Pope Eleuterus

Eleuterus or Eleutherius, pope (about 175 - 189). Allusions to him are found in the letters of the martyrs of Lyons, cited by Eusebius, and in other documents of the time. The Liber Pontificalis, at the beginning of the 6th century, says that he exchanged letters with a British king, Lucius, who was desirous of being converted to Christianity. Bede copied this story into his Ecclesiastical History, from which book it became widely known. This tradition - Roman, not British - is an enigma to critics, and, apparently, has no historical foundation.

Preceded by: Pope Soter

List of popes

Succeeded by: Pope Victor I

from a 1911 encyclopedia