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. 194-198.
The Lives of the Popes,
BY
B. Platina
Volume I.
STEPHEN IV.
A.D. 768-772.
STEPHEN the Fourth, a Sicilian, son of Olibrius, entered upon the pontificate, A.D. 768, a learned man, and in the management of affairs, especially those belonging to the Church, very active and steady. Coming to Rome very young, by appointment of Pope Gregory III., he took orders, and became a monk in the monastery of St Chrysogonus, where he was inured to the stricter way of living, and instructed 195 in ecclesiastical learning. Being afterwards called by Pope Zachary into the Lateran Palace, and his life and learning generally approved of, he was constituted parish priest of St Cæcilia; and for his great integrity and readiness in business both Zachary and his successors Stephen and Paul, would always have him near their persons. But upon the death of Paul, whom our Stephen never deserted to his last breath, Desiderius, who, as we have said., was by the assistance of Stephen II. made King of Lombardy, being by Pipin’s death rid of all fear, encourages Toto, Duke of Nepi, to promote his brother Constantine to the pontificate by force of arms, if he could not compass it by canvassing and bribery. He accordingly marches to Rome with an army, and with the assistance of some whom he had corrupted and made his friends by gifts and promises, gets Constantine to be elected Pope. Indeed, there were those who set up one Philip against him, but he was presently forced to quit his pretensions, and Gregory, Bishop of Præneste compelled to initiate Constantine, who at the time of his choice was a laic, into holy orders, and then to consecrate him bishop; the hands of which Gregory are said thereupon by miracle to have so withered that he could not reach them to his mouth. But Constantine having persisted to exercise the papal function for one year, was at length in great rage and disdain deposed by the people of Rome, and Stephen unanimously chosen in his stead. Upon which Constantine being brought into St Saviour’s Church, and the sacred canons read, he was publicly and solemnly divested of the pontifical habit, and commanded to lead a private life in a monastery. After this, Stephen being consecrated by three bishops in the church of St Adrian, and saluted as the true Pope by all the clergy and people of Rome, applied himself to the censuring and suppressing of the practices of some ill men who endeavoured to break the unity of the Roman Church. Therefore calling a council, he writes to Charles desiring him to send to Rome, as soon as might be, some bishops of France, by their learning and integrity well qualified for the affair. The same also he writes to the other Christian princes; who all complying with him therein, a council is held in the Lateran Church, where the fathers having discoursed among themselves divers things tending to the settling of the Church, they ordered Constantine to be brought before them. For the underhand 196 dealings of Desiderius, King of the Lombards, and Paul Aphiarta having occasioned frequent tumults among the people; Desiderius endeavouring all he could to alienate the affections of the Romans from Charles to the emperor; hereupon several were killed on both sides, and Constantine, the occasion of all the mischief, had his eyes put out by the contrary faction, though Stephen declared against it, and did what he could to prevent it; but there is no opposing a furious, enraged multitude. Constantine appearing before the council, and being accused that he had usurped the Apostolic see, not being in any holy orders, lays all the fault upon the people, and especially upon some particular persons who forced him against his will to take the pontificate upon him. Then prostrating himself upon the floor, and humbly begging pardon, the persons present moved with compassion, ordered him to be dismissed, and put off the debate of his whole case to the next day, intending then more maturely to deliberate what ought to be done in the matter. But the next day Constantine returning to the council, was quite of another mind, and remonstrated that he had precedents of former prelates for what he had done; that Sergius, Archbishop of Ravenna, and Stephen of Naples, had been of laics consecrated bishops. The fathers resenting this impudence, caused him to be cast out with disgrace, and having nulled his decrees, applied themselves to themselves to the settling of the state of Christianity. Among other things it was unanimously decreed by them, that no laic, but such only as had passed through the several degrees in the clergy, should presume to take the popedom, upon pain of excommunication. It was ordained likewise, that those who had attained to the Episcopal dignity in the time of Constantine, should renounce that character, and fall back into the same rank and order which they were of before, but with this reserve, that