t Witiges [538] commences the history of the
Middle Ages."--_"Greece under the Romans," p 295._

Roughly speaking, the Middle Ages and the age of papal supremacy and
power were the same.

A New Order of Popes

[Illustration: THE VATICAN

A bird's-eye view from the dome of St. Peter's. COPYRIGHT BY UNDERWOOD &
UNDERWOOD, N.Y.]

Not only was there this telling stroke by the imperial sword in 538,
helping to clear the way before the Papacy, but at this same time the
first of a new order of popes was placed upon the papal throne by the
imperial arms. Pope Silverius, accused of sympathy with the Goths, was
deposed by Belisarius in 537. The emperor intervened, and the question
of the validity of his deposition was held up by the emperor until 538.
In that year, as Schaff says:

"Vigilius, a pliant creature of Theodora, ascended the papal
chair under the military protection of Belisarius
(538-554)."--_"History of the Christian Church," Vol. III, p.
327._

[Illustration: THE FAMOUS SACRED STAIRWAY IN ROME

Here Luther, climbing the stairway on his knees, heard the message, "The
just shall live by faith."]

With him begins a new order. Though personally he was humiliated by the
emperor's demands, and the Papacy itself was brought into a state of
subjection that it had not known even under heretical Gothic kings, yet
this very arbitrary use of the papal prerogative by Justinian,
strengthened the idea that the Pope of Rome was the supreme authority
in religion, to speak for the universal church. In Bemont and Monod's
textbook on "Medieval Europe," page 120, we read:

"Down to the sixth century all popes are declared saints in the
martyrologies. Vigilius (537[E]-555) is the first of a series
of popes who no longer bear this title, which is henceforth
sparingly conferred. From this time on the popes, more and more
involved in worldly events, no longer belong solely to the
church; they are men of the state, and then rulers of the
state."

A Persecuting Power

Following Vigilius came Pelagius I (556-560), who ascended the throne by
"the military aid of Narses," then the imperial general in Italy. And
Pelagius, who had been set in the papal see by imperial power, began to
demand that the sword of the empire should be used against bishops or
members in the church who did not give way to the authority of the Pope.
His letters on this subject "are an unqualif