Saint Simplice
Pape
(47 ème) de 468 à 483 (✝ 483)
Son long pontificat
lui fit connaître les dernières années de l'empire romain. Mais son action
s'étendit surtout à défendre la foi orthodoxe devant les hérésies de ce temps,
en soutenant l'application doctrinale du concile de Chalcédoine. Il eut
quelques démêlés avec le patriarche de Constantinople. La ville de Rome lui
doit beaucoup d'églises nouvelles et une répartition des tâches pastorales qui
donnent au clergé la charge paroissiale des baptêmes et des enterrements,
modifiant ainsi la géographie ecclésiastique romaine.
À Rome, près de saint Pierre, en 483, saint Simplice, pape. Alors que les
barbares dévastaient l’Italie et Rome, il consola les affligés, favorisa
l’unité de l’Église et raffermit la foi.
Martyrologe
romain
Saint Simplicius (468-483)
Né à
Tivoli, mort à Rome en 483.
Son pontificat vit la fin de l’empire de
l’Occident.
Il s’occupa, entre autres choses, de
l’organisation du patrimoine du Saint-Siège, démontrant en cela ses excellentes
qualités d’administrateur.
Il fut l’adversaire des adeptes du
monophysisme
468-483
Simplicius,
fils de Castinus, était né à Tibur, qui est aujourd’hui Tivoli, dans les
environs de Rome, et était devenu une figure emblématique du clergé de la
Ville.
Il succéda à
saint Hilarius (voir au 29 février), comme quarante-septième pape.
A Rome,
l’empire latin s’écroula en 476, lorsque le barbare Odoacre, chef des Hérules,
balaya ce qui restait du pouvoir des derniers empereurs. Le pape n’avait plus
qu’à consoler les chrétiens affligés et à jeter les semences de la foi dans ce
monde des envahisseurs.
En Orient,
l’empereur Basilisque faisait repartir l’agitation doctrinale en favorisant les
eutychianistes (du nom de Eutychès, qui prétendait qu’à partir de
l’Incarnation, les deux natures du Christ étaient confondues) ; Pierre Monge,
diacre d’Alexandrie, jeta de l’huile sur le feu, et le patriarche de
Constantinople Acace, au lieu de seconder les efforts du pape, faisait signer
une formule doctrinale sinon pas hérétique, du moins trop compromissiste.
Condamnés, Acace et Pierre Monge persévérèrent dans l’erreur et le schisme.
Simplicius
fit la dédicace de plusieurs églises romaines : Saint-Etienne au Cœlius,
Saint-Etienne près de Saint-Laurent, Saint-André près de Sainte-Marie-Majeure,
Sainte-Bibiane.
Il ordonna
trente-sept évêques, cinquante-neuf prêtres et onze diacres.
Saint
Simplicius mourut le 10 mars 483.
Son successeur fut saint Felix III.
SAINT SIMPLICE
Pape de Rome
Simplice naquit à Tivoli (Tibur) et eut pour père Castinus, dit l'auteur du Liber pontificalis. Sous ses prédécesseurs immédiats, saint Léon le Grand et saint Hilaire, il fut l'ornement du clergé de Rome. A son avènement, il y avait de grandes agitations dans l'Église, son pontificat qui dura de 468 à 483, vit se dérouler de graves événements en Occident et en Orient.
En Occident, ce fut la chute de l'empire et l'envahissement des barbares. Pendant 20 années, les 10 derniers empereurs d'Occident n'avaient été que des ombres de potentats. La 8ème année du pontificat de Simplice, Rome devint la proie des étrangers. Les Hérules, qui avaient demandé comme butin un tiers des terrains de l'Italie, se virent rebutés dans leurs exigences; ils choisirent pour chef Odoacre, homme de basse extraction, mais de haute taille, résolu, intrépide, hérétique arien. Il était officier de la garde impériale, on le proclama roi de Rome en 476. Il mit à mort Oreste, régent de l'empire au nom de son fils Augustule; il épargna ce dernier, lui fournit une pension et lui permit d'aller vivre en liberté à Naples. Le pape romain Simplice s'appliqua à consoler les affligés et à jeter les semences de la foi catholique [orthodoxe à l'époque ] dans le monde barbare.
