RELIGIOUS ENCYCLOPEDIA
Pecock Pelagius
no room in the history; II Kings xv. 22 implies a peaceful death for Menahem. Geo. W. Gilmore. Bibliography : Consult the pertinent sections in the literature under Ahab; Israel, History op; and Kings, Books of; Schrader, KAT, pp. 264, 320; DB, iii. 737; EB, iii. 3643; JE, ix. 584.
PELAGIUS: The name of two popes.
Pelagius I.: Pope 555-561. He was the son of a Roman official, and first appears as deacon accompanying Agapetus I. (q.v.) to Constantinople in Feb., 536. He remained in Constantinople after the death of Agapetus and was made his permanent representative, or apocrisiarius, there by Silverius. As such he gained great influence, enjoyed the confidence of Justinian, and was able several times to intervene decisively in the ecclesiastical disputes of the Orient. In Jan., 543, he contributed not a little to the condemnation of Origenism. He returned to Rome in 545 and acted there for Vigilius (q.v.) during the latter's absence. On Dec. 17, 546, Rome was forced to surrender to the Goths under Totila, and Pelagius had to acknowledge the barbarian as master and act as his ambassador in peace negotiations with Justinian in 547. He returned home without having arranged matters to the satisfaction of the Gothic king, and the latter ordered all the clergy to leave Rome. Pelagius remained in Sicily until about 551.
Pelagius was strongly opposed to the Three Chapter edict (see Three Chapter Controversy) and used his influence with Vigilius to induce the latter to recall the Judicatum of 548. In the spring of 553 he succeeded, and on May 14 of that year the pope signed the so-called Constitutum, drawn up by Pelagius (cf. L. Duchesne, in Revue des questions historiques, xxxvi. 425), protesting against the edict. As a consequence Pelagius, who had been in Constantinople since about 551, was imprisoned by Justinian. He used his enforced leisure to write Sex libri in defensionem capitulorum (preserved in part in a MS. of Orleans), and when in Dec, 553, Vigilius again turned about and conformed to the wish of the emperor, Pelagius sent forth from his cell a violent attack upon the unstable pope. Early in 555, however, he followed the example of Vigilius, while Justinian designated Pelagius as the successor of Vigilius. In Rome, however, they did not want Pelagius as pope, and when Vigilius died (June 7, 555) they chose the presbyter Mareas in his place. Mareas died in August, but all hesitated to consecrate the choice of the emperor, and it was not until Apr. 16, 556, that Pelagius could ascend the papal throne. His position was difficult, but he strove, not without success, to conciliate the opposition. To repair the ravages of war was another duty which devolved on the new pope, and herein he appears in more pleasing light. He rehabilitated the Roman finances, refurnished the plundered churches, and consecrated forty-nine bishops, twenty-six presbyters, and nine deacons, at the same time not forgetting the poor. When he died, Mar. 3, 561, the worst of the evil consequences of the Gothic war in Rome and its neighborhood had been removed. (H. Bohmer.)
Bibliography: Consult: Liber pontificalis, ed. L. Duchesne, i. 303-304, Paris, 1886, ed. T. Mommsen, in MGH, Gest.
pont. Rom., i. 155-156. The Briefs are in MPL, lxix. 393-394, NA, y. 533 sqq., and Jaffe, Regesta, 124-136; L. Duchesne, in Revue des questions historiques, xxxvi (1884), 428 sqq.; T. Hodgkin, Italy and her Invaders, v. 50 sqq., Oxford, 1885; J. Langen, Geschichte der romischen Kirche, ii. 341 sqq., Bonn, 1885; F. Gregorovius, Hist, of the City of Rome, i. 425^26, 488, London, 1894; A. Knecht, Die Religionspolitik Kaiser Justinians I., i. 125 sqq., Wurzburg, 1896; H. Hutton, Church in the 6th Century, pp. 162 sqq., London, 1897; H. Grisar, Geschichte Rons und der Papste, i. 549 sqq., 580 sqq., Freiburg, 1901; Hefele, Conciliengeschichte, ii. 786, 798, 911, 916, Eng. transl., iv. 351-357, and especially Fr. transl., iii. 1, pp. 141-145, which has a rich apparatus of notes; Milman, Latin Christianity, i. 471-474; Bower, Popes, i. 370-374; Platina, Popes, i. 130-132; and literature under Three Chapter Controversy.
Pelagius II. : Pope 579-590. He was the son of a Goth living in Rome and was consecrated pope Nov. 26, 579, while the Lombards were besieging the city. Two difficult problems disturbed his reign, the war with the Lombards and a contest with schismatics in Upper Italy. In 585 the exarch Smaragdus brought a temporary relief from the barbarians, and their ravages worked indirectly to the advantage of the papacy since, because of the danger of foreign rule, a party friendly to Rome grew up in Genoa and Milan. In Istria the bishops stubbornly refused even to discuss the three chapters (see Three Chapter Controversy) and Pelagius, by inducing Smaragdus to intervene, made them more incensed against Rome than ever. With the Eastern Church Pelagius maintained good relations, although toward the end of his pontificate he had to protest because Patriarch John IV of Constantinople (q.v.) had assumed the title of ecumenical patriarch. In Rome he left a good memory by making his house a refuge for the old and by his church endowments. The basilica of S. Lorenzo fuori le Mura is a monument of his zeal for building as well as of the artistic poverty of his time. Pelagius died early in Feb., 590, of pestilence; he was buried in St. Peter's Feb. 6. (H. Bohmer.)
His great discovery in men was Gregory, who was his immediate successor. He sent him to Constantinople in 578 as his apocrisiary and kept him there till 585, and transacted through him some delicate negotiations. He also employed Gregory to write an elaborate defense of the condemnation of the three chapters. Gregory introduces a reference to Pelagius (see Pelagius, Pelagian Controversies) in his epistles and says that when Pelagius was building the monument to St. Lawrence the body of the martyr was accidentally uncovered and all who saw it died within fifteen days (Epist., IV., 30, Eng. transl. in NPNF, 2d ser., xii. 155).
Bibliography: For sources cf. Liber pontificalis, ed. L. Duchesne, i. 300-301, Paris, 1886, ed. T. Mommsen, in MGH, Gest. pont. Rom., i. 160; Paul the Deacon, Hist. Langobardorum, book iii., chap, xx., xxiv. sqq., in MGH, Script, rer. Langob., pp. 12 sqq. Consult further: A. Pichler, Geschichte der kirchlichen Trennung zwischen dem Orient und dem Occident, i. 127-128, ii. 649 sqq., Munich, 1864-65; B. Niehues, Geschichte des V erhaltnisses zwischen Kaisertum und Papsttum, i. 383 sqq., Minister, 1877; J. Langen, Geschichte der romischen Kirche, ii. 403 sqq., Bonn, 1885; F. Gregorovius, Hist, of the City of Rome, ii. 18, 26, 28, London, 1894; H. Grisar, Geschichte Roms und der Papste, i. 596 sqq., 675 sqq., 745 sqq., 813 sqq., Freiburg, 1901; Bower, Popes, i. 382-389; Platina, Popes, i. 135-136; Milman, Latin Christianity, i. 476; Hefele, Conciliengeschichte, ii. 917-918; Mann, Popes, i. 101, 140.
Pelagius