碑銘詩 第 6 章

A COPY OF THE SYNOD OF NINETY-THREE BISHOPS HELD AT ROME, FROM AN IMPERIAL RESCRIPT. A NOTICE. Sarazanius received this from Theodoret and presented it in his own translation; I, however, use the Latin edition of Holstenius, as the original splendour of Damasus, as I said in chapter 5. But as to why among Sozomen and Theodoret it is addressed to the Illyrians, while in Holstenius it is addressed to the bishops established throughout the East, see chapter 7. For the rest, the manuscript codex from which it is taken, transferred from the Bobbio library into the Vatican library by Scipio, cardinal of St. Susanna and librarian, was inspected long before Holstenius, and Fr. Ludovicus Capellas had promised to publish it, in his later dissertation on the succession of the Roman bishops, chapter 5; it is also found in the Vallicellian codex 23, p.

107, copied from an old Tridentine manuscript, brought, that is, to that city of Trent at the time of the council, in a book. THE LETTER. Damasus, Valerianus, Vitalianus, Aufidius, Pacianus, Victor, Priscus, Innocentius, Abundius, Theodulus, and the rest who assembled in the city of Rome to hear the case of Auxentius and to set forth the faith, to the Catholic bishops established throughout the East, greeting in the Lord. We are indeed confident that Your Holiness, grounded in the instruction of the Apostles, holds that faith and imparts it to your peoples, a faith which in no respect dissents from the institutions of our forefathers. For it is not fitting that the priests of God should think otherwise, whose part it is to instruct the rest.

But from the report of our brethren of Gaul and of Venetia we have learned that certain men, not from zeal for heresy (for so great an evil cannot fall upon the prelates of God), but from ignorance or from a certain simplicity, being inflamed by perverse interpretations, do not sufficiently discern which opinion of our fathers ought rather to be held, since diverse counsels are pressed upon their ears. In short, they declare that Auxentius of Milan was condemned chiefly for this cause. It is therefore fitting that all the teachers of the law throughout the Roman world should hold the same view concerning the law, and not violate the Lord's faith by divergent teachings.

For when of old the poison of heretics began to creep in, as it has now again begun, and especially when the blasphemy of the Arians had begun to sprout, our forefathers, three hundred and eighteen bishops, together with most holy bishops sent from the city of Rome, having held a council at Nicaea, set up this wall against the diabolical weapons, and by this antidote repelled the deadly draughts: namely, that one ought to believe the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit to be of one Godhead, of one form, of one substance, judging him who thinks otherwise to be a stranger to our fellowship. This saving definition certain men afterward attempted, by other treatises, to pervert and to violate.

But even at the very outset it was corrected by those same men who were being compelled to retract it at Ariminum, so that they confessed that something had been stolen from them by another disputation, for this reason, that they had not understood that the opinion of the fathers had been formed at Nicaea against the contrary view. For no prejudice could arise from the number of those who assembled at Ariminum, since it is established that neither the Roman bishop, whose opinion before all others ought to have been sought, nor Vincentius, who for so many years preserved the priesthood unblemished, nor others of this sort, gave any consent to such decrees:

especially since, as we have said, those very same men who seemed to have yielded under pressure protested by better counsel that it displeased them. Whence Your Sincerity perceives that this faith alone, which at Nicaea was founded on the authority of the Apostles, is to be held with perpetual firmness; in this faith the Orientals who acknowledge themselves Catholic, and the Westerners, glory together with us; and we believe it cannot be far off that those who think otherwise, although by this very effort they may be cast out from our communion, may yet have their peoples, freed from their errors, take breath again. For how shall they be able to correct the errors of the peoples, if error has beset themselves?

Let therefore the judgment of Your Charity also be in harmony with all the priests of God; and as we well believe that you are fixed and firmly established in it, so we too ought, by the reciprocal letters of Your Holiness, to approve that we together with you think rightly. I, Sabinus, deacon of Milan and legate, gave this from the original. OR, THE EXPOSITION OF THE FAITH SET FORTH IN THE ROMAN SYNOD UNDER POPE DAMASUS AND TRANSMITTED TO THE EAST. A NOTICE. These two fragments belong to other synods under Damasus, as I have already said. Coustant also saw this, and the distinguished Father Joseph Mansi, in his Supplement to the Councils, vol. I, p. 234; but we do not agree as to the time of those synods, nor as to the manner of reckoning it.