D'après des lettres qu'on lui attribue, il régla divers points de discipline en litige. A Rome, il fit la dédicace de plusieurs églises, Saint-Étienne au Mont-Celius, Saint-André près de la basilique Sainte-Marie, une autre église sous le vocable de Saint-Étienne près de la basilique Saint-Laurent, enfin l'église Sainte-Bibiane. Il pourvut en même temps du clergé nécessaire les grandes basiliques de Saint-Pierre, de Saint-Paul, de Saint-Laurent.
En Orient surtout, il lui fallut intervenir pour tâcher de mettre fin au schisme fomenté par Acace, patriarche de Constantinople : le dissentiment venait des revendications de ce siège patriarcal et en partie aussi de l'hérésie monophysite condamnée en 451 par le Concile de Chalcédoine. La première occasion du conflit fut la promulgation d'un édit de l'empereur Léon de Thrace, confirmant le 28e canon de Chalcédoine donnant une primauté d'honneur à l'évêque de Constantinople, immédiatement après l'évêque de Rome : le pape saint Léon avait fait opposition à ce canon. Simplice dut envoyer un légat avec mission de protester contre l'édit impérial; on ignore le succès de cette démarche.
La controverse doctrinale fut réveillée par Basilisque, usurpateur de l'empire en 475, qui se prononça pour l'eutychianisme, rappela Timothée Elure à Alexandrie : d'où agissements de ce dernier pour rétablir les évêques eutychiens sur leurs sièges. A la mort d'Elure, on vit Pierre Monge, un diacre d'Alexandrie, jouer un triste rôle dans les dissentiments qui s'accentuèrent entre Constantinople et Rome : il devait en résulter un schisme qui sépara l'Orient [hellénistique] et l'Occident durant 35 ans. Acace de Constantinople fut loin de seconder le zèle de Simplice : une sorte de formule de profession de foi, désignée sous le nom d'Hénotique de Zénon, où la condamnation d'Eutychês au Concile de Chalcédoine était passée sous silence, dut être condamnée par le pape de Rome comme un compromis avec une hérésie condamnée. Simplice mourut peu de temps après avoir écrit à Acace une lettre de blâme pour son attitude à l'égard de Pierre Monge.
Cette mort de Simplice paraît devoir être placée au 10 mars 483 et non au 2 mars. De là vient que l'édition de 1922 du martyrologe romain a fait ce changement en se basant sur L. Duchesne, Liber pontificalis, t. , p. 251; substituer dans l'épitaphe, vi id. mart., à vi non. mart.
Le corps de Simplice fut enseveli dans la basilique de Saint-Pierre; les habitants de Tivoli croient posséder ses reliques et célèbrent sa fête avec une grande solennité.
Pope St. Simplicius
St. Simplicius, a native of Tivoli, was elected to
succeed St. Hilary. His election was peaceful, his pontificate stormy. The
empire in the West was dying. After the murder of Valentinian III back in 455,
a succession of nine shadow emperors held the throne. Most of these were tools
of barbarian generals, and finally in the time of Pope Simplicius in 476 the
Heruli chieftain Odovakar deposed the last of these little monarchs and
informed Emperor Zeno at Constantinople that he would rule the West for him. By
this time, anyway, the imperial government had ceased to exercise much
influence in the West. Visigoths ruled Spain, Franks and other tribes dominated
Gaul, Vandals controlled Africa, and Britain had long been abandoned to Picts
and Scots, Angles and Saxons.
The Pope was not much troubled by the change.
Odovakar, though an Arian, treated the Church well. But Simplicius was very
much troubled by affairs in the East.
