PELAGIUS. The name of two popes. PELA mus 1., Pope 555-60. Ile came of a noble Roman family, and as a deacon accompanil Pope Aga petus 1. to Constantinople (536). Pope Vigilius appointed him his representative at the Imperial Court there in 540, and he won great influence over the Emperor Justinian. He took a vigorous part in the controversy over the Three Chapters of Justinian (see CHAPTERS, TILE TIIEEE) . iii which the decree of the Council of Chalcedon on the Person of Christ was constructively con demned. Despite his opposition to the Emperor's views, the latter, On the death of put him forward as his candidate for the vacant see. lie ill received on his return to Italy as the Im perial nominee, and only two bishops came to assist in his consecration. He endeavored to clear himself from the charge of complicity in heresy by a solemn protestation of allegiance to the teaching of the four general councils. and es pecially that of Chalcedon: but lie could not pre vent a schism in Northern Italy. Ile died in Rome, 3, 560, or, according to Duchene, _March 4, 561. His letters are in Aligne. Patrolo gia Latina, Nix: sonue additional ones in Lowell feld, Poutificum, Mintunonim Incrlihr (Leipzig, Ititi5).—PELAcius II., Pope 578-90, born
in Rome of a Catholic fancily. lie was elected Pope when was besieged by the Lombards. and appealed to the Greek Emperor Tiberias IL for assistance; hut that monarch was too much occupied with a war in Persia. Ile then turned to the Franks. with whom :Maurice. the suc cessor of Tiberius, concluded a treaty. The Franks. however, proved untrustworthy allies, and the troubles of Italy continued. He took offense at the toleration of the title 'uni versal versal bishop' by John the Faster, Patriarch of Constantinople, and forbade his representative there to attend any service celebrated by .John.
But his heart was gladdened at the end of his pontificate by the news that the West-Goths in Spain had returned from Arianism to the ortho dox faith (589). He died of the plague in Ifonte, February 7, 590. His letters are in Migne, Pa rot og ia lxxii. Ile was succeeded by Gregory the Great, who had long been his trusted counselor, and in whose biographies many of the events of his pontificate will be flaunt ; consult also Weise, Italics and. die Langobardenherrscher 1SS7).