The Satirical Letters Of St Jerome

A Gateway Edition
$1.25

281.1 J56s 62-1266*1.
Jerome $12S
The satirical letters of
St. Jerome.

MAIN

ML--8-

-]9

;, A''K r - l'J8f j_
-<OV2d 1981 _ l_

j

MAt MAY'?' T

OCT1013SS
APR 1 a 1987
M DEC i 2 1989

NOV06
JUL 1 4 1993

OCT 08 1993

ST. JEROME

THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF
ST. JEROME

Translated into English

and with an Introduction

by Paul Carroll

GATEWAY EDITIONS, INC.
Distributed by HENRY REONERY COMPANY

Los ANGELES CHICAGO New YORK

Copyright 1956 by Henry Reg-
nery Company, Chicago, Illinois.
Manufactured in the United States
of America by Thos. J. Moran's
Sons, Inc., Baton Rouge, Louisiana.

THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF
ST. JEROME

INTRODUCTION

Of all the members of the Calender of Saints,
Jerome is probably one of the more singular. Con-
spicuous for his scholarly achievements, and for
being an astute and seminal moralist, the vain,
crabby, vituperative side to his temperament also
makes him one of the most fascinating of saints
for those who appreciate contradictory, yet some-
how profound, irreconcilable traits in our greatest
men.

What made him a saint is rather difficult to
describe. Devoted to God he certainly was; but the
hard-headed quality of his devotion, and his manner
of exhibiting it, are hardly of the expected sancti-
monious kind. There is, for example, the scandalous
but important side to the man, shown to best ad-
vantage perhaps in a legend handed down from the
Renaissance. One afternoon, so the anecdote goes,
His Holiness was taking a refreshing stroll through
the Vatican Galleries. Pausing for a moment in
front of an oil painting depicting Jerome in the
wilderness, the Pope gazed at the piously cadaverous
expression, and at the sizeable rock gripped in a
hand ready to castigate the bony, naked breast.
"Jerome, Jerome," he muttered in some amusement,
"if you had not been discovered in that attitude of
humility, you would not be on the altars of the
Church today."* And, the Pope might well have
added, "especially since that rock could so easily be
hurled."

* This anecdote is mentioned in somewhat different form by Father
IT. X. Murphy, "St. Jerome: The Irascible Hermit/ 1 in the valuable
collection of essays, A Monument To St. Jerome, ed. F. X. Murphy
(New York; Sheed and Ward, 1962), p. 10.

V1U INTRODUCTION

For in a sense Jerome's life was one long smolder-
ing quarrel. Ecclesiastical dignitaries, dear friends,
fellow scholars, even other contemporary saints
indeed, Jerome once nicknamed St. Ambrose 'that
little oracular Crow' almost everyone, in fact, who
found himself within the wide orbit of Jerome's
seventy five years received his share of animadver-
sion and abuse. "Simple, learned, gentle," was how
Cassiodorus, Abbot of Vivarium, described him.
One may suspect, however, that, excepting the
recognition of Jerome's encyclopedic erudition, piety
alone is responsible for the other two epithets.

Rufinus of Aquileia, for instance, was Jerome's
only life-long friend. But after they had quarreled
over the authority that should be given to Origen's
writings, and Rufinus had died in Sicily, Jerome
announces that he finds reason to rejoice. Only the
death of this "Scorpion," this "multiple-headed
Hydra that has ceased hissing," he remarks, has
been able to awaken him from the stunned torpor
into which he had sunk on hearing of the sack of
Rome by the barbarians; and now he can resume
his interrupted commentary on Ezekiel.

At the same time, Jerome was a man capable of
as much fierce affection. A devoted friend to so
many others, it could be said that he profoundly
appreciated how cor ad cor loquitor how "heart
speaketh to heart." His correspondence reveals a
galaxy of loving and noble human beings. Above
all, after so many centuries Jerome remains one of
the classical models of how the Christian life ought
to be lived.

Now if all these discordant characteristics con-
tribute to make Jerome the most colorful, and most
exasperating personality in the early ages of the
Church, such a distinction would be no mean praise

INTRODUCTION IX

indeed. One has only to recall some of those great
preposterous early Christians: St. Simon Stylites, for
example, perched on his sixty foot pillar for half
a lifetime, or Didymus the Blind who carried an
entire library in his memory, or Origen Adamantus,
that 'Man of Steel,' ceremoniously emasculating
himself for the sake of the kingdom of heaven. (To
borrow Gibbon's irreverent but delicious reflection
on the deed: "As it was his general practice to
allegorize scripture, it seems unfortunate that, in
this instance only, he should have adopted the
literal sense.")

The Catholic Church, of course, honors Jerome
principally as Doctor Maximus in exponendis
Sacris Scripturis her greatest Doctor of Biblical
scholarship, translation, and exegesis. His Vulgate
translation of the Bible is still considered as au-
thoritative by over half of Christendom. And his
erudition is proverbial. Quite justly he has been
called the Christian Aristarchus, an abyss of learn-
ing. Scholars from St. Augustine to the Venerable
Bede and John of Salisbury in the Middle Ages,
from the sophisticated, mocking Erasmus of Rotter-
dam and Abbot Lupus Servatus, the great textual
scholar, down to a host in our time, have venerated
Jerome as the symbol of enlightened Christian
humanism.

But this present translation of sixteen letters is
intended, above all, to present the personality of
the man himself. And, I may hope that, by the
particular letters selected, some indication might be
given of his hard permanent core, which made him
a saint that belief in himself as a human being
which resulted from his commitment to certain im-
portant truths.

X INTRODUCTION

It is this commitment as I hope to show later
which gives the vigor to his famous satire; for when
he was personally impeached, or the truths he be-
lieved in were perverted, one sees him turn again
and again in the letters to the one real defense he
could command: his literary gift for satire. Nothing
is quite like the tone of this satire. Scathing,
rhetorical, often simply gross, it is at the same time
bantering, sophisticated, stinging and, at its bests,
always concerned with something beyond itself.
Nothing escapes it whether it be effeminate, am-
bitious, or lecherous priests, the comfortable van-
ities of the nuns or the pomposities of bishops and
of saints; whether it be some well-intentioned sug-
gestion Augustine offers concerning scriptural ex-
egesis, or Jerome's own garrulity; whether it be the
decadence of Roman society and the sophistry of
the educated, or the uneasy manage de convenance
into which most Christians enter with the world, the
flesh, and the devil.

To appreciate its special tone, however, and to
find in it some explanation perhaps for the man's
sanctity, one should recall the revolutionary his-
torical circumstances, and the consequent revolution
of morals, which occasioned it.

II

In the fourth century of the Christian dispensa-
tion, the Roman civilization experienced a revolu-
tion comparable in effect only to the one inaugurated
four hundred years before by Julius Caesar and
brought to perfection by Caesar Augustus. The
great adventure of classical antiquity ended: a new,
bewildering Christian world was born. Accompany-
ing the historical revolution was a less obvious but
more profound revolution of morals: new ways of

INTRODUCTION XI

thought and feeling were being created in which
men could understand, appreciate, and articulate
their experience. And it is within the efforts to
create this new moral dimension that Jerome may
be most properly estimated.

By the time he was born in 345 A.D. at Stridon
on the northeastern frontier of Italy, the Roman
Empire was well advanced in its rotting disintegra-
tion, and, in Gibbon's malicious description, "while
the great body was invaded by open violence, or
undermined by slow decay, a pure and humble
religion insinuated itself into the minds of men, grew
up in silence and obscurity, derived new vigour from
opposition, and finally erected the triumphant ban-
ner of the cross on the ruins of the Capitol."* It
was a turbulent, bewildering century. Successive
hordes of Franks, Vandals, Suevi, Burgundinans,
Goths and other barbarian nations swept down from
the North to plunder and ravish and slaughter in
Roman territory; civil wars raged among claimants
to the purple royal; the ancient classical ways of
thought and feeling no longer seemed adequate in
giving meaning to men's experience. It was a time,
in fact, much like our own, or any other time of
dark, restless transition

Wherein men live without any other security than
what their own strength and their own invention
shall furnish them withall.

In such condition, there is no place for Indus-
try, because the fruit thereof is uncertain; and
consequently no Culture of the Earth; no Navi-
gation, nor use of commodities that may be im-
ported by Sea; no commodious Buildings; no
Instruments of moving and removing such things

* Decline and J'ott, ed. Bury (London. 1896), H, p. 1.

Xii INTRODUCTION

as require much force; no knowledge of the face
of the Earth; no account of Time; no Arts; no
Letters; no Society; and, which is worst of all,
continual! feare, and the danger of violent death;
And the life of man, solitary, poore, nasty, brutish
and short.*

And on the afternoon in 312 when Constantino the
Great, marching on Rome in civil war, saw the
vision of the Shining Cross, it could be said that
the civilization of antiquity became proscribed.
Whether or not the vision was more pious legend
than anything else Constantine himself told Euse-
bius, Bishop of Ca^ferae, that he and his troops had
seen it, and indeed, that on the very night Christ
had commanded him from a dream to adopt the
cross as a battle standard hoc signo vince still the
incident is a convenient symbol for what actually
did happen to the Empire.

Following the example of Constantine, the Em-
perors of the fourth century excepting of course
the temporary opposition of Julian who apostatized
from the faith he had been baptized into and nos-
talgically tried to revive the old gods the Emperors
gradually turned, at first almost imperceptibly and
then completely, to the Christian Church, hoping to
find in it some fresh vitality which the time-honored
pagan gods and pagan concepts of citizenship had
become increasingly impotent to supply. Slowly by
degrees but irrepressibly the Church assumed an
influential part in the daily political and social life.
Toleration was followed by immunities and exemp-
tions, and finally generous favors were lavished on
the Christians by the sons of Constantine and their

* Quoted, without source, in 0. N. Oochrane, Christianity and
Classical OiviUtation (London: Oxford University Press, 1940),
pp. 854-5.

INTRODUCTION xili

successors. Whatever their motives might have been
is of little consequence here: whether the Emperors
were inspired by Divine Providence to adopt the
Church of Christ as ecclesiastical historians would
have it or whether desperate political circum-
stances forced them to regenerate the empire through
a unity of all its members, remains a problem for
the historian. Sufficient to say that the Church
flourished until, finally, in 390 a Christian bishop
had the power and authority to bring a Roman
Caesar to his knees in an act of contrition and
humility: for having punished the criminal city of
Salonika by massacre, Theodosius I was stripped of
the royal purple by Ambrose, and before the entire
court assembled in the Cathedral of Milan, Caesar
had to beseach the offended majesty of Heaven.

Within the brief span of a century, then, Christi-
anity was transformed from a contemptible, per-
secuted sect into the official religion of the state.
Successive edicts inaugurated in 381 by this same
Emperor, Theodosius, had anathematized the ancient
die ties. Their priests and vestal virgins, branded as
sacrilegious, were deprived of their emoluments, then
of their civil rights, and eventually were outlawed as
political traitors. Immemorial temples dedicated to
Jupiter and Juno, to Janus and Mars were reopened
as art museums. By 400 paganism, in St. Augus-
tine's phrase, desired only to die honorably. For
better or worse, the cross had been raised for good
on the ruins of the Capitol.

The moral revolution accompanying these his-
torical changes was less visible but more profound.
Similar to any revolution in morals, it centered
around what could be called the one significant
human question, namely, what is the nature of man?
Pagan Rome had of course given many answers to

INTRODUCTION

the question, the most splendid of them often adapt-
ed from Greek originals. But if there was one answer
most characteristically Roman, it was the concept
of Romanitas, so brilliantly described by C. N.
Cochrane in his study, Christianity and Classical
Culture. Romanitas, as Mr. Cochrane suggests, was
that quality which made a man a citizen of Eternal
Rome, involving the unwritten but nevertheless com-
pelling assurance that, if an individual lived in a
powerful and immortal society, he would fulfill his
nature and somehow share in that political immor-
tality. To phrase this concept in contemporary terms:
the totalitarian State, being eternal, is what affords
description, significance and dignity to the transitory,
otherwise brutish existence of the individual. Further-
more, Justice, so Romanitas explains, is found only
within the State; and it is Justice which ultimately
tells a man not only who he is but what he has the
right to anticipate as a human being. It might even
be said that this noble concept of the immortality
of the Polis, with its roots reaching back to Peri-
clean Athens, was the one great legacy of classical
civilization.

Once Christianity became the official religion, and
the Empire was, so to speak, baptized, the concept of
Romanitas suffered a revolution in meaning that
rendered the political scene incomprehensible had a
Cicero or an Augustus returned from the shades
to contemplate it. But to say that Romanitas had
been redefined by the Christian concept of true
citizenship in the Heavenly Jerusalem ripae ulte-
rioris amore would be incorrect. On the other
hand, it would be as incorrect to say that Christianity
became solely an institution of power politics. It
was rather that the Christian concept of true citizen-
ship in the Kingdom of God was forced, in the last

INTRODUCTION XV

half of the fourth century, to assume a new dimen-
sion. Two centuries before the great Tertullian,
continuing a tradition that stretched back to St. Paul
and the first apologists, could pronounce: "There is
nothing more foreign and unfamiliar to Christians
than political life." Now, however, Christians began
to realize that one's eternal citizenship somehow
depended on the temporal and very visible citienship
on earth. The Church had always maintained that it
was not the State but each individiual soul that was
immortal. In the first centuries salvation had meant
enduring the exile of this world, and remaining de-
tached from and uncontaminated by the pagan
society which flourished in forum and marketplace.
Death by martyrdom had often been the best pass-
port to the eternal kingdom where a Christian could
possess his true humanity. But now the daily hum-
drum life of forum, barrack, and marketplace became
the arena in which one began to perfect and cultivate
salvation. The mansions of Paradise, Christians be-
gan to realize, had in part to be constructed in this
political world. 7 n brief, Christianity had assumed
something new and strange in its experience: a com-
monplace, tedious, earthly existence.

From its very beginnings, of course, Christianity
had gloried because it was not merely one more
philosophy or one more esoteric mystery cult, but
because it was a way of life and a way of death. But
its new circumstances, its coming of age in this
world, had altered the earlier descriptions of what
that way of life involved, so that late in the fourth
century a new evaluation and description was re-
quired.

Thus, with the death of the classical gods and of
the classical concept of citizenship, the Christian
Church had inherited the hardest of responsibilities.

XVi INTRODUCTION

It had to win the peace. The human City, far from
being renounced, had to be Christianized. "The sec-
ret, light-shunning nation," which an earlier apologist
had named the Church, now had to survive and be
redefined in the broad daylight of a dying culture,
and, what was more difficult, it was asked to give its
way of life, its courage and hope in a desperate
effort to help the State itself survive.

During these years Jerome was being prepared
for his part in the battle to win the peace by receiving
an excellent literary education at Rome under Aelius
Donatus, one of the great classical schoolmasters.
(Later he was to learn Hebrew and the allegorical
wisdom of the rabbis from the famous Bar-Anina
and at night, secretly, for his teacher feared censure
from the Jews. Still later, the perpetual student
learned his theology from St. Gregory Nazianzus and
exegesis from Apollinaris of Laodicea and Didymus
the Blind, head of the celebrated catechetical school
at Alexandria.) A brilliant, inquisitive pupil, Jerome
must have begun to sense the great responsibility
which Christians had inherited; and it seems provi-
dential that he had more of an appetite for practical,
moral problems than for theological and speculative
questions, for the age was soon to need a strenuous,
capable guidance for the moral revolution at hand.

Ill

It has been said that the great adventure for the
Church during its first three centuries was the ques-
tion: Who is Christ? Christian answers to this were
multiple, inflammatory, contradictory. On one point
only did all believers seem to consent, namely: Christ
Jesus is the savior of mankind. But Who is He?

That He is both human and divine a personality
of blood, groin, hair and teeth, and, at the same time,

INTRODUCTION

Reality itself, the uncreated God of the universe it
is no wonder that this proved more than the mind
and, in the case of the Manichean Puritans, the heart
could comfortably understand. Credo quia absurdum
est "I believe because it is an absurdity" had
seemed at first to be the most satisfactory attitude
toward the question of Christ's personality. "Because
the birth of the Son of God is such a disgraceful
thing, I am not at all disgraced by it," as Tertullian
had formulated this famous attitude: "And it is ex-
tremely credible that the Son of God actually died
because such a thing is incredible. Having been
buried, He arose again from death: I am certain of
this because it is impossible."*

Antiquity of course had known and adored many
gods who had human form. None of them, how-
ever, had claimed what this Incarnated Christ
claimed. He did not say He was a demigod, or a
hero, or a great political or moral reformer. He
did not say He was one more manifestation of the
classical lover of wisdom. Christ was, as He said,
the God Who Cieated all things, including this
world and all its human creatures, past, present,
and to come. He said He was the Truth, and also
the only way to the Truth.

Three centuries of Christian heretics offered
answers in an attempt to define such an unprece-
dented personality. Excepting a handful of per-
fervid sects, like the human Paracletes of Bishop
Montanus, the great heresies were intellectual formu-
lations which could be appreciated by the mind, and
frequently the heart as well. Most articulate and
influential among the heresies was the doctrine of
Father Anus who, refusing to admit the existence

* Tertullian, Th* Body of Christ, chapter 5.

XV111 INTRODUCTION

of a human soul in his divine Christ, or of an equal
existence of the Son with the Father, preached a type
of refined Gnosticism at Alexandria during the first
years of the fourth century. To dispute with Arms,
and to agree on an intelligible orthodox description
of the Savior, the first oecumenical Council of the
Church met at Nicaea in 313 under the protection
of Constantine. The result of this Council was to
stamp Christianity with the Trinitarian dogma it has
cherished and refined through the centuries, and to
etsablish the Incarnated Christ as the indispensible
article of faith for the true believer.

Once the Faith was adopted as the official re-
ligion, and became a public experience in the days
of Jerome, other questions assumed prominence. If
Christ is true god and true man, how does one best
approach Him? Martyrdom, and the abstinence
from corrupting pagan society, could no longer
furnish realistic approaches. To help formulate a
new and necessary approach was Jerome's great
calling. It is what gives vitality to his famous satire;
and it is also what makes him a saint.

rv

Early in the fifth century, St. Augustine described
the Gospel as the one true means for human eman-
cipation in a rotting, disintegrating Roman world
(tabescenti et labenti mundi.) Changing political
circumstances in Jerome's time, as we have seen,
had forced the Gospel, which told why men must
approach Christ, into the everyday life of market-
place and forum, politician's office and barracks,
not to mention the new palaces of bishops and
Popes. Above all, the Gospel had to become a way
of life for a despairing Roman populace, most of
whom were by now officially Christian, but who in

INTRODUCTION xix

reality continued to see through pagan eyes and to
describe their experience through classical ways of
thought and feeling. It was not just the common
man who desired only "bread and circuses," but,
as Augustine has it in a celebrated passage, the
essential spirit of the age was one in which "men
are not in the least troubled about the immoral
degradation of the Empire:

As long as the Empire lasts, they say, as long
as the times prosper amid plenty and we can
boast of victories and enjoy the blessings and
security of peace, what do morals matter?

What is really more pertinent is that everyone
should become richer and richer. . . Let the poor
be obsequient to the rich so that they can keep
their bellies filled and wallow in sloth and ease
under wealthy protection. . . Let the population
applaud, not those who are concerned with the
public good, but those who lavish favors and
serve its pleasures. Let no one impose hard work
or forbid impur? pleasures. Men in public offices
must not bother about whether the people are
good and virtuous; their only concern should be
that the people are subject to them. . .

Let there be an abundance of public prostitutes
for all who want to indulge their lusts, and who
cannot afford an expensive mistress.

Let houses be built, spacious and elegantly
furnished; and let people attend sumptuous din-
ners where each man can gamble and drink and
vomit and carouse day and night to his heart's
content if he is physically able.

Above all, let the noise of dancing be heard
everywhere. Let the theatres resound with lasci-
vious entertainment, with every kind of sadistic
and vicious thrill.

XX INTRODUCTION

But the man who dislikes all this, let him be
considered a public enemy, and be hounded to
death by the mob if he dares to interfere. Let
those rulers be regarded as real gods who devote
themselves to giving the population a good time,
and guarantee them its continuance.

(De civitate Dei. II. 20)

Somehow the heart of this exhausted Roman people
must stir again, and live.

Quite unexpectedly a means of invigoration came
from the solitude of the Egyptian desert. One cen-
tury before an illiterate, obstinate, magnificent Copt
named Antony had abandoned home and family and
set out into the wilderness around the Nile. Eighty
years later he emerged, a monument of Christian
sanity. By fierce asceticism, solitude, prayer and
tears he had overcome the death in his own soul.
Some definite knowledge of a forgotten path to
Christ had been rediscovered; and soon multitudes
of men were deserting dying Roman cities all over
the Empire and flocking to the desolate areas around
the Mareotic Sea, the Thebaid, and the sands be-
yond Antioch, to seek some measure of sanity and
love. Unwashed, fanatic, often illiterate, these
Christian hermits were proposing a new thing in
human life: "a reversal of normal values: a com-
munity based on humility instead of pride, simplicity
instead of splendour, austerity instead of lust; built
on labour, silence, charity, dependence upon God.
All this they called Nature: but it was the nature
the Fall had spoilt and therefore their lives were
hard."* In short, the ars moriendi of the hermits
offered a bitter but efficacious way to regain one's

* Masie Ward, St. Anthony of Egypt (London : Sheed and Ward,
1950), p. 40.

INTRODUCTION XXI

humanity, a humanity long obscured and ravished
by idolatry, immorality, and worldliness. Secura
quies, a participation in the peace lying at the heart
of the harmonious Universe, was what the ancient
Stoic dream had promised: but instead of Stoic re-
lease from fear and desire, from grief and joy, the
hermits' peace promised an intense fulfillment of
our whole nature. Nobleness and goodness of life,
the classical ideal of Kahoxan aOia, with which Julian
Apostate had tried to oppose the hermits, these
Christian 'Cynics' as he called them, was no longer
completely meaningful. Nobleness and goodness of
life, it was discovered, could be found only in Christ.
That is, if one discovered how best to approach Him
in one's own life.

And it was to the desert that Jerome himself went
in his late twenties. (There is a memorable picture
he gives of himself marching from Antioch into the
wastes of the Chalcis, clad only in toga and sandals,
freed of the burden of worldly possessions but
weighted down al nost to the point of staggering by
an enormous, enviable library strapped on his back.)
In the lonely distressing years he spent there, Jerome
learned at first hand the great lesson of how best to
approach, and then participate in the life of Christ.
Mortification of the flesh, continual prayer, intellec-
tual reading, contemplation, psalm-singing this was
the substance of the lesson. And most important he
learned that the whole man body as well as soul,
heart as well as mind must be involved in the ex-
perience of overcoming the legacy of Original Sin
and restoring our true humanity. Asceticism, in this
sense, was more than a mere ideal for Jerome. It was
rather a tried and proven way to Christ. And, above
all, he had discovered that the ascetic discipline was
the best method with which to cultivate and strength-

XX11 INTRODUCTION

en that 'sticking to God,' without which all a man's
piety and learning avails him nothing.

Eventually in 382 Jerome returned to Rome. At
thirty-seven he was already the most celebrated
scholar in Christendom. He had returned, in fact,
at the invitation of Pope Damasus I to assume the
office of papal secretary. Criticism has been directed
at this Pope for his dilettantism, the almost oriental
splendor of his court, and particularly for the blood-
baths surrounding his elevation to Peter's Chair.
Despite all this, Damasus at least had the insight to
perceive that the Faith, now that it had put on civil
cloths, must develop and cultivate a literature and
culture of its own.

Writing, studying, beginning the first of his Biblical
translations, Jerome threw himself with customary
dedication into this new environment. To these years
belongs the legend of Jerome, fresh from the celibate
desert, standing in the thronging streets and markets
of Rome, pointing an ominous lean finger at some
well-groomed woman, and shouting: "Behold, I see
our Mother Eve approaching!" Nevertheless, his
influence grew and deepened. At one time there was
even talk that he would succeed Damasus as Pon-
tifex Maxfmus of the Christians. And the hard-
headed lesson he had wrested from the desert was put
into practical effect when Jerome became spiritual
director for a group of patristic ladies who were ex-
perimenting with the cloistered life among the fash-
ionable homes on Palatine Hill. It must have
seemed peculiar indeed to old Roman aristocrats to
hear a Hebrew God being praised as the young monk
led his spiritual wards in the chanting of Psalms in
their original tongue.

But Rome had changed since Jerome's student
days. The Church now enjoyed unlimited official

INTRODUCTION XX111

sanction. And with power came corruption. Several
decades of toleration had made the lot of the priest
an enviable one. "Make me Bishop of Rome," jeered
the politician Praetextatus, "and I will become Chris-
tian at once." An indulged and virtually uneducated
clergy grew daily more effeminate, waxing fat on the
pleasures of social life. Some of Jerome's choicest
satirical passages, in fact, describe this new Christian
clergy, most of whom are ordained, he observes, "so
that they may have an excuse to visit the ladies more
openly :

Such men think of nothing but clothes; they use
perfumes liberally, and watch that no crease ap-
pear in their leather shoes. In their wavy hair
linger traces of the curling iron; rings glitter on
their fingers; and if the street is wet and muddy,
they walk on tiptoe to avoid splashing their clothes.
Observing men perform in this way, one thinks
that they are bridegrooms rather than priests.

Then there was the sensual worldly Roman mob,
recently baptized jut still pagan at heart and in pur-
pose. Custom, the Greek poet said, is king of the
world. The danger was that now the Church should
be infested, rotted, and conquered by the vanquished
ghosts of classical life. And even the genuinely de-
vout among clergy and laity found it confusing and
without precedent that the Christian life had become
interwoven with daily existence.

Evaywhere men seemed to be waiting for a prac-
tical, strenuous, articulate guidance. With his special
talent , Jerome, canny, assured of himself, expe-
rienced in the ways of men, seemed to have been
created to help guide just such a moral revolution.

And the stinging, blunt moral lessons couched in
his polemics and letters helped construct the vast

XXiV INTRODUCTION

structure of what was to be for so many centuries the
new Christian dimension in which men conceived of
their nature and gave it significance. Following cen-
turies could refine Jerome's sensible lesson of the
way to perfection, and explore such refinements as
the Dolorous Way to mystical illumination; the need
which Jerome met did not call for mysticism, but
rather for a practical, almost routine way to sanity.
If Tertullian's bold statement that "Every soul is
Christian by its very nature," was correct, Jerome was
needed to qualify: "And every soul must be taught
how to live as a Christian." Renunciation, conti-
nence, prayer, study and mortification comprised the
great lesson which Jerome drove home to his con-
temporaries. This is how, he told them, you can
restore and possess your humanity. To the classical
proverb, "Remember to think of yourself as a mere
mortal," Jerome amended another clause: "And
think of yourself as a mortal who will exist forever,
whether in Heaven in full possession of your human-
ity, or in Hell deprived of it."

And even after Jerome, exasperated and in dis-
grace, quit Rome for good in 385 to make his way
to the Holy Land, a voluminous correspondence
flowed from his monastery cell at Bethlehem, which
continued to perpetrate a profound and lasting in-
fluence on the moral behaviour of Christians in the
West. Letters were dispatched from Jerome to all
corners of Christendom, from Palestine and the East
to Africa, Spain and Gaul. No other famous collec-
tion of letters, either in antiquity or in European
literature, is addressed to such a variety of people
a lecherous priest is called to repent for having
seduced a nun and some society ladies; pious young
men and women are given guidance and courage in
the way of perfection; theologians, scholars, even a

INTRODUCTION XXV

Pope or two are instructed in exegetical questions; a
bishop is consoled for the death of his nephew
everyone, in fact, from powerful, affluent Patricians
to thread-bare students received Jerome's stern but
compassionate guidance. These letters rhetorical,
terribly concerned, satirical when the situation called
for satire, often nearly sinking beneath the weight of
vast erudition, sententious, many of them master-
pieces of -the epistolary art infiltrated Rome and the
West without interruption until Jerome, at seventy
five, fell asleep in his fathers on the 20th day of Sep-
tember 420. He had become the oracle of the Chris-
tian world. Originally his bones were laid in the
grotto at Bethlehem, and are now supposed to repose
beneath one of the altars of St. Mary Major's at
Rome.

V

The reader would be correct if he suspects that
the letters he is about to read will be practical, dog-
matic, learned, and perhaps even objectionably au-
thoritarian in the manner peculiarly Latin. Enjoy-
ment and real appreciation, however, must wait until
one penetrates beneath the dogmatizing and erudite
allusions in order to savor the quality of the man
himself. For Jerome \#as a great lover.

Not in the least sentimental, his love is of a type
once appreciated and cultivated especially in an-
tiquity and by the masculine of the saints. It involves
a clear recognition of Who is the source, motive, and
end of our being, and is contemptuous of all the
mediocre and shabby substitutes for God which most
men satisfy themselves with. "How very difficult it
is for the human soul not to love something," Jerome
observes with keen psychological insight in a passage

XXVi INTRODUCTION

from his most famous letter to Eustochium the
Virgin:

Of necessity your minds and will must be drawn to
some kind of affection. Carnal love is overcome
by spiritual love. Desire is extinguished by a
deeper desire. Whatever is taken from carnal love
is given to the higher love.

It is love, then, or rather exasperation and indigna-
tion at the mediocre and shabby substitutes for true
human love, which is at the root of Jerome's best
satire. And when, for instance, he attacks some
ecclesiastical pomposity as he does so well in the
letters to Nepotian and Eustochium or when he
pillories some affectation of learning or of piety,
Jerome's satire can claim legitimate fellowship with
that of Juvenal and of Dean Swift. The exasperation
and indignation in their satire arise not from hatred
but from love; it is not aimed at mankind's failure
to realize some ideal, some tenuous bliss in Cloud
Cuckoo Land; it is aimed rather at the failure of men
to grasp what they really are and what they are about.
Their kind of satire comes from a recognition that
we are all lovers and that, for better or worse, we are
perpetually in love but seldom realize what it is we
love or how to love it so that our full nature will be
involved, fulfilled, and satisfied.

For some readers, however, these letters may at
first seem rather parochial, for all of them are
addressed to believing Catholic Christians: only
fellow brothers and sisters in the Lord receive the
abuse of Jerome's satire and the burden of his
moralizing. On the other hand, this parochialism
is what gives the satire its special tone. If a world
of permanent and assured truths be assumed, then
the tone of the satire attacking abuses and perver-

INTRODUCTION XXVii

sions of those truths will be all the more concen-
trated, more probing, sharper. "All of my life I
have lashed and flagellated sins," Jerome boasts in
his last letter; and one would not be too astonished
to find that Jerome had appreciated and even
relished the persecution which Julian Apostate
levelled against the wealthy Christian congregation
at Edessa. For having attacked some band of Valen-
tinian heretics, the Apostate confiscated all of their
property, justifying his action by noting that he had
done so "in order that you Christians might not be
deprived of the Heavenly Kingdom promised to the
poor."*

But there is also a more pedestrian, meaner type
of satire among these letters. Often the motive for
attack is not correction of vice and ignorance by
exposure and ridicule: instead it seems at times to
be merely a perverse exacerbation of some sore on
Jerome's wounded vanity. The caricature of Onasus
as a "scrofulous tumor," for example, or the pom-
pous sarcasm Jerome directs at some brash young
monk who had dared to criticize one of his books,
or the delicate and masterful irony directed at St.
Augustine because he had challenged Jerome in
the field of Scriptural commentary these are but
pure invective. They are written in the same spirit
as his polemics, for polemics, as Jerome blandly
reasons, "have absolutely nothing to do with the
truth: their only object is to defeat, to crush one's
adversary." I need not say that this pedestrian
satire contains some of Jerome's finest passages.

But to praise the invective along with the noble
kind of satire is only to say that those who can
appreciate an arresting, bizarre, but somehow great

* Quoted in Ooclirane, op. dt., p. 284.

XXVIH INTRODUCTION

and kindly man will find Jerome unforgetable.

On the other hand, the reader had best not antici-
pate that sudden, troubling illumination into the hu-
man condition which an Augustine or a Pascal
affords that moment when a paragraph or even a
single sentence introduces a new and unsuspected
universe of experience. No bold and dangerous
speculation occurs in these letters; there is no brood-
ing over the Knots of Solomon, the labyrinthine forms
of the divine inscrutability. Had he been truly
contemplative, his talent for moral satire probably
would never have matured. (Jerome, above all of the
Fathers, would have heartily agreed with Augustine's
jibe at the Manicheans who, when they proposed
such metaphysical riddles as: What was God doing
in the time before creation? received the answer:
He was preparing a Hell for those who pry into
mysteries.)

Finally, there is no searching into the mind and
heart of Christ in these letters. There is only the
bull-headed certainty in a bleak, bewildered age that
Christ is life, and that men must arrive at that heart
and mind in order to be fully human.

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The following texts have been used for this pres-
ent translation:

Corpus Scriptorum Ecclesiasticorum Latinorum.

Edited by I. Hilberg. Volumes LIV-VI. (Lipsig.

MDCCCX-XVIII)

Patrologiae Cursus Completus Latinae. Edited

by J. P. Minge. Volumes xxn and xxv. (1859)

The following translations were indispensable:
Select Letters of St. Jerome. Translated by F. A.
Wright (Loeb Classical Series. New York. 1933)
The Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, 2nd Series.
Volume vii. Translated by W. H. Freemantle.
(London. 1893)

The Old and New Testament in English. 3
Volumes. Translated by Msgr. Ronald Knox
(Sheed and Ward. New York. 1948-54)

A NOTE ON THE TRANSLATION

This translation was made primarily for American
readers. Our idiom, I am afraid, simply has not
yet achieved the dignity, gravity, and elegance which
Jerome could command so superbly with the Latin
language. The greatest difficulty was in attempting
to find equivalent words to communicate concepts
and ways of thought and feeling for which there are
no contemporary American analogues. For ex-
ample, how would Americans use the Latin noun
justia, "an honest man"? For Jerome, this meant
that an individual was not only honest in dealing
with other men, as an American would probably
understand the noun, but also indicated that the
man was who he was supposed to be in God's eyes,
as well as in fulfilling his obligations to Church and
State.

Even when I felt I had reasonably succeeded, I
could not help thinking of that apology which Boc-
caccio, while describing the legends of Dante's
lechery, inserted into his Vita di Dante, chapter
xii: "So I plead my excuse to him who, even as I
write this, perhaps looks down with scornful eyes
from some lofty region of Paradise."

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction vii

A Note on the Translation xxx

SECTION I: Satirical Letters

Bantering a Negligent Correspondent 1

Scolding a Monk for Having Abandoned the

Desert 2

Ironical Gratitude for a Gift of Doves and a

Bracelet 15

How to Live as a Nun in a Profligate Society. . 17

An Ideal for Lukewarm Christians 68

A Defense of His Intimacy with Society Ladies 72

Caricature of a Windbag 77

How to be a Devoted, Impoverished Priest. . . 79

Invective against a Brash Monk 99

Calling a Lecheroi s Priest to Repent 108

Ironical Attack on St. Augustine 123

SECTION II: Miscellaneous Letters

Eulogy for an Old Scholar 129

On the Art of Translation 132

Why Study the Scripture? 152

Elegy on a Young Priest's Death 170

Alaric Sacks Rome 193

THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF
ST. JEROME

BANTERING A NEGLIGENT
CORRESPONDENT

Antioch, 374 A.D.
My fellow monk Chrysogonus,

Our dear mutual friend Heliodorus may have
given you a true picture of how profound my af-
fection is for you, for he loves you with an affection
no less deep than mine. He must have mentioned
how your name is always on my tongue; and how
every conversation we have always begins with my
recollection of how delightful our companionship
once was, and continues as we admire your humil-
ity, praise your virtue, and speak publicly about
your holy love.

All the same, you really seem to have the natural
instinct of a lynx. Once a lynx turns it head, it
completely forgets *vhat it has just seen. So com-
pletely have you obliterated our friendship that you
have not merely blotched but have erased that letter
which the Apostle claims is inscribed on the hearts
of Christians. The wild lynx I have mentioned lurks
behind the leaves on trees and eagerly pounces on
fleeing, frightened stags. In vain the victim flies,
carrying its killer on its back, the lynx rending into
the flesh.

But lynxes only hunt when an empty belly
makes their mouths rapid. Once they have satisfied
their thirst for blood, and have glutted on flesh,
repletion causes temporary forge tfulness; no more
thought is given to prey until hunger rouses their
appetites again.

2 THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME

Can it be then that satiety has begun to end our
friendship? Why terminate a friendship which has
just begun? But negligence like yours always has
some excuse: perhaps you will claim you had noth-
ing to write about. Still, you could have written to
inform me you had nothing at all to say.

SCOLDING A MONK FOR HAVING
ABANDONED THE DESERT

The Desert of Chalcis 374 A.D.
My friend Heliodorus,*

Your own heart, conscious of the brotherly
Christian love we share, knows how much solicitous
attention and affection I exerted in trying to keep
us together here in the desert. Even this letter, half
blotted by tears, bears witness to the profound sor-
row with which I followed your departure.

With tender soothing words, much like a child's,
you smoothed over that contemptible refusal of
yours to remain, so that, caught off guard, I hardly
knew what to do. Should I have said nothing? A
show of indifference could hardly have disguised my
fervent desire to prevent you from leaving. Or
should by petitions have been more vehement? But
you would not have listened. You did not love me
as I loved you. So now my despised affection for

* One of the famous group that centered around Jerome at Aqui-
leia in 370, Heliodorus had accompanied Jerome to the Near East in
373 with the intention of cultivating a hermitic life. They had sepa-
rated when Heliodorus continued on to Jerusalem Eventually he
returned to Italy. In later years he became a distinguished church-
man as the bishop of Altinum.

THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME 3

you has taken the only remaining recourse: unable
to restrain your departure while you were still here,
my love now goes searching after you. That I
should send a letter of invitation, once I had settled
here in the wilderness, was your final request. This
I promised, so now I invite you: come, come quick-
ly. Forget old obligations the desert adores a man
stripped of everything. Hardships of past travels
must not frighten you from coming. You believe
in Christ, believe also when He preaches, "Seek first
the kingdom of God, and all these other things shall
be given to you." Here in the desert neither finan-
cial receipts nor walking sticks are needed. That
man is abuntantly wealthy who is poor along with
Christ.

But what am I doing? Why attempt to persuade
you a second time? Away with these petitions, away
with enticing rhetoric! Love should be full of anger.
Since you have already spurned my request, perhaps
you will listen to admonishment.

What business have you in your father's house,
O you effeminate sjldier? Where are your ramparts
and trenches, where is the winter spent at the front
lines? Listen! the battle trumpet blares from heaven,
and see how our General marches fully armed, com-
ing amid the clouds to conquer the whole world. Out
of the mouth of our King emerges a double-edged
sword that cuts down everything in the way. Arising
finally from your nap, do you come now to the
battlefield? Abandon the shade and seek the sun.
But, of course, flesh accustomed to a tunic can
hardly bear a coarse, leather breastplate, and a head
that has worn a fine silk hat refuses a helmet, while
hands softened by idleness are irritated by the
sword's handle. Hear, then, the proclamation of
your King: "That man who is not with Me is against

4 THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME

Me, whoever does not gather with Me scatters."
Heliodorus, remember the day you enlisted when,
buried with Christ in baptism, you pledged allegiance
to Him, swearing that for His sake you would not
even refuse to hurt your father and mother. See
how the enemy is trying to assassinate Christ in your
own heart; the enemy camp sighs for the bonus you
received when you entered Christ's service. Al-
though your little nephew, Nepotian, entwines his
arms around your neck, and your mother, hair di-
shevelled and dress torn, show you the very breasts
that suckled you, and even though your father
prostrates himself across the doorstep, walk right
over your father and continue on your way, flying
with dry eyes to the battle standard of the cross.
In this case, cruelty is the only real filial love.

Some future day will show you returning as a
conquering hero into your own country, and, dec-
orated with medals, you will march through the
streets of the Heavenly Jerusalem. Along with Paul
you will enter into the city; and after having be-
come a citizen, you will request the same privilege
for your parents, and intercede also for Jerome who
urged you on to victory.

