P. Jaffé and F. Kaltenbrunner, Regesta Pontificum Romanorum Ab Condita Ecclesia Ad Annum Post Christum Natum MCXCVIII, 2nd ed. (Leipzig 1885), 40-42.

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
The first papal letter which are extant in which the years are indicated by the names of the consuls are those of Siricius (255, 258).
384
Dec He is made priest “in the consulship of Ricimer and Clearchus.” PA1
(RON 1:638;
PL 51:585)
385 (in the consulship of Arcadius and Bauton)
Feb 10 255 (65) “Directa ad decessorem” (“Directam”).
Having received a letter of Himerius, bishop of Tarragona, to Damasus and reading them in “a convention of brothers, he responds:
1. Arians are not to be rebaptized.
2. Baptism is not to be given except on the days of Easter and Pentecost.
3. Apostates must indeed be excommunicated but if they return the must be accepted and afflicted with perpetual penance.
4. A betrothed woman cannot be taken in marriage by anyone except the betrothed man.
5. The Eucharist is to be denied to those who serve their desires after penance and absolution.
6. Unchaste monks and nuns are to be driven from the monasteries.
7. Nor may consecrated priests make use of wives.
8. Nor may those who have not abstained from a second marriage become priests.
9. Who can become lectors, who can become acolytes and subdeacons, who can become priests, who can become bishops.
10. About the laity who undertook the priestly order at an advanced age.
11. Those who as clergymen enter into a second marriage must be deprived of their office.
12. Superfluous women are to be removed from the houses of the priests.
13. Monks commended for virtue are to be received into the number of the clergy.
14. It is not allowed to the laity as an act of penance to become a priest.
15. The penitent, the twice-married, those married to widows, who were rashly made clergymen, are not to be promoted to higher offices.
He offers the encouragement “to observe the canons and keep such established decrees” and to announce this response to the bishops of his diocese as also those of Carthage, Baetica, Lusitania, and Gaul.		 LEO 3:2462
(PL 56:554);
VJ 1:190;
PS-IS p. 520;
COU p. 623;
MAN 3:655;
LF 1:368;
PL 13:1131
385? 256 (66)* He writes to emperor Maximus both about defending the catholic faith and about Agricius, who was “undeservingly” made bishop. See Maximus’ letter. COU p. 640;
MAN 3:671
257 (67)* Having sent a letter through bishop Candidianus to Anysius (bishop of Thessalonica), he concedes that “there is no license to presume to ordain bishops in Illyricum without his consent.” See Siricius’ letter. HOL 1:43;
COU p. 642;
MAN 8:750;
PL 13:1148
386 (After the consulship of the august Arcadius and Bauton)
Jan 6 Rome, at the relics of St. Peter the Apostle A Council of 80 bishops who decree:
1. Let no one “dare to ordain without the knowledge of the apostolic see, that is, the first one.”
2. “Let no bishop presume to ordain a bishop.”
3. Let no one become a clergyman who “wore the secular military belt after receiving the forgiveness of sins.”
4. Let no clergyman marry a widow.
5. Let no layperson who married a widow become a clergyman.
6. Let no one ordain a clergyman of a different church.
7. Let no “other church admit a rejected clergyman.”
8. “Those coming from the Novatians or Montanist are to be received through the laying on of hands, except for those whom they rebaptized.”
9. Let no “priests and Levites have union with their wives.”
The acts of the council are in the following letter. 		HEF 2:45
6 Rome, in the council 258 (68) “Cum in unum.”
He announces the decrees of the council to the African bishops.		 LEO 3:4483
(PL 56:726);
COU p. 651;
MAN 3:669;
PL 13:1155
386?
259 (69) “Etiam dudum.”
He confirms the privilege of Anysius (bishop of Thessalonica) to ordain bishops in Illyricum, and advises him to see to it that “they do not appear to have made three rival bishops in one church, as has happened whenever they presume to ordain unworthy men.”		 HOL 1:43;
COU p. 642;
MAN 8:750;
PL 13:1148
390
Rome A synod in which the heresy of Jovinian is condemned. See the following letter. HEF 2:51
260 (70) “Optarem semper.”
He signifies to the Church of Milan (some: to various bishops) that he “after assembling the priests” condemned Jovinian, Auxentius, Genialis, Germinator, Felix, Plotinus, Marcian, Januarius, and Ingeniosus, the authors of a new heresy. 		AMB 2.1:963
(PL 16:1121);
LEO 3:2554
(PL 56:562);
PS-IS p. 523;
COU p. 663;
MAN 3:663;
LF 1:375;
PL 13:1168
392
261 (71) “Accepi litteras.”
He responds to Anysius and the rest of the bishops established throughout Illyrica that he is not able to offer judgment about bishop Bonosus because the Council of Capua commanded that a case must be known “from neighbors and chiefly Macedonians.” He adds about Mary being a virgin after Christ was born.		 HOL 1:189;
COU p. 679;
MAN 3:674;
PL 13:1176
384-398
262 (72)* He gives advice about accepting Priscillianists. See the first Council of Toledo in Mansi. Cf. Coustant. MAN 3:1005;
COU p. 701 n. 5
263 (73) “Cogitantibus nobis.”
He writes to the orthodox throughout the various provinces about carefully bestowing church honors.		 PS-IS p. 524;
COU p. 659;
MAN 3:667;
LF 1:376;
PL 13:1164
264* He sends Ambrose, bishop of Milan, a letter of unknown content through bishop Syrus. AMB1 2.1:1105
[PL 16:1282])
†265 (clxxi) “Si sanus vir.”
He decrees this: “If a healthy man marries a woman with leprosy or afterwards leprosy comes over her, have them separate so that the sons conceived are not polluted by leprosy.”		 COU p. 709;
MAN 3:676;
PL 13:1129
†266 (clxxii) “Presbyter, qui dicit.”
He states this: “If a priest says he does not know whether the one who ordained him was a bishop and he has at any time performed a mass, and after being dismissed from his office takes a wife, this pseudo-priest . . . must be forced into a monastery for penance for the rest of his life.”		 COU p. 709;
MAN 3:676;
PL 13:1129
†267 (clxxiii) “Presbyter, qui in vino.”
He commands this: “If a priest baptizes in wine out of the nearest necessity that a sick person is not endangered, no fault is charged to him for such a matter. But if water is near and such necessity does not urge it, he is deprived of this communion and is submitted to penance. But the infant . . . remains in this baptism.”		 COU p. 709;
MAN 3:676;
PL 13:1129
†268 (clxxiv) “Si infantem in.”
He prescribes this: “If (a priest) baptizes an infant set in danger out of the nearest necessity with a dish or his hands and in the name of the holy Trinity, it will remain firmly.”		 COU p. 710;
MAN 3:676;
PL 13:1129
†269 (clxxv) “Presbyter, qui orationem.”
He decrees this: “If a priest does not know the Lord’s Prayer, or the Creed, or the Psalms, or if the one who blessed him was a bishop, he shall lose this first dignity of all which he illegally presumed and spend the rest of his life in a monastery under busy penance.”		 COU p. 710;
MAN 3:676;
PL 13:1130
†270 (clxxvi) “Qui vero ita baptizant.”
He decrees this: “Whoever baptizes in such a way that he says, ‘I dip in the name of the Father, I dip in the name of the Son, and I dip in the name of the Holy Spirit,” those who are baptized in this way, even if done clumsily, have still been baptized in the name of the holy Trinity.”		 COU p. 710;
MAN 3:676;
PL 13:1130
398?
271 (74)* He invites bishop Rufinus to Rome. Cf. Coustant. JER3 3.20
(JER 2:549
[PL 23:471]);
COU p. 705 n. 11
Nov 26 He dies “in the fourth consulship of Honorius and that of Eutychianus.” The day is understood from Jerome’s martyrology. And the 22nd day of the month of February, which the life of Siricius in Liber Pontificalis indicates, does not need to be approved. Therefore Siricius possessed the see for almost 14 years, although all the catalogues, with a few exceptions, attribute to him 15 years. PA5
(RON 1:643;
PL 51:588);
JER1 11:519
(PL 30:485);
LP 1:127

