(NOTE: The electronic text obtained from The Electronic Bible Society was
not completely corrected. EWTN has corrected all discovered errors.)

Transliteration of Greek words: All phonetical except: w = omega; h serves
three puposes: 1. = Eta; 2. = rough breathing, when appearing initially
before a vowel; 3. = in the aspirated letters theta = th, phi = ph, chi =
ch. Accents are given immediately after their corresponding vowels: acute =
' , grave = `, circumflex = ^. The character ' doubles as an apostrophe,
when necessary.


ST. JEROME

LETTERS 125-150

[Translated by The Hon. W. H. Fremantle, M.A., Canon of Canterbury
Cathedral and Fellow and Tutor of Balliol College, Oxford, with the
assistance of the Rev. G. Lewis, M.A., of Balliol College, Oxford, Vicar of
Dodderhill near Droitwick, and the Rev. W. G. Martley, M.A., of Balliol
College, Oxford.]

LETTER CXXV: TO RUSTICUS.

Rusticus, a young monk of Tailless, (to be carefully distinguished from the
recipient of Letter CS.) is advised by Jerome not to become an anchorite
but to continue in a community. Rules are suggested for the monastic life
and a vivid picture is drawn of the difference between a good monk and a
bad. Incidentally Jerome indulges his spleen against his dead opponent
Rufinus (# 18). The date of the letter is 411 A.D.

   1. No man is happier than the Christian, for to him is promised the
kingdom of heaven. No man struggles harder than he, for he goes daily in
danger of his life. No man is stronger, for he overcomes the Devil. No man
is weaker, for he is overcome by the flesh. Both pairs of statements can be
proved by many examples. For instance, the robber believes upon the cross
and immediately hears the assuring words: "verily I say unto thee, To-day
shall thou be with me in paradise :"(1) while Judas falls from the pinnacle
of the apostolate into the abyss of perdition. Neither the close
intercourse of the banquet nor the dipping of the sop(2) nor the Lord's
gracious kiss(3) can save him from betraying as man Him whom he had known
as the Son of God. Could any one have been viler than the woman of Samaria?
Yet not only did she herself believe, and after her six husbands find one
Lord, not only did she recognize that Messiah by the well, whom the Jews
failed to recognize in the temple; she brought salvation to many and, while
the apostles were away buying food, refreshed the Saviour's hunger and
relieved His weariness.(4) Was ever man wiser than Solomon? Yet love for
women made even him foolish. Salt is good, and every offering must be
sprinkled with it.(5) Wherefore also the apostle has given commandment:
"let your speech be alway with grace, seasoned with salt."(6) But "if the
salt have lost his savour," it is cast out.(7) And so utterly does it lose
its value that it is not even fit for the dunghill,(8) whence believers
fetch manure to enrich the barren soil of their souls.

   I begin thus, Rusticus my son, to teach you the greatness of your
enterprise and the loftiness of your ideal; and to shew you that only by
trampling under foot youthful lusts can you hope to climb the heights of
true maturity. For the path along which you walk is a slippery one and the
glory of success is less than the shame of failure.

   2. I need not now conduct the stream of my discourse through the
meadows of virtue, nor exert myself to shew to you the beauty of its
several flowers. I need not dilate on the purity of the lily, the modest
blush of the rose the royal purple of the violet, or the promise of glowing
gems which their various colours hold out. For through the mercy of God you
have already put your hand to the plough;(1) you have already gone up upon
the housetop like the apostle Peter.(2) Who when he became hungry among the
Jews had his hunger satisfied by the faith of Cornelius, and stilled the
craving caused by their unbelief through the conversion of the centurion
and other Gentiles. By the vessel let down from heaven to earth, the four
corners of which typified the four gospels, he was taught that all men can
be saved. Once more, this fair white sheet which in his vision was taken up
again was a symbol of the church which carries believers from earth to
heaven, an assurance that the Lord's promise should be fulfilled: "blessed
are the pure in heart, for they shall see God."(3)

   All this means that I take you by the hand and do my best to impress
certain facts upon your mind; that, like a skilled sailor who has been
through many shipwrecks, I am anxious to caution an inexperienced passenger
of the risks before him. For on one side is the Charybdis of covetousness,
"the root of all evil;"(4) and on the other lurks the Scylla of detraction
girt with the railing hounds of which the apostle says: "if ye bite and
devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another."(5)
Sometimes, you must know, the quicksands of vice(6) suck us down as we sail
at ease through the calm water; and the desert of this world is not
untenanted by venomous reptiles.

   3. Those who navigate the Red Sea--where we must pray that the true
Pharaoh may be drowned with all his host--have to encounter many
difficulties and dangers before they reach the city of Auxuma.(7) Nomad
savages and ferocious wild beasts haunt the shores on either side. Thus
travellers must be always armed and on the alert, and they must carry with
them a whole year's provisions. Moreover, so full are the waters of hidden
reefs and impassable shoals that a look-out has constantly to be kept from
the masthead to direct the helmsman how to shape his course. They may count
themselves fortunate if after six months they make the port of the above-
mentioned city. At this point the ocean begins, to cross which a whole year
hardly suffices. Then India is reached and the river Ganges--called in holy
scripture Pison--"which compasseth the whole land of Havilah"(1) and is
said to carry down with it--from its source in paradise--various dyes and
pigments. Here are found rubies and emeralds, glowing pearls and gems of
the first water, such as high born ladies passionately desire. There are
also mountains of gold which however men cannot approach by reason of the
griffins, dragons, and huge monsters which haunt them; for such are the
guardians which avarice needs for its treasures.

   4. What, you ask, is the drift of all this? Surely it is clear enough.
For if the merchants of the world undergo such hardships to win a doubtful
and passing gain, and if after seeking it through many dangers they only
keep it at risk of their lives; what should Christ's merchant do who
"selleth all that he hath" that he may acquire the "one pearl of great
price;" who with his whole substance buys a field that he may find therein
a treasure which neither thief can dig up nor robber carry away?(2)

   5. I know that I must offend large numbers who will be angry with my
criticisms as aimed at their own deficiencies. Yet such anger does but shew
an uneasy conscience and they will pass a far severer sentence on
themselves than on me. For I shall not mention names; or copy the licence
of the old comedy(3) which criticized individuals. Wise men and wise women
will try to hide or rather to correct whatever they perceive to be amiss in
them; they will be more angry with themselves than with me, and will not be
disposed to heap curses upon the head of their monitor. For he, although he
is liable to the same charges, is certainly superior in this that he is
discontented with his own faults.

   6. I am told that your mother is a religious woman, a widow of many
years' standing; and that when you were a child she reared and taught you
herself. Afterwards when you had spent some time in the flourishing schools
of Gaul she sent you to Rome, sparing no expense and consoling herself for
your absence by the thought of the future that lay before you. She hoped to
see the exuberance and glitter of your Gallic eloquence toned down by Roman
sobriety, for she saw that you required the rein more than the spur. So we
are told of the greatest orators of Greece that they seasoned the bombast
of Asia with the salt of Athens and pruned their vines when they grew too
fast. For they wished to fill the wine-press of eloquence not with the
tendrils of mere words but with the rich grape-juice of good sense. Your
mother has done the same thing for you; you should, therefore, look up to
her as a parent, love her as a tender nurse, and venerate her as a saint.
You must not imitate those who leave their own relations and pay court to
strange women. Their infamy is apparent to all, for what they aim at under
the pretence of pure affection(1) is simply illicit intercourse. I know
some women of riper years, indeed a good many, who, finding pleasure in
their young freedmen, make them their spiritual children and thus,
pretending to be mothers to them, gradually overcome their own sense of
shame and allow themselves in the licence of marriage. Other women desert
their maiden sisters and unite themselves to strange widows. There are some
who hate their parents and have no affection for their kin. Their state of
mind is indicated by a restlessness which disdains excuses; they rend the
veil of chastity and put it aside like a cobweb. Such are the ways of
women; not, indeed, that men are any better. For there are persons to be
seen who (for all their girded loins, sombre garb, and long beards) are
inseparable from women, live under one roof with them, dine in their
company, have young girls to wait upon them, and, save that they do not
claim to be called husbands, are as good as married. Still it is no fault
of Christianity that a hypocrite falls into sin; rather, it is the
confusion of the Gentiles that the churches condemn what is condemned by
all good men.

   7. But if for your part you desire to be a monk and not merely to seem
one, be more careful of your soul than of your property; for in adopting a
religious profession you have renounced this once for all. Let your
garments be squalid to shew that your mind is white; and your tunic coarse
to prove that you despise the world. But give not way to pride lest your
dress and language be found at variance. Baths stimulate the senses and
must, therefore, be avoided; for to quench natural heat is the aim of
chilling fasts. Yet even these must be moderate, for, if they are carried
to excess, they weaken the stomach and by making more food necessary to it
promote indigestion, that fruitful parent of unclean desires. A frugal and
temperate diet is good for both body and soul.

   See your mother as often as you please but not with other women, for
their faces may dwell in your thoughts and so

   A secret wound may fester in your breast.(1)

   The maidservants who attend upon her you must regard as so many snares
laid to entrap you; for the lower their condition is the more easy is it
for you to effect their ruin. John the Baptist had a religious mother and
his father was a priest.(2) Yet neither his mother's affection nor his
father's wealth could induce him to live in his parents' house at the risk
of his chastity. He lived in the desert, and seeking Christ with his eyes
refused to look at anything else. His rough garb, his girdle made of skins,
his diet of locusts and wild honey(3) were all alike designed to encourage
virtue and continence. The sons of the prophets, who were the monks of the
Old Testament, built for themselves huts by the waters of Jordan and
forsaking the crowded cities lived in these on pottage and wild herbs.(4)
As long as you are at home make your cell your paradise,(5) gather there
the varied fruits of scripture, let this be your favourite companion, and
take its precepts to your heart. If your eye offend you or your foot or
your hand, cast them from you.(6) To spare your soul spare nothing else.
The Lord says: "whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath
committed adultery with her already in his heart."(7) "Who can My," writes
the wise man, "I have made my heart clean?"(8) The stars are not pure in
the Lord's sight; how much less men whose whole life is one long
temptation.(9) Woe be to us who commit fornication every time that we
cherish lust. "My sword," God says, "hath drunk its fill in heaven;" (10)
much more then upon the earth with its crop of thorns and thistles.(11) The
chosen vessel(12) who had Christ's name ever on his lips kept under his
body and brought it into subjection.(13) Yet even he was hindered by carnal
desire and had to do what he would not. As one suffering violence he cries:
"O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this
death?"(14) Is it likely then that you can pass without fall or wound,
unless you keep your heart with all diligence,(15) and say with the
Saviour: "my mother and my brethren are these which hear the word of God
and do it."(16) This may seem cruelty, but it is really affection. What
greater proof, indeed, can there be of affection than to guard for a holy
mother a holy son? She too desired your eternal welfare and is content to
forego seeing you for a time that she may see you for ever with Christ. She
is like Hannah who brought forth Samuel not for her own solace but for the
service of the tabernacle.(1) The sons of Jonadab, we are told, drank
neither wine nor strong drink and dwelt in tents pitched wherever night
overtook them.(2) l According to the psalter they were the first to undergo
captivity; for, when the Chaldaeans began to ravage Judah they were
compelled to take refuge in cities.(3)

   8. Others may think what they like and follow each his own bent. But to
me a town is a prison and solitude paradise. Why do we long for the bustle
of cities, we whose very name speaks of loneliness?(4) To fit him for the
leadership of the Jewish people Moses was trained for forty years in the
wilderness;(5) and it was not till after these that the shepherd of sheep
became a shepherd of men. The apostles were fishers on lake Gennesaret
before they became "fishers of men."(6) But at the Lord's call they forsook
all that they had, father, net, and ship, and bore their cross daily
without so much as a rod in their hands.

   I say these things that, in case you desire to enter the ranks of the
clergy, you may learn what you must afterwards teach, that you may offer a
reasonable sacrifice(7) to Christ, that you may not think yourself a
finished soldier while still a raw recruit, or suppose yourself a master
while you are as yet only a learner. It does not become one of my humble
abilities to pass judgment upon the clergy or to speak to the discredit of
those who are ministers in the churches. They have their own rank and
station and must keep it. If ever you become one of them my published
letter to Nepotian(8) will teach you the mode of life suitable to you in
that vocation. At present I am dealing with the forming and training of a
monk; of one too who has put the yoke of Christ upon his neck after
receiving a liberal education in his younger days.

   9. The first point to be considered is whether you ought to live by
yourself or in a monastery with others.(9) For my part I should like you to
have the society of holy men so as not to be thrown altogether on your
resources. For if you set out upon a road that is new to you without a
guide, you are sure to turn aside immediately either to the right or to the
left, to lay yourself open to the assaults of error, to go too far or else
not far enough, to weary yourself with running too fast or to loiter by the
way and to fall asleep. In loneliness pride quickly creeps upon a man: if
he has fasted for a little while and has seen no one, he fancies himself a
person of some note; forgetting who he is, whence he comes, and whither he
goes, he lets his thoughts riot within and outwardly indulges in rash
speech. Contrary to the apostle's wish he judges another man's servants,(1)
puts forth his hand to grasp whatever his appetite desires, sleeps as long
he pleases, fears nobody, does what he likes, fancies everyone inferior to
himself, spends more of his time in cities than in his cell, and, while
with the brothers he affects to be retiring, rubs shoulders with the crowd
in the streets. What then, you will say? Do I condemn a solitary life? By
no means: in fact I have often commended it. But I wish to see the monastic
schools turn out soldiers who have no fear of the rough training of the
desert, who have exhibited the spectacle of a holy life for a considerable
time, who have made themselves last that they might be first, who have not
been overcome by hunger or satiety, whose joy is in poverty, who teach
virtue by their garb and mien, and who are too conscientious to invent--as
some silly men do--monstrous stories of struggles with demons, designed to
magnify their heroes in the eyes of the crowd and before all to extort
money from it.

   10. Quite recently we have seen to our sorrow a fortune worthy of
Croesus brought to light by a monk's death, and a city's alms, collected
for the poor, left by will to his sons and successors. After sinking to the
bottom the iron has once more floated upon the surface,"(2) and men have
again seen among the palm-trees the bitter waters of Marah.(3) In this
there is, however, nothing strange, for the man had for his companion and
teacher one who turned the hunger of the needy into a source of wealth for
himself and kept back sums left to the miserable to his own subsequent
misery. Yet their cry came up to heaven and entering God's ears overcame
His patience. Wherefore, He sent an angel of woe to say to this new
Carmelite, this second Nabal,(4) "Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be
required of thee: then whose shall those things be which thou hast
provided?"(5)

   11. If I wish you then not to live with your mother, it is for the
reasons given above, and above all for the two following. If she offers you
delicacies to eat, you will grieve her by refusing them; and if you take
them, you will add fuel to the flame that already burns within you. Again
in a house where there are so many girls you will see in the daytime sights
that will tempt you at night. Never take your hand or your eyes off your
book; learn the psalms word for word, pray without ceasing,(1) be always on
the alert, and let no vain thoughts lay hold upon you. Direct both body and
mind to the Lord, overcome wrath by patience, love the knowledge of
scripture, and you will no longer love the sins of the flesh. Do not let
your mind become a prey to excitement, for if this effects a lodgment in
your breast it will have dominion over you and will lead you into the great
transgression.(2) Always have some work on hand, that the devil may find
you busy. If apostles who had the right to live of the Gospel(3) laboured
with their own hands that they might be chargeable to no man,(4) and
bestowed relief upon others whose carnal things they had a claim to reap as
having sown unto them spiritual things;(5) why do you not provide a supply
to meet your needs? Make creels of reeds or weave baskets out of pliant
osiers. Hoe your ground; mark out your garden into even plots; and when you
have sown your cabbages or set your plants convey water to them in conduits
that you may see with your own eyes the lovely vision of the poet:

   Art draws fresh water from the hilltop near
   Till the stream plashing down among the rocks
   Cools the parched meadows and allays their thirst.(6)

Graft unfruitful stocks with buds and slips that you may shortly be
rewarded for your toil by plucking sweet apples from them. Construct also
hives for bees, for to these the proverbs of Solomon send you,(7) and you
may learn from the tiny creatures how to order a monastery and to
discipline a kingdom. Twist lines too for catching fish, and copy books;
that your hand may earn your food and your mind may be satisfied with
reading. For "every one that is idle is a prey to vain desires."(8) In
Egypt the monasteries make it a rule to receive none who are not willing to
work; for they regard labour as necessary not only for the support of the
body but also for the salvation of the soul. Do not let your mind stray
into harmful thoughts, or, like Jerusalem in her whoredoms, open its feet
to every chance comer.(9)

   12. In my youth when the desert walled me in with its solitude I was
still unable to endure the promptings of sin and the natural heat of my
blood; and, although I tried by frequent fasts to break the force of both,
my mind still surged with [evil] thoughts.(10) To subdue its turbulence I
betook myself to a brother(1) who before his conversion had been a Jew and
asked him to teach me Hebrew. Thus, after having familiarised myself with
the pointedness of Quintilian, the fluency of Cicero, the seriousness of
Fronto and the gentleness of Pliny, I began to learn my letters anew and to
study to pronounce words both harsh and guttural. What labour I spent upon
this task, what difficulties I went through, how often I despaired, how
often I gave over and then in my eagerness to learn commenced again, can be
attested both by myself the subject of this misery and by those who then
lived with me. But I thank the Lord that from this seed of learning sown in
bitterness I now cull sweet fruits.

   13. I will recount also another thing that I saw in Egypt. There was in
a community a young Greek the flame of whose desire neither continual
fasting nor the severest labour could avail to quench. He was in great
danger of falling, when the father of the monastery saved him by the
following device. He gave orders to one of the older brothers to pursue him
with objurgations and reproaches, and then after having thus wronged him to
be beforehand with him in laying a complaint against him. When witnesses
were called they spoke always on behalf of the aggressor. On hearing such
falsehoods he used to weep that no one gave credit to the truth; the father
alone used cleverly to put in a word for him that he might not be
"swallowed up with overmuch sorrow."(2) To make the story short, a year
passed in this way and at the expiration of it the young man was asked
concerning his former evil thoughts and whether they still troubled him.
"Good gracious," he replied, "how can I find pleasure in fornication when I
am not allowed so much as to live?" Had he been a solitary hermit, by whose
aid could he have overcome the temptations that assailed him?

   14. The world's philosophers drive out an old passion by instilling a
new one; they hammer out one nail by hammering in another.(3) It was on
this principle that the seven princes of Persia acted towards king
Ahasuerus, for they subdued his regret for queen Vashti by inducing him to
love other maidens.(4) But whereas they cured one fault by another fault
and one sin by another sin, we must overcome our faults by learning to love
the opposite virtues. "Depart from evil," says the psalmist, "and do good;
seek peace and pursue it."(5) For if we do not hate evil we cannot love
good. Nay more, we must do good if we are to depart from evil. We must seek
peace if we are to avoid war. And it is not enough merely to seek it; when
we have found it and when it flees before us we must pursue it with all our
energies. For "it passeth all understanding;"(1) it is the habitation of
God. As the psalmist says, "in peace also is his habitation."(2) The
pursuing of peace is a fine metaphor and may be compared with the apostle's
words, "pursuing hospitality."(3) It is not enough, he means, for us to
invite guests with our lips; we should be as eager to detain them as though
they were robbers carrying off our savings.

   15. No art is ever learned without a master. Even dumb animals and wild
herds follow leaders of their own. Bees have princes, and cranes fly after
one of their number in the shape of a Y.(4) There is but one emperor and
each province has but one judge. Rome was rounded by two brothers,(5) but,
as it could not have two kings at once, was inaugurated by an act of
fratricide. So too Esau and Jacob strove in Rebekah's womb.(6) Each church
has a single bishop, a single archpresbyter, a single archdeacon;(7) and
every ecclesiastical order is subjected to its own rulers. A ship has but
one pilot, a house but one master, and the largest army moves at the
command of one man. That I may not tire you by heaping up instances, my
drift is simply this. Do not rely on your own discretion, but live in a
monastery. For there, while you will be under the control of one father,
you will have many companions; and these will teach you, one humility,
another patience, a third silence, and a fourth meekness. You will do as
others wish; you will eat what you are told to eat; you will wear what
clothes are given you; you will perform the task allotted to you; you will
obey one whom you do not like, you will come to bed tired out; you will go
to sleep on your feet and you will be forced to rise before you have had
sufficient rest. When your turn comes, you will recite the psalms, a task
which requires not a well modulated voice but genuine emotion. The apostle
says: "I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with the understanding
also,"(8) and to the Ephesians, "make melody in your hearts to the
Lord."(9) For he had read the precept of the psalmist: "Sing ye praises
with understanding."(10) You will serve the brothers, you will wash the
guests' feet; if you suffer wrong you will bear it in silence; the superior
of the community you will fear as a master and love as a father. Whatever
he may order you to do you will believe to be wholesome for you. You will
not pass judgment upon those who are placed over you, for your duty will be
to obey them and to do what you are told, according to the words spoken by
Moses: "keep silence and hearken, O Israel."(1) You will have so many tasks
to occupy you that you will have no time for [evil] thoughts; and while you
pass from one thing to another and fresh work follows work done, you will
only be able to think of what you have it in charge at the moment to do.

   16. But I myself have seen monks of quite a different stamp from this,
men whose renunciation of the world has consisted in a change of clothes
and a verbal profession, while their real life and their former habits have
remained unchanged. Their property has increased rather than diminished.
They still have the same servants and keep the same table. Out of cheap
glasses and common earthenware they swallow gold. With servants about them
in swarms they claim for themselves the name of hermits. Others who though
poor think themselves discerning, walk as solemnly as pageants(2) through
the streets and do nothing but snarl(3) at every one whom they meet. Others
shrug their shoulders and croak out what is best known to themselves. While
they keep their eyes fixed upon the earth, they balance swelling words upon
their tongues.(4) Only a crier is wanted to persuade you that it is his
excellency the prefect who is coming along. Some too there are who from the
dampness of their cells and from the severity of their fasts, from their
weariness of solitude and from excessive study have a singing in their ears
day and night and turn melancholy mad so as to need the poultices of
Hippocrates(5) more than exhortations from me. Great numbers are unable to
break free from the crafts and trades they have previously practised. They
no longer call themselves dealers but they carry on the same traffic as
before; seeking for themselves not "food and raiment"(6) as the apostle
directs, but money-profits and these greater than are looked for by men of
the world. In former days the greed of sellers was kept within bounds by
the action of the Aediles or as the Greeks call them market- inspectors,(7)
and men could not then cheat with impunity. But now persons who profess
religion are not ashamed to seek unjust profits and the good name of
Christianity is more often a cloak for fraud than a victim to it. I am
ashamed to say it, yet it must be said--we are at least bound to blush for
our infamy--while in public we hold out our hands for alms we conceal gold
beneath our rags; and to the amazement of every one after living as poor
men we die rich and with our purses well-filled.

   But you, since you will not be alone but one of a community, will have
no temptation to act thus. Things at first compulsory will become habitual.
You will set to work unbidden and will find pleasure in your toil. You will
forget things which are behind and will reach forth to those which are
before.(1) You will think less of the evil that others do than of the good
you ought to do.

   17. Be not led by the multitude of those who sin, neither let the host
of those who perish tempt you to say secretly: "What? must all be lost who
live in cities? Behold, they continue to enjoy their property, they serve
churches, they frequent baths, they do not disdain cosmetics, and yet they
are universally well-spoken of." To this kind of remark I have before
replied and now shortly reply again that the object of this little work is
not to discuss the clergy but to lay down rules for a monk. The clergy are
holy men and their lives are always worthy of praise. Rouse yourself then
and so live in your monastery that you may deserve to be a clergyman, that
you may preserve your youth from defilement, that you may go to Christ's
altar as a virgin out of her chamber. See that you are well-reported of
without and that women are familiar with your reputation but not with your
appearance. When you come to mature years, if, that is, you live so long,
and when you have been chosen into the ranks of the clergy either by the
people of the city or by its bishop, act in a way that befits a clergyman,
and choose for your models the best of your brothers. For in every rank and
condition of life the bad are mingled with the good.

