The Sacred Writings of Saint Jerome E-Book

Saint Jerome

• Herausgeber: Jazzybee Verlag
• Kategorie: Religion und Spiritualität
• Sprache: Englisch

Seitenzahl: 2226

Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2012

Beschreibung

"The Sacred Writings Of ..." provides you with the essential works among the Christian writings. The volumes cover the beginning of Christianity until medieval times. Contents: The Letters of St. Jerome Letter I. To Innocent. Letter II. To Theodosius and the Rest of the Anchorites. Letter III. To Rufinus the Monk. Letter IV. To Florentius. Letter V. To Florentius. Letter VI. To Julian, a Deacon of Antioch Letter VII. To Chromatius, Jovinus, and Eusebius. Letter VIII. To Niceas, Sub-Deacon of Aquileia. Letter IX. To Chrysogonus, a Monk of Aquileia. Letter X. To Paul, an Old Man of Concordia. Letter XI. To the Virgins of Aemona. Letter XII. To Antony, Monk. Letter XIII. To Castorina, His Maternal Aunt. Letter XIV. To Heliodorus, Monk. Letter XV. To Pope Damasus. Letter XVI. To Pope Damasus. Letter XVII. To the Presbyter Marcus. Letter XVIII. To Pope Damasus Letter XIX. From Pope Damasus. Letter XX. To Pope Damasus. Letter XXI. To Damasus Letter XXII. To Eustochium. Letter XXIII. To Marcella. Letter XXIV. To Marcella. Letter XXV. To Marcella. Letter XXVI. To Marcella. Letter XXVII. To Marcella. Letter XXVIII. To Marcella. Letter XXIX. To Marcella. Letter XXX. To Paula Letter XXXI. To Eustochium. Letter XXXII. To Marcella. Letter XXXIII. To Paula. Letter XXXIV. To Marcella. Letter XXXV. From Pope Damasus. Letter XXXVI. To Pope Damasus. Letter XXXVII. To Marcella. Letter XXXVIII. To Marcella. Letter XXXIX. To Paula. Letter XL. To Marcella. Letter XLI. To Marcella. Letter XLII. To Marcella. Letter XLIII. To Marcella. Letter XLIV. To Marcella. Letter XLV. To Asella. Letter XLVI. Paula and Eustochium to Marcella. Letter XLVII. To Desiderius. Letter XLVIII. To Pammachius. Letter XLIX. To Pammachius. Letter L. To Domnio. ... and more ... The Life of Paulus the First Hermit The Life of S.

Leseprobe

The Sacred Writings of St. Jerome

Contents:

Saint Jerome – A Biography

The Letters of St. Jerome

Letter I. To Innocent.

Letter II. To Theodosius and the Rest of the Anchorites.

Letter III. To Rufinus the Monk.

Letter IV. To Florentius.

Letter V. To Florentius.

Letter VI. To Julian, a Deacon of Antioch

Letter VII. To Chromatius, Jovinus, and Eusebius.

Letter VIII. To Niceas, Sub-Deacon of Aquileia.

Letter IX. To Chrysogonus, a Monk of Aquileia.

Letter X. To Paul, an Old Man of Concordia.

Letter XI. To the Virgins of Aemona.

Letter XII. To Antony, Monk.

Letter XIII. To Castorina, His Maternal Aunt.

Letter XIV. To Heliodorus, Monk.

Letter XV. To Pope Damasus.

Letter XVI. To Pope Damasus.

Letter XVII. To the Presbyter Marcus.

Letter XVIII. To Pope Damasus

Letter XIX. From Pope Damasus.

Letter XX. To Pope Damasus.

Letter XXI. To Damasus

Letter XXII. To Eustochium.

Letter XXIII. To Marcella.

Letter XXIV. To Marcella.

Letter XXV. To Marcella.

Letter XXVI. To Marcella.

Letter XXVII. To Marcella.

Letter XXVIII. To Marcella.

Letter XXIX. To Marcella.

Letter XXX. To Paula

Letter XXXI. To Eustochium.

Letter XXXII. To Marcella.

Letter XXXIII. To Paula.

Letter XXXIV. To Marcella.

Letter XXXV. From Pope Damasus.

Letter XXXVI. To Pope Damasus.

Letter XXXVII. To Marcella.

Letter XXXVIII. To Marcella.

Letter XXXIX. To Paula.

Letter XL. To Marcella.

Letter XLI. To Marcella.

Letter XLII. To Marcella.

Letter XLIII. To Marcella.

Letter XLIV. To Marcella.

Letter XLV. To Asella.

Letter XLVI. Paula and Eustochium to Marcella.

Letter XLVII. To Desiderius.

Letter XLVIII. To Pammachius.

Letter XLIX. To Pammachius.

Letter L. To Domnio.

Letter LI. From Epihanius, Bishop of Salamis, in Cyprus, to John, Bishop of Jerusalem.

Letter LII. To Nepotian.

Letter LIII. To Paulinus.

Letter LIV. To Furia.

Letter LV. To Amandus.

Letter LVI. From Augustine

Letter LVII. To Pammachius on the Best Method of Translating.

Letter LVIII. To Paulinus.

Letter LIX. To Marcella.

Letter LX. To Heliodorus

Letter LXI. To Vigilantius.

Letter LXII. To Tranquillinus.

Letter LXIII. To Theophilus.

Letter LXIV. To Fabiola.

Letter LXV. To Principia.

Letter LXVI. To Pammachius.

Letter LXVII. From Augustine.

Letter LXVIII. To Castrutius.

Letter LXIX. To Oceanus.

Letter LXX. Tomagnus an Orator of Rome.

Letter LXXI. To Lucinius.

Letter LXXII. To Vitalis.

Letter LXXIII. To Evangelus.

Letter LXXIV. To Rufinus of Rome.

Letter LXXV. To Theodora.

Letter LXXVI. To Abigaus.

Letter LXXVII. To Oceanus.

Letter LXXVIII. To Fabiola.

Letter LXXIX. To Salvina.

Letter LXXX. From Rufinus to Macarius.

Letter LXXXI. To Rufinus.

Letter LXXXII. To Theophilus Bishop of Alexandria.

Letter LXXXIII. From Pammachius and Oceanus.

Letter LXXXIV. To Pammachius and Oceanus.

Letter LXXXV. To Paulinus.

Letter LXXXVI. To Theophilus.

Letter LXXXVII. From the Ophilus to Jerome.

Letter LXXXVIII. To Theophilus.

