Pope Symmachus
From Wikipedia,
Pope Saint Symmachus |
|
Papacy began |
22 November 498 |
Papacy ended |
19 July 514 |
Predecessor |
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Successor |
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Personal details |
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Birth name |
Symmachus |
Born |
|
Died |
19 July 514 |
Sainthood |
|
Feast day |
19 July |
Venerated in |
Pope Symmachus (d. 19 July 514)
was Pope from 22 November 498 to his death in
514.[1] His tenure was
marked by a serious schism over who was legitimately elected pope by the
citizens of Rome.[1]
Contents
·
2Papacy
o 2.2Synod
He was born on the Merranean island of Sardinia (then under Vandal rule), the son of Fortunatus;
Jeffrey Richards notes that he was born a pagan, and "perhaps the rankest
outsider" of all the Ostrogothic Popes,
most of whom were members of aristocratic families.[2] Symmachus was
baptized in Rome, where he became Archdeacon of the Roman Church
under Pope Anastasius II (496–498).
Symmachus was elected
pope on 22 November 498[3] in the
Constantinian basilica (Saint
Giovanni Laterano). The archpriest of Santa Prassede, Laurentius,
was elected pope that same day at the Basilica Saint Mariae (presumably Saint
Maria Maggiore) by a dissenting faction with Byzantine sympathies, who were supported
by Eastern Roman Emperor Anastasius.
Both factions agreed to allow the Gothic King Theodoric the Great to
arbitrate. He ruled that the one who was elected first and[4] whose supporters
were the most numerous should be recognized as pope. This was a purely
political decision. An investigation favored Symmachus and his election was
recognized as proper.[5] However, an early
document known as the "Laurentian Fragment" claims that Symmachus
obtained the decision by paying bribes,[6] while deacon Magnus Felix Ennodius of
Milan later wrote that 400 solidi were distributed amongst
influential personages, whom it would be indiscreet to name.[7]
Symmachus proceeded to
call a synod, to be held at Rome on 1 March 499, which was attended by 72
bishops and all of the Roman clergy. Laurentius attended this synod. Afterwards
he was assigned the diocesis of
Nuceria in Campania. According to
the account in the Liber Pontificalis,
Symmachus bestowed the See on Laurentius "guided by sympathy", but
the "Laurentian Fragment" states that Laurentius "was severely
threatened and cajoled, and forcibly despatched" to Nuceria (Nocera Umbra, east of Assisi).[8] The synod also
ordained that any cleric who sought to gain votes for a successor to the papacy
during the lifetime of the pope, or who called conferences and held
consultations for that purpose, should be deposed and excommunicated.[9]
In 501, the Senator Rufius Postumius
Festus,[10] a supporter of
Laurentius, accused Symmachus of various crimes. The initial charge was that
Symmachus celebrated Easter on the wrong date. The king Theodoric summoned
him to Ariminum to respond to the charge. The
pope arrived only to discover a number of other charges, including unchastity
and the misuse of church property, would also be brought against him.[11][12] Symmachus panicked,
fleeing from Ariminum in the middle of the night with only one companion. His
flight proved to be a miscalculation, as it was regarded as an admission of
guilt. Laurentius was brought back to Rome by his supporters, but a sizeable
group of the clergy, including most of the most senior clerics, withdrew from communionwith him. A visiting
bishop, Peter of Altinum,[13] was appointed by
Theodoric to celebrate Easter 502 and assume the administration of the See,
pending the decision of a synod to be convened following Easter.[14]
Presided over by the
other Italian metropolitans, Peter II of Ravenna, Laurentius of
Milan, and Marcellianus of Aquileia, the Synod opened in the
Basilica of Santa Maria (Maggiore). It proved tumultuous. The session quickly
deadlocked over the presence of a visiting bishop, Peter of Altina, who had
been sent by Theoderic as Apostolic Visitor, at the request of Senators Festus
and Probinus, the opponents of Symmachus.[15] Symmachus argued
that the presence of a visiting bishop implied the See of Rome was vacant, and
the See could only be vacant if he were guilty—which meant the case had already
been decided before the evidence could be heard. Although the majority of the assembled
bishops agreed with this, the Apostolic Visitor could not be made to withdraw
without Theodoric's permission; this was not forthcoming. In response to this
deadlock, rioting by the citizens of Rome increased, causing a number of
bishops to flee Rome and the rest to petition Theodoric to move the synod to
Ravenna.