For the synod which I reckon the very first of all, and judge to have been convened in the year 369, he, with Pagi, supposes to have been gathered in 372. Next, the one which I, from this twofold fragment, hold to be double—one held in 374, the other in 376 or the following year—he considers to be a single one, and says that these very fragments pertain to it, convened in 377. But although the authority of that most learned man is very great with me, as it ought to be, I have nevertheless judged that nothing of what I had already written should be changed.

For since the Orientals, to whom the letters written by those Roman councils had already been brought, were unable—in those dire and turbulent times under Valens—to convene their own synods, as soon as it was permitted upon his death, they gathered themselves together, namely in the year 379, and read all those synodal letters in a crowded assembly, embraced the dogmas defined in them, and inserted into the acts of that council those things which seemed necessary, excerpted from them (see chapter 14); and this is the reason why, although those same fragments were written at different times, I have not thought them ought to be separated. LIKEWISE FROM PART OF THE DECREE. I. By that grace, brethren, that Jericho, which is the figure of worldly pleasures, fell with a great crash and was destroyed, and does not rise again;

because with one mouth we declare the Godhead to be of one power, of one majesty, of one divinity, of one essence (ousia): so that, while we affirm an inseparable power, we yet assert that there are three persons, who neither return into themselves nor are diminished, as very many blaspheme, but ever abide; and that there are not certain grades of power and disparate times of origin; nor is the Son merely uttered forth, so as to deny him generation; nor imperfect, so that anything of the nature of the Father, or of the fullness of the Godhead, was lacking to his person; nor is the Son unlike in operation, nor unlike in power, nor in all things unlike; nor does he subsist from any other source, but is born of God, not false from the true God, but true God begotten of true God, true light of true light;

lest he be thought diminished or different: because the Only-begotten possesses the splendour of the eternal light, since by the order of nature there is neither light without splendour, nor can splendour exist without light: he is also the image of the Father, so that whoever has seen him has also seen the Father. The same Son, for the grace of our redemption, came forth from the Virgin, that perfect man might be born for the perfect man who had sinned. Therefore, brethren, let us affirm that the Son of God took to himself also a perfect man; and let us confess the Holy Spirit also to be uncreated, and of one majesty, one essence (ousia), one power with God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. For he who was sent forth in order to create is not deserving of the injury of being called a creature, as the holy prophet has established, saying:

Send forth thy Spirit, and they shall be created; then another likewise has set down: The divine Spirit which made me; who is joined together in the work of creation and in the remission of sins. This, most beloved brethren, is our faith; whoever follows it is a partaker with us. A body of varied colour deforms its members. To these we give communion, since they approve our opinion in all things. Far be it that the pure faith be patched together with various colours. We admonish, moreover, that this also is to be guarded against: that the canonical order be not neglected in the ordinations of priests or clerics, or that communion be too readily imparted to its transgressors, and that incentives to sin in other matters be furnished. These things, then, had to be made known from our judgment.

For the rest, as concerns the removal of the injuries done to Your Charity, neither does our brother Dorotheus the presbyter unfold them—he passes over everything in lively fashion—nor have our efforts been lacking, as he himself is witness. LIKEWISE FROM PART OF THE DECREE. This indeed we marvel at, that certain men are said to be among us who, although they seem to have a pious understanding concerning the Trinity, yet, ignorant of the powers and the Scriptures, do not think rightly concerning the sacrament of our salvation. For they assert and say that our Lord and Saviour took from the Virgin Mary an imperfect man, that is, a man without a mind. Alas! how great will be their nearness to the Arians in such a notion! They say that an imperfect divinity is in the Son of God:

these men falsely declare an imperfect humanity in the Son of Man. But if indeed an imperfect man was assumed, then the gift of God is imperfect, our salvation is imperfect; because the whole man was not saved. And where then will be that saying of the Lord, The Son of Man came to save what was wholly lost? that is, in soul and in body, in mind and in the whole substance of his nature. If therefore the whole man had perished, it was necessary that what had perished should be saved. But if he was saved without a mind, then, against the faith of the Gospel, it will be found that not the whole of what had perished was saved: since in another place the Saviour himself says: Be angry with me, because I have saved the whole man.

