these objections in a sound and elo­
quent treatise. “ St. Peter,” he said, “ has transmitted to his
successors a lasting gift of merit, together with the heritage of
bis innocence. Should any one of them prove personally less
worthy of the lofty position, his defect would be supplied by
the merits of so illustrious a predecessor. Jesus Christ, upon
Whom the Church ever rests, has a care that its foundation,
that is, the Pope, its visible head, shall never fail. Pope Sym­
machus consented, through humility, to submit to a judgment
which could by no means oblige him. He was forced to it by
the violence of the schismatics.” This treatise of Ennodius
was solemnly approved by the council which adopted its teach­
ing and formally recognized its authority. The Fathers wished
now to condemn personally those who had unjustly accused
Symmachus. But the merciful Pontiff declared that he freely
forgave them all the evil they had sought to do him. The
council then only renewed the ancient canons which forbade the
faithful to accuse their pastor, except in the case of his teach­
ing error» against the faith. It was also forbidden to deprive
an accused bishop of his property or to expel him from his
see, until a formal sentence had been pronounced against him.
These various statutes were confirmed on pain of deposition
in the case of clerics, and of excommunication for monks and
laymen ; they are all threatened with an anathema if they fail
to amend.
19. The acts of these councils are a fair index of the light
in which the Catholics then viewed the authority and pre­
rogatives of the Roman Pontiff. This testimony is not a little
strengthened by the sensation to which the event gave rise in
Gaul. When it became known that a council of Italian bishops
had undertaken to sit in judgment upon the Pope, all the Gal­
lic bishops were alarmed at it, and charged St. Avitus, bishop
of V ioune, to draw up a protest in their name. He addressed

HT. SYMMACHUS (A. D. 498-514).

71

his letter to Faustus and Symmachus, two patricians of con­
sular rank. “We were in a state of great alarm,” he writes,
“ concerning the Roman schism ; for we felt that the episco­
pacy of which we are members is seriously threatened when
its head is thus attacked. In the height of our agitation, we
received the decree of the Council of Rome in the matter of
Pope Symmachus. It is not easy to understand on what prin­
ciple a superior can be judged by his inferiors. We are direct­
ed by the Apostle not to hear an accusation against a simple
priest ; how much less, then, against the Prince of the Univer­
sal Church ! The council plainly discovers this in its decree,
by taking exception, in a certain measure, to its own compe­
tency in a case it had almost rashly undertaken to discuss.
In my twofold character, then, of bishop and Roman senator,
I beseech you to use the power God has given you in behalf
of religion, and show that you bear as true a love to the Chair
of St. Peter, in the Roman Church, as you do to Rome as the
capital of the world. If the other prelates be found defective
in some point, they can be reformed ; but if the Pope be im­
peached, it is no longer a single bishop, but the whole hierar­
chy is imperilled. You are aware of the wild storms of heresy
through which we now strive to steer the bark of faith ; if you
share our fear of these storms, you should strive with us to
defend your pilot. When senseless sailors revolt against him
who holds the tiller, does prudence recommend compliance with
their madness by exposing them to danger as a punishment?
It behooves not the flock to call its Pastor to account. That
power belongs to God.” This splendid effort does even less
honor to Pope Symmachus than to the Gallic bishops, in whose
name it was written. It is the noblest monument of the Gallic
Church (a. d. 503).
20. The Church was making marvellous strides in Gaul,
owing to the zeal of the holy bishops who filled its sees Gaul
was divided into three dominations : that of Clovis, in the
north ; of Gundebald, in Burgundy ; and of Alarie II., king of
the Visigoths, in the south. Clovis aimed at establishing the

72

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

Frankish monarchy on a basis of unity. His conversion to
Christianity could not blot out from his ardent, ambitious na­
ture every vestige of barbarism. The unaffected, simple nar­
rative of Gregory of Tours, by the traits of craftiness and
cruelty it records, shows what a herculean task it must have
proved to the Church, thoroughly to humanize, to civilize, to
Christianize the inborn barbarism of this nation. It is easily
understood that such a work demanded ages to reach even a
relative perfection. Clovis had, at least, recognized the true
principle of all civilization—the Christian faith. He had
adopted its living rule, the Catholic Church. The comple­
tion of the work was a matter of time. St. Remigius, not con­
tent with having won over the Franks to the faith, was striving
to draw into the true fold the Arian faction of the Burgundians.
In the year 501, he succeeded in assembling at Lyons, Gunde*s
bald
capital city, the most illustrious Gallic bishops. Among
the prelates were St. Eonius of Arles, Honoratus of Marseilles,
St. Avitus of Vienne, St. Apollinaris of Valence, his brother,
and several others. The bishops in a body called upon Gundebald at his country-seat of Sarbiniacum.
*
Hostilities had
already begun between Clovis and the Burgundian king. Gundebald complained of it to the bishops. a If your faith be the
true one,” he said to them, “wiry do you not hinder the king
of the Franks from declaring war against me, and joining my
enemies to ruin me ? The true faith does not countenance the
lust of another’s possessions nor a thirst for blood.” Avitus,
in the name of his colleagues, modestly replied : “We know
not why the king of the Franks has undertaken the war of
which you complain ; but we know that the Scriptures tell us
of nations destroyed for having forsaken the law of God. Do
you, then, with your people, return to the way of the truth,
and God will give you peace.” “ What !” said Gundebald,
“ do you pretend to say that I am in the path of error because
I do not adore three Gods ?” “ Great king,” returned Avitus,
“ we do not adore three Gods. If you would learn the solid
• Serviçny.

ST. SYMMACHÜ8 (A. D.

73

grounds of our faith, order your bishops to confer with us in
your presence, and we will give a full explanation of onr faith
in the Trinity.” Gundebald agreed. The first day of Septem­
ber was fixed for the conference. St. Avitus was chosen to
speak for the Catholics ; an Arian bishop, Boniface, was hie
opponent. The discussion began. St. Avitus clearly proved
that the Catholics by no means adore three Gods ; that they
rest their belief upon the Scripture and tradition, and there
learn their doctrine of one God in three Persons, coequal, co­
eternal, consubstantial in all things. A general and deep im­
pression was visibly produced by the natural eloquence, grace
and conviction which marked the discourse of the bishop of
Vienne. Boniface found no better reply to the learned argu­
ments of the Catholic bishop than insult and calumny. He
carried his rage to such an excess that Gundebald himself,
unable to endure it longer, broke off the conference. He was
shaken ; from this time the veneration he had ever shown St
Avitus was increased, and he held repeated and long confer­
ences with the holy bishop. One day St. Avitus was urging
him to declare himself decidedly for the faith. Gundebald,
unable longer to withstand the evidence of the truth, begged
the bishop to reconcile him privately by the unction of
holy chrism. He was unwilling to give to the step an official
and public character, lest his Arian subjects should seize the
occasion to revolt against him. “ If you really believe," said
St. Avitus, “ why do you fear to confess your faith ? You are
a king, and you fear your subjects. You are the chief of the
people, and not the people yours. When you go to battle, you
march first, and your soldiers follow you. Do the same in the
way of truth ; show it to your subjects by entering the first
upon it.” Gundebald lacked courage to follow this noble ad­
vice. Human motives bound him to a cause which now com­
manded neither his sympathy nor his conviction. Though the
pages of history reproach Gundebald with acts of cruelty
which speak a barbarous origin and manners, yet they also
record his efforts to infuse into the hearts of his people the

74

GENERAL HiSTORV OF THE CHURCH.

elements of Christianity and civilization. The code of laws
which he published, a. d. 502, in the name of God, is perhaps
not altogether blameless ; but considering the state of the Bur­
gundians, and the period of its appearance, it was certainly' a
step forward.
21. Alarie II. followed the example set by Gundebald, and
gave a code of laws to the Visigoths under his jurisdiction.
It was almost a complete reproduction of the Theodosian Code.
Whatever changes or additions he deemed it necessary to
make had all been considered and approved by the Catholic
bishops of his kingdom. This Arian monarch further showed
his regard for the orthodox prelates, by allowing them to hold
a council at Agde, in Languedoc. They met to the numbei
of thirty-five, including the deputies of ten who were unable tc
attend in person (a. d. 506). The council published numerous
and important canons and regulations of discipline. It forbids
bishops to alienate ecclesiastical property ; but they are al­
lowed to free any slaves attached to Church lands. This dis­
tinction clearly proves the aim of the bishops and councils to
bring about gradually, by gentle means and without coercion,
the extinction of slavery in Christian society. Laymen who
do not communicate at Christmas, Easter, and Pentecost, are
not to be deemed Catholics. Should any one wish to have a
private oratory on his estate, he may have the Holy Sacrifice
offered in it for his family’s convenience ; but on the festivals
of Easter, Christmas, the Eiphany, the Ascension, Pentecost
and other greater solemnities, when Mass is to be celebrated
in the parish churches, it cannot be offered in private oratories
without special leave of the bishop. We may here remark that
the word Mass was already used, in speaking of the Sacred Mys­
teries, at the beginning of the sixth century. It arose from an
old Roman custom of dismissing any assembly whatever with
the sacramental formula : Ite, missa est. In a letter to Gunde
bald, St. Avitus calls attention to the fact that this expression
was consecrated by general usage ; that it was used in the
palace, after a public reception or ceremony ; in the prætorium,

ST. SYMMACHUS (A. D. 498-514).

75

■after the passing of sentence ; and in the church, after the
celebration of the Holy Sacrifice. The council also renewed
the prohibition to clerics and monks of travelling without
leave and letters from their bishop or abbot. Finally, the
forty-second canon bears upon an abuse of which we have al­
ready heard, though in a different form. Most of the prece­
ding councils had condemned the arts of magic and all kinds of
divination, as so many relics of idolatry ; but man’s natural
love of the marvellous, his ceaseless anxiety to sound the
secret depths of futurity, revived the practice of divination,
but covered it with the cloak of Christianity. The supersti­
tious practice before mentioned, as the lot of the saints, had
received various modifications of form. It consisted in open­
ing at random a copy of the Scriptures. The first words that
occurred on the opened page were esteemed a presage of the
future. The book was sometimes previously laid upon the
altar, thus to receive a kind of preparatory blessing. This
abuse long prevailed in spite of the watchful energy of pas­
tors and the prohibitions of councils. The canons of Agde
were subscribed by the most distinguished bishops of Southern
Gaul, who were present : St. Cesarius of Arles, St. Quintian
of Rhodez, St. Galactorius of Béarn or of Lescar, St. Glyce­
rins or Lizier of Conserans.
22. The most illustrious of all these names is that of St.
Cesarius, who had succeeded St. Eonius in the metropolitan
see of Arles (a. d. 502). The earliest years of St. Cesarius
had shown proofs of his wonderful disposition to virtue and
piety. At the age of seven years he was known to have dis­
posed of his own garments to clothe the poor. When he had
reached his eighteenth year he left his father’s roof and pre­
sented himself to St. Sylvester, bishop of Châlons-sur-Saône,
his birth-place ; throwing himself upon his knees before him, he
begged the holy prelate to confer on him the clerical tonsure,
and to receive him into the service of the Church. The bishop
was unable to refuse a request so earnestly proffered After
«pending two or three years at Châlons, Cesarius repaired to

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

Lerins, the nursery of saints. Here he was soon looked up to
as the model of the religious. The esteem in which he was
held appeared at the death of St. Eonius, metropolitan of
Arles, when the unanimous voice of the clergy and people
called for Cesarius to fill the vacant see. On learning his elec­
tion the humble religious hid himself in some deserted tombs,
seeking in the abodes of the dead a shelter from the honors con­
ferred on him by the living. It was found necessary to draw
him out by force, that this light, which was to illumine the
house of the Lord, might be placed upon the candlestick. Ce­
sarius was but thirty-three years of age. Several holy foun­
dations marked the opening of his administration. He ordered
that all the clergy should daily recite the office of Tierce,
Sexte and None, with the proper hymns, in the Church of St.
*
Stephen.
His charity founded a hospital for the reception
of the indigent sick, who were most carefully provided for.
The divine office was recited here, as in the Cathedral Church ;
but in a low voice, so as not to disturb the patients. No
misery was long unknown and none ever unheeded by the mer­
ciful heart of the holy bishop. He established a charitable
foundation for the ransom of captives ; and the thought that
some poor wretch might be near him, suffering from want,
gave him no moment of rest. He daily sent out his attend­
ants through the streets of the city to gather together all the
poor and needy, whom he loved and relieved as the suffering
members of Jesus Christ. St. Cesarius founded a monastery
of nuns, which he placed under the direction of his sister, St.
Cesaria. He gave them a rule of strict enclosure. They never
went out, and nobody was admitted into the monastery,
neither men nor women ; even the church was closed to all ex­
cept the priests or bishops who came to offer up the prayers
and the Holy Sacrifice. The life of these religious was a con­
tinued series of prayer, pious duties and mortification. Their
• Here is the practice, which subsequently became obligatory in every cathedral, 0*
reciting the canonical office.

8T. SYMMACHUS (A. D. «ΜΗ).

Ή

poverty was of the strictest character. Many communities
of nuns have since adopted the rule of St. Cesarius.
23. Clovis was meanwhile advancing toward the apparent
realization of his great plan ; he was gradually subduing the
whole of Gaul. lie had been lately raised from a serious ill­
ness in a miraculous way : St. Severinus, abbot of the monas­
tery of Agatine, in Le Valais, had suddenly removed the disease
by spreading his mantle over the illustrious patient. Clovis
knew no better means of showing his gratitude to God than
by overthrowing the Arian power of the Visigoths in Southern
Gaul ; and he therefore set out upon the expedition. St. Re­
na igius, on this occasion, gave him a counsel equally worthy of
the prelate who offered, and of the prince who 'received it.
“ Choose,” said the bishop, “ such counsellors as may add a
new lustre to your glory. Make yourself accessible to all;
let no one leave your presence with a heavy heart. If you
wish to reign with glory, be agreeable with young men, but
treat of business only with the aged.” Alarie II., long aware
of the designs of Clovis, showed the sternest rigor toward aD
whom he suspected of desiring the rule of the Frank. St.
Cesarius of Arles became an object of suspicion, from the
mere fact that his birth-place, Châlons-sur-Saône, was under
Frankish domination; as this might lead him to favor their
design, he was exiled to Bordeaux. Alaric was soon, however,
convinced of the injustice of his suspicion, and sent back the
holy bishop to his flock. But this ill-timed severity had only
embittered the feelings of all against an Arian king. Every
thing thus favored the aims of Clovis. In the course of his
march, the Frankish king seized every opportunity' of show­
ing his reverence for religion; this rallied to his standard the
whole body of Catholic Gauls. On his way through 'he prov­
ince of Tours he wished to give a proof of his veneration for
St. Martin, who then held the highest rank in the popular ven­
eration. Clovis issued an order to his whole army, forbidding
them, under the severest penalties, to touch any thing but grass
and water, throughout the whole extent of the province. A

78

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

soldior having found some hay, forcibly took it from a poor
peasant, saying that it was but grass. On being notified of the
act the king immediately ordered the execution of the soldier
“How can we hope for victory,” said he, “if we offend St.
Martin?” At the same time he sent rich presents to the
saint’s tomb. Here, again, we may be allowed to make the
same remark that was suggested by the analogous execution of
the soldier of Soissons. Looking upon this deed in the light
of the present day, it might perhaps become a fruitful theme
for criticism ; but it is the height of injustice to measure the
habits, convictions and morals of one age, by the rule of the
habits, convictions and morals of a totally different one. At
the date of which we are now treating, a period of transition
from Roman to modern civilization, the barbarian element was
uppermost ; it was represented by the conqueror ; and victory,
like power, always wields a paramount influence. Clovis aimed
at fixing his system of government in the affections of the
Gauls, the conquered race ; and his surest means of success
was to countenance, when the occasion called for them, just
such executions, which were quite lawful according to the bar­
barian legislation, and which shielded the conquered from the
excesses of the conquerors.
24. Alaric, after remaining long shut up within the walls of
Poitiers, at length came forth and offered battle to Clovis in the
plains of Vouillé, where he lost both crown and life. Clovis
marched on to Languedoc, and would have passed even farther,
had not Theodoric the Great, king c ' the Ostrogoths in Italy,
and father-in-law of Alaric IL, thrown a large army into Pro­
vence and Spain, and thus saved what was left to his youthfu]
grandson (a. d. 507). The evils ever attending an armed inva­
sion were, in this case, retrieved by two benefits of vast impor
tance : the establishment of territorial unity, and for the Church
an unlimited right of asylum and protection. At a time when
all manner of authority was called in question and force was
always the ultimatum of governments, it was a great deal to
recognize the inviolability of the Church which undertook the

8T. 8VMMACHU8 (A. D. 498-814).

7»

guardianship and the defence of the vanquished. The battle of
Vcuillé had completed the work of Clovis. He entered with
energy upon the task he had undertaken, and regulated the
administration of the new provinces he had just subdued. By
the advice of St. Remigius he convoked a council at Orleans
(a. d. 511), with a view to the restoration of discipline, sadly
relaxed in the midst of so many military movements. The
council solemnly confirmed the right of asylum granted to the
churches and to the dwellings of bishops. “ He who has
taken refuge there,” says the decree, “ cannot be withdrawn
until the pursuer swears upon the Holy Gospels that no harm
shall be done him.” Here we have another evidence of the
Church’s constant care for the weak and oppressed ; preferring
to throw her protecting mantle over some unworthy of her
interest, rather than risk the loss of innocence by means of
passion and brute force. Another canon of the Council of
Orleans forbids the admission of laymen to Holy Orders, with­
out the consent of the crown officers in the king’s name. This
decree has been a fruitful source of discussion amongst jurists,
who claim that the civil power has, from time immemorial, enjoyed
the right, in France, of intervening in the administration of
spiritual and purely ecclesiastical matters. The men of law to
whom we refer have done the Council of Orleans the undeserved
honor of making it a party to such an opinion. The motive for
this decree is most simple and natural ; it has not the slightest
relation with the theories since started and persistently thrust
forward by a certain modern school. Laymen, of free estate,
owed military service to the king. The clerical state, by royal
examptian, was free from military obligation. But every priv­
ilege bears the onerous condition of gratitude. It was just
that the king should know who enjoyed his exemption ; hence
laymen were not admitted to Holy Orders without his consent.
The fifth canon directed that the revenue of domains held by
the Church, through the royal bounty, should be applied to
repairing sacred edifices, to the support of the priests and the
poor, and to the ransom of captives. The twenty-seventh

80

ORNERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

orders tfol !,w rogation days shall be observed in all the Gallio
churches,
that, during these three days, slaves shall bo
exempt flora the usual labor. We have recorded the origin of
this institution, at Vienna, under the government of St. Mam·
mertus (a. d. 474). The Council of Orleans renewed the cen­
sures pronounced at Agde against divination and the Zoi of the
saints. The remaining decrees relate to clerical and monastic
discipline, and offer nothing of importance. All these decrees
were sent by the bishops to their lord, the most glorious king
Clovis, son of the Catholic Church. “If,” said they, “you deem
these decrees worthy of your approval, the agreement of so
great a prince, with so many assembled bishops, must secure
their observance.”
25. The king of the Franks ratified all the canons of the
Council of Orleans, and ranked them among the decrees binding
throughout the whole extent of his empire. He closed his royal
career by bestowing splendid endowments on churches and
monasteries.
The deed is still extant which transfers the
estate of Mici to the Church of Verdun, in the person of the
priest St. Euspicius and of Maximin, his nephew. In pursuance
of the advice given him by St. Genevieve, who was still living,
Clovis had, before setting out on his expedition against Alaric
II., laid the corner-stone of a church in Paris, dedicated to
Saints Peter and Paul ; this he hoped would draw down the
blessing of God upon his arms.
St. Genevieve died shortly
afterward at an extreme old age, and was buried in the
church of which became suggested the erection (a. d. 512).
This sepulchre became renowned by the many miracles which
God granted to the intercession of the lowly shepherdess of
Nanterre, now become the patroness of Paris and of France.
The basilica which entombed these precious relics was after­
ward known by her name, which it has again gloriously
regained after twice losing it during the vicissitudes of nur
political revolutions. The death of Clovis had preceded that
of St. Genevieve by a year (a. d. 511). He left to France a
monarchy founded on a solid basis; he even left it a name

ST. SYMMACHUS (A. D. 40&-&14).

81

destined to be illustrated in a long line of kings. (Clovit is
the Latinized translation of the real Frankish name KMhoig,
whence the French name Louis.)
26. Not wishing to break off the connection of the history
of the Gallic Church during the pontificate of St. Sym­
machus, upon which we had entered, we have necessarily an­
ticipated the chronological pace of events, and overlooked
other portions of the Christian world. Africa, which had be
gun to taste the sweets of peace for a while under the reign
of Gundamund, saw a revival of the persecution against the
Catholics, by his brother and successor, Thrasimund (a. d.
496). The new king of the Vandals no longer followed the
old system of persecution by open violence, barbarous tor­
ture and bloody executions. Gundamund hoped to seduce
the Catholics by promises of posts of honor and dignity, by
money or by favors. Still he again banished St. Eugenius,
bishop of Carthage, who died in the year 505, at Albi, in the
Gallic territory under the rule of the Arian Visigoths. He
also threatened with the severest penalties those who should
consecrate bishops for the vacant sees, hoping thus to break
the perpetuity of ecclesiastical government, by interrupting
the succession in the episcopate. The African clergy, with
one accord, determined to resist this despotic law. All the
Christian communities were, as before, provided with pastors.
The Church of Africa, so rich in great names and illustrious
saints, seemed to feel the approach of a long lethargy, and to
redeem itself, by anticipation, with all the life and fruitfulness
of its youth. The reputation for holiness acquired by Ful­
gentius, a youth of an illustrious Carthaginian family, already
filled the world and was the admiration even of Rome, whither
he had been driven by persecution, in the beginning of Theodoric’s reign (a. d. 500). Fulgentius devoted himself with
ardor to the study of St. Augustine’s works, in which ho had
found the motives of his conversion. He is deemed the best
interpreter of the illustrious doctor’s writings on Grace an/
the Incarnation The letters in which St. Fulgentius explain.·
VoL iL—6

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GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

those sublime doctrines are precious for their theological pu
rity and elegant style. Cassian’s work on The Monasteries oj
Thebais gave birth, in the ardent nature of the young African,
to a great love of solitude ; he accordingly determined to bury
his growing fame and the bright promise of his virtue and tal­
ent in one of those holy retreats. But the day of the An
thonies and Athanasiuses had passed away. The Theban sol­
itude, once the refuge of genius and persecuted sanctity, was
now open to the Eutychian heresy and the schism of Peter
Mongus. The bishop of Syracuse, to whom St. Fulgentius
had made known his intention, deterred him from it on that
account; he then returned to his own country, just as Thrasimund had issued his prohibition against the consecration of
new bishops. The election of St. Fulgentius to the vacant See
of Ruspa was one of the first and most glorious violations of
the late decree (a. d. 508). The new bishop did not changa
his manner of life in the dignity just conferred upon him.
The first work of his episcopate was the erection of a mon­
astery in the town of Ruspa, where he lived among the
brothers, sharing their coarse dress, their prayers and auster­
ities ; undistinguished from the rest save by a peculiar degree
of humility, gentleness, patience and mortification. Hardly
had two years elapsed since his promotion to the episcopacy
when Thrasimund’s satellites seized him and sent him, by the
king’s order, to Sardinia, with sixty bishops of the province
of Byzacium. The confessors of Jesus Christ bore with
them into exile the body ot St. Augustine, which remained
for two hundred years at Cagliari ; as if the bones of the doc­
tor of grace would abandon their country when it forsook the
teachings of grace and the way of truth.
27. The Pope St. Symmachus, in his charity and pastoral
care, sent yearly supplies of money and clothing to these holy
exiles. King Theodoric also wished to share in this work of
charity. Symmachus, whose heart was enlarged by the in­
crease of misery, every year devoted a considerable sum to
ransoming captives. He poured out the tenderness and pater·

ST. SYMMACHÜ8 (Λ. D. 408-614).

Μ

nal solicitude of his heart in consolatory letters to the Afrijan bishops ; and his tender charity was only equalled by hi»
zeal in maintaining the rights of the Church. In the year
504 he had held a council at Rome, whose decrees are full nf
i truly apostolic energy. They are especially directed against
the usurpation of *
cslesiastical estates by the Arian princes.
“ It is a sacrilege,” says the Pope, “ of which God reserves
the punishment to Himself, that the rulers of a country
should take from the Church what the faithful have bestowed
for the remission of their sins and the good of their souls.
Let him then be anathema who unjustly withholds or dis­
honestly disputes the title to ecclesiastical property! Every
such act then, even though ordered by the king, is tainted
with injustice and is null and void.” When these energetic
decrees were read, the Fathers of the council adopted them
by acclamation. This firm and decided tone in the sixth
century, under an Arian king, is worthy of remark. It is Theo·
doric’s highest panegyric that not only he never took offence
at these decrees of the Catholic bishops, but shaped his con­
duct by them in every point. The Church of Narbonne had
been unjustly despoiled ; Theodoric immediately wrote to
Duke Ibas, the general who was in command of the Roman
province in Gaul, to restore all that had been taken. He did
the same for the Church of Milan, when the bishop Eustorgius had been deprived of the territorial property held by his
see in Sicily. “ It is our will,” said this great king, “ that
nobody suffer any injustice; for the sovereign’s glory is the
security of his subjects.” “ Strive to make yourself as illus­
trious in peace as you are already renowned in war,” wrote
Theodoric to Ibas, “ by vigorously crushing every attempt at
oppression.” Theodoric’s religious reverence had suffered a
momentary violence from the calumnies uttered against St.
Cesarius of Arles. His unprincipled accusers charged the
holy prelate with taking part in some political plots against
the Roman sovereignty. Theodoric governed Provence and
Spain in the name and as guardian of his grandson Amahric ·

»4

GENERAL HISTORY OF ΤΠΕ CHURCH.

he summoned St. Cesarius to Ravenna. The monarch’s hear
*
was touched by the majesty of the venerable prelate. “May
God punish those who have unjustly accused this holy man,"
said Theodoric; “his angelic countenance so plainly bears the
impress of innocence and virtue, that suspicion of him would
be a crime.”
28. St. CesuriC3 availed himself of his journey into Italy
to repair to Rome, where he consulted St. Symmachus on
several points of discipline and canon law ; and especially on the
treatment of those who withhold Church property. He also
settled a question agitated since the time of St. Leo the Great,
between the two metropolitan Sees of Arles and Vienne, and
especially kept alive by political revolutions. Several decisions
had been successively obtained by the bishops of the two sees,
but only to the greater intricacy of the question. After mature
deliberation, St. Symmachus simply confirmed the decree of St
Leo the Great, and annulled all those since rendered. This
regulation, which we mentioned in its proper season, restricted
the jurisdiction of the See of Vienne to the four episcopal
churches of Valence, Tarentaise, Geneva, apd Grenoble, and
ordered that all the remaining churches of the province should
be subject to Arles (a. d. 513). Symmachus took pleasure in
heaping every possible honor and dignity upon the illustrious
bishop of Arles. He conferred upon him the pallium, a kind
of mantle usually worn by the Roman Pontiffs, and which they
granted to the bishops whom they wished especially to honor;
the pallium has since become the distinctive mark of the arch­
bishops. The Pope also constituted St. Cesarius legate of the
Holy See in Gaul and Spain ; and charged him, in this charac­
ter, to look to the welfare of the Church in those two provinces
The Gallic provinces now offered another subject of sweet con­
solation to the heart of the Sovereign Pontiff. Prince Sigismund,
son of Gundebald, king of the Burgundians, had just made a pub­
lic abjuration of Arianism into the hands of the great St. Avitus.
Sigismund, after his reconciliation to the Catholic Church, came
to Rome, where he was honorably received by Symmachus

ST. 8Y.MMACHD8 (A. D. 498-614).

85

The conversion of his son seemed to give no offence to Gnndeb.'ild, for, in the course of the following year. Sigismund was
called upon to share his father’s power ; he fixed his capital in
Geneva. This city was, even at that early date, an asylum foi
the heretics driven from all parts of Christendom. The young
prince gave his undivided attention and energy to re-establish the
true faith here in all its purity; he rebuilt and enlarged the
monastery of Agaune, in honor of the holy martyrs of the
Theban Legion ; and, in all his undertakings, was guided by the
counsels of St. Maximus, bishop of Geneva.
29. Thus strong in the union which reigned between the
Pope and the bishops, the Western Church steadily pursued its
course of peaceful conquest. But the East was not so blest.
Anastasius’s attention had been for a moment called away from
his anti-Catholic projects, by a three years’ war with the Per­
sians ; but in the year 505 he resumed the hostile attitude he
had taken toward the Church in the beginning of his reign.
Seconded by the intrigues of Xenaias, monophysite bishop of
Hierapolis, whom he had called for this end to Constantinople,
and by the artifice of the monk Severus, late secretary to Pete.
Mongus, he soon succeeded in bringing up a formidable array to
the support of Eutychianism. The Patriarch Macedonius, by
his resistance to the emperor’s impious orders, proved himself
full worthy of his high position. The people, who were so easily
aroused by all dogmatical disputes, were divided into two for­
midable parties, and their fierce encounters often stained the
streets with blood.
But Macedonius remained unshaken.
Anastasius hired a wretch named Ascholius to murder him ;
but the assassin missed his stroke and was discovered. Mace­
donius revenged himself on the intended murderer, by taking
him under his protection and bestowing a yearly pension upon
him ; but this magnanimous conduct failed to move the emperor.
He caused an offer of two thousand pounds of gold to be made
to Macedonius, and to the other Eastern bishops, on condition
of their condemning the decrees of the Council of Chalcedon
To this proposition the patriarch answered, that such a stop

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GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

could not be taken without an ecumenical council presided ovei
by the Pope. In his irritation at this reply, the emperor deprived
the Patriarchal Church of the right of asylum and transferred the
prerogative to the heretical churches. Macedonius stood his
ground and anathematized all who dared to speak against the
Council of Chalcedon. The public mind in Constantinople
daily grew in bitterness. During a rising of the heretics,
secretly excited by Anastasius, the Catholics ran through the
streets and public places, crying out : “ Christians ! now is the
day of martyrdom! Let us not forsake our father!” The
cowardly emperor, the willing cause of all this disorder, was so
thoroughly frightened at the proportions assumed by the sedi­
tion, that he actually ordered vessels to be prepared for his
flight. On the following night he sent for the Patriarch Mace­
donius, treacherously assured him that he wished to embrace
the Catholic faith, and accordingly handed him a captious pro­
fession of faith, in which he received the first two councils, of
Nice and Constantinople, without alluding to those of Ephesus and
Chalcedon. Macedonius, fully trusting a recantation which he
deemed sincere, did not perceive the deceit ; he received the
declaration of Anastasius and imprudently signed it himself.
This was signing Zeno’s Eenoticon. His eyes were opened to
his mistake by the Catholic religious of the monastery of St.
Delmacius. The Patriarch immediately issued an unequivocal
retractation, in which he pronounced all to be heretics who did
not receive the Council of Chalcedon.
30. To this hold protest the emperor replied by banishing
Macedonius to the very place in which his predecessor, Euphemius, was closing his term of exile (a. d. 510). The Council
of Chalcedon was the terror of the *
Monophysites, or Eutychians. The acts of this council were kept in the archives of the
Church of Constantinople. Some days before the banishment
of Macedonius, Anastasius had sent for the acts, as if for the
purpose of consulting them. The Patriarch, well aware of the
emperor’s intentions respecting the sacred deposit, sealed the
* »u5»<«, Bingio · φνσίϊ nature

8T. SYMMACHUS (A. D. 40&-514).

37

papers with his ring, and laid them upon the altar, thus placing
them under the immediate protection of God Himself. But
the emperor’s impiety braved even the holiness of the altar;
he seized the acts, tore them to pieces, and threw the frag­
ments into the fire. Macedonius was replaced on the throne
of Constantinople by Timothy, a priest of notoriously loose
morals, whose vices alone could have recommended him to
the emperor’s choice. Most of the orthodox ecclesiastics were
thrown into prison ; some escaped persecution by flight. A
council composed of courtier-bishops, bought in advance by the
emperor’s gold, confirmed the condemnation of Macedonius,
and deposed him without a hearing; thus constituting them­
selves accusers, witnesses and judges in a case diametrically
opposed, in every point, to justice, right and truth. While
thus rending the East, Anastasius strove to inflame the West
by a manifesto, or rather a slanderous libel against the Pope.
St. Symmachus, whom he accused of forsaking the true faith
to take up the error of the Manicheans, and of having been
elected in opposition to the canonical rules. The Sovereign
Pontiff seeing his honor and faith thus called in question,
replied with dignified energy. “ I cannot,” he writes to the
emperor, “ pass over your insults ; they are too much to my
honor, too much to your guilt before God. You say that I
have gone over to Manicheism. All Rome will bear witness
the purity of my faith ; and if the test be forced to an issue,
her archives can furnish the proofs. If I have fallen away in
the least degree from the Catholic doctrine which I received
from the Chair of the Blessed Apostle St. Peter, let the world
rise up against me and put me to confusion. But insults prove
nothing ; calumnies are not reasons. I know not on what
grounds you can accuse me of not being canonically elected.
God has judged. Who are you that dare to oppose His sover­
eign judgment ? You are charged with using the arms of your
soldiers to force the Catholics of Constantinople into the Eutycnian heresy. Prince, remember the lot of all the emperors
who persecuted the Catholic faith; they nearly all made a

88

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

wretched end. Now it is a persecution to grant freedom to
nil heresies and to refuse it only to the orthodox communion
If you deem it an error, you should at least tolerate it Avith
the other errors; if you believe it to be true, you should em­
brace, and not persecute it.”
31. The deposition of Macedonius by the false Council of
Constantinople was openly condemned by Flavian, patriarch
of Antioch, and by Elias of Jerusalem. They had not, indeed,
always shown a sufficiently clear understanding of the ortho­
dox doctrine, or at least sufficient spirit to make a plain pro­
fession of it. Their opposition was exceedingly irritating to
the emperor, who called a council at Sidon (a. d. 511) to force
them to an explanation, and to a rejection of the Council of
Chalcedon. Flavian and Elias made their profession of faith
in a style by no means satisfactory to the leaders of the schis­
matical faction. Anastasius was on the point of banishing them
both ; but the Patriarch of Jerusalem had foreseen the storm,
and had sent to Constantinople the man who could best avert
it. This was the holy abbot Sabas. The saintly hermit con­
sented to quit his retreat, in imitation of the patriarchs of the
desert, who, in like junctures, had gone to oppose the progress
of heresy in the capital of the East. He appeared in the im­
perial palace in his poor hermit’s dress, asking nothing for his
monastery or for himself; seeking neither the favor nor the
admiration of men. At his approach Anastasius was irresistibly
moved to a feeling of respectful veneration. The guards,
taking the aged hermit for a beggar, had at first rudely driven
him back from the palace gates. The emperor ordered him to
be admitted. In the words of a contemporary historian, “he
deemed him an angel in mortal guise.” “ I am come,” said
Sabas, 11 to entreat your piety, in the name of the holy city of
Jerusalem and of our holy Archbishop, to give peace to the
Church, and not to trouble the episcopate and the piiesthcod,
that we may in peace pray day and night for your highness."
Touched by the old man’s holy simplicity, Anastasius granted
his request and sent him back to his monastery loaded with

ST. SYMMACHUS (A. D. 498-614».

89

gifts. This was, however, but a passing concession wrung
from a proud soul by the sight of exalted holiness. But Ana­
stasius was not changed. All the supporters of Macedonius he
esteemed as enemies. In this extremity the Eastern bishops
had recourse to the Sovereign Pontiff, and appealed to him
by a letter worthy of notice.
*
“Hasten,” they write, “to the
help of the East, whence our Lord sent forth two great lights,
Peter and Paul, to illumine the whole earth. If your prede­
cessor, the great Pope Leo, did not deem it unworthy of him
to go before the fierce barbarian Attila to ward off threatened
bondage from multitudes of his children, how much more should
your Holiness snatch from an equally disastrous slavery thou­
sands of souls already groaning under its weight or daily falling
into it, and show us more plainly the true path of faith between
the deceitful and crooked ways of Eutyches and Nestorius?
Some falsely think that between these two heresies it is impos­
sible to find a road leading to salvation, and that they must of
necessity follow one or the other error. Hasten, therefore, by
the help of God, to our relief. As between Anus, who divided
the divine nature, and Sabellius, who confounded the Persons,
the holy Fathers draw the line of Catholic belief by establish­
ing the Unity of substance and Trinity of Persons; we beseech
you, now, between Eutyches who confounds, and Nestorius who
divides the natures, to show us the true orthodox teaching, that
which has been handed down to us by St. Leo and by the
disciples of the Fathers of Chalcedon, concerning the two na­
tures, divine and human, united in the same person of Jesus
Christ, our Saviour and our God.” In such a strain as this,
even in the first years of the sixth century, after two ecumeni­
cal councils called upon this very question, did the whole East­
ern Church appeal to the Pope to show the way of truth:
fourteen centuries ago the whole Eastern Church thus sponta·
* This precious ecclesiastical monument of the sixth century is well worth study ana
mentation even in our day. Fleury vouchsafes it no further notice in his history than the
mere statement that it is very long. Berault Bercastel does not even give it passing men­
tion. The original text is found in every collection of the councils.— F«L RotnuuœüM
llniverstd History of the Catholic Church, t VLU-, p. 669, 2d ed

9(

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

neously proclaimed that, under God, its only hope was in the
Sovereign Ponti IT.
32. On the 8th of October, a. d. 512, St. Symmachue
addressed to the Eastern Catholics a letter which seems to
meet their prayer. He insists upon the necessity of an invari­
able submission to the Council of Chalcedon. But St. Symma­
chus did not enjoy the consolation of seeing the reunion of the
two Churches, the subject of all his prayers. He died on the
19th of July, a. d. 514, after a pontificate of fifteen years, every
step of which had been imbittered by a new strife. The Holy
Pontiff had proved himself worthy to do battle for the Lord ;
his courage, zeal, watchfulness and charity were always equal
to the trying events that called for their exertion.

8T. H0RMISDA8 (A. D. (514-521).

CHAPTER III.
SUMMARY.

g 1. Pontificate

op

St. Hokmibdab (July 26, a. d. 514—August 6, 593).

I. Election of St. Hormisdas. Revolt at Constantinople against the Emperoi
Anastaeius.—2. Mission of St. Ennodius to the East.—3. Eutychian perse­
cution in Illyria and Epirus.—4. Death of Anastasius.—5. Justin the Elder
ascends the throne of the East.—6. End of the Eutychian schism in Con­
stantinople.—7. Theological Proposition of the Scythian Monks : Unus de
Trinitate passus est.—8. Homerites. Martyrdom of King St. Arethaa.—9.
St. James the Doctor, Bishop of Batnæ or Sarug. St Isaac, Bishop of Nin­
eveh.—10. Country of the Angles, Isle of Saints.—11. Saints of Scotland
and Ireland.—12. Death of St Hormisdas.

§ II. Pontificate

of

St. John I. (August 18, a. d. 523—May 27, 526).

la Arian Reaction on the part of Theodoric the Great Journey of St. John
I. to Constantinople.—14. Boetius put to Death by Theodoric the Great
Symmachus.—15. Imprisonment and death of St John I. Death of
Theodoric the Great—16. Councils of Arles, Valence, and Lerida.

§ III. Pontificate

of

St. Felix IV. (July 12, a. d. 526—October 12, 529).

17. Promotion of St Felix IV. Justinian and Theodora.—18. Justinian's Leg·
islation.—19. Conversion of the Heruli settled on the banks of tho Danube,
and of Gordas, King of the Huns.—20. Athalaric, king of the Italian Ostro

goths.—21. Death of St. Felix IV.
§ IV. Pontificate

of

St. Boniface IL (Oct 15, a. d. 599—Dec., 531).

22. Election and first acts of St Boniface II.—23. Councils of Rome, Orange,
Vaison, and Toledo.—24. St Benedict—25. Visit of Totila, King of the
Ostrogoths, to St. Benedict—26. Death of St Boniface II.
§ V. Pontificate of St. John II. (January 22, a. d. 532—April 26, 535)

27. Athalaric claims a tribute for the election of the Sovereign Poi iÆ—98
New investigation of the Proposition: Unus de Trinitate passu» ut—29

V2

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH

Sedition of the Greens and Blues in Constantinople.—30. Belisarius pnte
an end to the Vandal rule in Africa.
Pbaras.—31. Holy personages
in Gaul—32. Murder of the son of Clodomir.—33. Suppression of the
Order of Deaconesses. Council of Orleans.—34. St. Medard of Noyon,
St. Radcgundcs, St Marcou, St. Evroul, <fec.—35. Deposition of Contume­
liosus, Bishop of Reoz. Death of St. John II.

§ VI. Pontificate

of

St. Agapetus (May 4, a. d. 535—April 22, 536).

36. Election of St. Agapetus. Adoption of the Christian Era, first used by
Dionysius the Little, about the year 535.—37. Letter of Justinian to St.
Agapetus. Reply of the Pope.—38. Council of Carthage.—39. Belisarius
attacks Theodatus, King of the Goths, in Italy.—40. Journey of St. Aga­
petus to Constantinople. Death of the Pope.

§1. Pontificate of St. Hormisdas (July 26, a. d. 514—August 6,
523).
1. St. Hormisdas succeeded St. Symmachus on the 26th
of July, a. d. 514. Constantinople was at this time the scene
of a revolution which had well-nigh proved fatal to Anastasius. The emperor, in his strange mania for changing every
thing, one day made known his intention of reforming the
Gospels, as he thought their style too simple. He wished also
to change the Liturgy, and especially to oblige the clergy and
faithful to sing the Trisagion with the heretical additions made
to it by Peter the Fuller. The Catholics opposed these sacri
legious innovations. The new patriarch, Timothy, on the other
hand, encouraged them with all his influence. He pitched
upon the occasion of a solemn procession, when the streets of
Constantinople were full of people, to inaugurate the impious
chant required by the emperor ; but the mass of the people
indignantly rushed to arms. The sedition was fearful, and ten
thousand persons are calculated to have lost their lives in it.
Vitalian, one of the emperor’s generals, thought this a fitting
opportunity to satisfy some resentful feelings he entertained
toward his imperial master. Placing himself at the head of the
rebels, he found himself in less than two months master of
Thrace, Mœsia and part of Illyria. The month of June. a. d.

8T. HORMISDAS (A. Γ 614-S23).

93

514, saw him at the gates of Constantinople. The Catholice
hailed him most enthusiastically, and were for proclaiming him
emperor. Anastasius, trembling with terror in his palace,
capitulated. Without his diadem, and in the posture of a sup­
pliant, he appeared before the people in the circus, promised
to recall the exiled bishops, to enter into the fold of the true
Church and to become its protector. These new protestations
were indeed but new untruths ; but they served to appease the
popular tumult. The people, the army, and the senate main­
tained Anastasius upon the throne, and Vitalian was obliged
to content himself with the title of Governor of Thrace. To
give some show of fulfilment of the promises wrung from him
by abject terror, Anastasius wrote to Pope Hormisdas a letter
full of feigned reverence, in which he strives to justify bis
long silence toward the Sovereign Pontiffs ; the emperor begs
Hormisdas to send legates to a council convoked at Heraclea,
to treat of the reunion of the two Churches and the extinction
of the Eastern schism. This dispatch was speedily followed
by a second renewing the same protestations and the same
requests (a. d. 515).
2. Hormisdas joyfully seized this occasion of extinguish­
ing a heresy which had so long desolated the Church. He sent
to Constantinople, as legates, St. Ennodius, the successor of St.
Epiphanius in the See of Pavia ; another bishop named Fortu­
natus; Venantius, a priest; the deacon Vitalis, and a notary,
Hilarius. They received written and minutely detailed instruc­
tions. This memorial, the oldest of its kind now extant, is a
true model of urbanity, of prudence, and of Christian and pon­
tifical diplomacy. The only admissible basis for a serious
arrangement was the formal and distinct recognition of the
Council of Chalcedon, and of the letters of St. Leo the Great
against Nestorius. Eutyches, Dioscorus, and their adherents;
a solemn abjuration of the Eutychian and Monophysite her­
esies was also required. The Pope likewise sent by his leg­
ates a letter for the emperor, laying down the same terms for
the reunion of the two Churches, and offering to assist in *p r-

94

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

eon at the council, to close this important matter. Such a pro
posai was without precedent in the history of the Sovereign
Pontiffs. Anastasius had not dreamed of entering into serious
negotiations with the Holy See ; he had only aimed at gaining
time to deceive everybody. The legates were sent hack with
letters to the Pope, in which Anastasius distinctly condemned
the doctrine of Eutyches, and expressed himself surprised that
the Pope should have suspected him of holding heterodox
views respecting the Council of Chalcedon, whose decrees, he
said, he had always respected and upheld (a. d. 516). Whilst he
thus lied to his conscience, the emperor was sending into exile
the Catholic bishops of Nicopolis, Lignis, Naissus, and Paulitale, for refusing to embrace Eutychianism. Dorotheus, metro­
politan of Thessalonica, pressed by threats and intimidations,
weakly consented to communica.·.. with Timothy, the unworthy
Patriarch of Constantinople. The apostasy of Dorotheus how­
ever gave to his suffragans, the Illyrian bishops, occasion to
show a noble example of firmness and courage. They met in
council under the presidency of John, bishop of Nicopolis, and
successor to Alcyso, who had been banished by Anastasius,
and had died in exile. They proclaimed that they no longer
held communion with their metropolitan since his fall, and that
they owned no other communion than that of the Roman
Church. They sent the reports of their sessions and their de­
crees to Pope Hormisdas for confirmation.
3. The holy Pope was much consoled by these proofs ol
faithful devotion to the cause of God. In reply he congratu
lated the bishops of Illyria and Epirus, and urged them to pro­
nounce an anathema against Eutyches and his partisans, which
they had omitted to do in the canons of their council (a. d.
516). Yet the apostate metropolitan Dorotheus did not wince
under such a reproach. Backed by the armed force placed at
his disposal by the emperor Anastasius, he exacted enormous
tributes from the Churches of Illyria, and daily found new
modes of oppression. The persecuted bishops again appealed
to the Sovereign Pontiff, who determined to send a second

ST. H0RMI8DA8 (A. 0. 614-523).

95

embassy to Constantinople, to obtain from the emperor a ces­
sation of these acts of violence. But Anastasius, now freed
from the fear of Vitalian’s arms, took no pains to hide his real
designs. He turned away the legates with insults, and com­
mitted them to one of his ships, under a guard who were
ordered to allow them no communication with any city of the
empire (a. d. 517).
The courageous ambassadors, however,
found means to secure the delivery of some of the protests
addressed by the Pope to the Eastern Churches. The emperor,
on becoming aware of the fact, took the opportunity of writing
to St. Hormisdas in a strain of reproach and insult. “ We can
bear,” he wrote, “ to be insulted and even despised, but not
commanded.” As though in matters of faith the emperor
were not as much bound by the laws of the Church as the
least of the faithful.
4. The monk Severus, by his zeal in persecuting the Catho­
lics, had won the favor of the heretical emperor, who raised him
to the Patriarchal See of Antioch. Severus did not lose the
opportunity afforded by his new dignity to redouble his perse­
cution. In a. d. 517 he had led an armed force against the
monasteries around Jerusalem, and put three hundred and fifty
religious to the sword. The archimandrites begged the Pope
to use his influence in their behalf with the court of Constan­
tinople ; but we know how little hope St. Hormisdas could
have of moving an emperor like Anastasius, especially since
he had taken Severus under his special protection. Elias, Pa­
triarch of Jerusalem, for refusing to communicate with the
apostate, was banished, and his See given to John, who had
promised to receive the communion of Severus. But hardly
had this disgraceful weakness placed him upon a throne that
was not his, when John proved himself quite another man.
Moved by the words of St. Sabas, at the risk of his life he
gathered the people into the great basilica of Jerusalem, and
there, in the very face of the imperial officers, amid the joyful
acclamations of all the Catholics, he uttered a solemn anathema
against Eutyches and all heretics who did not receive the Coun­

96

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

ci] of Chalcedon. This unlooked-for event drove the emperoi
to fury ; but time was denied him for revenge. Heaven had not
withheld its warnings. During the preceding year, Timothy
of Constantinople, his creature and accomplice, had died im­
penitent; and was closely followed to the grave by John Nice·
otis, Eutychian Patriarch of Alexandria, whose death had
given rise to serious disorders in Egypt. The barbarians prof­
ited by these religious troubles to make their inroads upon the
empire. The cavalry of the Gethæ or Goths crossed the Dan­
ube, plundered Macedonia and entered Thessaly, on one side,
as far as Thermopylae, no longer defended by the shade of
Leonidas ; on the other, to the frontiers of Epirus. The in
vaders dragged at their horses’ heels a long train of captives.
The ravages of the barbarians were closely followed by the
most fearful earthquake recorded in history (a. d. 518) ; the
twenty-four cities of Dardania were utterly destroyed. At
length, Anastasius, who had refused to heed so many warn­
ings of the divine anger, was found in a retired chamber of
his palace, struck dead by lightning during a storm (a. d. 518).
Thus perished, at the age of eighty-eight years, Anastasius, to
whom historians have given the name of Silentiary, as before
his elevation to the throne, he was employed as usher in the
palace, and was charged to maintain order and silence in the
imperial residence. His reign forms one of the most disgrace­
ful passages in the annals of the Lower Empire.
5. It was reserved to the next emperor, hand in hand with
John, who had succeeded the intruder Timothy in the See of
Constantinople, to restore peace to the Church and extinguish
schism in the East. God seemed to have led this prince by
the hand through extraordinary vicissitudes, to raise him up to
this high destiny. In the year a. d. 470, a shepherd-boy of
the village of Bederiana in Thrace entered the gates of Con­
stantinople on foot : it was Justin. Whilst keeping his father’s
flocks in a distant part of his native province, the scene of so
many battles, he felt witliin him a growing thirst for glory and
arms. He accordingly set out for the capital to seek service

ST. H0RM18DA8 (A. D. 514-523).

97

in the imperial legions. The emperor Leo, his fellow-country­
man, admitted him among his guards. The young herdsman
was a Catholic—stanch, loyal, and generous. He distinguished
himself in the wars against the Persians and Isaurians, who
harassed the empire for six years after the death of Zeno.
Leo the Thracian made him military tribune and then general;
Anastasius granted him the title of senator. At the time of
the latter emperor’s death, the former shepherd of Bederiana
added to all these dignities that of captain of the guards. The
eunuch Mantius, great chamberlain to Anastasius, was intrigu­
ing to put the sceptre into the hands of one of his friends ; to
this end he had intrusted the captain of the guards with large
sums of money to distribute among the soldiers. Justin
divided the money, but in his own name, and announced him­
self as a candidate for the empire. Fifty years of good and
loyal service in the army had won him the affection of all the
soldiers ; they proclaimed him emperor the day after Anasta­
sias’ death, and the Thracian shepherd was now emperor, under
the name of Justin the Elder. The new emperor had never
consented to learn either to read or to write ; the letters com­
posing his name were engraved on a wooden tablet, and he thus
signed the acts of his government. But he had the wisdom to
surround himself with prudent and honest advisers. The up­
right and able Proclus, his minister and friend, managed his
public concerns with great care ; and it was soon shown that a
right intention and honorable views make a better sovereign
than the spirit of double-dealing and deceit, which had so long
disturbed the East under Anastasius the Silentiary.
6. On the Sunday following the election of the emperor
Justin (June 15, a. d. 518), when the Patriarch John had
entered the basilica of Constantinople with his clergy, the peo­
ple broke out into a unanimous cry : “ Long live the emperor !
long live the empress ! long live the Patriarch ! Why are we
excommunicated ? You are orthodox ; what do you fear Î
Away with Severus the Manichean! Proclaim the Council of
Chalcedon ! The emperor too is orthodox. Long life to the
*
Vol
LL—7

98

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

new Constantine ! Long life to the new Helena!” It is im
possible to repress a feeling of joy at the sight of a whole peo
pie thus calling for the faith of its fathers. The echo of such
an outburst comes down through successive ages to the Catho­
lic heart, like a cry of victory. The Patriarch, yielding to the
wishes of the multitude, appeared in the pulpit and made the
following announcement: “We make known to your charity
that to-morrow we shall solemnize the memory of our holy
fathers of Chalcedon who drew up the profession of the true
faith.” These words were followed by enthusiastic applause.
On the next day the ceremony of reconciliation was duly per­
formed. The name of St. Leo the Great was restored to the
diptycha ; and those of the heretics who had so long desolated
the Church were blotted out. These spontaneous measures,
dictated by a holy enthusiasm, were ratified four days later
(June 20, a. d. 518) by a council of forty bishops then con­
voked in Constantinople. Orders were sent to all the cities of
the empire requiring the recognition of the Council <jf Chalce­
don; and they were everywhere obeyed amid the joyful ac­
clamations of the people. The great Churches of Antioch,
Jerusalem, Tyr, Ptolemais, and Alexandria sent letters of
thanksgiving to Constantinople for so happy a change. Anastasius had hardly been dead one month, and all the East was
once more Catholic. Justin sent a request to Hormisdas that
he would consummate the reconciliation of the two Churches
by an act of his apostolic authority. He urged the Pope to
send legates to Constantinople to perfect this great work. The
glorious mission was intrusted by Hormisdas to Germanus,
bishop of Capua, another bishop named John, the priest Blan­
dus, and the deacons Felix and Dioscorus. The passage of
the legates on their way to the East was like a triumphal
march. The bishops and magistrates of the several cities on
their route came forth accompanied by the troops and pecple
to give them solemn escort. The clergy readily signed the
profession of faith and communion drawn up by the Sovereign
Pontiff and intrusted by him tc the legates. At length, on

8T. HORMISDAS (A. D. 514-523).

99

the 28th >f March, a. d. 519, the act of reunion, penne] by the
Patriarch of Constantinople, was publicly read in the basilica
of the Eastern capital. It was thus worded: “ We receive all
the decrees of the four ecumenical Councils of Nice, Constanti­
nople, Ephesus, and Chalcedon. We anathematize all heretics,
especially Nestorius, former Bishop of Constantinople and
condemned in the Council of Ephesus by the blessed Pope St.
Celestin. We anathematize Eutyches and Dioscorus, bishops
of Alexandria, who were condemned by the holy Council of
Chalcedon. We include in the same condemnation the parri­
cide Timothy, called Ælurus, and his di-riple Peter Mongue
of Alexandria. We also anathematize Acacius, once bishop
of Constantinople, their accomplice and partisan. By follow­
ing in all things the authority of the Apostolic See we hope
to remain unshaken in our devotion to the communion of the
Chair of St. Peter, the true and solid foundation of the Church:
the centre of unity, and source of authority.” When the
Patriarch, in the presence of all the faithful, signed this pro­
fession, the pledge of peace after so much strife, tears flowed
from every eye, and the arches of the basilica rang with the
enthusiastic outburst that hailed Pope Hormisdas and the
emperor Justin. The legates sent to Rome two copies of the
formula, subscribed by the Patriarch, one in Greek, another in
Latin.
The names of Acacius, Zeno and Anastasius were
erased from the diptychs. Thus ended (a. d. 519) the Eutychian schism of Constantinople, which had lasted thirty-five
years, since the condemnation of Acacius.
7. The whole Catholic world was overjoyed at the tidings
of this event. St. Hormisdas was more touched by it in pro­
portion as he had done more toward its completion. Still the
formula of reunion did not meet with the same ready acknowl­
edgment in all the Eastern Churches. Dorotheus, the excom­
municated Patriarch of Thessalonica, refused to sign it. The
legate sent to present it to him even ran great personal risk.
The emperor Justin showed great irritation at this resistance
The Sovereign Pontiff counselled moderation, and wrote to bis

100

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

deputies at the court of Constantinople : “ You must so man
age that no one embrace the Catholic faith without knowing
the motives that lead him to take the step; let no one com­
plain that the prince has forced upon him a truth of which he
is not convinced. Since the Bishop of Thessalonica has proved
unwilling to receive your instruction, ask the emperor to send
him to Rome, that he may confer with us and find a solution
to his difficulties. If he reject instruction, he will prove his
bad faith by resisting the orders of God and of his prince.”
The Sovereign Pontiff’s indulgence was crowned with success.
In a few months Dorotheus submitted. St. Ilormisdas em­
powered the Patriarch of Constantinople to end the matter;
and submitted to his judgment a question which had arisen
between some Scythian monks and the legates. The monks
wished to insert in their profession the proposition, One of the
Trinity suffered. These words were susceptible of an orthodox
interpretation; but the Catholics wished to substitute this
form : One of the Persons of the Trinity suffered, as more clearly
expressing the distinction of Persons in the unity of substance.
The prudence of the Church of Rome was by no means partial
to a discussion which depended chiefly on words, and the Pope
speaks thus of the Scythian monks who afterward went to
Rome on account of this question : “We strove to heal them
by our patience; but they are too much accustomed to dis­
putes, too fond of novelty, and too deeply fixed in their own
views. They treat as heretics all who hold an opinion other
than their own. Practised in slander, they spread trouble and
sedition everywhere on their path ; we could restrain them
neither by warnings, nor by gentleness, nor by authority.” St.
Hormisdas contented himself with blaming their stubbornness,
without condemning the proposition, which was afterward
received by John II.
8. These memorable events took place in the year 520
Whilst the Eastern Church was thus again born to Catholicity
under Justin, the faith was making new conquests in Colchis.
The king of the Lazi, who had heretofore been a vassal and

8T. H0KM18DA8 (A. D. 614-523).

iDl

tributary of Persia, recognized the sovereignty of the Greek
emperor, and became a Christian. Zathus—for so the king
was called—was received as a son by Justin, and espoused the
princess Valeriana, who bestowed as a dowry upon her new
kingdom the faith of Jesus Christ (a. d. 522). The Gospel had
also made its way into Yemen (Arabia Felix). Here the faith­
ful began to feel the persecutions which multiplied martyrs to
a fearful extent in other lands. In the year 523, the Jewish
leader Dunaan was placed by his coreligionists upon the throne
of the Homerites, as the Greeks called those tribes by a corrup­
tion of the Eastern name Hamiar, which really belonged to
them. The new monarch distinguished himself by his cru­
elty toward the Christians. Two hundred and eighty priests
were murdered ; all the Ethiopians in the land suspected of
favoring the Catholic faith were massacred. Dunaan had issued
orders to destroy all the churches and to build synagogues in
their stead. In his Jewish zeal for proselytism he undertook
a formidable expedition against Nadiran, a city of some impor­
tance in the northern part of Yemen, and wholly peopled by
Christians. The city was defended with undaunted courage.
Unable to overcome by open force, Dunaan resorted to an infa­
mous stratagem. He sent heralds to the besieged, promising
to spare their lives, to leave them in undisturbed enjoyment
of their wealth and the free exercise of their religion, on con­
dition of their opening their gates to him. His lying prom­
ises were believed ; but his first act on entering the city was
to give up the houses to plunder and to burn the church, with
the priests and people who had sought shelter within its walls
Those of the inhabitants who refused to deny their faith were
put to death, without distinction of age or sex. Large fires
were lighted in deep pits, and these generous victims of then
fidelity to the name of Jesus Christ were thrown into them io
one promiscuous heap. The martyrdom of Arethas, the con
quered king of Nadiran, was attended by circumstances which
well proved his heroic courage. This prince, who showed himself worthy to change the earthly diadem he had just lost fur i

102

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

heavenly crown, was then ninety-five years old. Dunaan fluid
tinned him into his presence, and, insulting his misfortune, said
tc him : “ See to what end your trust in Christ has brought
you ! Disown that name, the cause of your misfortune, and
think of your old age.” “ It belongs only to impostors, and not
to kings,” answered Arethas, “ to violate the most solemn
oaths, as you have done in the case of this unhappy city.
Kings—of whom I have met many in my long career—keep
their word; they abhor double-dealing and treachery. For my
part, I shall never betray the duty I have promised to Christ,
my God. I shall never become an apostate Jew like yourself.”
Then turning to the captive Christians who stood about him,
“Brethren,” he said, “did you hear my words to this Jew?”
“ Yes, father.” “ Have I spoken the truth or not ?” “ The
truth,” they replied. “If it be true, and if there stand amongst
you some base and coward Christian ready to forswear his
God, let him speak, nor longer let his presence contaminate the
assembly of the saints.” With one voice they uttered their
resolve to die for Christ. Dunaan, in anger, ordered them all
to be executed on the sea-shore. Arethas first received the
fatal blow. His subjects, now become his fellows in glory,
were dispatched after him, and as their heads were struck off
their bodies were cast into the sea. A little child four years of
age was led along by his mother, who was going to execution ;
the tyrant questioned him: “Would you rather live with me
than die with your mother?” “I will not deny Jesus,” answered
the child; “I would rather die with my mother.” “See,” said
Dunaan to his officers, “the perversity of that race which
Christ has misled even from early infancy.” Yet he was
ashamed to order the execution of the young and brave confes­
sor ; he accordingly gave him in charge to one of his officers to
be carefully brought up, reserving the right to take him back
at the age of fifteen years, when he should be pardoned if he
renounced his faith, but put to death if he persevered in the
generous constancy of which he had just given such noble
proofs. The persecutor of the Christians was not to see the

81. HORMISDAS (A. D. 514-623).

period fixed in this delay of his revenge. In the following
year (524), Elisbaan, king of Ethiopia, encouraged by the
favor of the emperor Justin, attacked the Jewish tyrant, de­
feated his army in a bloody battle, and put him to death,
together with all his kindred ; the conqueror then reopened all
the Catholic churches, and restored to the Homerites the free
exercise of a religion which they bad gloriously confessed
under the executioner’s sword.
9. Armenia was at this time the home of wonderful holi­
ness and learning. St. James, called the Doctor, bishop of
Batnæ or Sarug, devoted a life of seventy-two years to the
defence of the Catholic faith again it the errors of Nestorius
and of Eutyches, and to the practice of the most exemplary
virtue. He died in the year 522, rich in glory and merit.
His numerous works are written in the Syriac tongue, and are
remarkable for their sound doctrine and flowing elegance of
style, rich in images and poetical figures. One of his contem­
poraries, but one who outlived him by many years, was St.
Isaac, bishop of Nineveh, who had taken up the monastic life
at a very early age. On the day of his consecration two
pleaders came before him ; for the bishops of that period were
expected to regulate not only the spiritual concerns of their
flocks, but all disputes of whatever nature that might arise
amongst Christians. One of the parties claimed the payment
of a debt; the other admitted the claim, but begged a delay.
The creditor urged the argument : “ If you do not pay me, I
shall sue you.” “ The Gospel,’’ said St. Isaac, “ directs us not
to claim what has been taken from us,and much moreto grant
a respite to him who asks it.” “ I have nothing to do with the
Bible,’ answered the creditor ; “ that is not the question.”
Isaac thought within himself : “ If these people do not heed the
Gospel, to what end am I come here?” And reflecting upon
the fearful responsibility of the pastoral charge, he resigned his
dignity, and retired to the desert of Scete, in Egypt. He wrote
four books on the Monastic Institute, and was esteemed the
model and teacher of the religious who peopled that solitude.

104

GENERAL HISTORY 01

THE CHURCH.

The city of Nineveh was honored in the same century by »
pious and elegant writer named John Sabbas, who has left i.s
several treatises on mysticism, the fruit of a life spent in the
contemplation of heavenly things.
10. Whilst the true faith shone so brightly in the East, the
far-off Western Islands of Great Britain and Ireland had won
the distinctive title of Isles of Saints. This glorious name, be­
queathed to England by the Christians of the sixth century,
but since so long forgotten, may once again belong to it, if the
promise of so many late conversions be not too soon blighted.
St. David, archbishop and patron of Wales, after having spent
some years in solitude in the Isle of Wight, which he edified by
his many virtues, built and dedicated a chapel at Glastonbury,
and founded twelve monasteries, the chief of which was in the
Vale of Ross, near Menevia, now called St. David’s. He was
present at a council held in a. d. 519, at Brevy, in Cardigan­
shire, where he eloquently attacked and confuted the Semi­
Pelagian heresy threatening to spring forth again in Britain
He was then appointed as successor to St. Dubritius in the
episcopal see of Caerleon, which he transferred to Menevia.
St. David spoke with great force and energy ; but his exam­
ple was more powerful than his eloquence, and he has in all
succeeding ages been the glory of the Welsh Church. The rule
which he gave to his monasteries made him the spiritual father
of many saints, both English and Irish (a. d. 470-544). St.
David’s predecessor, St. Dubritius, had opened a celebrated
school at Warwick, where he remained seven years, explaining
the Sacred Writings. The holy teacher’s reputation brought
him many scholars from all parts of Great Britain. He at one
time explained the sacred word to a thousand disciples. In
a. d. 446, he was consecrated by St. Germanus of Auxerre
bishop of Llandaff, and subsequently became archbishop of Caer­
leon. This dignity he resigned to St. David (a. d. 519), and
retired to the solitude of a monastery at Bardsley, where he
died soon after. St. Thelian, his disciple, made a pilgrimage to
Jerusalem in the year 500. On his return, he was raised t·

8T. H0RMIBDA8 (Λ. D. 514-523).

105

the See of Llandaff, to succeed St. Dubritius, who had been re­
moved to Caerleon. He made his Church illustrious by his
learning, piety and zeal, and by the great care with which he
chose his clergy from among enlightened and virtuous men.
So great was his influence, that his decision, in any question
whatever, was always received without appeal. lie displayed
the most heroic charity during the prevalence of a contagious
disease in the province of Wales, and died a. d. 580, in the
retreat of Bardsley, whither he had withdrawn to make ready
for his passage to eternity. At about the same time (a. d.
516), St. Daniel, another Welsh bishop, founded the celebrated
monastery of Bangor, near the arm of the sea that separates
Anglesey from Wales. The same fruitful country was at this
time in admiration of the holy abbot Cadoc, son of a prince who
ruled the southern portion of the province. Cadoc had suc­
ceeded his father in the government of his state, but soon gave
up the royal dignity to embrace a monastic life. He estab­
lished a monastery at Lan-Carvon, three miles from Cowbridge.
This retreat became a nursery for illustrious and holy men.
St. Iltutus, St. Gildas the Albanian, St. Sampson, and St.
Magloire here learned the lessons of holiness and virtue which
afterward illustrated their native land.
11. Scotland and Ireland by no means yielded to England
in the great religious movement so evident in Great Brit­
ain. St. Kentigern, of royal blood among the Picts (a. d.
516-601); spread the Gospel throughout his native land, and
founded the bishopric of Glasgow in a solitary place, soon peo­
pled by the throngs which his presence and teachings drew
thither, and thus gave rise to the present city of that name.
Kentigern sent missionaries to preach the faith in the Orkney
Islands, in Norway and Iceland. Catholic Ireland could also
count with pride her glo;.ous generation of saints: the mest
remarkable names of the century are those of St. Columban,
of the illustrious house of Neil, and founder of the great mon­
astery of Dair-Magh, now called Durrow (a. d. 429-570),
St. Finian, bishop of Clonard, one of the most illustrious Irish

106

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

bishops, next to St. Patrick (λ. d. 500-552) ; St. Tigemach,
bishop of Clones, in the county of Monaghan (a. d. 190-550);
St. Albœus, archbishop of Munster, founder of a monastery
in the Isle of Arran, to which he left a most admirable rule
(a. d. 460-525) ; and St. Bridget, virgin, abbess, and patron­
ess of Ireland. Whilst still in early years she received the
veil at the hands of St. Mel, nephew and disciple of St. Pat­
rick. She built herself a cell in the hollow of a large oak,
hence called Kill-dara, or cell of the oak. Being joined soon
after by a number of her own sex, St. Bridget formed them
into a religious community, which soon branched out into sev­
eral other convents throughout Ireland (a. d. 470-523).
12. The glorious pontificate of St. Hormisdas was now fast
drawing to a close (a. d. 523). The question of grace had
once more arisen in the Church of Africa, so cruelly deci­
mated by King Thrasimund. Possessor, an African bishop,
consulted the Pope on the writings of Faustus, bishop of Recz,
which we had occasion to mention in speaking of the Church
of Gaul. Hormisdas referred him to St. Augustine’s works on
the subject. The Pope at this time bestowed the rank of pri­
mate of Spain upon the bishop of Tarragona, yet confirming
the same dignity granted by St. Simplicius to the bishop of
Seville, for the provinces of Andalusia and Portugal. In a
decretal addressed to all the Spanish bishops, Hormisdas for­
bade the ordination of priests per saltuni> that is, without ob­
serving the intervals prescribed by the canons. Orders could
not be conferred upon public penitents. Strict inquiry must
be made into the honesty and learning of the candidate. Last­
ly, the Pope required that provincial synods should be held at
least once a year, since they were the best means of preserving
discipline. The Sovereign Pontiffs always strove to call atten­
tion to this fact. Councils are the great assizes of the Church.
They discuss the laws which guide her, publish rules of disci­
pline, and take measures for the common welfare ; here dis­
puted points are settled, conflicts of opinion decided, the
objections of innovators and heretics answered. The Church

107

ST. JOHN I. (A. D. 523-626).

has ever set the greatest value upon the freedom of these sol­
emn assemblies, where, by the help of the Holy Ghost, all the
wants of the faithful are supplied. St. Hormisdas died on the
Oth of August, a. d. 523, after a pontificate of nine years. lie
had spent, in ornamenting the churches of the city, five hun­
dred and seventy-one pounds of silver, collected from the char­
ity of the faithful ; this was a large sum at that time. St.
Hormisdas may well be held up as an example of moderation and
firmness, two most important qualities for one who governs men.
§ Π. Pontificate of St. John I. (Aug. 13,
27, 526).

a d.

523—May

13. St. John I. was chosen to succeed St. Hormisdas on
the 13th of August, a. d. 523. His accession to the Sovereign
Pontificate is marked by a new phase in the history of Theo­
doric, king of the Ostrogoths. This great king had heretofore
shown himself worthy of his high destiny ; and the first part
of his life could be fitly urged as a model of wise, dignified and
prudent administration. But this period seems to have brought
jut the inborn barbarism of his nature in all its intensity.
This outburst of violence which was soon to degenerate into
cruelty, was first caused by the energy with which Justin
sustained the cause of Catholicity in the East. The emperor,
wishing to strike a decisive blow at Arianism, disqualified
all Arians for any trust either military or civil. Theodoric
had always professed Arianism, even whilst paying the homage
we have recorded to the virtue and learning of the Catholic
bishops. Justin’s decree aroused the sectarian spirit which had
till then so quietly slumbered in the breast of Theodoric ; the
Ostrogoth declared that if tne emperor’s edicts were carried
out, he should retaliate most fearfully upon the Italian Catho­
lics. His minister, Cassiodorus, was unwilling to follow his
master into the way of violent reaction he was preparing. He
quitted the court, and the spirit of wisdom which had hitherto
regulated the administration left with him. Theodoric summ med the Pope to Ravenna. “ Go to Constantinople.” said

108

GENERAL HISTORT OF THE CHURCH.

the king to him, “and require the Emperor Justin to allow the
Arians who have been forcibly converted to return to Arian­
ism.” “ Do with me what you will,” answered the courageous
Pontiff, “ I am in your hands ; but such a proposal I cannot
make, as it would be an apostasy.” Theodoric still insisted
upon his going to Constantinople to assure the Emperor Justin
that if he proscribed Arianism in the East, Catholicity should
pay the penalty in the West. The Pope yielded, and set out
for Constantinople, accompanied by five Italian bishops—Ecclesius of Ravenna, Eusebius of Fano, Sapinus of Capua, and two
others, whose names are lost to us. This was the first time
that the head of Christendom, the Roman Pontiff, had under­
taken such a journey. The tidings of his approach caused a
lively emotion in Constantinople and throughout the East.
The Pope was met at the distance of twelve miles from the
city by a countless throng of the faithful. The Emperor Jus­
tin bowed in humble reverence before him, and entreated the
favor of receiving the crown from his hand ; Justin was the
first emperor crowned by a Pope. The Patriarch Epiphanius,
who had succeeded John in the See of Constantinople, begged
the Pontiff to officiate at the solemn service in the great basilica
on the festival of Easter, a. d. 525. The Pope yielded to his
earnest wishes, and afterward communicated with all the
Eastern bishops, only excepting Timothy, patriarch of Alexan­
dria, who still refused to receive the Council of Chalcedon.
When St. John I. had received all the marks of respect and
reverence due to his dignity, he entered upon the business that
had brought him to Constantinople. He represented to Justin
the evils which threatened Italy, and without in the least giv­
ing way to error, said that all possible freedom for repentance
should be granted to every conscience. The emperor yielded
to his reasoning, and the Arians were left in peace. This duty
fulfilled, the Pope set out on his return, loaded with rich pres­
ents by Justin;
*
but instead of the honors which had met him
• Justin presented the Popo with a gold paten enriched with jewels, and of twenty
pounds weight, a gold chalice weighing five pounds, five silver vessels, and fifteen palli

ST. JOHN I. (A. D. 623-528).

100

in the East, a cruel and cheerless prison awaited him in rhe
West (a. d. 525).
14. During the Pontiff’s absence, Theodoric had put to
death, on unjust suspicion, the most learned and virtuous of the
Romans, the illustrious senator Boetius. This distinguished
man knew how to lighten the cares and toil attending the high­
est civil offices by the relaxation of philosophical and literary
pursuits. He was a fervent Christian of deep conviction ; was
honored with the friendship of the Popes St. Symmachus, St.
Hormisdas, and St. John I., with all of whom he was contempo­
rary; and under their protection and guidance he undertook
to reconcile reason with faith, philosophy and the religion of
Christ, and to prove that the one is but the porch that leads
to the other. Boetius devoted the labors of a lifetime to this
idea, which Christian philosophers have followed up from age
to age, and to which we owe the best efforts of the brightest
genius. Amongst other works which he wrote in support of
this theory we still have his Introduction to the Philosophy of
Aristotle; the Interpretation of Aristotle; and the translations
of the same philosopher’s Analytics, Topics, and Sophisms. T.i
Boetius is due the first application in the study of theology
of the system now known as the scholastic, which embraces
these two incalculable advantages—order in the whole, and
precision in details. Upon such a man did Theodoric vent the
barbarian fury which revived in his breast as life and strength
decayed. Boetius was thrown into prison on the charge of
holding secret correspondence with the court of Constantinople
in the view to bring back Italy to the imperial rule. In the
solitude and darkness of his dungeon he wrote his master­
piece, The Consolation of Philosophy. The Christian Socrates held
high converse in his captivity, not with a familiar demon, as
did the Grecian philosopher, but with uncreated Wisdom, the
of cloth of gold. On his return, John sent these gifts to the churches of St Peter, St. Paul,
St. Mary Major, end St. Lawrence. This beautifbl precedent has always been follcred by
his successors, who invariably present to churches or public institutions the gifts which sre
made to thorn in person.

110

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

Word of God. This noble work, divided into five books of
mingled prose and verse, reflects a truly wonderful clearness
of mind and serenity of soul ; it treats of the mystery of Prov­
idence with noble elevation. The illustrious and blameless
prisoner prtves to his own consolation that the prosperity of
the wicked is more deserving of pity than of envy, and that
persecuted virtue claims the respect of the world. The same
high dignity of thought and feeling is brought to the solution of
questions concerning the foreknowledge of God and free-will.
Whilst Boetius thus improved his captive hours in the strong­
hold of Calventianum, midway between Pavia and Milan,
Theodoric’s mind was busy in contriving a form of punishment
that should multiply the horrors of death for his prisoner.
Boetius was put to the torture ; a strong cord was fastened
round his head and forcibly tightened until his eyes burst
from their sockets ; and as he still denied the imaginary crime
laid to his charge, he was stretched upon a beam and beaten
with clubs by two executioners, upon every part of his body,
from the neck down to the feet ; and being still alive, he was
beheaded, or rather his head was split open with an axe (Oc­
tober 23, a. I». 526). Symmachus, his father-in-law, like him,
deeply versed in both sacred and profane learning, and like
him also, the friend and adviser of Popes, met with the same
fate in the following year.
15. Both these executions had taken place when St.John I.
had returned to Italy. He reached Ravenna only to be thrown
into a dungeon by order of Theodoric, who was displeased, as
he said, with the issue of the ^.bassp to Constantinople. The
Pope sank under the weight of his imprisonment (May 27,
a. d. 526). Theodoric outlived his august victim but three
months. The avenging hand of God seemed to weigh heavily
upon the tyrant ; he fell into a deep melancholy and became
a prey to the most gloomy forebodings. One day when the
head of a large fish was served on the royal table, he sudden­
ly exclaimed that he saw in the dish the head of Symmachus,
as though recently cut off, glaring revengefully and fiercely

8T. JOHN I. (A. D. 523-525).

Ill

gntshing its teeth at him. The terrified monarch, trembling
with horror, hastily rose from table. He died a few days after,
lamenting his crime, in the thirtieth year of his reign (a. d
526). The Ostrogoth power which he had established in Italy
was doomed to a speedy fall ; and eight years later saw the
Italian peninsula under the sceptre of the Eastern emperors
(a. d. 534). During the short pontificate of John I., the death
of Thrasimund, and consequent accession of Hilderic to the
throne, had restored peace to the African Church. Hilderic,
who had received Christian training at the. court of Constanti­
nople, inaugurated his reign by recalling the bishops banished
to Cagliari by his predecessor. All these holy confessors were
met on their return by the joyful acclamations of their spiritual
children. The return of St. Fulgentius bore all the appearance
of a triumph. He landed at Carthage amid an immense throng
of the faithful, bearing palm branches and lighted tapers to es­
cort him to his church (a. d. 524). For a moment the African
Church seemed about to live again the halcyon days of its glory
Hilderic strove to raise it from its ruins. The bishops met in
councils to supply the spiritual repairs necessitated by so long
a storm. The Council of Junque, held in a. d. 524, and that
of Carthage, in 525, drew up rules of discipline in accordance
with the wants of the people. The faith of Nice was solemnly
declared to be that of the whole of Africa ; and Vandal Arian­
ism seemed forever crushed. But Hilderic’s reign was short ;
he was dethroned and murdered by Gelimer, and was thus hin­
dered from giving a lasting firmness to the noble work he had
so promisingly begun.
16. Three councils had been held in a. d. 524, at Arles, Va­
lence, and Lerida, cities within the dominions of Theodoric.
The Council of Arles, under St. Cesarius, published but four
canons, which renew ordinances already established, to the
effect that nobody shall be ordained deacon before the age
twenty-five years ; priest or bishop, before thirty, and forbid the
conferring of orders upon unsettled clerics, persons twice mar­
ried, or who have been public penitents. Of the sixteen canotw

112

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

of Leri'la, the following are worthy of mention : The ministère
of the altar, whose hands distribute the blood of Jesus Christ,
may not shed human blood under any pretext whatever, not
even to defend a besieged city. Seven years of public penance
are prescribed for any one, man or woman, who causes the death
of a child conceived or born of adultery. Bishops are forbid­
den to touch the donations made to monasteries. Incestuous
persons incur excommunication, and all ordinary intercourse with
them is prohibited. The bishop is left free to reinstate, after
whatever delay seems proper to him, a cleric who may have
fallen into the crime of fornication, in proportion as the culprit
shows more or less exactness in the discharge of the penance
laid upon him. It is forbidden to violate the sacredness of the
church to draw thence a slave who has come for refuge. The
Council of Valence was almost entirely taken up with regula­
tions concerning the vacancy of episcopal sees at the death of
the incumbent. If clerics take this opportunity to turn some­
thing to their advantage, either from the property of the de­
ceased bishop or of the Church, they shall be compelled by
the metropolitan or the suffragans of the province, to make
restitution. The nearest bishop shall come to perform the
funeral obsequies, and take charge of the vacant see until the
consecration of a successor. He shall also draw up an inven­
tory of the late bishop’s property, and of that of the Church,
to be sent to the metropolitan. The heirs of the deceased pre­
late shall arrange with the metropolitan about the division of
his inheritance. We must also call attention to the canon which
orders that the Gospel shall be read at Mass, before the offer­
tory and dismissal of the catechumens, in order that the pre­
cepts of the Lord and the bishop’s instructions may be heard
not only by the faithful, but by the catechumens, penitents and
all who were not admitted to the sacrifice itself, that this means
of conversion or of edification may not be lost to them. Thus
did the Church regulate her authority and discipline under tho
wholesome influence of her councils.

RT. FELIX IV. (A. D. 528-629).

113

s 3 Pontificate of St. Felix IV. (July 12, a. d. 526— October
12, 529).

17. St. Felix IV. was elected Pope on the 12th of July,
526. The king of the Goths, who had caused the death
of St. John I. in a dungeon, had sought to influence the elec­
tion of the new Pontiff ; but such was the harmony of action
on the part of the Roman clergy and people that Theodoric’s
efforts proved utterly fruitless. In the year following the ac­
cession of Pope Felix IV., Justin had his nephew Justinian
crowned as Augustus, and died himself a few months later, clos­
ing his prosperous reign by the choice of a successor able to
carry on his work. Justinian would have been an accomplished
prince had he not marred his fame by an unworthy union. In
spite of the remonstrances of Justin and of the whole court, he
married a vile courtesan named Theodora, for whom he had
conceived an unbridled passion. As soon he had ascended the
throne, Justinian publicly shared his power with the object of
his shameful affection. Theodora had the full disposal of the
army, the senate, the magistracy, and the finances. Generals,
senators, and even governors of provinces were at her feet
In the prologue to one of his laws, Justinian announces that he
has consulted the most honorable spouse given him by Heaven !
But all his efforts have not been able to redeem in the eyes of
posterity the name of the crowned courtesan. Could Justin­
ian’s fame be withdrawn from the blighting shadow which he
took pleasure in attaching to his history, few princes would
present such a combination of good qualities. He was of ma­
jestic figure ; a countenance full of graceful dignity and singu­
larly expressive revealed the noble soul within. He spoke and
wrote with ease and elegance ; he was familiar with jurispru­
dence, architecture, music and even theology, and his piety
was remarkable. As soon as he had become emperor he pre­
sented to the churches all the property he had before held.
Unfortunately, and as if by studied contrast, Theodor» *po
Vol. Π.—8
a. d.

Ï14

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

sessed the vices exactly contrary to the emperor’s virtues. Jus­
tinian was a Catholic ; Theodora had openly embraced Eutychianism. The emperor was kind, affable, accessible to all who
came to seek favors or redress; his empress was a proud,
haughty woman, and treated the most illustrious personages with
jverbearing disdain. He was disinterested ; she sold offices of
civil trust. He was mild and merciful ; she was cruel and
bloodthirsty. Justinian’s first care, on receiving the imperial
sceptre, was to repair the ruin caused by a fearful earthquake
(a. d. 525), which had overthrown most of the cities of Syria.
Antioch, Daphnæ, and Seleucia, were now but shapeless heaps
of ruins. The shock lasted six days with fearful violence, and
during six months was several times repeated, though less vio­
lently ; and it was only after a lapse of eighteen months (a. d.
527) that the soil was so far restored to firmness as to allow the
erection of buildings. Justinian took this occasion to rebuild
the ancient city of Palmyra, originally raised by Solomon undei
the name of Cadmor, and destroyed by Nabuchodonosor on his
way to besiege Jerusalem. The emperor restored it with truly
royal splendor ; the gigantic remains, which might seem to have
been the work of another race of men, still excite the wonder
of modern travellers.
18. But Justinian’s best claim to the remembrance of pos­
terity is undoubtedly his code of laws, which constitutes the
body of the Roman law, the basis of our present system of juris­
prudence. He had long been contemplating a thorough re­
adjustment of the statutes, and put it in execution in the very
first year of his reign. “ In order to put an end to the length
of lawsuits,” said the emperor, in his decree of a. d. 528,
“ and to do away with the great number of perplexing consti­
tutions found in the Gregorian, Hermogenian and Theodosian
codes, published by Theodoric, by his successors or by our­
self, we design to condense them all within the compass of one
code bearing our glorious name.” This code, known as the
Justinian Code, was completed within the year. It contains a
••■ollection of all the imperial constitutions from the time of

8T. FELIX IV. (A. D. 528-529).

115

Adrian until the year 534.
Tn the year 529 Justinian
ordered the systematic arrangement of the Digest or Pan­
dects, an immense collection, in which the system of civil
law was established from two thousand treatises on jurispru­
dence. This great work was completed in three years by
Tribonian and sixteen assistants furnished him by Justinian
The materials were scattered among the multiplied writings of
men of law. This separation showed the necessity of gather­
ing all the principles of law into one body, and hence the
origin of the Institutes published by Justinian in a. d. 533, and
even now studied in our modern schools. Finally the Novellce,
a collection of the edicts issued by the emperor, from a. d.
534 till 565, completed the list of these great works. In
this legislation the stern character of the old R . man law yields
to the influence of Christian principles. The question of
slaves is treated with a hitherto unknown mildness. Paternal
authority loses the last traces of the pitiless severity which
characterized it in the days of ancient Rome, and puts on an
aspect more conformable to nature. An eminent civilian
*
asks himself how, in an age when the general tendency was
downward, Justinian could have risen so high. “This is a
truly original creation of Justinian,” he says; “but it is not
the chance discovery of a genius above the level of his age;
it is a Christian work prepared by the ceaseless Christian toil
of two hundred years, and brought to maturity at a time when
Christianity was every thing.”
19. Whilst Justinian by these new enterprises thus fixed
the conquests of the Christian spirit over the manners and legis­
lation of the empire, the Gospel was also making new progress
amongst barbarous nations. In a. d. 528, Gretes, king of the
Heruli, who had been settled by Anastasius on the banks of
the Danube, came to Constantinople to offer his services to
Justinian. The bond of alliance between them was much
strengthened by the baptism of the king with twelve of his»
relatives and his whole court, on the Epiphany. The emperor
• M. TroploDg.

116

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

acted as sponsor to the king, and loaded him with gifts. Tho
remainder of the nation soon followed the king’s example, and
embraced Christianity. During the same year, the Tzanians,
a half-savage tribe of Mount Taurus, also became Christians
and enlisting in the Roman armies, thenceforth did their duty
with as much courage as fidelity. Gordas, king of the Huns
inhabiting the Tauric Chersonese, also entered the true fold;
he was baptized in Constantinople, and had the emperor for
godfather. Justinian’s reputation drew illustrious foreigners
from all quarters, who disputed the honor of serving him.
Among these persons of rank was the eunuch Narses, whose
name afterward became so celebrated ; Justinian received
him with great consideration, and bestowed upon him the
highest dignities.
20. Meanwhile, Athalaric, successor of Theodoric on the
Gothic throne of Italy, published a law confirming the rights
of the Roman clergy. It read is follows : “ Should any one
wish to bring a suit against a cleric of the Church of Rome, he
shall first make application to the Pope, who will decide the
case himself or by deputy. Should the complainant fail to
obtain satisfaction, he may apply to the civil power, when he
has proved the denial of justice on the part of the ecclesias­
tical tribunal ; but any one coming before us, without having
previously applied to the Holy See, shall forfeit his bond and
pay ten pounds in gold, to be distributed to the poor by the
hands of the Pope.” The ^ame law also confirmed the exemp­
tion from secular tribunals, in favor of clerics, which had al­
ready become customary. Nothing short of the deep confusion
into which the public mind was plunged by the great philo­
sophical and social revolution of the last century could have
suggested the thought of suppressing ecclesiastical jurisdiction
in the midst of Catholic nations. Clerics, whatever may be
their fault, are first of all accountable to their bishop, the or­
dinary ; they have given up all the benefits of civil life, to
place themselves at the service of every want, of every misery.
Should they ever be so unhappy as to betray their holy voc&-

117

ST. BONIFACE II. (A. D. 529-531).

tion. it belongs to the bishop to examine the grievousness of
their fault, before giving them up, should such a necessity arise,
to the secular arm.
21. The care of St. Felix IV. for the interests of the faith
reached every part of the Catholic world. Semi-Pelagianism
was reviving in Southern Gaul, notwithstanding the zeal of
the pious bishops of that province. St. Cesarius of Arles ap­
plied to the Pope for advice and for a rule of conduct in oppos­
ing the progress of error. St. Felix knew no better means of
guarding the faithful from being misled by the heresy than to
send to St. Cesarius extracts from the most convincing passages
in St. Augustine’s works on grace and free-will, as a precise
expression of the apostolic tradition and teaching A council
of the bishops < f Southern Gaul, held on the 3d of July, a. d.
529, at Orang«, cn the occasion of the dedication of a church
in that city, subscribed to these decisions of Felix IV. “We
have learned,” said the Fathers, “ that errors opposed to the
Catholic teaching on grace and free-will have been spread
amongst the faithful ; hence we have judged it expedient to
publish the articles drawn from the writings of the Fathers
of the Church, and sent to us by the Holy See for that pur­
pose.” The council then established the dogma of original
sin, the gratuitousness of grace and faith, and the agreement
of free-will with preventing grace in man. St. Felix IV.
died in the course of the same year (October 12, a. d. 529),
after a pontificate of three years and some months. “ Felix
was endeared to all,” says an ancient author, “by his modest
simplicity, his kindly disposition and unfailing charity toward
the poor.”
§ 4. Pontificate of St. Boniface II. (October 15,
December, 531).

a

d.

529—

22. Each new vacancy of the Holy See brought out more
clearly the growing tendency on the part of the kings of Italy
to control the election of the Sovereign Pontiffs. We saw

118

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

Theodoric’s attempt to rule the election of St. Felix IV ; and
even Athalaric, with all his show of good-will toward the
Church of Rome, yet wished to lay the weight of his influ­
ence upon its clergy and faithful in the choice of a Pontiff.
This usurping bent on the part of the Ostrogoth kings was
a pernicious example for the freedom of the Roman Church.
When the emperors of Constantinople, and after them, the
German emperors, had become masters of Rome, they fol­
lowed the same line of policy, and sought the right, if not
to appoint the Pope, at least to confirm his election. It
was only after long and steady struggles that the Church
won back the freedom she had enjoyed even under pagan em­
perors. The death of Felix IV. gave greater prominence to
the evil of this secular interference. The election of a suc­
cessor resulted in the promotion of Boniface II., son of Sigisvult,
of the Gothic race (October 15, a. d. 529). But Athalaric’»
influence had, in the mean time, contrived the factious election
of an antipope named Dioscorus. The schism was happily but
short; Dioscorus died twenty-nine days after his intrusion
(November 12, a. d. 529). The desire to prevent the recur­
rence of such scandalous contentions led Boniface into the adop­
tion of a measure more zealous than prudent. He issued a
decree by which he appointed his own successor, in the person
of the deacon Vigilius. Such a step was in direct opposition to
the tradition of the Church and to the numerous canons which
forbid the Pope, during his lifetime, to bequeath his dignity as
an inheritance. Whilst the pontifical election was thus with­
drawn from the influence of secular usurpation, it was equally
taken from the Church. The innovation might therefore lead
to the most fatal results ; the elective monarchy of the Church
was made a kind of hereditary power, which an unscrupulous
holder might transmit in a single family, to the detriment of
the interests of religion and faith. Time and reflection changed
the Pontiff’s views. In a council held at Rome during the year
following, the Pope recalled his decree and declared it an­
nulled. As a stronger proof of the sincerity of his conviction,

ST. BONIFACE II. (A. D. 529-531).

119

he threw it with his own hands into the flames, in presence of
the assembled bishops (a. d. 530). This courageous repara­
tion of a too hasty step in a point of discipline, does honor to
the memory of St. Boniface II
23. During the remainder <jf his peaceful reign, Boniface,
following the custom of the Boman Pontiffs, assembled a coun­
cil each year in Borne, to look to the spiritual wants of Chris­
tendom. The council of a. d. 531 took cognizance of an appeal
of Stephen of Larissa, metropolitan of Thessaly, the regularity
of whose election was questioned by Epiphanius, Patriarch of
Constantinople, on the ground that it had been carried on with­
out his agreement or approval. Since the surreptitious decree
of the Council of Chalcedon, the Bishops of Constantinople had
not ceased to claim for their See the right of jurisdiction over
all the metropolitans of the East. The countless troubles
brought upon the Church by these ambitious claims are but
too well known. Stephen had been raised to the See of
Larissa, in the presence of all the bishops of the province, with
the unanimous consent of all the clergy and of the people of
the city. Still, Epiphanius thought himself none the less em­
powered to suspend him from his episcopal functions, and to
declare his consecration null and simoniacal. From this unjust
sentence the metropolitan of Larissa appealed to the judgment
of the Holy See. The decision must have been favorable,
though history has not preserved the form in which it was
given. During the same year St. Boniface confirmed the
decrees of the Council of Orange, which had been laid before
him by St. Cesarius of Arles. “You acquaint us,” said the
Sovereign Pontiff, “ that certain Gallic bishops attribute to
nature and not to grace the first act of faith by which we
believe in Jesus Christ; and you ask us to ratify by the
authority of the Apostolic See the profession which you have
drawn up against them, holding, according to Catholic doc­
trine, that faith in Jesus Christ, the very groundwork of
Christian life, is inspired by the preventing grace of God.
This truth has been clearly enough established by many

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GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

fathers, and especially by the great St. Augustine of hwppy
memory. We therefore approve the decision of your csancil,
which agrees, in every point, with Catholic tradition.” Such
was the authority given by the approval of the Holy See to
the acts of the second Council of Orange, that its decisions
have become rules of faith which no one may contradict with­
out, by the fact, declaring himself a heretic.
The attention of the bishops was now called to the perpe­
tuity of the Catholic priesthood, and the means of securing it
in the various Churches. The Councils of Vaison (a. d. 529)
and Toledo (a. d. 531) gave particular care to this question.
The first urges ecclesiastics to give their personal care and
efforts to the instruction of youths in sacred learning ; thus to
prepare themselves fit successors. In this wholesome caution
we see the dawning idea of ecclesiastical seminaries. The
Council of Toledo presents it in a more advanced stage. Its
first canon decrees that “young candidates for holy orders
shall first be tonsured and placed in the rank of lectors, to be
instructed in a house attached to the church, and under the
eyes of the bishop. If they freely promise to observe conti­
nence, they may be ordained sub-deacons at the age of twenty
years. At the age of twenty-five, if their conduct has been
irreproachable, they may become deacons. When once ordained
priests, they are not at libery to quit the church which has
thus trained them, without their bishop’s leave.” The regula­
tions for episcopal elections also demanded an equal amount
of care and attention. Those who had some influence in the
elections abused it to wring promises from the candidates, to
fulfil which they were afterward obliged to draw upon the
property of the Church. To such an extent was this abuse
sometimes carried, that even the sacred vessels had been
offered for sale in order to meet the promised payments.
Boniface II. renewed the decrees against such scandalous
simony, and brought them to the notice of all the bishops
throughout the Catholic world.
24. Whilst the Pope and the councils thus worked together

ST. BONIFACE Π. (A. D. 829-631).

121

to uphold the rules of ecclesiastical discipline, God raised up
a man destined to become the patriarch of the monastic life in
the West; we allude to St. Benedict.
*
It is true that many
monasteries had been established in Italy, before his day,
under the twofold influence of St. Ambrose and St. Jerome.
The same pious foundations were multiplied in Africa, under
the patronage of St. Augustine ; in Northern Gaul, by St. Mar­
tin of Tours ; and in the South, by Cassian. But these numerous
monasteries were not under the same rule ; each had its pecu­
liar observances, somewhat arbitrarily determined. In the con­
fusion attending the barbarian invasions this variety and incon­
sistency in the rules might give rise to great disorders, and
even to the ruin of monastic institutions in the West. St.
Benedict undertook to make them lasting by union. An Italian
by birth, it was in Italy that he carried out the great work for
which Divine Providence had chosen him. Though nursed in
the lap of luxury, he early cast aside all temporal advantages
and retired into a solitary cave amid the Apennines, about
forty miles from Rome. But in spite of the great care he took
to keep himself hidden from the gaze of men, the lustre of his
holiness soon made him known, and his desert was speedily
peopled by fervent disciples, the most illustrious of whom were
St. Placidius and St. Maurus. Twelve monasteries soon bore
witness to the zealous industry of these holy workmen. Prayer,
manual labor, and works of charity made up their daily life,
and the solitude of Subiacum became the dwelling-place of
angels. Yet St. Benedict’s humility and love of retirement drew
him from this blest abode to the summit of an untenanted
mountain overlooking the little town of Cassino, in ancient
Samnium. His reputation followed him here and a monastery
arose over the site of a former temple of Apollo, and the com­
munity of religious multiplied to such an extent that it soon
resembled a great city peopled by several thousand inhabitants.
The necessity of subjecting so many different beings to one
fixed rule, first suggested to St. Benedict the idea of conden* In Ln I in Hen/tdiiiua, Bleat.

122

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

sing into one code of laws all that concerns the monastic lift
A continued and deep study of Cassians Conferences, of the
Lives of the Fathers of the Desert, and of the Rules of St. Basil,
but above all, personal experience joined to exalted virtue, had
been long preparing him for this great work ; and his rule has
since been adopted by all the Western monasteries, just as St
Basil’s had been by all the Eastern. St. Benedict admits can­
didates to the monastic life only after long and serious trial.
The practice of the evangelical counsels was realized by the
monks worthy of their vocation, in the three vows of perfect
continence, voluntary poverty, and religious obedience. The
abbot’s authority is as ample and complete as possible, but it
must be exercised as a father’s power and according to the
words of Jesus Christ; the highest in the monastery is but the
servant of his brethren. The rule determines the various
duties and offices in the monastery. The time and length of
exercises of piety and common prayers, the kind of mortifica­
tion allowed to each person, are fixed with careful exactness.
The regulation for meals and clothing are equally precise. The
habit appointed by St. Benedict for his disciples was adopted
because of its convenience, and remained common among al]
the learned professions of Europe until about the fifteenth cen­
tury. It consisted of a white woollen tunic, a hood or cape
which covered the shoulders and formed in its upper part a
cowl that covered the head. The rule prescribed various pen­
ances, graduated according to the degree of guilt. The most
serious penalty was excommunication, which cut off a religious
from all intercourse with his brethren until he had atoned for his
fault or repaired the scandal given to the community. The incor­
rigible were expelled from the monastery. But the natural mild­
ness of the holy founder left full room for repentance, and allowed
the religious thus expelled to be received back as often as three
times, if they seemed to have returned to better sentiments. We
have here given but an inadequate view of the spirit which ani
mates this rule of St. Benedict, a rule which has won the admi­
ration of the greatest minds. St. Gregory the Great looked

ST. BONIFACE Π. (A. D. 529-581).

123

upon it as a master-piece of prudence. Cosmo de Medicis made
it his deep and assiduous study. “ I find in it,” he said, “ the
wisest la ws for the government of states, and a deep knowledge
of the human heart.” The order of St. Benedict soon spread
throughout the West. By turns, writers, preachers, historians
and husbandmen, these religious undertook the task of civilizing
the barbarous tribes, of saving from shipwreck the existing
models of Greek and Latin literature, of gradually bringing the
land under cultivation, and the warlike hordes of the North to a
more peaceful manner of life. Modern society has reaped the
fruit of their devoted labors, but public gratitude has not
always been proportioned to the services rendered. How often
has not undeserved calumny assailed these humble benefactors
of humanity, who buried their youth, nay even their whole life,
in the solitude of the cloister, to give to an admiring pos­
terity the master-pieces of the ancients ; or who spread abroad
in agricultural colonies, over every part of the country, teaching
the barbarous tribes to till and fertilize the marshes and barren
moors of old Europe, and to draw from the always fruitful soil
the subsistence for which they had too long depended upon the
chances of war, plunder, or bloodshed! Thus we can see how St.
Benedict’s influence reaches even to our own day. Bya privilege
of wonderful fruitfulness, his order has had the glory of giving
to the Church thirty-five popes, two hundred cardinals, eleven
hundred and sixty-four archbishops, five thousand five hundred
and twelve bishops, and fifty-five thousand four hundred and
sixty religious publicly venerated for holiness of life.
25. The father of this illustrious generation lived in the
lowliest humility and the practice of the most austere morti­
fications. The miracles >vmch God was pleased to work
through his intercession excited universal wonder; he alone
seemed blind to his own virtue and merit. His life was not.
however, free from trials ; some monks whose irregularity he
had tried to correct, one day mingled poison with the water
he drank ; but when the saint made the sign of the cross over
the goblet, as was his went, it broke of :tself. Acquainted by

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GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

divine inspiration with the intended crime, he simply said to
the authors of the deed: “May Almighty God have mercy
upon you, my brothers ; why did you seek to treat me thus !
Did I not tell you that your life and mine could not agree?
Go and seek a superior to your taste ; you will have me no
longer.” And he quitted the monastery. The same failure
attended another attempt of the same kind, made by a priest
jealous of the saint’s virtue and reputation. St. Benedict
had received as an alms from this priest, a poisoned loaf of
bread ; he ordered it to be laid aside, and forbade his disci­
ples to speak of the matter, out of regard for the reputation of
the unworthy priest. St. Benedict’s fame was known even
amongst barbarous nations. Totila, king of the Ostrogoths,
whom we shall yet have occasion to mention, wished to visit
in person the illustrious religious. The very sight of Bene­
dict inspired him with a respect so deep and reverent that he
threw himself upon his knees, not daring to approach near to
him. Benedict repeatedly bade him rise ; but the formidable
conqueror persisted in keeping this humble posture. Then
the servant of Jesus Christ drawing near to the Gothic king,
said to him : “ You have already done much mischief and
still continue your blighting course ; cease now your iniquities.
You will take Rome, you will cross the sea, but you shall die
in the tenth year of your reign.” The saint’s prophecy was
fulfilled, for the name of Totila was inscribed in the list of
Rome’s barbarian conquerors. Benedict, however, did not live
to see this invasion (a. d. 546) ; he died (a. d. 543) three
years before, full of days and merit, leaving a spiritual poster­
ity whose glory it is to follow in his footsteps.
26. We have given place to this brief sketch of St. Bene­
dict’s labors, under the pontificate of St. Boniface IL, because
it was during this period that the foundation of the monastery
of Monte Cassino actually occurred ; but St. Boniface filled
the Pontifical Chair only two years. He died in December,
(a. d. 531), and was buried in the basilica of St. Peter.

RT. JOHN II. (A. D. Î32-J38).

126

$ V. Pontificate of St. John II. (January 22, a. d. 632—April
27, 535).

27. St. John II., who was surnamed Mercury on account
of his eloquence, was consecrated on the 22d of January (a. d.
532). It was the misfortune of the times that the election of
the Sovereign Pontiff in great measure depended upon the
temporal rulers ; and thus ambitious men used every means to
raise themselves to this high dignity. During the vacancy of
the See, several candidates had been guilty of simoniacal pro­
ceedings, and the sacred vessels had even been publicly put
up for sale
The new Pontiff’s first care was, therefore, to
renew the decrees of his predecessor, St. Boniface, against
simony. Athalaric, who still reigned in Italy, confirmed the
Pope’s decree by his royal sanction, and even had it engraved
on a marble tablet set at the entrance of the pavement of St.
Peter’s. Yet, by an inexplicable contradiction, the king allowed
his officers to lay the exorbitant tax of three thousand ases in
gold on the Pope’s letters of confirmation. The tax for met­
ropolitans was fixed at two thousand ; that for simple bishops,
at five hundred. The result of this iniquitous exaction was
appropriated to the poor of Ravenna, where the Gothic kings
held their court. Nothing was thus wanting to fill the meas­
ure of usurpation. Temporal sovereigns claimed the right to
confirm pontifical elections, and required of the Pontiff elect
the payment of a kind of right of investiture. Such an abuse
of power cannot find palliation even in the appropriation made
of the extorted gain. Circumstances made it necessary to
bow to the law of the conqueror, in order to avoid greater
evils ; but the conquerors here were barbarians, and their laws
were dictated by the pride of armed domination and the harsh­
ness of native character. The Church struggled patiently
against these pretentious abuses. She ever protested against
violence ; and if it be attempted to establish these facts as
precedents on which to carry out the historical system which

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GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

aims at subjecting the spiritual power of the Pope to the civil
Mithority of princes, it can easily be proved that the acts of
the Gothic kings constitute no precedent, since they were in
direct opposition to every canon law, and rested upon no other
right than that of the stronger. Moreover, it would be a serious mistake to think that such hostile sentiments marked all
Athalaric's policy toward the Popes.
Cassiodorus, whom he
had just made præfect of the Praetorium, was at this time
writing to Pope John II., asking the help of his prayers and
wise counsels. “ If I have become judge of the palace," wrote
the virtuous minister, “ I have not ceased to be your disciple,
for we can govern with prudence and justice only when we
follow your advice. The See of Peter, the admiration of the
world, should grant a special protection to those who are most
closely bound to it ; as rulers of Italy, we feel privileged to
claim from it a larger share of benevolence.” The king who
chose a minister capable of conceiving and expressing such
sentiments toward the Holy See, could hardly be its real

enemy.
28. The time of St. John’s promotion to the Apostolic Seo
witnessed Justinian’s continued care to bear out in the East
the policy of his predecessor Justin, by working great reforms
in behalf of the Catholic faith. ’lis great aim was to win the
barbarians to the true fold, and to crush the ever-renewed
attempts of Eutychianism. To strengthen his efforts by the
Pope’s co-operation, he sent to Rome Ilypatius, archbishop of
Ephesus, and Demetrius, bishop of Philippi. These deputies
were charged to lay before John II. some propositions tainted
with heresy, and yet obstinately upheld by the Acæmetes o’.
Constantinople. These monks maintained that the Blessed
Virgin is not really and properly the mother of God, and that
it cannot be said that one of the Trinity suffered; unus de TrioMe poem est. It will be remembered that this proposition
was adopted in the time of Pope Hormindas, by some Scy thian
monks, who wished to lay it down as an article of fj
â
W the discussion to which it then gave rise had not yet „Zn

8T. JOHN IL (A. D. 531-635).

ΓΓ»

Battled. St. Ilormisdas had severely censured the untimely
zeal and turbulence of the monks who raised dangerous dis­
putes on the proposition, but he had refrained from giving s
decisive judgment on the question. The obstinacy of the
Scythian monks drove the Acæmetes into the opposite error.
They asserted that Jesus Christ was not one of the Trinity, be­
cause otherwise he could not have suffered the torments of the
Passion. This was open heresy. John IL left no means un­
tried to bring back the Acæmetes to a sounder doctrine ; but
failing in all his efforts, he was forced to declare them excluded
from his communion and that of the whole Catholic Church.
As soon as he had formally passed this sentence, he wrote to
acquaint Justinian with it. In answer to their expressed desire,
the Pope made known the contents of the letter to the Roman
senators.
It was in substance as follows : “ The emperor has
made known to us that three questions have lately arisen in
the East, viz. : Can Jesus Christ be called one of the Trinity;
did He really suffer in the flesh, the Divinity remaining impas­
sible ? can the blessed Virgin really and properly be called
Mother of God? We have given an affirmative answer to these
three questions, and have approved the belief of the emperor,
which agrees in every point with the Sacred Writings, the
Fathers and Catholic Tradition.” St. John quotes the author­
ities upon which his doctrine rests, and shows that in opposing
it, the Acæmetes have clearly fallen into the error of Nestorius, and have, therefore, brought upon themselves the same
excommunication. Justinian gave a place to the Pope’s an­
swer, amongst the laws of the empire, in the second edition of
his Code, published in the year 534.
29. In spite of the opposition on the part of the inhabitants
of Constantinople, in spite of the seditions raised by heretics in
various parts of the East, Justinian kept steadily in view the
restoration of Catholic unity. In the year 532 he was nearly
torn from his throne by a contest between the Greens and
Blues, so called after the two factions of the circus, and which
was only quelled by the energy of Belisarius. Thirty thou­

128

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

sand persons were massacred in the circus, and thus, with then
blood, atoned for the rebellion. In Palestine, the Samaritans
of the country districts, jealous of the open favor shown to the
Christians by Justinian, rose up in arms, to the number of forty
thousand, seized upon ancient Samaria (Neopolis), and there
made fearful carnage, murdered the bishop, tore the priests in
pieces, and wasted the neighboring country. A chief of ban­
ditti, named Julian, put himself at their head, and carried death
and plunder to all the neighboring country. The imperial
troops only overcame these rebels after a long and bloody
struggle, which ended in Julian’s remaining on the field with
twenty thousand of his followers ; the rest were taken prison­
ers and sold as slaves in Persia and Ethiopia. The tidings of
the revolt and of the victory which had crushed it, reached
Constantinople together. Justinian, nevertheless, determined
to make the cities of Palestine pay dearly for their rebellion.
The terrified inhabitants sought to ward off the threatened
blow by means of the wonder of the desert, St. Sabas, now
ninety-three years of age, whom they deputed for that end to
the court of Constantinople. The emperor, on learning his
approach, sent Epiphanius, patriarch of Constantinople, on
board of an imperial galley, to meet and conduct to his pres­
ence the holy hermit, whom he looked upon as an angel of
peace (a.d. 531). His intercession saved the guilty. “Father,"
said the emperor to him, “ you have founded several monas
teries in the solitudes of Palestine ; ask me for some revenues
which may secure the subsistence of your monks.” “ They do
not need the gifts of your bounty,” replied the saint ; “ their
inheritance, both in this life and in the next, is the God who
fed Israel in the desert and for forty years sent down the daily
manna from heaven. It is enough for us, prince, that you relieve
the faithful in Palestine of the expenses of the late war, and that
you protect us from the Saracen invasions.” The emperor was
moved by this disinterestedness, and granted the requests ; and
Sabas went back to die among his beloved disciples (Decem­
ber Ô. a. n. 531), ending his long career as he had always

8T. JOHN Π. (Λ. D. 532-535).

129

filled it, in the actual exercise of charity. The patriarchal
Church of Alexandria was still torn by heretical factions striv­
ing for sovereignty. The people were eagerly disputing the
point whether the body of Jesus Christ was corruptible or not.
The Èutychian monks ever kept these subtle questions before
the public mind. “ If the body of Jesus Christ was not cor­
ruptible,” said one faction,
*
“we must deny the reality of his
Passion, and attribute to him an ideal and imaginary body, as
the Manicheans do.” The others answered : “ The body of
Jesus Christ was always incorruptible ; for if we say it was
corruptible, we must admit a distinction between the body of
Jesus Christ and the Word of God.” There was but one logical
means by which to clear this alternative ; it was simply and
purely to follow the Church in acknowledging two natures in
Jesus Christ. But heresy never dreams of coming to terms;
the two factions began a strife which threatened to grow into a
civil war. The emperor called to Constantinople several bish­
ops, whom he commissioned to examine the question and to
draw from the disputants an admission of the orthodox sola
tion. Success crowned his efforts.
30. While the emperor enjoyed the happiness of winning
triumphs for the truth in these bloodless contests, the victorious
arms of his youthful but already illustrious general, Belisarius,
had at length freed Africa from the galling yoke of Vandal op­
pression. The Roman army, composed of sixteen thousand men.
landed without opposition on the coast of Carthage. The cause
of this hostile movement was the late usurpation of Gelimer,whc
had dethroned his relative, Hilderic, for the purpose of reigning
in his stead. Justinian, who had long been in friendly rela­
tions with the rightful king, took up arms in his defence.
On receiving the first tidings of the landing of Roman troops,
whom the people hailed as liberators, Gelimer murdered Hil­
deric, hitherto kept in close confinement. This cruel deed but
hastened the hour of his own ruin. No hand would raise a
eword in defence of the tyrant. Deserted by his troops, he
• They were hence called Corrupticota.

130

GENERAL HISTOR1’ OF THE CHURCH.

fled with his family, and sought shelter on a bleak and lonely
mountain on the extreme frontier of Numidia. Belisarius
ordered his lieutenant Pharas to pursue the fugitive. Pharos
respecting the misfortune of a fallen foe, sent him a most con­
siderate letter, urging him to submit, and promising him, on
(hat condition, his life and an honorable subsistence. Gelimer
thanked him for his advice, and in conclusion asked the lieu
tenant to send him a loaf of bread, a sponge, and a lyre: a loef
of bread, because he had been in want of it for three months, a
sponge to wipe away his tears; and a lyre to sing his misfortunes
Such misery would have awakened still deeper compassion had
it not been the punishment of base treachery and of barbarous
cruelty. Meanwhile, Gelimer daily beheld some member of
his family fall by his side, a prey to the pangs of hunger. His
courage began to fail him. As he was one day wandering
among the solitary mountain paths, he chanced to come upon
his nephew, who was contending with a Moorish peasant for a
piece of half-baked dough. The sight utterly unnerved him.
He surrendered to Belisarius, who made his triumphal entry
into Constantinople, preceded by Gelimer walking before the
conqueror’s car, clad in purple and surrounded by his relatives
and the officers of his court. When the captive king entered
the circus, where he was awaited by the emperor and an im­
mense throng of people, not a sigh, not a tear escaped him ; he
only uttered the exclamation: “Vanity of vanities! All is
vanity!” (a. d. 534). It was not long before the fate of Bel­
isarius verified once more the words of Ecclesiastes. But the
conquest of Africa by the imperial army gave back that coun­
try to the Catholic faith. Justinian raised up the ruined
churches and built new ones; the bishops publicly resumed
the exercise of their holy ministry, and strove to remove the
traces of ruin which a century of violence and persecution had
heaped up in all parts of the land. The triumph of Belisarius
was a fatal blow to Arianism in Africa.
31. This heresy met the same fate in Spain and in Septiinania, where it had been implanted by the Visigoths. Childo-

ST. JOHN Π. (A. D. 632-635).

131

bert, king of Paris, one of the four sons of Clovis, and conqueror
rtf Amalaric, king of the Visigoths in Spain, turned his triumph
:o the advantage of the true faith. Under the rule of this king
ind his brothers Gaul continued to furnish the Church with
generations of saints. St. Remigius, of memory ever dear to
the heart of the Franks whom he converted to the faith, left
the metropolitan see of Rheims to St. Romanus, abbot of Mantenay, near Troyes (January 13th, a. d. 533). The apostle of the
Franks had founded a monastery, which became a fruitful nur­
sery of illustrious and saintly men, the most renowned of whom
was St. Thierry, patron of Austrasia. He had been brought up
by his father in the mountains of Vosges and Ardennes, in the
midst of a band of robbers, who availed themselves of the
disordered times to ravage the neighboring country. But
blessed, in early infancy, by divine grace, he became a model
of virtue, even in that atmosphere of crime. He was forced to
enter the marriage state against his will and inclination; but
he soon persuaded his wife to enter the cloister, and he him­
self retired to the monastery of Rheims, under the direction of
St. Remigius. He outlived the holy archbishop, his predeces
sor, but a few months, and died on the 1st of July, a. d. 533.
Meanwhile Childebert had erected the Abbey of Celle, in
Berry, and placed it under the direction of St. Eusicius, who
was succeeded in the government of the monastery by his dis­
ciple St. Leonard. Christianity, which they had so lately em­
braced, had not yet had time to sink deeply into the habits and
manners of the Franks, nor to soften their barbarian rudeness.
The bishops called by God to govern them needed an apostolic
firmness and energy. But the episcopacy was equal to the
great task. At Clermont, in Auvergne, St. Quentin publicly
excommunicated Hortensius, a lieutenant of King Thierry, for
unjustly holding in captivity some innocent persons on whose
property he had cast a covetous eye. The intrepid bishop,
whose weight of years deprived him of the use of his feet, had
himself carried by his clergy to the public square before the
salace of Hortensius, and shaking olf the dust from his shoes

132

GENERAL HISTORY OP THE CHURCH.

«gainst the palace walls, he exclaimed ·. “ Cursed bo this dwell,
ing! may it become deserted, and none remain to dwell within
its walls!” The imprecation is borrowed from the Psalms
of David; and it was not slow of fulfilment. An unknown
form of disease came upon all the inhabitants of the palace.
Hortensius was terrified, and at once released the prison­
ers, begging the saint to intercede with God to withhold
His avenging hand. Quentin was moved by these signs of
repentance; he prayed for Hortensius, and the scourge passed
away. The firmness shown by the holy bishop in regard of the
powerful was equalled by his gentle and tender charity toward
the poor. He was succeeded by St. Gal, who inherited both
his dignity and his saintly virtue (a. d. 532). The see of
Treves was at the same time illustrated by St. Nicetius or
Nizier, whose fearless discharge of the episcopal duties won
him the title of the Ambrose of Gaul. King Thierry’s officers
sought him out in his monastic retreat, to make him bishop.
Night having overtaken the party on their return to the king, the
■officers pitched their tents and left their horses to roam at will
amid fields crowned with the ripening harvest. At this sight
Nicetius exclaimed : “ Withdraw your horses at once from the
harvest of the poor, otherwise I shall cut you oiT from my com­
munion.” “What!” replied the lords, “you are not yet a
bishop, and you already threaten excommunication !” “ It is
indeed the king,” returned the saint, “who has taken me from my
monastery to raise me to the episcopal dignity, but if needs be I
shall dare to oppose the king himself for the defence of the right
or tne support of the weak !” He then hastened to drive the
horses from the harvestfield. Such conduct promised a gener­
ous and independent spirit to the Church; and the episcopate
of Nicetiusfully carried out the bright promise. After Thierry’s
death (a. d. 534), Theodebert, his son and successor, by naturo
generous and capable of noble views, yet given up to unbridled
passions,shocked his kingdom by the example of an adulterous
«Uiance. The monarch one day entered the church whilst
Nrceta wm officiating. The bishop, turning with dignity

8T. JOHN II. (A. D. 532-535).

133

toward Theodebert, ordered him no longer to desecrate the
holiness of the august Mysteries by his presence, notifying
him, at the same time, that if he staid longer in defiance of
this warning, the sacrifice should be interrupted. Theodebert
withdrew ; and afterward, yielding to the fatherly warnings
of Nicetius, put an end to his disorderly manner of life.
32. The fierce and barbarous instincts which even yet ruled
the Frankish monarchs had just been displayed in a fearful man­
ner. Clodomir, one of the sons of Clovis, and king of Orleans,
had died, leaving three infant children : Theobald, Gonthaire, and
Clodoald. Childebert and Clotaire, their uncles, despoiled them
of their paternal inheritance, leaving the unfortunate princes
with no other resource than the affection of their grandmother,
St. Clotilda, who had them brought up under her own care at
Paris, where she then resided. “ Childebert," says St. Greg­
ory of Tours, “ seeing that his mother bestowed her affection on
the sons of Clodomir, became jealous ; and fearing that through
her influence they might one day recover their states, he sent
a secret message to his brother Clotaire, in these words : ‘ Our
mother has taken charge of our nephews, and proposes to give
them back the throne. Come to Paris, that we may decide
upon our best course.’ Clotaire readily answered the summons.
Childebert had already spread the report that the two kings
had agreed to restore the kingdom to their nephews. They ac­
cordingly sent word to St. Clotilda : ‘ Send us the children that
we may raise them to the throne.’ The queen was well pleased,
and did not suspect the treacherous plot. She sent the young
princes, saying to them : ‘ I shall noi feel that I have lost my
son Clodomir when I see you wearing his crown.’ As soon as
Childebert and Clotaire found the young princes actually in
their power, they sent to the queen Arcadius, an *
Arvernian
senator, with a pair of scissors and a naked sword. ‘ Illustrious
queen,’ said the messenger, ‘ our lords, your sons, await your
pleasure concerning the disposition to be made of your grandOf Auvergne.

134

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

sons. Order that they live shorn of theii locks (long hair was
then the distinctive mark of royalty), or that they die.’ Over­
whelmed with grief and terror at the words of the senator and
the sight of the instruments he bore in his hands, Clotilda gave
full vent to her grief, and uttered the imprudent exclamation :
‘ I would rather see them dead, if they are not to hold the
throne which belongs to them.’ Arcadius, without awaiting
any further answer, came back to his masters and gave irm
account of his mission. Clotaire immediately seized Theobald,
the eldest of the children, who was but ten years old, and
stabbed him under the arm-pit, stretching him lifeless at his
feet. At this sight, Gonthaire, who was but seven years
of age, threw himself at Childebert’s feet, and, clinging to his
knees, exclaimed in terror : ‘ Help me, father ! let me not be
murdered like Theobald!’ Childebert was touched by the
tears and cries of the helpless child, and, turning to Clotaire,
begged that the innocent victim might be spared. But the
murderer, carried away by a savage fierceness, exclaimed : ‘ It
was you who urged me to the deed, and do you now recoil?
Hinder me not, or you die in his stead !’ Then seizing the
child, he buried in his heart the dagger still reeking with his
brother’s blood. During this fearful tragedy, some of the pal­
ace officials had succeeded in withdrawing Clodoald, the young­
est of the three, from the fury of his uncles. When grown up,
he cast off his rights to an earthly kingdom, and devoted to God
a life which God had almost miraculously saved.” He was or­
dained priest and founded a monastery at Nuventium (Nogent,
two leagues from Paris). This place afterward took his name,
and was called Si. Cloud, the modern French name for St. Clo
doald. The monastery has since become a collegiate church,
and the village of Nogent was made the royal residence of St.
Cloud, which name thus recalls at once all the most barbarous
features of worldly policy and the sweet and true consolation
which religion only can afford to the deepest misery (a d.
632).
33 From this bloody picture of two princes murdered io

ST. JOHN Π. (A. D. 532-538).

135

open day, in the midst of the royal palace, and by the hand of
an uncle, we may form some idea of the rugged field which
Christianity was called to till in these Frankish natures. To
give more unity to the efforts of their zeal, the Gallic bishops
felt the necessity of holding councils. That of Orleans, the
second held in that city (June 23d, a. d. 533), counted twentysix bishops, many of whom the Church ranks amongst her
saints. Chief among them were St. Flavius, or, as he is com­
monly called, St. Flieu, of Rouen; St. Leo of Sens, St. Julian
of Vienne, St. Lo of Coutances, St. Eleutherius of Auxerre,
St. Innocent of Le Mans, St. Agrippinus of Autun, and St.
Gal of Clermont in Auvergne. This illustrious assembly drew
up rules of discipline to secure the freedom of elections against
the inroads of the temporal power, and the shameful abuses of
simony. One of the most noteworthy canons is that which
forbids the order of deaconess to be henceforth conferred upon
any woman whatever. The necessity for this order had existed
only as long as it was necessary to baptize women lately con­
verted to the faith. As Christianity gradually pervaded soci­
ety, the baptism of adults had become a thing of rare occur­
rence, and the deaconesses were no longer called upon to
discharge their office.
34. One of the most celebrated prelates of this day was St.
Medard, sprung from a noble Frankish family of Salency, and
consecrated bishop of Noyonby St. Remigius (a. d. 530). No
higher testimony could have been borne to his merit than the
suspension of the ordinary rules of discipline, which was grant­
ed in his favor. At the death of St. Eleutherius, bishop of
Tournay. the unanimous voice of clergy and laity called St.
Medard to govern that church, together with his own diocese
of Noyon. The two sees remained thus joined for more than
six hundred years. The name of St. Medard is linked with
that of St. Radegundes, wife of King Clotaire, to whom the
bishop of Soissons gave the veil even whilst her husband was
still living. This fact of a queen being admitted into a religious
order before her husband’s death, gave rise to a theological dis­

136

GENERAL HISTORY OP THE CHURCH.

cussion which has not as yet found a satisfactory solution
The law of the Church, relative to marriage, does not allow
either of the parties to enter the religious state whilst the
other still lives, unless they agréa, by common consent, to
forsake the world. But Clotaire was by no means thus dis­
posed. His dissolute life has furnished a scandalous page
in history. As lawful spouse, therefore, St. Radegundes could
not regularly take the veil. But were the canonical rules on
the subject as clear and explicit then as they are now ?
Were they known to the Frankish bishops ? Such are some of
the questions which naturally spring from this particular fact
of history. Be this as it may, the world now saw three mem­
bers of the royal dynasty of the Franks bid farewell to every
earthly allurement, to spend a life of solitude in the practice of
holy contemplation and good works. They were : St. Clotilda,
St. Radegundes, and St. Clodoald or St. Cloud. Their exam­
ple by degrees affected the public manners. A host of saintly
religious were training others in the monasteries now spring­
ing up in all parts of the country, many of which gave rise
to populous cities. Ebredulfus, commonly called St. Evroul,
a lord of Childebert’s court, answering the call of divine grace,
divided his property among the poor ; and having thus re­
duced himself to want, retired into the forest of Ouche, in the
diocese of Lisieux, where he converted several robbers, who
became his disciples. Their number grew so rapidly that he
soon found his cell surrounded by fifteen hundred others, not
to mention thirteen monasteries founded by him in the neigh­
boring provinces. Many religious institutions likewise owe
their existence to St. Marculfusor Marcoul, who planted them
even in Neustria and Great Britain.
St. Fridolinus mean­
while dotted Austrasia with these holy settlements. St. Pourçain, in Auvergne, St. Carilephus or Calais, in Maine, St. Junian and St. Leonard, in Limousin, were all simultaneously
engaged in founding abbeys which inherited their names, and
around which arose the cities of St. Leonard, St. Junian,
(Μώ, and St. Pourçaiu. In Burgundy, St. Seine (Sequanus)

ST. AGAPETUS (A. D. 635-53«)

137

rinsed a monastery in the Segustrian forest, situated in the
diocese of Langres, near the source of the Seine.
35. The flourishing state of the Gallic Church which
brought up saints in every rank of society, was only disturbed
by the scandalous conduct of Contumeliosus, bishop of Reez.
This prelate, truly unworthy of his high and holy calling, was
charged with several crimes, which proved to be but too justly
imputed to him. St. Cesarius of Arles, and the other bishops of
the province, examined the charges and sent a report to Pope
John II. (a. d. 534). The Sovereign Pontiff pronounced his
solemn judgment in the lamentable case; Contumeliosus was
deposed from his bishopric and confined in a monastery to do
penance for his crimes. John II. at the same time enjoined
St. Cesarius to appoint a provisional bishop to administer the
diocese of Reez until the death of the titulary. Contumeliosus
appealed from this decision ; but in the mean time John II. had
died (April 26th, a. d. 534). His successor, St. Agapetus, *
r
examined the case, and simply confirmed the first sentence.
§ 6. Pontificate of St. Agapetus (May 4, a. d. 535--Apnl
25, 536).

36. The accession of St. Agapetus to the Sovereign Pontifi­
cate is marked by an event of vast importance in chronology :
the adoption of the Christian era in both private and public
acts. The years had hitherto been reckoned according to the
consular annals. The fall of the Western Empire had compli­
cated the system with new difficulties. A priest of the Roman
Church, no less illustrious for science than for virtue, Diony­
sius the Little, undertook this useful reform. He had been
appointed to carry out the cycle of St. Cyril, which ended in
a. d. 531. Whilst engaged in this work, he conceived the idea
of making the starting-point of modern history coincide exactly
with the year of our Lord’s Incarnation ; and on this basis he
computed a paschal cycle which he carried out to the year 627.
Dionysius the Little did not limit his labors to the discharge of

138

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

this duty. He gathered into one huge collection the canons ol
all the Eastern and Western councils. This work, which
showed the most consummate care and intelligence, was hailed
by the enthusiastic applause of the whole Catholic world. The
illustrious scholar subsequently completed it by the addition
of all the decretals of the Popes since St. Sericius. This last
work contains a few omissions, owing doubtless to the impos­
sibility of procuring some rare and little known documents.
Such as it is, however, it has been of great use and service
to the Church, though not publicly authorized by her. Dio­
nysius spent the first half of the sixth century in these great
works, and died in the odor of sanctity about the year 540.
37. On learning the election of St. Agapetus, Justinian sent
him his profession of faith, requesting, at the same time, that
the converted Arians might be allowed to retain their ecclesias­
tical dignities. Justinian also asked the Pope to admit to his
communion Achilles, consecrated bishop of Larissa, in the place
of Stephen, by Epiphanius of Constantinople ; and finally, he
begged that the vicariate of Illyria might be transferred from
the see of Larissa to that of *
Justiniana.
The Pope, in reply,
approved Justinian's profession of faith ; “not,” he said, “ that
we admit the right of laymen to preach ; but we praise your
zeal in upholding the Catholic doctrine by your authority.”
In respect to the converted Arians, he calls the emperor’s
attention to the fact that the canons forbid that reconciled
heretics shall be considered in orders ; and promises that the
matter of Achilles, named bishop of Larissa, shall be submitted
to the careful examination of the legates whom he proposes
soon to send to the East. “ You excuse our brother and fel­
low-bishop Epiphanius,” says the Pope, “for having consecrated
him, as he did it by your order. But he should himself have
made known to you the prerogatives of the Apostolic See,
knowing, as he does, how ready you always are to assert its
• This w»b a new city which Justinian was building in Dardania, near his native vil
Uga He called it Jwtiniuna Prima, to distinguish it from the other cities to which be bad
grwne-1 his name. It was made the capital of lUyria.

8T. AGAPETUS (A. D. f35-53«).

139

rights.” The Pope provisionally admitted Achillea to his com­
munion ; as to the vicariate of Illyria, the legates would ac­
quaint Justinian with the Pope’s decision on the subject. This
letter, dated October 15th, a. d. 535, was soon followed to
Constantinople by five apostolic legates: Sabinus, bishop of
Canossa, Epiphanius of Eclanum, Asterius of Falerno, Rusticus
of Festula, and Leo of Nola.
38. Simultaneously with Justinian’s letter, St. Agapetus
had received the acts of a council held by two hundred and
seventeen bishops at Carthage, under the presidency of Repara­
tus, bishop of that metropolis. It was their wish to devote
the first-fruits of their freedom to the restoration of disci­
pline, which had suffered so severely during the Vandal perse­
cution. When this august assemblage met for the first time
in the great basilica of Carthage, the thought of past suffer­
ings, the joy of a deliverance so unlooked for, drew tears from
the venerable bishops who composed it ; and St. Augustine’s
solemn anthem of thanksgiving went up from every heart and
from every tongue in this assemblage of his *fellow-countrymen
The canons of the Nicene Council were then read, as they
established the Catholic faith against the errors of Arius ; the
question was proposed what should be the treatment of the
Arian bishops returning to the truth. The council was of opin­
ion that they should be admitted only to lay-communion; be­
fore deciding the point, however, it was determined to ask the
judgment of the Apostolic See in the matter. The council
moreover asked the Sovereign Pontiff if it were allowed to
confer orders on those who had been baptized by Arians ; and
as several African bishops had gone, during the Vandal perse­
cution, to Italy and Siciiy, the council begs the Pope not to
receive into his communion such as could not prove by letters
from the bishops of Africa that they had been sent for the good
of the churches. St. Agapetus returned a detailed answer to
each question. The Arian bishops were not to be reinstated ;
* Ibo n Devin is atli.butcd tu the joint composition of Sts. Ambroae and Augustine.

