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<!DOCTYPE html> <html lang="en"> <head> <title>CATHOLIC ENCYCLOPEDIA: Pope St. Felix III</title><script src="https://dtyry4ejybx0.cloudfront.net/js/cmp/cleanmediacmp.js?ver=0104" async="true"></script><script defer data-domain="newadvent.org" src="https://plausible.io/js/script.js"></script><link rel="canonical" href="https://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06030b.htm"> <meta name="viewport" content="width=device-width, initial-scale=1"> <meta name="description" content="Felix II was an antipope, irregularly imposed by the Arians while Pope Liberius was still alive, so St. Felix III is sometimes called Felix II. Pope St. Felix III was much involved in battling heresy, and died in 492"> <meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><link rel="alternate" type="application/rss+xml" title="RSS" href="http://feeds.newadvent.org/bestoftheweb?format=xml"><link rel="icon" href="../images/icon1.ico" type="image/x-icon"><link rel="shortcut icon" href="../images/icon1.ico" type="image/x-icon"><meta name="robots" content="noodp"><link type="text/css" rel="stylesheet" href="../utility/screen6.css" media="screen"></head> <body class="cathen" id="06030b.htm">  <br/> <div id="capitalcity"><table summary="Logo" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0 width="100%"><tr valign="bottom"><td align="left"><a href="../"><img height=36 width=153 border="0" alt="New Advent" src="../images/logo.gif"></a></td><td align="right"> <form id="searchbox_000299817191393086628:ifmbhlr-8x0" action="../utility/search.htm">  <input type="hidden" name="safe" value="active"> <input type="hidden" name="cx" value="000299817191393086628:ifmbhlr-8x0"/> <input type="hidden" name="cof" value="FORID:9"/>  <label for="searchQuery" id="searchQueryLabel">Search:</label> <input id="searchQuery" name="q" type="text" size="25" aria-labelledby="searchQueryLabel"/>  <label for="submitButton" id="submitButtonLabel" class="visually-hidden">Submit Search</label> <input id="submitButton" type="submit" name="sa" value="Search" aria-labelledby="submitButtonLabel"/> </form> <table summary="Spacer" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td height="2"></td></tr></table> <table summary="Tabs" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr> <td bgcolor="#ffffff"></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../"> Home </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_white_on_color" href="../cathen/index.html"> Encyclopedia </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../summa/index.html"> Summa </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../fathers/index.html"> Fathers </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../bible/gen001.htm"> Bible </a></td> <td class="tab"><a class="tab_color_on_beige" href="../library/index.html"> Library </a></td> </tr></table> </td> </tr></table><table summary="Alphabetical index" width="100%" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td class="bar_white_on_color"> <a href="../cathen/a.htm"> A </a><a href="../cathen/b.htm"> B </a><a href="../cathen/c.htm"> C </a><a href="../cathen/d.htm"> D </a><a href="../cathen/e.htm"> E </a><a href="../cathen/f.htm"> F </a><a href="../cathen/g.htm"> G </a><a href="../cathen/h.htm"> H </a><a href="../cathen/i.htm"> I </a><a href="../cathen/j.htm"> J </a><a href="../cathen/k.htm"> K </a><a href="../cathen/l.htm"> L </a><a href="../cathen/m.htm"> M </a><a href="../cathen/n.htm"> N </a><a href="../cathen/o.htm"> O </a><a href="../cathen/p.htm"> P </a><a href="../cathen/q.htm"> Q </a><a href="../cathen/r.htm"> R </a><a href="../cathen/s.htm"> S </a><a href="../cathen/t.htm"> T </a><a href="../cathen/u.htm"> U </a><a href="../cathen/v.htm"> V </a><a href="../cathen/w.htm"> W </a><a href="../cathen/x.htm"> X </a><a href="../cathen/y.htm"> Y </a><a href="../cathen/z.htm"> Z </a> </td></tr></table></div> <div id="mobilecity" style="text-align: center; "><a href="../"><img height=24 width=102 border="0" alt="New Advent" src="../images/logo.gif"></a></div>  <div id="mi5"><span class="breadcrumbs"><a href="../">Home</a> > <a href="../cathen">Catholic Encyclopedia</a> > <a href="../cathen/f.htm">F</a> > Pope St. Felix III</span></div> <div id="springfield2"> <div class='catholicadnet-728x90' id='cathen-728x90-top' style='display: flex; height: 100px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; '></div> <h1>Pope St. Felix III</h1> <p><em><a href="https://gumroad.com/l/na2"><strong>Please help support the mission of New Advent</strong> and get the full contents of this website as an instant download. Includes the Catholic Encyclopedia, Church Fathers, Summa, Bible and more  all for only $19.99...