Liber Pontificalis
(BOOK OF THE POPES).
A history of the popes beginning with St. Peter and continued down to the fifteenth century, in the form of biographies. The first complete collection of the papal biographies in the original form of the Liber Pontificalis reached to Stephen V (885-91). They were afterwards continued in a different style as far as Eugene IV (d. 1447) and Pius II (d. 1464). The individual biographies are very unequal in extent and importance. In most cases they exhibit a definite symmetrical form, which in the old Liber Pontificalis is quite uniform. These brief sketches give the origin and birthplace of the pope, the length of his pontificate, the decrees issued by him on questions of ecclesiastical discipline and liturgy, civil and ecclesiastical events, the building and renovation of Roman churches, donations to churches of land, liturgical furniture, reliquaries valuable tapestries and the like, transfer of relics to churches, the number of the principal ordinations (bishops, priests, deacons), the burial-place of the pope, and the time during which the see was vacant.
Historical criticism has for a long time dealt with this ancient text in an exhaustive way, especially in recent decades after Duchesne had begun the publication of his classic edition. In most of its manuscript copies there is found at the beginning a spurious correspondence between Pope Damasus and Saint Jerome. These letters were considered genuine in the Middle Ages; consequently, in those times St. Jerome was considered the author of the biographies as far as Damasus, at whose request it was believed Jerome had written the work, the subsequent lives having been added at the command of each individual pope. When the above-mentioned correspondence was proved entirely apocryphal, this view was abandoned. In the sixteenth century Onofrio Panvinio on quite insufficient grounds attributed to Anastasius Bibliothecarius in the ninth century the continuation of the biographies as far as Nicholas I. Although Baronius in great measure corrected this false impression, the earlier editions, which appeared in the seventeenth century, bear the name of Anastasius as the author of our book of the popes. The investigations of Ciampini (“Examen Libri Pontificalis seu Vitarum Rom. Pont. quæ sub nomine Anastasii circumferuntur”, Rome, 1688), Schelstrate (“Dissertatio de antiquis Romanorum Pontificum catalogis”, Rome, 1692), and other scholars, disprove any possible claim of Anastasius to the authorship of this work. The conclusive researches of Duchesne have established beyond a doubt that in its earlier part, as far as the ninth century, the Liber Pontificalis war gradually compiled, and that the later continuations were added unsystematically. In only a few cases is it possible to ascertain the authors.
Modern criticism deals chiefly with two points, the period in which the Liber Pontificalis, in its earliest part, was compiled, and the sources then available to the author of this oldest division of the Liber Pontificalis. Duchesne has proved exhaustively and convincingly that the first series of biographies from St. Peter to Felix III [IV (d. 530)], were compiled at the latest under Felix’s successor, Boniface II (530-2), and that their author was a contemporary of Anastasius II (496-8) and of Symmachus (498-514). His principal arguments are the following. A great many biographies of the predecessors of Anastasius II are full of errors and historically untenable, but from Anastasius II on the information on the ecclesiastico-political history of the popes is valuable and historically certain. In addition, some manuscripts offer a summary of the earlier part of the Liber Pontificalis as far as Felix III (IV) whence the name “catalogus Felicianus”; consequently, the Liber Pontificalis must have been accessible to the author of this summary in a recension that reached to the above-mentioned Felix III (IV). This observation tallies well with the aforesaid fact that the biographies from Anastasius II on exhibit accurate historical information. Duchesne defended successfully this opinion against Waitz and Mommsen, who placed the first edition of the Liber Pontificalis in the beginning of the seventh century. To bear out this view they suppose that from the time of Anastasius II to that of the author a genuine and reliable historical source, since lost, was at his disposal. Since, moreover, they cannot explain the summary ending with Felix III (IV), as easily is done by the hypothesis of Duchesne, the latter’s opinion meets with the general approval of historians, and has recently been perfected by investigators like Grisar. The first part therefore, to the death of Felix III (IV) i.e. to 530, should be considered a complete work, the compilation of some author who wrote shortly after the death of Pope Felix; later Biographies were added at different times in groups or separately by various authors.
