The Letters of Pope Damasus I

Damasus, Valerianus, Vitalianus, Aufidius, Pacianus, Victor, Priscus, Innocentius, Abundius, Theodulus, and the others who assembled in the city of Rome to hear the case of Auxentius and to set forth the faith, to the Catholic Bishops established throughout the East, greeting in the Lord. We are indeed confident that your Holiness, founded upon the instruction of the Apostles, holds that faith, and imparts it to the peoples, which in no wise disagrees with the institutions of our forefathers. For it is not fitting that priests, whose part it is to instruct the rest, should think otherwise concerning God. But we have learned by the report of our Gallic and Venetian brethren that certain persons, not out of zeal for heresy—for so great an evil can scarcely befall the bishops of God—but out of ignorance, or from a certain simplicity, being tossed about by perverse interpretations, do not sufficiently discern which is rather the opinion of our fathers that must be held, when divers counsels are poured into their ears.

In short, they set it down that Auxentius of Milan was condemned chiefly on this account. It is fitting, therefore, that all the teachers of the law throughout the Roman world should hold the same opinion concerning the law, and should not violate the Lord's faith by diverse teachings. For when, some time ago, the poison of the heretics—as now again it has begun to creep in, and especially the blasphemy of the Arians began to spring up—our forefathers, three hundred and eighteen bishops, together with the most holy bishops sent from the city of Rome, having convened a council at Nicaea, set up this wall against the weapons of the devil, and by this antidote drove back the deadly draughts, so that it should be needful to believe the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit to be of one Godhead, one form, one substance, judging him alien from our fellowship who thought otherwise. This salutary definition certain persons afterward attempted, by other disputations, to pervert and violate.

But even at the very outset it was corrected by these same men, who were being compelled to reconsider this matter at Ariminum, so that they confessed themselves to have been deceived by another disputation, on the ground that they had not understood that the opinion of the fathers formed at Nicaea was contrary to it. For no prejudice could possibly arise from the number of those who assembled at Ariminum, since it is certain that neither the Roman bishop, whose opinion ought before all others to have been sought, nor Vicentius, who kept the priesthood unblemished for so many years, nor others of like kind, gave any consent to such decrees: especially since, as we have said, these same men, who seemed to have yielded under pressure, protested with better counsel that they were displeased with themselves.

Wherefore let your sincerity observe that this alone is the faith which was founded at Nicaea by the authority of the Apostles, and must be retained with perpetual firmness; in this the Easterns, who acknowledge themselves Catholics, and the Westerns together with us do glory: and we believe it will not be long before those who think otherwise, although by this very effort they may be stripped of our communion, and their peoples, freed from their errors, may breathe again. For how shall they be able to correct the errors of the peoples, if error has taken hold of themselves? Let, therefore, the judgment of your charity also agree with all the priests of God: in which, as we well believe you to be fixed and confirmed, so also we ought to approve, by the letters of your Holiness sent in return, that we think rightly along with you.

I, Sabinus, deacon of Milan, legate, have given this from the authentic copy.

By this grace, brethren, that Jericho, which is a figure of worldly pleasures, having been assailed with shouting, fell and does not rise again; because we all with one mouth declare the Godhead to be of one power, one majesty, one divinity, one substance: so that, while we assert the power to be inseparable, we nevertheless affirm there to be three persons, neither returning into itself nor being diminished, as many blaspheme, but ever remaining; neither certain degrees of power nor disparate times of origin; nor is it to be taken as a mere putting-forth, so as to deny generation to Him; nor imperfect, as though the nature of the Father, or the fullness of the divinity, were wanting to the person; nor is the Son unlike in work, nor unlike in power, nor unlike in all respects: nor does He subsist from elsewhere, but was born of God, nor is He a false one from the true God, but is God true, begotten of God true, light true from light true; lest He be thought diminished or different: because the Only-begotten has the splendor of the eternal light, since by the order of nature there is no light without splendor, nor can splendor be without light: He is also the image of the Father, so that he who has seen Him has seen the Father also.

