ON ST. SIMPLICIUS, ROMAN PONTIFF,
IN THE YEAR 483.
HISTORICAL COMMENTARY.
Simplicius, Roman Pontiff (Saint)
§ I. Manuscript eulogies. The Church defended against the Emperors and the Bishops of Constantinople. Various acts concerning the Bishops of Italy and Spain.
[1] Among the distinguished monuments which the most illustrious Lucas Holstenius, Canon of St. Peter's and Prefect of the Vatican Library, had collected and prepared for the press, and which at his death he commended to the most eminent Cardinal Barberini, there was a Catalogue of the Roman Pontiffs, Eulogies of St. Simplicius drawn out of very ancient Palatine parchments of the Vatican Library, contained in Codex 44, or cupboard 20, before the Penitential Psalms of David; and concerning St. Simplicius this is contained there: from the Vatican manuscript, "Simplicius, by nation of Tibur, son of Castinus, sat 15 years, 1 month, 8 days. He established that Priests should remain at St. Peter's and St. Paul's and St. Lawrence's, for the sake of penitents and baptism. He ordained 37 Bishops, 58 Priests, 9 Deacons." So much there, where the name of St. Peter has been inserted by us, since on account of its age it could not be read. We found another Catalogue of the Pontiffs at Rome in a very old manuscript codex of the Queen of Sweden, marked with the number 58. and from the manuscript of the Queen of Sweden. In this the Pontiffs are recorded with their eulogies down to Boniface II, that is, to the year 530, and then the bare names of some of the following Pontiffs, and the times during which they sat, are listed down to St. Gregory the Great. Concerning St. Simplicius this is read there: "Simplicius, by nation of Tibur, son of Castinus, sat 15 years, 1 month, 6 days. He established weekly turns at St. Peter's, and at St. Paul's, and at St. Lawrence's, so that Priests should remain there for the sake of baptism and penance, those of the first region being assigned to St. Paul's, those of the third region to St. Lawrence's, those of region 7 to St. Peter's. Under his episcopate a report came from Greece from Acacius, who was Bishop of Constantinople, and he made affirmation concerning Peter of Alexandria, the Eutychian heretic; it came at the petition made by Acacius. Then the Church was executing it. Then the Prelate Simplicius condemned Peter of Alexandria, against whom Acacius affirmed innumerable crimes. At the same time Timothy the Catholic and Acacius wrote back, saying that Peter had truly been mixed up in the death of Proterius the Catholic. Then the Prelate Simplicius, dissembling, never wrote to Acacius, but condemned Peter. He held three ordinations in the month of December: 57 Priests, 11 Deacons, 32 Bishops for various places. He was buried at Blessed Peter's on the 5th day before the Nones of March, and the episcopate ceased for 5 days." These things are set out more fully in Anastasius the Librarian, in the book on the Lives of the Roman Pontiffs, which has often been printed. We review the details from these and other authors.
[2] All assert that St. Simplicius was by nation of Tibur, that is, from Tibur in Latium, St. Simplicius of Tibur, which Virgil, in book 7 of the Aeneid, verse 670, called "proud," and that he was born of his father Castinus. Ciacconius, on the Lives of the Pontiffs, suggests that in place of Castinus "Castor" is read elsewhere, which we have not yet found. What he did before his Pontificate is unknown. In Giovanni Stella of Venice, who also collected Lives of the Pontiffs, he is said from his youth to have been not only simple but also most upright and God-fearing. Concerning the time at which he was raised to the Pontifical dignity, Marcellinus Comes writes thus in his Chronicle: "In the 5th Indiction, Puseus and John being Consuls, the Emperor Leo sent the Patrician Anthemius to Rome he is created Pope in the year 467. and established him as Emperor. Simplicius, created the 45th Pontiff of the Roman Church, lived 15 years." The said Consuls were in office in the year of Christ 467, in which likewise the 5th Indiction was marked, and Leo was in the 11th year of his rule over the Eastern Empire. Bishop Idatius adds in his Chronicle that Arthemius, brother of Procopius, was sent from Constantinople by Leo Augustus to Italy, with Marcellinus and other Counts, chosen men, in the time of the Emperor Anthemius, and with a huge multitude of a numerous army, and was proclaimed Augustus at the eighth milestone from Rome in the month of August; in place of which the Anonymous of Cuspinianus has the day before the Ides of April. In this retinue Macedonian heretics entered the City along with him; wherefore (as Gelasius, created Pope in the year 492, writes in his 13th epistle to the Bishops of Dardania) "Pope Hilarus, when Philotheus the Macedonian, supported by his familiarity with the Emperor Anthemius, after St. Hilarus, wished to introduce new conventicles of various sects into the City, openly bound him with a clear voice at the tomb of Blessed Peter the Apostle that this should not be done, so much so that the Emperor promised, with an oath interposed, that these things would not be done." But because Pope Hilarus did not long remain alive, the execution of this most difficult matter remained in the hands of his successor St. Simplicius. The ancient Martyrologies indicate that Hilarus died on the 4th day before the Ides of September; in them, on the said day, his sacred memory is inscribed among the Saints. died on the 10th of September; In some calendars his natal day is referred to the 20th or 21st of February, while in Panvinio he is stated to have died on the 6th day before the Kalends of August: these matters will have to be explained more fully in his Life on the 10th of September. Since, therefore, after the death of St. Hilarus the see had been vacant for ten days, St. Simplicius was created on the 20th day of September: who, says Baronius in the Annals at the said year, had to be watchful both at