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THE LIVES OF THE POPES IN THE SEVENTH CENTURY ST. MARTIN I.
AD 649-654.
Emperor. CONSTANS, 642-668.
Kings. Rothari,
636-652. Aripert I, 653-661.
Exarchs. OLYMPIUS, 649-652. THEODORE CALLIOPAS (second time), 653-664.
And when we see Pope Martin dragged from Rome to Constantinople by the
order of Constans, are we not forcibly reminded that the popes from St. Peter in
the first century to Pius VII in the nineteenth have often in their own persons
fulfilled that prophecy of Our Lord’s addressed to His apostles and to
Christians in general: “Ye shall be brought before kings and governors for My
name’s sake?”
There is something appropriate in the eminently courageous Martin,
having been born in ‘warlike’ Todi, in the province of Tuscany. According to
Theodoric, he was of noble birth, a great student, of commanding intelligence
and of surpassing learning. If his external appearance was admirable, his
virtue was more so. And if Rome was remarkable for the strength of its walls,
it was still more distinguished for the exceptional uprightness of its
prelates. Martin was a new Sylvester, and in him God prepared “no unworthy
dispenser of the bread of the Gospel”. The same author goes on to tell us of
Martin’s charity to the poor, of his regular donations of corn, of his
humility, and of his looking up to other bishops as his superiors “though he
was the head of all of them”. Whether or not Theodoric had grounds for any or
all these statements, it is certain that, like so many other popes of this
century, he had been apocrisiarius at Constantinople, and was one of those whom
Pope Theodore sent to arrange for the canonical deposition of the patriarch
Pyrrhus. The fact that Martin had been nuncio at Constantinople cannot fail to
deepen our impressions of his courage. For when he allowed himself to be
dragged to the Imperial City rather than sign the ‘Type’, his previous stay at
the capital of the empire must have let him know what sort of men he would have
to deal with.
Before two months had elapsed from the death of Theodore, Martin
was consecrated (July 5, 649 and that, too, without waiting for the required confirmation. Common
prudence would dictate that no confirmation of the Sunday, election should be
awaited from the hands of rulers who were deeply infected with heresy; and,
that the dictates of prudence were followed, Muratori justly regards as established from the accusation of the Greeks that
Martin possessed himself of the papal dignity covertly, irregularly and
unlawfully.
As Constans had now fairly taken up the cudgels in behalf of
Monothelism, and had commenced to use violence against the orthodox party, the
Pope was called upon from all sides to condemn the ‘one-will’ heresy, and to excommunicate
the patriarch Paul. Accordingly, encouraged no doubt by St. Maximus who was
still in Rome, he summoned a council; and a hundred and five bishops assembled
in the Church of St. John Lateran’s, or, as it was then called, the Church of
Our Saviour. The ‘fathers’ held their sittings in the sacristy of the church,
and hence their meetings came to be known as ‘secretarii’. The first sitting
was held on October 5, 649, in presence of the Pope himself, who presided in
person at all the five regular meetings of the synod. The council first
listened to accusations of heresy against Cyrus, patriarch of Alexandria, and
the patriarchs of Constantinople, Sergius, Pyrrhus and Paul. Then various
extracts from their writings were produced, which the Pope showed to be opposed
to the teaching of the Church, and full of absurdities and contradictions. In
the fourth session the ‘Type’ was read. With regard to that edict the fathers
observed : “Doubtless it is of great advantage to have no dispute on the faith,
but the good is not to be rejected with the bad, the doctrine of the lathers
with that of heretics. Such conduct rather fosters than extinguishes disputes.
Ceasing to defend the faith is no way to put down heresy. We have indeed to
avoid evil and do good,
but not to reject both. We may praise indeed the good intention of the ‘Type’,
but its terms we must reject. For they are altogether opposed to the spirit of
the Catholic Church, which imposes silence indeed on error, but does not
command truth and its opposite to be together asserted or denied!”. In the fifth
and last session, after various extracts from the ‘fathers’ had been read which
established Catholic tradition on the two wills in Our Lord, the doctrine of
the Church on the two natural wills and operations in Jesus Christ was unfolded
in twenty canons. These canons, subscribed by the Pope and the bishops of the
council, were at once sent to different Churches of the East and West, with a
long synodal letter, in which all were exhorted to reject novelties, not to recognize
“types or laws, or definitions or expositions” against the faith, and not to
fear those who can only kill the body; and in which all were told that anathema
had been called down upon the heretics and their wicked doctrines, and on those
who defended the ‘Type’ or Ecthesis.
