Editing Pope Innocent I (section)

==Pontificate==
From his appointment in 401, Innocent lost no opportunity to maintain and extend the authority of the [[Holy See|Roman apostolic See]], seen as final arbiter for all ecclesiastical disputes. That such opportunities were numerous and varied is evident from his communications with [[Victricius of Rouen]], [[Exuperius|Exuperius of Toulouse]], Alexander of Antioch and others, as well as how he acted when [[John Chrysostom]] appealed to him against [[Pope Theophilus I of Alexandria|Theophilus of Alexandria]]. On the [[Pelagius (British monk)|Pelagian]] controversy he took a decided view. He reinforced the decisions of the synod of the province of proconsular [[Africa]], held in [[Carthage]] 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 the [[Numidia]]n 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.<ref name="ce attribution">{{catholic|title=Pope Innocent I|volume=8|year=1910|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08011a.htm |last=Kirsch|first=Johann Peter|access-date=15 September 2017|inline=1}}</ref> In addition he acted as metropolitan over the bishops of Italia Suburbicaria.<ref name="ce">{{Cite Catholic Encyclopedia|title=Pope Innocent I|volume=8|year=1910|url=http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/08011a.htm |last=Kirsch|first=Johann Peter|access-date=15 September 2017}}</ref><ref>{{citation|last=Dunn|first=Geoffrey|date=March 2013|title=Innocent I's Letter to the Bishops of Apulia|journal=Journal of Early Christian Studies|publisher=Johns Hopkins University Press|volume=21|issue=1|pages=27–41|issn=1086-3184|doi=10.1353/earl.2013.0000|s2cid=170672101|url=http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/journal_of_early_christian_studies/v021/21.1.dunn.pdf}}</ref>

The historian Zosimus, in his ''Historia Nova'', suggests that during the [[Sack of Rome (410)|sack of Rome in 410]] by [[Alaric 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.<ref name="ce"/>

Among Innocent I's letters is one to Jerome and another to [[John II, Bishop of Jerusalem]], regarding annoyances to which the former had been subjected by the Pelagians at [[Bethlehem]]. 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 by [[Pope Gregory XVI]] in correspondence with the French cleric [[Félicité de La Mennais]] in 1833.<ref>Pope Gregory XVI, [https://www.vatican.va/content/gregorius-xvi/it/documents/epistola-quod-de-tua-28-dicembre-1833.html Epistola: Quod de Tua] (in Italian), published by the Holy See on 28 December 1833, accessed on 17 January 2025</ref> 

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.<ref>''Calendarium Romanum'' (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 1969), p. 132; ''Martyrologium Romanum'' (Libreria Editrice Vaticana, 2001 {{ISBN|978-88-209-7210-3}})</ref> His successor was [[Pope Zosimus|Zosimus]].

In 405, Pope Innocent sent a list of the sacred books to a Gallic bishop, [[Exsuperius of Toulouse]],<ref name=Exsuperius>{{cite web| url = http://www.bible-researcher.com/innocent.html| title = Text and translation of the list}}</ref> identical with [[Canon of Trent|that of Trent]] (which took place more than 1000 years later),<ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=ZZYTAQAAQBAJ&pg=PA67 Matthew J. Ramage, ''Dark Passages of the Bible'' (CUA Press 2013] {{ISBN|978-0-81322156-4}}), p. 67</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=4SuRX3APsukC&pg=PA149 Lee Martin McDonald, ''Formation of the Bible'' (Hendrickson Publishers 2012] {{ISBN|978-1-59856838-7}}), p. 149</ref><ref>[https://books.google.com/books?id=aE7EyQ_HQAMC&pg=PA119 John L. Mckenzie, ''The Dictionary of the Bible'' (Simon and Schuster 1995] {{ISBN|978-0-68481913-6}}), p. 119</ref> 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 the [[Epistle to the Hebrews]].<ref name=Exsuperius/> Previously in 367, [[Athanasius of Alexandria]] had circulated the 39th [[Easter Letter]] mentioning the list of Scripture, both Old and New Testament, which he referred to as "canonized".