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nsntiMutmnasfii^i

Recorcls of Civilizatpii: Sources and Studies Edited by James T. Shotwell

BOOK OF THE POPES

lOUISE ROPES LOOMIS,
Ph.D.

President White Library Cornell UNiVEi^siTY

Cornell University Library

BX 950.E6L69
The book of the popes (Liber pontificali

3 1924 006 163 897

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tine

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tiiis

bool<

is in

Cornell University Library.

There are no known copyright

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text.

the United States on the use of the

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Records

of Civilization

SOURCES AND STUDIES

EDITED BY

JAMES

T.

SHOTWELL,

Ph.D.

PROFESSOR OF HISTORY IN COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

IN

COLLABORATION WITH
JULIUS
A.

FRANKLIN

H. GIDDINGS, PH.D., LL.D. PFOFBSSOR OF SOCIOLOGY AND THE HISTORY OF CIVIUZATION IN COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

BEWER,

PH.D.

PROFESSOR OF OLD TESTAMENT EXEGESIS IN UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

SMITH, J.U.D., LL.D. PROFESSOR OF ROMAN LAW AND COMPARATIVE JUKI5PRUDENCE IN COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

MUNROE

CARLTON
ELLERY

H. HAYES, PH.D.

ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR OF HISTORY IN COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

WILLIAM

R.

SHEPHERD,

Ph.D.

C.

STOWELL,

PH.D.

PROFESSOR OF HISTORY IN COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR OF INTERNATIONAL LAW IN COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY

GEORGE W. BOTSFORD,
UNIVERSITY

Ph.D.

HAROLD

H,

TRYON,

M.A., B.D.

PROFESSOR OF HISTORY IN COLUMBIA

INSTRUCTOR IN NEW TESTAMENT AND CHURCH HISTORY IN UNION THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY

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COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS

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RECORDS OF CIVILIZATION
SOURCES AND STUDIES
EDITED BY

JAMES

T.

SHOTWELL

A COMPREHENSIVE SERIES CONSISTING OF

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iRecor&s of Civilisation: Sources an5 Stu&ies

THE BOOK OF THE POPES

{LIBER PONTIFICALIS)
I

TO THE PONTIFICATE OF GREGORY

TRANSLATED WITH AN INTRODUCTION
BY

LOUISE ROPES LOOMIS,

Ph.D.

I^^S^i^^

Hefa gorfs

COLUMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS

1916
All rights reserved

CorVBICKT, 1916,

By COHJMBIA UNIVERSITY PRESS.

Set up and electrotyped.

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PREFACE
The
preparation of an English text of the Liber Pontificalis,
of which the following pages furnish the
first installment, is something more than the translation of a crabbed text, crowded with obscure references. Even of the great libraries in this country only about ten possess the original in the best working edition, if

one may judge by library returns, and it is doubtful if many more copies of the complete text exist this side of the Atlantic. docu-

ment which long was viewed

history of the
to

as of fundamental importance for the

Papacy has thus sunk so completely out of sight as have become a rather rare curiosity to all but research students of medieval history. This is in part due to the character of the work, with its forbidding lists of items of local and temporary interest, in which only the trained archaeologist can find his way, but it is also surely due to the fact that both texts and commentary have hitherto been in foreign languages and are to be found only in costly and rare volumes. The English version aims to overcome these difficulties. While the narrative portions of the text have been kept in full, Usts of mere names and figures, especially in the case of ordinations, have been in part eliminated unless they were of distinct historical interest. The narrative, when no longer clogged with an undue amount of this material, will be found to run along with something of the swiftness of a medieval chronicle.

The

archaeologist,

who

alone will miss the discarded portions, will

turn to the original in any case.

In the. second place, sufficient

apparatus has been given in the form of explanatory notes to

make

the narrative clear, while bibliographical references furnish It is a guide to the treatment of the more intricate problems. for the Liber Pontificalis hoped, therefore, that in its new form

'

this has never before been translated into any other tongue quaint monument of curial historiography will be found' to have

retained enough of that charm of naive simplicity, which the scholar appreciates in the original, to lure the general reader of
history into a study of the important facts with v(fhich
it

deals.

VI
It

PREFACE
should be borne in mind, however, that this volume
to present a history of the
is

not

Papacy during the first six It is simply the presentation of an ancient text with centuries. enough commentary to make it intelligible. The text is that of the earliest history of the Papacy, but even were it provided with most exhaustive notes, it could never furnish by itself an adequate
an attempt
basis for a

modem

narrative.

The

historian of to-day has at his

and archaeological remains, which are often of greater importance for an understanding of these early pontificates than the meagre biography in the Liber Pontificalis. It was originally planned that a collection of such documents should form a part of the volume in which the Liber Pontificalis appears but it now seems best to publish these documents in a separate and parallel volume, and so leave the way open to complete the Liber Pontificalis, or at least to carry it down to the heart of the Middle
disposal other documents

Ages.

A word should be said as to the point at which the text of the Liber Pontificalis is broken in this edition. When the translation was first undertaken it seemed unlikely that it would ever be continued further than in the present enterprise. Dr. Loomis, therefore, carried the text through the pontificate of Gregory I, as a point of general historical interest. Since there is now a possibility that the next section of the book may also be translated, the division has been put as near to the one originally planned as possible, including the pontificates immediately preceding Gregory. Those who read this book will surely appreciate the arduous task which Dr. Loomis has here accomplished, and their appreciation will probably grow upon a closer acquaintance with the problems involved.
J.

T.

S.

CHRONOLOGICAL LIST OF POPES

The
dates of the
first

eighteen pontificates are so conjectural that they are not

PAGE

given here.
I.

Peter
Linus

4
6 7
7

II. III.

Cletus

IV.

V.
VI.
VII.
VIII.

Clement I Anencletus
EVARISTUS

9 9
10
II

Alexander
Xystus
I

IX.

Telesphorus
Hyginus
Pius
I

12

X.
XI.
XII.
XIII.

13 14
15

Anicetus

Soter
Eleutherius
Victor
Zephyrinus
Callistus
I

16

XIV
XV.
XVI.
XVII.
XVIII.

16
17 19

20
21

Urbanus

XIX.

Pontlanus (230-235)

22

XX.
XXI.
XXII.
XXIII.

Anteros (235-236)
Fabianus (236-250)

23 24
25

Cornelius (251-253)
Lucius (253-254)

28

XXIV.

Stephen
Xystus
Felix

(254-257)

29
3
31

XXV.
XXVI.
XXVII.
XXVIII-

II

(257-258)

DiONYSius (259-268)
I

(269-274)

33 33

Eutychianus (275-283)
Gaius (283-296)
vii

XXIX.

34

Vlll

CHRONOLOGICAL UST OF POPES

PAGE

XXX. Marcellinus
XXXI.
XXXII.
XXXIII.

(296-304)

36
37 39

Marcellus (308-309)
EusEBius (309 or 310)

MiLTIADES (3II-314)

40
41

XXXIV. XXXVI. XXXVII.

Sylvester (314-335)
(336)

XXXV. Marcus
Julius
I

72
73 75

(337-352)

LiBERius (352-366)
II

JCXXVIH^FgLix
XL.
XLI.
XLIl.
XLIII.

(355-358) (366-384)

78

XXXIX. yDAMASUS

79
83
85

SiRicius (384-399)

Anastasius

(399-401)

Innocent Boniface

(401-417)

86
88

ZosiMus (417-418)
I
I

XLIV. XLVI.
XLVII.
XLVIII.

(418-422) (422-432)

89 92 93 97
102
105

XLV. Celestine
Xystus
III

(432-440)

Leo I (440-461) Hilary (461-468)

SiMPLicius (468-483)

XLIX.
L.

Felix

III

(483-492)

107

LI. '^Gelasius (492-496)

LII.

no
114
115

Anastasius

II

(496-498)

LIII.

LIV.

Symmachus HoRMisDAS

(498-514)
(514-523)

124
131

LV.

John

(523-526)

"^VI.
LVII.
LVIII.

Felix IV (526-530)

138

Boniface

II

(530-532)

140
142

LIX.

John II (533-535) Agapitus (535-536)

Silverius (536-537)
ViGiLius (537-555)

143

LX.
LXI.
LXII.
LXIII.

146
IS3

Pelagius

(556-561)

160
163

John

III

(561-574)
I

LXIV.

Benedict
Pelagius

(575-579)
(579-590)

166

LXV.

II

167

INTRODUCTION
The
bishopric of

Rome, favored by circumstance

cities, is

in

many ways
this,

over the bishoprics of other

fortunate also in

that

it

possesses records dating almost from the age of

its

venerable

foundation. The equally ancient sees of Jerusalem, Antioch and Alexandria have no memorials earher than the catalogues of bishops

which were set down by the historian Eusebius in the fourth century. Constantinople can trace its episcopal Kne no further back than the seventh century. On the other hand, Rome, for a variety of reasons which are still matters of controversy, was regarded
as

peculiarly faithful
of, its

custodian

of apostohc tradition;

the

sequence

bishops from Peter, the apostle, was cited even as

its

early as the second century as guarantee of

claim to transmit
the second

the pure doctrine unalloyed.

The

episcopal Hsts of

century were repeated and continued in succeeding centuries, the

later records being

expanded and enlarged,

until in the sixth or

first historical

seventh century the Liber Pontificalis, the

tive or series of papal biographies,

narra-

the papal court.

was compiled by a member of every pope had his official annalist, Later yet

who

carried

the death of the pontiff.

functory,

on the Liber Pontificahs, adding a new biography at The chronicle was often bare and per-

was now and then omitted altogether for long periods at was not finally abandoned until the age of Martin V but a time,
in the fifteenth century.

Throughout the Middle Ages and

until comparatively

modern

times the Liber Pontificahs was accepted as not only the oldest but as also the most authentic existing history of the papacy. Ex-

from it were incorporated into church hturgies. It was quoted as an authority by countless historians and ecclesiastical
tracts

X
writers

INTRODUCTION

from the eighth century to the eighteenth. It served as model for other chronicles, both secular and religious, in particular for the Gesta Episcoporutn and the Gesta Abbatum, the records which were kept in cathedral chapters and monasteries of Western Europe during the later Middle Ages. Because of its immistakable antiquity and because of the profound importance of its subject matter it was reckoned as a source of unimpeachable veracity and as one of the indisputable proofs of the primitive power and activity
of the popes.

Modem
foot,

scholarship, however, in the persons of Lipsius, Light-

Waitz, Duchesne,

Mommsen, and

others, has laid its unscru-

pulous hands on this Liber Pontificalis, analyzed

it

into

two
is,

parts, each differing

torical value.

ward,

as

The latter we have already

it and separated from the other in origin and hisportion, from the seventh century down-

indicated, simply the annals of the

papal court, written up from time to time by the papal biographer.

The

narrative

may

be biassed or inaccurate, but

it

recounts events

had for the most part some personal knowledge, from which he was in no case very far distant, and as such
of which the narrator

deserves considerable credence.

It

is,

in fact, one of the few sur-

viving sources for the turbulent centuries that followed the death
of Gregory
offered
I.

It presents

no unusual problems beyond those from St. Peter to the toward the end of that era, is admitted to be the oldest of all

by any

history treating of an age so alien to our own.

The

earlier portion, covering the era

first

seventh century, and compiled

of different quahty.
local

church

histories,

Although still based upon records

it is itself

doubted genuineness,

earlier yet and of una mesh of veritable fact, romantic

and heedless error. It deals with persons and things which seemed often almost as remote to the author as they do to us and of which he had only the scantiest and
legend, deliberate fabrication

most fragmentary accounts; it describes achievements which he had littie means of estimating justiy and which he had sometimes the strongest motive to exaggerate or misrepresent. One can,
therefore, observe in this single

document a blending

of the processes

by which a

history

may

of most be constructed, the use of

sober, reliable, sometimes first-hand reports of events and again of marvelous legends, the creations of generations of enthusiasm and

INTRODUCTION
the distortion of other data through prejudice or ignorance.

xi

piety, the intentional manufacture of data for a definite purpose,

This

portion of the Liber Pontificalis

is

often fraudulent, often partisan,

often n^vely devout and credulous.

Yet the very frauds and un-

corroborated assertions and mistakes and venerations have a value

to us of a sort. It is interesting to know what could be believed about some of these matters in the sixth or seventh century. At bottom there is the residue of substantiated fact and credible tradition which continue to make even this part of the Liber Pontificalis indispensable,
if

not for the study of the policies of the imme-

diate successors of Peter, yet for the history and archaeology of

Rome and
The

the church in the earhest Middle Ages.

first

translation which follows gives the text of this

portion^

from the beginning to the life omission toward the last of some formulae and Hsts of church

of Gregory the Great, with the

appurtenances which seem to possess only an archaeological worth or interest. In order to make clearer the peculiar, heterogeneous
character of our text,

we may

here consider more in detail the

elements of which it was composed: fiist, the ancient, papal chronologies which preceded it and upon which it was based second, the supplementary material with which the unknown author filled out the bare skeleton of names and dates furnished him by the chronologies and which distinguished his work from them. The oldest papal lists of which we hear anything were written
;

down, as we have already

said, in the

second century.

150 A.D. Hegesippus, a Christian from Syria,

About perplexed by the

fine-spim Gnostic theories of the nature and mission of Christ which were winning acceptance in the East, visited Rome and drew up

a list of the Roman bishops to his own day in order to satisfy himseK and his countrymen of the validity of the Roman form of doctrine. His list contained, perhaps, not only the names of the bishops but also the duration in years of each pontificate. Oral tradition woxild stiU be reasonably exact for the years since 100 a.d. for the bishops who came before it would be able to supply the
;

names and a rough

'On

calculation as to the length of their terms.

list

Unhappily Hegesippus'
Vigflius below.

has not been preserved in

recension see pp. xxi and xxii,

its original

the termination of the

first

and notes to

xii

INTRODUCTION
Eusebius, in his Church History, quotes from Hegesippus'

form.

writings his accoxmt of the visit to

list,

Rome and

the securing of the

but not the

list itself,

and the writings have perished.

The list

was used, however, by

of

later chroniclers, Eusebius

among them.

Twenty-five or thirty years afterwards, during the persecution

Marcus Aurelius, Irenaeus came from Lyons to Rome and while compDed another list of the Roman succession as far as Eleutherius, who was then in office. Irenaeus was anxious to reconcile the warring sects which menaced the life of the church from within more seriously than the persecutions without. He wrote a great
there
treatise,

Against the Heresies, in which he exposed the fallacies

and set forth systematically the whole Catholic scheme of the relations between God and man. To support his system he cited the unbroken line of the episcopate and the grace transmitted by the laying on of hands as well as the testimony of the Scriptures. Irensus inserted in his episcopal list a few facts which he had learned at Rome about the early bishops. He
of the heterodox
says, for instance, that Linus, the second in office,

was the man

Paul referred in his Epistle to Timothy, that Clement, the fourth bishop, had seen and heard both the apostles and that
to
St.

whom

many

others surviving at

Rome

in Clement's

day had been taught

of Telesphorus and,

by them.

He

also mentions the

martyrdom

in another connection, the relations of Anicetus with Polycarp,

who had known

the apostle John, and the rise of heresies at

Rome

under Hyginus and Pius.

the passage with which

The work

of Irenaeus

is

preserved only

in fragments in the original Greek, but one of the fragments includes

we are concerned. In its time it exerted an iimnense influence on the formulation of dogmatic theology in both East and West. In the third century the lists of the second century were transcribed and carried forward by at least two other hands. Hippolytus, bishop of Porto,

who was banished

for his faith to Sar-

dinia in

company with

the

Roman

bishop, Pontianus,

and whose

marble statue now stands in the Lateran Museum, drew up about 235 A.D. a catalogue of the Roman succession as far as his own day.
Hippolytus was a voluminous writer, interested not only in theology but also in ecclesiastical law and in chronography. He compiled a chronicle of the world from the creation to the year 234 a.d.,

INTRODUCTION

xiii

with tables of the Roman emperors, kings of Macedon and Jewish high priests, the type of many a similar work in the centuries to
follow.

It is natural that he

had

his list of

Roman
it,

bishops also.

Unfortunately, although a large part of the chronicle has survived,

the episcopal
It
list itself,

as Hippolytus prepared

has been

lost.

was incorporated in later Hsts, however, and in that way the substance of it has come down to us. Another third century list of which we hear but which has likewise

now

disappeared in

its original

shape

is

said to

have been the

This last hst

work

of one Julius Africanus, a native of Palestine.

seems to have been more elaborate than any which preceded it and to have included the names of the emperors and consuls in oflice

when

the terms of the various bishoprics began and ended.

The

author probably gave these synchronisms accurately enough for

the period with which he was acquainted and reckoned backward
to secure the dates for the earlier age, using as a

means the consular

Fasti and the figures in the older papal

lists.

From the fourth century onward the chronologies of the popes come gradually into more general circulation. The papacy by this time was an old, established institution of increasing importance, with a history in which it might take pride. The emperors were leaving Rome and from their distance no longer overshadowed the head of the church. In fact it became customary to couple lists of the popes vdth lists of consuls and kings and other secular magnates. Eusebius, the historian and friend of Constantine, inserted lists of the Roman bishops in both his Chronicle and tiis Church History, bringing them down to the year 325. His two lists disagree with one another in the figures for the length of some of the earlier pontificates, but give precisely the same names in the same order. They may have been taken from two different sources. They show that even at that date tradition and records were uncerToward the tain as to the years but were in accord as to the men. close of his chronologies Eusebius added the months to the years
some of the pontifical terms. About the year 350 a collection of chronological and geographical lists and tables was compiled for the convenience of Christian residents in Rome, which must have been but one of many similar collections of that and later times. This particular coUecof

xiv
tion has chanced to

INTRODUCTION
come down
to us ahnost entire,

and gives us a

curious glimpse into the range of interests of the persons for

it

whom

was

written, such as a Worid's

Ahnanac

for 1915

student of our age living in the year 3500.

lection

would give to a Comprised in the col-

were

civil

anniversaries of

and court calendars, paschal tables, lists of the the burials of popes and martjnrs, a topography of

the city of Rome divided into districts, tables of Roman emperors and consuls and a list of the popes to the time of Liberius, fuller and more comprehensive than any which had gone before. This last list has since become known as the Liberian Catalogue, so-called from the date of its composition, not from any connecIt gave the length of each term from tion with Liberius himself. the beginning in years, months and days, the imperial and consular synchronisms, in the case of some popes the date of burial or depoUnder Pius, for sition, and here and there it marked an event. example, it mentioned the writing of The Shepherd of Hermas, probably because of the discussion in Liberius' day over the canonicity of the book. Under Pontianus, Lucius and Marcellinus it noted the troubles due to persecution, under Fabianus and Cornelius the outbreak of the Novatian schism and under Julius the five basilicas which he built. It committed the grave blunder of making two popes out of Cletus and Anencletus, different forms in different earlier chronologies of the same man's name. The major part was compounded from several of the previous Usts. There is reason to think that Hippolytus' was one of those consulted. At any rate some one of these pattern lists gave apparently the duration of a few pontificates in days as well as in years and months and alluded now and then to events associated with particular

names.
figures

The author

of the Liberian Catalogue copied out these

and references to events and added arbitrarily months and days to the years of all the terms from Peter downward in order to make his work appear more symmetrical. Two or three centuries later this Liberian Catalogue was transported outright into the Liber Pontificalis to form the groundwork for the period that it covered. The author of the Liber Pontificalis was content to take it as it stood, without troubling to go behind to any of the more primitive lists. Indeed he seems to have known them only through the mediimi of the Catalogue.

INTRODUCTION
in the literature of the day, quoted

xv

Henceforth lists of the popes are found with increasing frequency

by theologians

in opposition to

the novelties of the heretics, brought

down

to date

by

chroniclers

and
line,

historians.

Optatus and Augustine cited the unbroken papal the bishops of "the unique see," as witness against the Dona-

tists.

The unknown author

of a

them

in support of his metrical

poem against Marcion invoked arguments on behalf of orthodoxy.

and continued the Chronicle of Eusebius, on to 378. Prosper of Aquitaine, who lived at Rome under Leo I and continued Jerome's Chronicle to 453, Socrates, Sozomen and Theodoret, Greeks of the early fifth century, who undertook to supplement the Church History of Eusebius, all added their quota to the chronology of the popes. It is hardly necessary to enumerate the writers who later still reviewed the names of the bishops of Rome. They, of course, depended upon one or another of the preceding lists, and, though their dates and figures showed often a wide diversity, due to the carelessness or ignorance of copyists, they all followed some one of the forms already worked out.
Jerome,
translated
carried the catalogue

who

The nameless priest or clerk who first compiled the Liber Pontificahs took, as we have said, his papal Kst for the first three and one
half centuries, with few modifications, directly from the Liberian

Catalogue.

few supplementary data and the outline

for the fol-

lowing centuries he found in Jerome's Chronicle and the later com-

pendiums.
to
fit

Into this framework of names and dates he proceeded

a large quantity of fresh material, in order to

interesting

make

his

book

more

and more

instructive

and

to give it the character

This body of new material, of a history rather than of a catalogue. which forms the distinguishing feature of the Liber Pontificalis as compared with the chronologies, must next be the subject of our attention. It has been dissected and examined of recent years by archaeologists like De Rossi, as well as by the historians, Duchesne and Mommsen. We may summarize briefly in the succeeding two or three pages the results of their investigation.
I.

The two

prefatory letters, ostensibly composed

of

by

St. Jer-

ome and Pope Damasus, by means

which the authorship of the

whole first part of the Liber Pontificalis is ascribed to Jerome, are manifest forgeries of the sixth or seventh century. Our unknown

xvi

INTRODUCTION
own work.
The
practice

author invented them in the clumsy Latin of his time, hoping

through them to give prestige to his

not

was

uncommon

in his day.

The

particular form which the letters

took was suggested to him, no doubt, by an epistle of Jerome to

Damasus, prefixed
Martjnrology.
is

to the former's version of the Gospels, to

and by

the correspondence which served as introduction

Jerome's

Our author's acquaintance with the correspondence

letters his fig-

proved by the fact that he took from one of those

ures for the

number

of martyrs that perished in the persecution of

Diocletian in the time of Pope Marcellinus.

2. The names of the fathers of the popes and of their nations and birthplaces our author may have copied, at least for all that concerns the later popes, from some ecclesiastical record lost to us to-day. We know of no such source, but our author may have discovered it in some Roman archive, long since destroyed in the ruin of the ancient city. For the earlier popes he undoubtedly invented these details, in order fliat he might seem to possess as much information about them as about their successors.

3.

The comparatively

circumstantial biographies of St. Peter

and
the

St.

Clement, and the accoimt of the debate over the date of

Viris Illustribus of

Easter under Victor he took from two fourth century productions,

De

Jerome

ind Rufinus' translation of the

apocryphal Recognitions attributed to Clement.

He may

also

have drawn from the letter of Gregory I to Eulogius of Alexandria. Unluckily these works were all too late to have much value as authorities on events of the first or second century.
4. The decrees for the organization and goverrmient of the church ascribed to the various bishops are practically aU spurious imtil they reach the latter half of the fifth century. Our author

evidently felt

it

necessary to record some achievement for every

bishop in the whole long

at the time he himself

line, and therefore assigned to each in turn the institution of some ecclesiastical custom which obtained

was writing. These statements have some worth as indicating the nature of procedure in the sixth or seventh century but little or none as bearing upon the earlier periods.
Exceptions to this general rule are the decrees of Siricius and of Innocent I, which our author probably found in the official letters of those popes included in the Collection of Acts of Popes and

INTRODUCTION

xvii

Councils compiled by Dionysius Exiguus at the opening of the sixth century. From this same collection he derived his knowl-

edge of the so-called Apostolic Canons, to which he refers in the first of his prefatory letters, and of the acts of several apocryphal councils, such as the Council of Sinuessa before which Marcellinus professed his penitence and the two Roman synods of Sylvester, which passed measures to enhance to an incredible degree the powers of the bishop. Here also he obtained his untrustworthy accoimts of the vicissitudes of Liberius and the trial of Xystus III. He apparently knew the genuine Acts of the Coimcil of Chalcedon, for his report of that assemblage, though badly confused, is not marred by actual untruth. He makes no allusion to the general Coimcil of Constantinople, held in 551, though we should expect some mention of it if he were acquainted with its proceedings. As for the Council of Sinuessa, it is now certain that no such gathering ever took place, but it is not clear whether or not Marcellinus was a renegade. The tale has perhaps some ground in fact, but it may, on the other hand, be the fabrication of a later party that wished
to cast discredit
5.

on the

pontificate.

The

descriptions of persecutions and

religious marvels, such as the discovery of the

martyrdoms and of Holy Cross and the

healing of Constantine, were culled from popular martyrologies

have since disappeared. They were merely pious stories, simple and uncritical, in which the heroic and legendary elements predominated over the Our author seems to have felt a special ardor for the historical. of the martyrs. He has three early popes, Clement, memory

and passions

of the saints, almost all of which

Anteros and Fabianus, each make provision for the collection of facts regarding them and out of the thirty-one first popes he has,
twenty-three win for themselves the martjrr's crown. Few of these statements can be accepted imless corroborated by outside testi-

mony.
6.

The notices

of churches built or repaired

and

of gifts offered

prelates or princes are a conspicuous feature of the biography They must of Sylvester, and thereafter are copious and frequent. memoranda in records or from least, part at in copied, been have

by

the archives of the Roman see. The curious and imposing list of Constantine's donations bears marks of genuineness as a document.

xviii

INTRODUCTION
its

although, in

present shape

it is

plainly corrupt in passages, the

proper names being at times quite unintelligible.

The donations

enumerated in such

lists

are of genuine but obscure historical in-

terest, either for the history of the

Patrimony of
if

St. Peter, if grants

of estates, or for the history of art,

of worship.

basilicas

imcertain

evidence

In the latter case they

fiu-nish

and appurtenances valuable if sometimes

for the relation of

Byzantine art to

Roman in
most notwill

the early Christian period.

The

catalogue of Constantine's bene-

factions is reproduced entire in the translation, also the

able items of the later

lists.

The student who wishes more

consult the original text.

7.

The

lists of

episcopal ordinations, set like formulae near the

all

end

of

each biography, were also in

probability taken from

records kept toward the close of our period in the

Roman

church.

Indeed Gregory I alludes in one of his letters to such a record. Our author then introduced fictitious lists of ordinations into the
early biographies in order to maintain the
of imiformity

much

desired appearance

and
in

of completeness of information.
official

All the

lists,

however, in spite of their

semblance, are so bare and brief

and the figures retain no value

many

cases are obviously so corrupt that they

at the present day.

Like the accounts of the pro-

visions for the conduct of the church, they emphasize the part

played by the bishop to the disparagement of that played by the

other clergy or the
character of the
first historian.

laity.

They show
structure as

the autocratic or monarchical

it

Roman

appeared to the eyes of

its

8.

The

notices of the dates

and places

of burial or deposition of

popes and martyrs were based partly on the Liberian Catalogue

and partly on

lists

of saints' anniversaries

and traditions con-

nected with certain basilicas and cemeteries.

When a bishop's name, however, did not appear in the well-known Usts of saints, and no tradition associated him with any particular tomb, our author arbitrarily supplied him with date and place of sepulture.
The
natural spot for interring the
first pontiffs

was the Vatican

afterward the catacomb of Callistus.

In

fact,

the bishops Anicetus

and Soter are assigned in one

text to the cemetery of Callistus

it.

some

years before Callistus constructed

Having herewith baldly sketched the antecedents and sources

INTRODUCTION
of the Liber Pontificalis,

xix

we must add a few words on the vexed problem of the period of composition, the date when our anonymous cleric set about piecing it together out of its miscellaneous
problem upon which the most erudite authoriand which we can do hardly more than state in abbreviated form, the arguments on either side being too lengthy and technical to reproduce here. They are rendered especially comphcated by the fact of the variety and number of texts of the Liber Pontificalis and by the difficulty of determining which text represents the archetype or original draft of the work. As it happens, it has come down to us not only in three different versions of the fuU text but also in two abridgments or epitomes. It is
elements.
It is a
ties still disagree

now

generally conceded that

all

forms of the complete

text, in the

shape that we have them, are products of the seventh century. The earliest recension or edition dates back perhaps to the first quarter of the century, not long after the death of Gregory I.
years later it was rewritten in a sUghtly more expanand brought down to include the popes who had held office since the first recension was finished. Shortly afterward a third or composite version was constructed by a combination of the two previous recensions, wherein some passages were borrowed from the first and some from the second. Thenceforward no further

Forty or

fifty

sive style

alterations were

made in the

biographies of the seven

first centuries.

One

or other of the three recensions was copied

by

later writers

with the additions necessary to carry on the narrative to date. The question still in dispute is the age of the two epitomes.

The

first

or Felician Epitome, as

it is called,

breaks

off

with the

pontificate of Felix IV, 530 a.d.

Certain scholars of great learn-

ing and distinction, such as Lipsius, Lightfoot and Duchesne, hold

that this epitome

tificalis

is a summary of an early text of the Liber Ponwhich concluded at that point and was in fact composed
;

soon after Felix' death

or, in

other words, that the original text

was about a century older than any full text which we possess at the present day and that our author hved and wrote toward the end of Theodoric's reign instead of imder HeracUus. The second or Cononian Epitome, which closely resembles the Felician but continues on to the time of Pope Conon, 687 a.d., is also in the opinion of these same scholars a resume of the first text, supple-

XX

INTRODUCTION
of the latter part of one of the seventh

mented by an abridgment
century recensions.

To

illustrate this

theory

we may mention

one or two of the simpler arguments. Duchesne contends that these epitomes show variations from the language of the seventh
csntury versions that indicate their derivation from a different
of Theodoric are written in a vivid

and older prototype, that the biographies of the popes of the period and personal style as if by a contemporary and that Gregory of Tours, who died in 594, alludes
time.

in his history to a version of the Liber Pontificalis current in his

On

the other hand, Waitz and

Mommsen,

scholars no less

learned and distinguished, maintain that the two epitomes, in spite

of their occasional divergences

from the seventh century phrase-

ology, are nevertheless founded

that, in

upon the seventh century text and consequence, the Liber Pontificalis itself is no older than
is,

the earliest of the recensions, that

than the period of the disturb-

ances after the death of Gregory

I.

They

insist that the differfull

ences in language between the two epitomes and the

seventh

century versions are not important enough to require a different

source for the epitomes, that the increase in vivacity and in mi-

nuteness of description noticeable in the biographies of the age of

Theodoric

may

be explained by the use on the part of the seventh

lost,

century author of a sixth century chronicle since

standings impossible to a contemporary.

and that
the

passages in these same biographies contain mistakes and misunder-

They pronounce

quotation from Gregory of Tours too vague and indecisive to be accepted as proof of his acquaintance with the Liber Pontificalis.

Other writers of the age,

men

like Isidore of Seville

and Pope Greg-

ory himself, more deeply versed in

Pontificalis

Roman affairs than the Gallic Gregory could be, would inevitably have referred to the Liber
if it

had been

in existence in their day.

But, as

we have

said before, the arguments on either side of this controversy are

Something more of them will be found in the notes appended to the text. The following translation is based upon the text edited by Mommsen in the Monumenta Germania Historica. He gives the
far too elaborate to rehearse adequately here.
full

seventh century version with the variations between the three

recensions or between

them and

either or

both of the epitomes

INTRODUCTION
printed in parallel columns.
scripts,

'

xxi

Mere

differences in individual

manu-

caused by the errors or interpolations of copyists, he enuI

merates in his footnotes.

have preserved

his

method

of setting

the various readings of different classes of texts in parallel columns

so that the extent of the variations might be easily seen, but have

most part made no attempt to indicate, as he does, by a letters and numbers the text to which each reading belongs nor to convey an idea of the idiosyncrasies of single manuscripts. For a close study of the separate texts the reader must
for the

system of

consult

Monomsen himself. The magnitude of Mommsen's undertaking may be better appreciated by noting in passing the age, number and location of
the manuscripts which he thought essential to collate in preparing
his edition.

His text

of the Felician

Epitome he derived from three

manuscripts, the oldest of which dates from the eighth century and
is

two being at Berne and Rome. The Cononian Epitome he found in two manuscripts, both of the ninth century, one in Paris and one in Verona. The first recension of the full seventh century text he obtained from nineteen manuscripts, the oldest of which belongs to the eighth century and is
in Paris, the other
'

now

now

in the Library at Lucca, the others are scattered in Paris,

Rome,

Florence, Milan

and elsewhere.

took from twenty manuscripts, the from the close of the seventh century, the remainder in Leyden, Cologne, Paris, Brussels, Treves and other places. The third or composite text he based upon eleven manuscripts. The earliest, now at Modena, goes back to the end of the seventh or the opening of the eighth century, but it consists only of excerpts. The oldest copy of the entire text is in the Vatican and dates from the
tenth century.

The second recension he oldest now in Naples, dating

For

fuller discussions of the

numerous, interesting topics con-

and value, nected with the Liber the student who wishes to pursue his investigations further is referred first of all to the voluminous and exhaustive introducPontificalis, its origin, character,

tions

and notes attached

to Duchesne's edition of the text,

pub-

lished a few years earlier than

briefer
St.

Mommsen's;

also to

Mommsen's
volume on

Prolegomena to his own

of

edition, Lightfoot's

Clement

Rome

in the series entitled

The Apostolic Fathers,

xxii

INTRODUCTION

and Waitz' articles on the subject in the Neues Archiv, especially volumes IV, IX, X, and XI. A convenient summary of some of the researches of the greater scholars is afforded by Rosenfeld's monograph, Uber die Composition des Liber Pontificalis biz zu Constantin. From these authorities and the others quoted from time to time in the text I have gathered my statements in this introduction and much of the material in my notes. In fact, without the guidance of Duchesne, I should often have been at a loss

how

to elucidate

the text,

my own

notes being in

many

cases

more than abridgments or paraphrases of his. The references in the notes are, for the most part, to these same works, the indispensable apparatus for any serious study of the Liber Pontificalis, to the Latin and Greek sources in EngUsh transscarcely
lation,

whenever such translations

exist,

otherwise in the original,

and

finally to

EngUsh books,

accessible to

most readers and

likely

to prove helpful for a general understanding of the subjects treated

in the text.

L. R. L.

THE BOOK OF THE POPES

{LIBER PONTIFICALIS)

TO THE PONTIFICATE OF GREGORY

THE BOOK OF THE POPES

{LIBER PONTIFICALIS)
Preface
Jerome to the most blessed pope Damasus
^
:

We
see,

hvimbly beseech thy glorious holiness that as the apostolic

which we understand is ruled by thy holiness,^ ... we bend in supplication and entreat that thou deign to impart to us in order the record of the deeds done in thy see from the principate of blessed Peter, the apostle, even to thine own day that thus we may humbly ascertain which of the bishops of the aforesaid see attained the crown of martyrdom and which are judged to have transgressed the canons of the apostles.' Pray for us, most blessed pope. Given April 27. Received at Rome.
;

Damasus, bishop

of the city of

Rome,

to Jerome.

The church
fountain,

rejoices already, drinking with satisfaction at thy

thirst

grows ever keener among its priests to hear what is right may be recognized and what So all the record which the zeal of our see has is wrong rejected. been able to discover we send with gladness to thee, beloved.

and the

of the past, in order that

Pray

for us unto. the holy resurrection, brother

Farewell in Christ, our

ceived September 26.
'

God and

Lord.

and fellowpriest. Given May 23. Re-

Sent from

Rome

to Jerusalem.

These

letters are

obvious forgeries, designed to give the authority of two great

names to the ensuing narrative. The author is even naive enough to attribute to Damasus and Jerome a history which covers a century or two beyond their time. See Introduction, pp. vii and viii. 2 Some words are lost here. Traube suggests a reading: "that thou wouldest assist us by the authority vested in the apostolic see, which we understand," etc.

Mommsen, Liber Pontificalis, p. i. ' The collection of .canons translated

ginning of the sixth century.
(H. Leclercq).

into Latin

by Dionysius Exiguus

at the be-

Cf. Hefele, Histoire des ConcUes, I, pp. 1 203-1 221

LIBER PONTIFICALIS
I.

Peter
Blessed Peter, the apostle, and
chief of the apostles, the Antio-

Blessed Peter/ the Antiochene,

son of John, of the province

of
Galilee

and the town

of

chene,

son
of

of

John,

of

the

Bethsaida, brother of

Andrew

province

Galilee

and the

and

chief of the apostles,

town of Bethsaida, brother of Andrew,

^

first

occupied the seat of the bishop in Anthiocia

for 7 years.

This Peter entered the city of

Rome when Nero was

2

Caesar

and

there occupied the seat of the bishop for 25 years,

I

month and

8 days.

months and

3 days.

He was He
of

bishop in the time of Tiberius Caesar and of Gaius and

of Tiberius Claudius

and of Nero.'
son by baptism
his
;

wrote two epistles which are called catholic, and the gospel
for

Mark,

Mark was his disciple and

that
is

afterwards

the whole source of the four gospels, which were confirmed

inquiring of him,
is

by

Peter,

and obtaining
all

testimony;

although one gospel

couched in Greek, another in Hebrew, anconfirmed.*

other in Latin, yet by his testimony were they

'

As explained above

in the Introduction (p. zii),

when

different versions of the

narrative are found in the different epitomes or recensions of the Liber PonHficalis, the readings are set down, as here, in parallel columns, the older text being given first.

Most
iind

of the following story of the

life

of the apostle

is

taken by the author of the

;

Lib. Pont,

from Jerome's De Viris

Illuslribus, c. i (ed.

Richardson, pp. 6 and 7

Texle

'

Unlersuchungen zur Gesch. der altckrisUichen Literatur, vol. XIV). An excellent little hand book to consult for information on Jerome and the other church fathers

who

will

be dted in the course of our text and notes

is

Bardenhewer's Patrology, trans-

lated

by Strahan.
Corrupt or peculiar forms of proper names

>Antioch, the ancient Antiochia.

in the Latin text will

be reproduced

in the translation.

Our author
,

gives

to

Rome

before the reign of

two incompatible traditions, the first that Peter did not come Nero (c/. the late second century Acta Petri et PauU in
,
,

Tischendorf Acta A postolorum

of twenty-five years at
version.

A pocrypha, p. i etc.) the second that after a pontificate Rome he was put to death under Nero. The latter is Jerome's The reader may find a discussion of the Petrine problem, with many further

volume of this series devoted to the history of the Papacy. Duchesne suggests that the idea that the four gospels all issued from a single source was derived from the apsidal mosaics of fifth and mxth century churches which represented the four rivers of paradise all flowing out from one head. Lib.
references, in the
*

PorU., vol. I, p. 119, n. 7.

PETER
He
ordained two bishops, Linus and Cletus,

who

in person ful-

filled all

the service of the priest in the city of Rome for the inhabitants and for strangers then the blessed Peter gave himself to prayer and preaching, instructing the people.^
;

He disputed many times with Simon Magus both before Nero, the emperor, and before the people, since by magic arts and trickery
Simon was drawing away those whom the
ing into the faith of Christ.
blessed Peter

was gather-

And

while they debated once at great

length Simon was struck dead by the will of God. He consecrated blessed Clement as bishop and committed to him the government of the see and all the church, saying: ^ "As
delivered by my Lord Jesus Christ the power to govern and to bind and loose, so also I commit it unto thee, that thou mayest ordain stewards over divers matters who will carry onward

unto

me was

the work of the church and mayest thyself not become engrossed with the cares of the world but mayest strive to give thyself solely to prayer and preaching to the people."

After he had thus disposed affairs he received the crown of martyr-

dom with Paul in the year 38 after the Lord's passion.' He was buried also on the Via Aureha, in the shrine
near the place where he was
crucified,

of Apollo,

near the palace of Nero, in

the Vatican,* near the triumphal district,^ on June 29.

'

Rufinus, Preface to the apocryphal Clementine Recognitions; cf. infra, p. 7, n. 4. This passage is taken from the apocryphal Epistle of Clement to James, c. 2 and s
Cf. infra, p. 8, n. 2.

prefixed to the Recognitions.

'

Our author follows here the Paschal tables of the fifth century, according to which Christ was crucified in the year 29. Duchesne, op. cit., p. 119, u. 12. Eusebius' Chronicle says that Peter and Paul died in the thirteenth year of Nero's reign, the
2iith Olympiad, the year 2083 of the Jewish calendar, which would correspond to our year 67 ajj. The persecution of Nero, however, took place in 64 A.D. The earliest passage that may be construed as a reference to the martyrdom of the two apostles at Rome occurs in the First Epistle of Clement to the Corinthians, written prob-

ably about 90-100 A.D.

vol. I. p. 17.
*

It is translated in the Loeh Classical Library, Apostolic Fathers,

Cf. also Lightfoot, Apostolic Fathers, Part I, for text

and

discussion.

name of the hill forming the prolongation of the Janicidum toward the north, and the Campus or Ager Vaticanus was the space between
Vaticanus was the ancient

Here the word is used to denote hill and the Janiculum and the Tiber. low region stretching back from the river. 5 Jerome says, "near the Via Triumphalis." The tomb of Peter, now covered by the crypt of the modem basilica, was situated between the Via Aurelia and the Via Tri-. umphalis, on the outskirts of the circus of Nero, near a temple of Cybele, which through
the foot of the
this

LIBER PONTIFICALIS
He
held
three
ordinations,
7

He

held
of

ordinations

in

the

deacons, 10 priests, 3 bishops,*

in the

month

December, 3 bishops,

month

of

December.

10 priests, 7 deacons.*

II.

LiNTJS

Linus,

by

nationality an Italian, from the province of Tuscany,

son of Herculanus, occupied the see 11 years, 3 months and 12 days. He was bishop in the time of Nero from the consulship of Saturni-

nus and Scipio

(a.d. 56) imtil the

year when Capito and Rufus were

consuls (a.d. 67).

He was crowned

with martyrdom.

He, by direction of the blessed Peter, decreed that a must veil her head to come into the church.'

woman

He He

held two ordinations, 15 bishops, 18 priests.

also
*

was buried near the body

24.

of the blessed Peter in the

Batican

about September

the

a popular error was later called a temple of Apollo. Cf. Grisar, Rome and the Popes in Middle Ages, I, pp. 277 E. C. Erbes, Die Todeslage der Aposld Patdus und Petrus und ihre Romischen DenkmSler, in Texle und Untersiuhungen, Neue Folge, IV. 'The three bishops were evidently Linus, Cletus and Clement The number seven was attached to the deacons in order to ascribe to Peter the institution of the
;

seven
fifth

Sozomen, the Greek historian, writing in the middle of the Roman church never had more than seven deacons, a number which they considered sanctioned by the apostles. Ecclesiastical History, VII, c. 19; Eng. tr. in Nicene and Post Nicene Fathers, ser. 2, vol. II. 'One manuscript adds the following. "He first ordained the celebration of the mass to commemorate the Lord's passion, with bread and wine mixed with water and the Lord's prayer repeated alone and the sanctif}ring of the holy cross, a rite which the other holy apostles imitated for this celebration." The earliest detailed account of a Christian service k in Justin Martyr's First Apology, written for presentation to
deacons.
century, mentions the curious fact that the

Roman

Antoninus Pius. It is translated in Cresswell, Liturgy of Early Church Classics Series.

'

the Apostolic Constitutions,

Linus

is

represented as associated with and acting under the direction of Peter.

Corinthians, xi.
5.

The ordinance may have been suggested by /

*

A corruption,

of course, for Vatican.

In the seventeenth century some

workmen

digging near the

tomb

of Peter in the crypt of the present cathedral unearthed several

ancient sarcophagi, one bearing an inscription in which the

to be decipherable.

name Linus was thought There were, however, no scholars at hand competent to verify the reading, the sarcophagus was not preserved where it could be studied, and De Rossi, the Italian authority on Christian epigraphy, is inclined to doubt the correctness of the Duchesne, Lib. PotU., voL I, p. 121, n. 3. Grisar, I, p. 279. report,

LINUS, CLETUS,
III.

CLEMENT

Clettjs

Cletus,
cius,'

nationality a Roman, from the precinct Vicus Patrison of Emilianus, occupied the see
i

by

7 years,

month and 20

days.

12 years,

month and

11 days.

He was

bishop in the time of Vespasian and Titus from

|

of Domitian

the 7th consulship of Vespasian and the sth of Domitian (a.d. 77) tmtil the year when Domitian was consul for the 9th time and

Rufus was consul with him (a.d. 83). He was crowned with martyrdom. He, by direction of the blessed Peter, ordained 25
the city of
in the

priests

in

Rome
of

month
also

December.
|

He

was buried near the body

of the blessed Peter in the

Batican, April 26.

And

the bishopric was

empty 20 days.

IV.

Clement

I
district of the Celian

Clement, by nationality a Roman, from the

Hill,^

son of Faustinus, occupied the see 9 years, 2 months and 10 days. He was bishop in the time of Galba and Vespasian from the
consulship of Tragalus and Italicus (a.d. 68) until the year

when

Vespasian was consul for the 9th time and Titus was consul with him (a.d. 79). He wrote many books in his zeal for the faith of
the Christian religion
1

and was crowned with martyrdom.

Near the modem Via Urbana, a region extending from the Viminal to the Esqmline. The number twenty-five was apparently chosen here in order to give apostolic
sanction to the twenty-five titular or parish churches which existed in

Rome

at the

dose of the

38 and n. 3. On the actual slow development of the ecclesiastical organization see Cambridge Medieval History, vol. I, ch. vi. ' The author probably deduced the location of Clement's house from the situation
fifth

century.

Cf. infra, p.

of the church of San Clemente which stands between the Caelian and the Esquiline. * The author may have in mind the ten books of the apocryphal Recognitions
attributed to Clement and translated from Greek into Latin

by Rufinus.

The original

Greek text has

Pal. Gr., vol.
I.

since been lost.

Text by P. de Lagarde supersedes that of Migne, Translation, Ante Nicene Fathers, VIII.

LIBER PONTIFICALIS
He
created
7 districts

and assigned them the church that they might make diligent,
inquiry, each in his

to faithful notaries of

careful

and searching

own

district,

regarding the acts of the martyrs.^

are called catholic.

He composed two epistles. which

office of

He, by direction of the blessed Peter, undertook the pontifical

governing the church, even as Peter received the seat of

moreover in the epistle which he wrote to James ^ thou mayest learn in what manner the church was entrusted to him by the blessed Peter. Therefore Linus and Cletus are recorded before him for the reason that they were ordained bishops also by the chief of the apostles to perform
the priestly ministry.

authority from the Lord Jesus Christ;

He
2

held two ordinations in the

died a martyr
|

month

of

December, 10

priests,

deacons and 15 bishops in divers places.'

He

in the third year of Trajan.*

in the third Trajan.

24.

He also was buried in Greece,* November And the bishopric was empty 21 days.

It

seems far more

likely that the seven ecclesiastical districts of

Rome were

the creation of Pope Fabianus in the third century.

Our author

is

obviously anxious

to give an early origin and a dignified function to the church notaries, a body to which he possibly belonged. C/. infra, pp. lo, n. 3 and 24. ' This epistle was translated by Rufinus and early became prefixed to the pseudoClementine Recognitions just mentioned. In the Greek it is prefixed to the pseudoClementine Homilies. There is no reference here to the one authentic letter of Clement still preserved, written to the church of Corinth. Lightfoot, Si. Clement of Rome; Loeb Classical Library, The Apostolic Fathers, vol. I. ' I.e. the priests and deacons were to serve in the city churches, the bishops in the dioceses about the dty. Jerome also gives this as the date of Clement's death. De Viris Illustribus, c. XV ed. Richardson, p. 17. A fragment of an inscription of the end of the fourth century has been discovered in the church of San Clemente, which was built over the
;

site of

Clement's

own

house.

In

this inscription the

word

MARTYR

apparently

follows the
'

name

of Clement.

to the legend of the St Clement, who was said to have been drowned Black Sea, and who became in time identified with Pope Clement of Rome. Duchesne, 6. Pont., vol. I, p. xci.
in the

An allusion

ANENCLETUS, EVARISTUS
V. Anenclettjs
Aneclitus,!

by

nationality a Greek from Athens, son of Anthio-

cus, occupied the see

12 years, 10

months and

7 days.

9 years,

months and 10 days.

bishop in the time of Domitian from the loth consulship Domitian when Savinus was his colleague (a.d. 84) until the year when Domitian was consul for the 17th time and Clement was
of

He was

consul with

him

(a.d. 95).

and adorned the sepulchral monument ^ of the blessed Peter, forasmuch as he had been made priest by the blessed Peter, and other places of sepulchre for the burial of bishops. There he himbuilt
self likewise

He

was buried near the body

ordinations in the

of the blessed Peter, July 13.

He

held

month
13 days.

of

December,

5 priests, 3

deacons, 6 bishops in divers places.

And the bishopric was empty

VI. EVARISTUS
Euvaristus,
of Antioch,
|

by

nationality a Greek

son of a Jew the see

13 years, 7
'

named Judah, from

2 days.

the city of Bethlehem, occupied

months and

9 years, 10 months and

days.

The

sixth.
lists

fifth bishop of Rome was not Anencletus but Evaristus, who here comes Anencletus and Cletus were two forms of the same name, and in the earliest

the bishop ordained

by Peter was

called

by

either

one form or the other.

The

compiler of the Liherian Catalogue, however, took the two forms for the names of two different men and inserted them both into his list. The author of the Lib. Pont.
followed the Liberian Catalogue.