home and abroad. For in the City, under a Greek Emperor, the Catholic faith seemed scarcely to stand safely enough. And in the East the abscess of the Eutychian heresy was creeping like a cancer, often treated, never healed. That a way might be paved for this heresy, the Emperor Leo (the words are those of Baronius) strove to obtain from Pope Simplicius what he had been unable to obtain from Leo the Roman Pontiff or from his successor Hilarus: namely, that the decrees of the Bishops of the Synod of Chalcedon which pertained to the privileges of the Church of Constantinople should be held valid. But Simplicius too resisted all the more vehemently, he resists the Emperor Leo seeking privileges for the Church of Constantinople, and opposed his attempt, sending for this purpose Probus, Bishop of Canosa, as Legate to Constantinople. All of this is read in the cited epistle of Gelasius to the Bishops of Dardania, and this is inserted concerning St. Simplicius: "That nevertheless, even under Pope Simplicius of holy memory, the Legate of the Apostolic See, Probus of holy memory, Bishop of the city of Canosa, taught in person, when the Prince Leo was then requesting it, that these things could by no means be attempted, and that he gave no consent whatever to them. And therefore let them not regard the rank of any city whatever, but let them fittingly observe the manner of Ecclesiastical dispensation, confirmed by the tradition of the fathers." But these things are to be referred to the times of Acacius, Bishop of Constantinople, who, created in the year 471, aimed at the primacy with arrogance and rash endeavour; and to his foolish presumption, as is clear from the words of Gelasius cited, Pope Simplicius bravely resisted.
[3] Then, the Emperor Leo having died in the year 474, in the month of January, Leo the younger, son of Zeno and Ariadne, succeeded, having been proclaimed Caesar by Leo before his death; he soon, in the month of February, made his father Zeno Augustus, crowned with his own hand; and Zeno, his son having died in the same year, ruled alone until the year 476, when, Zeno having been driven into exile, Basiliscus reigned, who had been drawn into the Eutychian heresy; and while he was abusing through tyranny the empire wrongly acquired, Zeno, after he had been ejected for 20 months, recovered the Empire in the year 477. as also to the Emperors Basiliscus and Zeno. Then Acacius, although he had been repulsed under the Emperor Leo, renewed the struggle once more for his Primacy: but the previously cited Gelasius relates that St. Simplicius and his successor Pope Felix strongly opposed his attempts; for after he had treated of the new conventicles of various sects to be brought into the City by Philotheus, he adds this: "Nevertheless Pope Simplicius of holy memory, and after him Pope Felix of holy memory, are known often to have rebuked with free authority not only the tyrant Basiliscus but also the Emperor Zeno for these same excesses; and he could have been bent, had he not been inflamed by the instigation of the Prelate of Constantinople, who, having become a partaker in external communion, was now of necessity fostering that into which he had fallen, preferring to persist in the obstinacy of his prevarication rather than to be cured and return to wholesome things, as the outcome of events itself proved."
[4] While these things were being done in the East, the Western Empire came to an end in the consulship of Basiliscus and Armatus, in the 14th Indiction, in the year of Christ 476, after it had been administered within three years by Olybrius, the successor of Anthemius mentioned above, Glycerius,
Julius Nepos, while barbarians ravaged Italy, and finally Momyllus, who was also called Augustulus, was relegated to Campania by Odoacer, King of the Thuringians, who with the Sciri and Heruli as auxiliaries occupied Italy.
We have treated of King Odoacer frequently, especially in the Life of Saint Severinus, Apostle of the Noricans, and of Saint Epiphanius, Bishop of Ticinum, on January 8 and 21. He himself diligently watches over the Church: But as concerns Saint Simplicius, one must consider the tireless solicitude of a true Pastor in averting dangers from every quarter, when no Catholic King at all held dominion over even the smallest province. For the aforementioned Odoacer, an Arian King, had occupied Italy; Gaul was miserably divided between the Goths and Burgundians, also infected with the Arian heresy, and the Franks, still pagans. Africa groaned under the persecution of Genseric, likewise an Arian tyrant. In the Eastern Empire either Zeno, or Basiliscus (who for a time drove him out), held dominion — the latter an open, the former a dissimulating Eutychian heretic. Spain, finally, was miserably oppressed under the yoke of the Goths and other Arian princes. Meanwhile the most vigilant zeal of Pope Saint Simplicius extended to all Catholics established round about on every side; certainly the first letter, by which he entrusted to Zeno, Bishop of Hispalis in Spain, the functions of the Apostolic See in all the churches of Spain, survives — brief in words indeed, but truly full of the Spirit of God — which I here reproduce, and it is as follows: To his most beloved Brother Zeno, Simplicius. He appoints Zeno, Bishop of Hispalis, his Vicar throughout Spain:
We have learned from the report of many, most beloved, that your love, by the fervor of the Holy Spirit, so governs the Church that it suffers no losses from shipwreck, God being its author. Glorying therefore in such evidences, we have deemed it fitting that you be supported by the vicarious authority of our See. Fortified by its vigor, do not permit the decrees of Apostolic institution, or the boundaries set by the holy Fathers, to be transgressed in any way: since he through whom the divine worship has become known to grow in those regions is to be rewarded with a worthy recompense of honor. May God keep you safe, most beloved Brother.
