The Apocryphal Letters of Pope Damasus

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, I give thanks first, that I have merited to enjoy the blessing of such great brethren; then, that I have found you solicitous concerning the brethren, and bearing with them the cross of the Lord, who says: Whoever wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me, and other things pertaining to this manner. Therefore, since in the present consultation concerning matters conducted opportunely, your beatitude, moved in apostolic bowels, has exhorted us to extend the protection of the brethren by apostolic authority, and to succor them in their injuries, since it is agreed that you say with the Apostle in compassion: Who is weak, and I am not weak? Who is scandalized, and I do not burn?

Being anxious lest any of those entrusted to you be torn or seized by savage beasts: for which reason it is fitting, according to your prudent admonition, and rather according to the divine precept of the Lord, that we, who have received the episcopal ministry over his house, that is, the universal catholic Church, should watch solicitously; lest, while we slumber, anyone of his sacred gifts, that is, of the apostolic men, successors of the apostles, and ministers, be able to be suppressed, and unjustly, without our being consulted, be condemned.

You know, dearest brethren, that the foundation fixed and immovable by God, and the most brilliant title of his priests, that is, of all bishops, is established the apostolic see, and is the summit of the Churches. For thou art (as the divine Word truly pronounces) Peter, and upon thy foundation the pillars of the Church, which are understood as bishops, have been confirmed: and to thee I have committed the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and I have promulgated the power of binding and loosing those things which are in heaven and those on earth. Thou didst exist as prince and teacher of the orthodox and immaculate faith among profane men, and among my members, and especially among my disciples, in whose stead today by the grace of God we perform the legation for Christ, and all the presiders of this holy see have exercised, exercise, and shall exercise his stead.

Therefore I would not command that all the things you have made known are not permitted, unless I knew you to be so fully instructed, that you do not doubt that all the matters upon which you have consulted are unlawful.

For it is lawful for the metropolitan, together with all his fellow-provincials, so that none of them be absent, and all agree in the affairs of each, to discuss bishops, and the highest matters of ecclesiastical business: but to give final judgment on them, and on the highest complaints of ecclesiastical causes, or to condemn bishops, without the authority of this holy see, is in no way lawful; to which all, if it should be necessary, ought to appeal, and to be sustained by its aid. For (as you know) a synod held without its authority is not catholic: nor can a bishop be finally condemned except in a lawful synod, gathered in its own time by apostolic summons: nor are any councils ever read to be ratified which are not sustained by apostolic authority.

The accusers of bishops, moreover, and the witnesses, concerning whom you have inquired, must be without any infamy, or suspicion, or manifest stain, and fully instructed in the true faith, and such as divine authority commands to be chosen for the priesthood: since priests (as ancient authority hands down) cannot be accused of crimes, nor can testimony be given against them by those who cannot and ought not to be advanced to the same honor.

For the summons to a synod (according to the decrees of the Fathers) of him who is impugned must be made canonically, whether by his own presence, or by writings and by apocrisiaries, within a suitable and canonical space of time: because unless he shall have been canonically summoned in due time, and by canonical ordinance, even if he shall have come to the assembly under whatever necessity, unless he shall have willed it of his own accord, he shall in no way answer his plotters; since not even the laws of the world permit this to be done, how much more the divine laws.

Concerning those who have been ejected and despoiled of their goods, I can signify to you nothing truer than what the holy Fathers determined, and our predecessors confirmed by apostolic authority. For thus the matter stands: that bishops ejected and despoiled of their goods should first receive back their own Churches, and have all their goods lawfully restored to them, the holy canons decreed: and afterward, if anyone shall wish to accuse them, they sanctioned that it be done at equal peril, decreeing that the judges of bishops be bishops of right understanding and just will, for a time and for long, once they had resumed their strength and enjoyed the power of their own goods; and with friends and wise servants of God as counselors, gathering in the Church, where there might be witnesses for each of those who seem to have been oppressed. And other things pertaining to this order: which, avoiding prolixity, we have not inserted here, because we believe these suffice.

But if anyone is not content with these, let him read them, and he will be satisfied. For we know that unarmed men cannot rightly fight with armed men: so neither can those who have been ejected or despoiled of their goods rightly contend with those who stand in their own rank, and enjoy their own friends and goods. Nor do the laws of the world permit this to be done to secular persons: but they command that those first ejected or oppressed or despoiled be restored with all their goods; and afterward, in due time, as their law contains, they order them to come to pleadings; nor do they permit the appellant to be restrained by any custody of prison. For they teach in part (as you know) earthly things, which are heavenly.