Letter LXXXIX. From Theophilus to Jerome.

Letter XC. From Theophilus to Epiphanius.

Letter XCI. From Epiphanius to Jerome.

Letter XCII. The Synodical Letter of Theophilus to the Bishops of Palestine and of Cyprus.

Letter XCIII. From the Bishops of Palestine to Theophilus.

Letter XCIV. From Dionysius to Theophilus.

Letter XCV. From Pope Anastasius to Simplicianus.

Letter XCVI. From Theophilus.

Letter XCVII. To Pammachius and Marcella.

Letter XCVIII. From Theophilus.

Letter XCIX. To Theophilus.

Letter C. From Theophilus.

Letter CI. From Augustine.

Letter CII. To Augustine.

Letter CIII. To Augustine.

Letter CIV. From Augustine.

Letter CV. To Augustine.

Letter CVI. To Sunnias and Fretela.

Letter CVII. To Laeta.

Letter CVIII. To Eustochium.

Letter CIX. To Riparius.

Letter CX. From Augustine.

Letter CXI. From Augustine to Prsidius.

Letter CXII. To Augustine.

Letter CXIII. From Theophilus to Jerome.

Letter CXIV. To Theophilus.

Letter CXV. To Augustine.

Letter CXVI. From Augustine.

Letter CXVII. To a Mother and Daughter Living in Gaul.

Letter CXVIII. To Julian.

Letter CXIX. To Minervius and Alexander.

Letter CXX. To Hedibia.

Letter CXXI. To Algasia.

Letter CXXII. To Rusticus.

Letter CXXIII. To Ageruchia.

Letter CXXIV. To Avitus.

Letter CXXV. To Rustics.

Letter CXXVI. To Marcellinus and Anapsychia.

Letter CXXVII. To Principia.

Letter CXXVIII. To Gaudentius.

Letter CXXIX. To Dardanus.

Letter CXXX. To Demetrias.

Letter CXXXI. From Augustine.

Letter CXXXII. From Augustine.

Letter CXXXIII. To Ctesiphon.

Letter CXXXIV. To Augustine.

Letter CXXXV. From Pope Innocent to Aurelius.

Letter CXXXVI. From Pope Innocent to Jerome

Letter CXXXVII. From Pope Innocent to John, Bishop of Jerusalem

Letter CXXXVIII. To Riparius.

Letter CXXXIX. To Apronius.

Letter CXL. To Cyprian the Presbyter.

Letter CXLI. To Augustine

Letter CXLII. To Augustine.

Letter CXLIII. To Alypius and Augustine.

Letter CXLIV. From Augustine to Optatus

Letter CXLV. To Exuperantius.

Letter CXLVI. To Evangelus.

Letter CXLVII. To Sabinianus

Letter CXLVIII. To the Matron Celantia.

Letter CXLIX. On the Jewish Festivals.

Letter CL. From Procopius to Jerome.

The Life of Paulus the First Hermit

The Life of S. Hilarion

The Life of Malchus, the Captive Monk

The Dialogue Against the Luciferians

The Perpetual Virginity of Blessed Mary

Against Jovinianus

Against Vigilantius

To Pammachius Against John of Jerusalem

Against the Pelagians

Book I.

Book II.

Book III.

Prefaces

Prefaces to Jerome’s Early Works.

Prefaces to the Vulgate Version of the New Testament.

Prefaces to the Books of the Vulgate Version of the Old Testament.

Translations from the Septuagint and Chaldee.

The Commentaries.

The Sacred Writings of St. Jerome

Jazzybee Verlag Jürgen Beck

86450 Altenmünster, Germany

ISBN: 9783849621513

www.jazzybee-verlag.de

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Cover Design: © Sue Colvil - Fotolia.com

Saint Jerome – A Biography

Saint Sophronius Eusebius Hieronymus (Jerome), one of the four great doctors of the Latin church, born at Stridon, on the confines of Pannonia and Dalmatia, about 340, died in Bethlehem Sept. 30, 420. His own writings furnish an almost complete autobiography. His father Eusebius was a wealthy Christian. In 363 he was sent to Rome with his countryman Bonosus, and studied Greek and Latin literature and eloquence. In 365 he was baptized and took the name of Hieronymus. He afterward visited with Bonosus the southern and northern provinces of Gaul and the coast of Britain, and studied for some time at Treves. Returning to Italy, Jerome became the inmate of a monastery at Aquileia, and under the direction of Valerianus, bishop of that city, devoted himself to the study of Scripture and theology. While there he transcribed a commentary on the Psalms and a treatise on synods by St. Hilary of Poitiers, and published his first known treatise, addressed to Innocentius, De Muliere septies Percussa. There he formed the acquaintance of Rufinus, afterward his most determined theological opponent. In 372 he was called to Stridon to reclaim one of his sisters, and this incident seems to have determined him to leave Italy for ever.

After a brief stay in Rome, he set out for Syria with several friends, travelled on foot through Thrace and Asia Minor, and stopped at Antioch to follow a course of lectures on Biblical exegesis by the future heresiarch Apollinaris, bishop of Laodicea. He afterward withdrew into the desert of Chalcis near Antioch, where he spent four years in a hermit's cell, assiduously studied the Hebrew language, and wrote a letter on Manichaeism and two letters to Pope Damasus, one of which was in relation to the schism reigning in the church of Antioch, where there were at that time three rival bishops. The pope having advised him to acknowledge Paulinus as bishop, Jerome returned to Antioch, and in 376 consented to receive priestly orders, on the condition that he should not be forced to accept any pastoral charge. He immediately applied himself to acquire an accurate knowledge of Biblical topography and a thorough familiarity with the Hebrew and Chaldee, visiting the most celebrated scenes of Bible history, and consulting everywhere the most learned Jews. To perfect himself in Greek and to have the Bible interpreted to him by the best living masters, he went to Constantinople about 380, and became the disciple of St. Gregory Nazianzen, whom he calls his father and master.

