Epigrams 7 part 1/3

I had resolved to set aside the apocryphal pieces; but since some fruit and use can at times come from the Epistles, and the copyist begged it of me, I have allowed that they be appended to the genuine little works of Damasus. For those which are inscribed to Stephen and the bishops of Mauritania, to Prosper and to the bishops of Numidia, to Aurelius of Carthage, and to the bishops of Italy, have already been shown to have issued from the workshop of Isidore Mercator—to pass over others—by Labbeus in the Collection of Councils, and by Coustant in the Preface to the Epistles of the Roman Pontiffs, no. 145.

But as for those addressed to Jerome, Erasmus rightly complains that a man could be so impudent as to dare to attribute them to Damasus; concerning which matter one may consult Schelestrate, dissertation 2, chapter 3. Yet I could not be brought to retain the decrees which are circulated under his name; for since Coustant, after Sarazani and Crabbe, diligently gathered all of them once again into that which he entitled 'A Censure of the Decrees ascribed to Damasus,' and adduced indeed the weightiest reasons on account of which they falsely lay claim to the name and authority of that pontiff, the Reader, who would sport with me, will much better bestow his effort in consulting that learned man. To his most reverend brother and fellow-bishop Aurelius, Damasus.

We have received the writings of your Holiness with due veneration, in which we have recognized (as was fitting) that your veneration and prudence thirst after the Apostolic institutions. Wherefore we have sent certain of those things which you asked; and certain things still we desire to send, when you shall have written again. Yet we have omitted nothing—from the time of blessed Peter, prince of the apostles, of our predecessors—of whose statutes we would not send you something, under sure seals, through Ammonius the presbyter and Felix the deacon.

Which we desire you both to keep, and which we charge you to preach and publish to others, that by all they may be guarded inviolate with due veneration, and inviolately preserved, and by all future times diligently venerated; because willful violators of the canons are gravely judged by the holy Fathers, and condemned by the Holy Spirit (by whose prompting and gift they were dictated); since they seem, not unfittingly, to blaspheme the Holy Spirit, who against these same holy canons—not compelled by necessity, but willingly (as was set down above)—either insolently do something, or presume to speak, or of their own accord consent to those who wish to do it.

For such presumption is manifestly one kind of those who blaspheme the Holy Spirit, since (as was already foretasted) it acts against him by whose impulse and grace these same holy canons were issued. But diabolical wickedness is wont to deceive very many subtly, and so very often deludes the imprudence of certain men through a likeness of piety, that it persuades them to embrace harmful things for salutary ones. Therefore the norm of the holy canons, which were founded by the Spirit of God and consecrated by the reverence of the whole world, is to be faithfully known by us and diligently handled, lest in any way we transgress the statutes of the holy Fathers without unavoidable necessity—which God forbid;

but, most faithfully walking through them, may we deserve, together with those who founded them by divine prompting, by their merits, the Lord aiding, to have the glory of reward and the full measure of labor. These things therefore being duly deliberated, and brought by deliberation to the notice of your Churches, it is most fitting that you obey the rules of these same holy canons, lest the sloth of certain men make you in anything go against them; but may your wise and sound doctrine, which desires that you please God in all things, show you to be coheirs and joint-partakers with them of the heavenly kingdom, faithful fellow-workers in your sees. Given on the sixteenth of the kalends of June, Gratian and Cyricius, most renowned men, being consuls.

Damasus, servant of the servants of God, and by his grace bishop of the holy catholic Church of the city of Rome, to Stephen archbishop of the council of Mauritania, and to all the bishops of the African province. Having read the letters of your fraternity, first I give thanks that I have merited to enjoy the blessing of such great brothers; then that I have found you solicitous concerning the brethren, and bearing with them the cross of the Lord, who says: 'He who wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me,' and the rest that pertains to this same purport.

