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Pope Constantine

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Pope
Constantine
Bishop of Rome
Church Catholic Church
Papacy began 25 March 708
Papacy ended 9 April 715
Predecessor Sisinnius
Successor Gregory II
Personal details
Born 664
Tyre, Jund al-Urdunn, Bilad al-Sham, Umayyad Caliphate
Died 9 April 715 (aged 50–51)
Rome

Pope Constantine (Latin: Constantinus; 664 – 9 April 715) was the bishop of Rome from 25 March 708 to his death on 9 April 715.[1] One of the last popes of the Byzantine Papacy, the defining moment of his pontificate was his 710/711 visit to Constantinople, where he compromised with Justinian II on the Trullan canons of the Quinisext Council. The city's next papal visit occurred in 1967.

Upbringing

Constantine was born in 664 in Tyre in the Umayyad Caliphate (now in Lebanon),[2] and he was of Greek descent.[3] Fluent in the Greek language, he immersed in Eastern rituals and practices.[4] By his upbringing, he would have been "fully at ease in the oriental milieu of the early-eighth-century Byzantine court".[4] Except for Antipope Constantine, he was the only pope to bear such a "quintessentially" Eastern name of an emperor.[5]

Before his selection as pope, he had visited Constantinople twice.[4] He was one of the papal legates to the Third Council of Constantinople in 680/681.[4] He also delivered a combative letter from Pope Leo II to Emperor Constantine IV in 682.[4] He met and developed a rapport with Constantine IV's son Justinian II on both occasions.[4]

Pontificate

Constantine's predecessor, Sisinnius, was pope for only twenty days.[6][7] Constantine became pope in March 708, less than two months later.[6] He was one of the many Greek popes of the Byzantine Papacy, the period during which Rome was under the rule of the Byzantine Empire and popes required the approval of the emperor for consecration as pope. The defining issue of the papacy at the time of Constantine's election was the Western rejection of the Trullan canons of the Quinisext Council.[8] Pope John VII had been sent the canons for approval and instead had sent them back, "without any emendations at all".[8] John VII's predecessor, Sergius I, had declared that he would rather die than subscribe to the council.[8]

Visit to Constantinople

In 710, Emperor Justinian II demanded in a iussio that Pope Constantine appear before him in Constantinople.[9] The imperial mandate made it "obvious that the relentless emperor meant to settle once and for all the issue of Rome's acceptance of the Trullan decrees".[5] Unlike his predecessors, Constantine neither delayed nor made excuses to avoid appearing in the imperial city; in fact, he "identified with Byzantium as perhaps no Roman pontiff before him ever had".[5] Prior to Constantine's departure, Justinian had blinded Archbishop Felix of Ravenna for plotting to overthrow him, an act that had improved the papal-Byzantine rapport.[4] His primary motivation for the trip was to forestall a rift between Rome and Constantinople over the Trullan decrees.[4]

Constantine departed on 5 October 710.[4] In Constantinople, Constantine stayed in the Placidia Palace, which had formerly been occupied by Pope Vigilius in 547, the representatives of Popes Martin I and Agatho (while attending the Third Council of Constantinople).[10] Eleven of Constantine's thirteen companions who can be identified by name (two bishops, three priests, and all the ranking members of the papal chancellery and household) were also of Eastern extraction.[11] Also accompanying Constantine was the future Pope Gregory II, then a deacon, and another Latin subdeacon Julian.[11] Constantine specifically chose attendants who were "cut from similar cloth" as he, and likely to be sympathetic to the East.[4]

While stopping in transit in Naples, Constantine crossed paths with the exarch of Ravenna, John III Rizocopo, then on his way to Rome to execute four high-ranking papal officials by cutting their throats.[4] The four (as evidenced by their staying behind) were opposed to Constantine's new policy of rapprochement with Constantinople.[4] Doubtlessly, Constantine himself learned of the exarch's errand before departing for Sicily, then Gallipoli, and then Otranto, where the group stayed for winter.[4] In the spring, Constantine crossed the Ionian Sea, meeting the strategos of the imperial fleet on the island of Chios and was received by the Karabisianoi before proceeding to Constantinople.[4]

Constantine entered Constantinople on a "horse caparisoned with gilded saddle clothes and golden bridles and bearing on his head the kamelaukion, or diadem, which the sovereign alone was authorized to wear and then only on 'a great public festival of the Lord'".[4] Justinian II's son and co-emperor Tiberius, along with Patriarch Kyros, senators, nobles, clerics, and many others, greeted Constantine at the seventh milestone from the city in the style of an imperial adventus.[12] Justinian II was in Nicaea at the time and urged the pontiff to meet him in Nicomedia.[12] The Liber pontificalis recounts a bizarre scene of the crowned emperor prostrating himself before the pope, but a more mutual greeting is probable.[12] That Sunday, Justinian II received communion from the hands of the pope and issued a vague confirmation of the various privileges of the Roman See.[12]

