The Presbyters Project

Print:

ER 1400

After the double election of Boniface and Eulalius to the bishopric of Rome, the Emperor Honorius orders the prefect of the city Anicius Aurelius Symmachus to summon both parties to the court in Ravenna. The prefect, who up to this moment endorsed Eulalius, gives response to the emperor emphasising his impartiality, AD 419. Letter 19 included in the Collectio Avellana, compiled in the second half of the 6th c.

It is a response to the imperial letter [1340].

19.

ITEM RELATIO P. U. SYMMACHI.

1. Cum uir clarissimus Aphthonius decurio sacri palatii uestri cum caelesti praeceptione ad urbem uenerabilem conuenisset, omni genere festinaui, quatenus praeceptis numinis uestri oboedientiam commodarem. 2. Nam statim conuentis proceribus sacra iussio publicata et ad religiosos uiros Bonifatium et Eulalium missa conuentio est, domini imperatores. Clericos quoque eorum praecepi pariter admoneri, ut nihil futuro cognoscente pietate uestra deesset examini. Unde haec omnia gestorum serie comprehensa ad plenam instructionem subter annexui. 3. Uerum postquam pars utraque populum diuersis seditionibus excitaret, singulos admonitione missa conueni, ne ad unam ecclesiam conuenirent et, quod fieri non licebat, inter se multitudo confligeret. Sed hoc illis uisum est, credo, suspectum, quod quietem suadendam credidi hominibus perturbare uolentibus ciuitatem. Ob quam rem ambae partes calumniosis me crediderunt contestationibus appetendum, ut errorem suum compositis mendaciis excusarent. Quod ne in aliquo clementiam uestram lateret, eadem quae optulerunt actis inserta transmisi, ne quicquam suppressum esse quererentur. 4. Superest, ut apud clementiam uestram nullius partis studiis famuli uestri appetatur absentia, qui semper maiestati uestrae puris seruitiis approbatus me ab oppugnatione uel fauore ambarum partium ut decebat credidi separandum. Data VIII. Kal. Februariarum.

(ed. Guenther 1895: 66-67)

It is a response to the imperial letter [1340].

19.

The account of the prefect of the city Symmachus.

1. When the vir clarissimus Aphthnonius, decurion of your holy palace came to the venerable city with the divine precept, I hastened in all respects to obediently observe the order of your will. 2. For at once the senators had gathered and the holy order was published and the religious men Bonifatius and Eulalius were called to convene, oh lords emperors! I also admonished their clerics so that your Piety could ascertain that there would be no neglect in the future examination. 3. Truly then after both parties provoked the people by various incitements, I met together with them separately having sent an admonition lest they come to the same church and lest the great groups of people clash; for this should not have happened. But, I think, they found it suspicious that I believed that peace should be recommended to the people who wanted to perturb the city. For this reason both parties believed that they should attack me with the calumnious accusations, thus excusing their error with invented lies. 4. Therefore, in order not to keep anything hidden from your Clemency, I attach what has been brought forth by them, to the acts so that no one may complain that they have been suppressed. 4. Let your Clemency accept that your servant does not spare any efforts in this matter, as I always desired only to serve to Your Majesty and so I thought that I should be separated from the attacks and favours of both parties, as it is proper. Given on 8th day before the Kalends of February [25 I 419].

(trans. M. Szada)

Discussion:

The schism was related to Emperor Honorius by the prefect of the city Symmachus in his 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 C ollectio Avellana). Later, however, the party of Bonifatius sent the petition [1339] to the emperor and obtained a favourable response [1340]. Here, Symmachus responds to the order of the Emperor Honorius to summon both parties to the imperial court in Ravenna.

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:

Described by a title - Clericus

Relation with - Secular authority

Administration of justice - Secular

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, ER1400, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=1400