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:
because that these should presume anything of the highest priestly ministry is devoid of all authority, and is found to be contrary to the sacred canons, and tends, by a proud and superfluous elation, to the disturbance of the whole Church; and whatever they have done in the aforesaid ministry of the highest priesthood is void and empty. That these same are the very ones who are sufficiently found to be presbyters: because they are found to have been instituted at first after the pattern and example of the Seventy. But because (thanks be to God) they are not now necessary, as in the primitive Church, on account of the diligence which they exercised toward the poor; and because they presumed unlawful things, and what they did was not done;
and therefore many, having lapsed into security, were frustrated and defrauded of the ecclesiastical ministry; and so both by this holy See, as we mentioned above, and by all the bishops of the whole world, they have been removed from pontifical offices. For (as has been related to us) certain of the bishops, for the sake of their own ease, did not fear to commit their flocks to them; and so that they might do unlawful and prohibited things, these same men usurp to themselves those things which are owed to bishops alone; and they themselves grow torpid in their own ease, and neglect the care committed to them by God, although the Lord says: 'The good shepherd layeth down his life for his sheep, and calleth them by name, and knoweth his own, and his own know him.' And the same:
'As the Father knoweth me, so I also know the Father, and I lay down my life for my sheep.' But what He says of the hireling you know well: that he sees the wolf coming, and leaveth the sheep, and fleeth, and the wolf seizeth and scattereth the sheep, and the rest. But by such men the care of the Church is neglected, and its state is disturbed. And therefore they have been prohibited, to such a degree that, if any of these be found, they are to fall from their proper grade. For those bishops who presume such things for themselves seem to me to be like harlots, who, as soon as they give birth, hand over their infants to other nurses to be reared, that they may the more quickly be able to satisfy their lust.
So also these men hand over their infants—that is, the peoples committed to them—to others to be reared, that they may satisfy their lusts—that is, that they may at their own pleasure gape after secular cares, and do more freely whatever seems good to each. For by such men souls are neglected, the sheep perish, diseases increase, heresies and schisms break forth, churches are destroyed, priests are corrupted, and the other evils ensue. Not thus did the Lord teach, nor did the Apostles institute; but let those who undertake the care themselves discharge it, and themselves present their own sheaves to the Lord. For He Himself diligently sought the lost sheep, He Himself found it, He Himself carried it back on His own shoulders, and taught us thoroughly to do the same.
If He Himself had so great a care for the sheep, He Himself taught, He Himself tended, He Himself healed, He Himself carried it back on His own shoulders, and loved it to such a degree that He even delivered up His own life for us (enduring many injuries, many reproaches, and many sufferings): what shall we, wretched and slothful, say, who neglect to expend care even for the sheep committed to us, and hand them over to others to be reared? These things, brethren, must needs be corrected; for he who labours more shall receive a greater reward. For we know that there were no more than two orders among the disciples of the Lord, that is, of the twelve Apostles and of the seventy Disciples: whence this third proceeded, we are utterly ignorant.
And what lacks reason must needs be uprooted. For that those are not bishops who have been ordained by fewer than three bishops is plain to all: since (as you well know) it has been prohibited by the holy Fathers that those who are ordained by one or by two bishops be not even named bishops. If they have not the name, how shall they have the office? For whatever they do among bishops, or concerning matters pertaining solely to them, must needs (as has already been touched upon above) become void: because what they have not, they can in no wise give:
especially since none of the seventy Disciples, whose likeness these men bore in the Church before they were prohibited (as was mentioned above), is read to have assumed anything of that which was specially owed to the Apostles and their successors. Nor in the law of the Lord, which is read to have been dictated to Moses by the Lord Himself, did the sons of Aaron presume anything of those things which were specially granted to the high priests, that is, to Moses and Aaron.
For no one doubts that Moses and Aaron alone, at the Lord's command, set up the altar in the Tabernacle of God; they alone anointed; they alone instituted the priests by sacred unction; and the other things which pertained to the high priesthood, of which enough is read in the divine Scriptures, they performed: since they were the priests of the most high Lord, as it is written of them: 'Moses and Aaron among His priests.'
