Pope Vigilius
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For the saint and bishop
of Trent, see Vigilius of Trent.
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Pope Vigilius |
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Papacy began |
29 March 537 |
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Papacy ended |
7 June 555 |
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Predecessor |
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Successor |
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Personal details |
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Birth name |
Vigilius |
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Born |
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Died |
7 June 555 (aged 55) |
Pope Vigilius (d. 7 June 555)[1] was Pope from
29 March 537 to his death in 555.[2]He is considered the
first pope of the Byzantine Papacy.
Contents
o 4.1Three Chapters controversy
·
5Death
He belonged to an
aristocratic Roman family; his father Johannes is
identified as a consul in
the Liber pontificalis,
having received that title from the emperor.[3]According to Procopius, his brother Reparatus was
one of the senators taken
hostage by Witigis, but managed to escape before the
Ostrogothic king ordered their slaughter in 537.[4]
Vigilius entered the
service of the Catholic Church and
was ordained a deacon in 531, in which year the Roman
clergy agreed to a decree empowering the pope to determine the succession to
the Papal See (something theologians now
consider invalid).[5]Vigilius was chosen
by Pope Boniface II as
his successor and presented to the clergy assembled in St. Peter's Basilica.
The opposition to such a procedure led Boniface in the following year to
withdraw his designation of a successor and to burn the decree respecting it.
The second successor of
Boniface, Pope Agapetus I (535–536),
appointed Vigilius papal representative (apocrisiary) at Constantinople. Empress Theodora sought to win him as a
confederate to revenge the deposition of the Monophysite Patriarch
Anthimus I of Constantinople by Agapetus and also to gain aid
for her efforts in behalf of the Monophysites.[6] Vigilius is said to
have agreed to the plans of the intriguing empress who promised him the Papal
See and a large sum of money (700 pounds of gold).
Further
information: Papal selection
before 1059 and Byzantine Papacy
While Vigilius was in
Constantinople, Pope Agapetus died on 22 April 536, and Pope Silverius had been made pope through
the influence of the King of the Goths.
Soon after Silverius was ordained, the Byzantine general Belisarius occupied Rome, which was
then besieged by
the Goths. Although the Goths were unable to encircle the city completely, both
the Byzantine soldiers and the inhabitants feared they would be destroyed. Soon
after the siege began, for example, Belisarius ordered the women, children, and
unnecessary servants of Rome to leave for Naples, as well as his own army's camp
followers.[7] Around the same
time, Silverius was accused of offering to betray Rome to the Goths. Belisarius
had him deposed, put in a monk's habit and exiled to Greece. Several other
senators were also banished from Rome on the same charges.[8]
What part Vigilius played
in the deposition of Silverius is unclear in the primary sources. The authors
of the Liber Pontificalis, who are hostile to Vigilius, state he
delivered to Belisarius the imperial orders to depose Silverius, yet are
circumspect about how Silverius was elected and ordained.[9] Procopius, on the
other hand, states that Belisarius appointed Vigilius shortly after Silverius
was deposed.[8] It is certain that
Vigilius was consecrated and enthroned Pope on 29 March 537. After the death of
his predecessor Vigilius was recognized as pope by all the Roman clergy, even
though the manner of his elevation was not regular.
Empress Theodora soon
learned that she had been deceived. After Vigilius had attained the object of
his ambition and been made pope, he maintained the same position as his
predecessor against the Monophysites and the deposed Anthimus. A letter
purported to be from the pope to the deposed Monophysite patriarchs Anthimus,
Severus, and Theodosius seems to indicate that Pope Vigilius accepted the
Monophysitism. This letter, however, is not regarded as genuine by most
investigators and bears all the marks of forgery.[10] The pope did not
restore Anthimus to his office.
Pope
Vigilius
In the year 540 Vigilius
took a stand in regard to Monophysitism, in two letters sent to Constantinople.