   18. Do not be carried away by some mad caprice and rush into
authorship. Learn long and carefully what you propose to teach. Do not
credit all that flatterers say to you, or, I should rather say, do not lend
too ready an ear to those who mean to mock you. They will fawn upon you
with fulsome praise and do their best to blind your judgment; yet if you
suddenly look behind you, you will find that they are making gestures of
derision with their hands, either a stork's neck or the flapping ears of a
donkey or a thirsty dog's protruding tongue.(2)

   Never speak evil of anyone or suppose that you make yourself better by
assailing the reputations of others. The charges we bring against them
often come home to ourselves; we inveigh against faults which are as much
ours as theirs; and so our eloquence ends by telling against ourselves. It
is as though dumb persons were to criticize orators. When the grunter(1)
wished to speak he used to come forward at a snail's pace(2) and to utter a
word now and again with such long pauses between that he seemed less making
a speech than gasping for breath. Then, when he had placed his table and
arranged on it his pile of books, he used to knit his brow, to draw in his
nostrils, to wrinkle his forehead and to snap his fingers, signs meant to
engage the attention of his pupils. Then he would pour forth a torrent of
nonsense and declaim so vehemently against every one that you would take
him for a critic like Longinus(3) or fancy him a second Cato the Censor(4)
passing judgment on Roman eloquence and excluding whom he pleased from the
senate of the learned. As he had plenty of money he made himself still more
popular by giving entertainments. Numbers of persons shared in his
hospitality; and thus it was not surprising that when he went out he was
surrounded always by a buzzing throng. At home he was a monster like Nero,
abroad a paragon like Cato. Made up of different and opposing natures, as a
whole he baffled description. You would say that he was formed of jarring
elements like that unnatural and unheard of monster of which the poet tells
us that it was 'in front a lion, behind a dragon, in the middle the goat
whose name it bears.'(5)

   19. Men such as these you must never look at or associate with. Nor
must you turn aside your heart unto words of evil(6) lest the psalmist say
to you: "Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother; thou slanderest
thine own mother's son,"(7) and lest you become as "the sons of men whose
teeth are spears and arrows,"(8) and as the man whose "words were softer
than oil yet were they drawn swords."(9) The Preacher expresses this more
clearly still when he says: "Surely the serpent will bite where there is no
enchantment, and the slanderer is no better."(1) But you will say, 'I am
not given to detraction, but how can check others who are?' If we put
forward such a plea as this it can only be that we may "practise wicked
works with men that work iniquity."(2) Yet Christ is not deceived by this
device. It is not I but an apostle who says: "Be not deceived; God is not
mocked."(3) "Man looketh upon the outward appearance but the Lord looketh
upon the heart."(4) And in the proverbs Solomon tells us that as "the north
wind driveth away rain, so doth an angry countenance a backbiting
tongue."(5) It sometimes happens that an arrow when it is aimed at a hard
object rebounds upon the bowman, wounding the would-be wounder, and thus,
the words are fulfilled, "they were turned aside like a deceitful bow,"(6)
and in another passage: "whoso casteth a stone on high casteth it on his
own head."(7) So when a slanderer sees anger in the countenance of his
hearer who will not hear him but stops his ears that he may not hear of
blood,(8) he becomes silent on the moment, his face turns pale, his lips
stick fast, his mouth becomes parched. Wherefore the same wise man says:
"meddle not with them that are given to detraction: for their calamity
shall rise suddenly; and who knoweth the ruin of them both?"(9) of him who
speaks, that is, and of him who hears. Truth does not love corners or seek
whisperers. To Timothy it is said, "Against an elder receive not an
accusation suddenly; but him that sinneth rebuke before all, that others
also may fear."(10) When a man is advanced in years you must not be too
ready to believe evil of him; his past life is itself a defence, and so
also is his rank as an eider. Still, since we are but human and sometimes
in spite of the ripeness of our years fall into the sins of youth, if I do
wrong and you wish to correct me, accuse me openly of my fault: do not
backbite me secretly. "Let the righteous smite me, it shall be a kindness,
and let him reprove me; but let not the oil of the sinner enrich my
head."(11) For what says the apostle? "Whom the Lord loveth, he chasteneth,
and scourgeth every son whom he receiveth."(12) By the mouth of Isaiah the
Lord speaks thus: "O my people, they who call you happy cause you to err
and destroy the way of your paths."(13) How do you help me by telling my
misdeeds to others? You may, without my knowing of it, wound some one else
by the narration of my sins or rather of those which you slanderously
attribute to me; and while you are eager to spread the news in I all
quarters, you may pretend to confide in each individual as though you had
spoken to no one else. Such a course has for its object not my correction
but the indulgence of your own failing. The Lord gives commandment that
those who sin against us are to be arraigned privately or else in the
presence of a witness, and that if they refuse to hear reason, the matter
is to be laid before the church, and those who persist in their wickedness
are to be regarded as heathen men and publicans.(1)

   20. I lay great emphasis on these points that I may deliver a young man
who is dear to me from the itching both of the tongue and of the ears:
that, since he has been born again in Christ, I may present him without
spot or wrinkle(2) as a chaste virgin,(3) chaste in mind as well as in
body; that the virginity of which he boasts may be more than nominal and
that he may not be shut out by the bridegroom because being unprovided with
the oil of good works his lamp has gone out.(4) In Proculus you have a
reverend and most learned prelate,(5) able by the sound of his voice to do
more for you than I with my written sheets and sure to direct you on your
path by daily homilies. He will not suffer you to turn to the right hand or
to the left or to leave the king's highway; for to this Israel pledges
itself to keep in its hasty passage to the land of promise.(6) May God hear
the voice of the church's supplication. "Lord, ordain peace for us, for
thou hast also wrought all our works for us."(7) May our renunciation of
the world be made freely and not under compulsion! May we seek poverty
gladly to win its glory and not suffer anguish because others lay it upon
us! For the rest amid our present miseries with the sword making havoc
around us, he is rich enough who has bread sufficient for his need, and he
is abundantly powerful who is not reduced to be a slave. Exuperius(8)' the
reverend bishop of Toulouse, imitating the widow of Zarephath,(9) feeds
others though hungry himself. His face is pale with fasting, yet it is the
cravings of others that torment him most. In fact he has bestowed his whole
substance to meet the needs of Christ's poor. Yet none is richer than he,
for his wicker basket contains the body of the Lord, and his plain glass-
cup the precious blood. Like his Master he has banished greed out of the
temple; and without either scourge of cords or words of chiding he has
overthrown the chairs of them that sell doves, that is, the gifts of the
Holy Spirit. He has upset the tables of Mammon and has scattered the money
of the money-changers; zealous that the house of God may be called a house
of prayer and not a den of robbers.(1) In his steps follow closely and in
those of others like him in virtue, whom the priesthood makes poor men and
more than ever humble. Or if you will be perfect, go out with Abraham from
your country and from your kindred, and go whither you know not.(2) If you
have substance, sell it and give to the poor. If you have none, then are
yon free from a great burthen. Destitute yourself, follow a destitute
Christ. The task is a hard one, it is great and difficult; but the reward
is also great.

LETTER CXXVI: TO MARCELLINUS AND ANAPSYCHIA.

Marcellinus, a Roman official of high rank, and Anapsychia his wife had
written to Jerome from Africa to ask him his opinion on the vexed question
of the origin of the soul. Jerome in his reply briefly enumerates the
several views that have been held on the subject. For fuller information he
refers his questioners: to his treatise against Rufinus and also to their
bishop Augustin who will, he says, explain the matter to them by word of
mouth. Although it hardly appears in this letter Jerome is a decided
creationist (see his Comm. on Eccles. xii. 7). But, though he vehemently
condemns Rufinus (Ap. ii. 10) for professing ignorance on the subject, he
assents (Letter CXXXIV.) to Augustin (Letter CXXXI.) who similarly
professes ignorance but seems to lean to traducianism. The date of writing
is A. D. 412.

   To his truly holy lord and lady, his children worthy of the highest
respect and affection, Marcellinus and Anapsychia, Jerome sends greeting.

   1. I have at last received from Africa your joint letter and no longer
regret the effrontery which led me, in spite of your silence to ply you
both with so many missives. I hoped, indeed, by so doing to gain a reply
and to learn of your welfare not indirectly from others but directly from
yourselves.

   I well remember your little problem about the nature of the soul;
although I ought not to call it little, seeing that it is one of the
greatest with which the church has to deal. You ask whether it has fallen
from heaven, as Pythagoras, all Platonists, and Origen suppose; or whether
it is part of God's essence as the Stoics, Manes, and the Spanish
Priscillianists hint. Whether souls created long since are kept in God's
storehouse as some ecclesiastical writers(3) foolishly imagine; or whether
they are formed by God and introduced into bodies day by day according to
that saying in the Gospel: "my Father worketh hitherto and I work;"(4) or
whether, lastly, they are transmitted by propagation. This is the view of
Tertullian, Apollinaris, and most western writers who hold that soul is
derived from soul as body is from body and that the conditions of life are
the same for men and brutes. I have given my opinion on the matter in my
reply to the treatise which Rufinus presented to Anastasius, bishop of
Rome, of holy memory. He strives in this by an evasive and crafty but
sufficiently foolish confession to play with the simplicity of his hearers,
but only succeeds in playing with his own faith or rather want of it. My
book,(1) which has been published a good while, contains an answer to the
calumnies which in his various writings Rufinus has directed against me.
Your reverend father Oceanus(2) has, I think, a copy of it. But if you
cannot procure it your bishop Augustine is both learned and holy. He will
teach you by word of mouth and will give you his opinion, or rather mine,
in his own words.

   2. I have long wished to attack the prophecies of Ezekiel and to make
good the promises which I have so often given to curious readers. When,
however, I began to dictate I was so confounded By the havoc wrought in the
West and above all by the sack of Rome that, as the common saying has it, I
forgot even my own name. Long did I remain silent knowing that it was a
time to weep.(3) This year I began again and had written three books of
commentary when a sudden incursion of those barbarians of whom your Virgil
speaks(4) as the "far-wandering men of Barce" (and to whom may be applied
what holy scripture says of Ishmael: "he shall dwell over against all his
brethren"(5)) overran the borders of Egypt, Palestine, Phenicia, and Syria,
and like a raging torrent carried everything before them. It was with
difficulty and only through Christ's mercy that we were able to escape from
their hands. But if, as the great orator says, "amid the clash of arms law
ceases to he heard;"(6) how much more truly may it be said that war puts an
end to the study of holy scripture. For this requires plenty of books and
silence and careful copyists anti above all freedom from alarm and a sense
of security. I have accordingly only been able to complete two books and
these I have sent to my daughter, Fabiola,(7) from whom you can if you like
borrow them. For want of time I have not been able as yet to transcribe the
rest. But when you have read these you will have seen the ante-chamber and
will easily form from this a notion of the whole edifice. I trust in God's
mercy and believe that, as he has helped me in the difficult opening
chapters of the prophecy, so he will help me in the chapters towards the
close. These describe the wars of Gog and Magog, and set forth the mode of
building, the plan, and the dimensions of the holy and mysterious temple.

   3. Our reverend brother Oceanus to whom you desire an introduction is a
great and good man and so learned in the law of the Lord that no words of
mine are needed to make him able and willing to instruct you both and to
explain to you in conformity with the rules which govern our common
studies, my opinion and his on all questions arising out of the scriptures.
In conclusion, my truly holy lord and lady, may Christ our God by his
almighty power have you in his safekeeping and cause you to live long and
happily.

LETTER CXXVII: TO PRINCIPIA.

This letter is really a memoir of Marcella (for whom see note on Letter
XXIII.) addressed to her greatest friend. After describing her history,
character, and favourite studies, Jerome goes on to recount her eminent
services in the cause of orthodoxy at a time when, through the efforts of
Rufinus, it seemed likely that Origenism would prevail at Rome ( 9, 10). He
briefly relates the fall of the city and the horrors consequent upon it (
12, 13) which appear to have been the immediate cause of Marcella's death (
14). The date of the letter is 412 A.D.

   1. You have besought me often and earnestly, Principia,(1) virgin of
Christ, to dedicate a letter to the memory of that holy woman Marcella,(2)
and to set forth the goodness long enjoyed by us for others to know and to
imitate. I am so anxious myself to do justice to her merits that it grieves
me that you should spur me on and fancy that your entreaties are needed
when I do not yield even to you in love of her. In putting upon record her
signal virtues I shall receive far more benefit myself than I can possibly
confer upon others. If I have hitherto remained silent and have allowed two
years to go over without making any sign, this has not been owing to a wish
to ignore her as you wrongly suppose, but to an incredible sorrow which so
overcame my mind that I judged it better to remain silent for a while than
to praise her virtues in inadequate language. Neither will I now follow the
rules of rhetoric in eulogizing one so dear to both of us and to all the
saints, Mar-cella the glory of her native Rome. I will not set forth her
illustrious family and lofty lineage, nor will I trace her pedigree through
a line of consuls and praetorian prefects. I will praise her for nothing
but the virtue which is her own and which is the more noble, because
forsaking both wealth and rank she has sought the true nobility of poverty
and lowliness.

   2. Her father's death left her an orphan, and she had been married less
than seven months when her husband was taken from her. Then as she was
young, and highborn, as well as distinguished for her beauty--always an
attraction to men--and her self- control, an illustrious consular named
Cerealis paid court to her with great assiduity. Being an old man he
offered to make over to her his fortune so that she might consider herself
less his wife than his daughter. Her mother Albina went out of her way to
secure for the young widow so exalted a protector. But Marcella answered:
"had I a wish to marry and not rather to dedicate myself to perpetual
chastity, I should look for a husband and not for an inheritance;" and when
her suitor argued that sometimes old men live long while young men die
early, she cleverly retorted: "a young man may indeed die early, but an old
man cannot live long." This decided rejection of Cerealis convinced others
that they had no hope of winning her hand.

   In the gospel according to Luke we read the following passage: "there
was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser:
she was of great age, and had lived with an husband seven years from her
virginity; and she was a widow of about fourscore and four years, which
departed not from the temple but served God with fastings and prayers night
and day."(1) It was no marvel that she won the vision of the Saviour, whom
she sought so earnestly. Let us then compare her case with that of Marcella
and we shall see that the latter has every way the advantage. Anna lived
with her husband seven years; Marcella seven months. Anna only hoped for
Christ; Marcella held Him fast. Anna confessed him at His birth; Marcella
believed in Him crucified. Anna did not deny the Child; Marcella rejoiced
in the Man as king. I do not wish to draw distinctions between holy women
on the score of their merits, as some persons have made it a custom to do
as regards holy men and leaders of churches; the conclusion at which I aim
is that, as both have one task, so both have one reward.

   3. In a slander-loving community such as Rome, filled as it formerly
was with people from all parts and bearing the palm for wickedness of all
kinds, detraction assailed the upright and strove to defile even the pure
and the clean. In such an atmosphere it is hard to escape from the breath
of calumny. A stainless reputation is difficult nay almost impossible to
attain; the prophet yearns for it but hardly hopes to win it: "Blessed," he
says, "are the undefiled in the way who walk in the law of the Lord."(1)
The undefiled in the way of this world are those whose fair fame no breath
of scandal has ever sullied, and who have earned no reproach at the hands
of their neighbours. It is this which makes the Saviour say in the gospel:
"agree with," or be complaisant to, "thine adversary whilst thou art in the
way with him."(2) Who ever heard a slander of Marcella that deserved the
least credit? Or who ever credited such without making himself guilty of
malice and defamation? No; she put the Gentiles to confusion by shewing
them the nature of that Christian widowhood which her conscience and mien
alike set forth. For women of the world are wont to paint their faces with
rouge and white-lead, to wear robes of shining silk, to adorn themselves
with jewels, to put gold chains round their necks, to pierce their ears and
hang in them the costliest pearls of the Red Sea,(3) and to scent
themselves with musk. While they mourn for the husbands they have lost they
rejoice at their own deliverance and freedom to choose fresh partners--not,
as God wills, to obey these(4) but to rule over them.

   With this object in view they select for their partners poor men who
contented with the mere name of husbands are the more ready to put up with
rivals as they know that, if they so much as murmur, they will be cast off
at once. Our widow's clothing was meant to keep out the cold and not to
shew her figure. Of gold she would not wear so much as a seal-ring,
choosing to store her money in the stomachs of the poor rather than to keep
it at her own disposal. She went nowhere without her mother, and would
never see without witnesses such monks and clergy as the needs of a large
house required her to interview. Her train was always composed of virgins
and widows, and these women serious and staid; for, as she well knew, the
levity of the maids speaks ill for the mistress and a woman's character is
shewn by her choice of companions.(5)

   4. Her delight in the divine scriptures was incredible. She was for
ever singing, "Thy words have I hid in mine heart that I might not sin
against thee,"(1) as well as the words which describe the perfect man, "his
delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and
night."(2) This meditation in the law she understood not of a review of the
written words as among the Jews the Pharisees think, but of action
according to that saying of the apostle, "whether, therefore, ye eat or
drink or what soever ye do, do all to the glory of God."(3) She remembered
also the prophet's words, "through thy precepts I get understanding,"(4)
and felt sure that only when she had fulfilled these would she be permitted
to understand the scriptures. In this sense we read elsewhere that "Jesus
began both to do and teach."(5) For teaching is put to the blush when a
man's conscience rebukes him; and it is in vain that his tongue preaches
poverty or teaches alms-giving if he is rolling in the riches of Croesus
and if, in spite of his threadbare cloak, he has silken robes at home to
save from the moth.

   Marcella practised fasting, but in moderation. She abstained from
eating flesh, and she knew rather the scent of wine than its taste;
touching it only for her stomach's sake and for her often infirmities.(6)
She seldom appeared in public and took care to avoid the houses of great
ladies, that she might not be forced to look upon what she had once for all
renounced. She frequented the basilicas of apostles and martyrs that she
might escape from the throng and give herself to private prayer. So
obedient was she to her mother that for her sake she did things of which
she herself disapproved. For example, when her mother, careless of her own
offspring, was for transferring all her property from her children and
grandchildren to her brother's family, Marcella wished the money to be
given to the poor instead, and yet could not bring herself to thwart her
parent. Therefore she made over her ornaments and other effects to persons
already rich, content to throw away her money rather than to sadden her
mother's heart.

   5. In those days no highborn lady at Rome had made profession of the
monastic life, or had ventured--so strange and ignominious and degrading
did it then seem--publicly to call herself a nun. It was from some priests
of Alexandria, and from pope Athanasius, and subsequently from Peter,(7)
who, to escape the persecution of the Arian heretics, had all fled for
refuge to Rome as the safest haven in which they could find communion--it
was from these that Marcella heard of the life of the blessed Antony, then
still alive, and of the monasteries in the Thebaid founded by Pachomius,
and of the discipline laid down for virgins and for widows. Nor was she
ashamed to profess a life which she had thus learned to be pleasing to
Christ. Many years after her example was followed first by Sophronia and
then by others, of whom it may be well said in the words of Ennius:(1)

   Would that ne'er in Pelion's woods
   Had the axe these pinetrees felled.

My revered friend Paula was blessed with Marcella's friendship, and it was
in Marcella's cell that Eustochium, that paragon of virgins, was gradually
trained. Thus it is easy to see of what type the mistress was who found
such pupils.

   The unbelieving reader may perhaps laugh at me for dwelling so long on
the praises of mere women; yet if he will but remember how holy women
followed our Lord and Saviour and ministered to Him of their substance, and
how the three Marys stood before the cross and especially how Mary
Magdalen--called the tower(2) from the earnestness and glow of her faith--
was privileged to see the rising Christ first of all before the very
apostles, he will convict himself of pride sooner than me of folly. For we
judge of people's virtue not by their sex but by their character, and hold
those to be worthy of the highest glory who have renounced both rank and
wealth. It was for this reason that Jesus loved the evangelist John more
than the other disciples. For John was of noble birth(3) and known to the
high priest, yet was so little appalled by the plottings of the Jews that
he introduced Peter into his court,(4) and was the only one of the apostles
bold enough to take his stand before the cross. For it was he who took the
Saviour's parent to his own home;(5) it was the virgin son(6) who received
the virgin mother as a legacy from the Lord.

   6. Marcella then lived the ascetic life for many years, and found
herself old before she bethought herself that she had once been young. She
often quoted with approval Plato's saying that philosophy consists in
meditating on death.(7) A truth which our own apostle indorses when he
says: "for your salvation I die daily."(8) Indeed according to the old
copies our Lord himself says: "whosoever doth not bear His cross daily and
come after me cannot be my disciple."(1) Ages before, the Holy Spirit had
said by the prophet: "for thy sake are we killed all the day long: we are
counted as sheep for the slaughter.(2) Many generations afterwards the
words were spoken: "remember the end and thou shalt never do amiss,(3) as
well as that precept of the eloquent satirist: "live with death in your
mind; time flies; this say of mine is so much taken from it.(4) Well then,
as I was saying, she passed her days and lived always in the thought that
she must die. Her very clothing was such as to remind her of the tomb, and
she presented herself as a living sacrifice, reasonable and acceptable,
unto God.(5)

   7. When the needs of the Church at length brought me to Rome(6) in
company with the reverend pontiffs, Paulinus and Epiphanius--the first of
whom ruled the church of the Syrian Antioch while the second presided over
that of Salamis in Cyprus,--I in my modesty was for avoiding the eyes of
highborn ladies, yet she pleaded so earnestly, "both in season and out of
season"(7) as the apostle says, that at last her perseverance overcame my
reluctance. And, as in those days my name was held in some renown as that
of a student of the scriptures, she never came to see me that she did not
ask me some question concerning them, nor would she at once acquiesce in my
explanations but on the contrary would dispute them; not, however, for
argument's sake but to learn the answers to those objections which might,
as she saw, be made to my statements. How much virtue and ability, how much
holiness and purity I found in her I am afraid to say; both lest I may
exceed the bounds of men's belief and lest I may increase your sorrow by
reminding you of the blessings that you have lost. This much only will I
say, that whatever in me was the fruit of long study and as such made by
constant meditation a part of my nature, this she tasted, this she learned
and made her own. Consequently after my departure from Rome, in case of a
dispute arising as to the testimony of scripture on any subject, recourse
was had to her to settle it. And so wise was she and so well did she
understand what philosophers call to' pre'pon, that is, the becoming, in
what she did, that when she answered questions she gave her own opinion not
as her own but as from me or some one else, thus admitting that what she
taught she had herself learned from others. For she knew that the apostle
had said: "I suffer not a woman to teach,"(1) and she would not seem to
inflict a wrong upon the male sex many of whom (including sometimes
priests) questioned her concerning obscure and doubtful points.

   8. I am told that my place with her was immediately taken by you, that
you attached yourself to her, and that, as the saying goes, you never let
even a hair's-breadth(2) come between her and you. You both lived in the
same house and occupied the same room so that every one in the city knew
for certain that you had found a mother in her and she a daughter in you.
In the suburbs you found for yourselves a monastic seclusion, and chose the
country instead of the town because of its loneliness. For a long time you
lived together, and as many ladies shaped their conduct by your examples, I
had the joy of seeing Rome transformed into another Jerusalem. Monastic
establishments for virgins became numerous, and of hermits there were
countless numbers. In fact so many were the servants of God that
monasticism which had before been a term of reproach became subsequently
one of honour. Meantime we consoled each other for our separation by words
of mutual encouragement, and discharged in the spirit the debt which in the
flesh we could not pay. We always went to meet each other's letters, tried
to outdo each other in attentions, and anticipated each other in courteous
inquiries. Not much was lost by a separation thus effectually bridged by a
constant correspondence.

   9. While Marcella was thus serving the Lord in holy tranquillity, there
arose in these provinces a tornado of heresy which threw everything into
confusion; indeed so great was the fury into which it lashed itself that it
spared neither itself nor anything that was good. And as if it were too
little to have disturbed everything here, it introduced a ship(3) freighted
with blasphemies into the port of Rome itself. The dish soon found itself a
cover;(4) and the muddy feet of heretics fouled the clear waters(5) of the
faith of Rome. No wonder that in the streets and in the market places a
soothsayer can strike fools on the back or, Catching up his cudgel, shatter
the teeth of such as carp at him; when such venomous and filthy teaching as
this has found at Rome dupes whom it can lead astray. Next came the
scandalous version(6) of Origen's book On First Principles, and that
'fortunate' disciple(7) who would have been indeed fortunate had he never
fallen in with such a master. Next followed the confutation set forth by my
supporters, which destroyed the case of the Pharisees(1) and threw them
into confusion. It was then that the holy Marcella, who had long held back
lest she should be thought to act from party motives, threw herself into
the breach. Conscious that the faith of Rome--once praised by an
apostle(2)--was now in danger, and that this new heresy was drawing to
itself not only i priests and monks but also many of the laity besides
imposing on the bishop(3) who fancied others as guileless as he was
himself, she publicly withstood its teachers choosing to please God rather
than men.

   10. In the gospel the Saviour commends the unjust steward because,
although he defrauded his master, he acted wisely for his own interests.(4)
The heretics in this instance pursued the same course; for, seeing how
great a matter a little fire had kindled,(5) and that the flames applied by
them to the foundations had by this time reached the housetops, and that
the deception practised on many could no longer be hid, they asked for and
obtained letters of commendation from the church,(6) so that it might
appear that till the day of their departure they had continued in full
communion with it. Shortly afterwards(7) the distinguished Anastasius
succeeded to the pontificate; but he was soon taken away, for it was not
fitting that the head of the world should be struck off(8) during the
episcopate of one so great. He was removed, no doubt, that he might not
seek to turn away by his prayers the sentence of God passed once for all.
For the words of the Lord to Jeremiah concerning Israel applied equally to
Rome: "pray not for this people for their good. When they fast I will not
hear their cry; and when they offer burnt-offering and oblation, I will not
accept them; but I will consume them by the sword and by the famine and by
the pestilence."(9) You will say, what has this to do with the praises of
Marcella? I reply, She it was who originated the condemnation of the
heretics. She it was who furnished witnesses first taught by them and then
carried away by their heretical teaching. She it was who showed how large a
number they had deceived and who brought up against them the impious books
On First Principles, books which were passing from hand to hand after being
'improved' by the hand of the scorpion.(10) She it was lastly who called on
the heretics in letter after letter to appear in their own defence. They
did not indeed venture to come, for they were so conscience-stricken that
they let the case go against them by default rather than face their
accusers and be convicted by them. This glorious victory originated with
Marcella, she was the source and cause of this great blessing. You who
shared the honour with her know that I speak the truth. You know too that
out of many incidents I only mention a few, not to tire out the reader by a
wearisome recapitulation. Were I to say more, ill natured persons might
fancy me, under pretext of commending a woman's virtues, to be giving vent
to my own rancour. I will pass now to the remainder of my story.