In that city he wrote a commentary on the 6th chapter of Isaiah, and translated 14 homilies of Origen and the chronicle of Eusebius. His version only follows the original to the siege of Troy; in the second part Jerome confesses to his having arranged the matters in his own way as far as the 20th year of Constantine, the remainder being entirely his work down to the death of Valens (378). Being called to Rome by Pope Damasus in 382,. he acted as notary to the council held there in that year, and afterward remained as secretary or referendarius to the pope until the death of the latter in 384. Jerome resided in a monastery, and at the pope's request began his revision of the old Latin or Italic version of the Bible. He produced the translation of the Psalms called Psalterium Romanum, and another of the Gospels dedicated to the pope, wrote a commentary on the parable of the prodigal son, a letter on the hierarchy, and a treatise against Helvidius, who denied the perpetual virginity of Mary the mother of Christ. His love of monastic seclusion induced him to win converts by voice and pen to this mode of life. A large number of noble persons, particularly Roman ladies, forsook all worldly pursuits, and placed themselves under his direction.

This, and Jerome's denunciation of the worldly lives led by the generality of Roman Christians, made him many enemies, lay and clerical; while his frequent instructions on the Scriptures and Christian virtues to his numerous female converts afforded an opportunity for spreading malignant reports against him. So long as Pope Damasus lived he supported Jerome against his slanderers; but after the election of Siricius, Jerome, taking with him his younger brother Politian, set out once more for the East. In order to find the most perfect models of monastic life, he visited the monasteries of Upper and Lower Egypt, and finally fixed his abode at Bethlehem, the birthplace of Christ. Thither he was soon followed by some of his distinguished Roman converts, who devoted a portion of their wealth to the erection of monasteries. One of these, for men, was placed under Jerome's direction, and to it he soon added a hostelry and hospital for pilgrims, and for the numerous refugees who fled from Rome after its sack by Alaric in 410. There he completed his Latin version of the Scriptures, which became in the western churches what the Septuagint was in the East, and served as a basis for nearly all the earlier translations of the Scriptures subsequently made into the vernacular tongues of Europe. From Bethlehem Jerome also issued treatises against the heretics of his time, such as Jovinian, Vigilantius, and Pelagius. He combated the doctrines of John, bishop of Jerusalem, and of his old friend Rufinus, who was propagating Origenism. In 416 the Pelagians, who were in the ascendancy in Palestine, burned his establishment at Bethlehem, and compelled him to fly for his life.

Having remained in concealment for more than two years, he returned to Bethlehem in 418, exhausted by privations, anxiety, and infirmities. He was buried amid the ruins of one of his monasteries; but his remains were afterward taken to Rome, and placed in the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, near the tomb of Sixtus V. His feast is celebrated on Sept. 30. - The personal character of St. Jerome has been the subject of much censure and much praise. His writings show him to have been a man of ardent nature, invincibly attached to what he conceived to be the truth and the right; but his very impetuosity was apt to hurry him into extremes. He advocated evangelical poverty and self-denial under the form of monasticism among the Roman patricians, as a remedy for the low morality which everywhere prevailed; but no one denounced with greater energy than he both false monks and false penitents. Biblical scholars are unanimous in acknowledging the incomparable services which his labors rendered to the church.

The Letters of St. Jerome

Letter I. To Innocent.

Not only the first of the letters but probably the earliest extant composition of Jerome (c. 370 a.d.). Innocent, to whom it is addressed, was one of the little band of enthusiasts whom Jerome gathered round him in Aquileia. He followed his friend to Syria, where he died in 374 a.d. (See Letter III., 3.)

1. You have frequently asked me, dearest Innocent, not to pass over in silence the marvellous event which has happened in our own day. I have declined the task from modesty and, as I now feel, with justice, believing myself to be incapable of it, at once because bureau language is inadequate to the divine praise, and because inactivity, acting like rust upon the intellect, has dried up any little power of expression that I have ever had. You in reply urge that in the things of God we must look not at the work which we are able to accomplish, but at the spirit in which it is undertaken, and that he can never be at a loss for words who has believed on the Word.

2. What, then, must I do? The task is beyond me, and yet I dare not decline it. I am a mere unskilled passenger, and I find myself placed in charge of a freighted ship. I have not so much as handled a rowboat on a lake, and now I have to trust myself to the noise and turmoil of the Euxine. I see the shores sinking beneath the horizon, “sky and sea on every side”; darkness lowers over the water, the clouds are black as night, the waves only are white with foam. You urge me to hoist the swelling sails, to loosen the sheets, and to take the helm. At last I obey your commands, and as charity can do all things, I will trust in the Holy Ghost to guide my course, and I shall console myself, whatever the event. For, if our ship is wafted by the surf into the wished-for haven, I shall be content to be told that the pilotage was poor. But, if through my unpolished diction we run aground amid the rough cross-currents of language, you may blame my lack of power, but you will at least recognize my good intentions.

3. To begin, then: Vercellae is a Ligurian town, situated not far from the base of the Alps, once important, but now sparsely peopled and fallen into decay. When the consular was holding his visitation there, a poor woman and her paramour were brought before him—the charge of adultery had been fastened upon them by the husband—and were both consigned to the penal horrors of a prison. Shortly after an attempt was made to elicit the truth by torture, and when the blood-stained hook smote the young man’s livid flesh and tore furrows in his side, the unhappy wretch sought to avoid prolonged pain by a speedy death. Falsely accusing his own passions, he involved another in the charge; and it appeared that he was of all men the most miserable, and that his execution was just inasmuch as he had left to an innocent woman no means of self-defence. But the woman, stronger in virtue if weaker in sex, though her frame was stretched upon the rack, and though her hands, stained with the filth of the prison, were tied behind her, looked up to heaven with her eyes, which alone the torturer had been unable to bind, and while the tears rolled down her face, said: “Thou art witness, Lord Jesus, to whom nothing is hid, who triest the reins and the heart. Thou art witness that it is not to save my life that I deny this charge. I refuse to lie because to lie is sin. And as for you, unhappy man, if you are bent on hastening your death, why must you destroy not one innocent person, but two? I also, myself, desire to die. I desire to put off this hated body, but not as an adulteress. I offer my neck; I welcome the shining sword without fear; yet I will take my innocence with me. He does not die who is slain while purposing so to live.”

4. The consular, who had been feasting his eyes upon the bloody spectacle, now, like a wild beast, which after once tasting blood always thirsts for it, ordered the torture to be doubled, and cruelly gnashing his teeth, threatened the executioner with like punishment if he failed to extort from the weaker sex a confession which a man’s strength had not been able to keep back.