So also now, since the shadow of the law has passed away and the light of the Gospel, by the grace of God, shines forth manifestly upon us, of those things which belong to the high priests, that is, the bishops, whose figure Moses and Aaron held, those who bear the form of the seventy Disciples (in whose type, namely, were the sons of Aaron) ought to presume nothing, just as neither did those touch anything of the ministry of the high priesthood. For that the chorepiscopi, before they were prohibited in the aforesaid tenor, were instituted after the pattern of the Seventy, the canon sufficiently makes manifest, where it says: 'The chorepiscopi also seem to be after the example and pattern of the Seventy'; and the rest. Nor does it seem to us that this should be passed over, which is elsewhere expressed in the canons:
'Those who in villages and country estates are named chorepiscopi, although they may have received the imposition of hands of bishops, and have been consecrated as bishops,' and the rest. Nor do I judge it said without reason, 'although they may have received the imposition of hands of bishops'; since the word 'of bishops' contains in itself a plural number, and among grammarians the genitive is plural: for it seems to me that then they were ordained, not by one, but by several;
because it would in no way say 'of bishops' if such ordination were performed by one, since 'of bishops' is said in the plural. But when it said 'chorepiscopus,' it surely meant a rural bishop to be understood; and if a rural one, what does he do in a city, since in one city two bishops are altogether prohibited from being? And if in a village and in a place where there were no bishops before—since even in a small city, or in a village, or a fortress, a bishop is prohibited from being made, and in absolutely all places where there were no bishops before, lest the authority and the name of bishop be cheapened, if they have been established—what, I ask, will they be? Behold, neither does the place agree with the ordination, nor the ordination with the place:
for if they received the imposition of hands of bishops, and were consecrated as bishops, where were they consecrated? At a village, because 'chōra' among the Greeks is a village. And how at a village, if it is not lawful for it to be done even in a fortress or a small city—I ask that you declare it; and if you cannot declare it (which, I know, by reason or full authority you by no means can), lay your finger on your mouth, and doubt not that they lack all authority: namely, because three things stand in the way, by which their action or institution is annulled. One, that they are wont to be ordained by one bishop, in which their ordination disagrees with the canons, which command that they be instituted through the hands of bishops.
Another, if they are ordained by several bishops, but either in a village, or in a fortress, or in a small city, or altogether not in the place prescribed where bishops ought justly to be made, or where there were not bishops of old—where the authority and name of bishop is cheapened—or if in a city with another bishop: since (as has been said) in one city two bishops ought not to coexist. The third, if they have been instituted absolutely (as we have heard concerning some), all which things altogether lack episcopal authority. And there still remains this, that their order has no authority in the divine Scriptures: because (as has been prescribed above) there are only two orders, the first in the Church, that is, of the Apostles and of the seventy Disciples.
Indeed, if they are not bishops—because for the aforesaid reasons they cannot be bishops—nor do they wish to be named presbyters, because they aspire to be more, and presume to attempt more than the seventy Disciples did (after whose pattern, as we touched upon a little above, these men, before they were prohibited, were instituted by certain foolish men who sought their own things and not the things of Christ Jesus), and presume to do unlawful and prohibited things; nor do they wish to be called that which they are—I ask that you plainly declare what they are: since they are either something or nothing. For it is plainly evident that they are not bishops. And if they are not bishops, and disdain to be presbyters, what will they be? Either they will be something altogether, or nothing:
because nothing can be, unless it has whence to be. And if it has not whence to be, or whence to derive its origin, it has neither authority nor can it stand aright, because it is empty, and must needs be destroyed and fall, since it is nothing and will be reckoned as nothing. But if they are none of those things which we have mentioned above, then it must needs be that they are nothing of those things which are owed to priests.
And therefore let them not be held in the priestly catalogue either, except only (as we mentioned at first) that, out of mercy, to those who shall have been willing humbly to bear this, and have aspired to nothing more, and shall have confirmed this very thing by a writing subscribed and corroborated by their own hand, this alone be granted: that they hold a place among the priests, and be content with the ministry of the presbyters, and be partakers only of the table of the Lord. But those who shall have been willing to aspire further, let them not retain even this, that they be priests, but let them be utterly deprived of all ecclesiastical honour.