NO

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

but a sufficient revenue should be assigned them from the
Church property for their support. Converts from Arianism
were not to be raised to Holy Orders, lest the Catholic priest,
hood should be infected with the errors of that sect. Finally,
he approves the precaution recommended by the council re­
specting the clerics who had quitted Africa during the perse­
cution, and urges the necessity of using every possible means
to check vagrancy among clerics.
39. The distinguished success of Belisarius in the subjuga­
tion of Africa, led Justinian to send him into Italy for t he pur­
pose of crushing the Gothic domination there, and of giving
back the cradle of the empire to the rule of the emperors. This
movement found a plausible pretext in the cruelty of Theodatus who had lately caused the death of his benefactress, Amalasontha (a. d. 534). The imperial fleet, under Belisarius, cast
anchor on the coast of Sicily ; and Theodatus, terrified by the
prestige of Justinian’s arms, appealed to Pope St. Agapetus and
the Roman senate. He declared that if they did not dissuade
Justinian from this design, he would put to death all the senators
with their families. The pen which sent to Rome this language
worthy of a tyrant, was at the same time engaged in tracing a
most abject letter to Constantinople, offering to yield the throne
to Justinian in consideration of a life-pension of twelve hundred
pounds of gold. “I would rather,” he writes to Justinian,
“live as a peaceful husbandman, than thus hedged about with
the cares and perils of royalty.” These philosophical reveries,
however, would not have hindered him from carrying out his
threat against the senate, had not the Pope, St. Agapetus, un­
dertaken to negotiate in person with the emperor Justinian.
He prepared to start, but so strict was his observance of pov­
erty that he had not the means necessary to defray his travel­
ling expenses·, he was accordingly forced to borrow the funds
îrom the officers of the king on whose behalf he undertook the
distant mission. Theodatus had not the generosity to furnish
ho necessary sum·, and he even required as surety for the

8T. AGAPETUS (A. D. 535-Μβ).

Π|

borrowed money, that all the sacred vessels of St. Peter’n
should be left in the hands of his officers.
40. St. Agapetus reached Constantinople on the 2d of Feb­
ruary, a. d. 536. He was met at his approach by the five leg­
ates whom he had sent to the East. Epiphanias, Patriarch
of Constantinople, had died the year before. The empress
Theodora’s influence with Justinian had bestowed the See npon
Anthimus, the Eutychian bishop of Trebizond. St, Agapetus
refused to communicate with him, in spite of the prayers and
threats of the empress ; he even overcame her influence in the
emperor’s mind. Anthimus, though deposed, preferred the
loss of his See to signing a Catholic profession of faith. The
Pope presided in the council which pronounced his condem­
nation. The political question which had brought the Sover­
eign Pontiff to the East, neither did nor could receive a solu­
tion favorable to the views of Theodatus. The conquest of
Italy was a settled purpose with Justinian ; all the prepara­
tions for it had been made. Agapetus lost no time in useless
negotiations, but gave his attention to the various wants of the
Eastern Church. The Church of Alexandria sought his inter­
vention to put a stop to the machinations of the Eutychian
heretics who still continued to teach their errors in that city.
St. Agapetus, in conjunction with the emperor, designed to call
a council to remedy all disorders and abuses ; but his intention
was thwarted by death, which struck down the Holy Pontiff in
a strange land (April 17, a. d. 536). “ It was a festive day
for him,” says an eye-witness, “ but a season of deep mourning
for us. Never were such obsequies celebrated for Pope or em­
peror. Not all the public squares, nor the porticos, nor the
house-tops could contain the vast crowds that thronged around
the funeral car. Constantinople now saw all her subjects with­
in her city walls.” The remains of St. Agapetus, thus sur­
rounded by marks of reverent honor, were brought from Con­
stantinople to Rome, where they were laid with those of his
predecessors in the basilica of St. Peter.

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH

CHAPTER IV.
§ 1. Pontificate of St. Sylverius (June 8, a. d. 536—July 20, 538).
I, Election of St Sylverius forced by Theodatus, king of the Ostrogoths.—a
Theodora’s intrigues to contrive the election of a Eutychian Pope.—3. Sue
cesses of Belisarius in Italy.—4. Theodora induces Belisarius to banish 8l
Sylverius to Patara, Justinian ordera the Pope to be restored.—5. Mar

tyrdom of St. Sylverius.
§11. Pontificate or Vigilius (July 20, a. d. 538—January 10, 555).

& First proofs of Apostolic energy on the part of Pope Vigilius.—7. Disgrace
and death of Belisarius.—8. Totila’s mildness toward the Neapolitans.—
Siege and capture of Rome by Totila.—9. Ravages of Chosrocs in the East.
—10. Justinian's Decree of Proscription against the Three Chapters.—11.
Pope Vigilius visits Constantinople. Judicatum issued against the Three
Chapters.—\2. Letter of Vigilius to Aurelius, bishop of Arles, on this sub­
ject The Pope’s firmness. He is outraged in the Church of St. Peter at
Constantinople.—13. Fifth General Council held at Constantinople.—14.
Death of Pope Vigilius.

§ III. Pontificate of Pelaoivs L (April 16,

λ. d.

555—March 2, 559).

16. Troubles attending the election of Pelagius L—J >. Chanty and prudence
of Pelagius.—17. The Tuscan bishops refuse to receive the condemnation
of the Thru Chapters. Religious spirit in Gaul.—18. Death of Pelagius L

§ IV. Pontificate

of

John IIL (March, a. d. 559—July 23, 572)

19. Phantasiaste in Constantinople.—20. Death of Justinian. Accession ·.
Justinian the Younger.—21. Narses invites Alboin, king of the Lombards,
to Italy.—22. Death of John III.

§ V. Pontificate of Benedict L (May 16, a. d. 573—July 31, 577).
S3. Vacancy of the Roman See.—Religious and political View of the < hristian
World.—24. Benedict I. The Deacon St. Gregory and the Angles Death
of Benedict L

8T. SYLVERIUS (A. D. 5Î6-599).
§ VI.

Pontificats

of

Pblaoiüb

143

IL (Nov. 30, a. d. 577—Feb. 8, 590).

»5 Pelagiae IL treats with the Lombarde for the release of Italy.—26. The
Tuscan bishops at length acknowledge the condemnation of the Thru Chap·
lers.—27. 8t. Gregory of Tours.—28. Councils of Châlons-snr-Saône, Ma­
con, and Lyons.—29. Fortunatus, bishop of Poitiers, and other Gallic
Saints.—30. Scandalous behavior of Sagittarius, bishop of Gap, and of
Solonins, bishop of Embrun.—31. Death of Pelagios IL

§ 1. Pontificate op St. Sylverius (June 8, a. d. 536—July 20,
538).

1. As soon as Rome was made acquainted with the death
of St. Agapetus, Theodatus, fearing the possible election of a
Pope less favorable to his interest than to that of the Greeks,
on his own authority contrived the consecration of the deacon
Sylverius, without allowing the least right of suffrage. He
even threatened with death any cleric who dared to oppose his
tyrannical orders. The Roman clergy, thus forced into com­
pliance, preferred freely to ratify an election which Theodatus
would have imposed by force of arms, had it been resisted.
Thus was St. Sylverius raised to the Sovereign Pontificate on
the 8th of June, a. d. 536. Whatever may have been the
hopes entertained by Theodatus, the bearing of the new Pope
completely defeated them. St. Sylverius proved himself a
worthy successor to so many noble Pontiffs who had upheld
the independence of the Holy See at the risk of life itself. He
too could be a martyr.
2. Belisarius, in his Italian expedition, was charged with
two missions : His public and official duty was to make way for
the Grecian rule by uprooting that of tu8 Ostrogoths. This
was the end which Justinian aimed at obtaining by his gen­
eral’s arms. The other was private and personal, and emana­
ted from Theodora. The crafty woman deemed this a favor­
able opportunity to place upon the Chair of St. Peter a Pope
unprincipled enough to admit the Eutychians to his commu­
nion. She thought to have found a willing instrument of all
her wishes in the Roman deacon Vigilius, who had long resided

144

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

in Constantinople as envoy of tho Popes, and whom Boniface
II. had wished to name as his successor. The empress offered
him seven hundred pounds in gold and a secret order to Beli­
sarius, by which the general was to contrive his election to
the Papacy; she required of him, in return, to reject the Coun­
cil of Chalcedon, and to receive to his communion Anthimus,
Patriarch of Constantinople, deposed by St. Agapetus. Vigil­
ius was weak or ambitious enough to agree to such terms, and
went to Rome with the intention of fulfilling them ; but none
of these things was to be accomplished. Vigilius the deacon
bad contracted engagements which Vigilius the Pope after­
ward spurned with indignation—a striking example of the
ever-watchful care exercised over the Church by Divine Prov­
idence, which will never suffer the gates of hell to prevail
against the indefectible Chair of Peter. When Vigilius reached
the Eternal City the election of Sylverius was an accomplished
fact. The aspiring deacon contented himself with delivering
Theodora’s order to Belisarius, and set out on his return to
Constantinople.
3. Since his arrival in Sicily, Belisarius numbered his steps by
victories. The whole island obeyed his laws. He then crossed
the strait, passed up through Italy, and halted before Naples.
Hitherto Belisarius had stood before the admiring world a
great captain, as merciful to the conquered as he was for­
midable to his enemies; but now his character seemed to deny
itself. Enslaved by the influence of the courtesan Antonina, a
former associate of Theodora, and whom he had been so weak
as to marry, he became cruel to flatter the bloodthirsty dis­
position of this unnatural woman. Naples flowed with the
blood of its wretched inhabitants who were butchered without
distinction of age or sex ; priests were slain at the foot of the
altar, and the city was left a desolate, deserted heap of ruins.
Leaving this scene of carnage behind him, Belisarius appeared
before the walls of Home. To spare the Eternal City a like
fate, Sylverius persuaded the inhabitants to prevent the ven­
geance of an angered conqueror, by opening their gates to the

ST. SYLVERIUS (A. D. 63S-M9).

14b

imperial army. Meanwhile Theodatus, whose base and da>
tardly character had roused the hatred of his subjects against
him, had been put to death, and Vitiges succeeded to the difficult
task of beating back the Greek invader. The Italians, left to
their own resources, amid the ceaseless din and strife of hostile
arms, knew not to which leader they could look for protection;
and as if to fill the measure of desolation for this fair land,
once queen of the world, but now the spoil of every barbarous
tribe, the Franks, under Theodebert, king of Austrasia, sud­
denly fell upon the northern provinces and devoted them to
fire and sword. Whilst these events crowded upon each other
with a rapidity that scarce allows the historian to seize them
all in their fulness, Belisarius was marching into Rome, where
the Pope received him as a deliverer. Availing himself of the
credit which this favor had won for him with the Greek gen­
eral, the Sovereign Pontiff made every effort to obtain some
compensative measures for the unfortunate city of Naples. Bel­
isarius granted immunities to such of the inhabitants of the
surrounding country as would repeople it, and all traces of
the invasion by degrees disappeared.
4. But under all this seeming benevolence, Belisarius, the
tool of his wife, Antonina, to whom the empress secretly con­
veyed her wishes, meditated a sacrilegious attempt upon the
person of the Sovereign Pontiff. The holy Pope had lately
answered a request of the imperial courtesan that he would
recall Anthimus to the See of Constantinople, by a letter full
of apostolic firmness and vigor. “ Never,” he wrote, “ can I
bo guilty of such a crime. I know that this sad case may cost
me my life ; but I cannot prove false to my conscience in com­
municating with a heretic justly condemned by my predeces­
sor.” St. Sylverius was not mistaken. His firmness won him
the martyr’s palm ; and Belisarius, by laying sacrilegious hands
upon the Lord’s anointed, brought down upon his future career
the blight of divine vengeance.
It was with reluctance, however, that he yielded to the wish
of the empress. On receiving the final order to seize the PonVou II,—10

U6

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

tiff, he exclaimed : " I must do as I am ordered, they who
eeek the life of Sylverius shall answer for it at the last day,
not I." He sent for the Sovereign Pontiff and urged him to
yield to Theodora's request. Sylverius refused ; and on leav­
ing the general, took refuge in the church of St. Mary, to
escape the violence which he apprehended. He was again
summoned by Belisarius, and this time was held a prisoner in
the palace ; false witnesses were heard, who deposed that he
had taken part in some intrigues tending to place the city in
the power of Vitiges, king of the Goths. On such calumnies
as these Sylverius was condemned and stripped of the pallium
and other pontifical ornaments in the very apartment of Bel­
isarius. He was clothed in the dress of a monk, and the report
was spread that he had been juridically deposed. Sylverius
was then exiled to Patara, in Lycia (a. d. 537). The bishop
of that city, moved by a respectful compassion for the misfor­
tunes of the venerable Pontiff, hastened to Constantinople and
boldly upbraided the emperor with the outrages heaped upon
the Head of the Church. Justinian was, or at least feigned
to be, ignorant of the atrocity of the case, and ordered that
Sylverius should be sent back to Rome with all the honor due
to his high rank. Theodora tried in vain to thwart the design
of her imperial consort; for once Justinian stood firm in his
praiseworthy resolution, and Sylverius was brought back to
Rome.
5. Meantime, the deacon Vigilius, whom the advice of Bel­
isarius had recalled to Rome, assembled a council of the clergy,
and, whether by threats or by bribes, secured his election to
the pontifical throne, as if the deposition of Sylverius were
really juridical (November 22, a. d. 537). Belisarius had been
a party to this usurpation. Vigilius, hearing of the Pope’s
return, took measures with Justinian’s general. They agreed
to carry out the secret orders of Theodora, fully assured that
her influence would secure their pardon from the emperor.
They accordingly caused Sylverius to be seized on the way
and taken to the island of Palmaria, where the holy Pontiff

VIGILIUS (Λ. D. 638-665).

147

eooti died of ill-usage and hunger, on the 20th of July, a. d. 538.
The Church honors his memory as that, of a martyr. Proco­
pius gives a different account of his death. He says that the
Pope was murdered, at the instigation of Antonina, by a sol­
dier named Eugenius.
§ II. Pontificate of Vigilius (July 20, a.d. 538—Jan. 10,55b).
6. The coercion exercised by the temporal powers over the
Papal elections finds, perhaps,no more conspicuous proofs than the
regular accession of Vigilius to the Chair of Peter, which he had
held as antipope during the life of the rightful Pontiff. Under
different circumstances the clergy, secure in the right of free suf­
frage, would have chosen another Pope ; but under the weapons
of a victorious general backed by the imperial army, it became
a matter of necessity to yield and to accept whatever irregu­
larity might exist in such a succession. Vigilius, therefore, on
the death of St. Sylverius, took his place in the list of Sover­
eign Pontiffs, and it does not appear that any protest was
entered against his accession. Moreover, on taking possession
of the heritage of St. Peter, he seems to have been endowed
with a new spirit of apostolic vigor; and the Pope nobly
redeemed the errors and failings of the deacon. Two letters
which he addressed severally to Justinian and to Mennas, the
legitimate patriarch of Constantinople, bear splendid witness to
his orthodoxy. He declares his faith to be the same as that
of his predecessors Celestin, Leo, Hormisdas, John, and Agape­
tus. Like them, too, he receives the four ecumenical councils
and the letter of St. Leo the Great; and with them he anathe­
matizes the partisans of Eutyches, but especially the intruder
Anthimus, who persisted in braving the canonical rules by un­
lawfully holding the See of Constantinople (September 17, a. d.
540). In spite of this clear and positive profession of faith,
some writers have not hesitated to pronounce the belief of
Vigilius doubtful. Liberatus, a Carthaginian deacon, and Vic­
tor, bishop of Tunnona, both contemporary authors, quote a

148

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

letter purporting to have been addressed by him, in the begin­
ning of his pontificate, to Anthimus, admitting the heretic to
his communion. Modern critics all agree in pronouncing this
letter apocryphal, as it bears witness against itself. The very
superscription would throw a doubt upon its authenticity ; it is
thus worded: “Vigilius to his lords and christs.” The whole
history of the Roman chancery cries out against such a for­
mula, never used by a Pope in addressing bishops. And
besides how can Vigilius be suspected of such a flagrant selfcontradiction ? Had he wished to admit the heretic Anthimus,
he would naturally have made capital of it with the empress
Theodora, whose wish it was ; whereas, on the contrary, he
answered Theodora’s request by a plain and positive refusal.
Besides, the history of Vigilius’s pontificate shows him assailed
with the most bitter and varied charges and recriminations in
the controversy on the Three Chapters; yet to none of his ene­
mies did the idea occur of holding up to him so fatal a docu­
ment. These few brief arguments sufficiently prove that the
faith of Vigilius, as Sovereign Pontiff, remained unshaken in
jspite of that Pope’s unfortunate antecedents.
7. The disastrous period when an antipope became legiti­
mate by the death of a holy Puntiff, to which he had contrib­
uted, offered no consoling offset in a political point of view.
War was perpetuating itself in Italy. Belisarius had gone to
receive the honor of a triumph at Constantinople. Vitiges, in
chains, walked before his chariot, as Gelimer had done before
him. The victorious general laid at Justinian’s feet the treas­
ures of the Gothic monarchy. He was repaid with injustice
and humiliations. God now visited upon Belisarius the out­
rages which St. Sylverius had received at his hands. The
conqueror, at the height of fortune and worldly prosperity, was
accused of conspiring against his sovereign, and of aiming at
the throne. The great captain was called to stand in judgment
before his imperial master, who questioned him on his alleged
conspiracy. The offended hero made no answer to the em­
peror’s inquiries, and only said, as he left the hall : “ Prince,

VIGILIU8 (Λ. D. 538-555).

149

to the calumnies of my cowardly accusers I oppose but my
character and my services of forty years in your armies. Judge
me ; punish your general if you think him guilty." His prop­
erty was confiscated and he was himself imprisoned. Justin­
ian subsequently discovered the hero’s innocence and sought
to repair the wrong he had done him; but the injustice and
foul ingratitude of those who owed him so much had broken
that great spirit. Belisarius died at Constantinople of a bro­
ken heart (a. d. 565). He went to his grave without show or
parade ; his veterans alone wept over him. From his far-off
exile, Gelimer, too, gave a tear to his memory.
*
The eunuch
Narses succeeded in Italy to the rank, but not to the genius
and loyalty of Belisarius. The Goths were rising on all sides
8. In the year 541, Totila ascended the Gothic throne of
Italy and was successively winning back all the victories of
Belisarius. The royal barbarian opened his military career by
acts of unexampled cruelty ; wasted fields, plundered cities,
butchered inhabitants—all the horrors of war, heightened by
the fierce disposition of his soldiers, had made his name one
of terror. But from the time of his interview with St. Bene­
dict, which we mentioned in speaking of the holy abbot, Totila’s manner had suddenly lost its natural fierceness. Naples
was the first to feel the happy effect of this unwonted mild­
ness. The unhappy city had hardly yet been able to cover
the traces of Belisarius’s passage, when Totila appeared before
its gates. After several months of a famine which recalled
the most fearful scenes of the past, the inhabitants surrendered
at discretion. The conqueror promised to treat them merciful­
ly, and he kept his word. Seeing that the soldiers of the
* That Belisarius was deprived of hia eyes and reduced to beggary is an idle Action
Yet the fable has gained the footing of truth in the popular mind, and held full sway in ■h·
imagination of sculptors and poets. But history is never at liberty to tamper with the
truth. Not a single contemporary author says a word about Belisarius as a needy beggar.
The origin of this tale is traceable to John Tzetzes, a writer of small note in the twelfth
century. He probably confounded the disgrace of John of Cappadocia, prefect of the pre·
torium, with that of Belisarius.—(M. Baptistin Poujovlat, Higtoirt Je iEmpir; ottoman
tir, p. .83.)

Ibü

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

garrison were reduced by hunger, he feared that they might
cause their own death by too eagerly partaking of the food ho
intended to distribute among them. lie accordingly stationed
guards at the gates, and gave a slight ration to each Neapolitan
soldier; this supply was gradually increased until all danger
had passed. To all who did not wish to enlist in his ranks, he
furnished means of travel to the abode of their choice. Totila
next laid siege to Rome. Vigilius gave notice of the fact to the
emperor Justinian who was not in a state to offer any opposi­
tion. The siege was pressed with desperate fury. The famine %
had reached a fearful pitch. One day, five little children sur­
rounded their father, crying for bread. “ Follow me,” said the
wretched father. He led them to a bridge on the Tiber, and
there, muffling up his face in his cloak, threw himself into the
stream. The people, who had witnessed this act of despair,
surrounded the generals and forced them, at length, to open
the gates to Totila. The Goth agreed to spare the city until
the return of the deacon Pelagius whom he had sent as ambas­
sador to Constantinople, to offer peace to Justinian. The em­
peror would listen to no terms. Totila then determined to
make the spot on which Rome stood but one vast pasture-land,
lie accordingly scattered the inhabitants throughout Campania,
and began to tear down the palaces and walls. General con­
sternation prevailed. The destruction of Rome would have
been, in some sort, the signal of the world’s dissolution.
Throngs of terrified people poured in from all quarters upon
St. Benedict, to consult him in the danger which threatened
them. “ Be assured,” said the saint, “ that Rome shall not be
destroyed byThe nations; but it shall be beaten by storms,
and wither like a tree which decays at the root.” * And in
truth Totila gave up his design. He then passed over to
Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica, which he successively devasta­
ted, and died in a. d. 552, in the battle known by the name
of Butta Gallorum, near Tagina (now Lentagio, in the Apen­
nines), where Narses defeated the Gothic forces.
• Thb prediction of St Benedict is quoted by Pope St. Gregory the Great

VIGILIUS (A. D. 53S-5.W).

151

9. War had also carried its ravages into the East. Cho»
lûes, king of Persia, for twenty years desolated the cities of
Syria. In the year 540, he besieged and took Antioch, the
capital of the East, sacked and destroyed it, and led away the
inhabitants into bondage. The Eastern Christians multiplied
their alms to ransom so many wretched captives from the king
of Persia and give them back to their country. The collectioi
was large enough to have ransomed all the prisoners ; yet noi
one was redeemed, A Greek, an imperial commander, seizec
and appropriated the whole sum to his own use. Earthquakes
plague and famine added their destroying power to that of war
All evils seemed to have leagued together to hasten the down
fall of the principal Eastern cities, once so wealthy and flour
ishing.
10. Religious dissensions, too, lent their discordant note tc
the general din. The works of Origen, which had been sc
fruitful of discussions in their earliest days, became anew the
ground of lively and animated debate. Justinian, who plumed
himself upon the extent of his theological learning, came upon
the ground of debate with an edict condemning the errors at­
tributed to Origen, relative to the six points already mentioned :
the Trinity, creation, the pre-existence of souls, the animation
of the heavenly bodies, the resurrection of the body, the eter­
nal torments of the reprobate. As the supporters of Origen
did not deem Justinian a competent authority in such matters,
the imperial decree only complicated the *
dispute.
This want
of success, however, failed to cure the emperor of his theologi­
cal mania.
In a. d. 546, he issued a new edict enjoining all
bishops to condemn the Three Chapters. These Three Chapters,
assailed with unexampled obstinacy by the Eutychians, were
A Profession of Faith, by Theodore, bishop of Mopsuesta ; a work
by Theodoret, bishop of Cyrrhus, on the twelve chapters of St. Cyril;
and a letter written by Ibas, bishop of Edessa, to a Persian here­
* The erroneous doctrines borrowed by heretics from Origen's works received a final
condemnation in the fifth General Council at Constantinople (a. n. 553), since which tin»·
they have ceased to trouble the Church

J52

OWBRAI. HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

tic named Marts. The Council of Chalcedon had examined
these three works, and, without passing any positive judgment
on their theological soundness, had refrained from a condemna­
tion. The Eutychians dared not openly attack the Council of
Chalcedon, but they hoped to gain the same end by enticing
Justinian into a condemnation of the Three Chapters. Justin­
ian fell into the snare and published a new edict which he
called the Imperial Profession of Faith against the Three Chap­
ters, and addressed to the whole Catholic world (a. d. 546).
It closed with the three following anathemas : “ If any one de­
fends Theodore of Mopsuesta, let him be anathema ! If any
one defends the writings of Theodoret, let him be anathema!
If any one defends the impious letter of the bishop Ibas to the
Persian Maris, let him be anathema !” Most of the Catholic
bishops of the East were forced to sign Justinian’s theological
edict; but all the emperor’s endeavors to win Vigilius to his
cause met with a courageous resistance from the Pontiff. “ Is
not the condemnation of the Three Chapters," said Vigilius,
“an indirect attack upon the Council of Chalcedon, which with­
held its censure ?" He then expressed his wish that the
Three Chapters should be canonically examined that they
might then, if proper, be lawfully condemned.
Justinian
treated the subject with an ardor which degenerated into pas­
sion. He had obliged Mennas, Patriarch of Constantinople,
to head the signatures to the Imperial Profession of Faith.
Stephen, deacon and legate of the Roman Church, sharply
upbraided Mennas for his weakness, and declared him cut off
from his communion. Meanwhile Justinian was using all hie
influence to bring the Pope to Constantinople, that he might
settle the dispute on the very spot where it arose.
11. Vigilius consented and entered the Eastern capital in
the month of February, a. d. 547. His first act was to ratify
the sentence pronounced against the Patriarch Mennas and to
publish a decree of excommunication against the Eutychians
and their adherents. The Pope then proceeded to a canonical
examination of the Three Chapters, in a council of seventy bish­

VKHL.US (Λ. D. 638-558).

155

ops, held at Constantinople. The examination revealed several
serious errors in the disputed works ; and after mature delib­
eration, Vigilius condemned the Three Chapters in a sentence
which he styled Judicatum (judgment), saving, however, the
authority of the Council of Chalcedon. But there were on
both sides minds influenced by the spirit of contention. The
opponents of the Three Chapters called for a clear and positive
condemnation, without any restriction or reserve. Their support­
ers, on the other hand, were naturally much irritated. The latter
party was very numerous and counted in its ranks the bish­
ops of Africa, Algeria, and Dalmatia. Two deacons hitherto
attached to the person of the Sovereign Pontiff, and who had
accompanied him to the East, now deserted him, and spread
the report in the provinces that Vigilius had abandoned the
Council of Chalcedon.
12. Aurelius, bishop of Arles, who had been appointed by
Vigilius legate of the Holy See, on receiving this notice wrote
to the Pope to obtain reliable information on the subject.
Vigilius replied that he had done nothing against the decrees
of his predecessors nor against the four councils. “ In your
position, then,” he added, “as vicar of the Holy See, warn ail
the bishops to give no heed to the false letters or reports that
may reach them; let them be assured that we hold Io the
faith of our fathers. As soon as the emperor has dismissed
us, we shall send you some one to give you a full account of
our whole conduct ; this we have hitherto been unable to do,
both on account of the obstructions to travel in the winter sea­
son, and the state of Italy wasted by war.” Vigilius at the
same time wrote to Valentinian, bishop of Scythia, energet­
ically refuting the slanderous charges brought against him.
Thus the Pope’s Judicatum did not produce the effect that
might have been looked for. The Western Catholics thought
the honor of the Council of Chalcedon compromised, and felt
great mistrust; the Eutychians, on the other hand, urged Vigil­
ius to a plain and positive condemnation of the Three Chapters,
without reference to the Council of Chalcedon. The Pope

154

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

thought that this stormy debate would be most promptly and
decisively settled by calling an ecumenical council whose au­
thority, admitted on all hands, would do away with all possibil­
ity of recrimination. “Let the Latin bishops,” said the Pope
to Justinian, “ who see a stumbling-block in the condemnation
of the Three Chapters, come to the council ; or at least leave
them free to give their opinion, and cease this division in the
Church of God.” But the Eutychians used all their influence
to thwart a measure which must prove so ruinous to their
hopes. Theodore of Cæsarea. their leader, in contempt of the
Pope's orders, removed the names of the Catholic bishops from
the diptychs, and substituted in their places those of the intru­
ded heretics. After this open outrage, Vigilius declared that
he would no longer hold communion with the Orientals, and
refused thenceforth to admit them to his presence. This apos­
tolic firmness so enraged the emperor that the Pope was driven
to seek shelter in the church of St. Peter. Justinian deter­
mined to take him by force, and sent a praetor to surround the
basilica with a troop of soldiery. Constantinople now gave to
the world a spectacle of savage fury which the barbarian con­
querors had spared downtrodden Rome. The prætor ordered
the troops to enter the church with drawn swords ; at their
appr meh the Pope took refuge under the altar and clung to
the · olumns which supported it. The prætor caused the dea­
cons and other clerics to be dragged by the hair from around
the altar. Then, in their desire to tear away the Pontiff him­
self, his minions seized Vigilius, some by the beard, others by
the hair : “ Know,” exclaimed the Pope, “ that though you hold
us captive, yet you cannot hold St. Peter." As he did not yield
to their violence, some of the pillars to which he clung were
broken. At the sight of such unparalleled brutality cries of
indignation burst from the people and even from some of the
soldiers, when the prætor, fearing a sedition, thought it prudent
to withdraw his force (a. d. 551). For the sake of Justinian’s
reputation it is to be regretted that such acts cannot be attrib­
uted to the influence of Theodora ; but she had died two years

VIGILIUS. (A. D. 538-BU6).

155

before, still under the excommunication pronounced by Vigilius
against the Eutychians. The emperor tried to win by craft
what he could not extort by violence, but Vigilius was on his
guard. He succeeded in thwarting all the attempts made
against him, and feeling unsafe in the basilica of St. Peter, and
even in Constantinople itself, he left the city and took refuge
in the church of St. Euphemia, at Chalcedon. Thus, after a
sojourn of seven years in the East, the Pope found himself
obliged to contend for liberty and Efe against the emperor.
Justinian’s obstinacy was at length overcome by this steady
resistance. He made the offer himself to assemble the ecumen­
ical council for which the Cathodes had been so long calling.
13. This council, the fifth ecumenical, was opened at Con­
stantinople on the 4th day of May, a. d. 553. One hundred
and sixty-five bishops were present ; the East was represented
by a considerable majority. The Pope was justly solicitous
lest the Western bishops should not think themselves suffi­
ciently represented in a general council. But this numerical
disadvantage of the Western bishops was no new feature in the
history of the Church; hence it was passed over. In the eighth
session, or Conference, the Three Chapters were condemned in
nearly the same terms used by Pope Vigilius in his Judicatum.
With a prudence worthy of the Supreme Head of the Church,
the Pope would not promulgate this final judgment until full
time had been allowed for truth to make its way into all
minds. Many Western Catholics deemed it rash to condemn
those whom the Council of Chalcedon had refused to anathema­
tize, on the principle that the Church does not anathematize
the dead. But as soon as heretics revived the errors of these
departed authors to harass the consciences of the faithful, the
reserve maintained by the CouncE of Chalcedon, far from show­
ing propriety, was even dangerous ; and it became a matter of
urgent necessity to pronounce judgment. These reasons gradu­
ally gained ground in the public mind, and some months after
the Council of Constantinople, VigiEus announced to the Cath­
ode world that the Three Chapters had been regularly con-

156

GENERAL HFSTORV OF THE CHURCH.

demncd (December 8, a. d. 653). Some historians affect to view
this reserve and prudence on the part of the Pope as a serious mis­
take in a question of dogma. Vigilius had indeed protested, at the
opening of the council, against the emperor’s want of honesty in
not awaiting the arrival of the Latin bishops. He clearly and
energetically showed that such a proceeding was utterly wanting
in justice, dignity and respect for the Church. This protest
served only to irritate Justinian ; and the Pope was sent into
exile. It was mournful to see the Head of Christendom thus
exposed to the pursuits of the Greek Church, defenceless, bereft
of counsel and consolation, open to the attacks of all parties.
In this critical juncture Vigilius hurries nothing, prejudges noth­
ing; awaiting the moment when a calm shall come over the
minds of all, he then ratifies, by his pontifical decision, the
sentence of the very council whose deliberations he would have
delayed until the coming of the Western bishops. Thus the
council became ecumenical; its decisions and laws bind the
whole Church. The succeeding Pontiffs confirmed the sentence
pronounced against the Three Chapters, and the truth thus
breaks through the clouds which had so long hidden it from
sight. The debate on the Three Chapters had been so long and
so intricate, only because the question concerning their authors
was involved in that of the works themselves. Passion was
rife on both sides for or against the memory of holy men who
might have erred in good faith but whose life was beyond im­
putation. According as a point of view was taken in respect to
the authors or to their doctrines, it was at once possible to ab­
solve and to condemn. The Pope gave his whole attention to
the single end of separating two questions so really distinct.
He succeeded, but at the cost of personal peace and tranquil­
lity, which must remain a glory to his memory, not a re­
proach.
14. Having settled all the claims which called him to the
East, Vigilius obtained the emperor’s leave to return to Italy.
He had been absent eight years, and even now he was not to
look upon Rome again. His sickly state forced him to stop at

V1GIL1ÜS (A. D. 538-558).

157

Syracuse, where he died on the 10th of January, a. d. 555,after a
pontificate of sixteen years. His remains were carried to Rome
and deposited in the church of St. Marcellus, on the Salarian
way. The dark shade thrown upon this pontificate hy religione
strifes and political revolutions is occasionally relieved by the
light of literary efforts. Vigilius, true to the constant tradi­
tion of the Holy See, fostered the intellectual growth. This
patronage encouraged Arator to present him with a hexameter
poem, in two books, on the Acts of the Apostles. The poet
enjoyed a high reputation in Rome. Formerly captain of the
guards and intendent of the imperial estate, he had resigned his
high position to enter sacred orders, and was now sub-deacon
in the Roman Church. The Pope, after hearing the poem read,
directed Surgentius, chief of the guards, to deposit it in the
archives of the Church. He caused it to be publicly read in
his presence in the church of St. Peter ad vincula. The poet
read his own verses, surrounded by the nobility, clergy, and
people. So eager were the hearers to have some passages
repeated, that four readings were found necessary to complete
the recitation. This fact proves that the mass of the people
were not yet dead to literary beauty and excellence. But this
taste soon disappeared under the heavy gloom which barbarian
invasion left in its track. During the pontificate of Vigilius,
the Gauls still stood before the world stanch adherents to the
faith. The incendiary disputes so much agitated in the East
did not trouble their peace. At this period St. Maurus, a dis­
ciple of St. Benedict, was laying the foundation of a monastery
at Glanfeuil, in the diocese of Angers (a.d. 542); and St. Aure­
lian, bishop of Arles and vicar of the Holy See, seconded by the
liberality of King Childebert, established, in his episcopal city,
a monastery for men and a community of women. He placed
them both under a rule of great austerity and strict enclosure
(a. d. 547). The fifth Council of Orleans (a.d. 549), held by fifty
bishops, recalled the canons relative to episcopal nominations
The second Council of Paris (a. d. 551), composed of twenty­

158

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

seven prelates, deposed Saffarao, bishop of that city, and pub­
lished several canons of discipline.

§ III. Pontificate

of

Pelagius I. (April 16, a. d. 555—March
2, 559).

15. The question of the Three Chapters, which had disturbed
the pontificate of Vigilius, was destined to trouble the election
of his successor. It was still feared in the West that the
decision of the fifth General Council of Constantinople might
weaken the authority of that of Chalcedon. Pelagius, who was
elected Pope on the 16th day of April, a. d. 555, had, as dea­
con of the Roman Church, held to the condemnation of the Three
Chapters. This was enough to bring upon him the most atro­
cious slanders. He was accused of hastening the death of
Vigilius by ill usage, whereas the very contrary was the truth ;
the consolations and care of Pelagius had soothed the last mo­
ments of the dying Pontiff. Yet these idle reports had been
spread amongst the Roman people and threatened, for a while,
to enkindle the flames of sedition. So hostile was the public
mind to Pelagius, that only two bishops—John of Perugia and
Bonus of Ferentino—found sufficient resolution to consecrate
him. The most illustrious and noble members of the clergy and
senate refused his communion. The patrician Narses, the em­
peror’s commander in Italy, advised him to dispel these odious
suspicions by a public demonstration. Pelagius followed the ad­
vice, and ordered a general procession. On reaching the basilica
of 8t. Peter he ascended the pulpit, and holding the book of
Gospels and the crucifix above his head, made oath that he had
done no hurt to his predecessor. Those who had hitherto en­
tertained doubts, now threw them all r.;nde and joined his com­
munion. Pelagius, availing himself of these good dispositions,
urged all those present to join him in banishing simony from
ecclesiastical ordinations in every degree of the hierarchy. Ho
gave the superintendence of Church property to his secretary.
Valentine, a man fearing God, who secured the restoration of

PELAGIÜ8 I. (A. D. 555-659).

159

(JI the gold and silver vessels and precious veils taken from th·
churches.
16. Pelagius had done good service for the Romans, even
before his promotion to the Sovereign Pontificate. During To·
tila’s invasion, in the general famine, the pious deacon had ex­
hausted all the resources of his ingenious charity to relieve the
wretched sufferers perishing for want of bread. He had sev­
eral times been sent as ambassador to the formidable king of
the Goths, whose fierceness had yielded to the deputy’s forcible
and winning eloquence. Rome was not unmindful of so many
benefits, and the Pope was soon without an enemy. Still a
number of Italians refused to admit the decrees of the fifth
Council of Constantinople, though confirmed by Pope Vigilius.
A schism was evidently on the point of breaking out. Pela­
gius took advantage of Justinian’s favorable dispositions to
crush these rising troubles at their birth. With this view he
wrote to Narses, the emperor’s lieutenant in Italy : “ It is not
persecution,” he said, “to repress crime and help to the salva­
tion of souls. Persecution consists in forcing men to do evil ;
otherwise, it would be necessary to abolish every human and
divine law which punishes crime. But schism is an evil;
Scripture and the holy canons teach us that it should be put
down, even by the secular power.” These words of Pope
Pelagius have been taxed with excessive and blind intolerance.
“ It is easy,” says a modern *
historian “ to meet these charges
by making the necessary allowances for time and circumstances ;
by taking into account the difficulties which beset the exercise
of the spiritual authority on all sides. Without this energy
which refuses to compound with error, it is impossible to estab­
lish a lasting power, especially a power intended to control the
intellect.”
17. Pelagius devoted the whole of his pontificate of three
years to root out the last traces of religious dissensions. En­
couraged by the Pope’s exhortations, Narses exerted all his seal
• Histoire dee Papes, by the Count da Bbactobi, t, U n 500

160

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

to spread in the Peninsula the doctrines of the fifth General
Council. Some bishops, more vehement than the rest in their
support of the Three Chapters, excommunicated the patrician
The Pone immediately wrote to him, approving his conduct,
and assuring him that such an excommunication was null. The
Tuscan bishops showed a particular degree of obstinacy in re­
jecting the condemnation of the Three Chapters, and wrote to
the Pope, with a view to justify their schism. Pelagius replied
in a strain of tender and fatherly affection : “ How can you per­
suade yourselves that you are not separated from the commu­
nion of the whole world by breaking with us, since, in spite of
our unworthiness, the authority of the Apostolic See is now
vested in our person? Our faith is that of Nice, explained
and confirmed by the Councils of Constantinople, Ephesus and
Chalcedon. If, after this declaration, any one of you still enter­
tains a doubt, let him come to receive the definition of the doc­
trine from our own lips, that thus knowing the truth, he may
join in communion with the Universal Church ” (a. d. 556). In
a letter to King Childebert, Pelagius repeated the declaration
in terms even more explicit. He exhorts the king to quiet
the fears of such of his subjects as might imagine that the con­
demnation of the Three Chapters could prejudice the Council
of Chalcedon (a. d. 557). The Latin Church, less fiercely
tossed by the storms of religious disputes which were so dis­
astrous in the East, was intent upon keeping inviolate the
respect due to tradition, the sacred deposit of the ecclesiastical
constitutions. Had the East but possessed a little more of the
same conservative spirit, the world would probably not have
been scandalized by the lamentable defection which still lasts
Gaul was at this period the greatest source of consolation to the
Sovereign Pontiff. At Soissons, the abbey of St. Medard was
growing up under the auspices of King Clotaire (a. d. 557).
The third Council of Paris (a. d. 557) by its prudent regula­
tions secured the freedom of episcopal elections and the immu­
nity of Church property from all attacks on the part of tempural powers. On the 23d of December, a. d. 558, St. Germanus,

ST. JOHN m. (A. D. 6H-61Î).

bishop of Paris, dedicated the church of St. Vincent, now known
as Saint-Germain-des-Prés. As an offset to the repeated dis­
sensions caused by territorial feuds between princes, the Church
of Gaul presented a splendid array of virtue and holiness. St
Samson, bishop of Doi, St. Malo, St. Magloire of /Meth, illus­
trated Brittany or Armorica, which their preaching had won to
the true faith. St. Pretextatus, bishop of Rouen, St. Leontius of
Bordeaux, St. Euphronius of Tours, St Paternus of Avranches,
and St. Chaletric of Chartres attached to their episcopate the
glory of the most exalted sanctity.
18. Meanwhile, Pelagius had ended his days at Rome on
. the 2d of March, a. d. 559. His death left the church of the
Twelve Apostles, which he was erecting, in an unfinished
state. This church now bears the title of Sts. Philip and
James

§ TV. Pontificate of John III. (March, a. d. 559—July 13,
572).

19. On taking his seat in the Chair of St. Peter (March,
559), John III. at once proceeded to ratify the condem­
nation of the Three Chapters, as his two predecessors had
done before. But in the East this discussion had given way
to the new error of the Phantasiasts, or Incorrupticolœ, whose
warmest abettor was no other than the emperor Justinian
himself. These heretics taught that the body which Christ
assumed in the womb of the Blessed Virgin was capable of no
alteration or change, and was not even subject to the natural
and innocent sensations of hunger and thirst, so that even be­
fore His death He ate without necessity, as He did after His
resurrection; whence it would follow that the sufferings of
His passion and death were not real. The heretics styled
the Catholics Corrupticoke, worshippers of corruption. The
emperor sought to make this belief binding by means of a
decree which he required the bishops to sign ; but they near·
a. d.

VOL·. n.—n

162

OENTIRAL HrSTORV OF THE CHURCH.

ly all refused. SI. Eutychius, Patriarch of Constantinople,
displayed the most heroic courage. By order of Justinian
he was arrested and banished without even the form of trial
or examination, and his See given to John the Scholastic.
The error of the Incorrupticolæ would probably have renewed
the religious strife in the East; but on the 14th of November,
a. d. 566, Justinian was removed from the scene in the fortieth
year of his reign and the eighty-fourth of his life. The close
of his long career had sadly belied its opening promise. His
passion for religious discussions multiplied and fomented them,
to the great detriment of the Church. He neglected all busi­
ness of state to mingle in affairs which should have been left
to competent minds. The historian Procopius thus speaks of
him : “He is always unattended by guards, spends long night­
ly vigils in discussing theological questions with the bishops,
or poring with unquenchable curiosity over the works of the
Fathers.” History will ever justly reproach this emperor, so
gifted in many other respects, with sacrificing to a mere war
of words the highest duties of the sovereign in the midst of a
passionate and fickle people. This was the root of all the dis­
orders which devastated the Lower Empire. So true is it, that
men, though gifted with superior talents and the highest quali­
ties, must needs bow under the influence of the age, which
weighs them down in spite of themselves. Justinian was suc­
ceeded by his nephew Justin the Younger, whose accession
put an end to the persecutions brought upon the Catholics by
the error of the Incorrupticolæ. The Patriarch Eutychius
was recalled to Constantinople. But weak and wavering in
character, Justin had not the energy to hold the reins of gov­
ernment. Giving himself up to the most extravagant disor­
ders, ending at length in an almost total insanity, he left the
charge of the government in the hands of Sophia, niece of The­
odora. This was the signal for errors and consequent misfor
tunes. Divorce, which had been abolished by Justinian’s code,
was re-established; a sacrilegious traffic in ecclesiastical digni­
ties was publicly opened ; private fortunes were confiscated to

ST. JOHN ΙΠ. (A. D. 55M57Î).

163

satisfy the greedy courtiers.
Sophia heeded neither ser­
vices nor talents, and Italy soon fell victim to her baneful
policy.
20. Under the eunuch Narses, who had succeeded Belisarius
in command, this province was beginning to taste the sweets
of peace. His renown and wealth soon brought him into dis­
grace with the empress. She sent him a distaff and spindle,
with this ironical order, fit only for a common eunuch : “ Come
at once to Constantinople. I have appointed you to superin­
tend the work of my maids. It belongs to men to handle
warlike weapons and command their fellows.” Narses read the
insulting order, and casting upon the bearer a look of indig­
nant anger, exclaimed . “ Go tell your mistress that I will spin
her such % thread as she shall not easily unravel !” He imme­
diately wrote to Alboin, king of the Lombards, to leave the
poor soil of Pannonia for the rich and fertile fields of Italy.
The royal barbarian could hardly have hoped for so favorable
a message. Long had he awaited an opportunity, only with­
held by the presence of the imperial army. This barrier being
now removed, he entered Italy on the 2d of April, a. d. 568,
with his whole nation—his warriors, their aged parents, their
wives and children. Milan and Pavia submitted ; the north­
ern provinces followed their example, and four years later
the Roman sway was confined to the two cities of Rome and
Ravenna, with a few seaport towns, all under the government
of an exarch appointed by the emperor at Constantinople.
Such was the web which Narses had left to the empress instead
of a distaff. He did not witness the result of his faithlessness,
as he died at the very time of Alboin’s entrance into Italy.
The Lombard domination thus enthroning itself in this unhappy
land, inaugurated its sway by acts of barbarous atrocity. One
instance will suffice to show the spirit of the barbarian con­
querors. Alboin had slain Cunimund, king of the Gepidæ, in
battle ; the skull of the fallen warrior, incased in gold, served
as a drinking-bowl at all the victor’s banquets. He had also
married Rosamond, daughter of the unfortunate Cunimund. In

164

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

the month of March, a. d. 573, he feasted his companions in
arms with a splendid banquet; after draining many full
draughts from the execrable cup, he ordered it to be filled and
presented to the queen, bidding her rejoice with her father.
But a few days later Rosamond caused Alboin to be assassina­
ted before her own eyes, and thus avenged her father’s mem­
ory. Clepho next ascended the Lombard throne, and with him
avarice and cruelty shared the royal sway.
21. The new masters of Italy were Arians. The ravages
which they inflicted upon their newly-conquered territory were
doubly severe, as they partook of the spirit of religious persecu­
tion. The inhabitants, driven from their homes, stripped of
their possessions, wandered about the country without food or
clothing. The empress Sophia, the first cause of all this mis­
ery, made no effort to relieve it. Pope John III. multiplied
the resources of his charity to meet so much suffering. Romo
had not yet felt the yoke of the new conquerors ; but the
Lombards were preparing to lay siege to it when the Sovereign
Pontiff died, July 13, a. d. 572. The fourteen years of his
reign had been cruelly imbittered by the religious dissensions
which disgraced the East, and the Lombard invasion so fraught
with misery to the West. Only in Spain and Gaul did the
Church enjoy a peaceful course of conquest. The Councils of
Braga and Lugo, in Galicia, had been followed by the conver­
sion of the Suevi who held that province, and who passed from
Arianism into the bosom uf the Catholic Church (a. d. 560).
Their king, Theodomir, had a son who lay dangerously ill.
Seeing him in the last extremity, the afflicted father asked
some of his followers : “ Pray tell me, of what religion is this
Martin of Tours who works so many miracles in Gaul ?” They
told him that he was a Catholic bishop. The king then sent
them to call upon the saint, promising, in case his son recov­
ered, to become himself a Catholic. The prince was restored
and the king abjured Arianism. St. Martin of Pannonia, who
was then preaching the Gospel in that country, induced the
people to follow their monarch’s example His preaching was

ST. BENEDICT I. (A. D. 5Ï.T-577).

165

efficacious, and the whole nation showed a most consoling ardor
and zeal in its attachment to the true faith,
§ V. Pontificate of Benedict I. (May 16. a.
31, 577).

d

573—July

22. After the death of John III. the Holy See remained
vacant ten months. The terror and consternation inspired by
the Lombards, who pushed their inroads to the very gates of
Rome, had prevented the meeting of the clergy and people to
elect a Sovereign Pontiff. The barbarians had plundered and
destroyed the monastery of Monte Cassino, famine and war
were fast converting Italy into a desert. Justin IL, emperor
of the East, sunk in luxurious license, allowed the Persian
monarch Chosroes to overrun and waste the provinces of
Syria. The provinces of Gaul, shared between Chilperic I.,
Sigebert, and Gontran, were deluged with blood by the deadly
strife between Fredegonda and Brunehault. In Spain, the Cath­
olics were subjected to a severe persecution by Leovigild, Arian
king of the Visigoths, whose son Hermenegild had been con­
verted to the true faith by St. Leander, bishop of Seville.
Before his conversion, Hermenegild had shared his father's
power; but Leovigild’s treatment of the converted prince
showed him to be equally regardless of the royal dignity and of
the claims of natural affection. He pursued the prince, sword in
hand, seized and kept him in close confinement, and at last or­
dered him to be beheaded (April 13, a. d. 586). St. Leander, the
fearless bishop of Seville, who had, at the risk of his life, in­
structed Hermenegild in the truths of the faith, was proscribed,
and devoted the days of his exile to the establishment of monas­
teries and to the increase of the religious life in Spain. The
anger of Leovigild reached all the Catholics in his states. Many
were banished and despoiled of all their property ; others were
imprisoned and put to death by hunger and various other tor­
ments. But God had merciful designs upon this suffering peo­
ple At the death of Leovigild, his son Recarede, brother of

t66

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHDRCH.

Hermenegild, embraced the Catholic faith ; and by force of rear
eoning rather than by the exercise of authority, led the Arian
bishops to follow his example (a. d. 587).
23. Such was the situation of the world when Benedict I.,
or Bonosus, was elected to succeed Pope John III. (May 16,
a. d. 573). His short pontificate was taken up by the care of
the Italian difficulties which followed in the train of the Loin
bard invasion, and by the exercise of a tender and paternal
charity during the grievous famine which decimated the popu­
lation of the Peninsula. The glory of this pontificate was the
choice made of the monk Gregory to fill the office of archdea­
con of the Roman Church. Gregory had resigned the praeto­
rian dignity to answer a supernatural call to the religious life.
He was destined to give the onward impulse to the age, and to
illustrate the Apostolic See under the name of Gregory the
Great. Gregory happened one day to walk through the mar­
ket-place of Rome, when his attention was arrested by the
remarkable beauty and symmetry of some slaves exposed for
sale. He asked what countrymen they were, and was told
they belonged to the nation of the Angles. “ They are not
Angles, but *Angels" he replied. “Alas! that such a people
should still remain buried in the darkness of heathenism !”
Gregory hastened to throw himself at Benedict’s feet, begging
the Pope to send him with some missionaries to preach the
Gospel in Great Britain. Benedict, touched by this noble
spirit of devotedness, granted his request. But the Roman
people loved Gregory too well to part with him now, and they
came to the Sovereign Pontiff, in the greatest consternation,
begging that he might be recalled. Couriers were at once dis­
patched to bring back the apostle; Providence had designed
Rome as the scene of his sublime mission. Benedict I. died
on the 31st of July, a. d. 577, whilst the Lombards held Rome
in a state of the closest siege.
Non Anyli, sod Angeii.

8T. PELAGIUS Π. (A. D. 577-590)

i 67

VI Pontificate of Pelagius II. (November 30, a. d. 577Fcbruary 8, 590).

24. The choice of the Pontiff who was to succeed Benedict L
on th? Chr^ of St. Peter was not this time submitted to the
ratification of the Eastern emperor. The Lombards had cut off
all comm anication between Rome and Constantinople. A monk
named Γelagius was elected Pope, on the 30th of November,
a. d. 5”. 7.
The exarch who commanded in Italyin the em­
peror's name, was powerless to avert the storm that threatened
the Eternal City. The deacon Gregory had been sent, as
apocrisiarius or legate of the Holy See, to Constantinople, in
the hope that Justin II. might be moved to send help to Italy;
but the war against Chosroes had drained the imperial resources, and the ruinous administration of the empress Sophia
left no hope of a favorable issue for the embassy. By the
death of Justin IL, which occurred a. d. 578, the empire came
into the hands of his general Tiberius. This valiant, enlight­
ened, and virtuous prince changed the odious name of Tiberius
into the cherished and popular one of Constantine. He swayed
the imperial sceptre with steady hand. With a view to satis­
fying the requests of the deacon Gregory, and to make a diver­
sion in favor of Italy, still wasted by the Lombards, the
emperor sent ambassadors to Childebert, king of Austrasia,
with the offer of a considerable sum of money, on condition of
his attacking the Lombards on one side whilst the imperial
troops pressed them on the other. Childebert successively sent
two armies into Italy, but they were both destroyed by reverses
and pestilence. Tiberius was planning a formidable expedition
against the Lombards, when he was stricken down by death,
after a reign too short for the happiness of his subjects (a. d.
582). He left his sceptre to one no less brave and virtuous
than himself, Count Mauritius, who had distinguished himself
by several splendid achievements in the war against the Per­
sians. Meanwhile, Pope Pelagius II. found himself left alone

168

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

in the midst of these ceaseless political revolutions, to uphold
the independence of Rome; he accordingly made arrangements
with Smaragdus, exarch of Ravenna, to come to terms with
the Lombards. The barbarians agreed to respect the territory
of the exarchate, which still belonged to the Eastern em­
perors. Rome was released, and Italy tasted some moments
of peace and quiet.
25. Seeing his efforts thus happily crowned with success,
Pelagius recalled the legate Gregory to make his genius avail­
able in the government of the Church. He directed him to
write, in his name, to the bishops of Istria, who refused to
receive the fifth general council and its decision in the case of
the Three Chapter». Gregory’s three letters, which are still
extant, are models of wise and temperate reasoning and of
apostolic dignity. The bishops to whom they were addressed,
however, showed more obstinacy than good faith ; but the ex­
arch Smaragdus, fearing lest religious dissensions might add to
the misery of the country, already devastated by political
strife, summoned them to Ravenna, where several public con­
ferences with orthodox doctors soon brought them back to
unity.
26. The province of Gaul now reflected the full splendor
of the talent and virtue which shone in St. Gregory, bishop of
Tours, whose name is linked with every event in French his­
tory during the latter half of the sixth century (a. d. 539-595).
He was a native of Auvergne, and was elected bishop of Tours
a D. 577. The reputation he enjoyed in Gaul secured him an
important political influence during his whole life. He defend­
ed St. Pretextatus, bishop of Rouen, against the charges of Fredegonda, and the youthful Meroveus, who sought shelter at
the tomb of St. Martin from the persecution of Chilperic.
lie was himself accused of high treason, by the implacable
Fredegonda; he appeared before the Council of Braine, held
a. D. 580, and cleared himself, under oath, of the slanderous
charges brought against him by hireling witnesses. The stormy
period through which St. Gregory passed has been chronicled

8T. PELAGIUS Π. (A. D. 517-59«).

1W

by him in a work called Huioria Francorum, one of the moat
precious monuments in our annals. This work reviews a period
of a hundred and seventy-four years, from a. d. 417 to a. d.
591. Gregory of Tours possessed the qualities most desirable
in a historian : good faith, fairness, and the quiet courage that
tells the faults as well as the virtues of princes. His style, as
he acknowledges himself, aims neither at purity nor effect;
but that is due to the age, in which the barbarian inroads and
the din of civil strife had brought a decay in the study of pure
and classic Latinity. But the unaffected plainness, the graphic
simplicity of the first Gallic chronicler, gives us a good view
of the spirit and manners of his age ; an age of transition, in
which the most distinct races, Franks, Burgundians, Gauls,
and Romans, met upon the same ground, and by their mingling
prepared the future unity of the French monarchy. The
work of law-giving, of civilizing, in a society composed of so
many heterogeneous elements, naturally devolved upon the
bishops, who were allied to all, and whose voice alone rose
with controlling influence above the din of arms and the
outburst of still savage passions.
27. Councils were therefore frequent. Here, so to speak,
was framed the constitution of the infant nation. The Coun­
cils of Châlons-sur-Saône (a. d. 579), of Macon (a. d. 581585), and of Lyons (a. d. 583), were busied in discussing
questions at once of social interest and of religious discipline.
At Lyons, the bishops issued regulations full of tender charity
in behalf of lepers. Leprosy was making many victims, and
threatened to become a lasting contagion, which disappeared
only before the beneficent power of modem discovery and
improved habits of cleanliness. The unfortunate sufferers,
shunned by their fellow-men, viewed by all with superstitious
dread, wandered about the open country naked and starving.
The fathers of the third Council of Lyons (a. d. 583) direct
that the lepers of each city shall thenceforth be fed and sujh
ported by the bishop, at the expense of the Church. Ab
isolated abode was to be assigned them, that they might be no

170

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

longer doomed to wander abroad, nor yet bring terror with
them into frequented places. This wise and beneficial measure
was afterwards generalized under the Church’s influence ;
particular rites were set down in the rituals, for the solemn
conveyance of the patients into the cells prepared for them ;
a noble spirit of zealous charity gave rise to several religious
communities devoted to the service of these wretched outcasts
St. Gregory of Tours, the moving spirit of councils, the adviser
of kings, the champion of the down-trodden, bearing an active
part in the events he records, still found time to compose works
destined to foster the piety of the faithful : such are the works
on the Glory of Martyrs, on the Glory of Confessors ; the
Miracles of St. Julian, bishop of Brioude ; the Miracles of St.
Martin, and a book of Lives of the Fathers. The faithful
found them a well-stocked treasure-house of doctrine and of
examples of every virtue ; which teaching and example were
ever kept before them by the churches dedicated to the saints,
by the various, festivals, hymns, processions and pilgrimages
appointed in their honor, and by the accounts of their miracles;
thus works of this nature soon became the only literature of
Christian nations.
28. Another prelate of this age, an Italian by birth, but
the friend and contemporary of St. Gregory of Tours, likewise
devoted the leisure moments of his episcopate to the cultiva­
tion of learning. Fortunatus, bishop of Poitiers (a. d. 530609), had been almoner of the monastery, in that city, under
the direction of St. Radegundes, from which charge he passed
to its episcopal throne. He has left eleven books, both in prose
and poetry, dedicated to St. Gregory of Tours; they form
a collection of miscellaneous treatises on various subjects
Amongst others, we here find the hymn Vexilla *
Regis
Be
•St Fortunatus quotes in this hymn, the words of David: Regnavit a ligno Dent.
Benos it may be inferred that the words a ligno, which we do not find in the 95tt> Psalrc
a the Vulgate, were then contained in the Gallican Psalter. The VexiOa Regit was com
posed on the occasion of the reception, at the monastery of Poitiers, of a p.eco of ths
true cross, sent by the Emperor Justin IL to St. Radegundes (a. d. 570)

8T. PELAGIUS H. (A. D. 577-Π90).

171

fore his promotion to the episcopacy, he had written the lives
of St. Germanus of Paris, of St. Albinus or Aubin of Angers,
of St. Paternus of Avranches, of St. Amant of Rhudez, of
St. Remigius of Rheims, of St. Medard of Noyon, of St. Mar­
tin of Tours, and of St. Radegundes, whose secretary and
friend he had been. Thus did he devote to the illustrions
saints of Gaul a talent destined to become a new glory to the
land of his adoption, which he benefited as largely by his
virtue as by his writings. The Gallic Churches enjoyed the
high privilege of having most of their sees filled by saints,
and the sixth century proved itself worthy to receive the
glorious heritage of virtue left by its predecessors. St. Ageric
of Verdun, St. Felix of Nantes, St. Avitus of Clermont, St.
Siagrius of Autun. St. Leontius of Bordeaux, St. Bertichram
of Le Mans and St. Dumnole his successor, St. Felix of Bour­
ges, St. Dalmatius of Rhodez, St. Aunaire of Auxerre, St.
Maurelius of Cahors, St. Elaphius of Châlons-sur-Marne, St.
Evencius of Vienne, St. Ferreolus of Limoges, St. Veranus of
Cavaillon, all contemporary with St. Fortunatus and St. Greg­
ory of Tours, counterbalanced by their virtue and learning
the vices and disorders of an age whose political destinies were
swayed by the animosities of Fredegonda.
29. But the admirable harmony of devoted zeal in the
GaLi:c episcopacy was now marred by a public scandal. Two
brothers, Sagittarius and Salonius, bishops respectively of Gap
and Embrun, gave up the care of souls and the discharge of
their pastoral ministry, to share in the tumultuous disorders of
civil war. Having gathered a band of armed men, they wasted
all the neighboring region by their depredations. The brothers
themselves, utterly regardless of their sacred character, often
appeared at the head of the armies, and changed their peace­
ful mission for the bloody part of the warrior. They wert
first deposed in a. d. 567, by a council held at Lyons, but, bj
means of favorable letters obtained from Pope John III., were
restored to their sees. But as their disorderly life and manners
wore only aggravated by impunity, Gontrar king of Burgundy,

OEHBRAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

adopted measures of severity toward them. The Council of
ChAlons-sur-SaAne (a. d. 579) renewed the condemnation prolonnccd against them by the Council of Lyons, and handed
bcm over to secular justice.
30. The East, never free from religious dissensions, had
ennwhile seen the beginning of fresh troubles, in the claims
' the Patriarchs of Constantinople. In a council held in that
y in June, a. d. 589, to hear the charges brought against
egory, Patriarch of Antioch, by Asterius, count of the East,
in the Faster, Patriarch of Constantinople, who presided,
irped the title of Ecumenical Bishop. Pelagius II., on hearof this arrogant claim, at once wrote to Constantinople; by
ue of his apostolic authority he annulled the acts of the
ncil and forbade his legate, St. Gregory, to communicate
i John the Faster. The pontifical rescript energetically
owed all that the Popes Julius, Celestin, Innocent and
had taught regarding the Pope’s authority, the necessity
eferring important cases to his judgment, and of pronoun; no final decision without his knowledge and approval (a. d.
). Whilst Pelagius was thus engaged in upholding the
ts of the Roman See, Italy was suffering under two fearful
irges, famine and plague ; Rome was literally decimated,
overflow of the Tiber added the horrors of inundation to
multiplied miseries of disease and hunger. The victims
by thousands; Pelagius sank amongst the first (February
. d. 590), having governed the Church eleven years and
months. He had turned his dwelling into a hospital for
gent old men, and death struck down the shepherd in the
1st of the labors which his ardent charity multiplied in
islf of his flock.

Bl. GREGORY I. LA. D. 590-40*).

in

CHAPTER V.
I t Pontificate of St. Gregory I.

the

Great (September 3, a. d. 590—

March 12, a. d. 604).

1, St. Gregory the Great.—2. Plague in Rome.—3. Pattoral of St Gregory.
—4. Letter to Recarede the Catholic. The Pope protects the persecuted
African Churches, and restores their Hierarchical Unity.—5. Dialogues of
St. Gregory the Great—6. St. John Clitnacus. St Theodore of Siceon.
—7. Decree of the emperor Mauritius annulled by St Gregory.—8. John
the Faster’s claim to the title of Ecumenical Bishop.—9. Sentence and
submission of Maximus, bishop of Salona. St. Gregory negotiates a peace
between Agilupb, king of the Lombards, and the exarch of Ravenna.—
10. Mission of the monk St Augustine to England.—11. St Augustin
*
made Archbishop of Canterbury. Ecclesiastical Hierarchy in England.—
12. St Gregory’s letter to Childebert and Brunehault. Hie efforts to re
store ecclesiastical discipline in the Churches of Gaul.—13. Councils al
Seville, Saragossa, Toledo, Huesca and Rome. St Columban at Lnxeuil
—14. The Paschal -Question raised in Gaul by St Columban.—15. Em
bassy sent to Rome by Brunehault, and Tbeodoric, king of the Burgun­
dians. St Gregory confirms the Institutions founded by Brunehault.—16.
Sacramentary of St. Gregory the Great—17. Phocas is raised by a reroIntion to the throne of the East. St. Gregory’s protest against the tax
levied by the emperors of Constantinople on ecclesiastical nominationi.
Death of St Gregory the Great.—18. Historical view of his Pontificate.
§ II. Pontificate
19.

of

Sabinian (September. 17, a. d. 604—February 2, 605)

Accession and death of Sabinian.

§ IIL Pontificate

of

Faroiue in Rome.

Boniface III (Feb. 25, a. d. 606—Nov. 12, 606).

20. Election of Boniface III. In conjunction with the emperor Phocas, ht
puts an end to the discussion respecting the title of Ecumenical Bishop,
usurped by the Patriarchs of Constantinople.

g IV. Pontificate

of

Boniface IV. (Sept 18, a. d. 607—May 27, 614)

21. Boniface IV. Defection of Phocas.—22. Church *
matter in England. St
Columban in Switzerland. Martyrdom of St. Didier, bishop of Vienna

i 74

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHUfiCD.

Death of Brunehault.—23. Capture of Jerusalem by Chosroes. The tree
crow ii carried into Persia. Charity of St. John the Almoner, Patriarch
of Alexandria.—24. Death of Boniface IV.
J V. Pontificate or Deüsdedit (November 13, a.

25. Deusdedit.

§ I. Pontificate

of

d.

614—October 8, 017)

Persecution in England.

St. Gregory I. the Great (September 3,
590—March 12, 604‘).

a. d.

1. At a time when the Church was beset on all sides with
dangers and difficulties, threatened in the East by the proud
claims of the Patriarch of Constantinople, and in the West by
the Lombard invasion ; when Rome was bowed beneath the
threefold weight of the barbarian’s sword, the horrors of the
plague, and the pangs of hunger ; God raised up, for the uni­
versal good, a Pontiff whose great soul was equal to his sublime
mission. Gregory the deacon had already won the admiration
and esteem of the world by his bearing as legate of Pelagius
IL, at Constantinople. The emperor Mauritius then learned to
respect and love him. When recalled to Rome, he had been
the Pope’s adviser in every affair of importance. His lofty
stature, the noble mildness of his countenance, the nassive
forehead deeply marked by study and genius, all compelled
respectful reverence. The Roman clergy, senate and people,
with one voice called for Gregory to take the See left vacant
by Pelagius II. (September 3, a. d. 590). The saint endeav­
ored to escape, by flight, the honor tendered by the voice oi
a whole people. His retreat is made known by a dove ; and
the multitude bear him back to Rome in triumph. But his
humility will not yet be overcome. The pontifical elections
were still liable to the sanction of the Eastern emperor Greg
ory relied upon the esteem and friendship shown him, while
in the East, by the emperor Mauritius, to escape the honor
thus pressed upon him ; but Mauritius was not prepared to see
things in the same light as the saint in his admirable modesty.
He joyfully received the tidings of Gregory’s promotion, and

ST. GREGORY I. (A. D. 59(MC+).

175

gave immediate orders for his installation. The earnestness
with which the holy deacon had shunned the burden of the
pontificate was fully equalled by his zeal in the discharge of
its duties. His whole career, made so illustrious by prodigious
activity, unbounded devotedness, and a mind which soared
above the level of his age, has been magnificently reviewed
by Bossuet, whose words we quote : “ Whilst Italy was steeped
in misfortune and Rome was decaying under a fearful plague,
St. Gregory the Great was raised to the Chair of St. Peter, in
spite of his most earnest opposition. The great Pope appeases
the plague by his prayers ; at once teaches emperors and
secures to them due respect and obedience; consoles and
strengthens Africa ; encourages in Spain the Visigoths, con­
verted from Arianism, and Recarede the Catholic, who has just
come into the true fold ; converts England ; restores discipline
in France, whose ever-orthodox kings he raises above all the
monarchs of the earth ; conciliates the Lombards ; saves Rome
and Italy, which the emperors were unable to help ; crushes
the growing pride of the Patriarchs of Constantinople ; enlight­
ens the whole Church by his learning ; rules the East and the
West with equal vigor and humility, and gives to the world a
perfect model of ecclesiastical government.
2. St. Gregory the Great was gifted with the highest order
of eloquence. This talent he used with heroic self-sacrifice,
even in the first days of his pontificate. The people, sinking
under a scourge that carried off as many as eighty victims in
an hour, thronged around the Holy Pontiff to catch from his
lips the religious consolation his aching heart could give ; the
only comfort of any worth in such an hour. St. Gregory seemed
endowed with ubiquity to meet these pressing calls upon his
exhaustless charity. His inspired strains raised his hearers
above the thought of present suffering; and even the relentless
hand of death which was busy around him whilst he spoke, but
gave more solemn sanction to his words. The fear of God’s
judgments enkindled new fervor in every heart. Day and night
Gregory exhorted the dying, comforted the living, and sent up

17b

GENERAL BISTORT OF THE CHURCH.

burning petitions to the throne of divine mercy for his desolate
flock. Heaven was at length moved, and the plague ceased.
*
St.Gregory gave his first thoughts to the reform of the pontifical
court around him. The domain of St. Peter was extensive : in
Sicily, in the cities of Syracuse and Palermo ; in Calabria, in
Apulia, in the Samnite territory, in Campania, Tuscany, and
the country of the Sabines ; in the cities of Noreia, Carseoli,
and Ravenna; in Dalmatia, Istria and Illyria; in Sardinia,
Corsica, Liguria, and the Cottian Alps. Each district was
placed under a distinct governor, called defender or rector. He
was always one of the higher clergy of the Roman Church.
The officers depending upon the Pope thus formed, even at that
period, quite a numerous court. St. Gregory made it an object
to choose them from among the most distinguished Italians.
The instructions he gave them were worthy of his noble heart
He wished ecclesiastical revenues to be applied to the relief of
every kind of misery and misfortune. In spite of the growing
expenditure entailed upon the pontifical exchequer by this lib­
erality, the great Pope still found means to encourage litera­
ture, science, and art. His palace became their centre. “ There
was no one employed in the pontifical palace,” says Andres,j
*
“who had not received a refined education, and wh—v aentiments, language, and instruction were not in keeping with the
majesty of the pontifical throne.”
3. The Pope himself was remarkable for profound and va­
ried learning and eloquence above hir age. Shortly after his
promotion he wrote a beautiful treatise called The Pastoral, in
answer to those who blamed him for his attempt to escape the
burden of the pontificate by flight. This important work is
divided into four parts ; the first treats of vocation, of which
• After the disappearance of the plague, the anthem Regina Oceli was introduced into
the Church service, to thank the Blessed Virgin, whose intercession was believed to have
stayed the disease. Contemporary authors say that as the plague began to abate its vio­
lence, an angel was seen sheathing his sword upon the stately pile of Adrian. The edifice
has since been called the castle of St. Angelo ; a marble statue of an angol was raised upon
't, but Benedict XIV substituted one of bronze in its stead, which still remains.
♦ De t Origine, det Progrèt, el de F Etal de Ibute LiUtralwe, t. L, ch. viL, p. 94.

8T. GREGORY T. (A. D.

177

he shows the necessity and examines the marks. In the sec­
ond book, St. Gregory shows how the pastor, lawfully called to
the post, should acquit himself of the charge which was not of
his own seeking; how earnestly he should give himself to
prayer, to teaching, to the relief of his neighbor, and what
must be his humility, zeal, and discretion. In the third, he
points out the instructions which a pastor should give, suiting
himself to the various persons he is to know and teach; on
this subject the holy doctor goes into most minute details.
Finally, in the fourth part, St. Gregory shows, in a few words,
how necessary it is for a pastor to search into his own conduct,
in order to teach himself and to preserve recollection and
humility. Such was the esteem in which The Pastoral was
then held, that the emperor Mauritius wished to have a copy
of it, and St. Anastasius, Patriarch of Antioch, translated it
into Greek, for the use of the Eastern Churches.
*
4. St. Gregory moreover practised what he taught. His
care was not limited to Italy or to Rome. Having brought
about a peace between the exarch of Ravenna and Agilulph,
king of the Lombards, by means of Theodelinda, Agilulph’s
pious queen, he wrote to Recarede the Catholic, king of the
Visigoths in Spain, to congratulate him on his adherence to
the orthodox faith. “I cannot find words, my dear son,”
wrote the Pontiff, “ to express the joy I feel at the tidings I
hear of you. When we see that by a new miracle, in our own
day, your highness has brought over the whole Gothic nation
from the Arian heresy to the holiness of the faith, we cannot
help exclaiming with the prophet, ‘ This change is the work of
the right hand of the Most High!’” St. Gregory hal in the
mean time been striving to shield the African Churches from
the fury of the Donatists, who were awaking to a new parox­
ysm of rage. We have forty letters on this subject, written by
the saint in the course of two years. The patrician Gennadiua,
exarch or governor of Africa, zealously seconded the Pontiff’i
• M. I’AbM Reckvsve ■ Sietoire de rSjliee.
VOX. IL—12

/78

GENERAL BISTORT OF THE CHURCH.

endeavors The Holy See possessed within the jurisdiction
of Gennadius a considerable domain, formerly presented by the
emperors of Constantinople, but lately devastated by war.
Gennadius repaired the damages at his own expense. Gregory
affectionately thanked him for this mark of generosity, and
hegged him to crown his good work by defending the interests
of the faith against the attacks of the Donatists, who were dri­
ving bishops and priests from the churches, forcibly rebaptizing
Catholic children, plundering the dwellings of the faithful, and
giving themselves up unrestrainedly to every kind of disorder.
The exarch complied with the Holy Pontiff’s wishes, and used
his power in behalf of the Catholics. One of the most baleful
influences that weakened the energy of the African Church
was the want of unity in the hierarchy. The primacy, instead
of being fixed in some one chief see, passed to the senior
bishop by ordination in the province ; thus the centre or me­
tropolis of the ecclesiastical province was always subject to
change, and the reins of primatial power often passed into the
hands of old men weakened by age and infirmity. To remedy
this crying evil, St. Gregory enjoined the prcrvincial councils
henceforth to choose their primate from among the most able
bishops, and to see that he no longer dwelt in a village or ham­
let, as was too often the case, but in a city of importance, that
he might thus be in a position more effectually to oppose the
Donatists. Sardinia and Corsica were subject to the governor
or exarch of Africa ; but the distance of that officer from his
jurisdiction left the two islands to his subalterns who only
viewed their charge as a means of enriching themselves at the
expense of the wretched inhabitants. The civil magistrates
and imperial judges gave much more reasonable grounds of fear
to the poor islanders than the very barbarians. St. Gregory
was moved by their sufferings, and became their temporal as
well as spiritual saviour. His first step was to send to the two
islands zealous and charitable bishops, who watched the inter­
ests of their people with paternal care. He next wrote to tho
court of Constantinople, to make known the crying abuses per­

ST. GREGORY I. (A. D. 590-504).

79

petrated under cover of the imperial authority. His letters at
the same time reminded Gennadius S his duty toward his
subordinates, and stimulated the zeal of Januarius, metropoli­
tan of Cagliari. Success crowned the holy Pontiff’s zeal.
Orders reached Sardinia and Corsica which insured a more
humane mode of government.
5. But now the emperor Mauritius began to treat St.
Gregory’s communications somewhat coldly. He felt secretly
irritated at the peace concluded by the Pope with the Lom­
bards, and spoke of the Pontiff as a simple man who had al·
lowed himself to bo caught by the empty promises of the barbarians.
Gregory wrote to him on the subject in an admirable tone of
personal modesty and apostolic dignity. He closed his letter
with a warning to which the course of events afterward gave
a most fearful sanction. “ Remove,” said the Pope, “ remove
from your soul, from your empire, and from your children, the
crushing weight of the wrongs which are committed in th·
provinces.” We shall yet see the emperor Mauritius, as a pen­
alty for his disregard of this warning, lose at once empire, chil­
dren, and life. xI'n the midst of the official duties which en­
gaged his attention, and of a correspondence sufficient to
consume all his time, St. Gregory still found hours to devote
to study. In these moments he composed his Dialogues. He
thus tells us himself what suggested this work to him : “ Feel­
ing weighed down, one day, by the cares of business, I with­
drew to a solitary spot to meditate more freely. As I sat
down in mournful silence by my deacon Peter, the friend of my
youth and partner of my studies, noticing my sadness, he asked
me if I had met with some new trouble. I answered him,
‘ Mine is a grief old and long-worn by usage and habit, but
made new by daily addition. I remember well how in the
monastery my soul soared high above perishable things ; only
occupied with heavenly thoughts, it escaped from this bodily
prison by contemplation, looking upon death as the entrance
into life and the reward of its labors. Now, to the care of
•»ouls I must join that *
f secular business ; and after suffering

180

GENERAL MISTORF OF THE CHURCH

outward distractions at the call of charity, I always return
home to myself weaker than before The weight of my suf­
ferings is increased by the thought of what. I have lost; bu'
even that thought is fading away, for in proportion as the sou
descends, it loses even the remembrance of the good works if
once performed. To crown my grief, I often compare my lift,
to that of those holy men who have entirely forsaken the world,
and their lofty flight but shows me more clearly my fearful
fall.’ ‘I know not,’ said Peter, ‘ whom you mean ; I know do
saints of such exalted virtue in Italy.’ ‘ Time would fail me,'
I replied, ‘ were I to attempt the recital of what in that regard
I have both seen myself and learned from witnesses of known
honesty and truthfulness.’ ” As Peter urged him to tell what
be knew, St. Gregory consented, and this was the origin of the
Dialogues. This work is divided into four books, the second
of which is wholly devoted to the history of St. Benedict ; the
first and third mention many holy bishops, abbots, and monk?
of Italy ; the fourth establishes the immortality of the soul.
The critics of the eighteenth century tax St. Gregory with a
"hildish credulity in the relation of miracles. The life of a
aint is a supernatural life, and must needs present some deeds
f a higher order than the facts of ordinary biographies ; and
le Gospel promise is fulfilled at every step of Church history :
Faith moves mountains.” By bringing down the lives of
ae saints to the level of an every-day life, which is the great
andency since the rule of Protestantism in Europe, the true
pirit of faith is ignored, and historical truth is quite as much
lighted, as in too lightly receiving the legends handed down
rom age to age by popular tradition.
6. Whilst St. Gregory was thus recording the wonders ot
loliness that shone on past ages, the world was edified by an
aquaUy exalted saintliness in St. John Climacus and St. Theo­
dore of Siceon. St. John Climacus, so called from the title of
his principal work on the contemplative life, the Κλιμαξ, or ΤΛί
Ladder, was abbot of the monastery of Mount Sinai. At the
age of sixteen years he forsook the world, where his birth and tai

ST. GREGORÏ I. IA. D. 590-604).

181

ents entitled him to a distinguished position, and embraced the
life of an anchorite. He spent forty years in a solitude at the
foot of Mount Sinai, communing only with heaven. The water
that flowed from the rock, and the fruit of some date-trees near
his cell, served him to sustain life. At the age of seventy-five
years he was entreated to take the direction of the monastery
of Mount Sinai. His long experience in the spiritual life made
him the oracle of all the Eastern communities. At the ear­
nest request of John, abbot of Raithu, a monastery near the
Red Sea, he wrote his Ladder of Religious Perfection. Follow­
ing the example of St. Gregory Nazianzen and St. John Chry
sostom, he applies the mysterious ladder of Jacob to the dif
ferent degrees of Christian and religious virtue. The scope of
the work takes in every step of the interior life, from the first
quitting the world to the most sublime contemplation and per­
fect peace of soul. The Ladder of Religious Perfection is fol­
lowed by the Letter to the Pastor, a treatise on the guidance of
souls, in which the pious solitary draws up rules of government
for the superiors of monasteries, and reminds them of the du­
ties of their state and the dispositions necessary to discharge
them well. The reputation of St. John Climacus had crossed
the sea. St. Gregory the Great, oppressed by the cares insep­
arable from a solicitude embracing all the Churches, wrote to
the holy abbot, recommending himself to his prayers, and at
the same time sent him fifteen beds for his hospital for the use
of pilgrims, near Mount Sinai. St. John Climacus died a. d. 605,
full of days and of merits. St. Theodore the Siceonite, so called
from the hamlet of Siceon, his birthplace, situated about two
miles from Anastasiopolis, withdrew, at the age of fourteen
years, into a cell underground, where his only food was a little
bread begged from the passers-by. A great desire to see the
spot hallowed by the life and death of our Lord, led him to
make three pilgrimages to Jerusalem. He availed himself of
these distant journeys to open relations with the most cele­
brated monasteries of the East. On his return he was elected
bistop of Anastasiopolis. The emperor had long been ac-

18L'

GKNtKAL HISTOKï Ut THE CHURCH.

quaintcd with St. Theodore's reputation. In the year a. d. 582,
whilst yet but a general of the emperor Tiberius, Count Mau­
ritius, returning triumphant from an expedition against the
Persians, paid a visit to the saint in his Galatian cell. The
victorious chief threw himself at the feet of the humble soli­
tary, begging his prayers for his happy return to Tiberius.
The saint, after recollecting himself a while in prayer, replied :
“ My son, you will soon be raised to the imperial throne ; I
entreat you then to be mindful of the jjoor.” As Mauritius
seemed to doubt the prediction, the saint took him aside and
convinced him of its truth, which time confirmed. Mauritius,
in gratitude to the holy abbot, sent to his monastery six hun­
dred bushels of wheat for the poor, with an order for the yearly
renewal of the same donation. St. Theodore did not long hold
the episcopal office bestowed upon him by the people of Anas
tasiopolis. He entreated, as a favor, the permission to return
to his loved retreat, to end in solitude and prayer a life wholly
devoted to contemplation. His wish was granted, and hie
happy death occurred in the opening of the seventh century.
7. The emperor Mauritius had lately issued a decree which
called forth a stricture from St. Gregory. The decree forbade
any officer, civil or military, actually in service, to embrace
the clerical or the monastic life. St. Gregory modified the first
clause, and made it unlawful for public officials to enter the
religious state until their accounts had been settled ; but the
clause relative to military men he wholly rejected, as contrary
to the law of God and the good of souls. “ Hear,” said the
Pope, “ the words which Jesus Christ addresses to you by my
lips : When you were but secretary, I made you captain of the
guards, then Cæsar, and lastly emperor, and the father of an
*emperor I have placed my ministers under your authority,
aud you withdraw your soldiers from my service. . . . Tell
me. my lord, what answer will you make to these words of your
God when you stand in judgment before His awful tribunal!’
• Mauritius had called hie oldest sou. Theodosius, to share the imperia* power

8T. GREGORY ί. (A. D. 590-W4).

183

St. Gregory was especially interested in the soldiers, as then
term of service among the Romans lasted twenty years at
least. The Pope annulled as much of the decree as opposed
the true spirit of the Church, and sent it thus modified to the
metropolitans of the East and West.
8. In spite of all the efforts of St. Gregory’s predecessor,
John the Faster, Patriarch of Constantinople, secretly backed
oy Mauritius, still aimed at obtruding his arrogant claims upon
the Eastern Churches. John took to himself the title of
Ecumenical Patriarch, thus claiming a supremacy which belongs
only to the See of St. Peter. St. Gregory’s nuncio at Con­
stantinople was instructed to arrange this matter. The Pontiff
himself wrote to the ambitious patriarch, exhorting him to show
more humility. “ The popes themselves," wrote St. Gregory,
“ refused this title when offered by the council of Chalcedon ;
they glory in being styled the servants of the servants of God,
though the guidance and the primacy of the Church were given
to St. Peter, whose lawful successors they are.” To lay yet
greater stress upon the principle of the Roman sovereignty,
the life and salvation of the Church, St. Gregory, in a council
held at Rome, solemnly reinstated a priest of Chalcedon, un­
justly condemned by the Patriarch of Constantinople. But
John still persisted in his unjust and arrogant claim. Notwith­
standing St. Gregory’s energy, the question was only settled
under the emperor Phocas, who gave ample satisfaction to Pope
Boniface III.
9. In an age which knew no higher law than force of arms,
promotions to the episconate were not always unattended by
violence. Maximus, bishop of Salona, had taken possession
of his see by armed force. The Pope wrote to the intruder,
suspending him from all episcopal functions. Maximus pub­
licly tore the pontifical letter into pieces. Gregory was keenly
alive to the outrage thus put upon the Holy See in his per­
son. “ I am ready to die,” he wrote to his nuncio, “ rather
than see the Chair of St. Peter dishonored in my day.” He
men summoned Maximus to come and account for his conduct

flENERAL BISTORT OF ΤΠΕ CHDRCH.

at Rome. The culprit sought, by various schemes, to avoid
tho issue, and at length asked the Pope to send an
agent to Salona to examine the difficulty. He was supported both by the emperor and the exarch. Obstacles onlj
increased the holy Pontiff's energy. He commissioned Marinianus, bishop of Ravenna, to inquire into the facts connected
with the promotion of Maximus. The bishop of Salona sub­
mitted to all that was required of him, and this act of humility
secured his restoration. The peace concluded by St. Gregory
the Great with the Lombards was but short-lived. Romanus,
exarch of Ravenna, having seized upon Perugia, in contempt
of the treaties to which he had sworn, Agilulph, king of the
Lombards, irritated by this breach of faith, retook the city and
then laid siege to Rome which was deficient in troops and in
supplies. The Pope thus describes the condition of Rome and
Italy : “ We are met on all sides by sights and sounds of
mourning and woe. Ruined cities, dismantled strongholds,
wasted fields, have changed our once fertile land into a vast
solitude ; and the wretched remains of the human race are in­
cessantly scourged by the hand of God. Some are fed away
into bondage and fearfully mutilated ; others are put to death.
Even Rome herself, once mistress of the world, how fallen
n?w ! overwhelmed with sorrow, forsaken by her children, out­
raged by her enemies, buried in her own ruins ! Where is her
senate, where are her people ? The very dwellings fall, the
walls crumble. Why is the song of joy and triumph hushed ?
Her princes and warriors once pressed the earth with conquer­
ing tread, the provinces poured into her walls the flower of
tbeir youth in search of glory and fortune. Now, a desolate
and ruined city, she is slighted and shunned, and hardly does
she remember her departed splendor." Grieved at such a state
of things, St. Gregory again secured a peace. Agilulph did
not include the Pope in his hatred toward the exarch. He
agreed to treat on quite moderate terms, and in case they
were not accepted, he offered peace separately to the Romans.
St. Gregory wrote to the exarch, dwelling with particular

ST. GREGORY 1. (A. D. 590-404).

185

force upon the fact that a partial treaty would be the ruin of
Italy. Peace was concluded but three years later (a. d. 598),
and then it was Callimachus, the successor of Romanus, who
treated with Agilulph. The Pope refused to sign the agree­
ment. Foreseeing that it would soon be violated, he preferred
to keep his position as mediator in the contingency of a mis­
understanding between the exarch of Ravenna and the Lombard
king.
10. Gregory the Pope had not lost sight of the English
nation which, as deacon, he had so longed to evangelize.
He directed the priest Candidus, his nuncio in Gaul, to buy
some young English slaves of from seventeen to twenty years
of age, and to send them to Rome. It was his design to have
them trained in the monasteries there, that they might be pre­
pared to labor afterward for the conversion of their native
land. When they had been sufficiently well grounded in the
truths of the faith, the Pope sent them to England under the
direction of St. Augustine, prior of the monastery of St. An­
drew at Rome, with several religious upon whose virtue and
prudence he could rely. To insure the success of an apos­
tolic expedition designed to win a kingdom to the faith, St.
Gregory furnished the missionaries with several letters for the
princes and bishops of Gaul (a. d. 596). The Pontiff’s name
was a moat powerful safeguard. St Augustine and his com­
panions happily reached the English coast, and first set foot
upon the Isle of Thanet. The Angles and Saxons, both tribes
of the German race, had for a century and a half held Great
Britain, which has since been named after them Anglia, Eng­
land. Their government was a heptarchy, or national federa­
tion, one of the kings of which was sovereign. The then
reigning prince was Ethelbert, king of Kent and husband of
Bertha, daughter of Charibert, king of Paris. The Frankish
princess was a Christian, and had only consented to this union
with the Saxon on the condition of being allowed the free ex
ercise of her religion while living among a barbarous people.
To this end she had brought with her a bishop named Laid-

186

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

hard. Here were two powerful auxiliaries for St. Gregory’s
missionaries. The joint efforts of the queen and the bishop
prevailed upon Ethelbert to grant them an interview. The
meeting took place on the Isle of Thanet in the open air. St.
Augustine and his companions approached the appointed place
in the slow and solemn pomp of a religious procession ; before
them was borne a silver cross and a banner displaying the au­
gust image of the Saviour. The king bade them sit down,
and they began to preach the truths of the Gospel. Ethelbert
listened with attention to doctrines to him so new and strange.
His answer was full of wisdom and prudence. “ Your words
and promises,” said the king, “ are very fair ; but as they are
both new and uncertain I cannot at once receive them, nor
so abruptly forsake the ancient belief of the Angles.
Yet
since you have taken the trouble to cross the seas in order
to bring us what you esteem a better teaching, we are willing
to treat you well and to grant you whatever may be needful
for your support.” He accordingly allowed them to settle in
Duroverne (now Canterbury), his capital. The missionaries,
as was their wont, entered the city in solemn procession, and
thus formally placed under the dominion of the Church the
land which was to continue true to Catholic teaching until the
unbridled lust of a cruel tyrant would draw it into the ways
of error and infidelity. The prejudices of the idolaters gave
way before the holiness, zeal, and austerity of these apostles.
Ethelbert himself, won by the pure and sublime morality of
their life and teaching, professed himself a Çhristian ; and so
powerful was his example, that ten thousand Saxons followed
their king to the waters of baptism.
11. To give form and permanence to the Church, St. Gregory
raised St. Augustine to the episcopal dignity, directing him to
go to Arles, and there receive consecration from the bishop
Vigilius, apostolic vicar for Gaul. His after ministry in Eng­
land was crowned with the most cheering success. On Christ­
mas Day, a. d. 597, he baptized upward of two thousand
pagans. These happy tidings filled the Pontiff’s heart with

ST. GREGORY I. (A. D. 590-flM).

Hfj

joy. Ho wrote a letter of congratulation to Ethelbert and
Bertha, which was an outpouring of the emotions of his soul
He thanks the queen, in particular, for the protection she had
extended to the pious missionaries. To Ethelbert he holds ap
the example of Constantine the Great, as most fit to raise his
course of action to the level of his high vocation (a. d. 601).
The Saxon prince proved worthy of the hope which the Pon­
tiff rested upon him, and has since been ranked among the
saints. St. Gregory had, in the mean time, sent fresh workmen
to England, to reap the rich harvest now ripe for the Master’s
garner. “ Who can describe,” he wrote to St. Augustine,
“ what joy filled every faithful heart when we learned here
that, by the grace of God and your endeavor, the English na­
tion, drawn from the darkness of error, enlightened by the true
faith, now tramples her idols under foot, offers to the Almighty
the obedience of pure hearts and sincerely bows to His divine
teaching ?’’ Another letter regulates the establishment of bish­
oprics in England. “ We allow you the use of the pallium”
says the Pope, “ but only for the celebration of Holy Mass.
You will consecrate twelve bishops, who shall be subject to
you. Henceforth the bishop of London shall be metropolitan
and receive the pallium from the Holy See. Appoint a man of
zeal and charity to the see of York. Should that city and the
neighboring country receive the word of God, he shall also con­
secrate twelve bishops, who must depend upon him as their
metropolitan. We intend likewise to bestow the pallium upon
him, but we wish him to be subject to your direction as longas
you live. After your death, he shall remain the superior of the
bishops he has consecrated, and no longer depend in any thing
upon the bishop of London, your successor. The right of pre­
cedence between the bishops of London and York will be
regulated by their consecration. We desire, moreover, that all
the bishops in England be subject to you during your lifetime."
In other more minute instructions, St. Gregory fixes a number
of doubtful points of discipline submitted to him by St. Au­
gustine. Among other directions, he advises them not to

188

GENERAL HISTORV OF THE CHURCH.

destroy the temples, but only the idols of the false gods, and
to consecrate to the worship of the true God the buildings
still fit for use, “in order,” as he wisely said, “ that the people,
seeing you respect the monuments to which they are accus­
tomed, may more readily come to them.”
12. The great Pontiff who had just bestowed upon England
the boon of civilization was not careless of the Christian train­
ing of France. In the year 595 he had written to King Chil­
debert and Queen Brunehault. His words are worthy of record.
“Your kingdom," writes the Pontiff, “is as much exalted
above other realms, as the kingly state is higher than the com­
mon condition of men. To be a king is not a favor peculiar to
yourself, for there are others who wear the crown as well ; but
to be a Catholic king, what so many others have not deserved to
be, is a special privilege ; for in the midst of heathen nations
the light of your faith shines like the flame of a great torch in
the shades of a dark night.” While thus praising the piety
of princes, the Pope did not hesitate to point out the abuses
which had crept into some churches. He wrote as follows to
four of the principal bishops of Gaul : “ I learn that within
your jurisdiction holy orders are simoniaoally conferred. This
is seeking the empty name of priesthood without its sacred
character ; the consequence is, that without any question of
moral worth, they only are ordained who buy the privilege,
thus showing themselves the most unworthy subjects. If we
ought to seek for the service of the holy altars those whose
humility holds them farthest back, we should, on the same
principle, reject those who seek to thrust themselves *oo
readily forward. On the death of a bishop there are ambitious
men who forthwith appear with shaven locks, and laymen
suddenly become pastors of the people. What good can the
dock expect from those who dare to take the master’s part
before they have learned as disciples ?” As a check to these
disorders the Pope recommended to the Gallic bishops to hold
a council, and appointed as presiding prelate Siagrius, bishop
of Autun, who enjoyed a high reputation for merit, and pos-

ST. GREGORY 1. 'A. D. 59G-C0«).

189

aessed the full confidence of the Frankish monarchs. The
ceaseless strife to which the country was doomed delayed for
some years the execution of the Pope’s orders. St. Gregory
still urged the matter (a. d. 600). He wrote on the subject to
Queen Brunehault and to Kings Theodobert, Theodoric, and
Clotaire : “ Be mindful of the interests of God," he wrote to
Brunehault, “ and he will be careful of yours. Use your en­
deavors to assemble a council for the removal of simony, as we
have recommended to you. Sacrifice to God this domestic
enemy, that you may be enabled to overcome your foreign
foes.” Another letter is written in a yet more earnest tone:
“ As it is written that the glory of a nation is its justice, and
sin is the curse of a people, no kingdom can firmly stand un­
less its rulers strive to root out the evils which they know.
There are priests in your realm who lead a scandalous life ;
we say it with grief, for bad priests are the people’s ruin.
Look, therefore, to your own salvation and to the good of your
subjects, by taking the steps necessary to remedy such disor­
ders.” In accordance with the Pope’s desire, a council was
held a. d. 602, and proceeded to draw up the rules so neces­
sary for the Church of Gaul.
13. The powerful influence of the Sovereign Pontiff called
together other councils in various parts of the Catholic world :
at Seville, a. d. 590; at Saragossa, a. d. 592; at Toledo, a d. 597;
and at Huesca, a. d. 598. These episcopal assemblies were
chiefly engaged in discussing questions of religious and clerical
discipline. St. Gregory personally presided over three councils
iu Rome. In the first of these councils, held a. d. 595, he renewed
the canon against receiving any thing for ordinations, the pallium
or letters of installation, on what pretext soever. He allowed
monasteries to receive all persons of a servile condition, inde­
pendently of opposition on the part of their masters, thus carrying
out the end which his predecessors kept always in view—th·
gradual abolition of slavery, that unfortunate result of pagan civdization and disgraceful mark of man’s degeneracy. In the seo
and council, held in the year 600, he fixed the degrees of kindred

190

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

within which marriage is forbidden. In the third, which met
601, he forbade that the bishop should take any thing
from the property, lands or revenue of a monastery, and laid
down rules calculated to secure the freedom of abbatial elec­
tions. The ever-increasing number of religious communities
made these laws a matter of necessity in the West. In the
general impulse which drew numbers of chosen souls into the
solitude of the cloister, Gaul was particularly conspicuous for
fervor. St. Columban, a native of Ireland, had lately founded
the celebrated abbey of Luxeuil, in the barren and rocky
mountain district of Vosges ; here six hundred religious fol­
lowed him in the path of religious perfection (a. d. 590). He
gave them a rule eminently marked by prudence, gentleness
and firmness. The zeal, modesty and piety of the holy abbot
seemed to communicate itself to all his brethren.
14. Yet St. Columban’s arrival at Luxeuil had brought a
passing trouble into the Church of Gaul. By a national com­
putation, the saint and his companions thought it their duty to
celebrate the festival of Easter on the fourteenth day of the
moon, when it fell upon a Sunday. This system differed both
from that of the Quartodecimani, who always observed the
fourteenth day of the moon, and from that of the Church,
which only celebrates the festival on the Sunday following the
fourteenth day. The Gallic bishops did not think it proper to
countenance, in foreign monks, an innovation which their
reputation might make more dangerous. The consequence was
a spirited debate, carried on with tenacity on the part of St.
Columban ; it is probable, however, that he at length adopted the
general observance, as we find no further traces of the dispute
in history.
15. In a. d. 602, Brunehault v\d her grandson Theodoric,
king of Burgundy, sent a solemn embassy to Rome, to beg
from the Apostolic See the confirmation of certain institu­
tions founded by the queen. Particular mention was made
of a hospital built at Autun, in honor of St. Audochius, to
which were attached two monasteries, one for men, the other
a. d.

8T

GREOORA I. (A. D. 590-4<Μ).

19)

for women. In an age when nothing was fixed, when kings no
longer respected one another, and the people hardly showed
respect to the king, Brunehault and Theodoric felt the need of
securing the future stability of this foundation. St. Gregory
granted their request. He declared all property bestowed
upon the hospital of Autun to be inviolable. “ Should any
king, bishop, judge, or other secular person acquainted with
the tenor of this decree, dare to infringe upon the rights here­
in contained, he shall be debarred from the dignity of his rank
and honor, and make himself answerable to the tribunal of
God. And if he refuse to give back what he has wrongfully
seized, or to atone for his fault by a worthy penance, he shall
be cut off from the communion of the body and blood of our
Lord Jesus Christ, and incur the eternal anger of the Most
High !” A certain school of historians, unfriendly to the pon­
tifical power, has endeavored to distort this sanction into an
abuse of jurisdiction. To form a right judgment in such cases,
we must go back, in mind, to the date of their occurrence,
and know what spirit ruled the times.
*
It is of little moment
to know whether the popes have power over the temporal
domain of kings. But it is important to know that the public
spirit of the age granted them that power. No better proof
of this fact can be needed than the request of the sovereigns
themselves, that the Pope would give the sanction in question.
“We hasten,” says St. Gregory, in his bull, “ to give the sanc­
tion you request.” Besides, it was a blessing for prince
and people that some such authority should be acknowledged
in a society which so often disregarded every other power.
Moreover, in a nation constituted on Christian principles, an
excommunication naturally produced all the effects of a declen­
* The whole of this very intricate question has been thoroughly treated in the work
entitled Pouvoir du Pape au Moyen Age, recently published by M.----- , director of the semi­
nary of St. Sulpice. The author proves, according to Fénelon, that there existed in the
Middle Agee apubhc right which placed nations and kings under the defence of the Holy See
If the public mind has changed on this subject in Europe, it does not furnish suffidaaground for attacking the Sovereign Pontifa, who were guided by the principles establiabea
their dky.

192

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

sion from power. The excommunicated person was in fact
cut off from nil intercourse with the Christian community ; but
a king whose every relation with his subjecte is interrupted
ceases to l>e a king. So that the great question raised upon the
power of the pope’over the temporal domain of kings becomes
an empty war of words. So long as the authority of the
Sovereign Pontiffs was, in the natural order of things, looked
upon as the general tribunal of the Christian world, the popes
held an acknowledged sway even over temporal dominion, and
we shall yet meet with its public and open exercise. When
the spirit of religion which had warmed the hearts of Euro­
pean nations felt the chilling influence of Protestantism, the
popes ceased to exercise a power which they had wielded only
for the good of society, and which society now called in ques­
tion. When Louis XIV. raised the debate on the rights of
the Sovereign Pontiff, in the assemblies of the Gallican Church,
he well knew that no pope oould shake his throne. It remained
to be seen whether the world gained in stability in proportion
as the popes lost their controlling influence ; the history of the
last century and of ours bears striking witness to the truth.
16. Weighed down as he was by multiplied political cares,
St. Gregory did not forget the details of rite and ceremonial
in the sacred worship. He collected into a single volume the
prayers to be said by the priest at mass and in administering
the sacraments. This collection is known as the Sacramentary
of St. Gregory. All that was to be chanted, he caused to be
collected into a separate volume called the Antiphonary. He
himself set the chants to music, and wished them to be used
throughout the Latin Church. He founded a school of chant­
ers, in Rome, and bestowed upon it some landed property and
two houses ; he even presided there in person, and did not deem
it unworthy of him to teach little children ; he also sent
scholars from this institution to France and England. The
chanters sent by Adrian to Charlemagne, two centuries later,
came from this Gregorian school. The zeal of the Holy’ Pope
for the good of the Church was always controlled by a sense

ST. GREGORY I. (A. D. 690-604).

198

of justice and conciliation which led him to respect every
claim. A cenobite, named Probus, whose merit St. Gregory
could appreciate, was drawn from his solitude and placed over
the monastery of St. Andrew. But as monks could hold no
personal property, and their estate must fall to the monastery,
Probus was no longer able to make a will. Yet he had a son
who was poor, and whom he did not wish to wrong of his heri­
tage; he wrote to the Pope and made known his case. “When
I quitted the world, I allowed several years to pass by without
settling my estate, knowing that in due course of law my son
would inherit it ; but coming one day with some of my breth­
ren to pay you homage, you ordered me to take the direc­
tion of the monastery ; I at once obeyed without taking time
to dispose of my property. This leads me now to beg that
you will empower me to take the necessary steps that my
obedience may not wrong my son, who is in want.” St. Greg­
ory granted the request. “All your reasons are good," he
said ; “ we therefore give you full liberty to dispose of your
property as though you had not entered the monastery.”
17. Meanwhile the East had again become the scene of
civil strife. The emperor Mauritius, yielding to a sentiment of
avarice unworthy of a prince, ground down his subjects, wrung
large sums from the fruit of their toil, and allowed twelve
thousand Roman prisoners to be massacred by the khan of the
Avars, a Scythian tribe, rather than ransom them at the pal­
try price of three thousand pieces of *gold. This unnatural
conduct aroused a feeling of general indignation. The army
chose a leader, and bestowed the purple upon a centurion
named Phocas. The whole population of Constantinople came
forth to greet the approaching Cæsar, who was crowned in St.
Sophia’s by the Patriarch Cyriacus (a. d. 602). Mauritius had
fled to Chalcedon, whence he was now brought back to Con­
stantinople by order of Phocas. Dragged to the shore, in sight
of the palace where he had reigned, the unhappy prince was
• About twenty-teven thousand franc·, French «umoocy
Vrv IT — n

194

GENERAL BISTORT OF THE CHURCH.

made to look upon the execution of his five sons. At each
blow that struck off a head so dear, he repeated the words of
the Psalmist: “Thou art just, 0 Lord, and Thy judgments are
right.” After witnessing this heart-rending scene, he was him­
self given over to the hands of the executioner. The warning
of St. Gregory had received its fearful sanction. The Pope
availed himself of the accession of Phocas to enter a new pro­
test against the encroachments of the court of Constantinople,
which claimed the right of confirming ecclesiastical nomina­
tions and of levying large taxes on them. It will be remem­
bered that Theodoric, king of the Ostrogoths, first claimed this
right over the Papal elections ; the Greek emperors, on taking
possession of Italy, carried out the system of exaction prac­
tised by their Gothic predecessors. A new Pontiff could not
be enthroned without their leave. When cupidity was after­
ward joined to tyranny, this permission was only granted for
a pecuniary consideration. Justinian had even fixed a tariff
for the principal bishoprics of the empire. St. Gregory thus
expressed himself to Phocas, in regard of simony : “ This
abuse threatened to mar the halcyon days of the infant
Church. Though condemned at the time, the accursed error
still breeds its baneful offspring. It has aroused against the
Church of God not only the countless masses of the people, but
even the kingly power, if indeed we may style them kings
who hold in bondage the spouse of Jesus Christ, and whose
presuming rashness does not hesitate to barter the heritage of
Christ for sordid gain.” This was one of the last letters writ­
ten by St. Gregory the Great. The illustrious Pontiff, hailed
by the unanimous voice of his age with the title of Great,
which title an admiring posterity has confirmed, sank under
the weight of labors and infirmities, on the 12th of March, a. d.
304,in the sixty-fourth year of his age. The whole world seemed
oppressed by a sense of darkening gloom at the setting of this
splendid light of the Church. He had been preceded to the
grave by St. Augustine, the apostle of England, St. Leander,
archbishop of Seville, and Recarede the Catholic, king of the

ST. GREGORY I. (A. D. 69IMG4).

195

Visigoths. England gave a touching proof of her gratitude for
the boon of conversion which she had received from the great
Pontiff. In a. d. 747 the C. jncil of Cliff decreed that his anniver­
sary should be regularly solemnized in all the English churches.
The decree was renewed a. d. 1222, by a council held at Ox­
ford, and observed until the period of the so-called Reforma­
tion. God grant that England once again return to the faith
and worship of her apostle !
18. The pontificate of St. Gregory the Great forms an era
in the history of the Church. “ Catholicity and the Papacy
have hitherto appeared under two very opposite aspects.
Deadly principles of dissolution were undermining society ; the
moral as well as the political world was crumbling at all
points ; in the midst of all this decay which forebodes the fall
of tottering empires, a new society is springing into life ; it is
Christianity. A youthful but mighty power binds together its
various elements, and this power is the Papacy. The part this
power now plays seems to us wonderfully fitted for the mission
it has to fulfil. Up to the sixth century, as we have said, it
offers two different aspects. From the days of St. Linus to
chose of St. Melchiades the Popes discharged their apostolic
ministry only, in the words of the apostle, by resisting unto
blood. From St. Melchiades to St. Gregory the Great, they
lay the foundation of the Church’s written law, and crush the
heresies that assail the great mystery of the Man-God. The
former were apostolic martyrs, the latter apostolic lawgivers.
The turn taken by the political world corresponded to these two
phases : the first witnessed the breaking up of Roman unity ;
the second saw modern society begin the work of its first foun­
dation. Such we believe to be the true aspect of the first six
centuries, viewed in the light of history and philosophy. This
Christian monarchy once fixed, once advanced from the state of
mere being to that of positive power, receives modifications; tliat
is, it joins the political to the religious character. The popes
have appeared as apostles and lawgivers, they now become
sovereigns ; it is in this new feature that we shall henceforth

196

OBNERAL HISTORV OF THE CHURCH.

be called upon to view their political and humanizing mis­
sion.’’*

§ II. Pontificate of Sabinian (Sept. 1, a. D; 604—Feb. 22, 605).
19. The death of St. Gregory the Great was followed by
an interregnum of five months and a half. Sabinian, the apos­
tolic nuncio at Constantinople, was elected on the 1st of Sep­
tember, A. d. 604, to a pontificate which lasted but six months.
But this short interval witnessed the ravages of a great famine
which desolated Rome and Italy. Sabinian threw open the
granaries of the Church, and directed that the wheat should be
sold to the poor at the rate of thirty bushels for a gold as.
Oldoin attributes to Pope Sabinian the custom of ringing the
bells at the canonical hours, to summon the faithful to the reci
tation of the divine office. Bells had been used in the West
from the fifth century ; their invention is generally attributed
to St. Paulinos, bishop of Nola, in Campania. For this reason
the oldest ecclesiastical writers called them nolœ or campanœ.
The use of bells was introduced into the Eastern Church at a
much later date. About the year 864, Orso. doge of Venice,
«ent to the Greek emperor Michael a present of twelve bells,
which he placed in an elegant belfry attached to the church
of St. Sophia. Pope Sabinian died on the 22d of February,
a. d. 605, and was buried in the basilica of St. Peter.

§ III. Pontificate

of

Boniface IIL (February 25, a. d. 606November 12, 606).

20. The pontifical elections of this period plainly show the
aim of the Roman clergy to gratify the court of Constantinople.
Boniface was still in the Eastern capital as nuncio when elected
to fill the Chair of St. Peter (February 25, a. d. 606). Ili»
exalted merit certainly warranted the choice, for when appoint
HMoire de· Papa, by M. le Comte Db Beaubobt.

BONIFACE ΙΠ. (A. D. βθβ).

197

ing him representative of the Holy See in the East, St. Gregory
said of him : “ He is a defender of the Church ; our long and
close acquaintance with him enables us to bear ample witness
to his purity and faithfulness.’ By placing on the pontifical
throne men personally known to the emperors, a sure check was
placed upon any questions which those monarchs might be dis­
posed to raise, whether through ill-will or cupidity, against the
election of a stranger. Boniface III. reigned but little longer
than his predecessor. But to his pontificate was granted the
glory of settling, most advantageously for the Church, the ques­
tion raised by the proud Patriarchs of Constantinople to the
title of universal bishop. Phocas, whose cruel ambition had
secured the imperial crown, was the instrument used by God
to carry out this act of justice. He declared, by an imperial
edict, that the title could belong only to the Roman Pontiff.
Eighty years before, Justinian had styled Pope John Π. “ the
Head of all the holy Churches, the first of all the bishops.’’·
Phocas therefore bestowed no new honor, as the centuriators
of Magdeburg have tried to prove, but simply acknowledged
an acquired right, as is clearly shown by Cardinals Baronins and
Bellarmin. Another difficulty has also been started upon the
decree, on the ground that it was issued by a tyrant—for Pho­
cas owed his diadem only to violence and bloodshed. But
besides the fact that the succession of emperors in the Lower
Empire is but an unbroken series of like examples, Phocas did,
after all, but ratify the decree of Justinian, whose legitimacy
no one thinks of questioning. Pope Boniface HL, wishing to
anticipate the disorders sometimes attending the pontifical elec­
tions, called a council in St. Peter’s, at Rome. The council
excommunicates any one who moots the question of a succes­
sor for a living pope or bishop, and decrees, moreover, that
the clergy and faithful shall not meet to elect a new pope
until three days after the obsequies of the deceased Pontiff.
This is the only act we have of the pontificate of Boniface Hl.,
• Norm. 131, chap. u.

198

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

who died November 12,
accession.

§ IV. Pontificate

of

a. d.

606, eight months after hie

Boniface IV. (September 18, a. ?. 607
—May 25, 614).

21. After a vacancy of ten months, the Holy See was
filled, on the 18th of September, a. d. 607, by Boniface IV.
The new Pontiff had been connected with the court of Constan­
tinople, and obtained from Phocas the grant of the Pantheon,
of which he made a church dedicated to the Blessed Virgin and
the martyrs. The anniversary of this dedication has since be­
come the feast of All Saints. But the power of Phocas was
now on the wane ; his cruelty had not stopped at the members
of the late imperial family ; numbers of guiltless victims daily
bled to expiate a suspected attachment to the memory of the
murdered princes. Only one was bold enough to cry out
against so many crimes. Heraclius, the aged governor of Af­
rica, for eight years steadily faced the threats of the centurion
who now dishonored the throne of Constantine. The governor
was at the head of a body of troops on whose devoted attach­
ment he could rely. Phocas dared not attack him openly.
Unable, by reason of his weight of years, to take personal
command of the expedition, Heraclius intrusted it to his son,
who also bore his name. Favored by wind and sea, the squadron
cast anchor in the Hellespont (October 4, 610). Emboldened
by the sight of the friendly fleet, the people of Constantinople
shake off the tyrant’s heavy yoke, and hurl him from his
throne. The troops that garrison the imperial city now join
the people and heap curses upon the usurper whom but a few
years before they had borne in triumph to the palace of the
Cæsars. Phocas crouches, trembling with terror, in the under
ground vaults of the palace. The soldiers discover his lurk­
ing-place, tear away the purple robe from his shoulders, cover
him with a black mantle, and drag him, fettered, bareheaded
and barefooted, to Heraclius the younger, who orders his exe

BONIFACE IV. (A. D. 807-614).

199

cutîon. Phocas had been raised to the throne by treachery
and crime ; he lost it by an ignominious death which he but
too well deserved. After depriving him of bis right hand,
Heraclius ordered his head to be cut off. On the very day
of this bloody execution, the Patriarch Sergius crowned He­
raclius emperor and solemnized his nuptials with Eudoxia.
22. The course of the Church in Great Britain was always
onward. After the death of St. Augustine of Canterbury,
Lawrence, his successor, with Mellitus and Justus, his fellow­
bishops, gave their attention not only to the Britons, but like­
wise to the Irish. Their most zealous efforts at first failed
to bring the bishops of that country to the unity of Catholic
discipline. The Paschal question especially gave rise to a long
and warm discussion. Mellitus accordingly set out for Rome
to consult the Pope on the subject. Boniface convoked a
council, which also fixed all that concerned monks and the
monastic life. On his return to Great Britain, Mellitus brought
with him these decisions, with letters from the Pope to Arch­
bishop Lawrence, to King Ethelbert. to the clergy, and the
whole English nation. At about the same time (a. d. 610) he
founded the abbey now so well known, and called, from its po­
sition, Westminster, or monastery of the West. During the
same year St. Columban was driven from his convent of Luxeuil by the persecution of King Theodoric (Thierry), whom he
had reproved for his dissolute mode of life. Theodoric ordered
him to be conveyed to Nantes, and there to embark for some
foreign port. But a steady succession of contrary winds made
his departure impossible. The sailors, looking upon this as
an effect of the Divine anger, refused to take him on board.
St. Columban thus found himself left at Nantes, and free to
turn his steps in any direction. He went to Clotaire II., who
furnished him with an escort to the states of King Theode·
bert. Thence he sailed up the Rhine to the extremity of
Lake Zurich, where he began to preach the Gospel to the in
habitants. He afterward repaired to the shores of Lake
Constance, where, with the help of his disciple, St. Gall, he

200

GENERAL nrSTOHF OF THE CHURCH.

founded the monastery of Bregenz. St. Colum ban was not
the only victim of Theodoric’s persecution. St. Didier, bishop
of Vienne, had the courage to reprove his disorders, and was
consequently banished by the tyrant, who acted through a
council of court-paid bishops, held at ChOlons-sur-Saône, in the
year a. d. 603. God having glorified His servant’s exile by
several miracles, Didier was recalled. But the king’s better
feelings did not long prevail, and the holy bishop was murdered
by three royal officers on the banks of the Chaloronne, near
Lyons. Finding himself pursued by the murderers, St.
Didier knelt down and recommended to God his flock and his
persecutors. In this attitude he received the fatal blow which
sent him to his reward on the 23d of May, a. d. 607. Theo­
doric’s mother, Queen Brunehault, whose misfortunes throw a
veil of sympathetic respect over her name, and to whom his­
tory attributes many good qualities, did not interpose her in­
fluence to stay the savage arm of her son. Some historians
even assert that she used her authority with Theodoric against
the holy bishop. Yet the esteem ever expressed for Brune­
hault by St. Gregory the Great throws a doubt upon the record
of crimes drawn up against her by later chroniclers. However
this may be, the tragic end of the unhappy queen came soon
after this event. Her rival, the odious Fredegonda, died
quietly in Paris, in the enjoyment of a prosperity of which her
crimes made her utterly unworthy (a. d. 597). Brunehault,
after seeing her son snatched away in the prime of life, fell into
the hands of Clotaire II., who ordered her to be tied by the
hair to the tail of an untamed horse. The maddened steed
soon tore her to pieces, and the savage multitude burned her
mangled remains with fiendish joy (a, d. 613).
23. The East likewise felt the fearful scourge of war.
Chosroes, king of Persia, had opened a way into Palestine by
the capture of Edessa, Apamea, Cæsarea of Cappadocia, and
Damascus. The accession of Heraclius did not stay his rav­
ages. Jerusalem fell into the power of the Persians, and was
given up to the worst excesses of war. The Christians were

BONIFACE Γ7. (A. D. 807-614).

201

butchered without pity. Urged on by the highest refinement
of cruelty, the Jews bought many of them, at a high price, to
satisfy their savage cruelty by putting them to death under the
most inhuman tortures. The Persians plundered and then fired
the churches. Among the precious spoils they seized was
the sacred wood of the true cross, which they carried off with
them into Persia. These disasters called forth the active and
sublime charity of St. John the Almoner, Patriarch of Alexan­
dria. The wretched inhabitants who had escaped the invaders’
swords, thronged into his episcopal city from all parts of Syria.
St. John received them all and largely relieved their wants.
He had the sick and wounded placed in hospitals, where they
were cared for free of cost ; and here ho often visited them
and personally attended to their needs. As if to add splendor
to these wonders of charity by proportionable difficulties, God
allowed the same year to bring a famine also in its train.
The Nile withheld its yearly overflow, and wheat became ex­
ceedingly dear. St. John borrowed large sums of money, im­
ported a quantity of corn from Sicily, and relieved the most
crying want. The saint’s charity did not stop with the limits
of his own city ; he sent money and provisions to Jerusalem,
to the monasteries in Palestine, and to all the Syrian cities.
The treasures of Providence seemed to multiply in proportion
as he drew on them ; and we might perhaps find it hard to
believe so many wonders wrought by a single man, had not
charity made them credible by renewing them in the person of
St Vincent de Paul, the almoner of the seventeenth century,
the visible providence of Alsace, Lorraine, and Champagne.
24. Pope Boniface TV. died on the 25th of May, a. d. 614.
Two important councils were held during his pontificate : the
first at Toledo, in 610 ; the second at Paris, in 613. The
latter was the fullest that had yet been held in Gaul. Its fif­
teen canons, relating to episcopal succession and jurisdiction,
were signed by seventy-nine bishops.

202

GENERAL HISTORÏ OF THE CHURCH.

§ V. Pontificats

of

Deusdedit (November 13,
November 8, 617).

a

d.

6I4.

25. On the 13th of November, a. d. 614, Deusdedit was
raised to the Chair of Peter. During his pontificate of but
three years, the English Church, hardly yet firmly rooted by
the care of its first apostles, was doomed to encounter a furious
storm. The pious king Ethelbert, whose name the Church
holds in sacrificial remembrance, had died in the course of the
preceding year (616). His son, Eadbald, a prince of dis­
solute life, had refused the light of the faith. His accession
brought back to heathenism the ready throng of fickle cour­
tiers, who saw in religion but a stepping-stone for their ambi­
tion. The people were led by the example of the great. The
East Saxons also, under the pagan rule of the sons of
Saberct, first Christian king of Essex, denied the faith and
banished St. Mellitus, bishop of London. Together with St.
Justus, he went to Gaul (a. d. 616) ; but the storm was a pass­
ing one. The conversion of King Eadbald and the death of
the three sons of Saberct, left the holy bishops free to return
amidst the flocks intrusted to their care (a. d. 618). Pope
Deusdedit died on the 8th of November, a. d. 617, and was
succeeded by Boniface V. (December 29, a d. 617)

BONIFACE V. (A. D. bll-AU)

20»

CHAPTER VI.
j I. Pontificate of Boniface V. (December 29, a. d. 617—October 25, 99b}
1 Victory of Heraclius over the Persiane. Exaltation of the Holy Cross.—2
Mahomet
The Koran.—3. Religions condition of England and Gad.—
4. Ecclesiastical writers ; St. Sophronius, John Moschus, St Isidore of
Seville.—5. Death of Boniface V.

§ II. Pontificate of Honoriub (May 14, a. d. 626—October 12, 638).
6 State of the Christian World at the accession of Honorius.—7. Case of For­
tunatos, Metropolitan of Gradi. Intervention of Honorius in favor of the
Lombard king Adaloald.—8. Sergius, Patriarch of Constantinople, author
of the Monothelite Heresy.—9. St Sophronius of Alexandria, Patriarch of
Jerusalem, opposes the Monothelite error.—10. Letter of Sergius to tho
Pope.—11. Reply of Honorius.—12. Council of Jerusalem held by St So­
phronius against the Monothelites.—13. Embassy of St Sophronius to the
Pope. Death of Honorius and of St Sophronius. Capture of Jerusalem
by Omar. The True Cross carried to Constantinople.—14. Situation of th·
West at the death of Honorius.

§ III. Pontificate

of

Severinus (May 28, a. d. 640—August 2, 640).

15. Vacancy of the Holy See.

Ecthcais of Heraclius.—16. Election and Death

of Severinus.
§ IV. Pontificate

of

John IV. (December 24, a. d. 840—October 22, 642)

17. Heraclius retracts the Ec thesis. His Death. Burning of the Alexandrian
Library by Omar.—-18. Revolution in the East John IV. clears Honori»
from the charge oi Monothelitisin. Death of the Pope. St. Eligius, St
Ounn, St. Amandus, and St. Arnulphus in Gaul. The Salic Law.
§ V. Pontificate

of

Theodore I. (November 24, a. d. 612—May 13, 649).

10. Hereditary firmness of the Popes in upholding the faith. Theodore L
renews the condemnation of the Ecthesis.—20. St. Maximus. Interview
of the holy abbot with Pyrrhus, Monothelite Patriarch of Constantinople.
—91. Pyrrhus makes his abjuration into the hands of the Pope. Relapse

204

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHDRC1I.

of Pyrrho
*.
His deposition and that of Paul, hia successor, decreed by
the Council of Rome.—22. The Typent the Emperor Conatana.—23. Per·
aecntion against the Catholica. Protestation of the Eastern Bishops.—24.
Situation of the Western Church under the Pontificate of Theodore J
Death of Pope Theodore.

§1 Pontificate of Boniface V. (December 29,
October 25, 625).

a. d.

617 -

1. The Persian arms filled the East with blood and carnage
The emperor Heraclius seemed for a. while to disregard the state
of those rich provinces. The time was occupied in treating
with the khan of the Avars, who was threatening Constanti­
nople. The exchequer, drained by the extravagance of Phocas,
also claimed attention. This seeming listlessness on the part
of Heraclius was in truth a time of useful preparation for what
was, so to speak, the only aim, and afterward the highest
glory of this reign. In the year 622, the emperor marched
out of Constantinople to meet the Persians, at the head of a
numerous army of Turks, Romans and Greeks. Before set­
ting out he knelt before the altar of St Sophia to pray for
the success of his arms. Then turning toward the patriarch,
he said to him : “I leave the care of my capital and my son
to God, to the Blessed Virgin, and to you.” These words were
received with loud applause from the army and blessings from
the people. Heraclius took advantage of the enthusiasm of
his troops : his first campaign amid the mountains of Armenia
taught the Romans that they had not utterly lost the habit
of victory. The enemy’s camp, with its hoards of treasured
wealth, repaid the valor of the victorious army. The war was
but a series of like successes until the year 628. Chosroes IL,
forced to fly before the conquering Romans, saw his most flour­
ishing cities doomed to the same fate he had so often inflicted
upon the wealthy towns of Syria. In spite of his defeats, he
obstinately refused the honorable terms of peace offered him by
Heraclius, who held fifty thousand of his subjects as prisoners.
The obstinacy of Chosroes II. hastened his ruin. His subjects

BONIFACE V. (A. D. 617-β25).

205

rose up against him. His own son Siroes shut him up in
Ctesiphon, in the Tower of Darkness, which he had built to hold
his treasures. Siroes forbade that any food should be given
him. “ Let him feed on gold," said the prince, “ for which he
laid waste the world, and made so many thousand victims
starve.” As the wretched old man still breathed after five
days of the most cruel torment, Siroes ordered him to be shot
to death with arrows (a. d. 628). This tragic event put an
end to the war. Wishing to enjoy the fruits of his crime,
Siroes accepted the terms of peace offered by Heraclius. The
emperor returned to Constantinople after an absence of six
years. The people, the army, and the senate joined in giving
him the honor of a triumph. The conqueror advanced in a car
drawn by four elephants, and preceded by the wood of the
true cross, the sacred standard of Christian nations, the most
glorious trophy of his victory over the Persians (a. d. 628).
In the following year the emperor himself brought back to
Jerusalem the sign of our redemption. The restoration of the
reconquered cross to the spot where it had saved the world,
was an event of immense import. On reaching the Garden of
Olives, the emperor took it upon his shoulders, and followed
by the clergy and a countless throng of the faithful weeping
with joy, he made the stations of the Way of Sorrows, and at
length laid down his sacred burden upon the hallowed hill of
Calvary. The memory of this august ceremony, this magnifi­
cent sight, has been consecrated by the Church in the festival
of the exaltation of the Holy Cross, kept on the 14th of Sep­
tember.
2. We have somewhat outstripped the chronological course
of events, in order not to break off the account of Heraclius's
victories and their glorious crowning. From the far East came
another wave of invasion, more powerful and lasting than its
predecessor, and bearing on with it to the Western world the
hitherto unknown name of Mahomet, the Prophet of the
Believers. Mecca, his birthplace, had seen him a poor orphan,
his heritage reduced to five camels left him by his father. His

206

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

youth was divided between the labors of a shepherd’s life, and
the journeys made in company with his uncle Abu Taleb, as
he led his merchant caravans to the fairs of Bassora and Da­
mascus. Now (a. d. 622) Arabia’s capital beholds Mahomet
mighty and powerful, an eloquent warrior, an apostolic con­
queror. Idolatry was the oldest form of worship in Arabia;
its great centre was the temple called Caaba, in Mecca. Hither
the Magi brought the Sabaism of Zoroaster, and in later days
some colonies of Jewish merchants, settled on the shores of
the Red Sea, made known the Mosaic law. At length the
Gospel shone upon Arabia Felix, even before the Saracen Saseanidœ of the north had been converted by the desert soli­
taries. Thus four religions, side by side, held sway in Arabia,
when Mahomet undertook to blend them into one. To impress
the ardent natures accustomed to the wonders of Eastern song
and legend, he assumed the tone of a conqueror and a proph­
et. He taught his fellow-citizens that God created all men
and distributed them into nations, and then placed him in the
best of all, the Arabian !—that the Creator divided the nations
into tribes, and placed him in the best tribe, the tribe of the
Koreish !—that He parcelled out the tribes into families, and
brought him forth from the best of all camilies, the family of
Abdul Motalleb ! He announces himself as the best of men ;
as the one who should first knock at the gate of paradise, and
whose grave should first open on the day of general judgment.
He declares that Abraham had asked him from God, that Jesus
Christ had announced him to the world, and that on the day of
his birth, his mother, the noble Amina, had seen a great light
shining from the remote East to the far West 1 He rehearses
his nocturnal journey through the realms of space, on the
ringed steed El Borak (the Sparkling) ; he had tied the aerial
v.arser in Jerusalem, at the very place where the prophets
were wont to tie their beasts. In Solomon’s temple he had
spoken and prayed with Abraham, Moses, and Jesus Christ. He
bad mounted to heaven on a ladder of light ; passing through
the midst of the stars, those huge spheres hanging by golden

BONIFACE V. (A. D. ·17-βΜ).

207

chain» to the empyrean dome, he had scaled the seven
heavens of diamond, emerald, sapphire, topaz, braes, gold and
hyacinth ; the angelic hosts and bands of patriarchs and proph­
ots had paid him homage as to the Apostle of God! The
hand of the Almighty was laid upon him and sealed his fore­
head with the prophet’s sign ! He read the inscription written
in dazzling light on the throne of the Divinity : “ There is but
one God, and Mahomet is His Prophet!" He announces that he
has been sent to re-establish the ancient worship in its full purity;
that Abraham and Ismael, the fathers of the Arab people, were
neither Jews nor Christians, but true believers ; they worshipped
but one God, and were never guilty of the impious sacrilege of
associating other divinities with Him. He declares a war of
extermination against idolatry. “The sword is the key of
heaven,” cries Mahomet ; “ one night spent in arms is worth
more than two months of prayer ! Whosoever falls in battle,
his sins are forgiven I Heaven is open to him ! His wounds
are bright as vermilion, and fragrant as musk." The doctrine
of fatalism he stamps on the Arab mind in characters of fire.
“ Who can stay the approach of death Î His steps are swifter
than the gazelle’s. Death is but a bridge between time and
eternity ; a sweet, a happy eternity ! ’’ Streams of milk, and
honey, and richest wines roll their perfumed waves in the
paradise promised to the poor and savage children of Arabia’s
burning wastes. He carries away their imagination by the rich
and lively coloring he gives to the sensual enjoyments awaiting
the true believers. An abode beautiful with gushing waters,
murmuring foliage, rich fruits, golden couches bright with jewels,
and unending delights, was to reward the faith of those who
adore but one God, and recognize His only prophet, Mahomet.
The burning eloquence of this wonderful man, his commanding
presence and majestic aspect, the resistless power o! his smile,
joined to a superior genius and a dauntless courage in the field,
subdued and fascinated the imagination of the sons of the
desert, where the Arab’s tent has ever been the chosen abode
of poetry and the passion of arms. Within a space of ten

20S

GENERAL HI8T0RÏ OF TUE CHURCH.

years, by the power of his sword and the mastery of his genius,
Mahomet had spread his religion from the Euphrates to Mocha,
from the Persian Gulf to the Red Sea. He died from the
effects of poison (a. n. 632) ; his last words were : “ 0 God,
pardon my sins ; yes, I come among my fellow-citizens on
high.” The Koran, the repository of his teaching, which prom­
ises to his fanatical followers every sensual delight as their
reward, was received as an inspired book, and became the
religious, political and moral code of the Mussulmans. Abubekèr, first caliph, and successor of Mahomet, conquered Meso­
potamia and Syria (a. d. 634). Henceforth Islamism was to
be a power. Its birth had caused one of the most deeply felt
revolutions known in history. The struggle now begun between
the followers of the Crescent and the legions of the Christian
emperors, ends but with the day on which Mahomet II. plants
the crescent where Justinian’s cross had stood upon the dome of
St. Sophia.
*
To give acceptance to his pretended mission, Mahomet as­
sured his followers that the Koran was a divine work brought
down from heaven by the archangel Gabriel. Whatever this
spurious volume holds of truth was borrowed from the sacred
writings of the Jews and Christians, which the rabbi Abdiah
and the monk Boaira had made known to the Mussulman
lawgiver. The Koran is a confused gathering of narrations,
visions, sermons, precepts, and counsels, in which a truth is
ever jostled by a lie ; a rhapsody sometimes lost in the clouds,
sometimes dragging in the dust, and where nearly every maxim
is contradicted by a contrary aphorism. In a dogmatic point
of view, Mahomet rejected the Christian idea of a Trinity,
which be deemed incompatible with the Divine unity. He
preached the existence of one God, without distinction of
persons, whose ministers were the angels and prophets. On
this principle there was no Incarnation, no Redemption. Jelus Christ was not the second Person of the Blessed Trinity,
• M. Podjoulat, Biliaire de Conilantinopte, t. L p. 310.

BONIFACE V. (A. D. IIMK).