Of course I am aware of the chains which, you
will claim, shackle you at present. My breast is not
made of iron or my heart of stone; I was not bora
out of some Macedonian rock; Hyrcanian tigers did
not suckle me. Through troubles like yours I too
have struggled. At this very moment, your widowed
sister clings to you with loving arms. Slaves, once
your boyhood companions, implore you, crying out,
What kind of master are you abandoning us to?
And your old nurse and her husband, next after
your parents in your affection, complain, Wait the
little while until we die so you may bury us. Or

THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME 5

perhaps your own mother, breasts sagging and face
wrinkled, may remind you of an old nursery lullaby
by humming it once more. Even your old school-
teachers may argue, if they wish, that the whole
household now rests and leans for support on you.
But a love of Christ, and a fear of hell, easily
smashes into pieces such chains as these.

You will contend, Scripture commands us to obey
our parents. Whoever loves his parents more than
Christ condemns his soul. The enemy, taking up
arms, is prepared to murder me: shall I worry about
my mother's tears? Or because of my father, shall
I desert the army? In Christ's service I do not even
owe my father a decent burial, although in Christ's
service I owe all human beings a burial obligation.
On the eve of the Passion, the cowardly advice of
Peter was offensive to Our Lord; and when his broth-
ers attempted to prevent Paul from travelling to
Jerusalem, he admonished them by saying, "What do
you mean by such sorrow? It breaks my heart. For
I am prepared not only to be clamped into chains, but
to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus."
That battering ram of natural affection, which jolts
and jars faith, must be repulsed by the wall of the
Gospel. "Whoever does the will of My Father, Who
is in heaven, that person is My mother and My
brothers." If men honestly believe in Christ, then
they should cheer as I march forth to fight in His
name. But lacking belief in Him, "let the dead bury
their dead."

All this is well and good, you reply, if one hap-
pens to be a martyr. What a terrible mistake, my
brother, if you imagine there is ever a time when
the Christian does not suffer persecution. One is
attacked most powerfully when he fails to realize
he is being attacked at all. Our adversary, like a

6 THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME

roaring lion, prowls about seeking someone to de-
vour. You believe you are safe and sound? Our
adversary

sits in ambush with the rich to
murder the innocent. His eyes
watch for the poor; like a lion
in his lair, he lies secretly in
wait to catch the poor.

Do you prefer sweet dreams beneath some shady
tree? His future prey is you. On one side, luxurious
living pursues me, and on the other, greed attempts
to crash in; and on another side still, my belly
desires to be my god in place of Christ, while lust
would compel me to drive out the Holy Spirit that
lives within me and, by so doing, to violate His
temple. Constantly I am pursued, I repeat, by an
enemy "who has a thousand names and a thousand
different ways of wounding." How can such a
miserable man as I am believe himself victorious
while he is being dragged into captivity?

Do not examine these sins too precisely, my
dearest brother, nor think that any one of them is
less criminal than idolatry. Listen instead to the
Apostle's opinion on the matter, "This we know
well enough: no fornicator or impure or fraudulent
man, who is an idolator, has any inheritance in the
kingdom of God and Christ. w Generally speaking,
all things that belong to the devil savor of opposition
to God. Idolatry belongs to the devil because all
idols are in his service. In another place, however,
the Apostle establishes a law in unmistakable terms:
"Mortify your bodily limbs and organs that are
upon the earth, discarding fornication, impurity,
malevolent lust and that desire for money. All of
these are idolatory. Such actions bring down the

THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME 7

wrath of God." Now idolatry is not limited to the
act, say, of taking some incense between one's
fingers and sprinkling it upon an altar, or to pouring
a libation of wine from some bowl. If a man deny
that avarice is idolatry, then he must maintain that
selling the Lord for thirty pieces of silver was an
act of righteousness; and if any man deny that
carnal lust is a sacrilege, he has violated the limbs
of Christ, "the living victim pleasing to God," by
gathering filth with prostitutes, those victims of
public lust. On the other hand, if he is like those
men in the Acts of the Apostles who retained a
portion of their inheritance and immediately died as
punishment, then he does not have to admit such
men were really idolaters. Pay close attention to
this, my brother: a man is permitted to keep noth-
ing of his own. "If any man among you does not
abandon all that he possesses," warns the Lord, "he
cannot be my disciple."

Then why are you such a half-hearted Christian?
Recall how Peter abandoned his father and fishing-
nets, and how the Publican, standing up from the
desk where he collected taxes, became an apostle
on the spot. "The Son of Man has no place to lay
His head." Are you drawing plans for spacious
porticos and ample well-constructed rooms? To
expect an inheritance in this world indicates that
you are not a joint-heir with Christ. Always re-
member what "monk" signifies; it is your name.
What are you doing surrounded by crowds of
people? You are a monk, a solitary.

These warnings of mine are hardly those of an
experienced sailor who, having never lost a cargo,
advises those ignorant of the ways of the sea. In-
stead, much like some recently shipwrecked sailor
cast on the beach, my faltering voice warns those

8 THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME

about to set sail. To the right, the Charybdis of
dissipated living sucks in and drowns salvation; to
the left is the Scylla of lust, a smile on her girlish
mouth, carressing and accomplishing the shipwreck
of continence. Over there, a barbarian coast, over
here the devil with his pirates carry chains for future
prisoners. Be careful that you are not gullible, do
not feel too secure: although the ocean may be
smooth and pleasant looking as a pond, and its im-
mense monstrous back is scarcely ruffled when there
is a breath of air, yet that huge flat plain of water
contains mountains. Danger lies in its depths, for
there the enemy lurks. Loosen your tackle, spread
sail, Heliodorus, and for ensign let the cross be
fastened to your prow. That calm weather portends
a storm.

But are not all the others in my city Christians
also? you will complain. Your case is hardly the
same as that of other men. Hear the Lord speaking,
"If you desire to be perfect, go and sell everything
belonging to you, and, giving the money to the poor,
come follow Me."

Heliodorus, you have already promised to be
perfect. When you deserted the army and emas-
culated yourself for the sake of the kingdom of
heaven, what other purpose did you entertain but
to achieve an immaculate way of life? An impec-
cable servant of Christ owns nothing beside Christ.
Possessing anything beside Christ makes him im-
perfect, and if he is that then he was a liar when
he stipulated to God to achieve perfection. More-
over, "the mouth that lies murders the soul." To
conclude, then: if you really desire to be perfect,
why do you covet your father's possessions? and if
you are still imperfect, you have deceived the Lord.
With a divine voice the Gospel thunders, "It is

THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME 9

impossible to serve two masters," and does any man
dare to make Christ a liar by serving both Mammon
and the Lord? Christ cries out again and again,
"If any man wants to accompany Me, let him deny
his own self, and taking up his cross, come follow
Me." When I am weighted down by money, do
you imagine I am following Christ? "Whoever
claims that he lives in Christ must walk even as
Christ Himself walked."

Naturally, you will reply, I possess nothing. Well
then, if you are so completely equipped for battle,
why not move to the front lines? Possibly you be-
lieve you can accomplish more in your country,
although the Lord could not accomplish any miracles
in His own. And why not? Listen to the reason
His authority is behind it: No prophet receives
honor in his own country. "I seek no honors," you
will argue, "my own peace of conscience satisfies
me." Neither did the Lord seek honors, for when
the multitudes desired to establish Him as king,
He fled away. But where honor is lacking, there
is but contempt; and where contempt is, injustice
frequently occurs; and where injustice, there is in-
dignation, the destroyer of peace; and lacking peace,
the mind often is diverted from its purpose. Further-
more, when a part of one's earnest purpose becomes
lost through restless, harried activity, then one's
purpose suffers. All of this can be summarized by
noting that a monk simply cannot be perfect in his
own native country. And not to desire perfection
is a sin.

Driven back now from your original position, you
will probably appeal to the clergy for an example.
"Do you dare criticize them?" you will contend:
"Certainly they remain in their own cities." Far
be it from me to animadvert the Apostle's successors

10 THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME

who make the Body of Christ for us by their sacred
words, and who baptize us in the Christian Faith.
Priests possess the keys of the kingdom of heaven,
and, in a sense, they judge all of us already even
before the Last Judgment. By their sober, chaste
lives they guard the Bride of Christ. But as I have
said already, the case of a monk differs from that
of a priest. Priests feed the sheep of Christ; as a
monk I am one of their flock. They are sustained
by the revenue donated to the altar; if I fail to
bring an altar donation, I am a barren tree and an
ax strikes my very roots; nor can I plead poverty
as an excuse, for in the Gospel I observe the old
woman offering the last two coins she possessed.
Furthermore, I am forbidden to sit in the presence
of a priest, but if I commit a sin, the priest is al-
lowed to deliver me over to Satan so that "my flesh
may be destroyed in order that my soul may be
saved."

Under the Old Law a man who refused obedience
to the priests was hauled outside the city and stoned
by the people, or else he was decapitated: his blood
expiating his unholy contempt. Today, disobedient
people are mutilated by a spiritual sword, or else
they are excommunicated by the Church and torn
from limb to limb by the ravenous, insane jaws of
devils. Now in the event that your brothers piously
persuade you to receive Holy Orders, I shall rejoice
at your elevation, but I shall fear a fall. "If a man
desires to become a bishop, it is a propitious office
he desires." We know the passage from Paul, but
you must finish the quotation: "The man who is to
become a bishop must be without fault. He must
be the husband of one wife only, and must be sober,
modest, prudent, admirable, hospitable, a teacher,
not addicted to drink or brawling, but a courteous

THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME 11

man.*' Then after mentioning some further quali-
fications, the Apostle devotes as much attention to
describing priests of lesser prominence:

In the same way deacons must be sober men.
They must not be hypocrites, or love wine too
much or filthy money; but they must hold fast
to the mystery of the Faith in a pure conscience.
These men also must first prove themselves. Once
they have been found to be without blemish, then
they may be allowed to perform their duties as
deacons.

Woe to the man who enters the reception without
a wedding garment! Nothing remains for him but
the sudden interrogation, "Friend, why have you
come here?" He stands speechless. Servants will
be ordered to "bind his hands and feet and throw
him outside into the darkness, where there shall
be weeping and gnashing of teeth." Woe to the man
who receives three dollars and ties it up in a hanker-
chief, keeping merely what he has received while
other men turn their gift into profit! His furious
master shall immediately rebuke him, "False ser-
vant, why did you not deposit my money in a bank,
so that I might have earned some interest from it
when I returned?" That is to say, Whatever you
could not carry, you should have laid down on the
altar. A lazy businessman like you, Heliodorus,
hoards his pennies, and at the same time occupies
the place which another should have, one who could
have doubled the money. Whoever manages his
affairs well earns a respectable place. On the other
hand, whoever approaches the Lord's chalice un-
worthily shall be held guilty of the Body and Blood
of the Lord.

Not all bishops are genuine bishops. One thinks

12 THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME

of Peter, but one should also think of Judas. If you
look up in admiration to Stephen, look back also
to Nicholas, whom the Lord despises in the Apoca-
lypse Nicholas, the one who created the Ophite
heresy through his filthy, disgraceful teaching. Once
a man has examined himself, then he may approach
his duty. Ecclesiatical rank alone does not guaran-
tee that one is a true Christian. Cornelius the cen-
turion, for instance, was still a heathen when he was
washed clean by the gifts of the Holy Ghost; and
Daniel was a mere boy when he judged the elders;
while picking wild figs, Amos was suddenly made
a prophet, and David was but a shepherd when he
was chosen to be king. The least of the disciples
was the one whom Jesus loved most. My brother,
sit down in the inconspicuous chair, so that when
one less respected arrives you may be asked to move
to a more distinguished place. On whom does
Christ depend but on one who is insignificant, whose
spirit is contrite, one who trembles at the words of
his Lord? When God has been generous to a man,
a great deal is expected from him. "Great men shall
suffer great torments." And on Judgment Day no
man shall take pride merely because he was con-
tinent, but rather an explanation shall be asked for
every idle word spoken, and if you abused and hated
your brother, it shall be considered as an act of
murder. To stand in the place of Paul is not an
easy thing to do. Nor would it be comfortable to
stand in the place occupied by the other men and
women who reign now with Christ. Perhaps an
angel may swoop down and tear the veil from your
temple, removing your candlestick from its place.
When you intend to construct a tower, first estimate
the cost. Salt, having lost its taste, is useless, good
only as something to be thrown out and trampled

THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME 13

on by pigs. If a monk falls, a priest can help him;
but who shall intercede for a fallen priest?

Finally my discussion has sailed clear of the
reefs. This fragile boat, having passed through
dangerously hollow caves and breaking waves, has
reached deep waters. Now I can spread my sails
to the wind and, leaving behind the rocks of con-
troversy, like some happy sailor I can sing a
cheerful conclusion to this letter.

O wasteland bright with the spring flowers of
Christ! O solitude out of which come those stones
that build the city of the great King in the Apoca-
lypse! O desolate desert rejoicing in God's familiar
presence! What keeps you in the world, O brother?
You are above and beyond the world. How long is
the shade of a house going to conceal you? How
long shall the grimy prisons of those cities intern
you? Believe me, out here I see more light than
you; and how wonderful it is, flinging aside the
weight of the body to fly into the pure radiant sky!
Are you afraid of poverty? Christ calls the poor
blessed. Or does strenuous work frighten you? With-
out sweat no athlete wins trophies. Worried about
lack of food? Faith never feels the pangs of hunger.
Do you fear that the bare ground will bruise a body
emaciated by fasting? The Lord lies there on the
ground beside you. Filthy, long hair horrifies you?
Your head is Christ. The desert's infinite vastness
terrifies you? In the spirit you may stroll in Para-
dise: as often as you ascend there in contemplation,
so often shall you leave the desert. But your skin
attracts mange because one never bathes out here?
Once you have been washed in Christ you need no
other bath. To all these complaints the Apostle
gives one brief reply, "The sufferings of this present
time are not worthy to be compared with the glory

14 THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME

which shall come, and which shall be revealed in
us." You are a spoiled, pampered man indeed, my
dearest Heliodorus, if you desire both to rejoice here
in this world and then to reign afterwards with
Christ.

The day shall come, it shall come, when this
corrupt mortal body shall put on incorruptibility and
immortality. How happy that servant shall be whom
the Lord finds watching! Then, at the blare of the
trumpet, the earth and all of her people shall tremble
with fear. But you shall rejoice. When the Lord
come to pass judgment, the whole world shall roar
and moan, the races of mankind beating their
breasts. Once-mighty Mngs shall shiver in their
nakedness. Jupiter along with all of his children
shall be revealed burning in real fires. Plato shall
be led forth like an idiot along with his disciples,
and all of Aristotle's arguments shall avail him
nothing. But then you shall exalt, O country lout,
O poorman, and with a laugh exclaim:

Look, here is my crucified God, my Judge. This
is the One Who was wrapped in swaddling clothes
and whimpered like a baby in the manger. This
is the One Whose parents were a manual laborer
and a woman who worked for wages. This is the
One Who was carried in His mother's arms into
Egypt: He was a god and He fled from a man.
This is the One Who was dressed in a scarlet
robe, crowned with thorns, and called a magician,
a man with a devil, a Samaritan. O you Jews,
see the hands which you nailed to the cross. O
you Romans, see the side which you pierced. See
if this is the same body which you claimed the
disciples carried off secretly in the night.

THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME 13

O my brother, in order that you also may say
this and be among those Christians on Judgment
Day, what labor, what deprivation can now seem
too difficult?

IRONICAL GRATITUDE FOR A GIFT OF
DOVES AND A BRACELET

Rome, 384 A.D.

The Feast of St. Peter

Dearest Eustochium,*

Bracelets, a letter and some doves are outwardly
but small presents to receive from a virgin, but the
great love behind them enhances their value. Since
honey may not be offered in sacrifice to God, you
have been clever in mutating the excessive sweet-
ness of your presents by making them a bit sour,
and if I may say so by adding a dash of pepper.
For nothing that is merely pleasurable or simply
sweet can please God. Everything must have in it
the sharp pungency of truth. Christ's passover must
be eaten with bitter seasoning.

It is true that a feast day such as the birthday
of St. Peter should be seasoned with more gladness
than usual. Still, our jocularity must not exceed the
limit established by Scripture. We must not wander
too far from the confines of our wrestling-ground.

But your presents remind one of Scripture. With
bracelets Ezekiel adorns Jerusalem; Baruch receives
letters from Jeremiah; and in the form of a dove
the Holy Ghost descends. Nevertheless, to give you

* For biographical information, see the letter which follows.

16 THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME

a dash of pepper, too, and to remind you of my
former letter,* I will give you a few suggestions
today. Never cease to adorn yourself with good
works, which are the true bracelets of the arm. Do
not tear up that letter written upon your heart, like
the profane king with his knife cut into pieces the
letter which Baruch had delivered. Finally, watch
out that Hosea does not say to you as he once said
to Ephraim, "You are a silly dove."

These words are so harsh, you will reply, they
are hardly suitable for a feast day. If so, then you
have provoked me by the nature of your own pres-
ents. So long as you mingle bitter with sweet, you
must expect the same from me: acrimonious words
will accompany praise.

Now I do not want to belittle your presents. I
accept them as if they were a basket so crammed
with cherries, so blushing like a modest virgin, that
I could imagine them gathered by Lucullus the
epicure himself. For it was Lucullus who first in-
troduced the fruit in Rome after his conquest of
Pontus and Armenia; and the cherrytree is so called
because he brought it from Cerasus. And though
the Scripture does not mention cherries, it does
speak of a basket full of figs: so I will use figs
instead to bombast you with my brassy moral. May
you be made of fnrts like those growing before
the Temple of God, of which He says, "These are
good, very good."

The Savior likes nothing that is half this and half
that. While He welcomes the hot and does not
refuse the cold, in the Apocalypse He tells us that
He will vomit the lukewarm out of His mouth. This
is why we must be careful not to celebrate our holy
feast days with more abundance of food than ex-
altation of spirit. For it is absurd to honor a

THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME 17

martyr by gorging, when he himself, as we well
know, pleased God by fasting. When you sit down
to eat a meal, always remember that food must be
followed by Scripture reading and also by prayer.
And if you displease some people by doing this,
sing the words of the Apostle, "If I still pleased
men I should not be a servant of Christ."

HOW TO LIVE AS A NUN IN A PROFLIGATE
SOCIETY

Rome, 384 A.D.
My dearest Eustochium,*

"Listen, O daughter, consider and incline your
ear. You are to forget your own people and the
house of your father. For the king shall desire
your loveliness." Thus, in the forty-fourth psalm
God addresses f he human soul, instructing it to
follow Abraham's example: leaving its relatives
and birth place, and abandoning the Chaldaean
devils, the soul should establish its home in the

* Although EuRtochium, third of Paula's daughters, was scarcely
fifteen _when she received this letter, since childhood she had longed to
take the veil of the nun. A short time before this letter was written,
her pagan uncle Hymetms, a favorite of Emperor Julian Apostate,
had vigorously opposed her vocation, and with his wife Praetextata
had attempted to cultivate in Eustochium some appreciation for patri-
cian social life (When this uncle and aunt died soon after, Jerome
attributed death to the direct judgment and punishment of Heaven;
and in a letter written some twenty years later (To Laeta, 403), he
narrates how an angel had come in a dream to scold Praetextata for
her role in the attempted corruption.)

Eventually Eustochium became a nun, and accompanied her mother
to the Holy Land, where, besides helping to manage the newly-
founded convent at Bethlehem, she acted as Jerome's secretary. On
Paula's death in 404, she became abbess, and died in her nunnery
in 418.

This present letter was obviously intended for a wider audience
than one mere adolescent girl. It became Jerome's most famous letter.

18 THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME

land of the living, a country for which the Prophet
in another place sighs, "My faith is that I shall gaze
on the good things of the Lord in the land of the
living."

In your case, my dear, it is not enough to forsake
your native country unless, completely forgetting
your people and your father's house, and despising
the flesh, you join the Eternal Bridegroom in a
loving embrace. "Never look behind," Scripture
warns, "linger not in the surrounding plains. Escape
to the mountains: otherwise you shall perish." After
a farmer has gripped the plough, is it wise for him
to keep looking behind, or to return home imme-
diately from the field? If one puts on Christ's gar-
ment, then, is it prudent to descend from the roof
in order to change clothes? Truly an unprecendented
thing: here is a father who commands his daughter
to forget him, for, he tells her, "you belong to your
father the devil, and desire to perform his lusts."
This was said to the Jewish people. And in another
passage they heard, "Whoever commits sin be-
longs to the devil." Born of such parents, we are
black, and even after our repentance, if we have
not scaled the heights of virtue, we continue to
sing, "Black and beautiful, I am a daughter of
Jerusalem."

Now, you will probably protest: But I have left
my childhood and forgotten my father; I am reborn
in Christ, but what is the reward? "The King de-
sires your loveliness" there is the answer, a great
sacrament, for "this is why a man leaves his parents
and clings to his wife: the two will be one in flesh."
One flesh? No, they will be one in spirit. Realize
that your Bridegroom is not arrogant or disdain-
fully proud; He has even married a desert wife, an
Ethiopian. Once you desire to heard the wisdom of

THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME 19

Christ, the true Solomon, and approach Him, then
will He confide all His knowledge to you, and like
a king will escort you into His chamber. How
miraculously your color will change! Then it will
be said of you, "Who is this that ascends and has
been made so white?"

Lady Eustochium I am bound to address my
Lord's bride as 'Lady' these opening remarks
should have indicated that it is not my intention to
praise the state of virginity, which you have already
proven so precious; nor do I intend to enumerate
all the disadvantages of marriage, like bloating preg-
nancy, howling infants, jealousy's tortures, the
troubles of managing a household, and the re-
maining things generally imagined worth-while, but
which death cuts short. Married women have their
proper place in society as long as their marriages
are honorable and their beds immaculate. What I-
want to show is that you are fleeing from Sodom,
and that you must take example from Lot's wife.
Expect no flattery in these pages; a flatterer is but
an attractive enemy. Nor will there be any rhetorical
flourishes extolling the beatitude of virginity, which
will place you among the angels and put the world
beneath your feet.

You see, I do not want your vows to make you
proud. Actually, they should create fear in you:
when a man walks with gold in his purse, he should
beware of thieves. For mortals this life is a race.
Here we contend, so that elsewhere we may receive
the trophy of victory. No man can walk with secur-
ity on a road swarming with serpents and scorpions.
"My sword has drunk its fill in heaven," says the
Lord; then do you expect peace on this earth, which
produces but thorns and thistles to nourish the
serpent? "Our wrestling is not against flesh and

20 THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME

blood, but against Powers and Principalities, those
who have mastery of the world in this time of dark-
ness. We wrestle against the spirits of evil in the
eternal regions." On all sides we are surrounded by
enemy forces pressing here, there, everywhere. Al-
though flesh is weak, soon a thing of dust, now it
fights single-handedly against a multitude.

But when this body decomposes, and the Prince
of this world has come and discovered no sin in the
bones, then in safety shall you listen to the Proph-
et's words, "Neither fear the terror by night nor
the arrow that flies by day, neither the trouble that
haunts you in the darkness, nor the noonday attack
of the demon. For a thousand shall fall at your
side, ten thousand at your right hand, but death
shall not get near you." Attacked by enemy hosts,
sinful enticements burning in your heart, you are
bewildered, not knowing what to do; but then
Elisha answers, "Fear not, for there are more on
our side than on theirs," and the Prophet shall pe-
tition the Lord to open His handmaid's eyes and
allow her to see. Sight granted, you shall see a fiery
chariot waiting to transport you to the stars, as it
did Elijah, and with joy you shall sing, "My soul
has escaped like a sparrow from the hunter's trap,
the snare is broken and we are safe!"

On the other hand, victory is uncertain so long
as we remain confined in this fragile body, our
treasure immured in clay vessels, the flesh lusting
against the soul, the soul against the flesh. Like a
roaring lion oar adversary the devil stalks around
seeking someone to devour. "O Lord, You create
darkness," David says, "and it is night. All the
forest animals creep forth, the young lions roaring
for prey, seeking meat from God." Faithless men,
whose flesh the Assyrian king roasted in a pot, why

THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME 21

should the devil bother to capture them? Christ's
body, the Church, is what he hastens to ravish and
drag away. Habacuc the Prophet mentions that the
devil desires the choicest food: he longs to eat Job
and, after devouring Judas, seeks the power to
strain the other apostles through his cooking-sieve.

What did the Savior bring to this world? Not
peace but the sword. Lucifer rose with the dawn but
fell headlong; and Adam, nutured in a paradise of
delight, heard the well-deserved sentence, "Although
like an eagle you exalt yourself, I shall bring you
to earth, says the Lord." In his secret heart Adam
had wispehed, "My throne 1 will exalt above the
stars of God: I will be like the Most High One."
Every day God reminds those angels descending
the stairway Jacob saw in his dream: U I have said
you are immortals, children of the Most High. But
you shall die like men, falling like one of the
princes." First to fall was the devil. In the middle
of the synagogue of the immortals, the Almighty
passes judgment, and so the Apostle warns those
who have forgotten their immortality, "Since there
is still dissension and envy among you, are you not
mere mortals strutting about?"

Because the flesh stings and entices to sin, the
Apostle Paul, a chosen vessel set apart to preach
Christ's Gospel, subjected his flesh and bones to
slavery, lest in preaching to others he himself might
be found a sinner. Despite his efforts, he recognizes
that there is another law in his limbs and organs
fighting against the law of his will, bringing him
into captivity. This law was the law of sin. Even
after being stripped, starved, imprisoned, lashed,
tortured, Paul recoils upon himself, crying,
"Wretched creature that I am! Who shall deliver

22 THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME

me from the body of this death?" Do you still think
you should cease being vigilant?

Beware, my dear, lest someday God shall say
of you, "Fallen is the virgin of Israel. There is no
one to raise her again." May I speak frankly? All
things are possible with God, but even He cannot
restore your virginity once you have fallen. True,
He can mitigate the penalty for sin and free one who
has been corrupted. To give her the virgin's crown,
however, is impossible even for Him. "The good
virgins shall weaken" how we should fear lest this
prophecy be fulfilled in us. And notice that the
Prophet mentions good virgins, for there are, of
course, also bad ones. Scripture insists that whoever
gazes at a woman lustfully has already committed
adultery in his heart. One single thought can de-
stroy virginity. These are the evil virgins who are
chaste in body but lascivious in spirit, the foolish
virgins without oil in their lamps who are excluded
by the Bridegroom. If even the genuine virgins,
when they happen to have other blemishes, are not
saved by physical chastity, what shall ever become
of those foolish virgins who have prostituted Christ's
limbs and remodeled the Temple of the Holy Ghost
into a brothel? How quickly they will hear <c Conie
down and squat in the dust, O daughter of Babylon,
squat in the dust." The Chaldean daughter has no
throne but dirt. Tender, delicate these are no
longer your names. Take the millstone and grind
wheat. Uncover your hair, bare your legs, pass
over the rivers. That nakedness of yours shall be
exposed, your shame revealed." What a fate for
one who once shared God the Son's bridal-chamber,
and was kissed by Him, her blood-relative and
husband! She is the one of whom the Prophet sang,
**On your right hand stood a queen clothed in gold

THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME 23

wrought with embroidery. Stripped now, her skirts
shall be thrown over her face. Near the waters of
loneliness she shall sit, lay down her pitcher and
spread her legs to every passer-by. To the very
crown of her head shall she be polluted." How much
better would it have been if she had married and
strolled on the plain, instead of aspiring for moun-
tain heights only to topple into the depths of hell.

Let not the faithful city of Sion become a prosti-
tute. Devils must not dance or sirens and satyrs
roost in the place that once sheltered the Holy Trin-
ity. Never loosen the garment confining your breasts.
Lust tickling the senses, the gentle fires of pleasure
radiating a delightful glow this is when we must
break out and cry, "The Lord is with me, I shall
not fear what flesh can do." And when the inner
man for a moment shows signs of fluctuating be-
tween vice and virtue, exclaim, "Why are you sad,
O my soul, why do you contend with you? Hope in
the Lord, for 1 shall continue to praise Him Who
is the health of my countenance and my God."
Thoughts like these must never arise in you, my dear
Eustochium. Babylonian confusions must never grow
and flourish in your heart. While an enemy is still
small, massacre him. Evil must be uprooted while
still in the bud. Hear the Psalmist, "O miserable
daughter of Babylon, blessed be the man who re-
wards you as you have rewarded us: blessed the man
who takes and dashes your children against rocks."

Now it is impossible that the body's natural heat
should not occasionally attack a man in his marrow.
However, he is praised and thought blessed who,
whenever sensual thoughts arise, murders them by
dashing them against a rock. That rock is Christ.

How often while 1 was living in the desert that
savage, vast, solitary place for hermits which is

24 THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME

scorched by the broiling sun how often did I
imagine that I was among the pleasures of Rome!
Bitterly I sat alone in the sands. Rough sackcloths
covered my unshapely frame, making it seem dis-
figured; through long neglect my skin wrinkled,
coarse and black as an Ethiopian's. Every day
groans of complaint and tears, and if sleep hap-
pened to break down my resistance, my naked bones,
scarcely hanging together, knocked against the
ground. Of my food and drink I say nothing, for
even in illness hermits take nothing but cold water,
any cooked dishes being considered a great indul-
gence. Terrified by the thought of hell, I had con-
demned myself to this prison, my sole companions
being wild beasts and scorpions. Often, however, a
chorus of dancing girls cavorted around me. Emaci-
ated, pale, my limbs cold as ice, still my mind boiled
with desire. Lust's fires bubbled about me even when
my flesh was as good as dead. Completely helpless,
I would fling myself at the feet of Jesus, water them
with my tears, wiping them with rny hair. Weeks of
abstinence had to subdue my rebellious body. This
miserable experience does not embarrass me, my
dear Eustochium. Only I do complain because I am
no longer what once I was. How many times I
cried out violently at night, and would not stop
beating my breast until, at the Lord's request, a
measure of peace returned. My very cell was fearful
to me, for it seemed to know my secret thoughts.
Angry, stern with myself, I would wander alone far
into the wilderness, and whenever I happened to
come into a valley or discovered craggy mountains
or steep cliffs, there I established a place to pray, a
house of correction, as it were, for this wretched
bone and flesh. After much lamentation, much
straining towards heaven in those desolate places

THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME 25

here the Lord is my witness sometimes I experi-
enced the presence of angelic hosts, and from joy
and gladness I would sing out, "Because of the fra-
grance of Your ointments, we shall pursue You,
O Lord."

Fierce temptations like these attack men whose
bodies are emaciated and have but evil thoughts and
fancies to fight. What will it be like, then, for a
young girl who delights in pleasant, sophisticated
living? Truly, in the Apostle's phrase, "she is dead
while she exists." Have I the right to advise you,
my dear, has experience given my opinion some
weight? If so, my advice would begin with a warn-
ing. As a bride of Christ, you must avoid wine as
you would poison; it is the very first weapon which
devils employ to assault youth. Greed does not agi-
tate, nor pride inflate, nor ambition infatuate the
young the way wine does. Others vices one manages
to do without, but wine's potentiality to breed evil
is like having the enemy within the walls, for
wherever we happen to go, we carry this potential-
ity with us. Youth and wine between them kindle
the flames of voluptuousness. Why throw oil on
fire? Why add fuel to a body already miserable and
burning with desire?

When Timothy is advised by the Apostle "to
abstain from water, and take a little wine for your
stomach's sake and for your other ailments," notice
the reasons why wine is permitted: to cure an aching
digestive tract and other physical ailments. On the
other hand, only a little wine is prescribed, so that
illness may not be an excuse for indulgence. Here
Paul speaks more as a physician than an apostle,
though, indeed, an apostle is a spiritual physician.
What he feared was that Timothy might collapse
and not have strength enough to take the many

26 THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME

trips necessary to spread the Gospel. Moreover,
Paul remembered that in other passages he had
said, "Debauchery is in wine," and "To neither
drink wine nor eat meat is good for a man." Wine
intoxicated father Noah; but he lived in the primi-
tive age after the Flood, and since grapes had only
recently been planted, perhaps he was unaware that
their drink could inebriate. Permit me to develop
this point, for I want you to understand Scripture
in all its mystery, the word of God being a pearl
able to be pierced on all sides. After Noah's drunk-
eness came the uncovering of his thighs: lust joins
indulgence. First the belly swells, then the other
organs. "The people sat down to eat and drink, then
rose up to play." After Sodom was destroyed, and
Lot had been saved in the mountains because he was
the only honest man among so many thousands,
his daughters saw to it that Lot, the friend of God,
became intoxicated. Although they may have been
justified, believing that the human race was in
danger of extinction, and not acting from lustful
desires, they were well aware that their father, an
extremely honest man, would not impregnate them
unless he were unconscious and drunk. The fact
is that Lot did not realize what he was doing.
Nevertheless, his error, though unconscious, was
sinful, for it produced sons like Moab and Ammon,
enemies of Israel, whose children "even to the
fourteenth generation shall not enter into the Lord's
congregation."

Food is another very important consideration.
When Elijah, for example, fled from Jezebel, and
finally sprawled weary and discouraged beneath an
oak, an angel appeared, lifted the Prophet up, and
commanded that he rise and eat. Looking about,
Elijah saw a piece of cake and a cup of water placed

THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME 27

near his head. Now why did God send this meagre
food? Spicy wines, delicate dishes, and tenderly
basted meats He could have sent. Another time,
when Elisha invited the prophets' sons to dinner
and offered them ordinary herbs, they clamored to-
gether, "Death is in this pot, O man of God." Did
Elijah turn in irritation on the cooks? No, for he
was not accustomed to very sumptuous meals, so he
simply sweetened the bitter herbs with a little meal,
using the same spiritual virtue employed by Moses
once to sweeten the waters of Marah. Again, when
those sent to arrest Elisha had been blinded in mind
and sight, so that he could conduct them to Samaria
without their knowledge, notice the kind of refresh-
ment he ordered: "Set bread and water in front of
them," he commanded, "and having eaten and
drunk, they may return to their master." And what
did Daniel eat? Rich food from the king's table he
might have had, but, instead, he was nourished by a
field-hand's breakfast, some ordinary country dish,
which Habakkuk brought him. (Because Daniel re-
fused to touch the bread of desire or consume the
wine of concupiscence, he was nicknamed The
Man of Desires.')

Throughout Scripture one finds innumerable di-
vine remarks condemning gluttony and condoning
plain, ordinary food. Here, however, it is not my
intention to discuss fasting, an exhaustive subject
worthy of an entire volume. The two or three ex-
amples above must, I am afraid, suffice, and I trust
they will enable you to understand why the Original
Man, for obeying his belly instead of his God, was
expelled from the Garden of Eden and forced to
survive in this valley of tears. Grasping this, you
will come to realize why Satan used the pangs of
hunger to tempt Our Lord in the wilderness, and

28 THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME

why the Apostle is so adamant, crying "Food for
the belly, the belly for food; but God shall destroy
both of them," and why elsewhere he says that the
stomach of the self-indulgent man is his true god.
Every man worships what he is in love with. Care
must be taken, therefore, that abstinence may lead
men back into the Garden from which gluttony
drove them out.

Now, you may perhaps want to answer that a
young girl like yourself, reared among nobility and
accustomed to fine living and soft pillows, could not
possibly abstain from wine and exquisite foods, and
that any stricter way of life would simply be impos-
sible. Live by your own rule, then, since God's rule
is so impossible. That is my only reply. Intestinal
rumblings, grumblings from empty stomachs and
inflamed, parched lungs do you suppose that God,
Creator and Lord of the universe, receives pleasure
from such sounds? Of course not: the point is that
abstinence helps preserve chastity. For his immacu-
late purity and sincerity, Job was very dear to God,
Who Himself testified to his servant's continence.
But hear what God thinks of the devil: "All his
strength is in his loins, his power resides in his
navel." Now metaphors like these are used for the
sake of decency. Male and female genitals are what
is meant. David's descendant, for instance, destined
according to God's promise to sit on the king's
throne, is said to have come from his father's loins.
Similarly, the seventy-five souls who entered Egypt
are said to have emerged from Jacob's thigh. Fol-
lowing his wrestle with the Lord, the size of Jacob's
thigh shrank, and he fathered no more childern.
With covered and mortified loins, the Israelites are
commanded to celebrate the Passover. God in-
structs Job to gird up his loins like a man, and the

THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME 29

Baptist wears a leather covering round his loins,
while the Apostles are ordered to conceal their loins
before they take up the lamps of the Gospel. On the
other hand, Ezekiel describes Jerusalem as a woman
covered with blood, discovered in the plain of
wandering, her navel not yet cut. In all his assaults
on men, therefore, the devil's strength resides in
their loins; and when he attacks women, his power
is in their navels.

Perhaps my interpretation needs further proof?
Here are a few more examples. Stronger than a
lion and harder than a rock was Samson. Complete-
ly unprotected, he pursued a thousand armed war-
riors, yet grew soft in Delilah's arms. David was a
man after God's own heart, for many times his lips
had sung of the coming of Christ the Holy One.
Along came naked Bathsheba, however, and com-
pletely fascinated him one day while he strolled on
the palace roof. Eventually he had her husband
slain, thus adding murder to adultery. (Notice that
even at home the eyes are not safe from tempta-
tion.) Later, of course, David repented, saying,
"Only against You, O Lord, have I sinned, perform-
ing this evil in Your sight." Being a king, he had
no one but God to fear. Sexual temptation overcame
Solomon also. Although wisdom herself spoke
through his lips, and he knew all the plants from
the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop on the wall,
when he became a lover of female flesh, he turned
his back on God. Even one's blood relatives are
not to be trusted. Illicit passion burned Ammon
when he gazed on his sister Thamar.

How many nuns fall daily? How many drop from
the bosom of Mother Church? Over how many stars
does the proud Enemy establish his throne, in

30 THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME

how many impenetrable rocks does the Serpent drill
a hole to dwell in? The great number disgusts me!
Then there is that multitude of unwed 'widows'.
Draped in mourning, they attempt to disguise their
guilty consciences, and unless a swelling womb or
howling bastards betray them, they saunter about on
light feet, heads high in the air. Drugs help some
of them to remain sterile. Those have the unique
distinction of having murdered a human being be-
fore it was conceived. Others, finding themselves
pregnant as a result of sin, have an abortion. Fre-
quently, however, they perish on the operating-
table, and thus carry the stain of three crimes with
them to hell: adultery against Christ, suicide, and
infanticide. Yet these 'widows' are the same females
who whine, "To the pure in heart everything seems
pure. My conscience is enough for me: God desires
only a pure heart. Why should I abstain from the
food God Himself has created for our enjoyment?"
Desirous to seem charming and entertaining, they
literally drench themselves with wine, and, adding
sacrilege to debauchery, they clamor, "Heaven for-
bid that I should abstain from Christ's blood!" Ob-
serving a sad, pale woman, they howl that she is a
nunish prude, a miserable specimen, a veritable
Manichaean. This is all quite logical: according to
their principles, fasting is a heresy. In public they
forever strive to attract attention with meaningful
nods and winks, they lure a crowd of young men
after them. Such women have been described by the
Prophet when he says, "You have the forehead of a
prostitute: you refuse to be ashamed." Purple
stripes here and there in their clothes, loose scarves
so that hair may hang freely, cheap slippers, a lilac
cape fluttering from the shoulder, sleeves fitting
snugly on the arms, a loose, casual way of walking:

THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME 31

these are the signs of their 'virginity.' Such fine
women may have admirers, and because they are
called virgins, it may cost a bit more to seduce them.
To this sort of nuns, however, Jerome prefers to be
obnoxious.

There is another terrible scandal among nuns
which I am ashamed to mention, a sad but true
scandal. How did this plague of Beloved Sisters
ever, ever find a way into the Church?* Where do
these unmarried wives come from? Wives? They are
really a new variety of concubines. Why not simply
call them by the right name: prostitutes? Living
under the same room with their beloved priests, yet
they accuse us of being suspicious if we imagine
that everything is not quite proper. Here is a
brother who leaves his unmarried sister, and there
is a sister who slights her bachelor brother. Both
seek a stranger with whom to share bed and board,
maintaining all the time they have only one intention:
to seek spiritual consolation in others than rela-
tives. Their real intention, of course, is sexual in-
tercourse. In his Proverbs Solomon scorns people
of this type. "What man is able to carry fire in his
heart without burning his clothes?" he asks in con-
tempt. "Who can walk on red hot coals without
scorching his feet?"

