ON SAINT SILVERIUS POPE OF ROME AND MARTYR,
IN PALMARIA ONE OF THE PONTIAN ISLANDS.
YEAR DXXXIX.
PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.
On his cultus, place of exile, acts to be gathered from the relation of his contemporaries.
Silverius, Pope and Martyr, in Palmaria one of the Pontian Islands (S.)
BY D. P.
Pontia, the island ennobled by the exile of Flavia Domitilla and her companions Nereus and Achilleus, and of many illustrious Romans, under the tyranny of Domitian, [In a most turbulent time the exile is buried in the Pontian Islands of the Tyrrhene Sea,] in the first century of Christ; is encircled as if by a crown by nine other smaller ones or more, which all are called by the common name Pontiae or Pontianae islands; just as the Britannicae commonly, as many as stand round Britannia, including Hibernia, the Hebrides, and the Orcades. The more westerly of them is today called Palmariola (likely for distinction from Palmaria opposite the Gulf of Luni on the same Etruscan shore) by Pliny and Mela absolutely called also Palmaria; and named by Liberatus Archdeacon of the Carthaginian Church, inasmuch as in it S. Silverius died, there or in the principal island of Pontia, buried on the XII Kal. of July, as the Author of the Life with Anastasius Bibliothecarius writes. Because however, in the disturbed state in Italy not less of the Church than of the empire, on account of the wars between the Greeks and the Goths, no one took care to bring back to Rome the body of the deceased; nor did anyone there have it as a care, after some centuries had passed, to establish there his annual commemoration among the Sacred rites.
[2] When I had indicated this to someone writing about the Pontiffs, it gave him occasion of erring, of insulting others, as if I had denied that Silverius is found inscribed in today's Roman Martyrology; he was not borne in the Fasti older than the 15th century. whom however all of us, as many as are held to the use of the Roman Breviary, now venerate with ecclesiastical Office, and indeed only on this present day. I was to be understood concerning the older Martyrologies, of Bede, Florus, Usuardus or Ado, insofar as the Roman church has used them, pure from the additions which in various places and times, also at Rome, accrued to them, as it there happened that the cultus of some approved Saint was assumed. Hence you find the name of Silverius in the Martyrologies of later age as if edited for the use of the Roman Curia, by Bellinus, Maurolycus, Galesinius: likewise in the Calendars printed before earlier exemplars of Missals and Breviaries, of which we have one printed at Venice in the year MCCCCLXXIX; where a Life contracted from Anastasius, distributed into six Lessons, is found, as for a semi-double Office, which now is only made with the rite of a simple one.
[3] To his Acts no light is brought by the two older Catalogues, which Henschen began to clear out: for the last of them ends in Felix IV, Few things about him in the Catalogues augmented in the 6th century. who preceded Silverius by four; there follow however nine Pontiffs, only with the space of the See signed, and about Silverius it is written, that he sat year I, months V, days XI: others of our parchments, collated with the Corbey ones, and continued only up to Vigilius successor of Silverius, vary in the number of months and write IX. A third Catalogue, neglected by Henschen, seen by Schelstrate as not to be despised, since it preceded Anastasius in numbering the Ordinations with the words already cited from the Appendix of the second Catalogue, adds: This one ordained Bishops LXXXI, Presbyters XLVI, Deacons XVI: which numbers however certain exemplars of Anastasius vehemently lessen and pass over the Deacons.