For

full

explanation see Lightfoot, Clement of

Petri
et

Rome

{The Apostolic Fathers),

2

vol. I, p. 201 et seq.

I.e.

the tomb.

The second century Acta

Pauli (Tischendorf, Acta Apos-

tolorum Apocrypha, p. 38) says that the bodies of the apostles were laid in a place outside the city for one year and seven months until their sepulchres were prepared for

them. These earliest tombs were small and inconspicuous and stood close among pagan tombs in the same localities. In fact, remains of pagan tombs or columbaria have been found so near to the resting places of both apostles as to be disturbed when foimdations were being laid for the heavy bronze baldachinos which cover the high The shrine of Peter was only large enough to altars in both of the modern basilicas.

lo

LIBER PONTIFICALIS
He was

bishop in the time of Domitian and Nerva and Trajan, from the consulship of Valens and Vetus (a.d. 96) until the year

when

Gallus and Bradua were consuls (a.d. 108).

the city of

He was crowned with martyrdom. He divided the parish churches in

priests,^

Rome among

the

and ordained

deacons to keep watch over the bishop

when he

spoke, for the sake of the

He
2

held 3 ordinations in

word of truth.^ the month of December, 17

priests,

deacons, 15 bishops in divers places.

He

also

was buried near the body

of the blessed Peter in the

Batican, October 27.

And

the bishopric was

empty 19 days.

VII.

Alexander
Roman, son
of Alexander,

Alexander, by nationality a
region of
2

from the

Caput Tauri,* occupied the

see 10 years, 7

months and

days.
until the year

He was bishop in the time of Trajan and Vetus were consuls (a.d. 116).

when Helianus

He

introduced the passion of the Lord into the words of the

priest at the celebration of mass.*

contain niches or places for his immediate successors.
p. I2S, n. 2,
'

Duchesne, Lib. Pont.,

vol. I,

and
is

p. civ.

Cletus

said to

have ordained twenty-five

their churches.

priests to serve in the city, Evaristus

to have assigned
'

them

Cf. supra, p. 7,

and infra,

p. 38, n. 2.
(cf.

Among

the canons of the apocryphal council of Sylvester

infra, p. 45, n. i)

is

the following, which sheds some light on the passage here:

deacons to watch over the officiating

catholic

dogma and

the

wisdom

of age,

"There shall be seven bishop for the sake of the word of truth and lest in speaking we say Father in place of Son or
Lib. Pont., p. 9.

Holy

Spirit in place of Father."

Mommsen,
p. 6, n. i

On

the institution of

the seven

Roman

deacons see supra,

^ Cf. Lanciani, Ruins and Excavations The district is of Ancient Rome, p. 404. mentioned again in the Lib. Pont, as the home of Anastasius 11, and is said to be in the

Fifth Region, which,

if

the reference be to the regions of Augustus, comprised a large

part of the Esquiline HiU along the

dty wall.

Cf. infra, p. 1 1 4.

The boundaries of

the

seven ecclesiastical divisions, said to have been created by Fabianus (Infra, p. 24), are for the most part unknown. For an account of both civil and ecclesiastical divisions
see Duchesne, Milanges d'Archiologie
el

d'Histoire, vol. I, p. 126, Gregorovius, History

I,

of

Rome
*I.e.

in the Middle Ages, trans. Hamilton, vol.

pp. 80-82.

The

latter gives

the conjectural outlines of Fabianus' regions.

Alexander introduced the passage hpginning "Qui pridie," into the liturgy
,

ALEXANDER, XYSTUS
He was crowned

with martyrdom and Eventius, the priest, and Theodulus, the deacon, were crowned together with him. He appointed the blessing of the water of sprinkling and of salt
in the dwellings of the people.'

He held 3 ordinations in the month of December, 6 priests, 2 deacons, 5 bishops in divers places.

He

also

beheaded,^

was buried on the Via Nomentana, where he was not more than 7 miles from the city of Rome,

May 3.
And
the bishopric was

empty 35

days.

VIII.

Xystus

I
district

Xystus, by nationality a Roman, son of Pastor, from the

of the Via Lata, occupied the see 10 years, 3

months and

21 days.

months and

day.

bishop in the time of Adrian, until the year and Anniculus were consuls (a.d. 126).'

He was

when Verua

He was crowned with martyrdom. He ordained that consecrated vessels

except

should not be touched

to the

by the

ministering clergy.*

He

ordained that no bishop

who had been summoned

|

Roman
apostolic see should be received
This, like
all

upon
is

his return to his parish.

of course fabrication,

accounts of early papal decrees,

an attempt to

assign a definite, primitive origin to the order prevailing in the sixth century.

custom of blessing private houses with a sprinkling of water which the owner offers. * The "tomb of Alexander" is mentioned in an itinerary attributed to William of Malmesbury. The site of it, near the Via Nomentana, was rediscovered in 1855. But it is probable that there were two Alexanders and that the martyr has been erroneously identified with the pope. Duchesne, Lib. Pont., vol. I, pp. xci et seq.
'

An

allusion to the

and

of blessing the salt

The Liberian Catalogue {cj. Introduction, p. vi) gives the consular reckoning more "from the consulship of Niger and Apronianus (a.d. 117) to the 3rd consulship of Verus when Ambibulus was consul with him (aj3. 126)." The text of the Catalogue is printed in Duchesne, Lib. Pont., vol. I, pp. 2-g; also in Lightfoot's Clement of Rome, pp. 253-258. * One of several decrees ascribed to these first popes emphasizing the sacredness
^

exactly; viz.

of altar vessels

and hangings.

Cf. infra, pp. 16

and

91.

12

LIBER PONTIFICALIS
him the
unless

unless he brought with

he brought

with

him
which

"fonnata" from the apostolic

of general greeting
see.*

the letter of general

greeting

from the apostolic is the "fonnata."

see,

He

ordained that at the be-

ginning of mass the priest should

chant to the people the hymn,

" Sanctus,
sanctus,
sanctus,
etc.*

dominus deus Sabaoth,"

held 3 ordinations in the month of December, 11 priests, 4 deacons, 4 bishops in divers places.

He He

also

was buried near the body

3.

of the blessed Peter in the

Batican, April

And

the bishopric was

empty

months.

IX. Telesphorus
Telesphorus,

by

nationality a Greek, previously an anchorite,

occupied the see 11 years, 3 months and 21 days. in the time of Antoninus and Marcus.'

He was

bishop

He

ordained that the fast of seven weeks should be kept before

Easter.*

He was crowned
tjnrdom.

with mar-

He appointed that at the season of the nativity of our Lord

Jesus Christ

and that at the season of the

Lord's nativity

' This seems to be a garbled form of an edict recorded in the acts of the spurious Council of Sylvester (supra, p. ix, infra, p. 45, n. i), which required each bishop to take home with him a written report of the decisions of the council, so that they might be accurately known to the people. The ordinance as it stands in our text is unintel-

ligible.

Duchesne, op.
etc.,

at., p. 128, n. 4.

'The "Sanctus,"
"Vere dignum,"

like the

are included in every liturgy that has

"Sursum corda" and the opening words of the preface, come down to us. They

were perhaps in use even as early as Xystus. Duchesne, op. cil., p. 128, n. 5. The LUerian Catalogue gives the consulships omitted here; viz. "frofti the consulship of Titianus and Gallicanus (aj). 127) until the year when Caesar and Balbinus were consuls (aj). 137)."
*

The fast

before Easter

was observed before the

pontificate of Telesphorus.

It is

i'
.

/-'

i'

TELESPHORUS, HYGINUS
;

"13
r--^

masses should be celebrated during the night ' for in general no one presumed to celebrate mass before tierce^ the hour when our Lord ascended the cross

and that at the opening

sacrifice

of the

and that before the

sacrifice

the angelic

hymn

should be repeated, namely, "Gloria in excelsis

deo"
etc.,

but only upon the night

of the Lord's nativity.*

He was
dom.

crowned with martyr-

He

also

was buried near the body

2.

of the blessed Peter in the

Batican, January

He held 4 ordinations in the month of December, 12 deacons and 13 bishops in divers places.
And
the bishopric was

priests, 8

empty

7 days.

X. HYGiNtrs
YgLnus,
the see

by

nationality a Greek, previously a philosopher of

Athens, whose ancestry I have not been able to ascertain, occupied

10 years, 3 months and

described

days.

4 years, 3 months and 4 days.

by

Irenaeus a few years later as a custom of the ancestors, dating back

nearly to apostolic times.

'

The length, however, was at first variable.

See the interest-

ing discussion in Eiisebius Church History, lib. V, c. 24, trans. McGiffert, Nicme and Post Nicene Fathers, ser. n, vol. I, p. 243. Mormnsen cites the passage here as an indica-

that under Leo

was not compiled until the seventh century. He points out and Gregory I the Lenten fast lasted only six weeks and that therefore our author must have written after the death of Gregory. Lib. Pont., p. xvii.
tion that the Lib. Pont,
I,

Gelasius

Cf. Introduction, p.
^

xii.

The author is still a feature of the Roman ritual. the earliest writer to allude to it. It can hardly have been instituted before the date of the Nativity was fixed during the fourth century. ' Pope Symmachus intrtxluced the angelic hjTnn irito all masses celebrated on The
night mass at Christmas
is

of the Lib. Pont,

Sundays or

feast days.

Cf. infra, p. 123.

The

institution applied, however, only to

papal masses.

were forbidden to chant the "Gloria," except at Easter, as late as the eleventh century. In the early Galilean ritual the "Benedictus" was sung at the opening of mass instead of the "Gloria." Duchesne, Lib. Pout., Atchley, Ordo Romanus. Primus, pp. 71-72. vol. I, p. 130, n. 5.

The

priests in

Rome

14

LIBER PONTIFICALIS
He was bishop in the time of Verus and Marcus, from the consulMagnus and Camerinus
and
|

ship of
Orfitus

(a.d.

138) until the year

when

Camerinus were consuls.

Priscus were consuls (a.d. 149).

He set in order the clergy and distributed ranks.' He held 3 ordinations in the month of December,

15 priests,

S deacons, 6 bishops in divers places. He also was buried near the body of the blessed Peter in the

Batican, January 11.

And

the bishopric was

empty

3 days.

XI. Pius I
Pius,

by

nationality an Italian, son of Rufinus, brother of the

shepherd,* from the city of Aquilegia,' occupied the see 19 years,

4 months

and

21 days.

and 3 days.

He was bishop in the time of Antoninus Pius, from the consulship

of Clarus

and Severus (a.d. While he was bishop,

146).*

his brother

Hermas wrote a book

which he set forth the commandment which the angel of the Lord delivered to him, coming to him in the garb of a shepherd and commanding him that
in
'

A vague phrase. The author may merely intend

to convey that

further the organization of the clergy into definite ranks tasks

Hyginus and the assignment of

carried
special

title Pastor or Hoifi^iv of his a second century writer whose treatise, which contained an account of a revelation from an angel, was once in such repute as to be read in the churches. It was composed ori^nally in Greek but was early translated

and functions. Hermas, sumamed Pastor or Shepherd, from the

See in the text below.

book.

He was

Jerome says of it that in his day it was still read in the churches of Greece, had almost been forgotten among the Latins. De Viris lUustribus, c. x, ed. Richardson, p. 14. An English translation of The Shepherd of Hermas may be found in volvime II of The Apostolic Fathers in the Loeb Classical Library.
into Latin.

although

it

I.e.

Aqmleia.
;

The second pair of consuls is here omitted

(a.d. 161)."

" until the year

when

the two August!

were consuls

Liberian Catalogue.

PIUS
the holy feast of Easter

I,

ANICETUS
|

IS

Easter

be observed upon the Lord's day.^

He ordained that a heretic coming out from the heresy of the Jews should be received and baptised ^ and he made a regulation
;

for the church.

He

held 5 ordinations in the

also

month

of

December, 19

priests,

21 deacons, bishops 12 in

He

number in divers places. was buried near the body of the blessed Peter
empty 14
days.^

in the

Batican, July 11.

And

the bishopric was

Xn. Anicetus
Anicetus,

by

nationaJity a Sjnrian, son of John, from the

town

of

Humisa,* occupied the see

5 years, 3

months and

3 days.

11 years, 4
*

months and 3 days.

He was
Praesens

bishop in the time of Severus

and Marcus, from the

consulship of Gallicanus and Vetus (a.d. 150) vmtil the year

He

when and Rufinus were consuls (a.d. 153). forbade the clergy to grow long hair, following thus the

precept of the apostle.*

He
' '

held 5 ordinations in the

month

of

December, 19

priests, 4

deacons, 9 bishops in divers places.

There is no mention of Easter in the book of Hennas. Duchesne cites the fact that Prudentius in his Apotheosis
Lib. Pont., vol.
I,

classes the

Jews with the

heretics.
s

p. 132, n. s-

In manuscripts of the eleventh century the following sentences have been added drawn undoubtedly from the story of SS. Pudentiana and Praxedis "He by request of the blessed Praxedis (Cf. Acta Sanctorum, May, vol. IV, p. 299.) dedicated a church in the baths of Novatus in the Vicus Patricius to the honor of her
to the life of Pius,
sister,

tered, offering sacrifice to the Lord. his

many gifts and frequently he minisMoreover he erected a font of baptism and with own hand he blessed and dedicated it and many who gathered to the faith he
the holy Pudentiana, where also he ofEered

baptised in the
in

name

of the Trinity."

The church

of Santa Pudenziana
p. 7, n. i.

is

mentioned

an epitaph of a.d. 384. For the Vicus Patricius, cf. supra, * I.e. Emesa, an important city of northern Syria.
'

An

error for Verus.

The chronology

is

mistaken.

The

pontificate

was prob-

ably from 154-5 to 166-7.

Jerome alludes to a Duchesne, Lib. Pont., vol.

Cf. Hefele, Hist. d. Conciles, I, p. 136. prohibition of this sort. In Ezech., xuv, 20.

Quoted by

I, p.

134, n. 3.

Cf.

I Corinthians, xi.

14.

i6

LIBER PONTIFICALIS
He
also died a

martyr

ind

was buried
in the

near the body of

the blessed

cemetery of Calistus/

Peter in the Vatican,

April 20.

And

the bishopric was

empty

17 days.

XIII. SOTER
Soter,

by

nationality a Campanian, son of Concordius, from the

city of Fundi,* occupied the see 9 years, 6

months and

21 days.

He was
ticus

bishop in the time of Severus,' from the consulship of Rus(a.d. 162) until the

and AquiUnus

year when Cetegus and

Clams were

consuls (a.d. 170).

He
He

ordained that no

monk

should touch the consecrated altar

cloth or should offer incense in the holy church.*

held 3 ordinations in the

1 1

month

of

December, 18

priests,

deacons,

bishops in divers places.

He
Peter,

also

was buried
in the

near the body of the blessed

cemetery of Calistus on the Via Appia,*

April 22.

And

the bishopric was

empty

21 days

XIV. Eleuthertus
Eleuther,

by

nationality a Greek, son of Habundius, from the

town
'

of Nicopolis,' occupied the see 15 years, 3

if

months and

days.

This cemetery,

in existence at the time,

was

certainly not

of Callistus,

who was
is

the fifth pope after Anicetus.

Cf. infra, p. 21.

known by the name The reading in

the

first

column

probably the correct one.

"The modem Fondi.

'

This should be Verus.

Several manuscripts read

influenced

woman
'

or

"no nun" instead of "no monk." They are perhaps by the passage in the life of Pope Boniface I. "Boniface decreed that no nun should touch the consecrated altar cloth." Infra, p. 91. The author
undoubtedly belonged to the secular clergy.

of the Lib. Pont,

Cf. supra, n. i.

'

The

city of Nicopolis in Epirus at the entrance to the Gulf of Arta.

SOTER, ELEUTHERIUS, VICTOR

17
until the

He was

bishop in the time of Antoninus and

Commodus

year when Paternus and Bradua were consuls (a.d. 185). He received a letter from Lucius, king of Britain, asking him to appoint a way by which Lucius might become a Christian.^

He

also decreed

He

also

confirmed

again

the

decree

that no kind of food

in

common
God

use
|

should be rejected especially by the Christian

as
for

created

it

provided, however,

it

faithful, inasmuch were rational food and fit

humjin kind.^

He
He

held 3 ordinations in the

also

month

of

December, 12

priests,

deacons, 15 bishops in divers places.

was buried near the body

24.

of the blessed Peter in the

Batican,

May

And

the bishopric was

empty 15 days.

XV. Victor
Victor,

by

nationality an African, son of Felix, occupied the see

|

15 years, 3

months and 10 days.

10 years,

months and 10 days.

He was
186)

bishop in the time of Caesar Augustus,' from the 2nd

consulship of

Commodus when Gravio* was

his colleague (a.d.

until the year

when Lateranus and Rufinus were

consuls

(a.d. 197).

The

appears

first

source of or ground for this extraordinary statement is quite unknown. It here in the Lib. Pont. Bede and other medieval English chroniclers built
it.

up considerable legend upon

Library), p. 10.
*

Bede, Ecclesiastical History,

I, c. 4, tr.

Giles (Bohn's

The apostle Paul had already

Romans, xiv;
Colossians,

prohibited the classification of certain foods as un-

Our author may 16, 17; / Timothy, iv. 3, etc. clean. have had in mind the Manichean practice of condemning wine and meat, of which much was heard in Rome in the fifth century.
ii.

' *

Severus.

A corruption for Glabrio.

i8

LIBER PONTIFICALIS
He
appointed that the holy feast of Easter should be observed

upon the Lord's day,

as Eleuther

had done.

as Pius

had done.^

He added acolytes to the clergy.* He was crowned with martyrdom. He also ordained that, at a time of
came
to

necessity,
be,

any

gentile

who
in

be baptised, wherever

it

might

whether in a river or

the sea or in a spring

or in a marsh,
if

only he pronounced the Chris-

if

only

he

said

clearly
of

the

tian confession of faith,

Christian
full

confession

faith,

should be thereafter a Christian in

standing.'
of

He

held

ordinations in the

month

December, 4

priests, 7

deacons, 12 bishops in divers places.

He

also

summoned a

council
of

He
among

instituted

an

inquiry

and an inquiry was made

the clergy concerning the

Theophilus, bishop of Alexan'

cycle of Easter

and the Lord's

was celebrated on Sunday long before the time of Victor. There was, however, a fresh discussion about this time as to the mode of determination of the date, of which Jerome preserves a reminiscence when he says that Victor wrote treatises " on the question of Easter and other matters.'' De Viris Eusebius has an interesting account of the lUustribus, c. 34, ed. Richardson, p. 25. disagreement between those who followed the Jewish custom and celebrated Easter on the Passover day, whenever in the week it fell, and those who insisted upon celebratChurch History, V, cc. 23-25, trans. Mcing it on Sunday as the day of resurrection. Giffert, pp. 241-244. Ja.S {Regesta, vol. I, p. n) gives a decree of the synod held at Rome between igo and 194, which provided that the Lord's resurrection should be celebrated always upon Sunday. It seems likely that Victor actually excommunicated the Eastern churches which persisted in adhering to the Jewish calendar. On the

The

feast of Easter

See supra, p. 15.

importance of Victor's pontificate see Langen, Geschichte der Rdmischen Kirche and
the volume on the early papacy in thb series.

some doubt as to the translation of this sentence. "Hie fecit sequentes also mean: "he instituted clergy in attendance," i.e. the notaries and subdeacons of the papal court as distinguished from the local or parish clergy con'

There

is

deros."

It

may

nected with the different local churches.

Cf.

Duchesne, Lib. Pont.,

p. 88, n. 3.

vol. I, p. 137, n. 4,

and Ducange, Glossarium Media

Sources of the Apostolic Canons,
tr.

el

InfinuE LatinilaUs, under

Sequens.

Harnack,

Wheatley,

' Pope Gelasius in a letter written in 494 to the bbhops of Lucania makes a similar proviaon for baptism in time of emergency. Mansi, ConciUorum AmpUssima CoUecUo, Jafffi, Regesta, voL I, p. 85, 636. vol. Vm, p. 37.

VICTOR, ZEPHYRINUS
dria, concerning Easter

ig

day moon.
first

of the

and the week and the

day
ops.
of

for

Easter and he gathered

together the priests and the bish-

Then Theophilus, bishop Alexandria, was questioned

in

and

the

assembly
the

it

was
the
the

decided

that

Lord's day
of

between the 14th day

moon in
2 1 St

the

first

month and

day

of the

moon

should be

kept as the holy feast of Easter.^

He was
And

buried near the body of the blessed apostle Peter in the

Batican, July 28.

the bishopric was

empty

12 days.

XVI. Zephyrinus
Zepherinus,
the see 18 years, 3

by nationality a Roman, son of Habundius, occupied

8 years,

'

months and 10 days.

months and 10 days.

He was bishop in the time of Antoninus and Severus, from the consulship of Satuminus and Gallicanus (a.d. 198) to the year when Presens and Stricatus were consuls (a.d. 217).
He
decreed that in the presence of
all

the clergy and the faith-

ful laity

every

cleric,

deacon or

priest,

should be ordained.^

He also made a regulation for the church,^ that there should be vessels of glass before the priests in the church and servitors to hold them while the bishop was celebrating mass and priests standing about him.
'

Thus mass should be celebrated and the

moon and
,

clergy

I.e.

between

full

March.
Easter.

The

narrative here again

Cf. supra, p. i8 n. i .

The first month was memory of the great controversy over The Theophilus who took part in the synod was bishop
the third quarter of the moon.
is

a confused

of Csesarea.

He has been

mistaken for the later and more famous Theophilus of Alex-

andria.

The

present lunar method of reckoning the date was not worked out until

the

fifth
2

century. Duchesne, op. cit., p. 138, n. 6. So far as we have record, the ordination ceremonies of the clergy have always

been public.
'

The

following passage
it.

is

corrupt and obscure.

It

to get

any meaning from

It deals apparently with the part played

must be read freely in order by the assisting

clergy in the episcopal mass.

20
should assist in
to the bishop
;

LIBER PONTIFICALIS
all

the ceremony, except in that which belongs only

from the consecration of the bishop's hand the priest

should receive the consecrated wafer to distribute to the people.

He

held 4 ordinations in the

also

month

of

December, 14

priests,

7 deacons, 13 bishops in divers places.

He

was buried

in his

own cemetery
25.^

near the cemetery of

Calistus

And

the bishopric was

on the Via Appia, August empty 6 days.

XVII. CALLISTtrS I
Calistus,
district
5 years,

by nationality a Roman, son of Domitius, from the Urbs Ravennantium,* occupied the see
|

6 years,

He was bishop in the time of Macrinus 2 months and 10 days. and Theodoliobullus,' from the consulship of Antoninus (a.d. 218) and of Alexander (a.d. 222). He was crowned with martyrdom. He instituted a fast from com, wine and oil upon the Sabbath day thrice in the year, according to the word of the prophet, of a fourth, of a seventh, and of a tenth.* He built a basilica beyond the Tiber.*

He

held

ordinations in the

month

of

December, 16

priests,

4 deacons, 8 bishops in divers places.

Callistus.

Later tradition fixed Zephyrinus' tomb in a small basilica over the catacomb of Begimiing with him the popes of the third century were buried in the

cemeteries about the Via Appia, no longer in the resting place of the apostle Peter,

which

may have
district

been

full.

beyond the Tiber peopled by

settlers

from Ravenna, the

modem

Trastevere.

corrupt form for Heliogabalus.

Vm, 19. Some manuscripts give the reading, "in the fourth, the seventh and the tenth months." If one adds the fast of Lent, which took place during the first month, March, one has the fasts of the four seasons which are mentioned in
*Zechariah,
early

Roman liturgies and in the homilies of St Leo.

Duchesne, Lib. P01U.,

vol. I, p. 141,

n.4.
On or near the site of Santa Maria in Trastevere, which was called sometimes the church of Callistus as late as the eighth century.

CALLISTUS

I,

XmBANUS

21

He
Amelia
priests

also

was buried

in the cemetery of Calipodius

on the Via
where

at the third milestone,' October 14.

He constructed another cemetery on the Via Appia,

and martyrs
rest,

many

which

is

called even to this

day the ceme-

tery of Calistus.

And

the bishopric

was empty 16 days.

XVni. Urbanus

Urbanus, by nationality a Roman, son of Pontianus, occupied

the see

years,

month and

2 days.*

4 years, 10 months and 12 days.

He

instituted sacred vessels

He had all sacred vessels made

of silver.

of silver,

and he gave

as an offering 25 patens of silver.^

He also obtained glory as

He was himself

He was
self

himat

He was himself

con-

a confessor

a conffessor
the

confessor in

fessor.

in the time of

time

the time of Diocletian.^

Diocletian.

when Maximin
and Africanus
were consuls.

He by

his teaching turned

many

to baptism

among them Valerianus, a man

holy Cecilia.

of high nobility,

and faith and husband of the

-visible.

The catacomb of Calepodius on the Via Aurelia, of which few traces now are The body of Callistus may have been hurriedly buried there because it was nearer to the scene of his martyrdom than his own cemetery. For the traditional
'

death see Acta Sanctorum, October, vol. VI, p. 430. Liberian Catalogue says: "He was bishop in the time of Alexander, from the consulship of Maximus and Elianus (ajj. 223) until the year when Agricola and Clementinus were consuls (a.d. 230)." The number is intended probably to correspond to that of the parish churches,

account

of his

'The

Glass was also a favorite material for the sacred vessels for each church. at this early period. C/. /iro, pp. 7, n. i iq. 'ijy7inc,ChnstianArtandArcha!ology,

one paten

PP-343, 3S7<

careless anachronism.

fused with that of

, L Pope Urban has been apparenUy cona confessor Urban, who may have lived under Diocletian.
The
,

history of

22

LIBER PONTEFICALIS
These he guided even to the palm
of

martyrdom/
his

and many were crowned with

martjnrdom through his words.

and through
tyrdom.

exhortations

many were crowned

month
of

with mar-

He
7

held 5 ordinations in the

December, 19

priests,

deacons, 8 bishops in divers places.

He

also

was buried

iu the

cemetery of Pretextatus on the Via

Appia.**

The

blessed Tiburtius buried him,

May

19.

And

the bishopric was

empty 30 days.

XrX. PoNTiANTJS
Pontianus,
pied the see
S years, 2

(230-235)
of Calpurnius, occu-

by

nationality a

Roman, son

months and

22 days.

9 years, 5 months and

days.

He was crowned
of Alexander,
(a.d. 231).

with martyrdom. He was bishop in the time from the consulship of Pompeianus and Pelinianus
priest,*

At that time Pontianus, the bishop, and Ypolitus, the

which the author of the Lib. Pont. was acquainted, was compiled, in the opinion of Mommsen, during the fifth century and probably in Africa. The following is the earliest version given in the Acta Sanctorum (May, vol. VI, p. 11). "Cecilia, a virgin of lofty rank, carried always the She was espoused to a young man, Valerigospel of Christ hidden in her bosom. found the holy Urbanus, the bishop, who had already been Valerianus anus. ' twice a confessor and was in hiding among the tombs of the martyrs. ... Dost thou call thyself that Urbanus whom the Christians entitle their pope ? I hear that he is now condemned a second time and again he has betaken himself into hiding for the same (Valerianus and Tiburtius, his brother,) were executed with the sword. cause.' The holy Urbanus baptised in her (Cecilia's) house more than four hundred of Almachius conmianded that Cecilia should be brought before him both sexes. 'Of what state art thou?' and he asked her, saying. ... Cecilia said, 'A free The examiner beheaded (Cecilia)." woman and a noble of high rank.' * Pope Urban was buried in the cemetery of Callistus, where his epitaph has been Another Urban, perhaps the confessor, was buried in the cemetery of discovered. Praetextatus and his name preserved by the neighboring church of San Urbano alia Duchesne, Lib. Pont., vol. I, p. 143, n. 5. Caffarella. ' This is thought to be the famous Hippoljrtus, bishop of Porto, mentioned in the Introduction, p. iv, whose statue is now in the Lateran museum. A translation of his
of St. Cecilia, with
of
.

The Passion

some form

work,

On

the Refutation of Heresies,

which

treats of

pagan science and philosophy,

PONTIANUS, ANTEROS
were transported into
235).

23

exile by Alexander to the island of Bucina' in Sardinia during the consulship of Severus and Quintianus (a.d.

and he

In that island he was maltreated and beaten with clubs died, October 30. In his place Antheros was ordained,
21.
2

November

He

held

ordinations in the

month

of

December, 6

priests,

S deacons, 6 bishops in divers places.

And
Fabianus

the

blessed

And
Fabianus

the blessed

brought

brought

him back in a boat him back with clergy And he was buried and buried him in the in a ship and buried in the cemetery of cemetery of Calistus him in the catacombs. Calistus on the Via on the Via Appia.^ Appia. The bishopAnd the bishopric ric was empty from was empty 10 days. the day of his burial
until

November

21.

XX. Anteros
Antheros,
see
I

(235-236)

by

nationality a Greek, son of Romulus, occupied the

month and

12 days.

12 years,

month and

12 days.

crowned with martyrdom at the time when Maximin and Africanus were consuls (a.d. 236).' He collected carefully from the notaries the acts of the martyrs and of the readers and deposited them in the church.
because at one time Maximus, a
priest,

He was

for the sake of

one Maximinus

had been a martyr.*

priest,

who had been crowned

is

with martyrdom.
jugglery and priestcraft, as well as of Jewish and Christian heresies,
in the

Ante

Nicene Fathers,
'

vol.

V.

Cf. Lightfoot, Apostolic Fathers,

Part

I,

Vol. II, pp. 316-477.

No island of this name is known near Sardinia. The word is probably garbled. The epitaph of Pontianus has disappeared, but on the doorway of the papal crypt among other graffiti the following words have been roughly scrawled "Mayest thou live, Pontianus, ... in God with all." They may have been written by a wit*
:

ness of his interment.

'

Duchesne, Lib. Pont., vol.

lists

I, p.

146, n. 8.

The

Liberian Catalogue says of Anteros simply that he died after a pontificate of

forty days.
*

His name does not occur in the

of martyrs.

No

other dear reference to this martyred priest,

Maximus

or Maximinus, has

24

LIBER PONTIFICALIS
He created one
bishop in the

He
ber.

held one ordination,

dty

of Fundi, in the

Campania,

bishop, in the

month

of

Decem-

during the month of December.

He also was buried in the cemetery of Calistus on the Via Appia,^

January
3.

And

the bishopric

was empty

13 days.

XXI. Fabianxts

(236-250)

Fabianus, by nationality a Roman, son of Fabius, occupied

the see 14 years,
I

month and 10

days.

1 1

months and

1 1

days.

He was crowned
of

with martyrdom.

He was

bishop in the time

year

Maximus and Africanus

(a.d. 236) until the

when Decius

was consul the 2nd time and Quadratus was and he sufifered January 29.

his colleague (a.d. 250),

He
7

divided the districts

among

the

deacons

and created

subdeacons to be associated with the 7 notaries, that they might faithfully compile the acts of the martyrs, omitting
nothing.'

And he commanded many

the cemeteries.*

buildings to be erected throughout

And

after his passion

Moyses and Maximus,

arrived from Africa

priests,

and Nico-

stratus, a deacon,

were seized and committed to prison.

At that time Novatus

and drew away from

come down to us. On the other hand there are numerous unidentified martjrs of the name in the Roman calendars and the date of hb death falls during the persecution of Maximin. The author of the Lib. Pont, was in possession of a tradition or a history
which has since been lost. Duchesne, tfi. Pont., vol. I, pp. xcv-xcvi. > His brief epitaph is in the papal crypt. Duchesne, ibid., p. 147, n.
'

4.

On

the ecclesiastical divisions of the dty, see supra, p. 10, n. 3.

' The seven subdeacons of Rome are mentioned in a letter of Cornelius written about two years after Fabianus' death to Fabius of Antioch. Eusebius, Church History, VI, L. 43, tr. McGiffert, Nicene and Post Nicene Fathers, Series 2, vol I, p. 288.

Infra, p. 35, n.

i.

Hamack,

Sources of the Apostolic Canons,

tr.

Wheatley, pp. 93-95.

On

the

work

of the notaries in preserving records of the martyrs see supra, p. 8, n. i.

'De

Rossi thinks that Fabianus continued the construction of the cemetery of

Callistus both

above and below ground.

Duchesne, lAb. Pont., vol.

I, p. 149, n. 5.

FABIANUS, CORNELIUS
the church Novatian and certain confessors.^

25

Afterwards Moyses

died in prison,

when he had been

there 11

months; and therefore

December, 22
priests,

many Christians fled to divers places. He held 5 ordinations in the month

7

of

deacons, 11 bishops in divers places.

He also was buried in the cemetery of Calistus on the Via Appia,*

January
20.

And

the bishopric was

empty

7 days.

XXn.
Cornelius,

CoENELius (251-253)

by

nationality a

Roman, son

of Castinus, occupied

the see 2 years,

3

months and 10 days.

months and

3 days.'

crowned with martyrdom. While he was bishop Novatus ordained Novatian without the church and Nicostratus in Africa.* After this the confessors who had left Cornelius returned into the church together with Maximus, the priest, who had been with Moyses, and they became faithThen Cornelius, the bishop, was banished to ful confessors. * Centumcellae and there he received a letter written and sent for his encouragement by Cyprian, which Cyprian wrote in prison to
teU of Celerinus, the reader.*
1 This passage and the allusion to the consecration of Novatian as antipope in the time of Cornelius refer to the beginnings of the Novatian schism which lasted two refused centuries and spread over the empire. Novatus, Novatian and their adherents sacripersecution had under stress of who Christians those communion to readmit to Eusebius has an animated account of the discussion ficed to idols after being baptized. of Decius; Church History, over this question at the dose of the terrible persecution

He was

McGifEert, pp. 285-291. crypt in the title of Fabianus are cut into the stone of the papal MTP, the abbreviation catacomb of CaUistus, dose to those of Anteros. The letters but they are not cut so deep and are for martyr, have been added to the inscription,

VI, ca 42-4S.

tr.

The name and

probably by a later hand. Duchesne, ibid., p. 149, n. 8. ' The Liberian Catahgue adds, "from the 3rd consulship of Decius and the 2nd of (a.d. 252)." Dedus (aj). 251) to the year when Gallus and Volusianus were consuls
*

Cf. a. I

on

this page.

Also for letters of Cornelius describing some of these events,

Jaff6, Regesta, vol. I, p. 17, 106; p. 18,

5

in.

The modem Civitavecchia. perhaps in the fifth century, thus expands this The Passio Cornelii, composed Cyprian, the bishop, wrote to the blessed passage. "At the same time the blessed

26

LIBER PONTIFICALIS
He

during his pontificate at the request of a certain matron, Lucina, took up the bodies of the apostles, blessed Peter and Paul,

from the catacombs by night first the body of the blessed Paul was received by the blessed Lucina and laid in her own garden on the Via Ostiensis,
;

near the place

;

beside the place

where he was beheaded the body of the blessed Peter was received by the blessed Cornelius, the bishop, and laid near the place where he was crucified, among the bodies of the holy bishops, in the shrine of Apollo, on the Mons Aureus,* in the Batican, by the palace of
Nero, June
29.*

Afterwards he held one ordination, 8 priests,

and walked by

night from Centumcellae.

Comdius, whUe he was in custody, to tell of Celerinus, the reader, what stripes he had endured for the faith and confession of Christ." As a matter of fact Cyprian himself was not in prison when he wrote to Cornelius in exile. His letter has been preserved, along with others in which the sufferings of Celerinus are described. Epp., Ix, xxi, xxxix, Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum, vol. HI, pp. 691-695, 529532, 581-585; Eng. tr. in Ante Nicene Fathers, vol. V, Epp. Ivi, xx, xxxiii; pp. 350-352, 298-299, 312-314. The tenor of the letter to Cornelius may be inferred from an extract. " It cannot be suflSdently expressed how great were the exultation

and the joy here when we heard

the leader had been multiplied

of

your success and courage, that you had stood forth

and that, moreover, the confession of by the loyalty of the brethren so that while you precede them to glory you have made many your companions in glory and have persuaded the people to confess by being first yourself prepared to confess on behalf
as a leader of confession to the brethren there,
;

ofaU."
'

popular
is

name

for the Janiculum, perhaps

a.

corruption from

Mons

Aurelius.

The name
' .\

perpetuated by the church of San Pietro in Montorio.

very ancient tradition, confirmed by an inscription of Damasus, ascribes to the

bodies of the two apostles a temporary sojourn in a crypt

known

as

beneath the present church of San Sebastiano on the Via Appia.

"ad Catacumbas," Duchesne supposes

that this sojourn took place during the persecution of Diocletian, that the sacred

bodies were then removed from their tombs in the Vatican and on the Via Ostiense
(C/. supra, p. 5, infra, p. 57)

and

laid together in this

is

more inconspicuous spot

for the

when they were hidden away with the date of their restoration, that the persecution under Cornelius was the occasion of their concealment and that the jjeace under Constantine was in all likelisake of safety.
argues that the author here
confusing the date
p. civ,

He

hood the signal for and p. 151, n.

their return to their venerated sepulchres.

7.

Duchesne, op.

cit.,

Also infra imder Damasus, p. 81.

CORNELIUS

27

At that time Decius heard that he had received a letter from the blessed Cyprian, bishop of Carthage,^
and he had him brought from
Centumcellse,

He

sent

to

Centumcellae and

brought out blessed Cornelius,

and
fore

he
his

sumbepres-

and
fore

he
his

sumpres-

and he
fore
his

sumbepres-

and
fore

he
his

sumbepres-

moned him

moned him beence

of the

moned him

moned him

ence at night

in

Ter-

ence with the

prefect for the
city in

ence with the

prefect of the
city in .an in-

lude,^ in front

temple

an

in-

of the palace,

terlude of the
night.

terlude of the
night, in front
of

the temple

of Pallas,

and said him:

to

and came near to him and

said:

and said him:

to

and said him:

to

"Hast thou determined

nances
of our ancestors

to regard neither the gods nor the ordi-

of princes

and

to

have no

fear of our threatenings, that thou receivest

and

sendest letters harmful to the state?"

Cornelius, the bishop, answered
letter concerning the

and said: "I have received a

crown

of the Lord, not harmful to the state

|

but rather succor to the soul."

but counsel to the

full of

spirit."

Then Decius ordered Then

that

Decius,

Then he ordered
the

that

he

be

beaten

wrath, ordered that

the blessed Cornelius

he be beaten upon

upon the mouth with

mouth with a

The following account of

apocryphal.
tradition

the trial and execution of Cornelius by Decius is entirely Decius died almost two years before Cornelius and the latter perished

in exile at Civitavecchia.
:

The

Liberian Catalogue preserves the earlier and authentic

"being banished to CentumcelliB he there fell asleep in glory." 'A corrupt form. Some manuscripts read, "in Tellude,'' i.e. "in Tellure," the temple of Tellus where the Senate sometimes met. It stood near the forum of Nerva and the temple of Pallas (Minerva) was in the forum. Cf. Jordan, Topographic dtr
Stadt

Rom, Vol.

11, p. 381.

28

LIBER PONTIFICALIS
be beaten upon the
scourge and led before

a scourge and led to ^ the temple of Mars

mouth with a scourge

and
of

the

temple of

led to the temple

Mars
This was

Mars

to worship and,

if

he would not worship, be beheaded,

done.

And he was beheaded

by the temple
of

Mars

in the place aforesaid

and became a martyr. And his body was taken up at night by the blessed Lucina and the clergy and was buried in a crypt in her own garden, near the cemetery of Calistus on the Via Appia,* September 14. And the bishopric was empty 66 days.

XXIII. Lucius (253-254)

Lucius,

by

nationality

a Roman, son of Purphirius,

a Tuscan from the city of Luca,

son of Ludnus,
occupied the see 3 years,

8 months and 10 days.

months and

3 days.

He was crowned
of Gallus

with martjrrdom.

He was
'

bishop in the time

and Volusianus

(a.d. 252), until the

year when Valerian

was consul
(a.d. 255).

for the third time

and Gallicanus

was

his colleague

He

was

in exile.

Afterwards by the will of

God he

returned in safety to the church.

He
'

ordained that in every place two priests and three deacons

should abide with the bishop to be witnesses for him to the church.*
There was a famous temple to Mars just outside the dty wall, on the left of the From there it was a plausibly short distance to the cemetery of Callistus. " The body of Cornelius was translated from Civitavecchia to a crypt close to the cemetery of CaUistus. The inscription has been recovered. Duchesne, Lib. Pont.,
vol. I, p. 152, n. 14.
>

Via Appia.

The name should be Gallienus. The system of private attendance upon

regular or secular, seems to

Gregory I.

the pope by members of the clergy, have been first instituted by the council of sq5 under Until that time the pope received personal service from laymen. Duchesne

LUCIUS,

STEPHEN

29
5.

He was 'also

beheaded by Valerian, March

his

He, whUe on

way

to his

passion, gave authority to Ste-

He gave authority over the whole church to Stephen, his

archdeacon, while he was on his

phen, archdeacon of his church.^

way

to his passion.
of

He He

held

ordinations in the

month

December, 4

priests,

deacons, 7 bishops in divers places.

also

was buried
near the cemetery of Calistus in a sandpit.

in the cemetery of Calistus

on the Via Appia,* August 25. And the bishopric was empty 35 days.

XXIV. Stephen
Stephen,

I (254-257)
of lobius, occupied the see
2

by nationality a Roman, son

]

4 years,

months and 15 days.

6 years, 5 months and

days.

He was crowned with martyrdom. He was bishop in the time of Valerian and
mus
until the year

Gallicanus and Maxi-

when Valerian was

consul for the 3rd time and

Gallicanus for the 2nd time' (a.d. 255). In * his time he was carried into exile

and afterwards by the

may have been animated
Cf.

suggests that in ascribing this ordinance to Lucius our author

by the memory of the charge of adultery brought against Pope Symmachus later and the
difficulty

which that pope experienced in clearing himself

I, p.

for lack of witnesses.

infra,p. 117, n. 2; Duchesne, itj. Ponf., vol.

153, n.

2.

There

is

no other record of

an

edict of the sort so early.

This incident

is

Lucius,

now

lost.

Lucius

probably taken from an apocryphal martyrology, or Passion of is not usually reckoned among the martyrs, for although

banished for a while he was permitted to return and died at Rome. ' A piece of the tablet which marked the tomb of Lucius and bears his name has been discovered in the course of excavation in the catacomb of Callistus. Duchesne,
ibid., p.
'

IS3. n- S-

Gallicanus should be GaUienus.

exactly.

The
of

Liberian Catalogue gives the synchronism

more

"He was

bishop in the time of Valerian and GaUienus, from the 2nd

constilship of Volusianus

and the
is

first

Maximus

(253) until, " etc.

The

following paragraph

contained in only one manuscript of the composite

seventh century text and is evidently an interpolation of that period. The early lists mention Stephen simply as bishop, not as martyr. Duchesne, Lib. Pont., vol. I, p. 154,
n. I.

30

LIBER PONTIFICALIS

And after 34 days will of God he returned in safety to the church. he was tried by Maximian * and committed to prison with 9 priests and 2 bishops, Honorius and Castus, and 3 deacons, Xistus, Dionisand Gaius. There in prison, near the arch of Stella,^ he held a synod and all the vessels of the church he entrusted to the authority After 6 days he of his archdeacon, Xystus, and the money cofifer. himself was brought forth under guard and beheaded.
ius

He forbade priests and deacons to use their consecrated garments

for daily

wear save

in church.

He

held two ordinations in the

month

of

December, 6

priests,

S deacons, 3 bishops in divers places. He also was buried in the cemetery of Calistus on the Via Appia,

August 2}

And

the bishopric was

empty 22 days.

XXV. Xystus
Xystus, by nationality
a Greek,
|

U
a

(257-258)

Roman,

previously a philosopher,* occupied the see

2 years, 1 1

months and 6 days.

year, 10

months and

23 daj's.

He was crowned with martyrdom. He was bishop in the time of Valerian and
was the great persecution. At that time he was seized

Decius,*

when

there

by Valerian
and taken
'

to offer sacrifice to

demons.

But he despised the com-

An
I.e.

obviotis anachronism.

'

" Arcus

either the Porta

StilljB," an arch of the aqueduct (the dripping arch, arcus stiUans) Capena or the arch of Drusus. Cf. Jordan, Topographie, Vol. II, p. 380.

' The place of Stephen's biuial is mentioned in all the liturgical calendars after 336 but his epitaph has not been found. Duchesne, Md., n. 4. * There seems to have arisen some confusion between Pope Xystus and a Py-

thagorean philosopher, Sextius, whose SenterUuB were translated from Greek mto Latin

by Rufinus
'

in the fifth century.

The Libenan

Catalogue omits the xisual imperial synchronisms.

the Lib. Pont, supplies them, coupling Valerian

raries.

and Dedus as

if

The author of they were contempo-

XYSTUS
mands
of Valerian.

II

31

beheaded and with him six others, all deacons, Felicissimus, Agapitus, Januarius, Magnus, Vincentius and Stephen, about August 6.^

He was

And

the priests kept charge

(a.d. 255) until the

and Gravio
July 20,

year

from the consulship of Maximus when Tuscus and Bassus were

consuls (a.d. 258), from the consulship of Tuscus and Bassus until

when
the exceeding cruel persecution

there was the great persecution

under Decius.^

was raging under Decius.

on the third day, August 10, likewise the subdeacon Claudius and Severus, the priest, and Crescentius, the reader, and Romanus, the doorkeeper.* He held 2 ordinations in the month of December, 4 priests, 7
after the passion of the blessed Xystus,
also,

And

Lawrence, his archdeacon, suffered

deacons, 2 bishops in divers places.

He himself was buried in the cemetery of Calistus on the Via Appia and the aforesaid 6 deacons were buried in the cemetery of Praetextatus on the Via Appia, August 6.^

letter of Cjfprian, written

from Carthage a month or thereabout after these

events, speaks of the

news

of the persecution at

Rome.

"But know

that Xistus

was

martyred in the cemetery on August sixth and with him four deacons." The church at Carthage was expecting persecution also and Cyprian hopes " that every one of us may think less of death than of immortality." Ep. Ixxxi, tr. Ante Nicene Fathers, According to tradition, Xystus was seated in a marble chair in the vol. V, p. 408.
midst of a church service, when he was seized and carried away to the scene of his martyrdom. Duchesne, Lib. Pont., vol. I, p. 156, n. 8. FeUdssimus and Agapitus, the first two of the six deacons mentioned in the text, were interred, not with Xystus, but Duchesne, op. in the cemetery of Praetextatus, where their tombs may now be seen.
cit.,

p. ISS, - 4-

*7.e. during the

Letters of Cyprian written at this juncture are addressed,

vacancy in the bishopric following the execution of Xystus. "To the priests and deacons
is

who
'

are at

Rome."
a garbled version of the passage

The

foregoing unintelligible tangle of dates

Xystus was bishop " from the consulship of Maximus and Glabrio (a.d. 256) until the year when Tuscus and Bassus were consuls (a.d. 258), and he suffered August 6. And the priests kept charge from the consulship of Tuscus and Bassus until July 21 of the year when iEmilianus and Bassus were consuls (a.d. 259)." The later legends of St. Lawrence knew nothing of Claudius and Severus, though
in the Liberian Catalogs.

the

memory

may
vol.
I*

The Lib. Pont. of Crescentius and Romanus was sometimes recalled. preserve an earlier and more accurate tradition. Cf. Acta Sanctorum, August,
Duchesne
prints the verse with which

n, pp. 483-532Pope Damasus

later

commemorated the

32

LIBER PONTIFICALIS
The
aforesaid blessed

Lawrence
buried
in

was buried on the

Via Tiburtina
ranus,
in

was

the

was buried on the Via

Tiburtina in the cemetery of Cyriaces in

cemetery of Cyriaco
in the

crypt in the Ager Ve-

Ager Veranus

August ic'

in a crypt with

many

the Ager Veranus in

other martyrs.

a crypt with

many
Au-

other

martyrs,

gust ID.

And

the bishopric was

empty 35 days.

XXVI.

DiONYSiTJS (259-268)

Dionysius, previously a monk, whose family

able to ascertain, occupied the see

we have not been

8 years,
2

6 years,

months and 4 days. He was bishop in the time of Galienus, from July 22 of the year when EmiUanus and Bassus were consuls (a.d. 259), to December 26 in the consulship of Claudius and Paternus (a.d. 269). He assigned churches and cemeteries to the priests and appointed
parishes in the diocese.^

He

held

ordinations in the

month

of

December, 12

priests,

6 deacons, 8 bishops in divers places.

He also was buried in

December
27.

the cemetery of Calistus on the Via Appia,

And
tomb
p.

the bishopric was

empty

5 days.

of Xystus in the papal crypt. Op. cil., p. 156, n. 8. See infra, p. 82 and n. i. Four out of the six deacons were buried with Xystus in the cemetery of Callistus. Supra,

3i,n.
'

1.

le

site of the present famous basilica of San Lorenzo in Agro Verano or fuori Mura. For the building of the basilica see infra, p. 61 Duchesne takes this sentence to mean that Dionysius carried out the parish

The

organization of

churches, so that each church should have

dty, assigning certain suburban cemeteries to certain urban its special cemetery. He also assigned the boundaries of the episcopal dioceses within the metropolitan diocese of the pope.
the
parish,

The word "parochia,"

parish in the

was employed at

this period to signify either

a rural

modem

sense or the whole territory governed

by a

bishop.