False nuns, like the types I have mentioned,
should be expelled and exterminated. But let me
turn my attention to you, dear Eustochium. Being
the first nun to come from the Roman aristocracy,
you will have to labor very hard to insure your
present, as well as your future, happiness. One of
your own sisters offers an example of the tribula-

* Those were women who lived with unmarried, priests. Professedly
spiritual companions, they were in many cases really mistresses. HYed-
mantle mentions how the councils of Elvira, Ancyra, and Nicaea
passed canons against the custom.

32 THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME

tions of matrimony, and of its great uncertainties.
Only seven months after her wedding, your sister
Blesilla, older than you but younger in taking vows,
has become a widow. How unfortunate the human
condition! How ignorant of the future! Both the
crown of virginity and the pleasures of marriage
she has lost. And though widowhood is a kind of
second chastity, can you imagine the heavy cross she
must always bear when she sees in you the virginity
she has lost? To be deprived of the pleasures of mar-
riage is harder for her than for you, and yet she
receives a much smaller reward for her present
continence. But let her take heart and rejoice, for
from the same seed, chastity, fruit that is a hundred-
fold, and fruit that is but sixtyfold both flourish.

Married women should not be your companions,
nor should you visit the residences of the nobility.
I would not have you gazing too often on the kind
of life you spurned in order to take the veil. Women
of the world, as you know, preen themselves if their
husbands are judges or hold other high, dignified
positions. Surrounding the Emperor's wife is a crowd
of ambitious women; but why should you pay court
for the sake of your Husband? God's bride, why
do you scamper to court the wife of a mere man?
In matters of this sort, cultivate a holy pride, by
realizing that a nun is better than the worldly kind
of wife.

But it is not enough merely to avoid friendship
with women inflated by their husband's position and
honors, who surround themselves with eunuchs and
dress in robes embroidered with fine, gold material.
I desire more from you than this. Eustochium, you
must also shun those ladies who are widows from
necessity, not from choice. Not that these widows
should have longed for their husbands' deaths; but

THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME 33

they have failed to welcome the opportunity for
chastity once it came. As it is, they simply change
their clothes. Old ambitions remain with them.

Here comes one of them. Rouged cheeks and
plumb skin, she travels in a spacious sedan-chair in
front of which stroll eunuchs. One would suppose
she was looking for a husband, not mourning one.
Parasites and guests swarm about her house; and
the very priests who ought to inspire respect and
authority smack her on the forehead, then stretch
out their hands to give a blessing you would think
if you knew no better to accept money for their
visit. Knowing priests need her assistance, our lady
swells with pride. Experience having taught her
what a husband is like, she much prefers her widow's
freedom. Ladies like this call themselves 'chaste
nuns', and after consuming a tremendous dinner,
they sprawl on their couches, dreaming of the
blessed Apostles.

Instead of this type, your companions should be
pale and thin from fasting, their characters proven
through long decorous lives, ladies who sing in
their hearts, "Where do You feed Your flock?
Where do You rest at noon?" and exclaim with
love, "To be free and with Christ is all that I desire.'*

Imitating your Husband's example, be obedient
to your parents. Above all, seldom go out in public.
When you wish to seek help from the martyrs and
saints, remain at home and pray. If you only leave
the house when it is absolutely necessary, you will
never need excuses. Always eat with moderation.
Many women are quite temperate with drink, but
so intemperate with food. When you rise in the
middle of night to pray, the eructation of your
breath should come from an empty stomach, not
from indigestion. Read and learn as much as you

34 THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME

can. Sleep should overcome you with a book in
your hand, the sacred pages a pillow for your nod-
ding head. Moderate refreshment should break your
daily fast, for it is foolish to keep your stomach
empty for days, and then compensate by gorging.
When the mind is cloyed with food, it grows slug-
gish: watered earth encourages the thorns of lust.
If ever your body begins to sigh for the flower of
youth, and lying on your couch after meals you
begin to tremble as a parade of delicious lusts march
by, then seize the shield of Faith, and it will quench
the devil's flaming arrows. "Adulterers all," storms
the Prophet, "they have turned their hearts into a
furnace."

In all things, stay close to Christ's footsteps, and
always pay attention to what He says. Repeat to
yourself, "Did our hearts not blaze on the journey
to Emmaus when Christ opened the Scriptures to
us?" and, "How Your eloquent words burn, how
Your servant loves them."

How very difficult it is for the human soul not to
love something. Of necessity our minds and wills
must be drawn to some kind of affection. Carnal
love is overcome by spiritual love. Desire is ex-
tinguished by a deeper desire. Whatever is taken
from carnal love is given to the higher love. There-
fore, as you lie on your bed, murmur this over and
over again, "On my bed at night I have sought Him
Whom my soul adores."

The Apostle teaches us to mortify our organs and
limbs while they are on earth; and because he did
it himself, Paul could confidently announce, "I am
alive; but it is not I: Christ lives in me." Whoever
abases his body, and knows this world is only
vanity as he walks through it, is not afraid to say
that he is like "the wineskin shriveled by frost," for

THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME 35

whatever moisture of lust in him has been evap-
orated. This man can also describe how his knees
are weak from fasting, for "I have forgotten to eat
my bread. Worn out as I am from groaning, my
bones stick to the skin."

Then imitate the grasshopper and sing all night.
Tears should drench your bed, and your soul, keep-
ing vigil like the solitary sparrow on the roof, should
sing, "Bless the Lord, O my soul, and never forget
all the things He has given. Iniquities He forgives
and heals diseases, redeeming that life of yours from
its corruption." Is there any one who can whisper
in his secret heart, "I have eaten ashes as if they
were bread, and have mixed tears in my drink"?
Once again the Serpent invites me to taste the for-
bidden tree. Should I not weep and groan? Having
driven men from Eden, that paradise of virginity,
he attempts to clothe us in animal skins, like those
left behind by Elijah when he returned to paradise.
What business have I with brief sensual pleasures?
Delicious and deadly songs of the Sirens, what are
they to me? Eustojhium, I do not want to see you
subject to those three judgments which condemned
the female. Remember that the first law "In sor-
row and pain shall you produce children" is for
married women, not for nuns. And the second,
which states that a woman's whole desire is her
husband, does not pertain to you either. On the
contrary, you can say that her whole desire is her
husband who has not Christ for bridegroom. To the
last law saying that one must die, answer that death
means only the end of marriage, and that, though
married women should maintain their vocation, for
you perpetual virginity is consecrated in the persons
of Mary and Christ.

Here some one may object: Jerome, have you

36 THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME

the nerve to criticize matrimony, a state blessed by
God? To prefer chastity is not to disparage matri-
mony. What comparison is there between a superior
and an inferior condition? Married ladies can be
proud to come after nuns, for God Himself told
them to be fruitful, multiply and replenish the earth.
Then let a woman do so, if she desires to replenish
this earth. But your family is in heaven, Eustochium.
The command to increase and multiply was given
after the expulsion from the Garden and after men
realized they were naked and put on fig leaves, an
omen of the marital itch. Marriage is for those who
eat their bread in the sweat of their brow, whose
land produces thorns and thistles, and whose crops
briars choke. My virginal seed produces fruit a
hundred times over.

Not all men, it is said, can receive the world of
God, but only those whom the word is given. Some
are eunuchs by necessity: I am one by choice.
"There is a time to embrace and a time to abstain
from embracing," says the Preacher, "a time to
throw stones away, and a time to gather them."
From the hard stones of the Gentiles, God has
raised the sons of Abraham; and these holy stones
have begun to roll on the earth. Through the world's
storms and winds they roll, and continue to roll in
God's swift chariot. K a man loses part of his coat
(which was woven in one piece, like the one in
Scripture), then he must stitch another. This is the
kind of man delighting in the cries of infants who,
as soon as they see daylight, lament that they were
born. Eve was a virgin in Eden; only after she
dressed in animal skins did her married life begin.
Paradise is your home, Eustochium, so remain
virginal as you were at birth, and say, "Return to
your rest, O my soul."

THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME 37

In order that you may fully understand how
virginity is man's natural condition, and marriage
occurred only after the Fall, realize that a child born
from marriage is virgin flesh, its fruit restoring what
had been lost by its parental root. "There shall
come forth a bough from the stem of Jesse, a flower
shall grow from his root." This bough is the Mother
of God: simple, pure, unadulterated, receiving no
human -seed from outside, but, like God himself,
fruitful in singularity. Christ is the flower of that
bough: "I am the rose of Sharon, the lily of the
valleys." Again, in another passage Christ is de-
scribed as a stone cut without human hands from
the mountain. Here the Prophet indicates that He
shall be born of a virgin, and shall Himself be vir-
ginal. The hands mentioned are symbolic of mar-
riage, as in the sentence, "His left hand is beneath
my head, his right hand embraces me." This inter-
pretation is strengthened by the example of Noah's
Ark. Only unclean animals enter in pairs, while an
uneven number of clean animals are taken aboard.
Similarly, before Moses and Joshua were permitted
to walk on sacred ground, they were commanded to
remove their shoes. The Disciples also were for-
bidden to take either shoes or shoe-latches when
they went to preach the Gospel. And did the Roman
soldiers find any shoes when they diced for Jesus'
clothes? The Lord could hardly possess what He
had forbidden his servants to own.

I praise matrimony. But only because it pro-
duces virgins. From thorns I gather the rose, from
the earth gold, from the oyster its pearl. Shall the
laborer work all day, and have no opportunity to
enjoy the fruit of labor? Marriage receives more
honor when the child it produces is loved more deep-
ly. So, Mother, why begrudge your daughter her

38 THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME

virginity? Remember, she came from your womb,
was nourished and grew strong on your milk, and
your solicitous care has guarded her. Are you in-
dignant, then, because she wants to marry, not a
soldier, but a king? What a superb benefit she brings
you: you are now the mother-in-law of God.

"Concerning virgins," the Apostle says, "I have no
commandment from the Lord." And why not? Be-
cause he was a celibate himself, and by his own free
will, not by some command. Those who contend that
Paul took a wife deserve no audience. While discuss-
ing continence, and recommending perpetual chastity,
Paul remarks, "I wish that all men were in the same
condition as I am," and later, "Therefore, I say to the
unmarried and the widows: it is good if you remain
as I am." In one more place he asks, "Have we not
the authority to lead women like the other apostles
do?" To repeat the question: why does Paul not have
a commandment from the Lord concerning virginity?
Something freely offered is more precious than some-
thing extorted by force or command. To command
virginity in men would have meant the abolition of
marriage. It would have been a hard thing indeed
to force men against their nature, and to demand
from men a life that only angels have. Finally, such
a commandment would have meant condemning a
way of life already divinely ordained.

Now the Old Law had a different notion of happi-
ness than the virginal state I have been advocating.
"Blessed is the man who has seed in Sion and a
family in Jerusalem; and cursed is the barren
woman." Again, the Law says that one's children
shall be olive-plants around the family table. To
family men riches are promised, and we are informed
that there was not an impotent man among the tribes
of Israel. Today, on the contrary, continent men are

THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME 39

told not to consider themselves arid trees, but as
having a position in Paradise instead of sons and
daughters of the flesh. It is the destitute who are
really happy today: Lazarus the beggar is preferred
to Dives sitting in all his purple robes. In our times,
the weak man is powerful in his infirmity. Happiness
seemed to be found in the gift of children in those
ancient times when the world was unpopulated,
although even then there were holy people, prefigure-
ments of the kind of celibacy to come in our days.
For the sake of children, Abraham wed Keturah in
his old age, and Leah hired Jacob for the price of a
mandrake-fruit, and lovely Rachel, a symbol ol
Mother Church, complained when her womb closed.

Gradually this human crop flourished. Then the
harvester was sent into the fields. Both Elijah and
Elisha were celibate; and so were many of the sons
of the Prophets. Jeremiah, for instance, was forbid-
den to take a wife. Anointed in the womb, he could
not marry because the captivity of the Jews was near
at hand. Similarly, the Apostle advises, "These are
troubled times, it is best that a man remain as he is.'*
Now what is this trouble which cancels the delights
of marriage? "Short is the time, and nothing remains
but for those who have wives to behave as if they
had none," Paul tells us. Nebuchadnezzar ap-
proaches, the lion has emerged from his den. What
good is a wife to me if she is only to fall captive to
the proud king? And what good are children if their
fate is like the one described by the Prophet with
such melancholy, "The weaning child's tongue sticks
to the roof of his mouth out of thirst; the children
ask for bread: there is no one to break it for them.'*

In ancient times celibacy was found only in men.
Eve always bore children in anguish and sorrow.
Now, however, the ancient curse is sundered: a virgin

40 THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME

has conceived a child whose shoulders bear the au-
thority of government, a powerful god, father of the
ages to come. Death came through Eve, life through
Mary. For this reason the precious gift of virginity
has been showered most abundantly on women, for
it began in female flesh. When the Son of God
stepped on the earth, He instituted a new family, and
since He was adored by angels in Heaven, He would
have angels on earth as well. Once again chaste
Judith decapitated Holof ernes; and Haman, the
iniquitous man, was consumed in his own flames;
and then James and John deserted their father, their
fishing nets and ship to follow the Savior: for neither
the love of family, nor this world's ties, nor domestic
obligations could restrain them. For the very first
time men heard these words: "Whoever will follow
Me must deny his own self, and, taking his cross,
come after Me."

Does a soldier take his wife into battle? Even
when one of the disciples wanted to bury his father,
the Lord forbid it, saying, "Foxes have holes, the
birds of the air have nests, but the Son of Man has
no place to lay His head." If your room seems in-
adequate, then, should you complain? "The unmar-
ried man," so the Apostle teaches:

is concerned with the things that belong to the
Lord. How to please the Lord is his only con-
cern. But the married man is concerned with the
things of this world, for they please his wife. There
is a difference between a wife and a virgin. The
latter cares for the things of the Lord; she desires
to remain pure in both body and soul. But the
wife attends to the things of her husband, whom
she desires to please.

The enormous inconveniences and worry surrounding

THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME 41

marriage has already been described, I believe, in
that essay I wrote against Helvidius*; it would be
tedious to repeat them. Whoever wishes can draw
water from that fountain. Still, I do not want to seem
to have neglected this subject of chastity. Let me
repeat, then, that the Apostle instructs us to pray
without ceasing, something which a married man,
whose duty is his wife, cannot accomplish. Either
we pray continually and remain celibate, or we cease
praying in order to serve our marital obligations. "It
is not a sin for a virgin to marry," Paul informs the
Corinthians, "but she must expect much tribulation
in the flesh." Earlier I promised not to write a great
deal about the agonies of matrimony; and here I
repeat my promise. When you wish to hear of the
troubles from which a nun is liberated, obtain a copy
of Tertullian's T$ 4 Philnxnphicgl Friend and his
other works on' celibacy; or reacTst. Cyprian's cele-
brated volume, The Way Of Life For Sisters, or
Pope Damasus' prose and poetrjTDn the subject, or
those essays written by our own Ambrose for his
sister, called Cnnt grainy ir gins, in which he poured
out his soul with such eloquence that he managed
to gather, investigate, arrange and discuss everything
that pertains to the praise of virgins.

Here we must follow another path. Enough has
been said about celibacy; it will not be praised further
but merely kept safe. To know what is good is not
sufficient: once you have chosen the good you must
guard it with zeal. Even the multitude can choose
what is good, for it requires only an act of judgment.
Hard work, however, is necessary to protect the
chosen good. Only a very few care to do this. The
Christ promises, "Whoever shall endure to the very

* This essay appeared about 383. In it Jerome defends the per-
petual virginity of Mary in the years following Christ's birth. Helvi-
dius claimed that there were other children.

42 THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME

end shall be saved," for many are called but few are
finally chosen. Before God and Christ Jesus and all
the chosen angels, then, I implore you to protect your
vocation, and not exhibit to the public gaze those
vessels of the Lord's Temple which priests alone are
permitted to see. No profane man may look at God's
sanctuary. Instantaneous death prostrated Uzziah
when he grasped the Ark of the Covenant, which it
was unlawful to touch. Gold or silver vessels were
never so precious to God as the temple of a virgin's
body. Shadow proceeds the substance. Now, of
course, you may speak freely and simply with
strangers, and not despise pleasant conversation.
Foul-minded people, however, do not regard such
innocent conversation in the way you might. Loveli-
ness of soul is something they simply cannot appre-
ciate, for they only attend to physical beauty. God's
treasures Hezekiah displayed to the eyes of the
Assyrians; but they only saw something to covet, and
as a result Judaea was torn by continual wars, and
the very first spoils confiscated were the vessels of
the Lord. At the victory banquet, Belshazzar drinks
deep from the holy vessels and surrounds his debauch
with concubines. Vice's finest achievement is always
to pollute what is noble and holy.

Evil malicious words must never tickle your ears.
Often men let an indecent remark drop in front of a
virgin to tempt a reaction. If it is heard with pleasure,
and the nun dissolves in laughter, how eagerly they
try to be accommodating: whatever you believe is
praised, and whatever you disparage is condemned.
Accomplished, pious, a lady without guile these
are the epithets showered on you. "Behold," they
clamor, "here is a true handmaid of Christ! Such
consummate simplicity! How unlike those horrid,
unattractive, uncouth frights, who most likely never

THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME 43

married because they couldn't catch a husband."
Human fraility beguiles us so easily, and we smile
pleasantly at such flatterers; and though we may
protest we are so unworthy of such praise, and feign
embarrassment, our soul rejoices.

Both in her heart and on her body, a bride of
Christ, like the Ark of the Covenant, should be
adorned with real gold. After all, she is the guardian
of the Lord's Law; and just as the Ark contained
nothing but the Tables of the Law, a nun must never
entertain thoughts for external possessions. It is
Almighty God's pleasure to sit on that seat of mercy
as He once sat on the cherubim; and as He once sent
His disciples to find a donkey to carry Him, so He
sends them to liberate you from the cares of this
world. Leaving the straw and brick of Egypt, you
may follow Him, the true Moses, through the wilder-
ness of life into the Promised Land. Neither mother,
nor sister, nor brother, nor relatives should try to
prevent your journey, for the Lord has need of you.
If they should hinder you, let them fear the whips
that lashed Pharoah for not releasing the people of
God. Jesus cast out everything that had no business
being in the Temple; for God is jealous: He does not
allow his Father's house to be polluted into a den
of thieves. Whenever profit is being calculated, and
there are doves for sale, and a simple honest way
of life becomes perverted, and the heart of a nun
buzzes with worldly affairs, then is the Temple veil
rent, and the Bridegroom rising in anger says, "This
house of yours is left to you in a desolate condi-
tion."

The Gospel tells how Mary, sitting quietly at the
Lord's feet, is preferred to busy Martha who,
anxious to be hospitable, was preparing a meal for
the Lord and His disciples. "Martha, Martha,'* Jesus

44 THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME

said, "you are busy and solicitous over many things.
Few are really necessary or only one. Mary has
chosen the better part, for it shall never be taken
from her." Then imitate Mary: prefer the Lord's
teaching to food. Let your sisters hurry and scurry
about, seeking to entertain Christ. Casting away
this world's burden once and for all, sit at His feet
and say, "I have found Him Whom my soul has
sought. I will hold Him and never let go." "My
dove, my perfect dove is one woman," He will reply,
"The only daughter of her mother, she is the choice
of the one who bore her." That mother is the
Heavenly Jerusalem.

Let the privacy of your room protect you. There
the Eternal Bridegroom will forever play with you.
Your prayer is really conversation with your Hus-
band, and when you read the Bible He replies to
you. Sleep overcomes you, and He will appear be-
hind the garden wall, and putting His hand through
the keyhole, He will touch your body. Trembling,
you will awake, crying, "I am sick with love!" and
you will hear Him answer, "An enclosed garden is
my sister, my bride, an enclosed garden, a sealed
fountain."

Never leave this room or visit the daughters of a
strange country, even if patriarchs are your brothers
and Israel your father. Dinah left home and was
seduced. I never want to see you seeking the Bride-
groom in public streets or in the four corners of
the city. You may announce, "I will arise now and
walk in the city. In streets and boulevards I will
seek Him in Whom my soul delights," but though
you inquire, "Have you seen Him Whom my soul
loves?" no one will consider it worth-while to reply.
Broad city streets will never see the Bridegroom, for
His path, Which leads to life, is straight and narrow.

THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME 45

So the Canticle continues, "I sought but could not
find Him. Called to, He gave no answer." But if
this were only all of it! In your search you will be
wounded, stripped, and mourn how the watchmen
discovered and hurt you, taking away your veil.
This punishment was given to one full of love:
"Even though I sleep, my heart is awake and vigi-
lant," she had sung: "A cluster of myrrh is my
cousin 'to me, He shall linger all night between my
breasts." What then can we expect? Our love is
still the love of young girls who remain outside when
the bridegroom carries the bride inside. Always
remember that Jesus is jealous, and does not wish
others to gaze on your face. You may excuse your-
self by claiming that a veil covers your countenance
while you have searched for your love, singing, "Tell
me where You feed Your flock, O You Who de-
lights my soul. Tell me where You rest at noon.
O why must I be veiled among the flocks of Your
companions?" This will only make Christ furious:
"If you fail to realize who you are, O fairest of
women, then wander abroad, follow the flocks and
graze your goats near the shepherd's tent." His
admonishment will become even more indignant:

Although you are beautiful, and your face be the
dearest of all to the Bridegroom, unless you know
yourself and guard your heart most diligently,
avoiding the eyes of other lovers, you will be
driven from My bridalcharnber to feed those goats
who shall be placed on the left hand.

All this being so, my Eustochium, my daughter,
my lady, my fellow servant and my sister (the first
name suits your age, the second your position, the
third your religious duties, the last the love we
share), then listen to these words from Isaiah.

46 THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME

"Come and enter your rooms, O my people, and
shut the doors behind you. For a moment hide
yourself until the Lord's anger has passed." The
foolish virgins can roam around outside, but you
must remain at home with the Eternal Bridegroom.
Finding your door shut, and hearing you pray to
your Father in privacy, as the Gospel instructs,
Christ will arrive and say, "See, here I stand knock-
ing at your door. If the door is opened, I will enter
and dine with My love, and My love will dine with
Me." Without hesitation, eagerly you will reply that
the voice of your Beloved knocks and asks you, His
sister, His pure and nearest one, His dove, to open.
Never complain that you have just disrobed and
refuse to soil the feet you have just bathed. Instead,
instantly rise and open the door; for if you hesitate
He may pass on, and leave you to mourn how the
door was finally opened for your cousin but He had
departed. Should the door of your heart be closed
to the Bridegroom? Open it only to Christ, and lock
it to the devil. Never forget the Scriptural advice
not to abandon your place when the spirit of the
one who has power rises against you. When the
edict of Darius the Mede forbade prayers to God,
Daniel retired to his room, but kept open the win-
dows that he might see Jerusalem. In like manner,
keep your windows open to the light that you may
gaze on the eye of the Lord. But keep shut those
other windows through which death enters.

Moreover, beware of the traps vainglory sets.
"How can you even begin to believe," Jesus asks,
"when you continue to praise one another?" Vain-
glory must be an evil thing indeed if it renders faith
impossible. One must glory only in God, and search
for glory only in Christ. "If I still pleased men,"
the Apostle remarks, "then I should not be a servant

THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME 47

of Christ," and "Far be it from me to glory in any-
thing except in the cross of Our Lord Jesus Christ,
through Whom the world has been crucified to m
and I have been crucified to the world." A Christian
should be able to say, "All day long, O God, we
glory in You. My soul shall boast in the Lord."

When you distribute charity, for example, God
alone should observe your action. And when you
fast, always have a cheerful expression. Clothes
should neither be elegant nor slovenly, and especially
should not be tailored in a striking, original fashion
to attract attention. It may seem like an act of piety
to attend the numerous funerals for brothers and
beloved sisters in the Lord; but do not go too often
you may die of it. Avoid being too pious or overly
humble. There is a way to seek self-aggrandizement
by pretending to disdain it. Many Christians who are
secretive about their poverty, acts of mercy and fasts,
desire admiration by the very fact that they ignore it.
Oddly enough, they seek praise while avoiding it. I
have found that many are free from aggravations like
despondency or excessive exultation, fretful hope
and fear; but the craving for attention and praise is
a blemish few escape. That man is most successful
whose character, like a good complexion, is disfigured
by the least blemishes.

It seems unnecessary to warn you about boasting
of your wealth, or priding yourself on your aristo-
cratic blood, or thinking yourself superior to others.
Your genuine humility is well known to me. From
the depths of your soul, I know, you can say, "Lord,
my heart is not proud, my eyes are not blinded by
vanity." That pride which caused the devil's fall is
absent from you, as it is from your mother. To warn
you against pride would be superfluous: nothing is

48 THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME

more foolish than to teach a pupil something already
understood.

On the other hand, watch that your contempt for
this world's glory does not create another, more
subtle kind of pride in you. Once you have stopped
being attractive in gold dresses, avoid the secret
thought that now you will be more attractive in ordi-
nary, humble dress. Entering some gathering of
priests and nuns, do not sit in some unobtrusive cor-
ner which will exhibit your unworthiness; and never
speak very quietly and low as if you were just too
exhausted from fasting, or lean on someone's shoul-
der, giving the impression you are worn to a frazzle.
Some nuns, in fact, literally disfigure themselves to
create the illusion that they have performed great
mortifications. As soon as they catch someone look-
ing at them, sighs escape their lips, eyes are lowered
modestly, the face is covered except for one eye to
observe the effect. They dress the part to perfection
in old black dresses, sackcloth girdles, unwashed
hands and feet. But their stomach, which cannot be
seen, churns in an effort to digest their enormous
meals. Every day at office the words of psalm de-
scribes such people, "The Lord shall scatter the
bones of those who please themselves." Other good
sisters actually change their clothes and dress like
men as if they were ashamed of being female. Hair
is shaved, chins stuck in the air, they pretend to be
eunuchs. Still others wear goatskins, and, regressing
to childhood, don baby snoods. Final result: they
resemble so many screeching owls.

Women are not the only ones I have in mind. Flee
from those men who carry many chains and wear
their hair like women despite the Apostle's stricture.
Bearded like goats and wearing black cloaks, they
parade around with bare feet in the coldest weather.

THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME 49

Such affectations suggest the devil's hand. Some time
back, Antimus was this kind of creature, and now
Rome groans over like antics in Sophronius. Such
men ingratiate themselves in the homes of the nobil-
ity, and deceive silly females burdened with their
sins, "ever learning this or that but never able to
grasp the truth." Assuming a melancholy expression,
these men pretend to long fasts, which have been
compelled, in fact, by indigestion obtained at their
furtive night banquets. I am ashamed to continue
soon my description will seem more like invective
than admonishment.

Then there are other Christian men I refer to
some in my own order who seek the position of
presbyter or deacon simply that they may have an
excuse to visit the ladies more openly. Such men
think of nothing but clothes; they use perfumes
liberally, and watch that no crease appear in their
leather shoes. In their wavy hair linger traces of the
curling iron; rings glitter on their fingers; and if the
street is wet and muddy, they walk on tiptoe to avoid
splashing their CiOthes. Observing men perform in
this way, one thinks that they are bridegrooms rather
than priests. Some of them, in truth, have devoted a
lifetime and all their energy to learning the names,
domestic life and habits of married women.

Permit me to give a brief sketch of the best man at
this sort of thing, so that from the master's likeness
you will be able to recognize his disciples.

Rising with the sun, he dashes out, arranging in his
busy head the order of his visits. Short cuts are
taken, so he always arrives while everyone else is still
asleep, and practically sticks his old head into the
lady's bedroom. Over here he notices an attractive
cushion, an elegant tablecloth or some furniture
piece. First he sings its praises, fingering and admir-

50 THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME

ing it, and then begins to complain that he owns
nothing so exquisite. Finally he begs it away from its
owner rather, he blackmails the lady into giving it
away, for every woman is terrified of offending the
most accomplished gossip in the city. Chastity and
fasting he despises. What he enjoys is a leisurely late
breakfast consisting of a well-cooked bird, like the
kind, say, commonly called a "creeper." His speech
is barbaric but malicious, always well armed with
insults. No matter where you might go, he is always
the first person to be seen. What is the latest scandal?
Either he has invented it, or else exaggerated it out
of proportion. Every hour he changes horses, and so
well-groomed and spirited are his steeds, one would
suppose his brother was Diomede of Thrace.

Many and varied are the stratagems which our
insidious Enemy uses against us. The serpent was
the most subtile of the beasts of the field which the
Lord God had created. But the Apostle reminds us
that we are not ignorant of his many strategies.

Neither affected shabbiness nor an exquisite way
of dressing, then, becomes a Christian. And if you
feel ignorant about some point of morals or dogma,
or if some Scriptural passage seems difficult, inquire
about such things to a man whose behavior recom-
mends him, one whose age places him above sus-
picion and whose reputation is beyond reproach, and
who is able to say, "I have married you to one hus-
band that I may present you as a chaste bride to
Christ." Or if there is no man like this available,
remember that it is preferable to avoid danger at the
price of remaining ignorant than to encourage it for
the sake of a little knowledge. Never forget that you
walk in the midst of snares. Many veteran virgins,
whose chastity was never questioned, let their crown
slip and fall on the very threshold of death.

THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME 51

It may have happened that some of your personal
maids took the vows of a nun when you did. If so,
never remind them that you were once their mistress.
All of you have chosen one Bridegroom, and together
sing the psalms and receive Communion; then why
should you sit apart at meals? Your example here
must convert other mistresses. One of your sisters
might be found to be weak in faith. Taking her
aside, comfort and be tender with her, making her
chastity your treasure. But if another merely pre-
tends to have a vocation to escape work, read the
Apostle's words to her that it is better to marry than
to burn.

Above all, avoid like the plague those idle, in-
quisitive nuns and widows who flitter from house
to house calling on married friends, and by their
shameless behavior surpass the parasites one sees
at the theatre. "Evil company corrupts a good way
of life." Women like this care for nothing but their
stomach and the organs near it. This is the good
advice such creatures will offer you: "Make the best
of your opportunities, my little puppy, and live your
own life. Why save it for your children?" Fond of
wine and given to promiscuity, these women sow the
suggestion for all manner of mischief in other's
minds, and tempt even the staunchest with descrip-
tions of pleasurable delicacies. Their luxurious life
finally goes against Christ, and they marry, thus in-
curring damnation for having abandoned their first
vocation.

Never desire to dominate and excel in conversa-
tion, and avoid composing trifling lyrics and songs.
Most of all, do not imitate the latest incipient, deli-
cate affectation of speech cultivated by the matrons
by pressing one's teeth together and opening the lips
wide in order to speak with a lisp and clip one's

52 THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME

words, as if anything spoken naturally smells of a
country background. What an adultery of the
tongue! "Has light any communication with dark-
ness? What agreement has Christ with Belial?"
asks St. Paul. And what, I may ask, has Horace do
with the Psalter? Or Vergil with the Gospels, or
Cicero with the Apostle? Would not a brother
Christian be shocked and scandalized if he saw you
reclining on a dinner couch in the temple of some
idol? Even though to the pure of heart all things are
pure, and though nothing should be refused if it be
received with thanksgiving, we should not drink at
the same time from the chalice of Christ and the bowl
of devils. An incident from my own wretched expe-
rience might illustrate this.

Many years ago for the sake of the kingdom of
heaven I castrated myself from home, parents, sister,
relatives and, harder still, from the appetizing meals
to which I had grown accustomed. On to Jerusalem
I went to fight the good fight. But the library I had
collected during student days at Rome with such
diligence and hard work this I simply could not
bring myself to abandon. What a miserable creature
I was: after fasting, I would gloat over my Cicero;
after many nights spent in vigil, and after tears wrung
from my heart of hearts by the recollection of past
sins, I would grab up Plautus in my hands. Finally
returning to my senses, I began to read the Prophets
again, but their literary style seemed so barbaric, so
obnoxious. Unable to see the light, still I blamed the
sun, not my eyes. While the Old Serpent was ridicul-
ing me like this, about the middle of Lent a fever
invaded my exhausted body, spread through the
bloodstream, and though this might seem incredi-
ble ravished my wretched frame till nothing re-
mained but skin and bones.

THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME 53

Meanwhile, a funeral had been arranged. Gradu-
ally my whole body froze, life's vital warmth pal-
pitating just a little bit in my throbbing breast.
Suddenly I was transported in the spirit, and dragged
before the court of a great judge. Light was so bright
there, and so luminous was the radiance shining
from those assembled around the judgment seat, that
I flung myself to the ground, fearfully covering my
eyes. Asked to identify myself, I replied that I was
a Christian. This the Judge remonstrated. "Liar,"
He announced, "you are a Ciceronian, not a Chris-
tian. For where our treasure is, there is your heart
also." On the spot, I became speechless. And while
I was being whipped, according to His orders, the
fires of conscience tortured me even worse. Mutter-
ing to myself over and over again the verse, "Who
will remember you in the grave?" despite all my
agony I managed to cry out, "Have mercy on me,
O Lord, have mercy." Loudly the whip cracked, but
my voice somehow was heard. Eventually the audi-
ence, falling at the knees of the Judge, beseeched
Him to forgive my youth and afford an opportunity
to repent. In the future, they continued, fitting pun-
ishment may be inflicted on Jerome if he ever again
read the pagan authors. Amid such dreadful circum-
stances I would have been only too willing to promise
much more than that; and so I took an oath, calling
on His name: "O Lord, if I ever so much as possess
secular books again, or if I ever read them, then
Jerome has denied You."

Dismissed after this, I returned to the upper world;
and there, to everyone's astonishment, I opened my
eyes, which were so brimmed with tears that my
distress convinced even the incredulous that the
incident had really occurred. What had happened,
my dear, was no mere curiosity of sleep, no illusory

54 THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME

dream which so often deceives one. As witness I call
on the court where I begged forgiveness, and on the
judgment I dreaded so much. May I never again be
brought before such an inquisition! And I swear,
Eustochium, that my shoulders were black and blue:
long after I awoke I suffered from bruises. From that
moment I studied the books of God with greater at-
tention than I had ever given to the writings of men.

To love money is a great evil for a nun. Never
seize what belongs to others, a crime punishable by
civil law. In fact, a nun must not even retain what is
rightfully her property; it no longer belongs to her.
"If you have not been trustworthy with another's
property," Christ asks, "who shall give you what
belongs to you?" Gold and silver are the property
of others; yours is a spiritual heritage, of which it is
said, "The ransom of a man's life is his wealth. No
man can serve two masters, for either he will hate
the first and love the second, or he will devote him-
self to the second and hold the first in contempt. You
cannot serve both God and Mammon." Mammon is
wealth. (In the heathen Syrian language, riches are
called "mammon.") Thinking about how to support
yourself is the thorn that chokes Faith. Devotion to
the things of the Gentiles is the very root of avarice.

"But," you will protest, "I am a delicate girl unfit
for manual labor. Perhaps I will grow old and fall
sick. Who will take pity on me?" Take comfort from
the words which Jesus spoke to the Apostles:

Do not think in your hearts about what you should
eat, or what should clothe your bodies. Is not life
itself more than mere food? Is not the body more
than the clothes it wears? See the birds of the air:
they neither plant nor harvest nor store in barns.
Yet your Father in Heaven feeds them.

THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME 55

If you are without clothes, then, lilies shall adorn
you, and if hungry, you shall hear how poor starving
men are really blessed. And if pain afflicts you, re-
member that the Apostle claimed that he took delight
in his infirmities given to him like a thorn in the
flesh, for "one of Satan's angels was sent to rebuff
me lest I should grow too proud." Delight in all of
God's judgments like the daughter of Judah did.
Keep this sentiment forever on the tip of your tongue:
"Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked
shall I return," for we bring nothing into this world,
and it is certain we carry nothing from it.

Today, one notices many women cramming their
wardrobes and wearing a new frock each day; still
they are unable to get the best of the moth in their
closets. The cleverer type wears but one dress at a
time, walking about in rags though her closet is
packed. While the rich dye their parchments purple,
and melt gold for lettering, and stud manuscripts
with jewels, naked and dying Christ lies at their door.
When they extend a helping hand to the destitute,
they must first blow a trumpet; and when they send
out invitations to a banquet, they hire a towncrier.
Only recently I saw the greatest lady in Rome
since this is not satire I mention no names in St.
Peter's Church surrounded by a company of eunuchs.
She was distributing charity with her own grand
hand, so that she would seem more pious. To each
one she gave a coin. It happened that an old, old
woman covered with rags ran back to receive an-
other coin; but when her turn came, instead of a coin
she received a smack in the face: blood paid for her
unforgivable offense.

The love of money is the root of all evil. This is
why the Apostle calls, avarice idolatry. One should
always seek the kingdom of God first, and then all the

58 THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME

ways visiting nuns, always criticizing the clergy.
Comes a feast day, they gorge until they vomit.

Monks of this type should be exterminated. Let
me mention a few things about the cenobites. The
cenobite's first rule is to obey his superior and carry
out his commands. Divided into groups of ten, one
monk has authority over the other nine, while the
hundredth monk has ten officers under him. Their
cells are separate but adjoining. After three o'clock
no visits are permitted. A leader, however, may visit
his monks because his business is to afford comfort
and strength to anyone vexed by disturbing thoughts.
At three in the afternoon, they gather to sing psalms
and listen to Scripture. Prayers finished, they sit
down to hear a sermon from one called "Father."
During the sermon, the silence is so absolute that no
monk dare look at his neighbor, or even clear his
throat. Tears from his audience is the finest praise
the speaker can receive. But the tears, too, are
silent; there are no loud sobs. When the Father be-
gins to describe, say, the kingdom of Christ and the
future beatitude and glory, one can observe the
monks sighing gently and gazing at the sky, no doubt
singing in their hearts, "Oh, if I had the wings of a
dove, I would fly away and find peace."

The sermon concluded, each group of ten ac-
companies its Father to the table. Each week a
different monk serves the others. Silence is main-
tained during meals, which consist of bread, beans
and olives, with salt and oil for seasoning. Wine
is served only to older monks, who frequently dine
with the youngest: in this way the exhaustion of
age is refreshed and sustained, the delicacy of
adolescence is not made to feel so alone. After
dinner, they rise and sing a hymn, and then return
to their cells. There one monk may mention to his

THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME 59

neighbor: "Have you noticed so-and-so? Such grace,
and how silent he is! His manner of lamenting is
so restrained." Noticing that one has taken sick,
the others comfort him; and if another begins to burn
and long for God, he is encouraged to deeper con-
templation. In addition to the community prayers,
each monk at night keeps vigil in his cell. The Father
makes the rounds of each cell, and putting his ear
to the door discovers what his son is about. Here
is a monk caught being slothful. The others, how-
ever, do not scold, but rather conceal what they
know and simply visit him more often; and so, by
praying more themselves, set an example instead of
driving and forcing him to prayer.

Each day has its special task, which is given to
the Father who in turn instructs his steward. Once
a month, the steward, with fear and trembling, ren-
ders an account to the Common Father. When the
meals are prepared, the steward samples each dish;
and since no monk is allowed to complain that he
lacks tunic or cloak or a rush matress, the steward
distributes the co^jununity store equally. In case a
monk becomes ill, he is removed to a larger room,
where he is so attentively nursed by older monks
that he misses neither the convenience of the city
nor a mother's loving care. Sunday is entirely de-
voted to prayer and study, which is their occupation
on weekdays once the manual labor is finished.
Every day the monks learn a passage of the Bible
by heart. The whole year is a fast, but only during
Lent is one permitted to abstain severely. After
Pentecost, a noon meal replaces the dinner, so that
the Church's tradition is observed while the excess
of having two large meals is avoided. (Similar
descriptions are given of the sect of Essenes by
Philo the Jew, the imitator of the platonic dialogues,

60 THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME

and by Josephus, the Greek Livy, in The Captivity
of the Hebrews, book two.)

Have these monastic details seemed rather super-
fluous? True, I am supposed to be writing about
nuns, but I must say one or two things about the
anchorites. Leaving their monastery to live in the
wilderness, they take with them only bread and salt.
This way of life was founded by Paul the Hermit,
and Antony the Copt made it famous, but the orig-
inal example, of course, was John the Baptist. An-
chorites, in fact, can be found in Jeremiah's descrip-
tion: "It is good for a man to bear the yoke in
adolescence. Because he has carried it, he sits alone
and remains silent. To men who strike him, he
offers his other cheek. He is filled with reproach,
for the Lord will never cast Himself off."

