Crises in the History of the Papacy: A study of twenty famous popes whose careers and whose influence were important in the development of the church and in the history of the worldMcCabe, Joseph
History
Crises in the History of the Papacy: A study of twenty famous popes whose careers and whose influence were important in the development of the church and in the history of the world
McCabe, Joseph
Catholic Church -- History; Papacy -- History
Victor died in 198 and was succeeded by Zephyrin, "an ignorant and
illiterate man," says Hippolytus. Callistus, who had ceased to be a
slave when he was sentenced to penal servitude, was recalled to Rome
and, apparently, made first deacon (now called archdeacon) of the
Church. He was put in charge of a cemetery in the Appian Way which the
community had just secured, and this cemetery bears his name to this
day. Hippolytus, who was indignant, charges Callistus with ambition,
and says that Zephyrin was avaricious and open to bribes; which we may
humanely construe to mean that the able administration of Callistus
enabled the Bishop to live in some comfort. Nor need we despair of
finding a genial interpretation of his further charge, that the deacon
induced Zephyrin to meddle with questions of dogma, and then, behind
the Bishop's back, diplomatically sympathized with both the contending
parties. The truth is that the Latins were sorely puzzled by the
subtleties with which the Greeks were slowly and fiercely shaping the
dogma that the Father and Son were one nature, yet two persons, and
both Zephyrin and Callistus stumbled.
Callistus is further described as assisting Zephyrin in the "coercion,"
or, as others translate, the "organization" of the clergy, and this
point is of greater interest. As far as one can construe the barbarous
Latin of the _Liber Pontificalis_, Zephyrin decreed that the priests
were not to consecrate the communion for the people. The sacred
elements were to be brought to them, on glass patens, from the altar
at which the bishop said mass. Probably this is the "coercion" to
which Hippolytus refers, as the aim was, plainly, to emphasize the
subordination of the clergy. I would further venture to suggest,
against the learned Father Grisar, that this was also the occasion when
the sphere of the Roman bishop was divided into twenty-five _tituli_
(or parishes). The _Liber Pontificalis_ describes how Urban I., the
successor of Callistus, substituted silver for glass vessels at the
altar, and expressly speaks of "twenty-five patens."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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