Pope Pelagius II (died 590)

A pope consecrated without imperial confirmation

The consecration of 26 November 579 is one of the most important institutional facts of the 6th-century pontificate. Treccani specifies that Pelagius succeeds Benedict I after almost four months of vacancy, on a Sunday, without prior approval from Tiberius II, very probably because of the military situation.^[6] According to the Liber Pontificalis ("secondo il Liber pontificalis", Treccani), the city is besieged, and imperial approval cannot be awaited.^[7][8]

This gesture does not mean that Rome formally breaks with the Empire. Pelagius at once sends an embassy to Constantinople to explain the circumstances of the election and ask for relief.^[9] But the fact remains: when the survival of the Roman Church requires it, the pope must be consecrated even if the civil authorization has not arrived. The history of pontifical autonomy often begins in ruptures endured before becoming doctrine or law.

The pope who puts Gregory the Great at the service of Rome

One of the first acts of Pelagius II is to persuade Gregory, former prefect of Rome withdrawn since 575 to the family monastery on the Caelian, to enter the direct service of the Roman Church. He makes him deacon and sends him as apocrisiarius — the pope's permanent representative to the emperor — to Constantinople at the end of 579.^[10]

The decision is momentous. Gregory is not yet pope; he would like to remain a monk. But Pelagius understands that Rome needs a man capable of speaking to the emperor, of reading political balances, of running a chancery, and of obtaining relief for an exposed city. Gregory's Constantinopolitan experience will directly prepare his own pontificate from 590 to 604.

The pope who looks to the Franks

Pelagius II calls on the Catholic Franks to relieve Rome against the Lombards.^[11][12] The appeal is not yet the Carolingian alliance of the 8th century, but it announces its logic: if the Byzantine empire can no longer protect Rome, the papacy seeks Western defenders capable of acting.

In his letter to Bishop Aunarius of Auxerre, Pelagius reads the Catholic faith of the Frankish kings as a providential disposition: God would have given these kings a geographical and doctrinal proximity to help Rome and Italy.^[13] The sentence is not only diplomatic; it shifts Christian geopolitics towards the West.

"For we do not believe that it is without reason, nor without an admirable disposition of divine Providence, that your kings share with the Roman Empire the confession of the orthodox faith: unless to give to this city, whence the faith had issued, and to the whole of Italy, neighbours and defenders." — Pelagius II, letter II to Aunarius of Auxerre, PL 72, col. 705 (article's translation)^[14]

The last pope before Gregory the Great

Pelagius II is the last pope before the immense figure of Gregory. This can make him appear as a mere transition. That is a mistake. Many Gregorian themes are already there: the defence of Rome against the Lombards, diplomacy with Constantinople, the administration of the poor, the schism of the Three Chapters, the contestation of the title of ecumenical patriarch, works in the Roman basilicas, the spiritual reading of catastrophes.

Gregory inherits a world prepared by Pelagius. He also inherits unresolved dossiers: the Lombards still threaten, Aquileia remains separated, Constantinople continues to use a title Rome judges dangerous, and Rome is barely emerging from a flood and a plague. Pelagius does not close the era; he concentrates its urgencies.

Table of witnesses

The documentation on Pelagius II is richer than that on Benedict I, but less narrative than that on Gregory the Great. It requires reading together three types of sources: Roman notices, pontifical letters and modern syntheses. The centre of the dossier is less a single doctrinal work than a series of crises: military, ecclesial, Roman and Eastern.

The Holy See: the firm chronology

The official Vatican sheet gives Pelagius II as 63rd pope, with the beginning of the pontificate on 26 November 579, end on 7 February 590, birth in Rome.^[15]

The Liber Pontificalis gives a duration of ten years, two months and ten days and mentions a vacancy of six months and twenty-five days after his death.^[16] The general agreement between the modern lists and the ancient notice makes the chronology solid.