One of the letters is addressed to Emperor Justinian, the other to the Patriarch Menas. In both letters the pope
supports positively the Synods of Ephesus and Chalcedon,
the decisions of his predecessor Pope Leo I, and the deposition of the
Patriarch Anthimus. Several other letters written by the pope in the first years
of his pontificate give information respecting his interposition in the
ecclesiastical affairs of various countries. On 6 March 538, he wrote to
Bishop Caesarius of Arles concerning
the penance of the Austrasian King Theudebert I on account of his marriage
to his brother's widow.[11] On 29 June 538, a
decretal was sent to Bishop Profuturus of Braga containing decisions on various
questions of church discipline. Bishop Auxanius and his successor, Aurelian of Arles, entered into communication
with the pope respecting the granting of the pallium as a mark of the dignity and
powers of a papal legate for Gaul;
the pope sent suitable letters to the two bishops. In the meantime new dogmatic
difficulties had been developing at Constantinople that were to give the pope
many hours of bitterness. In 543 Emperor Justinian issued a decree which
condemned the various heresies of the Origenists; this decree was sent for signature
both to the Eastern patriarchs and to Vigilius.
In order to draw
Justinian's thoughts from Origenism, Theodore Askidas, Bishop of
Caesarea in Cappadocia, called his attention to the fact that the
condemnation of various representatives of the Antiochene school, who were said to have
inspired Nestorianism, would
make union with the Monophysites much easier. The emperor, who laid much stress
upon winning over the Monophysites, agreed to this, and in 543 or 544 he issued
a new edict condemning the
Three Chapters. The "Three Chapters" concerned writings of
Theodore of Mopsuestia, Theodoret of Cyrus, and a letter of Ibas of Edessa.
While all three were, indeed, in error, this was due in some part to a
misunderstanding of language used by Cyril of Alexandria against
the Nestorians. Both Ibas and Theodoret had been deprived of their bishoprics
by heretics, and had been restored by the Holy See and the Council of Chalcedon
on anathematizing Nestorius. There were no good precedents for thus dealing
harshly with the memory of men who had died in the peace of the Church. Such a
condemnation at this point was seen by many of the bishops as potentially
undermining the Council of Chalcedon itself.[12]
The Eastern patriarchs
and bishops signed the condemnation of these Three Chapters, although many
signed under duress.[12] In Western Europe,
however, the procedure was considered unjustifiable and dangerous, because it
was feared that it would detract from the importance of the Council of Chalcedon.
Vigilius refused to acknowledge the imperial edict and was called to
Constantinople by Justinian, in order to settle the matter there with a synod.
According to the Liber pontificalis on 20 November, 545, while
the pope was celebrating the Feast of St. Cecilia in the Church of St.
Cecilia in Trastevere, and before the service was fully
ended, he was ordered by the imperial official Anthimus to start at once on the
journey to Constantinople. The pope was taken immediately to a ship that waited
in the Tiber in order to be carried to the
eastern capital while a part of the populace cursed the pope and threw stones
at the ship. Rome was now besieged by the Goths under Totila and the inhabitants fell into the
greatest misery. Vigilius sent ships with grain to Rome, but these were
captured by the enemy.[13] If the story
related by the Liber pontificalisis essentially correct, the pope
probably left Rome on 22 November 545. He remained for a long time in Sicily and reached Constantinople about
the end of 546 or in January 547.
After his transfer to
Constantinople, Vigilius wrote/said to his captors: "Do with me what you
wish. This is the just punishment for what I have done." and "You may
keep me in captivity, but the blessed Apostle Peter will never be your
captive."[14]
While in captivity,
Vigilius sought to persuade the emperor to send aid to the inhabitants of Rome
and Italy who were so hard pressed by the Goths. Justinian's chief interest,
however, was in the matter of the Three Chapters, and as Vigilius was not ready
to make concessions of this point and wavered frequently in his measures, he
had much to suffer. The matter was further complicated by the fact that the
Latins, Vigilius among them, were for the most part ignorant of Greek and
therefore unable to judge the incriminated writings for themselves.[12] The change in his
position is to be explained by the fact that the condemnation of the writings
mentioned was essentially justifiable, yet appeared inopportune and would lead
to disastrous controversies with Western Europe. Finally, Vigilius acknowledged
in a letter of 8 December 553 to the Patriarch
Eutychius the decisions of the Second
Council of Constantinople and declared his judgment in detail
in a Constitution of 26 February 554. Thus at the end of a
sorrowful residence of eight years at Constantinople the pope was able, after
coming to an understanding with the emperor, to start on his return to Rome in
the spring of 555.
