[5] However, an early document known as the "Laurentian Fragment" claims that Symmachus obtained the decision by paying bribes,[6] while deacon Magnus Felix Ennodius of Milan later wrote that 400 solidi were distributed amongst influential personages, whom it would be indiscreet to name.

[8] The synod also ordained that any cleric who sought to gain votes for a successor to the papacy during the lifetime of the pope, or who called conferences and held consultations for that purpose, should be deposed and excommunicated.

Laurentius was brought back to Rome by his supporters, but a sizeable group of the clergy, including most of the most senior clerics, withdrew from communion with him.

[14] Presided over by the other Italian metropolitans, Peter II of Ravenna, Laurentius of Milan, and Marcellianus of Aquileia, the synod opened in the Basilica of Santa Maria (Maggiore).

The session quickly deadlocked over the presence of a visiting bishop, Peter of Altina, who had been sent by Theoderic as Apostolic Visitor, at the request of Senators Festus and Probinus, the opponents of Symmachus.

On 27 August the King wrote to the bishops that he was sending two of the Majores Domus nostrae, Gudila and Bedeulphus, to see to it that the synod assembled in safety and without fear.

First the accusers introduced a document which included a clause stating that the king already knew Symmachus was guilty, and thus the synod should assume guilt, hear the evidence, then pass sentence.

More momentous was an attack by a mob on Pope Symmachus' party as he set out to make his appearance at the Synod: many of his supporters were injured and several—including the priests Gordianus and Dignissimus—killed.

[20] 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.

[22] 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.

"[26] Pope Symmachus provided money and clothing to the Catholic bishops of Africa and Sardinia who had been exiled by the rulers of the Arian Vandals.