The Conclave: A Sometimes Secret and Occasionally Bloody History of Papal Elections Read Free Page A

another with suspicious regularity. Their names, and what little else we know of them, suggest that they were either Roman or Greek, though Anicetus, mentioned above, was from Syria and Victor I (traditionally 189–199) was from Africa. There is no evidence whatsoever about how they came to be popes. Zephyrinus (199–217) is the first to emerge from the obscurity of the papal succession lists as a distinct personality – and a weak one at that – but only because he is discussed by the Roman theologian Hippolytus, who did not like him.
    The reason for the dislike was Callistus. Callistus, at least according to Hippolytus, was a Christian slave who looked after his master’s finances. He was, however, found guilty of embezzling money, fled to the Roman port of Ostia, and was arrested there while trying to get on board a ship. He was sentenced to the tread- mill, then pardoned, and then sent to the lead mines of Sardinia for causing a disturbance in a synagogue. There were numerous Christians in the mines, victims of the spasmodic persecutions which the Emperors unleashed upon the Church (Peter is thought to have died in the persecution of Nero in the year 64). Some time around 190 Pope Victor managed to get the Christians released. As a common criminal Callistus was not included, but succeeded in getting himself added to the Pope’s list. Apparently Victor was not
    In Times of Persecution 9
    pleased and sent him away from Rome. Zephyrinus brought him back, made him a deacon, and put him in charge of a Christian cemetery, still known as the catacomb of St. Callistus. When Zephyrinus died in 217 Callistus became pope.
    The choice of a man with such a shady career seems odd. Certainly Hippolytus thought so. But there was more to it than that. As far as we can tell, Callistus was chosen as pope because he was a good administrator and, having been put in charge of the lower clergy by Zephyrinus, was well known in the church. He may also have been elected because he was ready to adapt Christian discipline to the changing position of the Church as it grew in numbers and became more established in society – not least as a property owner. Hippolytus accused him of being too lenient, but it may have been this trait which commended him to the electors. Callistus seems to have been killed in 222, thrown out of a window in the Roman district of Trastevere (where, indeed, he had been born) not in a formal persecution but in the course of an anti- Christian riot.
    It used to be thought that Hippolytus was elected as an antipope, that is to say, someone chosen by a faction in the Church in oppo- sition to the legitimately chosen Bishop of Rome. There were to be many antipopes in the future, occasionally more than one at the same time. There were to be times when it became di ffi cult to decide who was pope and who was an antipope, but it is now generally thought that Hippolytus was not after all the first of a long line, though he was clearly the leader of a faction among the Christians of Rome who did not approve of the policies of Callistus.
    The dissident group survived through the pontificates of Urban and Pontian, but then conditions for Christians in Rome deteri- orated sharply. Though the early years of Christianity are some- times portrayed as a period of unremitting persecution, when the faithful in Rome had to flee for safety’s sake to hide among the underground tombs in the catacombs, that is a rather romantic
    10 The Conclave
    vision. Such cemeteries were public places; there would have been no point in hiding in them. And, in any case, persecution was for the most part spasmodic and localized. Though Callistus may have been the victim of an anti-Christian mob, his death was not part of an o ffi cial persecution because Christians were tolerated in Rome at the time. However, in March 235 Maximinus Thrax became Emperor. He ordered Rome’s Christian leaders to be arrested and sent to the mines in Sardinia. Both Hippolytus