What of this, that the sum of the chief sin itself and of the whole ruin consists in the mind of man? For first, if the mind of man, by which good and evil are chosen, had not perished, he would not die. How then could it be presumed that what is known to have sinned before all else ought least of all to be saved in the end? But we, who know ourselves to be saved whole and perfect, according to the profession of the Catholic Church, profess that perfect God assumed a perfect man. Wherefore take pains that, by the understanding of sound doctrine, the minds also of those may be saved who as yet do not believe that the mind is saved. LIKEWISE FROM PART OF THE DECREE.

That we have no resources at hand whereby our exertions might bring you even a little refreshment: although from this, most blessed ones, you may take great consolation, if, recognizing the integrity of our faith, you glory that you accord with us in one mind; and, as is fitting, presume fully and abundantly that we are solicitous for you as members. For while holding the faith of the Council of Nicaea inviolable in all things, without dissimulation of words or corrupt sense, we in no way separate the Holy Spirit; but, perfect in all things—in power, honour, majesty, deity—we join him together with the Father and the Son:

and thus we are confident that the fullness of God the Word—not uttered forth but begotten, neither remaining in the Father so as not to be, but subsisting from eternity to eternity, perfect—assumed and saved a perfect, that is, an entire man. Here ends this letter, or the exposition of the Roman synod held under Pope Damasus and transmitted to the East; in which the whole Eastern Church, a synod having been held at Antioch, believing with concordant faith, and all thus consenting to the same faith above expounded, confirm it each with his own subscription. Meletius, bishop of Antioch: I consent to all things written above, thus believing and thinking; and if anyone thinks otherwise than these things, let him be anathema.

Eusebius, bishop of Samosata: I consent to all things written above, thus believing and thinking; and if anyone thinks otherwise than these things, let him be anathema. Pelagius, bishop of Laodicea: I consent to all things written above, thus thinking and believing; and if anyone thinks otherwise than these things, let him be anathema. Zeno, bishop of Tyre: as above I believe and have subscribed. Eulogius, bishop of Edessa: likewise I believe and have subscribed. Bematius of the city of Mallus: likewise I believe and have subscribed. Diodorus, bishop of Tarsus: as above, and I have subscribed. Likewise also another 146 Oriental bishops subscribed, whose subscription is today kept in the original in the archives of the Roman Church. Here ends the Roman and Antiochene synod.

OF DAMASUS, POPE OF THE CITY OF ROME, TO PAULINUS, BISHOP OF THE CITY OF ANTIOCH. A NOTICE. Why I have separated this from the other letter of Damasus to Paulinus—contrary to what Holstenius, Quesnel, and Constant did—since I have already said it, I shall not say again. Holstenius, however, determined nothing on the matter, but published it as he saw it transcribed in his copy: Quesnel, on the other hand, took the Holstenian copy, though disordered and confused, as his rule, and was the first of all to judge that both should be printed together, as it were one joined to the other.

For this, besides the authority of the Holstenian copy and of his own, he brings forward as the chief reason: that since Damasus writes to Paulinus that he has sent him a faith, he must have meant to indicate a faith entirely different from that which is contained in the same letter, that is, one separated from that letter itself; but what other faith can we here understand besides that which is immediately appended to the same letter? Yet how flimsy this reasoning is, the very reading of the letter openly proves:

for since it expresses those very dogmas to which he orders Vitalis and his flock to subscribe, and since therefore nothing at all is lacking in it for the full overthrow of the Apollinarian heresy—of which alone the matter then treated—there is no need that we should say another formula was attached to it, which was by no means necessary and besides seemed altogether foreign to that cause. And I shall seek no other witness of this opinion than Damasus himself, who, after having set forth in that same letter all the conditions on which Vitalis and others could be received into communion, finally says that those who should subscribe to this letter without any ambiguity were to be received:

hence it is most plainly established, unless I am mistaken, that there were no others either attached by him or desired, besides those which he had set forth in the same letter. I have also collated for this question the manuscript codices, and two older than the rest: the one of the Dionysian collection, by the leave of the then most religious and most learned abbot, now Besozzi, cardinal penitentiary of the Holy Roman Church, from the monastery of the Holy Cross in the Sessorian field, marked no. 225; the other written in the Vallicellian library in the age of Nicholas I, marked A. V. What I have detected from them is twofold: first, that this letter concerning Vitalis is altogether solitary, separated, that is, from the other, which is called the Confession of Damasus:

for the former codex contains this letter alone out of all the letters of Damasus, which is then followed by the decretal of Siricius to Himerius; but the Vallicellian codex first reports the anathematisms of the same under this title: A Confession of the Catholic Faith, which Pope Damasus sent to Paulinus, bishop of Antioch; then, in another and later place, it recites this letter which treats of Vitalis under this inscription:

Here begins the rescript of Pope Damasus, at the request of Jerome, to Paulinus the bishop; and other codices like to these could be brought forward. The other thing which I noticed from the same is this, that each codex is fuller than the printed books, namely with that entire passage in which the Lord-Man, of whom Rufinus makes mention, is set forth, which is lacking in the editions. These codices, therefore, I have followed, and besides them Isidore Mercator, Baronius, and Sarazanius, and I have published this letter as separated from that which is called the Confession of Damasus, or the Rule of Faith: but I was moved to this besides by other reasons, which, since I have brought them forward in chapter

10 and 15, where there was occasion to treat of the occasion and time of their writing, I shall not here repeat, intending to add some others in the notes. To my most beloved brother Paulinus, Damasus. Through my son Vitalis I had sent letters to you, leaving everything to your will and judgment; and through Petronius the presbyter I had briefly indicated that I was already at the moment of his departure somewhat disturbed in part. Wherefore, lest either a scruple should remain with you, and the approval of your caution should delay those perhaps willing to be joined to the Church, we have sent a statement of faith, not so much to you, who share the communion of the same faith, as to those who, subscribing to it, shall have wished to be joined to you, that is, to us through you, most beloved brother.

Wherefore, if my aforesaid son Vitalis and those who are with him should wish to be joined to you, they ought first to subscribe to that exposition of the faith which was confirmed at Nicaea by the pious will of the fathers. Then, since no one can apply medicine to future wounds, that heresy must be rooted out which is said afterward to have sprouted in the East, that is: it must be confessed that the very Wisdom, the Word, the Son of God, took to himself a human body, soul, and mind, that is, the entire Adam, and, to speak more expressly, our whole old man, without sin. For just as, confessing that he took a human body, we do not at once attribute to him also the human passions of vices:

so also, when we say that he assumed both a man's soul and mind, we do not at once say that he was also subject to the sin of human thoughts. But if anyone shall say that the Word served in the Lord's flesh in place of the human mind, this man the Catholic Church anathematizes; and also those who confess two sons in the Saviour, that is, one before the Incarnation and another after the assumption of flesh from the Virgin, and do not confess the same Son of God both before and afterward. Whoever shall wish to subscribe to this letter—provided, however, that he has first subscribed to the ecclesiastical canons, which you know very well, and to the Nicene faith—him you ought to receive without any ambiguity.

Not that you could not have proposed these very things which we write for the reception of converts; but that our consent may give you a free example in the receiving of them. THE CONFESSION OF THE CATHOLIC FAITH WHICH POPE DAMASUS SENT TO PAULINUS, BISHOP OF ANTIOCH. A NOTICE. This is the other letter of Damasus among those which are extant to Paulinus of Antioch, the reasons for separating which from the former I have already brought forward. Yet it pleases me to note this again: namely, that Theodoret appended it, rendered into Greek, to his History, and reported it as separated from the former, book V, chapter 11. But why did he not recite it whole, if Damasus had so joined the two that the one was an inseparable part of the other?

Or did he perhaps judge that what had been written concerning the name of Vitalis could in no way pertain to the history of the Church? Who would even suspect this? Or rather did he think it should be spared? But he by no means dissembles his heresy in book V, chapter 4. It remains, therefore, that it came to him already truncated and cut apart. But to whose advantage was this mangling and corruption of an entire letter? especially in so great a nearness of time and an abundance of copies? Let it therefore be ratified and certain, that it was not one letter cut into two parts, but two letters of Damasus to Paulinus, distinct from each other.

Moreover, that this one especially, of which we are treating, was perpetually famous and received with the highest applause, we gather from the writers who mention it and hold it for law: namely Celestine and Vigilius, Ambrose, the ancient author of the Sermon on the Seasons 429—once attributed to Augustine, now relegated to the appendix, vol. V, Serm. 233, where several of its anathematisms are recited—Arnobius the Younger, Isidore in the Codex of canons of the Spanish Church, Paulinus of Aquileia, the Council of Troyes, and others thereafter; and among the Greeks, to pass over the more recent, besides Theodoret, the Council of Constantinople, as I at least suppose, and Nazianzen.

