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Chapter XVII.—Synodical Act of Damasus, Bishop of Rome, and of the Western Bishops, about the Council at Ariminum.; original source section: Chapter 17
Complete historical editorial footnotes. These notes retain the original edition’s wording; individual note authors are unspecified.
English translation and editorial credits: Blomfield Jackson.
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The letter is given in Soz. vi. 23. The Latin text (Coll. Rom. ed. Holsten. p. 163) differs materially from the Greek.
Editorial footnote · Ecclesiastical History, Chapter XVII.—Synodical Act of Damasus, Bishop of Rome, and of the Western Bishops, about the Council at Ariminum.; original source section: Chapter 17, editorial note cite_note-1 · Original source
The condemnation of this formula by all the champions of the truth, and specially those of the West, is shewn by the letter which they wrote to the Illyrians. First of the signatories was Damasus, who obtained the presidency of the church of Rome after Liberius, and was adorned with many virtues. With him signed ninety bishops of Italy and Galatia, now called Gaul, who met together at Rome. I would have inserted their names but that I thought it superfluous.
These were displayed after his establishment in his see. He was the nominee of the Arian party, and bloody scenes marked the struggle with his rival Ursinus. “Damasus et Ursinus, supra humanum modum ad rapiendam episcopatus sedem ardentes, scissis studiis asperrime conflictabantur, adusque mortis vulnerumque discrimina progressis.…Constat in basilica ubi ritus christiani conventiculum uno die centum triginta septem reperta cadavera peremptorum.” Amm. Marc. xxvii. 3, 13. “But we can say that he used his success well, and that the chair of St. Peter was never more respected nor more vigorous than during his bishopric.” Mr. Moberly in Dict. Christ. Biog. i. 782. Jerome calls him (Ep. Hier. xlviii. 230) “an illustrious man, virgin doctor of the virgin church.” But not his least claim to our regard is that in the Catacombs it was his “labour of love to rediscover the tombs which had been blocked up for concealment under Diocletian, to remove the earth, widen the passages, adorn the sepulchral chambers with marble, and support the friable tufa walls with arches of brick and stone.” “Roma Sotterranea,” Northcote and Brownlow, p. 97.
Editorial footnote · Ecclesiastical History, Chapter XVII.—Synodical Act of Damasus, Bishop of Rome, and of the Western Bishops, about the Council at Ariminum.; original source section: Chapter 17, editorial note cite_note-2 · Original source
The condemnation of this formula by all the champions of the truth, and specially those of the West, is shewn by the letter which they wrote to the Illyrians. First of the signatories was Damasus, who obtained the presidency of the church of Rome after Liberius, and was adorned with many virtues. With him signed ninety bishops of Italy and Galatia, now called Gaul, who met together at Rome. I would have inserted their names but that I thought it superfluous.
Γαλάται = Κέλτοι, the older name, which exists in Herodotus II. 33 and IV. 49. Pausanias (I. iii. 5) says ὀψὲ δέ ποτε αὐτοὺς καλεὶσθαι Γαλάτας ἐξενίκησε, Κέλτοι γὰρ κατά τε σφᾶς τὸ ἀρχαῖον καὶ παρὰ τοῖς ἄλλοις ὠνομάζοντο. Galatia occurs on the Monumentum Ancyranum. Bp. Lightfoot (Galat. p. 3) says the first instance of Gallia (Galli) which he has found in any Greek writer is in Epictetus II. 20, 17.
Editorial footnote · Ecclesiastical History, Chapter XVII.—Synodical Act of Damasus, Bishop of Rome, and of the Western Bishops, about the Council at Ariminum.; original source section: Chapter 17, editorial note cite_note-3 · Original source
The condemnation of this formula by all the champions of the truth, and specially those of the West, is shewn by the letter which they wrote to the Illyrians. First of the signatories was Damasus, who obtained the presidency of the church of Rome after Liberius, and was adorned with many virtues. With him signed ninety bishops of Italy and Galatia, now called Gaul, who met together at Rome. I would have inserted their names but that I thought it superfluous.
In Sozomen, Valerius, Bishop of Aquileia. “But little is known of his life, but under his rule there grew up at Aquileia the society of remarkable persons of whom Hieronymus became the most famous.” Dict. Christ. Biog. iv. 1102.
Editorial footnote · Ecclesiastical History, Chapter XVII.—Synodical Act of Damasus, Bishop of Rome, and of the Western Bishops, about the Council at Ariminum.; original source section: Chapter 17, editorial note cite_note-4 · Original source
“The bishops assembled at Rome in sacred synod, Damasus and Valerianus and the rest, to their beloved brethren the bishops of Illyria, send greeting in God.