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

a version of the Psalms, which was used in the Roman Church for more than eleven centuries (492, 494), and also a revised version of the New Testament, the preface to which is of much critical value (487, 488; see also p. 357, where a whole clause in 1 Cor. vii. 35 is said to have been omitted in the old version because of the difficulty of translation). He further began the collation of the various texts of the Septuagint The Greek translation of the Old Testament and the other Greek versions of the Old Testament, and began to form the convictions which afterwards led to his translation direct from the Hebrew (484). These biblical studies made him acquainted with the works of Origen, and he conceived a great and almost passionate admiration for that "brazen-hearted" (Chalchenterus original: "Chalchenterus"; a Greek epithet meaning "brazen-boweled" or "untiring") worker and teacher of the Church (46). He permitted himself to use expressions that were indiscriminately praiseworthy of him and contemptuous toward his adversaries, which were later used against him (Ruf. Apology ii. 14, Vol. iii. 467).

For the promotion of asceticism, he found in Rome a congenial soil. Epiphanius, himself the pupil of the hermits Hesychias and Hilarion (Sozom. vi. 32, Vol. ii. 369, 370), was the guest of the noble and wealthy lady Paula, the heiress of the Æmilian race (196), who was already disposed to the ascetic life. To the circle of her family and friends, Jerome was soon admitted, and she became his devoted disciple and friend during the remainder of her life (Letter cviii.). Her son, Toxotius, and her daughters—Blesilla, the young widow (47-49); Paulina, the wife of Jerome's friend, the ascetic Senator Pammachius (135); and Julia Eustochium (196)—each affected the life of Jerome in special ways. Her friends, Marcella and Principia (253), Asella (42, 58), Lea (42), Furia and Titiana, Marcellina and Felicitas (60), and Fabiola—all of them belonging to the highest Roman families—formed a circle of those who renounced the world Renuntiants: those who renounce the world for religious reasons and sought refuge in the ascetic life from the wastefulness and immorality of their own social class. Marcella's house on the Aventine Hill was their meeting place (41, 58). There they prayed and sang psalms in Hebrew, which they had learned for the purpose (210), and read the Scriptures under the guidance of their teacher (41, 255). He wrote many of his expository letters for them, whose ascetic writings they committed to memory, and his private letters to them (Letters xxiii.–xlvi.) reveal the various phases of the new Roman and Christian life. These are concentrated in the Treatise on the Preservation of Virginity, which he addressed to Eustochium (Letter xxii.). This period also produced the first of Jerome's controversial treatises: that against Helvidius on the perpetual virginity of Mary (334-346).

384.

385.

This congenial scene of activity and friendship was broken up by the death of Pope Damasus. The new Pope, Siricius, to whom many had thought of Jerome as a rival (59), was without sympathy for him. Jerome had offended almost every class of the community by his unrestrained satire (Letters xxii., xl., liv., etc.); he had awakened suspicion by his over-praise of Origen (46); and at the funeral of Blesilla, whose end was believed to have been hastened by the hard life enjoined upon her, the fury of the people was excited against Jerome, and the cry was raised: "The monks to the Tiber!" (53). He felt that he was vainly trying to "sing the Lord's song in a strange land" (60), and he resolved to leave Rome forever and to seek a retreat in Palestine. His departure in August and the feelings excited by it are described in a passage in his Apology against Rufinus (Ap. iii. 22, Vol. iii. 530) and in his letter to Asella (Letter xlv.), written at the moment of his embarkation at Ostia.

385–86.

386.

Jerome sailed with Vincentius and with his brother Paulinian (Vol. iii. 530, as above) direct to Antioch. Paula and Eustochium, leaving the other members of their family, went to Cyprus to see Epiphanius; the two parties united at Antioch (198). Thence they passed through Palestine and Jerusalem, on to Egypt, where they visited the abode of the monks of Nitria (202) and became acquainted with Didymus, "the blind seer" of Alexandria (176). They returned to Palestine in the autumn of 386 and settled at Bethlehem for the remainder of their lives.

386–420.

Bethlehem, First Period. Jerome's life at Bethlehem lasted thirty-four years. A monastery was built, of which he was the head, and a convent for women over which Paula and Eustochium successively presided (206), a church where all assembled (206, 292), and a hospice for pilgrims who came to visit the holy places from all parts of the world (140). These institutions were supported by the wealth of Paula until, through the profusion of her charities, she was so impoverished that she depended rather on Jerome and his brother, who sold the remains of their family property for their support (140). He lived in a cell, surrounded by his library, to which he constantly made additions (Ruf. Ap. ii. 8 (2), Vol. iii. 464). He lived on bread and vegetables (165) and speaks of his life as one of repentance and prayer (446), but no special austerities are mentioned in his writings, and he did not think piety increased by the absence of cleanliness (33, 34). He never officiated...