The Presbyters Project

Epistula 32

Eulalius received the order to leave the city, but instead of obeying he tried to seize with the crowd of his followers the Lateran Basilica. He is expelled from the church and from the city by the intervention of the magistrates.

5. mandatum etiam, ut uir religiosus sanctus Achilleus episcopus cum quiete, quae iussa sunt, illo eiecto sine strepitu populi pro sanctorum dierum reuerentia celebraret. nam ad custodiam basilicae Lateranensis apparitores apposui, ne cui alii redderetur. partis quoque Eulalii aliquanti capti sunt clerici seditionis auctores; de quibus quid iubeatur expecto. [...]

(ed. Guenther 1895: 66-67)

Letter 32

5. It was also ordered that after the expulsion of [Eulalius], the pious man, holy bishop Achilleus, celebrate in peace the prescribed liturgy of the holy days [i.e. Easter] without any disturbance from the people. Therefore, I placed the watchmen to guard the Lateran basilica lest it be handed over to someone else. Some clerics of the party of Eulalius have been arrested as the provokers of the riot. I am waiting what will be ordered in regard to them. [...]

(trans. and summary M. Szada)

Discussion:

The schism after the death of Bishop Zosimus was related to the Emperor Honorius by the prefect of the city Symmachus in the letter from 29 December 418 [1299]. The emperor replied Symmachus on 3 January recognizing Eulalius as a bishop of Rome and ordering the exile of Bonifatius (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] (6 or 7 January 419) 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 preteders to to return to Rome. He ordered Bishop Achilleus of Spoleto to go to Rome to celebrate Easter on 30 March (the imperial letters in the Collectio Avellana 20-28). Against the imperial interdict, Eulalius went back to Rome, and his followers provoked the riots against Bishop Achilleus (the letter 29 from 18 March 419 of Symmachus to the patricius Constantius in the Collectio Avellana). The prefect Symmachus informed the emperor about the situation, and received the letter 31 in which Honorius ordered him to exile Eulalius [1402]. The present letter dates from 29 March 419 (the day before the Easter Sunday).

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

Relation with - Secular authority

Administration of justice - Secular

Conflict - Violence

Please quote this record referring to its author, database name, number, and, if possible, stable URL: M. Szada, Presbyters in the Late Antique West, ER1436, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=1436