Upon the Receipt of this Letter, the Italian Bishops, finding Theodosius no ways disposed to assemble an Oecumenical Council, applied to Gratian, who not only granted them Leave to meet at Rome, the Place they chose, but dispatched Letters to all the Bishops both in the East and West, giving them Notice of the Time and Place, in which the Council was to be held, and inviting them to it[[1181]]. But of all the Eastern Bishops, Two only complied with this Invitation; viz. Epiphanius Bishop of Salamis in the Island of Cyprus, and Paulinus, whom all the West acknowleged for lawful Bishop of Antioch. The Western Bishops were all present, either in Person, or by their Deputies; and Damasus presided[[1182]]. But, as to the Transactions of this great Assembly, we are almost intirely in the Dark; for all we know of them is, that they unanimously agreed not to communicate with Flavianus, the new Bishop of Antioch, nor with Diodorus of Tarsus, or Acacius of Berœa, who had been chiefly instrumental in his Promotion; that they condemned the Heresy of Apollinaris; and that, at the Request of Damasus, a Confession of Faith was drawn up by Jerom, and approved by the Council, which the Apollinarists were to sign, upon their being re-admitted to the Communion of the Church[[1183]]. As for Maximus, they seem to have abandoned his Cause, being, in all Likelihood, undeceived, with respect to his Ordination, by Acholius Bishop of Thessalonica, and St. Jerom, who assisted at the Council, and could not be Strangers to the Character of Maximus, nor unacquainted with the scandalous Methods by which he had attained the Episcopal Dignity.
The Misunderstanding between the East and the West increased.
The Resolution they took not to communicate with Flavianus, whose Election, though imprudently made, was undoubtedly Canonical, and had been approved and confirmed by the Oecumenical Council of Constantinople, not only increased the Jealousies and Misunderstanding between the East and the West, but occasioned a great Disagreement, and endless Quarrels, among the Eastern Bishops themselves. For those who acknowleged Paulinus, viz. the Bishops of Egypt, of the Island of Cyprus, of Arabia, insisted upon the Deposition of Flavianus[[1184]]. Nestorius mentions some Letters, written by the Bishops of Egypt against Flavianus, with great Virulency, and a tyrannical Spirit, to use his Expression[[1185]]. On the other hand, the Bishops of Syria, of Palæstine, of Phœnicia, Armenia, Cappadocia, Galatia, Pontus, Asia, and Thrace, not only maintained, with equal Warmth, the Election of Flavianus, but began to treat their Brethren in the East, who had joined the Western Bishops against them, as Schismatics, as Betrayers of their Trust, as Transgressors of the Canons of Nice, commanding the Elections and Ordinations of each Province to be made and performed by the Bishops of the same Province, and all Disputes concerning them to be finally decided in the Place where they had begun[[1186]]. This Schism occasioned great Confusion in the Church, which continued till the Year 398, when Chrysostom, after having, with indefatigable Pains, long laboured in vain to bring about an Accommodation between the East and the West, had at last, soon after his Promotion to the See of Constantinople, the Satisfaction of seeing his pious Endeavours crowned with Success, as I shall relate in a more proper Place.
No Regard paid by the Eastern Bishops to the Judgment of the Pope.
From this whole Account it is manifest, as the Reader must have observed, that the Orientals paid no manner of Regard either to the Judgment of the Bishop of Rome, or to that of the whole Body of the Western Bishops, assembled in Council under him. For though they well knew the Bishop of Rome, and his Collegues in the West, to be warmly engaged in favour of Paulinus, yet they refused to acknowlege him, even after the Death of Meletius; and therefore raised Flavianus to the See of Antioch, in the room of Meletius, and confirmed that Election in an Oecumenical Council. The Western Bishops exclaimed against it, desiring it might be referred to the Decision of a General Council. But not even to that Demand would the Orientals agree, thinking, as they declared in their Answer, that there was no Occasion for a Council, since Flavianus had been chosen and ordained by the Bishops of the Diocese, which was all the Canons of Nice required. They therefore exhorted them to divest themselves of all Prejudices, to sacrifice all private Affections to the Peace and Unity of the Church, and to put an End to the present, and prevent all future, Disputes, by approving, with their joint Suffrages, an Election which had been approved and confirmed by an Oecumenical Council[[1187]].
The Custom of ap-
pointing Vicars intro-
duced by Damasus,
and on what Oc-
casion.