Martin lost no time in doing all he could to let
the world
at large know what had been decided at the council. In the month following that
in which the council had been held, the Pope wrote (November 649) to the
Emperor Constans, informing him of the holding of the council, sending him its
acts with a Greek translation, and exhorting him by his laws to condemn the
heresy that had been branded by the synod; truthfully reminding him that the ‘Republic’
(as the empire was still delusively called) flourished in accordance with the
condition of the orthodox faith.
The church of Africa is praised for its faith, when the acts of the
council are sent to it; and when St. Amand, Bishop of Maestricht, received the
decrees of the synod, he is asked to urge Sigebert II of Austrasia to send
bishops to take a copy of those decrees to the emperor.
Realizing the importance of making head against
Monothelism in its home, viz., the East, and the difficulties there would be in
opposing it on account of the support it was receiving from those in “high
places”, Martin made Bishop John of Philadelphia his vicar in the East,
because, as he tells him, he had had a very good account of him from Stephen of Dora and others. “We exhort your
charity to fill our place in the East in all ecclesiastical affairs, and
therefore to stir up the grace of God that is in you by the imposition of the
sacerdotal dignity, and by the taking of our apostolic place... Boldly ordain
bishops, priests and deacons throughout the whole patriarchates of Jerusalem
and Antioch. This we order you to do by our apostolical authority, which has
been given to us by Our Lord through St. Peter, the Prince of the Apostles”.
After reminding the bishop that power had been given him to use rather in
building up than in pulling down, and hence telling him to restore the penitent
to the rank from which their heresy had caused them to be deposed, the Pope
sends him the acts of the council to be everywhere promulgated.
This commission the Pope supported by letters to various bishops,
abbots, nobles and cities in the East, begging them not to cease opposing the
heretics, and to obey his vicar, John of Philadelphia, And because Paul, Bishop
of Thessalonica, so far from recalling previous heretical letters he had sent
to the Pope, which by his legates he had promised to do, not only remained in
his heresy, but even corrupted the Pope's apocrisiarii, and wrote fresh
heretical letters to the Holy See, Martin declared him excommunicated and
deposed until such time as he should abjure his errors.
Seeing the energy with which Pope Martin was combating his heretical views, Paul, the patriarch
of Constantinople, suggested to the emperor that the time had come to use a
little violence to bring the Pope to accept their doctrine. Accordingly Constans
II sent a new exarch into Italy, Olympius, his chamberlain, with orders to
compel all, bishops and laity alike, to subscribe to the ‘Type’; and if the
army in Rome could be depended upon, to seize Martin himself and make him do
likewise; but that if the troops were not to be relied on, the exarch was not
to take any steps till he could get together a large trustworthy force both at
Ravenna and Rome, so that the emperor’s orders could be executed with all possible
speed. Olympius arrived in Rome, either whilst the council was actually going
on, or at least while the Fathers of the council were still in the city. The
exarch at first tried diplomacy, and endeavored “for a very long time” to
foment a schism. In this attempt he completely failed. And as he apparently
dared not try open violence, we find him determining to try perfidy and
assassination. He seems to have expressed a pretended wish to become perfectly
reconciled with the Pope, and induced him to promise to give him (the exarch)
Holy Communion at the Church of St. Mary Major. Olympius then ordered his spatharius, sword bearer or armourer, to kill the
Pope when he gave him (the exarch) Communion. But when the time for carrying
out the execrable order arrived, the armourer could not see the Pope, as he
afterwards declared on oath to many persons. There seems no reason to believe
that the armourer was miraculously deprived of his eye-sight altogether; but it
would appear that, by the mercy of God, he was in some way hindered from seeing
the Pontiff at the time when it was agreed he should kill him. Martin’s
enthusiastic Gallic biographer thinks it was not at all wonderful that he was
protected, “seeing that, inasmuch as he was saying Mass, he was, like holy
Simeon, carrying in his arms the Lamb of God who sits on God’s right hand”.