So far the letter: nor should there be any doubt that he had similar solicitude for other churches established throughout the entire Christian world, although this cannot be clearly proved through his letters, most of which we gather from the above-indicated letter of Saint Gelasius to have perished.
[5] The letter placed third among those of Saint Simplicius, addressed to Florentius, Equitius, and Severus, Bishops, [He abrogates from the Bishop of Aufina the right of ordaining and the administration of revenues:] indicates that the right of ordaining was entirely abrogated from Gaudentius, Bishop of the Church of Aufina, and delegated to the nearest Bishop, and that the administration of ecclesiastical revenues was wholly forbidden to him: because he had performed illicit ordinations and had badly divided the revenues of the Church. A precept is also added concerning offerings, that they be divided according to the customary practice of the Church, so that the Bishop receives only one portion from these, the Clergy likewise divides one among themselves according to the merits of each, and two portions are expended on the fabric of the church and on the poor and pilgrims. This letter is recorded as given on the 13th or 14th of the Kalends of December, after the Consulship of Leo Augustus. That year is 475. Aufina, or Aufinum, is a town of Italy among the Vestini, from which the townspeople are called Aufinates by Pliny in Book 3 of his History, chapter 12, and is commonly called Ofena today, situated in the farther Abruzzo, between Aquila, Popoli, and Penne: on which Cluverius should be consulted in Book 2 of his Ancient Italy, chapter 12.
[6] Between the two letters already indicated, the one placed second is that which he wrote to John, Bishop of Ravenna, He rebukes the Bishop of Ravenna for ordaining the Bishop of Modena, whom he sharply rebukes for having ordained a certain Gregory, albeit a reluctant one, as Bishop of Modena, and threatens that he would have used a more severe sentence against him, had he not been restrained by the reasons which Bishop Proiectus presented in person. It is recorded as given on the 3rd of the Kalends of June, in the consulship of Severinus, a most distinguished man. Ferdinandus Ughellus in volume 2 of his Sacred Italy, among the Bishops of Modena, reports that this ordination of Gregory was performed in the year of Christ 477. But it is widely asserted that that year lacked Consuls. The said Bishop of Ravenna is inscribed in the Roman Martyrology at January 12, on which day we gave his Acts from Hieronymus Rubeus, and we noted that with the letter P it seems possible to restore in this letter "Severo V. CL. Cos.," who was Consul in the year 470 with Jordanes, since several subsequent letters were composed before the Consulship of Severinus, which falls in the year 482: to which year, however, Baronius referred that ordination.
Section II. The deeds of Saint Simplicius in defense of the faith against Timothy Aelurus, Peter the Fuller, Peter Mongus, and Acacius.
[7] Among the Patriarchs of the Eastern Churches before the Pontificate of Saint Simplicius, there had been among the Alexandrians Saint Proterius, whose deeds we gave on February 28, and whose death we treated at length in Section III. Against Saint Proterius, Timothy Aelurus was elected by monks stirred up through nocturnal machinations, After Timothy Aelurus, the murderer of Saint Proterius, was expelled, and ordained amid assassins; he then shamelessly anathematized the Council of Chalcedon, and making an assault upon the church, cruelly slew Saint Proterius, who had taken refuge at the baptistery, almost with his own hands; then he ordered the body to be cut into pieces, delivered to fire to be burned, and the ashes scattered to the winds. And because his madness was not yet satisfied, he began to rage against orthodox Bishops and Clerics, condemned both them and Saint Proterius himself with a dire anathema, and erased his name from the Diptychs; indeed he even burned his pontifical throne, and persecuted his relatives as well; finally he dared to strike with the thunderbolt of anathema the Roman Pontiff and the Patriarchs of Constantinople and Antioch. Timothy Salophaciolus, an orthodox man, is ordained Bishop of Alexandria: Wherefore at last, by the judgment of the Bishops, Timothy Aelurus was held to be a tyrant, unworthy of the pontificate, a simoniac, an adulterer of the Church, a parricide. By order therefore of the Emperor Leo he was relegated to Gangra, and because he had begun to stir up disturbances there, to Cherson, which is a remote place in Pontus. Then in his place another Timothy was ordained Bishop of Alexandria, surnamed Leucus, or Salophaciolus, a man, as Theophanes attests, of right views on matters of faith and dear to all on account of the probity of his character. Liberatus in his Breviary on the Nestorian and Eutychian Controversy, chapter 16, reports that this Timothy, the Catholic Bishop, lived quietly without sedition until Basiliscus seized the tyranny. These events belong to the time of the Pontificate of Saint Simplicius.
