and patriotism.

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. 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 were found
in the Basilica of Sicininus, 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; that, as soon as his dress is composed with
becoming care and elegance, he may proceed, in his chariot, through the
streets of Rome; 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!" The schism of Damasus and Ursinus was
extinguished by the exile of the latter; and the wisdom