In 475 a usurper named Basiliscus drove Emperor
Zeno from the throne. Basiliscus favored the Monophysites, and now these
heretics enjoyed a very resurrection. Timothy the Cat, that old Monophysite who
had been deposed from the see of Alexandria by Emperor Marcion, now returned in
triumph. Peter the Fuller took over Antioch. The usurper Basiliscus issued an
imperial decree known as the “Encyclion” which ordered the dogmatic letter of
St. Leo to Flavian and the acts of the Council of Chalcedon to be burned. It
looked as if the whole East trembled on the brink of heresy as five hundred
bishops actually subscribed to this audacious bit of imperial dogmatizing.
Acacius the patriarch of Constantinople, still held firm, and to his rescue
came Pope Simplicius. He strongly encouraged the monks and clergy of
Constantinople to resist the usurper’s tyranny. But though Constantinople held
firm, Antioch and Alexandria were in heretic hands. When Timothy the Cat died,
he was succeeded by his friend the equally ardent Monophysite, Peter the
Hoarse.
Just when things looked worst, Emperor Zeno made a
comeback and regained the throne. Out went the intruded Monophysite bishops.
Back came the Catholics. Pope Simplicius could feel that he had helped the East
survive a fierce tempest. The time of peace, however, was very short. When the
Catholic patriarch of Alexandria died, the Catholics elected John Talaia to
succeed him. The Monophysites once more elected Peter the Hoarse. Now the
Emperor Zeno and Patriarch Acacius began to favor the Monophysite, Peter.
Strange this! But politics were at work. Zeno, alarmed at the strength of the
Monophysites, was thinking of a way to pacify them, and Acacius was hand in
glove with the Emperor. In spite of the Pope’s protests, Peter the Hoarse was
recognized as true patriarch of Alexandria. Then Peter went to Constantinople,
where he joined Zeno and Acacius to cook up a compromise known as the
Henoticon. This was in 482 while Simplicius still lived; but he died before the
storm reached its peak.
St. Simplicius built four churches in Rome. He died
in 483. His feast is kept on March 2.
Pope
St. Simplicius
Reigned 468-483; date of birth unknown; died 10 March,
483. According to the "Liber
Pontificalis"
(ed. Duchesne, I, 249) Simplicius was the son of a citizen of Tivoli named Castinus; and after the death
of Pope Hilarius in 468 was elected to succeed the latter. The elevation of the
new pope was not attended with any
difficulties. During his pontificate the Western Empire came to an end. Since
the murder of Valentinian III (455) there had been a rapid
succession of insignificant emperors in the Western Roman Empire, who were
constantly threatened by war and revolution. Following other
German tribes the Heruli entered Italy, and their ruler Odoacer put an end
to the Western Empire by deposing the last emperor, Romulus Augustulus, and
assuming himself the title of King of Italy. Although an Arian, Odoacer treated the Catholic Church with much respect; he also retained
the greater part of the former administrative organization, so that the change
produced no great differences at Rome. During the Monophysite controversy, that was still carried
on in the Eastern Empire, Simplicius vigorously defended the independence of
the Church against the Cæsaropapism of the Byzantine rulers and the authority of the Apostolic See in questions of faith. The twenty-eighth canon of the Council of
Chalcedon (451)
granted the See of Constantinople the same privileges of honour that were enjoyed by the Bishop of Old Rome, although the primacy and the
highest rank of honour were due to the latter. The papal legates protested against this elevation of
the Byzantine Patriarch, and Pope Leo confirmed only the dogmatic decrees of
the council. However, the Patriarch of Constantinople sought to bring
the canon into force, and the Emperor Leo II desired to obtain its confirmation
by Simplicius. The latter, however, rejected the request of the emperor and
opposed the carrying out of the canon, that moreover limited the rights of the old Oriental patriarchates.
