Pope Zosimus was the bishop of Rome from 18 March 417 to his death on 26 December 418. He was born in
Mesoraca
Mesoraca is a ''comune'' and town in the province of Crotone, in Calabria, southern Italy.
Economy
Mesoraca relies on the production of oil, wine, cereals, citruses, and intensive cattle rearing.
Twin towns — sister cities
Mesoraca is twin ...
. Zosimus took a decided part in the protracted dispute in Gaul as to the jurisdiction of the
See of Arles
The former French Catholic Archbishopric of Arles had its episcopal see in the city of Arles, in southern France.Vienne, giving energetic decisions in favour of the former, but without settling the controversy. His fractious temper coloured all the controversies in which he took part, in Gaul, Africa and Italy, including Rome, where at his death the clergy were very much divided.
Family background
According to the ''
Liber Pontificalis
The ''Liber Pontificalis'' (Latin for 'pontifical book' or ''Book of the Popes'') is a book of biographies of popes from Saint Peter until the 15th century. The original publication of the ''Liber Pontificalis'' stopped with Pope Adrian II (867 ...
'', Zosimus was a Greek and his father's name was Abramius. Historian Adolf von Harnack deduced from this that the family was of Jewish origin, but this has been rejected by
Louis Duchesne
Louis Marie Olivier Duchesne (; 13 September 1843 – 21 April 1922) was a French priest, philologist, teacher and a critical historian of Christianity and Roman Catholic liturgy and institutions.
Life
Descended from a family of Breton sailors, ...
.
Pontificate
The consecration of Zosimus as bishop of Rome took place on 18 March 417. The festival was attended by Bishop Patroclus of Arles, who had been raised to that see in place of Bishop Heros of Arles, who had been deposed by
Constantius III
Constantius III was briefly Western Roman emperor of the West in 421. He earned his position as Emperor due to his capability as a general under Honorius, achieving the rank of ''magister militum'' by 411. That same year, he suppressed the r ...
. Patroclus gained the confidence of the new pope at once; as early as 22 March he received a papal letter which conferred upon him the rights of a
metropolitan
Metropolitan may refer to:
* Metropolitan area, a region consisting of a densely populated urban core and its less-populated surrounding territories
* Metropolitan borough, a form of local government district in England
* Metropolitan county, a typ ...
over all the bishops of the Gallic provinces of Viennensis and Narbonensis I and II. In addition, he was made a kind of papal vicar for the whole of Gaul, with no Gallic ecclesiastic being permitted to journey to Rome without bringing with him a certificate of identity from Patroclus.
In the year 400, Arles had been substituted for Trier as the residence of the chief government official of the
civil
Civil may refer to:
*Civic virtue, or civility
*Civil action, or lawsuit
* Civil affairs
*Civil and political rights
*Civil disobedience
*Civil engineering
*Civil (journalism), a platform for independent journalism
*Civilian, someone not a membe ...
Diocese of Gaul, the "Prefectus Praetorio Galliarum". Patroclus, who enjoyed the support of the commander Constantine, used this opportunity to procure for himself the position of supremacy above mentioned, by winning over Zosimus to his ideas. The bishops of Vienne, Narbonne, and Marseille regarded this elevation of the See of Arles as an infringement of their rights, and raised objections which occasioned several letters from Zosimus. The dispute, however, was not settled until the pontificate of Pope Leo I.
Confrontation with Pelagianism
Caelestius, a proponent of Pelagianism who had been condemned by the preceding pope, Innocent I, came to Rome to appeal to the new pope, having been expelled from Constantinople. In the summer of 418, Zosimus held a meeting of the Roman clergy in the Basilica of St. Clement before which Caelestius appeared. The propositions drawn up by the deacon
Paulinus of Milan Paulinus the Deacon, also Paulinus of Milan was the notary of Ambrose of Milan, and his biographer. His work is the only life of Ambrose based on a contemporary account, and was written at the request of Augustine of Hippo; it is dated to 422 AD.
A ...
, on account of which Caelestius had been condemned at Carthage in 411, were laid before him. Caelestius refused to condemn these propositions, at the same time declaring in general that he accepted the doctrine expounded in the letters of Pope Innocent and making a confession of faith which was approved. The pope was won over by the conduct of Caelestius and said that it was not certain whether he had really maintained the false doctrine rejected by Innocent, and therefore Zosimus considered the action of the African bishops against Caelestius too hasty. He wrote at once in this sense to the bishops of the African province and called upon those who had anything to bring against Caelestius to appear at Rome within two months.
