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Historian Warren Carroll writes :
“In September 540 Pope Vigilius made his new orientation public
by proclaiming his total support for the Tome of
Pope Leo I.
[And, he solemnly ratified] the decrees of the synod at
Constantinople which the “most holy” Pope Agapitus
had called in 536 AD, just before his death, [and
thus,] anathematizing the Monophysites Anthimus and
Severus. …
On this issue Justinian and Theodora were united, and action
was swift. On November 22, 545 Pope Vigilius was
arrested while saying Mass at the church of Saint
Cecilia in Rome, on her feast day, over her corrupt
body.
(The last Pope arrested while saying Mass had been the martyr
Sixtus II during the persecution of Valerian in the
third century, commemorated ever since in the Roman
canon of the Mass.)
The glorious, exquisite Saint Cecilia and the magnificently
heroic Pope St. Sixtus II were a new kind of
spiritual company for Vigilius; surely he rejoiced
in it, and found strength and inspiration in their
memory and example which the circumstances of his
arrest called up.
He was to need all their strength and inspiration. For Pope
St. Sixtus II’s martyrdom was over in half an hour,
Saint Cecilia’s in a week or two, but that of Pope
Vigilius lasted 10 years. ...
Justinian ... brought the Pope to Greece in the fall of 546
and the Constantinople in January 547. …
Vigilius tried to match wits with Justinian and Theodora and
found himself woefully outclassed. He knew very
well why he was there; soon after his arrival in
Constantinople he said: “Do with me what you wish.
This is the just punishment for what I have done.”
He feared no threats now; when they warned him of long
imprisonment and much suffering he responded
splendidly: “You may keep me in captivity but the
blessed Apostle Peter will never be your captive!”
…
Frustrated and exasperated, Justinian finally issued another
statement of his own against the Three Chapters in
July 551, demanding that at least the Eastern
bishops sign it.
Vigilius responded by announcing that all who did sign it
would be excommunicated - not because the Three
Chapters were orthodox, but because the council and
the Pope, not the Emperor personally, alone had the
power and the right to make the final determination
of their orthodoxy or lack of it.
Many bishops gave their assent to the imperial statement and
were consequently excommunicated by Vigilius. …
Above all, Pope Vigilius had the duty of preserving the
independence of the church against Emperor
Justinian, in a unique position of influence as the
world’s only really civilized Christian ruler.
To the discharge of that duty Vigilius brought not a single
worldly resource, not any credit from his past
history. In this world, for this purpose, he had no
one to rely on but himself; and Vigilius’ self was a
broken reed.
There remained only the Lord. ...
Justinian … put Vigilius into close confinement on the island
of Proconnesos in the Sea of Marmara on a diet of
bread and water. All the Pope’s staff were likewise
imprisoned.
From June to December 553 Vigilius was on Proconnesos,
repeatedly in agony from kidney stones.
He may have reflected that this was about the same length of
time it had taken Pope Silverius to die of
starvation on Palmaria. Whatever Justinian said, it
was clear that a schism - perhaps a lasting one -
was at hand …
Part of Vigilius’
white martyrdom was that this man,
who
refused under the impulse of the Holy Spirit
to
deliver the Papacy he had sold to its enemies,
and
held out for ten years in captivity, has gone down
in history as a trimmer to the end.
Satisfied at last, Justinian released Vigilius from
confinement, and … sent him back to Italy.
But Vigilius never saw Rome again. He died in agony from his
kidney stones, on the way home [at Syracuse in
Sicily June 7, 555]
at last after 10 years of exile
…”
End Quote from
Warren Carroll’s A History of Christendom, volume 2, The
Building of Christendom pages 161 - 178
Emperor Constans II Vs Pope Martin I,
649- 653 AD.
Pope
Martin I
accepted consecration as Pope only after his
election as such and before the Emperor Constans II
[641-668 AD] could give him the traditional imperial
recognition.
The Emperor tried to use this fact that the Pope Martin I
failed to secure his approval as grounds to assert
that the new Pope was not legitimate, however the
Emperor had no canonical right to do so.
The Pope may have done this on purpose to demonstrate his
independence of the Emperor.
Although the Council of Chalcedon, in 451 AD, condemned the
heresy of Monophysitism there grew out that another
heresy of Monothelitism when the Byzantine Empire
tried to reconcile the first error with orthodox
Catholics.
This led to much tension between the Emperor and the Pope.
Olympius was the Byzantine Exarch [governor] in Italy. He was sent
by the Byzantine Emporer to
bring about Pope Martin’s death.
The plan was to kill the Pope by the Exarch’s
sword-bearer at the moment the Pope was giving him
Holy Communion.