Since therefore it was often transcribed for that reason, it could not but be that there is now a varied reading of the manuscript codices, whether by chance, or by rashness, and according to each man's bent; of which, even besides those things which I observed, Peter Constant brought forward more than one example from the codices which he, with his exquisite diligence, inspected. His copy, therefore, I have followed in this edition, both because it comes closer to the Greek transmitted to us by Theodoret, and because it comes closer to the Quesnelian, which two streams are, in my judgment, the nearest to the source of all, and easily for that reason the purer: for if anyone should wish to consider and compare all the manuscript codices, since their number is vast,

he must of necessity either sustain a prodigious and unnecessary labour, or be uncertain in his judgment as to which of them he should choose; although I have sometimes used the Vallicellian codex, because it was at hand. After the Council of Nicaea, which council was assembled at Rome by the Catholic bishops, they added concerning the Holy Spirit. And because afterward that error crept in, that certain men with sacrilegious mouth dared to say that the Holy Spirit was made through the Son: I. We anathematize those who do not proclaim with full liberty that the Holy Spirit is of one power and substance with the Father and the Son. II.

We also anathematize those who follow the error of Sabellius, saying that the Father is the same as the Son. III. We anathematize Arius and Eunomius, who with equal impiety, though in different language, assert that the Son and the Holy Spirit are creatures. IV. We anathematize the Macedonians, who, coming from the stock of Arius, have changed not their perfidy but their name. V. We anathematize Photinus, who, renewing the heresy of Ebion, confesses the Lord Jesus Christ to be only from Mary. VI. We anathematize those who assert two Sons, one before the ages, and the other after the assumption of flesh from the Virgin. VII.

We anathematize those who say that, in place of a rational and intelligent human soul, the Word of God dwelt in human flesh, whereas the Son himself is the Word of God, and was not in his body in place of a rational and intelligent soul, but assumed and saved our soul, that is, a rational soul, without sin. VIII. We anathematize those who contend that the Word, the Son of God, is by extension or contraction, and separated from the Father, insubstantial, and destined to have an end. IX. Those also who have migrated from churches to churches we hold to be alien from our communion for so long as they shall not have returned to those cities in which they were first established.

But if, when one man migrates elsewhere, another is ordained in the place of one yet living, let him who has deserted his own city lack the dignity of the priesthood for so long as his successor rests in peace. X. If anyone shall not say that the Son is always, and the Holy Spirit always, let him be anathema. XI. If anyone shall not say that the Son is born of the Father, that is, of his divine substance, let him be anathema. XII. If anyone shall not say that the Word of the Lord, the Son of God, is God, just as God his Father, and can do all things, and knows all things, and is equal to the Father, let him be anathema. XIII. If anyone shall say that, when the Son of God was set in the flesh, while he was on earth he was not in the heavens with the Father, let him be anathema. XIV.

If anyone shall say that in the passion of the cross it was the Son of God, God, who sustained the pain, and not the flesh with the soul, with which he had clothed himself in the form of a servant which he had taken to himself, as the Scripture says, let him be anathema. XV. If anyone shall not say that in the flesh which he assumed he sits at the right hand of the Father, in which he is to come to judge the living and the dead, let him be anathema. XVI. If anyone shall not say that the Holy Spirit is truly and properly of the Father, just as the Son is of the divine substance, and true God, let him be anathema. XVII. If anyone shall not say that the Holy Spirit can do all things, knows all things, and is everywhere, just as the Son and the Father, let him be anathema. XVIII. If anyone shall say that the Holy Spirit is a creature, or made through the Son, let him be anathema. XIX.

If anyone shall not say that the Father made all things through the Son and the Holy Spirit, that is, things visible and invisible, let him be anathema. XX. If anyone shall not say that of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit there is one divinity, power, majesty, might, one glory, dominion, one kingdom, and one will and truth, let him be anathema. XXI. If anyone shall not say that the three persons of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit are true, equal, ever-living, containing all things visible and invisible, powerful over all things, judging all things, vivifying all things, making all things, saving all things that are to be saved, let him be anathema. XXII.

