Pelagius I
Birth name	Pelagius
Papacy began	556
Papacy ended	561
Predecessor	Vigilius
Successor	John III
Born	??? Rome, Italy
Died	561 Rome, Italy

Pelagius I, Pope (556 - 561 March 3), came from a Roman noble family. His father, John, seems to have been vicar of one of the two civil "dioceses", or districts, into which Italy was then divided. Pelagius accompanied Pope Agapitus I to Constantinople, and was appointed by him nuncio of the Roman Church to that city.[1] Vatican coat of arms This image depicts a seal, an emblem, a coat of arms or a crest. ... Events End of the Western Wei Dynasty in China. ... Events Clotaire I dies, and the Frankish kingdom is divided; Sigebert I becomes king of Austrasia, Chilperic I becomes king of Neustria, Charibert becomes king of Paris, and Guntram becomes king of Burgundy. ... Vigilius was Pope from 537 to 555. ... John III was pope from 561 to 574. ... City motto: Senatus Populusque Romanus – SPQR (The Senate and the People of Rome) Founded 21 April 753 BC mythical, 1st millennium BC Region Latium Area  - City Proper  1285 km² Population  - City (2004)  - Metropolitan  - Density (city proper) 2,553,873 almost 4,300,000 1. ... Events Clotaire I dies, and the Frankish kingdom is divided; Sigebert I becomes king of Austrasia, Chilperic I becomes king of Neustria, Charibert becomes king of Paris, and Guntram becomes king of Burgundy. ... City motto: Senatus Populusque Romanus – SPQR (The Senate and the People of Rome) Founded 21 April 753 BC mythical, 1st millennium BC Region Latium Area  - City Proper  1285 km² Population  - City (2004)  - Metropolitan  - Density (city proper) 2,553,873 almost 4,300,000 1. ... The Pope (from Greek: pappas, father; from Latin: papa, Papa, father) is the head of the Catholic Church. ... Events End of the Western Wei Dynasty in China. ... Events Clotaire I dies, and the Frankish kingdom is divided; Sigebert I becomes king of Austrasia, Chilperic I becomes king of Neustria, Charibert becomes king of Paris, and Guntram becomes king of Burgundy. ... March 3 is the 62nd day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (63rd in leap years). ... City motto: Senatus Populusque Romanus – SPQR (The Senate and the People of Rome) Founded 21 April 753 BC mythical, 1st millennium BC Region Latium Area  - City Proper  1285 km² Population  - City (2004)  - Metropolitan  - Density (city proper) 2,553,873 almost 4,300,000 1. ... Agapetus I, or Agapitus I, pope (535 - 536), was the son of Gordian, a priest who had been slain during the riots in the days of Pope Symmachus. ... Constantinople[1] was the name of the modern-day city of Ä°stanbul, Turkey over the centuries that it served as the second capital of the unified Roman Empire, and after its division into East and West, of the Eastern Roman Empire, also known as the Byzantine Empire (from the city... From the ancient Latin Nuntius, meaning any envoy. ...

When Pope Vigilius went to Constantinople on the orders of Emperor Justinian I, Pelagius stayed in Rome as the pope's representative. Totila, King of the Goths, had begun to blockade the city. Pelagius poured out his own fortune for the benefit of the famine-stricken people, and tried to induce the king to grant a truce. Though he failed, he afterwards induced Totila to spare the lives of the people when he captured Rome in December, 546. Totila sent Pelagius to Constantinople in order to arrange a peace with Justinian I, but the Emperor sent him back to say that his general Belisarius was in command in Italy. Vigilius was Pope from 537 to 555. ... Justinian I depicted on one of the famous mosaics of the Basilica of San Vitale. ... Totila, born in Treviso, was king of the Ostrogoths, chosen after the death of his uncle Ildibad, having engineered the assassination of Ildibads short-lived successor his cousin Eraric in 541. ... Invasion of the Goths: a late 19th century painting by O. Fritsche portrays the Goths as cavalrymen. ... Events The Ostrogoths under Totila retake Rome from the Byzantine Empire. ... Belisarius, by Jacques-Louis David (1781); the depiction is now believed to be fictionalized. ...

Traditionally he is credited with the building of the Basilica dei Santi Apostoli in Rome, ordered to celebrate the complete victory of Narses over the Ostrogoths. Baroque ceiling. ... Narses (478-573) was, along with Belisarius, one of the two great generals in the service of the Eastern Roman Emperor Justinian I. during the so-called Reconquest that took place during the Justinians reign. ... The Ostrogoths (Gleaming Goths), in distinction to the Visigoths (Noble Goths), were a Germanic tribe that influenced political events of the late Roman Empire. ...

Pelagius was elected Pope as Justinian's candidate. While before his ordination he opposed Justinian's efforts to achieve a compromise between the various Christian factions under one Church in the form of the "Three Chapters", afterwards Pelagius adopted Justinian's position. This damaged the papacy's reputation in northern Italy, Gaul, and elsewhere in Western Europe, and his successors over the next 50 years spent much effort undoing the damage. The Three Chapters (trîa kephálaia), a phase in the Monophysite controversy, was an attempt to reconcile the Christians of Syria and Egypt with Western Christiandom, following the failure of the Henotikon. ... Map of Gaul circa 58 BC Gaul (Latin Gallia, Greek Galatia) was the region of Western Europe occupied by present day northern Italy, France, Belgium, western Switzerland and the parts of the Netherlands and Germany on the west bank of the Rhine river. ...