Therefore, since at present, in this timely consultation concerning what has been done, your beatitude, moved with apostolic bowels of mercy, has exhorted us to expend the protection of the brethren by apostolic authority, and to relieve their injuries—while it is plain that you say the same things, compassionately, with the Apostle: 'Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is made to stumble, and I burn not?'—taking pains lest any of those entrusted to you be torn or seized by savage beasts: for which cause it behooves us, according to your prudent admonition, but rather according to the Lord's divine precept—we who are over his house, that is, the universal catholic Church, and have undertaken the episcopal ministry—to watch solicitously;

lest concerning his sacred gifts—that is, apostolic men, and successors of the apostles, and ministers—anyone, while we sleep, be able to be suppressed, and unjustly, and without our being consulted, be condemned. I. You know, dearest brethren, that the apostolic see has been constituted as the firmament fixed and immovable by God, and the most lucid title of his priests, that is, of all the bishops, and the summit of the Churches. For you are (as the divine Word truly proclaims) Peter, and upon your firmament the columns of the Church, who are understood to be the bishops, have been confirmed; and to you I have committed the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and have promulgated the power to bind and to loose the things which are in heaven and which are on earth.

You stand forth as prince and teacher, over profane men and over my members, and most of all over my disciples, of the orthodox and unstained faith, in whose stead today, by the grace of God, we discharge the legation for Christ, and all the prelates of this holy see have borne his stead, bear it, and shall bear it. Therefore I would charge that all the things which you have made known are not lawful, did I not know you to be so fully instructed that you doubt not that all the matters about which you consult are unlawful. II. For to examine bishops, and the highest causes of ecclesiastical affairs, is lawful to the metropolitan together with all his fellow-provincials—so that none of them be lacking, and all agree in the affairs of each:

but to give definitive sentence upon the highest of their complaints and of ecclesiastical causes, or to condemn bishops, without the authority of this holy see, is by no means lawful; which all ought to appeal to, if it be necessary, and to be supported by its aid. For (as you know) that a synod be held without its authority is not catholic; nor can a bishop be definitively condemned except in a lawful synod, gathered in its time by apostolic summons; nor are any councils ever read as ratified which are not undergirded by apostolic authority. III.

But the accusers of bishops, and the witnesses concerning whom you inquired, ought to be without any infamy, or suspicion, or manifest stain, and fully instructed in the true faith, and such as the divine authority commands to be chosen for the priesthood; since priests (as ancient authority hands down) cannot be accused, nor can those bear witness against them who neither ought nor are able to be advanced to the same honor. IV. For the summons to a synod (according to the decrees of the Fathers) must be made canonically to him who is impeached, both by his own presence and by writings and apocrisiaries, through a fitting and canonical interval:

because, unless he shall have been canonically summoned in his time, and by canonical ordination, although he come to the assembly under any necessity, unless he be willing of his own accord, he shall by no means answer his ensnarers; since not even the laws of the world permit this to be done—how much more the divine. V. But concerning those ejected and despoiled of their goods, I can signify nothing more true to you than what the holy Fathers defined, and our predecessors corroborated by apostolic authority. For these things stand thus: the holy canons decreed that bishops ejected and despoiled of their goods should first receive back their own Churches, and that all their things be legally restored to them;

and afterward, if anyone should wish to accuse them, they ordained that he do so at equal peril, decreeing that the judges of bishops should be bishops rightly wise and justly willing—after a time, and at length, when those ejected have recovered their strength and enjoy their possessions with full power, and with friends and wise men, servants of God, advising, meeting together in the Church, where there should be witnesses for each of those who seem to have been oppressed. And the rest that pertains to this order, which—avoiding prolixity—we have not inserted here, because we believe these things suffice. But if anyone be not content with these, let him read them, and he shall be satisfied. For we know that unarmed men cannot rightly fight with armed ones;

so neither can those who have been ejected or despoiled of their goods rightly litigate with those who stand in their own rank and enjoy their friends and goods. Nor do the laws of the world permit these things to be done to secular men; but they order the ejected, or oppressed, or despoiled first to be restored with all their things, and afterward, in their time, as their law contains, command them to come to the pleadings; nor do they permit the appellant to be barred by any custody of prison. For they teach in part (as you know) earthly things, which are heavenly. VI. But accusers and accusations which the laws of the world do not admit are by no means to be admitted in the causes of these men, because the catholic Church defends everything that is irreproachable.