The same, by the grace of our redemption, proceeded from the Virgin; that a perfect man might be born for the perfect man who had sinned. Let us assert, therefore, brethren, that the Son of God took up also a perfect man, and let us confess the Holy Spirit also to be uncreated, and of one majesty, one substance, one power with God the Father and our Lord Jesus Christ. For He is not worthy of the injury of being called a creature, who was sent forth that He might create, as the holy prophet declares, saying: Send forth Thy Spirit, and they shall be created: and again another has said: The divine Spirit that made me: who is joined in operation and in the remission of sins. This, most beloved brethren, is our faith; whoever follows it is our partaker. A body of discolored members is deformed. To these we grant communion, since in all things they approve our judgment. Far be it that the pure faith should be patched with various colors.

We further admonish that this be guarded against, lest the canonical order be neglected in the ordinations of priests or clerics, or communion be readily granted to those who transgress it, so that incentive be given to sin in other matters. These things, therefore, had to be made known from our judgment. As for what pertains to the removal of the injuries done to your charity, our brother Dorotheus the presbyter does not fail vigorously to set forth all things, nor have our efforts, as he himself is witness, been lacking.

We indeed marvel that certain persons among ours are said to be such that, although they seem to have a pious understanding concerning the Trinity, yet, being ignorant of the powers and Scriptures concerning the mystery of our salvation, they do not hold right opinions. For they assert, saying, that our Lord and Savior took from the Virgin Mary an imperfect man, that is, one without a mind. Alas! How great will be their kinship with the Arians in such a view! They say the divinity in the Son of God is imperfect: these falsely claim the humanity in the Son of Man is imperfect. But if indeed an imperfect man was assumed, then imperfect is God's gift, imperfect is our salvation; because the whole man was not saved. And where then will be that saying of the Lord: The Son of man came to save that which was lost—wholly? That is, in soul and in body, in mind, and in the whole substance of his nature.

If, then, the whole man had perished, it was necessary that what had perished be saved. But if he was saved without a mind, then, contrary to the faith of the Gospel, it will be found that not the whole of what had perished was saved: whereas in another place the Savior Himself says: Be angry with me, for I have made the whole man whole. What of the fact that the very sum of the original sin and of the whole ruin consists in the mind of man; for if, first, man's faculty of choosing good and evil had not perished, he would not have died. How then could it be presumed that in the end that ought not to have been saved, which is known to have sinned before all else? But we, who know ourselves to have been saved whole and entire, according to the profession of the Catholic Church, confess that a perfect God assumed a perfect man.

Wherefore give heed, that by the understanding of sound doctrine the minds also of those may be saved who as yet do not believe that the mind was saved.

That there is not on our part any resource whereby our efforts might bring to you even a little refreshment; although you may take great comfort from this, most blessed ones, if, knowing the integrity of our faith, you may glory in agreeing in one mind; and you may presume, fully and abundantly, as is fitting, that we are solicitous for you as members of the same body. For, holding inviolate in all things the faith of the Nicene council, without dissimulation of words or corrupted meaning, we in no way separate the Holy Spirit; but we join Him, perfect in all things, in virtue, honor, majesty, deity, with the Father and the Son: and likewise we trust that the fullness of the Word of God—not put forth, but begotten, nor remaining in the Father so as not to exist, but subsisting from eternity to eternity—assumed and saved a perfect, that is, an entire man.

Here ends this letter, or exposition of the Roman synod held under Pope Damasus, and sent to the East; in which the whole Eastern Church, a synod having been held at Antioch, believing with harmonious faith, and all thus agreeing to the same faith set forth above, each confirms it by his own subscription.

Meletius, bishop of Antioch, I agree to all things written above, so believing and thinking: and if anyone thinks otherwise than this, let him be anathema. Eusebius, bishop of Samosata, I agree to all things written above, so believing and thinking: and if anyone thinks otherwise than this, let him be anathema.