The rebellion of
Basiliscus, who in 476 drove the Emperor Zeno into exile and seized the
Byzantine throne, intensified the Monophysite dispute. Basiliscus looked for
support to the Monophysites, and he granted permission to the
deposed Monophysite patriarchs, Timotheus Ailurus of Alexandria and Peter Fullo of Antioch, to
return to their sees. At the same time he issued a
religious edict (Enkyklikon) addressed to Ailurus, which
commanded that only the first three ecumenical synods were to be accepted, and rejected
the Synod of Chalcedon and the Letter of Pope Leo. All bishops were to sign the edict. The Bishop of Constantinople, Acacius (from
471), wavered and was about to proclaim this edict. But the firm stand taken by
the populace, influenced by the monks who were rigidly Catholic in their opinions, moved the bishop to oppose the emperor and to defend
the threatened faith. The abbots and priests of Constantinople united with Pope
Simplicius, who made every effort to maintain the Catholic dogma and the definitions of the Council of
Chalcedon. The pope exhorted to loyal adherence to the true faith in letters to Acacius, to the priests and abbots, as well as to the usurper
Basiliscus himself. In a letter to Basiliscus of 10 Jan., 476, Simplicius says
of the See of Peter at Rome: "This same norm of Apostolic doctrine is firmly maintained by his
(Peter's) successors, of him to whom the Lord entrusted the care of the entire
flock of sheep, to whom He promised not to leave him until the end of
time" (Thiel, "Rom. Pont.", 182). In the same way he took up
with the emperor the cause of the Catholic Patriarch of Alexandria, Timotheus Salophakiolus, who had
been superseded by Ailurus. When the Emperor Zeno in 477 drove away the usurper
and again gained the supremacy, he sent the pope a completely Catholic confession of faith, whereupon Simplicius (9 Oct., 477)
congratulated him on his restoration to power and exhorted him to ascribe the
victory to God, who wished in this way to restore
liberty to the Church.
Zeno recalled the edicts of
Basiliscus, banished Peter Fullo from Antioch, and reinstated Timotheus
Salophakiolus at Alexandria. He did not disturb Ailurus on
account of the latter's great age, and as matter of fact the latter soon died.
The Monophysites of Alexandria now put forward Peter Mongus, the former archdeacon of Ailurus, as his successor. Urged
by the pope and the Eastern Catholics, Zeno commanded the banishment of Peter Mongus, but the latter was able to hide in
Alexandria, and fear of the Monophysites prevented the use of force. In a
moment of weakness Salophakiolus himself had permitted the placing of the name
of the Monophysite patriarch Dioscurus in the diptychs to be read at the church services.
On 13 March, 478, Simplicius wrote to Acacius of
Constantinople that
Salophakiolus should be urged to wipe out the disgrace that he had brought upon
himself. The latter sent legates and letters to Rome to give satisfaction to the pope. At the request of Acacius, who was
still active against the Monophysites, the pope condemned by name the heretics Mongus, Fullo, Paul of Epheseus, and John
of Apamea, and delegated the Patriarch of Constantinople to be in this his
representative. When the Monophysites at Antioch raised a revolt in 497
against the patriarch Stephen II, and killed him, Acacius consecrated Stephen III, and afterwards
Kalendion as Stephen's successors. Simplicius made an energetic demand upon the
emperor to punish the murderers of the patriarch, and also reproved Acacius for
exceeding his competence in performing this consecration; at the same time, though, the pope granted him the necessary dispensation. After the death of Salophakiolus,
the Monophysites of Alexandria again elected Peter Mongus patriarch, while the Catholics chose Johannes Talaia. Both Acacius
and the emperor, whom he influenced, were opposed to Talaia, and sided with Mongus. Mongus went to Constantinople to advance
his cause. Acacius and he agreed upon a formula of union between the Catholics and the Monophysites that was approved by the Emperor
Zeno in 482 (Henotikon). Talaia had sent ambassadors to
Pope Simplicius to notify the pope of his election. However, at the
same time, the pope received a letter from the emperor
in which Talaia was accused of perjury and bribery and a demand was made
for the recognition of Mongus. Simplicius, therefore, delayed to
recognize Talaia, but protested energetically against the elevation of Mongus to the Patriarchate of Alexandria. Acacius, however, maintained his
alliance with Mongus and sought to prevail upon the
Eastern bishops to enter into Church communion with
him. For a long time Acacius sent no information of any kind to the pope, so that the latter in a letter
blamed him severely for this. When finally Talaia came to Rome in 483 Simplicius was already dead.