But accusers and accusations, which the laws of the world do not admit, are in no way to be admitted in causes of this kind, because whatever is irreproachable the catholic Church defends. And it is not doubted that this was determined by our elders on account of the snares of wicked men. For it befits the priests of the Lord to handle the causes of the brethren piously, and to attend to them reverently, and to order their judgments concerning sacred things; not with rash or tyrannical domination, as is reported of certain men, but to do all things charitably for God and with brotherly love: and let no one presume to inflict upon another what he would not, according to the Lord's own word, wish done to himself: and with what measure you shall have measured, it shall be measured to you again.

Those things, however, which we have received from the preaching of the Apostles and the instruction of the Fathers, we ought always to hold fast; lest we seem to forge any novelties, or to intend harm to 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.

For a suitable time must be foreseen for when the cause of each accused person may be most rightly brought forward in the midst, so that its gravity and its consonance may be known to be by no means betrayed against the decrees of the Fathers, or the confession of the synods. Let all attend to it in orderly fashion, so that they may respond to it reasonably in all things, and manifestly show that they wish to act justly. But let no one be introduced in person: rather let accusers and accused be heard with equal reckoning, according as the order of the proceedings requires. Let the accusers and the judges not be the same persons, but let the accusers be by themselves, the judges by themselves, the witnesses by themselves, the accused by themselves, each in his own rank, in order.

For let the indictment always be made first, so that the calumniator may receive retaliation; because before the indictment no one ought to be judged or condemned, since even the laws of the world hold this same principle. Concerning all these matters let true equity always be observed, so that they may obtain the reward of the accusation, of the judgment, and of the testimony through the truth of the proceedings. For it is written: The Lord will abominate lying lips, and a false witness uttering lies, and one who sows scandals and quarrels among brethren, he himself admonishing and saying: Thou shalt not calumniate thy neighbor, nor oppress him by force. Thou shalt not do what is unjust, nor shalt thou judge unjustly. Thou shalt not regard the person of the poor, nor honor the face of the powerful. Judge thy neighbor justly. And what thou wilt not have done to thyself, do not to another: and so forth.

And having above all the Apostolic precept to attend to ourselves and to the flock, in which the Holy Spirit has placed us bishops, it befits us to rule the Church of God, which he acquired by his own blood. And again: To watch for wolves, to watch for evil workers, who do perverse things and speak adverse things, so that they may always detract from the disciples of the Lord, and defame them: whom it is fitting that you and all the priests of the Lord correct with the utmost zeal: because there is no worse evil than that citizens should envy citizens, and priests or clerics plot against priests or pontiffs, the voice of truth itself testifying: He who touches you, touches the pupil of my eye; and whoever shall have scandalized one of these little ones, it is better that a millstone be hung about his neck, and that he be drowned in the depth of the sea. And again: Blessed is he who has not been scandalized in me.

Without doubt he is scandalized in God, who scandalizes his bishop or priest. And many such things, which are not brought in here, lest the letter become too prolix. Admonishing also, you ought to instruct your aforementioned neighbors, that they withdraw themselves from such things, and quickly correct what they have unlawfully done against the aforesaid brethren. And those whom they have injured without our being consulted, let them heal by full satisfaction, and quickly reconcile them to themselves, if they shall not wish to undergo the censure of the apostolic see. For if perchance anything had arisen against them or in their regard, our examination ought to have been awaited, so that by our authority (as this privilege has always been granted to this see) they might be condemned, or sustained by aid. For they ought not, at their own pleasure, to have invaded our rights, without the ordinance and mandate of the apostolic see.

Let all priests henceforth abstain from such men, who shall not wish to be excluded from the censure and priestly honor of the Apostolic Rock (upon which Christ, as has been said before, built the universal Church, to which the highest judgments of bishops and the greater causes, as has been mentioned a little above, are reserved and made firm).

A delay of six months, or more if necessary, must be granted to bishops accused in criminal matters: since no one instructed 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 for anyone to judge or condemn a priest, before he has his accusers present, canonically examined, and has received opportunity to defend himself, that is, ecclesiastical delays for washing away crimes and offenses.

Lest the accusation of discussion be made in the first instance outside its own province, without the apostolic direction, to which reverence must be preserved in all causes, since the ancient rule of the Fathers also teaches this, with which the imperial statutes likewise agree. The discussion 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 elsewhere it is prescribed in the canons: Whatever matters arise, they are to be settled in their own places, where they arose: and other such things and things like these: yet in all these matters the apostolic authority is to be preserved unharmed, so that nothing may be determined in them before it is known to be pleasing to that see, by which all ought to be supported. And if anything grave and intolerable should befall them, its judgment is always to be awaited.

