THE LETTERS OF ST. JEROME
LETTER I.
TO INNOCENT.
Not only the first of the letters but probably the
earliest extant composition of Jerome (c. 370 A. D.). Innocent, to whom
it is addressed, was one of the little band of enthusiasts whom Jerome
gathered round him in Aquileia. He followed his friend to Syria, where
he died in 374 A.D. (See Letter III., 3.)
1. You have frequently asked me, dearest Innocent,
not to pass over in silence the marvellous event which has happened in
our own day. I have declined the task from modesty and, as I now feel,
with justice, believing myself to be incapable of it, at once because
bureau language is inadequate to the divine praise, and because
inactivity, acting like rust upon the intellect, has dried up any
little power of expression that I have ever had. You in reply urge that
in the things of God we must look not at the work which we are able to
accomplish, but at the spirit in which it is undertaken, and that he
can never be at a loss for words who has believed on the Word.
2. What, then, must I do? The task is beyond me, and
yet I dare not decline it. I am a mere unskilled passenger, and I find
myself placed in charge of a freighted ship. I have not so much as
handled a rowboat on a lake, and now I have to trust myself to the
noise and turmoil of the Euxine. I see the shores sinking beneath the
horizon, "sky and sea on every side";(1) darkness lowers over the
water, the clouds are black as night, the waves only are white with
foam. You urge me to hoist the swelling sails, to loosen the sheets,
and to take the helm. At last I obey your commands, and as charity can
do all things, I will trust in the Holy Ghost to guide my course, and I
shall console myself, whatever the event. For, if our ship is wafted by
the surf into the wished-for haven, I shall be content to be told that
the pilotage was poor. But, if through my unpolished diction we run
aground amid the rough cross-currents of language, you may blame my
lack of power, but you will at least recognize my good intentions.
3. To begin, then: Vercellae is a Ligurian town,
situated not far from the base of the Alps, once important, but now
sparsely peopled and fallen into decay. When the consular(1) was
holding his visitation there, a poor woman and her paramour were
brought before him--the charge of adultery had been fastened upon them
by the husband--and were both consigned to the penal horrors of a
prison. Shortly after an attempt was made to elicit the truth by
torture, and when the blood-stained hook smote the young man's livid
flesh and tore furrows in his side, the unhappy wretch sought to avoid
prolonged pain by a speedy death. Falsely accusing his own passions, he
involved another in the charge; and it appeared that he was of all men
the most miserable, and that his execution was just inasmuch as he had
left to an innocent woman no means of self-defence. But the woman,
stronger in virtue if weaker in sex, though her frame was stretched
upon the rack, and though her hands, stained with the filth of the
prison, were tied behind her, looked up to heaven with her eyes, which
alone the torturer had been unable to bind, and while the tears rolled
down her face, said: "Thou art witness, Lord Jesus, to whom nothing is
hid, who triest the reins and the heart.(2) Thou art witness that it is
not to save my life that I deny this charge. I refuse to lie because to
lie is sin. And as for you, unhappy man, if you are bent on hastening
your death, why must you destroy not one innocent person, but two? I
also, myself, desire to die. I desire to put off this hated body, but
not as an adulteress. I offer my neck; I welcome the shining sword
without fear; yet I will take my innocence with me.
2
He does not die who is slain while purposing so to live."
4. The consular, who had been feasting his eyes upon
the bloody spectacle, now, like a wild beast, which after once tasting
blood always thirsts for it, ordered the torture to be doubled, and
cruelly gnashing his teeth, threatened the executioner with like
punishment if he failed to extort from the weaker sex a confession
which a man's strength had not been able to keep back.
5. Send help, Lord Jesus. For this one creature of
Thine every species of torture is devised. She is bound by the hair to
a stake, her whole body is fixed more firmly than ever on the rack;
fire is brought and applied to her feet; her sides quiver beneath the
executioner's probe; even her breasts do not escape. Still the woman
remains unshaken; and, triumphing in spirit over the pain of the body,
enjoys the happiness of a good conscience, round which the tortures
rage in vain.(1) The cruel judge rises, overcome with passion. She
still prays to God. Her limbs are wrenched from their sockets she only
turns her eyes to heaven. Another confesses what is thought their
common guilt. She, for the confessor's sake, denies the confession,
and, in peril of her own life, clears one who is in peril of his.
6. Meantime she has but one thing to say "Beat me,
burn me, tear me, if you will; I have not done it. If you will not
believe my words, a day will come when this charge shall be carefully
sifted. I have One who will judge me." Wearied out at last, the
torturer sighed in response to her groans; nor could he find a spot on
which to inflict a fresh wound. His cruelty overcome, he shuddered to
see the body he had torn. Immediately the consular cried, in a fit of
passion, "Why does it surprise you, bystanders, that a woman prefers
torture to death? It takes two people, most assuredly, to commit
adultery; and I think it more credible that a guilty woman should deny
a sin than that an innocent young man should confess one."
7. Like sentence, accordingly, was passed on both,
and the condemned pair were dragged to execution. The entire people
poured out to see the sight; indeed, so closely were the gates thronged
by the out-rushing crowd, that you might have fancied the city itself
to be migrating. At the very first stroke of the sword the head of the
hapless youth was cut off, and the headless trunk rolled over in its
blood. Then came the woman's turn. She knelt down upon the ground, and
the shining sword was lifted over her quivering neck. But though the
headsman summoned all his strength into his bared arm, the moment it
touched her flesh the fatal blade stopped short, and, lightly glancing
over the skin, merely grazed it sufficiently to draw blood. The striker
saw, with terror, his hand unnerved, and, amazed at his defeated skill
and at his drooping sword, he whirled it aloft for another stroke.
Again the blade fell forceless on the woman, sinking harmlessly on her
neck, as though the steel feared to touch her. The enraged and panting
officer, who had thrown open his cloak at the neck to give his full
strength to the blow, shook to the ground the brooch which clasped the
edges of his mantle, and not noticing this, began to poise his sword
for a fresh stroke. "See," cried the woman, "a jewel has fallen from
your shoulder. Pick up what you have earned by hard toil, that you may
not lose it."
8. What, I ask, is the secret of such confidence as
this? Death draws near, but it has no terrors for her. When smitten she
exults, and the executioner turns pale. Her eyes see the brooch, they
fail to see the sword. And, as if intrepidity in the presence of death
were not enough, she confers a favor upon her cruel foe. And now the
mysterious Power of the Trinity rendered even a third blow vain. The
terrified soldier, no longer trusting the blade, proceeded to apply the
point to her throat, in the idea that though it might not cut, the
pressure of his hand might plunge it into her flesh. Marvel unheard of
through all the ages! The sword bent back to the hilt, and in its
defeat looked to its master, as if confessing its inability to slay.
9. Let me call to my aid the example of the three
children,(1) who, amid the cool, encircling fire, sang hymns,(2)
instead of weeping, and around whose turbans and holy hair the flames
played harmlessly. Let me recall, too, the story of the blessed
Daniel,(3) in whose presence, though he was their natural prey, the
lions crouched, with fawning tails and frightened mouths. Let Susannah
also rise in the nobility of her faith before the thoughts of all; who,
after she had been condemned by an unjust sentence, was saved through a
youth inspired by the Holy Ghost.(4) In both cases the Lord's mercy was
alike shewn; for while Susannah was set free by
3
the judge, so as not to die by the sword, this woman, though condemned
by the judge, was acquitted by the sword.
10. Now at length the populace rise in arms to
defend the woman. Men and women of every age join in driving away the
executioner, shouting round him in a surging crowd. Hardly a man dares
trust his own eyes. The disquieting news reaches the city close at
hand, and the entire force of constables is mustered. The officer who
is responsible for the execution of criminals bursts from among his
men, and
Staining his hoary hair with soiling dust, exclaims:
"What! citizens, do you mean to seek my life? Do you intend to make me
a substitute for her? However much your minds are set on mercy, and
however much you wish to save a condemned woman, yet assuredly I--I who
am innocent--ought not to perish." His tearful appeal tells upon the
crowd, they are all benumbed by the influence of sorrow, and an
extraordinary change of feeling is manifested. Before it had seemed a
duty to plead for the woman's life, now it seemed a duty to allow her
to be executed.
11. Accordingly a new sword is fetched, a new
headsman appointed. The victim takes her place, once more strengthened
only with the favor of Christ. The first blow makes her quiver, beneath
the second she sways to and fro, by the third she falls wounded to the
ground. Oh, majesty of the divine power highly to be extolled! She who
previously had received four strokes without injury, now, a few moments
later, seems to die that an innocent man may not perish in her stead.
12. Those of the clergy whose duty it is to wrap the
blood-stained corpse in a winding-sheet, dig out the earth and, heaping
together stones, form the customary tomb. The sunset comes on quickly,
and by God's mercy the night of nature arrives more swiftly than is its
wont. Suddenly the woman's bosom heaves, her eyes seek the light, her
body is quickened into new life. A moment after she sighs, she looks
round, she gets up and speaks. At last she is able to cry: "The Lord is
on my side; I will not fear. What can man do unto me?"(2)
13. Meantime an aged woman, supported out of the
funds of the church, gave back her spirit to heaven from which it
came.(3) It seemed as if the course of events had been thus purposely
ordered, for her body took the place of the other beneath the mound. In
the gray dawn the devil comes on the scene in the form of a
constable,(1) asks for the corpse of her who had been slain, and
desires to have her grave pointed out to him. Surprised that she could
have died, he fancies her to be still alive. The clergy show him the
fresh turf, and meet his demands by pointing to the earth lately heaped
up, taunting him with such words as these: "Yes, of course, tear up the
bones which have been buried! Declare war anew against the tomb, and if
even that does not satisfy you, pluck her limb from limb for birds and
beasts to mangle! Mere dying is too good for one whom it took seven
strokes to kill."
14. Before such opprobrious words the executioner
retires in confusion, while the woman is secretly revived at home.
Then, lest the frequency of the doctor's visits to the church might
give occasion for suspicion, they cut her hair short and send her in
the company of some virgins to a sequestered country house. There she
changes her dress for that of a man, and scars form over her wounds.
Yet even after the great miracles worked on her behalf, the laws still
rage against her. So true is it that, where there is most law, there,
there is also most injustice.(2)
15. But now see whither the progress of my story has
brought me; we come upon the name of our friend Evagrius.(3) So great
have his exertions been in the cause of Christ that, were I to suppose
it possible adequately to describe them, I should only show my own
folly; and were I minded deliberately to pass them by, I still could
not prevent my voice from breaking out into cries of joy. Who can
fittingly praise the vigilance which enabled him to bury, if I may so
say, before his death Auxentius(4) of Milan, that curse brooding over
the church? Or who can sufficiently extol the discretion with which he
rescued the Roman bishop(5) from the toils of the net in which he was
fairly entangled, and showed him the means at once of overcoming his
opponents and of sparing them in their discomfiture? But
Such topics I must leave to other bards,
Shut out by envious straits of time and space.(6)
I am satisfied now to record the conclusion of
4
my tale. Evagrius seeks a special audience of the Emperor;(1)
importunes him with his entreaties, wins his favor by his services, and
finally gains his cause through his earnestness. The Emperor restored
to liberty the woman whom God had restored to life.
LETTER II.
TO THEODOSIUS AND THE REST OF THE
ANCHORITES.
Written from Antioch, 374 A.D., while Jerome was
still in doubt as to his future course. Theodosius appears to have been
the head of the solitaries in the Syrian Desert.
How I long to be a member of your company, and with
uplifting of all my powers to embrace your admirable community! Though,
indeed, these poor eyes are not worthy to look upon it. Oh! that I
could behold the desert, lovelier to me than any city! Oh! that I could
see those lonely spots made into a paradise by the saints that throng
them! But since my sins prevent me from thrusting into your blessed
company a head laden with every transgression, I adjure you (and I know
that you can do it) by your prayers to deliver me from the darkness of
this world. I spoke of this when I was with you, and now in writing to
you I repeat anew the same request; for all the energy of my mind is
devoted to this one object. It rests with you to give effect to my
resolve. I have the will but not the power; this last can only come in
answer to your prayers. For my part, I am like a sick sheep astray from
the flock. Unless the good Shepherd shall place me on his shoulders and
carry me back to the fold,(2) my steps will totter, and in the very
effort of rising I shall find my feet give way. I am the prodigal
son(3) who although I have squandered all the portion entrusted to me
by my father, have not yet bowed the knee in submission to him; not yet
have I commenced to put away from me the allurements of my former
excesses. And because it is only a little while since I have begun not
so much to abandon my vices as to desire to abandon them, the devil now
ensnares me in new toils, he puts new stumbling-blocks in my path, be
encompasses me on every side.
The seas around, and all around the main.(4)
I find myself in mid-ocean, unwilling to retreat and
unable to advance. It only remains that your prayers should win for me
the gale of the Holy Spirit to waft me to the haven upon the desired
shore.
LETTER III.
TO RUFINUS THE MONK.(1)
Written from Antioch, 374 A.D., to Rufinus in Egypt.
Jerome narrates his travels and the events which have taken place since
his arrival in Syria, particularly the deaths of Innocent and Hylas (
3). He also describes the life of Bonosus, who was now a hermit on an
island in the Adriatic ( 4). The main object of the letter is to induce
Rufinus to come to Syria.
1. That God gives more than we ask Him for,(2) and
that He often grants us things which "eye hath not seen nor ear heard,
neither have they entered into the heart of man,"(3) I knew indeed
before from the mystic declaration of the sacred volumes; but now,
dearest Rufinus, I have had proof of it in my own case. For I who
fancied it too bold a wish to be allowed by an exchange of letters to
counterfeit to myself your presence in the flesh, hear that you are
penetrating the remotest parts of Egypt, visiting the monks and going
round God's family upon earth. Oh, if only the Lord Jesus Christ would
suddenly transport me to you as Philip was transported to the
eunuch,(4) and Habakkuk to Daniel,(5) with what a close embrace would I
clasp your neck, how fondly would I press kisses upon that mouth which
has so often joined with me of old in error or in wisdom. But as I am
unworthy (not that you should so come to me but) that I should so come
to you, and because my poor body, weak even when well, has been
shattered by frequent illnesses; I send this letter to meet you instead
of coming myself, in the hope that it may bring you hither to me caught
in the meshes of love's net.
2. My first joy at such unexpected good tidings was
due to our brother, Heliodorus. I desired to be sure of it, but did not
dare to feel sure, especially as he told me that he had only heard it
from some one else, and as the strangeness of the news impaired the
credit of the story. Once more my wishes hovered in uncertainty and my
mind wavered, till an Alexandrian monk who had some time previously
been sent over by the dutiful zeal of the people to the Egyptian
confessors (in will already martyrs(6)), impelled me by his presence to
believe the tidings. Even then, I must admit I still hesitated. For on
5
the one hand he knew nothing either of your name or country: yet on the
other what he said seemed likely to be true, agreeing as it did with
the hint which had already reached me. At last the truth broke upon me
in all its fulness, for a constant stream of persons passing through
brought the report: "Rufinus is at Nitria, and has reached the abode of
the blessed Macarius."(1) At this point I cast away all that restrained
my belief, and then first really grieved to find myself ill. Had it not
been that my wasted and enfeebled frame lettered my movements, neither
the summer heat nor the dangerous voyage should have had power to
retard the rapid steps of affection. Believe me, brother, I look
forward to seeing you more than the storm-tossed mariner looks for his
haven, more than the thirsty fields long for the showers, more than the
anxious mother sitting on the curving shore expects her son.
3. After that sudden whirlwind(2) dragged me from
your side, severing with its impious wrench the bonds of affection in
which we were knit together,
The dark blue raincloud lowered o'er my head:
On all sides were the seas, on all the sky.(3)
I wandered about, uncertain where to go. Thrace,
Pontus, Bithynia, the whole of Galatia and Cappadocia, Cilicia also
with its burning heat, one after another shattered my energies. At last
Syria presented itself to me as a most secure harbor to a shipwrecked
man. Here, after undergoing every possible kind of sickness, I lost one
of my two eyes; for Innocent,(4) the half of my soul, (5) was taken
away from me by a sudden attack of fever. The one eye which I now
enjoy, and which is all in all to me, is our Evagrius,(6) upon whom I
with my constant infirmities have come as an additional burden. We had
with us also Hylas,(7) the servant of the holy Melanium,(8) who by his
stainless conduct had wiped out the taint of his previous servitude.
His death opened afresh the wound which had not yet healed. But as the
apostle's words forbid us to mourn for those who sleep,(9) and as my
excess of grief has been tempered by the joyful news that has since
come to me, I recount this last, that, if you have not heard it, you
may learn it; and that, if you know it already, you may rejoice over it
with me.
4. Bonosus,(1) your friend, or, to speak more truly,
mine as well as yours, is now climbing the ladder foreshown in Jacob's
dream.(2) He is bearing his cross, neither taking thought for the
morrow(3) nor looking back at what he has left.(4) He is sowing in
tears that he may reap in joy.(5) As Moses in a type so he in reality
is lifting up the serpent in the wilderness.(6) This is a true story,
and it may well put to shame the lying marvels described by Greek and
Roman pens. For here you have a youth educated with us in the refining
accomplishments of the world, with abundance of wealth, and in rank
inferior to none of his associates; yet he forsakes his mother, his
sisters, and his dearly loved brother, and settles like a new tiller of
Eden on a dangerous island, with the sea roaring round its reefs; while
its rough crags, bare rocks, and desolate aspect make it more terrible
still. No peasant or monk is to be found there. Even the little
Onesimus(7) you know of, in whose kisses he used to rejoice as in those
of a brother, in this tremendous solitude no longer remains at his
side. Alone upon the island--or rather not alone, for Christ is with
him--he sees the glory of God, which even the apostles saw not save in
the desert. He beholds, it is true, no embattled towns, but he has
enrolled his name in the new city.(8) Garments of sackcloth disfigure
his limbs, yet so clad he will be the sooner caught up to meet Christ
in the clouds.(9) No watercourse pleasant to the view supplies his
wants, but from the Lord's side he drinks the water of life.(10) Place
all this before your eyes, dear friend, and with all the faculties of
your mind picture to yourself the scene. When you realize the effort of
the fighter then you will be able to praise his victory. Round the
entire island roars the frenzied sea, while the beetling crags along
its winding shores resound as the billows beat against them. No grass
makes the ground green; there are no shady copses and no fertile
fields. Precipitous cliffs surround his dreadful abode as if it were a
prison. But he, careless, fearless, and armed from head to foot with
the apostle's armor,(11) now listens to God by reading the
6
Scriptures, now speaks to God as he prays to the Lord; and it may be
that, while he lingers in the island, he sees some vision such as that
once seen by John.(1)
5. What snares, think you, is the devil now weaving?
What stratagems is he preparing? Perchance, mindful of his old
trick,(2) he will try to tempt Bonosus with hunger. But he has been
answered already: "Man shall not live by bread alone."(3) Perchance he
will lay before him wealth and fame. But it shall be said to him: "They
that desire to be rich fall into a trap(4) and temptations,"(5) and
"For me all glorying is in Christ."(6) He will come, it may be, when
the limbs are weary with fasting, and rack them with the pangs of
disease; but the cry of the apostle will repel him: "When I am weak,
then am I strong," and "My strength is made perfect in weakness."(7) He
will hold out threats of death; but the reply will be: "I desire to
depart and to be with Christ."(8) He will brandish his fiery darts, but
they will be received on the shield of faith.(9) In a word, Satan will
assail him, but Christ will defend. Thanks be to Thee, Lord Jesus, that
in Thy day I have one able to pray to Thee for me. To Thee all hearts
are open, Thou searchest the secrets of the heart,(10) Thou seest the
prophet shut up in the fish's belly in the midst of the sea.(11) Thou
knowest then how he and I grew up together from tender infancy to
vigorous manhood, how we were fostered in the bosoms of the same
nurses, and carried in the arms of the same bearers; and how after
studying together at Rome we lodged in the same house and shared the
same food by the half savage banks of the Rhine. Thou knowest, too,
that it was I who first began to seek to serve Thee. Remember, I
beseech Thee, that this warrior of Thine was once a raw recruit with
me. I have before me the declaration of Thy majesty: "Whosoever shall
teach and not do shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven."(12)
May he enjoy the crown of virtue, and in return for his daily
martyrdoms may he follow the Lamb robed in white raiment!(13) For" in
my Father's house are many mansions,"(14) and "one star differeth from
another star in glory."(15) Give me strength to raise my head to a
level with the saints' heels!(16) I willed, but he performed. Do Thou
therefore pardon me that I failed to keep my resolve, and reward him
with the guerdon of his deserts.
I may perhaps have been tedious, and have said more
than the short compass of a letter usually allows; but this, I find, is
always the case with me when I have to say anything in praise of our
dear Bonosus.
6. However, to return to the point from which I set
out, I beseech you do not let me pass wholly out of sight and out of
mind. A friend is long sought, hardly found, and with difficulty kept.
Let those who will, allow gold to dazzle them and be borne along in
splendor, their very baggage glittering with gold and silver. Love is
not to be purchased, and affection has no price. The friendship which
can cease has never been real. Farewell in Christ.
LETTER IV.
TO FLORENTIUS.
Sent to Florentius along with the preceding letter,
which jerome requests him to deliver to Rufinus. This Florentius was a
rich Italian who had retired to Jerusalem to pursue the monastic life.
Jerome subsequently speaks of him as "a distinguished monk so pitiful
to the needy that he was generally known as the father of the poor."
(Chron. ad A.D. 381.)
1. How much your name and sanctity are on the lips
of the most different peoples you may gather from the fact that I
commence to love you before I know you. For as, according to the
apostle, "Some men's sins are evident going before unto judgment,"(1)
so contrariwise the report of your charity is so widespread that it is
considered not so much praiseworthy to love you as criminal to refuse
to do so. I pass over the countless instances in which you have
supported Christ,(2) fed, clothed, and visited Him. The aid you
rendered to our brother Heliodorus(3) in his need may well loose the
utterance of the dumb. With what gratitude, with what commendation,
does he speak of the kindness with which you smoothed a pilgrim's path.
I am, it is true, the most sluggish of men, consumed by an unendurable
sickness; yet keen affection and desire have winged my feet, and I have
come forward to salute and embrace you. I wish you every good thing,
and pray that the Lord may establish our nascent friendship.
2. Our brother, Rufinus, is said to have come from
Egypt to Jerusalem with the de-
7
vout lady, Melanium. He is inseparably bound to me in brotherly love;
and I beg you to oblige me by delivering to him the annexed letter. You
must not, however, judge of me by the virtues that you find in him. For
in him you will see the clearest tokens of holiness, whilst I am but
dust and vile dirt, and even now, while still living, nothing but
ashes. It is enough for me if my weak eyes can bear the brightness of
his excellence. He has but now washed himself(1) and is clean, yea, is
made white as snow;(2) whilst I, stained with every sin, wait day and
night with trembling to pay the uttermost farthing.(3) But since "the
Lord looseth the prisoners,"(4) and resteth upon him who is of a
contrite spirit, and that trembleth at His words,(5) perchance he may
say even to me who lie in the grave of sin: "Jerome, come forth."(6)
The reverend presbyter, Evagrius, warmly salutes
you. We both with united respect salute the brother, Martinianus.(7) I
desire much to see him, but I am impeded by the chain of sickness.
Farewell in Christ.
LETTER V.
TO FLORENTIUS.
Written a few months after the preceding (about the
end of 374 A.D.) from the Syrian Desert. After dilating on his
friendship for Florentius, and making a passing allusion to Rufinus,
Jerome mentions certain books copies of which he desires to be sent to
him. He also speaks of a runaway slave about whom Florentius had
written to him.
1. Your letter, dear friend, finds me dwelling in
that quarter of the desert which is nearest to Syria and the Saracens.
And the reading of it rekindles in my mind so keen a desire to set out
for Jerusalem that I am almost ready to violate my monastic vow in
order to gratify my affection. Wishing to do the best I can, as I
cannot come in person I send you a letter instead; and thus, though
absent in the body, I come to you in love and in spirit.(8) For my
earnest prayer is that our infant friendship, firmly cemented as it is
in Christ, may never be rent asunder by time or distance. We ought
rather to strengthen the bond by an interchange of letters. Let these
pass between us, meet each other on the way, and converse with us.
Affection will not lose much if it keeps up an intercourse of this kind.
2. You write that our brother, Rufinus, has not yet
come to you. Even if he does come it will do little to satisfy my
longing, for I shall not now be able to see him. He is too far away to
come hither, and the conditions of the lonely life that I have adopted
forbid me to go to him. For I am no longer free to follow my own
wishes. I entreat you, therefore, to ask him to allow you to have the
commentaries of the reverend Rhetitius,(1) bishop of Augustodunum,(2)
copied, in which he has so eloquently explained the Song of Songs. A
countryman of the aforesaid brother Rufinus, the old man Paul,(3)
writes that Rufinus has his copy of Tertullian, and urgently requests
that this may be returned. Next I have to ask you to get written on
paper by a copyist certain books which the subjoined list(4) will show
you that I do not possess. I beg also that you will send me the
explanation of the Psalms of David, and the copious work on Synods of
the reverend Hilary,(5) which I copied for him(6) at Treves with my own
hand. Such books, you know, must be the food of the Christian soul if
it is to meditate in the law of the Lord day and night.(7)
Others you welcome beneath your roof, you cherish
and comfort, you help out of your own purse; but so far as I am
concerned, you have given me everything when once you have granted my
request. And since, through the Lord's bounty, I am rich in volumes of
the sacred library,(8) you may command me in turn. I will send you what
you please; and do not suppose that an order from you will give me
trouble. I have pupils devoted to the art of copying. Nor do I merely
promise a favor because I am asking one. Our brother, Heliodorus,(9)
tells me that there are many parts of the Scriptures which you seek and
cannot find. But even if you have them all, affection is sure to assert
its rights and to seek for itself more than it already has.
3. As regards the present master of your slave--of
whom you have done me the honor to write--I have no doubt but that he
is his kidnapper. While I was still at Antioch the presbyter, Evagrius,
often reproved him in my presence. To whom he made this answer: "I have
nothing to fear." He declares that his master has dismissed him. If you
both want him, he is here; send
8
him whither you will. I think I am not wrong in refusing to allow a
runaway to stray farther. Here in the wilderness I cannot myself
execute your orders; and therefore I have asked my dear friend Evagrius
to push the affair vigorously, both for your sake and for mine. I
desire your welfare in Christ.
LETTER VI.
TO JULIAN, A DEACON OF ANTIOCH.
This letter, written in 374 A.D., is chiefly
interesting for its mention of Jerome's sister. It would seem that she
had fallen into sin and had been restored to a life of virtue by the
deacon, Julian. Jerome speaks of her again in the next letter ( 4).
It is an old saying, "Liars are disbelieved even
when they speak the truth."(1) And from the way in which you reproach
me for not having written, I perceive that this has been my lot with
you. Shall I say, "I wrote often, but the bearers of my letters were
negligent"? You will reply, "Your excuse is the old one of all who fail
to write." Shall I say, "I could not find any one to take my letters"?
You will say that numbers of persons have gone from my part of the
world to yours. Shall I contend that I have actually given them
letters? They not having delivered them, will deny that they have
received them. Moreover, so great a distance separates us that it will
be hard to come at the truth. What shall I do then? Though really not
to blame, I ask your forgiveness, for I think it better to fall back
and make overtures for peace than to keep my ground and offer battle.
The truth is that constant sickness of body and vexation of mind have
so weakened me that with death so close at hand I have not been as
collected as usual. And lest you should account this plea a false one,
now that I have stated my case, I shall, like a pleader, call witnesses
to prove it. Our reverend brother, Heliodorus, has been here; but in
spite of his wish to dwell in the desert with me, he has been
frightened away by my crimes. But my present wordiness will atone for
my past remissness; for, as Horace says in his satire:(2)
All singers have one fault among their friends:
They never sing when asked, unasked they never cease.
Henceforth I shall overwhelm you with
such bundles of letters that you will take the opposite line and beg me
not to write·
I rejoice that my sister(1)--to you a daughter in
Christ--remains steadfast in her purpose, a piece of news which I owe
in the first instance to you. For here where I now am I am ignorant not
only as to what goes on in my native land, but even as to its continued
existence. Even though the Iberian viper(2) shall rend me with his
baneful fangs, I will not fear men's judgment, seeing that I shall have
God to judge me. As one puts it:
Shatter the world to fragments if you will:
'Twill fall upon a head which knows not fear.(3)
Bear in mind, then, I pray you, the apostle's
precept(4) that we should make our work abiding; prepare for yourself a
reward from the Lord in my sister's salvation; and by frequent letters
increase my joy in that glory in Christ which we share together.
LETTER VII.
TO CHROMATIUS, JOVINUS, AND EUSEBIUS.(6)
This letter (written like the preceding in 374 A.D.)
is addressed by Jerome to three of his former companions in the
religious life. It commends Bonosus ( 3), asks guidance for the
writer's sister (on 4), and attacks the conduct of Lupicinus, Bishop of
Stridon ( 5).
1. Those whom mutual affection has joined together,
a written page ought not to sunder. I must not, therefore, distribute
my words some to one and some to another. For so strong is the love
that binds you together that affection unites all three of you in a
bond no less close than that which naturally connects two of your
number.(6) Indeed, if the conditions of writing would only admit of it,
I should amalgamate your names and express them under a single symbol.
The very letter which I have received from you challenges me in each of
you to see all three, and in all three to recognize each. When the
reverend Evagrius transmitted it to me in the corner of the desert
which stretches between the Syrians and the Saracens, my joy was
intense. It wholly surpassed the rejoicings felt at Rome when the
defeat of Cannae was retrieved, and Marcellus at Nola cut to pieces the
forces of Hannibal. Evagrius frequently comes to see me, and cherishes
me in Christ as his own bowels.(7) Yet as he is separated from me by a
long distance, his departure has gener-
9
ally left me as much regret as his arrival has brought me joy.
2. I converse with your letter, I embrace it, it
talks to me; it alone of those here speaks Latin. For hereabout you
must either learn a barbarous jargon or else hold your tongue. As often
as the lines--traced in a well-known hand--bring back to me the faces
which I hold so dear, either I am no longer here, or else you are here
with me. If you will credit the sincerity of affection, I seem to see
you all as I write this.
Now at the outset I should like to ask you one
petulant question. Why is it that, when we are separated by so great an
interval of land and sea, you have sent me so short a letter? Is it
that I have deserved no better treatment, not having first written to
you? I cannot believe that paper can have failed you while Egypt
continues to supply its wares. Even if a Ptolemy had closed the seas,
King Attalus would still have sent you parchments from Pergamum, and so
by his skins you could have made up for the want of paper. The very
name parchment is derived from a historical incident of the kind
which occurred generations ago.(1) What then? Am I to suppose the
messenger to have been in haste? No matter how long a
letter may be, it can be written in the course of a night. Or had you
some business to attend to which prevented you from writing? No claim
is prior to that of affection. Two suppositions remain,
either that you felt disinclined to write or else that I did not
deserve a letter. Of the two I prefer to charge you with sloth than to
condemn myself as undeserving. For it is easier to mend neglect than to
quicken love.
3. You tell me that Bonosus, like a true son of the
Fish, has taken to the water.(2) As for me who am still foul with my
old stains, like the basilisk and the scorpion I haunt the dry
places.(3) Bonosus has his heel already on the serpent's head, whilst I
am still as food to the same serpent which by divine appointment
devours the earth.(4) He can scale already that ladder of which the
psalms of degrees(5) are a type; whilst I, still weeping on its first
step, hardly know whether I shall ever be able to say: "I will lift up
mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help."(1) Amid the
threatening billows of the world he is sitting in the safe shelter of
his island,(2) that is, of the church's pale, and it may be that even
now, like John, he is being called to eat God's book;(3) whilst I,
still lying in the sepulchre of my sins and bound with the chains of my
iniquities, wait for the Lord's command in the Gospel: "Jerome, come
forth."(4) But Bonosus has done more than this. Like the prophet(5) he
has carried his girdle across the Euphrates (for all the devil's
strength is in the loins(6)), and has hidden it there in a hole of the
rock. Then, afterwards finding it rent, he has sung: "O Lord, thou hast
possessed my reins.(7) Thou hast broken my bonds in sunder. I will
offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving."(8) But as for me,
Nebuchadnezzar has brought me in chains to Babylon, to the babel that
is of a distracted mind. There he has laid upon me the yoke of
captivity; there inserting in my nostrils a ring of iron,(9) he has
commanded me to sing one of the songs of Zion. To whom I have said,
"The Lord looseth the prisoners; the Lord openeth the eyes of the
blind."(10) To complete my contrast in a single sentence, whilst I pray
for mercy Bonosus looks for a crown.
4. My sister's conversion is the fruit of the
efforts of the saintly Julian. He has planted, it is for you to water,
and the Lord will give the increase.(11) Jesus Christ has given her to
me to console me for the wound which the devil has inflicted on her. He
has restored her from death to life. But in the words of the pagan
poet, for her
There is no safety that I do not fear.(12)
You know yourselves how slippery is the path of
youth--a path on which I have myself fallen,(13) and which you are now
traversing not without fear. She, as she enters upon it, must have the
advice and the encouragement of all, she must be aided by frequent
letters from you, my reverend brothers. And--for "charity endureth all
things,"(14)--I beg you to get from Pope(15) Valerian(16) a letter to
confirm her resolution. A girl's courage, as you know, is strength-
10
ened when she realizes that persons in high place are interested in her.
5. The fact is that my native land is a prey to
barbarism, that in it men's only God is their belly,(1) that they live
only for the present, and that the richer a man is the holier he is
held to be. Moreover, to use a well-worn proverb, the dish has a cover
worthy of it; for Lupicinus is their priest.(2) Like lips like lettuce,
as the saying goes--the only one, as Lucilius tells us,(3) at which
Crassus ever laughed--the reference being to a donkey eating thistles.
What I mean is that an unstable pilot steers a leaking ship, and that
the blind is leading the blind straight to the pit. The ruler is like
the ruled.
6. I salute your mother and mine with the respect
which, as you know, I feel towards her. Associated with you as she is
in a holy life, she has the start of you, her holy children, in that
she is your mother. Her womb may thus be truly called golden. With her
I salute your sisters, who ought all to be welcomed wherever they go,
for they have triumphed over their sex and the world, and await the
Bridegroom's coming,(4) their lamps replenished with oil. O happy the
house which is a home of a widowed Anna, of virgins that are
prophetesses, and of twin Samuels bred in the Temple!(6) Fortunate the
roof which shelters the martyr-mother of the Maccabees, with her sons
around her, each and all wearing the martyr's crown!(5) For although
you confess Christ every day by keeping His commandments, yet to this
private glory you have added the public one of an open confession; for
it was through you that the poison of the Arian heresy was formerly
banished from your city.
You are surprised perhaps at my thus making a fresh
beginning quite at the close of my letter. But what am I to do? I
cannot refuse expression to my feelings. The brief limits of a letter
compel me to be silent; my affection for you urges me to speak. I write
in haste, my language is confused and ill-arranged; but love knows
nothing of order.
LETTER VIII.
TO NICEAS, SUB-DEACON OF AQUILEIA.
Niceas, the sub-deacon, had accompanied Jerome to
the East but had now returned home. In after-years he became bishop of
Aquileia in succession to Chromatius. The date of the letter is 374 A.D.
The comic poet Turpilius(1) says of the exchange of
letters that it alone makes the absent present. The remark, though
occurring in a work of fiction, is not untrue. For what more real
presence--if I may so speak--can there be between absent friends than
speaking to those whom they love in letters, and in letters hearing
their reply? Even those Italian savages, the Cascans of Ennius, who--as
Cicero tells us in his books on rhetoric--hunted their food like beasts
of prey, were wont, before paper and parchment came into use, to
exchange letters written on tablets of wood roughly planed, or on
strips of bark torn from the trees. For this reason men called
letter-carriers tablet-bearers,(2) and letter-writers bark-users,(3)
because they used the bark of trees. How much more then are we, who
live in a civilized age, bound not to omit a social duty performed by
men who lived in a state of gross savagery, and were in some respects
entirely ignorant of the refinements of life. The saintly Chromatius,
look you, and the reverend Eusebius, brothers as much by compatibility
of disposition as by the ties of nature, have challenged me to
diligence by the letters which they have showered upon me. You,
however, who have but just left me, have not merely unknit our new-made
friendship; you have torn it asunder--a process which Laelius, in
Cicero's treatise,(4) wisely forbids. Can it be that the East is so
hateful to you that you dread the thought of even your letters coming
hither? Wake up, wake up, arouse yourself from sleep, give to affection
at least one sheet of paper. Amid the pleasures of life at home
sometimes heave a sigh over the journeys which we have made together.
If you love me, write in answer to my prayer. If you are angry with me,
though angry still write. I find my longing soul much comforted when I
receive a letter from a friend, even though that friend be out of
temper with me.
LETTER IX.
TO CHRYSOGONUS, A MONK OF AQUILEIA.
A bantering letter to an indifferent correspondent.
Of the same date as the preceding.
Heliodorus,(5) who is so dear to us both, and who
loves you with an affection no less
11
deep than my own, may have given you a faithful account of my feelings
towards you; how your name is always on my lips, and how in every
conversation which I have with him I begin by recalling my pleasant
intercourse with you, and go on to marvel at your lowliness, to extol
your virtue, and to proclaim your holy love.
Lynxes, they say, when they look behind them, forget
what they have just seen, and lose all thought of what their eyes have
ceased to behold. And so it seems to be with you. For so entirely have
you forgotten our joint attachment that you have not merely blurred but
erased the writing of that epistle which, as the apostle tells us,(1)
is written in the hearts of Christians. The creatures that I have
mentioned lurk on branches of leafy trees and pounce on fleet roes or
frightened stags. In vain their victims fly, for they carry their
tormentors with them, and these rend their flesh as they run. Lynxes,
however, only hunt when an empty belly makes their mouths dry. When
they have satisfied their thirst for blood, and have filled their
stomachs with food, satiety induces forgetfulness, and they bestow no
thought on future prey till hunger recalls them to a sense of their
need.
Now in your case it cannot be that you have already
had enough of me. Why then do you bring to a premature close a
friendship which is but just begun? Why do you let slip what you have
hardly as yet fully grasped? But as such remissness as yours is never
at a loss for an excuse, you will perhaps declare that you had nothing
to write. Had this been so, you should still have written to inform me
of the fact.
LETTER X.
TO PAUL, AN OLD MAN OF CONCORDIA.
Jerome writes to Paul of Concordia, a centenarian ( 2),
and the owner of a good theological library (3), to lend him some
commentaries. In return he sends him his life (newly written) of Paul
the hermit.(2) The date of the letter is 374 A. D.
1. The shortness of man's life is the punishment for
man's sin; and the fact that even on the very threshold of the light
death constantly overtakes the new-born child proves that the times are
continually sinking into deeper depravity. For when the first tiller of
paradise had been entangled by the serpent in his snaky coils, and had
been forced in consequence to migrate earthwards, although his
deathless state was changed for a mortal one, yet the sentence(1) of
man's curse was put off for nine hundred years, or even more, a period
so long that it may be called a second immortality.
Afterwards sin gradually grew more and more virulent, till the
ungodliness of the giants(2) brought in its train the shipwreck of the
whole world. Then when the world had been cleansed by
the baptism--if I may so call it--of the deluge, human life
was contracted to a short span. Yet even this we have
almost altogether wasted, so continually do our iniquities
fight against the divine purposes. For how few there are, either who go
beyond their hundredth year, or who, going beyond it, do not regret
that they have done so; according to that which the Scripture witnesses
in the book of Psalms: "the days of our years are threescore years and
ten; and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years, yetis their
strength labor and sorrow."(3)
2. Why, say you, these opening reflections so remote
and so far fetched that one might use against them the Horatian
witticism: Back to the eggs which Leda laid for Zeus, The bard is fain
to trace the war of Troy?(4)
Simply that I may describe in fitting terms your
great age and hoary head as white as Christ's.(5) For see, the
hundredth circling year is already passing over you, and yet, always
keeping the commandments of the Lord, amid the circumstances of your
present life you think over the blessedness of that which is to come.
Your eyes are bright and keen, your steps steady, your hearing good,
your teeth are white, your voice musical, your flesh firm and full of
sap; your ruddy cheeks belie your white hairs, your strength is not
that of your age. Advancing years have not, as we too often see them
do, impaired the tenacity of your memory; the coldness of your blood
has not blunted an intellect at once warm and wary.(6) Your face is not
wrinkled nor your brow furrowed. Lastly, no tremors palsy your hand or
cause it to travel in crooked pathways over the wax on which you write.
The Lord shows us in you the bloom of the resurrection that is to he
ours; so that whereas in others who die by inches whilst yet living, we
recognize the results of sin, in your case we ascribe it
12
to righteousness that you still simulate youth at an age to which it is
foreign. And although we see the like haleness of body in many even of
those who are sinners, in their case it is a grant of the devil to lead
them into sin, whilst in yours it is a gift of God to make you rejoice.
3. Tully in his brilliant speech on behalf of
Flaccus(1) describes the learning of the Greeks as "innate frivolity
and accomplished vanity."
Certainly their ablest literary men used to receive
money for pronouncing eulogies upon their kings or princes. Following
their example, I set a price upon my praise. Nor must you suppose my
demand a small one. You are asked to give me the pearl of the
Gospel,(2) "the words of the Lord," "pure words, even as the silver
which from the earth is tried, and purified seven times in the
fire,"(3) I mean the commentaries of Fortunatian(4) and--for its
account of the persecutors--the History of Aurelius Victor,(5) and with
these the Letters of Novatian;(6) so that, learning the poison set
forth by this schismatic, we may the more gladly drink of the antidote
supplied by the holy martyr Cyprian. In the mean time I have sent to
you, that is to say, to Paul the aged, a Paul that is older still.(7) I
have taken great pains to bring my language down to the level of the
simpler sort. But, somehow or other, though you fill it with water, the
jar retains the odor which it acquired when first used.(8) If my little
gift should please you, I have others also in store which (if the Holy
Spirit shall breathe favorably), shall sail across the sea to you with
all kinds of eastern merchandise.
LETTER XI.
TO THE VIRGINS OF AEMONA.
AEmona was a Roman colony not far from Stridon,
Jerome's birthplace. The virgins to whom the note is addressed had
omitted to answer his letters, and he now writes to upbraid them for
their remissness. The date of the letter is 374 A. D.
This scanty sheet of paper shows in what a
wilderness I live, and because of it I have to say much in few words.
For, desirous though I am to speak to you more fully, this miserable
scrap compels me to leave much unsaid. Still ingenuity make up for lack
of means, and by writing small I can say a great deal. Observe, I
beseech you, how I love you, even in the midst of my difficulties,
since even the want of materials does not stop me from writing to you.
Pardon, I beseech you, an aggrieved man: if I speak
in tears and in anger it is because I have been injured. For in return
for my regular letters you have not sent me a single syllable. Light, I
know, has no communion with darkness,(1) and God's handmaidens no
fellowship with a sinner, yet a harlot was allowed to wash the Lord's
feet with her tears,(2) and dogs are permitted to eat of their masters'
crumbs.(3) It was the Saviour's mission to call sinners and not the
righteous; for, as He said Himself, "they that be whole need not a
physician.(4) He wills the repentance of a sinner rather than his
death,(6) and carries home the poor stray sheep on His own
shoulders.(6) So, too, when the prodigal son returns, his father
receives him with joy.(7) Nay more, the apostle says: "Judge nothing
before the time."(8) For "who art thou that judgest another man's
servant? To his own master he standeth or falleth."(9) And "let him
that standeth take heed lest he fall."(10) "Bear ye one another's
burdens."(11)
Dear sisters, man's envy judges in one way, Christ
in another; and the whisper of a corner is not the same as the sentence
of His tribunal. Many ways seem right to men which are afterwards found
to be wrong.(12) And a treasure is often stowed in earthen vessels.(13)
Peter thrice denied his Lord, yet his bitter tears restored him to his
place. "To whom much is forgiven, the same loveth much."(14) No word is
said of the flock as a whole, yet the angels joy in heaven over the
safety of one sick ewe.(15) And if any one demurs to this reasoning,
the Lord Himself has said: "Friend, is thine eye evil because I am
good?"(16)
LETTER XII.
TO ANTONY, MONK.
The subject of this letter is similar to that of the
preceding. Of Antony nothing is known except that some MSS. describe
him as "of AEmona." The date of the letter is 374 A.D.
While the disciples were disputing concerning
precedence our Lord, the teacher of
13
humility, took a little child and said: "Except ye be converted and
become as little children ye cannot enter the kingdom of heaven."(1)
And lest He should seem to preach more than he practised, He fulfilled
His own precept in His life. For He washed His disciples' feet,(2) he
received the traitor with a kiss,(3) He conversed with the woman of
Samaria,(4) He spoke of the kingdom of heaven with Mary at His feet,(5)
and when He rose again from the dead He showed Himself first to some
poor women.(6) Pride is opposed to humility, and through it Satan
lost his eminence as an archangel. The Jewish people perished in their
pride, for while they claimed the chief seats and salutations in the
market place,(7) they were superseded by the Gentiles, who had before
been counted as "a drop of a bucket."(8) Two poor fishermen, Peter and
James, were sent to confute the sophists and the wise men of the world.
As the Scripture says: "God resisteth the proud and giveth grace to the
humble."(9) Think, brother, what a sin it must be which has God for its
opponent. In the Gospel the Pharisee is rejected because of his pride,
and the publican is accepted because of his humility.(10)
Now, unless I am mistaken, I have already sent you
ten letters, affectionate and earnest, whilst you have not deigned to
give me even a single line. The Lord speaks to His servants, but you,
my brother servant, refuse to speak to me. Believe me, if reserve did
not check my pen, I could show my annoyance in such invective that you
would have to reply--even though it might be in anger. But since anger
is human, and a Christian must not act injuriously, I fall back once
more on entreaty, and beg you to love one who loves you, and to write
to him as a servant should to his fellow-servant. Farewell in the Lord.
LETTER XIII.
TO CASTORINA, HIS MATERNAL AUNT.
An interesting letter, as throwing some light on
Jerome's family relations. Castorina, his maternal aunt, had, for some
reason, become estranged from him, and he now writes to her to effect a
reconciliation. Whether he succeeded in doing so, we do not know. The
date of the letter is 374 A. D.
The apostle and evangelist John rightly says, in his
first epistle, that "whosoever hateth his brother is a murderer."(1)
For, since murder often springs from hate, the hater, even though he
has not yet slain his victim, is at heart a murderer. Why, you ask, do
I begin in this style? Simply that you and I may both lay aside past
ill feeling and cleanse our hearts to be a habitation for God. "Be ye
angry," David says, "and sin not," or, as the apostle more fully
expresses it, "let not the sun go down upon your wrath."(2) What then
shall we do in the day of judgment, upon whose wrath the sun has
gone down not one day but many years? The Lord says in the Gospel: "If
thou bring thy gift to the altar, and there rememberest that thy
brother hath aught against thee; leave there thy gift before the altar,
and go thy way; first be reconciled to thy brother, and then come and
offer thy gift."(3) Woe to me, wretch that I am; woe, I had
almost said, to you also. This long time past we have
either offered no gift at the altar or have offered it whilst
cherishing anger "without a cause." How have we been able in our
daily prayers to say "Forgive us our debts as we forgive our
debtors,"(4) whilst our feelings have been at variance with our
words, and our petition inconsistent with our conduct? Therefore I
renew the prayer which I made a year ago in a previous letter,(5) that
the Lord's legacy of peace(6) may be indeed ours, and that my desires
and your feelings may find favor in His sight. Soon we shall stand
before His judgment seat to receive the reward of harmony restored or
to pay the penalty for harmony broken. In case you shall prove
unwilling--I hope that it may not be so--to accept my advances, I for
my part shall be free. For this letter, when it is read, will insure my
acquittal.
LETTER XIV.
TO HELlODORUS, MONK.
Heliodorus, originally a soldier, but now a
presbyter of the Church, had accompanied Jerome to the East, but, not
feeling called to the solitary life of the desert, had returned to
Aquileia. Here be resumed his clerical duties, and in course of time
was raised to the episcopate as bishop of Altinum.
The letter was written in the first bitterness of
separation and reproaches Heliodorus for having gone back from the
perfect way of the ascetic life. The description given of this is
highly colored and seems to have produced a great impression in the
West. Fabiola was so much enchanted by it that she learned the letter
by heart.(7) The date is 373 or 374 A.D.
1. SO conscious are you of the affection which
exists between us that you cannot but
14
recognize the love and passion with which I strove to prolong our
common sojourn in the desert. This very letter--blotted, as you see,
with tears--gives evidence of the lamentation and weeping with which I
accompanied your departure. With the pretty ways of a child you then
softened your refusal by soothing words, and I, being off my guard,
knew not what to do. Was I to hold my peace? I could not conceal my
eagerness by a show of indifference. Or was I to entreat you yet more
earnestly? You would have refused to listen, for your love was not like
mine. Despised affection has taken the one course open to it. Unable to
keep you when present, it goes in search of you when absent. You asked
me yourself, when you were going away, to invite you to the desert when
I took up my quarters there, and I for my part promised to do so.
Accordingly I invite you now; come, and come quickly. Do not call to
mind old ties; the desert is for those who have left all. Nor let the
hardships of our former travels deter you. You believe in Christ,
believe also in His words: "Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all
these things shall be added unto you."(1) Take neither scrip nor staff.
He is rich enough who is poor--with Christ.
2. But what is this, and why do I foolishly
importune you again? Away with entreaties, an end to coaxing words.
Offended love does well to be angry. You have spurned my petition;
perhaps you will listen to my remonstrance. What keeps you, effeminate
soldier, in your father's house? Where are your ramparts and trenches?
When have you spent a winter in the field? Lo, the trumpet sounds from
heaven! Lo, the Leader comes with clouds!(2) He is armed to subdue the
world, and out of His mouth proceeds a two-edged sword(3) to mow down
all that encounters it. But as for you, what will you do? Pass straight
from your chamber to the battle-field, and from the cool shade into the
burning sun? Nay, a body used to a tunic cannot endure a buckler; a
head that has worn a cap refuses a helmet; a hand made tender by disuse
is galled by a sword-hilt.(4) Hear the proclamation of your King: "He
that is not with me is against me, and he that gathereth not with me
scattereth."(5) Remember the day on which you enlisted, when, buried
with Christ in baptism, you swore fealty to Him, declaring that for His
sake you would spare neither father nor mother. Lo, the enemy is
striving to slay Christ in your breast. Lo, the ranks of the foe sigh
over that bounty which you received when you entered His service.
Should your little nephew(1) hang on your neck, pay no regard to him;
should your mother with ashes on her hair and garments rent show you
the breasts at which she nursed you, heed her not; should your father
prostrate himself on the threshold, trample him under foot and go your
way. With dry eyes fly to the standard of the cross. In such cases
cruelty is the only true affection.
3. Hereafter there shall come--yes, there shall
come--a day when you will return a victor to your true country, and
will walk through the heavenly Jerusalem crowned with the crown of
valor. Then will you receive the citizenship thereof with Paul.(2) Then
will you seek the like privilege for your parents. Then will you
intercede for me who have urged you forward on the path of victory.
I am not ignorant of the fetters which you may
plead as hindrances. My breast is not of iron nor my heart of stone. I
was not born of flint or suckled by a tigress.(3) I have passed through
troubles like yours myself. Now it is a widowed sister who throws her
caressing arms around you. Now it is the slaves, your foster-brothers,
who cry, "To what master are you leaving us?" Now it is a nurse bowed
with age, and a body-servant loved only less than a father, who
exclaim: "Only wait till we die and follow us to our graves." Perhaps,
too, an aged mother, with sunken bosom and furrowed brow, recalling the
lullaby(4) with which she once soothed you, adds her entreaties to
theirs. The learned may call you, if they please,
The sole support and pillar of your house.(5) The
love of God and the fear of hell will easily break such bonds.
Scripture, you will argue, bids us obey our
parents.(6) Yes, but whoso loves them more than Christ loses his own
soul.(7) The enemy takes sword in hand to slay me, and shall I think of
a mother's tears? Or shall I desert the service of Christ for the sake
of a father to whom, if I am Christ's servant, I owe no rites of
burial,(8) albeit if I am Christ's true servant I owe these to all?
