The Cardinals of the Holy Roman Church

Biographical Dictionary
Conon (686-687)
Unknown date between 686 and 687


(1) 1. PASQUALE (?-692)

Birth. (No date or place found).

Education. (No information found).

Cardinalate. Deacon cardinalis of the Holy Roman Church at an unknown date between 686 and 687. Archdeacon cardinalis of the Holy Roman Church.

Antipapacy. While Pope Conon was lying on his death bed, Archdeacon cardinalis Pasquale wrote to Exarch Giovanni Platyna to promise him money if he would secure his election to the papacy. Exarch Platyna at once instructed the judges he had appointed in Rome, to order that Archdeacon Pasquale should be the next pontiff. Through their efforts the archdeacon was elected by a certain section of the people. At the same time, the party that had elected Archdeacon cardinalis Teodoro, before Pope Conon's election, were faithful to him, and determined that he, now archpriest, should be pope and elected him. This party occupied the interior section of the Lateran palace, where were the pope's private apartments. Archdeacon Pasquale held the exterior part of the palace. To put an end to the deadlock produced by the refusal of both candidates to yield their pretensions, the least factious, and more numerous and sounder section of the community, met in the palace of the emperors, and, after much discussion, chose a third candidate: Presbyter cardinalis Sergio of the title of S. Susanna ad duas domus. He first was taken to the oratory S. Cesareo in the imperial palace, and then, by force, established in the Lateran palace. Archpriest Teodoro at once submitted and paid homage to Pope-elect Sergius. Archdeacon cardinalis Pasquale was made to do the same. But as soon as he was left to himself, he spared no promises of money to induce the exarch to come quickly and secretly to Rome. Accordingly, Exarch Platyna arrived in Rome totally unexpected. So secretly did he go, that the usual procession, with crosses and standards, which went some distance out of the city to greet the exarch on his visits to Rome, was only able at this time to get just outside the city by the time the exarch was upon it. And although he realized that only a minority supported Archdeacon Pasquale and withdrew his support for him, he insisted that the 100 pounds of gold promised him by Archdeacon Pasquale, should be paid by Pope-elect Sergius. It was to no avail that Sergius declared that he had made no such promise, and that he had not the money to give. The exarch did not give up. As a guarantee that the sum should be ultimately paid, Sergius offered to pledge the canthari and crowns which for ages had hung before the altar and confession of St. Peter. It was in vain, because Exarch Platyna would accept no more or no less than what had been promised to him. Not until the money was actually raised and paid over would the exarch allow the pope-elect to be consecrated. Not long after, for certain magical practices, Archdeacon Pasquale was deprived of his archdiaconate, and interned in a monastery, where he died impenitent in 692.

Death. 692, Rome. Buried at an unknown place.

Bibliography. Chacón, Alfonso. Vitæ, et res gestæ Pontificum Romanorum : et S.R.E. Cardinalium ab initio nascentis Ecclesiae usque ad Clementem IX P. O. M. Alphonsi Ciaconii Ord. Praed. & aliorum opera descriptæ : cum uberrimis notis. Ab Augustino Oldoino, Soc. Jesu recognitae, et ad quatuor tomos ingenti ubique rerum accessione productae. Additis Pontificum recentiorum imaginibus, & Cardinalium insignibus, plurimisque aeneis figuris, cum indicibus locupletissimis. Romæ : P. et A. De Rubeis, 1677, I, col. 488; Cristofori, Francesco. Cronotasi dei cardinali di Santa Romana Chiesa. Rome : Tipografia de Propaganda Fide, 1888, p. XXXVIII; Kelly, John Norman Davidson. The Oxford Dictionary of Popes. Oxford ; New York : Oxford University Press, 1986, p. 82; Le Liber pontificalis. Paris : E. de Boccard, 1981, 1955. 3 v. : facsims. (Bibliothèque des Écoles françaises d'Athènes et de Rome). Notes: Reprint of the 1955 edition./ Includes indexes./ Vol. 3: "Additions et corrections de L. Duchesne publiées par Cyrille Vogel ... avec L'Histoire du Liber pontificalis dupuis l'édition de L. Duchesne une bibliographie et des tables générales, I, 371-372; Reardon, Wendy J. The deaths of the popes : comprehensive accounts, including funerals, burial places and epitaphs. Jefferson, N.C. : McFarland & Co., Publishers, 2004, p. 56; Regesta pontificum Romanorum ab conditio Ecclesia. Ad annum post Christum natum MCXCVIII. Graz : Akademische Druck- u. Verlagsanstalt, 1956. 2 v. Reprint. Originally published : Lipsiae : Veit et comp., 1885-1888. Original t.p. included : Regesta pontificum Romanorum ab condita ecclesia : ad annum post Christum natum MCXCVIII. Editionem secundam correctam et auctam edidit Philippus Jaffè ; auspiciis Gulielmi Wattenbach; curaverunt S. Loewenfeld, F. Kaltenbrunner, P. Ewald, I, 243.

Webgraphy. Biography by Umberto Longo, in Italian, Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani - Volume 81 (2014), Treccani; biography, in English, Encyclopaedia Britannica; biography, in Italian, Wikipedia.

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