[THE CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA]
Pope Vigilius
Reigned 537-55, date of birth unknown; died at Syracuse, 7 June 555. He
belonged to a distinguished Roman family; his father Johannes is called
consul in the Liber pontificalis (ed. Duchesne, I, 298), having received that
title from the emperor. Reparatus, a brother of Vigilius, was a senator
(Procopius, De bello gothico, I, 26). Vigilius entered the service of the
Roman Church and was a deacon in 531, in which year the Roman clergy
agreed to a Decree empowering the pope to determine the succession to
the Papal See. Vigilius was chosen by Boniface II as his successor, and
presented to the clergy assembled in St. Peter's. The opposition to such a
procedure led Boniface in the following year to withdraw his designation
of a successor and to burn the Decree respecting it. The second successor
of Boniface, Agapetus I (535-36), appointed Vigilius papal representative
(Apocrisiary) at Constantinople; Vigilius thus came to the Eastern capital.
Empress Theodora sought to win him as a confederate, to revenge the
deposition of the Monophysite Patriarch Anthimus of Constantinople by
Agapetus and also to gain aid for her efforts in behalf of the
Monophysites. Vigilius is said to have agreed to the plans of the
intriguing empress who promised him the Papal See and a large sum of
money (700 pounds of gold). After Agapetus's death on 22 April, 536,
Vigilius return to Rome equipped with letters from the imperial Court
and with money. Meanwhile Silverius had been made pope through the
influence of the King of the Goths. Soon after this the Byzantine
commander Belisarius garrisoned the city of Rome, which was, however,
besieged again by the Goths. Vigilius gave Belisarius the letters from the
Court of Constantinople, which recommended Vigilius himself for the
Papal See. False accusations now led Belisarius to depose Silverius.
Owing to the pressure exerted by the Byzantine commander, Vigilius was
elected pope in place of Silverius and consecrated and enthroned on 29
March, 537. Vigilius brought it about that the unjustly deposed Silverius
was put into his keeping where the late pope soon died from the harsh
treatment he received. After the death of this predecessor Vigilius was
recognized as pope by all the Roman clergy. Much in these accusations
against Vigilius appears to be exaggerated, but the manner of his
elevation to the See of Rome was not regular. Empress Theodora,
however, saw that she had been deceived. For after the latter had attained
the object of his ambition and been made pope he maintained the same
position as his predecessor against the Monophysites and the deposed
Anthimus. It is true that there is an alleged letter from the pope to the
deposed Monophysite patriarchs, Anthimus, Severus, and Theodosius, in
which the pope agrees with the views of the Monophysites. This letter,
however, is not regarded as genuine by most investigators and bears all
the marks of forgery (cf. Duchesne in Revue des quest. histor. (1884), II,
373; Chamard, ibid., I (1885), 557; Grisar in Analecta romana, I, 55 sqq.;
Savio in Civilta catt., II (1910), 413-422]. The pope did not restore
Anthimus to his office.
It was not until the year 540 that Vigilius felt himself obliged to take a
stand in regard to Monophysitism which he did in two letters sent to
Constantinople. One of the letters is addressed to Emperor Justinian, the
other to the Patriarch Menas. In both letters the pope supports positively
the Synods of Ephesus and Chalcedon, also the decisions of his
predecessor Leo I, and throughout approves of the deposition of the
Patriarch Anthimus. Several other letters written by the pope in the first
years of his pontificate, that have been preserved, give information
respecting his interposition in the ecclesiastical affairs of various
countries. On 6 March, 538, he wrote to Bishop Caesarius of Arles
concerning the penance of the Austrasian King Theodobert on account of
his marriage with his brother s widow. On 29 June, 538, a decretal was
sent to Bishop Profuturus of Braga containing decisions on various
questions of church discipline. Bishop Auxanius and his successor,
Aurelian of Arles, entered into communication with the pope respecting
the granting of the pallium as a mark of the dignity and powers of a papal
legate for Gaul; the pope sent suitable letters to the two bishops. In the
meantime new dogmatic difficulties had been developing at
Constantinople that were to give the pope many hours of bitterness. In
543 Emperor Justinian issued a decree which condemned the various
heresies of Origen; this decree was sent for signature both to the Oriental
patriarchs and to Vigilius (cf. ORIGEN AND ORIGENISM).
In order to draw Justinian's thoughts from Origenism, Theodore Askidas,
Bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia, called his attention to the fact that the
condemnation of various representatives of the Antiochene school, who
had championed Nestorianism, would make union with the
Monophysites much easier. The emperor, who laid much stress upon
winning over the Monophysites, agreed to this, and in 543 or 44 he issued
a new edict condemning the Three Chapters (see CONSTANTINOPLE,
COUNCILS OF, and THREE CHAPTERS). The Oriental patriarchs and
bishops signed the condemnation of these Three Chapters. In Western
Europe, however, the procedure was considered unjustifiable and
dangerous, because it was feared that it would detract from the
importance of the Council of Chalcedon. Vigilius refused to acknowledge
the imperial edict and was called to Constantinople by Justinian, in order
to settle the matter there with a synod. According to the Liber pontificalis
on 20 November, while the pope was celebrating the feast of St. Cecilia in
the Church of St. Cecilia in Trastevere, and before the service was fully
ended, he was ordered by the imperial official Anthimus to start at once
on the journey to Constantinople. The pope was taken immediately to a
ship that waited in the Tiber, in order to be carried to the eastern capital,
while a part of the populace cursed the pope and threw stones at the ship.
Rome was now besieged by the Goths under Totila and the inhabitants
fell into the greatest misery. Vigilius sent ships with grain to Rome but
these were captured by the enemy. If the story related by the Liber
pontificalis is essentially correct, the pope probably left Rome on 22
November, 545. He remained for a long time in Sicily, and reached
Constantinople about the end of 546 or in January, 547.
Vigilius sought to persuade the emperor to send aid to the inhabitants of
Rome and Italy who were so hard pressed by the Goths. Justinian's chief
interest, however, was in the matter of the Three Chapters, and as Vigilius
was not ready to make concessions of this point and wavered frequently
in his measures, he had much to suffer. The change in his position is to be
explained by the fact that the condemnation of the writings mentioned
was justifiable essentially, yet appeared inopportune and would lead to
disastrous controversies with Western Europe. Finally, Vigilius
acknowledged in a letter of 8 Dec., 553, to the Patriarch Eutychius the
decisions of the Synod of Constantinople and declared his judgment in
detail in a Constitution of 26 February, 554. Thus at the end of a sorrowful
residence of eight years at Constantinople the pope was able, after coming
to an understanding with the emperor, to start on his return to Rome in
the spring of 555. While on the journey he died at Syracuse. His body was
brought to Rome and buried in the Basilica of Sylvester over the
Catacomb of Priscilla on the Via Salaria.
J. P. KIRSCH Transcribed by William G. von Peters, Ph.D.
Taken from the New Advent Web Page (www.knight.org/advent).
This article is part of the Catholic Encyclopedia Project, an effort aimed at
placing the entire Catholic Encyclopedia 1913 edition on the World Wide
Web. The coordinator is Kevin Knight, editor of the New Advent
Catholic Website. If you would like to contribute to this worthwhile
project, you can contact him by e-mail at (knight@knight.org). For
more information please download the file cathen.txt/.zip.
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