The compiler of the first part made use of two ancient catalogues or lists of the popes taking from them the order of succession, the chronological data, and also certain historical notes; these lists were: (a) the so-called “Catalogus Liberianus”, and (b) a list of the popes that varies in length in the manuscripts, and perhaps depends on the “Catalogus Liberianus” for the period before the middle of the sixth century. The “Catalogus Liberianus” is so called, because it terminates with Pope Liberius (352-66). It has reached us in the so-called Chronographus anni 354), an ancient manuscript that contains the valuable lists of the “Depositio martyrum” and the “Depositio episcoporum” In the “Catalogus Líberianus” there are already short historical notices of some popes (Peter, Pius, Pontianus, Fabianus, Cornelius, Lucius, Xystus, Marcellinus, Julius), which were taken over by the author of the Liber Pontificalis. For its list of the earliest popes the “Catalogus Liberianus” was able to draw on the papal catalogue given by Hippolytus of Rome in his “Liber generationis”, though even this list is not the oldest list of popes. It is probable that from the beginning of the second century there was already a list of popes, which contained short historical notices and was afterwards continued. Eusebius and later chroniclers used such lists in their works [Lightfoot, “The Apostolic Fathers”, Part I; “St. Clement of Rome”, I (2nd ed., London, 1890), 201 sqq.; Harnack, “Gesch. der altchristl. Litt.”, Part II: “Die Chronologie”, I (Leipzig, 1897), 70 sqq.; Segna, “De Successione Romanorum Pontificum” (Rome, 1897)]. Such a catalogue of popes has reached us, as above stated, in the “Catalogus Liberianus”, and forms a basis for the earliest recension of the work.
The compiler of the Liber Pontificalis utilized also some historical writings e.g. St. Jerome, “De Viris Illustribus”), a number of apocryphal fragments (e.g. the Pseudo-C1ementine Recognitions), the “Constitutum Silvestri”, the spurious Acts of the alleged Synod of 275 bishops under Silvester etc., and fifth century Roman Acts of martyrs. Finally the compiler distributed arbitrarily along his list of popes a number of papal decrees taken from unauthentic sources; he likewise attributed to earlier popes liturgical and disciplinary regulations of the sixth century. The building of churches, the donations of land, of church plate and furniture, and many kinds of precious ornaments are specified in great detail. These latter items are of great value, since they are based on the records of the papal treasury (vestiarium), and the conclusion has been drawn that the compiler of the Liber Pontificalis in its earliest form must have been a clerk of the treasury. It is to be noted that the actual Liber Pontificalis that we have was not the only work of this kind. There existed a similar collection of papal biographies, executed under Pope Hormisdas (d. 523), of which a lengthy fragment has reached us (Fragmentum Laurentianum); it gives the end of the life of Anastasius II (d. 498) and the life of his successor Symmachus. The text of the early Liber Pontificalis (first half of the sixth century), as found in the manuscripts that exhibit the later continuations, is not the original text. Duchesne gives a reconstruction of the earliest text of the work. After Felix III (IV) the Liber Pontificalis was continued by various authors at intervals, each writer treating a group of papal lives. Duchesne recognizes a first continuation as far as Pope Silverius (536-7), whose life is attributed to a contemporary. The limits of the next continuation are more difficult to determine; moreover in its earliest biographies several inaccuracies are met with. It is certain that one continuation ended with Pope Conon (d. 687); the aforesaid summary ending with this pope (Catalogus Cononianus) and certain lists of popes are proof of this.
After Conon the lives down to Stephen V (885-91) were regularly added, and from the end of the seventh century usually by contemporaries of the popes in question. While many of the biographies are very circumstantial, their historical value varies much; from a literary point of view both style and diction are, as a rule, of a low grade. Nevertheless they are a very irnportant historical source for the period covered. Some of these biographies were begun in the lifetime of the Pope, the incidents being set down as they occurred. The authors were Roman ecclesiastics, and some of them were attached to the papal court. In only two cases can the author’s name be discovered with any probability. The life of Stephen II (752-7) was probably written by the papal “Primicerius” Christopher. Anastasius bibliothecarius perhaps wrote the life of Nicholas I (858-67), a genuine, though brief, history of this pope; this author may also have worked at the life of the following pope, Adrian II (867-72), with whose pontificate the text of this Liber Pontificalis, as exhibited in the extant manuscripts, comes to an end. The biographies of the three following popes are missing and that of Stephen V (885-91) is incomplete. In its original form the Liber Pontificalis reached as far as the latter pope. From the end of the ninth century the series of the papal lives was long interrupted. For the whole of the tenth and eleventh centuries there are only lists of the popes with a few short historical notices, that usually give only the pope’s origin and the duration of his reign.