5. Send help, Lord Jesus. For this one creature of Thine every species of torture is devised. She is bound by the hair to a stake, her whole body is fixed more firmly than ever on the rack; fire is brought and applied to her feet; her sides quiver beneath the executioner’s probe; even her breasts do not escape. Still the woman remains unshaken; and, triumphing in spirit over the pain of the body, enjoys the happiness of a good conscience, round which the tortures rage in vain. The cruel judge rises, overcome with passion. She still prays to God. Her limbs are wrenched from their sockets she only turns her eyes to heaven. Another confesses what is thought their common guilt. She, for the confessor’s sake, denies the confession, and, in peril of her own life, clears one who is in peril of his.

6. Meantime she has but one thing to say “Beat me, burn me, tear me, if you will; I have not done it. If you will not believe my words, a day will come when this charge shall be carefully sifted. I have One who will judge me.” Wearied out at last, the torturer sighed in response to her groans; nor could he find a spot on which to inflict a fresh wound. His cruelty overcome, he shuddered to see the body he had torn. Immediately the consular cried, in a fit of passion, “Why does it surprise you, bystanders, that a woman prefers torture to death? It takes two people, most assuredly, to commit adultery; and I think it more credible that a guilty woman should deny a sin than that an innocent young man should confess one.”

7. Like sentence, accordingly, was passed on both, and the condemned pair were dragged to execution. The entire people poured out to see the sight; indeed, so closely were the gates thronged by the out-rushing crowd, that you might have fancied the city itself to be migrating. At the very first stroke of the sword the head of the hapless youth was cut off, and the headless trunk rolled over in its blood. Then came the woman’s turn. She knelt down upon the ground, and the shining sword was lifted over her quivering neck. But though the headsman summoned all his strength into his bared arm, the moment it touched her flesh the fatal blade stopped short, and, lightly glancing over the skin, merely grazed it sufficiently to draw blood. The striker saw, with terror, his hand unnerved, and, amazed at his defeated skill and at his drooping sword, he whirled it aloft for another stroke. Again the blade fell forceless on the woman, sinking harmlessly on her neck, as though the steel feared to touch her. The enraged and panting officer, who had thrown open his cloak at the neck to give his full strength to the blow, shook to the ground the brooch which clasped the edges of his mantle, and not noticing this, began to poise his sword for a fresh stroke. “See,” cried the woman, “a jewel has fallen from your shoulder. Pick up what you have earned by hard toil, that you may not lose it.”

8. What, I ask, is the secret of such confidence as this? Death draws near, but it has no terrors for her. When smitten she exults, and the executioner turns pale. Her eyes see the brooch, they fail to see the sword. And, as if intrepidity in the presence of death were not enough, she confers a favor upon her cruel foe. And now the mysterious Power of the Trinity rendered even a third blow vain. The terrified soldier, no longer trusting the blade, proceeded to apply the point to her throat, in the idea that though it might not cut, the pressure of his hand might plunge it into her flesh. Marvel unheard of through all the ages! The sword bent back to the hilt, and in its defeat looked to its master, as if confessing its inability to slay.

9. Let me call to my aid the example of the three children, who, amid the cool, encircling fire, sang hymns, instead of weeping, and around whose turbans and holy hair the flames played harmlessly. Let me recall, too, the story of the blessed Daniel, in whose presence, though he was their natural prey, the lions crouched, with fawning tails and frightened mouths. Let Susannah also rise in the nobility of her faith before the thoughts of all; who, after she had been condemned by an unjust sentence, was saved through a youth inspired by the Holy Ghost. In both cases the Lord’s mercy was alike shewn; for while Susannah was set free by the judge, so as not to die by the sword, this woman, though condemned by the judge, was acquitted by the sword.

10. Now at length the populace rise in arms to defend the woman. Men and women of every age join in driving away the executioner, shouting round him in a surging crowd. Hardly a man dares trust his own eyes. The disquieting news reaches the city close at hand, and the entire force of constables is mustered. The officer who is responsible for the execution of criminals bursts from among his men, and

Staining his hoary hair with soiling dust,

exclaims: “What! citizens, do you mean to seek my life? Do you intend to make me a substitute for her? However much your minds are set on mercy, and however much you wish to save a condemned woman, yet assuredly I—I who am innocent—ought not to perish.” His tearful appeal tells upon the crowd, they are all benumbed by the influence of sorrow, and an extraordinary change of feeling is manifested. Before it had seemed a duty to plead for the woman’s life, now it seemed a duty to allow her to be executed.

11. Accordingly a new sword is fetched, a new headsman appointed. The victim takes her place, once more strengthened only with the favor of Christ. The first blow makes her quiver, beneath the second she sways to and fro, by the third she falls wounded to the ground. Oh, majesty of the divine power highly to be extolled! She who previously had received four strokes without injury, now, a few moments later, seems to die that an innocent man may not perish in her stead.

12. Those of the clergy whose duty it is to wrap the blood-stained corpse in a winding-sheet, dig out the earth and, heaping together stones, form the customary tomb. The sunset comes on quickly, and by God’s mercy the night of nature arrives more swiftly than is its wont. Suddenly the woman’s bosom heaves, her eyes seek the light, her body is quickened into new life. A moment after she sighs, she looks round, she gets up and speaks. At last she is able to cry: “The Lord is on my side; I will not fear. What can man do unto me?”

13. Meantime an aged woman, supported out of the funds of the church, gave back her spirit to heaven from which it came. It seemed as if the course of events had been thus purposely ordered, for her body took the place of the other beneath the mound. In the gray dawn the devil comes on the scene in the form of a constable, asks for the corpse of her who had been slain, and desires to have her grave pointed out to him. Surprised that she could have died, he fancies her to be still alive. The clergy show him the fresh turf, and meet his demands by pointing to the earth lately heaped up, taunting him with such words as these: “Yes, of course, tear up the bones which have been buried! Declare war anew against the tomb, and if even that does not satisfy you, pluck her limb from limb for birds and beasts to mangle! Mere dying is too good for one whom it took seven strokes to kill.”

14. Before such opprobrious words the executioner retires in confusion, while the woman is secretly revived at home. Then, lest the frequency of the doctor’s visits to the church might give occasion for suspicion, they cut her hair short and send her in the company of some virgins to a sequestered country house. There she changes her dress for that of a man, and scars form over her wounds. Yet even after the great miracles worked on her behalf, the laws still rage against her. So true is it that, where there is most law, there, there is also most injustice.