Simplicius exercised a zealous pastoral care in western Europe also, notwithstanding the trying
circumstances of the Church during the disorders of the
Migrations. He issued decisions in ecclesiastical questions, appointed Bishop Zeno of
Seville papal vicar in Spain, so that the prerogatives of the papal see could be exercised in the country
itself for the benefit of the ecclesiastical administration. When Bishop John of
Ravenna in 482 claimed Mutina as a
suffragan diocese of his metropolitan see, and without more ado consecrated Bishop George for this diocese, Simplicius vigorously opposed him
and defended the rights of the papal see. Simplicius established four new
churches in Rome itself. A large hall built in the
form of a rotunda on the Cælian Hill was turned into a church and dedicated to
St. Stephen; the main part of this building still exists as the Church of San Stefano Rotondo. A fine hall
near the Church of Santa Maria Maggiore was given to the Roman Church and turned by Simplicius into a
church dedicated to St. Andrew by the addition of an apse adorned with mosaics; it is no longer in existence (cf.
de Rossi, "Bull. di archeol. crist.", 1871, 1-64). The pope built a church dedicated to the first martyr, St. Stephen, behind the memorial
church of San Lorenzo in Agro Verano; this church is no longer standing. He had
a fourth church built in the city in honour of St. Balbina, "juxta palatium
Licinianum", where her grave was; this church still remains. In order to
make sure of the regular holding of church services, of the administration of baptism, and of the discipline of penance
in the great churches of the catacombs outside the city walls, namely the church of St. Peter (in the Vatican), of St. Paul on the Via Ostiensis, and of St. Lawrence on the Via Tiburtina, Simplicius
ordained that the clergy of three designated sections of the
city should, in an established order, have charge of the religious functions at
these churches of the catacombs. Simplicius was buried in St.
Peter's on the Vatican. The "Liber
Pontificalis"
gives 2 March as the day of burial (VI non.); probably 10 March (VI id.) should
be read. After his death King Odoacer desired to influence the filling of the papal see. The prefect of the city, Basilius,
asserted that before death Pope Simplicius had begged to issue the order that
no one should be consecrated Roman bishop without his consent (cf. concerning
the regulation Thiel, "Epist. Rom. Pont.", 686-88). The Roman clergy opposed this edict that limited
their right of election. They maintained the force of the edict, issued by the Emperor Honorius at the instance of Pope Boniface I, that only that person should be regarded as the rightful Bishop of Rome who was elected according to
canonical form with Divine approval and universal consent. Simplicius was venerated as a saint; his feast is on 2 or 3 March.
Sources
Liber
pontificalis, ed. DUCHESNE, I, 249-251; JAFFÉ, Regesta Pont. Rom., 2nd ed., I,
77-80; THIEL, Epist. Rom. Pontif., I (Brunswick, 1868), 174 sq.; LIBERATUS,
Breviar. Causæ Nestor., xvi sq.; EVAGRIUS, Hist. eccl., III, 4 sq.;
HERGENRÖTHER, Photius, I, 111-22; GRISAR, Geschichte Roms und der Päpste, I,
153 sq., 324 sq.; LANGEN, Geschichte der römischen Kirche, II (Bonn, 1885), 126
sqq.; WURM, Die Papstwahl (Cologne, 1902).
Kirsch, Johann Peter. "Pope St. Simplicius." The Catholic
Encyclopedia. Vol. 14. New York: Robert Appleton Company,1912. 2 Mar. 2016 <http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14002a.htm>.
Transcription. This article was transcribed for
New Advent by Kenneth M. Caldwell. Dedicated to the memory of Don McGonigle.
Ecclesiastical approbation. Nihil Obstat. July 1, 1912. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John
Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York.
