Papal Catalogues

Papal Catalogues are the principal source for the history of the Roman bishops down to the 6th century. These catalogues are divided into two classes, the Greek and the Latin. Of the earliest Greek are the lists given by Irenaeus (Adv. Hoeres. 3:3, 3) and by Eusebius (Chronica and Hist. Eccles.). Jerome has depended altogether on Eusebius, and is therefore of importance only in so far as he supplements or corrects Eusebius. Of the later Greek chronicles are to be regarded the Χρουγαφειου συτομον of the year 853; George Syncellus, and his continuator Theophanes, the chronography of patriarch Nicephorus; all based for the first three centuries on Eusebius. Of the Latin, and the most important for the first three centuries, is the so-called Catalogus Liberianus, which is found in the collection by the chronograph of the year 354, and goes down to the time of Liberius (352-356). On it is based the so-called Felician catalogue (till Felix IV, † 530), also the Liber Pontificalis. The Catalogus Liberianus was followed by the Catalogus Leoninus (composed under Leo the Great), which comes down to Sixtus III. Further cataloguing progressed down to the popes of the 6th century (among them one in several handwritings comes to Hormisdas, † 523). These are followed by the Catalogus Felicianus, of which the Vitae Paparum, together with a Codex Canonum, coming down to Felix IV, are the first four of the Liber Pontificalis (q.v.). See Lipsius, Chronologie der romischen Bischofe (Kiel, 1869).