The Formation of Christendom, Volume VI - The Holy See and the Wandering of the Nations, from St. Leo I to St. Gregory I

T. W. (Thomas William) Allies

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• Publié le: 08 décembre 2010
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• Langue: English

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Formation of Christendom, Volume
VI, by Thomas W. (Thomas William)
Allies
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Title: The Formation of Christendom, Volume VI
The Holy See and the Wandering of the Nations, from St. Leo I to St. Gregory I
Author: Thomas W. (Thomas William) Allies
Release Date: June 28, 2009 [eBook #29268]
Language: English
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T H E H O L Y S E EAND
THE WANDERING OF THE NATIONS
FROM ST. LEO I. TO ST. GREGORY I.
BY
THOMAS W. ALLIES, K.C.S.G.
AUTHOR OF THE "FORMATION OF CHRISTENDOM"; "CHURCH AND STATE AS SEEN
IN THE FORMATION OF CHRISTENDOM"; "THE THRONE OF THE FISHERMAN";
"A LIFE'S DECISION"; AND "PER CRUCEM AD LUCEM"


LONDON: BURNS & OATES, Limited
NEW YORK: CATHOLIC PUBLICATION SOCIETY CO.
1888
THE LETTERS OF THE POPES AS SOURCES OF
HISTORY.
Cardinal Mai has left recorded his judgment that, "in matter of fact, the whole
[1]administration of the Church is learnt in the letters of the Popes".
I draw from this judgment the inference that of all sources for the truths of history
none are so precious, instructive, and authoritative as these authentic letters
contemporaneous with the persons to whom they are addressed. The first
which has been preserved to us is that of Pope St. Clement, the contemporary
of St. Peter and St. Paul. It is directed to the Church of Corinth for the purpose
of extinguishing a schism which had there broken out. In issuing his decision
the Pope appeals to the Three Divine Persons to bear witness that the things
which he has written "are written by us through the Holy Spirit," and claims
obedience to them from those to whom he sends them as words "spoken by
[2]God through us".
If the decisions of the succeeding Popes in the interval of nearly two hundred
[Pg vi]and fifty years between this letter of St. Clement, about the year 95, and the
great letter of St. Julius to the Eusebianising bishops at Antioch in 342, hadbeen preserved entire, the constitution of the Church in that interval would have
shone before us in clear light. In fact, we only possess a few fragments of some
of these decisions, for there was a great destruction of such documents in the
persecution which occupied the first decade of the fourth century. But from the
time of Pope Siricius, in the reign of the great Theodosius, a continuous, though
not a perfect, series of these letters stretches through the succeeding ages.
There is no other such series of documents existing in the world. They throw
light upon all matters and persons of which they treat. This is a light proceeding
from one who lives in the midst of what he describes, who is at the centre of the
greatest system of doctrine and discipline, and legislation grounded upon both,
which the world has ever seen. One, also, who speaks not only with a great
knowledge, but with an unequalled authority, which, in every case, is like that of
no one else, but can even be supreme, when it is directed with such a purpose
to the whole Church. Every Pope can speak, as St. Clement, the first of this
series, speaks above, claiming obedience to his words as "words spoken by
God through us".
In a former volume I made large use of the letters of Popes from Siricius to St.
Leo. I have continued that use for the very important period from St. Leo to St.
Gregory. Especially in treating of the Acacian schism I have gone to the letters
[Pg vii]of the Popes who had to deal with it—Simplicius, Felix III., Gelasius,
Anastasius II., Symmachus, and Hormisdas. I have done the same for the
important reign of Justinian; most of all for the grand pontificate of St. Gregory,
which crowns the whole patristic period and sums up its discipline.
I am, therefore, indebted in this volume, first and chiefly, to the letters of the
Popes and the letters addressed to them by emperors and bishops, stored up in
Mansi's vast collection of Councils (1759, 31 volumes). I am also much