15. But now see whither the progress of my story has brought me; we come upon the name of our friend Evagrius. So great have his exertions been in the cause of Christ that, were I to suppose it possible adequately to describe them, I should only show my own folly; and were I minded deliberately to pass them by, I still could not prevent my voice from breaking out into cries of joy. Who can fittingly praise the vigilance which enabled him to bury, if I may so say, before his death Auxentius of Milan, that curse brooding over the church? Or who can sufficiently extol the discretion with which he rescued the Roman bishop from the toils of the net in which he was fairly entangled, and showed him the means at once of overcoming his opponents and of sparing them in their discomfiture? But

Such topics I must leave to other bards,

Shut out by envious straits of time and space.

I am satisfied now to record the conclusion of my tale. Evagrius seeks a special audience of the Emperor; importunes him with his entreaties, wins his favor by his services, and finally gains his cause through his earnestness. The Emperor restored to liberty the woman whom God had restored to life.

Letter II. To Theodosius and the Rest of the Anchorites.

Written from Antioch, 374 a.d., while Jerome was still in doubt as to his future course. Theodosius appears to have been the head of the solitaries in the Syrian Desert.

How I long to be a member of your company, and with uplifting of all my powers to embrace your admirable community! Though, indeed, these poor eyes are not worthy to look upon it. Oh! that I could behold the desert, lovelier to me than any city! Oh! that I could see those lonely spots made into a paradise by the saints that throng them! But since my sins prevent me from thrusting into your blessed company a head laden with every transgression, I adjure you (and I know that you can do it) by your prayers to deliver me from the darkness of this world. I spoke of this when I was with you, and now in writing to you I repeat anew the same request; for all the energy of my mind is devoted to this one object. It rests with you to give effect to my resolve. I have the will but not the power; this last can only come in answer to your prayers. For my part, I am like a sick sheep astray from the flock. Unless the good Shepherd shall place me on his shoulders and carry me back to the fold, my steps will totter, and in the very effort of rising I shall find my feet give way. I am the prodigal son who although I have squandered all the portion entrusted to me by my father, have not yet bowed the knee in submission to him; not yet have I commenced to put away from me the allurements of my former excesses. And because it is only a little while since I have begun not so much to abandon my vices as to desire to abandon them, the devil now ensnares me in new toils, he puts new stumbling-blocks in my path, be encompasses me on every side.

The seas around, and all around the main.

I find myself in mid-ocean, unwilling to retreat and unable to advance. It only remains that your prayers should win for me the gale of the Holy Spirit to waft me to the haven upon the desired shore.

Letter III. To Rufinus the Monk.

Written from Antioch, 374 a.d., to Rufinus in Egypt. Jerome narrates his travels and the events which have taken place since his arrival in Syria, particularly the deaths of Innocent and Hylas (§3). He also describes the life of Bonosus, who was now a hermit on an island in the Adriatic (§4). The main object of the letter is to induce Rufinus to come to Syria.

1. That God gives more than we ask Him for, and that He often grants us things which “eye hath not seen nor ear heard, neither have they entered into the heart of man,” I knew indeed before from the mystic declaration of the sacred volumes; but now, dearest Rufinus, I have had proof of it in my own case. For I who fancied it too bold a wish to be allowed by an exchange of letters to counterfeit to myself your presence in the flesh, hear that you are penetrating the remotest parts of Egypt, visiting the monks and going round God’s family upon earth. Oh, if only the Lord Jesus Christ would suddenly transport me to you as Philip was transported to the eunuch, and Habakkuk to Daniel, with what a close embrace would I clasp your neck, how fondly would I press kisses upon that mouth which has so often joined with me of old in error or in wisdom. But as I am unworthy (not that you should so come to me but) that I should so come to you, and because my poor body, weak even when well, has been shattered by frequent illnesses; I send this letter to meet you instead of coming myself, in the hope that it may bring you hither to me caught in the meshes of love’s net.

2. My first joy at such unexpected good tidings was due to our brother, Heliodorus. I desired to be sure of it, but did not dare to feel sure, especially as he told me that he had only heard it from some one else, and as the strangeness of the news impaired the credit of the story. Once more my wishes hovered in uncertainty and my mind wavered, till an Alexandrian monk who had some time previously been sent over by the dutiful zeal of the people to the Egyptian confessors (in will already martyrs ), impelled me by his presence to believe the tidings. Even then, I must admit I still hesitated. For on the one hand he knew nothing either of your name or country: yet on the other what he said seemed likely to be true, agreeing as it did with the hint which had already reached me. At last the truth broke upon me in all its fulness, for a constant stream of persons passing through brought the report: “Rufinus is at Nitria, and has reached the abode of the blessed Macarius.” At this point I cast away all that restrained my belief, and then first really grieved to find myself ill. Had it not been that my wasted and enfeebled frame fettered my movements, neither the summer heat nor the dangerous voyage should have had power to retard the rapid steps of affection. Believe me, brother, I look forward to seeing you more than the storm-tossed mariner looks for his haven, more than the thirsty fields long for the showers, more than the anxious mother sitting on the curving shore expects her son.

3. After that sudden whirlwind dragged me from your side, severing with its impious wrench the bonds of affection in which we were knit together,

The dark blue raincloud lowered o’er my head:

On all sides were the seas, on all the sky.

I wandered about, uncertain where to go. Thrace, Pontus, Bithynia, the whole of Galatia and Cappadocia, Cilicia also with its burning heat, one after another shattered my energies. At last Syria presented itself to me as a most secure harbor to a shipwrecked man. Here, after undergoing every possible kind of sickness, I lost one of my two eyes; for Innocent, the half of my soul, was taken away from me by a sudden attack of fever. The one eye which I now enjoy, and which is all in all to me, is our Evagrius, upon whom I with my constant infirmities have come as an additional burden. We had with us also Hylas, the servant of the holy Melanium, who by his stainless conduct had wiped out the taint of his previous servitude. His death opened afresh the wound which had not yet healed. But as the apostle’s words forbid us to mourn for those who sleep, and as my excess of grief has been tempered by the joyful news that has since come to me, I recount this last, that, if you have not heard it, you may learn it; and that, if you know it already, you may rejoice over it with me.

