FELIX
30
FELIX
containing an exposition of the doctrine of the Trinity,
was at a later date interpolated in the interest of his
sect by a follower of ApoUinaris (see Apollinarian-
ism). This spurious document was submitted to the
Council of Ephesus in 431 (Mansi, "Coll. cone", IV,
118S; cf. Harnack, "Geschichte der altchrLstlichen
Literatur", I, 659 sqq.; Bardenhewer, "Geschichte
der altkirchlichen Literatur", II, 582 sq.). The frag-
ment preserved in the Acts of the council lays special
emphasis on the unity and identity of the Son of God
and the Son of Man in Christ. The same fragment
gives Pope Felix as a martjT; but this detail, which
occurs again in the biography of the pope in the " Liber
Pontificalis" (ed. Duchesne, I, 58), is unsupported by
any authentic earlier evidence and is manifestly due to
a confusion of names. According to the notice in the
"Liber Pontificalis", Felix erected a basilica on the
Via Aiu-elia; the same source also adds that he was
biu'ied there (" Hie fecit basilicam in Via Aurelia, ubi
et sepultus est"). The latter detail is evidently an
error, for the fourth century Roman calendar of feasts
says that Pope Felix was interred in the Catacomb of
St. Callistus on the Via Appia ("III Kal. Januarii,
Felicis in Callisti", it reads in the "Depositio episco-
porum"). The statement of the "Liber Pontificalis"
concerning the pope's martyrdom results obviously
from a confusion with a Roman martyr of the same
name buried on the Via Aurelia, and over whose grave
a church was built. In the Roman " Feriale" or calen-
dar of feasts, referred to above, the name of Felix
occurs in the list of Roman bishops (Depositio episco-
porum), and not in that of martyrs. The notice in the
" Liber Pontificalis" ascribes to this pope a decree that
Masses should be celebrated on the tombs of martyrs
("Hie constituit supra memorias mart.yrum missas
celebrare"). The author of this entry was evidently
alluding to the custom of celebrating the Holy Sacri-
fice privately, at the altars near or over the tombs of
the martyrs in the crypts of the catacombs {missa ad
corpus), while the solemn celebration of the Sacred
Mysteries always took place in the basilicas built over
the catacombs. This practice, still in force at the end
of the fourth century (Prudentius, " Peristephanon ",
XI, vv. 171 sqq.), dates apparently from the period
when the great cemeterial basilicas were built in Rome,
and owes its origin to the solemn commemoration ser-
vices of martyrs, held at their tombs on the anniver-
sary of their burial, as early as the third century.
Felix probably issued no such decree, but the compiler
of the " Liber Pontificalis" attributed it to him because
he made no departure from the custom in force in his
time. According to the above-mentioned detail of the
"Depositio episcoporum ", Felix was interred in the
catacomb of St. Callistus, 30 December. In the pres-
ent Roman Martyrology his name occurs 30 May, the
date given in the " Liber Pontificalis" as that of his
death (/// Kal. Jun.); it Ls probably an error which
could easily occur through a transcriber writing Jun.
for Jan.
Liher Pontificalis, ed. Duchesne, T, introd. cxxv; text, 158, with the notes; De Rossi, Roma sotterranea, II, 98-104; Acta iS'.S., May, VII, 236-37; Langen. Geschichte der romlschen Kirche (Bonn, 1881), I, 365-69; Allard, Hisloire des persecu- tions, III, 243 sqq.
J. P. KiRSCH.
Felix II, Pope (more properly Antipope), 355-58; d. 22 Nov., 365. In 355 Pope Liberius was banished to Beroca in Thrace by the Emperor Constantius be- cause he upheld tenaciously the Nicene definition of faith and refused to condemn St. Atlianasius of Alex- andria (see LiBERins). The Roman clergy pledged itself in solcnm conclave not to acknowledge any other Bisliop of Rome while Liberius was alive ("Marcellini ft Fausti Libellus precum", no. 1: "Qu;e gosta sunt iiilcr liiberium et Fclicem episcopos" in "Collectio Avcllana", ed. Gunthcr; Ilieronymus, "Chronicon", ad an. Abr. 2365). The emperor, however, who was
supplanting the exiled Catholic bishops with bishops
of Arian tendencies, exerted himself to install a new
Bishop of Rome in place of the banished Liberius.
