§ 64. THE PAPACY FROM LEO I. TO GREGORY I. 327
successfiiUj protested against the elevation of the Eutycliiaii Anthimns to the patriarchal see of Constantinople. But, bj the intrigues of the Monophysite empress, his successor, Pope SiLVERius (a son of Hormisdas, 536-538), was deposed on the charge of treasonable correspondence with the Goths, and banished to the island of Pandataria, w^iither the worst heathen emperors used to send the victims of their tyranny, and where in 540 he died — whether a natural or a violent death, we do not know.
ViGiLius, a pliant creature of Theodora, ascended the papal chair under the military protection of Belisarius (538-554), The empress had promised him this office and a sum of money, on condition that he nullify the decrees of the council of Chalcedon, and pronounce Anthimus and his friends orthodox. The ambitious and doubled-tongued prelate accepted the condition, and accomplished the deposition, and perhaps the death, of Silverius. In his pontificate occurred the violent controversy of the three chapters and the second general council of Constantinople (553). His administration was an unprincipled vacillation between the dignity and duties of his office and subservience to an alien theological and political influence ; between repeated condenmation of the three chapters in behalf of a Eutychianizing spirit, and repeated retraction of that condemnation. In Constantinople, where he resided several years at the instance of the emperor, he suffered much personal persecution, but without the spirit of martyrdom, and without its glory. For example, at least according to Western accounts, he was violently torn from the altar, upon w^hich he was holding with both hands so firmly that the posts of the canopy fell in above him ; he was dragged through the streets with a rope around his neck, and cast into a common prison ; because he would not submit to the will of Justinian and his council. Yet he yielded at last, tli rough fear of deposition. He obtained permission to return to Eome, but died in Sicily, of the stone, on his way thither (554).
PELAGros I. (554r-560), by order of Justinian, whose favor lie had previously gained as papal legate at Constantinople. was made successor of Vigilius, but found only two bishops
328 THIRD PEKIOD. A.D. 311-590.
ready to consecrate him. His close connection with tlie East^ and liis. approval of the fifth ecumenical council, which wa« regarded as a partial concession to the Eutychian Christology, and, so far, an impeachment of the authority of the council of Chalcedon, alienated many Western bishops, even in Italy, and induced a temporary suspension of their connection with Rome. He issued a letter to the whole Christian world, in which lie declared his entire agreement with the first four general councils, and then vindicated tlic fiftli as in no way departing from the Chalcedonian dogma. But only by the military aid of l^arses could he secure subjection ; and the most refractory bishops, those of Aquileia and Milan, he sent as prisoners to Constantinople.
In these two Justinian-made popes we see how much the power of the Konian hierai-chy was indebted to its remoteness from the Byzantine despotism, and how much it was injured by contact with it.
.; With the descent of the Arian Longobards into Italy, after 568, the popes again became more independent of the Byzantine court. They continued under tribute indeed to the exarchs in Ravenna, as the representatives of the Greek emperors (from 554), and were obliged to have their election confirmed and their inauguration superintended by them. But the feeble hold of these officials in Italy, and the pressure of the Ariau barbarians upon them, greatly favored the popes, who, being the richest proprietors, enjoyed also great political consideration in Italy, and applied their influence to the maintenance of law and order amidst the reigning confusion.
In other respects the administrations of John III. (5G0-573), Benedict I. (57-1—578), and Pelagius II. (578-590), are among the darkest and the most sterile in the annals of the papacy.
But with Gregory I. (590-604) a new period begins. Next to Leo I. he was the greatest of the ancient bishops of Rome, and he marks the transition of the patriarchal system into the strict papacy of the middle ages. For several reasons we preler to place him at the head of the succeeding period