For let no one presume rashly, or driven by the goad of his own thinking, and (as we have often known to happen) to detract from or accuse any of the priests: because injury done to them pertains to Christ, in whose vicarious embassy for the people, redeemed by Christ's blood, they discharge their office. 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 cast the soul into Gehenna. Who says: Vengeance is mine, and I will repay. Before whom the conscience is bare, from whom hidden things are not concealed. All must also be instructed, that through us Christ has thundered to them, that it is not the sheep's part to foresee the wolf's snares, but the shepherd's.

The blessed apostle Paul therefore warns that judgment should not be rashly and lightly presumed concerning those things about which no one can judge more truly or better than God: But you, he says, why do you judge your brother? Or why do you despise him? For we shall all stand before the judgment seat of Christ. For it is written: as I live, says the Lord, every knee shall bow to me, and every tongue shall confess to the Lord. So then each one of us shall render account of himself to God. In this, therefore, let no one usurp for himself rash daring, so as to do otherwise than pertains to concord, whereby the unity of the Church might be scattered. Let no one therefore lightly consent to detraction or judgment or condemnation of brothers, and especially of priests, who are nearer to God, and who with their own mouth make the body of Christ: For on this account the wrath of God comes upon the sons of disobedience, who persecute Christ in his members.

Do not, brothers, do not become partakers of them, nor share in the sins of such men, or in their fruitless words. Rather rebuke the assemblies of such men, who strive to stretch their tongues against the brothers as if a bow. Defend, therefore, the brothers, and warn everyone, that they be armed against the persecutors of the brothers. But we trust better things of you, and things nearer to salvation: because neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor strength, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature, as the teacher of the Gentiles teaches, will be able to separate us from the love of our Lord Jesus Christ, which is most fully accomplished in the priests and the rest of his members. Do not therefore cast away your confidence, which has a great reward. For behold the judge stands before the door, gladly promising crowns to those who bring aid to the brothers for his sake, and who succor the oppressed and labor together in charity.

But if anyone withdraws himself, he will not please God, but falls, because he did not lift up the one falling, but withered away. Let us not, then, be of withdrawal unto oppression, but of support unto gain, and the supplementing of the brothers. Wherefore take up the armor of God, that you may be able to resist all who presume in such a way: and put on the breastplate of righteousness, your feet shod in preparation of the Gospel of peace; taking up in all things the shield of faith, with which you may be able to extinguish all the fiery darts of the most wicked one. And take up the helmet of salvation, and the sword of the Spirit, which is the Word of God, being rooted and grounded through every prayer and supplication, that you may all say the same thing, and there may be no schisms among you, dividing the good and whole body of the Church into twisted novelties. The apostle therefore warns us not to judge one another rashly any longer.

For he judges rashly who condemns a bishop without the authority of the apostolic see: since to it (as was touched upon a little above) this privilege is specially reserved. But this rather judge, he says, that you put not a stumbling-block or scandal before your brother. For it is plainly manifest to all, by these and by innumerable other testimonies of the decrees, that a bishop ought not to be condemned, even though his opinion be examined, until the judgment concerning him is known from our apostolic authority, that is, from the authority of Peter the prince of the apostles; inasmuch as he alone, and above all, was entrusted, and deserved to receive from Christ God, the King of kings, the keys of the kingdom of heaven, to open to faithful and well-disposed men unto our same Lord, and to close against the unfaithful and ill-disposed, and against the assailants or those who do harm to his priests and to the holy Church, redeemed by his precious blood.

This, indeed, he has also asked us to do. Not that anything new is now being commanded: but that which through the negligence of some, either knowingly or carelessly, is transgressed, should henceforth be observed by all: so that those things which have been established by apostolic and patristic tradition may always 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 fast, and hold the traditions which you have learned, whether by word or by epistle. Likewise elsewhere through the prophet: I also waited, as blessed Isaiah thundered, that they should do judgment: but they did iniquity, and not justice, but a clamor, troubling all the pious.

And they ought to know this, that the judgment of God is according to truth upon those who do such things: though they despise the riches of God's goodness, and forbearance, and patience, not knowing that the kindness of God leads them to repentance, but according to their hardness and impenitent heart, they treasure up for themselves wrath in the day of wrath and of the revelation of the righteous judgment of God, who will render to each according to his works. And elsewhere it is written: I am the Lord your God; you shall not do iniquity in judgment. You shall not accept the person of a man, nor be awed by the face of the powerful. You shall withdraw from every unjust word. You shall not attack the innocent and the just, nor put him to death. Without doubt he does iniquity in judgment who claims for himself that which it is not lawful for him to claim.