Pelagius, bishop of Laodicea, I agree to all things written above, so thinking and believing: and if anyone thinks otherwise than this, let him be anathema. Zeno, bishop of Tyre, as above I believe, and have subscribed. Eulogius, bishop of Edessa, likewise I believe, and have subscribed. Bematius, of the city of Mallus, likewise I believe, and have subscribed. Diodorus, bishop of Tarsus, as above, and I have subscribed. Likewise also other Eastern bishops subscribed, whose subscription is kept today in authentic form in the archives of the Roman Church. Here ends the Roman and Antiochene synod.

By my son Vitalis I had sent letters to you, leaving all things to your will and judgment: and through the presbyter Petronius I had briefly indicated that I was somewhat disturbed, at the very moment of his departure, on a certain point. Wherefore, lest any scruple should remain with you, and lest, perhaps, for those wishing to be joined to the Church, your due caution, which is to be approved, should occasion delay, we have sent a statement of faith—not so much to you, who are already united with us in communion of the same faith, as to those who, by subscribing to it, may wish through you to be joined to it, that is, to us, most beloved brother.

Wherefore, if the aforesaid my son Vitalis, and those who are with him, wish to be joined to you, they must first subscribe to that exposition of faith which was confirmed at Nicaea by the pious will of the fathers. Then, since no one can apply a remedy to wounds not yet inflicted, that heresy must be uprooted which is said afterward to have sprung up in the East, that is, that the same Wisdom, the Word, the Son of God, must be confessed to have assumed a human body, soul, and mind, that is, the whole Adam, and, to speak more explicitly, our whole old man, without sin. For just as, in confessing that He assumed a human body, we do not thereby also attribute to Him the human passions of vice: so also, in saying that He assumed both the soul and the mind of man, we do not thereby say that He was also subject to the sin of human thoughts.

But if anyone shall say that the Word stood in place of the human mind in the flesh of the Lord, him the Catholic Church anathematizes: and likewise those who confess two sons in the Savior, that is, one before the Incarnation, and another after the assumption of flesh from the Virgin, and do not confess the same Son of God both before and afterward. Whoever shall wish to subscribe to this letter—provided that he shall first have subscribed to the ecclesiastical canons, which you know very well, and to the Nicene faith—him you ought to receive without any hesitation. Not that you could not have proposed these very things which we write for the reception of converts; but that our agreement may give you a free example in receiving them.

After the Nicene council, a council was gathered in the city of Rome by the Catholic bishops, and they added concerning the Holy Spirit. And because afterward this error grew, so that certain persons dared to say with sacrilegious mouth that the Holy Spirit was made through the Son.

Those also who have migrated from one church to another we hold as estranged from our communion for so long as they have not returned to those cities in which they were first established. But if one, upon another's migration, has been ordained in the place of a living man, let him who deserted his own city be deprived of the dignity of priest for so long as his successor rests in peace.

If anyone shall say that the Son of God, set in the flesh, while he was on earth, was not in the heavens with the Father, let him be anathema.

If anyone shall not say that the Holy Spirit can do all things, knows all things, and is everywhere, just as the Son and the Father, let him be anathema.

If anyone shall think rightly concerning the Father and the Son, but shall not hold rightly concerning the Holy Spirit, he is a heretic: for all heretics, thinking wrongly concerning the Son of God and the Holy Spirit, are found in the perfidy of Jews and Gentiles.

But if anyone should allow that, in saying God the Father, and God his Son, and God the Holy Spirit, they are called Gods, and not God, on account of the one divinity and power, which we believe and know to be that of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit, God—but withdrawing the Son, or the Holy Spirit, should think that God the Father alone is thus to be called, or believed, one God: let him be anathema. For the name of gods has been imposed and granted by God even to angels and to all the saints; but concerning the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, on account of the one equal divinity, it is shown and indicated to us not the name of gods, but of God: that we may believe that we are baptized only in the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, and not in the names of archangels or angels, as heretics, or Jews, or even mad Gentiles do.

