Acta of the Roman Synod of 1 March 499, in the basilica of the blessed Apostle Peter, presided by the venerable Pope Symmachus.
Suggestio of the Archdeacon Fulgentius and Interlocutio of Pope Symmachus
1. After the consulship of Paulinus, the most distinguished man, on the day of the Kalends of March, in the basilica of the blessed Apostle Peter, with the venerable Pope Symmachus presiding, together with the bishops Rusticus of Mentana, Bonifacius of Velletri, Misenus of Cumae, Rufinus of Canusium, Cresconius of Tudertum, Basilius of Tolentinum, Decius of Three Taverns, Innocentius of Mevania, Valentinus of Amiternum, Bassus of Ferentinum, Vitalis of Fanestrum, Vitalianus of Rosella, Maximus of Blera, Constantinus of Capua, Benignus of Aquaviva, Fortunatus of Suessa, Palladius of Sulmonum, Vindemius of Anteatum, Constantius of Utricula, Johannes of Ariminum, Germanus of Pisaurum, Martyrius of Terracina, Candidus of Tibur, Vitalianus of Narnia and the rest of the seventy-two bishops of the synod; with the presbyters Projectitius, Martinus, Epiphanius, Sebastianus, Servusdei, Octavianus, Anastasius, Abundantius, Vincomalus, Paulinus, Julianus, Marcellus, Agatho, Benedictus, Crescentianus, Paschasius, Julianus, Severus, Paulinus, Adeodatus, Johannes, Timotheus, Laurentius, Hilarius, Adeodatus, Marcus, Stephanus, Venantius, Petrus, Chrysogonus, Litorius, Chrysogonus, Tinulus or Maximus, Fortunatus, and the rest also present; with the deacons Anastasius, Hormisdas, Johannes, Agapetus, and the others present, the archdeacon Fulgentius said:
“Your Beatitude has previously, by directives, frequently convoked the Italian sacerdotal synod, whose presence is now seen to be constituted before Your eyes. Now therefore let Your Beatitude deign tractably to ordain those things which pertain to ecclesiastical security or to the peace of the whole Church or to its concord.”
The Bishops’ Acclamation; Symmachus’s Address on the Need to Provide Against Future Disorders
2. All the bishops and presbyters acclaimed: Hear, O Christ, life to Symmachus! — said ten times. Whose see and years! — said eight times. What you do, we ask! — said ten times.
3. Symmachus, bishop of the Catholic Church of the city of Rome, said: “Our solicitude has, undeterred by the harshness of winter, specifically convened the Council of your charity for the safety of the Church, that the unsettling disturbance of episcopal canvassing and popular tumult — which, by the devil’s stealth and the usurpation of certain men at the time of My ordination, We know to have arisen — may, with the present matter being likewise treated, be cut off vigorously and decisively even for the future. Let Us therefore be on guard for the time to come, lest the subversion of discipline or the audacity of presumptuous men attempt similar things; and let Us, equally united, enact by clear sentences what is to be observed concerning the ordination of the Roman bishop.”
The universal bishops or presbyters said: That it be done, we ask! — said ten times. That scandals be cut off, we ask! — said nine times. That canvassing be extinguished, we ask! — said twelve times. Hear, O Christ, life to Symmachus! — said six times. Whose see and years! — said five times. That it be done in the present! — said ten times.
Symmachus the bishop said: “Since your fraternity has spurred on the care of Our forethought by your exhortations, and has shown to Us a like-minded spirit regarding the tranquillity of the Church of God, as We have said before, with deliberation now taken in your presence let that be enacted which has pleased to be recited in this venerable council according to the ecclesiastical offices, your sentences having been gathered.”
4. And when they had risen and shortly afterward sat down again, the notary Aemilianus published the decrees of the synod.
Canon I: Anathema Against Canvassing for the Roman Pontificate During a Sitting Pope’s Lifetime
“On account of the frequent canvassings of certain men, and the Church’s exposure to disgrace and the popular tumult which the importunate cupidity of those desiring the episcopate has begotten in unsuitable seasons — that this presumption, so pernicious for future times, may be extinguished, the holy synod has constituted: that if any presbyter or deacon or cleric, while the pope is unharmed and without his consultation, shall, for the Roman pontificate, attempt to lend his subscription, or to give his promise by a written pledge, or to bind himself by any oath, or indeed to promise his vote, or to deliberate or decree on this matter in private gatherings, let him be deprived of the dignity of his place and of his communion.”
The whole synod rose and acclaimed: Hear, O Christ, life to Symmachus! — said ten times. Here is peace with Symmachus! — said fifteen times. Whose see and years! — said eight times. — “With equal severity is he to be struck who, with the pontiff still living — as has been said — shall in any way be convicted of canvassing, or of even attempting it: him likewise let the punishment of anathema strike, and all sharers in his fault be punished equally.”
