and jurisdiction of the Bishops of Rome. They carefully avoid quoting the text of Eusebius, and have passed over in silence the opinion of St. Jerome touching the condemnations of which Origen had been the object. Jerome, after speaking of the innumerable labours of the learned priest of Alexandria, cries,[1] "What reward has he received for so much toil and sweat? He is condemned by Bishop Demetrius, and, excepting the bishops of Palestine, Arabia, Phœnicia and Achaia, he is unanimously condemned by all. Even Rome assembled her Senate (that is, her synod) against him; not that he taught new dogmas, not that he held heretical opinions, as those who bark after him like furious dogs would persuade us; but because they could not bear the brilliancy of his eloquence and learning, and because, when he spoke, all the others seemed dumb."
Thus, according to St. Jerome, the clergy of Rome associated themselves in low intrigues against Origen; and, according to Eusebius, this great man wrote to the Bishop of Rome as he wrote to many others to justify his faith.
We ask what this fact proves for the authority of the Bishops of Rome.
The case of St. Dionysius of Alexandria proves nothing more. Many of the faithful, not having understood the teaching of this great bishop against Sabellius and his partisans, went to Rome, and attributed a heretical doctrine to him. A council was then holding in that city. The Roman bishop wrote, in the name of the council, a letter to Dionysius of Alexandria, to ascertain if it were true that he taught the doctrine attributed to him. The Bishop of Alexandria sent to Rome a work he had composed and in which his sentiments were set forth with precision.
Such is the substance of what St. Athanasius and
- ↑ Ap. Ruff. liv. ii.