209

the Son of God made man. He was but a prophet like Abra­
ham, Moses, and Mahomet himself. A true Mussulman must
believe in the immortality of the soul, the resurrection of the
body, the last judgment, the punishment of the wicked, and
the happiness of the just. The high Christian view of God’s
remunerative justice and of man’s free act which alone can
entitle him to merit or demerit, and hence to reward or punish­
ment, is met, in the Koran, without any pretence of avoiding
an open contradiction, by the groundwork of the Mussulman's
faith, the doctrine of fatalism. Mahomet knew its power to
stimulate the fanaticism of his followers, and to urge on their
spirit of conquest. The children of the Prophet learned to
die like stoics on the battle-field, calmly repeating the words :
It was written. The precepts laid down by the Koran as in­
dispensable for salvation, are : circumcision, taken from the
Jewish law ; prayer, which every true believer must make
five times a day, besides the public prayer on Friday. The
muezzin, or priest, standing upon a lofty minaret, calls the
faithful to prayer, with the words : “ There is but one God,
and Mahomet is His Prophet.” In Persia the muezzin adds :
“ Ali is the Prophet’s vicegerent. Omer, Osman, Abubekér,
accursed be your names.” Alms are of obligation, to which the
Koran fixes the minimum at a tenth of the giver’s income ;
ablutions, as a preparation for prayer; the fast of Ramadan, to
commemorate the retreat of Mahomet on Mount Herat ; the sac­
rifice of animals on certain solemn occasions ; in fine, abstinence
from certain meats pronounced impure, and from all fermented
liquors. Polygamy is allowed by the Koran, which thus de­
stroys the holiness of the married state, breaks every family
tie, lowers woman and dooms her to a shameful seclusion.
The Arabian lawgiver aimed at filling his followers with a
thirst for conquest and a proud disdain for all that is not
Mahometan. In every Eastern province that still wears the
yoke of Islamism, the Christian is tc this day called by the
name of Giaour (dog). Industry is branded by the Koran as
the work of slaves The freeman was born to bear arms in
Vol LT.—14

210

GENERAL IHSTORT OF THE CHURCH.

battle, to rest in time of peace, surrounded by every delight
and sensual enjoyment, amid blooming gardens, plashing foun­
tains, and the soft murmur of perfumed rills. These two prin­
ciples, a religious contempt for every other people, and sloth­
fulness raised to the dignity of a dogma, have extinguished
commerce, industry, agriculture, and the arts in the East Λ
good Mussulman would be ashamed to show any sympathy
with a Giaour by industrial or commercial relations ; he would
deem himself disgraced to ask his fertile plains for other fruit
than that they bear untilled except by nature. Hence did
Mussulman civilization leave all around it to perish when the
warrior's spirit sank inert amid the enjoyments of peace and
the pride of conquest Asia was doomed to atone for the
spirit of restlessness and fickle levity which had so long ruled
her, by a lingering death, in listless silence, under a power
which changed the East into one vast necropolis.
3. While the East was preparing these great events which
were to work so powerfully upon the world, Boniface V. was
closing a pontificate full of pastoral cares. The English Church
was calling for his protection. King Ethelbald and St. Justus
wrote to him to make known the condition of these Christian
colonies and their efforts to keep them in the faith. The Pope
answered St. Justus by a kindly letter, congratulating him on
the success of his apostolic labor ; he likewise sent him the
pallium and empowered him to consecrate bishops. Edwin V.,
king of Northumbria, showed himself well disposed toward
the Christians. In order to obtain the hand of the Catholic
princess Edilberga, daughter of Ethelbald, he promised to leave
her free to practise her religion; he moreover promised to
embrace the Catholic faith himself, if a serious examination
convinced him of its truth. Boniface wrote him a letter of
earnest encouragement, accompanied by gifts for himself and
his queen. Gaul was at the same period illustrated by many
examples of the highest virtue. The court of King Clotaire
furnished St. Arnulphus, St. Romanus, Didier, St. Faro, and St.
Goeric. But the usual peaceful atmosphere of some monas-

BONIFACE V. (A. D. β17-β2β).

2U

teries had been ruffled by Agrestinus, a schÎRmatical monk.
Fie had long been secretary to King Thierry (Theodoric), and
had subsequently entered the religious state under St. Eustasius, St Columban’s successor at Luxeuil ; but his natural rest­
lessness drew him from the solitary life on the plausible pretext
of preaching to the heathen. After wandering through Bavaria
he went to Aquileia, where he soon found himself entangled in
the schism of the Three Chapters ; this was the whole fruit of
his mission. On his return to Luxeuil, St. Eustasius, finding
him still fast in the error, thought it his duty to expel him
from the community. Agrestinus received this just sentence
as a personal affront, and thought to revenge himself by an
attack upon the rule of St. Columban; and through the in­
trigues of Abellen, bishop of Geneva, one of his relatives, he
obtained the convocation of a council at Macon (a. d. 620) ;
but instead of a triumph, it proved only a source of confusion to
him. St. Eustasius showed how utterly groundless were all
his charges, which amounted to a complaint against St. Colum­
ban for having established rules of discipline which the critic
judged too detailed or too numerous ; he went so far as to
accuse St. Columban of heresy. The bishop, finding no ground
for the charges made by Agrestinus, exhorted him to ask for­
giveness of St. Eustasius, who had the indulgence to receive
him to the kiss of peace. Agrestinus had succeeded in winning
the sympathy of St. Romaric, who had just founded the abbey
of Remiremont, thus named in memory of its founder (Romaricimorui) : it consisted of two monasteries, one for monks, the
other for nuns, and both under St. Columban’s rule. Thus did
Luxeuil become the nursery whence were transported to all
parts of Gaul so many monastic institutions. Many holy men
left its peaceful shade only to found like retreats in the various
provinces. St. Deicola, now better known as St. Die, rounded
the abbey of Lure, in the diocese of Besançon; St. Valery
and St. Valdalen established the celebrated abbey of St. Va­
lery in Neustria ; St. Donatus, bishop of Besançon, enriched hie
episcopal city by the erection of the monastery of St. Paul,

212

GENERAL· HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

under the rule of St. Benedict and of St. Columban. In
a. d. 625, a national council held at Rheims brought together
the most illustrious Gallic bishops. The Fathers gave partic­
ular attention to the means of rooting out the last traces of
paganism, which were still visible in Gaul. The council accord­
ingly forbade the observance of pagan rites, the eating of meats
offered to the idols, and assisting at their sacrifices. The Fathers
then confirmed the decrees of the Council of Paris, which they
call general, doubtless because it was composed of bishops from
all the provinces of Gaul.
•I. Holy doctors also lent their eflmcs, for the honor of the
age, in works which do not, perhaps, show the depth and genius
of past centuries, but which yet breathe the perfume of an
enlightened and tender piety, sometimes even rising to poetic
dignity. Sophronius, an Alexandrian monk, wrote hymns on the
chief events of the Gospel narrative, and many odes on the
Christian virtues. John Moschus, his friend and fellow-country­
man, had gone to end his long career in Rome, where he wrote
his Spiritual Meadow, a collection of miracles and choice exam­
ples of virtue, which the author compares to the flowers that
bloom in the enamelled meadow. St. Anastasius, a priest and
monk of Mount Sinai, hence called the Sinaite, was nobly defend­
ing the Catholic faith against the various Eutychian sects which
then divided the East. His beskknown work is called ‘Οδηγός,
or the Guide, a method of controversy with heretics, written in
the close and precise form which has since received the name of
scholastic. He proposed two ways of arguing with heretics :
one of proofs resting on the authority of the inspired writings ;
the other of reasonings natural to the subject, and borrowed
from the Holy Fathers or ecclesiastical writers. The science
and virtue of past ages likewise shone again upon the West,
in the person of St. Isidore of Seville, one of the Church’s
brightest lights in the seventh century. St. Isidore governed
the Church of Seville for forty years, and left a name linked
with the blessing of many most useful reforms. What Boetius
had done in Italy, St. Isidore repeated in Spain. He summed

BONIFACE V. (A. D 617-426)

213

up all the human science acquired during his age, in a clear and
concise style, that might make known to the new nations
of the West all that was good and useful in antiquity. Hie
chief work in this line are the twenty books of Etymologies or
Origins, written at the request of St. Braulio, bishop of Sara­
gossa, his friend and panegyrist. It forms a perfect encyclopædia, containing in substance all that the human mind had
mastered in the seventh century : grammar, history, rhetoric,
dialectics, arithmetic, geometry, music, astronomy, medicine,
jurisprudence, natural history, and architecture. To this hercu­
lean task St. Isidore added the Chronicles, or Compendium of
Universal History, from the beginning of the world until about
the year 620 of the Christian era ; a history of the Gothic,
Vandal and Suevic kings, who had successively left traces
of their rule in Spain ; a catalogue of ecclesiastical writers,
ami a work on the life and death of the Saints of the Old and
New Testament. These great works, which might well have
taken up the labors of a lifetime, are not the only ones we owe
to St. Isidore’s untiring activity. He drew up and published a
collection of the old canons of the Church, for the use of
Spain ; this valuable collection is known as the Spanish Collec­
tion, and the fourth Council of Toledo made the reading of it
obligatory in all the Spanish churches ; it is marked by a spirit
of perfect order and method, and still stands as an authority ;
not one of its articles has ever been treated as of questionable
authenticity. In the preface, St. Isidore says : “ To the canons
of the councils we add the decrees of the Roman Pontiffs,
because their authority, standing upon the supremacy of the
Apostolic See, is unquestionable. As for the canons attributed
to the Apostles, since the Apostolic See does not acknowledge
them, and the Holy Fathers have not adhered to them, they
have no canonical authority, and are classed among the apoc­
ryphal books, without respect to what may he useful in them. ’
5. Boniface ended his pontificate amid this array of holy
doctors, and the din of the great events which shook the East ;
the wars of Heraclius against the Persians, and the rise of

214

GENERAL BISTORT OF THE CHURCH.

Mahometanism (October 25, a. d. 625).
pontifical throne for a space of eight years.

§ B. Pontificate

op

Honorius (May 1,
12, 638).

He had held the

a. d.

626—October

6. When Honorius ascended the Chair of St. Peter, there
was nothing in the religious atmosphere that could forebode the
storm about to burst upon his pontificate. The onward march
of Mahometanism, first confined to Arabia, had indeed now
reached Jerusalem and some of the cities of Syria; but no
concern was felt at an inroad of a few Arabian tribes, which
was deemed but a passing episode, like those which had gone
before. The victories won by Heraclius over the Persians
were thought to herald those which the power of Constantinople
would renew against the Moslem invader when it thought him
worthy of its arms. The West still steadily followed the
course which was bringing it all to the true fold. The once
barbarous nations, the Goths in Spain, the Franks in Gaul, the
Anglo-Saxons in Britain, now saw their kings and their bishops
working hand in hand to establish Christian morals and laws.
The election of the Roman Pontiff was this time confirmed,
not by the emperor, but by the exarch of Ravenna, his lieu­
tenant.
7. The new pope at once used his authority to settle some
few questions which alone marred the harmony of the Western
Church. The Church of Istria had not yet rid itself of the
schism which had for seventy years kept its bishops at variance
on the question of the Three Chapters. The wise counsels and
prudent firmness of the Pontiff at length succeeded in extin­
guishing forever the last sparks of the dissension. But to accom­
plish this end the Pope was forced to depose Fortunatus, bishop
of Gradi, one of the two metropolitan sees of Istria. This prel­
ate had shown a special obstinacy in upholding the error. The
case of Fortunatus was entangled in a political question.
Venice, the city raised upon the bosom of the waters by a few
poor fishermen flying before the victorious Attila, had been

HONORIUS (A. D. β2β-β38).

215

daily growing in size and power. Under the protection of the
Roman emperors it had become a republic, and exercised a
kind of suzerainty over the neighboring provinces. Istria was
subject to it. Fortunatus took the leadership of a faction
which sought to throw off the Venetian yoke and put itself
under the Lombard power. The Apostolic See, standing amid
the Christian powers as supreme moderator and guardian of
all religious rights, could not by its silence countenance so
great a wrong. True to the principles which ever guide the
Roman Pontiffs, Honorius lent a favorable ear to the complaints
of the republic against the guilty prelate, and at length deposed
him (a. d. 628). The Pope also used his authority in behalf
of the Lombard king Adaloald, who had just been dethroned
by an Arian faction. “We have heard,” he writes to the ex­
arch Isaac, “ that the bishops of the province beyond the Po
have forgotten their plighted loyalty to their king Adaloald, to
join the tyrant Arioald. This is a crime hateful to both God
and men. We therefore beg that, as soon as you have restored
Adaloald to the throne of his fathers, you will send those
bishops to Rome, that we may treat their case in due form of
law” (a. d. 627). A misunderstanding between the bishop of
Cagliari and his clergy was laid before the Sovereign Pontiff,
who summarily checked the disorder among the rebellious
clerics. The same Pontiff also succeeded in bringing the
Scotch and Irish clergy to the general observance of the
Church in the celebration of Easter.
8. The piety and zeal of Pope Honorius, the happy issue
of all his past transactions, gave fair promise of a glorius pon­
tificate. But its hitherto unbroken flow of prosperity was
doomed to interruption by the accursed spirit of division and
heresy, which seemed to be an heirloom among the Patriarchs
of Constantinople. The name of Heraclius, so dear to Chris­
tian hearts, was to be associated with errors destined to shake
the Catholic world. The chief author of all these evils was
Sergius, Patriarch of Constantinople. This New Rome, as
she loved to style herself, seems to have been commissioned

216

0EVFRAL HtSTORV OP THE CHOPCh.

by the powers of hell to broe£ h<’resioc, as ancient Rumt hr»»
been empowered by Hoavrw to crush them all. Tt was Buse
bins of Constantino,,io who planted there the great Arian
heresy. Macedonius, Bishop of Constantinople, gave entrance to
the heresy of the Pneumatomachists ; it was Nestorius, Bishop
of Constantinople, who divided Jesus Christ into two persons ;
it was to Eutyches, Archimandrite of Constantinople, that the
Monophysite heresy owed its spread. And now Sergius like­
wise seeks to make a surreptitious entrance for the Eutychian
error, by insinuating that Jesus Christ has not two wills as He
has two natures, whence his error received its name of Monothelitism (μονος Οελος, single will). But the Catholic Church
admits two wills in Jesus Christ, the divine and human, never
opposed, but still ever distinct. The question had not yet
been dogmatically defined ; still the controversy raised by the
Eutychians on the two natures, naturally called attention to the
operations of the will in Jesus Christ. Sergius openly pro­
fessed the heresy. He maintained that none of the holy
Fathers had ever taught that there were two operations in
Jesus Christ, and that the person of Christ, subsisting in two
natures, the divine and the human, acted by a single will. To
back his assertion, he forged a letter to Pope Vigilius, signed
by the Patriarch Mennas, and expressing the Monothelite
teaching. This supposititious letter was sent to the bishops
of the principal Eastern sees. Heraclius, who was still absent
on his Persian expedition, declared himself the protector of
the new doctrine, and, in the eagerness of proselytism, he did
not disdain to dispute with the bishops he met on his marches.
9. St. Sophronius of Alexandria, of whom we have had
occasion to speak, and whose reputation was now at its merid­
ian. bad just been raised to the Patriarchal See of Jerusalem.
He saw at a glance the bearing of the false teaching which bore
the joint seal of imperial and patriarchal sanction from Con•tantinople. He placed at the Church’s service an untiring
teal and energy. The two Sees of Alexandria and Antioch
had been secured by the intrigues of Sergius respectively to

HONORIUS (A. D. β26-β33).

217

two Monothelite bishops, Cyrus and Athanasius, who owed
their promotion only to their support of the new error. So­
phronius threw himself at the feet of Cyrus, and entreated him
most pathetically to forsake the heresy, and not to grieve the
Church by the public scandal of a bishop, a judge of the faith,
betraying its holy cause. His prayers were of no ava'd.
Cyrus published a Monothelite profession of faith which he
read to the clergy and people in the great Alexandrian basilica,
and then sent to the emperor Heraclius, who gave it his appro­
val. In nowise disheartened by this first failure, Sophronius
went to Constantinople to see Sergius. In his letter to the
Eastern bishops the heretic had said : “ We know not that any
of the Fathers have hitherto taught two operations in Christ.
If any one more learned than ourself can show us that such
was their belief, we are open to conviction.” Sophronius had
trusted to the seeming good faith put forth in this letter. He
accordingly laid before Sergius a number of select passages
from the works of the Fathers plainly agreeing with the Catho­
lic teaching. Sergius met these clear and open proofs only by
an unyielding obstinacy; and Sophronius, on his return to
Jerusalem, sent one of his suffragans to Rome tc lay the whole
matter before the Sovereign Pontiff.
10.. Sergius had unfortunately taken the lead of the holy
bishop, and had sent to Honorius a long and guileful letter,
acquainting the Sovereign Pontiff that the emperor Heraclius,
anxious to end the Eutychian heresy, had found the Eastern
mind vainly agitated by the idle question whether there were
two operations, two wills in Jesus Christ. “ The emperor,” he
added, “asked my opinion, and inquired if I knew that any
of the fathers had taught the doctrine of a single will. I au
swered affirmatively, and sent him a letter written by Mennas,
Patriarch of Constantinople, to your predecessor Vigilius. It
contains several passages from the fathers which speak only of
one will in Jesus Christ. Yet the monk Sophronius, lately
raised to the See of Jerusalem, continually imbitters the dan­
gerous dispute. He maintains that we must admit two opera-

218

GENERAL HI8T0RV OF THE CHURCH.

tiens in Christ. In vain is he reminded that, to win a greater
number of souls to God, our fathers used consideration and con­
cession, without, however, yielding any thing of strict precept ;
and that here, in like manner, it was not fitting to dispute
about a question which in nowise hurts the true faith. In
spite of our efforts the two parties are warm in the strife. We
have written to the emperor to urge upon him the importance
of crushing a dispute which may again plunge the East into the
depths of heresy, and we deemed it fit to acquaint you with
the state of the question by sending the documents that bear
upon it.”
11. The letter of Sergius brought to Rome the first tidings
of a question which had disturbed Constantinople during the
past eleven years. The West, more deeply attached to the
true faith, could not arouse itself to an impassioned dispute on
dangerous or barren questions. Honorius, utterly unsuspicious
of the heretic’s crafty designs, approved the desire, so insidi­
ously set forth in the letter, of stifling in its birth this seed of
divisions and trouble. He wrote to the Patriarch as follows ■
“ We have received your letter acquainting us with the dis­
cussions lately raised in the East. We commend your zeal in
rejecting all novelties of expression, according to the advice of
the apostle. Let us leave grammarians to discuss idle ques­
tions, and disdain a war of words which would bring trouble
upon the Church.” Such was the Pontiff’s view. He hoped
to see the new heresy die out before taking deep root, and he
had the misfortune to treat as an idle quarrel a controversy
to which time would add bitterness, which was to sow univer­
sal dissensions, and rank among the most dangerous heresies
ever brought forth in the East.
12. St. Sophronius, living on the very spot, and therefore
better able to judge of the true state of public feeling, did not
Share the pope’s pious delusion. He called a council at Jerusa­
lem. The catholic belief on the two operations or wills in Jesus
Christ was clearly set forth ; a synodal letter, signed by all, was
addressed to the bishops of the principal sees in the Christian

HONORIUS (A. D. β2β-«30).

219

world. “ Christ,” said the Fathers, “ remains inseparably one and
the same in both natures. But He acta in each according to its
natural quality and properties.” Honorius looked upon this let­
ter as an attempt to revive a debate which he deemed it better
to give over to lasting silence. He wrote to this effect to all the
Catholic bishops. “ Let us beware,” he says, “not to darken the
teaching of the Church by the clouds of our discussions. We
acknowledge that the two natures in Jesus Christ act and operate
each with the other’s participation ; the divine nature operates
what is of God, the human what is of man, without division,
without confusion, without a change of the divine nature into
man, or of the human nature into God, but the differences of na­
ture remaining wholly distinct. Let it suffice to admit this truth
without discussing the question whether we should express this
mode of action by the terms of one or of two operations in Jesus
Christ.” This passage of the Pontiff’s letter shows that, save
the mention of two operations, which he thought it better to
suppress for the sake of the “weak brethren,” Honorius believed
and taught the same truth as did St. Sophronius in Jerusalem.
He believed Sergius of Constantinople to be of the same mind ;
and in his eyes there was question only of checking an aimless
war of words, while he thought that all agreed upon the matter.
13. St. Sophronius at last decided on sending to Rome
Stephen, bishop of Dora, his chief suffragan, to warn the Sov­
ereign Pontiff of the state of the question, and of the dangers
which threatened the faith in the East. But Stephen reached
Rome only to learn that Honorius was no more. Sophronius
himself had gone to the grave some months before the Pope
(a. d. 638). The holy Patriarch had lived to weep over the
capture of the holy city by the Mahometans, and to see the
standard of their false prophet planted on the spot where Jesus
Christ had died for the world’s redemption. Abubekér’s suc­
cessor, the caliph Omar, after successively taking all the cities
of Syria and the Phoenician coast, had laid siege to Jerusalem.
The emperor Heraclius, less successful against the Mussul­
mans than against the Persians, gave up the holy city to it*

220

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

wretched fate. He had but time to convey the wood of the
true cross to Constantinople. Omar entered Jerusalem less
like an angered conqueror than as a pious pilgrim. He showed
the deepest veneration to the places hallowed hy the Saviour’s
passion, and visited them in a haircloth made of camels’ hair.
He would also visit the grot of Bethlehem, where he prostrated
himself upon the ground in prayer. He inflicted no persecu­
tion upon the Christians. He gave them a general safe-con­
duct in these words : “ In the name of Omar, son of Hittab,
safeguard is granted to the Christians of the city of Ælia (so
Jerusalem was called since the reign of Adrian), as well for
themselves as for their wives, children and property. The
churches shall neither be closed nor destroyed.” This mild
and measured bearing settled the fate of the conquest, and
was doubtless the working of skilful policy rather than the
outpouring of genuine tender-heartedness. However this may
be, the Mussulman power was now, to the shame of Christian
nations, implanted in the very cradle of Christianity ; and all
the centuries that have since rolled by have not sufficed to free
the holy city from the hated yoke (a. d. 635).
14. These sad events happily awaked no echo in the West.
Spain stood true to the Church. The fourth and fifth councils
of Toledo (a. d. 633-636) had fixed the crown upon the head
of Suenand, son of Chintilla, both zealous champions of the true
faith. The councils at the same time published excellent rules
of ecclesiastical discipline. The Gauls found themselves happy
under the rule of an illustrious bishop, St. Eligius, who governed
the kingdom as minister to King Dagobert. St. Ouen resigned
his office of high chancellor at the palace to enter the religious
state, and shortly after founded the monastery of Rebais, in
Brie, while his two brothers, St. Ado and St. Rado, built the
monastery of Jouarre on the Marne, and that of Reuil {Rado·
Hum, named after St. Rado). in G.'eat Britain, King Oswald
edified his subjects by his genuine piety ; while Birinus came
with the commission of Pope Honorius to announce the tidings
of salvation to the fierce and warlike inhabitants of Wessex.

BEVER1NU8 (λ. D MO).

221

The apostle fixed his see at Dorchester. Amid these gkrumt
surroundings did Pope Honorius close his pontificate, too happy
had it not been marred by the unfortunate Monothelite question
in the East (October 12, a. d. 638).
§ III. Pontificate

of

Severinus (May 28, a. d. 640—August
2, 640).

15. An interregnum of eighteen months followed the death
of Honorius. In this interval, Sergius prevailed upon the
emperor Heraclius to sign a pretended edict of pacification
between the Monothelites and the Catholics. This famous
edict, called the Ecthesis or Exposition of the Faith, pretended
to define the Catholic doctrine. The parts were changed, the
emperor became Pontiff, and wished to make his bulls binding
upon the consciences of his subjects. “ We ascribe,” he said,
“ all operations, divine and human, to the Incarnate Word ;
and by no means countenance the teaching of one or two opera­
tions. In accordance with the definition of the ecumenical
councils, we maintain that it is one and the same Jesus Christ
who acts both in the human and in the divine operations, and that
both acts proceed from the same Word Incarnate, without
division or confusion.” The Ecthesis was, in fact, a law of
silence in favor of the Monothelites, who could spread their
false teachings with impunity under its shelter. Sergius ad­
vised the emperor to ratify the election of the new Roman
Pontiff only on condition of his agreeing to sign the Ecthesis.
A council of the leading Asiatic bishops, assembled at Constan­
tinople, approved the decree as a rule of faith, and the Patri­
arch’s intrigues were crowned with success. He died in the
course of the same year (639), and left the See of Constantino­
ple to Pyrrhus, who at once professed his adherence to the
Eo thesis.
16. An interregnum of prospectively indefinite length left
Rome in the hands of contending factions. The imperial offi­
cers plundered the Lateran palace. This devastation was the

222

GENERAL HISTORY OP THE CHURCH

work of Mauritius, the cartulary or librarian, who incited the
Roman troops to seize upon the pontifical treasury. The Cath­
olics opposed (heir entrance into the palace ; Mauritius alone
entered, sealed the wardrobe and treasury, and sent for the
patrician Isaac, exarch of Ravenna. The exarch took posses­
sion of the wealth contained in the palace, and sent a portion
of it to Constantinople. He had just received the Ecthesis,
with an order to have it signed by the newly elected Pope.
Severinus, a Roman citizen, son of Avienus, had just been
raised to the pontifical throne ; but the court of Constantinople
refused to confirm his election until he should have signed the
Ecthesis. The deputies sent to solicit the imperial confirma­
tion met the emperor’s propositions with admirable firmness.
“ The Church of Rome,” said they, “ has received the preroga­
tive of settling questions of faith ; she cannot, then, receive her
belief from any other.” It was during this negotiation that
Mauritius and Isaac had plundered the Lateran palace to force
the Pontiff elect to sign the Ecthesis. Their endeavors failed
before the firmness of Severinus, and the emperor at length
gave bis consent to the nomination without urging an inadmis­
sible condition, and Severinus was consecrated on the 28th of
May, a. d. 640. His first care was to convoke a council at
Rome, which condemned the Monothelites and the partisane
of the Ecthesis. Time did not allow the Pontiff to carry out
this system of fearless resistance ; he died on the 2d of Au
gust in the same year (640). His short pontificate had suf
ficed to win a universal love and esteem for his virtue, his pru­
dence, gentle disposition, and charity for the poo’·

§ IV. Pontificate

of

John IV. (December 24, a. d. 640—Octo­
ber 22, 642).

17. John IV. was elected to succeed Severinus in the
Chair of St. Peter (December 24, a. d. 640). Monothelitism
was still uppermost in all minds. The new Pontiff, following
the example of his predecessor, called a council, in which the

JOHN IV. (A. D. M0-84Î).

‘223

Ecthesis was again solemnly rejected. John IV. made known
this condemnation to Pyrrhus, Bishop of Constantinople, by a
Letter in which he energetically inveighed against the obstinacy
of the imperial court in upholding the cause of heresy. When
the pontifical rescript reached Byzantium, age and infirmities
were slowly but steadily dragging down Heraclius to the grave.
Alarmed at the proportions reached by a controversy in which
he had rashly taken part, and freed from the wiles of Sergius,
who had drawn him into the strife, he resolved to withdraw the
Ecthesis. He accordingly wrote to the Pope as follows :
“ The Ecthesis is not mine. I neither dictated nor command­
ed it ; but the Patriarch Sergius, having drawn it up five years
ago, during my absence in the East, begged me, on my return
to Constantinople, to have it published throughout the empire
with my signature, and I yielded to his wish ; but seeing now
to what troubles the edict has given rise in the world, I pub­
licly declare that I am not its author.” This was the emperor's
last public act. The repentance, though late, could deaden the
stings of conscience, but it could not repair the evil done by
the Ecthesis. While the emperor, one of the last who upheld
with honor the glory of the Roman arms, was sinking into the
tomb, the Mussulmans under Amru, Omar’s lieutenant, took
possession of the rich Egyptian provinces. The followers of
the false prophet sacrificed to their fanaticism the Alexandrian
libraries, those vast treasuries of human learning. The caliph
Omar ordered that all the books should be burned. They were
used for six months to warm the public baths of the city.
*
“ If they contain only the doctrine of the Koran,” said the
fierce caliph, “ the Koran is enough for us ; if they are opposed
to it, they must burn.” Science still weeps the irretrievable
loss. The original copy of the Septuagint, thus far religiously
preserved in the library of the Ptolemies, sha'od this undiscriminating, unsparing doom.
18. The death of Heraclius (a. d. 639) left the empue a
• According to some historians, these baths were four thousand in nunrow

224

GENERAL HISTORY OF TUB CHURCH.

prey to all the miseries of civil war. His will divided the
powei between his two sons, Constantine III. and Heracleonas.
Neither of the two ever reigned. Constantine III. was poi.
soned ; Heracleonas was deposed and banished. These crimes
and proscriptions ended in the rule of a child ; Constans IL,
son of Constantine III., was hailed emperor in the twelfth year
of his age. During the ephemeral reign of Constantine III.,
John IV. had been able towrite to him concerning the Ecthesis
The letter shows how his predecessor Honorius, misled by the
crafty words of Sergius, could urge both parties to silence,
without a shade of heretical sympathy, and ends by entreating
the emperor to suppress an edict which Heraclius had himself
retracted. Constantine III. died before being able to comply
with the Pontiff’s wish. The troubles arising out of these rev­
olutions obliged Pyrrhus to quit the episcopal see of Constan­
tinople. He laid his pallium upon the altar of St. Sophia, and
turned away with the words : “ I abandon a froward flock, but
not the priestly character ” The priest Paul, who was elected
to succeed him .a1 lowed him in his attachment to the Monothemes. Constantinople seemed to be marked as the see for he­
retical bishops. John IV. was stricken down by death, Octobei
12, a. D. 642. During his reign, St. Eligius, first a goldsmith,
and afterward minister of King Dagobert, forsook the honors
of the court to embrace the monastic life, and was soon after
raised to the bishopric of Noyon. Gaul was at the same period
glorified by the virtues of St. Amandus, St. Ouen, St. Dado, and
St. Arnulphus, an ancestor of Charlemagne, and the stem from
which sprang the second race of Frankish kings. Under the
influence of these saintly personages, French legislation received
a character of humanity and gentleness until then foreign to it.
The Salic law, drawn up by the pious ministers of King Dago­
bert, was a marvel of wisdom, and a sign of wonderful prog­
ress for so barbarous an age. The Franks had, however, re­
tained from their old manner of life the habit of constant
appeal to the sword. Continual murders and robberies called
for a severe check. Punishments were fixed for every fault

THEODORE I. (Λ. D. Μ2-β49).

226

and the Salic law was, in some sort, the criminal code of 'he
first period of the monarchy. By regulating the right of sue
cession of fiefs, and by fixing the great principle of the inability
of women to inherit them, it secured to authority a power and
a vitality which has carried it through successive ages with
ever-growing splendor, until the time at which all power seemed
crushed at once under the blows of triumphant philosophy and
incredulity.
§ V. Pontificate

of

Theodore I. (November 24, a. d. 642—May
13, 649;.

19. The Popes, on ascending the pontifical throne, seemed
successively to inherit the same zeal for the extinction of her­
esy. The independent firmness of the Apostolic See in matters
of faith was never more clearly shown than in the question of
M nothelitism. Their election was always subject to the con­
firmation of the Eastern emperors ; and yet, with all this power
to rule the pontifical decisions, the emperors could not bring
a Pope to subscribe an heretical doctrine which they had taken
under their patronage. Severinus, though regularly elected,
was able to take his seat only after a delay of several months
The imperial court even used violence to make him sign a fais»,
profession of faith. Severinus overcame all these endeavors
He patiently awaited the time when Divine Providence woulc
remove all obstacles ; and when the appointed hour came, he
inaugurated his pontificate by the solemn condemnation of the
Ecthesis. John IV. renewed the anathema. Theodore 1,
immediately upon his accession to the pontifical throne, on which
his two predecessors had made so short an appearance, wrote
to Constantinople to urge the revocation of the Ecthesis, and to
brand the Monothelite teaching.
20. A new champion had appeared on behalf of the faith,
within the very walls of Constantinople: it was *he holy abbot
Maximus. The lofty conceptions and master f logic of the
theologian he made attractive by the resistless eloquence of
vol Π.—16

226

GENERAL HI8TORV OF THE CHURCH.

the finished orator. Seeing the ravages of heresy in his native
land, he opposed it with untiring courage and energy. No one
had as yet taken up the spiritual weapons which had fallen
from the dying grasp of St. Sophronius : Maximus now under­
took, in his turn, to wield them.
He wrote forcible and
solid treatises against Monothelitism. He makes an historical
review of the heresy, and defends Pope Honorius, who en­
joined silence concerning this dangerous question, without ever
becoming a party to the heresy. Pyrrhus, the exiled Patriarch
of Constantinople, met Maximus in Africa, and opened a public
conference with him (a. d. 645), where the Monothelite question
was solemnly discussed. “ In what,” asked Pyrrhus, “ have
we hurt the integrity of the Catholic faith ?” “ By making
open profession," answered Maximus, “ in the Ecthesis, of be­
lief in one will acting in Jesus Christ. Now can there be
anything more impious than to say : It is by one and the same
will that the Word created the world out of nothing, and per­
formed, since His Incarnation, the various functions of human
life, such as eating, drinking, sleeping—all purely natural, and
proving the reality of His flesh?” “Is Christ one, or not?”
asked Pyrrhus.” “ He is certainly one.” “ If, then, He be
one, He willed as a single person, and hence could have but
one single will.” St. Maximus replied : “ In putting forward
a proposition, we should first clearly define its meaning. If
Christ be one, is He only God or only man ? Is He not both God
and man at once ?” “ Certainly,” said Pyrrhus, “ He is God
and man.” “ Then,” continued Maximus, “ He willed, at once,
as God and as man. Therefore He willed in two ways, or in
other words, He had the two wills, divine and human, for
neither of the two natures joined in His person could be with­
out its own proper will ; and if Christ willed and acted con­
formably to His two natures, it is plain that He must have two
wills·, this implies no division contrary to the principle of
unity of perso'i, since the two wills subsisted each and respec­
tively distinct in the same person, Jesus Christ.
“ But it is
imoossibleretried Pyrrhus, “ that there should not be as

THEODORE î. (A. D. M2-M9).

22T

many persons willing, as there are wills.” “ That is an error
of which you made Heraclius guilty, in his Ecthe-n," eaid
Maximus. “ There are three Persons in the Holy Trinity, and
yet but one will. Upon your principle we must say with Sabellius : there is in God bu
* one will, therefore there is in God
but one Person.” “ Since the will,” persisted Pyrrhus, “ be­
longs to the nature, and since the holy Fathers declare that
the saints have no will but that of God, it follows that they
are also of the same nature as God.” “ I have already ob­
served,” replied Maximus, “that in seeking the truth we must
distinguish the meanings of words in order to avoid mistakes.
When the fathers say that the saints have the same will as
God, do they mean the substantial and all-powerful will of
God, or only the object of His will? Had they meant the
substantial will, they would have attributed to the saints the
same nature as to God, which is inadmissible ; but they spoke
only of the object of the will, which they improperly style th«
will, as the name of the effect is often given to the cause.’*
“ Let us lay aside these subtle questions,” insinuated Pyrrhus,
“ which the simple do not understand, and confine ourselves to
the profession that Christ is true God and true man. without
going into further details.” “ If we do,” returned Maximus,
“ we must then condemn the councils and the Fathers who
require us to acknowledge not only the natures, but their re­
spective properties, such as being visible and invisible, mortal
and immortal, created and increated. They also teach ns that
there are two wills, and that they are different—the one being
divine, the other human.” “Then,” persisted Pyrrhus, “let
us hold exactly to what the councils have said, without speak­
ing of one or of two wills.” “ The councils,” answered St.
Maximus, “condemned Apollinaris for holding that there was
but one will in Christ, whence it followed, in his theory, that
the flesh was in Christ, consubstantial with the divinity.
They condemned Arius, who also taught the doctrine of one
will. How, then, can we call ourselves Catholics, unless we
hold to a belief contrary to the teachings of heretics ?” “ Why

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GENERAL HI8T0KV OF THE CHURCH.

(hen did Vigilius approve the letter of Mennas, Patriarch of
Constantinople?" “You well know,” replied Maximus, “ that
the heretical paper presented to the emperor during a session
of the council of state, was never approved by any Pope ; that
is a fable due to Sergius.” “I grant the case of Vigilius,”
said Pyrrhus; “but you cannot deny that Honorius, in a let­
ter to my predecessor, openly taught the doctrine of a single
will in Jesus Christ.” “ To whom should we rather refer the
explanation of the letter?” continued Maximus: “to the Pon­
tiffs who succeeded Honorius, and whose holy teaching enlight­
ens all the West, or to those who say what they please in Con
stantinople?” “It would be more reasonable to rely upon the
Roman Pontiffs.” “ Well, they all assert that it was the wellknown and received design of Honorius to bury in silence a
heresy of which he feared the results ; and that he had never
intended to give judgment in favor of the Monothelites. Pope
John IV. wrote as follows to the emperor Constantine of happy
memory : When Honorius spoke of a single will in Jesus Christ,
he meant that in the person of the Incarnate Word, the
humanity had not the two contrary wills of the flesh and the
spirit, as we have them since the fall. But he did not mean
that the divinity "had not, in Jesus Christ, its own proper will,
as well as the humanity.” “ My predecessor,” concluded Pyr­
rhus, “ misunderstood tl e Pontiff’s words. But I ask pardon
for him and for myself. Ignorance was the cause of our error.
I am ready to recall my errors, and I shall prove my sincerity
at the tomb of the Holy Apostles, at the feet of the Sovereign
Pontiff.”
21. While the close logical reasoning of Maximus was
opening a way of light to the mind of Pyrrhus, Divine grace
had been slowly and surely working upon his heart. The
exiled Patriarch acknowledged the truth, and begged St. Max­
imus to accompany him to Rome. The saint consented. Af­
ter paying his homage at the tomb of the Apostles, Pyrrhus,
in presence of the clergy and faithful, laid before Pope Theo­
dore an orthodox profession of faith. Great was the rejoicing

THEODORE 1. (A. D. (Stt-Mt).

229

in Rome at this change of heart in the Patriarch of Con­
stantinople. He had not heen juridically deposed ; and the
Pontiff cherished the hope of being able to restore him to a
see of which he was lawful pastor, and in which he could be
of so much service to the Church. The change was unhap­
pily not sincere. A journey to Ravenna, where he met the
exarch who governed Pentapolis
*
for the emperor, changed
the current of his thoughts, and he again professed Monothelitism. Theodore I., on learning his relapse, called a council
at Rome and took measures for his solemn deposition. The
sentence is said to have been written by the Sovereign Pontiff
himself, with a pen dipped in a chalice containing the precious
blood of Jesus Christ. Some writers say that the same rite
was used by the eighth general Council of Constantinople,
when Leo pronounced sentence against Photius, and again in
the treaty of peace between Charles the Bald, king of France,
and Bernard, count of Toulouse. In the same council, Theo­
dore I. also condemned Paul, the intruded successor of Pyr­
rhus, who, besides his irregular election, had also deserved
the Church’s ban by his obstinate attachment to the Monothe·
lite heresy (a. d. 648).
22. Sericus and Martin, the Pope’s legates at Constanti­
nople, had vainly urged him to sign a Catholic profession ; but
his obstinacy was unconquerable, and he had openly professed
the error in a letter to the Sovereign Pontiff. In his eager­
ness to spread his false doctrine, he led the youthful emperor
Constans to publish a new edict on behalf of Monothelitism.
The Ecthesis had not yet been taken down from the doors of
St. Sophia, where it remained posted as a law of the empire.
The disasters it had caused, and the repentance of Heraclius,
its author, did not hinder the young prince from the evilfraught measure. He, too, had inherited the passion for med­
dling with Church matters and shaping them after his own
fancy. Paul accordingly penned the new edict, to which the
• Thia name designated the territory bordering on the Adriatic from Kunini to Ancona,
•nd extending inland to the ridges of the Apennines.

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GENERAL HISTORY OF THE ΟΠΠΡιΨ

emperor affixed his name. It appeared under the name of
Type or formulary of faith. After a brief review of the ques­
tion and the arguments brought forward by both parties, the
emperor added : “We forbid all our subjects henceforth to dis­
cuss the question of the two wills in Jesus Christ. We wish
that all abide by the teaching of Holy Writ, of the five ecu­
menical councils and the writings of the Fathers, whose belief
is the standard of the Church. In fine, to insure peace and
harmony between the factions, we have ordered the Ecthesis
to be torn down from the doors of St. Sophia. Whosoever
dares to oppose the order incurs our imperial indignation. If
he be bishop or cleric, he shall be deposed ; if a monk, excom­
municated and driven from his abode ; if he hold any dignity,
he shall be stripped of his honors and functions ; the wealthy
shall forfeit their possessions, and others be visited with bodily
punishment or exile.”
23. The execution of these threats was not long delayed
The altar in the palace of Placidia, on which the legates were
in the habit of offering up the Holy Sacrifice, was overthrown.
Those who remained true to the Catholic faith were persecuted,
imprisoned, or banished. Meanwhile a number of bishops in
the provinces of Syria and Palestine, of Egypt and Africa,
raised their voices in several councils, against the violent meas­
ures of the imperial court. Thinking minds had been moved
by the example of St. Sophronius, lately renewed in St. Max­
imus. These African bishops wrote an earnest letter to Paul,
to turn him away from the heresy ; and at the same time sent
to Pope Theodore a faithful account of their conduct. “ If
Paul,” they wrote to the Pope, “ continues to dissemble, it be­
longs to your Apostolic See to cut him off, by its authority,
from the body of the Church.” Theodore did not falter in his
difficult mission, and Paul was deposed. But the emperors of
Constantinople deemed it a mark of skilful policy to oppose
the decisions of the Holy See. In spite of the anathema
hurled against him, Paul was kept in possession of the Byzan­
tine Church.

THEODORE I. (A. D. M3-440).

231

24 The Monotbelite difficulty had taken up the whole of
Theodore’s pontificate. The rest of the Catholic world was not
disturbed by the madness of the new sectaries. Gaul was blest,
under the influence of its bishops, with a steady enjoyment of
a legislation more in accordance with Gospel principles. Eccle­
siastical law began to branch off from the civil. The councils,
backed by the sovereigns, established the rights and privileges
of clerics. The Council of Châlons (a. d. 644) frees them from
the obligation of lodging royal officers, and allows bishops alone
to exercise jurisdiction over ecclesiastical property and persons,
which right had hitherto been claimed by temporal lords within
their fiefs. Spain followed the example of Gaul. The seventh
Council of Toledo (a. d. 646) made every effort to counteract
the disorders caused by monks unworthy of their holy voca»
tion. who wandered about the towns and country places, in
contempt of all rule. Bishops are enjoined to see that these
vagabonds be returned to their monasteries and placed under the
common rule. This council also published a liturgical canon in
these words : “Should the officiating priest be seized by illness
during the Holy Sacrifice, another bishop or priest shall take
his place, but the sacrifice shall not, in any case, remain un­
completed.” While the bishops thus watched over the deposit
of faith in the already Christian countries, missionaries carried
its light into the midst of heathen nations. Saints Bertin,
Mummolin and Ebertran were converting the inhabitants of the
Low Countries, and founded St. Berlin's abbey, which after·
ward became celebrated. Great Britain still gave examples
of holiness and virtue to the adcdration of the world. Thus
the West, ever true to the faith, .-emained in ignorance of the
troubles which were shattering the East. In spite of the
Pope’s opposition, Constans stubbornly upheld, as a law of the
empire, the dangerous decree which silenced the faithful, con­
founded truth with error, and condemned the faith to mute
captivity.
25. Theodore I. was preparing to take more vigorous meatores, when he was surprised by death (May 13, a. d. 649).

232

GENERAL HWTORV OP ΪΠΕ CHURCH.

He was the first Pope officially styled Sovereign Pontiff, and
the last whom the bishops called brother. The pre-eminence
of the first See and the extension of the pontifical authority
wore becoming more necessary in proportion as the Church
spread farther her conquests. Moreover, Europe was begin­
ning to form itself into various states : these circumstances
called for a centre of unity imposing enough to counterbalance
national divisions. Besides, the title added nothing to the real
authority which Theodore’s predecessors had wielded as widely
and as energetically as himself

βτ

MARTIN I. (A. D. β4<Μ66).

233

CHAPTER VII.
g L Pontificate OF St. Martin I. (July 5, a. d. 64ft—September 16, 866).

1. Claims of the Eastern emperor concerning Pontifical Elections.—2. Com>
cil of Rome. Statement of the Monothehte question by the Pope.—3. Dis­
cussion of the dogmatic question. Condemnation of Monothelitism.—4. St.
Martin’s letter to Constans, acquainting him with the sentence against Mo­
nothelitism.—5. The Pope bestows upon John, bishop of Philadelphia, th·
title of Vicar Apostolic in the East Letter of St Martin L to the principal
Churches of Palestine and Syria.—6. Monothelite profession of Paul, bishop
of Thessalonica.—7. Attempt to assassinate St Martin, by Olympius, exarch
of Ravenna, acting in the name of th? emperor Constans.—8. The Pope is
carried off from Rome by Theodore Calliopes, exarch of Ravenna.—9. Pain­
ful exile of St Martin.—10. Examination of St. Martin at Constantinople.—
11. The Pope dragged like a felon through the streets of Constantinople,
Death of the Patriarchs Paul and Pyrrhus. St. Martin banished to the
Tauric Chersonese.—12. Eugenius governs the Church of Rome during St,
Martin’s exile.—13. Death of St Martin I.
§ II. Pontificate of Eüoenius L (September 16, a. d. 655—June 1, 858).
14. Eugenius refuses the Synodal Letters of Peter, new Patriarch of Constanti­
nople.—15. St Maximus and the two Anastasiuses persecuted by the em­
peror Constans.—16. Death of Pope Eugenius. The Churches of Spain
during his pontificate.—17. Growth of Monastic institutions in Gaol—
18. Advance of Christianity in Noricum, Vindelici», Bavaria, Germany, and
Belgium.—19. Religions condition of England.

§ III. Pontificate of Vitali an (Julv 30. a. d. 658—January 27, 673).
90. Death of Constans II. He is succeeded by Constantine Pogonatus. Effort»
of the latter to crush the Monothelite heresy.—21. Conference at Streanwahalch (England) regarding the Paschal celebration.—22. Vitalian's letter.
Oswiu, king of Northumbria. St. Theodore consecrated by the Pop·
archbishop of Canterbury.—23. Death of Vitalian.

234

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

§ I. Pontificate op St. Martin I. (July 6, a. d. 649—September
16, 655).
I. On the 5th of July, a. d. 649, St. Martin I. was raised to
the pontifical throne. His name is surrounded by the halo of
martyrdom. In all ages, at every period, when brute force is
made to serve the purposes of the political or religious passions
of a power, the victim is ever surrounded by an aureola of
greatness and majesty, which raises his lowliness and sets him
far above the oppressor. St. Martin had been legate of the
Holy See at Constantinople. The emperor’s consent was not
awaited at the time of his consecration, and the tyrant after­
ward charged him with having taken the pontifical authority
irregularly and without his approval—as though the usurpation
of the civil power over religious authority could ever, in any
length of time, constitute a prescriptive right. The tendency
of the Church, ever since the first claims of this nature, had
always been to protest against the abuse of power, and like
endeavors, made by the monarchs of the Middle Ages, met with
the same resistance.
2 The Pontiff’s first official act was to convoke a council at
the Lateran palace, in the church of the Saviour : one hundred
and five bishops answered the call. Among them was Stephen
of Dora, chief suffragan of Jerusalem and apastolic vicar of the
Pope in that part of the East. The remaining bishops were from
Italy, Sicily, Sardinia and Corsica. St. Martin I. opened the
sessions with an account of the motives which had led him to
call the council. As the statement sums up the whole question
of Monothelitism from the outset, we give it in substance : “ You
know,” said the Pope, “the errors brought forward by Cyrus,
Bishop of Alexandria, Sergius of Constantinople, and his suc­
cessors, Pyrrhus and Paul. Eighteen years ago, Pyrrhus pub­
lished from the ambo
*
the nine articles, in which he asserts
• The ambo, as we hare explained before, was a kind of pulpit placed between tn·
sanctuary and the body of the church occupied by the faithful Here the deacons read
the passages from the Gospels or the Old Tostainout, on which tiro bishop thou made hil
bomily.

ST. MARTIN I. (A. D. Μ9-β&6).

23b

that in Jesus Christ there is but one operation of both divinity
and humanity together, as taught by the heretical Acephali,
with an anathema against any one who held a different belief.
Sergius, Patriarch of Constantinople, in a letter to Cyrus, ap­
proved the doctrine of a single operation in Christ ; and more­
over, he drew up, a few years later, an heretical profession of
faith, which he engaged Heraclius to adopt and to publish as
an imperial decree. He maintained, with the impious Apolli­
naris, that there is but one will in Jesus Christ, as a result of
the union of the two natures, divine and human. This edict
was styled the Ecthesis. Sergius caused it to be posted up on
the doors of his church, and deceived the good faith of some of
his bishops into signing it. His successor, Pyrrhus, deceived
many more, and drew them into the snare of heresy. Moved
by repentance, he afterward laid before the Holy See a paper
signed by his own hand, in which he condemns what he and
hie predecessors have written or spoken against the faith ; but,
to use the words of the sacred text, he has again gone back to his
vomit, and has paid the penalty of his sin by a canonical depo­
sition. Paul, ambitious to outrun his predecessors, was not
satisfied with writing to our Holy See, approving the Ecthesis,
but has even undertaken to defend its errors. Hence he was
most justly deposed by the Apostolic authority. He likewise
followed Sergius in deceiving the good faith of the prince, and
persuaded him to publish the Type, which destroys the Catholic
belief, by forbidding the admission of one single will, or of two
wills, in Jesus Christ, as though Jesus Christ were without will
or act.”
The Popo here mentions the violence of Paul, the altar over­
thrown in the palace of Placidia, the persecuted legates, and
then adds : “ The world is witness of what he and his prede­
cessors have done against the Catholics, whose complaints have
reached the Holy See from all quarters, both by letter and by
word of mouth. Our predecessors have continued, without in­
termission, to write to these bishops of Constantinople, striving
to move them by prayers, and reproaches, and warnings through

236

GENERAL HISTORV OF ΤΠΕ OHURUH.

the legates; but all in vain. Therefore nave I called you
get her, that we may jointly, in the presence of God, Who sees
and judges us, examine into the conduct and errors of these
men, having before our eyes the precept of the Apostle, to
have a care of ourselves and of the flock over which the Holy
Ghost has made us bishops, and to guard against the impious
teachings which seek to creep in among us, since we must
answer before God for our stewardship.”
3. At the close of the Pontiff’s discourse, the original docu­
ments were read, which might throw some light upon the
question, especially the Ecthesis of Heraclius. The discussion
was then opened ; the Pope presided with remarkable dignity.
He most clearly proved that the term iheandric act, used by
St. Dionysius the Areopagite, and quoted as a triumphant
argument by the heretics, had been turned by Cyrus from its
true meaning. “ The term iheandric," said the Pope, “ neces­
sarily supposes two wills, and St. Dionysius used it only to
mark the union of the two operations, like that of the two
natures, in a single person." The council held five sessions.
The closing one was mostly devoted to reading the passages
from the Fathers which bear upon the question; St. Martin
then compared the errors of the first heretics with those of the
Monothelites, showing the analogy between them. When the
dogma had been made sufficiently clear, the council set forth
its judgment in twenty canons. It proclaimed the distinction
of the two natures and tueir hypostatic union ; either nature
keeps its properties, so that the Incarnate Word had two wills
and two operations : one divine, the other human. It accord­
ingly condemns all who acknowledge but one will and one
operation in Jesus Christ, and it then anathematizes those who
seek to forbid the assertion of one or of two wills in Christ.
This was an indirect blow at the Type of Constans. Then
summing up in a general condemnation the names of all pre­
ceding heresiarchs, Sabellius, Arius, and others, it adds those
of the Monothelites, Theodore of Pharan, Cyrus of Alexandria,
f rgius of Constantinople, and his successors, Paul and Pyr-

BT. MARTIN I. (A. D. 849-βίί).

237

Thus. An express prohibition was also published against obe­
dience to the impious prescriptions of the Ecthesie and Type,
and in general against receiving the new expositions of faith
composed by the heretics. The Sovereign Pontiff signed as
follows : “ I, Martin, by the grace of God Bishop of the Holy
Catholic and Apostolic Church of the city of Pvome, have signed,
as judge, this definition which confirms the orthodox faith, and
likewise the condemnation of Theodore, formerly bishop of
Pharan, of Cyrus of Alexandria, of Sergius of Constantinople,
and of Pyrrhus and Paul, his successors, all anathematized to­
gether with their heretical writings : the impious Ecthesis and
Type published by them.” The hundred and five bishops of
the council gave a like approbation. John, bishop of Milan,
and some others who had been unable to attend the council,
sent in their signatures (a. d. 649).
4. The acts of the council were at once translated into
Greek, and sent at the same time to the Eastern and Western
Churches. The Pontiff1s chief care was to find an entrance
at the court of Constantinople for so direct a condemnation of
the heresy professed and publicly upheld by the imperial edict.
The legates to be intrusted with such a mission could not be
chosen at random. St. Martin I. asked Clovis II., king of the
Franks of Neustria and of Burgundy, for some bishops of his
states to go to Constantinople. The Franks, not being subject
to the Greeks, would be less liable than Italians to yield to the
violence or the wiles of the Byzantine court. The Pope had
been nuncio in the East; he knew better than any other the
state of men and of things there, and he knew, therefore, how
much his deputies would need a character of perfect indepen­
dence. St. Ëligius and St. Ouen both sought the honor of
serving the Church in a mission fraught with peril; but motives
of polie y forbade their departure. The moral weakness of the
monarchs of the first race, disgraced in history by the epithet
of idle kings, called more imperatively for the presence of bish
ops who displayed at the same time, as did St. Eligius and St
Ouen, the qualities of great statesmen. The necessity of g'ving

238

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

up a design so glorious for the French Church, determined the
Sovereign Pontiff simply and openly to send the acts of the
council to the emperor, with a respectful letter, but free from
all Byzantine adulation.
5. With a view to maintaining the Churches of Syria, Pales­
tine and Egypt in the true faith, the Pope thought it necessary
to bestow the dignity and authority or apostolic vicar for the
East upon John, bishop of Philadelphia (the ancient *
Kabbah
Ammon, capital of the Ammonites). The vicar was charged
to keep the Catholic Churches supplied with orthodox bishops,
priests and deacons; to receive all heretics who might wish to
embrace the truth, first requiring of them a written profes­
sion of faith ; the penitents might be reinstated in their former
orders provided there were no canonical hindrance : “For we
are,” said he, “the defenders, the guardians, and not the adul­
terators of the canons.” Several other letters, both from the
Pope in person and from the council in general, were sent to
the principal Eastern Churches. Those to Jerusalem and An­
tioch were full of exhortation and advice ; they show to what a
wretched state Mahometan conquest had brought Palestine
and Syria. Besides the natural evils of invasion, the Mussul­
mans abetted heresy and schism ; the churches, bereft of their
pastors, were given over to the Monothelites. The Nestoriaus
began to reappear in Syria, the >?'itychians in Egypt. The Mus­
sulmans feared the Catholics true to the Roman communion,
because of their fidelity to the imperial authority. It was the
hope of curing these evils, and of repairing so many disorders,
that led St. Martin to clothe the bishop of Philadelphia witv
the dignity of apostolic legate in the East.
6. At the same time Paul, bishop of Thessalonica, sent u,
the Pope synodal letters containing his profession of faith. St.
Martin found them tainted with Monothelitism. The deputies
asserted that whatever was reprehensible in the profession
should be ascribed to want of thought ; that Paul was at heart
a true Catholic, and that he would prove himself ready to cor­
rect whatever his letters might contain in opposition to the

ST. MARTIN I. (A. D. Μ9-Λ55).

239

orthodox teaching. As there was no reason to suspect treach­
ery, the Pope was satisfied with these representations, and hfeared, besides, the effects of a useless scandal ; he accordingly
contented himself with directing his legates to require fr<>ni
Paul the necessary recantation. But the false bishop deceived
the legates and gave them another imperfect profession of
faith. St. Martin now felt the necessity of acting vigorously.
The legates who had been guilty of receiving a questionable
profession of faith were subjected to canonical penance, and
Paul was deposed from the episcopal dignity.
7. The attachment displayed by the holy Pontiff for the
Catholic faith was paralleled by the obstinacy with which the
emperor of Constantinople pursued his perverse course. The
struggle now dropped its character of dogmatical discussion to
put on the fearful shape of persecution. Constans was powerless
to hinder the mighty and fearless voice that went forth from
the Roman See to defend the true faith, from reaching the
remotest parts of the earth. He thought that in murdering the
Pontiff, he should by the same blow crush the teaching, and to
this end he directed all the workings of his policy. His cham­
berlain, Olympius, was sent as exarch to Italy, with precise
orders to assassinate the Roman Pontiff. Worthy minister of
the imperial rage, Olympius prepared every thing that could
promise success to the plot. The day and hour were set.
An officer was to seize the occasion of the Pope’s stooping to
give communion to the people, to strike the fatal blow. But
when the appointed hour came, whether the appearance of the
Sovereign Pontiff, or the horror of the crime he was about to
commit in the midst of so tremendous a solemnity, made too
deep an impression on the officer’s mind, or whether, according
to some historians, Divine Providence threw the irgit of He protec­
tion over the Sovereign Pontiff, the murderer dared not attempt
the life of the august victim. He came back to the exarch,
declaring that be could never find courage to attack a holy
Pontiil whom God protected. Olympius, acknowledging the
interposition of Providence, proceeded no farther in his crim·

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•nal design ; he threw himself at the Pope’s feet, confessed
the whole transaction, begged forgiveness, which was readily
granted, then passed into Sicily with his army, to attack the
Saracens, who had already gained a footing there.
8. The emperor Constans was not disarmed by the failure
of his first attempt. He wished this time to make his revenge
sure. To this end he determined to have the Sovereign Pon
tiff forcibly carried off. This duty he intrusted to Theodore
Calliopas, whom he made exarch of Italy after the destitution
of Olympius. The pretexts by which Constans sought to give
color to his violence were grounded on various grievances
which he ascribed to St. Martin. He charged the holy Pope
with heresy, and reproached him with not honoring the Blessed
Virgin as Mother of God. This charge of Nestorianism was
constantly thrown up to the Catholics by the Monothelites and
Eutychians. In fine, he accused St. Martin of treachery, and
pretended that he had furnished means to the Saracens. This
last charge was founded on an act of generous liberality of the
Pope, who, on hearing of the ravages committed by the Sara­
cens in Sicily, had sent sums of money to ransom the prison­
ers held by them. The malice of the Pope’s enemies had so
distorted this simple act of Christian charity, that it was
currently reported in Constantinople that the Pope had sent
subsidies to the Saracens to enable them to carry on their dis­
astrous war against the empire. On learning the designs of
his enemies against him, St. Martin withdrew, with his clergy,
into the basilica of St. John Lateran. He had already enclosed
himself there, when the exarch, Theodore Calliopas, and his
chamberlain, Theodore Peliurus, reached Rome. The Pope
was ill and could not go out to meet them, as was customary ;
but he sent several of the most distinguished among his
clergy. The exarch at first made use of cunning, fearing lest
the Pope should meditate a defence ; but on finding his mis­
take by a search both of the Lateran church and palace, he
made his appearance at the head of a body of troops. The
Pope lay ill at the door of the basilica The soldiers entered.

8T. MARTIN I (A. D. 649-flS6..

241

under arms, without the least respect for the majesty of the
holy place. Calliopas showed the priests and deacons hie
written order from the ernperor to depose St. Martin and
remove him to Constantinople. The clergy with one voice
declared that the belief of Martin was the only true one. Cal­
liopas feigned great reluctance in the fulfilment of his mission ;
declared that he himself held no other creed; but that the em­
perors strict order obliged him to act thus. The Pope made no
resistance, in spite of the prayers and counsels of most of his
clergy. “ I would rather,” he said, “ die ten times than cause
the death of a single person.” The only favor he asked was
that he might be allowed to choose some members of his clergy
to accompany him. The request was ostensibly granted, but
Calliopas contrived to avoid its fulfilment. On the following
night the Pope was secretly embarked on the Tiber, and the
gates of the city were shut after him, lest some of his clergy
should endeavor to follow him.
9. The guards who were in charge of the holy Pontiff
stopped at the island of Naxos, where the Pope remained
for the space of a year. He suffered severely during the
whole journey, and never left the ship which was his prison.
Until his arrival at Naxos no relief had been afforded him ;
but here the bishops and faithful of the island received him
with the greatest reverence, loaded him with gifts, and did all
in their power to soothe his sufferings. But their care was
rendered fruitless by the cruelty of his guards. The soldiers
robbed him of all that had been furnished him by the charity
of the faithful, and overwhelmed him with insults and outrages ;
they often even ill-treated those who dared to visit the august
prisoner. “ Whoever loves this man,” they said, “ is an enemy
of the state.” The Pope at length left Naxos and reached
Constantinople. From four o’clock in the morning until the
same hour in the evening he was left on the quay, stretched
upon a coarse pallet, and exposed to the insults of a rude and
furious rabble. He was thence transferred to a prison where
he passed three months. From his solitary dungeon he wrote
Vol. II —16

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GENERAL HISTORT OF THE CHURCH

two letters to the exarch, to clear himself of the charges
brought against him. One of his letters describes the suffer­
ings and the cruelty he had undergone, and closes with these
words of mildness toward his executioners : “ But my hope
is in God, who sees all things. When He has taken me from
this life, He will vouchsafe to remember those who have per­
secuted me, and bring them to repentance.” After three
months of the strictest confinement, the Pope was carried to
the treasurer’s apartment, for illness left him no strength to
walk. Constans had ordered the senate to meet, in order to
examine the holy Pontiff; the persecutors wished to keep up
some outward appearance of regularity in a case where the
most sacred rights had been outrageously trampled under foot
The treasurer ordered the Pope to stand ; this was the refine­
ment of cruelty. St. Martin could not obey by reason of his
weakness; he was accordingly supported by two soldiers, and
in this state underwent a most brutal examination.
10. And now appeared the holy Pontiff’s gentle patience.
The treasurer first questioned the heroic martyr : “ Answer
me, wretch! ” said he, “ what harm has the emperor done
you ? Did he confiscate your property ? Did he inflict vio­
lence upon you?” St. Martin was silent. Deeds spoke too
plainly of themselves. The angry treasurer then continued :
“ Do you not answer ? Your accusers will soon appear.” The
accusers were twenty in number, mostly soldiers, or the dregs
of the people. On seeing this characteristic array the Pope
asked with a smile : “ Are these the witnesses ? Is this your
trial ?” Then seeing that they were required to swear upon
the Gospels, the Pope, turning to the magistrates, exclaimed :
“ I beseech you, for the love of God, do not put them to the
oath. Let them say what they will. And you, do what is
enjoined you. Why thus perjure their souls ?” The first false
witness, pointing to the Pope, cried out : “ Had he fifty heads
he would deserve to lose them for conspiring in the West, with
the late exarch Olympius, against the emperor.” To this
direct charge the Pontiff replied that he had never betrayed

BT. MARTIN i. (A. D. M9-4M).

243

the emperor’s interest in political matters, but that he could
not obey him when the faith was jeoparded. “Talk not of
faith,” said the calumniator, “ we are treating of a civil offence.
We are all Christians and orthodox ; the Romans and our­
selves.” “Would to God it were so,” exclaimed the Pope
“Yet on the last dread diy, I shall bear witness against you
concerning this faith.” “ Why then,” he was asked, “ did you
not oppose Olympius when you saw him betray the emperor,
his master?" “How,” replied the Pope, “could I resist
Olympius, who commanded all the forces in Italy ? Did I
make him exarch ? But I entreat you, in God’s name, to ac­
complish as soon as possible the work enjoined you. God
knows what a rich reward you are preparing for me.”
11. As soon as the report of this examination had been
laid before the emperor, the treasurer came back and dared to
lay his sacrilegious hands upon the Lord’s anointed. He but
obeyed the order of Constans, who looked on from a spot in
which he could see without being seen. A soldier, by order
of the treasurer, tore away the Pontiff’s mantle, and then
stripped him of his other insignia of authority. The holy
Pope, reduced almost to a state of nudity, was loaded with
chains and dragged through the streets of the city. Under
ill these outrages, the martyr’s great soul was as calm as if he
had stood in the midst of his pious faithful. He ever showed
his executioners a mild and unruffled countenance, and never
ceased to pray for them. On reaching the praetorium, ne was
thrown into the prison reserved for thieves and murderers :
here he passed nearly a whole day without food. The Patri­
arch Paul had fallen ill during these unnatural events ; the
emperor visited and thought to please him by telling him how
the Pope had been treated. Paul, heaving a deep sigh, turned
toward the wall, with the exclamation : “ Alas ! this will set
the seal upon my condemnation !" He died eight days after.
Pyrrhus, whose relapse had won him back the emperor’s favor,
came to sit upon the episcopal throne of a city in which the
Pope was pining in a dungeon. Death bereft him of the en-

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GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

joyment of his apostasy, after the short interval of fiv<
months. The emperor dared not consummate his crime by
laying murderous hands upon a victim so august; the Pontiff
was accordingly banished to the Tauric Chersonese. Before
his departure, the faithful of Constantinople obtained permission
to take their leave of him. When they looked upon the Pon­
tiff loaded with chains, wasted by a long and severe illness,
they could not restrain their tears. St. Martin, who alone pos­
sessed fit's soul in peace, said to the weeping throng : “ These
sufferings are my greatest happiness. Why do you pity me,
instead of sharing my joy ?” The Pope reached his place of
exile in the month of May, a. d. 655. His sufferings, which
seemed to have reached their climax, were even yet increased
“ Hunger and want,” he wrote to his clergy, “ have reached
such a pitch in this country, that bread is but spoken of, nevei
seen.” He might reasonably have expected that the Roman
Church, whose alms he had always so generously dispensed,
would not overlook the exiled Pontiff’s distress. But the cruel
precautions taken by Constans debarred the holy martyr from
all relief. The Pope complains of his abandonment and mis­
ery in a tone of such true charity that we deem his words
worthy of being quoted. “We are,” he says, “not only cut
off from the rest of the world, but in some sort buried alive
in the midst of an almost wholly heathen people, destitute of
the least trace of humanity, bereft of even the natural pity
that dwells in a barbarian’s heart. We receive but a scanty
pittance from without, and I have been enabled to obtain only
a measure of wheat at the cost of four golden ases. That 1
receive no relief is as strange as it is true ; but I bless the
Lord, who sends us sufferings according to His good pleasure.
I beseech Him, through the intercession of St. Peter, to keep
you firm in the true faith, especially the pastor who now governs
you. As for this wretched body, the Lord will have a care
of it. He is nigh. Why am I troubled ? For I trust in His
mercy, which will soon bring my course to an end.”
12. The pastor of whom St. Martin spoke was Eugenios,

ST. MARTIN J (A P. β49-βΓ.&)

245

who afterward succeeded him under the title of Eugenius I
Fearful of falling into the hands of a Monothelite Pepe, the
faithful at Rome had chosen him to govern during St. Martin a
captivity. The words we quoted above from a letter of the
august exile would seem to imply that Engenius I. was already
Sovereign Pontiff1, which cculd not be without the consent and
voluntary resignation of the lawful Pontiff. Some historians,
however, and Baronius among others, think that while SL
Martin lived, Eugenius was but vicar of the Holy See, and that
he became Sovereign Pontiff only on the death of St. Martin.
Whatever may be the result of this historical discussion so long
agitated, and in which the Church’s enemies have claimed to
find an argument against the ever-present authority which must
preside over her destinies, it is certain, as we have just seen,
that St Martin did not protest against the authority exercised
by Eugenius, whether it was delegated or titulary. It is evi­
dent that St. Martin, instead of calling Eugenius the pastor of
the Roman Church, would have styled him a usurper, had he
not been lawfully clothed with the spiritual power. It is, there­
fore, unquestionable that the authority of the Roman Pontiff
had not ceased to be visible in the Church ; that the light set
upon a mountain continued, amid the most trying circumstances,
to enlighten the whole world. It is of little consequence, then,
to determine whether or not the pontificate of Eugenius began
during the life of St. Martin. This is only an historical point,
on which we have no conclusive documents. The imprison­
ment and exile of St. Martin account but too well for the dis­
appearance of the written evidence which might throw light
upon the matter.
13. The prayer of the august exile, that God would speed­
ily call him to the glory of heaven, was soon granted. He
died on the 16th of September, a. p. 655, a martyr of the
faith he had so nobly defended. In writing his history, we
have been often and forcibly reminded of great analogous mis­
fortunes which we shall have to treat in speaking of a period
much nearer to our own. In either case, material force has

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GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

been engaged with spiritual authority ; in either case, also, the
Vicar of Jesus Christ, rudely torn from the pontifical city, vio­
lently dragged into exile, has shown himself worthy to suffer
for the name of his Master; in either case the truth has been
victorious, powerful oppression overcome, downtrodden weak­
ness risen up triumphant.

§ II. Pontificate

of

Euoeniüs I. (September 16,
June 1, 658).

a. d.

655—

14. The death of St. Martin I. did not leave the pontifical
throne vacant. Eugenius I. continued to govern the Church.
His wisdom, prudence, and moderation were equal to the events
which called for their exercise. Peter, who had just succeed­
ed Pyrrhus in the See of Constantinople, and who was as much
an abettor of Monothelitism as his predecessor, hoped to in­
snare the new Pontiff’s watchfulness, and sent him the usual
synodal letter, or letter of communion. It was a tissue of
doubtful protestations concerning the two wills and operations
in Jesus Christ It might easily have misled any one who read
it without great care. The Roman clergy had learned to mis­
trust Greek faith, and they were, moreover, justly indignant
against the Patriarchs of Constantinople, the authors of St.
Martin’s sufferings. Peter’s letter was rejected. Pope Eu­
genius pronounced it suspicious and of heretical tendency. He
sent an orthodox profession of faith to Constantinople, and re­
called the legates of the Holy See in that city, who had al­
lowed themselves to be entrapped by the intrigues of the
Patriarchs.
15. The emperor still continued his system of persecution
against the defenders of the Catholic faith. St. Maximus, as
we have already seen, was well known as a zealous cham­
pion of the truth. In the very year of St. Martin’s death,
he was likewise seized and taken to Constantinople, with his
faithful disciple, Anastasius, and another Anastasius. who had
been apocrisiarius, or legate of the Roman Church. At their

EUGENlUB l. (A. b. «5&-603).

247

arrival they were separated, and thrown, almost naked, rate
isolated dungeons. But nothing could shake their attachinent to the faith. The fall of Eiigenius’s legates, held up to
them as an unanswerable argument, filled the holy confessore
with grief, but could not change their dispositions. “ In
spite of the allegations of our persecutors,” wrote the disciple
Anastasius to the monks of Cagliari, “ we do not yield our firm
belief that, according to the promise made to St. Peter, the seed
of faith will remain at least in the Roman Church.” St. Max­
imus, on the other hand, strongly urged the canonical condem­
nation of Monothelitism by the Council of Rome held by St.
Martin I. His persecutors replied that the council was not
lawful, because convoked without the emperor’s order. “ But,"
argued Maximus, “ if the council’s authority depends upon the
emperor’s orders, we must then receive the canons of Tyre,
of Antioch, of Sirmium, and so many more which the emperors,
misguided by Arian intrigues, convoked against the Catholic
faith. We must also respect the Latrocinale of Ephesus, which
displayed all the madness of the impious Dioscorus ! Where
are the canons which establish the necessity of the emperor’s
authority for the convocation of councils ?" For this glorious
confession the saint and his two companions were rewarded by
banishment. This injustice was suggested to the emperor by
the clergy of Constantinople, who held the new errors, and
feared the resistless ascendant of a venerable doctor, to whom
all the Catholics looked as to their father and guide. The
three confessors were separately conveyed to the two extremi­
ties of Thrace, to the uttermost possessions held by the Romans
on the frontiers. Here they were left without provisions to
sustain life, and almost without clothing. But isolation and
misery were not the most cruel trials they were doomed to
undergo : Theodosius, heretical bishop of Cæsarea, in Bithynia,
was directed by the emperor to use all the wiles of his eloquence
to insnare the three exiles ; but the wretched bishop’s endeavors
failed before the firmness of Maximus. The holy abbot explained
the Catholic belief with such clearness and logical force, that

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ORNERAI, HI8T0RÎ OF THE CHURCH.

Theodosius, overcome by divine grace, and moved to tears, for­
got the emperor’s cruel orders, and offered to the generous
confessor all the relief at his command ; but he had not the
generosity of soul that could sacrifice the honors of this world
for the sake of faith. He preferred to go on in the way of
error, and to rest upon the favor of an earthly monarch.
Maximus was then, by the emperor’s order, rudely forced
away, without regard for his age and weakness, to the savage
country of the Lazi, near the dangerous cantonments of the
Alani. The aged confessor had to be carried upon a wicker
barrow; but he reached the end of his journey, overcome by illusage and fatigue, only to give up to God his glorious soul, at
the age of eighty-two years (August 13, a. d. 662). His
disciple, Anastasins, had died a month before. Anastasins, the
apocrisiarius, held out through four years of cruel torture, de­
voting every moment of his exile to upholding the truth for
which he deemed himself happy to be offered as a victim. He
wrote works in its defence ; and as the persecutors had cut off
his hand, he still contrived to write by attaching to the ex­
tremity of his mutilated arm two little sticks which held the
pen. His tongue had also been cut out at the roots ; but God
enabled him to speak as plainly as before. The hatred and fury
of Constans outlived his victims; but divine justice awaited
him in Rome, whose pastors he had persecuted.
16. Pope Eugenius I. had died (June 2, 657), after a pon­
tificate of two years. He had, during this interval, shown a
courage and firmness worthy of the successor of the Apostles.
The death of his predecessor, banished for the faith, did not
deter him from offering a steady resistance to the emperor’s
solicitations. He might not perhaps have escaped persecution,
had not God otherwise ordained by calling him to Himself. The
struggle of the Sovereign Pontiffs against the court of Constan­
tinople, and the account of the Monothelite heresy, have neces­
sarily called away our attention, for a time, from the sight
which the West presented at the same period. Christian civil­
isation was making vast and rapid conquests under the influence

EUGENIOS I. (A. D. 855-468).

249

of the bishops and the numerous councils, which had become, so
to speak, the great assizes of nations. The religious element
which they represented exercised its controlling power over
nations still bearing the stamp of their original barbarism. The
laws, manners and government were modified by degrees. This
slow but rich growth, which was to mature in the organization
of our modern society, was fostered and encouraged by the care
of the bishops and the influence of monastic orders, whose joint
action led to a common end. The benefits conferred by reli­
gious orders, whether in agriculture, science, or government,
though denied by the historical school of the last century, have
been better appreciated by those who, in our own day, have
studied out our early history with an honesty enlightened by
a more conscientious and deeper learning. The period we have
now reached saw the faith flourishing in most of the countries
wrested from the emperors, amid the people styled barbarians
by those who, in the West, bore the empty name of Romans.
Among the Goths in Spain, the Church of Toledo, their capital
city, was made the metropolitan see of the province of Carthagena, in the year 610, and during the whole of the seventh cen­
tury was engaged in regulating its discipline in such a manner
as to serve as a model for the many churches of its dependency.
In this city were held eighteen councils, of which several were
national. The one held a. d. 633 presents a feature not else­
where recorded in the ceremonial of councils, but which must
have sprung from some ancient tradition. At early dawn, be­
fore the sun had risen, all the faithful were requested to leave
the church, and the doors were closed. The Fathers of the
council, that is, the bishops and their attendant priests, together
with some deacons whom it was thought proper to admit, took
the places pointed out for them. The bishops sat in a circle,
with the priests behind them ; the deacons stood before the
bishops. The secretaries or notaries of the council were nex»
introduced. The archdeacon then gave the signal for prayer ;
all at once prostrated themselves except the oldest bishop, who
stood and recited the prayer aloud. After the prayer, a deacon

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GENERAL HISTORY OF ΤΠΕ CHURCH.

vested in nn alb brought the book of the canons into the midst
of Ibe assembly, and the metropolitan called up the questions
for discussion, one being always settled before another was
taken up. If any one from without, whether cleric or layman,
wished to communicate with the council, it was always the
archdeacon of the metropolitan church who received the mes­
sage. No bishop was to quit the assembly before the close of
the session, nor might they leave the place of meeting until they
had signed the acts. The chief aim of King Sisenand, who
had brought about the convocation of the council, a. d. 633, was
to give firmness to his power, in which he had been substituted
to King Swinthila, who had been solemnly deposed and was
still living. It is worth noting that this council affords the first
instance of bishops taking part in temporal government ; but
we must likewise bear in mind that the Gothic monarchy was
elective, and that the bishops, as chief lords, had a voice in the
election. In the seventh Council of Toledo, held shortly
afterward, severe punishments were decreed against those whe
plotted the overthrow of the royal power. It was likewise
ordained, at the request of the prince and nobles themselves,
that no king should thenceforth ascend the throne unless he
promised to uphold the Catholic faith. In respect to public
penance, it was ordained that whosoever gave it up after once
entering upon it, should be arrested by the bishop and be made
to finish his course in a monastery. This is the first instance
we have of these forced penances. The seventh Council of
Toledo also shows us the already established custom of epis­
copal visitations. The ninth and tenth councils were held
under King Receswinde, at an interval of two years. They
published canons intended to repress incontinence among the
Gothic clergy, so long corrupted by Arianism. The power of
making wills was limited, for bishops, to the patrimonial estate
they might possess before consecration. The eleventh, held
under the same king, a. d. 656, shows that there was still in
the Church an order of widows consecrated to God. They are
ferbidden to forsake their state under pain of excommunication

EÜGEN1Ü8 I. (A. D. <55IM5S)

25)

and of being shut up in convents for the rest of their days. As
a mark of their consecration, they wore a kind of mantle, or
rather a long veil, either black or violet, like the virgins of St.
Chrysostom’s day. Spain was happy in the possession of some
bishops whose lives were shining examples of every virtue.
The most illustrious of them were St. Eugenios of Toledo, his
successor, St. Ildefonsus, and St. Fructuosus of Braganza, all
three drawn alike from monastic retreats, much against their
will, to sit upon an episcopal throne. St. Eugenios swayed an
influence equalled only by his zeal. He is well known as the
author of several learned works, both in prose and in verse, but
especially by a treatise on the Trinity, which he thought it
necessary to write against the last lingering remnants of Arian­
ism in Spain. The works of St. Ildefonsus are equally cele­
brated. Besides the Continuation of the Catalogue of Illustrious
Men, begun by St. Isidore, he has left several valuable works
of his own, among others a Treatise on the Virginity of the
Mother of God. St. Fructuosus, sprung from a royal line,
showed, even in early youth, a decided taste for the holy sweets
of solitude. As soon as he had inherited the great estate left
him by his ancestors, he outran even the most zealous pro­
moters of the monastic life, by the number of his foundations.
His institute counted seven monasteries, some of them so well
filled that the governor of the province complained of it to the
king, lest no one should be left to hold civil offices. Whole fami­
lies, fathers with their sons, daughters following their mothers,
thronged the various retreats of their respective sexes. Fruc­
tuosus sought to withdraw to the East in order to avoid the
distractions and honors of the world ; but the king kept him
back by force, and, with the clergy and people, laid upon him
the burden of the episcopate, so much dreaded by his humility.
He was raised to the see of Braganza, where he did not put
aside the practices of the monastic life.
17. The same prosperous advance characterized the march
of ecclesiastical and monastic discipline in Gaul and Germany
still subject to the Frankish rule. St. Eligius of Noyon, and

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GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

so ninny other holy bishops, his contemporaries, still kept their
onward course, and the Lord had prepared workmen able to
carry out their mission. Seconded by St. Ouen, St. Eligius
had struck a death-blow at simony, in the Council of Châlons
(a. d. 644). He expressed all· his horror for this vice to the
queen St. Bathildis, who was all-powerful in the kingdom
(a. d. 656), since the death of her husband Clovis IL, who left
none but infant children. Queen Bathildis was of royal AngloSaxon blood, and had been captured by some Norman adven
turers. She had been bought as a slave by Erchinoald, mayoi
of the palace, whose heart was won by her virtue ; he offered
her his hand, but she escaped the offer by flight. Her natural
disposition invited her to a life of solitude, but Providence
pointed to a throne : Clovis II. made her his queen. Even in
the royal dignity she was rather a modest religious than a
queen. She respected bishops as her fathers, cherished the
poor as her own children, and only consoled herself in her dig­
nity by making it the instrument of her inexhaustible charity.
During her term of regency, she earnestly strove to root out
every trace of simony, and to put an end to the cruel exactions
which often obliged fathers to sell their children. Bathildis also
founded the two equally renowned monasteries of Chelles and
Corbie, and when her son, Clotaire HL, had reached his ma­
jority, she withdrew to Chelles, where she ended her days in
the austerities and virtues of the cloister. Bathildis was still
in power when St.'Eligius died (a. d. 659). St. Ouen has
handed down to us, in the life of his illustrious friend, an ines­
timable epitome of the truly evangelical doctrine preached by
St. Eligius with so great success and perseverance.
The
homiliea bearing the name of St. Eligius, but not so well au­
thenticated, are still precious for the study of contemporaneous
discipline, and even show flights of oratory which sound elo­
quence will never disclaim. Great praise is also bestowed
upon several models of the goldsmith’s art practised in the
beginning of his career by St. Eligius ;* among other works
* A uostly monument of goldsmith’s work in the seventh century is still shown in the

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253

ire the shrines of 8t. Germanus of Paris, of St. Severinus and
of 8t. Quentin in Vermandois; but especial praise is due to those
of St. Denis, apostle of the nation, and of St Martin of Tours.
Religious retreats went on increasing under the protection of
St. Bathildis. Vaning, one of the most illustrious lords of
the court, founded, on his estate of Caux, the monastery of
Fécamp, which was at first designed for nuns. On the death
of Erchinoald, Ebroin, the very type of the savage nature
blended with the craft and deceit of a more advanced civilization,
succeeded by means of intrigues in obtaining the dignity of
mayor of the palace. His name has come down to us as that
of the most odious villain of his day. Yet he even gave some­
thing to the devotion of the period. He established and
greatly advanced, by the care of St. Drausin, bishop of Bois­
sons, the abbey of Our Lady, in that city. The same period
witnessed the foundation of the famous abbey of Lobbes, on
the Sambre ; one at Haumont, by a nobleman named Malde·
gar, who entered it himself as a monk ; another at Mons,
which gave rise to the city of the same name, founded by Valdetrude, wife of Maldegar ; another at Maubeuge, by her sis­
ter St. Aldegonda, and finally that of Hautvillers in Cham­
pagne. The great favor in which the religious life was now
held won it many privileges. Lerins, Agaunum, Luxeuil, St.
Denis, St. Germanus of Paris, St. Martin of Tours, St. Medard of Soissons, Corbie, and a number of others shared in the
immunities readily granted by the Sovereign Pontiffs, kings,
bishops, and lords. The mere record of these exemptions
forms the chief part of the work known as the Formulas of
Marculphus. The privilege of St. Denis, given in full by this
learned and contemporaneous monk, perfectly agrees with the
original, long kept in the archives of the abbey, written upon
Egyptian papyrus.
*
The letters, the orthography, the style,
every thing proves at once the authenticity of the document
royal throne said to have lieon made by St Eligius for Dagobert L This wiiueuof anaeot
royalty among the Franke is kept in the Siutewn of
al the Louvre.
* Mabil., -DipL, 1. L, tit 5, n. 7.

2M

GENERAL· HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

aod the rudeness of the age. Clotaire II. here announces that
Landry, bishop of Paris, deems it well to grant this privilege
to the abbey, that the monks may more quietly give them­
selves up to prayer. He accordingly forbids all bishops or
other persons of authority to take possession of any lands or
serfs belonging to the monastery, even under the name of an
exchange, without the community’s consent and the royal
leave. It is also forbidden to remove chalices, crosses, altar
ornaments, books, or other furniture, with proviso that the Di­
vine Office shall be sung day and night in the monastery, as it
was established in the time of King Dagobert, and as it is
practised in the monastery of St. Mauritius at Agaunum. This
grant is signed by the king, by his referendary or chancellor,
and by twenty-four bishops assembled in council for the pur­
pose.
18. As early as the second and third centuries the Gospel
Dad been preached in Switzerland, on the banks of the Danube
and along the Rhine. Flourishing Churches had arisen in
Germany, and in the northern provinces of Gaul. But the
continued inroads of the barbarians had jeoparded the exist­
ence of these rising communities, and it became necessary to
send fresh missionaries to these people, to carry the light of
faith to nations sitting in darkness. This noble mission was
fulfilled by the Franks and Anglo-Saxons, the only two bar­
barous nations not yet blighted by heresy. Switzerland, as
we have already stated, was evangelized toward the end of
the sixth century by St. Columban, founder of Luxeuil. His
disciple, St. Gall, carried out the work, and laid the foundation
of the convent of St. Gall, afterward so fruitful of good to the
Church. Frankish missionaries were at the same time visiting
all parts of Noricum, Vindelicia, and the *
hole of Southern
Germany. The relations existing between the Bavarians and
the Frankish kings lightened the task of the apostolical work
men in that country. Toward the end of the sixth century
one of their dukes, Gumbald, father of the Lombard queer
Theodelinda, was a Catholic. Duke Theodo, his relative who

8T. VITAblAN (A. D. U8-41I).

256

ruled another Bavarian province, called to his side St. Rupert,
bishop of Worms, and charged him to preach the Gospel tc
his subjects. St. Rupert followed the Danube to the border»
of Pannonia, founded the bishopric of Saltzburg, and left the
perfection of the work to the Gallic bishop Emmeran, who is
accordingly deemed the apostle of Bavaria (a. d. 652). The
countries lying north of Gaul stood in great need of the care of
these new apostles. The once illustrious Churches of Cologne,
Mayence, Strasburg, Triers, Metz, Toul, and Verdun had suf­
fered severely from barbarian inroads. St. Amandus under­
took, in 630, to convert the pagans in Belgium. He was support­
ed by the power of Dagobert I., king of the Franks. The inhab­
itants of Tournai and Ghent yielded to his earnest appeals, and
he founded the bishopric of Maestricht (a. d. 649). St. Omer,
who was contemporary with him, labored among the heathens
settled along the coast from Boulogne to the mouth of the
Scheldt. He destroyed their idols and sacred groves, baptized
great numbers of them, and provided for the conversion of the
remainder by the establishment of monasteries.
19. England furnished hosts of saints, even upon the throne.
The last two kings, Edwin and Oswald, had been found worthy
of public veneration. Penda, king of Mercia, became its apos­
tle ; he brought from Northumbria and Hibernia experienced
teachers, who succeeded, under his protection, in converting
the greater part of the people. Oswiu, king of Northumbria,
founded the monastery of Streaneshalch, which soon displayed,
under the prudent government of its first abbess, St. Hilda, all
the order and discipline of the most celebrated institutions.
Such was the triumphant advance of the Church in the West,
while the subtleties and controversies in the East threatened
to turn it away from its primitive purity.

§ III. Pontificate of St. Vitalian (July 30, a. d. 658—Jan.
27, 672.)
20 After a vacancy of two months the Roman See was filled
by St. Vitalian, a native of Campania. The hour of retribu

2/56

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

Hon had come for the impious monarch whoso power had ac
kng been abused to persecute the faithful. Constans II. had
a brother named Theodosius, a youth of the brightest promise.
The emperor forced him to receive holy orders, and to enter a
monastery. The base and suspicious Constans still feared
Theodosius, though the young prince, in his cloistered retreat,
had laid aside all earthly ambition. Constans had him assas­
sinated in 659, one month after having received communion
from the hand of his unfortunate victim. The gnawing worm
of remorse that never sleeps in the guilty heart, turned the
nights into seasons of sleepless agony for Constans. The
bloody spectre of Theodosius haunted his dreams. In one
hand it bore a flaming brand, the other held a chalice filled
with blood ; the spectre held it to the murderer’s lips, exclaim­
ing: “Drink, Cain!" The atrocity of the crime had roused
the public indignation of Constantinople against the fratricide
emperor, who was forced to fly in haste to escape impending
death. He gave out that he intended to transfer the seat of
government from Constantinople to Rome, as he “preferred
the mother to the daughter.” He then embarked on board a
vessel which had been secretly prepared. He sent one of his
officers to bring his wife and three sons, Constantine, Tiberius,
and Heraclius. But the people had been warned in time ; they
would not allow them to leave the palace, and the emperor
went alone. As he stood upon the deck of the ship that bore
him to the shores of the Tiber, he turned to Constantinople
and spat toward it in contempt. This act of stupid folly be­
came the executioner of St. Martin, St. Maximus, and the two
Anastasiuses. Landing at Tarentum, which was still subject
to the empire, he took, plundered, and utter'y destroyed the
little towns of Luceria and Eclanum. Beneventum, held by
the Lombard duke Romuald, and electrified by the preaching
of the holy priest Barbatus, afterward its bishop, held out
against all his endeavors. The baffled emperor raised the siege
and withdrew to Naples, whence he marched straight for Rome.
He sought the extinction of the Lombard power in Italy, and

ST. VITALIAN (Λ. D. 658- 67!!).

257

the restoration of the Roman empire. But his check at Na­
ples had already begun to clear away the vapors of a powerless
ambition. He made his solemn entrance into Rome on the 5th
day of July, a. d. 663. Pope Vitalian, at the head of his clergy,
met the emperor at a distance of two leagues from the city, and
escorted him to the church of St. Peter, where the deceitful em­
peror left a costly gift, by way of hiding his real designs. On
the following Sunday, after the Holy Sacrifice, at which he had
been present, the emperor publicly embraced the Pope, as a
token of perfect reconciliation. This was but a fresh proof of
his bad faith. On the next day, before setting out for Sicily,
he ordered his soldiers to plunder all the churches in Rome :
he seized upon all the gifts he had made them, and carried off
whatever was most costly in the city. The roof of the Pan­
theon, which was protected by a metal covering, did not escape
the rapacity of the crowned robber. The sanctuary ornaments,
the sacred vessels, respected even by the Goths and Vandals,
became the booty of the grandson of Heraclius. Constans II.
then withdrew to Syracuse, where he drowned all his romantic
dreams of greatness in debauchery. Giving himself up to the
most infamous disorders, he seemed at times to remember hi·
dignity of emperor only to persecute the Roman Church. He
urged Maurus, archbishop of Ravenna, to declare himself in­
dependent of the Pope, on pretext that his city, being the res­
idence of the exarch, should depend, even in spiritual concerns,
only on the emperor. Maurus, blinded by ambition, allowed
himself to fall into the snare. St. Vitalian summoned him to
appear at Rome, and on his refusing to obey, e‘Lfommunicate(
*
him. Maurus appealed to the emperor. Con ‘.ins II., by i
decree dated Syracuse, March 1, 666, ordaii ad “ by virtu
*
of his divinity,” such are his words, “that the irchbishops of
Ravenna should be thenceforth always free from dependence o·
any ecclesiastical superior, even the Patriarch of ancient Rome.
*
Maurus held out in his schism and died without being recon
ciled with the Sovereign Pontiff. His successor, Reparatus,
hastened to return to the bosom of the Church. The liceiCvi»
Vol. Π.—17

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GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

conduct of Constans was meanwhile revolting both courtier»
and people against, him. One of his officers murdered him in a
bath (July 16, a. d. 668). He went to his grave at the age of
thirty-eight years, followed by the execrations of his subjects.
Ho was succeeded by his eldest son, Constantine IV., eurnamed
Pogonatus, or the Bearded,
*
who professed the Catholic faith.
He returned to Constantinople, and made every endeavor to
give peace to the Church. Vitalian had powerfully seconded
him in an expedition against the Armenian Mizizes, a usurper,
proclaimed emperor by the legions in Sicily. He showed his
gratitude for the service by making every effort to uproot the
Monothelite heresy, that fruitful source of so much trouble in
the East.
21. While the new emperor gave to the Church such cheer­
ing hope of peace and quiet, Great Britain also brought its offer­
ing of consolation to the Sovereign Pontiffs heart. St. Wilfrid,
born in Northumbria about the year 634, had begun his course
of studies in the monastery of Lindisfarne. Bound by ties of
closest friendship to St. Benedict Biscop, a native of Kent,
they visited together France and Italy, and spent some time
under the guidance of St. Delphin, archbishop of Lyons. On
his return to England, Wilfrid endeavored to reform the abuse
prevalent in Ireland of celebrating the festival of Easter on the
fourteenth day of the moon, on whatever day of the week it
happened to fall. King Oswiu, who then ruled Northumbria,
opened a conference on the subject, in the monastery of Streaneshalch, of which St. Hilda was then abbess. Three bishops
were present: Colman, Cedde and Agilbert. Colman had
brought with him his Irish clerics. Cedde, who had been
ordained in Ireland, upheld their cause, as did also St. Hilda
and her community. Agilbert, bishop of the West-Saxons, was
a native of Gaul, and followed the Roman custom. He had
with him St. Wilfrid, two priests, Agatho and Romanus, and
the deacon James. Oswiu, who was accompanied by his son
• He had quitted Constantinople with beardless chin, but on hia return hia beard tad
4T0wn out, and the people called him Λβ ikarded

ST. VITAMAN (A. D. β68-β7ΐ).

25»

Alcfrid, opened the conference. “ As servants of the name
God,” said the king, “heirs to the same heavenly kingdom, we
should all follow the same rule of discipline. The only ques­
tion, then, among us, should be to seek out the true tradition,
in order to follow it.” “ The custom we follow,” said Colman,
“ was handed down to us b’ air fathers We read that it was
left by St. John the Evangelist, the disciple whom Jesus loved,
to the various Churches under his care.” St. Wilfrid being
then urged by Agilbert and by the king himself to give his
view, spoke thus : “We celebrate the Paschal solemnity as we
have learned at Rome, where the Apostles St. Peter and St.
Paul dwelt, taught, underwent martyrdom and were buried.
The same usage we observed in Gaul. We know that it is com­
mon to Africa, Asia, Egypt, Greece, and all the Catholic nations
in the world. The Picts and Britons alone, who people two of
the farthest isles of the ocean, oppose the general custom. St.
John the Evangelist thought fit to solemnize the Pasch in his
day according to the Mosaic law, because the Church still fol­
lowed the Jewish rite in some points. But now that the Gos­
pel has enlightened the whole world, there is no longer any
need to bind it with Mosaic precepts. Our Lord Jesus Christ
having risen from the dead on a Sunday, St. Peter ordered that
the Paschal solemnity should be held on the Sunday following
the fourteenth day of the moon, in March. The Council of
Nice renewed St. Peter’s decree and made it binding on the
whole Church. The successors of St. John the Evangelist
have submitted to it. You quote the authority of Columban,
who observed your custom. I do not deny that he was a true
servant of God, but I believe that he would have followed the
rules and decrees of the Apostolio See in this matter, had he
been acquainted with them. However holy your fathers may
have been, is their authority of more weight than that of the
Universal Church ? Whatever the reputation of St. Columban,
is his word to be put in opposition to that of the Prince of
the Apostles, to whom our Lord said : ‘ Thou art Peter, and
upon this rock I will build My Church, and the gates of heli

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GENERAL HISTORY OF ΤΠΕ CHURCH.

shall not prevail against it; and I give unto thee the keys of
the Kingdom of Heaven?’” At these words the king, turning
to Bishop Colman, asked him : “ Is it true that Jesus Christ
thus spoke to St. Peter?” Colman answered in the affirmative,
“Can you prove,” continued the monarch, “that St. Columban
ever received like power?” “ No, my lord,” replied Colman.
“ Then you both agree,” said Oswiu, “ that Christ gave princi­
pally to St. Peter and his successors the keys of the Kingdom
of Heaven?” “Yes,” they replied, “we admit it.” “ Then I
declare to you,” resumed the king, “ that I will not oppose
this keeper of the gate of heaven, lest, when I stand at the
heavenly portal, I find no one to open it, if he who holds the
keys is unfavorable to me.” Such was the wise decision which
his simple good faith prompted the half-barbarian king of Nor­
thumbria to pronounce. The Roman custom in solemnizing
the Pasch prevailed from that time forward in Great Britain.
Had the more civilized sovereigns of modern England, of Ger­
many and of Russia imitated the prudence of Oswiu, what
countless evils would they have spared the Church ! (a. d. 664).
22. In order to bind Great Britain yet more closely to the
Holy See, Oswiu, during the following year, sent Vigard, arch­
bishop elect of Canterbury, to Vitalian, that he might receive
episcopal consecration from the Sovereign Pontiff’s own hands.
But Vigard died of the plague on reaching Rome. The Pope
wrote a remarkable letter on the subject to King Oswiu : “ To
our lord and most excellent son Oswiu, king of the Saxons,
Vitalian, bishop, servant of the servants of God. Your hign
ness’s letters have made known to us how the grace of God led
you to embrace the true faith of the Apostles, and to strive so
earnestly to win the kingdom of heaven, after a long and
glorious reign over your people. Happy people I who have
deserved so wise a king, whose glory it is to bring his subjects
to the knowledge of the true God. The priest you sent us
having died, we are occupied in seeking a learned and pious
man, a bishop adorned with every virtue, whom we may send
you as a fellow-laborer, to pluck out from the husbandman’s

ST. VITALIAN (A. D β5β-β72)

261

field the fares of the enemy. As a member of the Catholic
Church, your majesty should always and in all things follow
the rule of the Prince of the Apostles, not only for the Paschal
celebration, but for every point of ecclesiastical discipline. We
have received as a pledge of everlasting remembrance, the gifts
sent by your majesty for the Prince of the Apostles. In
return we send to the queen, your partner, our spiritual daugh­
ter, a cross containing a key made from the chains of 8ts. Peter
and Paul. May your majesty soon see the whole island dedi­
cated to the service of Christ, our Lord.” The man marked
out by Providence to fill the see of Canterbury, was St. Theo­
dore, a native of Tarsus in Cilicia, once a philosopher in Athens,
and afterward a religious. Thoroughly acquainted with sacred
and profane literature, of pure morals and venerable age (being
then sixty-eight years old), Theodore was the object of general
admiration in Rome, which he had made the home of his de­
clining years. St. Vitalian consecrated him archbishop of Can­
terbury, and sent him to take possession of his see, accom
panied by two fellow-laborers, St. Adrian, bishop of the mon­
astery of Niridan, and St. Benedict Biscop (a. d. 668). They
met with a slight delay in France, owing to an abuse of power
on the part of Ebroin, mayor of the palace, and only reached
England in the following year. Theodore’s first care was to
place St. Wilfrid in the see of York. St. Adrian was made
abbot of the monastery of St. Peter at Canterbury (670). St.
Benedict Biscop founded the two celebrated abbeys of Weremouth (674) and Yarrow (675). He brought workmen from
Gaul to build a stone church vaulted in the Roman fashion ; for
in England buildings had hitherto been made of wood and
covered with boards. Glass-making was likewise unknown,
and he had brought over some glaziers, who furnished the win­
dows of the church and other buildings of the monastery with
panes. Thus did these three saints, apostles at once of Divine
faith and human civilization, spread both among the English
people. In the year 673, St. Theodore convoked a general
council of the whole of England, at Hereford ; ten canons were

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GENERAL HISTORY OF ΤΠΕ CHURCH

drawn up, to this effect: “We will all celebrate tne Paschel
solemnity on the Sunday after the fourteenth day of the moon
in March.” “Bishops shall not encroach upon each other’s dio­
ceses.” “A council shall be held every year on the 1st of Au­
gust," “Vagabond clerics are not to be tolerated, and they
shall nowhere be received without letters of recommendation
from their bishop.” “ Foreign bishops and clerics are not al­
lowed to exercise any of their ecclesiastical functions without
leave of the diocesan.” “Monks must not pass from one dio­
cese to another without their abbot’s permission.” “Divorce
may be granted only in case of adultery, and even then a Chris­
tian is not allowed to marry again during the lifetime of the
first wife.” The usual penalties of deposition and excommuni­
cation were pronounced against all delinquents. St. Theodore
and St. Adrian then jointly founded the renowned school of
Canterbury, and gave their personal care to the youth drawn
thither in great numbers by their reputation for learning ; they
taught them the sacred writings, astronomy, Latin and Greek
poetry, philosophy, religious chant, and ecclesiastical computation. Vitalian’s wish was realized, and England had received
the “ learned and pious man, the bishop adorned with every
virtue,” whom the Pope had promised to send her ; that man
was St. Theodore.
23. The holy Pope had passed away on the 27th of January,
672. In a council held at Rome (a. d. 667), the Pontiff had rein­
stated John, bishop of Lappa, in the island of Crete or Candia,
who had been wrongfully deposed by his metropolitan, Paul.
The acts and the judgment of the council held on the subject
in Crete, were annulled at Rome. Vitalian’s erudition raises
him to a level with the most learned Pontiffs, and he was cer­
tainly second to none in the zealous propagation and fearless
defence of the true faith. It was during his pontificate that
the Lombards inaugurated the new legislation promulgated by
their king, Rotharis. They had hitherto been without written
laws. The Lombard laws, like those of nearly all other barbar­
ous nations, are little more than a tariff of compensations or

8T. VITALIAN (A. D. M8-4U).

263

penalties or various kinds of wounds, blows and offences.
They evidently belong to a people whose swords are seldom
sheathed. The 176th article is somewhat remarkable. It
decrees that a leper who has been cast out to live at a distance
from his home and city, can no longer alienate his property nor
make it over to another as a gift; for, from the day of his iso­
lation, he is deemed civilly dead, fie may be supported only
by the property he has left. Lepers must certainly have been
very common among the Lombards, since it was thought fit to
take such severe measures against them. No like injustice is
found in the code, either of the Goths, the Franks or the Eng­
lish ; nor would it exist among the Lombards, had the bishops
held the same control over their legislation as over that of the
three other nations.
Pope Vitalian’s charity was called into action by the ravages
of the Saracens * in Sicily, where they partly destroyed the
city of Syracuse (a. d. 669). In the preceding year they had
made an inroad into Africa, carrying away with them more thas
eighty thousand prisoners, who were sold or reduced to slavery.
These desolated Christian communities sent their sighs and tears
to the foot of the pontifical throne. Here they were always
sure to find help and protection. We saw how Pope St. Mar­
tin was charged with treason, simply for having disposed of the
Church’s wealth to redeem the wretched captives. Vitalian
proved himself the worthy successor of that heroic Pontiff,
martyr at once to charity and to the cause of the Catholic
faith.
• The etymology of the word Saracen, applied through the Middle Ages to all Muasulmans, ia not positively fixed. Some derive it from a particular tribe of Arabia Deserta, th·
Saracens, who formed the cnief strength of the Arab forces; others maintain that it is free
the Arab word Sharkeyn, “the Eastern people," in oppoeition to the name of Mocra, de­
nied from Maghreb (the West).

GENERAL HI8T0RV OF THE CHURCH.

264

CHAPTER VIII.
§ L Ponttfioatr

of

Adeodatob (April 11, a. d. 672—June 17, 67G).

1. Revolution in Gaul.—2. St. Léger, bishop of Autnn. Ebroin, mayor of the
palace.—3. St. Prix or Priest.—4. St. Lambert, bishop of Maestricht.—
δ. Growth of Monastic institutions in Gaul.—6. Wamba, king of the Visi­
goths in Spain.—7. Eleventh Council of Toledo. Fourth Council of Braga.
St. Jnlian of Toledo.—8. Death of Adcodatus. This Pope confirms the
right of the Venetians to elect their doges.
§ II. Pontificate

St. Domnüb I. (November 2, a. d. 676—April 11,679).

of

9. Accession of St. Domnus I.—10. Constantine IV. Pogonatus repels the
attacks of the Saracens. The Maronites.—11. Letter of Constantine Pogo­
natus to the Pope, concerning the reconciliation of the Greek and Roman
Churches. Death of St Domnus I.
§ ΠΙ. Pontificate

St. Aoatho (June 26, a. d. 679—August 17, 682).

of

12. Council of Rome to restore St. Wilfrid to the see of York.—13. Letter of
St Agatho to Constantine Pogonatus.—14. Sixth General Council, held at
Constantinople.—1δ. Death of St. Agatho.
§ IV. Pontificate

St. Leo Π. (August, 17, a.

of

d.

682—June 28, 683).

14. St Leo II. confirms the decrees of the sixth General Council.
St Leo II.

§ V. Pontificate

of

Death of

St. Benedict II. (June 26, a. d. 684—May 8, 685).

17. Election of St Benedict Π. Constantine Pogonatus gives up the claim of
the emperors to confirm pontifical elections.—18. The Spanish Churchea
receive the sixth General Council.—19. The Holy See adopta the eon of
Constantine Pogonatus. Death of St. Benedict and of the Eastern emperor,
§ VL Pontificate

of

John V. (July 25, a. d. 685—August 2, 686).

20. Election, pontificate and death of John V.
§ VIL Pontificate

of

Conon (October 21, a. d. 686—September 21, 687).

21. Peter and Theodore, antipopes. Justinian II revokes the decree giving
freedom to the pontifical elections. Election of Conon.—22. Progress of
the faith in the North.—23. Death of Conon.

ADE0DATU8 (A. b. «Κβ7·).

§ I. Pontificate

of

260

Adeodatus (April 11, a. t. 672—June
17, 676).

1. Adeodatus, a Benedictine friar of the monastery of ML
Erasmus, at Rome, was elected to succeed St. Vitalian (April
II, a. d. 672). During his pontificate, the Franks entered
upon one of those crises which modern speech calls political
revolutions. The descendants of Clovis, a race branded in his­
tory with the name of fainéants, were becoming daily more
inert and powerless. All the authority was usurped by the
mayors of the palace, whose power, equally hateful to nobles
and people, leaned upon intrigues and violence alone. Ebroin
was mayor of the palace under the nominal king of Neustria,
Clotaire III. ; in Austrasia, under Childeric II., a prince of the
same stamp, the office of power was held by Wulfoald. Clo­
taire III. died a. d. 670, being then under nineteen years of
age, when Ebroin at once gave the throne to the third son of
Clovis, Theodoric or Thierry III., while Childeric, the second,
still reigned in Austrasia. But the nobles of Neustria and
Austrasia, who had not been consulted by Ebroin, offered their
services to Childeric and put an army in the field. Theodoric
III. and Ebroin were forced to seek shelter in the churches,
and to receive the monastic tonsure {clericalem coronam), to
be enclosed respectively in the monasteries of St. Denis and
Luxeuil.
2. In a. d. 673 a new revolution restored Theodoric III. to
the throne and Ebroin to power. Childeric II. was put to
death, together with his wife and an infant son. This was the
beginning of a series of royal murders which ended only when
Ebroin himself fell, under the hand of a Frankish noble whose
life he sought (a. d. 681). These deeds, it is true, belong lu
profane history, but they are also linked with the history of
three illustrious bishops ranked by the Church among her
saints; they are St. Léger of Autun, St. Prix or Priest of
Auvergne, and St. Lambert of Maestricht. Léger or Leode-

266

GENERAL HISTORT OF THE CHURCH.

garnis belonged to the highest rank of Gallic nobility. Though
brought up in the court of Clotaire II., he felt, called at an
early age to a more perfect state, and embraced the monastic
life in the abbey of St. Maxentius. On the death of St. Ferreol, bishop of Autun, Queen Bathildis raised the youthful
Leodegariui to the vacant see (a. d. 659). The new bishop
at once devoted himself to cultivate piety, sacred learning and
ecclesiastical discipline throughout his diocese. The wisdom
and prudence displayed in his advice won him the unreserved
confidence of Childeric IL, who kept him in his court, and,
under the skint’s direction, the first years of his reign were
marked by blessings. But the majority of the nobles, with
Wulfoald, mayor of the palace, at their head, resented the influ­
ence wielded by St. Leodegarius, since it tended to repress
their thirst for violence and rapine ; they accordingly worked
together to ruin him in the king’s favor. Childeric, misled by
their false charges, and not perhaps unwilling to rid himself of
a troublesome censor, that he might plunge without stint into
all the excesses which afterward rendered him hateful to his
subjects, confined St. Léger, without even the form of a trial,
in the monastery of Luxeuil. Here the venerable bishop met
Ebroin, who had been a prisoner since the revolution in Neustria. Ebroin swore deathless fidelity to the holy bishop. The
pledge was not destined to remain long unbroken. As soon as
Theodoric III. found himself again upon the throne, the prison
doors were opened to the two captives. St. Léger at once set
out for Autun, where his return filled his faithful flock with
joy. Ebroin followed close upon the holy bishop, but as an
enemy. He came at the head of an army to lay siege to Autun,
threatening the city with utter destruction unless St. Léger
were immediately given up. Ebroin had just betrayed the cause
of Theodoric III., and wished to force St. Lager’s recognition
of the shadow of a king whom he had crowned under the name
of Clovis, a pretended son of Clotaire III. St. Léger declared
that he would rather die than violate the pledge he had given
to Theodoric. Unwilling, however, to bring a general massacre

ADF.0DATÜ3 (A. D. 670-611).

267

upon the city of Autun. he bade his faithful flock alieu, and,
after receiving the holy sacrament, went boldly forth and gave
himself up to his enemies. They plucked out his eyes, which
torture he calmly bore without allowing them to bind his hands
oi uttering a single groan. Ebroin ordered Duke Vaimer to take
St. Léger into a solitary wood and leave him there to starve,
after which his body was to be thrown into a pond, and the
report spread that he had drowned himself. Vaimer led the
august victim into a forest near the city of Troyes, where he
was left for several days without food. But moved at length by
the patient suffering of the holy bishop, Vaimer threw himself
at his feet, begged forgiveness for his savage treatment, and
obtained Ebroin’s consent that the bishop should retire into a
monastery. An interview took place a few years later between
the barbarian and his victim. St. Léger and Count Guérin, his
brother, were brought before Ebroin, whose wiles had again
secured the mayoralty of the palace under the same Theodoric
whom he had sought to dethrone. Ebroin loaded them with
reproaches. St. Léger only answered : “ You seek to stand
above all laws and men in France, but you shall soon lose the
dignity you so ill deserve.” The tyrant ordered the two
brothers to be separated. Guérin was tied to a post and
stoned. St. Léger was dragged through a pond spread with
sharp stones, which cruelly tore his feet. His face was gashed
with a sword, his lips and tongue cut off, and, after being led
half clothed through the streets of the city, he was taken to
the monastery of Fécamp, which was to be his prison. From
this retreat the holy bishop wrote to his mother, St. Sigrades.
in terms of the greatest charity and mildness. “The Lord," he
writes, “ has freed your children from the miseries of the world,
whereas you should have wept for them as dead, had you left
them behind you upon earth. Can there be a higher virtue
than by loving one’s enemies to become a child of God, and by
forgiving obtain full pardon for our own indebtedness?” St.
Léger still spent two years in the monastery of Fécamp : lu­
ring this short interval be learned the punishment of all his per
*

268

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

secutors except Ebroin. Dorio, one of his bitterest enemies,
afler holding the see of Châlons, was deposed and put to death.
Vaimer, duke of Champagne, and afterward bishop of Troyes,
falling into disgrace with Ebroin, was deposed, scourged and
hanged. Ebroin alone was left; but he had not yet sated his
vengeful malice against his innocent victim ; he seemed to
thirst for the blood of St. Léger. Having degraded him, in
opposition to all canonical rules, he ordered four executioners
to take him into a forest and drown him. He feared that the
faithful might gather up his remains as those of a martyr. His
guards lost their way in the depths of the wood, upon which
St. Léger said to them : “ My children, why weary yourselves
further? Fulfil your orders here.” Three of the executioners
threw themselves at his feet, asking his blessing and forgive­
ness for their intended crime. The fourth struck off the saint’s
head with his axe. The wretch perished miserably a short
time afterward (a. d. 678).
*
3. St. Prix, better known as St. Priest, bishop of Cler­
mont, was a native of Auvergne. He was a friend of St.
Léger and shared with him the favors of Childeric’s first years
of power. His virtue likewise drew upon him the hatred of
the ambitious courtiers who dreaded his influence. One of them,
named Agricius,at the head of an armed force, surprised him at
Valvic, where the holy bishop was praying with the abbot
Amarinus. Twenty of the soldiers went in and murdered the
holy abbot, whom they mistook for the bishop. They were
about to withdraw when St. Prix said to them : “ Here is the
one you seek.” One of the ruffians pierced him with his dag­
ger while he prayed for his persecutors. One of his attend­
ants, named Elidius, shared the martyr’s fate. The three saints
are honored as martyrs on the 25th of January.
4. St. Lambert was a native of the city of Maestricht, which
• M. Sismonde de Sismondi, a Protestant writer, does not hesitate, in his Histoire des Fran·
fou, to accuse St. Léger of plotting against the life of Childeric IL Ho pretends that the holy
bishop of Autun was convicted of regicide and met a just doom. Every contemporaneous
monument cries out against tins historical calumny. (Vide Vie de St. Liger, Wque, <f Autun, by
Data Pitra, who treats the historical question with an erudition which leaves ne room for reply

ADE0DATD8 (A. D. ·12-Μβ).

269

he was to glorify by his episcopate. His youth was devote·!
to the study of sacred letters and the practice of every virtue;
and on the death of the bishop, St. Theodard, the unanimous
voice of clergy and faithful called St. Lambert to the episco­
pal throne. The tie of a common virtue bound him to St.
Léger of Autun and St. Priest, and with them he shared the
confidence of King Childeric II. as well as the persecution of
the savage Ebroin by whom he was banished, on the death of
the king, to the monastery of Stavelo, where he lived as a sim­
ple religious, in perfect obedience to the abbot. After passing
seven years in this retreat he was restored to his see by the
duke of Austrasia, Pepin of Herstal. He won many souls to
God, less, however, by the winning power of eloquence than
by the resistless force of example. The crown of martyrdom,
bestowed upon his two friends, Sts. Léger and Priest, was
not withheld from him. He was assassinated by Dodo,
brother-in-law of Pepin of Herstal, whose disorders he fear­
lessly condemned.
5. The storm which struck down so many illustrious form»
did not stay the spread of the religious life in Gaul. The age
was drawn along by a resistless current, to thoughts of faith
and pious institutes. St. Gumbert, archbishop of Sens,
founded a monastery at Senones in Vosges; St. Deodatus,
bishop of Nevers, one at Jointures ; St. Hidulphus, bishop of
Triers, that of Moyenmoutier ; and St. Bercarius established
that of Montier-en-Der, in the diocese of Chalons (a. d. 672673.) Still the barbarian element against which religion so
energetically struggled, through all these institutions, was
aroused at times to fearful reactions. One of the victims of
this savage spirit was St. Aigulphus, abbot of Lerins, who had
incurred the hatred of some of his monks by the reforms he
brought into the abbey. The discontented monks induced
neighboring lord to plunder the monastery, and under favor
the tumult the abbot was forcibly carried off, together with
those of his religious who were most faithful to him. They
were hurried on board a ship, their tongues and eyes torn out,

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GENERAL HISTORF OF THE OHURCH.

ami were nt length murdered on a little island near Sardinia
(a. d. 675.) St. Aigulphus is commonly known by the name
of St. Ayoul.
6. Spain was equally fruitful in great saints, but more blest
by exemption from political strifes. Amid the mourning
throng that followed King Receswinde to the grave (Septem­
ber 1, a. d. 672), an aged Gothic chief drew special attention
by the sincerity of his grief. The venerable mourner was
Wamba. A sudden impulse seems to seize upon the multi­
tude, they press around the venerable chief, with one voice
they hail him king, protesting that none other shall reign over
them, and, prostrate at his feet, beg his consent to wear the
crown. Wamba resists and urges bis weight of years. One
of the dukes rose up and said : “ Either promise to be our
king, or you fall at once beneath our swords. You go hence
a king or a corpse !” Wamba reigned. Nineteen days after
he was anointed with the holy oil by Quiricius, archbishop of
Toledo. This is the first express mention we find of the
anointing of Christian kings ; but the tone in which Wamba’s
historian speaks of it, shows that it is a custom of much older
date. The new monarch proved at once his courage by over­
coming the rebellious Biscayans and Cantabrians, and his mag­
nanimity in the forgiveness with which he crowned his victory.
*Septimania had shared the revolt and met the same merciful
fate. The archbishop of Narbonne, after offering up the Holy
Sacrifice, appeared in pontifical attire before Wamba, and,
throwing himself at the monarch’s feet, begged forgiveness for
the guilty. The king was moved to tears, raised up the sur
pliant bishop, and granted pardon to the rebels.
7. On his return to Toledo, he promoted the meeting of _
council for the province of Carthagena ; this is called the
eleventh Council of Toledo (a. d. 675.) The bishops first com­
plained of the want of councils which had been interrupted fo.’
eighteen years. They then regulated several points of disci* Septimania is supposed to derive ite name from iia eeveu chief cities: Narbonne.
Agde, Beziers, Maguelonne, Carcaesono, Elna, ind Lodeva.

ADE0DATÜ3 (A. D. 813-βΊΛ).

27

pline, in sixteen distinct canons. One ordains that “ in every
province the Divine Office shall be conformable to that of the
metropolis.” The fifth forbids “that any restitution or settle­
ment be required of bishops, unless they hold personal prop
erty, or have before given it to the Church.” The application
of this canon is found in the barbarian legislation, in which
crimes were atoned for by pecuniary compensations, often re­
quired from bishops at the expense of their Churches. This
abuse the council wished to correct. We also learn from these
canons that the Spanish bishops then had power to condemn
to corporal punishments such as exile or imprisonment, and
that the custom already prevailed of giving communion to the
dying only under the species of bread. During the same year
(a. d. 675) eight bishops met in the Council of Braga. This
council forbids the offering of milk or grapes instead of wine
in the Holy Sacrifice, and giving the Sacred Host dipped in
wine ; “ which is,” said the Fathers, “ contrary to the institu­
tion of the sacrament, where our Lord distributed the bread
and wine separately.” Priests are forbidden to celebrate the
Sacred Mysteries without having the stole on both shoulders
and crossed over the breast, that they may carry before them
the sign of the cross. Both councils closed their sessions by
a vote of thanks to King Wamba, who had assembled them,
and by prayers for the happiness of his reign. The history
of this prince, who showed himself so worthy of a dignity
which his humility had at first led him to refuse, was written
by St. Julian of Toledo, who succeeded St. Quiricius in that
metropolitan see (a. d. 680). St. Julian wrote several other
works, of which only two are extant. The first is entitled The
Future, and is dedicated to his friend Idalius, bishop of Barce­
lona. “You remember,” he says to his friend, “that finding
ourselves together in Toledo, on the anniversary of our Sa­
viour’s Passion, we withdrew into a solitary place to seek the
silence becoming the august commemoration. We read the
history of the Passion, comparing the four Gospels ; but our
reading was broken off by our tears. What heavenly sweet-

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GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

•less reigned in our sonis I With what unspeakable comfort
did Divine love overflow our hearts ! Who could describe it?
We spoke then of the life to come.” The sublime converse
between two hearts detached from earthly ties, forms the
theme of St. Julian’s work. It contains three parts : the first,
on the origin of the death of men; the second, on the state of
touts before the resurrection ; the third, on the resurrection of the
dead, and the happiness of the blessed. The author closes it
with this beautiful expression: “What else can our death be,
than reaching the kingdom without end ?” Julian’s second
work is a Treatise on the Sixth Age of the World. The Jews,
who were still quite numerous in Spain, notwithstanding the
expulsions to which they had been condemned, endeavored to
prove by prophecies from the Old Testament, that the Messiah
was to come in the Sixth Age. But by their calculation, the
world was only then in the fifth millennium. Therefore Jesus
Christ was not the Messiah. St. Julian meets the argument
by abundant proofs drawn from the same prophets, establishes
the divinity of Christ, and proves that according to the cal­
culation of the seventy Interpreters, His coming really oc­
curred in the sixth millennium. He adopts their chronology,
which has been since then generally dropped. The holy bishop
thus divides the six ages of the world : the first, from Adam
to the deluge ; the second, from the deluge to Abraham ; the
third, from Abraham to David ; the fourth, from David to the
Babylonish captivity ; the fifth, from the captivity to the com­
ing of Christ; the sixth, from the coming of Cbriet to the end
of the world, v which last period,” says the antnoi, “is known
to God alone.”
8. Pope Adeodatus had died on the 17th of June, a. d.
676, after confirming the right of the Venetians to elect their
doges. This fact shows the good feeling which then existed
between Rome id Venice. The Venetians, eager to free
themselves from .he troubles of a democratical anarchy, had
wisely determined to choose a more firm and centralized gov­
ernment. They now sought to strengthen their new eonstitu-

8T. DOMNOS 1. (λ. D. ·1»-β1β).

273

Hon by a sacred sanction, which would give them a new and
clearer title to throw of the bondage of the Eastern emperors
The Pope, on the other hand, must have experienced great sat
isfacti on on seeing a free people asking the investiture which
it deemed necessary to its government This was an implied
admission that the temporal power at that time became an
emanation from the Church's authority ; and the Church, by
granting to others the use of civil dominion, showed her right,
and opened the way, to her own claim in some points on that
dominion. Adeodatus likewise ratified the privilege granted
by Crotpert, bishop of Tours, to the monastery of St. Martin,
which privilege freed the monastery from the jurisdiction of
the ordinary. Some historians ascribe to this Pope the first
use of the formula now common to the letters of the Sover­
eign Pontiffs : Salutem et apostolicam benedictionem.
§ II. Pontificate

of

St. Domnus I. (November 2, a. d. 676—
April 11, 679).

9. St. Donus, or Domnus, a citizen of Rome, was elected
to succeed Pope Adeodatus, on the 2d of November, a. d. 676.
His pontificate of two years sufficed to give the world a high
opinion of his piety and active zeal in the service of the
Church. He repaired the basilica of St. Paul, and placed a
marble pavement in the atrium before St. Peter’s church. He
received into Catholic communion the archbishop Reparatus,
successor of Maurus in the see of Ravenna. This reconcilia­
tion was the death of a schism sprung from the hatred of Con­
stans II. and the ambition of an unworthy prelate.
10. The new emperor, Constantine Pogonatus, had been
engaged, since his accession, in defending his capital against
the Saracen invader. The Mussulman fleet under Yesid, son
of the caliph Moaviah, hemmed in Constantinople from the
castle of the Seven Towers, on the Propontis, to the mouth
of the Bosphorus. The Greek *fire, lately invented by a
* Much has been eaid about the Greek fire, which held no prominent a place m military
rporationa before the invention of gunpowder. Thia fire burned under water, and wae teor
*
Vou Π.—18

274

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

Syrian named Callinicus, destroyed most of the Turkish sh pe,
together with their military engines The besiegers withdrew
to the harbor of Cyzicus, on the left bank of the Hellespont
For seven successive summers they renewed the attempt, and
always in vain. At length the caliph Moaviah sued for peace
(a. n. 678), which was granted for a terni of thirty years, on
condition of his paying to the imperial treasury a yearly trib­
ute of three thousand pounds in gold, fifty prisoners, and fifty
steeds of the best Arabic blood. The inhabitants of Constan­
tinople ascribed to the most Holy Virgin the happy issue of
their courageous resistance. In this war we have the first ap­
pearance of the Maronite Catholics, who had sheltered their
faith in the caves of Mount Libanus, from the storm of persecu­
tion raised against it by the Persians and Mussulmans. This
little nation still exists, and glories in having always held to
the true faith and union with the Roman See. The Maronites
take their name from St. Maro, a Syrian abbot, who lived in
the time of St. John Chrysostom, and whose energetic zeal
had raised, on the banks of the Orontes, between Apamea and
Emesa, a renowned monastery, numbering eight hundred reli­
gious. After the retreat of the emperor Heraclius, which left
the way open to the Persians and Mussulmans, some Chris­
tians took refuge in the mountains of Libanus, and in the
cities of Bybias and Cæsarea Philippi. Other Christians flying
before the Turkish scymitar, swelled their ranks and their
strength. By gradual accessions from Antioch, Apamea and
Emesa, their number soon amounted to forty thousand. John,
bishop of Philadelphia, appointed by St. Martin I., vicar of
the Holy See in the East, gave them as bishop, John Maro, a
religious of the monastery of the same name. He was a man
01 great learning and piety, and had already proved his zeal by
destructive than Congreve rockets. Flame naturally rises, but the Greek fire ran down
ward, and took any course given to it. The inflammable materials were enclosed in tube·
end thrown on board the enemy's ships. The secret of the Greek Are had been lost, but
was discovered in France, under Louis XVL That good but unfortunate king bought th·
secret from the inventors, forbade them to use it, and sought to bury the dangerous dis­
covery in endleu oblivion.

8T. DOMNUS I. (A. D.

°75

his writings against the followers of Nestorins and Entychee
He was consecrated bishop of Botrye, with the title of Patri­
arch, to which his successors added that of Patriarch of Antioch
for the Maronites, and they are thus styled in the pontifical
bulls. The new bishop showed as much skill in the manage­
ment jf secular business as jn ecclesiastical government, and
enkindled in the hearts of his people a fearless zeal and daunt­
less spirit which made them the scourge of the Saracens in
Syria. The Maronites made repeated inroads on the Turkish
territory, and pushed their enemies as far as Jerusalem, on one
side, and on the other, beyond Damascus, to the bounds of
Arabia the Barren. It was in large part these ceaseless at­
tacks that forced the caliph Moaviah to sue for peace from the
emperor of Constantinople.
11. Constantine Pogonatus, thus freed from external trouble,
was enabled to give his undivided attention to the Monothe­
lite question, still agitated in the East. Peter, Patriarch of
Constantinople, had died a heretic. His immediate successors,
Thomas II., John V., and Constantine (a. d. 666-676), had
shown themselves true to the Catholic faith, and were declared
orthodox by the sixth general Council of Constantinople. But
the Patriarch Theodore inherited only their throne without their
Catholic spirit; he was an avowed Monothelite. Weary of
this domestic strife, the emperor begged the Pope to send
legates to the East, and to convene a general council for the
thorough investigation and final settlement of the disputed
points. “ The two Patriarchs, Theodore of Constantinople and
Macarius of Antioch,” writes the emperor to the Sovereign
Pontiff, “ make every endeavor to have the name of Vitalian
removed from the diptychs. They are very willing to keep
the name of Honorius, but cannot agree to insert those ot his
successors until more light be thrown upon the matter in dis­
pute between the two sees.” The exception made in favor of
Honorius shows the belief of the Monothelites that that Pon­
tiff had favored their error. When Constantine’s letter reached

276

GENERAL ITISTORV OF THE CHURCH.

Rome, St. Domnus had passed from earth (April 11, « D
679). The letter was handed to nis successor.

§ III. Pontificate

St. Aoatho (June 26, a. d. 679—
August 17, 682)

of

12. dt. Agatho, a monk of the Benedictine abbey of St.
Eûmes, in Palermo, was elected Pope on the 26th of June,
a. d. 679.
The ambassadors of Constantine Pogonatus, on
reaching Rome, found a council of fifty bishops in session, to
inquire into the unjust deposition of St. Wilfrid, archbishop of
York, who had come in person to lay his case before the Apos­
tolic See. Ermentrudis, queen of Egfrid, king of the Saxons,
much offended at the high repute of St. Wilfrid at court, per­
suaded 'the king to divide the see of York into three new
bishoprics, seeking thus to lessen the power of the holy bishop
(a. d. 678). Wilfrid at once set out for Rome, to beg the
intervention of the Sovereign Pontiff, but he was thrown by
head winds upon the coast of Friesland, among an idolatrous
people. Wilfrid preached the truths of the faith to these
people, whom he had tne happiness to bring, in great part, into
the fold of Christ. But Ebroin, who seemed to look upon
every virtuous man of whatever nationality as his personal
enemy, wrote to Adalgise, king of Friesland, promising him a
bushel of gold pieces for the head of the bishop of York. The
king caused the letter to be publicly read to him at dinner,
before Wilfrid, the envoys of Ebroin and several lords ; he
then tore it to pieces, threw it into the fire, and turning to the
bearers, said to them : “ Say to your master, from me : Thus
may the Lord cm· God break the power of traitors !” In the
following year (a. d. 679) Wilfrid reached Italy, after passing
through Gaul, where he was everywhere received with the
greatest honor. Tne Council of Rome annulled all that had
been done against him, and he returned to England to present
the pontifical judgment to king Egfrid, who refused to submit
to it. Wilfrid was at first imprisoned, then banished, and it

ST. AGATHO (A. D. 679-082).

277

was only the king’s death that enabled him at length to return
to his see (a. d. 680).
13. The Pope’s attention was next called to the request of
Constantine Pogonatus ; he convoked a council of a hundred
and twenty-five bishops, and read to them the emperor’s letter
(a. d. 679). The council renewed the sentence against Monothelitism, and chose the legates who were to preside for the
Pope in the general council convoked at Constantinople. The
legates bore a letter from the Pope to Constantine : “ Do
not expect,” wrote the humble Pontiff, “ to find our envoys
gifted with brilliant eloquence, nor even with a thorough knowl­
edge of the Scripture : how could these acquirements have
been preserved amid the din of arms, by bishops forced to
earn their bread by daily toil ? The only thing they have been
able to save from the general wreck in which the patrimony of
the Church has become the prey of barbarians, is the treasure
op the faith such as our fathers left it, *without addition or
lessening.” The modesty displayed by the Sovereign Pontiff
was doubtless necessary to disarm false science, the sophistry
and vain subtleties of the Greeks, especially as they were about
to see five or six of their Patriarchs condemned. For it must
not be forgotten that at the very same time, the Sovereign Pon­
tiffs were sending to England truly learned men, who awakened
in those yet savage tribes a taste for letters, art and science.
If the holy Popes did not tell it themselves, lest the good deed
should lose its merit, it belongs to history to speak of it : it is
the duty of grateful Europe to treasure its memory. In the
same letter, St. Agatho refuted the Monothelite heresy by the
constant tradition of the Roman Church. “ The Catholic
world,” says the Pope, “ looks up to this Church as the mother
and mistress of all the others. By the grace of Almighty
God, it will never be convicted of having wandered from the
path of apostolic tradition or of yielding to the waywardness
of heretical teachings. The faith which she received from her
founders, the princes of the Apostles, she has kept unstained,
according to the promise made by our Lord to St. Peter * 1

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GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

have prayed for thee that thy faith fail not; thou being con­
verted, confirm thy brethren.’ In virtue of this Divine promise
the Apostolic Pontiffs, whose unworthy successor we are, have
ilways upheld the cause of the faith. So that when the bishop?
of Constantinople strove to bring heretical novelty into the
spotless Church of Christ, my predecessors of apostolic memory
never ceased to exhort, to warn and to entreat them to forsake
their false belief, or at least to hush questions so dangerous.’"
These closing expressions evidently relate to the letters of
Pope Honorius I., who, misjudging the import of Monothelitisn?
at the outset, had too lightly deemqd that it might be easily
extinguished by forbidding any controversy on the subject.
14. On the arrival of the priests Theodore and George, and
the deacon John, legates of the Pope and bearers of his letter,
as well as of minute personal instructions, the sixth general
council was opened at Constantinople on the 7th of November,
a. D. 680, in a hall of the palace, called in Latin Trullua, or the
Dome. Constantine Pogonatus was present in person ; on his
right were the legates ; on his left, George, Patriarch of Con­
stantinople, the successor of Theodore, who had been lately
banished, and Macarius, Patriarch of Antioch. The book of
Gospels was, as usual, placed in the middle of the hall. One of
the legates then rose and thus addressed the emperor : “ It is
now about forty-six years since the prelates of your capital,
Sergius, Pyrrhus, Paul and Peter, as well as Cyrus of Alexan­
dria, Theodore of Pharan, and several other bishops, spread
through the Eastern Church doctrines opposed to the truth,
teaching that in Jesus Christ there is but one will and one
operation. The Apostolic See condemned the error and repeat­
edly urged them to forsake it; but it vain. Hence we beg
your imperial majesty to order that these abettors of new
teachings point out their source and tell us where they learned
them.” The emperor ordered George of Constantinople and
Macarius of Antioch, the two leaders of the Monothelite party,
to explain their belief. Macarius answered: “We hold no
new belief, but one that is taught by the ecumenical councils.

