Web Quotableonline.com Frasescelebres.org Greatbookscollection.org

For the historian, see Zosimus.

Zosimus (died 27 December 418) reigned as Pope
from March 18, 417 until his death.  He succeeded
Pope Innocent I|Innocent I, and was followed by
Pope Boniface I|Boniface I. Zosimus took a decided
part in the protracted dispute in Gaul as to the
jurisdiction of the see of Arles over that of
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.

According to the Liber Pontificalis Zosimus was a
Greece|Greek and his father's name was Abram. Some
scholars deduce from this that the family was of
Jewish origin, but this cannot be certain. 

Nothing is known of the life of Zosimus before his
elevation to the papal see. His consecration as
Bishop of Rome took place on 18 March 417. The
festival was attended by Patroclus, Bishop of
Arles#Roman_Arles|Arles, who had been raised to
that see in place of Bishop Hero, who had been
forcibly and unjustly removed by the imperial
general Constantine. 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 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; 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 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 Marseilles 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. 

Not long after the election of Zosimus the
proponent of Pelagianism, Coelestius, who had been
condemned by the preceding pope, Innocent I, came
to Rome to justify himself before the new pope,
having been expelled from Constantinople. In the
summer of 417 Zosimus held a meeting of the Roman
clergy in the Basilica of St. Clement before which
Coelestius appeared. The propositions drawn up by
the deacon Paulinus of Milan, on account of which
Coelestius had been condemned at Carthage in 411,
were laid before him. Coelestius 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 shrewdly calculated
conduct of Coelestius, and said that it was not
certain whether the heretic had really maintained
the false doctrine rejected by Innocent, and that
therefore he considered the action of the African
bishops against Coelestius 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 Coelestius to appear at Rome
within two months. Soon after this Zosimus
received from Pelagius also an artfully expressed
confession of faith, together with a new treatise
by the heretic on free will. The pope held a new
synod of the Roman clergy, before which both these
writings were read. The skilfully chosen
expressions of Pelagius concealed the heretical
contents; 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
quickly called a synod, which sent a letter to
Zosimus in which it was proved that the pope had
been deceived by the 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 Flavius Augustus Honorius|Honorius against
the Pelagians, Zosimus recognized the true
character of the heretics. He now issued his
Tractoria, in which Pelagianism and its authors
were condemned. Thus, finally, the occupant of the
Apostolic See at the right moment maintained with
all authority the traditional dogma of the Church,
and protected the truth of the Church against
error.

Shortly after this Zosimus became involved in a
dispute with the African bishops in regard to the
right of appeal to the Roman See clerics who had
been condemned by their bishops. When the priest
Apiarius of Sicca 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 letters to Africa to
investigate the matter. A wiser course would have
been to have first referred 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 canons. Thus a serious disagreement
arose over this appeal, which continued after the
death of Zosimus.

Besides the writings of the pope already
mentioned, there are extant other letters to the
bishops of the Byzantine Empire|Byzantine province
in Africa, in regard to a deposed bishop, and to
the bishops of Gaul and Spain in respect to
Priscillianism and ordination to the different
grades of the clergy. The Liber Pontificalis
attributes to Zosimus a decree on the wearing of
the Maniple (vestment)|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 Church of St. Laurence in Agro Verano.

==References==
*De Rossi, Bulletino di arch. christ., 1881, 91
sqq
*Duchesne, Histoire ancienne de l'église, 111,
228, note
*Harnack Sitzungsberichte der Berliner Akademie,
1904, 1050 

==External links==
*http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/15764c.htm Pope
St. Zosimus at http://www.newadvent.org The
Catholic Encyclopedia

Pope|
Predecessor=Pope Innocent I|Saint Innocent I|
Successor=Pope Boniface I|Saint Boniface
I|Dates=417–418

1911

catholic