Sanctus Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus (A.D. 345-420)
Litteræ Selectæ

English Translation mostly
by F.A. Wright, Select Letters of St. Jerome
in:  Loeb Classical Library
(Harvard U. Pr., 1933, &c.),
slightly altered by Brian T. Regan, Ph.D.
Latin text adapted, with corrections, to orthographic style of 19th century.

Letter 1
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15
Letter 7
1 2 3 4 5 6
Letter 14
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11
Letter 22
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21
22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41
Letter 38
1 2 3 4 5
Letter 40
1 2 3
Letter 43
1 2 3
Letter 44
1
Letter 45
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Letter 52
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17
Letter 54
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18
Letter 60
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19
Letter 77
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Letter 107
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13
Letter 117
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12
Letter 125
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20
Letter 127
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14
Letter 128
1 2 3 4 5
 { 1 }
Epistula I
Ad Innocentium Presbyterum ;  de Septies Percussa
A.D. 370
1:1Sæpe a me, Innocenti carissime, postulasti ut de ejus miraculo rei quæ in nostram ætatem inciderat, non tacerem.  Quumque ego id verecunde et vere, ut nunc experior, negarem, meque assequi posse diffiderem, sive quia omnis humanus sermo inferior esset laude cælesti, sive quia otium, quasi quædam ingenii robigo, parvulam licet facultatem pristini siccasset eloquii, tu e contrario asserebas in Dei rebus non possibilitatem inspici debere, sed animum, neque eum posse verba deficere qui credidisset in Verbo. You have often in the past asked me, my dearest Innocent1, to relate that miraculous happening which occurred in my lifetime.  To that request I gave a modest, and as I now find by trial, a justified, refusal.  I distrusted my power of achievement, both because all the language of man is inadequate to the praise of heaven, and also because lack of exercise, like rust upon the midn, has dried up any slight power of eloquence that in the past I might have possessed.  You, on the other hand, declared that in the things of God one ought to consider not the possibility, but the will, and that he who believed in the Word could not find words fail him.
1.  A member of Jerome’s first band of ascetics in Aquileia;  he accompanied Jerome to Antioch where he died in 374.
1:2Quid igitur faciam ?  Quod implere non possum, negare non audeo.  Super onerariam navem rudis vector imponor, et homo qui necdum scalmum in lacu rexi, Euxini Maris credor fragori.  Nunc mihi evanescentibus terris,

« cælum undique et undique pontus »,

nunc unda tenebris horrescens et cæca nocte nimborum spumei fluctus canescunt.  Hortaris ut tumida malo vela suspendam, rudentes explicem, clavum regam.  Pareo jam jubenti et, quia caritas omnia potest, Spiritu Sancto cursum prosequente confidam, habiturus in utraque parte solacium :  si me ad optatos portus æstus appulerit, gubernator putabor ;  si inter asperos orationis anfractus impolitus sermo substiterit, facultatem forsitan quæras, voluntatem certe flagitare non poteris.

What then shall I do?  I cannot fulfill this task, but I do not dare to refuse it.  A novice in shipcraft, I am put on board a vessel heavily laden;  a poor fellow who has never steered a skiff upon a lake, I am entrusted to the roar of the Euxine Sea.  The land fades from sight, around me now

« on every side is sky, on every side the sea  »;2

darkness roughens the waves and in the black night of the stormclouds the billows show white with foam.  You bid me hoist the swelling sails to the mast top, to let the sheets run loose and take the tiller in my hand.  Today I obey your command:  love is all-powerful, and with the Holy Spirit guiding my course, I may feel confident that in either case I shall find comfort.  If the surging waves drive me to the desired haven, I shall be considered a skilful steersman:  if my unvarnished tale strikes the rocks among the rough windings of my story, you may perhaps find me lacking in ability but you certainly will not be able to challenge my goodwill.
2.  Virgil, Æneid, 3:193.
1:3Igitur Vercellæ Ligurum civitas haud procul a radicibus Alpium sita, olim potens, nunc raro habitatore semiruta.  Hanc quum ex more consularis inviseret, oblatam sibi quandam mulierculam una cum adultero — nam id crimen maritus impegerat — pœnali carceris horrore circumdedit.  Neque multo post, cum lividas carnes ungula cruenta pulsaret et sulcatis lateribus dolor quæreret veritatem, infelicissimus juvenis volens compendio mortis longos vitare cruciatus, dum in suum mentitur sanguinem, accusavit alienum, solusque omnium miser meritus visus est percuti, quia non reliquit innoxiæ unde posset negare.  At vero mulier sexo fortior suo, quum eculeus corpus extenderet et sordidas pædore carceris manus post tergum vincula cohiberent, oculis, quos tantum tortor alligare non poterat, suspexit ad cælum et, volutis per ora lacrimis, « Tu », inquit, « testis, domine Jesu, cui occultum nihil est, qui es scrutator renis et cordis, non ideo me negare velle, ne peream.  At tu, miserrime homo, si interire festinas, cur duos interimis innocentes ?  Equidem et ipsa cupio mori, cupio invisum hoc corpus exuere, sed non quasi adultera.  Præsto jugulum, micantem intrepida excipio mucronem, innocentiam tantum mecum feram.  Non moritur, quisquis victurus occiditur. » Vercellæ then is a Ligurian city near the foothills of the Alps, once a place of importance, but now lying half in ruins with only a few inhabitants.  When the governor paid it his usual visit, a woman and her lover were brought before him accused by the husband of adultery, and were by him consigned to the dread torture chamber of the public prison.  There by agony the truth was sought;  and the unhappy youth soon gave way.  As the bloodstained hook furrowed his sides and tore his blackened flesh, he determined to escape from his long-drawn torments by the short road of death and, lying against his own body, accused another’s as well.  So for once a miserable wretch seemed to deserve his fate, for he left an innocent person no chance of denying the charge brought against her.  But the woman for her part showed a courage superior to her sex.  Her body was stretched upon the rack, and her hands black with the prison filth were bound with cords behind her;  but the torturer could not chain her eyes, and with them she looked up to heaven, and cried as the tears rolled down her cheeks:  « Thou, Lord Jesus, from whom nothing is hidden, who dost search out the reins and the heart, Thou art my witness that it is not to save myself from death that I wish to deny this, but that it is to save myself from sin that I refuse to tell a lie.  As for you, unhappy man, if you are in haste to perish, why take two innocent lives?  I for my part long to strip off this hateful body, I long to meet death, but not as a woman convicted of adultery.  I offer my throat to the gleaming sword, I welcome it without a shudder;  only I must take my innocence with me.  He does not perish, who dies to live again. »
1:4Igitur consularis, pastis cruore luminibus, ut fera quæ gustatum semel sanguinem semper sitit, duplicare tormenta jubet et sævum dentibus frendens similem carnifici minitatus est pœnam, nisi confiteretur sexus infirmior, quod non potuerat robur virile reticere. The governor had been feasting his eyes on the gory spectacle, like some wild animal that has once tasted blood and is for evermore athirst.  At this he ordered her tortures to be redoubled, and gnashing his teeth in fury, threatened the executioner with a like fate, unless he made the weaker sex confess a crime which manly strength had not been able to conceal.
1:5« Succurre, domine Jesu :  ad unum hominem tuum quam plura sunt inventa supplicia! »  Crines ligantur ad stipitem et, toto corpore ad eculeum fortius alligato, vicinus pedibus ignis apponitur, utrumque latus carnifex fodit nec papillis dantur indutiæ.  Immota mulier manet ;  et, a dolore corporis spiritu separato, dum conscientiæ bono fruitur, vetuit circa se sævire tormenta.  Judex crudelis quasi superatus attollitur, illa Dominum deprecatur ;  solvuntur membra compagibus, illa oculos ad cælum tendit ;  de communi scelere alius confitetur, illa pro confitente negat et, periclitans ipsa, alium vindicat periclitantem. « O Lord Jesus, bring help:  how many punishments have been discovered for this one creature of thine! »  Her hair is fastened to the , her whole body bound more tightly to the rack, and fire is put to her feet.  The executioner stabs her on both sides, and even her breasts are not spared.  Still the woman remains firm:  her spirit feels not bodily pain, and enjoying still a good conscience she forbids the torture to vent its rage upon her.  The cruel judge starts from his seat as though he were defeated;  she still prays to the Lord.  Her limbs are torn from their joints;  she only lifts her eyes to heaven.  Another confesses their common guilt;  she on his behalf denies what he confessed, and in danger herself tries to save another from danger.
1:6 Una interim vox :  « Cæde, ure, lacera ;  non feci.  Si dictis tollitur fides, veniet dies, quæ hoc crimen diligenter excutiat ;  habebo judicem meum. »  Jam lassus tortor suspirabat in gemitum, nec erat novo vulneri locus ;  jam victa sævitia, corpus quod laniarat horrebat.  Extemplo ira excitus consularis, « Quid miramini », inquit, « circumstantes, si torqueri mavult mulier quam perire ?  Adulterium certe sine duobus committi non potest, et esse credibilius, reor, noxiam ream negare de scelere, quam innocentem juvenem confiteri. » Her cry was still the same:  « Beat me, burn me, tear me in pieces.  I did not do it.  If you do not believe my words, the day will soon come that will sift this charge aright.  I have One who will judge me. »  By this time the torturer was sighing and groaning.  There was no room for fresh wounds.  The man himself shuddered to see the body he had so mangled, and even his ferocity gave way.  But the governor was only roused to fresh rage, and cried out forthwith:  « Why does it surprise you, bystanders, that a woman prefers torture to death?  Obviously it takes two persons to commit adultery, and I consider that it is far more likely that a guilty woman should deny a crime than that an innocent youth should confess one. »
1:7Pari igitur prolata in utrumque sententia, damnatos carnifex trahit.  Totus ad spectaculum populus effunditur, et prorsus quasi migrare civitas putaretur, stipatis proruens portis turba densatur.  Et quidem miserrimi juvenis ad primum statim ictum amputatur gladio caput, truncunque in suo sanguine volutatur cadaver.  Postquam vero ad feminam ventum est et, flexis in terram poplitibus, super trementem cervicem micans elevatus est gladius, et exercitatam carnifex dexteram totis viribus concitavit, ad primum corporis tactum stetit mucro letalis et, leviter perstringens cutem, rasuræ modicæ sanguinem aspersit.  Imbellem manum percussor expavit et, victam dexteram gladio marcescente miratus, in secundos impetus torquet.  Languidus rursum in feminam mucro delabitur et, quasi ferrum ream timeret attingere, circa cervicem torpet innoxium.  Itaque furens et anhelus lictor, paludamento in cervicem retorto, dum totas expedit vires, fibulam quæ chlamydis mordebat oras in humum excussit, ignarusque rei ensem librat in vulnus et, « En tibi », ait mulier, « ex umero aurum ruit.  Collige multo quæsitum labore, ne pereat. » The same sentence, therefore, was passed upon both, and the executioner dragged away his victims.  The whole populace rushed out to see the sight, pouring in dense masses from the crowded gates, so that you might have thought the entire city was migrating.  At the very first stroke of the sword the miserable youth’s head was cut off, and his headless corpse rolled over in its own blood.  Then came the woman’s turn.  With bent knees she sank to the ground, and over her quivering neck the gleaming sword was raised.  The executioner brought down his well-trained arm with all his might, but directly it touched her body the deadly sword was stayed, and lightly grazing the skin made a scratch just sufficient to draw blood.  At his hand’s defeat the striker trembled and looked in amazement at his conquered arm:  then swinging high the craven blade he prepared to give a second stroke.  Again the sword fell feebly on the woman and lay still and harmless on her neck, as though the steel feared to touch the accused.  Thereupon the headsman, panting now with rage, flung his cloak back over his shoulders, so that he might exert all his strength without hindrance.  The action loosened the brooch that fastened his garment, and it fell to the ground, unnoticed by the man, who was poising his sword for another blow. « Look », cried the woman, « your gold brooch has fallen from your shoulder.  Pick it up, or you will lose something for which you have worked hard. »
1:8Rogo, quæ est ista securitas ?  Impendentem non timet mortem, lætatur percussa, carnifex pallet ;  oculi gladium non videntes tantum fibulam vident et, ne parum esset quod non formidabat interitum, præstabat beneficium sævienti.  Jam igitur et tertius ictus ;  sacramentum frustraverat trinitatis.  Jam speculator exterritus et non credens ferro mucronem aptabat in jugulum ut, qui secare non poterat, saltim premente manu corpori conderetur.  O omnibus inaudita res sæculis ! » Ad capulum gladius reflectitur, et velut Dominum suum victus aspiciens confessus est se ferire non posse. What, I ask, is the secret of such confidence?  She has no fear of the death that threatens her, she rejoices in her wounds, it is the executioner who turns pale.  Her eyes do not see the sword, they only see the brooch.  It is not enough for her to feel no dread of death, she does an act of kindness to her savage tormentor.  And now the third blow fell, only to be rendered vain by the sacred power of the Trinity.  By this time the soldier was completely frightened, and no longer trusting the blade put the sword point to her throat, with the idea that though it could not cut, the pressure of his hand might force it into her body.  But the sword — O marvel unheard of through all the ages! — bent back to the hilt, and in its defeat seemed to look at its master, as if confessing that it could not strike.
1:9Huc, huc mihi trium exempla puerorum qui inter frigidos flammarum globos hymnos edidere pro fletibus, circa quorum sarabara sanctamque cæsariem innoxium lusit incendium.  Huc beati Danihelis revocetur historia, juxta quem, adulantibus caudis, prædam suam leonum ora timuerunt.  Nunc Susanna nobilis fide mentes omnium subeat, quæ, iniquo damnata judicio, Sancto Spiritu puerum replente, servata est.  Ecce non dispar in utraque misericordia Domini :  illa liberata per judicem ne iret ad gladium, hæc a judice damnata absoluta per gladium est. Now, now let me recall the example of the three children, who amid the cool circles of the fire sang hymns instead of shedding tears, while the flames played harmlessly about their turbans and their holy locks.  Let me repeat again the story of the blessed Daniel, before whom the lions crouched with fawning tails, and trembled at the man who was to be their prey.  Let all men remember once more the grandeur of Susanna’s faith, who, condemned by an unjust judgment, was saved by a lad inspired by the Holy Spirit.  Not unlike was the mercy of the Lord in both cases:  Susanna was set free by the judge and saved from the sword:  this woman was condemned by the judge but by the sword acquitted.
1:10Tandem ergo ad feminam vindicandam populus armatur.  Omnis ætas, omnis sexus carnificem fugat et, cœtu in circulum coëunte, non credit pæne unusquisque quod vidit.  Turbatur tali nuntio urbs propinqua et tota lictorum caterva glomeratur.  E quibus medius, ad quem damnatorum cura pertinebat, erumpens et

« canitiem immundam perfuso pulvere turpans »,

« Meum », inquit, « O cives, petitis caput, me illi vicarium datis !  Si misericordes, si clementes estis, si vultis servare damnatam, innocens certe perire non debeo. »  Quo fletu vulgi concussus est animus mæstusque se per omnes torpor insinuat et, mirum in modum voluntate mutata, quum pietatis fuisset quod ante defenderant, pietatis visum est genus ut paterentur occidi.

So at length the populace took up arms to defend the woman.  People of every age and every sex join in driving off the headsman.  The whole crowd form into a ring about her and hardly one among them can believe his own eyes.  The news of their action throws the neighboring city into confusion, and the governor’s attendants muster in force.  From their midst the officer charged with the care of condemned criminals dashed forth, and as he

« Poured defiling dust upon grey hair befouled  »3

cried:  « It is my life that you are taking, fellow countrymen.  You are making me her substitute.  Even if you do feel mercy and compassion, even if you are set on rescuing a woman condemned to death, surely it is not right for an innocent man like myself to die. »  This lamentable appeal shook the people’s resolution, and a spirit of gloomy torpor soon became universal.  Men’s feelings were strangely changed.  It had seemed their duty to defend the woman, it now seemed their duty in a way to allow her to be executed.
3.  Virgil, Æneid, XII, 611.
1:11Novus igitur ensis, novus percussor apponitur.  Stat victima, Christo tantum favente munita.  Semel percussa concutitur, iterum repetita quassatur, tertio vulnerata prosternitur et — O divinæ potentiæ sublimanda majestas ! — quæ prius fuerat quarto percussa nec læsa, ideo paululum visa est mori, ne pro ea periret innoxius. Accordingly a new sword and a new executioner appeared.  The victim takes her place, protected only by the favor of Christ.  The first blow makes her shake, at the second she totters, the third brings her wounded to the ground.  O majesty of God’s power, how wondrous, how sublime!  Previously she had received four strokes without injury ;  now for a little while she seemed to die, merely that an innocent man might not suffer in her stead.
1:12Clerici quibus id officii erat cruentum linteo cadaver obvolvunt et, fossam humum lapidibus construentes, ex more tumulum parant.  Festinato sol cursu occasum petit, et misericordiam Domini celatura nox advenit.  Subito feminæ palpitat pectus et, oculis quærentibus lucem, corpus animatur ad vitam ;  jam spirat, jam videt, jam sublevatur et loquitur, jam in illam potest vocem erumpere,

« Dominus, auxiliator meus, non timebo, quid faciat mihi homo ? »

Those of the clergy, whose duty it was to perform this office, wrapped the bloodstained corpse in a sheet, and then prepared to dig a grave and duly cover it over with stones.  The sun sets in haste, and night comes on to conceal God’s mercy in its darkness.  Suddenly the woman’s breast heaves, her eyes seek the light, her body is quickened to life again.  She sighs, she looks round, she rises, she speaks.  At last she is able to cry aloud:

« The Lord is on my side.  I will not fear.  What can man do unto me? »4

4.  Ps 118:6.
1:13Anus interim quædam quæ ecclesiæ sustentabatur opibus, debitum cælo spiritum reddidit, et quasi de industria, ordine currente rerum, vicarium tumulo corpus operitur.  Dubia adhuc luce in lictore diabolus occurrit, quærit cadaver occisæ, sepulcrum sibi monstrari petit ;  vivere putat, quam mori potuisse miratur.  Recens a clericis cæspes ostenditur et dudum superjecta humus cum his vocibus ingeritur flagitanti, « Erue scilicet ossa jam condita, infer novum sepulcro bellum, et si hoc parum est, avibus ferisque lanianda membra discerpe ;  septies percussa debet aliquid morte plus perpeti. » In the meantime an aged female, who had been maintained at the expense of the Church, rendered back her soul to heaven.  So opportunely her corpse took the woman’s place, and was buried in the tomb.  Before dawn the devil came on the scene in the person of the headsman, who began to look about for the body of the woman he had slain, and asked to be shown the place where she was buried.  He thought that she was still alive, for he wondered that she was able to die.  At his demand the clergy showed him the fresh turf and the ground which now for some time had been heaped up, crying out, « Dig up the bones forsooth which now have been laid to rest, make new war upon her tomb, and if that does not satisfy you, scatter her limbs for vultures and wild beasts to mangle.  A woman who has received seven strokes of the sword ought to suffer something more than death. »
1:14Tali invidia carnifice confuso, clam domi mulier focilatur et, ne forte creber ad ecclesiam medici commeatus suspicionis panderet viam, cum quibusdam virginibus ad secretiorem villulam secto crine transmittitur.  Ibi paulatim virili habitu veste mutata in cicatricem vulnus obducitur.  Et —« O vere jus summum summa malitia ! » — post tanta miracula adhuc sæviunt leges. The odium of such an action sent the executioner away in confusion, and the woman was secretly cared for indoors.  Finally, lest the doctor’s frequent visits to the church should give rise to suspicion, she had her hair cut short, and in company with some virgins was sent to a lonely house in the country.  There for a little time she put on men’s clothes until the scars formed over her wound.  And yet today — « How true it is that complete legality is complete injustice!  »5 — after all these wondrous happenings the laws are still raging against her.
5.  Terence, Heaut. Tim, 796.
1:15En quo me gestorum ordo protraxit !  Jam enim ad Evagrii nostri nomen advenimus.  Cujus ego pro Christo laborem, si arbitrer a me dici posse, non sapiam.  Si penitus tacere velim, voce in gaudium erumpente non possim.  Quis enim valeat digno canere præconio, Auxentium Mediolanii incubantem hujus excubiis sepultum pæne ante quam mortuum, Romanum episcopum jam pæne factionis laqueis irretitum et vicisse adversarios — et non nocuisse superatis ?