8T. AOATHO (A. D. W&-SM).

279

the holy Fathers, the Sovereign Pontiff Honorius, by the
Patriarchs of Constantinople just mentioned, and by Cyril.·» of
Alexandria. Like them and with them, we believe, we teach
that in Jesus Christ there is but one single will, one only opera­
tion, and we are ready to bring forward our proofs.” The
discussion was opened on this ground, and took up eighteen
sessions of the council, which entered upon a thorough exam­
ination of all the texts of the Fathers, and other writings brought
forward by the Monothelites in defence of their heresy. The
imperial library furnished all the necessary original documents.
The notorious letter of Mennas to Pope Vigilius, so much talked
of in this controversy, was carefully examined ; it was proved
a forgery, penned by an heretical hand, and surreptitiously
added to the acts of the fifth general council. The three rolls
on which it was written were in a different hand, and wanted
the cipher and signature which marked the remaining pages of
the book. St. Agatho’s letter was then read: no sooner had the
assembled fathers heard the clear and strong definition of the
Catholic belief of the two wills of Jesus Christ, than they
cried out with one voice : “ Peter has spoken by the mouth of
Agatho ! We believe with him that there are two wills in
Jesus Christ. Anathema to whosoever upholds the contrary
opinion!” George of Alexandria, overcome by this general
profession, came back himself to the true belief, and was the
first to propose that the names of Pope Vitalian and his suc­
cessors should be restored to the sacred diptychs. Macarius
of Antioch alone stood out for the heresy. “ I would rather
die a thousand deaths,” he exclaimed, “ than acknowledge two
wills in Jesus Christ !” In spite of the entreaties of his fellow­
bishops, and of his friends who had gone over to the Catholic
side, he persisted in his error ; the council deposed him in the
same session. His disciple, the monk Stephen, sought to
defend him, but he only aroused the indignation of the bishops,
who cried out : “ The question is cleared up, drive out the
heretic !” Every text quoted by the legates had been compared
with the originals and found perfectly correct. It remained

280

ORNERAI. HISTORY OF ΤΠΕ CFIÜRCI1.

(o examine the letter of Honorius, addressed to Sergius of
Constantinople, in which the Pope treats the rising question of
Monothelitisin as an idle dispute, which would be destroyed by
mere contemptuous silence. We spoke of this in treating of
the pontificate of Honorius. The Pontiff, deceived as to the
real state of minds in the East, soon saw that the heresy
threatened to grow until strong measures should be needed to
cope with it. He had recalled his decision ; but the first letter
still existed, and furnished the Monothelites with several impru­
dent expressions which they held up as decisive in their
favor. It was accordingly put to a severe test and condemned
by the council. We must not omit to state here that Cardinal
Baronius and other learned writers look upon the acts of the
sixth general council, condemning Honorius, as apocryphal.
But the majority of conscientious critics are of a contrary
opinion. They agree in acknowledging, 1st. That, according
to the expression of Pope John IV., a contemporary of Hono­
rius, the latter Pontiff, in his letter to Sergius, did not teach
Monothelitism, but forbids its discussion as an empty war of
words. 2d. They think that he was condemned in the sixth
general council for the indifference he showed in so serious a
matter, for the carelessness with which he jeoparded the author­
ity of the Apostolic See, by rashly despising a heresy so fraught
with baneful results. It is allowed on all hands that in the
letter to Sergius, condemned in the sixth general council, Hono­
rius did not intend to define a dogma of faith ; he defined
neither the Monothelite teaching nor the Catholic belief which
is its opposite. He simply recommended what he then deemed
the most prudent course, not to disturb the peace of the Church
by sowing in its bosom the seeds of dissension through the
introduction of a new controversy.
*
His condemnation then
♦ "If the natural and grammatical sense of Honorius'a letter is blamable, its general
bearing at least has been clearly justified ; hence it does not affect the infallibility of the
Church in matters of faith. Besides, Honorius continued till the hour of his death to pro
*
fees and defend the truth, to entreat and threaten the very Monothelites whose opinions he
was afterward charged with supporting."—{Hut. dt la Papauti, par M. le Baron Henbiov.
J· edit, Pana, in-12, p. 128).

ST. AGATHO (A. D. 819-4M),

281

proves nothing against the infallibility of the Sovereign Pon­
tiff’s epeaking, ex cathedra, in matters of faith. When the
council had ceased its labors, the definition of faith was read.
The fathers spoke thus : “ By the inspiration of the Holy
Ghost, in agreement with the dogmatic letter of our Holy Father
and Sovereign Pontiff Agatho, we acknowledge in Jesus Christ
two natures with two respective wills and acts. We anathema­
tize Theodore of Pharan, Sergius, Paul, Pyrrhus, and Peter of
Constantinople, Cyrus of Alexandria, and the letter of Pope
Honorius in so far as it is favorable to them. We likewise
condemn Macarius of Antioch, and Stephen his disciple. We
have followed the teaching of the Pope, as he has followed
the traditions of the Apostles and the Fathers. If we
have worsted the enemy, the great chief of the Apostles
fought with us, for we were led by his imitator and heir, the
successor to his throne, the holy Pontiff whose learning is
the glory of Catholic truth. 0 Prince, new Constantine arisen
to meet a new Arius, ancient Rome holds out to you a profes­
sion of faith coming from God himself.. A letter from the West
has brought back the light of truth. Peter has spoken by the
voice of Agatho." This discourse was subscribed by one
hundred and sixty-five bishops ; the acts of the council were
sent to St. Agatho, “ in order,” wrote the fathers, " that his
Holiness might vouchsafe to confirm and stamp them by his
venerable rescripts.” Before leaving Constantinople, the legates
obtained from Constantine Pogonatus the remission of the three
thousand gold ases required by the emperors at every pontifical
election, and it was agreed that the tax should no longer be
paid by the Holy See. The abuse inaugurated by Athalaric
had been kept up by all the Eastern emperors. Constantine
however held to the condition that the Pontiff elect should only
be consecrated when approved by the emperor.
15. St. Agatho died (January 10th, a. d. 682) before the
return of his legates to Rome, and was succeeded (August 17th,
a. d. 682) by St. Leo II., a Neapolitan by birth.

282

GENERAL HISTORY1 OF ΤΠΕ CHURCH.

§ JV, Pontificate

of

St. Leo II. (August 17, a.d. 682—Jum
28, 683).

16. The new Pope reigned less than a year, during which
space, however, he had time to examine and confirm the act?
of the sixth general council. Constantine sent them to him
with a letter bearing the superscription : “ To the holy and
blessed Leo, Pontiff of Old *
Rome and ecumenical Pope.”
The letter of Pope Agatho,” writes the emperor, “ was unani­
mously acknowledged to agree with the Scriptures, the councils
and the teaching of the holy Fathers. We saw with the soul’s
vision, the Prince of the Apostles himself, in the person of his
successor, divinely opening out the mystery of the Incarnation
and saying to our Lord : ‘ Thou art Christ the Son of the liv­
ing God I’ Macarius and a few of his disciples alone obstinately
held out against the teaching of the Apostolic See. They asked
to be sent to your Holiness, which request we have granted,
and now leave them to your fatherly judgment.” Constantine
ends by a request that the Pontiff would send a legate to rep­
resent the Hely See at Constantinople in all ecclesiastical mat­
ters. Leo II. hastened to send the acts of the sixth general
council to the Spanish bishops, none of whom had been present
at the Council of Rome held by St. Agatho in 680, where the
instructions had been drawn up by which the legates were
to preside in the general council. Peter, a notary of the
Roman Church, was charged to present them to St. Julian,
archbishop of Toledo, with a pontifical rescript by which the
Pope directed the prelate to acquaint all the bishops and faith­
ful of Spain with the definition of the Council of Constantino­
ple ; to have it subscribed by the bishops, and to send the sig­
natures to Rome to be placed near the confession of St. Peter
The Sovereign Pontiff himself examined them most diligently,
and in the following year sent as legate to Constantinople r
• It will be remembered that, in the style of the imperial chanœrr. Constantinople waa
tailed Ntu> Rume.

HT. BENEDICT Π. (A. D. OT4-W).

283

regional y sub-deacon of the Apostolic See, named Constantine.
Tie bore to the emperor a letter dated May 16, a. d. 683. in
which the Pope thus speaks of the acts : “ On examination we
find them to agree with what the legates had reported : we
have ascertained that the sixth council exactly followed the in­
structions of the Apostolic See, and that it agrees with the defi­
nitions of the five former ecumenical councils. For this reason
we have consented to the publication of the decrees ; we ratify
them by the authority of St. Peter, and wish them to have the
binding power of laws, like those of the five preceding general
councils. We anathematize all those whom it has anathema­
tized, especially Macarius, formerly Patriarch of Antioch, with
all his accomplices. We have made every endeavor, as you
urged in your letters, to enlighten them and bring them back to
the true faith ; but they have remained fixed in their obsti­
nacy.” This was St. Leo’s last pontifical act; he died on the
28tb of June, a. d. 683. This Pope was much attached to
solemn church music; he perfected the style of Gregorian
chant and made several new arrangements in the manner of
singing sacred hymns. He also regulated the ceremony of the
kiss of peace at mass, and the sprinkling of the people with holy
water.

§ V. Pontificate

of

St. Benedict IL (June 26, a. d. 684—May
8, 685).

17. St. Benedict IL, a native of Rome, was raised to the
Sovereign Pontificate on the 6th of June, a. d. 684. “ He was
brought up in poverty,” says Fleury, “ and showed great mild­
ness, patience, liberality, application to the study of sacred lit­
erature, and a great knowledge of the rules of ecclesiastical
chant.” Constantine IV., who was personally acquainted with
him, and could appreciate his lofty qualities, decreed that the
Papal elections should no longer need the confirmation either
of the emperor or of the exarch of Ravenna. Rome h$d long
sought this favor in vain ; and now it was doomed to be but

284

GENERAL IH8T0RY OF THE CHURCH.

short-lived, for Justinian II., son and successor of Constartine
Pogonatus, regardless of his father’s decision, renewed the
abuse by charging the exarch of Ravenna to confirm the elec­
tion of Popo Conon.
18. King Ervig, who had succeeded Wamba in the govern­
ment of Spain, received a letter (a. d. 684) from the new Pope,
urging him to require the subscription of the Spanish bishops
to the decrees of the sixth general council. Provincial coun­
cils were accordingly held throughout the whole of Spain. The
belief of the Roman Church was universally received. The
fourteenth of Toledo, besides the subscription of its eighteen
bishops, sent to Pope Benedict a special work, treating the
Monothelito question ex professo. The Sovereign Pontiff found
in this memorial several doubtful expressions which might
give rise to errors or disputes, but refrained, through delicacy,
from mentioning the fact in the letter of acknowledgment ad­
dressed by him to the archbishop of Toledo. He merely spoke
of it to the deputies of the Spanish bishops, who replied in the
course of the same year by a full explanation and vindication
of their memorial. Meanwhile the Pope was doing his utmost
to bring back Macarius of Antioch, still an exile in Rome. He
gave him a final delay of six weeks, and daily sent a Catholic
doctor to confer with him ; but the heretic would not bend, and
the Pope was forced to confirm the condemnations pronounced
against him.
19. The last days of Benedict II. were marked by a polit­
ical event showing the importance of the position now held by
the Papacy. The declining years of Constantine Pogonatus were
not free from care concerning the future welfare of his two
sons, especially of Justinian, the elder, whom he designed to
make his successor. Conspiracies were rife even in the bosom of
the court, headed by the emperor’s two brothers, uncles to the
young princes ; moreover, he had met with several repulses
from the Bulgarians, to whom he had been forced to pay trib­
ute. In these intricate circumstances, Constantine IV. deemed
it prudent to secure for his sons the protection of the Sovereign

JOHN V. (A. D. 885-68«)

2W

Pontiff, and with this view he sent to Rome tresses of their
hair, which were received by the Pope, the clergy and the
army. This was the ceremony of adoption then in nee, and he
who received a youth’s hair was looked upon as his father.
The Holy See was indeed the only institution which then
showed signs of lasting firmness. Whoever wished to live,
must lean upon that support. Pope Benedict II. died soon
after this adoption, which placed the Cæsars of Constantinople
under the care of the Roman Pontiff (May 8, a. d. 685). Con­
stantine IV. outlived him but a few months (September, a. d.
685), and left behind a high reputation as a pious, skilful, wise
and valiant prince. His son and successor, Justinian Π.,
proved himself unworthy of the apostolic adoption, and seemed
bent by his misrule and disorders upon increasing the general
regret for his father.

§ VI. Pontificate

of

John V. (July 25, a. d. 685—August
2, 686).

20. John V. was elected on the 25th of July, a. d. 685, to
succeed St. Benedict II. He was one of the legates sent by
Pope Agatho to the sixth general council, where he had shown
a depth of learning equalled by his ability and moderation.
His election was carried out according to the lawful system so
long departed from, that is, without interference of the civil
power by the Eastern emperor. He was proclaimed Pope in
the Lateran palace by the unanimous voice of clergy and peo­
ple, and was at once escorted to the pontifical palace, where he
was consecrated on the next day by the three bishops of Ostia,
Porto and Velle tri. He reigned but a year, during which
time, however, he brought back the Churches of Sardinia to the
jurisdiction of the Roman See, from which they had been trans­
ferred to that of the archbishops of Cagliari ; but as these prel­
ates began to abuse the right, a decree of Pope Martin I. had
already withdrawn it. In spite of this prohibition, Citonatue,
archbishop of Cagliari, had consecrated Novellus for the Church

286

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

of Torres, without asking leave from John V.; the Pope callefl a
council, which restored Novellus to the immediate jurisdiction
of the Holy See by a formal act kept in the archives of the Ro­
man Church. John V. died on the 2d of August, a. d. 686, worn
out by a long life of toil devoted to the service of the Church.
The shattered state of his health hardly allowed him to per­
form the episcopal ordinations which the ancient authors always
reckoned among the Pope’s most regular duties.

§ VII. Pontificate

of

Conon (October 21, a. d. 686—Septem­
ber 21, 687).

21. Justinian II. had revoked his father’s decree in favor
of pontifical elections, and made them again subject to the
approval of the exarch of Ravenna. The odious measure soon
bore its natural fruit. Two antipopes, Peter and Theodore,
upheld respectively by the clergy, and the civil and military
power, contended for the pontifical throne during two months
after the death of John V. At length the clergy determined
to do away with all irregularity by giving their votes to Conon,
a native of Temeswar, in Lower Mysia. The newly elected
Pontiff was a venerable old man, upright, plain, peaceable, a
stranger to the spirit of faction, but little skilled in business.
He was obliged to ask the onsent of the exarch of Ravenna
for his consecration. Justinian II. sent two letters to the ex­
arch ordering the recognition, and as if to smooth over the
unjust imposition by a largess, the ward of the Holy See, so
soon freed from tutelage, remitted the tax paid to the court of
Constantinople by the ecclesiastical property in Brutium and
Lucania ; he likewise ordered the restitution of the serfs at­
tached to the property, as also those of Sicily, who were held
by the troops as hostages.
22. During the quick succession of pontificates in Rome,
from Domnus to Conon, the faith was making great progress
under the zealous workmen who enlightened the pagans of Ger(oany St. Willibrord, a native of Northumberland, disciple

CONON (A. D. βΜ-ωη.

aw

of St. Wilfrid, and St. Vulfran, bom at Maurillac (now Hilly,
near Etampes), devoted themselves to the conversion of Fries­
land, and were struggling by a life of wonders against the
cruelty and superstition of Radbod, duke of that country.
The two saints Ewald, apostles of the Saxons, died for the
faith on the banks of the Rhine. St. Kilian, who belonged to
an illustrious house in Great Britain, sought and obtained leave
from Conon to preach the Gospel in Franconia. His mission
was very fruitful at Wurtzburg, where he however incurred
the unjust hatred of Geilana, wife of Duke Gosbert, who ruled
the territory. Whilst the holy bishop and his companion?
were singing the praises of God, they were seized by order of
Geilana, and shortly afterward suffered martyrdom with a cour
ige worthy of the palmiest days of the early Church.
23. Conon died at Rome (September 21, a. d. 687), after a
pontificate of little less than a year. He is accused of too
weakly yielding to the wiles of the Syracusan deacon Constan­
tine, upon whom he bestowed the dignity of elector for the
patrimony in Sicily. The governor of the province waa
obliged to take legal measures against him on account of the
repeated complaints of the Sicilians, whom he worried by un­
just lawsuits.

288

GENERAL· BISTORT OF THE CHURCH.

CHAPTER IX.
( L Pontificat» of St. Sbroics I. (December 15, a. d. 687—September
8, 701).
I. Antipopes Pascal and Theodore. Election of St. Sergius I.—2. Fifteenth
and sixteenth Councils of Toledo.—3. Seventeenth Council of Toledo.—
4. Council tn Trullo. Attempt upon the life of Sergius I.—5. Taking of
Carthage by the Saracens, and extinction of the Roman rule in Africa.—
Justinian II., Rhinotmetus, banished to the Tauric Chersonesus.—6. Anti
pope John in Rome. Death of Sergius I.

§ Π. Pontifioatb or John VL (October 30, a. d. 701—January 12, 705).

7, John VI. defended by the Romans from the attacks of Theophylactus, ex­
arch of Ravenna. Attachment of the Italians to the Sovereign Pontiffs.—
8. Council at Nesterfield in England. St Wilfrid arraigned as a criminal.
He appeals to Johr VI. ir a council held at Rome, and is declared innocent.
—9. Pilgrimage to the Hoiy Land. Advance of the religious movement, in
England.—10. Death of John VI. Mosque of Damascus
§ HL Pontificat»

of

John VII. (March 1,

a. d.

705—October 18, 707).

II. Arribert Π., king of the Lombards, makes over the Cottian Alps to the
Holy See.—12. Restoration of Justinian H., Rhiuotinetus.—13. John VIL
refuses to confirm the acts of the council in Trullo. His death.
g IV. Pontificat» of Sisinnics (January 19, a. d. 708—February 7, 708).

14.

§ V. Pontificat»

15.

of

Election and death of Sisinnius.
Constantin» (March 25,

a. d.

708—April 9, 715).

Ravenna plundered by the troops of Justinian Π.—16. The Pope goes to
Constantinople.—17. Bardanes Philippicus dethrones Justinian II. and de­
clares himself the protector of the Monotbelites. His successor Anaata
sins restores the true faith in the East.—18. The Moors in Spain.—19
Death of Constantino.

8T. SERGIUS I. (A. D. βΜ-ΉΗ).

§ I Pontificate

op

Mt

St. Sergius I. (December 15, a. d. 687—
September 8, 701.)

1. Conon’s pontificate had been too short to crn-4 the *?isting party spirit. After his death a new division arose
among the Roman people. One party elected the archdeacon
Pascal, the other the archpriest Theodore. The partisans of
the archpriest obtained possession of the interior of the Late·
ran palace ; the whole of the exterior was held hy their opponents. The tumult waxed fierce and threatened to end in
bloodshed. The clergy, magistracy, and people at length cast
their votes in favor of the priest Sergius, whom they led in
triumph to the Lateran palace. The doors opened before
them, and Theodore was one of the first to salute the new
Pontiff and bow to his authority. Pascal would not yield ; he
was accordingly degraded and shut up in a monastery, where
he died impenitent. Thus did Sergius inaugurate, in the midst
of a tempest, a pontificate which was yet to weather many
more tierce storms, though its first years were peaceable
enough.
2. The fifteenth Council of Toledo, held in the reign of
Egica, son-in-law and successor of Ervig, confirmed the ac­
knowledgment of the sixth general council, and gave an ortho­
dox explanation of the propositions to which Benedict Π. had
objected in the memorial of the archbishop of Toledo (May
11, a. d. 688). Four years later (693), the sixteenth Council
of Toledo published a number of disciplinary canons. The
most noteworthy among them relate to the condition of the
Jews in Spain, to the material state of the churches, and to
the administration of the Blessed Eucharist. Converted Jews
are freed from the tax paid by them to the treasury, but those
who hold out in their unbelief are to remain subject to the
same stem legislation as before. There were many abandoned
churches in Spain too poor to support a pastor. The Holy
Sacrifice was seldom offered in them, and they were crumbling
Vol. IL— 1»

293

OEVERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

into ruins. The council came to their help by ordering the
hishops to devote one-third of the income of country churches
granted them by the canons, in repairing the deserted temples.
Some priests in celebrating the Holy Mysteries used a common
loaf, from which they cut a round slice. The council orders
that for this sacred service, a form of bread should be used,
white, made especially for the purpose, and in small quantities,
since it is not bodily food, but spiritual nourishment, and should
be easily kept in a small receptacle. The hosts for the ser­
vice of the altar from that time began to be made very much
as we have them now.
3. The seventeenth Council of Toledo was held the follow­
ing year (a. d. 694) in the church of St. Leocadia. The
Spanish Jews, who had just been proved guilty of plotting
against the state, were condemned to bondage and their prop­
erty declared confiscate. The elective royalty of the Goths
suffered greatly from the daily renewed undertakings of that
people, ever conquered but never crushed, and this circum­
stance explains the severity of the council in their regard.
An old law was also revived, forbidding the widows of kings
'ïom contracting a second marriage, doubtless on the political
principle of giving more lasting security to the actual reign.
The remaining canons treat of liturgical matters. Bishops
and priests are recommended to strip the altars of all their
ornaments on Holy Thursday, which ceremony is observed to
this day. It is also particularly enjoined to observe the wash­
ing of feet on the same day, in memory of what our Lord
Jesus Christ did at the Last Supper.
4. While Spain, thus united in submission to the Roman
Pontiff, secured herself under the laws of strict discipline, the
Church of Constantinople, yielding to its innate passion for
change and novelty, was again sowing the seeds of trouble and
discord. From the time when he ascended the imperial throne,
Justinian had always shown feelings of hatred and wickedness.
The stern and presumptuous emperor cherished the dream of a
universal monarchy under his single sway. He even thought

8T. BERGIUS I. (A. D. G81-T71).

291

of adding the spiritual authority to the sceptre of the Cæsarn.
His order that the pontifical elections should he submitted to
the exarch of Ravenna, his lieutenant in Italy, was suggest· ·!
by these ambitious projects. Under the pretext that the sixth
general council had published no canons of discipline, he
assembled a false council in Carthage, generally known as the
council in Trullo, or council of the dome, as it was held in the
hall of the dome at the imperial palace. It is sometimes also
called quini-sext, being meant to supply what was wanting in
the fifth and sixth general councils (a. d. 692). The hishops
gathered together by the emperor’s order, showed a most dis­
graceful slavishness, leaving 'he spiritual authority utterly at
the discretion of the tempon’· power. Priests were allowed to
marry, in contempt of every canonical law, whether of the
Eastern or Western Church. Pope St. Gelasius and the
Roman Church had classed as apocryphal the canons of the
Apostles. The council in Trullo pronounced them authentic
and binding, though one of them openly teaches the doctrine
of the rebaptizers. The one hundred and two canons drawn
up by this assembly, which pompously styled itself an ecumeni­
cal council, but was more properly called by Venerable Bede
the erratic council, were sent to the Sovereign Pontiff for his
approval, which was refused. Justinian Π., irritated by this
opposition, publicly ordered Zachary, his ai mor-bearer, to seize
and bring the Pope to Constantinople. The imperial minion
found all Rome in arms to defend its pastor. The military
force of the exarchate hastened to the scene for the same pur­
pose; the city resounded with cries and threats (a. d. 693).
Zachary was forced to fly for his life and sought shelter in the
very apartment of the Sovereign Pontiff’, humbly craving his
protection. The Lombard ambassadors residing in Rome had
meanwhile sent couriers to Ravenna asking for troops to de­
liver Sergius. The report is suddenly spread that by a com­
bination of cunning and inexplicable boldness, the Pope has
been carried off and embarked on the Tiber. The troops from
Ravenna at once surround the palace, with tumultuous dt>

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

mands for the Popo's appearance, threatening to break in the
doors if they are not at once opened. Zachary, crouching be­
neath the Pontiff's bed, trembling with the dread of a surprise,
bogs Sergius not to forsake him. Sergius promises his protec­
tion. orders the doors to be opened, and appears among the
people and the soldiery, who press forward to kiss his hands
and his garments. The time had passed when an emperor
could forcibly carry off a St. Martin. The shameful cruelty
inflicted upon that holy martyr was still remembered, and it
was not believed that Justinian II. would prove less barbarous
than his grandfather Constans II. The Pontiffs presence
soothed the popular feeling. Sergius blessed the faithful mul­
titude and asked forgiveness for Zachary, which was granted
by acclamation; but he was required to quit Rome at once,
with full liberty to go back and tell his master that the impe­
rial power must henceforth bow to the strong defence enjoyed
by the Pontiffs in the undying affection of their people.
5. From that hour the emperor began to feel the weight
of Divine justice. No impious hand may be laid with impu­
nity upon the Lord’s anointed. A disastrous war, rashly un­
dertaken by Justinian IL, ended in the loss of Africa. The
emperor had first sent against the Mussulman force before
Carthage, the patrician John, a great captain whose first fields
had been continual scenes of triumph. But in the following
year (a. d. 696) the Saracens, returning in greater numbers,
at length took Carthage with all the neighboring country, and
thus extinguished the Roman power in Africa, where it had
ruled for eight hundred and fifty years, from the year 608 of
Rome, the period at which Carthage was captured by Scipio
Africanus. Meanwhile Justinian himself was carrying on the
war against the Bulgarians. A bloody defeat sent him back a
fugitive to Constantinople. A body of Sclavonic auxiliaries
had betrayed him ; in a cowardly and barbarous spirit of re­
venge the emperor ordered that all the women, children and
old men of that hated race, in Constantinople, should be thrown
into the sea. General indignation was aroused by this deed

293

JOHN VI. (A. D. 101-70Î).

of senseless cruelty. The baffled tyrant’s helpless rage sug­
gested the thought of a general massacre of the imperial city
«luring the night. The patrician Leontius, informed of the
horrible design, seizes upon the emperor, orders his nose to be
cut off,
*
banishes the mutilated tyrant to the Tauric Chersone­
sus and assumes the purple, which was torn from his shoulders
two years later by a new usurper Tiberius Apsimar (a. d. 698).
6. Rome had meanwhile fallen into the hands of new fac­
tions. An antipope named John, backed by the credit of the
exarch of Ravenna, had banished St. Sergius I. The noble
Pontiff remained seven years far from his beloved flock, who
bore all the usurper’s violence with ever-unshaken fidelity to
their lawful pastor. On his return, Sergius pronounced the
excommunication and anathema against John and his abettors.
The Pope’s winning gentleness brought back to Catholic unity
the archbishop of Aquileiaand his suffragans, who had hitherto
refused to subscribe the acts of the Council of Chalcedon
against the Three Chapters. The remainder of his pontificate
was devoted to seconding the efforts of the apostolic laborers
in Germany. He consecrated St. Willibrord bishop of the
Frisians, with the rank and rights of metropolitan, and ap­
pointed solemn processions for the three chief festivals of the
Blessed Virgin Mary : the Annunciation, the Nativity, and the
Assumption, which was then called Dormitio Beatœ Virginis.
St. Sergius died on the 8th of September, a. d. 701, after a
pontificate of nearly fourteen years.

§ II. Pontificate

of

John VI. (October 30,
ary 12, 705).

a. d.

701—Janu­

7. John VI. was a Greek by birth, and was elected Pope
on the 30th of October, a. d. 701. The emperor Tiberius
Apsimar, on hearing of this new exaltation, sent to Rome the
patrician Theophylactus, exarch of Ravenna, to compel the rati­
• It was owinj to this circumstance that Justinian was thenceforth called Rhino*
matua.

2P4

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

fication of some unjust measures. But the Italian forces, which
hail already so intrepidly defended St. Sergius I., declared that
they would avenge any attempt made upon the person of the
Sovereign Pontiff. These were no longer the days of Callio­
pae and Zachary. The indignant soldiers and people would
have laid violent hands upon the exarch had not John inter­
posed. Baronius here takes occasion to point out the hold
which the pontifical rule must have taken upon the affection
of Italy, since every fresh attack of the emperors awakcd a
new rising of the people for their pastor’s defence. From this
period the power of the exarch began to wane, while the pon­
tifical authority was daily strengthened by calling about it
every principle of order, wisdom and stability in government
Thus when Charlemagne, at the close of the eighth century,
established the temporal power of the Papacy and made it in­
dependent of political revolutions or imperial whims, he did
but answer the general call of public opinion, and satisfy the
most earnest wish of nations. And yet this change in the
situation of the Church, which brought the Roman Pontiffs from
out the darkness of the catacombs to the splendor of the Vat­
ican, is brought about without intrigues, without slaughter or
bloodshed, without costing humanity a single tear. It was
natural enough, since the Popes use their influence only for
the good of the people. Amid the jarring din of political rev­
olutions so disastrous to those ages of transition and trouble.,
their voice arose but to still the storm with gentle words, their
deeds were ever stamped with the seal of charity. In a. d
702, Gisulphus, the Lombard duke of Beneventum, suddenly
broke into Campania, at the head of a formidable army, burn­
ing towns, plundering dwellings, monasteries and churches,
and dragging a host of captives in his train. John VI. at once
sent bishops supplied with large sums of money from the treas­
ury of the Roman Church, and charged to buy a peace as well
as to pay the ransom of all the prisoners. In this noble and
generous -policy John VI. was but carrying out what th
*· ex­
ample
his predecessors for the past three centurie? bad

JOHN VI. (A. D. 701-705).

295

taught him. What wonder then that such a power could / ' i, r
around it influence, moral force, and the full confidence of the
public mind? By such circumstances, by such mean
*,
did the
Popes gradually become temporal sovereigns of Rome anil part
of Italy ; indeed they held that power de facto long before it
was granted them de jure. People, downtrodden by tyrants of
every nation and of every class, saw no other sheltering power
than the fatherly rule of the Sovereign Pontiffs, to which they
hastened with grateful affection.
8. In a. d. 703, Alcfrid, king of Northumberland, assembled
the English bishops in a council at Nesterfield, about five leagues
from Ripon, over which Bretwald, archbishop of Canterbury,
presided. St. Wilfrid, still an exile by the king’s injustice,
was summoned before the council to answer the charges brought
against him. The venerable bishop appeared with a counte­
nance full of modest but firm dignity, and showed the letters
of rehabilitation received from Pope St. Agatho twenty-three
years before. But Alcfrid’s hate was not yet glutted. By his
order a formal renunciation of the see of York was laid before
St. Wilfrid, with a direction that he should be forced to sign
it. The holy bishop answered with noble firmness : “ Why
seek to force me to the disgraceful extreme of condemning my­
self? Would it not be a subject of scandal for all Great Brit­
ain, where it is well known that for forty years, though un­
worthy, I have borne the episcopal character ? I appeal to the
Holy See concerning the violence which is done me, and I call
upon those who wish my deposition to come with me to Rome,
on this very day, to ask a solemn judgment of the case there."
Wilfrid indeed set out himself and again sought redress from
the Holy See. Bretwald’s emissaries followed him. John
VI. called a council to examine the case more thoroughly, and
St. Wilfrid’s innocence was again solemnly declared. The Pope
sent him back with letters for Alcfrid, and Ethelred, king of
Mercia, whom he begged to restore St. Wilfrid to his metropol­
itan see of York. The saint reached England only to learn
that Ethelred had withdrawn into a monastery to prepare, by a

296

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CEJV.l

holy life, for a heavenly crown ; Alcfrid showed no more re.
sped for the advice of John VI. than for that of St. Agatho
But his death soon restored St. Wilfrid to freedom (a. d. 705),
and he took possession of his Church, where he died full of
days and merits (a. d. 709).
9. This period inaugurated among the Western Christians
the pilgrimages to the Holy Land. A Gallic bishop named
Arculphus, and Peter, a Burgundian hermit, visited the holy
places, went through Palestine, Syria, and Egypt, and returned
by sea to Constantinople. The account of their journey was
taken down from their own lips by St. Adamman, abbot of a
monastery in the island of Hi, on the western coast of Great
Britain, where the two pilgrims were cast ashore, by a storm, on
their return (a. d. 705). England was still rich in models of
ecclesiastical virtue and learning. St. Ceolfrid, the disciple and
successor of St Benedict Biscop, governed the two joint ab­
beys of Weremouth and Yarrow, and succeeded in doing away
with the abuse concerning the Paschal celebration. He also
introduced among the English clergy and monks, the Roman
custom of wearing the whole round tonsure. Hitherto the
English priests had only worn it over the forehead. Ceolfrid
died at Langres, as he was passing through France on his way
to Rome (September 25, a. d. 716). Another light of the Eng­
lish Church was St. Althelm or Aidhelm, first bishop of Sher­
burn, which see was afterward removed to Salisbury. He was
versed in every branch of learning. Besides poetry and Eng­
lish versification, to which he first gave attention, he studied the
Roman laws, philosophy, canon law, the exact sciences and
astronomy. So wide-spread was his reputation that strangers
came from the most distant countries to consult him. We have
a letter of his, addressed to the king and clergy of the West
Saxons, on the Paschal question, and a Treatise on Virginity,
written in the style of mingled prose and poetry of Sedulius.
The verses often halt with Greek words ; the prose is too full
of synonyms and of unnecessary epithets ; in a word, its learn­
ing betrays a want of method. Yet if we remember that St

JOHN VH. (A. D. 705-107).

297

Aidhelm ia the first Anglo-Saxon who undertook to write in
Latin, we must give him credit for much true talent. His death
occurred in 709.
10. Pope John VI. had ended his pontificate in a d. 705,
the very year in which the caliph Walid was raising the cele­
brated mosque of Damascus. The caliph is said to have offered
the Christians a large sum of money for their cathedral, which
they refused. The haughty Mussulman seized the church by
force, tore it down, and on its ruins raised his mosque to Ma­
homet. Islamism and Christianity were soon to measure weap­
ons on vaster fields.

§ IIL Pontificate

of

John VII. (March 1, a. d. 705—Octo­
ber 18, 707).

11. John VII. was raised to the Chair of St. Peter on the
1st of March, a. d. 705. “ In his reign,” says Paul the Dea­
con, the Lombard historian, “ King Aribert II. gave back to
the Holy See the territory of the Cottian Alps, which had once
belonged to the Roman Pontiffs, but had since been seized by
the Lombards. Aribert sent to Rome the deed of gift, written
in letters of gold.”* The Cottian Alps, named after King
Cottius, a contemporary of Augustus and ally of the Romans,
reached, according to Paul the Deacon, from the Tuscan Sea,
on the east, to Gaul on the west. They took in the cities of
Aix, Dertona, Bobbio, Genoa, and Savona. These events are
worthy of note. We called attention to the fact that under the
pontificate of St. Gregory the Great, the Roman Church already
held possession of the cities of Gallipoli, Otranto, and Naplee
Providence was plainly opening the way for the temporal sov­
ereignty and independence of the Popes, and Charlemagne but
gave the finishing strokes to the work.
12. Justinian IL had in the mean time found means to
escape from his prison, and suddenly appeared in Constantino* The girt wee afterward ratified by the Lombard icing Luitprand. under Pope Graf

298

GENERAL HI8T0RT OF THE CHURCH.

pie nt the head of n Bulgarian army (a. d. 705). Tiberius Ap«dinar nnd his predecessor Leontius wore arrested, loaded with
irons and thrown into a dungeon. Before their execution they
were cast prostrate in chains beneath the throne of the emper­
or; and Justinian, planting a foot on each of their necks, con­
templated above an hour the chariot race, while the people,
whose base inconstancy was worthy of such masters, shouted,
in the words of the Psalmist : “ Super aspidem et basiliscum am­
bulabis: et conculcabis leonem et draconem."
*
Justinian closed
the games by ordering their heads to be struck oil'. During
the remainder of his reign the city was a constant scene of pro­
scription and murders. Whilst Justinian was in exile, he one
day found himself in a violent tempest on the Black Sea, when
one of his pious companions said to him : “ My lord, we shall
be lost ! Deserve the mercy of God by a vow of general for­
giveness, should He restore you to the throne.” “ Of forgive­
ness ?” replied the monster ; “ may the Almighty whelm me in
the waves if I consent to spare a single head of my enemies ! ”
And never was vow more scrupulously performed than the
oath of revenge which he had sworn amidst the storms of the
Euxine.
13. In his misfortune Justinian had neither learned nor
forgotten. He returned with the avowed intention of forcing
from John VII. a confirmation of his council in Trullo, which
St. Sergius I. had refused to approve. His first care, accord­
ingly, was to send to Rome two metropolitans bearing the acts
of the so-called council, and a letter in which the emperor
begged John VII. to confirm what he deemed good in the de­
crees, and to reject what might be evil. He doubtless reserved
to himself the right of taking exception to the distinctions
that might be made by the Pope, and to distort the partial ap­
proval of a few indifferent canons into a general approval of all
the acts of his false council. But John VII. saw the snare and
was careful to avoid it. He sent back the acts without reading
• "Thou ehalt trample on the aap and baadiek, and on the lion and dragon liait tbov
at thy foot!"

CONSTANTINE (A. D. 709-7 K»)

299

them, “ for the reason," he wrote to the emperor, “ that the
council in Trullo was not. lawfully assembled with the presence
of legates from the Holy See." The Pontiffs prudence has
not been fairly appreciated by some modern writers. The dis
honesty of Justinian IL and his Greek subjects claimed indeed
to interpret the Pope’s silence as a tacit approval, and the argu­
ment is still used by Greek priests who seek to uphold the law­
fulness of their custom regarding the marriage of clerics.
*
But
history should never subserve the interests of human passions.
The counci, in Trullo was never confirmed by the Apostolic
See ; its decrees are powerless ; it is a cabal, not a council. By
rejecting these acts John VII. ran a considerable risk, as it is
impossible to tell to what extreme Justinian’s rage might have
carried him, had not death come to the rescue of the Sovereign
Pontiff, on the 17th of October, a. d. 707.
§ IV. Pontificate of Sisinniüs (January 19, a. d. 708—Feb­
ruary 7, 708).
14. Sisinnius was elected Pope on the 19th of January,
708, and scarce had time to wear the pontifical tiara. He
died suddenly twenty days after his promotion (February 7.
a. d. 708). Within that short space of time he consecrated
some bishops for the island of Corsica, and designed to raise the
walls of Rome to shelter the city against any hostile blow from
without. When death surprised him he had already gathered
many of the materials necessary for the undertaking, which the
ceaseless wars of that period made so necessary.
a. d.

§ V. Pontificate

of

Constantine (March 25, a. d. 708—April
9, 715).

15. The next occupant of the Pontifical Chair was Constan­
tine, a Syrian by birth (March 25, a. d. 708). The first pon• Tl.o I'dne council in Trullo solemnly recognized the right of priesu to ouvrv

SOO

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

tificnl act of the new Popo was the consecration of Felix, as
archbishop of Ravenna. This ceremony was attended by a
somewhat remarkable event. Felix, backed by the secular
power of the exarch, sought to revive the claims of his prede­
cessor Maurus, and refused to make the usual promises of sub­
mission and dependence to the Roman Church. This conduct
should have won him the favor of Justinian IT. But that mon­
arch had made it his mission to devote the second part of his
reign to avenging the wrongs he thought he had received du­
ring the first, and he had not forgotten the protection granted
by the inhabitants of Ravenna to St. Sergius, against the at­
tempt of the imperial officer Zachary. In the year 709, the
patrician Theodore, commander of the Sicilian forces, received
orders to moor his fleet under the walls of Ravenna. By
feigned professions of friendship he drew the principal inhab­
itants of the city into his tent upon the sea-shore. As they
entered the tent they were seized, gagged and led by a hidden
way to the fleet, where they were thrown into the hold of a ship,
as prisoners ; among the victims of this treachery was Felix,
the archbishop. The city thus dispeopled was given up to
plunder ; the prisoners were taken to Constantinople and sub­
jected to various kinds of punishment. Felix, after having
his eyes torn out, was banished to Pontus.
16. Justinian still showed his irritation at the refusal of
Rome to receive his council in Trullo, but, hopeless of doing
any thing by force, he thought to win the desired approval by
professions of friendship. He accordingly sent an embassy to
the Sovereign Pontiff, urging him to visit Constantinople (a. d.
710), as he had many things to settle in conjunction with his
Holiness. He also gave signs of a desire to change his line of
conduct and to atone for his faults, thus inviting the Pope to
come and encourage him in his designs of mercy and repent­
ance.
The expedition of the preceding year against the wretched
inhabitants of Ravenna was hardly a good omen ; but the fear­
less zeal of Constantine could not hesitate to undertake the jour­

CONSTANTINE (A. D. 709-715).

301

ney : offering up the sacrifice of his life, should the emperor have
the boldness to attempt it, he set sail on the 5th of October, a. d.
710, accompanied by a numerous train of deacons, priests, and
bishops. He was everywhere received with marks of the
deepest respect. An imperial order directed all officers to
show the same honor to the Pope as to the emperor himself.
Tiberius, Justinian’s son, accompanied by the patricians and
chief nobles, came forward seven miles from Constantinople, to
meet the Sovereign Pontiff, who made his triumphal entry
into the city, robed as was his wont on solemn days in Rome.
He was escorted by all the nobles and his own suite, mounted
upon the noblest steeds of the imperial stables, richly capar­
isoned with jewelled bridles, saddles, and trappings of cloth
of gold. The emperor was absent ; Constantine was taken to
the palace prepared for him. As soon as Justinian, who was
then at Nice, heard of the Pontiff’s arrival, he sent him a con­
gratulatory letter, and begged him to meet him at Nicomedia,
whither he at once repaired in person. At their first meeting,
the emperor, crowned as he was, threw himself at the Pon­
tiff’s feet, which he reverently kissed.
*
They then embraced
amid the acclamations of the people. Their conversation on
the council in Trullo was private. The Pope found no diffi­
culty in removing the prejudices which the theological igno­
rance of the emperor had so long fostered in respect to this
false council. He gave the charge of the discussion to his
deacon, afterward his successor, Gregory, who was thoroughly
conversant with canon law, the Scriptures, and the Fathers.
His clear, close and logical replies deeply impressed the em­
peror, who declared himself satisfied with the conference, and
as a public proof of his joy, he assisted on the following Sun­
• Since that time the groatoat monarchs have always shown the same mark of respec·
to the Popes: Luitprand, king of the Lombards, to Gregory IL; Ilachia, king of the same
nation, to Zachary ; the emperor Charlemagne to Adrian I. ; Louis the Pious to Stepnen
IV. ; Sigismuntl to Eugonius IV.; Frederick Barbarossa to Alexander III. ; Stephen, king
of Hungary, to Benedict VII.; Charles VI!!., king of France, to Alexander VL; Chorie·
V. , emperor of Germany, to Clement VLL and Paul VIII. ; Charles III, king of Naples
ana eince Catholic king, to Benedict XIV.

.802

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

day at the mass celebrated by the Pope, from whns« hana
he received the Holy Sacrament. Not satisfied with these
passing tokens of regard, the emperor renewed the privileges
bestowed by his predecessors upon the Roman Church. At
last he allowed the Pontiff to return to Italy. Constantine
re-entered his pontifical city in λ. d. 711, after an abrence of a
year, stronger, more powerful, more really a sovereign than ever
17. It were hard to say how long this state of good feeling
between the Pope and the emperor might have lasted, had
not a fresh revolution snatched from Justinian both his sceptre
and his life (a. d. 711). Bardanes Philippicus, the moving spirit
of the revolution, took the imperial purple. While still a youth
his ambition had been aroused by the prediction of a Syrian
hermit, who coupled with his promise of a throne this injunc­
tion : “ Remember, when you come to power, to annul all that
was done in the sixth council against the Monothelites. Such
is the will of God.” The first part of the prophecy now ful­
filled, Bardanes sought to make good the second. The Mo­
nothelites, who had kept aloof since the reign of Constantine
Pogonatus, raised their heads once more. All that was Greek
in the East, became Monothelite ; the vacant sees were filled
by the abettors of the heresy.
Even orthodox bishops
yielded to fear or interest. Germanus, bishop of Cyzicus, and
Andrew of Crete, both renowned for virtue and learning,
and some of whose pious works are still extant, weakly
yielded to the general impulse and anathematized the sixth
general council ; this shameful defection, however, they after­
ward repaired by their tears and by their noble defence of
Catholic truth against Leo the Isaurian. Bardanes showed
mercy only to Felix, archbishop of Ravenna, whom he had
known as an exile in Chersonesus, and restored the bishop to
his see, with all honor. But Felix had been learning in the
stern school of misfortune, where experience had taught him
the shifting nature of *tb
'
things of earth ; he therefore cast
off all the ambitious aims that had blighted his episcopate,
end, bowing submissive to the Holy See, sought the bond of

CONSTANTINE (A. D. 10β-716).

303

Catholic unity, the only foundation that cannot fail. The
Monothelite reaction which had begun with Bardanes, fell with
him too. He had hastened to write to Pope Constantine in
defence of his heresy. The Pontiff refused to answer. The
faithful at Rome would not allow the emperor’s image to be
carried to the church as was customary, nor would they have
his name uttered during the Holy Sacrifice. The following year
(a. d. 713) brought the tidings that the emperor Bardanes
Philippicus had been dethroned, and succeeded by Anastasias
II. The new emperor was a Catholic. At the ceremony of
his coronation, the bishops, clergy, and people, gathered to
gether in the church of St. Sophia, cried out with one voice :
“ We embrace the faith of the sixth general council : it is holy,
it is ecumenical !” Anastasius joined his voice to that of the
multitude. He then wrote to the Pope, professing his attach­
ment to the Catholic faith, and his example was followed by
the Patriarch of Constantinople. Such was the Greek empire,
the home of fallen morals and slavish minds, ready by turns to
take up and to throw aside the most opposite tenets, according
to the impulse of the times or the ruling powers.
18. While the East was being thus rent asunder by cease­
less change, Spain was the theatre of a most important move­
ment. Islamism was advancing with conquering strides into
the heart of this rich province. Roderic had just mounted the
Gothic throne to sully it by his vices. A slave to the most
shameful passions, he spared neither age nor rank. He carried
off the daughter of Count Julian, governor of Ceuta, the only
city then held by the Goths on the African coast. Julian's
despairing grief whelmed the thought of his country’s claims
in the burning thirst to revenge the cruel outrage on a father’s
honor. He accordingly proposed to Musa, Walid’s lieutenant
in Africa, to help him in the conquest of Spain. The skilful
commander saw at a glance the advantages of Julian's alliance ;
the agreement was made Twenty-five thousand Turks, under
Tarie, landed on the coast of Algezire (April 28, a. d. 711),
seized upon Mount Calpe, now Gibraltar (Giiel Tarick, Tarick's

I

304

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

Mountain). The Goths, enervated by a long season of peace
had unlearned the art of war; besides, one party was already
devoted tc the enemy’s cause. The engagement was fought
near Xeres (July 17, a. d 711), and the Goths were defeated.
King Roderic had disappeared amid the confusion of the battle.
At this news Musa himself crossed the Strait, took Toledo,
Seville and Merida, and within fifteen months the whole of
Spain was under the Prophet’s standard. The Visigoth power
fell, after a duration of nearly three centuries since its first
establishment at Toulouse (a. d. 419). Cordova became the
capital of the new Mussulman caliphate. The Christians who
remained faithful sought shelter in the mountains of Asturias,
under the leadership of Pelagius, whom they made their king.
Pelagius chose Oviedo as the capital of his new empire, which
was to battle for seven centuries in behalf of the national faith
and independence. When the Moors saw the fugitives building
up a government, they sent to Pelagius one of their generals
named Aliaman, with his sword in one hand and gold in the
other. Pelagius received him in the celebrated grotto of
Cavadonga, which was held sacred to the Mother of God.
Aliaman’s interpreter was the apostate bishop of Toledo.
“ You know,” said the traitor to Pelagius, “ that all Spain has
submitted to the Arabs. What can you hope from a few fugi­
tives lurking in the hollow rocks of these mountains?” “ We
hope,” answered Pelagius, “ that from these mountain dens will
go forth the salvation of our land which you have betrayed,
and the restoration of the Gothic empire. Traitor bishop, go
back to the unbelieving race in whom you trust, and tell them
that we fear not their numbers. The Almighty, after punish­
ing His faithless servants, will show His mercy toward dutiful
children.” Thus was the gauntlet thrown down between Chris­
tianity and Islamism. The heroic handful of faithful warriors
in the mountain fastnesses of Asturias bore the fate of the
world in the folds of their banner.
19. On the 8th of April, a. d. 715, Pope Constantine closed
his pontificate of seven years, at Rome. He was the eighty-

COWBTAimWE (A. D. TOS-715).

305

ninth successor of the Prince of the Apostles. Of this num­
ber, forty Sovereign Pontiffs had been chosen from among the
Roman people ; the remaining forty-nine were of varions na­
tionalities : Galileans, Tuscans, Athenians, Syrians, Greeks, Af­
ricans, Dalmatians, Spaniards, Sardinians, Corsicans, Sicilians
and Neapolitans. These elections must surely have been ruled
by a pious impartiality. They could have been dictated only
by zeal for religion. What respect must the world have felt
for so unwonted a spirit of charity, fairness and justice ! Rome
could not be charged with keeping her See for her own chil­
dren alone. This wise management, meeting every schism,
every division, contributed largely to increase the power of the
Holy See. Weighty motives have since made modifications
necessary ; for the measures which best serve to establish are
not always those which best preserve. In these changes in the
discipline of the pontifical elections, the unprejudiced historian
sees but a new proof of the watchful care of Divine Providence
over the Church’s welfare.
Vol IL—80.

GHNEHAb HISTORY OF TUB CHURCH

ôOÔ

CHAPTER X.
§ 1. Pontificate of St. Gregory II. (May 19, A. d. 718—February 12,731).
1. Situation of the world at the accession of Gregory II.—2. Monastic disci
pline in Italy. Progress of Christian missions in Germany. St. Boniface
archbishop of Mayence.—3. Venerable Bede.—4. Leo the Isaurian drive·
back Soliman from the walls of Constantinople. —8. Leo the Isaurian be­
comes an Iconoclast.—6. St. John Damascen.— 7. The Pope opposes the
impious measures of Loo the Isaurian.—8 The Pope besieged in Rome by
the exarch of Ravenna and the Lombard king Luitprand.—9. Death of St.
Gregory II.

§11 Pontificate of St. Gregory III. (March 18,

a.

D. 731—November

28, 741).

10. Election of St. Gregory III.—11. The Iconoclast heresy most unpopular in
Italy.—12. St. Gregory III. places the Holy See under the protection of
Charles Martel.—13. Invasion of Gaul by Abderahman.—14. Battle of Poi·
tiers.—15. Importance of the battle of Poitiers with respect to the Holy
See.—16. Council at Rome against the Iconoclaste.—17. Charles Martel
uses his influence with Luitprand on behalf of the Holy See. Death of
Charles Martel, of Leo the Isaurian, and of St Gregory III.—18. Various
acts of this pontificate.
§ III. Pontificate of St. Zachary (December 3, a. d. 741—March 15, 752).

19. Election of St. Zachary.—20. Treaty of peace between the Pope and Luit­
prand.—21. Labors of St. Boniface, archbishop of Mayence.—22. Heresies
of Samson and Virgil.—23. Heresies of Adelbert and Clement.—24. Coun­
cil of Cliff. Penitentiary and pontifical codes of Egbert. Ceremony of the
royal coronation.—25. Revolt of Artabazus.—26. Carloman at Monte Castino.—27. Pepin the Short, king of the Franks.—28. Death of St. Zachary.
§ IV. Pontificate
29.

of

Stephen III. (March 18, a. d. 752—March 20,752).

Death of Stephen III. before his installation.

BT. GREGORY Π. (A. D. 71ΙΜ5Π).

307

g V. Ροτγγιποατβ or Sttphfw IV. (March 26, Λ. D. 752—April R, T57).
30. Election of Stephen IV.—31. Antoiphne, king of the *Lombard
.
—32. Ste­
phen IV. croRsee tho Alpn.—33. Meeting of the Pope and the king at Pontyon.—34. Assembly of Quercy-eur-Oise.—35. Treaty of peace between
Pepin the Short and Astolphns.—36. Pepin’s gift to the Holy See.—
37. Martyrdom of St. Andrew the Calybite, St. Stephen, and St. Pater the
Stylite, at Constantinople.—38. Death of St. John Damascen. Hia work·
—39. Death of Stephen IV.

§ I. Pontificate of St. Gregory II. (May 19, a. d. 715—Feb­
ruary 12, 781).
1. The period at which Gregory II. ascended the pontifical
throne (May 19, a. d. 715) was one fraught with difficulties.
Luitprand had just assumed the Lombard crown (a. d. 712).
His uncommon energy and skill inspired him with the idea of
subjecting the whole of Italy to his sway. The influence of the
Popes, which stood in his way and balked his ambitious views,
led him to take a stand hostile to the Holy See. The Saracens,
now masters of Spain, pushed their advance-guard even into
Gaul, and threatened the independence of Christendom. Leo
the Isaurian had followed the Catholic Anastasius on the Greek
throne, and was about to give up the East to a heresy more
fierce than any of its predecessors. The mission of the Sov­
ereign Pontiff in so serious a juncture was beset on all sides by
dangers. St. Gregory II. proved himself worthy of his posi­
tion. A fearless courage, joined to a moderation and prudence
proof against every assault, carried him triumphant through
all the intricacies which so beset his pontificate.
2. His first thought was to restore monastic discipline in
Italy. The monastery of Monte Cassino, destroyed by the
Lombards one hundred and fifty years before, had never been
raised from its ruins. Gregory charged a holy religious, named
Petronax, to revive the cenobitic life and high ecclesiastical
studies which had made this favored abbey the most illustrious
of St. Bennet’s rule. Not content with spreading the fostering
influence of the Papacy through the countries near to Rome,

SOS

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

Gregory at the same timesentthe bishop Martinian, the priest
George, and the sub deacon Dorotheus, all members of the
Roman clergy, to enlighten the yet heathen people of Bavaria
(a. d. 716). Three years later (a. d. 719), Winfrid, better
known as St. Boniface of Mayence, came from England to lay
before the Sovereign Pontiff his plan of an apostolate in Germa­
ny. Winfrid had provided himself with dimissory letters from
I?.-niel, bishop of Winchester, in which diocese he bad received
holy orders. St. Gregory empowered him to preach the gos­
pel among all the heathen nations in Germany, and to baptize
them according to the Roman rite. Winfrid began bis mission
in Bavaria and Thuringia, where he reaped a most plentiful
harvest The Pope, on hearing of the wonderful work which
God had wrought through his ministry, directed him to return
to Rome (a. d. 723), where he consecrated him, with his own
hands, metropolitan prelate of Germany, at the same time
changing his name of Winfrid into that of Boniface {doing
good), in allusion to the services already done and still prom­
ised to the Church by the apostolic laborer. On his return, the
newly consecrated bishop, strong in the support of Charles
Martel, to whom he had been recommended by St. Gregory,
converted nearly all the inhabitants of Hesse and Thuringia.
He made it his particular care to found monasteries, in order to
perpetuate, by living example, the holy traditions of Christian
life in the countries he evangelized. After fifteen years of
untiring toil, St. Boniface repaired to Rome for the third time
and received from Gregory III. the archiépiscopal pallium, as
a mark of his jurisdiction over the whole of Germany. He
chose Mayence as the seat of his archbishopric, and had thir­
teen suffragan sees ; to all these churches he gave a strong
and lasting organization. Satisfied that he had thus provided
for the permanence of his work, he gave up his see and con­
secrated his «uccessor. Entering again upon the apostolic
career, he undertook the conversion of Friesland, hitherto
proof against all the efforts of missionaries. Here the crown
of martyrdom awaited him. After his death his body was

ST. GREGORY Π. (A. D. 716 761),

taken to the abbey of Fold, one of his own foundation, where
God glorified his servant by many miracles.
3. St. Boniface, we have said, was an Englishman. Great
Britain, full worthy at this period to be called the hit of Saini.·..
promised to furnish apostles for all the other nations of tne
earth. It also possessed in rts bosom a bright light of *th«
Church, in the Venerable Bede. This title was bestowed upon
him even during his own lifetime, and has been kept by Chris­
tian antiquity, on account of his reputation for virtue and
learning. Bede was one of the most illustrious doctors of that,
age of transition from the old Latin literature to that of mod­
ern nations. Trained in the monasteries of Weremouth and
Yarrow, under the eye of St. Ceolfrid, he had early acquired a
taste for ecclesiastical studies. By a dispensation granted to
his merit he was ordained deacon at the age of nineteen years,
though the canons required twenty-four. His long life was
devoted to the writing of many works still extant. The most
important are the History of the English Church, in five
books, a precious monument of national erudition, and the
Chronicles or Treatise on the Six Ages of the World, an abridg­
ment of universal history from the creation to his own day, in
which he briefly points out the designs of Providence on man
kind in general, on the posterity of Abraham in particular ; in
fine, on the multitude of nations joined together in Christ and
in His Church. His writings on grammar, orthography, and
versification did much in the West, with those of Cassiodorus
and St. Isidore of Seville, to give their distinctive character
of regularity and clearness to modern languages, which were
just springing into existence by a mingling of Latin with the
Teutonic dialects. Bede died a. d. 735, at the age of sixtythree years, abbot of the monastery of Yarrow. His greatest
glory is to have been the master of Alcuin, Charlemagne’s
preceptor.
4. Whilst the West was rejoicing the world by these *offer
ings of saintliness, the hopes of Christendom were suddenly
clouded by the apparition upon the Eastern throne uf a name

SIO

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

ibat boded evil. Leo III., the son of a poor Isauiian pea
*tnt, wore the purple of the Cæsars (a. d, 716)
Ho was the
fourth emperor raised within three years to the Byzantine
hrone by the fickle Greeks
*
The keen eyes of the Mussul­
mans did not miss this spectacle so disgraceful to tl e Lower
Empire in the eighth century; they thought its knell had
already sounded. A Turkish fleet of eighteen hundred sail,
under the caliph Soliman, formed its crescent on th^ bosom
of the Propontis (a. d. 717). Leo the Isaurian wished to treat
with the caliph. Soliman replied that “ he did not reanon with
the conquered, and that he had already detailed the force that
was to garrison Constantinople.” The insolent braiado re­
kindled all the old Roman pride in the bosom of the empire.
They swore to drive back the invader or to die beneath their
country's ruins. Leo encouraged the national spirit and took
an admirable advantage of it. A month later the Turkish
fleet had been destroyed and Soliman died of shame at his
disgrace. By this feat of arms Leo the Isaurian had saved
Constantinople and the empire. Happy constancy, had he
always remained satisfied to be the champion of Christianity,
and not lent his name to swell the list of its most bitter per­
secutors !
5. Amongst the stories of the emperor’s youth, it is told
of him that whilst still in his father’s cabin amid the moun­
tains of Isauria, he once beard some Jews blaspheme and curse
an image of the Redeemer. One of them turned to him and
jokingly remarked : “ Were you emperor, would you not de­
stroy all those impious images?” “I swear,” replied the bo
“ that I should not spare a single one ! ” The imperial crown
lecalled his oath. In a. d. 726 he published a decree announ
ding that in gratitude for the favors heaped upon him by God
since his accession, he wished to destroy the idolatry which
had crept into the Church ; that the pictures of Christ, of the
Blessed Virgin, and the saints, were idols, to which honor was
• Sardanes Philippicus (a. d. 713), Anastasias Π. (λ D· 714;, Theodoeiu
*
116) Lea the Isaurian (a. i>. 716).

HL

r

ST. OREQORT II. (A. D. 116-131).

Ml

given that was only due to a jealous God. He accordingly or­
dered their removal from the churches, oratories and private
dwellings, and at length doomed their existence as well as their
use. When the edict was presented for his signature to Ger­
manus, Patriarch of Constantinople, he refused his name.
“ The Christians do not worship images,” said he to the em­
peror, “ but only honor them as memorials of the saints and of
their virtues. Painting is but an epitome of history for Chris­
tians, not an idolatry. You must distinguish between direct
and relative veneration.” But Leo was unwilling to under­
stand so clear and simple an explanation. He again ordered
8t. Germanus to receive his decree, with the alternative of ban
ishment or even death in case of refusal. “ Remember," said
the Patriarch, “ your coronation oath to change nothing in the
tradition of the Church.” The emperor struck the venerable
confessor and caused his deposition by the senate'. Germanus,
taking off his pallium, said to the tyrant : “ My person is in
the prince’s power, but my faith bows only to the decision of a
council.” The intrepid champion of Christ already numbered
fourscore years. The emperor banished him and gave his see
to a priest named Anastasias, who did not blush to barter his
faith for the empty honor of a usurped title. From that hour
an unparalleled fanaticism wreaked its fury upon every sacred
symbol. The troops of the Isaurian broke into the churches
and private dwellings, destroyed every pious work of art, and
murdered all who dared to oppose them. Their profession
named the heretics Iconoclasts (breakers of images). The em­
peror found it profitable to confiscate a number of gold and sil­
ver statues, costly vessels used in the service of the altar,
jewels which enriched the images of Mary, so dear to the faith­
ful hearts of the empire, and destroyed a large brass crucifix
with which the piety of Constantine the Great had adorned
one of the porticos of the imperial palace. It had always been
held in special reverence by the inhabitants of Constantinople;
some women of the lower class rushed upon the officer who
had executed the impious order, and murdered him. They had

312

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

but given the signal for a savage slaughter, and were put tc
death with a number of other Catholics. The martyrs were
covered with a coat of pitch, and burned upon a pile of sacred
images ; their calcined bodies were then thrown to dogs. The
celebrated Byzantine library was contained in a basilica situ­
ated between the imperial palace and the church of St. Sophia.
This basilica, called the Octagon, from the eight splendid por­
ticos which gave entrance to it, was the residence of the pro­
fessors of belles-lettres and theology, paid by the state. The
emperor directed these scholars to subscribe to his decree,
which they refused to do, at the same time opposing the mon­
arch’s opinions with respectful firmness. Unable to convince,
the emperor determined to destroy them, and, with a cruelty
far beyond that of the caliph Omar, he doomed the books, the
basilica and its learned inmates to the flames.
6. Yet even from the very bosom of the East a voice was
raised to brand the excesses of this savage cruelty. It came
from a monk whose eloquence won him the title of Chrysorrhoes,
(Golden stream). St. John Damascen was born of an illustrious
Christian family of Damascus, in the decline of the seventh
century. His father, who was grand vizier at the court of the
Ommiad caliphs of Damascus, was one day looking at some
Christian prisoners exposed in the public square : those who
were about to be led to execution, threw themselves at the
feet of one of their number, recommending themselves to his
prayers. He was an Italian religious, named Cosmo, taken
with the others at sea. The grand vizier asks him who he
is : “I am a poor monk,” he replied, “ whose days have been
spent in the study of philosophy and the sciences, and I con­
fess that I regret to die before being able to impart my ac­
quirements to others.” The vizier had long been seeking a
teacher who might give his son a fitting education. Delighted
at the thought of having found this treasure in a prisoner about
to suffer death, he hastened to ask the caliph for him, and easily
obtained his request. Cosmo was freed. He became the
father’s friend, the son’s preceptor ; his pupil made quick and

8T. GREGORY II. (A. D. 115-131).

3)3

steady progress in the study of grammar, dialectics, algebra,
geometry, music, and astronomy,
*
but especially in theology,
or the science of religion. The caliph was not blind to the
qualities of John Damascen, and soon made him vizier. But
that generous soul soared high above the sphere of worldly
honors ; he obtained the caliph’s permission to live in retire­
ment, and availed himself of his freedom to enter the monastic
state. This was the doctor who took in hand the defence of
Catholic truth against the blind fury of Leo the Isaurian. He
wrote a work against the Iconoclast heresy, which soon won
popularity in the East. He thus begins his first discourse on
the subject : “ Conscious of my own unworthiness, I ought per­
haps to have kept an unbroken silence ; but at the sight of the
Church tossed by a violent storm, the words break of their
own accord from my lips, for I fear God more than any earthly
emperor.” He then goes on to discuss the question with resist­
less depth, clearness and learning. He proves the lawfulness
of venerating images, by Sacred Scripture, Catholic tradition
and sound logical arguments. “ A picture is to the ignorant
what a book would be to the learned. The picture does the
same office through the sight as the word through the hearing.
Holy images are a memorial of the Divine works. Besides,”
he concludes, “ the decision in such matters falls not within the
province of princes, but of councils. It was not to kings that
Jesus Christ gave power to bind and to loose ; it was to the
apostles and their successors, the bishops and doctors of the
Church. Let these rash innovators recall the words of the
* It is a remarkable fact that the learning of Greece and Rome was fine brought to the
court of the caliphs of Damascus by a poor Italian monk, a captive doomed to death.
"Who," says M. Charles tenormand, in his Course of Modern History, “opens the Net at
those master-minds that inspired the genius of Arabia ? It is a very good Catholic, a
Father of the Church, St. John Damascen, who initiate· the Arab mind into the reason­
ings of Greek philosophy, not at the court of the Abaasidea, but a century later in that o'
the Ommiad race ; not in Bagdad, but at Damascus. The illustrious Father, John Dame··
cen, who enjoyed the highest considération at the court, yet had left it for tho religion·
cell, and was certainly the most renowned character of his day in tho East, introduced the
Arabs into the sphere of Aristotle’s philosophy." Cosmo was afterward raised to the
eniaoopal see of Miyuma, and won the martyr’s palm (February 31, a. D. 143).

314

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH

apostle St. Paul : Should an angel come down' from heaven to
preach to you another gospel than that which you have received . . . We will not finish the text, but leave them time
for repentance. But if—what God forbid—they obstinately
cling to their error, we may then add the rest : Let him be anath­
ema!" This work created a deep sensation in the Catholic
world. Leo sought to revenge himself on its author by means
of a most infamous fraud. He caused a skilful forger to coun
terfeit the handwriting of the holy doctor, and to address a
supposititious letter from him to the emperor, inviting him to
march upon Damascus, which he promised to place in his power.
The emperor then sent the false document to the caliph as a
pledge of his friendship and a proof of his desire to preserve
peace between them. The caliph, too much angered to listen
to John, ordered his right hand to be cut off. The author of
his life relates that after the bloody punishment, the saint threw
himself upon his knees before an image of the Blessed Virgin,
begging her to intercede with her Divine Son for the restora­
tion of his mutilated hand, that he might still defend the cause
of holy images. His prayer was granted ; struck by the mirac­
ulous cure, the caliph loaded the saint with favors.
7. The Pope was meanwhile rallying about him all the
powers of the West to meet the Iconoclast Leo. The wounded
hearts were most earnest in resisting the savage doctrine of
the imperial heresiarch. In the beginning of his reign, Leo had
as usual sent to Rome his own pictures crowned with laurels ;
for though he could not abide the veneration given to images
of saints, he did not the less require honor for his own as well
as for his imperial person. But on learning the lengths to
which he had gone in respect to holy pictures, the Roman
people trampled the imperial statues under foot. Gregory II.
at the same time wrote to Leo, clearly laying down the Catho­
lic teaching on the subject. The maddened emperor sought to
rid himself of this powerful opponent by a crime, and charged
Marinus, his lieutenant in Rome, to organize a conspiracy
against the Pontiff’s life. The chief conspirators wcro dis·

8T. GREGORY Π. (A. D. 715-131).

31ft

covered and suffered capital punishment. On learning thia
event, Paul, exarch of Ravenna, assembled his troops and prepared to take Rome in order to force the election of another
Pope. The Romans likewise took up arms, and soon saw their
numbers swelled by the Florentines, the Lombards of Spoleto,
and the people of all the neighboring country, who hastened
to defend the city and person of the Sovereign Pontiff. Paul
was forced to beat a disgraceful retreat before the imposing
array of faithful arms. Though the Saracens still pressed Con­
stantinople, yet the emperor would arm only against the Catho­
lics, and showed more concern at the Pope’s resistance than at
the progress of Islamism.
8. The senseless rage of Leo wasted itself upon the Holy
See only to hasten two results of vast importance, never
dreamed of in the furious tyrant’s thoughts of vengeance.
These vain attacks were preparing the speedy realization of
the temporal independence of the Popes, and the establish­
ment of the Frankish .instead of the Greek power. Since the
imperial commander’s check before the walls of Rome, Marinus
had been vainly endeavoring to murder the Pope. The inhab­
itants had driven him from the city, and, longing for a more quiet
and milder form of government, they loudly called upon Greg­
ory to take in hand the reins of government. Thus may the
temporal power of the Popes in some manner date from this
period. Still Leo the Isaurian would not acknowledge himself
worsted. He opened negotiations with the ambitious Lombard
king, Luitprand, and persuaded him that it was their common
interest to join their forces and crush the pontifical power
The gates of Rome are again beset by the combined armies of
the exarch and Luitprand, lost in astonishment at finding them­
selves side by side in a common cause. Their camp-fires cruwn
Monte Mario, and at length they stand by Adrian’s mausoleum
(the castle of St. Angelo.) The Pontiff, preceded by his clergy,
goes forth from the gates of the city, like another St. Leo,
again to save the capital of the world. He convinces LuiU
praud that the misfortunes of the Eternal City will prove thoso

316

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

of (he whole of Christendom ; that the Saracens will have
more cause than the emperor to rejoice in the disasters of this
Church, mother and mistress of all the others. Gregory’s
pathetic eloquence moved the Lombard king to tears ; he pros­
trated himself at the Pontiff's feet. The church of St. Peter
was close at hand. Gregory points out to the monarch the
sacred spot where stands the tomb of the Apostles. Luitprand,
overcome, advances toward the basilica, kneels before the
confession of St. Peter, strips off his royal ornaments, and
leaves them, together with his military scarf, his sword and
golden crown, before the tomb ; he then begs the Pope to for­
give his enemies; Gregory utters the solemn pardon, and
Luitprand, having sworn eternal friendship, goes back to Pavia
Minds enlightened by prudence foresaw all the moral power
bestowed upon the Church by these events. They could daily
convince themselves of the necessity of obedience to the Sover­
eign Pontiff, since they had just beheld the most powerful mon­
arch of Italy prostrate at his feet.
9. St. Gregory II. neglected no political means to secure
the help of the Western princes. He had written to ask the
protection of Charles Martel for the Holy See. The royal
Frank promised his aid. Strong in all these allies, Gregory
once more wrote to Leo the Isaurian, upbraiding him with his
unworthy conduct. “ The eyes of the West are turned upon
our lowliness,” he said, “ and it looks to us as the arbiter and
moderator of public peace. Should you dare to tempt the issue
you would find it ready even to go to Constantinople, there tc .
avenge the wrongs of your Eastern subjects.” The tone of
this letter is the best proof of the sway then held by the
Papacy over the world. The Iconoclast emperor replied only
by the most insulting threats. He promised to Gregory II.
the fate of Martin I., but the time was past when an emperor of
Constantinople could renew such scenes of violence. Besides, the
toils of a long and stormy pontificate had wrecked the already
shattered health of St. Gregory II., who sunk at last on the

8T. GREGORY ΤΠ. (A. D. 731-7*1).

lOth of February, a. d. 731.
wisdom, glory and courage.

§ II. Pontificate

of

317

Ilia pontificate was a reign of

St. Gregory III. (March 18, a. d. 731—
November 28, 741).

10. Gregory HI. was unanimously elected to succeed dregθ’y IL, five days after that Pontiffs death. But as it was'still
necessary to await the confirmation of the exarch of Ravenna,
his coronation was delayed till the 18th of March, a. d. 731.
The Papacy might now deem itself strong enough in Italy to
do away with an abuse against which it had ever protested
since the days of Athalaric, king of the Visigoths, who first
enforced it by open violence. Moreover, Leo the Isaurian had
made himself odious enough to the Church to have forfeited
all claim to patronize it in any way. But the very existence
of these unfriendly relations between the courte of Rome and
Constantinople was a new and powerful motive for shunning
all occasion of rupture. The bearing of the Popes is a suffi­
cient reply to the assertions of some historians that the Sov­
ereign Pontiffs of this period all acted from motives of personal
ambition, and were ready to seize the most trifling pretexts to
throw off the Eastern yoke. But this endeavor must natu­
rally have ceased with the successor of Gregory HI., since the
power of Constantinople had finally fallen in Italy. The elec­
tion of Gregory III. was a triumph. During the funeral cere­
monies of his predecessor, the people bore him to the Lateran
palace with enthusiastic acclamations.
11. The emperor still carried on his persecution against
those who would not join him in destroying holy images. The
Iconoclast heresy was by far the most unpopular of all in
Italy. Pagan Rome, after the Grecian conquest, had hailed
the arts with enthusiasm : Christian Rome now earnestly de­
fended the same arts which were likewise to prove her glory
Gregory III. adorned the interior of St. Peter’s, on one side
with images of the Saviour and the apostles, on the other with

318

GENERAI. BISTORT OF THE CHURCH.

those of the Blessed Virgin and the most illustrious martyrs
At the same time he wrote a most dignified and energetic
letter to the emperor Leo, in reply to the invectives of the
Iconoclasts, addressed to the preceding Pontiff. “You think to
terrify us with the threat : I shall destroy the statue of St.
Peter at Rome, and seize Pope Gregory as did the emperor
Constans II. Pope Martin. We do not fear your empty threats.
The’Sovereign Pontiff has an inviolable abode in Campania.”
A second letter followed close upon this one, clearly tracing
the fine of separation between the temporal and the spiritual
power, between the empire and the priesthood. Both these
letters were intrusted to a priest named George, who did not
deliver them to the emperor, but returned to Rome to confess
that his courage had failed him on the way. The Pope sub·
jected him to a course of penance for his weakness, and sent
him back as bearer of the same dispatches. But Leo, hearing
of his departure and the end of his mission, had him arrested
and held for nearly a year in Sicily.
12. Luitprand again began to show unfriendly feelings to­
ward the Holy See. Charles Martel, to whom Gregory had
appealed in like circumstances before, had hithen M been hin­
dered from any active display of good-will by the unsettled
condition of his own authority in France. Gregory sent him
a solemn embassy charged to commit to his guard the keys of
St. Peter’s tomb. The grandfather of Charlemagne, laying his
powerful hand upon the sacred symbols, declared himself the
protector of the Holy See, and swore that neither the emperor
of Constantinople nor the Lombard king should, without his
leave, open the tomb of the Prince of the Apostles. It wa? on.
this occasion that Gregory III. bestowed upon the duke of
Austrasia the title of Most Christian Prince, which Pope
Pius II. afterward (a. d. 1460) declared hereditary in the
person of the French kings. The institution of pontifical nun­
cios in France dates from this embassy sent by Gregory III.
to Austrasia. It bore some resemblance to that of the Ape·
critiarii, or legates of the Holy See accredited by the Popes to

8T. GREGORY ΙΠ (A. D· 131-141).

319

the court of Constantinople. The nuncios were subsequently
recognized as ministers of a directly sovereign power. Charles
was not slow to prove himself worthy of the title bestowed
upon him by the Pope.
13. A most fearful tempest was now bearing down upon
the whole of Christendom. In a. d. 732 a countless host of
Saracens, under Abderahman, swarmed through the defiles of
the Pyrenees. They seemed to follow the footsteps of Hanni­
bal in his Italian invasion. But here they displayed a knowl­
edge of strategy for which they had never yet received credit,
for they would not enter the enemy’s country without guard­
ing their flanks against the Gauls. Abderahman marched his
army in two divisions. The first followed the banks of the
Rhone and the Saône, to the river Yonne. Captors of Avi­
gnon, Viviers, Valence, Vienne, Lyons, Mâcon, Châlons, Besan­
çon, Beaune, Dijon and Auxerre, the Saracens at length
besieged Sens. But the bishop St. Ebbo, after a fervent
prayer to God for help in their necessity, made a bold sally at
the head of the besieged, and drove back the horde cf unbe­
lievers in hasty flight. Meanwhile, Abderahman in person
led the second division of his army into Aquitaine The cities
of Béarn, Oléron, Auch, Aix, Dax, Lapurdum (now Bayonne),
Bordeaux, Agen, Perigueux, Saintes, and Poitiers were plun­
dered or burned. The Saracens marked their course by tracks
of blood. Their scymitars gave to many a martyr his blooddyed palm. The diocese of Puy-en-Velay honors St. Theofred,
more commonly known as St. Chaffre, abbot of the monastery
of Cannery. At Marseilles, in the convent of St. Saviour, the
abbess St. Eusebia and forty of her religious gashed and other­
wise disfigured their countenances, to escape the outrages of
the Mussulmans. The infidels murdered the heroic virgins, who
were buried together in a chapel since known as the Chapel oj
the Confession. The monastery of Lerins, under St. Porcarius,
the second of the name, numbered more than five hundred
monks, who were massacred by the Saracens. Only four
religious, by a kind of miracle, escaped this fearful slaughter

320

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

and came heck to restore the monastic life upon the graves of
their glorious brethren. St. Pardoux (Pardulphus), abbot of
the monastery of Varecte (Guéret), likewise received the mar­
tyr’s crown.
*
14. “Charles Martel did not waitf to declare war until the
enemy knocked at the gates of Orleans and Sens. He had not
quitted Gaul that year, but held himself in readiness to balance
the scales of war by the weight of his sword. The appearance
of Eudes, king of Aquitaine, conquered, flying, a general with­
out an army, a king without a realm, showed him that the
danger was more threatening than he had deemed it. During
the summer of 732 the Roman clarions and German horns
kept alive the echoes of Neustria and Austrasia. The most
impenetrable marshes of the Northern Ocean, the pathless
shades of the Black Forest, gave forth a swarm of half-naked
warriors, who poured on toward the Loire, in the rear of the
heavy squadrons of iron-clad Austrasians. This huge mass of
Francs, Teutons, and Gallo-Romans crossed the Loire at Or­
leans, rallied the broken fragments of the Aquitanian army,
which had sought shelter in Berry and Tourraine, and at length
stood face to face with the Arab host under the walls of Poi­
tiers, in the month of October, a. d. 732. Here Aoderahman
had gathered together the countless battalions of his two
armies. The history of the human race scarce records a
more solemn moment. Islamism stood before the last bulwark
of Christianity The North and the South had met. The con­
temporary chronicler, Isidore de Beja, did not misname the
Frankish host when he styled it the European army. If this
army falls, the world is Mahomet’s. What would have been
the future of mankind, had the European civilization of the
Middle Ages, our mother, been thus stifled in the cradle ? At
the moment of the great crisis, Arab civilization, at some
* The monastery of Varecte became renowned in Gaul, and gave its rise and name tc
the city of Guéret.
f We borrow the account of the battle of Poitiers from M. Henry Martin’s History of
Prance which woe the first prize in the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres.

BT. GREGORY HI. (A. D. 731-741).

321

points presented an appearance of chivalry ; but -we should not
deceive ourselves as to the real value of these outward, shining
qualities, nor allow our eyes to be dazzled by the elegant monu­
ments of literature and art which were given to the light in
Cordova, Granada, Bagdad, or Shiraz. Relatively to Euro­
pean convictions, Islamism was no new development of human­
ity, but a fatal leap backward. The Koran revived the fatalism
of the ancients, and doomed woman to the disgraceful yoke of
polygamy, which had been broken by Christian civilization,
both Greek and Roman. The boundless submission of the
Mussulmans to the decrees of fate and to the Prophet’s repre­
sentative, destroyed in them all human personality as well aa
all political existence, and must cast them without transition
from a blind and rash fanaticism into a stupid inactivity.
*
The Frank and the Saracen are about to throw for the fate of
the world. The Austrasian warriors little knew what desti­
nies were to be shaped by their swords that day ; yet they
seemed to feel an indistinct apprehension of the vast importance
of the struggle now before them. The Mussulmans faltered for
the first time. For seven days the East and West watched
each other with fear and hate ; the difference of physiognomy,
costume, and tactics inspired the two armies, or rather the two
worlds, with mutual wonder. The astonished eyes of the
Franks reviewed those myriads of swarthy hue, with manycolored turbans, white cloaks, round bucklers, crooked sabres,
and light lances, curveting about on their uncurried steeds.
The Mussulman sheiks galloped back and forth before the
* In his conference of December 2let, 18-16, Fr. de lacordaire eloquently remarked:
11 Seo the Mussulman I Ho is six centuries behind us. Mahomet had the Gospel within
bis reach; he could copy it, and so he did. And now! What is the Mussulman? What
are Greece and Syria under his rule? What has become of their cultivated fields? Where
is the landscape which, with so many other illustrious recollections, had recalled the poetic
memories of its mountains and valleys? The very earth refuses to live under the degra­
ding power whoso twelve hundred years have not yet taught it to protect a single grain of
wheat. I say nothing of the rest God gave them the fairest portions of the earth, after
even giving them subsequence to His Gospel, to teach us by their example, as near as it
Is st i iking, what will be the fate of nations that reject the Gospel already taught and
known.'
Vol. U.—21

S22

GENERAL HISTORY Of THE CHURCH.

Gallo-Teutonic lines to gain a better view of the northern
giants with their long light locks, their burnished helms, buff
mantles or heavy coats of mail, their long swords and huge
battle-axes. At length, on the seventh day, a Saturday near
the end of October, the muezzin’s cry at early dawn drew
forth the Arabs and Moors from their tents, to prayer. They
formed in line upon the plain, and after the morning devotion
Abderahman gave the signaL The Christian army never
flinched before the hail of darts poured by the Berber archers
on their ranks. The serried masses of the Mussulman cavalry
then, fiercely pealing their well-known war-cry, Allah ak-bar !
(God is great!·), bore down like a hurricane upon the Christian
front. The long French line stood firm and quailed not before
the fearful shock ; hard as a wall of iron, firm as the front of
an iceberg, the pale hordes of the north stood shoulder to shoulder
like marble statues. Twenty times the maddened Turks turned
rein to take a wider field and try the charge again with the
speed of a thunderbolt; twenty times their fiery charge was
dashed like the breaker’s foam from off the unbroken lines.
The Austrasian giants rose in the stirrups on their great Bel­
gian war-horses, received the Arabs on the point of their
swords, and smiting the diminutive sons of the desert with
downward stroke, clove them in two with their frightful long
sabres. The struggle lasted throughout the whole day, and
Abderahman still hoped to weary the Christians’ stout resist­
ance, when toward the tenth hour (four o’clock after noon),
king Eudes, who with the remainder of his Vascons and Aquitanians had turned the Saracen flank, fell upon the Moslem
camp and dispersed the guards. The icy bulwark breaks at
last; Charles and his Austrasians charge in turn, and bear
down all before them. Abderahman and the flower of his host
disappear, crushed beneath the heavy mass of iron.” Charles
had fairly won his name Martel, for like a hammer he had
crushed the might of the Saracens.
15. The results of the battle of Poitiers were incalculable.
The duke of Austrasia dispatched a messenger from the battle­

βτ. GREGORY ni. A. D. 131-741).

323

field to bear to Pope Gregory ΠΙ. :he glad tidings of the Chri·tian victory. The courier’s progress through the country, stricken
with terror by the Moslems’ march, was a continued triumph
Every church in France and Italy resounded with solemn an­
thems of praise to God. The envoys reached Rome, loaded
with the conqueror’s gifts for the church of the Apostles. They
were directed to inform all the enemies of Gregory ΠΙ. that his
son, Charles Martel, protector of Christendom, after having
received such signal protection from Jesus Christ, would never
allow the least insult to be offered to His vicar upon earth. The
emperors of the East could now see the protectorate of the Holy
See, which they had so often changed into persecution and vio­
lence, pass to a nation more worthy of the charge. The Lom­
bards acknowledged the necessity of bowing to the new power
now rising up before them. Charles Martel showed himself woithy of the noble stand he now took before the Catholic world, and
his glory would have been stainless had he not allowed himself
to be led into an unjust persecution of St. Eucherius, bishop of
Orleans, and St. Rigobert, archbishop of Rheims, who had held
him over the baptismal font. St. Eucherius, a monk in the
abbey of Jumiéges, and afterward raised to the bishopric of
Orleans, was accused of plotting against the state. The duke
of Austrasia, without taking time to examine the charges, ban­
ished the holy bishop to Cologne, and afterward to the monas­
tery of St. Trudo or St. Tron, where he died, April 20, a. d.
738. St. Rigobert succeeded St. Reol in the see of Rheims,
about the beginning of the eighth century. His saintly virtue
won the esteem and friendship of Pepin of Herstal, and he
showed a particular zeal for the maintenance of clerical and
monastic discipline in his diocese. The bishop’s great prudence
kept him aloof from the unceasing strifes which divided the
ambitious courtiers, and refusing to take part with Charles Mar­
tel in a movement against the Neustrians (a. d. 717), the duke
deposed him from his see, and gave it to an intruder named
Milo. St. Rigobert died in the monastery of Germcourt, on the

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GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CIIÜRCH.

4th of January, a. d. 740, on which day the Church honors his
memory.
16. Ico.iodasm, backed by the power of Leo the Isaurian,
daily grew into threatening proportions. Pope Gregory III.,
unable to transmit his letters to the emperor, assembled a coun­
cil of ninety-three bishops in St. Peter’s church at Rome. The
Roman nobility, clergy, consuls and people were present (a. d.
732). An anathema was hurled against the Iconoclast heresy.
Everj’ profaner and even every contemner of images was de­
clared unworthy to partake of the body and blood of Jesus
Christ, and was cut off from the communion of the Church.
The Pope once more endeavored to send the decisions of the
council to the emperor, but in vain. The priest Constans, to
whom they were intrusted, was thrown into close confinement,
stripped of the papers he bore about him, and was only released
a year later, overwhelmed with threats and ill treatment. Ao
embassy from the whole of Italy, sent to beg of the emperor
the restoration of holy pictures, met with a like reception. The
Pope wrote on the subject to Leo and to his creature Anasta­
sius ; his complaints and steady opposition only served to rouse
the emperor’s fury to its highest pitch. He armed a fleet for
the subjugation of Italy; but it perished in the Adriatic Sea.
The troops landed on the shore of Ravenna, were attacked
and utterly routed by the inhabitants (a. d. 733). The Icono
clast's madness knew no bounds ; he redoubled his cruelty
toward the Catholics, and, powerless in every other respect
against the Church of Rome, confiscated all its domains in his
states. He moreover issued an imperial edict withdrawing
from its immediate jurisdiction all the provinces between Sicily
and Thrace, comprising Greece, Illyria and Macedonia, and de­
clared them henceforth subject to the Patriarchate of Constan­
tinople. The tax of Sicily and Calabria was increased by a
third ; and, not to exempt even children, it was ordered that
they should be entered upon the rolls of contribution on the
day of their birth
17. Each new deed of violence from Constantinople only

ST. GREGOR? ΠΙ. (A. D. T81-741).

325

tended to estrange Rome and Italy farther from its sway.
Luitprand deemed this juncture favorable for the execution of
the plans of aggrandizement which still filled his mind. He
attacked Thrasimund, duke of Spoleto, who immediately fled
to the shelter of the Sovereign Pontiff and the Romans. A
successful engagement between them and the Lombard forces
restored Thrasimund to Spoleto. Yet Luitprand threatened to
besiege Rome with all his forces, and Gregory feared that the
city would yield to his attacks unless speedily succored. In
this extremity he thus wrote to Charles Martel, who had de­
clared himself the champion of the Holy See : “ Such is the
grief into which we are plunged that we cease not, day and
night, to shed bitter tears over the sad state to which we see
the holy Church of Christ reduced. All that we had laid up
during the past year, for the support of the Roman poor, in the
territory of Ravenna, has been destroyed by fire and sword.
The Lombard kings, Luitprand and Hildebrand, respect nothing.
They mock us with the bitter taunt, ‘ Bring on that Charles
Martel whos’e help you entreat! Let the French arms save
you from our hands, if they can !’ Most Christian son ! help
the Church of St. Peter and its wretched children. Turn not
a deaf ear to our prayers, that the Prince of the Apostles may
be equally favorable to you at the gates of heaven” (a. d. 737).
Charles Martel, detained at home by a fresh inroad of the
Saracens, could not come in person to defend the Holy See.
Since Abderahman’s bloody defeat at Poitiers, the infidels
every year poured a flood of Mussulmans upon the southern
provinces of France, and every year the Hammer of Christianity
crushed the fresh host of enemies Yet the duke of Austrasia
used his influence to advantage in the Pope’s favor. He wrote
to his ally Luitprand, asking him to abstain from hostilities
toward Rome, and the powerful recommendation produced its
effect on the Lombard king (a. d. 739). This was one of the
closing acts of Charles Martel’s great and long administration.
He was only fifty-four years of age. With the new career now
opened to him as titulary champion of the Roman, and coom·

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GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

quently of the Universal, Church, he might yet have looked
forward to many years of power and glory. But death came
upon him at the castle of Quercy-sur-Oise. He left two sons,
Carloman and Pepin : the former received Austrasia, Suabia,
and Thuringia ; the latter inherited the provinces of Neustria,
Burgundy, and Provence. But to the younger it was given to
gather under his single sway the vast possessions of his father,
and to found the Carlovingian dynasty. Death at the same
time seized upon the Iconoclast emperor, Leo the Isaurian, at
Constantinople (a. d. 741). The persecutor and the defender
of the Holy See, together stood before the tribunal of its Divine
Founder; and, as if to close completely this eventful act, the
28th of November of the same year (741) ended the glorious
pontificate of Gregory III.
18. This Pontiff had continued to encourage the missiona­
ries in Germany, and established the four bishoprics of Saltzburg, Freisingen, Ratisbon, and Passaw, under the metropolitan
jurisdiction of St. Boniface of Mayence. Out of his own purse
he raised the walls of Rome and Centum-cellæ, a work designed
by Sisinnius (a. d. 708) during his short pontificate. He bought
from the duke of Spoleto, for a great sum of money, a strong­
hold which often troubled the peace of the Roman territory;
in a word, he availed himself of the very troubles of the times
to shelter the freedom of the Catholic Church from the despot?
ism of the Eastern emperors. He saved Europe, and indeed
the whole world, from the wretched alternative of degrading
itself under the degenerate rule of the Greeks, or of being low­
ered by the brutal domination of the Saracens. Gregory III.
is one of the Pontiffs to whom the whole world owes a debt of
lasting gratitude. Even Photius, the most unfriendly of the
Greek historians, could not but praise Pope Gregory III., and
his successor, St. Zachary. “ How,” he writes, “ can I pass in
silence the Roman Pontiffs Gregory and Zachary, men of lofty
virtue, who have enlightened the world with the teachings of
divine wisdom, and made their day illustrious by their gift
of miracles?”

BT. ZACHARY (A. D. 741-758).

§ III. Pontificate

of

St. Zachary (December 3,
March 15, 752).

327

a. d.

741—

19. The whole world was undergoing a change of rulers at
the same time. While Carloman and Pepin inaugurated their
rule over the Franks, St. Zachary mounted the steps of the
papal throne (December 3, a. d. 741). Neither the emperor nor
the exarch of Ravenna was.consulted in his election, and the con­
secration took place without that formality, which was thence­
forth entirely abolished. At Constantinople the sceptre of Leo
the Isaurian passed into the hands of his son, Constantine V.,
surnamed *
Copronymus, who succeeded his father on the
throne, but far surpassed him in impiety.
20. Luitprand's ambition still disturbed Italy. The Lom­
bard had just despoiled the duke of Spoleto, Thrasimund, the
late ally of the Holy See, whose bad faith and ingratitude had
forced St. Zachary to withdraw the protection with which
Gregory III. had formerly favored him. Luitprand profited
by the chance to seize upon Spoleto and Beneventum. Thrasi­
mund was imprisoned in a monastery. The Pope determined
to turn the unfriendly dispositions of the Lombard king by a
personal meeting at Terni. Luitprand received the Sovereign
Pontiff with the highest honors. Peace was concluded between
the two powers, and Luitprand gave back to the Holy See the
four cities of Ameria, Horta, Polisartium, and Blera, which he
had hitherto unjustly held. He added to this personal restitu­
tion that of the estates of Narni, Sabinium, Osimo, and Ancona,
which the Lombards had successively seized during the past
half century. The treaty between Zachary and Luitprand
presents a feature worthy of note—it is to the Pope that the
restitution of all the estates is made. There must, therefore,
even then have existed a recognized, immediate, sovereign pon­
tifical power, with which the Lombard king treated on terms
• Tils surname was derived from hie having defiled uie baptismal fou·.—Copronymoa
oeing a compound of the Greek worüe «0·** tilth, and ««m. a name.

328

GENERAL HiSTORV OF THE CHURCH.

of equality (a. d. 742). In the following year the prayers of
the inhabitants of the exarchate, still harassed by the restless
ambition of Luitprand, once more called St. Zachary to meet
the king at Pavia, where he held his court. As Pontiff of the
God of peace, he camo to implore the clemency of a prince
whose ambition ever kept his sword unsheathed. Luitprand
could not resist the Pope’s earnest eloquence ; he withdrew his
troops from the territory of Ravenna, and voluntarily gave up
all the usurped provinces. Thus did the Papacy ever prove
the refuge and stay of the downtrodden, against their oppres­
sors, and grateful nations hailed it as a guardian power.
21. The benefactor of Italy, whose various states he so
faithfully guarded, won the same title of gratitude from Ger­
many, where his missionaries steadily spread the light of faith.
He likewise labored to restore to Gaul the discipline which
Mussulman inroads and civil wars had so sadly shaken. St.
Boniface of Mayence received the title of vicar of the Holy See
for all the Churches of Germany. Three new bishoprics were
founded at Wurtzburg, Buraburg, and Erfurth, the capital of
Thuringia. The tireless apostle of Germany, St. Boniface,
gathered all the bishops of his jurisdiction in a national council
(a. d. 742), which published disciplinary canons relating to mat­
ters peculiar to the times. The council dwells particularly
upon the prohibition to all ecclesiastics tu bear arms or to take
part in the numerous wars then desolating the world. A great
number of clerics, bishops and priests had not scrupled, in the
war against Abderahman, to place themselves at the head of the
troops and fight in the foremost rank. The council reminds
them that the hands of a priest should not be stained with
blood, and that their only mission on the battle-field is to bear
the last consolations of religion to the dying. Princes are
allowed to take almoners or chaplains with them on their mili­
tary expeditions ; but all clerics are forbidden on pain of ex
communication to bear arms. As a more effectual separation
from the rest of the world, and a safeguard to the honor of
their ministry, they are enjoined to wear a long black garment»

ST. ZACHARÏ (A. D. 741-16Î).

329

different from the common mantle. Such is the origin of the
present ecclesiastical costume. Hunting was at that period the
favorite pastime of kings, nobles and lords. In that age this
mimicry of nobler war could not but please, and even ecclesias­
tics had allowed themselves to be drawn into the current of the
prevailing passion. “ We forbid all bishops, priests, clerics or
monks,” decreed the Fathers of the council, “ to hunt in the for­
ests with packs of hounds, sparrow-hawks or falcons.” The
newly converted Germans found it hard to strip themselves of
their old heathen superstitions in the idolatrous worship of
Odin, Thor and the Scandinavian gods. The council dwells par­
ticularly on this point. “We ordain that every bishop, within
the limits of his own diocese, forbid all heathen superstition,
such as sacrifices to the shades
*
of the dead, spells, charms, the
immolation of victims, and the sacrilegious fires called nodfirs."\
Another German council convoked during the following year
(a. d. 743) at Leptines (now Lestines), royal residence of the
diocese of Cambray, renewed all the above ordinances and added
the following remarkable canon, published with the consent of
the Fathers under the name of Carloman : “ To meet the ex­
penses of the wars now forced upon us, we have determined,
by the advice and consent of all the bishops, to withdraw for a
time the income of ecclesiastical property, to appropriate it to
the support of our army.” This willing sacrifice of their means
to the defence of the land, showed in the bishops of Germany
a noble example of disinterested attachment to their sovereign.
St. Boniface sent the acts of the two councils to St. Zachary.
The Pope was gratified by these happy beginnings of reform,
and answered by a circular letter to the German clergy, con­
gratulating them on their return to the rules of canonical disci­
pline. “If the clergy in your land,” writes the Pontiff, “strictly
follow out the rules of discipline and chastity as the canons
decree, and brother Boniface teaches in our name, no other peo·
• The chief of the Scandinavian gods, Odin, dwelt in the palace of Valhalla, in th·
region of the clouds, where ho received the shades of the heroes who fell in battle.
t The Northmen honored Ore as a divinity, and paid it a superstitious worship.

330

GENERAL HISTORV OP THE CHURCH.

pie can stand before you.” St. Boniface had worn the pallium
and borne the archiépiscopal rank and responsibilities since the
beginning of Gregory the Third’s pontificate, but had hitherto
been without any fixed see or metropolitan church. He was
now raised to the archbishopric of Mayence, with jurisdiction
over the twelve churches of Strasburg, Spires, Worms, Cologne,
Liege, Augsburg, Wurtzburg, Buraburg (since transferred to
Paderborn), Erfurth, Eichstadt, Constance and Coire. The
archbishop was the soul of Christianity in the northern part of
Europe. All business was brought before him, every difficulty
every doubt was dispelled by his lights, every misfortune found
a support and defence in his charity. His voluminous corre­
spondence with St. Zachary, who had appointed him legate,
shows his respectful submission to the Holy See, and the im­
portance he attached to the close union of Germany with the
centre of Catholic unity. Boniface had to meet obstacles of
every kind ; and one of the most formidable was the decline
of ecclesiastical studies, which had fallen into neglect in those
times of confusion and war. The consequent ignorance of the
clergy had reached a degree which in our days would awake
the deepest contempt. Many of them hardly understood the
formulas used in administering the sacraments. This gave rise
to a curious question put by St. Boniface to the Pope. The
archbishop asked if a baptism should be deemed valid in which
the priest used these words devoid of all meaning : Ego te bap­
tizo in nomine Patria, et Filia, et Spiritua Sancta. St. Zachary
answered that a baptism thus administered in the name of the
Trinity and with the intention of doing what the Church does,
has the qualities essential to the sacrament, and that mere
ignorance of the language, without any mixture of doctrinal
error, could not invalidate it.
22. Innovators took advantage of the dearth of theological
studies to broach the most absurd doctrines. Thus a Scotch
priest named Sampson came to Germany and taught that bap­
tism was a useless formality, and that the imposition of the
bishop’s hands was enough to remit original sin. Another

ST. ZACHART (A. D. 141-16*).

331

priest, of German blood, named Virgil, taught that there were
men living under the earthy not redeemed by Jesus Christ. St.
Zachary wrote to Boniface to excommunicate the reckless in­
novators. Some modern writers, instigated by hatred for the
Catholic Church, have made the condemnation of Virgil an
argument against the Papacy, alleging that St. Zachary con­
demned the teaching of those who held the existence of the
antipodes. Their system would exalt Virgil’s ignorance into
lofty astronomical acquirements, and hold him up to the wot Id as
a scholar whose genius has outrun his age, whose splendid dis­
coveries were rewarded by the anathemas of the Church. This
is but another historical sophism added to the many which the
misbelieving world has already received. Zachary’s condem­
nation touched but one point of dogma, utterly foreign to ques­
tions of astronomy or cosmography. It was aimed solely at
certain heretics teaching the existence of a race of men not
descended from Adam and not redeemed by our Lord.
23. Pepin was not behind his brother Carloman in zeal fot
the establishment of religious discipline in his states. In the
year 744 he assembled twenty-three bishops in council at
Soissons. The canons bore the sanction of the Frankish prince.
They renewed the ordinances vf Leptines and the German
council, and issued some new regulations contained in ten arti­
cles. The council directed that the old canons of the councils
should be published throughout the kingdom, in order to restore
the primitive purity of discipline. The transgressors of canon­
ical laws were made subject to fines. The same council con­
demned the two heretics, Adalbert and Clement. These two
fanatical impostors called themselves bishops, and led many
astray by a hypocritical show of piety At a more enlight­
ened period an open publication of their teaching would have
been its speediest death. Adalbert pretended to have been
eent by God to put an end to the idolatry of churches and
temples. “ The only temple fit for the Divine Majesty,” said
he, “ is the temple of the universe.” It appears by this prop­
osition, that the teaching of the German illuminate was some­

332

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH

what similar to that of the Eastern Iconoclasts. lie based his
mission upon an epistle which he mysteriously showed to his
followers, as having been written by the very hand of the Son
of God. and dropped from heaven at Jerusalem. The crowds,
ever eager for novelties, followed the impostor’s steps in great
numbers. He gathered them together in the country, in the
open air, around little crosses which he set up at every stopping­
place. The characteristic feature of Clement’s heresy was a
contempt for tradition. Clement rejected, in a body, all the
canons, councils, and writings of the holy Fathers. Such a doc­
trine was of course easily received in an age ruled by ignorance.
The Council of Soissons condemned the two heresiarchs, and in
the following year (a. d. 745) St. Zachary confirmed the sen­
tence in a council of eight bishops held at Rome. Both sects
were very short-lived, and left not a single trace either in
Germany or in France.
24. Great Britain also had its council, at Clove-shoe (Cliff),
in the beginning of September (a. d. 747) : Our Lord Jesus Christ
reigning forever, in the words of the Acts. St. Cuthbert, arch­
bishop of Canterbury, presided, and King Ethelbald was present
in person. The thirty canons drawn up by the council contain
a few interesting particulars. “ Every priest should be able to
explain, in the language of the country, the Creed, the Lord’s
Prayer, the words used in celebrating the Holy Mysteries, in
administering baptism, and in the other offices of the Church.
The rule of the Roman Church, which we have in writing, shall
be followed in all the liturgy.” The council blames the growing
abuse of substituting alms at will for the canonical penances
imposed by the priest in satisfaction for sins committed. The
subject of canonical penances had lately been settled in England
by the Penitential Code of Egbert, archbishop of York. The
holy prelate, who was a brother of Edbert, king of Northumber­
land, composed, at the same time, a celebrated pontifical, in
which appeared for the first time the ceremonial for the royal
unction. The Church has a twofold object in pouring holy oil
upon ciowned heads : she wishes to awake in the people a feel-

ST. ZACHARY (A. D. 741-752).

333

Ing of reverence for authority by placing it under the immediate
sanction of God, while warning rulers that their mission is an
apostolic one, and that the greater and more sublime the power
they wield, the more directly it depends upon God, “Who judges
justice and holds in His hand the hearts of kings.” According
to St. Egbert’s pontifical, the ceremony began by the following
oath on the king’s part : “ I swear to keep the Church of God
and the Christian people under my rule in peace ; 2d, to re­
press injustice, from whatever source it may come; 3d, to
blend, in all my judgments, justice with mercy. So may the
good and most clement God forgive us all in His eternal mercy!”
The king was next anointed with holy oil. The chief nobles
then drew near, and, together with the bishops, gave the sceptre
into his hand. The archbishop then began the acclamations:
“ Be he ever magnanimous and victorious ! Be all his judg­
ments wise and just ! Be his reign blest with peace and his
triumphs bloodless ! Be his life but an unbroken chain of pros­
perous days ! And after his earthly reign, may he enjoy one
of endless bliss in heaven !” The people then thrice called out,
Vivat rex in œternum ! Very low must be the moral standard
of the heart which does not feel that such a ceremony laid a
far more lasting foundation for a reign than the shouts of the
streets or popular clamors.
25. While the saintly archbishop of York was drawing up
these touching ceremonies of coronation for the Anglo-Saxon
kings, to remind princes that wise counsels and lofty concep­
tions are born in heaven, the brutal impiety of Constantine
Copronymus was deeply disgracing the Eastern throne. This
monarch, the too worthy heir of Leo the Isaurian, did not hesi­
tate openly to deny the Catholic faith. His sacrilegious blas­
phemies revolted even the Patriarch Anastasius, that creature
of an Iconoclast emperor. From the very pulpit of St. Sophia,
Anastasius swore by the Holy Cross that he had heard Coprony­
mus, in his own presence, deny the divinity of Jesus Christ, and
outrage the name that saved the world. Constantine V. plunged
the empire into mourning and ruins. He sought to immortal

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GENERAL BISTORT OF ΤΠΕ CHURCH.

ize bis reign by persecuting the faithful who refused to join the
Iconoclast heresy. To this period of desolation and blood the
Christians could apply the words of the Gospel : “ The hour
cometb, that whosoever killeth you will think that he doth a
service to God. And these things will they do to you because
they have not known the Father nor Me.” But Copronymus
soon became so intolerable to his downtrodden subjects that
they rose up and deposed him in favor of his brother-in-law
Artavasdes. With all his vices, Constantine V. was unques­
tionably brave. He gathered six thousand soldiers under his
command, besieged Constantinople, in which his rival had taken
shelter, reduced it by famine, and gave it up to be plundered
by his pretorians. Artavasdes and two of his sons had their
eyes plucked out by the emperor’s order. The Patriarch Ana
stasius was publicly scourged in the hippodrome, and afterward
led through the streets of Constantinople upon an ass, with his
face toward the animal’s tail, as a punishment for favoring
the attempt of Artavasdes. Yet the prelate kept his patriarchal
throne. “ The emperor,” says Theophanes, “ could not have
found a worse one to put in his place.” Anastasius was in­
deed one of the warmest Iconoclasts in the empire.
26. Far different was the example given to the world by a
Frankish prince at the same period. One day in the year 747,
a stranger knocked at the gate of the monastery of Monte Cas·
sino. On being admitted he threw himself at the abbot’s feet
and said to him . “I am a wretch loaded with crimes. I have
voluntarily forsaken my country to make myself worthy of a
heavenly homo.” He was accompanied by an attendant ; both
were received among the novices. After a year of trial they
made their profession to the abbot Optatus, successor of St.
Petronax. No one knew the names of the new brethren. One
of them was sent to serve in the kitchen, which duty he ao
cepted with joy, but, through wai < of experience, doubtless, dis­
charged rather ill. The cook, seeing his dishes spoiled, was so
far excited as to give the unhandy scullion a blow. Tba hum­
ble religious uttered but the expression : “May God $-.ad Car-

ST. ZACHARY (A. D. 141-163).

335

Ionian forgive you 1” But his companion, who had witnessed
the brutal punishment, unable to withhold his indignation, seized
a pestle close at hand and struck the cook a violent blow, with
the exclamation : May neither God nor Carloman forgive
you !” The abbot made this a crime in the stranger monk, and
asked him before the whole community how he had dared to
strike an officer of the monastery. “ It is,” replied the culprit,
“ because I could not see so much nobility and virtue so basely
treated. This unknown religious is Carloman, the son of Charles
Martel, and lately sovereign of half of Gaul, who has been led
by the love of Jesus Christ to forsake the glory and power of
the world.”* It was indeed Prince Carloman ; weary of human
greatness, he had left his states to his brother Pepin, and came
to seek rest and quiet in the solitude of Monte Cassino. Fore­
most among the religious in humility, he begged the lowest
offices of the convent as a favor. He kept the flocks belonging
to the monastery. Such examples of royal humility were not
few at that period. The same monastery of Monte Cassino
soon saw another crowned head bowed beneath the yoke of
religious discipline. After the death of the Lombard king
Luitprand (a. d. 744) and the ephemeral reign of Hildebrand,
Rachis, duke of Friuli, was elected to succeed them. The new
king at first showed friendly dispositions, and renewed the alli­
ance made by Luitprand with the Romans. But he shortly
afterward determined upon seizing Pentapolis, and laid vigor­
ous siege to Perugia. St. Zachary at once came forth from
Rome accompanied by the chief members of his clergy and the
citizens, and sought the king in his very camp. He not only
persuaded the monarch to raise the siege, but spoke to him so
feelingly of his eternal welfare and the hollowness of every
earthly interest, that Rachis yielded to the resistless voice
of inward grace, forsook the royal dignity, received the reli·
• This occurrence, which may seem somewhat extraordinary in our time, is related by
lUgin on, abbot of Prum, ard by contemporaneous chronicles; some modern writers object
to it on the ground of it* romantic coloring, but offer no solid proofs in support of ibeto
view

336

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

gious habit from the Pontiff’s own hands, and sought a cell io
the holy shades of Monte Cassino, where he ended his days in
pence. Three hundred years later the passing stranger was
still shown a vine which bore his name; he had planted and
trained it with his own hands. His brother Astolphus suc­
ceeded him on the Lombard throne (a. d. 750).
27. Pepin, now left sole master of Gaul by his brother’s
retreat, still possessed but the modest title of mayor of the
palace. A king in fact, he was by right but the minister of a
royal phantom, Childeric III., a weak and powerless prince.
A change of dynasty was imminent. The nation had long
been prepared for it by the slothfulness of the sluggard kings,
degenerate scions of the great Clovis. The crown of the
Franks was originally elective, but the genius of Clovis had
fixed it in his family. His descendants, however, had made
this hereditary right odious by their luxurious incapacity. The
blood of Charles Martel, the champion of Christendom, was now
endeared to the Franks, and the duke of Austrasia had won for
his race a royal crown on the field of Poitiers. Pepin was
about taking a step which would secure him a throne; he
wished to sanction his enterprise in the eyes of nations by the
approval of the highest authority in the world, that of the
Vicar of Jesus Christ. “In the year 751,” says Eginhard,
“Burchard, bishop of Wurtzburg, and Fulrad, chaplain of the
Frankish prince, and afterward abbot of St. Denis, were sent
to Rome to obtain from Pope Zachary an answer to the follow­
ing question : ‘ Who has the better right to the name of king,
he who holds nothing of royal authority but the name, or
he who possesses it all without the name ?’ The Pope replied :
‘ It is just and reasonable that he who has all the royal power
should also have the name of king.’ In the following year
(a. d. 752) Pepin the *
Short was elected king of the Franks,
consecrated by the holy bishop of Mayence, St. Boniface, and
• The diminutive size of hie body, to which he owed hie surname, was accompanied bv
prouigious strength. The story is weU known of hie display of muscular power in killing ·
lion and a bull in the arena, before the courtiers who rallied him on bis low stature.

ST. ZACHARY (A. D. 741-762).

337

raised, according to the national custom, upon the great shield
of the city of Soissons.”
The decision of Pope Zachary, in this matter, has been made
the subject of the most various criticisms. It has been taxed with
injustice, as depriving a lawful king of a power belonging to him
by deed and by right. It has been called a pontifical encroach­
ment on the temporal domain of kings. Not to moot a fruitless
discussion, we purpose merely to quote the opinions of three
French writers, whose names alone should be authority enough :
they are Bossuet, Fénelon, and M. de Chateaubriand. “The
Pontiff is consulted,” says Bossuet, “as in an important and
doubtful question, to decide whether it be lawful to give the
title of king to him who already holds the royal power. He
replies that it is lawful. The decision, coming from the highest
authority in the world, is deemed just and binding. By virtue
of this authority, the nation itself takes the kingdom from
Childeric and transfers it to Pepin. The Pope was not asked to
take or to give away the kingdom, but to decide that the king­
dom might be taken or given away by those whom he thought
empowered to act in the case.”* “Pope Zachary,”says Fénelon,
“ simply answers the question of the Franks, as the chief doctor
and pastor, whose duty it is to clear up particular cases of con­
science in order to quiet troubled souls.” f “ Thus the Church
neither deposed nor set up temporal princes ; she only answered
the nations that consulted her on matters of conscience relative
to oaths and contracts. This is not exercising a juridical and civil
power, but one merely of direction and ordination, as proved
bj Gerson.” J “ To treat Pepin’s accession to the crown as a
usurpation,” says M. de Chateaubriand, § “ is one of those old
historic lies which have become truths by dint of repetiticn.
There can be no usurpation where the monarchy is elective : it
is the hereditary succession which, in this case, constitutes the*§
* Bossvct, Defensio Cleri Gallic., lib. iL, ch. 34.
f ŒhiTM compléta de Fékbiox, Versailles, tom. iL, p. 33À
Ï Ibid., t iL, p. 384.
§ Eludes Eistoriqua, t iL, p. 243.
Vou Π —2β

338

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

usurpation. Pepin was elected with the knowledge and consent
of all the Franks ; such are the words of Fredegarius’s first continuator. Pope Zachary, when consulted by Pepin, could law­
fully reply : It seems to me just and reasonable that he should
be king who wields the power though he have not the name,
rather than he who holds but the title without the power."
28. St Zachary’s decision in regard to the Carlovingian dy­
nasty was his last pontifical act. He died on the 14th of March,
a. d. 752. In the course of his fatherly administration, he
rescued a number of slaves whom the Venetian dealers wished
to take to Africa for sale to the infidels. The Venetians seemed
to be departing from the system of moderation which had satis­
fied them with a wise mode of government under the protection
of the Sovereign Pontiffs. Love of wealth led many merchants
of the republic into a desire to stretch their commercial rela­
tions at any price. But commerce is not like industry, which
tempers its egotism by a national and patriotic feeling which
:an excuse it to a certain extent. The commerce of the
Venetians showed itself, from the outset, what trade too often
proves to be everywhere, thoroughly cosmopolitan, without
respect for religion or one of its noblest teachings, that which
discountenances *
slavery
St. Zachary gave a momentary
check to this scandal. This Pontiff has left us some Letter»
and Decrees, and a translation from Latin into Greek of the
Dialogues of St. Gregory the Great.

§ IV. Pontificate

Stephen II. (March 18,
March 20, 752).

of

a. d.

752—

29. After the death of Pope Zachary, the clergy and people
elected, as his successor, a priest named Stephen, and placed
him in possession of the Lateran palace, but he died suddenly
on the second day after his promotion. As he was never
crowned, many historians do not rank him among the Sovereign
• H. ABT1ÜD DB

Mohtob,

HMoire du Souverain» Pontife», 1« »ol, Pontificat d» Saint

STEPHEN ΙΠ. (A. D. 752-157).

339

*Pontiff
But the official list of Popes, published yearly at
Rome, by the Diario, with the approbation of the Holy See,
mentions Stephen II. in his proper place. We have deemed it
safe to follow an opinion consecrated by the pontifical author­
ity itself. Moreover, this system is preferable from the fact
that it establishes a more régulai" nomenclature for the remain­
ing Popes of the same name
*

§ V. Pontificate

op

Stephen III. (March 26, a. d. 752—
April 26, 757).

30. The clergy and people, gathered together in the church
of St. Mary Major, elected by acclamation a new Pope, under
the name of Stephen ΙΠ. (March 26, a. d. 752). So lively was
the joy awakened by his election, that the enthusiastic multitude
bore him upon their shoulders to the basilica of St. John
Lateran. The usage has since been renewed, at the installation
of each new pontiff, and was the origin of the sedia gestatoria—
the pontifical chair, borne by twelve of the Noble Guards. This
imposing ceremony gives to the Roman pomps a splendor never
equalled by any other sovereign court.
31. The Pontiff soon found himself in trouble with Astolphus, king of the Lombards, who had just seized upon Ravenna.
Eutychius, the last exarch who ever ruled the city as lieutenant
of the Byzantine emperors, fled to Greece. The exarchate was
abolished after an existence of one hundred and eighty years.
In the views of Astolphus this was but the first step toward
the rule of all Italy—that unreal vision pursued through num­
berless vicissitudes by so many monarchs, who have repeatedly
atoned for their ambitious folly by such cruel reverses. In the
plan of Divine Providence Italy must remain divided, that the
Rome of the Popes may ever be independent ; and since its dis­
memberment at the fall of the Roman Empire in the West, it
• Novaes and the other hiatoriaoa who reject Stephen Ππ are obliged to mention the
other Pontiffs of the name with thia qualification ; Stephen IL, etyled Stephen ΙΠ. ; StepJM
rV. rtykd Stephen V, and so on till Stephen IX, rtyfcJ Stephen X

840

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

has been given to no human power to restore the disjointed
fragments. The Lombard king was far from sharing this eleva­
ted view of the subject. At the head of all his forces he
marched into the Roman territory. Stephen III. succeeded in
his first endeavor to obtain peace. Astolphus signed a treaty,
which was to last for a term of forty years ; it was broken
within four months, and Astolphus again stood at the gates of
Rome. The city was in a state of the utmost consternation.
The Pope sent a courier to Constantinople to warn the emperor
that the hour had come to strike a decisive blow and save Rome,
if he wished to keep an inch of ground in Italy. This token of
faithful loyalty on the part of the Sovereign Pontiff was the
more meritorious, as the Eastern emperors, instead of protect­
ing, had, for the last century, most relentlessly persecuted the
Holy See. Copronymus was too far below such magnanimity
to know how to reply to it. Besides, he had just made exten­
sive military outlays to attack the Turks and profit by the
civil feud which had just broken out between the house of the
Ommiades and that of the Abbassides. Astolphus availed him­
self of the inertness of the Eastern emperor to show himself more
impracticable than ever. He threatened to put all the Romans
to the sword if they refused to bow to his authority. The
juncture urged the Pope to a great resolution. He ordered a
solemn procession, to beg the Divine mercy for his wretched
people. Barefooted, his head covered with ashes, and followed
by a weeping throng, the Pontiff bore upon his shoulders a
miraculous image of our Lord Jesus Christ. The treaty of
peace violated by the Lombard king was attached to the pro­
cessional cross. A deputation secretly left Rome, on the fol­
lowing day, to bear to the Frankish king, Pepin the Short, the
cry of distress from Italy and the Holy See. Stephen III.
sent the following message to the king : “ Send ambassadors
to Rome, ostensibly to invite me to come to you.” The mere
course of events thus naturally brought on one of the most de­
cisive events in history. The political precedence was now to
be finally transferred from the East to the West, France would

8ΤΕΡ£1£Λ m. ta. b. ÎM-487;.

341

take her stand at the head oi the nations, and open a new era
in the history of man.
32. The deputation, to whose keeping was intrusted the
welfare of the Church and of the world, escaped the watchful
jealousy of Astolphus, and safely leached the Frankish court.
Since his accession, Pepin had proved himself worthy to rule
the most Christian nation. He had utterly expelled the Sarar
cens from the South of Gaul, and had marched into Spain as
far as Barcelona. In the second year of his reign (a. d. 753)
he had turned his victorious arms against the idolatrous Saxons,
who still persecuted their missionaries and burned the Christian
churches. When he had destroyed their strongholds, the king
granted them peace, on condition that the teachers of the Gos­
pel should enjoy full liberty to preach and baptize. Pepin the
Short received the Pope's envoys as his heroic father Charles
Martel would have done. He promised to place the sword of
the Frank at the disposal of the Sovereign Pontiff, to help him
to resist the pretensions of Astolphus, and immediately sent
St. Chrodegang, bishop of Metz, and the duke Autcharius,
to bring Stephen III. to Gaul (a. d. 753). When the royal
ambassadors reached Rome, they found the Pope on the point
jf setting out to implore once more the clemency of Astolphus.
On the 14th of October (a. d. 753), Stephen III. passed out of
his pontifical city, followed by a weeping throng of his faithful
people, who earnestly strove to turn him from a course so
fraught with danger. St Chrodegang and Autcharius accom­
panied him to Pavia, but Astolphus was unyielding. The two
ambassadors demanded, in their sovereign’s name, that the
Lombard should at least grant the Pontiff a safe-conduct to
Gaul, where their master awaited his presence. This demand
surprised Astolphus, who knew nothing of the preceding nego­
tiations ; but, after a stubborn resistance, he was at last forced
to yield. But he had no sooner given the safe-conduct than
he repented the deed, and sought to hinder the Pontiff’s jour­
ney. It was too late. Stephen III., little trusting his gener-

342

OBNERAlt H’ST'tRV OF THF CHURCH.

osity, had already crossed the frontier, with George, bishop of
Ostia, and Vilcarius, bishop of Nomentum.
33. On his arrival at St. Mauritius, in Valais, Stephen III,
found Fulrad, archchaplain of the palace, and Duke Rotard,
whom Pepin had sent to meet him. The king himself was
occupied with a military expedition in Saxony, but on learning
that the Pope had crossed the Alps, he hastened back to France.
The meeting occurred at Pontyon, in Champagne. The king
advanced to meet the Pontiff, dismounted, and humbly pros­
trated himself to the earth, with his wife and children, as well
as all the lords of his court The escort then moved on, the
king, on foot, held the bridle of the Pontiff’s horse, thus acting
as groom to the Vicar of Jesus Christ. As he set his foot upon
the threshold of the hospitable palace of Pontyon (on the feast
of the Epiphany, January 6, a. d. 754), Stephen III. intoned a
canticle of thanksgiving. The deep religious emotion of the
flying Pontiff may be imagined, on finding, in a strange land,
children as respectful as they were devoted. He offered pious
gifts to the king and princes. On the next day Stephen, with
his clergy, appeared before the whole court, barefooted, in sack­
cloth and ashes. Yesterday the Pontiff was entering the palace
of a king; to-day the suppliant, the fugitive, begs for help and
protection. Prostrate before King Pepin, he beseeches him, by
the divine mercy, to rescue the Holy See and the Roman people
from the tyranny of the Lombards, and keeps his humble pos­
ture until the Frank holds out his royal hand as a pledge of the
promised help. The scene left a deep impression upon the
lords who witnessed it, and they all swore, with the king, never
to sheathe the sword until the Lombard’s insolence had been
punished. The Pope then took up his residence in the mon­
astery of St. Denis. Fatigue and grief had undermined his
health ; he fell seriously ill He attributed his recovery to St.
Denis, and left to the monastery his pallium, which has been
kept until very lately as a precious memorial of the Pontiff’s
visit. Frankish envoys had been sent to ask Astolphus to

STEPHEN ΠΙ. (A. D. 752-167).

34S

cease hostilities against the Holy See, now under the protection
of Pepin. Astolphus replied in terms of haughty contempt.
34. Pepin the Short assembled all the nobles of his king­
dom in a Champ de Mai (field of *May), at Quercy-sur-Oise
(April 14, 754). The Pope was present in person, and the
Italian expedition was resolved upon. The bishops availed
themselves of the Pope’s presence to settle various questions
of discipline already treated in the previous year (a. d. 753),
in the local council of Verberie.j· Nineteen points were pro­
posed : ten on marriage, five on baptism, four relating to the
clergy. The articles on marriage relate mostly to its indisso­
lubility. It is forbidden to confer baptism with wine. It is
allowed, in case of necessity, to administer the sacrament by
pouring water upon the head from a shell or with the hands.
This decision relates to the custom then in use of baptism by
immersion. Pope Stephen III. resolved most of the cases pro­
posed, on the authority of the ancient decretals of St. Leo, St.
Innocent and St. Sericius, or by the canons of Chalcedon, Anti­
och, Neocesarea and Carthage. Two months after the field of
Quercy (July 28, a. d. 754), the Franks were again called
together by an august solemnity. In the church attached tn
the monastery of St. Denis, the Sovereign Pontiff renewed the
ceremony of Pepin’s coronation. He poured the holy oil upon
the monarch’s forehead, and at the same time anointed his
queen, Bertrade, and their two sons, Charles, afterward Char­
lemagne, and Carloman. After this unction Pepin led his army
toward the boundaries of Italy.
35. To avert the storm about to break upon him, Astolphus
was at length reduced to supplications. He apologized for his
insulting replies to the Frankish ambassadors. Hoping to
secure a more favorable reception of bis embassy by Pepin, he
intrusted it to the man who should have been most acceptable
* Thia was tho name given to the usual gathering of lords called by the French kings,
in the spring of each year, to prepare military expeditions.
t A town in tho department of Oise, near Senlis. It .ontamed a famous palace built bf
the kings of Neustria.

344

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

to him : it was Carloman, the humble religious of Monte Cas·
lino The king of the Franks received his brother with marks
*
of the truest friendship ; but told him, concerning the mission
on which he had come, that the Franks were bound by solemn
oath to the Sovereign Pontiff’s cause, and could not now with
draw. The army therefore marched on, followed by Stephen.
Pepin sent forward a small force to seize the Alpine passes.
At the sight of this handful of troops, Astolphus suddenly fell
upon them with a strong force. But the courage of the Franks
made up for want of numbers. The Lombard host was cut to
pieces ; Astolphus himself owed his safety to a shameful flight,
and took shelter within the walls of Pavia. Pepin led the
remainder of his army across the Alps, entered Italy, and be­
sieged Astolphus in his own capital. Yet Stephen III. could
not forget that he was a father. His pity was moved, and he
begged the royal Frank to spare the shedding of Christian
blood. His peaceful intervention secured a treaty between the
Romans, the Franks and the Lombards. Astolphus and his
nobles solemnly promised to restore Ravenna and all the
usurped cities. Pepin required hostages, and then returned to
France. Stephen IIL, the Liberator of Italy, was at length
free to return to his pontifical city. On his way to Rome,
escorted by Prince Jerome, brother of Pepin the Short, by Fulrad, and other Frankish nobles, he was met in the field of Nero,
near the Vatican, by the Roman clergy and people, uttering cries
of joy. Tears filled every eye. “ Our father has come back
to us!” cried the people with deep emotion. “After God, he
is our hope !”
36. But the treachery of the crafty Astolphus soon changed
the joyful shouts into cries of fear. On the 1st of January,
a. d. 755, the Lombard king again stood xefore the walls of
* Carloman died at Vienne, in Dauphin, on hia way to Itai/ (λ. d. 764). Pepin, who was
cloeely attached to hia brother, enclosed hia body in a golden coffin and eent hia sacred
temains to Monte Caasino. Some martyrologies mention Carloman as a saint on the 17 th
of August, the day of hia death ; but no public veneration ia paid him. Hie aahea repose
under the high altar at Monte Caaaino, in an urn of onyx stone ; a splendid Inscription waa
p'joed upon it in the year 1628

STEPHEN ΠΙ. (A. D. 1M-W)·

345

Rome, to which he laid vigorous siege. For three months the
city was so closely invested that the Pope found it almost im­
possible to send the letter by which he once more called upon
Pepin to come to the rescue of the Holy See. “You will doubt­
less have learned from other sources,” he writes, “ that the
impious Astolphus has violated the conditions of peace to
which he had sworn. He has again laid siege to Rome. He
has sent the following message to the Romans : ‘ Open the
Salarian gate ; give me up your Pope, or I shall tear down your
walls and put you all to the sword.’ The whole neighboring
country has been wasted by fire and carnage. They have
burned dwellings and churches, violated monasteries, broken
the sacred images and outraged the Holy Mysteries. Children
are murdered at the mother’s breast ; the vines have been cut
down to the roots, the harvests trodden under their horses’
hoofs ; and now, to the horrors of war are added the pangs of
hunger. For fifty-five days have they besieged this wretched
city, hemming it in on all sides : night and day they renew the
assault and make new breaches in the walls. They taunt us
with the cry : ‘ Let your Franks come on now ! your brave de­
fenders ! Let them snatch you from our grasp !’ Their hosts
now press so closely round us that we have hardly been able
to send you these lines bathed with our tears. Hasten, then,
beloved prince, to our rescue. What people ever appealed to
the gallant nation of the Franks and found not relief? How
much more should it be your glory to save the Apostolic See
and the Holy Church of God !” To these plaintive prayers he
added another letter, written in the name of St Peter, whose
successor he was, and of the whole Roman Church. By a bold
and eloquent personification, the Prince of the Apostles ad­
dressed the king of the Franks, exhorting him to hasten to the
help of his Church.
*
Pepin was not deaf to the appeal Like
• In this letter Fleury finds matter for incredibly bitter criticisms. " Stephen'» letter,”
he eaya, " is valuable as an index of the spirit of his ago, and shows how far the grave·!
men could push a fiction when they found it useful. Moreover, it is like the former on%
full of ambiguities. It makes the Church couist not tn the assembly of the faithful, but m
the temporal property consecrated to God ; Christ’s flock ώ made up of the bodies, not 'J»

846

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHÜRCB.

a thunderbolt, he once more crosses the Alps and the Lombard
territory, and invests Pavia, in which Astolphus had hardly
had time to throw himself with his army. The spirit of the
Franks was irresistible. The city was on the point of falling
under their attack, when 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. While the arti­
cles were being drawn up which made the Popes successors to
the former power of the Eastern emperors, Gregory, chief sec
retary of Constantine Copronymus, and John the Silentiary,
entered Pavia as ambassadors of the Byzantine court. They
had come to put forward their master’s claims to the provinces
which Pepin was about to bestow upon the Sovereign Pontiffs.
Copronymus had stood aloof in the hour of danger, and now
came forward to share the spoils. These representatives of a
fallen power, found the whole of Italy opposed to their claims.
It seemed to them supremely absurd that the sword of the
Franks, the most Christian nation, should have conquered
only in the interest of an Iconoclast emperor. Pepin under­
stood this. The two envoys were dismissed ; the gift to the
Holy See, in the person of Pope Stephen III., was solemnly
ratified. 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.
souls; the temporal promises of the Old Law are mixed up with the spiritual ones of the
Gospel, and the most sacred motives are urged in an affair of state.” It seems in no
wise doubtful to us that Fleury’s desire to criticise a pope has made him forget the first
principles of Christian faith. Rome is to the people under the New Law, to all Christian­
ity, what Jerusalem was to the people under the Old Law. There is no one nation whose
interest is not bound up in the independence of Pontifical Rome, the centre of Catholio
unity, the seat of supreme authority. This fact did not escape Bossuet, whoso words we
here quote in opposition to Fleury: “That the Apostolic Seo," says the illustrious prelate,
“ has received the sovereignty of the city of Rome and of other territory, in order more
treelj and securely to wield its apostolic power throughout the universe, is a fact on which
we congratulate not only the Holy See, but the whole Churoh ; and we pray Heaven with
ell the fervor of our hearts, that this sacred sovereignty may be preserved in every partie»
lar, safe and unimpaired."