After Leo IX (1049-54) detailed biographies of the popes were again written; at first, however, not as continuations of the Liber Pontificalis, but as occasion offered, notably during the Investitures conflict. In this way Bonizo of Sutri, in his “Liber ad amicum” or “De persecutione ecclesiæ”, wrote lives of the popes from Leo IX to Gregory VII; he also wrote, as an introduction to the fourth book of his “Decretals”, a “Chronicon Romanorum Pontificum” as far as Urban II (1088-99). Cardinal Beno wrote a history of the Roman Church in opposition to Gregory VII, “Gesta Romanæ ecclesiæ contra Hildebrandum” (Mon. Germ. Hist., Libelli de lite, II, 368 sqq.). Important information concerning the popes is contained in the “Annales Romani”, from 1044 to 1187, and is utilized, in part, by Duchesne in his edition of the Liber Pontificalis (below). Only in the first half of the twelfth century was a systematic continuation again undertaken. This is the Liber Pontificalis of Petrus Guillermi (son of William), so called by Duchesne after the manuscript written in 1142 by this Petrus in the monastery of St. Gilles (Diocese of Reims). But Petrus Guillermi merely copied, with certain additions and abbreviations, the biographies of the popes written by Pandulf, nephew of Hugo of Alatri. Following the lines of the old Liber Pontificalis, Pandulf had made a collection of the lives of the popes from St. Peter down; only from Leo IX does he add any original matter. Down to Urban II (1088-99) his information is drawn from written sources; from Paschal II (1099-1118) to Honorius II (1124-30), after whose pontificate this recension of the Liber Pontificalis was written, we have a contemporary’s own information. Duchesne holds that all biographies from Gregory VII on were written by Pandulf, while earlier historians like Giesebrecht (“Allgemeine Monatsschrift”, Halle, 1852, 260 sqq.) and Watterich (Romanorum Pontificum vitæ, I, LXVIII sqq.) had considered Cardinal Petrus Pisanus as author of the lives of Gregory VII, Victor III, and Urban II, and had attributed to Pandulf only the subsequent lives–i.e. those of Gelasius II, Callistus II, and Honorius II. This series of papal biographies, extant only in the recension of Petrus Guillermi, is continued in the same manuscripts of the monastery of St. Gilles as far as Martin II (1281-5); however, the statements of this manuscript have no special value, being all taken from the Chronicle of Martinus Polonus.
On the other hand the series of papal lives written by the cardinal priest Boso (d. about 1178), has independent value; it was his intention to continue the old Liber Pontificalis from the death of Stephen V, with which life, as above said, the work ends. For the popes from John XII to Gregory VII Boso drew on Bonizo of Sutri; for the lives from Gelasius II (1118-19), to Alexander III (1179-81) under whom Boso filled an important office, the work has independent value. This collection, nevertheless, was not completed as a continuation of the Liber Pontificalis and it remained unnoticed for a long time. Cencius Camerarius, afterwards Honorius III, was the first to publish, together with his “Liber Censuum”, the “Gesta Romanorum Pontificum” of Boso. Biographies of individual popes of the thirteenth century were written by various authors, but were not brought together in a continuation of the Liber Pontificalis. Early in the fourteenth century an unknown author carried farther the above-mentioned continuation of Petrus Guillermi, and added biographies of the popes from Martin IV (d. 1281) to John XXII (1316-34); but the information is taken from the “Chronicon Pontificum” of Bernardus Guidonis, and the narrative reaches only to 1328. An independent continuation appeared in the reign of Eugene IV (1431-47).