Therefore, let no one presume to usurp, without her consultation, the things which have been granted to this holy see, who does not wish to be judged unworthy of ecclesiastical honor, as a despiser. And so it is fitting to repel the negligent, but in such a way that the harmful are not strengthened: and that the good resist the wicked or the plotters against the brothers, lest, oppressed by the torpor of sloth, they be held liable to silence.

And so whoever is able to withstand and disturb the perverse, and does not do so, is nothing other than favoring their impiety. For he is not free from the suspicion of hidden partnership, who ceases to withstand manifest wickedness. But be perfect and whole in the same mind, and established in the same knowledge: so that, directing your ways through it unwaveringly toward the same end, you may come to the aid of all the oppressed, because the Lord is entrusted to you, to whom, approaching as to a living stone, indeed rejected by men on account of the impiety of such men, but chosen and honored by God, upon whom you, as living stones, are built up into a spiritual house in the Lord, into a holy priesthood, offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to him in an odor of sweetness.

For it is a most pleasing sacrifice to the Lord to come to the aid of all the oppressed: how much more of those concerning whom he says: He who hears you, hears me; and he who despises you, despises me, and so forth. He indeed pours out prosperity to the Lord who drives away adversity from the afflicted and oppressed. But now also, brothers, we commend you to God and to the word of his grace, who is able to build up and to give an inheritance among all the sanctified.

And may the God of peace and consolation himself grant you to be of the same mind toward one another, and always in him and in all things, that with one accord, with one mouth and one heart, you may glorify him in concord and in aid of the brothers, who is able to strengthen all, and to console according to his Gospel, and according to the revelation of the mystery kept silent for eternal ages, but now made manifest through the holy Scriptures and the teachings of the orthodox Fathers, according to the command 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 the Holy Spirit be glory, honor, and dominion and power forever and ever. Amen. May the Lord keep you, most beloved brothers, always safe. Given on the eighth day before the Kalends of November, in the consulship of the most illustrious men Flavianus and Stilicho.

To our venerable lords and brothers, Prosper bishop of the first see of Numidia, Leo, Reparatus, Alexander, Benedict, Rufus, and all the rest, everywhere standing in the right, holy, and apostolic faith, 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 forefathers, in that you do not cease to refer to us, as to the head, as has always been the custom, all things which can admit of any doubt, so that from that source you may receive answers whence you received your instruction and the rule of right living. Whence also we remember that you are not unmindful of the canons, which likewise command that this same thing be done. Not that anything is lacking to you in ecclesiastical knowledge of the rule, but that, supported by the authority of the apostolic see, you may in nothing depart from its rules.

Therefore concerning the chorepiscopi, about whom you have wished to consult us, as to what their ministry is, or what they may lawfully do, or what authority they possess, or whether it is lawful for them to be made or not—since we have heard that they have already been prohibited—or what is to be done concerning those who are already found ordained, nothing seems to us that we can answer you more certainly than what we find was long ago decreed by our predecessors: that nothing whatsoever be reserved to them by way of pardon except the deprivation of the sacred ministry which they unlawfully assumed; since they had been forbidden both by this holy see and by the bishops of the whole world.

Too wicked, therefore, is their institution, too depraved: because that they should presume anything of the highest ministry of priesthood lacks all authority, and is found contrary to the sacred canons, and tends, by a proud and superfluous arrogance, to the disturbance of the whole Church: and empty and void is whatever they have done in the aforesaid ministry of the high priesthood. That they are the same as presbyters is sufficiently found; for they are discovered to have been instituted originally after the form 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 care which they were required to exercise toward the poor; and because they presumed unlawful things, and what they did was as if not done; and therefore many, having fallen into a false security, were cheated and defrauded of ecclesiastical ministry: for this reason they have been removed from pontifical offices, both by this holy see, as we have mentioned above, and by all the bishops of the whole world.

For (as has been reported to us) certain bishops, for the sake of their own ease, did not fear to entrust their flocks to them; and these men, in order to do things unlawful and forbidden, usurp to themselves what is owed to pontiffs alone; while the bishops themselves grow torpid in their own ease, and neglect the care committed to them by God, though the Lord says: The good shepherd lays down his life for his sheep, and calls them by name, and knows his own, and his own know him. And again: As the Father knows me, and I know the Father, and I lay down my life for my sheep. But you know well what he says of the hireling: that he sees the wolf coming, and leaves the sheep, and flees, and the wolf seizes and scatters the sheep, and so forth. For the sake of such men indeed the care of the Church is neglected, and its condition disturbed.

