Damasus

Damasus, St. (306-384), became in 366 the thirty-ninth Pope. He was a great opponent of the Arians, and a fight and extensive slaughter of the combatants in a church marked the beginning of his reign. He encouraged St. Jerome to make the translation of the Scriptures known as the Vulgate, and he did much towards preserving and beautifying the Catacombs. One of his chief works was to check the seeking after gifts by the clergy, thus anticipating the statutes of mortmain, and the evidence of St. Jerome goes to show that there was great need of his reforms. He left Letters, and other literary works behind him.