[4] When however I say Anastasius, I understand the book On the Lives of the Pontiffs, More in the Pontifical book with Anastasius, which is generally had under his name. Otherwise I greatly approve the Examination of the same book, recently published at Rome by the most learned man John Ciampini, in whose section 3 he treating of the variety of style, which is not obscurely noted in the Anastasian Codex, judges that Collection of the Pontifical Lives to have various Authors: and the Life, he says, of Liberius savors of a good and fluid style up to Silverius inclusive… from the deeds however of Vigilius, successor of Pope Silverius, up to Martin the style has undergone some change. continued from a contemporary up to Vigilius, But whoever wrote the Life of Silverius inserted into the Anastasian codex, however contemporary with Silverius, was not however so accurate that he did not omit many things, to be supplied from the Breviary of the cause of the Nestorians and Eutychians by Liberatus the Carthaginian Archdeacon, otherwise vainly sought by me, now found in the tomes of the Councils. Since however he consequently relates first all things which were done between the Goths and the Greeks, up to the city freed from the siege; and to be supplied from the Breviary of Liberatus. afterwards he undertakes those which at the same time happened concerning Silverius and Vigilius; to me sometimes the suspicion has come that two narratives of different authors were compiled by Anastasius, and consequently described; which now indeed I do not believe; however that Author, whoever he was, I judge would have better consulted history, if he had mixed the affairs of the Empire and the Church, in the order in which they were done: he would certainly have taken from us the labor of discerning them by conjectures.
[5] From that Author meanwhile have been taken the Lessons inserted in the aforesaid year MCCCCLXXIX in the Breviary, Were the Relics brought to Rome? of whose using what was the first occasion I do not presume to define; certainly, not any translation of Relics, from the Pontiae into the City. For although Carlo Bartholomeo Piazza, in his Sanctuary or perpetual Roman Menologium of the year 1675, says the feast of S. Silverius is celebrated at S. Peter's, where his body is believed buried; and at S. Maria Maggiore his Relics are had and exposed; nevertheless that credulity is quite recent: since neither the Roman Canon of the Vatican Basilica, who composed its description under Eugenius III; nor Paul de Angelis, who augmented the same with Annotations under Innocent X and brought it to light, anywhere made mention of Silverius, among those whose bodies in his time rested in the Vatican. They are silent also about Silverius: Octavius Pancirolus in the Hidden Treasure of the kindly city, and on the seven Churches Onuphrius Panvinius, and Pompeius Ugonius, and John Severianus. The aforesaid Paul de Angelis also, in another work describing the Basilica of S. Maria Maggiore, opens book 6 from the Indulgences, stations, Relics of the same, but makes no mention of Silverius; as neither those whom I said described the seven Basilicas of the City. Let Piazza therefore see whence that opinion came, and how it can be proved.
[6] Furthermore, to one looking round at everything, none more ancient than Peter de Natalibus, Peter de Natalibus seems first to have ascribed Silverius to the Saints. Bishop of Equilium, occurs, to whom the beginning of venerating Silverius among the Romans can be referred. He in his Catalogue of Saints, which our Philip Labbe teaches was edited by him in the year MCCCLXXXII, in book 5 chapter 131 has, of S. Silverius Pope and Martyr: who, what is read in the Anastasian codex about the place of burial: "And there is had a multitude of those badly off, and they are saved," he so translates: "Where a multitude of those badly off were saved": and where he is said to have been "made Confessor," Peter says he was "crowned with martyrdom": and thus Peter departs in substance nothing from the original text, although much briefer as to history. If any exemplars of Usuardus have at the end the name of Silverius added, these (which we have indeed happened to see) are all more recent than the Catalogue of Peter; which same we can judge of those exemplars which Grevenus and the Author of the Florarium Ms. and Molanus saw. Of what age the spurious Bede is, which we have printed at Antwerp in the year MDLXIII I know not whence, I cannot divine. Our Rosweid collated it with the Richeberg Ms. in Bavaria. From the fact however that he refers him in the first place, whom among the last others refer, by conjecture not insipid someone will think that he is later than the Lessons formerly received into the Roman Breviary.