Another time, if you wish, I will describe the
work of these anchorites, and mention their struggles,
which are in the flesh but not of the flesh. Now,
however, we must return to the subject of avarice,
which, if you remember, we were discussing before
this digression.

With the monks setting an example, then, you
will despise not only gold, silver and worldly belong-
ings, but the very earth and sky itself, and, united
to Christ, will sing how the Lord is your portion
and inheritance.

One other thing the monks demonstrate. Even
though St. Paul tells Christians to pray without
ceasing, and though to the Saints their very sleep
is a prayer, there should be a regular fixed time
for prayers, so that even if one is detained by work,
the hour itself will remind you of your obligation.
Hours of prayer, as everyone knows, are the third,
sixth, and ninth hours, and at dawn and twilight.
Prayers should always begin a meal, and never leave

THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME 61

a table without first giving thanks to the Creator.
Each night arise two or three times to meditate on
those Scriptural passages you have memorized.
Prayer should be your armor every time you step
out of the house, and on returning, pray again be-
fore you are seated. The body should not have rest
until the soul has been nourished. In everything
Christians do, in every step they take, their hands
should depict the sign of the cross.

Never criticize anyone, or slander your brother
who is every man. "Who are you to pass judgment
on another's servant?" Pauls asks. "Whether the
servant stands or falls concerns only his master.
But stand he will, for the Lord has the power to
make him stand." Have you fasted, say, for two or
three whole days? This does not make you better
than those who have not fasted. You fast, but are
cantankerous because of it; another eats, and smiles.
Through quarrels you work off the irritation in your
mind and stomach; another eats moderately, and
gives thanks to God. It is because of this abuse of
the spirit of fasting that Isaiah shouts, "Is this the
kind of fast I have chosen? asks the Lord," for
"in your fast day you please yourself and abuse
your workers. Your fast creates contention and
quarrels, and you strike with the fist of wickedness.
How is this a fast done for My sake?" Indeed, what
kind of a holy fast is this? Not only does night fall
on this man's wrath, but the changing moon finds
that anger unaltered.

Pay attention, then, only to your own condition.
Never glory in some one else's adversity but only in
your activities. Women who are involved in the
things of the flesh, and are forever calculating in-
comes and household expenses, are hardly a good
example for you. After Judas' treachery, the other

62 THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME

Apostles never wavered, and though Alexander and
Phygellus were shipwrecked through their blasphemy,
the other Christians continued in the course of
Faith. Never complain, "So-and-so certainly enjoys
her possessions. People honor her, brothers and
sisters meet at her house. Because of this, has she
ceased being a nun?" It is doubtful, in the first
place, if she is a virgin. God does not consider
things as man does. "Man looks at external appear-
ances, but the Lord gazes into the heart." This kind
of worldly nun may be virginal in her body, but I
doubt if she is in the spirit, for the Apostle defines
a virgin as one holy in both. Then let her retain
her glory and pride of possession. Let her triumph
over Paul's judgment, and enjoy the good things
of life. Oh, let her live! Let us follow better ex-
amples.

I mean blessed Mary, whose purity was such that
she merited being the mother of the Lord. When
Gabriel came in the shape of a man, announcing,
"Hail, full of grace! The Lord is with you," Mary
became consternated, speechless. Never had a man
addressed her. Learning who he was, however, she
spoke to him. One formerly terrified of men now
without fear conversed with an angel. Realize, my
dear, that you too may be the mother of God. "Take
a great fresh tablet," Isaiah instructs, "and write on
it with the pen of one swiftly carrying away spoils."
After you have gone to the prophetess, then, and
conceived in your womb and produced a son, ex-
claim, "O Lord, we have conceived by Your fear, we
have been in pain, and brought forth the spirit of
Your salvation, which we have created on the earth."
Then shall your son reply, "Behold, my mother and
brothers." This is the One Whose name you have
so recently inscribed on the tablet of your heart's

THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME 63

new surface. Once He had recovered spoils from the
enemy, and had stripped Powers and Principalities
and nailed them to His cross, He grows to maturity,
having been conceived in your womb. As He grows
older, He regards you not as mother but as bride. To
be like the martyrs or the Apostles, or even like
Christ Himself how great a struggle, but how great
a reward!

Such .struggles, however, are only valuable when
made inside the Church. They have significance
when, for instance, we celebrate Passover together, or
enter the Ark with Noah, or seek shelter beneath the
roof of Rahab, the righteous prostitute, when Jericho
is falling. Those nuns among the various heretical
groups, or among the disciples of infamous Manes,
must be regarded as prostitutes, not virgins. For they
say the devil created their bodies, and how can they
honor or consider precious something made by the
enemy? Knowing that the profession of virgin com-
mands prestige, they slink about like wolves in
sheep's clothing. Antichrist pretends to be Christ.
So they assume an honorable name, the better to
cloak a disreputable way of life. Rejoice, my sister,
O rejoice, my daughter, my virgin. Already you have
become what the others merely pretend to be.

Everything I have discussed in this letter will, of
course, seem harsh to one who does not love Christ.
One, however, who considers all the pomp of this
world to be so much rubbish, and thinks all the things
under the sun to be vanity, so that she may merit her
Lord, and who has died and risen again with Him,
having crucified the flesh with its imperfections and
lusts that lady will say with great freedom, "Who
shall ever separate us from the love of Christ? Shall
tribulation, anguish, persecution, famine? Shall
nakedness, great peril, the sword?" And with Paul

64 THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME

she may announce that neither death nor life, neither
angels nor principalities, neither present things nor
things to come, neither height nor depth nor any
other creature shall ever be able to separate Chris-
tians from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus
Our Lord.

To save our souls the Son of God became the Son
of Man. Ten months He waits in the womb, there
sustaining disgust, and finally emerges covered with
blood. Wrapped in rags and comforted by caresses,
He holds the entire world in one closed childish fist,
but is Himself confined in a narrow manger. Thirty
years He lives in obscurity, content with his parent's
poverty. Scourged and abused, He holds His peace,
and crucified, prays for those who murdered Him.
"What shall I render to the Lord in return for all that
He has rendered to me? I will take the chalice of
salvation and call upon the name of the Lord. Pre-
cious in the eyes of the Lord is the death of His
saints." Blood for blood is the only dignified return
we can oiler Christ for all the gifts we have received.
Christ's blood redeemed us, so we must die willingly
for our Redeemer. Did a saint ever merit his crown
without having fought for it? To take two examples:
Abel the just is murdered, and Abraham runs the risk
of losing his wife. But look for yourself, dearest
Eustochium, and you will discover that every holy
man has suffered adversity. Only Solomon lived in
luxury. But perhaps that was what finally ruined him.
Whomever the Lord loves, He chastises, and "He
whips every son he receives." To fight for a short
while, and carry your equipment and grow weak
beneath a heavy breastplate, but finally to rejoice as
a victor is this not better than to become a slave
forever because you cannot endure for a short hour?

Love finds nothing difficult. No task is hard if you

THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME 65

are anxious to accomplish it. Think of all the tribu-
lations Jacob went through in order to win his prom-
ised bride Rachel. Genesis mentions how he served
seven long years, which seemed, however, like short
days because of his great love for her. Thirst parched
him by day, and frost froze him by night. This is
how we must love Christ and always seek His em-
braces. Then difficulties will seem easy: whatever is
long and tedious will seem brief. Pierced by the
arrows of Christ, as each hour passes we will grieve
how miserable we are for having prolonged our pil-
grimage.

Present sufferings, St. Paul teaches, are not
worthy to be compared to the glory that shall be
revealed in us. Affliction creates patience from which
experience comes, he reveals, "and experience creates
hope which removes our shame." Whenever your
life seems hard or unbearable, take comfort from
his second letter to the Corinthians:

Harder things than that I have experienced.
Having been whipped beyond measure, I have
also spent longer periods in prison, and have
looked death in the face more often. Five times
the Jews lashed me with thirty-nine strokes; three
times I have been beaten with rods; once I was
stoned; three times shipwrecked, I have passed
a night and day in the depth of the ocean.

This catalogue of tribulations continues: "What
journeys I have taken! Many times I have been in
danger of robbers, in danger of my own country-
men, in danger of the heathens, in danger of the
city and of the desert and of the sea, in danger of
false brethren. Weary and full of pain, I have often
watched hungry and thirsty, and have fasted naked
in severe weather." What Christian today can claim

66 THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME

even the smallest part of such a catalogue of vir-
tues? After such experiences, Paul could certainly
speak with confidence that he had completed his
race, and had kept faith, and that now a crown of
righteousness, which shall be presented by the Lord,
awaited him in Paradise.

Yet we are sullen if our meal is less appetizing
than usual; and when we dillute our wine with a
little water, we suppose that this is such a favor
to God. Is the water a bit too tepid?

. for the Sense. How

furious "we "beccSaV and smasTi the glass, kick over
the table, and lash out with the whip. But of course
our anger is quite Christian, for after all the kingdom
of heaven, we are told, suffers violence, and the
violent take it by force.

This kind of violence will never take heaven.
What we must do is to knock persistently and loudly
in order to be admitted and receive the sacramental
bread. Brutal violence, on the other hand, occurs
when the flesh lusts to be like God, and to ascend
to the place from which the angels fell in order to
judge the angels.

Come from your cell for a moment, my dear girl,
and let your eyes contemplate the future reward
for your present labors. Eye has not seen nor ear
heard, nor has it entered into man's heart what that
reward is like.

What will that day be like, then, when Mary, the
mother of the Lord, approaches surrounded by her
virginal choirs to meet Eustochium? The Red Sea
having been crossed and Pharoah and his armies
drowned, a virgin playing a timbrel shall chant as
the rest of the choir responds: "Let us sing to the
Lord, for He has triumphed gloriously! Horse and

THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME 67

rider has He thrown into the sea!" Then Thecla*
shall fly joyously into your arms, and your Spouse
Himself shall approach, singing, "Arise, my love,
my dove, my beautiful one, and come. Look, the
winter has passed and the rain is over." In astonish-
ment the angels shall asks who you are: "Who is she
that looks like the morning, fair as the moon, radiant
as the sun?" You shall be blessed by the daughters of
Jerusalem, queens shall proclaim and concubines
praise you.

Then another choir of chaste women shall ap-
pear and greet you. Sarah will lead the married
ones, Anna, the daughter of Phanuel, the widows.
One group will have your natural mother, another
your spiritual one, the first rejoicing at having borne
you, the second at having instructed you. Then
the Lord will truly ride on the ass and enter the
Heavenly Jerusalem; and the children whom the
Savior takes to Himself in Isaiah shall wave palms
of victory, singing, "Hosanna in the highest! Blessed
is he who comes in the name of the Lord. Hosanna
in the highest!" Then shall the "hundred and forty
four thousand" play their harps before the throne
and before the elders; and no one shall sing that
new song but those appointed to sing, the undefiled
by women, the genuine virgins, who accompany the
Lamb wherever He goes.

Every time you feel delighted by the vain am-
bitions of this world, or gaze on one of its empty
glories, transport your mind and heart to Paradise,
and begin to be now what you shall be there. Then
shall you hear the Bridegroom request that you set
Him as a seal in your heart and on your arm.

* A legendary virgin from Iconium whom St. Paul is supposed to
have converted. (Freemantle)

68 THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME

Strengthened in mind and body, you will sing:
"Many waters cannot extinguish the flames of love
which even floods are unable to quench."

AN IDEAL FOR LUKEWARM CHRISTIANS

Rome, 385 A.D.
Dear Marcella,*

Abraham is tempted in the matter of his son. But
the temptation reveals that he has greater faith. Only
after Joseph is auctioned as a slave in Egypt can he
support his father and brothers. When death's near-
ness terrifies Hezekiah, he bursts into tears and is
granted fifteen more years of life. And if Our Lord's
passion shatters Peter the Apostle, it does so that,
amid bitter tears, he may hear the command, "Feed
my sheep." That ravenous wolf St. Paul, that "child
of the tribe of Benjamin," is struck blind in an ecstasy
so that he may see, and, from the sudden horror of
surrounding darkness, he calls upon Him as Lord
Whom he had persecuted before as a mere man.

This is what has happened, my dear Marcella, to
our beloved Blesilla.f For nearly thirty days now we
have watched her tossing in a burning fever. It was
sent to teach her how to renounce pampering her
body, a body in which worms soon will crawl. The
Lord Jesus has come to her, touched her hand, and

* Marcella wag another holy widow of Rome. With, her mother,
Albina, and her sister, Ascella, she presided over a nunnery on the
Palatine.

f Blesilla was one of Paula's daughters. Widowed at 20, a critical
illness finally converted her from an indulgent social life. Soon she
became famous throughout Borne for her austerities; but many
criticized what they considered her fanaticism and excess, and
Jerome, as her spiritual director, received a good share of censure.

THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME 69

behold! she arises and ministers to Him. Formerly
her life savored of negligence: tied up in knots by
bundles of money, she lay as if dead in a tomb of
this world. But Jesus was disturbed in the spirit and,
raising His voice, called, "Come forth, Blesilla." She
arose at His summons, came forth, and now dines
with her Lord. The Jews, swelling with anger, may
attempt to murder her because she has been awak-
ened to life. The Apostles alone sing praises for her
conversion. And Blesilla knows that she owes her
very existence to Him in Whom she trusted. Now
she embraces His feet, but only a short while ago she
trembled before His judgment; life had all but de-
serted her prostrate body, the approach of death
shook her breathless limbs. What assistance could
her relatives give then? All their words were emptier
than a puff of smoke. O ungrateful relatives, she
owes you nothing! Dead to the world, she lives and
breathes in Christ. Rejoice at this, Christians, for
whoever is exasperated at what has occurred here
proves that he is not a genuine Christian.

A widow, free of the bands of marriage, has but
one obligation: to persevere as a widow. Some
people, perhaps, are offended by her drab black
clothes, but even the Baptist would offend them.
And yet among those born of woman, there has
not been one greater than John: called an angel, he
baptized the Lord Himself. But John dressed in
animal skins and the hair of camels. Some are dis-
pleased by a widow's simple food? Nothing is more
basic and simpler than locusts. Instead, Christians
should be shocked by women who paint their lips
and eyes, and whose faces, so caked with powder
and disguised by excessive whiteness, are mistaken
for the faces of idols. A chance tear drops, their
cheeks turn into furrows. No matter how lengthy

70 THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME

the number of years, age cannot teach them that they
are old women. On top of their head they pile some-
one else's hair; in spite of wrinkles they struggle to
polish back past years; and in front of their own
grandsons they behave like giggling schoolgirls. A
Christian woman should be ashamed to violate na-
ture's beauty, or to stimulate concupiscence by pam-
pering her flesh. "Those who live in the flesh," warns
the Apostle, "cannot be pleasing to God."

In the past our dear widow Blesilla decorated her-
self with necklaces. Entire days were devoted to
her mirror as she inspected for some trifle out of
place. Now she says with confidence, "To all of us
who have unveiled faces, it is given to see the glory
of the Lord as in a mirror: we become transfigured
from glory to glory in the same image, as if by the
spirit of the Lord." Maids formerly arranged her
coiffure, and her poor head, which was innocent, was
locked and imprisoned in a head dress swirling with
curls. Now her hair is left alone, for she knows that
it is sufficiently cared for when veiled. Once the soft-
est feathers seemed hard, and she was barely able to
relax on a pile of cushions. Now she rises quickly for
early prayers; her melodious voice singing "Alleluia"
before the others have arisen; she is always first to
praise her Lord. She kneels on the bare ground, and
with frequent tears washes a face once filthy with
white powder. After prayer comes the singing of the
Psalms: neck aches, knees bend, eyes drop off to
sleep, but her ardent spirit scarcely permits them
to rest. Lying on the ground to sleep does not soil
her dark dress, and her shoes are inexpensive, for
the price of golden slippers can be money for the
poor. No jewels or gold add distinction to her
waist-band; it is made of wool, completely simple
and clean, and serves to keep her dress fitting mod-

THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME 71

estiy instead of slicing her waist in half. If the
Scorpion, envious of her pious intention, with flat-
tering words persuades her once again to eat of the
Forbidden Tree, let a curse instead of a footheel
crush him, and let Blesilla say as he lies dying in
the dust, "Get behind me, Satan!" (Satan means
"adversary" since Christ's adversary is the Anti-
christ who finds the Lord's commands displeasing.)

I ask you, Marcella, have we ever done anything
to offend men? Perhaps we have offended them like
the Apostles did. They abandoned their old father,
their boats and fishing nets, and Matthew, the Pub-
lic tax collector, arose from his desk and business
and followed the Savior. Again, when one of the
new disciples desired to return home and say good-
bye to friends, the Master's voice forbid it. An-
other time, a father was even refused decent burial.
For it is a religious duty to neglect one's other
obligations for the sake of the Lord.

On the other hand, we are considered hermits
because we do net wear silk clothes. And because
we do not become intoxicated, or split in two with
raucous laughter, men call us hard, dour, melan-
choly. If our tunics are not dazzlingly white, im-
mediately a cry from the street, "Imposter! Greek!"
Let men indulge in even wittier remarks, and, if
they feel like it, let them parade their large paunched
friends in front of us. Our Blesilla will laugh at
them; she will not even dignify these garrulous
abusive frogs by listening to their croaking, since
she remembers that men once called her Lord
'Beelzebub.'

72 THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME

A DEFENSE OF HIS INTIMACY
WITH SOCIETY LADIES

The Port of Ostia
August, 385 A.D.

My dear Asella,*

If I ever believed I could repay your kindness
to me, I would certainly not be very wise. In my
place, however, God is able to reward your holy
soul for its merit. So unworthy am I that I have
never been able to realize the extent of your friend-
ship, or even to hope that you would offer me
friendship in Christ's name. Although some con-
sider me an impious man blemished with all kinds
of vice, and even though this description is kind
enough compared to my actual sins, still it is gen-
erous of you to think there is some good even in
wicked men. To pass judgment on another person's
servant is dangerous; and to speak unjustly of a
man who is truly moral is something not easily
excused. But Judgment Day will come, it will come.
Then you and I shall see with sorrow many burning
in the flames.

I am a scandal, I change my skin, I am so slip-
pery. A liar, I deceive with all of Satan's skill. But
which is the more subtle: to believe these accusa-
tions, even to fabricate them, or to refuse to believe
that even the guilty could not accomplish them?
Some people fawned and kissed my hands, and then,
with serpent tongues, abused and caluminated me
behind my back. When I was criticized, their lips

* Dedicated to God before her birth, Asella, sister of Marcella, was
made & nun at the age of ten. Eventually she became head of Mar-
cella' s community on Palatine Hill. For a time Jerome was ita
spiritual director.

THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME 73

expressed such grief, but their hearts rejoiced. The
Lord watched them and held in them derision, reserv-
ing both them and His miserable servant Jerome for
the Judgment to come.

One man ridiculed the way I walked or how I
laughed; another took exception to the expression
on my face; a third would find something peculiar
and suspicious in my simple mannerisms. For al-
most three years I have been forced to live among
such people. During this time I was frequently
surrounded by a group of nuns. To some of them
I lectured on the Bible as well as 1 could. Study
created mutual consideration: consideration made
for familiarity: familiarity created friendship. If any
of these nuns ever noticed that my behavior was
unworthy of a Christian, why not let them tell about
it? Did I ever once accept any money? Have I
not scorned all kinds of presents? How many coins
jingled in my palms? And my conversation, when
was it ever ambiguous with double-entendre? When
were my eyes flirtatious? Nothing, in fact, is held
against me except the biological phenomenon that
I happen to be a male; and even that is never
mentioned except when there is rumor that Paula
is leaving for Jerusalem to join me.

Very well, then. Everybody believed my ac-
cuser when he lied, so why will they not believe
him now that he retracts? He is still the same man.
In the past he accused me but now he announces:
Jerome is innocent. Torture is obviously a more
effective means than laughter to reveal the truth,
except that people would much rather believe some
titilating rumor, however false, and they even en-
courage others to manufacture such tales.

Once all Rome echoed with praises about me
that is, before I became acquainted with saintly

74 THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME

Paula's family. Practically everybody agreed that
Jerome was worthy of the highest office in the
Church. Damasus, of blessed memory, always re-
peated whatever I had said. Men called me holy,
humble, eloquent. Did I ever enter the home of a
lascivious woman? Was I ever fascinated by silk
dresses, glittering jewels, rouged faces? Did I ever
thirst for gold?

No lady in Rome could dominate my mind but
one who mourned and fasted, living in squalor and
filth and almost blind with penitential tears. All
through the night Paula would implore mercy from
the Lord, and often the sun found her still praying.
The Psalms were her music. The Gospel was her
conversation. Continence was her one luxury, her
life a fast. Only a woman whom I never saw
gorging could delight me. After I realized how
pious she was, and I began to admire, respect and
venerate her, then at once all my virtues were sup-
posed to have deserted me.

O Envy, first you gnaw at yourself! O subtlety
of Satan, always persecuting holy things!

Of all the women in the city of Rome, Paula and
Melanium alone caused a scandal. Scorning their
wealth and abandoning their children, they lifted up
the cross of the Lord as the standard of their faith.
If they had frequented fashionable resorts, and used
perfumes, and had taken advantage of their wealth
and position as widows to indulge in luxury and in-
dependence, then they would have been called
elegant ladies and even saints. Instead, they desired
to appear at the height of fashion by wearing sack-
cloth and ashes, and to descend into the fires of
Gehenna by living in filth and fasting. Such a pity!
Why, they were just not allowed to perish with the

THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME 75

sophisticated crowd whom the common people
applaud!

Had it been Pagans or Jews who criticized their
way of life with such vehemence, Paula and Mela-
nium at least would have had the satisfaction of dis-
pleasing those whom Christ Himself displeased. In-
stead and shame upon them! their critics were
men and women who are supposed to be Christians.
These Christians, neglecting their own families, ig-
nore the light-beam in their own eyes to search for
a tiny speck in their neighbor's. Lacerating every
devout practice, this kind of Christian thinks he has
found an excuse for his own future punishment if he
can demonstrate that, after all, nobody is a saint; that
everybody has his little failings; and that great is the
number of those who perish, for there are multitudes
of sinners.

It pleases you to bathe every day, you nominal
Christian. Another might consider such refinement
a disgrace. And after priding yourself for having
dined on choice sturgeon and wild duck, you belch
in appreciation, i fill my beUy with beans. You en-
joy yourself in the company of amusing people.
Paula and Melanium prefer ones who weep. As
much as you desire what others have, they despise
what rightfully belongs to them. Wines flavored with
honey you appreciate; they like a more delicious
drink cold water. Whatever you have not drained
dry, squandered or devoured, you count as lost, while
they desire only the things that are to come, believing
that what the Scripture says is really true. So, so:
they are foolish old women to believe in the Resur-
rection of the body; but what is that to you? From
our point of view, your way of life is obnoxious. Go
and fatten yourselves on the "good things" of this
life. I prefer a pale face and a cadaverous body.

76 THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME

People like us, you think, are really miserable. We
believe that you are even more wretched. Each con-
siders the other insane.

This letter is written in haste, my dear Lady
Asella. Overcome by grief and tears, I am boarding
the ship here at Ostia. But I thank my God that I
am worthy of the world's contempt.

Please pray for me, so that after having been in
Babylon I may safely return to Jerusalem. Ask that
Joshua, the son of Josedech, may have dominion over
me instead of Nebuchadnezzar; and that Ezra, whose
name means "helper", may come and escort me back
to my own country.

How foolish I was to want to sing the song of the
Lord in an alien land, and, having left Mount Sion,
to have sought help in Egypt. I forgot the Gospel
story: a man who wanders away from Jerusalem
immediately falls among thieves; stripped and wound-
ed, he is left for dead. But though priest and Levite
pay no attention to his misery, there is always the
Good Samaritan. When He was told, "You are a
Samaritan and have a devil inside," He denied having
the devil but did not disclaim being a Samaritan, for
in Hebrew Samaritan literally means "guardian."
People babble that Jerome is a trouble-maker. But
I take this as an indication of my faith; for I am a
servant. The Jews called my Master a magician, and
seducer was what the Apostle was named. But no
temptation "that is not human" has possessed me.
Really, how few troubles I have suffered! I am a
soldier of the cross, and, after all, it is men who
have accused me of these crimes. And I know that
through the land of good and evil rumors we arrive
at the kingdom of heaven.

Give my greetings to Paula and Eustochium.
Whatever the world says, they are mine in Christ.

THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME 77

And also greet your mother Albina and your sisters,
together with Marcellina and holy Felicitas. Please
tell them this: we shall all stand before the judgment
seat of Christ, and then shall be revealed the inner
conscience and life of each. Remember me, Asella,
you are my model of virtue and a symbol of virginity.
And by your prayers calm the waves of the sea.

CARICATURE OF A WINDBAG

Antioch, 385 A.D.
Dear Sister Marcella,

Surgeons are generally thought to be inhuman;
but they really deserve our pity. Would it not be
miserable, for example, if you felt the physical
suffering of your patient, and then had to inflict more
pain as you sliced away the infected flesh with a
merciful knife? Such a terrible thing to show no
concern or anguish while treating disease, but to
seem instead an enemy to the patient. Yet this is the
way things stand: truth is always bitter, while vices,
tasting so spicy, are praised.

How difficult it is to be an agent of truth. To
symbolize the coming captivity of the Jews, for ex-
ample, Isaiah walks about stark naked, not in the
least ashamed. A sudden command sends Jeremiah
from Jerusalem to the distant Euphrates in Mesopo-
tamia; and there he is told to leave his clothes so
that they may be soiled and worn out among Assyrian
and Chaldean enemies. Ezekiel is another example.
First he is ordered to devour a loaf of bread, which
has been made by sprinkling human excrement and
manure over an indigestible mixture of various grain;

78 THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME

then he must watch his wife die and not weep. Amos
is exiled from Samaria. Why must things be so hard
with these men? Surely the reason is that they are
spiritual surgeons; and by cutting away sinners*
blemishes, they give men the courage to repent
"Have I become your enemy," the Apostle asks, "be-
cause I speak truth?" When the Savior's words
seemed harsh, many disciples lapsed, then left Him.

So it should hardly be surprising if we too offend
a good many people when we strip away their vices.
Here I am all ready to cut off a swollen nose: who-
ever suffers from a scrofulous tumor may shake in
his boots. I only want to put a loud-mouthed crow
in his place by making him realize how obnoxious
he is.

But, after all, is there only one man in Rome who
has, as Vergil says, "nostrils mutilated by a disgrace-
ful wound"? Does Onasus* of Segesta alone puff out
his cheeks like bladders, and weigh and measure
each empty word? I claim that certain people have
achieved success by means of crime, perjury, false
pretenses. But what does that matter to you who
are assured of your innocence? And if I laugh out
loud at a lawyer who needs someone to defend him
if I look down my nose and sneer at courtroom elo-
quence worth about a plug-nickel does it concern
you who speak with such distinction? It pleases me
to attack priests with itchy palms. Wealthy men,
why do you get angry at this? To burn limping
Vulcan in his own fire is all I ask. Are you a friend
or neighbor of his that you want to protect this idol's
shrine from the flames?

Ghosts, screech owls, and all the monstrosities of
Egypt amuse me. No matter what I happen to say,

* There is a pun in Latin on MB victim's name. Nasus means nose.
Onasus, or Oneainms: "The man. who helps." (Wright's note)

THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME 79

however, you believe it was aimed at you; at what-
ever vice my sharp pen points, you holler that it
points at you. And, joining hands with the others,
you drag me into court, where foolishly you try to
accuse me of being a satirist.

Onasus, do you really think you are such a fine
fellow just because you happen to have a lucky
name? Remember the old saying? "Such dim light
that there is no light at all." Are not the Fates called
"the ones who spare" because they spare no one; and
the Furies, are they not known as "angels of mercy"?
And in everyday speech, does not "silver-colored
boys" still mean Negroes? Nevertheless, if my de-
scription of deformity continues to make you sore, I
will raise my voice in song and, with Persius, tell
about a handsome man:

May King and Queen select you for their daughter,

After you may all the virgins chase,

And the very ground you walk on turn to roses.

But just one bit of advice. If you want to appear
personable, keep your nose off your face. In con-
versation, speak not one single word. Then perhaps,
Onasus, you may be thought a handsome raconteur.

HOW TO BE A DEVOTED, IMPOVERISHED
PRIEST

Bethlehem, 394 A.D.
My dear Nepotian,*

How often your letters from across the sea have
asked me to outline in the form of a brief guide some

* Nepotian, a young priest, formerly a soldier, was the nephew of
Jerome's great friend Bishop Heliodorus. Two years after this letter,
Nepotian suddenly died. Jerome was moved to write a famous elegiac
letter to his uncle.

80 THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME

rules of life, showing how a man, who has deserted
this world's army to become a monk or priest, may
continue walking on the straight and narrow street
of Christ and resist the lure of the alleys of vice.

I can remember that, when I was scarcely more
than a youth trying to struggle against the first on-
slaughts of adolescent passion, I wrote an admonish-
ing letter to your holy uncle Heliodorus.* With tears
and complaints, I tried to show him how deep was
the affection of the friend he had abandoned in the
wilderness. In writing it, I am afraid I acted my
age. Still sizzling with the rhetoricians' teaching, I
dressed my sentences with a good deal of flowery,
academic phrases. Today, my hair is grey, my fore-
head wrinkled; a flabby double-chin, like that of an
ox, droops on me, and, as Vergil says, "Cold blood
troubles me around the heart," and "Age carries
everything away even the intellect." In another
Eclogue the poet laments: "So many songs have I
forgotten. His voice itself has deserted Moeris."

Lest I seem to quote only pagan literature, listen
to a sacred tale from God's book. Chilled by old
age, David, though once a vigorous soldier, cannot
get warm now that he is seventy. Through the length
and breadth of Israel a young girl is sought. Eventu-
ally Abishag, a Shunamite, is found and brought to
sleep with the king to warm old bones. Now does it
not strike you that is, if you were to hold fast to
the literal "letter that killeth" that here is a scene
dreamt up for some burlesque skit or ludicrous
Atellan comedy? Swaddled in blankets, a chilled old
man whom nothing can heat but the caress of a
virgin. Bathsheba was still alive, so was his first wife,
Abigail, as well as all those other wives and mis-

* The letter to Heliodorus, written from the desert of Ohalcis
in 374.

THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME 81

tresses whom Scripture commemorates. All of them,
however, were thrown aside as frigid. Only in the
embrace of a tender virgin does the king warm. Al-
though Abraham was much older than David, he did
not seek another wife while his Sarah still breathed;
and Isaac, twice David's age, never chilled with
Rebecca, even after she had become an old woman.
No need to mention those men before the Flood,
who, after nine hundred years, must have found their
arms and legs not merely decrepit but rotten with
age, but still did not pursue the bouncing embrace of
young girls. And certainly Moses, leader of the chil-
dren of Israel, managed to live through one hundred
and twenty years without substituting for his Sephora.

Who is this Shunamite, then, this virgin and wife,
so full of a fire that warms ice, but so holy that she
does not excite lust in her man even while heating
him? Let Solomon, wisest of mortals, tell us about
his father's favorite: the man of peace shall describe
the man of war:

Obtain wisdom and understanding. Never forget
this, nor ignore these words. If you abandon her,
she shall possess you; love her and she shall serve
you. Wisdom is the first of all things: obtain her
and, with all your possessing, obtain understand-
ing. Exalt her and she shall honor you, placing
a crown of Grace upon your head, a crown of glory
shall she give you.

"Kearly all physical excellences change with age.
Wisdom alone increases while all else decays. Fast-
ing, sleeping on the hard ground, moving from place
to place, entertaining strangers, helping the poor,
perseverance in long prayers, visiting the sick, man-
ual labor to earn money for charity in fact, not to
be boring everything we do which depends on the

82 THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME

body will diminish as flesh and bone deteriorate.
Now I do not mean that wisdom, which so often
withers with age, does not warm youths or those in
the prime of life who have obtained knowledge
through hard work, a passion for study, a holy life,
and frequent prayer to God. What I am saying is
that youth must endure many battles with its body.
Amid the temptations to vice, the titillations of the
flesh, adolescence is suffocated like a fire trying to
burn fresh, green wood: its brightness is unable to
burst forth. Old men, on the contrary, if they have
disciplined their early years by worthwhile activity,
and have night and day meditated on the Law of
the Lord, become wiser through the passing years.
Experience makes them more subtle and discerning;
they gather a plentiful, sweet harvest.

Old Theophrastus, for example, one of Greece's
wise men, is supposed to have saddened when he
sensed death near at one hundred and seven because
he would have to depart just as he was beginning to
understand life. At eighty one, still writing, Plato
died. Ninety-nine years Isocrates filled with the
strenuous work of teaching and publishing books.
Of the other philosophers like Pythagoras, Democri-
tus, Xenocrates, Zeno and Cleanthes, I need only
mention that their long lives flourished in a study of
wisdom. Coming to the poets, one notices Homer
and Hesoid, Simonides and Stesichorus, grown old
and death approaching, singing a swan-song more
melodious than any they had sung before. Then
there is the anecdote about Sophocles* old age. Ac-
cused in court by his sons of senility because he had
neglected family obligations, his only defense was to
recite his new play Oedipus to the judges. So
profound was the understanding shown in the drama
that Sophocles transformed a severe courtroom into

THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME 83

an applauding theatre. And it is small wonder that
Cato, most eloquent of the Romans, having been
public censor for years but now an old man, was not
ashamed to begin learning Greek, and never de-
spaired that someday he would speak the language.
Conversation sweeter than honey flowed from Nes-
tor's lips when he was almost in his dotage as
Homer truly tells us.

Even the very name Abishag indicates, in its
mystical sense, that old men possess the richest store
of wisdom. For Abishag means "the superfluity of
my father," or "my father's roaring sound." Now
superfluity is an ambiguous word, but in this case
means "excellence," implying that old men's wisdom
is most abundant of all. (In other cases, of course,
superfluity means "unnecessary.") "Roaring sound,"
the other meaning, refers to the sound of waves, the
murmur we hear from the ocean. Obviously this
means that the thundering voice of God haunts old
men's ears, sounding beyond the volume of human
voices. Now Shrnamite in Latin also means "scar-
let," that is, the blaze wisdom kindles when the Bible
is read. Here there is an allusion to Christ's blood,
but the word also points to the fervor of wisdom.
In Genesis, for instance, it is a scarlet thread the
midwife ties to Phares' hand. (This Phares was nick-
named the "Divider" because he smashed the wall
which until then had separated two peoples.) Then
again, Rahab the prostitute, a symbol of Mother
Church, tied a scarlet rope to her window sym-
bolizing the shedding of Our Lord's blood so that
she might escape when Jericho fell. In another pas-
sage Scripture describes holy men as "Kenites come
from the warmth of Rechab's house," and Our Lord
Himself says that it is fire He has come to hurl on the
earth, for "I am anxious to watch it burning." That

84 THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME

fire, kindling in His disciples' hearts, caused them to
exclaim, "Did not our hearts blaze inside us when
He spoke with us on the road to Emmaus and opened
Scripture to our eyes?"

Perhaps you are thinking: Why all these far-
fetched references? Do not expect youthful literary
flourishes or flowery sentiments from Jerome, nor a
meretricious prose style or polished aphorisms to
end a paragraph and excite applause from my audi-
ence. Wisdom alone embraces me, for in these old
arms my Abishag nestles and never grows old. For-
ever unpolluted and virginal, she is every day in
labor pains, and, like Mary, gives birth while re-
maining pure and spotless. "Burn with the Spirit,"
exhorts the Apostle. At the consummation of the
world so Our Savior declares in the Gospel when
"the shepherd loses his mind," as Zechariah the
Prophet foretold, the love of most men shall grow
cold because wisdom has deteriorated.

Then give your attention to vigorous talk, as
blessed Cyprian suggests, and do not look for well-
turned phrases. Listen to a man who is your brother
in holy orders, a father in years, one who can direct
you from Faith's cradle to maturity, and who, by
building step by step a guide to life, teaches others
while he is instructing you. That you have already
learned from your uncle, Reverend Bishop Helio-
dorus, I am well aware; and from him you continue
to learn all this is holy, for he sets before you a
model of virtuous living. Taking my suggestions,
then, merely for what they are worth, combine them
with his: Heliodorus will educate you in how to be
a real monk, Jerome in how to be a perfect priest.

To begin, then: a priest who serves Christ's
Church must know what his title signifies. Grasping
the significance of his name, he must exert himself

THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME 85

to be worthy of it. Since fcA^o? in Greek means a
'share,' priests are called this either because they
are the Lord's share, or because He is theirs. It
follows that one who is the Lord's share, or who
shares Him, must conduct himself so that he may
possess the Lord, and be in turn possessed himself.
Now whoever possesses the Lord and can exclaim
with the Psalmist, "My inheritance is the Lord,"
should own absolutely nothing else. By owning
something additional, that man cannot have Christ
as his inheritance: if, for example, you should pos-
sess gold or silver, real estate or expensive furniture,
Christ shall refuse to bestow your real inheritance.
To be an heir of the Lord means that I inherit
nothing from the other tribes, but instead, like some
ancient priest of Israel or a Levite, I exist solely
on the charity of my parishioners. My business is
to serve the altar; I am content then to live on
altar donations, and with the bare necessities of
food and a coat on my back, I shall be naked and
follow the naked cross. This is why I am begging
you repeating my words," as Vergil says, "over
and over again" not to regard the priesthood as if
it resembled your old army experience. Expect
neither spoils nor souvenirs when you fight in
Christ's army. If it happens that you accumulate
more material possessions than you owned when
you were ordained, then men may well say, "The
wicked have received their inheritance, but it shall
be unprofitable for them."

Welcome the destitute and strangers to your
modest dinner, and Christ shall also be your guest.
But above all, shun a priest who has climbed the
ladder of success: avoid him like the very plague.
"Bad company," the Apostle reminds, "can corrupt
a good way of life." Gold you despise; the success-

86 THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME

ful priest adores it. You trample money under foot,
and completely ignore it; he chases after it. In
silence, humility, and solitude you delight; he pre-
fers to gab on streetcorners, and to push himself
into the limelight on boulevards and in shops. What
could you have in common with him when your
ways are so contrary?

Seldom, if ever, should a woman's shoe step
through your front door. To all the young girls
and nuns show the same detachment, and the same
concern. But never remain under the same roof with
one of them for long: one's past continence is simply
not to be trusted. Holier than David, or wiser than
Solomon, you cannot be. Always remember that a
woman drove out Adam, the gardener of Paradise,
from the delightful garden that had been given to
him. If you take sick, for example, let another
monk nurse you, or your own mother or sister or
some woman beyond reproach. On the other hand,
if you have no relatives, or do not know any
reputedly virtuous lady, the Church maintains many
elderly women who can nurse you and also benefit
themselves: in this way even your sickness may bear
fruit as an incentive for an act of charity. But there
are cases I know where the body's recovery caused
an infection in the soul: how dangerous it is to gaze
into the face of your nurse!

Now, in the course of your priestly duties you
will probably have to visit widows and young un-
married girls. Be sure never to enter the house
alone. Always have a psalm-reader, an acolyte or
choirboy accompany you but whoever it may be,
their characters and not their vestments should make
them presentable. Their hair, for instance, should
not be curled by hot irons: their whole appearance
must guarantee their continence. And absolutely

THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME 87

never sit alone with any woman in some secluded
spot. Perhaps she wants to confide something per-
sonal? Is there no confidant at home, a nurse or
spinster aunt, a widow or married friend? Nobody
is so friendless that there is absolutely no one in
whom to confide.

Other people's suspicious thoughts is one more
thing to watch. Gossip may be invented from some-
thing you are doing? Then stop doing it. Frequent
gifts of handkerchief and stockings, or pressing your
lips to a woman's shawl or wrap, or nibbling at her
food, or scribbling flattering sweet billets-doux a
love that is holy has nothing to do with these things.
And the rest of lovers' inanities their absurd
phrases, "O my honey, my light, my one and only
desire," their delicate and charming little ways, their
laughter and appropriate sophistication these things
embarrass one on the stage, but are detested when
observed in mature men of the world. How much
more despicable, then, are such antics in priests and
monks men who adorn the priesthood by their
vows, and whose vows are adorned by the priest-
hood! This is not to hint that I fear such antics from
you, Nepotian, or, for that matter, from any other
pious man. Every order, every social class has its
honorable and dishonorable members. In con-
demning the bad ones, I also praise the good.