   11. The whirlwind(1) passed from the West into the East and threatened
in its passage to shipwreck many a noble craft. Then were the words of
Jesus fulfilled: "when the son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the
earth?"(2) The love of many waxed cold.(3) Yet the few who still loved the
true faith rallied to my side. Men openly sought to take their lives and
every expedient was employed against them. So hotly indeed did the
persecution rage that "Barnabas also was carried away with their
dissimulation;"(4) nay more he committed murder, if not in actual violence
at least in will. Then behold God blew and the tempest passed away; so that
the prediction of the prophet was fulfilled, "thou takest away their
breath, they die, and return to their dust.(5) In that very day his
thoughts perish,"(6) as also the gospel-saying, "Thou fool, this night thy
soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which
thou hast provided?"(7)

   12. Whilst these things were happening in Jebus(8) a dreadful rumour
came from the West. Rome had been besieged(9) and its citizens had been
forced to buy their lives with gold. Then thus despoiled they had been
besieged again so as to lose not their substance only but their lives. My
voice sticks in my throat; and, as I dictate, sobs choke my utterance. The
City which had taken the whole world was itself taken;(10) nay more famine
was beforehand with the sword and but few citizens were left to be made
captives. In their frenzy the starving people had recourse to hideous food;
and tore each other limb from limb that they might have flesh to eat. Even
the mother did not spare the babe at her breast. In the night was Moab
taken, in the night did her wall fall down.(1) "O God, the heathen have
come into thine inheritance; thy holy temple have they defiled; they have
made Jerusalem an orchard.(2) The dead bodies of thy servants have they
given to be meat unto the fowls of the heaven, the flesh of thy saints unto
the beasts of the earth. Their blood have they shed like water round about
Jerusalem; and there was none to bury them."(3)

   Who can set forth the carnage of that night?
   What tears are equal to its agony?
   Of ancient date a sovran city falls;
   And lifeless in its streets and houses lie
   Unnumbered bodies of its citizens.
   In many a ghastly shape doth death appear.(4)

   13. Meantime, as was natural in a scene of such confusion, one of the
bloodstained victors found his way into Marcella's house. Now be it mine to
say what I have heard,(6) to relate what holy men have seen; for there were
some such present and they say that you too were with her in the hour of
danger. When the soldiers entered she is said to have received them without
any look of alarm; and when they asked her for gold she pointed to her
coarse dress to shew them that she had no buried treasure. However they
would not believe in her self-chosen poverty, but scourged her and beat her
with cudgels. She is said to have felt no pain but to have thrown herself
at their feet and to have pleaded with tears for you, that you might not be
taken from her, or owing to your youth have to endure what she as an old
woman had no occasion to fear. Christ softened their hard hearts and even
among bloodstained swords natural affection asserted its rights. The
barbarians conveyed both you and her to the basilica of the apostle Paul,
that you might find there either a place of safety or, if not that, at
least a tomb. Hereupon Marcella is said to have burst into great joy and to
have thanked God for having kept you unharmed in answer to her prayer. She
said she was thankful too that the taking of the city had found her poor,
not made her so, that she was now in want of daily bread, that Christ
satisfied her needs so that she no longer felt hunger, that she was able to
say in word and in deed: "naked came I out of my mother's womb, and naked
shall I return thither: the Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away; blessed
be the name of the Lord."(5)

   14. After a few days she fell asleep in the Lord; but to the last her
powers remained unimpaired. You she made the heir of her poverty, or rather
the poor through you. When she closed her eyes, it was in your arms; when
she breathed her last breath, your lips received it; you shed tears but she
smiled conscious of having led a good life and hoping for her reward
hereafter.

   In one short night I have dictated this letter in honour of you,
revered Marcella, and of you, my daughter Principia; not to shew off my own
eloquence but to express my heartfelt gratitude to you both; my one desire
has been to please both God and my readers.

LETTER CXXVIII: TO GAUDENTIUS.

Gaudentius had written from Rome to ask Jerome's advice as to the bringing
up of his infant daughter whom after the religious fashion of the day he
had dedicated to a life of virginity. Jerome's reply may be compared with
his advice to Laeta (Letter CVII.) which it closely resembles. It is
noticeable also for the vivid account which it gives of the sack of Rome by
Alaric in A.D. 410. The date of the letter is A.D. 413.

   1. It is hard to write to a little girl who cannot understand what you
say, of whose mind you know nothing, and of whose inclinations it would be
rash to prophesy. In the words of a famous orator "she is to be praised
more for what she will be than for what she is."(1) For how can you speak
of self-control to a child who is eager for cakes, who babbles on her
mother's knee, and to whom honey is sweeter than any words? Will she hear
the deep things of the apostle when all her delight is in nursery tales?
Will she heed the dark sayings of the prophets when her nurse can frighten
her by a frowning face? Or will she comprehend the majesty of the gospel,
when its splendour dazzles the keenest intellect? Shall I urge her to obey
her parents when with her chubby hand she beats her smiling mother? For
such reasons as these my dear Pacatula must read some other time the letter
that I send her now. Meanwhile let her learn the alphabet, spelling,
grammar, and syntax. To induce her to repeat her lessons with her little
shrill voice, hold out to her as rewards cakes and mead and sweetmeats.(2)
She will make haste to perform her task if she hopes afterwards to get some
bright bunch of flowers, some glittering bauble, some enchanting doll. She
must also learn to spin, shaping the yarn with her tender thumb; for, even
if she constantly breaks the threads, a day will come when she will no
longer break them. Then when she has finished her lessons she ought to have
some recreation. At such times she may hang round her mother's neck, or
snatch kisses from her relations. Reward her for singing psalms that she
may love what she has to learn. Her task will then become a pleasure to her
and no compulsion will be necessary.

   2. Some mothers when they have vowed a daughter to virginity clothe her
in sombre garments, wrap her up in a dark cloak, and let her have neither
linen nor gold ornaments. They wisely refuse to accustom her to what she
will afterwards have to lay aside. Others act on the opposite principle.
"What is the use," say they, "of keeping such things from her? Will she not
see them with others? Women are fond of finery and many whose chastity is
beyond question dress not for men but for themselves Give her what she asks
for, but shew her that those are most praised who ask for nothing. It is
better that she should enjoy things to the full and so learn to despise
them than that from not having them she should wish to have them." "This,"
they continue, "was the plan which the Lord adopted with the children of
Israel. When they longed for the fleshpots of Egypt He sent them flights of
quails and allowed them to gorge themselves until they were sick.(1) Those
who have once lived worldly lives more readily forego the pleasures of
sense than such as from their youth up have known nothing of desire." For
while the former--so they argue--trample on what they know, the latter are
attracted by what is to them unknown. While the former penitently shun the
insidious advances which pleasure makes, the latter coquet with the
allurements of sense and fancying them to be as sweet as honey find them to
be deadly poison. They quote the passage which says that "the lips of a
strange woman drop as an honeycomb;"(2) which is sweet indeed in the
eater's mouth but is afterwards found more bitter than gall.(3) This they
argue, is the reason that neither honey nor wax is offered in the
sacrifices of the Lord,(4) and that oil the product of the bitter olive is
burned in His temple.(5) Moreover it is with bitter herbs that the passover
is eaten,(6) and "with the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth."(7) He
that receives these shall suffer persecution in the world. Wherefore the
prophet symbolically sings: "I sat alone because I was filled with
bitterness."(8)

   3. What then, I reply? Is youth to run riot that self-indulgence may
afterwards be more resolutely rejected? Far from it, they rejoin: "let
every man, wherein he is called, therein abide.(9) Is any called being
circumcised,"-- that is, as a virgin?--"let him not become
uncircumcised"(1)--that is, let him not seek the coat of marriage given to
Adam on his expulsion from the paradise of virginity.(2) "Is any called in
uncircumcision,"--that is, having a wife and enveloped in the skin of
matrimony? let him not seek the nakedness of virginity(3) and of that
eternal chastity which he has lost once for all. No, let him "possess his
vessel in sanctification and honour,"(4) let him drink of his own wells not
out of the dissolute cisterns(5) of the harlots which cannot hold within
them the pure waters of chastity.(6) The same Paul also in the same
chapter, when discussing the subjects of virginity and marriage, calls
those who are married slaves of the flesh, but those not under the yoke of
wedlock free-men who serve the Lord in all freedom.(7)

   What I say I do not say as universally applicable; my treatment of the
subject is only partial. I speak of some only, not of all. However my words
are addressed to those of both sexes, and not only to "the weaker
vessel."(8) Are you a virgin? Why then do you find pleasure in the society
of a woman? Why do you commit to the high seas your frail patched boat, why
do you so confidently face the great peril of a dangerous voyage? You know
not what you desire, and yet you cling to her as though you had either
desired her before or, to put it as leniently as possible, as though you
would hereafter desire her. Women, you will say, make better servants than
men. In that case choose a misshapen old woman, choose one whose continence
is approved in the Lord. Why should you find pleasure in a young girl,
pretty, and voluptuous? You frequent the baths, walk abroad sleek and
ruddy, eat flesh, abound in riches, and wear the most expensive clothes;
and yet you fancy that you can sleep safely beside a death-dealing serpent.
You tell me perhaps that you do not live in the same house with her. This
is only true at night. But you spend whole days in conversing with her. Why
do you sit alone with her? Why do you dispense with witnesses? By so doing
if you do not actually sin you appear to do so, and (so important is your
influence) you embolden unhappy men by your example to do what is wrong.
You too, whether virgin or widow, why do you allow a man to detain you in
conversation so long? Why are you not afraid to be left alone with him? At
least go out of doors to satisfy the wants of nature, and for this at any
rate leave the man with whom you have given yourself more liberty than you
would with your brother, and have behaved more immodestly than you would
with your husband. You have some question, you say, to ask concerning the
holy scriptures. If so, ask it publicly; let your maids and your attendants
hear it. "Everything that is made manifest is light."(1) He who says only
what he ought does not look for a corner to say it in; he is glad to have
hearers for he likes to be praised. He must be a fine teacher, on the other
hand, who thinks little of men, does not care for the brothers, and labours
in secret merely to instruct just one weak woman!

   3a. l have wandered for a little from my immediate subject to discuss
the procedure of others in such a case as yours; and while it is my object
to train, nay rather to nurse, the infant Pacatula, I have in a moment
drawn upon myself the hostility of many women who are by no means daughters
of peace.(2)But I shall now return to my proper theme.

   A girl should associate only with girls, she should know nothing of
boys and should dread even playing with them. She should never hear an
unclean word, and if amid the bustle of the household she should chance to
hear one, she should not understand it. Her mother's nod should be to her
as much a command as a spoken injunction. She should love her as her
parent, obey her as her mistress, and reverence her as her teacher. She is
now a child without teeth and without ideas, but, as soon as she is seven
years old, a blushing girl knowing what she ought not to say and hesitating
as to what she ought, she should until she is grown up commit to memory the
psalter and the books of Solomon; the gospels, the apostles and the
prophets should be the treasure of her heart. She should not appear in
public too freely or too frequently attend crowded churches. All her
pleasure should be in her chamber. She must never look at young men or turn
her eyes upon curled fops; and the wanton songs of sweet voiced girls which
wound the soul through the ears must be kept from her. The more freedom of
access such persons possess, the harder is it to avoid them when they come;
and what they have once learned themselves they will secretly teach her and
will thus contaminate our secluded Danae by the talk of the crowd. Give her
for guardian and companion a mistress and a governess, one not given to
much wine or in the apostle's words idle and a tattler, but sober, grave,
industrious in spinning wool(3) and one whose words will form her childish
mind to the practice of virtue. For, as water follows a finger drawn
through the sand, so one of soft and tender years is pliable for good or
evil; she can be drawn in whatever direction you choose to guide her.
Moreover spruce and gay young men often seek access for themselves by
paying court to nurses or dependants or even by bribing them, and when they
have thus gently effected their approach they blow up the first spark of
passion until it bursts into flame and little by little advance to the most
shameless requests. And it is quite impossible to check them then, for the
verse is proved true in their case: "It is ill rebuking what you have once
allowed to become ingrained."(1) I am ashamed to say it and yet I must;
high born ladies who have rejected more high born suitors cohabit with men
of the lowest grade and even with slaves. Sometimes in the name of religion
and under the cloak of a desire for celibacy they actually desert their
husbands in favour of such paramours. You may often see a Helen following
her Paris without the smallest dread of Menelaus. Such persons we see and
mourn for but we cannot punish, for the multitude of sinners procures
tolerance for the sin.

   4. The world sinks into ruin: yes! but shameful to say our sins still
live and flourish. The renowned city, the capital of the Roman Empire, is
swallowed up in one tremendous fire; and there is no part of the earth
where Romans are not in exile. Churches once held sacred are now but heaps
of dust and ashes; and yet we have our minds set on the desire of gain. We
live as though we are going to die tomorrow; yet we build as though we are
going to live always in this world.(2) Our walls shine with gold, our
ceilings also and the capitals of our pillars; yet Christ dies before our
doors naked and hungry in the persons of His poor. The pontiff Aaron, we
read, faced the raging flames, and by putting fire in his censer checked
the wrath of God. The High Priest stood between the dead and the living,
and the fire dared not pass his feet.(3) On another occasion God said to
Moses, "Let me alone ... that I may consume this people,"(4) shewing by the
words "let me alone" that he can be withheld from doing what he threatens.
The prayers of His servant hindered His power. Who, think you, is there now
under heaven able to stay God's wrath, to face the flame of His judgment,
and to say with the apostle, "I could wish that I myself were accursed for
my brethren"?(5) Flocks and shepherds perish together, because as it is
with the people, so is it with the priest.(6) Of old it was not so. Then
Moses spoke in a passion of pity, "yet now if thou wilt forgive their sin--
; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book."(1) He is not
satisfied to secure his own salvation, he desires to perish with those that
perish. And he is right, for "in the multitude of people is the king's
honour."(2)

   Such are the times in which our little Pacatula is born. Such are the
swaddling clothes in which she draws her first breath; she is destined to
know of tears before laughter and to feel sorrow sooner than joy. And
hardly does she come upon the stage when she is called on to make her exit.
Let her then suppose that the world has always been what it is now. Let her
know nothing of the past, let her shun the present, and let her long for
the future.

   These thoughts of mine are but hastily mustered. For my grief for lost
friends has known no intermission and only recently have I recovered
sufficient composure to write an old man's letter to a little child. My
affection for you, brother Gaudentius, has induced me to make the attempt
and I have thought it better to say a few words than to say nothing at all.
The grief that paralyses my will will excuse my brevity; whereas, were I to
say nothing, the sincerity of my friendship might well be doubted.

LETTER CXXIX: TO DARDANUS.

In answer to a question put by Dardanus, prefect of Gaul, Jerome writes
concerning the Promised Land which he identifies not with Canaan but with
heaven. He then points out that the present sufferings of the Jews are due
altogether to the crime of which they have been guilty in the crucifixion
of Christ. The date of the letter is 414 A.D.

LETTER CXXX: TO DEMETRIAS.

Jerome writes to Demetrias, a highborn lady of Rome who had recently
embraced the vocation of a virgin. After narrating her life's history first
at Rome and then in Africa, he goes on to lay down rules and principles to
guide her in her new life. These which cover the whole field of ascetic
practice and include the duties of study, of prayer, of fasting, of
obedience, of giving up money for Christ, and of constant industry, are in
substance similar to those which thirty years before Jerome had suggested
to Eustochium (Letter XXII.). The tone of the letter is however milder and
less fanatical; the asceticism recommended is not so severe; there is less
of rhapsody and more of common sense. This letter should also be compared
with the letter addressed to Demetrias by Pelagius, which is given in Vol.
xi. of Jerome's works (Migne's Patr. Lat. xxx. ed. 15). The date is 414
A.D.

   1. Of all the subjects that I have treated from my youth up until now,
either with my own pen or that of my secretaries I have dealt with none
more difficult than that which now occupies me. I am going to write to
Demetrias a virgin of Christ and a lady whose birth and riches make her
second to none in the Roman world. If, therefore, I employ language
adequate to describe her virtue, I shall be thought to flatter her; and if
I suppress some details on the score that they might appear incredible, my
reserve will not do justice to her undoubted merits. What am I to do then?
I am unequal to the task before me, yet I cannot venture to decline it. Her
grandmother and her mother are both women of mark, and they have alike
authority to command, faith to seek and perseverance to obtain that which
they require. It is not indeed anything very new or special that they ask
of me; my wits have often been exercised upon similar themes. What they
wish for is that I should raise my voice and bear witness as strongly as I
can to the virtues of one who--in the words of the famous orator(1)--is to
be praised less for what she is than for what she gives promise of being.
Yet, girl though she is, she has a glowing faith beyond her years, and has
started from a point at which others think it a mark of signal virtue to
leave off.

   2. Let detraction stand aloof and envy give way; let no charge of self
seeking be brought against me. I write as a stranger to a stranger: at
least so far as the personal appearance is concerned. For the inner man
finds itself well known by that knowledge whereby the apostle Paul knew the
Colossians and many other believers whom he had never seen. How high an
esteem I entertain for this virgin, nay more what a miracle of virtue I
think her, you may judge by the fact that being occupied in the explanation
of Ezekiel's description of the temple--the hardest piece in the whole
range of scripture-- and finding myself in that part of the sacred edifice
wherein is the Holy of Holies and the altar of incense, I have chosen by
way of a brief rest to pass from that altar to this, that upon it I might
consecrate to eternal chastity a living offering acceptable to God(2) and
free from all stain. I am aware that the bishop(3) has with words of prayer
covered her holy head with the virgin's bridal-veil, reciting the while the
solemn sentence of the apostle: "I wish to present you all as a chaste
virgin to Christ."(4) She stood as a queen at his right hand, her clothing
of wrought gold and her raiment of needlework.(5) Such was the coat of many
colours, that is, formed of many different virtues, which Joseph wore; and
similar ones were of old the ordinary dress of king's daughters.
Thereupon(1) the bride herself rejoices and says: "the king hath brought me
into his chambers,"(2) and the choir of her companions responds: "the
king's daughter is all glorious within."(3) Thus she is a professed virgin.
Still these words of mine will not be without their use. The speed of
racehorses is quickened by the applause of spectators; prize fighters are
urged to greater efforts by the cries of their backers; and when armies are
drawn up for battle and swords are drawn, the general's speech does much to
fire his soldiers' valour. So also is it on the present occasion. The
grandmother and the mother have planted, but it is I that water and the
Lord that giveth the increase.(4)

   3. It is the practice of the rhetoricians to exalt him who is the
subject of their praises by referring to his forefathers and the past
nobility of his race, so that a fertile root may make up for barren
branches and that you may admire in the stem what you have not got in the
fruit. Thus I ought now to recall the distinguished names of the Probi and
of the Olybrii, and that illustrious Anician house, the representatives of
which have seldom or never been unworthy of the consulship. Or I ought to
bring forward Olybrius our virgin's father, whose untimely loss Rome has
had to mourn. I fear to say more of him, lest I should intensify the pain
of your saintly mother, and lest the commemoration of his virtues should
become a renewing of her grief. He was a dutiful son, a loveable husband, a
kind master, a popular citizen. He was made consul while still a boy;(5)
but the goodness of his character made him more illustrious as a senator.
He was happy in his death(6) for it saved him from seeing the ruin of his
country; and happier still in his offspring, for the distinguished name of
his great grandmother Demetrias has become yet more distinguished now that
his daughter Demetrias has vowed herself to perpetual chastity.

   4. But what am I doing? Forgetful of my purpose and filled with
admiration for this young man, I have spoken in terms of praise of mere
worldly advantages; whereas I should rather have commended our virgin for
having rejected all these, and for having determined to regard herself not
as a wealthy or a high born lady, but simply as a woman like other women.
Her strength of mind almost passes belief. Though she had silks and jewels
freely at her disposal, and though she was surrounded by crowds of eunuchs
and serving-women, a bustling household of flattering and attentive
domestics, and though the daintiest feasts that the abundance of a large
house could supply were daily set before her; she preferred to all these
severe fasting, rough clothing, and frugal living. For she had read the
words of the Lord: "they that wear soft clothing are in kings' houses."(1)
She was filled with admiration for the manner of life followed by Elijah
and by John the Baptist; both of whom confined and mortified their loins
with girdles of skin,(2) while the second of them is said to have come in
the spirit and power of Elijah as the forerunner of the Lord.(3) As such he
prophesied while still in his mother's womb,(4) and before the day of
judgment won the commendation of the Judge.(5) She admired also the zeal of
Anna the daughter of Phanuel, who continued even to extreme old age to
serve the Lord in the temple with prayers and fastings.(6) When she thought
of the four virgins who were the daughters of Philip,(7) she longed to join
their band and to be numbered with those who by their virginal purity have
attained the grace of prophecy. With these and similar meditations she fed
her mind, dreading nothing so much as to offend her grandmother and her
mother. Although she was encouraged by their example, she was discouraged
by their expressed wish and desire; not indeed that they disapproved of her
holy purpose, but that the prize was so great that they did not venture to
hope for it, or to aspire to it. Thus this poor novice in Christ's service
was sorely perplexed. She came to hate all her fine apparel and cried like
Esther to the Lord: "Thou knowest that I abhor the sign of my high estate"-
-that is to say, the diadem which she wore as queen--"and that I abhor it
as a menstruous rag."(8) Among the holy and highborn ladies who have seen
and known her some have been driven by the tempest which has swept over
Africa, from the shores of Gaul to a refuge in the holy places. These tell
me that secretly night after night, though no one knew of it but the
virgins dedicated to God in her mother's and grandmother's retinue,
Demetrias, refusing sheets of linen and beds of down, spread a rug of
goat's hair upon the ground and watered her face with ceaseless tears.
Night after night she cast herself in thought at the Saviour's knees and
implored him to accept her choice, to fulfil her aspiration, and to soften
the hearts of her grandmother and of her mother.

   5. Why do I still delay to relate the sequel? When her wedding day was
now close at hand and when a marriage chamber was being got ready for the
bride and bridegroom; secretly without any witnesses and with only the
night to comfort her, she is said to have nerved herself with such
considerations as these: "What ails you, Demetrias? Why are you so fearful
of defending your chastity? What you need is freedom and courage. If you
are so panic-stricken in time of peace, what would you do if you were
called on to undergo martyrdom? If you cannot bear so much as a frown from
your own, how would you steel yourself to face the tribunals of
persecutors? If men's examples leave you unmoved, at least gather courage
and confidence from the blessed martyr Agnes(1) who vanquished the
temptations both of youth and of a despot and by her martyrdom hallowed the
very name of chastity. Unhappy girl! you know not, you know not to whom
your virginity is due. It is not long since you have trembled in the hands
of the barbarians and clung to your grandmother and your mother cowering
under their cloaks for safety. You have seen yourself a prisoner(2) and
your chastity not in your own power. You have shuddered at the fierce looks
of your enemies; you have seen with secret agony the virgins of God
ravished. Your city, once the capital of the world, is now the grave of the
Roman people; and will you on the shores of Libya, yourself an exile,
accept an exile for a husband? Where will you find a matron to be present
at your bridal?(3) Whom will you get to escort you home? No tongue but a
harsh Punic one will sing for you the wanton Fescennine verses.(4) Away
with all hesitations! 'Perfect love' of God 'casteth out fear.'(5) Take to
yourself the shield of faith, the breastplate of righteousness, the helmet
of salvation,(6) and sally forth to battle. The preservation of your
chastity involves a martyrdom of its own. Why do you fear your grandmother?
Why do you dread your mother? Perhaps they may themselves wish for you a
course which they do not think you wish for yourself." When by these and
other arguments she had wrought herself to the necessary pitch of
resolution, she cast from her as so many hindrances all her ornaments and
worldly attire. Her precious necklaces, costly pearls, and glowing gems she
put back in their cases. Then dressing herself in a coarse tunic and
throwing over herself a still courser cloak she came in at an unlooked for
moment, threw herself down suddenly at her grandmother's knees, and with
tears and sobs shewed her what she really was. That staid and holy woman
was amazed when she beheld her granddaughter in so strange a dress. Her
mother was completely overcome for joy. Both women could hardly believe
that true which they had longed to be true. Their voices stuck in their
throats,(1) and, what with blushing and turning pale, with fright and with
joy, they were a prey to many conflicting emotions.

