Pope Severinus
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Pope Severinus |
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| Papacy began | 28 May 640 |
| Papacy ended | 2 August 640 |
| Predecessor | Honorius I |
| Successor | John IV |
| Personal details | |
| Birth name | Severinus |
| Born | Rome, Byzantine Empire |
| Died | 2 August 640 Rome, Byzantine Empire |
Pope Severinus (died 2 August 640) was Pope two months, from 28 May until his death on 2 Aug. He became caught up in a power struggle with the Byzantine Emperor Heraclius over the ongoing Monothelite controversy.
He was a Roman. His father was named Avienus, according to the Liber Pontificalis. The name of the father suggests descent from members of the Roman Senate. A previous Avienus was Roman consul in 501.
Severinus was elected on the third day after the death of his predecessor, Honorius I, and the Papal apocrisiarii went to Constantinople to obtain imperial confirmation of his election in October 638. But Emperor Heraclius refused to grant his confirmation unless Severinus signed his Ecthesis, a Monothelite profession of faith. The envoys were unwilling to agree to this demand, but they were also unwilling to allow the Roman See to remain vacant indefinitely, so they offered to show Severinus the document and ask him to sign it if he thought it was correct. This offer was apparently satisfactory, and imperial recognition of the papal election was granted.
Before his death, however, Patriarch Sergius I of Constantinople had drawn up the Ecthesis in response to the orthodox synodical letter of Sophronius, the Patriarch of Jerusalem, and on learning of the death of Pope Honorius had convinced the Emperor to issue this document as an imperial edict in December 638, thus valid across the entire empire. Given directly to Eustachius, the magister militum, he carried it to the Exarch Isaac at Ravenna with instructions that he was to ensure the Pope’s acceptance.
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