# Symmachan Schism (22 November 498)

URL: https://allhistories.com/vatican/timeline/498-symmachan-schism
Location: St Peter's, Vatican; Lateran, Rome
Themes: Key Events

Under the Ostrogothic king Theodoric, who ruled Italy from Ravenna from 493, the Roman clergy and senatorial aristocracy were divided over how far to compromise with Constantinople to end the Acacian schism. When Pope Anastasius II, who had favoured reconciliation, died in November 498, the split broke into the open. On 22 November 498 the majority of the clergy elected the deacon Symmachus at the Lateran, while a pro-Byzantine faction backed by senators such as Festus elected the archpriest Laurentius at Santa Maria Maggiore. Both appealed to Theodoric, an Arian, who ruled in favour of Symmachus as the candidate elected first and by the larger party. Fighting resumed in 501 when Laurentius's supporters accused Symmachus of misconduct; Laurentius occupied the Lateran and much of the city for several years, while Symmachus was confined to St Peter's. A synod in 502, the so-called Synodus Palmaris, refused to judge him, declaring that the pope could be judged by no one. Theodoric finally withdrew support from Laurentius in 506, ending the schism. The crisis produced the forged 'Symmachan apocrypha', which claimed precedents for papal immunity from judgement, and it had a lasting effect on the Vatican: by residing and building there, Symmachus made St Peter's, for the first time, a seat of papal government as well as a shrine.

## Why it matters
The schism made St Peter's a papal residence for the first time and produced the principle that the pope can be judged by no one.

Pope at the Time: [Pope Symmachus](https://allhistories.com/vatican/popes/pope-symmachus)

## Sources
- [Wikipedia — Antipope Laurentius](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antipope_Laurentius)
- [Catholic Encyclopedia — Pope St. Symmachus](https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/)
- [Wikipedia — Pope Symmachus](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pope_Symmachus)
- [Wikipedia — Late Antique Rome (period overview)](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_St._Peter%27s_Basilica)