Symmachus the bishop said: “Does this therefore please all, and is this sentence acknowledged or approved by all?” The whole synod said: It pleases, and let what pleases all be done!
Canon II: Provision for Orderly Election upon the Pope’s Death
5. “If, which let it not be, the unforeseen passing of the pope shall come, so that, as has pleased above, no decree about the election of his successor was possible — if the election of the whole ecclesiastical order shall have inclined to one man, the elected bishop is to be consecrated. But if, as commonly happens, the parties contending have begun to favor different candidates, let the sentence of the greater part prevail — provided nevertheless that he be deprived of his priesthood who, bound by a prior promise, shall not have decreed concerning the election by upright judgment.”
The synod said: It pleases! — said ten times.
Canon III: Protection from Conspiratorial Plots Against the Synod’s Sentence
6. “But against the hidden frauds and secret ambushes of conspiracies which may arise in response to the strictness of this sentence: if anyone brings to ecclesiastical notice the schemes of those who shall have acted against this synod by canvassing for the pontificate, and by reasonable proof shall have convicted the participants of such an action, he is not only to be cleared of all fault but also rewarded by a recompense not unworthy of him.”
The whole synod rose and acclaimed: Let it please all! And it added: Hear, O Christ, life to Theodoric! — said thirty times. That it be so kept, we ask! — said twenty times. Hear, O Christ, life to Symmachus! — said ten times. That this ordinance be ever observed concerning the Roman pontiff, we ask! — said ten times. That no one come otherwise henceforth to the Roman episcopate, we beseech! — said ten times. That you confirm Our decrees, we ask! — said ten times.
7. Symmachus, bishop of the Catholic Church of the city of Rome, said: “Your acclamations and the synod’s judgment receive into themselves the present acts. And may those things which this deliberation, congruous to religion and to peace, has constituted to put to rest the errors of long-standing presumption and the maladies hostile to ecclesiastical matters by which the universal Church was afflicted, obtain perpetual firmness — so that, by God’s grace, who is the established custodian of all good things, the synodal ordinance may flourish, and may bind every order without distinction of any person. Against which, if anyone under any pretext shall have presumed to come, let him be struck with the strictness foretold above.”
Subscriptions: Symmachus and Seventy-One Italian Bishops, Sixty-Six Roman Presbyters, Seven Roman Deacons
8. Coelius Symmachus, bishop of the holy Catholic Church of the city of Rome, having approved and confirmed these synodal constitutions of mine, signed and consented.
The seventy-one Italian bishops in attendance subscribed in succession, each affirming the formula “signed and consented to the synodal constitutions, and in this I profess to remain” — beginning with Coelius Rusticus of Mentana, Coelius Bonifacius of Velletri, and Coelius Misenus of Cumae, and continuing through the bishops of Canusium, Tudertum, Tolentinum, Three Taverns, Mevania, Amiternum, Ferentinum, Fanestrum, Rosella, Blera, Capua, Aquaviva, Suessa, Sulmonum, Anteatum, Utricula, Ariminum, Pisaurum, Terracina, Tibur, Trebes, Narnia, Nomentum, Acherontia, Cerrensis, Nursia, Sabinum, Anagnia, Vulturnum, Signinum (subscribed for by Fortunatus of Anagnia), Forosempronia, Calena, Caudium, Forum Sempronii, Amiternum (Pitinatium), Foroclodium, Beneventum, Spoletum, Venafrum, Perusia, Ameria, Tarquinium, Centumcellae, Plestia, Subaugusta, Fulginium, Vibo, Tadinum, Sutrium, Faliscium with Nepesinum, Nola, Puteoli, Abellinum, Surrentum, Naples, Vulsinium, Foronovum, Salerno, Ostia, Tifernum, Urbis Salviensis, Albense or Astallinum, Forme, Stabiae, and Herdonia. The Roman presbyters of the urban tituli follow, sixty-six in number, each subscribing for his own titulus — including Coelius Laurentius archpresbyter of titulus Praxedis, who is the very Laurentius who had been the antipope and is here among the presbyters subscribing the canons of Symmachus’s synod; then Coelius Januarius of titulus Vestina, Martianus of titulus sancta Caecilia, Gordianus of titulus Pammachii, Petrus of titulus sancti Clementis, Urbicus of titulus sancti Clementis, Paulinus of titulus Julii, Valens of titulus Sabinae, and so on through the Roman tituli. The seven deacons of the Roman regions then subscribe by region: Cyprianus of region VII, Anastasius of region I, Tarrensis of region II, Citonatus of region V, Tertullus of region IV, and Johannes of region II.
Footnotes
- ↩ The synod was convened in the year following Symmachus’s election (22 November 498) and the simultaneous election of the antipope Laurentius the same day. After Theodoric’s arbitration at Ravenna had decided in favor of Symmachus and assigned Laurentius to the see of Nuceria, Symmachus called this synod expressly to legislate against the kind of canvassing and electoral conspiracy that had produced the Laurentian schism. The synod’s decretum is therefore both an ordinary canonical act and a defensive instrument of the legitimate pontificate against future repetition of the same disorder. The document is preserved with full subscription lists in the manuscript tradition Thiel collated; PL does not include it.