Peter with his cowardly advice was an offence to the Lord on the eve of
His passion;(9) and to the breth-
15
ren who strove to restrain him from going up to Jerusalem, Paul's one
answer was: "What mean ye to weep and to break my heart? For I am ready
not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the
Lord Jesus."(1) The battering-ram of natural affection which so often
shatters faith must recoil powerless from the wall of the Gospel. "My
mother and my brethren are these whosoever do the will of my Father
which is in heaven."(2) If they believe in Christ let them bid me
God-speed, for I go to fight in His name. And if they do not believe,
"let the dead bury their dead."(3)
4. But all this, you argue, only touches the case of
martyrs. Ah! my brother, you are mistaken, you are mistaken, if you
suppose that there is ever a time when the Christian does not suffer
persecution. Then are you most hardly beset when you know not that you
are beset at all. "Our adversary as a roaring lion walketh about
seeking whom he may devour,"(4) and do you think of peace? "He sitteth
in the lurking-places of the villages: in the secret places doth he
murder the innocent; his eyes are privily set against the poor. He
lieth in wait secretly as a lion in his den; he lieth in wait to catch
the poor;"(5) and do you slumber under a shady tree, so as to fall an
easy prey? On one side self-indulgence presses me hard; on another
covetousness strives to make an inroad; my belly wishes to be a God to
me, in place of Christ,(6) and lust would fain drive away the Holy
Spirit that dwells in me and defile His temple.(7) I am pursued, I say,
by an enemy
Whose name is Legion and his wiles untold;(8) and, hapless wretch that
I am, how shall I hold myself a victor when I am being led away a
captive?
5. My dear brother, weigh well the various forms of
transgression, and think not that the sins which I have mentioned are
less flagrant than that of idolatry. Nay, hear the apostle's view of
the matter. "For this ye know," he writes, "that no whore-monger or
unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any
inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God."(9) In a general way
all that is of the devil savors of enmity to God, and what is of the
devil is idolatry, since all idols are subject to him. Yet Paul
elsewhere lays down the law in express and unmistakable terms, saying:
"Mortify your members, which are upon the earth, laying aside
fornication, uncleanness, evil concupiscence and covetousness, which
are(1) idolatry, for which things' sake the wrath of God cometh."(2)
Idolatry is not confined to casting incense upon an
altar with finger and thumb, or to pouring libations of wine out of a
cup into a bowl. Covetousness is idolatry, or else the selling of the
Lord for thirty pieces of silver was a righteous act.(3) Lust involves
profanation, or else men may defile with common harlots(4) those
members of Christ which should be "a living sacrifice acceptable to
God."(5) Fraud is idolatry, or else they are worthy of imitation who,
in the Acts of the Apostles, sold their inheritance, and because they
kept back part of the price, perished by an instant doom.(6) Consider
well, my brother; nothing is yours to keep. "Whosoever he be of you,"
the Lord says, "that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my
disciple."(7) Why are you such a half-hearted Christian?
6. See how Peter left his net;(8) see how the
publican rose from the receipt of custom.(9) In a moment he became an
apostle. "The Son of man hath not where to lay his head,"(10) and do
you plan wide porticos and spacious halls? If you look to inherit the
good things of the world you can no longer be a joint-heir with
Christ.(11) You are called a monk, and has the name no meaning? What
brings you, a solitary, into the throng of men? The advice that I give
is that of no inexperienced mariner who has never lost either ship or
cargo, and has never known a gale. Lately shipwrecked as I have been
myself, my warnings to other voyagers spring from my own fears. On one
side, like Charybdis, self-indulgence sucks into its vortex the soul's
salvation. On the other, like Scylla, lust, with a smile on her girl's
face, lures it on to wreck its chastity. The coast is savage, and the
devil with a crew of pirates carries irons to fetter his captives. Be
not credulous, be not over-confident. The sea may be as smooth
and smiling as a pond, its quiet surface may be scarcely ruffled by a
breath of air, yet sometimes its waves are as high as mountains. There
is danger in its depths, the foe is lurking there. Ease your sheets,
spread
16
your sails, fasten the cross as an ensign on your prow. The calm that
you speak of is itself a tempest. "Why so?" you will perhaps argue;
"are not all my fellow-townsmen Christians?" Your case, I reply, is not
that of others. Listen to the words of the Lord: "If thou wilt be
perfect go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and come and
follow me."(1) You have already promised to be perfect. For when you
forsook the army and made yourself an eunuch for the kingdom of
heaven's sake,(2) you did so that you might follow the perfect life.
Now the perfect servant of Christ has nothing beside Christ. Or if he
have anything beside Christ he is not perfect. And if he be not perfect
when he has promised God to be so, his profession is a lie. But "the
mouth that lieth slayeth the soul."(3) To conclude, then, if you are
perfect you will not set your heart on your father's goods; and if you
are not perfect you have deceived the Lord. The Gospel thunders forth
its divine warning: "Ye cannot serve two masters,"(4) and does any one
dare to make Christ a liar by serving at once both God and Mammon?
Repeatedly does He proclaim, "If any one will come after me let him
deny himself and take up his cross and follow me."(5) If I load myself
with gold can I think that I am following Christ? Surely not. "He that
saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk even as He
walked."(6)
7. I know you will rejoin that you possess nothing.
Why, then, if you are so well prepared for battle, do you not take the
field? Perhaps you think that you can wage war in your own country,
although the Lord could do no signs in His?(7) Why not? you ask. Take
the answer which comes to you with his authority: "No prophet is
accepted in his own country."(8) But, you will say, I do not seek
honor; the approval of my conscience is enough for me. Neither did the
Lord seek it; for when the multitudes would have made Him a king he
fled from them.(9) But where there is no honor there is contempt; and
where there is contempt there is frequent rudeness; and where there is
rudeness there is vexation; and where there is vexation there is no
rest; and where there is no rest the mind is apt to be diverted from
its purpose. Again, where, through restlessness, earnestness loses any
of its force, it is lessened by what it loses, and that which is
lessened cannot be called perfect. The upshot of all which is that a
monk cannot be perfect in his own country. Now, not to aim at
perfection is itself a sin.
8. Driven from this line of defence you will appeal
to the example of the clergy. These, you will say, remain in their
cities, and yet they are surely above criticism. Far be it from me to
censure the successors of the apostles, who with holy words consecrate
the body of Christ, and who make us Christians.(1) Having the keys of
the kingdom of heaven, they judge men to some extent before the day of
judgment, and guard the chastity of the bride of Christ. But, as I have
before hinted, the case of monks is different from that of the clergy.
The clergy feed Christ's sheep; I as a monk am fed by them. They live
of the altar:(2) I, if I bring no gift to it, have the axe laid to my
root as to that of a barren tree.(3) Nor can I plead poverty as an
excuse, for the Lord in the gospel has praised an aged widow for
casting into the treasury the last two coins that she had.(4) I may not
sit in the presence of a presbyter;(5) he, if I sin, may deliver me to
Satan, "for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be
saved."(6) Under the old law he who disobeyed the priests was put
outside the camp and stoned by the people, or else he was beheaded and
expiated his contempt with his blood.(7) But now the disobedient person
is cut down with the spiritual sword, or he is expelled
from the church and torn to pieces by ravening demons. Should the
entreaties of your brethren induce you to take orders, I shall rejoice
that you are lifted up, and fear lest you may be cast down. You will
say: "If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good
work."(8) I know that; but you should add what follows: such an one
"must be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, chaste,
of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach, not given to
wine, no striker but patient."(9) After fully explaining the
qualifications of a bishop the apostle speaks of ministers of the third
degree with equal care. "Likewise must the deacons be grave," he
writes, "not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of
filthy lucre, holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience.
And let these also first be proved; then, let them minister, being
found blameless."(10) Woe to the man who goes in to the supper without
a wedding garment. Nothing remains for
17
him but the stern question, "Friend, how camest thou in hither?" And
when he is speechless the order will be given, "Bind him hand and foot,
and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be
weeping and gnashing of teeth."(1) Woe to him who, when he has received
a talent, has bound it in a napkin; and, whilst others make profits,
only preserves what he has received. His angry lord shall rebuke him in
a moment. "Thou wicked servant," he will say, "wherefore gavest thou
not my money into the bank that at my coming I might have required mine
own with usury?"(2) That is to say, you should have laid before the
altar what you were not able to bear. For whilst you, a slothful
trader, keep a penny in your hands, you occupy the place of another who
might double the money. Wherefore, as he who ministers well purchases
to himself a good degree,(3) so he who approaches the cup of the Lord
unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. (4)
9. Not all bishops are bishops indeed. You consider
Peter; mark Judas as well. You notice Stephen; look also on Nicolas,
sentenced in the Apocalypse by the Lord's own lips,(5) whose shameful
imaginations gave rise to the heresy of the Nicolaitans. "Let a man
examine himself and so let him come."(6) For it is not ecclesiastical
rank that makes a man a Christian. The centurion Cornelius was still a
heathen when he was cleansed by the gift of the Holy Spirit. Daniel was
but a child when he judged the elders.(7) Amos was stripping mulberry
bushes when, in a moment, he was made a prophet.(8) David was only a
shepherd when he was chosen to be king.(9) And the least of His
disciples was the one whom Jesus loved the most. My brother, sit down
in the lower room, that when one less honorable comes you may be bidden
to go up higher.(10) Upon whom does the Lord rest but upon him that is
lowly and of a contrite spirit, and that trembleth at His word?(11) To
whom God has committed much, of him He will ask the
more.(12) "Mighty men shall be mightily tormented."(13) No
man need pride himself in the day of judgment on merely physical
chastity, for then shall men give account for every idle word,(14) and
the reviling of a brother shall be counted as the sin of murder.(15)
Paul and Peter now reign with Christ, and it is not easy to take the
place of the one or to hold the office of the other. There may come an
angel to rend the veil of your temple,(1) and to remove your
candlestick out of its place.(2) If you intend to build the tower,
first count the cost.(3) Salt that has lost its savor is good for
nothing but to be cast out and to be trodden under foot of swine.(4) If
a monk fall, a priest shall intercede for him; but who shall intercede
for a fallen priest?
10. At last my discourse is clear of the reefs: at
last this frail bark has passed from the breakers into deep water. I
may now spread my sails to the breeze; and, as I leave the rocks of
controversy astern, my epilogue will be like the joyful shout of
mariners. O desert, bright with the flowers of Christ! O solitude
whence come the stones of which, in the Apocalypse, the city of the
great king is built!(5) O wilderness, gladdened with God's especial
presence! What keeps you in the world, my brother, yon who are above
the world?(6) How long shall gloomy roofs oppress you? How long shall
smoky cities immure you? Believe me, I have more light than you. Sweet
it is to lay aside the weight of the body and to soar into the pure
bright ether. Do you dread poverty? Christ calls the poor blessed.(7)
Does toil frighten you? No athlete is crowned but in the sweat of his
brow. Are you anxious as regards food? Faith fears no famine. Do you
dread the bare ground for limbs wasted with fasting? The Lord lies
there beside you. Do you recoil from an unwashed head and uncombed
hair? Christ is your true head.(8) Does the boundless solitude of the
desert terrify you? In the spirit you may walk always in paradise. Do
but turn your thoughts thither and you will be no more in the desert.
Is your skin rough and scaly because you no longer
bathe? He that is once washed in Christ needeth not to wash again.(9)
To all your objections the apostle gives this one brief answer: "The
sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with
the glory" which shall come after them, "which shall be revealed
in us."(10) You are too greedy of enjoyment, my brother, if you wish to
rejoice with the world here, and to reign with Christ hereafter.
11. it shall come, it shall come, that day when this
corruptible shall put on incorrup-
18
tion, and this mortal shall put on immortality.(1) Then shall that
servant be blessed whom the Lord shall find watching.(2) Then at the
sound of the trumpet(3) the earth and its peoples shall tremble, but
you shall rejoice. The world shall howl at the Lord who comes to judge
it, and the tribes of the earth shall smite the breast. Once mighty
kings shall tremble in their nakedness. Venus shall be exposed, and her
son too Jupiter with his fiery bolts will be brought to trial; and
Plato, with his disciples, will be but a fool. Aristotle's arguments
shall be of no avail. You may seem a poor man and country bred, but
then you shall exult and laugh, and say: Behold my crucified Lord
behold my judge. This is He who was once an infant wrapped in swaddling
clothes and crying in a manger.(4) This is He whose parents were a
workingman and a working-woman.(5) This is He, who, carried into Egypt
in His mother's bosom, though He was God, fled before the face of man.
This is He who was clothed in a scarlet robe and crowned with
thorns.(6) This is He who was called a sorcerer and a man with a devil
and a Samaritan.(7) Jew, behold the hands which you nailed to the
cross. Roman, behold the side which you pierced with the spear. See
both of you whether it was this body that the disciples stole secretly
and by night.(8) For this you profess to believe.
My brother, it is affection which has urged me to
speak thus; that you who now find the Christian life so hard may have
your reward in that day.
LETTER XV.
TO POPE DAMASUS.
This letter, written in 376 or 377 A.D., illustrates
Jerome's attitude towards the see of Rome at this time held by Damasus,
afterwards his warm friend and admirer. Referring lo Rome as the scene
of his own baptism and as a church where the true faith has remained
unimpaired ( 1), and laying down the strict doctrine of salvation only
within the pale of the church ( 2), Jerome asks "the successor of the
fisherman" two questions, viz.:(1) who is the true bishop of the three
claimants of the see of Antioch, and(2) which is the correct
terminology, to speak of three "hypostases" in the Godhead, or of one?
On the latter question he expresses fully his own opinion.
1. Since the East, shattered as it is by the
long-standing feuds, subsisting between its peoples, is bit by bit
tearing into shreds the seamless vest of the Lord, "woven from the top
throughout,"(1) since the foxes are destroying the vineyard of
Christ,(2) and since among the broken cisterns that hold no water it is
hard to discover "the sealed fountain" and "the garden inclosed,"(3) I
think it my duty to consult the chair of Peter, and to turn to a church
whose faith has been praised by Paul.(4) I appeal for spiritual food to
the church whence I have received the garb of Christ.(5) The wide space
of sea and land that lies between us cannot deter me from searching for
"the pearl of great price."(6) "Wheresoever the body is, there will the
eagles be gathered together."(7) Evil children have squandered their
patrimony; you alone keep your heritage intact. The fruitful soil of
Rome, when it receives the pure seed of the Lord, bears fruit an
hundredfold; but here the seed corn is choked in the furrows and
nothing grows but darnel or oats.(8) In the West the Sun of
righteousness(9) is even now rising; in the East, Lucifer, who fell
from heaven,(10) has once more set his throne above the stars.(11) "Ye
are the light of the world,"(12) "ye are the salt of the earth,"(13) ye
are "vessels of gold and of silver." Here are vessels of wood or of
earth,(14) which wait for the rod of iron,(15) and eternal fire.
2. Yet, though your greatness terrifies me, your
kindness attracts me. From the priest I demand the safe-keeping of the
victim, from the shepherd the protection due to the sheep. Away with
all that is overweening; let the state of Roman majesty withdraw. My
words are spoken to the successor of the fisherman, to the disciple of
the cross. As I follow no leader save Christ, so I communicate with
none but your blessedness, that is with the chair of Peter. For this, I
know, is the rock on which the church is built!(16) This is the house
where alone the paschal lamb can be rightly eaten.(17) This is the ark
of Noah, and he who is not found in it shall perish when the flood
prevails.(18) But since by reason of my sins I have betaken myself to
this desert which lies between Syria and the uncivilized waste, I
cannot, owing to the great distance between us, always ask of your
sanctity the holy thing of the Lord.(19) Con-
19
sequently I here follow the Egyptian confessors(1) who share your
faith, and anchor my frail craft under the shadow of their great
argosies. I know nothing of Vitalis; I reject Meletius; I have nothing
to do with Paulinus.(2) He that gathers not with you scatters;(3) he
that is not of Christ is of Antichrist.
3. Just now, I am sorry to say, those Arians, the
Campenses,(4) are trying to extort from me, a Roman Christian, their
unheard-of formula of three hypostases.(5) And this, too, after the
definition of Nicaea(6) and the decree of Alexandria,(7) in which the
West has joined. Where, I should like to know, are the apostles of
these doctrines? Where is their Paul, their new doctor of the Gentiles?
I ask them what three hypostases are supposed to mean. They reply three
persons subsisting. I rejoin that this is my belief. They are not
satisfied with the meaning, they demand the term. Surely some secret
venom lurks in the words. "If any man refuse," I cry, "to acknowledge
three hypostases in the sense of three things hypostatized, that is
three persons subsisting, let him be anathema." Yet, because I do not
learn their words, I am counted a heretic. "But, if any one,
understanding by hypostasis essence,(8) deny that in the three persons
there is one hypostasis, he has no part in Christ." Because this is my
confession I, like you, am branded with the stigma of Sabellianism.(9)
4. If you think fit enact a decree; and then I shall
not hesitate to speak of three hypostases. Order a new creed to
supersede the Nicene; and then, whether we are Arians or orthodox, one
confession will do for us all. In the whole range of secular learning
hypostasis never means anything but essence. And can any one, I ask, be
so profane as to speak of three essences or substances in the Godhead?
There is one nature of God and one only; and this, and this alone,
truly is. For absolute being is derived from no other source but is all
its own. All things besides, that is all things created, although they
appear to be, are not. For there was a time when they were not, and
that which once was not may again cease to be. God alone who is
eternal, that is to say, who has no beginning, really deserves to be
called an essence. Therefore also He says to Moses from the bush, "I am
that I am," and Moses says of Him, "I am hath sent me."(1) As the
angels, the sky, the earth, the seas, all existed at the time, it must
have been as the absolute being that God claimed for himself that name
of essence, which apparently was common to all. But because His nature
alone is perfect, and because in the three persons there subsists but
one Godhead, which truly is and is one nature; whosoever in the name of
religion declares that there are in the Godhead three elements, three
hypostases, that is, or essences, is striving really to predicate three
natures of God. And if this is true, why are we severed by walls from
Arius, when in dishonesty we are one with him? Let Ursicinus be made
the colleague of your blessedness; let Auxentius be associated with
Ambrose.(2) But may the faith of Rome never come to such a pass! May
the devout hearts of your people never be infected with such unholy
doctrines! Let us be satisfied to speak of one substance and of three
subsisting persons--perfect, equal, coeternal. Let us keep to one
hypostasis, if such be your pleasure, and say nothing of three. It is a
bad sign when those who mean the same thing use different words. Let us
be satisfied with the form of creed which we have hitherto used. Or, if
you think it right that I should speak of three hypostases, explaining
what I mean by them, I am ready to submit. But, believe me, there is
poison hidden under their honey; the angel of Satan has transformed
himself into an angel of light.(3) They give a plausible explanation of
the term hypostasis; yet when I profess to hold it in the same sense
they count me a heretic. Why are they so tenacious of a word? Why do
they shelter themselves under ambiguous language? If their belief
corresponds to their explanation of it, I do not condemn them for
keeping it. On the other hand, if
20
my belief corresponds to their expressed opinions, they should allow me
to set forth their meaning in my own words.
5. I implore your blessedness, therefore, by the
crucified Saviour of the world, and by the consubstantial trinity, to
authorize me by letter either to use or to refuse this formula of three
hypostases. And test the obscurity of my present abode may baffle the
bearers of your letter, I pray you to address it to Evagrius, the
presbyter, with whom you are well acquainted. I beg you also to signify
with whom I am to communicate at Antioch. Not, I hope, with the
Campenses;(1) for they--with their allies the heretics of
Tarsus(2)--only desire communion with you to preach with greater
authority their traditional doctrine of three hypostases.
LETTER XVI.
TO POPE DAMASUS.
This letter, written a few months after the
preceding, is another appeal to Damasus to solve the writer's doubts.
Jerome once more refers to his baptism at Rome, and declares that his
one answer to the factions at Antioch is, "He who clings to the chair
of Peter is accepted by me." Written from the desert in the year 377 or
378.
1. By her importunity the widow in the gospel at
last gained a hearing,(3) and by the same means one friend induced
another to give him bread at midnight, when his door was shut and his
servants were in bed.(4) The publican's prayers overcame God,(5)
although God is invincible. Nineveh was saved by its tears from the
impending ruin caused by its sin.(6) To what end, you ask, these
far-fetched references? To this end, I make answer; that you in your
greatness should look upon me in my littleness; that you, the rich
shepherd, should not despise me, the ailing sheep. Christ Himself
brought the robber from the cross to paradise,(7) and, to show that
repentance is never too late, He turned a murderer's death into a
martyrdom. Gladly does Christ embrace the prodigal son when he returns
to Him;(8) and, leaving the ninety and nine, the good shepherd carries
home on His shoulders the one poor sheep that is left.(9) From a
persecutor Paul becomes a preacher. His bodily eyes are blinded to
clear the eyes of his soul,(10) and he who once haled Christ's servants
in chains before the council of the Jews,(1) lives afterwards to glory
in the bonds of Christ.(2)
2. As I have already written to you,(3) I, who have
received Christ's garb in Rome, am now detained in the waste that
borders Syria. No sentence of banishment, however, has been passed upon
me; the punishment which I am undergoing is self-inflicted. But, as the
heathen poet says:
They change not mind but sky who cross the sea.(4) The untiring foe
follows me closely, and the assaults that I suffer in the desert are
severer than ever. For the Arian frenzy raves, and the powers of the
world support it. The church is rent into three factions, and each of
these is eager to seize me for its own. The influence of the monks is
of long standing, and it is directed against me. I meantime keep
crying: "He who clings to the chair of Peter is accepted by me."
Meletius, Vitalis, and Paulinus(6) all profess to cleave to you, and I
could believe the assertion if it were made by one of them only. As it
is, either two of them or else all three are guilty of falsehood.
Therefore I implore your blessedness, by our Lord's cross and passion,
those necessary glories of our faith, as you hold an apostolic office,
to give an apostolic decision. Only tell me by letter with whom I am to
communicate in Syria, and I will pray for you that you may sit in
judgment enthroned with the twelve;(6) that when you grow old, like
Peter, you may be girded not by yourself but by another,(7) and that,
like Paul, you may be made a citizen of the heavenly kingdom.(8) Do not
despise a soul for which Christ died.
LETTER XVII.
TO THE PRESBYTER MARCUS.
In this letter, addressed to one who seems to have
had some pre-eminence among the monks of the Chalcidian desert, Jerome
complains of the hard treatment meted out to him because of his refusal
to take any part Z in the great theological dispute then raging in
Syria. He protests his own orthodoxy, and begs permission to remain
where he is until the return of spring, when he will retire from "the
inhospitable desert," Written in A.D. 378 or 379.
1. I had made up my mind to use the words of the
psalmist: "While the wicked
21
was before me I was dumb with silence; I was humbled, and I held my
peace even from good :"(1) and "I, as a deaf man, heard not; and I was
as a dumb man that openeth not his mouth. Thus I was as a man that
heareth not."(2) But charity overcomes all things,(3) and my regard for
you defeats my determination. I am, indeed, less careful to retaliate
upon my assailants than to comply with your request. For among
Christians, as one has said,(4) not he who endures an outrage is
unhappy, but he who commits it.
2. And first, before I speak to you of my belief
(which you know full well), I am forced to cry out against the
inhumanity of this country. A hackneyed quotation best expresses my
meaning:
What savages are these who will not grant
A rest to strangers, even on their sands!
They threaten war and drive us from their coasts.(5)
I take this from a Gentile poet that one who disregards the peace of
Christ may at least learn its meaning from a heathen. I am called a
heretic, although I preach the consubstantial trinity. I am accused of
the Sabellian impiety, although I proclaim with unwearied voice that in
the Godhead there are three distinct,(6) real, whole, and perfect
persons. The Arians do right to accuse me, but the orthodox forfeit
their orthodoxy when they assail a faith like mine. They may, if they
like, condemn me as a heretic; but if they do they must also condemn
Egypt and the West, Damasus and Peter.(7) Why do they fasten the guilt
on one and leave his companions uncensured? If there is but little
water in the stream, it is the fault, not of the channel, but of the
source. I blush to say it, but from the caves which serve us for cells
we monks of the desert condemn the world. Rolling in sack-cloth and
ashes,(8) we pass sentence on bishops. What use is the robe of a
penitent if it covers the pride of a king? Chains, squalor, and long
hair are by right tokens of sorrow, and not ensigns of royalty. I
merely ask leave to remain silent. Why do they torment a man who does
not deserve their ill-will? I am a heretic, you say. What is it to you
if I am? Stay quiet, and all is said. You are afraid, I suppose, that,
with my fluent knowledge of Syriac and Greek, I shall make a tour of
the churches, lead the people into error, and form a
schism! I have robbed no man of anything; neither have I taken what I
have not earned. With my own hand(1) daily and in the sweat of my
brow(2) I labor for my food, knowing that it is written by the apostle:
"If any will not work, neither shall he eat."(3)
3. Reverend and holy father, Jesus is my witness
with what groans and tears I have written all this. "I have kept
silence, saith the Lord, but shall I always keep silence? Surely
not."(4) I cannot have so much as a corner of the desert. Every day I
am asked for my confession of faith; as though when I was regenerated
in baptism I had made none. I accept their formulas, but they are still
dissatisfied. I sign my name to them, but they still refuse to believe
me. One thing only will content them, that I should leave the country.
I am on the point of departure. They have already torn away from me my
dear brothers, who are a part of my very life. They are, as you see,
anxious to depart--nay, they are actually departing; it is preferable,
they say, to live among wild beasts rather than with Christians such as
these. I myself, too, would be at this moment a fugitive were I not
withheld by physical infirmity and by the severity of the winter. I ask
to be allowed the shelter of the desert for a few months till spring
returns; or if this seems too long a delay, I am ready to depart now.
"The earth is the Lord' s and the fulness thereof."(5) Let them climb
up to heaven alone;(6) for them alone Christ died; they possess all
things and glory in all. Be it so. "But God forbid that I should glory
save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, by whom the world is
crucified unto me and I unto the world."(7)
4. As regards the questions which you have thought
fit to put to me concerning the faith, I have given to the reverend
Cyril(8) a written confession which sufficiently answers them. He who
does not so believe has no part in Christ. My faith is attested
both by your ears and by those of your blessed brother, Zenobius, to
whom, as well as to yourself, we all of us here send our best greeting.
22
LETTER XVIII. TO POPE DAMASUS.
This (written from Constantinople in A.D. 381) is
the earliest of Jerome's expository letters. In it he explains at
length the vision recorded in the sixth chapter of Isaiah, and enlarges
upon its mystical meaning. "Some of my predecessors," he writes, "make
'the Lord sitting upon a throne' God the Father, and suppose the
seraphim to represent the Son and the Holy Spirit. I do not agree with
them, for John expressly tells us(1) that it was Christ and not the
Father whom the prophet saw." And again, "The word seraphim means
either ' glow ' or ' beginning of speech,' and the two seraphim thus
stand for the Old and New Testaments.(2) 'Did not our heart burn within
us,' said the disciples, 'while he opened to us the Scriptures?'(3)
Moreover, the Old Testament is written in Hebrew, and this
unquestionably was man's original language." Jerome then speaks of the
unity of the sacred books. "Whatever," he asserts, "we read in the Old
Testament we find also in the Gospel; and what we red in the Gospel is
deduced from the Old Testament.(4) There is no discord between them, no
disagreement. In both Testaments the Trinity is preached."
The letter is noticeable for the evidence it affords
of the thoroughness of Jerome's studies. Not only does he cite the
several Greek versions of Isaiah in support of his argument, but he
also reverts to the Hebrew original. So far as the West was concerned
be may be said to have discovered this anew. Even educated men like
Augustine had ceased to look beyond the LXX., and were more or less
aghast at the boldness with which Jerome rejected its time-honored but
inaccurate renderings.(6)
The letter also shows that independence of judgment
which always marked Jerome's work. At the time when he wrote it he was
much under the sway of Origen. But great as was his admiration for the
master, he was not afraid to discard his exegesis when, as in the
case of the seraphim, he believed it to be erroneous.
LETTER XIX.
FROM POPE DAMASUS.
A letter from Damasus to Jerome, in which he asks
for an explanation of the word "Hosanna" (A.D. 383).
LETTER XX.
TO POPE DAMASUS.
Jerome's reply to the foregoing. Exposing the error
of Hilary of Poitiers, who supposed the expression to signify
"redemption of the house of David," he goes on to show that in the
gospels it is a quotation from Ps. cxviii. 25 and that its true meaning
is "save now" (so A.V.). "Let us," he writes, "leave the streamlets of
conjecture and return to the fountain-head. It is from the Hebrew
writings that the truth is to be drawn." Written at Rome A.D. 383.
LETTER XXI. TO DAMASUS.
In this letter Jerome, at the request of Damasus,
gives a minutely detailed explanation of the parable of the prodigal
son.
LETTER XXII.
TO EUSTOCHIUM.
Perhaps the most famous of all the letters. In it
Jerome lays down at great length(1) the motives which ought to actuate
those who devote themselves to a life of virginity, and(2) the rules by
which they ought to regulate their daily conduct. The letter contains a
vivid picture of Roman society as it then was--the luxury, profligacy,
and hypocrisy prevalent among both men and women, besides some graphic
autobiographical details (? 7, 30), and concludes with a full account
of the three kinds of monasticism then practised in Egypt (
34-36). Thirty years later Jerome wrote a similar letter to Demetrias
(CXXX.), with which this ought to be compared. Written at Rome 384 A.D.
1. "Hear, O daughter, and consider, and incline
thine ear; forget also thine own people and thy father's house, and the
king shall desire thy beauty."(1) In this forty-fourth(2) psalm God
speaks to the human soul that, following the example of Abraham,(3) it
should go out from its own land and from its kindred, and should leave
the Chaldeans, that is the demons, and should dwell in the country of
the living, for which elsewhere the prophet sighs: "I think to see the
good things of the Lord in the land of the living."(4) But it is not
enough for you to go out from your own land unless you forget your
people and your father's house; unless you scorn the flesh and cling to
the bridegroom in a close embrace. "Look not behind thee," he says,
"neither stay thou in all the plain; escape to the mountain lest thou
be consumed."(5) He who has grasped the plough must not look behind
him(6) or return home from the field, or having Christ's garment,
descend from the roof to fetch other raiment.(7) Truly a marvellous
thing, a father charges his daughter not to remember her father. "Ye
are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father it is your
will to do."(8) So it was said to the Jews. And in another place, "He
that committeth sin is of the devil."(9) Born, in the first instance,
of such parentage we are naturally black, and even when we have
repented, so long as we have not scaled the heights of virtue, we may
still say: "I am black but comely, O ye daughters of Jerusalem."(10)
But you will say to me, "I have left the home of my childhood; I have
forgotten my father, I am born anew in Christ. What reward do I receive
for this?" The context shows--"The king shall desire thy beauty." This,
then, is the great mystery. "For this cause shall
23
a man leave his father and his mother and shall be joined unto his
wife, and they two shall be" not as is there said, "of one flesh,"(1)
but "of one spirit." Your bridegroom is not haughty or disdainful; He
has "married an Ethiopian woman."(2) When once you desire the
wisdom of the true Solomon and come to Him, He will avow all His
knowledge to you; He will lead you into His chamber with His royal
hand;(3) He will miraculously change your complexion so that it shall
be said of you, "Who is this that goeth up and hath been made white?"(4)
2. I write to you thus, Lady Eustochium (I am bound
to call my Lord's bride "lady"), to show yon by my opening words that
my object is not to praise the virginity which you follow, and of which
you have proved the value, or yet to recount the drawbacks of marriage,
such as pregnancy, the crying of infants, the torture caused by a
rival, the cares of household management, and all those fancied
blessings which death at last cuts short. Not that married women are as
such outside the pale; they have their own place, the marriage that is
honorable and the bed undefiled.(6) My purpose is to show you that you
are fleeing from Sodom and should take warning by Lot's wife.(6) There
is no flattery, I can tell you, in these pages. A flatterer's words are
fair, but for all that he is an enemy. You need expect no rhetorical
flourishes setting you among the angels, and while they extol virginity
as blessed, putting the world at your feet.
3. I would have you draw from your monastic vow not
pride but fear.(7) You walk laden with gold; you must keep out of the
robber's way. To us men this life is a race-course we contend here, we
are crowned elsewhere. No man can lay aside fear while serpents and
scorpions beset his path. The Lord says: "My sword hath drunk its fill
in heaven,"(8) and do you expect to find peace on the earth? No, the
earth yields only thorns and thistles, and its dust is food for the
serpent.(9) "For our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but
against the principalities, against the powers, against the
world-rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of
wickedness in the heavenly places."(10) We are hemmed in by hosts of
foes, our enemies are upon every side. The weak flesh will soon be
ashes: one against many, it fights against tremendous odds. Not till it
has been dissolved, not till the Prince of this world has come and
found no sin therein,(1) not till then may you safely listen to the
prophet's words: "Thou shall not be afraid for the terror by night nor
for the arrow that flieth by day; nor for the trouble which haunteth
thee in darkness; nor for the demon and his attacks at noonday. A
thousand shall fall at thy side and ten thousand at thy right hand; but
it shall not come nigh thee."(2) When the hosts of the enemy distress
you, when your frame is fevered and your passions roused, when you say
in your heart, "What shall I do?" Elisha's words shall give you your
answer, "Fear not, for they that be with us are more than they that be
with them."(3) He shall pray," Lord, open the eyes of thine handmaid
that she may see." And then when your eyes have been opened you shall
see a fiery chariot like Elijah's waiting to carry you to heaven,(4)
and shall joyfully sing: "Our soul is escaped as a bird out of the
snare of the fowlers: the snare is broken and we are escaped."(5)
4. So long as we are held down by this frail body,
so long as we have our treasure in earthen vessels;(6) so long as the
flesh lusteth against the spirit and the spirit against the flesh,(7)
there can be no sure victory. "Our adversary the devil goeth about as a
roaring lion seeking whom he may devour."(8) "Thou makest darkness,"
David says, "and it is night: wherein all the beasts of the forest do
creep forth. The young lions roar after their prey and seek their meat
from God."(9) The devil looks not for unbelievers, for those who are
without, whose flesh the Assyrian king roasted in the furnace.(10) It
is the church of Christ that he "makes haste to spoil."(11) According
to Habakkuk, "His food is of the choicest."(12) A Job is the victim of
his machinations, and after devouring Judas he seeks power to sift the
[other] apostles.(13) The Saviour came not to send peace upon the earth
but a sword.(14) Lucifer fell, Lucifer who used to rise at dawn;(15)
and be who was bred up in a paradise of delight had the well-earned
sentence passed upon him, "Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, and
though thou set thy nest among the stars, thence will I bring thee
down, saith the Lord."(16) For he had said in his heart, "I will exalt
my throne above the stars of God," and "I will be like the Most
High."(17) Wherefore God says
24
every day to the angels, as they descend the ladder that Jacob
saw in his dream,(1) "I have said ye are Gods and all of you are
children of the Most High. But ye shall die like men and fall like one
of the princes."(2) The devil fell first, and since "God standeth in
the congregation of the Gods and judgeth among the Gods,"(3) the
apostle writes to those who are ceasing to be Gods--" Whereas there is
among you envying and strife, are ye not carnal and walk as men?"(4)
5. If, then, the apostle, who was a chosen vessel(5)
separated unto the gospel of Christ,(6) by reason of the pricks of the
flesh and the allurements of vice keeps under his body and brings it
into subjection, lest when he has preached to others he may himself be
a castaway;(7) and yet, for all that, sees another law in his members
warring against the law of his mind, and bringing him into captivity to
the law of sin;(8) if after nakedness, fasting. hunger, imprisonment,
scourging and other torments, he turns back to himself and cries "Oh,
wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this
death?"(9) do you fancy that you ought to lay aside apprehension? See
to it that God say not some day of you: "The virgin of Israel is fallen
and there is none to raise her up."(10) I will say it boldly, though
God can do all things He cannot raise up a virgin when once she has
fallen. He may indeed relieve one who is defiled from the penalty of
her sin, but He will not give her a crown. Let us fear lest in us also
the prophecy be fulfilled, "Good virgins shall faint."(11) Notice that
it is good virgins who are spoken of, for there are bad ones as well.
"Whosoever looketh on a woman," the Lord says, "to lust after her hath
committed adultery with her already in his heart."(12) So that
virginity may be lost even by a thought. Such are evil virgins, virgins
in the flesh, not in the spirit; foolish virgins, who, having no oil,
are shut out by the Bridegroom.(13)
6. But if even real virgins, when they have other
failings, are not saved by their physical virginity, what shall become
of those who have prostituted the members of Christ, and have changed
the temple of the Holy Ghost into a brothel? Straightway shall they
hear the words: "Come down and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of
Babylon, sit on the ground; there is no throne, O daughter of the
Chaldaeans: for thou shalt no more be called tender and delicate.
Take the mill-stone and grind meal; uncover thy locks, make bare the
legs, pass over the rivers; thy nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, thy
shame shall be seen."(1) And shall she come to this after the
bridal-chamber of God the Son, after the kisses of Him who is to her
both kinsman and spouse?(2) Yes, she of whom the prophetic
utterance once sang, "Upon thy right hand did stand the queen in a
vesture of gold wrought about with divers col ours,"(3) shall be made
naked, and her skirts shall be discovered upon her face.(4) She shall
sit by the waters of loneliness, her pitcher laid aside; and shall open
her feet to every one that passeth by, and shall be polluted to the
crown of her head.(5) Better had it been for her to have submitted to
the yoke of marriage, to have walked in level places, than thus,
aspiring to loftier heights, to fall into the deep of hell. I pray you,
let not Zion the faithful city become a harlot:(6) let It not be that
where the Trinity has been entertained, there demons shall dance and
owls make their nests, and jackals build.(7) Let us not loose the belt
that binds the breast. When lust tickles the sense mad the soft fire of
sensual pleasure sheds over us its pleasing glow, let us immediately
break forth and cry: "The Lord is on my side: I will not fear what the
flesh can do unto me."(8) When the inner man shows signs for a time of
wavering between vice and virtue, say: "Why art thou cast down, O my
soul, and why art thou disquieted within me? Hope thou in God, for I
shall yet praise Him who is the health of my countenance and my
God."(9) You must never let suggestions of evil grow on you, or a babel
of disorder win strength in your breast. Slay the enemy while he
is small; and, that you may not have a crop of tares, nip the
evil in the bud. Bear in mind the warning words of the Psalmist:
"Hapless daughter of Babylon, happy shall he be that
rewardeth thee as thou hast served us. Happy shall he be that taketh
and dasheth thy little ones against the stones."(10) Because natural
heat inevitably kindles in a man sensual passion, he is praised and
accounted happy who, when foul suggestions arise in his mind, gives
them no quarter, but dashes them instantly against the rock. "Now the
Rock is Christ."(11)
7. How often, when I was living in the desert, in
the vast solitude which gives to hermits a savage dwelling-place,
parched by a burning sun, how often did I fancy myself
25
among the pleasures of Rome! I used to sit alone because I was filled
with bitterness. Sackcloth disfigured my unshapely limbs and my skin
from long neglect had become as black as an Ethiopian's. Tears and
groans were every day my portion; and if drowsiness chanced to overcome
my struggles against it, my bare bones, which hardly held together,
clashed against the ground. Of my food and drink I say nothing: for,
even in sickness, the solitaries have nothing but cold water, and to
eat one's food cooked is looked upon as self-indulgence. Now, although
in my fear of hell I had consigned myself to this prison, where I had
no companions but scorpions and wild beasts, I often found myself amid
bevies of girls. My face was pale and my frame chilled with fasting;
yet my mind was burning with desire, and the fires of lust kept
bubbling up before me when my flesh was as good as dead. Helpless, I
cast myself at the feet of Jesus, I watered them with my tears, I wiped
them with my hair: and then I subdued my rebellious body with weeks of
abstinence. I do not blush to avow my abject misery; rather I lament
that I am not now what once I was. I remember how I often cried aloud
all night till the break of day and ceased not from beating my breast
till tranquillity returned at the chiding of the Lord. I used to dread
my very cell as though it knew my thoughts; and, stern and angry with
myself, I used to make my way alone into the desert. Wherever I saw
hollow valleys, craggy mountains, steep cliffs, there I made my
oratory, there the house of correction for my unhappy flesh. There,
also--the Lord Himself is my witness--when I had shed copious tears and
had strained my eyes towards heaven, I sometimes felt myself among
angelic hosts, and for joy and gladness sang: "because of the savour of
thy good ointments we will run after thee."(1)
8. Now, if such are the temptations of men who,
since their bodies are emaciated with fasting, have only evil thoughts
to fear, how must it fare with a girl whose surroundings are those of
luxury and ease? Surely, to use the apostle's words, "She is dead while
she liveth."(2) Therefore, if experience gives me a right to advise, or
clothes my words with credit, I would begin by urging you and warning
you as Christ's spouse to avoid wine as you would avoid poison. For
wine is the first weapon used by demons against the young. Greed does
not shake, nor pride puff up, nor ambition infatuate so much as this.
Other vices we easily escape, but this enemy is shut up within us, and
wherever we go we carry him with us. Wine and youth between them kindle
the fire of sensual pleasure. Why do we throw oil on the flame--why do
we add fresh fuel to a miserable body which is already ablaze. Paul, it
is true, says to Timothy "drink no longer water, but use a little wine
for thy stomach's sake, and for thine often infirmities."(1) But notice
the reasons for which the permission is given, to cure an aching
stomach and a frequent infirmity. And lest we should indulge ourselves
too much on the score of our ailments, he commands that but little
shall be taken; advising rather as a physician than as an apostle
(though, indeed, an apostle is a spiritual physician). He evidently
feared that Timothy might succumb to weakness, and might prove unequal
to the constant moving to and fro involved in preaching the Gospel.
Besides, he remembered that he had spoken of "wine wherein is
excess,"(2) and had said, "it is good neither to eat flesh nor to drink
wine."(3) Noah drank wine and became intoxicated; but living as he did
in the rude age after the flood, when the vine was first planted,
perhaps he did not know its power of inebriation. And to let you see
the hidden meaning of Scripture in all its fulness (for the word of God
is a pearl and may be pierced on every side) after his drunkenness came
the uncovering of his body; self-indulgence culminated in lust.(4)
First the belly is crammed; then the other members are roused.
Similarly, at a later period, "The people sat down to eat and to drink
and rose up to play."(5) Lot also, God's friend, whom He saved upon the
mountain, who was the only one found righteous out of so many
thousands, was intoxicated by his daughters. And, although they may
have acted as they did more from a desire of offspring than from love
of sinful pleasure--for the human race seemed in danger of
extinction--yet they were well aware that the righteous man would not
abet their design unless intoxicated. In fact he did not know what he
was doing, and his sin was not wilful. Still his error was a grave one,
for it made him the father of Moab and Ammon,(6) Israel's enemies, of
whom it is said: "Even to the fourteenth generation they shall not
enter into the congregation of the Lord forever."(7)
9. When Elijah, in his flight from Jezebel,
26
lay weary and desolate beneath the oak, there came an angel who raised
him up and said, "Arise and eat." And he looked, and behold there was a
cake and a cruse of water at his head.(1) Had God willed it, might He
not have sent His prophet spiced wines and dainty dishes and flesh
basted into tenderness? When Elisha invited the sons of the prophets to
dinner, he only gave them field-herbs to eat; and when all cried out
with one voice: "There is death in the pot," the man of God did not
storm at the cooks (for he was not used to very sumptuous fare), but
caused meal to be brought, and casting it in, sweetened the bitter
mess(2) with spiritual strength as Moses had once sweetened the waters
of Mara.(3) Again, when men were sent to arrest the prophet, and were
smitten with physical and mental blindness, that he might bring them
without their own knowledge to Samaria, notice the food with which
Elisha ordered them to be refreshed. "Set bread and water," he said,
"before them, that they may eat and drink and go to their master."(4)
And Daniel, who might have had rich food from the king's table,(5)
preferred the mower's breakfast, brought to him by Habakkuk,(6) which
must have been but country fare. He was called "a man of desires,"(7)
because he would not eat the bread of desire or drink the wine of
concupiscence.
10. There are, in the Scriptures, countless divine
answers condemning gluttony and approving simple food. But as fasting
is not my present theme and an adequate discussion of it would require
a treatise to itself, these few observations must suffice of the many
which the subject suggests. By them you will understand why the first
man, obeying his belly and not God, was cast down from paradise into
this vale of tears;(8) and why Satan used hunger to tempt the Lord
Himself in the wilderness;(9) and why the apostle cries: "Meats for the
belly and the belly for meats, but God shall destroy both it and
them;"(10) and why he speaks of the self-indulgent as men "whose God is
their belly."(11) For men invariably worship what they like best. Care
must be taken, therefore, that abstinence may bring back to Paradise
those whom satiety once drove out.
11. You will tell me, perhaps, that, high-born as
you are, reared in luxury and used to lie softly, you cannot do without
wine and dainties, and would find a stricter rule of life unendurable.
If so, I can only say: "Live, then, by your own rule, since God's rule
is too hard for you." Not that the Creator and Lord of all takes
pleasure in a rumbling and empty stomach, or in fevered lungs; but that
these are indispensable as means to the preservation of chastity. Job
was dear to God, perfect and upright before Him;(1) yet hear what he
says of the devil: "His strength is in the loins, and his force is in
the navel."(2)
The terms are chosen for decency's sake, but the
reproductive organs of the two sexes are meant. Thus, the descendant of
David, who, according to the promise is to sit upon his throne, is said
to come from his loins.(3) And the seventy-five souls descended from
Jacob who entered Egypt are said to come out of his thigh.(4) So, also,
when his thigh shrank after the Lord had wrestled with him, (5) he
ceased to beget children. The Israelites, again, are told to celebrate
the passover with loins girded and mortified.(6) God says to Job: "Gird
up thy loins as a man."(7) John wears a leathern girdle.(8) The
apostles must gird their loins to carry the lamps of the Gospel.(9)
When Ezekiel tells us how Jerusalem is found in the plain of wandering,
covered with blood, he uses the words: "Thy navel has not been
cut."(10) In his assaults on men, therefore, the devil's strength is in
the loins; in his attacks on women his force is in the navel.
12. Do you wish for proof of my assertions? Take
examples. Sampson was braver than a lion and tougher than a rock; alone
and unprotected he pursued a thousand armed men; and yet, in Delilah's
embrace, his resolution melted away. David was a man after God's own
heart, and his lips had often sung of the Holy One, the future Christ;
and yet as he walked upon his housetop he was fascinated by Bathsheba's
nudity, and added murder to adultery.(11) Notice here how, even in his
own house, a man cannot use his eyes without danger. Then repenting, he
says to the Lord: "Against thee, thee only, have I sinned and done this
evil in Thy sight."(12) Being a king he feared no one else. So, too,
with Solomon. Wisdom used him to sing her praise,(13) and he treated of
all plants "from the cedar tree that is in Lebanon even unto the hyssop
that springeth out of the wall;"(14) and yet he went back from God
because he was a lover of women.(15) And, as if to show that near
relationship is no safe-
27
guard, Amnon burned with illicit passion for his sister Tamar.(1)
13. I cannot bring myself to speak of the many
virgins who daily fall and are lost to the bosom of the church, their
mother: stars over which the proud foe sets up his throne,(2) and rocks
hollowed by the serpent that he may dwell in their fissures. You may
see many women widows before wedded, who try to conceal their miserable
fall by a lying garb. Unless they are betrayed by swelling wombs or by
the crying of their infants, they walk abroad with tripping feet and
heads in the air. Some go so fat as to take potions, that they may
insure barrenness, and thus murder human beings almost before their
conception. Some, when they find themselves with child through their
sin, use drugs to procure abortion, and when (as often happens) they
die with their offspring, they enter the lower world laden with the
guilt not only of adultery against Christ but also of suicide and child
murder. Yet it is these who say: "'Unto the pure all things are
pure;'(3) my conscience is sufficient guide for me. A pure heart is
what God looks for. Why should I abstain from meats which God has
created to be received with thanksgiving?"(4) And when they wish to
appear agreeable and entertaining they first drench themselves with
wine, and then joining the grossest profanity to intoxication, they say
"Far be it from me to abstain from the blood of Christ." And when they
see another pale or sad they call her "wretch" or "manichaean;"(5)
quite logically, indeed, for on their principles fasting involves
heresy. When they go out they do their best to attract notice, and with
nods and winks encourage troops of young fellows to follow them. Of
each and all of these the prophet's words are true: "Thou hast a
whore's forehead; thou refusest to be ashamed."(6) Their robes have but
a narrow purple stripe,(7) it is true; and their head-dress is somewhat
loose, so as to leave the hair free. From their shoulders flutters the
lilac mantle which they call "maforte;" they have their feet in cheap
slippers and their arms tucked up tight-fitting sleeves. Add to these
marks of their profession an easy gait, and you have all the virginity
that they possess. Such may have eulogizers of their own, and may fetch
a higher price in the market of perdition, merely because they are
called virgins. But to such virgins as these I prefer to be displeasing.
14. I blush to speak of it, it is so shocking; yet
though sad, it is true. How comes this plague of the agapetae(1) to be
in the church? Whence come these unwedded wives, these novel
concubines, these harlots, so I will call them, though they cling to a
single partner? One house holds them and one chamber. They often occupy
the same bed, and yet they call us suspicious if we fancy anything
amiss. A brother leaves his virgin sister; a virgin, slighting her
unmarried brother, seeks a brother in a stranger. Both alike profess to
have but one object, to find spiritual consolation from those not of
their kin; but their real aim is to indulge in sexual intercourse. It
is on such that Solomon in the book of proverbs heaps his scorn. "Can a
man take fire in his bosom," he says, "and his clothes not be burned?
Can one go upon hot coals and his feet not be burned?"(2)
15. We cast out, then, and banish from our sight
those who only wish to seem and not to be virgins. Henceforward I may
bring all my speech to bear upon you who, as it is your lot to be the
first virgin of noble birth in Rome, have to labor the more diligently
not to lose good things to come, as well as those that are present. You
have at least learned from a case in your own family the troubles of
wedded life and the uncertainties of marriage. Your sister, Blaesilla,
before you in age but behind you in declining the vow of virginity, has
become a widow but seven months after she has taken a husband. Hapless
plight of us mortals who know not what is before us! She has lost, at
once, the crown of virginity and the pleasures of wedlock. And,
although, as a widow, the second degree of chastity is hers, still can
you not imagine the continual crosses which she has to bear, daily
seeing in her sister what she has lost herself; and, while she finds it
hard to go without the pleasures of wedlock, having a less reward for
her present continence? Still she, too, may take heart and rejoice. The
fruit which is an hundredfold and that which is sixtyfold both spring
from one seed, and that seed is chastity.(9)
16. Do not court the company of married ladies or
visit the houses of the high-born. Do not look too often on the life
which you despised to become a virgin. Women of the world, you know,
plume themselves because their husbands are on the bench or in other
28
high positions. And the wife of the emperor always has an eager throng
of visitors at her door. Why do you, then, wrong your husband? Why do
you, God's bride, hasten to visit the wife of a mere man? Learn in this
respect a holy pride; know that you are better than they. And not only
must you avoid intercourse with those who are puffed up by their
husbands' honors, who are hedged in with troops of eunuchs, and who
wear robes inwrought with threads of gold. You must also shun those who
are widows from necessity and not from choice. Not that they ought to
have desired the death of their husbands; but that they have not
welcomed the opportunity of continence when it has come. As it is, they
only change their garb; their old self-seeking remains unchanged. To
see them in their capacious litters, with red cloaks and plump bodies,
a row of eunuchs walking in front of them, you would fancy them not to
have lost husbands but to be seeking them. Their houses are filled with
flatterers and with guests. The very clergy, who ought to inspire them
with respect by their teaching and authority, kiss these ladies on the
forehead, and putting forth their hands (so that, if you knew no better
you might suppose them in the act of blessing), take wages for their
visits. They, meanwhile, seeing that priests cannot do without them,
are lifted up into pride; and as, having had experience of both, they
prefer the license of widowhood to the restraints of marriage, they
call themselves chaste livers and nuns. After an immoderate supper they
retire to rest to dream of the apostles.(1)
17. Let your companions be women pale and thin with
fasting, and approved by their years and conduct; such as daily sing in
their hearts: "Tell me where thou feedest thy flock, where thou makest
it to rest at noon,"(2) and say, with true earnestness, have a desire
to depart and to be with Christ."(3) Be subject to your parents,
imitating the example of your spouse.(4) Rarely go abroad, and if you
wish to seek, the aid of the martyrs seek it in your own chamber. For
you will never need a pretext for going out if you always go out when
there is need. Take food in moderation, and never overload your
stomach. For many women, while temperate as regards wine, are
intemperate in the use of food. When you rise at night to pray, let
your breath be that of an empty and not that of an overfull stomach.