Lib. Pont.,

vol. I, p. IS7, n. 3.

DIONYSIUS, FELIX
XXVII. Felix
Felix,

I,

EUTYCHIANUS

33

I (269-274)
of Constantius, occupied

by

nationality a

Roman, son

the see
2 years

and 10 months.
|

4 years, 3 months and 25 days.

He was He was

crowned with martyrdom."^

bishop in the time of Claudius and Aurelian, from the and Paternus (a.d. 269), to the year when

consulsliip of Claudius

Aurelian and Capitulinus were consuls (a.d. 274). He instituted the celebration of masses

over the sepulchres

of the martyrs.^

over the memorials

He

held 2 ordinations in the

month

of

December, 9

priests,

5 deacons, 5 bishops in divers places.

He also was buried in his own

cemetery on the Via Aurelia at the 2nd milestone. May 30.

He

built a basilica

AureUa,
buried.

where

also
2

May

30,

on the Via he was miles from

the city of

Rome.

And

the bishopric was

empty

5 days.

XXVIII. EUTYCHIANTJS (275-283)

Eutyqianus, by nationality a Tuscan, son of Marinus, from the
city of Luna,' occupied the see

8 years, lo months and 4 days.

year,

month and

day.

He was
'

bishop in the time of Aurelian, from the 3rd consulship

was not counted a martjT:
in the early lists

and he was buried with his confounded here with two martyrs of the same name who were associated with a basilica on the Via AureUa. Duchesne,
Felix

Pope

predecessors in the cemetery of Callistus.

He

is

Lib. Pont., vol. I, pp. cxxv, 158, n. 3.

*

The poet Ptudentius

is

witness to the fact that at the end of the fourth century

the custom existed of celebrating masses in

Peristephanon,
'

memory

of the martyrs

"ad

corpus," either

in the cemeterial basilicas over the tombs or in the subterranean vaults themselves.
lib.

xi, v. 171, etc.

Quoted by Duchesne,

op.

cit.,

p. 158, n. 2.

The modem Luni.

34
of Aurelian

LIBER PONTIFIGALIS

when Marcellinus was his colleague (a.d. 275), until December 13 of the year when Cams was consul for the 2nd time and Carinus was consul with him (a.d. 283). He ordained that fniit might be blessed upon the altar, but only beans and grapes.'

He
own
ful

in his time buried 342 martyrs in divers places with his

hand.*

He

also ordained that

whenever anyone of the

faith-

buried a martyr, he should bury

it

him

in a dalmatic or a purple

tunic and the report of

chianus).

should be brought to himself (Euty-

He

held

ordinations in the

month

of

December, 14

priests, 5

deacons, 9 bishops in divers places.

And he was crowned He also was buried in

.July 25."

with martyrdom.'
the cemetery of Calistus on the Via Appia,

And

the bishopric was

empty 8 days.

XXIX. Gaius
Gains,

(283-296)

by

nationality a Dalmatian, of the family of Dioclitian,

1 1

the emperor, son of Gaius, occupied the see

years, 4

months

and 9 days.

and 12 days.

He was
ber
17 in

bishop in the time of

the 2nd

consulship

Cams and Carinus, from Decemof Cams when Carinus was his
when
for the

colleague

(a.d. 283), until

April 22 of the year

Diocletian

was consul
(a.d. 296).

for the 4th time

and Constantius

2nd time

Prayers for the blessing of the

first fruits

are found in various early

Roman liturDuchesne,
this

gies.

They had,

of course,

both Jewish and pagan archetypes.

The bean and grape

have been from ancient times the chief food crops of the Italian people.
Lib. Pont., vol. I, p. 159, n. i.
'

No

persecution of importance

is

recorded imder Eutychianus.

Whether

sentence and the following refer to the original burying of martyrs or to the translation
of their bodies
'

There

is

is impossible to say. They may both be entirely apocryphal. no other record of Eutychianus' martjrdom. The words may be an

mterpolation.
*

His inscription

is

in the papal ciypt.

Duchesne, op.

cil.,

p. 160, n. 6.

GAIUS

35

He
bishop

decreed
that
all

that whoever was worthy to be

the

offices

in

the

must

rise

from door-

keeper through each rank, step

by

step, to the higher place.

church should be thus held in turn whoever was worthy to be bishop must first be doorkeeper,
:

reader,

exorcist,

acolyte,

sub-

deacon, deacon, priest and then

be ordained bishop.^

He divided the districts among the deacons. He fled from the persecution of Diocletian into
and while dwelling there died a
confessor.

the crypts.

and while dwelling there was crowned with martyrdom after

8 years.^

He

held 4 ordinations in the

month

of

December, 25

priests,

8 deacons, 5 bishops in divers places.

He, after 11 years, was crowned with martyrdom in company with Gavinius, his brother, on account of the daughter of Gavinius, the priest, whose name was Susanna.

He also was buried in the cemetery of Calistus on

April 22.*

the Via Appia,

And
'

the bishopric was

empty

11

days.

Pope

Cornelius, writing thirty years before this of Novatian

and the schism

in the

Roman church, gives the earliest known enumeration of the seven ranks in the hierarchy
of the order.

bishop in the catholic church

it

"This avenger of the Gospel then did not know that there should be one yet he was not ignorant for how could he be ? that in
;

c.

there were forty-six priests, seven deacons, seven subdeacons, forty-two acolytes,,

fifty-two exorcists, readers

and doorkeepers."

Eusebius, Church History, VI,

43, tr.

McGiffert, p. 288.
*

See under Pope Sylvester, infra, p. 46.

I,

On

the institution of

the graded hierarchy see Cambridge Medieval History, vol.

pp. 150-152.

The legend

of Gains'

martyrdom

is

not authenticated.

His name

is

not in the

and the persecution of Diocletian did not begin imtil seven years after his death. We have in our text, however, three different versions of the legend, the last connecting him with the passion of St. Susanna. In fact she is sometimes said to have been a niece of Gains. Ada Sanctorum, February, vol. Ill, p. 62 August, vol. n, p. 631 Duchesne, Lib. Pont., vol. I, p. xcviii. ' The tablet which marked his tomb was discovered in fragments and put together by De Rossi. Duchesne, op. cit., p. 161, n. 7.
early martyrologies
; ;

36

LIBER PONTIFICALIS

XXX. Marcelltnus
Marcellinus,

(296-304)
of Projectus, occu-

by

nationality a

Roman, son

pied the see

8 years, 2

months and 25 days.

9 years, 4 months and 16 days.

He was
July
I

bishop in the time of Diocletian and Maximian, from

in the 6th consulship of Diocletian

and the 2nd

of Constantius

(a.d. 296) until the

year when Diocletian was consul for the 9th

time and Maximian for the 8th (a.d. 304). At that time was a great persecution, so that within 30 days 17,000 Christians of both
sexes in divers provinces were crowned with martyrdom.'

For

this reason Marcellinus himself

offer incense,

was haled to

sacrifice,

that

he might

and he did

it.

And

after a

few days,* inspired by penitence, he was beheaded

of Christ in

by the same Diocletian and crowned with martyrdom for the faith company with Claudius and Cyrinus and Antoninus,
and the blessed Marcellinus on
his

way

to his passion adjured

Marcellus, the priest, that he

should not

fulfil

the

commands

of Diocletian.
>

This exaggerated estimate seems to be founded upon a misconception of a statein

ment

the a[>ociyphal Preface to Jerome's Mortyrology.

Monunsen,

lib. Pont.,

p. 41, note

on

1.

5.

A single manuscript contains the following more detailed accoimt. "And after a few days a synod was held in the province of Campania in the city of Sessana, where with his own lips he professed his penitence in the presence of 180 bishops. He wore a garment of haircloth and ashes upon his head and repented, saying that he had sinned.

Then

Diocletian

was wroth and

seized

him and bade him

sacrifice to

images.

But he

cried out with tears, saying, 'It

repenteth

me

sorely

for

my

former ignorance,'

and he began to utter blasphemy against Diocletian and the images of demons made So, inspired by penitence, he was beheaded, " etc. Sessana is a corrupt form of the name Sinuessa. The modem town is called Rocca di Mandragone. See on the story of this council and the apostasy of Marcellinus, Introduction, p. ix. Petilianus, a Donatist bishop, with whom Augustine had a controversy, is the earliest auwith hands.
thority for Marcellinus' defection.
sen, Lib. Pont., pp. liv, Iv.

Duchesne, Lib. Pont.,

vol. I, p. bcriv;

Monun-

Petilianus sajrs that Marcellinus not only offered incense

but also surrendered the sacred books to be burned. Augustine in reply is non-comAt any rate, he remarks, "it is no affair of ours. For they have borne their own burden, whether it was good or whether it was evil. We ourselves believe it was
mittal.

good; but whatever it was

it

was

theirs."

Augastine, Contra Litteras Petiliani ; Migne,

Pat. Lot., vol. 43, cols. 323, 328.

MARCELLINUS, MARCELLUS
And
ample
to the Christians 26 days

37

afterwards the holy bodies lay in the street for an exby order of Diocletian. Then the priest Marcellus and the other priests and the dea-

cons took up the bodies by night with hymns and buried them on the Via Salaria in the cemetery of Priscilla in a chamber which is
well

known unto

this day, as

MarcelKnus himself had commanded,

when in penitence he was being haled to execution, in the crypt near the body of the holy Criscentio,

April 25.^

He
2

held 2 ordinations in the

month

of

December, 4

priests,

deacons, 5 bishops in divers places. From that day the bishopric was empty 7 years, 6 months and 25 days while Diocletian was persecuting the Christians.

XXXI. Marcelltts
Marcellus,^

(308-309)
of

by

nationality a

Roman, son
|

Marcellus,

Benedictus,

from the

district of the

Via Lata, occupied the see

|

years.

5 years, 7

months and 21 days.

He was
'

bishop in the time of Maxentius, from the 4th consulis

The

crypt of San Crescenzio in the cemetery of Priscilla

marked on seventh
of Marcel-

centiuy itineraries of the holy places in the environs of Rome.

linus,
'

The grave

lists

Roman Index and other early omit either Marcellus or Marcellinus from their chronologies. There was evidently some tendency to confuse the similar names. The Liberian Catalogtte, however, gives

however, has not been identified. Eusebius, Jerome, Augustine and the authors of the

by the

both and the Lib. Pont, copies it. Duchesne holds that Marcellinus was ignored compilers because of the disgrace which he brought upon his office. Lib. Pont.,
kxiii, Ixxiv.

vol. I, pp.

Mommsen
itself,

argues and supports his contention

by

the

chronology of the Lib. Pont,

lists

that Marcellus was not included in the episcopal

because he was never regularly ordained bishop but merely performed some of the duties of the head of the church during the seven years of interregnum that fol-

lowed the execution of Marcellinus.

Lib. Pont., pp. liii-lv.

38
ship of Maxentius
consulship.*

LIBER PONTIFICALIS
when Maximus was
his colleague, until after the

He
made
tron,

request of a certain

ma-

whose name was

Priscilla,*

and
established a cemetery on the Via Salaria,

and he appointed 25

parish churches' as dioceses* in the city of

Rome

to provide

baptism and penance pagans and burial

for the

many who were

converted

among

the

for the martyrs.*

He
the

month

ordained 25 priests in the city of Rome and 2 deacons, in of December, and 2 1 bishops in divers places.
seized

He was

by Maxentius and held

in confinement, because

he set the church in order, and imprisoned that he might deny his
bishopric and degrade himself

by

sacrifices

to

demons.

Then,

forasmuch as he continually despised and scorned the words and commands of Maxentius, he was condemned to the stable.' But,
although he served

many days

in the stable,

he did not cease his

The

years 308-309, which the author attempts to designate here, were years of

some confusion in the consulate. Maxentius did not recognize the regular officials and the usual formulae were not preserved. The name of PrisciUa, introduced in a few manuscripts, is an anachronism, suggested undoubtedly by the well-known cemetery on the Via Salaria. That cemetery
is

much

older than Marcellus.

few other manuscripts give the

name Novella
cit.,

as

that of Marcellus' foimdation and

De

Rossi has proved the existence of such a cemetery

across the Via Salaria facing the cemetery of PrisciUa.

'

Duchesne, op.
7, u. 2

p. 165, n. 4.

Marcellus

may

have found

it

necessary to reorganize the churches after the per-

secution and the vacancy in the episcopate.

brief

See supra, pp.

21, n. 3.

For a

account of the twenty-five parish churches of

Rome

in the fifth century see

tr.

Frothingham, Monumenls oj Christian Rome, pp. 39-41. Gregorovius, History of Rome, Hamilton, vol. I, pp. 267-282. This passage may be compared with supra, p. 32 and n. 2, to show bow variable was still the meaning of terms like "parish" and "diocese," which have since become

so exact.

Each parish church

in the city
its

was

at first apparently connected with a suburban

cemetery or catacomb, where

dead, whether martyrs or not, were buried.

Later

the service of the cemeteries became so arduous that monasteries were established

adjacent to take charge of them.

Cf. infra, p. 163, n.

i.

The

reference here seems to be to the public stables maintained as part of the

service of the imperial post.

The

story of the sufferings of Marcellus cannot be cor-

roborated from other sources but

of this turbulent period.

is

not in

itself

inconsistent with

what

facts

we know

MARCELLUS, EUSEBIUS
service to the

39

Lord with prayers and fastings. Moreover in the ninth month all his clergy came by night and removed him by night from the stable. A certain matron and widow, whose name was Lucina, who had hved with her husband Marcus 15 years and had been 19 years a widow, received the blessed man and she dedicated her house as a church in the name of the blessed Marcellus ^ and there day and night the Lord Jesus Christ was confessed with hymns and prayers. But Maxentius heard of it and sent and seized the blessed Marcellus a second time and gave orders that in
;

that very church

a second time

boards should be laid down and the animals of the stable should be collected and kept there and the blessed Marcellus should tend
them.

And

he died in the service of the animals, clad only in a

hair shirt.

And

the blessed Lucina took his

|

body
it

and he was buried

and buried

in the cemetery of Priscilla on the Via Salaria, January 16.^

And

the bishopric was

Lucina herself

empty 20 days. was condemned by proscription.

XXXII. EusEBius
Eusebius,

(309 or 310)

by

nationality a Greek, previously a physician, occu-

pied the see

2 years, i

month and

25 days.

6 years,

month and

3 days.

He was
1

bishop in the time

|

of Constantine.3

of Constans.

The modem church of San Lorenzo in Lucina.

The association with

St.

Lawrence

was achieved in the fifth century. the grave of 2 The epitaph erected by Pope Damasus (see infra, p. 82, n. 1) over alludes to a rebellious It n. 10. 166, cit., p. op. Duchesne; Marcellus is printed by denounced the pope to tiie tyrant faction in the church and to an apostate who does not mention tiie manner of his It banishment. his about Maxentius and brought
death.
3

name of Constantme and tiie of the Lib. Pont, has inserted tiie of the discovery of tiie True legend tiie succeeding sentence into the text as allusions to tiie legend is in the Acta Sanctorum, of version Latin The Cyriacus. tiie
The author
Cross by

Jew

40

LIBER PONTIFICALIS

While he was bishop the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ was found, May 3, and Judas was baptised, who is also Quiriacus. He discovered heretics in the city of Rome and recondled them

by the laying on

of hands.^

He
in the

held
1

3 ordinations

ordination

month
also

of

December,
in the

13 priests, 3 deacons, 14 bishops in

divers places.-

He

was buried

cemetery of Calistus
|

in a crypt

on the Via Appia, October

2.

And

the bishopric

was empty

7 days.

XXXIII. MiLTiADES

(311-314)
see 4 years,

Miltiades, by nationality an African, occupied the months and 8 days, from July 7 in the

9th consulship of Maximin until

9th

consulship

of

Maxentius
of

the 2nd consulship of

Maxen-

until the

2nd consulship

Maxi-

tius.

mus,

which was in the month of September, when Volusianus and Rufinus were consuls (a.d. 311).* He decreed that no one of the faithful should in any wise keep fast upon the Lord's day or upon the fifth day of the week, because the pagans celebrated those days as a sacred fast.*
May,
'

vol. I, p. 445.

The

other legend, which attributed the discovery of the Cross

to the empress Helena,

The

rite

became eventually the more popular in the West. employed by the eariy Roman church in the reconciliation

of heretics
vol. I,

seems to have been very similar to that of confirmation.

p. 167, n. 3.

Duchesne, Lib. Pont.,

Eusebius was pope for four months only, from April to August.

He, therefore,

could have held no ordinations in December.

' The tomb of Eusebius is in a special chamber of the catacomb of Callistus, at some distance from the large chamber where the third century popes are buried. * The consular synchronisms are confused here and in the Liberian Catalogue, partly

because Maxentius recognized a different set of consuls from the regularly elected
cials

offi-

and both the Catalogue and our author attempt to name them all. Our author omits the latter part of his clause, "until January 11 in the year when Volusianus and Annianus were consuls (aj). 314)." s Sunday fasting has been forbidden in the church since the rise of the dualist sects

'

MILTIADES, SYLVESTER

41

And he discovered Manicheans in the city.^ He appointed that consecrated offerings should be sent throughout the churches from the bishop's consecration
the leaven.^
;

these are called

He

held
11

ordination in the

month

of

December,

7 priests,

deacons,

bishops in divers places.

He was
in a crypt

buried in the cemetery of CaUstus on the Via Appia

1

December

10.

And

the bishopric was

empty

16 days.

XXXIV. Sylvester
Sylvester,

(314-335)
of Rufinus, occupied

by

nationality a

Roman, son

the see 23 years, 10 months and 1 1 days. He was bishop in the time of Constantine and Volusianus, from

February

imtil

January

in the consulship of Constantius

and

Volusianus.'

He was an
who
testified

exile

on Mount Syraptin,^
Thursday
Duchesne,
is

by

that observance their abhorrence of the material world.

also is rarely a fast day, although the reason for the latter rule
Lib. Pont., vol. I, p. i68, n.
*

not so

clear.

2.

This famous dualist sect had arisen some thirty years before the pontificate of

MUtiades.
''

For a convenient account of its history and doctrines see " Manicheanism,'
the possible use of

Hamack and Conybeare, Encyclopcedia Britannica, nth edition. An obscure passage which has given rise to much debate over
leaven in the Host.

See " Fermentum, " Ducange, Glossarium Med.

et

Inf. Lat.

Duchesne

quotes a letter of Pope Innocent I to Decentius, which evidently refers to the same custom. "And the priests of these (parish) churches, because they are prevented by

from assembling with us on the Lord's day, receive through acolytes the by us, in order that they may not suppose themselves divided from our communion on that great day but I do not think it right to do this for the parishes (rural), because the sacred elements ought not to be carried a long distance, nor do we send them to the priests situated at the various cemeteries, for those priests have the right and privilege of preparing them." Duchesne, op. cit., p. 169, n. 4. Mansi, Amplissima Collectio, vol. Ill, p. 1028. As late as the eighth century the Host was sent about in Rome from the pope's altar, as here described, on Holy Thursdays.
their charges

leaven prepared

Atchley, Ordo
'

Romanus Primus,

pp. 106-108.
:

The

Liberian Catalogue says

"He was bishop in the time of Constantine, from the

December 31
in the

consulship of Volusianus and Annianus (a.d. 314), January 31, to year when Constantius and Albinus were consuls (a.d. 33s)."
*

This form of the name

is

found in the

fifth

century Armenian text of the legend

42
driven

LIBER PONTIFICALIS
by the persecution
of

Constantine,

and afterward he returned and baptised with glory Constantine Augustus, whom the Lord cured
through baptism
of leprosy,
|

from whose persecution he had fled when he was in He built a church in the city of Rome, in the garden of one exile. of his priests who was called Equitius, and he appointed it as a parish church of Rome, near the baths of Domitian, and even unto There also he offered this day it is called the church of Equitius.'
the following gifts
^
:

a silver paten,' weighing 20 pounds,^ the gift of Constantine

Augustus.

He

gave likewise
In the two epitomes of the Lib. Pont, and

of the miraculous healing of Constantine. in the second recension

it is

written Seracten or Soracten, with the evident intention of

identifying the spot with the well

known mountain near Rome.

fifth

Duchesne believes
I, is

that the Constantinian legend originated early in the

century in the Syrian or

pp. cix-cxx. furnished by

Armenian communities

of

the

Eastern church.

Lib.

Pont., vol.

The most
ser.

trustworthy account of the actual baptism of the emperor

tr.

Eusebius in his Life of Constantine,

2, vol. I,

Richardson, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers,

pp. SSS~SS6. The ceremony took place shortly before the illustrious Cf. Coleman, Constantine the Great convert's death, near Nicomedia in Asia Minor.
for literature
is

and Christianity
'

on

this

The church

now
exist

generally

known

and associated topics. as San Martino ai Monti.

vester's edifice
tian's

still

below the present structure.

The baths here

Remains of Sylcalled by Domi-

name are more usually

the value of this

styled the baths of Trajan or the baths of Titus.

lists of real

and movable property bestowed Duchesne has a lengthy discussion of the questions involved. In the course of it he prints an interesting document of the year 471, a deed of gift of lands, precious vessels and other articles from a man and his wife to a church near Tivoli. The deed is strikingly similar in phraseology and arrangement to the lists of the Lib. Pont.; op. cil., pp. cxl-cliv. Of course the churches were plundered many times over in the centuries that followed. ' The paten of this early period, as rq)resented in the mosaic of San Vitale in Ravernia, for example, was a large, flat bowl and was used to hold the consecrated Host for the bishop and his assistants, the bread for the laity being broken and distributed in bags. An ordinary church or an altar in a large church owned but one paten, though a number of chalices. The paten, however, might also hold the consecrated oil or
upon the churches
see Introduction, pp. ix-x.

On

and subsequent

chrism, as below.
ology, pp. 343-3S4*

Duchesne,

o/>. cit.,

p.

cxliv;

Lowrie, Christian Art and Archci-

The Roman pound,

nearly equal to twelve ounces avoirdupois.

; ;

; ; ; ;; ;

; ;

SYLVESTER
beakers,^ weighing each ten pounds a golden chahce, weighing 2 lbs.
5 chalices for service,^
2 silver pitchers,'
1
2' silver

43

weighing each two

lbs.

lbs.

weighing each ten

silver paten, overlaid

5 lbs.

with gold, for the chrism, weighing

lbs.

10 chandeliers,* weighing each eight

20 bronze lamps, weighing each ten lbs. 12 bronze candelabra, weighing each three hundred 2 silver pitchers, weighing each ten lbs.
I

lbs.

silver
5 lbs.

paten overlaid with gold, for the chrism, weighing

lbs. lbs.

10 chandeliers, weighing each eight 20 bronze lamps, weighing each ten

12 bronze candelabra, weighing each three hundred lbs.

the Valerian manor in the Sabine region,^ which yields 80 solidi the Statian * manor in the Sabine region, which yields 55 sol.
;

wine was placed

ibid., p. cxliv.

or beaker was a large vessel, shaped like a goblet, in which the on the altar and from which it was poured into the smaller chalices for distribution to the congregation. At least this is Duchesne's theory
>

The "scyphus"'

for consecration

Sometimes, however, the term "chalice"

is

used to denote the vessel

For the shape see the illustrations in Lowrie, op. cit., passim. ' The "chalices for service" were used to carry the wine to the laity. ' The "ama," pitcher or flagon, was a large receptacle which, in Duchesne's opinion, was set to receive the offerings of wine presented by the faithful. Lowrie suggests that it contained the wine and water which were mixed for the Eucharist. Op. cit.,
P- 347-

of honor for the altar.

and later centuries were illuminated by a wealth of lamps, and candelabra, suspended from the roof or standing upon the floor. A large variety of terms is employed to enumerate the different kinds and shapes of lights, an exact translation of which is now impossible. The lamps and chandeliers found at Pompeii are smaller and far less sumptuous than these products of
*

The churches

of this

chandeliers, candlesticks

fourth century workmanship.

Lowrie, op.
altar.

cit.,

pp. 349-352.

It will be noticed that

no

lights

were placed upon the

The

officiating priest still stood

behind

it,

facing

the people, and illumination came from overhead or from the sides. 5 Or thirty pounds. The figures throughout these lists vary in different manuscripts.
' It is impossible to locate most of the lands mentioned in the lists. The word "fundus," here translated manor, means a farm or piece of country property. ' The solidus was a gold coin introduced by Constantine and worth at this time about $3.50 in our money. ' A small hamlet called Stazzano perpetuates the name to-day.

44
the

LIBER PONTIFICALIS
manor
sol.

of

Duae Casae in the Sabine region, which yields

sol. sol.

40

the Percilian the Corbian

manor in the Sabine region, which yields 20 manor in the region of Cora,^ which yields 60
city,

a house in the

with a bath, in the Sicinine

district,''

which

yields 85 sol.

a garden within the city of Rome in the district of Ad Duo Amantes,' yielding 15 sol. a house in the district of Orfea within the city,* which jrields
58 and one third
sol.

He made

a regulation for the whole church.

Likewise in his

time was held a council

with his approval

in

at his bidding

Nicea in Bithynia, and there were gathered together 318 catholic

bishops,

and 208 others unable to attend

sent their signatures.

And
holy,

they set forth in

full

the
I

cathoUc and unspotted faith and condemned Arrius and Fotinus

and

Sabellius

and

their disciples.*

And
bishops

after consultation

with Augustus he assembled 277

I

The modem
It
is

village of Cori in the

all of

'

impossible to identify

the

Campagna. dty districts enumerated

in the

lists.

The

Sicinine district, however,

was

in the neighborhood of the church of

Santa Maria

Maggiore, which was known in the fourth century as the " basilica Sicinini."
op. cU., p. 188, n. II.
'

Duchesne,

Probably in the vicinity of the Esquiline

like the

Hill,

not far from the church of San

Martino,

houses mentioned before and

after.

"lake of Orfeus"

the fourth century.

of

is included in the region of the Esquiline by topographers of church of Santa Lucia in Orphea stood later near the church

San Martino.
'

This is, of course, the great Coundl of Nicea.

as well as Alius, were

The idea

that Photinus and Sabel-

lius,

condemned by the

council originated with the authors of

the popular, unhistorical lives of Sylvester,

who were concerned

to

make

their

hero

crush as

many

errors as possible.

SYLVESTER
in the city of

45

Rome ^ and he condemned a second

;

Arrius and Fotinus and Sabellius

priest

time Calistus and and he decreed that an Arian

who became convinced

by the bishop

of his error should not be received

;

except

should be consecrated only by the bishops

privilege of

and that the chrism and he estabhshed the the bishops, that they should anoint those who had
of his particular locaUty
;

been baptised

to avert the propagation of heresy.'

He

furthermore decreed that a priest might anoint with the

chrism one

who had been

baptised and taken from the water, in

case of the approach of death.

He

decreed that no lajonan should presume to bring a charge

against one of the clergy.*

He decreed that deacons should wear dalmatics ^ in church and napkins of mixed wool and linen over their left arms.*

He
for
it

decreed that no member any cause whatever or plead

of the clergy should enter a court

his case before a civil judge, unless

were in a church.^

He

decreed that the sacrifice of the altar should be performed

not upon a cloth of hair nor one that was colored, but only upon

On

this Council of

Rome
by

see Introduction, p. ix.

it

The
this

records of the council

and

of the canons promulgated

and by Sylvester at

time are fabrications of the

age of Symmachus, intended to provide sanction for episcopal claims and to exalt the
episcopal office in general.

They

are the oldest set of apocryphal canons in existence

dealing with matters of church discipline.

'

Duchesne, op.

cit.,

p. cxxxiv.

I.e.

administer the sacrament of confirmation.

translation of an enigmatical clause, "propter hereticam suasionem.''

'A free On its

face an impossible decree.

The

councils of this

and

later periods issued

stipulations as to the

methods

to

be employed in bringing suit against members of the

as well as

higher clergy.

The dalmatic worn by a Roman deacon

is

by a bishop

at this time, a long,

and mosaics. It an Oriental garment, introduced into Rome during the second centiuy and worn in public first apparently by the emperor Commodus. It was distinguished by a purple stripe, which ran over each shoulder and down to the bottom of the skirt on both sides and sometimes around the edge of the sleeve. Pope
flowing tunic with wide sleeves,

pictured in

many church

frescoes

was, as the

name indicates,

originally

Symmachus (498-519) granted to St. Csesarius of Aries the privilege of clothing his deacons in dalmatics like those worn by the deacons at Rome. Lowrie, op. cit., pp.
394-396.
' The towel or napkin carried by the deacon for use in his part of the service became in course of time the maniple. Lowrie, op. cit., pp. 410-413. ' The word translated civil is "cinctum," i.e. dad in official robes. This spurious

decree represents an effort to oblige the clergy to bring their suits to the episcopal
courts.

There is no parallel to it in authentic records.

Duchesne, op.

cit.,

p. 190, n. 23.

46
linen sprung

LIBER PONTIFICALIS
from the earth, even as the body of our Lord Jesus
*
;

Christ was buried in pure Unen cloth

thus mass should be celebrated.

He

decreed that anyone

who wished

to advance or

make

prog-

ress in the

an acolyte

church must be a reader 30 years,^ an exorcist 30 days,* 5 years, a subdeacon 5 years,

a custodian of the martyrs 5

years,*

a deacon 7 years, a priest 3 years that he must be approved on every hand, even by them who are without, and must have good
;

witness borne to him, the husband of one wife,^

to the rank of bishop
ofl&ce,

who had

herself

received the blessing of the priest, and that thus he might attain

that he must not enter upon a greater or but accept modestly the order of rank by years, and he must have the goodwill and favor of all the clergy with no one anywhere in the clergy
;

superior

or

among
'

the faithful

Apxjllinare in Classe in

Mosaics of the sixth and seventh centuries in the churches of San Vitale and San Ravenna show the early table altar set with chalice and bread
linen doth.

and covered with a white

Some manuscripts

give, "first a doorkeeper, then

a reader,"

etc.

There is much

variation in the figures throughout the passage.

in 418 states

An

authentic decree of Pope Zosimus

what was undoubtedly the accepted system.

A man who

had been

dedicated to the church from infancy must remain a reader until his twentieth year.

an adult desired to enter the clergy, he must serve as reader and exorcist for five Thereafter he must be acolyte and subdeacon four years and deacon five years. From the priesthood he might be elevated to the bishopric if his life were holy and he had been married but once, not to a widow, and had never been a penitent. Duchesne, op. cit., p. 191, n. 25 Mansi, AmpUssima Colleclio, vol. IV, p. 347 ; Jaff6, Regesta, vol. I,
If

years.

P- 5. 339-

Cf. supra, p. 35

and

n.

i.

manuscripts read, "afterward an exorcist for the time required by the pontiff;" two others, "afterward an exorcist for the time which the bishop may
appoint."
*

'Two

Mommsen,

Lib. Pont., p. 51, notes.

It

Rome
of

seems probable that the care of the tombs of the martjrs in the vicinity of was entrusted to subdeacons at the opening of the sixth century. Gregory

of Gaul.

Tours often speaks of the " martjrrarii " who performed a similar duty in the church Duchesne, ibid., n. 25. * Eariy in the fourth century both popes and councils took the position that no man could be ordained who had been married more than once or had espoused a widow. Duchesne, ibid., n. 26.

SYLVESTER
opposed to lym.
ordinations
|

47

He

held 6
orders

of priests and deacons in the month of December, 42 priests, 27 deacons at different times in the city of Rome, 65 bishops in divers
places.

In his time Constantine Augustus built the following basilicas

and adorned them

the Constantinian basilica,^ where he offered the following gifts
:

a ciborium of

hammered

silver,

which has upon the front

5 feet,

the Savior seated upon a chair, in height

weighing

and also the 12 apostles, who weigh each ninety pounds and are 5 feet in height and wear crowns of purest silver further, on the back, looking toward the apse are the Savior seated upon a throne in height 5 feet, of purest silver, weighing 140 lbs., and 4 angels of silver,
120
lbs.,
;

which weigh each 105 lbs. and are 5 feet in height and have jewels from Alabanda ^ in their
eyes and carry spears

which are each

5 feet in

height

upon
crosses
lbs.

the

sides

and carry

and weigh each 105 and have jewels from Alavanda in their eyes

San Giovanni in Laterano. As early as 313 a council called to try the case of the Donatist heretics under Pope Miltiades met "in the house of Fausta in the Lat-

eran."

JaE6, Regesta, vol. I, p. 28, 313.

first called
cit,,

Fausta was the wife of Constantine.

Constantinian in the record of the

The

basihca erected on the site was

Roman
to the

synod

of 487.

Mommsen,

op.

p. xxvii

and

n. 4.

Needless to say no vestiges

of this

first basilica

are visible in the present structure.

The former

fell

ground in 877 and was

rebuilt once in the tenth century, twice in the fourteenth

and

For a description of the thoroughly "restored" in the seventeenth and nineteenth. several basilicas ascribed in our text to Constantine see Gregorovius, History of

Rome,
2

vol. I, pp. 88-112.

The

figure of Christ seated in the

the catacombs and on the sarcophagi of the fourth century.

of the church of Santa Pudenziana dates

midst of his apostles was represented often in The mosaic of the apse

from the end

of that century.

Christ en-

throned between angels was, for some reason, a subject less frequently chosen. A nave mosaic of San ApoUinare Nuovo at Ravenna, built for Theodoric about the year
SCO, shows the latter scene, the attendant angels carrying spears, as here. This ciborium of Constantine was destroyed by Alaric's Gauls and replaced by one given by the emperor Valentinian in the pontificate of Xystus III. See infra, p. 95, n. 1.
*

dty

in Caria,

now

Arab-Hissar.

'

; ;

; ; ;

48
the

LIBER PONTIFICALIS
ciborium
2025
itself

the

ciborium

itself

the

ciboriimi

itself,

weighs

lbs.
;

of weighs 2025 lbs.

wrought
vaulted

silver

a
of

where stand the angels and the apostles,

weighs 2025
lbs.

ceiling
^
;

of

purest gold

wrought

silver

and a lamp of pur- a lamp of purest gold which hangs beneath the ciborium beneath the ciborium, with 50 dolphins and with 50 dolphins* of a chain which weighs
est gold,

a lamp of purest gold

which hangs beneath

the ciborium, with 50

dolphins,
weighs with
25
lbs.

which
its

purest gold, wei^iing 25

lbs.

chain

each
chains
25 lbs.

50

lbs.,

and

which weigh

4 crowns ' of purest gold with 20 dolphins, weighing each

fifteen lbs.

a vaulting for the basilica of polished gold, in length and in

breadth 500

lbs.

*
;

7 altars of purest silver, weighing each 200 lbs.

7

golden patens, weighing each thirty

lbs.

16 silver patens, weighing each thirty lbs.

7 goblets of purest gold, weighing

each 10

lbs.

A single goblet of coral set all about with prases and jacinths
and overlaid with
3 ounces
gold,

which weighs in
lbs.

all

20

lbs.

and

20 silver goblets, weighing each fifteen

2 pitchers of purest gold,

weighing each

fifty lbs.

and hold-

ing each 3

medimni

20 silver pitchers, weighing each ten

lbs.

and holding each

one medimnus
/.. *

the vault of the dborium from which depended the great lamp next described.
like

An ornament of lamps or chandeliers, shaped

light.

a dolphin

probably each dol-

phin held a
' I.e.

circular chandeliers

with pendant

lights.
little

*The
vaulting
'

readings of this clause vary a

but none are quite

intelligible.

The

is

that of the half

dome of

the apse.

The medimnus
and one

or lUSi/iros was the

half English bushels.

Greek bushel, comprising about twelve

gallons or one

; ;

; :

SYLVESTER
40 smaller chalices of purest gold, weighing each one 50 smaller chalices for service, weighing each 2 lbs.
lb.

49

For ornament

in the basilica

a chandelier of purest gold before the altar, wherein burns pure oil of nard, with 80 dolphins, weighing 30 lbs. a silver chandelier with 20 dolphins, which weighs 50 lbs.,
wherein burns pure
45
oil of

nard

silver chandeliers in the

body

of the basilica,^ weighing

oil

each 30

lbs.,

wherein burns the aforesaid

on the right
each 20

side of the basilica 40 silver lamps, weighing

lbs.

25 silver chandeliers ing each 20 lbs.

on the

left side of

the basilica, weigh-

50 silver candelabra in the body of the each 20 lbs.

basilica,

weighing

3 jars of purest silver, weighing each 300 lbs., holding 10

medimni;
7 brass candlesticks before the
altars,

10 feet in height,
silver,

adorned with figures of the prophets overlaid with weighing each 300 lbs. and for maintenance of the lights there he granted the GargiUan estate in the region of Suessa,* 5delding
every year
|

400

sol.

the Bauronican estate in the region of Suessa, 3aelding

360 sol. the Aurian estate in the region of Laurentxmi,' yielding 500
sol.;

the
1 I.e.

Urban

estate in the region of Antixmi,* yielding 240 sol.

the central nave.

reserved at this time for

The right side mentioned next would be the right aisle, women communicants, the left side the left aisle reserved for
There
is

men.
'

The modem

Sessa in Latium.
in

a village of Garigliano in that region

the opening of the second century
to

now.
'

The modem Torre Patemo

Latium.

From

to the close of the fourth the ancient villages of

Laurentum and Lavinium united

form one municipality.

*

The modem Porto d'Anzio

in Latium.

Antium was a dty

in the fifth century

50
the

LIBER PONTIFICALIS
Sentilian
estate

in

the

region of

Ardea,^

yielding 240

sol.

the estate of Castis in the region of Catina,'' yielding 1000 sol. the estate of Trapeae in the region of Catina, yielding

1650

sol.

weighing 30 lbs. a gift of spices before the altar, every year 150 lbs. * The holy font where Constantine Augustus was baptised
2 censers of purest gold,

by the same bishop

Silvester

of stone of porphyry, overlaid

on every

side within

and with-

out and above and

as far as the water with purest silver,

3009 lbs. In the centre of the font

is

golden basin of purest gold, weighing 52

flame and where
in the Easter season
|

a porphyry column, which bears a lbs., where is a

bums
At

balsam, 200

lbs.,

and the wick

is

of asbestos.

the edge of the font

in the baptistery
is
|

a golden lamb pouring water, which weighs 30 lbs.

to the right of the

lamb the Savior of purest silver, 5 feet in and to the left of the lamb silver, John, the Baptist, of 5 feet in height, holding an inscribed scroll which bears these words: "Behold the Lamb of God, Behold, Who Taketh Away the Sins of
height, weighing 170 lbs.,

the World," weighing

125 lbs.;
and
size
>

100 lbs.;
I

its

bishop attended the synods at Rome.

of

It suffered severely

and dwindled

in

during the later disorders.

The colony

Ardea

is

mentioned as late as 223

It
cit.,

aj>.^

but

it

sent

no bishops to

the

Roman
'

coimcils of the fifth century.

was evidently

declining in population

in the interval.

Duchesne, op.

p. ig2, n. 39.

The modem Poggio Catino southwest of Rieti. The most venerable part of the present Lateian baptistery
the end of the fourth century
p. 96.

is

hardly older than

III.

and most

of it dates only

from Xystus

See infra,

The stone font, however, is the original one stripped of its

primitive decorations.

; ;

SYLVESTER
7 silver stags

SI
lbs.

pouring water/ weighing each 80

He

a censer of purest gold set with 49 prases, weighing 15 lbs. bestowed upon the holy font the estate of Festus, the keeper of the

bed-chamwhich Constantine Augustus gave him,

ber,

sacred

in the region of Fenestra,^ yielding 300 sol.

the estate of

Gaba

in the region of Gabii,^ 3delding

202

sol.

the estate of Pictae in the aforesaid region, yielding 205 sol.

the Statihan * estate in the region of Cora, yielding 300

sol.

an estate in

Sicilia
sol.

Taurana, in the region Paramnense,*

houses and
granaries,
|

yielding 500

within the city of

gardens,
3delding 2300

Rome

sol.
sol.

the estate of Bassus, yielding 120

ing 200

the estate of Laninae in the region of Cartioli, yieldsol.

the estate of Caculae in the region of

jaelding 50

Momentum,^

sol.

their mouths.

may have been set around the font with the water running into it from In the Roman baths water often flowed in jets from animal heads. ' Probably a corrupt form for Praeneste, the modem Palestrina. A second century
The
stags

inscription in

honor of one Valerius Priscus Festus has been found in the neighborhood.
cit.,

Duchesne, op.
'

p. 192, n. 47.

The modem

Castiglione, twelve miles

to

from Rome.
Statilius Taurus, the friend

There was a "gens Statiha,"

which belonged Titus

of Augustus.
^ ' '

Duchesne thinks this may be Palermo. Op. cit., p. 193, n. 51. Probably Carsioli, near the modern village Carsoli in Latium. This perhaps should read Nomentum, the modern Mentana, to which the Via
led.

Nomentana

; ;

;;

52

LIBER PONTIFICALIS
the Statian estate in the Sabine region,^ yielding 350
sol.

the estate of Murinae ia the Appian Alban region,* yielding 300

sol.

the estate of Virgo in the region of Cora, yielding 200

sol.

beyond the sea

in the provinces of Africa

the estate of luncis in the Mucarian region,' yielding

800 600

sol.

the estate of Capsis in the region of Capsa,^ jdelding

sol.

the estate of Varia Sardana in the

yielding 500
sol.

Mimnian

region,*

the estate of Camarae in the region of Crypta Lupi,

yielding 405
sol.

the estate of

Numae

in the region of Numidia,'

ielding

650

sol.

the estate of Sulphorata in the region of Numidia, yielding 720 sol.;

the estate of Walzari, an olive plantation in the region

of in Greece

Nmnidia, yielding 810

sol.

also in Greece,

in

the region

of Crete:

the estate of Cefalina

in Crete,
|

yielding 500 sol.

'

Cf. supra, p. 43, n. 8.

A district still called Morena lies in the Alban Hills near the Via Appia. between the Via Appia and the Via Latina. ' Possibly the region of the Macae, a people living near the North coast. There were African bishops entitled "luncensis," but the situation of their diocese is not
* I.e.,

known.
'

Duchesne, op.

cit.,

p. 193, n. ss.

dty

in the southwestern part of the

modem

coxmtry of Tunis.

The

place

is

now

called Gafsa.
'

A bishop of Mina, in the province of Mauretania, attended the council of Carthage

Duchesne,
ibid., n. 57.

in 525.
'

A corruption, perhaps, of Syrtica Leptis, i.e. the dty of Leptis in the Regio S}rrtica,
The province
of Nimiidia,

the

modem Tripoli.
'

which covered much the same territory as the

modem

Algiers.

SYLVESTER
in

S3

Mengaulus

'
:

the estate of

Amazon,

yielding 222

sol.

At the same time Constantine Augustus

built

by

request

of

Silvester,

the

bishop,

the basilica of blessed Peter, the apostle, in the shrine of Apollo,^

and
able

laid there the cofl&n with the

body

of the holy Peter ;^ the

coffin itself
:

he enclosed on all sides with bronze, which is unchangeat the head 5 feet, at the feet 5 feet, at the right side 5 feet,
:

left side 5 feet, underneath 5 feet and overhead 5 feet thus he enclosed the body of blessed Peter, the apostle, and laid it away. And above he set porphyry columns for adornmeiit * and other spiral columns which he brought from Greece.

at the

A corrupt form. Duchesne accepts the suggestion of M. Vignoli that the island of Gaulus is intended, the modem Gozzo near Malta. Op. cit., p. 193, u. 60. ' The great Constantinian basilica of St. Peter stood with some alterations and many additions until it was torn down by the popes of the Renaissance to make way for the present edifice. The mosaic of the triumphal arch, which represented Constantine offering a model of the church to Christ, seems to have kept its place to the last and the stamp of the emperor was on the bricks of which the basilica was built.
'-

For a good brief description of old St. Peter's see Frothingham, Monujnents of Christian Rome, pp. 2$-2g; Landam, Destruction of Ancient Rome, pp. 31-32; Duchesne, 0^. cit., pp. 193-194, n. 61. The last-named quotes from some of the surviving contemporary descriptions of the church and reproduces a ground plan published by Alfarano in 1590. There is a mass of literature on the subject to which it is impossible to refer here.

On

the site see supra, p.

'

5, u. $

The

following rather confused description of the

existence.

tomb

of St. Peter
still

is

the oldest

and also the fullest in

The sarcophagus

itself,

enclosed

to all probabiUty

in Constantine's bronze casing, lies in a small subterranean chamber connected by a deep vertical shaft with the confession beneath the present high altar. In 1594, when the foundations of this altar were being laid, Pope Clement VHI and three cardinals saw at the bottom of the shaft, which the architect had laid open, a cross of gold lying upon the tomb, but the pope ordered the shaft immediately filled up and it has never since been opened. Whether the cross was the one placed there by Constantine is not certain. The tomb was early made inaccessible, undoubtedly to protect it from in-

vading marauders. * The porph3Ty columns apparently supported the ciborium above the altar, the spiral columns next mentioned formed a line or colonnade in front of the confession, the separating it from the nave. Several of the latter may stiU be seen, adorning niches one is venerated in a side cathedral, and present the of cupola the support pillars that chapel. They served as models evidently for the huge bronze spiral columns of the

54

LIBER PONTIFICALIS
He made
also a vaulted roof
^

in the basilica, gleaming with

of the blessed Peter,

polished gold, and over the

body

above the

bronze which enclosed 150

lbs., in

it,

place of a measure,^ and

he set a cross of purest gold, weighing upon it were inscribed these

"Constantine Augustus and Helena Augusta this House Shining with like Royal Splendor a Court Surwords:

rounds,"*
inscribed in
clear,
|

enamelled letters upon the cross.

He

gave also
with

silver,

4 brass candlesticks, 10 feet in height, overlaid with figures in silver of the acts of the apostles,
lbs.

weighing each 300

3 golden chalices, set with 45 prases

and

jacinths,
|

weighing each 12
2 silver jars,

lbs.
lbs.

weighing 200

20 silver chalices, weighing each 10

lbs.

modem
the

baldachino.

They were preserved with

Middle Ages to the

particular reverence because of a

tradition that arose in the

effect that

they had originally stood in

Temple
'

at Jerusalem.

They

are represented in Rafael's cartoon of the healing

of the impotent
I.e.

man at

the Gate Beautiful.

the vaulting of the apse.

locus,"

"In mensure
"in mensuram
allowed.
'

an

unintelligible

expression.

Other manuscripts give

loci,"

which might mean that the cross was as large as the chamber
is

The inscription

recorded nowhere else and, as

it

stands here,

is

obviously incom-

Rossi suggests the insertion of three words and the alteration of one ending which would make it read, " Constantine Augustus and Helena Augusta beautify with
plete.

De

gold this royal house which a court, shining with Uke splendor, surrounds."
op. cU., p. 57, n.

Mommsen,

on

line 13.

Duchesne thinks that the "royal house"

is

the subterran-

ean tomb chamber, which during the fourth century was probably accessible to the devout and not impenetrably sealed until the invasions of the fifth century; in that case the surrounding court would be the basilica itself. Duchesne, op. cit., p. 195,
n. 67.

Rome in 410 the precious vessels of were depoated for safe keeping in the house of an aged, consecrated virgin. They were discovered by the barbarians but before they were carried off Alaric learned that they were the property of the apostie and restored them all in state to the basilica. Historia adversum Paganos, lib. VII, c. 39, ed. Zangemeister, Teubner, pp. 292-293.
*

Orosius relates that during Alaric's sack of

St. Peter's

;; ;

;; ;

SYLVESTER
2

55
lbs.

golden pitchers, weighing each lo

5 silver pitchers, weighing each 20 lbs.

a golden paten with a turret of purest gold and a dove,i adorned with prases, jacinths and pearls, white stones,
I

215 in number, weighing 30

lbs.

5 silver patens, weighing each 15 lbs.

a golden crown before the body, that 50 dolphins, which weighs 35 lbs.

is

a chandelier, with

32 silver lamps in the body of the basiUca, with dolphins, weighing each 10 lbs.
for the right of the basilica 30 silver lamps, weighing each

8 lbs.

the altar

itself of silver

overlaid with gold,

adorned
gems,

on
in

with 210

adorned
210

on

every side with

every side with

400 number.

prases, jacinths

and pearls, weighing 350 lbs. a censer of purest gold adorned on every side with jewels,
60 in number,
|

weighing 15 lbs. Likewise for revenue, the

in the city of Anthiocia
*
:

gift

offered to blessed Peter, the apostle,

which Constantine Augustus in the diocese of the East

sol.

the house of Datianus, yielding 240 the

little

house in Caene,* yielding 20 and one third

sol.
sol.

sol.

the barns in Afrodisia, yielding 20

the bath in Ceratheae, yielding 42

the mill in the same place, yielding 23

sol. sol.

the cook shop in the same place, jdelding 10

'

Vessds shaped
Antioch,
it will

like small tiirrets or

towers and like doves were used to enshrine

bishopric.

the Host.
==

be remembered, was traditionally the seat of Peter's

first

See supra,
'

p. 4.

Caene, Afrodisia

and Ceratheae are

all

quarters of the city of Antioch.

