Editing Pope Severinus

{{Short description|Head of the Catholic Church in 640}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=August 2024}}

{{Infobox Christian leader
|type=Pope
|honorific-prefix= [[List of popes|Pope]]
|name=Severinus
|title = [[Bishop of Rome]]
|church = [[Catholic Church]]
|image =
|term_start=28 May 640
|term_end=2 August 640
|predecessor=[[Honorius I]]
|successor=[[Pope John IV|John IV]]
|birth_date=
|birth_place= [[Rome]], [[Byzantine Empire]]
|death_date=2 August 640 (aged 55)
|death_place= Rome, Byzantine Empire
}}

'''Pope Severinus''' (died 2 August 640) was the [[bishop of Rome]] elected in October 638. He was caught up in a [[power struggle]] with Byzantine Emperor [[Heraclius]], who pressured him to accept [[Monothelitism]]. Severinus refused, which for over eighteen months hindered his efforts to obtain [[Byzantine papacy|imperial recognition]] of his election. His [[pontificate]] was finally sanctioned on 28 May 640, but he died two months later.

==Early career==
Severinus was a [[Rome|Roman]]. His father was named Avienus, according to the ''[[Liber Pontificalis]]''. The name of the father suggests descent from members of the [[Roman Senate]].<ref name="PLRE">Martindale, Jones & Morris (1992), p. 155</ref> A previous [[Avienus (consul 501)|Avienus]] was [[Roman consul]] in 501.<ref>Martindale, John R., "Fl. Avienus iunior 3", ''[[Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire]]'', Volume 2, Cambridge University Press, 1980, pp.&nbsp;577–581</ref> Already an old man, Severinus was [[papal selection before 1059|elected]] to succeed [[Honorius I]] as [[pope]] in mid-October 638.<ref name="Attwater"/>

==Monothelite controversy==
Patriarch [[Sergius I of Constantinople]] had drawn up the ''[[Ecthesis]]'' in response to the orthodox synodical letter of Patriarch [[Sophronius of Jerusalem]]. On learning of the death of Honorius, Sergius convinced Emperor [[Heraclius]] to issue this document as an imperial edict in December 638, thus valid across the entire empire. Eustachius, the ''[[magister militum]]'', carried it to [[Isaac the Armenian]], the [[exarch of Ravenna]], with instructions that he was to ensure the new pope's acceptance of the [[Monothelite]] teaching. With its declaration of [[Jesus Christ]] only possessing one will, Severinus refused to sign it. The exarch therefore refused to [[Byzantine papacy|confirm the papal election]] in the emperor's name, a situation that endured for over eighteen months.<ref name="Attwater">Attwater, p. 69</ref>

Isaac was determined to achieve his aim, so he commissioned [[Maurikios Chartoularios|Maurice]], the ''[[chartoularios]]'', to plunder the [[Lateran Palace]] and force Severinus to agree to the ''Ecthesis''. Maurice gathered together a party of local discontented nobles and approached the local soldiers, the ''exercitus Romanus'', and convinced them that the pope had withheld their pay and was keeping the arrears in the Lateran. A mob soon formed and they rushed en masse to the palace. Severinus managed to keep the hostile forces out of the palace. Maurice tried another tactic and three days later he was admitted into the palace with the city judges whom he won over to his side. They sealed up the treasures, and Maurice sent word to the exarch that he was free to come to the palace and help himself to the accumulated riches. Isaac soon appeared, and after exiling the leading clergy within the Lateran, spent the next eight days looting the palace, prudently sending a share to the emperor at Constantinople to prevent his displeasure.<ref>Richards, ''Popes and the papacy'', p. 184</ref>

Meanwhile, at Constantinople, the [[papal legate]]s had continued to seek the confirmation of Severinus. Emperor Heraclius still refused to grant his confirmation unless Severinus signed the ''Ecthesis''. At first they were clearly told that unless they would go back and persuade the pope to accept the ''Ecthesis'', they were wasting their time. The legates sought to persuade an unwell and slowly dying Heraclius that they were not there to make professions of faith, but to transact business. The envoys were unwilling to agree to this demand, but they were also unwilling to allow the Roman See to remain vacant indefinitely, so they offered to show Severinus the document and ask him to sign it if he thought it was correct. They made it clear that if the emperor was going to force Severinus to sign it, that all the clergy of the See of Rome would stand together, and such a route would only end in a lengthy and destructive stalemate. This offer was apparently satisfactory, and imperial recognition of the papal election was granted on 28 May 640.<ref>Jeffrey Richards, ''The Popes and the Papacy in the Early Middle Ages'' (London: Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1979), p. 183</ref>

==Death and legacy==
Severinus died on 2 August 640, two months after his pontificate had finally started.<ref name="Attwater"/> In the ''[[Liber Pontificalis]]'', Severinus was described as a kind, generous and mild holy man, a benefactor to the clergy, and a friend to the poor.<ref>Mann, p. 350</ref>

==Notes==
{{Reflist}}

==References==
{{Portal|Biography|Christianity|History}}
* {{Cite CE1913|wstitle=Pope Severinus}}
* {{citation |last=Martindale |first=John R. |last2=Jones |first2=A.H.M. |last3=Morris |first3=John |title=The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire – Volume III, AD 527–641 |year=1992 |publisher=Cambridge University Press |isbn=978-0-521-20160-5 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=fBImqkpzQPsC}}
* Maxwell-Stuart, P. G. ''Chronicle of the Popes: The Reign-by-Reign Record of the Papacy from St. Peter to the Present'', Thames & Hudson, 2002, p.&nbsp;57. {{ISBN|0-500-01798-0}}.
* Mann, Horace K., ''The Lives of the Popes in the Early Middle Ages, Volume 1: The Popes Under the Lombard Rule, from St Gregory I (the Great) to Leo III, Part 1'' (London, 1912)
* {{cite book|first=Aubrey|last=Attwater|title=A Dictionary of Popes: From Peter to Pius XII|year=1939}}

{{s-start}}
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{{s-bef|before=[[Honorius I]]}}
{{s-ttl|title=[[Pope]]|years=640}}
{{s-aft|after=[[Pope John IV|John IV]]}}
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{{Popes}}
{{Catholicism}}
{{History of the Catholic Church}}

{{Authority control}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Severinus}}
[[Category:640 deaths]]
[[Category:Popes of the Byzantine Papacy]]
[[Category:7th-century archbishops]]
[[Category:Popes]]
[[Category:Italian popes]]
[[Category:Year of birth unknown]]
[[Category:7th-century popes]]
[[Category:Burials at St. Peter's Basilica]]