He was a native of Sardinia, and archdeacon of the Roman church
under pope Anastasius, and succeeded him in the holy see in 498.
Festus, the patrician, had been gained by Anastasius, emperor of
Constantinople, and a protector of the Eutychians, to endeavor to
procure from pope Anastasius a confirmation of the Henoticon of Zeno,
an imperial edict in favor of those heretics, as Theophanes relates.
That pope dying, Festus, by bribes, gained several voices to raise
Laurence, archpriest of St. Praxedes, to the pontificate. They were
both ordained the same day; Symmachus in the basilic of Constantine,
and Laurence in that of our lady. Theodoric, king of Italy, though an
Arian, ordered that election should take place which was first, and
made by the greater number. By this rule Symmachus was acknowledged
lawful pope. He called a council at Rome of seventy-three bishops,
and sixty-seven priests, which, to prevent cabals and factions in
the elections of popes, ordained that if any one promised his vote
to another, or deliberated in any assembly upon that subject, whilst
the pope is living, he should be deposed and excommunicated; and that
after the pope’s death that person should be duly elected who had
a majority of the voices of the clergy. Laurence subscribed these
decrees the first among the priests,[229] and was afterward made
bishop of Nocera. Soon after, some of the clergy and senators, by the
contrivance of Festus and Probinus, privately recalled Laurence to
Rome, and renewed the schism, which is by many historians reckoned
the first that happened in that church, though Novatian had attempted
to form one. The schismatics accused Symmachus of many crimes, and
king Theodoric commanded a synod should be held at Rome upon that
occasion. The bishops of Liguria, Emilia, and Venetia took Ravenna
in their way to Rome, and strongly represented to the king, that
the pope himself ought to call the council, which right he enjoyed
both by the primacy of his see, derived from St. Peter, and by the
authority of councils; also, that there never had been an instance
of his being subjected to the judgment of his inferiors.[230] The
king showed them the pope’s letters by which he agreed to, and
summoned the council. Indeed the pontifical says, that Symmachus
assembled this council.[231] The synod met at Rome in September,
501, and declared pope Symmachus acquitted of the accusations
entered against him, condemning to be punished as schismatics any
who should celebrate mass without his consent; but pardoning those
who had raised the schism, provided they gave satisfaction to the
pope.[232] When this decree was carried into Gaul, all the bishops
were alarmed at it; and they charged Saint Avitus, bishop of Vienne,
to write about it in the name of them all. He addressed his letter
to Faustus and Symmachus, two patricians who had both been consuls,
complaining, that when the Pope had been accused before the prince,
the bishops, instead of opposing such an injustice, had taken upon
them to judge him: “For,” says he, “it is not easy to apprehend how
the superior can be judged by his inferiors, especially the head of
the Church.” However, he commends the council for bearing testimony
to his innocence, and earnestly entreats the senate to maintain the
honor of the Church, and not to suffer the flocks to rise up against
their pastors. The famous deacon Paschasius, a man eminent for his
great alms-deeds and other good works, had the misfortune blindly to
abet this schism to the latter end of his life; for which St. Gregory
the Great relates, upon the authority of a certain revelation,[233]
that he was detained in purgatory after his death, but delivered by
the prayers of St. Germanus, bishop of Capua. Ceillier thinks that he
repented only in his last moments;[234] or, that simplicity of heart
extenuated his sin. Paschasius wrote a learned book on the Divinity
of the Holy Ghost, though the two books on that subject which now
bear his name, are the work of Faustus of Riez.
Pope Symmachus wrote to the emperor Anastasius declaring that he
could not hold communion with him so long as he maintained that
of Acacius. That prince expected such a menace from the zeal
of the pope, and therefore he had not written to him upon his
promotion, according to custom. He also accused him of Manicheism,
though Symmachus had banished the Manichees out of Rome; and he
did not cease to thwart the pope, dreading his known zeal against
his favorite sect of the Acephali. Symmachus composed an apology
against this emperor, in which he shows the dignity of the Christian
priesthood.[235] He wrote to the Oriental bishops, exhorting them
to suffer banishment and all persecutions rather than to betray the
divine truth.[236] King Thrasimund having banished many Catholic
African bishops into Sardinia, pope Symmachus sent them annually
both clothes and money; and there is still extant among the works
of Ennodius a letter which this pope sent to comfort them. He
accompanied it with some relics of the martyrs SS. Nazarius and
Romanus. He redeemed many captives; and gave one hundred and
seventy-nine pounds of silver in ornaments to several churches in
Rome; and to the chapel of the holy cross, a gold cross of ten
pound weight, in which he inclosed a piece of the true cross. On a
ciborium, that is, in the language of that time, a tabernacle, which
he gave to St. Paul’s church, he caused to be engraved the figures of
our Saviour and the twelve apostles. He instituted that the hymn of
divine praise called the Gloria in Excelsis should be sung on every
Sunday, and on the festivals of martyrs, as the pontifical testifies.
He filled the papal chair fifteen years and eight months; and died on
the 19th of July, 514. See his letters, the councils, and Anastasius
Bibl. Also F. Amort’s Diss. on the cause of pope Symmachus, printed
at Bologna in 1758.