Benedict II

ON SAINT BENEDICT II

ROMAN PONTIFF.

IN THE YEAR DCLXXXV

Benedictus II Pontifex Romanus (S.)

By the author D. P.

[1] By the ecclesiastical Office under a double rite on this VII of May, at Rome in the sacrosanct Vatican Basilica of S. Peter the Apostle, is celebrated the feast of S. Benedict II the Pope, Sacred cultus on the 7th day of May, whose sacred body in the said basilica is kept. All things in the said Office are prescribed from the Common, with Gloria and Credo in the Mass, and the Office of S. Stanislaus is transferred to the next day not impeded. His sacred memory is in the present Roman Martyrology in these words: At Rome of S. Benedict the Pope and Confessor, and in the Notes it is indicated, this to be the second of this name, the Younger called. There is vacant on this day the genuine Martyrology of Bede: accordingly to this is substituted that in which is made mention of S. Benedict. To the MS. Martyrology of Usuard in Alsace augmented, toward the end this elogium is appended: On the same day at Rome the deposition of S. Benedict the Pope the second, who from his beginning age in the church soldiered, and always of poverty peace died under Constantine the fourth. Similar things are read, and indeed in the first place, in the Martyrology of Cologne and Lübeck in the year 1490 printed; likewise in Notker, the author of the MS. Florarium, Molanus in the first edition of the Additions to Usuard, Galesinius, Canisius, Ghinius in the Natales of the Canonical Saints, Bucelinus in the Benedictine Menology and others. But on the morrow, or on the eighth day of May, he is commemorated by Greven in the Additions to Usuard, by Maurolycus also and Felicius. Again on the day VI of May some Benedict Bishop is indicated in the said Greven, which we judge to this Pope Benedict to be attributed.

in his History on the Lives of the Roman Pontiffs: and them we give collated with the MS. Deeds of the highest Pontiffs to Martin V brought down, the author James Zeno a Venetian Patrician, then Bishop of Feltre and Padua. From the same Lives Luitprand, Abbo, Platina, and others their things drew. In these he is said buried under the day VIII of the Ides of May, on which him in some calendars ascribed to be we have annotated; which others thus seem to have understood, as if consequent it would be, him the day before or two days before to have died; and therefore to the day VII or VI of May his memory to have referred. I on the occasion of the Pontifical History, from the heretics' calumnies vindicated by P. Cornelius Hazaert, and lately in our Belgian tongue published, that to the man, for confuting the heterodox long since most well of the Church deserving, I might explain the chronological in this argument difficulties; whence in the time of his See to be arranged crept in an error and that of the Ecclesiastical history basis, to our whole work necessarily to be laid under, once solidly placed I might have; not only that part, which before the preceding April to the light of the old Catalogues, even to Boniface II is had digested, to be reviewed I took: but the rest also of the Pontifical history, by similar Catalogues' and other old monuments' aid, to be arranged. But this doing most clearly I found, that to Baronius and others greatest darknesses were spread from this that from the day of deposition or solemn obsequies, which mostly alone is noted in the Catalogues and in Anastasius, the Pontiffs' times to be measured they thought: when by several often, not only of days but also of weeks and sometimes of months interval there differed the days of death from the days of deposition or solemn obsequies.

[3] That rule therefore so fallacious being laid aside, I endeavored by another way into the true of times knowledge to come; which by another way more certainly is determined, and the of some Pontiffs certain and indubitable beginning and end being noted, I tried whether by the spaces of years, months and days to each one's Pontificate assigned, and by described by Anastasius and others Interpontifical periods, some could a chronotaxis be arranged, which then at length good and true would be reckoned, when with the irrefragable those which I had found of certain Pontificates' boundaries on all sides it agreed. But this so to have succeeded for me I think, that with all almost the Pontifical and Interpontifical limits safe, which the ancients to us prescribed, in how very few to be changed something I may seem to conclude: when others by another walking way, in single almost they esteem to lie hidden errors, nor by any however agreeing of the Catalogues' numbers to stand it to be able.

[4] It will be perhaps when in this manner digested of the Roman Pontiffs to us even Chronological series, and the difficulties which the predecessor's time intricated being explained, before some month of this work, the whole will be read: now I indicate the difficulty of arranging the Pontificate, of which we treat, to arise from the preceding Pontificate's perplexity so great, that Labbe ours in the new Councils' edition confesses, in the whole of the Roman Pontiffs' series scarcely anything, in the ancient and recent memory's writers, to occur more intricate, in the beginning, deeds and death of Leo the Pope II. These I that I might extricate, by an exercise to the said Pontificate singular, I showed, the difficulties all from the midst to be taken away by a simple of two chronotaxes conversion, so that the aforesaid Leo (who is read after the See vacant's year I, months VII, days V, to have sat months X days XVII) be said

ordained after months X days XVII of the See vacant, and to have presided over the Church a year I months VII days V. By such reckoning after Agatho, on I December of the year DCLXXXI dead, but with solemn obsequies honored in the following year on the day XX of February, when he is venerated; ordained was S. Leo, in the year DCLXXXII, XIX of October on a Sunday, and died XXIII of May in the year DCLXXXIV. Accordingly nothing will hinder, whereby less he received now as Pontiff the Divale of the Emperor, written XIII of December in Indiction XI, and so in the year DCLXXXII ending; and in the same times, on the day XXVI of April of the same Indiction XI, after the Lord's Supper, which then on such a day fell, happened that great eclipse of which makes mention Anastasius; and finally of the letters by him to the Toledan Synod sent the bearer, into Spain having put in in the month of December of the ending year DCLXXXIII or in January next following, he himself still living those delivered, as suppose the Acts of the Synod XIV, excusing on XVIII of the Kalends of December in the Era DCCXXII that is in the year of Christ DCLXXXIV, that concerning the business by those letters commended until then to convene it had deferred, on account of the recent before the dissolved synod and the rigid winter.