And therefore they have been forbidden, to such a degree that if any of these are found, they fall from their own rank. For those bishops who presume such things seem to me like harlots, who, as soon as they have given birth, hand over their infants to other nurses to be reared, that they may the more quickly satisfy their lust. So too these men hand over their infants, that is, the peoples committed to them, to others to be reared, that they may satisfy their own lusts, that is, that according to their own pleasure they may gape after secular cares, and do more freely whatever seems good to each. For the sake of such men souls are neglected, sheep perish, diseases increase, heresies and schisms come forth, churches are destroyed, priests are corrupted, and other evils arise. The Lord did not teach thus, nor did the Apostles so establish: but those who undertake the care should themselves accomplish 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 to do the same. If he himself had such care for the sheep, he himself taught, he himself tended, he himself healed, he himself carried it back on his own shoulders, and loved so much that he even gave up his life (enduring many injuries, many reproaches, and many sufferings) for us: what shall we, wretched and slothful, say, who neglect even to bestow care upon the sheep committed to us, and hand them over to others to be reared? Let these things be corrected, brethren, of necessity: for he who labors more shall receive a greater reward. For we know that there are no more than two orders among the disciples of the Lord, namely, the twelve Apostles, and the seventy Disciples: whence this third order has arisen we are utterly ignorant. And what lacks reason must be uprooted.

For that those are not bishops who are ordained by fewer than three bishops is clear to all: since (as you well know) it has been forbidden by the holy Fathers that those who are ordained by one or two bishops should even be named bishops. If they do not have the name, how shall they have the office? For whatever they may have done among bishops, or concerning matters pertaining only to them, it must (as already stated above) become void: because what they do not have they can by no means give; especially since it is not read that any of the seventy Disciples, whose type these men bore in the Church before they were forbidden (as mentioned above), ever assumed anything of what was specially owed to the Apostles and their successors. Nor in the law of the Lord, which is read as dictated to Moses by the Lord himself, did the sons of Aaron presume anything concerning 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, erected the altar in the Tabernacle of God, alone anointed, alone instituted priests by sacred unction, and did other things pertaining to the high priesthood, of which one reads sufficiently in the divine Scriptures: since they were the high priests of the Lord, as it is written of them: Moses and Aaron among his priests. So too now, since the shadow of the law has passed, and the light of the Gospel, by God's grace, shines manifestly upon us, concerning those things which belong to the high priests, that is, the bishops, whose figure Moses and Aaron bore, those who bear the form of the seventy Disciples ought to presume nothing, just as those did not touch anything of the ministry of the high priesthood.

For that the chorepiscopi, before they were forbidden by the aforesaid provision, were instituted after the form of the seventy, the canon sufficiently shows, where it says: The chorepiscopi also seem to be after the example and form of the Seventy: and so forth. Nor does it seem to us that this should be passed over, which is expressed elsewhere in the canons: Those who are named chorepiscopi in villages and estates, although they have received the imposition of hands of bishops, and have been consecrated as bishops; and so on. Nor do I consider it beside the point that it says, "although they have received the imposition of hands of bishops"; since the word "of bishops" contains within it a plural number, and among grammarians the genitive is plural: for it seems to me that at that time they were ordained not by one but by several; because it would in no way say "of bishops" if such ordination were done by one, since "of bishops" is said in the plural.

But when it said chorepiscopus, it certainly meant a rural bishop to be understood; and if rural, what is he doing in a city, when in one city altogether two bishops are forbidden to be? And if in a village, and in a place where there had not previously been bishops—since even in a small city, or in a village or fortress, it is forbidden for a bishop to be made, and in all places whatsoever where there had not previously been bishops, lest the authority and name of bishop become cheapened—they were established, what, I ask, will they be? Behold, neither does the place agree with the ordination, nor the ordination with the place: since if they received the imposition of hands of bishops, and were consecrated as bishops, where were they consecrated? In a village, since χώρα is "village" among the Greeks.

And how "in a village," if it is not lawful for one to be made even in a fortress or a small city, I ask you to explain: and if you cannot explain it—since I know you are by no means able to do so by reason or full authority—put your finger to your mouth, and do not doubt that they lack all authority; namely because three things stand in the way, by which their action or institution is nullified. One, that they are wont to be ordained by one bishop, in which their ordination disagrees with the canons, which command them to be instituted by the hands of bishops.

