Pope Eleuterus - Conversion of A British King?

Conversion of A British King?

The same writer is responsible for a curious and interesting assertion concerning the early missionary activity of the Roman Church; indeed, the Liber Pontificalis contains no other statement equally remarkable. Pope Eleutherius, says this writer, received from Lucius, a British king, a letter in which the latter declared that by his behest he wishes to become a Christian (Hic accepit epistula a Lucio Brittanio rege, ut Christianus efficerentur per ejus mandatum) or literally, "This accepted the letter from Lucius Brittanius, king, that he might become a Christian by his own will". Whence the author of the first part of the Liber Pontificalis drew this information, it is now impossible to say. Oxford historian Felicity Heal notes Haddam and Stubbs's suggestion that it was an invention of the generation of Patrick and Palladius, intended perhaps to give encouragement and credibility to the mission effort.

As at the end of the 2nd century the Roman administration was so securely established in Britain south of Caledonia, that there could no longer have been any real native kings in that part of the island. That some tribal chief there, known as king, should have applied to the Roman bishop for instruction in the Christian faith seems improbable enough at that period. The unsupported assertion of the Liber Pontificalis, a compilation of papal biographies that in its earliest form cannot accurately date the first quarter of the 6th century, is not a sufficient basis for the acceptance of this statement. By some it is considered a story intended to demonstrate the Roman origin of the British Church, and consequently the latter's natural subjection to Rome. To make this clearer they locate the origin of the legend in the course of the 7th century, during the dissensions between the British Church and the nascent mission of St. Augustine of Canterbury to the Saxons, recently arrived from Rome. But for this hypothesis all proof is lacking. It falls before the simple fact that the first part of the Liber Pontificalis was compiled long before these dissensions, most probably (Duchesne) by a Roman cleric in the reign of Pope Boniface II (530–532), or (Waitz and Mommsen) early in the 7th century. Moreover, during the entire conflict that centered around the peculiar customs of the Early British Church no reference is ever made to this alleged King Lucius. Bede is the first English writer (673–735) to mention the story repeatedly (Historia ecclesiastica gentis Anglorum, I, V; V, 24, De temporum ratione, ad an. 161), and he took it, not from native sources, but from the Liber Pontificalis. Harnack suggests a theory (Sitzungsberichte der Berliner Akademie, 1904, I, 906–916). In the document, he holds, from which the compiler of the Liber Pontificalis drew his information the name found was not Britanio, but Britio. Now this is the name (Birtha- Britium) of the fortress of Edessa. The king in question is, therefore, Lucius Ælius Septimus Megas Abgar IX, of Edessa, a Christian king, as is well known. The original statement of the Liber Pontificalis, in this hypothesis, had nothing to do with Britain. The reference was to Abgar IX of Edessa. But the compiler of the Liber Pontificalis changed Britio to Brittanio, and in this way made a British king of the Syrian Lucius.

The 9th-century "Historia Brittonum" sees in Lucius a translation of the Celtic name Llever Maur (Great Light), says that the envoys of Lucius were Fagan and Wervan, and tells us that with this king all the other island kings (reguli Britanniæ) were baptized (Hist. Brittonum, xviii). 13th century chronicles add other details. The Liber Landavensis, for example (ed. Rees, 26, 65), makes known the names of Elfan and Medwy, the envoys sent by Lucius to the pope, and transfers the king's dominions to Wales. An echo of this legend penetrated even to Switzerland. In a homily preached at Chur and preserved in an 8th- or 9th-century manuscript, St. Timothy is represented as an apostle of Gaul, whence he came to Britain and baptized there a king named Lucius, who became a missionary, went to Gaul, and finally settled at Chur, where he preached the gospel with great success. In this way Lucius, the early missionary of the Swiss district of Chur, became identified with the alleged British king of the Liber Pontificalis.

The latter work is the authority for the statement that Pope Eleutherius died on 24 May, and was buried on the Vatican Hill (in Vaticano) near the body of St. Peter. Later tradition has his body moved to the church of San Giovanni della Pigna, near the pantheon. In 1591, his remains were again moved to the church of Santa Susanna at the request of Camilla Peretti, the sister of Pope Sixtus V. His feast is celebrated on 26 May.