4. Bonosus, your friend, or, to speak more truly, mine as well as yours, is now climbing the ladder foreshown in Jacob’s dream. He is bearing his cross, neither taking thought for the morrow nor looking back at what he has left. He is sowing in tears that he may reap in joy. As Moses in a type so he in reality is lifting up the serpent in the wilderness. This is a true story, and it may well put to shame the lying marvels described by Greek and Roman pens. For here you have a youth educated with us in the refining accomplishments of the world, with abundance of wealth, and in rank inferior to none of his associates; yet he forsakes his mother, his sisters, and his dearly loved brother, and settles like a new tiller of Eden on a dangerous island, with the sea roaring round its reefs; while its rough crags, bare rocks, and desolate aspect make it more terrible still. No peasant or monk is to be found there. Even the little Onesimus you know of, in whose kisses he used to rejoice as in those of a brother, in this tremendous solitude no longer remains at his side. Alone upon the island—or rather not alone, for Christ is with him—he sees the glory of God, which even the apostles saw not save in the desert. He beholds, it is true, no embattled towns, but he has enrolled his name in the new city. Garments of sackcloth disfigure his limbs, yet so clad he will be the sooner caught up to meet Christ in the clouds. No watercourse pleasant to the view supplies his wants, but from the Lord’s side he drinks the water of life. Place all this before your eyes, dear friend, and with all the faculties of your mind picture to yourself the scene. When you realize the effort of the fighter then you will be able to praise his victory. Round the entire island roars the frenzied sea, while the beetling crags along its winding shores resound as the billows beat against them. No grass makes the ground green; there are no shady copses and no fertile fields. Precipitous cliffs surround his dreadful abode as if it were a prison. But he, careless, fearless, and armed from head to foot with the apostle’s armor, now listens to God by reading the Scriptures, now speaks to God as he prays to the Lord; and it may be that, while he lingers in the island, he sees some vision such as that once seen by John.

5. What snares, think you, is the devil now weaving? What stratagems is he preparing? Perchance, mindful of his old trick, he will try to tempt Bonosus with hunger. But he has been answered already: “Man shall not live by bread alone.” Perchance he will lay before him wealth and fame. But it shall be said to him: “They that desire to be rich fall into a trap and temptations,” and “For me all glorying is in Christ.” He will come, it may be, when the limbs are weary with fasting, and rack them with the pangs of disease; but the cry of the apostle will repel him: “When I am weak, then am I strong,” and “My strength is made perfect in weakness.” He will hold out threats of death; but the reply will be: “I desire to depart and to be with Christ.” He will brandish his fiery darts, but they will be received on the shield of faith. In a word, Satan will assail him, but Christ will defend. Thanks be to Thee, Lord Jesus, that in Thy day I have one able to pray to Thee for me. To Thee all hearts are open, Thou searchest the secrets of the heart, Thou seest the prophet shut up in the fish’s belly in the midst of the sea. Thou knowest then how he and I grew up together from tender infancy to vigorous manhood, how we were fostered in the bosoms of the same nurses, and carried in the arms of the same bearers; and how after studying together at Rome we lodged in the same house and shared the same food by the half savage banks of the Rhine. Thou knowest, too, that it was I who first began to seek to serve Thee. Remember, I beseech Thee, that this warrior of Thine was once a raw recruit with me. I have before me the declaration of Thy majesty: “Whosoever shall teach and not do shall be called least in the kingdom of heaven.” May he enjoy the crown of virtue, and in return for his daily martyrdoms may he follow the Lamb robed in white raiment! For “in my Father’s house are many mansions,” and “one star differeth from another star in glory.” Give me strength to raise my head to a level with the saints’ heels! I willed, but he performed. Do Thou therefore pardon me that I failed to keep my resolve, and reward him with the guerdon of his deserts.

I may perhaps have been tedious, and have said more than the short compass of a letter usually allows; but this, I find, is always the case with me when I have to say anything in praise of our dear Bonosus.

6. However, to return to the point from which I set out, I beseech you do not let me pass wholly out of sight and out of mind. A friend is long sought, hardly found, and with difficulty kept. Let those who will, allow gold to dazzle them and be borne along in splendor, their very baggage glittering with gold and silver. Love is not to be purchased, and affection has no price. The friendship which can cease has never been real. Farewell in Christ.

Letter IV. To Florentius.

Sent to Florentius along with the preceding letter, which Jerome requests him to deliver to Rufinus. This Florentius was a rich Italian who had retired to Jerusalem to pursue the monastic life. Jerome subsequently speaks of him as “a distinguished monk so pitiful to the needy that he was generally known as the father of the poor.” (Chron. ad a.d. 381.)

1. How much your name and sanctity are on the lips of the most different peoples you may gather from the fact that I commence to love you before I know you. For as, according to the apostle, “Some men’s sins are evident going before unto judgment,” so contrariwise the report of your charity is so widespread that it is considered not so much praiseworthy to love you as criminal to refuse to do so. I pass over the countless instances in which you have supported Christ, fed, clothed, and visited Him. The aid you rendered to our brother Heliodorus in his need may well loose the utterance of the dumb. With what gratitude, with what commendation, does he speak of the kindness with which you smoothed a pilgrim’s path. I am, it is true, the most sluggish of men, consumed by an unendurable sickness; yet keen affection and desire have winged my feet, and I have come forward to salute and embrace you. I wish you every good thing, and pray that the Lord may establish our nascent friendship.

2. Our brother, Rufinus, is said to have come from Egypt to Jerusalem with the devout lady, Melanium. He is inseparably bound to me in brotherly love; and I beg you to oblige me by delivering to him the annexed letter. You must not, however, judge of me by the virtues that you find in him. For in him you will see the clearest tokens of holiness, whilst I am but dust and vile dirt, and even now, while still living, nothing but ashes. It is enough for me if my weak eyes can bear the brightness of his excellence. He has but now washed himself and is clean, yea, is made white as snow; whilst I, stained with every sin, wait day and night with trembling to pay the uttermost farthing. But since “the Lord looseth the prisoners,” and resteth upon him who is of a contrite spirit, and that trembleth at His words, perchance he may say even to me who lie in the grave of sin: “Jerome, come forth.”

The reverend presbyter, Evagrius, warmly salutes you. We both with united respect salute the brother, Martinianus. I desire much to see him, but I am impeded by the chain of sickness. Farewell in Christ.

Letter V. To Florentius.

Written a few months after the preceding (about the end of 374 a.d.) from the Syrian Desert. After dilating on his friendship for Florentius, and making a passing allusion to Rufinus, Jerome mentions certain books copies of which he desires to be sent to him. He also speaks of a runaway slave about whom Florentius had written to him.