But that it is not lawful for them to consecrate priests, nor deacons or subdeacons, nor virgins, nor to set up an altar, nor to anoint or consecrate, nor to dedicate churches, nor to confect chrism, nor to sign with chrism the foreheads of the baptized, nor publicly indeed in the Mass to reconcile anyone as a penitent, nor to send formed letters, nor to bless the people, nor to enter before the bishop into the baptistery or into the sacristy, nor in the bishop's presence to baptize or sign an infant, nor to reconcile a penitent without the command of his own bishop;
nor in his presence, unless he commands it, to confect the sacrament of the Body and Blood of Christ, nor in his presence to teach or greet the people, nor to exhort the congregation—all which things you have been taught, both from the foregoing and from other constitutions of the Fathers, or the sacred canons, to be owed to bishops alone. And if it is necessary for certain less knowing ones, they can be fully taught and instructed, so that through this both the distinction of grades and the height of dignity of the high priests may be demonstrated. Similarly let these things be held also concerning presbyters, that without the command of their own bishop they do nothing; for what is rare, this also seems to be the more beautiful. And if the name of the bishops is cheapened, the whole state of the Church is disturbed.
There is therefore in this matter a threefold guilt: both that they do prohibited things, and that the sacred ministry is polluted by the vileness of their participation, and that the rights of the bishops (as far as pertains to the rashness of unlawful usurpation) are dissolved. But that it belongs to the proper office of the Apostles alone and their successors to bestow the Holy Spirit, the book of the Acts of the Apostles teaches: especially since none of the seventy Disciples, whose likeness these men bear in the Church, is read to have bestowed the gift of the Holy Spirit through the imposition of hands (as has been said). These things, therefore, since they lack all reason, let none of the priests henceforth usurp or consent to, who is unwilling to be separated from our priestly college.
Nor let that which is extinguished by us, and (as has been said) has already been extinguished by our predecessors and the rest of the bishops of the whole world, be sown among any with dark roots; but let those things which are known to have sprouted ill be plucked up by the roots, lest any tares corrupt the Lord's harvest. For thus will the priests of the Lord yield abundant fruit, if those things which are wont to choke the springing crop are cut off at the root. Let it cease, then—let the presumption so many times prohibited and condemned cease; nor let the high priests imitate harlot women, who hand over their infants to others to be nursed because of the aforesaid pleasure:
but rather let them nourish them, let them render to their own Lord the fruit with interest, and present to Him the fruitful sheaves with glory. For if the Lord, amid His other cares for His sheep, touched lepers and cleansed them, why do we disdain to do the same? Or why do we ourselves, who have undertaken the pastoral office, hand over to others those who ought to be fed by us? Especially since the Lord said to Peter our master: 'If you love me, feed my sheep,' and much else like to these. For the blessing which the chorepiscopi used to give before their prohibition, by the imposition of hands, seems to us rather to inflict a wound than to bestow health. And those who did not possess the summit of the pontificate, how could they give what they did not possess?
since there was nothing in the giver which the other could receive. Or what man—even if we speak after the manner of men—can give what he does not have? Especially since, not being pontiffs, they could not give those things which are owed to pontiffs alone. And therefore they rather wounded the heads which they touched by the imposition of hands, since they were giving through some blessing things that had not been conferred upon themselves. And so whatever they presumed to do out of the aforesaid pontifical ministries was void, and profited nothing to those touched; but rather, according to the prophet, they conferred (if it is right to say it) a curse instead of a blessing.
Wherefore, through that unlawful imposition of hands, as we touched upon a little above, those who seemed to have received something had a wounded head. And where a wound has been inflicted, it is necessary to apply medicine, by which the fixed blemish may be healed: that is, it is necessary that whatever was done or conferred not legitimately, and is by no means approved, be repeated, if it is to be perfect. For how he can retain an honour who has received it from one who did not lawfully have the power to give it, I cannot discover: since he who did not possess the pontifical honour cannot bestow pontifical rights; nor could they claim for themselves that of which, by reason of the very thing which stood in their way, they were not capable.