[7] The words of that Bede whatever he be are these: XII Kal. of July, of Silverius the Pope; who sat at Rome one year, Elogium first inserted into the Gregorian Martyrology, who with the consent of the Emperor Justinian, having been deposed by Belisarius and made a Monk, dies a Confessor; in place of which the Recognizers of the Roman Martyrology under Gregory XIII, in the first edition of the year MLXXXIV, established to be read thus: The Natalis of S. Silverius Pope and Martyr, who after S. Agapitus governed the Church; and when he had been unwilling to restore Anthimus the heretical Bishop, deposed by Agapitus; with the impious Theodora Augusta acting, was driven into exile by Belisarius to the island Pontia; but at the protest of the Bishops of the whole world, is ordered to be brought back to his See; why later it was changed. and when he had come to the island Palmaria, there detained for a while by impious ministers, undone by hardships for the Catholic faith, he failed. These things seemed taken from the Breviary of the aforementioned Liberatus, whose relation to be reconciled with the Anastasian relation, in place of Patara the city of Lycia, which Liberatus had ascribed to the exile of Silverius, was named the island Pontia. But since neither thus were the other things proved; nor did either Liberatus or Anastasius make mention of the Bishops of the whole world protesting; it pleased to expunge all things after the sign ; and after the words "to the island Pontia" to add: "where for the Catholic faith undone by many hardships he failed." But as I said not Pontia but Pontiae, or rather Pontianae, of which one is Palmaria, the Author of the life with Anastasius had written. That he was carried at the beginning to Patara, and at the insistence of the Bishop of that city was to be restored, although the Life does not say, it does not however deny, and omits many other things to be supplied from Liberatus.
[8] As to the times in which Silverius sat and lived, Baronius did not dare to define them otherwise than from the year DXXXVI to DXL; inasmuch as he had neither established anything certain about the death of his predecessor Agapitus, Ordained in the year 536 nor was he willing to follow the style of the Catalogues, ascribing to each one's Pontificate only that space which each in fact sat; in those however whom by chance it happened to depose, as it happened to Silverius, having no account of the time after the deposition acted. I, when in the Chronico-historical Conatus to the series of the Roman Pontiffs, I had so ordered the Pontificate of S. Agapitus, that he, consecrated in the year DXXXV on April XXVIII, after months XI, days XX died at Constantinople, on April XVII of the year DXXXVI; although he is venerated on September XX, when his body brought back to Rome was deposited at S. Peter's; when I say I had ordered the Pontificate of Agapitus, I placed month I, days XIX, for which the See was vacant; and after which Silverius, a Campanian by nation from his father Hormisdas, June 6 Bishop of Rome from the year DXIV to DXXIII, begotten before the sacred Orders were received, by the violence of Theodatus King of the Goths obtruded upon the Clergy and ordained in the year DXXXVI, on the next Sunday of June, that is the VIII of the same, was accepted for the sake of peace; and sat one year, V months, XI days, until the XVI of November of the year DXXXVII. Then namely he was deposed from the Pontificate, and thrust into a monastery, with Vigilius substituted in his place on the day XXII of December; he was deposed 539 16 November. to whose arbitration first relegated to Patara in Lycia; then, when by the order of the Emperor Justinian to be restored to the Roman See he had landed at Naples, was handed over by the Duke Belisarius to the ministers of Vigilius; by whom transported to Palmaria one of the Pontianae, there undone by hardships he died, on the XX of June in the year DXXXIX, there, or in the Pontia island, which is the head of the rest, buried. And in this manner I would wish the Chronological elogium of Silverius to be changed at the end, which in the Conatus I gave him, with Liberatus not yet seen, except with Baronius.
ACTS
From Liberatus Deacon of Carthage and the Life with Anastasius Bibliothecarius.
Silverius, Pope and Martyr, in Palmaria one of the Pontian islands (S.)
BY D. P., FROM LIBERATUS AND ANASTASIUS.