'

: :

S6

LIBER PONTIFICALIS
the garden of Maro, 3aelding lo
sol.
1 1 sol.

the garden in the same place, yielding

near the city of Anthiocia

the property Sybilles, a gift to Augustus, yielding 322
sol.,

150 decades

of papyrus,

200
200

lbs. of spices, lbs. of oil of

nard,
|

35 lbs. of balsam near the city of Alexandria

the property Timialica, given to Constantino Augustus

by

Ambrosius,
jdelding 620
sol.,

Ambronius,

300 decades of papyrus, 300 lbs. of oil of nard, 60 lbs. of balsam,

150
lbs. of spices,

50

lbs. of

Isaurian storax

the property of Eutymus,

who

left

no

heir,

yielding

500
in

sol.,

70 decades of papyrus

Egypt

near the city of Armenia/ the property of Agapus, which he gave to Constantine Augustus
the property of Passinopolis, yielding 800
sol.,

400 decades of papyrus,

50 medimni of pepper,
100
lbs. of saffron,

150 200

lbs. of storax,
lbs. of spices of lbs. of oil of

cinnamon,

300 100
'

nard,

lbs. of

balsam,

'

The decade was apparently a package containing ten sheets. The property had, therefore, reverted to the imperial exchequer.

' After 386 AJJ. Egypt did not form part of the administrative division of the Orient, as here, but constituted a separate division alone. Duchesne, op. cit., p. cl.

I do not

know what dty

is

meant

here.

; :

SYLVESTER
100 bags of 150 100
lbs. of
lbs. of

57

flax,

cariophylum/

Cyprian

oil,

1000 fine stalks of papyrus

the property which

Hybromius gave

to

Constantine

Augustus, yielding 450 sol., 200 decades of papyrus,

50

lbs. of spices of lbs. of oil of

cinnamon,
|

200
50

nard,

lbs. of

balsam
^
:

in the province of the Euphrates, near the city of Cyrus

the property of Armanazon, yielding 380

the property of Obariae,
yielding 260
sol.
'

sol.

At
and
the

the same time Constantine Augustus

built the basilica

of blessed Paul, the apostle, at the bidding of Silvester, the bishop,

laid his

body away

there in bronze

and enclosed

it,

as he did

body

of the blessed Peter.^

And

to this basilica he offered the

following gifts

near Tarsus

in Cilicia
sol.

the island of Cordionon, yielding 800

All the consecrated vessels of gold

and

silver

and bronze he

set

there, as in the basilica of blessed Peter, the apostle, so also he

ordained them for the basiUca of blessed Paul, the apostle.

1

More-

Perhaps a corruption for " carpheotum," a superior kind of frankincense. Perhaps Cyrrhus, a city in Syria. ' One manuscript reads, " Constantine Augustus and Lord Constantius Augustus buUt" etc. If Constantine really built the first basilica of St. Paul, it was a small and In 386 the emperors Valentinian II, Theodosius and Arcadius unpretentious edifice.
'

ordered the erection of a great church on the site, which was completed early in the It was destroyed by fire in 1823 and the present basilica of San Paolo fifth century.

almost entirely a latter-day reconstruction. of St. Paul was unearthed during the work of rebuilding the present church. It is of marble and bears an inscription in fourth century letters,
fuori le
*

Mura

is

The empty sarcophagus

"PAULO APOSTOLO ET MARTYRI."

walls than that of St. Peter

The tomb

lay farther outside the city

if

and was

rifled

probably during the Saracen invasion,

not before.
' It was evidently thought appropriate to endow the church of Paul of Tarsus with lands in the vicinity of his birthplace.

: ;

S8

LIBER PONTIFICALIS

over he placed a golden cross over the tomb of blessed Paul, the
apostle, weighing 150 lbs.

near the city of Tyre

the property of Comitum, yielding 550 the property of Tymia, yielding 250
sol.

sol.
sol.,

the property of Fronimusa, yielding 700

70
50

lbs. of oil of

nard,

lbs. of spices,

50 lbs. of cinnamon near the city of Egypt

the property of Cyrios, yielding 710
sol.,

70

lbs. of oil of lbs. of

nard,

30
70

balsam,

lbs. of spices,
lbs. of storax, lbs. of oil of

30

150

myrrh

the property of Basilea, yielding 550 sol.,

50 60
20

lbs. of spices, lbs. of oil of lbs. of

nard,

balsam,
the island

60

lbs. of saffron

the property of
sol.,

Maccabes, yielding

510

510 stalks of fine papyrus, 300 bags of flax. At the same time Constantine Augustus constructed a basilica in the Sessorian palace,* where also he
placed and
{

enclosed in gold and jewels some of the

wood

of the holy cross of

our Lord Jesus Christ, and he dedicated the church under the

name

by which
church

it

is

called even to this day, Hierusalem.^

In that

is known to have been a residence of the empress Helena. honor have been discovered there. In spite of alterations and mutilations the present basilica still shows traces of its origin as a private hall. Duchesne, op. cit., p. 196, n. 75. ' The title is now Santa Croce in Gerusalemme. In the fifteenth century an inscription was still l^ble beneath the apsidal mosaic, which commemorated the pay

The

Sessorian palace

Two

inscriptions in her

; ;;

; ;

SYLVESTER
he offered the following
gifts
:
|

59
gifts

he offered these

4 candlesticks
like to the

of silver burning before the holy

number

of the

wood, 4 gospels, weighing each

lbs.

80

lbs.

50 silver chandeliers, weighing each 15 a goblet of gold, weighing 10 lbs.

5

golden chalices for service, weighing each one lb. 3 silver goblets, weighing each 8 lbs. 10 silver chalices for service, weighing each 2 lbs.

a golden paten, weighing 10 lbs.

a a

silver

paten overlaid with gold and set with jewels, weighing 50 lbs.
weighing 250
lbs.

silver altar,

3 silver pitchers, weighing each 20 lbs.

and

all

the land

about the palace he gave as an offering to the church

near the palace

itself,

likewise the property of Sponsae

on the Via

Lavicana,"^

jdelding 263

sol.

near the city of Laurentum^ the property of Patrae, 5delding

120

sol.

near the city of Nepeta^ the property of Anglesis, pelding

150 sol. near the aforesaid city the property of Terega,* which
3delds 160 sol.

ment

of a

vow by
As

Valentinian, Placidia

and Honoria August!

to the "holy church

Hierasalem."

for the relic of the cross, St. Cyril of Jerusalem, writing about

348, says that fragments of the sacred

wood were

dispersed through

all

the world.

Duchesne,
1

ibid.

Or Labicana.
of

One of
i.

the main roads leading over the EsquiUne HiU to the Latin

town
'

Labicum.

>C/. supra, p. so, n.

The modem Nepi in the upper border of the Roman provmce. * The spot may have taken its name from the river Treia, which
Duchesne, op.
cit.,

flows

by Nepi.

p. 196, n. 79.

; ;

'

6o

LIBER PONTIFICALIS
near the city of Falisca,^ the property of Herculus, which he gave to Augustus and Augustus gave to the church
of Hierusalem, yielding 140 sol.

near the city of Tuder

sol.

the property of Angulae, yielding

At

153 the same time he built the basilica of the holy martyr Agnes

at the request of

Constantia,*
|

his daughter,
sister,

and a baptistery

in the

same place/ where both

his

Constantia, and the daughter of Augustus were baptised

|

by

Silvester, the bishop,

where also he presented the following gifts a paten of purest gold, weighing 20
a golden chalice, weighing 10
IS lbs.;
2 silver patens, lbs.

lbs.

a chandelier of purest gold with 30 dolphins, weighing

weighing each 20

lbs.
lbs.

5 silver chalices,

weighing each 10

30 silver chandeliers, weighing each 8

lbs.

Now Civita CasteUana. Now Todi, in Umbria.

The church of Sant' Agnese on the Via Nomentana, erected over the traditional tomb of the virgin martyr, was rebuilt by Honorius I in the seventh century, so that it is now uncertain if any part of the present structure belongs to the age of Constantine. The name of Constantine's daughter was Constantina. Originally an acrostic inscription in the apse of the basilica commemorated the dedication of the church in her name. Constantine's sister was Constantia. Duchesne, op. cil., p. 196, n. 80. ' The small, circular building, now known as the church of Santa Costanza, was used originally as a mausoleum but may have been intended also as a baptistery. The huge porphyry sarcophagus, at present in the Vatican Museum, stood in a niche in the wall facing the entrance and a baptismal font may have occupied the central space tmder the dome. The arrangement would then have been similar to that in the Lateran baptistery, and the shape of the two buildings, with their double apsed vestibules, At any rate there is no vestige of another baptistery in the vicinity. is not imlike.

There

house, but

baptism of the princesses of Constantine's a ceremony took place. Ammianus Marcellinus tells us that in the year 360 the body of Helena, one of Constantine's daughters, was sent to Rome to be buried on the Via Nomentana, outside the city, where her sister Constantina already lay. Roman History, XXI, i ; tr. Yonge, Bohn's
is

no unimpeachable account
it is

of the

not, of course, improbable that such

Library, p. 244.

SYLVESTER
40
chandeliers of
brass

6i

lamps of brass metal

chandeliers
brass metal
silver

of

40 candelabra of brass overlaid with with reHef s a golden lamp with 12 wicks,

and adorned

which weighs 20 lbs.

over the font, weighing 15

likewise a gift
for revenue
|

lbs.

the land about the city of FideHnffi,i yielding 160 on the Via Salaria as far as the ruins, all the land
all

sol.

of the holy Agnes,

yielding 105

sol.

the land of Mucus, yielding 80 sol. the property of Vicus Pisonis, 3delding

350 sol.;
I

250

sol.;
sol.

the land of Casulae, yielding 100

At the same time

Constantine Augustus
|

he

on the Via Tiburtina in the Ager Veranus over the burial crypt, and he made stairs of ascent and of descent to the body of the holy martyr
Lawrence.

built the basilica of blessed Lawrence, the martja-,^

In that place he erected an apse and adorned

it

with

' Probably Fidense, the modem Castel Giubileo, five miles from Rome, near the Via Salaria. ' The present church of San Lorenzo in Agro Verano is formed by the imion of two ancient basilicas, which were thrown into one by Honorius Ulin the thirteenth century. The smaller of these two, which contains the present choir and covers the resting-place of the saint, may owe its foundation to Constantine. Little beside the columns of the lower floor can, however, with safety be ascribed to him, for the building was restored at the begiiming of the fifth century and again rebuilt, with the addition of the gal-

leries,

at the dose of the sixth.

is

See infra, p. 8g, n. 3

p. 168, n. 2.

given here

interesting as one of the earliest of a confession or

The description tomb chamber of a

martyr in a basilica erected "ad corpus.'' The basilica was placed so that its altar stood directly over the tomb, which was reached by steps leading down below the altar.

;;

'

: ;

62

LIBER PONTIFICALIS

porphyry and the spot over the tomb he enclosed with silver and beautified it with railings of purest silver, which weighed looo lbs. and before the tomb itself within the crypt he set
a lamp of purest gold with lo wicks, weighing 20 lbs. a crown of purest silver with 50 dolphins, weighing 30
lbs.; 2

bronze candlesticks, 10 feet in height, weighing each 300

lbs.;

before the body of the blessed Lawrence, the martyr, images

overlaid with silver to

show

his passion
1 5 lbs.

and

silver

lamps with 6 wicks, weighing each

In the same locality
the
:

the property of one Quiriaces, a religious

fisc

woman, which

had

seized in the time of the persecution, the

estate of Veranus,^ yielding 160 sol.

the property of
sol.

Aqua Tuscia on one

side, yielding

153

the property of Augustus in the Sabine region, yielding

to the

name

of the Christians' 120 sol.

the property
furatae
sol.
*

of

Sul-

yielding 62

the property of Micinae belonging to Augustus, yielding

no
*

sol.

Here, as in the case of the lands bestowed on Sant' Agnese, the estates, so far as

now be detennined, lay in the neighborhood of the basilica upon which they were conferred. ' This is the land upon which the basilica stood. Duchesne thinks that a passage like this, alluding to a well-known persecution with no mention of emperor or date, is certainly taken from a source at least as old as the first half of the fourth century. Op.
their situation can
cit.,

p.
*

cl.

Duchesne believes that this passage also indicates the use of some primitive source,

that the expression,

"name

of the Christians," to signify the Christian

antedates the persecution of Diocletian.

a part of the possessions of the

ibid.,
*

community The property here mentioned was perhaps church restored to it by the Edict of Milan.' Duchesne,
the Via Tiburtina,

pp.

cl,

di.

The name may be derived from some sulphurous springs on sixteen miles from Rome. Duchesne, op. cit., p. 198, n. 89.

; ;

; ; ;;

SYLVESTER
the property of Termulae, yielding

63

65

sol.
I

60

sol.

the property of Aranae, yielding 70

the property of Septimitus, yielding 130
sol.

sol.

The

gift

which he offered
a golden paten, weighing 20 lbs.
2 silver patens,

Weigh-

ing each 30 lbs.

a goblet of purest gold,

weighing

'15 lbs.

2 silver goblets,

weigh-

ing each 10

lbs.

10 silver chalices for

service,

weighing
weigh-

each

2 lbs.

2 silver pitchers,

ing each 10 lbs.

30

silver lamps,

weighweigh-

ing each 20 lbs.

a jar of
ing 150
2

silver
lbs.,

holding

medimni.

At the same time Constantine At

Augustus blessed martyrs Marcellinus, the priest, and Peter, the exorcist, at Inter duas Lauros; also a mausolevLtn where his mother, Helena Augusta, was buried on
built a basilica to the

same time Constantine Augustus built a basilica on the

the

Via Lavicana at Inter duas Lauros to blessed Peter and MarceUinus, the martyrs; also a mausoleum where the most
blessed

Augusta,

his

mother,

the Via Lavicana, at the

milestone.^

3rd was buried in a sarcophagus of

And

in this place. porphyry, mausoleum

and he

offered there

The remains

of the

Pietro e MarceUino

may

of the empress Helena and the catacomb of Santi be seen about two miles from the Porta Maggiore at a place

; :

; ;

:; ;

64

LIBER PONTIFICALIS
for love of his

both

mother and
he

for veneration of the saints,

offered votive gifts

a paten of purest gold, weighing 35 lbs. 4 silver candlesticks overlaid with gold, 12 feet in height,

weighing each 200

lbs.
is

a golden crown, that weighing 30 lbs.

jacinths
2

a chandeUer, with 120 dolphins,

3 golden chalices, weighing each 10

lbs., set

with prases and

golden pitchers, weighing each 40

lbs.

an

altar of purest silver, weighing 2cxd lbs.

before the

tomb

of the blessed

Helena Augusta, which is of porphyry carved with images,^

20 silver chandeliers, weighing each 20 lbs.

Likewise for the aforesaid holy Likewise in the basilica of

the

martyrs he gave to the basilica saints Peter and Marcellinus he as a gift gave as a gift

an altar
2

of purest silver, weighing 200 lbs.

lbs.

patens of purest gold, weighing each 15 2 silver patens, weighing each 15 lbs. a large goblet of
the purest
|

gold,

now called Tor Pignattara on the Via Casilina, which was formerly the Via Labicana. The basilica has completely disappeared. An imperial palace stood near by, "ad Duas Lauros,'' near the two laurels, in the time of Seotimus Severus and was the scene in 455. of the assassination of Valentinian The mausoleum is octagonal in shape and surmounted with a dome. In the sixteenth century Bosio saw the ruins of a great courtyard and portico about it, all of which have now vanished. Eusebius says that the body of the empress was transported in state to Rome for burial. Life of Constan-

tine,

Richardson, Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Ser.

2, vol. I, p.

532.

The huge porphyry sarcophagus which was found in the mausoleum of Helena was removed in the twelfth centiuy to the Lateran by Pope Anastasius IV, who destined it for his own sepulchre. Pius \1 transferred it to the Vatican, where it now stands near the sarcophagus from the mausoleum of Constantina. It is adorned with
figures in relief, chiefly battle scenes.

; ;

; ;

SYLVESTER
whereon the name of Augustus was engraved,
weighing 20
lbs. Ibs^

6S

a smaller goblet of gold, weighing 10 S silver goblets, weighing each 12 lbs.

20 silver chalices for service, weighing each 3 4 silver pitchers, weighing each 15 lbs. every year 900 lbs. of pure oil of nard, 100 lbs. of balsam,

lbs.

100

lbs. of spices for

incense for the aforesaid holy mar-

tyrs, blessed

Marcellinus and Peter

the estate of Laurentum near the aqueduct, with a bath, and all the land from the Porta Sessoriana
as
far

as

the

Via

the travellers' road

as far

and the

travellers'

Penestrina,
ris

and

as

the Via

from the Via ItineLatinae as far as

^
;

Latina near Mount Gabus, Mount Ga-

road as far as the Via Latina near

Mount
Mount
self;

Albius,
Albius
it-

Mount Gabus

bus

itself;

the property ,of Helena Augusta, 3aelding 1220 the island of Sardinia^ with aU the property

sol.

belonging to that island,

|

3delding 1024

sol.

the island of
|

Mesenum *

with the property

|

belonging to that island,

3delding 810
sol.

belonging to

it, all

of

it.

It is impossible to form an exact idea of the area meant by this obscure description, though the general location is clear enough. The "aqueduct" may be either the Alexandrine or the Claudian, both of which pass near the Via Praenestina and the Via Latina. Mount Gabus or Monte Cavo may be any one of the hollow hillocks or craters which dot the Campagna. Duchesne, op. cit., p. igQ, n. 91. ' The whol^ island cannot have been conveyed to the basilica. Our author has in all likelihood omitted a list of the particular properties on the island. ' Duchesne suggests that the peninsular of Misenum is intended. That is so nearly an island that it might well pass for one in common speech. Op. cit., p. 199, n. 93.

; ;

; ;;

66

LIBER PONTIFICALIS
the island of Matidia, which
is

Mount

Argentarius,^ yielding

600

sol.
is

the property in the Sabine region^ which

at the foot of

called

Duae Casae,

Mount Lucretius,* yielding

the

200

sol.

At the same time Constantine Augustus

by
request
of
Silvester,

bishop,
built a basilica in the city of Hostia* near Portus, the harbor city
of

Rome,

to the blessed apostles Peter

and Paul and

to

John the

Baptist, where he offered the following

gifts:
I

a silver paten, weighing 30

lbs.

10 silver. chalices, weighing each

two

lbs.
I

5 lbs.
lbs.

2 silver pitchers,

weighing each 10

30

silver

chandeliers,

lamps,

weighing each
2 silver goblets,

5 lbs.
lbs.

weighing each 8

a single silver paten for the chrism, weighing 10 a bowl of silver for baptism, weighing 20
the island which
is

lbs.

lbs.

called Assis,*

which

lies

between Portus

and Hostia
all

the property along the sea as far as Digitus Solis,* yielding

sol.
I

65s

300

sol.

the property of the Greeks in the region of Ardea, yielding 80

sol.

'

Monte Argentaro on

the coast of Tuscany, also a peninsular almost cut

as

oS from

the mainland.

Mount Lucretilis, now known

Ostia.

Monte Genaro, made famous by Horace.

site of

'

Modem

excavations on the

the ancient city have not so far re-

is, of course, the modem Porto on the right bank of the Tiber. * This is apparently the island of the delta, formed by the two branches of the Tiber at its mouth, but the name occurs nowhere else.

vealed any Christian church or monimient.

Portus

'

Unknown.

SYLVESTER
sol.

67

the property of Quiritus in the region of Hostia, yielding 311 the property of Bahieolum in the region of Ostia, yielding 42
sol.;

the property Nymfulae, yielding 30 sol. Likewise that which GalUcanus ^ offered to the aforesaid basilica of the holy apostles Peter and Paul and of John the Baptist;

he offered the following

a a
a silver crown with dolphins, weighing 20 lbs. silver chalice carved in relief, weighing 15 lbs.
silver pitcher,

weighing 18
in

lbs.

the estate

MalHanum^

the Sabine region, yielding 115 and one third

sol.

the estate Picturas

in the region of Vellitras,' yielding 43 sol.

the estate of the Suri on the Via Claudia in the region of

Veii,^ 3delding 56 sol.

the GargiUan estate in the region of Suessa,^ yielding 655

sol.

At this time Constantine Augustus built the basilica of holy John the Baptist in the city of Alba* and offered there the following:
'

The

based upon

Acts of St. Gallicanus, composed later than the Lih. Pont, and in part it, ascribed to him the building of a basilica and hospital at Ostia. It
is
a.

seems likely that the legendary saint

reminiscence of the historical character

Pammachius, the proconsul and senator, who built a church and hospital at Porto toward the end of the fourth century and also the church over the house of the martyrs John and Paul on the Ccelian Hill at Rome. The charitable institution at Porto is the earliest of the kind known. The site has been explored sufficiently to show the general plan a basilica opening off a square court with rooms and halls for the poor
:

and

sick arranged

about

it.

Duchesne, op.

cit.,

p. 199, n. 99.

Frothingham, Monu-

ments of Christian Rome, pp. 48, 49. 2 Magliano, the present seat of the bishopric of Sabinum. ' Velitrae, now VeUetri in Latium. * The ancient Etruscan town stood near the site of the modem village of
"

Isola.

A property of

the same

name and situation

is

included

among

the lands bestowed

upon the Lateran basilica. Supra, p. 49. 'Albano in Latium. Some traces of Constantine's

basilica are said to

be

still

; ;

68

LIBER PONTIFICALIS
a silver paten, weighing 30 a goblet of silver
10
silver
|

lbs.

gilt,

weighing 12

lbs.

chalices for service, weighing each 3 lbs.

2 silver pitchers,

weighing each 20

lbs.
fields,

the property of the

yielding

Lake of Tumus^ with the adjacent

Molae,^

the

estate

of

yielding

60

sol.

SO sol. the property

at Alba with the
|

Lake
160
all

of Alba,' yielding 250 sol.

the estate of Mucus, yielding

sol.
I

170

sol.

empty barracks or houses belonging pality * in the town of Alba,

the

to the munici-

everything in the neighborhood

of

the church of Constantine,

offered

were offered as gifts to the holy church of Constantine;

was

by Augustus
sol. sol.

the property of Hortus, yielding 20

the property of Tiberius Caesar, yielding 280

visible.

De

Rossi has proved that the Christian church of Albano originated probably
of the

in the

century.

Second Parthian Legion, which was stationed there during the third Duchesne, op. cit., p. 199, n. 103. The Laghetto di Tumo, with its recollections of the /Eneid, lies at)OUt two miles from Albano. Funeral inscriptions have been found there testifying to the exist-

camp

ence of a rural Christian community in the sixth century.

n. 104.
'

Duchesne, op.

cit.,

p. 200,

A place called H Molo is now about a The famous Lago di Albano.

These are undoubtedly the buildings

mile from Albano.

left

empty by the departure

of the

Second

Parthian Legion and the population of camp-followers and dependents.

p. 67, n. 6.

See supra,

The word

translated barracks

is

has
tion

its original

Greek sense of tents or camps, rather than with theatres and actors.

"schenica " or "scenica," which here its ordinary Latin associa-

SYLVESTER
the property of Marinse,! yielding 50
the
estate
of
sol.

69

Nemus,^
sol.

yielding 280

the property of Amartianse in the region of Cora, yielding 150

sol.;

the StatiUan property, yielding 70 sol. the Median property, yielding 30 sol.
built a basilica of the apostles within the city of Capua,^ which he called the Constantinian basiUca, and there also he offered the following gifts
2 silver patens,

At the same time Constantine Augustus

3 silver goblets,

weighing each 20 lbs. weighing each 9 lbs.

weighing each 10
lbs.

IS chalices for service, weighing each 2 lbs.

2 silver pitchers,

4 bronze candlesticks, 10
lbs.;

feet in height,

weighing each 180

30

silver chandeliers,

weighing each

5 lbs.

And he

30 bronze chandeliers offered certain property

the Statilian estate in the region of Menturnse,^ yielding 315
sol.

a property in the region of Gaeta,^ yielding 85 sol. the property of Paternum in the region of Suessa, jdelding
150
sol.

the property of

Ad Centum* in

the region of Capua, yielding

60

sol.

a property in the region of Suessa Gauronica,^ yielding 40 sol. the property of Leo, yielding 60 sol.
* 2 '

the Lake of Nemi. There are no visible remains of Constantine's church in the modem Santa Maria di Capua. * Mintumae, a town in Latiimi, the ruins of which are to be seen near the modem
Trajetta.
*

At Marino, near Albano. The place may have some connection with

The
This

ancient Caieta,

now Gaeta

in Latium.

name
is

does not signify, as might be supposed,

"At

the hundredth milestone,"

for

Capua

132 miles from

Rome by way

of the Via Appia, 138

by the Via

Latina.

Duchesne, op. cit.. p. 200, n. 114. ' Unquestionably a corruption for Suessa Aurunca, the
the

full title in

ancient times of

modem Sessa.

; ;

: ;

70

LIBER PONTIFICALIS
At the same time Constantine Augustus
2 silver patens, weighing

built a basilica in the

city of Naples,^ to which he offered the following

each
I

IS lbs.;
2 silver goblets,

25 lbs.;
lbs.

weighing each ten

IS chaUces for service, weighing each 2 lbs.

2 silver pitchers,

weighing each fifteen

lbs.

lbs.

20 silver lamps, weighing each 8

20 bronze lamps,

weighing each lo lbs.

He
forum
in the

built likewise

an aqueduct, 8 miles in length

he built also a

same

city

*
|

and he

offered the following gift

sol.

the property of Macarus, yielding 150 the Cimbrian property, yielding 105 the property of Sclina, yielding 108

sol.

sol. sol. sol.

the property of

Afilae,

yielding 140

the property of Nymfulae, yielding 90

the property of the island' with the fortress, )delding 80

sol.

At the same time

church* in the city of

the blessed Silvester established his parish

Rome in

the Third District, near the baths of

;

Domitian, which are called also the baths of Trajan the parish church of Silvester, to which Constantine Augustus gave
:

'

The

basilica

may have

stood on the

site of

the church of Santa Restituta, the

medieval cathedral of Naples.

A Neapolitan inscription in honor of Constantine has been discovered and two in honor of Helena, but they contain no allusion to public works of this sort. Duchesne,

op.

cit.,

p. 200, n. 116.

Possibly the island of Nisida between Naples

i.e.,

and Pozzuoli,

called in classic

"the island," without other name. The church already described on p. 42. The Third District may be either the ci\'il or ecclesiastical division, for the Third Region of Augustus comprehended this neighborhood. The list of precious vessels and lamps is not dissimilar to the inventory
times "Nesis" or N^cros,
already given for this church, although the latter
the church are, however, quite
diflferent,

may have made two

two
different

sets of extracts

The two lists of lands of by comparison. The author from the same document or may have drawn from
is

longer.

as

may be

seen

documents

of different dates.

Duchesne, op.

cit.,

p. 200, n. 119.

; ;

;;

; ;

SYLVESTER
a a
silver paten,

71

weighing 20

lbs. lbs. lbs.

silver pitcher,

weighing 10

2 silver goblets,

weighing each 8

10 silver chandeliers, weighing each 5 lbs. 16 bronze candelabra, weighing each 40 lbs.
5 silver chalices for service, weighing each 2 lbs. the Percilian estate in the Sabine region, yielding 50 the Barbatian estate in the region of Ferens,i jdelding

sol.

35 and

one third one third

sol.

the Statian estate in the region of Tribula,^ yielding 66 and

sol.

the estate of Beruclae in the region of Cora, yielding 40 sol. the Sulpician estate in the region of Cora, yielding 70
sol.

the estate of Taurus in the region of Beii,' yielding 42 sol. the Sentian estate in the region of Tibur,* yielding 30 sol. the Ceian estate in the region of Penestre,^ yielding 50
sol.

the estate of Termulae in the region of Penestre, yielding 35

sol.

the property of Cylon in the region of Penestre, yielding 59

sol.

He

offered also

all

that was requisite to the parish church of

E qui tins.
This Silvester held 6 ordinations in the month of December, 42
priests, 26 deacons, 65 bishops in divers places.

He was
'

buried in the cemetery of Priscilla* on the Via Salaria,

now Ferentino, a small town on the Via Latina. Trebula was the name of three ItaUan towns, one in Campania, now Maddaloni, the others in Sabinum, one of which is now Monte Leone, the last has disappeared.
Ferentinum,
'

Duchesne
n. 122.
'

is

of the opinion that the second of the three

is

meant

here.

Op.

cit.,

p. 200.

Veii.

The modem Tivoli. ' Prseneste, now Palestrina. ' The little church which stood over the catacomb
*

of PrisciUa

was known as the

Sylvester's
cit.,

church of
pilgrims.

St. Sylvester in the early

Roman

topographies drawn up for the guidance of

of

The

Itinerary ascribed to

WiUiam

Malmesbury mentions
Duchesne, op.

marble tomb.
n. 123-

The

site is

vacant and grassgrown to-day.

p. 200,

72

LIBER PONTIFICALIS
Rome, December
15 days.
31.

three miles from the city of

catholic

He

verily died

and a

confessor.^

And

the bishopric was

empty

XXXV.
see 2 years, 8

Marcxts (336)

Marcus, by nationality a Roman, son of Priscus, occupied the months and 20 days. He was bishop in the time of

Constantine, during the consulship of Nepotianus and Facundus

(a.d. 336),

from February

imtil October

i.

He
dty
of

ordained that the bishop of Hostia,

who

consecrates the
of the

bishop, should wear the pallium and that

by him the bishop

Rome
built

should be consecrated.*

And he made

regulations

for the

whole church.

He

buried,'

two basilicas, one on the Via Ardeatina, where he and one in the city of Rome, in Pallacinis.*

is

' These words testify to the unusual veneration for the memory of Pope Sylvester. In 1632 a silver "corona" of ancient workmanship, bearing a votive inscription to "the holy Silvester," was found in a garden adjacent to Sylvester's parish church, San Martino ai Monti. Duchesne thinlts that the offering may have dated from the latter half of the fifth century. The spurious lives of the pope, with their miracles and mar-

vels,

may have increased popular reverence but

the feeling seems to have existed before

the legends.

Unfortunately, in spite of the length and importance of Sylvester's

pontificate, there are

no authentic documents left to furnish us with an idea of the part he actually played in the stirring events of his day or with more than the vaguest noDuchesne, op. cit., p. 201, n. 125. tion of the situation at Rome under Constantine. ' In the time of Augustine the bishop of Ostia regularly performed the ceremony Duchesne, Lib. Ponl., of consecrating the pope and he retains that right to this day. The use of the pallium or scarf by the bishop seems to have been vol. I, p. 203, n. 2. derived from the use of the pallium as badge of office by the civil magistrates of the fourth and fifth centuries, as depicted on consular diptychs of the period. The earliest writer to refer to the ecclesiastical pallium is St. Isidore of Pelusium about 440. He speaks of the symbolical significance of the garment as of something well known. In the sixth century Symmachus and succeeding popes sent pallia to other bishops.
Frescoes and mosaics of that century at
scarves on the shoulders of bishops.

the ninth century.

Rome and Ravenna imiformly portray these Their use was not confined to archbishops imtil Lowrie, Christian Art and Archteohgy, pp. 407-410.

has

' The small cemeterial church of Santa Balbina near the catacomb of Callistus. It now disappeared. * The modem church of San Marco. It is impossible to attribute anything in the present edifice to the fourth century. The mosaic in the apse dates only from the reconstruction of the church in the ninth century. However, Pope Hadrian IV in

794 cited the mosaics and paintings in the basilica of his day as proofs of the use of images at Rome in the time of the Council of Nicea. Mansi, AmpHssima CoUecUo,

MARCUS, JULIUS

73

He also was buried in the cemetery of Balbina on the Via Ardeatina, which he himself had supervised and built, October 6. And the bishopric was empty 20 days. XXXVI.
Julius,

Julius I (337-3S2)

see 15 years, 2

by nationahty a Roman, son of Rusticus, occupied the months and 6 days. He was bishop in the time of

Constantinus, son of Constantine, the heretic, from the consulship

of Fehcianus (a.d. 337) and of Maximin.^ He endured many tribulations and was in exile 10 months and after the death of this Constan-

tinus he returned in glory to the seat of blessed Peter, the apostle.*

He

built 2 basilicas, one

in the city of

Rome,
|

near the forum,^

and another

across the Tiber

and another on the Via Flaminia.

vol.

Xm,

Cicero,

The name of the region where the church was built is as old as p. 801. who says that Sextus Roscius was killed on his way from dinner "ad balneas PalPro Roscio, VII,
i8.

lacinas," near the Pallacine baths.

Duchesne, op.

cit.,

p. 203,

nn. 5 and

6.

' A catalogue of gifts bestowed by the emperor Constantine upon the church of Santa Balbina and the list of the clergy ordained by Marcus have been omitted. Hereafter such hsts, unless possessing unusual interest or value, wUl not be included in the Those already furnished will serve as types. translation. 2 The Liberian Catalogue has this, "in the time of Constantine, from the consulship of Fehcianus and Titianus (a.d. 337), from February 6 to April 12 in the year when

Constantius was consul for the

^

fifth

time and Constantius was Csesar

(a.d. 352)."

The author

of the Lib. Pont, has inserted here a sentence which

would be more

appropriate in the history of Liberius, the next pope, who was in fact driven into exile through the influence of an heretical emperor. Pope Julius, on the contrary, was sup-

ported throughout his pontificate by the orthodox Constans and after the latter's death by Magnentius. He played an authoritative part in the doctrinal controversies which in his day were distracting the Eastern branch of the church.
*

and

is

The church was rebuilt by Pelagius I in honor of the apostles, Philip and James, now known as Santi Apostoli. Infra, p. 162, n. 2. It stands on the edge of the
The modem
JuUus
basihca of Santa Maria in Trastevere, rebuilt

ancient forimi of Trajan.

'

by Gregory IV

in the

ninth century and

basilica of
first

by Innocent
site

H in the

twelfth.

It is called in the Lib'. Pont, the

until the eighth century,

when

it is

styled the basihca of

church on the

was probably erected by

Callistus but, built in

Mary. The an era of perse-

74

LIBER PONTIFICALIS

and 3 cemeteries, one on the Via Flaminia, another on the Via Aurelia and another on the Via Portuensis.*

He made a regulation that no member of

the clergy should plead

any case in public except in a church,^ and that the information which concerns all in the faith
of the church
|

should be collected by notaries, and that

all

dociraients should be
;

duly recorded in church by the chief of the notaries

or rescripts or manumissions of a

whether bonds

or instruments or deeds of gift or of exchange or of delivery or wills

member
*

of the clergy, they should

be recorded in church within the sacred archives.*

* *
*

*4

He
podus

also
*

was buried on the Via Aurelia

in the cemetery of Cale-

at the third milestone

from the dty of Rome,

April 12.

And
cution,
it

the bishopric was

empty

25 days.

was perhaps only a small and unobtrusive hall of meeting.

See supra, p. 20,

u.sfirst of these three suburban foundations was the great basilica of San Valentwo miles beyond the dty gate of the same name. It is mentioned in the early pilgrim itineraries as a church of exceptional size and beauty but by the fourteenth century it was already in ruins and now hardly a vestige is left above ground. Recent excavations have disclosed the pavement of the nave and apse and have revealed among other objects an epitaph set up in 359, only seven years after the death of Julius. The second of the extramural churches was probably built above the cemetery of Calepodio, where Julius was buried, the third may have been the basilica of Felix, now also dis'

The

tino,

appeared.
'

A repetition of the apocryphal decree

An

already ascribed to Sylvester.

Supra, p. 45,

and
legal

n. 7.

attempt to require all members of the clergy to register deeds, wills and other documents in the episcopal court instead of in the municipal. There is no other

account of such a decree.

Our

text

may

record a custom or a policy which grew

It
is

gradually rather than a formal enactment.

likely that there

up was jealousy bejurisdiction.

tween the ecclesiastical and dvil tribimals and some overlapping of Duchesne, Lib. Font., vol. I, p. 206, n. 10.
' '

List of ordinations.

Pope

Callistus

had been buried

there.

Supra, p. 21, n.

1.

LIBERIUS
XXXVII. LiBERius
Liberius,

75

(352-366)

Roman, son of Augustus, occupied the see 6 years, 3 months and 4 days. He was bishop in the time of Constantius, son of Constantine, to Constantius
nationality a

by

Augustus

III.i

sent into exile by Constantius because he refused to consent to the heresy of Arius, and he was in exile And 3 years. Liberius summoned together the priests and by their counsel or-

He was

dained in his stead Felix, the venerable priest and bishop.^ And Felix held a council and found two priests, Ursacius and Valens by name, in sympathy with Constantius Augustus, the Arian, and in the council of the 48 bishops he expelled them.^
'

The

Liberian Catalogue ends here with the date of the opening of the pontificate
history of Liberius
legend.

of Liberius, 352.
*

The
and

and

Felix, as given in

our text,

is

a strange medley of
Liberius,

facts

The

actual occurrences seem to have been the following.

early in his pontificate,

bishops as members of
to
exile

his refusal he was condemned and spent three years in banishment in Thrace. The Roman clergy meanwhile bound themselves by oath to accept no other bishop during his lifetime. However, the archdeacon Felix shortly afterward came to an understanding with the emperor and was ordained bishop in Liberius' stead and accepted by most of

was required by the emperor the same communion. On

to recognize the Eastern Arian

the clergy in the

Liberius and
357. Liberius

city.

The Roman

people,

on the other hand, remained loyal to

demanded

his recaJI of Constantius,

when

the latter visited the city in

now proved

willing to give certain pledges of tolerance

and returned to

It was planned at first that Liberius 358 to receive an enthusiastic welcome. and Felix should share the duties and prerogatives of the bishopric but outbreaks of violence foUowed the attempt at compromise and Fehx was compelled to leave the city.

Rome in

Later he tried to get possession of the

basilica of Julius,

Santa Maria in Trastevere,

but was forced to

retire.

He

died in November, 365.

Liberius

was

inclined to be for-

giving and restored the adherents of Felix to their original posts, but

many

of his party

were

less placable.

On

the death of Liberius in 366 a schism broke out, the bitter

enemies of Felix chose Ursinus as pope, the moderates, who had upheld the pacifist policy See infra, pp. 79-80. For a discussion of the process of Liberius, chose Damasus. by which the legendary version of these incidents has been evolved and Felix has been
Liberius'

transformed from a heretic supplanter of Liberius to an orthodox saint installed by own hands, as in our text, see Duchesne, Lib. Pont., vol. I, pp. cxx-cxxv. A siunmaiy of Liberius' correspondence with Constantius and with other bishops

on

these matters
'

may be found in JaflF6, Regesta,

pp. 33-3S, 208-228.

The real Ursacius and Valens were bishops of Belgrade and Eszek respectively and the chief representatives of the Arian sect in the West. They had been condemned by the Council of Sardica under Pope Julius but were readmitted to communion by Felix in fulfilment of his agreement with the emperor. The story given in the Lib.
Pont,
is

therefore

an exact

reversal of the truth.

Duchesne, op.

cit.,

p. 208, n. 6.

76

LIBER PONTIFICALIS
But
after a

few days Ursadus and Valens were impelled by zeal

to beseech Constantius Augustus to recall Liberius from exile that

he might maintain one single communion but without baptising a second apart from the second baptism,
time.*

Then

authority was sent by Catulinus, the commissioner,* and

Ursacius and Valens went together to Liberius.

accepted the
of

And

Liberius

commands
I

Augustus

that he should extend the one

single
I

communion

to the heretics, provided only that they should not

administer the second baptism.

Then they

recalled Liberius

from

exile.

And on
from
exile

his return
|

Liberius dwelt in the cemetery of the holy Agnes in the household

of the sister
of Constantius
|

of Constans

Augustus,^ as

if

he thought that through her intervention or at her

request he might

come again into the city. Then Constantia Augusta, who was faithful to the Lord Jesus Christ, would not make request of Constantius Augustus, her

brother, because she understood his design.

At

that time Constantius, in

company with Ursacius and Valens,

assembled some

men who

belonged to the dregs of the Arians and,

pretending that he had held a council, sent and recalled Liberius

from the cemetery

of the blessed Agnes.

to

And

that same hour

all

/..

Liberius

was not expected

demand

the second baptism of

Catholics

who

chose to join the Arian sect, as the Arians themselves did.

of the imperial police instituted

The title here translated commissioner is " agentem in rebus," i.e. one of the agents by Diocletian. They were employed often on business
fact that Liberius decorated the

connected with the general administration.

tomb of St. Agnes may have given rise and the existence of the mausoleimi of Constantina in the neighborhood may have suggested the addition of the princess. As a matter of fact no princess of the name of Constantia or Constantina was living in 358.

The

to the idea of his sojourn at the basilica

Coi&stantina, daughter of Constantine, died in 354.

Duchesne, op.

cit.,

p. 208, n. iol

LIBERIUS
Constantius Augustus entered
heretics

77

Rome and

held a council with the

and Valens and expelled Felix from the bishopric, for he was catholic, and reinstated Liberius. From that day forward there was a persecution of the clergy, so that priests and clergy were slain in church and were crowned with martyrdom.! But Felix, after he was deposed from the bishopric, dwelt on his own estate on the Via Portuensis and there he slept
in peace, July 29.2

and

likewise with Ursacius

Liberius entered the city of

Rome, August

2,

and he was

in accord with Constantius, the heretic.

Nevertheless Liberius was not baptised a second time,

but he gave his consent.

[

And he held the basilicas of the blessed Peter and of the blessed Paul and the basiUca of Constantine for 6 years,^ and there was a
great persecution in the city of

Rome,

so that the clergy

and the

priests could enter neither a church nor a bath.

This Liberius decorated with slabs of marble the sepulchre of holy Agnes, the martyr.

Now
Liberius.*

all

the years of Felix are included within the term of

He
own name
^

built the basilica of his

near the Macellum of Libia

held 2 ordinations.

and

' The extent of the disorder may be inferred from the fact that at the Council of Rimini in 359 there was no representative from the church of Rome. * The antipope Felix II is here confused with a popular saint Felix, of whom nothing is now known but the fact that he was revered in a basilica on the Via Portuensis, perhaps the very basilica erected just before these events by Pope Julius I. Supra, p. 74,
11.

i.

Felix II died

November

22, 36s.

of his death 209, n. 13.

'

and

burial see infra, pp. 78, 79.

For a different but equally erroneous version Duchesne, op. cit., pp. exxiii, cxxiv,

Liberius lived for eight years after his restoration, 358-366.

This sentence would seem to imply that at the date when it was written there was no separate account of Felix 11, such as now follows the hfe of Liberius, and that the separate account was an interpolation of one of the later editors ofthe Lib. Pont. The imtrustworthy character of the account makes this supposition plausible. * Or "near the market of Livia." The famous church of Santa Maria Maggiore. The framework of the structure, the columns and the mosaics of the nave may still go back to Liberius. The church was the battleground of the warring factions under Damasus and underwent a thorough restoration at the hands of Xystus III. Infra,
*

p. 94, n. I.

78
* *

LIBER PONTIFICALIS
*

*^

And he was
cilla,2

buried on the Via Salaria in the cemetery of Pris-

September

9.

April 25. days.

And

the bishopric was

empty 6

XXXVIII. Felix
Felix,

II (355-358)
of Anastasius, occupied the

by

nationality a

Roman, son
days.

see

year, 3

months and

He declared ' that Constantius, son of Constantine, was a heretic

and had been baptised a second time by Eusebius,
bishop of Nicomedia,
in the villa
|

of

Nicqmedia near Nicomedia,

which

is

called Aquilone.*

And

for this declaration,

by order

of the

same Constantius Augustus, son

on the Via
Aurelia,*

of Constantine

Augustus, he was crowned with martyrdom and beheaded.

He
'

built a basilica

List of ordained clergy.

The location

of the

gives an epitaph in verse, copied

ternal evidence he thinks

tomb of Liberius within the cemetery is imknown. Duchesne by a pilgrim of the seventh century, which from in-

may have

been the inscription over the grave of Liberius.

Op.
nn.

cit.,
"

p. 209, n. 19.

For the unreliability of the succeeding narrative see supra, p. 75, n. 2, p. 77, and 4. On p. 77 Felix is depicted as dying peacefully and being buried on the Via Portuensis. Here he defies the emperor, suffers martjrrdom and is buried in his basilica on the Via Aureha. As in the preceding account he was confused with a saint of the same name who was honored on the Via Portuensis, so here he is confused with two other saints, also of the same name, who shared a basilica on the Via Aurelia. It is possible that the story of his martyrdom was drawn from a Passion of one of the older saints. Pope Felix I had also been identified with one of them. Supra, p. 33, n. i. Duchesne,
2

Lib. Ponl., vol. I, pp. cxxiii, cxxiv.

The name is taken from the Chronicle of St. Jerome, who says that Constantine, not Constantius, was baptised near Nicomedia and died soon afterward at a villa called Acyron in the same neighborhood. Jerome, Chronicon, ed. Helm, in Eusebius' Werke,

vol.

Vn,

pt. I, p.

234.

(Die Grieckischen ChrisUichen Schriftsteller der erslen drei

is

Jakrhunderle.)

Our author

at

Rome

(supra, pp. 42, 50)

here trying to defend the story of Constantine 's baptism by explaining away Jerome's statement that he was

baptised in the East.

He

says not only that Constantius, "son of Constantine," was

the one baptised at Nicomedia but also that

The Felix n.

basilica of the

Its site

it was an heretical, second baptism. two saints Felix on the Via Aureha may have been built by has not been discovered.

FELIX
two miles from the city, Where also he is buried,
while he was
filling

II,

DAMASUS

79

the office of priest, and he bought land around

the site of that same church, which he bestowed upon the church

which he had

built.
*

*i

He
headed,
clergy
secretly

also

was be-

He
the

also suffered in

He
with

also suffered in

with

many
the

town

of

Cora,^ the

town

of

Cora,

and

faithful,

many clergy and

near

near

faithful, secretly

walls of the city, beside the aqueduct of

the walls of the city,

beside the aqueduct
of Trajan,

Trajan,

November
with

ii,

and November
the stolen

thence the Christians thence his

and November 11, and body was thence his body was
11,

Damasus,

away

by

stolen

priest, stole

away

his priests arid

clergy

by

body by

night,

away at night and clergy together with Dapriests

masus,

the

priest,

and they buried him and was buried in the and was buried in his basilica, which he aforesaid in his aforesaid ba- basilica himself had built on which he himself had Via silica on the the Via Aubuilt on Aurelia, November 15, the Via Aurelia, November 20, at the relia, November 20,
second milestone.
at

the second mile-

m peace.
And
the bishopric was

stone, in peace.

empty 38

days.

XXXIX. Damasus

(366-384)
of Antonius, occupied

Damasus, by nationality a Spaniard, son

the see 18 years, 3 months and 11 days. And at the time of his ordination ^ Ursinus was ordained also because of a dissension
' 2

List of ordinations.

Cori in the Campagna. The festival of yet another St. Felix was celebrated in the country districts near Rome. There may have been a tradition of his martyrdom

at Cori.

This and the following sentence do not appear in the two

earliest

abridgments

8o

LIBER PONTIFICALIS

and a council of priests was held and they appointed Damasus, inasmuch as the multitude was powerful and very numerous, and thus Damasus was appointed. And they sent Ursinus from the and Damasus abode in city and appointed him bishop of Naples
;

the city of

Rome

as bishop over the apostolic

see.

He was He

bishop in the time of Julian.*

"

82

LIBER PONTIFICALIS
He
searched out

many

bodies of the saints and found them

and marked them with

verses.^

He made a regiilation He was accused

spitefully

for the church.

and charged with adultery and a sjmod was called and he was justified by 44 bishops, who also condemned Concordius and Callistus, the deacons, his accusers, and
expelled
|

ejected

them from the church.^

He
*

appointed the basilica which he had built as a parish church

in the city of *

Rome.'
*

in

He appointed that the psalms should be chanted day and night aU the churches and he gave this command to priests and bishops
by Duchesne,
place,
op.
cit.,

printed
English.

p. civ, n. i.

The

following

is

a rough rendering in

you should know, was once the dwelling of saints; may learn, were Peter and lilcewise Paul. The East sent hither these disciples, as freely we confess. For Christ's sake and the merit of His blood they followed Him among the stars And sought the realms of heaven and the kingdoms of the righteous. Rome was deemed worthy to preserve them as her citizens. May Damasus offer them these verses, new stars, in their praise ' At the time when the Liber Pontificalis was written the beautiful inscriptions of Damasus still marked almost all of the numerous shrines and tombs of saints and martyrs that filled the environs of the city and were the resorts of pilgrims and sightAlready the identity of some sepulchres had been confused, others had been seers. buried deep and altogether forgotten and his work of restoration and identification came in the nick of time. Frothingham, op. cil., pp. 45, 46. De Rossi has made a collection of the Damasian inscriptions as far as they can be recovered. Inscriptiones Christiana: Urbis Roma, vol. II. ' Pope Damasus was accused in his old age of some grave ofifence, but the charge was brought by a converted Jew, not by his deacons, and the case was tried before the The emperor Gratian intervened and prefect of Rome, not before a church council. Damasus was acquitted. The nature of the indictment is not known, but it seems unDamasus was about seventy-five years old at the time. likely to have been adultery.
"This
Their names, you
!

Duchesne, op.
' I.e.

cit.,

p. 214, n. 15.

in

San Lorenzo in Damaso. It is mentioned as a " titulus," or parish church, the documents of the Roman synod of 499. * Lists of gifts to the basilica and of ordinations.