   6. I must needs give way here and not attempt to describe what defies
description. In the effort to explain the greatness of that joy past all
belief, the flow of Tully's eloquence would run dry and the bolts poised
and hurled by Demosthenes would become spent and fall short. Whatever mind
can conceive or speech can interpret of human gladness was seen then.
Mother and child grandmother and granddaughter kissed each other again and
again. The two eider women wept copiously for joy, they raised the
prostrate girl, they embraced her trembling form. In her purpose they
recognized their own mind, and congratulated each other that now a virgin
was to make a noble house more noble still by her virginity. She had found
they said, a way to benefit her family and to lessen the calamity of the
ruin of Rome Good Jesus! What exultation there was all through the house!
Many virgins sprouted out at once as shoots from a fruitful stem, and the
example set by their patroness and lady was followed by a host both of
clients and servants. Virginity was warmly espoused in every house and
although those who made profession of it were as regards the flesh of lower
rank than Demetrias they sought one reward with her, the reward of
chastity. My words are too weak. Every church in Africa danced for joy. The
news reached not only the cities, towns, and villages but even the
scattered huts. Every island between Africa and Italy was full of it, the
glad tidings ran far and wide, disliked by none. Then Italy put off her
mourning and the ruined walls of Rome resumed in part their olden
splendour; for they believed the full conversion of their fosterchild to be
a sign of God's favour towards them. You would fancy that the Goths had
been annihilated and that that concourse of deserters and slaves had fallen
by a thunderbolt from the Lord on high. There was less elation in Rome when
Marcellus won his first success at Nola(1) after thousands of Romans had
fallen at the Trebia, Lake Thrasymenus, and Cannae. There was less joy
among the nobles cooped up in the capitol, on whom the future of Rome
depended, when after buying their lives with gold they heard that the Gauls
had at length been routed.(2) The news penetrated to the coasts of the
East, and this triumph of Christian glory was heard of in the remote cities
of the interior. What Christian virgin was not proud to have Demetrias as a
companion? What mother did not call Juliana's womb blessed? Unbelievers may
scoff at the doubtfulness of rewards to come. Mean, time, in becoming a
virgin you have gained more than you have sacrificed. Had you become a
man's bride but one province would have known of you; while as a Christian
virgin you are known to the whole world. Mothers who have but little faith
in Christ are unhappily wont to dedicate to virginity only deformed and
crippled daughters for whom they can find no suitable husbands. Glass
beads, as the saying goes, are thought equal to pearls.(3) Men who pride
themselves on their religion give to their virgin daughters sums scarcely
sufficient for their maintenance, and bestow the bulk of their property
upon sons and daughters living in the world. Quite recently in this city a
rich presbyter left two of his daughters who were professed virgins with a
mere pittance, while he provided his other children with ample means for
self-indulgence and pleasure. The same thing has been done, I am sorry to
say, by many women who have adopted the ascetic life. Would that such
instances were rare, but unfortunately they are not. Yet the more frequent
they are the more blessed are those who refuse to follow an example which
is set them by so many.

   7. All Christians are loud in their praises of Christ's holy
yokefellows,(4) because they gave to Demetrias when she professed herself a
virgin the money which had been set apart as a dowry for her marriage. They
would not wrong her heavenly bridegroom; in fact they wished her to come to
Him with all her previous riches, that these might not be wasted on the
things of the world, but might relieve the distress of God's servants.

   Who would believe it? That Proba, who of all persons of high rank and
birth in the Roman world bears the most illustrious name, whose holy life
and universal charity have won for her esteem even among the barbarians,
who has made nothing of the regular consulships enjoyed by her three sons,
Probinus, Olybrius, and Probus,--that Proba, I say, now that Rome has been
taken and its contents burned or carried off, is said to be selling what
property she has and to be making for herself friends of the mammon of
unrighteousness, that these may receive her into everlasting
habitations!(1) Well may the church's ministers, whatever their degree, and
those monks who are only monks in name, blush for shame that they are
buying estates, when this noble lady is selling them.

   Hardly had she escaped from the hands of the barbarians, hardly had she
ceased weeping for the virgins whom they had torn from her arms, when she
was overwhelmed by a sudden and unbearable bereavement, one too which she
had had no cause to fear, the death of her loving son.(2) Yet as one who
was to be grandmother to a Christian virgin, she bore up against this
death-dealing stroke, strong in hope of the future and proving true of
herself the words of the lyric:

   "Should the round world in fragments burst, its fall
   May strike the just, may slay, but not appal."(3)

We read in the book of Job how, while the first messenger of evil was yet
speaking, there came also another;(4) and in the same book it is written:
"is there not a temptation"--or as the Hebrew better gives it--"a warfare
to man upon earth?"(6) It is for this end that we labour, it is for this
end that we risk our lives in the warfare of this world, that we may be
crowned in the world to come. That we should believe this to be true of men
is nothing wonderful, for even the Lord Himself was tempted,(6) and of
Abraham the scripture bears witness that God tempted him.(7) It is for this
reason also that the apostle says: "we glory in tribulations ... knowing
that tribulation worketh patience; and patience experience; and experience
hope; and hope maketh not ashamed;"(8) and in another passage: "Who shall
separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or
persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? As it is written, For
thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the
slaughter."(9) The prophet Isaiah comforts those in like case in these
words: "ye that are weaned from the milk, ye that are drawn from the
breasts, look for tribulation upon tribulation, but also for hope upon
hope."(1) For, as the apostle puts it "the sufferings of this present time
are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in
us."(2) Why I have here brought together all these passages the sequel will
make plain.

   Proba who had seen from the sea the smoke of her native city and had
committed her own safety and that of those dear to her to a fragile boat,
found the shores of Africa even more cruel than those which she had left.
For one(3) lay in wait for her of whom it would be hard to say whether he
was more covetous or heartless, one who cared for nothing but wine and
money, one who under pretence of serving the mildest of emperors(4) stood
forth as the most savage of all despots. If I may be allowed to quote a
fable of the poets, he was like Orcus(5) in Tartarus. Like him too he had
with him a Cerberus,(6) not three headed but many headed, ready to seize
and rend everything within his reach. He tore betrothed daughters from
their mothers' arms(7) and sold high-born maidens in marriage to those
greediest of men, the merchants of Syria. No plea of poverty induced him to
spare either ward or widow or virgin dedicated to Christ. Indeed he looked
more at the hands than at the faces of those who appealed to him. Such was
the dread Charybdis and such the hound-girt Scylla which this lady
encountered in fleeing from the barbarians; monsters who neither spared the
shipwrecked nor heeded the cry of those made captive. Cruel wretch!(8) at
least imitate the enemy of the Roman Empire. The Brennus of our day(9) took
only what he found, but you seek what you cannot find.

   Virtue, indeed, is always exposed to envy, and cavillers may marvel at
the secret agreement by which Proba purchased the chastity of her numerous
companions. They may allege that the count who could have taken all would
not have been satisfied(10) with a part; and that she could not have
questioned his claim since in spite of her rank she was but a slave in his
despotic hands. I perceive also that I am laying myself open to the attacks
of enemies and that I may seem to be flattering a lady of the highest birth
and distinction. Yet these men will not be able to accuse me when they
learn that hitherto I have said nothing about her. I have never either in
the lifetime of her husband or since his decease praised her for the
antiquity of her family or for the extent of her wealth and power, subjects
which others might perhaps have improved in mercenary speeches. My purpose
is to praise the grandmother of my virgin in a style befitting the church,
and to thank her for having aided with her goodwill the desire which
Demetrias has formed. For the rest my cell, my food and clothing, my
advanced years, and my narrow circumstances sufficiently refute the charge
of flattery. In What remains of my letter I shall direct all my words to
Demetrias herself, whose holiness ennobles her as much as her rank, and of
whom it may be said that the higher she climbs the more terrible will be
her fall.

                             For the rest
   This one thing, child of God, I lay on thee;
   Yea before all, and urge it many times:[1]

Love to occupy your mind with the reading of scripture. Do not in the good
ground of your breast gather only a crop of darnel and wild oats. Do not
let an enemy sow tares among the wheat when the householder is asleep[2]
(that is when the mind which ever cleaves to God is off its guard); but say
always with the bride in the song of songs: " By night I sought him whom my
soul loveth. Tell me where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to
rest at noon; "[3] and with the psalmist: "my soul followeth hard after
thee thy right hand upholdeth me;"[4] and with Jeremiah: "I have not found
it hard to follow thee,"[5] for " there is no grief in Jacob neither is
there travail in Israel."[6] When you were in the world you loved the
things of the world. You rubbed your cheeks with rouge and used whitelead
to improve your complexion. You dressed your hair and built up a tower on
your head with tresses not your own. I shall say nothing of your costly
earrings, your glistening pearls from the depths of the Red Sea,[7] your
bright green emeralds, your flashing onyxes, your liquid sapphires,--
stones which turn the heads of matrons, and make them eager to possess the
like. For you have relinquished the world and besides your baptismal vow
have taken a new one; you have entered into a compact with your adversary
and have said: "I renounce thee, O devil, and thy world and thy pomp and
thy works." Observe, therefore, the treaty that you have made, and keep
terms with your adversary while you are in the way of this world. Otherwise
he may some day deliver you to the judge and prove that you have taken what
is his; and then the judge will deliver you to the officer--at once your
foe and your avenger--and you will be cast into prison; into that outer
darkness[1] which surrounds us with the greater horror as it severs us from
Christ the one true light.[2] And you shall by no means come out thence
till you have paid the uttermost farthing,[3] that is, till you have
expiated your most trifling sins; for we shall give account of every idle
word in the day of judgment.[4]

   8. In speaking thus I do not wish to utter an ill-omened prophecy
against you but only to warn you as an apprehensive and prudent monitor who
in your case fears even what is safe. What says the scripture? "If the
spirit of the ruler rise up against thee, leave not thy place."[5] We must
always stand under arms and in battle array, ready to engage the foe. When
he tries to dislodge us from our position and to make us fall back, we must
plant our feet firmly down, and say with the psalmist, "he hath set my feet
upon a rock"[6] and "the rocks are a refuge for the conies."[7] In this
latter passage for ' conies ' many read ' hedgehogs.' Now the hedgehog is a
small animal, very shy, and covered over with thorny bristles. When Jesus
was crowned with thorns and bore our sins and suffered for us, it was to
make the roses of virginity and the lilies of chastity grow for us out of
the brambles and briers which have formed the lot of women since the day
when it was said to Eve, "in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and
thy desire shall be to thy husband and he shall rule over thee."[8] We are
told that the bridegroom feeds among the lilies,[9] that is, among those
who have not defiled their garments, for they have remained virgins[10] and
have hearkened to the precept of the Preacher: "let thy garments be always
white."[11] As the author and prince of virginity He says boldly of
Himself: "I am the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valleys."[12] "The
rocks" then "are a refuge for the tonics" who when they are persecuted in
one city flee into another[13] and have no fear that the prophetic words
"refuge failed me"[14] will he fulfilled in their case. "The high hills are
a refuge for the wildgoats,"[15] and their food are the serpents which a
little child draws out of their holes. Meanwhile the leopard lies down with
the kid and the lion eats straw like the ox;[1] not of course that the ox
may learn ferocity from the lion but that the lion may learn docility from
the ox.

   But let us turn back to the passage first quoted, "If the spirit of the
ruler rise up against thee, leave not thy place," a sentence which is
followed by these words: "for yielding pacifieth great offences."[2] The
meaning is, that if the serpent finds his way into your thoughts you must
"keep your heart with all diligence"[3] and sing with David, "cleanse thou
me from secret faults keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins,"
and come not to "the great transgression "[4] which is sin in act. Rather
slay the allurements to vice while they are still only thoughts; and dash
the little ones of the daughter of Babylon against the stones[5] where the
serpent can leave no trail. Be wary and vow a vow unto the Lord: "let them
not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright and I shall be innocent
from the great transgression."[6] For elsewhere also the scripture
testifies, "I will visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto
the third and fourth generation."[7] That is to say, God will not punish us
at once for our thoughts and resolves but will send retribution upon their
offspring, that is, upon the evil deeds and habits of sin which arise out
of them. As He says by the mouth of Amos: "for three transgressions of such
and such a city and for four I will not turn away the punishment
thereof."[8]

   9. I cull these few flowers in passing from the fair field of the holy
scriptures. They will suffice to warn you that you must shut the door of
your breast and fortify your brow by often making the sign of the cross.
Thus alone will the destroyer of Egypt find no place to attack you; thus
alone will the first-born of your soul escape the fate of the first-born of
the Egyptians;[9] thus alone will you be able with the prophet to say: "my
heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed; I will sing and give praise.
Awake up, my glory; awake, psaltery and harp."[10] For, sin stricken as she
is, even Tyre is bidden to take up her harp" and to do penance; like Peter
she is told to wash away the stains of her former foulness with bitter
tears. Howbeit, let us know nothing of penitence, lest the thought of it
lead us into sin. It is a plank for those who have had the misfortune to be
shipwrecked;[12] but an inviolate virgin may hope to save the ship itself.
For it is one thing to look for what you have cast away, and another to
keep what you have never lost. Even the apostle kept under his body and
brought it into subjection, lest having preached to others he might himself
become a castaway.[1] Heated with the violence of sensual passion he made
himself the spokesman of the human race: "O wretched man that I am! who
shall deliver me from the body of this death ?" and again, "I know that in
me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present
with me; but how to perform that which is good, I find not. For the good
that I would, I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do ;"[2] and
once more: "they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in
the flesh, but in the spirit, if so be that the spirit of God dwell in
you."[3]

   10. After you have paid the most careful attention to your thoughts,
you must then put on the armour of fasting and sing with David: "I
chastened my soul with fasting,"[4] and "I have eaten ashes like bread,"[5]
and "as for me when they troubled me my clothing was sackcloth."[6] Eye was
expelled from paradise because she had eaten of the forbidden fruit. Elijah
on the other hand after forty days of fasting was carried in a fiery
chariot into heaven. For forty days and forty nights Moses lived by the
intimate converse which he had with God, thus proving in his own case the
complete truth of the saying, "man doth not live by bread only but by every
word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord."[7] The Saviour of the
world, who in His virtues and His mode of life has left us an example to
follow,[8] was, immediately after His baptism, taken up by the spirit that
He might contend with the devil,[9] and after crushing him and overthrowing
him might deliver him to his disciples to trample under foot. For what says
the apostle? "God shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly."[10] And yet
after the Saviour had fasted forty days, it was through food that the old
enemy laid a snare for him, saying, "If thou be the Son of God, command
that these stones be made bread."[11] Under the law, in the seventh month
after the blowing of trumpets and on the tenth day of the month, a fast was
proclaimed for the whole Jewish people, and that soul was cut off from
among his people which on that day preferred self-indulgence to self-
denial.[12] In Job it is written of behemoth that "his strength is in his
loins, and his force is in the navel of his belly."[1] Our foe uses the
heat of youthful passion to tempt young men and maidens and "sets on fire
the wheel of our birth."[2] He thus fulfils the words of Hosea, "they are
all adulterers, their heart is like an oven ;"[3] an oven which only God's
mercy and severe fasting can extinguish. These are "the fiery darts"[4]
with which the devil wounds men and sets them on fire, and it was these
which the king of Babylon used against the three children. But when he made
his fire forty-nine cubits high[5] he did but turn to his own ruin[6] the
seven weeks which the Lord had appointed for a time of salvation.[7] And as
then a fourth bearing a form like the son of God slackened the terrible
heat[8] and cooled the flames of the blazing fiery furnace, until, menacing
as they looked, they became quite harmless, so is it now with the virgin
soul. The dew of heaven and severe fasting quench in a girl the flame of
passion and enable her soul even in its earthly tenement to live the
angelic life. Therefore the chosen vessel[9] declares that concerning
virgins he has no commandment of the Lord.[10] For you must act against
nature or rather above nature if you are to forswear your natural function,
to cut off your own root, to cull no fruit but that of virginity, to abjure
the marriage-bed, to shun intercourse with men, and while in the body to
live as though out of it.

   11. I do not, however, lay on you as an obligation any extreme fasting
or abnormal abstinence from food. Such practices soon break down weak
constitutions and cause bodily sickness before they lay the foundations of
a holy life. It is a maxim of the philosophers that virtues are means, and
that all extremes are of the nature of vice;[11] and it is in this sense
that one of the seven wise men propounds the famous saw quoted in the
comedy," In nothing too much."[12] You must not go on fasting until your
heart begins to throb and your breath to fail and you have to be supported
or carried by others. No; while curbing the desires of the flesh, you must
keep sufficient strength to read scripture, to sing psalms, and to observe
vigils. For fasting is not a complete virtue in itself but only a
foundation on which other virtues may be built. The same may be said of
sanctification and of that chastity without which no man shall see the
Lord.[13] Each of these is a step on the upward way, yet none of them by
itself will avail to win the virgin's crown. The gospel teaches us this in
the parable of the wise and foolish virgins; the former of whom enter into
the bridechamber of the bridegroom, while the latter are shut out from it
because not having the oil of good works[1] they allow their lamps to
fail.[2] This subject of fasting opens up a wide field in which I have
often wandered myself,[3] and many writers have devoted treatises to the
subject. I must refer you to these if you wish to learn the advantages of
self-restraint and on the other hand the evils of over-feeding.

   12. Follow the example of your Spouse :[4] be subject to your
grandmother and to your mother. Never look upon a man, especially upon a
young man, except in their company. Never know a man whom they do not know.
It is a maxim of the world that the only sure friendship is one based on an
identity of likes and dislikes.[5] You have been taught by their example as
well as instructed by the holy life of your home to aspire to virginity, to
recognize the commandments of Christ, to know what is expedient for you and
what course you ought to choose. But do not regard what is your own as
absolutely your own. Remember that part of it belongs to those who have
communicated their chastity to you and from whose honourable marriages and
beds undefiled[6] you have sprung up like a choice flower. For you are
destined to produce perfect fruit if only you will humble yourself under
the mighty hand of God,[7] always remembering that it is written: "God
resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the humble."[8] Now where there is
grace, this is not given in return for works but is the free gift of the
giver, so that the apostles' words are fulfilled: "it is not of him that
willeth nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth mercy."[9] And yet
it is ours to will and not to will; and all the while the very liberty that
is ours is only ours by the mercy of God.

   13. Again in selecting for yourself eunuchs and maids and servingmen
look rather to their characters than to their good looks; for, whatever
their age or sex, and even if mutilation ensures in them a compulsory
chastity, you must take account of their dispositions, for these cannot be
operated on save by the fear of Christ. When you are present buffoonery and
loose talk must find no place. You should never hear an improper word; if
you do hear one, you must not be carried away by it. Abandoned men often
make use of a single light expression to try the gates of chastity.[1]
Leave to worldlings the privileges of laughing and being laughed at. One
who is in your position ought to be serious. Cato the Censor, in old time a
leading man in your city, (the same who in his last days turned his
attention to Greek literature without either blushing for himself as censor
or despairing of success on account of his age) is said by Lucilius[2] to
have laughed only once in his life, and the same remark is made about
Marcus Crassus. These men may have affected this austere mien to gain for
themselves reputation and notoriety. For so long as we dwell in the
tabernacle of this body and are enveloped with this fragile flesh, we can
but restrain and regulate our affections and passions; we cannot wholly
extirpate them. Knowing this the psalmist says: "be ye angry and sin not
;"[3] which the apostle explains thus: "let not the sun go down upon your
wrath."[4] For, if to be angry is human, to put an end to one's anger is
Christian.

   14. I think it unnecessary to warn you against covetousness since it is
the way of your family both to have riches and to despise them. The apostle
too tells us that covetousness is idolatry,[5] and to one who asked the
Lord the question: "Good Master what good thing shall I do that I may have
eternal life ?" He thus replied: "If thou wilt be perfect, go and sell that
thou hast and give to the poor, and thou shalt have treasure in heaven; and
come and follow me."[6] Such is the climax of complete and apostolic
virtue--to sell all that one has and to distribute to the poor,[7] and thus
freed from all earthly encumbrance to fly up to the heavenly realms with
Christ. To us, or I should rather say to you, a careful stewardship is
entrusted, although in such matters full freedom of choice is left to every
individual, whether old or young. Christ's words are "if thou wilt be
perfect." I do not compel you, He seems to say, I do not command you, but I
set the palm before you, I shew you the prize; it is for you to choose
whether you will enter the arena and win the crown. Let us consider how
wisely Wisdom has spoken. " Sell that thou hast." To whom is the command
given ? Why, to him to whom it was said, "if thou wilt be perfect." Sell
not a part of thy goods but "all that thou hast." And when you have sold
them, what then ? "Give to the poor." Not to the rich, not to your
kinsfolk, not to minister to self indulgence; but to relieve need. It does
not matter whether a man is a priest or a relation or a connexion, you must
think of nothing but his poverty. Let your praises come from the stomachs
of the hungry and not from the rich banquets of the overfed. We read in the
Acts of the Apostles how, while the blood of the Lord was still warm and
believers were in the fervour of their first faith, they all sold their
possessions and laid the price of them at the apostles' feet (to shew that
money ought to be trampled underfoot) and "distribution was made unto every
man according as he had need."[1] But Ananias and Sapphira proved timid
stewards, and what is more, deceitful ones; therefore they brought on
themselves condemnation. For having made a vow they offered their money to
God as if it were their own and not His to whom they had vowed it; and
keeping back for their own use a part of that which belonged to another,
through fear of famine which true faith never fears, they drew down on
themselves suddenly the avenging stroke, which was meant not in cruelty
towards them but as a warning to others.[2] In fact the apostle Peter by no
means called down death upon them as Porphyry[3] foolishly says. He merely
announced God's judgment by the spirit of prophecy, that the doom of two
persons might be a lesson to many. From the time of your dedication to
perpetual virginity your property is yours no longer; or rather is now
first truly yours because it has come to be Christ's. Yet while your
grandmother and mother are living you must deal with it according to their
wishes. If, however, they die and rest in the sleep of the saints (and I
know that they desire that you should survive them); when your years are
riper, and your will steadier, and your resolution stronger, you will do
with your money what seems best to you, or rather what the Lord shall
command, knowing as you will that hereafter you will have nothing save that
which you have here spent on good works. Others may build churches, may
adorn their walls when built with marbles, may procure massive columns, may
deck the unconscious capitals with gold and precious ornaments, may cover
church doors with silver and adorn the altars with gold and gems. I do not
blame those who do these things; I do not repudiate them.[4] Everyone must
follow his own judgment. And it is better to spend one's money thus than to
hoard it up and brood over it. However your duty is of a different kind. It
is yours to clothe Christ in the poor, to visit Him in the sick, to feed
Him in the hungry, to shelter Him in the homeless, particularly such as are
of the household of faith,[1] to support communities of virgins, to take
care of God's servants, of those who are poor in spirit, who serve the same
Lord as you day and night, who while they are on earth live the angelic
life and speak only of the praises of God. Having food and raiment they
rejoice and count themselves rich. They seek for nothing more, contented if
only they can persevere in their design. For as soon as they begin to seek
more they are shewn to be undeserving even of those things that are
needful.

   The preceding counsels have been addressed to a virgin who is wealthy
and a lady of rank.

   15. But what I am now going to say will be addressed to the virgin
alone. I shall take into consideration, that is, not your circumstances but
yourself. In addition to the rule of psalmody and prayer which you must
always observe at the third, sixth, and ninth hours, at evening, at
midnight, and at dawn,[2] you should determine how much time you will bind
yourself to give to the learning and reading of scripture, aiming to please
and instruct the soul rather than to lay a burthen upon it. When you have
spent your allotted time in these studies, often kneeling down to pray as
care for your soul will impel you to do; have some wool always at hand,
shape the threads into yarn with your thumb, attach them to the shuttle,
and then throw this to weave a web, or roll up the yarn which others have
spun or lay it out for the weavers. Examine their work when it is done,
find fault with its defects, and arrange how much they are to do. If yon
busy yourself with these numerous occupations, you will never find your
days long; however late the summer sun may be in setting, a day will always
seem too short on which something remains undone. By observing such rules
as these you will save yourself and others, you will set a good example as
a mistress, and you will place to your credit the chastity of many. For the
scripture says: "the soul of every idler is filled with desires."[3] Nor
may you excuse yourself from toil on the plea that God's bounty has left
you in want of nothing. No; you must labour with the rest, that being
always busy you may think only of the service of the Lord. I shall speak
quite plainly. Even supposing that you give all your property to the poor,
Christ will value nothing more highly than what you have wrought with your
own hands. You may work for yourself or to set an example to your virgins;
or you may make presents to your mother and grandmother to draw from them
larger sums for the relief of the poor.