1 PA 2 p. 735

2 LEO3 29

3 LEO3 62

4 LEO3 30

5 PA 2 p. 738

Bibliographic References:

AMB = Ambrose of Milan’s Works

    AMB1 = epistula ad Siricium, in AMB

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

HEF = Hefele, Conciliengeschichte (Freiburg i. Br., 1873)

HOL = Holstenius, Collectio Romana bipartita (Rome, 1662)

JER = S. Hieronymi Stridonensis presbyteri opera, ed. Vallarsi (Verona, 1734)

    JER1 = Martyrologium Vetus in JER
    JER3 = Apologia adversus libros Rufini in JER

LEO = S. Leonis Magni Romani pontificis opera, ed. Ballerinii (Venice, 1753)

    LEO3 = Codex canonum ecclesiasticorum, app in LEO

LF = La Fuente, Historia eclesiastica de Espana (1875)

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

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

PA = Chronicum Integrum in duas partes distributum, in Prosperi Aquitani Opera (Paris, 1711)

PL = Migne, Patrologiae cursus complectus. Series latina.

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

RON = Roncallius, Vetustiora latinorum scriptorum chronica (Petavium, 1787)

VJ = Voelli and Justelli, Bibliotheca iuris canonici veteris (Lutetia Paris, 1661)

AMJ

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