If anyone shall not say that the Holy Spirit is to be adored by every creature, just as the Son and the Father, let him be anathema. XXIII. If anyone has thought well concerning the Father and the Son, but has not held rightly concerning the Holy Spirit, he is a heretic: because all heretics who think evilly concerning the Son of God and the Holy Spirit are found to be in the perfidy of the Jews and of the Gentiles. XXIV. But if anyone, saying God the Father, and God his Son, and God the Holy Spirit, should allow them to be called Gods, and not God on account of the one divinity and power which we believe and know to be of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit—but withdrawing the Son or the Holy Spirit, should so consider God the Father alone to be, that he is called, or believed, one God:

let him be anathema. For the name of gods has been imposed and bestowed by God even upon angels and upon all saints; but concerning the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, on account of the one equal divinity, not the name of gods, but of God, is shown and indicated to us: so that we may believe that we are baptized only in the Father, and in the Son, and in the Holy Spirit, and not in the names of archangels or of angels, as heretics, or Jews, or even the senseless Gentiles do. This, then, is the salvation of Christians: that, believing in the Trinity, that is, in the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, we believe without doubt in it one true and only divinity, and power, and majesty, and the same substance, so that we may be worthy to attain eternal life.

OF DAMASUS, POPE, TO ACHOLIUS AND THE OTHER BISHOPS OF MACEDONIA. The ordination of Maximus the Cynic having been condemned, Damasus exhorts the Macedonians that, in the synod soon to be celebrated at Constantinople, a bishop worthy of this city be set over it; and that the decrees of the forefathers against the translation of bishops be observed. To his most beloved brethren Acholius, Eurydicus, Severus, Uranius, Philippus, and John, Damasus. Having read through the letters of your charity, most dear brethren, I have been sufficiently saddened;

At that time, when by God's favor the heretics had departed cast off, certain men coming from Egypt wished, in a petition contrary to the rule of ecclesiastical discipline, to call to the priesthood in the city of Constantinople a Cynic who was a stranger to our profession. What therefore was the ardor of his mind, how foul the presumption, we cannot know. Hence it is plain that restless men, when they presume much, are ignorant of what they ought to do. They had not read the Apostle writing: 'But if a man nourish his hair, it is a shame to him.' They knew not that the garb of the philosophers does not befit the Christian manner of life.

They had not heard the Apostle warning, lest through philosophy and vain seduction—which they had long believed in—they be despoiled of the garment of sound faith. How great then this haste was I know not, that, since this garb was displeasing to Christians, all that was unbecoming should be done so insolently. But what else ought the wickedness of these most worthless men to have done, than that, expelled from the Church, within alien walls they should ordain a restless man going about, so far as can be understood? But these things are understood to be the contrivances of the enemy, who supplies the heretics with material for slander. Thus was fulfilled what the Gospel saying had spoken: 'Every plant,' he says, 'which my heavenly Father has not planted shall be rooted up.'

This is what I have often admonished your charity, that nothing be done inconsiderately. Does not your sincerity know that in worldly wars the watch of the soldiers keeps guard more vigilantly there, where the enemy presses? If therefore we must always resist with episcopal arms, we ought to act anxiously, lest—which God forbid—we leave the flock of Christ to rapacious wolves. Philosophy, the friend of worldly wisdom, is the enemy of faith, a certain poison of hope, a most grievous war against charity. What agreement then has the temple of God with idols? What participation has Christ with Belial? But perhaps some will say: He was a Christian. To this man, who walks in the garb of an idol, the name of Christian is never to be ascribed:

because it cannot be that one who from this desires to please the gentiles can have with us any fellowship of an entire faith. Not without reason, however, did those who had come from Egypt, marked by all, depart, condemning their own error: so that, his hair being afterward cut off—he who had not rightly been ordained—he both sustained the loss of his head, and could not be what he had aspired to. Rightly therefore was it done, that what had been ill begun should be destroyed by public authority. For the rest I admonish your holiness, that since I have learned a council has been appointed to be held at Constantinople, let your sincerity take care how the bishop of the aforesaid city be chosen, one who has no reproach:

so that, God being favorable, when the complete peace of the catholic priests has been confirmed, no dissensions may thereafter arise in the Church: that, by God's bestowal, what we have long since desired, a perpetual peace may be able to endure with the Catholic priests. This moreover I admonish your charity, that you not permit anyone, contrary to the statutes of our elders, to be transferred from one city to another, and to desert the people committed to him, and to pass over to another people through ambition. For then contentions arise, then schisms take on a graver force;

since both those who have lost their priest cannot be without grief of mind, and those who have received another city's bishop, even if they rejoice, understand it will be invidious to themselves, to live under another's priest. OF POPE DAMASUS TO ACHOLIUS BISHOP OF THESSALONICA. Rusticus, the Silentiary of Gratian, is commended, and that which was enjoined in the former letter concerning the ordination of Maximus and the choosing of another is confirmed. To his most beloved brother Acholius, Damasus. To the merit of my son Rusticus nothing further can be added, honorable lord brother.

