The Presbyters Project

31.

The emperor informs the prefect of the city Symmachus that he issued the judgment against Eulalius and he wishes him to leave Rome.

5. Si qui autem ex numero clericorum communicandum Eulalio iudicio pendente censuerit, pari se sciat sententia esse damnandum; laicos uero, qui post interdictum mansuetudinis nostrae communionem Eulalii putauerint expetendam, honestioris loci poenam proscriptionis, seruos uero capitis esse subituros nec ab hoc periculo dominos exuendos.

The emperor indicates that the bishop of Spoleto Achilleus, who earlier was asked by the emperor to celebrate the Easter in Rome on 30 March 419 because it was not yet decided who was the legitimate bishop of Rome, is the only one who can hold the basilica of Lateran.

(ed. Guenther 1895: 66-67)

31.

The emperor informs the prefect of the city Symmachus that he issued the judgment against Eulalius and he wishes him to leave Rome.

5. If anyone from the number of the clerics considers that he shall communicate with Eulalius ignoring this sentence, let him know that he shall be condemned by the same sentence. Laymen, for their part, who after the interdict of our Clemency want to communicate with Eulalius, shall be punished with confiscation, if they are of noble birth (honestiores). If they are slaves, they shall be put to death and their masters shall not be free from the same danger.

(trans. M. Szada)

Discussion:

The schism was related to the Emperor Honorius by the prefect of the city Symmachus in the letter from 29 December 418 [1298]. The emperor replied Symmachus on 3 January recognizing Eulalius as a 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 a petition [1339] (6 or 7 January) to the emperor and obtained a favourable response [1340] (15 January). The synod in Ravenna on 8 February 419 did not lead to agreement and the emperor forbade both bishops to reclaim the see of Rome. He indicated that the Bishop Achilleus of Spoleto shall go to Rome to celebrate Easter there on 30 March (see imperial letters in the Collectio Avellana 20-28). Against the imperial interdict, Eulalius went back to Rome, and his followers provoked riots against Bishop Achilleus (letters 29 in the Collectio Avellana). The prefect Symmachus informed the emperor about the situation, and received the present letter in which Honorius orders him to exile Eulalius.

Place of event:

Region

Rome

About the source:

Author: Anicius Aurelius Symmachus
Title: Collectio Avellana, Exemplum sacrarum litterarum ad p.u. Symmachum
Origin: RomeRavenna (Italy north of Rome with Corsica and Sardinia),
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

Public law - Secular

Relation with - Bishop/Monastic superior

Administration of justice - Secular

Administration of justice - Exile

Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: M. Szada, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER1401, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=1401