[1] When Pope Agapitus, having performed the legation of Christ before the Emperor Justinian at Constantinople, with Anthimus the heretic deposed from the Episcopate, and Mennas the orthodox substituted in his place, with the Empress Theodora struggling in vain against and bringing in threats and
promises, With Agapitus dead, was arranging to return to Italy, constituting before the Emperor as Apocrisiarius of his Church Pelagius the Deacon; after a few days, seized by sickness, he died at Constantinople * X Kal. of May… But the Augusta, calling Vigilius, Deacon of Agapitus, demanded that he profess to her secretly, that if he became Pope he would set aside the Synod, and write to Theodosius, Anthimus, and Severus, and confirm their faith through his letter; promising to give him a precept to Belisarius, that he should be ordained Pope, and that seven centenaria should be given. Gladly therefore Vigilius received his promise, from love of the Episcopate and of gold; and the profession having been made set out for Rome. I can scarcely doubt that work was given that the death of Agapitus should be hidden from the Romans, Vigilius is sent to Rome to seek the Pontificate: up to the arrival of Vigilius; but in vain; because within at least one month and some days, hearing of his death, the Roman city elected Silverius the Subdeacon, formerly son of Hormisdas the Pope, to be ordained. Vigilius therefore coming found Silverius ordained Pope. Thus Liberatus writing in Africa; and on account of the brevity of time which intervened between the ordination of Silverius and the consent of the Presbyters to it within two days, knowing nothing of their dissent; or if he knew anything, judging it not worth the trouble to remember a matter pertaining nothing to the cause he had undertaken to treat.
[2] But the Author of the Life with Anastasius relates the matter in this way, transacted likely under his own gaze. but his ordination is forestalled by the accelerated ordination of Silverius This Silverius was raised by the tyrant Theodahatus without the deliberation of a Decree: which Theodahatus, corrupted by money, induced such fear in the Clergy, that whoever did not consent to his Ordination should be punished by the sword. Indeed the Priests did not subscribe according to the ancient custom, nor confirm the Decree before the Ordination. But Silverius being already ordained under violence and fear, for the union of the Church and religion, the Presbyters subscribed themselves. Thus the author of the Life with Anastasius Biblioth. The true cause however of the violence, with King Theodatus urging it, so precipitous and not before in use, I think to have been to Theodatus, not money given to him by Silverius, although rumor perhaps had spread that; but fear of the Emperor Justinian, whom he had gravely offended, and therefore the barbarian King thought he ought to beware, lest some eager partisan of the Imperial party should be raised to the Pontificate. Silverius however abundantly washed away the fault, if he committed any in the entrance of the Pontificate, through the hardships of exile, even to death tolerated for the cause of faith.
[3] But what was earlier done at Rome, Naples, and Constantinople, let us in order recount. Lord Emperor Justinian Augustus being indignant, but not unpunished: because Theodahatus had killed Queen Amalasuntha, commended to him; sent the Patrician Belisarius with an army, to free all Italy from the captivity of the Goths. Then the abovewritten Patrician coming into the parts of Sicily, was there for some time… then about the spring months, came into a part of Campania near the city of Naples, and besieged it with his army: for he, with Naples lost, because the Neapolitan citizens were unwilling to obey him; and fighting entered; and led by fury killed the Goths, and all the Neapolitan citizens, and did not spare the churches in plundering: but this was the rage of the first days, which Procopius also greatly tempers, praising Belisarius as having used the victory rather moderately. From the same, narrating all things far more distinctly, it is understood that Naples was taken with Theodahatus still living, not long after the ordination of Silverius: soon lost his kingdom and Life. if it is true what with Anastasius is read thus: "After two months from Silverius being ordained, Theodatus the tyrant is extinguished and Witigis is raised." At Naples therefore, not however before in Sicily hearing Belisarius that the Goths had made for themselves a King against the will of Lord Justinian Augustus, hastened to move his army to Rome.