For since he has the prerogative of his office, that he is Silentiary of our son the Augustus Gratian, to this is added that he has obtained the grace of God at Rome, so that, fortified, he wished to come, sent to those parts. Hence therefore in all things, for the advantage of your honorableness, may you deign to receive him as your own pledge: so that, God being favorable, established in his pilgrimage, he may know that he is both loved and honored by the fellow-priests of God. To the letters of your holiness I have fully replied, that it did not please me that they wished to ordain at Constantinople as bishop a certain Maximus coming from Egypt, long-haired, and above all one whose garb, according to the Apostle, was shameful.

More rightly therefore will your holiness act, if you take care that for the rest a catholic be appointed, with whom, God being favorable, a perpetual peace may be able to endure with us. DAMASUS TO THE BISHOPS GOVERNING THE EAST. That your charity renders due reverence to the apostolic see, most honored sons, is indeed to yourselves also the greatest honor. For although in the holy Church—in which the holy Apostle, seated, taught us in what manner the helms of it which we have undertaken are to be handled—the first parts are deferred to us, yet we confess that we are far inferior to that grade of dignity.

But for this cause we labor in every way, that to the glory of his blessedness, if by any means we can, we may at length at some time arrive. I would have you know, brethren, that we have long since renounced that profane Timothy, the disciple of the heretic Apollinaris, together with his impious dogma; and for this cause we believe that his remnants will hereafter have no weight at all.

But if that ancient serpent, struck once and again, should revive to the increase of his own punishment, and, cast out of the Church, should not cease to drag to ruin even now some of the faithful by his death-bearing poisons, with which he undertakes to tempt them, do you shun this cunning of his as a kind of plague, and remember diligently both the faith handed down by the apostles, and especially this which was set forth in writing by the holy Fathers in the council of Nicaea: and, fixing your step firmly therein, stand immovable; and henceforth do not endure that either your clergy or your laity should hear empty discourses and obscure questionings.

Now not once have we set forth a formula, that he who professes himself a Christian should hold that which was handed down by the apostles; for Paul speaks thus by divine inspiration: 'If anyone shall preach to you a gospel besides that which you have received, let him be anathema.' For Christ the Son of God, our Lord, by his passion restored the fullest salvation to the human race, that he might free the whole man, entangled in sins, from all sin. If anyone shall say that this one had either an imperfect humanity or an imperfect divinity, he, filled with the spirit of the devil, shows himself to be a son of Gehenna.

Therefore why is it that you again require of me the deposition of Timothy, who even here, by the judgment of the apostolic see, with Peter also bishop of Alexandria being present, was deposed together with his master Apollinaris—who likewise on the day of judgment shall pay the due penalties and torments? But if he who has exchanged the true hope in Christ together with the confession of faith, as though retaining a certain hope of salvation, should draw over to his own opinion certain others who are more easily swayed, let those know that they shall therefore perish in like manner, since they have set themselves to resist the canon of the Church. May God, most honored sons, keep you safe and sound.

That your charity renders to the apostolic see the reverence that is due, most honored sons, you furnish the most to yourselves. For although especially in the holy Church—in which the holy Apostle, seated, taught how it befits us to steer the helms which we have undertaken—nevertheless we confess ourselves to be less than that honor. But for this reason in whatever manner we are zealous, if by any means we might be able to attain to the glory of his blessedness. Know therefore that the old Timothy the profane, the disciple of Apollinaris the heretic, together with his impious dogma we have deposed; and we by no means believe that his relics will have any strength for the time to come.

