Pelagius I, Pope

PELAGIUS I, Pope. - Son of John, a Roman official, from an aristocratic family, he was already a deacon in 536 and apocrisiary of Pope Agapetus in Constantinople: in May of that year he took part, together with the deacon Theophanes, in the Synod that condemned the patriarch Anthimus. A loyal adviser of the emperor Justinian, he worked to prevent the return to Rome of the deposed pope Silverius (Nov. 11, 537), and in 538, after the deposition of Theodosius, the Severian bishop of Alexandria, he had the monk Paul ordained for that church; a few years later (539) he himself had to depose him at the Synod of Gaza, whither he had gone on the Emperor's commission. On his return to Constantinople, P. stopped at Jerusalem, where some monks of Mar-Saba presented him with extracts from the works of Origen so that he might have them condemned by Justinian. P. gladly accepted the task, and in 543 the condemnation was issued, subscribed by the patriarchs of the East and by Pope Vigilius himself. This condemnation later gave occasion for the controversy of the "Three Chapters" (v.), which kept the Church in turmoil and in which P. himself played a great part.

Shortly after the condemnation of Origen, P. had returned to Rome and, in the absence of Pope Vigilius, who had been dragged off to Constantinople, he worked to alleviate the miseries and tribulations of the Gothic war. Toward the end of 546, on the commission of Justinian and of the Roman Senate, he went to Totila to obtain a truce, but in vain, and when in Dec. Rome was occupied, P. awaited the barbarian in front of the basilica of St. Peter, asking and obtaining mercy for the people: the people were spared but the city was sacked. A few days later P. took part in the session of the Senate convoked by Totila on the Palatine, where once again he succeeded in calming the barbarian's wrath, who then invited him, together with the advocate Theodore, to Constantinople as an ambassador of peace and on the promise that he would look after the king's interests and would return at once to Rome. At the Byzantine court, where many senators who had fled from Rome had taken refuge, he found minds obstinate, and Justinian, by way of all answer, sent Belisarius to Italy, who in the spring of 547 occupied Rome. In the first months of 552 P. returned once again to Constantinople to assist Pope Vigilius, harassed by the court over the question of the "Three Chapters," and in May 553 he drew up and co-signed, together with others, the constitutum of Vigilius opposed to the condemnation: he was therefore arrested and confined in various monasteries. Meanwhile Vigilius yielded, approving the Council of 553 and condemning the "Three Chapters." P., though a prisoner, composed several libelli against the condemnation and against the Pontiff himself, accusing him of inconstancy and venality. Of these only the In defensione trium Capitulorum has been preserved, and incomplete at that: of six books, the whole first is missing, and the second and the last are mutilated. Relying on the Constitutum of Vigilius and on the work of Facundus of Hermiane, P. sought to prove how the condemnation meant an offense against the Council of Chalcedon and an offense against Pope Leo. Having achieved his aim, Justinian set Vigilius free; he died at Syracuse in June 553. To succeed him, the same emperor designated P., who accepted the condemnation of the "Three Chapters" and the work of the Council of 553.

Having returned to Rome, P. found the clergy and the nobles hostile, as though he had been the cause of the sufferings and death of Pope Vigilius. Finally, through the effective support of Narses, he was able to be consecrated on Apr. 16, 556 by the bishops of Perugia and Ferentino, joined by a priest of Ostia. Since the hostilities against the new Pontiff showed no sign of diminishing, in agreement with Narses, P., after a solemn procession from the church of St. Pancras to St. Peter's, mounted the ambo and, holding the Gospels and the Cross in his hand, solemnly declared that he was innocent of the death of Vigilius and that he accepted the decisions of the four ecumenical Councils. This stance did not suffice to remove the oppositions, which manifested themselves especially in Gaul, where King Childebert repeatedly sent ambassadors to ask for explanations concerning the faith of P., in Africa, in Illyricum and especially in northern Italy, where a painful schism arose on the part of the metropolitans of Milan and Aquileia.

During his brief pontificate, P. worked to reintegrate the Roman clergy decimated during the preceding years, to provide for the miseries of the populations, to ransom slaves, to repair the churches and the other damages caused by the Gothic wars. He died on March 4, 561 and was buried in St. Peter's.

Agostino Amore