HE was the ornament of the Roman clergy under SS. Leo and Hilarius, and
succeeded the latter in the pontificate in 497. He was raised by God to
comfort and support his church amidst the greatest storms. All the
provinces of the Western empire, out of Italy, were fallen into the
hands of barbarians, infected for the greatest part with idolatry or
Arianism. The ten last emperors, during twenty years, were rather
shadows of power than sovereigns, and in the eighth year of the
pontificate of Simplicius, Rome itself fell a prey to foreigners.
Salvian, a learned priest of Marseilles in 440, wrote an elegant book On
Divine Providence, in which he shows that these calamities were a just
chastisement of the sins of the Christians; saying, that if the Goths
were perfidious, and the Saxons cruel, they were however both remarkable
for their chastity; as the Franks were for humanity, though addicted to
lying: and that though these barbarians were impious, they had not so
perfect a knowledge of sin, nor consequently were so criminal as those
whom God chastised by them. The disorders of the Roman state paved the
way for this revolution. Excessive taxes were levied in the most
arbitrary ways. The governors oppressed the people at discretion, and
many were obliged to take shelter among the barbarians: for the Bagaude,
{499} Franks, Huns, Vandals, and Goths raised no taxes upon their
subjects: on which account nations once conquered by them were afraid of
falling again under the Roman yoke, preferring what was called slavery,
to the empty name of liberty. Italy, by oppressions and the ravages of
barbarians, was left almost a desert without inhabitants; and the
imperial armies consisted chiefly of barbarians, hired under the name of
auxiliaries, as the Suevi, Alans, Heruli, Goths, and others. Those soon
saw their masters were in their power. The Heruli demanded one third of
the lands of Italy, and, upon refusal, chose for their leader Odoacer,
one of the lowest extraction, but a tall, resolute, and intrepid man,
then an officer in the guards, and an Arian heretic, who was proclaimed
king at Rome in 476. He put to death Orestes, who was regent of the
empire for his son Augustulus, whom the senate had advanced to the
imperial throne. The young prince had only reigned eight months, and his
great beauty is the only thing mentioned of him. Odoacer spared his
life, and appointed him a salary of six thousand pounds of gold, and
permitted him to live at full liberty near Naples. Pope Simplicius was
wholly taken up in comforting and relieving the afflicted, and in sowing
the seeds of the Catholic faith among the barbarians. The East gave his
zeal no less employment and concern. Zeno, son and successor to Leo the
Thracian, favored the Eutychians. Basiliscus his admiral, who, on
expelling him, usurped the imperial throne in 476, and held it two
years, was a most furious stickler for that heresy. Zeno was no
Catholic, though not a stanch Eutychian: and having recovered the
empire, published, in 482, his famous decree of union, called the
Henoticon, which explained the faith ambiguously, neither admitting nor
condemning the council of Chalcedon. Peter Cnapheus, (that is, the
Dyer,) a violent Eutychian, was made by the heretics patriarch of
Antioch; and Peter Mongus, one of the most profligate of men, that of
Alexandria. This latter published the Henoticon, but expressly refused
to anathematize the council of Chalcedon; on which account the rigid
Eutychians separated themselves from his communion, and were called
Acephali, or, without a head. Acacias, the patriarch of Constantinople,
received the sentence of St. Simplicius against Cnapheus, but supported
Mongus against him and the Catholic church, promoted the Henoticon, and
was a notorious changeling, double-dealer, and artful hypocrite, who
often made religion serve his own private ends. St. Simplicius at length
discovered his artifices, and redoubled his zeal to maintain the holy
faith which he saw betrayed on every side, while the patriarchal sees of
Alexandria and Antioch were occupied by furious wolves, and there was
not one Catholic king in the whole world. The emperor measured every
thing by his passions and human views. St. Simplicius having sat fifteen
years, eleven months, and six days, went to receive the reward of his
labors, in 483. He was buried in St. Peter's on the 2d of March. See his
letters: also the historians Evagrius, Theophanes, Liberatus, and
amongst the moderns, Baronius, Henschenius, Ceillier, t. 15, p. 123.