   16. I have all but passed over the most important point of all. While
you were still quite small, bishop Anastasius of holy and blessed memory
ruled the Roman church.[1] In his days a terrible storm of heresy[2] came
from the East and strove first to corrupt and then to undermine that simple
faith which an apostle has praised.[3] However the bishop, rich in poverty
and as careful of his flock as an apostle, at once smote the noxious thing
on the head, and stayed the hydra's hissing. Now I have reason to fear-- in
fact a report has reached me to this effect that the poisonous germs of
this heresy still live and sprout in the minds of some to this day. I
think, therefore, that I ought to warn you, in all kindness and affection,
to hold fast the faith of the saintly Innocent, the spiritual son of
Anastasius and his successor in the apostolic see; and not to receive any
foreign doctrine, however wise and discerning you may take yourself to be.
Men of this type whisper in corners and pretend to inquire into the justice
of God. Why, they ask, was a particular soul born in a particular province
? What is the reason that some are born of Christian parents, others among
wild beasts and savage tribes who have no knowledge of God ? Wherever they
can strike the simple with their scorpion-sting and form an ulcer fitted to
their purpose, there they diffuse their venom. "Is it for nothing, think
you,"-thus they argue--"that a little child scarcely able to recognize its
mother by a laugh or a look of joy,[4] which has done nothing either good
or evil, is seized by a devil or overwhelmed with jaundice or doomed to
bear afflictions which godless men escape, while God's servants have to
bear them?" Now if God's judgments, they say, are "true and righteous
altogether,"[5] and if "there is no unrighteousness in Him,"[6] we are
compelled by reason to believe that our souls have pre-existed in heaven,
that they are condemned to and, if I may so say, buried in human bodies
because of some ancient sins, and that we are punished in this valley of
weeping[7] for old misdeeds. This according to them is the prophet's reason
for saying: "Before I was afflicted I went astray,"[8] and again, "Bring my
soul out of prison."[9] They explain in the same way the question of the
disciples in the gospel: "Who did sin, this man or his parents, that he was
born blind ? "[1] and other similar passages.

   This godless and wicked teaching was formerly ripe in Egypt and the
East; and now it lurks secretly like a viper in its hole among many persons
in those parts, defiling the purity of the faith and gradually creeping on
like an inherited disease till it assails a large number. But I am sure
that if you hear it you will not accept it. For you have preceptresses
under God whose faith is a rule of sound doctrine. You will understand what
I mean, for God will give you understanding in all things. You must not ask
me on the spot to give you a refutation of this dreadful heresy and of
others worse still; for were I to do so I should "criticize where I ought
to forbid,"[2] and my present object is not to refute heretics but to
instruct a virgin. However, I have defeated their wiles and counterworked
their efforts to undermine the truth in a treatise[3] which by God's help I
have written; and if you desire to have this, I shall send it to you
promptly and with pleasure. I say, if you desire to have it, for as the
proverb says, wares proffered unasked are little esteemed, and a plentiful
supply brings down prices, which are always highest where scarcity
prevails.

   17. Men often discuss the comparative merits of life in solitude and
life in a community; and the preference is usually given to the first over
the second. Still even for men there is always the risk that, being
withdrawn from the society of their fellows, they may become exposed to
unclean and godless imaginations, and in the fulness of their arrogance and
disdain may look down upon everyone but themselves, and may arm their
tongues to detract from the clergy or from those who like themselves are
bound by the vows of a solitary life.[4] Of such it is well said by the
psalmist, "as for the children of men their teeth are spears and arrows and
their tongue a sharp sword."[5] Now if all this is true of men, how much
more does it apply to women whose fickle and vacillating minds, if left to
their own devices, soon degenerate. I am myself acquainted with anchorites
of both sexes who by excessive fasting have so impaired their faculties
that they do not know what to do or where to turn, when to speak or when to
be silent. Most frequently those who have been so affected have lived in
solitary cells, cold and damp. Moreover if persons untrained in secular
learning read the works of able church writers, they only acquire from them
a wordy fluency and not, as they might do, a fuller knowledge of the
scriptures. The old saying is found true of them, although they have not
the wit to speak, they cannot remain silent. They teach to others the
scriptures that they do not understand themselves; and if they are
fortunate enough to convince them, they take upon themselves airs as men of
learning.[1] In fact, they set up as instructors of the ignorant before
they have gone to school themselves. It is a good thing therefore to defer
to one's betters, to obey those set over one, to learn not only from the
scriptures but from the example of others how one ought to order one's
life, and not to follow that worst of teachers, one's own self-confidence.
Of women who are thus presumptuous the apostle says that they "are carried
about with every wind of doctrine,[2] ever learning and never able to come
to the knowledge of the truth."[3]

   18. Avoid the company of married women who are devoted to their
husbands and to the world, that your mind may not become unsettled by
hearing what a husband says to his wife, or a wife to her husband. Such
conversations are filled with deadly venom. To express his condemnation of
them the apostle has taken a verse of a profane writer and has pressed it
into the service of the church. It may be literally rendered at the expense
of the metre: "evil communications corrupt good manners."[4] No; you should
choose for your companions staid and serious women, particularly widows and
virgins, persons of approved conversation, of few words, and of a holy
modesty. Shun gay and thoughtless girls, who deck their heads and wear
their hair in fringes, who use cosmetics to improve their skins and affect
tight sleeves, dresses without a crease, and dainty buskins; and by
pretending to be virgins more easily sell themselves into destruction.
Moreover, the character and tastes of a mistress are often inferred from
the behaviour of her attendants. Regard as fair and lovable and a fitting
companion one who is unconscious of her good looks and careless of her
appearance; who does not expose her breast out of doors or throw back her
cloak to reveal her neck; who veils all of her face except her eyes, and
only uses these to find her way.

   19. I hesitate about what I am going to say but, as often happens,
whether I like it or not, it must be said; not that I have reason to fear
anything of the kind in your case, for probably you know nothing of such
things and have never even heard of them, but that in advising you I may
warn others. A virgin should avoid as so many plagues and banes of chastity
all ringletted youths who curl their hair and scent themselves with musk;
to whom may well be applied the words of Petronius Arbiter, "too much
perfume makes an ill perfume."[1] I need not speak of those who by their
pertinacious visits to virgins bring discredit both on themselves and on
these; for, even if nothing wrong is done by them, no wrong can be imagined
greater than to find oneself exposed to the calumnies and attacks of the
heathen. I do not here speak of all, but only of those whom the church
itself rebukes, whom sometimes it expels, and against whom the censure of
bishops and presbyters is not seldom directed. For, as it is, it is almost
more dangerous for giddy girls to shew themselves in the abodes of religion
than even to walk abroad. Virgins who live in communities and of whom large
numbers are assembled together, should never go out by themselves or
unaccompanied by their mother.[2] A hawk often singles out one of a flight
of doves, pounces on it and tears it open till it is gorged with its flesh
and blood. Sick sheep stray from the flock and fall into the jaws of
wolves. I know some saintly virgins who on holy days keep at home to avoid
the crowds and refuse to go out when they must either take a strong escort,
or altogether avoid all public places.

   It is about thirty years since I published a treatise on the
preservation of virginity,[3] in which I felt constrained to oppose certain
vices and to lay bare the wiles of the devil for the instruction of the
virgin to whom it was addressed. My language then gave offence to a great
many, for everyone applied what I said to himself and instead of welcoming
my admonitions turned away from me as an accuser of his deeds. Was it any
use, do you ask, thus to arm a host of remonstrants and to show by my
complaints the wounds which my conscience received? Yes, I answer, for,
while they have passed away, my book still remains. I have also written
short exhortations to several virgins and widows, and in these smaller
works I have gathered together all that there is to be said on the subject.
So that I am reduced to the alternative of repeating exhortations which
seem superfluous or of omitting them to the serious injury of this
treatise. The blessed Cyprian has left a noble work on virginity;[1] and
many other writers, both Greek and Latin, have done the same. Indeed the
virginal life has been praised both with tongue and pen among all nations
and particularly among the churches. Most, however, of those who have
written on the subject have addressed themselves to such as have not yet
chosen virginity, and who need help to enable them to choose aright. But I
and those to whom I write have made our choice; and our one object is to
remain constant to it. Therefore, as our way lies among scorpions and
adders, among snares and banes, let us go forward staff in hand, our loins
girded and our feet shod;[2] that so we may come to the sweet waters of the
true Jordan, and enter the land of promise and go up to the house of God.
Then shall we sing with the prophet: "Lord, I have loved the habitation of
thy house and the place where thine honour dwelleth;"[3] and again: "one
thing have I desired of the Lord, that will I seek after; that I may dwell
in the house of the Lord all the days of my life."[4]

   Happy is the soul, happy is the virgin in whose heart there is room for
no other love than the love of Christ. For in Himself He is wisdom and
chastity, patience and justice and every other virtue. Happy too is she who
can recall a man's face without the least sigh of regret, and who has no
desire to set eves on one whom, after she has seen him, she may find
herself unwilling to give up. Some there are, however, who by their ill-
behaviour bring discredit on the holy profession of virginity and upon the
glory of the heavenly and angelic company who have made it. These must be
frankly told either to marry if they cannot contain, or to contain if they
will not marry. It is also a matter for laughter or rather for tears, that
when mistresses walk abroad they are preceded by maids better dressed than
themselves; indeed so usual has this become that, if of two women you see
one less neat than the other, you take her for the mistress as a matter of
course. And yet these maids are professed virgins. Again not a few virgins
choose sequestered dwellings where they will not he under the eyes of
others, in order that they may live more freely than they otherwise could
do. They take baths, do what they please, and try as much as they can to
escape notice. We see these things and yet we put up with them; in fact, if
we catch sight of the glitter of gold, we are ready to account of them as
good works.

   20. I end as I began, not content to have given you but a single
warning. Love the holy scriptures, and wisdom will love you. Love wisdom,
and it will keep you safe. Honour wisdom, and it will embrace you round
about.[2] Let the jewels on your breast and in your ears be the gems of
wisdom. Let your tongue know no theme but Christ, let no sound pass your
lips that is not holy, and let your words always reproduce that sweetness
of which your grandmother and your mother set you the example. Imitate
them, for they are models of virtue.

LETTER CXXXI: FROM AUGUSTINE.

At the suggestion of Jerome, Marcellinus (for whom see Letter CXXVI.) had
consulted Augustine on the difficult question of the origin of the soul but
had failed to get any definite opinion from this latter. Augustine now
writes to Jerome confessing his inability to decide the question and asking
for advice upon it. He begins by reciting--and justifying--his own belief
that the soul is immortal and incorporeal and that its fall into sin is due
not to God but to its own free choice. He then goes on to say that he is
quite ready to accept creationism as a solution of the difficulty if Jerome
will shew him how this theory is reconcilable with the church's
condemnation of Pelagius and its assertion of the doctrine of original sin.
The damnation of unbaptized infants is assumed throughout.

The date of the letter is 415 A.D. Its number in the Letters of Augustine
is CLXVI.

LETTER CXXXII.

FROM AUGUSTINE.

In this letter Augustine deals with the statement of James ii, 10
("whosoever shall keep the whole law and yet offend in one point, he is
guilty of all ") and explains it by saying that every breach of the law is
a breach of love. He also takes occasion to criticise two doctrines of the
schools then prevalent, (1) that all sins are equal and (2) that he who has
one virtue has all and that all virtues are wanting to him who lacks one.

The date of the letter is 415 A.D. Its number in the Letters of Augustine
is CLXVII.

LETTER CXXXIII: TO CTESIPHON.

Ctesiphon had written to Jerome for his opinion on two points in the
teaching of Pelagius, (I) his quietism and (2) his denial of original sin.
Jerome now refutes these two doctrines and points out that Pelagius has
drawn them partly from the philosophers and partly from the heretics. He
censures Rufinus. who had died

5 years before, for attributing to Sixtus bishop of Rome a book which is
really the work of Xystus a Pythagorean, and for passing off as the
composition of the martyr Pamphilus a panegyric of Origen really due to his
friend Eusebius. In both these assertions, however. Jerome is more wrong
than right. (See Prolegomena to the works of Rufinus.) The letter concludes
with a promise to deal more fully with the heresy of Pelagius at some
future time, a promise afterwards redeemed by the publication of a
'dialogue against the Pelagians.' The date of the letter is 415 A.D.

   1. In acquainting me with the new controversy which has taken the place
of the old you are wrong in thinking that you have acted rashly, for your
conduct has been prompted by zeal and friendship. Already before the
arrival of your letter many in the East have been deceived into a pride
which apes humility and have said with the devil: "I will ascend into
heaven, I will exalt my throne above the stars of God; I will be like the
Most High."[1] Can there be greater presumption than to claim not likeness
to God but equality with Him, and so to compress into a few words the
poisonous doctrines of all the heretics which in their turn flow from the
statements of the philosophers, particularly of Pythagoras and Zeno the
founder of the Stoic school? For those states of feeling which the Greeks
call pa'thh and which we may describe as "passions," relating to the
present or the future such as vexation and gladness, hope and fear,--these,
they tell us, it is possible to root out of our minds; in fact all vice may
be destroyed root and branch in man by meditation on virtue and constant
practice of it. The position which they thus take up is vehemently assailed
by the Peripatetics who trace themselves to Aristotle, and by the new
Academics of whom Cicero is a disciple; and these overthrow not the facts
of their opponents--for they have no facts--but the shadows and wishes
which do duty for them. To maintain such a doctrine is to take man's nature
from him, to forget that he is constituted of body as well as soul, to
substitute mere wishes for sound teaching? For the apostle says :-- "O
wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this
death?"[3] But as I cannot say all that I wish in a short letter I will
briefly touch on the points that you must avoid. Virgil writes:--

   Thus mortals fear and hope, rejoice and grieve,
   And shut in darkness have no sight of heaven.[4]

For who can escape these feelings? Must we not all clap our hands when we
are joyful, and shrink at the approach of sorrow? Must not hope always
animate us and fear put us in terror? So in one of his Satires the poet
Horace, whose words are so weighty, writes:

   From faults no mortal is completely free;
  He that has fewest is the perfect man?

   2. Well does one of our own writers[6] say: "the philosophers are the
patriarchs of the heretics." It is they who have stained with their
perverse doctrine the spotlessness of the Church, not knowing that of human
weakness it is said: "Why is earth and ashes proud?"[1] So likewise the
apostle: "I see another law in my members warring against the law of my
mind and bringing me into captivity";[2] and again, "The good that I would
I do not: but the evil which I would not that I do."[3] Now if Paul does
what he wills not, what becomes of the assertion that a man may be without
sin if he will? Given the will, how is it to have its way when the apostle
tells us that he has no power to do what he wishes? Moreover if we ask them
who the persons are whom they regard as sinless they seek to veil the truth
by a new subterfuge. They do not, they say, profess that men are or have
been without sin; all that they maintain is that it is possible for them to
be so. Remarkable teachers truly, who maintain that a thing may be which on
their own shewing, never has been; whereas the scripture says:--" The thing
which shall be, it is that which hath been already of old time."[4]

   I need not go through the lives of the saints or call attention to the
moles and spots which mark the fairest skins. Many of our writers, it is
true, unwisely, take this course; however, a few sentences of scripture
will dispose alike of the heretics and the philosophers. What says the
chosen vessel? "God had concluded all in unbelief that he might have mercy
upon all;[5] and in another place, "all have shined and come short of the
glory of God."[6] The preacher also who is the mouthpiece of the Divine
Wisdom freely protests and says: "there is not a just man upon earth, that
doeth good and sinneth not: "[7] and again, "if thy people sin against
thee, for there is no man that sinneth not :"[8] and "who can say, I have
made my heart clean?"[9] and "none is clean from stain not even if his life
on earth has been but for one day. David insists on the same thing when he
says: "Behold, I was shapen in iniquity and in sin did my mother conceive
me ;"[10] and in another psalm, "in thy sight shall no man living be
justified."[11] This last passage they try to explain away from motives of
reverence, arguing that the meaning is that no man is perfect in comparison
with God. Yet the scripture does not say: "in comparison with thee shall no
man living be justified but "in thy sight shall no man living be
justified." And when it says "in thy sight" it means that those who seem
holy to men to God in his fuller knowledge are by no means holy. For "man
looketh on the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart."[1]
But if in the sight of God who sees all things and to whom the secrets of
the heart lie open[2] no man is just; then these heretics instead of adding
to man's dignity, clearly take away from God's power. I might bring
together many other passages of scripture of the same import; but were I to
do so, I should exceed the limits I will not say of a letter but of a
volume.

   3. It is with no new doctrines that in their self-applauding perfidy
they deceive the simple and untaught. They cannot, however, deceive
theologians who meditate in the law of the Lord day and night.[3] Let those
blush then for their leaders and companions who say that a man may be
"without sin" if he will, or, as the Greeks term it anama'rthtos,
"sinless." As such a statement sounds intolerable to the Eastern churches,
they profess indeed only to say that a man may be "without sin" and do not
presume to allege that he may be "sinless" as well. As if, forsooth,
"sinless" and "without sin" had different meanings; whereas the only
difference between them is that Latin requires two words to express what
Greek gives in one. If you adopt "without sin" and reject "sinless," then
condemn the preachers of sinlessness. But this you cannot do. You know[4]
very well what it is that you teach your pupils in private; and that while
you say one thing with your lips you engrave another on your heart. To us,
ignorant outsiders you speak in parables; but to your own followers you
avow your secret meaning. And for this you claim the authority of scripture
which says: "to the multitudes Jesus spake in parables;" but to his own
disciples He said:" it is given unto you to know the mysteries of the
kingdom of heaven, but to them it is not given."[5]

   But to return; I will shortly set forth the names of your leaders and
companions to shew you who those are of whose fellowship you make your
boast. Manichus says of his elect--whom he places among Plato's orbits in
heaven--that they are free from all sin, and cannot sin even if they will.
To so great heights have they attained in virtue that they laugh at the
works of the flesh. Then there is Priscillian in Spain whose infamy makes
him as bad as Manichus, and whose disciples profess a high esteem for you.
These are rash enough to claim for themselves the twofold credit of
perfection and wisdom. Yet they shut themselves up alone with women and
justify their sinful embraces by quoting the lines:

The almighty father takes the earth to wife; Pouring upon her fertilizing
rain,

   "That from her womb new harvest he may reap."[1]

   These heretics have affinities with Gnosticism which may be traced to
the impious teaching of Basilides.[2] It is from him that you derive the
assertion that without knowledge of the law it is impossible to avoid sin.
But why do I speak of Priscillian who has been condemned by the whole world
and put to death by the secular sword?[3] Evagrius[4] of Ibera in Pontus
who sends letters to virgins and monks and among others to her whose name
bears witness to the blackness of her perfidy,[5] has published a book of
maxims on apathy, or, as we should say, impassivity or imperturbability; a
state in which the mind ceases to be agitated and--to speak simply--
becomes either a stone or a God. His work is widely read, in the East in
Greek and in the West in a Latin translation made by his disciple
Rufinus.[6] He has also written a book which professes to be about monks
and includes in it many not monks at all whom he declares to have been
Origenists, and who have certainly been condemned by the bishops. I mean
Ammonius, Eusebius, Euthymius,[7] Evagrius himself, Horus,[8] Isidorus,[9]
and many others whom it would be tedious to enumerate. He is careful,
however, to do as the physicians, of whom Lucretius says:[10]

   To children bitter wormwood still they give
   In cups with juice of sweetest honey smeared.

That is to say, he has set in the forefront of his book John,[11] an
undoubted Catholic and saint, by his means to introduce to the church the
heretics mentioned farther on. But who can adequately characterize the
rashness or madness which has led him to ascribe a book of the Pythagorean
philosopher Xystus,[1] a heathen who knew nothing of Christ, to Sixtus[2] a
martyr and bishop of the Roman church? In this work the subject of
perfection is discussed at length in the light of the Pythagorean doctrine
which makes man equal with God and of one substance with Him. Thus many not
knowing that its author was a philosopher and supposing that they are
reading the words of a martyr, drink of the golden cup of Babylon. Moreover
in its pages there is no mention of prophets, patriarchs, apostles, or of
Christ; so that according to Rufinus[3] there has been a bishop and a
martyr who had nothing to do with Christ. Such is the book from which you
and your followers quote passages against the church. In the same way he
played fast and loose with the name of the holy martyr Pamphilus ascribing
to him the first of the six books in defence of Origen written by Eusebius
of Csarea[4] who is admitted by every body to have been an Arian. His
object in doing so was of course to commend to Latin ears Origen's four
wonderful books about First Principles.

   Would you have me name another of your masters in heresy? Much of your
teaching is traceable to Origen. For, to give one instance only, when he
comments on the psalmist's words: "My reins also instruct me in the night
season,"[5] he maintains that when a holy man like yourself has reached
perfection, he is free even at night from human infirmity and is not
tempted by evil thoughts. You need not blush to avow yourself a follower of
these men; it is of no use to disclaim their names when you adopt their
blasphemies. Moreover, your teaching corresponds to Jovinian's second
position.[1] You must, therefore, take the answer which I have given to him
as equally applicable to yourself. Where men's opinions are the same their
destinies can hardly be different.

   4. Such being the state of the case, what object is served by "silly
women laden with sins, carried about with every wind of doctrine, ever
learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth?"[2] Or how
is the cause helped by the men who dance attendance upon these, men with
itching ears[3] who know neither how to hear nor how to speak? They
confound old mire with new cement and, as Ezekiel says, daub a wall with
untempered mortar; so that, when the truth comes in a shower, they are
brought to nought.[4] It was with the help of the harlot Helena that Simon
Magus founded his sect.[6] Bands of women accompanied Nicolas of Antioch
that deviser of all uncleanness.[6] Marcion sent a woman before him to Rome
to prepare men's minds to fall into his snares.[7] Apelles possessed in
Philumena an associate in his false doctrines.[8] Montanus, that mouthpiece
of an unclean spirit, used two rich and high born ladies Prisca and
Maximilla first to bribe and then to pervert many churches.[9] Leaving
ancient history I will pass to times nearer to our own. Arius intent on
leading the world astray began by misleading the Emperor's sister.[10] The
resources of Lucilla helped Donatus to defile with his polluting baptism
many unhappy persons throughout Africa.[11] In Spain the blind woman Agape
led the blind man Elpidius into the ditch.[12] He was followed by
Priscillian, an enthusiastic votary of Zoroaster and a magian before he
became a bishop. A woman named Galla seconded his efforts and left a
gadabout sister to perpetuate a second heresy of a kindred form.[13] Now
also the mystery of iniquity is working.[14] Men and women in turn lay
snares for each other till we cannot but recall the prophet's words: "the
partridge hath cried aloud, she hath gathered young which she hath not
brought forth, she getteth riches and not by right; in the midst of her
days she shall leave them, and at her end she shall be a fool."[1]

   5. The better to deceive men they have added to the maxim given
above[2] the saving clause "but not without the grace of God;" and this may
at the first blush take in some readers. However, when it is carefully
sifted and considered, it can deceive nobody. For while they acknowledge
the grace of God, they tell us that our acts do not depend upon His help.
Rather, they understand by the grace of God free will and the commandments
of the Law. They quote Isaiah's words: "God hath given the law to aid
men,"[3] and say that we ought to thank Him for having created us such that
of our own free will we can choose the good and avoid the evil. Nor do they
see that in alleging this the devil uses their lips to hiss out an
intolerable blasphemy. For if God's grace is limited to this that He has
formed us with wills of our own, and if we are to rest content with free
will, not seeking the divine aid lest this should be impaired, we should
cease to pray; for we cannot entreat God's mercy to give us daily what is
already in our hands having been given to us once for all. These who think
thus make prayer impossible and boast that free will makes them not merely
controllers of themselves but as powerful as God. For they need no external
help. Away with fasting, away with every form of self-restraint ! For why
need I strive to win by toil what has once for all been placed within my
reach? The argument that I am using is not mine; it is that put forward by
a disciple of Pelagius, or rather one who is the teacher and commander of
his whole army.[4] This man, who is the opposite of Paul for he is a vessel
of perdition, roams through thickets--not, as his partisans say, of
syllogisms, but of solecisms, and theorizes thus: "If I do nothing without
the help of God and if all that I do is His act, I cease to labour and the
crown that I shall win will belong not to me but to the grace of God. It is
idle for Him to have given me the power of choice if I cannot use it
without His constant help. For will that requires external support ceases
to be will. God has given me freedom of choice, but what becomes of this if
I cannot do as I wish?" Accordingly he propounds the following dilemma:
"Either once for all I use the power which is given to me, and so preserve
the freedom of my will; or I need the help of another, in which case the
freedom of my will is wholly abrogated."

   6. Surely the man who says this is no ordinary blasphemer; the poison
of his heresy is no common poison. Since our wills are free they argue, we
are no longer dependent upon God; and they forget the Apostle's words "what
hast thou that thou didst not receive? Now if thou didst receive it why
dost thou glory as if thou hadst not received it?"[1] A nice return, truly,
does a man make to God when to assert the freedom of his will he rebels
against Him ! For our parts we gladly embrace this freedom, but we never
forget to thank the Giver; knowing that we are powerless unless He
continually preserves in us His own gift. As the apostle says, "it is not
of him that willeth, nor of him that runneth, but of God that sheweth
mercy."[2] To will and to run are mine, but they will cease to be mine
unless God brings me His continual aid. For the same apostle says "it is
God which worketh in you both to will and to do."[3] And in the Gospel the
Saviour says: "my Father worketh hitherto and I work."[4] He is always a
giver, always a be-slower. It is not enough for me that he has given me
grace once; He must give it me always. I seek that I may obtain, and when I
have obtained I seek again. I am covetous of God's bounty; and as He is
never slack in giving, so I am never weary in receiving. The more I drink,
the more I thirst. For I have read the song of the psalmist: "O taste and
see that the Lord is good."[5] Every good thing that we have is a tasting
of the Lord. When I fancy myself to have finished the book of virtue, I
shall then only be at the beginning. For "the fear of the Lord is the
beginning of wisdom,"[6] and this fear is in its turn cast out by love.[7]
Men are only perfect so far as they know themselves to be imperfect. "So
likewise ye," Christ says, "when ye shall have done all those things which
are commanded you, say, We are unprofitable servants: we have done that
which was our duty to do."[8] If he is unprofitable who has done all, what
must we say of him who has failed to do so? This is why the Apostle
declares that he has attained in part and apprehended in part, that he is
not yet perfect, and that forgetting those things which are behind he
reaches forth unto those things which are before.[1] Now he who always
forgets the past and longs for the future shews that he is not content with
the present.