The Liber Pontificalis: the birth certificate of a pontificate of crisis

The notice of the Liber Pontificalis runs to few lines, but it contains three major pieces of information. First, Pelagius is Roman, son of Unigild. Then, he is ordained without imperial commission because of the Lombard siege. Finally, he accomplishes several works of piety in Rome before dying and being buried at Saint Peter's.^[17]

"He was ordained without commission from the emperor, because the Lombards were besieging the city of Rome and causing much devastation in Italy." — Liber Pontificalis, notice on Pelagius II^[18]

The Loomis edition adds an important note: the siege of 579 is not mentioned by any other contemporary historian, but the letters of Pelagius confirm a climate of bloodshed, violated altars, insults to the Catholic faith, and extreme absence of defence around Rome.^[19]

The letters: the direct voice of Pelagius

The preserved letters of Pelagius II are indispensable because they show the pope in the act of governing. To Gregory, he writes to obtain from the emperor a military command capable of defending Rome. To Aunarius of Auxerre, he asks that the Frankish kings not ally with the Lombards and that they intervene to liberate the polluted sanctuaries. To the bishops of Aquileia and Istria, he tries to extinguish the schism of the Three Chapters by an appeal to unity, to the faith of Peter and to the first four councils.^[20][21][22]

These letters are not all of the same nature. The final reply to the bishops of Istria was drafted by the deacon Gregory in the name of Pelagius: an attribution transmitted by a tradition going back to Paul the Deacon, "often contested, but recently demonstrated" by Paul Meyvaert ("A letter of Pelagius II composed by Gregory the Great", in J. C. Cavadini (ed.), Gregory the Great: A Symposium, Notre Dame, 1995, pp. 94–116), according to Treccani.^[23] It must therefore be read as a letter from the chancery of Pelagius II, not as an autograph page of the pope; it remains a document of his pontifical policy, carried by his best collaborator.

Gregory of Tours: the catastrophe of 589–590

The end of the pontificate is known through the Liber Pontificalis, Gregory of Tours and the notes of Loomis. In autumn 589, the Tiber overflows violently. Gregory of Tours reports that ancient buildings are destroyed, that the granaries of the Church lose thousands of measures of grain, then that a plague called inguinaria breaks out in January 590, strikes Pelagius first and carries him off swiftly.^[24]

This end gives the pontificate its spiritual tone. Pelagius governed under the Lombard threat; he dies in a city flooded, starved, then plague-stricken. The election of Gregory the Great will be born immediately from this catastrophe.

Son of Unigild

The Liber Pontificalis calls the father of Pelagius Unigild — the spelling retained by Duchesne (vol. I, p. 309: de patre Unigildo; manuscript variants Winnigildo, Winigildo). Horace K. Mann (Catholic Encyclopedia, 1911) gives Winigild and writes "of Gothic descent"; Treccani writes Vinigildo, "forse d'origine gota" (perhaps of Gothic origin).^[25][26][27] Pelagius is therefore Roman, but his family name suggests a Gothic ancestry — affirmed by Mann, only possible according to Treccani.

This detail is not anecdotal. In the 6th century, Rome has barely emerged from a long century of dealings with the Goths: Ostrogothic government, war of reconquest, pontifical depositions, famine, sieges, compromises and suspicions. A Roman pope of possible Gothic ancestry embodies this mixed Italy, where ethnic and ecclesial identities intersect without merging.

An almost unknown past

Treccani is clear: no certain information exists on Pelagius before his election as bishop of Rome.^[28] Unlike Pelagius I, who was deacon, apocrisiarius and a major actor of the Gothic War, Pelagius II enters the sources at the moment he becomes pope.

No earlier career can be reconstructed: he very probably belonged to the Roman clergy or to the ecclesial entourage capable of being elected in a city the Liber Pontificalis presents as besieged. His personality is revealed by his acts as pope: diplomacy, relief, doctrinal unity, Roman government.

The death of Benedict I and the vacancy

Benedict I dies on 30 July 579 amid famine and the Lombard crisis — a date confirmed by the Holy See sheet (end of pontificate 30.VII.579).^[29][30] The see remains vacant for nearly four months. Pelagius is consecrated on 26 November 579, while Rome is still in a military situation so grave that imperial approval cannot be awaited.^[31]

The contrast with Benedict is instructive. Benedict had already waited almost eleven months for imperial confirmation after the death of John III. Pelagius, for his part, can no longer wait at all. This is not yet a theory of independence; it is a pastoral necessity.

