Julius I: Pope 337-352. According to tradition
he was the son of Rusticus, a Roman, and
elected after a long interregnum Feb. 6, 337. Little
is known of his pontificate, except in regard to his
spiritual care for the rapidly growing Roman community--he
built no less than five new churches--and
to his position in the Arian controversy, which
had scarcely affected Rome before his time. He
took part in it only when both parties sought a decision
from him. The request came first from the
Eusebians, who sent three Eastern clerics in 338 to
ask his approval of their deposition of Athanasius
and putting Pistus in his place. Soon afterward
an embassy appeared from Athanasius, who so successfully
presented their case that the Eusebians
themselves, so Athanasius asserts, proposed the
reference of the matter to a new council. Presently,
however, the Eusebians got the ear of the
Emperor Constantius, and by Easter, 339, Athanasius
himself was seeking refuge in Rome, to be followed
by other banished orthodox prelates. The
friendly reception which they received in Rome
gave the Eusebians an excuse for rudely refusing
Julius' invitation to the proposed council. It met
at Rome in 340, and absolved Athanasius and Marcellus
of Ancyra from the charges brought against
them. Julius communicated the result to the
Orientals in his famous epistle to Flacillus, a masterpiece
of diplomacy. He considers the question
from the standpoint of ecclesiastical law, asserting
that the Council of Nicæa had permitted the revision
of the acts of one synod by another, though no
foundation is known for this statement, and justifies
his reopening of the case of Athanasius by the
assertion that the custom of the Church requires
the bishop of Rome to be notified of charges against
bishops (or against the bishop of Alexandria) and
to lay down the law. This does not apparently
cover the later claim to a supreme judicial function;
and it did not even attain the result which
Julius hoped. The relations between Rome and
the East were more strained than ever, and it was
not Julius but Hosius of Cordova that determined
Constans to summon the Council of Sardica in 343.
This council recognized the pope as the strongest
support of the Nicene party, and passed canons
which really allowed him a more limited authority
than the Council of Chalcedon gave in similar cases
to the exarchs and the patriarchs of Constantinople,
although their importance lies in the use which
later popes made of them, interpolating them
among those of Nicæa and deducing from them a
final judicial authority over the whole Church.
Julius seems to have had no opportunity to act on
these provisions, since the change in the emperor's
attitude toward the Nicene party left him no longer
the central figure in the strife. He welcomed
Athanasius in Rome on his homeward journey in
346, and shortly after, at the request of a synod
in Milan, he investigated the orthodoxy of Ursacius
and Valens, and received them both again into
communion. He died Apr. 12, 352, and was early
honored in Rome as a saint, while the number of
forgeries passing under his name shows the impression
which his clever policy made on succeeding
generations and the extent to which it was held to
have strengthened the papal authority.
(H. BÖHMER.)
BIBLIOGRAPHY:
Sources are: Liber pontificalis, ed. Duchesne,
i. 205, Paris, 1886, ed. Mommsen in MGH, Gest. Pont.
Rom., i (1898), 75-76; Catalogus Liberianus, ed. Mommsen
in MGH, Auct. ant., ix (1892), 76; Epist. in MPL,
viii. Consult: B. Jungmann Dissertationes selectae, ii.
7-31, Regensburg, 1881; L. Rivington, Primitive Church
and the See of St. Peter, pp. 173 sqq, 467 sqq., London,
1894; W. Bright, Roman See and the Early Church, pp. 81
sqq., ib. 1896; Milman, Latin Christianity, i. 100-101;
Bower, Popes, i. 54-59; KL, vi. 1997-98.
