Simplicius

Simplicius, pope from A.D. 468 to 483, in the period of the Monophysite (q.v.) disputes by which the Western Church was violently agitated. He participated in the controversy, taking sides with Acacius, the patriarch of Constantinople, and anathematized Timotheus Aelurus, Petrus Fullo, Petrus Mongus, John of Apamea, and Paul of Ephesus; but he afforded aid and protection to John Talaja, whom Acacius refused to acknowledge as successor to the sea of Alexandria. Simplicius also added to the estimation in which the papacy was held by appointing the bishop Zeno of Seville to be apostolical vicar, and by depriving the bishop of Arles in France of his right to convoke synodal meetings. It is stated that this pope died March 2, 483, and his memory is honored in the Romish Church annually on the recurrence of that date. See Herzog, Real-Encyklop. s.v.