But if that old serpent, having been struck once and a second time, revives unto his own punishment—he who is outside the Church, who does not cease testing with his death-dealing drugs certain of the faithful—shun this as a kind of corruption, yet remembering the apostolic faith, and most of all this which at Nicaea was set forth in writing by the fathers; with a firm step strongly remain immovable in the faith, and do not after this endure that your clergy or laity should hear idle talk and contentious obscure questionings.

For once we gave a pattern, that he who knows himself to be a Christian should keep that which was handed down by the apostles, since holy Paul says: 'If anyone preaches a gospel to you besides that which you received, let him be anathema.' For Christ the Son of God, our Lord, gave salvation to the race of men through his own passion, that he might free the whole man, entangled in sins, from every sin. If anyone should say that this one had less of humanity or of divinity, he, filled with the spirit of the devil, shows himself to be a son of Gehenna.

Why then do you again seek from me the deposition of Timothy, who here also, by the judgment of the apostolic see, with Peter the bishop of the city of the Alexandrians being present, was deposed together with his teacher Apollinaris, and on the day of judgment shall endure the due penalties and torments? But if he persuades certain more easily swayed men, as one having some hope—he who exchanged the true hope which is in Christ by his confession—with him likewise shall perish whoever should wish to contend against the canon of the Church. May God keep you in health, most honored sons. OF POPE DAMASUS TO JEROME. He asks to have clearly explained to him what Hosanna sounds among the Hebrews.

To his most beloved son Jerome, Damasus the bishop, greeting in the Lord. When I read the commentaries written in Greek and Latin speech upon the interpretation of the Gospels by our men, that is, by orthodox men, both of old and recently, concerning that which is read, 'Hosanna to the son of David,' they offer things not only diverse but even contrary to one another. It belongs to your love that, with that burning vigor of your genius, opinions being cut away and ambiguities stamped down, you write with living understanding what it has among the Hebrews; so that concerning this, as concerning many things, our cares may render you thanks in Christ Jesus. OF POPE DAMASUS TO JEROME. With how great avidity he reads over Jerome's writings. Why he does not read the books of Lactantius with equal zeal.

That Jerome may solve in a few words the questions put to him. To his most beloved son Jerome, Damasus. You, sleeping, and now for a long time rather reading than writing, I have determined to rouse by little questions sent to you: not that you ought not also to read; for by this, as by daily food, speech is nourished and grows fat; but because the fruit of reading is this, that you write. Therefore, since yesterday too, the courier being sent back to me, you said you now had no letters, except those which you once dictated in the desert, and which I read and copied out with all avidity; and since you of your own accord promised that, if I wished, you could dictate some by the stolen labors of the nights, I gladly accept from him who offers what I had wished to ask, even if you had refused.

Nor indeed do I think any converse of our disputation will be more worthy than if we discourse among ourselves of the Scriptures; that is, that I should ask, you should answer. Than which life I think nothing in this light more pleasant; by which food of the soul all honeys are surpassed. 'How sweet,' says the Prophet, 'are your words to my throat, above honey to my mouth.' For since for this reason, as the chief orator says, we differ from the beasts, that we are able to speak, with what praise is he worthy who in that very thing surpasses the rest, wherein men excel the beasts? Gird yourself therefore, and expound to me the things set down below, keeping moderation on either side, that neither the propositions lack a solution, nor the letter lack brevity.

For I confess to you, that those books of Lactantius which you had long ago given me I do not read willingly, because both very many of his letters extend to a thousand spaces of verses, and they rarely dispute about our doctrine; whence it comes about that the length both breeds weariness in the reader, and, if any be brief, they are more apt for the schoolmen than for us, treating of meters and of the situation of regions and of philosophers. I. What does it mean that it is written in Genesis: 'Everyone who shall slay Cain shall pay seven vengeances'? II. If God made all things very good, why did he command Noah concerning clean and unclean animals, since nothing unclean can be good? And in the New Testament, after the vision which had been shown to Peter, who said:

'Far be it from me, Lord, for what is common and unclean has never entered into my mouth,' the voice from heaven answered: 'What God has cleansed, call you not common'? III. Why does God speak to Abraham that in the fourth generation the children of Israel would return from Egypt, and afterward Moses writes: 'But in the fifth generation the children of Israel went out from the land of Egypt'? which, unless it be explained, seems to be contrary. IV. Why did Abraham receive the sign of his faith in circumcision? V. Why did Isaac, a just man and dear to God, bless not him whom he wished, but him whom he wished not, being deceived by error?