CHAPTER III. THE PAPACY. In a survey of the Church history of the sixth century the Western Church must be content to take a secondary place. It is not that she had ceased to be active, devoted, a mother of kings, of monasteries, and of missions; but no just historical estimate can, I think, deny that in the East the Church in each of these honours won a higher renown. It was in the East that the Church was recovering and increasing her territories. It was from the East that there came again and again new laws of the State, more and more decisively Christian, as well as new canons of the Church more and more decisively orthodox. The papacy of the sixth century is rather the rival than the superior of the other patriarchates; and its history, tangled and confused almost beyond expression, is yet full of the profoundest interest. Briefly, I would sketch first the position of the papal power in this period; secondly, the history of the more important popes. I. Constantine, says Dante, had founded his New Rome on the Bosphorus that he might "give the shepherd room." Two centuries had passed. The expansion had begun; but it had been checked by the wave of Gothic conquest. It is impossible wholly to disentangle the religious power from the political. At the beginning of the sixth century not the pope, but Theodoric, was master of Rome. 1 The Arian was a not intolerant, lord.1 There was early expectation of his favour to the Roman See. Cf. Gelasius to him (Mommsen's addenda to the Epistula Varia of Cassiodorus, p. 391) in 496: "certum est magnificentiam vestram leges Romanorum When he came first to the Eternal City he prayed "like a Catholic" at the tomb of the Apostles. He offered two great silver candelabra to S. Peter. It is probably Maximianus, bishop of Ravenna, Catholic to the core, who writes of his visit to Rome that "Pope Symmachus and all the senate and the people of Rome poured out to meet him outside the city gates with every sign of joy." Though a heretic, he was recognized as a friend, as well as submitted to for a master. But a master he was. By him synods were summoned. To him bishops vowed obedience in their session: "ideoque nos toto affectu et obsequio iussioni vestrae parere voluimus.' Though the rule of principum, quas in negotiis hominum custodiendas esse praecepit, multo magis circa reverentiam beati Petri apostoli pro suae felicitatis augmento velle servari.” 2 Epp. Rom. Pontif., Thiel, Ep. 5, p. 657, quoted by Gregorovius, i. 318, note 1. Odovacar,' a rule recognized by the Pope Simplicius, was repealed,' that election to the papacy could only be made firm by the presence and sanction of a royal officer; yet. the memorable dispute between Symmachus and Laurentius was submitted to the absolute decision of Theodoric: "et 3 facta intentione hoc constituerunt partes ut ambo ad Ravennam pergerent ad iudicium regis Theodorici. Qui dum ambo introissent Ravennam hoc iudicium aequitatis invenit, ut qui primo ordinatus fuisset vel ubi pars maxima cognosceretur, ipse sederet in sedem apostolicam." The ecclesiastical relations of Hormisdas with the Emperor Justin were equally controlled by the Arian king. Later, it was a pope whom he sent to demand 4 1 Though the document referred to is a letter of Simplicius, I think we may infer that the order was that of Odovacar. 2 Langen, Gesch. R.K. von Leo I. bis Nicol I., p. 232. "Liber Pontificalis, i. 260. 4 Ibid. p. 270. |