To return to Damasus: He was the first who introduced the Custom, which his Successors took care to improve, of conferring on certain Bishops the Title of their Vicars, pretending thereby to impart to them an extraordinary Power, enabling them to perform several Things, which they could not perform in virtue of their own. Acholius Bishop of Thessalonica was the first who enjoyed this Title, being, by Damasus, appointed his Vicar in East Illyricum, on the following Occasion: Illyricum, comprising all antient Greece, and many Provinces on the Danube, whereof Sirmium was the Capital, had, ever since the Time of Constantine, belonged to the Western Empire. But, in the Year 379. Dacia and Greece were, by Gratian, disjoined from the more Westerly Provinces, and added, in favour of Theodosius, to the Eastern Empire, being known by the Name of East Illyricum, whereof Thessalonica, the Metropolis of Macedon, was the chief City. The Bishops of Rome, as presiding in the Metropolis of the Empire, had begun to claim a kind of Jurisdiction, or rather Inspection in Ecclesiastical Matters, over all the Provinces of the Western Empire; which was the first great Step by which they ascended to the Supremacy they afterwards claimed and established. This Damasus was unwilling to resign with respect to Illyricum, even after that Country was dismembered from the Western, and added to the Eastern Empire. In order therefore to maintain his Claim, he appointed Acholius Bishop of Thessalonica to act in his stead, vesting in him the Power which he pretended to have over those Provinces. Upon the Death of Acholius he conferred the same Dignity on his Successor Anysius, as did the following Popes on the succeeding Bishops of Thessalonica, who, by thus supporting the Pretensions of Rome, became the first Bishops, and, in a manner, the Patriarchs, of East Illyricum; for they are sometimes distinguished with that Title. This, however, was not done without Opposition, the other Metropolitans not readily acknowleging for their Superior one who, till that time, had been their Equal[[1188]]. Syricius, who succeeded Damasus, inlarging the Power claimed by his Predecessor, decreed, that no Bishop should be ordained in East Illyricum without the Consent and Approbation of the Bishop of Thessalonica[[1189]]. But it was some time before this Decree took place. Pope Innocent I. writes, that his Predecessors committed to the Care of Acholius, Achaia, Thessaly, the Two Epirus’s, Candia, the Two Dacia’s, Mœsia, Dardania, and Prævalitana, now Part of Albania, impowering him to judge and decide the Controversies that might arise there, and appointing him to be the first among the Primates, without prejudicing the Primacy of those Churches[[1190]]. Thus were the Bishops of Thessalonica first appointed Vicars or Vicegerents of the Bishops of Rome, probably in the Year 382. for in that Year Acholius assisted at the Council of Rome, and it was, in all Likelihood, on that Occasion that Damasus vested him with this new Dignity. |The Institution of Vicars improved by the succeeding Popes.| The Contrivance of Damasus was notably improved by his Successors, who, in order to extend and inlarge their Authority, conferred the Title of their Vicars, and the pretended Power annexed to it, on the most eminent Prelates of other Provinces and Kingdoms, engaging them thereby to depend upon them, and to promote the Authority of their See, to the utter Suppression of the antient Rights and Liberties both of Bishops and Synods. This Dignity was for the most part annexed to certain Sees, but sometimes conferred on particular Persons. Thus was Austin appointed the Pope’s Vicar in England, Boniface in Germany; and both, in virtue of the Power which they pretended to have been imparted to them with that Title, usurped and exercised an Authority above that of Metropolitans. The Institution of Vicars was, by the succeeding Popes, improved into that of Legates, or, to use De Marca’s Expression, the latter Institution was grafted on the former[[1191]]. |Legates vested with
greater Power than
Vicars.| The Legates were vested with a far greater Power than the Vicars, or, as Pope Leo expresses it, were admitted to a far greater Share of his Care, though not to the Plenitude of his Power[[1192]]. They were sent on proper Occasions into all Countries, and never failed exerting, to the utmost Stretch, their boasted Power, oppressing, in virtue of their paramount Authority, the Clergy as well as the People, and extorting from both large Sums, to support the Pomp and Luxury in which they lived.
