[Back] [Blueprint] [Next]

From The Lives of the Popes from the Time of our Saviour Jesus Christ to the Accession of Gregory VII. Written Originally in Latin by B. Platina, Native of Cremona, and translated into English (from an anonymous translation, first printed in 1685 by Sir Paul Rycaut), Edited by William Benham, Volume I, London: Griffith, Farran, Okeden & Welsh, [1888, undated in text]; pp. 214-214.

The Lives of the Popes,
BY
B. Platina

Volume I.


—————0 —————
[212]

VALENTINE  I.

A.D. 827.

VALENTINE, a Roman, son of Leontius, being only a deacon, not a priest, was yet for his extraordinary sanctity deservedly preferred to the pontificate. Nor will 214 it appear strange, if we consider that, having from his youth upwards been instructed in learning and piety by those good Popes, Paschal and Eugenius, he did not give his mind to pleasures and sports, as most young men are wont to do, but applied himself to the acquiring of knowledge by the reading of the ancients, and the rule of good living from the example of holy bishops. He was, moreover, a person of such ready parts and prevailing eloquence, that he had a great facility in persuading to or against what he pleased, without offering anything that was not sound, learned, and decent. Finally, both in his private station and while he was Pope, he came behind none of his predecessors in devotion, mercy, and charity. For these reasons he was unanimously elected to the chair; but possibly as a punishment upon the sins of that age, he died on the fortieth day of his pontificate, and was buried in St Peter’s, all people lamenting that they were bereft of such a man, who, if he had lived, would have been an almost impregnable support to the Roman liberty and the Christian religion. While the see was vacant, Sicardus, Duke of Beneventum, who after his father’s death ruled tyrannically, for the want of a bribe which he expected, cast Deus-dedit, abbot of Monte Cassino, into prison, where he died with the reputation of being a holy man.

——————————0 ——————————

Previous Pope: 101. Eugenius II. 102. Valentine I. Next Pope: 103. Gregory IV.

——————————0 ——————————





[Back] [Blueprint] [Next]