[5] after the interpontificate of m. 10 d. 22 After Leo's death, by one only month to have been vacant the See writes Baronius, and indeed Anastasius being alleged, of whom however the exemplars all constantly have months XI days XXII: but the cause of so long-lasting a vacation, that others were lacking, it is easy to refer to the great age of the Emperor Constantine Pogonatus, for expediting business less apt, and already then perhaps by that disease depressed, by which also he died, within the fifteenth month from the death of Leo the Pope. Meanwhile Benedict, according to the now placed reckonings, Benedict ordained 14 May 685 and the Interpontificate's space by Anastasius defined, ordained was XIV of May of the year DCLXXXV, on a Sunday (which I know not whether anyone before me has observed everywhere practiced, and in our chronology scarcely ever fails except for an apparent cause) and since he sat, according to the same Anastasius, months X days XII, consequent will be that he died on the day XXV of March, of the year DCLXXXVI, in the Lateran church for a while deposited, until in the Vatican was prepared a place, he died 25 March 686 to which first in the month of May the translated body from Anastasius is understood. From hence moreover excellently follows the Pontificate of John V, and the preceding See's chronology confirms. For when this is said to have been vacant months II days XV, ordained John was in the same year X of June, and John succeeded 10 June. which then rightly a Sunday was: and through a year I days XI, which to his See are attributed, he came even to XX of June of the year DCLXXXVI, which against the Baronian Chronotaxis, by which in the preceding year to have died it is established, certain makes the Divale by Justinian the Emperor to John given XIII of the Kalends of March, in his year II, Indiction XV.

[6] His Epitaph The Epitaph of S. Benedict gave Paul de Angelis, in his Notes to the old Vatican Basilica by a Roman Canon described, which is of this kind.

Great to your own, Benedict Father, monuments you leave, The titles of virtues, O glory and grief! In the likeness of a lightning-flash with the mind's splendor you gleam, But more things in a small time begun flow away. All the Priests' excellent offices you fulfill: And by whatever good each one shone you alone have. Indeed because from a small one by radiant merits augmented, By the right of the Fathers the Pontifical throne you cherish, Not this does ambition of a snatched honor furnish you: It is the fruit of your disposition, which honor accompanies. And because skillfully Christ the King's troops as Pastor you rule, Receive of the saved flock the lofty rewards.

[7] Lucas Holstenius, in the Animadversions to the Roman Martyrology for the months April, May and June, in various places alleges an old Calendar, The Translation 22 April. at Rome in the cloister of the Priory of Malta on the Aventine mount on the wall painted, and from it at VIII of the Kalends of May these words he reports: Of Liberius the Pope, of Benedict the Pope: and in the very old of the Barberini Library Martyrology we read the same in this manner joined, at the same day, At Rome of S. Liberius the Pope, who is XXXI; and of Benedict the Pope, who is LXXXI. There is indeed an error in the numbers, since Liberius in order is XXXVII, Benedict LXXXIII; it appears however sufficiently this of that name the second to be understood, not the first, who was only LXIV. From that of both thus equally noted commemoration, another to establish nothing we can, than that in such a month and day made was a common some of both translation, perhaps by S. Sergius the Pope, after years XVI succeeding, whose style, from the epitaph of Ceadwalla the King to be recognized, not ill resembles that, which to Benedict written we have exhibited. But also S. Paschal the Pope and Sergius the younger, in the procuring of such kind translations and epitaphs to be written, zeal not mediocre to have put are found.

LIFE

From Anastasius the Librarian.

Benedictus II Pontifex Romanus (S.)

By the author D. P.

Benedict the Younger, by nation a Roman, from his father John sat months a ten days twelve. This one from his beginning age b to the Church soldiered, and himself so in the divine Scriptures and the chant from a puerile age and in the Priesthood's dignity exhibited, for his Holy life elected, as befits a man worthy of his name: in whom truly of the supernal blessing's grace redounded, both in name equally and in works, that worthy to the Pontifical governance he should come. pious, he restores and adorns churches: benign, patient and to all compassion having and a hand most large. He the church of B. Peter the Apostle, but also of B. Laurence the Martyr, which is called d of Lucina, restored. And likewise in the church e of B. Valentine on the Via Flaminia he made in the circuit g a Palergium gold-keyed most precious: similarly also in the church of B. Mary ad Martyres another covering of porphyry with a cross and h little gems, four gold-keyed and in the circuit a Palergium of all-silk most beautiful: and also in the aforesaid title of Lucina another covering adorned all-silk. He made but chalices of gold ministerial two, weighing each a pound each. He received the divine commands of the most Clement Constantine the great Prince to the venerable Clergy and people and most happy army of the Roman city, grateful to Constantine the Emperor, through which he conceded, that the person who elected shall have been to the Apostolic See, forthwith without delay be ordained. He together with the Clergy and army received Heraclius the sons of the most Clement Prince, at the same time also In his times appeared a star, by night beside l the Vergiliae; by day the heaven serene, between the Nativity of the Lord and the Theophany, in every way obscured, like the moon under a cloud. And likewise in the month of February, after the birthday of S. Valentine, on the day from the setting went forth a star at noon, and into the parts of the East declined. After these things the mount m Bebius, which is in Campania, in the month of March belched by day, and all places round about on account of the dust of that ash's cinder were destroyed. The Clergy namely in diverse orders