The Bishop of Alexandria being thus reinstated, and again at full Liberty to exert his Zeal for the Catholic Cause, his first Care was to retrieve his fallen Brethren, and reunite them to the Church. With this View he assembled, in 362. a Council at Alexandria, composed only of Confessors, that is, of such Bishops as had chosen rather to forfeit their Dignities and Sees, than receive or sign the Arian Confession of Rimini or Sirmium. This was one of the most respectable Councils that was ever held in the Church, not so much in regard of the Numbers (for I find not above Twenty named) as of the Merit, Virtue, and Sanctity of the Members that composed it. The chief Subject of their Debates, or rather Inquiries, was to find out the most proper Means of restoring Tranquillity to the Church, after so dreadful a Storm. Some, and among the rest Lucifer Bishop of Cagliari, who did not assist in Person, but by his Deputies, the Two Deacons Herennius and Agapetus, were for deposing all those who had signed the Confession of Rimini, and cutting them off from the Communion of the Church. But this unseasonable Severity was condemned by the far greater Part, as tending to raise a new Storm, and involve the Church in greater Troubles than ever, which the Emperor Julian would take care to improve, to the total Ruin of the Christian Religion. Athanasius therefore was for using Severity only with the Authors, and chief Promoters, of the late general Defection: and his Opinion prevailed; for a Decree was enacted, importing, that the Authors of the late general Prevarication should, even upon their Repentance, be received to the Communion of the Church only in the Capacity of Laymen, but that the rest should be all kept in, or restored to, their Sees, upon their publicly renouncing the Arian Communion, and embracing the Faith of Nice^[945]. |A Schism formed by
Lucifer, Bishop of
Cagliari.| This Decree was every-where received with the greatest Joy, the Bishop of Cagliari being the only Man, either in the East or West, who opposed it, and that with so much Obstinacy, that, rather than yield, he chose to separate himself from the Communion of the rest, and to form a new Schism, which bore his Name, and soon gained a considerable Footing, especially in the West; several Persons no less distinguished for Piety than Learning, and among the rest Gregory, the famous Bishop of Elvira, having adopted the Sentiments of a Man, who had suffered so much for the Purity of the Faith. As Lucifer is honoured by the Church of Rome as a Saint, and his Festival is kept on the 20th of May^[946], Baronius pretends, that he abandoned his Schism, and returned to the Communion of the Church, before his Death^[947]. |He never returned
to the Communion of
the Church.| But his Contemporary Ruffinus, who probably knew him, assures us, that he died in the Schism, which he had formed^[948]. Jerom often speaks of his Schism, but no-where gives us the least Hint of his having ever quitted it; which would have afforded him a strong Argument against the Luciferians, and he would not have failed to urge it, in the Book which he wrote to convince them of their Error. That Writer speaks of Lucifer, on all Occasions, with the greatest Respect, even in the Book which he writ against his Followers: he owns, that his Intention was pure and upright; that it was not Pride, Thirst after Glory, or a Desire of transmitting his Name to Posterity, but a mistaken Zeal, that led him astray, and made him disapprove what the others approved; he even distinguishes him with the Title of the Blessed Lucifer^[949]. And hence Baronius concludes, that he returned to the Communion of the Church; for otherwise, says the Annalist^[950], St. Jerom had never given him the Title of Blessed, or Saint. But that he did not return, is manifest, from the Silence of St. Jerom on that Head, and from the Authority of a contemporary Writer quoted above: and hence I may draw a Conclusion far better grounded than that of Baronius; viz. that St. Jerom excused him on account of his good Intention; and, consequently, that he did not hold the uncharitable Doctrine of the Church of Rome, excluding from Salvation all who die out of her Communion, let their Intention be never so good. It is to be observed, that the Luciferians not only excluded from their Communion those who had received the Arian Confession, but all who communicated with them, even after they had anathematized that Confession, and publicly embraced the Faith of Nice.

