h should give to Christians "a liberal
education." The pope's death, a year later, prevented the scheme being
carried out. But a few years later, in the monastery of Vivarium near
Squillace, he set himself to found a religious house which should
preserve the ancient culture. Based on a sound knowledge of grammar,
on a collation and correction of texts, on a study of ancient models in
prose and verse, he would raise an education through "the arts and
disciplines of liberal letters," for, he said, "by the study of secular
literature our minds are trained to understand the Scriptures {39}
themselves." That was the supreme end at Squillace, as it was at Monte
Cassino; and though Cassiodorus looked at letters differently from
Benedict, his work, too, was important in founding a tradition for
Italian monasticism.

[Sidenote: Weakness of the papacy under Pelagius, 555-60.]

While monasticism was transforming Italy and placing Catholicism on a
firm basis in the Western lands of the Empire, the power of the papal
see, when Rome was reconquered by the imperial forces from
Constantinople, seemed to sink to the lowest depths. The papacy under
Vigilius (537-55) and Pelagius (555-60) was the servant of the
Byzantine Caesars. The history of the controversies in which each pope
was engaged, the scandal of their elections, there is no need to relate
here. Suffice it to say that the decisions of the Fifth General
Council were in no way the work of either, but were eventually accepted
by both. The self-contradictions of Vigilius are pitiable; and the
acceptance of Pelagius by the Romans was only won by his rejecting a
formal statement of his predecessor.

Consecrated only by two bishops[7] on Easter Day, 556, he began a
pontificate which was from the first disputed and even despised. The
Archbishop of Milan and the patriarch of Aquileia would not communicate
with him. In Gaul he was received with suspicion, and he was obliged
to write to King Childebert, submitting to him a profession of his
faith.[8] It is clear that the Gallican Church no more than the Lombard
regarded {40} the pope as _ipso facto_ orthodox or the guardian of
orthodoxy. Even this letter of Pelagius was not regarded as
satisfactory. It was long before the Churches entered into communion
with him; and even to the last, the northern sees of Italy refused. He
ruled, unquietly enough, for four years; and died, leaving a memory
free at least from simony, and h