s the secret policy of his
patron Damasus.]

Damasus, bishop of Rome, who was constrained to stigmatize
the avarice of his clergy by the publication of the law of Valentinian,
had the good sense, or the good fortune, to engage in his service the
zeal and abilities of the learned Jerom; and the grateful saint has
celebrated the merit and purity of a very ambiguous character. [80] But
the splendid vices of the church of Rome, under the reign of Valentinian
and Damasus, have been curiously observed by the historian Ammianus, who
delivers his impartial sense in these expressive words: "The praefecture
of Juventius was accompanied with peace and plenty, but the tranquillity
of his government was soon disturbed by a bloody sedition of the
distracted people. The ardor of Damasus and Ursinus, to seize the
episcopal seat, surpassed the ordinary measure of human ambition. They
contended with the rage of party; the quarrel was maintained by the
wounds and death of their followers; and the praefect, unable to resist
or appease the tumult, was constrained, by superior violence, to retire
into the suburbs. Damasus prevailed: the well-disputed victory remained
on the side of his faction; one hundred and thirty-seven dead bodies
[81] were found in the Basilica of Sicininus, [82] where the Christians
hold their religious assemblies; and it was long before the angry minds
of the people resumed their accustomed tranquillity. When I consider the
splendor of the capital, I am not astonished that so valuable a prize
should inflame the desires of ambitious men, and produce the fiercest
and most obstinate contests. The successful candidate is secure, that he
will be enriched by the offerings of matrons; [83] that, as soon as his
dress is composed with becoming care and elegance, he may proceed,
in his chariot, through the streets of Rome; [84] and that the
sumptuousness of the Imperial table will not equal the profuse and
delicate entertainments provided by the taste, and at the expense,
of the Roman pontiffs. How much more rationally (continues the honest
Pagan) would those pontiffs consult their true happiness, if, instead of
alleging the greatness of the city as an excuse for their manners,
they would imitate the exemplary life of some provincial bishops,
whose temperance and sobriety, whose mean apparel and downcast looks,
recommend their pure and modest virtue to the Deity and his true
worshippers!" [85] The schism of Damasus and Ursi