« Verum hæc ipse equidem exclusus iniquis
Prætereo atque aliis post me memoranda relinquo.
 »

Præsentis tantum rei fine contentus sum :  Imperatorem industria adit, precibus fatigat, merito lenit, sollicitudine promeretur ut redditam vitæ redderet libertati.
See now to what point the order of events has brought me.  At last we have reached the name of our friend Evagrius.6  If I were to think that I could describe all his labors on Christ’s behalf, I would indeed be foolish.  Were I minded to pass them over completely, I could not do so, for my voice of itself would burst into cries of joy.  Who could write a fitting panegyric of the man whose vigilance put Auxentius,7 that pest of Milan, into the grave before the time of his death, and enabled the bishop of Rome to escape from the entangling snares of faction, to overcome his enemies and to show them mercy in defeat?  But

« This I must leave for others to related,
Shut out myself by time and unkind fate.
 »8

I am satisfied to record the end of my present story:  Evagrius seeks a special interview with the Emperor, wearies him with his prayers, secures his sympathy by the merits of his case, and finally, by anxious care wins the day.  The Emperor restored to freedom the woman who had been thus restored to life.
6.  Evagrius, a presbyter of Antioch, later (ca. 388) consecrated bishop of that see;  often referred to by Jerome (Letters 3, 4, 5 and 15);  also by Basil, Letter 138.
7.  Auxentius, the Arian bishop of Milan, Ambrose’s predecessor, died 374.
8.  Virgil, Georgics, IV, 147.
{ 7 }
Epistula VII
Ad Chromatium, Jovinum, Eusebium1
7:1Non debet charta dividere, quos amor mutuus copulavit, nec per singulos officia mei sunt pertienda sermonis, quum sic invicem nos ametis ut non minus tres caritas jungat quam duos natura sociavit.  Quin potius, si rei condicio pateretur, sub uno litterulæ apice nomine indiviso concluderem vestris quoque ita me litteris pro vocantibus, ut et in uno tres et in tribus unum putarem.  Nam postquam sancto Evagrio transmittente in ea ad me heremi parte delatæ sunt, quæ inter Syros et Sarracenos vastum limitem ducit, sic gavisus sum, ut illum diem Romanæ felicitatis, quo primum Marcelli apud Nolam proelio post Cannensem pugnam superba Hannibalis agmina conciderunt, ego vicerim.  Et licet supra dictus frater sæpe me visitet atque ita ut sua in Christo viscera foveat, tamen longo a me spatio sejunctus non minus mihi dereliquit abeundo desiderium, quam attulerat veniendo lætitiam. Those whom mutual love has joined together ought not to be separated on a written page.  Therefore I must not divide between you individually the words that I owe to you all.  Two of you, as brothers, are already natural partners, but so strong is the love which you feel for one another that affection unites the three in a bond that is equally close.  Indeed, if actual conditions allowed, I would make one abbreviation include all your names without division;  for your letter challenged me to regard you as three in one and one in three.  That letter was handed to me by the saintly Evagrius in that part of the desert which forms a broad boundary line between the Syrians and the Saracens, and it filled me with joy, a joy surpassing even the exultation felt at Rome over the victory of Marcellus at Nola, when for the first time after Cannae Hannibal’s proud hosts were defeated.  The above-named brother often pays me a visit, and cherishes me in Christ like his own flesh;  but he is separated from me by a great distance, and his departure always causes me as much regret as his coming has brought delight.
1.  This letter, written in a.d. 374 to three young friends (who all later became bishops) from the desert of Chalcis, where Jerome then was living, gives some details of the writer’s sister, whose name is unknown, and of the condition of the church in Dalmatia.  Eusebius was the brother of Oceanus, bishop of Aquileia, who died ca. 407.  Cf. Letter 77.
7:2Nunc cum vestris litteris fabulor, illas amplexor, illæ mecum loquuntur, illæ hic tantum Latine sciunt.  Hic enim aut barbarus seni sermo discendus est aut tacendum est.  Quotiensque carissimos mihi vultus notæ manus referunt impressa vestigia, totiens aut ego hic non sum aut vos hic estis.  Credite amori vera dicenti :  et quum has scriberem, vos videbam.  Quibus hoc primum queror, cur, tot interjacentibus spatiis maris et terrarum, tam parvam epistulam miseritis — nisi quod ita merui, qui vobis, ut scribitis, ante non scripsi.  Chartam defuisse non puto, Ægypto ministrante commercia.  Et si aliqui Ptolomæus maria clausisset, tamen rex Attalus membranas e Pergamo miserat, ut penuria chartæ pellibus pensaretur ;  unde pergamenarum nomen ad hanc usque diem tradente sibi invicem posteritate servatum est.  Quid igitur ?  Arbitrer bajulum festinasse ?  Quamvis longæ epistulæ una nox sufficit.  An vos aliqua occupatione detentos ?  Nulla necessitas major est caritate.  Restant duo, ut aut vos piguerit aut ego non meruerim.  E quibus malo vos incessere tarditatis, quam me condemnare non meriti.  Facilius enim negligentia emendari potest, quam amor nasci. Now I talk to your letter, I embrace it, it carries on a conversation with me, it is the only thing here that knows Latin.  In this place an old man has either to learn a barbarous jargon, or else to hold his tongue.  The handwriting I know so well brings your dear faces before my eyes;  and then either I am no longer here or else you are here with me.  Believe love when it tells you the truth:  as I write this letter I see you before me.  However, I have one complaint to make first.  Why is it that with such stretches of sea and land between us you sent me so short a letter?  Perhaps I deserved it;  for as you say, I did not write first.  Paper, I imagine, cannot have failed you now that Egypt supplies the market.  Even if some Ptolemy had closed the seas, King Attalus was there to send you skins from Pergamum, and by parchment you could have made up for lack of paper.  The very word parchment as it exists today, handed down from generation to generation, reveals its origin.  Well, am I to suppose that your messenger was pressed for time?  One night is sufficient to write a letter in, however long the letter be.  Were you prevented by some urgent business?  Nothing has a greater claim on you than affection.  Two reasons are left;  either you felt disinclined, or else I was not deserving.  I prefer to accuse you of sloth rather than condemn myself as unworthy.  The correction of carelessness is an easier matter than the birth of love.
7:3Bonosus, ut scribitis, quasi filius ἰχθύς aquosa petit, nos pristina contagione sordentes quasi reguli et scorpiones arentia quæque sectamur.  Ille jam calcat super colubri caput, nos serpenti terram ex divina sententia comedenti adhuc cibo sumus.  Ille potest summum graduum psalmum scandere, nobis adhuc in primo ascensu Sentibus nescio an dicere aliquando contingat, « Levavi oculos meos in montes, unde veniat auxilium mihi. »  Ille inter minaces sæculi fluctus in tuto insulæ, hoc est ecclesiæ gremio, sedens ad exemplum Johannis librum forte jam devorat ;  ego, in scelerum meorum sepulcro jacens et peccatorum vinculis colligatus, dominicum de Evangelio exspecto clamorem, « Hieronyme, veni foras ! »  Bonosus, inquam, — quia secundum prophetam omnis diaboli virtus in lumbo est — trans Euphraten tulit lumbare suum, ibi illud in foramine petræ abscondens et postea scissum repperiens, cecinit, « Domine, tu possedisti renes meos ;  dirupisti vincula mea ;  tibi sacrificabo hostiam laudis » ;  me verus Nabuchodonosor ad Babylonem, id est confusionem mentis meæ, catenatum duxit ;  ibi mihi captivitatis jugum imposuit, ibi ferri circulum innectens de canticis Sion cantare præcepit.  Cui ego dixi, « Dominus solvit compeditos, Dominus illuminat cæcos. »  Et, ut breviter cœptam dissimilitudinem finiam, ego veniam deprecor, ille exspectat coronam. You tell me that Bonosus, like a true son of the Fish, makes for watery places.2  For myself, I am still foul with my ancient stains, and like the basilisk and scorpion I seek out any place that is dry.  Bonosus today treads the serpent’s head beneath his heel;  I am still food for the creeping monster who by God’s decree devours the earth.  Bonosus can climb to the highest step in the psalms of degrees;  I am still weeping at the beginning of the ascent, and scarcely know whether it will ever be my lot to say3:  “I lifted up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.”  Bonosus amid the threatening billows of the world sits in the safe retreat of his island, the bosom of the Church, and perhaps, like John, he is even now eating God’s book;4  I lie in the tomb of my sins, bound in the chains of iniquity, and wait for the Lord’s gospel cry:  “Jerome, come forth.”  Bonosus, I say — for according to the prophet all the devil’s strength is in the loins — has carried his loincloth across the Euphrates5 to hide it in a hole of the rock, and after he found it torn he has sung:  “O Lord, thou hast possessed my kidneys.  Thou hast broken my bonds in sunder.  I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving.”6  As for me, a real Nebuchadnezzar has led me in chains to Babylon, that is, to the babel of a distracted mind.  There he has laid upon me the yoke of captivity, there he has fastened an iron ring upon me and bidden me sing one of the songs of Sion.7  To him I have made reply:  “The Lord looseth the prisoners;  the Lord openeth the eyes of the blind.”8  In fact, to complete this comparison of differences in a simple sentence:  I pray for mercy;  Bonosus awaits a crown.
2.  I.e. has been baptized.  ἰχθύς = Ἰησοῦς Χριστὸς Θεοῦ Υἱὸς Σωτήρ.  Bonosus, Jerome’s foster brother, studied with him at Rome, joined his band of ascetics at Aquileia, and when this broke up retired to live as a hermit on a small island near Aquileia.
3.  Ps 121:1.  The so-called “Psalms of degrees,” 120-134, chanted on the steps of the Temple, are taken as a type of the Christian’s progress.
4.  Revelation, 10:9,10.
5.  Jeremiah, 13:4-5.
6.  Ps 139:13;  115:7,8
7.  Ps 137:3.
8.  Ps 146:7,8.
7:4Soror mea sancti Juliani in Christo fructus est :  ille plantavit, vos rigate, Dominus incrementum dabit.  Hanc mihi Jesus pro eo vulnere quod diabolus inflixerat, præstitit vivam reddendo pro mortua.  Huic « ego », ut ait gentilis poëta,

« omnia etiam tuta timeo. »

Scitis ipsi lubricum adolescentiæ iter, in quo et ego lapsus sum et vos non sine timore transitis.  Hoc illa quum maxime ingrediens omnium fulcienda præceptis, omnium est sustentanda solaciis, id est crebris vestræ sanctitudinis epistulis roboranda, et quia caritas omnia sustinet, obsecro ut etiam a papa Valeriano ad eam confortandam litteras exigatis.  Nostis puellares animos his rebus plerumque solidari, si se intellegant curæ esse majoribus.
My sister9 is the fruit in Christ of the saintly Julian.  He planted;  you must water;  the Lord will give the increase.  Jesus has given her to me as compensation for the wound which the devil inflicted.  He has brought her back from death to life.  But, as the heathen poet says, for her

All things, though safe in semblance, I do fear.10

You know yourselves how treacherous is the path of youth, a path where I fell and which you are now traversing not without fear.  At this moment, when she is entering upon it, she needs to be supported by all men’s encouragement, confirmed by all men’s advice — in other words, strengthened by such frequent letters as your saintliness will suggest.  Love endureth all things;  and I therefore beg you to get a letter from Pope Valerian11 also, so that her courage may be increased.  You know that a girl’s spirit is often fortified by the thought that her elders are interested in her.
9.  As mention in note 1, this letter, written in a.d. 374 to three young friends (who all later became bishops) from the desert of Chalcis, where Jerome then was living, gives some details of the writer’s sister, whose name is unknown, and of the condition of the church in Dalmatia.  Her conversion is again referred to in Letter 6, addressed to this same Julian, a deacon of the Church at Aquileia.
10.  Virgil, Æneid, IV. 298.
11.  For the term “Pope,” cf. p. 308, note 2.
7:5In mea enim patria, rusticitatis vernacula, deus venter est, et de die vivitur :  sanctior est ille qui ditior est.  Accessit huic patellæ juxta tritum populi proverbium dignum operculum, Lupicinus sacerdos — secundum illud quoque, de quo semel in vita Crassum ait risisse Lucilius,

« Similem habent labra lactucam, asino carduos comedente »

— videlicet ut perforatam navem debilis gubernator regat, et cæcus cæcos ducat in foveam, talisque sit rector quales illi qui reguntur.
As for my own country, it is enslaved to barbarism, and men’s family God is their belly.  People live only for the day, and the richer you are the more saintly you are held to be.  Furthermore, to use a well-worn popular saying, the cover there is worthy of the dish;  for Lupicinus12 is their priest.  It bears out the proverb which, as Lucilius tells us, made Crassus laugh for the only time in his life13:

When an ass eats thistles up, his lips have lettuce like themselves.”14

I mean that in my country a crippled helmsman steers a leaking ship, a blind man leads the blind into a pit;  as the ruler is, so are the ruled.
12.  A priest or bishop of Stridon, a Spaniard by birth, who was at variance with Jerome probably because he opposed monasticism.
13.  Cicero, De Fin. v. 30.
14.  For this proverb (the precise point of which is not clear) cf. also Eugenius II, Carm. 89 (Migne, Patrolog. Lat., LXXXVII, II. Carm. 60, p. 393):  Carduus et spina, quum pastum præbet asello, lactuca labris compar est {“When thistles and thorns are fed to an ass, lettuce is like its lips”}.  Eugenius II (died 647) was Archbishop of Toledo from 636 to 646.
7:6Matrem communem quæ, quum vobis sanctitate societur, in eo vos prævenit, quia tales genuit, cujus vere venter aureus potest dici, eo salutamus honore, quo nostis ;  una quoque suspiciendas cunctis sorores, quæ sexum vicere cum sæculo, quæ oleo ad lampadas largiter præparato sponsi opperiuntur adventum.  O beata domus in qua morantur Anna vidua, virgines prophetissæ, geminus Samuhel nutritus in templo !  O tecta felicia in quibus cernimus Macchabæorum martyrum coronis cinctam martyrem matrem !  Nam licet cottidie Christum confiteamini dum, ejus præcepta servatis, tamen ad privatam gloriam publica hæc accessit vobis et aperta confessio, quod per vos ab urbe vestra Ariani quondam dogmatis virus exclusum est.  Et miremini forsitan quod, in fine jam epistulæ, rursus exorsus sim.  Quid faciam ?  Vocem pectori negare non valeo.  Epistulæ brevitas compellit tacere, desiderium vestri cogit loqui.  Præproperus sermo ;  confusa turbatur oratio ;  amor ordinem nescit. I send my greetings to your mother, who is a mother to us all, with the deep respect which you know I feel.  She is your close associate in holy life;  but she has one advantage over you in that she is the mother of such sons as yourselves.  Truly her womb may be called golden.  I salute your sisters also, for they are worthy of universal respect.  They have triumphed over sex and the world, and now await the Bridegroom’s coming, their lamps well filled with oil.  How happy is the house, where dwells a widowed Anna, virgins that are prophetesses, and twin Samuels15 reared in the temple precincts.  How fortunate the roof that shelters for us the martyr mother of the martyr Maccabees all girt with crowns.16  Though every day you confess Christ by keeping his commandments, you have added to this private glory the public fame of an open confession, and it was by your efforts in the past that the poison of the Arian heresy was expelled from your city.17  Perhaps you may wonder at my beginning thus afresh at the end of a letter.  What am I to do?  I cannot preclude my heart from utterance.  The brief limits of a letter force me to be silent, but my longing for your company compels me to speak.  My words pour out in eager haste;  my language is confused and disjointed;  but love knows nothing of order.
15.  I.e. Chromatius and Eusebius, cf. sect. v.
16.  Cf. 2 Maccabees, vii.
17.  Aquileia.
{ 14 }
Epistula XIV
Ad Heliodorum Monachum
A.D. 374
14:1QUANTO studio et amore contenderim, ut pariter in eremo moraremur, conscium mutuæ caritatis pectus agnoscit.  Quibus lamentis, quo dolore, quo gemitu te absentem persecutus sim, istæ quoque litteræ testes sunt, quas lacrimis cernis interlitas.  Verum tu, quasi parvulus delicatus, contemptum rogantis per blandimenta fovisti et ego, incautus, quid tunc agerem nesciebam.  Tacerem ?  Sed quod ardenter volebam, moderate dissimulare non poteram.  Impensius obsecrarem ?  Sed audire nolebas, quia similiter non amabas.  Quod unum potuit, spreta caritas fecit.  Quem præsentem retinere non valuit, quærit absentem.  Quoniam igitur et tu ipse abiens postularas ut tibi, postquam ad deserta migrassem, invitatoriam a me scriptam transmitterem — et ego facturum receperam —, invito :  jam propera.  Nolo pristinarum necessitatum recorderis — nudos amat eremus — nolo te antiquæ peregrinationis terreat difficultas.  Qui in Christo credis, et ejus crede sermonibus, « Quærite primum regnum Dei, et hæc omnia apponentur nobis. »  Non pera tibi sumenda, non virga est ;  affatim dives est qui cum Christo pauper est. Your own heart conscious of our mutual affection knows with what loving zeal I urged you to let us stay together in the desert.  This letter even, blotted, as you see, with tears, bears witness to the grief, the sobs, and the lamentations wherewith I accompanied your departure.  You, like some spoilt child, smoothed over your contemptuous refusal then with soft words and I in my folly did not know what to do.  Ought I to have held my tongue?  I could not conceal my ardent desires under a cloak of indifference.  Ought I to have pleaded with more urgency?  You would not have listened, for you did not love me as I loved you.  The affection you scorned has done the one thing it could.  It was not able to keep you when present, but it now comes to seek you when you are far away.  At your departure you asked me to send you a letter of invitation when I took up my home in the desert, and I promised that I would do so.  That letter of invitation I now send:  come, and come quickly.  Do not think of old ties — the desert loves the naked — do not be deterred by the hardships of our former travels.  As you believe in Christ, believe also in his words:  “Seek ye first the kingdom of God, and all these things shall be added unto you”!1  You need not take scrip nor staff;  he is abundantly rich who is poor with Christ.
1.  St. Matthew, 6:33
14:2Sed quid ago ?  Rursus improvidus obsecro ?  Abeant preces, blandimenta discedant ;  debet amor irasci.  Qui rogantem contempseras, forsitan audies objurgantem.  Quid facis in paterna domo, delicate miles ?  Ubi vallum, ubi fossa, ubi hiems acta sub pellibus ?  Ecce de cælo tuba canit, cum nubibus debellaturus orbem imperator armatus egreditur !  Ecce bis acutus gladius ex regis ore procedens obvia quæque metit !  Et tu mihi de cubiculo ad aciem, de umbra egrederis ad solem ?  Corpus assuetum tunica loricæ onus non suffert ;  caput opertum linteo galeam recusat ;  mollem otio manum durus exasperat capulus.  Audi edictum regis tui :  « Qui mecum non est, contra me est ;  et qui mecum non colligit, spargit. »  Recordare tiroconii tui diem, quo Christo in baptismate consepultus sacramenti verba jurasti :  pro nomine ejus non te matri parciturum esse, non patri.  Ecce adversarius in pectore tuo Christum conatur occidere ;  ecce donativum quod militaturus acceperas, hostilia castra suspirant.  Licet parvulus ex collo pendeat nepos, licet sparso crine et scissis vestibus ubera, quibus nutrierat, mater ostendat, licet in limine pater jaceat, per calcatum perge patrem, siccis oculis ad vexillum crucis vola !  Pietatis genus est in hac re esse crudelem. But what am I doing?  Why these imprudent entreaties for the second time?  A truce to prayers, enough of soft words.  It is the duty of offended love to show resentment.  You despised my request;  perhaps you will listen to my reproof.  What business have you, pampered soldier, in your father’s house?  Where now are the rampart, the trench, and the winter under canvas?  Lo, the trumpet sounds from heaven!  Lo, our general fully armed comes forth amid the clouds to subdue the world!  Lo, from our king’s mouth proceeds a sword twice sharpened, which cuts down all that is in its path!  Are you coming out, pray, from your chamber to the battlefield, from the shade to the sun?  A body that is used to a tunic cannot support a cuirass, a head that has worn a linen hood shrinks from a helmet, a hand that idleness has softened is galled by a hard sword-hilt.  Hear your king’s proclamation:  “He that is not with me is against me, and he that gathereth not with me scattereth.”2  Remember the day when you enlisted as a recruit, when, buried with Christ in baptism, you took the oath of allegiance to Him, declaring that in His name you would spare neither father nor mother.  Lo, the adversary within your own heart is trying now to slay Christ!  Lo, the enemy’s camp is sighing now for the bounty which you received before your service began.  Though your little nephew3 hang on your neck, though your mother with dishevelled hair and torn raiment show you the breasts that gave you suck, though your father fling himself upon the threshold, trample your father underfoot and go your way, fly with tearless eyes to the standard of the Cross.  In these matters to be cruel is a son’s duty.
2.  St. Matthew, 12:30.
3.  Nepotian.  Cf. Letters 52 and 60.
14:3Veniet postea dies, quo victor revertaris in patriam, quo Hierosolymam cælestem vir fortis coronatus incedas.  Tunc municipatum cum Paulo capies, tunc et parentibus tuis ejusdem civitatis jus petes, tunc et pro me rogabis qui, ut vinceres, incitavi.  Neque vero nescio, qua te nunc dicas compede præpediri.  Non est nobis ferreum pectus nec dura præcordia ;  non “ex silice natos” Hyrcanæ nutriere tigrides.  Et nos per ista transivimus.  Nunc tibi blandis vidua soror hæret lacertis, nunc illi, cum quibus adolevisti, vernulæ ajunt, « Cui nos servituros relinquis ? »  Nunc et gerula quondam, jam anus, et nutricius, secundus post naturalem pietatis pater, clamitat, « Morituros exspecta paulisper et sepeli. »  Forsitan et laxis uberum pellibus, arata rugis fronte, antiquum referens mamma lallare congeminet.  Dicant, si volunt, et grammatici :

