Hinweise zur Catholic Encyclopedia
Pope St. Eleutherius (Eleutheros)
Pope (c. 174-189). The Liber Pontificalis says that he was a native of Nicopolis, Greece. From his contemporary Hegesippus we learn that he was a deacon of the Roman Church under Pope Anicetus (c. 154-164), and evidently remained so under St. Soter, the following pope, whom he succeeded about 174. While the condition of Christians under Marcus Aurelius was distressing in various parts of the empire, the persecution in Rome itself does not seem to have been violent. De Rossi, it is true, dates the martylrdom of St. Cecilia towards the end of this emperor's reign; this date, however, is by no means certain. During the reign of Commodus (180-192) the Christians enjoyed a practically unbroken peace, although the martyrdom of St. Appollonius at Rome took place at the time (180-185). The Montanist movement, that originated in Asia Minor, made its way to Rome and Gaul in the second half of the second century, more particularly about the reign of Eleutherius; its peculiar nature made it difficult to take from the outset a decisive stand against it (see MONTANISTS). During the violent persecution at Lyons, in 177, local confessors wrote from their prison concerning the new movement to the Asiatic and Phrygian brethren, also to Pope Eleutherius. The bearer of their letter to the pope was the presbyter Irenæus, soon afterwards Bishop of Lyons. It appears from statements of Eusebius concerning these letters that the faithful of Lyons, though opposed to the Montanist movement, advocated forbearance and pleaded for the preservation of ecclesiastical unity.
Just when the Roman Church took its definite stand against Montanism is not
certainly known. It would seem from Tertullian's account (adv. Praxeam, I) that
a Roman bishop did at one time address to the Montanists some conciliatory
letters, but these letters, says Tertullian, were recalled. He probably refers
to Pope Eleutherius, who long hesitated, but, after a conscientious and thorough
study of the situation, is supposed to have declared against the Montanists. At
Rome heretical Gnostics and Marcionites continued to propagate their false
teachings. The Liber Pontificalis
ascribes to Pope Eleutherius a decree that
no kind of food should be despised by Christians (Et hoc iterum firmavit ut
nulla esca a Christianis repudiaretur, maxime fidelibus, quod Deus creavit, quæ
tamen rationalis et humana est). Possibly he did issue such an edict against the
Gnostics and Montanists; it is also possible that on his own responsibility the
writer of the Liber Pontificalis
attributed to this pope a similar decree
current about the year 500. The same writer is responsible for a curious and
interesting assertion concerning the early missionary activity of the Roman
Church; indeed, the Liber Pontificalis
contains no other statement equally
remarkable. Pope Eleutherius, says this writer, received from Lucius, a British
king, a letter in which the latter declared that by his behest he wishes to
become a Christian (Hic accepit epistula a Lucio Brittanio rege, ut Christianus
efficerentur per ejus mandatum). Whence the author of the first part of the
Liber Pontificalis
drew this information, it is now impossible to say.
Historically speaking, the fact is quite improbable, and is rejected by all
recent critics.
As at the end of the second century the Roman administration was so securely
established in Britain, there could no longer have been in the island any real
native kings. That some tribal chief, known as king, should have applied to the
Roman bishop for instruction in the Christian faith seems improbable enough at
that period. The unsupported assertion of the Liber Pontificalis
, a
compilation of papal biographies that in its earliest form cannot antedate the
first quarter of the sixth century, is not a sufficient basis for the acceptance
of this statement. By some it is considered a story intended to demonstrate the
Roman origin of the British Church, and consequently the latter's natural
subjection to Rome. To make this clearer they locate the origin of the legend in
the course of the seventh century, during the dissensions between the primitive
British Church and the Anglo-Saxon Church recently established from Rome. But
for this hypothesis all proof is lacking. It falls before the simple fact that
the first part of the Liber Pontificalis
was complied long before these
dissensions, most probably (Duchesne) by a Roman cleric in the reign of Pope
Boniface II (530-532), or (Waitz and Mommsen) early in the seventh century.
Moreover, during the entire conflict that centered around the peculiar customs
of the Early British Church no reference is ever made to this alleged King
Lucius. Saint Bede is the first English writer (673-735) to mention the story
repeatedly (Hist. Eccl., I, V; V, 24, De temporum ratione, ad an. 161), and he
took it, not from native sources, but from the Liber Pontificalis
. Harnack
suggests a more plausible theory (Sitzungsberichte der Berliner Akademie, 1904,
I, 906-916). In the document, he holds, from which the compiler of the Liber
Pontificalis
drew his information the name found was not Britanio, but Britio.
Now this is the name (Birtha- Britium) of the fortress of Edessa. The king in
question is, therefore, Lucius Ælius Septimus Megas Abgar IX, of Edessa, a
Christian king, as is well known. The original statement of the Liber
Pontificalis
, in this hypothesis, had nothing to do with Britain. The reference
was to Abgar IX of Edessa. But the compiler of the Liber Pontificalis
changed
Britio to Brittanio, and in this way made a British king of the Syrian Lucius.
The ninth-century Historia Brittonum
sees in Lucius a translation of the
Celtic name Llever Maur (Great Light), says that the envoys of Lucius were Fagan
and Wervan, and tells us that with this king all the other island kings (reguli
Britanniæ) were baptized (Hist. Brittonum, xviii). Thirteenth-century chronicles
add other details. The Liber Landavensis
, for example (ed. Rees, 26, 65),
makes known the names of Elfan and Medwy, the envoys sent by Lucius to the pope,
and transfers the king's dominions to Wales. An echo of this legend penetrated
even to Switzerland. In a homily preached at Chur and preserved in an eighth- or
ninth-century manuscript, St. Timothy is represented as an apostle of Gaul,
whence he came to Britain and baptized there a king named Lucius, who became a
missionary, went to Gaul, and finally settled at Chur, where he preached the
gospel with great success. In this way Lucius, the early missionary of the Swiss
district of Chur, became identified with the alleged British king of the Liber
Pontificalis
. The latter work is authority for the statement that Eleutherius
died 24 May, and was buried on the Vatican Hill (in Vaticano) near the body of
St. Peter. His feast is celebrated 26 May.
Acta SS., May, III, 363-364; Liber Pontificalis, ed. DUCHESNE, I, 136 and Introduction, xii-civ; HARNACK, Geschichte der altchristl. Literatur, II, I, 144 sqq.; IDEM, Der Brief des britischen Königs Lucius an den Papst Eleutherus (Sitzungsberichte der Berliner Akademie, 1904), I, 906-916; LANGEN, Geschichte der römischen Kirche (Bonn, 1881), I, 157 sqq.; MAYER, Geschichte des Bistums Chur (Stans, 1907), I, 11 sqq.; CABROL, L'Angleterre chrétienne avant les Normande (Paris, 1909), 29-30; DUCHESNE, Eleuthère et le roi breton Lucius, in Revue Celtique (1883-85), VI, 491-493; ZIMMER, The Celtic Church in Britain and Scotland, tr. MEYER (London, 1902); SMITH AND WACE, Dict. of Christian Biography, s. v.; see also under Lucius.
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