The Custom of appointing Vicars and Legates may well be alleged as a remarkable Instance of the Craft and Policy of the Popes, since, of all the Methods they ever devised (and many they have devised) to extend and establish their Power, none has better answered their ambitious Views. But how Bellarmine could lay so much Stress upon it as he does[[1193]], to prove, that the Pope has, by Divine Right, a sovereign Authority and Jurisdiction over all the Churches of the Earth, is unconceivable. |The sending Legates
no Proof of the Pope’s
universal Jurisdiction.| For it is certain, beyond all Dispute, that such a Custom had never been heard of till the Time of Damasus, that is, till the Latter-end of the Fourth Century, when it was first introduced, upon the dismembering of East Illyricum, by Gratian, from the Western Empire. Damasus did not even then claim that sovereign and unlimited Power, with which Bellarmine is pleased to vest him, but only a kind of Inspection over the Provinces of the Western Empire, as Bishop of the first See. |The Disingenuity of
Bellarmine.| And here I cannot help observing the Disingenuity of Bellarmine, who, in speaking of this Institution, expresses himself thus: Leo appointed Anastiasius Bishop of Thessalonica his Vicar in the East, in the same manner as the Predecessors of Anastasius had been Vicars to the Predecessors of Leo[[1194]]. From these Words every Reader would naturally conclude, and Bellarmine designs they should, that the Bishops of Thessalonica had been the Pope’s Vicars from the Beginning, or Time out of Mind; whereas it is certain, that this Institution had taken place but a few Years before. Pope Leo I. in conferring on Anastasius the Vicariate Dignity of his See, as he styles it, declared, that he followed therein the Example of his Predecessor Syricius[[1195]], who first appointed Anysius to act in his stead. But he was doubly mistaken; for these Vicars were first instituted, as is notorious, by Damasus, and not by Syricius; and it was not by Syricius, but by Damasus, that Anysius was vested with that Dignity[[1196]]. The Bishop of Thessalonica is styled, by the antient Writers, the Pope’s Vicar in East Illyricum, which is manifestly confining his Vicariate Jurisdiction to that District; but Bellarmine extends it at once all over the East, by distinguishing him with the Title of the Popes Vicar for the East[[1197]]. But how little Regard was paid to the Pope’s Authority in the East, I have sufficiently shewn above.
I find nothing else in the antient Writers concerning Damasus worthy of Notice, besides his generously undertaking the Defence of Symmachus, who, being Prefect of Rome in 384. the last Year of Damasus’s Life, and a sworn Enemy to the Christians, was falsly accused to the Emperor, as if he had with great Cruelty persecuted and oppressed them. But Damasus had the Generosity to take his Part, and clear him, by a Letter he writ to the Emperor, from that Charge[[1198]]. |Damasus dies.| This was one of the last Actions of Damasus’s Life; for he died this Year on the 10th or 11th of December, being then in the Eightieth Year of his Age, after he had governed the Church of Rome for the Space of Eighteen Years, and about Two Months[[1199]]. He was buried, according to Anastasius[[1200]], near his Mother and Sister, in a Church which he had built at the Catacombs, on the Way to Ardea; whence that Place, though Part of the Cœmetery of Calixtus, is by some called the Cœmetery of Damasus[[1201]]. He proposed at first being buried near the Remains of St. Sixtus, and his Companions; but afterwards changed his Mind, lest he should disturb the Ashes of the Saints[[1202]]. He caused the Church of St. Laurence, near the Theatre of Pompey, probably that which his Father and he himself had formerly served, to be rebuilt, inlarged, and embellished; Whence it is still known by the joint Titles of St. Laurence and Damasus[[1203]]. In that Church his Body is worshiped to this Day. But, how or when it was removed thither, nobody knows[[1204]]. |The Decrees ascribed
to him suppositious.| Several Decrees are ascribed to Damasus by Gratian, Ivo of Chartres, Anastasius, and others, but all evidently forged by some Impostor blindly addicted to the See of Rome, and quite unacquainted with the Discipline of the Church in the Fourth Century. In one of them a Canon is quoted from the Council of Nice, forbidding the Laity to eat or drink of any thing that was offered to the holy Priests, because none but the Jewish Priests were allowed to eat of the Bread that was offered on the Altar. We know of no such Canon; and besides, it is not at all probable, that the Council of Nice would have restrained the Clergy from sharing at least with the Poor what was offered them. In another of these Decrees the Paying of Tythes is commanded, on pain of Excommunication; whereas it might be easily made appear, that, in the Fourth Century, the Offerings destined for the Maintenance of the Clergy were still voluntary. Another Decree supposes, that, by an antient Custom, all Metropolitans swore Fealty to the Apostolic See, and could ordain no Bishops till they had received the Pall from Rome. For the Sake of this, Baronius admits all the rest: but of such a Custom not the least Mention, or distant Hint, is to be met with in any antient Writer.
His Writings in Prose and Verse.