Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Series 2, Vol. 6 (Jerome: Letters)

...at Carthage in 413, they moved to Palestine and secured recognition from councils held at Jerusalem and Diospolis in 415, despite the presence of Orosius (Augustine’s friend) and the accusations of the Gaulish bishops, Heros and Lazarus. Jerome was invited to write against them (pp. 272, 279), and their followers rose against him and burned his monasteries (p. 280; Augustine, De Gestis Pelagii, ch. 66). Afterward, they visited Ephesus and Rome, where they were initially received by Pope Zosimus. Several bishops, the chief of whom was Julian of Eclana, espoused their cause. However, Augustine’s influence prevailed in the West, while in the East, little interest was taken in a controversy that was humanistic rather than strictly theological. Men’s minds were instead turning toward the questions of Christology, which led to the Nestorian controversy and the Council of Ephesus (431).

The barbarian forces that had threatened Constantinople during the reign of Valens were diverted to the West during the reign of Theodosius’s sons. Those who remained within the boundaries of the Empire absorbed some Roman civilization and, in many cases, became servants of Rome. As the subjects of the Empire—through a love of luxury—withdrew from military duties, the power of the barbarians enlisted as mercenaries increased. Alaric, who now rose to power, occupied an ambiguous position. He marched with his Gothic army into Greece (396) and, being a Christian, considered himself justified in plundering the historic temples of the old religion. Stilicho attacked and defeated him near the Isthmus of Corinth, but Alaric managed to transport his army across the gulf and take possession of Epirus (397). The ministers of Arcadius thought it prudent to make peace with him. In 398, he became both Master-General of Illyricum and King of the Visigoths. Because his rights were not respected by the Emperor of the West, he invaded Northern Italy. He was vanquished by Stilicho in the battles of Pollentia and Verona (403), but the conqueror, well aware of Rome's increasing weakness, made peace with Alaric and recognized his official position.

Alaric retreated for a time, but another barbarian invader, Radagaisus, with a mixed host of Vandals, Suevi, and Burgundians, forced his way to Florence. Stilicho met him there and won his final great victory on the heights of Fiesole (406). The policy of conciliation adopted by Stilicho might have turned Alaric and his Goths into the guards of the Empire; however, his actions were disowned, he was treated as a traitor, and he was put to death in 408. Then Alaric advanced to attack Rome. He was induced by fair promises to lift the siege, but finding that no faith could be placed in the court of Ravenna, he renewed the siege and took the city on August 26, 410. The only redeeming feature in the terrible destruction that followed was the Goths' respect for the Christian religion; they spared the clergy, the churches, and those who took refuge in them, and even the rich plate and ornaments of divine worship were kept sacred from their greed. Yet the knell of Roman greatness had been sounded, and the end of the Empire was near. Upon leaving Rome, Alaric ravaged Italy. He marched to Rhegium—the flames of which Rufinus saw from the opposite coast while writing his Commentary on the Book of Numbers (Vol. III, p. 568)—but his attempt to cross into Sicily was frustrated by a storm, and he died before the year of the sack of Rome had closed. His successor, Adolphus, made peace with Rome and dared to ask for the hand of Galla Placidia, the sister of Honorius. The King of the Goths was accepted as the brother-in-law of the Roman Emperor.

The Western Empire might now be compared to a ship heaving to and fro in a troubled sea, encompassed by enemies and without a captain or rudder. Britain revolted in 409. From 409 to 413, Gaul was a prey to revolutions; the usurper Constantine was overcome with difficulty by the Roman General Constantius, only to be followed by fresh usurpers: Jovinus, Sebastian, and Attalus. Count Heraclian dared to invade Rome itself in 413, though he met defeat and death. One by one, the provinces of the Empire passed into the hands of the barbarians. The Goths settled in Aquitaine and Spain; the Vandals turned down into Africa; the Burgundians settled in the East and North of France, and the Franks in the center. The ruin of the Western Empire was practically consummated by the time of Jerome’s death in 419, though sixty years of disaster and disgrace intervened before its final extinction.

Meanwhile, the distressed condition of Italy drove large numbers of people—especially the clergy and upper classes—to take refuge in the East, almost justifying Thierry’s description of the movement as an emigration to the Holy Land. Jerome and his friends received this tide of fugitives at Bethlehem and corresponded with those left behind; thus, the evils of the time made the "Solitary of the East" Referring to St. Jerome. the chief Doctor of the West.