This episode made Olympius believe that Martin was under the special
protection of heaven. He therefore became really reconciled to him, told him
all he had been ordered to do against him, and then gathering the troops together,
set out for Sicily to repel an invasion of the Saracens. He died there of some
disease along with a great part of the army (653). The attempt to assassinate
the Pope we may, with Muratori, refer to the year 652,
When Constans heard of this collapse of his schemes, his indignation may be easily imagined. To rectify it he resolved to send a new exarch to Rome who would not be troubled with the God-fearing ideas of Olympius. And so, on June 15, 653, Theodore Calliopas entered the Eternal City with orders to bring Pope Martin to Constantinople. When the approach of the exarch became known, the Pope and most of the clergy withdrew to the Lateran basilica. Some of the clergy were, however, sent by the Pope to greet the exarch, who told them he would come and “adore” (i.e. salute) the Pope the next day (Sunday). But when Sunday came the exarch, in fear of the numbers of people that flocked to the Lateran basilica, again put off his visit, saying he was fatigued, and again said he would come next day. On Monday morning early the exarch sent soldiers to say that he could not come to the Pope as there were arms and munitions of war stored up in the basilica. Of course when, at Martin’s desire, the soldiers searched the place, they found nothing. About midday the exarch entered the church with a company of soldiers and found the Pope, who had been ill with gout for some months, on a bed in front of the altar with a large body of the clergy about him. To strike terror into the Pope, the soldiers initiated a scene of wild confusion, clashing their armour, extinguishing the candles, overturning the candelabra, and threatening the clergy with their drawn swords. After this display of violence, the clergy were informed by Calliopas that Martin had obtained the Papacy irregularly, and was unworthy of it, that another would have to be chosen in his stead and he himself sent to Constantinople. On this some of the clergy cried out that the Pope should not consent to go. But, as he himself says, fearing bloodshed, Martin simply asked that those of the clergy whom he wished might go with him. “Those who themselves desire to go, may”, replied the exarch; “I am not going to force any one”. When Martin thereupon exclaimed, “The clergy are dependent on me”, some of the priests cried out, “With the Pope we live, and with him we die”. However, at the request of the exarch, the Pope went with him into the Lateran palace. When he left the Church the clergy cried out: “Anathema to the man who says or thinks that Martin has changed or will change a title of the faith”. To this Calliopas: “Other faith than that held by Pope Martin there is none, and such is my own faith”. This, adds the Pope, he only said to soothe the feelings of the bystanders. On the
Tuesday great numbers both of the clergy and laity began hastily to make
preparations to accompany the Pope, and there was great loading of lighters all
day on Tuesday. This did not suit the exarch, and so on Tuesday night the Pope,
with only a few pages to accompany him, and without being allowed to take any
necessaries along with him, was hurried on board a boat, and conveyed to
Portus, thence at once to Misenum. The city gates were kept barred, so that
none could get to the Pope before he had been dispatched from Portus. Then
followed for the poor Pope a cruel journey by sea for a year and three months,
during the whole of which time he was suffering from gout, sea-sickness and
dysentery. He was only allowed to land at one of the many islands at which the
ship touched, viz., at Naxos, and only then could he get a bath. At the
different places at which the ship, which was the Pope’s prison, cast anchor,
the people came to bring Martin what they thought he would need. But the
soldiers seized their presents and maltreated the people themselves, telling
them that whoever loved Martin were enemies of the Republic. From Abydos his
guards sent forward to announce the coming of the captive Pope, and to proclaim
him to all a heretic and a rebel.
When the ship reached Byzantium (September 17, 654) the Pope was left on his bed on deck all day, “a
spectacle to men and angels”—to be insulted by anyone, as the narrator of these
events, who was walking about indignant on the shore at the time they were
being perpetrated, informs us. In the evening, however, the Pope was conveyed
to a prison, orders were given that the knowledge of where he was confined was
to be kept secret, and he was left there for ninety-three days. Whilst in this
prison the same vile treatment was meted out to the suffering Pontiff as he had received on board
ship. Touchingly he writes : “For forty-seven days no water, whether hot or
cold, has been given me with which to wash myself, and with the dysentery,
which up to the present has never left me either on the ship or on land, I have
gone quite cold. And in this hour of my dire trouble, I have nothing in my
wretchedness to strengthen my broken frame, for my nature sickens at what I am
given to eat. But I trust in the power of God, who sees everything, that when I
am dead He will bring home their doings to those who persecute me, that so at
least they may be led to repent and be converted”.
