| Honorius, | ZOSIMUS, Fortieth Bishop of Rome. | Theodosius the younger. |
Year of Christ 417.
Zosimus, the Successor of Innocent, was, according to the Bibliothecarian, a Greek by Nation, and the Son of one Abraham[[1475]]; which is all we know of him before his Election. He was elected and ordained Six Days after the Death of his Predecessor, that is, on the 18th of March 417[[N60]].
[N60]. Paschasinus, Bishop of Lilybæum, observes, at the Year 443. that in 417. when Zosimus was Bishop of Rome, Easter, which ought to have been kept on the 22d of April, was, by a Mistake, kept on the 25th of March[[1]]; so that on the 25th of March, Zosimus was in Possession of the See; and consequently must have been chosen and ordained on the 18th of that Month, the only Sunday in 417. between the 12th of March, when Innocent died, and the 25th. For in those Days Bishops were commonly ordained on Sundays, and it is very certain, that Zosimus was ordained on that Day, since he pretended the Ordination of Two Bishops, whom he deposed, to be null, because they had been ordained on another Day[[2]]. Theodoret makes Boniface the immediate Successor of Innocent[[3]]. But all the other Writers, without Exception, place Zosimus between Innocent and Boniface.
[1]. Leo, t. 1. p. 413.
[2]. Conc. t. 2. p. 1569.
[3]. Theod. l. 5. p. 751.