DAMASIE. Pope Damasus I, c. 304-384 A.D., was pontiff A.D. 336-384. Jerome became his secretary in 377 and, at his suggestion, began the revision of the Latin scriptures. Damasus collected epigrams and inscriptions in honor of the Roman martyrs (PL 13: 109-424).

The Parson quotes a passage from Pope Damasie that all the sins of the world are nothing compared with the sin of simony, ParsT 788-789. Robinson (771) suggests Jerome's Liber contra Joannem Hierosolymitanum 8 (PL 23: 361); S. Wenzel notes that, while the quotation is attributed to Damasus in Peraldus, Summa vitiorum (1236), it actually appears in Gratian's Decretal 2.17.27.

Damasie, the French variant, suggests a possible French source for this portion of The Parson's Tale, perhaps the Somme des vices et des vertus of Frere Lorens, although K.O. Petersen has shown that the main source is a Latin tract, Summa Casuum Poenitentiae, by Raymund of Pennaforte.