Read often, learn all that you can. Let sleep overcome you, the roll
still in your hands; when your head falls, let it be on the sacred
page. Let your fasts be of daily occurrence and your refreshment such
as avoids satiety. It is idle to carry an empty stomach if, in two or
three days' time, the fast is to be made up for by repletion. When
cloyed the mind immediately grows sluggish, and when the ground is
watered it puts forth the thorns of lust. If ever you feel the outward
man sighing for the flower of youth, and if, as you lie on your couch
after a meal, you are excited by the alluring train of sensual desires;
then seize the shield of faith, for it alone can quench the fiery darts
of the devil.(1) "They are all adulterers," says the prophet; "they
have made ready their heart like an oven."(2) But do you keep close to
the footsteps of Christ, and, intent upon His words, say: "Did not our
heart burn within us by the way while Jesus opened to us the
Scriptures?"(3) and again: "Thy word is tried to the uttermost, and thy
servant loveth it."(4) It is hard for the human soul to avoid loving
something, and our mind must of necessity give way to affection of one
kind or another. The love of the flesh is overcome by the love of the
spirit. Desire is quenched by desire. What is taken from the one
increases the other. Therefore, as you lie on your couch, say again and
again: "By night have I sought Him whom my soul loveth."(5) "Mortify,
therefore," says the apostle, "your members which are upon the
earth."(6) Because he himself did so, he could afterwards say with
confidence: "I live, yet not I, but Christ, liveth in me."(7) He who
mortifies his members, and feels that he is walking in a vain show,(8)
is not afraid to say: "I am become like a bottle in the frost.(9)
Whatever there was in me of the moisture of lust has been dried out of
me." And again: "My knees are weak through fasting; I forget to eat my
bread. By reason of the voice of my groaning my bones cleave to my
skin."(10)
18. Be like the grasshopper and make night musical.
Nightly wash your bed and water your couch with your tears.(11) Watch
and be like the sparrow alone upon the housetop.(12) Sing with the
spirit, but sing with the understanding also.(13) And let your song be
that of the psalmist: "Bless the
29
Lord, O my soul; and forget not all his benefits; who forgiveth all
thine iniquities; who healeth all thy diseases; who redeemeth thy life
from destruction."(1) Can we, any of us, honestly make his words our
own: "I have eaten ashes like bread and mingled my drink with
weeping?"(2) Yet, should we not weep and groan when the serpent invites
us, as he invited our first parents, to eat forbidden fruit, and when
after expelling us from the paradise of virginity he desires to clothe
us with mantles of skins such as that which Elijah, on his return to
paradise, left behind him on earth?(3) Say to yourself: "What have I to
do with the pleasures of sense that so soon come to an end? What have I
to do with the song of the sirens so sweet and so fatal to those who
hear it?" I would not have you subject to that sentence whereby
condemnation has been passed upon mankind. When God says to Eve, "In
pain and in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children," say to yourself,
"That is a law for a married woman, not for me." And when He continues,
"Thy desire shall be to thy husband,"(4) say again: "Let her desire be
to her husband who has not Christ for her spouse." And when, last of
all, He says, "Thou shalt surely die,"(5) once more, say, "Marriage
indeed must end in death; but the life on which i have resolved is
independent of sex. Let those who are wives keep the place and the time
that properly belong to them. For me, virginity is consecrated in the
persons of Mary and of Christ."
19. Some one may say, "Do you dare detract from
wedlock, which is a state blessed by God?" I do not detract from
wedlock when I set virginity before it. No one compares a bad thing
with a good. Wedded women may congratulate themselves that they come
next to virgins. "Be fruitful," God says, "and multiply, and replenish
the earth."(6) He who desires to replenish the earth may increase and
multiply if he will. But the train to which you belong is not on earth,
but in heaven. The command to increase and multiply first finds
fulfilment after the expulsion from paradise, after the nakedness and
the fig-leaves which speak of sexual passion. Let them marry and be
given in marriage who eat their bread in the sweat of their brow; whose
land brings forth to them thorns and thistles,(7) and whose crops are
choked with briars. My seed produces fruit a hundredfold.(8) "All men
cannot receive God's saying, but they to whom it is given."
Some people may be eunuchs from necessity; I am one
of free will.(1) "There is a time to embrace and a time to refrain from
embracing. There is a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather
stones together."(2) Now that out of the hard stones of the Gentiles
God has raised up children unto Abraham,(3) they begin to be "holy
stones rolling upon the earth."(4) They pass through the whirlwinds of
the world, and roll on in God's chariot on rapid wheels. Let those
stitch coats to themselves who have lost the coat woven from the top
throughout;(5) who delight in the cries of infants which, as soon as
they see the light, lament that they are born. In paradise Eve was a
virgin, and it was only after the coats of skins that she began her
married life. Now paradise is your home too. Keep therefore your
birthright and say: "Return unto thy rest, O my soul."(6) To show that
virginity is natural while wedlock only follows guilt, what is born of
wedlock is virgin flesh, and it gives back in fruit what in root it has
lost. "There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a
flower shall grow out of his roots."(7) The rod(8) is the mother of the
Lord--simple, pure, unsullied; drawing no germ of life from without but
fruitful in singleness like God Himself. The flower of the rod is
Christ, who says of Himself: "I am the rose of Sharon and the lily of
the valleys."(9) In another place He is foretold to be "a stone cut out
of the mountain without hands,"(10) a figure by which the prophet
signifies that He is to be born a virgin of a virgin. For the hands are
here a figure of wedlock as in the passage: "His left hand is under my
head and his right hand doth embrace me."(11) It agrees, also, with
this interpretation that the unclean animals are led into Noah's ark in
pairs, while of the clean an uneven number is taken.(12) Similarly,
when Moses and Joshua were bidden to remove their shoes because the
ground on which they stood was holy,(13) the command had a mystical
meaning. So, too, when the disciples were appointed to preach the
gospel they were told to take with them neither shoe nor
shoe-latchet;(14) and when the soldiers came to cast lots for the
garments of Jesus(15) they found no boots that they could take away.
30
For the Lord could not Himself possess what He had forbidden to His
servants.
20. I praise wedlock, I praise marriage, but it is
because they give me virgins. I gather the rose from the thorns, the
gold from the earth, the pearl from the shell. "Doth the plowman plow
all day to sow?"(1) Shall he not also enjoy the fruit of his labor?
Wedlock is the more honored, the more what is born of it is loved. Why,
mother, do you grudge your daughter her virginity? She has been reared
on your milk, she has come from your womb, she has grown up in your
bosom. Your watchful affection has kept her a virgin. Are you angry
with her because she chooses to be a king's wife and not a soldier's?
She has conferred on you a high privilege; you are now the
mother-in-law of God. "Concerning virgins," says the apostle, "I have
no commandment of the Lord."(2) Why was this? Because his own virginity
was due, not to a command, but to his free choice. For they are not to
be heard who feign him to have had a wife; for, when he is discussing
continence and commending perpetual chastity, he uses the words, "I
would that all men were even as I myself." And farther on, "I say,
therefore, to the unmarried and widows, it is good for them if they
abide even as I."(3) And in another place, "have we not power to lead
about wives even as the rest of the apostles?"(4) Why then has he no
commandment from the Lord concerning virginity? Because what is freely
offered is worth more than what is extorted by force, and to command
virginity would have been to abrogate wedlock. It would have been a
hard enactment to compel opposition to nature and to extort from men
the angelic life; and not only so, it would have been to condemn what
is a divine ordinance.
21. The old law had a different ideal of
blessedness, for therein it is said: "Blessed is he who hath seed in
Zion and a family in Jerusalem:"(5) and "Cursed is the barren who
beareth not:"(6) and "Thy children shall be like olive-plants round
about thy table."(7) Riches too are promised to the faithful and we are
told that "there was not one feeble person among their tribes."(8) But
now even to eunuchs it is said, "Say not, behold I am a dry tree,"(9)
for instead of sons and daughters you have a place forever in heaven.
Now the poor are blessed, now Lazarus is set before Dives in his
purple.(10) Now he who is weak is counted strong. But in those days the
world was still unpeopled: accordingly, to pass over instances of
childlessness meant only to serve as types, those only were considered
happy who could boast of children. It was for this reason that Abraham
in his old age married Keturah;(1) that Leah hired Jacob with her son's
mandrakes,(2) and that fair Rachel--a type of the church--complained of
the closing of her womb.(3) But gradually the crop grew up and then the
reaper was sent forth with his sickle. Elijah lived a virgin life, so
also did Elisha and many of the sons of the prophets. To Jeremiah the
command came: "Thou shall not take thee a wife."(4) He had been
sanctified in his mother's womb,(5) and now he was forbidden to take a
wife because the captivity was near. The apostle gives the same counsel
in different words. "I think, therefore, that this is good by reason of
the present distress, namely that it is good for a man to be as he
is."(6) What is this distress which does away with the joys of wedlock?
The apostle tells us, in a later verse: "The time is short: it
remaineth that those who have wives be as though they had none."(7)
Nebuchadnezzar is hard at hand. The lion is bestirring himself from his
lair. What good will marriage be to me if it is to end in slavery to
the haughtiest of kings? What good will little ones be to me if their
lot is to be that which the prophet sadly describes: "The tongue of the
sucking child cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst; the young
children ask for bread and no man breaketh it unto them"?(8) In those
days, as I have said, the virtue of continence was found only in men:
Eve still continued to travail with children. But now that a virgin has
conceived(9) in the womb and has borne to us a child of which the
prophet says that "Government shall be upon his shoulder, and his name
shall be called the mighty God, the everlasting Father,"(10) now the
chain of the curse is broken. Death came through Eve, but life has come
through Mary. And thus the gift of virginity has been bestowed most
richly upon women, seeing that it has had its beginning from a woman.
As soon as the Son of God set foot upon the earth, He formed for
Himself a new household there; that, as He was adored by angels in
heaven, angels might serve Him also on earth. Then chaste Judith once
more cut off the head of Holofernes.(11) Then Haman--whose name means
iniquity--was once
31
more burned in fire of his own kindling.(1) Then James and John forsook
father and net and ship and followed the Saviour: neither kinship nor
the world's ties, nor the care of their home could hold them back. Then
were the words heard: "Whosoever will come after me, let him deny
himself and take up his cross and follow me."(2) For no soldier goes
with a wife to battle. Even when a disciple would have buried his
father, the Lord forbade him, and said: "Foxes have holes and the birds
of the air have nests, but the Son of Man hath not where to lay His
head."(3) So you must not complain if you have but scanty house-room.
In the same strain, the apostle writes: "He that is unmarried careth
for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord but
he that is married careth for the things that are of the world how he
may please his wife. There is difference also between a wife and a
virgin. The unmarried woman careth for the things of the Lord that she
may be holy both in body and in spirit. But she that is married careth
for the things of the world how she may please her husband."(4)
22. How great inconveniences are involved in wedlock
and how many anxieties encompass it I have, I think, described shortly
in my treatise--published against Helvidius(5)--on the perpetual
virginity of the blessed Mary. It would be tedious to go over the same
ground now; and any one who pleases may draw from that fountain. But
lest I should seem wholly to have passed over the matter, I will just
say now that the apostle bids us pray without ceasing,(6) and that he
who in the married state renders his wife her due(7) cannot so pray.
Either we pray always and are virgins, or we cease to pray that we may
fulfil the claims of marriage. Still he says: "If a virgin marry she
hath not sinned. Nevertheless such shall have trouble in the flesh."(8)
At the outset I promised that I should say little or nothing of the
embarrassments of wedlock, and now I give you notice to the same
effect. If you want to know from how many vexations a virgin is free
and by how many a wife is lettered you should read Tertullian "to a
philosophic friend,"(9) and his other treatises on virginity, the
blessed Cyprian's noble volume, the writings of Pope Damasus(10) in
prose and verse, and the treatises recently written for his sister by
our own Ambrose.(1) In these he has poured forth his soul with such a
flood of eloquence that he has sought out, set forth, and put in order
all that bears on the praise of virgins.
23. We must proceed by a different path, for our
purpose is not the praise of virginity but its preservation. To know
that it is a good thing is not enough: when we have chosen it we must
guard it with jealous care. The first only requires judgment, and we
share it with many; the second calls for toil, and few compete with us
in it. "He that shall endure unto the end," the Lord says, "the same
shall be saved,"(2) and "many are called but few are chosen."(3)
Therefore I conjure you before God and Jesus Christ and His elect
angels to guard that which you have received, not readily exposing to
the public gaze the vessels of the Lord's temple (which only the
priests are by right allowed to see), that no profane person may look
upon God's sanctuary. Uzzah, when he touched the ark which it was not
lawful to touch, was struck down suddenly by death.(4) And assuredly no
gold or silver vessel was ever so dear to God as is the temple of a
virgin's body. The shadow went before, but now the reality is come. You
indeed may speak in all simplicity, and from motives of amiability may
treat with courtesy the veriest strangers, but unchaste eyes see
nothing aright. They fail to appreciate the beauty of the soul, and
only value that of the body. Hezekiah showed God's treasure to the
Assyrians,(5) who ought never to have seen what they were sure to
covet. The consequence was that Judaea was torn by continual wars, and
that the very first things carried away to Babylon were these vessels
of the Lord. We find Belshazzar at his feast and among his concubines
(vice always glories in defiling what is noble) drinking out of these
sacred cups.(6)
24. Never incline your ear to words of mischief. For
men often say an improper word to make trial of a virgin's
steadfastness, to see if she hears it with pleasure, and if she is
ready to unbend at every silly jest. Such persons applaud whatever you
affirm and deny whatever you deny; they speak of you as not only holy
but accomplished, and say that in you there is no guile. "Behold," say
they, "a true hand-maid of Christ; behold entire singleness of heart.
How different from that rough, un-
32
sightly, countrified fright, who most likely never married because she
could never find a husband." Our natural weakness induces us readily to
listen to such flatterers; but, though we may blush and reply that such
praise is more than our due, the soul within us rejoices to hear itself
praised.
Like the ark of the covenant Christ's spouse should
be overlaid with gold within and without;(1) she should be the guardian
of the law of the Lord. Just as the ark contained nothing but the
tables of the covenant,(2) so in you there should be no thought of
anything that is outside. For it pleases the Lord to sit in your mind
as He once sat on the mercy-seat and the cherubims.(3) As He sent His
disciples to loose Him the foal of an ass that he might ride on it, so
He sends them to release you from the cares of the world, that leaving
the bricks and straw of Egypt, you may follow Him, the true Moses,
through the wilderness and may enter the land of promise. Let no one
dare to forbid you, neither mother nor sister nor kinswoman nor
brother: "The Lord hath need of you."(4) Should they seek to hinder
you, let them fear the scourges that fell on Pharaoh, who, because he
would not let God's people go that they might serve Him,(5) suffered
the plagues described in Scripture. Jesus entering into the temple cast
out those things which belonged not to the temple. For God is jealous
and will not allow the father's house to be made a den of robbers.(6)
Where money is counted, where doves are sold, where simplicity is
stifled where, that is, a virgin's breast glows with cares of this
world; straightway the veil of the temple is rent,(7) the bridegroom
rises in anger, he says: "Your house is left unto you desolate."(8)
Read the gospel and see how Mary sitting at the feet of the Lord is set
before the zealous Martha. In her anxiety to be hospitable Martha was
preparing a meal for the Lord and His disciples; yet Jesus said to her:
"Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things. But
few things are needful or one.(9) And Mary hath chosen that good part
which shall not be taken away from her."(10) Be then like Mary; prefer
the food of the soul to that of the body. Leave it to your sisters to
run to and fro and to seek how they may filly welcome Christ. But do
you, having once for all cast away the burden of the world, sit at the
Lord's feet and say: "I have found him whom my soul loveth; I will hold
him, I will not let him go."(1) And He will answer: "My dove, my
undefiled is but one; she is the only one of her mother, she is the
choice one of her that bare her."(2) Now the mother of whom this is
said is the heavenly Jerusalem.(3)
25. Ever let the privacy of your chamber guard you;
ever let the Bridegroom sport with you within.(4) Do you pray? You
speak to the Bridegroom. Do you read? He speaks to you. When sleep
overtakes you He will come behind and put His hand through the hole of
the door, and your heart(5) shall be moved for Him; and you will awake
and rise up and say: "I am sick of love."(6) Then He will reply: "A
garden inclosed is my sister, my spouse; a spring shut up, a fountain
sealed."(7)
Go not from home nor visit the daughters of a
strange land, though you have patriarchs for brothers and Israel for a
father. Dinah went out and was seduced.(8) Do not seek the Bridegroom
in the streets; do not go round the comers of the city. For though you
may say: "I will rise now and go about the city: in the streets and in
the broad ways I will seek Him whom my soul loveth," and though you may
ask the watchmen: "Saw ye Him whom my soul loveth?"(9) no one will
deign to answer you. The Bridegroom cannot be found in the streets:
"Strait and narrow is the way which leadeth unto life."(10) So the Song
goes on: "I sought him but I could not find him: I called him but he
gave me no answer."(11) And would that failure to find Him were all.
You will be wounded and stripped, you will lament and say: "The
watchmen that went about the city found me: they smote me, they wounded
me, they took away my veil from me."(12) Now if one who could say: "I
sleep but my heart waketh,"(13) and "A bundle of myrrh is my well
beloved unto me; he shall lie all night betwixt my breasts";(14) if one
who could speak thus suffered so much because she went abroad, what
shall become of us who are but young girls; of us who, when the bride
goes in with the Bridegroom, still remain without? Jesus is jealous. He
does not choose that your face should be seen of others. You may excuse
yourself and say: "I have drawn close my veil, I have covered my face
and I have sought Thee there and have said: 'Tell me, O Thou whom my
soul
33
loveth, where Thou feedest Thy flock, where Thou makest it to rest at
noon. For why should I be as one that is veiled beside the flocks of
Thy companions?'"(1) Yet in spite of your excuses He will be wroth, He
will swell with anger and say: "If thou know not thyself, O thou
fairest among women, go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock and
feed thy goats beside the shepherd's tents."(2) You may be fair, and of
all faces yours may be the dearest to the Bridegroom; yet, unless you
know yourself, and keep your heart with all diligence,(3) unless also
you avoid the eyes of the young men, you will be turned out of My
bride-chamber to feed the goats, which shall be set on the left hand.(4)
26. These things being so, my Eustochium, daughter,
lady, fellow-servant, sister--these names refer the first to your age,
the second to your rank, the third to your religious vocation, the last
to the place which you hold in my affection--hear the words of Isaiah:
"Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors
about thee hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the
indignation" of the Lord "be overpast."(5) Let foolish virgins stray
abroad, but for your part stay at home with the Bridegroom; for if you
shut your door, and, according to the precept of the Gospel,(6) pray to
your Father in secret, He will come and knock, saying: "Behold, I stand
at the door and knock; if any man ... open the door, I will come in to
him, and will sup with him, and he with me."(7) Then straightway you
will eagerly reply: "It is the voice of my beloved that knocketh,
saying, Open to me, my sister, my love, my dove, my undefiled." It is
impossible that you should refuse, and say: "I have put off my coat how
shall I put it on? I have washed my feet; how shall I defile them?"(8)
Arise forthwith and open. Otherwise while you linger He may pass on and
yon may have mournfully to say: "I opened to my beloved, but my beloved
was gone."(9) Why need the doors of your heart be closed to the
Bridegroom? Let them be open to Christ but closed to the devil
according to the saying: "If the spirit of him who hath power rise up
against thee, leave not thy place."(10) Daniel, in that upper story to
which he withdrew when he could no longer continue below, had his
windows open toward Jerusalem.(11) Do you too keep your windows open,
but only on the side where light may enter and whence you may see the
eye of the Lord. Open not those other windows of which the prophet
says: "Death is come up into our windows."(1)
27. You must also be careful to avoid the snare of a
passion for vainglory. "How," Jesus says, "can ye believe which receive
glory one from another?"(2) What an evil that must be the victim of
which cannot believe! Let us rather say: "Thou art my glorying,"(3) and
"He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord,"(4) and "If I yet pleased
men I should not be the servant of Christ,"(5) and "Far be it from me
to glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the
world hath been crucified unto me and I unto the world ;"(6) and once
more: "In God we boast all the day long; my soul shall make her boast
in the Lord."(7) When you do alms, let God alone see you. When you
fast, be of a cheerful countenance.(8) Let your dress be neither too
neat nor too slovenly; neither let it be so remarkable as to draw the
attention of passers-by, and to make men point their fingers at you. Is
a brother dead? Has the body of a sister to be carried to its burial?
Take care lest in too often performing such offices you die yourself.
Do not wish to seem very devout nor more humble than need be, lest you
seek glory by shunning it. For many, who screen from all men's sight
their poverty, charity, and fasting, desire to excite admiration by
their very disdain of it, and strangely seek for praise while they
profess to keep out of its way. From the other disturbing influences
which make men rejoice, despond, hope, and fear I find many free; but
this is a defect which few are without, and he is best whose character,
like a fair skin, is disfigured by the fewest blemishes. I do not think
it necessary to warn you against boasting of your riches, or against
priding yourself on your birth, or against setting yourself up as
superior to others. I know your humility; I know that you can say with
sincerity: "Lord, my heart is not haughty nor mine eyes lofty;"(9) I
know that in your breast as in that of your mother the pride through
which the devil fell has no place. It would be time wasted to write to
you about it; for there is no greater folly than to leach a pupil what
he knows already. But now that you have despised the boastfulness of
the world, do not let the fact inspire you with new boastfulness. Harbor
34
not the secret thought that having ceased to court attention in
garments of gold you may begin to do so in mean attire. And when you
come into a room full of brothers and sisters, do not sit in too low a
place or plead that you are unworthy of a footstool. Do not
deliberately lower your voice as though worn out with fasting; nor,
leaning on the shoulder of another, mimic the tottering gait of one who
is faint. Some women, it is true, disfigure their faces, that they may
appear unto men to fast.(1) As soon as they catch sight of any one they
groan, they look down; they cover up their faces, all but one eye,
which they keep free to see with. Their dress is sombre, their girdles
are of sackcloth, their hands and feet are dirty; only their
stomachs--which cannot be seen--are hot with food. Of these the psalm
is sung daily: "The Lord will scatter the bones of them that please
themselves."(2) Others change their garb and assume the mien of men,
being ashamed of being what they were born to be--women. They cut off
their hair and are not ashamed to look like eunuchs. Some clothe
themselves in goat's hair, and, putting on hoods, think to become
children again by making themselves look like so many owls.(3)
28. But I will not speak only of women. Avoid men,
also, when you see them loaded. with chains and wearing their hair long
like women, contrary to the apostle's precept,(4) not to speak of
beards like those of goats, black cloaks, and bare feet braving the
cold. All these things are tokens of the devil. Such an one Rome
groaned over some time back in Antimus; and Sophronius is a still
more recent instance. Such persons, when they have once gained
admission to the houses of the high-born, and have deceived "silly
women laden with sins, ever learning and never able to come to the
knowledge of the truth,"(5) feign a sad mien and pretend to make long
fasts while at night they feast in secret. Shame forbids me to say
more, for my language might appear more like invective than admonition.
There are others--I speak of those of my own order--who seek the
presbyterate and the diaconate simply that they may be able to see
women with less restraint. Such men think of nothing but their dress;
they use perfumes freely, and see that there are no creases in their
leather shoes. Their curling hair shows traces of the tongs; their
fingers glisten with rings; they walk on tiptoe across a damp road, not
to splash their feet. When you see men acting in this way, think of
them rather as bridegrooms than as clergymen. Certain persons have
devoted the whole of their energies and life to the single object of
knowing the names, houses, and characters of married ladies. I will
here briefly describe the head of the profession, that from the
master's likeness you may recognize the disciples. He rises and goes
forth with the sun; he has the order of his visits duly arranged; he
takes the shortest road; and, troublesome old man that he is, forces
his way almost into the bedchambers of ladies yet asleep. If he sees a
pillow that takes his fancy or an elegant table-cover--or indeed any
article of household furniture--he praises it, looks admiringly at it,
takes it into his hand, and, complaining that he has nothing of the
kind, begs or rather extorts it from the owner. All the women, in fact,
fear to cross the news-carrier of the town. Chastity and fasting are
alike distasteful to him. What he likes is a savory breakfast--say off
a plump young crane such as is commonly called a cheeper. In speech he
is rude and forward, and is always ready to bandy reproaches. Wherever
you turn he is the first man that you see before you. Whatever news is
noised abroad he is either the originator of the rumor or its
magnifier. He changes his horses every hour; and they are so sleek and
spirited that you would take him for a brother of the Thracian king.(1)
29. Many are the stratagems which the wily enemy
employs against us. "The serpent," we are told, "was more subtile than
any beast of the field which the Lord God had made."(2) And the apostle
says: "We are not ignorant of his devices."(3) Neither an affected
shabbiness nor a stylish smartness becomes a Christian. If there is
anything of which you are ignorant, if you have any doubt about
Scripture, ask one whose life commends him, whose age puts him above
suspicion, whose reputation does not belie him; one who may be able to
say: "I have espoused you to one husband that I may present you as a
chaste virgin to Christ." Or if there should be none such able to
explain, it is better to avoid danger at the price of ignorance than to
court it for the sake of learning. Remember that you walk in the midst
of snares, and that many veteran virgins, of a chastity never called in
question, have, on the very threshold of death, let their crowns fall
from their hands.
35
If any of your handmaids share your vocation, do not
lift up yourself against them or pride yourself because you are their
mistress. You have all chosen one Bridegroom you all sing the same
psalms; together you receive the Body of Christ. Why then should your
thoughts be different?(1) You must try to win others, and that you may
attract the more readily you must treat the virgins in your train with
the greatest respect. If you find one of them weak in the faith, be
attentive to her, comfort her, caress her, and make her chastity your
treasure. But if a girl pretends to have a vocation simply because she
desires to escape from service, read aloud to her the words of the
apostle: "It is better to marry than to burn."(2)
Idle persons and busybodies, whether virgins or
widows; such as go from house to house calling on married women and
displaying an unblushing effrontery greater than that of a stage
parasite, cast from you as you would the plague. For "evil
communications corrupt good manners,"(3) and women like these care for
nothing but their lowest appetites. They will often urge you, saying,
"My dear creature, make the best of your advantages, and live while
life is yours," and "Surely you are not laying up money for your
children." Given to wine and wantonness, they instill all manner
of mischief into people's minds, and induce even the most austere
to indulge in enervating pleasures. And "when they have begun to wax
wanton against Christ they will marry, having condemnation because they
have rejected their first faith."(4)
Do not seek to appear over-eloquent, nor trifle with
verse, nor make yourself gay with lyric songs. And do not, out of
affectation, follow the sickly taste(5) of married ladies who, now
pressing their teeth together, now keeping their lips wide apart, speak
with a lisp, and purposely clip their words, because they fancy that to
pronounce them naturally is a mark of country breeding. Accordingly
they find pleasure in what I may call an adultery of the tongue. For
"what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ
with Belial?"(6) How can Horace go with the psalter, Virgil with
the gospels, Cicero with the apostle?(7) Is not a brother made to
stumble if he sees you sitting at meat in an idol's temple?(8) Although
"unto the pure all things are, pure,"(1) and "nothing is to be refused
if it be received with thanksgiving,"(2) still we ought not to drink
the cup of Christ, and, at the same time, the cup of devils.(3) Let me
relate to you the story of my own miserable experience.
30. Many years ago, when for the kingdom of heaven's
sake I had cut myself off from home, parents, sister, relations,
and--harder still--from the dainty food to which I had been accustomed;
and when I was on my way to Jerusalem to wage my warfare, I still could
not bring myself to forego the library which I had formed for myself at
Rome with great care and toil. And so, miserable man that I was, I
would fast only that I might afterwards read Cicero. After many nights
spent in vigil, after floods of tears called from my inmost heart,
after the recollection of my past sins, I would once more take up
Plautus. And when at times I returned to my right mind, and began to
read the prophets, their style seemed rude and repellent. I failed to
see the light with my blinded eyes; but I attributed the fault not to
them, but to the sun. While the old serpent was thus making me his
plaything, about the middle of Lent a deep-seated fever fell upon my
weakened body, and while it destroyed my rest completely--the story
seems hardly credible--it so wasted my unhappy frame that scarcely
anything was left of me but skin and bone. Meantime preparations for my
funeral went on; my body grew gradually colder, and the warmth of life
lingered only in my throbbing breast. Suddenly I was caught up in the
spirit and dragged before the judgment seat of the Judge; and here the
light was so bright, and those who stood around were so radiant, that I
cast myself upon the ground and did not dare to look up. Asked who and
what I was I replied: "I am a Christian." But He who presided said:
"Thou liest, thou art a follower of Cicero and not of Christ. For
'where thy treasure is, there will thy heart be also.'"(4) Instantly I
became dumb, and amid the strokes of the lash--for He had ordered me to
be scourged--I was tortured more severely still by the fire of
conscience, considering with myself that verse, "In the grave who shall
give thee thanks?"(5) Yet for all that I began to cry and to bewail
myself, saying: "Have mercy upon me, O Lord: have mercy upon me." Amid
the sound of the scourges this cry still made itself heard. At last the
bystanders, failing
36
down before the knees of Him who presided, prayed that He would have
pity on my youth, and that He would give me space to repent of my
error. He might still, they urged, inflict torture on me, should I ever
again read the works of the Gentiles. Under the stress of that awful
moment I should have been ready to make even still larger promises than
these. Accordingly I made oath and called upon His name, saying: "Lord,
if ever again I possess worldly books, or if ever again I read such, I
have denied Thee." Dismissed, then, on taking this oath, I returned to
the upper world, and, to the surprise of all, I opened upon them eyes
so drenched with tears that my distress served to convince even the
incredulous. And that this was no sleep nor idle dream, such as those
by which we are often mocked, I call to witness the tribunal before
which I lay, and the terrible judgment which I feared. May it never,
hereafter, be my lot to fall under such an inquisition! I profess that
my shoulders were black and blue, that I felt the bruises long after I
awoke from my sleep, and that thenceforth I read the books of God with
a zeal greater than I had previously given to the books of men.
31. You must also avoid the sin of covetousness, and
this not merely by refusing to seize upon what belongs to others,
for that is punished by the laws of the state, but also by not
keeping your own property, which has now become no longer yours.
"If have not been faithful," the Lord says, "in that which is another
man's, who shall give you that which is your own?"(1) "That which
is another man's" is a quantity of gold or of silver, while "that which
is our own" is the spiritual heritage of which it is elsewhere said:
"The ransom of a man's life is his riches."(2) "No man can serve two
masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other; or else he
will hold to the one and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and
Mammon."(3) Riches, that is; for in the heathen tongue of the Syrians
riches are called mammon. The "thorns" which choke our faith(4) are the
taking thought for our life.(5) Care for the things which the Gentiles
seek after(6) is the root of covetousness.
But you will say: "I am a girl delicately reared,
and I cannot labor with my hands. Suppose that I live to old age and
then fall sick, who will take pity on me?" Hear Jesus speaking to the
apostles: "Take no thought what ye shall eat; nor yet for your body
what ye shall put on. Is not the life more than meat, and the body than
raiment? Behold the fowls of the air: for they sow not, neither do they
reap nor gather into barns; yet your heavenly Father feedeth them."(1)
Should clothing fail you, set the lilies before your eyes. Should
hunger seize you, think of the words in which the poor and hungry are
blessed. Should pain afflict you, read "Therefore I take pleasure in
infirmities," and "There was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the
messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above
measure."(2) Rejoice in all God's judgments; for does not the psalmist
say: "The daughters of Judah rejoiced because of thy judgments, O
Lord"?(3) Let the words be ever on your lips: "Naked came I out
of my mother's womb, and naked shall I return thither;"(4) and "We
brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing
out."(5)
32. To-day you may see women cramming their
wardrobes with dresses, changing their gowns from day to day, and for
all that unable to vanquish the moths. Now and then one more scrupulous
wears out a single dress; yet, while she appears in rags, her boxes are
full. Parchments are dyed purple, gold is melted into lettering,
manuscripts are decked with jewels, while Christ lies at the door naked
and dying. When they hold out a hand to the needy they sound a
trumpet;(4) when they invite to a love-feast(7) they engage a crier. I
lately saw the noblest lady in Rome--I suppress her name, for I am no
satirist--with a band of eunuchs before her in the basilica of the
blessed Peter. She was giving money to the poor, a coin apiece; and
this with her own hand, that she might be accounted more religious.
Hereupon a by no means uncommon incident occurred. An old woman, "full
of years and rags,"(8) ran forward to get a second coin, but when her
turn came she received not a penny but a blow hard enough to draw blood
from her guilty veins.
"The love of money is the root of all evil,"(9) and
the apostle speaks of covetousness as being idolatry.(10) "Seek ye
first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto
you."(11) The Lord will never allow a righteous soul to perish of
hunger.
37
"I have been young," the psalmist says, "and now am old, yet have I not
seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread."(1) Elijah is
fed by ministering ravens.(2) The widow of Zarephath, who with her sons
expected to die the same night, went without food herself that she
might feed the prophet. He who had come to be fed then turned feeder,
for, by a miracle, he filled the empty barrel.(3) The apostle Peter
says: "Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give I thee. In
the name of Jesus Christ rise up and walk."(4) But now many, while they
do not say it in words, by their deeds declare: "Faith and pity have I
none; but such as I have, silver and gold, these I will not give thee."
"Having food and raiment let us be therewith content."(5) Hear the
prayer of Jacob: "If God will be with me and will keep me in this way
that I go, and will give me bread to eat and raiment to put on, then
shall the Lord be my God."(6) He prayed only for things necessary; yet,
twenty years afterwards, he returned to the land of Canaan rich in
substance. and richer still in children.(7) Numberless are the
instances in Scripture which teach men to "Beware of covetousness."(8)
33. As I have been led to touch to the subject--it
shall have a treatise to itself if Christ permit--I will relate what
took place not very many years ago at Nitria. A brother, more thrifty
than covetous, and ignorant that the Lord had been sold for thirty
pieces of silver,(9) left behind him at his death a hundred pieces of
money which he had earned by weaving linen. As there were about five
thousand monks in the neighborhood, living in as many separate cells, a
council was held as to what should be done. Some said that the coins
should be distributed among the poor; others that they should be given
to the church, while others were for sending them hack to the relatives
of the deceased. However, Macarius, Pambo, Isidore and the rest of
those called fathers, speaking by the Spirit, decided that they should
be interred with their owner, with the words: "Thy money perish with
thee."(10) Nor was this too harsh a decision; for so great fear has
fallen upon all throughout Egypt, that it is now a crime to leave after
one a single shilling.
34. As I have mentioned the monks, and know that you
like to hear about holy things, lend an ear to me for a few moments.
There are in Egypt three classes of monks. First, there are the
coenobites,(1) called in their Gentile language Sauses,(2) or, as we
should say, men living in a community.(3) Secondly, there are the
anchorites,(4) who live in the desert, each man by himself, and are so
called because they have withdrawn from human society. Thirdly, there
is the class called Remoboth,(5) a very inferior and little regarded
type, peculiar to my own province,(6) or, at least, originating there.
These live together in twos and threes, but seldom in larger numbers,
and are bound by no rule; but do exactly as they choose. A portion of
their earnings they contribute to a common fund, out of which food is
provided for all. In most cases they reside in cities and strongholds;
and, as though it were their workmanship which is holy, and not their
life, all that they sell is extremely dear. They often quarrel because
they are unwilling, while supplying their own food, to be subordinate
to others. It is true that they compete with each other in fasting;
they make what should be a private concern an occasion for a triumph.
In everything they study effect: their sleeves are loose, their boots
bulge, their garb is of the coarsest. They are always sighing, or
visiting virgins, or sneering at the clergy; yet when a holiday comes,
they make themselves sick--they eat so much.
35. Having then rid ourselves of these as of so many
plagues, let us come to that more numerous class who live together, and
who are, as we have said, called Coenobites. Among these the first
principle of union is to obey superiors and to do whatever they
command. They are divided into bodies of ten and of a hundred, so that
each tenth man has authority over nine others, while the hundredth has
ten of these officers under him. They live apart from each other, in
separate cells. According to their rule, no monk may visit another
before the ninth hour;(7) except the deans(8) above mentioned, whose
office is to comfort, with soothing words, those whose thoughts
disquiet them. After the ninth hour they meet together to sing psalms
and read the Scriptures according to usage. Then when the prayers have
ended and all have sat down, one called the
38
father stands up among them and begins to expound the portion of the
day. While he is speaking the silence is profound; no man ventures to
look at his neighbor or to clear his throat. The speaker's praise is in
the weeping of his hearers.(1) Silent tears roll down their cheeks, but
not a sob escapes from their lips. Yet when he begins to speak of
Christ's kingdom, and of future bliss, and of the glory which is to
come, every one may be noticed saying to himself, with a gentle sigh
and uplifted eyes: "Oh, that I had wings like a dove! For then would I
fly away and be at rest."(2) After this the meeting breaks up and each
company of ten goes with its father to its own table. This they take in
turns to serve each for a week at a time. No noise is made over the
food; no one talks while eating. Bread, pulse and greens form their
fare, and the only seasoning that they use is salt. Wine is given only
to the old, who with the children often have a special meal prepared
for them to repair the ravages of age and to save the young from
premature decay. When the meal is over they all rise together, and,
after singing a hymn, return to their dwellings. There each one talks
till evening with his comrade thus: "Have you noticed so-and-so? What
grace he has How silent he is! How soberly he walks!" If any one is
weak they comfort him; or if he is fervent in love to God, they
encourage him to fresh earnestness. And because at night, besides the
public prayers, each man keeps vigil in his own chamber, they go round
all the cells one by one, and putting their ears to the doors,
carefully ascertain what their occupants are doing. If they find a monk
slothful, they do not scold him; but, dissembling what they know, they
visit him more frequently, and at first exhort rather than compel him
to pray more. Each day has its allotted task, and this being given in
to the dean, is by him brought to the steward. This latter, once a
month, gives a scrupulous account to their common father. He also
tastes the dishes when they are cooked, and, as no one is allowed to
say, "I am without a tunic or a cloak or a couch of rushes," he so
arranges that no one need ask for or go without what he wants. In case
a monk falls ill, he is moved to a more spacious chamber, and there so
attentively nursed by the old men, that he misses neither the luxury of
cities nor a mother's kindness. Every Lord's day they spend their whole
time in prayer and reading; indeed, when they have finished their
tasks, these are their usual occupations. Every day they learn by heart
a portion of Scripture. They keep the same fasts all the year round,
but in Lent they are allowed to live more strictly. After Whitsuntide
they exchange their evening meal for a midday one; both to satisfy the
tradition of the church and to avoid overloading their stomachs with a
double supply of food.
A similar description is given of the Essenes by
Philo,(1) Plato's imitator; also by Josephus,(2) the Greek Livy, in his
narrative of the Jewish captivity.
36. As my present subject is virgins, I have said
rather too much about monks. I will pass on, therefore, to the third
class, called anchorites, who go from the monasteries into the deserts,
with nothing but bread and salt. Paul(3) introduced this way of life;
Antony made it famous, and--to go farther back still--John the Baptist
set the first example of it. The prophet Jeremiah describes one such in
the words: "It is good for a man that he bear the yoke in his youth. He
sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him.
He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him, he is filled full with
reproach. For the Lord will not east off forever."(4) The struggle of
the anchorites and their life--in the flesh, yet not of the flesh--I
will, if you wish, explain to you at some other time. I must now return
to the subject of covetousness, which I left to speak of the monks.
With them before your eyes you will despise, not only gold and silver
in general, but earth itself and heaven. United to Christ, you will
sing, "The Lord is my portion."(5)
37. Farther, although the apostle bids us to "pray
without ceasing,"(6) and although to the saints their very sleep is a
supplication, we ought to have fixed hours of prayer, that if we are
detained by work, the time may remind us of our duty. Prayers, as every
one knows, ought to be said at the third, sixth and ninth hours, at
dawn and at evening.(7) No meal should be begun without prayer, land
before leaving table thanks should be returned to the Creator. We
should rise two or three times in the night, and go over the parts of
Scripture which we know by heart. When we leave the roof which shelters
us, prayer should be our armor; and
39
when we return from the street we should pray before we sit down, and
not give the frail body rest until the soul is fed. In every act we do,
in every step we take, let our hand trace the Lord's cross. Speak
against nobody, and do not slander your mother's son.(1) "Who art thou
that judgest the servant of another? To his own lord he standeth or
falleth; yea, he shall be made to stand, for the Lord hath power to
make him stand."(2) If you have fasted two or three days, do not think
yourself better than others who do not fast. You fast and are angry;
another eats and wears a smiling face. You work off your irritation and
hunger in quarrels. He uses food in moderation and gives God thanks.(3)
Daily Isaiah cries: "Is it such a fast that I have chosen, saith the
Lord?"(4) and again: "In the day of your fast ye find your own
pleasure, and oppress all your laborers. Behold ye fast for strife and
contention, and to smite with the fist of wickedness. How fast ye unto
me?"(5) What kind of fast can his be whose wrath is such that not only
does the night go down upon it, but that even the moon's changes leave
it unchanged?
38. Look to yourself and glory in your own success
and not in others' failure. Some women care for the flesh and reckon up
their income and daily expenditure: such are no fit models for you.
Judas was a traitor, but the eleven apostles did not waver. Phygellus
and Alexander made shipwreck; but the rest continued to run the race of
faith.(6) Say not: "So-and-so enjoys her own property, she is honored
of men, her brothers and sisters come to see her. Has she then ceased
to be a virgin?" In the first place, it is doubtful if she is a virgin.
For "the Lord seeth not as man seeth; for man looketh upon the outward
appearance, but the Lord looketh on the heart."(7) Again, she may be a
virgin in body and not in spirit. According to the apostle, a true
virgin is "holy both in body and in spirit."(8) Lastly, let her glory
in her own way. Let her override Paul's opinion and live in the
enjoyment of her good things But you and I must follow better examples.
Set before you the blessed Mary, whose surpassing
purity made her meet to be the mother of the Lord. When the angel
Gabriel came down to her, in the form of a man, and said: "Hail, thou
that art highly favored; the Lord is with thee,"(9) she was
terror-stricken and unable to reply, for she had never been saluted by
a man before. But, on learning who he was, she spoke, and one who had
been afraid of a man conversed fearlessly with an angel. Now you, too,
may be the Lord's mother. "Take thee a great roll and write in it with
a man's pen Maher-shalal-hash-baz."(1) And when you have gone to the
prophetess, and have conceived in the womb, and have brought forth a
son,(2) say: "Lord, we have been with child by thy fear, we have been
in pain, we have brought forth the spirit of thy salvation, which we
have wrought upon the earth."(3) Then shall your Son reply: "Behold my
mother and my brethren."(4) And He whose name you have so recently
inscribed upon the table of your heart, and have written with a pen
upon its renewed surface(5)--He, after He has recovered the spoil from
the enemy, and has spoiled principalities and powers, nailing them to
His cross(6)--having been miraculously conceived, grows up to manhood;
and, as He becomes older, regards you no longer as His mother, but as
His bride. To be as the martyrs, or as the apostles, or as Christ,
involves a hard struggle, but brings with it a great reward.
All such efforts are only of use when they are made
within the church's pale;(7) we must celebrate the passover in the one
house,(8) we must enter the ark with Noah,(9) we must take refuge from
the fall of Jericho with the justified harlot, Rahab.(16) Such virgins
as there are said to be among the heretics and among the followers of
the infamous Manes(11) must be considered, not virgins, but
prostitutes. For if--as they allege--the devil is the author of the
body, how can they honor that which is fashioned by their foe? No; it
is because they know that the name virgin brings glory with it, that
they go about as wolves in sheep's clothing.(12) As antichrist pretends
to be Christ, such virgins assume an honorable name, that they
may the better cloak a discreditable life. Rejoice, my sister; rejoice,
my daughter; rejoice, my virgin; for you have resolved to be, in
reality, that which others insincerely feign.
40
39. The things that I have here set forth will seem
hard to her who loves not Christ. But one who has come to regard all
the splendor of the world as off-scourings, and to hold all things
under the sun as vain, that he may win Christ;(1) one who has died with
his Lord and risen again, and has crucified the flesh with its
affections and lusts;(2) he will boldly cry out: "Who shall separate us
from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or
persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?" and again:
"I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels, nor
principalities nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor
height, nor depth, nor any other creature shall be able to separate us
from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus, our Lord."(3)
For our salvation the Son of God is made the Son of
Man.(4) Nine months He awaits His birth in the womb, undergoes the most
revolting conditions,(5) and comes forth covered with blood, to be
swathed in rags and covered with caresses. He who shuts up the world in
His fist(6) is contained in the narrow l limits of a manger. I say
nothing of the thirty years during which he lives in obscurity,
satisfied with the poverty of his parents.(7) When He is scourged He
holds His peace; when He is crucified, He prays for His crucifiers.
"What shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits towards me? I
will take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord.
Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints."(8) The
only fitting return that we can make to Him is to give blood for blood;
and, as we are redeemed by the blood of Christ, gladly to lay down our
lives for our Redeemer. What saint has ever won his crown without first
contending for it? Righteous Abel is murdered. Abraham is in danger of
losing his wife. And, as I must not enlarge my book unduly, seek for
yourself: you will find that all holy men have suffered adversity.
Solomon alone lived in luxury and perhaps it was for this reason that
he fell. For "whom the Lord loveth, He chasteneth, and scourgeth every
son whom He receiveth."(9) Which is best--for a short time to do
battle, to carry stakes for the palisades, to bear arms, to faint under
heavy bucklers, that ever afterwards we may rejoice as victors? or to
become slaves forever, just because we cannot endure for a single
hour?(10)
40. Love finds nothing hard; no task is difficult to
the eager. Think of all that Jacob bore for Rachel, the wife who had
been promised to him. "Jacob," the Scripture says, "served seven years
for Rachel. And they seemed unto him but a few days for the love he had
to her."(1) Afterwards he himself tells us what he had to undergo. "In
the day the drought consumed me and the frost by night."(2) So we must
love Christ and always seek His embraces. Then everything difficult
will seem easy; all things long we shall account short; and smitten
with His arrows,(3) we shall say every moment: "Woe is me that I have
prolonged my pilgrimage."(4) For "the sufferings of this present time
are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in
us."(5) For "tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and
experience hope; and hope maketh not ashamed."(6) When your lot seems
hard to bear read Paul's second epistle to the Corinthians: "In labors
more abundant; in stripes above measure; in prisons more frequent; in
deaths oft. Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one;
thrice was I beaten with rods; once was I stoned; thrice I suffered
shipwreck; a night and a day I have been in the deep; in journeyings
often, in perils of waters, in perils of robbers, in perils by mine own
countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils
in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false
brethren, in weariness and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger
and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness."(7) Which of us
can claim the veriest fraction of the virtues here enumerated? Yet it
was these which afterwards made him bold to say: "I have finished my
course, I have kept the faith. Henceforth there is laid up for me a
crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous Judge, shall give
me at that day."(8)
But we, if our food is less appetizing than usual,
get sullen, and fancy that we do God a favor by drinking watered wine.
And if the water brought to us is a trifle too warm, we break the cup
and overturn the table and scourge the servant in fault until blood
comes. "The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take
it by force."(9) Still, unless you use force you will never seize the
kingdom of heaven. Unless you knock importunately you will never
receive the sacramental bread.(10) Is it not truly violence,
41
think you, when the flesh desires to be as God and ascends to the place
whence angels have fallen(1) to judge angels?
41. Emerge, I pray you, for a while from your
prison-house, and paint before your eyes the reward of your present
toil, a reward which "eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it
entered into the heart of man."(2) What will be the glory of that day
when Mary, the mother of the Lord, shall come to meet you, accompanied
by her virgin choirs! When, the Red Sea past and Pharaoh drowned with
his host, Miriam, Aaron's sister, her timbrel in her hand, shall chant
to the answering women: "Sing ye unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed
gloriously; the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea."(3)
Then shall Thecla(4) fly with joy to embrace you. Then shall your
Spouse himself come forward and say: "Rise up, my love, my fair one,
and come away, for lo! the winter is past, the rain is over and
gone."(5) Then shall the angels say with wonder: "Who is she that
looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun?"(6)
"The daughters shall see you and bless you; yea, the queens shall
proclaim and the concubines shall praise you."(7) And, after these, yet
another company of chaste women will meet you. Sarah will come with the
wedded; Anna, the I daughter of Phanuel, with the widows. In the one
band you will find your natural mother and in the other your
spiritual.(8) The one will rejoice in having borne, the other will
exult in having taught you. Then truly will the Lord ride upon his
ass,(9) and thus enter the heavenly Jerusalem. Then the little ones(of
whom, in Isaiah, the Saviour says: "Behold, I and the children whom the
Lord hath given me"(10) ) shall lift up palms of victory and shall sing
with one voice: "Hosanna in the highest, blessed is he that cometh in
the name of the Lord, hosanna in the highest."(11) Then shall the
"hundred and forty and four thousand "hold their harps before the
throne and before the elders and shall sing the new song. And no man
shall have power to learn that song save those for whom it is
appointed. "These are they which were not defiled with women; for they
are virgins. These are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he
goeth."(12) As often as this life's idle show tries to charm you; as
often as you see in the world some vain pomp, transport yourself in
mind to Paradise, essay to be now what you will be hereafter, and you
will hear your Spouse say: "Set me as a sunshade in thine heart and as
a seal upon thine arm."(1) And then, strengthened in body as well as in
mind, you, too, will cry aloud and say: "Many waters cannot quench
love, neither can the floods drown it."(2)
LETTER XXIII.
TO MARCELLA.
Jerome writes to Marcella to console her for the
loss of a friend who, like herself, was the head of a religious society
at Rome. The news of Lea's death had first reached Marcella when she
was engaged with Jerome in the study of the 73d psalm. Later in the day
he writes this letter in which, after extolling Lea, he contrasts her
end with that of the consul-elect, Vettius Agorius Praetextatus,
a man of great ability and integrity, whom he declares to be now "in
Tartarus." Written at Rome in 384 A.D.
1. To-day, about the third hour, just as I was
beginning to read with you the seventy-second psalm(3)--the first, that
is, of the third books-and to explain that its title belonged partly to
the second book and partly to the third--the previous book, I mean,
concluding with the words "the prayers of David the son of Jesse are
ended,"(4) and the next commencing with the words "a psalm of
Asaph"(5)--and just as I had come on the passage in which the righteous
man declares: "If I say, I will speak thus; behold I should offend
against the generation of thy children,"(6) a verse which is
differently rendered in our Latin version:(7)--suddenly the news came
that our most saintly friend Lea had departed from the body. As was
only natural, you turned deadly pale; for there are few persons, if
any, who do not burst into tears when the earthen vessel breaks."
But if you wept it was not from doubt as to her future lot, but
only because you had not rendered to her the last sad offices which are
due to the dead. Finally, as we were still conversing together, a
second message informed us that her remains had been already conveyed
to Ostia.