The Resolution taken by the Confessors in the Council of Alexandria, is said to have saved the Church from utter Ruin. For had that prevailed, which was urged with so much Warmth by Lucifer, the Bishops, who had chosen rather to sign the Arian Confession than forfeit their Sees, would have kept them in Defiance of a Decree made by a small Number of their Collegues, and in all Likelihood excommunicated and deposed, in their Turn, those who had excommunicated and deposed them: and, in that Case, the Arian Party, comprehending almost all the Bishops of the Church, must have prevailed. But as nothing was required of them, to keep their Sees, besides their renouncing the Confession of Rimini, which they had embraced, and embracing that of Nice, which they had renounced, they readily complied with the Decree of the Council; insomuch that the following Year 363. Athanasius, in a Letter, which he wrote to the Emperor Jovian, immediately after the Death of Julian, could assure that Prince, that the Faith of Nice had been received, and was professed, in all the Provinces of the Empire, which he enumerates; but omits those of Thrace, Bithynia, and the Hellespont^[951], the Bishops there still continuing obstinately to maintain the Doctrine of Arius, and to reject the Faith of Nice, as we learn from Sozomen^[952], Socrates^[953], and Basil^[954]; nay, at Constantinople, the Orthodox had but a small Chapel to assemble in, all the Churches being in Possession of the Arians, under Eudoxius, a leading Man among the Pure Arians, who had usurped that See^[955]. |The Faith of Nice
everywhere
established.| For the better establishing of the Orthodox Faith, after the violent Shock it had lately received, Councils were held in several Provinces of the Empire^[N19], and by all was received the Faith of Nice, the Confession of Rimini condemned, and the Words Substance and Consubstantial re-established^[956]. A very strong Proof, that the Assent given before to the Arian Doctrines had been solely the Effect of Force, or of Interest, which being now removed, and all left at Liberty to act as their Consciences only directed, the Orthodox Faith prevailed as much as the other had done under Constantius.

As every one was allowed by Julian to believe what he pleased, and to own his Belief, whatever it was, the Semi-Arians convened a Council, soon after the Death of Constantius, who, in the Latter-end of his Life, had begun to persecute them as much as he had favoured them before. This Council was composed of those chiefly who had assisted at that of Seleucia, of which I have spoken above; and they all agreed to condemn and anathematize the Doctrine of the Pure Arians, with the Confession of Rimini, and to sign anew the Confession of Antioch, establishing a Likeness in Substance between the Son and the Father. Thus they pretended to keep a due Mean between the Two opposite Extremes, of the Western Bishops, whose Consubstantiality, they said, left no room for the Distinction of Persons; and of the Pure Arians, who denied all Likeness^[957]. |The Sect of the
Macedonians.| It was after this Council that the Semi-Arians, separating themselves from the Communion of the Pure Arians, began to form a distinct Sect, and to be called Macedonians; which Name was given them from Macedonius, late Bishop of Constantinople, but deposed by the Pure Arians, in the Council they held in that City in 360. to make room for their great Champion Eudoxius, translated formerly from Germanicia to Antioch, and now from Antioch to Constantinople. They were also named Marathonians, from Marathonius, Bishop of Nicomedia, who, together with Macedonius, was at the Head of the Party; and Pneumatomachi, that is, Enemies to the Holy Ghost, whose Divinity they denied, which was their chief, if not their only Error; for some are of Opinion, that tho’ they rejected the Word Consubstantial, yet they agreed with the Orthodox in the Meaning of it. They led very regular, austere, and edifying Lives; and are, on that Score, highly commended and extolled by GregoryGregory Nazianzen^[958]. No Wonder therefore, that they soon spread all over the East, and gained every-where great Numbers of Followers. At Constantinople, and in the neighbouring Cities and Provinces, they were followed not only by the greater Part of the People, but by some Persons of Distinction, by such as were most remarkable for their Piety, by intire Monasteries, both of Men and Women^[959]. The Inhabitants of Cyzicus in the Propontis were almost all of this Sect, and we are told of some Miracles wrought by a Macedonian of that Place^[960], which Baronius will not allow, though as well attested as any he relates.

