Pope Agapitus

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Agapitus is recalled by Justinian in the heaven of Mercury, among the righteous spirits who worked for the faith, as the one who exhorted him to recognize the truth of the dual nature of Christ. According to the authorized note to the canto, Agapitus was pope from 535 to 536 and went to Constantinople to mediate peace between the emperor Justinian and the king of the Ostrogoths, Theodatus. On that occasion, the tradition followed by Dante attributes to Agapitus's intervention the conversion of Justinian from the Monophysite heresy to the orthodox faith, called "sincere." The note also recalls that the pope deposed the heretical patriarch Anthimus, elected with the favor of Theodora, replacing him with the orthodox Mennas, effectively changing the religious situation in Byzantium.