2. You may ask what is the use of repeating all
this. I will reply in the apostle's words, "much every way."(3) First,
it shows that all must hail with joy the release of a soul which has
trampled Satan under foot, and won for itself, at last, a crown of
42
tranquillity. Secondly, it gives me an opportunity of briefly
describing her life. Thirdly, it enables me to assure you that the
consul-elect,(1) that detractor of his age,(2) is now in Tartarus.(3)
Who can sufficiently eulogize our dear Lea's mode of
living? So complete was her conversion to the Lord that, becoming the
head of a monastery, she showed herself a true mother(4) to the virgins
in it, wore coarse sackcloth instead of soft raiment, passed sleepless
nights in prayer, and instructed her companions even more by example
than by precept. So great was her humility that she, who had once been
the mistress of many, was accounted the servant of all; and certainly,
the less she was reckoned an earthly mistress the more she became a
servant of Christ. She was careless of her dress, neglected her hair,
and ate only the coarsest food. Still, in all that she did, she avoided
ostentation that she might not have her reward in this world. (5)
3. Now, therefore, in return for her short toil, Lea
enjoys everlasting felicity; she is welcomed into the choirs of the
angels; she is comforted in Abraham's bosom. And, as once the beggar
Lazarus saw the rich man, for all his purple, lying in torment, so does
Lea see the consul, not now in his triumphal robe but clothed in
mourning, and asking for a drop of water from her little finger.(6) How
great a change have we here! A few days ago the highest dignitaries of
the city walked before him as he ascended the ramparts of the capitol
like a general celebrating a triumph; the Roman people leapt up to
welcome and applaud him, and at the news of his death the whole city
was moved. Now he is desolate and naked, a prisoner in the foulest
darkness, and not, as his unhappy wife(7) falsely asserts, set in the
royal abode of the milky way.(8) On the other hand Lea, who was always
shut up in her one closet, who seemed poor and of little worth, and
whose life was accounted madness,(9) now follows Christ and sings,
"Like as we have heard, so have we seen in the city of our God."(10)
4. And now for the moral of all this, which, with
tears and groans, I conjure you to remember. While we run the way of
this world, we must not clothe ourselves with two coats, that is, with
a twofold faith, or burthen ourselves with leathern shoes, that is,
with dead works; we must not allow scrips filled with money to weigh us
down, or lean upon the staff of worldly power.(1) We must not seek to
possess both Christ and the world. No; things eternal must take the
place of things transitory;(2) and since, physically speaking, we daily
anticipate death, if we wish for immortality we must realize that we
are but mortal.
LETTER XXIV.
TO MARCELLA.
Concerning the virgin Asella. Dedicated to God
before her birth, Marcella's sister had been made a church-virgin at
the age of ten. From that time she had lived a life of the severest
asceticism, first as a member and then as the head of Marcella's
community upon the Aventine. Jerome, who subsequently wrote her a
letter (XLV.) on his departure from Rome, now holds her up as a model
to be admired and imitated. Written at Rome A.D. 384.
1. Let no one blame my letters for the eulogies and
censures which are contained in them. To arraign sinners is to admonish
those in like case, and to praise the virtuous is to quicken the zeal
of those who wish to do right. The day before yesterday I spoke to you
concerning Lea of blessed memory,(3) and I had hardly done so, when I
was pricked in my conscience. It would be wrong for me, I thought, to
ignore a virgin after speaking of one who, as a widow, held a lower
place. Accordingly, in my present letter, I mean to give you a brief
sketch of the life of our dear Asella. Please do not read it to her;
for she is sure to be displeased with eulogies of which she is herself
the object. Show it rather to the young girls of your acquaintance,
that they may guide themselves by her example, and may take her
behavior as the pattern of a perfect life.
2. I pass over the facts that, before her birth, she
was blessed while still in her mother's womb, and that, virgin-like,
she was delivered to her father in a dream in a bowl of shining glass
brighter than a mirror. And I say nothing of her consecration to the
blessed life of virginity, a ceremony which took place when she was
hardly more than ten years old, a mere babe still wrapped in swaddling
clothes. For all that comes before works should be counted of grace;(4)
although, doubtless, God foreknew the future when He sanc-
43
titled Jeremiah as yet unborn,(1) when He made John to leap in his
mother's womb,(2) and when, before the foundation of the world, He set
apart Paul to preach the gospel of His son.(3)
3. I come now to the life which after her twelfth
year she, by her own exertion, chose, laid hold of, held fast to,
entered upon, and fulfilled. Shut up in her narrow cell she roamed
through paradise. Fasting was her recreation and hunger her
refreshment. If she took food it was not from love of eating, but
because of bodily exhaustion; and the bread and salt and cold water to
which she restricted herself sharpened her appetite more than they
appeased it.
But I have almost forgotten to mention that of which
I should have spoken first. When her resolution was still fresh she
took her gold necklace made in the lamprey pattern (so called because
bars of metal are linked together so as to form a flexible chain), and
sold it without her parents' knowledge. Then putting on a dark dress
such as her mother had never been willing that she should wear, she
concluded her pious enterprise by consecrating herself forthwith to the
Lord. She thus showed her relatives that they need hope to wring no
farther concessions from one who, by her very dress, had condemned the
world.
4. To go on with my story, her ways were quiet and
she lived in great privacy. In fact, she rarely went abroad or spoke to
a man. More wonderful still, much as she loved her virgin sister,(4)
she did not care to see her. She worked with her own hands, for she
knew that it was written: "If any will not work neither shall he
eat."(5) To the Bridegroom she spoke constantly in prayer and psalmody.
She hurried to the martyrs' shrines unnoticed. Such visits gave her
pleasure, and the more so because she was never recognized. All the
year round she observed a continual fast, remaining without food for
two or three days! at a time; but when Lent came she hoisted--if I may
so speak--every stitch of canvas and fasted well-nigh from week's end
to week's end with "a cheerful countenance."(5) What would
perhaps be incredible, were it not that "with God all things are
possible,"(7) is that she lived this life until her fiftieth year
without weakening her digestion or bringing on herself the pain of
colic. Lying on the dry ground did not affect her limbs, and the rough
sackcloth that she wore failed to make her skin either foul or rough.
With a sound body and a still sounder soup she sought all her delight
in solitude, and found for herself a monkish hermitage in the centre of
busy Rome.
5. You are better acquainted with all this than I
am, and the few details that I have given I have learned from you. So
intimate are you with Asella that you have seen, with your own eyes,
her holy knees hardened like those of a camel from the frequency of her
prayers. I merely set forth what I can glean from you. She is alike
pleasant in her serious moods and serious in her pleasant ones: her
manner, while winning, is always grave, and while grave is always
winning. Her pale face indicates continence but does not betoken
ostentation. Her speech is silent and her silence is speech. Her pace
is neither too fast nor too slow. Her demeanor is always the same. She
disregards refinement and is careless about her dress. When she does
attend to it it is without attending. So entirely consistent has her
life been that here in Rome. the centre of vain shows, wanton license,
and idle pleasure, where to be humble is to be held spiritless, the
good praise her conduct and the bad do not venture to impugn it. Let
widows and virgins imitate her, let wedded wives make much of her, let
sinful women fear her, and let bishops(2) look up to her.
LETTER XXV.
TO MARCELLA.
An explanation of the ten names given to God in the
Hebrew Scriptures. The ten names are El, Elohim, Sabaoth, Elion, Asher
yeheyeh (Ex. iii. 14), Adonai, Jah, the tetragram JHVH, and Shaddai.
Written at Rome 384 A.D.
LETTER XXVI.
TO MARCELLA.
An explanation of certain Hebrew words which have
been left untranslated in the versions. The words are Alleluia, Amen,
Maran atha. Written at Rome 384 A.D.
LETTER XXVII.
TO MARCELLA.
In this letter Jerome defends himself against the
charge of having altered the text of Scripture, and shows that he has
merely brought the Latin Version of the N.T. into agreement with the
Greek original. Written at Rome 384 A.D.
1. After I had written my former letter,(3)
containing a few remarks on some Hebrew words, a report suddenly
reached me that
44
certain contemptible creatures were deliberately assailing me with the
charge that I had endeavored to correct passages in the gospels,
against the authority of the ancients and the opinion of the whole
world. Now, though I might--as far as strict right goes--treat these
persons with contempt (it is idle to play the lyre for an ass(1)), yet,
lest they should follow their usual habit and reproach me with
superciliousness, let them take my answer as follows: I am not so
dull-wilted nor so coarsely ignorant (qualities which they take for
holiness, calling themselves the disciples of fishermen as if men were
made holy by knowing nothing)--I am not, I repeat, so ignorant as to
suppose that any of the Lord's words is either in need of correction or
is not divinely inspired; but the Latin manuscripts of the Scriptures
are proved to be faulty by the variations which all of them exhibit,
and my object has been to restore them to the form of the Greek
original, from which my detractors do not deny that they have been
translated. If they dislike water drawn from the clear spring, let them
drink of the muddy streamlet, and when they come to read the
Scriptures. let them lay aside(2) the keen eye which they turn on woods
frequented by game-birds and waters abounding in shellfish. Easily
satisfied in this instance alone, let them, if they will, regard the
words of Christ as rude sayings, albeit that over these so many great
intellects have labored for so many ages rather to divine than to
expound the meaning of each single word. Let them charge the great
apostle with want of literary skill, although it is said of him that
much learning made him mad.(3)
2. I know that as you read these words you will knit
your brows, and fear that my freedom of speech is sowing the seeds of
fresh quarrels; and that, if you could, you would gladly put your
finger on my mouth to prevent me from even speaking of things which
others do not blush to do. But, I ask you, wherein have I used too
great license? Have I ever embellished my dinner plates with engravings
of idols? Have I ever, at a Christian banquet, set before the eyes of
virgins the polluting spectacle of Satyrs embracing bacchanals? or have
I ever assailed any one in too bitter terms? Have I ever complained of
beggars turned millionaires? Have I ever censured heirs for the
funerals which they have given to their benefactors?(4) The one thing
that I have unfortunately said has been that virgins ought to live more
in the company of women than of men,(1) and by this I have made the
whole city look scandalized and caused every one to point at me the
finger of scorn. "They that hate me without a cause are more than the
hairs of mine head,"(2) and I am become "a proverb to them."(3) Do you
suppose after this that I will now say anything rash?
3. But "when I set the wheel rolling I began to form
a wine flagon; how comes it that a waterpot is the result?"(4) Lest
Horace laugh at me I come back to my two-legged asses, and din into
their ears, not the music of the lute, but the blare of the trumpet.(5)
They may say if they will, "rejoicing in hope; serving the time," but
we will say" rejoicing in hope; serving the Lord."(6) They may see fit
to receive an accusation against a presbyter unconditionally; but we
will say in the words of Scripture, "Against an eider(7) receive not an
accusation, but before two or three witnesses. Them that sin rebuke
before all."(8) They may choose to read, "It is a man's saying, and
worthy of all acceptation;" we are content to err with the Greeks, that
is to say with the apostle himself, who spoke Greek. Our version,
therefore, is, it is "a faithful saying, and worthy of all
acceptation."(9) Lastly, let them take as much pleasure as they please
in their Gallican "geldings;"(10) we will be satisfied with the simple
"ass" of Zechariah, loosed from its halter and made ready for the
Saviour's service, which received the Lord on its back, and so
fulfilled Isaiah's prediction: "Blessed is he that soweth beside all
waters, where the ox and the ass tread under foot."(11)
LETTER XXVIII.
TO MARCELLA.
An explanation of the Hebrew word Selah. This word,
rendered by the LXX. <greek>diayalma</greek> and by Aquila
<greek>aei</greek>, was as much a crux in Jerome's day as
it is in ours. "Some," he writes, "make it a 'change of metre,' others
'a pause for breath,' others 'the beginning of a new subject.'
According to yet others it has something to do with rhythm or marks a
burst of instrumental music." Jerome himself inclines to follow Aquila
and Origen, who make the word mean "forever," and suggests that it
betokens completion, like the "explicit" or "feliciter" in contemporary
Latin MSS. Written at Rome A.D. 384.
45
LETTER XXIX.
TO MARCELLA.
An explanation of the Hebrew words Ephod bad (1 Sam.
ii. 18) and Teraphim (Judges xvii. 5).Written at Rome to Marcella, also
at Rome A.D. 384.
LETTER XXX.
TO PAULA.
Some account of the so-called alphabetical psalms
(XXXVII., CXI., CXII., CXIX., CXLV.). After explaining the mystical
meaning of the alphabet, Jerome goes on thus: "What honey is sweeter
than to know the wisdom of God? others, if they will, may possess
riches, drink from a jewelled cup, shine in silks, and try in vain to
exhaust their wealth in the most varied pleasures. Our riches are to
meditate in the law of the Lord day and night,(1) to knock at the
closed door,(2) to receive the 'three loaves' of the Trinity,(3) and,
when the Lord goes before us, to walk upon the water of the world."(4)
Written at Rome A.D. 384.
LETTER XXXI.
TO EUSTOCHIUM.
Jerome writes to thank Eustochium for some presents
sent to him by her on the festival of St. Peter. He also moralizes on
the mystical meaning of the articles sent. The letter should be
compared with Letter XLIV., of which the theme is similar. Written at
Rome in 384 A.D. (on St. Peter's Day).
1. Doves, bracelets, and a letter are outwardly but
small gifts to receive from a virgin, but the action which has prompted
them enhances their value. And since honey may not be offered in
sacrifice to God,(5) you have shown skill in taking off their overmuch
sweetness and making them pungent--if I may so say--with a dash of
pepper. For nothing that is simply pleasurable or merely sweet can
please God. Everything must have in it a sharp seasoning of truth.
Christ's passover must be eaten with bitter herbs.(6)
2. It is true that a festival such as the
birthday(7) of Saint Peter should be seasoned with more gladness than
usual; still our merriment must not forget the limit set by Scripture,
and we must not stray too far from the boundary of our
wrestling-ground. Your presents, indeed, remind me of the sacred
volume, for in it Ezekiel decks Jerusalem with bracelets,(8) Baruch
receives letters from Jeremiah,(9) and the Holy Spirit descends in the
form of a dove at the baptism of Christ.(10) But to give you, too, a
sprinkling of pepper and to remind you of my former letter,(11) I send
you to-day this three-fold warning. Cease not to adorn yourself with
good works--the true bracelets of a Christian woman.(1) Rend not the
letter written on your heart(2) as the profane king cut with his
penknife that delivered to him by Baruch.(3) Let not Hosea say to you
as to Ephraim, "Thou art like a silly dove."(4)
My words are too harsh, you will say, and hardly
suitable to a festival like the present. If so, you have provoked me to
it by the nature of your own gifts. So long as you put bitter with
sweet, you must expect the same from me, sharp words that is, as well
as praise.
3. However, I do not wish to make light of your
gifts, least of all the basket of fine cherries, blushing with such a
virgin modesty that I can fancy them freshly gathered by Lucullus(5)
himself. For it was he who first introduced the fruit at Rome after his
conquest of Pontus and Armenia; and the cherry tree is so called
because he brought it from Cerasus. Now as the Scriptures do not
mention cherries, but do speak of a basket of figs,(6) I will use these
instead to point my moral. May you be made of fruits such as those
which grow before God's temple and of which He says," Behold they are
good, very good."(7) The Saviour likes nothing that is half and half,
and, while he welcomes the hot and does not shun the cold, he tells us
in the Apocalypse that he will spew the lukewarm out of his mouth.(8)
Wherefore we must be careful to celebrate our holy day not so much with
abundance of food as with exultation of spirit. For it is altogether
unreasonable to wish to honor a martyr by excess who himself, as you
know, pleased God by fasting. When you take food always recollect that
eating should be followed by reading, and also by prayer. And if,
by taking this course, you displease some, repeat to yourself the words
of the Apostle: "If I yet pleased men I should not be the servant of
Christ"(9)
LETTER XXXII.
TO MARCELLA.
Jerome writes that he is busy collating Aquila's
Greek version of the Old Testament with the Hebrew, inquires after
Marcella's mother, and forwards the two preceding letters (XXX.,
XXXI.). Written at Rome in 384 A.D.
1. There are two reasons for the shortness of this
letter, one that its bearer is impatient
46
to start, and the other that I am too busy to waste time on trifles.
You ask what business can be so urgent as to stop me from a chat on
paper. Let me tell you, then, that for some time past I have been
comparing Aquila's version(1) of the Old Testament with the scrolls of
the Hebrew, to see if from hatred to Christ the synagogue has changed
the text; and--to speak frankly to a friend--I have found several
variations which confirm our faith. After having exactly revised the
prophets, Solomon,(2) the psalter, and the books of Kings, I am now
engaged on Exodus (called by the Jews, from its opening words, Eleh
shemoth(3) ), and when I have finished this I shall go on to Leviticus.
Now you see why I can let no claim for a letter withdraw me from my
work. However, as I do not wish my friend Currentius(4) to run
altogether in vain, I have tacked on to this little talk two letters(5)
which I am sending to your sister Paula, and to her dear child
Eustochium. Read these, and if you find them instructive or pleasant,
take what I have said to them as meant for you also.
2. I hope that Albina, your mother and mine, is
well. In bodily health, I mean, for I doubt not of her spiritual
welfare. Pray salute her for me, and cherish her with double affection,
both as a Christian and as a mother.
LETTER XXXIII.
TO PAULA.
A fragment of a letter in which Jerome institutes a
comparison between the industry as writers of M. T. Varro and Origen.
It is noteworthy as passing an unqualified eulogium upon Origen, which
contrasts strongly with the tone adopted by the writer in subsequent
years (see, e.g., Letter LXXXIV.). Its date is probably 384 A.D.
1. Antiquity marvels at Marcus Terentius Varro,(6)
because of the countless books which he wrote for Latin readers; and
Greek writers are extravagant in their praise of their man of brass,(7)
because he has written more works than one of us could so much as copy.
But since Latin ears would find a list of Greek writings tiresome, I
shall confine myself to the Latin Varro. I shall try to show that we of
to-day are sleeping the sleep of Epimenides,(1) and devoting to the
amassing of riches the energy which our predecessors gave to sound, if
secular, learning.
2. Varro's writings include forty-five books of
antiquities, four concerning the life of the Roman people.
3. But why, you ask me, have I thus mentioned Varro
and the man of brass? Simply to bring to your notice our Christian man
of brass, or, rather, man of adamant(2)--Origen, I mean--whose zeal for
the study of Scripture has fairly earned for him this latter name.
Would you learn what monuments of his genius he has left us? The
following list exhibits them. His writings comprise thirteen books on
Genesis, two books of Mystical Homilies, notes on Exodus, notes on
Leviticus, **** also single books,(3) four books on First Principles,
two books on the Resurrection, two dialogues on the same subject.(4)
4. So, you see, the labors of this one man have
surpassed those of all previous writers, Greek and Latin. Who has ever
managed to read all that he has written? Yet what reward have his
exertions brought him? He stands condemned by his bishop, Demetrius,(5)
only the bishops of Palestine, Arabia, Phenicia, and Achaia dissenting.
Imperial Rome consents to his condemnation, and even convenes a senate
to censure him,(6) not--as the rabid hounds who now pursue him
cry--because of the novelty or heterodoxy of his doctrines, but because
men could not tolerate the incomparable eloquence and knowledge which,
when once he opened his lips, made others seem dumb.
5. I have written the above quickly and
incautiously, by the light of a poor lantern. You will see why, if you
think of those who to-day represent Epicurus and Aristippus.(7)
47
LETTER XXXIV.
TO MARCELLA.
In reply to a request from Marcella for information
concerning two phrases in Ps. cxxvii. ("bread of sorrow," v. 2, and
"children of the shaken off," A.V. "of the youth," v. 4). Jerome, after
lamenting that Origen's notes on the psalm are no longer extant, gives
the following explanations:
The Hebrew phrase "bread of sorrow" is rendered by
the LXX. "bread of idols"; by Aquila, "bread of troubles"; by
Symmachus, "bread of misery." Theodotion follows the LXX. So does
Origen's Fifth Version, The Sixth renders "bread of error." In support
of the LXX, the word used here is in Ps. cxv. 4, translated "idols."
Either the troubles of life are meant or else the tenets of heresy.
With the second phrase he deals at greater length.
After showing that Hilary of Poitiers's view (viz. that the persons
meant are the apostles, who were told to shake the dust off their feet,
Matt. x. 14) is untenable and would require "shakers off" to be
substituted for "shaken off," Jerome reverts to the Hebrew as before
and declares that the true rendering is that of Symmachus and
Theodotion, viz. "children of youth." He points out that the LXX. (by
whom the Latin translators had been misled) fall into the same mistake
at Neh. iv. 16. Finally he corrects a slip of Hilary as to Ps. cxxviii.
2, where, through a misunderstanding of the LXX., the latter had
substituted "the labors of thy fruits" for "the labors of thy hands."
He speaks throughout with high respect of Hilary, and says that it was
not the bishop's fault that he was ignorant of Hebrew. The date of the
letter is probably A.D. 384.
LETTER XXXV.
FROM POPE DAMASUS.
Damasus addresses live questions to Jerome with a
request for information concerning them. They are:
1. What is the meaning of the words "Whosoever
slayeth Cain vengeance shall be taken on him sevenfold"? (Gen. iv. 5.)
2. If God has made all things good, how comes it
that He gives charge to Noah concerning unclean animals, and says to
Peter, "What God hath cleansed that call not thou common"? (Acts x. 15.)
3. How is Gen. xv. 16, "in the fourth generation
they shall come hither again," to be reconciled with Ex. xiii.
18, LXX, "in the fifth generation the children of Israel went up out of
the land of Egypt"?
4. Why did Abraham receive circumcision as a seal of
his faith? (Rom. iv. 11.)
5. Why was Isaac, a righteous man and dear God,
allowed by God to become the dupe of Jacob? (Gen. xxvii.) Written at
Rome 384 A.D.
LETTER XXXVI.
TO POPE DAMASUS.
Jerome's reply to the foregoing. For the second and
fourth questions he refers Damasus to the writings of Tertullian,
Novatian, and Origen. The remaining three he deals with in detail.
Gen. iv. 15, he understands to mean "the slayer of
Cain shall complete the sevenfold vengeance which is to be wreaked upon
him."
Exodus xiii. is, he proposes to reconcile with Gen. xv. 16, by
supposing that in the one place the tribe of Levi is referred to, in
the other the tribe of Judah. He suggests, however, that the words
rendered by the LXX. "in the fifth generation" more probably mean
"harnessed" (so A.V.) or "laden." In reply to the question about Isaac
he says: "No man save Him who for our salvation has deigned to put on
flesh has full knowledge and a complete grasp of the truth. Paul,
Samuel, David, Elisha, all make mistakes, and holy men only know what
God reveals to them." He then goes on to give a mystical interpretation
of the passage suggested by the martyr Hippolytus. Written the day
after the previous letter.
LETTER XXXVII.
TO MARCELLA.
Marcella had asked Jerome to lend her a copy of a
commentary by Rhetitius, bishop of Augustodunum (Autun), on the Song of
Songs. He now refuses to do so on the ground that the work abounds with
errors, of which the two following are samples:(1) Rhetitius identifies
Tharshish with Tarsus, and(2) he supposes that Uphaz (in the phrase
"gold of Uphaz") is the same as Cephas. Written at Rome A.D. 384.
LETTER XXXVIII.
TO MARCELLA.
Blaesilla, the daughter of Paula and sister of
Eustochium, had lost her husband seven months after her marriage, A
dangerous illness had then led to her conversion, and she was now
famous throughout Rome for the length to which she carried her
austerities. Many censured her for what they deemed her fanaticism, and
Jerome, as her spiritual adviser, came in for some of the blame. In the
present letter he defends her conduct, and declares that persons who
cavil at lives like hers have no claim to be considered Christians.
Written at Rome in 385 A.D.
1. When Abraham is tempted to slay his son the trial
only serves to strengthen his faith.(1) When Joseph is sold into Egypt,
his sojourn there enables him to support his father and his
brothers.(2) When Hezekiah is panic-stricken at the near approach of
death, his tears and prayers obtain for him a respite of fifteen
years,(3) If the faith of the apostle, Peter, is shaken by his Lord's
passion, it is that, weeping bitterly, he may hear the soothing words:
"Feed my sheep."(4) If Paul, that ravening wolf,(5) that little
Benjamin,(6) is blinded in a trance, it is that he may receive his
sight, and may be led, by the sudden horror of surrounding darkness, to
call Him Lord Whom before he persecuted as man.(7)
2. So is it now, my dear Marcella, with our beloved
Blaesilla. The burning fever from which we have seen her suffering
unceasingly for nearly thirty days has been
48
sent to teach her to renounce her over-great attention to that body
which the worms must shortly devour. The Lord Jesus has come to her in
her sickness, and has taken her by the hand, and behold, she arises and
ministers unto Him.(1) Formerly her life savored somewhat Of
carelessness; and, fast bound in the bands of wealth, she lay as one
dead in the tomb of the world. But Jesus was moved with indignation,(2)
and was troubled in spirit, and cried aloud and said, Blaesilla, come
forth.(3) She, at His call, has arisen and has come forth, and sits at
meat with the Lord.(4) The Jews, if they will, may threaten her in
their wrath; they may seek to slay her, because Christ has raised her
up.(5) It is enough that the apostles give God the glory. Blaesilla
knows that her life is due to Him who has given it back to her. She
knows that now she can clasp the feet of Him whom but a little while
ago she dreaded as her judge.(6) Then life had all but forsaken her
body, and the approach of death made her gasp and shiver. What succour
did she obtain in that hour from her kinsfolk? What comfort was there
in their words lighter than smoke? She owes no debt to you, ye unkindly
kindred, now that she is dead to the world and alive unto Christ.(7)
The Christian must rejoice that it is so, and he that is vexed must
admit that he has no claim to be called a Christian.
3. A widow who is "loosed from the law of her
husband"(8) has, for her one duty, to continue a widow. But, you will
say, a sombre dress vexes the world. In that case, John the Baptist
would vex it, too; and yet, among those that are born of women, there
has not been a greater than he.(9) He was called an angel;(10) he
baptized the Lord Himself, and yet he was clothed in raiment of camel's
hair, and girded with a leathern girdle.(11) Is the world displeased
because a widow's food is coarse? Nothing can be coarser than locusts,
and yet these were the food of John. The women who ought to scandalize
Christians are those who paint their eyes and lips with rouge and
cosmetics; whose chalked faces, unnaturally white, are like those of
idols; upon whose cheeks every chance tear leaves a furrow; who fail to
realize that years make them old; who heap their heads with hair not
their own; who smooth their faces, and rub out the wrinkles of age; and
who, in the presence of their grandsons, behave like trembling
school-girls. A Christian woman should blush to do violence to nature,
or to stimulate desire by bestowing care upon the flesh. "They that are
in the flesh," the apostle tells us, "cannot please God."(1)
4. In days gone by our dear widow was extremely
fastidious in her dress, and spent whole days before her mirror to
correct its deficiencies. Now she boldly says: "We all with unveiled
face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into
the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the spirit of the
Lord."(2) In those days maids arranged her hair, and her head, which
had done no harm, was forced into a waving head-dress. Now she leaves
her hair alone, and her only head-dress is a veil. In those days the
softest feather-bed seemed hard to her, and she could scarcely find
rest on a pile of mattresses. Now she rises eager for prayer, her
shrill voice cries Alleluia before every other, she is the first to
praise her Lord. She kneels upon the bare ground, and with frequent
tears cleanses a face once defiled with white lead. After prayer comes
the singing of psalms, and it is only when her neck aches and her knees
totter, and her eyes begin to close with weariness, that she gives them
leave reluctantly to rest. As her dress is dark, lying on the ground
does not soil it. Cheap shoes permit her to give to the poor the price
of gilded ones. No gold and jewels adorn her girdle; it is made of
wool, plain and scrupulously clean. It is intended to keep her clothes
right, and not to cut her waist in two. Therefore, if the scorpion
looks askance upon her purpose, and with alluring words tempts her once
more to eat of the forbidden tree, she must crush him beneath her feet
with a curse, and say, as he lies dying in his allotted dust:(3) "Get
thee behind me, Satan."(4) Satan means adversary,(5) and one who
dislikes Christ's commandments, is more than Christ's adversary; he is
anti-christ.
5. But what, I ask you, have we ever done that men
should be offended at us? Have we ever imitated the apostles? We are
told of the first disciples that they forsook their boat and their
nets, and even their aged father.(6) The publican stood up from the
receipt of custom and followed the Saviour once for all.(7) And when a
disciple
49
wished to return home, that he might take leave of his kinsfolk, the
Master's voice refused consent.(1) A son was even forbidden to bury his
father,(2) as if to show that it is sometimes a religious duty to be
undutiful for the Lord's sake.(3) With us it is different. We are held
to be monks if we refuse to dress in silk. We are called sour and
severe if we keep sober and refrain from excessive laughter. The mob
salutes us as Greeks and impostors(4) if our tunics are fresh and
clean. They may deal in still severer witticisms if they please; they
may parade every fat paunch(5) they can lay hold of, to turn us into
ridicule. Our Blaesilla will laugh at their efforts, and will bear with
patience the taunts of all such croaking frogs, for she will remember
that men called her Lord, Beelzebub.(6)
LETTER XXXIX.
TO PAULA.
Blaesilla died within three months of her
conversion, and Jerome now writes to Paula to offer her his sympathy
and, if possible, to moderate her grief. He asks her to remember that
Blaesilla is now in paradise, and so far to control herself as to
prevent enemies of the faith from cavilling at her conduct. Then he
concludes with the prophecy (since more than fulfilled) that in his
writings Blaesilla's name shall never die. Written at Rome in 389 A.D.
1. "Oh that my head were waters and mine eyes a
fountain of tears: that I might weep," not as Jeremiah says, "For the
slain of my people,"(7) nor as Jesus, for the miserable fate of
Jerusalem,(8) but for holiness, mercy, innocence, chastity, and all the
virtues, for all are gone now that Blaesilla is dead. For her sake I do
not grieve, but for myself I must; my loss is too great to be borne
with resignation. Who can recall with dry eyes the glowing faith which
induced a girl of twenty to raise the standard of the Cross, and to
mourn the loss of her virginity more than the death of her husband? Who
can recall without a sigh the earnestness of her prayers, the
brilliancy of her conversation, the tenacity of her memory, and the
quickness of her intellect? Had you heard her speak Greek you would
have deemed her ignorant of Latin; yet when she used the tongue of Rome
her words were free from a foreign accent. She even rivalled the great
Origen in those acquirements which won for him the admiration of
Greece. For in a few months, or rather days, she so completely mastered
the difficulties of Hebrew as to emulate her mother's zeal in learning
and singing the psalms. Her attire was plain, but this plainness was
not, as it often is, a mark of pride. Indeed, her self-abasement was so
perfect that she dressed no better than her maids, and was only
distinguished from them by the greater ease of her walk. Her steps
tottered with weakness, her face was pale and quivering, her slender
neck scarcely upheld her head. Still she always had in her hand a
prophet or a gospel. As I think of her my eyes fill with tears, sobs
impede my voice, and such is my emotion that my tongue cleaves to the
roof of my mouth. As she lay there dying, her poor frame parched with
burning fever, and her relatives gathered round her bed, her last words
were: "Pray to the Lord Jesus, that He may pardon me, because what I
would have done I have not been able to do." Be at peace, dear
Blaesilla, in full assurance that your garments are always white.(1)
For yours is the purity of an everlasting virginity. I feel confident
that my words are true: conversion can never be too late. The words to
the dying robber are a pledge of this: "Verily I say unto thee, today
shall thou be with me in paradise."(2) When at last her spirit was
delivered from the burden of the flesh, and had returned to Him who
gave it;(3) when, too, after her long pilgrimage, she had ascended up
into her ancient heritage, her obsequies were celebrated with customary
splendor. People of rank headed the procession, a pail made of
cloth of gold covered her bier. But I seemed to hear a voice from
heaven, saying: "I do not recognize these trappings; such is not the
garb I used to wear; this magnificence is strange to me."
2. But what is this? I wish to check a mother's
weeping, and I groan myself. I make no secret of my feelings; this
entire letter is written in tears. Even Jesus wept for Lazarus because
He loved him.(4) But he is a poor comforter who is overcome by his own
sighs, and from whose afflicted heart tears are wrung as well as words.
Dear Paula, my agony is as great as yours. Jesus knows it, whom
Blaesilla now follows; the holy angels know it, whose company she now
enjoys. I was her father in the spirit, her foster-father in affection.
Sometimes I say: "Let the day perish wherein I was born,"(5) and again,
"Woe is me, my mother,
50
that thou hast borne me a man of strife and a man of contention to the
whole earth."(1) I cry: "Righteous art thou, O Lord ... yet let me talk
with thee of thy judgments. Wherefore doth the way of the wicked
prosper?"(2) and "as for me, my feet were almost gone, my steps had
well-nigh slipped. For I was envious at the foolish when I saw the
prosperity of the wicked, and I said: 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."(2) But again I recall other words,
"If I say I will speak thus, behold I should offend against the
generation of thy children."(4) Do not great waves of doubt surge up
over my soul as over yours? How comes it, I ask, that godless men live
to old age in the enjoyment of this world's riches? How comes it that
untutored youth and innocent childhood are cut down while still in the
bud? Why is it that children three years old or two, and even unweaned
infants, are possessed with devils, covered with leprosy, and eaten up
with jaundice, while godless men and profane, adulterers and murderers,
have health and strength to blaspheme God? Are we not told that the
unrighteousness of the father does not fall upon the son,(5) and that
"the soul that sinneth it shall die?"(6) Or if the old doctrine holds
good that the sins of the fathers must be visited upon the children,(7)
an old man's countless sins cannot fairly be avenged upon a harmless
infant. And I have said: "Verily, I have cleansed my heart in vain, and
washed my hands in innocency. For all the day long have I been
plagued."(8) Yet when I have thought of these things, like the prophet
I have learned to say: "When I thought to know this, it was too painful
for me; until I went into the sanctuary of God; then understood I their
end."(9) Truly the judgments of the Lord are a great deep.(10) "O the
depth of the riches both of the wisdom and knowledge of God! How
unsearchable are His judgments, and His ways past finding out?"(11) God
is good, and all that He does must be good also. Does He decree that I
must lose my husband? I mourn my loss, but because it is His will I
bear it with resignation. Is an only son snatched from me? The blow is
hard, yet it can be borne, for He who has taken away is He who
gave.(12) If I become blind a friend's reading will console me. If I
become deaf I shall escape from sinful words, and my thoughts shall be
of God alone. And if, besides such trials as these, poverty, cold,
sickness, and nakedness oppress me, I shall wait for death, and regard
them as passing evils, soon to give way to a better issue. Let us
reflect on the words of the sapiential psalm: "Righteous art thou, O
Lord, and upright are thy judgments."(1) Only he can speak thus who in
all his troubles magnifies the Lord, and, putting down his sufferings
to his sins, thanks God for his clemency.
The daughters of Judah, we are told, rejoiced,
because of all the judgments of the Lord.(2) Therefore, since Judah
means confession, and since every believing soul confesses its
faith,(3) he who claims to believe in Christ must rejoice in all
Christ's judgments. Am I in health? I thank my Creator. Am I sick? In
this case, too, I praise God's will. For "when I am weak, then am I
strong;" and the strength of the spirit is made perfect in the weakness
of the flesh. Even an apostle must bear what he dislikes, that ailment
for the removal of which he besought the Lord thrice. God's reply was:
"My grace is sufficient for thee; for my strength is made perfect in
weakness."(4) Lest he should be unduly elated by his revelations, a
reminder of his human weakness was given to him, just as in the
triumphal car of the victorious general there was always a slave to
whisper constantly, amid the cheerings of the multitude, "Remember that
thou art but man."(5)
3. But why should that be hard to bear which we must
one day ourselves endure? And why do we grieve for the dead? We are not
born to live forever. Abraham, Moses, and Isaiah, Peter, James, and
John, Paul, the "chosen vessel,"(6) and even the Son of God Himself
have all died; and are we vexed when a soul leaves its earthly
tenement? Perhaps he is taken away, "lest that wickedness should alter
his understanding ... for his soul pleased the Lord: therefore hasted
he to take him away from the people"(7)--lest in life's long journey he
should lose his way in some trackless maze. We should indeed mourn for
the dead, but only for him whom Gehenna receives, whom Tartarus
devours, and for whose punishment the eternal fire burns. But we who,
in departing, are accompanied by an escort of angels, and met
51
by Christ Himself, should rather grieve that we have to tarry yet
longer in this tabernacle of death.(1) For "whilst we are at home in
the body, we are absent from the Lord."(2) Our one longing should be
that expressed by the psalmist: "Woe is me that my pilgrimage is
prolonged, that I have dwelt with them that dwell in Kedar, that my
soul hath made a far pilgrimage."(3) Kedar means darkness, and darkness
stands for this present world (for, we are told, "the light shineth in
darkness; and the darkness comprehendeth it not"(4)). Therefore we
should congratulate our dear Blaesilla that she has passed from
darkness to light,(5) and has in the first flush of her dawning faith
received the crown of her completed work. Had she been cut off (as f
pray that none may be) while her thoughts were full of worldly desires
and passing pleasures, then mourning would indeed have been her due,
and no tears shed for her would have been too many. As it is, by the
mercy of Christ she, four months ago, renewed her baptism in her vow of
widowhood, and for the rest of her days spurned the world, and thought
only of the religions life. Have you no fear, then, lest the Saviour
may say to you: "Are you angry, Paula, that your daughter has become my
daughter? Are you vexed at my decree, and do you, with rebellious
tears, grudge me the possession of Blaesilla? You ought to know what my
purpose is both for you and for yours. You deny yourself food, not to
fast but to gratify your grief; and such abstinence is displeasing to
me. Such fasts are my enemies. I receive no soul which forsakes the
body against my will. A foolish philosophy may boast of martyrs of this
kind; it may boast of a Zeno(6) a Cleombrotus,(7) or a Cato.(8) My
spirit rests only upon him "that is poor and of a contrite spirit, and
that trembleth at my word.(9) Is this the meaning of your vow to me
that you would lead a religious life? Is it for this that you dress
yourself differently from other matrons, and array yourself in the garb
of a nun? Mourning is for those who wear silk dresses. In the midst of
your tears the call will come, and you, too, must die; yet you flee
from me as from a cruel judge, and fancy that you can avoid failing
into my hands. Jonah, that headstrong prophet, once fled from me, yet
in the depths of the sea he was still mine.(1) If you really believed
your daughter to be alive, you would not grieve that she had passed to
a better world. This is the commandment that I have given you through
my apostle, that you sorrow not for them that sleep, even as the
Gentiles, which have no hope.(2) Blush, for you are put to shame by the
example of a heathen. The devil's handmaid(3) is better than mine. For,
while she imagines that her unbelieving husband has been translated to
heaven, you either do not or will not believe that your daughter is at
rest with me."
4. Why should I not mourn, you say? Jacob lint on
sackcloth for Joseph, and when all his family gathered round him,
refused to be comforted. "I will go down," he said, "into the grave
unto my son mourning."(4) David also mourned for Absalom, covering his
face, and crying: "O my son, Absalom ... my son, Absalom! Would God I
had died for thee, O Absalom, my son!:(5) Moses,(6) too, and Aaron,(7)
and the rest of the saints were mourned for with a solemn mourning. The
answer to your reasoning is simple. Jacob, it is true, mourned
for Joseph, whom he fancied slain, and thought to meet only in
the grave (his words were: "I will go down into the grave unto my son
mourning"), but he only did so because Christ had not yet broken open
the door of paradise, nor quenched with his blood the flaming sword and
the whirling of the guardian cherubim.(8) (Hence in the story of Dives
and Lazarus, Abraham and the beggar, though really in a place of
refreshment, are described as being in hell.(9)) And David, who, after
interceding in vain for the life of his infant child, refused to weep
for it, knowing that it had not sinned, did well to weep for a son who
had been a parricide--in will, if not in deed.(10) And when we read
that, for Moses and Aaron, lamentation was made after ancient custom,
this ought not to surprise us, for even in the Acts of the Apostles, in
the full blaze of the gospel, we see that the brethren at Jerusalem
made great lamentation for Stephen.(11) This great lamentation,
however, refers not to the mourners, but to the funeral procession and
to the crowds which accompanied it. This
52
is what the Scripture says of Jacob: "Joseph went up to bury his
father: and with him went up all the servants of Pharaoh, the elders of
his house, and all the elders of the land of Egypt, and all the house
of Joseph and his brethren"; and a few lines farther on: "And there
went up with him both chariots and horsemen: and it was a great
company." Finally, "they mourned with a great and very sore
lamentation."(1) This solemn lamentation does not impose prolonged
weeping upon the Egyptians, but simply describes the funeral ceremony.
In like manner, when we read of weeping made for Moses and Aaron,(2)
this is all that is meant.
I cannot adequately extol the mysteries of
Scripture, nor sufficiently admire the spiritual meaning conveyed in
its most simple words. We are told, for instance, that lamentation was
made for Moses; yet when the funeral of Joshua is described(3) no
mention at all is made of weeping. The reason, of course, is that under
Moses--that is under the old Law--all men were bound by the sentence
passed on Adam's sin, and when they descended into hell(4) were rightly
accompanied with tears. For, as the apostle says, "death reigned from
Adam to Moses, even over them that had not sinned."(5) But under
Jesus,(6) that is, under the Gospel of Christ, who has unlocked for us
the gate of paradise, death is accompanied, not with sorrow, but with
joy. The Jews go on weeping to this day; they make bare their feet,
they crouch in sackcloth, they roll in ashes. And to make their
superstition complete, they follow a foolish custom of the Pharisees,
and eat lentils,(7) to show, it would seem, for what poor fare they
have lost their birthright.(8) Of course they are right to weep, for as
they do not believe in the Lord's resurrection they are being made
ready for the advent of antichrist. But we who have put on Christ(9)
and according to the apostle are a royal and priestly race,(10) we
ought not to grieve for the dead. "Moses," the Scripture tells us,
"said unto Aaron and unto Eleazar, and unto Ithamar, his sons that were
left: Uncover not your heads, neither rend your clothes; lest ye die,
and lest wrath come upon all the people."(11) Rend not your clothes, he
says, neither mourn as pagans, lest you die. For, for us sin is death.
In this same book, Leviticus, there is a provision which may perhaps
strike some as cruel, yet is necessary to faith: the high priest is
forbidden to approach the dead bodies of his father and mother, of his
brothers and of his children;(1) to the end, that no grief may distract
a soul engaged in offering sacrifice to God, and wholly devoted to the
Divine mysteries. Are we not taught the same lesson in the Gospel
in other words? Is not the disciple forbidden to say farewell to his
home or to bury his dead father?(2) Of the high priest, again, it is
said: "He shall not go out of the sanctuary, and the sanctification of
his God shall not be contaminated, for the anointing oil of his God is
upon him."(2) Certainly, now that we have believed in Christ, and bear
Him within us, by reason of the oil of His anointing which we have
received,(4) we ought not to depart from His temple--that is, from our
Christian profession--we ought not to go forth to mingle with the
unbelieving Gentiles, but always to remain within, as servants obedient
to the will of the Lord.
5. I have spoken plainly, lest you might ignorantly
suppose that Scripture sanctions your grief; and that, if you err, you
have reason on your side. And, so far, my words have been addressed to
the average Christian woman. But now it will not be so. For in your
case, as I well know, renunciation of the world has been complete; you
have rejected and trampled on the delights of life, and you give
yourself daily to fasting, to reading, and to prayer. Like Abraham,(5)
you desire to leave your country and kindred, to forsake Mesopotamia
and the Chaldaeans, to enter into the promised land. Dead to the world
before your death, you have spent all your mere worldly substance upon
the poor, or have bestowed it upon your children. I am the more
surprised, therefore, that you should act in a manner which in others
would justly call for reprehension. You call to mind Blaesilla's
companionship, her conversation, and her endearing ways; and you cannot
endure the thought that you have lost them all. I pardon you the tears
of a mother, but I ask you to restrain your grief. When I think of the
parent I cannot blame you for weeping: but when I think of the
Christian and the recluse, the mother disappears from my view. Your
wound is still fresh, and ant touch of mine, however gentle, is more
53
likely to inflame than to heal it. Yet why do you not try to overcome
by reason a grief which time must inevitably assuage? Naomi, fleeing
because of famine to the land of Moab, there lost her husband and her
sons. Yet when she was thus deprived of her natural protectors, Ruth, a
stranger, never left her side.(1) And see what a great thing it is to
comfort a lonely woman Ruth, for her reward, is made an ancestress of
Christ.(2) Consider the great trials which Job endured, and you will
see that you are over-delicate. Amid the ruins of his house, the pains
of his sores, his countless bereavements, and, last of all, the snares
laid for him by his wife, he still lifted up his eyes to heaven, and
maintained his patience unbroken. I know what you are going to say "All
this befell him as a righteous man, to try his righteousness." Well,
choose which alternative you please. Either you are holy, in which case
God is putting your holiness to the proof; or else you are a sinner, in
which case you have no right to complain. For if so, you endure far
less than your deserts.
Why should I repeat old stories? Listen to a modern
instance. The holy Melanium,(3) eminent among Christians for her true
nobility (may the Lord grant that you and I may have part with her in
His day!), while the dead body of her husband was still unburied, still
warm, had the misfortune to lose at one stroke two of her sons. The
sequel seems incredible, but Christ is my witness that my words are
true. Would you not suppose that in her frenzy she would have unbound
her hair, and rent her clothes, and torn her breast? Yet not a tear
fell from her eyes. Motionless she stood there; then casting herself at
the feet of Christ, she smiled, as though she held Him with her hands.
"Henceforth, Lord," she said, "I will serve Thee more readily, for Thou
hast freed me from a great burden." But perhaps her remaining children
overcame her determination. No, indeed; she set so little store by them
that she gave up all that she had to her only son, and then, in spite
of the approaching winter, took ship for Jerusalem.
6. Spare yourself, I beseech you, spare Blaesilla,
who now reigns with Christ; at least spare Eustochium, whose tender
years and inexperience depend on you for guidance and instruction. Now
does the devil rage and complain that he is set at naught, because he
sees one of your children exalted in triumph. The victory which he
failed to win over her that is gone he hopes to obtain over her who
still remains. Too great affection towards one's children is
disaffection towards God. Abraham gladly prepares to slay his only son,
and do you complain if one child out of several has received her crown?
I cannot say what I am going to say without a groan. When you were
carried fainting out of the funeral procession, whispers such as these
were audible in the crowd. "Is not this what we have often said. She
weeps for her daughter, killed with fasting. She wanted her to marry
again, that she might have grandchildren. How long must we refrain from
driving these detestable monks out of Rome? Why do we not stone them or
hurl them into the Tiber? They have misled this unhappy lady; that she
is not a nun from choice is clear. No heathen mother ever wept for her
children as she does for Blaesilla." What sorrow, think you, must not
Christ have endured when He listened to such words as these! And how
triumphantly must Satan have exulted, eager as he is to snatch your
soul! Luring you with the claims of a grief which seems natural and
right, and always keeping before you the image of Blaesilla, his aim is
to slay the mother of the victress, and then to fall upon her forsaken
sister. I do not speak thus to terrify you. The Lord is my witness that
I address you now as though I were standing at His judgment seat. Tears
which have no meaning are an object of abhorrence. Yours are detestable
tears, sacrilegious tears, unbelieving tears; for they know no limits,
and bring you to the verge of death. You shriek and cry out as though
on fire within, and do your best to put an end to yourself. But to you
and others like you Jesus comes in His mercy and says: "Why weepest
thou? the damsel is not dead but sleepeth."(1) The bystanders may laugh
him to scorn; such unbelief is worthy of the Jews. If you prostrate
yourself in grief at your daughter's tomb you too will hear the chiding
of the angel, "Why seek ye the living among the dead?"(2) It was
because Mary Magdalene had done this that when she recognized the
Lord's voice calling her and fell at His feet, He said to her: "Touch
me not, for I am not yet ascended to my Father;"(3) that is to say, you
are not worthy to touch, as risen, one whom you suppose still in the
tomb.
7. What crosses and tortures, think you, must not
our Blaesilla endure to see Christ
54
angry with you, though it be but a little! At this moment she cries to
you as you weep: "If ever you loved me, mother, if I was nourished at
your breast, if I was taught by your precepts, do not grudge me my
exaltation, do not so act that we shall be separated forever. Do you
fancy that I am alone? In place of you I now have Mary the mother of
the Lord. Here I see many whom before I have not known. My companions
are infinitely better than any that I had on earth. Here I have the
company of Anna, the prophetess of the Gospel;(1) and--what should
kindle in you more fervent joy--I have gained in three short months
what cost her the labor of many years to win. Both of us widows indeed,
we have been both rewarded with the palm of chastity. Do you pity me
because I have left the world behind me? It is I who should, and do,
pity you who, still immured in its prison, daily fight with. anger,
with covetousness, with lust, with this or that temptation leading the
soul to ruin. If you wish to be indeed my mother, you must please
Christ. She is not my mother who displeases my Lord." Many other things
does she say which here I pass over; she prays also to God for you. For
me, too, I feel sure, she makes intercession and asks God to pardon my
sins in return for the warnings and advice that I bestowed on her, when
to secure her salvation I braved the ill will of her family.
8. Therefore, so long as breath animates my body, so
long as I continue in the enjoyment of life, I engage, declare, and
promise that Blaesilla's name shall be forever on my tongue, that my
labors shall be dedicated to her honor, and that my talents shall be
devoted to her praise. No page will I write in which Blaesilla's name
shall not occur Wherever the records of my utterance shall find their
way, thither she, too, will travel with my poor writings. Virgins,
widows, monks and priests, as they read, will see how deeply her image
is impressed upon my mind. Everlasting remembrance will make up for the
shortness of her life. Living as she does with Christ in heaven, she
will live also on the lips of men. The present will soon pass away and
give place to the future, and that future will judge her without
partiality and without prejudice. As a childless widow she will occupy
a middle place between Paula, the mother of children, and Eustochium
the virgin. In my writings she will never die. She will hear me
conversing of her always, either with her sister or with her mother.
LETTER XL.
TO MARCELLA.
Onasus, of Segesta, the subject of this letter, was
among Jerome's Roman opponents. He is here held up to ridicule in a
manner which reflects little credit on the writer's urbanity. The date
of the letter is 385 A.D.
1. The medical men called surgeons pass for being
cruel, but really deserve pity. For is it not pitiful to cut away the
dead flesh of another man with merciless knives without being moved by
his pangs? Is it not pitiful that the man who is curing the patient is
callous to his sufferings, and has to appear as his enemy? Yet such is
the order of nature. While truth is always bitter, pleasantness waits
upon evil-doing. Isaiah goes naked without blushing as a type of
captivity to come.(1) Jeremiah is sent from Jerusalem to the Euphrates
(a river in Mesopotamia), and leaves his girdle to be marred in the
Chaldaean camp, among the Assyrians hostile to his people.(2) Ezekiel
is told to eat bread made of mingled seeds and sprinkled with the dung
of men and cattle.(3) He has to see his wife die without shedding a
tear.(4) Amos is driven from Samaria.(5) Why is he driven from it?
Surely in this case as in the others, because he was a spiritual
surgeon, who cut away the parts diseased by sin and urged men to
repentance. The apostle Paul says: "Am I therefore become your enemy
because I tell you the truth?"(6) And so the Saviour Himself found it,
from whom many of the disciples went back because His sayings seemed
hard.(7)
2. It is not surprising, then, that by exposing
their faults I have offended many. I have arranged to operate on a
cancerous nose;(8) let him who suffers from wens tremble. I wish to
rebuke a chattering daw; let the crow realize that she is offensive.(9)
Yet, after all, is there but one person in Rome
"Whose nostrils are disfigured by a scar?"(10) IS
Onasus of Segesta alone in puffing out his cheeks like bladders and
balancing hollow phrases on his tongue?
I say that certain persons have, by crime, perjury,
and false pretences, attained to this or that high position. How does
it hurt you who know that the charge does not touch you? I laugh at a
pleader who has no
55
clients, and sneer at a penny-a-liner's eloquence. What does it matter
to you who are such a refined speaker? It is my whim to inveigh against
mercenary priests. You are rich already, why should you be angry? I
wish to shut up Vulcan and burn him in his own flames. Are you his
guest or his neighbor that you try to save an idol's shrine from the
fire? I choose to make merry over ghosts and owls and monsters of the
Nile; and whatever I say, you take it as aimed at you. At whatever
fault I point my pen, you cry out that you are meant. You collar me and
drag me into court and absurdly charge me with writing satires when I
only write plain prose!
So you really think yourself a pretty fellow just
because you have a lucky name!(1) Why it does not follow at all. A
brake is called a brake just because the light does not break through
it.(2) The Fates are called "sparers,"(3) just because they never
spare. The Furies are spoken of as gracious,(4) because they show no
grace. And in common speech Ethiopians go by the name of silverlings.
Still, if the showing up of faults always angers you, I will soothe you
now with the words of Persius: "May you be a catch for my lord and
lady's daughter! May the pretty ladies scramble for you! May the ground
you walk on turn to a rose-bed!"(5)
3. All the same, I will give you a hint what
features to hide if you want to look your best. Show no nose upon your
face and keep your mouth shut. You will then stand some chance of being
counted both handsome and eloquent.
LETTER XLI.
TO MARCELLA.
An effort having been made to convert Marcella to
Montanism,(6) Jerome here summarizes for her its leading doctrines,
which he contrasts with those of the Church. Written at Rome in 385 A.D.