And it is not doubted that this was defined by the elders on account of the snares of depraved men. For it befits the priests of the Lord to handle the causes of the brethren piously, and to attend to them with reverence, and to set their judgments above sacrifices; not insolently, nor with tyrannical domination, as is reported of certain men, but to perform all things charitably for God and brotherly love; and let no one presume to inflict upon another what, according to the Lord's voice, he does not wish to be done to himself; and 'in what measure you have measured, it shall be measured again to you.' But the things which we have received by the preaching of the Apostles and the instruction of the Fathers we ought always to hold, lest we seem to forge anything new, or to aim at the harm of the brethren;

but let us bear one another's burdens, that, according to the Apostle, we may be able to fulfill the law of the Lord. VII. For a fitting time ought to be foreseen, when the cause of each accused person may most rightly be brought forth into the midst, so that its gravity and its consonance against the decrees of the Fathers, or the confession of the synods, may by no means be found to be betrayed. To which let all attend in an orderly manner, that they may reasonably respond to it in all things, and manifestly show that they justly will it. But let no one be introduced in person; rather let accusers and the accused be heard by equal reason, according to what the order of the proceedings requires.

But let the accusers and the judges not be the same; rather, by themselves the accusers, by themselves the judges, by themselves the witnesses, by themselves the accused, each one orderly in his own rank. For let the formal indictment always first be made, that the calumniator may receive the like retaliation; because before the indictment no one ought to be judged or condemned, since the laws of the world also retain these same things. Concerning all which let true equity always be observed, so that they may be able, through the truth of the proceedings, to obtain the recompense of accusation, of judgment, and of testimony. For it is written: 'The Lord will abominate lying lips, and the deceitful witness who utters lies, and him who sows scandals and quarrels among brethren'—himself admonishing and saying:

'You shall not do calumny to your neighbor, nor oppress him by force. You shall not do what is iniquitous, nor judge unjustly. You shall not have regard for the person of the poor, nor honor the countenance of the powerful. Judge justly toward your neighbor. And what you do not wish to be done to you, do not to another'; and the rest. And most of all, holding the Apostolic precept, it behooves us to attend to ourselves and to the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has placed us as bishops, to rule the Church of God, which he has purchased by his own blood. And again: 'To beware of the wolves, to beware of the evil workers, who do perverse things and speak adverse things,' that they may ever detract from the disciples of the Lord and be able to defame them; whom it behooves you and all the priests of the Lord, with the utmost zeal, to correct:

For there is no worse evil than that citizens should envy their fellow-citizens, and that priests or clerics should lay snares for priests or bishops, as the voice of Truth also testifies: 'He that toucheth you, toucheth the apple of mine eye'; and, 'whoso shall scandalize one of these little ones, it were better for him that a millstone be hanged about his neck, and that he be drowned in the depth of the sea.' And likewise: 'Blessed is he who shall not be scandalized in me.' Without doubt that man is scandalized in God who scandalizes God's bishop or priest. And many like things, which are not adduced here, lest the Epistle become too prolix.

You ought also, by way of admonition, to instruct your aforesaid neighbours that they withdraw from such deeds, and quickly correct the things they have unlawfully done against the brethren named above. And let them heal with full satisfaction those whom they have injured without our consultation, and quickly reconcile them to themselves, if they are unwilling to undergo the censure of the Apostolic See. For if perchance anything had arisen in their case or against them, our examination ought to have been awaited, so that by our authority (as the privilege has ever been granted to this See) they might be condemned, or be upheld by our aid. For they ought not at their own pleasure to invade our jurisdiction, apart from the ordinance commanded by the Apostolic See.

Henceforth let all priests abstain from such men—that is, those who refuse to be cut off, by the censure and from the priestly honour, of the Apostolic Rock (upon which, as has been foretold, Christ built the universal Church, to which, as was mentioned a little above, the highest judgments of bishops and the greater causes have been reserved and established). VIII. For to bishops accused in criminal cases a delay of six months, or even longer if necessary, must be granted; since no one trained in secular disciplines is ignorant that this is permitted even to laymen—how much more to priests, who are not doubted to be superior to them.

It is also held, sanctioned in the decrees of the holy Fathers, that it is not canonical to judge or condemn any of the priests before he has his accusers present and canonically examined, and receives the place of defending himself—that is, ecclesiastical delays for washing away the crimes and offences laid against him. IX. Let not the accusation in the first stage of inquiry be made outside the proper province, without apostolic command, to which in all causes reverence must be preserved; for the ancient rule of the Fathers teaches this also, with which the imperial statutes likewise agree. The examination of crimes, they say, is to be conducted there where the crime was committed. For elsewhere the accused of crimes is forbidden to be heard. And in another place it is enjoined in the canons:

Whatsoever matters are to be concluded in their own places where they arose—and other such things and the like—yet saving in all things the apostolic authority, so that nothing in these be settled before it is known to have pleased that See, by which all ought to be supported. And if anything grave and intolerable befall them, its censure must always be awaited. For let no one, driven by insolence or by the goad of his own thought (and, as we have often learned has been done), presume to disparage or accuse any of the priests; for an injury to them pertains to Christ, in whose stead they perform an embassy for the people redeemed by Christ's blood.