The consecration without imperial order

In the Byzantine political order, the papal election remained tied to the emperor. Rome is not an independent kingdom; it still depends on the Eastern Empire and its imperial representatives at Ravenna (the title of exarch appears only around 584). But the Lombards block the roads and ravage Italy. The Liber Pontificalis therefore attributes the apparent irregularity to urgency.^[32]

This fact will have consequences. Once Pelagius is consecrated, the situation must be explained to Constantinople. Horace K. Mann (Catholic Encyclopedia, 1911) reports that an embassy, in which Gregory was probably included, leaves to give the reasons for the election and ask for relief.^[33] The papacy does not defy the emperor out of pride; it tells him in substance: Rome had to have a shepherd.

The Latin formula itself calls for caution: Hic ordinatur absque iussione principis is the reading retained by Duchesne, but the manuscript transmission is not uniform. The certain fact is therefore a consecration without the imperial order on account of the siege — without making it an attested "first" case.^[34]

The Lombards temporarily withdraw

Horace K. Mann (Catholic Encyclopedia, 1911) suggests that the words of the new pope, and no doubt also pontifical and imperial money, contributed to moving the Lombards away from the immediate surroundings of Rome.^[35] The sources do not allow a precise reconstruction of the negotiation. But they show a constant: Pelagius must buy time.

Buying time is not vain. This pause makes it possible to send Gregory to Constantinople, to open the Frankish dossier, then later to resume ecclesial affairs. In a fragmented Italy, a truce of a few years can save a city.

An Italy without sufficient protector

Since the Lombard invasion of 568, Byzantine Italy is no longer a continuous territory. Ravenna, Rome, Naples and certain coastal zones remain imperial; the interior and the north are largely dominated by the Lombards. Under Pelagius II, the question is no longer theoretical: Rome lacks local defence.

The letter to Gregory is the most direct text. Pelagius explains that the Lombards have violated their oaths, that the misfortunes and tribulations are so numerous they cannot be fully reported, and that the Roman regions seem almost deprived of all protection.^[36]

"The Roman regions above all appear stripped of all defence." — Pelagius II, letter I to the deacon Gregory, PL 72, col. 703-704 (article's translation)^[37]

Decius, Smaragdus and the birth of the exarchate

Horace K. Mann (Catholic Encyclopedia, 1911) indicates that Emperor Maurice sends around 584 a new representative to Italy with the title of exarch, combining civil and military authority, but with insufficient forces — the first appearance of the title, which Pelagius himself uses in his letter of 4 October 584 ("Et Exarchus scribit").^[38][39] Treccani specifies that Pelagius writes through the notary Honoratus and Bishop Sebastian to Gregory: the patrician Decius, imperial representative in Italy, acknowledges that he cannot defend Rome; Pelagius then asks for the sending of a master of soldiers (magister militum) and a duke (dux) for the Roman region.^[40]

In 585, after unsuccessful military attempts, the exarch Smaragdus concludes a three-year truce with the Lombard king Authari.^[41] This truce does not settle the Lombard question. It only gives enough peace for Pelagius to deal with the ecclesial dossiers.

The pastoral language of a military supplication

What strikes in the letter to Gregory is the interweaving of political and spiritual vocabulary. Pelagius asks for a commander and a duke; he speaks of the State, of the Roman region, of the exarch, of the places still held by the Empire. But he begins and ends with God: God must inspire the prince's heart; God must command the emperor to relieve Rome.^[42]

The pope is not a general. He has no sufficient army. But he carries before God and before the emperor the distress of a Christian people. This posture will become typical of Gregory the Great: praying, negotiating, administering, supplicating, paying, holding firm.

Aunarius of Auxerre as intermediary

Around 580 or 581, Pelagius writes to Aunarius, bishop of Auxerre, who enjoys influence with the Frankish kings.^[43] He also sends him relics, destined for the bishop and for King Childebert II according to Treccani.^[44]

The mechanism is very concrete: Rome does not speak only to kings; it speaks to a bishop capable of speaking to kings. Pontifical diplomacy passes through episcopal communion. The military appeal is wrapped in an exchange of relics, prayer and charity.

The Franks as providential neighbours

In this letter, Pelagius reproaches Aunarius for not sharing enough in the Roman tribulations. If Auxerre honours Rome as the apostolic see, it must also groan with Rome in its temporal distress.^[45] The pope cites the Pauline logic: bearing one another's burdens, burning when a brother burns.