[4] Witiges meanwhile, terrified by so near an enemy, returned to Ravenna; distrusting namely that he could then guard Rome, but trusting that the same, augmented by the forces of the Franks, he would easily recover: just as in fact in the following year he returned to it with a numerous army. And he indeed departing, as Procopius writes, Silverius the Bishop of the city, and the Senate and people… that they should keep faith to the Goths, even bound by the sanctity of an oath… The City moreover handed itself over into the power of Belisarius But the Romans, fearing lest they suffer what had happened to the Neapolitans, thought it better to admit the soldier of the Emperor within the city, especially with Silverius the Bishop of the city persuading them to this… And Rome was received in the sixtieth year, in the same month, after it had been occupied by the barbarians, when Justinian was conducting the eleventh year of his rule, that is in the very year DXXXVI in the month of August: for in such a month in the year CCCCLXXVI Odoacer King of the Heruli had occupied the city. Silverius being the author. With Anastasius nevertheless it is read that the city was received not in the month of August, but in the month of December, in this manner: Belisarius having entered into the city on the IV Ides of December, with guards and munitions and constructions of walls, and the repair of the moat, fortified the Roman city, in which way it is even now seen fortified. And in the very night in which the Patrician Belisarius entered, the Goths who were in the city or outside the walls fled, and left all the gates open, 4 Kal. Sept. not December. and fled to Ravenna. But I think in the said place to be an error of some old copyist, to whom the name of December crept in for September; and that the month of August may be kept, I suspect it should have been read and written, IV Kal. of September. For soon after his entrance with guards and munitions or constructions of walls and the repair of the moat Belisarius fortified the city, as Procopius prolixly describes. The construction of such walls to be drawn around so large a city, such as are still seen, and as far as we can know completed before March of the following year, requires more time.
[5] Thence Belisarius hastens to Naples, and it being ordered returns. Meanwhile Belisarius, busily and sharply rebuked by Pope Silverius, why he had perpetrated so great and such homicides at Naples, at last repented: (as Paul Deacon of Aquileia writes in book 16 of the Historia miscella, at the beginning of the IX century,) and again setting out for Naples, and seeing the houses of the city depopulated and empty, at length, counsel having been found for recovering the people, gathering through various Villas of the Neapolitan city men and women, sent them to dwell in the houses, that is the Cumans, Puteolani and many others. And this is what the Author of the Silverian life with Anastasius, about to set forth the tragedy that soon followed, says thus: At the same time, namely when Rome was being fortified, Belisarius the Patrician went to Naples, and ordered it: and afterwards returned to Rome. Who was kindly received by Lord Silverius: and Belisarius the Patrician dwelt in the Pincian Palace, on the Ides of May Indiction XV, in the year DXXXVII: but not immediately from his return to the city, since to besiege it Witiges returned, as is read in the same place IX Kal. of March: certainly after the return of Belisarius, who was for the Roman name, and shut himself within the city of Rome, and guarded the city so tightly besieged, that to none was there faculty of going out or coming in, whence also there was great hunger, so that even waters were sold for a price… the greatest battles too were against the city, and that for one year; after which finally the conquered Goths withdrew. All which it is necessary to note, that it may be understood that not only Belisarius returned from Naples to Rome before the siege; but to there also from Constantinople returned Vigilius, when for the second time, as will soon be said, he came with the order of the Augusta against Silverius. To Liberatus in place of Rome Ravenna crept in, by the error I believe of copyists; when he says that in it Vigilius found Belisarius. But let us recount the matter in order.
[6] Meanwhile the Augusta, using the counsel of Vigilius, Then, when Belisarius was occupied with fortifying Rome and ordering Naples, Vigilius was Apocrisiarius at Constantinople; thither indeed not unwillingly having returned, for the same office to be exercised for Silverius which he had undertaken from Agapitus, after he saw himself dashed of the hope of the desired Pontificate, through the accelerated Ordination of Silverius. The Augusta grieving however for Anthimus the Patriarch, because he had been deposed by the most holy Pope Agapitus, who had found him heretical, and in his place had constituted Mennas the servant of God; she writes to Silverius for the restoration of Anthimus: using counsel with Vigilius the Deacon, sent her Epistles to Rome to Pope Silverius, asking and beseeching: be not slow to come to us, or certainly recall Anthimus to his place. Which when the most blessed Silverius had read the letters, he groaned, and said: Now I know, that this cause brings the end of my life. But the most blessed Silverius, having confidence in God and B. Peter the Apostle, wrote back to the Augusta: Lady Augusta, I will never be about to do this matter, that I should recall a heretical man, condemned in his wickedness. and having suffered repulse, While these letters go and come, Belisarius had returned from Naples to Rome, Vigilius also had returned from Constantinople, and handing over the precept of the Augusta, promised her two centenaria of gold, if with Silverius removed he himself should be ordained in his place. Thus Liberatus; that precept however more amply with Anastasius is explained.