« In te omnis domus inclinata recumbit. »

Facile rumpit hæc vincula amor Christi et timor gehennæ.
The day will come later when you shall return in triumph to your true country, when, crowned as a man of might, you shall walk the streets of the heavenly Jerusalem.  Then you shall share with Paul the franchise of that city, and ask the same privilege for your parents.  Yes, and for me also you shall intercede, who urged you on to victory.  I know full well the fetters which you will say impede you.  My breast is not of iron nor my heart of stone.  I was not born from a rock or suckled by Hyrcanian tigers.4  I too have passed through all this.  Your widowed sister clings to you today with loving arms;  the house-slaves, in whose company you grew to manhood, cry “To what master are you leaving us?” Your old nurse and her husband, who have the next claim to your affection after your own father, exclaim, “Wait for a few months till we die and then give us burial.”  Perhaps your foster mother with sagging breasts and wrinkled face may remind you of your old lullaby and sing it once again.  Your tutors even, if they wish, may say with Virgil:5

On you the whole house resting leans.

The love of Christ and the fear of hell easily break such bonds as these.
At Scriptura præcipit parentibus obsequendum » ;  sed quicunque eos supra Christum amat, perdit animam suam.  Gladium tenet hostis ut me perimat, et ego de matris lacrimis cogitabo ?  Propter patrem militiam deseram cui sepulturam, Christi causa, non debeo, quam etiam omnibus ejus causa debeo ?  Domino passuro timide consulens Petrus scandalum fuit.  Paulus, retinentibus fratribus ne Hierosolymam pergeret, respondit, « Quid facitis plorantes et conturbantes cor meum ?  Ego non solum ligari, sed mori in Hierusalem paratus sum pro nomine Domini nostri Jesu Christi. »  Aries iste pietatis quo fides quatitur, Evangelii retundendus est muro :  « Mater mea et fratres mei hi sunt quicunque faciunt voluntatem patris mei, qui in cælis est. »  Si credunt in Christo, faveant mihi pro ejus nomine pugnaturo ;  si non credunt, « mortui sepeliant mortuos suos. » But, you will say, the Scripture bids us to obey our parents.  Nay, whosoever loves his parents more than Christ loses his own soul.  The enemy takes up his sword to slay me:  shall I think of my mother’s tears?  Shall I desert from my army because of my father, to whom in Christ’s cause I owe no rites of burial, although in Christ’s cause I owe them to all men?  Peter with his craven counsel was an offence to Our Lord before His passion.  Paul’s answer to his brothers, who would have stayed his journey to Jerusalem, was this:  “What mean ye, to weep and to break my heart?  For I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.”6  The battering-ram of affection which shakes faith must be beaten back by the wall of the Gospel:  “My mother and my brethren are these, whosoever do the will of my father which is in heaven.”7  If men believe in Christ, they should cheer me on as I go to fight in His name.  If they do not believe, “let the dead bury their dead.”8
4.  Cf.  Æneid, 4:366.
5.  Æneid, 12:59.
6.  Acts, 21:13
7.  St. Matthew, 12:50
8.  St. Matthew, 8:22
14:4« Sed hoc », ais, « in martyrio. »  Erras, frater, erras, si putas unquam Christianum persecutionem non pati ;  et nunc quum maxime oppugnaris, si te oppugnari nescis.  Adversarius noster tanquam leo rugiens aliquem devorare quærens circuit — et tu pacem putas ?  « Sedet in insidiis cum divitibus in occultis ut interficiat innocentem ;  oculi ejus in pauperem respiciunt ;  insidiatur in occulto sicut leo in spelunca sua ;  insidiatur ut rapiat pauperem. »  Et tu, frondosæ arboris tectus umbraculo, molles somnos, futura præda, carpis ?  Inde me persequitur luxuria, inde avaritia conatur irrumpere, inde venter meus vult mihi deus esse pro Christo, compellit libido ut habitantem in me Spiritum Sanctum fugem, ut templum ejus violem.  Persequitur me, inquam, hostis

« cui nomina mille, mille nocendi artes » ;

et ego infelix victorem me putabo, dum capior ?
All this is well enough, you reply, if one is a martyr.  Ah, you are mistaken, grievously mistaken, my brother, if you think that there is ever a time when the Christian is not suffering persecution.  At this very moment you are being furiously attacked when you do not know that any attack is being made.  “Our adversary as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour,”9 and do you think you are at peace?  “He sitteth in ambush with the rich in secret to murder the innocent, his eyes are privily set against the poor.  He lieth in wait secretly as a lion in his den;  he lieth in wait to catch the poor,”10 and do you, his destined prey, enjoy your soft slumbers under the shady covering of a leafy tree?  On one side self-indulgence pursues me, on another avarice tries to break in, on another my belly wishes to be my god in Christ’s place:  lust urges me to drive away the Holy Spirit that dwells within me and to violate His temple;  I am pursued, I repeat by an enemy who has