DAMASUS, SIRICIUS
and monasteries.^ He also was buried on the Via Ardeatina in own basiUca, December 11, near his mother and his sister.^ And the bishopric was empty 31 days.

83
his

XL. Smicius
Siricius,

(384-399)
of Tiburtius, occupied the

see 15 years.

by nationaHty a Roman, son He made a regulation for

through the prov-

the whole church

all

and sent
inces.'

it

against
it

the heresies and sent

throughout the entire world,

it

that
the

might be preserved in
of

archives

every church

for a defense against all heresies.'*

He
crated
trict

ordained
that no priest could perform

that without the leaven conse-

by

the bishop of the dis-

masses
unless

during

all

the

week,
the
dis-

no priest could perform the

he
of

received

from

rite of consecration.^

bishop
trict
is

the

particular

the consecrated sign which

called the leaven.

'

This decree

is

an

interpolation, suggested

apocryphal

letters written ostensibly

subject of Jerome's edition of

by the existence in later times of two by Damasus and St. Jerome to one another on the the Psalter. The earliest text of the Liber Pontificalis
I.

attributed the institution of the recitation of the Psalms to Celestine

p. 92.

See infra,

Duchesne, op.

cit.,

p. 214, n. 17.
i.

Damasus' own epitaph and the tender one he wrote whose death robbed him of the fear of death, have both survived. His mother's has been lost. Duchesne, op. cit., p. 215, n. 18. ' The following letters written by Siricius and containing general instructions for the government of the church are still preserved one to the bishop of Tarragona giving fifteen canons for the churches in Spain, Gaul and Carthage, another to the church in Africa reporting the decrees of the synod held at the Vatican in 386 and others to the bishops in Illyria and to the orthodox throughout the provinces respecting the need
^Cf. supra, p. 81, n.
for his

young

sister Irene,

of care in ecclesiastical appointments.

2S9. 263-

Jaff6, Regesta, vol. I,

pp. 40-41, 255, 257, 258,

* The author of this reading had, perhaps, in mind a letter addressed by Siricius to the church at Milan on the subject of the heretic emperor Jovinian. Jafid, op. cit.,

p. 41, 260.
'

A repetition in substance of the decree of MUtiades.

Supra, p. 41, u.

2.

84

LIBER PONTIFICALIS
He
found Manicheans
'
|

in the city

and dispatched them

into exile

and ordained that

they should not partake of com-

munion with the faithful, because the holy body of the Lord
polluted mouth.

ought not to be mutilated in a He ordained

that
if

any Manichean were converted and returned

to the church he

should in no wise be admitted to communion, except he were kept

in the restriction of a monastery as one guilty every

day

of his

life, that so he might afflict himself with fastings and prayers and prove himself under every trial until the day of his death and thus

through the clemency of the church might obtain his viaticum.

He

ordained that a heretic

|

should be reconciled

should be received

through the imposition of hands in the presence of the whole

church.^
*

if

4<3

The second notice of Manicheans in Rome. (C/. supra, p. 41 and n. i.) That they were active in the time of Siridus we Icnow from the writings of Augustine, but that Siricius undertoolc any such campaign against them as is indicated here is ex-

tremely doubtful.
entered the
lists

At

least

Augustine says nothing of

it.

Leo

I,

a half century

later,

against them, procured the exile of some and the reconciliation of others to the church, but his labors in this direction are not mentioned in the Liber

Duchesne, Lib. Pcmt., vol. I, p. 216, n. 3. perhaps the first of the numerous episcopal decrees cited in the Liber Pontificalis known to be derived from a specific and authoritative documentary source. It is evidently based upon the letter of Siricius to Himerius of Tarragona. "At the opening of your letter you stated that many who had been baptised by the impious
Pontificalis.
'

This

is

Arians were hastening to adopt the Catholic faith and that some of oiu: brethren would have them baptised a second time; but that is not permissible ... for we admit Novatians and other heretics to the community of Catholics by merely the invoca. tion of the sevenfold Spirit and the lajring on of the episcopal hand." Mansi, Amplissima CoUecHo, vol. m, p. 655. Cf. Introduction, p. viii, and supra, p. 83, n. 3. The method of reinstating a heretic was first prescribed, according to our author, by Eusebius. Supra, p. 40 and n. 1.
. .

List of ordinations.

SIRICIUS,

ANASTASIUS

85

He
.

also

was buried
22.

in the cemetery of Priscilla on the Via

Salaria,^

February

And

the bishopric was

empty 20 days.
I (399-401)

XLI. Anastasius

Anastasius, by nationality a Roman, son of Maximus, occupied the see 3 years and 10 days. He ordained that whenever the holy gospels were read the
priests should not sit but stand with

bowed

heads.^

He made

regulation for the church.

He built also the basilica which is called the Crescentian in the Second District on the Via Mamurtini in the city of Rome.*
And
sea

he ordained
that no one from beyond
sea

that no cleric from beyond the

the

should be received
I

into the ranks of the clergy

.

unless he showed the signature of 5 bishops

1 *

In the basilica of Sylvester.

The

Duchesne gives His epitaph. Op. cit., p. 217, n. 5. Apostolic Constitutions, which represent the early Syrian usage, direct that

priests and deacons shall stand during the reading of the Gospel. Sozomen, the fifth century historian, says that in his day the Alexandrian custom was peculiar in allowing

the bishop to keep his

Fathers,
ser.
2, vol.

seat.

Ecclesiastical History, VII, ig, tr.

Nicene and Post-Nicene

II, p. 390.

Duchesne thinks

it

possible that the Alexandrian

custom was
Pont., vol.
'

in this respect, as in others, a reflection of the

custom at Rome.

Lib.

I, p.

218, n.

I.

The

site of this basilica is

name,

after the fifth century.

now unknown. It is not mentioned, at least under The Via Mamurtini is usually identified with
lies

this

the

modem Via Marforio, but

and
ecclesiastical.
*

the latter street

outside the Second Districts, both civil

Gregory I, in a letter to one of his bishops, gives the following injunction. "Do not on any consideration accept Africans or unknown travellers who claim admission to ecclesiastical orders, for some of the Africans are Manicheans and others rebaptised moreover, many strangers who were actually members of the lower orders are known to have laid claim often to higher honors." Epistola, II, 37 Migne, Patrologia Latina, The Liber Pontificalis demands an especially high guarantee of vol. 77, col. S7Shonesty. In ordinary circumstances an African priest or bishop on a visit to Rome
;

took with him credentials signed simply by the primate of his province or the bishop of Carthage in order to gain access to the communion of the Roman church, but more may have been required of one who wished to be ordained at Rome. Duchesne, op.
cit.,

p. 218, n. 4.

86

LIBER PONTIFICALIS
on accoimt
of the

because at that time Manicheans

Manicheans.

were found in the city of Rome.

*
1

He

also

was buried

in his

own cemetery near

empty

the Ursus

Pileatus,^ April 27.

And

the bishopric was

21 days.

XLII. Innocent
Innocent,

I (401-417)

by

nationality an Alban, son of Innocent, occupied

the see 15 years, 2 months and 21 days. He made a regulation for the whole church and statutes concerning monastic rules and concerning Jews and pagans
*

and he

found

many

Catafrigians

in the city

whom he constrained to exile in a monastery. He found Pelagius * and Caelestius, the

'

heretics,

and con-

List of ordinations.

The

Salzburg Itinerary, one of the early guides for pilgrims, mentions the

tomb
cit.,

of

Pope Anastasius on the Via Portuensis, not far from the city gate.

Duchesne, op.

p. 219, n. 5.

The name

of the district, Ursus Pileatus,

is

explained

by the

tale that

Gregorovius, there stood there once the image of a bear with a cap upon its head. History of the City of Rome, tr. Hamilton, vol. I, bk. II, p. 256. A number of the letters and decretals of Innocent I have survived but none
dealing particularly with monastic organization, Jews or pagans.
pp. 44-49, 285-327.
Jafffi,

Regesta, vol. I,

Migne, Pal. Lai., vol. XX. I.e. Phrygians. The Theodosian Code (lib. XVI, 5, 40) contains a law of HonoThe rius, dated February 407, against Manicheans, Phrygians and Priscillianists. term Phrygian is used as a synonym for Montanist. ' The famous heretic and exfionent oi the doctrines of the original soundness of human nature and the freedom of the will as against Augustine's theories of original He and his friend Celestius were in sin and absolute dependence upon divine grace. Rome for several years before the sack of Alaric, 410. The two then crossed to Africa, where Celestius was tried for heresy and excommunicated by a synod called by the bishop of Cartilage. Pelagius meanwhile had gone on to Palestine, where in time he too was summoned on a charge of heresy before a synod at Diospolis (Lydda) but was acquitted. The African church felt that a reflection was thereby cast upon its action

and in 416 sent an appeal on the whole matter to Innocent at Innocent upheld the African position and denounced the peculiar tenets of His letters in reply to the appeal may be found summarized in Jaff^, op. cit., Pelagius.
in the case of Celestius

Rome.
p. 48,
et seq.

321-323.

Mansi

gives the entire text.

Amplissima CoUeclio,

vol. Ill, pp. 1071

INNOCENT

87

demned them. And he ordained that the child of a Christian woman must be born a second time through baptism, that is must
be baptised, a doctrine which Pelagius condemned.^ At the same time he dedicated the basiKca of the holy Gervasius

and

Protasius,^ built
I

by bequest,
as the gift of an illustrious lady
tion of the priests Ursicinus

named

Vestina, under the direc^

and Leopardus

and the deacon Livia-

nus.

And

the aforesaid lady

made

provision in her will that the

basiUca of the holy martyrs should be built from the proceeds of

her jewels and her pearls, which should be sold at a

that the building should be carried on until
it

fair price,

and

was complete.
for that

The
s^me

most blessed Innocent, by request

church she
4:

of the illustrious lady Vestina,

appointed the basihca a parish church of

oflFered
:|c

Rome and
*

4:

4:

Hs

*i

and three twelfths of the Porta Nomenand one third sol. He decreed that the sabbath should be observed as a fast day, because on the sabbath the Lord was laid in the tomb and the
three twenty-fourths
tana, yielding 22
disciples fasted.^

He appointed that the basihca of the blessed Agnes, the martyr, should be administered and cared for by the priests Leopardus and Pauhnus and should be roofed over and decorated at their dis'

One

corollary of Pelagius' teachings

was that unbaptised infants have

eternal

life.

" Titulus Vestinae." of San Vitale is on the same site as this This same priest helped in the construction and embellishment of the church of Santa Pudenziana under Siricius and in the restoration of San Lorenzo under Zosimus. See infra, p. 89, n. 3. Frothingham, Monuments, pp. 49. S> S4, SS2
'

The modem church

Long Ust of gifts to the new basilica, precious vessels, houses, lands and

finally one-

eighth of the customs collected at the Porta Nomentana. 5 Another decree with a clear basis in a genuine document. following passage to Decentius, bishop of Gubbio, contains the

The
:

letter of

Innocent

"Therefore we do not

same fast should be observed on the sixth day but we maintain that the grief to the apostles should be practiced on the sabbath, because both days brought and those who had been with Christ." Mansi, AmpUssima Collectio, vol. Ill, p. 1028
deny that
Jafffi,

Regesta, vol. I, p. 47, 31 1-

88
cretion.^

LIBER PONTIFICALIS
The
*

control of the aforesaid parish church of Vestina

was

entrusted to the priests.

*
* *

He ako was
Jvme
27.

buried in the cemetery near Ursus Pileatus,'

July 28.
I

And

the bishopric was

empty

22 days.

XLIII. Zosmus (417-418)

Zosimus, by nationality a Greek, son of Abramius, occupied the
see
7 years, 9

months and 24 days.

year, 3

months and

11

days.

He made many
shoulders
in all the parishes
*

decrees for the church and ordained that dealeft

cons should wear napkins of wool and linen to cover their

and that the

and that

in all the parishes per-

wax should be

blessed.*

mission should be granted to

bless the wax.

He
'

likewise gave order that

no member

of the clergy should

Agnes, being outside the walls of the city, may have suffered hands of the horde who accompanied Alaric. For a description of the destruction that marked the sack of 410 see Lanciani, Destruction of Ancient Rome, ch. V, pp. 56-70; Gregorovius, History of Rome, tr. Hamilton, vol. I, chs. Ill and
b^isilica of St.

The

especially at the

IV.
' ' *

List of ordinations.

See supra,

p.

86 and n.

2.

extension to the deacons of the "parish" or suburban churches of the right to wear the maniple bestowed by Sylvester upon the Roman deacons. Supra, p. 45 and n. 6. Neither this nor the following decrees are found among the records of Zosimus elsewhere preserved.
in the first column translated "wax" is "cera," in the second Duchesne suggests that the "cera" was the wax used in Roman churches for modelling little forms of the Agnus Dei to distribute to the people at Easter time., The custom of blessing this wax and moulding the lambs is described in an Ordo Romanus of the ninth century. On the other hand the " cereus " is undoubtedly wax for lighting, and Duchesne conjectures that the author of the second text had in mind the blessing of

An

'The Latin word

"cereus."

the Paschal candle, formulae for which were drawn

up

early in the sixth century.

Duchesne, Lib. Pont.,

vol. I, p. 225, n. 2.

'

ZOSIMUS, BONIFACE

89

drink in public, except in a chamber belonging to the faithful, preferably to the clergy. 1

He also was buried on the Via Tiburtina, near the blessed Lawrence, the martyr,' December 26.
And
the bishopric was

body

of

empty

11 days.

XLIV. Boniface

I (418-422)

Boniface, by nationality a Roman, son of locundus, the priest, occupied the see 3 years, 8 months and 6 days. He was ordained by one faction on the same day as Eulalius and
there

was dissension among the clergy

similar ordinance

for 7

months and 15 days.*

and the Council of

was passed by the Council

of Laodicea

Carthage in the fourth century.

2 '

List of ordinations.

of

An inscription which was visible in the ninth century near the choir of the basilica San Lorenzo recorded the repair and rebuilding of the church by the priest Leopardus
own
expense in the time of Zosimus.
Cf. supra, p. 87

at his

and

n. 3.

Duchesne

thinks that Leopardus' reconstruction

to the level of the saint's

may have included the sinking of tie old basilica

have

to be reached

tomb and the Constahtinian confession so that one did not by a stairway from the other as in Constantine's day, but the whole
it is

structure

was

partially subterranean, as

at present.

Cf. supra, p. 61.

If

that

was then provided with a new entrance, a flight of stairs leading from the ground outside down into a vestibule, an arrangement similar to that now to be seen at Sant' Agnese. After the small basilica was united with the larger by Honorius III the independent entrance was closed up and the small church was
case, the
itself

was the

church

reached only through the larger one, as it is to-day. The three niches in the vestibule, the middle one of which is now occupied by th^tomb of Pius DC, were apparently used for burial places soon after Leopardus finished them. At least De Rossi believes that

Zosimus was interred in one, Xystus III and Hilary Duchesne, op. cit., p. 197, n. 84. 104.
*

in the other twoj

Infra, pp. 97,

Enough

of the history of this brief schism has been recovered to

make

clear the

Pope Zosimus was buried Friday, December 27, 418. On their return from his obsequies the Roman deacons, headed by Eulalius, the archdeacon, seized the basilica of the Lateran, shut out the priests and elected Eulalius as Zosimus' The priests on the next day elected Boniface, one of their number, in spite successor. of his own protests. Both parties held ordination ceremonies on Sunday, Eulalius and
narrative of the Lib. Pont.
his adherents in the Lateran, having dragged the bishop of Ostia
officiate,

from a sick bed to

Boniface in another church in the presence of nine other bishops.

Both

claimed thereafter the authority of pope.

The

dispute was referred to Honorius at

90
Eulalius

LIBER PONTIFICALIS
was ordained
in the basilica of Constantine

and Boniface

in the basilica of Julius.^

At

the same time Pladdia Augusta heard of

it,

when she was

and

sojourning at

Ravenna with her

it

son, Valentinian Augustus,

she reported

to

Honorius Augustus who was at Milan.

Then

both the Augusti sent authority and commanded that the two bishops should depart from the city.^ And after they were driven out Boniface dwelt in the cemetery of the holy FeUcitas, the martyr,

on the Via Salaria, and Eulalius in the town of Antium the holy Hermes.

near

But when the next Easter came Eulalius was presumptuous,

because he had been ordained in the basilica of Constantine, and

he entered into the city and baptised and celebrated Easter in the basilica of Constantine but Boniface celebrated the baptism of
;

Easter, as

was

his custom, in the basilica of the holy

martyr Agnes.*

Ravenna, who ordered both

justify their pretensions.

rivals to

The

council

appear before a council of Italian bishops and met in February or early March but seemed

unable to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion. It was accordingly decided to convoke another in May, to which the bishops of Gaul and Africa should also be invited. Meanwhile, in order that Easter, which fell that year on March 30, might be celebrated
peaceably in Rome, the council and emperor together determined that Boniface and Eulalius should remain outside the city in places appointed for them and that Achilleus,
bishop of Spoleto, should preside over the Paschal ceremonies within the city. Boniface obeyed the injunction but Eulalius made his way back to Rome, summoned his

party about him, and on Good Friday took possession again of the Lateran.
prefect of the city

The

was obliged

to dislodge

him by

force

and to station guards around

the bishop of Spoleto while he performed the episcopal

refractoriness

office.

Honorius sent a

letter shortly to

Rome

declaring

Boniface the true pope.

On

April lo Boniface

little over three months. Duchesne, Lib. Pont., vol. I, p. 228, nn. i and 2. Ja.S6, Regesta, vol. I, pp. 51-53. ' Boniface I was neither elected nor ordained in the basilica Julia. An eye-witness to his ordination says that it took place in the church of Marcellus, i.e. San Lorenzo in Lucina. Our author has substituted the name of the basilica where Boniface II was ordained when a rival excluded him also from the Lateran. Infra, p. 140. ' There is no other mention of the participation of the Empress Placidia in this affair. Her son Valentinian, if bom at this date, was an infant of a few months only.
'

received with general rejoicing.

made his The schism had lasted a

As a result of Eulalius' him a pretender and entry into the city and was

The modem Porto

It

d'Anzio.

Cf. supra, p. 50, n.

2.

seems curious that Boniface should have been allowed to remain in such close proximity to the dty while Eulalius was banished to Antium. It is possible that Boniface's stay in the cemetery of Felicitas is purely legendary, suggested by the fact that

he restored
aid.

later the oratory of Felicitas

and

set

up an

inscription of gratitude for her

Cf. infra, p. 91.

BONIFACE
a synod was held and was deposed by 52 bishops, because he had not been
Eulalius
rightfully ordained,

91
the Augusti heard this,
sent

And

When
Eulalius
their

they both

and
they

expelled

by

52 bishops

and by
recalled

and Boniface

authority

took the seat of bishop by general consent and Eulalius was

Boniface into the city of Rome and appointed him bishop but

appointed bishop for the town of

Nepete.^

they sent

Eulalius

away

into

Campania.

And after 3 years and 8 months Boniface died. The clergy and the people asked that Eulalius be recalled.^ Nevertheless Eulalius refused to return to Rome. And in that same place in Campania, a year after the death of Boniface, EulaHus died.
Boniface decreed that no secrated altar cloth or wash

woman
it

or nun should touch the conor offer incense in church but only

the ministering attendants;* and that no slave should be admitted to the clergy nor any man liable to curial service or any

other exaction.*
built an oratory in the cemetery of the holy Felicitas near her body and beautified the sepulchre of the holy martyr, Felicitas, and of the holy Silvanus.^
*

He

The town

of Nepi on the northern border of the Roman province. In 420, a year after entering upon his office, Boniface fell seriously

ill.

dissension arose over the question of his successor.

Upon

his recovery

At once he wrote to

Honorius to ask that measures might be taken to prevent a fresh outbreak of the schism at his death. Honorius repUed with an edict to the effect that in case of a double election the two rival candidates should henceforth both be debarred and that a new pope should be chosen who could obtain the support of every one. Unfortunately the edict could not always be enforced. Duchesne, op. cit., p. 229, n. 10. Jaff6, Regesta,
vol. I, p. 53, 3S3.
'

The

exclusion of

women from

and

invariable practice as early as there

*

the ministry of the altar was already the ancient is any reference to the subject.
this period

There was apparently throughout

a regulation against the ordination

class.

of slaves

and

"curiales."

Innocent I excluded the latter

Jaff^, op.

cit.,

p. 47,

Duchesne, op. cit., p. 229, n. 12. ^ De Rossi has identified the cemetery of Felicitas with a catacomb and group of tombs to the right of the Via Salaria about a mile from the city. The oratory of Boni314.

mentioned in itineraries of the seventh century, although no traces of it are now His inscription, however, may be read in Duchesne. There still exists within the city, near the baths of Trajan, a chapel to the saint, dating from the time of Boniface and perhaps built also by him. It is decorated with a fresco representing the martyred Felicitas and her seven sons, among whom was the Silvanus noted in the Duchesne, ibid., n. 13 ; Frothingham, Monuments, pp. 55-56. text.
face
is

to be found.

92
*

LIBER PONTIFICALIS
*
also

He

was buried
on the Via Salaria, near the body of the holy Felicitas, the
martyr.

in the cemetery of holy Felicitas,

the martyr, on the Via Salaria,

October

25.

And

the bishopric was

empty 9 days.

XLV. Celestine
Celestine,

I (422-432)

by

nationality
|

a Campanian,

a Roman,

son of Priscus, occupied the see 8 years, 10 months and 17 days.

of

He made many regulations and appointed that the 150 psalms David should be chanted antiphonally before the sacrifice by everyone ^ this was not done prcA^ously but only the epistle of blessed Paul, the apostle, was read and the holy gospel,
;

and thus masses were performed.

He made

a regulation for the whole church, in particular with

it is

regard to the religious hfe, and to this day

the archives of the church.'

kept preserved in

He
Gothic

dedicated the basilica of Julius and offered there after the

fire
*
:

a silver paten, weighing 25

'

lbs.

and list of ordinations. Psalms was at first a feature of the liturgy of the Eastern church and thence was adopted into the service in Italy. It is known to have been the practice in Milan in 387. This, of course, is the psalmody before public mass as distinct from the psalmody of the canonical hours of prayer. With the recitation of the Psalms followed by the Epistle and Gospel the office of the mass was assuming shape. Duchesne, Lib. Pont., vol. I, p. 231, n. i.
list of gifts

Short

to the oratory of the

The antiphonal chanting

affairs in

No

still in existence. They relate to ecclesiastical Gaul, Africa, lUyria and Britain and to Nestorius and the Coimdl of Ephesus. one of them corresponds to the description here. Jafffi, Regesta, vol. I, pp. ss-S7>
'

Several letters of Celestine are

366-388.
*

Santa Maria in Trastevere.

See supra, p. 73 and n.

5.

This

is

one of the

rare,

surviving allusions to the

damage done by

Alaric's raid of 410.

Orosius says that

in

Alaiic charged his soldiers to respect the sanctuaries of Peter

and Paul, but churches

CELESTINE
He
And

I,

XYSTUS

III

93
*i

also

was buried

in the cemetery of Priscilla

on the Via

Salaria, April 6.

the bishopric was

empty

21 days.

XLVI. Xystus

III (432-440)

Xystus, by nationality a Roman, son of Xystus, occupied the

and 19 days. After one year and 8 months he was accused by a Bassus,*
see 8 years

man

called

and by order of Valentinian Augustus a synod was held and

a great
trial

Then
heard
council

Valentinian
it

Augustus and ordered a holy

synod to be called together as a and when it was convened there was a great trial and the s)Tiodical judgment
;

was given and he was acquitted by 56 bishops and they expelled Bassus from
the commvuaion.

and Bassus was condemned by the synod but with the provision that at his death the vi-

aticum should not be denied

him
for the sake of

mercy
of

and

the

compassion

the

church.
other parts of the city apparently were not spared.
Orosius, Historiarum Adversum Zangemeister (Teubner), pp. 292-293. See also

Paganos Libri VII, VII,

infra, p. 95, n.
'

39, ed.

i.

List of gifts offered to the churches of JuUus, Peter

The whole

of the ensuing account of the accusation

and Paul. List of ordinations. and trial of Xystus is apocry-

phal, taken with modifications from a narrative entitled Gesta de Xysti Purgatione,

which was composed about the year sot, the period when the Gesta Liherii, the legend was also fabricated. See supra, p. 75, n. 2. Xystus III was never tried The chief concerns of his pontificate were problems of dogma and the for any crime.
of Liberius,

Pelagian and Nestorian heresies.

The

story here given

trial of

one who aimed to create a precedent f or.the

is obviously the work of some Pope Symmachus by a church council

94

LIBER PONTIFICALIS
When
Valentiman Augustus heard this and his mother, Placidia filled with holy wrath and proscribed Bassus

Augusta, they were

by an

edict

and bestowed

all

the lands of his estates upon the

catholic church.

And

Bassus,

by

the will of God, died within

3 months.
his

And

Xystus, the bishop, with his

own hands wrapped

body

in linen cloths

and

spices

and

laid it near blessed Peter,

the apostle, in his family burial chamber.

He

built the

basiUca of the holy Mary, which was called by

the ancients the basilica of Liberius,* near the

MaceUum
*

of Lybia,

and he offered there

*
*

the tenements adjoining the steps of the basilica and tained therein.

all

con-

He

adorned with

silver

the confession of blessed Peter, the

apostle, to the weight of four

hundred pounds.
a golden
relief

At

his solicitation

Valentinian Augustus
12 apostles

ofifered

with 12 doors and the

of great price,'

and the Savior, adorned with jewels

the which as a votive gift he set

up
over the confession of blessed Peter, the apostle.
at the direction of Theodoric.
also

See infra, pp.

1 1 7-1 18.

The history of Pope Damasus was

;

tampered with for a similar purpose. Supra, pp. 79, u. 3 82, n. 2. In the narrative here Valentinian plays the part of Theodoric later. Anicius Bassus was a consul in 431 and his name was probably found in the Fasti. The two special features of this story, the confiscation of Bassus' goods for the benefit of the Roman church and his burial near the tomb of Peter, were no doubt suggested, the one by the basilica of Junius Bassus, consul in 317, which had been converted into a church before the year 500 and the other by the sarcophagus of another Junius Bassus, who died in 359, which is still one of the ornaments of the Vatican crypt. Duchesne, Lib. Pont., vol.
I,

pp. cxxvi, cxxvii.

'The

basilica of
tr.

History of Rome,

Santa Maria Maggiore. See supra, p. 77, n. 5; Gregorovius, Hamilton, vol. I, pp. 184-189. Xystus did not build the basilica

it. He added the mosaics of the triumphal arch which proclaim the divine motherhood of Mary, the dogma enunciated by the Council of Ephesus during Xystus'

but restored
pontificate.

PLEBI DEI,"
' '

List of

Above them his inscription may still be Bishop Xystus to the People of God. gifts to the basilica of Mary.

read,

"XYSTUS EPISCOPUS

is one of the notable works of art mentioned by Pope Hadrian in his letter Charlemagne on the sacred images at Rome. Mansi, Amplissima CoUectio, vol. XIII, p. 801. It was probably destroyed during the sack of the Saracens in 846. A design showing Christ and the apostles seated beneath the arcades of a portico is found on many sarcophagi of the fourth and fifth centuries.

This

to

XYSTUS

III

95

Likewise Valentinian Augustus, at the request of Xystus, the bishop, erected a ciborium of silver in the basilica of Constantine,

which
weighed 2,000 pounds,
in place of the
|

weighed 1,610 pounds,

one which had been destroyed by the barbarians.^ time Valentinian Augustus made the confession of blessed Paul, the apostle, out of silver, weighing 200 pounds. Also Xystus, the bishop, set up the confession of blessed Lawrence, the

At

this

martyr,^ with porphyry columns and adorned

with slabs
|

the screen and the altar and the confession of holy Lawrence, the
martjn:, with purest silver,

he made an altar
|

weighing 50 lbs. silver rails over the porphyry

slabs,

weighing 300

lbs.

an apse

'

above the

rails

with a
lbs.

silver figure of blessed

Lawrence,

the martyr, weighing 200

He
lowing
*
1

built also the basilica to the holy Lawrence,^

which Valen-

tinian Augustus granted to him, where likewise he offered the folgifts

*5
of Alaric.

1.e.

in place of the one given

n. 2.

by Constantine and removed by the Goths

Supra, p. 47,
2

The

rich confession of St. Lawrence, built in the time of Constantine {Supra,

had apparently been plundered also by the Goths, so that Xystus found it necessary to restore most of the furniture. Duchesne thinks that the porphyry columns of Xystus are those which still support the ciborium and that the porphyry
p. 62),

slabs of Xystus' screen

' I.e.

now

enclose the altar.

a niche to hold the image of the saint. * The larger basilica of San Lorenzo fuori le Mura, forming the body of the present structure and connected with the smaller and older church in the thirteenth century.
Supra,
p. 61, n. 2.

This

is

the generally accepted view, although Mr. Frothingham

claims to have grounds for maintaining that Xystus III built the church of San Lorenzo The latter was certainly in existence in Lucina instead of the basilica outside the city.
before the end of the fifth century, but there is no monument or record to connect with Xystus beyond the ambiguous notice here. Duchesne, op. cit., p. 23s, n. 12.

it

Frothingham, Monuments,
5

p. 407.

List of precious utensils given to the basilica of St. Lawrence.

96

LIBER PONTIFICALIS
He
built also a

monastery at
a

the Catacombs.*

He
tified it

built

also

baptismal
beau-

font for the holy

Mary and

with porphyry columns.*

erected in the baptistery
basilica

He
of

He

built

in

the

basilica

of

the

of

Constantine Constantine

decoration

which prelected in the time of Constan- viously had not been there; tine Augustus, eight in number, that is, he set up the marble made of porphyry; and he set architraves and the porphyry them in place and decorated colunms which Constantine them with letters and verses * Augustus collected and laid together and ordered to be set up and he adorned them with also a tablet in the cemetery of verses. He placed a tablet in Callistus, where he recorded the the cemetery of Callistus on the names of the bishops.^ Via Appia, where he inscribed the names of the bishops and martyrs for a memorial.
the font,
;

the columns which had been col- around

of San Sebastiano, one of the first, if not actually the first, to be suburban church, in order to provide for the religious services which could no longer be adequately maintained by the clergy of the urban basilica with which the cemeterial church was connected. For the site see supra, p. 8i and n. 2.
>

The monastery

built adjoining a

'
'

No
The

trace of this baptistery

now

remains.
inscription

eight porphyry columns

and the

upon the architrave may

still

be seen in the Lateran baptistery. Cf. supra, p. 50. * The marble tablet was set up in the papal crypt of the catacomb of Callistus and bore the names of the martyred popes and other saints who were buried there. Duchesne gives a conjectural reading of the inscription, as made out by De Rossi

"The Names
tery of Callistus

of the Bishops,

Martyrs and Confessors who are buried in the Ceme-

Xystus

XYSTUS
* *

III,

LEO
*

I
* *
*
1

97

Peter, the bishop, built the basilica of the

And

in his

time

holy Savina in the city of

Rome
in a crypt,

and erected there a

font.^

He

also

was buried on the Via Tiburtina

near the holy Lawrence.'

near the body of the blessed Lawrence.

And

the bishopric was

empty

22 days.

From
to

the death of Silvester

years, 5

Leo I is 99 and 26 days.

months

XLVII. Leo

I (440-461)

Leo, by nationality a Tuscan, son of Quintianus, occupied the

see 21 years,
i

month and

13 days.

He made
church.

a regulation for the

the holy Stephen in her

milestone.*

In his time Demetria, the handmaid of God, built a basilica to own garden on the Via Latina at the third

He foimd two heresies, Eutyches and Nestorius,*

the Eutychian through and the Nes- aid of

torian.

the

some

bishops.
List of ordinations.

'

Minor

gifts to

the churches of Peter, Paul and Lawrence.

Santa Sabina on the Aventine. Its graceful columns are supposed to have been taken from a neighboring temple to Juno Regina, despoiled by Alaric. Its famous carved doors of cypress wood are among the finest examples of
^

The

basilica of

fifth

century

art.

ing was begun while Celestine was pope.

'

According to the dedicatory inscription over the entrance the buildIt may have been finished under Xystus.

On

this place see supra, p. 89, n. 3.

is Anicia Demetrias, of the house of the Anicii Probi, one of the group of devout women at Rome, the friend and pupil of Augustine and Jerome. She left her property for the building of a church to St. Stephen, which was erected toward the A few ruins now show where it stood and testify by their close of Leo's pontificate. rude workmanship to the decline of Roman skiU during the years that saw the invasions of Attila and Genseric. Frothingham, Monuments, p. 63. ^ Nestorius was charged with holding that there were two persons as well as two

This

98

LIBER PONTIFICALIS
of

and by request
bidding

gustus, the orthodox,

Marcian Au- He, by his own authority, and at his issued precepts and he sent to Marcian Augustus, the orthodox, catholic prince, and an assemblage was called and the
bishops were gathered together

with the prince and

the holy council of the bishops was held at Chalcedon
in the East in the basilica of the in the confession chapel of the

holy

martyr Euphemia

and holy Euphemia

and 256

priests

he gathered together 266 priests were met together,

beside

406 bishops

408 bishops

who

sent their autographs,

and they condemned Eutyches and they were assembled toand Nestorius. And after 42 gether with the Tome, that
days,

being

gathered

together contained

the the

declaration

of

with the autographs, those

who

faith

of

apostolic,

Roman
of in

were present, 1200 bishops, set church

Marcian, the most pious Augus- the
tus,

and

the

autograph

forth the faith in the presence of the holy bishop Leo.

Then

presence

of

the

catholic

prince

Marcian
1200,

Augustus
of in

the

assembled
in

council

bishops,

number

company

with Marcian Augustus set forth

the catholic faith, two natures
in

one Christ, God and man.

natures in Christ, the God-man, Eutyches that there was but one person and one
nature.

For a good, general account of the Nestorian and Eutychian controversies

I,

see Cambridge Medieval History, vol.

pp. 494-515.

Cf.

Luke Rivington, Roman

the

Primacy, 430-451, (Catholic)

ant); Hefele, op.
ci!.,

Puller, Primitive Saints

and

See of Rome, (Protest-

vol. 11, pp.

499-881.

Ayer, Source Book of Ancient Church

History, pp. 476-481, 504-522.

The following two accounts in our text of the Council of Chalcedon are both somewhat confused, the one in the first column giving, on the whole, a slightly more accurate notion of its work than the other, as may be seen by a comparison with the The council met in 451 at the summons of the emperor Marcian and contrary facts.

to the express desire of the pope.

It held its sessions in the basilica of St.

Euphemia

LEO
and

99

he, together with Placidia And there the pious MarAugusta, professed his faith pub- cian Augustus, together with Ucly before the eyes of the holy his wife, Pulcheria Augusta, bishops and Eutyches was con- laid aside his regal majesty and

demned a second

time.

professed

his

faith before

the

eyes of

and they condemned Eutyches and Nestorius. Nestorius and

the holy bishops

Dioscorus.

Mar- And a second time the emcian and 150 bishops sent an ofl5- peror Marcian with his concial letter and asked Leo, the sort, Pulcheria Augusta, set pope, to transmit to them an ex- forth his faith and signed it position of the cathoUc and apos- with his own hand and demandtoUc faith. Then the blessed ed of the holy council that it Leo expounded it and sent the should send his profession to the Tome and confirmed the holy most blessed pope Leo and synod. condemn aU heresies. He wrote He set Moreover the most blessed many letters forth the true archbishop Leo sent many letAfterwards
the

emperor

setting

forth catholic

faith ters regarding the faith,

the true catho- in

company

are preserved to this

archives.

which day in the

Hc

faith,

which with

many
and
this

are kept to this bishops,

day

in the ar- his writings are

of

chives

the kept

to in

Roman

church. day

the arof

chives

the

in Chalcedon.

confession chapel, "martyrium," would have been too small.

six

There were probably

accepted
its

hundred bishops in aittendance.

decisions afterwards cannot be estimated.

The number About twenty

of those

who
were

sessions

held during the twenty-four days of its duration. At one of these sessions the enjESCH and empress were present and made public profession of the imperial creed. At the emperor's urgent behest the bishops drew up a declaration of orthodox doctrine basing
,

itrtoariarge extenTupon" Leo's "famous"Tetter written two years earlier to the bishop Flavianus and known as the Tome. It contained anexposition, drawn from Tertullian,
nfThpHiiaTiiature ofT!jirist.JjV[arcian then re quired of LeoiTconfirm aS onof the

dogm a

I5 set forth bjrihe^cpmca and Lm

Lib. Pont., vol. I, p. 239, n.
2.

it_

Jaffe, Regesta, vol. I, p. 62, 423.

Duchesne,

lOO

LIBER PONTIFICALIS
Roman
on
the

church
of

accoxmt

Eutychian
Nestorian

and

heresies

which

were condemned
in his time,

likewise a decretal,

which he sent

about and circulated throughout

the whole world.^

He

confirmed the synod of Chalcedon in

many

letters

letters to Marcian, 13 letters to Leo Augustus, 9 letters to Flavianus, the bishop, 18 letters to the bishops of the East, all of which

confirmed the faith of the synod.*

He

replaced

all

the conseall

He

replaced

the

vessels
after

of

crated silver vessels in

the the

Roman

church

the

parish churches after the Vandal Vandal war.

devastation.*
*
* * *

*4

He

repaired the basilica of

He made the vaulting and decthe

basilica

blessed Peter, the apostle,^ and orated

of

blessed
basilica

restored the vaulting of blessed Peter

and repaired the

Paul after the

'

fire

from God.*

of Paul, the apostle.

It is impossible to identify this decretal.

Leo wrote several

of importance, ad-

dressed to bishops in different countries, but no single one, so far as

we are aware, with such wide application as to be described by the phrase here used, unless it be the Tome already mentioned. In 453 that was being read in Greek by the monks of Palestine.
'

JaE6, Regesta, p. 70, 500.

The Regesta of JaS enumerates in all 150 letters of Leo,

emperor Leo and
7 to Flavianus,

of

which 17 are addressed

to Marcian, 8 to the
last,

bishop of Constantinople, the

however, anterior to the Council of Chalcedon. There are 13 more letters to the bishops of Constantinople after Flavianus and 38 to other Eastern bishops at AlexanOur author evidently knew something dria, Antioch, Jerusalem, Thessalonica, etc.

of the extent of the correspondence.

'

Duchesne, op.

cil.,

vol. I, p. cxxxii.
tr.

The sack

of

Rome by

Genseric in 455.

See Gregorovius, History of Rome,

Hamilton, vol. I, ch. VI. * Short list of vessels replaced in the basilicas of Peter, Paul and John. ' The mosaic on the facade of old St. Peter's bore a dedicatory inscription commemorating a restoration by the pnetorian prefect Marinianus and his wife Anastasia Duchesne, op. cil., p. cxxvii, n. 4. at the request of Leo.
'

The

roof of the basilica of St. Paul

had

fallen in, destroyed

perhaps by lightning.

LEO
He made He built

loi

likewise the vaulting in the basilica of Constantine.^

also a basilica to the blessed Cornelius, bishop and martyr, near the cemetery of Callistus on the Via Appia.^

He, for the sake of the

and went
dehvered

to
all

Roman name, undertook an embassy meet the king of the Huns, Atthela by name, and Italy from the peril of the enemy.^
of blessed Peter, the

He
apostle,

founded a monastery at the church

which

is

called the

of the holy

monastery John and Paul.*

He He
veiled

ordained that during the performance of mass "sanctum

sacrificium," etc. should be repeated.*

head

ordained that a nun should not receive the blessing of the until she had been tried in virginity
1

40 years.*
The

60 years.

and of its reparation by two priests, Leo is preserved in the museum of the basilica. The mosaic of the triumphal arch was also a part of Leo's reconstruction. Though badly restored, the design may stUl be made out and the inscription which testifies to assistance from the empress Galla Placidia. Duchesne, op. cit., p. 240, n. 7.
inscription recording the fact of its ruin

Felix

and Adeodatus, during the

pontificate of

and the Earthly Paradise at the

Duchesne, op.
2 cit.,

Parts of the apsidal mosaic of the Lateran basilica, the bust of Christ in the clouds foot, are perhaps work of the early fifth century.
p. 241, n. 8.

Frothingham, Monuments, pp. 336-338. remains. It is mentioned in two itineraries of the seventh century but not later. Duchesne, op. cit., p. 241, n. 9. ' The well-known story of the meeting with Attila in 452. Jaff6, Regesta, vol. I, p. 68; Gregorovius, History of Rome, vol. I, pp. 228-230; Hodgkin, Italy and her

No

trace of this basilica

now

Invaders, vol. II.

*

The

first

monastery to be attached

to the Vatican basilica.

By

732 there were

two others. They have all, of course, disappeared now, along with every other early and medieval structure on that site. Duchesne, op. cit., p. 241, n. it. "I.e. in the eucharistic formula ending, "quod tibi obtulit summus sacerdos tuus Melchisedech sanctum sacrificium, iromaculatam hostiam.'' Leo seems to have added the words, " sanctum sacrificium, immaculatam hostiam," to the reference to Melchisedech's offering of bread and wine, instigated thereto possibly by the aversion of the Manicheans to wine and in particular to its use in a sacred liturgy. Duchesne,
op.
cit.,
5

p. 241, n. 12.

We have no early, authentic document that specifies the age required at Rome of a
In Africa, at the begin-

woman who wished to assume the veil of a consecrated virgin.

ning of the fifth century, she was ordinarily expected to be at least twenty-five years old. The Council of Saragossa, 380 a.d., fixed forty as the minimum age in Spain. An edict of the emperor Marjorian in the time of Leo confirmed the act of the Spanish

I02

LIBER PONTIFICALIS
He

appointed guards from the

*
also

Roman

clergy over the

tombs
*
i

of the apostles;

they are called the "cubicularii." ^ * * * * *

He
in the
Peter,'

was buried
the blessed in the church of blessed Peter

basilica of

the apostle,

April II.

And

the bishopric was

empty

7 days.

XLVIII. Hilary (461-468)

Hilary,

by nationaUty a

Sardinian, son of
|

Crispinianus,

Crispinus,

occupied the see 6 years, 3 months and 10 days.

He made
sent
it

a decretal and
disseminated
I

it

throughout

all

the East

and

letters
|

concerning the catholic

and apostolic
faith

and he confirmed the three synods Chalcedon ^ and the Tome of the holy
bishop
church.
I

of Nicea,

Ephesus and

archbishop
Leo or
his successors through the fifth
cit.,

None

of the surviving decretals of

and

sixth centuries alludes to the subject of age.

Duchesne, op.

p. 241, n. 13.

Mansi, Amplissima CoUeclio, vol. IV, p. 508.. ' An inscription dated 533 or 544 names one Decius, " cubicularius of the basilica of St. Paul;" another of the same period mentions a "cubicularius of blessed Peter."

The

confessions before the

tombs of the apostles were being

filled

with
cit.,

gifts of

such

price as to

demand

special warders or custodians.

Duchesne, op.

p. 241, n. 14.

List of ordinations.

Leo was the first of the popes to be buried in the portico of St. Peter's. His remains were brought within the sanctuary by Sergius I in 688 and now lie with those

Leo II, Leo III and Leo IV in the left transept of the modem cathedral. Lanciani, Pagan and Christian Rome, pp. 221-223. No documents survive to prove Hilary's correspondence with the Eastern branch
of of the church, but it
vol. I, p. cxxxii.

not unlikely that they once existed.

Duchesne, Lib. Pont.,

lificaiis

Duchesne quotes this passage in support of his contention that the Ldber Ponwas first compiled in the early sixth century. See supra, Introduction, pp. xi-x!i. Until the time of Pope Vigilius, 537-SSS. the Roman church recognized only the three ecumenical councils here enumerated; afterward it acknowledged also the Council Duchesne, op. cit., p. xxxviiL of Constantinople of the year 381.
'

HILARY
Leo and he condemned Eutyches and Nestorius and ciples and all heresies and he maintained
;

103
all their dis-

the supremacy
|

the authority

and the headship

of the holy catholic

and apostolic

see.

He made a Mary during

November
16.^

regulation for the church in the basib'ca of the holy

the

consulship

of

Basiliscus

and Hermenericus,

He built 3 oratories in the baptistery of the basilica of ConStan tine, one to holy John the Baptist, one to holy John the Evangelist, and one to the Holy Cross, all decked with silver and
precious stones
* *
^
;

*3

And

in the city of

Rome

he provided vessels for service to be

*
:

carried about to the appointed stations

a golden beaker
for the station,
|

with handles,
here given
is

'

The Roman synod

still

of 465.

The date
op.
cit.,

exact.

letter of
ig.

Pope
Jaffe,

Hilary,

in existence, speaks of the bishops as in session on

November

Regesta, vol. I, p. 76.

^

Duchesne,

p. 245, n. 2.

The

first

two oratories are

still

to be seen opening out of the Lateran baptistery.

The former preserves

them,
'

the bronze doors of Hilary with the dedicatory inscription above the latter Hilary's vault

"HILARUS EPISCOPUS SANCT^ PLEBI DEI,"

The
oratory of the Holy Cross was torn
court, portico

mosaics.

down

in the seventeenth century.

List of rich gifts to the three oratories, especially to that of the

Holy

Cross, which

he beautified with a
*

and elaborate fountain.

Lists of gifts to the basilicas

of the Lateran, Peter, Paul

for the clergy of the whole Roman church to assemble from time to time in one basilica or another for a stational mass, that is, a mass where the entire city church was represented from bishop to laity. This custom, like the distribution of the leaven {supra, p. 41 and n. 2), was apparently intended to typify the unity of the Christian fellowship. The pope was the chief

As

early as the fifth century

and Lawrence. it was customary

and

celebrant at the altar but the priests of the twenty-five parish churches stood about assisted both in the consecration service and in the distribution of the blessed

elements to the people. Hilary provided a special set of altar vessels to be used at these stational masses, to be stored during the intervals at the Lateran or at Santa Maria Maggiore. Gregory I made out a definite schedule of the churches at which these stations should be held, including the parish churches and certain oratories and cemeteries.

ley,

For an eighth century ritual for the observance of the stational mass see AtchOrdo Romanus Primus, p. 32 and passim. Duchesne, op. cit., p. 246, n. 9. Cam-

bridge

Med.

Hist., vol. I, pp. is8-iS9.

I04

LIBER PONTIFICALIS
weighing 8
25
silver
|

lbs.

beakers for the parish priests, weighing each 10

25 silver pitchers, weighing each 10
lbs.

lbs.

50 silver chalices for service, weighing each

All these he appointed to be

2 lbs.

which he appointed to be kept

kept in the basilica of Constan- in the church of holy Mary.

tine or in that of holy

Mary.
^

He

built a

monastery near the church of the holy Lawrence

{

and a bath

and another and a villa

in the

open

air,

to the holy Stephen.

also

He

built

an oratory of the holy Stephen in the Lateran baptistery.

He
*

erected also two libraries in the

same

place, likewise

monastery within the city of

*

Rome "ad Luna."

*

*2

He
body

also

was buried near the holy Lawrence

in a crj^t near the

of the blessed bishop Xystus.'

And

the bishopric was

empty 10

days.

now all disappeared. Hilary's monastery Lawrence may have stood upon the site of the present convent. One of his two baths was evidently enclosed and heated like the usual Roman bath, the other was an uncovered basin of cold water. The villa or " pretorium " may have been an hospice
This and the following buildings have
of St.
for pilgrims or a papal residence.
tion, as

If the

succeeding sentence in the text

is

an

interpola-

seems probable, the two libraries were attached to the villa. Hilary's successor, Simplicius, built a church to St. Stephen in the neighborhood {infra, p. 105), and for
that reason a later editor

may have ascribed to Hilary a shrine to

is

the same saint.

op.
cit.,

The

location of the monastery within the city

unknown.

Duch^ne,

p. 247

im. 10, II, 12.

' '

List of ordinations.

On

his burial place see supra, p. 89, n. 3.

SIMPLICIUS

loS

XLIX.
Simplicius,

SiMPLICIUS (468-483)

by

nationality a Tiburtine/ son of

|

Castinus,

Castorius,

occupied the see 15 years,

I

month and

days.

and

7 days.

dedicated the basihca of the holy Stephen on the Cehan Rome ^ and the basihca of the blessed apostle Andrew near the basihca of the holy Mary ^ and another basilica
Hill in the city of
of the holy Stephen near the basihca of the holy Lawrence ^ and another basihca of the blessed mart}^- Bibiana within the city of

He

Rome beside the Licinian palace where her body rests. ^ He appointed weeks for holy Peter, the apostle, and
Paul, the apostle, and for holy Lawrence, the martyr,

for holy

when

priests

should be in attendance
to administer

baptism and pen-

for

administering penance and

ance to those
'

who sought them,

baptism.

I.e.

from

Tivoli.

The emgmatical, round church now

it

called

problem whether
'

was

built originally for

San Stefano Rotondo. pagan or for Christian uses.

It is

still

erected

Later known as Sant' Andrea in Catabarbara. Simplicius took a secular hall, by the consul Junius Bassus during the reign of Constantine and adorned

Roman mythology and history, and transformed it into a by throwing out an apse on the end opposite the entrance and decorating it with a mosaic of Christ and six apostles. The structure fell into ruin and was destroyed in the seventeenth century. It stood near Santa Maria Maggiore on land now owned by the convent of Sant' Antonio. Duchesne, Lib. Pont., vol. I, p. 250, n. 2. This is the In the turmoil of the first mention of a public building appropriated by the church. period of Anthemius, Ricimer and Odoacer any one was free to take possession of the
richly with scenes from
basilica

deca3?ing, civil
*

monuments.