[7] she commands Belisarius to cause him to be deposed, and to substitute Vigilius. Then the indignant Augusta, at the free response namely of Silverius, sent Orders to the Patrician Belisarius through Vigilius the Deacon, containing thus: See you find some occasions against Pope Silverius, and depose him from the Episcopate, or certainly hastily send him over to us. Behold there you have Vigilius, our Archdeacon and most dear Apocrisiarius, who has promised us to recall Anthimus the Patriarch. But Belisarius, knowing how much he owed to Silverius, by his recent benefit to receiving the Roman City having been helped; received the Order, but said: I indeed make the order; but he who is involved in the killing of Pope Silverius, Shortly after the city is besieged by the Goths Feb. 24. himself will render account of his deeds to D. N. Jesus Christ. Meanwhile the city is besieged by the Goths, and in the first months of the siege nothing less could Belisarius think of in the city already more than sufficiently laboring externally from the Barbarians, internally from hunger, than to introduce new disturbances by vexing Silverius. I believe therefore that nothing began to be moved before, than that from the Constantinian palace by the Lateran to the Pincian Belisarius migrated with his family; in appearance indeed of more closely attending to the Barbarians sitting upon the Milvian Bridge, and pressing especially the northern side of the city; and Belisarius migrates to the Pincian May 15, but in reality that he might have the convenience of withdrawing the Pontiff farther from the Patriarchium, and from the frequency of his Clergy. He migrated thither however in the month of May, perhaps stirred by a second or third order of the Augusta, even through the watches of the besiegers brought into the city; since to the savage woman it seemed long and uncertain to await the outcome of the siege.
[8] But from the very circumstance of time, the handle of a sought calumny was seized. For as Liberatus writes, with the order urging, certain false witnesses went forth, who also said: that we have many times found Silverius sending writings to the King of the Goths: come to the gate which is called Asinaria near the Lateran, and
I will hand the city over to you, and Belisarius the Patrician. [where it is reported to him that Silverius had written to the Goths about handing over the city,] Which hearing, Belisarius the Patrician did not believe: for he knew that through envy these things were said about him: but while many persisted in the same accusation, he became afraid; and as I said, betook himself to the Pincian; the matter being perhaps so arranged by Antonina his wife, in the favor of the Augusta, about to induce her husband, however reluctant, to the crime. I certainly cannot persuade myself, that he himself was the author of the calumny, to whom it is so expressly said he did not give credit.
[9] Before however that last and crime-filled machine was applied, it pleased Antonina to try milder counsels; and, as Liberatus says, with Antonina adorning the calumny, Silverius having been called into the Pincian Palace, Belisarius and his wife in secret were persuading him to fulfill the precept of the Augusta, that the Chalcedonian Synod might be set aside, and through his letter he would confirm the faith of the heretics. Who soon going out from the Palace, what should be done about it he spoke to his counselors; after the constancy of the Pope having been tried in vain and coming betook himself into the basilica of the blessed Martyr Sabina, and there remained; where also Photis, son of Antonina the Patrician, was directed to him, that an oath having been given, he might invite him to come to the Palace. But those who were assisting Silverius were persuading him not to believe the oaths of the Greeks: he however went out, and came to the Palace. And on that day indeed by the oath he was permitted to return to the church. To whom Belisarius again sent word, who deceitfully called into the Palace that he should come to the Palace: who was unwilling to go out from the church, recognizing the deceits prepared for him: but afterwards praying, and commending his cause to the Lord, he went out and came to the Palace: into which alone having entered, by his own he was no longer seen.
