Pope Innocent I (Latin:Innocentius I) was thebishop of Rome from 401 to his death on 12 March 417. From the beginning of his papacy, he was seen as the general arbitrator of ecclesiastical disputes in both the East and the West. He confirmed the prerogatives of the Archbishop ofThessalonica, and issued adecretal on disciplinary matters referred to him by the Bishop ofRouen. He defended the exiledJohn Chrysostom and consulted with the bishops ofAfrica concerning thePelagian controversy, confirming the decisions of the African synods.
The Catholic priest-scholarJohann Peter Kirsch, 1500 years later, described Innocent as a very energetic and highly gifted individual "...who fulfilled admirably the duties of his office".[2]
According to his biographer in theLiber Pontificalis, Innocent was a native ofAlbano and the son of a man called Innocentius.[2] On the other hand, in a letter toDemetrias his contemporaryJerome referred to him as the son of the previous pope,Anastasius I. It has, however, been suggested that Jerome was describing a link merely hierarchical rather than biological.[3] According to Urbano Cerri, Pope Innocent was a native ofAlbania.[4]
From his appointment in 401, Innocent lost no opportunity to maintain the authority of theRoman apostolic See, seen as final arbiter for all ecclesiastical disputes. That such opportunities were numerous and varied is evident from his communications withVictricius of Rouen,Exuperius of Toulouse, Alexander of Antioch and others, as well as how he acted whenJohn Chrysostom appealed to him againstTheophilus of Alexandria. On thePelagian controversy he took a decided view. He reinforced the decisions of the synod of the province of proconsularAfrica, held inCarthage in 416. He accordingly confirmed the condemnation in 411 against Cælestius, who was of the Pelagian view. In the same year he wrote likewise to the fathers of theNumidian synod of Mileve who had appealed to him. Soon after this, five African bishops, among them St. Augustine, wrote a personal letter to Innocent explaining their own position on Pelagianism.[2] In addition he acted as metropolitan over the bishops of Italia Suburbicaria.[2][5]
The historian Zosimus, in hisHistoria Nova, suggests that during thesack of Rome in 410 byAlaric I, Innocent I was willing to permit private pagan practices as a temporary measure. However, Zosimus also suggests that this attempt by pagans to restore public worship failed due to lack of public interest, suggesting that Rome in the previous century had been successfully and permanently won over to Christianity.[2]
Among Innocent I's letters is one to Jerome and another toJohn II, Bishop of Jerusalem, regarding annoyances to which the former had been subjected by the Pelagians atBethlehem. Innocent's portrayal of the church as an institution "where there is protection for all, ... where there is security, where there is a port that resists the waves, where there is a treasure of infinite goods" was quoted byPope Gregory XVI in correspondence with the French clericFélicité de La Mennais in 1833.[6]
He died on 12 March 417. Accordingly, his feast day is now celebrated on 12 March, though from the thirteenth to the twentieth century he was commemorated on 28 July.[7] His successor wasZosimus.
In 405, Pope Innocent sent a list of the sacred books to a Gallic bishop,Exsuperius of Toulouse,[8] identical withthat of Trent (which took place more than 1000 years later),[9][10][11] except for some uncertainty in the manuscript tradition about whether the letters ascribed to Paul were 14 or only 13, in the latter case possibly implying omission of theEpistle to the Hebrews.[8] Previously in 367,Athanasius of Alexandria had circulated the 39thEaster Letter mentioning the list of Scripture, both Old and New Testament, which he referred to as "canonized".
^abcde One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Kirsch, Johann Peter (1910). "Pope Innocent I". In Herbermann, Charles (ed.).Catholic Encyclopedia. Vol. 8. New York: Robert Appleton Company.
^Birgit Heilmann,Aus Heiltum wird Geschichte. Der Gandersheimer Reliquienschatz in nachreformatorischer Zeit. Thomas Labusiak and Hedwig Röckelein, Regensburg, 2009 (Studien zum Frauenstift Gandersheim und seinen Eigenklöstern, vol. 1).