1. Your letter, dear friend, finds me dwelling in that quarter of the desert which is nearest to Syria and the Saracens. And the reading of it rekindles in my mind so keen a desire to set out for Jerusalem that I am almost ready to violate my monastic vow in order to gratify my affection. Wishing to do the best I can, as I cannot come in person I send you a letter instead; and thus, though absent in the body, I come to you in love and in spirit. For my earnest prayer is that our infant friendship, firmly cemented as it is in Christ, may never be rent asunder by time or distance. We ought rather to strengthen the bond by an interchange of letters. Let these pass between us, meet each other on the way, and converse with us. Affection will not lose much if it keeps up an intercourse of this kind.

2. You write that our brother, Rufinus, has not yet come to you. Even if he does come it will do little to satisfy my longing, for I shall not now be able to see him. He is too far away to come hither, and the conditions of the lonely life that I have adopted forbid me to go to him. For I am no longer free to follow my own wishes. I entreat you, therefore, to ask him to allow you to have the commentaries of the reverend Rhetitius, bishop of Augustodunum, copied, in which he has so eloquently explained the Song of Songs. A countryman of the aforesaid brother Rufinus, the old man Paul, writes that Rufinus has his copy of Tertullian, and urgently requests that this may be returned. Next I have to ask you to get written on paper by a copyist certain books which the subjoined list will show you that I do not possess. I beg also that you will send me the explanation of the Psalms of David, and the copious work on Synods of the reverend Hilary, which I copied for him at Trêves with my own hand. Such books, you know, must be the food of the Christian soul if it is to meditate in the law of the Lord day and night.

Others you welcome beneath your roof, you cherish and comfort, you help out of your own purse; but so far as I am concerned, you have given me everything when once you have granted my request. And since, through the Lord’s bounty, I am rich in volumes of the sacred library, you may command me in turn. I will send you what you please; and do not suppose that an order from you will give me trouble. I have pupils devoted to the art of copying. Nor do I merely promise a favor because I am asking one. Our brother, Heliodorus, tells me that there are many parts of the Scriptures which you seek and cannot find. But even if you have them all, affection is sure to assert its rights and to seek for itself more than it already has.

3. As regards the present master of your slave—of whom you have done me the honor to write—I have no doubt but that he is his kidnapper. While I was still at Antioch the presbyter, Evagrius, often reproved him in my presence. To whom he made this answer: “I have nothing to fear.” He declares that his master has dismissed him. If you both want him, he is here; send him whither you will. I think I am not wrong in refusing to allow a runaway to stray farther. Here in the wilderness I cannot myself execute your orders; and therefore I have asked my dear friend Evagrius to push the affair vigorously, both for your sake and for mine. I desire your welfare in Christ.

Letter VI. To Julian, a Deacon of Antioch

This letter, written in 374 a.d., is chiefly interesting for its mention of Jerome’s sister. It would seem that she had fallen into sin and had been restored to a life of virtue by the deacon, Julian. Jerome speaks of her again in the next letter (§4).

It is an old saying, “Liars are disbelieved even when they speak the truth.” And from the way in which you reproach me for not having written, I perceive that this has been my lot with you. Shall I say, “I wrote often, but the bearers of my letters were negligent”? You will reply, “Your excuse is the old one of all who fail to write.” Shall I say, “I could not find any one to take my letters”? You will say that numbers of persons have gone from my part of the world to yours. Shall I contend that I have actually given them letters? They not having delivered them, will deny that they have received them. Moreover, so great a distance separates us that it will be hard to come at the truth. What shall I do then? Though really not to blame, I ask your forgiveness, for I think it better to fall back and make overtures for peace than to keep my ground and offer battle. The truth is that constant sickness of body and vexation of mind have so weakened me that with death so close at hand I have not been as collected as usual. And lest you should account this plea a false one, now that I have stated my case, I shall, like a pleader, call witnesses to prove it. Our reverend brother, Heliodorus, has been here; but in spite of his wish to dwell in the desert with me, he has been frightened away by my crimes. But my present wordiness will atone for my past remissness; for, as Horace says in his satire:

All singers have one fault among their friends:

They never sing when asked, unasked they never cease.

Henceforth I shall overwhelm you with such bundles of letters that you will take the opposite line and beg me not to write.

I rejoice that my sister —to you a daughter in Christ—remains steadfast in her purpose, a piece of news which I owe in the first instance to you. For here where I now am I am ignorant not only as to what goes on in my native land, but even as to its continued existence. Even though the Iberian viper shall rend me with his baneful fangs, I will not fear men’s judgment, seeing that I shall have God to judge me. As one puts it:

Shatter the world to fragments if you will:

’Twill fall upon a head which knows not fear.

Bear in mind, then, I pray you, the apostle’s precept that we should make our work abiding; prepare for yourself a reward from the Lord in my sister’s salvation; and by frequent letters increase my joy in that glory in Christ which we share together.

Letter VII. To Chromatius, Jovinus, and Eusebius.

This letter (written like the preceding in 374 a.d.) is addressed by Jerome to three of his former companions in the religious life. It commends Bonosus (§3), asks guidance for the writer’s sister (§4), and attacks the conduct of Lupicinus, Bishop of Stridon (§5).

1. Those whom mutual affection has joined together, a written page ought not to sunder. I must not, therefore, distribute my words some to one and some to another. For so strong is the love that binds you together that affection unites all three of you in a bond no less close than that which naturally connects two of your number. Indeed, if the conditions of writing would only admit of it, I should amalgamate your names and express them under a single symbol. The very letter which I have received from you challenges me in each of you to see all three, and in all three to recognize each. When the reverend Evagrius transmitted it to me in the corner of the desert which stretches between the Syrians and the Saracens, my joy was intense. It wholly surpassed the rejoicings felt at Rome when the defeat of Cannae was retrieved, and Marcellus at Nola cut to pieces the forces of Hannibal. Evagrius frequently comes to see me, and cherishes me in Christ as his own bowels. Yet as he is separated from me by a long distance, his departure has generally left me as much regret as his arrival has brought me joy.

2. I converse with your letter, I embrace it, it talks to me; it alone of those here speaks Latin. For hereabout you must either learn a barbarous jargon or else hold your tongue. As often as the lines—traced in a well-known hand—bring back to me the faces which I hold so dear, either I am no longer here, or else you are here with me. If you will credit the sincerity of affection, I seem to see you all as I write this.