[8] Then, adds Liberatus, when Basiliscus had seized the Empire, he wrote to the whole world his edict, which he called the Encyclical, against the Council of Chalcedon. For then, Basiliscus restoring the episcopate to Timothy Aelurus, [Aelurus is restored by Basiliscus, and Peter the Fuller at Antioch, both heretics:] and heretics being restored to their sees, Timothy the Catholic fled to the fortress of Canopus and lay hidden in a monastery. With which the following written by Theophanes plainly agrees: Basiliscus, impelled especially by the words of his wife Zenonis, declares war on the right faith. Wherefore he recalled Timothy Aelurus from exile by a published edict, and restored Peter the Fuller, who was lurking in the monastery of the Acoemetae, to his See. Peter the Fuller had invaded the See of Antioch by stirring up the multitude against Bishop Martyrius, and by adding to the Trisagion those words, "Who suffered for us," he had revived the heresy of the Theopaschites. But through the action of Saint Gennadius, Bishop of Constantinople, he was condemned to exile by the Emperor Leo, and had lain hidden in the said monastery of the Acoemetae at Constantinople. But what Theophanes next indicates was done is this: Basiliscus sent Aelurus, furnished with an imperial diploma and hostile to the decrees of the Synod, to Alexandria, and Peter the Fuller to Antioch, the minds of both having been exasperated against the truth and strengthened by his encouragement... When Aelurus arrived at Alexandria, the partisans of his faction shouted to him: "You have fed your enemies, O Papa." He in turn responded: "So it is, I have fed them." In this way that impious man hurled execrations against the Council of Chalcedon. Peter the Fuller, seizing the throne at Antioch, turned himself to stirring up anathemas and tumults. Basiliscus by an edict published removed the Council of Chalcedon and ordered Acacius of Constantinople to carry out the same: The assent of Acacius of Constantinople being prevented by the Clergy and monks: but the crowded populace of the entire city, even of women and children, rushing together against Basiliscus into the Church, prevented the crime... Also the host of Clergy and monks of Constantinople, fighting for the Council of Chalcedon, terrified Acacius, who dissembling his agreement with them, for that reason spoke from the pulpit of the Church against Basiliscus and Zeno. These and other things, which we have omitted, are from Theophanes.
The author of the Breviary of the History of the Eutychianists, edited by Sirmond, who lived at Rome under Saint Simplicius, narrates these events thus: When Basiliscus had seized the empire, he began to condemn the Council of Chalcedon and to persecute the Catholics. Then at last that condemned Timothy, having received his liberty, came to Constantinople and restored the condemned heretics to their places. He goes to Alexandria: Timothy the Catholic flees and hides in a monastery. That Peter again joined himself to Timothy, with whom he had formerly been condemned. So writes that contemporary author.
[9] Nor did the ardent zeal of the Clergy and monks dwelling at Constantinople in defense of the true faith stop here, but by letters sent to Rome they indicated this entire machination to Pope Saint Simplicius: who in his response to them begins his letter thus: Through our son, the praiseworthy man Epiphanius, Saint Simplicius, warned by them, having received the letters of your love later than you wished, we were moved with great sorrow that there within the Church of God recurring fires of scandal are born, where so often they have been extinguished by the authority of the Apostolic See and the sentence of the universal Synod. For to whom in the whole world is the condemnation of Nestorius, Eutyches, and Dioscorus, along with the perversity of their abominable doctrines, not known? To whom is the deposition of Timothy, the invader of the Church of Alexandria, not known? Then, having praised their constancy of faith, indeed even commended it, he concludes the letter with these words: To the most Christian Prince also, and to our Brother and Co-Bishop Acacius, we have at the same time directed appropriate letters: whose silence we do not think should be accused, because knowing the faith of so well-proven a Priest, we hold it certain that what he was silent about was not his own doing. But that your love may more fully know the content of our letters which we sent to the most Christian Prince, we have directed copies by the messenger whom you sent, as he returns. In that letter to the Emperor Zeno he has this: He acts through letters with the restored Zeno that they may be expelled: Just as the writings of monks fervent for the Catholic faith have brought to my knowledge, I have learned that Timothy the parricide... has once more, still stained with blood, invaded the Church of the city of Alexandria, which he had previously stained with priestly blood, by the expulsion of the legitimate Pontiff, etc. He then sets before Zeno the examples of the Emperors Leo and Marcian to be imitated, and what Pope Saint Leo directed as consulted responses to them; and finally concludes thus: Before all things I beseech that the See of Blessed Mark (I speak of the Church of Alexandria) be freed from the brooding of the most bloodthirsty plunderer, reformed for a Catholic Bishop, and equally receive its liberty and peace. But truly let the impious parricide, who is guilty of both divine and human laws, brought back to the same place from which he had formerly been driven by right, be drawn back from the slaughter of innocent souls. Saint Simplicius wrote two other letters to Acacius on this matter; and in the first he exhorts him to resist Timothy Aelurus with every effort, lest a universal Council be held, which Aelurus was urging upon the Emperor, having for that reason traveled from Alexandria to
Constantinople: in the latter he praises Acacius, because no church in Constantinople had been opened to that same Aelurus, and exhorts him to admonish the Emperor not to permit the statutes of the Council of Chalcedon to be violated. This letter has no subscription: the other three were sent at the same time, and are recorded as given on the 3rd, 4th, and 5th of the Ides of January (perhaps June should be read), in the Consulship of Basiliscus Augustus. Baronius, in place of "Augustus Cons.," thinks it should be read "and Armatus Coss.," and refers it to the year 476, and consequently asserts that Timothy Aelurus and Peter the Fuller were recalled and restored to their Sees by Zeno before he was yet expelled. But since it is clearly indicated that this was done by the tyrant Basiliscus by the contemporary author of the Breviary of the History of the Eutychianists, year 477 Liberatus, and Theophanes, we consider that the Consulship of Basiliscus Augustus should be retained, which he appears to have held in the year 477. But since the Empire was taken from him while that year was still in progress, he was also deprived of the honor of the Consulship, and it was then written "after the Consulship of Basiliscus and Armatus": as Saint Simplicius did in the other letter to the Emperor Zeno, written on the 8th of the Ides of October, when the latter, having returned to the imperial power, wrote a letter to Saint Simplicius and issued a most complete profession of the orthodox Catholic faith. And then, what he had previously dissimulated, he congratulates Zeno on his recovered Empire, and exhorts him to reject Aelurus, restore the legitimate Bishop to the See of Alexandria, and see to it that the decrees of Leo and of the Council of Chalcedon be observed. At Rome in a Council he condemns Aelurus. Meanwhile, as the Synodicon attests, Simplicius convened a Roman council, in which, Eutyches, Dioscorus, and Timothy Aelurus being condemned, the holy Council of Chalcedon was confirmed. So writes Philip Labbé in his Synopsis of the Councils, which, reviewed by him with the greatest additions, are now being published: he adds that Timothy Aelurus condemned the Council of Chalcedon in an impious Synod, as the author of the Synodicon attests. This occurred under Basiliscus.