[10] violently deposed and clothed as a monk, Thus far Liberatus, with last words touching on many things, which, prior days' deeds being premised, with Anastasius alone are read thus: Then Belisarius made B. Silverius come to him in the Palace of Pincius, and at the first and second veil he detained all the Clergy: into which Silverius having entered with Vigilius alone in the Mausoleum (where I suspect it should be read Mansoleum, the inner chamber to which to the lord alone is access, commonly Cabinet) Antonina the Patrician lay in bed, and Belisarius sat at her feet. And when she saw him, Antonina the Patrician said to him: Tell, Lord Silverius Pope, what have we done to you and to the Romans, that you wish to hand us over into the hands of the Goths? While she was yet speaking, John, Regionary Subdeacon of the first Region, entered, took the Pallium from his neck, and led him into the bedchamber; and stripping him, clothed him in monastic garb, and hid him. Then Sixtus, Regionary Subdeacon of the sixth Region, seeing him now a Monk, Nov. 16, going out announced to the Clergy, saying: Because the Lord Pope has been deposed, and made a Monk: who also hearing all fled. Moreover, before it proceeded to this point, it is likely that so many months had passed, that from the day VI of June on which we said Silverius was ordained, there could have flowed beyond one year months V, days XI, which nearly all Catalogues concordantly attribute to him, and which lead us to November XVI.
[11] Vigilius however the Archdeacon received Silverius, thus deposed, and mocked rather than indicted in the monastic garb as if into his own custody, says the Author of the Life with Anastasius; and immediately subjoins the exile, and indeed in Pontia. But Liberatus teaches us more distinctly what was meanwhile done, thus pursuing the begun narration: And another day Belisarius, having called together the Presbyters and Deacons, and all the Clerics, commanded them to elect another Pope for themselves. With whom doubting and some laughing, by the favor of Belisarius Vigilius was ordained November XXII, on the very next Sunday. Vigilius is then substituted: Which Vigilius, as long as the siege lasted (it lasted however until March of the year DXXXVIII when Belisarius by fighting conquered the Goths, who fled to Ravenna after one year of continued siege) Vigilius, I say, as long as the siege lasted, had Silverius without doubt in custody, suppose at the Lateran in a monastery, which I would believe was there, attached to the Patriarchium. The siege being dissolved however (for it was not before convenient or advisable) Silverius was sent into exile into a city of the Province of Lycia, which is called Patara.
[12] After his ordination however Vigilius was compelled by Belisarius to fulfill his promise, and in the year 538 Silverius is relegated to Lycia: which he had promised to the Augusta, and that he should render to him the two centenaria of gold promised: which he indeed could easily excuse, as long as Silverius was still at Rome; but with him now dismissed, he was nevertheless unwilling to fulfill his promise, with fear of the Romans and avarice protecting. The fear from the Romans however was just, as orthodox, and who, now free from the external fear, were not going to allow either the Council of Chalcedon to be torn down, or the judgment of S. Agapitus against the heretics to be rescinded. Meanwhile, Silverius coming to Patara, the venerable Bishop of that city came to the Emperor, and testified to the judgment of God concerning the expulsion of the Bishop of so great a See; saying there are many Kings in this world; and there is no one, as that Pope is, [but with the Bishop of the place interceding, he is ordered to be brought back to Italy:] over the Church of the whole world, expelled from his See. Whom hearing, the Emperor ordered Silverius to be recalled to Rome and judgment to be made about those letters; that if they should be proved to have been written by him, he should reside as Bishop in whatever city; if however they should be proved false, he should be restored to his See.
[13] Pelagius however, then Apocrisiarius of Vigilius at Constantinople, but afterwards successor in the Pontificate, running with the will of the Augusta wished to make void the precept of the Emperor, whence the terrified Vigilius obtains that he himself be handed over to him; lest Silverius return to Rome; but with the order of the Emperor prevailing, Silverius was brought back to Italy: I believe to Naples to Belisarius, perhaps not unwilling and rejoicing to have one by whom either to shake off the slowness of Vigilius or to avenge himself. Nor did his hope deceive him in this: for at the arrival of Silverius terrified, Vigilius, lest he be driven from his See, commanded Belisarius: hand over Silverius to me; otherwise I cannot do what you exact from me. Thus Silverius (perhaps under the appearance of bringing him back to Rome, and transported to the Pontiae the Saint is starved to death in the year 539, and there of recognizing his cause) was handed over to two defensors of Vigilius and his servants: who, brought to the island Palmaria, under their custody, failed by starvation. All these things the author of the Life with Anastasius passes over; and having narrated the deposition of Silverius, hastening to his end, "He sent him," he says, "into exile, Vigilius;" and with no other word mediating adds, "into the Pontiae" (to which however he could not, except after half or more than a year, from his deportation into Lycia, have been brought) "and sustained him with the bread of tribulation, and the water of distress. Who failing, died, and was made a Confessor: who also was buried in the same place," XII Kalends of July, in the year at the least DXXXIX, if not even later: and thus in truth he lived as supreme Pontiff (for neither was the deposition legitimate, nor is he found to have consented to it) three years, if not even four, days XIV.
