The So-Called Symmachian Forgeries

Abstract

HIS is the title used by Grisar for a group of writings which appeared at the beginning of the sixth century,' T though, as I shall show later, the name is misleading. Still, any name is apt to be misleading, and it is a good general rule to qualify rather than to change an accepted historical title. These writings are not in themselves of great importance, except as belonging to that cycle in which, in all probability, the Liber pontificalis had its beginnings. They have a second interest, in that they may help us to understand the motives that lay behind other and more important forgeries. There is no pretense that in these documents we have found the key to the whole complicated question of medieval forgery, but it may well be the case that in some instances we have taken such writings too seriously, and have not given their first readers due credit for a saving sense of humor. There is no doubt that in many forged documents the sinister intent may be taken as proved, but on the other hand, I believe, there is another group where there was originally no intent to deceive, only the subtle irony of the writers was not apparent to later readers out of touch with the local situation. The modern scholar is apt to see this latter group from the traditional point of view, and impute to the authors a dishonesty of purpose of which they were wholly innocent.