</a></em></p> <p>(Reigned 483-492).</p> <p>Born of a Roman senatorial <a href="../cathen/05782a.htm">family</a> and said to have been an ancestor of <a href="../cathen/06780a.htm">Saint Gregory the Great</a>. Nothing certain is known of Felix, till he succeeded St. Simplicitus in the Chair of Peter (483). At that time the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> was still in the midst of her long conflict with the <a href="../cathen/05633a.htm">Eutychian heresy</a>. In the preceding year, the Emperor Zeno, at the suggestion of Acacius, the perfidious <a href="../cathen/11549a.htm">Patriarch</a> of <a href="../cathen/04301a.htm">Constantinople</a>, had issued an edict known as the Hereticon or Act of Union, in which he declared that no symbol of <a href="../cathen/05752c.htm">faith</a>, other than that of <a href="../cathen/11048a.htm">Nice</a>, with the additions of 381, should be received. The edict was intended as a bond of reconciliation between <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a> and <a href="../cathen/05633a.htm">Eutychians</a>, but it caused greater conflicts than ever, and split the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> of the East into three or four parties. As the <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a> everywhere spurned the edict, the emperor had driven the Patriarchs of Antioch and Alexandria from their <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">sees</a>. Peter the Tanner, a <a href="../cathen/11126b.htm">notorious</a> <a href="../cathen/07256b.htm">heretic</a>, had again intruded himself into the See of Antioch, and <a href="../cathen/11770a.htm">Peter Mongus</a>, who was to be the real source of trouble during the pontificate of Felix, had seized that of Alexandria. In his first synod Felix <a href="../cathen/05678a.htm">excommunicated</a> Peter the Tanner, who was likewise condemned by Acacius in a synod of <a href="../cathen/04301a.htm">Constantinoble</a>. In 484, Felix also <a href="../cathen/05678a.htm">excommunicated</a> <a href="../cathen/11770a.htm">Peter Mongus</a>  an act, which brought about a <a href="../cathen/13529a.htm">schism</a> between East and West, that was not healed for thirty-five years. This Peter, being a time-server and of a crafty deposition, ingratiated himself with the emperor and Acacius by subscribing to the <a href="../cathen/07218b.htm">Henoticon</a>, and was thereupon, to the displeasure of many of the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a>, admitted to communion by Acacius.</p> <div class="CMtag_300x250" style="display: flex; height: 300px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; "></div> <p>Felix, having convened a <a href="../cathen/14388a.htm">synod</a>, sent <a href="../cathen/09118a.htm">legates</a> to the emperor and Acacius, with the request that they should expel <a href="../cathen/11770a.htm">Peter Mongus</a> from Alexandria and that Acacius himself should come to <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a> to explain his conduct. The <a href="../cathen/09118a.htm">legates</a> were detained and <a href="../cathen/12430a.htm">imprisoned</a>; then urged by threats and promises, they held communion with the <a href="../cathen/07256b.htm">heretics</a> by distinctly uttering the name of Peter in the readings of the sacred <a href="../cathen/05022a.htm">diptychs</a>. When their treason was made known at <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a> by Simeon, one of the "Acaemeti" <a href="../cathen/10487b.htm">monks</a>, Felix convened a <a href="../cathen/14388a.htm">synod</a> of seventy-seven <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a> in the <a href="../cathen/09014b.htm">Lateran Basilica</a>, in which Acacius as well as