Lentorama 2025: Perfunctory Popes

Day 14: Severinus

Severinus was elected to the papacy in 638, but his pontificate didn't start until 640. Why? This was during a period when the Byzantine empire controlled the papacy, with new popes needing to be approved by the emperor. And in this case, the emperor Heraclius wouldn't sign off on Severinus.

He refused to do so because Severinus wouldn't support a theological doctrine that Heraclius devised claiming that Jesus only had one nature. Heraclius was trying to end a dispute over that topic that was threatening a schism in the larger church, and getting the new pope on board would more or less settle the question.

Except that Severinus refused to sign on, as he supported the idea that Jesus had separate human and divine wills. This led to a period where the emperor's representative in Rome tried to force Severinus' hand by locking up the papal treasury, looting whatever wasn't nailed down, and getting local officials on his side. Still, Severinus wouldn't budge.

The papal legates in Constantinople continued to negotiate with Heraclius, and eventually struck upon a solution that wouldn't require Severinus to approve Heraclius' doctrine. Heraclius approved Severinus as pope, and the "already an old man" (according to Wikipedia; Severinus was younger than I am now when he was elected) took office...

Only to die two months later, after having to wait out a delay of over a year and a half.  It's not clear how he died, but I suppose it's a good sign that no one seems to have suggested he was poisoned. And for all of the hullabaloo over the human and/or divine will of Jesus, the Third Council of Constantinople came down on the side of two wills in 681, the position almost all Christian churches hold today.