1. As regards the passages brought together from the
gospel of John with which a certain votary of Montanus has assailed
you, passages in which our Saviour promises that He will go to the
Father, and that He will send the Paraclete(7)--as regards these, the
Acts of the Apostles inform us both for what time the promises were
made, and at what time they were actually fulfilled. Ten days had
elapsed, we are told, from the Lord's ascension and fifty from His
resurrection, when the Holy Spirit came down, and the tongues of the
believers were cloven, so that each spoke every language. Then it was
that, when certain persons of those who as yet believed not
declared that the disciples were drunk with new wine, Peter standing in
the midst of the apostles, and of all the concourse said: "Ye men of
Judaea and all ye that dwell at Jerusalem, be this known unto you and
hearken to my words: for these are not drunken as ye suppose, seeing it
is but the third hour of the day. But this is that which was spoken of
by the prophet Joel. And it shall come to pass in the last days, saith
God, I will pour out of my spirit upon all flesh: and your sons and
daughters shall prophesy, and your young men shall see visions, and
your old men shall dream dreams: and on my servants, and on my
handmaidens will pour out ... of my spirit."(1)
2. If, then, the apostle Peter, upon whom the Lord
has founded the Church,(2) has expressly said that the prophecy and
promise of the Lord were then and there fulfilled, how can we claim
another fulfilment for ourselves? if the Montanists reply that Philip's
four daughters prophesied(3) at a later date, and that a prophet is
mentioned named Agabus,(4) and that in the partition of the spirit,
prophets are spoken of as well as apostles, teachers and others,(6) and
that Paul himself prophesied many things concerning heresies still
future, and the end of the world; we tell them that we do not so much
reject prophecy--for this is attested by the passion of the Lord--as
refuse to receive prophets whose utterances fail to accord with the
Scriptures old and new.
3. In the first place we differ from the Montanists
regarding the rule of faith. We distinguish the Father, the Son, and
the Holy Spirit as three persons, but unite them as one substance.
They, on the other hand, following the doctrine of Sabellius,(6) force
the Trinity into the narrow limits of a single personality. We, while
we do not encourage them, yet allow second marriages, since Paul bids
the younger widows to marry.(7) They suppose a repetition of marriage a
sin so awful that he who has committed it is to be regarded as an
adulterer. We, according
56
to the apostolic tradition (in which the whole world is at one with
us), fast through one Lent yearly; whereas they keep three in the year
as though three saviours had suffered. I do not mean, of course, that
it is unlawful to fast at other times through the year--always
excepting Pentecost(1)--only that while in Lent it is a duty of
obligation, at other seasons it is a matter of choice. With us, again,
the bishops occupy the place of the apostles, but with them a bishop
ranks not first but third. For while they put first the patriarchs of
Pepusa(2) in Phrygia, and place next to these the ministers called
stewards,(3) the bishops are relegated to the third or almost the
lowest rank. No doubt their object is to make their religion more
pretentious by putting that last which we put first. Again they close
the doors of the Church to almost every fault, whilst we read daily, "I
desire the repentance of a sinner rather than his death,"(4) and "Shall
they fall and not arise, saith the Lord,"(5) and once more "Return ye
backsliding children and I will heal your backslidings."(6) Their
strictness does not prevent them from themselves committing grave sins,
far from it; but there is this difference between us and them, that,
whereas they in their self-righteousness blush to confess their faults,
we do penance for ours, and so more readily gain pardon for them.
4. I pass over their sacraments(7) of sin, made up
as they are said to be, of sucking children subjected to a triumphant
martyrdom.(6) I prefer, I say, not to credit these; accusations of
blood-shedding may well be false. But I must confute the open blasphemy
of men who say that God first determined in the Old Testament to save
the world by Moses and the prophets, but that finding Himself unable to
fulfil His purpose He took to Himself a body of the Virgin, and
preaching' under the form of the Son in Christ, underwent death for our
salvation. Moreover that, when by these two steps He was unable to save
the world, He last of all descended by the Holy Spirit upon Montanus
and those demented women Prisca and Maximilia; and that thus the
mutilated and emasculate(9) Montanus possessed a fulness of knowledge
such as was never claimed by Paul; for he was content to say, "We know
in part, and we prophesy in part," and again, "Now we see through a
glass darkly."(1)
These are statements which require no refutation. To
expose the infidelity of the Montanists is to triumph over it. Nor is
it necessary that in so short a letter as this I should overthrow the
several absurdities which they bring forward. You are well acquainted
with the Scriptures; and, as I take it, you have written, not because
you have been disturbed by their cavils, but only to learn my opinion
about them.
LETTER XLII.
TO MARCELLA.
At Marcella's request Jerome explains to her what is
"the sin against the Holy Ghost" spoken of by Christ, and shows
Novatian's(2) explanation of it to be untenable. Written at Rome in 385
A.D.
1. The question you send is short and the answer is
clear. There is this passage in the gospel: "Whosoever speaketh a word
against the Son of Man, it shall be forgiven him; but whosoever
speaketh against the Holy Ghost, it shall not be forgiven him neither
in this world nor in the world to come."(3) Now if Novatian affirms
that none but Christian renegades can sin against the Holy Ghost, it is
plain that the Jews who blasphemed Christ were not guilty of this sin.
Yet they were wicked husbandmen, they had slain the prophets, they were
then compassing the death of the Lord;(4) and so utterly lost were they
that the Son of God told them that it was they whom he had come to
save.(5) It must be proved to Novatian, therefore, that the sin which
shall never be forgiven is not the blasphemy of men disembowelled by
torture who in their agony deny their Lord, but is the captious clamor
of those who, while they see that God's works are the fruit of virtue,
ascribe the virtue to a demon and declare the signs wrought to belong
not to the divine excellence but to the devil. And this is the whole
gist of our Saviour's argument, when He teaches that Satan cannot be
cast out by Satan, and that his kingdom is not divided against
itself.(6) If it is the devil's object to injure God's creation, how
can he wish to cure the sick and to expel himself from the bodies
possessed by him? Let Novatian prove that of those who have been
compelled to sacrifice before a judge's tribu-
57
nal any has declared of the things written in the gospel that they were
wrought not by the Son of God but by Beelzebub, the prince of the
devils;(1) and then he will be able to make good his contention that
this(2) is the blasphemy against the Holy Ghost which shall never be
forgiven.
2. But to put a more searching question still: let
Novatian tell us how he distinguishes speaking against the Son of Man
from blasphemy against the Holy Ghost. For I maintain that on his
principles men who have denied Christ under persecution have only
spoken against the Son of Man, and have not blasphemed the Holy Ghost.
For when a man is asked if he is a Christian, and declares that he is
not; obviously in denying Christ, that is the Son of Man, he does no
despite to the Holy Ghost. But if his denial of Christ involves a
denial of the Holy Ghost, this heretic can perhaps tell us how the Son
of Man can be denied without sinning against the Holy Ghost. If he
thinks that we are here intended by the term Holy Ghost to understand
the Father, no mention at all of the Father is made by the denier in
his denial. When the apostle Peter, taken aback by a maid's question,
denied the Lord, did he sin against the Son of Man or against the Holy
Ghost? If Novatian absurdly twists Peter's words, "I know not the
man,"(3) to mean a denial not of Christ's Messiahship but of His
humanity, he will make the Saviour a liar, for He foretold(4) that He
Himself, that is His divine Sonship, must be denied. Now, when Peter
denied the Son of God, he wept bitterly and effaced his threefold
denial by a threefold confession.(5) His sin, therefore, was not the
sin against the Holy Ghost which can never be forgiven. It is obvious,
then, that this sin involves blasphemy, calling one Beelzebub for his
actions, whose virtues prove him to be God. If Novatian can bring an
instance of a renegade who has called Christ Beelzebub, I will at once
give up my position and admit that after such a fall the denier can win
no forgiveness. To give way under torture and to deny oneself to be a
Christian is one thing, to say that Christ is the devil is another. And
this you will yourself see if you read the passage(6) attentively.
3. I ought to have discussed the matter more fully,
but some friends have visited my humble abode, and I cannot refuse to
give myself up to them. Still, as it might seem arrogant not to
answer you at once, I have compressed a wide subject into a few words,
and have sent you not a letter but an explanatory note.(1)
LETTER XLIII.
TO MARCELLA.
Jerome draws a contrast between his daily life and
that of Origen, and sorrowfully admits his own shortcomings. He then
suggests to Marcella the advantages which life in the country offers
over life in town, and hints that he is himself disposed to make trial
of it. Written at Rome in 385 A.D.
1. Ambrose who supplied Origen, true man of adamant
and of brass,(2) with money, materials and amanuenses to bring out his
countless books--Ambrose, in a letter to his friend from Athens, states
that they never took a meal together without something being read, and
never went to bed till some portion of Scripture had been brought home
to them by a brother's voice. Night and day, in fact, were so ordered
that prayer only gave place to reading-and reading to prayer.
2. Have we, brute beasts that we are, ever hone the
like? Why, we yawn if we read for over an hour; we rub our foreheads
and vainly try to suppress our languor. And then, after this great
feat, we plunge for relief into worldly business once more.
I say nothing of the meals with which we dull our
faculties, and I would rather not estimate the time that we spend in
paying and receiving visits. Next we fall into conversation; we waste
our words, we attack people behind their backs, we detail their way of
living, we carp at them and are carped at by them in turn. Such is the
fare that engages our attention at dinner and afterwards. Then, when
our guests have retired, we make up our accounts, and these are sure to
cause us either anger or anxiety. The first makes us like raging lions,
and the second seeks vainly to make provision for years to come. We do
not recollect the words of the Gospel: "Thou fool, this night thy soul
shall be required of thee: then whose shall those things be which thou
hast provided ?"(3) The clothing which we buy is designed not merely
for use but for display. Where there is a chance of saving money we
quicken our pace, speak promptly, and keep our ears open. If we hear of
household losses--such as often occur--our looks become dejected and
gloomy. The gain of a penny(4) fills us with joy; the loss of a
half-penny(5) plunges us into sorrow. One man
58
is of so many minds that the prophet's prayer is: "Lord, in thy city
scatter their image."(1) For created as we are in the image of God and
after His likeness,(2) it is our own wickedness which makes us assume
masks.(3) Just as on the stage the same actor now figures as a brawny
Hercules, now softens into a tender Venus, now shivers in the role of
Cybele; so we--who, if we were not of the world, would be hated by the
world(4)--for every sin that we commit have a corresponding mask.
3. Wherefore, seeing that we have journeyed for much
of our life through a troubled sea, and that our vessel has been in
turn shaken by raging blasts and shattered upon treacherous reefs, let
us, as soon as may be, make for the haven of rural quietude. There such
country dainties as milk and household bread, and greens watered by our
own hands, will supply us with coarse but harmless fare. So living,
sleep will not call us away from prayer, nor satiety from reading. In
summer the shade of a tree will afford us privacy. In autumn the
quality of the air and the leaves strewn under foot will invite us to
stop and rest. In springtime the fields will be bright with flowers,
and our psalms will sound the sweeter for the twittering of the birds.
When winter comes with its frost and snow, I shall not have to buy
fuel, and, whether I sleep or keep vigil, shall be warmer than in town.
At least, so far as I know, I shall keep off the cold at less expense.
Let Rome keep to itself its noise and bustle, let the cruel shows of
the arena go on, let the crowd rave at the circus, let the playgoers
revel in the theatres and--for I must not altogether pass over our
Christian friends--let the House of Ladies(5) hold its daily sittings.
It is good for us to cleave to the Lord,(6) and to put our hope in the
Lord God, so that when we have exchanged our present poverty for the
kingdom of heaven, we may be able to exclaim: "Whom have I in heaven
but thee? and there is none upon earth that I desire beside thee."(7)
Surely if we can find such blessedness in heaven we may well grieve to
have sought after pleasures poor and passing here upon earth. Farewell.
LETTER XLIV.
TO MARCELLA.
Marcella had sent some small articles as a present
(probably to Paula and Eustochium) and Jerome now writes in their name
to thank her for them. He notices the appropriateness of the gifts, not
only to the ladies, but also to himself. Written at Rome in 385 A.D.
When absent in body we are wont to converse together
in spirit.(1) Each of us does what he or she can. You send us gifts, we
send you back letters of thanks. And as we are virgins who have taken
the veil,(2) it is our duty to show that hidden meanings lurk under
your nice presents. Sackcloth, then, is a token of prayer and fasting,
the chairs remind us that a virgin should never stir abroad, and the
wax tapers that we should look for the bridegroom's coming with our
lights burning.(3) The cups also warn us to mortify the flesh and
always to be ready for martyrdom. "How bright," says the psalmist," is
the cup of the Lord, intoxicating them that drink it!"(4) Moreover,
when you offer to matrons little fly-flaps to brush away mosquitoes, it
is a charming way of hinting that they should at once check voluptuous
feelings, for "dying flies," we are told, "spoil sweet ointment."(5) In
such presents, then, as these, virgins can find a model, and matrons a
pattern. To me, too, your gifts convey a lesson, although one of an
opposite kind. For chairs suit idlers, sackcloth does for penitents,
and cups are wanted for the thirsty. And I shall be glad to light
your tapers, if only to banish the terrors of the night and the fears
of an evil conscience.
LETTER XLV.
TO ASELLA.
After leaving Rome for the East, Jerome writes
to Asella to refute the calumnies by which he had been assailed,
especially as regards his intimacy with Paula and Eustochium.Written on
board ship at Ostia, in August, 385 A.D.
1. Were I to think myself able to requite your
kindness I should be foolish. God is able in my stead to reward a soul
which is consecrated to Him. So unworthy, indeed, am I of your regard
that I have never ventured to estimate its value or even to wish that
it might be given me for Christ's sake. Some consider me a wicked man,
laden with iniquity; and such language is more than justified by my
actual sins. Yet in dealing with the bad you do well to account them
good. It is dangerous to judge another man's servant;(6) and to speak
evil of the righteous is a sin not easily pardoned. The day will surely
come
59
when you and I shall mourn for others; for not a few will be in the
flames
2. I am said to be an infamous turncoat, a slippery
knave, one who lies and deceives others by Satanic arts. Which is the
safer course, I should like to know, to invent or credit these charges
against innocent persons, or to refuse to believe them, even of the
guilty? Some kissed my hands, yet attacked me with the tongues of
vipers; sympathy was on their lips, but malignant joy in their hearts.
The Lord saw them and had them in derision,(1) reserving my poor self
and them for judgment to come. One would attack my gait or my way of
laughing; another would find something amiss in my looks; another would
suspect the simplicity of my manner. Such is the company in which I
have lived for almost three years.
It often happened that I found myself surrounded
with virgins, and to some of these I expounded the divine books as best
I could Our studies brought about constant intercourse, this soon
ripened into intimacy, and this, in turn, produced mutual confidence.
If they have ever seen anything in my conduct unbecoming a Christian
let them say so. Have I taken any one's money? Have I not disdained all
gifts, whether small or great? Has the chink of any one's coin been
heard in my hand?(2) Has my language been equivocal, or my eye wanton?
No; my sex is my one crime, and even on this score I am not assailed,
save when there is a talk of PauLa going to Jerusalem. Very well, then.
They believed my accuser when he lied; why do they not believe him when
he retracts? He is the same man now that he was then, and yet he who
before declared me guilty now confesses that I am innocent. Surely a
man's words under torture are more trustworthy than in moments of
gayety, except, indeed, that people are prone to believe falsehoods
designed to gratify their ears, or, worse still, stories which, till
then uninvented, they have urged others to invent.
3. Before I became acquainted with the family of the
saintly PauLa, alL Rome resounded with my praises. Almost every one
concurred in judging me worthy of the episcopate. Damasus, of blessed
memory, spoke no words but mine.(3) Men called me holy, humble,
eloquent.
Did I ever cross the threshold of a light woman? Was
I ever fascinated by silk dresses, or glowing gems, or rouged faces, or
display of gold? Of all the ladies in Rome but one had power to subdue
me, and that one was Paula. She mourned and fasted, she was squalid
with dirt, her eyes were dim from weeping. For whole nights she would
pray to the Lord for mercy, and often the rising sun found her still at
her prayers. The psalms were her only songs, the Gospel her whole
speech, continence her one indulgence, fasting the staple of her life.
The only woman who took my fancy was one whom I had not so much as seen
at table. But when I began to revere, respect, and venerate her as her
conspicuous chastity deserved, all my former virtues forsook me on the
spot.
4. Oh! envy, that dost begin by tearing thyself! Oh!
cunning malignity of Satan, that dost always persecute things holy! Of
all the ladies in Rome, the only ones that caused scandal were Paula
and Melanium, who, despising their wealth and deserting their children,
uplifted the cross of the Lord as a standard of religion. Had they
frequented the baths, or chosen to use perfumes, or taken advantage of
their wealth and position as widows to enjoy life and to be
independent, they would have been saluted as ladies of high rank and
saintliness. As it is, of course, it is in order to appear beautiful
that they put on sackcloth and ashes, and they endure fasting and filth
merely to go down into the Gehenna of fire! As if they could not perish
with the crowd whom the mob applauds!(1) If it were Gentiles or Jews
who thus assailed their mode of life, they would at least have the
consolation of failing to please only those whom Christ Himself has
failed to please. But, shameful to say, it is Christians who thus
neglect the care of their own households, and, disregarding the beams
in their own eyes, look for motes in those of their neighbors.(2) They
pull to pieces every profession of religion, and think that they have
found a remedy for their own doom, if they can disprove the holiness of
others, if they can detract from every one, if they can show that those
who perish are many, and sinners, a great multitude.
5. You bathe daily; another regards such
over-niceness as defilement. You surfeit yourself on wild fowl and
pride yourself on eating sturgeon; I, on the contrary, fill my belly
with beans. You find pleasure in troops of laughing girls; I prefer
Paula and Melanium who weep. You covet what belongs to others; they
disdain what is their own. You like wines flavored with honey; they
drink cold water, more delicious still. You count as lost what you
cannot have, eat up,
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and devour on the moment; they believe in the Scriptures, and look for
good things to come. And if they are wrong, and if the resurrection of
the body on which they rely is a foolish delusion, what does it matter
to you? We, on our side, look with disfavor on such a life as yours.
You can fatten yourself on your good things as much as you please; I
for my part prefer paleness and emaciation. You suppose that men like
me are unhappy; we regard you as more unhappy still. Thus we
reciprocate each other's thoughts, and appear to each other mutually
insane.
6. I write this in haste, dear Lady Asella, as I go
on board, overwhelmed with grief and tears; yet I thank my God that I
am counted worthy of the world's hatred.(1) Pray for me that, after
Babylon, I may see Jerusalem once more; that Joshua, the son of
Josedech, may have dominion over me,(2) and not Nebuchadnezzar, that
Ezra, whose name means helper, may come and restore me to my own
country. I was a fool in wishing to sing the Lord's song in a strange
land,(3) and in leaving Mount Sinai, to seek the help of Egypt. I
forgot that the Gospel warns us(4) that he who goes down from Jerusalem
immediately fails among robbers, is spoiled, is wounded, is left for
dead. But, although priest and Levite may disregard me, there is still
the good Samaritan who, when men said to him, "Thou art a Samaritan and
hast a devil,"(5) disclaimed having a devil, but did not disclaim being
a Samaritan,(6) this being the Hebrew equivalent for our word guardian.
Men call me a mischief-maker, and I take the title as a recognition of
my faith. For I am but a servant, and the Jews still call my master a
magician. The apostle,(7) likewise, is spoken of as a deceiver. There
hath no temptation taken me but such as is common to man.(8) How few
distresses have I endured, I who am yet a soldier of the cross! Men
have laid to my charge a crime of which I am not guilty;(9) but I know
that I must enter the kingdom of heaven through evil report as well as
through good.(10)
7. Salute Paula and Eustochium, who, whatever the
world may think, are always mine in Christ. Salute Albina, your mother,
and Marcella, your sister; Marcellina also, and the holy Felicitas; and
say to them all: "We must all stand before the judgment seat of
Christ,(11) and there shall be revealed the principle by which each has
lived."
And now, illustrious model of chastity and
virginity, remember me, I beseech you, in your prayers, and by your
intercessions calm the waves of the sea.
LETTER XLVI.
PAULA AND EUSTOCHIUM TO MARCELLA.
Jerome writes to Marcella in the name of Paula and
Eustochium, describing the charms of the Holy Land. and urging her to
leave Rome and to join her old companions at Bethlehem. Much of the
letter is devoted to disposing of the objection that since the Passion
of Christ the Holy Land has been under a curse. The date of the letter
is A.D. 386. It is written from Bethlehem, which now becomes Jerome's
home for the remainder of his life.
1. Love cannot be measured, impatience knows no
bounds, and eagerness can brook no delay. Wherefore we, oblivious of
our weakness, and relying more on our will than our capacity,
desire--pupils though we be--to instruct our mistress. We are like the
sow in the proverb,(1) which sets up to teach the goddess of invention.
You were the first to set our tinder alight; the first, by precept and
example, to urge us to adopt our present life. As a hen gathers her
chickens, so did you take us under your wing.(2) And will you now let
us fly about at random with no mother near us? Will you leave us to
dread the swoop of the hawk and the shadow of each passing bird of
prey? Separated from you, we do what we can: we utter our mournful
plaint, and more by sobs than by tears we adjure you to give back to us
the Marcella whom we love. She is mild, she is suave, she is sweeter
than the sweetest honey. She must not, therefore, be stern and morose
to us, whom her winning ways have roused to adopt a life like her own.
2. Assuming that what we ask is for the best, our
eagerness to obtain it is nothing to be ashamed of. And if all the
Scriptures agree with our view, we are not too bold in urging you to a
course to which you have yourself often urged us.
What are God's first words to Abraham? "Get thee out
of thy country and from thy kindred unto a land that I will show
thee."(3) The patriarch--the first to receive a promise of Christ--is
here told to leave the Chaldees, to leave the city of confusion(4) and
its rehoboth(5) or broad places; to leave also the plain of Shinar,
where the tower of pride had been raised to heaven.(6) He has to pass
through the waves of this world, and to ford its rivers;
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those by which the saints sat down and wept when they remembered
Zion,(1) and Chebar's flood, whence Ezekiel was carried to Jerusalem by
the hair of his head.(2) All this Abraham undergoes that he may dwell
in a land of promise watered from above, and not like Egypt, from
below,(3) no producer of herbs for the weak and ailing,(4) but a land
that looks for the early and the latter rain from heaven.(5) It is a
land of hills and valleys,(6) and stands high above the sea. The
attractions of the world it entirely wants, but its spiritual
attractions are for this all the greater. Mary, the mother of the Lord,
left the lowlands and made her way to the hill country, when, after
receiving the angel's message, she realized that she bore within her
womb the Son of God.(7) When of old the Philistines had been overcome,
when their devilish audacity had been smitten, when their champion had
fallen on his face to the earth,(8) it was from this city that there
went forth a procession of jubilant souls, a harmonious choir to sing
our David's victory over tens of thousands.(9) Here, too, it was that
the angel grasped his sword, and while he laid waste the whole of the
ungodly city, marked out the temple of the Lord in the threshing floor
of Ornan, king of the Jebusites.(10) Thus early was it made plain that
Christ's church would grow up, not in Israel, but among the Gentiles.
Turn back to Genesis,(11) and you will find that this was the city over
which Melchizedek held sway, that king of Salem who, as a type of
Christ, offered to Abraham bread and wine, and even then consecrated
the mystery which Christians consecrate in the body and blood of the
Saviour.(12)
3. Perhaps you will tacitly reprove us for deserting
the order of Scripture, and letting our confused account ramble this
way and that, as one thing or another strikes us. If so, we say once
more what we said at the outset: love has no logic, and impatience
knows no rule. In the Song of Songs the precept is given as a hard one:
"Regulate your love towards me."(13) And so we plead that, if we err,
we do so not from ignorance but from feeling.
Well, then, to bring forward something still more
out of place, we must go back to yet remoter times. Tradition has it
that in this city, nay, more, on this very spot, Adam lived and died.
The place where our Lord was crucified is called Calvary,(1) because
the skull of the primitive man was buried there. So it came to pass
that the second Adam, that is the blood(2) of Christ, as it dropped
from the cross, washed away the sins of the buried protoplast,(3) the
first Adam, and thus the words of the apostle were fulfilled: "Awake,
thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee
light."(4)
It would be tedious to enumerate all the prophets
and holy men who have been sent forth from this place. All that is
strange and mysterious to us is familiar and natural to this city and
country. By its very names, three in number, it proves the doctrine of
the trinity. For it is called first Jebus, then Salem, then Jerusalem:
names of which the first means "down-trodden," the second "peace," and
the third "vision of peace."(5) For it is only by slow stages that we
reach our goal; it is only after we have been trodden down that we are
lifted up to see the vision of peace. Because of this peace Solomon,(6)
the man of peace, was born there, and "in peace was his place made."(7)
King of kings, and lord of lords, his name and that of the city show
him to be a type of Christ. Need we speak of David and his descendants,
all of whom reigned here? As Judaea is exalted above all other
provinces, so is this city exalted above all Judaea. To speak more
tersely, the glory of the province is derived from its capital; and
whatever fame the members possess is in every case due to the head.
4. You have long been anxious to break forth into
speech; the very letters we have formed perceive it, and our paper
already understands the question you are going to put. You will reply
to us by saying: it was so of old, when "the Lord loved the gates of
Zion more than all the dwellings of Jacob," and when her foundations
were in the holy mountains.(8) Even these verses, however, are
susceptible of a deeper interpretation. But things are changed since
then. The risen Lord has proclaimed intones of thunder: "Your house is
left unto you desolate." With tears He has prophesied its downfall: "O
Jerusalem, Jerusalem, thou that killest the prophets, and stonest them
which are sent un-
62
to thee; how often would I have gathered thy children together even as
a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings, and ye would not. Behold
your house is left unto you desolate."(1) The veil of the temple has
been rent;(2) an army has encompassed Jerusalem, it has been stained by
the blood of the Lord. Now, therefore, its guardian angels have
forsaken it and the grace of Christ has been withdrawn. Josephus,
himself a Jewish writer, asserts(3) that at the Lord's crucifixion
there broke from the temple voices of heavenly powers, saying: "Let us
depart hence." These and other considerations show that where grace
abounded there did sin much more abound.(4) Again, when the apostles
received the command: "Go ye and teach all nations,"(5) and when they
said themselves: "It was necessary that the word of God should first
have been spoken to you, but seeing ye put it from you ... lo we turn
to the Gentiles,"(6) then all the spiritual importance(7) of Judaea and
its old intimacy with God were transferred by the apostles to the
nations.
5. The difficulty is strongly stated, and may well
puzzle even those proficient in Scripture; but for all that, it admits
of an easy solution. The Lord wept for the fall of Jerusalem,(8) and He
would not have done so if He did not love it. He wept for Lazarus
because He loved him.(9) The truth is that it was the people who sinned
and not the place. The capture of a city is involved in the slaying of
its inhabitants. If Jerusalem was destroyed, it was that its people
might be punished; if the temple was overthrown, it was that its
figurative sacrifices might be abolished. As regards its site, lapse of
time has but invested it with fresh grandeur. The Jews of old
reverenced the Holy of Holies, because of the things contained in
it--the cherubim, the mercy-seat, the ark of the covenant, the manna,
Aaron's rod, and the golden altar.(10) Does the Lord's sepulchre seem
less worthy of veneration? As often as we enter it we see the Saviour
in His grave clothes, and if we linger we see again the angel sitting
at His feet, and the napkin folded at His head.(11) Long before this
sepulchre was hewn out by Joseph,(12) its glory was foretold in
Isaiah's prediction, "his rest shall be glorious,"(13) meaning that the
place of the Lord's burial should be held in universal honor.
6. How, then, you will say, do we read in the
apocalypse written by John: "The beast that ascendeth out of the
bottomless pit shall ... kill them [that is, obviously, the prophets],
and their dead bodies shall lie in the street of the great city which
spiritually is called Sodom and Egypt, where also their Lord was
crucified?"(1) If the great city where the Lord was crucified is
Jerusalem, and if the place of His crucifixion is spiritually called
Sodom and Egypt; then as the Lord was crucified at Jerusalem, Jerusalem
must be Sodom and Egypt. Holy Scripture, I reply first of all, cannot
contradict itself. One book cannot invalidate the drift of the whole. A
single verse cannot annul the meaning of a book. Ten lines earlier in
the apocalypse it is written: "Rise and measure the temple of God, and
the altar, and them that worship therein. But the court which is
without the temple leave out and measure it not; for it is given unto
the Gentiles; and the holy city shall they tread under foot forty and
two months."(2) The apocalypse was written by John long after the
Lord's passion, yet in it he speaks of Jerusalem as the holy city. But
if so, how can he spiritually call it Sodom and Egypt? It is no answer
to say that the Jerusalem which is called holy is the heavenly one
which is to be, while that which is called Sodom is the earthly one
tottering to its downfall. For it is the Jerusalem to come that is
referred to in the description of the beast, "which shall ascend out of
the bottomless pit, and shall make war against the two prophets, and
shall overcome them and kill them, and their dead bodies shall lie in
the street of the great city."(3) At the close of the book it is
farther described thus: "And the city lieth four-square, and the length
of it and the breadth are the same as the height; and he measured the
city with the golden reed twelve thousand furlongs. The length and the
breadth and the height of it are equal. And he measured the walls
thereof, an hundred and forty and four cubits, according to the measure
of a man, that is, of the angel. And the building of the wall of it was
of jasper; and the city was pure gold"(4)--and so on. Now where there
is a square there can be neither length nor breadth. And what kind of
measurement is that which makes length and breadth equal to height? And
how can there be walls of jasper, or a whole city of pure gold; its
foundations and its streets of precious stones, and its twelve gates
each glowing with pearls?
63
7. Evidently this description cannot be taken
literally (in fact, it is absurd to suppose a city the length, breadth
and height of which are all twelve thousand furlongs), and therefore
the details of it must be mystically understood. The great city which
Cain first built and called after his son(1) must be taken to represent
this world, which the devil, that accuser of his brethren, that
fratricide who is doomed to perish, has built of vice cemented with
crime, and filled with iniquity. Therefore it is spiritually called
Sodom and Egypt. Thus it is written, "Sodom shall return to her former
estate,"(2) that is to say, the world must be restored as it has been
before. For we cannot believe that Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah and
Zeboim(3) are to be built again: they must be left to lie in ashes
forever. We never read of Egypt as put for Jerusalem: it always stands
for this world. To collect from Scripture the countless proofs of this
would be tedious: I shall adduce but one passage, a passage in which
this world is most clearly called Egypt. The apostle Jude, the brother
of James, writes thus in his catholic epistle: "I will, therefore, put
you in remembrance, though ye once knew this how that Jesus,(4) having
saved the people out of the land of Egypt, afterward destroyed them
that believed not."(5) And, lest you should fancy Joshua the son of Nun
to be meant, the passage goes on thus: "And the angels which kept not
their first estate, but left their own habitation, he hath reserved in
everlasting chains, under darkness, unto the judgment of the great
day."(6) Moreover, to convince you that in every place where Egypt,
Sodom and Gomorrah are named together it is not these spots, but the
present world, which is meant, he mentions them immediately in this
sense. "Even as Sodom and Gomorrah," he writes, "and the cities about
them, in like manner giving themselves over to fornication and going
after strange flesh, are set forth for an example, suffering the
vengeance of eternal fire."(7) But what need is there to collect more
proofs when, after the passion and the resurrection of the Lord, the
evangelist Matthew tells us: "The rocks rent, and the graves were
opened; and many bodies of the saints which slept arose and came out of
the graves after his resurrection, and went into the holy city and
appeared unto many"?(6) We must not interpret this passage straight
off, as many people(9) absurdly do, of the heavenly Jerusalem: the
apparition there of the bodies of the saints could be no sign to men of
the Lord's rising. Since, therefore, the evangelists and all the
Scriptures speak of Jerusalem as the holy city, and since the psalmist
commands us to worship the Lord "at his footstool;"(1) allow no one to
call it Sodom and Egypt, for by it the Lord forbids men to swear
because" it is the city of the great king."(2)
8. The land is accursed, you say, because it has
drunk in the blood of the Lord. On what grounds, then, do men regard as
blessed those spots where Peter and Paul, the leaders of the Christian
host, have shed their blood for Christ? If the confession of men and
servants is glorious, must there not be glory likewise in the
confession of their Lord and God? Everywhere we venerate the tombs of
the martyrs; we apply their holy ashes to our eyes; we even touch them,
if we may, with our lips. And yet some think that we should neglect the
tomb in which the Lord Himself is buried. If we refuse to believe human
testimony, let us at least credit the devil and his angels.(3) For when
in front of the Holy Sepulchre they are driven out of those bodies
which they have possessed, they moan and tremble as if they stood
before Christ's judgment-seat, and grieve, too late that they have
crucified Him in whose presence they now cower. If--as a wicked theory
maintains--this holy place has, since the Lord's passion, become an
abomination, why was Paul in such haste to reach Jerusalem to keep
Pentecost in it?(4) Yet to those who held him back he said: "What mean
ye to weep and to break my heart? For I am ready not to be bound only,
but also to die at Jerusalem, for the name of the Lord Jesus."(5) Need
I speak of those other holy and illustrious men who, after the
preaching of Christ, brought their votive gifts and offerings to the
brethren who were at Jerusalem?
9. Time forbids me to survey the period which has
passed since the Lord's ascension, or to recount the bishops, the
martyrs, the divines, who have come to Jerusalem from a feeling that
their devotion and knowledge would be incomplete and their virtue
without the finishing touch, unless they adored Christ in the very spot
where the gospel first flashed from the gibbet. If a famous orator(6)
blames a man for having learned Greek at Lilybaeum instead of at
Athens, and Latin in Sicily instead of at Rome (on the ground,
64
obviously, that each province has its own characteristics), can we
suppose a Christian's education complete who has not visited the
Christian Athens?
10. In speaking thus we do not mean to deny that the
kingdom of God is within or to say that there are no holy men
elsewhere; we merely assert in the strongest manner that those who
stand first throughout the world are here gathered side by side. We
ourselves are among the last, not the first; yet we have come hither to
see the first of all nations. Of all the ornaments of the Church our
company of monks and virgins is one of the finest; it is like a fair
flower or a priceless gem. Every man of note in Gaul hastens hither.
The Briton, "sundered from our world,"(2) no sooner makes progress in
religion than he leaves the setting sun in quest of a spot of which he
knows only through Scripture and common report. Need we recall the
Armenians, the Persians, the peoples of India and Arabia? Or those of
our neighbor, Egypt, so rich in monks; of Pontus and Cappadocia; of
Caele-Syria and Mesopotamia and the teeming east? In fulfilment of the
Saviour's words, "Wherever the body is, thither will the eagles be
gathered together,"(3) they all assemble here and exhibit in this one
city the most varied virtues. Differing in speech, they are one in
religion, and almost every nation has a choir of its own. Yet amid this
great concourse there is no arrogance, no disdain of self-restraint;
all strive after humility, that greatest of Christian virtues.
Whosoever is last is here regarded as first.(4) Their dress neither
provokes remark nor calls for admiration. In whatever guise a man shows
himself he is neither censured nor flattered. Long fasts help no one
here. Starvation wins no deference, and the taking of food in
moderation is not condemned. "To his own master" each one "standeth or
falleth."(5) No man judges another lest he be judged of the Lord.(6)
Backbiting, so common in other parts, is wholly unknown here.
Sensuality and excess are far removed from us. And in the city there
are so many places of prayer that a day would not be sufficient to go
round them all.
11. But, as every one praises most what is within
his reach, let us pass now to the cottage-inn which sheltered Christ
and Mary.(7) With what expressions and what language can we set before
you the cave of the Saviour? The stall where he cried as a babe can be
best honored by silence; for words are inadequate to speak its praise.
Where are the spacious porticoes? Where are the gilded ceilings? Where
are the mansions furnished by the miserable toil of doomed wretches?
Where are the costly halls raised by untitled opulence for man's vile
body to walk in? Where are the roofs that intercept the sky, as if
anything could be finer than the expanse of heaven? Behold, in this
poor crevice of the earth the Creator of the heavens was born; here He
was wrapped in swaddling clothes; here He was seen by the shepherds;
here He was pointed out by the star; here He was adored by the wise
men. This spot is holier, me-thinks, than that Tarpeian rock(1) which
has shown itself displeasing to God by the frequency with which it has
been struck by lightning.
12. Read the apocalypse of John, and consider what
is sung therein of the woman arrayed in purple, and of the blasphemy
written upon her brow, of the seven mountains, of the many waters, and
of the end of Babylon.(2) "Come out of her, my people," so the Lord
says, "that ye be not partakers of her sins, and that ye receive not of
her plagues."(3) Turn back also to Jeremiah and pay heed to what he has
written of like import: "Flee out of the midst of Babylon, and deliver
every man his soul."(4) For "Babylon the great is fallen, is fallen,
and is become the habitation of devils, and the hold of every foul
spirit."(5) It is true that Rome has a holy church, trophies of
apostles and martyrs, a true confession of Christ. The faith has been
preached there by an apostle, heathenism has been trodden down, the
name of Christian is daily exalted higher and higher. But the display,
power, and size of the city, the seeing and the being seen, the paying
and the receiving of visits, the alternate flattery and detraction,
talking and listening, as well as the necessity of facing so great a
throng even when one is least in the mood to do so--all these things
are alike foreign to the principles and fatal to the repose of the
monastic life. For when people come in our way we either see them
coming and are compelled to speak, or we do not see them and lay
ourselves open to the charge of haughtiness. Sometimes, also, in
returning visits we are obliged to pass through proud portals and
gilded doors and to face the clamor of carping lackeys. But, as we have
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said above, in the cottage of Christ all is simple and rustic: and
except for the chanting of psalms there is complete silence. Wherever
one turns the laborer at his plough sings alleluia, the toiling mower
cheers himself with psalms, and the vine-dresser while he prunes his
vine sings one of the lays of David. These are the songs of the
country; these, in popular phrase, its love ditties: these the shepherd
whistles; these the tiller uses to aid his toil.
13. But what are we doing? Forgetting what is
required of us, we are taken up with what we wish. Will the time never
come when a breathless messenger shall bring the news that our dear
Marcella has reached the shores of Palestine, and when every band of
monks and every troop of virgins shall unite in a song of welcome? In
our excitement we are already hurrying to meet you: without waiting for
a vehicle, we hasten off at once on foot. We shall clasp you by the
hand, we shall look upon your face; and when, after long waiting, we at
last embrace you, we shall find it hard to tear ourselves away. Will
the day never come when we shall together enter the Saviour's cave, and
together weep in the sepulchre of the Lord with His sister and with His
mother?(1) Then shall we touch with our lips the wood of the cross, and
rise in prayer and resolve upon the Mount of Olives with the ascending
Lord.(2) We shall see Lazarus come forth bound with grave clothes,(3)
we shall look upon the waters of Jordan purified for the washing of the
Lord.(4) Thence we shall pass to the folds of the shepherds,(5) we
shall pray together in the mausoleum of David.(6) We shall see the
prophet, Amos,(7) upon his crag blowing his shepherd's horn. We shall
hasten, if not to the tents, to the monuments of Abraham, Isaac and
Jacob, and of their three illustrious wives.(8) We shall see the
fountain in which the eunuch was immersed by Philip.(9) We shall make a
pilgrimage to Samaria, and side by side venerate the ashes of John the
Baptist, of Elisha,(10) and of Obadiah. We shall enter the very caves
where in the time of persecution and famine the companies of the
prophets were fed.(11) If only you will come, we shall go to see
Nazareth, as its name denotes, the flower(12) of Galilee. Not far off
Cana will be visible, where the water was turned into wine.(13) We
shall make our way to Tabor,(14) and see the tabernacles there which
the Saviour shares, not, as Peter once wished, with Moses and Elijah,
but with the Father and with the Holy Ghost. Thence we shall come to
the Sea of Gennesaret, and when there we shall see the spots where the
five thousand were filled with five loaves,(1) and the font thousand
with seven.(2) The town of Nain will meet our eyes, at the gate of
which the widow's son was raised to life.(3) Hermon too will be
visible, and the torrent of Endor, at which Sisera was vanquished.(4)
Our eyes will look also on Capernaum, the scene of so many of our
Lord's signs--yes, and on all Galilee besides. And when, accompanied by
Christ, we shall have made our way back to our cave through Shiloh and
Bethel, and those other places where churches are set up like standards
to commemorate the Lord's victories, then we shall sing heartily, we
shall weep copiously, we shall pray unceasingly. Wounded with the
Saviour's shaft, we shall say one to another: "I have found Him whom my
soul loveth; I will hold Him and will not let Him go."(5)
LETTER XLVII.
TO DESIDERIUS.
Jerome invites two of his old friends at Rome,
Desiderius and his sister (or wife) Serenilla, to join him at
Bethlehem. It is possible but not probable that this Desiderius is the
same with Desiderius of Aquitaine, who afterwards induced Jerome to
write against Vigilantius.
An interval of seven years separates this letter (of
which the date is 393 A.D.) from the preceding, and all the letters
written during this period have wholly perished.
1. Surprised as I have been, my excellent friend, to
read the language which your kindness has prompted you to hold
concerning me, I have rejoiced that I possess the testimony of one both
eloquent and sincere; but when I turn from you to myself I feel vexed
that, owing to my unworthiness, your words of praise and eulogy rather
weigh me down than lift me up. You know, of course, that I make it a
principle to raise the standard of humility, and to prepare for scaling
the heights by walking for the present in the lowest places. For what
am I or what is my significance that I should have the voice of
learning raised to bear witness of me, or that the palm of eloquence
should be laid at my feet by one whose style is so charming that it has
almost deterred me from writing a letter at all? I must, however, make
the attempt in order that charity which seeks not
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her own(1) but always her neighbor's good, may at least return a
compliment, since it cannot convey a lesson.
2. I offer my congratulations to you and to your
holy and revered sister,(2) Serenilla, who, true to her name,(3) has
trodden down the troubled waves of the world, and has passed to
Christ's calm haven: a happiness which--if we may trust the augury of
your name--is in store for you also. For we read that the holy Daniel
was called" a man of desires,"(4) and the friend of God, because he
desired to know His mysteries. Therefore, I do with pleasure what the
revered Paula has asked of me. I urge and implore you both by the
charity of the Lord that you will give your presence to us, and that a
visit to the holy places may induce you to enrich us with this great
gift. Even supposing that you do not care for our society, it is still
your duty as believers to worship on the spot where the Lord's feet
once stood and to see for yourselves the still fresh traces of His
birth, His cross, and His passion.
3. Several of my little pieces have flown away out
of their nest, and have rashly sought for themselves the honor of
publication. I have not sent you any lest I should send works which you
already have. But if you care to borrow copies of them, you can do so
either from our holy sister, Marcella, who has her abode upon the
Aventine, or from that holy man, Domnio, who is the Lot of our
times.(5) Meantime, I look for your arrival, and will give you all I
have when you once come; or, if any hindrances prevent you from joining
us, I will gladly send you such treatises as you shall desire.
Following the example of Tranquillus(6) and of Apollonius the Greek,(7)
I have written a book concerning illustrious men(8) from the
apostles(9) time to our own; and after enumerating a great number I
have put myself down on the last page as one born out of due time, and
the least of all Christians.(9) Here I have found it necessary to give
a short account of my writings down to the fourteenth year(10) of the
Emperor Theodosius. If you find, on procuring this treatise from the
persons mentioned above, that there are any pieces mentioned which you
have not already got, I will have them copied for you by degrees, if
you wish it.
LETTER XLVIII.
TO PAMMACHIUS.
An "apology" for the two books "against Jovinian"
which Jerome had written a short time previously, and of which he had
sent copies to Rome. These Pammachius and his other friends had
withheld from publication, thinking that Jerome had unduly exalted
virginity at the expense of marriage. He now writes to make good his
position, and to do this makes copious extracts from the obnoxious
treatise. The date of the letter is 393 or 394 A.D.
1. Your own silence is my reason for not having
written hitherto. For I feared that, if I were to write to you without
first hearing from you, you would consider me not so much a
conscientious as a troublesome correspondent. But, now that I have been
challenged by your most delightful letter, a letter which calls upon me
to defend my views by an appeal to first principles, I receive my old
fellow-learner, companion, and friend with open arms, as the saying
goes; and I look forward to having in you a champion of my poor
writings; if, that is to say, I can first conciliate your judgment to
give sentence in my favor, and can instruct my advocate in all those
points on which I am assailed. For both your favorite, Cicero, and
before him--in his one short treatise--Antonius,(1) write to this
effect, that the chief requisite for victory is to acquaint one's self
carefully with the case which one has to plead.
2. Certain persons find fault with me because in the
books which I have written against Jovinian I have been excessive (so
they say) in praise of virginity and in depreciation of marriage; and
they affirm that to preach up chastity till no comparison is left
between a wife and a virgin is equivalent to a condemnation of
matrimony. If I remember aright the point of the dispute, the question
at issue between myself and Jovinian is that he puts marriage on a
level with virginity, while I make it inferior; he declares that there
is little or no difference between the two states, I assert that there
is a great deal. Finally--a result due under God to your agency--he has
been condemned because he has dared to set matrimony on an equality
with perpetual chastity. Or, if a virgin and a wife are to be looked on
as the same, how comes it that Rome has refused to listen to this
impious doctrine? A virgin owes her being to a man, but a man does not
owe his to a virgin. There can be no middle course. Either my view of
the matter must be embraced, or else that of Jovinian. If I am blamed
for putting wed-
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lock below virginity, he must be praised for putting the two states on
a level. If, on the other hand, he is condemned for supposing them
equal, his condemnation must be taken as testimony in favor of my
treatise. If men of the world chafe under the notion that they occupy a
position inferior to that of virgins, I wonder that clergymen and
monks--who both live celibate lives--refrain from praising what they
consistently practise. They cut themselves off from their wives to
imitate the chastity of virgins, and yet they will have it that married
women are as good as these. They should either be joined again to their
wives whom they have renounced, or, if they persist in living apart
from them, they will have to confess--by their lives if not by their
words--that, in preferring virginity to marriage, they have chosen the
better course, Am I then a mere novice in the Scriptures, reading the
sacred volumes for the first time? And is the line there drawn between
virginity and marriage so fine that I have been unable to observe it? I
could know nothing, forsooth, of the saying, "Be not righteous
overmuch!"(1) Thus, while I try to protect myself on one side, I am
wounded on the other; to speak more plainly still, while I close with
Jovinian in hand-to-hand combat, Manichaeus stabs me in the back. Have
I not, I would ask, in the very forefront of my work set the following
preface:(2) "We are no disciples of Marcion(3) or of Manichaeus,(4) to
detract from marriage. Nor are we deceived by the error of Tatian,(5)
the chief of the Encratites,(6) into supposing all cohabitation
unclean. For he condemns and reprobates not marriage only, but foods
also which God has created for us to enjoy,(7) We know that in a large
house there are vessels not only of silver and of gold, but of wood
also and of earth.(8) We know, too, that on the foundation of Christ
which Paul the master builder has laid, some build up gold, silver, and
precious stones; others, on the contrary, hay, wood, and stubble.(9) We
are not ignorant that 'marriage is honorable ... and the bed
undefiled.'(10) We have read the first decree of God: 'Be fruitful and
multiply and replenish the earth.'(11) But while we allow marriage, we
prefer the virginity which springs from it. Gold is more precious than
silver, but is silver on that account the less silver? Is it an insult
to a tree to prefer its apples to its roots or its leaves? Is it an
injury to corn to put the ear before the stalk and the blade? As apples
come from the tree and grain from the straw, so virginity comes from
wedlock. Yields of one hundredfold, of sixtyfold, and of thirtyfold(1)
may all come from one soil and from one sowing, yet they will differ
widely in quantity. The yield thirtyfold signifies wedlock, for the
joining together of the fingers to express that number, suggestive as
it is of a loving gentle kiss or embracing, aptly represents the
relation of husband and wife. The yield sixtyfold refers to widows who
are placed in a position of distress and tribulation. Accordingly, they
are typified by that finger which is placed under the other to express
the number sixty; for, as it is extremely trying when one has once
tasted pleasure to abstain from its enticements, so the reward of doing
this is proportionately great. Moreover, a hundred--I ask the reader to
give me his best attention--necessitates a change from the left hand to
the right; but while the hand is different the fingers are the same as
those which on the left hand signify married women and widows; only in
this instance the circle formed by them indicates the crown of
virginity."(2)
3. Does a man who speaks thus, I would ask you,
condemn marriage? If I have called virginity gold, I have spoken of
marriage as silver. I have set forth that the yields an hundredfold,
sixtyfold, and thirtyfold--all spring from one soil and from one
sowing, although in amount they differ widely. Will any of my readers
be so unfair as to judge me, not by my words, but by his own opinion?
At any rate, I have dealt much more gently with marriage than most
Latin and Greek writers;(3) who, by referring the hundredfold yield to
martyrs, the sixtyfold to virgins, and the thirtyfold to widows, show
that in their opinion married persons are excluded from the good ground
and from the seed of the great Father.(4) But, lest it might be
supposed that, though cautious at the outset, I was imprudent in the
remainder of my work, have I not, after
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marking out the divisions of it, on coming to the actual questions
immediately introduced the following:(1) "I ask all of you of both
sexes, at once those who are virgins and continent and those who are
married or twice married, to aid my efforts with your prayers."
Jovinian is the foe of all indiscriminately, but can I condemn as
Manichaean heretics persons whose prayers I need and whose assistance I
entreat to help me in my work?
4. As the brief compass of a letter does not suffer
us to delay too long on a single point, let us now pass to those which
remain. In explaining the testimony of the apostle, "The wife hath not
power of her own body, but the husband; and likewise, also, the husband
hath not power of his own body, but the wife,"(2) we have subjoined the
following:(3) "The entire question relates to those who are living in
wedlock, whether it is lawful for them to put away their wives, a thing
which the Lord also has forbidden in the Gospel.(4) Hence, also, the
apostle says: 'It is good for a man not to touch' a wife or 'a
woman,'(5) as if there were danger in the contact which he who should
so touch one could not escape. Accordingly, when the Egyptian woman
desired to touch Joseph he flung away his cloak and fled from her
hands.(6) But as he who has once married a wife cannot, except by
consent, abstain from intercourse with her or repudiate her, so long as
she does not sin, he must render unto his wife her due,(7) because he
has of his own free will bound himself to render it under compulsion."
Can one who declares that it is a precept of the Lord that wives should
not be put away, and that what God has joined together man must not,
without consent, put asunder(8)--can such an one be said to condemn
marriage? Again, in the verses which follow, the apostle says: "But
every man hath his proper gift of God, one after this manner, and
another after that."(9) In explanation of this saying we made the
following remarks:(10) "What I myself would wish, he says, is clear.
But since there are diversities of gifts in the church,(11) I allow
marriage as well, that I may not appear to condemn nature. Reflect,
too, that the gift of virginity is one thing, that of marriage another.
For had there been one reward for married women and for virgins he
would never, after giving the counsel of continence, have gone on to
say: 'But every man hath his proper gift of God, one after this manner
and another after that.' Where each class has its proper gift, there
must be some distinction between the classes. I allow that marriage, as
well as virginity, is the gift of God, but there is a great difference
between gift and gift. Finally, the apostle himself says of one who had
lived in incest and afterwards repented:(4) Contrariwise ye ought
rather to forgive him and comfort him, '(1) and 'To whom ye forgive
anything, I forgive also.'(2) And, lest we might suppose a man's gift
to be but a small thing, he has added: 'For if I forgave anything, to
whom I forgave it, for your sakes forgave I it in the sight(3) of
Christ.'(4) The gifts of Christ are different. Hence Joseph as a type
of Him had a coat of many colors.(5) So in the forty-fourth psalm(6) we
read of the Church: 'Upon thy right hand did stand the queen in a
vesture of gold, wrought about with divers colors.'(7) The apostle
Peter, too, speaks (of husbands and wives) 'as being heirs together of
the manifold grace of God.'(8) In Greek the expression is still more
striking, the word used being <greek>poikilh</greek>, that
is, 'many-colored.'"
