ZOSIMO, POPE, saint. — Elected successor to Innocenzo I on 18 March 417, died on 26 December 418.
Immediately, on 22 March, he granted Patroclus, bishop of Arles, the most notable privileges, subjecting the province of Vienne and the two Narbonnes to his metropolitan jurisdiction and appointing him apostolic vicar over all Gaul. This aroused protests from the Gallic episcopate, which had no reason to be satisfied with Patroclus. S. Agostino had just uttered the famous phrase: «Roma locuta est causa finita est», apropos of the Pelagians, when the controversy was rekindled. Celestius (v.), present in Rome, presented his protests before Z., who, without pronouncing judgment, invited the African bishops to exhume the preceding judgments already confirmed by Innocenzo I and to reply within two months. Meanwhile, a letter from Pelagius and a libellus fidei arrived in Rome, addressed to Pope Innocenzo, in which he attempted to demonstrate the orthodoxy of his faith; the innocence of the two heretics seemed assured, as Z. wrote to the Africans on 21 September 417. The African bishops held a new Council on this matter in May 418 and meanwhile brought about an intervention by the imperial court of Ravenna to prevent disturbances; Z. then addressed to all Christendom, toward the end of May, an epistola tractoria (which has come down to us in fragmentary form), in which, condemning Pelagius and Celestius and their doctrines, he required all bishops to accept this condemnation, as nearly all in fact did. Another controversy arose between Z. and the African episcopate concerning Apiarius, a priest of Sicca Veneria, who had appealed to him against the sentence by which his bishop Urbanus had excommunicated him. For this affair Z. sent a bishop to Africa as his legate; but before it could be concluded, Z. died and was buried at S. Lorenzo. His name appears in the Roman Martyrology on 26 December.
p. 412 ff.; J. Tixeront, Hist. des Dogmes, II, Parigi 1912, p. 453 ff.; Fliche-Martin-Fruta, IV, pp. 102-107, 245-49; Martyr. romanum, p. 602. Pio Paschini