The negotiations regarding the Trullan canons were conducted by the future Pope Gregory II. A degree of compromise (the "so-called Compromise of Nicomedia")—which "diplomatically skirted" the actual issue of their acceptance—was reached.[12] While Constantine made concessions regarding the economia, he did not give ground on the vast majority of the Roman grievances.[12] The agreement was more designed to secure East–West political unity than resolve any doctrinal dispute.[12] The fact of Constantine's having been summoned to Constantinople was the real proof that the "imperial writ still ran in Rome".[12] Constantine left Constantinople in October 711. He was the last pope to visit the city until Paul VI did in 1967.[13][14]

Rejection of monothelitism

Justinian II was killed by his mutinous troops in November 711, shortly after Constantine's return to Rome. The new emperor, Philippicus, was an adherent of monothelitism, and rejected the arrangements of the Third Council of Constantinople. He demanded Constantine's support of the view that Christ had only one will. In 712, Constantine rejected Philippicus' demand to revive monothelitism. He further refused to receive an imperial portrait or coins with the emperor's image and also refused to commemorate the emperor in Mass.[8]

As the exarch attempted to enforce the imperial presence, clashes occurred, which Constantine calmed. Philippicus was overthrown in June 713 and his successor, Anastasius II, sent Exarch Scholasticus and a letter to the pope affirming imperial support for the Sixth General Council.

Death

Upon his death in Rome on 9 April 715, Constantine was succeeded by Pope Gregory II.[15]

From the 1913 Catholic Encyclopedia

Pope Constantine — Consecrated 25 March, 708; d. 9 April, 715; a Syrian, the son of John, and "a remarkably affable man". The first half of his reign was marked by a cruel famine in Rome, the second by an extraordinary abundance. For some time he had trouble with Felix, Archbishop of Ravenna, whom he had himself consecrated. Relying on the secular power, the new bishop refused to offer the pope due obedience. It was only after he had tasted of dire misfortune that Felix submitted. Constantine received as pilgrims two Anglo-Saxon kings, Coenred of Mercia and Offa of the East Saxons. They both received the tonsure in Rome and embraced the monastic life. (Bede, Hist. eccl., V, xix, xx.) St. Egwin, Bishop of Worcester, went to Rome along with them and obtained from the pope various privileges for his monastery of Evesham. ("Chron. Abbat. de Evesham", in R. S.; "St. Egwin and his Abbey of Evesham", London, 1904.) The extant documents regarding this monastery which bear this pope's name are all spurious. (They are to be found in Haddan and Stubbs, "Councils", III, 281.) But his privilege for the monasteries of Bermondsey and Woking (ibid., 276) may be genuine.

In 692 the Emperor Justinian II had caused to assemble the so-called Quinisext or Trullan Council. At this assembly, which was attended only by Greek bishops, 102 canons were passed, many of which established customs opposed to those of Rome. By canon xiii the celibacy of the Greek secular clergy became a thing of the past; and by canon xxxvi, a further step was taken in the direction of rendering the Patriarch of constantinople quite independent of the Holy See. Justinian made every effort to secure the adhesion of the popes to these decrees. But one after another they all refused. At length he sent an order to Constantine to repair to Constantinople. Leaving behind him, according to the custom at the time, the archpriest, the archdeacon, and the Primicerius, or chief of the notaries, to govern the Church in his absence, he set sail for the East (709) with a number of bishops and clergy. Wherever his vessel touched, he was, by Justinian's orders, received with as much honour as the emperor himself. He entered Constantinople in triumph, and at Justinian's request crossed over to Nicomedia, where he was then residing. Strange to say, this cruel prince received the pope with the greatest honour, prostrating himself before him and kissing his feet. After receiving Holy Communion at the hands of the pope, he renewed all the privileges of the Roman Church. Exactly what passed between them on the subject of the Quinisext Council is not known. It would appear, however, that Constantine approved those canons which were not opposed to the true Faith or to sound morals, and that with this qualified approval of his council the emperor was content.