indebted to Cardinal Hergenröther's work Photius, sein Leben, und das
griechische Schisma, and to his Handbuch der allgemeinen
Kirchengeschichte, as the number of quotations from him will show. Again, I
may mention the two histories of the city of Rome, by Reumont and
Gregorovius, as most valuable. I acknowledge many obligations to Riffel's
Geschichtliche Darstellung des Verhältnisses zwischen Kirche und Staat, with
regard to the legislation of Justinian. The edition of Justinian referred to by me
is Heimbach's Authenticum, Leipsic, 1851. I have consulted Hefele's
Conciliengeschichte where need was. I have found Kurth's Origines de la
Civilisation moderne instructive. I have used the carefully emended and
supplemented German edition of Röhrbacher's history, by various writers—
Rump and others. St. Gregory is quoted from the Benedictine edition.
As these works are indicated in the notes as they occur with the single name of
the author, I have given here their full titles.
[Pg viii]The present volume is the sixth of the Formation of Christendom, though it has
a special title indicating the particular part of that general subject which it treats.
I have, therefore, added to the numbering of the chapters in the Table of
Contents the number which they hold in the whole work.
September 11, 1888.
NOTES:
[1] Nova Patrum bibliotheca, p. vi.: In Pontificum reapse epistolis tota
ecclesiæ administratio cognoscitur.
[2] See p. 351 below; also Church and State, pp. 198-200, for the full
statement of this passage.TABLE OF CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I. (XLIII.).
The Holy See and the Wandering of the Nations.
PAGE
Introduction. Connection with Volume V. St. Leo's
action, 1
Denial of the Primacy as acknowledged at
Chalcedon suicidal on the part of those who believe
in the Church, 3
Subject of this volume as compared with the fifth, 5
The second wonder in human history, 6
The acknowledgment of the Primacy and the political
powerlessness of the city of Rome coeval, 6
The three hundred years from Genseric to Astolphus, 9
St. Leo in Rome after Genseric, 10
Political condition of Rome. Avitus emperor, 455-6, 13
Majorian emperor, 457-461, 14
Death of Pope Leo; changes seen by him in his life, 15
Hilarus Pope and Libius Severus emperor, 461-465, 16
The over-lordship of Byzantium admitted in the
choice of the Greek Anthemius as emperor, 467, 18
Sidonius Apollinaris an eye-witness of Rome's
splendour, subjection to Byzantium, and unchanged
habits in 467, 19
Anthemius murdered and Rome plundered by
Ricimer, 472, 20
Olybrius emperor, 472; Ricimer and Olybrius die of
the plague, 20
Glycerius emperor, 473; Nepos, 474; Romulus
Augustulus, 475, 21
The senate declares to the eastern emperor that an
[Pg x]emperor of the West is needless, 22
The twenty-one years' death-agony of imperial Rome, 23
State of the western provinces since the death of
Theodosius I., 24
The first and the second victory of the Church, 25
The effect produced by the wandering of the nations, 26
The Visigoth and Ostrogoth migrations, 27
Gaul overrun by Teuton invaders, 28
Arianism propagated by the Goths among the other
tribes, 29
Burgundian kingdom of Lyons. Spain overrun, 30
The Vandals in North Africa and their persecution of
Catholics, 31
The Hunnish inroads, 33
All the western provinces under Teuton governments, 35
Odoacer and Theodorick, 36
Odoacer succeeded by Theodorick after the capture
of Ravenna, 38
The character of Theodorick's reign, 39His fairness towards the Roman Church and Pontiff, 40
The contrast between Theodorick and Clovis, 42
The dictum of Ataulph on the Roman empire, 43
Ataulph and Theodorick represent the better
judgments of the invaders, 44
The outlook of Pope Simplicius at Rome over the
western provinces, 45
And over the eastern empire, 46
Basiliscus and Zeno the first theologising emperors, 47
How the races descending on the empire had
become Arian, 49
The point of time when the Church was in danger of
losing all which she had gained, 50
How the division of the empire called out the
Primacy, 51
How the extinction of the western empire does so yet
more, 53
How the Pope was the sole fixed point in a
transitional world, 54
Guizot's testimony, 55
What St. Jerome, St. Augustine, and St. Leo did not
foresee, which we behold, 57

[Pg xi]CHAPTER II. (XLIV.).
Cæsar