The decisive sentence is that of Providence. The Frankish kings profess the orthodox faith like the Roman Empire; Pelagius sees in this a disposition willed by God so that these neighbours may relieve the city whence their faith received its origin.^[46]

A limited military success

The Franks end up attacking the Lombards in Italy, whether under the effect of the prayers of Pelagius or under the effect of imperial diplomacy and subsidies, according to the synthesis of Mann (Catholic Encyclopedia, 1911).^[47] But their zeal is quickly exhausted: the Lombards buy them off or divert them, and the Franks withdraw.

The immediate result is therefore weak. The historical result is considerable. Pelagius introduces into pontifical practice an idea destined to grow: the Catholic peoples of the West can have a responsibility towards Rome when the Empire no longer suffices.

From the monastery on the Caelian to the pontifical chancery

Gregory had left public life around 575 to turn his family house on the Caelian into a monastery. Pelagius brings him back into active service: he persuades him to enter the Roman clergy, makes him deacon and sends him to Constantinople.^[48]

This return is not a simple promotion. For Gregory, it is a sacrifice of monastic peace. For Pelagius, it is a necessity. The crisis obliges the pope to mobilize the best men, even those who would have preferred to remain hidden.

The apocrisiarius in Constantinople

As the pope's permanent representative to the emperor, Gregory must solicit imperial help. Horace K. Mann (Catholic Encyclopedia, 1911) formulates his mission forcefully: he must almost haunt the imperial palace, never leave it, and make every effort to obtain relief.^[49] The formula is old, but it renders the pressure well. Rome does not need a decorative ambassador; it needs a permanent suppliant.

The experience is formative. Gregory discovers Byzantine slowness, Eastern priorities, the war against the Persians, the little relief available for Italy. When he becomes pope, he will know from experience that Constantinople can be pious and yet insufficient.

Gregory's return and his role in the Istrian dossier

Around 585 or 586, Pelagius recalls Gregory to Rome, while continuing to use him as counsellor.^[50] It is in this context that Gregory drafts, in the name of Pelagius, the great letter to the bishops of Aquileia and Istria on the Three Chapters: an attribution transmitted by a tradition going back to Paul the Deacon, "often contested, but recently demonstrated" by Paul Meyvaert ("A letter of Pelagius II composed by Gregory the Great", in J. C. Cavadini (ed.), Gregory the Great: A Symposium, Notre Dame, 1995, pp. 94–116), according to Treccani.^[51]

This collaboration explains the continuity between Pelagius and Gregory. When Gregory becomes pope, he will not start from zero. He will carry the dossiers he has already written, followed, suffered and prayed over under Pelagius.

An old schism blocking the unity of the North

The schism of the Three Chapters is born of the reception of the Second Council of Constantinople (553). Certain Churches of northern Italy, notably Aquileia, Venetia and Istria, refuse the condemnation of dossiers linked to Theodore of Mopsuestia, Theodoret of Cyrus and Ibas of Edessa, which they believe must be defended to preserve Chalcedon.^[52][53]

Under Pelagius II, the schism has lasted for more than twenty years. Treccani notes that the Churches concerned have been separated from Rome for three generations of bishops, grouped around the patriarch of Aquileia.^[54] The dossier is therefore not a recent quarrel; it is an established fracture.

A first very cautious letter

Taking advantage of the truce with the Lombards, Pelagius sends Bishop Redemptus of Ferentino and the Roman abbot Quodvultdeus with a letter to Elias of Aquileia and his supporters.^[55] Treccani stresses the moderation of the text: it mentions neither the Three Chapters nor the word "schism", does not ask the bishop of Aquileia to leave his see, and does not explicitly demand a condemnation of the Three Chapters.^[56]

The method is pastoral. Pelagius first tries to restore unity by reaffirming the common faith: the apostles, Nicaea, Constantinople I, Ephesus, Chalcedon. He even omits Constantinople II from this first profession so as not to shut the door at once.^[57]

The faith of Peter as an argument for unity

In the letter to the bishops of Istria, Pelagius invokes Luke 22, John 21 and Matthew 16: Christ prayed for Peter that his faith might not fail (Luke 22), entrusted him with the charge of feeding his sheep — pascendarum ovium sollicitudo commissa est (John 21) —, gave him the keys and promised to build his Church upon him (Matthew 16).^[58]

"The truth could not lie, and the faith of Peter will never be shaken nor changed for eternity." — Pelagius II, first letter to Elias and the bishops of Istria^[59]

This sentence must be read in its context. Pelagius does not use it to avoid doctrinal discussion; he uses it to recall that communion with Rome is not a diplomatic accident. If the faith of Chalcedon is truly common, separation cannot become a parallel Church.

