Symmachian forgeries

The Symmachian forgeries are a collection of spurious texts that were written around the year 500 in connection with a conflict between Pope Symmachus and the antipope Laurentius .

Emergence

In 498 there was a double election of the Roman bishop by competing aristocratic parties. The Ostrogoth king Theodoric then appointed Symmachus as the rightful incumbent. Around the turn of the year 500/501, however, there was another conflict, because the followers of Laurentius Symmachus various misconduct, u. a. a wrong calculation of the Easter date, accused. In the years that followed, four synods took place in 501 and 502, which finally confirmed Symmachus in all of his rights. Laurentius finally bowed to another synod in 506 and withdrew from Rome.

Documents

In order to strengthen the position of Symmachus, his followers wrote various writings in the past in the course of the dispute. They were probably made in Rome at the beginning of 501. The scriptures contain in detail

1. the Synod of Pope New Year's Eve,
2. the Gesta Liberii,
3. the Gesta de Xysti purgatione,
4. the Gesta de Polychronii accusatione,
5. the Synod of Sinuessanae.

Outstanding among these forgeries is the Synod of Pope Silvester , which is said to have taken place with almost 300 named clergy and with the participation of Emperor Constantine . The last of their twenty resolutions is postulated there under the heading Ut nullus dijudicet primam sedem justitia :

“ Nemo enim judicabit primam sedem: quoniam omnes sedes a prima sede justitia desiderant temperari. Neque from Augusto, neque from omni clero, neque a regibus, neque a populo judex judicabitur. "

“But nobody should judge the highest seat: since all seats wish that justice should be done to them from the highest seat. Neither by the emperor nor by the entire clergy, neither by kings nor by the people, should he be judged. "

effect

Without first referring directly to the Symmachian forgeries - it was not until the time of the reform papacy in the 11th century that traditional scriptures were increasingly used for the understanding of law - the claim that the Roman bishop was non- judicable ( prima sedes a nemine iudicatur: The first Chair is judged by no one) in the following centuries into ecclesiastical law and is still to be found today with these words in canon canon law (Can. 1404).

literature

• Wolfgang Kaiser : Authenticity and validity of late antique imperial laws: Studies on the "Sacra privilegia concilii Vizaceni" , Munich 2007, ISBN 978-3-406-55121-5
• Walter Ullmann : Brief history of the papacy in the Middle Ages , Berlin, New York, 1978, ISBN 3-11-006505-3
• Pierre Coustant : Epistolae romanorum pontificum et quae ad eos scriptae sunt , Tomus I, Paris, 1721
• Horst Fuhrmann : The Middle Ages are everywhere: From the Presence of a Past Time , Munich, 2010, ISBN 978-3-406-60487-4

Footnotes

1. ↑ Wolfgang Kaiser : Authenticity and Validity of Late Antique Imperial Laws: Studies on the "Sacra privilegia concilii Vizaceni" , Munich 2007, p. 343f
2. ↑ Wolfgang Kaiser: Authenticity and Validity of Late Antique Imperial Laws: Studies on the "Sacra privilegia concilii Vizaceni" , Munich 2007, p. 343f
3. ↑ Pierre Coustant : Epistolae romanorum pontificum et quae ad eos scriptae sunt , Tomus I, Paris, 1721, Appendix 52
4. ↑ Horst Fuhrmann : Everywhere is the Middle Ages: From the presence of a past time , Munich, 2010, p. 54
5. ↑ [1] (accessed on February 18, 2013)