The Emperor Valens, who reigned in the East, which had been yielded to him by his Brother Valentinian, when he took him for his Collegue in the Empire, spared no Pains to reconcile this Sect with that of the Arians, which he greatly favoured. But, finding them no less averse to the Arians than the Orthodox themselves, he began in the Year 366. to persecute them with great Cruelty. To avoid this Persecution they resolved to recur to the Emperor Valentinian, and, embracing the Faith professed by him and the Western Bishops, to put themselves under his Protection. Accordingly they dispatched Three of their Body, viz. Eustathius Bishop of Sebaste, Sylvanus of Tarsus, and Theophilus of Castabala, to acquaint the Emperor, in the Name of the rest, with the Resolution they had taken, and implore his Protection^[961]. These, being informed, on their Arrival in Italy, that Valentinian was waging War with the Barbarians on the Borders of Gaul, instead of repairing to him, which they apprehended might be attended with no small Danger, went strait to Rome, and there delivered to Liberius Letters from their Brethren, directed to him, and to the other Bishops of the West, whom they earnestly intreated to use their Interest with the Emperor, in their Behalf, assuring them, that they sincerely renounced the Errors they had hitherto held, and embraced the Catholic Faith, as explained and defined by the Council of Nice^[962]. |Deliver to Liberius
their Confession of
Faith;| But Liberius, notwithstanding these Assurances, suspected their Sincerity; and therefore could not, by any means, be prevailed upon to communicate with them, or even to hear them, till they had delivered to him a Confession of Faith, under their Hand, and in the Name of the whole Party, wherein they anathematized those of Rimini, and Nice in Bithynia; condemned the Heresy of Arius, with all other Heresies; and received the Definitions of the Council of Nice, those particularly that related to Consubstantiality. To this Confession they added a solemn Protestation, declaring themselves ready to submit to the Sentence of such Judges as the Pope should think fit to appoint, should they, or those by whom they had been sent, be ever for the future accused or suspected of swerving in the least from the Faith they now embraced and professed^[963]. |who admits them to
his Communion.| In virtue of this Confession, whereof the Original was carefully lodged in the Archives of the Church of Rome, Liberius admitted the Deputies to his Communion; and, upon their Departure, writ, in the Name of all the Bishops of Italy, and the West, to the Macedonian Bishops, of whom he names 59, signifying the great Joy, which their Letters, and the Confession of Faith, signed by their Deputies, had occasioned at Rome, and in all the Western Churches, since by such a Confession they were all again happily united in one Faith. In this Letter Liberius assures them, that all the Bishops, who had assisted at the Council of Rimini, had retracted the Doctrine, which they had been forced to sign there; and were more than ever incensed against the Arians, on account of the Violence, which, at their Instigation, had been offered them^[964]. The Macedonians admitted the Divinity of the Son, but denied that of the Holy Ghost; nay, this was their favourite Doctrine, and, as it were, the Characteristic of their Sect; but Liberius, and the other Western Bishops, not suspecting them of such an Error, which in all Likelihood they had not yet publicly owned, admitted them to their Communion, without examining them on that Head.

