P. Jaffé and F. Kaltenbrunner, Regesta Pontificum Romanorum Ab Condita Ecclesia Ad Annum Post Christum Natum MCXCVIII, 2nd ed. (Leipzig 1885), 25-26.

The first edition of Jaffe-Kaltenbrunner used a different numbering system than the second edition, translated here. Extant letters considered genuine were listed in one numbering system, and letters considered false were listen in another. In the second edition of the Regesta, both genuine and spurious letters are included in one numbering system. An asterisk (*) indicates a letter no longer extant. A dagger (†) before a letter number indicates that the letter is considered false by Jaffe-Kaltenbrunner.

In addition, an Arabic numeral in parentheses following the letter number indicates the letter’s number in the first edition’s list of extant genuine letters, e.g., Letter 209 (40). A Roman numeral in parentheses following the letter number indicated the letter’s number in the first edition’s list of false letters, e.g., Letter †207 (CLI).

All information found within the chart, including parenthetical and bracketed information, is found in Jaffe-Kaltenbrunner. Any additional information will be found in the footnotes.

Date Place Letter Historical Event or Content of Letter Bibliographic Reference
296
June 30 He comes to the pontificate “on the day before the Calends of July in the sixth consulship of Diocletian and the second of Constantine.” LC p. 636
296-302
He orders the construction of a double chamber for Severus the deacon in the cemetery of St. Soter (Inscription in Rossi). ROS 3:46
296-304
Aug 23 Sinuessa †In a synod of 300 bishops, Marcellinus condemns himself for having offered incense under Diocletian of Rome. See the acts of the synod whose fabulous stories Augustine and Theodoret argue were contrived by the Donatists. Cf. Doellinger. AUG3 16,27;
THE 1.2
(COU app p. 27);
MAN 1:1250;
PL 6:11;
DOE p. 48
Sept 6 †158 (cxvi) Quam laudabiliter.
He explains to his fellow bishop Salomon that the Father is not greater than the Son.
PS-IS p. 218;
MAN 1:1239;
PL 7:1085
Dec 9 †159 (cxvii) Quid tam dulce.
He writes to all the bishops established throughout the eastern provinces, “Let contentions among Christians be put to an end by church men, but a superior man cannot be judged by an inferior one.” “Clergymen should not presume to drag anyone to secular judgment without the permission of his pontiff, and laymen are not allowed to accuse the clergy.” “The emperor is not allowed to presume anything contrary to the divine commands. An unjust judgment and an unjust pronouncement, arranged by fear of the king or by his order, count for nothing.”
PS-IS p. 220;
MAN 1:1241;
PL 7:1089
304
Oct 25? He dies in the ninth consulship of Diocletian and the eighth of Maximian, as the Liberian Catalogue testifies. If the 8 years, 3 months, and 25 days assigned to Marcellinus in this catalogue are correct, he died of natural causes on October 25, 304. But he is honored on April 26, as already the Liber Pontificalis shows. We read in the catalogue that after this pontiff the see was vacant for 7 years, 6 months, and 25 days, which does not at all square with the notes which it gives about his successor Marcellus. We must accept the opinion of Lipsius that this timespan was a time of persecution and the apostolic see lay vacant for 2 years, 6 months, and 27 days. He was buried in the cemetery of Priscilla according to the Liber Pontificalis. (In Depositio episcoporum, Marcellinus is missing.) Cf. Rossi. LC;
LP 1:78;
LIP p. 249;
LP 1.1;
DEP p. 631;
ROS 2:105

Bibliographic References:

AUG3 = Augustine, de unico baptismo

COU = Epistolae Romanorum pontificum, ed. Coustant (Paris, 1721)

DEP = Depositio episcoporum, in Mommsen, Roemische Geschichte (Leipzig, 1856)

DOE = Doellinger, Die Papstfabeln des Mittelalters (Munich, 1863)

LC = Liberian Catalogue, in Mommsen, Roemische Geschichte (Leipzig, 1856)

LIP = Lipsius, Chronologie der Roemischen Bischoefe bis zur Mitte des vierten Jahrhunderts (Kiel, 1869)

LP = Liber pontificalis seu de gestis Romanorum pontificum, ed. Vignoli (Rome, 1724)

MAN = Mansi, Conciliorum amplissima collectio (Florence, 1759)

PL = Migne, Patrologiae cursus complectus. Series latina.

PS-IS = Decretales Pseudo-Isidorianae et Capitula Angilrammi, ed. Hinschius (Leipzig, 1863)

ROS = De Rossi, La Roma Sotteranea Cristiana (Rome, 1864)

THE = Theodoret’s Historia Ecclesiastica

AMJ

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