This would be assassin was suddenly struck blind, and this
either brought about his conversion or at least it
held him in check.
The forgiving Pope and his would be killer were reconciled.
On June 15, 653 the new exarch, Theodore Colliopas,
was ordered by the Emperor Constans II to take his
troops to Rome and to take Pope Martin I as
prisoner.
Pope Martin refused to
resist arrest for fear that the Roman people would
be injured in defending him.
Pope Martin was arrested in Rome at the Lateran
Basilica, Rome's Cathedral, in June 653 AD.
Suffering from gout he was forced on a long and painful route
to Constantinople, the capital of the Byzantine
Empire.
No one was permitted to help him although the people of city
of Naxos tried. He arrived at Constantinople on
September 17, 654 AD.
Upon entering the capital he was insulted by the populace.
At this time he was imprisoned again for 3 more
months.
He wrote :
For forty-seven days no water, whether hot or
cold, has been given me with which to wash
myself, and with dysentery, which up to the
present has never left me either on ship or on
land, I have gone quite cold. And in this hour
of my dire trouble … my nature sickens at what I
am given to eat. But I trust in the power of
God, who sees everything, that when I am dead He
will bring home their doings to those who
persecute me, that so at least they may be led
to repent and be
converted.
18”
Warren Carroll’s A History of Christendom, volume 2, The
Building of Christendom, page
244
He
was forced into a packed court to answer for the
charge, not of defending orthodoxy, but of treason.
He was also falsely accused of not honoring Mary as the Mother
of God among other things.
His accusers so badly contradicted themselves that Pope Martin
asked that they not be put under oath so that they
could avoid committing the deadly sin of perjury.
He was publicly stripped of almost all of his garments so that
his naked flesh showed through. His tunic was
ripped from top to bottom.
Emperor Constans was merciless toward this man who had defied
his power.
The Pope was sentenced to death and was sent back to prison
bleeding from his legs and dragging the heavy chains
that were placed around his neck.
The Patriarch Paul who had set him on this fatal course was
himself approaching death.
Fearing his own Judgment before God, and with almost his dying
breath he pleaded with the Emperor to commute the
sentence to permanent exile to Crimea [Russia].
Before being sent to Russia, one last attempt was made to
persuade the Pope to recognize the Monothelite
church in the capital.
Pope Martin defending the truth of the Incarnation
responded, “Even if I should be cut into pieces, I
would not communicate with the Church in
Constantinople [as it now is].”
After the martyrdom of Pope St. Martin the
emissaries of the Emperor came to Abbot Maximus in
August 656 AD.
They
tried to persuade him, but the holy Abbot would
accept nothing less than their full submission to
the new Pope Eugenius I and the acceptance of the
decrees of Pope Martin’s Lateran synod.
Warren Carroll writes:
This was too much for men who were at best half
repentant.
Maximus therefore received the following
communication in September 656, whose opening
phrase goes far to suggest why the great scourge
had come upon Christendom:
“Know,
lord abbot,
that when we get a little rest
from this rout of heathens
[the Muslims],
by the Holy Trinity,
we will treat you as we are treating the
Pope who is now lifted up, and all the
talkers there, and the rest of your
disciples. And we will roast you all, each
in his own place, as Pope Martin has been
roasted.
28”
Warren Carroll’s A History of Christendom,
volume 2, The Building of Christendom, page
246
You can see this battle for freedom and Independence for the
Church from the power and control of the emperors
being played out even until the last half of the
11th century.
Pope
Leo IX
[1049 -54 AD] worked to correct these abuses.
Pope
Nicholas II
[1059 - 1061 AD] , one of his successors, at the
Lateran synod of 1059 decreed that from then on the
Pope was to be elected by the Cardinals, approved by
the rest of the clergy, and acclaimed by the
people.
The Emperor, however, could only give a generic assent after
the election was over and done with.
Pope
Gregory VII [1073-85] who before he was elected as Pope had been the
soul of the reform movement to correct abuses. He
was elected as Pope in 1073 AD.
He was intensely moral and uncompromising, determined to
attack abuses at the root.
In 1075 he forbade any secular power to appoint bishops or
concede the investiture of an abbey, under the
penalty of excommunication.
This bold move affirmed the Church’s independence from State
domination and control.
So, instead of the Catholic Popes trying to control the State,
it was the State, the Emperors who were trying to
control the Church.
SDA
Adventist claim 538 – 1798, 1260 years prove the
Papacy is the Anti-Christ
Part
1.
538 AD
Part
2. this
page
Part
3.
God’s Gift
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