[10] What was then done by the Emperor Zeno concerning the two Bishops restored by the tyrant Basiliscus, Theophanes narrates as follows: When the Fuller was expelled, Stephen succeeds: Zeno held Peter the Fuller in detestation, as one who had favored Basiliscus. By a decree of the Eastern Synod, therefore, he was removed from his dignity, and in his place John was ordained. He too was expelled after three months, and finally his successor Stephen, a man distinguished for his piety, was promoted as Bishop of Antioch. Peter, however, was relegated to Pityus, but eluded his guards and fled to the tutelary shrine of Saint Theodore of the Euchaites. In the meantime Timothy Aelurus dies, and in his place Peter Mongus (ho Mongos in Greek) is introduced, a wicked man and adversary of truth, formerly punished with the penalty of deposition. He was consecrated by one Bishop, and that one likewise deposed. Certain monks, moved by zeal for God, attacked him, overthrew him after he had enjoyed the honor of the Pontificate for only thirty-six days, and once again restored Timothy Salophaciolus, a man worthy of the throne. The author of the Breviary of the History of the Eutychianists narrates these events thus: Zeno returns to power, Basiliscus is crushed. A message is sent to Alexandria that, with the usurper Timothy expelled, After Aelurus died, and the heretic Peter Mongus was ejected, Timothy the Catholic should be restored to the Church: but Timothy the condemned having been anticipated by death, Peter, his associate, was ordained Bishop of Alexandria by one heretic; whom the most Christian Emperor nevertheless ordered to be cast down, as is contained in the letters of Acacius of Constantinople. These are printed before the ninth letter of Saint Simplicius, Saint Simplicius congratulates that the Catholic Timothy was restored: in which he replies to Acacius and congratulates him that Timothy the Catholic had been restored to the Church of Alexandria. But what followed, the same author continues in the Breviary thus: Since very many, whether Clerics, or monks, or persons of secular life, were wholly unwilling to come to the communion of the Catholic Bishop Timothy, the most merciful Emperor terrified all with various edicts. Timothy wrote to Pope Simplicius (saying that Peter had formerly been consigned to the diaconate, and now also removed from Christian fellowship, commanding through Bishop Isaiah), asking that a letter be written to the Emperor concerning Peter, He urges that the Fuller be deported into exile, who was lurking in the city of Alexandria and plotting against the Church, that he be deported to a distant exile. For nearly three years, Pope Simplicius of holy memory did not cease writing to Bishop Acacius, that he should act with the Emperor, and that what Bishop Timothy demanded concerning Peter should be done. A letter was also written to the Prince, but no reply ever came from there. The letter of Saint Simplicius on this matter to Zeno survives as number XII, given on the 10th of the Kalends of November, in the Consulship of Illus, a most distinguished man, therefore in the year of Christ 478. To Acacius, however, numbers X, XI, and XIII were given, and the last indeed on the 16th of the Kalends of November, in the same Consulship of Illus.