At length he was brought before the imperial treasurer. So weak was he
that to make him stand two soldiers had to support him. Not to bring into prominence the real cause of
the barbarous treatment he was receiving, viz., his refusal to sign the ‘Type’,
the Pope was wildly charged with all kinds of political offences—with having
been in league with the exarch Olympius against the emperor, with having been
in treasonable communication with the Saracens, and most absurdly of all, with
a want of proper faith with regard to the Mother of God. The witnesses made
such a bungle of their work, contradicting themselves and one another, that the
Pope could not forbear to ask with a smile: “Are these men your witnesses?” He
further begged that for the sake of their souls they might not be required to
give their testimony on oath. “Let them say what they want to say, and do you
do what you wish to do without any oaths”. When in his defence Martin began to speak about the ‘Type’ being sent to Rome,
he was not allowed to continue, but was told there was no question of faith,
but of treason! Seeing all the justice he was likely to get, Martin begged, as
the greatest favor that could be granted him, that they would pass their death
sentence upon him with as little delay as possible. Then in accordance with the
express will of the emperor, the Pope was carried forth into an open space in
front of the judgment hall, and in view of the emperor and in presence of an
immense number of people, stripped of his cloak and handed over to the prefect,
who was ordered to tear him in pieces. When the bystanders were ordered to anathematize
him, only some twenty people raised their voices against him. The rest, “who
knew there was a God in Heaven Who saw what was being done”, withdrew in sorrow
and with downcast looks. The executioners, however, stripped the Pope of his
pallium and most of his garments, so that he was half naked, loaded him with
chains, and dragged him through the city with a drawn sword in front of him,
amidst the groans and tears of the greater part of the people. Finally, after
leaving him for an hour in a prison with murderers, they cast him into the
prison of Diomede, all bleeding and more dead than alive. In this place the
Pope was confined eighty-five days. During this term, Paul, the Monothelite
patriarch, died. When Constans told the dying patriarch what the Pope was being made to
suffer, Paul groaned, and turning to the wall said: “Woe is me! This will
greatly add to the dangers of my judgment before God”. At the intercession of
Paul, but to the great sorrow of the Pope, the emperor consented to spare his
life. Pyrrhus, despite the objections raised against him by some, on account of
his recantation of Monothelism before Pope Theodore, again became the recognized
patriarch of Constantinople.
At length (March 24) word was brought to the Pope
that he was to be sent into exile in two days. Most affecting is the description which the writer of the account of Pope Martin’s
sufferings at Constantinople has left us, of the parting between the Pope and
those who were in the prison. After the Pope had said Mass and all had communicated,
he called on one, who was especially dear to him, to give him the kiss of
peace. At this, he who was thus called upon could not restrain his tears and
sobs, and all present burst into loud lamentations. The Pope alone remained
tearless, and bade them “Weep not. What I now suffer is a gain to me”. “Our
tears”, it was said in reply, “are not that Our Lord has been good enough to
make you suffer all this for His sake, but for our own loss”.
After another long sea voyage, the Pope reached his place of exile,
Cherson in the Tauric Chersonese, the May 15, 655, modern village of Eupatoria
in the Crimea. According to Héfelé, in the rock grottoes of Inkerman, on the
Black Sea, there is still shown the cavern where he lived. Here fresh troubles
awaited the Pontiff, long since weary of life. He had to face a continual
dearth of the barest necessaries of existence. “Bread”, he writes, “is talked
of but never seen”. He has to write to a friend in Constantinople to ask him to
see that provisions are sent out to him, so that he may be able to live. For at
Eupatoria provisions could only be got from ships that came at rare intervals
for salt. So rarely did they come, that the Pope, as he says himself, up to the
month of September was only once able to purchase corn; and he had to pay at
the high rate of one solidus for four bushels. The heathen and barbarous
inhabitants also gave the unfortunate Pope much to suffer. In the midst of his
sufferings Martin could not but feel keenly, and could not refrain from
expressing his astonishment, that no help came to him from Rome. Still he
forgot not the Romans in his prayers. He begged of God that they might remain
firm in the faith, and especially did he pray for the one who was ruling over
them. Utterly worn out by his sufferings, Martin died in his place of exile,
September 6, 655. He was buried in a church Our Lady called “Blachernae”, about a furlong from the city of Cherson.
We are told that during his exile Pope Martin restored his sight to a
blind man. The brothers Theodosius and Theodorus, monks, who wrote about the
year 668, and had been to Cherson to venerate the remains of Pope Martin, were
informed by a companion of the Pope’s exile, of the many miracles wrought at
his tomb, and were given, among other relics of the saint, one of his shoes,
which it is interesting to learn were of a peculiar kind, only worn by the
bishop of Rome. Furthermore, both Gregory and the papal biographer assert that
up to their time miracles were still being wrought at St, Martin’s tomb. From
this evidence, therefore, it can scarcely be denied that miracles were not
uncommonly wrought at the tomb of St. Martin,
There is a tradition that at least the greater part of the relics of St.
Martin were brought to Rome and deposited in the Church of SS. Sylvester and Martin of Tours. Both by Greeks
and Latins is Pope Martin I honoured as a saint—by the Latins on November 12,
by the Greeks in the middle of April. The ninety-sixth formula of the Liber Diurnus shows
that when it was drawn up, prayers were already being addressed to Martin as to
a saint. For, as the author of the account of St. Martin’s sufferings quaintly
notes, “He was indeed a ‘Type’ to be imitated by all who have made up their
minds to live well and to strive for the highest truth”. With such admirable
proportion, with such perfect coloring and shading does the figure of Pope
Martin, with all his heroic, yet withal quiet, courage, stand out in the
picture of him delineated for us by sympathetic contemporaries, that to attempt
to touch it up or to add to it with any words of ours would be desecration. Who
looks on this unvarnished portrait will go away with a sweet image on his mind
of Pope St. Martin I which will never fade from his memory.