A thousand names, a thousand arts for ill”;11

and shall I, poor wretch, deem myself a conqueror when I am being led into captivity?
9.  1 St.  Peter, 5:8.
10.  Ps 10:8.
11.  Virgil, Æneid, 7:337
14:5Nolo, frater carissime, examinato pondere delictorum, minora arbitreris idolatriæ crimina esse quæ diximus ;  immo apostoli disce sententiam, qui ait, « Hoc enim scitote intellegentes, quia omnis fornicator aut immundus, aut fraudator, quod est idolatria, non habet hereditatem in regno Dei et Christi. »  Et quanquam generaliter adversum Deum sapiat quicquid diaboli est, et quod diaboli est idolatria sit, cui omnia idola mancipantur, tamen et in alio loco speciatim nominatimque, dicens, « Mortificate membra vestra quæ in terra sunt, exponentes fornicationem, immunditiam et concupiscentiam malam et cupiditatem, quæ sunt idolorum servitus, propter quæ venit ira Dei. »  Non est tantum in eo servitus idoli, si quis duobus digitulis tura comprehensa in bustum aræ jaciat aut haustum patera fundat merum.  Neget avaritiam idolatriam, qui potest triginta argenteis Dominum venditum appellare justitiam ;  neget sacrilegium in libidine, sed is qui membra Christi, et hostiam vivam placentem Deo, cum publicarum libidinum victimis nefaria colluvione violavit ;  non fateatur idolatras eos, sed similis eorum, qui in Actibus Apostolorum ex patrimonio suo partem pretii reservantes præsenti periere vindicta.  Animadverte, frater :  non tibi licet de tuis quicquam habere rebus.  « Omnis », inquit Dominus, « qui non renuntiaverit cunctis quæ possidet, non potest meus esse discipulus. » Do not weigh one transgression too closely against another, dearest brother, nor think that the sins I have mentioned are less heinous than idolatry.  Nay, listen to the apostle’s verdict:  “For this we know, that no whoremonger or unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.”12  Speaking generally, all that is of the devil savors of enmity to God, and what is of the devil is idolatry, since all idols are in his service.  But in another place the apostle lays down a special law, saying expressly:  “Mortify your members which are upon the earth, laying aside fornication, uncleanness, evil concupiscence and covetousness, which are idolatry, for which things’ sake the wrath of God cometh.”13  Idolatry is not confined to taking some grains of incense in two fingers and throwing them upon an altar fire, nor to pouring a libation of wine from a bowl.  Let him deny that avarice is idolatry, who can assert that the selling of the Lord for thirty pieces of silver was a righteous act.  Let him, but only him, deny that there is sacrilege in carnal lust, who has polluted the living offering of his body pleasing to God by shameful intercourse with the victims of public vice.  Let him not confess that those men were idolaters, who in the Acts of the Apostles14 kept back part of the price of their inheritance, and perished by an instant penalty, but only if he is himself like them.  Take heed, brother:  it is not lawful for you to keep anything that you possess. “Whosoever he be of you,” says the Lord, “that forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple”!14
12.  Ephesians, 5:5.
13.  Colossians, 3:5.
14.  Acts, 5:1
15.  St. Luke, 14:33
14:6Cur timido animo Christianus es ?  Respice cum patre relictum rete ;  respice surgentem de teloneo publicanum, statim apostolum.  « Filius hominis non habet ubi caput reclinet »,  et tu amplas porticus et ingentia tectorum spatia metaris ?  Hereditatem exspectas sæculi, coheres Christi ?  Interpretare vocabulum “monachi,” hoc est nomen tuum :  quid facis in turba, qui solus es ?  Et hæc ego non, integris rate vel mercibus, quasi ignaros fluctuum doctus nauta præmoneo sed, quasi nuper naufragio ejectus in litus, timida navigaturis voce denuntio.  In illo æstu Charybdis luxuriæ salutem vorat ;  ibi ore virgineo, ad pudicitiæ perpetranda naufragia, Scyllaceum renidens libido blanditur ;  hic barbarum litus, hic diabolus pirata cum sociis portat vincla capiendis.  Nolite credere, nolite esse securi.  Licet in morem stagni fusum æquor arrideat, licet vix summa jacentis elementi spiritu terga crispentur, magnus hic campus montes habet, intus inclusum est periculum, intus est hostis.  Expedite rudentes, vela suspendite.  Crux antemnæ figatur in frontibus :  tranquillitas ista tempestas est. Why are you such a timid Christian?  Consider him who left his father and his nets, and how the publican rising from the receipt of custom became at once an apostle. “The Son of man hath not where to lay his head,”16 and are you planning wide colonnades and spacious halls?  Are you looking for an inheritance in this world, you who are joint-heir with Christ?  Consider the meaning of the word monk, your proper designation.17  What are you, a solitary, doing in a crowd?  These warnings of mine are not those of a skilled sailor, with ship and cargo intact, addressed to people ignorant of the sea;  nay, rather, like some shipwrecked mariner just cast ashore, I address my faltering words to others who are about to set sail.  On one side of the strait the Charybdis of self-indulgence engulfs our salvation;  on the other the Scylla of lust, with a smile upon her girlish cheek, lures us on to make shipwreck of our chastity.  To the right is a savage coast, to the left the devil with his pirate crew carrying chains for his future captives.  Be not credulous, be not over-confident.  Though the sea be now as smooth and smiling as a pond, though the mighty monster’s back be scarcely ruffled by a breath of air, yet that huge plain contains mountains within it.  There is danger in its depths, the foe is lurking there.  Stow your tackle, reef your sails, and let the cross which the yard-arm makes be fastened on your front.  That stillness means a tempest.
Sed forsitan dicturus es : «  Quid ergo ?  Quicunque in civitate sunt, Christiani non sunt ? »  Non est tibi eadem causa quæ ceteris.  Dominum ausculta dicentem, « Si vis perfectus esse, vade, vende omnia tua et da pauperibus et veni, sequere me. »  Tu autem perfectum te esse pollicitus es.  Nam quum, derelicta militia, castrasti te propter regnum cælorum, quid aliud quam perfectam sectatus es vitam ?  Perfectus autem servus Christi nihil præter Christum habet ;  si præter Christum habet, perfectus non est.  Et si perfectus non est, quum se perfectum Deo fore pollicitus sit, ante mentitus est.  « Os autem quod mentitur, occidit animam. »  Igitur, ut concludam, si perfectus es, cur bona paterna desideras ?  Si perfectus non es, Dominum fefellisti.  Divinis Evangelium vocibus tonat, « Non potestis duobus dominis servire », et audet quisquam mendacem Christum facere, mamonæ et Domino serviendo ?  Vociferatur ille sæpe, « Si quis vult post me venire, abneget se ipsum et tollat crucem suam et sequatur me. »  Et ego, onustus auro, arbitror me Christum sequi ?  « Qui dicit se in Christo manere, debet quomodo ille ambulavit, et ipse ambulare. » “Well,” you may say, “Are not all my fellow-townsmen Christians?”  Your case is not the same as that of other men.  Listen to the Lord speaking;  “If thou wilt be perfect go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and come and follow me.”18  You promised to be perfect.  When you gave up the army and made yourself an eunuch for the kingdom of heaven’s sake, what other purpose had you in view save the perfect life?  A perfect servant of Christ has nothing beside Christ:  if he has anything beside Christ he is not perfect.  And if he is not perfect, when he promised God that he would be perfect, his first promise was a lie.  Now “the mouth that lieth slayeth the soul.”19  To conclude, then, if you are perfect why do you hanker after your father’s property?  If you are not perfect, you have played the Lord false.  The Gospel thunders with God’s own voice;  “Ye cannot serve two masters”;20  and does any man dare to make Christ a liar by serving Mammon and the Lord together?  Often does He cry:  “If any one will come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”21  Do I think that I am following Christ when I load myself with gold? “He that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also to walk even as He walked.”22
16.  St.  Matthew, 8:20.
17.  Μόναχος, solitary.
18.  St. Matthew, 19:21.
19.  Sap. 11:1.
20.  St. Matthew, 6:24.
21.  St. Luke, 9:23.
22.  1 John 2:6.
14:7Quodsi nihil habes (ut te responsurum scio), cur tam bene paratus ad bella non militas ?  Nisi forte in patria tua te arbitraris hoc facere, quum in sua, Dominus signa non fecerit.  Et cur id ?  Cum auctoritate sume rationem :  « Nemo propheta in sua patria honorem habet. »  « Non quæro », inquies, « honorem ;  sufficit mihi conscientia mea. »  Neque Dominus quærebat, quippe qui ne a turbis rex constitueretur, aufugit.  Sed ubi honor non est, ibi contemptus est ;  ubi contemptus, ibi frequens injuria ;  ubi autem injuria, ibi et indignatio ;  ubi indignatio, ibi quies nulla ;  ubi quies non est, ibi mens a proposito sæpe deducitur ;  ubi autem per inquietudinem aliquid aufertur e studio, minus fit ab eo quod tollitur ;  et ubi minus est, perfectum non potest dici.  Ex hac supputatione illa summa nascitur, monachum in patria sua perfectum esse non posse.  Perfectum autem esse nolle, delinquere est. I know what your reply will be — “I possess nothing.”  When you are so well equipped for war, why do you not take the field?  Perhaps you think you can do so in your own country, although the Lord could do no signs in His.  Why could He not?  Hear the reason that has His authority:  “No prophet has honor in his own country.” 23  “I do not seek honor,” you will say;  “my own conscience is enough for me.”  Neither did the Lord seek it;  for when the crowds would have made Him king He fled away.  But where there is no honor, there is contempt;  where there is contempt, insult is frequent;  where there is insult, there is indignation;  where there is indignation, there is no rest;  where there is no rest, the mind is often diverted from its purpose.  Moreover, where through restlessness something of zeal is lost, zeal is lessened by what it loses, and when a thing is lessened it cannot be called perfect.  We may sum up our account by saying that a monk cannot be perfect in his own country;  and not to wish to be perfect is a sin.
23.  St. John, 4:44.
14:8Sed de hoc gradu pulsus provocabis ad clericos ;  « An de his aliquid audeam dicere qui certe in suis urbibus commorantur ? » Absit ut quicquam de his sinistrum loquar qui, apostolico gradui succedentes, Christi corpus sacro ore conficiunt, per quos nos etiam Christiani sumus, qui, claves regni cælorum habentes, quodammodo ante judicii diem judicant, qui sponsum Domini sobria castitate conservant.  Sed alia, ut ante præstruxi, monachi causa est, alia clericorum :  clerici oves pascunt, ego pascor ;  illi de altario vivunt, mihi quasi infructuosæ arbori securis ponitur ad radices, si munus ad altare non defero.  Nec possum obtendere paupertatem, quum in Evangelio anum videam duo, quæ sola sibi supererant, æra mittentem.  Mihi ante presbyterum sedere non licet ;  illi, si peccavero, licet tradere me Satanæ in interitum carnis, ut spiritus salvus fiat. Shifted from this position you will appeal to the clergy. “Do you dare to criticize them,” you will say, “who yet assuredly remain in their own cities?”  Heaven forbid that I should say anything unfavorable about the men who, as successors to the apostles, make the body of Christ for us with holy words;  who baptize us as Christians;  who hold the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and in a way judge us before the Judgment Day;  who in sober chastity guard the bride of Christ.  But, as I have laid down already, the case of a monk is different from that of the clergy.  The clergy feed Christ’s sheep;  I, a monk, am of their flock.  The clergy live of the altar;  if I bring no gift to the altar steps, I am a barren tree and the axe is laid to my roots.  I cannot plead poverty, for in the Gospel I see the aged woman offering the last two pennies she had left.24  It is not permitted me to sit in the presence of a presbyter:  it is permitted him, if I sin, to deliver me to Satan, for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved.25
Et in veteri quidem lege, quicunque sacerdotibus non obtemperasset, aut extra castra positus lapidabatur a populo aut, gladio cervice subjecto, contemptum expiabat cruore.  Nunc vero inobœdiens spiritali mucrone truncatur aut, ejectus de ecclesia, rabido dæmonum ore discerpitur.  Quod si te quoque ad eundem ordinem pia fratrum blandimenta sollicitant, gaudebo de ascensu, timebo de lapsu.  « Qui episcopatum desiderat, bonum opus desiderat. »  Scimus ista, sed junge, quod sequitur, « Oportet autem hujusmodi irreprehensibilem esse, unius uxoris virum, sobrium, pudicum, prudentem, ornatum, hospitalem, dicibilem, non vinolentum, non percussorem, sed modestum. »  Et ceteris de eo, quæ sequuntur, explicitis non minore in tertio gradu adhibuit diligentiam, dicens, « Diaconos similiter pudicos, non bilingues, non multo vino deditos, non turpilucros, habentes mysterium fidei in conscientia pura.  Et hi autem probentur primam et sic ministrent nullum crimen habentes. » Under the old law anyone who refused obedience to the priests was put outside the camp and stoned by the people, or else he was beheaded and expiated his contempt with his blood.26  Today the disobedient are smitten with the spiritual sword, or they are expelled from the Church and torn in pieces by the ravening jaws of demons.  If the pious persuasion of your brethren invites you to take clerical orders, I shall rejoice at your present rise and fear a future fall. “If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work.”27  We know the passage, but you must continue the quotation:  “Such an one must be blameless, the husband of one wife, sober, chaste, of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach, not given to wine, no striker but patient.”28  After setting out some further details the apostle shows no less care in dealing with clergy of the third degree. “Likewise must the deacons be grave,” he says, “not double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre, holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience.  And let these also first be proved;  then let them minister, being found blameless.”29
Væ illi homini qui, vestem non habens, nuptialem ingreditur ad cenam !  Nihil superest nisi ut statim audiat, « Amice, quomodo huc venisti ? »  et, illo obmutescente, dicatur ministris, « Tollite illum pedibus et manibus et mittite eum in tenebras exteriores ;  ibi erit fletus et stridor dentium. »  Væ illi qui, acceptum talentum in sudario ligans, ceteris lucra facientibus, id tantum quod acceperat reservarit !  Ilico indignantis Domini clamore ferietur, « Serve nequam, quare non dedisti pecuniam meam ad mensam, et ego veniens cum usuris exegissem ? »  id est :  deposuisses ad altare, quod ferre non poteras.  Dum enim tu, ignavus negotiator, denarium tenes, alterius locum, qui pecuniam duplicare poterat, occupasti. »  Quam ob rem sicut is, qui bene ministrat, bonum gradum sibi acquirit, ita, qui indigne ad calicem Domini accedit, reus erit Dominici corporis et sanguinis. Woe to the man who enters the feast without a wedding garment!  Nothing remains for him but the quick challenge, “Friend, how camest thou in hither?” And as he stands speechless, the servants will be bidden:  “Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness;  there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.”30  Woe to the man who receives a talent and ties it in a napkin, merely keeping what he has received while others make a profit!  At once his angry lord’s rebuke shall strike him:  “Thou wicked servant, wherefore gavest thou not my money into the bank, that at my coming I might have required mine own with interest?”31  That is, “You should have laid down at the altar what you yourself were not able to carry.  For while you, a slothful trader, keep a penny back, you occupy the place of another who could have doubled the money.”  Wherefore, as he who ministers well wins for himself an honorable place, so he who comes to the Lord’s cup unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord.32
24.  St. Luke 21:2
25.  1 Cor 5:5.
26.  Deut. 17:12
27.  1 Timothy 3:1.
28.  1 Timothy 3:2.
29.  1 Timothy 3:8.
30.  Matthew 22:12,13.
31.  Luke 19:23.
32.  1 Cor 11:27.
14:9Non omnes episcopi episcopi.  Attendis Petrum, sed et Judam considera.  Stephanum suspicis, sed et Nicolaum respice, quem Dominus in Apocalypsi sua odit ;  qui tam turpia et nefanda commentus est, ut Ophitarum hæresis ex illa radice nascatur.  Probet se unusquisque et sic accedat.  Non facit ecclesiastica dignitas Christianum.  Cornelius centurio adhuc ethnicus dono spiritus sancti inundatur ;  presbyteros Danihel puer judicat ;  Amos ruborum mora destringens repente propheta est ;  David pastor allegitur in regem ;  minimum discipulum Jesus amat plurimum.  Inferius, frater, accumbe, ut minore veniente sursum jubearis accedere.  Super quem Dominus requiescit, nisi super humilem et quietum et trementem verba sua ?  Cui plus creditur, plus ab eo exigitur.  « Potentes potenter tormenta patientur. »  Nec sibi quisquam de corporis tantum mundi castitate supplaudat, quum omne verbum otiosum, quodcunque locuti fuerint homines, reddituri sint pro eo rationem in die judicii, quum etiam convicium in fratrem homicidii sit reatus.  Non est facile stare loco Pauli, tenere gradum jam cum Christo regnantium, ne forte veniat angelus, qui scindat velum templi tui, qui candelabrum tuum loco moveat.  Ædificaturus turrem futuri operis sumptus supputa.  Infatuatum sal ad nihilum est utile, nisi ut projiciatur foras et a porcis conculcetur.  Monachus si ceciderit, rogabit pro eo sacerdos ;  pro sacerdotis lapsu quis rogaturus est ? Not all bishops are true bishops.  You notice Peter;  but mark Judas as well.  You look up to Stephen;  but consider also Nicolas33 whom the Lord in His Apocalypse abominates, the man whose foul and shameful teachings gave rise to the Ophite34 heresy.  Let a man examine himself and so let him come.  Ecclesiastical rank does not make a man a Christian.  The centurion Cornelius was still a heathen when he was cleansed by the gift of the Holy Spirit.35  Daniel was but a child when he judged the elders.36  Amos was plucking blackberries when in a moment he was made a prophet.37  David was only a shepherd when he was chosen to be king.38  The least of his disciples was the one whom Jesus loved most.  My brother, sit down in the lower place, that when one less honorable comes you may be bidden to go up higher.39  Upon whom does the Lord rest save upon him that is lowly and of a contrite spirit and that trembleth at his words?40  The more that is entrusted to a man, the more is demanded from him:  “The mighty will suffer torments mightily.”41  Let no man applaud himself because of his bodily chastity alone on the day of judgment, for men shall render account for every idle word they have spoken,42 and abuse of a brother shall be counted as the sin of murder.  It is no easy thing to stand in Paul’s place and to hold the rank of those who now reign with Christ.  Perchance an angel may come to rend the veil of your temple and to remove your candlestick from its place.43  If you are thinking of building a tower, reckon up the cost of the structure first.44  Salt that has lost its savor is worthless:  it can only be cast out and trodden underfoot45 by swine.  If a monk falls, a priest will intercede for him;  but who shall intercede for a fallen priest?
33.  The assumed founder of the sect of the Nicolaitanes, Rev., 2:6.
34.  The Ophites were an obscure Gnostic sect.
35.  Acts 10:17-33.
36.  Dan 13:45-64.
37.  Amos 7:14ff.
38.  1 Kings 16:11-13.
39.  Luke 14:10.
40.  Is 66:2.
41.  Wis 6:7.
42.  Matthew 12:36.
43.  Apoc. 2:5.
44.  Luke 14:28.
45.  Matthew 5:13.
14:10Sed quoniam e scopulosis locis enavigavit oratio, et inter cavas spumeis fluctibus cautes fragilis in altum cumba processit, expandenda vela sunt ventis et, quæstionum scopulis transvadatis, lætantium more nautarum, epilogi celeuma cantandum est.  O desertum Christi floribus vernans !  O solitudo in qua illi nascuntur lapides de quibus in Apocalypsi civitas magni regis exstruitur !  O eremus familiari Deo gaudens !  Quid agis, frater, in sæculo, qui major es mundo ?  Quam diu te tectorum umbræ premunt ?  Quam diu fumeus harum urbium carcer includit ?  Crede mihi, nescio quid plus lucis aspicio.  Libet, sarcina carnis abjecta, ad purum ætheris volare fulgorem.  Paupertatem times ?  Sed beatos pauperes Christus appellat.  Labore terreris ?  Sed nemo athleta sine sudoribus coronatur.  De cibo cogitas ?  Sed fides famem non sentit.  Super nudam metuis humum exesa jejuniis membra confidere ?  Sed Dominus tecum jacet.  Squalidi capitis horret inculta cæsaries ?  Sed caput tuum Christus est.  Infinita eremi vastitas terret ?  Sed tu paradisum mente deambula.  Quotienscunque illuc cogitatione conscendens, totiens in eremo non eris.  Scabra sine balneis attrahitur cutis ?  Sed qui in Christo semel lotus est, non illi necesse est iterum lavare.  Et, ut breviter, ad cuncta apostolum audias respondentem, « Non sunt condignæ passiones hujus sæculi ad superventuram gloriam quæ revelabitur in nobis. »  Delicatus es, carissime, si et hic vis gaudere cum sæculo et postea regnare cum Christo. My discourse has now sailed clear of the reefs, and from the midst of hollow crags with foaming waves my frail bark has won her way into deep water.  Now I may spread my canvas to the wind, and leaving the rocks of controversy astern, like some merry sailor sing a cheerful epilogue.  O wilderness, bright with Christ’s spring flowers!  O solitude, whence come those stones wherewith in the Apocalypse the city of the mighty king is built!46  O desert, rejoicing in God’s familiar presence!  What are you doing in the world, brother, you who are more than the universe?  How long is the shade of a roof going to confine you?  How long shall the smoky prison of these cities shut you in?  Believe me, I see something more of light than you behold.  How sweet it is to fling off the burden of the flesh, and to fly aloft to the clear radiance of the sky!  Are you afraid of poverty?  Christ calls the poor blessed.  Are you frightened by the thought of toil?  No athlete gains his crown without sweat.  Are you thinking about food?  Faith feels not hunger.  Do you dread bruising your limbs worn away with fasting on the bare ground?  The Lord lies by your side.  Is your rough head bristling with uncombed hair?  Your head is Christ.  Does the infinite vastness of the desert seem terrible?  In spirit you may always stroll in paradise, and when in thought you have ascended there you will no longer be in the desert.  Is your skin rough and scurfy without baths?  He who has once washed in Christ needs not to wash again.47  Listen to the apostle’s brief reply to all complaints:  “The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall come after them, which shall be revealed in us.”48  You are a pampered darling indeed, dearest brother, if you wish to rejoice here with this world and afterwards to reign with Christ.

46.  Apoc. 21:18
47.  Joan. 13
48.  Rom. 8:18
14:11Veniet, veniet illa dies, qua corruptivum hoc et mortale incorruptionem induat et immortalitatem.  Beatus servus quem Dominus invenerit vigilantem.  Tunc ad vocem tubæ pavebit terra cum populis, tu gaudebis.  Judicaturo Domino, lugubre mundus immugiet ;  tribus ad tribum ferient pectora ;  potentissimi quondam reges nudo latere palpitabunt ;  exhibebitur cum prole sua vere tunc ignitus Juppiter ;  adducetur et cum suis stultus Plato discipulis ;  Aristoteli argumenta non proderunt.  Tunc tu rusticanus et pauper exultabis, ridebis et dices, « Ecce crucifixus Deus meus, ecce judex, qui obvolutus pannis in præsæpio vagiit.  Hic est ille operarii et quæstuariæ filius, hic qui, matris gestatus sinu, hominem Deus fugit in Ægyptum, hic vestitus coccino, hic sentibus coronatus, hic magus, dæmonium habens, et Samarites.  Cerne manus, Judæe, quas fixeras ;  cerne latus, Romane, quod foderas.  Videte corpus, an idem sit quod dicebatis clam nocte tulisse discipulos. »

Ut hæc tibi, frater, dicere, ut his interesse contingat, qui nunc labor durus est ?
The day, the day will come when this corrupt and mortal body shall put on incorruptibility and become immortal.  Happy the servant whom the Lord then shall find on the watch.  Then at the voice of the trumpet the earth with its peoples shall quake, and you will rejoice.  When the Lord comes to give judgment the universe will utter a mournful groan;  the tribes of men will beat their breasts;  kings once most mighty will shiver with naked flanks;  Jupiter with all his offspring will then be shown amid real fires;  Plato with his disciples will be revealed as but a fool;  Aristotle’s arguments will not help him.  Then you the poor rustic will exult, and say with a smile:  “Behold my crucified God, behold the judge.  This is he who once was wrapped in swaddling clothes and uttered baby cries in a manger.  This is the son of a working man and a woman who served for wages.  This is he who, carried in his mother’s arms, fled into Egypt,49 a God from a man.  This is he who was clad in a scarlet robe and crowned with thorns.  This is he who was called a magician, a man with a devil, a Samaritan.  Behold the hands, ye Jews, that you nailed to the cross.  Behold the side, ye Romans, that you pierced.  See whether this is the same body that you said the disciples carried off secretly in the night.”

O my brother, that it may be yours to say these words and to be present on that day, what labor now can seem hard?
49.  Matthew 2:13ff.
{ 22 }
Epistula XXII
Ad Eustochium
A.D. 384
22:1« Audi, filia, et vide, et inclina aurem tuam ;  et obliviscere populum tuum, et domum patris tui ;  et concupiscet rex decorem tuum. »  In quadragesimo quarto psalmo, Deus ad animam loquitur humanam ut, secundum exemplum Abrahæ exiens de terra sua et de cognatione sua, relinquat Chaldæos qui « quasi dæmonia » interpretantur, et habitet in regione viventium quam alibi propheta suspirat, dicens, « Credo videre bona Domini in terra viventium. »  Verum non sufficit tibi exire de patria, nisi obliviscaris populi et domum patris tui et, carne contempta, sponsi jungaris amplexibus.  « Ne respexeris », inquit, « retro nec steteris in tota circa regione ;  in montem salvum te fac, ne forte comprehendaris. »  Non expedit, apprehenso aratro, respicere post tergum nec de agro reverti domum nec post Christi tunicam ad tollendum aliud vestimentum tecta descendere. “Hear, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear;  forget also thine own people and thy father’s house, and the king shall desire thy beauty.”1  So in the forty-fourth Psalm God speaks to the human soul, that, following Abraham’s example, it should go out from its own land and from its kinsmen, and leave the Chaldaeans, that is the demons, and dwell in the country of the living, for which elsewhere the prophet sighs, saying:  “I trust to see the good things of the Lord in the land of the living.”2  But for you it is not enough to go out from your own land, unless you forget your people and your father’s house, so that despising the flesh you may be joined to your bridegroom’s embrace. “Look not behind thee,” the Scripture says, “neither stay in all the part around;  escape to the mountain;  lest thou be caught.”3  It is not right for one who has grasped the plough to look behind him or to return home from the field, or after putting on Christ’s tunic to descend from the roof for other raiment.
Grande miraculum :  pater filiam cohortatur, « Ne memineris patris. »  « Vos de patre diabolo estis et desideria patris vestri vultis facere » dicitur ad Judæos et alibi, « Qui facit peccatum, de diabolo est. »  Tali primum parente generati nigri sumus et post pænitentiam, necdum culmine virtutis ascenso, dicimus, « Nigra sum et speciosa filia Hierusalem. »

Exivi de domo infantiæ meæ, oblita sum patris, renascor in Christo.  Quid pro hoc mercedis accipio ?  Sequitur, « Et concupiscet rex decorem tuum. »  Hoc ergo illud magnum est sacramentum :  « Propter hoc relinquet homo patrem et matrem et adhærebit uxori suæ et erunt ambo — in carne una ? »  Jam non, ut ibi, in una carne, sed spiritu.  Non est sponsus tuus arrogans, non superbus :  Æthiopissam duxit uxorem.  Statim ut volueris sapientiam veri audire Salomonis et ad eum veneris, confitebitur tibi cuncta, quæ novit, et inducet te rex in cubiculum suum et, mirum in modum colore mutato, sermo tibi ille conveniet :  « Quæ est ista quæ ascendit dealbata ? »
A wonder:  a father charges his daughter:  “Do not remember your father.”  “Ye are of your father the devil, and the lusts of your father it is your will to do.”4  So it was said to the Jews.  And in another place. “He that committeth sin is of the devil.”5  Born of such a parent first we are black by nature, and even after repentance, until we have climbed to virtue’s height, we may say, “I am black and comely, a daughter of Jerusalem.”6

