Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 4.djvu/692

 DAMASUS

614

DAMBERGER

Thessalonica; this was the origin of the important papal vicariate long attached to that see. The pri- macy of the Apostolic See, variously favoured in the time of Damasus by imperial acts and edicts, was strenuously maintained by this pope; among his not- able utterances on this subject is the assertion (Mansi, Coll. Cone, Vm, 158) that the ecclesiastical suprem- acy of the Roman Church was based, not on the de- crees of councils, but on the very words of Jesus Christ (Matt., xvi, 18). The increased prestige of the early papal decretals, habitually attributed to the reign of Siricius (384-99), not improbably belongs to the reign of Damasus ("Canones Romanorum ad Gallos"; Babut, "La plus ancienne d^cretale", Paris, 1904). This development of the papal office, especially in the West, brought with it a great increase of external grandeur. This secular splendour, however, affected disadvantageously many members of the Roman clergj', whose worldly aims and life, bitterly reproved by St. Jerome, provoked (29 July, 370) an edict of Emperor Valentinian addressed to the pope, forbid- ding ecclesiastics and monks (later also bishops and nuns) to pursue widows and orphans in the hope of obtaining from them gifts and legacies. The pope caused the law to be observed strictly.

Damasus restored his own church (now San Lorenzo in Damaso) and provided for the proper housing of the archives of the Roman Church (see V-\tic.\n Ar- chives). He built in the basilica of St. Sebastian on the Appian Way the (yet visible) marble monument kno-rni as the "Platonia" (Platona, marble pave- ment) in honour of the temporary transfer to that place (2.58) of the bodies of Sts. Peter and Paul, and decorated it with an important historical inscription (see Northcote and Brownlow, Roma Sotterranea). He also built on the Via Ardeatina, between the ceme- teries of Callistus and Domitilla, a basilicula, or small church, the ruins of which were discovered in 1902 and 1903, and in which, according to the "Liber Pontifi- calis", the pope was buried with his mother and sister. On this occasion the discoverer, Monsignor Wilpert, found also the epitaph of the pope's mother, from which it was learned not only that her name was Laurentia, but also that she had lived the sixty years of her widowhood in the special service of God, and died in her eighty-ninth year, having seen the fourth generation of her descendants. Damasus built at the Vatican a baptistery in honour of St. Peter and set up therein one of his artistic inscriptions (Carmen xxxvi), still preserved in the Vatican crypts. This subterra- nean region he drained in order that the bodies buried there {juxta sepuk-rum beati Petri) might not be af- fected by stagnant or overflowing water. His ex- traordinary devotion to the Roman martyrs is now well known, owing particularly to the labours of Gio- vanni Battista De Rossi. For a good account of his architectural restoration of the catacombs and the unique artistic characters (Damasan Letters) in which his friend Furius Dionysius Filocalus executed the epitaphs composed by Damasus, see Northcote and Brownlow, "Roma Sotterranea" (2nd ed., London, 1878-79). The dogmatic content of the Damasan epitaphs (tituli) is important (Northcote, Epitaphs of the Catacombs, London, 1878). He composed also a number of brief epigrammatn on various martyrs and saints and some hymns, or Carmind, likewise brief. St. Jerome says (Ep. xxii, 22) that Damasus wrote on virginity, both in prose and in verse, but no such work has been preserved. For the few letters of Damasus (some of them spurious) that have survived, see P. L., XIII, 347-7, and Jaff^^, "Reg. Rom. Pontif." (Leip- zig, 1885), nn. 232-254.

The works of Damasus (ed. Merenda, Rome, 1754) are in P. L„ XIII. 109 aqq. The best edition of his rpigrammala is that of iiiM (l-eipziK. 189.'i); cf. Weym\n in Revue d' hisl. el </.• him, more Ihan one-half of which are accounted eenuinc. Sec also LtbcT PmtificalU, ed. Duchesne, I, 212, and preface, ccl;
 * i«. rr/ifl (Paris, 189.''.), I. 58-73. Over 100 arc ascribed to

M.\RT7cCHi, n papa Damasn (Rome. 1907); Rade (non- Catholic). Damasus, Bischof von Rom (Freiburg, 1882); K.\uf- MANN. Manuale di archeologia cristiana (Rome, 1908); Bab« denhewer, Patroloffie (Freiburg, 1901). 370-71.

