Letter 1: The synodal decree of Pope Symmachus.

[The source text is not a letter but the editorial heading-summary, footnote, and running page-header of the Synodal Decree of St. Symmachus the Pope, heavily damaged by OCR. The legible content is rendered below.] Synodal Decree of St. Symmachus the Pope. Section 1. The proposal of Fulgentius, archdeacon of the Roman church, concerning the synod convened by command of Pope Symmachus. II. The pronouncement of Symmachus, that the canvassing for episcopal office be cut away at the root. The sentence of the synod: that if anyone, while the pope is still living, is convicted of bestowing favor in any manner whatsoever upon any person for the sake of the Roman pontificate, he be deprived of the rank of his office or of communion. That if the pope, forestalled by death, has been unable beforehand to decide concerning the election of his successor, that man be ordained as bishop whom the whole clergy, or at least the greater part, shall have elected. That if anyone shall have denounced those canvassing, or the supporters of those canvassing, and the conspirators, [he not ...] [text breaks off] [Footnote fragment:] ... he was summoned, and was there held under a certain custody; then, after the synod of the year 502, having slipped away from there and returned to Rome, [it is said that] he truly conducted himself as a schismatic bishop. So the anonymous author cited by Blanchini, and the eighth letter of Symmachus, together with the sixth letter of the appendix, agrees with this most precisely. [Running page-header:] LETTERS OF THE ROMAN PONTIFFS, I. 41

seu ^ ^^^- Deoretum synodale s. Symmaohi papae. S. !• Bvggestio Fnlgentii archidiaooni ecclesiae Bomanae de congregata Sjmodo ex praecepto papae SynunachL H. Interloeatio Symmachi, ut epiecopalis ambitns radicitns ampntetor. gententia Sjmodi, nt si qnis papa snperstite pro Bomano pontificatn cniqnam qnolibet modo favorem praestare convincitnr, loci sni ordine vel commnnione privetnr. Ut li papa morte praeventns non potnerit ante de sni successoris electione de- •emere, i« ordinetnr antistes, quem cnnctns dems ant certe pars major elegerit Ut li qnis ambientes vel fautores ambientinm conjnratoresqne prodiderit, non ▼ocaretar ibioue custodia quadam retinorctur; deinde post Bj^nodum anni 502 iMmn inde duapsum Romamque reversuni vcre episcopum scnisinaticum egisse. ^ Ita anonymus Blanch., et apprime coiisentit Symraachi epist. 8 ei ap- peud. ep. 6. XPItTOLAB BOMAN. PONTIF. I. 41