[11] The Church of Antioch could not long enjoy the desired repose: concerning which Theophanes reports the following: When Stephen, Bishop of Antioch, died, When Stephen of Antioch died, another Stephen was ordained in his place by command of the Emperor Zeno; whom the enemies of the faith, arming fury in aid of their madness out of their attachment to Peter the Fuller, another Stephen succeeds, soon a Martyr: killed by piercing him with sharpened reed-pens in the baptistery of the holy Martyr Barlaam, and cast him into the Orontes river. This Martyr Stephen is inscribed in the Roman Martyrology at April 25. Zeno furthermore (so Theophanes continues), to avenge the crime committed, ordered Acacius, the Patriarch of Constantinople, to create a Bishop for Antioch. Saint Simplicius approves the ordination of Calandio, the successor: So that this might be approved by the authority of the Roman Pontiff, both Zeno the Emperor and Acacius the Bishop sent letters on this matter to Saint Simplicius. The Pope replied to both, and approves the election of the Bishop of Antioch, since it had been carried out holily and religiously, with love of peace, in the Emperor's favor. It is written as given on the 10th of the Kalends of July, after the Consulship of Illus, a most distinguished man, that is, in the year 479. But who was then elected is not indicated in the Apostolic Letters. Baronius, at the said year, number XII, reports that Stephen the Younger was ordained, as if Stephen the Elder had been slain; but when the latter died in peace (tou koimeethentos), Theophanes asserts that Stephen the Younger was ordained, and then slain, and that Calandio was consecrated by Acacius. In the same manner, in Evagrius, Book 3 of his Ecclesiastical History, chapter 3, it is said that when Stephen was killed, Calandio took the helm of that See, and he induced all who approached him to pronounce anathema both upon Timothy and upon the letters of Basiliscus generally written to all. So writes Evagrius, in whom the said Timothy Aelurus had already died before this. The rest will need to be examined more carefully in the Life of Saint Stephen.
[12] In the same year in which these events concerning the See of Antioch took place, Theophanes writes that Timothy Salophaciolus died at Alexandria: When Timothy of Alexandria died, in whose place John Tabennesiotes, a man learned in letters and a strenuous champion of right doctrines, a Priest and Oeconomus of the Church of Alexandria, was promoted. But afterward, the partisans of Peter Mongus, by bribes and impostures, persuaded Zeno John Tabennesiotes is elected: to expel John Tabennesiotes the Bishop from Alexandria, as though he had been consecrated against his will, and to recall Peter Mongus from the territory of the Euchaites to Alexandria. Then indeed the Henoticon, a decree of peace namely, dictated by Acacius of Constantinople, as some affirm, was issued by Zeno and promulgated throughout all the provinces. Over the protest of the Emperor Zeno, But before Mongus returned to Alexandria, Zeno ordered him to enter into communion with Simplicius the Roman Pontiff and with Acacius. Hence, that they might receive Mongus and expel John, Acacius wrote to the Alexandrians. When John learned of Peter's arrival, although the Clergy and people were prepared to lay down their lives for him and begged him not to depart, reflecting upon the evils that Peter would commit, he prudently and without tumult slipped away from the city. So writes Theophanes; with whom agreeing, the author of the Breviary writes the following: When John, according to the custom of his predecessors, had sent synodical letters to the Apostolic See through the Priest Isidore and the Deacon Peter, upon the arrival of Uranius the subassistant, bringing imperial letters naming John as already Bishop, the Pope was suspended from confirming that episcopate. And because in those same imperial letters he had made mention of restoring Peter, whom the Pope himself had condemned, this part was entirely refused: whence the most merciful Emperor appears to have been offended. What finally the seventeenth letter of Saint Simplicius to Acacius, given on the Ides of July in the Consulship of Severinus, a most distinguished man, in the year of Christ 482, more clearly explains in these words:
[13] Recently a report sent to us in the usual manner from the Egyptian Synod, which was both very numerous and supported by the communion of the Catholic faith, and from almost the entire Clergy of the See of Alexandria, disclosed Saint Simplicius was about to receive him into communion, that a certain Brother and Co-Bishop of ours of holy memory, Timothy, had died, and that in his place, by the unanimous will of the faithful, John had been substituted, in whom all qualifications for the Priesthood were believed to be present; so that nothing at all seemed to remain except that, as we gave thanks to God and rejoiced that without disturbance a Catholic Bishop had succeeded to the ministry of the deceased, the desired confirmation should also receive its strength by the assent of Apostolic governance. When behold, as I was making such arrangements according to custom, the letters of the most tranquil Prince were delivered to me, in which he declared the aforesaid to be unworthy of the Priesthood He is impeded by the Emperor: as one guilty of perjury, which was said not to be unknown to your Fraternity as well. I immediately drew back my foot and revoked my judgment concerning his confirmation, lest I be thought to have done anything rashly against so great and weighty a testimony. But what makes me not a little astonished He complains that Peter Mongus the heretic has been substituted for him, is that in those same letters of his, he should propose Peter — who has long since been proved to have been the associate and leader of heretics (which we recall does not escape the conscience of your love, and we trust that you know the very proofs by which he was refuted, and about whom there is no doubt that he still remains outside Catholic communion, and it is certain that we have often written about expelling him from that city) — for promotion to the governance of the aforesaid Church; and should promise that he will conform to the definitions of the right faith, from whose fellowship, as I said above, he is as much a stranger as he is separated from its communion. If he now strives to return to it, he cannot enter except through the satisfaction befitting Christian rules; and accordingly he should not approach the height of priestly dignity, but be suitably prepared for the healing that is to be granted after repentance: desiring, as one reconciled, the aid of his soul, not aspiring to the rank of the highest honor, who is long convicted of having been perverse; lest under the appearance of one returning he not seek the remedy of sincere salvation, but find the opportunity of propagating wickedness. By which deed we do not so much draw him back from error as inflict destruction upon the faithful, and in that way, violating the statutes of the Council of Chalcedon, we open an entrance for ravening wolves to rage against the Church by a wicked union. So says Saint Simplicius about Peter Mongus in the said letter, which Pope Gelasius repeated in a fragment of a letter edited by Sirmond with the aforesaid Breviary.