He invited to Milan Felix, archdeacon of the Roman
Church; on the latter's arrival, Acacius of Ciesarea suc-
ceeded in inducing him to accept the office from which
Liberius had been forcibly expelled, and to be conse-
crated by Acacius and two other Arian bishops. The
majority of the Roman clergy acknowledged the val-
idity of his consecration, but the laity would have
nothing to do with him and remained true to the ban-
ished but lawful pope.
When Constantius visited Rome in May, 357, the people demanded the recall of their rightful bishop Liberius, who, in fact, retm-ned soon after signing the third formula of Sirmium. The bishops, assembled in that city of Lower Pannonia, wrote to Felix and the Roman clergy advising them to receive Liberius in all charity and to put aside their dissensions; it was added that Liberius and Felix should together govern the Church of Rome. The people received their legiti- mate pope with great enthusiasm, but a great commo- tion arose against Felix, who was finally driven from the city. Soon after, he attempted, with the help of his adherents, to occupy the Basilica Julii (Santa Maria in Trastevere) , but was finally banished in per- petuity by unanimous vote of the Senate and the peo- ple. He retired to the neighbouring Porto, where he lived quietly till his death. Liberius permitted the members of the Roman clergy, including the adher- ents of Felix, to retain their positions. Later legend confounded the relative positions of Felix and Li- berius. In the apocryphal " Acta Felicis " and " Acta Liberii", as well as in the "Liber pontificalis", Felix was portrayed as a saint and confessor of the true Faith. This distortion of the true facts originated most probably through confusion of this FelLx with another Felix, a Roman martyr of an earlier date.
According to the "Liber Pontificalis", which may be registering here a reliable tradition, Felix built a church on the Via Aurelia. It is well known that on this road was buried a Roman martyr, Felix ; hence it seems not improbable that apropos of both there arose a confusion (see Felix I) through which the real story of the antipope was lost and he obtained in local Roman history the status of a saint and a confessor. As such he appears in the Roman Martyrology on 29 July.
Liber Pontificalis, ed. Duchesne, I, Introd., exxiii sqq.; 211 and notes; Acta SS., July, VII, 43-50; Analecta Boll. (1883), II, 322-24; Bibliotheca haglographica latina, I, 430; Gesta Liberii, ed. CousTANT in Epistoltc Romanorum Pontificum, I (Paris, 1721), appendix, 89-94; Lettere in difesa dell' epitafio di san Felice II (Rome, 1790): P.\OLl, Dissertazinni su san Felice II papa e martyre (Rome, 1790) ; Dollinger, Papstfabeln des Mittel- alters (2nd ed.), 126-45; Langen, Geschichte der romischen Kirche, I, 471 sqq.; Duchesne, Histoire ancienne de I'Eglise, II (Paris, 1907), 290 sqq., 452 sqq.
J. P. IClRSCH.
Felix III,- Saint, Pope (483-492), b. of a Roman senatorial family and said to have been an ancestor of .Saint Gregory the Great. Nothing certain is known of Felix, till he'succeeded St. Simpricius in the Chair of Peter (483). At that time the Church was still in the midst of her long conflict with the Eutychian heresy. In the preceding year, the Emperor Zeno, at the sug- gestion of Acacius, the perfidious Patriarch of Constan- tinople, had issued an edict known as the Henoticon or Act of LTnion, in which he declared that no symbol of faith, other than that of Nice, with the additions of 381, should be received. The edict was intended as a bond of reconciliation between Catholics and Euty- chians, but it caused greater conflicts than ever, and split the Church of the East into three or four parties. As the Catholics everywhere spurned the edict, the emperor had thiven the Patriarchs of Antioch and Alexandria from their sees. Peter the Tanner, a noto- rious heretic, had again intruded himself into the Seeof
