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While Jerome was in the East, a dispute arose over the Patriarchate of Antioch in which three claimants to the see caused schism. The monks, his companions in the desert, were taking sides and urging him to do the same. But he refused and awaited the judgment of Rome. He wrote to the Pope, St. Damasus, a letter that became famous: "I am joined in communion with your Holiness, that is with the chair of Peter; upon that rock I know the Church is built. Whoever eats the lamb out of that house is a profane person. Whoever is not in the ark shall perish in the flood. I do not know Vitalis; I do not communicate with Meletius; Paulinus is a stranger to me. Whoever gathers not with you scatters; that is, he who is not Christ’s, belongs to Antichrist. He that cleaves to the Chair of Peter, he is mine." The Pope having decided for Paulinus, St. Jerome soon became the new Patriarch’s friend and supporter. In fact, it was Paulinus who ordained Jerome a priest.