[14] On the same day he wrote another letter to the same Acacius, in which he writes this: Having necessarily embraced the Priesthood of our Brother and Co-Bishop Calandio in the bosom of the Apostolic See, we number the Bishop of so great a city in our fellowship through the grace of Christ our God, in the unity of the college. And at Antioch in place of Calandio We are amazed, however, that we have learned nothing about the state of the Church of Alexandria from you informing us: which we now discover to be in such a state that the wicked, taking advantage of the death of Timothy of Alexandria of holy memory, are attempting to hold that same Church captive. Wherefore your love must act with the most merciful Prince, lest what could be maintained in the times of the tyrant Basiliscus be overthrown under his Empire: Peter the Fuller, the heretic: namely when Peter the Fuller, as we said above, had invaded the See of Antioch. Here, with Calandio again removed, he was promoted to that see, and subscribed to Zeno's Henoticon, and wrote synodical letters to Peter Mongus, Bishop of Alexandria, as Pope Gelasius attests in the above-cited letter to the Bishops of Dardania.
[15] Finally Saint Simplicius sent very brief and pointed letters to the same Acacius on the 8th of the Ides of November, in the same Consulship of Severinus, and attempted to rouse him against the heretics: but in vain. For, as the oft-cited author of the Breviary well writes, In vain he admonishes Acacius, since the writings of Pope Simplicius of holy memory, so often directed to Acacius for the peace of the Church of Alexandria and the integrity of the Catholic faith, accomplished nothing, the said holy John, Bishop of Alexandria, arrived in person; who, as was fitting, was received by the Apostolic See. For his predecessors likewise had sought the refuge of the Roman Church in time of persecution. His arrival more fully disclosed everything. When we read to him the letters of Acacius, which he had sent concerning Peter the Fuller and John of Antioch, Acacius adhering to both heretics: he detected also in this matter the most serious transgressions of Acacius. For at that time when he had reported about the condemned Peter Mongus of Alexandria, not long afterward he had also written about Peter the Fuller and John... This Peter had ordained him Bishop of Apamea; but not being received by them, he came to Antioch, drove out Peter the author of his episcopate, and invaded his Church. This is that Peter of Antioch, says Gelasius in the second fragment in Sirmond, whom even Acacius requested the Apostolic See to receive into Catholic communion, not even through penance. Evidently, as he had said before, Acacius communicated with the Alexandrian Peter. But as long as the Antiochene Peter lived, who is shown to have died after the Acacian pact entered into with the Alexandrian Peter, the Alexandrian Peter never ceased communicating with the Antiochene Peter. This the report of the Catholic Priests and of the rest persisting in the Catholic faith contains, nor can it be hidden from the conscience of the whole East.
What was subsequently done against the three Bishops of the East, and against the Emperor Zeno and his Henoticon, we have related on February 25 in the Life of Saint Felix III, who succeeded Saint Simplicius after his death in the year 483; indeed what Liberatus reports in chapter 18 pertains to both, in these words: Although for five years Acacius had been repeatedly admonished to relieve the solicitude of the holy Pope Simplicius concerning the state of the Church of Alexandria and the integrity of the Catholic faith, he never deigned to respond at all.
Section III. The deeds of Saint Simplicius in the City of Rome. Death. Sacred cult.
[16] Amid his universal solicitude for all the Churches, Saint Simplicius attended with singular care to his own city of Rome: in which various deeds accomplished by him are narrated by Anastasius Bibliothecarius, and first of all he records the following: At Rome he dedicates various basilicas. He dedicated the basilica of Saint Stephen on the Caelian Hill in the City of Rome, and the basilica of Blessed Andrew the Apostle near the basilica of Saint Mary, and another basilica of Saint Stephen near the basilica of Saint Lawrence, and another basilica within the City near the Licinian Palace, of the blessed Martyr Bibiana, where her body rests. That a certain pagan temple had been left on the Caelian Hill, which Simplicius converted into the basilica of Saint Stephen by adding a new vault and other ornaments, we learn from Pompeius Ugonius. Saint Stephen on the Caelian Hill, Saint Gregory the Great established two Stations in this basilica, namely on December 26, the feast of Saint Stephen, and among the Lenten Stations, which is held on the Friday after Passion Sunday. In the same basilica Gregory delivered Homily 4 on the Gospels; and he adorned it with the title of Cardinal Priest: in it also, in the time of Pope Theodore, the bodies of the holy Martyrs Primus and Felicianus were deposited, and gifts offered by that Pontiff, as the same Anastasius reports, and this will be treated more fully on the day of their feast, June 9. Concerning the second basilica, Platina has this: He dedicates a basilica to Andrew the Apostle not far from the church of Saint Mary Major; in which Saint Andrew near Saint Mary Major, certain traces of antiquity still appear, which I have very often inspected with weeping on account of the negligence of those to whom those very churches, already threatening ruin, have been entrusted. In this church I recall reading these verses inscribed in mosaic:
This property a devoted mind decreed for You, O Christ, To whom that testator brought his own wealth: And Pope Simplicius, fitting it for sacred heavenly rites, Made it truly to be of Your gift: Lest the lights of the Apostles be lacking to us, He composed it under the name of the Martyr Andrew. This Church, as lawful heir, uses these titles, And succeeding to the house, establishes its sacred rights. Come, devoted people, and through these transactions learn That heavenly kingdoms are sought by earthly treasure.
