Editing Pope Symmachus (section)

===Palmaris Synod IV===
At this point, the synod petitioned king Theodoric once again, asking permission to dissolve the meeting and return home. Theodoric replied, in a letter dated 1 October, that they must see the matter to a conclusion. So the bishops assembled once again on 23 October 502 at a place known as Palma,{{sfn|Hefele|1895|p=67|ps=: ''a porticu Beati Petri Apostoli, quae appellatur ad Palmaria''}} and after reviewing the events of the previous two sessions decided that since the pope was the successor of [[Saint Peter|Peter the Apostle]], they could not pass judgment on him, and left the matter to God to decide. All who had abandoned communion with him were urged to reconcile with him, and that any clergy who celebrated mass in Rome without his consent in the future should be punished as a schismatic. The resolutions were signed by 76 bishops, led by Laurentius of Milan and Peter of Ravenna.{{sfnm|Richards|1979|1p=73|2a1=Mansi|2a2=Labbe|2a3=Martin|2y=1762|2pp=261–269}}

==== End of papacy ====
Despite the outcome of the synod, Laurentius returned to Rome, and for the next four years, according to the "Laurentian Fragment", he held its churches and ruled as pope with the support of the senator Festus.{{sfn|Davis|2000|p=98}} The struggle between the two factions was carried out on two fronts. One was through mob violence committed by supporters of each religious camp, and it is vividly described in the ''Liber Pontificalis''.{{sfn|Richards|1979|p=75}} The other was through diplomacy, which produced a sheaf of forged documents, the so-called "[[Symmachian forgeries]]", of judgments in ecclesiastical law to support Symmachus' claim that as pope he could not be called to account.{{sfn|Richards|1979|p=81f}} The forgeries are speculated to have emerged during the Roman Synod III and served to provide the conclusion provided at Palmaris.{{sfn|Townsend|1933|pp=172–174}} A more productive achievement on the diplomatic front was to convince king Theodoric to intervene, conducted chiefly by two non-Roman supporters, the Milanese deacon Ennodius and the exiled deacon [[Antipope Dioscorus|Dioscorus]]. At last Theodoric withdrew his support of Laurentius in 506, instructing Festus to hand over the Roman churches to Symmachus.{{sfn|Richards|1979|p=76}}

In 513, [[Caesarius of Arles|Caesarius, bishop of Arles]], visited Symmachus while being detained in Italy. This meeting led to Caesarius' receiving a ''[[pallium]]''. Based on this introduction, Caesarius later wrote to Symmachus for help with establishing his authority, which Symmachus eagerly gave, according to William Klingshirn, "to gather outside support for his primacy."{{sfn|Klingshirn|1994|pp=30, 86f|ps=; Several letters between the two survive, which Klingshirn has translated, pp. 88–94}}

Pope Symmachus provided money and clothing to the Catholic bishops of [[Africa]] and [[Sardinia]] who had been exiled by the rulers of the [[Arianism|Arian]] [[Vandals]]. He also ransomed prisoners from upper Italy, and gave them gifts of aid.{{sfn|Davis|2000|p=46}}

Despite Laurentius being classed as an [[antipope]], it is his portrait that continues to hang in the papal gallery in the [[Basilica of Saint Paul Outside the Walls|Church of St. Paul's]], not that of Symmachus.{{sfn|Demacopoulos|2013|p=115}}