Liberius died soon after, that is, on the 23d or 24th of September, of the present Year 366. as we are told by Marcellinus and Faustinus, whose Authority is preferable to that of any other, since, at this very time, they lived at Rome^[965]. He had been chosen on the 22d of May 352. so that he governed the Church of Rome Fourteen Years, Four Months, and a Day or Two. |The deplorable
Condition of the
Church in his Time.| Liberius lived in troublesome Times, the worst the Church had ever yet seen. She had Two dangerous Enemies to contend with at the same time, the Power of the Prince then on the Imperial Throne, and the Craft of a most subtle and deceitful Party. The Prince employed all his Power to overcome, with Oppression, those whom the Party could not over-reach with their Craft; and the Party to over-reach with their Craft such as the Prince could not overcome with Oppression. On the other hand, the Prelates, even some who were reputed the Pillars of the Church, seemed to have lost that Zeal, Firmness, and Intrepidity, which they had so gloriously exerted under the Pagan Princes, and few were found among them, whose Virtue was proof against the Loss of their Dignity, or Exile. Hence the Defection became general, and the Orthodox Party was brought so low, that it must have been utterly quashed, had Constantius lived a few Years longer. But Providence interposed; Constantius died while he was pursuing his Scheme with the greatest Success; and Julian, his Successor, by betraying an equal Hatred and Aversion to Christians of all Denominations, obliged them to forget their Quarrels among themselves, to lay aside their Animosity against each other, and to unite in their mutual Defence against him, as a common Enemy. Jovian, who succeeded him, proved no less favourable to the Orthodox, than Constantius had been to the Arians. Many therefore of the latter, and among the rest Acacius, who was at the Head of the Pure Arians, to gain the Favour of the Emperor, publicly renounced the Doctrine of Arius, and embraced that of Nice. Jovian, after a short Reign of Seven Months and Twenty Days, was succeeded by Valentinian, who continued to countenance the Orthodox, as his Predecessor had done, though he did not use the Arians with that Rigour which some Zealots expected from a Confessor, which Title he had deserved under Julian. However, as he professed the Orthodox Faith, that Party universally prevailed; insomuch that, in a very short time, no Traces of Arianism were left in the West, except at Milan, under the Arian Bishop Auxentius, and in a few Cities of Illyricum, where it was kept up by Ursacius, Valens, Germinius, and their Disciples, till the following Century, when it was every-where re-established there by the Goths.

Baronius ascribes to Liberius the banishing of Arianism out of the West, and the establishing of the Orthodox Faith in its room; but that Glory was owing, according to Ruffinus, to Hilarius of Poitiers, and Eusebius of Vercelli, who, like the Two great Luminaries of the Universe, to use his Words, enlightened with their Rays Illyricum, Gaul, and Italy, dispelling every-where the Darkness of Heresy^[966]. He minutely describes the great Success that attended them, with the Difficulties and Obstructions they met with in so pious and commendable an Undertaking^[967]. But, as for Liberius, he does not so much as mention him. And truly, from the Year 357. in which he fell, to his admitting the Macedonians to his Communion in 366. which was the last of his Life, the only thing I find recorded of him in the Antients, is his writing a Letter to the Catholic Bishops of Italy, wherein he exhorts them to atone for their past Conduct by renouncing the Errors of the Arians, and receiving anew the Symbol of Nice. He adds, that as this is the only Atonement, which it has been thought proper to require of them, they ought to exert their Zeal against the Authors of the Fault they committed, in proportion to the Grief they must feel for committing it^[968]. This Letter has been transmitted to us among the Fragments of Hilarius. |Neither Vincentius of
Capua, nor Liberius,
assisted at the
Council of Rimini.| It is hard to guess what could induce Baronius to write so confidently as he does, that Vincentius of Capua assisted at the Council of Rimini with the Character of the Pope’s Legate^[969]. In what antient Author did he find the least Intimation or distant Hint of such a Legation? Vincentius of Capua, though a Person of great Eminency, is not even mentioned by any of the contemporary Writers, who relate the Transactions of that Council, and name the chief Prelates who composed it. 'Tis true we read of him, in one Author, that he never consented to the Confession of Rimini^[970]: but that is said of Liberius too^[971], whom Baronius owns not to have been present at that Assembly.

