The short Life of Sergius, bishop of Rome (ob. 701) in the Liber Pontificalis, written in Latin in Rome, soon after his death, attributes the fall of the archdeacon Paschalis, Sergius' rival, to the intervention of *Peter (the Apostle, S00036).
Evidence ID
E01725
Type of Evidence
Literary - Other narrative texts (including Histories)
Major author/Major anonymous work
Liber Pontificalis
Liber Pontificalis 86
Praedictus vero Paschalis non post multum tempus et ab officio archidiaconatus pro aliquas incantationes et luculos, quos colebat, vel sortes, quas cum aliis respectoribus tractabat, dei beatique apostolorum principis Petri interveniente iudicio, privatus est et in monasterio retrusus post quinquennium prae cordis duritia inpenitens defunctus est.
'But not long afterwards, Paschalis was deprived even of the office of archdeacon, by the judgement of God and of St Peter the prince of the apostles, because of certain magical spells, the groves he was attending to, and the fortune-telling that he was indulging in with other soothsayers.'
Text: Duchesne 1886, 372.
Translation: Davis 2010, 82, lightly modified.
Miracles
Punishing miracle
Protagonists in Cult and NarrativesEcclesiastics - lesser clergy
Source
The Liber Pontificalis consists of a series of very short lives of popes. The preface attributes it to pope Damasus (366-384), but this attribution is obviously false. According to Louis Duchesne, the first modern editor of the Liber Pontificalis, the original series of lives was written in Rome by an anonymous author, probably a member of the lesser clergy, in the 530s, and contained the lives from *Peter the Apostle to Felix IV (ob. 530). Shortly after, before 546, the text was re-edited by another anonymous author and only this edition survives. The first edition, however, can be reconstituted on the basis of its two epitomes (and the second edition). The second edition started to be continued systematically from the time of pope Honorius (625–638). It should be noted that Theodor Mommsen dated both editions of the Liber Pontificalis to the 7th century, but his opinion is widely rejected and the commonly accepted dating is that of Duchesne.For the pre-Constantinian period (before 312), the credibility of the Liber Pontificalis is very low. The chronology is confused, and details concerning the personal lives, decisions and ordinations of the bishops of Rome at best reflect what people in the 6th century trusted to be true, at worst are a pure invention of the author. The situation changes with the later lives. Already the information of 4th-century papal foundations and offerings are generally trustworthy. The early 6th-century evidence, based on the author's first hand knowledge is even better, though still imperfect.
Bibliography
Edition:Duchesne, L., Le Liber pontificalis. 2 vols (Paris: E. Thorin, 1886-1892) (with substantial introduction and commentary).
Translation:
Davis, R., The Book of Pontiffs (Liber Pontificalis) (Translated Texts for Historians 6; 3rd ed.; Liverpool: Liverpool University Press, 2010).
Record Created By
Robert Wiśniewski
Date of Entry
| ID | Name | Name in Source | Identity | S00036 | Peter, the Apostle | Petrus, princeps apostolorum | Certain |
|---|
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