Now at the outset I should like to ask you one petulant question. Why is it that, when we are separated by so great an interval of land and sea, you have sent me so short a letter? Is it that I have deserved no better treatment, not having first written to you? I cannot believe that paper can have failed you while Egypt continues to supply its wares. Even if a Ptolemy had closed the seas, King Attalus would still have sent you parchments from Pergamum, and so by his skins you could have made up for the want of paper. The very name parchment is derived from a historical incident of the kind which occurred generations ago. What then? Am I to suppose the messenger to have been in haste? No matter how long a letter may be, it can be written in the course of a night. Or had you some business to attend to which prevented you from writing? No claim is prior to that of affection. Two suppositions remain, either that you felt disinclined to write or else that I did not deserve a letter. Of the two I prefer to charge you with sloth than to condemn myself as undeserving. For it is easier to mend neglect than to quicken love.

3. You tell me that Bonosus, like a true son of the Fish, has taken to the water. As for me who am still foul with my old stains, like the basilisk and the scorpion I haunt the dry places. Bonosus has his heel already on the serpent’s head, whilst I am still as food to the same serpent which by divine appointment devours the earth. He can scale already that ladder of which the psalms of degrees are a type; whilst I, still weeping on its first step, hardly know whether I shall ever be able to say: “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.” Amid the threatening billows of the world he is sitting in the safe shelter of his island, that is, of the church’s pale, and it may be that even now, like John, he is being called to eat God’s book; whilst I, still lying in the sepulchre of my sins and bound with the chains of my iniquities, wait for the Lord’s command in the Gospel: “Jerome, come forth.” But Bonosus has done more than this. Like the prophet he has carried his girdle across the Euphrates (for all the devil’s strength is in the loins ), and has hidden it there in a hole of the rock. Then, afterwards finding it rent, he has sung: “O Lord, thou hast possessed my reins. Thou hast broken my bonds in sunder. I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving.” But as for me, Nebuchadnezzar has brought me in chains to Babylon, to the babel that is of a distracted mind. There he has laid upon me the yoke of captivity; there inserting in my nostrils a ring of iron, he has commanded me to sing one of the songs of Zion. To whom I have said, “The Lord looseth the prisoners; the Lord openeth the eyes of the blind.” To complete my contrast in a single sentence, whilst I pray for mercy Bonosus looks for a crown.

4. My sister’s conversion is the fruit of the efforts of the saintly Julian. He has planted, it is for you to water, and the Lord will give the increase. Jesus Christ has given her to me to console me for the wound which the devil has inflicted on her. He has restored her from death to life. But in the words of the pagan poet, for her

there is no safety that i do not fear.

You know yourselves how slippery is the path of youth—a path on which I have myself fallen, and which you are now traversing not without fear. She, as she enters upon it, must have the advice and the encouragement of all, she must be aided by frequent letters from you, my reverend brothers. And—for “charity endureth all things,” —I beg you to get from Pope Valerian a letter to confirm her resolution. A girl’s courage, as you know, is strengthened when she realizes that persons in high place are interested in her.

5. The fact is that my native land is a prey to barbarism, that in it men’s only God is their belly, that they live only for the present, and that the richer a man is the holier he is held to be. Moreover, to use a well-worn proverb, the dish has a cover worthy of it; for Lupicinus is their priest. Like lips like lettuce, as the saying goes—the only one, as Lucilius tells us, at which Crassus ever laughed—the reference being to a donkey eating thistles. What I mean is that an unstable pilot steers a leaking ship, and that the blind is leading the blind straight to the pit. The ruler is like the ruled.

6. I salute your mother and mine with the respect which, as you know, I feel towards her. Associated with you as she is in a holy life, she has the start of you, her holy children, in that she is your mother. Her womb may thus be truly called golden. With her I salute your sisters, who ought all to be welcomed wherever they go, for they have triumphed over their sex and the world, and await the Bridegroom’s coming, their lamps replenished with oil. O happy the house which is a home of a widowed Anna, of virgins that are prophetesses, and of twin Samuels bred in the Temple! Fortunate the roof which shelters the martyr-mother of the Maccabees, with her sons around her, each and all wearing the martyr’s crown! For although you confess Christ every day by keeping His commandments, yet to this private glory you have added the public one of an open confession; for it was through you that the poison of the Arian heresy was formerly banished from your city.

You are surprised perhaps at my thus making a fresh beginning quite at the close of my letter. But what am I to do? I cannot refuse expression to my feelings. The brief limits of a letter compel me to be silent; my affection for you urges me to speak. I write in haste, my language is confused and ill-arranged; but love knows nothing of order.

Letter VIII. To Niceas, Sub-Deacon of Aquileia.

Niceas, the sub-deacon, had accompanied Jerome to the East but had now returned home. In after-years he became bishop of Aquileia in succession to Chromatius. The date of the letter is 374 a.d.

The comic poet Turpilius says of the exchange of letters that it alone makes the absent present. The remark, though occurring in a work of fiction, is not untrue. For what more real presence—if I may so speak—can there be between absent friends than speaking to those whom they love in letters, and in letters hearing their reply? Even those Italian savages, the Cascans of Ennius, who—as Cicero tells us in his books on rhetoric—hunted their food like beasts of prey, were wont, before paper and parchment came into use, to exchange letters written on tablets of wood roughly planed, or on strips of bark torn from the trees. For this reason men called letter-carriers tablet-bearers, and letter-writers bark-users, because they used the bark of trees. How much more then are we, who live in a civilized age, bound not to omit a social duty performed by men who lived in a state of gross savagery, and were in some respects entirely ignorant of the refinements of life. The saintly Chromatius, look you, and the reverend Eusebius, brothers as much by compatibility of disposition as by the ties of nature, have challenged me to diligence by the letters which they have showered upon me. You, however, who have but just left me, have not merely unknit our new-made friendship; you have torn it asunder—a process which Laelius, in Cicero’s treatise, wisely forbids. Can it be that the East is so hateful to you that you dread the thought of even your letters coming hither? Wake up, wake up, arouse yourself from sleep, give to affection at least one sheet of paper. Amid the pleasures of life at home sometimes heave a sigh over the journeys which we have made together. If you love me, write in answer to my prayer. If you are angry with me, though angry still write. I find my longing soul much comforted when I receive a letter from a friend, even though that friend be out of temper with me.

Letter IX. To Chrysogonus, a Monk of Aquileia.

A bantering letter to an indifferent correspondent. Of the same date as the preceding.

Heliodorus, who is so dear to us both, and who loves you with an affection no less deep than my own, may have given you a faithful account of my feelings towards you; how your name is always on my lips, and how in every conversation which I have with him I begin by recalling my pleasant intercourse with you, and go on to marvel at your lowliness, to extol your virtue, and to proclaim your holy love.