It is a shame to say it, but priests who serve pagan
idols, actors, charioteers, and prostitutes often in-
herit property, while a legislative act prohibits Chris-
tian monks and priests from doing the same. More-
over, this law was passed not by persecutors of the
Faith but by Christian Emperors.* This does not
infuriate me; I am only sad to think that our priests

* The Christian Valentinian. nullified bequests by widows and
yards to their spiritual advisers. See the Oodeac Theod. acvi. 2.20
(870 A.D.)

88 THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME

deserved it. Hot iron is a useful medical instrument:
but how did it happen that priests have a wound
needing such an instrument to burn and heal? Al-
though this law is quite severe and has considerable
foresight, greed among priests remains unchecked,
for by a trick of trusteeship the law is held up to
ridicule. It is as if imperial legislation carried more
weight than Christ's commands, for clearly many
priests, while holding the Gospels in contempt, fear
man-made laws. If there must be an heir, Mother
Church has first claim to her children's belongings;
after all, she brought her flock into this life, nourished
and reared it. How dare we place ourselves between
a mother and children?

Care of the poor and destitute glorifies a bishop,
but schemes for personal profit disgrace a priest.
Here is a priest of Jesus who was born into an im-
poverished farmer's family, and could scarcely obtain
enough cereal and bread to quiet a grumbling stom-
ach. Today, however, he turns up his nose at the
choicest morsels, and knows all the various kinds of
fish by name, and can ascertain on what particular
seacoast an oyster has been picked, and what area in
the country a bird has come from by its very taste:
the subtle variety in a dish, and all the waste of
money, affords him no end of delight.

One also hears of the degrading attention that old
childless people receive. Flatterers bring in the bed-
pan, squat by the sickbed, and, in their own hands
catch vomit and excrement. The doctor's arrival is
anxiously awaited; with quivering lips the flatterers
inquire about the patient's condition, and if the de-
crepit old man shows even a momentary recovery,
their greedy hearts are cut to the quick. All their
attention, they fear, has gone for nothing. This old
man with a grip on life seems to them another

THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME 89

Methuselah. How great their reward would have
been with the Lord if only they could forget about
an immediate material prize. So much sweat and
all for an empty legacy! Less work would have won
them Christ's peace.

Something a priest should always do is to study the
Bible; in fact, never let the Sacred Book out of your
hands. Learn so that you may be able to teach. In
order to exhort and refute heretics and those who
vulgarize sound doctrine, a priest must be able to
keep a firm grip on the words of orthodox Faith.
"Hold firmly to the things you have learned," Paul
teaches, "and believe them, knowing well the tradi-
tion from which they have been handed down."
Never contradict what you have said by your actions,
lest someday when you are delivering a sermon in
church some parishioner may mutter to himself, "Why
not practice what you preach, Father?" This man is
an excellent teacher a gourmet who stuffs his belly,
then lectures on fasting and abstinence. To accuse
the next man of being greedy is easy for a thief.
Mind and mouth should complement one another in
a Christian priest.

Above all, always obey your bishop; he is the
father of your soul. Sons love their fathers, slaves
their masters, but "if I am a father," asks the Bible,
"where is the respect due me?" In your case, Nepo-
tian, one man combines in himself several reasons
why you must respect him: Heliodorus is monk,
bishop, uncle. On the other hand, bishops should
realize they are priests, not masters. If they give
their priests a proper respect, the clergy in turn will
give them their due. On this point Domitius the
orator has an appropriate remark: "Why should I
respect you," he asks the Senate Leader, "when you
refuse to recognize me as an individual Senator? 1 *

90 THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME

Aaron and his sons give an example of how we
should regard a bishop and his priests. There is one
Lord, one Temple, one priesthood. To priests Peter
gives this memorable advice:

aaaiadifflBU.

Feed the flock of the Lord, which is among you.
Fulfill your duty as God would have it done
gladly, not like unwilling servants, not in expecta-
tion of "filthy lucre" but generously; not lording it
over your flock, but instead setting an example for
them. Do all this gladly, so that when the Head
Shepherd comes, you may receive a crown of
glory that never fades away.

ln*sSBB? churches there is a disgusting custom which
makes priests hold their tongue when a bishop hap-
pens to be present. The explanation usually offered
is that bishops either would be jealous of what priests
may say, or would consider it degrading to have to
listen to a mere pastor. In place of such a foolish
attitude, the Apostle Paul teaches that "if some
revelation comes to the man next to you, the one
who was speaking at the moment should hold his
peace. All of you may prophecy, one at a time, so
that all may learn and be comforted. Prophets must
exercise control over their spiritual gifts. God does
not cause confusion; He creates harmony." Since a
wise son is an honor to his father, a bishop should be
proud of his own sound judgment in the men he has
ordained for the service of Christ.

Do not seek applause when you are preaching, but
try to elicit a feeling of remorse: the tears of your
parishioners is your real reward. Constant reading
of the Bible seasons a priest's sermon. Be careful
that you do not speak too rhetorically, or too much,
or too emotionally. That you are well-versed in the
mysteries of the Divine Things of God is what your

THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME 91

sermon should reveal. Only ignorant men mouth out
words and by fast talk astonish an uneducated crowd.
Pretentiousness always tries to explain things it really
knows nothing about, and, by convincing others,
claims knowledge for itself. I remember once how
my old teacher Gregory of Nazianzus cleverly dodged
a question of mine about Luke's phrase: Sdfifiarov
ScvTtpoTrpwroy, "the second-first Sabbath." Instead
of answering, he said, "That I will explain in church,
so that when the congregation applauds what I have
said, you will have to pretend to know something
which you really do not understand: if you are the
only one silent, everyone else will consider you
stupid." Nothing is easier than by glib talk to trick
a third-rate crowd or an ignorant congregation. Here
is an anecdote about this from Cicero, who received
that splendid eulogy: "Demosthenes stole from you
the honor of being lite first great orator, but you stole
from him the honor of being the only one." During
his defense of Quintius Gallius, Cicero had this to
say about the stump-politicians and the cheers of
their crowds:

At these amusements I mention an event I saw
only yesterday a certain poet now rules the
roost. A literary man, this poet has published a
book, Conversations of Poets and Philosophers,
in which Euripides and Menander hold a conver-
sation, and, in another chapter, Socrates and
Epicurus men whose lives we know were sepa-
rated not by years but centuries. Yet what ap-
plause, what whistling he provokes! In the
theatres he has many followers; all of them
attended the same school as he did, and learnt
nothing.

When it comes to dress, avoid too conservative as
well as too conspicuous clothes. Ostentation and

92 THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME

carelessness both should be shunned: one smacks of
vanity, the other of pride. To walk around without a
fine silk shirt is scarcely something to brag about;
what matters is not having the money to buy one in
the first place. How silly it is to boast that you do
not even have a napkin or a handkerchief while all
the time your pocket is well-lined.

There are other religious I know who contribute
a few cents here and there only that they may
rake in a larger sum for themselves. Charity is the
coat beneath which they seek profit. Instead of call-
ing them generous men, call them 'hunters on the
prowl for charity.' Birds, animals, and fish are
taken in this way: a bit of bait stuck on a hook
snares a worthy lady's checkbook. The bishop who
has care of the particular church must know whom
he appoints to distribute funds to the poor. Far
better to have nothing to distribute than to beg for
charity for such disgraceful purposes. On the other
hand, it is a type of arrogance in some priests to
wish to appear more generous than the bishop him-
self. "To do everything is impossible." In the body
of the Church, one man is the eye, another the
tongue, another the hand or ear or stomach. How
one body is composed of different limbs and organs
may be found in Paul's letters to the Corinthians.
Merely because he knows nothing, a simple hay-
seed of a religious brother, for example, should not
consider himself pious; nor should a sophisticated
brother preen himself for having spoken so elo-
quently. Of the two blemishes, however, a holy
crudity is better than a sinful eloquence.

Nowadays, many people build churches with
walls and pillars of glowing marble; the ceilings
glitter with gold, the altar is conspicious with jewels.
Yet when it comes to choosing one of Christ's

THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME 93

priests, no care at all is shown. As far as wealthy
priests are concerned, let none of them argue that,
after all, the Temple at Jerusalem was extremely
rich, its tables, lamps, censers, dishes, cups, spoons
and all the rest of pure gold. These things the Lord
approved during a time when priests offered victims
in sacrifice, and sheep's blood was atonement for
transgressions. These were symbols "written to
admonish us for whom the end of the world had
come." Today it is an entirely different story.
Through His own poverty, Our Lord has consecrated
poverty in His house. Therefore, priests should
think of the cross, and consider their bankbooks
mere scrap-paper. "The Mammon of Evil" is what
Christ calls wealth. Then why do his clergy admire
it? But if we must insist on literal meaning, and
continue to find satisfaction in our bank statements,
we might as well follow out all the other implica-
tions: bishops should marry young virgins, and the
most able priest be defrocked if he happens to have
a facial scar or any kind of physical deformity, for
obviously leprosy is more dangerous than blemishes
on a mere soul. Furthermore, priests should all
marry, increasing, multiplying, replenishing the
earth; and no lamb dare be slain, or mystic Pass-
over celebrated, for these ceremonies are forbidden
by the Old Law when there is not Temple at
Jerusalem; instead, in the seventh month let Chris-
tian priests pitch their tents and with a trumpet
announce a solemn fast for all the people. On the
other hand, if all these literal commandments are
really spiritual in essence, and are compared with
genuine spiritual things, and we grant with Paul
that the Old Law itself is spiritual, and chant with
David, "Open my eyes, O Lord, that I may observe
the miraculous aspects of Your Law," and under-

94 THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME

stand these literal things as Our Lord understood
them when He explained the Sabbath to the Phari-
sees: then obviously we must reject wealth together
with all the other superstitions of the Hebrews.
Or, approving of money, we must approve of the
Hebrews as well.

Furthermore, avoid entertaining men of the
world, especially those whose heads are swollen by
success. Remember that you are the priest of a
crucified Lord, One Who lived in poverty and was
nourished by the food of others. It is disgraceful
for a priest to have secretaries and body-guards
watching in front of his door, or to serve the gov-
ernor a finer luncheon at your table than he re-
ceives in his mansion. If one attempts to ration-
alize such entertainment by claiming that it is done
for the sake of unhappy or mistreated people, why,
even a worldly judge pays more attention to a desti-
tute priest than to a wealthy one: piety in priests
is always more respected than a bank account. How-
ever, if the judge happens to be the kind of man
who enjoys a chat with priests over the wine bowl,
then I will gladly ignore his help, and turn to the
Lord Who is more able to assist than to judge. To
place your trust in the Lord rather than in men's
hands is far wiser, Nepotian: look to the Lord for
assistance, not to princes.

And never smell of liquor. Otherwise, the philos-
opher's aphorism may apply to you: "This is hardly
the kiss of peace he gives. It is the kiss of wine."
Priests reeking of alcohol are condemned by the
Apostle and forbidden to discharge their office by
the Law. Celebrants on the altar must not drink
wine or 'shechar.' (Shechar in Hebrew means any
intoxicating drink made from barely, fruit, or honey
boiled down into a raw sweet beverage, or pressed

THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME 95

dates or the thick syrup made from a corn decoc-
tion.) Any drink, in fact, that disturbs and intoxi-
cates the mind must be shunned. This is not to say
that Christians should condemn anything God has
created. Even Our Lord was said to have taken
an occasional glass of wine; and Timothy was al-
lowed liquor because of a weak stomach. What I
do mean, however, is that those priests who drink
had better have good justification, either age or
health or some constitutional pecularity. If I hap-
pen to have a vigorous healthy body, then I refuse
drink for I suspect it might be poison.

Considering what one should eat, the Greeks have
an excellent proverb (which probably loses some
of its pith in translation): "A fat paunch never
creates delicate feelings." Fast and abstain, then,
to the best of your ability, but only impose on your-
self what your constitution can manage. Fasts
should be pure, pious, simple, moderate, free of
affectation. What good is to abstain from oil and
seasoning, for eyample, and then ferret out the
most troublesome, esoteric dishes dried figs, pep-
pers, nuts and dates, wheat bread, rare honey,
pistachios? Every gardening skill is exerted to save
us from eating ordinary bread. Why, I have even
heard how some people strain against nature, neither
drinking water nor tasting bread, but gorging in-
stead on elaborate concoctions of crushed herbs and
beet juices, and using a distinctive shell instead of
an ordinary glass to drink from. Christians should
be ashamed of such antics. Talk of superstition,
affectation, giddiness! Disgusting, embarrassing! To
climax it all, through such antics some Christians
seek a reputation for abstinence. Bread and water
constitute the strictest fast; but since there is nothing

96 THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME

extraordinary about it, people consider it a pedes-
trian thing, not a fast at all.

Moreover, beware that you do not angle for com-
pliments. God's favor might be lost in the pursuit
of men's praise. "If I still seek to please men," the
Apostle warns, "I should not be God's servant."
When Paul ceased pleasing men, he became Christ's
slave. Through thick and thin opinion the soldier of
Christ marches, neither elated by flattery nor crushed
by adverse criticism; neither conceited when rich
nor dejected when impoverished: happiness and
sorrow alike he holds in contempt: the sun does not
blister him by day, nor does the moon burn by night.
So avoid praying in public places, for the wind of
popular admiration can interrupt the straight course
of prayer. Above all, do not try to dress like a holy
man by wearing relics as showpieces and strutting
around in Pharisaic ostentation. Instead of display-
ing piety on your sleeve, carry it in your secret heart,
for God's approval is far superior to satisfying the
gaze of men. Would you like to know exactly what
kind of ornaments God requires? Prudence, Justice,
Temperance, Fortitude: these should be one's car-
dinal display, the chariot to carry you, Christ's
charioteer, to your destination at full speed. No
necklace is more precious than these four, no jewels
brighter; they are a decoration, a vest, a defense, both
ornament and protection: jewels become shields.

Itching ears and wagging tongues are other dan-
gerous snares for a priest. Never, never run down
other people or listen to scandal-mongers, for if you
do "you sit talking against your own brother," as the
Psalmist reveals, "you slander your mother's son.
And when you did this, I held my peace, and in your
evil way you believed we were similar. But I shall
reprimand you, and force you to realize what you

THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME 97

have done." Be very careful, then, of what you say
about others : your own words will be used to judge
you, and what you have blamed others for shall in
the end be turned against you. It is no excuse to say
that when somebody tells a bit of gossip you must be
sociable and tell one in return. Nobody cares to
gossip in front of one who obviously does not relish
hearing it. An arrow never sticks in a hard stone,
but sometimes it boomerangs and wounds the archer.
Observing your reluctance, then, let scandal-mongers
learn to keep their dirt to themselves. "Never asso-
ciate with people fond of gossip," Solomon warns,
"for their own disaster shall suddenly come; who
knows what lies in wait for both of them?" Nobody
knows, that is, what disaster lurks for both gossip and
audience.

Thus, when your priestly duties include visiting the
sick, knowing the family life of your parishioners,
and sharing the secrets of the upper class, be certain
that your tongue as well as your eye is immaculate.
Above all, never confide to one family what is going
on next door. Before Hippocrates would instruct
medical students, he demanded obedience and made
them swear an oath: they were to remain silent, and
he would teach them their future vocabulary, com-
posure, way of dressing, and deportment. How much
more important such discipline is for priests commis-
sioned to heal diseased souls!

So, love every Christian family as if it were your
own. Our parishioners should know us as friends in
time of need, not merely as guests when prosperity
has come. All too soon a priest become contemptible
if, regardless of how often he is invited to dinner, he
does not refuse. This also applies to the matter of
receiving presents. Even if they are pressed on you,
refuse them, for somehow or other, the very person

98 THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME

who begs permission to offer you a present finds you
contemptible if you accept; on the other hand, if you
decline, it is peculiar how much more respect he
entertains for you.

Furthermore, one who preaches continence must
avoid being a match-maker of any kind. It is be-
wildering to see a priest, who certainly knows the
words of the Apostle, "Nothing remains but for men
who have wives to behave as if they had none," turn
around and urge some young girl to marry. If a
priest is a monogamist and he certainly is , why
should he attempt to make a widow into a bigamist
by advising a second marriage? And if priests are
taught to ignore even their own interests, then how
can they be agents and servants in other men's
affairs?

When it comes to distributing charity funds, re-
member that to rob a friend is stealing, but to rob
a church a sacrilege. If you are cautious and
hesitate about distributing alms when people are
starving, or, even more unforgivable, if you pocket
some of the money: this is the most henious theft,
more inhuman than any theft of a criminal's. That
man is starving: how can you estimate exactly how
much food he needs? So, either distribute your
funds immediately, or, if you are cautious by nature,
request the donor to dispense his gift himself. When
another human being is indigent, your wallet must
not be bulging. Who is able to discern a man's
immediate needs better than the man himself? To
keep back nothing for oneself: that is the sign of
a truly charitable priest.

Despite the abuse which greeted that letter on
virginity I wrote at Rome for saintly Eustochium,*

* The totter written Jn 884.

THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME 99

you have forced me, my dearest Nepotian, to speak
again after ten years here in Bethlehem. Once
again Jerome stands exposed to the cut of every
tongue. Criticism can only be avoided by writing
nothing whatsoever: but your request made this im-
possible. Were I to publish again, I realized that
sticks and stones would be hurled at me; but I beg
my critics and enemies to hold their peace, and
stop attacking me. In this letter I have not written
as an enemy but a friend. Sinners have not been
scolded; I have merely warned men against sin, and
have criticized myself as severely as I censured and
ridiculed men who abuse their calling to the priest-
hood. Before I attempted to pick out the speck from
my neighbor's eye, I have removed the beam from
my own. Whom have I hurt? Nobody's name has
been mentioned. Individuals have not been slan-
dered. This letter has been instead a general chastise-
ment of human failings. If anyone feels irritated with
what has been said, then, I am afraid, he confesses
that my description has fit him.

INVECTIVE AGAINST A BRASH MONK WHO

DARED TO CRITICIZE ONE OF

JEROME'S BOOKS

Bethlehem, 394 A.D.
Dear Father Domnio,*

This letter of yours sounds so affectionate and, at
the same time, so full of complaints. The affection is

* Domnio was a priest at Home. Elsewhere Jerome calls him "the
Lot of our generation," and addresses his prefaces to Ezra and
Nehemiah (894 A.I).) and two Chronicles (888 A.D.) to him.

100 THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME

your own, which prompts you to warn me assidiously
of impending danger, and to be "distrustful and
afraid of safest things," for you complain of those
who do not love Jerome and who seek in my sins
an excuse to calumniate me. In so doing, these peo-
ple babble against their own brother, they slander
their own mother's son. Of such enemies you write
rather, you mention one in particular: a gossiping
monk who exhibits himself all over the street, at
crossroads and in public places. This monk, it ap-
pears, is clever only at chicanery and at fabricating
malicious tales, and is so eager, in spite of the beam
in his own eye, to remove the tiny speck in his neigh-
bor's. Apparently he preaches in public against me,
and, with the teeth of a dog, nibbles, tears, rips to
shreds that book I published against Jovinian.*

Moreover, you mention that this home-made
master of dialectic, this mainstay of the Plautine
comedians, has never quite got around to reading
the Categories of Aristotle, nor even Aristotle's On
Interpretation or Analytics, nor even the Topics of
Cicero. Moving instead only in uneducated circles,
and frequently among groups of silly women, he
attempts to construct illogical syllogisms, and to
dissolve by subtle arguments what he is pleased to
call my sophisticated nonsense. What a fool I have
been to imagine that without philosophical training
one could not intelligently discuss these subjects!

* Jovinian, who had the reputation of being an indulgent and lusty
monk, had published at Rome a Latin essay in which he argued the
equality of the marital and virginal states, and the necessity for
moderation, if not abandonment, of ascetic habits. Because of some
of his unorthodox tenents for example, he argued that the birth of
Our Lord was a true parturition , his essay and teaching was con-
demned in synods at Rome and Milan about 390 A.D. Nothing more
is known of him except a delightful malicious account Jerome gives
of his death: "surrounded by pheasants and dishes of pork, Jovinian
breathed out, or rather belched out, hig spirit." Against Vigttantiws,
1 (406 A.D.)

THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME 101

Oh, how stupid I was to suppose that correction
was a more vital part of composition than the first,
hasty draft! How much valuable time I squandered
studying the Commentaries of Alexander, and, when
one of my learned teachers tried to put some logic
into my skull by using Porphyry's Introduction To
Logic how terribly trivial! While I am at it, I
might as well ridicule all the liberal arts, for ob-
viously I have learned absolutely nothing by having
merely Gregory of Nazianzus and Didymus the
Blind as catechists when I commenced the study
of Holy Scripture. As for my proficiency in He-
brew more idle folly! And folly, too, is that daily
scholarship and meditation I have given since adole-
scence to the Law and the Prophets, the Gospels
and the Acts and Letters of the Apostles.

In this monk we have, behold! a man who has
achieved intellectual perfection without the assistance
of any teacher. Why, he is a veritable tribute to the
Spirit, a "God-taught" genius! Talk of eloquence?
he surpasses Cicero. When it comes to argument, he
shames Aristotle, and his insight and prudence leaves
Plato eating dust. All the vast erudition at his com-
mand easily exposes Aristarchus; and when it comes
to the number of books our monk has published,
Didymus, that man of brass, has just begun to write.
Not only Didymus, in truth, but our monk humiliates
all contemporary Christian authors by his knowledge
of Scripture.

Why, it is said that one merely has to suggest a
subject to him and, like Carneades, he insists on
arguing both sides at once: in the same debate, now
he defends the concept of justice, for example, now
he argues against it. That day he neglected his law
studies and sidled over into the Church, the world
escaped from a tremendous peril; and law suits con-

102 THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME

cerning inheritance and civil cases, argued before the
College of the Magistrates, were saved from a
yawning abyss. Had our monk been unwilling to
argue in court, who could have ever been proved
innocent? And what criminal would not have been
pardoned through his defense once he began tallying
the points on his fingertips and spreading his syl-
logistic nets? It would have been so elementary: he
would have merely had to stamp his foot, fix that
penetrating eye of his, screw up his forehead into
an ominous wrinkle, flap his hands about in the air,
twirl his beard, and, at once, dust would have been
flung into the jury's eyes.

No wonder, then, that such a master of Latin,
such a magnificent orator, overwhelms and batters
down poor Jerome. Having been absent from Rome
for some time, I have had but little opportunity to
speak the language in fact, I am little better than
a barbarian. No wonder I am beaten. Why, his
eloquence has even crushed Jovinian in face to face
debate. Good sweet Jesus! what? even Jovinian, that
majestic and clever man? So clever indeed that
nobody comprehends his writings, and when he
sings, he warbles only for himself and, of course,
for the Muses.

I beg you, my dear Father, warn this monk not
to employ language contrary to his vocation. Tell
him not to ruin with his babbling the chastity he
professes by his monk's habit. Whether he chooses
to be celibate or married and the choice must lie
with him , he must not compare virgins with wives,
for that would merely frustrate his fierce life and
death struggle with Jovinian's flow of eloquence.
Our monk delights, I am told, to pay social calls
to the cells of nuns and holy widows, and, with
Ms forehead solemnly knit, to lecture them on

THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME 103

sacred literature. Now what exactly is it that he
teaches these females in the secrecy of their cells?
Does he wish to demonstrate to his own satisfac-
tion that nuns are no better than married women?
Or does he instruct them not to neglect the flower
of their young years by advising them to gorge
and guzzle, to frequent public baths, to cultivate
a sophisticated way of living, and not to scorn the
use of perfumes? Or does he preach asceticism
chastity, fasting, and neglect of their bodies? What-
ever precepts he teaches, they are no doubt, inflated
with virtue. If so, let him confess in public what he
teaches in private. On the other hand, if his private
instruction resembles his public one, then he should
remain aloof from the society of young virgins.

Even though he is still quite a young man, he
is also a monk in his own eyes, it appears, a very
polished and eloquent monk: do not pearls flow
from his lips, are not his elegant monologues
moistened and sprinkled with comic salt and charm-
ing wit? Consequently, I am astonished that he
fails to blush with shame for frequenting aristocrats*
estates, lingering so long over visits to married
ladies, and making our religion a subject for
quarrels, distorting the faith of Christ with his con-
tentious verbiage, and among all this, for detracting
and abusing one of his brothers in the Lord.

Of course he may not actually have abused me.
He may simply have condescended to pass judg-
ment that Jerome was in error, for, after all, "in
many things we offend everybody," and "if any
man does not offend someone through his words,
then he is a perfect man." But if this be the case,
then perhaps he himself should have written to
accuse or to question me about my book. (That is
precisely what Pammachius did that scholarly and

104 THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME

noble man. To him I defended myself to the best
of my ability, and in a lengthy letter tried to ex-
plain the precise meaning of my words.) At the
very least, our monk might have had the diffidence
which prompted you to select from my book against
Jovinian those passages which seemed to be offen-
sive, asking me for corrections or explanations,
and not supposing that Jerome was so demented
that in one and the same book he should have de-
fended matrimony and also assaulted it.

Let our monk spare himself, me, and the Chris-
tian name. Instead of prating and arguing, he
should become a real monk, curbing his tongue and
sitting very still. The words of Jeremiah should
ring in his ears, "It is good for a man that he
learns to bear the yoke in his adolescence. And
because he bears his burden, he sits alone and keeps
silent." Otherwise, if he does not feel inclined to
be this kind of monk, then he really has the right
to wield the censor's stick and wallop all other
authors, fancying himself a person of vast erudition
because he alone comprehends Jovinian "Balbus
knows best what Balbus means," you know the old
proverb. Still, as Atilius the dramatist reminds us,
not everyone is a writer.

Even Jovinian himself an unlettered man of
letters if there ever was one will in all justice
announce this truism to our monk. "That the bishop
contemns me is not reason but treason," Jovinian
will shout at him. "From nonentities I want no
answers; men, who while commanding the authority
to smother me, have not the intelligence to instruct
me. Only a man whose language I can understand

THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME 105

should be able to criticize me. The opponent I
deserve is one whom, if I can vanquish him, I can
overcome everyone. How well I know this kind
of opponent:

Give credit to an experienced soldier:
How powerfully he rises behind his shield,
With what fury he hurls the spear.

Robust in argument, he is full of snares, tenacious,
one who cleverly fights with his head lowered.
How often has he clamored and shouted against me
in the streets from one night to the next. Well-
built, his muscles are those of an athlete. But
secretly I believe him to be a follower of my
teaching. Nothing embarasses him, he never stops
to consider what he is saying: all he desires is to yell
as loud as possible. So celebrated is his eloquence
that his aphorisms and maxims are held up as models
to our curly-headed school children. How often at
social gatherings and meetings has he roused me
and lured me into white-hot anger, how often has he
spat upon me, tnen departed spat upon himself!
But these are such vulgar methods of argument:
even my hangers-on can effect them. I appeal instead
to his books, those memorials handed down to pos-
terity. Let us speak of our writings, and then the
silent reader may judge between us. And since I lead
a flock of disciples, he is allowed to have one also
flatterers and parasites worthy of the Gnathno and
Phormion* who is their leader!" Indeed, Jovinian
and our monk are fit opponents.

It is not difficult, my dear Domnio, to chatter and
blubber on streetcorners and druggist shops, and to
pass judgment on the world. "This man gave a fine

* Offensive characters in Terence's Eunuchus and Phormio.

106 THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME

talk," so the pompous verdict goes, "but that one is
a rotten speaker. This one knows Scripture, that one
is delirious. So-and-so is much too garrulous, but the
trouble with this other is that he never opens his
mouth." But just who is it that considers himself so
estimable he is competent to judge everyone else?
To rattle up and down the street censuring another
person, and to gather naughty tales, not actual
crimes, is merely to be like some parasite kept around
for entertainment, or some quarrelous gossip.

Instead of such activity, let our monk stretch out
his hand and, taking up his pen, stir himself to set
down in a few essays all the accusations he is able
to muster against me. All I ask is an opportunity
to reply to his tremendous eloquence. Bite for bite
I can return if I feel like it. I can fix these teeth
fast in my opponent. Believe it or not, I too have had
a liberal education: "I also have snatched my hand
away from teacher's cane," as Juvenal remembers;
and Horace's phrase too could apply to me, "Run far
away from him, he has hay on his horns." But above
all I prefer to be the disciple of Him Who says, "I
offered my back to those who would flagellate me. . .
And I did not avert my face when they spat and
abused me." When He was abused, He did not abuse
back. After the striking of blows, after the cross and
scourge and blasphemies, at the very last moment
He prayed for those who crucified Him, begging,
"Father, forgive them, for they know not what they
do."

In the same way I forgive the mistake of a brother.
The devil's art, I am certain, has deceived him.

Because he was considered clever and eloquent
among the females, when my little book arrived at
Rome, terrified that I might be a rival, our monk
attempted to pilfer the laurels from me. No man on

THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME 107

the face of this earth, he decided, should satisfy his
eloquent self that is, no man except one who com-
manded power without seeking it, and was more
feared than favored. Why, such an experienced and
adroit monk: he wished, like a veteran soldier, with
one swipe of the sword to cut down two enemies, and
to make it quite evident to the public that, whatever
view he might feel like taking, Scripture always stood
firmly behind him. Well then, he must condescend
to send me his own view on matrimony and instruct
these garrulous mistakes of mine not by reprehending
but by correcting them.

Just let him try to do it. There is another kind of
forceful argument, he will soon discover, besides that
practiced around the dinner couch. He will learn
that it is one thing to cackle about the doctrines of
Divine Law among the spindles and wickerbaskets
of the girls, and quite another thing to dispute about
them among educated men. As it is, freely and with-
out the slightest hesitation, he bawls out and hurls
vituperation: "Jerome condemns marriage!" And
while he sprawls among pregnant women, whining
infants and marriage beds, he remains so taciturn
about what the Apostle said on celibacy, so that he
may invidiously calumniate poor, defenseless me.

When he eventually comes around to writing some
essays and grappling foot to foot with me at close
quarters, then he will either expose what my book
really said, or stick to what his earlier criticism ex-
posed. Sweat he will, but he will have to stick it out.
Epicurus and Aristippus* will be far away, nor will
come to his assistance, and their pregnant sow, Jovi-
nian himself, will not so much as emit a grunt. For
I am able to exclaim with Turnus:

* According to both of these philosophers, pleasure is the highest
good of the human condition.

108 THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME

O Father, I can hurl a spear

And pitch a sword with a powerful right hand:

Blood streams from the wounds I make.

If he refuses to write down his arguments, how-
ever, imagining that scurrilous abuse is the same as
honest criticism, then, despite all the countries,
oceans and peoples between us, he must hear at last
the echo of this shout of mine: / do not condemn
matrimony! Finally, in order to make my meaning
quite clear, let me state that I should definitely like
to see every man take a wife the kind of man, that
is, who perhaps is frightened of the dark and just
cannot quite manage to lie down in his bed all alone.

CALLING A LECHEROUS PRIEST TO REPENT

Bethlehem (date uncertain)
Sabinian:*

When the Lord finally repented that He had ever
anointed Saul to rule over Israel, Samuel mourned
for the king. And when Paul heard that there was
sexual abuses among the Christians at Corinth and
such perversions that not even the Gentiles had prac-
ticed! he begged them with sadness in his heart to
remember what they were. "When I return to visit
you, I fear that my God will have humiliation in store
for me; and I am afraid I will weep for many of you
who have sinned and refused to repent of your im-
pure, adulterous, lascivious acts."

* Unfortunately nothing more 10 known about this prieet.

THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME 109

Now, if a prophet and an apostle, both immaculate
in their lives, could speak with such clemency, how
much more earnestly should a sinner like myself
plead with a sinner like you? Having fallen into sin,
you refuse to rise. In fact, you will not so much as
lift your eyes to heaven; and having squandered your
father's substance, like the Prodigal Son you wallow
and delight in the husks eaten by swine. The preci-
pice of pride you have climbed, and now hurdle into
the abyss below.

Sabinian, that belly of yours is your god, not
Christ. Lust's slave are you. All your glory rests in
your shame; and, like a victim for sacrifice, you con-
tinue to fatten yourself for the slaughter, imitating the
behavior of those ignorant of their approaching tor-
ment. Do you not realize that the goodness of God
calls you to repentance? But with a stubborn im-
penitent heart, you "continue to treasure and hoard
for yourself retribution against the Day of Wrath."
Or is it that your heart, like that of Pharoah, is
hardened because you have not yet been struck down,
and your day of punishment has not arrived? The
ten plagues were sent down on Egypt by a warning
father, not by an angry God, affording Pharoah an
ample opportunity to repent. But when through the
desert he pursued the people of Israel whom he had
previously promised to release and then even dared
to enter the Red Sea, destruction overtook him. De-
struction was the only way in which Pharoah could
learn that He is to be feared Whom even the forces
of nature serve. "I know not the Lord," he had
shouted, "I will not permit Israel to depart." And
you imitate him when you mutter, "The vision he
sees concerns distant days, he prophecies for the
remote future." Yet the Lord God announces, "None

110 THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME

of My words shall be prolonged, the word I have
spoken shall be accomplished."

Concerning the impious and wicked and you
have revealed yourself to be not merely another in-
significant example of impiety, but a paramount
one David the holy man observes that in this world
they rejoice in prosperity; and he argues: "How does
God know? Is there knowledge in the Most High
One? See, these are the sinners who prosper in this
world, increasing in wealth." Then, all but losing his
footing and staggering where he stands, David con-
tinues, "Why, it is to no purpose that I have kept my
heart pure and have washed my hands among the
innocent," for he had previously said:

I envied the iniquitous, seeing how the ways of
sinners prosper. Firm in their strength, they have
no respect for death. They do not share the suffer-
ings of mankind; they are not plagued like others.
Pride guards and supports them, their iniquity pro-
tects their sins. When sinners' eyes gaze out, there
is fatness in them, for they have more than the
heart could desire. All the ways of evil they know,
and they are forever discussing evil things. Setting
their mouths against heaven, they walk with their
tongues on the earth.

Does not this entire psalm seem to describe your-
self? Certainly you are vigorous, healthy; and when
you are discovered for what you are in one city, like
a new apostle of the Antichrist, on to the next you
move. Money you do not need; no crushing blow
strikes you: you do not deserve the afflictions other
men must bear who are not, like you, an irrational
beast. Pride elevates you, lust covers you like some
fine vestment. Out of your bloated, flabby carcass
wheeze words of death. You never consider that one

THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME 111

day you must die, nor do you ever feel the slightest
twinge of remorse after you have satisfied your lust.
Truly, you have more than the heart could desire!

And so that you may not feel lonely in your evil
ways, you invent scandals about people who are
God's servants. In so doing, you fail to realize that
you are blabbering iniquity against the Most High,
setting your mouth against heaven. It is no wonder
that the great, as well as the minor servants of God,
should be blasphemed by you: your fathers did not
hesitate to call Christ, the master of the house,
"Beelzebub." "The disciple is not superior to his
teacher, nor is the servant above his master." If
they were so hard on the new green tree, what will
they do to a tree like myself that is already wither-
ing? Your whole attitude, in fact, was once well ex-
pressed by the outraged believers in the book of
Malachi. "It is vain to serve God," they complained:
"What does it profit us to keep His commandments?
What good is it that we have walked as supplicants
before the face of the Lord of Hosts? Nowadays, we
call the proud m? .n happy, and all those who created
evil are flourishing. Even those who tempt God are
delivered safely." But after such times, the Lord
threatens a day of judgment, announcing beforehand
the future distinction that shall be made between the
righteous and the unrighteous: "Turn back and dis-
cern between the righteous and the unrighteous man,
between the one who serves God and the one who
does not."

All of this may seem ridiculous to you, for you
delight so much in comedies, lyrics and mimes like
those of Lentulus. But so blunted is your intellect
that I will not even admit the clear, simple language
of the Bible can be understood by you. If you want,
be contemptuous of the words of the prophet; but

112 THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME

Amos will answer, "For three or four transgressions,
should I not turn away from him, asks the Lord."
Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Edom, the Ammonites and
Moabites, the Jews and children of Israel all refused
to hear God's voice, although He had always proph-
esied that they should turn about and repent. So the
Lord, wishing to demonstrate that His coming wrath
was justified, employed the words already quoted,
"For three or four transgressions, should I not turn
away from them?"

"It is wicked," says God, "to entertain evil
thoughts, yet I have allowed it. More wicked, indeed,
is it to translate wicked thoughts into action, yet in
My mercy and beneficence I have permitted even
that. But should the evil thought become the evil
act 9 Should men in their pride trample on My
clemency? Nevertheless, I derive no pleasure from
the death of evil men, My pleasure comes when the
evil are penitent. Healthy people have no need of a
doctor, but diseased ones have: even after the sinner
sprawls polluted in his own blood, I extend a hand,
exhorting him to wash away his blemishes with tears
of repentance. If he persists in refusal, if after ship-
wreck he will not grasp the plank that alone can save
him, then am I forced to say, For three or four trans-
gressions, should I not turn away from him? asks
the Lord."

This turning away, Sabinian, is punishment in it-
self, since the sinner is abandoned to his own devices.
And this is how God visits the sins of the fathers
upon their children unto the third and fourth genera-
tion, not punishing those who sin immediately, but
pardoning the first and condemning the last. Other-
wise, if God immediately avenged the sin, the Church
would lose many of her children, and certainly would
have been deprived of Paul the Apostle.

THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME 113

Ezekiel the prophet, whom we have quoted above,
reiterates the words God spoke to him, saying:
"Open your mouth and eat what I have given you.
And behold! a hand holding a book was extended to
me, and the hand opened the book in front of me,
and there was writing on both sides: lamentations, a
song, and a story of woes." The first writing pertains
to you if you are willing to repent of sins after
having taken pleasure in them. The second concerns
holy men and women called upon to sing praises to
God, for "praise from a sinner's mouth is not beau-
tiful." Finally, the third, the story of woe, once again
pertains to men like you who in despair have aban-
doned themselves to filthiness and fornication, to
their bellies and the lowest kinds of lust men who
suppose that death is the end of everything and that
nothing exists beyond it, saying, "When the storm of
ruin comes, it shall not affect us." The book de-
voured by the prophet is the whole of Scripture,
which beats its breast over the penitent, sings about
the righteous, and curses the people who despair.

Nothing is more repugnant to God than an im-
penitent heart. Impenitence is the one sin from which
there is no forgiveness. For if a man who ceases to
sin is pardoned even after committing his crime, and
if prayer has efficacious power to sway the judge, it
follows that every impenitent sinner provokes the
judge to a towering anger; and so it is that despair is
the one sin for which there exists no remedy.

Furthermore, so that you may recognize that every
day God summons sinners to repentance sinners
who by obstinately refusing twist God's clemency into
severity and wrath listen to Isaiah's words:

In that day the Lord God of Hosts called for weep-
ing and mourning. Heads were to be shaved, and

114 THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME

sackcloth put on. But instead, all is joyous and
gladness; oxen are slain, rams slaughtered, wine
consumed. Let us eat and drink, the people say,
for tomorrow we shall die.

After these words, filled as they were with the au-
dacity coming from profound despair, the Scripture
continues, "And it was revealed to my ears by the
Lord of Hosts: Never shall I forgive this sin until
the day you die." Only when people become dead
to sin shall their sin be forgiven. As long as they
live and breathe in the atmosphere of sin, sin shall
never be forgiven.

I implore, I beg you, Sabinian, to have mercy on
your soul. Believe that God will judge you in the
future. Remember the great bishop who ordained
you. That holy man was mistaken in his choice; but
such an error is more than possible for men to make.
God Himself repented that He had ever anointed Saul
as king, and even among the twelve original apostles,
Judas was discovered to be a traitor, while Nicholas
of Antioch, one ordained in the priesthood like you,
was the man who spread the Snakeworshipper heresy
and all other manner of impurity.

Sabinian, I refuse to mention here the staggering
number of virgins you are said to have seduced; nor
will I mention those ladies of the aristocracy who,
violating their marriage by taking you as lover, were
publicly executed by the gladiator's sword for adul-
tery; nor will I even mention what filthy houses of
prostitution, what hells you have crowed in like a
rooster. These are indeed enormous sins. But how
trivial compared to the ones I must now describe!

How immense that sin must be next to which
seduction and adultery are insignificant! You miser-
able human being!

THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME 115

Whenever you enter that cave in which the Son of
God was born, the cave where Truth sprang out of
the earth and the land yielded its fruitful crop, it is
to dirty the location with an assignation. Have you
no fear that the Infant will cry out from the manger?
Or that the convalescing Virgin will observe you,
that the very Mother of God will gaze upon you?
The Angels sing, the shepherds hasten to the crib,
the great star blazes, the Magi come to adore, Herod
is terrified, Jerusalem thrown into confusion and
here comes Sabinian creeping into a virgin's bower
in order to seduce her. I quake with fear, I am
wretched, a cold shiver races through my whole body
and soul when I try to imagine what you have ac-
complished. While the whole Church was keeping
vigil by night and proclaiming Christ as Lord, and
while praises of God were being sung in many
tongues but in one spirit, you were squeezing billets-
doux into the cracks and openings of what is now the
altar of the Lord as once it was His manger, choosing
this place above all so that your victim, your miser-
able victim, might find and read them when she came
to worship there. Then, assuming your place among
the choir of psalmsingers, with impudent nods,
winks, and gestures you communicated with her.

Shame on your abomination! I cannot continue;
sobs precede my words, indignation and grief chokes
me in the very act of speaking. O where is the ocean
of eloquent Cicero? Where are the rushing torrents
of Demosthenes? Yet here, here I am certain both
would remain silent; here their words would be
numb. A deed has been done which no eloquence
could explain, aT crime has been brought to light
which no mime could imitate, no comedian could
use for laughs, no Atellan farce could possibly stage.

116 THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME

It is customary in Egyptian and Syrian convents
for virgins and widows, having vowed themselves to
God and renounced the world and trampled on all
its pleasures, to request the Mother Superior of the
community to cut off their hair. Afterwards, they do
not walk about with uncovered heads contrary to the
Apostle's command, for they wear a close-fitting
head-dress and a veil, and, in fact, nobody knows
anything about it except the nun and the Mother
who shears her hair but still the practice is uni-
versal and is almost universally known, and has be-
come a kind of second nature with nuns. Its purpose
is practical: to protect women who never bathe, and
never employ ungents on their heads and faces, from
accumulating dirt and those tiny creatures which
occasionally flourish in unkempt hair.

Now let us examine how you, my good friend, per-
formed in such sanctified surroundings.

First you promised to marry your unhappy victim.
In the venerable cave you snipped a few locks of her
hair, and took a few handkerchiefs and a girdle as
pledge of her dowry, swearing you would never adore
another woman as you adored her. Then you
hastened to the place where the shepherds were
watching their flocks and the angels singing overhead;
there, once again, you pledged your troth. I say no
more. I do not accuse you of kissing or embracing
her. No outrage is beyond you, but the sacred nature
of that stable and that field forbids me to think you
guilty except in your will and heart.

Contemptible Sabinian! When you first stood next
to the virgin in the cave, were not your eyes dimmed
by a mist? Was not your tongue paralyzed, your
chest trembling? Did not those arms drop to your
side, and your steps become unsteady? After she
had been consecrated in the flaming love of Christ in

THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME 117

the basicila of Peter the Apostle, after the holy ex-
perience of the Lord* s Crucifixion, Resurrection and
Ascension to which she offered herself as a victim
later in her convent how did you dare to accept her
hair and take it to bed with you, the same hair she
had given to Christ in the cave?

After the event, you used to squat beneath her
convent window from twilight until early morning;
and when you were unable to come closer because of
the high window, you sent presents up to her on a
string, and she returned little things to you. How
very diligent her Mother Superior must have been is
evident by the fact that you never saw your lady
except in church; and that, though both of you shared
the one inclination, you could discover no way of
conversing except through a window at night. When
the morning sun rose so I was informed later you
used to slink away much against your will. Blood-
less, shrunken, pale was your face, and, to remove all
suspicion, you were forever reading Christ's Gospel
like a true deacon. Along with others, I attributed
your pallor to lasting, and admired your etiolated
lips, usually so healthy, believing they originated from
frequent night vigils. All the time you were getting
a ladder ready to fetch the miserable nun from her
cell. Details of the "elopement" had been arranged,
passage aboard ship purchased, the day settled
everything had been carefully planned, when, behold!
the angel who guarded Mary's cell and watched over
the cradle of the Lord and carried the infant Christ
in his arms the angel in front of whom you had
committed these things, he betrayed you.

O my polluted eyes! O that day, worthy of all
curses, on which I read your letters in such con-
sternation, letters which I must remember to this

118 THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME

hour! What obscenities, what blandishments, what
exultations over the prospect of a seduction! A
deacon should not even have known about such
things, much less have spoken them aloud. Where
did you ever learn them, you vile creature? You who
once boasted you had been literally reared in the
Church! It is true that in those letters you swore you
had never led a chaste life, or that you were ever
really a deacon; but attempt to disown the letters
now, and your own handwriting will contradict you,
the very pages will howl out against you. In the
meantime, take all possible advantage of your sin,
for it is impossible to actually carry out what you
wrote.

After that, you threw yourself at my knees, you
fawned, you begged me I use your own words to
spare "your half -pint of blood." What a contemptible
wretch you are, Sabinian. Neglecting God's judg-
ment, you dreaded only my vengeance. I admit I for-
gave you. Being a Christian, what else could I have
done? I urged you to repent, wear sackcloth and
roll around in ashes, to seek solitude and live in a
monastery, to implore the mercy of God with per-
petual tears. Instead, you insisted that you were a
pillar of goodness; and, excited by the sting of the
snake, Sabinian became a twisted bow shooting ar-
rows of abuse at me. I have become your enemy
because I told the truth. But do not think I complain
about your insidious ingratitude: who does not know
that you only praise and commend men as disgraceful
as yourself? What I am beating my breast about is
the fact that you do not beat your own breast, that
you fail to realize you are already dead, that, like
some gladiator preparing for the rites of Libitina,*

* The goddess of funerals. Gladiators were engaged to fight at the
funeral pile in honor of the dead.

THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME 119

you deck yourself out for your own funeral. Swad-
dling yourself in delicate linen, loading your fingers
with signet rings, rubbing powder on your teeth, you
carefully part and arrange that thin hair on your
brown skull; and that bull neck of yours bulges with
fat, not slack in the least from your lusty perform-
ances. Moreover, you are insane about perfume,
bathe frequently, and wage war against the hair al-
ways 'sprouting on your body. Ambling through the
forum, in the public streets, you are a gjittering pol-
ished lover. "Your face has become the face of a
prostitute; you do not know how to blush." Return
to the Lord, O miserable man, return and the Lord
will return to you. Repent, and He will repent of all
the evil He has proposed to bring down upon you.

Why is it, Sabinian, that, ignoring your own
wound, you attempt to discredit others? When I offer
the best possible advice, why must you attack and
bite me like a madman?

Possibly it is true that I am as degenerate as you
publicly claim; if so, you can repent along with me.
Or if I am the tremendous sinner you maintain, then
you can imitate this sinner's tears. Are my sins your
virtues? Or does it soothe and comfort your misery
to believe that many others conduct themselves just
like you? Let a few tears drop on the silk and linens
in which you appear so splendid, so gorgeous. Real-
ize that you are naked, torn, unclean, a beggar. It is
never too late to repent. You have traveled down
from Jerusalem and been wounded on the road; yet
the Samaritan, lifting you to His breast, will bring you
to the inn and care for you. Even though you are
lying in your grave, Sabinian, and your corpse reeks,
the Lord will rise you up again.

At the very least, imitate those blind men for
whose sake the Lord left His home and heritage and

120 THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME

came to Jericho. They were sitting in darkness, in the
shadow of death, when light blazed upon them; hear-
ing that it was the Lord passing by, they began
clamoring, "O Son of David, have mercy on us." If
you cry out like this about your present condition,
and fling away those filthy clothes when Christ sum-
mons you, your sight too will be restored. "When
you turn around and mourn for yourself," so Isaiah
says, "then you shall be saved and shall recognize
where you have been." Let Him but touch your scars
and pass His hands over your eyes, and though you
were blind from the womb and your mother had con-
ceived you in sin, the Lord shall sprinkle you with
hyssop and you shall be cleansed whiter than snow.
Why so bowed to the ground, so completely sub-
merged in dirt? That woman whom Satan had
shackled for eighteen years approached the Savior
and her crooked body was straightened so that she
could gaze at the heavens above. What God said to
Cain He repeats to you, "Have you sinned? Hold
your speech!" Then why do you flee from the face
of God in order to dwell in the land of Nod? Why
struggle in the waves when you are still able to plant
your feet upon the Rock?

See to it that Phinehas does not run you through
with his spear while you are fornicating with the
Midianitish woman. After you have polluted this
nun, a virginal sister to you like Tamar was to
Amnon, why do you change into an Absalom and
desire to slay a David who mourns over your re-
bellion and death? The blood of Naboth cries out
against you, the vineyard of Jezreel, the very "seed
of God", cries for vengeance because you have trans-
formed it into a garden of voluptuousness, a seedbed
of lusts. To you an Elijah is sent announcing suffer-
ing and death. Bow down then, put on sackcloth for

THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME 121

awhile, and perhaps God will address you as He once
did Ahab: "Do you notice how Ahab humbles him-
self before Me? Therefore I will not bring evil in his
days."

Possibly you flatter yourself that you resemble the
bishop who ordained you deacon. I have already said
that the father is not punished for his son, nor the son
for his father. "The soul of the one who sinned shall
die." The sons of Samuel turned away from the fear
of God, preferring avarice and iniquity. Eli was an-
other holy priest, but he too had sons. In the Hebrew
book of Kings we read how they fornicated with the
women come to the tabernacle of God, and that these
sons had even claimed, with great audacity, the right
to administer priestly duties. For this the tabernacle
itself was overthrown, and God's sanctuary was made
desolate because of the abominations of those priests;
and even Eli himself offended God when he was too
lenient toward such sons.

Therefore, instead of believing that the righteous-
ness of your bishop will save you, realize it is to be
feared that he may be hurled from his seat and perish
irretrievably because of your conduct. Uzzah the Le-
vite was struck dead merely because he attempted to
prevent the Ark whose special duty it was for him
to carry from toppling to the earth. What punish-
ment, then, do you think waits in the future for you
who have tried to pitch over the Ark of the Lord
even while it stood firm? The greater the bishop who
ordained you, the more detestable are you for dis-
appointing such a man. His prolonged ignorance of
your malevolent ways is easy to understand. We are
generally ignorant of those scandals affecting our own
homes, and of the sins our children and wives com-
mit. In any event, all Italy was aware of your con-
temptible Mfe, and people everywhere complained

122 THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME

that you still served on the altar of the Church. Hav-
ing neither sufficient cunning nor prudence to conceal
your crimes, you were so hot, so lecherous, so las-
civious, so dragged about by this or that sexual
delight, that, after satisfying your carnal appetites,
you bragged about each affair as if it were a military
triumph and displayed the trophies of victory.

Once, the flames of lust possessed you among bar-
barian swords and barbarian marriages when you
committed adultery with a barbarian wife of great
social prominence. Such courage you were not
afraid to conduct an affair in a house where the in-
jured husband might have punished you without legal
assistance. Delighting in cultivated gardens, and at-
tracted by the fashionable suburbs, you treated the
woman as your wife, not your adulterous mistress.
Eventually she was caught; but you escaped through
an underground passage and in secret fled to Rome.
There you hid among some Samnite thieves. But at
the first news that the husband, like a Hannibal cross-
ing the Alps, was descending down on you, on to a
ship you scurried so swift was your flight that you
chose to face a storm at sea rather than take the con-
sequences on land. Somehow or other you reached
Syria. From there you wished to continue to Jeru-
salem where, you claimed, you wanted to serve the
Lord. Who would not welcome a man claiming to be
a monk, especially if, ignorant of your tragic life, he
had only read those letters commending you which
your bishop had written to other prelates? You
despicable man! Once here in Bethlehem you trans-
figured yourself into an angel of light. Pretending to
be a minister of righteousness, in reality you were a
minister of Satan. A real wolf in sheep's clothing.
After having committed adultery with the wife of a

THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME 123

mere man, here you longed to commit it with a wife
of Christ.

My sole purpose in recounting these events has
been to draw a picture of your degenerate life, so that
your sins may glare plainly in front of your eyes. I
want to prevent you from twisting the Lord's mercy
and abundant clemency into an opportunity and ex-
cuse for future transgressions. You simply must not
crucify the Son of God a second time, exposing Him
to another humiliation. This you may avoid, Sabi-
nian, if you become like "the earth that continues to
drink in water from the showers falling on it, and
which then produces a crop satisfying the needs of
the men who farmed it." This earth receives the
blessings of God. But if you continue to be "the soil
that bears thorns and thistles," it is rejected, a curse
placed on it, and in the end it will crackle in flames.

IRONICAL ATTACK ON ST. AUGUSTINE

Bethlehem, 402 A.D.

To my master, the truly pious and most blessed
Father Augustine, Jerome sends salutations
in the Lord:

When our holy son, Asterius the subdeacon, was
almost on the point of beginning his journey, that
letter of Your Blessed Self arrived in which you
maintain you did not send to Rome a book written
against insignificant me. Why, I had not even heard
you had done so. But certain copies of a letter ad-
dressed to me have been delivered by Sysinnius, our
brother the deacon, in which I am encouraged to sing

124 THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME

a palinode, confessing a blunder I am supposed to
have committed regarding one of the Apostle's
writings.* Furthermore, I find myself advised to
imitate the poet Stesichorus who, fluctuating between
vituperation and praise of Helen, by eventually com-
mending that lady, recovered the eyesight of which he
had been deprived for having depreciated her.

In all simplicity I recognize your eminent author-
ity, although the style and method of the letter did
seem to me to be your own; nevertheless, I did not
rashly want to believe the authenticity of a letter of
which I had only seen copies, lest if you were of-
fended by my reply you could maintain that it was
my obligation first to have ascertained that you com-
posed the letter. Another reason for my delay was
the lingering illness of pious, venerable Paula. For a
long while I gave her comfort; I had all but forgotten
your letter or, more correctly, the letter written in
your name , remembering the verse: "A story out
of season is like music in the time of mourning."
Therefore, if it really is your letter, write me frankly
that it is, or send me a more accurate copy so that
we may discuss scriptural questions without more
petty rancor. Then I may either correct my own

* The letter referred to was actually written by Augustine in 394
or 895 (Ep xxviii), although Jerome apparently did not receive a
copy until nine years later. Others, however, had copied it at Borne
and distributed it in the West.

In the letter Augustine censures an explanation offered by Jerome
for the scene in Galatians 2.11-14. Jerome had suggested that when
Paul reproves Peter at Antioch for inconsistent compliances with
Judaism, it was merely a feigned dispute arranged between the two
apostles in order to clarify the matter for the sake of the assembled
brethren. In other writings also Augustine had questioned Jerome's
exegesis.

Some of the irony in this present reply may be heightened by re-
calling that Jerome was Augustine's senior by nine years, although
the younger man was already Bishop of Hippo. Eventually the two
became friends again, but only because of the tact and patience of
Augustine.

THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME 125

error, or demonstrate that another has without reason
exposed me in such a reprehensible fashion.

Far be it from me to presume to attack any book
composed by Your Blessed Self. It is sufficient for
me to articulate my own views without tearing to
pieces what others maintain. But it must be obvious
to a man of your discernment that one is satisfied
with his own opinion, and that it is but puerile brag-
gadocio to seek prominence as young men in all
times have done by attacking famous men. I am
not so stupid as to feel insulted when your explana-
tions differ from mine, because you are not provoked
if my views contradict yours. But true reprehension
occurs among friends when each, not observing his
own wallet, observes, as Persius has it, the wallet car-
ried by the other. Furthermore, love one who loves
you, and just because you happen to be young do
not challenge a veteran in the field of Scriptural com-
mentary. Each of us has his alloted time, each runs
the race to the utmost of his endurance. Now is your
time to race and ichieve great distances for our side;
it is no more than fair that I rest, and while I am re-
posing I may, with your indulgent permission, quote
from the poets, lest you seem to be the only one
around who is able to refer to them: remember the
contest between young Dares and ancient Entellus,*
and the common proverb, "The weary ox treads with
a firmer step." With melancholy I have dictated these
words. If only I could receive your embrace! If we
could only participate in a mutual conversation, in-
structing and learning from each other!

With his usual lack of sensitivity, Caipurnius Lana-

* Aeneid 5.369

126 THE SATIRICAL LETTERS OF ST. JEROME

rius* has sent me his scurrilous, abusive books, which
I hear he has been at some pains to distribute around
Africa. These I have answered briefly, and only in
part; and I have sent a copy of my essay to you, in-
tending at the very first opportunity to put a longer
version in your hands when I have leisure to complete
it. In this essay I have been careful not to hurt any-
one's Christian sensibilities: the only intention was to
confute the hallucinations, the lies arising from
Rufinus' ignorance and madness.

Remember me, O saintly and venerable Father.
See how deeply I love you: even when I am asked,
I am unwilling to reply, and I refuse to believe that
you wrote something which, if another man had writ-
ten it, I would vigorously reprehend. Our brother
Communis begs to send his greetings to you.

* A nickname Jerome had griven to his once-great friend, Rufinus
of Aquileia, with whom he had bitterly quarreled in later years. They
wrote several malicious books against one another. The nickname
here, according to Freemantle, is from a character in a burlesque very
popular in the fourth century, "The Pig's Last Will and Testament."

MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS

MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS 129

EULOGY FOR AN OLD SCHOLAR

The desert of Chalcis, 374 A.D.
Venerable Paul,*

The punishment for man's sins is the extreme
brevity of his life. And the fact that, even on the
very threshold of life's light, death constantly chases
after the new-born infant, proves that every day we
degenerate a bit more in our depravity.

For when the first gardener of Paradise had been
entangled in the coils of the serpent, and had been
forced to descend onto this earth, although his im-
mortality was changed into a mortal, dying condition,
yet the sentence of man's curse was postponed for
nine hundred years, or even longer a period so long,
in fact, that it might even be called a second im-
mortality. Afterwards, however, sin broke out more
violently, till the impiety of the Giants dragged after
it the shipwreck of the whole world. Then when the
world had been purgated and washed, as it were, by
the baptism of the Flood, human life was shrunken
to a very brief span of years.

Yet even this span was polluted by us, so per-
sistently do our evil ways struggle against the Divine.
How few men there are who either live beyond their
hundredeth year, or living beyond it, do not regret
they have done so. As it is written in the book of
Psalms, "Our days come to seventy years. If they

* Paul of Concordia was a centenarian when Jerome wrote thin
letter. He owned a fine theological library.

130 MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS

continue to eighty, whatever is left over, is it not so
much labor and sorrow?"

You may ask, Why such far-fetched opening re-
marks, so remote that one might use Horace's wit-
ticism against them:

Back to the holy eggs themselves

He traces the cause of the Trojan war.

It is simply that I wanted to describe in an appro-
priate manner your great and venerable age, and to
compare your white head with Christ's. For look, the
hundredth circling year is already passing over you,
and yet, always keeping the commandment of the
Lord, you meditate on the blessedness of that life to
come while you are still amid the circumstances of
this life. Your eyes are keen, bright, your step vigor-
ous, your hearing sound, your teeth are white, your
voice melodious, your body firm, full of sap. That
healthy complexion of yours belies your white hairs;
your strength is hardly that of an old man. Advancing
years have not as one often sees* them doing dis-
solved the tenacity of your memory; and the coldness
of your blood has not blunted an intellect at once
warm and acute. Neither is your face wrinkled nor
your forehead furrowed. And no trembling troubles
your hand, or causes your pen to move erratically
over the page as you write on.

In you the Lord shows other Christians the blos-
soming of the Resurrection. In other men who while
still living die inch by inch, we recognize the effects
of sin; but in your case, venerable Paul, we recognize
that it is through righteousness that you remain so
young at a totally inappropriate age. Even though we

MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS 131

observe a similar physical health in men who are sin-
ners, in their case the devil grants them health so that
he may lead them into evil; but your health is a gift
which God grants so that you may rejoice.

"Innate frivolity and erudite vanity" was how
Cicero described the learning of the Greeks in his
brilliant defense of Flaccus. And it is true that their
leading literary men used to receive money for de-
livering eulogies praising Greek kings and princes.
Following their example, I set a price on my own
praise here. Nor should you think my request is a
small one. You are asked to give me the pearl of the
Gospel, "the eloquent words of the Lord, pure words
like silver taken from the earth and purified seven
times in the fire." I would like to see your copy of
in Commentaries of Fortunation and the History of
Aurelius Victor for its account of the persecutors,
and along with these the letters of Novation. Once
we learn the poisons of these schismatics, we may
glady drink the antidote supplied by the holy martyr
Cyprian.

In the meantime I have sent you that is, to old
Paul a Paul who is more ancient still.* While writ-
ing this book I have worked very hard to bring my
language down to the more simple level, but some-
how or other, though you fill a jar with ordinary
water, it always retains the odor of the liquid with
which it was first filled. If my little present should
happen to please you, I have others of another kind
which, if the Holy Spirit blows favorably, shall navi-
gate across the sea to you along with all sorts of
oriental merchandise.

* Jerome's Life of Paul, Th Hermit Of MffVpt, written in 874.

132 MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS

ON THE ART OF TRANSLATION

Bethlehem, 395 A.D.
My dear Pammachius,*

When the Apostle Paul appeared before King
Agrippa to answer the criminal accusation brought
against him, desiring to be articulate and understood
by his audience, and confident of a victory for his
cause, began his defense, almost as if rejoicing, with
these words: "I consider myself fortunate today, O
King Agrippa, because I am to defend myself in your
presence against these charges of the Jews. No man
is more familiar than you with Hebrew customs and
controversies." Obviously Paul had profited from
that aphorism in Ecclesiasticus which calls a man
fortunate if he addresses ears that listen; and he had
realized that an orator only succeeds in proportion to
the impression he creates. So it is that on this oc-
casion I consider myself fortunate that your educated
ears will hear my defense against the accusation of
ignorance and falsehood charged to me by an in-
experienced, bumptious tongue. This tongue, it
seems, claims that I have made mistakes through
misinterpretation or carelessness when I translated
into Latin a letter written by another in Greek. Of
error, or of a downright crime, it would convict me.

* PaxnmachiuB, a Koman senator, had married one of Paula's
daughters. But on the death of his young bride, despite his promising
political career Pammachius became a monk. Later he established at
Portus what became a famous Hospice for strangers and trayeUers.

MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS 133

Now, lest it should happen that my accuser,
facilitated by a loquacity which stops at nothing
and an impunity which grants itself all possible li-
cense, should actually convict me he has already
charged 'criminal' action against our Pope Epiphani-
us , I am writing this letter to you, and hope that
it will also reach others who consider me dignified
enough for their affection. I feel compelled to in-
form my friends of the true facts of this situation.

About two years ago Pope Epiphanius sent a letter
to John, Bishop of Jerusalem, in which he exposed
some of John's opinions, and then, in a mild way,
called him to penitence. So great was the reputation
of the author, or else the elegance of the letter, that
all Palestine fought for copies of it. Now there was
in our monastery a man of considerable distinction
in his own country, one Eusebius of Cremona; when
he discovered that this letter was on everyone's
tongue, and that the cultured and uneducated alike
admired it for its doctrine and the purity of its style,
Eusebius begar to entreate me to translate it for him
into Latin, and, at the same time, to arrange and
simplify the content so that he could more easily
understand it, for he had no knowledge of Greek.
This I agreed to do. Calling a secretary, I quickly
dictated a translation, briefly paraphrasing on the
margin the argument in each main section. The point
is that Eusebius asked me to translate a copy only
for himself; and in return I requested that he keep the
copy private and not circulate it publicly.

Eighteen months passed; then, by a novel strata-
gem, the translation 'migrated' from his desk to
Jerusalem. It was the work of a wolf in monk's
clothing. Either he was bribed to steal it as there
is good reason to believe or he was prompted by

134 MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS

his own malice, as his corruptor* vainly attempts to
convince us. In any case, he showed himself another
Judas by pilfering Eusebius' property, and his theft
afforded the adversary an occasion to brawl against
me. So now my enemies tell the uneducated Chris-
tian crowd that Jerome falsified the original letter,
that Jerome has not translated word for word, that
Jerome has written "beloved friend" in place of
"honorable Sir," and that more disgraceful still!
Jerome has maliciously condensed by omitting the
epithet "most reverend." These, and similar trifles,
constitute my criminal acts.

At the very beginning, before I defend my trans-
lation, I wish to interrogate those men who call
cunning and malice prudence. Where did you obtain
your copy of my translation? Who gave it to you?
How dare you display something obtained by your
fraud? What place will be safe when a man cannot
keep his secrets even behind his own walls and in his
private desk?

If I were to bring such charges against you before
a civil court, I could subjugate you to the laws which,
even in financial cases, appoint penalties against in-
formers and condemn a traitor even while they ac-
cept his treacherous information. Civil courts clearly
welcome the advantage supplied by traitors and in-
formers; what they disapprove is the motive behind
betrayal. Not too long ago a consul named Hesy-
chius, against whom the patriarch Gamaliel waged
an important war, was condemned to death by Em-
peror Theodosius simply because he had obtained
possession of some official papers by bribing a sec-

* It is likely that Ruflnus is meant here. And one may suppose
that he is the "heretic" addressed from time to time in the letter.
Ruflnus was at Jerusalem at the time, and had sided with Bishop
John in the Origenistic controversy.

MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS 135

retary. And in the ancient histories we also read
that the tutor, who betrayed the Faliscan children,
was sent back to his boys and delivered to them in
chains because the Romans refused to accept a vic-
tory through the dishonorable means he offered; and
when Pyrrhus, King of Epirus, was lying wounded in
his camp, his doctor went to the enemy and offered to
poison him, but the enemy general Fabricius, think-
ing it a disgrace that the king should perish by such
treachery, sent the traitor back in chains to his mas-
ter, for he would not approve of a crime even when
the victim happened to be his enemy. This principle,
then, preserved by public laws, held sacred even
during a state of warfare, had been unquestioned
also among monks and priests of Christ. Can any
one of them presume now, knitting his eyebrows and
snapping his fingers, to belch and say, "What if a
monk did bribe, or employ other inducements? He
only did what suited his purpose." An astonishing
way to defend fraud! As if bandits, thieves, and
pirates did not do the same! It could be as truly
said that when Annas and Caiaphas seduced mis-
erable Judas they merely did what they thought ex-
pedient.

If I happen to write in my notebook this or that
absurd remark, or to comment on Scripture, to bite
back at my calumniator, to chew at my irritation, to
exercise my style in the use of idiomatic phrases, or
to store up sharp arrows for a future battle: so long
as I do not publish my thoughts, they are hardly
malicious or criminal; it is never a question of libel
if the public ear does not hear the thought. O my
enemy,* you may corrupt my servants and solicit
my supporters, and, as the fable reads, you may

* Buflmis.

136 MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS

penetrate into Danae's brazen tower, and then con-
cealing what you have done, call me a liar. But, do-
ing so, will you not have to plead guilty yourself to
a more serious accusation than any you are able to
bring against me? One man blames you for being a
heretic, another for being a perverter of orthodox
dogma. How silent you remain. Not daring to
answer, you lacerate the translator of the letter,
concocting false charges against mere syllables, and
imaging your defense complete if the one you de-
tracted remains silent. Suppose that I have commit-
ted some mistake or omission in my translation:
your entire case hinges on this trifling point. What a
defense! If I happen to be a poor translator, does
that absolve you from being a heretic? Now I do not
say you are heretical such indictment I leave to
Epiphanius who wrote the original. All I do say is
this: it is most foolish on your part when you are
accused by one man to turn and attack another, and
when your body is covered with wounds to find
comfort by stabbing one who is still peacefully sleep-
ing and unconcerned.

In the above remarks, Pammachius, I have as-
sumed that I did make some alterations in my trans-
lation, and that a simple version like mine may con-
tain errors but not mistakes of criminal proportion.
On the other hand, since the translation shows that
no changes have been made in the sense, and that no
extraneous doctrine has been fabricated into it, ob-
viously, as Terence says, "Their purpose in under-
standing is to understand nothing"; and while my
enemies desire to demonstrate another's ineptitude,
they really exhibit their own. Now I not only admit
but freely announce that in translating from the
Greek except of course in the case of Holy Scrip-

MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS 137

ture, where even the syntax contains a mystery I
render, not word for word, but sense for sense.

For this practice I have behind me the authority
of Cicero himself; he employed it in his versions of
Plato's Pythagoras, the Oeconomicus of Xenophon,
and those two noble and beautiful orations which
Aeschines and Demosthenes delivered against each
other. What additions, omissions and alterations
Cicero made, substituting the idiom and peculiarity
of his own language for the original Greek this is
not the place to say. As far as I am concerned, it
will be suffiicent merely to quote his own justification
for translating as he did. "I have considered it
right," Cicero remarks in the prologue to the Latin
version of the above orations:

I have considered it right for me to undertake a
labor which, though not necessary for myself,
should prove useful to other students. Here I have
translated the noblest speeches of two of the most
eloquent Attic orators, the debate between Aes-
chines and Femothenes; but I have not interpreted
and rendered them as a mere translator but as an
orator, maintaining the sense but altering the form
by adapting both Greek metaphors and diction to
suit our own manner of speaking. Not thinking
it necessary to render word for word, I have re-
produced the general style; but I have not imag-
ined myself obligated to pay out each and every
word to the reader; instead, I have paid out an
equivalent in value.

This justification is repeated at the prologue's con-
clusion:

If my orations are found, as I hope they will be,
true to this principle, I shall be satisfied. In trans-

138 MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS

lating this debate I have employed all the virtues
of the original, that is, the sentiments and meta-
phors and order of the different parts. On the
other hand, the literal wording has been followed
only as far as I could without offending our notions
of taste. If all that I have written is not to be found
in the Greek, I have at least attempted to make the
translation correspond with the original.

Similar advice is given by Horace, an acute and
learned man, in The Art Of Poetry when he tells
the intelligent translator:

Try not to render words literally
Like some faithful translator.

Menander has been translated by Terence, the ancient
comic poets by Plautus and Caecilius. But do they
ever stick to the literal words? or instead, do they at-
tempt to preserve the beauty and elegance of their
originals? What is called fidelity in "interpretation"
the learned designate as pestilent minuteness.
Twenty years ago, my teachers favored such minute-
ness; and even then I remember being the victim of
a mistaken notion of translation similar to the one
which attacks me today, though I must say I never
imagined that even you would look askance at my
way of translating. When I put into Latin the
Chronicle written by Eusebius of Caesarea, among
other remarks in the preface I said: "In the fol-
lowing sentence composed by another man, it is
difficult not to diverge somewhere; and in translating
it is hard to preserve the beauty of idiom which in
the original is most distinguished. Each particular
word has a significance of its own. Possibly I have
no equivalent by which to express some word, and

* Keucofi?X/ap is &* plirase Jerome uses. The translation, of the
phrase here ifl from Freemantle.

MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS 139

if I then must go out of my way to reach the goal,
miles are spent to cover what in reality is a short
city block. To this difficulty must be added the
windings of word transpositions, the dissimilarities in
the use of cases, the varieties in figures of speech,
and, most difficult of all, the peculiar vernacular
marrow of the language itself. If one translates each
and every word literally, the passage will sound
absurd; and if by necessity I change anything in the
order and wording, it will seem that I have abused
the function of translator." Then, after a lengthy
discussion, which would be a bit boring to follow
here, I added the following: "If anyone does not see
how translation adulterates the charm of the original,
let him squeeze Homer word for word into Latin
I will even go further and ask him to render Homer
into Latin prose: the result will be that the order of
the words will seem ridiculous, and that the most
eloquent of poets will be hardly articulate."

Now if my own opinion seems to lack authority
in quoting the above my only object was to establish
that from my adolescence I have always attempted to
translate the substance, not the literal words read
and consider this short preface from a biography of
St. Antony of Egypt:

A literal translation from one language into an-
other conceals, as with a coat, the original sense,
just as an exuberance of grass strangles the crops.
Diction is subject to grammatical cases and figures
of speech; and when used for translation must
explain by weary circumlocution what a few words
would otherwise make evident. This blemish I
have attempted to avoid in translating, at your
request, the life of blessed Antony. Although my
version is hardly literal, I have preserved the seme.

140 MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS

Others may chase after syllables and exact dupli-
cate words, I have only regarded the substance.*

Time would run out if I were to mention all those
who have translated according to this principle. Here
it is sufficient to notice Hilary the Confessor as an
example for the rest. When he turned some homilies
on Job and several Psalms from Greek into Latin, he
did not bind himself to the drowsiness of literal trans-
lation, or allow himself to be chained to the literalism
of an inadequate culture, but, like some conqueror,
he marched the original text, a captive, into his native
language.

That secular and ecclesiastical writers should have
adopted this attitude when translating need not
astonish us when one considers that the Seventy
Translators of Alexandria,! the Evangelists and the
Apostles have done the same with the Sacred Books.
One reads, in Mark for example, of the Lord say-
ing, Talitha cumi, and the text immediately adds:
"this is interpreted: 'Young woman, I say to you,
Arise.' " Now the Evangelist could be accused here
of deceit for having added the words, "I say to you,"
to the original Hebrew sentence. To emphasize this
command in the original, "Young woman, Arise,"
and to convey the impression of one calling, Mark
amplified "I say to you." Again, in Matthew, when
the thirty silver pieces are returned to Judas, and

* From the preface written by Bishop Evargius of Antioch to his
Latin translation of St. Athanasius* famous Life of Antony.

f Sometime late in the third century B.C., these seventy scholars
compiled at Alexandria a translation of the whole Pentateuch into
Greek. According to a pious Christian legend, much admired even by
St. Augustine in Jerome's time, the scholars found themselves im-
mured in seventy separate cells and, working independently, and
under divine inspiration, each one produced a version which agreed
perfectly with all the others. Three years after the above letter was
written, Jerome had lost all faith in the supernatural origin of the
Septuagint translation. See his preface to the Vulgate Pentateuch
(PL 28. 150 ff.)

MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS 141

the potter's field is purchased with them, it is writ-
ten, "And so the word was fulfilled which was
spoken by Jeremiah the Prophet: 'And they took
the thirty pieces of silver, the price of him who was
appraised, for the men of Israel valued him, and
spent them to buy the potter's field, as the Lord had
appointed me.' " But this sentence is not found in
Jeremiah at all; it is in Zechariah, and even then in
quite different words and a completely different
order. In fact the Vulgate edition has it, "And I will
say to them, If it seems good, pay me my wages; or
if not, then refuse them. So they paid me for wages
thirty pieces of silver. And the Lord commanded
me: Put the silver into the furnace, and test if it has
been tried as I have been tried by them. And I
gathered the thirty pieces and cast them into the
Lord's house." It must be apparent how radically
the Septuagint translation differs here from the
quotation given by the Evangelist; and in the orig-
inal Hebrew, though the sense is identical with that
in the Septuag'nt, the words are dissimilar, and are
quite differently arranged. The original reads: "And
I said to them, If it seems good in your eyes, give
me my wages; and if not, withhold them. So they
weighed for my thirty pieces of silver. And the
Lord said to me, Cast the pieces to the potter, a
good price I was priced at by them. And I took the
thirty pieces of silver and cast them to the potter
in the house of the Lord." Should one accuse the
Apostle Matthew of adulterating his translation?
It agrees neither with the Hebrew original, nor with
the Greek Septuagint, and, worse than that, one
could claim that Matthew has mistaken even the
author's name, attributing the passage to Jeremiah
instead of Zechariah.

142 MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS

Far be it from Jerome, however, to speak like
this about a follower of the Christ. The truth is
that Matthew made it his business to formulate
dogmas rather than scurry after words and syllables.

To illustrate this, here is another example from
Zechariah quoted from the Hebrew by John the
Evangelist: "They shall gaze on him whom they
pierced." This phrase the Septuagint renders, "And
they shall look upon me because they have mocked
me"; and in the Vulgate, "And they shall look upon
me for those things they have mocked or insulted."
Here are three discrepant versions, yet the variety
in the phrasing is brought into concord by a one-
ness in the spirit.

Another place in Matthew one reads of the Lord
preaching flight to His Apostles, confirming His
counsel with a sentence from Zachariah. "It is
written," He tells them, "I will strike the shepherd,
and the sheep shall be scattered." This reads dif-
ferently in both Septuagint and Hebrew, for it is
not God Who speaks in person, as the Evangelist
has it, but the prophet who petitions God the
Father, "Strike the shepherd, and the flock shall be
scattered." According to my opinion and I have
prudent commentators with me here the Evange-
list is guilty of a fault in presuming to attribute a
phrase to God which the prophet utters. Again, the
same Evangelist, Matthew, writes that, at the warn-
ing of an angel, Joseph took the Infant and His
mother, traveled into Egypt and remained there
until Herod died; these events occurred, according
to Matthew, so that the Lord's words, spoken
through the mouth of the prophet Osee, might be
fulfilled, "Out of Egypt I have summoned my son."
The Latin manuscripts do not give the quotation in

MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS 143

this way, for the authoritative Hebrew text has the
following from the Book of Osee, "When Israel
was a child I loved him then, and called my son out
of Egypt." This the Septuagint translates, "When
Israel was a child I loved him then, and called his
sons out of Egypt." Now, are the Vulgate and
Septuagint to be repudiated because they have al-
tered a passage referring primarily to the mystery
of Christ? Or would it be better to forgive the
translators on the ground of human fraility, using
as justification that saying of James, "In many
things we offend everybody. If any man does not
offend by what he says, then he is a perfect man
and able also to restrain the whole body."

One further example should clarify this point.
"And He came and resided in a city called Naza-
reth," Matthew writes, "so that the prophets' saying
might be accomplished: *He shall be called a Naza-
rene'." Let those men affecting to use only the most
felicitous phrase, those fastidious critics of every-
thing that is published, tell us where they first read
the above quotation in Matthew. They cannot?
Then let me inform them that the source is from
Isaiah, for in the passage which reads and translates,
"There shall come forth a bough out of the stem
of Jesse, a bough should grow from its roots," in
the Hebrew idiom this reads, "There shall come
forth a bough out of the stem of Jesse, and a
Nazarene shall grow from his roots." How can the
Septuagint omit the word Nazarene? Why, is it not
forbidden to substitute one word for another? It is
sacrilegious to conceal or disregard a mystery of
God.

But we should move on to other examples. The
brevity of a letter forbids one to linger over a single
point.

144 MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS

The same Matthew says elsewhere, "Now all this
was accomplished to fulfill the word spoken by the
prophet, Behold, a virgin shall receive seed in her
womb, and shall deliver a son, and you shall call
him Emmanuel." If one cavils over words, obviously
"to receive seed" is not the same as "to be with
child," and "you shall call" is not exactly equivalent
to "they shall call." Furthermore, in the original
Hebrew one reads, "Behold, a virgin shall conceive,
and bear a son, and she shall call him Emmanuel."
No\y Ahaz shall not call Him this, for he was con-
victed of a lack of true belief; nor shall the Jews,
for they eventually denied the Lord; but it is the
virgin herself, who is to conceive and bear Him,
who shall name Him.

Even greater discrepancies may be discovered in
another passage from Matthew the one in which
we read how Herod was disturbed at the Magi's
arrival, and how, gathering the scribes and priests,
he demanded that they inform him where the Christ
was supposed to be born. They replied, according
to Matthew, "In Bethlehem of Judaea: for thus it
is written by the prophet, And you, O Bethlehem in
the land of Judah, are not the least among the
leaders of Judah, for out of you shall emerge a
leader who shall rule my people Israel." In the Vul-
gate this passage stands, "And you, O Bethlehem,
house of Ephratah, are a small part among the
thousands of Judah, yet one shall emerge from you
for me to be a prince in Israel." You will be even
more astonished, Pammachius, at the discordancy
in words and order between Matthew and the Greek
Septuagint if you refer to the Hebrew, which reads,
"And you, O Bethlehem Ephratah, though you be
little among the thousands of Judah, yet out of you

MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS 145

he shall emerge to me who is to rule in Israel."
Consider the Evangelist's phrase word by word.
For his "the land of Judah," the Hebrew has
"Ephratah" while the Greek gives "the house of
Ephratah." Again, Matthew's "are not the least
among the leaders of Judah," becomes in the Sev-
enty Translators "are a small part among the thou-
sands of Judah," while in the original it is "though
you be little among the thousands of Judah." Here
is a contradiction and not merely a verbal one
between the Evangelist and the original prophet
and the Greek version which agrees, here at least,
with the Hebrew. Notice that the Evangelist says
he is not small among the rulers of Judah, while the
original passage says exactly the contrary: "you
are indeed small and insignificant; but small and
insignificant as you are out of you shall emerge a
leader in Israel," an opinion, by the way, similar
to that of the Apostle when he remarks, "God has
chosen the infirm things of the world to confound
the powerful things." And finally, the last clause
in Matthew, "*vho shall rule" or "who shall feed
my people Israel" clearly runs differently in the
original prophet.