5. I ask, then, what is the meaning of men's
obstinate determination to shut their eyes and to refuse to look on
what is as clear as day? I have said that there are diversities of
gifts in the Church, and that virginity is one gift and wedlock
another. And shortly after I have used the words: "I allow marriage
also to be a gift of God, but there is a great difference between gift
and gift." Can it be said that I condemn that which in the clearest
terms I declare to be the gift of God? Moreover, if Joseph is taken as
a type of the Lord, his coat of many colors is a type of virgins and
widows, celibates and wedded. Can any one who has any part in Christ's
tunic be regarded as an alien? Have we not spoken of the very queen
herself--that is, the Church of the Saviour--as wearing a vesture of
gold wrought about with divers colors? Moreover, when I came to discuss
marriage in connection with the following verses,(9) I still adhered to
the same view.(10) "This passage," I said, "has indeed no relation to
the present controversy; for, following the decision of the Lord, the
apostle teaches that a wife must not be put away saving for
fornication, and
69
that, if she has been put away, she cannot during the lifetime of her
husband marry another man, or, at any rate, that she ought, if
possible, to be reconciled to her husband. In another verse he speaks
to the same effect: 'The wife is bound ... as long as her husband
liveth; but if her husband be dead, she is loosed from the law of her
husband;(1) she is at liberty to be married to, whom she will; only in
the Lord,'(2) that is to a Christian. Thus the apostle, while he allows
a second or a third marriage in the Lord, forbids even a first with a
heathen."
6. I ask my detractors to open their ears and to
realize the fact that I have allowed second and third marriages" in the
Lord." If, then, I have not condemned second and third marriages, how
can I have proscribed a first? Moreover, in the passage where I
interpret the words of the apostle, "Is any man called being
circumcised? Let him not become uncircumcised. Is any called in
uncircumcision? let him not be circumcised"(3) (a passage, it is true,
which some most careful interpreters of Scripture refer to the
circumcision and slavery of the Law), do I not in the clearest terms
stand up for the marriage-tie? My words are these:(4) "'If any man is
called in uncircumcision, let him not be circumcised.' You had a wife,
the apostle says, when you believed. Do not fancy your faith in Christ
to be a reason for parting from her. For 'God hath called us in
peace.'(5) 'Circumcision is nothing and uncircumcision is nothing but
the keeping of the commandments of God.'(6) Neither celibacy nor
wedlock is of the slightest use without works, since even faith, the
distinguishing mark of Christians, if it have not works, is said to be
dead,(7) and on such terms as these the virgins of Vesta or of Juno,
who was constant to one(8) husband, might claim to be numbered among
the saints. And a little further on he says: 'Art thou called being a
servant, care not for it; but, if thou mayest be made free, use it
rather;'(9) that is to say, if you have a wife, and are bound to her,
and render her her due, and have not power of your own body--or, to
speak yet more plainly--if you are the slave of a wife, do not allow
this to cause you sorrow, do not sigh over the loss of your virginity.
Even if you can find pretexts for parting from her to enjoy the freedom
of chastity, do not seek your own welfare at the price of another's
ruin. Keep your wife for a little, and do not try too hastily to
overcome her reluctance. Wait till she follows your example. If you
only have patience, your wife will some day become your sister."
7. In another passage we have discussed the reasons
which led Paul to say: "Now concerning virgins, I have no commandment
of the Lord: yet I give my judgment, as one that hath obtained mercy of
the Lord to be faithful."(1) Here also, while we have ex-tolled
virginity, we have been careful to give marriage its due.(2) "Had the
Lord commanded virginity," we said, "He would have seemed to condemn
marriage and to do away with that seed-plot of humanity from which
virginity itself springs. Had He cut away the root how could He have
looked for fruit? Unless He had first laid the foundations, how could
He have built the edifice or crowned it with a roof made to cover its
whole extent?" If we have spoken of marriage as the root whose fruit is
virginity, and if we have made wedlock the foundation on which the
building or the roof of perpetual chastity is raised, which of my
detractors can be so captious or so blind as to ignore the foundation
on which the fabric and its roof are built, while he has before his
eyes both the fabric and the roof themselves? Once more, in another
place, we have brought forward the testimony of the apostle to this
effect: "Art thou bound unto a wife? Seek not to be loosed. Art thou
loosed from a wife? Seek not a wife."(3) To this we have appended the
following remarks:(4) "Each of us has his own sphere allotted to him.
Let me have mine, and do you keep yours. If you are bound to a wife, do
not put her away. If I am loosed from a wife, let me not seek a wife.
Just as I do not loose marriage-ties when they are once made, so do you
refrain from binding together what at present is loosed from such
ties." Yet another passage bears unmistakable testimony to the view
which we have taken of virginity and of wedlock:(5) "The apostle casts
no snare upon us,(6) nor does he compel us to be what we do not wish.
He only urges us to what is honorable and seemly, inciting us earnestly
to serve the Lord, to be anxious always to please Him, and to took for
His will which He has prepared for us to do. We are to be like alert
and armed soldiers, who immediately execute the orders given to them
and perform them without that travail of mind(7) which,
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according to the preacher, is given to the men of this world 'to be
exercised therewith.'"(1) At the end, also, of our comparison of
virgins and married women we have summed up the discussion thus:(2)
"When one thing is good and another thing is better; when that which is
good has a different reward from that which is better; and when there
are more rewards than one, then, obviously, there exists a diversity of
gifts. The difference between marriage and virginity is as great as
that between not doing evil and doing good--or, to speak more favorably
still, as that between what is good and what is still better."
8. In the sequel we go on to Speak thus:(3) "The
apostle, in concluding his discussion of marriage and of virginity, is
careful to observe a mean course in discriminating between them, and,
turning neither to the right hand nor to the left, he keeps to the
King's highway,(4) and thus fulfils the injunction, 'Be not righteous
overmuch.'(5) Moreover, when he goes on to compare monogamy with
digamy, he puts digamy after monogamy, just as before he subordinated
marriage to virginity." Do we not clearly show by this language what is
typified in the Holy Scriptures by the terms right and left, and also
what we take to be the meaning of the words "Be not righteous
overmuch"? We turn to the left if, following the lust of Jews and
Gentiles, we burn for sexual intercourse; we turn to the right if,
following the error of the Manichaeans, we under a pretence of chastity
entangle ourselves in the meshes of unchastity. But we keep to the
King's highway if we aspire to virginity yet refrain from condemning
marriage. Can any one, moreover, be so unfair in his criticism of my
poor treatise as to allege that I condemn first marriages, when he
reads my opinion on second ones as follows:(6) "The apostle, it is
true, allows second marriages, but only to such women as are bent upon
them, to such as cannot contain,(7) lest 'when they have begun to wax
wanton against Christ they marry, having condemnation because they have
rejected their first faith,'(8) and he makes this concession because
many 'are turned aside after Satan.'(9) But they will be happier if
they abide as widows. To this he immediately adds his apostolical
authority, 'after my judgment.' Moreover, lest any should consider that
authority, being human, to be of small weight, he goes on to say, 'and
I think also that I have the spirit of God.'(1) Thus, where he urges
men to continence he appeals not to human authority, but to the Spirit
of God; but when he gives them permission to marry he does not mention
the Spirit of God, but allows prudential considerations to turn the
balance, relaxing the strictness of his code in favor of individuals
according to their several needs." Having thus brought forward proofs
that second marriages are allowed by the apostle, we at once added the
remarks which follow:(2) "As marriage is permitted to virgins by reason
of the danger of fornication, and as what in itself is not desirable is
thus made excusable, so by reason of the same danger widows are
permitted to marry a second time. For it is better that a woman should
know one man (though he should be a second husband or a third) than
that she should know several. In other words, it is preferable that she
should prostitute herself to one rather than to many." Calumny may do
its worst. We have spoken here not of a first marriage, but of a
second, of a third, or (if you like) of a fourth. But lest any one
should apply my words (that it is better for a woman to prostitute
herself to one man than to several) to a first marriage when my whole
argument dealt with digamy and trigamy, I marked my own view of these
practices with the words:(3) "'All things are lawful, but all things
are not expedient.'(4) I do not condemn digamists nor yet trigamists,
nor even, to put an extreme, case, octogamists. I will make a still
greater concession: I am ready to receive even a whore-monger, if
penitent. In every case where fairness is possible, fair consideration
must be shown."
9. My calumniator should blush at his assertion that
I condemn first marriages when he reads my words just now quoted: "I do
not condemn digamists or trigamists, or even, to put an extreme case,
octogamists." Not to condemn is one thing, to commend is another. I may
concede a practice as allowable and yet not praise it as meritorious.
But if I seem severe in saying, "In every case where fairness is
possible, fair consideration must be shown," no one, I fancy, will
judge me either cruel or stern who reads that the places prepared for
virgins and for wedded persons are different from those prepared for
trigamists, octogamists, and penitents. That Christ Himself, although
in the flesh a virgin, was in the spirit a monogamist,
71
having one wife, even the Church,(1) I have shown in the latter part of
my argument.(2) And yet I am supposed to condemn marriage! I am said to
condemn it, although I use such words as these:(3) "It is an undoubted
fact that the levitical priests were descended from the stock of Aaron,
Eleazar, and Phinehas; and, as all these were married men, we might
well be confronted with them if, led away by the error of the
Encratites, we were to contend that marriage is in itself deserving of
condemnation." Here I blame Tatian, the chief of the Encratites, for
his rejection of marriage, and yet I myself am said to condemn it! Once
more, when I contrast virgins with widows, my own words show what my
view is concerning wedlock, and set forth the threefold gradation which
I propose of virgins, widows--whether in practice or in fact(4)--and
wedded wives. "I do not deny"--these are my words(5)--" the blessedness
of widows who continue such after their baptism, nor do I undervalue
the merit of wives who live in chastity with their husbands; but, just
as widows receive a greater reward from God than wives obedient to
their husbands, they, too, must be content to see virgins preferred
before themselves."
10. Again, when explaining the witness of the
apostle to the Galatians, "By the works of the law shall no flesh be
justified," I have spoken to the following effect: "Marriages also are
works of the law. And for this reason there is a curse upon such as do
not produce offspring. They are permitted, it is true, even under the
Gospel; but it is one thing to concede an indulgence to what is a
weakness and quite another to promise a reward to what is a virtue."
See my express declaration that marriage is allowed in the Gospel, yet
that those who are married cannot receive the rewards of chastity so
long as they render their due one to another. If married men feel
indignant at this statement, let them vent their anger not on me but on
the Holy Scriptures; nay, more, upon all bishops, presbyters, and
deacons, and the whole company of priests and levites, who know that
they cannot offer sacrifices if they fulfil the obligations of
marriage. Again, when I adduce evidence from the Apocalypse,(6) is it
not clear what view I take concerning virgins, widows, and wives?
"These are they who sing a new song(7) which no man can sing except he
be a virgin. These are 'the first fruits unto God and unto the
Lamb,'(1) and they are without spot. If virgins are the first fruits
unto God, then widows and wives who live in continence must come after
the first fruits--that is to say, in the second place and in the
third." We place widows, then, and wives in the second place and in the
third, and for this we are charged by the frenzy of a heretic with
condemning marriage altogether.
11. Throughout the book I have made many remarks in
a tone of great moderation on virginity, widowhood, and marriage. But
for the sake of brevity, I will here adduce but one passage, and that
of such a kind that no one, I think, will be found to gainsay it save
some one who wishes to prove himself malicious or mad. In describing
our Lord's visit to the marriage at Cana in Galilee,(2) after some
other remarks I have added these:(3) "He who went but once to a
marriage has taught us that a woman should marry but once; and this
fact might tell against virginity if we failed to give marriage its due
place--after virginity that is, and chaste widowhood. But, as it is
only heretics who condemn marriage and tread under foot the ordinance
of God, we listen with gladness to every word said by our Lord in
praise of marriage. For the Church does not condemn marriage, but only
subordinates it. It does not reject it altogether, but regulates it,
knowing (as I have said above) that 'in a great house there are not
only vessels of gold and of silver, but also of wood and of earth; and
some to honor and some to dishonor. If a man, therefore, purge himself
... he shall be a vessel unto honor meet ... and prepared unto every
good work.'"(4) I listen with gladness, I say here, to every word said
by the apostle in praise of marriage. Do I listen with gladness to the
praise of marriage, and do I yet condemn marriage? The Church, I say,
does not condemn wedlock, but subordinates it. Whether you like it or
not, marriage is subordinated to virginity and widowhood. Even when
marriage continues to fulfil its function, the Church does not condemn
it, but only subordinates it; it does not reject it, but only regulates
it. It is in your power, if you will, to mount the second step of
chastity.(5) Why are you angry if, standing on the third and lowest
step, you will not make haste to go up higher?
12. Since, then, I have so often reminded my reader
of my views; and since I have picked
72
my way like a prudent traveller over every inch of the road, stating
repeatedly that, while I receive marriage as a thing in itself
admissible, I yet prefer continence, widowhood, and virginity, the wise
and generous reader ought to have judged what seemed hard sayings by my
general drift, and not to have charged me with putting forward
inconsistent opinions in one and the same book. For who is so dull or
so inexperienced in writing as to praise and to condemn one and the
same object, as to destroy what he has built up, and to build up what
he has destroyed; and when he has vanquished his opponent, to turn his
sword, last of all against himself? Were my detractors country bred or
unacquainted with the arts of rhetoric or of logic, I should pardon
their want of insight; nor should I censure them for accusing me if I
saw that their ignorance was in fault and not their will. As it is men
of intellect who have enjoyed a liberal education make it their object
less to understand me than to wound me, and for such I have this short
answer, that they should correct my faults and not merely censure me
for them. The lists are open, I cry; your enemy has marshalled his
forces, his position is plain, and (if I may quote Virgil(1))--
The foeman calls you: meet him face to face.
Such men should answer their opponent. They ought to keep within the
limits of debate, and not to wield the schoolmaster's rod. Their books
should aim at showing in what my statements have fallen short of the
truth, and in what they have exceeded it. For, although I will not
listen to fault-finders, I will follow the advice of teachers. To
direct the fighter how to fight when you yourself occupy a post of
vantage on the wall is a kind of teaching that does not commend itself;
and when you are yourself bathed in perfumes, it is unworthy to charge
a bleeding soldier with cowardice. Nor in saying this do I lay myself
open to a charge of boasting that while others have slept I only have
entered the lists. My meaning simply is that men who have seen me
wounded in this warfare may possibly be a little too cautious in their
methods of fighting. I would not have you engage in an encounter in
which you will have nothing to do but to protect yourself, your right
hand remaining motionless while your left manages your shield. You must
either strike or fall. I cannot account you a victor unless I see your
opponent put to the sword.
13. You are, no doubt, men of vast acquirements; but
we too have studied in the schools, and, like you, we have learned from
the precepts of Aristotle--or, rather, from those which he has derived
from Gorgias--that there are different ways of speaking; and we know,
among other things, that he who writes for display uses one style, and
he who writes to convince, another.(1) In the former case the debate is
desultory; to confute the opposer, now this argument is adduced and now
that. One argues as one pleases, saying one thing while one means
another. To quote the proverb, "With one hand one offers bread, in the
other one holds a stone."(2) In the latter case a certain frankness and
openness of countenance are necessary. For it is one thing to start a
problem and another to expound what is already proved. The first calls
for a disputant, the second for a teacher. I stand in the thick of the
fray, my life in constant danger: you who profess to teach me are a man
of books. "Do not," you say, "attack unexpectedly or wound by a
side-thrust. Strike straight at your opponent. You should be ashamed to
resort to feints instead of force." As if it were not the perfection of
fighting to menace one part and to strike another. Read, I beg of you,
Demosthenes or Cicero, or (if you do not care for pleaders whose aim is
to speak plausibly rather than truly) read Plato, Theophrastus,
Xenophon, Aristotle, and the rest of those who draw their respective
rills of wisdom from the Socratic fountain-head. Do they show any
openness? Are they devoid of artifice? Is not every word they say
filled with meaning? And does not this meaning always make for victory?
Origen, Methodius, Eusebius, and Apollinaris(3) write at great length
against Celsus and Porphyry.(4) Consider how subtle are the arguments,
how insidious the engines with which they overthrow what the spirit of
the devil has wrought. Sometimes, it is true, they are compelled to say
not what they think but what is needful; and for this reason they
employ against their opponents the assertions of the Gentiles
themselves. I say nothing of the Latin authors, of Tertullian, Cyprian,
Minutius, Victorinus, Lactantius, Hilary, lest I should appear not so
much to be defending myself as to be assailing
73
others. I will only mention the Apostle Paul, whose words seem to me,
as often as I hear them, to be not words, but peals of thunder. Read
his epistles, and especially those addressed to the Romans, to the
Galatians, and to the Ephesians, in all of which he stands in the thick
of the battle, and you will see how skilful and how careful he is in
the proofs which he draws from the Old Testament, and how warily he
cloaks the object which he has in view. His words seem simplicity
itself: the expressions of a guileless and unsophisticated person--one
who has no skill either to plan a dilemma or to avoid it. Still,
whichever way you look, they are thunderbolts. His pleading halts, yet
he carries every point which he takes up. He turns his back upon his
foe only to overcome him; he simulates flight, but only that he may
slay. He, then, if any one, ought to be calumniated; we should speak
thus to him: "The proofs which yon have used against the Jews or
against other heretics bear a different meaning in their own contexts
to that which they bear in your epistles. We see passages taken captive
by your pen and pressed into service to win you a victory which in the
volumes from which they are taken have no controversial bearing at
all." May he not reply to us in the words of the Saviour: "I have one
mode of speech for those that are without and another for those that
are within; the crowds hear my parables, but their interpretation is
for my disciples alone"?(1) The Lord puts questions to the Pharisees,
but does not elucidate them. To teach a disciple is one thing; to
vanquish an opponent, another. "My mystery is for me," says the
prophet; "my mystery is for me and for them that are mine."(2)
14. You are indignant with me because I have merely
silenced Jovinian and not instructed him. You, do I say? Nay, rather,
they who grieve to hear him anathematized, and who impeach their own
pretended orthodoxy by eulogizing in another the heresy which they hold
themselves. I should have asked him, forsooth, to surrender peaceably!
I had no right to disregard his struggles and to drag him against his
will into the bonds of truth! I might use such language had the desire
of victory induced me to say anything counter to the rule laid down in
Scripture, and had I taken the line--so often adopted by strong men in
controversy--of justifying the means by the result. As it is, however,
I have been an exponent of the apostle rather than a dogmatist on my
own account; and my function has been simply that of a commentator.
Anything, therefore, which seems a hard saying should be imputed to the
writer expounded by me rather than to me the expounder; unless, indeed,
he spoke otherwise than he is represented to have done, and I have by
an unfair interpretation wrested the plain meaning of his words. If any
one charges me with this disingenuousness let him prove his charge from
the Scriptures themselves.
I have said in my book,(1) "If 'it is good for a man
not to touch a woman,' then it is bad for him to touch one, for bad,
and bad only, is the opposite of good. But, if though bad it is made
venial, then it is allowed to prevent something which would be worse
than bad," and so on down to the commencement of the next chapter. The
above is my comment upon the apostle's words: "It is good for a man not
to touch a woman. Nevertheless, to avoid fornication, let every man
have his own wife, and let every woman have her own husband."(2) In
what way does my meaning differ from that intended by the apostle?
Except that where he speaks decidedly I do so with hesitation. He
defines a dogma, I hazard an inquiry. He openly says: "It is good for a
man not to touch a woman." I timidly ask if it is good for a man not to
touch one. If I thus waver, I cannot be said to speak positively. He
says: "It is good not to touch." I add what is a possible antithesis to
"good." And immediately afterwards I speak thus:(3) "Notice the
apostle's carefulness. He does not say: 'It is good for a man not to
have a wife,' but, 'It is good for a man not to touch a woman'; as if
there is danger in the very touching of one--danger which he who
touches cannot escape." You see, therefore, that I am not expounding
the law as to husbands and wives, but simply discussing the general
question of sexual intercourse--how in comparison with chastity and
virginity, the life of angels, "It is good for a man not to touch a
woman."
"Vanity of vanities," says the Preacher, "all is
vanity."(4) But if all created things are good,(5) as being the
handiwork of a good Creator, how comes it that all things are vanity?
If the earth is vanity, are the heavens vanity too?--and the angels,
the thrones, the dominations, the powers, and the rest of the
virtues?(6) No; if things which are
74
good in themselves as being the handiwork of a good Creator are called
vanity, it is because they are compared with things which are better
still. For example, compared with a lamp, a lantern is good for
nothing; compared with a star, a lamp does not shine at all; the
brightest star pales before the moon; put the moon beside the sun, and
it no longer looks bright; compare the sun with Christ, and it is
darkness. "I am that I am," God says;(1) and if you compare all created
things with Him they have no existence. "Give not thy sceptre," says
Esther, "unto them that be nothing"(2)--that is to say, to idols and
demons. And certainly they were idols and demons to whom she prayed
that she and hers might not be given over. In Job also we read how
Bildad says of the wicked man: "His confidence shall be rooted out of
his tabernacle, and destruction as a king shall trample upon him. The
companions also of him who is not shall abide in his tabernacle."(3)
This evidently relates to the devil, who must be in existence,
otherwise he could not be said to have companions. Still, because he is
lost to God, he is said not to be.
Now it was in a similar sense that I declared it to
be a bad thing to touch a woman--I did not say a wife--because it is a
good thing not to touch one. And I added:(4) "I call virginity fine
corn, wedlock barley, and fornication cow-dung." Surely both corn and
barley are creatures of God. But of the two multitudes miraculously
supplied in the Gospel the larger was fed upon barley loaves, and the
smaller on corn bread.(5) "Thou, Lord," says the psalmist, "shalt save
both man and beast."(6) I have myself said the same thing in other
words, when I have spoken of virginity as gold and of wedlock as
silver.(7) Again, in discussing(8) the one hundred and forty-four
thousand sealed virgins who were not defiled with women,(9) I have
tried to show that all who have not remained virgins are reckoned as
defiled when compared with the perfect chastity of the angels and of
our Lord Jesus Christ. But if any one thinks it hard or reprehensible
that I have placed the same interval between virginity and wedlock as
there is between fine corn and barley, let him read the book of the
holy Ambrose "On Widows," and he will find, among other statements
concerning virginity and marriage, the following:(10) "The apostle has
not expressed his preference for marriage so unreservedly as to quench
in men the aspiration after virginity; he commences with a
recommendation of continence, and it is only subsequently that he
stoops to mention the remedies for its opposite. And although to the
strong he has pointed out the prize of their high calling,(1) yet he
suffers none to faint by the way;(2) whilst he applauds those who lead
the van, he does, not despise those who bring up the rear. For he had
himself learned that the Lord Jesus gave to some barley bread, lest
they should faint by the way, but offered to others His own body, that
they should strive to attain His kingdom;"(3) and immediately
afterwards: "The nuptial tie, then, is not to be avoided as a crime,
but to be refused as a hard burden. For the law binds the wife to bring
forth children in labor and in sorrow. Her desire is to be to her
husband that he should rule over her.(4) It is not the widow, then, but
the bride, who is handed over to labor and sorrow in childbearing. It
is not the virgin, but the married woman, who is subjected to the sway
of a husband." And in another place, "Ye are bought," says the apostle,
"with a price;(5) be not therefore the servants of men."(6) You see how
clearly he defines the servitude which attends the married state. And a
little farther on: "If, then, even a good marriage is servitude, what
must a bad one be, in which husband and wife cannot sanctify, but only
mutually destroy each other?" What I have said about virginity and
marriage diffusely, Ambrose has stated tersely and pointedly,
compressing much meaning into a few words. Virginity is described by
him as a means of recommending continence, marriage as a remedy for
incontinence. And when he descends from broad principles to particular
details, he significantly holds out to virgins the prize of the high
calling, yet comforts the married, that they may not faint by the way.
While eulogizing the one class, he does not despise the other. Marriage
he compares to the barley bread set before the multitude, virginity to
the body of Christ given to the disciples. There is much less
difference, it seems to me, between barley and fine corn than between
barley and the body of Christ. Finally, he speaks of marriage as a hard
burden, to be avoided if possible, and as a badge of the most
unmistakable servi-
75
tude. He makes, also, many other statements, which he has followed up
at length in his three books "On Virgins."
15. From all which considerations it is clear that I
have said nothing at all new concerning virginity and marriage, but
have followed in all respects the judgment of older writers--of
Ambrose, that is to say, and others who have discussed the doctrines of
the Church. "And I would sooner follow them in their faults than copy
the dull pedantry of the writers of to-day."(1) Let married men, if
they please, swell with rage because I have said,(2) "I ask you, what
kind of good thing is that which forbids a man to pray, and which
prevents him from receiving the body of Christ?" When I do my duty as a
husband, I cannot fulfil the requirements of continence. The same
apostle, in another place, commands us to pray always.(3) "But if we
are always to pray we must never yield to the claims of wedlock for, as
often as I render her due to my wife, I incapacitate myself for
prayer." When I spoke thus it is clear that I relied on the words of
the apostle: "Defraud ye not one the other, except it be with consent
for a time, that ye may give yourselves to ... prayer."(4) The Apostle
Paul tells us that when we have intercourse with our wives we cannot
pray. If, then, sexual intercourse prevents what is less
important--that is, prayer--how much more does it prevent what is more
important--that is, the reception of the body of Christ? Peter, too,
exhorts us to continence, that our "prayers be not hindered."(5) How, I
should like to know, have I sinned in all this? What have I done? How
have I been in fault? If the waters of a stream are thick and muddy, it
is not the river-bed which is to blame, but the source. Am I attacked
because I have ventured to add to the words of the apostle these words
of my own: "What kind of good thing is that which prevents a man from
receiving the body of Christ?" If so, I will make answer briefly thus:
Which is the more important, to pray or to receive Christ's body?
Surely to receive Christ's body. If, then, sexual intercourse hinders
the less important thing, much more does it hinder that which is the
more important.
I have said in the same treatise(6) that David and
they that were with him could not have lawfully eaten the shew-bread
had they not made answer that for three days they had not been defiled
with women(1)--not, of course, with harlots, intercourse with whom was
forbidden by the law, but with their own wives, to whom they were
lawfully united. Moreover, when the people were about to receive the
law on Mount Sinai they were commanded to keep away from their wives
for three days.(2) I know that at Rome it is customary for the faithful
always to receive the body of Christ, a custom which I neither censure
nor indorse. "Let every man be fully persuaded in his own mind."(3) But
I appeal to the consciences of those persons who after indulging in
sexual intercourse on the same day receive the communion--having first,
as Persius puts it, "washed off the night in a flowing stream,"(4) and
I ask such why they do not presume to approach the martyrs or to enter
the churches.(5) Is Christ of one mind abroad and of another at home?
What is unlawful in church cannot be lawful at home. Nothing is hidden
from God. "The night shineth as the day" before Him.(6) Let each man
examine himself, and so let him approach the body of Christ.(7) Not, of
course, that the deferring of communion for one day or for two makes a
Christian any the holier or that what I have not deserved to-day I
shall deserve to-morrow or the day after. But if I grieve that I have
not shared in Christ's body it does help me to avoid for a little while
my wife's embraces, and to prefer to wedded love the love of Christ. A
hard discipline, you will say, and one not to be borne. What man of the
world could bear it? He that can bear it, I reply, let him bear it;(8)
he that cannot must look to himself. it is my business to say, not what
each man can do or will do, but what the Scriptures inculcate.
16. Again, objection has been taken to my comments
on the apostle in the following passage:(9) "But lest any should
suppose from the context of the words before quoted (namely, 'that ye
may give yourselves ... to prayer and come together again') that
76
the apostle desires this consummation, and does not merely concede it
to obviate a worse downfall, he immediately adds, 'that Satan tempt you
not for your incontinency.'(1) 'And come together again.' What a noble
indulgence the words convey! One which he blushes to speak of in
plainer words, which he prefers only to Satan's temptation, and which
has its root in incontinence. Do we labor to expound this as a dark
saying when the writer has himself explained his meaning? "I speak
this,' he says, 'by way of permission, and not as a command.'(2) Do we
still hesitate to speak of wedlock as a thing permitted instead of as a
thing enjoined? or are we afraid that such permission will exclude
second or third marriages or some other case?" What have I said here
which the apostle has not said? The phrase, I suppose, "which he
blushes to speak of in plainer words." I imagine that when he says
"come together," and does not mention for what, he takes a modest way
of indicating what he does not like to name openly--that is, sexual
intercourse. Or is the objection to the words which follow--"which he
prefers only to Satan's temptation, and which has its root in
incontinence"? Are they not the very words of the apostle, only
differently arranged--"that Satan tempt you not for your incontinency"?
Or do people cavil because I said, "Do we still hesitate to speak of
wedlock as a thing permitted instead of as a thing enjoined?" If this
seems a hard saying, it should be ascribed to the apostle, who says,
"But I speak this by way of permission, and not as a command," and not
to me, who, except that I have rearranged their order, have changed
neither the words nor their meaning.
17. The shortness of a letter compels me to hasten
on. I pass, accordingly, to the points which remain. "I say," remarks
the apostle, "to the unmarried and widows, It is good for them if they
abide even as I. But if they cannot contain, let them marry; for it is
better to marry than to burn."(3) This section I have interpreted
thus:(4) "When he has granted to those who are married the use of
wedlock, and has made clear his own wishes and concessions, he passes
on to those who are unmarried or widows, and sets before them his own
example. He calls them happy if they abide even as he,(5) but he goes
on, 'if they cannot contain, let them marry.' He thus repeats his
former language, 'but only to avoid fornication,' and 'that Satan tempt
you not for your incontinence.' And when he says, 'If they cannot
contain, let them marry,' he gives as a reason for his words that 'it
is better to marry than to burn.' It is only good to marry, because it
is bad to burn. But take away the fire of lust, and he will not say 'it
is better to marry.' For a thing is said to be better in antithesis to
something which is worse, and not simply in contrast with what is
admittedly good. It is as though he said, 'It is better to have one eye
than none."' Shortly afterwards, apostrophizing the apostle, I spoke
thus:' "If marriage is good in itself, do not compare it with a
conflagration, but simply say, 'It is good to marry.' I must suspect
the goodness of a thing which only becomes a lesser evil in the
presence of a greater one. I, for my part, would have it not a lighter
evil but a downright good." The apostle wishes unmarried women and
widows to abstain from sexual intercourse, incites them to follow his
own example, and calls them happy if they abide even as he. But if they
cannot contain, and are tempted to quench the fire of lust by
fornication rather than by continence, it is better, he tells them, to
marry than to burn. Upon which precept I have made this comment: "It is
good to marry, simply because it is bad to burn," not putting forward a
view of my own, but only explaining the apostle's precept, "It is
better to marry than to burn;" that is, it is better to take a husband
than to commit fornication. If, then, you teach that burning or
fornication is good, the good will still be surpassed by what is still
better.(2) But if marriage is only a degree better than the evil to
which it is preferred, it cannot be of that unblemished perfection and
blessedness which suggest a comparison with the life of angels. Suppose
I say, "It is better to be a virgin than a married woman;" in this case
I have preferred to what is good what is still better. But suppose I go
a step further and say, "It is better to marry than to commit
fornication;" in that case I have preferred, not a better thing to a
good thing, but a good thing to a bad one. There is a wide difference
between the two cases; for, while virginity is related to marriage as
better is to good, marriage is related to fornication as good is to
bad. How, I should like to know, have I sinned in this explanation? My
fixed purpose was not to bend the Scriptures to my own wishes, but
simply to
77
say what I took to be their meaning. A commentator has no business to
dilate on his own views; his duty is to make plain the meaning of the
author whom he professes to interpret. For, if he contradicts the
writer whom he is trying to expound, he will prove to be his opponent
rather than his interpreter. When I am freely expressing my own
opinion, and not commenting upon the Scriptures, then any one that
pleases may charge me with having spoken hardly of marriage. But if he
can find no ground for such a charge, he should attribute such passages
in my commentaries as appear severe or harsh to the author commented
on, and not to me, who am only his interpreter.
18. Another charge brought against me is simply
intolerable! It is urged that in explaining the apostle's words
concerning husbands and wives, "Such shall have trouble in the flesh,"
I have said:(1) "We in our ignorance had supposed that in the flesh at
least wedlock would have rejoicing. But if married persons are to have
trouble in the flesh, the only thing in which they seemed likely to
have pleasure, what motive will be left to make women marry? for,
besides having trouble in spirit and soul, they will also have it even
in the flesh."(2) Do I condemn marriage if I enumerate its troubles,
such as the crying of infants, the death of children the chance of
abortion, domestic losses, and so forth? Whilst Damasus of holy memory
was still living, I wrote a book against Helvidius "On the Perpetual
Virginity of the Blessed Mary," in which, duly to extol the bliss of
virginity, I was forced to say much of the troubles of marriage. Did
that excellent man--versed in Scripture as he was, and a virgin doctor
of the virgin Church--find anything to censure in my discourse?
Moreover, in the treatise which I addressed to Eustochium(3) I used
much harsher language regarding marriage, and yet no one was offended
at it. Nay, every lover of chastity strained his ears to catch my
eulogy of continence. Read Tertullian, read Cyprian, read Ambrose, and
either accuse me with them or acquit me with them. My critics resemble
the characters of Plautus. Their only wit lies in detraction; and they
try to make themselves out men of learning by assailing all parties in
turn. Thus they bestow their censure impartially upon myself and upon
my opponent, and maintain that we are both beaten, although one or
other of us must have succeeded.
Moreover, when in discussing digamy and trigamy I
have said,(1) "It is better for a woman to know one man, even though he
be a second husband or a third, than several; it is more tolerable for
her to prostitute herself to one man than to many," have I not
immediately subjoined my reason for so saying? "The Samaritan woman in
the Gospel, when she declares that her present husband is her sixth, is
rebuked by the Lord on the ground that he is not her husband."(2) For
my own part, I now once more freely proclaim that digamy is not
condemned in the Church--no, nor yet trigamy--and that a woman may
marry a fifth husband, or a sixth, or a greater number still just as
lawfully as she may marry a second; but that, while such marriages are
not condemned, neither are they commended. They are meant as
alleviations of an unhappy lot, and in no way redound to the glory of
continence. I have spoken to the same effect elsewhere.(3) "When a
woman marries more than once--whether she does so twice or three times
matters little--she ceases to be a monogamist. 'All things are lawful
... but all things are not expedient.'(4) I do not condemn digamists or
trigamists, or even, to put an impossible case, octogamists. Let a
woman have an eighth husband if she must; only let her cease to
prostitute herself."
19. I will come now to the passage in which I am accused of
saying that--at least according to the true Hebrew text--the words "God
saw that it was good"(5) are not inserted after the second day of the
creation, as they are after the first, third, and remaining ones, and
of adding immediately the following comment:(6) "We are meant to
understand that there is something not good in the number two,
separating us as it does from unity, and prefiguring the marriage-tie.
Just as in the account of Noah's ark all the animals that enter by twos
are unclean, but those of which an uneven number is taken are
clean."(7) In this statement a passing objection is made to what I have
said concerning the second day, whether on the ground that the words
mentioned really occur in the passage, although I say that they do not
occur, or because, assuming them to occur, I have understood them in a
sense different from that which the context evidently requires. As
regards the non-occurrence of the words in question (viz., "God saw
that it was good"), let them take not my evidence, but that of all the
Jew-
78
ish and other translators--Aquila(1) namely, Symmachus,(2) and
Theodotion.(3) But if the words, although occurring in the account of
the other days, do not occur in the account of this, either let them
give a more plausible reason than I have done for their non-occurrence,
or, failing such, let them, whether they like it or not, accept the
suggestion which I have made. Furthermore, if in Noah's ark all the
animals that enter by twos are unclean, whilst those of which an uneven
number is taken are clean, and if there is no dispute about the
accuracy of the text, let them explain if they can why it is so
written. But if they cannot explain it, then, whether they will or not,
they must embrace my explanation of the matter. Either produce better
fare and ask me to be your guest, or else rest content with the meal
that I offer you, however poor it may be.(4)
I must now mention the ecclesiastical writers who
have dealt with this question of the odd number. They are, among the
Greeks, Clement, Hippolytus, Origen, Dionysius, Eusebius, Didymus; and,
among ourselves, Tertullian, Cyprian, Victorinus, Lactantius, Hilary.
What Cyprian said to Fortunatus about the number seven is clear from
the letter which he sent to him.(5) Or perhaps I ought to bring forward
the reasonings of Pythagoras, Archytas of Tarentum, and Publius Scipio
in (Cicero's) sixth book "Concerning the Common Weal." If my detractors
will not listen to any of these I will make the grammar schools shout
in their ears the words of Virgil:
Uneven numbers are the joy of God.(6)
20. To say, as I have done, that virginity is
cleaner than wedlock, that the even numbers must give way to the odd,
that the types of the Old Testament establish the truth of the Gospel:
this, it appears, is a great sin subversive of the churches and
intolerable to the world. The remaining points which are censured in my
treatise are, I take it, of less importance, or else resolve themselves
into this. I have, therefore, refrained from answering them, both that
I may not exceed the limit at my disposal, and that I may not seem to
distrust your intelligence, knowing as I do that you are ready to be my
champion even before I ask you. With my last breath, then, I protest
that neither now nor at any former time have I condemned marriage. I
have merely answered an opponent without any fear that they of my own
party would lay snares for me. I extol virginity to the skies, not
because I myself possess it, but because, not possessing it, I admire
it all the more. Surely it is a modest and ingenuous confession to
praise in others that which you lack yourself. The weight of my body
keeps me fixed to the ground, but do I fail to admire the flying birds
or to praise the dove because, in the words of Virgil,(1) it
Glides on its liquid path with motionless swift
wings?
Let no man deceive himself, let no man, giving ear to the voice of
flattery, rush upon ruin. The first virginity man derives from his
birth, the second from his second birth.(2) The words are not mine; it
is an old saying, "No man can serve two masters;"(3) that is, the flesh
and the spirit. For "the flesh lusteth against the spirit, and the
spirit against the flesh; and these are contrary the one to the other,"
so that we cannot do the things that we would.(4) When, then, anything
in my little work seems to you harsh, have regard not to my words, but
to the Scripture, whence they are taken.
21. Christ Himself is a virgin;(5) and His mother is
also a virgin; yea, though she is His mother, she is a virgin still.
For Jesus has entered in through the closed doors,(6) and in His
sepulchre--a new one hewn out of the hardest rock--no man is laid
either before Him or after Him.(7) Mary is "a garden enclosed ... a
fountain sealed,"(8) and from that fountain flows, according to
Joel,(9) the river which waters the torrent bed either" of cords or of
thorns;(11) the cords being those of the sins by which we were
beforetime bound,(12) the thorns those which choked the seed the
goodman of the house had sown.(13) She is the east gate, spoken of by
the prophet Ezekiel,(14) always shut and always shining, and either
concealing or revealing the Holy of Holies; and through her "the Sun of
Righteousness,"(15) our "high priest after the order of
Melchizedek,"(16) goes in and out. Let my critics explain to me how
Jesus can have entered in through closed doors when He allowed His
hands and His side to be handled, and showed that He had bones and
flesh," thus proving that His was a true body and no
79
mere phantom of one, and I will explain how the holy Mary can be at
once a mother and a virgin. A mother before she was wedded, she
remained a virgin after bearing her son. Therefore, as I was going to
say, the virgin Christ and the virgin Mary have dedicated in themselves
the first fruits of virginity for both sexes.(1) The apostles have
either been virgins or, though married, have lived celibate lives.
Those persons who are chosen to be bishops, priests, and deacons are
either virgins or widowers; or at least when once they have received
the priesthood, are vowed to perpetual chastity. Why do we delude
ourselves and feel vexed if while we are continually straining after
sexual indulgence, we find the palm of chastity denied to us? We wish
to fare sumptuously, and to enjoy the embraces of our wives, yet at the
same time we desire to reign with Christ among virgins and widows.
Shall there be but one reward, then, for hunger and for excess, for
filth and for finery, for sackcloth and for silk? Lazarus,(2) in his
lifetime, received evil things, and the rich man, clothed in purple,
fat and sleek, while he lived enjoyed the good things of the flesh but,
now that they are dead, they occupy different positions. Misery has
given place to satisfaction, and satisfaction to misery. And it rests
with us whether we will follow Lazarus or the rich man.
LETTER XLIX.
TO PAMMACHIUS.
Jerome encloses the preceding letter, thanks
Pammachius for his efforts to suppress his treatise "against Jovinian,"
but declares these to be useless, and exhorts him, if he still has any
hesitation in his mind, to turn to the Scriptures and the commentaries
made upon them by Origen and others. Written at the same time as the
preceding letter.
1. Christian modesty sometimes requires us to be
silent even to our friends, and to nurse our humility in peace, where
the renewal of an old friendship would expose us l to the charge of
self-seeking. Thus, when you have kept silence I have kept silence too,
and have not cared to remonstrate with you, lest I should be thought
more anxious to conciliate a person of influence than to cultivate a
friend. But, now that it has become a duty to reply to your letter, I
will endeavor always to be beforehand with you, and not so much to
answer your queries as to write independently of them. Thus, if I have
shown my modesty hitherto by silence, I will henceforth show it still
more by coming forward to speak.
2. I quite recognize the kindness and forethought
which have induced you to withdraw from circulation some copies of my
work against Jovinian. Your diligence, however, has been of no avail,
for several people coming from the city have repeatedly read aloud to
me passages which they have come across in Rome. In this province,
also, the books have already been circulated; and, as you have read
yourself in Horace, "Words once uttered cannot be recalled."(1) I am
not so fortunate as are most of the writers of the day--able, that is,
to correct my trifles whenever I like. When once I have written
anything, either my admirers or my ill-wishers--from different motives,
but with equal zeal--sow my work broadcast among the public; and their
language, whether it is that of eulogy or of criticism, is apt to run
to excess.(2) They are guided not by the merits of the piece, but by
their own angry feelings. Accordingly, I have done what I could. I have
dedicated to you a defence of the work in question, feeling sure that
when you have read it you will yourself satisfy the doubts of others on
my behalf; or else, if you too turn up your nose at the task, you will
have to explain in some new manner that section of the apostle(3) in
which he discusses virginity and marriage.
3. I do not speak thus that I may provoke you to
write on the subject yourself--although I know your zeal in the study
of the sacred writings to be greater than my own--but that you may
compel my tormentors to do so. They are educated; in their own eyes no
mean scholars; competent not merely to censure but to instruct me. If
they write on the subject, my view will be the sooner neglected when it
is compared with theirs. Read, I pray you, and diligently consider the
words of the apostle, and you will then see that--with a view to avoid
misrepresentation--I have been much more gentle towards married persons
than he was disposed to be. Origen, Dionysius, Pierius, Eusebius of
Caesarea, Didymus, Apollinaris, have used great latitude in the
interpretation of this epistle.(4) When Pierius, sifting and expounding
the apostle's meaning, comes to the words, "I would that all men were
even as I myself,"(5) he makes this comment upon them: "In saying this
Paul plainly preaches abstinence from mar-
80
riage." Is the fault here mine, or am I responsible for harshness?
Compared with this sentence of Pierius,(1) all that I have ever written
is mild indeed. Consult the commentaries of the above-named writers and
take advantage of the Church libraries; you will then more speedily
finish as you would wish the enterprise which you have so happily
begun.(2)
4. I hear that the hopes of the entire city are
centred in you, and that bishop(3) and people are, agreed in wishing
for your exaltation. To be a bishop (4 is much, to deserve to be one is
more.
If you read the books of the sixteen prophets(5)
which I have rendered into Latin from the Hebrew; and if, when you have
done so, you express satisfaction with my labors, the news will
encourage me to take out of my desk some other works now shut up in it.
I have lately translated Job into our mother tongue: you will be able
to borrow a copy of it from your cousin, the saintly Marcella. Read it
both in Greek and in Latin, and compare the old version with my
rendering. You will then clearly see that the difference between them
is that between truth and falsehood. Some of my commentaries upon the
twelve prophets I have sent to the reverend father Domnio, also the
four books of Kings--that is, the two called Samuel and the two called
Malachim.(6) If you care to read these you will learn for yourself how
difficult it is to understand the Holy Scriptures, and particularly the
prophets; and how through the fault of the translators passages which
for the Jews flow clearly on for us abound with mistakes. Once more,
you must not in my small writings look for any such eloquence as that
which for Christ's sake you disregard in Cicero. A version made for the
use of the Church, even though it may possess a literary charm, ought
to disguise and avoid it as far as possible; in order that it may not
speak to the idle schools and few disciples of the philosophers, but
may address itself rather to the entire human race.
LETTER L.
TO DOMNIO.
Domnio, a Roman (called in Letter XLV. "the Lot of
our time"), had written to Jerome to tell him that an ignorant monk had
been traducing his books "against Jovinian." Jerome, in reply, sharply
rebukes the folly of his critic and comments on the want of
straightforwardness in his conduct. He concludes the letter with an
emphatic restatement of his original position. Written in 394 A.D.
1. Your letter is full at once of affection and of
complaining. The affection is your own, which prompts you unceasingly
to warn me of impending danger, and which makes you on my behalf
Of safest things distrustful and afraid.(1)
The complaining is of those who have no love for me, and seek an
occasion against me in my sins. They speak against their brother, they
slander their own mother's son.(2) You write to me of these--nay, of
one in particular--a lounger who is to be seen in the streets, at
crossings, and in public places; a monk who is a noisy news-monger,
clever only in detraction, and eager, in spite of the beam in his own
eye, to remove the mote in his neighbor's.(3) And you tell me that he
preaches publicly against me, gnawing, rending, and tearing asunder
with his fangs the books that I have written against Jovinian. You
inform me, moreover, that this home-grown dialectician, this mainstay
of the Plautine company, has read neither the "Categories" of Aristotle
nor his treatise "On Interpretation," nor his "Analytics," nor yet the
"Topics" of Cicero, but that, moving as he does only in uneducated
circles, and frequenting no society but that of weak women, he ventures
to construct illogical syllogisms and to unravel by subtle arguments
what he is pleased to call my sophisms. How foolish I have been to
suppose that without philosophy there can be no knowledge of these
subjects; and to account it a more important part of composition to
erase than to write! In vain have I perused the commentaries of
Alexander; to no purpose has a skilled teacher used the "Introduction"
of Porphyry to instruct me in logic; and--to make light of human
learning--I have gained nothing at all by having Gregory of Nazianzum
and Didymus as my catechists in the Holy Scriptures. My acquisition of
Hebrew has been wasted labor; and so also has been the daily study
which from my youth I have bestowed upon the Law and the Prophets, the
Gospels and the Apostles.
2. Here we have a man who has reached perfection
without a teacher, so as to be a vehicle of the spirit and a
self-taught genius. He surpasses Cicero in eloquence, Aristotle in
argument, Plato in discretion, Aristarchus
81
in learning, Didymus, that man of brass, in the number of his books;
and not only Didymus, but all the writers of his time in his knowledge
of the Scriptures. It is reported that you have only to give him a
theme and he is always ready--like Carneades(1)--to argue on this side
or on that, for justice or against it. The world escaped a great
danger, and civil actions and suits concerning succession were saved
from a yawning gulf on the day when, despising the bar, he transferred
himself to the Church. For, had he been unwilling, who could ever have
been proved innocent? And, if he once began to reckon the points of the
case upon his fingers, and to spread his syllogistic nets, what
criminal would his pleading have failed to save? Had he but stamped his
foot, or fixed his eyes, or knitted his brow, or moved his hand, or
twirled his beard, he would at once have thrown dust in the eyes of the
jury. No wonder that such a complete Latinist and so profound a master
of eloquence overcomes poor me, who--as I have been some time(2) away
(from Rome), and without opportunities for speaking Latin--am half a
Greek if not altogether a barbarian. No wonder, I say, that he
overcomes me when his eloquence has crushed Jovinian in person. Good
Jesus! what! even Jovinian that great and clever man! So clever,
indeed, that no one can understand his writings, and that when he sings
it is only for himself--and for the muses!
3. Pray, my dear father, warn this man not to hold
language contrary to his profession, and not to undo with his words the
chastity which he professes by his garb. Whether he elects to be a
virgin or a married celibate--and the choice must rest with himself--he
must not compare wives with virgins, for that would be to have striven
in vain against Jovinian's eloquence. He likes, I am told, to visit the
cells of widows and virgins, and to lecture them with his brows knit on
sacred literature. What is it that he teaches these poor women in the
privacy of their own chambers? Is it to feel assured that virgins are
no better than wives? Is it to make the most of the flower of their
age, to eat and drink, to frequent the baths, to live in luxury, and
not to disdain the use of perfumes? Or does he preach to them chastity,
fasting, and neglect of their persons? No doubt the precepts that he
inculcates are full of virtue. But if so, let him admit publicly what
he says privately. Or, if his private teaching is the same as his
public, he should keep aloof altogether from the society of girls. He
is a young man--a monk, and in his own eyes an eloquent one (do not
pearls fall from his lips, and are not his elegant phrases sprinkled
with comic salt and humor?)--I am surprised, therefore, that he can
without a blush frequent noblemen's houses, pay constant visits to
married ladies, make our religion a subject of contention, distort the
faith of Christ by misapplying words, and--in addition to all
this--detract from one who is his brother in the Lord. He may, however,
have supposed me to be in error (for "in many things we offend all,"
and" if any man offend not in word he is a perfect man"(1)). In that
case he should have written to convict me or to question me, the course
taken by Pammachius, a man of high attainments and position. To this
latter I defended myself as best I could, and in a lengthy letter
explained the exact sense of my words. He might at least have copied
the diffidence which led you to extract and arrange such passages as
seemed to give offence; asking me for corrections or explanations, and
not supposing me so mad that in one and the same book I should write
for marriage and against it.
4. Let him spare himself, let him spare me, let him
spare the Christian name. Let him realize his position as a monk, not
by talking and arguing, but by holding his peace and sitting still. Let
him read the words of Jeremiah: "It is good for a man that he bear the
yoke in his youth. He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he
hath borne it upon him."(2) Or if he has really the right to apply the
censor's rod to all writers, and fancies himself a man of learning
because he alone understands Jovinian (you know the proverb: Balbus
best knows what Balbus means); yet, as Atilius(3) reminds us, "we are
not all writers." Jovinian himself--an unlettered man of letters if
ever there was one--will with most justice proclaim the fact to him.
"That the bishops condemn me," he says, "is not reason but treason. I
want no answers from nobodies, who, while they have authority to put me
down, have not the wit to teach me. Let one write against me who has a
tongue that I can understand, and whom to vanquish will be to vanquish
all.
82
"'I know full well: believe me, I have felt
The hero's force when rising o'er his shield
He hurls his whizzing spear.'(1)
He is strong in argument, intricate and tenacious, one to fight with
his head down. Often has he cried out against me in the streets from
late one night till early the next. He is a well-built man, and his
thews are those of an athlete. Secretly I believe him to be a follower
of my teaching. He never blushes or stops to weigh his words: his only
aim is to speak as loud as possible. So famous is he for his eloquence
that his sayings are held up as models to our curly-headed
youngsters.(2) How often, when I have met him at meetings, has he
aroused my wrath and put me into a passion! How often has he spat upon
me, and then departed spat upon! But these are vulgar methods, and any
of my followers can use them. I appeal to books, to those memorials
which must be handed down to posterity. Let us speak by our writings,
that the silent reader may judge between us; and that, as I have a
flock of disciples, he may have one also--flatterers and parasites
worthy of the Gnatho and Phormio(8) who is their master."
