Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 4.djvu/340

 CONSTANTIA

294

CONSTANTINE

hApitaux de France duranl In fj"erre de cent ans (Paris, 1S89); FiNKE Forsrhungcn und Qitcllcn zur Geschichte des Konstanzer Konziis (Paderbom, 1889); Idem, BUder vom Konslanzcr Konzil in the Almnnach of the Bad. Hist. Commission for I'JOS: Kep- PLER, Die Politik des Kardinalskollegiums inKonstanz (Miinster. 1899); F. MuLLER. Der Kampf um die Autoritat auf dem Komil zu Konstanz (Berlin, 1860); Siebeking, Die Organisation u. Geschdftsordnung des Costnitzer Konziis (Leipzig, 1875). and Stuhr, Die Organisation u. Geschdftsordnung des Fisaner u. Konst. Konziis (Schwerin, 1891); Thdttmann, Das Konklave auf dem Konzil zu Constanz (Freiburg, 1899).

Encyclopedia Articles. — KtippEK in Kirchtnlex. VII, 978- 1006; Voigt-Bess in Hauck, Realencykl. XI, 30-34; Zeller in Kirchliches Handlexikon (Munich, 1908), II, 470 sqq., Bad- DRiLLABT in Did. de thiol, cath. (Paris, 1908), II, 1200-24.

Thomas J. Sh.4.han.

Constantia, a titular see of Arabia and suffragan of Bostra. It figures in Hierocles' "Synecdemus" about .533, in the "Notiti;e episcopatuum " of Anas- tasius I, P.atriarch of Antioch, in the sixth centiu-y, and in Georgius Cyprius' "Descriptio orbis Roman]" in the beginning of the seventh century. Two bish- ops only are known: Chilon, present at Constanti- nople in 3S1 (Mansi, Coll. Con., Ill, 569; Lequien, II, 865, says wrongly at Nicjea in 325), and Solemus at Chalccdon in 451 (Mansi, VII, 168). Eubel mentions (1,211) three Latin bishops of Constantia in Phcenicia during the fourteenth century; tins city is otherwise unknown and may be oiu- Arabian see. Waddington (Inscriptions grecques et latines . . . Syrie, 575) has identified with much likelihood Constantia with Bnik, north of Ledja, in Trachonitis. Briik had a special era, and inscriptions prove that it had been embel- lished by Constantine, whence it took its name Con- stantia (also Constantine, or Constantiana). The ruins are rather important. There have recently set^ tied on this site some Circassian immigrants. Con- stantia in Arabia is not to be confounded with Constantia, a suffragan see of Amida in Mesopotamia; Constantia, or Telia, a renowned Jacobite bishopric whose ruins are at Viran-Shehir, half-way between Mardin and Edessa; nor with Constantia, orSalamis, metropolis of Cyprus.

Revue biblique (1898), VII, 96-100, 283-2S5.

S. Vailhe.

Constantine, Pope, consecrated 25 March, 708; d. 9 April, 715; a Syrian, the son of John, and "a remark- ably affable man". The first half of his reign was marked by a cruel famine in Rome, the second by an extraordinary abundance. For some time he had trouble with Felix, Archbishop of Ravemia, whom he had himself consecrated. Relying on the secular power, the new bishop refused to offer the pope due obedience. It was only after he had tasted of dire misfortune that Felix submitted. Constantine re- ceived as pilgrims two Anglo-Saxon kings, Coenred of Mercia and Offa of the East Saxons. They both received the tonsure in Rome and embraced the monastic life. (Bede, Hist, eccl., V, xix, xx.) St. Egwin, Bishop of Worcester, went to Rome along with them and obtained from the pope various privi- leges for his monastery of Evesham. ("Chron. Abbat. de Evesham", in R. S.; "St. Egwin and his .\bbey of Evesham", London, 1904.) The extant documents regarding this monastery which bear this jiopc's name are all spurious. (They are to be fovmd in Haddan and Stubbs, "Councils", III, 281.) But his privilege for the mon:istcries of I5ermondsey and Woking (il)id., 276) may be genuine.