From Urban V (1362-70) to Martin V (1417-31), with whom this continuation ended, the biographies have special historical value; the epoch treated is broadly the time of the Great Western Schism. A later recension of this continuation, accomplished under Eugene IV, offers several additions. Finally, to the fifteenth century belong two collections of papal biographies, which were thought to be a continuation of the Liber Pontificalis, but nevertheless have remained separate and independent collections. The first comprises the popes from Benedict XII (1334-42) to Martin V (1417-31), and in another manuscript to Eugene IV (1431-47); the second reaches from Urban VI (1378-89) to Pius II (1458-64). For the last popes in each case they exhibit valuable historical material. In consequences of the peculiar development of the Liber Pontificalis as a whole, it follows that, in order to obtain the full value of the historical sources used in the Liber Pontificalis, each particular life, each larger or smaller group of lives, needs separate critical treatment. The Liber Pontificalis was first edited by J. Busæus under the title “Anastasii bibliothecarii Vitæ seu Gesta. Romanorum Pontificum” (Mainz, 1602). A new edition, with the “Historia ecclesiastica” of Anastasius, was edited by Fabrotti (Paris, l647). The best of the older editions of the primitive Liber Pontificalis (down to Hadrian II),with edition of the life of Stephen VI, was done by Fr. Bianchini (4 vols., Rome, 1718-35; a projected fifth volume did not appear). Muratori added to his reprint of this edition the lives of later popes down to John XXII (Scriptores rerum Italicarum, III). The edition of Bianchini with several appendixes is found also in Migne (P. L., CXXVII-VIII). For a classic edition of the early Liber Pontificalis, with all the above-mentioned continuations, we are indebted to the tireless industry of Louis Duchesne, “Liber Pontificalis. Texte, introduction et commentaire” (2 vols., Paris, 1886-92). Mommsen began a new critical edition of the same work under the title “Gestorum Pontificum Romanorum pars I: Liber Pontificalis” (Mon. Germ. hist.); the first volume extends to 715 (Berlin, 1898).
On the plan of the Roman Liber Pontificalis, and in obvious imitation, Agnellus, a priest of Ravenna, wrote the history of the bishops of that city, and called it “Liber Pontificalis Ecclesiæ Revennatis”. It began with St. Apollinaris and reached to about 485 (see AGNELLUS OF RAVENNA). This history of the bishops of Ravenna was continued, first by the unknown author to the end of the thirteenth century (1296), and afterwards to 1410 by Petrus Scordilli, provost of Ravenna. Other medieval chroniclers have also left collections of biographies of the bishops of particular sees, arranged on the lines of the Liber Pontificalis. Thus in 1071-2, at the order of Bishop Gundecharus of Eichstätt, the “Liber Pontificalis Eichstettensis” (ed. Bethmann in “Mon. Germ. hist., script.”, VII, 242-50). Many medieval archiepiscopal and episcopal sees possess, under the title of “Gesta”, histories of the occupants of these sees. Most of them offer very important original material for local diocesan history (for a list of them consult Potthast, “Bibliotheca historica medii ævi”, 2nd ed., I,511, 514-6).