The failure of reconciliation

Aquileia's answer is uncompromising: it demands the annulment of the condemnation of the Three Chapters.^[60] Pelagius then answers by shifting the discussion to the general problem of schism, mobilizing Augustinian anti-Donatist arguments, then proposing the sending of legates to Rome or a council at Ravenna under the exarch's protection.^[61]

The result is a failure. After several refusals, Pelagius changes policy and asks the exarch Smaragdus for military intervention. This provokes resistance and resolves nothing durably. At the death of Pelagius, no substantial progress has been made in reconciling the supporters of the Three Chapters.^[62]

John IV the Faster and an explosive title

After 587, relations with Constantinople deteriorate around Patriarch John IV the Faster. Synodal acts of Constantinople employ for him the title of ecumenical patriarch. Pelagius judges this appellation proud, deadly and pernicious, annuls part of the acts and orders his apocrisiarius to refuse communion to the patriarch until he renounces the title.^[63] The dossier continues in Gregory's Registrum (5, 39, 41 and 44; 9, 157, Norberg ed.), as indicated by Treccani.

The quarrel may seem nominal. It is not. For Rome, a title suggesting universal jurisdiction or a superiority of Constantinople threatens the balance of communion. Pelagius does not contest the importance of Constantinople; he refuses that a patriarchate recent in the apostolic order adopt a title that obscures the place of the See of Peter.

A dossier handed on to Gregory

The protest of Pelagius will be taken up with more energy by his former secretary, Gregory.^[64][65]

The dossier will remain open after the death of Pelagius. Under Gregory, it will become famous: it is John the Deacon (9th century, Vita Gregorii, PL 75, 87) who links to the title taken by John the Faster Gregory's answer by the humble expression of servant of the servants of God — a formula Gregory was already using in April 591, indeed as early as 587 (Catholic Encyclopedia, "Servus servorum Dei").^[66] But the first Roman protest against the title belongs to Pelagius II.

The Churches of Africa and the customs of Numidia

Treccani reports that in 585 or in the neighbouring years, Pelagius receives through Hilary, chartularius (officer of the pontifical chancery), a petition from the bishops of Numidia asking confirmation of their old provincial customs, notably for the procedures of access to the episcopate.^[67] Pelagius answers favourably (the dossier continues in Gregory's Registrum, 1, 75, Norberg ed.).

This detail shows that, even encircled by the Lombards, Rome remains consulted by Christian Africa. Roman authority is not only local; it is the recourse of the provinces that wish to confirm an ancient discipline.

The discipline of Sicilian subdeacons

In 588, Pelagius extends to Sicily the Roman discipline according to which already married subdeacons must separate from their wives or renounce the ministry.^[68] Horace K. Mann (Catholic Encyclopedia, 1911) adds that Gregory the Great will judge this rule too strict and will modify it partially (cf. Gregory's Registrum, 4, 34, Norberg ed.).^[69]

The episode is interesting for two reasons. It shows a Roman will to unify clerical discipline; it also shows that pontifical authority can be pastorally corrected by a successor without denying the principle. Gregory does not annul the concern for clerical continence; he adjusts its application.

Honoratus of Salona

Towards the end of the pontificate, Pelagius receives the complaint of a cleric of Salona named Honoratus: his bishop Natalis would like to consecrate him priest to remove him from the episcopal succession.^[70] Pelagius forbids promoting a cleric against his will and orders a careful inquiry, which has not yet begun at the time of his death (the dossier continues in Gregory's Registrum, 2, 17-19, Norberg ed.).

The dossier seems technical, but it manifests an essential function of Rome: protecting the canonical freedom of a cleric and preventing an ordination from being used as a manoeuvre of local power.

