Johannes II. of Ravenna

ON ST. JOHN II, BISHOP OF RAVENNA.

Around the year 500.

John II, Bishop of Ravenna (St.)

[1] Three bishops of Ravenna named John are recorded by Hieronymus Rubeus as having been honored by the Church with public veneration. The first, surnamed Angeloptes, that is, "he who saw an Angel," Three St. Johns, Bishops of Ravenna. was the predecessor of St. Peter Chrysologus; Rubeus himself says he departed this life on the 7th of July, while Ferrarius gives the 21st of November. The second is celebrated in the Roman Martyrology on the 12th of January, in agreement with Rubeus; Ferrarius lists him under the 21st of November and confuses him with Angeloptes. Besides these, a certain John, it is not quite clear which in sequence, left the episcopate and embraced the eremitical life, and is venerated in the territory of Arezzo. Rubeus maintains that his feast day belongs to the 21st of November.

[2] Concerning the second, therefore, the Roman Martyrology and Galesinius record on this day: "At Ravenna, St. John, Bishop and Confessor." Baronius and Galesinius testify that his life was written by Desiderius, a citizen of Ravenna. The feast of the second. He appears to be the one about whom Leander Albertus says in his work on Romanula: "This city (Ravenna) also produced Desiderius Spretus, a writer of our own times not to be despised, Life. as is evident from his books on the greatness, the devastation, and the restoration of the city of Ravenna." But since we have not yet seen that life, we shall give what Rubeus relates about him in books 2 and 3 of the History of Ravenna. He cites Gervasius Ricobaldus of Ferrara, a Canon of the Church of Ravenna, who lived around the year of Christ 1300 and compiled a historical work divided into six parts, which he also entitled Pomerium. Rubeus testifies that a manuscript of this is preserved in the Vatican Library; and Vossius says it is also in the library of Petrus Scriverius among the Dutch.

LIFE

FROM HIERONYMUS RUBEUS, books 2 and 3.

John II, Bishop of Ravenna (St.)

From Hieronymus Rubeus.

[1] When Neo, the bishop of the Church of Ravenna, died (while Leo the Great was still Pope), John, the second of this name, succeeded him in the archbishopric. He was beset on every side, both by the universal calamity of the times and by his own miseries and misfortunes. For at this time Attila, King of the Huns, having joined to himself the forces of the Heruli, Alans, Gepids, and Thuringians, crossed into Gaul. Although he was defeated with great slaughter by Aetius, the Roman general, near Toulouse on the Catalaunian fields, nevertheless his courage soon returned, The invasion of Attila into Italy. and summoning the barbarian kings to a council at Curta, which we today call Buda, he vehemently urged them to be willing to join him in attacking the province of Italy. When they had agreed for many reasons, drawing almost the entire North with him, he prepared to enter Italy through the region of Aquileia.

[2] At the approach of so fierce a tyrant and so powerful an army, the spirits of the Italians were so terrified, especially those who inhabited Venetia, The origin of the city of Venice. that they all abandoned the nobler cities and took refuge on the neighboring islands of the Adriatic gulf. And from this arose the principal origin of that city which we now see, by a remarkable marvel, after more than eleven hundred years, flourishing in all things and virtues, and which we call by the ancient name of the region, Venice. Nor is it true, as most writers say, or even plausible, that its beginning was drawn from obscure persons of the lowest common people, Various cities destroyed. since it was not they but rather those whom their nobility and extent of fortune made most subject to Attila's fury who looked to their own safety. Attila, advancing day by day, first destroyed Concordia with fire and sword; then, after Oderzo, Altinum (a city that had formerly been entirely surrounded by marshes like Ravenna, but was then almost entirely on dry land), Padua, and Vicenza were seized with equal destruction, he laid siege with his army to Aquileia, which resisted. It would be lengthy and alien to our purpose to describe the acts of that siege. This much should not be omitted: that during the entire time Aquileia was under siege (which most say was three years, others three summers), Valentinian remained at Ravenna and sent reinforcements to the other besieged cities, especially Aquileia. Ravenna itself he strengthened with firm and excellent fortifications.