STEPHEN ΙΠ. (A. D. 752-757).

34 ί

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 twenty-two cities were laid, with King
Pepin’s deed of gift, upon the Confession of St. Peter. The
independence of the Holy See was established. Of all their
former Italian possessions, the Eastern emperors now held but
a few towns in the duchy of Beneventum.
37. Constantine Copronymus, entirely given up to his icon­
oclastic rage, suffered all these disgraces with indifference. He
thought that he had done enough for his own glory and the
safety of the empire, by devoting some Catholic monks to the
contempt of the rabble in the arena of the hippodrome. In the
year 754 he had convoked his famous Iconoclast council in the
church of St. Sophia; one hundred and thirty-eight Eastern
bishops, fawning slaves, condemned the veneration of images
and anathematized those who honored them. Special canone
were directed against painters and sculptors, forbidding them
to represent on canvas, wood, stone, marble, gold, or brass, anj
religious subject whatever, under pain of excommunication, by
which punishment, however, they were not exempted from
those decreed by the imperial *laws. The work of devastation,
the plundering of churches and monasteries, and the shedding
of Catholic blood, were resumed with the same savage fury as
in the days of Leo the Isaurian ; and the Iconoclast heresy did
as much to swell the martyr ranks of the Church, as the pagan­
ism of Nero and Diocletian. Holy priests, virgins consecrated
to the service of the altar, persons of every rank and condition,
• “Cold, rigid Protestantism." says M. Poujoulat, "devoid of greatness and life (Spenohoim-Gibbon), is enthusiastic in its admiration of the Iconoclast council of a. D. 754. With
Leo the Isaurian and Copronymus, it raises the cry of idolatry! superstition! on seeing our
churches decorated with the masterpieces of great artists. Assertera of free thought, leave
us our artists! cease to fetter the intellect! Allow Raphael to give us the Transfyperatton,
the IMy ftimdy, the pure and heavenly lineaments of the Mother of God. Permit Buono*
rotti to bequeath hie Last Judgment to the admiration of posterity I Let Rembrandt's pencil
take us to witness the Descent from the Cross, let Rubens show us Christ healing the
and withhold not Canova's chisel, as it bows over the crucifix the weeping figure of the
Kepe-dml Magdalen Γ—(Histoire de Constantinople, t. L, p. 235.)

34 S

GENERAL BISTORT OF THE CHURCH.

covered with blood and loaded with chains, were savagely
dragged through the streets of Constantinople, and then
plunged into dark dungeons, to die of hunger and misery.
The most celebrated martyrs who owe their crowns to the
persecution of Copronymus, were St. Stephen, abbot of the
monastery of St. Auxentius, St. Andrew the Calybite (or re­
cluse). from the isle of Crete, and St. Peter the Stylite. When
Stephen was brought before Constantine, he drew from his
bosom a coin bearing the emperor’s effigy, and presented it to
the tyrant, with the words, “Whose image and inscription is
this, my lord ?” “ It is ours,” replied the astonished emperor.
The holy abbot thereupon threw down the piece of money and
trampled upon it. The attendants were on the point of hew­
ing him in pieces, to avenge the outraged imperial dignity.
“Alas!” cried the holy confessor, “if we are punished for dis­
honoring the image of a mortal monarch, what shall be the
punishment of those who dishonor and burn the image of Jesus
Christ and His holy Mother ?” A few days later St. Stephen
was given up to the rage of the Byzantine rabble, who tied his
feet with a rope and dragged him through the streets, until his
body had been literally tom into shreds. Peter the Stylite
suffered the same punishment. Constantinople had become but
one vast scene of bloody executions. The sight was every­
where met by scenes of mutilation : here a Catholic had his
eyes torn out, there another lost his nose ; more were torn
with whips, and many cast into the sea. An invocation of the
Blessed Virgin, the act of entering a church, or assisting at any
religious office, was deemed a treasonable offence, and won for
the culprit torture and death. These inhuman orders were
executed at Constantinople by the patrician Antony, the master
of offices Peter, and the soldiers of the imperial guard. The
provincial governors vied with each other in seeking the em­
peror’s good graces by their cruelty toward the Catholics. St.
Andrew the Calybite came from the island of Crete to Constan­
tinople, to sustain the courage of the faithful in the midst of the
persecution. As the emperor was one day present at one of

STEPHEN 1Π. (A. D. 153-157).

34>>

these bloody executions, St. Andrew pierced the crowd, made
his way through the imperial retinue, seized the emperor’s
bridle, and addressed him : “ Prince, if you believe in Jesus
Christ, how dare you thus treat the Christians, his living
images ?” The guards seized him and would have put him to
death, but Constantine checked them. He spoke to Andrew
with more than his usual mildness, and tried to win him to hie
cause by the promise of the highest honors. “ Why is it,”
asked the fearless athlete of the faith, “ that while you punish
those who insult the emperor’s image, you still order insults to
be offered to images of Jesus Christ, who is far greater than
the emperor ?” “Well,” replied Copronymus, “ since your own
acknowledgment condemns those who show a want of respect
to the emperor’s image, what do you deserve, who have insulted
the emperor in person ?” And the holy hermit was given up
to the fury of the rabble. They stripped him, tore him with
whips, broke his jaw, and fastened a rope about him with the
intention of dragging him through the streets of the city ; but
one of the monsters struck at him with such fury as to cot
off one of his legs, upon which the holy martyr immediately
expired.
38. The peculiar hatred entertained by Constantine Copro­
nymus against religious was chiefly due to the fearless elo­
quence of the holy monk John Damascen, whose reputation
was as wide as the boundaries of the East. His genius seemed
to grow with the indignation everywhere aroused through the
Catholic world by the cruelty of the Iconoclasts. His works
followed each other with wonderful rapidity. In the immense
work called the Source of Science, addressed to his early pre­
ceptor, Cosmo, bishop of Majuma, he treats the whole collec­
tion of human acquirements, and crowns them all with the
divine science of theology. He met the various heretical sys­
tems with the truths of faith, and proved, by powerful *reason
ing and a captivating eloquence, the absurdity of Iconoclasm.
To popularize devotion toward the Blessed Virgin and the
saints, whose images Constantine destroyed, he wrote hymn?

350

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

full of sublime poetical beauties. It is especially in singing
the praises of the Mother of God that his soul kindles with
inspiration, and finds expression in words of fire : “ Mother of
life,” he writes, “ kill in me the passions of the body, which
are the death of the spirit. Protect my soul when it leaves
this earthly tabernacle to soar above, to a better world. The
storm of passion plays wildly round me now, the billows of
iniquity hurry me on to the gulf of despair. Star of the sea,
still the foaming surge. The roaring lion seeks to devour me.
Leave me not to his fury, 0 Immaculate Virgin ; thou who
didst give to the world the divine Child Whose hand hath
broken the lion’s teeth.” Ever in the breach, John was always
found where the foes were thickest. The Manicheans, under
the name of Paulicians, were again beginning to multiply in
Syria, under cover of the Mussulmans’ hatred of Catholicity.
About the eleventh year of his reign, Constantine Copronymus
conveyed a number of these heretics into Thrace, whence they
infested Bulgaria, under the name of Bogomili, and afterward
spread into the West as Albigenses and Patarini. To protect
the faithful of his day from their •'nares, St. John Damascen
wrote a dialogue refuting all their impious systems with a mas­
terly logic. His energetic zeal was equally tireless against the
Eutychians, the Nestorians and the Monothelites. Catholicity
found in him a champion of the stamp of Augustine and
Athanasius. As he was a subject of the Ommiades and en­
joyed their protection, he had nothing to fear from the savage
cruelty of Copronymus, who vented his powerless rage upon
the saint in the disgraceful surname of Mansour. St. John
Damascen died about the year 756. He has been called the
Thomas Aquinas of the East, because, first among the Greeks,
he applied Aristotle’s logic to the study of theology. He is
looked upon as the father and founder of scholastic divinity.
39. A fresh revolution had meanwhile broken out in Italy.
Astolphus, who had so often perjured himself for the sake of
subjecting the Homan Church, was killed by a fall from his
horse, while hunting (a. d. 576). Didier, whom he had made

STEPHEN in. (A. D.

3Λ1

duke of Tuscany, assembled the troops to seize the crown.
But Rachis, the former king of the Lombards, tired of hi»
cloistered obscurity, quitted Monte Cassino, headed another
army, and claimed his throne. Wretched example of human
weakness and inconstancy, sighing for repose when surrounded
by greatness, and poisoning the delights of solitude by a long­
ing wish for the cares of a throne ! Didier placed his claims
under the patronage of Pope Stephen ΠΙ., whom the Frankish
sword had made supreme arbiter of Italy. His protection at
length secured the Lombard throne to Didier, and Rachis
went back to tend bis vine at Monte Cassino. Happy if
Christian faith gave him the true resignation which can make
up every loss, and is better far than a royal crown ! This was
the last act of Stephen’s glorious pontificate. He died on the
6th of April (a. d. 756), leaving to his successors a power in­
creased by his fearless constancy in the midst of the most
critical junctures and the most varied fortunes.

352

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

CHAPTER XI.
§ L Pontificate of St. Paul I. (May 28, a. d. 767—767).
1. Theophylactue Antipopo. Election of St Paul L—2. Embassy from Pepin
the Short to Didier, king of the Lombards.—3. St. Paul L sends legates
to Constantine Copronymus.—4. Death of St Paul I.—5. Council of Com­
pïègne. Institution of regular canons by St. Chrodegang, bishop of MeU.

§ II. Pontificate

of

Stephen IV. (August 7, a. d. 768—February 1, 772).

6 Accession of Charlemagne and Carloman to the throne.—7. Constantins
Antipope. Election of Stephen IV.—8. Council of Rome.—9. Didier’s
attempt against Stephen IV.—10. Fruitless opposition of the Pope to
Charlemagne’s divorce.—11. Death of Stephen IV.

g IIL Pontificate

of

Adrian I. (February 9, A. d. 772—December 26, 796).

12. Relatione of Adrian I. and Charlemagne.—13. Defeat of the Saxons. Fall
of the Lombard Empire.—14. Conversion of Witikind.
Charlemagne’s
two journeys to Rome.—15. Adoplioniit heresy.—16. The empress Irene.—
17. Seventh general council at Nice.—18. Council of Frankfort.—Carolis
Books.—19. Death of Adrian I.

§ L Pontificate

of

br. Paul L (May 28, a. d. 757—767).

1. As long as the Roman empire ruled the world, the
Sovereign Pontiffs took their share with all the faithful, in the
persecutions and triumphs of Christianity; at one time pro­
tected by a Constantine or a Theodosius, at another oppressed
by a Constans or a Julian. But when the Roman power fell
to make way for so many others that rose upon its ruins, as
widely different in views as in interests, then was displayed
the design of Providence that the Popes should be indepen­
dent and wield a power which, without being formidable
might at least secure them in the free exercise of their spirit-

8T. PAUL I. (A. D. 757-787».

353

nal authority, unhampered by any outward influence. Thii
change had been effected by the arms of Pepin the Short,
under Pope Stephen III., whose brother and successor, St.
Paul I., accordingly inaugurated the temporal sway of the
Vicars of Jesus Christ upon earth. Paul’s election was for a
moment contested, and a part of the Roman clergy and people
supported the pretensions of an antipope named Theophylactus. But all party spirit soon disappeared before the winning
virtue of Paul I., who was crowned on the 29th of May, a. d.
757. His first care was to acquaint Pepin with his promotion
to the pontifical throne: “Be assured that both we and our
people will ever be true to the friendship established between
the holy Pontiff, our brother, and yourself.” Pepin answered
the Pope’s letter as became a most Christian prince, exhorting
the Romans to show a lasting fidelity to the Holy See. Pepin
understood the importance of the trust he had received from
Heaven, and the glory of having established the temporal in­
dependence of the Church, and he fulfilled the sacred charge
with affectionate devotion. A few months afterward, at the
birth of his daughter Gisela, he wished the Pope, though ab­
sent, to be her godfather, and accordingly sent Ulfard, abbot
of St. Martin of Tours, to bear to the Pontiff the white veil in
which the princess had been enveloped on coming from the
baptismal font. To this gift he added a portable altar made
of a single precious stone. During the following year (758),
the Pope, in return, sent King Pepin several works for his
royal library; they consisted of an antiphonal, a responsory,
the works of St. Dionysius the Areopagite, Aristotle’s logic, a
geometry, a treatise on orthography, and a grammar. To this
literary gift he added the then rare present of a clock. The
books of the divine office were to introduce the Romen liturgy
and Gregorian chant into Gaul. The Gallican Church had
hitherto admitted into its liturgy many usages at variance
with those of Rome. Acting in concert with the bishops of
his kingdom, Pepin ordered that for the greater union of
prayers and sentiments, the customs of the Holy See should
Vol. II.—23

354

GBNEKau history of the

church.

thenceforth be observed. The Roman liturgy was then solemnly
received in Gaul, except in the case of a few observances which
some churches still kept from the old rite.
2. The alliance of the Frankish king was now more neces­
sary to the Sovereign Pontiff, as King Didier seemed disposed
to break off friendly relations with the Holy See. Fraudulent
policy seemed to be an apanage of the Lombard crown. Didier
owed his power to the Roman Church. As a token of his
gratitude he secretly opened relations with the emperor of
Constantinople, engaging to seize by open force the territory
of the exarchate and the cities given by Pepin to Stephen III.
The king of the Franks, hearing, through the Pope, of these
crafty intrigues, sent to Rome a solemn embassy, consisting of
his brother Remigius, archbishop of Rouen, and Duke Autcharius (a. d. 760). The Pope gave the king the following ac­
count of their mission : “ Rejoice, most happy prince. By the
power of your arms, your spiritual mother, the Catholic Church,
has triumphed over her enemies. We make known to your
most Christian Majesty that your brother Remigius, beloved
of God, and the illustrious Duke Autcharius, lately came to
Rome and engaged Didier, king of the Lombards, to make full
satisfaction to St. Peter, and to restore all the estates, rights
and territory of the various cities of the Roman republic. He
has already begun to make good his promise, and protests that
he is ready to carry it out to the full. Powerless as I am fitly to
express my gratitude to you for so many favors, it is my con­
solation to think that there is a Supreme Judge in heaven Who
will not forget to reward. The name of the French people
stands far above the other nations, in its glorious privilege of
being ruled by kings who are known as the champions of the
Catholic Church.”
3. The watchful care of St. Paul I. did not overlook tne
sad state of Catholicity in the East. He wrote to Constantine
Copronymus, begging him to forsake the Iconoclast heresy, and
j.ent legates to bring him back to the Catholic faith and the
/eueration of holy images But the emperor obstinately ad­

8T. PAUL I. (A. D. 757-761)

355

hered to his error, scoffed at the fatherly advice of the Pontiff,
and treated the legates with great cruelty. “ The part taken
by Italy in this war of images,” says a French historian, “ has
been too much overlooked. Every theological discussion of
the councils on abstract questions was not within the people's
understanding ; but the blows of an axe to destroy a picture
or statue was within the universal capacity; and then the
most ignorant as well as the most learned might become at
once client and judge. To rob the people of those religious
emotions awakened within them by the paintings and sculp­
ture of the churches, was to wound them in their tenderest
sensibilities. Subjects from nature, living in objects of art,
speak to the mind and heart, raise the soul above its wonted
sphere : how, then, could religion help receiving the veneration
of images, since she calls for higher endeavors and sacrifices
than vulgar human virtues could bear, and therefore needs to
keep before her children’s eyes the deeds of Christian heroes,
who gave up all the world’s allurements and even life to gain
heaven?”* “What holy intensity of motherly love,” says
the learned Cardinal Mai, “ has often been inspired by the
sight of the Virgin holding her Divine Child in her arms!
What is that nimbus which surrounds the heads of the blessed,
but the supernatural brightness which every Christian should
strive to reach? Why the martyr’s palm that waves in the
hand of that virgin saint? Though marked by the bloody
stains of recent torture, does it not portray, more vividly than
the most eloquent words, the glorious reward sent down before­
hand from heaven to earth ?”f
4. Constantine Copronymus still cherished designs un­
friendly to the Roman Church, and spared no pains to break
the bonds that bound it to the Frankish king. He asked of
Pepin the hand of the princess Gisela, for his son Leo, the pre·
sumptive heir to the Byzantine throne. The emperor’s am­
bassadors presented to the king, from their master, the first
• M. Ajbtaud db Montob, Hittoire dts Sowxramt PonU/tt, t L, p. 411
f SficiUgium, L vi, Preface, pp. xv. and xri.

366

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

organ ever seen in France. From the descriptions of contem­
porary historians, there can be no doubt that it resembled our
modern instruments. They represent it as consisting of a bel­
lows and brass tunes, through which the passing air gave a
sound, sometimes like rolling thunder, sometimes resembling
the harmonious softness of the flute or the lyre. But with all
these baits, the Byzantine envoys failed in their mission. To
their requests, Pepin made answer that it was not the custom
of the Frankish kings to form alliances with houses so distant,
and, to save his subjects from any danger of Iconoclasm through
the communication from Constantinople, he called a council at
Gentilly, near Paris (a. d. 767), at which the emperor’s envoys
were present. The council published the Catholic definition
of the procession of the Holy Ghost and of the veneration of
images. The acts reached Rome just as the Pope St. Paul I
had passed from earth (June 2, a. d. 767).
5. The Gallic councils were held witu a truly edifying
regularity. They had become, in some sort, the great national
assizes. The Council of Compïègne, held a few years earlier,
had dwelt at length upon the marriage question—a question of
vast importance amid a people in which the religious element
had still to struggle with native barbarism, and whose passions,
but ill-subdued by Christian teaching, had kept the native fire
of the Frankish blood. Leprosy was allowed, by the Council
of Compïègne, to constitute a lawful ground of separation, with
leave to the sound party to contract another marriage. This
canon is opposed to the true discipline of the Church on the
indissolubility of the marriage tie. The Franks, and even the
bishops, were not sufficiently instructed on so important a
point, and the history of Charlemagne will give us further
proofs of this ignorance. It was no unwonted occurrence, in
those days of dissension and trouble, to see whole families
stained with blood by deeds of private revenge. The law
called Faïde, allowed the relatives of a murdered man to retali­
ate upon the assassin wherever they might meet him. To
escape the law, most of the murderers left their country, for-

8T. PAUL I. (A. D. 757-181).

357

eaking their wives and children. The Council of Compïègne
forbids those who have thus left their homes to escape the law,
to marry again in their place of refuge; the same prohibition
holds for their wives. About this time (a. d. 758), St. Cbrodegang, bishop of Metz, established in his church the first
community of regular canons mentioned in the history of
France. The name canons {canonici) was given to those clerics
who lived in common under a particular rule, in imitation of the
clergy of St. Augustine and St. Eusebius of Vercelli. They
were so called because they were to live in a more particular
observance of the ecclesiastical canons. St. Chrodegang gave
his clergy a rule which has since been adopted by all like in­
stitutions. The chief regulations are the following : The canons
were not bound to strict poverty, but they were to make over
theii property to the Church, keeping only the use of it. They
had the free disposal of the alms received for masses or other
ecclesiastical functions.
*
No woman was admitted within the
cloister, and laymen might enter only with the bishop's leave.
The daily chapter was to be held after the office of Prime
The rule then goes into minute details on the article of food :
It may be remarked that it allowed two meals a day, from
Easter to Pentecost, and the use of meat during the same
period, except on Fridays. It was ordained that the older
canons should every year receive a new choir-dress, and the
old ones were given to the younger members of the chapter.
The canons were to make an extraordinary confession to the
bishop.twice a year. This is a modification of the old monastic
rule which reserved the confessions of the religious to superiors
alone. Such was the beginning of the institution of canons,
which has since spread throughout all dioceses.
• This is the first mention we And of these alms or stipend for ecclesiaetic·! Cuncw»*.

358

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

§ II. Pontificate

of

Stephen IV. (August 7,
ruary 1, 772).

a. d.

768-Feb

6. The death of St. Paul I. was closely followed by that
of Pepin the Short. Borne down rather by labors than by
years, the monarch died at St. Denis (September 24, a. d. 768),
just as his long struggle in Aquitaine, with Waifre, another
Vercingetorix, ended in victory. The whole of Gaul was thue
brought under the sole sway of the Frankish kings, and Pepin
left his name enshrined in the glory of having founded, with a
new dynasty, a kingdom displaying territorial unity. Two
sons inherited his states : Charles, the elder, so well known as
Charlemagne, twenty-four years of age, and Carloman, twentytwo. A descendant of Pepin of Herstal, and following close
upon two generations of heroes, Charles was yet destined to
outshine the glory of his predecessors. “ Claimed by the
Church as a saint, by the French as their greatest king, by the
Germans as a fellow-countryman (he was born in the castle of
Saltzburg, in Upper Bavaria), by the Italians as their emperor,
this great monarch stands at the head of every branch of mod­
ern history.”* He received the title of Great (Magnus) almost
during his life, and so thoroughly embodied has this title become
in his own name, that its removal would, of necessity, confuse
all our historical memories. The partition of Pepin’s domain
between his two sons was made according to the old custom
which gave to each of the co-heirs an equal share, both in the
territory of the Franks and in the Roman province of Gaul.
Carloman received Austrasia and Burgundy ; Charlemagne’s
share was Neustria, together with Aquitaine, hardly yet con­
quered, and already in a state bordering on revolt.
7. The death of St. Paul I. had thrown Rome into the
midst of countless troubles, which left the Holy See thirteen
months vacant. Duke Toto, who was at Nepi with a troop of
soldiers, had his brother Constantine proclaimed pope, though
• hL Sismohdb db SiSMOHDl: Histoire des Français, t. xL, p. 211.

STEPHEN IV. (A. D. 788-771).

359

only a layman. After this irregular election, the antipope wa·
taken to the Lateran palace, where George, bishop of Præneste,
was forced to give him the clerical tonsure ; on the next day
the same bishop ordained him sub-deacon, and on the following
Sunday, closing the ordination per saltum, he anointed the
usurper as Sovereign Pontiff. At the close of the ceremony,
Constantine sent a false account of the proceedings to King
Pepin the Short. But the Frankish king, having doubtless
learned from another source the irregularity of the election,
paid no heed to the antipope’s letters, and they remained unan­
swered. But Rome was under martial law, and no one was
allowed to leave the city lest this mystery of iniquity should
be noised abroad. Christopher, primiciarius of the Holy See,
and his son Sergius, determined to put an end to the scandal
and to overthrow the usurper. They obtained leave to quit
Rome, for the ostensible purpose of entering the monastery of
Monte Cassino. Protected by the habit of their new calling,
bestowed upon them by the Pope’s own hands, they passed all
the posts. Once clear, they went to Didier, king of the Lom­
bards, obtained the command of an armed force, and returned
to attack the troops of Duke Toto. The most complete success
crowned their enterprise. The Romans, freed from the yoke
under which they had bent for a whole year, thronged round
the antipope’s palace, seized his person, and, according to the
cruel practice of the time, put out his eyes. They then pro­
ceeded to hold a regular election, which raised Stephen IV. to
the Apostolic dignity, with the unanimous consent of clergy
and people (August 7, a. d. 768).
8. The new Pope at once wrote to the king of the Franks,
acquainting him with his election, and requesting him to send
some Gallic bishops to the council he was about to call at Rome
to try the antipope Constantine. The legates reached Gaul to
learn that Pepin had died, and the letters were given to his
eons, Charlemagne and Carloman, who received them with
respectful submission, and sent twelve bishops to the Council
of Rome They were Villicarius of Sens, Lullus of Mayence,

360

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

Gavienus of Tours, Ado of Lyons, Herminard of Bourges,
Daniel of Narbonne, Filpin of Rheims, Herulf of Langres,
Heramburt, Babulf, and Gislebert, whose sees are not known.
The council was opened in the basilica of St. Saviour, at the
Lateran palace (April, a. d. 769). The sightless antipope was
brought in, and persisted, before the Fathers, in upholding the
regularity of his election. He was degraded, in presence of
the assembled bishops. The sub-deacon Maurian, taking off
his orarium, or stole, trampled upon it, and then cut off his
sandals, which at that time constituted part of the insignia of
pontifical authority. The antipope was confined in a monas·
tery, where he spent the remainder of his days. All the acts
of his administration were annulled. The bishops and priests
ordained by him were required to make their submission to
Stephen IV., who was left at liberty to confirm or to suspend
them in their ministry, as might seem best to him. Finally,
to hinder the recurrence of like scandals, it was decreed that
“no one should be eligible to the pontificate who was not
already priest or deacon and laymen were forbidden, under
pain of excommunication, to be present at the Papal election,
which belongs exclusively to the Roman bishops and clergy.
The closing session of the council was devoted to the examina­
tion of the Iconoclast heresy, which still raged in the East.
The teaching of the Church on the subject was established by
the writings of the holy Fathers and the decisions of the
Apostolic See. The council thus sums up the question : “ If
we desire hereafter to enjoy the society of the blessed, we
must honor them here by a solemn veneration, and respect the
images that recall their virtues. A heathen named Antiochus
once asked St. Athanasius why the Christians adored the
images of saints. ‘ The faithful,’ rephed the illustrious Patri­
arch of Alexandria, ‘ do not adore the images of the saints ;
that would be idolatry; but they honor them, because they
awake feelings of devotion and charity in the heart.’ If, there­
fore, any one henceforth refuse to honor the images of our

STEPHEN IV. (A. 1».

361

Lord Jésus Christ and of His holy Mother, or the saints, let
him be anathema !”
9. The year 769 found Didier yielding to the political
current which seemed destined to sweep along successively
all the Lombard kings ; he aimed at taking from the Holy
See the lands of the exarchate. Repairing to Rome, osten­
sibly to venerate the tomb of the Apostles, he there threw
off the mask, arrested several Roman nobles, and had their
eyes put out. Not satisfied with this cruel deed, he invited
the Pope to come and confer with him on the interests of Italy.
Stephen IV. agreed to meet him in the church of St. Peter.
The Pope had no sooner entered the basilica than Didier or­
dered the doors to be closed upon him, intending that the Pon­
tiff should there die of hunger. Christopher and Sergius, who
had already given proof of their devotion to the Holy See, at
the time of Stephen’s election, succeeded in freeing the Pope.
Their intrepid virtue soon received the reward too often given
to noble and virtuous actions in those barbarous ages : Didier
caused their eyes to be plucked out. The Lombard’s hatred
surrounded the Holy See with difficulties. He had lately
placed an intruder upon the archiépiscopal throne of Ravenna,
by armed force, and sought to compel the Pope’s approval of
this usurpation. But Stephen IV. was the successor of him
who answered the chief-priests : Non possumus. He steadily
rejected all the proposals of the Lombard king. So powerful
was the action of his legates at Ravenna that the people drove
the intruder from the city. He was brought to the Pope, who
merely confined him in a monastery and had a bishop lawfully
elected to fill the see.
10. The ill-will of Didiei was proof against all these fail­
ures. Hoping ultimately to turn away the two kings, Charle­
magne and Carloman, from their alliance with the Holy See, he
proposed to them the double marriage, of his own daughter,
Desiderata, to one of the two monarchs, and of Gisela, their
sister, to Adalgise, his son and heir. While these negotiations
were pending, Queen Bertrade, widow of Pepin the Short and

362

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

mother of the Frankish kings, reached Italy (a. d. 770). Didier
received her at Pavia with extraordinary magnificence, and
prevailed upon her to approve the double alliance proposed.
Bertradc saw in it a means of quieting Italy and France, and of
drawing closer the ties of friendship between Charlemagne and
Cirloman, which seemed about to break asunder. She knew no
higher policy. The royal brothers were already married ; but
this circumstance was not of a nature to deter her. We have seer
that the Franks were but ill-informed on the indissolubility of the
marriage-tie, and Bertrade trusted to her influence with her two
sons to lead one of them into a divorce that should enable him
to marry the Lombard princess. The Sovereign Pontiff could
not countenance the intrigue. He had not been slow to catch
the hidden aim of Didier’s policy. The Lombard sought an
alliance with France only to be better able to assail the inde­
pendence of the Holy See. The Pope opposed Didier’s endeavor
with all the force of his apostolic authority. In a letter ad­
dressed to Charlemagne and Carloman, he reminds them of the
indissolubility of Catholic marriage, dwells upon the importance
of this essentially Christian law, which has hallowed society in
the family, where it begins, and confirmed the restoration of
woman to her social dignity. He then warns the two kings to
beware of the advances made by a ruler unfriendly to the Holy
See, and recalls the example of their father, Pepin, who had
refused the hand of their sister, the princess Gisela, to the son
of Constantine Copronymus, because the emperor was not in the
Roman communion. The Holy Father solemnly laid the letter
upon the altar of the Confession of St. Peter, on which he then
offered the Holy Sacrifice, as if to consecrate it more especially
by this impressive ceremony. He then sent it to the Frankish
kings by two legates, Peter and Pamphilus, whom he charged
to urge most earnestly the remonstrance, which ended with
these touching expressions : “ This exhortation, these entreaties
which we address to you, have been laid upon the Confession
of St. Peter. We have offered the holy sacrifice over them,
and now send them to you bathed with our tears. And now.

STEPHEN IV. (A. D. 788-771).

3b3

if any one dares to oppose this rule, may he incar the txcom·
munication of St. Peter and be excluded from the kingdom of
God !” It may be noticed that the closing formula is about the
same as that now used by the Sovereign Pontiffs, successors of
Stephen IV.
11. The ephemeral interests of an immoral policy were un­
fortunately of more weight with Bertrade than the reasons,
prayers, or threats of the Pope. She succeeded in persuading
Charlemagne to put away his first wife to marry Desiderata.
But her arguments failed with the princess Gisela, who would
have no other spouse than Jesus Christ. She took the religious
habit in the monastery of Chelles, of which she died abbess.
Corloman himself was carried off in the flower of his age (a. d.
771), which unlooked-for death overturned all Bertrade’s calcu­
lations. Carloman left two sons by his queen, Girberga, but the
young princes did not inherit their father’s realms. The bishops
and nobles, using their unquestioned elective right, gave them­
selves with one accord to Charlemagne, happy to be ruled by a
youthful hero whose name was already a synonym for glory,
and who had just illustrated his arms by a series of brilliant
triumphs over the revolted province of Aquitaine. This polit­
ical revolution made Charlemagne master of all France. We
shall now behold him, in this position, achieving the great deeds
which have made his reign illustrious. His union with Desid­
erata, contracted under auspices so unfavorable, had been nei­
ther long nor happy. After a year of conjugal unhappiness,
Charlemagne had sent her back to her father. He felt power­
ful enough to waive all consideration, and had just espoused
Hildegard, a Suabian princess, in contempt of all ecclesiastical
laws, of which he did not perhaps understand the full weight
The Lombard king was touched to the quick by the outrage
thus put upon him, and with a view to avenge his wounded
feelings he received Girberga, Carloman’s widow, at his court,
took her two sons under his protection, swore to restore them
to the throne of their father, and with this aim began to con­
ciliate Stephen IV., from whose hand he wished them to receive

364

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

the royal unction. But the Pope died on the 1st of February,
a d. 772, after a toilsome pontificate of three years.
$ III. Pontificate of Adrian I. (February 9, a. d. 772~Decem·
her 26, 795).

12. The promotion of Adrian I. to the Chair of St. Peter
(February 9, a. d. 772) coincides with the first year of Charle­
magne’s rule over the united monarchy of the Franks. The
two names of the Pontiff and the king, are bound by ties of the
closest friendship. With all the irregularity of his frequent
marriages, it is Charlemagne’s glory that he was truly a Chris­
tian hero. This great historical figure, whose influence per­
vades a whole epoch, looms up through the lengthened perspec­
tive of bygone ages, surrounded by a double aureola of power
and religion. The part of defender of the Church, bequeathed
to his race by Charles Martel, the conqueror of the Saracens,
and taken up by Pepin the Short, grew into colossal propor­
tions in the hands of Charlemagne. It was in defence of the
Catholic faith that he was about to carry his arms into Spain,
and that Roland, one of his paladins, fell at Roncesvalles ; it
was for the propagation of that divine faith that his formidablo
sword so often smote the stubborn Saxon, ever worsted, yet
ever unconquerable ; that savage race so essentially opposite to
the Frankish nation, since the latter had begun to soften their
manners by the influence of Roman religion and civiliza­
tion. In fine, it was to secure the liberty and independence
of this faith that his powerful hand crushed Lombard national­
ity, the unbending enemy of the Roman Pontiffs. Charlemagne
then made himself the sword of the Church whose Pontiff was
Adrian. And the Church knew how to proportion the glory
of the reward to the splendor of the services rendered.
13. In the year 772, the missionaries in Saxony, harassed
in their apostolic labor, in spite of the promise made by the
Saxons to Pepin the Short, threatened that fierce people with
“the arms of the great empire,” for Charlemagne’s kingdom

ADRIAN I. (A. D. 772-795).

had already won thia significant name. The boldness of St.
Lebwin, who uttered the threat, nearly cost him his life; hie
church at Daventer was burned. When these tidings reached
Charlemagne, he assembled his Franks at Worms, and marched
straight upon Ehresburg, the chief Saxon sanctuary, which con­
tained the celebrated idol Irmensul
*
raised by the Germans to
their God Tentas. This statue, armed cap-à~pié, held a pair
of scales in the left hand, and in the right a banner bearing the
figure of a rose ; on its buckler, a lion ; at its feet, a flowery
mead. This was the heathen figure of Saxony, whose fertile
fields and flowery meadows were inhabited by a nation of lion
nearts, whose only justice, rule, or law was the sword. Irmensul fell beneath the blows of the victorious Franks, and the
Saxons, surprised in their forest fastnesses, gave up twelve hos
tages, one for each tribe. The triumphant Frank was met on
his return from this expedition by letters from Pope Adrian I.,
calling for his presence in Italy. The Lombard king, Didier,
had reopened with the new Pontiff the negotiations broken off
by the death of his predecessor, Stephen IV. He still cher­
ished the design of restoring the sons of Carloman, Charle­
magne’s nephews. But Adrian I. had plainly and decidedly
refused to share in an enterprise which would have sown the
deadly seeds of division in a friendly kingdom. Didier broke
through all bounds, seized upon the exarchate, and was march­
ing upon Rome accompanied by the two disinherited princes.
Charlemagne’s safety and honor were as much at stake as those
of the Holy See ; still, he took up arms only after a fruitless
appeal to the presumptuous Lombard to restore the domain of St.
Peter to the Sovereign Pontiff. The king of the Franks entered
Italy and besieged Pavia and Verona. They made a long
resistance, but at length opened their gates to the youthful
conqueror. Didier was sent to the monastery of Corbie, where
he ended his days ; his son Adalgise managed to reach Con­
stantinople. Thus fell the Lombard power, after an existence
Herman-Saul, Herman’· pillar

366

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

of two hundred years. Charlemagne took the title of king of
the Lombards, and placed the iron crown upon his brow, thus
leaving to the conquered nation its political being with its na­
tional constitution. His conquest was secured by the presence
of judges and a garrison (a. d. 774).
*
The conqueror then
returned to Rome, where Adrian I. received him with marks
of distinguished honor. Charlemagne confirmed, with some
additions, the gift made by his father to the Apostolic See. It
comprised the island of Corsica, Parma and Mantua, the ex­
archate of Ravenna, the provinces of Venetia and Istria, with
the duchies of Spoleto and Beneventum. The last-named
estate still forms a part of the pontifical dominion, though in­
cluded within the boundaries of the kingdom of Naples. The
deed of gift was duplicated and received the royal signature.
The king left one copy upon the altar of the Confession of St.
Peter, and kept the other in the royal archives.
14. Six expeditions against the Saxons under their uncon­
querable chief Witikind, and a successful inroad upon the Sara­
cens in Spain, occupied, until the year 781, the tireless activity
of Charlemagne. The continual risings of the Saxons forced
him to a rigorous though necessary measure. He required the
rebels to give him up four thousand of their most restless
spirits, whom he put to the sword (a. d. 780). Witikind, the
new Arminius of Germany, that torch which enkindled so many
wars, had again succeeded in escaping the conqueror’s search.
Charlemagne deemed nothing done so long as that foe was
alive. But the grace of God now showed itself more powerful
than Charlemagne, and undertook to effect alone this grea'
• Thia turn of affairs left the sons of Carloman, Pepin and Siagrius, in the hands of th»
victorious uncle, Charlemagne. It was feared—and some unscrupulous historians have
worked up the doubt into the semblance of a fact—that Charlemagne might have given way
in their regard to acts of violence that would have sadly U.xished his glory. Bossuet re­
ceived from the abbey of Saint Pons, at Nice, a manuscript which proves the existence of
Biagrius as a monk in that monastery. After holding the episcopal see of Nice, Siagnus waa
ranked among the saints, and to Bossuet was reserved the grateful duty of clearing the
memory of Charlemagne from this foul imputation of unnatural crime. Pepin's name does
not occur in history ; but it la most probable that he was, like his brother, confined to a
monastery.

ADRIAN T. (A. D. 11M95).

8β7

victory. On Easter-Day, in the year 785, the ro) al guards
brought to the king a beggar arrested at the gate of the palace
of Attigny,
*
where the court was then held. A Frankish
nobleman, in giving him an alms, caught sight, of a crooked
finger on the right hand, which he had often had occasion to
notice in battle. The pretended beggar was Witikind. “ What
motive has led you to wear this disguise ?” asked Charlemagne.
“ I wished to make a close examination of the ceremonies of
your Church,” replied the Saxon, “ and I deemed this disguise
most favorable for my purpose.” “Well,” asked the king,
“ what did you notice ?” “ On the day before yesterday, my
lord, which you call Good-Friday, your face was clouded with
gloomy sadness. To-day I saw you, in the beginning of the
ceremony, thoughtful and recollected ; but when you and the
nobles in your court approached the table in the midst of the
temple, I saw all your countenances lighted up with a joy so
deep that I was at a loss to conjecture the cause of this sudden
change. A supernatural emotion filled my heart. It seemed
to me that the priest placed upon your lips a little infant
bathed in heavenly brightness. Prostrate in tearful awe, I
adored, without knowing Him, your God, who shall henceforth
be my God.” “ Happy are you,” cried Charlemagne, “ who
have enjoyed a favor granted neither to me nor to my priests !”
Then ordering Witikind to be clothed as became his rank and
dignity, he explained to him the teaching of faith concerning
the august mystery of our altars.f Witikind was converted
and baptized. Charlemagne, to use an expression of the times,
wished himself to raise him from the baptismal font. The late
chief of the Saxons now became their apostle, and obtained from
the Frankish king some missionaries to preach the faith to
his people. The city of Minden was erected into a bishopric,
• Attigny (Ardennes), near Vouziers. The Neustrian Merovingians had raised a royal
residence hero. It was the seat of several councils; amou- others, that in which Louie the
Mild did publie ponance.
f This episode was found in the annals of the reign of Charlemagne. Its aitaentioty
la not unquestionable. It seemed to us to afford a very good example of the spirit of
those egee of simple and ingenuous faith, as well as of the state of Charlemagne's court.

868

GENERAL HI8T0RÏ OF THE CHURCH.

and St. Herembert was its first incumbent. Charlemagne lost
no time in acquainting Pope Adrian I. with this happy event,
and begged him to order public prayers in all the churches, in
solemn thanksgiving to God. This great monarch’s devotion
thus shone forth on all occasions. In the year 781, he had
visited Rome a second time, to celebrate the Easter festival,
and to have his two sons, the young princes Pepin and Louis,
baptized and anointed by the Sovereign Pontiff. The former
received the title of King of Italy, the latter that of King of
Aquitaine. The period of this second journey corresponds with
the death of Queen Hildegard, who was succeeded by Fastrade.
Charlemagne was a third time called to Rome by the revolt of
Arigise, duke of Beneventum, who endeavored to shake off
the yoke of the Papal authority. The presence only of the
hero who had overcome the Saracens, the Saxons, and the
Lombards, was enough to crush the uprising. The king added
to the gift already made to the Pope in 774, the cities of Sora,
Arces, Aquin, Arpi, Theano and Capua, which he had just taken
from Arigise. Thassillon, duke of Bavaria, availed himself of
Charlemagne’s presence in Rome, to seek the Pope’s mediation
for the termination of certain old feuds between the king of the
Franks and himself. Adrian I. accepted the office, and settled
all the difficulties with Charlemagne ; but when the time had
arrived for signing the treaty, the Bavarian ambassadors, with
a view to gain time, stated, according to their master’s order,
that they had no power to sign. To punish this want of good
faith, Adrian I. excommunicated Thassillon and his party. This
is the first instance we find in history of a Sovereign Pontiff
passing judgment upon the claims and di putes of two princes.
For the world’s happiness, the Papacy was to keep this char­
acter of mediator, and to wield the authority of the God of
peace only to secure the happiness and quiet of nations.
15. The West, thus controlled by the blended influence of
the king of the Franks and of the Pope, presented a magnifi­
cent spectacle of union and harmony. Yet this peace was
ruffled by the appearance of a heresy. The Adoptionist error

ADRIAN i. (A. D. 172-795).

369

tore the bosom of the Spanish Church, already rent with grief
by the Mussulman domination. The very rise of this heresy
would be enough to establish the necessity of having but one
liturgy for all Christendom, that the form of prayer might be­
come the rule of faith. Some misinterpreted words of the
Mozarabic liturgy gave rise to the new error. Elipandus,
archbishop of Toledo, and Felix, bishop of Urgel, taught that
Jesus Christ, according to the human nature, is only by adop­
tion and appellation the Son of God. This supposed two
persons in Jesus Christ, and renewed the heresy of Nestorius.
The error spread rapidly through the Asturias and Galicia,
and beyond the Pyrenees, into Septimania, now Languedoc.
Adrian L, on receiving tidings of the heresy, wrote to all the
Spanish bishops, exhorting them to stand fast to the principies
of the true faith ; yet Elipandus of Toledo was not a whit the
less earnest in spreading the Adoptionist error, which was as
steadily met by Beatus and Etherius, two monks of Asturias
Charlemagne, who never lost sight of the dangers which
threatened the Church, had the heretics condemned in the
two councils of Narbonne and Friuli (a. d. 792). Another
council, at which the emperor was present, in Ratisbon, per­
sonally condemned Felix, bishop of Urgel, who then apparently
forsook his error and placed his recantation in the hands of
Pope Adrian, who was moved by his seeming repentance to
restore him to his diocese. The heretic’s abjuration proved to
be but a hypocritical feint, for on reaching Urgel he still con­
tinued to teach his false opinions. The Pope, repeatedly con­
sulted by the Spanish bishops, wrote them a lengthy and full
refutation of the new heresy. Elipandus and Felix continued
as obstinate as ever, and were at length solemnly condemned
and deposed from the episcopate, by the Council of Aix-laChapelle, in 799, in the pontificate of Leo III., successor of
Stephen IV.
16. During this period, Constantine Copronymus closed
thirty-four years of Catholic persecution by a frightful disease,
the result of his debauched life (a. d. 775). He is said to have
You 11—24

570

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

exclaimed, while struggling in the agonies of death : “lam
given up alive to flames of inextinguishable fire.” Hoping to
atone for his crime and to disarm the vengeance of God, he
ordered the restoration of the images of the Blessed Virgin
and the saints, the destruction of which had formed the occu­
pation of his lifetime. Alas for him that his atonement came
so late ! What tears could ever cleanse the stains of blood
that sullied the annals of his reign ? His son and successor,
Leo IV., had contracted an alliance with a descendant of one
of the most illustrious Athenian houses of ancient Greece,
whose rare intellect and surpassing beauty had won her the
distinction of being chosen by Constantine himself as the
spouse of his heir. Irene was a Catholic, and abhorred the
mad excesses of the Iconoclasts. While Copronymus lived,
she had been forced to hide her true belief, yet hoping one day
to use her power for the Church’s good. The keen, and seldom
faulty, instinct of the masses led the people of Constantinople,
weary of Constantine’s cruel violence, to lay their secret,
deeply cherished hopes at the feet of Irene, whom they
already hailed as their deliverer. At the accession of Leo
IV., surnamed Porphyrogenitus, from the fact of his having
first seen the light in the porphyry apartment of the imperial
palace, the Catholics fondly believed that the end of their trials
was at hand. But he proved only too worthy to succeed his
father, whose hatred for holy images he fully inherited, and
the city was once more given up to the senseless brutality of
the Iconoclasts. Leo one day found under the empress’s
pillow an image of Christ and His most holy Mother. The
sight of these idols threw the emperor into a fit of furious
anger. The empress left no means untried—tears, blandish­
ments, promises, repentance—to disarm the fury of the Icono­
clast prince. He was unappeasable, and drove the empress
from his palace as the last of ungrateful wretches. But she
soon returned, more powerful than ever, after a disgrace which
ranked her among the Catholics as a martyr of the faith. The
death of Leo IV., prematurely stricken down in the prime of

ADRIAN I. (A. D.

371

life, reopened to her the palace gates. By his marriage with
Irene, the late emperor left a son ten years of age, who was
crowned, with the title of Constantine VI., and the regency
was confided to the empress, his mother. The rale of Irene
brought back Constantinople from its disgraceful wanderings
of the past three centuries. Peace was restored to. the
wretched Churches of the East; a Catholic Patriarch, Tarasius,
filled the see of Byzantium. In a. d. 782, Irene sent ambassa­
dors to Charlemagne, to ask his alliance and the hand of his
daughter, Rotrudis, for the youthful emperor, Constantine VI.
This alliance might have changed the fate of the world. It
might, perhaps, have given a lasting firmness to the empire of
Constantine the Great. Charlemagne was not bEnd to the
fact, and received the proposal with unfeigned satisfaction.
The all-conquering sword which ruled Europe, and had lately
driven the Western Saracens to the banks of the Ebro, would
as readily have borne back the Eastern caEphs to the barren
retreats of their desert home. The marriage was settled, and
the time fixed for the majority of the two children ; but the
delay gave time to court intrigue to break off its fulfilment.
The great lords of Constantinople, slavish panderers to the
interests of the hour, saw in this union but a foreign influence
calculated to deprive them of positions of which they felt
themselves unworthy. “Reflect,” they said to Irene, “that
in Charlemagne you give us a master, and not an ally.'’ These
paltry considerations, inspired by the most disgraceful selfish­
ness, were powerful enough, however, to lead Irene to break
off the proposed match, and Constantine VI. married an Arme­
nian named Mary.
17. In the midst of all these poEtical cares, Irene did not
lose sight of the interests of the Church, so long weighed down
by the storm of Iconoclastic persecution. The friendly rela­
tions of Rome and Constantinople, broken off during the reigna
of Constantine and Leo, had just been re-established by the
new Patriarch Tarasius, who had seized the first occasion after
his promotion to send his synodal letters and profession of faith

S72

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

to Pope Adrian I. The empress Irene likewise wrote to the
Sovereign Pontiff to express her desire of repairing the evils in­
flicted upon the Church by the last emperors, and urged him to
convoke a general council for the purpose of confirming the
Catholic tradition respecting the veneration of images, and thus
quiet all minds. The letters filled the pious Pontiff’s heart
with joy; they blotted out nearly fifty years of schism. Still,
Adrian found in the empress’s letter, an expression which he no­
ticed with some energy, in his reply; Irene had styled Tarasius
Ecumenical or Universal Patriarch. “We know not,” wrote the
Sovereign Pontiff, “ whether this expression be the result of
ignorance or of a hidden germ of heresy. But We beg your
Majesty not to use it again, since it is contrary to the canons
tnd to the decrees of the holy Fathers. The precedence of all
the Churches was given by Jesus Christ to St. Peter, and, in
the person of the Apostle, to all the Roman Pontiffs, his suc­
cessors, to which rank We have been raised in spite of our
unworthiness.” Adrian, however, congratulated Irene and her
son on their zeal for the re-establishment of the true faith. When
all these preliminary steps had been regulated, the seventh gen­
eral council was opened in the church of St. Sophia, at Nice,
under the presidency of the Pope’s prelates, Peter, archpriest
of the Roman Church, and another Peter, abbot of the monas­
tery of St. Sabas (September 27, a. d. 787). Three hundred
and seventy-seven bishops were present. The question of the
veneration of images was solemnly defined, according to the
rules of oral and written tradition. The council anathematized
tire false council held by the Iconoclasts (a. d. 724) at Constan­
tinople, under Copronymus. The following decree was then
adopted : “ After mature deliberation and a deep research into
the merits of the question, we decide that the sacred images of
our Lord Jesus Christ, those of His holy Mother, and of the
angels and saints, shall be restored to their place of honor in
the churches, oratories and private dwellings ; they are to be
honored with a special worship, not with that of adoration or
Latria, which belongs to God alone, but with that of reverence

ADRIAN I. (A. D. 112-795).

37S

and honor ; for in honoring the image we honor the person rep
resented by it. Such is the teaching of the holy Fathers and
the tradition of the Catholic Church, known throughout the
world.” It would seem that plain common sense should suffice
to master truths so palpable ; and it will ever remain one of the
most disgraceful· stains in the annals of the Lower Empire, that
half a century of violence and bloodshed should have been
needed to teach it this elementary lesson. The acts of the sev­
enth general council, signed by Irene, Constantine VI. and all
the bishops present, were sent to Pope Adrian I., who had them
translated from Greek into Latin. He sent the translation to
Charlemagne, with tidings of the happy event which gave back
peace to the Eastern Church.
18. Charlemagne received the Pontiff’s communication at
Frankfort, where the bishops of Germany and Gaul had met
to condemn the errors of Elipandus and Felix of Urgel (a. d.
790) ; the king communicated to them the acts of the Genera]
Council of Nice. An unfortunate mistake of the Latin translator,
who had rendered both Greek words *προσκύνειν and Λατρη>«ν|
by the same Latin verb adorare,\ misled the Frankish bishops
as to the value of the Council of Nice. “We have been asked,"
they say, “ what is to be thought of a new council held by the
Greeks at Nice, which anathematizes those who do not pay to
images of the saints the worship of adoration due to the Holy
Trinity. We have unanimously condemned the error, and for­
bidden all adoration of images.” A fuller refutation of the sup
posed heresy of the Ecumenical Council of Nice was then com
posed, in four books, which were sent by Charlemagne to the
Pope, and from the name of the donor they were called the
Carolin Books. Adrian answered the French king’s communi­
cation with great mildness, explaining the error which had given
• D(xxr«vx<>» properly signifies to prostrate one’s self, to salute with a low bow.
f Α>ηχν«·ι· moans to adore, in the sense of the highest worship (latria) due to God.
t Adorare does not convoy precisely the same idea as our verb lo adore. In the Old
Testament it almost invariably means
to sainte with a low bow. In the New
Testament and in the works of the Latin Fathers, it generally conveys the meaning of
Ut^rau·, to adore by an act of the highest worship.

374

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

rise to the misunderstanding, and showed him that the Catholic
teaching which the French bishops thought it necessary to de­
fend against the Fathers of Nice, was precisely that which the
seventh ecumenical council had just promulgated against the
Iconoclasts.
19. The news of Pope Adrian’s death reached Frankfort
almost simultaneously with his letter (December 25, a. d. 795).
His pontificate of twenty-three years was one of the most glo­
rious for the Roman Church. Adrian possessed, in fact, all the
qualities of a great Pope : a tender and active piety, an ardent
zeal, tempered with cautious prudence and unchanging mildness.
Charlemagne mourned him as a father and a friend. He has
left us a monument of his grief, in the epitaph which he com­
posed himself and had engraved on Adrian’s tomb, where it still
remains. The great king’s sensitive affection is here displayed
in its most touching form. “ You were my father and the ob­
ject of my affection,” says the king. “ You are now the cause
of my tears. As an emblem of the union of our hearts, I here
blend our names : Adrian, Charles. I am the king, you the
father. 0 best of fathers ! deign to remember your son ; ob­
tain that your disciple may yet again be with his father.” Holy
and noble friendship, that bound these two great hearts of Pon­
tiff and king, for one common end : the happiness and glory of
their age ! The name of Adrian closes the third period of
Church History.

HISTORICAL REVIEW OP THE THIRD PERIOD.

376

CHAPTER XII.
HISTORICAL REVIEW OF THE THIRD PERIOD OF THE

CHURCm.

1 The Middle Agee.—2. Barbarian inroads.—3. Protective authority of th·
Popes.—4. St. Gregory the Great.—δ. Temporal power of the Popes.—
β. Benefit of thia power.—7. Form of government among the Barbarians.—
8. Fondai laws.—9. Legislation.—10. Letters, arts and sciences.—11. Mo­
nastic orders.—12. Ecclesiastical doctors and writers.—13. Religious mon­
uments of the Third Period.—14. Islamism. The Iconoclasts in the East
—15. Worship.—16. Misaa Catechumenarum.—17. Mina Fidelium. Th·
use of communion under one kind established in the earliest ages of th·
Churcb.

1. That part of the world’s history known as the Middle
Ages begins with the third period of Church History. The
Middle Ages take in the period between the settlement of rhe
barbarians in the Western provinces of the Roman empire, in the
fifth century, and the literary renaissance in the fifteenth, which
gives it a duration of about ten centuries (a. d. 476-1494).
The face of the world was changed. Historical events appear
upon a new field, where the action of Christianity takes a special
form. It is now Western Europe ; no longer that old Europe
so familiarly known, but a Europe that seems just springing
into being, the abode of foreign races, raising up over the ruins
of Roman power a new social order, and though ever trium·
phant and victorious, bowing down mind and heart to the reli­
gion of the conquered countries. In those lands, and in those
days, when, to use Herder’s beautiful expression, the bark of the
Church bore the destinies of the world, the Church appears before
us under an aspect hitherto unknown, wielding an influence
which she could now for the first time exercise. Strong in the

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GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

lights and civilization of the Roman world, which sh«- had ap.
propriated, powerful by her mission and by the unity of he>
unbroken hierarchy, she now becomes the guardian of the
new European races; this title gives her immediate cognizance
of all public and private relations, carries her jurisdiction even
into purely civil cases, and rests in her chief, now at the height
of his power, as arbiter and judge between princes, subjects,
people, and state.
2. Every new race of barbarians that sets foot upon Roman
soil, successively brings a fresh harvest to be gathered into the
Church’s garners. Missionaries need no longer seek a distant
strand to find subjects for their apostolic zeal : the nations
themselves come to seek the missioner. “ And in the last days
the mountain of the house of the Lord shall be prepared un the
top of mountains, and it shall be exalted above the hills, and
all nations shall flow unto it.”* The Heruli merely pass
through Italy (a. d. 476-493); they are followed by the Visi­
goths (a. d. 493-553). The Lombards (a. d. 568-774) are
equally short-lived. The fruitless endeavor of these various
tribes to fix a lasting throne in Rome, is not a little remarkable.
A Divine power seemed to drive them to Milan, to Pavia, and
to Ravenna, as if to make room for another empire prepared by
Providence. These divers races, sometimes pagan, sometimes
Arian, or even at times Catholic, yet always barbarous, by their
contact with the centre of religion, with the heads of the Church,
found their rude manners softened by degrees, and were pre­
paring that blending of conqueror and conquered which has at
length resulted in our modern society. The inhabitants of
Italy, left defenceless to the inroads of these conquering hordes,
betrayed by those whom they thought their protectors, forgot­
ten by the emperors of Constantinople, who still pretended to
call themselves Roman emperors, harassed ."or two hundred
years by the Huns, the Goths, the Heruli and the Lombards,
at length turned their suppliant looks with one accord to the
• “ Et erit in noviesimiB diebue præparatus mone domus Domini in vertice montium, β»
fluent nd eum omnes gentes."—Isaiah, ch. IL, v. 2.

HISTORICAL REVIEW OF THE THIRD PERIOD.

377

(guardian power of the Popes, the only sure bulwark and re­
treat. In the midst of these indescribably frightful calamities,
the Roman Pontiffs had become the only refuge of all the
unfortunate.
3. This stand forced upon the Papacy gave it a new impor­
tance before the world, and brought on the crowning event of
the third period—-the temporal sovereignty of the Holy See
This is perhaps the only example in history, of an empire crea­
ted without the help of arms, preserved without violence, ac­
quired without even the appearance of usurpation. It was the
people’s gratitude that gave the Sovereign Pontiffs their crown.
The great Pontiff St. Leo had, by the mere mastery of his vir­
tue, twice saved Rome and the Romans from the fury of Attila
and of Genseric. For twenty-seven years St. Gregory shielded
the holy city from the sword of the Lombards. These fierce
conquerors felt their hot rage and burning threats cool on their
lips, and their swelling pride break into empty foam, at the feet
of the unarmed Roman Pontiff, as before the very apparition of
an angel of the Lord. And the nations did not await desperate
crises to appeal to the Popes ; they were consulted from all
quarters and on all subjects. Nothing of importance was un­
dertaken without their advice. In the sixth century, Pope
Agapetus, on behalf of the Italians, negotiated a peace be­
tween Theodoratus, king of the Goths, and the emperor Jus­
tinian. When Athalaric and Theodatus made some important
gifts to the Roman people, it was Pope Vigilius who, in his visit
to Constantinople, obtained from Justinian an imperial consti­
tution, chiefly in order to the confirmation of the gift. At
about the same period, Cassiodorus, a Roman senator, made
præfect of the praetorium, thus wrote to John II. : “ You
are the chief and the guardian of the Christian people ; as
Father you direct every thing; the public safety depends upon
your power and name. In the civil government we haie but a
small share of solicitude and authority; you bear these burdens
in their full weight. You are indeed the spiritual shepherd of
the flock ; but you cannot neglect its temporal welfare : it be­

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GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

longs to a true father to watch at once over the temporal and
eternal welfare of his children.” The surprise that might he
awakened on hearing such expressions from a præfect of the
prætorium, or, in other words, from one of the chief officers of the
empire, will cease when we learn that desolated Italy had long
and vainly called upon the emperors for help in its distress. The
people were dying of hunger and misery; cities were disman­
tled and burned, and the country laid waste ; the scattered in­
habitants wandered about in homeless destitution, at the mercy
of the barbarians. In this deplorable condition, Italy found its
first, nay its only hope of relief in the authority of the Holy
See and the charity of the Popes. Their protection became
necessary not only to the poor, but to the very exarchs, who
were obliged, in spite of themselves, to beg their assistance,
sometimes to meet the expenses of the administration in the
provinces, sometimes to calm the popular passions, and at times
even to treat in their favor with the Lombards. In a word, the
very force of circumstances, the crying need of their presence
and authority, had made the Sovereign Pontiffs the centre of
all administrative power and public business in Italy. It was
an involuntary, but yet a no less real and necessary sov­
*
ereignty.
4. St. Gregory the Great was the most striking personifica­
tion, the noblest and most touching type of this singular sov­
ereignty, which was felt only by its beneficent love of man, and
which was cast upon the Roman Pontiffs by the resistless power
of events, the miseries of the times, and the grateful love of
nations. That holy Pontiff is usually found discharging the
duties of a temporal lord and almost of a sovereign, for the gov­
ernment and protection of Italy ; he administers provinces, pro­
vides for the defence of cities, and sends governors, enjoining
upon the people to obey them as they would himself. “ We
have charged Leontius to take upon himself the government of
your city,” he writes to the citizens of Nepi. “ It is our wish
• Monseigneur Dofanlocp, bishop of Orleans, On the Temporal Sovereignly of the Pope
Faria, 1849, pp. 34, 35, 31, 38, 39.

HISTORICAL REVIEW OF THE THIRD PERIOD.

379

that his watchful care should overlock nothing, and that he
should personally decide and regulate all that he deems proper
for your good and that of the commonwealth. Whoever opposes
his orders, by the very fact resists our authority.” He sends
military officers to command the garrisons in places threatened
by the enemies of the empire. Many of his letters were writ­
ten to arouse the vigilance and zeal of bishops, for the protec­
tion of cities, for the defence of the walls, and the supply of for­
tified towns. He gives orders to the commanders of armies,
treats in person with the Lombards for peace, and facilitates
the success of negotiations, at one time by his liberality, at an­
other by repeated representations to the exarchs, to the emper­
ors, or to the Lombards themselves. In fine, his authority,
compelling equal respect from prince and people, from Romans
and barbarians, becomes the centre of government and of all the
political interests of Italy. Such was the obligation imposed
upon this great and holy Pope by the wants and miseries of
his people, no less than by the charity which burned in his
breast ; he says of himself that his life was divided between
the duties of pastor and those of temporal prince. He thus
wrote to the empress Constantina, wife of the emperor Mauritius:
“ For twenty-seven years have we dwelt in this city, under the
swords of the Lombards. But even such a life we must buy at
the price of a daily ransom which I dare not name. To give
you an idea of it in a few words, I may say that as the emperor
takes care to keep a treasurer in Ravenna, to provide the daily
supplies of the chief Italian army, so am I the emperor's treas­
urer at Rome, to look to the wants of this unfortunate city, in­
cessantly assailed by the Lombards.” St. Gregory’s successors
inherited both his power and his chanty. Gregory Π. thus
wrote to the emperor Leo : “ The entire West is looking to our
lowliness. It looks upon us as the judge and regulator of peace
and public tranquillity.”
5. These facts make it easy to follow up the generation of
the temporal power of the Papacy. From the days of Gregory
II there has existed a real sovereignty. The learned have

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GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

culled it a, provisional sovereignty ; but under whatever name it
be known, it was real; it existed de facto and de jure ; it
was sanctioned by time, by public custom, and by the grab
itude of nations. It was unquestioned, and even the East paid
it the tribute of involuntary but striking homage. Rome and
Italy now awaited but the hour marked by Providence—the
hour when this great institution should be solemnly confirmed
and proclaimed to the world as part and parcel of the public
law of nations, and should take, amid the new powers of the
West, without prejudice to any, the exalted rank assigned it
by the designs of God upon His Church. “ In the decline of
the empire,” says Bossuet, “ when the Csesars were hardly able
to defend the East, where they had shut themselves up, Rome,
abandoned for nearly two hundred years to the fury of the
Lombards, and forced to call upon the Franks for protection,
was constrained to withdraw from the emperors. Nor was this
decisive step taken until the last degree of suffering and want
had been endured, and when the capital of the empire was
looked upon by its emperors as a country cast off, and left a
prey to every passing marauder.” The protectorate of the
Holy See thus passed from the empire of Constantinople to the
French monarchy, which places its sword at the command of
the Papacy ; and not content with securing its independence,
it must establish on a lasting foundation the temporal rule
of Christ’s Vicars. We have given full details of events so
glorious for France. In the name of Pepin the Short, Fulrad,
abbot of St. Denis, visited all the cities given up or restored by
the Lombards to the Roman Church, received the keys of their
gates, and laid them with religious reverence upon the tomb
of St. Peter, together with the deed of perpetual cession and
transfer made by the Lombard king in favor of the Holy See.
These cities were twenty-two in number, comprising the greater
part of the exarchate of Ravenna, and chiefly situated within
a space of forty leagues along the shores of the Adriatic. Char­
lemagne, of deathless memory, carried out and crowned the
work begun by his father, in a style of royal magnificence.

HISTORICAL REVIEW OR THE THIRD PERIOD.

381

Besides ratifying the donation already made, he went to Rome
and ordered his chaplain, Estherius, to draw up a deed of
much more ample gift, which secured to the Holy See the last­
ing possession of the exarchate of Ravenna, the Island of Cor­
sica, the provinces of Parma, Mantua, Venetia, and Istria, with
the duchies of Spoleto and Beneventum. The deed was signed
by the conquering hand which had just put an end to Lombard
monarchy. The paper was then laid upon the altar of St.
Peter, and Charlemagne, with all the French chieftains, swore
to maintain the Holy See in its possession of the states now
restored to it. The first use made by the Papacy of this
officially acknowledged power was, to rebuild the Western
Empire to the advantage of its illustrious benefactor. The
sword of the Cæsars was placed in the hands of a French
prince, the champion of St. Peter. Grateful nations sanctioned
this token of gratitude on the part of the Sovereign Pontiffs,
and posterity caught up and renewed the contemporary glad­
ness which showered blessings upon the two names of Leo ΙΠ.
and Charlemagne.
6. No earthly power, other than that just bestowed upon
the Church in its Pontiffs, could stem the torrent of barbarian
invasion, and heal the hurt it caused to society. Utterly unac­
quainted with science, art, or civilization, the savage conquer­
ors of the West had no other pastime than the chase and war,
respected no higher law than force, sought no brighter glory
than that of mere conquest ; and, far from acknowledging the
disorder and the irregularity of this savage state, they ex­
pressed a sovereign contempt for a more polished manner of
life. It is true that the Christian religion, which these nations
successively embraced, gradually tamed their native fierceness ;
but this precious result of their conversion was slow and im­
perceptible. With the greater part of them, it was the reluc­
tant work of years to give up their old habits, their violent and
irritable temper, a passionate love of hunting and fighting, a
hearty contempt for science and art, but especially that spirit
of restless independence which seemed to constitute the most

382

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

deeply rooted element of their character. We may now form
some idea of the obstacles which the Church had to overcome
before reaching a practicable ground in these savage natures.
It was necessary to humanize them before the work of Chris­
tianizing could begin. The whole political and social system
of the barbarians was a perfect chaos. Their government,
legislation, literature, sciences and arts, all had been swallowed
up in a fearful flood. The Church undertook to restore every
thing, and this was her ceaseless toil through the whole course
cf the Middle Ages. We shall speak in a summary way of
each point separately.
7. Most of the monarchies founded in Europe, since the
fourth century, on the ruins of the Roman Empire, were elective,
at least to the extent that the sovereign could be indifferently
singled out from among all the princes of the reigning family.
The crown was thus, strictly speaking, neither purely elective
nor purely hereditary, but both elective and hereditary at once :
hereditary, inasmuch as the choice was confined to the reigning
family ; elective, by the fact that the selection was not lim­
ited to any single prince of the blood royal, but might fall upon
any one of them indifferently. All the children of the deceased
monarch enjoyed an equal right to the throne, which they some­
times shared among themselves as a particular succession, with
the expressed or tacit consent of the nobles, to whose approval
this right was subject, as they were free to oppose the division
of power, and to choose the new king from among all the rela­
tions of the deceased, even to the exclusion of his children.
The latter, indeed, might claim a hope, nay, an incipient
though not a full and unquestionable right, of succession.
They could be deemed the natural and probable successors of
the late king, though not his necessary successors, since they
were liable to be passed over by the nobles, in whose hands
were the results of the elections. Such was the order of suc­
cession to the throne among the Visigoths in Spain, the AngloSaxons in England, the Franks under the second race of their
kings, according to most historians, and even under the first.

HISTOBICAL REVIEW OF THE THIRD PERIOD.

383

as is asserted by many reliable authors. This was especially
the character of the new Empire of the West, where this form
of government lasted much longer than in the other European
states. That great historical event, the accession of Pepin the
Short, and the decision of Pope Zachary, which has furnished
so much material for the spleen of writers unfriendly to the
power of the Holy See, rested upon the principle of public
right generally acknowledged in the Middle Ages : the blend­
ing of the elective and the hereditary succession in the royal races
*
It must be readily seen how greatly the elective element
brought into the monarchical succession, increased the influence
of the clergy in the political affairs of that period. The bishops
and the abbots of the leading monasteries, independently of
the ‘religious character which compelled public respect, repre­
sented the most enlightened portion of society. Their senti­
ment was always controlling in the general assemblies which
discussed the great interests of the nation. The first duty, the
chief obligation imposed upon the newly-elected sovereign, was
to show and to enforce respect for the laws of religion and the
Church. “ The title of king {rex)," said a canon, “ is intended
to express the rectitude of conduct which should distinguish the
monarch ; for if he rule with piety, justice, and goodness, he
may lawfully hold his title of rex ; if he want these qualities,
he is no longer a king, but a tyrant. The highest duty of the
king is to rule and guide the people of God with justice, and
to endeavor to keep them in peace and harmony. His greatest
glory must be to defend and protect the Church and the ser­
vants of God—widows, orphans, the poor, and all the needy.”
The Church conferred blessings upon the royal races in return
for the favors they bestowed upon her. Her influence gradu• It is tho opinion of able critica that Pepin was of the royal blood of tho Merovingian
*
They thus establish the succession of French princes from Moroveus to Pepin and Hugh
Capet : Sigebert, king of tbe Ripunrii, brother of Childeric L ; Cloderic, killed by Clovis,
Mundoric, king in Auvergne; Bodegeeilas, king in Austrasia; St. Arnoul; Asigise, Sigebert’s mayor of the palaeo ; Pepin of Herstal, who had two sons—Charles Martel, founder
of tho Car.ovingians, and Chüdebrand, founder of tho Capetians. On this hypothesis, and
with tho existing constitution, tho accession of Popin the Short cannot bo called a usurpa­
tion.

384

GENERAL ΗΙ8Τ0ΚΓ OF THE CHURCH.

ally moulded hereditary succession into the regular form in
which we see it now. It was no unwonted sight in the Middle
Ages to see Sovereign Pontiffs adopt royal orphans, and shield
their rights from usurping encroachments.
8. After the conquest the barbarians took possession of
the soil of Europe. The conquered were bound to the glebe as
serfs. The conquerors kept for themselves the profession of
arms, and had the right of life and death over their serfs.
Within their own estates they severally enjoyed an independ­
ent authority, for which they were answerable only to the king
to whom they were vassals. To him they swore fealty, and
furnished men-atrarms for his military expeditions, as standing
armies were still unknown. In case of war, an assemblage of
lords and vassals was called, and the subject paid military duty
to his suzerain by bringing his vassals to swell the royal ranks.
Such was the principle of the feudal system. The Churches,
having received vast estates from the liberality of kings and
lords, were thus bound to military duty as fiefs. This often
gave rise to serious abuses. Some bishops, forgetting their
peaceful character as ministers of Jesus Christ, took personal
command of their forces, and fought amid the armed ranks.
But the passing contempt of discipline was soon checked by the
influence of councils, and then the feudal system appeared only
in its beneficial and protective character. The bishops found
their natural position between the lords and their vassals, as
the representatives of mercy. Their intervention softened what­
ever of inhuman rudeness the still savage nature of masters
might have lent to serfdom. They began by giving the exam­
ple of a gentle and tutelary authority, and, until the extinction
of the feudal system, the truth had passed into a by-word, that
no man could be happier than a serf of a church or monastery
*
• The writers of the eighteenth century have spread the moat absurd calumnies about
the feudal system ; but history cannot be made the organ of malicious accusations. Feudal­
ism was a political system, a form of government, and, like all other constitutions, possessed
both good and evil traits. Many attempts have been made, but to this day we have not
succeeded in setting up a blameless form of government; this fact should be borne in mind.

HISTORICAL REVIEW OP THE THIRD PERIOD.

885

As temporal lords the bishops had the right and even the obli­
gation of taking part in the deliberations of the great national
nssemblies or diets, which met every year. Their influence wae
always evident in the useful regulations made on behalf of the
people, and it moreover gave to these meetings the tone of
mixed councils, looking at once to the welfare of Church and
etale.
9. The changes brought into the West by barbarian inroads,
necessitated deep modifications in legislation A glance at ' he
Frankish laws may serve to give an idea of the various legisla­
tive systems of the barbarians. The Salic law mostly related
to harm inflicted upon person or property ; for, in a period of
ceaseless revolutions, these must have been the most common
crimes. Every offence was to be cancelled by a pecuniary sat­
isfaction proportioned to the nature of the offence, the "ank and
condition of the offending party. The sentence of capital pun­
ishment was reserved to the prince, who could send the crim­
inal to death and decide the manner of the executif n. We saw
how Clovis used this power in the case of the soldier of Sois·
sons ; and, according to the then acknowledged principles, he
did no more than he had a right to do. A freeman was never
imprisoned for debt. His punishment consisted in the plunder­
ing of his property, and his consequent ruin ; no one might
shelter him, and he was thus forced to an invojuntary self-ex­
ile. The master was responsible for thefts committed by his
slaves or damages done by his cattle. Justice was administered
as nearly as possible in a uniform manner. The present magis­
tracy was then unknown. Each class and profession had its
own tribunal, laws, and customs. In villages, the executive
officer was a centurion; in cities, a count; in the provincial
metropolis, a duke. Men-at-arms were judged by military triFeudeliem would seem to be the Attest form of government for the ufancy and youth of
nations. Russia still lives under its influence, without exciting any complaint It was long
the law in Franco, whose history certainly lacks not splendor or greatness. The system
doubtless had its abuses, and what system was ever entirely free from them T Nation^
like individuals, share the failings of the age in which they live. Tears may modify, bat
cannot utterly eradicate them.
Vou Π.— >:■

3SG

general history OF ΤΠΕ church.

bunals, and clerics answered before an ecclesiastical court ap.
pointed by the bishop ; this system was called being judged
one's peers. Widows and orphans were under the especial pro­
tection of the bishop, and were never prosecuted without his
knowledge. The weak were thus intrusted to the guardian
care of the Church, the only power that gave any promise of
weathering the social storms which convulsed that period. In
lawsuits, the parties were put on oath. The defendant was
allowed to clear himself by oath only on procuring the same
testimony from witnesses, whose number varied according to the
importance of the case and the merit or rank of the individuals.
The oath was administered in the church, on the cross, the Gos­
pels, the tombs of the saints, or the shrines enclosing their
relics. In all this we can readily trace the germs of true legis­
lation. The Roman law, into which Justinian’s labors had
infused something of the morality of the gospel, was at once
the most complete and best fitted to the wants of nations. In
this respect, humanity had been falling back ; but the Church
gradually improved the laws by wiser thoughts and sounder
principles. The councils were the true legislative assemblies
of the Middle Ages ; and we may more than once be struck
by their useful and wholesome influence.
10. The fifth century was fatal to letters. The torrent of
barbarian invasion sweeping down from the North overwhelms
the literary treasures, bears down all the monuments of the
South. The light of intellect is extinguished, or finds shelter
within the seclusion of the cloister. A thick and lasting gloom
settles down upon Western Europe. Rome, the home of the
arts, four times taken and sacked by the Goths, the Vandals,
the Lombards, and the troops of Belisarius, saw its countless
masterpieces crumble beneath the ruthless hands of the savage
sons of the North. Then did the bowels of the earth receive
the treasures so eagerly sought by the modern delvers of the
Roman soil. It was doubtless in the designs of Providence
that ancient Bome should thus bury herself with all her idola­
trous, heathen superstitions, that the glorious monuments of the

HISTORICAL REVIEW

I? THE THIRD PERIOD.

387

new and Christian Rome might rise up over the mins of lost
polytheism. While Rome and the fine arte sunk under these
cruel disasters, literature met with severe misfortunes in other
quarters. A conflagration, which visited Constantinople in
the fifth century, destroyed one hundred and twenty thousand
volumes, among which are said to have perished the complete
works of Homer, written in letters of gold. In the seventh
century, the blind bigotry of the caliph Omar applied the torch
to the celebrated Alexandrian library, and snatched from the
world the most precious monuments of human genius. The
East thus found in the Mahometan invasion the counterpart of
the barbarian inroads in the West. Still, the Byzantine empire
yet stood, and might have given shelter to science and litera­
ture now banished from the West. But the degenerate Greeks,
sunk in indolence-and corruption, wasted their time in fruitless
discussions ; their fickle nature seized with delight upon every
heresy or new opinion that offered itself. The remains of civ­
ilization which they still possessed were rather a monument of
their degeneracy than the germs of a new Efe ; and, threatened
as they were on all sides by the Saracens, the Ruriskchs, and
the Bulgarians, they gave but scant promise of a brighter
future.
11. To repair the wide-spread ruin, the Church now brought
forth those generations of religious who made it their mission
to keep alive the sacred fire of Eterature, science, and art, for
the benefit of a more worthy age. The rule of the Egyptian
monks was brought into Provence, in the beginning of the fifth
century, by Sts. Honoratus and Cassian, who founded two
monasteries respectively at Lerins and MarseiUes. These nur­
series produced learned and zealous apostles of the Christian
faith and cenobitic life, among whom was St. Patrick, first foun­
der of the monastic colonies of Ireland. The rehgious orders
in the West foUowed various rules, until the Benedictine held
all the Latin monasteries under its discipline. This celebrated
order owes its beginning and rise to St. Benedict of Nursia,
who, in the year 029, built the monastery of Monte Cassino,

3&8

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

which was to become the mother house of a numerous congre­
gation. The rule to which St. Benedict subjected his monks
prescribed manual labor and study, and bound them by the
three vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience. Sanctioned by
the approval of St. Gregory the Great, in 595, it spread rapidly
through all the provinces of the Latin Church The important
services rendered by the Benedictines to religion, humanity,
and literature, endeared them to all the faithful. Their monas­
teries became seminaries which sent forth preachers to carry
the light of faith to barbarous nations, and with it, and by it, to
widen the bounds of civilization. Their hands cleared the dense
forest; of the most barren wastes their patient toil made rich
and smiling fields. In fine, it is to their devoted care we owe
the preservation of the great masterpieces of Greek and Latin
antiquity. So many and so great blessings would naturally
draw from their favored contemporaries a corresponding return
of grateful liberality. The endowments showered upon mon·
asteries soon exceeded the estates of the Churches. These
means would of course result in wholesome effects. When the
burden of public teaching afterward fell upon the religious
orders, their wealth enabled them to attract the greatest minds
within the sanctuary of science, and the constant communica­
tion kept up between the various monasteries gave action and
union to the intellectual world.
12. The great vital power which had given such marvels of
learning and eloquence to the fourth and fifth centuries, though
weakened during the vicissitudes of the third period, was not
utterly destroyed. St. John Damascen appeared in the East,
the worthy successor of an Athanasius and a Chrysostom. In
the West, St. Fulgentius, St. Cesarius of Arles, and St. Gregory
the Great, were bright links in the glorious chain of the Church's
doctors. Poetry, hitherto the chief vehicle of polytheistic
teaching, changed its object and nature under the pen of Claudian. It became Christian, and was represented by St. Sido­
nius Apollinaris St. Fortunatus, and Boetius. The general
corruption of taste appeared less strikingly in poetry' than in

HISTORICAL· REVIEW OF THE THIRD PERIOD.

prose, and the inspirations of the Christian muse found interpre­
ters well worthy to render their lofty flight. Profane history
saw its last heathen representative in the person of Ammianus
Marcellinus, a writer of the fourth century. The writers of the
third period are of an exclusively Christian stamp ; they ί.γθ
true religious chroniclers. We mentioned, in due course, St.
Gregory of Tours, St. Isidore of Seville, and the Venerable Bede.
The path marked out by the learned bishop of Tours was care­
fully followed by the Goth Jornandes, bishop of Ravenna (a. d.
552), in his works De Gothorum origine et rebus gestis ; De
origine mundi, and by the Burgundian Fredegarius (a. d. 650),
in his Chronicles. The most valuable and reliable historical
monuments of the fifth and sixth centuries are the letters of
those who played a prominent part in Church or state. The
epistolary collections of St. Sidonius Apollinaris, of Cassiodorus,
and St. Gregory the Great, are full of the highest interest.
Christian philosophy was worthily represented by the illustri­
ous Boetius, who established the first alliance between theology
and the Aristotelian method, to which the Church afterward
owed all the advantages of the scholastic system.
13. The arts of design were already in full decline when
the Northern invasion gave them their death-blow. This epoch
witnessed the ruin of more temples than could be numerically
replaced by the churches raised in the same length of time.
But still, while the masterpieces of classical *
architecture fell
under the unsparing mallet of the barbarians, the Christian
religion clothed itself with the splendors of the fallen worship,
and thus saved the most precious remains of antiquity. It
had already raised a great number of basilicas under Constan­
tine ; the work was nobly carried on under the Theodosian
emperors. But the only sacred monuments of the period de­
• This is the term applied to Grecian architecture, of which the principles and later deret
opments had been adopted in tho Roman monuments, in opposition to the style called the
Gothic, to which Christianity owes so many masterpiece», and of whose first appearance
we shall have occasion to speak in the twelfth century.

390

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

serving of special mention, from their boldness of design or
colossal dimensions, are the Rotunda at Ravenna and St. Sophia
at Constantinople. These last two works of art are associated
with the names of a royal barbarian and of an emperor—The­
odoric and Justinian. After their period, the disordered state
of the West and the unsteadiness of the imperial power in the
East forbade princes to undertake great architectural works.
Mussulman inroads and Iconoclastic fury struck a fatal blow
at the fine arts, especially painting and sculpture, which had
begun to decay long before architecture showed signs of
weakness. The valuable service rendered to the arts by the
energetic struggle of the Papacy against Iconoclasm, is too
generally overlooked. It took to its protection those gifted
sons of genius whose inspirations it has ever guided and fos­
tered with a mother’s care, and by this noble protection conse­
crated the temporal authority just bestowed upon it by tho
gratitude of the West.
14. While the pontifical power was thus upheld by the
kn e and veneration of nations, the East felt the want of a firm
and vigorous authority. The inertness of the Greek emperors
gave way to the Mussulman encroachments, which might have
been stifled in their birth. To this sad truth Constantine’s de­
generate descendants awoke too late ; the Prophet’s standard
was already reflected in the waters of the Bosphorus, and all
the East was bent before him. All was over. The religious
and political system under which the East still languishes was
thenceforth a power. This indelible stain was fixed upon
civilization. The fairest countries on the face of the earth
were doomed to a lasting barrenness. Not more utterly does
the burning simoom of the desert wither every trace of vegeta­
tion, than does Islamism every germ of prosperity, greatness,
and life. What has been the fate of the flourishing cities of
Asia Minor, Syria, Palestine, and Egypt, under a government
which dispeoples by polygamy, which breaks up the sanctuary
of the family circle by the sensual ties of the seraglio, which

HISTORICAL REVIEW OF THF, THTRT» PERIOD.

39»

lowers woman, which degrades conscience hy the teachings of
fatalism, clogs every energy, raises sloth to the dignity of a
dogma, looks down upon industry and agriculture as fit only for
slaves, and palsies commerce by an official contempt for what­
ever is not of the Prophet?
*
It seemed to be the mission of
Islamism to weigh down the East in the deep sleep of death,
as a monumental stone presses upon a grave. But this material
and sensual religion will crumble into dust at the first shock
it receives from a powerful hand. The fanaticism that now
bears it up is but the passing reaction of a degraded race fight­
ing for its sensual institutions, armed to keep the right of dying
unnerved and spent by the voluptuousness of the harem. More­
over, the empire of Constantinople was fated to atone, by its
ruin, for the shameful crime of leaving humanity enslaved to
this infamous yoke. Viewed in this light, the much-abused
crusades were the highest political undertakings, fraught with
the greatest benefits to mankind, had God willed to crown them
with success.
Instead of turning their weapons against the Mahometans,
those enemies of all civilization, the Greek emperors were en­
tirely given up to fomenting religious quarrels. All the great
heresies of this period were born in the East. The Church of
Constantinople, far removed from the guardian care of Rome,
and given up to the ambitious aims of its Patriarchs, was ever
the home of innovation and error. The discussion on the
Three Chapters was followed by the heretical stubbornness of
the Eutychians and the rage of the Iconoclasts. Three general
councils successively anathematized the error, but could not
entirely uproot it. The Photian schism was coming on, to
gather up all the scattered fragments of division and ruin, and
to herald the final cutting off of the Greek Church.
15. When Christianity came forth in triumph from the
catacombs, the Catholic worship displayed its splendors with
• It is notorioue that in the East the Christiane are known only by the Mme of Otoe*

392

GENERAL HISTORY OP THE CHURCH

all magnificence. The outward pomp of the sacred cerem jnies
deeply impressed the minds of the barbarians, and drew num­
bers to the faith. Clovis, dazzled by the unearthly splendor
of the church of Rheims, on that glorious Christmas midnight
that gave the French nation to the Christian fold, asked St.
Remigius : “ Father, is this the Heavenly Kingdom of which
you told me ?” The clergy now wore particular ornaments on
solemn days and in the discharge of certain ministerial func­
tions. The dress which marked the bishop, consisted, in the
East: 1. Of the stole (ώραριον), first called orarium, and after­
ward stola. 2. An ornament made of white woollen stuff, worn
on the shoulders (ώμοφόριον, pallium), as a symbol of the lost
sheep mentioned in the Gospel, sought and carried to the fold
by the Good Shepherd. The pallium, also used in the West,
was, from the sixth century, sent by the Popes to the metro­
politans as a sign of communion and of dependence. 3. The
tiara or mitre, made of costly stuff, often adorned with gold
and precious stones, was, both in the East and in the West,
the badge of episcopal authority. 4. In the West, the ring and
crozier were also assigned as part of the bishop’s insignia. The
clergy, in humble imitation of monks and slaves, wore their
hair cut close, or at least had it shaved on the crown, in a ton­
sure (tonsura Petri, signum passionis'), which was afterward
worn by all the clergy. Toward the close of the sixth century,
it was found necessary to complete and improve the liturgical
work of previous ages ; for the liturgy, like the creed of the
Church, like its code of discipline, must receive new wealth
from the tide of time, though it can never undergo any essen­
tial change. St. Gregory the Great undertook the work of
reform ; we have mentioned his labors in this field. The grave
and solemn religious chant that bears his name, was taught in
a special school founded by the great Pontiff, and thence spread
throughout the whole Church. In the lapse of time, church
music became more artistic. At length the swelling strains of
the majestic organ—echo of heaven’s harmonies—accompanied
the solemn Gregorian chant.

HISTORICAL REVIEW OF THE THIRD PERIOD.

393

16 In the beginning of the fourth century a hammer and a
plate of metal, and from the seventh the sound of bells, called
the Christians to the churches for morning and evening prayer,
or the celebration of the Holy Mysteries. This celebration
consisted of two principal parts. The first (J/ίββα Catechume­
norum) was free to the catechumens, and even to pagans;
none but baptized Christians could witness the second. The
mass of the catechumens opened, according to the various litur­
gies, either by the singing of psalms or by reading a portion of
the Sacred Scriptures. All those present chanted the Psalms in
unison, though the custom prevailed in the East, from the fifth
century, and in the West, since the time of St. Ambrose, of
singing the Psalms in alternate choirs composed of all the
faithful present. The first Psalm was sung in the style of our
Introit {Introitus) ; then, according to the oldest liturgies, fol­
lowed the same invocation we now make to the Divine mercy
(κύριε, έλεησον), and the more or less fully developed doxology
{Gloria). The bishop next saluted the people with the words
Pax vobis, and offered up a prayer on behalf of the whole con­
gregation {collecta, quia fidelium vota ab eo quasi colligebantur).
Then he seated himself upon his throne, and the lector ascended
the ambo to read a passage from the Epistles or from the Old
Testament—generally from a book in which the lessons were
disposed according to the season. This reading was followed
by the singing of a psalm {gradualis),
*
after which the lector
again read the Gospel ( though after the sixth century this duty
was always discharged by the deacon), which the bishop, stand­
ing either at his throne or the altar, explained with practical
and familiar reflections (όμίλια, tractatus), or he made a discourse
upon a text chosen at will {sermo). After the homily, the
deacon removed the unbelievers, catechumens, and penitents,
and, closing the doors, called upon the faithful, privileged to
remain in the temple, to pray for the afflicted, for travellers,
* So named because generali/ choacn from among the fifteen Ptalma called gndnaJ

894

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

for tne sick and the agonizing, the clergy, the Church, for all
classes of people, friends «and enemies. This prayer corre­
sponds to the one still preserved in the churches of France,
under the name of prône (πρόναος).
17. Then began the second part of the sacrifice, with cere­
monies exactly corresponding to those in use at the present
day. From the offer ;ngs of bread and wine made by the faithful,
the deacon and sub-deacon took what was necessary for the
communion. This offering is styled, in the offertory {offerte·
riunij, a sacrifice of propitiation for our sins, the sacrifice of the
spotless Victim born of the Virgin Mary. The use of incense at
the Holy Sacrifice is mentioned in the fifth century. After
the offertory, the deacon brought water to the bishop to wash
his hands. The people were exhorted to raise their minds
and hearts to heavenly sentiments (prcefatio, πρόλογος). “ Let
us lift up our eyes to the Lord, with fear and trembling ; let us
raise up our hearts, sursum corda." “ We raise them up to the
Lord," answered the people. “ Let us give thanks to the Lord
our God,” again chanted the bishop, and the people again an­
swered, “ It is right and just.” The preface ended with the
angelic chant : “ Holy, holy, holy is the Lord God of hosts.”
And now began the principal part of the tremendous Mysteries
(dva^apa, actio, secretum), called the canon since the time of St.
Gregory the Great. Then, as now every, word was carefully
regulated. The addition of a single line to the canon of the
Mass was an event that interested the whole Church, and must
be known to all succeeding ages.
*
There was a commemoration
of all the faithful, of the bishop or patriarch, the ruling monarch,
the benefactors of the Church, and both in the East and West
• Joannes Diaconus thus speaks of it: "To the canon of the Mass Pope Gregory adceu
the words: Diesque nostros in tua pace disponas, atque ab atema damnatione nos eripi et in
tkclorum tuorum jubeas ç/reqe numerari. Thia addition, which expresses a petition for peace,
would seem to refer to the year Û94, when Agilulph, king of the Lombards, laid siege to
Roma ; the city, being then ungarrisoned, was thrown into a state of the utmost consterna­
tion. St. Gregory, interrupting his labors on the prophet Ezekiel, by hia ceaseless prayer·
and energetic zeal seconded the courage of the Romaus and rescued the city after a year's
aiege.

HISTORICAL REVIEW OF THE THIRD PERIOD

S9Ô

especial mention was made of the Pope, whose name was writ­
ten for the purpose in the sacred diptychs. When the bishop
was about to consecrate in the Oriental rite, the curtain which
hid the sanctuary was drawn aside, and the bishop raised the
consecrated Host, changed by the words of divine institution
into the body of Jesus Christ, and the faithful bowed down in
prostrate adoration. The custom of elevating the Host was
not introduced into the West until some time later; but accord­
ing to Sts. Ambrose and Augustine, the Blessed Sacrament
was adored before the Communion. Next followed the Pater,
the Agnus Dei, and the kiss of peace given by the bishop, and
communicated in hierarchical order till it reached the simple
faithful. The same order was observed in the communion :
the bishops, priests, the inferior clergy, ascetics, monks, reli­
gious, and laymen successively received the sacred species of
bread and wine with the words : “ May the body, or may the
blood of our Lord Jesus Christ keep thy soul unto life ever­
lasting.” After a closing prayer, the congregation was dis­
missed (Missa. Demissio). The general communion was usually
given under both forms, as we have just stated, though it was
evidently always believed that the substance of the Sacrament
is wholly contained under either form, as is plainly expressed
by the apostle : “ He who eateth or drinketh unworthily,” àc.
Besides, the Christians, in the first age of persecution, or before
setting out on a long journey, especially by sea, were allowed
to keep the Blessed Eucharist in their houses ; this privilege
was especially enjoyed by monks who had no priest in their
solitude. Now in such cases, as also in administering it to the
sick, the Eucharist was always given under the one form of
bread, and this communion was deemed as holy, as full, as that
under both kinds. It is equally certain that communion was
given to little children only under the form of wine, as was the
early custom. As to the kind of bread used for the Eucharist,
both the East and the West used leavened bread. It was not
till the time of Photius that the use of unleavened bread pro
*

396

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

vailed. In both Churches was observed the primitive usage
of mingling a little water with the wine.
Such was the state of the Church when the re-establishment
of the Western Empire, in the person of Charlemagne, gave a
new impulse to the world, and constituted all Europe into a
powerful unity.
*
• We have borrowed the materiale for thia chapter from the various works of MN.
4J»ag DupanJoup, Las-Casaa, Dee Miahiela, Daelliogor, Rohrbacher, Onrfranger, Ao.

FOURTH PERIOD
OP

THE HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

JTrcm the ft^-eetablishment of the Western Empire (A- D. SOO) So
the Pontificate of Sylvester II. (A. D. ΘΘ9).

CHAPTER I.
§ L Pontificate

op

St. Leo IIL (December 26, a. d. 795—June 12, 816).

J. View of the Fourth Period of Church History.—9. Accession of St Leo HL—
3. State of the Catholic world.—4. Plot formed at Rome against the Pope.—
Leo III. visits France.—5. Council of Rome.—6. Charlemagne crowned Em­
peror of the West—7. Banishment and deathof the Empress Irene.—8. Court
of Charlemagne.—9. Charlemagne’s patronage of letters.—10. Alcuin.—
11. Re-establishment of schools.—12. School of the palace.—13. Alcuin
retires.—14. Charlemagne's administration.—15. Charlemagne the pro­
tector of the Church.—16. Question of the Filioque.—17. Charlemagne
shares with his son Louis the government of the Empire.—18. Death of
Charlemagne.—19. Lamentable condition of the Greek Empire.—20. Death
of St Leo III.

§ II. Pontificate

op

Stephen V. (June 22, a. d. 816—January 22, 817).

21. Promotion of Stephen V. Louis the Mild.—22. Stephnen V. crowns Loma
the Mild at Rheims. Council of Aix-la-Chapeile. Foundation of ecclesia
*
tical schools.—23. Council of Calcuith in England.—24. Death of Stephen V.

§ I. Pontificate op St. Leo HI. (December 26, a. d. 795June 12, 816).

1. The third period of Church history opened at the down­
fall of the Roman empire in the West ; the re-establishment of
the Western empire under Charlemagne inaugurated the fourth.
Begun under the auspices of a hero, the impersonation of &
whole century, this period, despite the bright promise of it
*

398

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

opening years, proved a season of sore trial to the Church.
The whole East broke from the fold, and plunged into a lamen
*
able schism, which still lasts. The West, ravaged by the
Normans and Saracens, fell into all the disorders that ever fol­
low in the train of anarchy. The monks and secular clergy
became relaxed ; the taste for ecclesiastical studies died away,
the bonds of discipline were weakened ; even the Papacy was
subjected by the Tuscan kings and German emperors. Yet the
Divine protection, ever watchful of the Church’s interest, did
not fail her at this critical juncture. The Holy See, armed
with the temporal power bestowed upon it by the liberality of
Pepin and Charlemagne, ever stood forth the centre of truth,
the unshaken bulwark of the faith against its various enemies.
The purity of Catholic teaching was jealously guarded, and the
Gospel continued to make new conquests among the barbarians.
2. On the 26th of December, a. d. 795, St. Leo III. was
raised to the Chair of St. Peter, and after his consecration was
crowned on the lower steps of the Vatican basilica. Now
that the Pope was a king, it was fitting that he should be
crowned as other monarchs ; and the tiara, the triple diadem
that encircled his brow, represented the threefold royalty of
the episcopate, the pontifical primacy, and the temporal sover­
eignty.
*
This was the origin of the ceremony called the pos­
sessio or talcing possession, renewed with such majestic pomp at
the enthronement of each new Pope. St. Leo III. hastened to
acquaint Charlemagne with his election. The king had just
won a complete triumph over the Huns, whose capital he gave
up to be plundered by his troops. Here were hoarded up the
captured treasures of Italy from the days of Attila. With hir
letter of congratulation to the new Pope, Charlemagne sent the
most costly articles found among the spoils. The royal hand
of a Frankish hero thus gave back to the Rome of the Sovereign
Pontiffs, the monuments of art wrested by the Scourge of God
from the nerveless grasp of the degenerate heirs of Cæsar and
• The tiara only took its present form in the pontificate of John ΧΧΠΙ. (a. d. 1413).

UT. LEO m. (A. D. 79S-816).

899

Augustas. “ We had fully prepared,” wrote Charlemagne, “U
send to your predecessor of holy memory, one of our dearest
servants, Engilbert, with the spoils which the God of armies
has given us out of the hands of the barbarians, the enemies of
His holy name ; when we received tidings of the loss which I
still weep. The fond affection I had sworn to Adrian fills my
eyes with tears at only the mention or very thought of him.
Be it yours, worthy successor of that holy Pontiff, to assuage
my bitter grief by concerting measures with Engilbert, in con­
formity with Adrian’s views, for the exaltation of the Church,
for the honor of your august dignity, and the glory of my patri­
cian rank.
*
Ours it shall be, by God’s help, ever to wield the
sword in defence of His holy Church ; without, against the in­
roads and ravages of infidels ; within, against the attacks of here­
tics.” To these proofs of royal interest and generosity Leo
replied by a solemn embassy bearing to Charlemagne the keys
of the Confession of St. Peter and the municipal standard of
Rome ; and, to perpetuate the memory of the Frankish hero’s
patrician dignity, the Pope ordered a mosaic for the great hall
of the Lateran palace, representing the Apostle St. Peter giv­
ing a standard to the prince, and at the same time a stole to
the Pope.f
3. The promotion of St. Leo was hailed with unmingled
joy throughout the Christian world. Offa, king of the Mer­
cians, on the occasion of a visit to Rome, at the time of Leo’s
election, increased the tax formerly levied by Ina for the sup­
port of an English college at Rome. This tax afterward
received the name it now bears, of Peter pence, from its being
paid at Rome on the feast of St. Peter Ad-Vincula. Kenulf,
Offa’s successor, soon after wrote to congratulate Pope Leo on
his accession, and begged that the bishopric of Litchfield
might be joined to the archiépiscopal see of Canterbury,
which request the Pontiff saw fit to grant. Catholic Spain
• Charlemagne, and before him Pepin the Short, took the title of Roman Patridan. be
etowed upon them by the Popes, in consideration of their protectorate over the Holy Sc·.'
f This monument ia still in a stato of preservation.

400

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

was rnled by Alphonso the Chaste. This great king, worthy
to be the friend of Charlemagne, begged the new Pope'e
prayers for the success of his arms against the Moors. Alphon·
go’s faith was rewarded by the capture of Lisbon, which
awakened new hope in the hearts of this Christian people,
so few, but yet so great in courage. The East, Catholic for
the time, under the rule of Irene, lent its voice to swell the
general acclamation, and promised faithful obedience to the
new Pontiff. The death of Constantine VI., ordered by his
own mother (a. d. 797), left the imperial power wholly in the
hands of that able but ambitious woman, who stopped at
nothing on the road to power. She sought, too, to cover the
remembrance of her crime by the prosperity heaped upon her
subjects, and the new impulse given to the empire. Had she
not sacrificed every natural claim to love of power, her name
had remained enshrined in glory in the Church’s annals.
Under favor of all these promising circumstances, so full
of bright and cheering hope for Leo’s pontificate, a plot was
formed, in the very heart of Rome, against the Pontiff’s life.
Two priests, Pascal and Campulus, whose ambitious views
had been thwarted by the Pontiff’s election, planned his assas­
sination. On the 25th of April, a. d. 799, Leo was on horse­
back, in the solemn procession of the feast of St. Mark. The
unarmed attendants are scattered by the two assassins with
their band of cutthroats ; the Pontiff is assailed with blows
and wounds, and his eyes and tongue cut out. The ruffians
then drag him in a dying condition to the church of Sts. Stephen
and Sylvester, where they heap new outrages upon his sacred
person, and throw him at length into a gloomy dungeon. Rome
heard with horror the details of the execrable crime. His
chamberlain Albinus, backed by all the faithful, demands that
the prison doors be opened, breaks the august captive’s fetters,
and restores him to liberty. On the very next day, Viginiaus,
duke of Spoleto, appeared at the head of his army hastening
to the Pope’s rescue, offered him an asylum in his states, and
escorted him to his capital with the highest honors. Here the

8T.

LEO HI. (A. D. Ί95-β1«).

401

Pope miraculously recovered the use of his eyes and tongue,
which wonderful cure is attested by all contemporary authors,
and hardly admits of a question. Banished from Rome, still
in a state of insurrection, the Sovereign Pontiff determined tn
seek in France the help never yet withheld from the Holy See.
Charlemagne prepared to receive the holy Pope as a martyr of
the faith, and went forward to meet him at some distance from
Paderborn, where the interview was held. The countless
throngs of soldiery and people, who had come to witness the
solemn sight, stood around in an immense circle; Charlemagne,
as he stood in their midst, towered above all around him. As
soon as the Pope appeared among them, the immense multi­
tude, soldiers, civilians, and clergy, three times prostrated
themselves at the feet of the Vicar of Jesus Christ; three time·
the Pontiff gave them his blessing, and prayed for them.
Charlemagne himself, the hero of the West, reverently bowed
before Leo, the pastor of the world. They then embraced,
with tears of joy and affection. Leo III., with tremulous
voice, intoned the angelic hymn, Gloria in excelsis, which was
continued by his clergy. Charlemagne led him thus in tri­
umph to the church of Paderborn, where a service of solemn
thanksgiving was performed. The moral effect of scenes so
imposing upon the minds of new nations has, perhaps, been
too much overlooked. This impressive figure of the union
existing between the Papacy and the empire, tended to give a
kind of divine sanction to power in the eyes of subjects, at a
time when force was the great law of the material world. The
interview of Paderborn was not without effect in Rome. The
Pope’s enemies trembled before the sword of Charlemagne;
and a few months later (a. d. 799) Leo III. re-entered hia
pontifical city amid the acclamations of a whole people wild
with joy at the return of a beloved father.
5. The humble and pious Pontiff thought himself called
upon to answer, before a council of bishops, the slanderous
charges uttered against him ; but the prelates, with one voice,
exclaimed : “ It belongs not to us to judge the Apostolic See,
Vol. Π —2S

402

GENERAL MISTORT OF THE CHURCH.

the bead of all the Churches. That See and its Pastor are our
judges rather.” The Popo took up the book of Gospels, and,
ascending the ambo, before the assembled multitude, uttered
this solemn oath: “I, Leo, Pontiff of the Holy Roman Church,
of my own free-will and inclination, swear before God, Who
reads the innermost thoughts of the heart, in the presence of
TIis angels, of the blessed Apostle St. Peter, and of you all
who hear me, that I have neither done nor ordered any of the
deeds imputed to me. So help me God, before Whose tribunal
we must all appear, and in Whose sight we now stand. This I
do without compulsion from any law, and by no means wishing
to establish a precedent for my successors.”
6. This scene was witnessed by Charlemagne, who had
followed close in the footsteps of the Sovereign Pontiff, in order,
by his presence, to restore perfect calm in the capital of the
Christian world (a. d. 800). Since his accession to the Pon­
tificate, Leo III. had been maturing a design of immense im­
port. The hour of its execution was now at hand. The sceptre
of the Frankish hero stretched over all the provinces formerly
included in the Roman Empire of the West, from the Ebro to
the Baltic, from the Theiss to the Atlantic, from the Northern
Ocean to the Vulturnus. The remotest nations, most widely
different in language and manners, longed to own the sway of
a monarch who gloried in reigning for Jesus *
Christ.
The em­
pire was virtually restored ; nothing was wanting but the name.
On Christmas Day (a. d. 800), Charlemagne, wearing his insig­
nia as Roman patrician, came to the basilica of St. Peter to
assist at the office of the solemnity. As he entered the church,
which seemed but one blaze of light, the enthusiastic throng,
forgetting for a moment the holiness of the place, broke forth
into long and joyous acclamations. Charlemagne silenced the
• All Charlemagne's decrees were issued under this memorable formula : “ Our Lord
Jesus Christ reigning forever. I, Charles, by the grace and mercy of God, king of the
Franke, avowed defender and humble ally of the Holy Church of God." " Regnante Dom­
ino nostro Jesu Christo in perpetuum. Ego, Carolus, gratia Dei, ejusque misericordia d>
iante, rex el rector regni Francorum, et devotus sanctæ Dei Ecclesiee defensor humilisqtv·
adjutor."—Ilxiuz, Capit., t. i., p. 210

rt LEO ΠΙ. (A. D. 795-816).

403

tnnlt?j'>, and pTOAliated himself before the altar. A solemn
stillness reigned iu the vast assembly; every heart seemed in­
stinctively to await some great event. Charlemagne alone was
at a loss to account for this unwonted manifestation. But now
the Pontiff Leo, already vested for the celebration of the divine
mysteries, approached the kneeling monarch and placed upon
his brow a dùdem sparkling with jewels. The lofty arches of
the basilica rang with the heartfelt acclamations of the people :
“ Long life and victory to Charles, the most pious Augustus,
crowned by God the great and pacific emperor of the Romans !”
The crowd, unable to satisfy their enthusiasm, filled the lofty
dome with their repeated salutations. How often, in the
course of ages, have like acclamations hailed an ephemeral
reign ! But here the splendor of the scene was hardly above
the hero. His brow received the royal unction at the hands
of the Pope, who then paid the first homage to the new em­
peror. The Roman Empire of the West, overthrown three cen­
turies before, was now restored, and this great event opened
the ninth century (December 25, a. d. 800). It added noth­
ing, indeed, to the power of the Frankish king, but it clothed
his authority with a splendid prestige. This event shaped the
future rather than the actual condition of the Western nations,
and completed the German invasion and the legal reconciliation
of conqueror and conquered.
7. The empress Irene understood the immense significance
of this glorious event, and hastened to send an embassy to the
new emperor, for the ostensible purpose of renewing the trea­
ties of alliance formerly made between the Byzantine court and
the king of the Franks. But a union which should join the
two worlds must be the result of a more private negotiation.
The empress of the East was seeking a means of offering her
hand to the emperor of the West, and the gigantic project was
perhaps not altogether impracticable. Charlemagne sent an
embassy to Constantinople. This movement was apparently
satisfactory to the passion or the policy of Irene, who was,
however, dethroned by an unexpected revolution (a. d. 801).

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GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH

which resulted in the coronation of her former chancellor, Ni.
rephorns. Irene had taken refuge in the palace of Eleutherius.,
where the imperial treasure was secured. Unattended and un­
armed, Nicephorus presented himself before her. and respectfully
assured her, with the confirmation of an oath, that not a hair of
her head should be hurt if she would but give up to him the fortune
of the Cœsar “ Nicephorus,” replied the fallen empress, “ you
know me as the world has known me. I aimed at a crown;
nothing should stand in the way of my ambition, not my own
gon, nor the sons of Copronymus. You, Nicephorus, I spared.
You alone I left to snatch my sceptre from me. I did not
mistrust you. May your clemency toward her whom you
have torn from the throne, at least win you the mercy of the
usurper who shall supplant you in turn ! The imperial treas­
ury is in your hands. Since my husband’s death it has served
me to corrupt those who gave you the crown and betrayed
me.” What a lesson is contained in every word of this re­
proachful speech ! Irene exacted an oath from Nicephorus
that he would restore her to freedom, and always treat her ae
an empress ; but Nicephorus made light of oaths, and his vic­
tim, reduced to the last depth of misery, earned a scanty sub­
sistence by the labors of her distaff in her solitary banishment
in the isle of Lesbos. Thus died the first woman who ever
held the sceptre of the Cæsars in her own name (a. d. 803)
Nicephorus hastened to recognize Charlemagne as emperor of
the West, and the boundaries of the two empires were fixed
without dispute. Istria, Croatia, and Dalmatia passed into the
hands of Charlemagne ; and, while Constantinople thus ratified
its decline in the West, each successive day witnessed the dis­
memberment of some one of its provinces in the East. Asia
Minor, Pontus, Thrace, Macedonia, Greece, and a part of Il­
lyria, alone remained to own the sway of the Byzantine sceptre ;
and this remnant would hardly have been withheld from the
power of the Saracens or the Bulgarians by Nicephorus, for ho
was a bloodthirsty, vile, cowardly, and covetous prince. The
Bulgarians burned him alive, together with his army, in a

ST. LEO III. (A. D. 795-81Λ).

405

Thracian valley, in the year 811, which event gave rise to the
first joyful emotion felt by the people during the eight years
of the tyrant’s reign.
8. The failure of the attempted alliance between the two
imperial courts was compensated by the number of foreign
princes whose, presence adorned the court of Charlemagne
Egbert, the youthful king of Sussex, and Eardulf, king of
Northumberland, sought to profit by closer intercourse with the
more polished civilization of the Franks. Lope, duke of Bis­
cay, was also a pupil of the same polite court. Catholic kings
and Spanish emirs followed him even into the Bavarian for­
ests. Alphonso the Chaste displayed for his acceptance the
rich tapestries taken at the siege of Lisbon. He re­
ceived an embassy from the Edrisites of Fez. But all these
demonstrations yielded to that of Haroun Al Rashid, caliph of
Bagdad, w ho professed the most unbounded admiration for
Charlemagne. Chief among the rich presents sent by the cal­
iph were the keys of the Holy Sepulchre, emblem of the sov­
ereignty which he granted to the emperor over the city of Jeru
salem ; a monstrous *
elephant, which threw the Franks into a
state of astonishment equal to the terror of the Romans at the
sight of Pyrrhus’s enormous chargers ; and a hydraulic clock,
with hands which told the hour by means of little balls falling
upon a metallic plate, and by the simultaneous appearance of
miniature horsemen. There were also Bengal apes, and such
a profusion of perfumery, says the chronicler, that M it seemed
as if they had drained the East to supply the West.” But the
monarch was doubtless more highly gratified at the homage paid
to his glory by Eastern adulation. “ Your power is great, 0
emperor !” said one of the Eastern envoys, “ but it is surpassed
by your renown. We Arabs and Persians fear you more than
we do our master Haroun. What shall we say of the Mace• He waa called Abul-Abbas. In the treasury of the baeilica of Aix-Whapelle is juL
•hown Charlemagne's great hunting-horn, which is said to have been mode of one of thi»
monster's teeth.

406

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

doninns and Greeks, who dread your greatness more than the
billows of the Ionian sea!”
9. To appreciate the wondrous influence wielded by Charle­
magne over the spirit of his age, we must not look upon him only
as a conqueror ; this gives but one view of his great genius.
“ Charlemagne,” says Hallam, “stands alone like a beacon upon
a waste, or a rock in the broad ocean. His sceptre was as the
bow of Ulysses, which could not be drawn by any weaker
hand. In the dark ages of European history, the reign of
Charlemagne affords a solitary resting-place between two long
periods of turbulence and ignominy, deriving the advantages
of contrast both from that of the preceding dynasty and of a
posterity for whom he had formed an empire which they were
unworthy and unequal to maintain.” The patron of literature
and science, a skilful ruler, essentially endowed with a talent
for organizing, lawgiver to an immense empire, equally wise
and Christian in policy, Charlemagne, in the varied effulgence
of every kind of glory, compels the admiration of all posterity.
His hand held aloft the torch of literature and science which
dispelled the gloom of barbarous ignorance, and his court be­
came the rendezvous of the most distinguished men of the
age. Whenever he met a scholar, a writer, a poet, whether
Frank, Lombard, Goth, Saxon, or English, he at once made him
his friend. The Lombard historian, Paul Warnefrid, so well
known under the name of Paulus Diaconus, was King Didier’s
chancellor. Charlemagne, after the capture of Pavia, sent him
word that he made war upon rebels, but not upon scholars, and
assigned him to his former rank in his own court ; and when,
some time afterward, disgusted with the honors of the world,
of which he had so good reason to know the emptiness, Paul
retired to the monastery of Monte Cassino, Charlemagne still
kept up an epistolary intercourse with him. The emperor
sometimes wrote in verse to beg the prayers of the pious monk,
who was eminently worthy of this honorable intimacy. His
merit is proved by the various works we have from his pen :
1. Historical Miscellanies, or Compendium of Roman History,

8T LEO ΙΠ. (A. D. 19β-81β).

407

ot which the materials were furnished by various authors, and
< hiefly by Eutropius. 2. History of the Lombard», from the
time of their migration from the Scandinavian forests to Luitprand (a. d. 744). Erchampert carried out this work to the
year 888. 3. Chronicles of the Bishops of Metz, composed at
the request of Engelram, bishop of that city. 4. Life of
St. Gregory the Great. 5. A Collection of Homilies, made by
order of Charlemagne, and recommended by the monarch to his
subjects throughout the empire. 6. A vocabulary dedicated
to Charlemagne, but never printed. He is also supposed to
have written some poetical works, and to him is attributed the
hymn of the feast of St. John Baptist : Ut queant laxis. Char­
lemagne won another trophy of the same kind in Lombardy, in
the person of St. Paulinus, patriarch of Aquileia. whom he
always kept near him, and consulted in the most important
matters of state, with unbounded confidence in his piety,
zeal, and enlightened judgment. Theodulf, another Lombard,
who has also left us some writings, was taken from the impe­
rial court to fill the see of Orleans, in which he revived the
taste for sacred literature and ecclesiastical discipline. The
poet Sedulius Scotus, whose elegant compositions have but
lately found an editor in the learned Cardinal Mai, dedicated
his Book of the Christian Kings to Charlemagne, whom he thus
addresses in the preface : “ In my wanderings through the en­
amelled meadow of holy writings, I have gathered for your
majesty the freshest and most fragrant flowers, to adorn a
sceptre which glories in reigning for Jesus Christ." But
by no one was Charlemagne so ably seconded in the restoration
of letters as by the Englishman, Alcuin, the learned disciple of
Ven. Bede. The year 782 already found him established in
the French court, and intrusted with three important abbeys :
Ferrières in Gâtinais, St. Lupus of Troyes, and St. Josse in
Ponthieu. Alcuin was now the confidant, the adviser, the dootor, and, so to speak, the intellectual minister of Charlemagne
His time was chiefly given to the three great duties of teach­

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GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CUURtff.

ing, correcting and restoring the manuscripts of ancient litera­
ture, and the foundation of schools.
10. The continual wars and political revolutic ns which filled
the period included between the sixth and eighth centuries, had
left both sacred and profane manuscripts to possessors or copy­
ists, whose ignorance had almost irremediably disfigured the
texts thus committed to their keeping. To the correction of
this evil and the restoration of the rules of orthography and
grammar in these manuscripts, Alcuin gave the labors of a
lifetime; he also constantly recommended it to his scholars,
and was always supported by the authority of Charlemagne.
The Capitularies contain an ordinance worded thus : “Desirous
to revive in our empire, by assiduous labor, the cultiva­
tion of letters, which the inertness of our ancestors had
almost consigned to oblivion, we have directed that the text of
the ancient manuscripts be submitted to a board of revisers,
which we have established in our palace.” Alcuin thus fur­
nished a purified edition of the books of the Old Testament,
after carefully collating the texts of the best manuscripts, and
dedicated it to Charlemagne, “ unable,” as he said, “ to offer to
the emperor of the earth a more magnificent gift than the books
containing the Word of the God of heaven.” The emulation of
Charlemagne, aroused by such a work, moved him to undertake
the direction of a corrected edition of the four Gospels, with
the help of several learned Greeks and Syrians. Such exam­
ples, confirming such orders, could not fail to prove effectual,
and a general mania at once arose for the reproduction of old
manuscripts. As soon as a correct revision of some work had
been produced by Alcuin, or by some one of his disciples, new
copies were at once made and distributed to the principal
churches and abbeys. A skilful copyist was on the high road
to glory and fortune. The production of neat and exact manu­
scripts made the reputation of a monastery. The abbey of
Fontenelles and two of its monks, Ovo and Hard win, won a real
renown in this line. Rheims and Corbie strove to equal them.
The uncertain and confused characters which had been used for

8T. LEO ΠΙ. (A. D. .41)9

the past, two < •■lituri··
*,
gave way to the Roman M
libraries rapidly enlarged their store of volâmes. A vast num­
ber of manuscripts bear the date of this period ; and though
religious zeal devoted itself chiefly to sacred literature, still the
profane was not neglected. Alcuin himself revised and copied
the comedies of Terence.
11. While deeply engaged in restoring the texts of manu­
scripts, and thus rendering to studies the eminent services of
which the scholars of succeeding ages have profited, without,
however, sufficiently acknowledging their indebtedness, Alcuin
also labored to re-establish the schools, which had fallen from
their original splendor. An ordinance, inserted by Charle­
magne into the Capitularies, made it obligatory upon every
bishopric and monastery to open a scholastic course, in which
the youth of the day might be trained to the knowledge of
divine and human science. This period marks the rise of most
of the schools, which soon gained a wide renown, and sent forth
the most distinguished men of the following century : Fuld, in
the diocese of Mentz, St. Martin of Tours, Richenau, in the
diocese of Constance, and Fontenelle or St. Vaudrille (Vaudregisile), in Normandy. Most of the teachers who illustrated
their chairs had been disciples of Alcuin; for besides his con­
stant devotion to the task of founding schools, he also taught
in person with distinguished success.
12. The first lessons of the illustrious master were not
given within the cloister nor in more public institutions of
learning.
From a. d. 782 to 796, the period of his resi­
dence at the French court, Alcuin presided over a domestic
school, called the Palace School, which had its seat wherever
Charlemagne happened to find himself, being composed of the
princes, great lords, and noble strangers who followed in the
emperor’s *
suite.
From this domestic chair Alcuin imparted
his first teachings to three sons of Charlemagne : Charles, named
king of France and Burgundy; Pepin, king of Italy; and Louis,
’ The Palace School wm the germ of the Palatine Academy, founded by Charlemagn
*
at about thia period, nnd the first institution of the kind known in inodoro idatory.

410

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

king of Aquitaine, and afterward emperor ; to Adalard, grandson
of Charles Martel, and his sister Gundrada ; Engilbert and
Eginhard, sons-in-law and counsellors of Charlemagne, who
used to call the former his Homer, because of his high poetical
attainments ; the latter has left us two important works : the
Annals of the French Kings, and a Life of Charlemagne, written
in a style which recalls the classic elegance of antiquity;
Riculf, archbishop of Mentz ; Rabanus Maurus, his succes­
sor in this see, whose principal works, On the Institution of
Clerics and the Ceremonies of the Church, and On the Ecclesias­
tical Calendar, are both equally able and useful ; Benedict, son
of the count of Maguelonne, who, at the age of twenty years,
retired into solitude, and is so well known as St. Benedict of
Aniano, the restorer of monastic discipline and the second patri­
arch of the religious orders in the West; William, duke of
Aquitaine, an accomplished prince, to whom Charlemagne, with
great difficulty and many tears, granted leave to withdraw into
the solitude where he won his title to a place in the Church's
calendar ; Rigbod, archbishop of Trêves ; both the princesses
Gisela, sister and daughter of Charlemagne ; and, above all,
Charlemagne himself. The monarch had studied grammar un­
der the deacon Peter of Pisa ; under Alcuin he pursued the
higher studies of rhetoric, dialectics, astronomy, and theology
Latin was as familiar to him as his own mother-tongue ; he was
well versed in Greek, and possessed some knowledge of the
Hebrew and Syriac. The writings of the Fathers gave him the
greatest pleasure. The imperial library at Vienna still contains
a manuscript Commentarg on the Epistle to the Romans, under
the name of Origen, corrected by Charlemagne himself. So
thoroughly had this great prince and the companions of his
studies become imbued with the spirit of their labors, that in
their familiar correspondence they assumed literary names bor­
rowed from both sacred and profane antiquity. Charlemagne
signed himself David ; Alcuin took the name of Flaccus (the
surname of Horace—Quintus Horatius Flaccus) ; Adalard called
himself Augustine ; Engilbert assumed the name of Homer :

ST. LEO m. (A. D. 795-916).

411

Riculf that of Damoetas ; Gnndrada was Eulalia,
*
&c. Filled
■with an ardent zeal to equal the science of the ancient Father··.
Charlemagne one day uttered the exclamation : “ 0 that I had
twelve clerks as learned and eloquent as Jerome and Augus­
tine !” “ What !” replied Alcuin ; “ the Creator of heaven and
earth has but two men of such merit, and you wish for
twelve !” To supply the want of Jerome and Augustine,
Alcuin was obliged to minister to the intellectual greed of his
imperial disciple. Of two hundred and thirty-two of his letters,
now extant, thirty are addressed to Charlemagne, and treat
various questions of astronomy, cosmography, chronology, eccle­
siastical computation, the exact sciences, history, grammar, lit­
urgy, and law. Charlemagne had brought together, in his
palace school, a great number of youths, some from the highest
ranks of the nobility, others of a middle state in life. He very
reasonably judged that community of studies would arouse a
useful spirit of emulation in the young princes, his sons ; and
watched, with great interest, the progress of the students.
Returning from one of his military expeditions, he examined
the results of the labors executed during his absence; they
were all in favor of the poorer class. “ Continue," said Char­
lemagne, “ the studies you have so well begun ; strive to make
new progress ; hereafter I shall bestow upon you offices and
rank. As for you, whose effeminate nobility pales at the
thought of labor, and languishes in sloth and ignorance, by
Him who rules the heavens ! I make little account of your
rank ; unless you very soon atone for your negligence, never
look for the favor of your king." He then called out the most
successful of the poor scholars, and, upon the spot, appointed
him clerk of his imperial chapel. On receiving the tidings of
the death of one of his bishops, Charlemagne asked how much
he had bequeathed to the poor. “ But two silver livres,” was
the reply. “ A scanty viaticum for so long a journey,” ob·
served the youthful chaplain, who was present. “ If this bish­
• Eulalia (eloquent), from the Greek ήλαλ,. (to speak wellK

412

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

opric were bestowed upon you, would you make a better pro­
vision for the journey ?" asked the emperor. “ My lord," replied
the youth, throwing himself at the monarch’s feet, “ that if ip
the will of God and your power.” “ Then be bishop," said
Charlemagne; “but, for the sake of your own soul and mine,
forget not the viaticum.”
13. Alcuin’s constitution at last yielded under the weight
of his labors, and he tbegged the emperor’s leave *to end his
days in solitude. After a long resistance, Charlemagne at
length granted his petition, and gave him as a home the abbey
of St. Martin of Tours, one of the wealthiest in the kingdom.
Alcuin hastened to his desired retreat, whence he kept up a
correspondence with the emperor, which cheered without wear­
ing out his declining years. His life of retirement was by no
means one of idleness ; he restored discipline in the monastery,
enriched its library with manuscripts copied at York, and, by
his teaching, gave to its school a celebrity to which it had never
before aspired. “I am engaged,” he wrote to Charlemagne,
“in gathering for some the sweets of the Sacred Writings; I
try to inebriate others with the old wine of the study of anti­
quity ; some I nourish with the fruits of grammatical studies,
while striving to enlighten the eyes of others with the order of
the heavenly bodies and the wonderful economy of the world.
But I feel the want of some of the best works of scholastic
learning, which I had obtained, at home, either through the de­
voted care of my master, the Venerable Bede, or through my
own efforts. I therefore beg your majesty’s leave to send some
of my servants to bring those British flowers into France. In
the morning of my days I sowed the seeds of learning in that
beloved Britain; now, though the sunset of life has chilled my
blood, I still continue to sow them in France, and I trust that,
by the grace of God, they may prosper in both countries.”*
• Alcuin died at Toura (a. D 804). Besides several commentaries on tho Sacred Scriplures, some works on theological and pious subjecta, and some lives of saints, ho has loft
various treatises on tho liberal arte; on grammar, logic, aud rhetoric; and, Anally, two hun­
dred and eighty pieces in verso, mostly on «zcaeional subjects Perfect purity of morals

8T. LEO At. (A. D. 19S-3U).

413

Buch were the language and habits of these great men The
death of Alcuin did not check the zeal of Charlemagne for the
cultivation and encouragement of letters ; and in the year 804
he signed the diploma of foundation for the celebrated school
of Osnabrück, which he at the same time endowed with impe­
rial munificence. He begged the Pope to send him Roman
chanters, to restore the Gregorian chant in the churches of Ger­
many and Gaul. “ Whence do we draw the purest water ?"
asked the emperor of his clerks, “ from the stream or from the
fountain-head?” “From the fountain-head, of course,” replied
they. “ Then return to the source,” said the monarch, “ for
you have evidently corrupted the ecclesiastical chant." Two
schools of Gregorian chant were accordingly established, one
at Soissons, the other at Metz. The Roman clerics taught
the Franks the use of organs, whose recent introduction into
Gaul we lately had occasion to mention. Walafrid Strabo,
a contemporary writer, states that a woman, on hearing for the
first time the sound of the wonderful instrument, died in an
ecstasy of delight.
14. All these occupations did not withdraw Charlemagne’s
attention from the more serious cares of government. Under
the Car.lovingian dynasty the monarchical principle was restored
to its necessary relations with that of representation ; the two
elements were thus seen combmed without detriment of either
to the other, both combining as truly for the maintenance of
order as for the development of national power. Charlemagne
himself convoked more than thirty general assemblies, or diets.
“ If the season was favorable,” says Archbishop Hincmar, a
contemporary writer, “ they met in the open air, otherwise in
two large halls, one for the bishops, the other for the counts ;
the two chambers were at liberty to hold their deliberations
beparately or together. Several other apartments (rfmma loca)
and n burning zeal for the defence of tho Catholic faith won for Alcuin tho till· of .«amt. a·
we learn from tho author of bis life, from Flodoard, from the chronicle· of St. Martin of
Tours, and of Rabanus Maurus, archbishop of Montz, his disciple, who gives him a place
it hie Μα-Urology. But tho Church, as yet, allows him no public honors.

414

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

were assigned to the other members of the assembly (cœteru
multitudo), who were called minores; they consisted of the notabios and the scabini (échevins, or selectmen of towns and dis­
tricts), who accompanied the governors and counts to the general
assembly.” In these large assemblies Charlemagne perfected
his great legislative work called the Capitularies, from the
division of the decrees into chapters {capita). He sealed these
ordinances with the hilt of his sword, saying : “ These are my
orders, and this is the steel that shall win them respect.” The
constant aim of Charlemagne’s legislation was to modify and to
fuse, so to speak, the laws of the Ripuarii, Saxons, Lombards,
Bavarians, and various other nations which made up his vast
empire, to bring them to the unity of the Roman law. The
prominent feature of this immense labor is a religious attach­
ment to the Church, and a profound respect for canon law,
which is made binding in all its prescriptions. Charlemagne
sincerely discharged the duties of exterior bishop, which title he
used to assume, in imitation of the great Constantine. From
this source the legislation and jurisprudence of European na­
tions derive something of the mild and humane spirit which
essentially characterizes the legislation and jurisprudence of
the Church. To insure the execution of his laws, and to ac­
quaint himself with the real condition of the masses subject to
his rule, the emperor every year sent commissioners into the
various provinces, whose duty it was to see and hear every
thing, and to make a faithful report of all to the head of the
state. Two of these envoys, a bishop and a duke or count,
were appointed for each province, with the title of missi dominici,
the same officers are used by different modern administrations
by the name of inspectors. We may close our account of the
laws and government of Charlemagne with the words of Mon­
tesquieu : “ This great monarch made admirable laws ; but
what is more, he put them into execution. The influence of
his genius was felt throughout the whole empire. His legisla­
tion shows the spirit of prudence which takes in every thing,
and a certain power which sweeps away all obstacles ; pretexts

ST. LEO m. (A. D. 195-818).

416

to evade duties are /emoved, negligence corrected, abuses re·
formed or prevented ; if he knew how to punish, he knew still
better how to pardon. The simple execution of vast designs
proves him a master in the art of doing the greatest deeds with
ease, and the most difficult with readiness. He traversed all
parts of his vast empire with unfailing energy, ever present
where the support of his strong hand was needed, settling every
question as soon as it arose. Never was prince better calcula­
ted to brave dangers, or to prevent them ; he made light of all
perils, and chiefly of those which always threaten great con­
querors : I mean conspiracies. Yet this great prince was ex­
tremely moderate, mild, and simple in his manners, and loved
to mingle with those who were attached to his court. His
expenses were admirably regulated ; his estate assessed with
wisdom, care, and economy ; a father could learn, from his laws,
to govern his private household ; and his Capitularies tell us the
pure and sacred source whence he drew his rich treasures of
legislative wisdom. I may conclude with the single remark,
that he ordered the eggs of his farm-yards and the useless weeds
of his gardens to be sold, and he had distributed among his people
all the riches of the Lombards and the immense treasures of
the Huns, who had pillaged the whole world.”*
15. To the Church he owed his imperial title; the Church
Charlemagne strove to glorify throughout his empire. In a. d.
803 he received Pope St. Leo, who once more sought the coun­
sel and assistance of the great king in the troubles raised in
Italy by the ambition of the Venetians. The doge had lately
driven from his see Fortunatus, patriarch of Gradi, one of the
islands subject to the republic. It was to be feared that the
Greeks would avail themselves of these dissensions to seize the
city, which had been the barrier to their desire for the fertile
plains of Italy. The Pope and the emperor spent the time of
the Christmas festival at Quercy-sur-Oise, where they decided
upon the measures necessary to pacify the peninsula, after
MONraequiMU, De ΓEsprit des Lois, i., xxxiii., ch. 38

416

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

which the Pope returned to Rome. Charlemagne gave the
greatest care to the restoration of canonical order in the hier­
archy. The election of bishops by the joint suffrages of clergy
and people had been almost entirely done away with by bis
predecessors, in their ambitious desire to monopolize the nom­
inations. The emperor had himself made use of this right, such
as he had found it, in the beginning, and we saw an instance of
it in the nomination of the young clerk before mentioned ; but
he soon gave it up, and enforced the strict observance of the
ancient discipline on this point. He reformed another and
more hurtful abuse, which had long since been introduced into
the churches of Germany and Gaul, by the ignorance and sloth
of certain prelates, who intrusted the greater part of their
duties tu the chorepiscopi who had, in the majority of cases,
received no higher order than the priesthood. On this subject
Charlemagne consulted St. Leo III., “ in order,” he said, “ to
conform to the wish expressed in the holy canons, that all im­
portant cases should be referred to the Apostolic See.” The
Pope replied that the chorepiscopi should be forbidden to exer­
cise episcopal powers, and their ordinations held as null. The
pontifical decree was put into execution, though, indeed, the
chorepiscopal office fell of itself in the following century. We
have already had occasion to record the prohibitions of councils
against bishops and clerics bearing arms. In spite of the wise
regulation, some bishops still continued personally to lead their
vassals in military expeditions. Their obligation to contribute
to the defence of the state, by reason of the great domains or
fiefs they held ; the necessity, even, of protecting ecclesiastical
property against the inroads of rival lords ; but, above all,
the prejudices of a nation wholly martial in all its instincts,
holding the profession of arms in the highest honor, had
hitherto overruled all principle. But awaking at last to
higher views and feelings, all orders of the state, in general
assembly, presented a petition to the emperor, begging him
to put an end to such disorders. The following engagement
was entered into by the nobles : “ In order that the bishops

ST. LEO HI. (A. D. 1β5-81β),

417

and other ecclesiastics may have no ground to suspect that
we disarm them with a sacrilegious design to invade more .
freely the Church’s estates, we all, while holding straws in our
right hands, and casting them upon the ground,
*
protest before
God and His angels, before you, our bishops, and in presence
of the assembled people, that we will neither commit this
crime ourselves, nor suffer others to perpetrate it.” Charle­
magne, delighted at finding in his subjects dispositions so con­
formable to his own, received the petition most favorably, and
embodied it in a capitulary forbidding any bishop or cleric to
appear in the army, unless in the capacity of chaplain or al­
moner. He was always the first to show the filial respect and
obedience due to the laws of the Church. The Council of
Frankfort had forbidden bishops to absent themselves froo·
their dioceses for a longer space than three weeks at a time ;
Charlemagne laid before the council Pope Adrian’s permission
that Engelram, bishop of Metz, should always reside at the
court, and begged that Hildebold of Cologne might also be left
with him, as he had obtained for him a like permission from
the Holy See.
16. In the third Council of Toledo, the Spanish bishops
had inserted into the symbol of Constantinople the famous ex­
pression Filioque, which holds, against the Greeks, that in the
Blessed Trinity the Holy Ghost proceeds from the Son as well
as from the Father. The usage was gradually introduced into
Gaul of singing the Creed, with this addition, in the churches,
or at least in the royal chapel. The same custom prevailed in
a community of Frankish monks, established in the Holy Land,
by the Mount of Olives, and who held to the Latin rite. Stig­
matized by the Greeks as heretics, they laid their complaints
before Charlemagne, who at once called a council at Aix-la* Thia ceremony of the straw is here a fact worthy of note. The Franks took poesaeeion of a domain or other piece of property by receiving a straw ; while, on th» other haai.
to throw down a straw was to renounce ah ■Jaim to the property. Λ like form wm
use among the ancient Romans in the* ’•χιΐΛαλ , ''«ace the words to rfyntau and rnpwo
tion, from stipula, a straw.
Vol. IL—21

418

GENERAL BISTORT OP THE CHURCH.