Claiming therefore for ourselves in a special way the care of this examination, we so dispense mercy that, if perchance any such things have been committed, they may be corrected, lest it be permitted that such things be committed further, and lest any excuse arise from ignorance: because, just as the state of the Churches, ordered or adorned by salutary disposition, gives us cause for rejoicing, so it grieves us with no light sorrow whenever we learn of anything presumed or committed against the institutions of the canons or ecclesiastical discipline. And if we do not cut these things away with the vigilance we owe, we cannot excuse ourselves before Him who willed us to be watchmen;
if we do not guard His Church, which has been generally entrusted to us, so far as we are able, pure from such unlawful superstitions: because we are not otherwise one flock and one shepherd, unless, as the Apostle teaches, we all say the same thing: 'Let us be perfect in the same mind and in the same wisdom.' Nor shall we otherwise be true disciples of the Lord, unless—lest a root of bitterness springing up above (as, by your account, it now does) be able to do harm, or cause the episcopal ministry to grow cheap through their negligence, that is, through the negligence of all the priests who have been appointed by Him to root out evils and to plant better things—each one according to his strength hastens to uproot it:
and let him who is to render an account to the eternal Judge for his own sheep strive to cherish and rear them. If we desire to be disciples of the Lord, let us imitate His footsteps, so that it may be said of us: 'I am the good Shepherd, and I know my sheep, and I call them by name, and mine know me'; and the rest. And again, at the admonition of the Lord's voice's command, by which the most blessed apostle Peter was steeped through a threefold repetition of mystical sanctification, let him feed the sheep of Christ—he who loves Christ—diligently and with great care: since we are constrained by the love and reverence of that same holy See over which, through the abundance of divine grace, we preside;
so that, as far as we can, we may avoid the danger of so great a superstition, which (as has often been said) is propped up by no one's authority; lest the love of our blessed master Peter, the chief apostle, by which he testified that he was a lover of God, be found vain in us: since everyone who negligently feeds the Lord's flock so often commended to him is convicted of not loving the supreme Shepherd, nor of willing to become His disciple, whose examples he neglects to imitate. For a far greater grace is acquired if the solicitude of the shepherd offers to the Lord gain from the sheep committed to him. For we recall that even blessed Jacob, who had long served for his wives, said: 'Twenty years I was with you: your ewes and she-goats were not barren:'
'the rams of your flock I have not eaten, nor have I shown you what was caught by a beast. I made good every loss; and whatever perished by theft, you required of me; by day and night I was scorched by heat and by frost; sleep fled from my eyes.' If, then, he who feeds the sheep of Laban so labours and watches, with how great labour, and with how great watchings, ought he to apply himself who feeds the sheep of God! But in all these things let Him Himself instruct us, who gave His life for His sheep; and let Him help us, that He may grant us to carry back from those who have been committed to us a manifold fruit and an overflowing measure unto eternal joys.
And may so great a love of blessed Peter, the chief of the Apostles, kindle you, that in his sheepfold, to which all creatures have been handed over, you may hasten with the highest desire, by your holy zeal, to restore all those thus wandering and presuming upon unlawful and forbidden things: in such a way that the souls redeemed by the precious blood of Christ may not perish through their deception. It remains also that these men by no means entered in through the door, since they had no door through which to enter: because (as has been said) if they are not even bishops, and yet aspire to be more than presbyters, through what door will they enter, when only these two orders are read of in the Church, and no further door lies open to any pastoral office through which a shepherd may enter?
Hear, brethren, not me, but Truth Himself speaking: 'He who does not enter by the door into the sheepfold of the sheep, but climbs up some other way, he is a thief and a robber,' and the rest. Since likewise the excellent preacher says: 'No one can lay another foundation besides that which has been laid': since the aforesaid two foundations alone are found laid in the Church, whatever further is found laid upon these can in no way stand. And therefore, it is necessary that it be torn out together with all its foundations, and actions, and roots, in such a way that it can no longer sprout or germinate. Let not then, brethren, this oft-repeated discourse beget weariness in you and make you weary:
because it is of the utmost necessity that what is so often, as we have learned from you, unlawfully usurped, should be more frequently forbidden: and because truth, the more often it is shaken, shines forth the more into the light: and what is admonished by frequent repetition is the less usurped. For concerning these matters many things have already been said by our predecessors; by whom these very persons, just as now by us, so of old by them, were condemned and forbidden. Therefore, repeating it more often, we admonish all to shun such things, and to abstain from such practices—those who are unwilling, together with them, to become as rebels estranged from the priestly ministry. And this we shall at last be able to prove, if you strive to extirpate such persons and not to favour them:
and so hereafter the complaint about such a matter will cease, since whatever forbidden thing is so often usurped is done out of a zeal for insult. All these decretals, and the constitutions of all our predecessors, which have been promulgated concerning ecclesiastical orders and the disciplines of the canons, we command to be kept by you and by all the bishops, and by all priests generally, in such a way that if anyone offends against them, he shall know that pardon is henceforth denied him: because the truth would prevail, if falsehood displeased. And rightly does the cause look upon us, who ought to hold the supreme helm of the Church, if by silence we favour error. Given on the Kalends of June, Libius and Theodosius being consuls, men of most illustrious rank.