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Besides the learned Prolegomena to the editions of DUCHESNE and MOMMSEN, see DUCHESNE, Etude sur le Liber Pontificalis in Bibl. des Ecoles françaises d’Athènes et de Rome (1st series, Paris, 1877); IDEM. La date et les récensions du Liber Pont. in Revue de quest. hist., XXVI (1879), 493-530; IDEM, Le premier Liber Pont., Ibid., XXIX (1881), 246-62; IDEM, La nouvelle édition du Liber Pont. in Mélanges d’archéoal. et d’hist., XVIII (1898), 381-417; GRISAR, Der Liber Pontif. in Zeitschr. für kath. Theol., XI (1887), 417-46; IDEM, Analecta Romana, I (Rome, 1899). 1 sqq.; WAITZ, Ueber die italienischen Handschriften des Liber Pont. in Neues Archiv. X (1885), 455-65 IDEM, Ueber den sogennanten Catalogus Felicianus der Päpste, ibid., XI (1886), 217-99: IDEM, Ueber die verschiedenen Texte des Liber Pont., ibid., IV (1879), 216-73; BRACKMANN, Reise nach Italien, ibid., XXVI (1901), 299-347; GIORGI, Appunti intorno ad alcuni manorcritti del Liber Pont. in Archivio della Soc. romana di storia patria, XX (1897), 247 sqq.; WATTERICH, Vitæ Pontif. Roman. (2 vols., Leipzig, 1862); LIGHTFOOT, The Apostolic Fathers. Part I: S. Clement of Rome, I (London, 1890). 303-25; FABRE: Etude sur le Liber Censuum de l’Eglise romaine in BIBL. des Ecoles françaises d’Athènes et de Rome, n. lxii (1st series, Paris, 1899); GLASSCHRÖDER, Des Lucas Holstenius Sammlung von Papstleben in Römische Quartalschr., IV (1890), 125 sqq.; IDEM. Vitæ aliquot Ponticum Sæc. XV, ibid., V (1891), 178 sqq.; IDEM, Zur Quellenkunde der Papstgesch. des XIV. Jahrhunderts in Historiches Jahrbuch, XI (1890), 240 sqq.; HARNACK. Ueber die Ordinationes im Papstbuch in Sitzungsber. der Akad. der Wiss. Zu Berlin (1897), 761 sqq.; MOMMSEN. Ordo et spatia episcoporum Romanorum in Libro Pontificali in Neues Archiv., XXI (1894), 333 sqq.; SÄ;GMÜLLER. Dietrich von Niem und der Liber Pontificalis in Hist. Jahrbuch. XV (1894), 802 sqq.; ROSENFELD, Ueber die Komposition des Liber Pontificalis bis zu Konstantin. Dissert. (Marburg. 1896); SCHNÜRER, Der Verfasser der Vita Stephani II 752-757) im Liber Pontificalis in Histor. Jahrbuch. XI (1890). 425 sqq.; POTTHAST, Bibl. hist. medii ævi, I, 737-9; DE SMEDT, Introductio generalis ad historiam eccl. critice tractandam (Ghent, 1876), 220 sqq.
J.P. KIRSCH Transcribed by Wm Stuart French, Jr. Dedicated to Rev. Anselm Biggs, O.S.B.
The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume IXCopyright © 1910 by Robert Appleton CompanyOnline Edition Copyright © 2003 by K. KnightNihil Obstat, October 1, 1910. Remy Lafort, CensorImprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York
Fuente: Catholic Encyclopedia
Liber Pontificalis
de vitis Romanorum Pontificum, GESTA ROMANORUM PONTIFICUM, LIBER GESTORUM PONTIFICALIUM, are the names of a history of the bishops of Rome from the apostle Peter down to Nicolas I (t 867), to which those of Adrian II and of Stephen VI (t 891) were subsequently added. On the authority of Onuphrio Pavini, the first editors of this Liber Pontificalis considered as its author Anastasius, abbot of a convent at Rome, and librarian of the church under Nicolas I; but more thorough researches have proved this liber to vary greatly in style, and even in views manifested in the different biographies, and therefore led to the supposition that the work is not all by the same author. This belief is further strengthened by the fact that already Anastasius, on some occasions, made use of passages from the Liber Pontificalis, and that there are MSS. extant which can with certainty be ascribed to the close of the 7th or the beginning of the 8th century, and which contain extracts from the Liber Pontificalis. In the early part of the 17th century, several writers put forth arguments in favor of the last-mentioned views. Among them are Emanuel of Schelstrate, librarian of the Vatican (Dissertatio de antiquis Romanorum Pontificumn catalogis, ex quibus Liber Pontificalis concinnatus sit, et de Libri Pontificalis auctore ac prmstantia [Romae, 1692, fol.; reprinted in Muratori, Rerum Italicarum scriptores, 3:1 sq.]), Joannes Ciampini (magister brevium gratiae: Examen Librai Pontificalis sive vita rum Romanorum Pontificum, quae sub nomine Anastasii bibliothecarii circumferuntur [Romans 1688, 4to; reprinted in Muratori, page 33 sq.]), and others. The supposition that the codex was compiled by pope Damasus, the successor of Liberius, as maintained by the authors of the Origines, is untenable. The correspondence between Damnasus and Jerome which is adduced in support of this view is evidently spurious (see Schelstrate, Dissertatio, etc.). The author or authors are unknown, but the information it contains is valuable. It is now generally thought to have been written about the 4th century.