The house turned into a hospice

The Liber Pontificalis reports that Pelagius made his own house a hospice for aged poor.^[71] Treccani specifies that he turned his house into a hospice for the poor, and also mentions the validation of the will of a priest John who founded an oratory and a monastic community near the Baths of Agrippa.^[72]

The fact is spiritually strong. Pelagius did not only ask others to relieve Rome; he committed his own goods. In a city threatened by war, hunger, flood and plague, the pontifical house becomes a place of welcome.

Saint Peter's: silver, ambo and sacred terror

The Liber Pontificalis says that Pelagius covered the body of Saint Peter with gilded silver plates.^[73] Loomis specifies that the formula must probably be understood as an intervention on the decoration or furnishings of the confessio rather than a direct handling of the apostle's deep tomb.^[74]

The fact is attested by Gregory the Great himself: in a letter of his Registrum (IV, 30; PL 77, col. 701), he reports that, when his predecessor wished to change the silver situated above the body of Saint Peter, about fifteen feet from the tomb, "a sign of great terror appeared to him" (signum ei non parvi terroris apparuit; cf. Duchesne, vol. I, p. 310, n. 3).^[75] Around the apostolic tomb, embellishment itself remains a fearful act.

The notice also associates with the pontificate a dedicated ambo whose inscription names "Iulianus praepositus secundicerius" (Duchesne, vol. I, p. 310, n. 3; Treccani).^[76]

Saint Hermes and Saint Lawrence Outside the Walls

Pelagius also builds or restores the cemetery of Saint Hermes on the Via Salaria Vetus and builds from the foundations a basilica over the body of Saint Lawrence, embellishing his sepulchre with silver plates.^[77] Treccani confirms the works at the catacomb of Bassilla for Saint Hermes, as well as the construction of a new church near the Constantinian basilica of Saint Lawrence.^[78]

The mosaic of the apsidal arch of Saint Lawrence Outside the Walls still preserves the visual memory of Pelagius: the pope, without halo, offers the model of the church to Christ in majesty surrounded by the saints.^[79] It is one of the rare monumental images allowing us to see a pope of this period in a preserved Roman programme.

The great flood of the Tiber

In autumn 589, Italy experiences catastrophic flooding. The Liber Pontificalis speaks of rains so heavy that all said the waters of the deluge had overflowed.^[80] Gregory of Tours gives a more precise account: the Tiber covers Rome, destroys ancient buildings and damages the storehouses of the Church where thousands of measures of grain are lost.^[81]

For Rome, the loss of the ecclesial granaries is dramatic. In a city already weakened by the Lombards, the Church's grain is not only a reserve; it is the material basis of charity. The flood thus strikes at once the stones, the food and the capacity for assistance.

The inguinal plague

The flood is followed by a plague. The Liber Pontificalis evokes a clades, a frightening calamity ("talis cladis fuit qualis a seculo nullus meminit fuisse", Duchesne, vol. I, p. 309); Gregory of Tours speaks of a disease called inguinaria, which breaks out in January 590, strikes Pelagius first and then causes great mortality among the people.^[82][83]

The pope dies on 7 February 590 and is buried at Saint Peter's.^[84][85][86] His epitaph is lost.^[87] The city finds itself without a pope amid fear, disease and penance.

The transition to Gregory

After the death of Pelagius, Rome elects Gregory. The new pope will inherit a city traumatized by flood and plague. The penitential procession ordered by Gregory in plague-stricken Rome is reported by Gregory of Tours (History of the Franks, X, 1)^[88]; the image of the archangel sheathing his sword above the Mausoleum of Hadrian belongs to a later tradition, reported in the 13th century by Jacobus de Voragine in the Legenda aurea.^[89]

Pelagius thus disappears on the threshold of one of the most important pontificates in history. But this threshold is not empty: he prepared the man, the dossiers, the urgencies and the institutions that Gregory will bring to maturity.

Is the siege of Rome in 579 certain?

The Liber Pontificalis affirms that Pelagius was ordained without imperial commission because the Lombards were besieging Rome.^[90] Loomis notes that this siege is not mentioned by any other contemporary historian.^[91] A detailed siege, with precise dates and military movements, therefore cannot be reconstructed.