Another, if they are ordained by several bishops, and are either set up in a village, or in a fortress, or in a small city, or altogether not in the place where bishops ought rightly to be made, or where there had not formerly been any, so that the authority and name of bishop should be cheapened; or if in a city together with another bishop—since (as has been said) two bishops ought not to exist in one city. The third, if they were instituted absolutely, as we have heard concerning some, all of which things altogether lack episcopal authority: and this yet remains, that their order has no authority in the divine Scriptures; because (as has been stated) there are only two first orders 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 called presbyters, because they aspire to be something more, and to presume more than the seventy Disciples would have done (after whose form, as we noted a little above, these men, before they were forbidden, were instituted by certain foolish men seeking their own interests, and not those of Christ Jesus), and presume to do unlawful and forbidden things; and they do not wish it to be said of them that they are what 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 altogether something, or nothing: because nothing can exist unless it has whence it may be.

And if it has no whence it may be, or whence it may derive its origin, it has neither authority nor will it be able rightly to stand, because it is void, and must be destroyed and fall, since it is nothing, and shall be reckoned as nothing. If indeed they are none of these things which we have mentioned above, then it must be that they are nothing of those things which are owed to priests. And therefore let them not be reckoned in the priestly catalogue, except only (as we first mentioned) that, out of mercy, to those who are willing to bear this humbly, and shall no longer aspire beyond it, and shall confirm this by a document strengthened beneath by their own hand, this only be granted: that they may have a place among the priests, and be content with the ministry of presbyters, and be participants only at the table of the Lord.

But those who wish to aspire further, let them not even retain this, that they be priests, but let them be utterly deprived of all ecclesiastical honor.

But that it is not lawful for them to consecrate priests, nor deacons or subdeacons, nor virgins, nor to erect an altar, nor to anoint or consecrate it, nor to dedicate churches, nor to make chrism, nor to sign the foreheads of the baptized with chrism, nor to reconcile anyone publicly as a penitent at Mass, nor to send formed letters, nor to bless the people, nor to enter the baptistery or the sacristy before the bishop, nor to baptize or sign an infant in the bishop's presence, nor to reconcile a penitent without the command of their 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 flock; all of which things are owed to pontiffs alone, you have been taught both from the foregoing and from other constitutions of the Fathers, or the sacred canons.

And if it is necessary for some who know less, they can be fully taught and instructed, so that through this both the distinction of ranks and the summit of the dignity of the highest pontiffs may be demonstrated. Likewise let this also be held concerning presbyters, that they do nothing without the command of their own bishop: because what is rare seems also more beautiful. And if the name of the pontiffs is cheapened, the whole condition of the Church is disturbed. Threefold, therefore, in this matter is the guilt: that they do forbidden things, and that the sacred ministry is polluted by the baseness of such fellowship, and that the rights of bishops (as far as pertains to the rashness of unlawful usurpation) are dissolved.

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 above). These things, therefore, since they lack all reason, let no priest henceforth usurp or consent to, who does not wish to be separated from our priestly college. Nor let that which has been extinguished by us, and by our predecessors and, as has been said, by the bishops of the whole world, be already extinguished, be sown again among some with dark roots: but let those things which are known to have sprung up wickedly be uprooted from the root, lest any tares corrupt the Lord's harvest. For thus will the Lord's priests bring forth abundant fruit, if those things which are wont to choke the growing crop are cut off at the root.

Let this presumption, then, so often forbidden and condemned, cease, cease: nor let the high priests imitate harlot women, who, for the sake of the aforesaid pleasure, hand over their infants to others to be nursed: but let them themselves nourish them, let them themselves render fruit with interest to their Lord, and present to him fruitful sheaves with glory. For if the Lord, among the other cares of his sheep, touched and cleansed lepers, why do we disdain to do the same? Or why do we ourselves, who have undertaken the pastoral office, hand them over to others to be nourished? Especially since the Lord said to Peter our teacher: If you love me, feed my sheep: and many other things similar to this. For the blessing which the aforesaid chorepiscopi, before their prohibition, gave through the imposition of hands, seems to us more to inflict a wound than to bring salvation. And those who did not have the summit of the pontificate, how could they give what they did not have?