Now I have not referred to these passages in
order to convict the Evangelists of falsification an
indictment applicable only to impious men like
Celsus, Porphyry and Julian Apostate. To bring
home to my critics their own paucity of informa-
tion, and to obtain from them such consideration
in the matter of a mere letter which, whether they
like it or not, they must concede to the Apostles in
the Gospel: this was my only intention.

One or two more illustrations might help to es-
tablish my case. Mark, the disciple of Peter, begins

146 MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS

his Gospel, 'This is the beginning of the Gospel of
Jesus Christ, as it is written in Isaiah the prophet:
Behold, I send my angel before your face who shall
prepare your way. The voice of one crying in the
wilderness, Prepare the way of the Lord, straighten
his paths." Two different prophets, however, were
called on here to make this one quotation: the first
half, "Behold, I send my angel," comes from Ma-
lachi, the second, describing lie voice in the wilder-
ness, from Isaiah. On what grounds, then, has Mark
attributed the entire prophecy to Isaiah, when it is
really a compound of two prophets? Ignorant pre-
sumption may solve this trifling question that is,
if it is able and I will in turn beg pardon for the
way in which I translated Epiphanius' letter.

The same Mark, however, brings in front of us
the Savior addressing the Pharisees, "Have you
never read what David did when he and his follow-
ers were hard pressed and hungry? David entered
the House of God in the days when Abiathar was
high priest, and ate the bread of proposition which
only the priests could lawfully eat." If we confirm
the source of this incident in Samuel (commonly
called The Book of Kings) , we discover that the high
priest's name was not Abiathar but Ahimelech, the
same who later was executed with the other priests
of Doeg at Saul's command.

Similar trifling mistakes occur in the Apostle Paul.
To the Corinthians he writes, "If they had known
it, they would not have crucified the Lord of glory.
But, as it is written, Eye has not seen nor ear heard,
nor has it entered into the heart of man, the things
God has prepared for those who love him." Some
Biblical commentators trace the source of Paul's
quotation to the ravings of the apocryphal books,
maintaining that the phrase comes from the Reve-

MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS 147

lation of Elijah. The fact, however, is that Isaiah is
the real source, for, according to the Hebrew text,
"Since the very beginning the ear has not heard, nor
has the eye perceived those things which, O God,
besides Yourself You have prepared for those who
wait for You." This passage the Septuagint alters
considerably, "Since the beginning we have heard
not, neither have our eyes seen any God besides
You and Your true operations, and You will show
mercy to them who wait for You." Understanding,
then, the actual source of the quotation, one notices
that Paul has not translated literally word for word,
but, using a paraphrase, has given the sense though
in different phrasing. One more example from St.
Paul could be found in his letter to the Romans,
where he quotes the following selection from Isaiah,
"Behold, I place in Sion a stone to stumble on, an
offensive rock." Strangely enough, here Paul's quo-
tation disagrees with the Greek version, yet agrees
with the original Hebrew. A completely opposite
meaning is given by the Septuagint, "that you should
not fall on an offensive rock or a disastrous stone."
And when Peter employs the same passage he
agrees with both Paul and the Hebrew, "For men
who do not have faith, a stone to stumble on and
an offensive rock."

For all these examples it should be apparent
that the Apostles and the Evangelists in quoting
from Old Testament sources have tried to communi-
cate the meaning rather than the literal words, and
that they have not cared greatly to preserve exact
phrases and sentence constructions, so long as they
could clearly present the substance of their subject
to men's understanding.

One of the most striking misquotations is made
by Stephen, Christ's first martyr, in the story he

148 MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS

narrates to the Jewish Assembly, according to St.
Luke's Gospel:

With seventy five souls (Stephen recalls) Jacob
traveled down into Egypt, and died there himself;
and our fathers were removed to Sichem, and laid
there in the graveyard purchased by Abraham for
a sum of money from the sons of Hamor.

One discovers that in Genesis this story is quite an-
other matter. There, Abraham actually purchases a
double cave and its neighboring field from Ephron
the Hittite, son of Zohar, and eventually buries his
wife Sarah in this new graveyard. As far as Jacob
is concerned, after he returned with his wives and
sons from Mesopotamia he pitched his tents near
Salem, a city of Shechem in Canaan, and there he
remained, purchasing "a piece of land where he
encamped from Hamor, father of Sichem, for the
sum of a hundred lambs. After constructing an
altar on this land, Jacob invoked the God of Israel."
Obviously then, Stephen the Martyr is wrong: Abra-
ham bought the field from Ephron, not Hamor; he
was not buried in Sichem but in Hebron, corruptly
called Arboch; and the twelve patriarchs, "our
fathers," were not laid in Arboch but in Sichem, in
the graveyard purchased by Abraham, not Jacob.

I am going to postpone any solution to this deli-
cate problem of misquotation and paraphrase, so
that my critics may have time to compare texts and
sources, and realize that in dealing with the Bible
one must consider the substance and not the literal
words,

One more example of this, however, might be
edifying. In Hebrew the twenty-second Psalm opens
with the exact words Our Lord later utters from

MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS 149

the cross "Eli, Eli, lama sabachthani? iny God,
my God, why have you abandoned me?" Perhaps
my learned critics can enlighten me why the Greek
translation inserts the imperative, "look down on
me," right after the invocation, "My God, my God."
They will answer, I have little doubt, that no harm
is done to the meaning by adding a few additional
words. Then let them also realize that, if in the
rush of dictating my translation to Epiphanius' let-
ter, I have omitted a word here and there, I have
not jeopardized the position of the churches.

To enumerate what noticeable additions and
omissions the Septuagint has made, and catalogue
all the passages in church copies marked by aster-
isks and daggers, would, I am sure, be tedious in-
deed. But there is another problem that should be
mentioned here. The Jews usually ridicule our Greek
version of this sentence from Isaiah, "Blessed is the
man who has seed in Sion and servants in Jerusa*
lem," and also the phrase in Amos following the
description of luxurious living, "They have thought
of these things to be halting and not likely to fly" a
very rhetorical sentence, by the way, worthy of
Cicero himself. But the question is: how shall
Christians deal with the authentic Hebrew text when
these two sentences above and others like them are
omitted in the Septuagint, passages so numerous that
it would take an infinity of books to reproduce
them? In the older translations used by Christians,
omissions are indicated by an asterisk, and could
also be discovered by a careful comparison between
my Vulgate version and the older ones. Nevertheless,
the Septuagint has rightly kept its place in Christian
churches, either because it is the original translation
made before Christ's coming, or else because the

150 MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS

Apostles used it only, however, in those sections
where it does not contradict the Hebrew original.

On the other hand, Christians are right in rejecting
the version made by Aquila, proselyte and contro-
versial translator, who attempted to translate not only
words but their etymologies as well. Who could ac-
cept, for instance, his version of "corn, wine and oil"
which runs: x 6 */"* O7rcupwr/Aos, ortXiroT^s or, as we
might say, "pouring, fruitgathering, and shining."
And, because Hebrew has other prefixes in addition
to the article, Aquila must with his unfortunate
pedantry translate syllable by syllable, letter by letter,
like this: Bvv rov ovpavov KO! ovv rrjv yfy, a grammatical
construction allowed by neither Greek nor Latin.
How many phrases there are which, though beautiful
in Greek, if translated literally sound awkward in
Latin; and how many are pleasing in Latin but, if
the word order remains unaltered, sound discordant
in Greek.

But to move on from this infinite field of discussion
and to show you, O most Christian of noblemen, O
most noble of Christians, the kind of so-called false-
hood which has been reprehended in my translation
of Epiphanius' letter, here are the opening words in
the original, and then my rendition: "l&Sct, ^/Jta*,

<Jtyam?Te, iwj TV) oM}<ra T<OV JcAiJ/jcov <ep<j$at, which I re-
Call having rendered as: "Dearly beloved, we should
not abuse our position as clergymen to gratify our
own pride." Look, look! they howl, how many lies
in one single sentence! In the first place, they point
out, ycwn?To* means loved one,' not 'dearly beloved/
Next ofycns means 'estimation/ not 'pride,* for this
and not otS^a is the word used, "o^/xa means 'a
swelling' but ofyms signifies judgment.

Now I do not ridicule any Christian because he
happens to lack ability to express himself* Would

MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS 151

that all Christians could say with Socrates: "I know
that I know nothing," and fulfill the command of
another wise man: "Know yourself." Holy simplicity
I have always admired, but not rude verbosity, for
whoever claims he imitates the Apostles* literary
style should first emulate their lives. That plainness
in their speech and style came from their profound
sanctity; and by raising men from death they were
able to confute the syllogisms of Aristotle and the
contorted ingenuities of Chrysippus.

On the other hand, it would be ridiculous if one
of us living as we do among the wealth of Croesus
and the luxuries of Sardanapalus were to brag
about mere simplicity and ignorance. It would be
rather like saying that all thieves and criminals would
be cultivated gentlemen if they were to hide their
bloodstained swords in philosophy books instead of
the usual hiding place, hollow tree trunks.

This has certainly exceeded the proper length of a
letter, my dear Pammachius, but I have hardly ex-
ceeded the length of my indignation. Although I am
called a liar, and am torn to pieces among the sewing-
rooms of women, I am content to repudiate the
accusations against me without stooping to retaliate
in kind. I leave everything to your good judgment
If you wish, you can read Epiphanius* letter in the
original and in my translation; and, if you do, you
will immediately see the true value of my accusers 9
melancholy dirges and complaints. Above all, I am
satisfied if I have taught something to one of my
dearest friends, and am content simply to remain
concealed in my cell here in Bethlehem and wait for
Judgment Day. If it is possible, and my enemies
permit, I hope soon to write for you not philippicus
like Demosthenes and Cicero but useful commen-
taries on the Bible.

152 MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS

WHY STUDY SCRIPTURE

Bethlehem, 394 or 395 A.D.
Reverend Paulinus, my friend,*

Along with your small presents, our brother
Ambrose has just delivered a most charming letter
from you, which, though it arrives at the beginning
of our friendship, promises an agreeable and lengthy
relationship between us. A genuine friendship nec-
essarily is cemented by the glue of Christ. It does not
depend on material considerations, or on the actual
physical presence of the two people, or on shrewd,
wheedling flattery. What matters is that friendship be
united by a fear of God and a study of divine Scrip-
ture.

One reads in the old chronicles and histories how
men wandered over whole provinces, crossed the
seas, and visited strange peoples simply to see face to
face those men whom they had only known through
their books. Pythagoras, for instance, visited the
prophetic poets of Memphis. And Plato, besides
visiting Egypt and Archytas in Tarentum, most la-
boriously explored that section of the Italian coast
once known as Greater Greece. In this way the
influential Athenian master, whose teaching resound-
ed through the schools of the Academy, became a
wanderer and pupil, preferring in a modest fashion to
learn what others had to teach rather than to pour
forth impudently his own exclusive views. Indeed,
Plato's earnest pursuit of learning which seemed to

* Paul! HUB was the Bishop of Kola. He composed a famous pane-
gyric, no longer extant, on the Christian Emperor Theodoeine I.
Elsewhere Jerome commends Paulinus' literary style, comparing it
to classical prose masters.

MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS 153

fly before him all over the world finally led to his
capture by some pirates who sold him as a slave to
a heartless tyrant. Plato became a prisoner, a bonds-
man, a slave; yet, since he was a lover of wisdom,
he was greater than the man who had purchased
him.

Again, we read how certain aristocrats traveled
from the most remote part of Spain to visit Livy and
listen to that eloquence flowing from his lips like a
fountain of milk. Thus, the fame of one individual
had more power to attract men to Rome for con-
templation than the fame of the city itself. Those
times displayed a remarkable, unprecedented phe-
nomenon: multitudes of men who, entering the great
city of Rome, gave their attention to something else
than the attractions of the city.

Apollonius of Tyana, too, was another wanderer.
(1 have in mind the man called The Magician by
ordinary people, and The Philosopher by the follow-
ers of Pythagoras.) Entering Persia, he went over
the Caucasus and made his way through the regions
of the Albanians, Scythians and Massagetas and fi-
nally penetrated the richest districts of India. After
crossing that spacious river, the Pison, Apollonius
came to the Brahmins. There he gazed on Hiarcas,
seated on his golden throne, drinking from the foun-
tain of Tantalus; and he listened to that master ex-
patiating in front of a small group of disciples upon
the nature, motion and orbits of the stars. After this,
Apollonius wandered among the Elamites, Babylo-
nians, Chaldeans, Medes, Assyrians, Parthians,
Syrians, Phoenicians, Arabians and the Philistines
of Palestine. Returning to Alexandria, he continued
on to Ethiopia in order to gaze at the naked philoso-
phers and inspect the celebrated table of the sun
spread out in the desert sands. Everywhere he wan-

154 MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS

dered he discovered something new and fresh to
learn. And because he was forever exploring strange
places, he increasingly became a wiser and better
man. (Philostratus has written his biography at
length in eight volumes.)

But why should I mention only men of this world
when there is this the chosen vessel, the teacher of
the Gentiles, the Apostle Paul? Completely con-
fident, Paul could ask, "Do you want proof and
demonstration of Christ speaking in me?" because he
recognized that the greatest of Guests was residing
within his body and soul. Even after visiting Damas-
cus and Arabia, Paul went up to Jerusalem in order
to visit Peter, and stayed with him for fifteen days. It
was exactly fifteen days because Paul, soon to be a
preacher to the Gentiles, had to be instructed con-
cerning the mystical numbers seven and eight. Again,
after fourteen years, he returned to Jerusalem ac-
companied by Titus and Barnabas; this time it was
to explain his gospel to the Apostles, for he desired
to ascertain whether it were possible that the course
he was running, or should have run, was in vain.

It is practically impossible to explain what that in-
definable, secret power is which spoken words pos-
sess. Teaching that passes directly from the mouth of
the original master into his disciples' ears, is far more
impressive than any other kind of instruction. For ex-
ample, when Demosthenes' indictment against Aes-
chines was recited in front of the latter during his
exile at Rhodes, amid all the astonished admiration
and applause Aeschines sighed, "If only you could
have heard the brute deliver that speech himself!"

Now I do not mention these examples because I
believe I possess anything which you either can or
would desire to learn. They were mentioned merely
to indicate that your passion and diligence for learn-

MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS 155

ing deserve to be praised in themselves. A tempera-
ment eager to learn even when it lacks a teacher
should be commended. What interests me, in fact,
is not what you find but what you seek to find. Wax
is soft and pliable even when the craftsman's hands
are absent; potentially it is akeady everything which
it can be fashioned into.

Paul the Apostle, for instance, learned the Old
Law and the teaching of the Prophets at the feet of
Rabbi Gamaliel, and afterwards he boasted that he
had done so, for protected by this spiritual armor he
was able to say with assurance:

The weapons of our wars are not human weapons.
They are powerful in a divine way, able to pull
down strongholds. Conceits and illusions of men
we are able to destroy, and also every barrier of
human pride which exaults itself against the
knowledge of God. Every tongue we capture, de-
livering it to the obedience of Christ Disobedi-
ence from any quarter whatsoever we are capable
of punishing. , r

Again, Paul writes a letter to Timothy, who had been
instructed in Holy Scripture from childhood, exhort-
ing him to continue his study with diligence, and not
to neglect that gift presented to him when the pre-
bysters laid their sacred hands upon him. And he
teaches Titus that, among a bishop's other virtues
which are briefly described , he should carefully
study the Bible. A bishop, Paul explains, "must hold
firmly to the faithful, true word, according to tradi-
tion and doctrine, so that he may be able to educate
with sound doctrine and subjugate all contradictors."
Pious bumptiousness, a want of learning, prevents
a priest from accomplishing any good except for
himself. As much as the merit of his life may build
up Christ's Church, he injures and bruises the

156 MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS

Church by not resisting those who contradict and
struggle to pull Her down. Malachi the prophet
says or rather, the Lord speaking through Malachi,
says, "Ask the holy priests about the Law of God."
Answering those who ask questions about the Law is
such an important function of the priesthood. Deu-
teronomy tells us to "inquire about it from your
father and he will explain, ask your priests and they
will clarify." "Your just dealings, O Lord," sings the
one hundred and eighteenth psalm, "have been my
songs in this land of my pilgrimage." David com-
pares the righteous, honest man to the tree of life in
Paradise; and among the many virtues of the honest
man, it is mentioned that "his delight is in the Law
of the Lord, and night and day he meditates on the
Law." Concluding his most sacred vision, Daniel
declares that the righteous shall shine like stars, and
that the wise men, the learned, shall glitter like the
firmament. Can you see the tremendous difference
between righteous ignorance and educated righteous-
ness? Righteous but ignorant men resemble the
stars; but those who are cultured and also righteous
are like the very heavens. Moreover, according to
the exact sense of the original Hebrew text, both
descriptions may be understood as pertaining to the
intellectual man, for the passage should read: "Wise
men shall glitter like the firmament's splendor, and
men who instruct many people about the nature of
justice shall dazzle like stars in a perpetual eternity."
Why is the Apostle Paul, for example, called a
chosen vessel? Obviously because he is a vessel of
the Law, a chest, so to speak, to contain Holy Scrip-
ture. How the Pharisees were astonished at the
Lord's erudition; and how bewildered to discover
that Peter and John, both illiterate, commanded such
familiarity with and comprehension of the Law. To

MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS 157

Peter and John the Holy Ghost had spontaneously
suggested truths which come to other men only after
daily study and meditation. These two were "God-
taught", as it is written. And when the incident in the
Temple occurred, Our Savior was only twelve, but
His judicious interrogations to the Elders concerning
points of the Law instructed rather than asked.

On the other hand, perhaps "uncultured" would
better describe Peter and John, both of whom were
able to say, "Although my speech be crude, I am not
inexperienced in the things of wisdom." But was
John actually a rough, uneducated fisherman? If so,
then I question where this came from: "In the begin-
ning was the Word (Logos),, and the Word was with
God, and the Word was God." Now Logos has a
multiplicity of meanings in Greek. It signifies a
word, also reason, also the ground and cause of each
individual thing: Logos is that through which all
existing things are, and through which all things are
properly understood. This truth Plato, for all his
learning, did not comprehend; and Demosthenes,
despite his eloqurnce, remained ignorant about. "I
will destroy the wisdom of the wise," it is written,
"and will disapprove the discretion of the prudent."
True wisdom annihilates false wisdom. And though
the "foolishness" of Christian preaching is grounded
in the doctrine of the cross, Paul speaks wisdom
among men who are already perfect, "but it is not the
wisdom of this world, or of the princes of the earth.
That wisdom tumbles into ruins." What Paul speaks
is the wisdom of God which is "concealed in mystery,
predestined by God before the creation of the world.'*
God's wisdom is Christ. Christ Jesus is the virtue
and wisdom of God, the wisdom concealed in a
mystery; and that allusion to "the hidden things of
the son," prefacing the ninth psalm, also signifies

158 MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS

Christ. In Him are secreted all the precious things
of wisdom and truth, and He Who was hidden in
mystery is the same Who was predestined before the
world's creation.

Now it was in the Old Law and the Prophets that
Christ was predestined and prefigured. For this
reason the Prophets are named seers, visionaries:
they gazed at Him Whom all other men did not see.
Abraham the seer saw His day and was filled with
rejoicing. Heavens closed before to a sinful humanity
were opened to Ezekiel. "Open my eyes," sings
David, "that I may visualize the miraculous aspects
of Your Law." For the Law is spiritual; a revelation
is required before men can comprehend it: intelli-
gence must come to us through Revelation before
we can contemplate the glory of the face of God.

In the Apocalypse, for instance, a book sealed with
seven seals is exhibited. If you give this book to an
educated person and suggest he read it, he will reply,
"Impossible, this book is sealed." How many there
are today who imagine themselves to be cultured yet
the Bible to them is a sealed book! They cannot open
it unless He unlocks it Who possesses David's key,
for "when he opens it no man can shut it, and when
he shuts it no man can open it." One remembers the
holy eunuch in the Acts of the Apostles or rather,
the "pious man" as Scripture designates him was
reading Isaiah when Philip questioned, "Do you
grasp what you read?" "How can I," replied the
eunuch, "unless some man show me?" To digress for
a moment. Holier or more studious than the eunuch
I am not. He had come from Euthiopia, the very
ends of the earth, leaving behind a queen's palace in
order to visit the Temple at Jerusalem; and such a
lover of divine wisdom he was that he even read the
Sacred Writings while riding in his chariot. Yet,

MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS 159

though he grasped the Bible in his hands, taking into
his very thoughts the Lord's words so that they were
on the tip of his tongue, still he failed to realize Who
it was he venerated in such an unenlightened fashion.
Philip came and showed him Jesus Who was con-
cealed behind the words on the page. What a mirac-
ulous, what a virtuous teacher! In that same hour the
eunuch believed, and was baptized; he became one of
the faithful and, later, a saint, no longer a pupil but
a teacher. This eunuch discovered more in that
church fountain in the desert than he had ever found
in the glittering Temple of the synagogue.

But since the length of a letter forbids a more
discursive discussion, these two examples of the
sealed book and the eunuch were merely mentioned
in passing. They have shown you, I trust, that one
simply cannot progress in reading Holy Scripture
without a guide to point the direction. Every art
requires as much. The various branches of human
knowledge, for example, those of the grammarian,
rhetorician, philosopher, geometrician, dialectician,
musician, astrciOger and physician, are very useful
to mankind; and their knowledge can be classified
under three disciplines: teaching, method and prac-
tice. There is also the example of the minor crafts,
those requiring more manual dexterity than reasoning
ability. Farmers, bricklayers, carpenters, workers in
wood and metal, tailors in wool and cloth, as well as
others who fabricate different types of furniture and
cheap utensils none of them accomplish their work
without first being taught. As Horace says:

Doctors handle medical work,
Skilled laborers handle tools.

Only in the art of interpreting the Bible, however,
does every one indiscriminately claim the right to
participate.

160 MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS

Taught, or untaught, we all scribble poetry,
Horace again remarks.

The garrulous old woman, the senile old man, the
verbose sophist one and all lay hands on the Scrip-
tures, shred the pages, and, before a bit has been
understood, they begin expounding. Some with knit
brows, sententiously weighing grandiose words,
philosophize about the Holy Bible among insignifi-
cant women, while others I am terribly ashamed to
note this learn from women what they intend to
teach men; and, as if this were not vulgar enough,
after they have acquired some facility with words,
they audaciously explain to others passages which
they scarcely comprehend themselves. (I say nothing
of men like myself, who were familiar with secular
literature before approaching the study of Sacred
Writing.) And when such men charm the public
ear with their splendid rhetoric, they suppose each
and every syllable they utter to be a solemn legisla-
tive act of God, and consider it quite beneath their
dignity to stoop and notice what the Prophets and
Apostles, whose sentences they expound, might have
meant. Adapting instead incongruous, conflicting
passages to suit their own private meaning, they
indulge in the finest kind of teaching, they think, but
it is really the most corrupt kind: to misrepresent
a writer's views and coerce the Scriptures to mean
reluctantly what one wishes them to mean. As if
we have not all read centos from Homer and Vergil,
titles composed by stitching together various lines
from their poems. Yet we cannot call Vergil, who
lived without Christ, a Christian because he wrote:

Now the Virgin returns;
The kingdom of Saturn return;
Now from high heaven
A new race is sent down.

MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS 161

Another Vergilian line might well be addressed by
the Father to the Son:

O Son, my strength, my majestic power.

While still another could be said to anticipate the
Savior's cry on the cross:

Remembering such things, he persisted,
Remained resolute in purpose.

But this is puerile. It resembles the circles of some
slight-of-hand artist. How foolish to attempt teach-
ing what one does not understand in fact, if I may
paraphrase Clitomachus, it is even worse to be
ignorant of one's ignorance.

Clearly Genesis requires no explanation. Every-
thing in it is so obvious to one and all. Its chapters
merely describe the creation of the world, the origins
of the human race, the great globe's divisions, the
confusion of tongues at Babel, and the descent of
the children of Israel into Egypt. Exodus, no doubt,
is equally cut and dried: it merely contains an ac-
count of the ten plagues in Egypt, the decalogue,
along with the various mystical and divine precepts.
And the book of Leviticus is, of course, too apparent.
Every single sacrifice described, nay, every syllable
in that book the description of Aaron's vestments,
all the regulations pertaining to the Levites simply
breathe a mystical import. Next, the book of Num-
bers. Do not its very figures, and Balaam's prophecy,
and the forty two different camping sites in the
wilderness contain as many mysteries? Deuteronomy
also, that book of the second law, the prefigurement
of the Gospel's evangelical law, does it not, while
revealing ancient things, place them in a new light?
It is the same with Moses and the five "words" of his
Pentateuch, which the Apostle boasts he would rather

162 MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS

utter in the Church than ten thousand strange words.
As for Job, that example of patience, what mysteries
are not enclosed in his colloquies? Beginning in
prose, his book soon slips into poetry, returning in
the end to more pedestrian speech. All logic's laws
are displayed in the manner in which his chapters
present propositions, assumptions, confirmations and
conclusions; and single words are pregnant with
meaning. To say nothing of its other profound sub-
jects, the book of Job prophesies the resurrection of
the body with more lucidity, and more precaution
than any previous writer. "I know," Job pronounces,

that my Redeemer lives, and that at the last day I
shall resurrect from the earth. And I shall be
clothed in my own skin. In my flesh I shall see
God. I shall gaze upon Him for myself; my own
eyes, not those of another, shall have that view.
This hope is stored in my heart.

Next comes the experience of Jesus, son of Nave,
a symbol of the Lord not only in deeds but also in
name. This Jesus crossed over the Jordan, subdued
enemy kingdoms, divided the new land among his
victorious people, and in every city, village, moun-
tain, river, scorching desert and boundary he had
conquered, Jesus marked out the spiritual kingdom
of the Church and of the Heavenly Jerusalem. Simi-
larly, each one of Hebrew leaders in the book of
Judges is a symbolic type. And Ruth the Moabite,
for another example, fulfills the prophecy Isaiah pro-
nounced, "Send forth a lamb, O Lord, to be ruler
of the territory from the rock in the wilderness to
the mountain of the daughter of Sion." In the ex-
amples of Eli's death and the slaying of Saul, Samuel
the prophet demonstrates the future abolition of the
Old Dispensation. Again, in the figures of Zadok

MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS 163

and David there is a witness of the mysteries of the
new priesthood and royalty to come in the Gospel.

Another kind of prefigurement occurs in the third
and fourth books of Kings (called Malachim in
Hebrew), which relates the history of the kingdom
of Judah from Solomon to Jeconiah, and of the em-
pire of Israel from Jeroboam, son of Nebat, to
Hosea whom the Assyrians carried into captivity.
Now, if one merely considers the historical narrative,
the sense of the words is obvious enough; but if one
penetrates to the meaning concealed behind the
words, one discovers a narration of the Church's
small numbers and of the wars waged against Her by
various heretics.

The twelve minor prophets, all of whose writings
are confined in the narrow limits of one volume, also
prefigure events beyond the literal sense of their
passages. Many times Hosea, for instance, mentions
Ephraim, Samaria, Joseph, Jezreel and a wife of
fornications, children of fornications, and an adulter-
ess imprisoned by her husband in a house where she
must remain a life time, dressed in mourning, as a
widow, waiting for his return. Caterpillars, flying
locusts, locusts without wings, and blight disease are
the agents which Joel, son of Pethuel, describes as
devastating and consuming the land belonging to the
twelve tribes of Israel; but after the original inhab-
itants have been destroyed, Joel predicts that the
Holy Ghost shall be poured out upon God's servants
and handmaidens, and in this way the prophet points
to the same Spirit which was to be poured out upon
the one hundred and twenty believers in Christ
gathered in the upper room at Jerusalem. These true
believers, rising by gradual and regular steps from the
first to the fifteenth, constitute the gradations to
which there is a mystical allusion in the Psalms of the

164 MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS

Degrees.

Still another of the minor prophets who cannot be
explained simply in a literal way is Amos, a common
shepherd, one who tended and stripped the syca-
mores. Who can express, for instance, what Amos
means when he describes the seven transgressions
of Damascus, Gaza, Tyre, Idumaea, the children of
Ammon and Moab, and Judah and Israel? Who are
those stout sheep in the Samarian mountains? What
does Amos signify when he predicts that both great
and small houses shall topple into ruins? Over here
he observes the maker of the grasshopper, over there
the Lord standing on a plastered wall made of ada-
mant; here, a basket of apples bringing destruction to
sinners; there, a famine on the face of the earth but
not a famine for bread or a thirst for water, but a
powerful famine and thirst to hear the word of the
Lord.

This vision of destruction is experienced by other
minor prophets following Amos. Abdias, for one,
whose name means "servant of God," thunders
against an Edom scarlet with blood, and against the
earth-born creature whom he strikes with a sword of
the spirit because of its persistent rivalry with its
brother Jacob. That most beautiful of doves, Jonah,
whose shipwreck reveals in a prefigured symbol the
Passion of the Lord, calls the whole world to pen-
ance, announcing salvation to the heathen nations
under the figure of one city, Nineveh. One of the
equal heirs with Christ, Micah the Morasthite, an-
nounces how the thief s daughter will be ravished and
beseiged because she struck the judge of Israel on
the jaw. First the bleeding city is rebuked by Nahum,
"consoler of the world," and when it is eventually
overthrown, lie cries, "Look there on the mountains,
die feet of him who brings good news and announces

MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS 165

peace." So it is that Habacuc, that strong, unyielding
wrestler, assumes his watch, feet planted on the bat-
tlements, and looks out so that he may contemplate
Christ on the cross and proclaim, "His glory covers
the heavens, the earth is full of His praise. Like light
is His splendor, horns emerge from His hands, for
there His strength is hidden." Destruction followed
by rebuilding constitutes the vision of Sophonias and
Aggaeus. Hearing a clamor at the Fishgate, a howl-
ing at the Secondgate, then a tremendous crashing
noise echoing from the hills beyond, Sophonias,
"bodyguard and sharer of the Lord's secrets," pro-
claims a similar howling and clamor for the inhabit-
ants of the Mortar Valley outside Jerusalem; for the
entire population of Canaan are struck dumb, and
those who trafficked in silver utterly ruined. Then
Aggaeus, the joyous prophet who plants in tears that
he may harvest in joy, reconstructs the devastated
Temple, representing God the Father as saying, "In
a little while I shall shake the firmament, the earth,
the oceans and dry land. All the nations shall be
stirred, and He shail come Whom all the nations have
desired."

Salvation to come is also contained in many of the
prophecies of Zacharias, "visionary who remembers
his Lord." He see Jesus, for example, clothed in
filthy garments, and a stone with seven eyes, a golden
candelabra with as many lamps, over whose bowl
stand two olive trees, one on the right, one on the left.
And after he has described the four horses red,
spotted, white and black and has prophesied how
the chariot shall be scattered from Ephraim and the
horse from Jerusalem, he continues with a prediction
of a king who shall be a pauper seated on a donkey,
the colt of an ass. Last of the minor prophets, Mala-
chias, exposes the rejection of Israel and the calling
of the nations:

166 MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS

I have no delight in you, says the Lord of Hosts.
Neither will I accept any offering from your hands.
From the rising to the setting of the sun My name
is magnificent among the Gentiles. There is no
place where sacrifice is not offered to My name,
or where there is no pure offering.

As for the major prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, ,Eze-
kiel and Daniel, who can fully comprehend or ade-
quately explain them?

The first of them seems to compose not a prophetic
book but a gospel. Jeremiah is as difficult. What is
that branch of an almond tree he mentions, or that
boiling pot turned toward the north, or the leopard
of the changing spots? Four times Jeremiah goes
through the entire Hebrew alphabet in different
metres. Furthermore, the beginning and end of
Ezekiel's volume are involved in such great obscurity
that, as with the beginning of Genesis, the Hebrews
are forbidden to study them until they are past thirty.
And Daniel, so sensitive to the spirit of his age, so
concerned with the whole world, in precise, lucid
language announces the stone cut from the mountain,
but not cut by human hands, the stone that over-
throws all kingdoms.

Then there is David, our Simonides and Pindar
and Alcaeus, even our Horace and Catullus, all in
one. Of Christ he sings on his lyre, and on the ten-
stringed psalter summons Him to rise again from the
lower regions. Morals are corrected, natural phe-
nomena explained by Solomon, that man of peace,
a beloved of the Lord, who finally unites Christ and
the Church in the beautiful epithalamium celebrating
that sacred marriage. Esther, another symbolic type
of the Church, liberates her people from danger and,
having murdered Hamam (whose name means "iniq-

MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS 167

uity"), bestows on posterity a memorable day and a
great feast.

And certainly the book of Paraleipomena, or epit-
ome of the Old Dispensation, is of such profound
importance and distinction that without it any man
boasting of a knowledge of Scripture would make
himself ridiculous. Every name it mentions, even the
conjunction of the words themselves, serves to clarify
historical events passed over in the earlier book of
Kings, and it also illuminates questions suggested
later by the Gospels.

Eventually the Temple is rebuilt, and the city walls
restored in the one book containing the prophecies
of Ezra and Nehemiah, one the helper, the other the
councilor of the Lord. In their passages one watches
the hordes of Israelites reentering their native land;
and reads of priests and Levites, Israel and prose-
lytes, and even of the very names of the different
families assigned this or that task in rebuilding the
walls and towers.

You can see, my dear Paulinus, how my love of
the Bible has completely carried me away. Far ex-
ceeding the limits of a letter, I have not even fully ac-
complished what I originally intended. By taking this
perspective on the Old Testament, I am afraid we
have only noticed what it is we should know and
desire, so that we may sing with the Psalmist, "My
soul bursts with the longing it has at all times for
your just rewards." Still, my discussion at least ful-
fills that aphorism of Socrates: Only that I know
nothing is what I know.

Only briefly, then, will I mention the New Testa-
ment. Matthew, Mark, Luke and John these are
the foursome of the Lord, the true cherubim, the
"multitudes of knowledge." In them the entire body
is covered with eyes; they glitter like sparks of fire,

168 MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS

racing back and forth like lightning itself. Straight
are their feet, elevated into the land of sublimity; and
the wings on their backs are prepared to take flight in
all directions. Grasping one another, they are four
interwoven into one body, and similar, to wheels
within wheels they roll along, moving wherever the
breath of the Holy Spirit carries them.

Then we discover Paul the Apostle writing letters
to seven churches. (The eighth Pauline letter to the
Hebrews is not generally included with the others.)
To Timothy and Titus he also writes, and he inter-
cedes with Philemon for a fugitive slave but, rather
than discuss Paul inadequately, I think it fitting to
say nothing further.

The Acts of the Apostles, then, seem to delineate
a simple, unvarnished history of the new-born
Church's infancy. Once we realize that they were
composed by Luke the Physician, however, whose
praise resounds in the Gospel, then we understand
that these words are medicine for the diseased soul.
Seven more letters were published by the Apostles
James, Peter, John and Jude, which are at once so
mystical yet so succinct, so short yet so long short,
that is, in words, long in substance that it is rare if
one does not feel blind reading them. There is, final-
ly, the Apocalypse of John, containing as many mys-
teries as it has words. In saying this, however, I
have really said less than the book deserves. AU
praise of it seems inadequate when multiple meanings
lie hidden in every one of its words.

Breathe and live among these books, my dear
brother. Meditate on them; know nothing else; seek
nothing else. Does not such a life, even though lived
on this earth, seem a foretaste of the kingdom of
heaven?

MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS 169

One final word of caution: please do not allow
the simplicity of Holy Scripture to offend you, or be
disappointed by the paucity of its vocabulary. There
is reason for these blemishes: either translators have
made mistakes, or some deliberate purpose is behind
them. The Bible, in its simplicity, is better suited to
instruct the uneducated; and, furthermore, from the
same sentence an educated reader can derive one
meaning, an illiterate one another. To claim that I
myself know Scripture I am not that stupid or pre-
sumptuous; nor tdo I boast that while I am still on
this earth I am able to gather fruits whose root are
in paradise, although I admit I would certainly like
to do so. The truth is that erome too carries a staff
to lean on, and would rather disclaim the role of
teacher to associate with fellow pupils.

"Every one that asks shall receive; and the man
who seeks shall find; and to him who understands, it
shall be revealed." On this earth, then, let us learn
that knowledge which shall remain with us in heaven.
So with open hands, my dear Paulinus, I will welcome
you here in Bet jJehem, and may I boast and speak
foolishly like Hermagors?* whatever you may wish
to study I promise to attempt with you.

Eusebius, who is here with me, has the affection
of a brother for you, and has made your letter twice
as precious by describing your sincere character, that
contempt of yours for secular things, that great belief
you have in friendship, and how you love the Christ.
Moreover, your letter reveals without any assis-
tance from Eusebius how prudent your nature is,
and with what elegance your style is clothed.

Hurry, then, I implore you. Cut rather than loose
the hawser preventing your ship from sailing. Can

* A verbose rhetorician mentioned by Cicero, de lav. 1.6. (Free-
mantle)

170 MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS

the man who sells his possessions because he despises
the world, intending to renounce secular life, have
any desire to profit from the sale? Whatever one
spends is money gained, not lost. There is an old
proverb that a miser lacks as much what he owns
as what he does not own; and another reminds us that
the man who believes, has a whole world of riches,
while the unbeliever suffers from want of even a cent.
Let us live, Paulinas, as men having nothing yet
possessing all. Food and clothing, the bare neces-
sities, are the Christian's wealth. If your property
happens to be in your own hands, then sell it, if not,
throw it away. Some man wants your tunic? Give
him your coat as well.

But, of course, you would rather postpone such
renunciation from day to day. Unless one sells his
possessions one at a time, and with discretion so
you argue Christ will not have anything and be un-
able to feed His poor. The person who has given
himself to God has given everything once and for
all time. When the Apostles abandoned their fishing
boats, they did not wait until months later to aban-
don their nets. Remember the widow in Scripture:
although she threw but two small coins into the
Temple treasury, yet she shall be preferred before
Croesus and his millions. Whoever remembers al-
ways that he must die finds it easy to despise material
possessions.

ELEGY ON A YOUNG PRIEST'S DEATH

Bethlehem, 396 A.D.
My dear old friend Heliodorus,

Small minds are so incapable of
sublime subjects. Venturing beyond their streiigtii,

MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS 171

they fail in the attempt; for the more magnanimous
the subject, the more completely overwhelmed is the
mind incapable of finding words to express the
grandeur of the thing.

Nepotian was mine, and yours, and ours or
rather he was Christ's, and because he was Christ's
he was ours even more. Now he has abandoned us
in our old age. With hearts cut to the quick longing
for him, we are left with an unbearable sadness.
Once we thought of him as our heir; but now hold
only his corpse.

For whom shall my intelligence labor now? Whom
shall my writings strive to delight? Where is he, the
inspirer of my work, whose voice was more melo-
dious than the song of the swan?

Dazed is my mind, my hand trembles, tongue
stammers, a mist spreads over my eyes. Now that he
no longer listens, all that I say seems voiceless. My
very pen, rusty from disuse, seems to feel his loss;
and this wax writing-tablet seems melancholy, cov-
ered with dust. Each time I attempt to speak, scat-
tering the flowe- s of this funeral encomium over his
grave, my eyes brim with tears, grief returns, I can
think only of his death.

In the old days it was customary for children to
stand over their parents' corpses and recite praises
from a public platform, as though by lugubrious
songs they might move their audience to tears and
sighing. But in our calamity, Heliodorus, the pro-
cedure is reversed: nature has destroyed her own
rights, for the veneration the young man should have
paid to his elders, we his elders are giving him. What
shall I do then? Shall I mingle my tears with yours?
This the Apostle forbids. Dead Christians he calls
"those who are asleep," for Our Lord said in the
Gospel, "This girl is not dead, only sleeping;" and
Lazarus too was awakened from the grave in which

172 MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS

he had been merely sleeping. Shall I be glad then,
shall I rejoice that Nepotian "was quickly taken away
lest evil change his way of looking at things"? Should
I rejoice because his soul was so delightful to God?