The oldest source known at present of the liber is generally considered to have been a list of the popes down to Liberius, and probably written during his life (352-366), as it makes no mention of his death (see Schelstrate, Dissertatio, etc., chapter 2, 3; Hefele, Tbinger theolog. Quartalschrift, 1845, page 312 sq.). The original MS. of this so-called Codex Liberii is now lost. In 1634 a copy was made of it from an Antwerp MS. by Bucher, the Bollandists give one in the Acta Sanctorunm, April, volume 1:1675, and Schelstrate another from a Vienna codex. These three texts are given side by side in the Origines de l’eglise Romaine, par les membres de la communauute de Solermes (Paris, 1826), volume 1.
Another list of the popes extends down to Felix IV (t 530). It was first published in a codex of the Vatican Library by Christine of Sweden, afterwards by Sylvester of Henschen and Papebroch, and is also found in the introduction of the first volume of the Acta Sanctorum for April, in Schelstrate, and in the above-mentioned Origines, page 212. There are transcripts of French origin, and the original MS. of this so-called Catalogus Felicis IV is lost, but the two at present in existence are evidently copies of the same original, as results from a careful comparison of them by Schelstrate. That the author of it must have consulted the Catalogus Liberii is evident from the fact that its errors are repeated in it. They both omit the names of the consuls and emperors between Liberius and John I (523), and commence again at the reign of the latter, and of his successor, Felix IV (al. III). Schelstrate already correctly surmised from this fact that the author lived in the time of these two popes, which view is also supported by the completeness and thoroughness with which their history, in particular, is treated. Still, as to the author, there is no definite information. The numerous references to the archives of the Roman Church, in which, moreover, the first MS. was discovered, would make it probable that the author was himself a librarian of the archives, if the confusion and even incorrectness of some parts did not militate against this view. Aside from the similarity of this collection with the Catalogus Liberii, which extends so far that whole passages are copied literally, or nearly so, from the one into the other, the Catalogus Felicis IV differs from the Liberii principally by its full particulars on the ordination, by its mention of the birthplace of the popes, and their funerals, which the author may have derived from tradition and other similar sources, pseudo- decretals and canons, martyrologies, etc. The only parts which have heretofore been considered worthy of full confidence are those which coincide with the Catalogues Liberii, and those which refer to the times of John and Felix, when the author would be better acquainted with the facts than with those of preceding periods.
Both lists were subsequently continued, and this is what produced the Liber Pontificalis. This filiation, however, can only be traced by the aid of MSS. The oldest copy known belongs to the close of the 7th or the beginning of the 8th century. It ends at the death of Conon (686-687). A rather incomplete Codex rescriptus, discovered by Pertz (Archiv. page 50 sq.) at Naples, gives the list of the popes down to Conon; it must have been written, at the latest, in the early part of the 8th century. Another is found in a codex of the cathedral chapter of Verona, ending also with Conon, but to it was added afterwards a list of the names of the popes down to Paul I (t 767). This MS. was published in the fourth volume of Bianchini’s collection, but, unfortunately, we have no description of this codex; it was to have been given in the fifth volume, which never appeared (see Rostell, Beschreibung der Stadt Romans 1:209, 210), so that it is impossible clearly to establish its relation to the Neapolitan MS. A continuation of this first work goes down to Gregory II (from 714), and is to be found in the Codex of the Vatican, No. 5269, which must be a copy of an older MS. (Schelstrate, chapter 5, 3). Then there is another continuation from the second part of the 8th century, contained in a codex of the Ambrosian Library of Milan (M. no. 77, 4to), which is of the same date. The biographies close with Stephen III (t 757), and at the end is simply remarked, “xcv Paulus sedit annis x, mensibus ii, diebus v” (Muratori, Rerum Ital. Scriptores, 3:7). The variations on this MS. are given by Muratori under the letter A. It belonged originally to the convent of Bobbio. According to a very plausible supposition of Niebuhr, the above-mentioned Neapolitan Codex came also from that convent. It will probably be possible, when the subject shall have been more thoroughly studied, to trace a connection between the two, and the Liber Pontiicalis also. After the middle of the 8th century there appeared several continuations, as is shown by the numerous MSS. of them in existence (see, in Muratori, B, C, D; and Pertz, who gives notices of several MSS. of the kind). Some of these codices extend down to Nicolas I (t 867), others to Stephen VI (t 891), which is as far as the so-called Liber Pontificalis extends.
