The Presbyters Project

(18)

AD PETITIONEM PRESBYTERORUM HUIUSMODI SACRUM RESCRIPTUM IMPERATOR P. U. SYMMACHO DESTINAV1T:

(1) Post relationem sublimitatis tuae delatam mansuetudinis nostrae auribus presbyterorum allegatio causam nobis non superuacuae deliberationis iniecit: ideo decet ambiguitate seposita fidem rerum comminus experiri quamque partem praetermissus gestae rei ordo arguat, quam seruatus adiuuet, multis coram censentibus approbari, ut utriusque facti simul qualitate perpensa et circa unam rite definita consistat et circa aliam temere assumpta non maneat, Symmache parens karissime atque amantissime. [...]

The emperor orders both parties to appear at the court in Ravenna.

(ed. Guenther 1895: 65-66)

(18)

The emperor sent this holy rescript to the prefect of the city Symmachus in response to the petition of the presbyters [see [1339]]

(1) After the relation of Your Sublimity had arrived [see [1299]] a letter of the presbyters brought to the ears of Our Clemency the case that is not unnecessary to deliberate upon: therefore, it is proper to remove any uncertainty and to investigate closely the credibility of the facts: which party is to be accused for the related account of the events, and which one should be supported. [This shall be] approved in the presence of many judges [censentes] so that the nature of both accounts is weighed equally, and in regard to one party, it will have what is decided to be deserved by it, and in regard to another, that it shall not keep what it impudently took, oh Symmachus, dearest and most beloved parent [...].

The emperor orders both parties to appear at the court in Ravenna.

(trans. M. Szada)

Discussion:

According to the Liber Pontificalis, Bishop Zosimus died on 26 December AD 418, two days after the installment of the new prefect Anicius Aurelius Symmachus. Zosimus' funeral took place in the basilica of San Lorenzo fuori la mura; after the obsequies Eulalius and his followers occupied the Lateran Basilica. They were probably waiting till Sunday (29 December) to ordain Eulalius there. The presbyters opposing Eulalius gathered in the church of Theodora (unidentified) and elected the presbyter Boniface as a next bishop. Boniface was later ordained in the church of Marcellus (titulus Marcelli, today's San Marcello in Corso; the present letter is the earliest mention of the church; Liber Pontificalis sets the ordination of Boniface in the basilica of Julius).

The schism was related to Emperor Honorius by Symmachus in the letter from 29 December 418 [1298]. The emperor replied Symmachus on 3 January recognizing Eulalius as a valid bishop of Rome and ordering the exile of Boniface (see letter 15 in the Collectio Avellana). Symmachus fulfilled the orders of the emperor and Eulalius entered the basilica of St. Peter where he celebrated the Mass (see letter 16 in the Collectio Avellana). Later, however, the party of Bonifatius sent the petition [1339] to the emperor and obtained here a favourable response.

Place of event:

Region

Rome

About the source:

Author: Anicius Aurelius Symmachus
Title: Collectio Avellana, Exemplum precum presbyterorum pro Bonifatio
Origin: Rome
Denomination: Catholic/Nicene/Chalcedonian

Collectio Avellana is a collection containing 244 letters issued by emperors, imperial magistrates and popes. The earliest item is dated to AD 367, the latest to AD 553. Hence, the compilator worked most probably in the second half of the 6th century. Two hundred documents of the Collectio are not known from any other collection. The editor of the Collectio, Günther noticed that it can be divided into five thematic parts (Gunther 1896: 3-96; Steinacker 1902: 14-15; Blaudeau 2013: 4):

1) no. 1-40 is an independent collection making use of the records of the prefecture of the city of Rome concerning two episcopal elections;

2) no. 41-50 that are derived from the records of the bishopric in Carthage, and consist of the letters of Innocentius I and Zosimus;

3) no. 51-55, the late letters of Leo I not known from any other source, regarding the exile of Bishop Timothy II of Alexandria;

4) no. 56-104 the group of letters from the pontificates of Simplicius, Gelasius, Symmachus, John, Agapet, and Vigilius;

5) no. 105-243 the letters from the records of Hormisdas.

The modern name of the collection derives from the codex Vaticanus Latinus 4961 copied in the monastery Sancti Crucis in fonte Avellana that was considered the oldest by the brothers Ballerini who edited the Collectio in 1787.

Edition:

O. Guenther ed., Epistolae Imperatorum Pontificum Aliorum Inde ab a. CCCLXVII usque DLIII datae Avellana Quae Dicitur Collectio, Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum 35/1, 35/2, Prague, Vienna, and Leipzig 1895

Bibliography:

S. Cristo, "Some notes on the Bonifacian-Eulalian Schism”, Aevum 51 (1977), 163–167.

Categories:

Writing activity - Correspondence

Described by a title - Presbyter/πρεσβύτερος

Public law - Secular

Relation with - Monarch and royal/imperial family

Relation with - Secular authority

Legal practice

Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: M. Szada, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER1340, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=1340