The privileges which Pope Martin is said to have given to various
monasteries are, with one exception, set down by Jaffé and his continuators as
spurious, and the one exception (a privilege in favor of Bobbio) is marked as
of doubtful authenticity. In connection with these privileges we cannot do
better than translate the reflections of Cardinal Pitra—reflections full of true historical
criticism, and expressed with an eloquence of diction which only a learned
Frenchman could throw around such a subject.
“With St. Martin there begins a series of monastic privileges of the
great abbeys of Christendom : St Amand, St. Peter of Ghent, Rebais, St,
Maur-des-fossés, St. Peter of Rouen; under Eugenius I, St. Bavon, St. Maurice
of Agaune; under Vitalian, Stavelo, St. Michael of Gargan; under St. Agatho,
St. Paul’s in London, St Peter’s on the Thames; under John V, St Benignus of
Dijon, Notre-Dame of Arras (the cathedral); under John VI, Montier-en-Der. Thirty-five
similar privileges are to be met with during the eighth and ninth centuries up
to the days of Nicholas I. Like the preceding, they are one and all put down as
forgeries in the Regesta. It is no matter that some have been inscribed on papyrus
that the papyrus text of others is still extant, or that some are to be found
engraved on contemporary marbles. Another strange fact too : Isidore has not
forged one of these 50 bulls; not a single privilege has come from his
workshop, as though he had regarded monks as harder to impose upon than
bishops. It has been found absolutely necessary to respect the privileges of
the Aeduan monasteries (those of Autun) of Brunichildis, which could not be
rejected without setting aside the register of Gregory the Great, without
repudiating a whole series of documents which refer to them, without mutilating
the monastic and feudal code of the Middle Ages. But when once the Regesta have
admitted these sound muniments, with those of Bobbio, Farfa and Fulda, are
they authorized to reject the diplomatic array which follows them in serried
ranks with other great names : St. Medard, St. Colombe, Luxeuil, Glanfeuil,
Fleury, Remiremont, Nonantula, etc.? The Autun example could not but be followed throughout the whole
monastic world. The great abbeys, by the mere fact of their enduring existence,
appeal to and prove these titles; they form the point of departure of our (the
French) most ancient archives, and although defective in certain details,
almost all are substantially authentic, as Dom. Coustant and Dom. Mabillon
have always maintained, proved, demonstrated, with their well-known conscientiousness
and authority. Why have the Regesta admitted other deeds which present no less; difficulties?
How is it they have accorded a gracious reception to the letter of Hadrian I to Tilpin of
Rheims, rejected by Hinschius and the Bollandists? Why has Jaffé bowed with
respect before the privileges of Dover, Wearmouth, Medehamstead (Peterborough),
Ripon, and Canterbury, which emanate, some of them, from even earlier popes?
One reason is that they (the compilers of the Regesta) have been led on by the supercilious French critics, Germon, Lecointe, Launoy,
Brequigny, and Pardessus, men who had no interest in the most ancient
institutions of their country; whereas, in their Monasticon and Synodicon,
Dugdale and Wilkins have respectfully registered the Catholic title-deeds of
Old England. That was to show wisdom and patriotism. We blame neither Jaffé nor
the new Regesta for not having risen to the idea. We do not indeed wish to defend all these
documents. But we believe that the wholesale condemnation of such a large
number of documents requires an appeal to a criticism better or newly informed”.
Theoderic closes his biography of Pope Martin with a hymn in his praise.
It consists of a number of Sapphics (verses composed of a dactyl and a
spondee). If of no great merit, it may be worth quoting, if only on account of
its antiquity.
Promere celsum Te pater almus,
Voce canora Natus agios
Hunc juvat herum Pneumaque sanctum,
Organizando Trinus et unus
Melle camoenae. Rite beavit.
Doctor in orbe, Nempe hierarcha
Praesul in urbe, Clarus in aula
Tu quoque martyr Regis olympi
Compote voto, Munere fixus
Terque beatus. Semper haberis.
Inde coronam Paste piacli
Perque decoram Jam miserere.
Perpete teste, Teque patrono
Morte sacrata Omnitenentis
Quam meruisti. Quo mereamur
Nunc rogitatus Visere laeti.
Sancte misellis Regna beata
Valde maestis Amen.
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