This, then, is the salvation of Christians, that believing in the Trinity, that is, in the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Spirit, we should without doubt believe in it the one true and only divinity, and power and majesty and substance, the same, so that we may deserve to attain to eternal life.

To the most beloved brothers Acholius, Eurydicus, Severus, Uranius, Philip, and John, Damasus.

Having read through the letter of your love, dearest brothers, I was greatly saddened; that at the time when, by God's grace, the heretics had gone off cast out, certain men coming from Egypt, in a petition contrary to the rule of ecclesiastical discipline, should have wished to call to the priesthood, in the city of Constantinople, a Cynic, a man alien to our profession. What ardor of mind this may have been, what shameful presumption, we cannot know. From this it appears that restless men, when they presume much, do not know what they ought to do. They had not read the Apostle writing: "But if a man nourish his hair, it is a shame to him." They did not know that the garb of philosophers does not suit Christian bearing. They had not heard the Apostle warning, lest they be despoiled of the garment of sound faith through philosophy and vain deceit, which they had so long believed.

What haste, then, this was, I do not know, that when this garb was displeasing to Christians, the whole thing that was unbecoming should be done so insolently? But what else should the shamelessness of such very frivolous men have done, than that, expelled from the Church, ambitiously seeking within alien walls, as far as can be understood, they should ordain a restless man? But these are understood to be the contrivances of the enemy, who furnishes material for detraction to heretics. That has been fulfilled which the Gospel word had said: "Every plant," it says, "which my heavenly Father hath not planted, shall be rooted up." This is what I have often warned your love of, lest anything be done unconsideredly. Does your sincerity not know that in worldly wars the greater watch of soldiers is kept where the enemy presses? If, then, we must always resist with episcopal arms, we ought to act with care, lest, which God forbid, we abandon the flock of Christ to ravening wolves.

Philosophy, a friend of worldly wisdom, is an enemy to faith, a certain poison of hope, a most grievous war upon charity. What agreement, then, is there between the temple of God and idols? What participation between Christ and Belial?

But perhaps some will say: he was a Christian. To this man, who walks in the garb of an idol, the name of Christian ought never to be ascribed: because it cannot be that one who from this desires to please the Gentiles can have any fellowship with us of integral faith. Not undeservedly, however, did those who had come from Egypt, marked out by all, depart, condemning their own error: so that, his hair afterward being cut off, he who had not been rightly ordained might both sustain the loss of his head, and not be able to be what he had ambitiously sought. Rightly, therefore, was it done, that what had been badly begun should be destroyed by public authority.

For the rest I admonish your holiness, that, since I have learned that it has been arranged that a council ought to be held at Constantinople, your sincerity take care as to how the bishop of the aforesaid city is chosen, that he have no reproach against him: so that, God being propitious, when the peace of the catholic priests has been established whole, no dissensions may thereafter arise in the Church: so that, by God's help, what we have long since desired may be able to endure, a perpetual peace with the Catholic priests. This further I admonish your love of, that you do not allow anyone, contrary to the statutes of our forefathers, to be transferred from one city to another, and to desert the people committed to him: and to pass over to another people through ambition.

For then contentions arise, then schisms take on greater weight; since both those who have lost their priest cannot be without grief of mind, and those who have received a bishop of another city, even if they rejoice, understand that it will be a matter of envy to them to conduct themselves under a foreign priest.

To the merit of my son Rusticus nothing further can be added, honorable lord and brother. For while he has the prerogative of his office, in that he is Silentiary of our son the Emperor Gratian, this too is added, that he has obtained the grace of God at Rome, so that, thus fortified, he wished to come, sent to those parts. Hence, in every advantage of your honor, deign to receive him as, so to speak, your own pledge: so that, God being favorable, established in his sojourn, he may know that he is loved and honored by the fellow-priests of God. To the letter of your holiness I have replied fully, that it did not please me that certain men coming from Egypt should have attempted, or in particular that they should have wished to ordain as bishop of Constantinople someone called Maximus, whose very garb, according to the Apostle, was shameful.

