died, she promised the papal throne to a Roman deacon, Vigilius, on condition that he made concessions towards Monophysism. The Imperial general Belisarius, then fighting Goths in Italy, was to secure his succession. Vigilius promised all the Empress asked. But Silverius (536-540) was lawfully elected Pope. In 536 Belisarius seized Silverius and sent him in exile to Patara, in Asia Minor, under pretext of his treasonable intercourse with the Goths. Vigilius was schmismatically ordained Pope. So he starts his career as an anti-pope. But in 540, Silverius being dead, he is accepted by the lawful electors and begins his legitimate but unhappy reign (540-555). He had made promises to Theodora; but now as Pope he finds the Papacy, the strong Catholic feeling of the West — shall we say the Providence of God, who will not allow the chief See to lead others into heresy — too strong for him. In all Vigilius's miserable vacillation he never really compromised with Monophysism. Pitiful as his figure appears, scandalously as he neglected his duty of confirming his brethren by a firm line held consistently, he did not, he could not, make shipwreck of the whole Catholic system by defining heresy. The issue was no question of faith, but of the opportuneness of casting opprobrium on men long dead, in the hope once more of conciliating Monophysites.
Vigilius's story is that of the Three Chapters. Theodore Askidas, Metropolitan of Cæsarea in Cappadocia, and others thought they could perhaps reconcile these stubborn heretics by a new pronouncement which should make it quite clear that to accept Chalcedon did not mean becoming a Nestorian. The great "Eastern" doctors, Theodore of Mopsuestia, Diodore of Tarsus and their school, were the people whose memory Monophysites specially hated. These were, they said, the masters from whom Nestorius had imbibed his poisonous ideas. So Theodore Askidas persuaded Justinian to publish an edict condemning three documents, alleged to be Nestorian. These documents, the famous Three Chapters,[1] are: (1) the person and writings of Theodore of Mopsuestia (p. 60); (2) the writings of Theodoret of Cyrus in his Nestorian days (p. 166); (3) the Nestorian letter of Ibas to Maris (p. 76). Let it be understood at once that, as far as our faith is concerned, a Catholic could condemn these three
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