Chapelle (November, a. d. 809), with the determination to give
. their calumniated faith a splendid vindication. As an addi­
tional sanction to the decision pronounced in favor of the Filioque, the pious monarch resolved to have it approved by the
Sovereign Pontiff. The council sent as envoys to St. Leo
III., Vernarius, bishop of Worms; Adalard, abbot of Corbie;
and Smaragdus, abbot of St. Michael’s (now in the diocese of
Verdun). To the last-named deputy, who was present at the
conference held on the subject in Rome, we owe the details
of its acts. The Pope received the envoys in a hall of the
basilica of St. Peter, and heard their statement of the pro­
cession of the Holy Ghost from the Father and the Son, es­
tablished on the testimony of the holy Doctors. The Roman
Church had never entertained a doubt on this subject more
than any other Western Church ; but for reasons but too
clearly justified by after-contentions between the Greeks and
Latins, it had not been deemed expedient to insert the formal
expression of this belief into the Creed. The prudent Pontiff,
to whose care was intrusted the general welfare of Catholicity,
assured the deputies that he believed as sincerely as them­
selves the truth expressed in their addition, but that he could
not approve the addition itself. “If it be a truth of faith,”
said the envoys, “ should it not be taught ?” “ I should be
slow,” replied St. Leo, “ to sit in judgment upon the father?
of an ecumenical council, who have written their profession of
faith under the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. I do not feel
at liberty to suppose that they could not foresee as well ae
ourselves the consequences of their reserve, and of their abso­
lute prohibition to make any addition, whether this or any
other, to their formula.” “ If the Creed is still sung in the
churches,” * urged the deputies, “ with the omission of this
term, all the faithful will be led to think that it is against
faith. What do you advise us to do, in order to avoid this
* The custom of singing the Creed had not yet been introduced at Rome, but waa oa»·
Sued to the churches of Gaul and Germany.

8T. LEO ΤΗ. (A. Ο. 195-810).

419

difficulty ?” “ Had Τ been consulted earlier,” replied the Pope,
“ I should have advised the omission of the Filioque. What
occurs to me now—but I do not impose it as an obligation—
is the gradual discontinuance of the practice of singing the
Creed in the imperial chapel. Thus what was introduced with­
out the sanction of authority would disappear by degrees.
This would perhaps be the best means to guard against the
danger of your innovation, without any detriment to the faith."
Such is the sum of the celebrated conference of St. Leo ΙΠ.
with the deputies of the Council of Aix-la-Chapelle (a. d. 810).
What the Pope discountenanced in the practice of the Franks
was not the addition itself, in so far forth as it concerned the
dogmatic question, but the unseasonableness of the addition,
made without the necessity which only arose at a later period,
and without the authority necessary for an object of so great
moment. Besides, this conference seems to have had no re­
sults, since every thing remained as before. In Gaul the Creed
was still sung with the inserted Filioque. Rome did not think
it proper to make the addition, nor even to begin to sing the
Creed. St. Leo even had it engraved, without this addition,
upon two large silver escutcheons, each weighing about a hun­
dred pounds, in Latin upon one and in Greek upon the other.
They were then hung up on the right and on the left of the
Confession of St. Peter, as public and religious monuments, as
marks of the care taken by the Roman Church to preserve the
symbol just as she had received it. The subsequent Greek
schism sufficiently proves the wisdom of this foresight, and the
better results which would have followed a faithful conformity
to the policy of the mother and mistress of all the Churches.
17. Hitherto Charlemagne has appeared before us as the
happiest monarch of his time, as he was certainly the most
illustrious. But for his old age there were sorrows in store,
which all the greatness of the world is powerless to assuage.
The visitation began in what was nearest and dearest : his son
Pepin, king of Italy, was snatched from him in the flower of
his age. The pale reaper, Death, once at work in this august

420

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

tamily, mowed down, in the same year (810), the princesses
Gisela, the emperor's sister, the prudent and pious abbess
of Chelles, whom he so tenderly loved, and Rothrudis, his
eldest daughter; and struck a fatal blow at once at his policy
and his tenderness, in his eldest son, Prince Charles. Thus, oi
his three sons, all capable of governing, and already sharing
the provinces of his vast domination, was spared but Louis,
king of Aquitaine. Pepin left a son named Bernard, upon
whom the diet of Aix-la-Chapelle bestowed the kingdom of
Italy (a. d. 813). The rest of the empire fell to the lot of
Louis, the only surviving son of Charlemagne. The emperor,
on calling him to share his power, thus addressed him : “ My
son, beloved by God, by your father, and by this people, whom
God has left the only solace of my declining years, you see
me fast sinking ; even my old age flies from me ; the gloom of
the grave is gathering about me. God vouchsafed me the
honor of being born of the Frankish race. He has granted
me to sway the sceptre of my fathers; I leave it no less
glorious than when I received it. First among the Franks,
I have borne the title of Cæsar, and brought over to the
Frankish rule the dominion of the race of Romulus. Re­
ceive, my son, with Christ’s consent, the crown and the em­
blems of the royal power.” Then raising his voice, he exhorted
the prince to love and honor God, to keep His commandments,
to protect the Church, to treat the princes of his family with
kindness, to love his people as his own offspring, to have a care
of the poor, to confer offices only upon faithful and religious
officers, never to confiscate a fief without sufficient reason and
regular form of law ; in fine, to lead a life blameless in the
sight of God and man. “Are you disposed, my son, to fulfil
all these duties?” asked the venerable monarch
Louis gave
his promise with many tears. “Then take the crown” (it had
been placed upon the altar), “ place it upon your brow, and be
mindful of your promise.” The young prince obeyed, amid
the acclamations of the nobles present at the ceremony. The
weeping father then sent back the youthful monarch, loaded

ST. LEO HI. (A. D. 7»5-β1β).

431

with costly gifts, to his kingdom of Aquitaine ; he was never
again to behold his youthful heir on earth. Though stricken
so deeply in the tenderest affections of his heart, the mind
of the great emperor was still keenly alive to the frightful por­
tents which now loomed up in the political horizon of Europe.
As he was one day sitting down to table in a city of Narbonese
Gaul, some Scandinavian pirates made a descent upon the
coast, and carried on their plundering depredations even in the
harbor, under the very eyes of the aged emperor. Chase was
given to the light vessels, which, however, escaped untouched.
Charlemagne, says the chronicler, stood at a window looking
toward the East, and wept bitterly. No one dared question
him as to the cause of his grief ; turning, at last, to his barons,
he asked them : “ Do you know, my faithful friends, why I
weep so bitterly? Certainly, I do not fear the harm which those
barbarians can do me by their wretched plundering ; but I am
deeply grieved to think that while I am still alive, they should
dare to touch my shores ; and I foresee, with heart-felt pain, the
evils they will bring upon my descendants and their subjects.”
And yet he could not foresee the devastation of the whole of
Gaul, the burning of the palace at Aix-la-Chapelle, the asylum
of his old age, which he took pleasure in adorning, only to b
at a future day the prey of the Normans (Northmen).
18. His last thoughts were still of the Church, whose armed
defender he had ever been through the whole course of his long
and glorious reign. In 813, as many as five councils were
held in different parts of the empire : at Arles, Chàlons-surSâone, Tours, Rheims, and Mayence. Their disciplinary can­
ons were sent to Aix-la-Chapelle, where the emperor laid them
before a large assembly of bishops and lords (September, a. d.
813), and made them binding upon all his subjects by a special
capitulary. This was the last act of his reign. He felt the
approach of the fatal stroke on the 20th of January, a. d. 814,
and was the only one to face the danger with all the heroism
which had ever characterized him in so many perilous encoun­
ters. On the seventh day of his illness he received the holy

422

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHDRCH.

viaticum at the hands of his archchaplain, Hildebold, arch,
bishop of Cologne, without betraying a single human emotion
during the whole ceremony, seemingly absorbed in religious
sentiments ; and when the last moment had come, summoning
up all his remaining strength, he signed himself with the sign
of salvation, and, murmuring the words of the Psalmist, “ Into
thy hands, 0 Lord, I commend my spirit,” he gently breathed
his last, at about nine o’clock in the morning of the twenty­
eighth day of January, a. d. 814, in the seventy-second year of
his age, the forty-seventh of his reign, and the fourteenth of his
empire. He was buried in the church of Aix-la-Chapelle,
which he had built, and where his splendid monument is still
preserved. With him would most probably have died out the
torch of civilization in the West, had not the Papacy been alive
to feed the flame.
19. The fate of the East, far removed from the wholesome
influence of the Sovereign Pontiffs, and wholly given up to the
weak despotism of princes equally devoid of nobleness and of
faith, shows but too plainly what must become of nations which for­
sake the centre of Catholic unity. The emperor Nicephorus, whose
shameful accession and yet more inglorious end we have already
recorded, had devoted the greater part of his reign to the per­
secution of two Catholic priests, St. Plato and St. Theodore the
Studite, who maintained, according to the teachings of faith,
*
that princes are as much subject to the rules of the Church,
concerning marriage, as the simple faithful. The interest of
Nicephorus in this question was due to the fact that he had, by
an adulterous alliance, united his son to the Athenian Theoph­
ano, who was already married. A council, consisting of fifteen
court-paid prelates, had the baseness to depose the two coura­
geous priests, and Nicephorus banished them to an island near
Constantinople, where they were confined in two separate pris­
ons. From their place of exile, the holy confessors addressed
* St. Theodoro owed hia «surname to tho monastery, near Constantinople, of which be
ra abbot.

8T. LEO HI. (A. D. 79$-81β).

42S

♦he following admirable letter to St. Leo, to beg his protection :
“To your Holiness we repeat the words which the Prince of
the Apostles addressed to our Lord, when the waves threatened
to ingulf his bark : ‘ Save ns, Supreme Pastor of the Church !
Save us, we perish.’ Imitate the Divine Master, stretch forth
a saving hand to our Church, as the Saviour did to St. Peter
There is but one point of difference between the two situations,
and it is to our disadvantage. Peter had only begun to sink
into the waters, whereas our Church is already overwhelmed by
the billows of heresy. Remember the great Leo, whose name
and whose virtues you now revive. Like a lion, he met the
rising heresy of Eutyches. Do you likewise. Holy Father, de­
nounce this new heresy. If the enemies of the faith have dared to
assume the right of holding a heretical council, though, in truth,
they have not even the right to hold an orthodox council with­
out your knowledge, according to the canons and traditional
usage of the Church, how necessary should it not seem that
your Holiness call a legitimate council for the triumph of sound
doctrine and the truth !” This letter of the two holy sufferers
recalls that which was addressed to Pope Symmachus by the
whole Eastern Church. Both recognize, in the face of Heaven
and earth, that the safety of all Christendom consists in its
union and submission to the Roman Church. Time and expe­
rience have both combined to prove the truth of this principle.
Every individual Church which has forgotten or discarded this
truth, like a branch severed from the parent stock, has lost
its sap and vital power, sunk into degradation and bondage,
and become the sport of every passing barbarian, Arab, Turk,
or Muscovite. St. Leo’s reply to the two confessors is a noble
specimen of courageous faith. He made every effort to obtain
their release from Nicephorus, who refused to hear any men­
tion of terms until his son’s adulterous union had been ap­
proved ; and with this fixed resolve, he joined the Manicheans,
or Paulicians, as they were then called, hoping to find some
countenance for his disorders in that degraded sect. Thia
event marks the period of the first appearance of Manicheism

424

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CH U Kbit.

in Thrace, and, later, throughout the West. The most baneful
errors, if traced back to their source, will generally be found to
have taken their rise in the heart of an abandoned monarch.
The new Patriarch of Constantinople, also called Nicephorus,
and successor to St. Taraisus, could never obtain the emperor’s
leave to send his synodal letter to the Pope, and to ask for the
confirmation of his election. The victory of the Bulgarians
(a. d. 811), which cost the heretical emperor his life, was fol­
lowed by the reign of the just and virtuous Michael I., Rhan*
gabe,
a reign too short for the happiness of the East and for
the peace it gave to the Church. The Patriarch Nicephorus
availed himself of the passing truce to send to St. Leo III. a
long profession of Catholic faith, in which he assures him of
his attachment to the teachings of the Church, and receives the
seven general councils held up to his time. His influence with
the new emperor also obtained the enactment of severe meas­
ures against the Manicheans, and the release of St. Plato and
St. Theodore the Studite. Plato, borne down by years and in­
firmities, died in the act of praying for his persecutors (March
19, a. d. 813) ; and Theodore, returning to his holy retreat, by
his wise and saintly government soon made it one of the most
flourishing monasteries in Christendom. The bright anticipa­
tions excited by the beginning of Michael’s reign were but
short lived. The Lower Empire was too unworthy of even the
unwonted boon it now enjoyed, and, as usual, did not keep it
long. Leo the Armenian betrayed and supplanted the genei
ous master who had loaded him with favors and given him the
chief command of his forces. The nobles, the senate, and the
people of Constantinople, urged Michael to resist the usurpa­
tion. “No,” replied the emperor, “no, I would not have a
drop of Christian blood shed in my quarrel. I leave a throne
which I never coveted, and on which I was placed in my own
despite.” This noble sentiment would certainly have shown
heroic self-denial in a private individual, but it must be deemed
* Michael was called Curopalates (grand master of the palace), from bis hiving ή] lea
iLat office under Nicephoros, his predecessor.

425

STEPHEN V. (A. D. »1β-Μ7).

t mark of fatal weakness in a sovereign, who would spare a
few drops of blood shed in the struggle against a usurper, at
the risk of torrents which were sure to flow under the rule of a
tyrannical power. Michael put off his imperial insignia and
sent them to Leo, with the acknowledgment of his sovereignty.
Thus was the throne usurped by Leo V., the Armenian, to
whom his contemporaries gave the surname of Chameleon, from
the facility with which he adopted the most diTerent and oppo­
site doctrines. He became a furious Iconoclast, and his reign
revived the persecutions of Leo the Isaurian, Copronymus, and
Leo IV. (a. d. 813).
20. Pope Leo III. did not long survive his friend, the em­
peror Charlemagne. He died after a pontificate of more than
twenty years. In 813 he restored the feast of the Assump­
tion, already celebrated by Pope Sergius I., but now fallen
into desuetude. In the fervor of his piety he used to cele­
brate the Holy Sacrifice as often as eight or nine times a day,
as nothing had yet been fixed on this point. The number
of daily masses was left to the devotion of the priests and faith­
ful. The present practice was only established by Alexan­
der 11., in the eleventh century. During the last year of hie
reign, the life of St. Leo was threatened by a conspiracy ; but
the indignant Romans seized upon the conspirators and put
them to death. The Papacy, thus leaning upon the affection
of its subjects, was ever invincible.

§ II. Pontificate

of

Stephen V. (June 22,
ary 22, 817).

a. d.

816—Jano-

21. The election of Stephen V. to the Sovereign Pontificate
(June 12, a. d. 816) was contemporaneous with two late acces­
sions, which placed Louis the Mild, the son of Charlemagne,
on the throne of the West, and gave to Leo V., the Armenian,
the sceptre of the East. The government of the world had
thus passed into new hands. The reputation for justice, mod­
eration, and courage, acquired by Louis, during his father's life­

426

GENERAL· HI8T0RT OF THE CHURCH.

time, in the government of Aquitaine, encouraged the hope that
he would prove himself the worthy descendant of four heroic
ancestors, and t’>t he would add a fifth illustrious name to the
French annals, already emblazoned with those of Pepin of Rer8tal, Charles Martel, Pepin the Short, and Charlemagne. His
goodness to his fellow-men, or his piety toward God, had won
him the title of the Pious. * The fatherly prejudice or the ten­
derness of Charlemagne saw a son worthy of himself in the
prince who had subdued the Gascons, driven back the Saracens
to the Ebro, and covered himself with glory in Italy. Could
the virtues which adorn a private individual equally serve to
make a great king, Louis had undoubtedly been such ; but he
lacked energy, loftiness in his views, and firmness. It was
said of him that there was in him more of the monk than of
the king, and to his easy compliance he owed his surname, the
Mild.
22. Yet the first years of his reign were peaceful. The
momentum acquired under Charlemagne still kept the empire
in its onward course, and it would require time to disorder the
well-adjusted machinery. Pope Stephen V. repaired to Rheims
to crown the new monarch. Louis sent the archchaplain of
the palace ; Hildebold, archbishop of Cologne ; Theodulf, bishop
of Orleans ; and John, archbishop of Arles—all in full pontificals,
and accompanied by all the clergy—to meet the approaching
Pontiff. The emperor himself came forward within a mile of
the monastery of St. Remigius. On approaching the Pontiff
he dismounted, helped the Holy Father to alight, and prostrated
himself at his feet, with the words : “ Blessed is he that cometh
in the name of the Lord.” “ Blessed be God,” replied the Pope,
“ who has granted us to look upon a second King David.” They
then embraced, and passed on through the glad throngs of the
faithful, who now fondly believed that they had not yet lost
Charlemagne. On the following Sunday, in presence of the
whole clergy and people, Stephen V. anointed Louis the Mild,
ind crowned him with a costly golden diadem, bright with pre•The Latin word p»u» is applicable in “;ther of these re.atione

STEPHEN V. (A. D. 81β-817).

427

cions gems, which he had brought from Rome. He likewise
crowned the empress Irmengard, and bestowed upon her the
title of Augusta. Stephen and Louis profited by this interview
to concert various measures for the reform of the clergy and
monastic orders. The fruit of these conferences appeared in
the ordinances published by Louis at this period. The same
year (816) was marked by the assembling of another council
at Aix-la-Cha pelle, chiefly to take into consideration the re­
form of the canons and clergy. Amalarius, a deacon of the
Church of Metz, was charged to draw up a complete treatise
on the subject. The one hundred and forty-five chapters of
which this work consists are but the development of the admirable rule of St. Chrodegand, save in one peculiar ordinance,
which afterward became the origin of an important institution.
Every cloistered canonry was required to have a common hall,
where children and the young clerks were to be lodged, under
the care of a prudent man, advanced in years, whose duty it
was to advance their intellectual and moral culture. Here we
have the cradle of the ecclesiastical schools, which afforded, to­
gether with the monasteries, the only shelter and salvation to
letters and public instruction, during the whole period of the
Middle Ages. To these cloister-schools the world was indebted
for its greatest men, in every department of life, and to them
the Council of Trent owes the fruitful idea of ecclesiastical semi­
naries. Louis sent the regulations of the council to all the
metropolitans throughout the empire, with directions to com­
municate them to their suffragans, and he fixed the term of one
year within which they must be put into practice. The prin­
ciple of reform was applied to the court and to the civil admin­
istration with the same energy as to the ecclesiastical bodies ;
but, too weak to support his own good intentions, Louis only
succeeded in arousing the flames of hatred, of which he was
soon to become the victim. His first step was to rid the court
of his own sisters, whose loose conduct was equally offensive to
religion and propriety. The officers who supported the offen­
sive levity were either punished or exiled The seeds of dis­

428

GENERAL HIBlUKY OF ΤΠΕ CHURCH.

content which these perhaps too hasty measures had cast into
the public mind were fostered by the exile of two ministère
who had commanded all the confidence of Charlemagne ; -St.
Adelard buried in the retreat of the monastery of Noirmoutiers,
and Count Wala, in that of Corbie, the talents which might
still have long been usefully devoted to the service of their
country. The storm of angry feelings aroused by this unsea­
sonable severity soon bore down in full fury upon the defence
less head of the unfortunate Louis.
23. The year of the Council of Aix-la-Chapelle (a. d. 816)
also witnessed one at Celchyt, in England. Here we find pre­
cious traces of the perpetuity and conformity of the faith in
the various Churches, as also the tradition of pious observances
by which they are necessarily accompanied. It was decreed
that sacred edifices should be dedicated by the diocesan with
the sprinkling of holy water and the other ceremonies pre­
scribed in the Roman ritual. It was also ordained that the Bless­
ed Sacrament should be kept in the churches, enclosed in
boxes prepared for the purpose. The acts of the council also
inform us that baptism by infusion was beginning to be prac­
tised in cold countries.
24. Meanwhile, Leo the Armenian had entered upon his in­
tended plan of persecution against the Catholics. He first sought
to gain the Patriarch Nicephorus, and to prevail upon him to
reject the veneration of sacred images, “which filled the East,”
as he says, “ with trouble and discord.” “ We yield to none,"
replied Nicephorus,· “in our love of peace. It is you, prince—I
say it with heartfelt grief—it is you who disturb it. Do not
all the Churches agree in the veneration of images ? Will
Rome, Alexandria, Antioch, and Jerusalem consent to forsake
it? If your faith is weak, we are not only willing, but in duty
bound, to strengthen it; but we neither can nor may encourage
the hopes of convicted and condemned heretics.” The emperor,
who was at best but a tolerable theologian, was at a loss for
further arguments, but brought in Iconoclast doctors, the nobles
oi the empire, the whole senatorial body, and a great number

STEPHEN V. (A. D. ·1β-«Η).

429

uf military officers, sword in hand, to carry out the discussion
with the Catholics. Fearless of this imposing and threatening
array, the Patriarch addressed the nobles : “ Answer me : can
that fall which does not exist?” As the astonished lords looked
at one another, perfectly ignorant of the meaning of this enig­
ma, Nicephorus added : “Did not the images fall under Leo the
Isaurian and Constantine Copronymus?" The heretics answered
in the affirmative. “ It is evident, then,” concluded the Patri­
arch, “ that they must have been subsisting before. Hence the
Iconoclastic doctrine is opposed to Catholic tradition and teach­
ing." Hopeless of shaking the faith of the intrepid prelate, the
emperor assembled a cabal of venal bishops, who took measures
for his deposition. Without giving them time to act, Nicepho­
rus sent in to the emperor his resignation, in these terms :
“ Heretofore I have used my best endeavors to defend the
truth, at the cost of the most shameful treatment. To such a
pitch has the opposition been carried, that persons calling
themselves bishops have come to insult me, backed by mobs
armed with swords and staves. Nor did their madness find its
limit in these measures ; these enemies of the truth have sought
to deprive me of my see, or even of my life ; and for this reason
alone, to prevent the excesses which must render your majesty
odious, I reluctantly yield to the necessity which tears me from
my Church, and receive with joy whatever it may please
Heaven to ordain in my regard.” The emperor could not con­
trol the satisfaction afforded him by this letter ; he ordered a
troop of soldiers to carry off the Patriarch in the dead of night,
and to imprison him in a monastery. On the morrow he spread
the report, in Constantinople, that the Patriarch had abandoned
his see, which was then given to an imperial minion named
Theodotus, a man of worse than doubtful morality, utterly
ignorant of the first principles of theology, and bred amid the
license ofcamps (a. d. 816). Like Copronymus. Leo must also
have his Iconoclastic council, and he assembled in the basil­
ica of St. Sophia the bishops who had basely yielded to his
seductive offers. The seventh general council was ctndemned,

430

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

and the veneration of images again proscribed. The persecu
lion was renewed with all the fury that had characterized il
under Leo the Isaurian and Copronymus. The sectaries had
dragged to their meeting some orthodox bishops whom they
hoped to pervert; but, finding their efforts fruitless, they tore
their pontifical robes in pieces, rudely threw the bishops upon
the ground, and each one of the actors placed a foot upon
the prostrate victim’s throat ; they were then made to retire
backward, spit upon, and struck in the face with such brutal
violence that many of the sufferers were covered with their
own blood. They were at last given in charge to imperial sat­
ellites, who thrust them into prison. The most illustrious mar­
tyrs in this persecution were Michael, bishop of Synnas, Theophylactus of Nicomedia, Emilianus of Cyzicus, George of Mity­
lene, and Euthymius of Sardis. Among the abbots who gave
their lives in the same cause were St. Nicetas, St. Theophanes
of Singriana, and St. Macarius of Pelicita, whose numerous and
wonderful miracles obtained for him the name of Thaumaturgus
(a. d. 817).
25. While his children thus nobly fell for their faith in
the East, Pope Stephen V. died at Rome, on the 22d of Jan­
uary, a. d. 817, after a pontificate of five months, which short
reign still raised bright hopes for the glory of his pontificate, had
God been pleased to grant him length of days.

ST. PASCAL I. (A. D. ·»-»M).

431

CHAPTER II.
I L Pontificate

of

St. Pascal L (January 25, a. o. 817—May il, 824)

1. Election of St Pascal L—2. St Benedict of Aniano. Clerical and mon·»
tic reforms.—3. Revolt of Bernard, king of Italy.—4. Public penance of
Louis the Mild, at Attigny.—5. Various forms of Judgments of God.—6 St
Adclard. New Corbie. Progress of the faith.—7. Persecution of Leo th·
Armenian in the East.—8. Revolution in Constantinople. Michael the Stam­
merer.—0. Death of St Pascal L
§ II. Pontificate

of

Ecoeniub II. (June 5, a. d. 824—August 2Î, 827).

10. Engenius II. causes the Romans to swear fealty to the emperor.—II. Di»
guaed Judaism of Michael the Stammerer.—12. Council of Paris.—
13. Heresy of Claudius, bishop of Turin.—14. The Capitularies.—15. Coun­
cil of Rome.—16. Death of Engenius Π.
§ HL Pontificate

of

Valentine (September 1, a. d. 827—October 10, 827).

17. Election and death of Valentine.
§ IV. Pontificate

of

Gregort IV. (January 1, a. d. 828—January 11, 844).

18. The Saracens in Sicily.—19. Gregory IV. rebuilds the city and wall· of
Ostia.—20. Revolution in France. Revolt of the sons of Louis the Mild.—
21. The field of the Lie.—22. Diet of Compïègne.—23. Council of Aix-l
*.
Chapelle. Death of Louis the Mild.—24. War of succession at the death
of Louis.—25. Theophilus the Unfortunate. Michael II!.. Porpbyrogen»
tus, emperor of the East End of the Iconoclast heresy.—27. Norman invasion. Death of Gregory IV.—28. False decretals. Pascbasius Rad bartus. Treatise on the Body and Blood of our Lord.

§ I Pontificate

of

St. Pascal I. (January 25, a. d. 817—
May 11, 824).

1. On the 25th of January, a. d. 817, by the joint vote of
the Roman clergy and people, Pascal, a priest of the Roman
Church, first of his name, ascended the pontifical throne.
Deeply versed in the knowledge of Sacred Scripture and of the

482

GENERAL HTSTORY OF THE CHÜRJH

interior life, the new Pontiff was distinguished by the most tender piety, by the austerity of his life, and by a lively and feeling
charity for the poor and strangers. He at once sent a special
legation to make known his accession to Louis the Mild, who
replied by an imperial patent confirming the grants already
made to the Holy See by Charlemagne and Pepin the Short.
The islands of Corsica, Sardinia, and Sicily are included in the
enumeration of the pontifical estate. This particular item has
awakened doubts in the minds of some modern writers, concern·
ing the authenticity of Louis’s patent, since the island of Sicily
still belonged, in 817, to the emperors of Constantinople. But
we know, by a letter of Leo HL, that the island of Corsi»
*»
had been given to the Church by Charlemagne. Even in the
pontificate of St. Gregory the Great, the Holy See already held
considerable estates in Sardinia and Sicily. Louis only meant
to confirm the Sovereign Pontiff’s claim on these various do­
mains. Hence the validity of the deed cannot suffer from this
clause. Others have found a cause of suspicion in another
clause, which decrees that it shall henceforth suffice that the
newly-elected Pontiffs send legates to the king of France.
Now several of St. Pascal’s successors have still asked and
awaited the emperor’s confirmation before proceeding to their
coronation. But we can readily see. in this act of writing to
monarchs to secure their approval and protection, that these
Popes already were, and sought still to remain, on good terms
with sovereigns whose patronage had always proved so useful
to the Church. The intention of Louis on this point does not
admit of a doubt ; for, in a capitulary issued at about this time
from Aix-la-Chapelle, he speaks thus : “ Conformably to the
decrees of the sacred canons, we wish the Church to enjoy its
rights without any let or hindrance ; and it is our desire that
the bishops be elected by the suffrage of clergy and people,
without any other consideration than that of personal worth.”
At about the same time, Florus, a learned deacon of Lyons,
on the authority of this capitulary, published his Treatise on
Episcopal Elections. “ The usage,” says the author, “lately in

ST. PASCAL T. (A. D. 8H-8Î4).

m

I reduced into several kingdoms, of ccnsecrating no bishop until
the prince has been consulted, was established only to preserve
harmony between the two powers, and not to give to the conse­
cration the validity or the authority which no royal power can
give, but only the will of God and the consent of the faithful ;
for the episcopacy is not a human institution, but a gift of the
Holy Ghost.”
2. The emperor also put forth some admirable regulatione
for the honor of the episcopacy and the priesthood. “ It was
at this time,” says a contemporary writer, “ that the clerics
and bishops began to lay aside their gold-embroidered sashes,
their diamond-hilted swords, the costly spurs and other ac­
coutrements which they had hitherto worn.” It now remained
to reform the monastic orders, to which the faithful chiefly
looked for edification, but which the misfortune of the times
had sadly turned from their primitive purity. Louis intrusted
this important duty to St. Benedict of Aniano. and gave him,
as assistants, the most exemplary abbots of France and Italy—
euch men as Arnul of Noirmoutiers, Apollinaris of Monte
Cassino, Alveus of St. Hubert in the Ardennes, Apollinaria
of Flavigny, Joshua of St. Vincent's on the Vulturnus, and
Agilul of Solignac. The laxity of monastic discipline arose
chiefly from the diversity of binding observances. Though
most of the monasteries professed to follow the rule of St
Benedict, there was yet a great variation in many practices,
due to the successive changes in the manners of the age,
which the patriarch of the cenobitic life could not have fore­
seen. It was accordingly decided to establish a uniformity
of discipline, by means of constitutions explanatory of the
primitive rule. These regulations enter into the most minute
details. The use of flesh meat is forbidden to the religious,
except for the sick, and during four days in the Christmas and
Easter seasons. Still the daily use of lard is allowed, as the
poorer classes made use of it where oil was scarce and dear.
From this permission, however, are excluded the twenty days
preceding Christinas, and every Friday throughout the year.
Vnu Π.—28

434

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

In cases of unusual fatigue, a slight refection is allowed in the
evening, even during Lent ; this is the origin of the collation
nn fasting-days. Each religious was to receive a pound and
a half of bread, in the dough ; and a hemina of wine ;* in
countries where grapes are not plentiful, double this allowance
of beer might be substituted. The claims of the government
upon the monasteries were also regulated, as they were very
different. Some abbeys were bound to military service, some
owed presents like our gratuitous gifts, and others, in fine, the
tribute of their prayers. Of the first class we can count four­
teen, among others St. BenedicLon-the-Loire, Ferrières, Corbie,
Stavelo, St. Eugend, now known as St. Claude and Notre Dame
de Soissons. The monastery of Fuld, afterward so powerful,
only held a second rank with the thirteen whose indebtedness
amounted only to gifts. The third and most numerous class
comprised two hundred monasteries, which were bound only
to the tribute of prayer. All these ordinances were published
in the Assembly of Aix-la-Chapelle (a. d. 817), and were sub­
sequently esteemed of authority hardly less than that of the
Benedictine rule, though the greatest difficulty was felt, in
the beginning, to secure their enforcement. The reform of a
whole kingdom could hardly have presented greater difficulties
than was met in that of some single monasteries. But the
persevering and prudent tact and mildness of St. Benedict of
Aniano triumphed over all obstacles, and the dying moments
of the great man were soothed by the consoling assurance
that his reform had been adopted in nearly all the monas­
teries (a. d. 821).
3. The Assembly of Aix-la-Chapelle also apportioned the
States of the empire among the sons of Louis the Mild : Lothaire, the eldest, shared the government of the empire ; Pepin
received the kingdom of Aquitaine, and Louis that of Bavaria.
The Italian sceptre remained in the hands of Bernard, the
grandson of Charlemagne.
To use the words of Mably :
• About the quantity contained in an ordinary drinking-glnaa ; a hemina being equal to
< balf-setier, and a setier to half a pint.

BT. PASCAL I. (A. D. 817-8Î4).

435

“When Charlemagne crowned his sons, he only gave himself
so many lieutenants ; the weak Louis, in bestowing crowns upon
his, set up as many rivals for himself,” who soon became his
masters. The patent setting forth these important dispositions
had indeed been solemnly received by the lords and the peo­
ple at large, who bound themselves by oath to respect it; it
had, it is true, received the approbation and apostolic sanction
of St. Pascal L, who also crowned Lothaire emperor, at St.
Peter’s in Rome, on Easter Day (April 5, a. d. 823) ; but all
this was vain while no stronger arm than that of Louis the
Mild was at hand to make good its provisions. Yet the first
attempts at revolt were vigorously met. Misled by imprudent
counsellors, Bernard, the youthful king of Italy, valiant, mag­
nificent, and adored by his subjects, expressed himself dissatis­
fied with the allotment of the imperial domain. He raised a
body of troops to support his claims, and marched to the Alps ;
but on the approach of Louis, at the head of a formidable
army, the rebel prince, forsaken by the greater part of his fol­
lowers, was forced to throw himself upon the promises of the
empress Irmengard, who offered her mediation. AU the con­
spirators were tried and sentenced to death; Bernard was
condemed to lose his eyes, and died of the frightful torture
thus inflicted (a. d. 818). The three young princes, Drogo,
Hugh and Theodoric, sons of Charlemagne, were confined in
monasteries, and forced to take the religious habit, though per­
fectly innocent of any participation in Bernard’s rebellion.
Louis alienated all minds by this untimely severity ; he had
put off his natural disposition in sentencing the rebels, and he
now resumed it to give way to afl the horrors of remorse. He
taxed himself with crime in the death of Bernard, which the
wisest statesmen agreed in pronouncing a lawful punishment;
and he bitterly reproached himself with the oppression of his
three brothers, by which he had violated the solemn pledge
given at the death-bed of Charlemagne.
4 He determined, in his despair, to give a signal proof of
repentance. A general diet of the empire was called at the

436

GENERAL HISTORY OF ΤΠΕ CHURCH.

palace of Attigny-sur-Aisne (a. d. 822). His sons, Lothaire,
Louis and Pepin were present, together with the bishops and
chief lords of their respective realms. Drogo, Hugh and
Theodoric were brought from their monastery, to assist it the
solemn reparation. Louis appeared before this assembly, and,
in presence of all his people, stripped of the imperial insignia,
clothed with sackcloth, prostrate at the feet of bishops, he
confessed what he called his crime, and asked to expiate it
by a public penance. The moving sight of an all-powerful
monarch thus voluntarily humbling himself before a whole
people, had not been witnessed since the days of Theodosius
the Great. But the act which won for the Roman emperor the
admiration of his civilized subjects, drew upon the imperial
Frank the contempt of a race but half redeemed from barbar­
ism, whose brutal pride blushed at the sight of repentant
royalty. The scene of that day taught the sons of Louis
their father’s weakness. Adelard of Corbie, at the same time
a great statesman and a fervent religious, remarked, in speak­
ing of this event and of the fine regulations which were then
promulgated : “It were hard to treat better of the public good,
in theory; Heaven grant that the execution and obedience cor­
respond.”
5. The bishops present at Attigny met in council, and, on
motion of Agobardus, archbishop of Lyons, one of the most
enlightened prelates of his day, forbade the use of the various
kinds of judicial tests, known by the name of Judgments of
God, and hitherto perpetuated by the national customs and
superstitions. The trial of the cross was conducted thus : both
parties, accuser and accused, stood motionless before a cross ;
he who first fell lost his case. In the ordeal of the hot irons,
the accused party took up or trod upon a red-hot iron ; his
escape unhurt was the proof of his innocence. A similar test
was applied with boiling water. The ordeal of cold water con­
sisted in throwing the accused person into the water ; if he
floated, he was pronounced guilty—if he sunk, innocent. But
the practice in which the most shocking cruelty was joined to

8T. PASCAL I. (A. 0. ·Π-9Μ).

4S7

superstition, was the ordeal of the duel. The culprit was first
made to swear to his innocence, and if the accuser was not
satisfied with this testimony of his guiltlessness, the judge
ordered the combat; and such is the origin of the false point
of honor which still disgraces civilized humanity, and thinks
to wash out in blood the insult of a word. Should the par­
ties feel unwilling to defend their respective causes personally,
there were always a number of professional bravoe at hand,
ready to take their destiny upon them, and to fight in their
stead. What makes this blindness appear more stupid is the
fact that these strange ordeals were used, not only in cases of
criminal charges, but in questions of law and order. When
the question arose in Germany whether the representation
should proceed in a direct line, it was decided by a single com­
bat. When the Spanish Church was hesitating between the
Roman and Mozarabic liturgies, both books were cast into the
flames, which were expected to decide the case by sparing the
ritual approved of Heaven. The Council of Attigny denounced
these superstitious practices with great vigor, and the watch­
ful zeal of the Popes, seconded by the imperial authority, soon
blotted out these disgraceful stains from European legislation
and manners.
6. The abbot Adelard of Corbie, one of the brightest lights
of the Council of Attigny, had occasion during the same year
(822) to display his zeal beyond the boundaries of Gaul, even
in the remotest parts of the Western empire. The Saxons,
newly converted and still weak in faith, stood in great need of
guides and models in the way of salvation. With a view to
keep before, them these needed lessons and examples of evangelical perfection, Adelard founded among them a monastery, to
which he gave the name of the New Corbie : situated in a beau­
tiful valley, on the bank of the Weser, it was long used as a
school and seminary for the northern missions now springing
again into active existence. The conversion of Saxony opened
a way for the missionaries into the kingdom of Denmark, which
hud long been kept before their minds by the renowned

488

GENERAL BISTORT OF THE CHURCH.

audacity of its people, their maritime enterprises, and their
repeated inroads into Southern Europe. Harold, their king,
driven from his throne by a civil war, had taken refuge in the
court of Louis the Mild, where he sought instructions in the
truths of the Catholic faith, asked and received baptism at
Mentz, with all the officers in his retinue. Ebbo, archbishop
of Rheims, with a monk named Halitgar, afterward bishop of
Cambray, had first been sent on a fruitless mission to Denmark
In the Old Corbie, Harold found a pious and learned man, with
all the necessary enterprise and energy, who had been pointed
out to him by St. Adelard. This monk was destined to become
the apostle of Denmark and Sweden, as St. Boniface had been
of Germany. It was St. Anscharius. After seeking, in holy
retreat, a fullness of apostolic spirit, he received from his supe­
riors the mission of enlightening the barbarous and idolatrous
Danes. Accompanied by his colleague Autbert, he presented
himself at the court of King Harold, and labored with cheering
success in the conversion of these infidels. He found an effi­
cacious means of fostering the seed cast by his preaching, in
the purchase of young slaves whom he trained up in the fear
of God, and formed into a numerous school. But a fresh
revolution once more deprived Harold of his crown, and stayed
the onward course of Christianity in the full tide of success.
Autbert died, and Anscharius returned to the French court,
whence he was at once sent to Sweden, whose king had begged
Louis to send missionaries into his states. The saint was
again accompanied by a religious of Corbie, who had solicited
the mission. The two apostles set out together, loaded with
gifts from Louis to the king of Sweden ; but they were robbed
on the way by pirates, and appeared among the barbarians
bearing only the good tidings of salvation. They were favor­
ably received by the king, and made many conversions : among
the first trophies of Divine grace was the governor of the
city, who immediately gave proofs of his sincere piety by the
erection of a church, and by his steady adherence to the prin­
ciples he had embraced. When the increase of the faithful

8T. PASCAL I. (A. B. 811-81«.

439

warranted the measure, Hamburg was made an archiépiscopal
see, with St. Anscharius as its first incumbent. He devoted
himself with unwearied energy to the cultivation of the field
intrusted to his zeal. His manner of life was most austere,
his diet consisting only of bread and water. He often with­
drew to a little retreat he had himself constructed there in
the intervals of his pastoral duties, to take some moments of
rest and to pour forth his heart without restraint before God.
He was favored with the gift of miracles, and healed many
diseases by the power of his prayers. On finding himself
attacked by his last illness, the holy prelate was much grieved
that the hopes of his lifetime were not to be fulfilled, and that
ht· was not to shed his blood for the faith. “ Alas !” he ex­
claimed, “ my sins have deprived me of the grace of martyr­
dom.” Feeling the approach of his last moment, he gathered
his remaining strength to exhort his disciples to the love of
God and the support of his dear mission. The rising Church,
spread by the labors of St. Anscharius even to the shores of
Greenland, was for a time swept by a fierce storm, in an inva­
sion of the barbarians; but the precious seeds sown there by
the apostle survived the fury of the blast, and flourished by
the care of his zealous successors.
1. While the West thus bowed to the gentle violence
of the faith, the East presented a vastly different sight Leo
the Armenian had banished all the Catholic bishops and
abbots. He ordered all the paintings in the churches to be
destroyed, and the workmen who executed his orders were
worthy to be classed with the Vandals, by the destruction
of so many masterpieces of art. The sacred vessels, on which
were represented pious subjects, were broken; the paintings
executed on wood disappeared under the blows of the axe,
and the remains were burned in the public square. The
emperor, not satisfied with silencing the defenders of the truth
by banishment, wished to win them over to his cause, and
thus seduce the faithful by their example. With this view
he recalled several of the exiles to Constantinople, assuring

440

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE OHURCI*

them that no violation of their consciences was meant; that
they need only communicate once with the Patriarch Theodotus, after which they were at liberty to retire quietly to their
monasteries. Deceived by this stratagem, they had the weak­
ness to comply, and received communion from the hand of
Theodotus. Among the prelates was St. Nicetas of Medicion,
whose venerable age, virtuous and austere life, won him the
filial love and veneration of all the monks. He had no sooner
yielded this weak compliance than his soul was torn by the
most stinging remorse. Resolved to repair his fault by a
public retractation, he would not return to his monastery, but
remained in Constantinople, loudly protesting that he had
been guilty of shrmeful weakness, and that he had nothing in
common w.th the Γ,ton: clasts. Leo sent for hirn and inquired
why he bid not tetr tied to his monastery, like the other
abbots. “Knew, ny m’d,” replied Nicetas, “that I disclaim
what I did through a cowardly compliance, and that I have
never been less disposed to communicate witli your sect. Do
with me what you will, I shall never change my sentiments !"
The holy abbot was banished to a distant island, where he lin­
gered in painful captivity until the death of the emperor. St
Theodore the Studite, who had also been proscribed in the
beginning of the persecution, made use of his hours of exile
to defend the Catholic faith by his eloquent writings. The
persecutors thought to hush this importunate voice, by bury
ing it in the remote province of Anatolia. “ Take me where
you will,” said the saint, “ I am content ; the whole earth is
the Lord’s. But you can never fetter my voice, for I have
consecrated it to the cause of the God of truth.” The em­
peror, maddened by this courageous resistance, ordered the
confessor to be scourged to blood. Theodore removed his
own tunic, saying : “ I have long desired to suffer outrages
for the name of Jesus Christ.” The sight of that body, worn
by macerations, filled the executioner with a holy dread of
sacrilege. Under pretext of decency, he caused all the by­
standers to withdraw ; then bringing in a sheepskin, he dis­

8T. PASCAL I. (A. D. 817-824).

441

charged upon it a number of lusty blows, distinctly heard
without. He even drew blood from his own arm to stain the
scourges, which he took care to expose to public view. The
holy abbot continued to devote both voice and pen to the
interests of the true faith. In order to collect proofs of the
unanimity of all the Churches in the veneration of holy images,
he wrote to all the bishops and Patriarchs throughout the Chris­
tian world. His letter to the Patriarch of Alexandria gives
a lengthy description of the Iconoclast persecution, with which
he supposed the prelate to be but partially acquainted, be­
cause of the difficulty of communicating by sea, owing to the
continued depredations of the Saracen corsairs. “In the very
centre of Christendom,” says St. Theodore, “ the altars of Jesus
Christ are overturned, His churches devastated. The Arabs who
oppress you would blush at such acts of violence. Bishops,
priests and monks are held in universal contempt; some have
entirely lost the faith, while others think to keep it still, though
associating and communicating with heretics. Yet some there
are who have not yet bowed the knee to Baal, and they have a
worthy guide and patron in our glorious Patriarch, Nicephorus ;
but many of these confessors have been cruelly outraged and
scourged, many thrown into dungeons and reduced to a few
ounces of mouldy bread, a few drops of impure water to sus­
tain their daily life ; some, in fine, have been sent into exile.
The unfortunate monks have been driven to seek a volun­
tary exile, with no roof save the leafy forest boughs, their
only dwelling the mountain dens. Some have ended the
martyr’s course under the executioners lash; others have
been thrown into the sea in bags. The possession of a sacred
image, shelter afforded to a hunted victim, or the slightest
relief administered to a prisoner, is sufficient to incur imme­
diate arrest, scourging and exile.” The holy abbot had pre­
viously written to Pope St. Pascal I., urging him to interpose
his apostolic influence and authority in favor of the confessors
of the faith. “You,” he wrote, “who are clothed with the
Divine power, intrusted with the keys of the kingdom of

442

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

Heaven, appointed by God pastor over the whole flock of
Christ, rock upon which is founded the Catholic Church, for
you are Peter, sibce you fill his chair ; come to the assistance
of your children, never more cruelly exposed to the rage of
the ravenous wolves of heresy. Let the whole earth know
that you have anathematized those who persecute Jesus Christ
in his worshippers. Thus shall you support the weak, confirm
the courage of the strong, raise up the fallen, and gladden the
whole Church. Obedient, like your predecessors, to the voice
of the Holy Ghost, you will acquire undying glory for the
Roman Church, the refuge and harbor of all the oppressed.”
This letter, signed by the abbots of nearly all the monasteries
in and about Constantinople, was well received by the Sover­
eign Pontiff, who replied in terms of the most affectionate ten
derness, promising to use all his influence in behalf of his per­
secuted children, exhorted them to persevere, and hastened
to send legates to Constantinople. But the emperor’s heretical
prejudices had reached their highest pitch, and the only effect
of the legation was to inspire the Catholics with renewed cour­
age, on seeing the Holy See openly arrayed in their defense
(a. d. 818). In order at least to afford a home to the most
violently persecuted sufferers, the Pontiff established a monas­
tery of Greek monks at Rome, near the church of St. Praxedes, which he had lately rebuilt. The knowledge that St.
Theodore had addressed his complaints to the Pope, redoubled
the emperor’s rage against him. The holy confessor received
a hundred lashes, so cruelly delivered that he was left breath­
less and motionless upon the ground. It was only by a kind
of prodigy that one of his disciples, confined in the same
prison, succeeded in bringing him back to life. But even the
consolation of companionship in distress was denied him, and
he was removed to a solitary dungeon, where his keepers
threw him a piece of bread every second day. The archbishop
of Smyrna, one of the leaders of the Iconoclasts, seeing that
nothing could shake the constancy of Theodore, said to him,
on leaving for Constantinople : “ I shall beg the emperor to

BT. PASCAL !.

(A. V. eu-». ,

order you to lose your tongue or your head.” But Divine
justice struck the tyrant too soon to allow the fulfilment of
this threat.
8. A veteran from the imperial army, a native of Upper
Phrygia, whose occupation had been that of a horse-trader,
hardly able to read, and altogether ignorant of the art of
writing, a man almost bereft of the faculty of articulate speech—
in a word, Michael the Stammerer, had succeeded, by means of
dishonesty and intrigues, in reaching the highest military dig­
nities. These secured, he now covets the imperial purple, con­
spires, is arrested, judged, and condemned by the emperor to
be burnt alive in the furnace of the imperial baths. The sen­
tence, pronounced on the 24th of December, a. d. 820, was to
be carried out on the morrow, Christmas Day. The empress
Theophrano urged that the sacred anniversary would be profaned
by an execution. “ I grant your request,” said Leo ; “ God
forbid that, in seeking to save my soul, you expose my body
to the weapons of the assassins.” During the night the clergy
of St. Sophia came as usual to sing matins in the imperial
chapel. In the ecclesiastical habit, but with swords under
their robes, four of Michael’s accomplices crept unnoticed into
the chapel, under favor of the imperfect light and similarity of
dress. Leo was present at the Christmas office. At the fatal
signal, the conspirators, brandishing their swords, encompassed
on all sides the royal victim. Unarmed, unfriended, the em­
peror grasped a massive silver cross and stood at bay against
the hunters of his life. He struggled long and well, but was
at last hurled to the ground, and cried aloud: “Mercy! mercy!
in the name of the sanctuary !” “ This is the hour not of
mercy, but of vengeance,” replied a conspirator; and seizing
the prostrate emperor by the hair, he severed his head from
the trunk. A moment more, and Michael the Stammerer is
borne, ironed hand and foot, from the felon's dungeon to the
throne of the Cæsars. The keys of his fetters had been
eecured by Leo ; they were broken with hammers. Michael
wan proclaimed emperor. The officers of the palace, thunder

444

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

struck, come m trembling crowds to pay their homage, while
the conspirators chant the Psalmist’s words, in the Christmas
office : “Ad vesperum demorabitur fletus, et usque ad matutinum
*
lœtitia."
The bloody tragedy had been enacted under the
shades of night, while Constantinople was buried in slumber.
The morning’s light brought the conviction that God will
sooner or later chastise the persecutors of hte Church, as at the
dawn of this 25th of December it revealed the head of Leo the
Armenian, the Iconoclast persecutor, exposed upon the point of
a lance in the midst of the hippodrome. The fickle populace
now heaped curses and outrages upon the idol they had but
yesterday so zealously incensed with adulations and false hom­
age, and now their cry arose with equal fervor : “ Michael IL,
Augustus! Long life to Michael II. !” The new emperor, on
the strength of his happy accession, recalled the exiled Catho­
lics ; but only to resume the persecution under a new form.
9. While the East was cowering in terror under these
ceaseless revolutions, a violent sedition at Rome threatened
the life of St. Pascal I. Two factions had arisen against the
Pontiff. The imperial party, ignorant of Lothaire’s good inten­
tions, used the weight of his name in their demands for absolute
authority in his behalf; while the Roman faction sought a
very doubtful independence, and strove to throw off the author­
ity of the Holy See. The contest had already cost the fives of
Theodore, primiciarius, and Leo, nomenclator or secretary of
the Roman Church, when the presence of Lothaire restored
peace and order. The Pontiff did not long survive this sad
event, and died on the 11th of February, a. d. 824, after a
pontificate of seven years. It is universally allowed that the
title of cardinal f was first officially granted in his reign to the
principal ministers in the Roman clergy. They were, how­
ever, few in number. Under Nicholas III., a. d. 1277, their
whole number amounted to seven; under John XXII., a. d
• "In the evening weeping ahaU have place, and in the morning gladness."—Pe. xxix. C.
t Cardinal, from the Latin word cardo, a hingo—the cardinala being, eo to speak, the
hinges upon which rest the gates of the Church.

8UGENIÜ8 Π. (A. D SM-W).

445

1330, it had increased to twenty ; and at the time of the Conn·
ail of Constance the number was thirty-four. This numbei
was increased by Leo X. to sixty-five: by Paul IV., in 1556,
to seventy ; and Sixtus V., in 1586, decreed thjt, as sev­
enty was the number of the Seniores in Israel, as also of our
Lord's first disciples, it should remain at that standard. Of
the seventy cardinals, six are cardinal-bishops, fifty cardinal­
priests, and fourteen cardinal-deacons. The election of the
Pope is now confined to the college of cardinal·, and it will
be seen hereafter how this wise regulation was Grot estab­
lished.

§ II. Pontificate

of

Eüoeniüs II. (June 5, a. d. 824—Augnx»
27, 827).

10. Eugenius II. was elected Pope on the 5th of June, a. d.
824, and won by his tender charity the title of Father of the
People. Yet his election was disturbed by that of an anti-pope
named Zizimus ; but the schism was crushed at the very out­
set by the care of the youthful emperor Lothaire, whom Louis
had sent to Rome to take possession of the throne of Italy, left
vacant by the death of Bernard. In order to put a stop to
these disgraceful cabals and disorders, and to keep the Roman
nobles and people within the limits of obedience, Eugenius and
Lothaire concerted together the following measures : the Pope
issued a decree enjoining upon the Roman clergy to swear fidel­
ity to the emperors, according to this formula : “ I promise, in
the name of Almighty God, by the holy Gospels, by the HolyRood, and by the body of blessed Peter, prince of the Apostles,
that I will ever be true to our lords, the emperors Louis and
Lothaire, saving the faith I have pledged to the Sovereign Pontiff.
I will never consent that the election of the Pope proceed other­
wise than according to the canons and justice, nor that the
Pontiff elect be consecrated before taking, in the presence of
the people and the emperor’s envoy, an oath similar to that

446

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

pronounced by Pope Eugenius himself, for the preservation of
all.”* The emperor Lothaire, on his part, published, under the
portico of St. Peter’s, a constitution in nine articles. The chief
clauses are as follows : “ Agents appointed by the Pope and the
emperor shall give to the latter a yearly account of the admin­
istration of justice by the dukes and magistrates. The senate
and people of Pome shall be consulted on the legislation to
be adopted among them ; that is, they may choose between the
Roman law and the law of the Goths or of the Lombards, both
equally authorized in Italy, that they may henceforth be sub­
ject to a uniform law by the authority of the Pope as well as
of the emperor. Officers to that end appointed shall at one»
put the Sovereign Pontiff and bhe Church in possession of the
ecclesiastical property unjustly withheld. Finally, whoever
seeks the emperor’s favor must in all things show obedience
and respect to the Sovereign Pontiff.”
11. In Constantinople, Michael the Stammerer had not
granted a long truce to the faithful. He belonged to the sect
of Paulicians or Melchisedechians, a sect of mixed Jewish and
Christian observance, who practised the ceremonies of the Mo­
saic law together with the pagan superstitions of the Samari­
tans. Michael II. made vigorous efforts to restore the old
Hebrew law. In the palace he changed the time of the Easter
celebration, and substituted the observance of the Jewish Sab­
bath for that of the Christian Sunday. Refusing to recognize
Christ as the Messiah, he placed Judas in the calendar of the
saints. Over the bloody disorders with which he filled the
empire, he would have thrown the darkness of ignorance, ir
* " Promitto ego, per Deum omnipotentem, et per leta encra quatuor Evangelia, et p.
hanc crucem Domini noetri Jesu Christi, et per corpus beatissimi Petri, principis apostol­
orum, quod, ab bac die in futurum, fidelis ero dominis nostris imperatoribus Hludovico et
Hlotario, diebus vitae meue, juxta vires et intellectum meum, alne fraude atquo malo ingenio,
«dia fide qtiam repromisi domino Apostolico; et quod non consentiam ut aliter in hac Sede
Romana fiat electio Pontificis nisi canonice et justa, secundum vires et intellectum meur :
et ille qui electus fuerit, me consentiente, consecratus Pontifex non fiat, priusquam talo sa­
cramentum faciat, in presentia missi domini imperatoris et populi cum jurarrnnto, quala
«uminus Eugenius papa sponte pro conservatione omnium (actum Labet prascriptum.*
(Coni Paul. Diae., t. L, p. 611.)

EUGENICS H.

<A.

D. 82J-8K).

447

which he was himself bo deeply buried, and accordingly pro­
scribed the study of belles-lettres and religion. The recall of
the exiles was but a passing lull, soon followed by a bloody
persecution. Michael thought that in favoring the heresy of
the Iconoclasts he should sooner reach his end of destroying
the true faith by the divisions thus raised in the Church. To
veil his violent measures, he sent an embassy to Louis the
Mild, with a letter bearing this superscription: “Michael,
faithful to God, emperor of the Romans, to our dear and hon­
ored brother Louis, king of the Franks and Lombards, named
their emperor.” After a false statement of the manner of his
accession to the throne, he protests his desire to preserve peace.
Then passing to the question of images, he asserts that tho
Catholics give them a worship of adoration, and that he must
necessarily interfere to prevent this idolatry. After urging
Louis to convoke a council in his states to discuss the question
of images, he adds that, as an earnest of his union with the
Holy See, he sends to St. Peter’s Church a copy of the Gos­
pels, bound in gold, enriched with costly gems, and a richlyjewelled gold paten.
12. In the question of sacred images, the Gallic bishops had
left it in the unsettled ambiguity of the word adorare, of which
the twofold sense of mere veneration and of latria had not been
distinguished in the Council of Frankfort (a. d. 790). The
council assembled at Paris, in 825, by Louis the Mild, threw
no new light upon the subject. The bishops present mainly
endeavored to show that the worship of lutria is not to be
paid to holy images, and they collected all the texts from the
Fathers that bear upon the point. Still, they would seem to
have been but slightly acquainted with the state of things in
the East ; and their ignorance is easily explained by the ditliculty of communication, not yet established by navigation or
commerce, and by the want of serious historical studies.
13. Tho heresy of Claudius, bishop of Turin, drew the at­
tention of the Western bishops to the question of image-wor
ship, and taught them what they must think of the Iconoclaste.

<4S

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

Claudius, a Spaniard by birth, had acquired in the school of
Felix of Urgel a passion for novelty, to which he soon joined
its wiles and violence. Skilled in the art of dissimulation, he
won the esteem of Louis the Mild, who called him to his court,
where he devoted himself, with great success, to preaching and
the publication of sacred works, and even acquired reputation
as a learned writer by some commentaries on the Sacred Scrip­
tures. About the year 822, he was raised to the episcopal see
of Turin. Now that he had reached the object of his ambitious
iims, he no longer hid his real sentiments, but made open pro­
fession of the Iconoclastic heresy. In his first episcopal visita­
tion he broke all the crosses, statues, and images in the various
churches, which sacrilegious proceeding revolted all his pious
and faithful subjects. The crying scandal, on the part of a
bishop, aroused the whole of Gaul and Italy. All the doctors
of the period, Theodomir, Eginhard, Jonas, bishop of Orleans,
Agobardus, archbishop of Rheims, and Walafrid Strabo, abbot
of Reichenau, entered the lists, and levelled their eloquent
writings at the heresy brought into the West by Claudius of
Turin. The heretic, on the other hand, issued in defence of
his error a swarm of libels, in which indecency and impiety
seem to contend for the mastery. “ If those idolaters,” he
writes, “ will have us adore crosses because Jesus Christ was
fastened to a cross, we must, then, also adore all mangers, be­
cause He was laid in a manger ; we must adore every fishingboat, because He preached from one ; we must even adore asses,
because Jesus Christ chose to ride upon an ass. No ; God does
not command us to adore the cross ; He commands us to
bear it.”
The blasphemies uttered by Claudius of Turin, against
holy relics and pious images, produced a directly opposite ten­
dency in Gaul. Never was more honor given to these sacred
objects ; and the translations of relics were multiplied to an
extent almost incredible. The monastery of Andein, in the
forest of Ardennes, was enriched by the translation of the
body of St. Hubert, by Valcan. bishon of Liège (a. d. 825).

EUGENIUS Π. (A. D. 824-8Î7).

449

Hildum, abbot of St. Denis and of St. Medard nf finissons. by
his credit with Pope Eugenios, obtained a considerable portion
of the relics of St. Sebastian. Eginhard brooght to his mona»·
tery of Seligenstadt the bodies of St. Marcellinus, a prient,
and of St. Peter the Exorcist (a. d. 826).
14. At about the same period, Ansegise, abbot of Fonte­
nellos, published his collection of the Capitularies of Charle­
magne and of Louis the Mild (a. d. 827). These ordinances
had hitherto been scattered about on loose sheets ; and Anse­
gise, fearing that they might, in course of time, be forgotten
or lost, gathered them into one work, which he divided into
four books. The first contains the capitularies of Charlemagne
on ecclesiastical matters, in one hundred and sixty-two arti­
cles ; the second includes the ecclesiastical capitularies of Louis
the Mild, in forty-eight articles ; the third embraces the capit­
ularies of Charlemagne on profane matters, in ninety-one arti­
cles ; the fourth, those of Louis, on the same subjects, in
seventy-seven articles. This collection of the abbot Ansegise
has always been held in high esteem, and is quoted in imperial
decrees, subsequent to its publication, as a public authority.
15. The state of the times demanded of Eugenius Π. the
greatest moderation and prudence. At Constantinople, the
Iconoclasts, supported by the emperors, burned all books un­
favorable to their error, mutilated or falsified others, and used
all manner of deceit and violence toward the Catholics. From
the depths of their solitary dungeons or remote exile, the sup­
plicating voice of the Catholic bishops and abbots reached the
successor of St. Peter, now their only hope. In the West, the
unfaithful translation of the seventh ecumenical council had
opened the way for the insidious error. The wily Greek
thought, by insnaring the French bishops and emperors, to in­
sure the triumph of the heresy. It was particularly impor­
tant to dissipate the prejudices of the French bishops, by the
gradual introduction into the West of a more complete system
of education ; for ignorance was the paramount evil of the age,
and gave a striking proof of its sway in the very council
VOU II—2»

430

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

assembled at Rome (a. d. 826), by Pope Eugenius II., to com­
bat it. So fallen was the cultivation of belles-lettres,, that it
was found necessary to copy the opening discourse from a
council held under Gregory II., as it would have been too diffi­
cult to find any one able to write an original one. The canons
of the council are all directed to the restoration of studies.
Ignorant priests were to be suspended by their bishops from
the exercise of their functions, until they should have acquired
the necessary instruction. The same line of conduct was pre­
scribed to metropolitans in regard to their suffragans. Schools
were to be founded in each bishopric and monastery, under tho
care of masters of acknowledged ability and dependent upon
the bishops. Finally, priests were forbidden to devote their
time to agricultural pursuits, which turned them away from
the true spirit of their vocation.
16. Eugenius II. died on the 27th of August, a. d. 827,
shortly after the closing of the council, and was buried in the
Vatican.
HI· Pontificate of Valentine (September 1, a.
October 10, 827).

d.

827—

17. Elected on the 1st of September, a. d. 827, Valentine
had hardly been seated upon the pontifical throne, when he
was called away from the high but dangerous position. He
closed a pontificate of forty days, on the 10th of October, a. d.
827, to the grief of the Roman people, who had already learned
to love the piety, liberality, and gentleness of their new Pontiff

§ IV. Pontificate

of

Gregory IV. (January 5, a. d. 828—Jan
uary 11, 844).

18. After a vacancy of over two months, the Apostolic
Chair was filled by Gregory IV., who was raised to the lofty
dignity, like his illustrious namesake, St. Gregory the Great,
only with great violence to his own humility. He had fled to

GREGORY ΓΥ. (A. D. 828-M4).

461

a monatcery, whence he was horne by the whole people n
spite of himself, to the pontifical throne (January 5, a. d. 82-S ).
llis pontificate was a fresh proof that a sincere aversion for
worldly greatness by no means unfits for great deeds The
Spanish Saracens, obliged to yield before the ever-advancing
energy of the Christians of the Asturias, had transplanted
their colonies to the Grecian isles, where they did not meet fhe
same resistance : they had possessed themselves of this new
domain without meeting a single vessel to oppose their move­
ments. The Eastern emperor, Michael the Stammerer, was too
busily engaged in persecuting the Catholics to feel much in­
terest in the gradual dismemberment of the empire. The Sar­
acens fixed the seat of their power in the Archipelago, and
in Crete they raised the walls of Candia, which has since given
its name to the whole island. Sicily was, at the same time,
invaded by the African Mussulmans, who found admittance
through the shameful faithlessness of an imperial officer ; just
as the invasion of Spain had been brought on by the most dis­
graceful passion. Euphemius, general of the imperial troops
in Sicily, had dared, with sacrilegious audacity, to carry off a
religious from her convent with the intention of marrying
her. Michael the Stammerer had to reproach himself with the
same scandal, for he had also espoused, against her will, a vir­
gin consecrated to God, Euphrosine, grand-daughter of the em­
press Irone. By a strange inconsistency, of which history
affords many other examples, the emperor would have pun­
ished in his lieutenant a crime of which he had himself been
guilty. But Euphemius anticipated his imperial master, and
called upon the emir of Africa, who toot possession of the
whole of Sicily (a. d. 827). When the tidings of the loss of
this island reached Constantinople, Michael II. said to Ireneus,
one of his ministers : “ I congratulate you on being freed from
the administration of an island so remote; you are now eased
of a weighty burden.” “My lord,” answered Ireneus, two
or three similar reliefs will free you from the care of your em­
pire.” But provided he found the executioners to carry out

452

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

his bloody orders, Michael thought himself powerful enough
The holy monk Methodius, afterward Patriarch of Constanti·
nople, received seven hundred lashes, by order of the emperor,
and was then thrown into a dungeon where he languished fifteen
years. Euthymius, bishop of Sardis, expired under the tor­
turi St. Theodore the Studite died in exile for the faith he
had so eloquently and so valiantly defended, and was soon fol­
lowed by the holy Patriarch St. Nicephorus. The intruder,
Theodotus, died in possession of his usurped see, and was suc­
ceeded by a furious Iconoclast, Anthony of Sy lea, who spent
the eleven years of his intrusion in persecuting Catholics.
19. The shameless inertness of the Iconoclast emperors of
Constantinople had allowed the Saracen power to grow into
formidable proportions. Masters of the richest provinces of
the East, of Egypt and of Africa, commanding the Mediter­
ranean by their strongholds in the Archipelago, they made
Spain and Sicily, those two gates of the West, their advanced
posts against all Christendom. The only power that could
have stayed their invading march was the Empire of the
Franks ; but Louis the Mild was satisfied with having driven
them back from his frontier to the Pyrenees, and did not
concern himself about enemies who were not immediately in
his way. Besides, Charlemagne, in leaving him the sceptre,
could not bequeath his genius with it, and the unfortunate
emperor would soon have enough to do to resist the attacks of
his own sons. The Papacy was thus left the sole bulwark of
Christendom, and then appeared the wisdom of the providentia:
plan which had given it an independent temporal domain
Gregory IV. understood his mission. He opposed all the
means in his power to the incursions of the Mussulman fleets
on the coasts of Italy, in Calabria, Tuscany, and even in Lom­
bardy. As a protection to the mouth of the Tiber, where th·
hostile fleets found an easier landing, he undertook an immensi
labor. The ancient city of Ostia, now but a mass of ruins,
was raised anew, surrounded with lofty walls and deep ditches,
defended by a strong garrison and naval force, and thus be·

-------------------------------------------------------

GREGORY rV. (A. D. 8ÎA-844).

453

came an impregnable post. A nation's gratitude bestowed
upon it the name of its founder, and called it GregoriopoVie
(a. d. 828).
20. But meanwhile a lamentable revolution was preparing
in the Frankish empire. The Council of Paris (a. d. 829) had
offered Louis a wise counsel, of which he did not, however,
avail himself. “ The greatest obstacle to order," said the coun­
cil, “ is the gradual interference of princes with ecclesiastical
matters ; while bishops, whether through ignorance or cupidity,
give more attention than is proper to temporal affairs." The
empress Judith, his second wife, had borne to Louis a son,
Charles, afterward known as the Bald. Now the emperor
perceived the mistake he had made by the premature division
of his estates among the sons of his first union. He was
unwilling to leave Charles without a realm, and yet he could
furnish him with one only at the expense of the other princes.
An imperial decree bestowed upon Charles the territory of
Rhetia, Suabia, and Burgundy Transjurana. This was the
work of Bernard, count of Barcelona, prime minister of Louis.
The empress Judith, by means of caresses and skill, drew from
Lothaire a promise to respect the new allotment, and even to
act as guardian and protector to the young prince. But ambi­
tion overcame brotherly affection. A powerful league was
formed between Lothaire and his brothers Pepin and Louis,
with the ostensible end of withdrawing their father from the
power of Count Bernard, whose pride and pomp had incensed
all minds, and whom report accused, though perhaps unjustly,
of an intrigue with the empress Judith. The league counted
among its confederates some of the most influential charactere
of the age : Hilduin, abbot of St. Denis and archchaplain ;
Ebbo, archbishop of Rheims; Jesse, bishop of Amiens; Elias,
bishop of Troyes; St. Agobardus, archbishop of Lyons; St.
Bernard, archbishop of Vienna; Paschasius Radbertus, the
most celebrated doctor of the period ; the illustrious and pious
Vala, abbot of Corbie, a former minister of Charlemagne, who
«tilled the voice of flesh and blood to array himself against

454

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

the count of Barcelona, his own brother-in-law. Their exam­
ple led the whole body of great lords, who all appeared at
Compïègne, under the leaders of the confederation (a. d. 828).
Louis had promptly removed Count Bernard at the very
moment when he most needed his services. But this act was
not enough for the factious nobles. They obliged him to send
the empress to the monastery of the Holy Cross, at Poitiers,
there, in the religious habit and discipline, to atone for the
crimes laid to her charge. They even sought to make him
abdicate and retire also to the confinement of a cloister. Lothaire had engaged some religious, whose influence with the
emperor he knew to be very weighty, to lead him to this
determination. The pious cenobites, more loyal than Lothaire
would have wished them at that moment, offered their services
to him whom they looked upon as their lawful sovereign.
The great point was to disunite the three rebel princes. Gundebald, a monk of easy and persuasive manners, betook himself
tu the kings of Bavaria and Aquitaine, appealed to their con­
science, their filial affection, and even their very interests, and
succeeded in bringing them back to their duty. The diet
which was to declare the fall of Louis the Mild was on the
eve of assembling. It was important that it should not be
held in Gaul, where the party of Lothaire ruled paramount.
The influence of Gundebald obtained its convocation at Nimeguen, where the Saxons and Frisians, who had vowed eternal
gratitude to Louis for the clemency he had shown them, might
have a decided majority. “ All Germany,” says a contempo­
rary historian, “ hastened to the rescue of its emperor.” This
concourse alarmed the rebels, who insisted that Lothaire should
either resort to arms or withdraw his claim. A whole night
was spent in ceaseless parleying in the tent of that prince.
When informed of his irresolution, Louis sent for his son, who
dared not disobey.
A great tumult immediately arose in the camp, which would
soon have been a scene of bloody sedition, but the father and
son appearing before all in a mutual embrace, by this apper.r-

GREGORY IV. (A. D. 828-M4).

456

ance of reconciliation at once calmed the popular coinm»ti..n
(a. d 830). The principal leaders of the conspiracy were
arrested, judged, and sentenced to death ; but the mild monarch
wished them no worse evil than the imprisonment of a cloister,
seemingly forgetful that egress was not impossible. The em­
press was recalled from her convent; but Louis hesitated to
receive her in their former relations, as she had meanwhile pro­
nounced her vows. A council held in the following year (a. d.
831) at Aix-la-Chapelle, removed the canonical difficulty, and
with it the scruples of the pious monarch. Judith protested,
under oath, that she was wholly guiltless of the charges made
against her, and was re-instated in her rights as spouse and em­
press. The rebel princes were pardoned and sent back to their
respective kingdoms. The count of Barcelona alone remained
in disgrace, and his charge was bestowed upon Gundebald, who
had done such signal service to his sovereign.
21. The peace was short. The first revolution had sprung
from the ambition of the princes; the second was due to that
of the fallen minister, Bernard. He imbittered the minds of
the three princes against their father, and a manifesto soon ap­
peared throughout the whole extent of the empire, complaining
of the tyranny of Judith, who was accused of secretly plotting
the overthrow of the three first sons of the emperor, to extend
the domain of the young Charles. The proclamation concluded
with an appeal to arms, to serve God, the king, and the empire.
Every means that could awake the national honor was put into
play ; and the three unnatural sons, Lothaire, Pepin, and Louis,
soon found themselves at the head of a formidable army (a. d.
833). To give to their undertaking a sort of sacred sanction
in the eyes of the world, the three brothers begged Pope Greg­
ory IV. to visit their camp, alleging a wish to use his mediation
between their father, the emperor, and themselves. The Sove
reign Pontiff, deceived by the crafty message, and hopeful if
restoring peace to France, accepted the duty. He appeared in
the camp at Rothfeld (Redfield), a vast plain in Alsatia, be­
tween Basle and Strasburg. The princes, meanwhile, putting

4ÔG

general history of the church.

quite ft different interpretation upon the Pontiff s visit, spread
the report among the troops and the people that the Pope had
given to their criminal designs the sanction of his apostolical
authority. Louis the Mild, also misinformed on the subject,
allowed himself to be deceived by public report; yet he did
not give up. Rousing himself to an energy and activity of
which no one supposed him capable, he gathered about him a
strong force and pitched his camp at a short distance from that
of the confederate princes. Had the emperor seized the mo­
ment to give battle while the ardor and good disposition of the
troops were at their height, victory had assuredly crowned his
standard. His wisest counsellors advised it, the troops them­
selves asked to be led on to the fight. But Louis was more
ready to hear the inspirations of a father’s heart than the coun­
sels of policy, however prudent. Before resorting to arms, he
wished to make terms. Negotiations were prolonged, during
which Lothaireand his royal brothers secured certain influences
in the imperial camp. Meanwhile, Gregory asked to be allowed
the exercise of his ministry as mediator. Robed in full pontifi­
cal attire, and surrounded by a numerous train of bishops, he
advanced into the space between the two armies. Louis, still
laboring under the false impression received at the outset, did
not come forward to meet him. Pope Gregory passed through
the imperial lines, approached the emperor, and gave him his
blessing, with the assurance that all his own proceedings had
been inspired by the truest desire for peace. “ You are not re­
ceived among us,” said Louis, “ with the honors which our fath­
ers loved to pay to the Sovereign Pontiffs, your predecessors;
for your conduct has been far different from theirs !” “ Like
our predecessors,” replied Gregory, “ we have but one aim,
that of maintaining peace in the kingdom of Jesus Christ.” He
then acquainted the emperor with the real motive of his pres­
ence, and a conference ensued between the Pope and the em­
peror, which might have produced the most happy results ; but
Lothaire and the two kings sought no such object; their intiigues had undermined the fidelity of their father’s troops, who

OREOORY TV. (A. D. β»β-»44).

45i

deserted to the enemy’s standard in the coarse of a single night
The morning found Louis surrounded only by a handful of
faithful followers. “ Go !" said the emperor, as his eyes filled
with tears, “ go, too, and join my sons ; I would not have youf
devotion cost you your lives.” The wretched father himself
appeared in the camp of his sons, asking only that the lives
of the empress and of Charles, his son, might be spared. Thus
did he humble himself for the sake of these objects of his law­
ful tenderness. Lothaire, Pepin, and Louis saw themselves
victors, without striking a blow ; but can there be a deeper dis­
grace than a victory which humbles the most indulgent of fath­
er® ? The princes were incapable of this view. Louis was
confined in the monastery of St. Medard, at Soissons ; Charles
the Bald, a poor child of ten years, whose youth would have
touched and drawn any heart other than those of his cruel
brothers, was separated from his mother, and placed in the
monastery of Prum, in the Ardennes; Judith was sent to Tortona, in Lombardy. The people expressed their sentiment at
this sad sight by naming the plain of Rothfeld the Field of the
Lie (Liigenfeld) (a. d. 833). The constitution of 817 was
restored. The abbot Vala, withdrawn from his retreat at Cor­
bie, to approve the deed, exclaimed with a sigh: "Alas!
every thing has been provided for, save the interests of justice.”
Pope Gregory IV., whose good faith had been so shamefully
deceived, returned to Italy, filled with hopeless grief.
22. Louis had not yet drunk his bitter cup to the dregs. In
October, a. d. 833, a general assembly of bishops and nobles
met at Compïègne. Ebbo, archbishop of Rheims, presided, and
Louis the Mild was arraigned before it. Prostrate upon a sack­
cloth spread upon the ground, he read aloud a confession, ac­
knowledging himself guilty of homicide, in the case of h»
nephew Bernard, king of Italy ; of sacrilege, in violating the
act of partition solemnly ratified in 817; of tyranny, by
the exile and death of faithful subjects ; and of the ruin of the
State, by his capricious and inconstant policy. His only crime
was his incorrigible facility of disposition. The wretched prince

46S

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

confessed bis pretended crimes with many tears. Then handing to the bishops the confession, signed by his own hands, he
placed his helmet, cuirass, and military I elt upon the altar, and
clothed himself with a sackcloth garment. While be lay pros­
trate upon the ground, the bishops went through the ceremo
nies usual on such occasions, of the imposition of hands and
penitential prayers. The three kings pretended that the act of
public penance, according to the canon law, carried with it in­
ability to bear arms again, or take any part in business of
State ; this was false, even in respect to private individuals,
who were forbidden to take part in public affairs only during
the course of their penance, and was altogether inadmissible in
regard to sovereigns. They therefore appeared with heartfelt
satisfaction at this odious ceremony, as at the degradation of
a father whose sovereignty was to them intolerable. Far dif­
ferent was the bearing and sentiment of the multitude. The
humiliation of a sovereign whose goodness was so popular re­
volted all hearts, and the reaction was not long delayed : Lothaire himself hastened it by his proud and haughty bearing
toward his brothers. The bond of unnatural treachery was
soon severed ; Pepin and Louis conspired together against
Lothaire. At the tidings of their armed preparation, Lothaire
hastily quitted Aix-la-Chapelle, dragging along, in his flight,
the unfortunate emperor, whose penitential dress and cruel mis­
fortunes everywhere won the most feeling expressions of com­
passionate pity. At Paris, the public sympathy took the form
of dbectly hostile demonstrations. Lothaire, leaving his au­
gust captive at St. Denis, fled in terror to his kingdom of Italy.
The lords, the bishops, and the military officers, now freed
from the tyrant’s yoke, hastened in a body to St. Denis, and,
throwing themselves at the emperor’s feet, begged him to re­
sume the marks of his dignity. Even Louis and Pepin came,
as humble suppliants, to beg forgiveness for the past. Lothaire
alone continued to wage a civil strife ; but forsaken, at length,
as his father once had been, he was forced to crave the forgive­
ness of a sovereign he had so basely and so cruelly outraged

GREGORY TV. (A. 0. M8-M4).

459

Louis the Mild forgot the past, restorod his sons to their re­
spective thrones, but would put off his own penitential humili­
ation only by the decree of a council. Forty-seven prelate·,
assembled at Thionville (a. d. 835). nnulled all that had been
done at Compïègne the year before. Ebbo laid before the
council a resignation, in these terms : “ I, Ebbo, an unworthy
bishop, deeply impressed with the enormity of my crimes, and
wishing to save my soul by a salutary penance, hereby renounce
the sacred functions of the episcopate, which I have profaned,
that a pastor may be consecrated in my stead, more wor­
thy to govern the Church. I have signed this deed with my
own hand.” The resignation was submitted to the Pope, and
accepted. Louis was solemnly freed from the penance imposed
upon him, and resumed the imperial insignia only to extend his
clemency to all who had betrayed him. Agobardus of Lyons,
Jonas of Orleans, and the other bishops returned to their dio­
ceses. Had they needed a defense, they might easily have
alleged the critical state of affairs at the time ; but the emperor
was satisfied with a simple promise of fidelity to his authority,
without reverting to actions which he wished to bury in endless
oblivion. Ebbo himself was allowed to withdraw into a monas­
tery of his own choice ; though he was subsequently brought
forward again, with the imperial consent, to fill the see of Hil­
desheim. Desirous to consecrate the anniversary of his resto­
ration by a solemn festivity, and in compliance with the ex­
pressed wishes of Gregory IV. and all the bishops, Louis de­
creed that the feast of All Saints should be solemnized in the
Churches of Gaul and Germany, on the 1st of November, as it
had been kept in Rome for the past two hundred years, accord­
ing to the decree of Boniface IV. One of the hymns of the
feast, in which occurs the following petition: “Deliver thou
the Christian soil from the foul pollution of the heathen's
tread,”
Auferte gentem perfldem
Credentium de dm bin,

refers to the Norman inroads, then wasting the Gallic territory

4GU

GENERAL HISTORY OP THE CHURCH.

During the year 835, they had entered the Island of Noirmontiers, and plundered its monastery.
23. The reparative measures which now gave back peace to
France were confirmed in a council held at Aix-la-Chapelle
(a. d. 836). The question of the distinction between the eccle­
siastical and civil powers was treated here. The bishops ac­
knowledged that they had allowed the current of public opinion
to carry them too far in the difficulty between the emperor and
his sons. “ Wherefore,” said they, in their address to Louis,
“ we think it necessary in order to preserve peace, that, leaving
to the bishops the spiritual power they hold from Jesus Christ,
you freely use all that which belongs to you as father and emper­
or.” An ordinance was then passed for the restoration of all
church property usurped by Pepin, king of Aquitaine, and tho
nobles of his kingdom. The emperor’s order, following close
upon the petition of the bishops, secured the restoration of the
estates. The pious monarch seemed fated to find even this wellearned rest denied him. The clemency which springs from
weakness rather emboldens than represses disorder. Louis, king
of Bavaria, the emperor’s son, a third time took up arms against
his aged father, on the occasion of a new addition made to the
estate of Charles the Bald. The emperor left Poitiers to meet
the rebel ; but, ere he reached Mentz, death cut short the
term of his reign and of his misfortunes. He was assisted in
his last moments by his brother Drogo, bishop of Metz and
archchaplain of the palace. His last words were of forgiveness
to the ungrateful son whose revolt had perhaps hurried him
to a premature grave (June 20, a. d. 840). Thus ended the
sad career of a prince whose only fault was his goodness, who
owed all his misfortunes to his royal title !
24. A succession so bitterly contested during the lifetime
of the incumbent could be but a heritage of strife and discord.
Pepin of Aquitaine had followed his father to the grave.
Louis of Bavaria and Charles the Bald were unwilling to ac­
knowledge any real suzerainty in the person of Lothaire. The
dispute was referred to the test of arms, in spite of all the con-

GREGORY IV. (A. D. «19-844).

461

ciliutory efforts of Pope Gregory IV. Three legates had vainly
offered them the mediation of the Holy See. The contest took
place in the field of Fontenay (a. d. 842). All the contempo­
rary chroniclers agree in the statement that “ never did Frank
meet Frank in so disastrous a combat." They estimate at
forty thousand men the loss of Lothaire, who fled defeated to
Aix-la-Chapelle. Then might he recall his shameful triumphs
over his injured father. The empire of Charlemagne disap­
peared in the blood of Fontenay ; the hero did not live whose
arm could give back its lost unity. He of modern times, who
would fain have revived the greatness of Charlemagne, without
his religion and justice, had indulged that dream ; but, raised to
power by a tempest, he was sent to die upon a lone rock, beat­
en by the billows and storms of the ocean. Pepin, Louis, and
Charles divided the states given them by this victory, and
pledged to one another, each in the language of his brother's
subjects, an inviolable fidelity. The oath pronounced by Louis
of Bavaria, in favor of Charles the Bald, designated to the
throne of France, is the first monument of the French language ;
it is thus worded : “ Pro Deo amur, et pro Christian poblo. et
nostro commun salvamento, dist di in avant, in quant Deus savir
et podir me dunat, si salvare io cist meon fradre Carlo, et in
adjudha, et in caduna cosa, si cum ora per dreit son fradre salvar dist, in o quid in mi altre si fazet. Et ad Ludher nul plain
nunquam prindrai, qui, meon vol, cist meon fradre Carlo in
damno sit.” * Lothaire had naturally been forgotten in this
partition. In the course of the following year he was recon­
ciled with his brothers, and the final division was then made
Ça. d. 843). All that part of Gaul lying to the west of the
Meuse, Saône, and Rhone, with that portion of Spain comprised
between the Pyrenees and the Ebro, was bestowed upon
Charles the Bald ; and this was the new kingdom of France.
• For the love of God and the Christian people, and our common salvaticn, from thia day
forth, in so far us God grants me light and ability, I promise to support my brother Charley
here present, by assistance, and in every particular, as it is right to support a brother, M
'ong as he does the same for me. And I will nover enter into any agreement with Lothaire
that tony prove detrimental to my brother.

462

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

The whole of Germany, to the Rhine, was given to Louie.
Lothaire, with the title of emperor, joined to Italy all the east­
ern portion of France, from the sea of Provence to the mouths
of the Rhine and Scheldt. This long and narrow belt, cutting
off all communication between Louis and Charles, was called
the kingdom of Lothaire, Lotharii Regnum, Lotharingia, the
present province of Lorraine.
25. We may now turn from this stormy picture of civil
discord in the West, to the Eastern empire, which had mean­
while changed masters by the death of Michael the Stammerer
(a. d. 829), who was succeeded by his son Theophilus, surnamed the Unfortunate, from his constant defeats in the war
against the Saracens. He was the last and most violent per­
secutor of the faithful. In concert with his creature, John
*Lecanomantis, whom he had placed in the see of Constanti­
nople at the death of Anthony of Sylea, the new emperor un­
dertook to secure the triumph of Iconoclasm by dint of perse­
vering cruelty. He not only forbade the veneration, but even
the making of sacred images. The prisons were crowded with
painters, sculptors, Catholic priests and bishops, and espe­
cially with pious solitaries, toward whom the emperor had
a particular aversion. Racks, scorpions, all the old instru­
ments of torture, were again brought to light ; Christian blood
once more deluged the empire. A painter of Constantinople,
for simply sketching a religious scene upon canvas, had his
hands burned by order of Theophilus. Two Catholic monks,
Theodore and Theophanes, were branded on the forehead, as
guilty of the crime of idolatry. Theophilus wished to witness
the infliction of the punishment, to enjoy their torture. “ My
lord,” said Theophanes, “ the words with which you brand my
forehead are ineffaceable ; you will read them hereafter at the
bar of the Sovereign Judge.” Both religious expired under the
torture. The holy monk Methodius, imprisoned, or rather en­
• Lecanomantis, bo •’led from the Greek words
(a basin) and moftu (prophet), as
the impostor pretended t* 'ter oracles by means of a metal basin which gave forth my»·
terions sounds

GREGORY TV. (A. D. 929-844).

4M

tombed alive, during the reign of Michael the Stammerer, had
lately come forth from his confinement, more a living skeleton
than a human being ; yet he still used his learning and elo­
quence to warn the faithful against error. Theophilus, on
learning his existence and zeal, sent for him, and said to
him : “ After the punishments you have suffered for your vain
disputes, will you never cease to excite dissension and trouble
for a subject as trifling as that of images?" “ If these sacred im­
ages are contemptible,” replied Methodius, “ why do you wish
that yours should be honored and daily multiplied, while those
of Jesus Christ are everywhere destroyed?”* The emperor
ordered him to be stripped to the waist, and torn, before his
eyes, by a thousand lashes. Half dead with loss of blood, the
confessor was let down through an opening in the floor, into an
underground vault, whence some compassionate persons drew
him up during the night to dress his wounds. Yet, in the
midst of this bloody persecution, on the very steps of the im­
perial throne, rose up a name dear to the faithful—the only
hope of the Church for a brighter future. The empress The­
odora, whose surpassing beauty had deserved the honor of a
throne, venerated sacred images, and was maintained in her
good dispositions by her mother, Theoctista, who was often vis­
ited by her imperial grandchildren. Theophilus once asked
them how they were received by their grandmother, and what
took place during their visits, which seemed to afford them so
much pleasure. Pulcheria, the youngest of the princesses, with
the unsuspecting sincerity of childish innocence, showed the
emperor some little statues and sacred images given them by
Theoctista, adding, at the same time, that she had some larger
and much finer, which she made them kiss with respect. The
• By a flagrant contradiction of his avowed system, Theophilus the Iconoclast aquae
Jered upon profane sculptore and statuaries the treasures so much needed for the defence
of tho empire. His reign waa a period of unbridled luxury in Constantinopie. Contempo
rary historians mention a tree with golden branches, in the great hall of tho palace, on
which a number of golden birds, hidden in the foliage, gave forth a concert of harmonious
sounds. On either aide of the imperial palace was a lion of massive gold, whose reef
was a perfect imitation of that of its living model

(64

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

imperial Iconoclast dissembled his anger. He dared not openly
break out against his mother-in-law, a woman of superior genius
and intrepid piety, who had won all hearts by her own eminent
qualities and through the winning graces of her daughter, the
empress. Theophilus was at last stricken down (a. d. 842);
but even the agonies of his deathbed could not tame the fiend
ish thirst for blood, and in his last moments he demanded, on
the instant, the head of Theophobus, his sister’s husband. This
accomplished prince had refused the crown offered him by the
army, and the emperor rewarded his fidelity with a dungeon.
Some assassins brought him the victim’s head upon a silver
dish. Seizing it by the hair, he held it up, all dripping with
gore, and exclaimed, with fiendish exultation : “ I shall soon
no longer be Theophilus ; but you are now no longer Theopho­
bus!” With these words he expired. The empress was
declared regent for her son, Michael III., Porphyrogenitus, still
an infant. Her first care was to restore the veneration of holy
images. Lecanomantis was driven from the patriarchal throne,
which he profaned by his heresy and his notorious disorders.
A council, held in the church of St. Sophia, anathematized the
enemies of sacred images. Lecanomantis was solemnly deposed
and the see given to the holy confessor Methodius, who had so
cruelly suffered for the faith under the last two reigns (a. d.
842). The Iconoclast heresy was extinct after a reign of about
one hundred and twenty years. On the first Sunday in Lent,
the new Patriarch, Methodius, together with the empress and
all the faithful, spent the night in prayer, in the church of Our
Lady of Blachernes, whence they proceeded in the morning,
in solemn procession, to St. Sophia, where the holy sacrifice
was offered up and the sacred images restored. An anniver­
sary feast was instituted in the East, to mark this event, called
the Feast of Orthodoxy.
26. These glad tidings filled with joy the heart of Gregory
IV., and alleviated the grief he felt at the sad state of tho
West. Christianity stood in terror of two enemies, one in the
North, the other in the South of Europe. The Normans still

GREGORY IV. (A. D. 928-844).

465

carried on their depredations; and such was the terror inspired
by their very name, that the help of God was publicly in­
voked against their fury
*
They traversed the seas with won­
derful rapidity, in little boats, with sails or oars, ascended
inland rivers, visited different places in such swift succession
as to appear everywhere at once, everywhere spreading terror
by carnage, conflagration, ruined cities, temples profaned,
crimes and atrocities hitherto unknown and unheard of. The
sea-board territory of Neustria, too soon known to them for its
fertility and wealth, was the first scene of their wasting depre­
dations. They entered it by the Seine, plundered the city of
Rouen and burned the monastery of St. Ouen, sailed on to
that of Jumiéges, which they also gave to the flames, spoiled
and burned all the villages lying along the shores of the Seine
(a. d. 841). In another inroad they came down upon Nantes,
which they took by assault. The bishop, St. Guihard, with­
drew into the church with all his clergy a multitude of peo­
ple, and the religious of the Isle of Aindre, who had brought
their property here, as to a safe retreat. The barbarians broke
in the doors and windows and butchered the whole multitude ;
they then sacked and burned the church, and carried off the
inhabitants who had escaped the massacre, to be sold as slaves.
While the barbarians of the north came into France from the
ocean, the Saracens made their appearance in the south by
way of the Rhone, landed at Arles, and loaded their vessels
with an immense booty. In the absence of Lothaire, who was
warring against his brothers, they made several descents upon
the coast of Italy, and were very near taking Rome itself.
They plundered the church of St. Peter, not yet enclosed by
the city walls (a. d. 842). The rich treasures of Monte Cassino also became their spoil.f To prevent the occurrence of
* Tn the manuscript rituals of the Middle Ages is found this invocation, sung in tbs
Litanies : A juror» Xormanorum, libera ne», Domine. çFrom tho fury of the Noraana. 0
Lord, deliver us.)
f This monastery was not really pillaged by the Saracens. They received its waelth
through Sioonulphus, duke of Beneventum, who sought to buy their help against hu rivfc
Radalgiso The booty thus received by the Saracens amounted to one hundred and thirty
Vol. U —30

466

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

like disasters, Gregory IV. began to fortify Rome, and to bui
round it with a strong rampart ; but death interrupted the use­
ful labor (January 11, a. d. 844). He had reigned sixteen
years, and won universal admiration for his rare prudence in
the intricate circumstances of his administration.
27. Two celebrated works appeared in this pontificate : the
False Decretals and the Treatise on the Body and Blood of the
Lord. The False Decretals, bearing the name of Isidore Mer­
cator, in the first part, simply reproduce the Spanish collection
perfected by St. Isidore of Seville two centuries before. The
second part comprises some fifty supposititious letters, attrib­
uted to the Popes of the first three centuries, whereas they are
in truth made up from shreds of decretals issued by Pontiffs
of the four following centuries. The pseudonymous author
has moreover interpolated several authentic letters, by the in­
sertion of passages which do not belong to them. This collec­
tion, of which the author has not yet been discovered, was
never approved by the Church. In 831, Paschasius Radbertus, the learned abbot of New Corbie, published his famous
Treatise on the Body and Blood of the Lord. He lays down
the teaching of the Church concerning the sacrament of the
Eucharist, as the monks of his monastery, charged with the
instruction of youth, were to explain it. He quotes the testi­
mony of the Fathers : Sts. Cyprian, Ambrose, Hilary, Augus­
tine, Chrysostom, Jerome, Gregory, Basil, Isidore, and Vener­
able Bede. Nothing can be more formal, more precise, than
his words concerning the real presence of the Saviour in the
sacrament of our altars, and of the miracle of Transubstantiation. Unable to elude the irresistible clearness of this monu­
ment of Catholic belief, Protestant writers have asserted that
Paschasius Radbertus, an ignorant monk of the ninth century,
invented the dogma of Transubstantiation. Besides the palpapoonde of gold and eight hundred and sixty-five of silver, in crowns, crosses, chalicos, and
other sacred vessels; thirty-two thousand sous in gold coin, a gold crown enriched witn
emeralds, estimated at five thousand gold sous—all precious testimonials of the pious liber­
ality of Christian princes.

GREGORY TV. (A. D. 8Î8-4U).

467

ble fact, that if thia Treatise had offered to the world a new
doctrine, a thousand voices would at once have been raised to
condemn it, Paschasius was not the only writer of his age who
uttered the same sentiments on the same subject. Hayrno,
bishop of Alberstadt, wrote a work, under the same title, em­
bodying the same teaching. Amalarius, in his Treatise on the
office of the Mass ; Florus, in his work on the Sacrifice of the
Mass, and Rabanus Maurus, writing on the same subject, all
teach one and the same Catholic dogma. The Protestant
assertion, therefore, springs either from gross ignorance oi
shameless insincerity.

468

GENERAL HISTORY OP THE CHURCH.

I

CHAPTER III.
§ L PownrrûATS or Sergius II. (January 27, a. d. 844—January 27, 847).
I. John, antipope. Election of Sergius II.—2. Numerous councils of the Galin
Churches.—3. Convulsionista of Dijon.—4. State of the Church in the
East.—5. Hincmar, archbishop of Rheims. Rabanns Maurus, archbishop
of Mayence.—6. Death of Sergius II.

§ II. Pontificats

of

St. Lso IV. (April 12, a.

d.

847—July 17, 855).

7. Leo IV. saves Rome and Italy from a Saracen invasion.—8. Leonine city.—
9. Gotescalc.—10. Nomcnœ founds the independent kingdom of Brittany.
—11. Persecution of the Christians in Spain.—12. Norman inroads.—13.
Death of St Leo IV.
§ III. Pontificats of St. Benedict IIL (September 1,
10, 858).

a. d.

856—March

14. Anastasius, antipope. Election of Benedict IIL—15. Fable of Pope Joan.—
16. Partition of the sons of the emperor Lothaire.—17. Michael IIL, emperor of the East—18. Photius.—19. Death of Benedict III.

§ I. Pontificate

of

Sergius II. (January 27,
ary 27, 847).

a. d.

844—(Janu­

1. Sergius II. was raised to the Chair of St. Peter (Janu­
ary 27, a. d. 844) without awaiting the arrival of the emperor
Lothaire’s deputies. This haste was warranted by the pecu­
liar exigency of the times. A deacon, named John, had gath­
ered a factious crowd to oppose Sergius, and gain his own
promotion to the Papacy by open violence. He had already
broken into the Lateran palace with an armed force, and gave
reason to fear the most alarming excesses as a consequence of
his schism. The nobility of Rome at once arose in defence
of the lawful Pontiff. The mob was dispersed ; the schismatical
deacon was subjected to close confinement, and only owed his life
to the clemency and urgent solicitations of Sergius II. The

8ERO1C8 Π. (A. D. 8U-M1).

4M

emperor, whom the news of these events had not yet reached,
at first showed some displeasure that his ambassadors had not
been awaited for the consecration of the new Pope. He sent
to Rome his eldest son, Louis, with the title of king of Italy,
and attended by a numerous escort of nobles and bishops,
headed by his uncle Drogo, bishop of Metz, and archchaplain
of the empire. Sergius received the noble embassy with the
highest honors. Surrounded by all the Roman clergy, the
Pope received the young king at the head of the steps before
St. Peter’s basilica, but yet the doors were closed. On the
arrival of the prince, the Pontiff thus addressed him : “ If you
come here for the good of the Church and of the State, I shall
order the doors to be opened to you ; otherwise they remain
closed.” The king protested that his thoughts were only of
peace and good-will ; the doors were opened, they entered to
gether and prostrated themselves before the Confession of St.
Peter. A council was held in Rome under the presidency of
Drogo, and recognized the election of Sergius Π. as lawful.
Louis then received the royal unction at the hands of the
Pope, as king of Italy, or of the Lombards. The iron crown
was placed upon his brow, and the Pontiffs hands girded him
with the royal sword. The young prince was desirous that
the Romans should swear fealty to his person, according to the
formula drawn up by Eugenius II. ; but Sergius H. showed
him that the oath could be exacted only in the name of the
emperor, in whom alone a sovereign protectorate was recog­
nized by the Holy See ; and such, in fact, was the form in
which the Romans renewed it to Lothaire, through the new
king of Italy, in St. Peter’s church (a. d. 844)< The Pope
then conferred upon Drogo the title and dignity of vicar apos­
tolic in Germany and Gaul ; and the ambassadors went back
to their imperial master, who expressed his satisfaction at the
result of their mission.
2. Peace and harmony existed between the three royal
brothers, Lothaire, Louis and Charles the Bald. The Gallio
churches availed themselves of this season of quiet to restore

470

GENERAL BISTORT OF ΤΠΕ CHURCH.

the true spirit of discipline by numerous councils, successively
held at Vemeuil, Beauvais, Meaux, Paris, Soissons, Quercy·
eur-Oise, Thionville, and Mentz. It is a true saying, that
laws are more abundantly multiplied in proportion as their
execution is less strictly enforced. Reasoning from this prin­
ciple, the churches of France and Germany must, at this period,
have been in a sad state of relaxation ; for the statutes and
regulations on the same subjects were every year reproduced
by the successive councils. Particular stress was laid upon
the necessity of subjecting monasteries to episcopal visitations,
for the maintenance of canonical discipline. The councils de­
cree the severest censure, and most rigorous chastisement in
respect of the blind piety of certain religious women, who cut
their hair and assumed the dross of the other sex, to gain
admittance into the communities of monks most celebrated
for their austerity. The ever-recurring prohibition is again
found necessary against the armed presence of clerics in mil­
itary expeditions. Princes are instructed that they should
not exact personal military service from bishops, but that it
should be sufficient to enlist under their standards the vassals
of ecclesiastical estates. In the present state of civilization,
these provisions may appear pointless. But the tendency
of human minds, abuses, and manners change with the passing
ages. If the public mind is, in some respects, improved, it
is due to the constant efforts of the Church in that direction.
If there still remain abuses to repress, prejudices to overcome,
dangerous tendencies to curb, the mission of improvement is
still for the Church. She is ever armed, ever in the breach,
to do battle for the faith in every age. The modern historical
school of the eighteenth century has endeavored to convict
the Frankish bishops, under the Carlovingian dynasty, of as­
suming temporal power to which they were not entitled. The
very position of the bishops, in Church and State, made it
impossible for them not to take part in political events ; and
the general result of their intervention has been to check the
natural tendency of minds and movements, and to render

BERGIÜS Π. (A. D. 844-8+1).

471

wars and revolutions far lees bloody. The bishops of th·
first centuries were responsible only for the people of a single
city, or at most of a diocese limited in extent. The Frankish
bishops, on the other hand, besides their own diocese, were
obliged to guide, to form, to educate a whole nation, kings and
subjects, warriors and magistrates. The task was the same
in nature, but on a vastly larger scale. It was also embar­
rassed by all the difficulties arising from a spirit still imbued
with barbarism. These points we must keep in view, to form
a just estimate of their position.
3. The diocese of Langres drew the public attention at
about this period, by a new kind of abuse, astonishing even
to that ignorant and superstitious age (a. d. 844). Some wan­
dering monks came to Dijon, bringing relics of a saint, whose
name they had forgotten, and deposited them, without epis­
copal sanction, in the church of St. Benignus. The city of
Dijon was at that time within the jurisdiction of the diocese
of Langres. The bishop, Theobald, would not receive the pre­
tended relics on information so vague and unsatisfactory. Not­
withstanding his prohibition, they were exposed to the venera­
tion of the people, and popular credulity soon had attracted a
prodigious concourse. The most singular feature of the case is,
that St. Benignus became the scene of convulsions exactly
similar to those which the Jansenists exhibited seven cen­
turies later, at the tomb of the deacon Paris. The report of
these wonderful scenes soon brought together a great number
both of spectators and of actors ; as many as four hundred at
a time were seen indulging in their sacrilegious extravagances.
Theobald consulted his metropolitan, Amolo, archbishop of
Lyons. The prelate’s reply was such as became a prudent
and enlightened pastor.
“Arm yourself,” he said, "with
episcopal zeal and severity, to banish these scandalous inno­
vations from the sanctuary. Order that each one bring his
vows and his offerings to the Church in which he was baptized,
where he receives the other sacraments, participates in the
sacred mysteries, and is to receive the last rites of religion.

472

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

When public credulity ceases to lavish upon impostors th»
alms due to the suffering members of Jesus Christ, profit
less imposture will fall of itself. Should some fanatic, more
obstinate than common, persist in these ridiculous practices,
he should be made publicly to confess his deceit.” Theobald
followed the advice, and with immediate success. Such seems
to have been the duration and end of this sect.
4. The measures adopted by the empress Theodora for the
conversion of the Manicheans or Paulicians who desolated the
churches of the Eastern empire, were not crowned with the
same happy result. Mildness and conciliation failed to move
these sectaries. Supported by the Saracen power, they came
forth from their retreat in the city of Argaous, in Armenia,
and made frequent inroads upon the territory of the empire.
Theodora sent a considerable force against them, and many of
them paid for their plunder with their lives. Their doctrine
of community of property and equality of condition had many
points of resemblance with the various systems reproduced in
more modern times under the name of socialism. The leaders
of the sect soon found themselves surrounded by a host of
worthless outcasts and malcontents, naturally drawn to a sys
tern of extreme radicalism, destructive of all principle, govern­
ment, or form of society. They became the terror of the East,
and were powerful enough to build two cities, Amara and
Tibricus. From this time their fury knew no bounds. The
remnants of the Iconoclast party were more easily reconciled
to the Church. St. Methodius, Patriarch of Constantinople,
treated them with the most merciful indulgence ; retaining in
their sees the bishops who abjured their error; and in all
things following the true spirit of the gospel. Yet his con­
duct gave offence to some bishops whose zeal was not “ accord­
ing to knowledge.” “ He relies,” said the dissatisfied, “ upon
the testimony of the subjects he ordains, and seems to be
under obligations to those who receive his ordination !” The
feeling of discontent finally reached such a pitch, that fears
were entertained of schism, and not without reason ; the exer-

BERGIÜS II. (A. D. 8U-841).

473

cïse of the imperial authority and the banishment of several
of the most turbulent prelates only added to the misunder­
standing. It is hard to say where the evil would have ended
but for the vigorous efforts of the holy solitary Joannices, in
the labor of reconciliation. His well-known sanctity eminently
fitted him for the difficult office of mediator. After twenty
years of solitude on Mount Olympus, in Bithynia, he had
come to Constantinople, as St. Anthony of old to Alexandria,
on learning the imminent danger which threatened the Church.
All hearts yielded to the influence of his mild and winning
eloquence, and to the heavenly piety which shone in his coun­
tenance : availing himself of this ascendency, he convinced the
most clouded understandings of the prudence of the Patriarch’s
measures, and leaving all minds at rest, he returned to his
beloved retreat, where he soon afterward died, at the age of
eighty-one years. St. Methodius followed him the 14th of
June, a. d. 840. The holy confessor’s jaw had been broken
during the persecution, which obliged him to wear a bandage
under his chin to support it. Respectful remembrance is still
preserved of this mark of the saint’s confession of the faith,
in the similar bandage worn by the Patriarchs of Constanti­
nople when in full pontificals. The saint was followed by a
worthy and no less illustrious successor, in the person of St.
Ignatius, who showed his attachment to the centre of Catholic
unity, with all the constancy of a saint raised up by God to
hinder, or at least to delay, the consummation of the Eastern
schism. His happy pontificate is contemporaneous with two
other equally cheering episodes in the history of religion : the
conversion of the Khazars and the Moravians. The Khazare
inhabited Tauris (the present Crimea), with Chersonesus as their
capital. Their worship was a mixture of Judaism and Moham­
medanism. Their petition to the empress Theodora for Catholic
missionaries was answered by St. Ignatius, who at once sent
them the priest Constantine, called the Philosopher ; the
envoy of the Church invoked upon his mission a powerful
patronage by assuming the name of Cyril. The conversion of

474

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

a whole nation was the reward of his earnes1 zeal. The
Moravians, a people of the Sclavonic race, occupied the present
Moravia, Bohemia, Silesia, Pomerania, and Mœsia. Their
king, Ratislns, addressed to the empress Theodora a petition
similar to that of the Khazars. Cyril, on his return from tho
first mission, at once set out for Moravia, accompanied by hie
brother, St. Methodius, and with the two holy brothers these
favored people received the twofold light of faith and civiliza­
tion. They gave to the Moravians their alphabet and transla­
tions of the Sacred Writings ; thus do the Sclaves recognize in
them at once their apostles and the father s of their literature
(a. d. 846).
5. Providence now sent two illustrious prelates to fill the
two principal Frankish sees. Hincmar was consecrated, at the
Council of Beauvais, archbishop of Rheims, in the month of
April, a. d. 845, and Rabanus was raised to the see of Mentz,
in June, a. d. 847. Hincmar belonged to an illustrious Gallic
house, and early won the admiration of his age by the lofti­
ness of his views and his untiring energy. He was one of
the most learned men of his day, and has scarcely been sur­
passed, at any period, in knowledge of canon law. It has been
said that he was far less conversant with the writings of the
Fathers than with the canons ; yet he has proved himself
much better versed than his critics in the deepest passages of
St. Augustine, since he drew from them the very doctrines
constantly recognized, and again confirmed, by the Church in
later ages. During his episcopate he was one of the most
zealous defenders of the faith and of discipline, and one of the
greatest lights of the Gallic Church. Yet he is sometimes,
perhaps justly, charged with too great a love of power, and
the occasional display of a naturally harsh and violent temper.
Rabanus was a native of Mentz, and a pupil of Alcuin ; accord­
ing to the prevailing custom among the learned men of hie
time, he added the surname of Maurus to his own. Called to
the chair of theology in the monastery of Fuld, he acquired
for its school an unequalled renown : the annals of Christian

8ERGICS Π. (A. D. 814-341)

476

literature owe to his training some of the brightest names in
the list of doctors—it may suffice to mention Walafrid Strabo
and Lupus of Ferrières. At the death of Eigil, abbot of Fuld,
Rabanus was called to succeed him ; but his was a genius des­
tined to shine in a wider sphere, and notwithstanding his years
—for he had reached the term of threescore and ten—he was
raised to the archiépiscopal throne of Mentz (a. d. 847). In
this responsible post he seemed to regain all the activity and
energy of youth ; his name became the terror of heresy
and the bulwark of the faith, in the theological discussions
excited by the errors of Gotescalc.
6. Meanwhile, Pope Sergius II. had died at Rome, on the
27th of January, a. d. 847. His last days, like those of his
predecessor, Gregory IV., were imbittered by the ruinous in­
roads of the Normans and Mussulmans. The Normans, under
Regnar Lodbrog, appeared before the very walls of Paris,
whose weak monarch, Charles the Bald, purchased with gold
the safety of his capital. These spoilers were the terror of
the Franks, who neither dared to fight them nor to till the
soil. The region between the Seine and Loire became over­
spread with dense forests. In the month of August, a. d. 846,
the African Saracens, who began to be known as Moors, as­
cended the Tiber in light vessels, forced the passage of Ostia,
and covered the Roman territory with their swarming legions.
Defended by the walls begun by Gregory IV. and finished by
Sergius II., Rome resisted the attacks of the infidels; they
pillaged the churches of St. Peter and St. Paul, not yet en­
closed within the city bounds ; all the ornaments and wealth
of these splendid temples, even the silver altar over St. Peter’s
tomb, became the Moslem’s spoil. At this critical period
death deprived the Romans of a wise and able leader in the
person of Sergius II.

476

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

§ II. Pontificate

of

St. Leo IV. (April 12, a. d. 847—July
17, 855.)

7. The funeral obsequies of Sergius II. were not yet ovei
(January 30, a. d. 847), when the unanimous voice of the
Roman clergy and people bestowed the tiara upon a priest
whose merit and virtue had won all hearts. St. Leo IV., the
new Pontiff, was raised by Providence to be the savior of
Rome, and the bulwark of all Christendom against the Sara­
cens. The existing circumstances required dispatch ; the
emperor’s consent was not forthcoming. Yet Rome was in
critical need of a head. After two months of useless delay,
it was determined to proceed at all hazards ; the new Pope
was consecrated, but with the protest that no detriment was
intended to the honor and fealty due to the emperor Lothaire
as protector of the Holy See. The Saracens had meanwhile
been freighting their ships with an immense booty, and put out
to sea. A fearful tempest destroyed their fleet; the waves
washed up along the Italian strand, with the bodies of these
enemies to the Christian name, some portions of the treasure
taken from St. Peter’s church, which were gathered up and
brought to Rome with pious reverence (a. d. 847). St. Leo
IV. removed the last traces of the passing infidels by the truly
royal magnificence with which he repaired that august temple.
He had also conceived a gigantic project which would, alone,
have been a splendid glory for a sovereign and a Pontiff. With
a view to shield the basilica of St. Peter from any fresh out­
rage, he resolved to join it to ancient Rome by means of a new
city, surrounded by walls. The emperor Lothaire, to whom
the Pope communicated his design, received it with real enthu­
siasm, and at once contributed considerable largesses toward
the immense outlay that must necessarily attend its execution.
This immortal work was begun in 848. A whole army of
laborers from Italy, Gaul and Germany answered the call of
the Holy Pontiff, who watched the progress of the work with
active interest, and devoted to it all the leisure left him by the

BT. LEO IV. (A. D. M7-8S5).

477

many cares of his pontificate. As if in scorn of these defensive
preparations, the Saracens, in the following year (849), landed
at Ostia a force superior to that of any former expedition.
But now they were doomed to meet a second Poictiers on the
shores of Italy, a second Charles Martel in the person of St.
Leo IV. Here, however, we prefer to quote the testimony of
an author who is not wont to lavish praise upon the Christian
*
Pontiffs.
“ When attacked by the Saracens,” says Voltaire,
“ Pope Leo IV., by his defence, proved himself worthy to be
Rome’s sovereign. He had used the Church’s wealth to raise
the walls, to build towers, to stretch chains across the Tiber.
He armed a force of militia at his own expense, engaged the
citizens of Naples and of Gaëta to help in the defence of
Ostia’s coast and harbor, without neglecting the wise precau­
tion of securing hostages from them, mindful that those who
are powerful to do us good may equally use their power for
our harm. He visited all the posts in person, and met the
Saracens at their approach, not in the iron harness of a war­
rior, but as a Pontiff come to exhort a Christian people, as a
king watchful of his subjects’ weal (a. d. 849). Leo was born
a Roman ; the courage of the first ages of the republic glowed
in his breast ; and amid the decline and corruption of a ruined
age, he stood erect, like one of the firm and lofty columns that
rear their heads above the fragments of the Roman forum.
His courage and prudence were ably seconded, and the in­
vading Saracens met a bold resistance : the advantage leaning
to the side of the Christian arms was quickly- though less
gloriously, decided by a storm which shattered ht»rf the Moor­
ish fleet; those who escaped the hostile sword or a watery
grave met but a merited prison and chains, and were usefully
employed by the Pontiff to restore and embellish the walls
and sacred edifices they had attempted to subvert.’’!
8. Leo IV. had forever freed the Eternal City from Mus• Voltaire, JSseai rur kt Moeurt, t 1, chap, xxviii.
f The pencil of Raphael has traced for succeeding ages, in the halls of the Vatioan. ·
monument of this undyrug service of the Papacy to Christendom in the Week

478

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURuH.

gulman profanation. The Prophet’s crescent never again appeered before the walls of Rome. The security thus gained
enabled the Pope to prosecute with redoubled ardor the build­
ing of the Leonine city. Four years completed the work, and
the inauguration was celebrated with the most solemn pomp
(a. d. 852). The Pontiff knelt successively at the three gates
of the new city, and offered up a fervent prayer. “ May the
scourge of Thy anger, 0 Lord, never touch the city founded
by Thy help. May it ever triumph over its enemies, nor ever
become a by-word among misbelieving nations.” By the un­
wearied activity of the Holy Pontiff, the falling city of Porto
was raised (a. d. 852), and peopled by a colony of Corsicans
driven from Bastia by the fear of the Saracens. Brave, hardy,
devotedly true, and inured to a life of arms, the Corsicans were
fitly placed by St. Leo to guard the Italian coast against the
Mohammedan power. Centumcellæ (Civita Vecchia) also
owned its restoration to the care of the pious and vigilant
Pontiff.
9. Gaul and Germany were troubled by the restless pre­
sumption of a Saxon monk who aspired to treat the most in­
tricate questions of theology. Gotescalc, a son of Count Bern,
had been trained in the monastery of Fuld. His restless and
roving disposition made the religious habit too burdensome, and
on the pretext that his engagement had been forced, he put it
off. But the world could not satisfy his ardent mind, and
shortly afterward, Gotescalc, once more a monk, in the monas­
tery of Orbais, in the diocese of Soissous, was eagerly perusing
the works of the Fathers, especially of St. Augustine. Wlial
would have been a sanctifying influence to any other man
proved his ruin. His bold imagination and superficial mind
ventured to sound vast and uncertain depths ; and besides, his
learning wanted the two indispensable pillars of piety and hu­
mility. He would plunge into the mysterious abysses of pre­
destination, and give his fancies to the world as the teaching
of St. Augustine. The charitable care of some true friends,
who saw the danger of his position, afforded him a wholesome

ST. LEO TV. (A. D. 841-055).

479

warning. “ I cannot too warmly urge you, my Jear brother,"
wrote Lupus of Ferrières, “to release your mind from the
fatiguing study of questions which it would perhaps be better
not to sound too deeply. Is there nothing to which we may
more usefully devote ourselves ? Let us apply ourselves to
the study of the Sacred Text, seasoning our application with
humility and prayer. God will teach us what it is fitting we
should know, provided we follow not too curiously what He
would withdraw from our search.” Gotescalc was not a man
to relish this brotherly advice. In a council held at Mentz,
under the presidency of Rabanus Maurus (a. d. 848), he main­
tained that predestination so binds man that, even though he wish
to be saved, and strive, by the help of grace, to work out his salva­
tion by faith and good works, yet he can do nothing, unless predes­
tined. This is but one of the forms of the fanaticism repro­
duced in the seventeenth century by Jansenius. The council
anathematized the error and its author, who was sent, under
guard, to his metropolitan, Hincmar, archbishop of Rheims.
Rabanus Maurus, on behalf of the assembled prelates, wrote
to Hincmar, defining the new heresy with theological precision.
“ The dangerous error of the wandering monk, Gotescalc,” he
writes, “ consists in teaching that God predestinates to evil as
well as to good ; that there are men who cannot overcome theii
sinful nature or their errors, because dragged on by predestina­
tion to unavoidable destruction, as though God had created but
to damn them.” The question raised by Gotescalc was an in­
tricate one, and touched upon the stoniest tracts of theology :
free-will, Divine foreknowledge, predestination—subjects so
deeply discussed by St. Augustine in his works against Pelagianism and semi-Pelagianism. Gotescalc maintained that pre­
destination irresistibly draws man to good or evil. This was
the point of his error; for God, who foresees by his eternal
knowledge the good or bad use we shall make of our will, yet
does not deprive us of its freedom. Ratramnus, abbot of
Corbie, Amolo, archbishop of Lyons, and Florus, one of bis
deacons, defended the Catholic belief with a degree of clearness

480

GENERAL HISTORY Of THE CHURCH.

and learning which show none of the effects of a period jf lit.
entry darkness. But the doctrine of the Saxon heretic coq.
tained a secondary point still more ambiguous. He asserted
that predestination was of two kinds—one to everlasting life,
the other to eternal loss. To make the proposition absolutely
and rigorously true, the condition is necessary that neither
kind of predestination takes away man’s free-will ; so that
predestination to life everlasting can take effect only by the
free co-operation of man and his voluntary correspondence with
Divine grace; just as predestination to eternal loss is nothing
but the Divine foreknowledge that a certain man will be lost,
because he will voluntarily make a bad use of his free-will ; since
it is indeed impious, remarks Rabanus Maurus, in his letter to
Hincmar, io hold that God created men to be necessarily damned.
This second point of Gotescalc’s error gave rise to several
ambiguous expressions in the writings of otherwise unimpeach­
able doctors—such men as St. Prudentius, bishop of Troyes,
*
and even Hincmar of Rheims, who maintained that predestina­
tion is not twofold ; “ for God, he says, “ does not create man
to destroy him.” By predestination to eternal loss, these
writers understood the fatality which should lead man to eter­
nal death in spite of himself, by destroying his free-will. The
work most at variance with the Catholic teaching on this point
was the treatise on predestination by Scotus Erigena.f Scotus
Erigena, a man of more erudition than judgment, a superficial
sophist, but little versed in theology, a subtle, bold, and biting
spirit, had been called to the French court by the favor of Charles
the Bald.^ Scotus then maintained, against all the Fathers
of the Church, that there is but one kind of predestination—
* We know, from a letter of Hinomar of Rheims, that St. Prudentius is the author of
the Annals known under the title of St. Berlin, from the name of the monastery in which
they were discovered.
t Erigena, a native of Erin, the early name of Ireland.
tTho following repartee is attributed to Scotus Erigena: Charles the Bald, who ad·
edited him familiarly to his table, asked him one day, in the course of a repast, “ What
diffarence is there between a Scot and a sot?” “ My lord," answered the sophist, " there il
precisely the width of thia table." A man of this character was hardly fitted to treat with
propriety one of the most delicate pointa of theological discussion.

ST. LEO TV. (A. D. 841-856).

481

that to eternal life ; that as to eternal loss, God can neither pre­
destinate nor even, in strictness, foresee it. A new contro­
versy arose on this point between Scotus and the other doctors.
Charles the Bald was passionately fond of these theological
disputes, and kept them alive by the interest he seemed to take
in them. But Gotescalc was solemnly and definitively con­
demned by a council held at Quercy-sur-Oise, under Hincmar,
archbishop of Rheims (a. d. 849). He pleaded in vain for the
privilege of testing the truth of his doctrine by the ordeal of
fire or of boiling water, instead of which he was even subjected
to the penalty decreed by the Council of Agde, and by the
article of St. Benedict’s rule, which condemns an insubordinate
monk to flagellation and confinement. The sentence was put
into rigorous execution. He was publicly whipped in the pres­
ence o? the king, obliged to burn his writings, and finally en­
closed in the monastery of Hautvilliers, in the diocese of
Rheims. The controversy on predestination fell of itself, to
rise with renewed force a few centuries later ; and the pru­
dence of the Frankish bishops sufficed to stifle the error at its
birth, or at least materially to check its poisonous contagion.
It does not appear that it necessitated an appeal to the Apos­
tolic authority. The two Councils of Soissons (a. d. 853) and
Valence (855) closed the discussion with these remarkable
words : “We are desirous carefully to shun all novelty in word,
all rash disputes, which can but breed scandals ; to cling firmly
to the Sacred Text, and to its true interpreters—to Cyprian,
Hilary, Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, and other Catholic doc­
tors. We openly confess the predestination of the elect to
everlasting life, and the predestination of the wicked to eter­
nal death ; but, in the choice of those who shall be saved, the
mercy of God precedes their merit; and in the condemnation
of those who are doomed to be lost, their demerit precedes the
judgment of God.”
10. The erection of Brittany into an independent kingdom,
by Nomenoe, is referred to this period (a. d. 850). This prince
established three new bishoprics : Doi, St. Brieux, and TréVOL·. IT.—31

462

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

guier. and bestowed the metropolitan dignity upon the see of
Doi, which he selected as the place of his coronation, thus cut­
ting off the whole of Brittany from the metropolitan jurisdiction
of Tours. Doi enjoyed the metropolitan dignity and privileges
for three hundred years, in spite of the canonical objections of
the Frankish bishops.
11. The Christians now began to suffer a cruel persecution
in Spain. The kings of Asturias and Leon no longer dwelt in
the dens and hollows of the mountains. From the time of Alphonso the Chaste, whose victorious reign of fifty years had
raised the courage of his subjects to the highest pitch, the
Christians, once so shamefully oppressed, began to make their
persecutors tremble. They had taken several cities from their
oppressors : Leon, Tuy, and Astorga, among others (a. d. *816).
The Franks still held Eastern Iberia, or Catalonia, beyond the
Pyrenees; the cities of Barcelona, Girona, Urge and Elna
(now Perpignan) were within the metropolitical jurisdiction of
Narbonne. In the midst of these mountains arose a third
power, whose example led many Christian heroes to erect inde­
pendent sovereignties at the expense of the Spanish Moors,
whom they daily straitened more and more, and at length en­
tirely crushed. Inigo, count of Bigorra, finding the weak gov­
ernment of Charlemagne’s degenerate heir unable to protect him
from the barbarians, conceived the manly design of defending
himself, and was acknowledged by his countrymen as their king,
about the year 830. He gained sufficient power, in a few
years of successive victories, to leave a well-established king­
dom to his successor Ximenes, who transmitted it, in turn, to
his son Inigo II., one of the worthiest scions of his noble
race. The youthful hero rested not within the narrow realm
acquired by his predecessors, but, widening out its limits by his
own endeavor, took the important city of Pampeluna, and gave
all its wealth, with enduring firmness, to the kingdom of Na* It is eaid that the body of St. James the Greater was, at this period, found at Com·
postella. This agrees with the common belief of the ninth century, confirmed by the old·
eet traditions, that St James was the first apostle of Spain.

ST. LEO IV. (A. D. 841-865).

483

varro. Such was the beginning of this crown, one of the oldest
and most illustrious in Spain. The brilliant and continued
success of the Christian arms aroused the bitter hatred of the
Moors, and the whole of Spain was whelmed in blood by a per­
secution equal in violence to the fiercest struggles of paganism
with the Church. The heroism of the early martyrs was re­
vived .n all its splendor. At Cordova, a holy priest, named
Perfectus, was brought before the cadi. “ What is your belief
of Jesus Christ and of Mohammed?” asked the magistrate.
“Jesus Christ,” replied the confessor, “is God, most holy
Mohammed, your false prophet, is one of those corrupters,
mentioned in the Gospel, who are to lead their followers to
eternal ruin.” He had hardly time to utter his closing words,
when the judge ordered him to be taken to a plain near Cordo­
va, on the banks of the Boetis, to be beheaded. The same pun­
ishment was inflicted upon Isaac, abbot of the monastery of
Tuban, and thirty of his religious. The virgins Flora, Maria,
Liliosa, Colomba, Aura and Nathalia, by the same constancy,
won the same glorious crown. St. Eulogius, a priest of Cordo­
va, to whom we owe the account of their martyrdom, was at
length seized, and shared the triumph of those whom he had
defended and encouraged during life (a. d. 850). For sixty
years these bloody scenes were incessantly renewed. Abderahman II., caliph of Cordova, the author of the persecution,
was suddenly stricken down, in the very act of feasting his
eyes upon these cruel executions, from a terrace of his palace.
Far from heeding this fearful warning of Divine vengeance, his
‘■on and successor, Mohammed, carried his impious rage to still
greater lengths. But to sate his mad and sacrilegious hate
would have been to dispeople his realm, and remain the crowned
master of a desert waste. He was forced to turn to the bish­
ops, that they might keep the faithful from presenting them­
selves to claim the palm of martyrdom. A council was held at
Cordova, in 852, for this singular object; but the ardor and
constancy of the Christians suffered no diminution in con­
sequence. Policy now drove Mohammed to adopt a different

4S4

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

course, and to change his bloody violence into a moi e uecret per
eecution. He strove to crush the Christian religion under the
weight of public contempt ; he removed the Christians from al]
their offices, drove them from the palace, tore down all the
churches raised within the period of Moorish domination in
Spain, and laid heavy taxes upon the worshippers of Jesus
Christ. The rack and sword were reserved for bishops and
pries-j, whom he still continued to put to death, hoping to kill
religion in his States by destroying the perpetuity of the priest­
hood.
12. The provinces of Germany and Gaul still suffered from
Norman inroads. A fleet of six hundred sail, under Roric,
moved up the Elbe to Hamburg, which was given up, for the
space of a day and two nights to the licentious fury of the bar­
barians (a. d. 855). Friesland was laid waste, its monasteries
and churches sacked and burned, the inhabitants massacred or
led away into bondage. Holland, the valley of the Rhine and
of the Wahl were not spared. Godefriel, another of their lead­
ers, had meanwhile penetrated Gaul, even to Beauvais, which
was sacked. Passing thence into Aquitaine, the Normans be­
sieged Bordeaux, which was betrayed into their hands by the
treachery of the Jews ; they left it stripped of its immense
wealth, a heap of smoking ruins. Rouen once more became
their prey; and, in the following year (857), the same lot
befell Tours and Le Mans. The monastery of Marmoutier was
given to the flames, and its religious inmates, to the number of
one hundred and sixteen, were put to the sword. The relics
of St. Martin, the holy patron of Gaul, had been conveyed to
Orleans, to save them from the barbarian sacrilege ; it was again
found necessary to transfer them to Auxerre, for the Normans,
following the course of the Loire, took Orleans and Blois, and
attacked even the city of Chartres, which the courageous re­
sistance of its heroic bishop, Erobald, was powerless to save
from devastation and ruin. During the same invasion, the
Normans again insulted Paris, burned St. Geneviève and all the
churches of the city and neighboring country, with the excep-

BENEDICT III. Λ· D. 8β&-9Μ).

485

tion of three : the Cathedral, St. Germain-des-Prés, and St.
Denis, which Charles the Bald rescued at an immense price.
Such were the scenes of blood and horror by which these men
of the North, as impervious to all sentiment of pity or gentleness
as the rude rocks and bergs of their own chilly home, changed
the smiling face of our rich and fertile land into a black and
desert waste. We may now form some idea of the labor and pain
it must have cost the Church to bring forth anew these Norman
infidels to Jesus Christ, and to present them at last to her
Divine Spouse, one of the most faithful people of the most
Christian kingdom.
13. The pontificate of St. Leo IV. was drawing to a close
in the midst of these bloody scenes. He had succeeded in pre­
serving union and harmony between the Holy See and the
emperor, in spite of the efforts of a party formed in the very
heart of Rome, for the purpose of bringing back the pontifical
domain to the condition of vassalage to the Eastern emperor.
The holy Pope died on the 17th of July, a. d. 855. The Chair of
St. Peter lost a great Pontiff, all Christendom a great hero. In
Leo IV. the rarest virtues had met together: prudence, lib­
erality, piety, humility, courage, love of justice, and an ex­
haustless charity. His name will ever command respect and
admiration.

§ III. Pontificate

of

Benedict III. (September 1, a. d. 855—
March 10, 858).

14. The unanimous voice of the Roman clergy and people
called Benedict III. to fill the Chair of St. Peter, left vacant by
the death of Leo IV. When the multitude came to escort him
from his church of St. Callixtus, to place him upon the pontifi­
cal throne, the humble priest, throwing himself upon his knees
and dinging to the altar, exclaimed, with tearful eyes : “ Do
not, I beseech you, take me from my church ; I am utterly un­
able to bear so great a dignity !” In spite of his resistance, he

486

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

was borne to the Lateran palace, amid the hymns and pious can·
tides of the enthusiastic people. They placed him upon tbo
throne of Leo IV., the decree of election was drawn up and
signed by the clergy and nobles, and sent, as usual, to the em­
peror Lothaire. Under the rule of the Gothic kings and their
successors, the Greek emperors, civil intervention in the pontifi­
cal elections had been a source of ceaseless evils. In restoring
the Western empire, the Popes had thought it safe to intrust
the protectorate of the Roman Church to the descendants of
Charlemagne. But this measure also became a fruitful source
of fresh troubles. The spiritual authority must have a free and
independent sphere of action ; all outward control tends to be­
come, in time, an odious tyranny. The history of the ninth
and tenth centuries is but too replete with sad proofs of thia
fact. The deputies sent by the emperor to confirm the election
and receive the oath of the new Pope, found, on their arrival in
Rome, a faction supporting the nomination of a schismatical
priest, named Anastasius, formally excommunicated by St. Leo
IV. The antipope succeeded in gaining the imperial deputies.
At the head of an armed troop, he entered the Leonine city,
ordered the doors of St. Peter’s church to be opened, and took
possession of the basilica, tearing down, with Iconoclastic fury,
the image of our Lord and His Blessed Mother. The clergy met
on the next day in the church of St. Emiliana. The imperial
envoys proposed to acknowledge Anastasius as Pope ; but the
assembly, with one voice, replied: “We will not have for
Pope a priest solemnly deposed in council by Leo IV. Let
him be anathema !” All efforts failed to shake this constancy.
The cry arose on all sides: “Benedict is the lawful Pope! We
will obey no other 1” The ambassadors were at length obliged
to yield to the public wish. Benedict III. was borne in tri­
umph to the church of St. Mary Major, and solemnly consecrar
ted on the 1st of September, a. d. 855.
15. A calumnious fable, accredited by the ignorance and
bad faith of the age, seeks to thrust upon the pontifical throne,
between the reigns of Leo IV. and Benedict III., the famous

BENEDICT ΠΙ. (A. D. 855-958}.