Your holiness, therefore, will do more rightly, if it takes care that for the future a catholic be established, with whom, God being favorable, a perpetual peace may be able to endure with us.

That your charity renders due reverence to the Apostolic See, most honored sons, is indeed also of the greatest honor to yourselves. For although the holy Church, in which the holy Apostle, sitting, taught us in what manner the government of that Church, which we have undertaken, is to be conducted, is accorded to us the primary place: yet we confess that we are far inferior to that degree of dignity. But for this reason we labor in every way, that we may at length, if by any means we can, arrive at the glory of his blessedness. I would have you know, brothers, that we have long since disowned that profane Timothy, the disciple of the heretic Apollinaris, together with his impious dogma; and for that reason we believe that his remnants will in the future have no weight.

But if that ancient serpent, once and again struck, should revive to the increase of his own punishment, and, cast out of the Church, should not cease still to drag some of the faithful to destruction with his death-dealing poisons, by which he undertakes to tempt them, do you avoid this cunning of his as a kind of plague, and remember diligently both the faith handed down by the apostles, and especially this faith which has been delivered to us in writing by the holy Fathers in the Council of Nicaea: and, fixing your step firmly in it, stand immovable: and do not henceforth suffer either your clergy or your laity to listen to empty talk and obscure questions.

We have already more than once issued a formula, that whoever professes himself a Christian should hold that which has been handed down from the apostles; for Paul speaks thus divinely: "If any one preach a gospel to you other than that which you have received, let him be anathema." For Christ, the Son of God, our Lord, has, through his passion, rendered most full salvation to the human race, that he might free the whole man, entangled in sins, from every sin. If anyone shall say that he had either imperfect humanity or imperfect divinity, being filled with the spirit of the devil, he shows himself a son of hell. What reason is there, then, why you should again require of me the disowning of Timothy, who has here also, by the judgment of the Apostolic See, Peter also, bishop of Alexandria, being present, been disowned together with his master Apollinaris, who likewise on the day of judgment will pay the due penalties and punishments?

But if he, who has exchanged true hope in Christ together with the confession of faith, retaining as it were a certain hope of salvation, should draw certain lighter persons to his own opinion, let them know that they too will perish along with him for this reason, that they have at some time brought their mind to resist the canon of the Church. May God keep you safe, most honored sons.

To his most beloved son Jerome, Damasus, bishop, greeting in the Lord.

When I was reading the commentaries in Greek and Latin speech on the interpretation of the Gospels, written by our own, that is, by orthodox men, both formerly and recently, concerning that which is read: Hosanna to the son of David; they set forth not only diverse things, but even things contrary to one another. It is for your love, with that ardent vigor of intellect, having cut away opinions and trampled down ambiguities, to write with living sense what the matter holds among the Hebrews, so that concerning this, as concerning many other things, they may render thanks to you, who are our care in Christ Jesus.

To my most beloved son Jerome, Damasus. I have resolved to rouse you, sleeping and now for a long time reading rather than writing, by sending you some little questions: not that you ought not to read; for by this, as by daily food, discourse is nourished and grows rich: but because the fruit of reading is this, if you write. And so, since yesterday, when the courier was sent back to me, you said that you had no letters now, except those which you had once dictated in the desert, and which I read and copied with all eagerness; and you further promised that you could, if I wished, dictate some by the stolen labors of the nights; I gladly accept from you offering what I had wished to ask, even had you refused. Nor indeed do I think any conversation of our discussion would be worthier than if we should converse together concerning the Scriptures; that is, that I should ask, and you should answer.