[14] where he being buried is illustrious by miracles. There however, that is, in the island Palmaria, or rather in the principal one of the Pontiae, which likely alone had a Parochial church and cemetery, the others having only oratories at most, all however not deserving to have a Bishop, but living under the jurisdiction of the Bishop of Terracina on the nearby continent; there I say "a multitude of those badly off come together, and they are saved." Andreas du Chene, in the Lives of the Pontiffs written in French, adds to him this Epitaph, I know not whence dug up.
The supreme Apex of the Roman Edifice, Silverius; His bones beneath this dead foreign one retains.
Nothing else is found about him, One ordination celebrated by him in the year 536. except that he made one ordination through the month of December in the year DXXXVI of Cardinal Presbyters XIV, Deacons XVI, Bishops through diverse places to the number XIX. It is added moreover, according to the style of the Catalogues, estimating his Pontificate only up to the day of deposition, that the Episcopate ceased only five days: for no more came in between the second feria on which Silverius was deposed and the Sunday on which Vigilius was ordained.
[15] Meanwhile Vigilius is argued to have fulfilled his promises, Of this man and of Belisarius, what was the penitence concerning the sins committed against Silverius, what just penalty of retaliation followed them and Vigilius, the reader will find elsewhere explained. Liberatus aggravates the cause of Vigilius, when he asserts that through Antonina the wife of Belisarius, fulfilling his profession, which he had made to the Augusta; he wrote an Epistle… under which he wrote his faith, in which he condemned two natures in Christ, dissolving the tome of Pope Leo. Suspect to me here is the fraud of the woman, long since accustomed to fabricating letters calumniously, and fearing the indignation of the Empress, unless she contrived something by which she herself might seem to have given effect to what the Augusta had exacted with such great effort. Suspect also is the inscription, but from letters likely supposititious, unusual to the Roman Pontiffs, "Lords and Christs Vigilius." Would he not have appended here the names of those, with whom he wrote that he had one faith and had had? Something else certainly sounds his response to the Augusta, when to her not having great faith in the letters received through Antonina, and after some years urging and writing: Come, fulfill for us what for your good will you promised, about our Father Anthimus, and recall him to his office: when, I say, he wrote back: Far be this from me, Lady Augusta: before I spoke badly and unwisely: now however in no way do I consent to you, that I recall a heretical and anathematized man. Although unworthy, I am the Vicar of B. Peter the Apostle, in what way were the most holy Agapitus and Silverius, who anathematized him.
[16] The forged Epistles of Silverius against Vigilius cannot serve for history; nor make faith for a pretended Synod of four Bishops, who subscribed the sentence brought by Silverius. Wherefore it is of no moment, that Silverius in it is feigned to say, "with the Lord favoring, three times now uninterruptedly elapsed, to preside over the Apostolic See, such are also had forged for Silverius. and that Vigilius with money given had invaded it." Fiction however is also argued by the subscriptions, of which one is noted under Prince Basil, contrary to the style of years then noted; which the inept patcher took from the subscriptions following the year DXL, when there began to be written P. C. Basilii V. C. that is post Consulatum Basilii Viri Clarissimi. Another signed Justiniano V & Belissario VV. CC Coss. is equally monstrous: because Justinian, after the IV Consulate in the year DXXXIV, conducted no more; and Belisarius was Consul only once, namely DXXXV.
Annotated* rather xv