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