487

Pope Joan.
*
The defenders of the calumny pretend, though
without quoting a single contemporary authority in their favor,
that a woman of superior genius, named Joan, a native of
Mentz, had succeeded in hiding her sex, and entered into or­
ders under the name of John of England. Raised by her tal­
ents to the highest ecclesiastical dignities, she had been elected
Pope, in 856, under the title of John VIII. The story here
runs into a strain of gross obscenity. During a solemn pro­
cession, the female Pope, seized with the pangs of childbirth, is
delivered at the very portals of St. John Lateran. We pass
over the disgraceful ceremony of the Sedia, which a modest
pen must refuse to transcribe. The fable was at first eagerly
examined by the disciples of Luther and Calvin, but has since
been triumphantly refuted by the most enlightened Protest­
ants, by David Biondell, Samuel Mares, Wagenseil, and Marquard Freer ; it now remains but as a historical proof of the
disgraceful extreme to which party spirit is capable of leading
its victims.^
16. The same year that saw Benedict ascend the pontifical
throne, saw the emperor Lothaire descend into the grave (a. d.
855). He had proved himself an ungrateful and unnatural
son, a ruler without ability and without character. His de­
clining years were imbittered by remorse for his shameful
treatment of the best and most indulgent of fathers. He abdi­
cated the throne and sought relief in the cloistered solitude of
Prum, where he ended his days in the holy practices of a peni­
tential life. Of his three sons, Louis, the eldest, kept the king­
dom of Italy and assumed the title of emperor ; Lothaire ruled
the states watered by the Rhine and Meuse, thus confirming
the name, already given to this territory, of Lorraine (Lothard
regnum) ; Charles inherited Provence and the adjacent country
• The anonymous authors of this absurd and sacrilegious fable do not even agree on the
name of their female Pope. Sho is variously called by them Agnes, Angelica, Margarak
Jutta, Dorothea, Gilberts, and Isabella. The name of Joan at last prevailed.
f The most remarkable work produced by this question is the Dona non cttort AM Pm·
five, by Ft. George Scherer. S. J. (Vienna, 1536, in 4to; V-nicv, 1686)

488

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

ns fnr as Lyons. Thus was Charlemagne’s inheritance cut up
into disjointed fragments.
17. The accession of Michael III. to the throne of Constan·
tinople was contemporaneous with the promotion of Benedict
III. The unworthy son of the saintly empress Theodora was
one of the most shameless defilers of the imperial dignity. Like
another Nero, his highest study was to excel in the ignoble arts
of the hippodrome. Surrounded by worthless debauchees, the
partners of his midnight orgies, he delighted in travesties of
the august ceremonies of religion. Theodora was condemned
to a shameful banishment from the court, after suffering foul
outrages from the jesters of her son, if such he may be styled.
He confined her in a monastery, and ordered her to receive the
religious habit at the hands of the Patriarch St. Ignatius.
“ Prince,” said the intrepid Pontiff, “ when I assumed the gov­
ernment of the Church of Constantinople, I swore to do noth­
ing against your glory. If you seek to disgrace yourself by
violence toward the one who gave you life, I cannot lend my
ministry to further such an outrage.” The empress died in
prison, and her name is ranked with those of the saintly prin­
cesses whose memory is honored by the Church (a. d. 857).
Michael III. had placed all his confidence in the patrician Bardas, his uncle, upon whom he conferred the title of Cæsar.
Bardas was one of those ambitious characters who deem any
road the right one, provided only it lead to power. A skilful
politician, a friend of science, a patron of the learned, he every­
where made himself creatures, and he easily won the pardon
of Michael for his superiority, by affecting to share all the im­
perial orgies. Making it his whole study to profit by his
nephew’s vices, his own life was a public scandal. He repudi­
ated his wife to marry his daughter-in-law. Finding warnings
of no avail, the Patriarch Ignatius was at length forced to ex­
communicate him. The furious minister would have dyed his
sword in the prelate’s blood ; but the tranquil majesty of ths
holy archbishop was too powerful even for his sacrilegious
bate. Yet he ever after made it his constant study to ruin St

BENEDICT III. (A. D. 864-858).

489

Ignatius. lie banished him to the island of Terebinths : he
had long since chosen the tool whom he intended to thrust into
the vacant see.
18. Bardas commanded the fellowship of the ennuch Pho
tins. Poet, mathematician, orator, grammarian, jurist, theo
logian, and statesman, Photius possessed at once the mo§t
refined intellect and the most perverse heart of his age ;
the most vast and cultivated, the boldest and most artful
mind. His nobility of birth was heightened by alliance with
the imperial *family, and illustrated by his two distinguished
offices of master of the horse and of chief secretary, and by
a celebrated mission to Syria. His was the power of wealth,
of credit, of facility in making partisans, of giving plausibility
to his guilty projects, and of even deceiving men of true
worth. Religion, which he always regarded as a jest, had
every thing to fear from an enemy of such a character. The
Eastern Church, long since fallen from its first splendor by the
neglect of holy teachings, by the overshadowing of every cor­
rect principle, now only needed the impulse of an unfriendly
hand to plunge into the abyss of ruin. Photius became the in­
strument of this fearful catastrophe. In contempt of all canoni­
cal rule, and without even the form of an election, he was
consecrated by the bishop of Syracuse, and on Christmas
Day, a. d. 857, the future author of the great Eastern schism
ascended the Patriarchal throne of Constantinople.
19. Benedict III. hardly outlived this fatal accession, so
fraught with unknown evil for the future. He died on the
10th of March, a. d. 858, after a reign of two years. En­
dowed with a tender piety, full of meekness and charity, vis­
iting the sick, ever accessible to the poor, his was the glory to
see his very enemies pay an admiring and reverential *tribut
to his many virtues.
• He wae eon of the patrician Sergiu
*
and of Irene, < aughier of the ewpreea Ttmcid—.

490

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

CHAPTER IV.
g L Pontificats

of

Nicholas I.

Great (April 25, a.
13, 867).

the

d.

858—November

1. Election of Nicholas I.—2. Schism of Photius.— 3 Deposition of the Cath­
olic Patriarch, St. Ignatius, by a schismatical council.—4. Hypocritical let­
ter of Photius to the Pope.—5. Photius excommunicates the Sovereign
Pontiff.—6. Basil the Macedonian. Banishment of Photius.—7. Letter
of Pope Nicholas to the Gallic bishops in council at Troyes.—8. Lothaire
and Waldrada.—9. Council of Metz.—10. The acts of the council an­
nulled by Nicholas. Excommunication of Lothaire and Waldrada.—11.
Affair of Rothade, bishop of Soissons.—12. Conversion of the Bulgarian».
—13. Death of Nicholas.

§ IL Pontificate

of

Adrian II. (November 13, a.

d.

867—November 26,

872).

14, Apprehensions aroused by the accession of Adrian II.—15. Solemn pro­
test of Adrian II.—16. Lothaire’s attempt to return to communion with
the Sovereign Pontiff.—17. Sacrilege and death of Lothaire.—18. Dissen­
sions and civil strifes attending the succession.—19. The emperor Basil'»
ambassadors at Rome. The Pope sends legates to bis court.—20. Eighth
general council at Constantinople.—21. Question of the Bulgarian Churches
—22. Death of Adrian IL Norman invasion of England and France.

§ I. Pontificate of Nicholas I. the Great (April 25, a. d.
858—November 13, 866).

1. The approaching struggle between the Papacy and the
Patriarch of Constantinople called for a Pontiff of consum­
mate prudence, firmness and ability. God is watchful of
His Church’s destinies ; He holds in reserve, in the treasures
of His mercy, those noble souls destined to control the evil
passions of an age ; and when the hour has come, sends them
forth into the world. Nicholas I., upon whom an admiring
world bestowed the title of Great, was raised to the pontifical
throne, on the 25th of April, a. d. 858 His humility suffered

NICHOLAS I. (A. D. 858-867)

491

violence in this elevation, and it was necessary to tear him
from the church of St. Peter, in which he had sought to shelter
himself from the dreaded dignity. He was taken in triumphal
procession to St. John Lateran, for the ceremony of the po
*
sessio, and the emperor Louis IL, who was then in Rome,
would hold the bridle of the Pontiff’s horse. Nicholas soon
showed that his lively conviction of the obligations and perils
of the pontifical charge would but nerve him to greater efforts
in the faithful discharge of its duties.
2. Six days had sufficed to carry Photius through the in­
ferior orders of the church to the Patriarchal dignity. Michael
III. and his worthy minister, Bardas, were satisfied. Their
former boon companion now ranked among the princes of the
Church ; he could hardly prove as unmanageable a censor as
Ignatius, whose see he had usurped. Such an intrusion could
not but result in the most disastrous consequences. It is worth
observing that the Eastern schism, like most of the great her­
esies which have desolated the Church, had its root in the corrup t heart of an adulterous Cœsar striving to stifle the rebuk­
ing voice of a worthy ambassador of Christ, and found a min­
ister in the unprincipled infidelity of an ambitious courtier.
The seeds of schism had been sown in Constantinople, in
the second general council, in 381. But it was reserved to
Photius to give the final expression to the separation, and to
bring it forth with all its political and religious perils. He
tore the branch from the trunk, and the branch withered away,
because it had not the life-stream which could come but from
the great heart in Rome. He established a Greek Church,
wh'ereas Jesus Christ founded but the one Catholic Church,
whose see St. Peter fixed at Rome. In division is death ; in
union is life and power. When the prophet’s crescent threat­
ens the Byzantine empire, and the suppliant cry of alarm is
borne from Constantinople to the Roman Pontiffs, masters of
Europe in the Middle Ages, the Popes, who could have guided
the warlike spirit of the West to rescue the trembling East
from the devouring surge of invading Islamism, and snatched

492

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHDRCH.

Constantinople from the grasp of Mohammed II., are overcome
in the effort by the treachery of the Greeks.
3. To hush the universal cry of indignation excited by his
sacrilegious intrusion, Photius strove to deceive Nicholas I. into
an approval, by an artful letter, a very tissue of lies and flat­
tery. “ When I reflect,” he wrote, “ upon the weight of the
episcopal dignity, upon human weakness, and my own in par­
ticular, I cannot express the deep grief which fills my soul
when I find myself under this fearful yoka
But the emperor,
considerate to all others, reserves all his cruelty for me ; as
soon as my predecessor had resigned his dignity, the assembled
metropolitans, clergy and people, moved I know not by what
impulse, with one voice uttered my name. Regardless of my
excuses and urgent prayers, they imposed upon me the episco­
pal dignity ; they have done violence to my feelings, they have
done their will in spite of my tears and my despair.” These
false protestations were presented to the Pope by an embassy
from Michael III., accompanied by four Greek bishops. la
order more completely to veil this imposture, the deputies wero
instructed to ask the Pontiff for two legates to the East, for
the thorough extinction of the Iconoclastic heresy, which in
truth had now no existence whatever. The consummate pru­
dence of Nicholas, and his fidelity to canonical observance,
saved him from the well-laid snare. “We cannot,” he said, in
reply to the emperor, “ by any means approve the irregular
promotion of Photius, until Ignatius declare before our legates
why he has resigned his see, and we ourselves canonically ap­
prove his demission, if there be valid reason for it. As soon
as we have received an exact and satisfactory report of these
facts, we shall take the steps best calculated to promote peace
and quiet in the Church of Constantinople.” The legates of
the Holy See, Rodoald, bishop of Porto, and Zachary, bishop
of Anagni, set out for the East, with instructions to make
juridical inquiries (a. d. 859). Michael III. was but little con­
cerned in the matter ; his days were spent at table, in the com­
pany of his jesters. “ Theophilus,” he used to say, with a

NICHOLAS I. (A. D. 859-867).

493

laugh, “is my Patriarch” (Theophilus was the chief of his
boon-companions); “Photius is the Patriarch of Bardas; and
Ignatius is the Patriarch of the Christians." He hardly knew
now truly he had spoken.
Photius and Bardas acted with greater energy. During the
absence of their Roman embassy they had called a council at
Constantinople, in which three hundred and eighteen bishops
appeared. St. Ignatius was deposed on the ground that his
election had not received the emperor’s approval. The Papal
legates had in the meantime reached Constantinople. Blinded
to the true state of the case, ensnared by the intrigues of Pho­
tius, a perfect master in the art of deception, they had the
weakness to betray their trust and to share in the deposition
of the holy Patriarch. Ignatius was brought into the assembly
and stripped of his pontifical vestments. As each part of his
dress was successively removed, the guilty legates joined their
voices to those of all the Greek bishops, to utter the Greek
formula of degradation : Ανάξιος (he is unworthy) ! But even
Photius, conscious of the glaring irregularity of this proceed­
ing, sought to obtain a formal resignation from Ignatius. The
Patriarch resolutely refused to give it, and was imprisoned in
the empty tomb of Copronymus, whose ashes Michael III. bad
scattered to the winds. Here he was subjected to the most
frightful torture. Overcome by suffering and hunger, stretched
almost lifeless upon the imperial sarcophagus, the Patriarch
was visited by a man whose features were hidden behind a
mask, and who overwhelmed him with blows; then guiding the
victim’s nerveless hand, into which a pen had been forcibly
thrust, he traced with it a cross upon a blank parchment, and
rook it to Photius, who wrote these words above the martyr’s
sign : “ I, Ignatius, unworthy Patriarch of Constantinople, contess that I assumed the episcopal dignity without regular elec­
tion, and that I have tyranically governed the Church intrusted
to my care.” Photius read the false instrumeut to the people,
and then gave a copy of it to the legates, who were to present
it to Pope Nicholas. They returned to Rome, accompanied by

494

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

an ambassador from Michael III., bearing letters from the false
Patriarch and the emperor to the Sovereign Pontiff.
4. The letter of Photius was worded thus : - Charity,
which straightens the bonds of love, and breaks the toils oi
discord, should, by a stronger reason, remove all that could
separate the father from his children. I write to justify my
own position, not to contradict you. The reproaches addressed
to me by your Holiness have been keenly felt ; but I ascribe
them wholly to your personal affection for me, and zeal for the
discipline of the Church. Yet it is true that I am much more
deserving of sympathy than of censure. I was elected in
spite of my tears, my protestations and my despair. I have
been guarded, confined like a criminal. I have been torn from
the peace and quiet which I enjoyed amid a circle of virtuous
friends devoted to the study of wisdom and truth. Your Holi­
ness well knows the difficulties of the position in which I have
been placed ; the froward people, their seditious bent, their
aversion for all authority. But, it may be «aid : You should
have resisted violence. Are reproaches due to him who suffers,
or to those who persecute ? I have perhaps resisted more than
was proper. Alas ! had I not feared even worse consequences,
I should have resisted unto death. Why, it may again be
asked, violate the canons, which forbid the promotion of a lay­
man to the episcopate ? The Church of Constantinople, Most
Holy Father, had not yet received the canons said to have been
violated. And even in the West, would the Latins dare to con­
demn St. Ambrose, the glory of their *
Church?
I speak not
in a spirit of opposition and resistance, for I have since advo­
cated, in full council, the canonical precept, and I have caused
the adoption of the rule that henceforth, throughout the East,
no one shall be raised to the episcopate without having pre­
viously passed through all the antecedent orders of the clergy.j·
♦ It wül be remembered that St. Ambrose, then Governor of Milan.
a layman
when the unanimous voice of clergy and people caUed him to the episcopal throne of that
dty.
i We may now clearly see how wise it would have been always to observe (save m the

NICHOLAS - (A. D. 8&J-88-I).

495

But, for the present, it would be an insult to our fathers to give
a retroactive effect to a recent law.” Photius must have en­
joyed a triumph, among his fellow-debauchees in the palace,
for the craft and cunning of this lying letter. The legate·,
bound to fellowship with the impostor, gave a report corre­
spondingly faithful. They dwelt upon the wisdom displayed
in the last Council of Constantinople, upon the merit of Photius,
“the most wonderful man who had illustrated the East for
centuries, and whose talent had alone compelled his election,
in spite of his natural modesty.” Nicholas was not to be sur­
prised by these deceptive reports, but wrote at once to the
Patriarchs of Alexandria and Antioch, and to all the Eastern
metropolitans, forbidding them to hold communion with the
intruder. Wishing to inflict a signal punishment upon the
scandalous connivance of his legates, he called a council at
Rome (a. d. 863). Rodoald and Zachary, convicted of having
basely betrayed their trust, were deposed from the episcopate
and excommunicated. The false Council of Constantinople
was solemnly annulled, and placed on a level with the Latroci­
nale of Ephesus. Sentence was thus pronounced : “Photius has
dared, during the lifetime of our venerable brother Ignatius,
Patriarch of Constantinople, to usurp his see, and has entered
the sheepfold like a robber; he has, in contempt of all law and
justice, caused the condemnation and deposition of Ignatius by
a cabal ; he has violated the law of nations to corrupt the
legates of the Holy See, obliging them not only to infringe,
but even to oppose, our orders ; he ceases not to perscute the
Church, and to inflict barbarous outrages upon our brother
Ignatius. Wherefore, by the authority of Almighty God, of
the Apostles St. Peter and St. Paul, Photius is hereby deprived
of all priestly honor. As to our brother Ignatius, driven from
his see by the violence of the emperor and the prevarication
of our legates, we declare, in the name of Jesus Christ, that
few rare exceptione sanctioned by an extraordinary merit and approred by the Holy See)
the rule laid down by St. Paul : Non neophytum ; ne in luperbuun elatu
*,
in judida
*·
Incidat iLaboli (Tim. I iii. 6.)

196

GENERAL HISTORY OP ΤΠΕ CHURCH.

he has never incurred either deposition or anathema, and w»
maintain him in his episcopal dignity and functions." Photiuj
did not quail before this act of apostolic vigor and authority,
but forged a letter by which the Pope was made to approve
most fully of his ordination and of the false council of a. d. 859.
Secret as had been his manœuvres, they were speedily discovercd by the public indignation, which soon rose to such a height
that Bardas, who had shared in the plot, was forced to satisfy
the public clamor by instituting inquiries. An unknown monk,
chosen by Photius as an accomplice in the disgraceful affair,
was publicly scourged ; the tool was punished by the hand
that used it. But the emptiness of all these forms appeared
soon after, when the same monk, through the credit of Photius,
received an office in the magistracy of Constantinople itself.
5. The intruder’s insolence did not stop here. In 866 he
summoned a fresh council in the church of St. Sophia, and
there pronounced sentence of deposition and excommunication
against Nicholas I. and his adherents. This unheard-of outrage against the authority of the Holy See was based upon a
thousand imaginary crimes heaped by Photius upon the Holy
Pontiff. The emperor, Michael III., all the senators of Con­
stantinople, three legates in the East, magistrates, generals, and
more than a thousand bishops and priests signed the act of
deposition, which was then sent to the Pope himself, to all the
Churches of Asia, and to the Bulgarians, whom Nicholas had
lately received into the fold. Photius followed up this sacri­
legious act by a circular declaring that the Greek Church is the
first and only true Church ; that it must thenceforth remain
separated from the Church of Rome, “which has corrupted the
primitive purity of the faith.” He then spoke thus of the
Latins : “ Men have come forth from the darkness of the West
to alter the sacred traditional heritage of our fathers. Wander­
ing wide from the way of truth, and plunging into the impious
errors of Manes, they take upon themselves to condemn the
Divine institution of marriage, and make it a crime in their
priests Secret disorders and hidden immorality naturally fol

NICHOLAS T. (A. D. 85MW).

49Τ

low such a measure. They have crowned their impiety hy th®
addition of new words to the sacred symbol of our faith, de­
claring that the Holy Ghost does not proceed from the Father
only, but likewise from the Son. They also admit two princi­
ples in the Trinity, and confound the properties of the Divin®
Persons.” Thus the event justified the far-seeing prudence of
Pope Leo III., who had opposed the French bishops in their
untimely addition of the Filioque. Photius closed his circular
by applying to the Catholic priests the name of ministers of
Antichrist, and public corruptors. The indignation awakened
by his first acts of violence only served to call forth fresh out­
breaks from the bold schismatic. The sentence of excommu­
nication issued by Pope Nicholas I. against the intruder had
caused a great sensation in Constantinople, and many of the
faithful refused to communicate with the schismatical Patriarch.
Photius visited all such demonstrations with the punishment
due to rebellion and sedition. The Catholic bishops who dared
to oppose him were deposed and banished to distant cities.
The holy Patriarch Ignatius, still on the list of proscription,
saw a price set upon his head. He had fled his mother’s
palace, disguised as a porter, just in time to escape the assas­
sins sent by Bardas to murder him. Wandering and a fugitive,
he escaped the searches and pursuits of his enemies only by a
continued miracle. Photius, ever impelled onward as he gave
freer reign to the hatred and vengeance that burned within his
breast, aimed at nothing less than the utter ruin of the Roman
Church. He undertook to tear from the communion of the
Pope all the countries under Frankish domination, which formed
so considerable a portion of the Western world that they were
commonly called the Empire or the Kingdom or the Christians.
To gain the emperor Louis I., he had bestowed upon him, in
his false council, the titles of Imperator, Cæsar, and Augustus,
regardless of the claims so loudly put forth by the Byzantino
chancery, since the time of Charlemagne, against the usurpa­
tion—such was their term—of the Frankish kings. The
empress Ingelberga, who wielded a great influence over the
vol. ii.—32

498

GENERAL BISTORT OF THE CHDRCH.

mind of her husband, had been also honored with the titles
of Augusta and Second Pulcheria. The acts of the council
were sent with gifts and adulatory letters, begging Ingelberga
to use her influence with the emperor to drive Nicholas I. from
Rome, as deposed by an ecumenical council.
6. In the midst of all these negotiations, a revolution,
fraught with mighty results, was preparing in the East. Its
acccmplishment was intrusted to a man of strange and varied
fortunes. In the year 851 a wretched captive, a native of
Adrianople, dragged into bondage by his Bulgarian captors, had
sujceeded in breaking his chains, and came to Constantinople
to seek a livelihood. Destitute and hopeless of obtaining a
lodging in the imperial city, he laid his weary limbs upon the
steps of the church of St. Diomede, without the city walla.
The keeper of the church found the homeless wanderer there,
and, moved by pity, took him in. Basil, the unknown mendi­
cant, had learned among the barbarians the art of taming the
most unruly horse. Michael III., in his youthful days, was
passionately devoted to horsemanship, and had in his stables a
splendid Arabian steed, which no man had yet ventured to
mount. In a fit of impatient anger, he orders the noble animal
to be hamstrung, when some courtiers mention Basil as a man
who can tame the new Bucephalus. The fractious beast is
brought into the hippodrome, where an immense crowd had as­
sembled to witness the trial. After a few moments of flattering
caresses, Basil masters the fiery steed, and rides him round the
circus, amid thunders of applause. The enthusiastic emperor
names him, on the spot, chief groom of the palace. “ What a
master-horseman they have given me !” said Michael to his
mother, Theodora. “ My son,” replied the empress, “ this
horseman will be the ruin of our house.” The prediction was
received by Michael III. with an incredulous smile. In 854
the groom was made great chamberlain. Bardas was a stum­
bling-block in his way to honors, and Basil persuaded the em­
peror that his minister was plotting his murder. The credulous
emperor resolved to anticipate the deed by the death of its

NICHOLAS I. (A. D. 858-861).

499

intended author; but this act of imperial rigor would have blasted
all the hopes of Photius, who accordingly used every means to
reconcile the emperor and his m.sister. On the feast of the
Annunciation (a. d. 8ύ6), the emperor, Basil and Bardas were
all present at the Holy Sacrifice in the church of St. Sophia.
After the consecration, Photius, holding in his hand the sacred
host, turned to the emperor and his chamberlain, and made
them swear not to attempt the life of Bardas. Then, dipping
a pen into the blood of Jesus Christ, he made them sign the
solemn promise. Three days had not passed away when the
chamberlain stabbed Bardas, in the emperor’s apartment (April
7, 866), and before another year the same dagger had drunk
the blood of Michael III. himself, in the hour of intoxication
(September 24, 867). Thus Basil
*
possessed himself of the
throne, to which he restored its long-lost dignity. The admin­
istration of the Empire was reorganized. The venal judiciary
was removed ; the active pursuits of commerce, agriculture,
science, art and industry illustrated his reign. Constantinople
and the great cities of the Empire were adorned by the erection
of churches, hospitals and educational institutions. The Latin
of Justinian’s code was not the tongue of Byzantium ; and this
co-operated with legislative madness—unmistakable token of a
declining nation—to throw confusion into the legislation of the
Empire. Basil wished to dispel the darkness, and to let in the
light of simple, clear and settled principles, for the restoration
of justice. He gave his attention to the revision of the statutes,
and the Justinian code disappeared, to make way for the Bas­
ilics, which held their deserved authority until the fall of the
Greek Empire and the rule of the Koran.f Two days after
his accession, Basil removed Photius from the Patriarchal See,
• Basil was colled the Macedonian, from his long captivity in that province. The keeper
of the church of St. Diomede was not forgotten by the crowned beggar. Ho was made
treasurer of St. Sophia, and SyriaOusof the Patriarch.
f In 1830 the celebrated but unfortunate Capo of Istria named a commifuion to revis*
the Botaict, which he, in great part, applied to the government of the now kingdom of
Greece.

600

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

as a disturber of the public peace ; St. Ignatius was recalled,
and the schism seemed extinct ; but this was only a momentary
pause in the career of Photius.
7. The tidings of this temporary restoration had not yet
reached Nicholas I. He wrote to the bishops of Gaul, then in
council at Troyes, to warn them against the schismatical at­
tempts of Photius (a. d. 867). “Of all the troubles which
weigh upon our pontificate,” wrote the great Pope, “ the con­
dition of the East is that which most grieves our heart. The
emperor Michael III. has plunged his Empire into a schism,
because of our refusal to sanction the irregular election of the
intruded Patriarch, Photius. A false council, held in Constan­
tinople, has even dared to outrage the rights and honor of the
Apostolic See. They make it a crime in us to teach the Cath­
olic doctrine of the procession of the Holy Ghost from the
Father and Son. They accuse us of condemning marriage,
because we enjoin celibacy to our clergy. They dare to assert
that, by removing the seat of the Empire to Constantinople, the
emperors also transferred with it the primacy of the Roman
Church and the prerogatives of honor and apostolical supre­
macy. Photius has even assumed the title of Universal Patri­
arch. As it is impossible to convene you all in Rome, to take
measures against these bold attempts, we earnestly exhort
you to meet in provincial councils, to examine the complaints
and claims of the Eastern Church, that the unanimous voice
of the West may crush this rising calumny.” (a. d. 866.)
8. The Churches of Gaul and Germany, thus addressed by
the Holy Pontiff, had for the past ten years been the theatre
of scandalous disputes. While imperial dissipation, the corruption
of an adulterous minister, and the ambition of an intruded pre­
late had plunged the East into a sea of misery, the guilty pas­
sion of a Frankish prince had destroyed the peace of the West.
In 856, Lothaire II., king of Lorraine, a year after his union
with Teutberga, became madly enamored of Waldrada, sister
of Gunthier, archbishop of Cologne. The time had passed
when a Frankish king could tie or break the conjugal bond at

NICHOLAS 1. (A. D. 868-8<J1).

501

will. The Church, by insisting upon the indissolubility of the
marriage tie, besides maintaining the respect due to the sanctity
of a sacrament of Divine institution, secured the quiet of indi­
viduals, the peace of the domestic circle, the regular transmis­
sion of inheritance, the dignity of woman, union among brothers,
all the bonds and duties of the family—without which nations
soon become degraded, the light of civilization pales and gradu­
ally becomes extinct : witness Mohammedanism sunk in the
shameful luxury and barren idleness of the seraglio. The
immense services thus rendered to modem nations by the
Papacy are not sufficiently understood. But for the unyielding
perseverance of the Sovereign Pontiffs, the barbarian elementa
reigning in the midst of European society, during the ninth
and tenth centuries, would have triumphed over the most
sacred moral principles ; and the world, buried in the mire of
vice, would never have reached the high degree of civilization
of which we are so proud, but yet so far from grateful.
9. Blinded by his adulterous passion, and determined to
have it legalized by the Holy See at any cost, Lothaire had
recourse to a shameless deceit: he brought against the empress
an infamous charge, capable of securing the dissolution of their
marriage, according to the laws of the Church. Teutberga
availed herself of the justification then accredited by popular
superstition—the judgment of God by the sword. The champion
chosen to defend her honor came forth unhurt from the combat,
and, in conformity with the ruling custom, Lothaire was forced
to give back to Teutberga her rank of queen and spouse. But
he could not give back a heart whose affection was all centred
in another object. The apparent reconciliation was but short­
lived; Lothaire banished Teutberga from the royal palace (a.
d. 859), and openly lived with Waldrada. Sinful example is
contagious ; the court of the royal adulterer soon became a
mere brothel. Boson, count of Burgundy, deemed it a safe
asylum for his incestuous partner, Engeltrudis. Baldwin,
afterward count of Flanders, also sought impunity here for a
crime of the same nature. He had outraged the royal family

502

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

by the elopement of Judith, daughter of Charles the Bald, and
cousin-german to Lothaire, who was too utterly steeped in licen
tiousness himself to oppose corruption in another. He still
strove to win the sanction of the Church for his scandalous
connection with Waldrada. An assembly of eight bishops, at
Aix-la-Chapelle, pronounced the dissolution of his former mar­
riage with Teutberga ; the injured queen was sent to a monas­
tery, and Lothaire solemnly espoused Waldrada (a. d. 862),
But from the depths of her solitary prison the prayers of
ths wronged and innocent queen had reached the foot of St.
Peter’s throne. The Sovereign Pontiff learned the fearful
alternative to which she was exposed, either to dishonor herself
or to be exposed to the direst extremes of suffering. “ Should
your Holiness learn,” said she, “ that I have at length made the
lying confession required of me, be persuaded that violence
alone can have wrung it from a wretched queen, more shame­
lessly ill-treated than the lowest slave.” With this secret
communication the tidings also reached Rome of Lothaire’s
solemn union with Waldrada. Nicholas I. did not hesitate an
instant between the wronged and powerless victim and the
crowned oppressor. He belonged to the race of iron Pontiffs,
who “stand,” in the words of the Sacred Text, “like a firm
wall against the criminal attempts of the wicked.” The bishops
of Gaul and Germany received a pontifical decree, enjoining
them to meet in council at Metz, to cite Lothaire, and to pro­
nounce a canonical sentence against him. Rodoald, the faith­
less bishop of Porto, wasr eturning from his legation in Constan­
tinople, where he had betrayed his trust. The Pope, still
ignorant of his defection, sent him, together with John, bishop
of Ficolo,
*
to preside, in his name, at the council, which was
opened in the month of June, 863. All the prelates of Lo­
thaire’s kingdom were present, save the bishop of Utrecht.
By unlimited largesses and honors Lothaire had disposed the
• The present Coma, te the States of the Church, about eleven mile, southeast of

NICHOLAS I. (A. D. 853-961).

503

leading prelates far more favorably than he could have done
by any process of law or canonical jurisprudence. Even the
legates yielded to these disgraceful arguments. Rodoald of
Porto proved as unworthy of his high mission at Metz as he
had been at Constantinople, and his shameful example was
followed by his colleague. The last Council of Aix-la-Chapelle
was confirmed, the marriage with Teutberga declared null, and
the union with Waldrada acknowledged as lawful. Adultery
was triumphant. Gunthier, Waldrada’s brother and archbishop
of Cologne, and Teutgald, bishop of Triers, the two leading
spirits in the work of iniquity, were deputed by the Council
of Metz to accompany the legates to Rome and present the
scandalous decision to the Sovereign Pontiff.
10. Nicholas I. was, perhaps, of all the Popes the most
impervious to the miserable calculations of human respect, and
his sagacity in unravelling the most skilfully concerted pilots
was equalled by his courage in the defence of injured inno­
cence. “ Senseless indeed,” exclaims a contemporary annalist,
speaking of the two prelates, “if they flattered themselves
that their vain subtleties could cast a shadow impenetrable to
the torch of the Apostolic See.” On their arrival they found
all the Italian bishops convoked by the Pope to annul the acts
of the Council of Metz. Gunthier and Teutgald were brought
before the assembled prelates. Nicholas received them with
imposing dignity. When the renegade bishops timidly pre­
sented the decrees of Metz, signed by their own hands, with a
request that he would give them his apostolic sanction, the
Pontiff only replied : “ Withdraw ; the council will call you
when your presence is needed.” And in a few days they
were summoned to hear the condemnation of their Council of
Metz ; and as they persisted in maintaining its lawful author­
ity, they were both deposed from the episcopate. The same
punishment was inflicted upon the faithless legates. Rodoald
was already under the weight of the excommunication uttered
against him while on his way to France, for his disgraceful
conduct at Constantinople. The Council of Rome pronounced

604

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

sentence in these terms : “ By the judgment of the Holy Ghost
end the authority of the Prince of the Apostles, we annul the
acts of the Council of Metz, composed of bishops who have
anticipated our decision and dared to violate the regulations of
the Hbly See. We remove from episcopal dignity and funo
tions Teutgald, archbishop of Triers and primate of Belgium,
with Gunthier of Cologne, both convicted, by their writings
and open confession, of having led that irregular assembly.
Upon the other bishops, their accomplices^, we pass the same
sentence, if they persist in their error ; but, should proofs of
their sincere repentance reach the Apostolic See, they shall lose
neither their rank nor dignity.” Lothaire II. was also threatened
with excommunication unless he would put away Waldrada.
Throughout the whole kingdom of the Franks, the liveliest
indignation had been excited by this scandal. Charles the Bald
and Louis of Bavaria befriended the unfortunate queen Teut·
berga, and were preparing to support her rights by force of
arms. Lothaire, terrified by the dangerous consequences of his
passion, yielded to the pressure against him, and put away the
cause of all these evils (a. d. 865). But his resolution was
too weak for his love, and in the following year he resumed his
scandalous life. This time St. Nicholas launched the thunders
of the Church against Waldrada, and called a council at Bois­
sons to end the deplorable affair (a. d. 866). In a letter to
Adventius, bishop of Metz, the Pontiff warned the French
bishops against the allurements held out by the temporal
power, and settled the limits within which they might freely
exercise their episcopal independence. “ You pretend," he
writes, “ that you are subject to your prince, because the
Apostle says : ‘ Be ye subject...... to the king as excelling.’
In this you are right ; but first see whether princes command
only what is just : otherwise they are rather to be looked upon
as tyrants than as kings, and their orders should be opposed
rather than obeyed ; for by compliance we become accessory to
their disorders. Be subject, then, to the king, as excelling by
his virtues, and not by his vices. Be subject to him for God s

NICHOLAS I. (A. D. 859-881).

50i)

sake, according to the Apostle, and not against God." * Ths
Council of Soissons restored the tarnished honor of the French
episcopate. The shameless Lothaire was unanimously con­
demned ; the acts of base connivance and venal weakness of
Aix-la-Chapelle and Metz were rescinded.
11. The noble Pontiff was called to engage in a struggle
of another sort with Hincmar, archbishop of Rheims. This
prelate, yielding too readily to a personal prejudice, had de­
posed and imprisoned Rothade, bishop of Soissons, one of his
suffragans, on the ground of too great rigor used by the bishop
in interdicting a priest of his diocese, who appealed from his
sentence to the judgment of the metropolitan. The bishop, in
turn, appealed to the Holy See. Mature deliberation convinced
the Pope of Rothade’s innocence, and Hincmar was directed to
restore the bishop to his see within a month after the reading
of the pontifical letters. In his irritation against Rothade,
Hincmar resorted to a subterfuge, unworthy of himself, to
elude the pontifical decree. Learning its contents before
opening it, he would not read the letter, thus sheltering him­
self by the clause which granted a delay of a month after the
reading of the bull for restoring the deposed prelate. It is pain­
ful to meet such a display of bad faith in the life of a prelate
like Hincmar; but the highest and greatest are also subject to the
petty passions of fallen humanity, and it is the continued miracle
of the Church that she remains ever pure, ever intact, despite
the miseries and weakness of her ministers. On learning the in­
delicate course pursued by the archbishop, Nicholas might have
used harsh measures ; but justice and mercy were enthroned
with twin power in his great and noble soul, and he was satis• These words of Nicholas I. have furnished matter for long discussions on the obedi­
ence due to tho secular power. It is pretended that they tend to set subject» in judgment
upon their rulore. This interpretation seems to us utterly without foundation; it would,
moreover, be in direct opposition, if we may so speak, to the constant policy of the Holy
See. To us it seems evident that when the Pope speaks of resistance he refers only to
spiritual matters. The tyrants of whom he speaks are the princes who abuse their power,
as did Lothaire IL, in the order of religion. Henœ there can be in this no incitement to
revolt, nor to the seditious instincts of the mww

506

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

fled to write him a second letter, using the precaution necessary
to insure its reception. “ You once asked us,” wrote the Pon­
tiff, “ to confirm, by our Apostolic authority, the privileges
granted by our predecessors to the Church of Rheims. What
can be the value of these privileges, if you ignore the power
which instituted them?” Then, laying open the greatness of
his fault, the disorders to which it could give rise in the hier­
archy, he urges him ‘o free Rothade from his confinement
Still Hincmar but half obeyed the Holy Pontiff’s orders. The
bishop was released from prison, but only to be sent to Rome,
that his case might be examined there. Hincmar’s letter to
the Pope on the subject breathes too much the subtle reasoning
of the law, and is far from the spirit of true submission which
should ever bow the heart of every bishop to the common
Father of all the faithful. “ Most Holy Father and reverend
lord,” writes the prelate, “ we send you Rothade, accompanied
by our deputies ; nor do we appear as the accuser of the bishop
of Soissons, but as ourself arraigned, wishing to justify ourself
by representing to your Holiness our proceedings and inten­
tions. Our respect for the first See, the Sovereign See of the
Church of Rome, is too great to allow' that we should weary
its Pontiff with minor causes, which the canons of councils and
the decrees of the Popes authorize metropolitans to decide in
provincial councils. We know, too, that we can expect obedience
and respect from our inferiors only in proportion as we show our­
selves submissive toward our own superiors. Should the merciful
compassion of your Holiness deem it proper to reinstate the
bishop of Boissons, the prelates who acted with us in the
council by which he was deposed would not look upon the act
of authority as an injustice. They recognize their dependence
on the Roman Pontiff, in virtue of the supremacy of St.
Peter.” After a serious and deliberate examination, which
lasted ten months, the Pope relieved Rothade from the censures
laid upon him by his metropolitan, fully reinstated him in his
episcopal office, and wished him to officiate pontifically in one
of the churches of Rome. For Rothade, w’hose conduct during

NICHOLAS I. (A. D. 858-β<Π).

501

the whole proceeding seems to have been irreproachable bad
faithfully observed the interdict, though deeming it unjust, and
had net, accordingly, offered up the Holy Sacrifice. Nicholas
then sent him back to his Church of Soissons, and wrote, at
the same time, to Charles the Bald to interpose his authority
in favor of Rothade, while threatening Hincmar with excom­
munication, if he offered further opposition to the execution of
the Apostolic sentence. The archbishop submitted. His bear­
ing had been in direct contradiction to the principles he always
maintained in his writings ; but this is not the first example in
history of the ruinous power of passion over even the greatest
minds. In a treatise on the indissolubility of the marriage tie,
Hincmar thus speaks of the supremacy of the Holy See : “ In
all doubts on matters of faith we must consult the Roman
Church, the mother and mistress of all others, and follow her
salutary counsels. And this filial submission may more readily
be expected from those who inhabit Italy, Gaul, Spain, Africa,
Sicily and the neighboring islands, where the faith was certainly
planted by evangelical laborers who had received their mission
from St. Peter or his successors.”
12. This faith, intrusted as a sacred deposit to the Church
of Rome, was hourly making new conquests. The Western
emperors helped to the conversion of the Danes, the Suevi,
and generally of all the German nations ; the emperors of the
East sent missionaries to evangelize the Sclavonic race, whose
conversion opened a way, for the faith of Christ, into the empire
of their Russian neighbors. They readily admitted the light
of faith, and the emperor Basil profited by the circumstance to
conclude a treaty of peace with them ; and having softened
their natural fierceness by timely presents, he sent them a
bishop consecrated by Ignatius, Patriarch of Constantinople.
The miracles wrought by the holy bishop overcame the people’s
incredulity; they eagerly sought and devoutly received the
sacrament of regeneration. The Bulgarians were likewise
indebted to the East for the blessing of faith. In their war
against the Greek emperor Theophilus, the barbarians had lost

60b

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

an important battle, and the sister of their king was among the
captives who had fallen into the victor’s hands. The princess
was taken with the captive train to Constantinople, where she
was detained for a space of thirty-eight years. This long
interval she improved by studying the teaching of the true
faith, and was at length baptized.
On her return to her
brother’s court, the princess earnestly and perseveringly pressed
him to embrace Christianity. Her unwearied endeavors moved
the king, and Heaven seemed to league with her to subdue the
royal infidel. An appeal to the God of his sister suddenly
stayed the ravages of a destructive plague. The prodigy was
convincing : the king was baptized. The Bulgarians rose up
against their Christian king, and laid siege to his palace ; but,
strong in the confidence of Heaven’s assistance, he came forth
with a handful of faithful followers, and scattered the seditious
throng. The rebels were forgiven. This act of mercy opened
their eyes to a clearer view of the Christian faith, and they too
were folded with the flock of Christ.
The king now sent
deputies to the Holy See to beg for evangelic workmen, and to
obtain light on several points of faith and morals. The Pope
was touched by the sight of the new Christians coming from
afar to receive the teaching of St. Peter’s successor ; he received
them with paternal affection, answered all their questions, and
sent them back rejoicing, accompanied by two bishops of known
wisdom and virtue. The establishment of each new Church
affords another example of the ready homage paid by all the
missionaries to the primacy of the Roman See. All the apostles
sent from among the Anglo-Saxons and Franks seek their war­
rant directly from the Holy See, and place the people converted
through their means under its immediate jurisdiction ; the mis­
sionaries sent from the East look at· once to Rome for the
decision of every important question, and bow submissive to
her decree. Providence would seem to have doomed the GreekChurch to pronounce its own condemnation in the face of the
whole world, some years before its schism.
13 These consoling events threw a ray of happiness over

ADRIAN Π. (A. D. 867-812).

509

the last days of Nicholas I., who ended a pontificate of nine
years on the 13th of November, 867. His lofty conceptione
and unbending resolution appeared in the immense labors of his
pontificate. At home, he had to meet the evils of the age, to
provide for the necessities of the poor and the safety of Rome ;
abroad, to check the efforts of schism, refute calumnies, and
protest against the wanderings of rulers, without moving sub­
jects to revolt. Yet Nicholas trod the dangerous ground with
firm and steady step. With all his multiplied occupations, he
still found time to answer the questions put from all parts of
the world. A collection of more than a hundred letters of the
energetic Pontiff shows the vast but sure sweep of his great
*
mind.
His death threw a veil of mourning over the face of
the world. Crime alone exulted in its dark retreats ; but its
guilty hopes were doomed to bitter disappointment.

§ II. Pontificate

of

Adrian II. (November 13, a. d. 867—
November 25, 872).

14. The death of Nicholas I. revived in the depraved heart
of Lothaire II. the criminal hope of seeing his adultery at
length legalized. The fearless Pontiff had thus expressed
himself in a letter written a few days before his death : “We
are told that Lothaire intends to come to Rome, notwithstand­
ing our prohibitions. Dissuade him from the step ; represent
to him that while he is under the Church’s ban he could not
be received in this city with the honors due to his rank,
which he can claim only after the fulfilment of promises so
often violated.” The state of many minds presented serious
difficulties. It had been with Nicholas I. as with all men whc
wield their power with energy : he had made enemies of all
those whose excesses or sinful endeavors he had checked;
while those who had been the ministers of his justice, or had
held office in his pontificate, were his avowed partisans. One
* These alone have reached us. Anastasius Bibliothocarios bad collected store than
doub'o the number, and yet, as bo himself testifies, his oollection wns Cw from complot·.

610

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH

class hoped for every thing from a new Pontiff ; the other feared
lest the acts and the memory of Nicholas should he compromised. The event justified neither their hopes nor their fears.
A Venerable priest, of seventy-six years, Adrian II., the mildest
of men, was borne in triumph by the clergy, the senate, and the
people to the Lateran palace, where he was consecrated on the
13th of November, 867, with the consent of the emperor.
Louis II. The lion was followed by the lamb; and by a
wonderful dispensation of Providence, the gentleness of Adrian
was destined to keep unharmed the heritage of his stern pre­
decessor. The new Pope’s accession was marked by deeds of
mercy. Teutgald, archbishop of Triers, and the faithless
legate, Zachary of Anagni, were freed from the censures
imposed upon them, and restored to ecclesiastical communion.
Serious fears were entertained by the friends of the preceding
Pontiff. Anastasius Bibliothecarius
*
thus wrote to his friend,
the archbishop of Vienne : “ I write you sad tidings. Alas !
our great Pontiff, Nicholas, passed to a better life on the 13th
of November, leaving us overwhelmed with the deepest grief.
The wicked men whom he so vigorously rebuked for their
crimes now openly strive to overturn all the great works of his
pontificate. Communicate this sad intelligence to all the Gallic
bishops, and do whatever your zeal may suggest for the Church
of God. The new Pope. Adrian, is likewise a man of exemplary
’ife, but we cannot yet know whether he possesses the active
energy of his predecessor.” The archbishop of Vienne, to
whom this confidential letter was addressed, was the illustrious
A.do, who had just published his Roman Martyrology, a most
estimable work, from the wholesome spirit of criticism
which distinguishes it. In common with the other Gallic pre­
lates, he wrote to the new Pontiff, exhorting him to honor the
memory and respect the acts of his predecessor.
• AnaatasiuB received his surname from nie oilico of librarian of the ponl.flcal archives
In 869 he was present at the eighth general council held in Constantinople, and translated
lia ecu into Latin. He is the author of the Libor Pontificalis, which contains the biogra­
phie· of the Popes from St. Peter down to his own time, and also of nn Ecclesiastical
Bistory.

\DRIAN Π. (A. D. SIMM).

511

15. Adrian determined to remove all doubts, and to give a
positive character to his pontificate. It was customary for
the Popes to gather into the Lateran palace, on Friday in
Septuagesima week, all the religious present in Rome. This
assembly always counted some deputies sent by various princes
to assist at the solemnity. Adrian II. added to the august
character of the meeting (a. d. 868) ; he waited upon all the
religious, washed their feet, as our Lord had done for His
Apostles, and finally sat at the same table with them. At the
end of the meal the Pope knelt with all the assembly, saying :
“ Let us pray, my brethren, for the Catholic Church, for our
most Christian son, the emperor Louis ; that God may humble
the pride of the Saracens by his arms. Pray, too, for me,
that God may grant me strength to govern His Church in holi­
ness. As prayers for the good should be but real thanksgiving,
I beg you to thank God for having given to His Church our
lord and lamented Father, the very holy and orthodox Pope
Nicholas, to defend it like another Joshua.” The Pontiff was
here interrupted by loud applause, and the unanimous cry
arose : “ Long live Adrian, our Father and our lord ! No evil
report shall hurt him! Let envy hide its poisoned dart!
Long life to Adrian, chosen of God, Sovereign Pontiff and
universal Pope !” The Pontiff motioned for silence, and then
proceeded in a grave and steady voice : “ To the holy and
orthodox lord Nicholas, established by God, Sovereign Pontiff
and universal Pope, be undying memory ! May deathless life
and glory crown the new Elias ! Eternal salvation to the new
Phineas, worthy of the everlasting priesthood!” Not content
with this public expression of sentiment, Adrian wrote to the
bishops of Gaul : “ We exhort you to inscribe the name of
Pope Nicholas in your sacred diptychs. We likewise enjoin
you rigorously to resist all princes or clerics who may attempt
any thing contrary to his teachings or decrees, fur we shall
never consent to any such proceeding. Yet we would not act
harshly toward those who implore the mercy of the Holy See,
after a reasonable satisfaction, provided they do not strive to

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GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

free themselves by accusing that great Popo, who is now before
God, and whom no one dared to accuse while on earth.” Ho
also wrote thus, in reply to the archbishop of Vienne : “ I pur­
pose to uphold my predecessor’s decrees as I would defend my
own. Still, I have no desire to lay aside the quality of mercy.
If the juncture obliged him to be severe, nothing can hinder
us from acting otherwise, under different circumstances."
These few words contain the whole of Adrian’s policy. He
knew that, to gather the fruit of Nicholas’ vigor, the timely
application of gentleness was necessary, and that the inviting
paths of mildness would call back the souls which unyielding
sternness might estrange forever.
16. Lothaire sought to avail himself of Adrian’s indulgent
disposition to obtain readmission into his communion. He
sent to Rome the bishop of Metz, Adventius, accompanied by
his chanceUor, and bearing letters to the Sovereign Pontiff, in
which he said : “ I have bowed to the authority of Pope
Nicholas, or rather to the authority of the Prince of the
Apostles, with a docility unknown to my predecessors. I have
followed the paternal advice and exhortations of his legates,
even to the prejudice of my dignity. I have never ceased K
beg that I might be heard at Rome, in my own defence, in the
calumnies uttered against me. This he ever refused me, and
forbade my visiting the Holy See, of which my ancestors have
ever been the willing defenders.” Lothaire now gave his
whole attention to the means of furthering the interests oi his
passions in this journey. He sent before him to the Sovereign
Pontiff the wretched queen Teutberga, so wearied and broken
by the ill-treatment suffered during the last ten years from the
royal adulterer that she even begged to be freed from the bond
of a union which could bring to her but tears and misery. She
asked to spend the remainder of her days in a monastery,
there to find consolation, at the foot of the altar, for the bitter­
ness of royalty and the sorrows of her life. Adrian II. replied
that he could not grant her request ; but promised to convoke
% council for the mature consideration of so vexed a question

ADRIAN Π. (A. D. WMW|.

513

recommending her, at the same time, to return to Lothaire, to
■whom he wrote to treat Teutberga as his lawful spow -~Λ to
give her the abbeys which he bad promised her, that bue might
not be left in utter destitution.' So unrelenting had been the
persecution against Teutberga, that a holy Pope, who could not
but censure the abuse of giving up benefices to laymen, was
forced to sanction such a proceeding as an alms to a wronged
and needy queen.
17. Lothaire received Teutberga, hoping thus to win the
Pontiff’s favor, and Waldrada asked for absolution from the
anathema pronounced against her by Pope Nicholas. She
engaged the intervention of Louis II., who assured the Pontiff
of her sincere repentance. Relying upon the emperor’s word,
Adrian wrote to absolve Waldrada from the censures she had
incurred, to enable her to enter the churches, there to assist at
public prayers and ceremonies, and to communicate with the
faithful; but yet he forbade her any communication whatever
with Lothaire. Deeming the opportunity favorable to his
views, Lothaire set out for Italy, accompanied by the empress
Engelberga, as witness to the sincerity of his penance and
promises.
The interview between the Pope and the king
took place at Monte Cassino (a. d. 869). The artful prince
showed all the submission which he thought capable of gaining
the Pope. Already he exulted in the success of his false pro­
testations. The day was fixed for his solemn rehabilitation
and the ceremony of communion, which he wished to receive
from Adrian in person, to give more splendor to his reconcilia­
tion with the Church. He saw not the arm of Divine justice as
it descended upon him now, to show to the world, in the person
of an adulterous prince, one'of the most fearful punishments of
sacrilegious communion. At the end of the pontifical mass,
celebrated in the presence of all the nobles of the court, of a
numerous body of the clergy, and of an immense multitude of
the faithful, attracted by the grandeur of the solemnity, Adrian
il., holding in his hands the sacred body of the Lord, turned
toward the king, and addressed him in a clear and distinct
Vol. 11—33

514

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

voice. “ Prince, if you are guiltless of the crime of adultery,
since the warning given you by our holy predecessor Nichol»j
if you have firmly resolved to hold no further communication
with Waldrada, come with confidence to receive the sacrament
of everlasting life ; but if your repentance be not sincere, dare
not profane the sacred body and blood of the Lord, and thus
consummate your own damnation.” Lothaire must have shud·
dercd inwardly, at least, at the words which awakened in
the depths of his heart the horrible sense of his past life, and
of the fresh crime he was about to commit. But his resolu­
tion was taken ; he would not withdraw ; he added perjury to
sacrilege, and rather than stay the fatal step, he plunged into
the abyss so plainly yawning at his feet. The Pope addressed
these words to each of the nobles who communicated with
Lothaire : “ If you have neither contributed nor consented to
the adulterous connection of your master with Waldrada, and
have held no communication with any of the other persons
condemned by the Holy See, may the body of the Lord be to
you a pledge of eternal life.” Terrified at the prospect of
open sacrilege, some, and they were the few, abstained from
receiving the sacred Eucharist, but the greater number shared
the crime of their king. Lothaire strove to drive away the
remorse which tore his heart at the thought of this terrible
scene. He hastened his departure, wholly intent upon the
object of his blind and sinful passion, whom he longed to
rejoin. But his course was stayed at Lucca by an unknown
disease, the effects of which were at that time without example.
The hair, the nails and even the skin fell from his body, as by
an anticipated death incessantly renewed. All those who had
shared his sacrilege also shared the punishment, and perished
before his eyes ; among them was Gunthier, the unworthy
archbishop of Cologne. They alone who had withdrawn from
the holy table were spared. Lothaire expired in fearful tor­
ments, without the least sign of repentance (a. d. 869). Teutberga wept her faithless spouse as though he had never given
her cause of grief. Waldrada took the veil in the monastery

ADRIAN Π. (A. D. 801-811).

516

of Remiremont; happy if tears of sincere repentance could
blot out the disorders of her past life, and the remorse of hav­
ing perhaps caused the eternal loss of a soul by her artifices
and unchaste allurements.
18. The states of Lothaire II., who had died without, issue,
should of right have reverted to his brother, Louis II. But
Charles the Bald, though unable to defend his present territory
against the Norman inroads, still showed himself none the less
eager to acquire more. He marched into Lorraine, had him­
self proclaimed king, to his nephew’s detriment, and was
crowned by Hincmar, archbishop of Rheims. Adrian Π. could
not allow so glaring a usurpation. He sent legates to Charles
to insist upon the rights of the emperor Louis, and to show
him the shameless injustice of despoiling a Christian prince, his
own nephew, who was then engaged in fighting the Saracens in
Italy, thus devoting his life to the cause of the whole of
Christendom. Some historians, slaves to party considerations,
have sought to convict Adrian II. of interfering, without any
right whatever, in a question of temporal domain entirely
foreign to his jurisdiction. The Pope could not overstep the
bounds of duty by taking in hand the cause of right and
justice. The emperor himself had intrusted his interests to
the Pontiff’s keeping. Had the voice of the Holy See not
been disregarded, France would have been spared a great con­
vulsion and torrents of her children’s blood. However this
may be, a fresh dispute arose on this point between the Holy
See and Hincmar, who showed again how little he could keep
within the limits of submission and respect due to the Apos­
tolic Supremacy. Charles vainly endeavored to obtain the
Pope's approval of his usurpation, which force alone could now
make good. But Adrian’s attention was called to the East by
matters more essential to the peace of the Church.
19. The ambassadors of the emperor Basil, who had set out
immediately upon the expulsion of Photius, reached Rome
after the death of Nicholas I. and Adrian's accession (λ. u
868). They brought tidings of immense import, which wer

516

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

received by the new Pontiff with transports of joy. He at
once dispatched three legates to Constantinople : Donatus,
bishop of Ostria ; Stephen, bishop of Nepi ; and Marinus, one
of the seven deacons of the Roman Church ; bearing letters to
the emperor and to the holy Patriarch Ignatius. The Pontiff
thus addressed Basil : “ Heartfelt and sincere is the joy of the
West at the expulsion of Photius by an act of your impartial
justice. For the measures to be taken concerning the other
schismatics, our legates will confer with our venerable brother
Ignatius. We are disposed to use the greatest possible indul­
gence toward them all save Photius, whose consecration must
be wholly rejected. We approve the convocation of a. general
council, over which our legates will preside, for the final judg­
ment of the guilty, the annulment of the false council of
866, which outraged the dignity of the Holy See, and to sign
the decrees of the Council of Rome against Photius.” The
legates were awaited with signal impatience by the emperor,
the clergy and the people of Constantinople ; their arrival
amid the acclamations of the people and every testimony of the
public joy was a real triumph (September 24, a. d. 868). The
emperor Basil, surrounded by all the officers of the crown,
received them in the Golden Hall of the palace. Rising at
their approach, he took from their hands the pontifical letters,
which he kissed respectfully, and thus addressed the legates :
“ The Church of Constantinople, rent by the ambition of Pho­
tius, has already experienced the unerring guidance and fatherly
affection of Pope Nicholas. Since his death we have been
awaiting, with all the Patriarchs of the East, the judgment of
the Roman Church, our mother. We beg you to restore imme­
diate order and harmony among us.” The legates expressed
their earnestness to second a zeal so praiseworthy, and steps
were at once taken for the convocation of the eighth general
council, which was opened at Constantinople on the 5th of
October, a. d. 869.
20. The temple consecrated by the great Constantine to
the Eternal Wisdom, and restored by Justinian, on a scale of

ADRIAN Π. (λ. Γ. ?«’-872}.

517

splendor which has provoked comparison with chat of Solomon,
was the august sanctuary in which the Roman primacy found,
in the very heart of Greece, its strong defence and most
glorious triumph. On the appointed day, one hundred and
nine Fathers took their places upon seats placed in a semi­
circle. The book of Gospels, as usual, and the portion of the
true cross preserved at Constantinople, were placed in the
midst o' the assembly. The three legates held the places of
honor. Beside them sat Ignatius, the intrepid Patriarch of
Constantinople, whose persecutions and sufferings were more
than compensated for by the joy of this great day; next in
order were the Patriarchs of Antioch and Jerusalem. A place
was reserved for the legate of Alexandria, whc had not yet
arrived. The bishops were brought in who bad suffered exile
and torture, during the reign of Michael III., for the cause of
Catholic unity. At the sight of these venerable old men, cov­
ered with the scars of a glorious combat, the august assem­
blage rose in a body, to do homage to the band of aged martyrs.
The Roman legates exclaimed : “ Come forward, incomparable
bishops, whose lot we envy! Come and take your fitting
rank ! You are worthy to hold your place among us !” This
glorious testimonial to the holy confessors was received by the
council with enthusiastic acclamations. After reading the
formula of faith sent by the Pope through his legates, the
council proceeded to reinstate the bishops and clerics who had
communicated with Photius in spite of the prohibition of the
Holy See. Each, in turn, presented himself with the protes­
tation : “ We have had the weakness to yield to the violence
and threats of the schismatics. With contrite and humble
hearts we have recourse to your clemency, ready to perform
whatever penance may be imposed upon us by the holy Patri­
arch.” “ We receive you,” said the legates, “ to the commu­
nion of the Church, by the authority of Pope Adrian, whose
representatives we are : and we admit you to a share in the
labors of the council.” Several of the schismatical bishops
stubbornly adhered to their error, and remained deaf to ill

518

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

remonstrance. The emperor Basil united his entreaties to
those of the council. “ If you so much dread this wholesome
confusion,” said the emperor, “ I will give you the example of
self-humiliation. Forgetful of my purple and my diadem, 1
prostrate myceif before you. Trample under foot the body of
your emperor ; I am ready to do and to suffer any thing to
restore peace and harmony to the church, and to procure the
salvation of your souls !” These noble and touching words
moved not their hardened hearts ! The council was forced to
utter the sentence of excommunication against the rebellious
prelates. Phctius himself stood before his judges. “ Is this
the man,” asked the legates, “ who for seven years has unceas­
ingly outraged the Roman Church ; who has rent the Church
of Constantinople, and filled the East with the fruits of his
madness and revenge ?” Photius seemed indeed another man.
He was no longer the artful and eloquent sophist whose words
were clothed with such alluring charms ; he had assumed an­
other character, and now played the part of injured innocence.
To all the questions of the Roman legates he made but two
replies : “ The God who guards the innocent hears me without
the help of words.” When told that his silence would not
save him from condemnation, he only answered : “ The very
silence of Jesus Christ was also condemned.” A delay was
granted him to prepare whatever defence he might wish to
present. He was again brought before the council at its next
session. Again he had changed his character and action.
Feigning weakness, be leaned upon a long and curved staff,
somewhat like the crozier used by Eastern bishops. He was
made to lay aside the significant emblem, an insult to the
august assemblage. He then began a crafty speech full of re­
criminations against the Holy See. “ In what is contrary to
reason and the canons,” said he, “ though the messenger come
from Rome or Jerusalem, or were he even an angel frjm
heaven, I obey not I" “ When schism or heresy,” said the
Fathers, “ have rent the bosom of the Church, is not safety
always sought in adherence to the Roman See and to the other

ADRIAN II. (A. D. 8βϊ-973).

519

Patriarchates ? To-day the united voices of Rome, Antioch,
Jerusalem, and Alexandria condemn you ; what authority can
you bring in your defence ?” “ That of the canons," replied
the schismatic ; “ they are my rule and my judges !" In
presence of such obstinacy, there was nothing left but to pro­
nounce the sentence. The legates spoke : “ We utter no new
judgment; we but promulgate that which was long ago pro­
nounced by the holy Pontiff Nicholas, since confirmed by Pope
Adrian. We cannot deviate from their paternal decision.
Tell us whether you approve this sentiment; for it is that of
the holy Apostolic See which we represent. Should you not
confirm it, we shall rise, as upon a lofty mountain, above the
council, and publish with all our powei the sentence already
pronounced, with the grace of the Holy Ghost, by the voice of
our holy Fathers Nicholas and Adrian.” All the Fathers as­
sented. Twenty-seven canons containing the judgment of the
council were read, approved, and signed by the legates, the
Patriarchs, the emperor Basil, and the bishops. It was de­
clared that Photius was never really a bishop; that the ordi­
nations conferred by him were null, as well as all the acts
performed by him during his intrusion. He and his partisans
were excommunicated. The primacy of the Roman See, the
independence of the spiritual power, and the freedom of coun­
cils, were recognized and proclaimed. The prohibition to raise
neophytes to the episcopate was renewed ; the evils resulting
from its neglect were too numerous to allow the omission of
this step. The acts of the false council of S66 were then
brought into the assembly. The book in which they were
contained was presented by John, metropolitan of Sylet
(Perge) in Pamphylia, and committed to the flames, together
with all the false and schismatical writings of Photius. The
Eastern and Western Churches were one again ; the schism
was at an end. The emperor Basil, wishing to give solemnity
and the sanction of imperial authority to the labors of the
council, thus addressed the assembled Fathers : ··' Peace is at
last restored to the Church.
We have at length reached

520

GENERAL HISTORY OP THE CHURCH.

the object of all our endeavors, of our painful labors, amid
obstacles which seemed insurmountable to our predecessors.
Ministers of God, bishops intrusted with the salvation of Hie
people, guard with jealous care the saving doctrine, bring back
the wanderer to the fold, preserve the union you have just
restored. And you, magistrates, officers, governors, laymen
placed in authority, remember that it becomes us not to dis­
cuss the affairs of religion. Ilave not the rashness to touch
the rights of bishops. However little be the prelate’s merit,
he is always a pastor while teaching the truth. Beware, then,
of judging your judges, and of trying to lead those whom
God has appointed your guides.” With these wise counsels,
so long misknown and so soon forgotten, ended the eighth
general council (a. d. 870).
21. Yet the sad truth was too soon disclosed that the
spirit of independence generated by the schism of Photius had
struck root too deeply in the Eastern soil to be so speedily uptorn. The Bulgarian king Bogoris sent deputies to the coun­
cil to ask whether the Bulgarian bishops were to derive their
authority immediately from the Patriarchate of Constantinople
or from the Roman See. The last session of the council had
been closed eight days before.
The Fathers, however, re­
assembled to discuss this question. The legates gave their
opinion thus : “ We have ended the mission upon which we
were sent by the Holy See. We have no special authority to
judge in this matter. But since the Bulgarian king has sub­
mitted, together with all his subjects, to the Roman Church,
and as his kingdom is still evangelized by our priests, we
decide, as far as in us lies, that Bulgaria should depend upon
the See of Rome.” But the Eastern prelates claimed that
Bulgaria had once formed part of the Greek empire, under the
name of Dardania, and as, at the time of the conquest, the
Bulgarians had found Greek, not Latin, priests in the country,
it should be deemed under the jurisdiction of Constantinople.
“ This is not a question of political divisions,” replied the
legates, “ but of hierarchical order. It cannot be a matter of

ADRIAN Π. (A. b. 867-872).

521

doubt that Dardania, as well as all Illyria, was first under the
government of the Roman Church ; so that Rome has deprived
Constantinople of nothing. She has but resumed, at the re­
quest of the Bulgarians themselves, the exercise of those
rights which their irruption and heathenism had interrupted.”
As the discussion waxed violent by mutual contradiction, the
legates at length said : “ The See of Peter, the See whose pri­
macy you must acknowledge, does not appoint you judges or
arbiters in the case. It will condemn your decision with an
ease equal to your haste in pronouncing it." “It is rather
strange,” returned the Orientals, “ that you, who have thrown
off the yoke of the lawful emperors, to bend to that of the
Franks, should now claim any jurisdiction in our master’s
states 1 Bulgaria shall remain under the See of Constanti­
nople.” And so it did, in spite of Adrian's protestations. The
legates only reached Rome two years afterward ; Basil, in
his irritation at this discussion, had allowed them to go with­
out an escort, and they were captured by a band of Sclavonio
pirates, from whose destructive grasp they hardly saved the
acts of the glorious council over which they had just presided.
The Pope hastened to write to the Greek emperor. “ Our
legates,” he says, “ have just returned to us after two years’
captivity among a barbarous people. It is a subject of great
surprise that you have utterly neglected to provide for their
safety.
Having so eagerly requested their presence, you
might at least have followed the example of your predecessor,
Michael, who, tyrant as he was, still furnished an escort to
those who were sent to him. There is yet another act by
which you have cancelled all the marks of good-will shown by
you toward the Holy See : it is that our brother Ignatius has
dared, with your consent, to consecrate a bishop for the Bul­
garians. Rectify this abuse of power, and cease to usurp the
rights of the Roman Church, if you would avoid canonical
judgment and the condemnation of the Holy See.” This pro­
test was also without fruit; and Bulgaria has always recog­
nized its dependence upon the see of Constantinople.

622

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

22. This was Adrian’s last pontifical act, as he died on the
25lh of November, a. d. 872. The Normans had made a de­
scent upon the English coast in the preceding year, destroyed
the monasteries of Lindisfarne, Tynemouth, Yarrow, Viremouth,
Streaneshalc and Ely, and put all their inmates to the sword
At the approach of these formidable marauders, St. Ebba,
abbess of Coldingham, assembled her religious and exhorted
them to save their honor even at the cost of their lives. She
gave (he example by mutilating her nose and upper lip, in which
she was followed by her companions. The Normans came on
the next day; yet the sight of these self-mutilated virgins
failed to touch their ferocious hearts.
Setting fire to the
monastery, they cast into the flames these heroic victims, wor­
thy of speeding their way to the nuptials of the Lamb. At
Croyland, the abbot, Theodore, was murdered at the altar. St.
Edmund, king of East Anglia, had the misfortune to fall into
the hands of these barbarians, who bound him to a tree and
shot him to death with arrows. Thus, in each age, was the
Church forced to witness the flow of her children’s blood ; but
this blood fell back upon their persecutors in a dew of graces
and salvation, and the martyrs went to heaven to pray for the
conversion of their murderers. The Normans profited by the
weakness of Charles the Bald, and treated Gaul no better than
England. The Franks were outraged that the grandson of
Charlemagne should meet these formidable foes with gold
instead of steel, and offered the crown of Neustria to Louis of
Bavaria (a. d. 856-868), who advanced as far as Pontyon,
where he was joined by most of the nobles. Charles the Bald
appeared in battle array at Brienne ; but through mistrust,
whether of himself or of his troops, he retreated, leaving
the whole kingdom to his rival. Once in possession of the
crown, Louis thought as little as his vanquished rival of de­
fending it against the Normans. The haughty bearing of the
Germans irritated the Neustrians and Charles recovered, as
bloodlessly as he had lost, the throne of which he was so un­
worthy. Meanwhile the Normans grew in numbers and in

ADRIAN Π. (A. D. 881-811).

523

daring. A body of these pirates held the island of Oissel,
near Paris, which they had occupied since a. d. 856. Another
detachment had ascended the Somme, sacked Amiens, and
spread terror throughout all Picardy. Charles conceived the
hope of destroying the Normans by means of the Normans
themselves, and offered three thousand pounds of silver to
those on the Somme on condition of their ejecting those on the
Seine. The bargain was concluded. They marched, under
their leader, Wieland, upon the island of Oissel, which they
took by assault ; but the two bands soon united, and, far from
quitting France, they settled on the banks of the Seine, from
its mouth to Melun (a. d. 861). Robert-le-Fort (Robert-theStrong), count of Anjou, founder of the third dynasty of our
kings, did more than Charles the Bald for the defence of the
land, and Charles rewarded his services with the duchy of
France (comprising the country between the Seine and Loire).
Notwithstanding Robert’s valor, Hastings, formerly a peasant
of the neighborhood of Troyes, but now one of the most re­
doubtable Norman chiefs, by his depredations compelled the
king of France to sign one of the most humiliating treaties, by
which he obtained four thousand pounds of silver, the return
or ransom of all the Franks who had escaped from his captiv­
ity, and a restitution in money for every Norman killed by the
Franks in the late inroads. Such were the disgraceful terms
which Charles could accept without a blush. As soon as the
stated sum had been all paid the Normans on the Seine with­
drew. Those of the Loire still carried on their ravages.
Robert-the-Strong attacked them with his wonted daring, but fell
at Brissarthe (a. d. 866), by the band of the fierce Hastings.

GENERAL HISTORY’ OF THE CHURCH.

524

CHAPTER

V.

L l’o^tncATR of John VIII. (December 14, a. d. 872—December 15, 882).

1. State of the world at the accession of John VIII.—2. Charles the Bald
crowned emperor of the Romans.—3. Saracen depredations in Italy.—
4. Death of Charles the Bald.—5. John VIII. at the Council of Troyes.—
6. Death of St. Ignatius, Catholic Patriarch of Constantinople. Restore·
tion of Photius.—7. John VIII. agrees to the reinstatement of Photius.—
8. Apostasy of the papal legates at Constantinople.—9. John VIII. deposes
the faithless legates and excommunicates Photius.—10. Death of John
VIII.
( II. Pontificate

Marinus I. (December 23, a. d. 882—February 23, 884).

of

1 » Election and death of Marinus I.—12. Alfred the Great, king of England.—

13.

The Normans in Gaul.

§ III. Pontificate

of

§ IV. Pontificate

a. d.

884—July 8, 885).

Election and death of Adrian III.

14.

15.

The Saracens in Italy.

Adrian III. (March 1,

Stephen VL (July 25,

of

a. d.

885—August 7, 891).

Charity of Stephen VI.—16. Book of Photius on the Procession of the Holy
Ghost and the Filioque.—17. Theodore Santabaren. Infamous Machina­
tions of Photins.—18. Leo the Philosopher. Enile and death of Photios.

His works.—19. Death of Stephen VI.
§ V. Pontificate

of

Formosus (September 19, a.

d.

891—April 4, 896).

20 Election of Formosus, bishop of Porto.—21. Formosus ends the question
of the schismatical ordinations of Photius.—22. Political revolutions in
France.—23. Council of Tribur.—24. Italian troubles.—25. Holy solitaries
in France.

§ VL Pontificate

of

26.
g VIL Pontificate
27.

Boniface VL (April 11, a. d. 896—April 26, 896).

Election and death of Boniface VI.
of

Stephen VII. (May 2, a.

Election and death of Stephen VII.
Council of Rome.

d.

896—August, 897).

Disgraceful proceedings in the

JOHN VIII. (A. D. 872-883).
§ VUL Pontificate

of

28.

§ IX. Pontificate

of

Romance (September 17, a. d. 897—February 8, 898).

Election and death of Romanae.

Theodore II. (February 12, a. d. 898—March 3, 898),
Election and death of Theodore IL

29.

§ X. Pontificate

525

of

John IX. (March 12, a. d. 898—March 26, 900).

30 Council of Rome.—31. Council of Ravenna.—32. Death of John IX. End
of the ninth century.

§ L Pontificate

of

John VIII. (December 14, a. d. 872—
December 15, 882).

1. John VIII. ascended the Pontifical throne to look upon
a world already beginning to show symptoms of fearful con­
vulsions. The East, where the General Council of Constanti­
nople should have established a lasting peace, was soon to find
a new source of dissension in its unceasing restlessness. The
West, peopled by nations still unformed and full of unfer­
mented blood, was but one vast battle-field, where the Saracens
in the South, the Normans in Gaul, the kings of France, Ger­
many and Italy, contended for some fragments of territory,
which they deluged with blood. Upper Italy enjoyed compara­
tive rest under the emperor Louis II. But he had no heir, and
the prospective succession was jealously watched, on one side
by the Franks, on the other by the Germans. Lower Italy,
divided, torn by the contentions of the Greeks, who still held
some towns, a remnant of their former rule by the Saracens, who
made continual inroads upon the land, and by the Lombard
Jukes and counts, each a petty sovereign in his own stronghold,
was alternately wasted and plundered by each in turn. Gaul,
unceasingly harassed by the Normans no longer kept at bay by
the powerful sword of Charlemagne, which the weak grasp of
his grandson, Charles the Bald, was powerless to wield—divided
in interests and policy by Charles’s sons—Charles, Louis and
Carloman, rebels to the paternal authority—now lacked the

626

GENERAL BISTORT OF THE CHURCH

undivided and powerful control under which its people could
have achieved great deeds. Amid the din and confusion of
this universal conflict was inaugurated the reign of John VIII.,
“an indefatigable Pontiff, eminently skilled in political transac­
tions, equally vigorous and moderate, who only needed a less
stormy reign to have been ranked among the greatest Popes."·
2. The emperor Louis II. died in 786. Charles the Bald,
whose cupidity of acquiring new territory was only equalled
by his inability to defend it, hastened to Rome, to secure the
succession, which Louis of Bavaria might have rightfully dis­
puted, but which he was too slow in claiming. John VIII.
crowned Charles as emperor of the Romans, and required an
oath that he would defend Italy against the Saracens, its
eternal enemies. The clergy, the senate and people swore
fealty to the new emperor in these terms : “To the most illus­
trious prince, crowned by God, great and pacific emperor, our
lord Charles Augustus, we, bishops, abbots, counts, and other
lords of the kingdom of Italy, wish endless peace and pros­
perity. Since the Divine goodness, through the merits of the
holy Apostles and their vicar, our most Holy Father John,
Sovereign Pontiff, universal Pope, has already raised you to
the empire, by the election of the Holy Ghost, we unani­
mously choose you as our protector, lord, and defender. We
gladly submit to your rule, and faithfully promise to observe
all that you may decree for the good of the Church and for our
safety.” The same high-sounding language that might have
befitted a Charlemagne ! While Charles the Bald was setting
a second crown upon the one he already wore and so ill
defended, Louis led an army into his Gallic possessions. The
emperor hurried from Italy, but the death of Louis freed him
from a formidable rival (a. d. 876).
3. John VIII. hoped that the official defender of the Holy
See would now turn his attention to Italy, which the Saracens
were again devastating. “ Christian blood is shed.” he wrote
* Murntori.

JOHN VIII. (A. D. 3)

527

to Charles. “ Those who escape the sword of the infidel ar·»
dragged away into bondage on a foreign shore. The cities and
fields are left a lonely wilderness. Bishops separated from
their wretched flocks, come to seek shelter and food in Rome.
In the last invasion, the enemy reaped the harvest which we
had sown ; this year we have been unable to sow, and we have
not even the hope of a harvest. But why complain of the
unbelievers, while the Christians themselves act no better?
The neighboring lords, \vhom you call marchiones,
*
plunder
the patrimony of St. Peter. They put us to death, not by the
sword, but by hunger ; they do not lead us away captives, but
reduce us to a state of servitude. Under God, you are our
refuge, our consolation, our only hope. Stretch forth your
hand to raise up this desolate people, this noble and faithful
city, to help the Church your mother, who crowned you with the
twofold diadem of royalty and faith, and lately raised you to
the imperial dignity before your brother.” The evils men­
tioned by John VIII. were assuming yet more fearful propor­
tions, as some of the Italian nations, far from checking, only
helped to increase them. The Neapolitans and the neighbor­
ing people had formed an alliance with the Saracens, and came
by sea to the very gates of Rome. The Pope used every
means to break the league ; he sent two bishops, Valbert of
Porto and Peter of Ostia, to urge this measure upon Pulcherius, prefect of Amalfi, and especially upon Sergius, duke of
Naples, the chief author of the treaty. John, deceived by
their promises, several times repaired to Gaeta to conclude
the affair.
4. The legates charged to deliver the Pope’s letter to
Charles the Bald found the emperor at Compïègne (a. d. 87").
Their earnest petitions moved Charles to hurry at once to
Rome. John VIII. came forward to receive him; they met
at Verona, and journeyed together as far as Pavia, where the
Pope solemnly crowned the empress Richilda. The ceremony
• This title was bestowed upon the governors of the marches or bonlers
arig-.n of the present titio of marquis.

This is thr

528

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

was hardly concluded when Carloman, eldust son of Louis of
Bavaria, who had crossed the Alps at the head of a ]arge
army, attacked Charles the Bald, and called him to an account
for usurping the imperial title belonging, by right, to his father.
A terrible panic seized upon the troops of Charles ; their chief
was not more courageous ; he preferred to fight with gold
rather than with the sword. He hastily fled, almost alone, a
prey to a burning fever ; and at the foot of Mt. Cenis he lay
down to die, poisoned, perhaps, by his Jewish physician, Sedecias. Louis, possessed of more power than he was worthy
to wield, more awake to the call of ambition than of glory,
more crafty than prudent, more covetous of conquests than
able to hold them, bequeathed his crown and his weakness to
Louis III., the Stammerer, who allowed Carloman, king of
Bavaria, to snatch his imperial title from him. The blood
which had produced Pepin of Herstal, Charles Martel, Pepin
the Short, and Charlemagne, had now ceased to course in the
veins of heroes (a. d. 877).
5. By the death of Charles the Bald, Italy was left open
to all its enemies, Moor and Christian. John VIII. searched
in vain among the Carlovingian princes for a noble heart or
stalwart arm to stem the destructive torrent.
Carloman,
grasping at an imperial crown through streams of blood, or­
dered his lieutenant in Italy, Lambert, duke of Spoleto, to
march upon Rome and make himself master of the city.
Lambert but too well obeyed these tyrannical orders ; the Ro­
man territory was given up to fire and sword. Yet the Pope,
hoping to turn the duke’s hostile weapons against the Sara­
cens, his real enemies, met him as a friend ; Lambert could
not share the Pontiff’s Christian views. He passed, as an
angry conqueror, the gates which had been voluntarily opened
to him, took military possession of Rome, and imprisoned the
Pope in St. Peter’s church. For the space of a mouth the
altar remained stripped of every ornament ; the desolate ba­
silica was no longer hallowed by the wonted sacrifice or sacred
office. The Pontiff succeeded in eluding the watchful eyes

Mfflr Vin. (A. D. SIMM).

529

of his keepers, and, sailing from the port of Ostia, landed on
the hospitable shores of Provence, where the Papacy had
always found an unfailing horne and brave defence. John sent
to ask Louis III. where he might hold an interview with him.
Troyes was named, and thither the Pope proceeded. He con­
voked a council ; but the bishops beyond the Rhine refused
their presence. The Pontiff’s call was unheeded ; Rome
seemed forsaken. All were ready to receive at her hands their
crowns and titles ; but no one was found to draw the sword
in her defence. The council was solemnly opened on the 11th
of August, a. d. 878, and expressed its regret at the disgrace­
ful outrage put upon the Sovereign Pontiff by Carloman and
his lieutenant. Wise regulations were made to maintain the
independence of the bishops against the encroachments of the
civil power. There were noble words ; but other arguments
were needed to beat back the Saracens and check the growing
insolence of rebel lords. John VIII. was keenly alive to this
truth. “ I conjure you, my brethren,” said the Pontiff, “ to
arm your vassals for the defence of the Holy See and of all
Italy. Give me a final answer on this point.” His prayers
were vain. The grief-stricken Pastor recrossed the Alps and
sought Rome once more.
6. Convinced that he had nothing more to hope for from
the Western riders, he turned toward Constantinople, where
Basil the Macedonian reigned with glory. His victorious
arms had driven back the Saracens from Asia Minor, from
Pontus, Armenia, Cappadocia, and Mesopotamia, and only
stayed their conquering career beyond the Euphrates, whither
the Roman eagles had never ventured to wing their flight
since the days of Heraclius. The Pope believed that this was
the hero destined by Providence to save Italy, and tom becoe
the bulwark of Christianity in the West. He sent two legates
charged to propose to him this noble mission. But Constanti­
nople had undergone a great change since the eighth genera]
council. Photius was no longer the schismatic deposed by the
Fathers, proscribed by the emperor, forced to fly from public
Vol Π —34.

530

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH

contempt and indignation. He had now gained access to th·
monarch’s intimacy, dwelt in the imperial palace, appeared in
pontifical attire, and enjoyed an unbounded influence at court;
and this great metamorphosis was due to a skilful imposition
of his perverse mind. Basil, though born of a lowly family
of Adrianople, was, like nearly all upstarts, covetous of a
pedigree. Photius had the address to profit by this petty
vanity. He improved his hours of exile in engrossing in
Alexandrian characters, upon an old parchment, in a motheaten cover, a genealogical table which carried back the family
of Basil to King Tiridates, so famous in Armenia. Theophanes,
a cleric at the court, and an intimate friend of the intruder,
undertook to place the dusty manuscript upon the shelves of
the imperial library. He then presented it to the emperor as
a most precious literary monument. “ Unfortunately,” added
he, “ the characters are unknown to us. There is but one man
in the East who might decipher it.” “ Who is the man ?” de­
manded Basil. “ Photius.” Photius was summoned, exam­
ined the book which he understood better than any one else,
and said that he could make known its contents to no one but
the emperor, as it revealed important secrets. Basil fell into
the snare. Photius’s exile, which had lasted seven years, was
at an end. The crafty politician, once in the master’s favor,
soon had him under full control (a. d. 878). The death of St.
Ignatius now left the way open for nim to resume his Patri­
archal dignity in Constantinople.
The legates, Paul and
Eugenius, were so utterly overcome by the crafty machinations
of the Greeks, as publicly to announce that they were charged
to restore Photius to his former rank. The Eastern bishops,
terrified into submission by the proofs of wonderful power so
lately shown by Photius, dared not oppose his restoration, and
the wily schemer had the satisfaction of seeing all his plans
crowned with the most brilliant success.
7. The ambassadors bearing the letters of the Greek emperor
to John VIII. had reached Rome. Basil wrote to urge the
Pope’s approval of Photius’s nomination. This was the price

JOHN VIH. (A. D. 872-882),

531

of his protectorate. The Pope was thrown into a state of cruel
perplexity. The condition of Italy, growing daily worse,
called for prompt relief; Basil alone could afford it; on the
other hand, the reinstatement of Photius, deposed by a general
council and still suspected of attachment to the schism, pre­
sented considerable difficulties. In so delicate an alternative,
John VIII. took counsel of necessity. The course which he
adopted was dictated by unquestionably serious reasons of
policy. “ You ask,” he at length wrote to the emperor, “that,
opening our heart to the call of mercy, we should, by our
Apostolical authority, consent to the restoration of Photius to the
honors and dignity of the Patriarchate. In order to conform
to your petition, to heal the division and scandal existing in
the Church, now so long harassed, and yielding to stern
necessity, we consent to grant the pardon of Photius and his
restoration to the Patriarchal throne. This we do, without
detriment to the Apostolic Constitutions, without annulling the
regulations of the holy Fathers, and upon this principle alone,
that there are occasions in which we must yield to the force if
circumstances and act contrary to the ordinary traditions of
the Church. We therefore absolve Photius from the ecclesi­
astical censures laid upon him ; we allow him to resume the
Patriarchal Seo, in virtue of the supreme authority granted us
in the person of the Prince of the Apostles, by Jesus our Lord,
Who said to St. Peter. ‘ I will give unto thee the keys of the
kingdom of heaven. And whatsoever thou shalt bind upon
earth, it shall be bound also in heaven ; and whatsoever thou
shalt loose upon earth, it shall be loosed also in heaven.’ Yet
we give our consent under four conditions : 1st, That, on the
death of Photius, his place shall not be filled by a layman.
2d, That the Patriarch claim no jurisdiction whatever over the
province of Bulgaria. 3d, That the bishops and clerics or­
dained by Ignatius shall all hold their present rank and posi­
tions, and suffer no persecution. 4th, That Photius convoke a
council to receive the disavowal of his past conduct.”
8. The last clause was particularly offensive to Photius.

532

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

Its fulfilment would have cost his pride too dear, and he did
not hesitate to elude it in his usual way. He took upon him·
self to translate the Pope’s letters into Greek ; and in the
translation purposely omitted the pontifical reservations con­
cerning the acknowledgment of his faults, the relinquishment
of all claims upon Bulgaria, and the plea of pressing necessity
which alone could have relaxed the strictness of ecclesiastical
discipline in his regard. He even inserted the expression,
which the Pope had never used, that the general council of
869 had been guilty of injustice in deposing Photius, and
that all its acts were annulled. These blasphemous lies were
publicly read, as coming from the pen of John VIII., in a false
council over which the intruder presided in person, regardless
of the honor due to the papal legates, still in Constantinople.
The guilty envoys neither complained of this dishonor nor pro­
tested against the shameful expressions ascribed to the Vicar
of Jesus Christ, whom they were sent to represent. They car­
ried their base compliance to the extent of presenting the pon­
tifical vestments to Photius with their own hands, in the cere­
mony of rehabilitation. And, when this scene of intrigue and
disgraceful weakness was over, they came to tell the Pope that
peace was at length restored and consolidated for ever in the
Church of Constantinople.
9. But the Pontiff had in the mean time received full and
precise details of their faithlessness and the intrigues of Pho­
tius. Ascending the ambo of St. Peter's church, in the pres­
ence of the assembled clergy and faithful of Rome, and holding
in his hands the book of Gospels, John VIII. renewed the
anathemas uttered against Photius by Nicholas I., Adrian IL,
and the eighth general council ; and afterward fulminated a
sentence of excommunication against the cowardly legates who
had so basely betrayed their trust. The deacon Marinus, one
of the legates who had presided over the eighth general coun­
cil, was again sent to Constantinople to acquaint the emperor
Basil and the intruded Patriarch with the sentence just pro­
nounced. Marinus proved himself worthy of the confidence

JOHN VIH. (A. D. 872-382).

533

reposed in him. In spite of the emperor and of Photius, he
publicly appeared in the ambo of St. Sophia, and, in the name
of the Pope, announced the annulment of all that had been
done in favor of the intruded Patriarch. The fearless ambas­
sador was, by order of Basil, thrown into a dungeon, from
which he succeeded in making his escape, and reached Rome
in safety to give an account of the dangerous duty he had dis­
charged at the risk of hi? fe.
10. The Pope thus saw the hopes he had cherished for the
defence of Italy successively blighted. The East was barred
against him, the West was deaf to his entreaties; yet was he
not disheartened, for his energy seemed to gain strength as
obstacles grew before him ; and it was a noble sight to behold
a devoted Pontiff struggling with unflagging spirit against the
indifference or opposition of his age. In 880, he thus
wrote to Charles the Fat, king of Germany and brother of
Carloman : “ We are equally exposed to the outrages of the
Saracens and the rebellion of the Christians themselves. The
husbandmen leave their furrows unsown; the ministers of God
are endangered by the very discharge of their sacred office.
If you hasten not to the help of Rome and the Apostolic See,
you will answer before God for the loss of Italy." Charles
III. would have made as light of this appeal as he had done
of so many others before ; but the death of Carloman (a. d. 881)
left the empire vacant. Charles hastened to Rome to receive
the imperial crown at the hands of the Pope. He fully intended
to take upon him the implied obligation, but was equally deter­
mined to disregard every claim of gratitude, as his predecessors
had done before him. The Pontiff did, indeed, require the
usual coronation oath, that he would use the sword given him
by the Church in her defence ; he forgot his oath as soon as its
fruits were within his grasp. John VIII. vainly renewed his
petitions, prayers, and threats ; and the unfortunate Pontiff
died (December 15, a. d. 882) without having accomplished
the great object of all his hopes and endeavors during the ten
yea· J of his reign—the rescue of Italy. History, which must

034

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

judge the endeavor and not the result, is forced to pay au ad
miring tribute to such loftiness and firmness of character. Re.
solved to secure the safety at least of Rome against the barba
rians, he bought a peace from the infidels, at the cost of an
annual tribute of twenty-five thousand silver marks.

§ II. Pontificate of Marinus I. (December 23, a. d. 882—
February 23, 884).
11. The intrepid legate, Marinus, who, in the words of
an annalist, “ had just covered his name with immortal glory
in the prisons of Constantinople and the fetters of Basil the
Macedonian,” was already marked, by universal esteem, as the
successor of John VIII. He was raised to the Pontifical Chaii
on the 23d of December, a. d. 882. The Greek emperor and
his false Patriarch in vain protested against his consecration.
Marinus answered their interested protestations by renewing
the excommunication of Photius and issuing a decree that
henceforth the orders of the Eastern emperors should not be
awaited for the Pope’s consecration. The authority of the
Carlovingian princes, weakened by their personal incapacity,
<md by their domestic strifes in Germany and Gaul, was utterly
’ost in Italy. The energy and apostolic firmness of Marinus
justified the brightest and most sanguine hopes for the Church’s
future ; but they were unhappily doomed to a speedy disap­
pointment by the Pontiff’s death, after a short reign of four­
teen months (February 23, a. d. 884).
12. A few months before his death, he had received ambas·
<adors sent by Alfred the Great, king of England, bearing rich
offerings from their sovereign for the tomb of the Apostles, in
gratitude for his wonderful success against the Normans.
Alfred was justly convinced that no power short of the
Almighty’s arm could have wrought the unlooked and unhoped­
for prosperity with which his kingdom was now blessed. It had
once, like its neighbors, felt the blighting tread of the Normans

MANNCT I. (A. D. UMMb

535

and Danes, who had possessed themselves of his states, re­
ducing him to the necessity of seeking shelter, with his family,
in a forest fastness, surrounded by almost impassable marshes.
For six months the august fugitives enjoyed no nobler shelter
than the hovel of a poor shepherd, no daintier fare than the
fish they drew from the neighboring ponds. But in winter
an icy barrier cut off even this scanty supply of subsist­
ence.
One day a houseless beggar knocks and asks for
food. “ What have you to give?" asked Alfred of the queen.
“We have hut a single loaf.” answered the royal fugitive.
“ Thank God !" exclaimed the king; “ He who with five loaves
could feed five thousand men can well supply our need with
half a loaf. Give the other half to this poor wanderer.” The
noble deed of charity could not go unrewarded, and God
bestowed a throne for the piece of bread given in His name.
A short time after this occurrence, Alfred learned that, notwith­
standing the desperate state of his affairs, some Englishmen
had dared a last desperate encounter. Hubba, the Danish
chief, and the author of St. Edmund’s martyrdom, had been
slain in a bloody engagement. The king came forth from his
retreat, rallied his scattered subjects, fell like a thunderbolt
upon the Danes, and gained a complete victory (a. d. 878).
Those who escaped the carnage sheltered themselves in one of
their strongholds, which Alfred speedily compelled them to
surrender at discretion. Those who refused to forsake idolatry
were banished from the island, while estates were bestowed
upon the others. The new Christians, headed by their king,
Gunthrum, who received at the font the name of Ethelstane,
settled in the provinces assigned them by Alfred. Thus he
peopled with a bold and trusty race the two kingdoms of East
Anglia and Northumberland, which the invasion had almost
made a tenantless desert. To perfect the work of their civili­
zation, he gave them laws which have since become the univer­
sal code of England. The closing years of Alfred’s reign wero
as glorious as its beginning had been gloomy and unpromising.
His higher glory is to rank among the Church’s sainted sons.

036

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

The splendid figure of Alfred the Great sheds a ray of glory
upon a gloomy page of history, and he stands out in noble
contrast to his weak and faithless contemporaries on the
Frankish throne. We have several works from the pen of
Alfred the Great; among others, a Treatise on lh<. Different For­
tunes of Kings. In this work, at least, he might speak with the
authority of experience.
13. During the reign of Louis the Stammerer (a. d. 881),
the Normans burned the monastery of Corbie and the city of
Amiens. Entering Lorraine by the Wahl, they destroyed
Nimeguen, Liège, Maastricht, Tongres, Cambray, Cologne,
Bonn, Zulpich, Juliers, and at length Aix-la-Chapelle, where
they used Charlemagne’s imperial chapel to stable their horses.
Champagne was laid waste, Rheims sacked and given to the
flames. Hincmar had fled with the treasure of his church and
the precious relics of St. Remigius, and sank under exhaustion
and grief at Epernay, on the 21st of December, a. d. 882.
Lupus of Ferrières, his administrator, speaks of him as “a
generous prelate, full of good works, of lofty views and sur­
passing wisdom.” We have had occasion to observe that his
character was at times too much controlled by the spirit of the
age. As a writer he displays more learning than taste ; his
style is diffuse, obscure, clogged by parentheses and overloaded
with quotations. He is far inferior to his contemporary,
Ratramnus, a monk of Corbie, whose works, especially the
Treatise on the Eucharist, are models of elegant and pure
Latinity.
While Germany and Gaul groaned beneath the Norman
yoke, Italy was not more gently treated by the Saracens. The
infidels plundered the lands of Beneventum and Spoleto, and
pushed on to the very walls of Rome, regardless of the com­
pact made with Pope John VIII. The religious of St. Vincent’son-the-Vulturnus were put to the sword, and their monastery
destroyed ; Monte Cassino met the same fate, though its
former abbot, St. Bassacius, had given it a crown of walls and
towers which made it as strong as a fortress. But the un

STEPHEN VI. (A. D. 885-991),

537

quenchable avarice of the Arabs was resistless ; the convent
•vas sacked and burned, and the abbot, Bertarius, with most
of his monks, fell beneath the pitiless scimetars of the fierce
Moslem (a. d. 884). The few survivors succeeded in reaching
the priory of Theano, bearing with them the annals of the
monastery, and the hope of one day raising it again from its
then ruined state.

§ III. Pontificate

of

Adrian III. (March 1, a. d. 884—July
8, 885).

14. Adrian III. had hardly taken possession of the See left
vacant by Marinus I. when he received urgent letters from
Basil the Macedonian. Still under the influence of Photius’
infernal power, he begged the Pope to recall the censures pro­
nounced against the false Patriarch by Marinus I. and John
VIII. Adrian’s only reply was a plain and formal refusal and
the confirmation of his predecessors’ sentence. Having inau­
gurated his reign by this act of Apostolical authority, he turned
his attention to the means of rescuing Italy from the galling
yoke of the Saracens. The emperor, Charles the Fat, invited
him to France, to anoint his natural son, Bernard, as heir pre­
sumptive to the imperial throne. The Pope, hoping to find in
the French monarch the liberator of Italy, set out upon the
journey; but death overtook him at St. Cesarius, a little
village near Modena, where he died on the 8th of July, a. d.
885. Adrian’s charity, prudence, and fearless intrepidity, had
awakened the brightest hopes for his pontificate; their realiza­
tion was left to his worthy successor.
§ IV. Pontificate of Stephen VI. (July 25, a. d. 885—August
7, 891).
15. On his accession (July 25, a. d. 885) Stephen VI.
found Home in a most lamentable condition. The countless
woes inflicted by the Saracens were still increased by a cruel

588

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

famine and a withering drought which threatened the failnrt
of the coming crops. It was found necessary forcibly to
remove Stephen from the house in which his humility had
concealed him, to avoid the burdensome dignity imposed upon
him by the unanimous voice of clergy and people. “ My
shoulders are too weak for the immense weight !” exclaimed
Stephen. Heedless of his prayers and tears, the people bore
him in triumph to the Lateran palace. As if to pledge ap­
proval of the happy choice, even while the enthusiastic throng
was still on its way, Heaven sent a plentiful and refreshing
rain to save the parched and drooping harvest. On the next
day the Pope went to visit the Roman churches and the pon­
tifical palace. The altars had been profaned, all their orna­
ments had become a prey to the sacrilegious Saracen; the
treasury was empty, the furniture, granaries and storehouses
plundered. Yet he must provide for the wants of the clergy
and military, ransom the captives, and feed a whole people
wasting away with the pangs of hunger. The exhaustless
charity and energy of Adrian met every demand. His illus­
trious lineage placed an immense fortune at his disposal. His
entire patrimony was sold, and liberally bestowed to relieve the
crying want. His own household was put upon a most severe
footing. Tried and spotless virtue was the only passport to
the offices of his court. The Pontiff’s table was daily shared
by a certain number of orphans, whom he made the favorite
children of his great adoptive family, the Roman poor. The
sinking hearts of the Romans were cheered with new and
hopeful courage, and the fearful unbelievers dared not approach
the Eternal City,· so strongly defended by the virtues of her
Pastor.
16. Photius thought to revenge himself upon the Rumun
Church by calumniating the faith of the Latins in respect to
the Füioque and the procession of the Holy Ghost. He ac­
cordingly published a pamphlet, claiming to prove, by texts of
Holy Writ and quotations from the Fathers, that the Holy
Ghost does not proceed from the Son. The work was ad·

ΗΤΈΡΠΕΝ VT. (A. D. Î8S-89

539

«Iressed to Adrian III., and accompanied the insulting lettei
of the emperor Basil in reply to the Pope’s renewed excom
munication of the intruded Patriarch. Stephen VI. received
the dispatches addressed to his predecessor, and answered
them with the same firmness that Adrian himself would have
shown. “If God,” he wrote to the emperor, “has bestowed
upon you the government of the political and civil world, He
has intrusted to Peter and his successors the government of the
religious and moral world. You accuse the Apostolic See of
breaking off all relations with the Church of Constantinople.
Where is the head of that Church, that the Sovereign Pontiffs
may communicate with him? You have no Patriarch. We
cannot hold official communication with Photius, a mere
layman.”
17. This letter reached Constantinople in the midst, of a
fresh revolution (a. d. 886). Photius had placed one of his
tools in charge of Basil, to keep the imperial mind in the
channel marked out by the false Patriarch. Theodore Santabaren proved himself well worthy of the shameful charge.
The emperor was already in the decline of life ; Leo, his son
and heir, whose love of study and science had already dignified
him with the surname of the Philosopher, made no secret of
his aversion for Photius, whose insincerity was well known tc
him. Santabaren made known these unfriendly dispositions
to Photius, and together they planned the prince's ruin. The
intruder’s ambition made light of deceit. In obedience to his
directions, Theodore went to the young prince. “ Why," said
the hypocrite, “ do you not carry some weapon about you
when you go with your father to the chase? Aged and weak
as he is, you leave him without defence against the fury of the
hunted beasts.” It was customary at the court of Constanti­
nople to hunt with no other weapon than the boar-spear, with
which the animal was struck when run down. In the morrow’s
imperial hunt, Leo secreted a sword under his garments, in
order not to alarm his father. Santabaren whispered to the
emperor : “ Your son is plotting against you, and intends to

640

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

murder you in the forest. As a proof, order him to be
searched.” Anxious to avoid excitement, Basil feigned to
need a knife; the unsuspecting prince offered his own. Tho
misguided father asked no further proof, but ordered his son
to be thrown into a dungeon and tried at once. The members
of the imperial family, fully convinced of Leo’s innocence,
filled the palace with their cries and tears. A general mourn­
ing reigned in the court. Every effort was made to open the
emperor’s eyes to the infamous plot of the two impostors.
Basil was inflexible ; Photius and Theodore triumphed. Basil
had one day entered more than usual into the spirit of the
banquet, when suddenly a favorite parrot broke in upon the
general hilarity of the feast with the piteous cry : “ Alas ! alas !
my lord Leo !” *
he poor bird had heard this sad expression
incessantly uttered in the court during the past three months,
and now repeated it for the first time. The cry paralyzed
the flowing mirth. A gloomy silence, broken only by a few
stifled sobs, reigned around the festive board. At length a voice
arose: “Sire, that bird condemns us. We are here in festive
gladness, while your son Leo, the heir to your crown, is pining
in a dungeon, the victim of an infamous calumny. If he is
guilty, we are all armed to punish him ; if innocent, then are
we all guilty.” The emperor, deeply moved, summoned the
prince, and learned from his own lips the infernal plot of which
he had himself been the dupe. Theodore purchased safety by
a hasty flight, not waiting to betray his partner, Photius, who
continued to enjoy the imperial favor. But his triumph was
short-lived. Basil died of a fall received in escaping from a
stag which had rushed upon him in the chase (a. d. 886). He
was now, but too late, enlightened upon the conduct of Photius,
and his last words to his heir were words of warning against
his own evil genius : “ My son, beware of Photius ; he has
opened a fearful abyss beneath my throne.” He was right.
Posterity would have ranked Basil the Macedonian among the
greatest monarchs, for the rare prudence, the too-long-unkuown
virtues with which he graced the Eastern throne, had he not

STEPHEN VI. (A. D. 885-591).

541

met in Photius a rock against which was wrecked all the glory
of his reign.
18. Leo VI., the Philosopher, was not regardless of his
father’s dying injunction ; had filial love been wanting, motives
of personal vengeance were strong enough to insure its ful­
filment. The new emperor immediately sent two of his chief
officers to the church of St. Sophia, where they published
from the ambo a detailed account of the schismatical usurper’s
intrigues, and the sentences of excommunication pronounced
against him by the predecessors of Stephen VI. The false
Patriarch was then banished from Constantinople, this time
not to return. His career of intrigue and deceit was at an
end ; the hour of vengeance had come. His expulsion crushed
the ' Eastern schism to which he gave his name. Photius
was born to achieve great deeds, had not his daring mind
plunged too rashly into crooked paths and endless deceits. He
was, unquestionably, one of the best writers of his day. The
chief works we have from him are : 1st, his Bibliotheca, an
analysis of the various works read by him in the course of his
Syrian embassy. This collection is one of the most valuable
monuments of ancient literature and a model for literary jour­
nals, perhaps hitherto unsurpassed. It contains extracts from
two hundred and eighty works, some of which have not
reached us in the original. 2d, The Nomocanon, or Harmony
of the laws and canons, a collection of the acts of all the coun­
cils, from the apostolic days to the seventh general council,
compared in their relation to the imperial decrees. 3d, Syntag­
ma Canonum, or classification of the canons under fourteen
titles. The original of this work was first brought to light
and published by H. E. Cardinal Mai, in the seventh volume
of his Spicilegium Romanum. It is a remarkable feature of
the two last works, that they contain not a single word in
favor of the schism. Photius quotes, entire and without gloss,
the canons establishing the supremacy of the Roman Pontiif
and the right of appeal to the Pope. In this respect the
writer and the private individual seem to have nothing in com

D42

general history OF THE CnnilCH.

mon. Impartiality and love of truth, banished from his heart,
had made their seat in his intellect ; his pen proclaims the up­
rightness and honesty which were wanting in his character and
his deeds.
19 Immediately after the banishment of the intruder, Leo
VI. raised to the vacant See his own virtuous brother Stephen,
who was consecrated toward the end of the year 886. A
solemn embassy was then sent to Rome, to acquaint the Sov­
ereign Pontiff with the happy downfall of the schism which
had lasted thirty years. Stephen VI. answered the Greek
emperor by letters conveying all his joy and that of the West­
ern churches at the glad tidings. He requested Leo to send
him some Eastern bishops, that they might agree together upon
some necessary measures touching the irregular ordinations
conferred by the schismatical Patriarch. These negotiations
necessarily entailed a long delay, and when the deputies sent
by Leo VI. to treat these matters reached Rome, Stephen VI.
had ceased to reign on earth (August 7, a. d. 891). His Pon­
tificate witnessed the most formidable Norman invasion re­
corded in history. The light skiffs of these savage sea-kings
covered the Seine for a distance of more than two leagues, aid
so close together that the surface of the water was not visible
at any point within their lines. Their king, Sigefrid, pre­
sented himself before Goslin, bishop of Paris, saying that he
required but the right of transit, to which the bishop proudly
replied : “ The emperor, Charles the Fat, has intrusted us with
the safety of the city. We shall defend it to the death.” He
was true to his word. With the help of Eudes, count of Paris,
worthy son of Robert the Strong, whose heroic valor on this
occasion won him a well-deserved throne, Goslin, with a dis­
play of great personal prowess, in spite of the canonical pro­
hibition, withstood for a whole year the desperate efforts of the
Normans. Cowed by this unwonted opposition, the barbarians,
who were fonder of plunder than of battle, found means to
carry their boats overland to a point above tho city (a. d. 886887), where they again embarked. Following the course of

F0RMOSD8 (A. D. 891-898).

543

the Seine and Yone, they sacked and burned the city of Sena,
wasted Burgundy, and carried tenor to the very heart of
Gaul.
V. Pontificate of Formosus (September 19, a. d. 891—
April 4, 896).
20. Formosus, bishop of Porto, affords the first example of
a bishop transferred from another See to that of Rome, to
which he was raised on (he 19th of September, a. d. 891.
These translations were, as yet, very unusual in the West,
truer to this point of discipline than the East. We shall soon
see how keenly sensitive was the public mind on this subject,
by the excesses springing from the use of a dispensation
granted to Formosus only for the greater good of the Church.
The bishop of Porto was raised to the Sovereign Pontificate
solely in consideration of his unfeigned attachment to religion,
his zeal and exemplary virtues, his energy and experience, hie
thorough knowledge of the Scriptures and holy Fathers—a rare
combination of high endowments in any age, but especially in
his time, and deemed much more necessary to the head of the
Church than to a simple bishop. He had labored with fruit
among the Bulgarians, and won general esteem for his learning
and the edifying regularity of his life.
21. Formosus gave his first thoughts to the question of the
ordinations conferred in the East by the schismatical Patriarch
Photius. The Pope’s legates set out for Constantinople with
minute instructions on the subject. “First of all,” said the
Sovereign Pontiff’, “ the condemnation of Photius shall remain
as ting and irrevoc
We are willing to pardon those whom
he has ordained. They must present to the metropolitan an
acknowledgment of their fault, signed by themselves, after
which they may be received into lay-communion, but deprived
of all rank in the hierarchy of the Church.” This letter is the
last act of the Holy See concerning the Photian schism, which
thenceforth officially disappeared ; but the final separation of

544

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

the Greeks, long under the fostering influence of jealooe
rivalry, hastened by heresies which degenerated into a kind of
irréligion, and at length consummated by the daring artifices
of the most seductive of party-leaders, was but for a moment
checked. The seed was sown deep in the bosom of the East­
ern Church, and only awaited the favorable moment for breakmg forth with new power to beget a ruin hitherto irretriev­
able (a. d. 891).
22. Fulk, Hincmar’s successor in the See of Rheims, and
one of the most illustrious by birth and personal qualities of all
the Frankish prelates, hastened to write to Pope Formosus, to
pay his homage to the worthy successor of St. Peter, and con­
gratulate the Roman Church upon an election which he pro­
nounced “a token of the divine protection over the whole
Church.” In the following year (a. d. 893), Fulk proclaimed
and established in France the royalty of Charles, son of Louis
the Stammerer, and asked the Pope’s guidance and protection
for the youthful monarch. The prince, then but fourteen years
of age, was the only legitimate descendant of Charlemagne.
After the rescue of Paris, public gratitude had bestowed the
crown of France upon Eude$, and Charles, an uncrowned
child, owed his safe retreat into England to the care of a few
followers still true to the Carlovingian dynasty. Here he re­
mained until a fitting opportunity offered of regaining his lost
rights ; some rising troubles in Aquitaine called Eudes far
from the centre of his states ; the loyal nobles seized the mo­
ment and brought Charles to Rheims, where he was crowned
by Fulk, at whose request the Sovereign Pontiff wrote in the
young king’s behalf to his two powerful rivals, Eudes and
Arnold, king of Germany. Whatever may have been the in­
fluence of a mediation, so respectable in itself, but yet so sel­
dom honored in like cases, the continual dissensions between
France and Germany proved much more useful to Charles,
who kept at least the title of royalty, though branded with the
deserved epithet of the Simple. Eudes held the provinces
stretching from the Seine *o the Pyrenees, while Charles

FOHMO8U0 (A. D. 8M-8M).

MS

was confined within the narrow limits of the Seine and Mense.
At the death of Eudes, Charles the Simple was generally ac­
knowledged in Neustria, Burgundy, and Aquitaine; this sub­
mission was readily made, as it amounted to nothing more, on
the part of the nobles, at least, than a barren recognition
Feudalism, grown powerful by the weakness of the Carlovingian kings, and secure within its strongholds, now braved the
monarch’s authority and too often wasted the nation’s blood
in petty wars and personal disputes. The struggle now begins
between the royal power and its often more powerful vassals.
Happy if, in the midst of unceasing strifes, the common father
of the faithful had ever been the arbiter, or had his peaceful
mediation been always respected !
23. It would seem that the necessity of clinging closer to
the centre of Catholic unity must now have seized more forcibly
upon all minds. In 895, Arnold, king of Germany, called a
general council of all the states under his sway, at Tribur, ne«·
Mentz. “ Pastors of Christ’s flock," said the king, addressing
the assembled bishops, “ faithfully fulfil your trust, and be
sure that I shall religiously discharge my duty of battling
against the enemies of the Church and yours." The Fathers
published canons of discipline and took measures to restore
public penance, so little regarded in the midst of continual
wars and dissensions, to its first conformity with the spirit and
laws of the primitive Church. They concluded with these
remarkable words : “ We must honor the holy and apostolic
Church of Rome in memory of the Apostle St Peter, and as
being for us the mother of the priestly dignity and mistrass
of the ecclesiastical power. It therefore becomes our duty to
yield a pious submission to her orders.”
24. Though this solemn tribute of homage came to the
Holy See from the midst of the German nations, it was op­
pressed at home by its own children contending for the imperial
power. The emperor Guy died in 894. His son Lambert,
recognized as his heir and successor, had been crowned by
Formosus, and now reigned with his mother, Agiltrude, an
Vol. II.—36

546

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

ambitious princess, whose power soon degenerated into tyranny.
A portion of Upper Italy was at the same time in the hands
of king Berengarius, who thought to seize the imperial sceptro
while the public mind was still imbittercd by the despotism of
Lambert and Agiltrude. War was declared ; the whole country,
not excepting Rome, was divided into two parties, for or against
either competitor. To quell the disturbance, Formosus ap­
pealed to Arnold, the German king, whose noble and generous
tone at the Council of Tribur we had occasion to quote. Arnold
answered the Pontiff’s call (a. d. 896). At the head of a
powerful German army he wrested Rome from the hands of
Lambert. Formosus received him with joy, crowned him
emperor, and made the people swear fealty to him as such.
But this act only complicated instead of clearing up the diffi­
culties. There were now three emperors, three parties, and
three armies face to face. The division had become a real
anarchy. Arnold, after a series of alternate victories and
defeats, was forced back into Germany. Lambert and Beren­
garius agreed to share Italy as their booty. Formosus was
spared any further scenes of blood and misery by death, which
came to his release April 4th, a. d. 896.
25. While the West was shaken by the universal clash of
resounding arms, many chosen souls, mysteriously drawn after
the sweet perfume of a life of holy solitude, sought, in the
forests of Germany and Gaul, retreats far removed from the
tumultuous passions and strifes of men. Holy contemplatives
built themselves cells in the very midst of noisy cities, against
the wall of some church, with which they communicated by
means of a window. There, alone, between the sanctuary and
the world, they stood as suppliants unceasingly imploring the
divine mercy for the people. One of these solitaries, named
Grimlaic, composed a rule Tor their use—an angelic legislation
of that peaceful kingdom whose judge was conscience, the love
of God its sanction, and everlasting joys the reward. At the
same period a lonely but delightful vale, at the foot of the
mountains of Auvergne, received St. Gerald, more proud of his

STEPHEN VIL (A. D. 895-897).

547

coarse monk’s cowl and habit than of the ktightly mail and
earldom he had just forsaken. Here he founded a mons»
tery, which afterward gave rise to the city of Aurillac. Thus
did “ piety,” which is “ profitable to all things,” continue, during
the ninth century, its work of saving souls and civilizing the
world.

§ VI. Pontificate of Boniface VI. (April 11, a. d. 896April 26, 896).

26. The death of Formosus left Rome in a state of dissension
and torn by the rival factions of the three emperors. In the
midst of this confusion, a regular election was out of the ques­
tion. The faction of BerengariuSj in a tumultuous assembly,
bore to the throne Boniface VI. (April 11, a. d. 896). The
awfulness of this election, carried by force of arms, is doubtful
enough. But the incumbent only left his name in the pontifical
annals, as he died fifteen days after his promotion (April 26,
a. d. 896).
§ VII. Pontificate op Stephen VII. (May 2, a. d. 896—
August, 897).

27. The party which had elected Boniface VI. was still
-owerful enough to manage the choice of his successor, though
somewhat more in accordance with canonical propriety, and
Stephen VII. ascended the pontifical throne (May 2, a. d. 896).
Fulk of Rheims wrote to him, as he bad done to his predeces­
sors, to testify his veneration for the Apostolic See, and his
desire of visiting Rome to pay his homage to the tomb of the
Apostles. The new Pontiff's reign lasted but a year, and is
marked by a singular occurrence, which helped to its untimely
end. Formosus had been transferred from the See of Porto to
that of Rome, contrary, as we stated above, to the received
notions of discipline in the West. Stephen VII. thought it
due to the honor of strict canonical discipline to return to
the past. A council rsseiubled, by his order, in Rome, ex-

548

GENERAL HISTORY O? HIE CHURCH.

amincd the question and instituted the trial of Formosus, as if
the sentence could now affect him. His election was declared
irregular, and the ordinations conferred by him, as Sovereign
Pontiff, were annulled. An unwarrantable extreme of rigor,
too clearly showing the spirit of the times, violated the grave
of the man whose memory it would doom to ignominy. The
corpse of Formosus, unearthed and robed in full pontifical
attire, was placed upon the apostolic throne, in the midst of
the assembly. “ Bishop of Porto,” said Stephen VII. to the
lifeless form, “ why did your ambition lead you to usurp the
Roman See ?” The sentence of deposition was then pro­
nounced, the body, stripped of the sacred vestments, deprived
of the three fingers with which the pontifical benediction was
usually given, was finally cast into the Tiber. The memory
of Formosus still lived in Rome ; they who had received ordi­
nation from him were many. These friends to the cause of the
outraged Pontiff seized Stephen VIL, threw him, loaded with
chains, into a dungeon, where he was strangled (August, a. d.
897). Were we ignorant of the degree of fury to which party
spirit too often raises the minds of men. such a scene might be
pronounced incredible. But it is doubtless to deeds of like
atrocity that this unfortunate period owes its name of the iron
age. We must bear in mind, too, that the odious scene we
have just described bore no relation to any question of dogma,
and that the unheard-of conduct of Stephen in nowise touches
the infallibility of the Holy See. “ The deed,” says Baronins,
tl shows a despotic violence in the fact, but no error of faith.
Let us not forget that we are dealing with the ninth century.’

§ VIII. Pontificate of Romanus (September 17,
February 8, 898).

a. d.

897—

28. History presents us with the mere record of the election
and death of Romanus, which were hardly more than simulta­
neous. Flodoard extols his virtues and piety, which the age
was unworthy to enjoy.

JOHN IX. (A. D. 898-900).

§ IX. Pontificate

of

Mi

Theodore II. (February 12, a. d. 89?—
March 3, 898).

29. The chair of Peter seemed, at this sad period, to have
become a mere thoroughfare. Theodore IL, its next incumbent,
reigned but twenty days, which short period he improved by
faithful labors for the restoration of quiet to the public mind
and edification in the Church. He recalled the banished
bishops, reinciated the clerics ordained by Formosus, and
solemnly deposited in the Papal vaults that Pontiff’s bouy,
which had been found by some fishermen. These acts of
justice and moderation enshrined in benedictions the too rapiu
pontificate of Theodore II.
§ X. Pontificate

of

John IX. (March 12, a. d. 898—March
26, 900).

30 The death of Theodore left two parties contending for
the choice of his successor. A priest named Sergius, who
eventually occupied the chair of St. Peter, was violently
upheld by one faction ; their opponents, however, triumphed,
and John IX. was elected Pope (March 12, a. d. 898). His
promotion was approved by the wisdom and piety which illus­
trated his short pontificate. His first care was to confirm the
action of his predecessor, in the reinstatement of Formosus.
In order to sap the very foundation of the evil, he called a
council at Rome, to make fresh inquiries into the matter, and
the following decree was unanimously adopted : “ We disown
the outrages done to the memory of Pope Formosus when his
disentombed remains were violated and cast into the Tiber. No
one of our predecessors was ever known to be guilty of a like
excess. We now, by the authority of the Holy Ghost, forbid
the recurrence of similar scenes. A corpse cannot be called
to trial. Yet, as the bishops who took part in that disgraceful
deed now confess that they were carried away by the heat of
party spirit, and acknowledge their fault, we, of our own

55Q

GENERAL HiefORÎ OF THE CHURCH.

authority, hereby pardon them, and will not have them
troubled on that account.” The council next turned its atten­
tion to the factions now rending the whole of Italy. Arnold
was in his agony in far-off Germany. Lambert had secured
the recognition of his power. John IX. and the Fathers of
Rome thought it just, in order to remove the eerms of dissen­
sion, to proclaim in right a power which already existed in
fact. They accordingly confirmed the election and imperial
title of Lambert. Measures were also taken to end a disgrace­
ful abuse introduced into Rome by the civil wars and frequent
vacancies in the Holy See. The council issued the following
decree on the subject : “ The death of each successive Pontiff
throws the Roman Church into the most shameful scenes of
violence. The excited mob plunders the Lateran palace, and
even carries its licentious madness into private dwellings. To
guard against the return of similar disorders, we decree that
henceforth the election and consecration of the Pope shall not
be carried on without the presence of the emperor’s deputies,
whose duty it shall be to secure freedom of election.” The
Papacy must indeed have sadly felt the effects of the unquiet
period, since it was forced to appeal to temporal princes co
protect the elections of its Pontiffs. The Church risked the
disadvantage of the imperial patronage, rather than remain
subject to the violence of popular sedition ; it was the less of
two evils.
31. In the following year, John IX. presided over anothei
council, at Ravenna, where all these decrees were confirmed.
The emperor Lambert wished to attend the sittings in person.
He declared his intentions to be upright, and announced his
readiness to accept the high and noble mission of Defender of
the Holy See, which Charlemagne had ever esteemed the most
glorious of his lofty titles. “Should any Roman,” said he,
“ cleric or layman, of whatsoever rank, claim our protection,
no one can oppose it without incur ring our imperial indigna­
tion.” This solemn league between the Empire and the Papacy
justified the most sanguine hopes. But Providence had other­

JOHN LX. (Λ. D. 898-900).

551

wise ordained. Lambert died of a fall from hie horse, wbiie
hunting in the forest of Marengo, a name which a coming Jay
would render brilliant with imperishable glory (a. d. 898).
Arnold, his rival, died at Mentz in 899, and, as though death
had scorned any other harvest than crowned heads, in that
year, Eudes, the terror of the Normans, also died in France
His last words were spoken to his barons : “ Go, swear fealty
to Charles the Simple, and unite the whole kingdom under one
empire.” His disinterestedness was the more remarkable as
he had a nephew, Robert, duke of France, and grandfather of
Hugh Capet. But the royal dignity, disgraced by Carlovingian princes, afterward attached itself to the heroic race of
Eudes and Robert the Strong. The sceptre now passed into
the hands of Louis III., styled the Blind, and late king of
Arles Arnold was succeeded on the German throne by his
son Louis. The archbishop of Mentz thus acquainted the
Pope with the circumstances of this accession : “ We were for
some time in doubt as to the choice of our sovereign ; but the
prospective dissolution of the German States overcame our
hesitation, and we have elected the eldest son of Arnold, not­
withstanding the prince’s youth. We sought in this to follow
the ancient usage of choosing the Frankish kings from the
same race. If we have acted without your permission, we
are convinced that you know the reason, which was the diffi­
culty of communicating with Italy, on account of the barbarian
occupation of the frontier lines.
*
Now that we enjoy the
opportunity of writing to you, we beg that you will confirm
our Election by your episcopal authority.”
32. John IX. closed the rapid series of illustrious deaths,
and ended his earthly career on the 12th of March, in the
year 900. His pontificate closes with the ninth century. This
eventful age, opened by Charlemagne with a splendor which
• These barbarians, who infested the boundaries of Germany and Italy, were the Um>
garians, a Scythian race, who had for the past ten years harassed the French etnpim
Moravia, Bavaria, and Northern Italy were successively made the theatre at their incMdi
and barbarous ievastation.

662

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

has pierced the gloom of even that dark period and sheds n
bright radiance over all the after pages of history, now wanes
ir, the midst of inglorious revolutions, of dismembered king­
doms and falling empires, to the din of the tempests raised by
the Saracens and the Normans at either extremity of the West,
deluged in a sea of blood shed by obscure rivals contending for
shreds of territory. The Papacy, now but the sport of fac­
tions, gave to the world a series of ephemeral Pontiffs, unheeded
by the battling world around. All taste for useful studies was
lost; ignorance, immorality, violence reigned supreme. Hu­
manity was entering upon one of those crises which go before
and prepare great events. The ninth, tenth, and eleventh cen­
turies were to mature in the hearts of European nations that
renewal by faith which bloomed with so much splendor in the
bright phase of the middle ages, in deeds of holiness, greatness,
and glory. The Sovereign Pontiff’s were the first to come forth
from the oppressive gloom, and to sound the signal for the
advance. Protestant criticism has inveighed with unsparing
bitterness against two or three Popes more especially pointed
out to its shafts by contemporary testimony, generally the
fruit of party spirit. The unbiased historian never abstracts
from the period and surroundings of his characters, to judge
them, thus isolated, by ideas and habits not their own.
Through all its successive phases of development, society still
lives upon a fund of ideas common to aU. Master minds may
radiate the scintillations with greater brightness over the
world, but they are as much the mirrors as the foci of their
times. By what uncalled-for prodigy could the Holy See,
surrounded by general decline, at a time when the standard of
both prince and people was so irretrievably lowered, claim the
unheard-of privilege of transmitting the tiara through a suc­
cession of exceptional men, standing alone upon the summit
of genius or holiness ? To St. Peter and his successors was
promised infallibility, not essential impeccability. Of two
hundred and fifty-nine Popes, history can point to but two or
three of more or less questionable virtue. No empire can show

JOHN IX. (A. D. 888-800).

558

a list of emperors, a line of kings, lasting through nineteen
centuries, so free from blame or blemish. “The heretics," said
Mabillon, “ seize upon a few examples of irregularity in the
Popes to attack the incorruptible truth and unity of the Roman
Church. Whatever may have been the private character of
most of the Popes upon whom they discharge the venom of
their calumny, it can in no degree prejudice the Catholic
Church, spread through the whole world. We must say, with
St. Augustine : ‘We shall receive no crown on account of their
innocence ; we shall suffer no punishment for their perver
sity.’"

664

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHUBOH.

CHAPTER VI.
§ 1 Pontifio.-.te of Benedict IV. (April 0,

900—October 20, 908).

a. d.

I Historical appearance of the tenth century.—2. Luitprand, biahop of Cre­
mona; Floduard, canon of Rheims.—3. Alphonao the Great in Spain.
Lamentable condition of the other States of Christendom.—4. Death of
Benedict IV.—5. Holy personages of the tenth century.
§ IL Pontificate

Leo V. (October 28,

of

a. d.

903—December 6, 903).

6. Death of Leo V. in a dungeon.

§ ΠΙ. Pontificate

Seroius III. (June 9,

of

a. d.

905—December 6, 911).

7. Unjust aspersions cast upon the memory of Sergius III.—8. Testimonies of
respect and veneration to the Pope from the various Churches of Christen­
dom.—9. Council of Trosly, near Soissons.—10. Scandal ‘n the East.
Death of Sergiu· III.
§ IV. Pontificate

Anastasius III. (December 6,

jf

a. d.

911—June 0, 913).

11. Accession of Anastasius IIL—12. Conversion of tho Normans.—13. Death
of Anastasius III.
§ V. Pontificate of Lando (December 4,

a. d.

913—April 25, 914).

14. Election and Death of Lando.

§ VL Pontificate

John X. (April 30,

of

a. d.

914—July 2, 928).

15. Calumnies uttered against John X.—10. John X. defeats the Saraceni
upon the Garigliano.—17. Letter of John X. to Harvey, archbishop
Rheims.—18. Otho of Saxony. Conrad of Franconia.—19. Romanus Le
capenns, Emperor of the East—20. Death of John X.
§ VH. Pontificate

of

Leo VI. (July 0,

a. d.

928—January 20, 929).

21. Election and death of Leo VI.

§ VIH. Pontificate

of

Stephen VIII. (February 1, 929—March 12, 931).

82. Want of historical data on the Pontificate of Stephon VIII.—23. St
Sigiemund, bishop of Elberstadt—24. Persecution ir Spain.—25. St
Gennadius.

BENEDICT IT. (A. D. 900-903).

§ IX. Pontificate

565

John XI. (March 20, a. d. 931—February 5, 930).

of

20. Election and captivity of John XL—27. Lamentable state of Europe rt
this period.—28. Monastic reform at Clnny.
§ X. Pontificate

of

Leo VII. (February 14, a. d. 936—Augurt 23, 939).

29. Virtues of Leo VII.—30. He calls St. Odo to Rome.

§ XL Pontificate

of

Stephen IX. (September 1,a.d.939—Januan 15,943).

3 1. Election and death of Stephen IX.

§ XII. Pontificate

of

Martin Π. (January 22, a. d. 943—August 4, 946).

32. Otho the Great.—33. Romanns Lecapenns, Emperor of the East. Theophylactns, Patriarch of Constantinople.—34. Death of Martin Π.

§ XIIL Pontificate

of

Agapetus Π. (August 9, 946—March 18, 956).

35. Councils of Mousson, Ingelheim, and Triers.—36. Glorious administration
of Otho the Grcn
. Atto, bishop of Vercelli. Saintly characters io
the West.—38. Simon Metaphraste
*.
—?9. Invasion of the Magyars.—
40. Mission of St. John of Vandieres to Abderahman.—41. Death of
Agapetus IL

§ I. Pontificate

of

Benedict IV. (April 6, a. d. 900—
October 20, 903).

1. The tenth century opens with the pontificate of Benedict
IV. “ With his reign,” says Baronius. “ begins a new century,
to which the depth of moral depravity, the rule of crime and
utter absence of all good, have given the name of the iron age,
and which might as justly be styled the age of lead, so gloomy
and chaotic is the appearance it presents.”
“The barbarism of the age,” says Pagi, “was beyond
measure fearful. Ecclesiastical estates, bishoprics, and bene­
fices were shamelessly usurped by laymen, and even by married
men.” The frequent changes in the Apostolic See aggravated
the evil. “The generation of doctors and ecclesiastical writers,’"
says Nbvaes, “ seemed forever extinct. Ignorance would have
held unbounded sway had not a few religious, in their lonely
cells, kept alive a spark of the sacred fire, and devoted their
bidden life to transcribing, for a happier age, the monument#
uf ancient literature."

556

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

“The bishops,” says Tiraboschi, “were reduced to the
shameful necessity of inquiring into the ability of their priests
to read. The universal decline had dragged down the public
morals in its fall, and corruption gained ground in proportion
as intellect failed. Peter Damian thus wrote to a Pontiff con­
cerning a candidate for the episcopate : ‘ He is entirely ruled
by avarice and vanity ; he shamelessly canvasses for the epis­
copal dignity , but, if all this be no obstacle, I must make
known to your Holiness that he is yet the best of all,’”
2. Before entering upon the relation of events, it will be
useful to settle the true character and the historical value of
the charges brought against several Pontiffs of this dark
period. The Pope, being at once the first prince of Italy and
the Head of the Universal Church, had necessarily a paramount
influence in the choice of the emperors. The different factions
were also deeply interested in securing the election of a Pontiff
favorable to their own views, and the worsted parties would
infallibly traduce the Pope elected by their opponents. Ou:
own age has bettei reason than any other to know how care­
fully we have to guard against the passionate and hostile
invectives of contemporaries. The ecclesiastical history of
the tenth century was long without any other annalist than
Luitprand. Born in the beginning of the tenth century, Luitprand was at first sub-deacon of the church of Toledo, in
Spain, then deacon of the bishop of Pavia, and finally bishop
of Cremona. He was always a member of the party opposed
to the Italian faction, headed by Adalbert, marquis or margrave
of Tuscany, and the chief nobles of Rome. The six books
of his History of the Western Empire, written under such in­
fluences, betray the political passions and irascible disposition
of the author. “ His style,” says Fleury, “ shows more wit
than judgment. The display he makes of his acquaintance
with Greek is really boyish. (This was a reminiscence of his
two journeys to Constantinople.) His pen is always guided
by passion ; heaping gross insults upon some, lavishing extrav­
agant praises upon others,” according to the whim of the

BENEDICT IV. (A. D. 900-903).