   They are for ever objecting to us that we destroy free will. Nay, we
reply, it is you who destroy it; for you use it amiss and disown the bounty
of its Giver. Which really destroys freedom? the man who thanks God always
and traces back his own tiny rill to its source in Him? or the man who
says: "come not near to me, for I am holy ;[2] I have no need of Thee. Thou
hast given me once for all freedom of choice to do as I wish. Why then dost
Thou interfere again to prevent me from doing anything unless Thou Thyself
first makest Thy gifts effective in me?" To such an one I would say: "your
profession of belief in God's grace is insincere. For you explain this of
the state in which man has been created and you do not look for God to help
him in his actions. To do this, you argue, would be to surrender human
freedom. Thus disdaining the aid of God you have to look to men for help."

   7. Listen, only listen, to the blasphemer. "Suppose," he avers, "that I
want to bend my finger or to move my hand, to sit, to stand, to walk, to
run to and fro, to spit or to blow my nose, to perform the offices of
nature; must the help of God be always indispensable to me?" Thankless, nay
blasphemous wretch, hear the apostle's declaration: "whether therefore ye
eat or drink, or whatsoever ye do, do all to the glory of God."[3] Hear
also the words of James: "go to now, ye that say, To-day or to-morrow we
will go into such a city and continue there a year, and buy, and sell, and
get gain. Whereas ye know not what shall be on the morrow: for what is your
life? It is even a vapour that appeareth for a little time, and then
vanisheth away. For that ye ought to say, If the Lord will, we shall live,
and do this or that. But now ye rejoice in your boastings; all such
rejoicing is evil."[4] You fancy that a wrong is inflicted on you and your
freedom of choice is destroyed if you are forced to fall back on God as the
moving cause of all your actions, if you are made dependent on His Will,
and if you have to echo the psalmist's words: "mine eyes are ever toward
the Lord: for it is he that shall pluck my feet out of the net."[5] And so
you presume rashly to maintain that each individual is governed by his own
choice. But if he is governed by his own choice, what becomes of God's
help? If he does not need Christ to rule him, why does Jeremiah write: "the
way of man is not in himself"[6] and "the Lord directeth his steps."[7]

   You say that the commandments of God are easy, and yet you cannot
produce any one who has fulfilled them all. Answer me this: are they easy
or are they difficult? If they are easy, then produce some one who has
fulfilled them all. Explain also the words of the psalmist: "thou dost
cause toil by thy law,"[1] and "because of the words of thy lips I have
kept hard ways."[2] And make plain our Lord's sayings in the gospel: "enter
ye in at the strait gate;"[3] and "love your enemies;" and "pray for them
which persecute you."[4] If on the other hand the commandments are
difficult and if no man has kept them all, how have you presumed to say
that they are easy? Do not you see that you contradict yourself? For either
they are easy and countless numbers have kept them; or they are difficult
and you have been too hasty in calling them easy.

   8. It is a common argument with your party to say that God's
commandments are either possible or impossible. So far as they are the
former you admit that they are rightly laid upon us; but so far as they are
the latter you allege that blame attaches not to us who have received them
but to God who has imposed them on us. What! has God commanded me to be
what He is,[5] to put no difference between myself and my creator, to be
greater than the greatest of the angels, to have a power which no angels
possess ? Sinlessness is made a characteristic of Christ, "who did no sin
neither was guile found in his mouth."[6] But if I am sinless as well as
He, how is sinlessness any longer His distinguishing mark ? for if this
distinction exists, your theory becomes fatal to itself.

   You assert that a man may be without sin if he will; and then, as
though awakening from a deep sleep, you try to deceive the unwary by adding
the saving clause "yet not without the grace of God." For if by his own
efforts a man can keep himself without sin, what need has he of God's grace
? If on the other hand he can do nothing without this, what is the use of
saying that he can do what he cannot do ? It is argued that a man may be
without sin and perfect if he only wills it. What Christian is there who
does not wish to be sinless or who would reject perfection if, as you say,
it is to be had for the wishing, and if the will is sure to be followed by
the power ? There is no Christian who does not wish to be sinless; wishing
to be so, therefore, they all will be so. Whether you like it or not you
will be caught in this dilemma, that you can produce nobody or hardly
anybody who is without sin, yet have to admit that everybody may be sinless
if he likes. God's commandments, it is argued, are possible to keep. Who
denies it ? But how this truth is to be understood the chosen vessel thus
most clearly explains: "what the law could not do in that it was weak
through the flesh, God, sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh
and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh;"[1] and again: "by the deeds of
the law there shall no flesh be justified."[2] And to shew that it is not
only the law of Moses that is meant or all those precepts which
collectively are termed the law, the same apostle writes: "I delight in the
law of God after the inward man. But I see another law in my members,
warring against the law of my mind, and bringing me into captivity to the
law of sin which is in my members. O wretched man that I am: who shall
deliver me from the body of this death ? The grace of God through Jesus
Christ our Lord."[3] Other words of his further explain his meaning: "we
know that the law is spiritual: but I am carnal, sold under sin. For that
which I do I know[4] not: for what I would that do I not, but what I hate
that do I. If then I do that which I would not, I consent unto the law that
it is good. Now then it is no more I that do it: but sin that dwelleth in
me. For I know that in me (that is, in my flesh) dwelleth no good thing.
For to will is present with me: but how to perform that which is good I
find not. For the good that I would, I do not: but the evil which I would
not, that I do. Now if I do that I would not, it is no more I that do it,
but sin that dwelleth in me."[5]

   9. But you will demur to this and say that I follow the teaching[6] of
the Manichaeans and others who make war against the church's doctrine in
the interest of their belief that there are two natures diverse from one
another and that there is an evil nature which can in no wise be changed.
But it is not against me that you must make this imputation but against the
apostle who knows well that God is one thing and man another, that the
flesh is weak and the spirit strong.[7] "The flesh lusteth against the
spirit and the spirit against the flesh: and these are contrary the one to
the other: so that ye cannot do the things that ye would."[8] But from me
you will never hear that any nature is essentially evil. Let us learn then
from him who tells us so in what sense the flesh is weak. Ask him why he
has said:

"the good that I would, I do not the evil which I would not, that I do."[1]
What necessity fetters his will ? What compulsion commands him to do what
he dislikes ? And why must he do not what he wishes but what he dislikes
and does not wish? He will answer you thus: "nay, but, O man, who art thou
that repliest against God? Shall the thing formed say unto him that formed
it Why hast thou made me thus ? Hath not the potter power over the clay, of
the same lump to make one vessel unto honour and another unto dishonour
?"[2] Bring a yet graver charge against God and ask Him why, when Esau and
Jacob were still in the womb, He said: "Jacob have I loved, but Esau have I
hated."[3] Accuse Him of injustice because when Achan the son of Carmi
stole part of the spoil of Jericho, He butchered so many thousands for the
fault of one.[4] Ask Him why for the sin of the sons of Eli the people were
well-nigh annihilated and the ark captured.[5] And why, when David sinned
by numbering the people, so many thousands lost their lives.[6] Or lastly
make your own the favorite cavil of your associate Porphyry, and ask how
God can be described as pitiful and of great mercy when from Adam to Moses
and from Moses to the coming of Christ He has suffered all nations to die
in ignorance of the Law and of His commandments.[7] For Britain, that
province so fertile in despots, the Scottish tribes, and all the barbarians
round about as far as the ocean were alike without knowledge of Moses and
the prophets. Why should Christ's coming have been delayed to the last
times ? Why should He not have come before so vast a number had perished ?
Of this last question the blessed apostle in writing to the Romans most
wisely disposes by admitting that he does not know and that only God does.
Do you too, then, condescend to remain ignorant of that into which you
inquire. Leave to God His power over what is His own; He does not need you
to justify His actions. I am the hapless being against whom you ought to
direct your insults, I who am for ever reading the words: "by grace ye are
saved,"[8] and "blessed is he whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is
covered."[9] Yet, to lay bare my own weakness, I know that I wish to do
many things which I ought to do and yet cannot. For while my spirit is
strong and leads me to life my flesh is weak and draws me to death. And I
have the warning of the Lord in my ears: "watch and pray that ye enter not
into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak."[1]

   10. It is in vain that you misrepresent me and try to convince the
ignorant that I condemn free will. Let him who condemns it be himself
condemned. We have been created endowed with free will; still it is not
this which distinguishes us from the brutes. For human free will, as I have
said before, depends upon the help of God and needs His aid moment by
moment, a thing which you and yours do not choose to admit. Your position
is that, if a man once has free will, he no longer needs the help of God.
It is true that freedom of the will brings with it freedom of decision.
Still man does not act immediately on his free will, but requires God's aid
who Himself needs no aid. You yourself boast that a man's righteousness may
be perfect and equal to God's; yet you confess that you are a sinner.
Answer me this, then; do you or do you not wish to be free from sin ? If
you do, why on your principle do you not carry out your desire ? And if you
do not, do you not prove yourself a despiser of God's commandments ? If you
are a despiser, then you are a sinner. And if you are a sinner, then the
scripture says: "unto the wicked God saith, what hast thou to do to declare
my statutes, or that thou shouldest take my covenant in thy mouth ? seeing
thou hatest instruction and castest my words behind thee."[2] So long as
you are unwilling to do what God commands, so long do you cast His words
behind you. And yet like a new apostle you lay down for the world what to
do and what not to do. However, your words and your thoughts by no means
correspond. For when you say that you are a sinner--yet that a man may be
without sin if he will, you wish it to be understood that you are a saint
and free from all sin. It is only out of humility[3] that you call yourself
a sinner; to give you a chance of praising others while you depreciate
yourself.

   11. Another of your arguments is also intolerable, one which runs thus:
"To be sinless is one thing, to be able to be so is another. The first is
not in our power, the second generally is. For though none ever has been
sinless, yet, if a man wills to be so, he can be so." What sort of
reasoning, I ask, is this ? that a man can be what a man never has been!
that a thing is possible which according to your own admission, no man has
yet achieved! You are predicating of man a quality which, for aught you
know, he may never possess ! and you are assigning to any chance person a
grace which you cannot shew to have marked patriarchs, prophets, or
apostles. Listen to the Church's words, plain as they may seem to you or
crude or ignorant. And speak what you think; preach publicly what secretly
you tell your disciples. You profess to have freedom of choice; why do you
not speak your thoughts freely? Your secret chambers hear one doctrine, the
crowd around the platform hear another. The uneducated throng, I suppose,
is not able to digest your esoteric teaching. Satisfied with the milk-diet
of an infant it cannot take solid food.[1]

   I have written nothing yet, and still you menace me with the thunders
of a reply; hoping, I suppose, that I may be scared by your terrors and may
not venture to open my mouth. You fail to see that my purpose in writing is
to force you to answer and to commit yourself plainly to doctrines which at
present you maintain or ignore, as time, place, and person require. One
kind of freedom I must deny to you, the freedom to deny what you have once
written. An open avowal on your part of the opinions that you hold will be
a victory for the church. For either the language of your reply will
correspond to mine, in which case I shall count you no longer as opponents
but as friends; or else you will gainsay my doctrine, in which case the
making known of your opinion to all the churches will be a triumph for me.
To have brought your tenets to light is to have overcome them. Blasphemy is
written on the face of them, and a doctrine, which in its very statement is
blasphemous, needs no refutation. You threaten me with a reply, but this
nobody can escape except the man who does not write at all. How do you know
what I am going to say that you talk of a reply ? Perhaps I shall take your
view and then you will have sharpened your wits to no purpose. Eunomians,
Arians, Macedonians--all these, unlike in name, alike in impiety, give me
no trouble. For they say what they think. Yours is the only heresy which
blushes openly to maintain what secretly it does not fear to teach. But the
frenzy of the disciples exposes the silence of the masters; for what they
have heard from them in the closet they preach upon the housetop. If their
auditors like what they say, their masters get the credit; and if they
dislike it, only the disciples are blamed, the masters go free. In this way
your heresy has grown and you have deceived many; especially those who
cleave to women and are assured that they cannot sin. You are always
teaching, you are always denying; you deserve to have the prophet's words
applied to you: "give to them glory, O Lord, when they are in travail and
in the throes of labour. Give them, O Lord; what wilt thou give ? Give them
a miscarrying womb and dry breasts."[1] My temper rises and I cannot check
my words. The limits of a letter do not admit of a lengthy discussion. I
assail nobody by name here. It is only against the teacher of perverse
doctrine that I have spoken. If resentment shall induce him to reply, he
will but betray himself like a mouse which always leaves traces of its
presence; and, when it comes to blows in earnest, will receive more serious
wounds.

   12. From my youth up until now I have spent many years in writing
various works and have always tried to teach my hearers the doctrine that I
have been taught publicly in church. I have not followed the philosophers
in their discussions but have preferred to acquiesce in the plain words of
the apostles. For I have known that it is written: "I will destroy the
wisdom of the wise, and will bring to nothing the understanding of the
prudent,"[2] and "the foolishness of God is wiser than men."[3] This being
the case, I challenge my opponents thoroughly to sift all my past writings
and, if they can find anything that is faulty in them, to bring it to
light. One of two things must happen. Either my works will be found
edifying and I shall confute the false charges brought against me; or they
will be found blameworthy and I shall confess my error. For I would sooner
correct an error than persevere in an opinion proved to be wrong. And as
for you, illustrious doctor, go you and do likewise: either defend the
statements that you have made, and support your clever theories with
corresponding eloquence, and do not when the whim takes you disown your own
words; or if, as a man may do, you have made a mistake, confess it frankly
and restore harmony where there has been disagreement. Recall to mind how
even the soldiers did not rend the coat of the Saviour.[4] When you see
brothers at strife you laugh; and are glad that some are called by your
name and others by that of Christ. Better would it be to imitate Jonah and
say: "If it is for my sake that this great tempest is upon you, take me up
and cast me forth into the sea."[5] He in his humility was thrown into the
deep that he might rise again in glory to be a type of the Lord.[6] But you
are lifted up in your pride to the stars, only that of you too Jesus may
say: "I beheld Satan as lightning fall from heaven."[1]

   13. It is true that in the holy scriptures many are called righteous,
as Zacharias and Elizabeth, Job, Jehosaphat, Josiah, and many others who
are mentioned in the sacred writings. Of this fact I shall, if God gives me
grace, give a full explanation in the work which I have promised[2]; in
this letter it must suffice to say that they are called righteous, not
because they are faultless but because their faults are eclipsed by their
virtues.[3] In fact Zacharias is punished with dumbness,[4] Job is
condemned out of his own mouth,[5] and Jehoshaphat and Josiah who are
beyond a doubt described as righteous are narrated to have done things
displeasing to the Lord The first leagued himself with the ungodly Ahab and
brought upon himself the rebuke of Micaiah;[6] and the second--though
forbidden by the word of the Lord spoken by Jeremiah--went against Pharaoh-
Nechoh, king of Egypt, and was slain by him.[7] Yet they are both called
righteous. Of the rest this is not the time to write; for you have asked me
not for a treatise but for a letter. For a complete refutation I require
leisure and then I hope to destroy all their cavils by the help of Christ.
For this purpose I shall rely on the holy scriptures in which God every day
speaks to those who believe. And this is the warning which I would give
through you to all who are assembled within your holy and illustrious
house, that they should not allow one or at the most three mannikins to
taint them with the dregs of so many heresies and with the infamy--to say
the least-- attaching to them. A place once famous for virtue and holiness
must not be defiled by the presumption of the devil and by unclean
associations. And let those who supply money to such men know that they are
adding to the ranks of the heretics, raising up enemies to Christ and
fostering his avowed opponents. It is idle for them to profess one thing
with their lips when by their actions they are proved to think another.

LETTER CXXXIV: TO AUGUSTINE.

Jerome acknowledges the receipt of Letters CXXXI. and CXXXII. and excuses
himself from answering the questions raised in them on the twofold ground
(1) that the times are evil and (2) that it is inexpedient that he should
be supposed to differ from Augustine. He prays for the speedy extinction of
Pelagianism, regrets that he cannot send Augustine a critical Latin text of
the O.T., and concludes with a number of salutations from himself and those
with him. The date of the letter is 416 A.D. Its number in Augustine's
Letters is CLXXII.

LETTER CXXXV: FROM POPE INNOCENT TO AURELIUS.

Shortly after the synod of Diospolis the Pelagians exulting in their
success made an attack upon Jerome's monasteries at Bethlehem which they
pillaged and partially burned. This gained for him the sympathy of Innocent
who now (A.D. 417) asks Aurelius to transmit to him the letter which
follows this.

   Innocent to his most esteemed friend and brother Aurelius.[1]

   Our fellow-presbyter Jerome has informed us of your most dutiful desire
to come to see us. We suffer with him as with a member of our own flock. We
have been swift also to take such measures as have appeared to us expedient
and practicable. As you count yourself one of us, most dear brother, make
haste to transmit the following letter[2] to the aforesaid Jerome.

LETTER CXXXVI.

FROM POPE INNOCENT TO JEROME.

   Innocent expresses his sympathy with Jerome and promises to take strong
measures to punish his opponents if he will bring specific charges against
them. The date of the letter is A.D. 417.

   Innocent to his most esteemed son, the presbyter Jerome.

   The apostle[3] bears witness that contention has never done good in the
church; and for this reason he gives direction that heretics should be
admonished once or twice in the beginning of their heresy and not subjected
to a long series of rebukes. Where this rule is negligently observed, the
evil to be guarded against so far from being evaded is rather intensified.

   Your grief and lamentation have so affected us that we can neither act
nor advise.

   To begin however, we commend you for the constancy of your faith. To
quote your own words spoken many times in the ears of many, a man will
gladly face misrepresentation or even personal danger on behalf of the
truth; if he is looking for the blessedness that is to come. We remind you
of what you have yourself preached although we are sure that you need no
reminder. The spectacle of these terrible evils has so thoroughly roused us
that we have hastened to put forth the authority of the apostolic see to
repress the plague in all its manifestations; but as your letters name no
individuals and bring no specific charges, there is no one at present
against whom we can proceed. But we do all that we can; we sympathize
deeply with you. And if you will lay a clear and unambiguous accusation
against any persons in particular we will appoint suitable judges to try
their cases; or if you, our highly esteemed son, think that it is needful
for us to take yet graver and more urgent action, we shall not be slow to
do so. Meantime we have written to our brother bishop John[1] advising him
to act more considerately, so that nothing may occur in the church
committed to him which it is his duty to foresee and to prevent, and that
nothing may happen which may subsequently prove a source of trouble to him.

LETTER CXXXVII: FROM POPE INNOCENT TO JOHN, BISHOP OF JERUSALEM.

Innocent censures John for having allowed the Pelagians to effuse the
disturbance at Bethlehem mentioned in the two preceding letters and exhorts
him to be more watchful over his diocese in future. The date of the letter
is A.D. 417. This was the year of the death of both John and Innocent, and
it is probable that John never received the letter.

   Innocent to his most highly esteemed brother John.

   The holy virgins Eustochium and Paula[2] have deplored to me the
ravages, murders, fires and outrages of all kinds, which they say that the
devil has perpetrated in the district belonging to their church; for with
wonderful clemency and generosity they have left untold the name and motive
of his human agent. Now although there can be no doubt as to who is the
guilty person ;[3] yet you, my brother, ought to have taken precautions and
to have been more careful of your flock so that no disturbance of the kind
might arise; for others suffer by your negligence, and you encourage men by
it to make havoc of the Lord's flock till His tender lambs, fleeced and
weakened by fire, sword and persecution, their relations murdered and dead,
are, as we are informed, themselves scarce alive. Does it not touch your
sacred responsibility as a priest[4] that the devil has shewn himself so
powerful against you and yours ? Against you, I say; for surely it speaks
ill of your capacity as a priest that a crime so terrible should have been
committed in the pale of your church. Where were your precautions ? Where,
after the blow had been struck, were your attempts at relief ? Where too
were your words of comfort ? These ladies tell me that up to the present
they have been in a state of too great apprehension to complain of what
they have already suffered. I should judge more gravely of the matter had
they spoken to me concerning it more freely than they have. Beware then,
brother, of the wiles of the old enemy, and in the spirit of a good ruler
be vigilant either to correct or to repress such evils. For they have
reached my ears in the shape of rumours rather than as specific
accusations. If nothing is done, the law of the Church on the subject of
injuries may compel the person who has failed to defend his flock to shew
cause for his negligence.

LETTER CXXXVIII: TO RIPARIUS.

Jerome praises Riparius for his zeal on behalf of the Catholic faith and
for his efforts to put down the Pelagians. He then describes the attack
made by these heretics upon the monasteries of Bethlehem. Now, he is glad
to say, they have at last been driven from Palestine. Most of them, that
is, for some still linger at Joppa including one of their chief leaders.
The date is A.D. 417.

   That you fight Christ's battles against the enemies of the Catholic
Faith your own letters have informed me as well as the reports of many
persons, but I am told that you find the winds contrary and that those who
ought to have been the world's champions have backed the cause of perdition
to each other's ruin. You are to know that in this part of the world,
without any human help and merely by the decree of Christ, Catiline[1] has
been driven not only from the capital but from the borders of Palestine.
Lentulus, however, and many of his fellow-conspirators still linger to our
sorrow in Joppa. I myself have thought it better to change my abode than to
surrender the true faith; and have chosen to leave my pleasant home rather
than to suffer contamination from heresy. For I could not communicate with
men who would either have insisted on my instant submission or would else
have summoned me to support my opinions by the sword. A good many, I dare
say, have told you the story of my sufferings and of the vengeance which
Christ's uplifted hand has on my behalf taken upon my enemies. I would beg
of you, therefore, to complete the task which you have taken up and not,
while you are in it,  to leave Christ's church without a defender. Every
one knows the weapons that must be used in this warfare; and you, I feel
sure will ask for no others. You must contend with all your might against
the foe; but it must be not with physical force but with that spiritual
charity which is never overcome. The reverend brothers who are with me,
unworthy as I am, salute you warmly. The reverend brother, the deacon
Alentius, is sure to give you, my worshipful friend, a faithful narrative
of all the facts. May Christ our Lord, of His almighty power, keep you safe
and mindful of the, truly reverend sir and esteemed brother.

LETTER CXXXIX: TO APRONIUS.

Of Apronius nothing is known; but from the mention of Innocent (for whom
see Letter CXLIII.) it seems a fair inference that he lived in the West.
Jerome here congratulates him on his steadfastness in the faith and exhorts
him to come to Bethlehem. He then touches on the mischief done by Pelagius
and complains that his own monastery has been destroyed by him or by his
partisans. The date of the letter is A. D. 417.

   I know not by what wiles of the devil it has come to pass that all your
toil and the efforts of the reverend presbyter Innocent[1] and my own
prayers and wishes seem for the moment to produce no effect. God be thanked
that you are well and that the fire of faith glows in you even when you are
in the midst of the devil's wiles. My greatest joy is to hear that my
spiritual sons are fighting in the cause of Christ; and assuredly He in
Whom we believe will so quicken this zeal of ours that we shall be glad
freely to shed our blood in defence of His faith.

   I grieve to hear that a noble family has been subverted,[2] for what
reason I cannot learn; for the bearer of the letter could give me no
information. We may well grieve over the loss of our common friends and ask
Christ the only potentate and Lord [3] to have mercy upon them. At the same
time we have deserved to receive punishment at God's hand for we[4] have
harboured the enemies of the Lord.

   The best course you can take is to leave everything and to come to the
East, before all to the holy places; for everything is now quiet here. The
heretics have not, it is true, purged the venom from their breasts, but
they do not venture to open their impious mouths. They are "like the deaf
adder that stoppeth her ear."[1]Salute your reverend brothers on my behalf.

   As for our house,[2] so far as fleshly wealth is concerned, it has been
completely destroyed by the onslaughts of the heretics; but by the mercy of
Christ it is still filled with spiritual riches. To live on bread is better
than to lose the faith.

LETTER CXL: TO CYPRIAN THE PRESBYTER.

Cyprian had visited Jerome at Bethlehem and had asked him to write an
exposition of Psalm XC in simple language such as might be readily
understood. With this request Jerome now complies, giving a very full
account of the psalm, verse by verse, and bringing the treasures of his
learning and especially his knowledge of Hebrew to bear upon it. He asserts
its Mosaic authorship but is careful to add that "the man of God" may have
spoken not for himself but in the name of the Jewish people. He speaks of
the five books into which the psalter is divisible and says that it is a
mistake to ascribe all the psalms to David. An allusion to the doctrine of
Pelagius shows that the letter must belong to Jerome's last years, and
Vallarsi is probably right m assigning it to A. D. 418.