This basilica also has been torn down, but there are remnants of an ancient oratory with three apses a little to the southeast of San Lorenzo, near the stairs by which Duchesne, op. cit., p. one climbs to the upper part of the modern cemetery.
250, n. 3.
'

The

original church of

Santa Bibiana was constructed perhaps out of one of the

The emperor's pleasure houses which decked the gardens of the emperor Gallienus. fuU name was Publius Licinius Gallienus ; hence the title applied to his palace. No
vestige of Simplicius' church is visible in the present basilica.
p. 250, n. 4.

Duchesne, op.

cit.,

io6

LIBER PONTIFICALIS
first'

throughout the 3rd district for the holy Lawrence, the

for the holy Paul, the 6th

district

and

7 th districts for the

holy Peter.'

During

his episcopate a report

was sent from Greece, from

Acacius, bishop of Constantinople, to the effect that Peter of the

was a Eutychian heretic and a petition came from Acacius, the bishop, drawn up by his own hand.
city of Alexandria
;

Then

the church acted.

At that
that
is

time
first,

the

church,
see,

the

apostolic

took action.

Then Simplidus,
the bishop and
the head, learned of
it
{

and condemned Peter

of Alexandria, against

whom

Acacius charged innumerable crimes, but reserved for him

for penance.

an opportunity

Forthwith Timotheus, a catholic, and Acacius wrote again,

saying that Peter was likewise implicated in the death of Proterius,

a catholic.

Then
the pope

the archbishop

Simplicius took no heed and did not reply to Acacius but con-

demned Peter

until such time as

he should do penance.^

' The priests of the three great basilicas had evidently reached a point where they found themselves unable to accomplish all the various duties connected with their offices, e.g. the performance of sacraments and services in the basilicas, the conduct

and other services in the suburban cemeteries attached to the basilicas, the administration of the cemeteries and the properties belonging to the basilicas, the care of their parishioners, especially during the troublous years of political anarchy and social
of funerals

Simplicius devised a plan by which priests from the smaller churches in the neighborhood should attend the greater basilicas to help provide spiritual ministraIn the twelfth century a similar system was still in vogue, the basilica of Santa tions.

upheaval.

Maria Maggiore also receiving aid from adjacent priests. At that time the priests of Santa Maria in Trastevere, Santa Cecilia and San Crisogono in the seventh ecclesiand of San Lorenzo in Damaso and San Marco in the sixth officiated at stated intervals in the Vatican and priests of Santa Sabina, Santa Prisca, Santa Balbina
astical district

and Santi Nereo ed Achijleo in the first district in San Paolo. The Lateran basilica was assisted by bishops from the vicinity of Rome. Duchesne, op. cit., p. 250, n. 5. 2 This brief and obscure narrative is an account of the part played by the pope in the events of the Monophysite insurrection which followed the Council of Chalcedon. See supra, pp. 97-99. The disciples of Eutyches and Cyril of Alexandria saw in the

SIMPLICIUS, FELIX

III
* *
1

107

He was

buried
in the basilica of blessed Peter,

near the blessed Peter,

the apostle,

March

2.

And

the bishopric

was empty

6 days.

L.
Felix,

Felix III (483-492)

by

nationality a

Roman, son

of Felix, priest of the parish

church of Fasciola,^ occupied the see 8 years, 11 months and 17

days.
Chalcedon decree another form of the Nestorian heresy, ascribing a dual personality as well as a dual nature to Christ, and broke into a revolt that disturbed both church

and empire

for a century. The struggle was most violent in Alexandria.. There the orthodox patriarch, Proterius, was assassinated in 457 and for some years the Mono-

physites held the see. The accession of Emperor Zeno to the throne, however, in 477 turned the tide temporarily in favor of the orthodox party. Peter Mongius, the
heretic patriarch,

was deposed by imperial order and Timotheus

Solofaciolus installed

in his stead.

Acacius, bishop of Constantinople, was already in correspondence with

Simplicius regarding the lamentable state of affairs in Alexandria.

Timotheus now

also sent a deputation to the pope to complain of Peter's unceasing intrigues against

him and to urge

to a distance.

Simplicius to use his influence with the emperor to have Peter banished

Zeno and Acacius on the subject may be He seems to have made no impression on the emperor, for Peter remained free as before untU the death of Timotheus in 482. The latter's orthodox successor proved to be unacceptable to both Zeno and Acacius and negotiations were straightway undertaken by them for a compromise with the indomitable Peter. The result was the Henotikon Edict issued by Zeno in 482, which condemned both extremists, Eutyches and Nestorius, ignored the Chalcedon decree and attempted to formulate a doctrine to which Catholics and Monophysites might aJl subscribe. SimpUcius, learning of this change of face, wrote to protest against the restoration of Peter, but with no more effect than before. Neither Zeno nor Acacius replied to him. Jafffi, ibid., 586-589. The controversy was resumed
letters of Simplicius to

The

found summarised in Jaffe's Regesta,

vol. I, pp. 78-79, 579-582.

by SimpUcius'
'

successors, as

we

shall see.
I,

Duchesne, op.
pp^ 515-520.

cit.,

p. 251, n. 6.

On

Zeno's

policy see Cambridge Med. Hist., vol.

Lists of gifts to the Vatican basilica

and

of ordinations.

An

ancient

name

for the church

now

called Santi

Nereo ed Achilleo.

Duchesne

prints the text of several epitaphs, found in the basilica of San Paolo, which are prob-

ably those of the father of Felix III and of the latter's wife and two children. Petronia, Gregory the Great wife of Felix, died in 472, while her husband was only a deacon.

was one of their descendants. In a consecrated virgin, had of their

Duchesne, Lib. Pont.,
Pat. Lat., vol. 77, col. 348.

his Dialogues

he recounts the vision which his aunt,

Felix, shortly before her

ancestor,

Pope

own

death.

vol. I, pp. 240, n. 7, 253, n. 2.

Gregory

I,

Dialogi, IV, 16 ; Migne,

io8

LIBER PONTIFICALIS
He was
bishop in the time of Odobacer,' the king, until the

time of Theodoric,
the king.
|

He built the basilica of the holy Agapitus near the basilica of the
holy Lawrence, the martyr.''

During

his episcopate there

of Greece

came another report

|

from the region

from Greece

that Peter of Alexandria had been reinstated

in the

communion

by Acacius, bishop
pope Felix

of Constantinople.'

Then

the venerable the

Felix, archbishop of
tolic see of the city of

apos-

Rome,

sent an advocate

by

resolution of the synod

by advice

of his see

and held a council and condemned Acacius together with

Peter.
' Odoacer. Theodoric did not take Ravenna until 493 but by 491 he was able to send Faustus, prince of the Senate, as bis ambassador to Emperor Zeno, a fact which indicates that by this time he was pretty well master of Rome. Duchesne points out

had been discontinued by the Liberian Catalogue. He argues that the author is now competent to supply them from memory. Duchesne, op. cit., pp. xlv, 253, n. 4. * The situation of this church is now unknown, although it is mentioned in several
that our author here resumes the imperial synchronisms which
since the period covered

early itineraries.

Duchesne, op.

oil.,

p. 253, n. 5.

The

controversy of Simplicius with Acacius of Constantinople over Peter, the

p.

Monophysite bishop of Alexandria {supra,

106 and n.

2),

was promptly taken up

by

Felix.

The

arrival in

Rome

of the orthodox claimant of the Alexandrian see, John

signal for him to put forth every The subsequent events are told in the has been inverted. The first step in Felix'

Talaia, entreating the pope's assistance,

effort to

was the

induce Acacius to abandon Peter.

main

correctly in our text but their order

proceedings was the sending in 483 of the envoys, Misenus, bishop of Cumae, and Vitalis, bishop of Truentum, to summon Acacius to appear before the pope and his council to answer for his contumacy. On their return in the following year Felix held a

synod which condemned and anathematised Acacius and sent an advocate, "defensorem," with notification of the sentence to Acacius, to the emperor Zeno and to the clergy and people of Constantinople. The documents may be found in Jafffi, Regesta, vol. I, pp. 80-81, 591-595, 599-603. Cf. Puller, Primitive Saints and the See of Rome, pp. 376 S.
.

FELIX

III

109

After 3 years another report came from the emperor Zeno that Acacius had returned and was penitent.^ Then Pope Felix

held a council

by agreement and
|

sent two bishops,

Mesenus and

Vitalis, so that if

they found Aca-

cius to be a confederate of Peter

they might condemn them again they might condemn them,

but

if

not they might

offer

him

the code of penance.^

But

they, when, they

had arrived at
the city of Heraclea,

the city of Constantinople,

Constantinople,

were corrupted with bribes given them by the aforesaid bishop and they did not carry out the injunctions of the apostolic see.*

And when
Pope

they returned to

Rome

to the apostolic see.

Felix called a council

held an inquiry and

and at that time the venerable pope Felix called a s3mod and held a discussion and

he found both bishops, that is Mesenus and Vitalis, guilty before the court and corrupted with bribes; and he expelled Mesenus and Vitalis, the bishops, from the communion. Then Mesenus
confessed that he had been corrupted

by a

bribe

and the council granted him an

opportunity for penance.'*
'

This statement

is

quite fictitious.

It

was perhaps introduced by our author to

give ground for the sending of Misenus and Vitalis. 2 Misenus and Vitalis were given no such discretion in the affair as this account

They were commissioned simply to cite Acacius to a trial before the pope. code of penance, "libellus paenitentiae," was, however, in existence long before this time. The African S3mods of 251 and 255 referred to a "libellus," where the divers Schmitz, Die Bussbucher und die Bussdisciplin penalties for sins were written down.
implies.

der Kirche, vol.

3

I,

pp. 17, 45, 107.

In the documents published by Jaffg {supra, p. 108, n. 3), the pope accuses his envoys of disobedience to instructions in communicating with the heretical party, in
acknowledging the authority of Peter and in accepting bribes. Misenus and Vitalis were both deposed and excommunicated. Misenus was pardoned in after years by Pope Gelasius but Vitalis died before that time. Duchesne,
op.
cit.,

p. 2S4, nn. 12

and

13.

no

LIBER PONTIFICALIS

This took place in the time of Odobacer, the king.

*
+

He was
in

buried
of

the

church

the

blessed

in the basilica of blessed

Paul,

Paul.^

the apostle. the bishopric

after his

And And

was empty

5 days.

death a regulation was

made by

the priests and

deacons for the whole church

no one should ever presume to show himself hasty in a matter which must sometime
that

come up

for examination.'

LI.
Gelasius,

Gelasius (492-496)

by

nationality an A-frican, son of Valerius, occupied

in the time

the see 4 years, 8

of

months and 18 days. He was bishop Theodoric, the king, and Zeno Augustus.^

In his time was found the church

of

the holy

Angel on

Mount

Garganus.*
I

List of ordinations.

'

Felbt III
lie

is

the only pope buried at San Paolo.

He may have

chosen the spot

in order to
'

There is death and the consecration of Gelasius, but in the days between the death of Simplicius and the accession of FeUx there had been an assembly of the Senate and clergy There it of Rome in the mausoleum of Santa Petronilla, adjoining the Vatican basilica. had been decided that no pope in the future should have power to alienate property belonging to the church as a whole. The decision was declared null by the Roman synod of 502 on account of the irregularity of the proceeding but Pope Symmachus
Felix'

Supra, p. 107, n. 2. no other record of any action by the clergy during the interval between

with his family.

issued a decree to the

same

effect

during the sessions of the same synod and with

its

approval.

The obscure

clause of our text

cit.,

may

be a reference to the decision which

was annulled.
*

Duchesne, op.

p. 254, n. 16.

The sjTichronism is inexact.

This sentence
is

Zeno died in 491 and Anastasius was emperor during

is

the pontificate of Gelasius.

'

found in only one manuscript and

undoubtedly a

late inter-

polation.

of St.

The earliest existing description of the miraculous discovery of the sanctuary Michael on Monte Gargano dates from the ninth century, although it purports

GELASIUS

III

whom
fire

In his time Manicheans were discovered in the city of Rome, he transported into exile and whose books he burned with
before the doors of the basilica of the holy Mary.^

He, in accordance with a decree of- the synod, after the laws
of

He, in accordance with a synodical

decree,

reinstated

Me-

penance had been

fulfilled,

senus, the bishop, in

the com-

the purified bishop munion and restored him to his Mesenus with weeping and re- church, after the laws of penstored him to his church. This ance had been fulfilled and MeMesenus had sinned in the mat- senus was purified and received ter of Acadus and Peter.^ again.

reinstated

He was
of the poor

a lover

of the clergy
'

and
|

and he increased the

clergy.

He

delivered the city of

Rome from

the peril of famine.''

itself.

to be taken from a "libellus" or record contained in the shrine

Scriptores

Waitz,

Rerum Langobardicarum, p. 541. Paul the Deacon mentions an oracle of the holy archangel on Monte Gargano which was plundered by the Greeks in the seventh
century.

History of the Lombards,

tr.

Foulke, Univ. of Perm. Transls. and Reprints,

New

Series, vol. 3, p. 200.

There is no other reference in contemporary historians to the episode here narIf Duchesne's theory as to the date of the composition of the first part of the Lib. Pont, be correct, the author may either have witnessed the burning of the Manichean books or have heard of it from witnesses. Supra, Introduction, p. xi. 2 We still possess the report of this sjmod, held in March, 495, and two "libelli" or declarations of Misenus which he presented to the assemblage, prostrating himself to the earth. On Misenus see supra, p. 108, n. 3 ; p. 109 and nn. 1-4. It is a satisfaction to find that in 499 Misenus attended another council at Rome once more in his capacity of bishop of Cumse. Duchesne, Lib. Pont., vol. I, p. 256, n. 4. Jafffi, Regesta, vol. I, p. 88. ' Dionysius Exiguus, who knew of Gelasius through the priests he had trained, writes of him that he spent all his substance on the poor and died himself in poverty, that he looked upon his office as an opportunity to serve rather than to rule. Quoted
rated.

by Duchesne, op. cit., p. 256, n. 5. * About 494 Gelasius wrote a tractate

in denunciation of the Lupercalia

and the

party that wished to revive the celebration of the pagan rites. In the course of it he asked, "As for your Castors, whose worship you refuse to abandon, why did they not give you tranquil seas so that the ships might reach here with grain in winter and the
city sufifer less with

want ? "

He wrote also

to Firmina, a lady of rank, to request that

lands belonging to St. Peter, which had been seized by the barbarian and Roman armies, should- be restored to the church. They were needed, he said, for the support of the

hungry multitudes who were

devastated by the wars.

flocking to

Rome from

the provinces which had been

Jaff6, Regesta, pp. 89, 90, 672, 685.

112

LIBER PONTIFICALIS
a regulation for the whole church.^

He made
other report

In his time an-

came from Greece

to the effect that

many

crimes and

murders were being committed through Peter and Acacius

in Constantinople.^
|

At

that time John of Alexandria,

|

the catholic bishop,

fled

and came
the

to

Rome

to the apostolic see

re-

blessed Gelasius re- Then the blessed Gelasius him with honor and be- ceived John stowed upon him also a second bishopric' Then he held a synod and sent throughout the

and

ceived

countries of the East

and he sent again and condemned eternally Acacius and

if

Peter,*

they should not do penance in

if

they did not repent

for

notwith-

accordance with the code and standing he allowed

seek for absolution.

them opthe

portunity

satisfying

apostolic see

and displayed the

"first

clemency of the
church.

see of the

He
in the
'

dedicated the basilica of the holy Euphemia, the martyr,

town

of Tibur,*

a comprehensive decretal by Gelasius in twenty-eight chapters on a and discipline addressed to "all the bishops in Lucania, Bruttium and Sicily." Jaff6, Regesta, p. 85, 636. ' Both Acacius and Peter died before the accession of Gelasius. The reference

There

exists

variety of questions of church administration

here must be to parties of their adherents, unless the author chronology, as he does below.
notes.
"

On

this

is simply confusing his whole controversy see supra, pp. 106-109 and

Duchesne, op.

cit.,

p. 256, n. 8.

John Talaia, orthodox bishop of Alexandria, had taken refuge in Rome ten years earlier, in 482, just as Felix III became pope. Supra, p. 108, n. 3. Gelasius continued
to support John's cause.
*

Gelasius held tliree synods at

itself

particularly with Acacius and Peter,

Rome, no one of which, so far as we know, concerned whose case was regarded as settled. Gelasius

instead wrote letters to various Eastern prelates, condemning all

in the sentence passed

who

did not concur

by

639, 664, 66s, 669.

^

The

83-88, 620, 622, 638, clauses in our text, granting opportunity for penance, are
Jaff6, Regesla, pp.

his predecessor.

obviously interpolations, Acacius and Peter being both dead.

The

basilica of St.

Euphemia at

Tivoli disappeared early.

Duchesne, op.

cit.,

p. 256, n. II.

GELASIUS
twenty miles from the
city,

113

and other

basilicas
|

He

dedicated also the basilica

of the holy Nicander, Eleutherius

and Andrew
|

on the Via Lavicana

in the village Pertusa.^

[

He

built also the

of

and another
estate

basilica

Holy Mary on
city.^

the Via Laurentina in the

Crispinis,

twenty miles from the

books against He wrote treatises and Eutyches he hymns, as did blessed Anibrose, wrote also hjnnns after the man- the bishop, and books against ner of the blessed Ambrose; Eutyches and Nestorius, which
wrote
5

He

Nestorius

and

likewise

two books against Arius

to-day are kept preserved in the

he wrote also prefaces to the hbrary of the archives of the

sacraments and prayers in care- church.
ful

language and .many eloquent

epistles regarding the faith.*

During
*
'

his bishopric the clergy

waxed
*
is

greater.
*

*
I,

Sergius

at the end of the seventh century,

said to have rebuilt

an oratory to

Andrew on the Via Labicana. It was perhaps the basilica or group of basilicas mentioned here. The site is now lost. Duchesne, op. cit., p. 256, n. 12. ' This church also is now unknown. ' The hymns of Gelasius have all been lost, as also his refutations of Arianism. JaE6 Usts among his writings one treatise on the dual nature of Christ "against Eutyches and Nestorius." Regesta, p. 89, 670. The prefaces and prayers were evidently parts
St.

of a Uturgy.

distinguished from that of St. Gregory.

In the ninth century the Liber Sacramentorum or Duchesne, op. cit.,

office of

Gelasius was
JafE6

p.

257, n. 14.

enumerates over one hundred letters of Gelasius dealing with matters of doctrme, Op. cit., pp. ecclesiastical government, morality and the temporal needs of his flock. striking was written in 494 to the emperor Anastasius, 83~9S> 6i9-"743- One of the most "There are two powers setting forth the superiority of the priestly to the civil power.

which for the most part control this world, the sacred authority of priests and the might of kings. Of these two the office of the priests is the greater, inasmuch as they must give account to the Lord even for the kings before the divine judgment. You know, therefore, that you are dependent upon their decision and that they will
. .

not submit to your wiU."

*

Jaff6, op.

cit.,

p. 85, 632.

Ayer, Source Book, p. 531-

List of ordinations.

114

LIBER PONTIFICALIS
also

He

was buried
in the basilica of blessed Peter,

in the church of blessed Peter,

the apostle,

November

21.

And
after his death

the bishopric was

empty

7 days.

LII.

Anastasius II (496-498)

Anastasius,

by

nationality a

Roman, son

of Peter,^

from the

5th

district,

Tauma,
of the

days.

Caput Tauri,^ occupied the see i year, 11 months and 24 He was bishop in the time of Theodoric, the king. He set up the confession of blessed Lawrence, the martyr, of
which weighed 100

silver,

weighing 80

lbs.

lbs.

At that time many

of the clergy

and

of the priests

withdrew

themselves from communion with him, because without consulting

the priests or the bishops or the
clergy of
all

them

the cathoUc church

he had communicated with a deacon of Thessalonica, Photinus by

name, who was

dead by divine
'

of the party of Acacius,

secretly to reinstate Acacius

will.'

and could

not.

and because he desired And he was struck

The epitaph

of Anastasius states that his father

was a

priest.

Duchesne, Lib.

Pont., vol. I, p. 25g, n. 5.

For this district see supra, p. 10, u. 3. This notice of Anastasius is bitter with the feeling engendered by the controversy with the Eastern church, which had begun under Pope Simplicius and which under Felix in and Gelasius had resulted in an open schism between the Western branch, led by Rome, and the Eastern patriarchates and the emperor. See sjipra, pp. 106,108, log, 112.
' '

Anastasius

II,

upon his accession, sent two bishops

to the emperor to beg that the seam-

less tunic of

the Savior be no longer rent for the sake of a single dead man.

He

did

not propose to retract the censure of FeUx III upon Acacius and lus tenets but suggested

ANASTASIUS
* *
*

II,

SYMMACHUS
*

115
*

*i

And

he also was buried

in the basilica of blessed Peter,

in the church of blessed Peter in

the Vatican,^

the apostle,

November

19.

And

the bishopric was empty'4 days.

LIII.

Symmachus (498-514)

S3Tnmachus, by nationality a Sardinian,' son of Fortunatus, occupied the see 15 years, 7 months and 27 days. He was bishop in the time of Theodoric,
the heretic,
*
|

the king,

and Anastasius Augustus,

the Eutychian,
|

from November 22 to July

that Acacius'

19.

ordinations performed
Jafffi,

name be allowed to drop and assured the emperor that the baptisms and by Acacius and his followers would be accepted as valid at Rome.
I, p.

Regesta, vol.

gs, 744.

These overtures produced an

effect at least

upon the

bishop of Thessalonica, who thereupon had the letter of Gelasius denouncing Acacius read publicly in the churches of his diocese and who dispatched a deacon, Photinus, to renew in his behalf communion with the Roman see. JafE6, ibid., 746. Unfortunately

a zealot party at Rome disapproved of the pope's conciliatory attitude and ascribed to him, as in the text, a design to abandon the principles and to rescind the acts of Felix III and Gelasius. Thus arose a schism within the Roman church itself which was to
break out violently after Anastasius' death.

The

fact that Anastasius died soon after

his resumption of relations with the church at Thessalonica

was looked upon by

op.
cit.,

his

opponents as a clear proof of divine displeasure.

258, n. 3.
1

Duchesne,

pp.

xliii

and

List of ordinations.

Duchesne gives

his epitaph.

Op.

cit.,

p. 259, n. 5.

'

faith

Symmachus said of himself that he came out of paganism and learned at Rome. Duchesne, Lib. Pont., vol. I, p. 263, n. i.

the catholic

* Mommsen argues that if the Lib. Pont, had been composed early in the sixth century under Ostrogothic rule, as Duchesne maintains that it was, the derogatory epithet of "heretic" could not have been applied to Theodoric. Mommsen, Lib. On Theodoric's relations with the Roman Church see Gregorovius, Pont., p. xvii. History of Rome, tr. Hamilton, vol. I, pp. 3ii-333-

ii6

LIBER PONTIFICALIS
He
loved the clergy and the

poor

he was a good

man and
He was ordained on the same day with Laurentius because the there was a dissension,
and Laurentius
in the

sagadous, kindly and courteous,

and at the time

cause
of

of his ordination

Laurentius also was ordained bea

dissension
in

bishopric,^

Symmachus

in the basihca of Constantine

basiUca of the blessed Mary.

Wherefore one party of the clergy and also the clergy was separated into
of the senators

was divided from parties and the senate

divided

also

was

the rest

and some supported Symmachus and others Laurentius. after the dissension had arisen
they
all alike
I

And

the parties

decided that both factions should betake themselves to Ravenna

for the

judgment

of Theodoric.^

And
when they had both Ravenna
arrived at

when they had come

they received this righteous judgment, that he

ordained or

who had been

have

first

who
|

was supported by

was known

to

Thus through and perception of the truth Symmachus was selected and made bishop. At that time Pope Symmachus assembled a synod and appointed Laurentius bishop of the town of Nuceria out of
the largest party should occupy the apostolic see.
justice

compassion.^
of the theological and political reasons underlying the church but the situation may be better appreciated if the reader recalls the beginning of discord under Anastasius II. Supra, p. 114 and n. 3. Laurentius seems to have been the candidate of the party that desired more compromise with
'

There
the

is

no mention here

split in

Roman

the Eastern church.

Other versions of the story say that the contending parties were forced to accept Duchesne, op. cit., p. 263, n. 4. The acts of the synod of Italian bishops, held under the presidency of Symmachus in 499, have been preserved. They consist chiefly of measures to prevent confusion in
'

the arbitration of Theodoric.

SYMMACHUS

117

But after 4 years ^ some of the clergy and some of the senate, in particular Festus and Probinus, full of zeal

and

craft,
|

brought charges against Symmachus and suborned whom they sent to King Theodoric,
the heretic,
|

false witnesses

at

Ravenna
Rome,

to accuse the blessed

Symmachus

and they recalled

Laurentius stealthily
to
|

after the accusation

had been drawn up

itself

at

Rome and
;

they created

a schism and a party withdrew

communion with Symmachus.

from the clergy was divided again and ^ some communicated with Sym-

machus and some with Laurentius.

Then

the senators Festus and Probinus sent a report to the king

Kling

and asked

send Peter of Altinum

Theodoric to and began to negotiate with the ^ as an king to send an inspector to the
apostolic
see.

inspector to the apostolic see.

Then

the king

sent Peter, bishop of the town

of Altinum, although the canons

forbade
future papal elections.

it.

During the synod Laurentius was appointed bishop of Nocera.

Hefele, op.
cit.,

JafE^, Regesta, vol. I, p. 96.

'

vol. 11, p. 958.

In fact early in 501.

The

first

accusation brought

the date of Easter.

foUovsTng the old

by the malcontents against Synunachus concerned Symmachus had celebrated that festival in 501 on March 25,
calendar.
JafE6, Regesta, p. 97, 734.

Roman

His adversaries com-

plained that he should have adopted the Greek reckoning, which brought the date to
April 22. Symmachus went to Rimini to lay his case before Theodoric and while there learned of other and graver charges which were being preferred against him viz.,
:

and misuse of church property. Thereupon, without waiting to face Theodoric, he fled back to Rome by night and entrenched himself in the buildings of the Vatican. The hostile party took advantage of his flight to prevail upon Theodoric
violation of chastity

to send a "visitor" or inspector to

season, as the emperor Honorius

Rome
;

in order to celebrate Easter at the proper of the dissension

had done at the time

between Boni-

face I

and EulaUus. Supra, p.

89, n.

declaration that the see of

Rome

4 p. 90. The act, however, was tantamount to a was vacant or contested. Symmachus was bound to

resent it as a negation of all his rights.

'

Duchesne, op.

cit.,

p. 264, n. 8.

Jafffi, ibid., p.

97.

The modern

Altino near Venice.

ii8

LIBER PONTIFICALIS
Then
the blessed

Symmachus assembled
of the false accusation

115 bishops and in the

synod was acquitted

and Peter

of

Altinum,

the intruder upon the apostohc see, and Laurentius of Nuceria were

condemned, because during the lifetime of the bishop Symmachus they had invaded his see.^ Then the blessed Symmachus was
reinstated with glory in the apostohc see

by

all

the bishops, priests

sit

and deacons and

all

the clergy and the people, to

as bishop in

the church of the blessed Peter.

Then

Festus,

the patrician,

began to slaughter in the city the clergy who were communi- and Probinus, the exconsul, becating with the blessed Symma- gan to fight in the city of Rome chus'. and he expelled conse- with other senators, in particucrated
'

At that time Festus, the exconsul and leader of the senate,^

women from

their dwell-

lar

with Faustus, the exconsul.

s3Tiod of 501 was convened to pass on the whole situation by order and with the consent of Symmachus. It held three sessions, the first during the spring or early summer at the church of Santa Maria in Trastevere. At this
of Theodoric

The Roman

session

Symmachus agreed

to appear, waiving the claim of his see not to be judged

fact that Theodoric had seized the lands and buildings him oidy St. Peter's. The second session met in September at the basilica of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme on the farther side of the city. Symmachus set out to cross from the Vatican but was attacked by a band of enemies on the way and many of the priests accompanying him were killed. Thereafter Symmachus remained shut up in the Vatican and refused to attend another session of the synod.

by

inferiors

and overlooking the

of the church, leaving

Nevertheless in October the assembled bishops declared that they could find no reason

why he
against

should not continue in

full

enjoyment of his

office

and

left

the accusations

him

to the

Peter of Altino,
initiative called

They solemnly condemned both Laurentius and Theodoric's "visitor." In November, 502, Symmachus on his own
judgment
of

God.

another synod of bishops, which proceeded to annul an irregular decree

forbidding the pope to alienate church property, that seems to have been employed by

Symmachus' opponents as a basis for their charges against him. Supra, p. no, n. 3. The synod indeed passed other ordinances prohibiting the pope to dispose of rural property but allowing him to sell city houses which cost too much to maintain. In 505
Sjrmmachus petitioned Theodoric to compel the patrician Festus, the instigator of the violence which continued to harass the city, to abstain from further opposition and to order Laurentius to leave Rome. Dioscorus, a young deacon from Alexandria, was able to persuade Theodoric to take this step and Synmiachus resumed possession of all the churches and ecclesiastical estates. Duchesne, op. cit., p. 264, n. 10. Jafffi, Regesta, pp. 97-98. Hefele, loc. cit. Dioscorus' powers of eloquence served the Roman church even more conspicuously later. Infra, pp. 127130. ' Festus was consul in 472, Probinus in 489 and Faustus in 490. They are all three mentioned as persons of high reputation in a contemporary work by Ennodius. Opusc. VI. Quoted by Duchesne, op. cit., p. 265, n. 12. ' This passage is not probably descriptive of any one occasion but of the general

SYMMACHUS
ings,

119

and

stripped

their

clothing

women of and, in their hatred, to commit and beat them slaughter and murder upon the

with clubs and he killed

priests there,

many

clergy

who

rightfully

nicated with the

commublessed Sym-

machus and they

killed with the sword publicly those who were found within the city. Also

they expelled consecrated

women

and virgins from their convents and their dwelHngs and they
stripped

women

of their clothing

and wounded them with blows and stripes; and daily they waged war against the church
in the midst of the city.

Like-

wise they slew

many

priests,

among them Dignissimus and Gordianus,^ priests of Saint ^ Peter, the apostle, "ad Vincula," and of Saints John and Paul, whom they
did to death with cudgels and sword
so that it
;

also

many other

Christians,

was unsafe

for one of the clergy to

walk abroad in the city

for the

by day
church.

or

by

night.

Only Faustus, the exconsul, fought

After
city of

all this

the blessed Sjmimachus found Manicheans in the

all their

Rome and burned with fire

images and books before

state of lawlessness
finally

and tumult which lasted during the years before Symmachus was and decisively reinstated. The people as a whole seem to have supported Symmachus but a party of the clergy and a majority of the Senate were bitter against
him.
'

The name

of Dignissimus does not appear

on the

list

of parish priests

who took

part in the synod of 499, perhaps because the basilica which he served was not counted among the parish churches. Gordianus is registered as priest of Santi Giovanni e
Paolo. He was the father of Pope Agapitus. /m/Va, p. 143 and n. 6. Both undoubtedly perished early in the disturbances, for neither was among the priests loyal to Sym-

machus who attended the synod of November, 502. Duchesne, op. cit., p. 265, n. 13' From the sixth century onward the word "sanctus"' was an official title, applied
only to the distinguished dead who were publicly venerated in the churches, no longer

a general
or dead.

fepithet for all

bishops or even, as in primitive times, for

all believers, living

Hereafter, therefore, in our text the

word

will usually

be translated "saint,"
fifth

instead of the vaguer "holy."

' The church of San Pietro in Vincoli was built during the empress Eudoxia to receive the relic of the chains of Peter.

century by the

I20

LIBER PONTIFICALIS

the doors of the basih'ca of Constantine and condemned them to

exile.^

He was
He

bishop from the consulship of Paulinus (a.d. 498) to

514)."

the consulship of Senator (a.d.

built the basilica of Saint

Andrew, the

apostle, near the

basilica of the blessed Peter.'

4: if

He

:|c

%4

Also he adorned with marbles the basilica of blessed Peter.

The

fountain of blessed Peter with the square portico around

it

he beautified with marble work and with lambs and crosses and palms of mosaic. Likewise he enclosed the whole atrium; and he widened the steps before the doors of the basilica of Saint Peter,
the apostle, and he the
left.

made

other steps of

Also he built palaces in the

wood on the same place on

right

and on the right and

on the

left.

Also, below the steps into the atrium, outside in the

machus himself
Jafffi,

This event must have taken place after the emperor Anastasius accused Symof being a Manichean, probably during the latter half of his pontificate.
Apologeticus in his

Symmachus wrote an

own defence.

Duchesne, op.

cit.,

p. 265, n. 14.

Regesta, p. 99, 761.

' This is the first consular synchronism since the close of the Liberian Catalogue. Synchronisms are given for the three following popes as well. Duchesne regards their appearance here as another proof that the Lib. Pont, was first compiled between 514

and
'

530.

Op.

cit.,

p. xlv.

Symmachus was

peculiarly concerned to enlarge

it

Peter, perhaps out of gratitude for the shelter

struggle, 501-506.

afforded

and beautify the basilica of him during his years

St.

of

The

basilica of St.
it

church of
sacristy.

St.

Peter until

Andrew was a rotonda which stood beside the was demolished by Pius VI to make room for the present

seems to have been built originally during the fifth century, together with a second circular structure which stood behind it and was connected with it and with The two were apparently intended as mausoleums for the St. Peter's by a gallery. family of Theodosius and the rear building actually contained some imperial tombs. It
It

Middle Ages the chapel of Santa Petronilla. The rotonda which into a church and dedicated to St. Andrew had presumably never been used as a mausoleum and was empty until he furnished it. Duchesne,

was

called in the

Symmachus now converted

cit., *

op.

p. 265, n. 16.

List of gifts to the shrine of St.

Andrew and

of four oratories constructed within

the rotonda ; also of three oratories built about the baptistery of St. Peter, which stood at the end of the north transept of the basilica. These last three oratories were dedi-

cated to the Holy Cross, St. John the Baptist and St. John the Evangelist respectively, as were the oratories attached to the baptistery of the Lateran. Supra, p. 103.

Symmachus may have equipped the Vatican

during his exclusion from the
latter.

baptistery to serve instead of the Lateran

SYMMACHUS
square, he set another fountain
necessity.^

121
for

and an accommodation

human

And

Andrew and

he built other steps for ascent into the church of blessed set up a fountain.
*

He
and

built the basilica of the holy

;

Aurelia on the estate Lardarium

martyr Agatha on the Via from the foundation he built it

offered there 2 silver coffers.'

At

that time he built the basilica of Saint Pancratius/ where

;

also he set a silver coffer, weighing 15 lbs.

he built Ukewise in the

same place a bath.

Also In the church of blessed Paul, the apostle, he rebuilt the
apse of the basihca, which was falling into ruin, and he embellished
it

with a picture behind the confession and he made a vaulting and

;

image of the and before the doors of the basilica he built steps into the atrium and a fountain and behind the apse he brought down water and built there a bath from the foundation."
a transept
silver
;

and over the confession he erected a

Savior and the 12 apostles, which weighed 120

lbs.

' This account of the completion and adornment of the atrium before St. Peter's not altogether clear. One gathers that Symmachus finished and decorated the famous fountain of the bronze pine cone and the walls of the atrium, widened the stairway leading up to the atrium and built a palace or papal residence on either side. It is

is

not plain what wjis the purpose of the steps that went to right and left, unless they were approaches to the palaces. The second fountain was shaped like a shell and stood apparently before the entrance to the atrium. Of course there is now no trace Only the bronze pine cone is preserved in a courtyard of the of these arrangements.

Vatican palace.
2
'

It is uncertain

Boxes or

coffers of

where this basilica stood. hanmiered silver were used as

reliquaries.

Some few exam-

ples

from

this period are stiM preserved.

See for illustration Lowrie, Christian Art and

Archeology, pp. 360-361 ; Dalton, Byzantine Art and Archceology, pp. 563-564. * San Pancrazio on the Via Aurelia over the martyr's tomb. The modern church has been much restored. After the Gothic wars the city gate which led to this basilica

was called Porta San Pancrazio instead of Porta Aurelia. The last years of Symmachus were passed in the comparative peace and order of Theodoric's reign. The civil government took up vigorously the work of repairing public buildings, palaces, theatres, aqueducts, etc., and furnished bricks and other materials to the church for its restorations

and new

enterprises.
tr.

Frothingham, Monuments, pp. 69-71.

vol. I, pp. 290-308.

Gregorovius,

History of Rome,
^

Hamilton,

San Paolo has passed through so many vicissitudes that it is impossible now to any handiwork of Symmachus. Behind the apse of the basilica is the public An inscription of the sixth street and beyond that on the hill the cemetery of Lucina. built in a cemetery and of water brought or seventh century, however, speaks of a bath
identify

122

LIBER PONTIFICALIS
basilica of Saints Silvester

Within the city of Rome he built the and Martin from its foundation, near
the baths
1

of Trajan ' and there also he set a silver ciborium above the altar, which weighed 120 lbs.; 12 silver coffers, which weighed each 10 lbs. a silver confession, which weighed 15 lbs. For the blessed John and Paul he built steps behind the apse.^ Also he enlarged the basilica of the archangel Michael and
;

built steps

and brought

in water.'
its

Also he erected from

foundation an oratory of Saints

city of

Cosma

and Damian beside Saint Mary.'' Also on the Via Trivana, 27 miles from the

Rome, on the

estate Pacinianum, he dedicated a basilica to blessed Peter at the

request of Albinus and GlaphjTa, the illustrious praetorian prefects,

who

built it

from the foundation at

their

own

expense.^

Also near blessed Peter and blessed Paul,

the apostles,
|

and near Saint Lawrence,

the martyr,
|

he erected lodging houses for the poor.^

in

by means

of wheels

and

pulleys.

The

reference

may be

to the bath of

Symmachus.

Duchesne, op. cit., p. 267, u. 34. ' A church had been built on this site two hundred years before by Pope Sylvester. Supra, p. 42, n. 1. It seems likely that Symmachus restored or enriched the earlier structure and added another close beside it, dedicated to St. Martin of Tours. The two
were later spoken of as one under the title Sts. Sylvester and Martin. In name of St. Martin predominated and the modem church is known as San Martino ai Monti. Duchesne, op. cit., p. 267, n. 35. ' The flight of steps down the hill behind the apse is a feature of Santi Giovanni e Paolo to-day. ' The tomb of Hadrian was not consecrated to the archangel until the seventh
basilicas

course of time the

It is not known what basilica to St. Michael existed as early as the age of Synmiachus, although three are said to have stood within the city at the beginning of the ninth century. Duchesne, op. cit., p. 268, n. 36.

century.

*
'^

Now
The

disappeared.
site is

road which branches

p. 268, n. 37.

unknown. Via Trivana may be a corruption for Via Tiberina, the off from the Via Flaminia at Saxa Rubra. Duchesne, op. cit.,

" Whether these lodgings were for impoverished citizens of Rome or for impecunious pilgrims from a distance, they testify to the increasing scope of church activity.

SYMMACHUS
f
=1=

123
*

*i

He appointed that on every Lord's day and anniversary of the martyrs the hymn, "Gloria in excelsis," should be repeated.^ He
body
set in order the

cemetery of the Jordani for the sake of the

relief of

of Saint Alexander.^

He

every year sent

money and garments

to the bishops

and Sardinia.* He redeemed with money captives in Liguria and Milan and divers provinces and bestowed gifts upon them and let them go
free.^

who had

Jaeen driven into exile throughout Africa

*
also

He
in

was buried
in the basiUca of blessed Peter,

the

church of the blessed

19,

Peter/ July
in peace.

the apostle.

And

the bishopric was

empty

7 days.

And he

slept in peace as

a confessor.*

He was
of the
*

buried the 19th day

of July.

month

List of gifts to St. Peter

and

of repairs to the basilicas of St. Felicitas

and

St.

Agnes, both of which are said to have been falling into ruin.
* Before the time of Symmachus the angelic hymn was chanted only at the papal mass on Christmas night. Supra, p. 13 and n. 2. ' This cemetery is on the Via Salaria Nova, not far from the church of St. Agnes. It contained the tomb of the martyr Alexander, one of the sons of St. Felicitas, and

sepulchres of other saints.

up

of the other catacombs of

*

The discovery of this cemetery in 1578 led to the opening Rome. Lanciani, Pagan and Christian Rome, ch. VII.

Sardinia.
762.
B

Trasamond, king of the Vandals, about 508 drove the African bishops into exile in For a letter of Symmachus to these refugees see Jaffe, Regesta, vol. I, p. 99,

We

possess no other information regarding the captives said to have been ran-

somed by Sjrmmachus in Northern Italy but the country was overrun by Gothic bands and life and liberty must have been precarious.
*
'

List of ordinations.

John the Deacon in the ninth century mentions the tombs of Leo I, Simplicius and Symmachus which he had seen in the portico of the Vatican. Vita Sancti Gregorii, IV, 68; Migne, Pat. Lat., vol. 75. Both tombs and epitaphs have disappeared. ' Duchesne remarks that this epithet, like the other laudatory terms applied to Ssonmachus, show that our author felt a particular sympathy for and interest in this pope as one with whose difficulties he had been himself acquainted. Op. cit., p. 268, Mommsen is of the opinion that the author was merely following a good n. 46. source which has since been lost. Lib. Pont., p. xvii.

'

124

LIBER PONTIFICALIS
LIV. HoRinsDAS (514-523)

Hormisdas, by nationality a Campanian, son of Justus, from the town of Frisino,^ occupied the see 9 years and 17 days. He was bishop in the time of Theodoric, the king, and Anastasius Augustus,^

from the consulship

of Senator (a.d. 514) to the consulship

(a.d. 5 2 2)
.

of Symmachus and Boethius

and taught them from the Psalms. Alban district on the estate Mefontis.^

He set the clergy in order He built a basilica in the

By
ric

authority of his bishopof a

and by decree
in accordance

synod

At that time by a decree of a synod he sent to Greece and displayed

apostohc
for the

and
to

with the clem-

the
see,

clemency

of

the

ency of the apostoUc see he sent

Greece

and reconciled the

Greeks had been bound

of the anathema,

Greeks who had been in bondage of the anathema, because of

Peter of Alexandria and Acacius of Constantinople.*

by the chain

because of Peter of Alexandria

and Acacius, bishop of Constantinople, under John, bishop

of Constantinople.'

This
'

pope

sent

to

King
modem

By

advice

of

King

Theois

town

in ancient

Latium, the

Frosinone.

The name Campania

here

applied in the medieval sense to the region around

Rome.

' To be quite exact the author should have added the name of Justin, who was emperor from 518 to 523. ' This may mean that Hormisdas did his utmost to efface the vestiges of the schism which had rent the church under his predecessor. His epitaph says that he restored "the members torn from their wonted places.'' Duchesne, Lib. Pont., vol. I, p. 272, n. 4. ' The spot is now imknown. ' The following account of the negotiations of Hormisdas with the Eastern emperor

and the

final reconciliation of

the Eastern church

is

substantially correct, the version

in the first

column from the Felician Epitome being in the main more accurate than that in the second. The insurrection of Vitalian in 514 forced the emperor to propitiate orthodox opinion and to propose the settlement of differences at a general council to be held at Heraclea under the presidency of the pope. Hormisdas agreed to participate in the coimcU, provided that the Eutychian heresy should be expressly anathematised during the proceedings and the acts of the Council of Chalcedon should be ratified. Supra, p. 106, n. 2. In the summer of 515 he sent the legates mentioned in the text to discuss with the emperor the conditions of church reunion. Jaff6, Regesta,
vol. I, p. loi, 771, 773, 777.
' John was not bishop at Constantinople until 5x8, toward the close of the events about to be narrated. Timotheus was his predecessor. Duchesne, o^.ci<., p. 272, n. 6.

HORMISDAS
Theodoric at Ravenna and by advice of the king he dispatched Ennodius, bishop of Ticinum/

125

doric he dispatched Ennodius,

bishop of Ticinum, and Fortunatus,

bishop

of

Catina,

and

and Fortunatus, bishop of Cathena,^ and Evantius, a priest of the city, and Vitalis, a deacon of
the city.

Venantius, a priest of the city of

Rome, and

Vitalis,

a deacon of

the apostolic see, and Hilary, a

notary of the aforesaid

to Anastasius

see.

They went

Au-

They
Augustus

went

to

Anastasius

gustus and proposed that the Greeks should do penance according to the code and be reinstated but they effected nothing.^

but effected nothing.

Likewise a second
sent

time* Hormisdas sent Ennodius and

Peregrinus,

Likewise

second

time he

the

same Ennodius and

the

bishops,

and

Peregrinus, bishop of Mesena,^

PoUio, a subdeacon of the city,

carrying secret letters and argu-

them and arguments for the faith, 19 in number, and the code of penance, by means of which the Greeks might be
carried

and

they

with

secret letters

in

ments in support of the faith, 19 number, and the text of the

code of penance.

The modem

Pavia.

2
'

corruption for Catina, the modern Catania in Sicily.

letter declining his proposal.

By 516 Anastasius was no longer afraid of Vitalian and accordingly sent the pope's
Anastasius, not wishing to appear to discourage altogether the agitation for

embassy home with a

*

an embassy of his own to the pope and the Roman In February, 517, Hormisdas was writing in an irritated and despondent tone about the hoUowness of the Greek professions. In April of that same year, however, he had been himself persuaded to send a second deputation
ecclesiastical reunion, next sent

senate with counter propositions.

to Constantinople.

It carried with it letters to the emperor, to Timotheus, bishop of

Constantinople, to Possessor, an African bishop sojourning at the capital, to the

orthodox clergy, monks and populace of the city, to the orthodox bishops of the Orient and finally to all Eastern bishops without distinction of party. The orthodox were approved and urged to remain constant ; the rest reminded that they must return to
the rock on which the church was built.
Jaff6, Regesta, pp. 102-103, 784, 789-794.

The

Lib. Pont, also speaks of

is

an argument
Felix III

in nineteen headings

and a code of penance.

penitential code to

No

copy of the argument

known

to exist.

The

copies distributed in the East were

destroyed, as our text relates.

had already offered the

;

the erring Greeks.

^

Supra, p. 108 and

n. 3

p. 109.

Messina.

126
restored;

LIBER PONTIFICALIS
and
if

the Greeks re-

fused to receive the arguments

of the letters, the bishops were to distribute
cities.

them among the

And

Anastasius Augustus re-

And

Anastasius Augustus re-

fused to accept their offer, be-

fused to accept the code of penance, because he himself shared

in

cause he believed in the heresy

of Euthices.^

Therefore he tried
despised
the

the

Euthycian

heresy.

to corrupt the bishops with a

Therefore he tried to corrupt the

legates

bribe

but

they

with a bribe but the

prince and would not take the

legates of the apostolic see de-

money.

The emperor, hot with anger, sent them forth by a dangerous

place and embarked

them on a

ship in peril of death with a captain

and a

prefect, Heliodorus

spised Anastasius Augustus and would not take the money, unless he would render satisfaction to the apostolic see. Then the emperor, full of wrath, sent them forth by a back way and embarked them on a dangerous ship with soldiers and captains and prefects, Heliodorus and

and Demetrius.
peror gave

And the emcommand that they

Demetrius.

And

the emperor Anastasius

should not enter any dty.

gave command that they should

not enter any dty.
Nevertheless the legates of the
apostolic see secretly dispatched

Nevertheless the bishops secretly dispatched the above men-

tioned

19 letters on the faith

all

the above mentioned 19 letters

through

the

cities

by the
re-

on the

faith

through

all

the cities

hands of catholic monks. But these letters were

ceived

by bishops
agreed

of the cities

by the hands of orthodox monks. But these letters were received by bishops of the dties

who

with

Anastasius

who were
tasius

of the party of Anas-

Augustus, the heretic, and in

fear they forwarded

them

all

to

Augustus and in fear forwarded all the letters on the

'

The

details of the failure of the second mission to Anastasius are recorded only

in the Lib. Pont.

HORMISDAS
Constantinople to the hands of Anastasius. Anastasius in rage wrote to
faith

127
as

criminal

to

Constan-

tinople.

Full of rage Anastasius wrote

Pope Hormisdas and

other impious things
to
:

said

among

against

Pope Hormisdas

and

"We wish

among
this
:

other impious things said

command you not to lay commands upon us. " ^ Then, struck
by a blow from
the divine thunderbolt, Anastasius perished.''

"We wish to command you

not to lay commands upon us." At that time by the will of God Anastasius was struck by the divine thunderbolt and
died.

So Justin, the orthodox, succeeded to the empire and he sent

to

So Justin, the orthodox, succeeded to the empire and he sent

his authority to Pope Hormisdas and the apostolic see

the apostolic see,

to

Pope
of

with

Hormisdas,
illustrious

Gratus,

man

legates

name, and asked that might be commissioned

Gratus,

man

of

illustrious

name, to request of the apostolic

see that the peace of the churches

by the

apostolic see.'