You may say — I have gone out from my childhood’s home, I have forgotten my father, I am born again in Christ.  What reward do I receive for this?  The context tells you — “And the king shall desire thy beauty.”  This then is the great sacrament. “For this cause shall a man leave his father and his mother and shall be joined unto his wife, and they two shall be,”7 no longer, as there, “of one flesh,” but of one spirit.  Your bridegroom is not arrogant, not haughty;  He has married a woman of Ethiopia.  As soon as you resolve to hear the wisdom of the true Solomon, and come to Him, He will avow to you all His knowledge;  He will lead you as a king to His chamber;  your color will be miraculously changed, and to you the words will be fitting:  “Who is this that goeth up and hath been made white?”8
1.  Ps 44:11f.
2.  Ps 26:13.
3.  Gen. 19:17.
4.  John 8:44.
5.  1 John 3:8.
6.  Song of Solomon, 1:4.  Jerome here alters the text of the Vulgate (Cant. 1:4):  « Nigra sum sed formosa, filiæ Jerusalem. »
7.  Ephesians 5:31.
8.  Song of Solomon, 8:5 (Septuagint:  λελευκανθισμένη = “clad in white” = Jerome’s « dealbata »).
22:2Hæc idcirco, mi domina Eustochium, scribo (‹ dominam › quippe debeo vocare sponsam Domini mei) ut ex ipso principio lectionis agnosceres non me nunc laudes virginitatis esse dicturum, quam probasti optime, eam quum secuta es, nec enumeraturum molestias nuptiarum, quomodo uterus intumescat, infans vagiat, cruciet pælex, domus cura sollicitet, et omnia quæ putantur bona, mors extrema præcidat — habent enim et maritatæ ordinem suum, honorabiles nuptias et cubile immaculatum —, sed ut intellegeres tibi exeunti de Sodoma timendum esse Loth uxoris exemplum.  Nulla in hoc libello adulatio (adulator quippe blandus inimicus est);  nulla erit rhetorici pompa sermonis quæ te jam inter angelos statuat et, beatudine virginitatis exposita, mundum subjiciat pedibus tuis. I am writing this to you, Lady Eustochium (I am bound to call my Lord’s bride “Lady”), that from the very beginning of my discourse you may learn that I do not today intend to sing the praises of the virginity which you have adopted and proved to be so good.  Nor shall I now reckon up the disadvantages of marriage, such as pregnancy, a crying baby, the tortures of jealousy, the cares of household management, and the cutting short by death of all its fancied blessings.  Married women have their due allotted place, if they live in honorable marriage and keep their bed undefiled.  My purpose in this letter is to show you that you are fleeing from Sodom and that you should take warning by Lot’s wife.  There is no flattery in these pages.  A flatterer is a smooth-spoken enemy.  Nor will there be any pomp of rhetoric in expounding the beatitude of virginity, setting you among the angels and putting the world beneath your feet.
22:3Nolo tibi venire superbiam de proposito, sed timorem.  Onusta incedis auro, latro vitandus est.  Stadium est hæc vita mortalibus :  hic contendimus ut alibi coronemur.  Nemo inter serpentes et scorpiones securus ingreditur.  « Inebriatus est », inquit Dominus, « gladius meus in cælo », et tu pacem arbitraris in terra, quæ tribulos generat et spinas, quam serpens comedit ?  « Non est nobis colluctatio adversus carnem et sanguinem, sed adversus principatus et potestates hujus mundi et harum tenebrarum, adversus spiritalia nequitiæ in cælestibus. »  Magnis inimicorum circumdamur agminibus, hostium plena sunt omnia.  Caro fragilis et cinis futura post modicum pugnat sola cum pluribus. I would have you draw from your vows not pride but fear.  When you walk laden with gold you must beware of robbers.  For mortals this life is a race:  we run it on earth that we may receive our crown elsewhere.  No man can walk secure amid serpents and scorpions.  The Lord says:  “My sword hath drunk its fill in heaven”9 and do you expect peace on the earth, which yields only thorns and thistles and is itself the serpent’s food? “Our wrestling is not against flesh and blood, but against the principalities, against the powers, against the world rulers of this darkness, against the spiritual hosts of wickedness in the heavenly places.”10  We are surrounded by the thronging hosts of our foes, our enemies are on every side.  The flesh is weak and soon it will be ashes, but today it fights alone against a multitude.
22:3Quum autem fuerit dissoluta et venerit princeps mundi istius et invenerit in ea nihil, tunc secura audies per prophetam, « Non timebis a timore nocturno, a sagitta volante per diem, a negotio perambulante in tenebris, ab incursu et dæmonio meridiano.  Cadent a latere tuo mille et decem milia a dextris tuis, ad te autem non appropinquabit. »  Quodsi eorum te multitudo turbaverit et ad singula incitamenta vitiorum cœperis æstuare et dixerit tibi cogitatio tua, « Quid faciemus ? »,  respondit Eliseus, « Noli timere, quoniam plures nobiscum sunt quam cum illis », et orabit et dicet, « Domine, adaperi oculos puellæ tuæ et videat. »  Et, apertis oculis, videbis igneum currum qui te ad exemplum Heliæ in astra sustollat, et tunc læta cantabis, « Anima nostra quasi passer erepta est de laqueo venantium :  laqueus contritus est et nos liberati sumus. » But when the flesh has been melted away and the Prince of yonder world has come and found in it no sin, then in safety you shall listen to the prophet’s words:  “Thou shall not be afraid for the terror by night nor for the arrow that flieth by day;  nor for the trouble which haunteth thee in the darkness;  nor for the demon and his attacks at noonday.  A thousand shall fall at thy side and ten thousand at thy right hand;  but it shall not come nigh thee.”11  If the hosts of the enemy beset you, if the allurements of sin begin to burn within your breast, if in your troubled thoughts you ask, “What shall I do?”, Elisha’s words will give you an answer:  “Fear not, for they that be with us are more than they that be with them.”12  He will pray for you and will say:  “Lord, open the eyes of thy handmaid that she may see.”  And when your eyes have been opened you will see a chariot of fire which will carry you, as it carried Elijah, up to the stars;  and then you will joyfully sing:  “Our soul is escaped as a sparrow out of the snare of the fowlers:  the snare is broken and we are escaped.”13
9.  Isaias 34:5.
10.  Eph. 6:12.
11.  Ps 90:5.
12.  4 Kings, 6:16.
13.  Ps 123:7.
22:4Quamdiu hoc fragili corpusculo continemur, quamdiu « habemus thesaurum istum in vasis fictilibus » et concupiscit spiritus adversus carnem et caro adversus spiritum, nulla est certa victoria.  Adversarius noster diabolus tanquam leo rugiens aliquid devorare quærens circuit.  « Posuisti », ait David, « tenebras, et facta est nox.  In ipsa pertransibunt omnes bestiæ silvæ, catuli leonum rugientes, ut rapiant et quærant a Deo escam sibi. »  Non quærit diabolus homines infideles, non eos qui foris sunt et quorum carnes rex in olla succendit Assyrius :  de ecclesia Christi rapere festinat.  « Escæ ejus », secundum Hambacum, « electæ sunt. »  Job subvertere cupit et, devorato Juda, ad cribrandos apostolos expetit potestatem.  Non venit Salvator pacem mittere super terram, sed gladium.  Cecidit Lucifer qui mane oriebatur, et ille qui in paradiso deliciarum nutritus est, meruit audire, « Si alte feraris ut aquila, inde te detraham, dicit Dominus. »  Dixerat enim in corde suo, « Super sidera cæli ponam sedem meam et ero similis Altissimo. »  Unde cottidie ad eos qui per scalam Jacob somniante descendunt loquitur Deus, « Ego dixi :  dii estis et filii Altissimi omnes.  Vos autem sicut homines moriemini et tanquam unus de principibus cadetis. »  Cecidit enim primus diabolus, et quum stet Deus in synagoga deorum, in medio autem deos discernat, apostolus eis, qui dii esse desinunt, scribit, « Ubi enim in vobis dissensiones et æmulationes ?  Nonne homines estis et secundum hominem ambulatis ? » As long as we are held down by this frail body;  as long as we keep our treasure in earthen vessels,14 and the flesh lusteth against the spirit, the spirit against the flesh:  so long can there be no sure victory.  Our adversary the devil goeth about as a roaring lion seeking whom he may devour.  David says:  “Thou makest darkness and it is night;  wherein all the beasts of the forest do creep forth.  The young lions roar after their prey and seek their meat from God.”15  The devil does not look for unbelievers or for those who are without, whose flesh the Assyrian king roasted in a pot:16  it is the Church of Christ that he hastens to ravish.  According to Habakkuk:  “His dainty morsels are of the choicest.”17  He desires Job’s ruin, and after devouring Judas he seeks power to put all the apostles through his sieve.  The Savior came not to send peace upon the earth but a sword.  Lucifer fell, Lucifer who used to rise with the dawn;  and he who was nurtured in a paradise of delight heard the well-earned sentence:  “Though thou exalt thyself as the eagle, thence will I bring thee down, saith the Lord.”18  For he had said in his heart:  “I will exalt my throne above the stars of God and I will be like the Most High.”  Wherefore God every day says to the angels as they go down the stairway which Jacob saw in his dream:  “I have said ye are Gods and all of you are children of the Most High.  But ye shall die like men and fall like one of the princes.”19  The devil fell first, and since God stands in the congregation of the Gods and judges them in the midst, the apostle writes to those who are ceasing to be Gods:  “Whereas there is among you envying and strife, are ye not carnal and walk as men?”20
14.  2 Cor 4:7.
15.  Ps 103:20f.
16.  After Amos 4:2.  Cf. also Jeremias 29:22.
17.  Habakuk 1:16.
18.  Isaias 14:13-15.
19.  Ps 81:7.
20.  1 Cor 3:3.
22:5Si Paulus apostolus, vas electionis et præparatus in Evangelium Christi, ob carnis aculeos et incentiva vitiorum reprimit corpus suum et servituti subjicit ne aliis prædicans ipse reprobus inveniatur, et tamen videt aliam legem in membris suis repugnantem legi mentis suæ et captivantem se in lege peccati, si post nuditatem, jejunia, famem, carcerem, flagella, supplicia in semet versus exclamat, « Infelix ego homo, quis me liberabit de corpore mortis hujus ? », tu te putas securam esse debere ?  Cave, quæso, ne quando de te dicat Deus, « Virgo Israël cecidit :  non est, qui suscitet eam. »  Audenter loquor :  quum omnia Deus possit, suscitare virginem non potest post ruinam.  Valet quidem liberare de pœna, sed non valet coronare corruptam.  Timeamus illam prophetiam ne in nobis etiam compleatur, « Et virgines bonæ deficient. »  Observa, quid dicat, « Et virgines bonæ deficient » :  quia sunt et virgines malæ.  « Qui viderit », inquit, « mulierem ad concupiscendum, jam mœchatus est eam in corde suo. »  Perit ergo et mente virginitas.  Istæ sunt virgines malæ — virgines carne, non spiritu — virgines stultæ quæ, oleum non habentes, excluduntur a sponso. The apostle Paul, who was a chosen vessel set apart for the gospel of Christ, because of the spur of the flesh and the allurements of sin, keeps his body down and subjects it to slavery, lest in preaching to others he himself be found a reprobate.  But still he sees that there is another law in his members fighting against the law of his will, and that he is still led captive to the law of sin.  After nakedness, fasting, hunger, prison, scourging and torture, he turns back upon himself and cries:  “Oh, wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”21  If that is so with him, do you think that you ought to lay aside all fear?  Beware, pray, lest God some day should say of you:  “The virgin of Israel is fallen and there is none to raise her up.”22  I will say it boldly;  though God can do all things, he cannot raise a virgin up after she has fallen.  He is able to free one who has been corrupted from the penalty of her sin, but he refuses her the crown.  Let us be fearful lest in our case also the prophecy be fulfilled:  “Good virgins shall faint.”23  Note that it is of good virgins he speaks, for there are bad ones as well.  The Scripture says:  “Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.”24  Virginity therefore can be lost even by a thought.  Those are the evil virgins, virgins in the flesh, but not in the spirit:  foolish virgins, who, having no oil in their lamps, are shut out by the Bridegroom.25
21.  Ro 7, 24.
22.  Amos 5:2.
23.  Amos 8:13.
24.  Mt 5:28.
25.  Allusion to the famous parable of Mt 25:1-13.
22:6Si autem et illæ virgines virgines sunt, ob alias tamen culpas virginitate corporum non salvantur, quid fiet illis quæ prostituerunt membra Christi et mutaverunt templa Sancti Spiritus in lupanar ?  Ilico audient, « Descende, sede in terra, virgo filia Babylonis, sede in terra :  non est thronus filiæ Chaldæorum ;  non vocaberis ultra mollis et delicata.  Accipe molam, mole farinam, discooperi velamentum, denuda crura tua, transi flumina et revelabitur ignominia tua et apparebunt opprobria tua. »  Et hoc post Dei Filii thalamos, post oscula fratruelis et sponsi illa, de qua quondam sermo propheticus concinebat, « Astitit regina a dextris tuis in vestitu deaurato, circumdata varietate. »  Nudabitur et posteriora ejus ponentur in facie ipsius ;  sedebit ad aquas solitudinis et, posito vase, divaricabit pedes suos omni transeunti et usque ad verticem polluetur.  Rectius fuerat homini subisse conjugium, ambulasse per plana, quam ad altiora tendentem in profundum inferi cadere. But if even those virgins are virgins, and yet are not saved by their bodily virginity when they have other faults, what shall be done to those who have prostituted the members of Christ and changed the temple of the Holy Spirit into a brothel?  Straightway they shall hear the words:  “Come down and sit in the dust, O virgin daughter of Babylon;  sit in the dust, for there is no throne for the daughter of the Chaldaeans;  no more shalt thou be called tender and delicate.  Take the millstone and grind meal;  uncover thy locks, make bare thy legs, pass over the rivers;  thy nakedness shall be uncovered, yea, thy shame shall be seen.”26  And this, after the bride-chamber of God the Son, after the kisses of her kinsman and her bridegroom, she of whom once the word of the prophet sang:  “Upon thy right hand stood the queen in a vestment of gold wrought about with divers colors.”27  But now she shall be made naked and her skirts shall be placed upon her face:  she shall sit by the waters of loneliness and lay down her pitcher;  and shall open her feet to every one that passeth by and shall be polluted to the crown of her head.28  Better had it been for her to have submitted to marriage with a man and to have walked on the plain, rather than to strain for the heights and fall into the depths of hell.
Non fiat, obsecro, civitas meretrix fidelis Sion, ne post trinitatis hospitium ibi dæmones saltent et sirenæ nidificent et ericii.  Non solvatur fascia pectoralis, sed statim ut libido titillaverit sensum, ut blandum voluptatis incendium dulci nos calore perfuderit, erumpamus in vocem, « Dominus auxiliator meus, non timebo quid faciat mihi caro. »  Quum paululum interior homo inter vitia et virtutes cœperit fluctuare, dicito, « Quare tristis es, anima mea, et quare conturbas me ?  Spera in Domino, quoniam confitebor illi, salutare vultus mei et Deus meus. »  Nolo sinas cogitationem crescere ;  nihil in te Babylonium, nihil confusionis adolescat.  Dum parvus est hostis, interfice ;  nequitia elidatur in semine.  Audi psalmistam loquentem, « Filia Babylonis misera, beatus, qui retribuet tibi retributionem tuam ;  beatus qui tenebit et allidet parvulos tuos ad petram. »  Quia ergo impossibile est in sensum hominis non irruere notum medullarum calorem, ille laudatur, ille prædicatur beatus qui, statim ut cœperit cogitare, interfecit cogitatus et elidit eos ad petram :  petra autem est Christus. Let not the faithful city of Sion become a harlot, I pray you;  let not demons dance and sirens and satyrs nest in the place that once sheltered the Trinity.  Loose not the belt that confines the bosom.  As soon as lust begins to tickle the senses and the soft fires of pleasure envelop us with their delightful warmth, let us break forth and cry:  “The Lord is on my side:  I will not fear what the flesh can do unto me.”29  When for a moment the inner man shows signs of wavering between vice and virtue, say:  “Why art thou cast down, O my soul, and why art thou disquieted within me?  Hope thou in God, for I shall yet praise Him who is the health of my countenance and my God.”30  I would not have you allow any such thoughts to rise.  Let nothing disorderly, nothing that is of Babylon find shelter in your breast.  Slay the enemy while he is small:  nip evil in the bud.  Hearken to the words of the Psalmist:  “Hapless daughter of Babylon, happy shall he be that rewardeth thee as thou hast served us.  Happy shall he be that taketh and dasheth thy little ones against the stones.”31  It is impossible that the body’s natural heat should not sometimes assail a man and kindle sensual desire;  but he is praised and accounted blessed, who, when thoughts begin to rise, gives them no quarter, but dashes them straightway against the rock:  “And the Rock is Christ.”32
26.  Isaias 47:1ff.
27.  Ps 44:10.
28.  Ezekiel, 16:25.  Cf.  Jeremiah, xiii. 26.
29.  Isaias 50:7,9 & Ps 55:5.
30.  Ps 41:6f.
31.  Ps 136:8f.
32.  1 Cor 10:4.
22:7O quotiens in eremo constitutus et in illa vasta solitudine quæ, exusta solis ardoribus, horridum monachis præstat habitaculum, putavi me Romanis interesse deliciis !  Sedebam solus, quia amaritudine repletus eram.  Horrebam sacco membra deformis ;  squalida cutis situm Æthiopicæ carnis adduxerat.  Cottidie lacrimæ, cottidie gemitus et, si quando repugnantem somnus imminens oppressisset, nuda humo vix ossa hærentia collidebam.  De cibis vero et potu taceo, quum etiam languentes aqua frigida utantur et coctum aliquid accepisse luxuriæ sit.  Ille igitur ego, qui ob gehennæ metum tali me carcere ipse damnaveram, scorpionum tantum socius et ferarum, sæpe choris intereram puellarum.  Pallebant ora jejuniis, et mens desideriis æstuabat in frigido corpore ;  et, ante hominem suum, jam carne præmortua, sola libidinum incendia bulliebant. Oh, how often, when I was living in the desert, in that lonely waste, scorched by the burning sun, which affords to hermits a savage dwelling-place, how often did I fancy myself surrounded by the pleasures of Rome!  I used to sit alone;  for I was filled with bitterness.  My unkempt limbs were covered in shapeless sackcloth;  my skin through long neglect had become as rough and black as an Ethiopian’s.  Tears and groans were every day my portion;  and if sleep ever overcame my resistance and fell upon my eyes, I bruised my bones, barely sticking together, against the naked earth.  Of food and drink I will not speak.  Hermits have nothing but cold water even when they are sick, and for them it is sinful luxury to partake of cooked dishes.  But though in my fear of hell I had condemned myself to this prison-house, where my only companions were scorpions and wild beasts, I often found myself surrounded by bands of dancing girls.  My face was pale with fasting;  but though my limbs were cold as ice my mind was burning with desire, and, with my flesh having already predeceased its own human being, only the fires of lust were boiling.
22:7Ita omni auxilio destitutus ad Jesu jacebam pedes, rigabam lacrimis, crine tergebam, et repugnantem carnem hebdomadarum inedia subjugabam.  Non erubesco infelicitatis meæ ;  quin potius plango non esse quod fuerim.  Memini me clamantem diem crebro junxisse cum nocte, nec prius a pectoris cessasse verberibus quam Domino rediret increpante tranquillitas.  Ipsam quoque cellulam meam quasi cogitationum mearum consciam pertimescebam.  Et mihimet iratus et rigidus solus deserta penetrabam.  Sicubi concava vallium, aspera montium, rupium prærupta cernebam, ibi meæ orationi locus, illud miserrimæ carnis ergastulum ;  et, ut mihi ipse testis est Dominus, post multas lacrimas, post cælo oculos inhærentes, nonnunquam videbar mihi interesse agminibus angelorum, et lætus gaudensque cantabam, « Post te in odorem unguentorum tuorum currimus. » And so, when all other help failed me, I used to fling myself at Jesus’ feet;  I watered them with my tears, I wiped them with my hair;  and if my flesh still rebelled I subdued it by weeks of fasting.  I do not blush to confess my misery;  nay, rather, I lament that I am not now what once I was.  I remember that often I joined night to day with my wailings and ceased not from beating my breast till tranquillity returned to me at the Lord’s behest.  I used to dread my poor cell as though it knew my secret thoughts.  Filled with stiff anger against myself, I would make my way alone into the desert;  and when I came upon some hollow valley or rough mountain or precipitous cliff, there I would set up my oratory, and make that spot a place of torture for my unhappy flesh.  There sometimes also — the Lord Himself is my witness — after many a tear and straining of my eyes to heaven, I felt myself in the presence of the angelic hosts and in joy and gladness would sing:  “Because of the savor of thy ointments we will run after thee.”33
33.  Cant. 1:3.
22:8Si autem hæc sustinent illi qui, exeso corpore, solis cogitationibus oppugnantur, quid patitur puella quæ deliciis fruitur ?  Nempe illud apostoli, « Vivens mortua est. »  Si quid itaque in me potest esse consilii, si experto creditur, hoc primum moneo, hoc obtestor, ut sponsa Christi vinum fugiat pro veneno.  Hæc adversus adulescentiam prima arma sunt dæmonum.  Non sic avaritia quatit, inflat superbia, delectat ambitio.  Facile aliis caremus vitiis :  hic hostis intus inclusus est.  Quocunque pergimus, nobiscum portamus inimicum.  Vinum et adulescentia duplex incendium voluptatis.  Quid oleum flammæ adjicimus ?  Quid ardenti corpusculo fomenta ignium ministramus ? If such are the temptations of men whose bodies are emaciated with fasting so that they have only evil thoughts to withstand, how must it fare with a girl who clings to the enjoyment of luxuries?  Surely, as the apostle says:  “She is dead while yet she liveth.”34  Therefore, if I may advise you and if experience gives my advice weight, I would begin with an urgent exhortation.  As Christ’s spouse avoid wine as you would avoid poison.  Wine is the first weapon that devils use in attacking the young.  The restlessness of greed, the windiness of pride, the delights of ostentation are nothing to this.  Other vices we easily forgo:  this enemy is enclosed inside of us ;  wherever we go we carry our foe with us.  Wine and Youth — behold a double source for pleasure’s fire.  Why throw oil on the flame;  why give fresh fuel to a wretched body that is already ablaze?
Paulus ad Timotheum, « Jam noli », inquit, « aquam bibere, sed vinum modicum utere propter stomachum et frequentes tuas infirmitates. »  Vide quibus causis vini potio concedatur :  ut ex hoc stomachi dolor et frequens meretur infirmitas.  Et ne nobis forsitan de ægrotationibus blandiremur, modicum præcepit esse sumendum, medici potius consilio quam apostoli — licet et apostolus sit medicus spiritalis — et ne Timotheus, imbecillitate superatus, Evangelii prædicandi non posset habere discursus.  Alioquin se dixisse meminerat et, « Vinum, in quo est luxuria », et « Bonum est homini vinum non bibere et carnem non manducare. »  Noë vinum bibit et inebriatus est.  Post Diluvium, rudi adhuc sæculo, et tunc primum plantata vinea, inebriare vinum forsitan nesciebat. Paul says to Timothy:  “Drink no longer water, but use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake, and for thine often infirmities.”35  Notice the reasons why wine is allowed:  so that thereby stomach pain and frequent infirmity may be cured.  And lest perchance we should indulge ourselves on the ground of illness, Paul recommends that but a little wine should be taken, advising rather as a physician than as an apostle — although indeed an apostle is a spiritual physician.  He was afraid that Timothy might be overcome by weakness and might not be able to complete the many journeys that the preaching of the Gospel rendered necessary.  In any case, he remembered that he had said elsewhere:  “Wine, wherein is wantonness”36 and “It is good for a man neither to drink wine nor to eat flesh.”37  Noah took wine and became drunken.  But living in the rude age after the Flood, when the vine first was planted, he was unaware perhaps of its inebriating qualities.
Et ut intellegas Scripturæ in omnibus sacramentum — margarita quippe est sermo Dei, et ex omni parte forari potest — post ebrietatem nudatio femorum subsecuta est, libido juncta luxuriæ.  Prius venter et statim cetera, « Manducavit enim populus et bibit, et surrexerunt ludere. »  Loth, amicus Dei, in monte salvatus et, de tot milibus populis solus justus inventus, inebriatur a filiabus suis ;  et licet putarent genus hominum defecisse et hoc facerent liberorum magis desiderio quam libidinis, tamen virum justum sciebant hoc nisi ebrium non esse facturum ;  denique, quid fecerit ignoravit ;  et — quanquam voluntas non sit in crimine, error in culpa est — inde nascuntur Moabitæ et Ammanitæ, inimici Israël qui usque ad quartam et decimam progeniem et usque in æternum non ingrediuntur ecclesiam Dei. And that you may see the mystery of the Scripture in all its fullness — for the word of God is a pearl and may be pierced from all sides — note that after his drunkenness there followed the uncovering of his thighs:  lust was near neighbor to wantonness.  First it is the belly, and then immediately the other members. “The people sat down to eat and drink and rose up to play.”38  Lot, the friend of God, after he had been saved upon the mountain as the one man found righteous among all those thousands, was intoxicated by his daughters.39  They may have thought that the human race had ended and have acted rather from a desire for offspring than from love of sinful pleasure;  but they knew full well that the righteous man would not abet them unless he were drunken.  In fact he did not know what he was doing:  but although there be no wilfulness in his sin the error of his fault remains.  As the result he became the father of Moab and Ammon, Israel’s enemies, who “even to the fourteenth generation do not enter into the congregation of the Lord for ever.”40
34.  1 Tim 5:6).
35.  1 Tim 5:23).
36.  Eph 5:18).
37.  Romans 14:21.
38.  Exod 32:6.
39.  Gen 19:30-38.
40.  Deut 23:3.
22:9Elias, quum Jezabel fugeret et sub quercu fessus jaceret, veniente ad se angelo, suscitatur et dicitur ei, « ‹ Surge et manduca. ›  Et respexit, et ecce ad caput ejus panis olyræ et vas aquæ. »  Revera, non poterat Deus conditum ei merum mittere et ex oleo cibos et carnes contusione mutatas ?  Eliseus filios prophetarum invitat ad prandium et, herbis agrestibus eos alens, consonum prandentium audit clamorem, « Mors in olla, homo Dei ! »  Non iratus est coquis — lautioris enim mensæ consuetudinem non habebat — sed, farina desuper jacta, amaritudinem dulcoravit eadem spiritus virtute qua Moyses mutaverat Merra.  Necnon et illos qui ad se comprehendendum venerant, oculis pariter ac mente cæcatos, quum Samariam nescios induxisset, qualibus epulis refici imperant, ausculta, « Pone eis panem et aquam ;  et manducent et bibant et remittantur ad Dominum suum. »  Potuit et Danihelo de regis ferculis opulentior mensa transferri, sed Ambacum messorum prandium portat, arbitror, rusticanum.  Ideoque et « desideriorum vir » appellatus est, quia panem desiderii non manducavit et vinum concupiscentiæ non bibit. When Elijah in his flight from Jezebel was lying weary and alone beneath the oak tree, an angel came and he was awakened and it was said to him, “ “Arise and eat.” And he looked, and behold there was a rice-wheat cake and a cruse of water at his head.”41  Could not God have sent him spiced wine and foods cooked in oil and tenderly basted meats, if He had willed?  Elisha invited the sons of the prophets to dinner, and when he gave them field herbs to eat he heard his guests cry out with one accord, “There is death in the pot, O man of God.”42  He, however, was not angry with the cooks — for he was not used to very sumptuous fare — but threw some meal upon the herbs and thus sweetened their bitterness by the same spiritual virtue wherewith Moses once sweetened the waters of Marah.  Again, when the men sent to seize the prophet had been blinded alike in eyes and understanding, that he might bring them unawares to Samaria, notice the food with which Elisha ordered them to be refreshed. “Set bread and water before them,” he said;  “let them eat and drink and go back to their master.”43  Daniel too might have had rich dishes served him from the king’s table,44 but it was a mower’s breakfast that Habakkuk brought,45 which must, methinks, have been but country fare.  Therefore he was called “the man of desires,”46 because he refused to eat the bread of desire or drink the wine of lustfulness.
41.  3 Kings 19:5ff.
42.  4 Kings 4:40.
43.  4 Kings 6:22.
44.  Dan 1:8.
45.  Dan 14:32ff.  (the deuterocanonical “Bel and the dragon” section)
46.  Cf.  Dan 10:11, “man greatly beloved” (RSV);  the Septuagint (Theodotion) has ἀνὴρ ἐπιθυμιῶν (“man of desires”);  Jerome here renders the Vulgate desideriorum vir after his own fashion.