But the context is sufficiently confirmed: the letters of Pelagius describe bloodshed, violated altars, insults to the Catholic faith, Roman regions without defence, an impotent exarch, threat to the places still held by the Empire.^[92][93] The assured balance is this: the Liber Pontificalis speaks of a siege ("secondo il Liber pontificalis", Treccani); the letters confirm extreme Lombard pressure around Rome.

Is Pelagius II the first pope to call on the Franks?

The appeal of Pelagius to the Catholic Franks is an established fact: his letter of 5 October 580 or 581 to Aunarius asks the Frankish kings to relieve Rome against the Lombards, and Mann (Catholic Encyclopedia, 1911) summarizes its content.^[94][95] The anteriority of this appeal over any other papal appeal to the Franks is not established: the sources attest the appeal itself, not a record.

This is not yet a stable alliance between papacy and Frankish royalty. The Frankish expeditions are limited and disappointing. But the principle is laid down: the Catholic West can become a recourse for Rome when the imperial East is absorbed elsewhere.

Did Pelagius II fail?

Militarily, he does not obtain decisive imperial relief. Diplomatically, the Frankish intervention is limited. Ecclesially, the schism of Aquileia continues. Constantinople does not durably renounce its ambitions of title. From this angle, Pelagius seems to fail.

But the assessment must be fairer. He maintains Rome with very little means, gives Gregory his political and diplomatic formation, lays the Western milestone of the appeal to the Franks, pursues Roman charity, leaves basilicas, and transmits to his successor a Church tested but standing. In the history of the Church, keeping the bark afloat during the storm is sometimes the decisive work.

A pope eclipsed by his successor

Pelagius II suffers from being placed just before Gregory the Great. Historians readily tell his life as a prologue: Gregory the deacon, Gregory the apocrisiarius, Gregory the counsellor, Gregory elected after the plague. Yet the prologue is already a history.

Without Pelagius, Gregory would not have received the same formation. Without the letters of Pelagius, we would not see so clearly the anguish of Rome before 590. Without his protest against the ecumenical title, the Gregorian quarrel would appear without immediate root.

The papacy between Empire and West

The deepest legacy of Pelagius II is geopolitical. He remains loyal to the Empire, asks for the relief of Constantinople, works with the exarch. But he also turns his eyes towards the Franks. This double orientation announces the whole pontifical Middle Ages: Rome remains Roman, apostolic and universal, but it learns to seek in the West the supports the East can no longer provide.

Roman charity as a sign of authority

Turning his house into a hospice, repairing Saint Lawrence, embellishing Saint Peter's, building for Saint Hermes: these gestures are not secondary. They show that pontifical authority manifests itself in visible, liturgical and charitable works. The pope does not only protect a jurisdiction; he protects the poor, the relics, the sanctuaries, a memory and a city.

Pelagius II is a pope of threshold. He is consecrated without imperial approval because Rome is threatened; he sends Gregory to Constantinople because the Empire remains necessary; he calls on the Franks because the Empire no longer suffices; he writes to Aquileia because the common faith is wounded; he protests against Constantinople because unity cannot be bought with ambiguities; he opens his house to the poor because the city suffers.

His pontificate leaves no great dogmatic definition. It leaves something better than a formula: the portrait of a papacy obliged to become concretely the mother of Rome. In the years 579–590, Peter does not speak from imperial security. He speaks from a city the Liber Pontificalis presents as besieged, then flooded and sick, and yet still capable of sending Gregory the Great to history.

Related articles

• Pope Benedict I
• Pope Pelagius I
• Saint Gregory the Great
• Second Council of Constantinople
• The Papal States

Principal sources

• Holy See, official sheet Pelagio II.
• Liber Pontificalis, notice on Pelagius II, ed. Louis Duchesne; trans. Louise Ropes Loomis, The Book of the Popes.
• Pelagius II, letters to Gregory, Aunarius and the bishops of Istria, PL 72 / Latin Wikisource.
• Gregory of Tours, History of the Franks, book X, chap. 1, on the flood of the Tiber, the plague and the death of Pelagius.
• Claire Sotinel, article Pelagio II, papa, Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, Treccani, 2015.
• Horace K. Mann, "Pelagius II", Catholic Encyclopedia, 1911, New Advent transcription.