After he received from Pelagius a confession of faith, together with a new treatise on free will, Zosimus held a new synod of the Roman clergy, before which both these writings were read. The assembly held the statements to be orthodox, and Zosimus again wrote to the African bishops defending Pelagius and reproving his accusers, among whom were the Gallic bishops Hero and Lazarus. Archbishop
Aurelius of Carthage
Aurelius of Carthage was a Christian saint who died around 430. A friend of Augustine of Hippo, he was bishop of Carthage from about 391 until his death.
Life
Not much is known about his life outside of his ecclesiastical activities. At the tim ...
quickly called a synod, which sent a reply to Zosimus in which it was argued that the pope had been deceived by heretics. In his answer, Zosimus declared that he had settled nothing definitely, and wished to settle nothing without consulting the African bishops. After the new synodal letter of the African council of 1 May 418 to the pope, and after the steps taken by the emperor Honorius against the Pelagians, Zosimus issued his ''Tractoria'', in which Pelagianism and its authors were finally condemned.
Shortly after this, Zosimus became involved in a dispute with the African bishops in regard to the right of clerics who had been condemned by their bishops to appeal to the Roman See. When the priest
Apiarius of Sicca
Apiarius of Sicca was an African Christian priest convicted by the Bishops of Africa of numerous unspecified crimes in the early 5th century AD, and excommunicated by Bishop Urbanus of Sicca Veneria.
Appeal to the bishop of Rome
In 418, Apiariu ...
had been excommunicated by his bishop on account of his crimes, he appealed directly to the pope, without regard to the regular course of appeal in Africa, which was exactly prescribed. The pope at once accepted the appeal, and sent legates with credentials to Africa to investigate the matter. Another, potentially wiser, course would have been to have first referred the case of Apiarius to the ordinary course of appeal in Africa itself. Zosimus next made the further mistake of basing his action on a reputed canon of the First Council of Nicaea, which was, in reality, a canon of the Council of Sardica. In the Roman manuscripts the canons of Sardica followed those of Nicaea immediately, without an independent title, while the African manuscripts contained only the genuine canons of Nicaea, so that the canon appealed to by Zosimus was not contained in the African copies of the
Nicene
The original Nicene Creed (; grc-gre, Σύμβολον τῆς Νικαίας; la, Symbolum Nicaenum) was first adopted at the First Council of Nicaea in 325. In 381, it was amended at the First Council of Constantinople. The amended form is a ...
canons. This mistake ignited a serious disagreement over the appeal, which continued after the death of Zosimus.
Legacy
Besides the writings of the pope already mentioned, there are extant other letters to the bishops of the Byzantine province in Africa, in regard to a deposed bishop, and to the bishops of Gaul and Spain in respect to
Priscillian
Priscillian (in Latin: ''Priscillianus''; Gallaecia, - Augusta Treverorum, Gallia Belgica, ) was a wealthy nobleman of Roman Hispania who promoted a strict form of Christian asceticism. He became bishop of Ávila in 380. Certain practices of his f ...
ism and ordination to the different grades of the clergy. The ''Liber Pontificalis'' attributes to Zosimus a decree on the wearing of the maniple by deacons, and on the dedication of Easter candles in the country parishes; also a decree forbidding clerics to visit taverns. Zosimus was buried in the sepulchral
Basilica of Saint Lawrence outside the Walls
The Basilica Papale di San Lorenzo fuori le mura (Papal Basilica of Saint Lawrence outside the Walls) is a Roman Catholic Minor papal basilica and parish church, located in Rome, Italy. The Basilica is one of the Seven Pilgrim Churches of Rome ...
*Dalmon, L. (2009), "Le Pape Zosime et la tradition juridique romaine," ''Eruditio Antiqua'' 1 (2009) 141–154.
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*Lamberigts, M. (1992), "Augustine and Julian of Aeclanum on Zosimus," ''Augustiniana'' 42 (1992) 311–330.
*
*Marcos, Mar (2013). "Papal Authority, Local Autonomy, and Imperial Control: Pope Zosimus and the Western Churches," in:
*Palanque, J. R. (1935), "Les dissensions des églises des Gaules à la fin du IVe Siècle et la date du concile de Turin, ''Revue d'histoire de l'église de France'' 31 (1935) 481–501.