Then, by advice

of

King

might be restored. Then Hormisdas, the bishop,

Theodoric, Hormisdas sent Ger-

by advice

of

King Theodoric,

manus, bishop of Capua, and John, the bishop, and Blandus, a priest, and Felix, a deacon of the apostolic see, and Dioscorus,
a deacon of the aforesaid
see,*

sent from the apostolic see Ger-

manus, bishop of Capua, and John and Blandus, a priest, and Felix and Dioscorus, deacons of the apostohc see, and Peter, a.
notary, and he instructed them
EpistoltB

and he
1

fortified

them on every

The text of the imperial letter Is printed in Thiel,

It is dated July 11, 517,
effect
;

Romanorum Pontificum,

vol. I, p. 813.

insulted
op.
cit.,

and to be made of no
p. 273, n. 12.

and ends with the words, "We can endure to be we cannot endure to be commanded." Duchesne,

Several writers of the time mention a great storm on the day of the death of

Anastasius.
'

Duchesne,

op.

cit.,

p. 273, n. 13.

August 1,518, Justin wrote to Hormisdas to announce his accession, and in September of the same year he sent Gratus, " vir clarissimus," to reopen the question of reunit-

The emperor's letter is in Thiel, Epistola, vol. I, p. 831. ing the divided church. Hormisdas' answers are summarized in Jaff6, Regesta, vol. I, p. 104, 801, 802. ^This Dioscorus had already proved his talents of eloquence and persuasion.
Supra, p. 118, n. i. Being an Alexandrian he, of course, was famiUar with the Greek language and point of view and was especially qualified for a part in the mission.

128

LIBER PONTIFICALIS
on every point of faith and gave them the text of the code of
penance.

point of faith and gave them the

code of penance, by means of

which the Greeks might return

to

communion with the apos-

tolic see.^

And when

they drew near to

And when

they drew near to they

Constantinople

Constantinople

were

so

radiant with the grace of faith

came out to meet them a multitude of monks and a host

there

that a multitude of orthodox

men, among emperor whom were the Justin and Vitalianus, master of the
of

distinguished

monks and a vast host of distinguished men, among whom

were the emperor Justin and the

soldiery,

and
the

they

escorted

came to meet them and escorted them from

consul VitaHanus,

them from the

Castle into
stantinople.'*

so-called

Round
Con-

the so-called the

Round

Castle into

city

of

dty

of Constantinople.

With glory and

praise they

entered the city together with

the illustrious Gratus.'

entered the

With glory and praise they dty together with

they were gloriously re-

the illustrious Gratus.

So
ceived

after their entrance into

And
ceived

the dty they were gloriously re-

by Justin Augustus, the

by Justin Augustus, the

all

orthodox.

orthodox.

Then

the clergy of Con-

Then
the

all

the clergy and John,

stantinople and John, the bishop,

bishop of Constantinople,

knowing that these men had

been joyfully received.

knowing that these men had been joyously received, also they

'

The

instructions given

be found in Mansi, Amplissima

63. P- 433*

by Hormisdas to the legates have been preserved and may Colleclio, vol. VIII, p. 441, and in Migne, Pat. Lot., vol.
the envoys to the pope, describing their enthusiastic recepspecial report

Jaff^. Regesta, p. 104, 805.

An official report from

from the deacon Bioscorus on the same They mention among the grandees who met them and escorted them to the gates the count Justinian, then an influential minister of the emperor Justin. The author of the Lib. Pont, has taken the name for that of the emperor and has therefore mistakenly represented Justin himself as being among the escorts. A sentence or two later he explicitly says that Justin retion at Constantinople,

and a

topic are printed in Thiel, op.

cit.,

vol. I, pp. 857-859.

ceived the

Romans

after their arrival in the city.

HORMISDAS
who had been
Anastasius,

129
associated with
|

Acadus,
is

shut themselves up in the great

shut themselves up in the great

church which is called Santa Sophia and held a council and

sent word unto the emperor, saying,

church which
sent

called

Santa

Sophia and held a council and

word unto the emperor,

"Unless the reason be exto us

pounded

why Acadus,

the

bishop of our dty, was con-

demned, we make no agreement with the apostolic see." And a coundl was held before

"Unless the reason be expounded to us why our bishop Acadus was condemned, we make no agreement with the
saying,
apostolic see."

Justin

Augustus,
all

in

the

presence of

the nobility, and

the legates of the apostolic see

chose

Dioscorus,

the

deacon,
to ex-

from among themselves

pound the reason. And he set forth to them the guilt of Acadus so dearly that they aU, even
Justin Augustus, cried out together, saying, "Damnation to Acadus here and in eternity!"

At

that time Justin Augustus

the
truth

accepted

and gave
bishop

command

that

every

within the realm of Justin should satisfy the code of penance with-

out delay and return to communion with the apostolic see. And this came to pass and there was harmony from the East

unto the West and the peace of the church prevailed. And the text of the code of penance is
kept laid up in the archives of the church unto this day.^
1
I

An

extract from Dioscorus' account of the hearing given to the envoys before

13

LIBER PONTIFICALIS
This pope Hormisdas sent to

King Theodoric at Ravenna * and by his advice deUvered authority to Justin and restored him to unity with the apostoKc
see through the seal of his auto-

graph and the code of penance

and

condemned

Peter

and

Acacius and

all heresies.

He

found Manicheans and shattered them

|

with* a multitude of

and

tried

them by

blows and sent them into

exile

and
|

he destroyed
their

he burned

books with

fire

before the doors of the basilica of Constantine.*

In his days the bishopric

of Africa,

which had been abol-

in Africa,

which had been abolthe heretics,

ished

by

the heretics in the time

ished

by

was

re-

of persecution,

was reestabUshed

stored after 74 years.

after 74 years.'

At

that time there

came
a diadem.
is

a golden crown,
the emperor,
op.
cit.,

tjie

Byzantine senate and the leaders of the church

quoted by Duchesne,

Dioscorus says that the reading of the pope's letters and the code of penance produced conviction at once and modestly makes nothing of his own part in bringing about the happy termination. A letter from Hormisdas, however, written to Dioscorus in December of the same year, expresses his thankfulness for
p.

273-274, n. 19.

his own intention of asking the emperor to bestow on Dioscorus the bishopric of Alexandria as a reward for his labors. JaflE6, Regesta, A "libellus paenitentiae " or penitential code of the year 517 is printed in p. 107, 842.

what God had done through him and

Thiel, Epistola, vol. I, p. 755.

'

The author

of this second text places the expedition of

it

Hormisdas to Ravenna

during the reign of Justin and connects

author of the
515-517.
'

first

text places

it

with the successful negotiations of 519. The under Anastasius as a part of the fruitless ventures of

This episode

is

mentioned only in the Lib. Pont.

'The

reestablishment of the orthodox church in the Vandal kingdom of Africa

took place immediately on the death of Trasamond, May, 523. News of the event must have reached Rome shortly before the death of Hormisdas in August of the same year. The figure 74, given here for the duration of the term of Catholic persecution.

HORMISDAS, JOHN
set

131

with precious stones, from the king of the Franks, Cloduveus, for a gift to blessed Peter, the apostle.'

During

his episcopate

many

gold and silver vessels

came from

Greece, and the gospels with golden covers and precious stones,

which weighed 15
* *
all

lbs.

^
;

*3

These
orthodox.
*

were sent as a thank offering by Justin Augustus, the

* *

:|c

its

He

also

was buried
in the basilica of blessed Peter,

in the church of blessed Peter,^

the apostle,

August

6, in

the consulship of Maximus,

|

the younger (a.d. 523).

And

the bishopric was

empty

6 days.

LV. John
John, by nationality a Tuscan, son of Constantius, occupied the see
2 years,

I (523-526)

John, by nationahty a Tuscan, son of Constantius, occu-

9 months

pied the see 2 years, 9 months

should probably be 84. The latter would carry one back to 439, the year when Carthage was captured by Genseric and the clergy of the city were driven into exile. Duchesne, op.
1

cit.,

p. 274, n. 22.

Clovis died in 511, three years before the accession of Hormisdas. It is possible, however, that there had been a delay in the transportation of his votive crown to Rome. 2 letter has been preserved, sent in 521 by Hormisdas to Epiphanius, bishop of

"We have is added a note in the pope's own handwriting. silver chalice and received the golden, jewelled chalice, the silver paten and a second two curtains sent by your charity to serve in the ministry of the basilica of blessed
Constantinople, to which
Peter."
'

Jaff6, Regesta, p. 108, 858.

List of rich vessels

Lists of gifts

and other objects. from Theodoric and Hormisdas to the great

Silverius,
25.

basilicas.

List of

ordinations.
^

given

His epitaph, written by his son by Duchesne; op. cit., p. 274, n.

who

himself

It ascribes to

became pope in 536, is Hormisdas the credit not only

for the healing of the schisms at

home and abroad but

also for the restoration of the

Catholic church in Africa.

132

LIBER PONTIFICALIS
and 16 days. He was bishop from the consulship of Maximus
(a.d.

and 15 days, from the consulship of

Maximus (a.d. 523) to the consulship of Olybrius, the

(a.d. 526).

523) to the consulship of

younger

Olybrius (a.d. 526), in the days

of

Theodoric

and

of

Justin

He was summoned by King Theodoric to Ravenna and the king commissioned him and sent him on an embassy to Constantinople to Justin, the emperor.

Augustus, the Christian.

He was

summoned by King Theodoric

to

Ravenna and the same king

For Justin was a devout

religion
heretics.

man and
root

commissioned him and sent him on an embassy to Constantinople to Justin, the orthodox
emperor.
tin,

in his great love for the Christian

For at that time Jus-

he

tried

to

out

the emperor, a devout man,

in his ardent love for the Chris-

tian religion

was trying

to root

out the heretics.

With

great fervor he dedi-

With great
tianity

fervor for Chris-

cated the churches of the Arians

to the catholic faith.^

he adopted a plan to

consecrate the churches of the the

Therefore

Theodoric,

Arians as catholic.
heretic

Arian, was angered and threat-

king,

Theodoric,

Hence the was

of
it,

ened to put
sword.

all

Italy to

the

incensed,

when he heard

and threatened to destroy

Italy with the sword.

all

Then John, the venerable

pope, set forth and journeyed

Then John, the pope,

infirmity,

ill

with

journeyed

weeping,

with weeping and lamentation

and

certain

devout men,

ex-

and certain senators and exconsuls with him, namely The-

'The Anonymous
Theodoric,

Chionicle of Valois, compiled apparently after the death of

the same story; viz. that Theodoric believed that "Justin was afraid of him" and therefore he charged John to tell him "among other things not "And when to readmit to the catholic religion the heretics who had been reconciled." he came (to Constantinople) the emperor Justin met him as if he had been the blessed Peter; and when he had delivered his message the emperor promised to do everything, except that he could never restore to the Arians those who had been reconciled and had adopted the catholic faith." Ch. 88-93. Quoted by Duchesne, lib. Pont., vol. I, The proscription of the Arians by Justin took place in 523. Theodcwic p. 277, n. 2. may have felt that this action was a menace to the safety of the Gothic tribes in Italy and jeopardised the policy of general peace and toleration which he himself had labored to enforce. On the Anon. Valesianus, see Mommsen, Chronica Minora, I.
tells practically

JOHN
consuls and patricians, went with

^33

odorus,
the

Importunus, Agapitus,

him,

Theodorus,

Importunus,

exconsuls,'

and

another

Agapitus and another Agapitus. And they took this for the message of their embassy, that
the churches of the heretics in the

Agapitus, a patrician.

And

they took this for their

that

message as ambassadors,

the churches should be returned

to the heretics in the dominions of the East

dominions of Greece should be

returned to them and that
if it

and that otherwise

all

were not done Justin Angustus

Theodoric would put

ICing Theodoric
to the sword.

Italy

would put

all all

Italy to the sword.

When

the aforesaid en-

voys had arrived at Constantinople with John, the pope, the

people came to meet them at the
1 2 th

When they had journeyed with John, the pope, the whole city with candles and crosses
came
to

meet them

at.

the 15 th

milestone in honor of the

milestone in honor of the blessed

apostles, Peter

apostles, for

from the days of the

and Paul, and

the Greeks

blessed Silvester, the pope, in the

the ancients

among

time of Constantine, they had

desired to be accounted worthy
to receive in Greece the vicar of

bore witness, saying that in the

time of Constantine Greece had

been accounted worthy to

ceive

re-

Saint Peter,

the

blessed

Silvester,
see,

bishop of the apostolic

again
in

and

the
it

time

of

Justin

Augustus

had received the

vicar of blessed Peter, the apos-

and Justin Augustus adored the

blessed John,
1

Then Justin tle, with glory.^ Augustus gave honor to God and bowed himself to the ground
Importunus in 509, Agapitus
visit

Flavius Theodorus was consul in 505,

first

in 517.

Duchesne, op. cil., p. 277, n. 3. 2 As a matter of fact John I was the

pope to

Constantinople.

The

refer-

ence to Sylvester in the first column of our text, taken from the Felician Epitome, probably means that since the time of Sylvester, i.e. since the official recognition of Christianity and the establishment of the state church at Constantinople, no such honor

had been paid to the Eastern capital. The author of the later version in the second column has misunderstood the passage and interpreted it as a statement that Sylvester himself had once been in Greece. The contemporary chronicle of MarceUmus says.

134

LIBER PONTIFICALIS
and
adored
pope.

John,

the most

blessed

At that

time

blessed John, the pope,

aforesaid

and the

senators with

many

tears besought of Justin

tus that their

Augusembassy might be

favored in his sight.

And Pope

John and the senators, devout men, obtained all their requests and Italy was delivered from King Theodoric, the heretic.^ Moreover Justin, the emperor, was filled with joy because he had been accounted worthy to
behold the vicar of blessed Peter,
the apostle, during his Hfetime

within his realm and Justin Au-

and he was crowned by

hands.

his

gustus was crowned gloriously

Likewise
the

Then
the granted

the

emperor emperor
all

granted

the

by the pope's hands. At that time, when the aforesaid envoys, that is Pope John and the senators,

request of the requests

pope

and

the

noble senators,
exconsuls
patricians

and
of

the

city

of

Rome, Flavius
Theodorus,

of the illustrious

Theodorus, the exconsul,

who

excelled rus

Theodoand of the
nobles

the other digni- other

"He Qohn) was

received with extraordinary honor ; he sat

upon a throne on the

right

side of the church

and he celebrated the day

of our Lord's resurrection with

Roman

prayers in a loud voice.''

'

Migne, Pat. Lot., vol. 51, p. 941. mention the demand of Theodoric already cited, that Justin should compel the converted Arians to return to their old faith. Supra, p. 132,

The

Lib. Pont, does not

n. I.

Justin did apparently consent to restore the confiscated Arian churches.

JOHN
taries in splen-

135

who came with

blessed

dor and distinc- the

tion,

the

illus-

pope John,
Importunus, the exconsul,

trious Importu-

nus,

also

an
il-

exconsul, the
lustrious
pitus,
sul,

Aga-

Agapitus, the exconsul,

an exconand the
and Agapitus, the patrician, who
died at Thessalonica,
patrician,

other Agapitus,

the

and

to save the of

and

to save the
of

blood
turned

the blood
re-

the
re-

Romans he

Romans he

the turned

the

churches to the churches of the

heretics.

heretics

to

them.

But while this was taking

place
in

the
of

dominion
Greece,
in

ac-

cordance
Theodoric,
heretic,

with
the

the wiU of King

many
and

priests

Christians were

being put to the

sword.
while
while But Theodoric kept King Theodoric

Even King

were kept sojourning at Constantinople

heretic.

the

blessed

kept the bishop

by King Theodoric,

the

bishop John and John and the illustrithe other illus- other
trious

men

so-

ous

men

so-

journing

in

journing

at

136

LIBER PONTIFICALIS
Constantinople
slew

Constantinople

he

slew

two he

two
Boe-

he put to death two

senators

illustrious

senators,

ex- senators,

xonsuls and pa- thius and

tricians,

Symthe

and exconsuls, Symmachus and Boethius, slajdng

Boe- machus,
patrician,

them with the sword.

thius

and Sym-

with

machus,

with the sword and

the sword and

commanded
that
their

commanded
that
their

bodies

should

bodies

should be

concealed.

be concealed.'

Then when
been

Then Pope
and
the

At that time

the venerable

everything had John

accom- aforesaid illus plished in due trious men on order and Aga- their return
pitus, the patrician,

pope John and the senators returned with glory, having obtained
all their

requests of Justin

Augustus,

was dead
illus-

in

Greece, the

aforesaid
trious

men with
returned

John, the bishop,

and were received by King Theodoric craftily; in great hatred he received John, the bishop, and the
illustrious

but King Theodoric, the

received

heretic,

and devout senators and in the heaviness of his wrath he would have punished them with the sword but he feared the
'

Pope John and the senators, with craft and hatred and would even have slain them with the sword but he feared the indigthem,
that
is

nation of Justin Augustus.

Chronicle of Valois says that Boethius was strangled by Theodpope was sent to Constantinople but that Symmachus was put to death in John's absence. " For the king feared that his grief for his father-in-law (Boethius) might cause him to plot against the government and he accused him of crime and
oric before the

The Anonymous

ordered him to be executed."

Ch. 92.
still

A third chronicle of
differently.

the time, Chronicon Cus-

"In that year Theodoric slew Symmachus and Boethius and died himself eighteen days later." Quoted by Duchesne,
pinianeum, arranges these events
op.
p. 277, n. 7.
cit.,

JOHN
indignation of Justin Augustus, the orthodox, and did it not.

137

However, he confined them

all cruelly in prison, so

However, he confined
all

them

that the

miserably in prison, so that

blessed pope John,

ness,

worn by ill- the blessed John, bishop and gave up the ghost and died pope of the chief of sees, sickin prison.i He died at Ravenna ened in prison and gave up the
gloriously.
of

May 18, in the prison ghost and died. He died a King Theodoric. On the 98th martyr at Ravenna in prison. day after Bishop John had May 18.^ Then it came to pass, died in prison, by the will of by the will of omnipotent God, omnipotent God, King Theodo- that on the 98th day after blessed ric suddenly John died in prison King Thewas struck was struck by a odoric, the heretic, suddenly down by divine thunderbolt perished. power and and perished.
perished.'

This pope John rebuilt the cemetery of the blessed martyrs, Nereus and Achilleus, on the Via Ardeatiiia ^ he likewise restored the cemetery of Saints Felix and Adauctus * he likewise restored
; ;

the cemetery of Priscilla.

'

The

evefits here related all followed each other in rapid succession.

At the end

of 525 or the opening of 526

Pope John was

in

Rome,

conferring with Dionysius the

Lat., vol. 67, p. 517.

Less, over the celebration of the approaching Easter.

Migne, Pat.

When

May

Supra, p. i^j, u. :i. On 18 he died in confinement under Theodoric's displeasure. The king was in a
that Easter came, April 19, he was in Constantinople.

frame of mind that brooked no delays. ^ The author of the text in the second column calls John a martyr. The Anonsrmous Chronicle of Valois tells how a man possessed by a devil was healed as the pope's
bier passed
off

him

in the street

and how the senators and the populace thereupon

relics.

tore

fragments of the dead man's vestments to preserve as

cit.,
' *

Ch. 93.

Duchesne,

op.

p. 277, n. 9.

Theodoric died on August 30, one hundred and four days after the pope. John restored the basilica of Santi Nereo ed Achilleo in the cemetery of Domitilla.

It

is

possible still to distinguish between the remains of the original basilica, built about

390 under Pope Siricius, and the renovations of John. ^ This cemetery was also known as the cemetery of Commodilla. It stood a little to the east of the basilica of St. Paul, near the Via Ostiensis. Frothingham thinks that John decorated with frescos the subterranean chapel recently unearthed there. Monur
merUs, pp. 73, 74, 279-281. * He probably restored the basilica of St. Sylvester, which stood over the catacomb of Priscilla.

Duchesne, op.

cit.,

p. 277, n. 13.

138

LIBER PONTIFICALIS
*
I

His body was brought from Ravenna and buried in the basilica
of the blessed Peter,
526).='

May

27, in the consulship of

Olybrius (a.d.

And

the bishopric was

empty 58

days.

LVI. Felix IV (526-530)

Felix,

by

nationality a Samnite, son of Castorius, occupied the

see 4 years, 2

months and 13 days. He was bishop in the time of King Theodoric and Justin Augustus, from the consulship of Maburtius (a.d. 527) to the consulship of Lampadius and Horestes
(a.d. 530),

from July 12 to October

in the region

12.'

He
of

built the basilica of Saints

Cosma and Damian

called the

in the city

Rome,

which

is

Via Sacra, near the

temple of the city of Rome.*

Short

list

of gifts to

Roman

basilicas, contributed principally

by Emperor

Justin.

List of ordinations.
'

An

the

tomb

epitaph copied from the ancient atrium of St. Peter, which perhaps marked Op. cit., p. 278, n. 15. The seventh line of John I, is given by Duchesne.
"Priest of the Lord, thou art fallen a victim for Christ."

runs,

'

The dates

recorded here for the pontificate of Felix

IV

are not quite exact.

The-

odoric died seven weeks after his installation and Justin a year later.
greater part of his term of office
II

Accordingly the

was passed under Athalaric and Justinian. Boniface was ordained September 22, 530, so that Felix must have died during the same month. A calculation based upon the length of the pontificate as given in the first sentence of our biography brings one to September 21 as the date of Felix' death. The Latin text for this passage is " a die IV id. Jul. usque in IV id. Octub." It is possible that a copyist may have repeated the "IV id." by mistake in the second phrase and that it originally
read "in

X
is

kal.

Octub."

Duchesne, Lib. Pont.,

vol. I, p. 279, nn.

1, z.

Mommsen

suggests that the inaccuracy in date, which

b noticeable from time

to time through this

is explained by Duchesne as copyist's error or later interdue to the fact that the author is not a contemporary of the events he is describing but is introducing dates at his own discretion into a narrative of an earlier

part of the narrative and

polation,

age.
*

Mommsen,
This
is,

Lib. font., p. xvii.

now known as Santi Cosma e Damiano. It was pagan hall, dedicated by Vespasian, restored by Severus and Caracalla and employed as a storehouse for census reports and survey records. On its eastern wall was set up the marble plan of Rome, of which fragments are now preserved in Felix constructed an apse on this eastern epd and adorned the Capitoline Museum. it with a mosaic of Christ among the clouds, attended by saints and apostles, and inscribed the dedicatory verses which may be still read beneath it. The hall itself stood
of course, the church
originally a

'

FELIX IV

139

In his time the basilica of the holy martyr Saturninus on the Via Salaria was burned with fire and he rebuilt it from its foundation.^

He was ordained by order of He was ordained peaceably King Theodoric ^ and he died in and he lived to the time of the time of King Athalaric, Octo- Athalaric.
ber 12.
*
3

He

also

was buried

in the basihca of blessed Peter, the apostle,

October

15.*

And

the bishopric was empty 3 days.

a little back from the Via Sacra, from which it was separated by a small, circular temple, by Maxentius in honor of his son Romulus. Either Felix or some later builder threw the new church and the round temple together, so that the latter served as a vestibule for the former and gave it an entrance upon the Via Sacra. There is considerable uncertainty as to the edifice referred to here as the " temple of the city of Rome." The Lib. Pont, relates of Pope Honorius that he covered the whole basilica of St. Peter with bronze tiles taken by permission of the emperor Heraclius from the " temple which is called the temple of Rome." Duchesne opines that the building thus denoted was the civil basilica of Constantine, which stood near Felix' church. Frothlngham and others think it rather the temple of Venus and Rome. The cult of the Cilician martyrs, Cosma and Damian, was especially popular at Rome at this period. Ssmimachus had already built an oratory in their honor. Supra, p. 122. Duchesne, op. cU., p. 279, Frothingham, Monuments, pp. 73-74, 89-go. Gregorbvius, History 0/ Rome, tr. n. 3.
erected

Hamilton,
1

A
A

vol. I, pp. 339-346. cemeterial basilica over the catacomb of Thrason on the Via Salaria.

It

has

long since disappeared.

2

Duchesne, op.

cit.,

p. 280, n. 4.

letter

has survived, written by Athalaric to the

Roman

expresses his pleasure that they

had

so obediently elected the

senate, in which he pope chosen for them

by his predecessor, Theodoric.

ent faith," had taken pains to

man.
'

" although of a differa pontiff who would be satisfactory to any upright Cassiodorus, Varia, VIII, 15 ; tr. Hodgkin, Letters of Cassiodorus, pp. 360-361.

He assures them that Theodoric,

select

List of ordinations.

Duchesne

{op.

cit.,

p. 280, n. 7) gives his epitaph.

The

last four lines

may

be

translated as follows

"For

his humble piety he was preferred to many of the proud And by singleness of heart he won a lofty place He was bountiful to the poor, he comforted the wretched, He increased the wealth of the apostoUc see."

I40

LIBER PbNTIFICALIS

LVII. Boniface II (530-532)

Boniface,

by

nationality a

the see 2 years and 26 days.

Athalaric, the heretic,

Roman, son of Sigibuld/ occupied He was bishop in the time of King

^

and

of Justin
|

Augustus,

the catholic.

He was

ordained by one faction at the same time as Dioscorus.'

*

Diosconis was ordained in the basilica of Constantine and Boniface

in the basilica of Julius
;

and there was

strife

among

the clergy

and

in the senate for 28 days.*

At

that time Dioscorus died, Octo-

The

first

Germanic name

to appear in the lists of the

popes or their forbears.

I, p.

A
2.

consul of the year 437 was called Sigisbuld. Duchesne, Lib. Pont., vol. ' This name should, of course, be Justinian.
'

282, n.

For the previous career of Dioscorus see supra,

p. 1 18, n. i

and

p. 127 c/ seq.

The

history of this brief schism in the church has been recently illuminated
in the chapter library at
oil.,

by the discovery

Novara

p. 282, nn.

4 and

8.

The

to the bishops and clergy, and ordination by himself of Boniface, the archdeacon, to succeed him in the government of the church and bidding them all accept Boniface and avoid dissension on pain Felix, we may recollect, had of suspension from the communion of the Lord's body. been an appointee of Theodoric and apparently wished to ensure the succession of a pope who would continue to favor the Goths. Dioscorus, on the other hand, had more coimection with the Greek party in church and state. The second document is a general order from the Roman senate to the clergy to refrain during the lifetime of a pope from

documents now published by Duchesne. Op. a mandate addressed by Felix IV on his deathbed the senate and people of Rome, announcing the selection
of three
first is

planning for the ordination of his successor.

The edict

is

impartial in

its

phraseology

and applies equally to the partisans of Boniface and those of Dioscorus. The third document is entitled, "The Paper Which the 60 Priests Presented to Pope Boniface after the Death of Dioscorus." It is a formula of repudiation and anathematization of Dioscorus, " who in opposition to the decree of your (Boniface's) predecessor. Pope Felix, of blessed memory, aspired to the bishopric of the Roman church." It contains a confession of error in having espoused the cause of Dioscorus and a promise never again to be guilty of such wickedness. It closes with a declaration that it is signed by the offender's own hand. The copies of this instrument deposited by Boniface in the Roman church were burned five or six years later by Pope Agapitus. Infra, p. 144.
It is interesting to observe that the of Dioscorus as

emperor Justinian in 551 used the condemnation a precedent to prove that it was lawful to anathematize the dead. The basilica of Constantine is, of course, San Giovanni in Laterano. Duchesne thinks that the basilica of Julius is not Santa Maria in Trastevere, often known under this title, but a hall in the Lateran palace which also bore the designation. Op. cil.,
p. 282, n. s'

The number of
from the

the priests

inferred

title of

who adhered to Dioscorus was at least sixty, as may be the formula of repudiation described above. Supra,

BONIFACE
ber 14.

II

141

Then

Boniface,

with

much

bitterness the clergy to return to

anathema in their own hand he deposited in the archives of the church, as if for condemnation of Dioscorus; and he gathered the clergy together. Nevertheless no one subscribed to his episcopate,^ for the great majority had been with Dioscorus.^ He gave the priests, deacons, subdeacons and notaries plates of metal which were bequeathed to him ' and succored the clergy with
lavish ahns

guile, commanded him under bond of an own handwriting and the anathema in their
full of

ambition and

when

in danger of famine.

He

held a synod in the

basilica of blessed Peter, the apostle,^

and made a decree that he

should ordain his

apostle Peter

own

successor.

This decree he ratified by the

signatures of the priests and an oath before the confession of the

and he appointed the deacon Vigihus. Then a second was held out of reverence for the holy see, because the decree had been contrary to the canons and because
synod
of all the priests

Boniface repented of his sin in that he wished to appoint his successor;

sacrilege

and Pope Boniface confessed that he had been and

I

guilty of

had confirmed
the decree with his

own

signature in behalf of the deacon Vigilius

of blessed Peter,

and before the confession

presence of
decree with
all
fire.

the apostle, in the

the priests and clergy and senators he burned the the bishops of Africa

At that time a communication came from

n. 3
.

At the synod of 499, which all the Roman priests woidd naturally have attended, there were only sixty-seven present. It therefore seems clear that Dioscorus was the favorite candidate with the great majority of the clergy, who disliked the domination
of the Goths.
^
1

Duchesne, op. cit., p. 282, n. 6. This probably means that Boniface did not require the followers of Dioscorus to sign the decree attesting his election, but satisfied himself with the form of recantation already described.

2 In members of the fifth ecumenical council at Constantinople alluded 5 J J one of the to Dioscorus as pope and declared that the officials in Constantinople had been in communion with him up to the time of his death. Duchesne, op. cit., p. 283, n. 10.

Gregory the Great mentions a silver plate or platter (scutella), which to a monastery. Gregory I, EpistolcB II, 32 Migne, Pat. Lat., bequeathed had been
'

A letter of
The

vol. 77, col. 569*

Lib. Pont, is the only source for the following events.

142

LIBER PONTIFICALIS

regarding their government, saying also that the bishop of Carthage

would in every act take counsel of the apostolic see.' He (Boniface) also was buried in the basilica of blessed Peter,
the apostle,^ the on the

October

i8, in the

October
dius.

17,

in

17 th

day of

consulship of

Lampa-

consulship of

Lampa- the month of October,

in the consulship of

dius and Orestes.'

Lampadius.

And

the bishopric

was empty
|

months and 15 days *

in the eleventh indiction.

LVIII. John II issSSSS)

John,
the younger,
|

who was
by
'

also called
|

Mercurius,
nationality a

Mart3nius,

Roman, son
of Africa

of Projectus,
its

from the Caelian

Hill,^

The orthodox church

had been given

freedom by the Vandal king Hii-

deric in 523.

Supra, p. 130 and n. 3. For some years thereafter it was divided over the character and extent certain problems of reorganisation, two in particular, viz.
:

of the primacy of the see of Carthage

and the

relation of that see to the bishopric of

Rome.
'

Duchesne, op.
is

cit.,

pp.

xli,

283, n. 13.
Its tone
is

His epitaph
. . .

given

by Duchesne.

different

from that of our

text.

"The

gentle shepherd reunited his divided flock,

Folding again his distressed sheep as the enemy fell; With meek heart he abated his anger against the suppliants And overcame all wiles by the simplicity of his spirit."
It also records his aid to the city in
'

a year of famine.

Duchesne, op.

cit.,

p. 283, n. 14.

Lampadius and Orestes were consuls in 530, the year of the death of Felbc IV. Supra, p. 138. Through an error their names have been inserted in the text again here. * The unusual length of this interregnum was apparently due to a series of scandalous party intrigues and efforts to purchase the see by simony. A letter of King Athalaric to John II speaks of these deplorable machinations and says that during their course some of the sacred vessels were offered for public sale. The Roman senate
about this time issued a decree to the effect that any one who attempted to buy the papacy by any kind of bribery should be considered guilty of sacrilege. Cassiodorus,
Varia, EC, 15
;

tr.

Hodgkin,

Letters of Cassiodorus, pp. 398-400.

Duchesne, op.

cit.,

pp. 283-284, n. 16.

John was a

priest of

pontificate.

votive inscription

San Clemente on the Caelian Hill before his elevation to the still existing in the church of San Pietro in Vincoli

JOHN
occupied the see
2 years,

II,

AGAPITUS
He was

143

4 months and 6 days.

^

bishop in

the time of King Athalaric

and Justinian Augustus,

|

the catholic.

man and ardent lover of the Christian religion, sent a statement of his faith, written in his own
In his time the emperor, a devout
hand, to the apostoUc see by the bishops Epatius and Demetrius.^
* * * * * * *

*3

He

also

was buried

in the basilica of blessed Peter, the apostle,*

May

27, in the

second consulship of Lampadius.*

And

the bishopric was

empty

6 days.

LIX. Agapitus (535-536)

Agapitus, by nationality a Roman, son of the priest Gordianus, one of the clergy of the church of Saints John and Paul, occupied
the see
gives the

surnamed Mercurius, "promoted from the The present choir screen and ambones at San Clemente, with their decorations in low relief, two columns and a fragment of the epistyle of the ciborium are relics of the gifts of John to the basilica. His monogram may be seen on the screen. Duchesne, Lib. Pont., vol. I, p. 285, n. i Frothingham, Monuments, pp. 74-75. 1 Athalaric died in 534 and was succeeded by Theodatus or Theodahad, of whom we shall hear more under the ensuing pontificates. ' The disturbing problem of the dual nature of Christ had been raised again in the East by a monkish party who inclined to the Nestorian view. Supra, p. 97, n. 5. Justinian sent H}T)atius and Demetrius, bishops of Ephesus and Philippi respectively, with a letter to the pope setting forth his own position and asking to have it approved. That letter, with the answer of the pope endorsing it, was published in the first chapter Duchesne, op. cit., of the first book of the Code of Justinian, issued in November 534. For an account of Justinian's relations Jaf6, Regesta, p. 113, 884, 885. p. 28s, n. 3. with the church and the papacy see Cambridge Med. Hist., vol. II, pp. 43-49' List of gifts from Justinian. List of ordinations.
of the reigning

name

pope as

Jolin,

parish church of San Clemente to the pontifical glory.''

*
^

His epitaph is given by Duchesne, op. cit., p. 286, n. These dates are both wrong. John II died May 8.

4.

May 27 was
in 532.

the date of the

cit.,

burial of

John

I.

The second

consulship of

Lampadius

fell

Duchesne, op.

p. 286, n. 5.

Gordianus signed his name to the proceedings of the

Roman

synod of 499 as

priest of Santi Giovanni e Paolo

and

lost his life in 501 during the disturbances of the

Symmachus. His house stood near the church which he served and his son Agapitus founded there a library of Greek and Latin theology. A dedicatory inscription was painted upon the wall above the bookcases and the frescoed portraits
pontificate of

144
II

LIBER PONTIFICALIS
|

months and i8 days.

He, at the opening

8 months and lo days.

of his episcopate,
fire

assembled everyone into

a church and burned with

the book of the anathema which

Boniface in anger and guile had extorted from the priests and
bishops contrary to the canons and in condemnation of Diosconis,

and he absolved the whole church from the guilt of perfidy.' He was sent by Theodatus, king of the Goths, on an embassy to the lord emperor Justinian,^ because at that time the lord emperor Justinian was wroth against King Theodatus for killing Queen Amalasuenta, daughter of King Theodoric, who had been put under the protection of Justinian and who had made Theodatus king.' Therefore Agapitus journeyed to Constantinople on April 22* Agapitus, the bishop, entered Constantinople and was received with glory.* And first he began a discussion with the most pious
;

of the church fathers.

The

inscription
288, n.
i.

Duchesne, Lib. Pont., vol.

tery.
'

I, p.

was copied in after years and may be found in Gregory I converted the house into a monas-

'

This episode is recorded only in the Lib. Pont. Supra, p. 140, n. 3 p. 141 Procopius does not mention the embassy of the pope to Constantinople but other
;
.

chroniclers of the period refer to

it.

In the Varia of Cassiodorus we hear that the pope,

whose revenues were scanty at

order to raise the

this

hard time, was forced to pawn sacred vessels in

Letters of Cassiodorus, tr.

money

for the expedition.

Hodgkin, pp.

and Theodahad was her consort. He and shut her up on an island in the lake of Bolsena. When she appealed to Justinian he had her strangled. * Another instance of the transference of dates, which occurs so frequently in this
'

Amalasuntha was the mother

of Athalaric

resented his wife's activity and energy

part of the Lib. Pont.

tus.
'

This date

is

given again below as the date of the death of Agapirightfully belongs.

The

latter passage is

where

it

" At this time Theodatus, king of the Goths, wrote to the pope and to the senate

at

Rome and

threatened to put not only the senators but also their wives and sons and
against him

daughters to the sword, unless they should prevail with the emperor to recall from
Italy the

army which he was sending

the emperor sent to

and the pope

for this reason under-

took the embassy and journeyed to Constantinople.

the

First of all he received honorably

men whom

him but

refused to see Anthemius

and would not

accept his salutation ; then he appeared before the prince and pled the cause of the

embassy which he had undertaken. But on account of the great expense to the treasury (Jisc) the emperor would not withdraw from Italy the army which he was sending and he refused to heed the supplications of the pope." Liberatus, Breviarium, 21
Migne, Pat.
Lat.,

voL

68, col. 1039.

Jaff, Regesta, vol. I, p. 114.

Duchesne, op.

cil.,

Liberatus describes the deposition of Anthemius by Agapitus on the ground not only of unorthodoxy but also of irregular transference from another see.
p. 288, n. 6.

Our own author

passes over Agapitus' failure to deter the emperor from sending

AGAPITUS
And
of

145

prince and emperor, Lord Justinian Augustus, concerning the faith. the blessed bishop Agapitus set forth most steadfastly the apostolic doctrine of the Lord Jesus Christ, God and man, that is

two natures in one Christ. Then a contention arose but the Lord aided Agapitus and he found the bishop of Constantinople, Anthemius by name, to be a; heretic.

And when
the pope,

the contention arose between Augustus and Agapitus,

I

the emperor Justinian said to him

"Either you agree with us or

dispatch you into exile."

Then

the most blessed pope Agapitus

:

answered joyfully and said to the emperor "I indeed am a sinner, yet I have desired to come unto the most Christian emperor, Justinian; now, however, I have found Diocletian; nevertheless, I fear not your threats." And Agapitus, the venerable pope, said
to him a second time: "Notwithstanding, that you may know you are imworthy of the Christian faith, bid your bishop confess the two natures in Christ." Then, by order of Augustus, the bishop of Constantinople, Anthemius by name, was summoned and the argument was begun but in response to the questions of the blessed pope Agapitus he refused to confess the catholic dogma of two natures in one Lord Jesus Christ. And the holy pope Agapitus convicted him of error and was glorified by all the Christians. Then the most pious emperor Justinian rejoiced and prostrated himself before the apostolic see and adored the most blessed pope Agapitus. And straightway he expelled Anthemius from the communion and sent him into exile. Then the most pious emperor Justinian asked of the most blessed pope Agapitus that he would consecrate in place of Anthemius a catholic bishop, by name Menas.^ Furthermore Pope Agapitus obtained all that he had been sent to request.^ But after some days he fell ill and died at ConstantiBelisarius to Italy but

makes much

of his achievement in upholding orthodoxy

and

ecclesiastical discipline in the

Eastern capital.

The Vatican manuscript 4961 contains a copy of a "Book of Menas, priest and head of the hospice, who was created bishop of Constantinople, March 13, after the second consulship of the distmguished Paulinus, the younger (536)." Duchesne, op.

cit.,

p. 289, n. 8.
'

As we have already remarked, Agapitus and the Romans expected of him.

failed entirely to secure

what Theodahad

146
nople, April 22.^ to

LIBER PONTIFICALIS
And
his

body was
|

carried in a leaden coffin

Rome,
where
it

to the basilica of blessed Peter, the apostle,

was buried,
5^3

September
*

20.^

*
i

And

the bishopric was

empty

month and

28 days.

LX. SiLVERius
Silverius,

(536-537)

by

nationality a Campanian, son of Hormisdas, bishop

i

months and 1 1 days. He was appointed bishop by the tyrant Theodatus without discussion of the appointment. For Theodatus had been corrupted by bribes and he terrified the clergy so that they believed that whoever did not support the ordination of Silverius would suffer by the sword. Accordingly the priests did not accept him in the ancient way and confirm his appointment before his ordination; but after he had been ordained by force of fear, then for the sake of the unity of the church and of the faith, when the ordination was ended, the priests
of

Rome,^ occupied the see

year, 5

accepted Silverius.*

months the tyrant Theodatus perished by the will of God and King Witiges reigned.* Then Witiges journeyed to

But

after 2

'

the

Roman
* ' * '

Before Agapitus' death he appointed Felagius, his deacon, as legate to represent church at the imperial court. Duchesne, op, cU., p. 289, n. 10. This
Infra, p. 159
et seq.

Felagius figures again later.

His epitaph has been

List of ordinations.

lost.

Supra, p. 131,

n. 5.

These details as to the manner of Silverius' elevation are found only in the Lib. Pont. Liberatus in his Brenarium (ch. 22) tells us merely that the city of Rome chose Silverius, a subdeacon and son of the former pope Hormisdas, to be ordained in Agapitus' stead. It is curious, however, that the choice should have fallen upon one so low in rank as a subdeacon if there were no pressure from outside in favor of Silverius, and it is not unlikely that Theodahad, who determined the fate of Pope Agapitus, insisted now on placing his own candidate in the papal chair, as Theodoric had done in

IV after the death of John I. Supra, p. 1 39. The tone of our narrative, together with the imputation of simony, indicates some resentment on the part of the Roman clergy against the Gothic interference. Duchesne, Lib. Pont., vol. I, p. 293, n. 2.
the case of Felix

Silverius

Vitiges

was ordained June 8, 536. The revolt of the Gothic armies, which upon the throne, took place probably early in August.

set

SILVERIUS

147

Ravenna and by violence took the daughter of Queen Amalasuenta to be his wife. But thereupon the lord emperor, Justinian Augustus, being angry because Theodatus had murdered the queen who had
been put under an army to free
there
|

his protection, sent Vihsarius,^ the patrician,

all

with
the

Italy from the bondage of the Goths.

And

aforesaid patrician

came

into Sicily

and abode

some

time.

that the Goths had chosen them a king contrary Lord Justinian Augustus and he marched into Campania toward the city of Naples and began to besiege the city with
to the will of

Then he heard

army, because the citizens of Naples refused to open to him.'' At that time the patrician fought against the city and entered it
his

and in his fury he slew both the Goths and all the inhabitants of Naples and sacked it and spared not even the churches from the sack. He kiUed husbands with the sword in the presence of their wives and he put to death the captive sons and wives of the nobles
he spared none, neither priests nor servants of God nor consecrated
virgins.^

was a terrible war, for Witiges marched against the and against the city of Rome. For the patrientered the city of Rome, December 10, and he surcian ViHsarius rounded the city with guards and fortifications and walls and repaired the trenches and strengthened it. The very night when
there
patrician ViKsarius

Then

the patrician Vilisarius entered, the Goths who were in the city or outside the walls fled and left all the gates open and escaped to

Ravenna.*
1

Then King Witiges

collected a vast

army
is

of the

Goths

A form, of course,

of the well-known

name Belisarius.

It

also spelt Velisarius,

Bisilarius, etc., in the manuscripts.

For Justinian's determination to avenge the death

of

Amalasuntha

see supra, p. 144.

On

Belisarius' relations with the

Romans

see

Gregorovius, History of Rome, tr. Hamilton, vol. I, pp. 363-450. 2 The order of events here is uncertain. Procopius and the continuator of the Chronicle of Marcellinus describe the siege of Naples before the accession of Vitiges.

Tordanes does the same in the

Pont.
'

Romana but

in the Getica he keeps the order of the Lib. in the army of Belisarius, were down even the inhabitants who went up and down the city restrain-

Duchesne,

op.

cit.,

p. 293, n. 5.

Procopius says that the Massagetae,

who fought
they cut

chiefly guilty of the loot

fled to the

and

sacrilege, that

churches for shelter and that BeUsarius

ing them.
*

DeBello Golhico,

I,

11

ed.

Haury,

vol. II, pp. 58-62.

Procopius says that Belisarius entered

Rome by

the gate called Asinaria on the

148

LIBER PONTIFICALIS

and marched back against Rome, February 21, and pitched his camp by the Molbian bridge ^ and began to besiege the city of

Rome.

And

the patrician Vilisarius,

who defended

the

Roman

name, shut himself up within the city

and kept the

out or come
ecclesiastic,

city.

In those days the city was besieged so that no

in.

man might

go

And

all

the buildings, private and imperial and

fire

and men died by the sword; some perished by the sword, some by famine and some by pestiLikewise the churches and the bodies of the holy martyrs lence.^ were destroyed by the Goths.* Within the city there was a great famine, so that water would have been sold for a price if the springs
were consumed by

had not furnished

the city.

deliverance.*

And

the battles were fierce about

In those days the patrician Vilisarius fought against King

Witiges and the host of the Goths and defended the

with his army saved the city and the

and the harbor of But the patrician Vilisarius fought and conquered the Goths and at last, after one year, the Goths fled to Ravenna.
same day that the Goths marched out by the Flaminian Gate.
14; P- 77'

Romans and Then the city Rome were besieged one year by the Goths.^

Roman name.

De

Bella Golhico,

I,

The Mulvian

bridge.

'

Rome had suffered in the fifth century from barbarian invasions but without losing
of the outer semblance of her grandeur.

much

With

this terrible siege begins the real

destruction of her orderliness and beauty, the transformation of the splendid capital
of the ancient world into the scarred, crumbling, poverty-stricken, medieval city of the

Lanciani, Destruction of Ancient Rome, pp. 70-71, 79-87. Frothingham, Monuments, pp. 76-85. Gregorovius, History of Rome, tr. Hamilton, vol. II, passim. ' Duchesne prints selections from inscriptions taken from martyrs' tombs and cemeteries along the Via Salaria, where the Gothic assaults were heaviest, recording
popes.

monuments wrecked or damaged by the enemy. In one or two cases remains have been found both of the original epitaphs shattered by the Gothic soldiers and of the sixth century reproductions of the originals erected to fill the empty
the restoration of sacred
places.
*

Op.

cit.,

pp. 293-294, n. 11.

us that the aqueducts, which ordinarily gave the city its abundant supply of water, were cut by the invaders but that the springs within the walls together with the stream of the Tiber furnished enough for the reduced population. De Bella
tells

Procopius

Golhico, 1, 19, ed.

Haury,

vol. II, pp. 96-100.

Lanciani, Destruction of Ancient Rome,

pp. 79-82.
'

before the vernal equinox of 538.

According to Procopius the siege lasted one year and nine days and ended just De Bella GotMco, II, 10, ed. Haury, vol. II, p. 192.

SILVERIUS
At

149

that time there was a heavy famine throughout the whole

world, as Datius, bishop of the city of Milan, has related fully in

his report, so that in Liguria

women

ate their
said,

own

children for

hunger and want

of his

some

of them,

he has

were of the family

own church.^ At that time the

by Lord

patrician Vilisarius

went

to Naples

and

set it in

order and afterwards came to Rome.^

ciously
Silverius;^
to the Pincian palace,

And

he was received graVilisarius

and the patrician

11,* in

removed

May

the isth indiction.

At

that

time Vigilius, the deacon, was delegate to Constantinople.

'

And

Procopius speaks of the desolating famine that

fell

upon Italy
11, 20, ed.

instances of cannibalism due to starvation.

De Bella Gothico,

in 538 and of Haury, vol. II,

pp. 236-239. He also says that Datius, bishop of Milan, and some of the leading citizens of the city came to Rome during that year to ask of Belisarius a smaU force of

with whose aid they proposed to reestablish the imperial government in the During his stay at Rome Datius may have reported on the famine in his diocese. Belisarius furnished the desired support, but in spite of it the Goths took and sacked Milan the following year. Datius escaped and fled to Constantinople, where he died in 552. The Varies of Cassiodorus
soldiers,

province of Liguria and to drive out the Goths.

contain a letter, written by himself as pretorian prefect to Datius between 534 and 539, regarding the opening of granaries for the relief of famine sufferers. Procopius, ibid.,
II, 7
^
;

pp. 180-185.

Letters of Cassiodorus, tr.

Hodgkin, pp. 521-522.

With

this sentence, in the

writer of the deposition of

siege

judgment of Duchesne, begins a later account by a new Pope Silverius, which took place in 537, before the Gothic

was over. Up to this point, in his opinion, the narrative has been that of a contemporary, as were the lives of the popes immediately preceding. It is vivid and, on the whole, accurate, mentioning often details which are given by no other history

and showing intense party spirit in the references to the conflicts between the Gothic and imperial parties. It is hostile to Silverius as the creature of Theodahad and is interested less in strictly ecclesiastical questions than in the military and poUtical situation. This narrative now ceases abruptly and the history of the pope is continued by another and more sjrmpathetic biographer to whom the recital of his cruel misfortunes seems more important than that of the fall of cities. The first sentence in this second narrative merely recounts again the events already more fully described, the capture of Naples and the coming of Belisarius to Rome. Duchesne, op. cit., pp.
xxxix-xl, 294, n. 15.

Mommsen,

of course, is convinced that our seventh century

author has simply been making use of two different sources and pieces the two together here.
'

Lib. Pont., p. xvii.

tells

Procopius

us that Silverius persuaded the

Romans

to open their gates to

Belisarius.
'

De

Another

Bello Gothico, I, 14; PP- 7S-76instance of an interpolated date.