5. It is no difficult matter, my dear Domnio, to
chatter at street corners or in apothecaries' shops and to pass
judgment on the world. "So-and-so has made a good speech, so-and-so a
bad one; this man knows the Scriptures, that one is crazy; this man
talks glibly, that never says a word at all." But who considers him
worthy thus to judge every one? To make an outcry against a man in
every street, and to heap, not definite charges, but vague imputations,
on his head, is nothing. Any buffoon or litigiously disposed person can
do as much. Let him put forth his hand, put pen to paper, and bestir
himself; let him write books and prove in them all he can. Let him give
me a chance of replying to his eloquence. I can return bite for bite,
if I like; when hurt myself, I can fix my teeth in my opponent. I too
have had a liberal education. As Juvenal says, "I also have often
withdrawn my hand from the ferule."(4) Of me, too, it may be said in
the words of Horace, "Flee from him; he has hay on his horn."(5) But I
prefer to be a disciple of Him who says, "I gave my back to the smiters
... I hid not my face from shame and spitting."(6) When He was reviled
He reviled not again. After the buffeting, the cross, the scourge, the
blasphemies, at the very last He prayed for His crucifiers, saying,
"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they do."(1) I, too,
pardon the error of a brother. He has been deceived, I feel sure, by
the art of the devil. Among the women he was held clever and eloquent;
but, when my poor writings reached Rome, dreading me as a rival, he
tried to rob me of my laurels. No man on earth, he resolved, should
please his eloquent self, unless such as commanded respect rather than
sought it, and showed themselves men to be feared more than favored. A
man of consummate address, he desired, like an old soldier, with one
stroke of the sword to strike down both his enemies,(2) and to make
clear to every one that, whatever view he might take, Scripture was
always with him. Well, he must condescend to send me his account of the
matter, and to correct my indiscreet language, not by censure but by
instruction. If he tries to do this, he will find that what seems
forcible on a lounge is not equally forcible in court; and that it is
one thing to discuss the doctrines of the divine law amid the spindles
and work-baskets of girls and another to argue concerning them among
men of education. As it is, without hesitation or shame, he raises
again and again the noisy shout, "Jerome condemns marriage," and,
whilst he constantly moves among women with child, crying infants, and
marriage-beds, he suppresses the words of the apostle just to cover
me--poor me--with odium. However, when he comes by and by to write
books and to grapple with me at close quarters, then he will feel it,
then he will stick fast; Epicurus and Aristippus(3) will not be near
him then; the swineherds(4) will not come to his aid; the prolific
sow(6) will not so much as grunt. For I also may say, with Turnus:
Father, I too can launch a forceful spear,
And when I strike blood follows from the wound.(6)
But if he refuses to write, and fancies that abuse is as effective as
criticism, then, in spite of all the lands and seas and peoples which
lie between us, he must hear at least the echo of my cry, "I do not
condemn marriage," "I do not condemn wedlock." Indeed--and this I say
to make my meaning quite clear to him--I should like every one to take
a wife who, because they get frightened in the night, cannot manage to
sleep alone.(7)
83
LETTER LI.
FROM EPIPHANIUS, BISHOP OF SALAMIS, IN CYPRUS, TO JOHN, BISHOP OF
JERUSALEM.
A coolness had arisen between these two bishops in
connection with the Origenistic controversy, which at this time was at
its height. Epiphanius had openly charged John with being an Origenist,
and had also uncanonically conferred priests' orders on Jerome's
brother Paulinian, in order that the monastery at Bethlehem might
henceforth be entirely independent of John. Naturally, John resented
this conduct and showed his resentment. The present letter is a kind of
half-apology made by Epiphanius for what he had done, and like all
such, it only seems to have made matters worse. The controversy is
fully detailed in the treatise "Against John of Jerusalem" in this
volume, esp. 11-14.
An interesting paragraph ( 9) narrates how
Epiphanius destroyed at Anablatha a church-curtain on which was
depicted "a likeness of Christ or of some saint"--an early instance of
the iconoclastic spirit.
Originally written in Greek, the letter was (by the
writer's request) rendered into Latin by Jerome. Its date is 394 A.D.
To the lord bishop and dearly beloved brother, John, Epiphanius sends
greeting.
1. It surely becomes us, dearly beloved, not to
abuse our rank as clergy, so as to make it an occasion of pride, but by
diligently keeping and observing God's commandments, to be in reality
what in name we profess to be. For, if the Holy Scriptures say, "Their
lots shall not profit them,"(1) what pride in our clerical position(2)
will be able to avail us who sin not only in thought and feeling, but
in speech? I have heard, of course, that you are incensed against me,
that you are angry, and that you threaten to write about me--not merely
to particular places and provinces, but to the uttermost ends of the
earth. Where is that fear of God which should make us tremble with the
trembling spoken of by the Lord--"Whosoever is angry with his brother
without a cause shall be in danger of the judgment"?(3) Not that I
greatly care for your writing what you please. For Isaiah tells us(4)
of letters written on papyrus and cast upon the waters -- missives soon
carried away by time and tide. I have done you no harm, I have
inflicted no injury upon you, I have extorted nothing from you by
violence. My action concerned a monastery whose inmates were foreigners
in no way subject to your provincial jurisdiction. Moreover their
regard for my insignificance and for the letters which I frequently
addressed to them had commenced to produce a feeling of dislike to
communion with you. Feeling, therefore, that too great strictness or
scrupulosity on my part might have the effect of alienating them from
the Church with its ancient faith, I ordained one of the brothers
deacon, and after he had ministered as such, admitted him to the
priesthood. You should, I think, have been grateful to me for this,
knowing, as you surely must, that it is the fear of God which has
compelled me to act in this way, and particularly when you recollect
that God's priesthood is everywhere the same, and that I have simply
made provision for the wants of the Church. For, although each
individual bishop of the Church has under him churches which are placed
in his charge, and although no man may stretch himself beyond his
measure,(1) yet the love of Christ, which is without dissimulation,(2)
is set up as an example to us all; and we must consider not so much the
thing done as the time and place, the mode and motive, of doing it. I
saw that the monastery contained a large number of reverend brothers,
and that the reverend presbyters, Jerome and Vincent, through modesty
and humility, were unwilling to offer the sacrifices permitted to their
rank, and to labor in that part of their calling which ministers more
than any other to the salvation of Christians. I knew, moreover, that
you could not find or lay hands on this servant of God(3) who had
several times fled from you simply because he was reluctant to
undertake the onerous duties of the priesthood, and that no other
bishop could easily find him. Accordingly, I was a good deal surprised
when, by the ordering of God, he came to me with the deacons of the
monastery and others of the brethren, to make satisfaction to me for
some grievance or other which I had against them. While, therefore, the
Collect(4) was being celebrated in the church of the villa which
adjoins our monastery--he being quite ignorant and wholly unsuspicious
of my purpose--I gave orders to a number of deacons to seize him and to
stop his mouth, lest in his eagerness to free himself he might adjure
me in the name of Christ. First of all, then, I ordained him deacon,
setting before him the fear of God, and forcing him to minister; for he
made a hard struggle against it, crying out that he was unworthy, and
protesting that this heavy burden was beyond his strength. It was with
difficulty, then, that I overcame his reluctance, persuading him as
well as I could with passages from Scripture, and setting before him
the command-
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ments of God. And when he had ministered in the offering of the holy
sacrifices, once more with great difficulty I closed his mouth and
ordained him presbyter. Then, using the same arguments as before, I
induced him to sit in the place set apart for the presbyters. After
this I wrote to the reverend presbyters and other brothers of the
monastery, chiding them for not having written to me about him. For a
year before I had heard many of them complain that they had no one to
celebrate for them the sacraments of the Lord. All then agreed in
asking him to undertake the duty, pointing out how great his usefulness
would be to the community of the monastery. I blamed them for omitting
to write to me and to propose that I should ordain him, when the
opportunity was given to them to do so.
2. All this I have done, as I said just now, relying
on that Christian love which you, I feel sure, cherish towards my
insignificance; not to mention the fact that I held the ordination in a
monastery, and not within the limits of your jurisdiction. How truly
blessed is the mildness and complacency of the bishops of (my own)
Cyprus, as well as their simplicity, though to your refinement and
discrimination it appears deserving only of God's pity! For many
bishops in communion with me have ordained presbyters in my province
whom I had been unable to capture, and have sent to me deacons and
subdeacons(1) whom I have been glad to receive. I myself, too, have
urged the bishop Philo of blessed memory, and the reverend Theoprepus,
to make provision for the Church of Christ by ordaining presbyters in
those churches of Cyprus which, although they were accounted to belong
to my see, happened to be close to them, and this for the reason that
my province was large and straggling. But for my part I have never
ordained deaconesses nor sent them into the provinces of others,(2) nor
have I done anything to rend the Church. Why, then, have you thought
fit to be so angry and indignant with me for that work of God which I
have wrought for the edification of the brethren, and not for their
destruction?(3) Moreover, I have been much surprised at the assertion
which you have made to my clergy, that you sent me a message by that
reverend presbyter, the abbot Gregory, that I was to ordain no one, and
that I promised to comply, saying, "Am I a stripling, or do I not know
the canons?" By God's word I am telling you the truth when I say that I
know and have heard nothing of all this, and that I have not the
slightest recollection of using any language of the sort. As, however,
I have had misgivings, lest possibly, being only a man, I may have
forgotten this among so many other matters, I have made inquiry of the
reverend Gregory, and of the presbyter Zeno, who is with him. Of these,
the abbot Gregory replies that he knows nothing whatever about the
matter, while Zeno says that the presbyter Rufinus, in the course of
some desultory remarks, spoke these words. "Will the reverend bishop,
think you, venture to ordain any persons?" but that the conversation
went no further. I, Epiphanius, however, have never either received the
message or answered it. Do not, then, dearly beloved, allow your anger
to overcome you or your indignation to get the better of you, lest, you
should disquiet yourself in vain; and lest you should be thought to be
putting forward this grievance only to get scope for tendencies of
another kind,(1) and thus to have sought out an occasion of sinning. It
is to avoid this that the prophet prays to the Lord, saying: "Turn not
aside my heart to words of wickedness, to making excuses for my
sins."(2)
3. This also I have been surprised to hear, that
certain persons who are in the habit of carrying tales backwards and
forwards, and of always adding something fresh to what they have heard,
to stir up grievances and disputes between brothers, have succeeded in
disquieting you by saying that, when I offer sacrifices to God, I am
wont to say this prayer on your behalf: "Grant, O Lord, to John grace
to believe aright." Do not suppose me so untutored as to be capable of
saying this so openly. To tell you the simple truth, my dearest
brother, although I continually use this prayer mentally, I have never
confided it to the ears of others, lest I should seem to dishonor you.
But when I repeat the prayers required by the ritual of the mysteries,
then I say on behalf of all and of you as well as others, "Guard him,
that he may preach the truth," or at least this, "Do Thou, O Lord,
grant him Thine aid, and guard him, that he may preach the word of
truth, "as occasion offers itself for the words, and as the turn comes
for the particular prayer. Wherefore I beseech you, dearly beloved,
and, casting myself down at your feet, I entreat you to
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grant to me and to yourself this one prayer, that you would save
yourself, as it is written, "from an untoward generation." Withdraw,
dearly beloved, from the heresy of Origen and from all heresies. For I
see that all your indignation has been roused against me simply because
I have told you that you ought not to eulogize one who is the spiritual
father of Arius, and the root and parent of all heresies. And when I
appealed to you not to go astray, and warned you of the consequences,
you traversed my words, and reduced me to tears and sadness; and not me
only, but many other Catholics who were present.(2) This I take to be
the origin of your indignation and of your passion on the present
occasion. On this account you threaten to send out letters against me,
and to circulate your version of the matter in all directions;(3) and
thus, while with a view to defending your heresy you kindle men's
passions against me, you break through the charity which I have shown
towards you, and act with so little discretion that you make me regret
that I have held communion with you, and that I have by so doing upheld
the erroneous opinions of Origen.
4. I speak plainly. To use the language of
Scripture, I do not spare to pluck out my own eye if it cause me to
offend, nor to cut off my hand and my foot if they cause me to do
so.(4) And you must be treated in the same way whether you are my eyes,
or my hands, or my feet. For what Catholic, what Christian who adorns
his faith with good works, can hear with calmness Origen's teaching and
counsel, or believe in his extraordinary preaching? "The Son," he tells
us, "cannot see the Father, and the Holy Spirit cannot see the Son."
These words occur in his book "On First Principles;" thus we read, and
thus Origen has spoken. "For as it is unsuitable to say that the Son
can see the Father, it is consequently unsuitable to suppose that the
Spirit can see the Son."(5) Can any one, moreover, brook Origen's
assertion that men's souls were once angels in heaven, and that having
sinned in the upper world, they have been cast down into this, and have
been confined in bodies as in barrows or tombs, to pay the penalty for
their former sins; and that the bodies of believers are not temples of
Christ but prisons of the condemned? Again, he tampers with the true
meaning of the narrative by a false use of allegory, multiplying words
without limit; and undermines the faith of the simple by the most
varied arguments. Now he maintains that souls, in Greek the "cool
things," from a word meaning to be cool,(1) are so called because in
coming down from the heavenly places to the lower world they have lost
their former heat;(2) and now, that our bodies are called by the Greeks
chains, from a word meaning chain,(3) or else (on the analogy of our
own Latin word) "things fallen,"(4) because our souls have fallen from
heaven; and that the other word for body which the abundance of the
Greek idiom supplies(5) is by many taken to mean a funeral monument,(6)
because the soul is shut up within it in the same way as the corpses of
the dead are shut up in tombs and barrows. If this doctrine is true
what becomes of our faith? Where is the preaching of the resurrection?
Where is the teaching of the apostles, which lasts on to this day in
the churches of Christ? Where is the blessing to Adam, and to his seed,
and to Noah and his sons? "Be fruitful, and multiply, and replenish the
earth."(7) According to Origen, these words must be a curse and not a
blessing; for he turns angels into human souls, compelling them to
leave the place of highest rank and to come down lower, as though God
were unable through the action of His blessing to grant souls to the
human race, had the angels not sinned, and as though for every birth on
earth there must be a fall in heaven. We are to give up, then, the
teaching of apostles and prophets, of the law, and of our Lord and
Saviour Himself, in spite of His language loud as thunder in the
gospel. Origen, on the other hand, commands and urges--not to say
binds--his disciples not to pray to ascend into heaven, lest sinning
once more worse than they had sinned on earth they should be hurled
down into the world again. Such foolish and insane notions he generally
confirms by distorting the sense of the Scriptures and making them mean
what they do not mean at all. He quotes this passage from the Psalms:
"Before thou didst humble me by reason of my wickedness, I went
wrong;"(8) and this, "Return unto thy rest, O my soul;"(9) this also,
"Bring my soul out of prison;"(10) and this, "I will make confession
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unto the Lord in the land of the living,"(1) although there can be no
doubt that the meaning of the divine Scripture is different from the
interpretation by which he unfairly wrests it to the support of his own
heresy. This way of acting is common to the Manichaeans, the Gnostics,
the Ebionites, the Marcionites, and the votaries of the other eighty
heresies,(2) all of whom draw their proofs from the pure well of the
Scriptures, not, however, interpreting it in the sense in which it is
written, but trying to make the simple language of the Church's writers
accord with their own wishes.
5. Of one position which he strives to maintain I
hardly know whether it calls for my tears or my laughter. This
wonderful doctor presumes to teach that the devil will once more be
what he at one time was, that he will return to his former dignity and
rise again to the kingdom of heaven. Oh horror! that a man should be so
frantic and foolish as to hold that John the Baptist, Peter, the
apostle and evangelist John, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the rest of the
prophets, are made co-heirs of the devil in the kingdom of heaven! I
pass over his idle explanation of the coats of skins,(3) and say
nothing of the efforts and arguments he has used to induce us to
believe that these coats of skins represent human bodies. Among many
other things, he says this: "Was God a tanner or a saddler, that He
should prepare the hides of animals, and should stitch from them coats
of skins for Adam and Eve?" "It is clear," he goes on, "that he is
speaking of human bodies." If this is so, how is it that before the
coats of skins, and the disobedience, and the fall from paradise, Adam
speaks not in an allegory, but literally, thus: "This is now bone of my
bones and flesh of my flesh;"(4) or what is the ground of the divine
narrative, "And the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon Adam, and
he slept; and he took one of his ribs, and closed up the flesh instead
thereof; and the rib which the Lord God had taken from man, made He a
woman"(5) for him? Or what bodies can Adam and Eve have covered with
fig-leaves after eating of the forbidden tree?(6) Who can patiently
listen to the perilous arguments of Origen when he denies the
resurrection of this flesh, as he most clearly does in his book of
explanations of the first psalm and in many other places? Or who can
tolerate him when he gives us a paradise in the third heaven, and
transfers that which the Scripture mentions from earth to the heavenly
places, and when he explains allegorically all the trees which are
mentioned in Genesis, saying in effect that the trees are angelic
potencies, a sense which the true drift of the passage does not admit?
For the divine Scripture has not said, "God put down Adam and Eve upon
the earth," but "He drove them out of the paradise, and made them dwell
over against the paradise."(1) He does not say "under the paradise."
"He placed ... cherubims and a flaming sword ... to keep the way of (2)
the tree of life."(3) He says nothing about an ascent to it. "And a
river went out of Eden."(4) He does not say "went down from Eden." "It
was parted and became into four heads. The name of the first is Pison
... and the name of the second is Gihon."(5) I myself have seen the
waters of Gihon, have seen them with my bodily eyes. It is this Gihon
to which Jeremiah points when he says, "What hast thou to do in the way
of Egypt to drink the muddy water of Gihon?"(6) I have drunk also from
the great river Euphrates, not spiritual but actual water, such as you
can touch with your hand and imbibe with your mouth. But where there
are rivers which admit of being seen and of being drunk, it follows
that there also there will be fig-trees and other trees; and it is of
these that the Lord says, "Of every tree of the garden thou mayest
freely eat."(7) They are like other trees and timber, just as the
rivers are like other rivers and waters. But if the water is visible
and real, then the fig-tree and the rest of the timber must be real
also, and Adam and Eve must have been originally formed with real and
not phantasmal bodies, and not, as Origen would have us believe, have
afterwards received them on account of their sin. But, you say, "we
read that Saint Paul was caught up to the third heaven, into
paradise."(8) You explain the words rightly: "When he mentions the
third heaven, and then adds the word paradise, he shows that heaven is
in one place and paradise in another." Must not every one reject and
despise such special pleading as that by which Origen says of the
waters that are above the firmament(9) that they are not waters, but
heroic beings of angelic power,(10) and again of the waters
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that are over the earth--that is, below the firmament--that they are
potencies(1) of the contrary sort--that is, demons? If so, why do we
read in the account of the deluge that the windows of heaven were
opened, and that the waters of the deluge prevailed? in consequence of
which the fountains of the deep were opened, and the whole earth was
covered with the waters.(2)
6. Oh! the madness and folly of those who have
forsaken the teaching of the book of Proverbs, "My son, keep thy
father's commandment, and forsake not the law of thy mother,"(3) and
have turned to error, and say to the fool that he shall be their
leader, and do not despise the foolish things which are said by the
foolish man, even as the scripture bears witness, "The foolish man
speaketh foolishly, and his heart understandeth vanity."(4) I beseech
you, dearly beloved, and by the love which I feel towards you, I
implore you--as though it were my own members on which I would have
pity(5)--by word and letter to fulfil that which is written, "Do not I
hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? and am not I grieved with those that
rise up against thee?"(6) Origen's words are the words of an enemy,
hateful and repugnant to God and to His saints; and not only those
which I have quoted, but countless others. For it is not now my
intention to argue against all his opinions. Origen has not lived in my
day, nor has he robbed me. I have not conceived a dislike to him nor
quarrelled with him because of an inheritance or of any worldly matter;
but--to speak plainly--I grieve, and grieve bitterly, to see numbers of
my brothers, and of those in particular who show the most promise, and
have reached the highest rank in the sacred ministry,(7) deceived by
his persuasive arguments, and made by his most perverse teaching the
food of the devil, whereby the saying is fulfilled: "He derides every
stronghold, and his fare is choice, and he hath gathered captives as
the sand."(8) But may God free you, my brother, and the holy people of
Christ which is intrusted to you, and all the brothers who are with
you, and especially the presbyter Rufinus, from the heresy of Origen,
and other heresies, and from the perdition to which they lead. For, if
for one word or for two opposed to the faith many heresies have been
rejected by the Church, how much more shall he be held a heretic who
has contrived such perverse interpretations and such mischievous
doctrines to destroy the faith, and has in fact declared himself the
enemy of the Church! For, among other wicked things, he has presumed to
say this, too, that Adam lost the image of God, although Scripture
nowhere declares that he did. Were it so, never would all the creatures
in the world be subject to Adam's seed--that is, to the entire human
race--yet, in the words of the apostle, everything "is tamed and hath
been tamed of mankind."(1) For never would all things be subjected to
men if men had not--together with their authority over all--the image
of God. But the divine Scripture conjoins and associates with this the
grace of the blessing which was conferred upon Adam and upon the
generations which descended from him. No one can by twisting the
meaning of words presume to say that this grace of God was given to one
only, and that he alone was made in the image of God (he and his wife,
that is, for while he was formed of clay she was made of one of his
ribs), but that those who were subsequently conceived in the womb and
not born as was Adam did not possess God's image, for the Scripture
immediately subjoins the following statement: "And Adam lived two
hundred and thirty years,(2) and knew Eve his wife, and she bare him a
son in his image and after his likeness, and called his name Seth."(3)
And again, in the tenth generation, two thousand two hundred and
forty-two years afterwards,(4) God, to vindicate His own image and to
show that the grace which He had given to men still continued in them,
gives the following commandment: "Flesh ... with the blood thereof
shall ye not eat. And surely your blood will I require at the hand of
every man that sheddeth it; for in the image of God have I made
man."(5) From Noah to Abraham ten generations passed away,(6) and from
Abraham's time to David's, fourteen more,(7) and these twenty-four
generations make up, taken together, two thousand one hundred and
seventeen years.(8) Yet the Holy Spirit in the thirty-ninth(9) psalm,
while lamenting that all men walk in a vain show, and that they are
subject to sins, speaks thus: "For all that every man walk-
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eth in the image."(1) Also after David's time, in the reign of Solomon
his son, we read a somewhat similar reference to the divine likeness.
For in the book of Wisdom, which is inscribed with his name, Solomon
says: "God created man to be immortal, and made him to be an image of
His own eternity."(2) And again, about eleven hundred and eleven years
afterwards, we read in the New Testament that men have not lost the
image of God. For James, an apostle and brother of the Lord, whom I
have mentioned above--that we may not be entangled in the snares of
Origen--teaches us that man does possess God's image and likeness. For,
after a somewhat discursive account of the human tongue, he has gone on
to say of it: "It is an unruly evil ... therewith bless we God, even
the Father and therewith curse we men, which are made after the
similitude of God."(3) Paul, too, the "chosen vessel,"(4) who in his
preaching has fully maintained the doctrine of the gospel, instructs us
that man is made in the image and after the likeness of God. "A man,"
he says, "ought not to wear long hair, forasmuch as he is the image and
glory of God."(5) He speaks of "the image" simply, but explains the
nature of the likeness by the word "glory."
7. Instead of the three proofs from Holy Scripture
which you said would satisfy you if I could produce them, behold I have
given you seven. Who, then, will put up with the follies of Origen? I
will not use a severer word and so make myself like him or his
followers, who presume at the peril of their soul to assert
dogmatically whatever first comes into their head, and to dictate to
God, whereas they ought either to pray to Him or to learn the truth
from Him. For some of them say that the image of God which Adam had
previously received was lost when he sinned. Others surmise that the
body which the Son of God was destined to take of Mary was the image of
the Creator. Some identify this image with the soul, others with
sensation, others with virtue. These make it baptism, those assert that
it is in virtue of God's image that man exercises universal sway. Like
drunkards in their cups, they ejaculate now this, now that, when they
ought rather to have avoided so serious a risk, and to have obtained
salvation by simple faith, not denying the words of God. To God they
ought to have left the sure and exact knowledge of His own gift, and of
the particular way in which He has created men in His image and after
His likeness. Forsaking this course, they have involved themselves in
many subtle questions, and through these they have been plunged into
the mire of sin. But we, dearly beloved, believe the words of the Lord,
and know that God's image remains in all men, and we leave it to Him to
know in what respect man is created in His image. And let no one be
deceived by that passage in the epistle of John, which some readers
fail to understand, where he says: "Now are we the sons of God, and it
doth not yet appear what we shall be: but we know that, when He shall
appear, we shall be like Him; for we shall See Him as He is."(1) For
this refers to the glory which is then to be revealed(2) to His saints;
just as also in another place we read the words "from glory to
glory,"(3) of which glory the saints have even in this world received
an earnest and a small portion. At their head stands Moses, whose face
shone exceedingly, and was bright with the brightness of the sun.(4)
Next to him comes Elijah, who was caught up into heaven in a chariot of
fire,(5) and did not feel the effects of the flame. Stephen, too, when
he was being stoned, had the face of an angel visible to all.(6) And
this which we have verified in a few cases is to be understood of all,
that what is written may be fulfilled. "Every one that sanctifieth
himself shall be numbered among the blessed." For, "blessed are the
pure in heart, for they shall see God."(7)
8. These things being so, dearly beloved, keep watch
over your own soul and cease to murmur against me. For the divine
Scripture says: "Neither murmur ye [one against another(8)] as some of
them also murmured, and were destroyed of serpents."(9) Rather give way
to the truth and love me who love both you and the truth. And may the
God of peace, according to His mercy, grant to us that Satan may be
bruised under the feet of Christians,(10) and that every occasion of
evil may be shunned, so that the bond of love and peace may not be rent
asunder between us, or the preaching of the right faith be anywise
hindered.
9. Moreover, I have heard that certain persons have
this grievance against me: When I accompanied you to the holy place
called Bethel, there to join you in celebrating the Collect,(11) after
the use of the
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Church, I came to a villa called Anablatha and, as I was passing, saw a
lamp burning there. Asking what place it was, and learning it to be a
church, I went in to pray, and found there a curtain hanging on the
doors of the said church, dyed and embroidered.(1) It bore an image
either of Christ or of one of the saints; I do not rightly remember
whose the image was. Seeing this, and being loth that an image of a man
should be hung up in Christ's church contrary to the teaching of the
Scriptures, I tore it asunder and advised the custodians of the place
to use it as a winding sheet for some poor person. They, however,
murmured, and said that if I made up my mind to tear it, it was only
fair that I should give them another curtain in its place. As soon as I
heard this, I promised that I would give one, and said that I would
send it at once. Since then there has been some little delay, due to
the fact that I have been seeking a curtain of the best quality to give
to them instead of the former one, and thought it right to send to
Cyprus for one. I have now sent the best that I could find, and I beg
that you will order the presbyter of the place to take the curtain
which I have sent from the hands of the Reader, and that you will
afterwards give directions that curtains of the other sort--opposed as
they are to our religion--shall not be hung up in any church of Christ.
A than of your uprightness should be careful to remove an occasion of
offence(2) unworthy alike of the Church of Christ and of those
Christians who are committed to your charge. Beware of Palladius of
Galatia--a man once dear to me, but who now sorely needs God's
pity--for he preaches and teaches the heresy of Origen; and see to it
that he does not seduce any of those who are intrusted to your keeping
into the perverse ways of his erroneous doctrine. I pray that you may
fare well in the Lord.
LETTER LII.
TO NEPOTIAN.
Nepotian, the nephew of Heliodorus (for whom see
Letter XIV.), had, like his uncle, abandoned the military for the
clerical calling, and was now a presbyter at Altinum, where Heliodorus
was bishop. The letter is a systematic treatise on the duties of the
clergy and on the rule of life which they ought to adopt. It had a
great vogue, and called forth much indignation against Jerome. Its date
is 394 A.D.
1. Again and again you ask me, my dear Nepotian, in
your letters from over the sea, to draw for you a few rules of life,
showing how one who has renounced the service of the world to become a
monk or a clergyman may keep the straight path of Christ, and not be
drawn aside into the haunts of vice. As a young man, or rather as a
boy, and while I was curbing by the hard life of the desert the first
onslaughts of youthful passion, I sent a letter of remonstrance(1) to
your reverend uncle, Heliodorus, which, by the tears and complainings
with which it was filled, showed him the feelings of the friend whom he
had deserted. In it I acted the part suited to my age, and as I was
still aglow with the methods and maxims of the rhetoricians, I decked
it out a good deal with the flourishes of the schools. Now, however, my
head is gray, my brow is furrowed, a dewlap like that of an ox hangs
from my chin, and, as Virgil says,
The chilly blood stands still around my heart.(9)
Elsewhere he sings:
Old age bears all, even the mind, away.
And a little further on:
So many of my songs are gone from me,
And even my very voice has left me now.(3)
2. But that I may not seem to quote only profane
literature, listen to the mystical teaching of the sacred writings.
Once David had been a man of war, but at seventy age had chilled him so
that nothing would make him warm. A girl is accordingly sought from the
coasts of Israel--Abishag the Shunamite--to sleep with the king and
warm his aged frame.(4) Does it not seem to you--if you keep to the
letter that killeth(5)--like some farcical story or some broad jest
from an Atellan play?(6) A chilly old man is wrapped up in blankets,
and only grows warm in a girl's embrace. Bathsheba was still living,
Abigail was still left, and the remainder of those wives and concubines
whose names the Scripture mentions. Yet they are all rejected as cold,
and only in the one young girl's embrace does the old man become warm.
Abraham was far older than David; still, so long as Sarah lived he
sought no other wife. Isaac counted twice the years of David, yet never
felt cold with Rebekah, old though she was. I say nothing of the
antediluvians, who, although after nine hundred years their limbs must
have been not old merely, but decayed with age, had no recourse to
girls' embraces. Moses, the leader of the Israelites, counted
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one hundred and twenty years, yet sought no change from Zipporah.
3. Who, then, is this Shunamite, this wife and maid,
so glowing as to warm the cold, yet so holy as not to arouse passion in
him whom she warmed?(1) Let Solomon, wisest of men, tell us of his
father's favorite; let the man of peace(2) recount to us the embraces
of the man of war.(3) "Get wisdom," he writes, "get understanding:
forget it not; neither decline from the words of my mouth. Forsake her
not and she shall preserve thee: love her and she shall keep thee.
Wisdom is the principal thing, therefore get wisdom, and with all thy
getting get understanding. Exalt her and she shall promote thee. She
shall bring thee to honor when thou dost embrace her. She shall give to
thine head an ornament of grace: a crown of glory shall she deliver to
thee."(4)
Almost all bodily excellences alter with age, and
while wisdom alone increases all things else decay. Fasts and vigils
and almsdeeds become harder. So also do sleeping on the ground, moving
from place to place, hospitality to travellers, pleading for the poor,
earnestness and steadfastness in prayer, the visitation of the sick,
manual labor to supply money for alms-giving. All acts, in short, of
which the body is the medium decrease with its decay.
Now, there are young men still full of life and
vigor who, by toil and burning zeal, as well as by holiness of life and
constant prayer to the Lord Jesus, have obtained knowledge. I do not
speak of these, or say that in them the love of wisdom is cold, for
this withers in many of the old by reason of age. What I mean is that
youth, as such, has to cope with the assaults of passion, and amid the
allurements of vice and the tinglings of the flesh is stifled like a
fire among green boughs, and cannot develop its proper brightness. But
when men have employed their youth in commendable pursuits and have
meditated on the law of the Lord day and night,(5) they learn with the
lapse of time, fresh experience and wisdom come as the years go by, and
so from the pursuits of the past their old age reaps a harvest of
delight. Hence that wise man of Greece, Themistocles,(6) perceiving,
after the expiration of one hundred and seven years, that he was on the
verge of the grave, is reported to have said that he regretted
extremely having to leave life just when he was beginning to grow wise.
Plato died in his eighty-first year, his pen still in his hand.
Isocrates completed ninety years and nine in the midst of literary and
scholastic work.(1) I say nothing of other philosophers, such as
Pythagoras, Democritus, Xenocrates, Zeno, and Cleanthes, who in extreme
old age displayed the vigor of youth in the pursuit of wisdom. I pass
on to the poets, Homer, Hesiod, Simonides, Stesichorus, who all lived
to a great age, yet at the approach of death sang each of them a swan
song sweeter than their wont.(2) Sophocles, when charged by his sons
with dotage on account of his advanced years and his neglect of his
property, .read out to his judges his recently composed play of
OEdipus, and made so great a display of wisdom--in spite of the inroads
of time--that he changed the decorous silence of the law court into the
applause of the theatre.(3) And no wonder, when Cato the censor, that
most eloquent of Romans, in his old age neither blushed at the thought
of learning Greek nor despaired of succeeding.(4) Homer, for his part,
relates that from the tongue of Nestor, even when quite aged and
helpless, there flowed speech sweeter than honey.(5)
Even the very name Abishag in its mystic meaning
points to the greater wisdom of old men. For the translation of it is,
"My father is over and above," or "my father's roaring." The term "over
and above" is obscure, but in this passage is indicative of excellence,
and implies that the old have a larger stock of wisdom, and that it
even overflows by reason of its abundance. In another passage "over and
above" forms an antithesis to "necessary." Moreover, Abishag, that is,
"roaring," is properly used of the sound which the waves make, and of
the murmur which we hear coming from the sea. From which it is plain
that the thunder of the divine voice dwells in old men's ears with a
volume of sound beyond the voices of men. Again, in our tongue
Shunamite means" scarlet," a hint that the love of wisdom becomes warm
and glowing through religious study. For though the color may point to
the mystery of the Lord's blood, it also sets forth the warm glow of
wisdom. Hence it is a scarlet thread that in Genesis the midwife binds
upon the hand of Pharez--Pharez "the divider," so called because he
divided the partition which had before separated two peoples.(6) So,
too, with a
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mystic reference to the shedding of blood, it was a scarlet cord which
the harlot Rahab (a type of the church) hung in her window to preserve
her house in the destruction of Jericho.(1) Hence, in another place
Scripture says of holy men: "These are they which came from the warmth
of the house of the father of Rechab."(2) And in the gospel the Lord
says: "I am come to cast fire upon the earth, and fain am I to see it
kindled."(3) This was the fire which, when it was kindled in the
disciples' hearts, constrained them to say: "Did not our heart burn
within us while He talked with us by the way, and while He opened to us
the Scriptures?"(4)
4. To what end, you ask, these recondite references?
To show that you need not expect from me boyish declamation, flowery
sentiments, a meretricious style, and at the close of every paragraph
the terse and pointed aphorisms which call forth approving shouts from
those who hear them. Let Wisdom alone embrace me; let her nestle in my
bosom, my Abishag who grows not old. Undefiled truly is she, and a
virgin forever for although she daily conceives and unceasingly brings
to the birth, like Mary she remains undeflowered. When the apostle says
"be fervent in spirit,"(5) he means "be true to wisdom." And when our
Lord in the gospel declares that in the end of the world--when the
shepherd shall grow foolish, according to the prophecy of
Zechariah(6)--"the love of many shall wax cold,"(7) He means that
wisdom shall decay. Hear, therefore--to quote the sainted
Cyprian--"words forcible rather than elegant."(8) Hear one who, though
he is your brother in orders, is in years your father; who can conduct
you from the cradle of faith to spiritual manhood; and who, while he
builds up stage by stage the rules of holy living, can instruct others
in instructing you. I know, of course, that from your reverend uncle,
Heliodorus, now a bishop of Christ, you have learned and are daily
learning all that is holy; and that in him you have before you a rule
of life and a pattern of virtue. Take, then, my suggestions for what
they are worth, and compare my precepts with his. He will teach you the
perfection of a monk, and I shall show you the whole duty of a
clergyman.
5. A clergyman, then, as he serves Christ's church,
must first understand what his name means; and then, when he realizes
this, must endeavor to be that which he is called. For since the Greek
word <greek>nlhros</greek> means" lot," or "inheritance,"
the clergy are so called either because they are the lot of the Lord,
or else because the Lord Himself is their lot and portion. Now, he who
in his own person is the Lord's portion, or has the Lord for his
portion, must so bear himself as to possess the Lord and to be
possessed by Him. He who possesses the Lord, and who says with the
prophet, "The Lord is my portion,"(1) can hold to nothing beside the
Lord. For if he hold to something beside the Lord, the Lord will not be
his portion. Suppose, for instance, that he holds to gold or silver, or
possessions or inlaid furniture; with such portions as these the Lord
will not deign to be his portion. I, if I am the portion of the Lord,
and the line of His heritage,(2) receive no portion among the remaining
tribes; but, like the Priest and the Levite, I live on the tithe,(3)
and serving the altar, am supported by its offerings.(4) Having food
and raiment, I shall be content with these,(5) and as a disciple of the
Cross shall share its poverty. I beseech you, therefore, and
Again and yet again admonish you; (6)
do not look to your military experience for a standard of clerical
obligation. Under Christ's banner seek for no worldly gain, lest having
more than when you first became a clergyman, you hear men say, to your
shame, "Their portion shall not profit them."(7) Welcome poor men and
strangers to your homely board, that with them Christ may be your
guest. A clergyman who engages in business, and who rises from poverty
to wealth, and from obscurity to a high position, avoid as you would
the plague. For "evil communications corrupt good manners."(8) You
despise gold; he loves it. You spurn wealth; he eagerly pursues it. You
love silence, meekness, privacy; he takes delight in talking and
effrontery, in squares, and streets, and apothecaries' shops. What
unity of feeling can there be where there is so wide a divergency of
manners?
A woman's foot should seldom, if ever, cross the
threshold of your home. To all who are Christ's virgins show the same
regard or the same disregard. Do not linger under the same roof with
them, and do not
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rely on your past continence. You cannot be holier than David or wiser
than Solomon. Always bear in mind that it was a woman who expelled the
tiller of paradise from his heritage.(1) In case you are sick one of
the brethren may attend you; your sister also or your mother or some
woman whose faith is approved with all. But if you have no persons so
connected with you or so marked out by chaste behaviour, the Church
maintains many elderly women who by their ministrations may oblige you
and benefit themselves so that even your sickness may bear fruit in the
shape of almsdeeds. I know of cases where the recovery of the body has
but preluded the sickness of the soul. There is danger for you in the
service of one for whose face you constantly watch. If in the course of
your clerical duty you have to visit a widow or a virgin, never enter
the house alone. Let your companions be persons association with whom
will not disgrace you. If you take a reader with you or an acolyte or a
psalm-singer, let their character not their garb be their adornment
let them use no tongs to curl their hair; rather let their mien be an
index of their chastity. You must not sit alone with a woman or see one
without witnesses. If she has anything confidential to disclose, she is
sure to have some nurse or housekeeper,(2) some virgin, some widow,
some married woman. She cannot be so friendless as to have none save
you to whom she can venture to confide her secret. Beware of all that
gives occasion for suspicion; and, to avoid scandal, shun every act
that may give colour to it. Frequent gifts of handkerchiefs and
garters, of face-cloths and dishes first tasted by the giver--to say
nothing of notes full of fond expressions--of such things as these a
holy love knows nothing. Such endearing and alluring expressions as 'my
honey' and 'my darling,' 'you who are all my charm and my delight the
ridiculous courtesies of lovers and their foolish doings, we blush for
on the stage and abhor in men of the world. How much more do we loathe
them in monks and clergymen who adorn the priesthood by their vows(3)
while their vows are adorned by the priesthood. I speak thus not
because I dread such evils for you or for men of saintly life, but
because in all ranks and callings and among both men and women there
are found both good and bad and in condemning the bad I commend the
good.
6. Shameful to say, idol-priests, play-actors,
jockeys, and prostitutes can inherit property: clergymen and monks
alone lie under a legal disability, a disability enacted not by
persecutors but by Christian emperors.(1) I do not complain of the law,
but I grieve that we have deserved a statute so harsh. Cauterizing is a
good thing, no doubt; but how is it that I have a wound which makes me
need it? The law is strict and far-seeing, yet even so rapacity goes on
unchecked. By a fiction of trusteeship we set the statute at defiance;
and, as if imperial decrees outweigh the mandates of Christ, we fear
the laws and despise the Gospels. If heir there must be, the mother has
first claim upon her children, the Church upon her flock--the members
of which she has borne and reared and nourished. Why do we thrust
ourselves in between mother and children?
It is the glory of a bishop to make provision for
the wants of the poor; but it is the shame of all priests to amass
private fortunes. I who was born (suppose) in a poor man's house, in a
country cottage, and who could scarcely get of common millet and
household bread enough to fill an empty stomach, am now come to disdain
the finest wheat flour and honey. I know the several kinds of fish by
name. I can tell unerringly on what coast a mussel has been picked. I
can distinguish by the flavour the province from which a bird comes.
Dainty dishes delight me because their ingredients are scarce and I end
by finding pleasure in their ruinous cost.
I hear also of servile attention shewn by some
towards old men and women when these are childless. They fetch the
basin, beset the bed and perform with their own hands the most
revolting offices. They anxiously await the advent of the doctor and
with trembling lips they ask whether the patient is better. If for a
little while the old fellow shews signs of returning vigour, they are
in agonies. They pretend to be delighted, but their covetous hearts
undergo secret torture. For they are afraid that their labours may go
for nothing and compare an old man with a clinging to life to the
patriarch Methuselah. How great a reward might they have with God if
their hearts were not set on a temporal prize! With what great
exertions do they pursue an empty heritage! Less labour might have
purchased for them the pearl of Christ.
7. Read the divine scriptures constantly; never,
indeed, let the sacred volume be out of your hand. Learn what you have
to teach. "Hold fast the faithful word as you have been taught that you
may be able by sound doctrine to exhort and convince the gainsayers.
Continue thou in the things that thou hast learned and hast been
assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them;"(2) and
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"be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a
reason of the hope and faith that are in you."(1) Do not let your deeds
belie your words; lest when you speak in church someone may mentally
reply "Why do you not practise what you profess? Here is a lover of
dainties turned censor! his stomach is full and he reads us a homily on
fasting. As well might a robber accuse others of covetousness." In a
priest of Christ mouth mind, and hand should be at one.
Be obedient to your bishop and welcome him as the
parent of your soul. Sons love their fathers and slaves fear their
masters. "If I be a father," He says, "where is mine honour? And if I
am a master where is my fear?"(2) in your case the bishop combines in
himself many titles to your respect. He is at once a monk, a prelate,
and an uncle who has before now instructed you in all holy things. This
also I say that the bishops should know themselves to be priests not
lords. Let them render to the clergy the honour which is their due that
the clergy may offer to them the respect which belongs to bishops.
There is a witty saying of the orator Domitius which is here to the
point: "Why am I to recognize you as leader of the Senate when you will
not recognize my rights as a private member?"(3) We should realize that
a bishop and his presbyters are like Aaron and his sons. As there is
but one Lord and one Temple; so also should there be but one ministry.
Let us ever bear in mind the charge which the apostle Peter gives to
priests: "feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the
oversight thereof not by constraint but willingly as God would have
you;(4) not for filthy lucre but of a ready mind; neither as being
lords over God's heritage but being ensamples to the flock," and that
gladly; that "when the chief-shepherd shall appear ye may receive a
crown of glory that fadeth not away."(5) It is a bad custom which
prevails in certain churches for presbyters to be silent when bishops
are present on the ground that they would be jealous or impatient
hearers. "If anything," writes the apostle Paul, "be revealed to
another that sitteth by, let the first hold his peace. For ye may all
prophesy one by one that all may learn and all may be comforted; and
the spirits of the prophets are subject to the prophets. For God is not
the author of confusion but of peace."(6) "A wise son maketh a glad
father;"(7) and a bishop should rejoice in the discrimination which has
led him to choose such for the priests of Christ.
8. When teaching in church seek to call forth not
plaudits but groans. Let the tears of your hearers be your glory. A
presbyter's words ought to be seasoned by his reading of scripture. Be
not a declaimer or a ranter, one who gabbles without rhyme or reason;
but shew yourself skilled in the deep things and versed in the
mysteries of God. To mouth your words and by your quickness of
utterance astonish the unlettered crowd is a mark of ignorance.
Assurance often explains that of which it knows nothing; and when it
has convinced others imposes on itself. My teacher, Gregory of
Nazianzus, when I once asked him to explain Luke's phrase
<greek>sabbaton</greek>
<greek>deu?eroprwtton</greek>, that is "the second-first
Sabbath," playfully evaded my request saying: "I will tell you about it
in church, and there, when all the people applaud me, you will be
forced against your will to know what you do not know at all. For, if
you alone remain silent, every one will put you down for a foot." There
is nothing so easy as by sheer volubility to deceive a common crowd or
an uneducated congregation: such most admire what they fail to
understand. Hear Marcus Tullius, the subject of that noble eulogy: "You
would have been the first of orators but for Demosthenes: he would have
been the only one but for you." Hear what in his speech for Quintus
Gallius(1) he has to say about unskilled speakers and popular applause
and then you will not be the sport of such illusions. "What I am
telling you," said he, "is a recent experience of my own. One who has
the name of a poet and a man of culture has written a book entitled
Conversations of Poets and Philosophers. In this he represents
Euripides as conversing with Menander and Socrates with Epicurus--men
whose lives we know to be separated not by years but by centuries.
Nevertheless he calls forth limitless applause and endless
acclamations. For the theatre contains many who belong to the same
school as he: like him they have never learned letters."
9. In dress avoid sombre colours as much as bright
ones. Showiness and slovenliness are alike to be shunned; for the one
savours of vanity and the other of pride. To go about without a linen
scarf on is nothing: what is praiseworthy is to be without money to buy
one. It is disgraceful and absurd to boast of having neither napkin nor
handkerchief and let to carry a well-filled purse.
Some bestow a trifle on the poor to receive a larger
sum themselves and under the cloak of almsgiving do but seek for
riches. Such are almshunters rather than almsgivers. Their methods are
those by which birds, beasts, and
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fishes are taken. A morsel of bait is put on the hook--to land a
married lady's purse! The church is committed to the bishop; let him
take heed whom he appoints to be his almoner. It is better for me to
have no money to give away than shamelessly to beg what I mean to
hoard. It is arrogance too to wish to seem more liberal than he who is
Christ's bishop. "All things are not open to us all."(1) In the church
one is the eye, another is the tongue, another the hand, another the
foot, others ears, belly, and so on. Read Paul's epistle to the
Corinthians and learn how the one body is made up of different
members.(2) The rude and simple brother must not suppose himself a
saint just because he knows nothing; and he who is educated and
eloquent must not measure his saintliness merely by his fluency. Of two
imperfect things holy rusticity is better than sinful eloquence.
10. Many build churches nowadays; their walls and
pillars of glowing marble, their ceilings glittering with gold, their
altars studded with jewels. Yet to the choice of Christ's ministers no
heed is paid, And let no one allege against me the wealth of the temple
in Judaea, its table, its lamps, its censers, its dishes, its cups, its
spoons,(3) and the rest of its golden vessels. If these were approved
by the Lord it was at a time when the priests had to offer victims and
when the blood of sheep was the redemption of sins. They were figures
typifying things still future and were "written for our admonition upon
whom the ends of the world are come."(4) But now our Lord by His
poverty has consecrated the poverty of His house. Let us, therefore,
think of His cross and count riches to be but dirt. Why do we admire
what Christ calls "the mammon of unrighteousness"?(5) Why do we cherish
and love what it is Peter's boast not to possess?(6) Or if we insist on
keeping to the letter and find the mention of gold and wealth so
pleasing, let us keep to everything else as well as the gold. Let the
bishops of Christ be bound to marry wives, who must be virgins.(7) Let
the best-intentioned priest be deprived of his office if he bear a scar
and be disfigured.(8) Let bodily leprosy be counted worse than spots
upon the soul. Let us be fruitful and multiply and replenish the
earth,(9) but let us slay no lamb and celebrate no mystic passover, for
where there is no temple,(10) the law forbids these acts. Let us pitch
tents in the seventh month(11) and noise abroad a solemn fast with the
sound of a horn.(12) But if we compare all these things as spiritual
with things which are spiritual;(1) and if we allow with Paul that "the
Law is spiritual"(2) and call to mind David's words: "open thou mine
eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law;"(3) and if on
these grounds we interpret it as our Lord interprets it--He has
explained the Sabbath in this way:(4) then, rejecting the superstitions
of the Jews, we must also reject the gold; or, approving the gold, we
must approve the Jews as well. For we must either accept them with the
gold or condemn them with it.
11. Avoid entertaining men of the world, especially
those whose honours make them swell with pride. You are the priest of
Christ--one poor and crucified who lived on the bread of strangers. It
is a disgrace to you if the consul's lictors or soldiers keep watch
before your door, and if the Judge of the province has a better dinner
with you than in his own palace. If you plead as an excuse your wish to
intercede for the unhappy and the oppressed, I reply that a worldly
judge will defer more to a clergyman who is self-denying than to one
who is rich; he will pay more regard to your holiness than to your
wealth. Or if he is a man who will not hear the clergy on behalf of the
distressed except over the bowl, I will readily forego his aid and will
appeal to Christ who can help more effectively and speedily than any
judge. Truly "it is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence
in man. It is better to trust in the Lord than to put confidence in
princes."(5)
Let your breath never smell of wine lest the
philosopher's words be said to you: "instead of offering me a kiss you
are giving me a taste of wine." Priests given to wine are both
condemned by the apostle(6) and forbidden by the old Law. Those who
serve the altar, we are told, must drink neither wine nor shechar.(7)
Now every intoxicating drink is in Hebrew called shechar whether it is
made of corn or of the juice of apples, whether you distil from the
honeycomb a rude kind of mead or make a liquor by squeezing dates or
strain a thick syrup from a decoction of corn. Whatever intoxicates and
disturbs the balance of the mind avoid as you would wine. I do not say
that we are to condemn what is a creature of God. The Lord Himself was
called a "wine-bibber" and wine in moderation was allowed to Timothy
because of his weak stomach. I only require that drinkers should
observe that limit which their age, their health, or their constitution
requires. But if without drink-
95
ing wine at all I am aglow with youth and am inflamed by the heat of my
blood and am of a strong and lusty habit of body, I will readily forego
the cup in which I cannot but suspect poison. The Greeks have an
excellent saying which will perhaps bear translation,
Fat bellies have no sentiments refined.(1)
12. Lay upon yourself only as much fasting as you
can bear, and let your fasts be pure, chaste, simple, moderate, and not
superstitious. What good is it to use no oil if you seek after the most
troublesome and out-of-the-way kinds of food, dried figs, pepper, nuts,
dates, fine flour, honey, pistachios? All the resources of gardening
are strained to save us from eating household bread; and to pursue
dainties we turn our backs on the kingdom of heaven. There are some, I
am told, who reverse the laws of nature and the race; for they neither
eat bread nor drink water but imbibe thin decoctions of crushed herbs
and beet-juice--not from a cup but from a shell. Shame on us that we
have no blushes for such follies and that we feel no disgust at such
superstition! To crown all, in the midst of our dainties we seek a
reputation for abstinence. The strictest fast is bread and water. But
because it brings with it no glory and because we all of us live on
bread and water, it is reckoned no fast at all but an ordinary and
common matter.
13. Do not angle for compliments, lest, while you
win the popular applause, you do despite to God. "If I yet pleased
men," says the apostle, "I should not be the servant of Christ."(2) He
ceased to please men when he became Christ's servant Christ's soldier
marches on through good report and evil report,(3) the one on the right
hand and the other on the left. No praise elates him, no reproaches
crush him. He is not puffed up by riches, nor does he shrink into
himself because of poverty. Joy and sorrow he alike despises. The sun
does not burn him by day nor the moon by night.(4) Do not pray at the
corners of the streets,(5) lest the applause of men interrupt the
straight course of your prayers. Do not broaden your fringes and for
show wear phylacteries,(6) or, despite of conscience, wrap yourself in
the self-seeking of the Pharisee.(7) Would you know what mode of
apparel the Lord requires? Have prudence, justice, temperance,
fortitude.(8) Let these be the four quarters of your horizon, let them
be a four-horse team to bear you, Christ's charioteer, at full speed to
your goal. No necklace can be more precious than these; no gems can
form a brighter galaxy. By them you are decorated, you are girt about,
you are protected on every side. They are your defence as well as your
glory; for every gem is turned into a shield.
14. Beware also of a blabbing tongue and of itching
ears. Neither detract from others nor listen to detractors. "Thou
sittest," says the psalmist, "and speakest against thy brother; thou
slanderest thine own mother's son. These things hast thou done and I
kept silence; thou thoughtest wickedly that I was such an one as
thyself, but I will reprove thee and set them(1) in order before thine
eyes."(2) Keep your tongue from cavilling and watch over your words.
Know that in judging others you are passing sentence on yourself and
that you are yourself guilty of the faults which you blame in them. It
is no excuse to say: "if others tell me things I cannot be rude to
them." No one cares to speak to an unwilling listener. An arrow never
lodges in a stone: often it recoils upon the shooter of it. Let the
detractor learn from your unwillingness to listen not to be so ready to
detract. Solomon says:--"meddle not with them that are given to
detraction: for their calamity shall rise suddenly; and who knoweth the
destruction of them both?"(3)--of the detractor, that is, and of the
person who lends an ear to his detraction.