LETTER CXLI.: TO AUGUSTINE.

A short note in which Jerome praises Augustine for the determined stand
which he has made against heresy and speaks of him as" the restorer of the
ancient faith." The allusion seems to be to his action in the Pelagian
controversy. If so, the date is probably 418 A.D. This letter is among
those of Augustine, number 195.

LETTER CXLII: TO AUGUSTINE.

There is good ground for supposing this to form part of the previous
letter. If so, Jerome speaks in a figure of the success gained by
Pelagianism in Palestine. "Jerusalem," he says, "is in the hands of
Nebuchadnezzar and will not heed the voice of Jeremiah," that is, as the
context shews, Jerome himself. This letter is among those of Augustine,
number 123.

LETTER CXLIII: TO ALYPIUS AND AUGUSTINE.

In this letter Jerome congratulates Alypius and Augustine on their success
in strangling the heresy of Caelestius, the co-adjutor of Pelagius, and
states that, if he can find time and secretaries, he hopes to write a
refutation of the absurd errors of the Pelagian pseudodeacon Annianus. The
date is 419 A.D.This letter is among those of Augustine, number 202.

LETTER CXLIV: FROM AUGUSTINE TO OPTATUS.

   Augustine writes to Optatus, bishop of Milevis, to say that he cannot
send him a copy of his letter to Jerome on the origin of the soul (Letter
CXXXI.) as it is incomplete without Jerome's reply which he has not yet
received. He then criticises the arguments with which Optatus combats
traducianism and points out that his reasoning is inconclusive. The date of
the letter is A. D. 420. The letter has been somewhat compressed in
translation: the involved sentences of the original have been simplified
and its redundancies curtailed.

   To the blessed lord and brother, sincerely loved and longed-for, his
fellow-bishop Optatus, Augustine [sends] greeting in the Lord.

   1. By the hand of the reverend presbyter Saturninus I have received a
letter from you, venerable sir, in which you earnestly ask me for what I
have not yet got. You thus shew clearly your belief that I have already had
a reply to my question on the subject. Would that I had! Knowing the
eagerness of your expectation, I should never have dreamed of keeping back
from you your share in the gift; but if you will believe me, dear brother,
it is not so. Although five years have elapsed since I despatched to the
East my letter (which was one of inquiry, not of assertion), I have so far
received no reply, and am consequently unable to untie the knot as you wish
me to do. Had I had both[1] letters, I should gladly have sent you both;
but I think it better not to circulate mine[2] by itself lest he to whom it
is addressed and who may still answer me as I desire should prove
displeased. If I were to publish so elaborate a treatise as mine without
his reply to it, he might be justly indignant, and suppose me more intent
on displaying my talents than on promoting some useful end. It would look
as if I were bent on starting problems too hard for him to solve. It is
better to wait for the answer which he probably means to send. For I am
well aware that he has other subjects to occupy him which are more serious
and urgent than this question of mine. Your holiness will readily
understand this if you read what he wrote to me a year later when my
messenger was returning. The following is an extract from his letter:[3]

   "A most trying time has come upon us[4] in which I have found it better
to hold my peace than to speak. Consequently my studies have ceased, that I
may not give occasion to what Appius calls 'the eloquence of dogs." For
this reason I have not been able to send any answer to your two learned and
brilliant letters. Not, indeed, that I think anything in them needs
correction, but that I recall the Apostle's words: 'One judges in this way,
another in that; let every man give full expression to his own opinion."[2]
All that a lofty intellect can draw from the well of holy scripture has
been drawn by you. So much your reverence must allow me to say in praise of
your ability. But though in any discussion between us our joint object is
the advancement of learning, our rivals and especially the heretics will
ascribe any difference of opinion between us to mutual jealousy. For my
part, however, I am resolved to love you, to look up to you, to reverence
and admire you, and to defend your opinions as my own. I have also in a
dialogue which I have recently brought out made allusion to your holiness
in suitable terms. Let us, rather, then, strain every nerve to banish from
the churches that most pernicious heresy,[3] which feigns repentance that
it may have liberty to teach in our churches. For were it to come out into
the light of day, it would be expelled and die."

   2. You can see, worshipful brother, from this reply that my friend does
not refuse to answer my inquiry; he postpones it because he is condemned to
give his time to more urgent matters. Moreover, that he is well disposed
towards me is clear from his friendly warning that a controversy between us
begun in all charity and in the interests of learning may be misconstrued
by jealous and heretical persons as due to mutual illfeeling. No; it will
be better for the public to have both together, his explanation as well as
my inquiry. For, as I shall have to thank him for instructing me if he is
able to explain the matter, the discussion will be of no small advantage
when it comes to the knowledge of the world. Those who come after us will
not only know what view they ought to take of a subject thus fully argued
but will also learn how under the divine mercy brothers in affection may
dispute a difficult question and yet preserve each other's esteem.

   3. On the other hand, if I were to publish the letter in which I raise
this obscure point without the reply in which it may be set at rest, it
might circulate widely and reach men who "comparing themselves," as the
Apostle says, "with themselves,"[4] would misconstrue a motive which they
could not understand, and would explain my feeling towards one whom I love
and esteem for his immense services not as it would appear to them (for it
would be invisible to them) but as their own fancy and malice would
dictate. Now this is a danger which, so far as in me lies, I am bound to
guard against. But if a document which I am unwilling to publish is
published without my consent and placed in hands from which I would
withhold it, then I shall have to resign myself to the will of God. Indeed,
had I wished to keep my words permanently undivulged I should never have
sent them to any one. For if (though I hope it may not be so) chance or
necessity shall prevent any reply being ever given me, my letter of inquiry
is still bound sooner or later to come to light. Nor will it be useless to
those who read it; for, although they will nor find what they seek, they
will learn how much better it is, when one is uninformed, to put questions
than to make assertions; and in the meantime those whom they consult[1]
will work out the points raised by me, laying aside contention and in the
interests of learning and charity trying to obtain sound opinions about
them. Thus they will either arrive at the solutions they desire, or their
faculties will be quickened and they will learn from the investigation that
farther inquiry is useless. At present, however, as I have no reason to
despair of an answer from my friend I have decided not to publish the
letter I have sent him, and I trust, my dear comrade, that this decision
may commend itself to you. It should do so, for you have not asked for my
letter so much as for the answer to it; and this I would gladly send you if
I had it to send. It is true that in your epistle you speak of" the lucid
demonstration of my wisdom which in virtue of my life the Giver of light
has bestowed upon me "; and if by this you mean not the way in which I have
stated the problem but a solution which I have obtained of the point in
question, I should like to gratify your wish. But I must admit that I have
so far failed to discover how the soul can derive its sin from Adam (a
truth which it is unlawful to question) and yet not itself be derived from
Adam. At present I think it better to sift the matter farther than to
dogmatize rashly.

   4. Your letter speaks of "many old men and persons educated by learned
priests whom you have failed to recall to your modest way of thinking, and
to a statement of the case which is truth itself." You do not, however,
explain what this mode of expression is. If your old men hold fast what
they have received from learned priests, how comes it that you are troubled
by a boorish mob of unlettered clerics? On the other hand, if the old men
and the unlettered clerics have wickedly departed from the priests'
teachings, surely these latter are the persons to correct them and restrain
them from controversial excesses. Again when you say that "you as a new-
fledged and inexperienced teacher have been afraid to tamper with the
doctrines handed down by great and famous bishops, and that you have been
loth to draw men into a better path lest you should cast discredit on the
dead," do you not imply that in refusing to agree with you the objects of
your solicitude are but preferring the tradition of great and famous
bishops to the views of a new-fledged and inexperienced teacher? Of their
conduct in the matter I say nothing, but I am most anxious to learn that
"mode of expression which is truth itself," not the thing expressed, but
the mode of expression.

   5. For you have made it sufficiently plain to me that you disapprove of
those who assert that men's souls are derived from that of the
protoplast[1] and propagated from one generation to another; but as your
letter does not inform me, I have no means of knowing on what grounds and
from what passages of scripture you have shewn this view to be false. What
does commend itself to you is not clear either from your letter to the
brothers at Caesarea or from that which you have lately addressed to me.
Only I see that you believe and write that "God has been, is, and will be
the maker of men, and that there is nothing either in heaven or on earth
which does not owe its existence wholly to Him." This is of course a truism
which nobody can call in question. But as you affirm that souls are not
propagated, you ought to explain out of what God makes them. Is it out of
some pre-existing material, or is it out of nothing? For it is impossible
that you should hold the opinion of Origen, Priscillian, and other heretics
that it is for deeds done in a former life that souls are confined in
earthly and mortal bodies. This opinion is, indeed, flatly contradicted by
the apostle who says of Jacob and Esau that before they were born they had
done neither good nor evil.[2] Your view of the matter, then, is known to
me though only partially, but of your reasons for supposing it to be true I
know nothing. This was why in a former letter I asked you to send me your
confession of faith, the one which you were vexed to find that one of your
presbyters had signed dishonestly. I now again ask you for this, as well as
for any passages of scripture which you have brought to bear on the
question. For you say in your letter to the brothers at Caesarea that you
"have resolved to have all definitions of dogma reviewed by lay judges,
sitting by general invitation, and investigating all points touching the
faith." And you continue: "the divine mercy has made it possible for them
to put forward their views in a positive and definite form, which your
modest ability has reinforced with a great weight of evidence." Now it is
this "great weight of evidence" which I am so anxious to obtain. For, so
far as I can see, your one aim has been to refute your opponents when they
deny that our souls are the handiwork of God. If they hold such a view, you
are right in thinking that it should be condemned. Were they to say the
same thing of our bodies, they would be forced to retract it, or else be
held up to execration. For what Christian can deny that every single human
body is the work of God? Yet when we admit that they are of divine origin
we do not mean to deny that they are humanly engendered. When therefore it
is asserted that our souls are procreated from a kind of immaterial seed,
and that they, like our bodies, come to us from our parents, yet are made
souls by the working of God, it is not by human guesses that the assertion
is to be refuted, but by the witness of divine scripture. Numbers of
passages may indeed be quoted from the sacred books which have canonical
authority, to prove that our souls are God's handiwork. But such passages
only refute those who deny that each several human soul is made by God; not
at all those who while they admit this contend that, like our bodies, they
are formed by divine agency through the instrumentality of parents. To
refute these you must look for unmistakable texts; or, if you have already
discovered such, shew your affection by communicating them to me. For
though I seek them most diligently I fail to find them.

   As stated shortly by yourself (at the end of your letter to the
brothers at Caesarea) your dilemma is as follows: "inasmuch as I am your
son and disciple and have but recently by God's help come to consider these
mysteries, I beg you with your priestly wisdom to teach me which of two
opposite views I ought to hold. Am I to maintain that souls are transmitted
by generation, and that they are derived in some mysterious way from Adam
our first-formed father?[1] Or am I with your brothers and the priests who
are here to hold that God has been, is, and will be the author and maker of
all things and all men?"

   6. Of the two alternatives which you thus put forward you wish to be
urged to choose one or other; and this would be the course of wisdom if
your alternatives were so contrary that the choice of one would involve the
rejection of the other. But as it is, instead of selecting one of them a
man may say that they are both true. He may maintain that the souls of all
mankind are derived from Adam our first-formed father, and yet believe and
assert that God has been, is, and will be the author and maker of all
things and all men. How on your principles is such a man to be confuted?
Shall we say: "If they are transmitted by generation God is not their
author, for He does not make them?" In that case he will reply: "Bodies too
are engendered and not made by God; on your shewing, then He is not their
author." Will any one maintain that God is the maker of no bodies but
Adam's which He made out of the dust and Eve's which He formed out of
Adam's side; and that other bodies are not made by Him because they are
engendered by human parents?

   7. If your opponents go so far in maintaining the derivation of souls
as to deny that they are made and formed by God, you may use this argument
as a weapon to confute them so far as God's help enables you. But if, while
they assert that the soul's beginnings come from Adam first and then from a
man's parents, they at the same time hold that the soul in every man is
created and formed by God the author of all things, they can only be
confuted out of scripture. Search therefore till you find a passage that is
neither obscure nor capable of a double meaning; or if you have already
found one, hand it on to me as I have begged you to do. But if, like
myself, you have so far failed to discover any such passage, you must still
strain every nerve to confute those who say that souls are in no sense
God's handiwork. This seems to be your opponents' position, for in your
first letter you write that "they have secretly whispered scandalous
doctrines and have forsaken your communion and the obedience of the church
on account of this foolish, nay impious opinion." Against such men defend
and uphold by every possible expedient the doctrine you have laid down in
the same letter, that God has been, is, and will be the maker of souls; and
that everything in heaven and on earth owes its existence wholly to Him.
For this is true of every creature; and as such is to be believed,
asserted, defended, and proved. God has been, is, and will be the author
and maker of all things and all men as you have told your fellow-bishops of
the province of Caesarea, exhorting them to adopt the doctrine by the
example of your brothers and fellow-priests. But there are two quite
distinct dilemmas:(1) Is God the author and maker of all souls and bodies
(the true view), or is there something in nature which He has not made (a
view which is wholly erroneous)?(2) If souls are undoubtedly God's
handiwork, does He make them directly, or indirectly by propagation? It is
in dealing with this second dilemma that I would have you to be sober and
vigilant. Else in refuting the propagation-theory you may fall incautiously
into the heresy of Pelagius. Everybody knows that human bodies are
propagated by generation; yet if we are right in saying that all human
souls--and not only those of Adam and Eve--are created by God, it is clear
that to assert their transmission by generation is not to deny their divine
origin. For in this view God makes the soul as He makes the body,
indirectly by a process of generation. If the truth condemns this as an
error, some fresh argument must be sought to confute it. No persons could
better advise you on the point (if only they were within reach) than those
dead worthies whom you feared to discredit by drawing men away from them
into a better path. They were, you said, great and famous bishops while you
were a new-fledged and inexperienced teacher; thus you were loth to tamper
with their doctrines. Would that I could know on what passages these great
men rested their opinion that souls are transmitted! For in your letter to
the brothers at Caesarea, you speak of their view with a total disregard of
their authority, as a new invention, an unheard-of doctrine; though we all
know that, error as it may be, it is no novelty but old and of ancient
date.

   8. Now when we have reason to be doubtful about a point, we need not
doubt that we are right in doubting. There is no doubt but that we ought to
doubt things that are doubtful. For instance, the Apostle has no doubt
about doubting whether he was in the body or out of the body when he was
carried up into the third heaven.[1] Whether it was thus or thus, he says,
I know not; God knows. Why may not I, then, so long as I have no light,
doubt whether my soul comes to me by generation or unengendered? Why may I
not be doubtful about this, so long as I do not doubt that in either case
it is the work of God most high? Why may I not say; "I know that my soul
owes its existence to God and is altogether His handiwork; but whether it
comes by generation, as the body does, or unengendered, as was Adam's soul,
I know not; God knows." You wish me to assert positively one view or the
other. I might do so if I knew which was right. You may have some light on
the point, and if so you will find me keener to learn what I know not than
to teach what I know. But if, like myself, you are in the dark, you should
pray, as I do, that either through one of His servants, or with His own
lips, He would teach us who said to His disciples: "Be not ye called
masters; for one is your master, even Christ."[1] Yet such knowledge is
only expedient for us when He knows it to be expedient who knows both what
He has to teach and what we ought to learn. Nevertheless, to you, my dear
friend, I confess my eagerness. Still much as I desire to know this after
which you seek, I would sooner know when the desire of all nations shall
come and when the kingdom of the saints will be set up, than how my soul
has come to its earthly abode. But when His disciples (who are our
apostles) put this question to the all-knowing Christ, they were told: "It
is not yours to know the times or the seasons which the Father hath put in
His own power."[2] What if Christ, who knows what is expedient for us,
knows this knowledge not to be expedient? Through Him I know that it is not
ours to know the times which God has placed in His own power; but
concerning the origin of souls, I am ignorant whether it is or is not ours
to know. If I could be sure that such knowledge is not for us, I should
cease not only to dogmatize, but even to inquire. As it is, though the
subject is so deep and dark that my fear of becoming a rash teacher is
almost greater than my eagerness to learn the truth, I still wish to know
it if I can do so. It may be that the knowledge for which the psalmist
prays: "Lord, make me to know mine end,"[3] is much more necessary; yet I
would that my beginning also might be revealed to me.

   9. But even as touching this I must not be ungrateful to my Master. I
know that the human soul is spiritual not corporeal, that it is endowed
with reason and intelligence, and that it is not of God's essence but a
thing created. It is both mortal and immortal: the first because it is
subject to corruption and separable from the life of God in which it is
alone blessed, the second because its consciousness must ever continue and
form the source of its happiness or woe. It does not, it is true, owe its
immersion in the flesh to acts done before the flesh; yet in man it is
never without sin, not even when "its life has been but for one day."[4] Of
those engendered of the seed of Adam no man is born without sin, and it is
necessary even for babes to be born anew in Christ by the grace of
regeneration. All this I know concerning the soul and it is much; the
greater part of it, indeed is not only knowledge but matter of faith as
well. I rejoice to have learned it all and I can truly say that I know it.
If there are things of which I am still ignorant (as whether God creates
souls by generation or apart from it--for that He does create them I have
no doubt) I would sooner know the truth than: be ignorant of it. But so
long as I cannot know it I had rather suspend my judgment than assert what
is plainly contrary to an indisputable truth.

   10. You, my brother, ask me to decide for you whether men's souls as
made by the Creator come like their bodies by generation from Adam, or
whether like his soul they are made without generation and separately for
each individual. For in one way or the other we both admit that they are
God's handiwork. Suffer me then in turn to ask you a question. Can a soul
derive original sin from a source from which it is not itself derived? For
unless we are to fall into the detestable heresy of Pelagius, we must both
of us allow that all souls do derive original sin from Adam. And if you
cannot answer my question, pray give me leave to confess my ignorance alike
of your question and of my own. But if you already know what I ask, teach
me and then I will teach you what you wish to know. Pray do not be
displeased with me for taking this line, for though I have given you no
positive answer to your question, I have shewn you how you ought to put it.
When once you are clear about that, you may be quite positive where you
have been doubtful.[1]

   This much I have thought it right to write to your holiness seeing that
you are so sure that the transmission of souls is a doctrine to be
rejected. Had I been writing to maintainers of the doctrine I might perhaps
have shewn how ignorant they are of what they fancy they know and how
cautious they should be not to make rash assertions.

   It may perhaps perplex you that in my friend's answer as I have quoted
it in this letter he mentions two letters of mine to which he has no time
to reply. Only one of these deals with the problem of the soul;[2] in the
other I have asked light on another difficulty.[3] Again when he urges me
to take more pains for the removal from the church of a most pernicious
heresy, he alludes to the error of the Pelagians which I earnestly beg you,
my brother, at all hazards to avoid. In speculating or arguing on the
origin of the soul you must never give place to this heresy with its
insidious suggestions. For there is no soul, save that of the one Mediator,
which does not derive original sin from Adam. Original sin is that which is
fastened on the soul at its birth and from which it can only be freed by
being born again.

LETTER CXLV: TO EXUPERANTIUS.

Jerome advises Exuperantius, a Korean soldier, to come to Bethlehem and
with his brother Quintilian to become a monk. According to Palladius (H. L.
c. lxxx.) Exuperantius came to Jerome but went away again unable to endure
his violence and ill-will.' The date of the letter is unknown.

   Among all the favours that my friendship with the reverend brother
Quintilian has conferred upon me the greatest is this that he has
introduced me in the spirit to you whom I do not know personally. Who can
fail to love a man who, while he wears the cloak and uniform of a soldier
does the work of a prophet, and while his outer man gives promise of quite
a different character, overcomes this by the inner man which is formed
after the image of the creator. I come forward therefore to challenge you
to an interchange of letters and beg that you will often give me occasion
to reply to you that I may for the future feel less constraint in writing.

   For the present I will content myself by suggesting to your discretion
that you should bear in mind the apostle's words: "Art thou bound unto a
wife? Seek not to be loosed. Art thou loosed from a wife? Seek not a
wife;"[1] that is, seek not that binding which is contrary to loosing. He
who has contracted the obligations of marriage, is bound, and he who is
bound is a slave; on the other hand he who is loosed is free. Since
therefore you rejoice in the freedom of Christ, since your life is better
than your profession, since you are all but on the housetop of which the
Saviour speaks; you ought not to come down to take your clothes,[2] you
ought not to look behind you, you ought not having put your hand to the
plough, then to let it go.[3] Rather, if you can, imitate Joseph and leave
your garment in the hand of your Egyptian mistress,[4] that naked you may
follow your Lord and Saviour. For in the gospel He says: "Whosoever doth
not leave all that he hath and bear his cross and come after me cannot be
my disciple."[5] Cast from you the burthen of the things of this world, and
seek not those riches which in the gospel are compared to the humps[1] of
camels. Naked and unencumbered fly up to heaven; masses of gold will but
impede the wings of your virtue. I do not speak thus because I know you to
be covetous, but because I have a notion that your object in remaining so
long in the army is to fill that purse which the Lord has commanded you to
empty. For they who have possessions and riches are bidden to sell all that
they have and to give to the poor and then to follow the Saviour.[2] Thus
if your worship is rich already you ought to fulfil the command and sell
your riches; or if you are still poor you ought not to amass what you will
have to pay away. Christ accepts the sacrifices made for him[3] according
as he who makes them has a willing mind. Never were any men poorer than the
apostles; yet never any left more for the Lord than they. The poor widow in
the gospel who cast but two mites into the treasury was set before all the
men of wealth because she gave all that she had.[4] So it should be with
you. Seek not for wealth which you will have to pay away; but rather give
up that which you have already acquired that Christ may know his new
recruit to be brave and resolute, and then when you are a great way off His
Father will run with joy to meet you. He will give you a robe, will put a
ring upon your finger. and will kill for you the fatted calf.[3] Then when
you are freed from all encumbrances God will soon make a way for you to
cross the sea to me with your reverend brother Quintilian. I have now
knocked at the door of friendship: if you open it to me you will find me a
frequent visitor.

LETTER CXLVI: TO EVANGELUS.

Jerome refutes the opinion of those who make deacons equal to presbyters,
but in doing so himself makes presbyters equal to bishops.

The date of the letter is unknown.

   1. We read in Isaiah the words, "the fool will speak folly,"[6] and I
am told that some one has been mad enough to put deacons before presbyters,
that is, before bishops. For when the apostle clearly teaches that
presbyters are the same as bishops, must not a i mere server of tables and
of widows[7] be insane to set himself up arrogantly over men through whose
prayers the body and blood of Christ are produced?[8] Do you ask for proof
of what I say? Listen to this passage: "Paul and Timotheus, the servants of
Jesus Christ, to all the saints in Christ Jesus which are at Philippi with
the bishops and deacons."[1] Do you wish for another instance? In the Acts
of the Apostles Paul thus speaks to the priests[2] of a single church:
"Take heed unto yourselves and to all the flock, in the which the Holy
Ghost hath made you bishops, to feed the church of God which He purchased
with His own blood."[3] And lest any should in a spirit of contention argue
that there must then have been more bishops than one in a single church,
there is the following passage which clearly proves a bishop and a
presbyter to be the same. Writing to Titus the apostle says: "For this
cause left I thee in Crete, that thou shouldest set in order the things
that are wanting, and ordain presbyters[4] in every city, as I had
appointed thee: if any be blameless, the husband of one wife, having
faithful children not accused of riot or unruly. For a bishop must be
blameless as the steward of God."[6] And to Timothy he says: "Neglect not
the gift that is in thee, which was given thee by prophecy, with the laying
on of the hands of the presbytery."[6] Peter also says in his first
epistle: "The presbyters which are among you I exhort, who am your fellow-
presbyter and a witness of the sufferings of Christ and also a partaker of
the glory that shall be revealed: feed the flock of Christ' ... taking the
oversight thereof not by constraint but willingly, according unto God."[3]
In the Greek the meaning is still plainer, for the word used is
episkopou^ntes, that is to say, overseeing, and this is the origin of the
name overseer or bishop.[9] But perhaps the testimony of these great men
seems to you insufficient. If so, then listen to the blast of the gospel
trumpet, that son of thunder,[10] the disciple whom Jesus loved[11] and who
reclining on the Saviour's breast drank in the waters of sound doctrine.
One of his letters begins thus: "The presbyter unto the elect lady and her
children whom I love in the truth; "[12] and another thus: "The presbyter
unto the well- beloved Gains whom I love in the truth."[13] When
subsequently one presbyter was chosen to preside over the rest, this was
done to remedy schism and to prevent each individual from rending the
church of Christ by drawing t to himself. For even at Alexandria from the
time of Mark the Evangelist until the episcopates of Heraclas and Dionysius
the presbyters always named as bishop one of their own number chosen by
themselves and set in a more exalted position, just as an army elects a
general, or as deacons appoint one of themselves whom they know to be
diligent and call him archdeacon. For what function excepting ordination,
belongs to a bishop that does not also belong to a presbyter? It is not the
case that there is one church at Rome and another in all the world beside.
Gaul and Britain, Africa and Persia, India and the East worship one Christ
and observe one rule of truth. If you ask for authority, the world
outweighs its capital.[1] Wherever there is a bishop, whether it be at Rome
or at Engubium, whether it be at Constantinople or at Rhegium, whether it
be at Alexandria or at Zoan, his dignity is one and his priesthood is one.
Neither the command of wealth nor the lowliness of poverty makes him more a
bishop or less a bishop. All alike are successors of the apostles.[2]

   2. But you will say, how comes it then that at Rome a presbyter is only
ordained on the recommendation of a deacon? To which I reply as follows.
Why do you bring forward a custom which exists in one city only? Why do you
oppose to the laws of the Church a paltry exception which has given rise to
arrogance and pride? The rarer anything is the more it is sought after. In
India pennyroyal is more costly than pepper. Their fewness makes deacons
persons of consequence[3] while presbyters are less thought of owing to
their great numbers. But even in the church of Rome the deacons stand while
the presbyters seat themselves, although bad habits have by degrees so far
crept in that I have seen a deacon, in the absence of the bishop, seat
himself among the presbyters and at social gatherings give his blessing to
them? Those who act thus must learn that they are wrong and must give heed
to the apostles' words: "it is not reason that we should leave the word of
God and serve tables."[5] They must consider the reasons which led to the
appointment of deacons at the beginning. They must read the Acts of the
Apostles and bear in mind their true position.