[3] But Attila, after Aquileia was at last captured, and after Mantua, Brescia, Cremona, Bergamo, and many other cities besides had been miserably bloodied and demolished by the sword, set out for Ravenna, He spares Ravenna at the entreaty of Bishop John. drawn by the fame of the city. On this matter, Ricobaldus of Ferrara, Cardinal Canon of the Church of Ravenna, a most weighty writer of histories, says in his book entitled Pomerium: "At the coming of Attila," he says, "I have read the following about Ravenna in the Pontifical commentary of that city: Attila spared Ravenna in this manner. John, bishop of that city, accompanied by holy men and clad in sacred vestments, went out of the city at daybreak to Attila who was besieging it, and prayed that he might spare the city and its citizens. The King, having heard the petition of the holy man, with God thus inclining and bending his mind, replied that he would indeed do no harm, but would enter with the door-posts torn down and trampled by his army and horses, lest the people of Ravenna should ascribe this to their own strength or counsel. John and the people of Ravenna gladly accepted this condition and permitted Attila to enter. He, doing nothing contrary to his pledge, passed through the middle of the city."

[4] He abstains from Rome at the prayers of St. Leo. Soon, having devastated Pavia, Piacenza, and Parma with the same calamity with which he had afflicted Aquileia and the other northern cities, he crossed the Apennines into Etruria, intending to march on Rome. But his soothsayers warned him, following the example of Alaric, who after capturing Rome died not long afterward, to beware of that city; so he turned his march toward Gaul. Yet uncertain in his mind, thinking it a disgrace that he should be led away from the eternal glory of the most noble city by an empty superstition, he halted with his march suspended. When this was reported to Valentinian, who had fled from Ravenna to Rome at the rumor of the approaching barbarian, he urged Pope Leo to go to the King and ask him to refrain from attacking the city which God had established as the capital of the Christian religion. The example of the Archbishop of Ravenna gave them courage. And so Leo, accompanied by many, but especially by Aurelius Candidus of Ravenna, his secretary, went to Attila at the Mincio and persuaded him not to advance further; which Attila did.

[5] When his generals marveled at such clemency, which he had shown twice contrary to his custom, Why he showed such reverence to both. he replied that the Archbishop of Ravenna had appeared to him as a heavenly being; and while Pope Leo was addressing him, he saw two men above Leo's head who threatened him with drawn swords if he did not obey. Not long afterward he returned to Pannonia; and there Honoria, the sister of Valentinian, sent word to him through a eunuch that she desired to become his wife, and that he should therefore arrange to obtain this from her brother Valentinian, whether willingly or unwillingly. Attila dies. After Attila had attempted this by many means and was making full preparations to accomplish it, he suddenly died at night from a hemorrhage of blood from his nose, having added another young wife to the many wives he already had -- though most people wrongly think she was Honoria, given to him by Valentinian -- around the year of the Lord 454.

[6] There survive letters of Pope Simplicius to Archbishop John of Ravenna, in which he sharply rebukes him for having made a certain Gregory Bishop of Modena against his will, and threatens that he would have used a more severe sentence against him, had he not been restrained by reasons which Bishop Proiectus (who was probably of Forum Cornelii, consecrated by Peter Chrysologus and believed to have been laid to rest by this Archbishop John) would present in person; John is justly rebuked by the Pope. for those reasons could not be committed to writing on account of their shameful nature. He declares that unless John ceases from consecrating unwilling bishops, he will take away from him the ordinations of the Church of Ravenna and of Emilia. Book 3. And in order to mitigate by some compensation the inconveniences that Gregory was forced to endure on account of Archbishop John, he decrees that, the estate which Gregory said had been given to him a year before being returned and rejoined to the Church of Ravenna, a property in the territory of Bologna, from which a free revenue of thirty solidi was received, should be assigned to Gregory for as long as he lived. The right of ownership of the Church of Ravenna, as he himself calls it, was however to be preserved intact, and the property was to revert to it when Gregory died. These letters were written on the third day before the Kalends of June, in the consulship of Severinus, which was the year from the birth of Christ 482.

[7] A harsh siege of Ravenna. Thereafter, as John watched the calamities of Italy and especially of Ravenna, then besieged by Theodoric, King of the Ostrogoths, growing worse day by day, he established himself as a peacemaker between him and Odoacer. But since the terms offered by both sides were harsh given the disparity of their circumstances, and they could not agree, Ravenna endured enormous difficulties of famine and plague beyond all belief, so that even the most sordid things, horrible even to speak of, were not spared.

