The Roman Liber Pontificalis, Papal Primacy, and the Acacian Schism

Abstract

In the 510s, a new type of historical text was created, eventually known as the Liber pontificalis, which provided biographical and administrative information about each pope from the founding of the see by St. Peter. The stimulus for its creation is usually said to have been the Laurentian Schism, a controversy surrounding the papal election of 498 that lasted until 508. This paper proposes instead that the stimulus for writing a continuous history of the popes was the Acacian Schism, a controversy between the popes and the patriarchs of Constantinople over primacy in the church. The Liber pontificalis proves that, in contrast to the bishops of Constantinople, the papal line consisted of men who all professed orthodox Christianity. The Liber pontificalis provided crucial evidence for a new argument for papal primacy based on doctrinal purity, which was developed by Pope Hormisdas (514-523) in order to resolve the Acacian schism.