22:10Innumerabilia sunt Scripturis respersa divinis, quæ gulam damnent et simplices cibos præbeant ;  verum quia nunc non est præpositum de jejuniis disputare, et universa exsequi sui et tituli sit et voluminis, hæc sufficiant pauca de plurimis.  Alioquin ad exemplum horum potes tibi ipsa colligere, quomodo et primus de paradiso homo, ventri magis obœdiens quam Deo, in hanc lacrimarum dejectus est vallem, et ipsum Dominum fame Satanas temptaverit, in deserto et apostolus clamitet, « Esca ventri et venter escæ, Deus autem et hunc et illa destruet », et de luxuriosis, « Quorum deus venter est. »  Id enim colit unusquisque quod diligit.  Ex quo sollicite providendum est ut, quos saturitas de paradiso expulit, reducat esuries. From the Scriptures we may collect countless divine answers condemning. gluttony and approving simple food.  But as it is not my present purpose to discuss the question of fasting, and detailing everything would be a title and volume in itself, these few remarks from the many I could make must suffice.  In any case the examples I have given will enable you to understand why the first man, obeying his belly rather than God, was cast down from Paradise into this vale of tears.  You will see also why Satan tempted Our Lord Himself with hunger in the wilderness, and why the apostle cries:  “Meats for the belly and the belly for meats, but God shall destroy both it and them,”47 and why he says of the wanton:  “Whose God is their belly.”48  Every man worships what he loves.  Wherefore we must take all care that abstinence may bring back to Paradise those whom repletion once drove out.
47.  1 Cor 6:13.
48.  Phil 3:19.
22:11Quodsi volueris respondere, te nobili stirpe generatam, semper in deliciis, semper in plumis, non posse a vino et esculentioribus cibis abstinere nec his legibus vivere destrictius, respondebo, « Vive ergo lege tua, quæ Dei non potes. »  Non quo Deus, universitatis creator et Dominus, intestinorum nostrorum rugitu et inanitate ventris pulmonumque delectetur ardore, sed quo aliter pudicitia tuta esse non possit.  Job Deo carus et testimonio ipsius immaculatus et simplex ;  audi quid de diabolo suspicetur :  « Virtus ejus in lumbis et potestas ejus in umbilico. »  Honeste viri mulierisque genitalia immutatis sunt appellata nominibus.  Unde et de lumbis David, super sedem ejus promittitur esse sessurus.  Et septuaginta quinque animæ introierunt Ægyptum quæ exierunt de femore Jacob ;  et postquam, colluctante Deo, latitudo femoris ejus emarcuit, a liberorum opere cessavit.  Et qui pascha facturus est, accinctis mortificatisque lumbis facere præcipitur.  Et ad Job dicit Deus, « Accingere sicut vir lumbos tuos ».  Et Johannes zona pellicia cingitur, et apostoli jubentur accinctis lumbis habere in manibus Evangelii lucernas.  Ad Hierusalem vero quæ, respersa sanguine, in campo invenitur erroris, in Ezechiel dicitur, « Non est præcisus umbilicus tuus. »  Omnis igitur adversus viros diaboli virtus in lumbis est, omnis in umbilico contra feminas fortitudo. You may choose perhaps to answer that a girl of good family like yourself, accustomed to luxury and down pillows, cannot do without wine and tasty food and would find a stricter rule of life impossible.  To that I can only say:  “Live then by your own rule, since you cannot live by God’s.”  Not that God, the Lord and Creator of the universe, takes any delight in the rumbling of our intestines or the emptiness of our stomach or the burning of our lungs;  but because this is the only way of preserving chastity.  Job was dear to God, his purity and frankness witnessed by God’s own testimony;  yet hear what he thinks of the devil:  “His strength is in the loins and his force is in the navel.”49  The words are used for decency’s sake, but the male and female generative organs are meant.  So the descendant of David, destined according to the promise to sit upon his throne, is said to come from his loins.  The seventy-five souls who entered into Egypt are said in the same way to have come from Jacob’s thigh.  And when after wrestling with the Lord the stoutness of his thigh shrank away Jacob begat no more children.  Those who celebrate the Passover also are bidden to do so with their loins girded and mortified.  God says to Job:  “Gird up thy loins like a man.”50  John wears a leather girdle;  and the apostles are bidden to gird their loins before they take the lamps of the Gospel.  Ezekiel tells us how Jerusalem is found in the plain of wandering, all bespattered with blood, and he says:  “Thy navel has not been cut.”51  In his assaults on men therefore all the devil’s strength is in the loins:  against women his force is in the navel.
49.  Job 40:11.
50.  Job 38:3.
51.  Ezek 16:4.
22:12Vis scire ita esse, ut dicimus ?  Accipe exempla :  Sampson, leone fortior, saxo durior et qui unus et nudus mille est persecutus armatos, in Dalilæ mollescit amplexibus ;  David, secundum cor Domini electus et qui venturum Christum sancto sæpe ore cantaverat, postquam deambulans super tectum domus suæ Bersabee captus est nuditate, adulterio junxit homicidium.  (Ubi et illud breviter attende quod nullus sit — etiam in domo — tutus aspectus.)  Quapropter ad Deum pænitens loquitur, « Tibi soli peccavi et malum coram te feci. »  Rex enim alium non timebat.  Salomon, per quem se cecinit ipsa Sapientia, qui disputavit « a cedro Libani usque ad hyssopum quæ exit per parietem », recessit a Domino, quia amator mulierum fuit.  Et ne aliquis etiam de sanguinis sibi propinquitate confideret, in illicitum Thamar sororis Amnon frater exarsit incendium. Would you like to be sure that it is as I say?  Here are some examples.  Samson was stronger than a lion and harder than rock;  alone and unprotected he chased a thousand armed men;  but in Dalilah’s soft arms his vigor melted away.  David was chosen as a man after God’s heart, and his lips had often sung of the future coming of Christ with holy voice:  but as he walked upon his housetop he was fascinated by Bathsheba’s nakedness and added murder to adultery.  (Notice for a moment that even in one’s own house no gaze is safe.)  Therefore in repentance he says to the Lord:  “Against Thee, Thee only, have I sinned and done this evil in thy sight.”52  He was a king and feared no one else but God.  Solomon too, by whose lips Wisdom herself used to speak, who held discussions about all plants “from the cedar of Lebanon to the hyssop that grows out of the wall,”53 went back from God because he became a lover of women.54  And that no one may trust in kinship by blood, remember that Amnon was fired by an illicit passion for his sister Thamar.55
52.  Ps 50:6.
53.  3 Kings 4:33.
54.  3 Kings 11:1-4.
55.  2 Kings Chap. 13
22:13Piget dicere, quot cottidie virgines ruant, quantas de suo gremio mater perdat ecclesia, supra quot sidera superbus inimicus ponat thronum suum, quot petras excavet et habitet coluber in foraminibus earum.  Videas plerasque viduas ante quam nuptas infelicem conscientiam mentita tantum veste protegere, quas nisi tumor uteri et infantum prodiderit vagitus, erecta cervice et ludentibus pedibus incedunt.  Aliæ vero sterilitatem prǽbibunt et necdum sati hominis homicidium faciunt.  Nonnullæ, quum se senserint concepisse de scelere, abortii venena meditantur et frequenter etiam ipsæ commortuæ trium criminum reæ ad inferos perducuntur :  homicidæ sui, Christi adulteræ, necdum nati filii parricidæ.  Istæ sunt, quæ solent dicere, « Omnia munda mundis.  Sufficit mihi conscientia mea.  Cor mundum desiderat Deus.  Cur me abstineant a cibis quos Deus creavit ad utendum ? » It wearies me to tell how many virgins fall daily, what notable women Mother Church loses from her bosom:  over how many stars the proud enemy sets his throne, how many hollow rocks the serpent pierces and makes his habitation.  You may see many women who have been left widows before they were ever wed,56 trying to conceal their consciousness of guilt by means of a lying garb.  Unless they are betrayed by a swelling womb or by the crying of their little ones they walk abroad with tripping feet and lifted head.  Some even ensure barrenness by the help of potions, murdering human beings before they are fully conceived.  Others, when they find that they are with child as the result of their sin, practice abortion with drugs, and so frequently bring about their own death, taking with them to the lower world the guilt of three crimes:  suicide, adultery against Christ, and child murder.  Yet these are the women who will say:  “To the pure all things are pure.  My conscience is enough for me.  A pure heart is what God craves.  Why should I refrain from the food which God made for enjoyment?”
Et si quando lepidæ et festivæ volunt videri et se mero ingurgitaverint, ebriati sacrilegium copulantes ajunt :  Absit, ut ego me a Christi sanguine abstineam. »  Et quam viderint tristem atque pallentem, miseram et ‹ monacham › et ‹ Manichæam › vocant — et consequenter :  tali enim proposito jejunium hæresis est.  Hæ sunt quæ per publicum notabiliter incedunt et furtivis oculorum nutibus adulescentium gregem post se trahunt, quæ semper audiunt per prophetam, « Facies meretricis facta est tibi, impudorata es tu. »  Purpura tantum in veste sit tenuis, et laxius, ut crines decidant, ligatum caput, soccus vilior et per humeros hyacinthina læna Maforte volitans, strictæ manicæ bracchiis adhærentes et solutis genibus fractus incessus — hæc est apud illas tota virginitas.  Habeant istiusmodi laudatores suos et sub virginali nomine lucrosius pereant :  libenter talibus non placemus. When they wish to appear bright and merry, they drench themselves with wine, and then joining profanity to drunkenness they cry:  “Heaven forbid that I should abstain from the blood of Christ.”  When they see a woman with a pale sad face, they call her “a miserable Manichaean nun”: and quite logically too, for on their principles fasting is heresy.  As they walk the streets they try to attract attention and with stealthy nods and winks draw after them troops of young men.  Of them the prophet’s words are true:  “Thou hast a whore’s forehead:  thou refusest to be ashamed.”57  Let them have only a little purple in their dress, and loose bandeau on their head to leave the hair free;  cheap slippers, and a Maforte58 fluttering from their shoulders;  sleeves fitting close to their arms, and a loose-kneed walk:  there you have all their marks of virginity.  Such women may have their admirers, and it may cost more to ruin them because they are called virgins.  But to such virgins as these I prefer to be displeasing.
56.  I.e. unmarried women who pretend to be widows..
57.  Jeremiah, iii. 3.
58.  The “Maforte” was a sort of cape, usually of a lilac color.
22:14Pudet dicere, pro nefas !  Triste, sed verum est :  unde in ecclesias agapetarum pestis introiit ?  Unde sine nuptiis aliud nomen uxorum ?  Immo unde novum concubinarum genus ?  Plus inferam :  unde meretrices univiræ ?  Eadem domo, uno cubiculo, sæpe uno tenentur et lectulo, et suspiciosos nos vocant, si aliquid æstimemus.  Frater sororem virginem deserit, cælibem spernit virgo germanum, et, quum in eodem proposito esse se simulent, quærunt alienorum spiritale solacium, ut domi habeant carnale commercium.  Istiusmodi homines in Proverbiis Salomonis arguit Deus dicens, « Alligabit quis ignem in sinu et vestimenta ejus non comburentur ? aut ambulabit supra carbonis ignis et pedes illius non ardebunt ? » There is another scandal of which I blush to speak;  yet, though sad, it is true.  From what source has this plague of “dearly beloved sisters” found its way into the Church?  Whence come these unwedded wives, these new types of concubines, nay, I will go further, these one-man harlots?  They live in the same house with their male-friend;  they occupy the same room and often even the same bed;  and yet they call us suspicious if we think that anything is wrong.  A brother leaves his virgin sister;  a virgin, scorning her unmarried brother, seeks a stranger to take his place.  Both alike pretend to have but one object:  they are seeking spiritual consolation among strangers:  but their real aim is to indulge at home in carnal intercourse.  About such folk as these Solomon in Proverbs speaks the scornful words:  “Can a man take fire in his bosom and his clothes not be burned?  Can one go upon hot coals and not burn his feet?”59
59.  Prov 6:27f.
22:15Explosis igitur et exterminatis his, quæ nolunt esse virgines, sed videri, nunc ad te mihi omnis dirigitur oratio quæ, quanto prima Romanæ urbis virgo nobilis esse cœpisti, tanto tibi amplius laborandum est, ne et præsentibus bonis careas et futuris.  Et quidem molestias nuptiarum et incerta conjugii de domestico exemplo didicisti, quum soror tua Blæsilla ætate major, sed proposito minor, post acceptum maritum septimo mense viduata est.  O infelix humana condicio et futuri nescia !  Et virginitatis coronam et nuptiarum perdidit voluptatem.  Et quanquam secundum pudicitiæ gradum teneat, tamen quas illam per momenta sustinere æstimas cruces spectantem cottidie in sorore, quod ipsa perdiderit et, quum difficilius experta careat voluptate, minorem continentiæ habere mercedem ?  Sit tamen et illa secura, sit gaudens :  centesimus et sexagesimus fructus de uno sunt semine castitatis. Let us therefore drive off and expel from our company such women as only wish to seem and not to be virgins.  Now I would direct all my words to you who, inasmuch as you have been at the beginning the first virgin of high rank at Rome, will now have to labor the more diligently so as not to lose your present and your future happiness.  As for the troubles of wedded life and the uncertainties of marriage, you know of them by an example in your own family.  Your sister Blæsilla, superior to you in age but inferior in firmness of will, has become a widow seven months after taking a husband.  How luckless is our mortal state, how ignorant of the future!  She has lost both the crown of virginity and the pleasures of wedlock.  Although the widowed state ranks as the second degree of chastity, can you not imagine the crosses which every moment she must bear, seeing in her sister daily that which she herself has lost?  It is harder for her than for you to forgo the delights that she once knew, and yet she receives a less reward for her present continence.  Still, she too may rejoice and be not afraid.  The fruit that is an hundredfold and that which is sixtyfold both spring from one seed, the seed of chastity.
22:16Nolo habeas consortia matronarum, nolo ad nobilium accedas domos, nolo te frequenter videre quod contemnens virgo esse voluisti.  Si sibi solent applaudere mulierculæ de judicibus viris et in aliqua positis dignitate, si ad imperatoris uxorem concurrit ambitio salutantium, cur tu facias injuriam viro tuo ?  Ad hominis conjugem Dei sponsa quid properas ?  Disce in hac parte superbiam sanctam, scito te illis esse meliorem.  Neque vero earum te tantum cupio declinare congressus, quæ maritorum inflantur honoribus, quas eunuchorum greges sæpiunt et in quarum vestibus attenuata in filum auri metalla texuntur, sed etiam eas fuge, quas viduas necessitas fecit, non quo mortem optare debuerint maritorum, sed quo datam occasionem pudicitiæ libenter arripere.  Nunc vero, tantum veste mutata, pristina non mutatur ambitio. I would not have you consort overmuch with married women or frequent the houses of the great.  I would not have you look too often on what you spurned when you desired to be a virgin.  Women of the world, you know, plume themselves if their husband is a judge or holds some high position.  Even if an eager crowd of visitors flocks to greet the Emperor’s wife, why should you insult your Husband?  Why should you, who are God’s bride, hasten to visit the wife of a mortal man?  In this regard you must learn a holy pride;  know that you are better than they.  And not only do I desire you to avoid the company of those who are puffed up by their husbands’ honors, who surround themselves with troops of eunuchs, and wear robes inwrought with fine threads of gold:  you must also shun such women as are widows from compulsion, not choice.  Not that they ought to have desired their husbands’ death;  but they have been unwilling to accept their opportunity for chastity.  As it is, they only change their dress:  their old love of show remains unchanged.