567

moment. The followers of Luther and Calvin have zealously
studied Luitprand’s charges or injurious insinuations againa
*
two or three Popes of the tenth century, and received them as
unquestionable proofs. Coming down to ns with so many
varied echoes, the solitary voice of Luitprand has reached the
ears even of Catholics as the testimony of a host of witnesses.
Muratori (a. d. 1672-1750) was the first to proclaim that the
deafening chorus was but the noisy repetition of a single voice,
but yet refuted by a more weighty and disinterested contem­
porary witness. This opposing voice is that of Flodoard, who
was born at Epernay, in 894, and died, a canon of Rheims, in
966. Flodoard commanded universal esteem by his exemplary
life and more than human wisdom, to use the words of a contem·
porary annalist. He won no less distinction for his style as
an author than for his virtue as a priest. His Lives of the
Popes, from St. Peter to Leo VII. (a. d. 939), unknown to
Baronins, give a true coloring to many facts misrepresented
by Luitprand, and serve as a counterpoise to the calumnies
of the bishop of Cremona. With these premises, we have
only to say, with Bellarmine: “As we have not exag­
gerated the qualities of former Pontiffs, we shall not, in
speaking of their successors, hide what may be blamable,
for we are satisfied that Divine Providence will draw greater
triumphs from all things, since in the midst of so great dis­
orders He has kept untarnished the spotless splendor of His
Church. The Roman pontificate owes its preservation neither
to the guidance nor to the prudence of men ; it has been pre­
served because the rock is so truly of divine establishment, is
so deeply set, so constantly protected, that these gates of heli,
persecutions, heresies, the scorn of strong minds, the spread
of baneful writings, the craft and wickedness of men, have
never prevailed against it.”
3. The reign of Benedict TV. was happily inaugurated by
the tidings of a brilliant victory won by Alphonso the Great
over the Moors, in Spain. The Spanish monarch, whose suc­
cessful arms gave new realms to the crown of Asturias, shared

658

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

the warlike valor of his contemporary, Alfred the Great, of
England, but lacked the milder virtues which endeared the
Saxon hero to his subjects. Alphonso illustrated his reign by
more than thirty campaigns against the Moors. To his original
States he had added Galicia, a part of Portugal, Old Castile
and the kingdom of Leon. In gratitude to God for the success
granted to his arms, he rebuilt the church of St. James of
Compostella, on a magnificent scale (a. d. 899), endowed the
church of Oviedo, for which he obtained the metropolitical
dignity and jurisdiction (a. d. 900), and founded bishoprics in
the cities of Porto, Braga, Viseu and Tuy. While the Ommiad
caliphs of Granada were doomed to see their limits daily nar­
rowed before the triumphant march of Alphonso the Great, the
Abassides of Bagdad, more favored in the East by the volup­
tuous inertness of Leo the Philosopher, coasted the shores of
Macedonia and Greece, attacked Thessalonica, the second city
of the empire, gave it up to fearful carnage, and led away
twenty-two thousand of its citizens into bondage. The African
Saracens had, at the same time, made a descent upon Sicily,
which was doomed to all the horrors of pillage and devasta­
tion. The advance of the Saracens in the East and in Italy,
with the unchecked career of the Normans in Gaul, seemed to
foreshadow that the two barbarian powers would yet meet and
shake hands in mutual congratulation over the ruins of a con­
quered world. In 903 the fierce followers of Rollo fired the
basilica of Tours and the velebrated monastery of Marmoutier,
the very heart of the French Church.
4. Louis IV., King of Arles, had received the imperial
diadem, in Rome, at the hands of Pope Benedict IV. (a. l.
900). But the honor cost him dear, for he had enjoyed it but
two years when he fell into the power of Berengarius, king of
Upper Italy, who burned out his eyes by a cruel process prac­
tised in the East at this barbarous *
epoch.
To this brutal
• Thia punishment consisted in passing a red-hot iron before the victim’s eyes, wmob
vers thus destroyed without causing death.

BENEDICT TV. (A. D. 000-903).

509

punishment the unfortunate Louis owes his epithet, the Blind.
Benedict TV. made his pontificate a season of blessings by the
spirit of moderation, mildness, and wisdom which marked it
throughout. He reinstated Argrim, bishop of Langres, who
had been unjustly deposed from his see. Rome looked forward
to brighter times under the auspices of a Pontiff worthy
of the Church’s palmiest days; but the unsparing hand or
death snatched him from his children’s love and bright anticipa­
tions (October 20, a. d. 903).
5. Holiness, that crown of Christ’s spouse, did not fail,
•ven in these disastrous times, to give to the world its usual
display of pious and wholesome examples. The monastery of
St. Gall was a nursery of saints ; its school was at this time
illustrated by the learning and virtue of Radbertus, Notker,
•nd Tutilo, whose mutual friendship was purified by the divine
love which gave it birth in their hearts. Salomon, bishop of
Constance, also acquired within the cloisters of St. Gall that
love of study which he still cherished in the midst of ecclesias­
tical dignities. St. Radbod, bishop of Utrecht', a descendant
of Friesland’s royal line, revived the memory of the great
bishops of the early Church. When asked by Arnold, king of
Germany, to do him some service of a temporal nature, the
holy prelate replied : “ It is just to obey superior powers ; but
who can be ignorant that bishops may not interfere in secular
matters, since they are the leaders of the spiritual arm?
Clothed with the armor of faith, they must pray for the wel­
fare of kings and subjects, strive to win souls, and not earthly
possessions. As to business of state, it is the duty of the
officers loaded with the king’s favors to transact it. St. Fulk,
archbishop of Rheims, showed the same episcopal vigor in
France, and died a martyr to his zealous defence of the
Church’s interests. He had excommunicated Baldwin II.,
count of Flanders, for an unjust usurpation of Church property
attached to the arch diocese of Rheims ; a land a assassins,
in the pay of the count, murdered the intrepid bishop (a d
900). Harvey, Fulks successor, fulminated an excommunie
.*

660

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

lion against Baldwin and the assassins of the saintly prelate.
“ Let them be accurst in city and country !” says the sentence.
“ Evil betide their offspring, the fruits of their lands and of
their flocks ! May they die the ignominious death of Arius '
And as we extingush and trample upon these torches, so may
their light be forever extinguished !” Here we have a proof
of the antiquity of the ceremony, practised in the publication of
an excommunication, of extinguishing tapers or lamps. Thus
did the Church wield her spiritual weapons to resist the vio­
lence of a still half-savage period.

§ II. Pontificate

of

Leo V. (October 28,
6, 903).

a. d.

903—December

6. Hardly had Leo V. ascended the Pontifical throne, than
he was thrown into a dungeon by Christopher, one of the priests
to whom he had intrusted all his confidence for the government
of the Church. Leo died of privations and grief ; and the Ro­
man people made not the slightest effort to avert the fate of
their legitimate pastor. The minds of men, at this sad stage
of the world’s history, had become so habituated to acts of
injustice and violence, that they looked upon them with
indifference and basely bowed to every kind of oppression !
The anti-Pope, Christopher, did not long enjoy the triumph of
his ingratitude. He was seized by the faction of Adalbert^
duke of Tuscany, and imprisoned in a monastery, where he
perished miserably’ ; and Sergius III. was called by the ruling
party to the Sovereign Pontificate.

§ III. Pontificate

of

Sergius III. (June 9, a.
ber 6, 911).

d.

905—Decem­

7. The name of Sergius III., who was recalled from exile
to fill the chair of St. Peter, is one of those upon which the
enemies of the Holy See have most delighted in heaping oppro­
brium. On the strength of Luitprand’s testimony, his moral
*

SERGIUS ΙΠ. (A. T». 905-9H).

561

have been deeply calumniated. The name of Marozia, wife of
Adalbert of Tuscany, a notorious character intimately con­
nected with all the scandals of the day, is mentioned in con­
nection with these foul reports, perpetuated by shameless pens.
We may quote contemporary writers on the character of Ser­
gius III. “ This Pope,” says Flodoard, “ already proposed for
the Sovereign Pontificate at the time of the election of John
IX., was recalled amid the unanimous acclamations of the
people, and received the consecration long since destined for
him. The seven years of this Pontiff’s reign were a season of
grateful joy to his subjects throughout the world." Another
contemporary author, John the Deacon, thus speaks of the
same Pontiff : “ After his consecration, Pope Sergius III. was
much grieved at the dilapidated condition of the basilica of St.
John Lateran, which had fallen into ruins in the time of Ste­
phen VI., and he had recourse to the divine goodness in which
he ever placed his trust. He undertook to restore the noble pile ;
he happily succeeded in his holy work, and adorned the new
basilica with the most costly ornaments.” The epitaph in­
scribed upon the Pontiff’s tomb by a grateful people fully
bears out the testimony of Flodoard and John the Deacon :
“ Returning from his exile at the earnest prayer of the people,”
says this precious monument, “ the good pastor showed equal
love to all classes of his flock, and met all usurpers with apos­
tolic energy.” These three witnesses, who speak of Sergius as
a Pontiff not only of unexceptionable moral virtues, but full of
faith, piety, and zeal, are contradicted by Luitprand’s partial
voice alone. And so ill-informed is that hostile author on this
period of history, that he places the pontificate of Sergius im­
mediately after that of Formosus, and ascribes to him the
shocking scene so disgraceful to the annals of Stephen VL
We believe that the dawn of truth is now breaking upon the
life of Sergius, and that history has too long been the unsus­
pecting accomplice of a partial and ill-informed annalist.
8. During the seven years of his pontificate, Sergius was
esteemed by the Christian world as a Pontiff worthy of the

662

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

highest vénération. The new archbishops of Cologne and
Hamburg respectfully solicited and obtained the pallium from
him. With a view to facilitate the spread of the faith among
the heathens of the North, he definitely placed the bishopric
of Bremen under the archiépiscopal jurisdiction of Hamburg.
9. His pastoral care reached every want of the Church.
Learning that the Greeks were reviving the errors of Photius
concerning the procession of the Holy Ghost, Sergius III. made
known the attempt to the Western bishops, that they might con­
firm the point of faith in provincial councils. The acts of one
of these councils, held at *
Trosly by Harvey, *
of
archbishop
Rheims, are still extant. The opening discourse and the can­
ons are valuable monuments of contemporaneous history. “ The
religion of Christ,” says Harvey, “ seems to be upon the brink
of destruction. The whole world is given up to the prince of
darkness, and the bolts of divine wrath give us no respite. In
contempt of all law, divine and human, heedless of the whole­
some warnings of their pastors, men follow no guide but their
passions. Oppression reigns everywhere ; men have become
like the fishes of the sea, the great devour the small. Even
we who are honored with the episcopal dignity, how are we
found wanting ? Alas ! we bear the glorious title of bishop
without fulfilling the bishop’s sacred duties. We here receive
the name and rank of pastors, but when we shall stand before the
dread tribunal of the Sovereign Judge, where will be our flock
to present to the divine Shepherd?” This vehement protest
of an indignant heart does honor to Harvey’s character and to
the episcopate of which he was a member. The same com­
plaints are repeated in the canons of the councils, which, in­
deed, might rather be styled exhortations than decrees. There
was, in truth, far less need of new regulations than of vigor­
ously enforcing the observance of the old ones After con­
demning the blasphemies of Photius, the Fathers of Trosly
continue : “ To so low an ebb has the observance of monastic
• Near Soiesona.

8ERGIÜB III. (A. D. 905-9 I).

563

discipline now fallen, that we despair of finding words to
express or means to restore it. In punishment for our sins,
desolation has fallen upon the house of the Lord. Of the
numerous monasterii * founded by our fathers, some have been
burned by the heathens, others spoiled of their property and
nearly ruined. And even where some material remains still
stand of what was once a cloister, the utter wreck of religious
discipline has left no trace behind. The rule is unknown. And
all this ruin and disorder may be traced to the indigence and
relaxation of the monks, but chiefly to the abuse of giving them
lay superiors and abbots. Poverty obliges the religious to
leave their cloisters and take part in worldly business ; and the
Prophet’s wail might but too aptly be uttered in our own day
and country : Dispersi sunt lapides sanctuarii, in capite omnium
*
platearum"
(a. d. 909). The evil was indeed fearful, though
not irretrievable. The zeal of these bishops was in itself a
beginning and cause of reform. In the following year (910),
St. Bernon, a man raised up by God to be the restorer of mo­
nastic discipline, laid the foundation of the monastery of Cluny,
which became the well spring whence the true spirit of reli­
gious vocation gradually flowed to all parts of the Church.
Bernon, accompanied by St. Hugh, then a monk of St. Martin
of Autun, begged of William-le-Débonnaire, duke of Aquitaine,
the quiet and unfrequented vale of Cluny as a site for his mon­
astery. The duke replied that he had appropriated it to his
hounds, and asked them to choose any other suitable spot in
his domains. “My lord," answered St. Bernon, “drive out
the hounds and receive the monks." The fervor of the new
community soon bore fruits, for good example has also its
attractions and allurements ; and now the dawn of a true mo­
nastic reform began to break through the heavy gloom that
weighed upon the age.
10. The Church of Constantinople, so lately freed from
the tyranny of Photius, was again given up to new struggles
• Tho stones of the sanctuary are see tiered in the top of every street—Lam. Ju n. J

564

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

and deeds of violence. Leo the Philosopher, whose wisdom
seems to have resided in his title alone, had been thrice
married. In 905 he wished to legitimate his union with
Zoe, his concubine. The Eastern Church looked upon the
fourth nuptials as a state of polygamy. Nicholas the Mystic,·
then Patriarch of Constantinople, deposed the priest who, won
by the emperor’s largesses, had blessed the union without the
prelate’s order. The unbending firmness of the Patriarch cost
him his see and a sentence of banishment. The Pope, however,
sent legates to the East to examine the question. Acting upon
the true spirit of ecclesiastical discipline in the matter, they
authorized the emperor’s marriage, and thus restored peace to
Constantinople (a. d. 907). In the West, where the Roman
Church had taught the necessity of looking more to the essence
of religion than to shifting customs, such a case would not even
have excited a question.
Sergius III. died on the 6th of December, a. d. 911, after a
pontificate of nearly seven years—guiltless, as we firmly believe,
of the faults laid to his charge by Luitprand and other equally
partial or misinformed historians.

§ IV. Pontificate

of

Anastasius III. (December 6,
—June 6, 913).

a. d.

911

11. While Anastasius ascended the Pontincal chair at
Rome, Alphonso the Great died in Spain, dethroned by his
own son, Garcias. The illustrious monarch, but unhappy
father, found, in the bosom of his own family, foes more fatal
than the formidable Paynim he had so often routed on the bat­
tle-field. The same year also closed the reign of Leo the Phi­
losopher, at Constantinople, leaving the crown to the infant
Constantine VII., Porphyrogenitus.
12. France was now the theatre of events full of the
• Jiyatic (eynceUu or secretary), from the Greek word iwr-vor.
riously held that office in the imperial court.

Nicholas had pre

ANA8TA8ID3 Π1. (A. D. 911-91«.

5β&

brightest premise for the glory of the Church and the peace of
the world. Rollo, the most daring and skilful jf the Nonnan
leaders, had just met with a disastrous repulse, while besieg­
ing the city of Chartres. This was the first time, for thirty
years, that the Raven, the sacred standard of the Normans, had
buffered such disgrace. The inhabitants attributed their deliv­
erance to the protection of the Blessed Virgin, whose tunic
they kept as a most precious treasure. This sacred relic is
said to have been sent by the emperor Nicephorus to Charle­
magne. Charles the Simple thought the occasion favorable for
a conference with the Norman chief, and accordingly deputed
Franco, archbishop of Rouen, to treat with Rollo. The intrepid
prelate stood before the formidable barbarian and addressed
him with unwonted firmness : “ Great captain, will you fight
unto death, or do you deem yourself immortal? Are you a god,
or a man formed from the earth, doomed to return to the dust
whence you sprung? Should you die as you have hitherto
lived, in deeds of blood and plunder, you can look forward only
to endless torments in the world to come. But if you forsake
the superstition and fury of Paganism, you will enjoy the
sweets of peace both in this life and in the next. King Charles
invites you to this course by the gift of this province of Neustria, wasted by yourself and Hastings ; and as a pledge of his
friendship he also offers you the hand of his daughter Gisela.”
Such terms as these, offered by a king of France to a bandit
chief, are indeed somewhat revolting to national honor. But it
was esteemed a favor, at that period, that Rollo accepted them
at all. The dreaded Nonnan appeared at the court of Charles
the Simple, where his very presence was an event. He rati­
fied the treaty, placed his hands within those of the monarch,
ind swore fealty to him, as was customary at the time. But
when it became necessary, according to the ceremonial form in
use, to bend and kiss the royal foot, Rollo remembered that he
had a hundred times made this shadow of a king tremble upon
his throne ; and he would not bend. Yet be allowed one of his
officers to discharge the duty in his stead. The subject was

666

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

as proud as his master : in seizing the king’s foot to embrace
it, his action was so ungentle as to throw the prince completely
off his feet. This incident, however, did not break off the ne­
gotiation ; Neustria was thenceforth known as Normandy.
Rollo was instructed and baptized by Franco, the same prelate
who had been the ambassador of peace. “ Before sharing these
lands among my people,” said the wolf now changed into a
lamb, “ I wish to present a portion to God, to the Virgin Mary,
and to the other saints of whom you have spoken to me, and
whom I wish to make my patrons and protectors.” The con­
verted barbarian showed himself as skilful to organize as he
had been fierce in battle. The five remaining years of his life
repeopled deserted cities, placed religion in a state of prosper­
ity, restored fallen churches, and established laws among his
people. To Rollo’s Normans, theft became a name unknown.
Religion had bowed this people to its gentle sway, and the
Normans edified the world in which they had so long spread
terror and dismay (a. d. 912).
13. Anastasius III. did not long survive the conversion of
the Normans. He died on the 6th of June, a. d. 913, leaving
behind him an unassailable reputation for gentleness, wisdom,
and prudence.

§ V. Pontificate of Lando (December 4, a. d. 913—April 26.
914).

14. Lando survived his election just long enough to leave
his name to the pontifical annals as successor of Anastasius
III. “ At the date of his accession,” says Platina, “ a fierce
war had just broken out between the Italians and the Ger­
mans, for the possession of the empire. The Italians wished
to have an emperor from their own nation. This was a noble
and praiseworthy sentiment, but there was wanted the powerful
mind and strong arm to give it effect. The great lights of
Italy had set; the strong and lofty tree which spread its great
bougies far and wide, was now dead to the core !” Pope Lando

JOHN X. (A. D. 914-938),

567

tent his pacific mediation, which resulted in a suspension of
hostilities between Berengarius, king of Italy, and Rudolph
of Germany. Lando died five months after his election (April
25, a. d. 914).

§ VI. Pontificate

op

John X. (April 30, a. d. 914—July 2,
928).

15. Lamentable in the extreme was the condition of Rome
and Italy at this period. In the South, the Saracens, intrenched
on the banks of the Garigliano, wasted the estate of the
Church. In the North, the princesand municipal powers, far
from leaguing against the common enemy, did but help his
ravages by domestic feuds. The state of Italy called for a
Pope who could lead the imbittered spirits into the ways of
conciliation and peace. John X. was elected to the Sovereign
Pontificate (April 30, a. d. 914). He had been nine years
archbishop of Ravenna, and yet Luitprand does not hesitate tc
state that he was transferred to the Sovereign See of Rome
within a year after his appointment to that of Ravenna by
Pope Lando. It is important to correct this error, for upon it
depends an entire system of accusations brought against the
morals of John X. Luitprand himself confesses that he
gathered the facts alleged against the Pontiff from a Popular
Life of Theodora, mother of Marozia. The infamous character
of these intriguing and abandoned females plainly shows that
his authority could have been but a mere pamphlet. Such is
the basis upon which hostile historians have built up all their
charges against John X. Flodoard, on the other hand, thus
speaks of the same Pontiff: “His prudent and virtuous life
have won for him a throne in heaven.” The reader is free to
chose between these two contemporaneous but contradictory
statements. Whatever may be imputed to the private individ­
ual whose name has been made a mark for the lying calumnies
of writers unfriendly to the Papacy, the Pontiff was unim­
peachable, and the Church blesses the reign of John X. T·*

66S

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

an impartial mind this must be a strong presumption in favor
of his innocence. Moral depravity is an unwonted appanage
of great characters.
16. John X. was endowed with a great soul and rare
political acumen. His first aim was to settle the imperial
power in Italy upon a solid foundation, and he accordingly
crowned Berengarius emperor (a. d. 915). He secured to the
new Cæsar friendly relations with the court of Constantinople,
and with the princes of Capua, Salerno, Beneventum, and
Spoleto, petty sovereigns who held nearly the whole of Italy.
The combined forces of these various powers met in Rome.
John X. took personal command, and by his presence gave
unity, vigor and promptness to all the movements of the troops.
It was a noble sight to see a Pope, in the tenth century,
trampling upon difficulties, until then insurmountable, and in­
augurating the holy crusade for the life of Europe and of
civilization. While a Greek fleet skirted the coasts to cut off
all re-enforcements to the Saracens from Sicily, John X. attacked
them on the Garigliano, defeated them after a long and bloody
battle, utterly annihilated their army, and forever freed Romo
and its territory from the insults of the Crescent. The news
of the victory was received with enthusiastic joy, and John X.
made his triumphal entry into Rome amid universal transports
of gratitude (a. d. 915).
17. The fourteen remaining years of John’s pontificate were
eminently useful to the Church. In 916, Harvey, archbishop
of Rheims, sought his advice concerning the treatment of the
newly converted Normans, some of whom afterward fell back
into idolatry or into those savage and sacrilegious excesses
with which they had been so long familiar. The Pope’s reply
is far more in keeping with the holiness proper to the Apostolic
See, than with the moral depravity ascribed to the organ which
now gave forth its teaching. “ Were they among the older chil­
dren of the Church,” wrote the Pontiff, “ they should be judged
withall the rigor of the sacred canons , butas they have been so
lately subjected to the yoke of the faith, it would be unjust to

JOHN X. (A. D. 914-928).

5W

in list upon the strictest observance of the law, lest the burden,
to which they are not yet accustomed, appear too weighty at
the very outset. As to the infliction of canonical penance, you
are in a better position than we to judge of its reasonable ap­
plication. Use your own judgment and prudence, and, aiming
only at the salvation of souls, your apostolic zeal for the con­
version of the Normans will entitle you to share the everlast­
ing crown of the great St. Remigius, the apostle of the Franks."
The Church seemed destined to enjoy no respite from hostile
arms. One host disappeared only to give place to another
equally formidable. The Magyars, a nation of Finnish stock,
took the place of the converted Normans, and became in
turn the terror of the West. After a long sojourn between
the Don and Dnieper, they entered Hungary, toward the end
of the ninth century. The people, terrified by the appearance
of these savages, with shaven heads, dark features and fierce
taciturnity, who seemed to live by blood and slaughter, and
without any apparent home on earth, believed that the hosts
of Gog and Magog, foretold by Ezechiel and the Apocalypse,
had actually invaded the Christian world. From a. d. 912 until
920, the Magyars plundered and wasted Thuringia, Franconia,
the valley of the Upper Rhine, and Bavaria. Bremen was laid
in ruins (a. d. 917). The barbarians soon crossed the Rhine,
overran Lorraine and Burgundy, and appeared even in the
southernmost provinces of France.
18. Austrasia and Germany were ruled by princes more
worthy of the empire than the degenerate heirs of Charle­
magne. Louis IV., the young king of the Germans, having
died in the beginning of the year 912, the Austrasians elected
Conrad, duke of Franconia, to succeed him. In the regular order
of succession, Charles the Simple should have been acknowl­
edged as king by the Eastern as well as by the Western
Franks; but the powerless monarch had fallen into universal
contempt in Europe. The nobles at first offered the crown to
Otho, duke of Saxony. With a disinterestedness seldom par­
alleled in history, Otho refused the crown, on the plea of his

570

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

advanced age, and, with generous magnanimity, urged them
to choose Conrad of Franconia, his personal enemy, whom he
declared worthy of the throne. Conrad, thus raised to power by
the influence of his noble enemy and by the choice of the people,
had his claim confirmed by the national council of Aldheim, in
which were present the legates of John X. (a. d. 917). He
proved himself worthy of his high position, and the seven years
of his reign were fruitful in blessings of peace and prosperity
both for Church and state. In his last moments, Conrad
remembered his former enemy, Otho of Saxony, whose son,
Henry the Fowler, was already known for his distinguished
courage and prudence. He summoned his brother, Eberhard,
who should, in the natural order, have been his successor, since
he died without issue, and gave him his dying injunction
“Take the badges of royalty, the crown and sceptre, and wher
I am gone give them to Henry of Saxony ; he is worthy of
them.” Eberhard pledged himself to obey the will of his
dying brother; and thus was Henry the Fowler
*
raised to the
throne of Germany, in which position he realized the bright
promise of his youth. We can find few pages in history
adorned with traits of equal genercnity.
19. Ambition, ever on the alert in a season of ceaseless
troubles and revolutions, multiplied the intrigues and difficul­
ties attending the episcopal elections. John X. was called
upon to regulate a number of cases of this nature at Narbonne,
Cologne, and Rheims. His decisions were everywhere received
with respectful submission, and, in this regard, no pontificate
ever witnessed more of these applications to the Holy See—the
best proof of confidence, esteem, and filial veneration.
A fresh revolution had, in the mean time, changed the reli­
gious aspect of the East. Romanus Lecapenus expelled the
empress Zoe, regent during the minority of Constantine Porphyrogenitus, and seized the imperial sceptre. He was crowned
• Henry was called the ibwlcr from tho circumstance that he was found engaged in that
Hiauaemeut when the royal insignia were brought to him by Eberhard.

LEO VI. (A. D. 925-929).

671

m 920, and immediately set about putting an end te the s. hi- m
which had divided the Church of Constantinople since the ques­
tion of the fourth nuptials of Leo the Philosopher. The Patri­
arch Nicholas was recalled, and an account of the proceedings
sent to Pope John X., that he might confirm them by virtue
of his Apostolic authority. “You know,” wrote the Patriarch
to John, “ the afflictions we have suffered for nearly fifteen
years. But when we least expected it, Jesus Christ has stilled
the storm, and we are all happily united."
20. These letters reached Rome just as a political revolu­
tion plunged the Church into deep mourning. John X. had
been assassinated in a dungeon to which he had been consigned
by the orders of Marozia and her husband Guy, marquis of
Tuscany (July 2, a. d. 928). “From the gloomy dungeon,"
says Flodoard, “ to which he had been doomed by the treach­
erous marchioness, the soul of John X. winged its flight heav­
enward to possess the throne prepared for him.” John X. had
reigned fourteen years. He proved himself above his age ; and
it was his misfortune to have lived at a time of such utter con­
fusion that innocence and crime are placed side by side, unrec­
ognized and undistinguished !

§ VII. Pontificate

of

Leo VI. (July 6, a. d. 928—January
20, 929).

21. Leo VI., whose ephemeral pontificate only appeared
amid these violent tempests (July 6, a. d. 928), reigned but
seven months. “ To bring back the citizens to thoughts of
peace, to settle the Italian troubles, to crush intrigues—such
seems to have been the aim of Leo VI., who died on the 20th
of January, a. d. 929.” The rapid succession of the Popes and
the violence of party spirit at this period have given rise to
the suspicion that hostile factions more than once did away
with an obnoxious Pontiff by means of poison. We may be­
lieve any thing of political passion; and the general disorder

5/2

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

which characterized it forbids the tenth century to protest
against any charge, however serious.

§ VIII. Pontificate

Stephen VIII. (February 1,
—March 12, 931).

of

a. d.

929

22. Stephen VIII. was proclaimed Pope on the 1st of Feb­
ruary, a. d. 929, and lived in the midst of the factions contend­
ing for power in Rome. His pontificate of two years has left
no trace in history. We do, indeed, find the praises of Ste­
phen’s piety and gentleness ; but the record of his public life
remains unknown—buried, no doubt, beneath the numerous
party intrigues which made light of the election and death of
the Sovereign Pontiffs.
23. It is cheering, in the midst of scenes so lamentable, to
be able to turn our looks to some historical character bearing
the almost forgotten stamp of sanctity. Sigismund, bishop of
Alberstadt, was distinguished by his talents and eminent piety.
King Henry had, before his accession, espoused Ratburga—a
wealthy widow, already bound by vow to the religious state.
Sigismund never ceased to multiply counsel, reproof, exhorta­
tion, and threats, until the scandal was removed. Henry saw
in his promotion only a stricter obligation to give an example of
regularity and observance of the laws. Breaking the ties which
bound him to Ratburga, he contracted an alliance, at once more
sacred and more honorable, with Matilda, a member of the
illustrious race of Witikind.
24. The Church of Spain, ever persecuted by the unbeliev­
ing Moors, also found consolation in the virtues and enlightened
zeal of many of its bishops. Special mention is made of
Sisenand of Compostella, and Gennadius of Astorga, both
honored as saints. They lived during the reign of Ordogno
II., who succeeded his brother Garcias on the throne of Astu­
rias (a. d. 914). The name of Sisenand was not unknown in
Rome, and when John X. sent a legate on a pilgrimage to the
tomb of St James, at Compostella, he wrote to ask the saintly

ΒΤΕΡΠΕΝ VIH. (A. D. 939-931).

573

bishop’s frequent prayers in hie behalf, at the shrine )f the
holy apostle. Sisenand sent his answer to the Pope's letter
by a priest of Compostella, to whom king Ordogno likewise
intrusted letters and costly gifts for the Sovereign Pontiff.
The envoy of a holy bishop and of a king true to the religion
of his fathers was received at Rome with the highest honors.
During his sojourn of a year in the Eternal City, he held
several conferences with the Romans touching the ritital then
followed in Spain, and called the Mozarabic Liturgy. On his
return to Galicia, he acquainted his bishop with what he had
seen and learned in Rome. The points of difference in the
two liturgies were carefully and impartially examined and dis­
cussed, and were found equally conformable to Catholic faith.
It was not therefore deemed necessary to make any changes
in usages worthy of reverence from their very antiquity. It
was, however, decided to follow the most literal interpretation
of the Roman rite in the formulas of consecration.
25. St. Gennadius had been transferred to the see of
Astorga from the monastery of Viezo, or St. Peter's of the
Sills, which he had founded after clearing away, by the sweat
of his brow, the surrounding country, bristling with thorns
and savage undergrowth. When raised to the episcopate, he
strove to rebuild the ruined monasteries of his province, de­
stroyed by the Saracens. With the rise of the material walls,
he also revived the stronger defence of regular discipline and
the study of ecclesiastical science. As books were very scarce
at this period, Gennadius, with a view to the spread of knowl­
edge by their greater diffusion, engaged the various religious
communities to a mutual interchange of the few volumes they
severally possessed. To this circumstance we owe our ac­
quaintance with the catalogue of a monastic library in the
tenth century. The list is very limited : 1st, a Psalter or VadeMecum ; 2d, an Antiphonal; 3d, a Manual of Prayers; 4th, a
Manual of the Passions, or, in other words, a Martyrology.
These four works constituted the common and indispensable
stock cf every church. Those which were mutually lent con-

674

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

Dieted of: 1st, the Bibliotheca, that is, the whole Bible; 2d,
Commentaries on the books of Job, the Pentateuch, and Ruth,
in one volume; 3d, the Lives of the Fathers ; 4th, a book of
commentaries upon Ezechiel; 5th, the books on the Trinity,
apparently by St. Augustine ; 6th, St. Jerome’s Letters ; 7th,
the Book of Rules, which seems to have been the collection of
St. Benedict of Aniano. Thus the Western Churches, so sadly
desolated by the barbarian inundation strove, at least, to stem
the destructive tide of ignorance and disorder which followed
in its
ί.

J; IX. Pontificate

of

John XI. (March 20, a. d. 931—February
5, 936).

26. John XL, the second son of the notorious Marozia and
Spoleto, owed his promotion to the intrigues ol
Guy, duke of *
his mother (March 20, a. d. 931). He was but twenty-five
years old at the time of his accession, a very unsuitable age
for the common father of all the faithful. His own brother,
Alberic, had seized upon all the power in Rome, and held the
youthful and unfortunate Pope in subjection. Lest his victim
should escape, he even doomed him to three years of close
confinement in the castle of St. Angelo.
During his captivity, Alberic forced from him the confirma­
tion of the patriarchal authority of Constantinople, conferred
by order of the emperor Romanus Lecapenus, upon his son
Theophylactus, a youth of sixteen (a. d. 933). Ambassadors
were sent to Rome to obtain the necessary ratification of so
irregular a promotion. John XI., closely guarded by hiw
brother Alberic, yielded to coercion, and signed all that was
demanded of him.
27. Such scenes, in the very heart of Rome, shocking as
they may and must appear to us, will cease to seem so strange
• Here again Luitprand is guilty of a gross error, in attributing tc John XL a scandalous
extraction. A number of historian·, either misled or hostile, have endorsed the calumny
acterly refuted by later critics.

JOHN XI. (A. D. 931-938).

575

if we turn our eyes to the other quarters of the world at the
same period. Anarchy and confusion reigned throughout;
feudalism was rising up from the ruins of monarchical power ;
the nobles, established in their own independence, made war
upon each other and upon the common sovereign ; they hud
seized upon, or rather they had abolished, the municipal and
ecclesiastical elections ; for how else could Hugh, styled the
French Prince, king of Provence and Italy, have given to
Manasses, already archbishop of Arles, the bishoprics of
Verona, Mantua, and Trent, or the count of Vennandois in­
troduced into the see of Rheims his son Hugh, a child of five
years ? How could an Eastern emperor have bestowed the see
of Constantinople upon his son, a boy of sixteen, to shock the
world by the unprecedented spectacle of a patriarch leaving
the altar to visit one of his horses, and then returning to finish
the office ? In such a state of society, is it cause of wonder
that petty tyrants, holding alternate and ephemeral sway in
Rome, should dispose at will of the Holy See in favor of their
children or their creatures ? Unquestionably, these were im­
mense evils ; but they show more admirably the wonderful
workings of Divine Providence, which has always preserved
the teaching of the Church untainted in the midst of the foul
atmosphere of scandal and crime through which it has had to
pass. Heresy and impiety have eagerly but vainly searched
the archives of this dark period ; their efforts have but served
to prove the unfailing truth of His word, who commissioned
Peter and his fellow-apostles to “ teach all nations," promising
to “ be with them all days, even to the consummation of the
world.” Not a single decree, even though issued in those days
of disorder and ignorance, has afforded a clause containing
aught at variance with faith and morals, or with the general
discipline of the Church.
John XI. died in captivity (February δ, λ. d. 936), a victim
of the ambition of his own kindred.
28. While lawless license ruled supreme in the bigbeet
orders of the ecclesiastical hierarchy, a work of holy regenera

676

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH

lion was maturing in the retired shades of monastic life. The
grain of wheat cast into the ground must needs pass through
the cold and frost of winter before it may hope to ripen ; the
rich harvest of true greatness, virtue, and holiness which the
Church was to reap in the thirteenth century was slowly and
silently, but yet surely, developing its germs through the
gloomy winter of the tenth. St. Benno, archbishop of Metz,
gave up the honors of the episcopate for a poor and lowly cell,
haljowed, forty years before, by the presence of the holy
hermit Meginrad. He entered upon this eremitical heritage
of the desert, and thus became the founder of the celebrated
monastery of Einsiedeln, so well known as Our Lady of the
Hermits. St. Benno was succeeded in the see of Metz by St.
Adalbero, of the royal blood of Lorraine. He emulated his
predecessor’s zeal for monastic reform, and received into his
diocese the holy abbots Einold and John of Vandières, who
restored discipline and piety in the convent of Gorza. He
charged St. Cadro, an Irish monk, with the reformation of tho
monastery of St Clement, in Metz. St. Gauzelin, bishop of
Toul, introduced the rule of St. Benedict, in its primitive
purity, into the monastery of St. Evro. William Long-sword,
duke of Normandy, restored the ruined abbey of Jumièges,
and cherished the hope of coming to close his eyes in its peace­
ful shade. He kept prudently concealed in his palace the
tunic and cowl which he hoped to wear at a future day. The
hopes of the pious prince were prematurely thwarted by assas­
sination (a. d. 943). But the restorer of monastic discipline,
whose name is linked with this wholesome reform, is St. Odo,
abbot of Cluny. Never was more tender piety, more feeling
and amiable charity, joined to the austere rigor of strict disci­
pline. It could literally be said of Odo that all the unfortunate
were his children. He used to say to his religious : “ The
blind, the lame, and the needy will be the porters of the
heavenly kingdom. We should take good care, then, not to
shut our doors against them while on earth.” Odo succeeded
St. Benno, and was made abbot of Cluny at the death of its

LEO VII. (A. D. 935-939),

577

blessed founder (a. d. 927), Under his government the couu
munit,y was soon distinguished above all others, by atrict
observance, a holy rivalry of virtue among the brethren, the
study of religion and the sacred writings, but especially by an
inexhaustible charity toward the poor. St. Odo dwelt particu­
larly upon the obligation of silence, and this was the startingpoint of all his reforms. “ Silence," he was wont to say, “is
the parent of holy thoughts and of great deeds. Peace and
charity make their abode in a community where silence reigns."
The good odor of Christ shed abroad by this community drew
to its cloisters many men of distinguished rank and virtue.
Odo composed special rules for their direction, and thus gave
rise to the congregation known as the order of Cluny. Princes
and nobles hastened to place the monasteries of their depen­
dence under that of Cluny, that St. Odo might bring them to
the same standard of discipline; thus the reform soon spread
throughout France, and even into Italy. The principal monas­
teries which then embraced it are: Fleury-sur-Loire, in the
diocese of Orleans; St. Pierre-le-Vif, in Sens; St. Julien, at
Tours ; Carlieu, in the diocese of Macon ; St. Paul of Rome,
and St. Augustine of Pavia. The only hope of civilization
and faith was thus cherished in the monasteries, far from the
scenes of violence and corruption which disgraced humanity.
§ X.

Pontificate

of

Leo VII. (February 14, a. d. 936—
August 23, 939).

29. Leo VII. * proved himself worthy to fill the Papal
throne, to which he was raised, against his will, on the 14th
of February, a. d. 936. Far from seeking a dignity coveted
by so many rash intruders, who saw but its splendor, he had
done all in his power to avoid it, according to the old and now
forgotten maxims. He did not, in his new dignity, abandon
• Some modern writers call this Pontiff Leo VI, looking upon the tuccMtcr oi John X
aa an intrudor. This opinion is now rejected by found criticim
Vol. IL—37.

general history of the church.

hill usual application to prayer, his wonted rule of life, and
constant meditation. Lofty in his views, prudent in resolve
and execution, he possessed the faculty of winning the heart
by the grace and mildness of his words. Such is he repre­
sented by Flodoard, who lived on terms of intimacy with the
Pontiff.
During his pontificate, Gerard, archbishop of Lorck (which
see has since been transferred to Saltzburg), came to Rome, to
consult the Sovereign Pontiff both on his own behalf and on
that of the bishops of France and Germany. The answer, ad­
dressed to all the bishops of Gaul and Germany, shows what
were the questions proposed to the Pope. He declares that
there is no guilt in visiting the full rigor of human laws upon
sorcerers, augurs, and enchanters ; though they should first be
exhorted to do penance. He requests bishops to follow the
custom of the Roman Church in saying the Pax Vobis on all
feast-days and Sundays when the Gloria in Excelsis is said.
H Another question,” he says, “ has been proposed to us, and
one worthy of tears. Some apostate priests, renouncing the
honor of priesthood, have publicly contracted matrimonial en­
gagements. May the children sprung from these sacrilegious
unions be promoted to orders ?” The reply is in the affirma­
tive. “For children,” said the Pope, “cannot be made answer­
able for the faults of their parents.” From this fact it appears
that the ecclesiastical discipline on the conditions of admission
to orders was not yet canonically fixed (a. d. 938).
30. Some time previous to these events, Leo VI. had
proved the sincerity of his fatherly solicitude. Alberic, still
master of Rome, was at enmity with his father-in-law, Hugh,
king of Provence and Italy. Leo VII., aware of the merit
and reputation of Odo, abbot of Cluny, summoned him to
Rome, to effect a reconciliation. The saint wrought the two­
fold wonder of reviving the natural feelings long since stifled
in the hearts of both princes, and of moving Alberic to forgive
au insult received from Hugh, who had, in public, struck him
in the face Alberic conceived for the venerable abbot of

STEPHEN LX, (A. D. 939-943).

579

Cluny an esteem hordering upon enthusiasm. Odo was one day
met in the country by a pennant, to whom he was unknown
and who raised his hand to strike him. Alberic would have
had the offending linu at once cutoff; the wretched peasant
owed his pardon only to the intercession of the saint himself.
Thus we see that the manners and morals of the age stili
retained all their primitive rudeness and violence. All the
barbarian elements brought together for the formation of the
present state of society were then in process of fusion. Even
while a prince of the tenth century seemed to bow to the sway
of religion, the half-savage nature would show itself in some
direction. Leo VII. ended his reign by a premature death on
the 23d of August, a. d. 939.
§ XI. Pontificate

of

Stephen *
IX (September 1, a. d. 939—
January 15, 943).

31. The pontificate of Stephen IX., who was raised to the
Papal chair on the 1st of September, a. d. 939, was almost
wholly devoted to the settlement of a dispute relative to the
archbishopric of Rheims, arising from a purely political cause.
At the death of Charles the Simple, a captive in the tower of
the castle of Peronne (a. d. 930), the throne of France had
been given to the usurper Raoul. The queen, Ogina, fled be­
fore the rebels, ' -tking with her to England the last scion of the
Carlovingian stock, the youthful son of Charles the Simple,
aftei ward Louis d’Outre-Mer. When Raoul died (a. d. 930), the
nobles remembered the royal exile. Herbert, duke of Vermandois, whose revolt had caused the father’s death, could not
rejoice at the succession of the son; he accordingly used all
his power to thwart the partisans of Louis d’Outre-Mer. With
this view, he laid siege to Rheims (a. d. 940), whose archbishop.
• Bare mus and Floury say that Stephen IX wm a German, and elected by the German
Motion, in «pue of tho Roman clergy; that the Romans, m hatred ot !>.· uapopuar ucce
nlity, seized upon his person, and, arter loading him with outragea. fearfliUr mutÜAted hti
countenance. Other documents, however, show Stephen to have been of Botiuu engin
but such ooutradijtc.y accounts are not unfniquent in tho annals of this end period.

580

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

ArtOidj was one of the most stanch defenders of the legitimate
Rovereign. Six vigorous assaults compelled the city to open
its gates. Artold was made to sign his abdication, and con­
fined In a monastery. In the following year (941), the Duke
of Verma ndois assembled the bishops of the province, and,
regardless of Artold’s appeal to the Pope, the see of Rheims
was bestowed upon Herbert’s son Hugh, a young man of
twenty. It is painful to record these shocking abuses, but
such was the depravity of the age, that no authority was com­
petent to quell the disorders. The Pope was obliged to yield
to the force of circumstances rather than expose the Church of
Rheims to the last extremities, and he accordingly sent the
pallium to the youthful prelate. He also availed himself of
the right to which this favor entitled him, and charged the
duke of Vermandois to recognize Louis d’Outre-Mer as lawful
sovereign. Hugh seems to have done nothing unworthy of the
dignity to which he had just been raised ; and history lays to
his charge none of the excesses so common at that time, even
among members of the episcopate.
Stephen IX. died on the 15th of January (a. d. 943), after
a pontificate of three years.

§ XII. Pontificate

of

Marinus II. (January 22,
August 4, 946).

a. d.

943-

32. Mannus II. was elected, on the 23d of January,A.D.943,
to succeed Stephen IX. From the hopeless sterility which
marks the annals of the Church at this period, we turn with
satisfaction to the spectacle offered by Germany, happy undei
the religious and wise administration of kings truly worthy of
the throne. Henry had reigned with glory, and was succeeded
by Otho the Great, who received the royal unction from Hilde·
bert, archbishop of Mentz (a. d. 937). “ Receive this blade,”
said the prelate, as he girded him with the royal sword, “ to
emite the foes of the Lord, whether barbarians or bad Chris­
tians ; since, with the Frankish crown, God gives you the mission

MARINÛU Π. (A. D. WM«|.

to protect the whole of Christendom.” Otho rememhei
solemn words, and applied them faithfully to every act of
reign. Boleslas. the heathen king of the Bohemian Sclavea, had
lately thrown off the German yoke and disclaimed all allegi­
ance to Otho. Cruel persecutor of the Christian name, he had
murdered the king, his brother St. Wenceslas, to seize the
crown. A war of fourteen years resulted in the submission of
the Sclaves, who promised to embrace the Christian religion
and to remain faithful to the sovereigns of Germany. Churches
and monasteries arose in Bohemia, and the converted nation at
length entered the pale of true civilization. Otho now turned
his victorious arms against the Danes, and compelled their king,
Harold, to sue for peace, which was granted on the condition
of his embracing the true faith. Harold hesitated. A priest
called Poppo was striving to prove to him the divinity of Christ,
“ Are you ready,” asked the king, “to test in your own person
the truth of your assertions?” These proofs, by judgments of
God, were, as we have stated, conformable to the spirit of the
times. An iron was heated, which Poppo held in his hand,
unhurt, until the king, convinced by the test, ordered that the
idols should be destroyed and Christ adored. Jutland or Den­
mark was divided into three bishoprics, which the Holy See
made suffragan to the metropolitan see of Hamburg. In virtue
of his newly conferred powers, St. Adaldagus, archbishop of
Hamburg, erected the three episcopal sees of Sleswig, Rippen,
and Arhus, to which he gave the charge of the Christian com­
munities already established beyond the Baltic, in Finland,
Zealand, and Sweden. From this period Christianity rapidly
gained ground throughout the North.
33. Since the death of Leo the Philosopher, the Eastern
empire had again fallen into the succession of revolutions and
intrigues so familiar to its annals, and necessarily following
from the system of elections which placed the power in tho
hands of every fortunate ambition. Constantine VII. was too
young at the time of his father’s death to take the power into
his own hands. The regency was at first intrusted to his uncle

682

general history of the church.

Alexander, whose excesses surpassed those of the worst piinces
that ever disgraced the throne of Constantine, and who ended
his shameful career in 912. The empress Zoe, a woman
equally devoid of modesty and genius, succeeded in obtaining
the guardianship of her son. The imperial admiral, Romanus,
Burnamed Lecapenus, worked himself into the good graces of
the empress, used her ignominious favors as stepping-stones to
the imperial power, and, once sure of the throne, imprisoned
the empress in a monastery, where she died in despair. An
unknown hand traced upon her tomb this epitaph : “ Here lies
a daughter of Babylon !” To give to his usurpation some
show of justice among the people, Romanus reigned in the
name of Constantine VII. In Constantinople he appeared as
mayor of the palace. lie caused the young emperor to marry
his daughter. Meanwhile the Bulgarians were under the walls
of the imperial city ; they formed a league with the Saracens,
and now Constantinople seemed threatened with unavoidable
ruin. Lecapenus bought a peace by giving his second daughter
to the king of the Bulgarians and the imperial treasures to the
caliph. It was then that he placed upon the patriarchal throne
of Constantinople his son Theophylactus, a youth of fifteen
years, who disgraced the pallium by his embezzlements and
licentious excesses. He sold the bishoprics to the highest
bidders, and every religious heart was saddened by the orgies
which profaned his palace. The Greek Church was spared no
scandal. The Patriarch, finding the ecclesiastical ceremonies
too monotonous, enlivened them by the introduction of fantas­
tic games, songs, and dances. These songs, mingling with the
solemn ritual chant, allied, says an author, “ the worship of
the devil to that of the Divine Majesty.” This sacrilegious
abuse continued to profane the churches of Constantinople
until the twelfth century. It even crossed the ocean and
appeared in some churches of the West. Such is doubtless
the origin of the burlesque ceremonial of the feast of fools, or
that of the asses, of which we still find traces in the ritual of
lome cathedrals in the middle ages. But the other sons of Le-

MARINOS II. (A. D. 9Ι3-Μβ)

583

capenus, for whom he had severaUy obtained the title of
Augustus, impatient to enjoy the power alone, clothed their
father in the habit of a monk, and conveyed him hy night to
a monastery situated on an island in the Hellespont (λ. d. 94-1).
The weeping exile repeated these words of the Scripture : “I
have brought up children, and exalted them; but they have
despised me.’ Like the High-Priest Heli, I am punished for
my culpable fondness.” Constantine VII. emerged from his
long torpor, and seemed for a while to reign. The sons of Le­
capenus perished by the sword or by poison; Theophylactas
was replaced by the Patriarch Nicephorus (a. D. 945). But
Constantine, who had reached the age of forty years without a
thought of governing, found the weight of the imperial power
beyond his strength. Basil, his chamberlain, and his daughter­
in-law, Theophano, ruled him, as Lecapenus had done before
Leaving the reins of government in their hands, he was content
to be the emperor of scholars and scientific men, and literature
flourished through his care in Constantinople. He forgot that
literary pursuits should be the recreation of a monarch, who,
indeed, illustrates his reign by their diffusion, but speedily
falls into public contempt if they are made paramount to the
more serious and important duties of royalty.
34. Marinus ended his pontificate of three years on the 4th
of August, a. d. 946. He had nobly struggled against the
overwhelming tide of ignorance which desolated the Church.
There is still extant a letter of the Pontiff's, in which he
severely reproaches the bishop of Capua for his neglect to
familiarize himself with the canonical regulations and the
first elements of letters. Unfortunately, these efforts proved
unavailing against the thick gloom of an age of darkness.
Marinus stands out in bright relief against the universal dark­
ness and disorder, showing some of that pious energy which
animated the Sovereign Pontiffs in the primitive days of the
Ch arch.

684

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

§ XIII. Pontificate of Agapetus IT. (August 9, a. d. 94C-.
March 18, 956).

35. The Chair of Peter found in Agapetus II. (August 9,
946) a worthy successor to Marinus, and the government
of the Church received a new impulse during a reign of ten
years, one of the most glorious in the annals of the tenth
century.
The three councils of St. Pierre-de-Mousson, Ingelheim, and
Triers (a. d. 948) ended the difficulty in the archbishopric of
Rheims which had been raised under Stephen IX. The policy
which had deposed Artold in favor of the infant Hugh was in
a state of reaction, and would now have removed Hugh to
restore Artold. Louis d’Outre-Mer had overcome the hostile
artifices of the count of Vermandois. His first thought was
to bring about the deposition of Hugh, son of the rebel lord,
and to restore the see to Artold, who had never been canoni­
cally removed. The three councils mentioned above met for
this end. The deposition of Hugh and the reinstatement of
Artold were unanimously decreed, and submitted for ratifica­
tion to the Sovereign Pontiff. In a council assembled at Rome
(a. d. 949), Agapetus II. confirmed both acts, and gave them
the sanction of the Apostolic See. But their execution was
attended with more than one difficulty. Notwithstanding his
earnest endeavor to restore the royal authority in France,
Louis was not master in his own realm. The feudal system
had raised the vassal’s power at the monarch’s expense. The
death of Herbert, which occurred at this date, might have
simplified the situation of affairs by depriving the false arch­
bishop of Rheims of his natural support ; but Hugh the Great,
count of Paris, had assumed the duty of protecting his nephew,
the archbishop, who was also preparing to make good his pre­
tended rights by force of arms. The struggle lasted a whole
year. Pope Agapetus intervened, with a view to a general
pacification, which was at length effected under the
a. d.

AGAPETUS H. (A. D. 9«-95β).

585

auspices of the Pontiff and of Otho the Great. Arteld wu
restored to the see of Rheims, which he succeeded in holding
against the subsequent attempts of his rival, Hugh.
36. The power of Otho the Great was on the increase in
Germany. The Western Empire, restored by Charlemagne, had
ceased to exist in 911, with the infant king Louis IV. The
rival ambitions of the kings of Italy, France, and Germany had
fallen together by mutual annulment, and no prince had since
received, with the imperial title, the mission of protecting the
Church. This was likewise one of the causes which led to the
fearful decline witnessed in the tenth century. The dukes of
Tuscany had made themselves masters of Rome, and the
Papacy, thrown upon its own resources alone, was too often
made a mere plaything in their hands. Otho daily added to
his realm. He had lately made the acquisition of Lombardy,
where they had invoked the aid of his sword to defend the
people against the tyranny of their kings. On Christmas Day,
a. d. 951, he took possession of his new territory, and married
St. Adelaide, widow of Lothaire, late king of the Lombards,
thus seating virtue and glory side by side upon the throne of
Germany. It was not hard to foresee the day on which the
empire was to be restored in his person; he foresaw it himself;
but the time was not yet. Wishing to sound Pope Agapetus
on the subject, he asked leave to come to Rome, to receive the
imperial crown at the Pontiff’s hands. Agapetus very pru­
dently refused; he wished that facts should first prove the
adA'antages to be derived from the power which it was proposed
to re-establish. The Church had already suffered too much
from princes crowned by her own hands, to risk any rash ex­
periments. Otho accordingly returned to Germany with hie
bride, whose piety, sweetness, and boundless charity drew upon
her power and name a people’s blessing. He was also accompa­
nied by the learned Ratherius, formerly bishop of Verona, now
banished from his see by the revolutions in Italy. Ratheriua
revived the literary tastes of Germany, and was intrusted by
Otho with the education of his youthful brother Bruno, wh<<

r,36

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

whs at a later period to illustrate by his holiness the archie·
piecopal throne of Cologne. The learned preceptor was after­
ward rewarded by promotion to the see of Liege (a. d. 953).
*
On his return from Italy, Otho, who deemed it the first
duty of a Christian king to guard the existence of strict disci­
pline in the Church, assembled a council of the German and
Lombard bishops, at Augsburg. The canons published by this
council are a sad evidence of the depravity which ruled the
age. They are nearly all directed against the immorality
and disorders of priests and clerics ; an appeal to the secular
arm was even found necessary to restrain their irregularity
(a. d. 952). The king and nobles pledged themselves to
secure the observance of these decrees in all the provinces sub­
ject to their authority.
37. Even in abandoned Italy a powerful voice was raised
to protest against the general contempt of canon law and the
abuses which had crept into tic Church. Atto, bishop of Vcrcelli, had just published his Treatise on the Sufferings of the
Church, a noble burst of anguish wrung from a conscience out­
raged at the prevailing darkness and corruption of the age. No
abuse, of the swarm that disgraced the Church, escaped the
brand of the eloquent bishop. The superstitious recourse to
the judgments of God, the bestowal of bishoprics upon children,
simony, the usurpation of church property, the incontinence of
clerics, are lashed with a vehemence worthy of the apostolic
times. To shield his own diocese from the general blight, the
bishop of Vercelli addressed his clergy in a circular, called the
Capitulary, divided into a hundred chapters, in which he quotes
the decrees of the councils, the decretals of the Popes, and
especially the capitularies of Theodulf, bishop of Orleans. The
serious and solemn warning, coming like an echo of bygone
• Rathoriua ia the Oldest author of the Middle Ages who baa left us a grammar for the
4se of children. He called it the Serva Dorsum (Save-the-back), to signify that it would
•hield studious scholars from the whipa and rods then in wholesome use. Katherine did
not lung remain in the see of Liege. His pure morality and real talents wero not calculated
to win the atrc-ctions of such a period. The people of Liege roiw up and .obliged him W
resign the government of that Church (a. d. 960).

Α0ΑΤΤ.ΤΓ3 ΓΤ. (Λ. D. 046-9$β1

587

*iges, was not unheeded. 8t. Bruno, brother of the great Otho
lately raised to the archbishopric of Cologne (a. d. 955),
emulated the zeal of the prelate ofVercelli. The clergy and
the monasteries subject to his rule soon became very models
of regularity, piety, and strict canonical observance. St
Udalric, bishop of Augsburg, whose name it shall be our plead­
ing task to record again with such glorious surroundings, was
also nobly laboring in the work of clerical reform. They were
followed by St. Adaldagus, bishop of Hamburg. St. Aimard
and St. Mayeul, abbot of Cluny, inherited the zeal and virtue
of their predecessor, St. Odo. St. Guibert of Gemblonrs, St.
Gerard of Brogne, and St. Gerard of Tool, were carrying on the
same holy work amid the silence and solitude of the cloister.
Providence thus placed the remedy side by side With the evil;
and the examples of holiness, ?"nt from on high, were gradu­
ally working upon the masses and opening the way for the
regeneration of the West.
38. The East was not blest with a like spiritual fruitful­
ness. Its annals present, at this period, but two names worthy
of another age, and working against the general downward cur
rent. Two hermits, St. Luke the Younger and St. Paul of
Latra, gave back to the desert the long unknown wonders of
an Anthony and a Hilarion. As if hoping to counterbalance
the barrenness of his own age by the examples of an earlier
day, Simon *
Metaphrastes, chief treasurer at the court of Con­
stantinople, undertook to gather into one general collection the
Lives of the Saints, scattered through a thousand different
works. In this immense labor he employed copyists, stenog­
raphers, and correctors, who wrote under his orders. The
Lives of the Saints, thus collected, are divided into three cate­
gories. Some are simply the full and complete reproduction
of the original documents and acts of the martyrs; others but
• Metaphrastoa is derived from the two Greek words
and
(traailation). Met»·
phraetes moans at once translator, commentator, and interpolator. The name was be·
etowed upon Simon because he selected the most important passages from the Lm y At
Sainte, already published. which ho translated and paraphrased.

6RS

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

partially reproduce the originals, and have been retouched by
Metaphrastes; while many are altogether his own.
The
criticism of the seventeenth century, represented by Adrian
Bnillet, has not always dealt justly by Simon Metaphrastes
*
The collection for which we are indebted to the learned
treasurer, is certainly one of the most valuable works
of the kind left us by Christian antiquity. The fidelity with
which he performed his herculean task has been shown by Fr.
Montfaucon. The illustrious Benedictine quotes a Greek manu­
script of the ninth century, containing lives of saints for the
months of May, June, July, and August, as they were before
passing through the hands of Metaphrastes. The compiler
contented himself with some improvements in the style, but
with a most scrupulous regard to the statement of facts.
39. Germany once more resounded with the clash of arms.
In the year 955, the Hungarian Magyars poured into Germany
in countless hordes, ravaging all the provinces between the
Danube and the Black Forest, and finally laid siege to Augs­
burg. The walls of the city were but ill calculated to resist
the assaults of the barbarians. But Augsburg was defended
by an insurmountable bulwark in the virtue of its holy bishop,
St. Udalric. With no stouter armor than his pastoral stole, the
dauntless prelate placed himself at the head of the warriors,
distributed the posts, and remained all day exposed to the ene­
my’s darts. On the following morning he celebrated the Holy
Mysteries, blessed the troops, and exhorted them to put all
their trust in God. At the moment when the barbarians were
scaling the walls, Otho appeared at the head of a formidable
army, attacked the Infidels, and inflicted upon them a most dis­
astrous defeat. In thanksgiving for this unexpected success,
•The seventeenth century. imbued, almost unconsciously, with the spirit of Jansenism,
showed an open disposition to banish from ecclesiastical history every fact that departed in
ths least from the natural order. Under cover of sound criticism, the doctrine of miracle·
was really '•ejected. But faith in miracles is the essence of the Church, whose very exist­
ence is a standing miracle. In Baillet's system, the Lives of the Saints consisted of a genera! panegyric on all th» v’rrnos. squared by the two 'Htes of birth and death.

A0APETÜ8 IL (A. D. 94β-95β>.

he founded and richly endowed the bishopric jf Merseburg
(August 10, a. d. 955).
40. The glory of Otho the Great was now at its height.
Abderahman, emir al *Moumenin of Cordova, sent ambassadors
to congratulate him. Otho sent him back a deputation headed
by the holy abbot, John of Vaudières. The saint was obliged
to wait long after his arrival in Cordova for an audience. Al
length, on the appointed day, he was notified to appear in court
attire before the emir. “ The poor of Christ," he replied “have
no change of apparel.” On learning this reply, Abderahman
ordered a considerable sum of money to be given him. The
faithful religious received it, but at once distributed it among
the poor of Cordova. “ I like that monk’s firmness,” said the
emir, when he heard of the generous deed. “ Let him-come in
a sack, if he choose, I shall be no less pleased to see him.”
The Christian ambassador was then ushered into the presence
of Abderahman, and fulfilled his mission with a freedom which
completely won the emir. He dwelt with particblar earnest­
ness upon the persecutions which the Christians suffered from
the Saracens, and begged the prince to put a stop to them.
While taking leave, he announced his intention of returnin.' at
once to Germany. But Abderahman graciously replied : “After
so long a delay, the sojourn should not be so short." In a second
audience the emir held a long conversation with the abbot,
on the exploits of King Otho, on his lofty character, on the
advantages and disadvantages of the feudal system in Germany,
and finally dismissed him loaded with presents. The account
of this embassy, written by John of Vaudières himself, is one
of the most curious monuments of the tenth century.
Meanwhile, Pope Agapetus II. had ended in Rome a pon­
tificate glorious for the Church (March IS, a. d. 9-56).
* This title signifies Princt of the Phithfui The Frinks of the Middle Ages eli.wgtd th·
name into Mirainofin, which epithet they applied without diitinctoo to all the Ainvw
chiefe.

GENERAL HISTORÏ OF THE ÜHVBCH.

500

CHAPTER VII,
§ L Pontificate

John XII. (March 23, a. d. 956—May 14, 964).

of

I. Condition of Italy at the accession of John XII.—2. Election of John
XII—3. Otho the Great, Emperor.—4. John XII. forsakes the party of
Otho the Great.—5. Hostility of Otho toward the lawful Pope.—6. A
council at Rome deposes John XII. and elects an antipope, under the nain»
of Leo VHI.—7. Reinstatement and death of John XII.

§ II. Pontificate

of

Benedict V. (May 19,

a. d.

964—July 5, 905).

8. Benedict V. banished to Hamburg. Usurpation and death of the antipop»
Leo VIIL
§ IIL Pontificate

of

John XIII. (October 1,

a. d.

965—September 6, 972)

fl. State of the Catholic world at the accession of John XIII.—10. The politi­
cal life of Germany centres in the person of Otho.—11. Otho’s efforts to
extend the triumphs of Christianity.—12. Embassy of Luitprand, bishop
of Cremona, to Constantinople.—13. Otho Π. espouses Theophano, a Greek
princess.

§ IV. Pontificate

of

Benedict VI. (September 22, a. d. 972—March, 974).

14.

§ V. Pontificate
15.

of

Benedict VI. dies by poison.
Donus II. (April 5, a. d. 974—October, 975).

Election and death of Donus II.

St. Mayeul refuses the tiara.

VI. Pontificate of Benedict VII. (December 19,

16.

a. d.

975—July 10,98
,
*

Boniface VI., antipope.—17. The Russians before Constantinople.—
18. Social crisis in the tenth century.—19. St. Dunstan, archbishop of
Canterbury.—20. St. Bernard of Menthon.—21. Roswitha.—22. Death of
Benedict VII.

§ VII Pontificate

of

23.

John XIV. (October 19, a. d. 984—-August 20, 085).

Election and death of John XIV.

JOHN XII. (A. D. 95MU).

Pontificate

§ VIII.

Election and death of John XV.

24.

§ IX.
25.

591

of John XV. (December I, a. d. 985—December, 985).

Pontificate of John

XVI. (April 25, a. d. 985—April 30, 890).

Hugh Capet, King of France.—26. Persecution of Swein. Conversion of
the Russians.—27. Apprehensione of the approaching end of the world.—
28. Death of St. Wolfgang and of John XVL

§ X.

Pontificate of Gregory V. (May 19, a. d. 996—February 18, 999).

2P. Election of Gregory V.—30. Philagathaa antipope.—31. Robert the Pious.
Bertha.—32. Bermudo II., King of Leon.—33. Death of Gregory V.

§ I. Pontificate

of

John XII. (March 23, a. d. 956—May
4,964).

1. The death of Agapetus II. left Italy broken up into
rival factions. Otho the Great held the Suzerainty of Lom­
bardy ; but, at the request of the empress St. Adelaide, he
had left to Adalbert, son of Berengarius Π., the administration
of a portion of his former domain. Alberic, duke of Tuscany,
and husband of Marozia, had just died, leaving his power in
the hands of his son Octavian, a youth of eighteen years, who,
regardless of his previous engagement in holy orders, hastened
to seize the reins of government. Pandulf, duke of Capua,
sought to build up an independent power in the territory called
the Laborini Campi. The absence of a firmly constituted sov­
ereignty, like that created by Leo III. in favor of Charlemagne,
resulted, for Italy, in domestic strifes, disorder, and bloodshed.
The union of the Papacy and the empire seemed necessary for
the safety of the world. Unhappily, the homogeneous elements
essential to its lasting consolidation were now wanting. The
restoration of the empire, to the advantage of the German
princes, was not destined to afford the protection and stability
looked for by the Holy See.
2. Octavian, already a cleric of the Roman Church, and al
the age of eighteen master of the temporal power, was ambi­
tious to join the spiritual supremacy to his actual sovereignty.
He was elected Pope on the 23d of March, a. d. 956. His

692

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

promotion was a disgraceful calamity. He brought to the
Chair of St. Peter only the vices and dissolute morals of a
young debauchee; and though Luitprand must have exag­
gerated the disorders of this Pope, yet there remains enough
of truth in the account to have brought down the scandal of
the pontificate through succeeding ages, like a loud blasphemy,
which makes angels weep and hell exult. Octavian assumed
the name of John XII. This first example of a change of
name on ascending the pontifical chair has since passed into a
custom with all the Sovereign Pontiffs.
3. John XII. looked upon his new dignity only as a means
of more fully indulging his licentious passions. Immediately
after his accession he assembled his troops and marched against
Pandulf, prince of Capua; but his arms were unsuccessful.
He came back to Rome completely defeated, and this reverse
left him defenceless against the seditious attempts of Adalbert,
king of Upper Italy. Powerless to free himself from this
tyranny, the Pope appealed for help to Otho the Great. That
prince came to Rome in 962, and was hailed as saviour by
clergy and people. The youthful Pontiff immediately crowned
him emperor. Thus was the Western empire restored, after
an interregnum of fifty years. The Romans swore fidelity to
Otho the Great. John XII. solemnly promised never to con­
tract an alliance with his enemies. Otho, on his part, con­
firmed the gifts made to the Holy See by Pepin and Charle­
magne. The original copy of this precious deed, written in
letters of gold, was kept in the castle of St. Angelo. The
emperor engaged to claim for himself or his successors no
right of government or of jurisdiction in the Pontifical States
“ unless it be officially required by him who, at the time, holds the
government of the Holy Church." The decrees of Eugenius II.
relating to the papal elections were also renewed: “The Roman
clergy and nobles, by the necessity of existing circumstances,
and to punish injustice toward the people and the reasonable
demands of the prelates, shall make oath to follow exactly the
canons relating to the election of the Pope, and not to allow

JOHN XII. (A. D. ΝΜβ4),

Γ)98

the Pontiff-elect to be consecrated without the presence of the
emperor’s deputies.”
4. John XII. soon violated the oath he had pledged. Otho
the Great was still at Pavia when he learned that the Pope had
concluded a treaty offensive and defensive with Adalbert, to
expel the Germans from Italy. Unable to credit the report,
the emperor sent deputies to Rome to ascertain its truth. The
leading citizens loaded the Pontiff with accusations but too
well founded. His manner of life was most infamous. He
said that if he preferred Adalbert to the emperor, it was because
he found an accomplice in the former, and a judge in the latter.
Otho heard these accusations with a certain amount of reserve,
charging upon his youth the odious deeds imputed to the Pope.
“ He will improve,” said the emperor, “with age, and by the
examples and advice of good men.” Otho contented himself
with visiting his indignation upon Adalbert, and he accordingly
laid siege to Montefeltro, where that prince had taken shelter.
At this juncture, a deputation from the Pope, consisting of Leo,
chief secretary of the Roman Church, and Demetrius, a person
of distinction in Rome, arrived in the imperial camp. They
bore a promise from John ΧΠ., to reform in his conduct what
had been the effect of the fire and passion of youth. He then
complained that the emperor exacted an oath of fealty to him­
self, and not to the Apostolic See, from the cities in which he
established his power. Otho replied by exonerating himself
from the charges contained in the pontifical letter. He sent to
Rome Landobard, bishop of Munster, and Luitprand of Cre­
mona, the historian of this gloomy period, with vassals, who
were to prove their master’s innocence by the ordeal of the duel,
according to the barbarous usage of the times, should the Pope
refuse to receive their testimony. John ΧΠ. would hear of no
excuse, and called the troops of Adalbert to Rome.
5. On receiving the account of the Pope’s bearing, Otho
pressed the siege of Montefeltro, and, toward the end of the
gammer. came to Rome in person. John and Adalbert, not
daring to await his approach, fed with the treasure of St.
Vol U.—38

694

GENERAL BISTORT OF THE CHURCH.

Peter’s Church (a. d. 963). Hitherto, so far as we may judge
by the testimony of contemporary writers, Otho’s conduct had
been unimpeachable. Led away by the counsels of German
bishops ill versed in the knowledge of canon law, and justly
angered by the inconstant and scandalous conduct of John
XII., he hazarded a step of fatal consequence, and thought
himself justified in causing the deposition of the Sovereign
Pontiff. Whatever he might be as an individual, John XII.
was lawful Pope ; any attempt against his spiritual authority
was, of right, null. The eighth general council had just de­
creed, in its twenty-first canon : “ If any one, strong in secular
power, seek to expel the Sovereign Pontiff from his See, let
him be anathema !" St. Avitus of Vienne, summing up the
Catholic teaching of his day upon this point, had said : “ How
can the Head of the Universal Church be judged by his inferi­
ors? If any one of the other pontiffs stray from the right
way, he can be reformed ; but when the Pope is arraigned for
judgment, it is no longer a single bishop, it is the whole epis­
copate, which is impugned.” In a similar case, when the
bishops of France had met at Rome to examine the charges
brought against Leo III. (a. d. 860), they had all joined in the
solemn protestation: “We dare not sit in judgment upon the
Apostolic See, the chief of all the churches of God. It belongs
to that See and to its Pontiff to judge us all, being himself sub­
ject to no other judgment, according to the traditions of ancient
discipline.” This should have occurred to the bishops assem­
bled, by order of Otho, to judge Pope John XII. Their meet­
ing was but a pseudo-council, their decrees contrary to all
canon law, and the Pontiff of their election could be but an
*
antipope.
6. The false council accordingly assembled (a. d. 963) in
St. Peter’s church, Luitprand acting as interpreter for the em­
peror, who knew no other tongue but the Saxon. The most
serious charges of immorality, simony, and enormous crimes,
* Snob is the view taken of this assemblage of German bishops by Barouius, Mu raton,
Mansi, Beoohelti, de Maroa. Natalia Alexander, and Korts

JOHN XII. (A b. 95MM).

695

were alleged against John XII. When the accusations had all
been read, Otho addressed the assembly, Luitprand translating
each sentence of the discourse into Latin. “We know by ex­
perience,” said the emperor, “ that the spirit of slander and
envy often attacks those who are constituted in authority.
Hence am I slow to give tou ready ear to the charges just read. I
entreat you, then, in the name of God, Who cannot be deceived ;
in the name of the Virgin Mary, His mother; in the presence
of the Apostle St. Peter, whose body rests here in our midst,
to utter nothing against the Pope but real facts, well known,
and witnessed by men worthy of belief." It is evident, from
his words, that Otho felt the serious nature of the proceeding,
and sought to shield the unprecedented act by every possible
guard. The clergy, nobility, and people of Rome testified to
the truth of the charges. “ If John,” they exclaimed, “ is not
guilty of all these crimes, and of many more too disgraceful to
be spoken in words, may the Prince of the Apostles, on the day
of our death, refuse us entrance into heaven! If you believe
not, our witnessing, at least believe the evidence of your whole
army, which has, for the last five days, seen him upon the
opposite bank of the Tiber, girt with a sword, bearing a buck­
ler, corslet, and helmet, in contempt of the holy canons!" With
this overwhelming evidence before him, Otho still deemed him­
self bound, before taking further steps, to write to John XII.
“ On reaching this city, we inquired of the bishops the cause of
your absence. They replied by charging you with deeds which
would have been unworthy of common stage-players. All, both
clergy and laity, accuse you of homicide, perjury, sacrilege, and
incest. We therefore beg of you to come at once and justify
yourself upon all these heads. If you fear the violence of the
people, we promise you, with an oath, that nothing shall be
done at variance with the canons” (November 6, a. d. 963).
John answered by a threatening letter to the council. “Wo
learn,” he said to the bishops, •'•that you intend to elect an­
other Pope. Should you dare to proceed, then, in the name of
Almighty God, in virtue of our apostolic authority, we pro

596

GENERAL HISTORY UF THE CHURCH.

nounce you excommunicated, and forbid you to confer any
ordination or to celebrate the Holy Mysteries." The bishops
were not daunted by this vehement language. In another ses
eion the emperor urged them to pronounce judgment. The
fallowing sentence was adopted : “An unexampled evil requires
an unprecedented remedy. Did the moral depravity of John
XII. injure no one but him_elf, he should be borne with ; but
his example is contagious, and perverts souls. We therefore
beg that he be expelled from the holy Roman Church, and that
his place be given to an edifying and virtuous Pontiff." Otho
consented. The secretary of the Roman Church, who had been
deputed by John to the camp at Montefeltro, was elected, un­
der the title of Leo VIII. Otho, though undoubtedly with pure
intention, yet too readily yielding to a zeal which was not ac
*
cording to knowledge, had just created an antipope (a. d. 963).
Believing that he had thus restored peace to Italy, he set out
on his return to Germany.
7. Still, John XII. was not without partisans. After tho
emperor’s departure he entered Rome in triumph ; Leo VIII.
had hardlv time to fly. John, a deacon, and the chief secre­
tary, Azo, who had shown a marked attachment to the a
pope, were treated with the last degree of cruelty. John 1
his right hand ; Azo was deprived of his tongue, his nose, and
two fingers. After this deed of revenge, John XII. held a
council to annul the last. “You are aware, well beloved breth­
ren,” said the Pope, “that I was kept from my See for the spaco
of two months by the violence of the emperor. I ask you, then,
if, in accordance with the canons, the name of council can be
given to an assembly irregularly convoked in my church during
my absence ?” “ It is an outrage in favor of the antipope Leo !”
exclaimed the council. “ He should, then, be condemned !”
said John. “ He should !” replied the bishops. This trait of
cowardly compliance shows the spirit of that abandoned age, for
most of the bishops who now spoke had, three months before,
used the same words against John XII. Leo VIII. was ex­
communicated. No other punishment could be inflicted upon

BENEDICT V. (A. D. 954-965).

591

him : he was safe at the court of the emperor. As soon a?
John had secured this triumph over his enemies, he plunged
more deeply than ever into his former dissolute excesses. The
avenging blow was not long delayed; his end was suited to his
criminal life Stricken down by a sudden disease, in the very
midst of his infamous pleasures, he died at the end of eight
days, unable to receive the holy Viaticum (May 14, a. d. 964).
0 Holy Roman Church ! Mother and Mistress of all others !
how often, while recording the annals of this gloomy period,
have we sighed at the degradation to which the disorders of an
unworthy Pope have doomed thee! Two hundred and fiftynine Pontiffs have succeeded each other from St. Peter to Pius
IX. Two or three, in a period of nineteen centuries, have pro­
faned the august character of representative of Jesus Christ.
Scandals must come into the world : St. Paul has said it. Fatal
must! which has been verified even upon the apostolic throne.
But at least the sacred deposit of faith, even when intrusted to
unworthy keepers, has never been altered. It has ever remained
pure and unmixed ; and this is the ever-enduring miracle of
the Church.
§ II. Pontificate

of

Benedict V. (May 19, a. d. 964—July
5, 965).

8. The Romans cherished a heartfelt hatred against the
German rule. At the death of John XII., regardless of the
antipope Leo VIII., they raised to the vacant See (a. d. 964)
Pope Benedict V., whose virtue and learning are recorded bv
even the German historians. But Otho the Great, who had
conferred his dignity upon Leo, wished to uphold his work; he
accordingly hastened at. the head of an army to besiege Rome.
The feeling of hatred was equal on both sides. The Germans
treated the besieged with unfeeling severity. The Romans de­
fended themselves with the energy of despair. Pope Benedict
V. spared nothing that could raise their courage; he appeared
upon the walls to threaten the emperor and his army with ex­

098

GENERAI. HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

communication. Still, Otho did not abate the rigor with whirl
he had prosecuted the siege, and Rome, yielding to famine
rather than to arms, opened its gates (June 23, a. d. 964 :
Leo VIII. entered with the emperor.
The antipope assembled a council in the church of St. Johr
Lateran. The emperor was present with the bishops of Rome
Italy, Lorraine, and Saxony. Benedict V. was introduced, ir
pontifical attire. The antipope tore off his pallium, broke the
pastoral staff he held in his hand, deprived him of his chasuble
and stole, and at length pronounced sentence in these terms ;
“ We deprive Benedict, the usurper of the Holy See, of all pon­
tifical and sacerdotal dignity. Yet, at the emperor’s request,
we allow him to keep the order of deaconship which he held at
the time of his intrusion, but on the express condition that he
may net stay in Rome, but be sent into exile” (June, a.d. 964).
Leo could refuse nothing to the emperor who had just restored
him to a usurped throne. He published a decree granting to
Otho and to his successors “ the right of choosing themselves a
successor in the kingdom of Italy, of establishing the Pope, and
of investing bishops ; so that neither Pope, bishop, nor patrician
can be elected without his consent ; and all this under penalty
of excommunication, perpetual banishment, or death.” Noth­
ing is wanting to fill the measure of cowardly and sacrilegious
impiety which marks this decree. Usurpers have always low­
ered the standard of the authority taken from the lawful pastor
Benedict V. was banished to Hamburg. The emperor soon
after quitted Rome, and spent the rest of the winter in Upper
Italy, where a violent plague decimated his army. Leo VIII.
did not long enjoy his usurped authority in the bosom of the
Roman Church. Ho died in the beginning of April, a. d. 965.
Otho had been able to learn something-of the virtues of Bene­
dict, whose name was held in benediction at Hamburg,and indeed
throughout Germany, and he was taking measures to restore
the Pontiff to the Roman See, when death anticipated his plans
by removing the holy exile (July 5, a. d. 965). The legiti

JOHN Mil. (A. D. MS-911).

Ml

mate Pastor and the usurper appeared almost together befon
the tribunal of God.

§ III. Pontificate

op

John XIII. (October 1, a. d. 965—Sep
lember 6, 972).

9. The train of local events has withdrawn our attentioi
from the general state of Europe and the Catholic world a
the moment when John XIII. ascended the pontifical throat
(October 1, a. d. 965). A rapid glance at the various sove
reigns of Christendom will suffice to restore the broken thread
of succession. England, always under Saxon rule since Alfred
the Great, has seen its throne successively filled by Edward.
Athelstan, Edmund, Edred, Edwy, until the reign of Edgai
“the Peaceful” (a. d. 957-975). Guided by the wise coun
seis of St. Dunstan, archbishop of Canterbury, of St. Ethel
wold of Winchester, St. Oswald of Worcester, and of the piorn
chancellor Turquetul, Edgar perfected the legislation of Great
Britain, giving it a true character of uniformity and of Chris
tian wisdom and mildness. France, under the government of
Lothaire, eldest son of Louis d'Outre-Mer (a. d. 954-986).
was really ruled by Hugh the Great, count of Paris, and w.u
preparing to give the crown of the Carlovingian dynasty to the
Capetian race. Spain, true to the blood of Alphonso the Great
had witnessed the successful struggles of Ramires H. (a. d
950-955) and Ordogno III. (a. d. 956-967) against the re
nowned Caliph of Cordova, Abderahman. Ramires III. (a. d
967-982) carried on the work begun by his fathers, and, undei
his guidance, the Catholic kingdom widened the bounds of iti
conquests. The East was ever a field of bloody revolutions.
Constantine VII., Porphyrogenitus, a distinguished scholar, bur
below mediocrity as an emperor, died in 959, frun the efi'ecti
of poison administered by his own son, Romanus II. The
parricide soon fell, in turn, bofure the intrigues of Theophano,
the daughter of an inn-keeper, whom he had married, seconding
the ambitious ellbrts of a skilful general, Nieephonu Phocas.

600

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

who. frith the purple, assumed the name of Nicephorus II
(a. d. 963-969).
10. The heart of the civil life of the West was Germany,
now raised by Otho the Great to the highest pitch of power.
This monarch, who might, under more favorable circumstances,
have recalled the glorious days of Charlemagne, now began to
bestow extensive fiefs upon prelates, with privileges similar to
those of noble laymen, in order to offer a species of counter­
check to the excessive power of the latter. Otho the Great
was thus the author of the temporal greatness of the German
clergy, so often asciibed by ignorance or bad faith to the usur­
pations and encroachments of the Church. Otho understood,
as well as his detractors, the danger of multiplying independent
vassals, who would eventually use their power against royalty
itself. But the point bad now been reached at which it would
have been as difficult to check this growing force as it was
dangerous to show any fear of it. Yet, to guard against any
abuse of the new power thus placed in the hands of bishops
and abbots, he decreed that it might be used only with the
concurrence and under the direction of the imperial officers.
If the German clergy afterward freed themselves from this re­
straint, the reason must be sought for, as in the case of all other
holders of fiefs, in the great weakness of the royal authority.
11. Otho spared no pains to exalt the Church and to
advance the Catholic faith, of which he had, at his coronation,
proclaimed himself the champion. The archbishopric of Mag­
deburg, erected for St. Adalbert, had lately been placed, by a
decree of John XIII., upon an equality with the three great
metropolitical sees of Germany—Cologne, Mentz and Triers.
In the course of a mission among the Rugi (Pomerania), St.
Adalbert had the happiness to convert Olga, queen of these
barbarians. A flourishing church was founded in their midst,
which the emperor was careful to provide with apostolical labor­
ers. The bishopric of Prague was founded at about the same
time and with the same object as that of Magdeburg. Dit mar,
a Saxon monk, was its first incumbent Boleslas the Cruel, the

JOHN XIII. (λ. D. 985-972).

60)

murderer of his brother, St. Wenceslas, had left the crown to
hia son, of the same name as his father, but, unlike him, sumamed
the Good (a. d. 967). The young king, sincerely attached te
the Christian faith, erected into an episcopal see the church in
which were venerated the relics of his uncle, St. Wenceslas.
John XIII., in ratifying the election of Ditmar as bishop of
Prague, forbade the use of the Sclavonic language in the offices
of the Church, and required that the Bohemians should, in all
points, conform to the Latin rite. The kingdom of Denmark,
of which we had occasion to mention the conversion, under the
pontificate of Agapetus II., was marching steadily onward in
the newly opened path of faith and true civilization. The
Poles, at about this time, also appealed to the Sovereign Pon­
tiff for bishops to instruct them ; the Pope sent Egiel, bishop
of Tusculum, to this new province of the Christian realm. Thus
did the Church extend its conquests among the nations of the
North.
Otho's attention was now called to Italy. The seditiou
factions in Rome had dared to lay irreverent hands upon the
Vicar of Christ (a. d. 965). John XIII. had been seized and
banished to Campania. The emperor, at this news, hurried to
Rome, where his presence alone sufficed to restore order (a. d.
966). But the mere submission of the factions could not, in
the emperor’s estimation, repair the outrage upon the majesty
of the Sovereign Pontiff. Twelve of the chief conspirators
were put to death. Peter, prefect of Rome, who had played
the leading part in the revolt, was suspended by the hair to
the equestrian statue of Marcus Aurelius, upon the public
square of the Capitol, then led through the streets of the city
upon an ass,
*and
finally sent into exile. Such examples of
severity were indispensable in a period of continual disorders.
12. Otho was now maturing the plans of an enterprise
which would alone have sufficed to immortalize his reign- the
expulsion of the Saracens and Greeks from southern Italy.
The Eastern Empire still held Otranto and a few other towns,
the last remnants true to the memory of Constantine. The

602

GENERAT. HISTORY OP THE CHURCH.

whoh. of Sicily was occupied by the Saracens, who thus con
tinually commanded the entrance of Italy, properly so called,
through the disputes of the dukes of Beneventum and Capua,
who could unbhishingly call in, to second the views of personal
ambition, the most cruel enemies of the Christian name. The
power which he now wielded, and the imperial crown firmly fixed
upon his brow, gave him sanguine hopes of succeeding in the
twofold undertaking. He sought first to deal with the Greeks
by diplomacy. His son, Otho IT., had lately been associated
to the government of the empire, and crowned by the hands of
John XIII., on Christmas-Day, a. d. 967. The emperor medi­
tated an alliance between his son and a young Greek princess,
daughter of Romanus the Younger and Theophano. Luitprand,
bishop of Cremona, and historian of the tenth century, was sent
to make the proposals to the emperor Nicephorus II. It was
a delicate mission. The empire of Germany had not yet been
recognized by the court of Constantinople, whose etiquette,
always more obstinate in proportion as its power declined,
looked upon these German barbarians as usurpers.
Otho
thought the bishop of Cremona equal to such a mission, since
he had already acted in the East as ambassador of Berengarius
II. His familiar acquaintance with the Greek language and
manners seemed to fit him more particularly for the manage­
ment of this important affair. The emperor’s expectations were
doomed to disappointment. The haughty bearing of the am­
bassador only imbittered the proud susceptibilities of the East­
ern emperor. Luitprand was received without any of the
honors usually paid to the envoys of sovereigns. “ I could
have wished,” said Nicephorus, “ to give you a more honorable
reception; but the conduct of your master forlflds. He has
seized upon Rome as if it were an enemy’s city. He has tried
to subject by violence several other cities of my empire, and
now has doubtless sent you here as a spy.” Luitprand replied:
“The emperor my mastei did not seize Rome by violence; but
only rescued it from the tyranny of the dukes of Tuscany, un­
der which it groaned. While the popes pined away in dun­

JOHN ΧΤΠ. (A. D. 965-9W).

603

geons at home or in exile abroad, subject to the most shameful
treatment, what was the bearing of your predecessors, who
kept the title of Roman emperors without the burden of ite
responsibilities ? Otho the Great came from the farther end of
Europe to secure the freedom and dignity of the vicars of Jesus
Christ. He punished rebels according to the laws of Justinian,
Valentinian, and Theodosius.” “But you are not Romans'.”
cried Nicephorus, “ yon are only Lombards !” “All," answered
the Bishop of Cremona, “ whether Lombards, Saxons, Germans,
or Franks, we know no worse insult to offer a man than to call
him a Roman. To us that name bears with it all that is worst
in baseness, cowardice, avarice, impurity, and dishonesty!"
History has recorded this spirited reply. It could certainly
contribute little to the success of the embassy, but it is valua­
ble as a witness to existing facts. The Roman people—that
kingly race—had then carried its victorious arms to every quar­
ter of the known world, had heaped up conquests and glory,
only to feel its haughty front bowed to the yoke of nations yet
uncivilized by the cultivation of art and science—of rude and
ignorant men who ruled the world, in turn, by the sword, the
axe, and fire ! The negotiation failed, and Luitprand found
consolation for his ill success, in writing the curious relation of
his embassy.
13. Since the Greeks would not be his friends, Otho no
longer hesitated to treat them as enemies. He led an army
into Apulia and Calabria, which still acknowledged the sway of
the Eastern emperors. Hostilities had already begun, when an
unforeseen occurrence caused their suspension. Theophano, who
had already caused the death of her first husband, Romanus the
Younger, now indulged a new caprice by doing away with the
second. She then offered the throne and her hand to the mur­
derer, John Zimisces. John accepted the throne, but rejected
her hand. Theophano received the chastisement due to her
crimes, and died in the confinement of a monastery in Arme­
nia (a. d. 969). The policy of the East, under the guidance
of John I., took a new direction. The negotiation which had

604

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

failed with Luitprand, concerning the union of the young em­
peror Otho II. with a Greek princess, was now resumed. Zimisces himself made the first overtures, which were accepted ;
Gero, archbishop of Cologne, was charged to repair to Con­
stantinople, at the head of a solemn embassy, to conclude the
treaty of alliance. The youthful princess, who inherited the
name and the beauty without the vices of her mother, Theo­
phano, reached Rome on the 14th of April, a. d. 972, accompa­
nied by a splendid escort. John XIII. celebrated her union
with Otho IL, then bestowed upon her the diadem and the title
of Augusta. Theophano shed honor on the German throne to
which she had thus been allied. And now was realized the
constant dream of Charlemagne, the union of the two empires
of the East and West. John XIII. did not long outlive the
event which seemed the prelude of happier days for the Church.
He died on the 6th of September, a. d. 972, after a pontificate
of seven years.

§ IV. Pontificate of Benedict VI. (September 22,
March, 974).

a. d.

972—

14. The death of John XIII. was the signal for a new
series of calamities and disorders in the Church. The election
of the Sovereign Pontiff again became a subject of dispute
among factions. Benedict VI. was raised to the chair of
St. Peter, on the 22d of September, a. d. 972. The emperor
Otho died soon after, on the 7th of May, a. d. 973. The wisdom
of his administration ; his vigor, which was maintained as
steadily as the jealous pride of the great vassals of the empire
would allow; his glorious feats of valor ; all his imperial and
Christian virtues, have deservedly won him the title of Great.
He was succeeded by Ids son, who had already been crowned
emperor. The seditious spirits in Rome received the tidings of
the emperor’s death as a signal of deliverance. Crescentius
placed himself at their head, seized upon Benedict VI. and im­
prisoned him in the castle of St. Angelo, where he was stran

D0NU8 Π. (A. D. 914-915).

605

gled (March, a. d. 974). This calamitous age, in which th
*
Papacy wag at the mercy of popular passion, seemed to have
put on the character of the heathen persecutions which made
the pontifical chair a throne of martyrdom.
§ V. Pontificate op Donds II. (April 5, a.d. 974—October,975).
15. The name of Donna II. figures for a moment on the list
of pontiffs in the midst of these dissensions and bloody strifes.
The piety and virtues of Donus would have graced the Papal
chair in better days. His reign lasted but a few months, if we
may trust the somewhat doubtful chronology of contemporary
historians. When the Pontiff died, Otho II. and his mother, the
empress Adelaide, wished to secure the vacant see to St.
Mayeul, abbot of Cluny, whose exalted merit seemed to them
suited to heal the lamentable troubles of the Roman Church.
The holy abbot unhesitatingly replied : “I wish to die as I
have lived, in poverty and obscurity.” They used the media­
tion of bishops who entreated him to undertake the noble task.
After a long time spent in prayer, to discover the will of God,
St. Mayeul answered, in a tone which left no room for hope:
“ I am far from possessing the qualities necessary for the gov­
ernment of the universal Church; but I think myself, if possi­
ble, less fit to rule the Romans. There is a far greater distance
between their manners and mine, than between the countries
which have given us birth.” This refusal, which could not be
overcome in St. Mayeul, must be viewed as perhaps the most
wonderful trait in all his history. A touching proof of his as­
cendency over the mind of the youthful emperor was afforded
soon after. The ambition of favorites and flatterers, jealous of
the influence of the empress-mother, had labored so successfully
to sow dissensions between her and her sun, that the holy
princess was soon afterward compelled to withdraw to the
court of her brother, Conrad, king of Burgundy. This was a
source of affliction to all good men ; and St. Mayeul, resolving to
put an end to the fatal separation, sought out the emperor at

606

GENERAL HISTORY vF ΠΙΕ CHURCH

Pa Ana. The holy abbot, with touching energy, represented to
the emperor the duty of honoring his mother, and especially
such a mother. Otho was moved to tears, and, falling on his
knees at the feet of St. Adelaide, promised to be henceiorth
a most tender and devoted son. The reconciliation was sinceie
and lasting. St. Adelaide, the wife, mother, and grandmother
of the three first Othos, became the living oracle of her illustri­
ous family. She guided and supported the pious resolutions
of her daughter-in-law, Theophano. Wholly detached from all
earthly goods, she seemed to be the nurse of the poor ; and
public gratitude bestowed upon her the title of Mother of the
Kingdoms. The pious empress died in 999.
§ VI. Pontificate

of

Benedict VII. (December 19, a. d. 975—
July 10, 984).

16. Benedict VII. had hardly ascended the Papal chair,
when Franco, one of the murderers of Benedict VI., had
himself proclaimed antipope, under the title of Boniface VII.
Bis partisans were numerous among the seditious Romans,
who ranked him as one of their leaders. Backed by their arms,
he plundered the treasury and costly furniture of the Vatican,
and indulged in the worst excesses. The speedy outbreak of
public indignation drove him to seek safety in flight by sea to
Constantinople.
17. At the time of his arrival there, the Eastern empire
was threatened by a formidable barbarian invasion. A hun­
dred thousand Rurikschs, pouring down from their icy Scythian
wastes, covered the Golden Horn with their countless vessels
Zimisces, whose courage, talent, integrity, and public-spirited
devotion would have made him worthy of the crown, had he
not purchased it at the cost of crime, led his legions in person
against this swarm of barbarians. He inflicted upon them a
loss of forty thousand men, and drove them back to the banks
of the Borysthenes. The Rurikschs buried themselves in the
solitude of their immense steppes, where the light of Christian

BENEDICT VU. (A. D. 975-9M).

M7

faith was soon to reach them, and lead them on to new and
splendid destinies. This still savage people was called, by it?
arms, its commerce, and political genius, to become one of the
most formidable powers in the world; and in our own day we
have seen the Ottoman empire of Constantinople tremble be­
fore its th reatening advance. Zimisces returned to his impe­
rial city in triumph; but his glory could not shield him from
the ingratitude of a traitor. One of the eunuchs whom he had
loaded with favors, poisoned him on the 10th of January, λ. d.
976. Basil II. and Constantine VIII., sons of Romanns the
Younger and Theophano, ascended the throne together, and
reigned simultaneously. ’
18. Thus did the East hurry on in the career of crimes
and revolutions which ever hastens the downfall of empires.
The West, as we have already seen, presented a lamentable
scene of disorder and anarchy ; yet between the two situations
there was a wide difference. In Constantinople, a succession
uf emperors, each the murderer of his predecessor, eunuchs
assassinating their imperial masters, a base and degraded
standard of character ready to bow before every successful
crime, every crowned ambition, are but the symptoms of a civ­
ilized decline—an irreparable evil. In the West, new nations,
in the effervescence of yet untamed passions, are carried away
by the energy of a half-savage nature : this is the crisis which
precedes the maturity of our modern society; the long and
painful labor which is to bring forth the great deeds of suc­
ceeding ages. This view is justified by the religious barren­
ness of the East; while the West, with its fulness of vital
pr wer, gave to the world wonderful fruits of holiness and vir­
tue, in the midst of the general confusion and corruption of the
age.
19. Prominent in the ranks of this generation of saints,
struggling against the destructive tide of vice and bad example,
was St Dunstan, archbishop of Canterbury. In ascending the
episcopal throne left vacant by St. Odo, he brought all the vir­
tues of the apostolic ages to adorn the first see in England, lie

608

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

induced King Edgar to inflict severe punishments upon the min­
isters of the Church who dishonored their profession by incon­
tinence, or lowered its dignity by a passion for hunting, by
secular b-affic, or meddling in secular affairs, by seeking lucra­
tive offices or earthly gain. By this noble and prudent disci­
pline, he so enhanced the dignity of the ecclesiastical vocation
in England, that the most illustrious houses rejoiced to see
their children embrace it. The kingdom was cleared of rob­
bers, perjurers, parricides, sacrilegious and seditious characters,
and infamous females. The hand of the saint gave the first
impulse and the finishing stroke to all these good works ; and
his firmness fully equalled his activity and benevolence. King
Edgar, forgetful of the religious principles he professed, had
been guilty of the scandal of seizing a virgin consecrated
to God. St. Dunstan, filled with bitter grief, presented him­
self to the guilty monarch, who rose at his approach and ex­
tended his hand, as usual. The archbishop drew back. “What !"
he exclaimed, “ would you dare, with your hand stained by
impurity, to touch the hand consecrated by the immolation of
Mary's Son ? Think not to conciliate the friend of the bride­
groom by the flattering marks of your affection ; I reject the
friendship of the enemies of Jesus Christ !” Edgar believed
his crime unknown. Struck as by a thunderbolt, he fell at the
saint’s feet, acknowledged his fault, and did canonical penance.
To compensate for the scandal he had given, the king, in a
council held at Winchester, gave his sanction to the measures
most proper for the repression of disorders among the clergy.
“To me God has given the sword of Constantine,” said the
king, in his address to the bishops, “ but to you He has confi­
ded that of Peter : let us join them together to purge the house
of God of the crimes which dishonor it.” Then turning to St.
Dunstan, in particular, he said to him : “ Here are Ethelwold
of Winchester, and Oswald of Worcester, who will courageously
second your efforts. To all three I leave my royal authority,
that by its union with the episcopal power, you may free the
Church from scandalous priests, and give their places to edify-

BENEDICT Vn. 'k. D. «Mifl.

Ing ecclesiastics.” St. "Dunstan and his fellow-workmr.n. the
two bishops designated by the king, proved themselves worthy
of the royal confidence. The illustrious prelate of Canterbury
died at an advanced age, on the 29th of February, a. d. 992.
20. At the same period, a holy priest, sprung from one of
the noblest houses of Savoy, devoted himself to the most pain­
ful labors of evangelical zeal, founding establishments which
still bear his name, and whose public usefulness has been
acknowledged by the voice of impiety itself. St. Bernard of
Menthon, archdeacon of Aosta, moved to pity at the ignoranei
which prevailed among the inhabitants of the Alps, the majority
of whom were still heathens, devoted himself with danntles
and unwearied zeal to their conversion. He enlightened them
and destroyed the idols which still remained upon the peaks of
the steepest rocks. The man of God did not stay his charitable
zeal within these limits. He had often witnessed the danger?
run by the German and French pilgrims on their way to Rome
Amid the snows and glaciers of the Alps, he founded, for theii
convenience, two convents, which are now celebrated through­
out the world for the generous nospitality extended to all
travellers over the Great or Little St. Bernard. The zealous
founder also carried the light of faith into several cantons of
Lombardy where it had not yet shone. After malting many
conversions here he went to Rome, to obtain the pontifical
approval for the religious institute charged with the care of the
two Alpine convents. St. Bernard of Menthon died at a ripe
old age, with a rich store of good works attached to his name.
21. Another glory of the tenth century was unfolding itself,
unseen, save by the eye of God, in the cloistered shades of
Gundersheim (in the present kingdom of Hanover). Roswitha,
a simple and modest religious, whose name and literary works,
so long buried beneath the dust of the monastic libraries, have
lately been brought to light and bailed by the admiring criti­
cism of the nineteenth century, was born about the year !M0.
*
• The tvorke of
or, more, properly, HrwwicU were j ubtaW at Survutberf
1 1601, aud nt Wittercberg in 1717. The traiilatioo of the Γ'-^trr cf this ùuaihle reuserm,

610

GENERAL BISTORT OF THE CHURCH.

Without quitting her pious retreat, she learned Latin, Greek,
the philosophy of Aristotle, music, poetry, and the liberal arte,
Uer only instructors were two nuns of the same monastery.
Would not even the golden age of Louis XIV. have gloried in
this literary prodigy, when it could so extol the learning of
Madame de Sévigné, because she read St. Augustine in the
original, and gave a reputation to Mother Angélique Arnaud,
of Port Royal., because she understood the Latin of her bre­
viary? The gifted nun of Gaudersheim never saw her undis­
covered learning crowned with the light of glory ; the poetry
df her heart was breathed out like the wasted sweetness of the
desert flower. Her poems relate to subjects of two very differ­
ent classes—history and drama. The first category comprises :
1. The Panegyric of the Othos, of which the materials were
gathered from oral, and, in some sort, confidential accounts ; it
forms a kind of private memoir of the ducal and imperial family
of Saxony. 2. A History of the Blessed Virgin Mary. 3. On
the Ascension of our Lord. 4. The Passion of St. Gendulf, com­
monly known as St. Gengoul. 5. History of St. Pelagius of
Cordova. 6. The Fall and Conversion of St. Theophilus. 7. His­
tory of the Passion of St. Denis the Areopagite. 8. History of the
Passion of St. Agnes, Virgin and Martyr. In the preface to this
volume of poems. Roswitha thus expresses herself: “ The stylo
of this little work will doubtless be found wanting in elegance,
but it has at least received the zealous care of the author. I
have been obliged to work in my solitary retreat, deprived of
literary resources, and still far from the age of maturity. My
only aim, in fact, has been to save from the rust of inaction the
poor talent intrusted to my care. I have endeavored, with the
hammer of devotion, to draw from it some few harmonious
sounds to the praise of God.” Roswitha’s dramatic pieces,
composed for religious, and intended to be represented by
them, are devoted to the triumphs of virginity. “ 1 have
tried,” she says, “ according to the powers of my feeble mind,
presented to the literary world by M. Magnin (1845), bus called attention to thia too long
neglected monument of literature and true poetry.

JOHN XIV (Λ D. OT4-VM).

611

to replace the pagan passions, which dishonor the profanv
drama, by the triumphs of the Christian heroines, the chaste
spouses who are admitted to the nuptial
*
of the Lamb." These
pious dramas, seven in number, are written in running verse,
in the style of Terence. The lonely nun of Gandersheim thus
used her talent for the edification of her sisters, never dream­
ing that her poetic inspirations were at a future day to stamp
her name with literary -mmortality. She was far more ambitious
of the endless glory of heaven.
22. The pontificate of Benedict VII. ended on the 10th of
July, a. d. 984. Contemporary historians are silent as to the
details of his reign. May we not hope from this, that, unlike
its stormy predecessors, it passed away in peaceful quiet 1
The Pope bad been preceded to the grave by Otho II., in
983. Though but twenty-eight years of age, this prince bad
already given proofs of a precocious cruelty, which would, per·
baps, have eventually outweighed the pious solicitude of his
mother, St. Adelaide.
§ VII. Pontificate of John XIV. (October 18, a. d. 984—
August 20, 9οό).
23. John XIV.* ascended the Papal throne just as the
srwptre of Otho II. had passed into the hands of Otho III., a
child of three years. The Papacy had now but a feeble cham­
pion, and the factious Romans seized the occasion to renew
their disorders. John XIV. had been chancellor to Otho II.;
had that prince still lived, he would have speedily crushed all
seditious movements. The antipope, Boniface VII., hurried
from Constantinople to Italy, to turn the current of events in
favor of his ambitious views. He headed the rebels, seized
upon the person of John, confined him, as he had done Bene­
dict VI., in the castle of St. Angelo, and left him there to die
• John XIV., before his promotion, boro tho name of Petor Ca.«eFunove. Through
respect for tho Prince of the Apostles, he changed his name of Peter, which non· of the
Popes hove ever borne

012

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

if hunger ind neglect (August 20, a. d. 985). He then inaugu­
rated his usurped power by arms and violence; but the horn
of vengeance was not far off. He became the victim of a
popular storm. His dead body was pierced with lances, dragged
by the feet through the streets of the city, and left in a state
of nudity on the Capitol Square, before the equestrian statue
of Marcus Aurelius (December, a. d. 985).

§ VIII. Pontificate

of

John XV. (December,
cember, 985).

a. d.

985—De­

24. Jchn XV. did not even sit upon the blood-stained
throne of his predecessor. He died within the month of his
election, even before his consecration.

§ IX. Pontificate

of

John XVI. (April 25, a.
30, 996).

d.

986—April

25. The accession of John XVI. to the pontifical chair
corresponds to a change of dynasty in the kingdom of France.
The Carlovingian race had long been under tutelage. The
more vigorous blood of Robert the Strong had already pro­
duced three generations of heroes : Eudes, Hugh the Great,
and Hugh Capet. The latter, under Lothaire (954-986), and
Louis the *
Sluggard (986-987), really exercised the royal
power. The death of Louis the Sluggard, a death shrouded in
the gloom of mystery, left Charles, the brother of Lothaire and
son of Louis d’Outre-Mer, the last representative of the Carlo­
vingian family. As uncle of the last king, Charles should, in
regular :rder of inheritance, have succeeded to the throne of
France. But he had sworn fealty, as duke of Lower Lorraine,
to Otho III., emperor of Germany. When he put forward his
claims to the crown, he received this answer from the French
* Blt^ory hue preserved to Louie V. the epithet of Sluggard, (Fainéant—nihil Jectt),
but the dioniess of hie reign allowed no proofs of the Illness or injustice of its application.

JOBS XVL (A. D.

ft] J

nobles, then in solemn assembly at Noyon: “In rer.c anting
your nationality to become the vassal of a foreign prin e, you
have, by a stronger reason, forfeited all your natural rights to
the throne.’’ This was no doubt a mere pretext. The real
motive was the influence of Hugh Capet, upon whom all were
accustomed to look as sovereign. He was unanimously pro­
claimed king, and crowned on the 3d of July, in the church of
Rheims, by the archbishop, Adalberon. A short struggle
between the French hero and his rival, Charles of Lonaine,
decided the question in favor of the former. The house of
Charlemagne had ceased to reign
*
The Capetian dynasty was
established. “ Hugh Capet,” says Guizot, “ was raised to the
throne by no general league or cabal. He took the name of
king ; few of the nobles were disturbed by the act, since their
influence suffered no detriment from it; they had long since
ceased to trouble themselves about the royal power. Hugh
Capet was at first recognized by his own vassals, who could
but gain by the elevation of their Suzerain; the various feuda­
tory lords, gradually won by his concessions and promises,
successively acknowledged the superior title he bad assumed;
and this was the whole Capetian revolution. Since the death
of Charlemagne, feudalism had subjected society; by his as­
sumption of the royal title, one of its chief members proclaimed
himself its leader, thus acquiring, for the time, a new dignity
rather than actual power. The feudal republic was but pro­
spectively threatened, and certainly entertained, as yet, no fear
of coming danger. Never was revolution more insignificant in
its action; never, when accomplished, more fruitful in great
results.”·»1· Religion suffered no harm from this revolution.
It began, on the contrary, to recover, in France, its ancient
lustre and youthful vigor. The kings of the third race gave
back to the government the nerve and energy which keeps
• The descendante of Charles of Lorraine held the landgraviate of Thuringia until 1344
and the county of Hohenstein, in Hartz, until I5&3, at which period the race of Ch wlemagw
'oially died out.
f M. GUIZOT &sui tur ΓMitto re de fYi’.ot, u. 85: 18Ï3.

614

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHÜRCH.

peace and order in the Church, while securing the safety of the
State. This line of princes, so worthy to rule, who for eight
centuries kept the empire within their own family, and by its
very duration—the longest by far of all the dynasties—endeared
it to the hearts of their subjects ; these fathers of the people
and dutiful children of the Church were worthy models for the
other sovereigns of the West.
26. A political revolution had just ended in the north of
Europe, with results far less favorable to the Church. *
Swein,
son of St. Harold, king of Denmark, had taken up arms against
his father. The aged monarch, defeated and wounded in a
bloody battle, was forced to fly for shelter to Sclavonia, where
he died soon after (a. d. 980). Swein promised the heathens
who would help him in his parricidal enterprise, to restore the
worship of idols; and he kept his word. The most violent
persecution was opened against the Danish Christians. But
reverses softened the heart of Swein. Twice defeated by the
Sclaves, and driven from his states by Eric, king of Norway,
when he again ascended the throne (a. d. 990), he restored
the Christian religion, and under its auspices onse more found
happiness and victory. The Russians now saw their savage
wastes illumined by the light of faith. Wladimir· was their
first Christian chief. This duke—for such was still the title of
those sovereigns, who were, at a later day, to raise so high
the name and power of the czars—having seized, in 988,
the city of Chersonesus, in Tauris, announced to the Greek
emperors, Basil II. and Constantine VIII., that he would march
upon Constantinople, unless they granted him the hand of their
sister, the Princess Anna. The Court of Constantinople, terri­
fied by the threat, acceded to the demand, on condition of
Wladimir’s conversion to Christianity. Anna was thus the
angel of peace sent to soften the savage nature of the Russian
prince. Wladimir received baptism, and, on his return to Kiew,
his capital, destroyed all the idols in the empire. Unwilling
• Sueno, or Swein, in the Swedish tongue, means warrior.

JOHN XVT. (A. D.

eu

to use too much violence toward hi? snbjpct·, or to
their
acceptance of a new worship, which many rejected. Wladimir
adopted measures for their enlightenment. The pion? works
which had been translated into the Sclavonic dialect by St.·.
Cyril and Methodius, in the ninth century, were certainly
known to the faithful in Kiew. But the number of the believers
was small, and the pagan population remained in their original
state of ignorance. Wladimir founded public schools for the
young men, in which the liturgical language was taught. This
good work was then deemed a tyrannical innovation. Mothers
might be seen weeping the lot of their children forced to learn
“that dangerous art of writing, invented by sacrilegious magicians."
Thus literature entered Russia, hand in hand with the religion
of Jesus Christ. Since the days of Wladimir, the Russians have
two languages—the vernacular, and the learned, ecclesiastical,
or liturgical language. The Code which bears his name, the
Poem of Igor, and the Russian romances of chivalry which
appeared in the reign of Wladimir, were written in the common
Russian dialect. The learned tongue, of which a dictionary
was published at Moscow, in 1704, by order of Peter the Great,
is the dialect of Thessalonica, with a mingling of Illyrian and
Sclavo-Servian. This is the idiom of the liturgical works aud
cf the Chronicles of the monk Nestor, the father of Russian
history. But, having received the Christian faith under the
auspices of Constantinople, Russia was doomed to share the
schism of Michael Cerularius. The daughter would not prove
truer than the mother to Catholic unity.
27. A belief was gaining ground in Constantinople, favored,
doubtless, by the troubles and discord of this unhappy epoch
Popular superstition thought them the forerunners of the
world’s dissolution, announced by the Gospel, and it was
everywhere believed that Antichrist was to appear in the year
*LOGO. The approach of the much dreaded millenary cyclo
contributed to alarm the aheady fearful minds. St Abbe
• St Ah bo teetiiied that ho had, in lus youth, heard the doetrwa preA.'.ed iu Pina

616

GENERAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

abbot of Fleury (St. Benedict-upon-Loire), undertook to com­
fort his contemporaries. His learning and piety, which had
induced St. Oswald, bishop of Worcester, to call him to England
for purposes of monastic reform, gave him additional authority
and credit. St. Abbo is the author of a Collection of the
Canons and Decrees of the Councils (a. d. 992), a work held in
♦he highest esteem.
John XVI. assembled a council at Rome (λ. d. 993), to
proceed to the canonization of St. Udftlric, bishop nf Augs­
burg, whose death had occurred in 973, twenty years before.
After the reading and discussion of the life and miracles of
Udalric, the Pope pronounced judgment, in these words: “ The
memory of the holy bishop shall henceforth be honored with
piety and devotion in the Church, since the honor we show to
the relics of martyrs and confessors, the servants of God, is
given, in their persons, to Jesus Christ our Lord. And if any
one dare to oppose this privilege, or transgress what we order
for the glory of God and the honor of St. Udalric, we anathe­
matize him by the authority of the Prince of the Apostles, whose
83at we occupy.” This is the first historical mention we find
of a solemn canonization. Hitherto, each bishop used the
faculty in his own diocese ; but from this period the court of
Rome has restricted this right to itself, to prevent the abuses
that might creep into a proceeding of so much importance
(a. d. 993).
28. The following year is made memorable by the death of
St. Wolfgang, bishop of Ratisbonne, who was remarkable for
his zeal in reforming the monasteries of his diocese, infected
by the prevailing contagion of the tenth century—relaxation
and corruption. The holy bishop used to say : “ Had we but
monks, the rest would not fail us.” When he was answered
that their number was already too great, “ Of what avail,” he
said, “ is a holy habit without a saintly life ? Fervent monks
are angels ; relaxed religious are but very devils !” His last
days were consoled by the restoration of strict canonical disci­
pline among his clergy and religious (a. d. 994).

GREGORY V. (A. O. MS-OT9).

617

Pope John XVI. did not long survive St. Wolfgang. He
died in the same year with Hugh Capet, king of Erance a. ».
996).

§ X. Pontificate

op

Gregory V. (May 19, a. d. 996—Feb­
ruary 18,999).

29. As Pope John XVI. ended his earthly career in Rome,
the emperor Otho III., who had just reached his majority, was
on his way to Italy, where he wished to receive *th< imperial
diadem. He was met at Ravenna by the deputies of the
Roman clergy, who acquainted him with the death of the Pope.
The thought occurred to Otho, that by choosing a successor to the
Papal throne from the imperial family of Germany, the hnnd
of union between the two powers would be materially strength­
ened. He accordingly cast his eyes upon his nephew Bruno,
’a young cleric of extensive literary acquirements/ and pro­
posed him to the suffrages of the Romans. The youthful can­
didate was unanimously elected, though but twenty-four years
of age, and promoted to the /Ipostolic See under the title of
Gregory V. He was the first German Pope. The new Pontiff
crowned his uncle emperor, in the church of St. Peter, on the
Feast of the Ascension, a. d. 996.
30. The presence of Otho had restrained the factions
which never failed to disturb Rome at the election of a new
Pontiff. As soon as the emperor had returned to Germany,
Crescentius, whose name we have already had occasion to
record in connection with the most bloody revolutions, headed
a band of revolters, expelled Gregory V., and caused the
election of the Greek, Pbilagutbos, as antipope, with the title
of John XVII. (a. d. 997). On learning the news of the sedi­
tion, Otho III. recrossed the Alps, met Gregory V. at Pavia,
and marched with him toward Rome. The antipope sought to
• Bruno was familiar with the German, Latin, and Italum tbogoto-thnt baguât nut
isefi co a Sovereign Pontiff at that period.

<J]$

GENERAL HïSTORF OF THE CHURCH.

♦scape punishment by a hasty flight; but lie was overtaken by
the imperial officers sent in pursuit of him ; they cut off hig
nose and tongue, burned out his eyes, and threw him into a
dungeon, where he atoned for bis ambition by a wretched death.
The holy solitary, St. Nilus, who dwelt upon a desert rock in
the mountains of Calabria, obtained leave to bring the consola­
tions of religion to the imprisoned antipope. The holy hermit
opened the eyes of the captive’s soul, and showed him, in
another world, a throne far above all earthly greatness. In
the very midst of these sad strifes, these deadly struggles,
Christian piety still treasured up for the victims of human pas­
sions a store of resignation and hope. Crescentius, the author
of the revolt, was seized, after a stout resistance, in the castle
of St. Angelo, and beheaded by the emperor’s order (a. d. 998).
31. Gregory, once more settled in the quiet possession of
the Holy See, could give his active attention to the general
administration of the Church. Robert the Pious, who suc­
ceeded Hugh Capet on the throne of France, had lately mar­
ried the princess Bertha, daughter of Conrad, king of Provence
and Burgundy-Transjurana, whom he loved most passionately.
The close relationship existing between the king and Bertha,
constituted an invalidating impediment to the union. But
passion is blind ; and, in spite of his sincere attachment to the
Church,—which won for him his surname,—Robert the Pious
did not stop at this obstacle, but accomplished his design. In
the very bosom of a people trained to the deepest veneration
for the laws of the Church, the scandal was immense. Gregory
V. acted in the case with unyielding firmness, and resolved to
break off this incestuous connection. Robert sent St. Abbo of
Fleury, with orders to solicit from the Sovereign Pontiff a delay
necessary,” pleaded the king, “to make suitable provision for
a princess allied to the most powerfid families of the French
kingdom.” This was, in fact, but the temporizing policy of a
passion powerless to overcome itself. The Pope granted a
ehort respite ; but as the king continued to put off the final
separation, Gregory called a council in Rome to examine the

ORV.QORY V. (A. D. 9H4M),

•II

question and pronounce judgment (a. d. 998). The sentence
was withering to Robert. “King Robert," said the decree,
“ shall put away his relative, Bertha, whom he has married in
contempt of the canon laws. He shall perform a penance of
seven years, according to the discipline of the Church concern­
ing incestuous marriages. If he refuse to submit, let him be
anathema ! Archibald, archbishop of Tours, who pronounced
the nuptial blessing, and all the bishops present, are suspended
from Catholic communion until they have come to make repa­
ration to the Holy See.” The pontifical censure was immedi­
ate in its effects; the French at once broke off all commerce
with their excommunicated prince.
*
But two attendant’ re­
mained with him, and even they were careful to purify by fire
every thing that was used by the king. Robert yielded at
last ; his piety triumphed over his love. He put away Bertha
and married Constantia, daughter of William, Count of Arles
and Provence. The reign of the prince, after this generous
sacrifice, was marked by a long succession of good works. He
built as many as fourteen monasteries, among others, those of
St. Aignan and St. Vincent, in his native city, Orleans; that
of St. Germain-en-Laye, and one at Poissy. His piety was unu­
sually fervent. He spent the nights before Christmas, Easter,
and Pentecost, in watching and prayer. From Septuagesima to
Easter he slept upon the bare ground, and spent the whole of
Lent in devotional pilgrimages. He was assiduous in his
attendance at the offices of the Church, and with a devotion
foreign to our modern ideas, but in perfect harmony with the
• Gregory V. is charged with having thus placed the kingdom under interdict This u
a misunderstanding. The Pope, bound toguard the observance of the canons, did but his
duty. Ho warned, ho boggod, ho waited; at length, following tho decision of a council of
twenty-eight bishops, ho pronounced tho nullity of the marriage and the canonical pc· nanos
then Attached to such unlawful unions. The sentence did not deprive Robert of hie crown;
and tho French people, whoso faith was then to fervent, did not cease to regard him as their
king. But by refusing to hold relations with a prince under tho censures of the Church,
they compelled tun to bow to a law ae binding upon him as u;on tt>« meanest subject m life
realm ; by his submission ho gave n bright example to he whole nation, and, on this ρο«ς
the disorder was at an end. Far from throwing blame upon any one. in this eireumsuux»
t muai be allowed that each one did his d-ty—the Pope, tho people, and the king.

620

general history of the church.

notions of his day, he sang in the choir, wearing a cope,
and sceptre in hand. He is said to be the author of the response
found in some Gallican breviaries : 0 Constantia Martyrum.
Queen Constantia, who had no knowledge of Latin, had asked
him to write some verses in her praise. She felt quite flattered
at hearing her name, never suspecting the innocent irony of the
former husband of Bertha.
32. Less consoling was the issue of the disorders of Berrnudo II., king of Leon. After forsaking his lawful wife to
marry another, the king still continued an incestuous concubi­
nage with the two sisters. The Moors were made the instru­
ments of the divine vengeance. Mohammed-Almanzor, grand
vizier of Issem and caliph of Cordova, led a formidable army
against the city of Leon, which he took, after a year’s siege,
and levelled to the ground (a. d. 990). Then, entering Portu­
gal, he devastated the land with fire and sword, pushed on into
Gallicia, took the city of St. James of Compostella, which he
gave up to pillage (a. d. 997). The disastrous days of the first
Saracen invasion seemed to have returned to Spain. The stern
leaching of misfortune was not lost upon Bermudo ; he found in
reverses the hereditary energy of his race. He rallied the few
warriors who had remained true to his cause, joined them to
those of Garcia, king of Navarre, and of Fernandez, Count of
Castile, and defeated the grand vizier in the celebrated battle
of Calatanazor (in Old Castile), by which the Saracens lost all
their late conquests. Almanzor was hurried by despair to an
untimely grave (a. d. 998).
d3. Gregory V. died in the flower of his age (February 18,
a.d. 999).
*
With his pontificate ends the sad epoch of the tenth
century. It has often been said that nations are like individu­
als : they pass through all the phases of human life ; their rise
is slow aud laborious ; and at their meridian they shed abroad

• The profound erudition of Gregory V., his virtues, and his great qualities of mind
ana Heart, merited fur him the name of Gregorio Minore, or Gregory tho Less, in allusion to
BL Gregory the Great, whose virtues were truly revived it him.

GREGORY V. (A. D. 9M-9991,

621

a lustre proportioned to their energy and tn th»1 sreatneen of
the obstacles they have had to overcome -, at last they wane,
until the hour of the final catastrophe. The Chnrch of
Christ, thrown into the great human mass, like leaven into
the dough, has undergone, in the course of its history, the vari­
ous political changes of Society. It has also been carried
through those states of transition of doubtful issue for nation­
alities, of which the solution is left to the future. Such
is the nature of all things human: darkness goes before the
light ; the night precedes the dawn. The tenth century was
one of those gloomy periods which jeopard the existence and
the after-fate of society ; its record forms the saddest, darkest,
most lamentable page of modern history. The humanizing im­
pulse given to the world by Charlemagne, seemed on the point
of dying out. The degenerate heirs to his immense empire had
allowed their heritage to be rent in their hands. They were
borne down by the torrent, which they did not even attempt to
resist ; the dynasty of Charlemagne was replaced by that of
Hugh Capet. The Papacy, now the sport of rival factions, was
forced to struggle at once against the claims of sovereigns 01
their onerous protectorate, against the encroachments of bish­
ops, against ignorance and corruption, both clerical and monas­
tic, and the native barbarity of new races. The little remaining
life of the social body could be discerned only by the force of
its convulsions. But the Papacy triumphed over the horrors
of this deep night, and was the first to break forth from its
heavy gloom, far ahead of all the other powers. A space of
nine centuries intervenes between Charlemagne and Louis
XIV. But one century separates St. Nicholas I, the Great,
from Sylvester IL, the learned predecessor of the heroic St
Gregory VII. The Capetian dynasty, taking its seat upon the
French throne, inflicted a blow upon the preponderance of the
German empire, from which it never recovered. Gerbert, io
ascending the pontifical throne, assumed, in history, the high
rank which the Papacy was to keep until our own dav. The
Church stands erect over the cradle and the tomb of nations.

622

ΟΕΝΈΒΛΙ HiSTORT OF ΤΠΕ CHOTCB.

snd directs their destinies. From the lofty eminen -e of her
immortality, she sees them rise and fall at the foot of the rock
upon which she has been founded by the Almighty Hand of

HI8T0BICAL REVIEW OP THE FOURTH PERIOD.

623

CHAPTER VIII.
HISTORICAL REVIEW OF THE FOURTH PERIOD.·

1

Moral and political state of the world daring the Fourth Period of the
History of the Church—2. The clergy—3. Rome and the Papacy.—
4. Slanders of Luitprand against the Popes of this epoch.—5. Bement·
of good ; examples of learning and holiness during the Fourth Period.—
6. Conclusion.

1. The appearance of Charlemagne at the opening of the
fourth period is like a flash of lightning between two storms.
The dark night of ignorance, dispelled by the bright splendor of
his reign, settles down again behind him with thicker gloom.
AJcuin, Hincmar, Rabanus Maurus, Eginhard, Paul the Dea­
con, Ratramnus, Amalarius, Prudentius of Troyes, and Usuard,
all pass away and leave no successor behind them. No one
comes forward to raise the fallen sceptre of science and refine­
ment, just as none of the great emperor’s heirs was able to
hold with steady hand the helm of the empire. Ignorance and
barbarism once mor»1 swept the world ; and though this twofold
character does not equally apply to every part of this period,
though it has often been exaggerated bypassion and malignity,
yet it cannot be denied that the tenth century, compared with
those which preceded and followed it, presents a truly sad and
afflicting sight. With the exception of a few solitary seasons
of quiet and peace, under the influence of certain rulers more
firm and able than the others, we behold on all sides a society
without order, government without strength, laws without au­
thority, the deepest moral depravity. The hopes excited by
the reign of Charlemagne were soon blighted by the weakness
of his successors, the abuses of the feudal system, and the
■· A. rapid glauco will euffleo, artor the detailed uarrutire uieroal·.

624

CENTRAL HISTORY OF THE CHURCH.

renewed inroads of the Normans, Saracens, and barbarians into
all parts of Europe. This disastrous combination of events
threw back society into the barbarism from which it had just
begun to emerge ; and nothing can be more lamentable than
the picture of the disorders to which the world was doomed
from the reign of Charlemagne to the pontificate of St. Gregory
VII. For the reign of Sylvester II. was, so to speak, but a
breathing-spell, in which the Papacy, under the guidance of a
g^eat Pontiff, resumed its influence and prepared the way for
the resurrection of order. But the thorough restoration dates
only from the pontificate of St. Gregory VII. “ The world,”
said St. Peter Damian, “is madly rushing into the bottomless
abyss of all wickedness, and. the nearer it approaches to its
end, the more enormous grows the mass of its iniquities. Eccle­
siastical discipline is almost entirely unheeded. Priests no
longer receive the respect due to their dignity, the sacred can­
ons are trodden under foot, and the earnestness which should
be devoted to the service of God, is wholly given to the pursuit
of worldly gain. The lawful order of marriage is overturned,
and, to the disgrace of the Christian name, men live in it
like Jews ! What state is now free from fraud and robbery ?
Who now blushes at the guilt of perjury, impurity, sacrilege,
and the most fearful crimes? We have long since forsaken all
viitue, and disorders of all kinds everywhere abound. Some
evil genius is hurrying on the human race into a gulf of crime,
everywhere sowing the seeds of hatred and jealousy, the
sources of dissension. Wars, armies, hostile inroads, are mul­
tiplied to such an extent, that the sword is now more destruc­
tive than the infirmities and diseases attached to the condition
of humanity. The whole world is like a sea upheaved by a
storm ; dissensions and discord, like angry waves, disturb all
hearts. The fearful crime of homicide appears everywhere,
and seems to overrun all the land, to reduce it to a state of
dreadful barrenness.”
2. The clergy, it must be confessed, was not always at tho
height of the mission intrusted to it under circumstances so

HISTORICAL RF.VTEW OF THF, FOURTH PERIOD.

625

fatal. The 1 ishopg were not, until the sixth and seventh ce>
turies, chosen from among the barbarous nations. Taken from
the ranks of the conquered, trained to Roman studies and
discipline, they proved themselves worthy of their charge as
civilizers and apostles. But when the barbarian element was
admitted into the sanctuary, it brought in with it that warlike
spirit and turbulent disposition which called for the vigorous
measures adopted by the various councils against it This dis­
order was increased by the disturbance attendant upon the
manner of elections. Temporal sovereigns assumed this right,
while seemingly faithful to the canonical form which required
that the bishop should be chosen by the bishops of the prov­
ince, and the clergy and people of the episcopal city. This was
the period which saw the episcopal throne disgraced by the
unbridled passion of boys of fifteen ; “ prelates," says a contempory writer, “ whom the master's rod had better suited than
the bishop’s crosier.” The wealth of the clergy, and the rank
of nobility which it procured them, were another fruitful source
of abuses. So true it is that the very best things have their
mingling of evil too ! The bishops too often forgot their divine
character of pastors of souls, to attend to their part as great
vassals and feudal lords. The decline of studies and its natu­
ral result, the neglect of the holy canons, swelled the destruc­
tive flood, and, to crown all this fearful train of evils, the
Papacy, given up like a plaything to the caprices of a few Ital­
ian tyrants, lacked the firmness and influence to stay the fatal
course of events.
3. We have dwelt long enough upon the sad state of Rome
and of Italy at this period. The great imperial unity established
by Charlemagne had fallen to pieces when his own mighty arm
no longer supported it. To all the reproaches uttered by his­
tory against the weak and unhappy Louis the Mild, we must
add the blind tenderness for his unworthy children which par
celled out the territory of the empire. Every' province then
became a seat of war amid the ambitious views of pretenders
Political divisions, wholly arbitrary and without grounds in the
Vol. II.—40

626

GENERAL· HISTORY OF ΤΠΕ CHURCH

manners of the various countries, gave rise to endless struggle#
The wars of succession were multiplied for each fraction of ter­
ritory ; and while nrinces were contending for shreds of prov­
inces, the Saracens, Normans, and Magyars were pouring over
their boundaries on the North and South. œhe absence of a
strong and respected imperial power left the Popes defenceiesc
against the brutal violence of the Tuscan dukes and the Italian
nobles disputing for influence in Rome. We have but too
often been called to record its fatal consequences. The author­
ity of the Sovereign Pontiffs, outraged by those cruel and
bloodthirsty princes, was no longer exercised with freedom,
energy, and unrestraint. Their reign, often shortened by a
violent death, was too ephemeral to allow of great results.
4. We have pointed out the source of the calumnies heaped
upon the character and private morals of some of the Popes of
this period. Some, even of the most reliable historians, have
received them upon the testimony of Luitprand—a passionate,
and therefore doubtful author. However that may be, it must
be borne in mind that the infallibility of the Sovereign Pontiffs,
in matters of faith, could not suffer from their vices or personal
failings. The firm and dignified bearing of the Holy See, in the
case of the Photian schism, was that of a power determined to
command respect for the spiritual authority intrusted to its
care. The zeal of the Popes was rewarded by the return of
unity. The restoration of the empire, under Otho the Great,
was another deed of lofty policy, brought about by the Popes
of the tenth century. Thus, if the Papacy shared the common
lot of society, in this period of decay, it was yet the first to
shake off the universal lethargy and degradation.
5. Moreover, to do justice to an age so generally decried, it
must be admitted that all the elements of good, every virtuous
principle and germ of holiness, had not entirely disappeared.
According to the judicious remark of Monsignor Palma, we
have now, for the truer appreciation of that period, monuments
unknown to Cardinal Baronius, when he painted the tenth cen­

HlflrromCAL REVIEW OP THE ΓΟΓΒΤΗ PERIOD

tury in

such

gloomy

colon».·

fiR

Ratherius, bishop of Verona,

telle us that in his time the ecclesiastical schools of Verona

were in a flourishing condition, training up a great number ·■(
young men in the knowledge of canon law and sacred litera­

Atto of Vercelli was establishing institutions of the same

ture.

nature in his own diocese.

The congregation of Cluny, under

its holy abbots, Benno, Odo, and Mayeul, spread the taste for

pious studies and the example of religious discipline through­

out all the monasteries of the West.

Mnratori has published a

catalogue of the books in the monastery of Bobio, in the tenth
century, which shows the zealous care of the religious to pre­

serve

both

sacred and profane authors from oblivion.

Vatican library employed

The

twenty-three librarians at the saiue

period, and all equal to their scientific mission.

We hare men­

tioned, in their place, the holy bishops of Gaul, Germany, and

Great Britain, whose example preached so loudly against the
general corruption of the age.

We have spoken of the literary

and scientific prodigy of the convent of Gandersheim, the blessed

Roswitba, whose writings are as remarkable for pure and ele­
gant diction as for richness and grace of ideas.
6. In fine, to resume in a word our own new of the fourth

period of the history of the Church, we look upon it as a
period of labor, in which all the elements, religious, political,

and

intellectual,

mingled and blended

together, prepared, by

their fusion, the splendor and glory of the thirteenth century.

• “Sul asperitate, ec boul sterilitate ferreum. mall exudsnils defonaltoiepiumùouiu. ΙαυρΙ
*
seri(Mor­
um obscurum.”—Babon.. Annalu adann. «», No. 1.

END OF VOL. Π.