Since there was nothing in the giver which he could receive. Or what man, even though we speak in a human manner, can give what he does not have? Especially since they were not pontiffs, they could not give what is owed to pontiffs alone. And therefore they rather wounded the heads which they touched by the imposition of hands, since they gave, by some sort of blessing, things which had not been conferred upon them. And therefore, whatever they presumed of the aforesaid pontifical ministries was void, and profited nothing to those touched; but rather, according to the prophet, they conferred a curse instead of a blessing (if it is right to say so). Wherefore, through that unlawful imposition of hands, as we noted 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 inflicted blemish may be healed: that is, it is necessary to repeat what is by no means approved as legitimately done or conferred, if it is to be made perfect. For how one who has received honor from him who did not have the power to give it legitimately can retain that honor, I cannot discover: since he who did not have pontifical honor cannot bestow pontifical rights; nor could they claim for themselves that of which, by reason of what stood in their way, they were not capable.

Claiming, therefore, the care of this examination specially for ourselves, we grant mercy in such a way that if perhaps anything of these things has been committed, it may be corrected, lest such things be permitted to be committed further, and lest any excuse arise from ignorance: because just as the state of the Churches, allotted or adorned by a wholesome disposition, gives us joy, so it saddens us with no little grief, as often as we learn that anything has been presumed or committed against the institutions of the canons or ecclesiastical discipline. If we do not cut these things off with the vigilance we owe, we cannot excuse ourselves before him who wished us to be watchmen; if we do not keep his Church, which is generally committed to us, as 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: But let us be perfect in the same mind and in the same knowledge.

Nor shall we otherwise be true disciples of the Lord, unless each one, according to his strength, hastens to root out the root of bitterness springing up (as you assert this is now doing), lest it be able to do harm, or cause the episcopal ministry to be cheapened through the negligence of them, that is, of all priests, who are set by him to uproot evils and plant better things: and he himself, who is to render an account to the eternal Judge for his 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 my own know me; and so forth.

And again, admonished by the command of the Lord's voice, whereby the most blessed apostle Peter was imbued with mystical sanctification through a threefold repetition, let him who loves Christ feed the sheep of Christ diligently and with great care: since we are constrained by love and reverence for that same holy see, over which we preside through the abundance of divine grace; that we may, as far as we can, avoid the danger of so great a superstition, which (as has often been said) is supported by no authority; lest the love of our blessed master Peter and chief of the apostles, whereby he testified himself to be 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 highest Shepherd, nor of wishing to become his disciple, whose example he neglects to imitate.

For a greater grace is indeed acquired, if the pastor's diligence offer to the Lord a profit from the sheep entrusted to him. For we remember that blessed Jacob also, who had served long for his wives, said: Twenty years have I been with thee: thy sheep and thy goats were not barren: the rams of thy flock I did not eat, nor did I show thee that which was taken by a beast. I made good every loss: and whatsoever was stolen, thou didst require of me: by day and by night I was burnt with heat and with cold; sleep fled from mine eyes. If then he who feeds the sheep of Laban labors and watches thus, with how much labor, and with how many watchings ought he to attend, who feeds the sheep of God.

But in all these things may He Himself instruct us, who gave His soul for His sheep; and may He aid us, that of those who have been entrusted to us, He may grant us to bring back manifold fruit and a measure overflowing unto eternal joys. And may so great a love of blessed Peter, prince of the apostles, kindle you, that in his fold, to whom all creatures have been delivered, you may hasten with your holy zeal and with utmost desire to restore all who so err and who presume upon things unlawful and forbidden: so that souls redeemed by the precious blood of Christ may not perish by their deception.

It remains also that these did in no wise enter by the door, since they had no door through which to enter: since (as has been said) if they are not even bishops, and yet aspire to be more than presbyters: by what door will they enter, since only these two orders are read of in the Church, nor does any further door lie open to the pastoral office, by which a pastor might enter? Hear, brethren, not me, but Truth Himself saying: He who entereth not by the door into the sheepfold of the sheep, but climbeth up another way, the same is a thief and a robber, and so forth. Since also the excellent preacher says: Other foundation can no man lay, than that which is laid: since the aforesaid two foundations only are found laid in the Church, whatsoever more is found placed upon these can in no wise stand.

And therefore, it must needs be plucked up together with all its foundations, and actions, and roots, so that it may no longer be able to sprout or germinate. Let not, therefore, this speech, so often repeated, generate weariness in you, brethren: because there is the utmost necessity that what is so often, as we have learned from you, unlawfully usurped, be more often forbidden: and since truth, the more often it is stirred, shines forth the more into light: and what is admonished by frequent repetition is the less usurped. For concerning these things much has already been said by our predecessors: by whom these same men, just as now by us, so formerly by them, were condemned and forbidden. Therefore repeating it often, we admonish all to avoid such men, and to abstain from such, who shall have refused, along with them, as rebels, to be made strangers from the priestly ministry.