Præcedit, caveas, basternarum ordo semivir et, rubentibus buccis, cutis farta distenditur, ut eas putes maritos non amisisse sedi quærere.  Plena adulatoribus domus, plena convivis !  Clerici ipsi quos et magisterio esse oportuerat doctrinæ et timori, osculantur capita patronarum et, extenta manu, ut benedicere eos putes velle, si nescias, pretium accipiunt salutandi.  Illæ interim, quæ sacerdotes suo vident indigere præsidio, eriguntur in superbiam, et quia, maritorum expertæ dominatum, viduitatis præferunt libertatem, castæ vocantur et Nonnæ et post cenam dubiam apostolos somniant. Look at them as they ride in their roomy litters with a row of eunuchs walking in front:  see their red lips and their plump sleek skins:  you would not think they had lost a husband, you would fancy they were looking for one.  Their houses are full of flatterers, full of guests.  The very clergy, whose teaching and authority ought to inspire respect, kiss these ladies on the forehead, and then stretch out their hand — you would think, if you did not know, that they were giving a benediction — to receive the fee for their visit.  The women meanwhile, seeing that priests need their help, are lifted up with pride.  They know by experience what a husband’s rule is like, and they prefer their liberty as widows.  They call themselves chaste nuns, and after a diversified dinner they dream apostles.
22:17Sint tibi sociæ quas jejunia tenuant, quibus pallor in facie est, quas et ætas probavit et vita, quæ cottidie in cordibus canunt, « Ubi pascis ?  Ubi cubas in meridie ? »  Quæ ex affectu dicunt, « Cupio dissolvi et esse cum Christo. »  Esto subjecta parentibus, imitare sponsum tuum.  Rarus sit egressus in publicum ;  martyres tibi quærantur in cubiculo tuo.  Nunquam causa deerit procedendi si semper, quando necesse est, processura sis.  Moderatus cibus, et nunquam venter repletus.  Plurimæ quippe sunt quæ, quum vino sunt sobriæ, ciborum largitate sunt ebriæ.  Ad orationem tibi nocte surgenti non indigestio metum faciat, sed inanitas.  Crebrius lege, et disce quam plurima.  Tenenti codicem somnus obrepat, et cadentem faciem pagina sancta suscipiat.  Sint tibi cottidiana jejunia et refectio satietatem fugiens.  Nihil prodest biduo triduoque transmisso vacuum portare ventrem, si pariter obruitur, si compensatur saturitate jejunium.  Ilico mens repleta torpescit et irrigata humus spinas libidinum germinat.  Si quando senseris exteriorem hominem florem adulescentiæ suspirare et, accepto cibo, cum te in lectulo compositam dulcis libidinum pompa concusserit, arripe scutum fidei in quo ignitæ diaboli exstinguuntur sagittæ.  « Omnes adulterantes :  quasi clibanus » corda eorum. Let your companions be those who are pale of face and thin with fasting, approved by their years and their conduct, who daily within their hearts sing the words:  “Tell me where thou feedest thy flock, where thou makest it to rest at noon,”60 and lovingly say:  “I have a desire to depart and to be with Christ.”61  Follow your Husband’s example, and like Him be subject to your parents.  Walk not often abroad and, if you wish the help of the martyrs, seek it in your own chamber.62  You will never lack a reason for going out if you always go out when there is need.  Take food in moderation and never overload your stomach.  Many women are temperate over wine, but intemperate as to the amount of food they take.  When you rise at night to pray, let any uneasiness of breath be caused not by indigestion but by an empty stomach.  Read often and learn all you can.  Let sleep steal upon you with a book in your hand, and let the sacred page catch your drooping head.  Let your fasts be of daily occurrence, and let refreshment ever avoid satiety.  It is of no avail to carry an empty stomach for two or three days if that fast is to be made up for by a clogging repletion.  The mind when cloyed straightway grows sluggish and the watered ground puts forth the thorns of lust.  If ever you feel that your outward being is sighing for the bloom of youth, and if, as you lie on your couch after a meal, you are shaken by the vision of lust’s alluring train, then catch up the shield of faith, and it will quench the devil’s fiery darts. “They are all adulterers,” says the prophet, “they have made their hearts like an oven.”63
At tu, Christi comitata vestigiis et sermonibus ejus intenta, dic, « Nonne cor nostrum erat ardens in via, quum aperiret nobis Jesus Scripturas ? »  et illud, « Ignitum eloquium tuum, et servus tuus dilexit illud. »  Difficile est humanam animam non amare, et necesse est, ut in quoscunque mens nostra trahatur affectus.  Carnis amor spiritus amore superatur ;  desiderium desiderio restinguitur.  Quicquid inde minuitur, hinc crescit.  Quin potius semper ingemina, « Super lectum meum in noctibus quæsivi, quem dilexit anima mea. »  « Mortificate », ait apostolus, « membra vestra super terram ».  Unde et ipse confidenter ajebat, « Vivo autem jam non ego, vivit autem in me Christus. »  Qui mortificavit membra sua et in imagine perambulabat, non timet dicere, « “Factus sum tanquam uter in pruina” ;  quicquid enim in me fuit umoris, excoctum est », et, « Infirmata sunt in jejunio genua mea », et « Oblitus sum manducare panem meum ;  a voce gemitus mei adhæsit os meum carni meæ. » But do you keep close to Christ’s footsteps and be ever intent upon his words.  Say to yourself:  “Did not our heart burn within us by the way, while Jesus opened to us the Scriptures?”64 and again:  “Thy word is fire-refined: and thy slave hath loved it.”65  It is hard for the human soul not to love something, and our mind of necessity must be drawn to some sort of affection.  Carnal love is overcome by spiritual love:  desire is quenched by desire:  what is taken from the one is added to the other.  Nay rather, as you lie upon your couch, say these words and repeat them continually:  “By night have I sought Him whom my soul loveth.”66  “Mortify your members on earth,”67 says the apostle;  and because he did so himself, he could afterwards boldly say:  “I live, yet not I but Christ liveth in me.”68  He who mortifies his members, and as he walks through this world knows it to be vanity, is not afraid to say:  “I am become like a leather bottle in the frost.”69  For whatever there was in me of the moisture of lust has dried away.  And again:  “My knees are weak with fasting.”70  “I forget to eat my bread.  By reason of the voice of my groaning my bones cleave to my skin.”71
60.  Cant. 1:7.
61.  Phil. 1:23.
62.  A visit to a martyr's shrine was often made an excuse for going abroad..
63.  Osee 7:4.
64.  Luke, 24:32.
65.  Ps 118:140.
66.  Cant. 3:1.
67.  Col. 3:5.
68.  Gal. 2:20.
69.  Psal. 118:83.  KJV. has smoke for frost.  Jerome quotes the Vulgate (118).  LXX has “hoarfrost.”
70.  Ps 108:24.
71.  Ps 101:5f.
22:18Esto cicada noctium.  Lava per singulas noctes lectum tuum :  lacrimis tuis stratum riga.  Vigila et fiere sicut passer in solitudine.  Psalle spiritu, psalle et mente, « Benedic, anima mea, Dominum, et ne obliviscaris omnes retributiones ejus qui propitiatur cunctis iniquitatibus tuis, qui sanat omnes infirmitates tuas et redimit ex corruptione vitam tuam. »  Quis nostrum ex corde dicere potest, « Quia cinerem quasi panem manducavi et potionem meam cum fletu miscebam ? »  An non flendum est, non gemendum, quum me rursus serpens invitat ad illicitos cibos ?  Quum de paradiso virginitatis ejectum tunicis vult vestire pelliciis quas Elias ad paradisum rediens projecit in terram ?  Quid mihi et voluptati, quæ in brevi perit ?  Quid cum hoc dulci et mortifero carmine sirenarum ?  Nolo illi subjacere sententiæ quæ in hominem est lata damnatum :  « In doloribus et anxietatibus paries, mulier » — lex ista non mea est — « Et ad virum conversio tua. »  Sit conversio illius ad maritum, quæ virum non habet Christum ;  et ad extremum, « morte morieris » — finis iste conjugii.  Meum propositum sine sexu est.  Habeant nuptæ suum tempus et titulum :  mihi virginitas in Maria dedicatur et Christo. Be thou the grasshopper of the night.72  Wash your bed and water your couch nightly with tears.  Keep vigil and be like the sparrow alone upon the housetop.  Let your spirit be your harp, and let your mind join in the psalm:  “Bless the Lord, O my soul, and forget not all his benefits;  who forgiveth all thine iniquities;  who healeth all thy diseases;  who redeemeth thy life from destruction.”73  Who of us can say from our heart:  “I have eaten ashes like bread and mingled my drink with weeping”?74  And yet ought I not to weep and groan when the serpent again invites me to take forbidden fruit, and when, after driving us from the Paradise of virginity, he tries to clothe us in tunics of skin, such as Elijah on his return to Paradise threw upon the ground?  What have I to do with the short-lived pleasures of sense?  What have I to do with the sirens’ sweet and deadly songs?  You must not be subject to the sentence whereby condemnation was passed upon mankind:  “In pain and in sorrow shalt thou bring forth children.”75  Say to yourself:  “That is a Law for a married woman, but not for me.”  “And thy desire shall be to thy husband.”  Say to yourself:  “Let her desire be to her husband who has not a Husband in Christ;” and at the last “Thou shalt surely die.”76  Say once more:  “Death is the end of marriage.  But my vows are independent of sex.  Let married women keep to their own place and title:  for me virginity is consecrated in the persons of Mary and of Christ.”
72.  I.e. Be as active at night as the grasshopper is in the daytime when he is always heard.  Cf.  Virg.  Ec. 2:13, sole sub ardenti resonant arbusta cicadis.
73.  Ps 102:2f.
74.  Ps 101:10.
75.  Gen 3:16).
76.  Gen 2:17.
22:19Dicat aliquis, « Et audes nuptiis detrahere, quæ a Domino benedictæ sunt ? »  Non est detrahere nuptiis, quum illis virginitas antefertur.  Nemo malum bono comparat.  Glorientur et nuptæ, quum a virginibus sunt secundæ.  « Crescite », ait, « et multiplicamini et replete terram. »  Crescat et multiplicetur ille qui impleturus est terram :  tuum agmen in cælis est.  « Crescite et multiplicamini. »  Hoc expletur edictum post paradisum et nuditatem et ficus folia auspicantia pruriginem nuptiarum.  Nubat et nubatur ille qui in sudore faciei comedit panem suum, cui terra tribulos generat et spinas, cujus herba sentibus suffocatur :  meum semen centena fruge fecundum est. Some one may say:  “Do you dare to disparage wedlock, a state which God has blessed?” It is not disparaging wedlock to prefer virginity.  No one can make a comparison between two things, if one is good and the other evil.  Let married women take their pride in coming next after virgins. “Be fruitful,” God said, “and multiply and replenish the earth.”77  Let him then be fruitful and multiply who intends to replenish the earth:  but your company is in heaven.  The command to increase and multiply is fulfilled after the expulsion from Paradise, after the recognition of nakedness, after the putting on of the fig leaves which augured the approach of marital desire.  Let them marry and be given in marriage who eat their bread in the sweat of their brow, whose land brings forth thorns and thistles, and whose crops are choked with brambles.  My seed produces fruit a hundredfold.
« Non omnes capiunt verbum Dei, sed hi quibus datum est. »  Alium eunuchum necessitas faciat, me voluntas.  « Tempus et amplexandi et tempus abstinendi manus a complexu ;  tempus mittendi lapides et tempus colligendi. »  Postquam de duritia nationum generati sunt filii Abraham, cœperunt sancti lapides volvi super terram.  Pertranseunt quippe mundi istius turbines, et in curru Dei rotarum celeritate volvuntur.  Consuant tunicas, qui inconsutam desursum tunicam perdiderunt, quos vagitus delectat infantum in ipso lucis exordio fletu lugente, quod nati sunt.  Eva in paradiso virgo fuit :  post pellicias tunicas initium nuptiarum.  Tua regio paradisus.  Serva quod nata es, et dic, « Revertere, anima mea, in requiem tuam. » “Not all men can receive God’s saying, but only those to whom it is given.”78  Some men may be eunuchs of necessity:  I am one by choice. “There is a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing.  There is a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together.”79  Now that, out of the hardness of the Gentiles, sons have been born to Abraham, they begin to be holy stones rolling upon the earth.  So they pass through the storms of this world and roll on with rapid wheels in God’s chariot.  Let those stitch themselves coats who have lost that raiment which was woven from the top in one piece, and delight in the cries of infants lamenting that they are born as soon as they see the light of day.  Eve in Paradise was a virgin:  it was only after she put on a garment of skins that her married life began.  Paradise is your home.  Keep therefore as you were born, and say:  “Return unto thy rest, O my soul.”80
Et ut scias virginitatem esse naturæ, nuptias post delictum :  virgo nascitur caro de nuptiis, in fructu reddens quod in radice perdiderat.  « Exiet virga de radice Jesse et flos de radice ascendet. »  Virga mater est Domini, simplex, pura, sincera — nullo extrinsecus germine cohærente et, ad similitudinem Dei, unione fecunda.  Virgæ flos Christus est, dicens, « Ego flos campi et lilium convallium. »  Qui et in alio loco « lapis » prædicatur « de monte sine manibus », significante propheta virginem nasciturum de virgine.  Manus quippe accipiuntur pro opere nuptiarum, ut ibi « Sinistra ejus sub capite meo, et dextera ejus amplexabitur me. »  In hujus sensus congruit voluntatem etiam illud quod animalia, quæ a Noë bina in arcam inducuntur, immunda sunt (impar numerus est mundus) ;  quod Moyses et Jesus Nave nudis in sanctam terram pedibus jubentur incedere, et discipuli sine calceamentorum onere et vinculis pellium ad prædicationem Evangelii destinantur ;  quod milites, vestimentis Jesu sorte divisis, caligas non habuere quas tollerent.  Nec enim potuerat habere Dominus quod prohibuerat in servis. That you may understand that virginity is natural and that marriage came after the Fall, remember that what is born of wedlock is virgin flesh and that by its fruit it renders what in its parent root it had lost. “There shall come forth a rod out of the stem of Jesse, and a flower shall grow out of his roots.”81  That virgin82 rod is the mother of Our Lord, simple, pure, unsullied;  drawing no germ of life from without, but like God Himself fruitful in singleness.  The flower of the rod is Christ, who says:  “I am the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valleys.”83  In another passage He is foretold to be “a stone cut out of the mountain without hands,”84 the prophet signifying thereby that He will be born a virgin of a virgin.  The word “hands” is to be taken as meaning the marital act, as in the passage:  “His left hand is under my head and his right hand doth embrace me.”85  It agrees also with this interpretation, that the unclean animals are led into Noah’s ark in pairs, while of the clean an uneven number is taken.  In the same way Moses and Joshua were bidden to take off their shoes before they walked on holy ground.  When the disciples were appointed to preach the new Gospel they were told not to burden themselves with shoes or shoe-latchets.  And when the soldiers cast losts for Jesus’ garments they found no shoes that they could take away.  For the Lord could not Himself possess what He had forbidden to His servants.
77.  Gen 1:28.
78.  Matt 19:11.
79.  Eccles. 3:5.
80.  Ps 114:7.
81.  Is 11:1.
82.  A pun on virga (“rod”), virgo (“virgin”).
83.  Cant. 2:1.
84.  Dan 2:45.
85.  Cant. 2:6.
22:20Laudo nuptias, laudo conjugium, sed quia mihi virgines generant ;  lego de spinis rosas, de terra aurum, de concha margaritum.  Nunquid, qui arat, tota die arabit ?  Nonne et laboris sui fruge lætabitur ?  Plus honorantur nuptiæ quando, quod de illis nascitur, plus amatur.  Quid invides, mater, filiæ ?  Tuo lacte nutrita est, tuis educata visceribus in tuo adolevit sinu, tu illam sedula pietate servasti ;  indignaris quod noluit militis uxor esse, sed Regis ?  Grande tibi beneficium præstitit :  socrus Dei esse cœpisti. I praise wedlock, I praise marriage;  but it is because they produce me virgins.  I gather the rose from the thorn, the gold from the earth, the pearl from the oyster.  Shall the ploughman plough all day?  Shall he not also enjoy the fruit of his labor?  Wedlock is the more honored when the fruit of wedlock is the more loved.  Why, mother, grudge your daughter her virginity?  She has been reared on your milk, she has come from your body, she has grown strong in your arms.  Your watchful love has kept her safe.  Are you vexed with her because she chooses to wed not a soldier but a King?  She has rendered you a high service:  from today you are the mother by marriage of God.