He commands that henceforth no one be judged by them through writings, but through a lawful accuser; and that all causes also to be judged be referred to the Apostolic See. To all the bishops established throughout the provinces of Italy, Damasus the bishop, greeting in the Lord. I had wished, most beloved, for the love of our college, that all the Lord's priests (as it was in the primitive Church) should be one heart and one soul, and should persist in one devotion, and that no one of the priests should be corrupted by the favour or dread of worldly men, or in any way depart from the way of truth. But because many things which can be corrected arise, and the guilt of offenders overcomes the mercy of God:
and therefore vengeance is suspended, so that correction may have a place. For it has been reported to the Apostolic See that you receive accusations of the brethren in writing, without a lawful accuser. This we forbid, by apostolic authority, to be done henceforth throughout the whole world, and we ask that what has recently been done be corrected without any delay: nor let it ever be permitted to examine the cause of those who are accused beforehand through writings, before, through the procedures of the complainants, they come canonically and by living voice to the synod, and the one present may truly recognise and understand, through the one present, what is laid against him. This is also well said through the wisdom of Solomon: 'Before you investigate, do not blame: understand first, and then reproach.'
'Before you have heard, do not answer.' And although the reproof of adversaries be most evident, nevertheless it behoves that order be observed by those who have been given for their examination, by those who according to God have been appointed to investigate, so that thus, with cooperating action, we may find God also as a confessor, who says: 'Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.' For even our Lord Jesus Christ knew Judas to be a thief: but because he was not accused in his presence, therefore he was not cast out. Nor ought you in any way to do what He was unwilling to do. For the laws of the world require accusers present, and not absent ones through writings.
Whence the canonical constitutions of the fathers cry out not once, but very often, that neither accusations nor testimonies can be brought forward by any one through writings: nor let any persons give testimony concerning other matters, except concerning those which are known to have been done in their presence. Likewise also let him who has chosen to accuse another accuse him present, in person, and not through another, with an indictment of course set forth beforehand. Nor let anyone ever be judged before he has lawful accusers present, and receives a place for defending himself, to wash away the charges. For care must be taken lest anger snatch away anyone, and make him too quickly do everything that is not permitted.
May Almighty God, as you keep these and all the divine commands and apostolic precepts, protect you in all your actions by the extension of His heavenly arm, and lead you to the reward of the heavenly fatherland with a manifold fruit of souls. Amen. Given on the third of the Ides of April, Siricius and Ardabur being consuls, men of most illustrious rank. TO JEROME THE PRESBYTER. Damasus the bishop, to his brother and fellow-presbyter Jerome, greeting in the Lord. When many volumes of books had been brought at my disposal, it happened that, with my mind in haste, I perceived myself detained in the book of Psalms, and to imbue the memory of my capacity therewith.
I have thought, most loving brother and ever a priest in Christ, that we ought, according to the Seventy interpreters and the elders—that is, Matthias and Ptolemy, Muchius, Sacreus, Hydronius, Pamphylus, Zoastites, Didymus, Sanius, Epiphanius, Ciater, Simon, and the rest—so far as our understanding recurs, to find the traces of the Septuagint. I ask also of your charity that, as you have learned from your rector, our bishop Alexander, your fraternity may be pleased to direct to us the psalmody of the Greeks: for the inquiry among us is of such great simplicity that on the Lord's Day only one epistle of the Apostle is recited, and one chapter of the Gospel is said:
and neither is the custom of psalm-singing maintained, nor is the grace of hymns known in our mouth. I ask therefore, through our brother and fellow-presbyter Boniface, that your Fraternity may be pleased to open to us the traces of this matter. Sent on the fifth of the Kalends of November, by Boniface the presbyter, to Jerusalem. Damasus, bishop of the city of Rome, to Jerome the presbyter. The Church rejoices, now satisfied from your fountain, and the curiosity of the sacerdotal times thirsts the more, that what is worthy may be known, and what is unworthy may be rejected. But the deeds of the pontiffs, which we have been able to find by the diligence of our See, we have gladly directed to your charity. Pray for us unto the holy resurrection, brother and fellow-presbyter. Farewell in Christ our God and Lord. Given on the tenth of the Kalends
of June, and received on the sixth of the Kalends of October, sent from Rome to Jerusalem. In the name of the Lord begins the series of the Roman pontiffs, who sat in the see of blessed Peter the apostle from himself down to this present time. Blessed Peter, chief of the Apostles, a Galilean by nation, from the village of Bethsaida, son of Jonah, brother of Andrew, etc.