[8] About the same time, when Pope Felix III had died, Gelasius succeeded him. Archbishop John complained to him that in many cities of Italy, the duties and offices pertaining to sacred ministers were in such a state, afflicted by the hardship of war and famine, and had fallen into such desolation, John labors for ecclesiastical discipline. that in many churches there were no ministers. Wherefore Gelasius made several very extensive decrees, by which he established the ancient laws and the intervals of time for those who were to be ordained, prescribing shorter time periods if someone became a cleric from being a monk, but much longer if from the laity (as he calls it), rejecting bigamists. Since these decrees still survive, sent by the Pope himself to the bishops of Lucania, Bruttium, and Sicily, in the year of salvation 494, on the 5th day before the Ides of March, in the consulship of Asterius and Praesidius, there is no need for us to explain them more fully here.

[9] He dies. Shortly afterward, this same Archbishop John, weakened in health, I believe, by the extreme hardships of the siege in his already advanced age, exchanged life for death.

a There survives a letter of Pope St. Leo to this bishop, letter 37, dated on the 9th day before the Kalends of November in the consulship of the Emperor Marcian, namely the year of Christ 451. The letter is erroneously addressed to Leo instead of Neo.

b St. Leo held the see from the year 440, Indiction 8, in the consulship of Valentinian V and Anatolius, as Marcellinus Comes records, until the year 461, in the consulship of Dagalaiphus and Severinus, Indiction 14.

c In the year of Christ 450, the first of Marcian, in the consulship of Valentinian VII and Avienus, since six years earlier, in the consulship of Theodosius XVIII and Albinus, Attila had killed his brother and co-ruler Bleda, as Prosper writes.

d Rubeus is gravely mistaken. This battle was fought, as Idatius records, not far from the city of Metz, which they had stormed; or, as others write, on the Catalaunian plain, at the river Vidula.

e Jordanes writes that 162,000 fell from both armies. Paul the Deacon, book 15 of the Miscellaneous History, says 180,000. Idatius says 300,000.

f The city of Curta. Curta is a city of Lower Pannonia according to Ptolemy, book 2, chapter 16, table 5 of Europe. Certain learned men interpret it as Buda; on what solid conjecture, let them judge for themselves.

g Most of these cities survive even now; of Altinum scarcely the ruins remain. The sacking of all of them and the destruction of some are described in book 15 of the Miscellaneous History.

h In the year 410, Indiction 8, in the consulship of Varanes, as Marcellinus records.

i We shall treat of this embassy of St. Leo to Attila, by which he delivered all Italy from the danger of the enemy, as Anastasius says, in his Life on the 11th of April.

k The river Mincio. This river, rising in the Alps, flows through Lake Benacus and then encircles the city of Mantua with a noble marsh, and finally empties into the Po. It is now commonly called the Menzo, but before it flows into Benacus, it is called the Sarca.

l Paul the Deacon attributes this to Leo alone.

m The same Paul writes: "Then the King replied that he had not revered the person of the man who had come to him, but that he had seen another man standing beside him in priestly attire, of august form and venerable white hair, who with drawn sword terrifyingly threatened him with death unless he fulfilled all that the other had requested."

n He was created Pope in the year of Christ 467, Indiction 5, in the consulship of Pusaeus and John, as Marcellinus records. He sat for 15 years and is venerated on the 2nd of March. This letter survives in volume 2 of the Councils, among the letters of Simplicius, as letter 2.

o He is venerated on the 23rd of September at Forum Cornelii, that is, Imola.

p Marcellinus writes that Simplicius died in that year. But several other letters dated in the consulship of Severinus are read from him, so that Baronius rightly assigns his death to the following year. It might, however, seem that here it should be restored to read: "in the consulship of Severus, vir clarissimus," who was consul in the year 470 with Jordanes. For several of Simplicius's subsequent letters are found to have been written before the consulship of Severinus.

q St. Felix III succeeded St. Simplicius; Gelasius succeeded him in the year 492.

r Gelasius himself testifies to this in letter 9, which is addressed to the Bishops of Lucania.

s St. Peter the Younger succeeded him, of whom we shall treat on the 31st of July. What Ferrarius writes in the Catalogue of the Saints of Italy, that during the time of the siege Peter II was appointed to succeed John II, is refuted by the cited letter of Gelasius, in which, dated on the 5th day before the Ides of March 494, mention is made of John as still living. He died perhaps in the following year, or not long afterward.