Soon after Constantine's return to Rome (Oct., 711), Justinian II was dethroned by Philippicus Bardanes. The new emperor strove to revive Monothelism, and sent a letter to the pope which the latter caused to be examined in a synod and condemned. Further, as the emperor burnt the Acts of the Sixth General Council, restored to the diptychs the names which that council had caused to be erased, re-erected their images, and removed the representation of the council which was hanging in front of the palace, the pope and the people of Rome placed in the portico of St. Peter's a series of representations of the six general councils, and refused to place the new emperor's name on their charters or their money. They also declined to place his statue, according to custom, in the official chapel of St. Cæsarius on the Palatine, the site of which has just been discovered (1907), or to pray for him in the Canon of the Mass. To punish the Romans for these daring measures, a new duke was sent to Rome, and they would no doubt have had much to suffer but for the opportune deposition of Philippicus by the orthodox Anastasius (Whitsun Eve, 713). The new emperor made haste to dispatch to Rome, through the Exarch Scholasticus, a letter in which he professed his orthodoxy and his adhesion to the Sixth General Council, which had condemned Monothelism. Constantine also received a letter from John, the Patriarch of Constantinople, acknowledging that the "apostolical pre-eminence of the Pope is to the whole Church, what the head is to the body", and that "according to the canons he is the head of the Christian priesthood". John assured the pope that, while co-operating with the Emperor Philippicus, he had always been orthodox at heart, and that the decree, drawn up at the council in which the heretical emperor had hoped to re-establish Monothelism (712), was really orthodox in sense, although not apparently so in words. (See John's letter in the epilogue of the Deacon Agatho, in Mansi, "Coll. Conc.", XII, 192.)

Among other distinguished men who came to Rome in the days of Constantine was Benedict, Archbishop of Milan. He came not only to pray at the shrines of the Apostles, for he was a man of such remarkable holiness that he was distinguished for it in all Italy (Paul the Deacon, Hist., VI, xxix), but also to discuss with the pope as to whose immediate jurisdiction belonged the Church of Pavia. At one time, certainly in the fifth century, the bishops of Pavia were subject to the bishops of Milan and were consecrated by them. For some reason, perhaps because the Lombards made Pavia their capital, its bishops had ceased to be dependent on those of Milan, and had become directly subject to the popes. Accordingly, when it had been proved to Benedict that for some long time at least they had been consecrated at Rome, he definitely surrendered his claim to jurisdiction over them. The visit of a pope to a city at any distance from Rome being so comparatively rare, the people of several places at which Constantine touched in his journey to and from Constantinople were only too pleased to be able to avail themselves of the opportunity of getting him to consecrate a bishop for them. It is on record that he consecrated twelve in this way, and, at the customary times and places, no less than sixty-four.

Lib. pontificalis, ed. Duchesne, 389; Mann, Lives of the Popes (London, St. Louis, 1902), I, pt. II, 127 sqq.

References

  1. Back to citation Herbermann, Charles, ed. (1913). "Pope Constantine". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
  2. Back to citation "The five Syrian popes". Aleteia.org. 18 September 2021. Retrieved 19 April 2022.
  3. Back to citation Spyropoulos, Evangelos (2008). Two Nations on Wheels: Greeks and Poles at the Crossroads: a Millennial History. East European Monographs. p. 603. ISBN 978-0-88033-618-5. “Pope Constantine, of Greek descent, stayed for several months in Byzantium.”
  4. Back to citation occurrence 4.00 Back to citation occurrence 4.01 Back to citation occurrence 4.02 Back to citation occurrence 4.03 Back to citation occurrence 4.04 Back to citation occurrence 4.05 Back to citation occurrence 4.06 Back to citation occurrence 4.07 Back to citation occurrence 4.08 Back to citation occurrence 4.09 Back to citation occurrence 4.10 Back to citation occurrence 4.11 Back to citation occurrence 4.12 Back to citation occurrence 4.13 Back to citation occurrence 4.14 Ekonomou 2007, p. 271
  5. Back to citation occurrence 5.0 Back to citation occurrence 5.1 Back to citation occurrence 5.2 Ekonomou 2007, p. 270
  6. Back to citation occurrence 6.0 Back to citation occurrence 6.1 Ekonomou 2007, p. 246
  7. Back to citation Williams, George L. 2004. Papal Genealogy: The Families and Descendants of the Popes. McFarland. ISBN 0-7864-2071-5. p. 10.
  8. Back to citation occurrence 8.0 Back to citation occurrence 8.1 Back to citation occurrence 8.2 Back to citation occurrence 8.3 Ekonomou 2007, p. 247
  9. Back to citation Ekonomou 2007, p. 269
  10. Back to citation Ekonomou 2007, p. 30
  11. Back to citation occurrence 11.0 Back to citation occurrence 11.1 Ekonomou 2007, p. 245
  12. Back to citation occurrence 12.0 Back to citation occurrence 12.1 Back to citation occurrence 12.2 Back to citation occurrence 12.3 Back to citation occurrence 12.4 Back to citation occurrence 12.5 Back to citation occurrence 12.6 Back to citation occurrence 12.7 Ekonomou 2007, p. 272
  13. Back to citation Fiske, Edward B (26 July 1967), "Papal Pilgrimage Is Viewed as a Major Step Toward Reunion", The New York Times: 2
  14. Back to citation "Pope holds Mass at ancient Christian site in Turkey", USA Today, 29 November 2006, retrieved 9 September 2009
  15. Back to citation "Constantine/Pope". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 29 July 2016.

Bibliography

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