If from what we have stated it is concluded that the work dates back as far as the 7th century, it is clearly impossible that the librarian Anastasius should have been its author. He could at best only have continued it. Schelstrate thinks that the biography of Nicolas I can alone be ascribed to him (c. 8, 10); while Ciampini is induced by some peculiarities of the style to consider him also as the author of the four preceding ones (1.c. sect. 5, 6). Ii the present state of the question it is impossible to decide between the two opinions. But it is clearly a mistake to attribute the biographies of Adrian II and Stephen IV to a certain Bibliothecarius Gulielntus, as is generally done (Ciampini names the librarian Zachary, sect. 4, 7, 8). This error originated in an inscription in the Vatican Codex (3762, fol. 90 b-96), which, however, states only that a certain Peter Guillermus of Genoa, librarian of the convent of S. AEgidius, wrote this Vatican Codex in the year 1142 (see Giesebrecht, in the Kieler Allgem1. Monatsschrift, etc., April, 1852, pages 266, 267; Monumental Germaniae, 11:318).
The sources of the Liber Pontificalis, besides those above mentioned, consist partly in traditions, partly in MS. documents, and remaining monuments, auch as buildings, inscriptions, etc. The collection of canon law of the 7th or 8th century, published by Zachary from a codex of Modena, stands in close connection with the Liber Pontificalis (see Zaccaria, Dissertazioni varie Italiane a storia eccleslastica appartenenti, Romans 1780, volume 2, diss. 4; reproduced by Galland, De vetustis canonum collectionibus dissertationum sylloge, Mogunt. 1770, 4to, 2:679 sq.); yet it is not to be considered as one of its sources, but rather appears to have been based on the Liber Pontificalis. The Liber Pontificalis has become particularly valuable for the correctness of the information since the latter part of the 7th century, when the Roman archives were regularly organized, and the continuation of the Liber Pontificalis could only be intrusted to the librarians or other members of the clergy having free access to the archives. The Liber Pontificalis is especially useful for the history of particular churches, ecclesiastical institutions, the discipline, etc. Schelstrate names as its first edition Peter Crabbe’s Concilien (Cologne, 1538); but this is neither complete nor well connected. It only contains extracts on each pope, like Baronius’s Annutles and subsequent collections of canons, and as the “editio priinceps,” the edition of J. Busus (Mayence, 1602, 4to) is generally accepted, which is based on a MS. of Marcus Welser, of Augsburg. It was followed by the edition of Hannibal Fabrotti (Par. 1649), for which several codices were consulted. Lucas Holstenius prepared another by collating Busaus’s with a number of MSS., and, although never published, it was greatly used by Schelstrate and others (see Schelstrate, cap. 5, No. 3 sq.). From the hands of Schelstrate the MS. of Holstenius passed into the library of the Vatican in 1734 (see Dudik, Iter Romanum, part 1 [Vienna, 1855, page 169]). The next edition was published by Francis Bianchini (Romans 1718, folio), and this served as a basis for Muratori’s, contained in the 3d volume of his Scriptores rearum Italicarulm (1723); Bianchini’s work was continued by his nephew, Joseph Bianchini (volumes 2-4, Romans 1735; there was to have been a 5th volume, but it never appeared). There also appeared at Rome an edition by John and Peter Joseph Vignoli (1724, 1752, 1755, 3 volumes, 4to). Risstell recently undertook another for the Monumenta Germaniae, while Giesebrecht announced for the same work a continuation of the Libel Pontificalis (see Giesebrecht, Ueber die Quellen d. frheren Papstgesch., art. ii in the Kieler Allgem. Monatsschrift f. Wissenschajft u. Literatur, April 1852, pages 257-274).