In 692 the Emperor Justinian II had caused fo assemble the so-called Quini.sext or Trullan Council. At this assembly, which was at (ended only by C.reck bishops, 102 canons were passed, many of which established customs opposed to those of Itome. By canon xiii the eeliliacy of the Creek .secular clergy became a thing of the jiast; and by canon xxxvi a further .step w:is taken in the direction of rendering the Patriarch of (,'onstantinople quite independent of the Holy Sec. Justinian made every effort to

secure the adhesion of the popes to these decrees. But one after another they all refused. At length he sent an order to Constantine to repair to Constanti- nople. Leaving behind him, according to the custom at the time, the archpriest, the archdeacon, and the Prlmicerius, or chief of the notaries, to govern the Church in liis absence, he set sail for the East (709) with a number of bishops and clergj-. Wherever his vessel touched, he was, by Justinian's orders, received with as much honour as the emperor himself. He entered Constantinople in triumph, and at Justinian's request crossed over to Nicomedia, where he was then residing. Strange to say, this cruel prince received the pope with the greatest honour, prostrating him- self before him and kissing his feet. After recei\'ing Holy Communion at the hands of the pope, he renewed all the privileges of the Roman Church. Exactly what passed between them on the subject of the Quinisext Council is not known. It would appear, however, that Constantine approved those canons which were not opposed to the true Faith or to sound morals, and that with this qualified approval of his council the emperor was content.

Soon after Constantine 's return to Rome (Oct., 711), Justinian II was detlironed by Philippicus Bardanes. The new emperor strove to re'vive Monothelism, and sent a letter to the pope which the latter caused to be examined in a synod and con- demned. Further, as the emperor burnt the Acts of the Sixth General Council, restored to the diptycha the names which that council had caused to bi erased, re-erected their images, and removed the representation of the council which was hanging in front of the palace, the pope and the people of Rome placed in the portico of St. Peter's a series of repre- sentations of the six general councils, and refused to place the new emperor's name on their charters or their money. They also declined to place his statue, according to custom, in the official chapel of St. Csesarius on the Palatine, the site of which has just been discovered (1907), or to pray for him in the Canon of the Mass. To punish the Romans for these daring measures, a new duke was sent to Rome, and they would no doubt have had much to suffer but for the opportune deposition of Philippicus by the or- thodox Anastasius (Whitsun Eve, 713). Yhe new emperor made haste to dispatch to Rome, through the Exarch Scholasticus. a letter in which he pro- fessed his orthodoxy and his adhesion to the Sixth General Coimcil. which had condemned Monothelism. Constantine also received a letter from John, the Patriarch of Constantinople, acknowledging that the "apostolical pre-eminence of the Pope is to the whole Church, what the head is to the body", and that "accoriling to the canons he is the head of the Christian priesthood". John assured the pope that, while co-operating with the Emperor Philippicus. lit had always been orthodox at heart, and that the decree, drawn up at the council in which the herctica: emperor had hoped to re-establish Monothelisn (712), was really orthodox in sense, although not apparently so in words. (See John's letter in tlu epilogue of the Deacon Agatho, in Mansi, "Coll Cone", XII. 192.)

Among other distinguished men who came to Homi in the days of Constantino was Benedict. Archbishoi of Milan. He came not only to pray at the shrinei of the Apostles, for he was a man of such remarkabl holiness that he was distinguished for it in all Ital; (Paul the Deacon. Hist.. VI. x\ix), but also to discus with the poiie as to who.so inuncdiate jurisdictio belonged (lie Church of Pavia. At one time, eei tainly in the fifth century, the bishops of Pavia wer subject to the bi.shops of Milan and were con.secrate by them. For some reason. p(>rliaps because tl> Lombards made Pavia their capital, its bishops ha ceased to be dependent on those of Milan, and ha