AD. 640.
Emperor. Heraclius, 610-641
Kings. Ariwald, 626-636. Rothari,
636-652.
Exarch. Isaac, 625-644.
After the death of
Honorius the chair of Peter was vacant for one year and seven months. The cause
of delay, as we shall see presently, was a refusal on
the part of the Byzantine authorities to confirm the election of Severinus, because
he would not sign the ‘Ecthesis’.
The election of Severinus, a Roman and the son of Abienus, was proceeded
with after the prescribed three days had elapsed from the death of Honorius,
and the usual request for its confirmation duly made at once. But in place of
the imperial act of assent to his consecration, Severinus received an act of
faith to sign.
As an answer to the orthodox synodical letter of Sophronius, the
patriarch of Jerusalem, Sergius of Constantinople, had drawn up the Ecthesis, or
exposition of faith, and on learning of the death of Honorius, he induced the
emperor to issue this document as an imperial edict for all to accept (December
638). It was forthwith sent to the exarch Isaac, by the magister militum, Eustachius,
to see that it obtained the Pope’s adhesion. With its express declaration of one will in Our
Lord, Severinus refused to sign it.
Isaac, therefore, determined to try the effect of a little violence. Perhaps
without the knowledge of the emperor, he commissioned his chartularius (a high, military officer), Maurice, to plunder the
Lateran palace. Forming a party in the first instance, Maurice then set himself
to rouse the greedy passions of the soldiery of the ‘exercitus Romanus’—now a
local force and already in possession of considerable influence in the city. “What
is the use”, he asked, “of so much treasure hoarded up in the Lateran palace by
Pope Honorius, when you get nothing of it, not even the donatives which have
been sent you by the emperor? The holy man, through whom they were to have reached you, piled them up instead of
distributing them to you”. These words, of course, had their effect. A mob, and
Rome especially has never lacked an idle, worthless crowd ever ready for
sedition and plunder, rushed to the palace. Severinus was, however, prepared
for them. They could not force an entrance. As the lion’s skin failed, Maurice
tried the fox’s. This succeeded better. And after three days he managed to gain
admission into the palace with the judges, whom he had won over to his side. They then sealed up the
treasures which “Christian Emperors, Patricians and Consuls, for their souls’
redemption, had left to Blessed Peter the apostle, to be given in alms at
certain seasons, or for the redemption of captives”. Word was then sent to the
exarch that he might come and help himself. Isaac therefore at once came,
exiled the principal clergy “that there might be none to oppose him”, and for
eight days plundered the Lateran palace. Part of the booty was sent to the
emperor at Constantinople.
Meanwhile, at Constantinople, the papal envoys had been striving to
obtain the confirmation of Severinus.
They were, however, plainly told that they would have come so far to no
purpose unless they would promise to persuade the Pope elect to subscribe the Ecthesis. That the
‘Queen mother’ of all the churches might not have to remain widowed, the
legates answered with great circumspection. They had come, they urged, not to
make professions of faith, but to transact business. However, they were quite willing
to put the document before the Pope, and, if he thought well of it, they would
ask him to sign it. They deprecated violence, pointing out that in matters of
faith no one can be forced, and that by violence even the weak are oft made
firm. How much more, they asked, will this be the case with the clergy of the
See of Rome, which, as the eldest born of all the churches, excels all. She has
obtained from the apostles, and from councils and princes, that in matters of
faith she be not subject to anyone, but that by ecclesiastical law all be
subject to her.
True ministers were they, continues St. Maximus, of that firm and
immovable rock, the apostolic Church. Their opponents admired their fidelity,
and the legates returned to Rome with their request granted. What cannot
prudence combined with firmness effect! Disarmed by prudence, opposition is
then overcome by firmness. Severinus was at length consecrated (May 28, 640),
and Isaac wisely withdrew to Ravenna.
During the short time that he was Pope, Severinus
condemned the Ecthesis. He decreed, probably in synod, that as “there were two natures in Christ, so there were two
natural operations”.
As he was an old man when he was elected, we need not be astonished to
read that Severinus was buried as early as August 2, 640, in St. Peter’s, the
mosaics in the apse of which he had renewed. Beautiful is the character given
to this Pope in the Liber
Pontificalis. Besides being described as a lover and benefactor
of the clergy, he is set down as “holy, kind to all men, a lover of the poor,
generous, and the mildest of men”.
This account of Severinus may well be brought to a close by a quotation
from the striking work of Mr. Allies—Peter’s
Rock in Mohammeds Flood: “Had
Pope Severinus at this minute failed in his duty, the whole Church would have
been involved in the Monothelite heresy. Not only Pope Severinus, but his
successors during forty years, were the sole stay of the Church against a
heresy—the last root of the condemned Eutychian heresy—which overthrew the
true doctrine of the Incarnation, making our Lord Jesus Christ not God and Man
in one Person, but a person compounded out of God and Man, and, therefore, not
man at all” .
JOHN IV.