SOURCE : http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/14002a.htm
March 2
St. Simplicius, Pope and
Confessor
HE was the ornament of the
Roman clergy under SS. Leo and Hilarius, and succeeded the latter in the
pontificate in 497. He was raised by God to comfort and support his church
amidst the greatest storms. All the provinces of the western empire, out of
Italy, were fallen into the hands of barbarians, infected for the greater part
with idolatry or Arianism. The ten last emperors, during twenty years, were
rather shadows of power than sovereigns, and in the eighth year of the
pontificate of Simplicius, Rome itself fell a prey to foreigners. Salvian, a
learned priest of Marseilles in 440, wrote an elegant book on Divine
Providence, in which he shows that these calamities were a just chastisement of
the sins of the Christians; saying, that if the Goths were perfidious, and the
Saxons cruel, they were, however, both remarkable for their chastity; as the
Franks were for humanity, though addicted to lying: and that though these
barbarians were impious, they had not so perfect a knowledge of sin, nor
consequently were so criminal as those whom God chastised by them. The
disorders of the Roman state paved the way for this revolution. Excessive taxes
were levied in the most arbitrary ways. The governors oppressed the people at
discretion, and many were obliged to take shelter among the barbarians: for the
Bagaudes, Franks, Huns, Vandals, and Goths raised no taxes upon their subjects:
on which account nations once conquered by them were afraid of falling again
under the Roman yoke, preferring what was called slavery, to the empty name of
liberty. Italy, by oppressions, and the ravages of barbarians, was left almost
a desert without inhabitants; and the imperial armies consisted chiefly of
barbarians, hired under the name of auxiliaries, as the Suevi, Alans, Heruli,
Goths, and others. These soon saw their masters were in their power. The Heruli
demanded one third of the lands of Italy, and, upon refusal, chose for their
leader Odoacer, one of the lowest extraction, but a tall, resolute, and
intrepid man, then an officer in the guards, and an Arian heretic, who was
proclaimed king at Rome in 476. He put to death Orestes, who was regent of the
empire, for his son Augustulus, whom the senate had advanced to the imperial
throne. The young prince had only reigned eight months, and his great beauty is
the only thing mentioned of him. Odoacer spared his life, and appointed him a
salary of six thousand pounds of gold, and permitted him to live at full
liberty near Naples. Pope Simplicius was wholly taken up in comforting and
relieving the afflicted, and in sowing the seeds of the Catholic faith among
the barbarians.
The East gave his zeal no
less employment and concern. Zeno, son and successor to Leo the Thracian,
favoured the Eutychians. Basiliscus, his admiral, who, on expelling him,
usurped the imperial throne in 476, and held it two years, was a most furious
stickler for that heresy. Zeno was no Catholic, though not a staunch Eutychian:
and having recovered the empire, published, in 482, his famous decree of union,
called the Henoticon, which explained the faith ambiguously, neither admitting
nor condemning the council of Chalcedon. Peter Cnapheus, (that is, the Dyer,) a
violent Eutychian, was made by the heretics patriarch of Antioch; and Peter
Mongus, one of the most profligate of men, that of Alexandria. This latter
published the Henoticon, but expressly refused to anathematize the council of
Chalcedon; on which account the rigid Eutychians separated themselves from his
communion, and were called Acephali, or, without a head. Acacius, the patriarch
of Constantinople, received the sentence of St. Simplicius against Cnapheus,
but supported Mongus against him and the Catholic Church, promoted the
Henoticon, and was a notorious changeling, double dealer, and artful hypocrite,
who often made religion serve his own private ends. St. Simplicius at length
discovered his artifices, and redoubled his zeal to maintain the holy faith
which he saw betrayed on every side, whilst the patriarchal sees of Alexandria
and Antioch were occupied by furious wolves, and there was not one Catholic
king in the whole world. The emperor measured everything by his passions and
human views. St. Simplicius having sat fifteen years, eleven months, and six
days, went to receive the reward of his labours, in 483. He was buried in St.
Peter’s on the 2nd of March. See his letters: also the historians Evagrius,
Theophanes, Liberatus, and amongst the moderns, Baronius, Henschenius,
Ceillier, t. 15. p. 123.
Rev. Alban Butler (1711–73). Volume
III: March. The Lives of the Saints. 1866.