For their cause, since it is the cause of God, we know is to be reserved to His judgment who is able to kill the body and to cast the soul into hell; who says: 'Vengeance is mine, and I will repay.' Before whom the conscience is naked, from whom hidden things are not concealed. All also are to be instructed that, since through us Christ has thundered to them, it belongs not to the sheep but to the shepherd to foresee the snares of the wolves. Therefore the blessed apostle Paul admonishes that judgment be not rashly and lightly presumed concerning those matters about which no one can judge more truly or better than God: 'But thou,' he says, 'why dost thou judge thy brother? or why dost thou despise him? For we shall all stand before the judgment-seat of Christ. For it is written:'

'As I live, saith the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to the Lord.' So then every one of us shall render account for himself to God. In this therefore let no one usurp to himself a rash daring, so as to do anything beyond what pertains to concord, whereby the unity of the Church may be torn apart. Let no one therefore lightly assent in the disparagement or judgment or condemnation of the brethren, and most of all of the priests, who are nearer to God and who with their own mouth confect the Body of Christ; for on this account comes the wrath of God upon the sons of discord, who persecute Christ in His members. Be not, brethren, be not made partakers of them, nor communicate in the sins of such men, nor in their unfruitful words.

Rather refute the assemblies of such men, who strive to stretch their tongues, like a bow, against the brethren. Defend therefore the brethren, and admonish all, that they may arm themselves against the persecutors of the brethren. But we are confident concerning you of better things and things nearer to salvation; for neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor Powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor might, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature—as the teacher of the nations teaches—shall be able to separate us from the charity of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is perfected most of all in the priests and in His other members.

Cast not away therefore your confidence, which hath great recompense. For behold, the Judge standeth before the door, gladly promising crowns to those who for His sake bring help to the brethren, and succour the oppressed, and labour together in charity. But if anyone withdraw himself, he shall not please God, but falls, because he has not lifted up the falling, but has withered away. Let us not be of withdrawal unto oppression, but of support unto gain and the supplement of the brethren. Wherefore take up the armour of God, that ye may be able to resist all who thus presume; and put on the breastplate of justice, your feet shod unto the preparation of the Gospel of peace;

in all things taking up the shield of faith, wherewith ye may quench all the fiery darts of the most wicked one. And take the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the spirit, which is the Word of God, being rooted and grounded through all prayer and supplication, that ye may all say the same thing, and that there be no schisms among you, dividing the good and whole body of the Church into tortuous novelties. The apostle therefore admonishes that we judge not one another rashly any more. For he judges rashly who condemns a bishop without the authority of the Apostolic See, since (as was mentioned a little above) this privilege is specially reserved to it. 'But judge this rather,' he says, 'that ye put not a stumbling-block or scandal before a brother.'

For openly, by these and by countless other testimonies of the decrees, it is manifest to all that a bishop ought not to be condemned—even though his reputation be scrutinized—until the judgment concerning him of our apostolic authority, that is, of Peter the prince of the apostles, be known; inasmuch as he alone and before all was entrusted, and merited to receive from the King of kings, Christ God, the keys of the kingdom of heaven, to open to the faithful and well-disposed men toward this same our Lord, and to shut against the unfaithful and ill-willed, and against the assailers or harmers of His priests and of the holy Church redeemed by His precious blood. Which indeed He also asked us to do. Nor is it that anything new is now commanded:

but that which, through the sloth of certain men, whether knowingly or negligently, is transgressed, may henceforth be observed by all; so that those things which have been established by apostolic and the Fathers' tradition may ever be held under fear by irrefragable authority. For it is written in the second Epistle to the Thessalonians, and to Timothy, the apostle admonishing: 'Stand, and hold the traditions which ye have learned, whether by word or by epistle.' Likewise elsewhere through the prophet: 'I looked also,' as blessed Isaiah thundered, 'that they should do judgment; but they wrought iniquity, and not justice, but an outcry, troubling all the godly.' And let them know this, that the judgment of God is according to truth upon those who do such things:

although they despise the riches of God's goodness, and of His forbearance, and of His patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads them to repentance; but according to their hardness and impenitent heart, they treasure up to themselves wrath in the day of wrath and of the revelation of the just judgment of God, who will render to every man according to his works. And elsewhere it is written: 'I am the Lord your God; ye shall not do iniquity in judgment. Thou shalt not respect the person of a man, neither marvel at the countenance of the mighty. From every unjust word thou shalt withdraw. The innocent and the just thou shalt not oppress, neither slay.' Without doubt he does iniquity in judgment who claims for himself those things which it is not lawful for him to claim.

Therefore let no one presume to usurp without its consultation those things which have been granted to this holy See, unless he wishes to be judged unworthy of ecclesiastical honour, as a despiser. And so it behoves to drive off the negligent—but in such a way that the guilty be not strengthened—and that the good resist the wicked or the plotters against the brethren, lest, oppressed by the torpor of sloth, they be held liable for their silence. And so he who can oppose and disturb the perverse, and does not, is nothing else than a favourer of their impiety. Nor is he free from the scruple of secret fellowship who ceases to oppose a manifest crime. But be ye perfect and entire in the same mind, and established in the same knowledge:

that, directing your ways thereby unmovably into the same, ye may meet all the oppressed, because the Lord is entrusted to you, coming to whom as to a living stone—rejected indeed by men because of the impiety of such men, but chosen and honoured by God—upon whom ye, as living stones, are built up into a spiritual Lord, into a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices to Him for an odour of sweetness. For a sacrifice most pleasing to the Lord is to succour all the oppressed; how much more those of whom He says: 'He that heareth you heareth me; and he that despiseth you despiseth me,' and the rest. Indeed he pours out prosperous things to the Lord who drives off adversities from the afflicted and oppressed.

But now also, brethren, we commend you to God and to the word of His grace, who is able to perfect and to give an inheritance among all the sanctified.

And may the God of peace and of consolation Himself grant you to be of the same mind one toward another, and in Him always and in all things, that with one accord, with one mouth and one heart, ye may honour Him in concord and in the aid of the brethren—He who is able to confirm all and to console according to His Gospel, and according to the revelation of the mystery kept silent in eternal times, but now made manifest through the holy Scriptures and the doctrines of the orthodox Fathers, according to the precept of the eternal God, unto the obedience of faith, in all things known to us, to the only wise God, our Lord Jesus Christ, with whom to the Father and to the Holy Spirit be glory, honour, and dominion and power, world without end. Amen.

May the Lord keep you safe and sound always, most beloved brethren. Given on the eighth day before the Kalends of November, in the consulship of the most illustrious men Flavianus and Stilicho. Concerning Chorepiscopi, and who they are, or whether they are anything, or nothing. To the venerable lords and brethren, Prosper, bishop of the first see of Numidia, to Leo, Reparatus, Alexander, Benedict, Rufus, and all the rest who everywhere stand fast in the right, holy, and apostolic faith, the orthodox bishops—Damasus the bishop.

Although, dearest brethren, the decrees of the Fathers are known to you, yet we cannot but marvel at your diligence concerning the institutions of our forebears, in that you do not cease to refer to us, as to the head (as has ever been the custom), all those things that can admit of any doubt, so that thence you may receive answers, whence you received instruction and the norm of right living. Whence also we recall that you are not unmindful of the canons, which command this very thing to be done—not as though anything of the rule of ecclesiastical knowledge were lacking to you, but that, supported by the authority of the Apostolic See, you may in nothing deviate from its rules.

Therefore, concerning the chorepiscopi, about whom you wished to consult us—what their ministry is, or what it is lawful for them to do, or what authority they have, or whether it is permitted that they be made or not, since we have heard that they are already prohibited; or what is to be done about those who are now found already ordained—we deem we can answer you nothing more certain than what we find decreed long ago by our predecessors: namely, that nothing whatever be reserved for them as a pardon save the deprivation of the sacred ministry which they unlawfully assumed; because they had been prohibited both by this holy See and by the bishops of the whole world. Too iniquitous, then, is their institution, too depraved: