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. 132-133.
The Lives of the Popes,
BY
B. Platina
Volume I.
JOHN III.
A.D. 560-573.
JOHN the Third, the son of Anastasius, descended of a noble family, lived in the time of Justin, who succeeded Justinian, but was in nothing like him. For he was covetous, lewd, rapacious, a contemner of God and men to such a degree, that his vices made him frantic; so that his wife Sophia managed all affairs till the time of Tiberius the Second. This woman, being prompted thereto by some envious persons who hated Narses, recalls him out of Italy in these reproachful words, “That she would have the eunuch come home and spin.” This he very highly resenting, as well he might, returns answer, “That he would spin such a web, as none of his enemies should ever be able to unweave.” And he was as good as his word; for he presently sends and invites Alboinus, King of the Lombards, with all his people, then possessed of Pannonia, to come and seat themselves in the more plentiful country of Italy. Alboinus, complying with the proposal of Narses, and entering Italy with a vast number of men with their wives and children, first possesses himself of Friuli and Marca Trivigiana; thence passing into Insubria, he takes and sacks Milan, and at length makes himself master of Pavia, after it had held out a siege of three years. Being thus flushed with victory, he goes to Verona, which he constitutes the capital city of his kingdom, where, being once at an entertainment over-heated with wine, he compelled his wife, Rosamund, to drink out of a cup which he had made out of her own father’s skull, whom he himself had slain. Now, there was in Alboinus’s army one Helmechild, a very handsome young gentleman, and an excellent soldier; and who was Rosamund’s particular favourite. Him she discourses privately, and by proposing to him the hopes of succeeding in the kingdom, prevailed with him to murder 133 Alboinus. But they were both so hated for the fact by the Lombards, that they not only failed of their hopes, but were glad to fly for protection to Longinus, the Exarch of Ravenna, where, not long after, they poisoned each other, and died together. At this time Italy, by reason of the incursions which the barbarous nations made into it, was in a very calamitous state, which had been portended by prodigies and apparitions of flaming armies in the air, and also by an extraordinary inundation of the river Tiber, which had very much damaged the city of Rome.
In the meantime our John repaired the cemeteries of the saints, and finished the church of St Philip and St James which had been begun by Vigilius, and drew Narses, who had been an avowed enemy to the Romans for their ill opinion of him and their misrepresenting him to the Empress Sophia, from Naples to Rome, where he not long after died, and his body was conveyed in a coffin of lead to Constantinople. In such a confusion of things, the State of Italy must needs certainly have been utterly ruined, if some eminently holy men had not supported and propped up the tottering nation. Among others, Paul, Patriarch of Aquileia, and Felix, Bishop of Treviso, interceded successfully with Alboinus, when he first entered Italy, in the behalf of the inhabitants. Moreover, Fortunatus, a person of extraordinary learning and eloquence, very much civilised and polished the Gauls by his books and example, compiling a treatise of government, inscribed to their king, Childebert, and writing in an elegant style the “Life of St Martin.” Some write that at this time lived Germanus, Bishop of Paris, a person of wonderful piety, who kept the kings of France within the bounds of their duty to such a degree, that each strove to excel the other in religion and piety, in goodness and clemency. So prevalent is the example of a good pastor, such an one as Germanus was, in whom they saw nothing but what was worthy of their imitation. After this one further remark, — that in our John’s time, the Armenians were converted to Christianity, — I shall say no more of him, but that having been in the chair twelve-years, eleven months, twenty-six days, he died, and was buried in St Peter’s. Upon his death the see was vacant ten months and three days.
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