The Presbyters Project

37.

EPISTOLA IMPERATORIS HONORII AD BONIFATIUM EPISCOPUM ROMANUM QUA STATUIT UT SI DENUO ORDINATI FUERINT DUO EPISCOPI AMBO DE CIUITATE PELLANTUR

UICTOR HONORIUS INCLYTUS TRIUMPHATOR SEMPER AUGUSTUS SANCTO AC UENERABILI BONIFATIO PAPAE URBIS AETERNAE.

The emperor congratulates the bishop on his elevation and the end of the conflict, asks him for prayers, and informs that the emperor is always concerned with the peace of the Church and the people of the city of Rome.

3. Denique praedicante beatitudine tua id ad cunctorum clericorum notitiam uolumus peruenire, ut, si quid forte religioni tuae, quod non optamus, humana sorte contigerit, sciant omnes ab ambitionibus esse cessandum ac, si duo forte contra fas temeritate certantum fuerint ordinati, nullum ex his futurum penitus sacerdotem sed illum solum in sede apostolica permansurum, quem ex numero clericorum noua ordinatione diuinum iudicium et uniuersitatis consensus elegerit. 4. Unde id obseruandum est, ut omnes tranquillam mentem et pacificos animos e serenitatis nostrae admonitione custodiant nec aliquid seditiosis conspirationibus temptare conentur, cum certum sit nulli partium studia profutura.

(ed. Guenther 1895: 66-67)

37.

The letter of the emperor Honorius to Bishop Boniface of Rome, in which he declares that if again two bishops will be ordained, both will be expelled from the city.

Honorius, the great triumphator, forever Augustus to the holy and venerable Boniface, pope of the eternal city.

3. Therefore, we wish that all the clerics know from the preaching of your Beatitude that when your Piety meets the human destiny, which we do not want, they shall give up their ambitions. And if two conflicted persons are darily ordained against the rightness, none of those two will be the future pontiff, but only this one will remain at the Apostolic See whom the divine judgment and the agreement of all will elect in a new ordination . 4. Therefore, it shall be observed that all keep the quiet mind and peaceful soul by the admonition of Our Serenity and no one attempt to accomplish anything by the seditious conspirations because no effort of any party will be fruitful.

(trans. and summary 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 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] (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 ordered Bishop Achilleus of Spoleto to go to Rome and 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 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]. After the final resolution of the conflict in favour of Boniface, still in 419 or already in 420, the emperor sent him the present letter in which he notifies the Roman clergy that no double election in the future will be tolerated.

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:

Further ecclesiastical career - Bishop

Described by a title - Clericus

Ecclesiastical administration - Election of Church authorities

Public law - Secular

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, ER1437, http://www.presbytersproject.ihuw.pl/index.php?id=6&SourceID=1437