if their life and doctrine were approved by the people, it then pleased the council, that upon their application to the Apostolic see, they might be consecrated anew. The same was judged meet concerning presbyters and deacons; yet it was forbidden that any of them should arrive to the greater degrees, upon a jealousy, as I believe, lest some error or sect might thence arise, as from a seminary of discord and sedition. Moreover, it was decreed that all the sacred offices which Constantine had performed, should be deemed null, except only baptism and confirmation. Finally, 197 having made void the Constantinian synod, in which the Greek prelates had decreed that the pictures and statues of the saints should be defaced and thrown out of churches, it was ordained that those images should be in all places restored, and an anathema passed upon that execrable and pernicious synod, by which the condition of the immortal God was rendered worse than that of men; it being allowed us to erect the statues of men who have deserved well of the public, both for the expressing of our gratitude, and the raising our emulation of their brave deeds, but forbidden to set up the image of our Saviour, whom we ought if it were possible to have always before our eyes, whether we consider the mighty obligations He has laid upon mankind, or the dignity of His Divine nature. These things having thus passed according to the Pope’s mind, it was decreed, that on the following day there should be a solemn procession, both to return thanks to God, and also in order to the averting of His displeasure. This procession was made form the Lateran Church to St Peter’s, with universal great devotion, the Pope himself, with all that were present, walking bare-foot. But in our times piety and devotion are grown so cold, that such expressions of humility are not only laid aside, but men are so proud as scarcely to vouchsafe to pray at all. Even the more eminent and dignified persons, instead of weeping at procession or at Mass, as these holy fathers were wont to do, are employed in indecent and shameless laughter, instead of singing hymns, which they disdain as a servile thing, they are breaking jests, and telling stories among themselves to make each other merry. What should I say further? The more petulant and full of buffoonery any one is, the more he is commended in such a corrupt age. Our present clergy does dread severe and grave men; as being more desirous to live thus licentiously, than to be obedient to good admonitions, and subject to wholesome restraints, by which means the Christian religion does daily suffer and decline. I return to Stephen, who, when the procession was over, forthwith caused the acts of the council to be first openly pronounced by his commissary, and then published in writing, threatening excommunication against any who should presume to oppose what the holy synod had decreed. But not long after, Sergius, Archbishop of Ravenna dying, Michael, registrar of that church, with the assistance of King Desiderius and Maurice, Duke of Rimini, whom he had corrupted with 198 bribes, though a mere laic, possesses himself of the see, in opposition to Leo the Archdeacon whom the clergy were very desirous to choose. Yea, these abettors of his presumed so far, as to send ambassadors to Pope Stephen to bribe him into the confirmation of this Michael. But Stephen not only refused their offers of money, but also published an excommunication against him, if he resigned not the see which he had against all right usurped. However, he forcibly kept possession of it so long as he had anything left, either of his own or belonging to the Church, whereof to make a bribe to greedy Desiderius. Upon which the Pope sending his Nuncios and King Charles his ambassadors to Ravenna about that affair, who declared the Pope’s pleasure therein, Michael was forthwith deposed, and Leo chosen and confirmed by the Pope, who being for that reason secretly despited and mischiefed by Desiderius, begs Charles to oblige Desiderius to cease injuring him any further. This Charles performed with great diligence, though he were not in a condition to restrain the Lombard by force, because upon the death of his brother, who had reigned jointly and amicably with him for two years, he was necessarily engaged in several wars at once. The Aquitains, against whom his father had begun a war, he brought into subjection, and subdued the Gascons inhabiting part of Aquitain. Then passing the Pyrenean Hills, he routed the Saracens, pursuing them to the river Betis, as far as Granada, the part of Spain wherein the Saracens are now seated. In the meantime Stephen, a most vigilant pastor, and true successor of Peter and imitator of Christ, having been in the chair three years, five months, twenty-seven days, died and was buried in St Peter’s. The see was then vacant nine days.
Previous Pope: 95. Paul I. 96. Stephen IV. Next Pope: 98. Adrian I.