Complete Works of Saint Jerome, Vol. VII

and 5-6 who alone decided to listen: Behold A (Ezek. 1:8). From whence also the Apocalypse of John, after the four elders who were holding the vials original: "quatuor seniorum qui tenentes phialas" worshiped the Lamb of God, introduces lightnings and thunders, and seven spirits running to and fro, and the glassy sea, and the four living creatures full of eyes (Rev. 4:4-6), saying: The first animal was like a lion, and the second like a calf, and the third like a man, and the fourth like a flying eagle (Ibid. 7). And a little later: They were full, he says, of eyes, and they had no rest day and night, saying: Holy, Holy, Holy, Lord God Almighty, who was, and who is, and who is to come (Ibid. 8). By all these things it is clearly shown that only four Gospels should be accepted, and that all the triflings of the apocryphal writers should be sung rather to the dead original: "mortuis" than to the living of the Church.

I wonder enough, most beloved Eusebius, why, when you were suddenly about to sail for Rome, you wished this sitarchiam provisions for a journey to be given to you by me, so that by briefly expounding Matthew, I might expand upon the meanings. If you had remembered my response, you would never have sought in a few days a task of years. For, first of all, it is difficult to read everyone who has written on the Gospels. Then, it is much more difficult, having applied judgment, to accept what is best. I confess that I have read before everyone else Origen's twenty-five volumes on Matthew, and his Homilies on the same, and his commaticum a style of interpretation divided into short clauses type of interpretation: and the Commentaries of Theophilus, bishop of the city of Antioch: and also those of Hippolytus the Martyr, and Theodore of Heraclea, Apollinaris, Victorinus, Fortunatianus, from whose small works, even if I were to pluck but a little, something worthy of memory might be written. But you, in two weeks, with Easter already looming and the winds blowing, force me to dictate: so that, when the secretaries are writing the drafts, when it is corrected, in what time can it be arranged into a fair copy, especially since you know that I have been so ill for three months that I am only now barely beginning to walk; nor can I compensate for the magnitude of the labor with the brevity of time. Therefore, omitting the authority of the ancients,

and those of the Latins, Hilary, Victorinus, Fortunatianus, from whose small works, even if I were to pluck but a little, something worthy of memory might be written. But you, in two weeks, with Easter already looming and the winds blowing, force me to dictate: so that, when the secretaries are writing the drafts, when it is corrected, in what time can it be arranged into a fair copy, especially since you know that I have been so ill for three months that I am only now barely beginning to walk; nor can I compensate for the magnitude of the labor with the brevity of time. Therefore, omitting the authority of the ancients, Regarding the term "sitarchia": In Greek it is called σῑταρχία provision of grain/provisions, and it sounds like "supplies": in Latin it is often taken for a basket, which Jerome uses occasionally.

¹ Editors read: "Whence also ecclesiastical history tells," etc. In some manuscript codices, after the word "prorumpere" follows: "as ecclesiastical history tells," etc. Others retain what we have edited. MART.
² One manuscript of the Holy Cross reads: "and all the poisons of the apocrypha to the dead," etc. Eusebius, whom the holy Doctor addresses, is that most famous Cremonese, to whom Jerome also dedicated Commentaries on Jeremiah. MART.
³ This Eusebius is the Cremonese, to whom Jerome also dedicated Commentaries on Jeremiah. Moreover, Jerome did not live long enough to complete the Commentaries on Matthew, as he had hoped to do, nor did he write on the Song of Songs, because he was excluded from these works by a long illness and finally by death itself. MART.
⁴ Our manuscripts have a less correct spelling, which is nonetheless common in old books, preferring "sitarchiam" or "sistarchiam" over "commaticumque."
⁵ Here he is called "Fortunatus," of whom see the book "On Illustrious Men," chapter 97. Soon, for "carperem" [pluck], two Palatine manuscripts add "quos" [which], substituting it for what was previously read as "caperem" [take]. Furthermore, what Jerome himself mentions about the Commentary on Matthew at the end of Epistle 73 to Evangelus must be referred here: "I, he says, after a long illness, barely did it in the days of Lent, and when I had prepared myself for another work, and with such eagerness of the studious... you would never seek in a few days a matter of years. For it is difficult to read all who have written on the Gospels."
⁶ Two Palatine manuscripts add "minime attendas" [do not pay attention]. Furthermore, what Jerome himself mentions about the Commentary on Matthew at the end of Epistle 73 to Evangelus must be referred here.
⁷ Two Palatine manuscripts add "minime attendas." Furthermore, what Jerome itself mentions about the Commentary on Matthew at the end of Epistle 73 to Evangelus must be referred here.
⁸ They call it "sitarchia" or "sistarchia," as if from "Sitis" [thirst/grain] and "Archia," where Jerome did not spare himself, because he had a fever for seven months. MART.