ceding five hundred
years.

For when Belisarius, submitting himself to carry out the orders of an
imperious mistress, deposed, as we have seen, the legitimate Pope Silverius
by force in March, 537, Vigilius, in virtue of the same force, was
consecrated a few days after to succeed him. The exact time of the death
which Pope Silverius suffered in Palmaria is not known. But Vigilius is not
recognised as lawful Pope until after his death, probably in 540. He then
ascended St. Peter's seat with a blot upon him such as no pontiff had
suffered before. And this pontificate lasted about fifteen years, and was
full of such humiliation as St. Peter had never suffered before in his
successors.

We are not acquainted with the detail of events at Rome in those terrible
years, but we learn that, as Pope John I. was sent to Constantinople as a
subject by Theodorick, and Pope Agapetus again as a subject by Theodatus,
so Vigilius was urged by Justinian to go thither, and that after many
delays he obeyed the emperor very unwillingly.

But it is requisite here to give a short summary of what Justinian had been
doing in the affairs of the eastern Church from the time that Pope
Agapetus, having consecrated Mennas to be bishop of Constantinople, died
there in 536. After the Pope's death, Mennas proceeded to hold in May and
June of that year a synod in which he declared Anthimus to be entirely
deposed from the episcopal dignity, and condemned Severus and other leaders
of the Monophysites. In this synod Mennas presided, and the two Roman
deacons, Vigilius and Pelagius, who had been the legates of Pope Agapetus,
but whose powers had expired at his death, sat next to him, but only as
Italian bishops. How little the patriarch Mennas could there represent the
Church's independence is shown by his words to the bishops in the fourth
session: "Your charity knows that nothing of what is mooted in the Church
should take place contrary to the decision and order of our emperor,
zealous for the faith," while of their relation to the Pope he said: "You
know that we follow and obey the Apostolic See; those who are in communion
with it we hold in communion; those whom it condemns we also condemn".[139]
Justinian, irritated by the boldness of the Monophysites, added the
sanction of law to the decrees of this council, which deposed men who had
occupied patriarchal sees. He used these words: "In the present law we are
doing an act not unusual to the empire. Fo