II. POPE CYRIACUS.

POPE CYRIACUS was foisted into the Roman list of popes about the same time as Pope Joan, and like her, maintained his usurped position for a long time. Here intentional imposture, visionary fancy and groundless credulity conspired together to create a pope as unreal and as purely invented as Pope Joan. In the middle of the twelfth century the nun Elizabeth, in the monastery of Schönau, in the diocese of Treves, stood far and wide in high repute. Her visions were inexhaustible; and as often as a grave was opened, and the bones and remains of some nameless corpse were found, the name and history of the unknown dead were revealed to her, as she said, by an angel or a saint. This worked with inspiriting effect on those who wanted new relics of saints for a church or a chapel to attract the stream of population thither. Elizabeth had already been busy with the myth of St. Ursula1 and her maidens;

[They are said to have been martyred in 237; the sixteenth centenary of the event was celebrated in 1837. Yet it was the Huns returning from their defeat at Chalons, in 451, who put the maidens to death! St. Ursula's name appears in no martyrology earlier than the tenth century. Mr. Baring-Gould considers her as "no other than the Swabian goddess Ursel or Horsel transformed "into a saint of the Christian calendar."-Curious Myths of the Middle Ages, 1869, p. 331].

and since 1155 thousands of corpses had been dug up in the fields near Cologne, all of which were said to have belonged to St. Ursula's company. At last, however, the corpses of men also came to light. Tombstones with inscriptions were discovered there, or rather were forthwith invented. They spoke of an Archbishop Simplicius, of Ravenna, Marinus, bishop of Milan, Pantulus, of Basle, and several cardinals and priests. There was, moreover, a stone with the inscription "St. Cyriacus Papa Romanus qui cum

"

gaudio suscepit sacras virgines et cum iisdem re

versus martyrium suscepit et St. Alina V." These epitaphs were sent by the abbot Gerlach to Elizabeth. By the visions which she saw in her states of magnetic clairvoyance she was to decide whether these tablets were to be believed. For he himself, as he said, entertained a suspicion that the stones might have been secretly buried there with a view to gain. Her2 unwillingness to act as judge was overcome, and now the following history came to light. At the

1 The inscriptions and the narration of St. Elizabeth are to be found, Acta Sanctorum Octbr. ix., 86-88. The finding of the tombstones was set on foot, it seems, to explain the appearance of so many bones of males in the field (ager Ursulanus), where people had been accustomed to expect only the bones of the pretended virgins, and in order to vindicate the honour of the maidens.

2 "Diutina postulatione me multum resistentem compulerunt," are her words.

time when Ursula and her maidens came to Rome, Cyriacus had already reigned a year and eleven weeks as the nineteenth pope. In the night he received the command of heaven to renounce his office, and go forth with the maidens, for a martyr's death awaited him and them. He accordingly resigned his authority into the hands of the cardinals, and caused Antherus to be raised to the papacy in his place. The Roman clergy, however, were so indignant at the abdication of Cyriacus that they struck his name out of the list of the popes.

Accordingly, every objection created by previouslyexisting authorities was forthwith quashed, and the chroniclers of the thirteenth century determined without further thought that the newly discovered pope must be inserted between Pontianus and Anteros (238). The first to do this was the Premonstratensian monk, Robert Abolant at Auxerre, who in the first part of this century composed a general chronicle. The Dominicans, Vincent of Beauvais and Thomas of Chantinpré, followed, and after them the Cistercian Alberich. Martinus Polonus was in this case also the decisive authority and source of information for the times subsequent to himself. In him the reason why Cyriacus was not found in the Catalogus Pontificum is given with more particularity: "Credebant enim

"plerique eum non propter devotionem, sed propter "oblectamenta virginum Papatum dimisisse." And on this point Leo of Orvieto has followed him. Aimery du Peyrat1 also, and Bernard Guidonis2 contend for Cyriacus, while Amalrich Augerii passes him over. The oldest chronicle in the German language (about 1330) says of him: "Want er lies daz babes"thum und die würdikeit wider der Cardinal willen, " und fur mit den XI. tusing megden gen Colen, und "wart gemartert, darumb tilketen die cardinal sinen

"

namen abe der bebiste buche." The Eulogium historiarum, compiled by a monk of Malmesbury about the year 1366, introduces him with the remark, "Hic cessit de papatu contra voluntatem cleri."4 In the fifteenth century Cyriacus, as was to be expected, appeared in all the better known historical works; in Antonius, Philip of Bergamo, Nauklerus, etc., and

1 Notices et Extraits, vi., 77.

2 Maii Spicil, vi., 29.

3 ["Since, against the will of the Cardinals, he gave up the papacy and the honor, and went with the eleven thousand maidens to Cologne, and was martyred, on this account the Cardinals expunged his name from the Popes' Book."] Oberrheinische Chronik, edited by S. A. Grieshaber, 1850, p. 5.

4 Ed. Scott Haydon, Lond., 1858, i., 180. [Huic successit Siriacus papa qui sedit anno uno, mensibus iii.; hic cessit de papatu contra voluntatem cleri, sequendo xi m. virgines quas baptizaverat, et substituendo Anaclerum, et ideo non apponitur in catalogo paparum.]

hence passed even into the older editions of the Roman breviary.1

But as early as the last year of the thirteenth century the story of Cyriacus had become of no small practical importance, and the lawyers had appropriated it for their purposes.

The resignation of Cœlestine V., and the consequent elevation of Boniface VIII. to the papacy, created very great commotion. Many were of opinion that it was utterly impossible for a pope to resign, for he had no ecclesiastical superior who could release him from his sacred obligations, and no one can release himself. The numerous opponents of Boniface pounced upon this question, and it was now of importance to discover instances of popes resigning. Accordingly the author of the Glossa Ordinaria to the decree, in which Boniface VIII. affirmed the right of popes to resign, appealed to the undoubted instance of Cyriacus ; 2 and thenceforward nearly all

1 Berti, in the Raccolta di Dissertazion of Zaccaria, ii., 10, remarks that he finds the fabulous acts of St. Ursula even in the breviary of 1526; and, according to Launoi, they are still found in the breviary

of 1550.

2 "Datur autem certum exemplum de Cyriaco Papa, de quo "legitur, quod cum Ursula et undecim millibus virginum martyr"izatus est." Then follows the narrative as given by Martinus PoloThus it stands in the older editions of the Lib. vi. Decretal., cap. Renunciat., Lugdun. 1520, 1550, 1553. In the later editions the passage is omitted.

nus.