This we shall at last be able to prove, if you strive to root out such men, and not to favor them: and thus hereafter complaint on such a matter will cease, because whatsoever, though forbidden, is so often usurped, is done out of contempt. All these decretal matters, and the constitutions of all our predecessors, which have been promulgated concerning the ecclesiastical orders and the discipline of the canons, we command to be kept by you and by all bishops, and generally by all priests, in such wise, that if anyone shall transgress therein, let him know that pardon shall thenceforth be denied him: since truth would come forth, if falsehood should displease. And rightly does the matter concern us, who ought to hold the highest helm of the Church, if by silence we should favor error. Given on the kalends of June, in the consulship of the most illustrious men Libius and Theodosius.

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 fellowship, that all the priests of the Lord (as it was in the primitive Church) might be of one heart and one soul, and might persist in one devotion, and that none of the priests should be corrupted by the favor or fear of secular men, or should depart in any way from the path of truth. But since many things happen which can be corrected, and the fault of offenders is overcome by the mercy of God: and therefore vengeance is suspended, that correction may have place. For it has been reported to the apostolic see, that you receive the accusations of brethren by writing, without a lawful accuser.

Which we forbid henceforth by apostolic authority to be done in the whole world, and we ask that what has lately been done be corrected without any delay: nor let it ever be lawful to discuss the case of those who are accused by writings, before they come canonically summoned to the synod by the appeal of the plaintiffs, and, present before present, truly acknowledge and understand what is objected against him. Which is well said also by the wisdom of Solomon: Before thou searchest, do not reprove: understand first, and then rebuke. Before thou hast heard, answer not. And although the reproof of adversaries be most manifest, nevertheless it behooves that order be kept by those who are appointed for their examination, by those who are deputed to search according to God, so that with cooperating effort we may find God also as confessor, who says: Where two or three are gathered together in my name, there am I in the midst of them.

For our Lord Jesus Christ also knew that Judas was a thief: but because he was not accused in person, 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 by writing. Whence the canonical constitutions of the fathers cry out, not once but very often, that neither accusations nor testimonies can be brought forward by writing: nor let any bear witness concerning other matters, except concerning those which are known to have been done in their presence. Likewise, whoever shall choose to accuse another, let him accuse in person, by himself, and not through another, with the accusation set down beforehand in writing. Nor let anyone ever be judged, before he has lawful accusers present, and has been given opportunity of defense to wash away the charges. For care must be taken, lest anger steal upon anyone, and cause him too quickly to do all that is not lawful.

May Almighty God, as you keep these things and all the divine mandates and apostolic precepts, protect you in all your acts by the outstretched arm of heaven, and bring you, with manifold fruit of souls, to the reward of the heavenly fatherland. Amen. Given the third day before the ides of April, in the consulship of the most illustrious men Siricius and Ardabur.

Damasus the bishop to brother and fellow-presbyter Jerome, greeting in the Lord.

When many bodies of books had been brought to me for my judgment, it happened that in my mind I found myself hastily seized by the desire to know the book of Psalms, and to imbue the memory of my capacity therewith. I thought, most beloved brother and, in Christ, ever a priest, that according to the Seventy interpreters and presbyters, that is, Matthias and Ptolemy, Muchius, Sacreus, Ilydronius, Pamphylus, Zoastites, Didymus, Sanius, Epiphanius, Ciatres, Simon, and the rest, so far as our recollection extends, I might discover the traces of the Seventy. I ask also your charity, that, just as you learned from your director, our bishop Alexander, your fraternity might be pleased to send to us the Greek manner of psalm-singing: for such is the simplicity found among us, that on the Lord's day only one epistle of the Apostle is read, and one chapter of the Gospel is recited: and neither is the custom of psalm-singing kept, nor is the glory of hymns known in our mouth.

I ask, therefore, through our brother and fellow-presbyter Boniface, that it may please your Fraternity to open to us the traces of this matter. Sent the fifth day before the kalends of November, by Boniface the presbyter, to Jerusalem.

The Church rejoices, now satisfied from your fountain, and yet more does the curiosity of the priestly ages thirst, that what is worthy may be known, and what is unworthy rejected. Truly, the deeds of the pontiffs, which we have been able to discover by the diligence of our see, we have rejoicingly directed to your charity. Pray for us unto the holy resurrection, brother and fellow-presbyter. Farewell in Christ God and our Lord. Given the tenth day before the kalends of June, and received the sixth day before the kalends of October, sent from Rome to Jerusalem.