15. It is your duty to visit the sick, to know the
homes and children of ladies who are married, and to guard the secrets
of noblemen. Make it your object, therefore, to keep your tongue chaste
as well as your eyes. Never discuss a woman's figure nor let one house
know what is going on in another. Hippocrates,(4) before he will teach
his pupils, makes them take an oath and compels them to swear fealty to
him. He binds them over to silence, and prescribes for them their
language, their gait, their dress, their manners. How much more reason
have we to whom the medicine of the soul has been committed to love the
houses of all Christians as our own homes. Let them know us as
comforters in sorrow rather than as guests in time of mirth. That
clergyman soon becomes an object of contempt who being often asked out
to dinner never refuses to go.
16. Let us never seek for presents and rarely accept
them when we are asked to do so. For "it is more blessed to give than to
996
receive."(1) Somehow or other the very man who begs leave to offer you
a gift holds you the cheaper for your acceptance of it; while, if you
refuse it, it is wonderful how much more he will come to respect you.
The preacher of continence must not be a maker of marriages. Why does
he who reads the apostle's words "it remaineth that they that have
wives be as though they had none"(2)--why does he press a virgin to
marry? Why does a priest, who must be a monogamist,(3) urge a widow to
marry again? How can the clergy be managers and stewards of other men's
households, when they are bidden to disregard even their own interests?
To wrest a thing from a friend is theft but to cheat the Church is
sacrilege. When you have received money to be doled out to the poor, to
be cautious or to hesitate while crowds are starving is to be worse
than a robber; and to subtract a portion for yourself is to commit a
crime of the deepest dye. I am tortured with hunger and are you to
judge what will satisfy my cravings? Either divide immediately what you
have received, or, if you are a timid almoner, send the donor to
distribute his own gifts. Your purse ought not to remain full while I
am in need. No one can look after what is mine better than I can. He is
the best almoner who keeps nothing for himself.
17. You have compelled me, my dear Nepotian, in
spite of the castigation which my treatise on Virginity has bad to
endure--the one which I wrote for the saintly Eustochium at
Rome:(4)--you have compelled me after ten years have passed once more
to open my mouth at Bethlehem and to expose myself to the stabs of
every tongue. For I could only escape from criticism by writing
nothing--a course made impossible by your request; and I knew when I
took up my pen that the shafts of all gainsayers would be launched
against me. I beg such to hold their peace and to desist from
gainsaying: for I have written to them not as to opponents but as to
friends. I have not inveighed against those who sin: I have but warned
them to sin no more. My judgment of myself has been as strict as my
judgment of them. When I have wished to remove the mote from my
neighbour's eye, I have first east out the beam in my own.(5) I have
calumniated no one. Not a name has been hinted at. My words have not
been aimed at individuals and my criticism of shortcomings has been
quite general. If any one wishes to be angry with me he will have first
to own that he himself suits my description.
LETTER LIII.
TO PAULINUS.
Jerome urges Paulinus, bishop of Nola, (for whom see
Letter LVIII.) to make a diligent study of the Scriptures and to this
end reminds him of the zeal for learning displayed not only by the
wisest of the pagans but also by the apostle Paul. Then going through
the two Testaments in detail he describes the contents of the several
books and the lessons which may be learned from them. He concludes with
an appeal to Paulinus to divest himself wholly of his earthly wealth
and to devote himself altogether to God. Written in 394 A.D.
1. Our brother Ambrose along with your little gifts
has delivered to me a most charming letter which, though it comes at
the beginning of our friendship, gives assurance of tried fidelity and
of long continued attachment. A true intimacy cemented by Christ
Himself is not one which depends upon material considerations, or upon
the presence of the persons, or upon an insincere and exaggerated
flattery; but one such as ours, wrought by a common fear of God and a
joint study of the divine scriptures.
We read in old tales that men traversed provinces,
crossed seas, and visited strange peoples, simply to see face to face
persons whom they only knew from books. Thus Pythagoras visited the
prophets of Memphis; and Plato, besides visiting Egypt and Archytas of
Tarentum, most carefully explored that part of the coast of Italy which
was formerly called Great Greece. In this way the influential Athenian
master with whose lessons the schools(1) of the Academy resounded
became at once a pilgrim and a pupil choosing modestly to learn what
others had to teach rather than over confidently to propound views of
his own. Indeed his pursuit of learning--which seemed to fly before him
all the world over--finally led to his capture by pirates who sold him
into slavery to a cruel tyrant.(2) Thus he became a prisoner, a
bond-man, and a slave; yet, as he was always a philosopher, he was
greater still than the man who purchased him. Again we read that
certain noblemen journeyed from the most remote parts of Spain and Gaul
to visit Titus Livius,(3) and listen to his eloquence which flowed like
a fountain of milk. Thus the fame of an individual had more power to
draw men to Rome than the attractions of the city itself; and the age
displayed an unheard of and noteworthy portent in the shape of men who,
entering the great city, bestowed their attention not upon it but upon
something else. Apollonius(4) too was a traveller--the one
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I mean who is called the sorcerer(1) by ordinary people and the
philosopher by such as follow Pythagoras. He entered Persia, traversed
the Caucasus and made his way through the Albanians, the Scythians, the
Massagetae, and the richest districts of India. At last, after crossing
that wide river the Pison,(2) he came to the Brahmans. There he saw
Hiarcas(3) sitting upon his golden throne and drinking from his
Tantalus-fountain, and heard him instructing a few disciples upon the
nature, motions, and orbits of the heavenly bodies. After this he
travelled among the Elamites, the Babylonians, the Chaldeans, the
Medes, the Assyrians, the Parthians, the Syrians, the Phenicians, the
Arabians, and the Philistines.(4) Then returning to Alexandria he made
his way to Ethiopia to see the gymnosophists and the famous table of
the sun spread in the sands of the desert.(5) Everywhere he found
something to learn, and as he was always going to new places, he became
constantly wiser and better. Philostratus has written the story of his
life at length in eight books.
2. But why should I confine my allusions to the men
of this world, when the Apostle Paul, the chosen vessel(6) the
doctor(7) of the Gentiles, who could boldly say: "Do ye seek a proof of
Christ speaking m me?"(8) knowing that he really had within him that
greatest of guests--when even he after visiting Damascus and Arabia
"went up to Jerusalem to see Peter and abode with him fifteen days."(9)
For he who was to be a preacher to the Gentiles had to be instructed in
the mystical numbers seven and eight. And again fourteen years after he
took Barnabas and Titus and communicated his gospel to the apostles
lest by any means he should have run or had run in vain.(10) Spoken
words possess an indefinable hidden power, and teaching that passed
directly from the mouth of the speaker into the ears of the disciples
is more impressive than any other. When the speech of Demosthenes
against AEschines was recited before the latter during his exile at
Rhodes, amid all the admiration and applause he sighed "if you could
but have heard the brute deliver his own periods!(11)
3. I do not adduce these instances because I have
anything in me from which you either can or will learn a lesson, but to
show you that your zeal and eagerness to learn--even though you cannot
rely on help from me--are in themselves worthy of praise. A mind
willing to learn deserves commendation even when it has no teacher.
What is of importance to me is not what you find but what you seek to
find. Wax is soft and easy to mould even where the hands of craftsman
and modeller are wanting to work it. It is already potentially all that
it can be made. The apostle Paul learned the Law of Moses and the
prophets at the feet of Gamaliel and was glad that he had done so, for
armed with this spiritual armour, he was able to say boldly "the
weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty through God to the
pulling down of strongholds;" armed with these we war "casting down
imaginations and every high thing that exalteth itself against the
knowledge of God, and bringing into captivity every thought to the
obedience of Christ; and being in a readiness to revenge all
disobedience."(1) He writes to Timothy who had been trained in the holy
writings from a child exhorting him to study them diligently(2) and not
to neglect the gift which was given him with the laying on of the hands
of the presbytery.(3) To Titus he gives commandment that among a
bishop's other virtues (which he briefly describes) he should be
careful to seek a knowledge of the scriptures: A bishop, he says, must
hold fast "the faithful word as he hath been taught that he may be able
by sound doctrine both to exhort and to convince the gainsayers."(4) In
fact want of education in a clergyman(5) prevents him from doing good
to any one but himself and much as the virtue of his life may build up
Christ's church, he does it an injury as great by failing to resist
those who are trying to pull it down. The prophet Haggai says--or
rather the Lord says it by the mouth of Haggai--"Ask now the priests
concerning the law."(6) For such is the important function of the
priesthood to give answers to those who question them concerning the
law. And in Deuteronomy we read "Ask thy father and he will shew thee;
thy elders and they will tell thee."(7) Also in the one hundred and
nineteenth psalm "thy statutes have been my songs in the house of my
pilgrimage." David too, in the description of the righteous man whom he
compares to the tree of life in paradise, amongst his other excellences
speaks of this, "His delight is in the law of the Lord; and in his law
doth he meditate day and night."(9) In the close of his most solemn
vision Daniel declares that "the righteous shall shine as the stars;
and the wise, that is the learned, as the firmament."(10) You can see,
therefore, how great is the difference between righteous ignorance and
instructed righteous-
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ness. Those who have the first are compared with the stars, those who
have the second with the heavens. Yet, according to the exact sense of
the Hebrew, both statements may be understood of the learned, for it is
to be read in this way:--"They that be wise shall shine as the
brightness of the firmament; and they that turn many to righteousness
as the stars forever and ever." Why is the apostle Paul called a chosen
vessel?(1) Assuredly because he is a repertory of the Law and of the
holy scriptures. The learned teaching of our Lord strikes the Pharisees
dumb with amazement, and they are filled with astonishment to find that
Peter and John know the Law although they have not learned letters. For
to these the Holy Ghost immediately suggested what comes to others by
daily study and meditation; and, as it is written,(2) they were "taught
of God." The Saviour had only accomplished his twelfth year when the
scene in the temple took place;(3) but when he interrogated the elders
concerning the Law His wise questions conveyed rather than sought
information.
4. But perhaps we ought to call Peter and John
ignorant, both of whom could say of themselves, "though I be rude in
speech, yet not in knowledge."(4) Was John a mere fisherman, rude and
untaught? If so, whence did he get the words "In the beginning was the
word, and the word was with God and the word was God."(5) Logos in
Greek has many meanings. It signifies word and reason and reckoning and
the cause of individual things by which those which are subsist. All of
which things we rightly predicate of Christ. This truth Plato with all
his learning did not know, of this Demosthenes with all his eloquence
was ignorant. "I will destroy," it is said, "the wisdom of the wise,
and will bring to nothing the understanding of the prudent."(6) The
true wisdom must destroy the false, and, although the foolishness of
preaching(7) is inseparable from the Cross, Paul speaks "wisdom among
them that are perfect, yet not the wisdom of this world, nor of the
princes of this world that come to nought," but he speaks "the wisdom
of God in a mystery, even the hidden wisdom, which God ordained before
the world."(8) God's wisdom is Christ, for Christ, we are told, is "the
power of God and the wisdom of God."(9) He is the wisdom which is
hidden in a mystery, of which also we read in the heading of the ninth
psalm "for the hidden things of the son."(10) In Him are hidden all the
treasures of wisdom and knowledge. He also who was hidden in a mystery
is the same that was foreordained before the world. Now it was in the
Law and in the Prophets that he was foreordained and prefigured. For
this reason too the prophets were called seers,(1) because they saw Him
whom others did not see. Abraham saw His day and was glad.(2) The
heavens which were sealed to a rebellious people were opened to
Ezekiel. "Open thou mine eyes," saith David, "that I may behold
wonderful things out of thy Law."(3) For "the law is spiritual"(4) and
a revelation is needed to enable us to comprehend it and, when God
uncovers His face, to behold His glory.
5. In the apocalypse a book is shewn sealed with
seven seals,(5) which if you deliver to one that is learned saying,
Read this, he will answer you, I cannot, for it is sealed.(6) How many
there are to-day who fancy themselves learned, yet the scriptures are a
sealed book to them, and one which they cannot open save through Him
who has the key of David, "he that openeth and no man shutteth; and
shutteth and no man openeth."(7) In the Acts of the Apostles the holy
eunuch (or rather "man" for so the scripture calls him(8)) when reading
Isaiah he is asked by Philip "Understandest thou what thou readest?",
makes answer:--"How can I except some man should guide me?"(9) To
digress for a moment to myself, I am neither holier nor more diligent
than this eunuch, who came from Ethiopia, that is from the ends of the
world, to the Temple leaving behind him a queen's palace, and was so
great a lover of the Law and of divine knowledge that he read the holy
scriptures even in his chariot. Yet although he had the book in his
hand and took into his mind the words of the Lord, nay even had them on
his tongue and uttered them with his lips, he still knew not Him,
whom--not knowing--he worshipped in the book. Then Philip came and
shewed him Jesus, who was concealed beneath the letter. Wondrous
excellence of the teacher! In the same hour the eunuch believed and was
baptized; he became one of the faithful and a saint. He was no longer a
pupil but a master; and he found more in the church's font there in the
wilderness than he had ever done in the gilded temple of the synagogue.
6. These instances have been just touched upon by me
(the limits of a letter forbid a more discursive treatment of them) to
convince you that in the holy scriptures you can make no progress
unless you have a guide to shew you the way. I say nothing of the
knowledge of grammarians, rhetoricians, philoso-
99
phers, geometers, logicians, musicians, astronomers, astrologers,
physicians, whose several kinds of skill are most useful to mankind,
and may be ranged under the three heads of teaching, method, and
proficiency. I will pass to the less important crafts which require
manual dexterity more than mental ability. Husbandmen, masons,
carpenters, workers in wood and metal, wool-dressers and fullers, as
well as those artisans who make furniture and cheap utensils, cannot
attain the ends they seek without instruction from qualified persons.As
Horace says(1)
Doctors alone profess the healing art
And none but joiners ever try to join.
7. The art of interpreting the scriptures is the
only one of which all men everywhere claim to be masters. To quote
Horace again
Taught or untaught we all write poetry.(2)
The chatty old woman, the doting old man, and the wordy sophist, one
and all take in hand the Scriptures, rend them in pieces and teach them
before they have learned them. Some with brows knit and bombastic
words, balanced one against the other philosophize concerning the
sacred writings among weak women. Others--I blush to say it--learn of
women what they are to teach men; and as if even this were not enough,
they boldly explain to others what they themselves by no means
understand. I say nothing of persons who, like myself have been
familiar with secular literature before they have come to the study of
the holy scriptures. Such men when they charm the popular ear by the
finish of their style suppose every word they say to be a law of God.
They do not deign to notice what Prophets and apostles have intended
but they adapt conflicting passages to suit their own meaning, as if it
were a grand way of teaching--and not rather the faultiest of all--to
misrepresent a writer's views and to force the scriptures reluctantly
to do their will. They forget that we have read centos from Homer and
Virgil; but we never think of calling the Christless Maro(3) a
Christian because of his lines:--
Now comes the Virgin back and Saturn's reign,
Now from high heaven comes a Child newborn.(4)
Another line might be addressed by the Father to the Son:--
Hail, only Son, my Might and Majesty.(5)
And yet another might follow the Saviour's words on the cross:--
Such words he spake and there transfixed
remained.(6)
But all this is puerile. and resembles the sleight-of-hand of a
mountebank. It is idle to try to teach what you do not know, and--if I
may speak with some warmth--is worse still to be ignorant of your
ignorance.
8. Genesis, we shall be told, needs no explanation;
its topics are too simple--the birth of the world, the origin of the
human race,(1) the division of the earth,(2) the confusion of
tongues,(3) and the descent of the Hebrews into Egypt!(4) Exodus, no
doubt, is equally plain, containing as it does merely an account of the
ten plagues,(5) the decalogue,(6) and sundry mysterious and divine
precepts! The meaning of Leviticus is of course self-evident, although
every sacrifice that it describes, nay more every word that it
contains, the description of Aaron's vestments,(7) and all the
regulations connected with the Levites are symbols of things heavenly!
The book of Numbers too--are not its very figures,(8) and Balaam's
prophecy,(9) and the forty-two camping places in the wilderness (10) so
many mysteries? Deuteronomy also, that is the second law or the
foreshadowing of the law of the gospel,--does it not, while exhibiting
things known before, put old truths in a new light? So far the 'five
words' of the Pentateuch, with which the apostle boasts his wish to
speak in the Church.(11) Then, as for Job,(12) that pattern of
patience, what mysteries are there not contained in his discourses?
Commencing in prose the book soon glides into verse and at the end once
more reverts to prose. By the way in which it lays down propositions,
assumes postulates, adduces proofs, and draws inferences, it
illustrates all the laws of logic. Single words occurring in the book
are full of meaning. To say nothing of other topics, it prophesies the
resurrection of men's bodies at once with more clearness and with more
caution than any one has yet shewn. "I know," Job says, "that my
redeemer liveth, and that at the last day I shall rise again from the
earth; and I shall be clothed again with my skin, and in my flesh shall
I see God. Whom I shall see for myself, and mine eyes shall behold, and
not another. This my hope is stored up in my own bosom."(13) I will
pass on to Jesus the son of Nave(14)--a type of the Lord in name as
well as in deed--who crossed over Jordan, subdued hostile kingdoms,
divided the land among the conquering people and
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who, in every city, village, mountain, river, hill-torrent, and
boundary which he dealt with, marked out the spiritual realms of the
heavenly Jerusalem, that is, of the church.(1) In the book of Judges
every one of the popular leaders is a type. Ruth the Moabitess fulfils
the prophecy of Isaiah:--"Send thou a lamb, O Lord, as ruler of the
land from the rock of the wilderness to the mount of the daughter of
Zion."(2) Under the figures of Eli's death and the slaying of Saul
Samuel shews the abolition of the old law. Again in Zadok and in David
he bears witness to the mysteries of the new priesthood and of the new
royalty. The third and fourth books of Kings called in Hebrew Malachim
give the history of the kingdom of Judah from Solomon to Jeconiah,(3)
and of that of Israel from Jeroboam the son of Nebat to Hoshea who was
carried away into Assyria. If you merely regard the narrative, the
words are simple enough, but if you look beneath the surface at the
hidden meaning of it, you find a description of the small numbers of
the church and of the wars which the heretics wage against it. The
twelve prophets whose writings are compressed within the narrow limits
of a single volume,(4) have typical meanings far different from their
literal ones Hosea speaks many times of Ephraim, of Samaria, of Joseph,
of Jezreel, of a wife of whoredoms and of children of whoredoms,(5) of
an adulteress shut up within the chamber of her husband, sitting for a
long time in widowhood and in the garb of mourning, awaiting the time
when her husband will return to her.(6) Joel the son of Pethuel
describes the land of the twelve tribes as spoiled and devastated by
the palmerworm the canker-worm, the locust, and the blight,(7) and
predicts that after the overthrow of the former people the Holy Spirit
shall be poured out upon God's servants and handmaids;(8) the same
spirit, that is, which was to be poured out in the upper chamber at
Zion upon the one hundred and twenty believers.(9) These believers
rising by gradual and regular gradations from one to fifteen form the
steps to which there is a mystical allusion in the "psalms of
degrees."(10) Amos, although he is only "an herdman" from the country,
"a gatherer of sycomore fruit,"(11) cannot be explained in a few words.
For who can adequately speak of the three transgressions and the four
of Damascus, of Gaza, of Tyre, of Idumaea, of Moab, of the children of
Ammon, and in the seventh and eighth place of Judah and of Israel? He
speaks to the fat kine that are in the mountain of Samaria,(1) and
bears witness that the great house and the little house shall fall.(2)
He sees now the maker of the grasshopper,(2) now the Lord, standing
upon a wall(4) daubed (5) or made of adamant,(6) now a basket of
apples(7) that brings doom to the transgressors, and now a famine upon
the earth "not a famine of bread, nor a thirst for water, but of
hearing the words of the Lord."(8) Obadiah, whose name means the
servant of God, thunders against Edom red with blood and against the
creature born of earth.(9) He smites him with the spear of the spirit
because of his continual rivalry with his brother Jacob. Jonah, fairest
of doves, whose shipwreck shews in a figure the passion of the Lord,
recalls the world to penitence, and while he preaches to Nineveh,
announces salvation to all the heathen. Micah the Morasthite a joint
heir with Christ(10) announces the spoiling of the daughter of the
robber and lays siege against her, because she has smitten the jawbone
of the judge of Israel.(11) Nahum, the consoler of the world, rebukes
"the bloody city"(12) and when it is overthrown cries: -"Behold upon
the mountains the feet of him that bringeth good tidings."(13)
Habakkuk, like a strong and unyielding wrestler,(14) stands upon his
watch and sets his foot upon the tower(15) that he may contemplate
Christ upon the cross and say "His glory covered the heavens and the
earth was full of his praise. And his brightness was as the light; he
had horns coming out of his hand: and there was the hiding of his
power."(16) Zephaniah, that is the bodyguard and knower of the secrets
of the Lord,(17) hears "a cry from the fishgate, and an howling from
the second, and a great crashing from the hills."(18) He proclaims
"howling to the inhabitants of the mortar;(19) for all the people of
Canaan are undone; all they that were laden with silver are cut
off."(20) Haggai, that is he who is glad or joyful, who has sown in
tears to reap in joy,(21) is occupied with the rebuilding of the
temple. He represents the Lord(the Father, that is) as saying "Yet
once, it is a little while, and I will shake the heavens, and the
earth, and the sea, and the dry land; and I will shake all nations
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and he who is desired(1) of all nations shall come'(2) Zechariah, he
that is mindful of his Lord,(3) gives us many prophecies. He sees
Jesus,(4) "clothed with filthy garments,"(5) a stone with seven
eyes,(6) a candle-stick all of gold with lamps as many as the eyes, and
two olivetrees on the right side of the bowl(7) and on the left. After
he has described the horses, red, black, white, and grisled,(8) and the
cutting off of the chariot from Ephraim and of the horse from
Jerusalem(9) he goes on to prophesy and predict a king who shall be a
poor man and who shall sit "upon a colt the foal of an ass."(10)
Malachi, the last of all the prophets, speaks openly of the rejection
of Israel and the calling of the nations. "I have no pleasure in you,
saith the Lord of hosts, neither will I accept an offering at your
hand. For from the rising of the sun even unto the going down of the
same, my name is great among the Gentiles: and in every place
incense(11) is offered unto my name, and a pure offering."(12) As for
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel, who can fully understand or
adequately explain them? The first of them seems to compose not a
prophecy but a gospel. The second speaks of a rod of an almond tree(13)
and of a seething pot with its face toward the north,(14) and of a
leopard which has changed its spots.(15) He also goes four times
through the alphabet in different metres.(16) The beginning and ending
of Ezekiel, the third of the four, are involved in so great obscurity
that like the commencement of Genesis they are not studied by the
Hebrews until they are thirty years old. Daniel, the fourth and last of
the four prophets, having knowledge of the times and being interested
in the whole world, in clear language proclaims the stone cut out of
the mountain without hands that overthrows all kingdoms.(17) David, who
is our Simonides, Pindar, and Alcaeus, our Horace, our Catullus, and
our Serenus all in one, sings of Christ to his lyre; and on a psaltery
with ten strings calls him from the lower world to rise again. Solomon,
a lover of peace(18) and of the Lord, corrects morals, teaches nature,
unites Christ and the church, and sings a sweet marriage song(19) to
celebrate that holy bridal. Esther, a type of the church, frees her
people from danger and, after having slain Haman whose name means
iniquity, hands down to posterity a memorable day and a great feast.(1)
The book of things omitted' or epitome of the old dispensation(3) is of
such importance and value that without it any one who should claim to
himself a knowledge of the scriptures would make himself a laughing
stock in his own eyes. Every name used in it, nay even the conjunction
of the words, serves to throw light on narratives passed over in the
books of Kings and upon questions suggested by the gospel. Ezra and
Nehemiah, that is the Lord's helper and His consoler, are united in a
single book. They restore the Temple and build up the walls of the
city. In their pages we see the throng of the Israelites returning to
their native land, we read of priests and Levites, of Israel proper and
of proselytes; and we are even told the several families to which the
task of building the walls and towers was assigned. These references
convey one meaning upon the surface, but another below it.
9. [In Migne, 8.] You see how, carried away by my love of the
scriptures, I have exceeded the limits of a letter vet have not fully
accomplished my object. We have heard only what it is that we ought to
know and to desire, so that we too may be able to say with the
psalmist:--"My soul breaketh out for the very fervent desire that it
hath alway unto thy judgments."(4) But the saying of Socrates about
himself--"this only I know that I know nothing"(5)--is fulfilled in our
case also. The New Testament I will briefly deal with. Matthew, Mark,
Luke and John are the Lord's team of four,(6) the true cherubim or
store of knowledge.(7) With them the whole body is full of eyes,(8)
they glitter as sparks,(9) they run and return like lightning,(10)
their feet are straight feet(11) and lifted up, their backs also are
winged, ready to fly in all directions. They hold together each by each
and are interwoven one with another:(12) like wheels within wheels they
roll along(13) and go whithersoever the breath of the Holy Spirit wafts
them.(14) The apostle Paul writes to seven churches(15) (for the eighth
epistle--that to the Hebrews--is not generally counted in with the
other). He instructs
Timothy and Titus; he intercedes with Philemon for his runaway
slave.(16) Of him I think it better to say nothing than to write
inadequately. The Acts of the Apostles seem to relate a mere
unvarnished narrative descrip-
102
tive of the infancy of the newly born church but when once we realize
that their author is Luke the physician whose praise is in the
gospel,(1) we shall see that all his words are medicine for the sick
soul. The apostles James, Peter, John, and Jude, have published seven
epistles at once spiritual and to the point, short and long, short that
is in words but lengthy in substance so that there are few indeed who
do not find themselves in the dark when they read them. The apocalypse
of John has as many mysteries as words. In saying this I have said less
than the book deserves. All praise of it is inadequate; manifold
meanings lie hid in its every word.
10. [In Migne, 9.] I beg of you, my dear brother, to
live among these books, to meditate upon them, to know nothing else, to
seek nothing else. Does not such a life seem to you a foretaste of
heaven here on earth? Let not the simplicity of the scripture or the
poorness of its vocabulary offend you; for these are due either to the
faults of translators or else to deliberate purpose: for in this way it
is better fitted for the instruction of an unlettered congregation as
the educated person can take one meaning and the uneducated another
from one and the same sentence. I am not so dull or so forward as to
profess that I myself know it, or that I can pluck upon the earth the
fruit which has its root in heaven, but I confess that I should like to
do so. I put myself before the man who sits idle and, while I lay no
claim to be a master, I readily pledge myself to be a fellow-student.
"Every one that asketh receiveth; and he that seeketh findeth; and to
him that knocketh it shall be opened."(2) Let us learn upon earth that
knowledge which will continue with us in heaven.
11. [In Migne, 10.] I will receive you with open
hands and--if I may boast and speak foolishly like Hermagoras(3)--I
will strive to learn with you whatever you desire to study. Eusebius
who is here regards you with the affection of a brother; he(4) has made
your letter twice as precious by telling me of your sincerity of
character, your contempt for the world, your constancy in friendship,
and your love to Christ. The letter bears on its face (without any aid
from him) your prudence and the charm of your style. Make haste then, I
beseech you, and cut instead of loosing the hawser which prevents your
vessel from moving in the sea. The man who sells his goods because he
despises them and means to renounce the world can have no desire to
sell them dear. Count as money gained the sum that you must expend upon
your outfit. There is an old saying that a miser lacks as much what he
has as what he has not. The believer has a whole world of wealth; the
unbeliever has not a single farthing. Let us always live "as having
nothing and yet possessing all things."(1) Food and raiment, these are
the Christian's wealth.(2) If your property is in your own power,(3)
sell it: if not, cast it from you. "If any man ... will take away thy
coat, let him have the cloke also."(4) You are all for delay, you wish
to defer action: unless--so you argue--unless I sell my goods piecemeal
and with caution, Christ will be at a loss to feed his poor. Nay, he
who has offered himself to God, has given Him everything once for all.
The apostles did but forsake ships and nets.(5) The widow cast but two
brass coins into the treasury(6) and yet she shall be preferred before
Croesus(7) with all his wealth. He readily despises all things who
reflects always that he must die.
LETTER LIV.
TO FURIA.
A letter of guidance to a widow on the best means of
preserving her widowhood (according to Jerome 'the second of the three
degrees of chastity'). Furia had at one time thought of marrying again
but eventually abandoned her intention and devoted herself to the care
of her young children and her aged father. Jerome draws a vivid picture
of the dangers to which she is exposed at Rome, lays down rules of
conduct for her guidance, and commends her to the care of the presbyter
Exuperius (afterwards bishop of Toulouse). The date of the letter is
394 A. D.
1. You beg and implore me in your letter to write to
you--or rather write back to you--what mode of life you ought to adopt
to preserve the crown of widowhood and to keep your reputation for
chastity unsullied. My mind rejoices, my reins exult, and my heart is
glad that you desire to be after marriage what your mother Titiana of
holy memory was for a long time in marriage.(8) Her prayers and
supplications are heard. She has succeeded in winning afresh in her
only daughter that which she herself when living possessed. It is a
high privilege of your family that from the time of Camillus(9) few or
none of your house are described as contracting second marriages.
Therefore it will not redound so much to your praise if you continue a
widow as to your shame if being a Christian you fail
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to keep what heathen women have jealously guarded for so many centuries.
2. I say nothing of Paula and Eustochium, the
fairest flowers of your stock; for, as my object is to exhort you, I do
not wish it to appear that I am praising them. Blaesilla too I pass
over who following her husband--your brother--to the grave, fulfilled
in a short time of life a long time of virtue.(1) Would that men would
imitate the laudable examples of women, and that wrinkled old age would
pay at last what youth gladly offers at first! In saying this I am
putting my hand into the fire deliberately and with my eyes open. Men
will knit their brows and shake their clenched fists at me;
In swelling tones will angry Chremes rave.(2)
The leaders will rise as one man against my epistle; the mob of
patricians will thunder at me. They will cry out that I am a sorcerer
and a seducer; and that I should be transported to the ends of the
earth. They may add, if they will, the title of Samaritan; for in it I
shall but recognize a name given to my Lord. But one thing is certain.
I do not sever the daughter from the mother, I do not use the words of
the gospel: "let the dead bury their dead."(3) For whosoever believes.
in Christ is alive; and he who believes in Him "ought himself also so
to walk even as He walked."(4)
3. A truce to the calumnies which the malice of
backbiters continually fastens upon all who call themselves Christians
to keep them through fear of shame from aspiring to virtue. Except by
letter we have no knowledge of each other; and where there is no
knowledge after the flesh, there can be no motive for intercourse save
a religious one. "Honour thy father,"(5) the commandment says, but only
if he does not separate you from your true Father. Recognize the tie of
blood but only so long as your parent recognizes his Creator. Should he
fail to do so, David will sing to you: "hearken, O daughter, and
consider, and incline thine ear; forget also thine own people and thy
father's house. So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty, for he is
thy Lord."(6) Great is the prize offered for the forgetting of a
parent, "the king shall desire thy beauty." You have heard, you have
considered, you have inclined your ear, you have forgotten your people
and your father's house; therefore the king shall desire your beauty
and shall say to you: -- "thou art all fair, my love; there is no spot
in thee."(7) What can be fairer than a soul which is called the
daughter of God,(1) and which seeks for herself no outward adorning.(2)
She believes in Christ, and, dowered with this hope of greatness(3)
makes her way to her spouse; for Christ is at once her bridegroom and
her Lord.
4. What troubles matrimony involves you have learned
in the marriage state itself; you have been surfeited with quails'
flesh(4) even to loathing; your mouth has been filled with the gall of
bitterness; you have expelled the indigestible and unwholesome food;
you have relieved a heaving stomach. Why will you again swallow what
has disagreed with you? "The dog is turned to his own vomit again and
the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire."(5) Even brute
beasts and flying birds do not fall into the same snares twice. Do you
fear extinction for the line of Camillus if you do not present your
father with some little fellow to crawl upon his breast and slobber his
neck? As if all who marry have children! and as if when they do come,
they always resemble their forefathers! Did Cicero's son exhibit his
father's eloquence? Had your own Cornelia,(6) pattern at once of
chastity and of fruitfulness, cause to rejoice that she was mother of
her Gracchi? It is ridiculous to expect as certain the offspring which
many, as you can see, have not got, while others who have had it have
lost it again. To whom then are you to leave your great riches? To
Christ who cannot die. Whom shall you make your heir? The same who is
already your Lord. Your father will be sorry but Christ will be glad;
your family will grieve but the angels will rejoice with you. Let your
father do what he likes with what is his own. You are not his to whom
you have been born, but His to whom you have been born again, and who
has purchased you at a great price with His own blood.(7)
5. Beware of nurses and waiting maids and similar
venomous creatures who try to satisfy their greed by sucking your
blood. They advise yon to do not what is best for you but what is best
for them. They are for ever dinning into your ears Virgil's lines:--
Will you waste all your youth in lonely grief
And children sweet, the gifts of love,
forswear?(8)
Wherever there is holy chastity, there is also frugal living; and
wherever there is frugal living, servants lose by it. What they do not
get is in their minds so much taken from them. The actual sum received
is what they look to, and not its relative amount. The
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moment they see a Christian they at once repeat the hackneyed
saying:--"The Greek! The impostor!"(1) They spread the most scandalous
reports and, when any such emanates from themselves, they pretend that
they have heard it from others, managing thus at once to originate the
story and to exaggerate it. A lying rumour goes forth; and this, when
it has reached the married ladies and has been fanned by their tongues,
spreads through the provinces. You may see numbers of these--their
faces painted, their eyes like those of vipers, their teeth rubbed with
pumice-stone--raving and carping at Christians with insane fury. One of
these ladies,
A violet mantle round her shoulders thrown,
Drawls out some mawkish stuff, speaks through
her nose,
And minces half her words with tripping
tongue.(2)
Hereupon the rest chime in and every bench expresses hoarse approval.
They are backed up by men of my own order who, finding themselves
assailed, assail others. Always fluent in attacking me, they are dumb
in their own defence; just as though they were not monks themselves,
and as though every word said against monks did not tell also against
their spiritual progenitors the clergy. Harm done to the flock brings
discredit on the shepherd. On the other hand we cannot but praise the
life of a monk who holds up to veneration the priests of Christ and
refuses to detract from that order to which he owes it that be is a
Christian.
6. I have spoken thus, my daughter in Christ, not
because I doubt that you will be faithful to your vows,(3) (you would
never have asked for a letter of advice had you been uncertain as to
the blessedness of monogamy): but that you may realize the wickedness
of servants who merely wish to sell you for their own advantage, the
snares which relations may set for you and the well meant but mistaken
suggestions of a father. While I allow that this latter feels love
toward you, I cannot admit that it is love according to knowledge. I
must say with the apostle: "I bear them record that they have a zeal of
God, but not according to knowledge."(4) · Imitate rather--I
cannot say it too often--your holy mother(5) whose zeal for Christ
comes into my mind as often as I remember her, and not her zeal
only but the paleness induced in her by fasting, the alms given by her
to the poor, the courtesy shewn by her to the servants of God,
the lowliness of her garb and heart, and the constant moderation of her
language. Of your father too I speak with respect, not because he is a
patrician and of consular rank but because he is a Christian. Let him
be true to his profession as such. Let him rejoice that he has begotten
a daughter for Christ and not for the world. Nay rather let him grieve
that you have in vain lost your virginity as the fruits of matrimony
have not been yours. Where is the husband whom he gave to you? Even had
he been lovable and good, death would still have snatched all away, and
his decease would have terminated the fleshly bond between you. Seize
the opportunity, I beg of you, and make a virtue of necessity. In the
lives of Christians we look not to the beginnings but to the endings.
Paul began badly but ended well. The start of Judas wins praise; his
end is condemned because of his treachery. Read Ezekiel, "The
righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day of his
transgression; as for the wickedness of the wicked he shall not fall
thereby in the day that he turneth from his wickedness."(1) The
Christian life is the true Jacob's ladder on which the angels ascend
and descend,(2) while the Lord stands above it holding out His hand to
those who slip and sustaining by the vision of Himself the weary steps
of those who ascend. But while He does not wish the death of a sinner,
but only that he should be converted and live, He hates the lukewarm(3)
and they quickly cause him loathing. To whom much is forgiven, the same
loveth much.(4)
7. In the gospel a harlot wins salvation. How? She
is baptized in her tears and wipes the Lord's feet with that same hair
with which she had before deceived many. She does not wear a waving
headdress or creaking boots, she does not darken her eyes with
antimony. Yet in her squalor she is lovelier than ever. What place have
rouge and white lead on the face of a Christian woman? The one
simulates the natural red of the cheeks and of the lips; the other the
whiteness of the face and of the neck. They serve only to inflame young
men's passions, to stimulate lust, and to indicate an unchaste mind.
How can a woman weep for her sins whose tears lay bare her true
complexion and mark furrows on her cheeks? Such adorning is not of the
Lord; a mask of this kind belongs to Antichrist. With what confidence
can a woman raise feat-ares to heaven which her Creator must fail to
recognize? It is idle to allege in excuse for such practices
girlishness and youthful vanity. A widow who has ceased to have a
husband o please, and who in the apostle's language s a widow
indeed,(5) needs nothing more but
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perseverance only. She is mindful of past enjoyments, she knows what
gave her pleasure and what she has now lost. By rigid fast and vigil
she must quench the fiery darts of the devil.(1) If we are widows, we
must either speak as we are dressed, or else dress as we speak. Why do
we profess one thing, and practise another? The tongue talks of
chastity, but the rest of the body reveals incontinence.
8. So much for dress and adornment. But a widow
"that liveth in pleasure"--the words are not mine but those of the
apostle--"is dead while she liveth."(2) What does that mean--"is dead
while she liveth"? To those who know no better she seems to be alive
and not as she is, dead in sin; yes, and in another sense dead to
Christ, from whom no secrets are hid. "The soul that sinneth it shall
die."(3) "Some men's sins are open ... going before to judgment: and
some they follow after. Likewise also good works are manifest, and they
that are otherwise cannot be hid.(4) The words mean this:--Certain
persons sin so deliberately and flagrantly that you no sooner see them
than you know them at once to be sinners. But the defects of others are
so cunningly concealed that we only learn them from subsequent
information. Similarly the good deeds of some people are public
property, while those of others we come to know only through long
intimacy with them. Why then must we needs boast of our chastity, a
thing which cannot prove itself to be genuine without its companions
and attendants, continence and plain living? The apostle macerates his
body and brings it into subjection to the soul lest what he has
preached to others he should himself fail to keep;(5) and can a mere
girl whose passions are kindled by abundance of food, can a mere girl
afford to be confident of her own chastity?
9. In saying this, I do not of course condemn food
which God created to be enjoyed with thanksgiving,(6) but I seek to
remove from youths and girls what are incentives to sensual pleasure.
Neither the fiery Etna nor the country of Vulcan,(7) nor Vesuvius, nor
Olympus, burns with such violent heat as the youthful marrow of those
who are flushed with wine and filled with food. Many trample
covetousness under foot, and lay it down as readily as they lay down
their purse. An enforced silence serves to make amends for a railing
tongue. The outward appearance and the mode of dress can be changed in
a single hour. All other sins are external, and what is external can
easily be cast away. Desire alone, implanted in men by God to lead them
to procreate children, is internal; and this, if it once oversteps its
own bounds, becomes a sin, and by a law of nature cries out for sexual
intercourse. It is therefore a work of great merit, and one which
requires unremitting diligence to overcome that which is innate in you;
while living in the flesh not to live after the flesh; to strive with
yourself day by day and to watch the foe shut up within you with the
hundred eyes of the fabled Argus.(1) This is what the apostle says in
other words: "Every sin that a man doeth is without the body; but he
that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body."(2)
Physicians and others who have written on the nature of the human body,
and particularly Galen in his books entitled On matters of health, say
that the bodies of boys and of young men and of full grown men and
women glow with an interior heat and consequently that for persons of
these ages all food is injurious which tends to promote this heat:
while on the other hand it is highly conducive to health in eating and
in drinking to take things cold and cooling. Contrariwise they tell us
that warm food and old wine are good for the old who suffer from
humours and from chilliness. Hence it is that the Saviour says "Take
heed to yourselves lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with
surfeiting and drunkenness, and cares of this life."(3) So too speaks
the apostle: "Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess."(4) No wonder
that the potter spoke thus of the vessel which He had made when even
the comic poet whose only object is to know and to describe the ways of
men tells us that
Where Ceres fails and Liber, Venus droops.(5)
10. In the first place then, till you have passed
the years of early womanhood, take only water to drink, for this is by
nature of all drinks the most cooling. This, if your stomach is strong
enough to bear it; but if your digestion is weak, hear what the apostle
says to Timothy: "use a little wine for thy stomach's sake and thine
often infirmities."(6) Then as regards your food you must avoid all
heating dishes. I do not speak of flesh dishes only (although of these
the chosen vessel declares his mind thus: "it is good neither to eat
flesh nor to drink wine"(7)) but of vegetables as well. Everything
provocative or indigestible is to be refused. Be assured that nothing
is so good for young Christians as
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the eating of herbs. Accordingly in another place he says: "another who
is weak eateth herbs."(1) Thus the heat of the body must be tempered
with cold food. Daniel and the three children lived on pulse.(2) They
were still boys and had not come yet to that frying-pan on which the
King of Babylon fried the eiders(3) who were judges. Moreover, by an
express privilege of God's own giving their bodily condition was
improved by their regimen. We do not expect that it will be so with us,
but we look for increased vigour of soul which becomes stronger as the
flesh grows weaker. Some persons who aspire to the life of chastity
fall midway in their journey from supposing that they need only abstain
from flesh. They load their stomachs with vegetables which are only
harmless when taken sparingly and in moderation. If I am to say what I
think, there is nothing which so much heats the body and inflames the
passions as undigested food and breathing broken with hiccoughs. As for
you, my daughter, I would rather wound your modesty than endanger my
case by understatement. Regard everything as poison which bears within
it the seeds of sensual pleasure. A meagre diet which leaves the
appetite always unsatisfied is to be preferred to fasts three days
long. It is much better to take a little every day than some days to
abstain wholly and on others to surfeit oneself. That rain is best
which falls slowly to the ground. Showers that come down suddenly and
with violence wash away the soil.
11. When you eat your meals, reflect that you must
immediately afterwards pray and read. Have a fixed number of lines of
holy scripture, and render it as your task to your Lord. On no account
resign yourself to sleep until you have filled the basket of your
breast with a woof of this weaving. After the holy scriptures you
should read the writings of learned men; of those at any rate whose
faith is well known. You need not go into the mire to seek for gold;
you have many pearls, buy the one pearl with these.(4) Stand, as
Jeremiah says, in more ways than one that so you may come on the true
way that leads to the Father.(5) Exchange your love of necklaces and of
gems and of silk dresses for earnestness in studying the scriptures.
Enter the land of promise that flows with milk and honey.(6) Eat fine
flour and oil. Let your clothing be, like Joseph's, of many colors.(7)
Let your ears like those of Jerusalem(8) be pierced by the word of God
that the precious grains of new corn may hang from them. In that
reverend man Exuperius(1) you have a man of tried years and faith ready
to give you constant support with his advice.
12. Make to yourself friends of the mammon of
unrighteousness that they may receive you into everlasting
habitations.(2) Give your riches not to those who feed on pheasants but
to those who have none but common bread to eat, such as stays hunger
while it does not stimulate lust. Consider the poor and needy.(3) Give
to everyone that asks of you,(4) but especially unto them who are of
the household of faith.(5) Clothe the naked, feed the hungry, visit the
sick.(6) Every time that you hold out your hand, think of Christ. See
to it that you do not, when the Lord your God asks an alms of you,
increase riches which are none of His.
13. Avoid the company of young men. Let long baited
youths dandified and wanton never be seen under your roof. Repel a
singer as you would some bane. Hurry from your house women who live by
playing and singing, the devil's choir whose songs are the fatal ones
of sirens. Do not arrogate to yourself a widow's license and appear in
public preceded by a host of eunuchs. It is a most mischievous thing
for those who are weak owing to their sex and youth to misuse their own
discretion and to suppose that things are lawful because they are
pleasant. "All things are lawful, but all things are not expedient."(7)
No frizzled steward nor shapely foster brother nor fair and ruddy
footman must dangle at your heels. Sometimes the tone of the mistress
is inferred from the dress of the maid. Seek the society of holy
virgins and widows; and, if need arises for holding converse with men,
do not shun having witnesses, and let your conversation be marked with
such confidence that the entry of a third person shall neither startle
you nor make you blush. The face is the mirror of the mind and a
woman's eyes without a word betray the secrets of her heart. I have
lately seen a most miserable scandal traverse the entire East. The
lady's age and style, her dress and mien, the indiscriminate company
she kept, her dainty table and her regal appointments bespoke her the
bride of a Nero or of a Sardanapallus. The scars of others should teach
us caution. 'When he that causeth trouble is scourged the fool will be
wiser.'(8) A holy love knows no impatience. A false rumor is quickly
crushed and the after life passes judgment on that which has gone
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before. It is not indeed possible that any one should come to the end
of life's race without suffering from calumny; the wicked find it a
consolation to carp at the good, supposing the guilt of sin to be less,
in proportion as the number of those who commit it is greater. Still a
fire of straw quickly dies out and a spreading flame soon expires if
fuel to it be wanting. Whether the report which prevailed a year ago
was true or false, when once the sin ceases, the scandal also will
cease. I do not say this because I fear anything wrong in your case but
because, owing to my deep affection for you, there is no safety that I
do not fear.(1) Oh! that you could see your sister(2) and that it might
be yours to hear the eloquence of her holy lips and to behold the
mighty spirit which animates her diminutive frame. You might hear the
whole contents of the old and new testaments come bubbling up out of
her heart. Fasting is her sport, and prayer she makes her pastime. Like
Miriam after the drowning Pharaoh she takes up her timbrel and sings to
the virgin choir, "Let us sing to the Lord for He hath triumphed
gloriously; the horse and his rider hath he thrown into the sea."(3)
She teaches her companions to be music girls but music girls for
Christ, to be luteplayers but luteplayers for the Saviour. In this
occupation she passes both day and night and with oil ready to put in
the lamps she waits the coming of the Bridegroom.(4) Do you therefore
imitate your kinswoman. Let Rome have in you what a grander city than
Rome, I mean Bethlehem, has in her.
14. You have wealth and can easily therefore supply
food to those who want it. Let virtue consume what was provided for
self-indulgence; one who means to despise matrimony need fear no degree
of want. Have about you troops of virgins whom you may lead into the
king's chamber. Support widows that you may mingle them as a kind of
violets with the virgins' lilies and the martyrs' roses. Such are the
garlands you must weave for Christ in place of that crown l of
thorns(5) in which he bore the sins of the world. Let your most noble
father thus find in you his joy and support, let him learn from his
daughter the lessons he used to learn from his wife. His hair is
already gray, his knees tremble, his teeth fall out, his brow is
furrowed through years, death is nigh even at the doors, the pyre is
all but laid out hard by. Whether we like it or not, we grow old. Let
him provide for himself the provision which is needful for his long
journey. Let him take with him what otherwise be must unwillingly leave
behind, nay let him send before him to heaven what if he declines it,
will be appropriated by earth.
15. Young widows, of whom some "are already turned
aside after Satan, when they have begun to wax wanton against Christ
"(1) and wish to marry, generally make such excuses as these. "My
little patrimony is daily decreasing, the property which I have
inherited is being squandered, a servant has spoken insultingly to me,
a maid has neglected my orders. Who will appear for me before the
authorities? Who will be responsible for the rents of my estates?(2)
Who will see to the education of my children, and to the bringing up of
my slaves?" Thus, shameful to say, they put that forward as a reason
for marrying again, which alone should deter them from doing so. For by
marrying again a mother places over her sons not a guardian but a foe,
not a father but a tyrant. Inflamed by her passions she forgets the
fruit of her womb, and among the children who know nothing of their sad
fate the lately weeping widow dresses herself once more as a bride. Why
these excuses about your property and the insolence of slaves? Confess
the shameful truth. No woman marries to avoid cohabiting with a
husband. At least, if passion is not your motive, it is mere madness to
play the harlot just to increase wealth. You do but purchase a paltry
and passing gain at the price of a grace which is precious and eternal!
If you have children already, why do you want to marry? If you have
none, why do you not fear a recurrence of your former sterility? Why do
you put an uncertain gain before a certain loss of self-respect?
A marriage-settlement is made in your favour to-day
but in a short time you will be constrained to make your will. Your
husband will feign sickness and will do for you what he wants you to do
for him. Yet he is sure to live and you are sure to die. Or if it
happens that you have sons by the second husband, domestic strife is
certain to result and intestine disputes. You will not be allowed to
love your first children, nor to look kindly on those to whom you have
yourself given birth. You will have to give them their food secretly;
yet even so your present husband will bear a grudge against your
previous one and, unless you hate your sons, he will think that you
still love their father. But your husband have may issue by a former
wife. If so when he takes you to his home, though you should be the
kindest person in the world,
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all the commonplaces of rhetoricians and declamations of comic poets
and writers of mimes will be hurled at you as a cruel stepmother. If
your stepson fall sick or have a headache you will be calumniated as a
poisoner. If you refuse him food, you will be cruel, while if you give
it, you will be held to have bewitched him. I ask you what benefit has
a second marriage to confer great enough to compensate for these evils?
16. Do we wish to know what widows ought to be? Let
us read the gospel according to Luke. "There was one Anna," he says, "a
prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel of the tribe of Aser."(1) The
meaning of the name Anna is grace. Phanuel is in our tongue the face of
God. Aser may be translated either as blessedness or as wealth. From
her youth up to the age of fourscore and four years she had borne the
burden of widowhood, not departing from the temple and giving herself
to fastings and prayers night and day; therefore she earned spiritual
grace, received the title 'daughter of the face of God,'(2) and
obtained a share in the ' blessedness and wealth '(3) which belonged to
her ancestry. Let us recall to mind the widow of Zarephath(4) who
thought more of satisfying Elijah's hunger than of preserving her own
life and that of her son. Though she believed that she and he must die
that very night unless they had food, she determined that her guest
should survive. She preferred to sacrifice her life rather than to
neglect the duty of almsgiving. In her handful of meal she found the
seed from which she was to reap a harvest sent her by the Lord. She
sows her meal and lo! a cruse of oil comes from it. In the land of
Judah grain was scarce for the corn of wheat had died there;(5) but in
the house of a heathen widow oil flowed in streams. In the book of
Judith--if any one is of opinion that it should be received as
canonical--we read of a widow wasted with fasting and wearing the
sombre garb of a mourner, whose outward squalor indicated not so much
the regret which she felt for her dead husband as the temper(6) in
which she looked forward to the coming of the Bridegroom. I see her
hand armed with the sword and stained with blood. I recognize the head
of Holofernes which she has carried away from the camp of the enemy.
Here a woman vanquishes men, and chastity beheads lust. Quickly
changing her garb, she puts on once more in the hour of victory her own
mean dress finer than all the splendours of the world.(7)
17. Some from a misapprehension number Deborah among
the widows, and suppose that Barak the leader of the army is her son,
though the scripture tells a different story. I will mention her here
because she was a prophetess and is reckoned among the judges, and
again because she might have said with the psalmist:--"How sweet are
thy words unto my taste! yea sweeter than honey to my mouth."(1) Well
was she called the bee(2) for she fed on the flowers of scripture, was
enveloped with the fragrance of the Holy Spirit, and gathered into one
with prophetic lips the sweet juices of the nectar. Then there is
Naomi, in Greek <greek>parakenlhmenh</greek>(3) or she who
is consoled, who, when her husband and her children died abroad,
carried her chastity back home and, being supported on the road by its
aid, kept with her her Moabitish daughter-in-law, that in her the
prophecy of Isaiah(4) might find a fulfilment. "Send out the lamb, O
Lord, to rule over the land from the rock of the desert to the mount of
the daughter of Zion."(5) I pass on to the widow in the gospel who,
though she was but a poor widow was yet richer than all the people of
Israel.(6) She had but a grain of mustard seed, but she put her leaven
in three measures of flour; and, combining her confession of the Father
and of the Son with the grace of the Holy Spirit, she cast her two
mites into the treasury. All the substance that she had, her entire
possessions, she offered in the two testaments of her faith. These are
the two seraphim which glorify the Trinity with threefold song(7) and
are stored among the treasures of the church. They also form the legs
of the tongs by which the live coal is caught up to purge the sinner's
lips.(8)
18. But why should I recall instances from history
and bring from books types of saintly women, when in your own city you
have many before your eyes whose example you may well imitate? I shall
not recount their merits here lest I should seem to flatter them. It
will suffice to mention the saintly Marcella(9) w