Struggling and fighting against these tears, I still
feel them stream down my cheeks. Despite virture's
teaching, despite the hope of Resurrection, a feeling
of profound loneliness breaks my heart.

O death who divides brothers and dissolves the
company of lovers, how cruel, how insensitive you
are! But "the Lord has brought a scorching wind
from the desert, which has dried your veins and deso-
lated your fountain." You swallowed our Jonah, O
death, but even in your belly He lives. When you
carried Him as if He were a corpse, it was so that the
storms of this world might be stilled and our Nineveh
saved by His preaching. Conquering you by cutting
your throat, O death, He was the fugitive prophet
Who left His home, and relinquished the delight of
His soul, delivering it into the hands of those who
sought it. And it was He Who through the mouth
of Hosea threatened you so severely, "O death, I will
be your death; O grave, I will be your destruction."
Through His death you have died, and we are given
life: in the past you have devoured men, now you
are devoured yourself. While you were violently
excited by a desire for that body of His which men
had seized, and believed His flesh a prey for your
greedy jaws, your insides were pierced by the bent
hook of the cross.

To You, O Christ the Savior, do we Your crea-
tures offer gratitude for having slain our mighty ad-
versary when You were slain Yourself. Before You
came to this earth, was there anything as miserable
as man's condition? Prostrated in eternal fear of
death, man had received a consciousness of life only

MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS 173

that he might perish in the end. "Death was king
from Adam to Moses, even over men who had not
sinned in the manner of Adam's transgression." If
Abraham, Isaac and Jacob are in the grave, who can
possibly be in the kingdom of heaven? If Your
friends, O God, who had not sinned themselves, were
for the sins of another held liable to the punishment
of offending Adam, what must be believed of those
who Said in their hearts, "There is no god" those
men "corrupt and abominable in their self-will, who
have turned away and become useless so that not
one of them accomplishes anything good, no, not one
of them?"

Even if Lazarus is seen in Abraham's bosom, in
that land of refreshment, what similarity can there be
between the infernal regions and the kingdom of
heaven? Before Christ came, even Abraham lay in
that infernal region below the earth; after Christ's
coming, even the thief is in Paradise. Therefore, at
His Resurrection many bodies of those who slept
arose and were seen walking in the Heavenly Jeru-
salem. Then the prophecy was fulfilled, "Awake, you
who sleep. Rise from the dead, the Christ shall
give you light." "Do penance!" shouts the Baptist in
the wilderness, "The kingdom of heaven is at hand."
From the days of John the Baptist the kingdom of
heaven suffered violence, and the violent captured
it by storm. That flaming sword guarding Paradise,
and those gates watched by cherubims, are quenched
and unlocked by Christ's blood.

Nor is it surprising that the following is promised
Christians at the Resurrection: all men living now in
the flesh, but not in the manner of the flesh, have
their citizenship in heaven, and that while we are still
on this earth we are told, "God's kingdom is within
you."

174 MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS

Moreover, before the Christ's Resurrection, God
was known "only in Judea, and only in Israel was
His name considered great." So, even if those holy
Jews who knew Him were dragged down into the
infernal regions, what happened to all the other in-
habitants of the earth? Where were the innumerable
men from India to Britain, from the frozen northern
regions to the scalding parts of the Atlantic? After
death, where were those great multitudes "as different
and diverse in speech," Vergil describes, "as they
are in dress and military weapons"? Crushed like so
many fish and locusts, they were like flies and gnats,
for without knowledge of his Creator a man is but a
brute. Today, however, the voices and literatures of
every nation proclaim the Passion and Resurrection
of Christ. Here I do not mean the Hebrews, Greeks,
and Romans whom the Lord dedicated to His Faith
by the inscription on His cross. That immortality
of the soul, and its personal existence after the body's
dissolution truths which Pythagoras dreamt of and
Democritus would not believe, and which Socrates
argued over in prison to console himself for his con-
demnation these philosophical truths are now
shared also by the Indian and Persian, the Goth and
Egyptian. Even the ferocious Bessians of Thrace,
and that throng of skinclad barbarians who once of-
fered human sacrifices to honor the dead, have bro-
ken their harsh, discordant, barbarian cries and sing
the sweet music of the cross; and the one cry of all
the world is "Christ."

But what shall we do, O my soul? Where shall we
turn to begin this elegy? What include, what omit?
Have you forgotten the rhetoricians' rules, so pre-
occupied with your grief and oppressed by tears, so
hindered by sobs that you cannot stick to any co-
herent expression? That study of literature, which

MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS 175

you have pursued from childhood, where is it now?
Where is your favorite saying from Anaxagoras and
Ennius' Telamon: "I know that I was born a
mortal"?

Those books which Grantor composed to comfort
his grief, and which Cicero imitated, I have read;
and I have glanced over the minor works of Plato,
Diogenes, Clitomachus, Carneades and Posidonius
where, in letters and books, at various times they
strove to mitigate the sorrow of some friend. It
would seem, then, that even if my own ingenuity were
dry, I could refresh it at these fountains. These
ancients offer innumerable examples of how to grieve,
particularly in men like Pericles and Socrates' pupil
Xenophon. The former, after he had lost two sons,
immediately put on a garland-wreath and addressed
some public meeting; and Xenophon, while he was
offering sacrifice, received news that his son had been
slain in battle, and is said to have removed his gar-
land, but to have replaced it when he heard that the
boy had fallen bravely. And what shall I say of those
generals, whose virtues blaze like stars in the pages
of Roman history? Pulvillus, for example, was
dedicating the Capitolium when he was informed of
his son's sudden death. "Bury him," he ordered,
"without me." Another, Lucius Paulus, marched
into Rome in triumphal procession during the very
week which intervened between the funerals of his
two boys. Many other examples of courageous at-
titudes toward sorrow could be found in the great
Roman families the Maximi, Catos, Galli, Pisos,
Bruti, Scaevolas, Metelli, Scauri, the Marii, Crassi,
Marcelli and Aufidii , men whose courage was as
conspicuous in their sorrow as it was in their wars,
and whose bereavement has already been described
by Cicero in his volume, Consolations. Of them

176 MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS

I will say no more, lest it seem that I prefer the
example of strangers to that of my own countrymen.
Yet even these brief examples might serve as mortifi-
cation to Christians if our faith did not offer us what
paganism offered those Greeks and Romans.

Coming to my own people, then, I refuse to beat
my breast and lament with Jacob and David for sons
who died under the Old Law. Instead, along with
Christ I will welcome those who rise up again under
the dispensation of the Gospel. The mourning of the
Jews is the Christian's rejoicing. "Weeping may last
for a night, but rejoicing comes in the morning."
"Night is almost passed, the day breaks at hand."
Accordingly, when Moses dies, the people mourn;
but when Joshua is buried on the mountain, there are
no funeral rites, no tears. (But everything that can
be gleaned from Scripture concerning lamentation
I have already mentioned briefly in that letter of
consolation I sent to Paula. Here I must take another
way to arrive at the same destination; I would not
be seen treading the same, obsolete, well-worn road
again. )

That our Nepotian is with Christ, and that he min-
gles with the choir of the Blessed this we know,
Heliodorus. What he groped after while here on
earth, what he discerned in the far horizon and
searched after with such incomplete knowledge, there
he looks face to face, and now can say, "What once
we heard about, now we have seen in the city of the
Lord of Hosts, in the city of our God." But it is so
difficult to bear the longing and loneliness which his
departure has created. When we grieve, it is not for
him but for ourselves; for the greater his present
felicity, the deeper our sadness for being without
that Good which he enjoys. The sisters of Lazarus
wept, though they believed iheir brother would rise

MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS 177

again; and to show that He had genuine human
feelings, even the Savior mourned for the man whom
He was about to raise from the grave; and Christ's
Apostle too though he says, "I long to dissolve and
depart to be with Christ," and "For me life means
Christ. Death is a treasure" gives thanks that
Epaphras, who was near death, has been returned to
him, for now he will not have to bear one sorrow
after another. It was not from lack of belief that
Paul rejoiced, but from a passionate regret that
comes from a profound loss.

Then how much more profoundly, Heliodorus,
who were both Nepotian's uncle and bishop, a father
both in flesh and spirit how much more must you
sigh over a death that tore your own heart and soul!

But I beg you to set a limit to your sorrow, re-
membering the maxim, "Nothing too much." Bind
your wound for awhile, and listen as I sing the praises
of a man in whose virtues you have always delighted.
Mourn not that you have lost Nepotian, but rejoice
that he was one? yours. Similar to the way in which
geographers draw a map of the world on one small
tablet, in this little scroll of mine you may see his
virtues, if not fully drawn, at least sketched in out-
line. And please remember that my intention is good
even if my ability is deficient.

In writing an elegy so the rhetoricians teach
one should first return to the deceased's ancestors in
order to recount their achievements. Then gradually
one should approach the actual dead man. By so do-
ing, the writer makes the deceased more illustrious
for having come from such distinguished virtuous
ancestors, and shows either that he did not degen-
erate from their example, or that he brought distinc-
tion to a background otherwise mediocre.

178 MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS

But in praising Nepotian's soul, I shall not bother
about those choice things of the body which he him-
self always despised. Nor shall I boast of his family,
that is, of other men's achievements. Even such
holy men as Abraham and Isaac fathered sinners
like Ishmael and Esau, while Jephthah, included by
the Apostle in the catalogue of the righteous, was the
son of a prostitute. It is written, "The soul that sins
shall die," and likewise, the soul that is innocent
shall live. Neither the virtues nor vices of parents
are imputed to their children's account, for God takes
account of us only from that hour when we are born
again in Christ. Paul, the persecutor of the Church,
a ravenous wolf of the tribe of Benjamin in the
morning, in the evening bowed his head and gave
food to the sheep of Ananias. In the same way, then,
let us consider our Nepotian to be a crying infant, our
innocent child born fresh from the waters of Jordan.

Another elegiac writer might describe how for his
salvation you once left the East and the desert, and
how you fed me, your dearest companion, with il-
lusory hopes for your return.* You left in order to
save, if possible, your widowed sister; or, if she re-
fused your advice, at least to save her son, your dear
nephew, the one of whom I had prophetically writ-
ten, "though your little nephew cling to your
neck. . ." Another, I repeat, might mention how
while Nepotian was still a soldier at the Roman court,
his skin chafed from the sackcloth worn beneath his
uniform and brilliantly white linen tunic; and how,
while he stood before the powers of this world, his
lips were deadly pale from fasting; and how, while
wearing the uniform of one master, he served an-
other; and finally how he carried his sword only that

* This is described in tiba letter written to Heliodorua in 874 from
the desert of Ohalcis.

MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS 179

he might relieve widows, orphans, and wretched peo-
ple. But why dwell on these things? For my part
I dislike procrastinated, imperfect dedication to
God's service. When I read, for example, that Cor-
nelius the centurion was an honest virtuous man, I
immediately hear that he was baptized.

Nevertheless, we may approve of Nepotian's
early military service: it was the swaddling-clothes
of an infant faith. One who has been a devoted
soldier under a foreign banner is certain to merit a
laurel wreath once he begins to serve his own king.
Once Nepotian was discharged and exchanged uni-
forms, he gave all of his army pay to the poor, for
he had read, "If you want to be perfect, sell all that
you have and, giving it to the poor, come follow
Me," and how "You cannot serve two masters, God
and Mammon." So, except for an inexpensive tunic
and a coat to protect against the cold, Nepotian kept
nothing for himself, his clothes of ordinary provincial
cut, not noticeable either for elegance or shabbiness.
Daily he burned to make his way to the monasteries
of Egypt, or to visit the holy communities of Mesopo-
tamia, or at least to live a secluded existence on the
Dalmatian Islands separated by a strait from the
mainland at Altinum. What kept him back was that
he just could not bring himself to desert his uncle the
bishop, in whom he discerned an example of all vir-
tue and from whom he could learn without leaving
home. In one and the same man, Nepotian had a
monk to emulate and a bishop to venerate. What so
often happens did not happen here: intimacy did
not breed familiarity, nor familiarity contempt. Hon-
oring his bishop like a father, he admired him as
though daily he discovered some new virtue in him.

But why say more? In brief, Nepotian became a
seminarian, and passing through the customary

180 MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS

stages was ordained priest. Good Jesus! how he
groaned, how he sighed over his vocation! How he
forbid himself food, and fled from the eyes of every-
one! For the first and only time he was irritated with
his uncle; he simply could not bear such a burden,
he complained, alleging that his youth made him
unfit for the priesthood. The more he resisted, how-
ever, the more he attracted the hearts of all to him-
self, for his refusal merely proved him worthy of the
office he did not desire. In deed, he was all the more
worthy because he maintained his own unworthiness.
We too in our days have seen a Timothy; we have
seen the grey hairs of wisdom which the Book of
Wisdom mentions; our Moses has elected a priest
whom he knew to be a priest indeed.

After ordination, Nepotian still considered the
priesthood to be a burden, and not an excuse for self-
glorification. To silence envy by humility was his
first concern; his second, to give no ground for ob-
scene scandals about him, and to stupefy those who
criticized his youth. Helping the destitute, visiting
the sick, stirring others to acts of hospitality and
comforting them with kind words, "rejoicing with
those who rejoiced, weeping with those who wept"
this is how he spent his days. To the blind he was a
staff, to the starving food, to the miserable hope, to
those in sorrow a consolation. Each individual virtue
was as conspicuous in him as if he possessed no
others. Among priests who were his contemporaries,
he was always the first to do the hard work and last
to assume any authority. Any good deed he ac-
complished he always ascribed to his uncle; but if the
matter somehow failed, then he would maintain that
his uncle knew nothing about it, and that the mistake
was all his own. In public he treated his uncle as a
bishop, at home as a father. His serious disposition

MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS 181

was tempered by the cheerfulness of his appearance,
and a smile not some loud guffaw indicated that
he felt happy. Widows and the virgins of Christ he
honored as mothers; his intentions were always pure
when he lectured to his nuns. Whenever he returned
to his room, his role as priest was left outside while
he gave himself over to the strenuous rule of a monk.
Frequent in prayer and wakeful during vigils, Nepo-
tian offered his tears to God, not to the eyes of men.
Fasts he regulated much as a charioteer paces his
course according to the strength of his constitution.
Dining at his uncle's table, he would merely taste
the dishes set before him: thus avoiding affectation,
and, at the same time, maintaining his abstinent
habit. During conversation at social gatherings, he
would always introduce some Scriptural passage for
discussion, then listen attentively, answer diffidently,
support the correct interpretation and gently refute
the wrong one, instructing his opponent rather than
defeating him. With an ingenious modesty one of
his youthful charms he would frankly identify the
source of each of his arguments. In this manner,
while declaiming a reputation for erudition, Nepotian
came to be considered most learned. "This is Ter-
tullian's viewpoint," he would say, "and this is Cyp-
rian's. Lactantius teaches this, and Hilary that. Here
is what Minucius Felix maintains, and here is an
argument from Victorinus. Arnobius argues this
W ay" and so on. Occasionally he even quoted
something I had written, for he loved me because of
my friendship with his uncle. By assidious reading
and lengthy meditation, he made his heart a library
of Christ.

And how often in letters from across the sea did
he beseech me to write something instructive for his
benefit. Many times he reminded me of the man in

182 MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS

the Gospel who sought help by night, and of the
widow who importunated the stern judge. And when
he saw how I silently ignored his request and did not
reply the modesty of his petition being matched by
the modesty of my refusal he persuaded his uncle
to ask on his behalf, knowing that another man could
request more freely, and that my respect for a bishop
would bring better results. He had his wish, and in a
brief letter I consecrated our friendship to an eternal
remembrance. Once he received the letter, he
boasted that now he was richer than Croesus and
Darius. Clasping it in his hands, devouring it with
his eyes, forever reading it aloud, he took it to his
heart of hearts. At night he would frequently open
the letter, and then finally fall asleep with the cher-
ished page next to his heart. If some stranger or
friend happened to visit, he rejoiced to show them the
evidence of my affection; and as he read it to them,
whatever may have been lacking in my little work
was compensated for by his careful modulation and
varied emphasis, so that it was always Nepotian and
not Jerome who seemed to please or displease.

Where but from a love of God did this fervor
come? And such tireless meditation on Christ's Law,
where did it originate but from a longing for Him
Who established that Law?

Let other priests accumulate dollar after dollar
until their wallets bulge, and let them, in their ob-
sequious way, be supported by married women. Such
monks, richer now than they ever were, possess more
wealth in the service of a pauper Christ than they did
in the service of an affluent devil. How the Church
sighs over the opulence of priests who in the world
were no more than beggars. Our Nepotian spurned
gold; he desired only books. But even though he held
his own flesh in contempt, and walked about in a

MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS 183

splendid poverty, lie was forever trying to improve
and adorn his church.

Compared to his more illustrious virtues, this zeal
to improve his parish church may seem trivial; but
even in small things the same spirit is evident. We
admire the Creator, for instance, not only for the
heaven and earth He has made, or for the great sun
and oceans, elephants, camels, horses, oxen, leop-
ards r bears and lions, but also for His tiny creatures
ants and gnats, flies, worms and the Hke, whose
shapes we know better than most of their names. As
in all creation we reverence God's skill, so the mind
that is dedicated to Christ is equally serious about
insignificant as well as important things, knowing,
as we do, that an account must be rendered for every
idle word. Consequently, Nepotian was solicitous
to keep the altar of his church shining, to have the
walls free from soot and the pavement frequently
swept. That the doorkeeper was always at his post,
that the curtains were hanging properly at the church
entrance, and that the sanctuary was clean and the
church vessels polished: these were important duties
to him. To every form of ceremony he gave an un-
divided attention, and no duty, however common-
place, was neglected. Whenever one looked for him,
one always found him in church.

In Quintus Fabius antiquity admired a nobleman
who wrote a history of Rome, but who won even
greater fame from his paintings.* Such a diversity of
talent is also found in our own Bezaleel and Hiram,
son of the Tyrian woman. Scripture speaks of them
as men filled with the wisdom and spirit of God, be-
cause the one fashioned the furniture of the tabernac-

* According to Freemantie, here Jerome confounds two distinct
persons. 0. Fabius Pictor was the painter; his grandson, Quintus
Fabius, the historian.

184 MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS

le, the other the furniture of the Temple. Fertile fields
and abundant crops are at times luxurious with stalk
and ear: so men of remarkable genius, and of intellect
filled with virtue, overflow in a variety of elegant
accomplishments. Among the Greeks, the philos-
opher Hippias of Elis, for one example, was admired
because he could boast of the fact that everything he
used, down to his very cloak and rings, had been
made with his own two hands. The same can be said
of Nepotian. Various flowers, foliage, and vine clus-
ters, were used to adorn his altars and the martyrs'
shrines in his church in fact, everything attractive
about his church, whether in the arrangement of
flowers or the general appearance, testified to the
hard work and consideration of the pastor. Such
virtue must be honored. But after such a beginning,
what sort of ending followed?

O miserable condition of man! Everything in life
is but vanity without Christ. Why do you shrink
back, O my words? Why such hesitancy? I am
afraid to finish this eulogy, as if I might postpone his
death and stretch out his life a bit longer.

"All flesh is grass," Peter the Apostle says, "and
all human glory is Hke a bloom on the grass." O
where is that handsome face now? That dignified
figure who clothed his beautiful soul with a beautiful
garment? What sadness! the lily began to droop
when the south wind blew, the purple of the violet
slowly faded into paleness. Burning with fever, the
heat drying all the moisture in his veins, gasping, ex-
hausted, Nepotian still tried to console his uncle's
grief. His face shone; and while all present wept, he
alone smiled. Suddenly he threw aside the covers,
stretched out his hands, and, seeing something in-
visible to the others, raised himself to welcome the
ones who were approaching. One would hardly be-

MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS 185

lieve he was dying and ending a journey, but that he
was beginning one, and that he was exchanging
friends, not leaving them behind. Tears stream down
my face: however I try to steel my soul, I cannot
conceal my anguish. Who would imagine that at such
a time Nepotian would still remember his friendship
with me? Or that, while he struggled to live, he
would still recollect the delights of his scholarship?
Grasping his uncle's hand, he requested, "Please send
this tunic I wore in Christ's service to my beloved
friend Jerome, a father to me in years, a brother in
holy orders. Whatever affection you have for your
nephew, please transfer it to him who is as precious
to me as he is to you." With these words on his lips
he failed, and died, holding his uncle's hand while
thinking of me in his heart.

At the funeral I realize how reluctant you were,
dear Heliodorus, to accept the affection of your
people at such a price, and that you have preferred
to earn their love under happier circumstances. Still,
such expression of feeling as you were shown then,
while more pleasant in good times, are gratefully ap-
preciated in times of sorrow. The entire city, all of
Italy, in fact, mourned Nepotian as the earth received
his flesh and bones while his soul was returned to
Christ. You were deprived of a nephew, the Church
of a priest. The man who should have been your
successor had actually preceded you; and what you
were, a bishop, in the opinion of everyone he de-
served to become. And so your family has the dis-
tinct honor of having produced two bishops: the first
is to be congratulated for having held the office, the
second to be lamented for having been taken away
before he could assume it. The entire life of a wise
man, so Plato has it, should be a meditation on death.
This sentiment philosophers praise to the skies, but

186 MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS

the Apostle speaks with far more courage when he
remarks, "Every day I die through Your gjory." Now
it is one thing to attempt something, another to actu-
ally accomplish it: one thing to live in order to die,
another to die in order to live. At death, the philos-
opher passes from glory, but the Christian proceeds
into glory.

Therefore, we should also meditate on the fate
which must one day overtake us; whether we wish it
or not, it cannot be too far distant. For though we
should live nine hundred years or more, as men did
before the Flood, and though Methuselah's great age
be granted us all that length of time, once it had
ceased to be, would be absolutely nothing. Once the
finish of this life, death's irrecusable necessity, has
come, there is no difference between a man who has
existed for ten years and one who has lived for a
thousand. Everything that has happened to both of
them becomes the same, except that, the older the
man, the heavier the burden of sin he carries with
him on his journey. Nothing is truer than Vergil's
poignant lines:

The best days of our life are first to fly
From miserable mortal man. Infirmity,
Old age, and labor follow. In his great lack
Of mercy, death carries all days back.

And, as the poet Naevius says, "Mortals must endure
a multitude of evils." Accordingly, the Ancients
imagined that Niobe was transformed into stone be-
cause of her weeping, and that other women were
metamorphosed into various kinds of animals
Hecuba, for example, into a dog. Hesiod too mourns
for the birthdays of men and rejoices only at their
funerals; and Ennius wisely remarks:

MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS 187

The multitudes surpass their king in this:
They may shed tears; for him it is unfit

As with a king, so with a bishop. Or rather, a bishop
has less excuse to mourn than a king, for the king
rules over unwilling subjects, the bishop over willing
ones; the king subjects men by terror, the bishop
dominates by service; the king protects men's bodies,
saving them for a future death, but the bishop saves
bodies for their future life. Remember, Heliodorus,
the eyes of all are turned upon you; your house is,
as it were, a watchtower, and your way of life offers
to all an example of public discipline and sacrifice:
whatever you do, everyone feels that he may do the
same. Be cautious, then, not to commit any deed
which those who wish to reprehend may use and
seem justified in criticizing you, or which would force
those who wish to imitate you to commit some de-
linquency. That sensitivity in your soul you must
overcome as much as possible even more than what
is humanly possible , and check that copious flow
of tears, lest your great love for Nepotian be con-
strued by unbelievers as revealing a despair of God.
You must long for your nephew as if he were not
dead but absent. Let men see that you have not
really lost him, but are expecting to see him again.

But why am I trying to heal a sorrow which, I sus-
pect, has already been assuaged by time and philos-
ophy? Instead of our individual sorrow, let me
describe the recent miseries of the Caesars and the
catastrophes of our days. Someone who has lost the
light of this life is not so much to be pitied as con-
gratulated on having escaped such great evils.

Death met Constantinus, the supporter of the
Arian heresy, in the village of Mopsus even while he
was preparing for and rushing into battle. To Ms

188 MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS

great sadness he had to leave the Empire in the hands
of the enemy. And what did Julian Apostate, the
murderer of his own soul, the destroyer of a Christian
army, feel when he died at Media but the power of
that Christ Whom he had denied in Gaul? Desiring
to extend Roman boundaries, Julian only lost the
annexations which had already been made. When the
fumes from a fire suffocated Jovian, he had just
begun to taste the sweets of kingship: a splendid
example for all of the true nature of human power.
Again, Valentinian died of a broken blood vessel,
leaving his country unavenged, his native soil dev-
astated; while his brother Valens was beaten by
the Goths and buried where he fell in Thrace. Be-
trayed by his own troops, refused admittance by all
the cities he approached, Gratian became the laugh-
ing-stock of the enemy. Your walls, O Lyons, still
bear the smears of that bloody, assassinating hand
which struck him down! Not far from the same city,
his brother Valentinian was murdered while still an
adolescent, hardly more than a boy, after flight, exile,
and then the recovery of his throne amid great blood-
shed; and his carcass was dangled from a gibbet to
heighten his shame. Need I mention Procopius,
Maximus, and Eugenius, who were a terror to the
nations at least while they ruled? All finally stood
in chains before their conquerors, and such a miser-
able thing for men once most powerful they had to
feel the pang and pierce of a slave's ignominy before
they perished by the enemy sword.

Someone may remark: Such is the lot of kings, for
'lightning blasts the mountain-top"; and so I turn to
men of private position. Even in their case I need not
look beyond the past two years. Omitting other ex-
amples, it will be sufficient to recall the various ends
of three recent Roman counsuls. Abundantius is now

MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS 189

a beggar, an exile in Pityus; the head of Rufinus was
carried on a pike to Constantinople, and, to shame
his insatiable greed, that severed head was made to
beg for alms from door to door. From a political
office of the highest dignity, Timasius was suddenly
hurled down, and now considers it fortunate to exist
in obscurity in Asia. But why say more about the
calamities of individuals? The tissuey ground of the
general human condition is a better subject.

How the mind shudders to contemplate the catas-
trophes of our age! For more than twenty years,
Roman blood has drenched the lands between Con-
stantinople and the Julian Alps. Scythia, Thrace,
Macedonia, Thessaly, Dardania, Dacia, Epirus, Dal-
matia and the provinces of Pannonia have been dev-
astated, plundered, and violated by tribes of Goths,
Sarmatians, Quadians, Alanni, Huns, Vandals and
Marcommanni. How many matrons, how many of
God's virgins and ladies of noble birth have been
made the playthings of these brutes! Bishops are
imprisoned; priests and other religious massacred;
churches demolished, horses stabled on the altars of
Christ, the bones of martyrs disinterred and scattered.
"Everywhere grief, everywhere weeping and lamen-
tation, everywhere death in all his many images."

The Roman world crashes about us. Yet our
proud Christian necks remain unbowed. What do
you think are the feelings of the Greeks the Corin-
thians, Athenians, Lacedaemonians and Arcadians,
and the others over whom the barbarians now lord
it? And these are but a handful of the Greek cities,
which once wpre capitals for kingdoms of not in-
significant power. From these barbarian disasters
the East at first appeared immune, and was merely
perturbed by the reports coming from the West, when
behold! only last year these savage wolves, swarming

190 MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS

down from the distant Caucasian rocks not from
Arabia but the far north in short order overran
whole Eastern provinces. So many monasteries cap-
tured, so many rivers flowed red with human blood!
Antioch was besieged, along with many other cities
bathed by the waters of the Halys, Cydnus, Orontes
and Euphrates. Entire armies were hauled away as
captives. Terror-stricken, Arabia and Phoenicia,
Palestine and Egypt imagined themselves already
seized. "If I had a hundred tongues," as Vergil says,

If I had a hundred tongues, a hundred mouths
And a voice of iron, I could not tell the names
Of all their punishments.

I had not intended to write history, but only want-
ed to weep for a moment over our miseries. For the
rest, to treat such a subject as it deserves, even
Thucydides and Sallust would have stood wordless.

Happy is Nepotian: he does not witness all this.
Happy is he not to hear these piercing screams. It is
we who are miserable, either suffering ourselves, or
watching our brothers bear their anguish. Yet we
wish to continue living, and think that men who have
escaped such evils are to be pitied and lamented
rather than considered blessed. And how long have
we realized God was offended with us? But do we
try to placate Him? What makes the barbarians so
vigorous? Christian sins. Roman armies have been
defeated by our vices. And, as if this were not enough
slaughter, civil wars have destroyed more Roman
blood than enemy swords have. O miserable Israel-
ites! In comparison to you, even Nebuchadnezzar
was called God's servant. We Christians are as
wretched; for so greatly have we displeased God that
His anger rages violently against us through the
agency of insane barbarian assaults. Yet there is still

MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS 191

hope. When Ezechias did penance, in a single night
one hundred and eighty five thousand Assyrians were
slaughtered by the avenging angel; and when Jehosa-
phat sang the praises of the Lord, God granted vic-
tory to His glorifier; and Moses fought Amalek, not
with the sword but with prayer. If we wish to be ele-
vated and victorious, then, first we must prostrate
ourselves.

Shame on our stupid, incredulous, unbelieving
minds! Roman armies, once victor and master of all
the world, tremble and quake now in front of savages
who cannot even walk on foot but must squat on
horseback, and who think themselves as good as dead
if they are without their steeds. How we misunder-
stand the prophet's words, "One thousand shall flee
from the rebuke of one man." Refusing to amputate
the cause of our disease, we are unable to cure the
disease itself. If we did amputate, then we would see
barbarian arrows give way to Roman javelins, sav-
age caps to helmets, and broken-down nags to
Roman chargers.

But I am afraid this exceeds the proper limits of
consolation. After forbidding you to mourn for one
dead man, I have been mourning for the dead of the
whole world. Most powerful of kings, the great
Xerxes, who overthrew mountains and turned the
very sea into firm ground, when he gazed from his
high throne on his infinite soldiers all that multi-
tude of men is said to have wept at the thought that
in a hundred years not one of those men would be
alive. Oh! were it possible, Heliodorus, for us to as-
cend into a tower so elevated that we might look
down on the entire world spread below our feet, then
I would show you a world in ruins, peoples waning
against each other, kingdoms colliding against king-
doms. You would see some men being tortured, oth-

192 MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS

ers murdered or drowning at sea, still others being
dragged into slavery. Here a wedding, there a funer-
al; some being born, others dying; some waxing in
affluence, others begging for scraps: not merely
Xerxes' army but the inhabitants of the whole earth,
living and breathing now, but in a short while des-
tined to pass away. Words fail. How inadequate
language is to express the magnitude of such a vision.

Let us return to our immediate concern. Coming
down from the skies, we must consider for a moment
our own condition.

Are you at all conscious, I ask you, of the time
when you were but an infant, or of the time when you
were a child, an adolescent, a robust adult, or an old
man? Every day we are dying a bit, and changing.
Yet we believe ourselves to be immortal. The very
moments I spend in dictating, writing, revising are
portions taken away from my life. Every period my
secretary makes is so much lost time for me. We
write letters and send replies; our letters cross the
sea, and, as the ship ploughs its furrow through wave
after wave, the moments we have left are diminished,
one by one. Only one treasure do we have: Christ's
love joins us in one society. "Love is patient, love is
kind. Love envies not. Love is not proud or inflated
with its own importance; but bears all things, believes
all things, hopes for all things, endures all things.
Love never fails." Forever it lives in our hearts.
Through love, then, our Nepotian is present, though
absent, and grasps Heliodorus and Jerome in his
hands, separate as we are in distant lands. In him,
my dear friend, we have a pledge of our mutual af-
fection.

Then let us join in spirit, Heliodorus, and grapple
one another in love. Although we have lost a son, let
us exhibit the same fortitude that the blessed Pope

MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS 193

Chromatius showed when his brother fell asleep in
the Lord. Our letters should sing Nepotian's praise,
every page should echo his name. Even though we
cannot have him in the flesh, we can grapple him fast
in our memory; and though we cannot talk with him,
let us never cease speaking of him.

ALARIC SACKS ROME*

The Death of Marcellaf

While the Origenistic heresy was flourishing here
in Jerusalem, a terrifying rumor reached us from the
West. Rome had been beseiged. Citizens were ran-
soming their lives, we were told, and after being
stripped of their wealth, they were once again at-
tacked: first material possessions, then their very
lives were lost in the sack of the city. My voice sticks
in my throat, words fail as I dictate this.

The city which had captured the whole world is
captured herself. Indeed, Rome perished from hun-
ger before being put to the sword. Only a handful
were found living to be taken captive. Hunger's
frenzy, erupting, sent men to feed on strange, hideous
food: they tore and gnawed at each other's limbs; the
mother did not spare the infant suckling at her breast,
but devouring it, took back into her stomach flesh
and blood which her womb had just brought forth.
"In the night Moab was captured, in darkness her
walls tumbled down." And with the Psalmist we may
lament: "O God, the heathens have come into Your

* When in 408 the Goths, under the command of Alaric, swept
down from the North and forced Borne to pay ransom, and then in
August 410 stormed and sacked the Eternal City, it was the first time
in seven centuries that the city had been violated by enemy arras.
Since the Goths were Christians, however, the churches were spared.
Soon after Alaric died in southern Italy.

t An excerpt from a letter written in 412 to the nun, Principia,
friend to Marcella.

194 MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS

inheritance. They have polluted Your Holy Temple,
and made Jerusalem into a barren orchard. To feed
the birds of heaven they have thrown the corpses of
Your servants, and to the beasts of the earth the
flesh of Your saints. Blood has flowed like water
round Jerusalem. Nobody was there to bury the
dead."

Not since the sack of Troy have Vergil's lines been
more appropriate:

Who can describe the slaughter of that night,
Who can relate the deaths? Or with his tears
Can equal our disaster? Having ruled for years,
The immemorial city crashes down. In the street
and homes, how many bodies sprawl about:
Death seen in all his multitudinous shapes.

Meanwhile, amid all the confusion, a group of blood-
smeared barbarians forced their way into Marcella's
house. I will repeat the scene as 1 heard it; or rather,
describe the incidents seen by those holy men present
at the time, who discovered you, dear Principia, at
Marcella's side in the hour of danger.

Barbarians burst in; but Marcella met them with
an unperturbed countenance. When they demanded
gold and hidden valuables, she merely pointed to her
shabby dress. Refusing to believe such voluntary
poverty, they beat her with clubs and riding-whips.
She felt no pain. Instead, flinging herself at their feet,
she begged them with tears not to snatch you from
her, or to force that young body of yours to endure
what she, because of her age, had no reason to fear.
Christ softened their iron hearts. Even among bloody
swords, natural piety somehow revealed itself. So
they escorted you and Marcella to St. Paul's Church,
where you might find either a sanctuary or a tomb.
There Marcella bursts into tremendous joy, thanking

MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS 195

God for having kept you unmolested; and she is
grateful that the capture of the city has found her a
poor woman, not made her one, for now, even though
she will have no bread, hunger shall not make her
suffer: she is full of Christ. Both in word and deed
she will be able to sing, "Naked I came from my
mother's womb, and naked shall I return. The Lord
gives, and the Lord takes away. Blessed be the name
of the .Lord." A short while later she fell asleep in
the Lord Jesus. To the very end she remained sound
in mind and body.

Christians Are Responsible*

Shame on us Christians! The whole world crashes
down in ruins, and still we remain firm in our sins.
Head of the great Empire, the glorious city blazes in
one tremendous conflagration. No part of the earth
lacks exiles from Rome. Churches once held sacred
collapse, broken down into cinders and smoldering
ashes. Yet our minds are buzzing with schemes to
accumulate money! Live for today, tomorrow you
may die this is our attitude. But we continue to
build homes as if we were going to reside in this
world forever: our walls glitter with gold; gold shines
from the ceilings and radiates from our pillars. Yet
huddled among the famished, naked, destitute people
at our doors, Christ Himself lays dying.

Once Aaron the high priest faced the raging
flames, and with his smoking censer restrained God's
fury. Between life and death the high priest stood,
but the flames dared not pass beyond his holy feet.
Again, when God spoke to Moses, "Leave Me alone
and I will consume this people," He revealed that

* An excerpt from a letter written in 413 to Gtendentins, father
of Pactula.

196 MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS

even the Almighty can be restrained from accom-
plishing what He threatened. Prayers from His serv-
ant Moses hindered God's power. But who is there
now under the spacious heavens able to stand up
against God's fury? Is any man able to meet the
flames, and with the Apostle exclaim, "For the sake
of my brothers, I wish that I were damned myself?"
Out of compassionate pity Moses asked God, "If You
will, forgive this people; if not, strike my name also
from Your book." Desiring to perish with his dying
people, Moses was hardly content to achieve any per-
sonal salvation. And he was right. "The glory of a
king resides in the multitude of his people.*'

Such are the times, then, into which your Pactula
has been born. Slaughter and death are the toys of
her childhood. She will know tears before laughter,
sorrow before joy. Scarcely arrived on the stage of
this world, soon she must exit. That the world was
always like this what else can she believe? Of the
past she knows nothing; from the present she flies;
she longs only for the future.

Refugees Arrive at Bethlehem*

Having completed eighteen books of commentary
on Isaiah, I was more than anxious to finish my work
on the prophets in accordance to the frequent prom-
ises I have made to you, Eustochium, my dear virgin
in Christ, and your mother, Paula. However, in-
formation reached me of the death of Pammachius
and Marcella, of the seige of Rome, and of the falling
asleep in death of so many brothers and sisters. So
consternated and dazed I became that night and day
I could think of nothing but the welfare of everyone.

* Excerpts from the Preface to Ezekiel, books I. Ill, and VI, -writ*
ten between 410 and 414.

MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS 197

It seemed as if I were sharing captivity along with
those holy souls; and I was unable to speak until
more definite information arrived. Fluctuating be-
tween hope and despair, I tortured myself imagining
the misfortune of others. After Rome, the glorious
light of all the world, was extinguished, after the Em-
pire was decapitated, and to be more accurate the
whole world perished with the fall of one city, I be-
came "mute and humbled myself, keeping silent from
good works. Once more, however, my grief burst,
and my heart burned: while I meditated, the flames
were kindled." I thought it best not to forget the
saying, "A story out of season is like music in the
time of mourning."

That I complete my commentary, however, you
have persistently requested; and since a wound,
though deep, heals by degrees, and the Scorpion,
Rufinus, lies buried with his brother giants and
monsters, Enceladus and Porphyrion that multiple-
headed Hydra has finally ceased hissing; and finally,
since time has been given to me for Scriptural com-
ment and not foj replies to insidious heretics: I will
resume my work on Ezekiel the Prophet. . .

But who would believe that Rome, which had
spread over the whole earth by means of its vic-
tories, could now crumble to the dust! Womb of the
nations, you have become their tomb! Who would
believe that the Eastern shores of Egypt and Africa,
once proud possessions of the Imperial City, would
be swarming with exiled Roman citizens and slaves?
And that here in holy Bethlehem we should be re-
ceiving men and women, once proud of their dignity,
prosperous, wealthy, now humiliated to begging for
bread? It is impossible to believe their wretched
condition. All we can do is to mingle our tears with
theirs in sympathy. Believe me, the burden of this

MISCELLANEOUS LETTERS

holy work was almost more than we could beat: the
sight of the refugees was extremely painful, and I
simply could not continue my commentary and usual
study. I was longing to transform the words of
Scripture into action: I wanted to accomplish good
and holy things, not merely mouth them. . .

Not a single hour, not a single moment passed that
we are not relieving distressed brethren. The mon-
astery solitude has been changed into the hustle and
bustle of a great house. Either I must shut my library
doors, or open them and abandon Scriptural studies.
As a consequence, it is the busy, furtive Hours at
night, now lengthening with winter near, in which I
try to dictate these words by lamplight. Here I am
trying to excite an exhausted mind with scholarship
and commentary.

This is not boasting. Some may suspect that I am
full of pride because I have been able to render as-
sistance to the destitute. . . But who could boast
when the flight of Roman citizens, and the holy
places overflowing with naked, suffering, helpless
human beings, plainly testifies to the ravenous bar-
barian assaults? I cannot look on such misery without
tears and sorrow. Such a mighty political power,
once careless of its wealth, reduced now to such ex-
tremities, without shelter, food, clothing! Yet there
are some here so vicious and hard-hearted that they
break open the refugees 9 bundles and shabby luggage,
hoping to find gold among the pitiful belongings of
mere captives.

1 30 860

3?