King Theodoric refused
their request to move the Synod, ordering them instead to reconvene on 1
September. On 27 August the King wrote to the Bishops that he was sending two
of the Majores Domus nostrae, Gudila and Bedeulphus, to see to it
that the Synod assembled in safety and without fear.[16] Upon reconvening,
matters were no less acrimonious. First the accusers introduced a document
which included a clause stating that the king already knew Symmachus was
guilty, and thus the Synod should assume guilt, hear the evidence, then pass
sentence. More momentous was an attack by a mob on Pope Symmachus' party as he
set out to make his appearance at the Synod: many of his supporters were
injured and several—including the priests Gordianus and Dignissimus—killed.
Symmachus retreated to St. Peter's and refused to come out, despite the urgings
of deputations from the Synod.[17] The "Life of
Symmachus", however, presents these killings as part of the
street-fighting between the supporters of Senators Festus and Probinus on the
one side, and Senator Faustus on the other. The attacks were directed
particularly against clerics, including Dignissimus a priest of S. Pietro in
Vinculis and Gordianus a priest of SS. Giovanni e Paolo, though the rhetoric of
the passage extends the violence to anyone who was a supporter of Symmachus,
man or woman, cleric or layperson. It was unsafe for a cleric to walk about in
Rome at night![18]
At this point, the synod
petitioned king Theodoric once again, asking permission to dissolve the meeting
and return home. Theodoric replied, in a letter dated 1 October, that they must
see the matter to a conclusion. So the bishops assembled once again on 23
October 502 at a place known as Palma,[19] and after reviewing
the events of the previous two sessions decided that since the pope was the
successor of Saint Peter, they
could not pass judgment on him, and left the matter to God to decide. All who
had abandoned communion with him were urged to reconcile with him, and that any
clergy who celebrated mass in Rome without his consent in the future should be
punished as a schismatic. The resolutions were signed by 76 bishops, led by
Laurentius of Milan and Peter of Ravenna.[20]
Despite the outcome of
the synod, Laurentius returned to Rome, and for the next four years, according
to the "Laurentian Fragment", he held its churches and ruled as pope
with the support of the senator Festus.[21] The struggle
between the two factions was carried out on two fronts. One was through mob
violence committed by supporters of each religious camp, and it is vividly
described in the Liber Pontificalis.[22] The other was
through diplomacy, which produced a sheaf of forged documents, the so-called
"Symmachian forgeries",
of judgments in ecclesiastical law to support Symmachus' claim that as pope he
could not be called to account.[23] A more productive
achievement on the diplomatic front was to convince king Theodoric to
intervene, conducted chiefly by two non-Roman supporters, the Milanese deacon
Ennodius and the exiled deacon Dioscorus. At
last Theodoric withdrew his support of Laurentius in 506, instructing Festus to
hand over the Roman churches to Symmachus.[24]
In 513, Caesarius, bishop of
Arles, visited Symmachus while being detained in Italy. This meeting
led to Caesarius' receiving a pallium. Based on this introduction,
Caesarius later wrote to Symmachus for help with establishing his authority,
which Symmachus eagerly gave, according to William Klingshirn, "to gather
outside support for his primacy."[25]
Pope Symmachus provided
money and clothing to the Catholic bishops of Africa and Sardinia who had been exiled by the
rulers of the Arian Vandals. He also ransomed prisoners from upper
Italy, and gave them gifts of aid.[26]
Symmachus died on 19 July
514[3], and was buried in St.
Peter's Basilica. He had ruled for fifteen years, seven months, and
twenty-seven days.
1. ^ Jump up to:a b Kirsch 1913.
2. ^ Richards 1979, p. 243: Of the 17 Popes
between 483 and 604, seven were certainly or likely members of Roman
aristocratic families, and three more had provincial aristocratic origins
3. ^ Jump up to:a b Hughes, Philip (1947). A History of the Church. 1. Sheed & Ward.
p. 319. Retrieved 21 November2018.
4. ^ Mansi 1762, p. 201: The Latin text of
the Life of Symmachus says vel, not et:
that is to say 'or', not 'and'.
5. ^ Davis 1989, p. 43f; The original Latin
in Mansi 1762, p. 301: quod tandem
aequitas in Symmacho invenit, et cognitio veritatis
6. ^ Davis 2000, p. 97.
7. ^ Richards 1979, p. 70f.
8. ^ Davis 2000, p. 44, 97; Mansi 1762, p. 204; Hefele 1895, p. 59: Nuceria had been
destroyed, probably by the Visigoths, at the beginning of the fifth century.
Laurentius was being sent to a ruin, to care for refugees.
