Damasus I

pope, born in Spain (others say in Rome) A.D. 306, succeeded Liberius as bishop of Rome A.D. 366. He was opposed by Ursicinus, who claimed the election, and in their disgraceful strifes many people were murdered. -He was a man of vigorous intellect, and extended the power of the see of Rome very greatly. The emperor Gratian conferred upon him, in 378, the right to pass judgment upon those clergymen of the other party who had been expelled from Rome, and, at the request of a Roman synod held in the same year, instructed the secular authorities to give to him the necessary support. Damasus was a vigorous opponent of Arianism; a synod held by him in 368 condemned the two Illyrian bishops Ursacius and Valens, and another, held in 370, passed sentence against Auxentius of Milan. He also exerted himself for putting an end to the Antioch schism, and took part in the OEcumenical Council of Constantinople of 381. One of his best acts was to make Jerome his secretary, and to aid him in his version of the Bible. He died in 384, and after his death was soon enrolled in the catalogue of saints, being commemorated on Dec. 11. See Damasi Opera, edited by Merenda (Rome, 1754, fol.; Paris, 1840, 8vo); Mosheim, Ch. Hist. bk. ii, cent. iv, pt. ii, ch. ii, note 40; Milman, Hist. of Latin Christianity, 1:108 sq.; Christian Remembrancer, Oct. 1854, 283 sq.