The Council of Rome was a meeting of

Catholic Church The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.3 billion baptized Catholics worldwide . It is among the world's oldest and largest international institutions, and has played a ...

officials and theologians which took place in AD 382 under the authority of

Pope Damasus I Pope Damasus I (; c. 305 – 11 December 384) was the bishop of Rome from October 366 to his death. He presided over the Council of Rome of 382 that determined the canon or official list of sacred scripture. He spoke out against major heresies ( ...

, the then-

Bishop of Rome A bishop is an ordained clergy member who is entrusted with a position of authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance of dioceses. The role or office of bishop is ca ...

. According to the (a work written by an anonymous scholar between AD 519 and 553), the Council of Rome cites a list of books of

scripture Religious texts, including scripture, are texts which various religions consider to be of central importance to their religious tradition. They differ from literature by being a compilation or discussion of beliefs, mythologies, ritual prac ...

presented as having been made

canonical The adjective canonical is applied in many contexts to mean "according to the canon" the standard, rule or primary source that is accepted as authoritative for the body of knowledge or literature in that context. In mathematics, "canonical example ...

which is identical with the list given at the

Council of Trent The Council of Trent ( la, Concilium Tridentinum), held between 1545 and 1563 in Trento, Trent (or Trento), now in northern Italian Peninsula, Italy, was the 19th ecumenical council of the Catholic Church. Prompted by the Protestant Reformation ...

., but indeed no official acts have been preserved and Jerome never mentions such a list. The previous year, the Emperor

Theodosius I Theodosius I ( grc-gre, Θεοδόσιος ; 11 January 347 – 17 January 395), also called Theodosius the Great, was Roman emperor from 379 to 395. During his reign, he succeeded in a crucial war against the Goths, as well as in two ...

had appointed the "dark horse" candidate Nectarius as Archbishop of Constantinople. The bishops of the West opposed the election result and asked for a common synod of East and West to settle the succession of the

see of Constantinople The Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople ( el, Οἰκουμενικὸν Πατριαρχεῖον Κωνσταντινουπόλεως, translit=Oikoumenikón Patriarkhíon Konstantinoupóleos, ; la, Patriarchatus Oecumenicus Constanti ...

, and so the Emperor Theodosius, soon after the close of the

First Council of Constantinople The First Council of Constantinople ( la, Concilium Constantinopolitanum; grc-gre, Σύνοδος τῆς Κωνσταντινουπόλεως) was a council of Christian bishops convened in Constantinople (now Istanbul, Turkey) in AD 381 b ...

in 381, summoned the Imperial bishops to a fresh synod at Constantinople; nearly all of the same bishops who had attended the earlier synod re-assembled in the early summer of 382. On arrival they received a letter from the

synod of Milan The Synod of Milan or Council of Milan may refer to any of several synods which occurred in late Roman Mediolanum or medieval Milan in northern Italy's Po valley: Synod of 345 In 353 or 354, Pope Liberius wrote thus: ''"Eight years ago the Euseb ...

, inviting them to a great general council at

Rome , established_title = Founded , established_date = 753 BC , founder = King Romulus (legendary) , image_map = Map of comune of Rome (metropolitan city of Capital Rome, region Lazio, Italy).svg , map_caption ...

; they indicated that they must remain where they were, because they had not made any preparations for such long a journey; however, they sent three—Syriacus, Eusebius, and Priscian—with a joint synodal letter to Pope Damasus, Ambrose, archbishop of Milan, and the other bishops assembled in the council at Rome.

''Decretum Gelasianum'' and damasine

The Decree of the Council of Rome (AD 382) on the Canon of Scripture during the reign of Pope Damasus I (AD 366–384) reads thus, according to the later ‘Gelasian Decree’: The ''Oxford Dictionary of the Christian Church'', states: The ''Oxford Dictionary'' also notes that "according to E. von Dobschütz, he Galasian Decreeis not a Papal work at all, but a private compilation which was composed in Italy (but not at Rome) in the early 6th cent. Other scholars, while accepting this date, think it originated in Gaul." Catholic apologist and historian

William Jurgens William A. Jurgens (July 3, 1928 — September 1, 1982) was an American Roman Catholic priest, composer, historian, musician, and translator of patristic and other works. Early life He was born July 3, 1928, in Akron, Ohio, to Charles B. and Ruth ...

writes: The apocrypha that Jurgens mentions are not the deuterocanonical books mentioned in the authentic list of the Council of Rome in 382 A.D., rather they are a list of Gnostic and other texts rejected by the early church, for example the Gospel of Thomas.

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Council Of Rome

Ancient city of Rome Development of the Christian biblical canon 4th century in Italy 380s in the Roman Empire 382

''Decretum Gelasianum'' and damasine

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