Than which life I think nothing more pleasant in this light; by which food of the soul all honeys are surpassed. How sweet, says the Prophet, are thy words to my throat, above honey to my mouth. For since, as the chief orator says, we men differ from beasts in this, that we can speak: of what praise is he worthy, who surpasses others in that very thing in which men excel beasts? Gird yourself, therefore, and set forth for me the things that are proposed below, preserving moderation in both respects, so that neither the propositions may lack solution, nor the letter brevity.

I confess indeed to you, that those books of Lactantius which you gave me some time ago, I do not gladly read, because very many of this man’s letters extend up to a thousand lines in length, and rarely do they discuss our doctrine: whereby it happens that their length breeds weariness in the reader; and if any are brief, they are more suited to schoolmen than to us, discussing meters, and the location of regions, and philosophers.

From the council of the city of Rome under Pope Damasus. It was said: First we must speak of the sevenfold Spirit, who rests in Christ. The Spirit of wisdom: Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. The Spirit of understanding: I will give thee understanding, and instruct thee in the way in which thou shalt walk. The Spirit of counsel: and his name shall be called the angel of great counsel. The Spirit of might, as was said above: Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. The Spirit of knowledge, on account of the eminence of the knowledge of Jesus Christ, as the Apostle says. The Spirit of truth: I am the life, and the truth. The Spirit of fear: The fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom. Now the dispensation of the names of Christ is manifold.

Lord, because Christ; Word, because Son of God, because only-begotten of the Father; man, because born of a Virgin; priest, because he offered himself as a burnt offering; shepherd, because guardian; worm, because he rose again; mountain, because strong; way, because through him is the upright entrance into life; lamb, because he suffered; corner-stone, because instruction; teacher, because shower of life; sun, because illuminator; true, because from the Father; life, because creator; bread, because flesh; Samaritan, because guardian and merciful; Christ, because anointed; Jesus, because savior; God, because from God; angel, because messenger; bridegroom, because mediator; vine, because we have been redeemed by his blood; lion, because king; rock, because foundation; flower, because chosen; prophet, because he reveals things to come. For the Holy Spirit is not the Spirit of the Father only, nor of the Son only, but the Spirit of the Father and of the Son: for it is written: If anyone loves the world, the spirit of the Father is not in him.

Likewise it is written: but he who does not have the Spirit of Christ, he is not his. Therefore, when the Father and the Son are named, the Holy Spirit is understood: concerning whom the Son himself says in the Gospel: that the Holy Spirit proceeds from the Father; and he shall receive of mine, and shall announce it to you.

After all these prophetic, and evangelical, and apostolic Scriptures, which we have set forth above, by which the catholic Church has been founded through the grace of God, we have thought it right also to make known this: that although the Catholic Church, spread throughout the world, is as it were one bridal chamber of Christ, yet the holy Roman Church has been placed before the other Churches by certain synodal decrees, and has also obtained the primacy by the evangelic voice of our Lord and Savior: Thou art Peter, and upon this rock I will build my Church, and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it; and to thee I will give the keys of the kingdom of heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt bind upon earth, shall be bound also in heaven; and whatsoever thou shalt loose upon earth, shall be loosed also in heaven.

There has been added also the fellowship of the most blessed apostle Paul, vessel of election, who was crowned not at a different time, as the heretics prattle, but at one and the same time, on one and the same day, in glorious death together with Peter, contending in the city of Rome under Caesar Nero: and they together consecrated the aforesaid Roman Church to Christ the Lord, and by their presence and venerable triumph set it before all others throughout the whole world. The first see, therefore, of the apostle Peter is the Roman Church, having neither spot, nor wrinkle, nor anything of this kind. But the second see is at Alexandria, consecrated in the name of the blessed Peter by Mark his disciple and evangelist; and he himself, sent into Egypt by the apostle Peter, preached the word of truth, and accomplished a glorious martyrdom.

But the third see is at Antioch, of his most blessed apostle Peter, which is held in honor, because he dwelt there first, before he came to Rome, and there first the name of Christians of the new people had its beginning.