Liberius, notwithstanding his Fall, is honoured both by the Latin and Greek Churches as a Saint. By the former his Festival is kept on the 23d of September, and by the latter on the 27th of August^[972]. |The Founding of the
Church of St. Mary
the Greater.| He erected a Church on the Esquiline Mount at Rome, which bore his Name, and was called the Basilic of Liberius, till it was consecrated to the Virgin Mary by Sixtus III. when it took the Name of Sancta Maria Major, or Saint Mary the Greater. It owes its Foundation, as is universally believed in the Church of Rome, to the following Miracle. A Roman of the Patrician Order, and of Wealth equal to his Rank, named John, having no Children, resolved to make a free Gift of his whole Estate to the Virgin Mary. This Resolution he imparted to his Wife, who consenting to it with great Alacrity, the Estate was immediately made over to the holy Virgin, whom they thenceforth jointly intreated, in their daily Prayers, to let them know by some Token in what Manner she chose to dispose of it. Their Prayers were heard, and, on the Night preceding the 5th of August, when the Heat is most violent at Rome, a miraculous Snow fell from Heaven, which covered Part of the Esquiline Mount. The same Night the Patrician and his Wife were admonished in a Dream to build a Church on the Spot of Ground which they should find covered with Snow. Early next Morning they went to acquaint Pope Liberius with what had happened, whom they found to have had the same Dream; so that no room being now left to doubt of the Revelation, the Pope appointed a grand Procession of the whole Clergy, in which he walked himself, attended by Crouds of People, to the above-mentioned Mount; and there, having caused the Snow, which still lay unmelted, to be removed, on the Spot, which it had covered, he laid the Foundation of that magnificent Basilic, which was reared at the Expence of the Patrician, and is now known by the Name of Saint Mary the Greater, and Saint Mary in the Snow^[973]. I should not have thought such an idle Tale worthy of a Place in a grave History, were it not recorded in the most authentic Book the Church of Rome has after the Scripture, the Roman Breviary, a Book approved and commended by the Council of Trent, and by the special Bulls of Three Popes, Pius V. Clement VIII. and Urban VIII. of whom the latter declares every thing it contains to be extracted from antient and approved Authors, and to be agreeable to Truth^[974]. So that it would be less dangerous, at least in Italy, to deny any Truth revealed in the Scripture, than to question any Fable related in the Breviary. The Feast of the Snow, or St. Mary in the Snow, is kept annually at Rome, on the 5th of August, with the greatest Solemnity. The College of Cardinals assists that Day at Divine Service in the Church of Saint Mary the Greater; and the Pope, if not indisposed, or otherwise prevented, officiates in Person: the Primicerio, or Dean of that Church, reads the Account, which I have delivered above; and, that nothing may be wanting to complete the Farce, Numbers of Children are employed, during the Service, to drop Jessamins from the Gallery on the Congregation, in Remembrance and Imitation of the miraculous Snow. And truly by Children alone such Fables are proper to be acted and believed.

Several Pieces have reached our Times, which were either written by, or have been falsly ascribed to, Liberius. Among the former are, his Letter in Answer to the Macedonian Bishops; another to the Catholic Bishops of Italy; which have been both mentioned above; and a Discourse, which he pronounced on Christmas-day in the Church of St. Peter, on Occasion of his giving the sacred Veil to Marcellina the Sister of St. Ambrose when she embraced the State of Virginity. This Discourse St. Ambrose has inserted in his Third Book on Virgins, but in his own Style, which is very different from that of Liberius, who had not the Gift of Eloquence^[975]. |Writings falsly
ascribed to him.| Among the Pieces falsly ascribed to Liberius, most Men of Learning reckon the Confession of Faith, written in Greek, which he is supposed to have sent to Athanasius. This Piece Baronius will, by all means, have to be genuine; and the Use he makes of it is somewhat extraordinary. The Council of Alexandria, to which the Church owed her Safety, was convened by Athanasius, upon his Return from Exile, as I have related above. By that small Assembly, consisting only of Confessors, was enacted the famous Decree with respect to those, who had communicated with the Arians, and signed the Confession of Rimini. To that Decree the whole Church readily conformed; so that the Honour of saving the Church was chiefly owing to Athanasius, and wholly to him and the other Confessors. Of Liberius not the least Mention is made; so that he had no Share in that Glory. |Strange Conjectures
of Baronius.| The Annalist therefore, not being able to bring in his Sovereign Pontiff upon the Authority of any Records now extant, has recourse to those that probably never were; or, if they ever were, are now no more. He supposes Part of the above-mentioned Confession of Faith, sent by Liberius to Athanasius, to be wanting; and Liberius, in the Part that is wanting, to have impowered Athanasius to convene a Council, and to have appointed Eusebius of Vercelli, and Lucifer of Cagliari, to assist at that Council with the Character of his Legates. Such wild and extravagant Suppositions require a very strong Proof to support them, some plausible Conjectures at least to give them an Appearance of Truth. But that we must not expect of Baronius. The only Argument, if it may be so called, which he pretends to offer on this Occasion, is, that he cannot conceive Athanasius, and the other holy Confessors, would have taken upon them to act as they did, and enact a Decree extending to the whole Church, had they not received such a Power from him, to whom all Power was given^[976], meaning the Pope. The other Pieces, falsly ascribed to Liberius, are another Letter to Athanasius, and one to all the Catholic Bishops; which are both reputed supposititious, being dated by Consuls who never existed.

