John III (Pope)

John III came from a noble Roman family and was the son of a certain Anastasia, a Roman senator and governor of the province. He is also referred to as Catalino, but it is unclear whether this is a surname, a nickname, or a real name. If this is his real name, then he was the second pope who, after the enthronement, adopted a name that was different from the original, after Pope John II .

Although he ruled for almost thirteen years, little information remained about his pontificate - the time of John III was due to the invasion of the Lombards, and almost all the records of the church's affairs were destroyed. There remains only a little information preserved by the future Pope Gregory the Great , the deacon in the retinue of John.

Pontificate

Despite the proximity to the court of Byzantium, John was forced to wait four months to confirm his election as emperor Justinian . He had to maintain a delicate balance, maneuvering between the interests of the Lombards and the Byzantines, in order to preserve the unity of the Church in Italy and prevent the growth of poverty in Rome.

The Lombards - the Germanic tribe of the Arian religion - in 568 invaded Italy from the territory of Pannonia , led by King Alboin , rapidly conquering cities in the north, while the Byzantines held the coastal possessions. In 572 , Alboin was killed by a conspiracy organized by his wife Rosamund. After the death of his successor Clef in 574 , decades of anarchy followed, during which more than thirty Lombard princes fought for power over Italy.

It was a dark time for the Church. Many Christians were tortured, the monastery of Monte Cassino was destroyed, many churches were looted. To defend Rome, who was besieged by the Duke of Spoleto Faroald I in 573 , John III (as reported by Liber Pontificalis ) had to go to Naples to ask for help from the Byzantine exarch Narses . However, the Byzantines refused to protect the city.

John completed the construction of the Basilica of the Apostles Philip and James (later the Basilica of the Twelve Holy Apostles ), which was dedicated to the liberation of Italy from the Goths and the Arian heresy . By his order, the cemetery of the martyrs was also restored and expanded. All the material achievements of his papacy died during the invasion of the Lombards.

The Pope fought with them against the Gallic bishops, who denied the Pope's right to restore the bishop he had deposed. Among the few information about John III, there is the story of two bishops of Gaul - Salonia from Ambren and Sagittarius from Gap. Having received a dignity, they began to behave in an offensive tone and committed a number of crimes against the population. After a popular uprising caused by their actions, the synod convened in Lyon in 567 and deposed both bishops. Characteristically, the Frankish king Guntramn appealed to cancel the overthrow of John III, thereby recognizing his primacy in the church hierarchy. The pope, having received from the king the assurances of the innocence of the bishops, ordered them to be rehabilitated. However, the bishops continued to abuse their position, and a new synod in Chalon-sur-Saone condemned them in 579 , and the king ordered them to be sent to captivity in a monastery without contact with the outside world.

John III confirmed the decisions of the Fifth Ecumenical Council in Constantinople and defended them with great zeal.

In 572 , he finally stopped the split with the diocese of Milan, which originated during the pontificate of Pope Pelagius I, but relations with the diocese of Aquileia were still strained.

Death

In Liber Pontificalis it is recorded that John III died on July 7, 574 . He was buried in the narthex of the Cathedral of St. Peter.

• Korelin M. S. John, the Popes / / Encyclopedic Dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron : in 86 tons. (82 tons and 4 extra.). - SPb. , 1890-1907.
• Claudio Rendina, I Papi. Storia e segreti, Newton Compton, Roma, 1983