Belisarius fixed his headquarters at

the Pincian palace immediately on his entry into Rome toward the close of 536. Possibly the name of the month here has been changed by a clerical error from March to May and the date is really that of Silverius' deposition. Vigilius was ordained March
29, 537.

Duchesne, op.

cit.,

p. 294, n. 17.

ISO

LIBER PONTlFia'\LIS

the empress was vexed for the patriarch Anthemius, because he had

been deposed by the most holy pope Agapitus, who had found him to be a heretic and had appointed Menas, the servant of God, in his stead.* So Augustus took counsel with Vigihus, the deacon, and sent a letter to Rome to Pope Silverius with the request: "Be not slow to come to us or else fail not to restore Anthemius
to his place."
"

And when
:

the blessed Silverius read the letter he

groaned and said

"Now

know

that this affair has put an end to

my

life."

But the most

I will

blessed Silverius

had

trust in

blessed Peter, the apostle,

and he wrote

to the empress:

God and in "Lady

Augusta,

never do this thing, to recall a heretic condemned

instructions to Vilisarius,

in his iniquity."

the patrician,
as follows

Then Augusta was wroth and she sent by Vigilius, the deacon,
|

Pope Silverius and depose him from the bishopric or else send him surely and speedily to us. See, you have with you Vigilius, the archdeacon and legate, our

"Find some occasion

to accuse

well beloved,

who has promised

Vilisarius,

us to restore the patriarch Anthe-

mius."

And
:

the patrician, received the instructions

and said "I forsooth will perform these instructions; but as for him who brings about the overthrow of Pope Silverius he shall
' The intrigue of Theodora, by means of which Silverius was deposed, is described by Liberatus even more minutely than it is here. Liberatus says " Augusta summoned Vigilius, deacon of Agapitus, and asked him secretly to promise her that if he were made pope he would annul the synod of Chalcedon, where the dual nature of Christ had been maintained, and would write to Theodosius, Anthemius and Severus and in his letters approve their faith, and she offered to give him an order to Belisarius to make him pope and to bestow on him seven hundred thousand sesterces. So Vigilius gladly gave his promise, desiring the bishopric and the gold, and after making his pledge he went to Rome but when he arrived there he found that Silverius had been ordained pope. Also he found Belisarius at Ravenna (this should be Naples), besieging and capturing the city, and he delivered to him the command of Augusta and promised to give him two hundred thousand sesterces of gold if he would remove Silverius and ordain him (Vigilius) instead." Breviarium, 22 ; Migne, Pat. Lot., vol. 68, col. 1039. Quoted by Duchesne, op. cit., p. 294, u. 18. ' Liberatus says nothing of any correspondence between Byzantium and Silverius. He rather gives the impression that Theodora ignored Silverius and his ordination altogether but adds that Belisarius and his wife tried to persuade Silverius to do what the empress demanded, implying that she cared little who was pope so long as Anthemius was reinstated. Breviarium, 22 ; Migne, ibid., col. 1040.
:

SILVERIUS
render an account of his deeds to our Lord Jesus Christ."
certain false witnesses, encouraged
^

151

And

by these instructions, came forward and said: "We have found Pope Silverius sending letters to the king of the Goths, saying: 'Come to the gate which is called the Asinaria, near the Lateran, and I will deUver to you the city and Vihsarius, the patrician.'" And ViUsarius, the patrician, heard this and did not believe it for he knew that it was spoken out of malice. Nevertheless, since many persisted in that same accusation, he was afraid. Then he bade Pope Silverius come to him in the Pincian palace and he had all the clergy wait at the first and second portals.^ And Silverius went alone with VigiUus into the mausoleum and Antonina, the patrician, was lying upon a couch and Vihsarius, the patrician, was sitting at her feet. And when Antonina,
;

the patrician,
|

said to him "Tell us. Lord Pope Silverius, what we have done to you and to the Romans that you should wish to betray us into the hands of the Goths." While she was yet speaking John, the subdeacon of the first district, took the palhum from his neck and carried it into an inner chamber and stripped him of his vestments and put on him a monk's robe and led him into hiding. Then Xystus, the subdeacon of the sixth district, when he saw him as a monk, went outside and proclaimed to the clergy that the lord pope had been deposed and had become a monk. And when they heard it they aU fled. But VigiHus, the archdeacon, took
:

saw him she

more compunction than Liberatus Rome and summoned Silverius to the palace and accused him calumniously on the ground that he had written to the Goths that they might enter Rome. And it was reported that one Marcus, a clerk, and one Julianus, a pretorian, had composed fraudulent letters under the name of Silverius and addressed them to the king of the Goths, by means of which Silverius was
'

The

Lib. Pont, represents Belisarius as feeling

ascribes to him.

The

latter says

" Belisarius returned to

convicted of the intention to betray the city of Rome.''

Ja&&, Regesta, vol. I, p. 116. 2 Liberatus says that Silverius

Breviarium, 22

Migne,

ibid.

first took refuge in the basilica of Santa Sabina but that Photius, son of Antonina, prevailed upon him to come to the palace, pledging SUverius' companions urged him "not to believe the oaths of his safety by an oath. the Greeks" but he went and returned safely that day. Again Belisarius commanded

him to appear and he prayed and committed his cause to the Lord and went and was never seen again by his friends. The scene inside the palace is described only in the Breviarium, 22 Migne, ibid. Lib. Pont.
;

152
Silverius as
if

LIBER PONTIFICALIS
in his

and sent him into exile to Pontiae and fed him with the bread of tribulation and the water of bitterAnd he fell iU and died a confessor.^ And he was buried ness. in that place, Jime 20, and a multitude of those who were diseased

own

charge,

came
*

to his sepulchre
* *

and were
*

healed.^

And
1

the bishopric

was empty.*
some
interesting details of Silverius' latter days.

The

Lib. Pont, omits here

first

He

power of Vigilius, but to Patara, a city of Lycia. The bishop of Patara took up his cause and went himself to the emperor, declaring that it was wrong to expel the bishop of the mighty Roman see, " that there were many kings in the world but not one who was unique like the pope, who ruled the church of all the world and had been driven from his see." The emperor was moved by this argument and ordered a fresh trial and a reexamination of the forged letters. Silverius was brought back to Italy, but before the trial could be held Vigilius, in dread of losing his position, sent word to Belisarius: "Deliver Silverius to me; otherwise I cannot perform what you expect of me." So Silverius was turned over to the guards of Vigilius, who transported him to the island of "Palmaria," where he died of starvation. Thus Liberatus. Breviarium, 22; Migae, ibid. Procopius in his Sccrel History says that Antonina, wife of Belisarius, the pliant tool of Theodora, was instrumental in bringing about Silverius' death before he could be tried a second time. Ch. I; ed. Dindorf, pp. 13-16. The guilt seems to rest partly upon her and partly upon Vigilius. The islands of Pontiae, now called Ponza, are in the Tuscan Sea. One

was sent

into exile not to Ponza, where he

was

in the

group is named Palmaria. Duchesne, op. cit., p. 295, nn. 21,22. The remains of Silverius were never moved from Palmaria. No other notice of veneration paid to him at Rome is known to exist earlier than the martyrology of Peter de Natalibus, which was drawn up in 1371. For the reference cf, Duchesne,
of the
'

op. cU., p. 29s, n. 23.

' *

List of ordinations.

Silverius' pontificate ended,

There was perhaps some doubt in the mind of our author a to the time when whether with his deposition or with his death. Therefore
is

he does not give, as

see.

usually the case, the exact duration of the vacancy in the papal

It

may be

calis is to

urged by some historians that, if the translation of the lAber Pontifibe broken at all, the break should occur here. See first note on the
Since,

following page.

however, the question of the sources for the following

I,

pontificates is at best obscure, it seems better for practical purposes to carry the text

through to the pontificate of Gregory

close at hand. [Ed.]

as that important date in papal history

is

so

VIGILIUS

153

LXI. ViGiLius (537-555)

Vigilius/ by nationality a Roman, son of John, the consul,^ occupied the see 17 years, 6 months and 26 days. At that time Vilisarius, the patrician, made war on Witiges, king of the Goths. And the king fled by night and John, the master of the soldiery,

who was surnamed

the Bloody, pursued after him and he seized him and brought him to Vilisarius and to VigiHus at Rome.' Then they pledged him their oaths in the basilica of Julius that they would conduct him safely to the emperor Justinian.* And when they had brought him to Constantinople the emperor rejoiced and created him patrician and count and sent him into the borders of

Duchesne

believes that with the biography of Silverius

first

recension of the Lib. Pont., and that with Vigilius

of Vigilius

we come to the end of the we begin the first continuation.

At a casual glance the account

that of Silverius.
mistakes.
treated as one.

On

examination, however,

seems as likely to be contemporary work as it is found to be full of inaccuracies and

For example, the two occupations of Rome by Totila in 546 and 549 are I'he defeat of the Vandals by Belisarius in S33~S34 is confused with the suppression of the revolt of Guntarith in 547. Other errors are pointed out in the The lives of Pelagius I and John III contain further slips. In the latter the two notes. Prankish expeditions of 352 and 562 are combined into one. Duchesne argues that the author of the four biographies after Silverius did not write earlier than the time of
Pelagius II.
Lib. Pont., vol. I, pp. ccxxxi-ccxxxii.

Mommsen

rejoins that the style

of all the sixth century lives is too barbarous to

official of

have been employed by a church

the age of Theodoric and that the inaccuracies in the first portion, while not numerous as those in the second, are frequent enough to make it improbable that they were the work of a contemporary. Lib. Pont., p. xvii. 2 The father of Vigilius may have been an honorary or codicillary consul. There are no consuls for the West listed in the Fasti by the name of John during this period. Vigilius' brother, Reparatus, was among the Roman hostages sent to Ravenna by
so
Vitiges in 536

orders to
cellinus

and barely escaped death when in the following year Vitiges dispatched Ravenna to have the hostages massacred. Procopius, Liberatus and Marall state that Vigilius was ordained pope through the Lofluence of Belisarius.
cU., p. 299, n.
is
1.

Duchesne, op.
'

Jaff6, Regesta, p. 117.

He had it assigns to John, "magister militum." been fighting in the North and was pushing down at this time toward Ravenna. His advance forced Vitiges to withdraw his army from the attack on Rome and He surrendered there in S39 to Belisarius, not to fall back to protect Ravenna.
The
text

faulty in the part

John. * There
Vitiges to

is

no other record

of this interview.

It is possible that Belisarius

brought

took ship at Porto for the East. The basilica of Julia is unof the Lateran palace, used for state receptions and other hall great the doubtedly ceremonies. Supra, p. 140 and n. 4. Duchesne, op. cit., p. 300, n. 3.

Rome and

154
Persia,

LIBER PONTIFICALIS

where he died.^ The emperor also asked Vilisarius how he himself fared with the Romans and how he had set VigiUus in the place of Silverius. Then the emperor and Augusta thanked Vilisarius and conferred authority upon him and sent him back
into Africa

against Gundarit, king of

the

Vandals, that he might do in

Africa
Italy.''

what he had done

Vilisarius

in

went into Africa under pretext of peace and slew Guintarit, king of the Vandals, and brought Africa into submission to the empire. Then Vihsarius, the patrician, came to Rome and offered to blessed Peter, the apostle, by the hand of Pope Vigilius out of the spoils of the Vandals a golden cross, set

And

with jewels, weighing loo

inscribed with
his victories,^
silver

lbs.,

on which he inscribed

and

2 large, gilded,
|

day before the body of blessed Peter, the apostle. He gave hkewise many other gifts and alms to the poor. For Vilisarius, the patrician, built a hospice on the Via Lata * and on the Via Flaminia, near the town of Hortae, he estabHshed a monastery of Saint Juvenal, which he endowed with lands and many gifts.^
candelabra, which

stand to this

'

Procopius does not say that Vitiges was sent to Persia but that Belisarius was

commissioned to carry on the Persian war.

II, p. 297.

De Bdlo

Gothico, III,

ed.

Haury,

vol.

' Our author here confuses Belisarius' expedition against the Vandals in S33 with the suppression of the revolt of Guntarith by Artabanes in 547. Belisarius at this time was in Italy, defending Rome against the assault of Totila. Guntarith was assassi-

nated by order of Artabanes. ' Belisarius' cross is mentioned again in the life of Stephen V. It was saved from the sack of the papal residence in 885. Duchesne, op. cit., p. 300, n. 6.
' The church of Santa Maria di Trevi, near the fountain of Trevi, was known in the Middle Ages as Santa Maria in Xenodochio, because it adjoined the hospice of Belisarius. A tablet, bearing an early inscription referring to the hospice, may still be seen embedded in the outer wall of the church. Duchesne, op. cit., p. 300, n. 7. ' St. Juvenal was the first bishop of Nami, a town eight miles from Horts or Orta. There was a church of St. Juvenal in Orta as late as the sixteenth century. Duchesne,

op.

cit.,

p. 300, n. 8.

VIGILIUS
Then Theodora Augusta wrote to Pope for us what you promised of your
I

iSS
Vigilius:

"Come,

ful-

fill

own
freewill concerning our father
office."
1

Anthemius and

restore

him

to his

But

Vigilius replied:

I spoke beforetime wrongly

"Far be this from me, Lady Augusta. and foohshly; now I do assuredly
a heretic and under the anathema.
vicar of blessed Peter, the apostle,

man who is Although unworthy, I am the

refuse to restore a

as were

my

predecessors, the

most holy Agapitus and

Silverius,

who condemned him." Then the Romans brought

an accusation
I

their accusations

against Vigilius, because he had advised the deposition of the blessed

him to your Holiness for he has done Romans, and to their people. We declare him to be a murderer, for he abandoned himself to rage and struck his notary a blow which felled him straightway to his feet where he
pope
ill

Silverius

"We

accuse

to your servants, the

died.

Also he gave his niece, Vigilia, to the consul Asterius, son

of a

widow woman;

then,

making an

occasion, he

had Asterius

Our author has probably misrepresented the demand made upon Vigilius by the Monophysite party at the imperial court. It is true that through their influence Vigilius had secured his oflSce and that they undoubtedly expected of him some return in the way of endorsement of their peculiar views of the nature of Christ and of disparagement, if not denunciation, of the Council of Chalcedon and the Tome of Leo. Supra, p. 98, n. I p. 106, n. a. That they required the reinstatement of Anthemius seenis unlikely. His condenmation by Agapitus had been ratified by a synod held at Constantinople in 536 and by an edict of Justinian. Menas, who held the bishopric, was in high favor with the emperor. Supra, p. 145. Jaf6 gives a letter purporting to have been written by Vigilius to Anthemius and other bishops of the heterodox party, professing his secret agreement with them but asserting the necessity of keeping the fact hidden, "so that I may more readily perform and achieve the things which I have undertaken." A declaration of faith, however, drawn up at about the same time, perhaps to satisfy suspicion at Rome, and letters to Justinian and Menas all explicitly and solemrJy protest the pope's orthodoxy and loyalty to the acts of his
;

predecessors

and the Council

of Chalcedon.

Regesta, p. 118, 908, 909, 910, 911.

Unless Vigilius be regarded as an absolutely unscrupulous doubledealer, the letter to Anthemius must be classed as a forgery. It might easily have been concocted by some of his opponents who desired to avenge his treatment of Silverius. Duchesne, op. cit.,
p. 300, n. 9.

156
seized

LIBER PONTIFICALIS
by night and beaten
until

he died."

And when Augusta

heard this she sent Anthemius, the scribe, with orders and great

Rome, saying: "If you find him in the basilica of Saint Peter, let him go. But if you find Vigilius in the Lateran or in the palace or in any other church, set him immediately upon a ship and bring him to us. Else, by Him who liveth forever, I will have you flayed." ^ And Anthemius, the scribe, came to Rome and found VigiHus in the church of Saint Cecilia, November 22 for it was her birthday * and Anthemius took him while he was distributing gifts to the people and brought him down to the Tiber and set him on a ship. The people and the multitude followed him, calling out that they would have a prayer from him. And when he had spoken a prayer, all the people
authority to
; ;

said:

answered:

"Amen"; and

the ship began to move.

the ship in which Vigilius was seated had begun to

The Romans saw that move and

then the people commenced to throw stones after him and sticks

"Your hunger go with you! Your pestilence go with you You have done evil to the Romans may you find evil where you go " Yet some who loved him followed him from the church. And when he reached Sicily and the city of Catania, he was allowed to hold an ordination of priests and deacons in the month
and dirty
vessels

and

to cry out:
!

December. Of these he sent back to Rome Ampliatus, the priest and his vicar, and Valentinus, bishop of Saints Rufina and Secimda, to guard the Lateran and preside over the clergy.* Then
of
>

There

is

no other account

of the accusation against Vigilius

and we know nothing

of the incidents herein mentioned.

' The ciicumstances of Vigilius' departure from Rome are described nowhere else. Other historians say simply that he was summoned by the emperor and forcibly compelled to go. Only one adds that all Rome drove him out by public acclamation. Facundus, Defmsio Trium CapUum, IV, 3 ; Migne, Pal. Lai., vol. 67, col. 624.

'

November

gifts,
cit.,

22 is the day of the festival of Santa Cecilia in Trastevere. The "munera," here noted Duchesne understands to be the eucharistic wafers. Op.

p. 300, im. 12

and

13.

in 544 or 545. At that time Totila had already begun to reduce the dty by cutting off supplies. In 543 a severe pestilence had swept over the disordered country. Duchesne, o#. cit., p. 300, n. 14. JaS, Regesta, p. iig. ^ The word here translated vicar is " vicedominus " or " vidame," later a feudal title. Vigilius left

Rome

Ducange, dossarium, Vicedominus.

The

basilica of

Sante Rufina e Seconda stood

VIGILIUS
he bade them
vigils of

IS7

all farewell and arrived at Constantinople on the our Lord Jesus Christ. The emperor came to meet him and they kissed each other and began to weep. And the people sang psalms before him to the church of Saint Sophia: "Lo he Cometh, the Lord, the Lord," etc. Then for two years there were

dissensions over Anthemius, the patriarch, how Vigilius had promised and had pledged with his hand to restore him to his place.^ But VigiHus would not yield to them but preferred to die virtuously than to hve. And Pope VigiUus said: "I perceive that it

was not the devout princes, Justinian and Theodora, who summoned me to them; rather I know to-day that I have met Diocletian and Eleutheria.* Do with me as you will I am receiving
;

formerly on the Via Cornelia, not far from the Vatican.

Pope Julius I and. the building was completed,

to

if

tradition be correct,

The foundation was laid by by Pope Damasus.

Procopius gives us further information regarding the journey of Vigilius' envoys back

Rome.

They embarked with a convoy of vessels

filled

with food for the reUef of the

but at the entrance to the Tiber the fleet was captured by the Goths and the bishop Valentinus was brought before Totila for examination. The king for some reason suspected that the bishop was answering his questions falsely and cut off both his hands. De Bella Gothico, III, 15 ed. Haury, vol. II, pp. 360-361. In 5S4, when Vigilius left Constantinople, the archdeacon Pelagius seems to have been
suffering population of the city
;

performing the functions of the head of the church.

'

Infra, p. 159.

was not to induce Anthemius but to effect a compromise with the Monophysite party in general. Justinian had already yielded to them and to the empress so far as to issue an edict denouncing three Nestorian writers, Theodore of Mopsuestia, Theodoret and Ibas, who the Monophysites claimed had received the tacit approval of the Council of Chalcedon. Justinian took the step in the hope of thereby prevailing upon the party to accept the decrees of the council and of restoring harmony to the church. The edict was accepted, though reluctantly, by most of the orthodox Eastern bishops but met with determined resistance in the West, where any concession to Eutychianism was regarded as direct heresy. Vigilius was commanded in Constantinople to give the edict He resisted stubbornly for a while, knowing that such an act would his approval. ruin his position at Rome. But at length, in 548, he issued a document, commonly called the Judicatum, anathematizing the three Nestorians but stoutly maintaining his adherence to the Council of Chalcedon. Jaff6, Regesla, p. 121, 922. He was not allowed to return home but was detained in the East until the meeting of the council

As has been

said before {supra, p. 155, u. i), the struggle

Vigilius to restore

convened at his suggestion by Justinian in 533. Jafffi, Regesta, p. 121. The council supported the emperor and found Vigilius' position unsatisfactory. His banishment apparently was the result of his appearance before it. Jafffi, ibid., p. 123, 935. The controversy over the condemnation of the three Nestorian writers is known as that of the Three Chapters. It brought about a new schism between East and West, which
lasted seventy years.
2 The words are copied from the biography of Pope Agapitus. not known that Diocletian had a wife Eleutheria.

Supra, p. I4S-

It is

iS8

LIBER PONTIFICALIS

the reward of my deeds." Thereupon one struck him in the face, saying " Murderer, do you not know to whom you speak ? do you
:

not

know

that you slew Pope Silverius and killed the son of a

widow

woman

with kicks and blows?" Saint Euphemia and laid hold of

I

Then he
a horn

fled to the basilica of

a column
of the altar.^

But he was dragged away from it and cast outside the church and a rope was put about his neck and they haled him through all the city until evening and then thrust him into prison and gave him a Uttle bread and water. And the Roman clergy who were with him were sent into exile to work in different
mines.

At that time
called Totila.^

the Goths chose for their king Badua,

who was

He

descended upon
in the city of

there

was a famine
children.

own

And one day

he

Rome and besieged it; and Rome so that the people ate their made an entrance into Rome by
All night long he

the gate of St. Paul, in the 13th indiction.'

in the churches, for fear that the

had

the trumpet blown until every inhabitant fled or concealed himself

sword.
sons.

Romans would perish by the But the king dwelt with the Romans as a father with his Then some of the senators, Citheus, Albinus and Basilius,

and exconsuls, went to Constantinople and appeared before the emperor in their distress and desolation.* And the
patricians

This account of the maltreatment of Vigilius

is

partly legendary.

The

actual

facts are given in

his sufferings.
col. 53.

It

is

an encyclical letter written by himself in 552 relating Mansi, Amplissima CoUectio, vol. IX, p. 50. Migne, Pat. Lot., vol. 69, true that Vigilius was dragged from an altar but the incident occurred in

some

detail in

the church of St. Peter in Hormisda in Constantinople.

Later he

fled for refuge to the

church of

Euphemia in Chalcedon. 'Totila had become king before the departure

St.

of Vigilius.

He

is

called

Badua

and Baduila in other

chronicles.

Duchesne, op.

cit.,

p. 301, n. 24.

Our author here confounds the two sieges of Rome by Totila in 546 and in S49. The date given, the 13th indiction (549-550), and the entering by the gate of San Paolo

belong to the second siege but the severe famine and the flight of the patricians were
features of the
first.

On

these events see Gregorovius.ifM/ory of Rome,

tr.

Hamilton,

vol. I, pp. 451-476.

Procopius says that on the night that Totila entered

Rome in

546 the patricians

Decius, Basilius and others escaped from the city in the train of Bessas, the
of the Byzantine garrison.
cellae earlier

commander
I'D.,

Cethegus, the leader of the senate, had retired to Centuni-

and 20

ed.

under suspicion of favoring the Gothic.party. Haury, pp. 349, 384.

De

Bello Gothico,

13

VIGILIUS
emperor comforted them and enriched them as befitted
consuls.

159

Roman

his chamberlain, into Italy.

Thereupon the emperor Justinian sent Narses, the eunuch and And he gave battle to the Goths and
the victory

God awarded him

and the king was and a multitude

won

the

victory

and

Totila,

slain

king of the Goths, was killed

of the

Goths were
|

killed also.^

Then

the assembled clergy

the

Romans

asked Narses that with his consent they might request the prince that, if Pope Vigilius still lived and the priests and deacons and clergy who had been sent into exile with Vigihus, they might return home. And when the emperor received the report of Narses and of the whole Roman clergy, he rejoiced and all his senate because God had given rest to the Romans.^ And immediately the emperor sent instructions to the divers places whither the exiles had been transported, to Gypsum and Proconisius,^ and

he sunamoned them before him and said "Are you willing to accept Vigilius, who was your pope ? I thank you. If not, you have here your archdeacon Pelagius and my hand will be with you."
:

us

They aU replied: "May God direct your Holiness! Restore to now Vigilius and when God wills that he shall pass from this
let Pelagius,

world then
to your
'

command."

our archdeacon, be given to us according Then he sent them all away.

and

Rome was

Totila was defeated and killed in the battle of Tegina or Tadini in Tuscany in 552 reoccupied finally by the imperial forces. The following year, 553,

Teias, successor of Totila,

was

slain in the battle of

Vesuvius and the long contest of

It

Ostrogoths and Byzantines for the possession of Italy was ended.

'

The

story of the restoration of Vigilius savors somewhat of the legendary.

is

church appealed to Justinian on behalf of the banished pope and his attendant clergy and that they were assisted by Narses. It is certain, however,
possible that the

Roman

that Vigilius' final release was the result of his ultimate, unqualified condemnation of the three Nestorians and of all their supporters and his recantation of anything he had
previously said in their defence.
Jaflffi,

Regesta, pp. 123-124, 936, 937.

Pelagius,

who had
It
is,

also

been exiled or imprisoned by the emperor, refused to concur in the conhis resistance for

demnation and persisted in

time for Vigilius' place.
'

some time

therefore, extremely unlikely that Justinian should

after Vigilius had yielded. have suggested him at this

Duchesne,

op.

cit.,

p. 301, n. 28.

Proconnesus, an island in -the Propontis,

now

called

Marmora, famous

for its

quarries.

i6o

LIBER PONTIFICALIS

They came with Vigilius to Sicily, to the city of S5Tacuse. And he suffered from the malady of the stone and died.^ And his body
was carried on the Via
*!

to

Rome and
*?

buried in the church of Saint Marcellus

Salaria.
!
!

*l*

I*

n*

And

the bishopric was

empty 3 months and

5 days.'

LXII. Pelagius I (556-561)

Pelagius,*

by

nationality a

Roman, son

of John, the vicar,^

occupied the see 4 years, 10 months and 18 days. And there was no bishop to ordain him but two bishops were found, John of
Perusia and Bonus of Ferentinum, and Andrew, priest of Ostia,

and they ordained him

'

pontifiF.*

At that time
death
:

there

was no one

A contemporary record
7,

says of Vigilius'

"He died in Syracuse, the second

of

day

of the week, at night, the seventh

day before the Ides

June in the third indiction

(June

sss)." Duchesne, op. List of ordinations.

cit.,

p. 302, n. 33.

The vacancy was longer, for Pelagius was not ordained until April 16, 556. We know more of Pelagius' career previous to his accession than we do of that of
this early period.

most popes at

Under

Silverius he

had been sent with

Vigilius to

Constantinople as apocrisarius and while there had intrigued in favor of the appoint-

and the deposition of Silverius. Supra, p. 146, n. i pp. 149-150. On he had been sent by Justinian to Antioch on ecclesiastical business and had been active in other church affairs. Returning to Rome he had distributed his wealth among the poor of the city and after the departure of Vigilius had played the part of the leading citizen, negotiating with Totila in S46 and obtaining from him a promise to refrain from murder and outrage when he captured Rome. Procopius says that he was at this time the most illustrious man in Italy. Later he returned to Constantinople and was punished along with Vigilius for refusing to anathematize the
ment
of Vigilius
;

Vigilius' ordination

Three Chapters in obedience to the decision of the ecumenical council just held. Supra, pp. 157, n. I and 159, n. 2. He did not continue obstinate, however, for a year later after the death of Vigilius he accepted the decrees of the council and was designated by the emperor as Vigilius' successor. De BeUo Gothico, III, 16-21 ; ed. Haury, vol. II,
pp. 362-393-

'The word
Lib. Pont., vol.

is

"vicarianus."

Pelagius

came apparently

of aristocratic family.

His father may have held the office of vicar in one of the two Italian dioceses. Duchesne,
I,

p. 303, n. i.

The regular conduct of ordinations in the suburban diocese must necessarily have been much interfered with during the ten years absence of Vigilius and the disorder of
That conditions were little better in the metropolitan diocese of proved by a letter written by the clergy of that city in 551. Datius, their bishop, had then been absent in the East twelve or thirteen years and they complain that most of the bishops whom he had ordained were dead and that a vast number of
the Gothic wars.
is

Milan

PELAGIUS
among

i6i

the clergy who could be promoted. The monasteries and the multitude of wise and noble devout withdrew from communion

with Pelagius, saying that he had had a part in the death of Pope Vigilius and therefore was punished with such troubles.^ Then Narses and Pope Pelagius took counsel and when the litany had

been said at Saint Pancratius they proceeded with hymns and

And Pelagius, holding the Gospels and the cross of the Lord above his head, mounted the pulpit and thus he satisfied all the people
spiritual songs to Saint Peter, the apostle.^

and the populace

|

that he had done no

harm

to Vigilius.

Likewise Pope Pelagius

continued and said

"I beg of you to grant ever deserves promotion in the holy church
:

my

request, that

who-

and

is

worthy

of

it,
|

people were dying without baptism.

69, col. 118.

Supra, p. 149 and n.

Migne, Pat.

Lat., vol.

A few episcopal ordinations had,

is

nevertheless, taken place without the

proved by the fact that Pelagius was ordained by a city, had been massacred by the soldiers of Totila, when they sacked Perugia in 549. John must have been ordained since that date. It is probable that the scarcity of bishops was not the only reason why Pelagius had but three at his ordination. Our text speaks of the widespread hostility to hiTn in all ranks of the church. ' Duchesne is of the opinion that our author is mistaken in assigning this reason for
bishop from Perugia.

pope, in the suburban district, as

Herculanus, bishop of that

It is certainly difficult to see how he could have been blamed in any way for Vigilius' death, when he was left by VigUius in confinement in the East and had been for so long a fellow sufferer with him. Op. cit., p. 304, n. 3. 2 The ceremonies at San Pancrazio and the Vatican are described here in more

the prejudice against Pelagius.

detail than anjrwhere else.

self were heresy and betrayal of the faith of the fathers rather

That, however, the charges of which Pelagius cleared himthan complicity in Vigilius'

death is established by the encyclical which he issued at the same time. It is addressed to all the people of God and sets forth his position, "in order to remove suspicion.''

He declares
"he holds

first councils,

solemnly that he accepts the statutes of the "four councils" (i.e. the four excluding the one called by Justinian) and the apostolic canons and that

in

condemnation
all

all

reverences as orthodox

whom

Theodoret and Ibas." JafE6, By this purgation Pelagius seems to have won toleration from his vol. IX, p. 717. own diocese but the other Western bishops for the most part still refused their fellowPelagius vainly endeavored to prevail upon Narses and upon ChUdebert, king ship. of the Franks, to interfere and end the schism by force. We have a letter by him addressed to Valerianus, a patrician, arguing that the decrees of the synod of Chalcedon and the writings of the blessed Augustine prove that schismatics should be suppressed

whom they (his predecessors) condemned and they approved, in particular the venerable bishops Regesta, vol. I, p. 125, 938. Mansi, Amplissima Collectio,
those

by

secular authority.

JaE6, ibid., pp. 126,

946; 133, 1019; 13s, 1038.

i62

LIBER PONTIFICALIS

from a doorkeeper even to a bishop, should accept advancement, though not for gold nor any promises you aU know that that is simony. But whoever is taught in the works of God and leads a good life we bid him, not by bribes but by honest conversation, to
;

rise

imto the

first

rank."

At

that time Pelagius appointed Valentinus,

who

feared God,

as his notary

and had

all

the gold and silver vessels and the vest-

ments restored

in all the churches.*

basilica of the apostles Philip

and James

Then he began to build the ^ but when the building

;

was begun he died and was buried in the basilica of blessed Peter,
the apostle,'

March
*

2.
|

ie

*i

And

the bishopric was

empty

months and 25 days.

> Pelagius' correspondence is full of allusions to the impoverished state of the Roman church and of directions for collecting the rents and other revenues which had long been unpaid. In one instance he orders that a slave, the son of a slave woman be-

longing to the church,

who was attempting

to escape from servitude

by calling himself

cuiial,

should be returned to the ecclesiastical estates.

He

writes to the bishop of

commending to his protection various Romans who had fled from their homes enemy and asking that the garments bought with the dues paid by the local church should be sent by ship to Rome, " because there is such poverty and destitution in this city that we cannot look without grief and anguish of heart upon men whom we know to be meritorious and bom to honorable position." JaS, Regesta, pp. 126There is no mention of church 134, 943i 947, 949i 95, 9Si, 9S3i 9S6, 963, 1022, 1023. furniture in the letters now extant but Pelagius may probably have tried to replace what had been lost and destroyed. * The basilica of the Santi Apostoli. The first church on the site was erected by Julius I. Supra, p. 73, n. 4. A new one was now begun by Pelagius with the aid of Narses and finished by John III. It contained two metrical inscriptions set up by John, who clain;ed to have contributed the larger share of the edifice. The apsidal
Aries,

for fear of the

inscription

began as follows

"Here the priest before me has left his slight traces; Pope John has completed the work which he began. Standing the more erect in a season of cramping distress, The bishop scorns to be depressed by a failing world."
Duchesne, op.
cit.,

p. 306, n. 2.

the eighteenth century and shows

gorovius. History of Rome,
'

The basilica was rebuilt in the fifteenth and again in now no remains of sixth century work. See Grevol. I, pp.

tr.

Hamilton,
It
is

489-495.

Duchesne
Op.

prints Pelagius' epitaph, taken like others

p. 304, n. 7.

basilica.

cit.,

from the portico of the old unusually long and makes much of his virtues

and

his title to blessedness in heaven.

We

give an extract

JOHN

III

163

LXIII. John III (561-574)

John, by nationality a Roman, son of the illustrious Anastasius, occupied the see 12 years, 11 months and 26 days. He loved and

He ordered that consecrated bread and flagons of wine should be supplied and hghts should be lit in those cemeteries on every Lord's day by the priests of the Lateran. He finished the church of the apostles Phihp and
restored the cemeteries of the holy martyrs.^

James and dedicated

it.^

At that time

the Heruli revolted and chose for their king Sinall Italy.

duald and oppressed

And

Narses went out against him

tribe of the Heruli.*

and slew the king and subdued the whole

"As guardian of the apostolic faith he preserved the venerable dogmas Which were set forth by our illustrious fathers. By eloquence he recovered those who had fallen into the errors of schism,
That with hearts
reconciled they might hold the true faith.

He

consecrated

many

ministers of the divine law,

Staining not his immaculate hands with gold.

He redeemed captives, he was quick to succor the aflSicted, He never refused to share his goods with the poor."
*
'

List of ordinations.

During the eighteen years of the Gothic wars the suburban cemeteries had suffered from both pillage and neglect. They had ceased to be used as places of burial, new cemeteries having been opened within the city walls. The dwindling population no longer crowded the enclosed area, the old sanitary regulations were not enforced and graves outside the walls were exposed to desecration. The, catacombs were, therefore hardly visited, except for the purpose of honoring the saints whose bodies were there interred. They were coming to be regarded not as ordinary burying grounds but as "the cemeteries of the martyrs," as they are called here, i.e. as shrines or holy places, objects of pilgrimage. Parish priests found it increasingly difficult to provide for services in those ancient sites, to which their common duties no longer brought them. John attempted to prevent their complete abandonment by laying upon the Lateran
church, the centre of ecclesiastical administration, the responsibihty of supplsdng
materials for the mass.

Some

of the earUer Byzantine frescoes in the catacombs

may

have been executed by workmen in his employ. Frothingham, Monuments, pp. 86-87. n. I. * Supra, p. 162 and n. ^.
the

Duchesne, Lib. Pont.,

vol. I, p. 306,

The events here noted belong to Lombard invasion. Sinduald or

'

the obscure period between the Gothic wars and

Sindbal had been one of the chiefs enrolled by

Narses to serve as heads of the barbarian auxiliaries. Two letters are extant addressed to Sindula, "magister militum," by Pelagius I. From them one may gather that the military leader acted as judge to settle civil cases involving questions of hability for damage and rights of inheritance and that he applied to the pope for instruction in a

i64

LIBER PONTIFICALIS

Then came Ammingus, leader of the Franks, and Buccillinus; they also in like manner wasted Italy. But with the help of the Lord they too were destroyed by Narses.^ And all Italy was
joyful.^

Then

the Romans, inspired

by

malice, sent

an accusation to

Justinian and Sophia, saying: "It were better for the

Romans

to

serve the Goths than the Greeks, for Narses, the eunuch, governs us and reduces us to slavery and our most devout prince is ignorant of it. Either free us from his hand or we and the city of Rome When Narses heard this he said: "If will serve the Gentiles."' Then Narses I have done evil to the Romans may evil fall on me " departed from Rome and went to Campania and wrote to the tribe
;
!

of the

Lombards that they might come and

possess Italy.*

But

knotty

Paul the Deacon, who suit. Jafffi, Regesta, vol. I, pp. 130 and 135, 990, 1031. probably had access to sources now lost, gives the best account of Sinduald's revolt. " Nevertheless Narses waged war against Sinduald, king of the Brenti, who came of the

stock of the Heruli,

whom

Odoacer brought with him when he descended into

Italy.

He at

Narses and received many benefits from him, but at last he rebelled arrogantly and endeavored to make himself king and Narses conquered him and took him prisoner and hung him from a high beam." History 0/ the Lombards,
first

was

faithful to

tr.

Foulke, pp. 55-56' The history of the struggle against the Prankish inroads at this period

is

far

from

clear.

Bucelinus or Buccelin was apparently one of two brothers

who

led a host of

following year
of Amingus.

Prankish marauders across the Alps in 553 and were repulsed and overwhelmed the by the imperial army. It is an error to couple his name here with that

The

latter

seems to have figured in the Gothic raids of 561-563, which

resulted in the temporary occupation of the province of Aquileia

and of the cities of Verona and Brescia. Narses recaptured Verona and drove the Pranks once more out of Italy. There is no satisfactory account of these years in any of the surviving sources. Duchesne, op. cit., pp. 306-307, n. 4; Gregorovius, History of Rome, tr.
Hamilton,
'

vol. I, pp. 476-485. "Narses, the patrician,

gave Italy back to the

Roman

empire, rebuilt the

ruined cities and by expelling the Goths restored the people throughout Italy to their
ancient happiness."

Prosperi Aquit. Continuator Hamiensis, in

vol. I, p. 337.

Auclorum Antiquiss., Chronica Minora,

p. 307, n. 5.

Mon. Ger. Hist., Quoted by Duchesne, op. cit.,

' No other record gives us more than the bare statement that Narses was recalled from Italy in 568 by the emperor Justin II. The name of Justinian in our text is, of course, an error. It is impossible to verify or to disprove our narrative at this point. * All historians from the seventh century onward unite in ascribing to Narses an

invitation to the

Lombards to enter Italy. Agathias and Marius, however, who were contemporaries of Narses, do not allude to it. The Origo GenHs Langobardorum, which Mommsen pronounces an extract from the lost history of Secundus of Trent,
written about 612, says expressly that Alboin led his

Lombards into

Italy

upon

invita-

JOHN
when Pope John
learned that the

III

i6s
sent an accusation

Romans had

against Narses to the emperor he went h&,stily to Naples.

And
Then

Pope John began

Narses said
the
all
:

to entreat Narses to return to

Rome.

"Tell me, most holy Father, what evil have I done to

I shall go

back to the feet of him that sent me and have toiled for her with all my strength." Pope John answered and said: "I myself shall go to him sooner than you shall leave this land." And Narses returned to Rome with the most holy pope John.^ Then the most holy pope withdrew to the cemetery of Saints Tiburtius and Valerian and abode there a long time, so that he even consecrated bishops there.^ But Narses entered Rome and after a long time he died. And his body was laid in a leaden coffin and was carried with all his riches to Constantinople.^ Then Pope John likewise died and was buried in the basilica of
Italy shall

Romans ?

know how

blessed Peter, the apostle,*

July

13-

*
~

*
3 days

4:5

And

the bishopric was

of July.

empty lo months and

[

on the 13th day

tion from Narses.

Isidore of Seville (360-636) hints at a disagreement between Narses

and the empress.

The chronicle

that passes under the

name

of Fredegarius,

composed

probably about 640, is the first to relate the famous story of the golden distaff sent by Sophia to Narses to show her scorn for his effeminacy. Duchesne, op. cit., p. 307, n. 7 Hodgkin, Italy and her Invaders, vol. V, passim. The Lombard invasion occurred in 568. iThe return of Narses to Rome was in 571. There is no other account of the
intercession of the pope.
2 The Uttle church of SS. Tiburtius and Valerian stood over the catacomb of Pretextatus on the Via Appia, about two miles from the city. The retirement of the pope to this secluded spot seems to have had some connection with the situation at Rome at the time of the disgrace and return of Narses but we lack the information to deter-

mine what the cormection was.

5

Narses died in 572 or S73.

He

is

said to

have been

in his ninety-fifth year.

There are various references in the chronicles to his great wealth. The, imperial system of taxation seemed cruel to the impoverished Italians, and there appears to have been a widespread feeling that Narses had enriched himself by his relentless exactions. Ideas of the kind may have prompted the complaint to the emperor. Later there arose
legends of the hidden treasure of Narses. * His epitaph has been lost.
6

List of ordinations.

66

LIBER PONTIFICALIS
LXIV. Benedict
Benedict,

I (575-579)
of Boniface, occupied

by

nationality a

Roman, son

the see 4 years, i month and 28 days. At that time the tribe of the Lombards invaded
there

all

Italy

and

was

also a great famine, so that

many

fortified

towns sur-

rendered to the Lombards in order that they might be spared the

rigor of the famine.*

And when

Justinian, the
|

most devout
emperor, heard that

Rome was

endangered by the famine

|

and by the pestilence

he sent to Egypt and dispatched ships laden with corn to

Rome

^
;

and thus God had compassion on the land of Italy. In the midst of these hardships and affictions the most holy pope Benedict died. And he was buried in the basilica of blessed
Peter, the apostle, in the vestry,'

July 31.
* * * *

*4

And

the bishopric

was empty

3
|

months and 10 days

on the 30th day

of July.

' Paul the Deacon, who bases his account partly upon the Lib. Pont, and partly upon the lost history of Secundus of Trent, gives the following description of the misery "In these days many Roman nobles were killed through avarice (Lomat this time. bard avarice). And the rest were distributed among the invaders to pay a third part In the seventh year after of their produce to the Lombards and were made tributary. the arrival of Alboin and all his nation the churches had been despoiled by the Lombard dukes, the priests slaughtered, the cities ravaged and the people exterminated who lived by the cultivation of crops, except in those regions which Alboin had conquered, and Italy for the most part was taken and subdued by the sword." History of the Lom-

bards, tr. Foulke, p

'

68.

The emperor's name should be

Justin, not Justinian.

Justin II died in 578.

Other sources say nothing of grain ships sent by him to Italy, but the records are all so scanty that the omission casts no doubt upon the statement of the Lib. Pont. ' The word translated vestry is " secretarium." The name was applied to a small chamber opening to the left of the portico of old St. Peter's, originally used by the popes as a robing room. Later it was converted into a chapel and the tomb of. Benedict was beneath the altar. His epitaph is lost.
*

List of ordinations.

PELAGIUS
LXV. Pelagius
Pelagius,

II

167

II (579-590)

see 10 years, 2

by nationaKty a Roman, son of Unigild, occupied the months and 10 days. He was ordained without commission from the emperor, because the Lombards were besieging the city of

Rome and

were working much havoc in

Italy.^

At that time

there were such heavy rains that every one said that
;

the waters of the flood had overflowed ^ and such fearful carnage that no one remembered that its hke had ever been in the world.

At that time

Pelagius enclosed the body of blessed Peter, the

apostle, in plates of gilded silver.'

'

He made

of his

own house

The

siege of

Rome in

s 79 is

not mentioned by any other contemporary historian.

Pelagius in 580 to Aunarius, bishop of Auxerre,

We have, however, a letter written by

in which he laments the shedding of innocent blood, the violation of the holy altars and

the insults offered to the catholic faith by "the idolaters." Already he turns his eyes toward the Franks as possible deliverers, " the divinely appointed neighbors and helpers of this city and all Italy," and bids Aunarius warn them to refrain from alliance with the Lombards. He sends Aunarius certain sacred relics, and adds " We urge you to hasten, so far as you are able, to free from the pollution of the Gentiles the shrines of the saints whose merits you seek." JaE6, Regesta, vol. I, p. 138, 580. Migne, Pat. Lot., vol. 72, col. 705. In 584 Pelagius writes that he has sent envoys to Constantinople to beseech the aid of the emperor before the Lombards seize the few places that are left to the imperial government. "The district about Rome is," he says, "in the main destitute of any defenders and the exarch writes that he can provide no remedy." In 585 he sends several letters to the bishops of Aquileia and Istria, who were at odds with him over the question of the Three Chapters. Supra, p. 157, n. i p. i6i,n. 2. He says that he has been prevented from writing before by the stress of events and the pressure of the enemy but that at last through the efforts of the exarch Smaragdus they are enjoying an interval of peace and quiet. JaS6, ibid., pp. 138 and 139, 1052, 1054-1056. ' The great flood of the Tiber occurred in the autumn of 589 and was followed by a Gregory I, writing five years later, pestilence which brought about Pelagius' death. says that the waters flowed in over the walls of the city and flooded most of it. Dialogi, Gregory of Tours also relates the III, 19; Migne, Pat. Lot., vol. 77, cols. 268, 269. " Now in the fifteenth year of King Childebert (590), our deacon came from the story. city of Rome with relics of the saints and reported that in the ninth month (November) of the previous year the waters of the Tiber had overspread Rome in such a flood that the ancient buildings had been destroyed and the storehouses of the church wrecked, Thereupon within which some thousands of measures of wheat had been lost.
: ; . .

followed a pestilence, which they call

'

inguinaria'

month (January, 590) and first of all and speedily he died and after his death there was great mortality among the people by reason of this plague." History of the Franks, X, i ed. Poupardin, p. 409. An English translation of Gregory's History by Brehaut will be found in another volume
eleventh
; ;

broke out in the middle of the ... it attacked Pelagius, the pope,
;

it

of the Records of Civilization.

3

The sarcophagus

of the apostle

had been interred by Constantine too deep

to

be

i68

LIBER PONTIFICALIS
|

an almshouse
for

a hostelry

aged poor.

the martyr.*

He constructed the cemetery of blessed Hermes, He built from its foundations a basilica over the body
and beautified his sepulchre with And he died and was buried in the church of blessed

of blessed Lawrence, the martyr,

silver plates.**

Peter, the apostle,'

February

7.

Supra, p. S3 and n. 3. Our author may be describGregory ing rather inaccurately some new reliefs for the decoration of the confession.
disturbed or to need protection.
I says in

one of his letters

"

When my predecessor of blessed memory thought to change

body of blessed Peter, the apostle, though it from the body, a sign of great terror appeared to him." EpistoUe, IV, 30 Migne, Pat. Lai., vol. 77, col. 701. That Pelagius actually made some innovations in the furniture of the basilica is evidenced by two sets of inscriptions, both
was distant about
;

the silver which was over the most sacred

fifteen feet

of which were visible in the ninth century, one

on the

altar, the other

on an ambone.

The last lines of the former may be translated as follows "For which (the Roman state) the priest offers these gifts and prays That a season of rest be granted to the princes. That the enemy be conquered throughout the world by the power of Peter

And peace and our faith be with the Gentiles and the people." Duchesne, Lib. Pont., vol. I, p. 310, n. 3. > The basilica at the cemetery of St. Hermes on the Via Salaria Vetus, of which
be seen. which Pelagius executed in the smaller and older basilica of San Lorenzo remain for the most part to this day. Supra, p. 61, n. 2. The Goths had apparently done considerable damage to the building and a hill or bank close by threatened to crush it. Pelagius rebuilt it, using original materials as far as he could, but envestiges
*

may

still

The

repairs

larging its capacity

and improving the lighting by raising the roof, adding the galleries and piercing the upper walls with numerous windows. The columns of the galleries and the architraves on which they rest were taken from ancient buildings in the vicinity. They are of all sizes and styles and are pieced together with no attempt at artistic unity or workmanlike effect. A little original carving in the Byzantine manner was done by stone-cutters, brought perhaps from Ravenna. Pelagius also dug away and removed the hill which overhung the basilica and adorned the apse with the mosaic, the upper portion of which may still be seen over the triimiphal arch. The portrait of Pelagius himself is on the extreme left and the face has not been altered since his day. Duchesne prints the metrical inscription which enumerates these various improvements. Op. cit., p. 310, n. 5. Frothingham, Monuments, pp. 87-88, 281-282. The silver plates or reliefs of the confession have, of course, disappeared. Gregory I has another anecdote to show how imsafe Pelagius found it to approach too near a holy tomb, even with the zeal of the restorer. "My predecessor of holy memory likewise wished to make some restorations about the body of Saint Lawrence, the martyr. But since it was not known where the venerable body lay, he searched for it by digging and of a sudden in their ignorance the sepulchre was laid open. Those who were present and took part in the work, monks and attendants, who saw the body of the martyr, although they did not presume to touch it, all died within ten days." Epistola, rv, 30 ; Migne, Pat. Lot., vol. 77, col. 701. ' His epitaph has not been preserved.

PELAGIUS

II
*
1

169

And
on the

the bishopric was

7 th

empty

months and

25 days

day

of

February in
Sil-

the sth indiction.

From

the death of Saint

vester to the first Gregory

was

246 years.
'

List of ordinations.

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