APPENDIX  III  415

Andrew,  a  presbyter  of  Ostia,  in  place  of  the  bishop
of  that  See,  whose  peculiar  privilege  it  generally
was  to  ordain  the  Popes.'  His  dubious  attitude
on  the  subject  of  the  Three  Chapters  led  to
Pelagius  being  accused  of  heresy  not  only  in  Italy
but  in  Gaul,  where  King  Childebert  challenged  his
orthodoxy.     He  died  in  the  year  560.*

"  On  his  death,"  in  the  words  of  Milman,  **  Rome
waited  in  obsequious  submission  the  permission  of
the  Emperor  to  inaugurate  her  new  Pope,  John
the  3rd."  His  obscure  reign  lasted  for  over
twelve  years,  when  he  was  succeeded  by  Benedict,
the  early  patron  of  St.  Gregory,  whose  short  reign
of  four  years  was  marked  by  the  invasion  and  the
terrible  ravages  of  the  Lombards.  The  appalling
condition  of  things  is  marked  by  a  notable
sentence  in  the  Liber  Pontificalis,  where  we  read
of  his  successor,  Pelagius  the  2nd,  who  occupied
the  Papal  Chair  in  580,  Hie  ordinatur  absque
mssione  principis^  eo  quod  Langubardi  obsederent
dvitatem  Romanant^  which  shows  what  a  remark-
able anomaly  such  an  election  was  thought  to  be.
It  might  be  partly  to  excuse  this  informality,  as
well  as  to  seek  help  against  the  Lombards,  that,  as
Dr.  Barmby  says,  Pelagius  sent  a  deputation  to  the
Emperor  Tiberius.  This  was  headed  by  Gregory,
afterwards  Pope,  whom  Pelagius  had  appointed
his  apocrisiarius.  Pelagius,  like  the  other  Popes  of
this    period,   suffered   from    having  to  defend    a

^  Lib,  Pont.^  sub,  voce^  Pelagius  L
«  Diet  Ckr.  Biog,  iv.  296.