the <a href="../cathen/09118a.htm">papal legates</a> were also <a href="../cathen/05678a.htm">excommunicated</a>. Supported by the emperor Acacius disregarded the <a href="../cathen/05678a.htm">excommunication</a>, removed the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope's</a> name from the sacred <a href="../cathen/05022a.htm">diptychs</a>, and remained in the <a href="../cathen/05001a.htm">see</a> till his death, which took place one or two years later. His successor Phravitas, sent messengers to Felix, assuring him that he would not hold communion with Peter, but, the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope</a> learning that this was a deception, the <a href="../cathen/13529a.htm">schism</a> continued. Peter, having died in the meantime Ethymus who succeeded Phravitas, also sought communion with <a href="../cathen/13164a.htm">Rome</a>, but the <a href="../cathen/12260a.htm">pope</a> refused, as Euthymius would not remove the names of his two predecessors from the sacred <a href="../cathen/05022a.htm">diptychs</a>. The <a href="../cathen/13529a.htm">schism</a>, known as the <a href="../cathen/01082a.htm">Acacian</a> <a href="../cathen/13529a.htm">Schism</a> was not finally healed till 518 in the reign of Justinian. In Africa the <a href="../cathen/01707c.htm">Arian</a> <a href="../cathen/15268b.htm">Vandals</a>, Genseric and his son Huneric had been persecuting the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a> for more than 50 years and had driven many <a href="../cathen/03449a.htm">Catholics</a> into exile. When peace was restored, numbers of those who through fear had fallen into <a href="../cathen/07256b.htm">heresy</a> and had been rebaptized by the <a href="../cathen/01707c.htm">Arians</a> desired to return to the <a href="../cathen/03744a.htm">Church</a>. On being repulsed by those who had remained firm, they appealed to Felix who convened a <a href="../cathen/14388a.htm">synod</a> in 487, and sent a letter to the <a href="../cathen/02581b.htm">bishops</a> of Africa, expounding the conditions under which they were to be received back. Felix died in 492, having reigned eight years, eleven months and twenty-three days.</p> <div class='catholicadnet-728x90' id='cathen-728x90-bottom' style='display: flex; height: 100px; align-items: center; justify-content: center; '></div> <div class="pub"><h2>About this page</h2><p id="apa"><strong>APA citation.</strong> <span id="apaauthor">Coleman, A.</span> <span id="apayear">(1909).</span> <span id="apaarticle">Pope St. Felix III.</span> In <span id="apawork">The Catholic Encyclopedia.</span> <span id="apapublisher">New York: Robert Appleton Company.</span> <span id="apaurl">http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06030b.htm</span></p><p id="mla"><strong>MLA citation.</strong> <span id="mlaauthor">Coleman, Ambrose.</span> <span id="mlaarticle">"Pope St. Felix III."</span> <span id="mlawork">The Catholic Encyclopedia.</span> <span id="mlavolume">Vol. 6.</span> <span id="mlapublisher">New York: Robert Appleton Company,</span> <span id="mlayear">1909.</span> <span id="mlaurl"><http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/06030b.htm>.</span></p><p id="transcription"><strong>Transcription.</strong> <span id="transcriber">This article was transcribed for New Advent by Joseph P. Thomas.</span> <span id="dedication"></span></p><p id="approbation"><strong>Ecclesiastical approbation.</strong> <span id="nihil"><em>Nihil Obstat.</em> September 1, 1909. Remy Lafort, Censor.</span> <span id="imprimatur"><em>Imprimatur.</em> +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York.</span></p><p id="contactus"><strong>Contact information.</strong> The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. My email address is webmaster <em>at</em> newadvent.org. Regrettably, I can't reply to every letter, but I greatly appreciate your feedback — especially notifications about typographical errors and inappropriate ads.</p></div> </div> <div id="ogdenville"><table summary="Bottom bar" width="100%" cellpadding=0 cellspacing=0><tr><td class="bar_white_on_color"><center><strong>Copyright © 2023 by <a href="../utility/contactus.htm">New Advent LLC</a>. 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