Thomas J. Shah.*.n.

Damasus II, Pope (previously called Poppo), a native of Bavaria and the third German to be elevated to the See of Peter. On the death of Clement II, July, 1047, the Tusculan faction reasserted its power in Rome, and, with the secret aid of Boniface, Margrave of Tuscany, restored its wretched creature Benedict IX, who continued in his wonted manner to disgrace the papacy for a further period of eight months before disappearing entirely from history. On Christmas Daj', 1047, an embassy sent by the Roman people brought the tidings of Clement's death to Henry III, at Ptilthe in Saxony, and besought the emperor as Patricius of the Romans to appoint a worthy successor. The envoys, according to their instructions, suggested as a suitable candidate, Halinard, Archbishop of Lyons, who had a perfect command of the Italian tongue and was popular in Rome. Henry, however, in Janu- ary', 1048, appointed Poppo, Bishop of Brixen, in Tyrol, and at once directed the Margrave Boniface to conduct the pope-designate to Rome. Boniface at first refused, alleging the installation of Benedict, but Henry's decisive threat soon reduced him to obe- dience. -Aiter Benedict's removal, the Bishop of Brixen at length entered the city and was enthroned at the Lateran as Damasus II, 17 July, 1048. His pontificate, however, was of .short duration. After the brief space of twenty-three days, he died — a vic- tim of malaria — at Palestrina, whither he had gone shortly after his installation to escape the summer heat of Rome. The pope was buried in S. Lorenzo fuori le mura.

Liber Pontif., ed Duchesne, II, 274; Jaffe, Regesta RR. PP., 2d ed., I, 52S sq.; Hofler, Die deutschen Pdpste (Regensburg, 1S39), I. 269 sqq. ThOMAS OeSTREICH.

Bamberger, Jcseph Ferdinand, church historian, b. 1 March, 1795, at Passau, Bavaria; d. 1 April, 1859, at Schaftlam. After completing his earlier studies in the public schools of his native town, he pursued the study of law at Landshut. then studied theology at Salzbiu-g, Landshut, and Munich, and was ordained priest in 1818. While at the ilunich Lyceum he had also devoted himself verj' assiduously to historical studies. Until 1837 he was particularly active as a preacher at Landshut and at St. Cajetan's, Munich. His first historical works appeared at Ratisbon in 1831, three closely related narratives: " Furstentafel der Staatengeschichte " ; " Fiirstenbuch zur FUrsten- tafel der europaischen Staatengeschichte " ; " Sechzig genealogische, chronologische und statistische Tabel- len zur Furstentafel und Fiirstenbuch".

In 1837 he joined the Society of Jesus, completed his novitiate at Brieg, canton of Valais, Switzerland, where he spent about ten years, partly as a mission- preacher and partly as professor of ecclesiastical his- tory at Lucerne. A collection of his mission sermons was printed (Lucerne, 1842; 2nd ed., 1852), but was violently attacked (Missionsunfug der Jesuiten; Bern, 1842). "The defeat of the Sonderbund (1847) brought with it the expulsion of the Jesuits from Switzerland Damberger then passed several years at Innsbruck and Ratisbon, and in 1853 became confessor at the Convent of Schiiftlarn in Bavaria, where he died. In these years he published his princi]ial work in fifteen volumes, "Sjmciironist ischeCiescliirh te der Kirche und der Welt im Mittelalter" (Ratisbon, lS.">0-t).3). The last volume was finished and published after his death by Father Daniel Rattinger. The narrative reaches the year 1.378. For its ilay it was an important piece of work, though lacking a sufficient degree of the criti- cal quality. It reveals, nevertheless, close applica- tion and extensive learning.