Ciaconius reports that this basilica of Saint Andrew was also founded by Saint Simplicius, and is seen today joined to the church of Saint Anthony. The fourth basilica (for concerning the third nothing occurs to be noted) still exists at the present day, which Urban VIII restored, Saint Bibiana, the bodies of Saints Bibiana, Demetria, and Dafrosa having been found in it and placed under the high altar, as we read in the Roman Breviary in the Lessons on Saint Bibiana at December 2. Saint Dafrosa, mother of Saint Bibiana, is venerated on January 4, and her sister Demetria on June 21.
[17] In second place Anastasius narrates these things accomplished by Saint Simplicius at Rome: He established at Saint Peter the Apostle, and at Saint Paul the Apostle, and at Saint Lawrence the Martyr, a weekly rotation, so that Priests would remain there on account of penitents and baptism. He establishes weekly priests for baptism and penance. The third Region at Saint Lawrence, the first Region at Saint Paul, the sixth or seventh Region at Saint Peter. But above, from the manuscript of Queen Christina of Sweden, we have published that Priests were to remain on account of baptism and penance, those requesting from the first Region at Saint Paul, from the third Region at Saint Lawrence, from the seventh Region at Saint Peter. Where Baronius observes that these weekly rotations were established because they had to succeed one another in turn on account of the throng of people: which and other matters can be read in his work. A third benefit conferred on the Romans is narrated by Anastasius as follows: He made for the Roman Church a golden chalice weighing five pounds. He gives golden and silver gifts to the churches: Silver vessels for Blessed Peter the Apostle, sixteen, each weighing twelve pounds. A fourth benefit, conferred on the universal Church, is added and indicated thus: He performed three ordinations in the months of December and February, ordaining fifty-nine Priests, He confers Orders, eleven Deacons, and thirty-seven Bishops for various places. In the manuscript of Queen Christina of Sweden it is said he performed ordinations in the month of December, three times, ordaining fifty-seven Priests, eleven Deacons, and eighty-two Bishops for various places. Platina has nearly the same number.
[18] Finally he is said to have been buried in the basilica of Saint Peter the Apostle on the 6th of the Nones of March, Buried in Saint Peter's; relics at Tivoli: Sacred cult on March 2, and the episcopate was vacant for six days. Baronius notes in his remarks on the Roman Martyrology at this March 2 that his sacred relics are held at Tivoli, and that his feast day is celebrated there, where it is recorded thus: At Rome, Saint Simplicius, Pope and Confessor. Nearly the same words are read in the ancient manuscript Martyrologies of Saint Mary of Utrecht and another, which is preserved in the Carmelite house at Cologne. In the manuscript of Saint Lambert at Liège, under the name of Bede, and in the Brussels manuscript of Saint Gudula, it is added: Who sat for fifteen years. In whose place, however, in the manuscript of Saint Paulinus at Trier, one reads: Who condemned Acacius, Bishop of Constantinople, and Peter of Alexandria, as Eutychians. His name is absent from the better manuscripts of Bede and Usuard. In the printed Bede the following is read: And of Simplicius the Pope, who sat for fifteen years. He condemned Acacius, Bishop of Constantinople, and Peter, Bishop of Alexandria, as Eutychians. The same is found in the manuscript Ado of Lobbes, of Saint Lawrence at Liège, and another codex of Queen Christina of Sweden, likewise in the edition printed by Mosander, which Rosweyde transferred to the Appendix. In certain manuscripts under the name of Usuard it is added: Who also decreed that no Pontiff should appoint his own successor. In the manuscript Florarium it is added that he died in the year of salvation 485 and was buried in the Vatican near the body of Blessed Peter the Apostle.
Galesini praises him for having illuminated the Church with pontifical virtues and writings. Maurolycus adorns him with a longer encomium, drawn largely from Platina: Likewise of Simplicius the Pope, who divided the City into five Churches, namely those of Saints Peter, Paul, John, Lawrence, and Saint Mary Major; and declared that of the ecclesiastical revenues one part is due to the Bishop, another to the fabric, a third to the poor, and the last to the Clergy. In the Prague manuscript he is recorded on the very Kalends of March, and to the above-related encomia is added: March 1 and 3. He also decreed that no Cleric should receive investitures from a layman. In the encomium taken above from the Codex of Queen Christina of Sweden he is said to have been buried on the 5th of the Nones of March, on which day in the ancient manuscript Martyrology of Aachen is read the name of Simplex the Confessor, which we consider to refer to Saint Simplicius.
Some commemoration of Saint Simplicius was also held in the Church of Utrecht and Brussels, as is gathered from their own ancient Breviaries. Whether an arm bone is in Moravia: In the Lipsanography of Vienna in Austria and of the city of Brno in Moravia, it is said that at Brno in the church of the Society of Jesus is preserved an arm bone of Saint Simplicius the Pope, but as a Martyr. Whence whether it can be considered that of this Pontiff and Confessor, we leave in doubt.