While on the journey he
died at Syracuse. His
body was brought to Rome and buried in the San Martino ai Monti over
the Catacomb of Priscilla on
the Via Salaria.
References
1. ^ Mellersh, H.E.L.
(1999) The Hutchinson chronology of world history. Volume 1. The
ancient and medieval world: Prehistory – AD 1491. Oxford: Helicon, p.
221. ISBN 1859862810
2. ^ 
Kirsch,
Johann Peter (1912). "Pope Vigilius" . In
Herbermann, Charles. Catholic Encyclopedia. 15.
New York: Robert Appleton Company.
3. ^ Raymond Davis, translator, The
Book of Pontiffs (Liber Pontificalis) (Liverpool: University Press,
1989), p. 56
4. ^ Procopius, De bello gothico I
(V).26; translated by H.B. Dewing, Procopius (Cambridge: Loeb
Classical Library, 1979), vol. 3 pp. 247f
5. ^ Fanning, William (1911). Papal Elections. The Catholic
Encyclopedia. Vol. 11. Robert Appleton Company. New York. Online transcript by Robert A.
Orosco (31 August 2016). New Advent. Knight, Kevin (or).
Archived on 8 April 2016. "It is commonly held also that he is prohibited
from doing so by Divine law".
6. ^ Davis, The Book of Pontiffs
(Liber Pontificalis), p. 55
7. ^ Procopius, De bello gothico I
(V).25.1–4; translated by Dewing, vol. 3 p. 239
8. ^ Jump up to:a b Procopius, De
bello gothico I (V).25.13–14; translated by Dewing, vol. 3 p. 243
9. ^ Davis, The Book of Pontiffs
(Liber Pontificalis), pp. 55ff
10. ^ cf. Duchesne in Revue des
quest. histor. (1884), II, 373; Chamard, ibid., I (1885), 557; Grisar
in Analecta romana, I, 55 sqq.; Savio in Civilta catt.,
II (1910), 413–422].
11. ^ Letter translated in William E.
Klingshirn, Caesarius of Arles: Life, Testament, Letters (Liverpool:
University Press, 1994), pp. 118f
12. ^ Jump up to:a b c Bacchus,
Francis Joseph. "Three Chapters." The Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 14.
New York: Robert Appleton Company, 1912. 11 Oct. 2017
13. ^ Davis, The Book of Pontiffs
(Liber Pontificalis), pp. 57ff
14. ^ Carroll, Warren
H. (1987). The Building of Christendom. Front Royal, VA: Christendom
College Press. ISBN 978-0-931888-24-3.
This article
incorporates text from a publication now in the public domain: Herbermann, Charles,
ed. (1913). "Pope Vigilius". Catholic Encyclopedia.
New York: Robert Appleton.
Sources
·
Ekonomou, Andrew J. 2007. Byzantine
Rome and the Greek Popes: Eastern influences on Rome and the papacy from
Gregory the Great to Zacharias, A.D. 590–752. Lexington Books.
·
Louise Ropes Loomis, The Book of
Popes (Liber Pontificalis). Merchantville, NJ: Evolution
Publishing. ISBN 1-889758-86-8(Reprint
of the 1916 ion. English translation with scholarly footnotes, and
illustrations).
·
Claire Sotinel: Vigilio. In: Massimo Bray (ed.): Enciclopedia
dei Papi, Istituto della Enciclopedia Italiana, Vol. 1 (Pietro,
santo. Anastasio bibliotecario, antipapa), Rome, 2000, OCLC 313504669,
pp. 512–529
·
Josef Rist (1997). "Vigilius". In
Bautz, Traugott. Biographisch-Bibliographisches Kirchenlexikon (BBKL) (in
German). 12. Herzberg: Bautz. cols. 1383–1387. ISBN 3-88309-068-9.
·
Meyendorff, John (1989). Imperial
unity and Christian divisions: The Church 450-680 A.D. The
Church in history. 2. Crestwood, NY: St. Vladimir's Seminary
Press. ISBN 978-0-88-141056-3.
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