Liberius was succeeded by Damasus, whom the Spanish Writers, upon the Authority of Anastasius, suppose to have been a Native of Spain^[977]; though there is no room to doubt of his being born in Rome, since it appears, from an Inscription quoted by Baronius^[978], that his Father had been Lector, Deacon, and Presbyter, of the Church of St. Laurence in that City, and consequently must have lived there from his Youth. Damasus had a Sister named Irene, who embraced the State of Virginity, and died before she was Twenty, as we read in her Epitaph^[979]. It is not therefore probable, that her Death happened in the Twelfth Year of her Brother’s Pontificate, as the Spanish Author of her Life tells us, he being then Seventy. Damasus served, as his Father had done, the Church of St. Laurence, till he was stricken in Years; for he was upwards of Sixty when raised to the Episcopal Dignity. |and Deacon of that
Church.| He was Deacon of Rome in 355. when Liberius was sent into Exile; on which Occasion he not only bound himself, with the rest of the Clergy, by a solemn Oath not to acknowlege any other Bishop so long as Liberius lived, but attended him on his Journey to the Place of his Banishment^[980]. |Whether he aban-
doned Liberius,and
sided with Felix.| Marcellinus and Faustinus seem to insinuate, that soon afterwards, giving way to his Ambition, he forgot the Oath he had taken, abandoned Liberius, for whom he had professed the greatest Friendship, and sided with Felix his Antagonist^[981]. But these Two Presbyters were zealous Partisans of the Antipope Ursinus, of whom hereafter; and therefore we ought to be very cautious of what they write to the Prejudice of Damasus. Jerom, who lived then at Rome, and in great Intimacy with Damasus, reproaches such of the Ecclesiastics as forsook Liberius, and joined Felix, with the Breach of a most solemn Oath; styles them Perjurers, Deserters, Time-servers, &c. which I cannot think he would have done so freely, had Damasus been one of the Number. I am therefore not a little surprised, that Baronius should blindly acquiesce to the Accounts of the above-mentioned Writers, and, without further Inquiry, condemn Damasus as guilty of Perjury, by ranking him among the Followers of Felix^[982]. And yet the Annalist supposes him to have been appointed Great Vicar of Rome by Liberius, upon his withdrawing from the City to avoid the Persecution raised by Constantius after the Council of Rimini^[983]: so that, according to him, he must have changed Sides anew, and, abandoning Felix, returned to Liberius, which is representing him as a Man swayed by no other Principles but those of Interest and Ambition, and therefore always siding with those who were uppermost. This is all we know of Damasus before his Election.

