Pope Saint Felix IV was Elected Irregularly
Beginning the intereference of the kings and emperors.
De Montor, Lives of the Popes volume 1, page 120: The secret reasons which had led Theodoric to imprison Saint John I began to be known. That princes was bent upon exercising great power over the election of the popes. It was Theodoric who indicated the choice that ought to be made on this occasion. The Roman clergy wisely respected the will of the Gothic king, whose will in truth they had no power to resist with success. In this will the clergy avoided a schism which might have led to fatal consequences. It was not, however, entirely without opposition that the clergy submitted to the will of the king. … The Roman senate had also shown some resistance, not to the elected, but to the manner of the election, which had been conducted contrary to ecclesiastical law. That question was not well settled, till it was agreed that the clergy by their vote, and the Roman people by its consent, should, according to ancient custom, elect the Roman pontiff. That mode of election necessarily continued in force as long as Gothic kings remained in Italy. In default of those kings, the emperors usurped that privilege. “From that Imperial usurpation,” says Baronius, “it followed that the clergy studied to choose pontiffs who would be agreeable to the emperors; as were Vigilius, in 538; Gregory the Great, in 590; Sabinian, in 604; Boniface III, in 607; and Paschal I, in 817.”
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