- ↩ Misenus of Cumae is the very Misenus whom Felix III had deposed in 484 for his conduct as papal legate in the Acacian crisis (he had communicated with Acacius and Peter Mongus during the legation), and whom Gelasius I had restored to his former rank at the Roman Synod of 495 after his satisfactio. His participation here in 499 confirms the durability of Gelasius’s restoration and the continuity of the See’s discipline across pontificates: Felix’s deposition stood; Gelasius’s restoration after due penance stood; and Misenus is now subscribing the canons of Symmachus’s first synod as a bishop in good standing.
- ↩ The full subscription list at the end of the document records seventy-two bishops in attendance, sixty-six presbyters of the Roman tituli, and seven deacons of the Roman regions. The specific identifications of bishops and their sees vary slightly across manuscript witnesses; Thiel’s apparatus discusses the variants. The geographic spread is overwhelmingly central and southern Italy, with concentrations in Latium, Campania, Tuscany, Umbria, Picenum, Samnium, and the suburbicarian region — the bishops in Symmachus’s natural metropolitan ambit. The presbyters and deacons are the Roman urban clergy.
- ↩ This is the future Pope Hormisdas (514–523), who would close the Acacian Schism in 519 through the Formula of Hormisdas. He is here in 499 as a Roman deacon participating in the synod under Symmachus. The continuity from Symmachus to Hormisdas runs through this assembly: the deacon who subscribes here is the pope who, twenty years later, will receive Eastern bishops back into Roman communion on the strength of the formula bearing his name.
- ↩ The Latin is quid circa Romani episcopi ordinationem debeat custodiri — “what is to be observed concerning the ordination of the Roman bishop.” The synod’s primary work, by Symmachus’s own framing, is canonical legislation specifically about Roman papal elections. The reader should observe what this presupposes: the legitimate pope, presiding over the Italian bishops with the Roman presbyterate, has the authority to legislate on the form of his own succession. The canons that follow are addressed to the clergy and people of the Roman church, but their authority is the collegial-episcopal authority of the Italian sacerdotal synod under the Roman pontiff’s presidency.
- ↩ The acclamation of Theodoric is structurally significant. The Ostrogothic king Theodoric had decided the Symmachus-Laurentius dispute in Symmachus’s favor at Ravenna in late 498 — the act that made this synod possible. The bishops are publicly thanking the king for that judgment. Theodoric is an Arian; the Catholic synod nonetheless acclaims him for his role in adjudicating the Catholic see’s succession. The reader should observe that this is not the synod conceding civil supremacy over the Church (that question is the substance of Duo Sunt and is treated elsewhere in the corpus), but the synod recognizing that the king’s external judgment — restricted to which of two claimants had the better case in fact — had served the Church’s good. The Apologetica against Emperor Anastasius (Letter X) shows how clearly Symmachus distinguishes legitimate civil cooperation from imperial encroachment on doctrine.
- ↩ The Latin is Ut nullus aliter ad episcopatum Romanum deinceps veniat. The acclamation, repeated ten times, makes the synod’s intent explicit: this canonical legislation is meant to govern all future Roman episcopal succession. The synod is establishing canonical law for the form of papal election as a permanent institution — not merely settling Symmachus’s particular case. The reader should observe what authority is presupposed for such a permanent enactment: the Italian sacerdotal synod under the Roman pontiff is legislating the canonical form by which the Roman pontificate is to be entered, in perpetuity. The form of papal succession is determined by the See itself, not by external authority.
- ↩ Thiel’s footnote 62 confirms the identification: Laurentius was the elected antipope of November 498; Theodoric’s arbitration assigned him to the see of Nuceria; but his subscription here as archpresbyter of titulus Praxedis indicates that, after the Ravenna decision, he had returned to his Roman presbyteral title and was participating in the synod as a Roman cleric in apparent good standing. The reconciliation would not last — within two years the Laurentian schism would re-erupt — but at this moment, on 1 March 499, the man who had been the rival pope is subscribing the synodal canons against canvassing for the papacy.
- ↩ The presence among the deacons of Hormisdas (mentioned in the synod’s opening list, footnote above) is the most editorially striking subscriptions detail. Within fifteen years he would be Pope Hormisdas. The continuity from Symmachus’s synodal discipline to Hormisdas’s closing of the Acacian Schism runs literally through this assembly: the deacon who participates here in 499 will, in 519, receive the Eastern bishops back into Roman communion on terms substantially stricter than anything Anastasius II had offered. The Hormisdan settlement is, in effect, formed in part within the discipline that Symmachus’s pontificate established.
Historical Commentary