The investigations made on this subject permit us to distinguish three continuations of the Liber Pontificalis.
1. From an unknown source have been composed three histories of the popes:
(a) one is contained in the Vatican Codex 3764, extending from Laudo (912) to Gregory VII, and belonging to the end of the 11th century. It is reproduced in the first volume of Vignoli’s edition of the Liber Pontificalis.
(b) The second, in the codex of the library of Este, 6:5, and extending as far down, was written during Gregory’s lifetime.
(c) The third, dating from the time of Paschal II, in the early part of the 12th century (in the library of Maria sopra Minerva at Rome).
2. Another continuation of the Liber Pontificalis, composed in the 12th century, extends from Gregory VII to Honorius II (1124-1129). Onuphrius Panvini and Baronius name as its author either the subdeacon Pandulph of Pisa or a Roman librarian named Peter Constant. Gaetani published in 1638 a biography of Gelasius II alone, and asserted that the continuation of the Liber Pontifticis down to Innocent III was due to cardinal Pandulph Masca of Pisa, and was written in the time of Innocent III. But Papebroch brings forth very plausible arguments to prove that the subdeacon Peter of Pisa wrote only the biography of Paschal II, and that the subsequent ones are due to the subdeacon Peter of Alatri, still Muratori, in the 3d volume of the Scriptores, gives this collection of biographies under the name of Pandulph of Pisa, and the question of authorship has not been further inquired into since. Giesebrecht (page 262 sq.) maintains that the Codex Vaticanus 3762, of the 12th century, is the original from which all the other IMSS. were copied (also the codex No. 2017, of the 14th century, in the Barberini Library at Rome; comp. Vignoli, Liber Pontisf volume 3; Pertz, Archiv. page 54), and also that the author of the life of Paschal I was the cardinal- deacon Peter. The life of Gelasiuts II and that of Calixtus II were written by Pandulph after 1130, as is shown by his own statement (Muratori, 3:389, 419). The similarity of style shows that he wrote also the life of Ionorius II. But it is highly probable that Pandulph is the same person afterwards designated as the cardinal-deacon of the church of St.Cosmas and Damianus, a nephew of Hugo of Alatri, cardinal-priest and for a long time governor of Benevento. Peter and Pandulph were partisans of Anacletus II, and were afterwards declared schismatics by the adherents of Innocent II; this put an end to their work.
3. Another continuation originated at the close of the 12th century. Baronius designates it as the Acta Vaticana, but Muratori published it under the name of the cardinal of Aragon. Nicolas Roselli (a Dominican, made cardinal in 1351, t in 1362) caused a collection of old historical documents to be prepared, which contained the lives of the popes from Leo IX to Alexander III (omitting Victor III and Urban II), and also the biography of Gregory IX. Pertz (Archiv. page 97) says that these biographies are borrowed from the Liber censzuum camereas apostolicae of Cencius Camerarius, who in 1216 became pope under the name of Honorius III. But these also are not the work of Cencius himself, but of some anterior writer. The life of Adrian IV was written by his relative, cardinal Boso, from materials furnished by himself, during the reign of Alexander III. The life of Alexander III was written at the same time, and most likely also by Boso, who probably wrote most of the whole collection. The introduction is taken from Bonizo’s collection of canons, the biographies of John XII, and from Leo IX down to Gregory VII are adapted from the ad Ameicum of the same writer; subsequent ones down to Eugenius III are based on the records, but after that they become more complete, resting on Boso’s own experience, as he then lived at Rome. For subsequent biographies the sources are much more numerous. We might also mention, as a compendium of the whole, the Actus Pontificum Romanorum of the Augustinian monk Amaricus Angerii, written in 1365, and extending from St. Peter to John XII (1321), which is to be found in Eccard, Corpus hist. medii cevi, 2:1641 sq., and in Muratori, volume 3, part 2: Herzog, Real-Encyclop. 8:367 sq. See Baxmann, Politik der Papste (Elberfeld, 1868), vol. i (see Index); Watterich, Vitae Romanorum Pontificum (Lpz. 1862); Piper, Einleit. in die monumentale Theologie (Gotha, 1867); De Rossi, Roma Sotteranea (1857).