CHAPTER XXIX

DAMASUS ORDAINED BISHOP OF ROME. SEDITION AND LOSS OF LIFE CAUSED BY THE RIVALRY OF URSINUS

WHILE the emperor Valentinian enjoyed the utmost tranquillity, and interfered with no sect, Damasus after Liberius undertook the administration of the Episcopate at Rome; whereupon a great disturbance was caused on the following account. Ursinus, a deacon of that church, had been nominated among others when the election of a bishop took place; who unable to bear the frustration of his hope by Damasus being preferred, held schismatic assemblies apart from the church, and even induced certain bishops of little distinction to ordain him in secret. This ordination, which was made not in a church, but in a retired place called the Palace of Sicinius, excited much dissension among the people; their disagreement being not about any article of faith or heresy, but simply this, who ought to obtain the Episcopal chair! Hence frequent conflicts arose, insomuch that many lives were sacrificed in this contention; and many of the clergy as well as laity were punished on that account by Maximin the governor of the city. Thus was Ursinus obliged to desist from his pretensions at that time, and those who espoused his cause were reduced to order.