Pelagius I
Pelagius · 556 – 561
Took the papal throne under a cloud of suspicion after the Three Chapters controversy and spent his pontificate trying to regain trust.
Pelagius was a Roman deacon who had initially opposed Emperor Justinian's condemnation of the Three Chapters but reversed his position after the Second Council of Constantinople in 553. When he became pope, many bishops in the West suspected him of betraying orthodox teaching to please the emperor. Large parts of northern Italy and North Africa broke communion with Rome. Pelagius spent his papacy writing letters, rebuilding war-damaged churches, and trying to convince skeptics that he was no puppet. He never fully succeeded.
A Pope Under Suspicion
Pelagius had the misfortune of looking like the emperor's man. He had changed his position on the Three Chapters, and people noticed. Whole regions refused to recognize him. He swore oaths of orthodoxy, wrote long justifications, and rebuilt churches with his own funds. Trust, once lost, is hard to recover, and Pelagius learned that the hard way.