Liberius dying on the 23d or 24th of September 366. as I have related above, great Disturbances were raised in Rome by the Election of Two Bishops to succeed him, viz. Damasus and Ursinus, whom the later Writers style Ursicinus, a Deacon of that Church. This double Election gave Rise to a dangerous Schism, and a kind of Civil War, within the Walls of the City, which did not end without a great deal of Bloodshed. I shall impartially relate what I find concerning this important Transaction in the contemporary Writers of either Side; leaving the Reader to judge which of the Two Pretenders was the Cause of so much Mischief, and which legally chosen. I shall begin with the Account which Marcellinus and Faustinus, who were then at Rome, give us of these Elections. They were both Presbyters of that Church, but, being strict Followers of Lucifer Bishop of Cagliari, of whom I have spoken above, they and their whole Party were deemed Schismatics, and consequently cruelly persecuted by the Catholic Bishops, especially Damasus. Finding themselves thus oppressed, the Two Presbyters, between 383. and 388. drew up a Petition in Behalf of themselves and their afflicted Brethren, addressed to Valentinian II. Theodosius, and Arcadius, intreating those Princes to protect their Innocence, and put a Stop to the unbridled Rage of their Enemies. With this Request the Two Presbyters repaired to Constantinople, being driven from Rome by Damasus, and there presented it to Theodosius, who, pitying their Condition, in his Rescript directed to Cynegius the Præfectus Prætorio, treated them as Catholics, granted them the free Exercise of their Religion, and declared all those wicked Men, nay, and Heretics, who had presumed, or should for the future presume, to persecute or molest them^[984]. In the Preface, prefixed to this Petition, I find the following Account of both the above-mentioned Elections. Ursinus, say they, was chosen in the Basilic of Julius by the Deacons Amantius and Lupus, and the People, who had continued in the Communion of Liberius; but Damasus, by those who had adhered to Felix, assembled for that Purpose in the Church of St. Laurence, called in Lucinis. Ursinus was ordained the first, by Paul Bishop of Tivoli; which Damasus, who had always panted after the Episcopal Dignity, no sooner knew, than he hired a great Number of Chariot drivers, and other such despicable Wretches, who, violently breaking into the Basilic of Julius, massacred a great many People there. Seven Days afterwards they made themselves Masters of the Lateran Basilic, and there was Damasus ordained Bishop^[985]. |Different Accounts of
these Elections.| This Account charges Damasus alone with the Schism, and the Evils attending it. On the other hand, the Council of Rome, held about Twelve Years after, lays the whole Blame on Ursinus, who, say they, boldly attempted to usurp a Dignity, which on no Score was due to him^[986]; and that which met at Aquileia in 381. and consisted of all the most eminent Bishops of the West, ascribes to Ursinus, and his Temerity, the many Calamities the Church had suffered; paints him as a Man of no Credit, Character, or Reputation; and adds, that he seized by Force what he had no Hopes of attaining by lawful Means^[987]. Ambrose writes, that the Suffrage of Heaven concurred in the Election of Damasus^[988]. According to these Authorities Damasus was lawfully elected, and Ursinus unlawfully. As to the Particulars of his Election, Jerom, who perhaps was then at Rome, tells us, that Damasus was first chosen, and then Ursinus, who, after his Election, seized by Force on the Basilic of Sicinus^[989], that is, according to the most probable Opinion, the Basilic of Liberius, now Saint Mary the Greater. Socrates says, that Ursinus having near as many Votes as Damasus, he was thereby encouraged to hold separate Assemblies, and to get himself ordained in a dark and retired Corner of the Basilic of Sicinus^[990]. Ruffinus assures us, that Damasus was already ordained, when Ursinus, transported with Rage at his being preferred to him, assembled a great Number of seditious People, and, supported by them, caused himself, in Defiance of the Canons of the Church, to be ordained, in the Basilic of Sicinus, by Paul Bishop of Tivoli; whereas the Bishops of Rome were always ordained and consecrated by those of Ostia. After his Consecration, continues this Author, he ordained several Persons; which was adding a Sacrilege to his unlawful Election^[991]. Both Ruffinus, and Socrates, who follows him, were certainly mistaken as to the Place of this Ordination, since we are told by Marcellinus and Faustinus, that Ursinus was ordained, not in the Basilic of Sicinus, but in that of Julius^[992]. These Two Writers, who were in Rome at the Time of the Elections, tell us, in express Terms, that Ursinus was chosen before Damasus; and Jerom, who was probably in Rome at the same Time, assures us, in Terms no less express, that Damasus was chosen before Ursinus. The former were greatly addicted to Ursinus, and the latter no less attached to Damasus. As for the Two Councils, which I have quoted above, they were held some Years after, when the Party of Damasus had universally prevailed, and it was a Crime to acknowlege Ursinus. Jerom has been followed by most of the Writers who came after, and the Authority of the other Two quite disregarded, for no other Reason but because they were Schismatics; for they joined Lucifer, as I have observed above, and refused to communicate with the Bishops who had signed the Confession of Rimini, nay, and with those who communicated with them.