   Of the names presbyter and bishop the first denotes age, the second
rank. In writing both to Titus and to Timothy the apostle speaks of the
ordination of bishops and of deacons, but says not a word of the ordination
of presbyters; for the fact is that the word bishops includes presbyters
also. Again when a man is promoted it is from a lower place to a higher.
Either then a presbyter should be ordained a deacon, from the lesser
office, that is, to the more important, to prove that a presbyter is
inferior to a deacon; or if on the other hand it is the deacon that is
ordained presbyter, this latter should recognize that, although he may be
less highly paid than a deacon, he is superior to him in virtue of his
priesthood. In fact as if to tell us that the traditions handed down by the
apostles were taken by them from the old testament, bishops, presbyters and
deacons occupy in the church the same positions as those which were
occupied by Aaron, his sons, and the Levites in the temple.[1]

LETTER CXLVII: TO SABINIANUS.

Jerome writes in severe but moderate language to Sabinianus, a deacon,
calling on him to repent of his sins. Of these he recounts at length the
two most serious, an act of adultery at Rome and an attempt to seduce a nun
at Bethlehem. The date of the letter is uncertain.

   1. Of old, when it had repented the Lord that he had anointed Saul to
be king over Israel,[2] we are told that Samuel mourned for him; and again,
when Paul heard that there was fornication among the Corinthians and such
fornication as was not so much as named among the gentiles,[3] he besought
them to repent with these tearful words: "lest, when I come again, my God
will humble me among you and that I shall bewail many which have sinned
already and have not repented of the uncleanness and fornication and
lasciviousness which they have committed."[4] If an apostle or a prophet,
themselves immaculate, could speak thus with a clemency embracing all, how
much more earnestly should a sinner like me plead with a sinner like you.
You have fallen and refuse to rise; you do not so much as lift your eyes to
heaven; having wasted your father's substance you take pleasure in rite
husks that the swine eat;[5] and climbing the precipice of pride you fall
headlong into the deep. You make your belly your God instead of Christ; you
are a slave to lust; your glory is in your shame;[6] you fatten yourself
like a victim for the slaughter, and imitate the lives of the wicked,
careless of their doom. "Thou knowest not that the goodness of God leadeth
thee to repentance. But after thy hardness and impenitent heart thou
treasurest up unto thyself wrath against the day of wrath."[7] Or is it
that your heart is hardened, as Pharaoh's was, because your punishment is
deferred and you are not smitten at the moment? The ten plagues were sent
upon Pharaoh not as by an angry God but as by a warning father, and his day
of grace was prolonged until he repented of his repentance. Yet doom
overtook him when he pursued through the wilderness the people whom he had
previously let go and presumed to enter the very sea in the eagerness of
his pursuit. For only in this one way could he learn the lesson that He is
to be dreaded whom even the elements obey. He had said: "I know not the
Lord, neither will I let Israel go;"[1] and you imitate him when you say:
"The vision that he seeth is for many days to come, and he prophesieth of
the times that are far off."[2] Yet the same prophet confutes you with
these words: "Thus saith the Lord God, There shall none of my words be
prolonged any more, but the word which I have spoken shall be done." David
too says of the godless (and of godlessness you have proved yourself not a
slight but an eminent example), that in this world they rejoice in good
fortune and say: "How doth God know? And is there knowledge in the Most
High? Behold these are the ungodly who prosper in the world; they increase
in riches."[3] Then almost losing his footing and staggering where he
stands he complains, saying "Verily I have cleansed my heart in vain, and
washed my hands in innocency."[4] For he had previously said: "I was
envious at the foolish, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked. For they
have no regard for death,[1] but their strength is firm. They are not in
trouble as other men are; neither are they plagued like other men.
Therefore pride compasseth them about as a chain; violence covereth them as
a garment. Their eyes stand out with fatness: they have more than heart
could wish. They are corrupt, and speak wickedly concerning oppression:
they speak loftily. They set their mouth against the heavens, and their
tongue walketh through the earth."[5]

   2. Does not this whole psalm seem to you to be written of yourself?
Certainly you are hale and strong; and like a new apostle of Antichrist,
when you are found out in one city, you pass to another.[6] You are in no
need of money, no crushing blow strikes you down, neither are you plagued
as other men who are not like you mere brute beasts. Therefore you are
lifted up into pride, and lust covers you as a garment. Out of your fat and
bloated carcass you breathe out words fraught with death. You never
consider that you must some day die, nor feel the slightest repentance when
you have satisfied your lust. You have more than heart can wish; and, not
to be alone in your wrongdoing, you invent scandals concerning those who
are God's servants. Though you know it not, it is against the most High
that you are speaking iniquity and against the heavens that you are setting
your mouth. It is no wonder that God's servants small and great are
blasphemed by you, when your fathers did not scruple to call even the
master of the house Beelzebub. "The disciple is not above his master nor
the servant above his lord."[1] If they did this with the green tree, what
will you do with me, the dry?[2] Much in the same way also the offended
believers in the book of Malachi gave expression to feelings like yours;
for they said, "It is vain to serve God: and what profit is it that we have
kept his ordinance, and that we have walked mournfully before the Lord of
Hosts? And now we call the proud happy; yea, they that work wickedness are
set up; yea, they that tempt God are even delivered." Yet the Lord
afterwards threatens them with a day of judgment; and announcing beforehand
the distinction that shall then be made between the righteous and the
unrighteous, speaks to them thus: "Return ye,[3] and discern between the
righteous and the wicked, between him that serveth God and him that serveth
him not."[4]

   3. All this may perhaps seem to you matter for jesting, seeing that you
take so much pleasure in comedies and lyrics and mimes like those of
Lentulus;[5] although so blunted is your wit that I am not disposed to
allow that you can understand even language so simple. You may treat the
words of prophets with contempt, but Amos will still make answer to you:
"Thus saith the Lord, For three transgressions and for four shall I not
turn away from him? "[6] For inasmuch as Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom, the
Ammonites and the Moabites, the Jews also and the children of Israel,
although God had often prophesied to them to turn and to repent, had
refused to hear His voice, the Lord wishing to shew that He had most just
cause for the wrath that he was going to bring upon them used the words
already quoted, "For three transgressions and for four shall I not turn
away from them?" It is wicked, God says, to harbour evil thoughts; yet I
have allowed them to do so. It is still more wicked to carry them out; yet
in My mercy and kindness I have permitted even this. But should the sinful
thought have become the sinful deed? Should men in their pride have
trampled thus on my tenderness? Nevertheless "I have no pleasure in the
death of the wicked, but that the wicked turn from his way and live; "[1]
and as it is not they that are whole who need a physician but they that are
sick,[2] even after his sin I hold out a hand to the prostrate sinner and
exhort him, polluted as he is in his own blood,[3] to wash away his stains
with tears of penitence. But if even then he shews himself unwilling to
repent, and if, after he has suffered shipwreck, he refuses to clutch the
plank which alone can save him, I am compelled at last to say: "Thus saith
the Lord, For three transgressions and for four shall I not turn away from
him?" For this "turning away" God accounts a punishment, inasmuch as the
sinner is left to his own devices. It is thus that he visits the sins of
the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation;[4] not
punishing those who sin immediately but pardoning their first offences and
only passing sentence on them for their last. For if it were otherwise and
if God were to stand forth on the moment as the avenger of iniquity, the
church would lose many of its saints; and certainly would be deprived of
the apostle Paul. The prophet Ezekiel, from whom we have quoted above,
repeating God's words spoken to himself speaks thus: "Open thy mouth and
eat what I shall give thee. And behold," he says, "an hand was sent unto
me; and, lo, a roll of a book was therein; and he spread it before me; and
it was written within and without: and there was written therein
lamentations, and a song, and woe."[5] The first of these three belongs to
you if you prove willing, as a sinner, to repent of your sins. The second
belongs to those who are holy, who are called upon to sing praises to God;
for praise does not become a sinner's mouth. And the third belongs to
persons like you who in despair have given themselves over to uncleanness,
to fornication, to the belly, and to the lowest lusts; men who suppose that
death ends all and that there is nothing beyond it; who say: "When the
overflowing scourge shall pass through it shall not come unto us."[6] The
book which the prophet eats is the whole series of the Scriptures, which in
turn bewail the penitent, celebrate the righteous, and curse the desperate.
For nothing is so displeasing to God as an impenitent heart. Impenitence is
the one sin for which there is no forgiveness. For if one who ceases to sin
is pardoned even after he has sinned, and if prayer has power to bend the
judge; it follows that every impenitent sinner must provoke his judge to
wrath. Thus despair is the one sin for which there is no remedy. By
obstinate rejection of God's grace men turn His mercy into sternness and
severity. Yet, that you may know that God does every day call sinners to
repentance, hear Isaiah's Words: "In that day," he says, "did the Lord God
of Hosts call to weeping and to mourning and to baldness and to girding
with sackcloth: and behold joy and gladness, slaying oxen, and killing
sheep, eating flesh, and drinking wine; let us eat and drink, for to-morrow
we shall die." After these words filled with the recklessness of despair
the Scripture goes on to say: "And it was revealed in my ears by the Lord
of Hosts, Surely this iniquity shall not be purged from you till ye
die."[1] Only when they become dead to sin, will their sin be forgiven
them. For, so long as they live in sin, it cannot be put away.

   4. Have mercy I beseech you upon your soul. Consider that God's
judgment will one day overtake you. Remember by what a bishop you were
ordained. The holy man was mistaken in his choice; but this he might well
be. For even God repented that he had anointed Saul to be king.[2] Even
among the twelve apostles Judas was found a traitor. And Nicolas of
Antioch--a deacon like yourself[3] --disseminated the Nicolaitan heresy and
all manner of uncleanness.[4] I do not now bring up to you the many virgins
whom you are said to have seduced, or the noble matrons who have suffered
death[5] because violated by you, or the greedy profligacy with which you
have hied through dens of sin. For grave and serious as such sins are in
themselves, they are trivial indeed when compared with those which I have
now to narrate. How great must be the sin beside which seduction and
adultery are insignificant? Miserable wretch that you are! when you enter
the cave wherein the Son of God was born, where truth sprang out of the
earth and the land did yield her increase,[6] it is to make an assignation.
Have you no fear that the babe will cry from the manger, that the newly
delivered virgin will see you, that the mother of the Lord will behold you?
The angels cry aloud, the shepherds run, the star shines down from heaven,
the wise men worship, Herod is terrified, Jerusalem is in confusion, and
meantime you creep into a virgin's cell to seduce the virgin to whom it
belongs. I am filled with consternation and a shiver runs through me, soul
and body, when I try to set before your eyes the deed that you have done.
The whole church was keeping vigil by night and proclaiming Christ as its
Lord; m one spirit though in different tongues the praises of God were
being sung. Yet you were squeezing your love-notes into the openings of
what is now the altar, as it was once the manger, of the Lord, choosing
this place in order that your unhappy victim might find and read them when
she came to kneel and worship there. Then you took your place among the
singers, and with impudent nods communicated your passion to her.

   5. Oh! crying shame! I can go no farther. For sobs anticipate my words,
and indignation and grief choke me in the act of utterance. Oh! for the sea
of Tully's eloquence! Oh! for the impetuous current of the invective of
Demosthenes! Yet in this case I am sure you would both be dumb; your
eloquence would fail you. A deed has been disclosed which no rhetoric can
explain; a crime has been discovered which no mime can represent, nor
jester play, nor comedian describe.[1]

   It is usual in the monasteries of Egypt and Syria for virgins and
widows who have vowed themselves to God and have renounced the world and
have trodden under foot its pleasures, to ask the mothers of their
communities to cut their hair; not that afterwards they go about with heads
uncovered in defiance of the apostle's command,[2] for they wear a close-
fitting cap and a veil. No one knows of this in any single case except the
shearers and the shorn, but as the practice is universal, it is almost
universally known. The custom has in fact become a second nature. It is
designed to save those who take no baths and whose heads and faces are
strangers to all unguents, from accumulated dirt and from the tiny
creatures which are sometimes generated about the roots of the hair.

   6. Let us see then, my good friend, how you acted in these
surroundings. You promised to marry your unhappy victim; and then in that
venerable cave you took from her, either as securities for her fidelity or
as a pledge of the engagement, some locks of hair, some handkerchiefs, and
a girdle, swearing at the same time that you would never love another as
you loved her. Then you ran to the place where the shepherds were watching
their flocks when they heard the angels singing over head, and there again
you plighted your troth. I say no more; I do not accuse you of kissing her
or of embracing her. Although I believe that there is nothing of which you
are not capable, still the sacred character of stable and field forbids me
to suppose you guilty except in will and determination. Unhappy man! When
you first stood beside the virgin in the cave, surely a mist must have
dimmed your eyes, your tongue must have been paralysed, your arms must have
fallen to your sides, your chest must have heaved, your gait must have
become unsteady. She had assumed the bridal-veil of Christ in the basilica
of the apostle Peter and had vowed to live henceforth in the monastery, in
the spots consecrated by the Lord's Cross, His Resurrection, and His
Ascension; and yet after all this you dared to accept that hair, which at
Christ's command she had cut off in the cave of His birth, as a token of
her readiness to sleep with you. Again you used to sit beneath her window
from the evening till the morning; and because owing to its height you
could not come to close quarters with her, you conveyed things to her and
she in her turn to you by the aid of a cord. How careful the lady superior
must have been is shewn by the fact that you never saw the virgin except in
church; and that, although both of you had the same inclination, you could
find no means of conversing with each other except at a window under cover
of night. As I was afterwards told you used to be quite sorry when the sun
rose. Your face looked bloodless, shrunken, and pale; and to remove all
suspicion, you used to be for ever reading Christ's gospel as if you were a
deacon indeed.[1] I and others used to attribute your paleness to fasting,
and to admire your bloodless lips--so unlike the brilliant colour which
they generally shewed--in the belief that they were caused by frequent
vigils. You were already preparing ladders to fetch the unhappy virgin from
her cell; you had already arranged your route, ordered vessels, settled a
day, and thought out the details of your flight, when, behold, the angel
who kept the door of Mary's chamber, who watched over the cradle of the
Lord and who bore in his arms the infant Christ, in whose presence you had
committed these great sins, himself and none other, betrayed you.

   7. Oh! my unlucky eyes! Oh! day worthy of the most solemn curse, on
which with utter consternation I read your letters, the contents of which I
am forced to remember still! What obscenities they contained! What
blandishments! What exultant triumph in the prospect of the virgin's
dishonour. A deacon should not have even known such things, much less
should he have spoken of them. Unhappy man! where can you have learned
them, you who used to boast that you had been reared in the church. It is
true, however, that in these letters you swear that you have never led a
chaste life and that you are not really a deacon. If you try to disown them
your own handwriting will convict you, and the very letters will cry out
against you. But meantime you may make what you can of your sin, for what
you have written is so foul that I cannot bring it up as evidence against
you.

   8. You threw yourself down at my knees, you prostrated yourself, you
begged me--I use your own words--to spare "your half-pint of blood." Oh!
miserable wretch! you thought nothing of God's judgment, and feared no
vengeance but mine. I forgave you, I admit; what else being a Christian
could I do? I urged you to repent, to wear sackcloth, to roll in ashes, to
seek seclusion, to live in a monastery, to implore God's mercy with
constant tears. You however showed yourself a pillar of confidence, and
excited as you were by the viper's sting you became to me a deceitful bow;
you shot at me arrows of reviling. I am become your enemy because I tell
you the truth.[1] I do not complain of your calumnies; everyone knows that
you only praise men as infamous as yourself. What I lament is that you do
not lament yourself, that you do not realize that you are dead, that, like
a gladiator ready for Libitina,[2] you deck yourself out for your own
funeral. You wear not sackcloth but linen, you load your fingers with
rings, you use toothpowder for your teeth, you arrange the stray hairs on
your brown skull to the best advantage. Your bull's neck bulges out with
fat and droops no whit because it has given way to lust. Moreover you are
redolent of perfume, you go from one bath to another, you wage war[3]
against the hair that grows in spite of you, you walk through the forum and
the streets a spruce and smooth-faced rake. Your face has become the face
of a harlot: you know not how to blush.[4] Return, unhappy man, to the
Lord, and He will return to you.[5] Repent, and He will repent of the evil
that He has purposed to bring upon you.

   9. Why is it that you disregard your own scars and try to defame
others? Why is it that when I give you the best advice you attack me like a
madman? It may be that I am as infamous as you publicly proclaim; in that
case you can at least repent as heartily as I do. It may be that I am as
great a sinner as you make me out; if so, you can at least imitate a
sinner's tears. Are my sins your virtues? Or does it alleviate your misery
that many are in the same plight as yourself? Let a few tears fall on the
silk and fine linen which make you so resplendent. Realize that you are
naked, torn, unclean, a beggar.[1] It is never too late to repent.[2] You
may have gone down from Jerusalem and may have been wounded on the way; yet
the Samaritan will set you upon his beast, and will bring you to the inn
and will take care of you.[3] Even if you are lying in your grave, the Lord
will raise you though your flesh may stink.[4] At least imitate those blind
men for whose sake the Saviour left His home and heritage and came to
Jericho. They were sitting in darkness and in the shadow of death when the
light shone upon them."[5] For when they learned that it was the Lord who
was passing by they began to cry out saying: "Thou Son of David, have mercy
on us."[6] You too will have your sight restored; if you cry to Him, and
cast away your filthy garments at His call.[7] "When thou shalt turn and
bewail thyself then shalt thou be saved, and then shalt thou know where
thou hast hitherto been."[8] Let Him but touch your scars and pass his
hands over your eyeballs; and although you may have been born blind from
the womb and although your mother may have conceived you in sin, he will
purge you with hyssop and you shall be clean, he will wash you and you
shall be whiter than snow.[9] Why is it that you are bowed together and
bent down to the ground, why is it that you are still prostrate in the
mire? She whom Satan had bound for eighteen years came to the Saviour; and
being cured by Him was made straight so that she could once more look up
towards heaven.[10] God says to you what He said to Cain: "Thou hast
sinned: hold thy peace."[11] Why do you flee from the face of God and dwell
in the land of Nod? Why do you struggle in the waves[12] when you can plant
your feet upon the rock? See to it that Phinehas does not thrust you
through with his spear while you are committing fornication with the
Midianitish woman.[13] Amnon did not spare Tamar,[14] and you her brother
and kinsman in the faith have had no mercy upon this virgin. But why is it
that when you have defiled her you change into an Absalom and desire to
kill a David who mourns over your rebellion and spiritual death? The blood
of Naboth[15] cries out against you. The vineyard also of Jezreel, that is,
of God's seed, demands due vengeance upon you, seeing that you have turned
it into a garden of pleasures and made it a seed-bed of lust. God sends you
an Elijah to tell you of torment and of death. Bow yourself down therefore
and put on sackcloth for a little while; then perhaps the Lord will say of
you what He said of Ahab: "Seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself before me?
Because he humbleth himself before me,[1] I will not bring the evil in his
days."

   10. But possibly you flatter yourself that since the bishop who has
made you a deacon is a holy man, his merits will atone for your
transgressions. I have already told you that the father is not punished for
the son nor the son for the father. "The soul that sinneth it shall
die."[2] Samuel too had sons who forsook the fear of the Lord and "turned
aside after lucre" and iniquity.[3] Eli also was a holy priest, but he had
sons of whom we read in the Hebrew that they lay with the women that
assembled at the door of the tabernacle of God, and that like you they
shamelessly claimed for themselves the right to minister in His
sanctuary.[4] Wherefore the tabernacle itself was overthrown and the holy
place made desolate by reason of the sins of those who were God's priests.
And even Eli himself offended God by shewing too great leniency to his
sons; therefore, so far from the righteousness of your bishop being able to
deliver you, it is rather to be feared that your wickedness may hurl him
from his seat and that falling on his back like Eli he may perish
irretrievably.[5] If the Levite Uzzah was smitten merely because he tried
to hold up from falling the ark which it was his special province to
carry;[6] what punishment, think you, will be inflicted upon you who have
tried to overthrow the Lord's ark when standing firm? The more estimable
the bishop is who ordained you, the more detestable are you who have
disappointed the expectations of so good a man. His long ignorance of your
misdoings is indeed easy to account for; as it generally happens that we
are the last to know the scandals which affect our homes, and are ignorant
of the sins of our children and wives even when our neighbors talk of
nothing else. At all events all Italy was aware of your evil life; and it
was everywhere a subject of lamentation that you should still stand before
the altar of Christ. For you had neither the cunning nor the forethought to
conceal your vices. So hot were you, so lecherous, and so wanton, so
entirely under the sway of this and that caprice of self-indulgence, that,
not content with satisfying your passions, you gloried in each intrigue as
a triumph and emerged from it bearing palms of victory.

   11. Once more the fire of unchastity seized you, this time among savage
swords and in the quarters of a married barbarian of great influence and
power. You were not afraid to commit adultery in a house where the injured
husband might have punished you without calling in a judge's aid. You found
yourself attracted and drawn to suburban parks and gardens; and, in the
husband's absence behaved as boldly and madly as if you supposed your
companion to be not your paramour but your wife. She was at last captured,
but you escaped through an underground passage and secretly made your way
to Rome. There you hid yourself among some Samnite robbers; and on the
first hint that the aggrieved husband was coming down from the Alps like a
new Hannibal in search of you, you did not think yourself safe till you had
taken refuge on shipboard. So hasty indeed was your flight that you chose
to face a tempest at sea rather than take the consequences of remaining on
shore. Somehow or other you reached Syria, and on arriving there professed
a wish to go on to Jerusalem and there to serve the Lord. Who could refuse
to welcome one who declared himself to be a monk; especially if he were
ignorant of your tragical career and had read the letters of commendation
which your bishop had addressed to other prelates?[1] Unhappy man! you
transformed yourself into an angel of light;[2] and while you were in
reality a minister of Satan, you pretended to be a minister of
righteousness. You were only a wolf in sheep's clothing;[3] and having
played the adulterer once towards the wife of a man, you desired now to
play the adulterer to the spouse of Christ.[4]

   12. My design in recounting these events has been to sketch for you the
picture of your evil life and to set your misdeeds plainly before your
eyes. I have wished to prevent you from making God's mercy and His abundant
tenderness an excuse for committing new sins and to save you from
crucifying to yourself the son of God afresh and putting Him to an open
shame. For you may do these things if you do not read the words which
follow the passage to which I have alluded. They are these: "The earth
which drinketh in the rain that cometh oft upon it, and bringeth forth
herbs meet for them by whom it is dressed, receiveth blessings from God:
but that which beareth thorns and briers is rejected and is nigh unto
cursing; whose end is to be burned."[1]

LETTER CXLVIII:TO THE MATRON CELANTIA.

This is an interesting letter addressed to a lady of rank, on the
principles and methods of a holy life. It is not, however, the work of
Jerome, of whose style it shews few traces. It has been ascribed in turn to
Paulinus of Nola and Sulpicius Severus.

LETTER CXLIX.: ON THE JEWISH FESTIVALS.

The theme of this letter is the abrogation of the Jewish festivals by the
evangelical law. It has no claim to be considered a work of Jerome.

LETTER CL: FROM PROCOPIUS TO JEROME.

This letter is extant also among those of Procopius of Gaza, to whose works
it properly belongs. As this Procopius flourished a century later than
Jerome, the letter cannot be addressed to him.


Taken from "The Early Church Fathers and Other Works" originally published
by Wm. B. Eerdmans Pub. Co. in English in Edinburgh, Scotland, beginning in
1867. (LNPF II/VI, Schaff and Wace). The digital version is by The
Electronic Bible Society, P.O. Box 701356, Dallas, TX 75370, 214-407-WORD.

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