9. ^ Mansi 1762, p. 231: …si presbyter, aut
diaconus, aut clericus, papa incolumi, et eo inconsulto, aut subscriptionem pro
Romano pontificatu commodare, aut pitacia promittere, aut sacramentum praebere
tentaverit, aut aliquod certe suffragium pollicere, vel de hac causa privatis conventiculis
factis deliberare atque decernere, loci sui dignitate atque communione privetur
10. ^ Jones & Martindale 1980, pp. 467–469.
11. ^ Davis 2000, p. 98: The "Laurentian
Fragment" states that, while walking along the seashore, he saw the woman
with whom he was accused of committing sin
12. ^ Mansi 1762, p. 284; Hefele 1895, p. 60: Deacon Ennodius of
Pavia, later the city's Bishop, who drew up an apology for Symmachus, admits
the charge of adultery
13. ^ Altinum, a town on the shore of the
Lagoon of Venice, had been sacked and burned by Attila the Hun in A.D. 452. The
scattered survivors retreated to the islands in the lagoon.
14. ^ Richards 1979, p. 71.
15. ^ Mansi 1762, p. 201, "Life of
Symmachus"
16. ^ Mansi 1762, pp. 254–256.
17. ^ Richards 1979, p. 72.
18. ^ Mansi 1762, p. 202.
19. ^ Hefele 1895, p. 67: a porticu
Beati Petri Apostoli, quae appellatur ad Palmaria
20. ^ Richards 1979, p. 73; Mansi 1762, p. 261–269.
21. ^ Davis 2000, p. 98.
22. ^ Richards 1979, p. 75.
23. ^ Richards 1979, p. 81f.
24. ^ Richards 1979, p. 76.
25. ^ Klingshirn 1994, p. 30, 86f; Several
letters between the two survive, which Klingshirn has translated, pp. 88–94
26. ^ Davis 2000, p. 46.
·
Davis, Raymond (2000), The
Book of Pontiffs (Liber Pontificalis): The Ancient Biographies of the First
Ninety Roman Bishops to AD 715, Liverpool University Press, ISBN 978-0-85323-545-3
·
Demacopoulos, George E. (2013), The Invention of Peter: Apostolic Discourse and Papal
Authority in Late Antiquity, Philadelphia: University of
Pennsylvania Press, ISBN 978-0-8122-4517-2, pp. 103–113.
·
Hefele, Charles Joseph (1895), A
History of the Councils of the Church, from the Original Documents,
translated by W. Clark, Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark
·
Jones, Arnold Hugh Martin; Martindale, John
Robert (1980), The Prosopography of the Later Roman Empire: A.D. 395–527,
Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, ISBN 978-0-521-20159-9
·
Kennell, S. A. H. (2000), Magnus Felix Ennodius: A Gentleman of the Church,
Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, ISBN 978-0-472-10917-3
·
Kirsch, Johann
Peter (1913). "Pope St. Symmachus" . In
Herbermann, Charles. Catholic Encyclopedia.
New York: Robert Appleton Company.
·
Klingshirn, William E. (1994), Caesarius of Arles: Life, Testament, Letters,
Glasgow: Liverpool University Press, ISBN 978-0-85323-368-8 pp. 87–96.
·
Sessa, Kristina (2011), The Formation of Papal Authority in Late Antique Italy:
Roman Bishops and the Domestic Sphere, Cambridge University Press,
pp. 208–246, ISBN 978-1-139-50459-1
·
Mansi, Giovanni Domenico; Philippe Labbe;
Jean Baptiste Martin (1762), Sacrorum
conciliorum nova et amplissima collectio, Florence: Antonius Zatta Volume 8.
·
Moorhead, John (1978), "The Laurentian
Schism: East and West in the Roman Church", Church History, 47 (2):
125–136, doi:10.2307/3164729, JSTOR 3164729
·
Townshend, W. T. (1933), "The
so-called Symmachan forgeries", Journal of Religion, 13 (2):
165–174, doi:10.1086/481294, JSTOR 1196859
·
Richards, Jeffrey (1979), The
Popes and the Papacy in the Early Middle Ages, 476–752, London:
Routledge & Kegan Paul, ISBN 978-0-7100-0098-9
·
Wirbelauer, Eckhard (1993), Zwei
Päpste in Rom: der Konflikt zwischen Laurentius und Symmachus (498–514) :
Studien und Texte, Munchen: Tuduv, ISBN 978-3-88073-492-0
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Commons has media related to Symmachus. |
·
Chisholm, Hugh,
ed. (1911). "Symmachus (Pope)" . Encyclopædia
Britannica. 26(11th ed.). Cambridge University Press.
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LCCN: nr95041564 ·
WorldCat Identities (via
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