22:20« De virginibus », inquit apostolus, « præceptum Domini non habeo ».  Cur ?  Quia et ipse, ut esset virgo, non fuit imperii, sed propriæ voluntatis.  Neque enim audiendi sunt qui eum uxorem habuisse configunt quum, de continentia disserens et suadens, perpetuam castitatem intulerit, « Volo autem omnes esse sicut me ipsum », et infra, « Dico autem innuptis et viduis :  bonum est illis, si sic permaneant, sicut et ego », et in alio loco, « Nunquid non habemus potestatem uxores circumducendi sicut et ceteri apostoli ? »  Quare non habet Domini de virginitate præceptum ?  Quia majoris est mercis, quod non cogitur et offertur, quia, si fuisset virginitas imperata, nuptiæ videbantur ablatæ et durissimum erat contra naturam cogere angelorumque vitam hominibus extorquere et id quodam more damnare, quod conditum est. The apostle says:  “Concerning virgins I have no commandment of the Lord.”86  Why so?  Because he himself was a virgin, not by order but of his own free will.  Those people must not be listened to who pretend that he had a wife.  When he is discussing continence and recommending perpetual chastity, he says:  “I wish that all men were even as I myself.”87  And later:  “I say therefore to the unmarried and widows, it is good for them if they abide even as I.”88  And in another place:  “Have we not power to lead about wives even as the other apostles?”89  Why then has he no commandment from the Lord concerning virginity?  Because that which is freely offered is worth more than what is extorted by force, and to command virginity would have been to abrogate wedlock.  It would have been a stern task to force men against their nature and to extort from them the life that angels enjoy:  moreover it would have meant condemning in a way what has been ordained.
86.  1 Cor 7:25.
87.  1 Cor 7:7.
88.  1 Cor 7:8.
89.  1 Cor 9:5.
22:21Alia fuit in veteri lege felicitas.  « Beatus qui habet semen in Sion et domesticos in Hierusalem » et maledicta sterilis quæ non pariebat, et « Filii tui sicut novella olivarum in circuitu mensæ tuæ », et repromissio divitiarum, et « Non erit infirmus in tribubus tuis. »  Nunc dicitur, « Ne te ‹ lignum › arbitreris ‹ aridum › ;  habes locum pro filiis et filiabus in cælestibus sempiternum » ;  nunc benedicuntur pauperes et Lazarus diviti præfertur in purpura ;  nunc qui infirmus est, fortior est.  Vacuus erat orbis et, ut de typis taceam, sola erat benedictio liberorum.  Propterea et Abraham jam senex Cetturæ copulatur, et Jacob mandragoris redimitur ;  et conclusam vulvam — in ecclesiæ figuram — Rachel pulchra conqueritur. The old law had a different ideal of felicity.  There it is said:  “Blessed is he who hath seed in Zion and a family in Jerusalem”:90  and cursed is the barren woman who beareth not children.  And again:  “Thy children shall be as olive plants around thy table.”91  To such men riches are promised, and we are told that “there was not one feeble man among the tribes.”92  But today the word is:  “Think not that you are a ‘dry tree’;  for instead of sons and daughters you have a place for ever in heaven.”93  Now the poor are blessed, and Lazarus is set before Dives in his purple.  Now he who is weak has thereby the greater strength.  But in the old days the world was empty of people, and, omitting those whose childlessness was but a type for the future, the only benediction possible was the gift of children.  It was for this reason that Abraham in his old age married Keturah;  that Jacob was hired with mandrakes;  and that fair Rachel — a type of the Church — complained of the closing of her womb.
Paulatim vero, increscente segete, messor immissus est.  Virgo Elias ;  Elisæus virgo ;  virgines multi filii prophetarum.  Hieremiæ diciturm « Et tu ne accipias uxorem. »  Sanctificatus in utero, captivitate propinquante, uxorem prohibetur accipere.  Aliis verbis id ipsum apostolus loquitur, « Existimo ergo hoc bonum esse propter instantem necessitatem, quoniam bonum est homini sic esse ».  Quæ est ista necessitas, quæ aufert gaudia nuptiarum ?  « Tempus breviatum est ;  reliquum est, ut et qui habent uxores sic sint, quasi non habentes. »  In proximo est Nabuchodonosor.  Promovit se leo de cubili suo.  Quo mihi superbissimo regi servitura conjugia ?  Quo parvulos quos propheta comploret, dicens, « Adhæsit lingua lactantis ad faucem ipsius in siti.  Parvuli postulaverunt panem, et, qui frangeret eis, non erat ? » Inveniebatur ergo, ut diximus, in viris tantum hoc continentiæ bonum ;  et in doloribus jugiter Eva pariebat. But gradually the crop grew high and the reaper was sent in.  Elijah was a virgin, and so was Elisha, and so were many of the sons of the prophets.  Jeremiah was told that he must not take a wife.  He had been sanctified in his mother’s womb, and now that the captivity was drawing near he was forbidden to marry.  The apostle gives the same injunction in different words:  “I think therefore that this is good by reason of the present distress, namely that it is good for a man to be as he is.”94  What is this distress which abrogates the joys of wedlock?  The apostle tells us:  “The time is short:  it remaineth that those who have wives be as though they had none.”95  Now is Nebuchadnezzar again drawing nigh.  Now has the lion come out from his den.  What to me is a wife, if she shall fall as a slave to some proud king?  What good will little ones do, if their lot must be that which the prophet deplores:  “The tongue of the sucking child cleaveth to the roof of his mouth for thirst;  the young children ask for bread and there was none to break it”?96  In the old days, as I have said, the virtue of continence was confined to men, and Eve continually bore children in travail.
Postquam vero virgo concepit in utero et peperit nobis puerum « cujus principatus in umero ejus », Deum fortem, patrem futuri sæculi, soluta maledictio est.  Mors per Evam, vita per Mariam.  Ideoque et divitius virginitatis donum fluxit in feminas, quia cœpit a femina.  Statim ut Filius Dei ingressus est super terram, novam sibi familiam instituit ut, qui ab angelis adorabatur in cælo, haberet angelos in terris.  Tunc Olofernæ caput Judith continens amputavit ;  tunc Aman, quod interpretatur « iniquitas », suo igne combustus est ;  tunc Jacobus et Johannes — relicto patre, rete, navicula — secuti sunt Salvatorem, affectum sanguinis et vincula sæculi et curam domus pariter relinquentes ;  tunc primum auditum est, « Qui vult venire post me, neget se ipsum sibi et tollat crucem suam et sequatur me ». But now that a virgin has conceived in the womb a child, “upon whose shoulders is dominion,” a mighty God, Father of the age to come, the fetters of the old curse are broken.  Death came through Eve:  life has come through Mary.  For this reason the gift of virginity has been poured most abundantly upon women, seeing that it was from a woman it began.  As soon as the Son of God set foot on earth, He formed for Himself a new household, that as He was adored by angels in heaven He might have angels also on earth.  Then chaste Judith once more cut off the head of Holofernes.  Then Haman — whose name means “iniquity” — was once more burned in his own fire.  Then James and John forsook father and net and ship, and followed the Savior:  they put behind them the love of their kin, the ties of this world, and the care of their home.  Then first the words were heard:  “Whosoever will come after me, let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.”97
Nemo enim miles cum uxore pergit ad prœlium.  Discipulo ad sepulturam patris ire cupienti non permittitur.  « Vulpes foveas habent et volucres cæli nidos ;  Filius autem hominum non habet ubi caput reclinet » ;  ne forsitan contristeris si anguste manseris.  « Qui sine uxore est, sollicitus est ea quæ Domini sunt, quomodo placeat Deo ;  qui autem cum uxore est, sollicitus est quæ sunt hujus mundi, quomodo placeat uxori ».  Divisa est mulier et virgo :  quæ non est nupta, « cogitat, quæ sunt Domini, ut sit sancta corpore et spiritu ;  nam quæ nupta est, cogitat quæ sunt mundi, quomodo placeat viro. » For no soldier takes a wife with him when he is marching into battle.  Even when a disciple was fain to go and bury his father, the Lord forbade him and said:  “Foxes have holes and the birds of the air have nests:  but the Son of Man hath not where to lay his head.”98  So you must not complain if you are scantily lodged. “He that is unmarried careth for the things that belong to the Lord, how he may please the Lord:  but he that is married careth for the things of the world, how he may please his wife.”  There is a difference also between a wife and a virgin.  “The unmarried woman cares for the things of the Lord, that she may be holy both in body and spirit;  but she that is married cares for the things of the world, how she may please her husband.”99
90.  Isaias 31:9 (LXX, not vg :  Μακάριος ὅς ἔχει ἐν Σιών σπέρμα καὶ οἰκείους ἐν Ἰερουσαλήμ {“Happy is the one who has a seed in Sion and kinsmen in Jerusalem”}).
91.  Ps 127:3.
92.  Ps 104:37 (but here the copulative verb is “was,” i.e., past tense [erat = Gk ἦν] , whereas Jerome has it as future [erit = Gk ἔσται] ).
93.  Isaias 56:3.
94.  1 Cor 7:26.
95.  1 Cor 7:29).
96.  Isaias 9:6.
97.  Mk 8:34.
98.  Mt 8:20.
99.  1 Cor 7:32-34.
22:22Quantas molestias habeant nuptiæ et quot sollicitudinibus vinciantur, in eo libro quem adversus Helvidium de beatæ Mariæ perpetua virginitate edidimus, puto breviter expressum.  Nunc eadem replicare perlongum est et, si cui placet, de illo potest haurire fonticulo.  Verum, ne penitus videar omisisse, nunc dicam quod, quum apostolus sine intermissione orare nos jubeat, et qui in conjugio debitum solvit orare non possit, aut oramus semper et virgines sumus, aut orare desinimus ut conjugio serviamus.  « Et si nupserit », inquit, « virgo, non peccat ;  tribulationem tamen carnis habebunt hujusmodi. »  Et in principio libelli præfatus sum me de angustiis nuptiarum aut nihil omnino aut pauca dicturum, et nunc eadem admoneo.  At, si tibi placet scire quot molestiis virgo libera, quot uxor astricta sit, lege Tertulliani ad amicum philosophum et de virginitate alios libellos, et beati Cypriani volumen egregium, et papæ Damasi super hac re versu prosaque composita, et Ambrosii nostri quæ nuper ad sororem scripsit opuscula.  In quibus tanto se fudit eloquio ut, quicquid ad laudem virginum pertinet, exquisierit, ordinant, expresserit. How great are the inconveniences involved in wedlock, and how many anxieties encompass it, I think I have briefly described in my treatise against Helvidius100 on the perpetual virginity of the blessed Mary.  It would be tedious to go over the same ground again, and anyone who wishes to can draw from my little spring.  But lest I should be thought to have passed over this subject completely, I will say now that the apostle bids us pray without ceasing, and that the man who in the married state renders his wife her due cannot so pray.  Either we pray always and are virgins;  or we cease to pray that we may perform our marital service.  The apostle says also:  “If a virgin marry she hath not sinned.  Nevertheless such people will have trouble in the flesh.”101  At the outset of my book I promised that I should say little or nothing of the troubles of wedlock, and now I give you the same warning again.  But if you wish to know from how many vexations a virgin is free and by how many a wife is fettered, you should read Tertullian’s “To a philosophic friend,”102 and his other treatises on virginity;  the blessed Cyprian’s notable book;  the writings of Pope Damasus in prose and verse;  and the essays recently written by our own Ambrose for his sister.103  In these he has poured forth his soul with such eloquence that he has sought out, set forth, and arranged all that bears on the praise of virgins.
100.  Cf. App., p. 489.
101.  1 Cor 7:28.
102.  Not extant.
103.  The De habitu virginum of Cyprian, Bishop of Carthage (fl. 258), is still extant, as are the three books De Virginibus of Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, which were written for Marcellina (pp. 187 and 485);  the treatise of Damasus is now lost.
22:23Nobis diverso tramite inceditur :  virginitatem non efferimus, sed servamus.  Nec sufficit scire quod bonum est, nisi custodiatur attentius quod electum est, quia illud judicii est, hoc laboris, et illud commune cum pluribus, hoc cum paucis.  « Qui perseveraverit », inquit, « usque ad finem, hic salvus erit », et :  Multi vocati, pauci autem electi. »  Itaque obtestor te coram Deo et Christo Jesu et electis angelis ejus, ne vasa templi, quæ solis sacerdotibus videre concessum est, facile in publicum proferas, ne sacrarium Dei quisquam profanus inspiciat.  Ozias arcam, quam non licebat, attingens, subita morte prostratus est.  Neque enim aureum vas et argenteum tam carum Deo fuit quam templum corporis virginalis.  Præcessit umbra ;  nunc veritas est.  Tu quidem simpliciter loqueris et ignotos quoque blanda non despicis ;  sed aliter impudici vident oculi.  Non norunt animæ pulchritudinem considerare, sed corporum.  Ezechias thesaurum Dei monstrat Assyriis, sed Assyrii videre quod cuperent.  Denique frequentibus bellis Judæa convulsa vasa primum Domini capta atque translata sunt et inter epulas et concubinarum greges, quia palma vitiorum est honesta polluere, Baltasar potat in phialis. I must proceed by a different path.  Far from trumpeting the praises of virginity, I only wish to keep it safe.  To know what is good is not enough;  when you have chosen it you must guard it with jealous care.  The first is a matter of judgment and we share it with many:  the second calls for labor and for that few care.  The Lord says:  “He that shall endure unto the end, the same shall be saved,”104 and “Many are called but few are chosen.”105  Therefore before God and Jesus Christ and His chosen angels I adjure you to guard what you have, and not lightly to expose to the public gaze the vessels of the Lord’s temple which priests alone are allowed to see.  No man that is profane may look upon God’s sanctuary.  When Uzziah laid hands upon the ark,106 which it was not lawful to touch, he was struck down by sudden death.  And no vessel of gold or silver was ever so dear to God as the temple of a virgin’s body.  What was shadowed in the past presaged the reality of today.  You indeed may speak frankly to strangers and look at them with kindly eyes:  but the unchaste see differently.  They cannot appreciate the beauty of the soul, they only regard the beauty of the body.  Hezekiah showed God’s treasure to the Assyrians, but the Assyrians only saw in it something to covet.107  And so it was that Judaea was rent asunder by continual wars, and that the first things taken and carried away were the Lord’s vessels.  From them as drinking cups Belshazzar quaffed his wine — for the crown of vice is to pollute what is noble — surrounded by his concubines at the feast.108
104.  Mt 24:13.
105.  Mt 20:16.
106.  2 Kings 6f.
107.  4 Kings 20:13f.
108.  Dan. 5:1ff.
22:24Ne declines aurem tuam in verba mala.  Sæpe indecens aliquid loquentes temptant mentis arbitrium.  Si libenter audias, virgo, quod dicitur, si ad ridicula quæque solvaris, quicquid dixeris, laudant ;  quicquid negaveris, negant.  Facetam vocant et sanctam et in qua nullus sit dolus, « Ecce vera Christi ancilla », dicentes, « ecce tota simplicitas, non ut illa horrida, turpis, rusticana, terribilis et quæ ideo forsitan maritum invenire non potuit. »  Naturali ducimur malo :  adulatoribus nostris libenter favemus et, quanquam nos respondeamus indignos et calidus rubor ora perfundat, tamen ad laudem suam intrinsecus anima lætatur. Never incline your ear to words of mischief.  Men often make an improper remark, that they may test a virgin’s real purpose.  If you hear it with pleasure and are ready to unbend at a joke, they approve of all you say, and anything you deny they deny also.  They call you both merry and good, one in whom there is no guile. “Behold,” they cry, “a true handmaid of Christ:  behold complete frankness.  She is not like that rough, ugly, rustic, cantankerous woman who probably could not find a husband just for that reason.”  A natural weakness easily beguiles us.  We willingly smile on such flatterers, and although we may blush and say we are unworthy of their praise, the soul within us rejoices to hear their words.
Sponsa Christi arca est Testamenti, extrinsecus et intrinsecus deaurata :  custos legis Domini.  Sicut in illa nihil aliud fuit nisi tabulæ Testamenti, ita et in te nullus sit extrinsecus cogitatus.  Super hoc propitiatorio quasi super cherubim sedere vult Dominus.  Mittit discipulos suos ut, in pullo asinæ, curis te sæcularibus solvant, ut, paleas et lateres Ægypti derelinquens, Moysen sequaris in eremo et terram repromissionis introëas.  Nemo sit qui prohibeat — non mater, non soror, cognata, germanus ;  Dominus te necessariam habet.  Quod si voluerint impedire, timeant flagella Pharaonis qui, populum Dei ad colendum eum nolens dimittere, passus est illa quæ scripta sunt.  Jesus, ingressus templum, omnia quæ templi non erant projecit.  Deus enim zelotes est et non vult domum Patris fieri speluncam latronum.  Alioquin, ubi æra numerantur, ubi sunt caveæ columbarum et simplicitas enecatur, ubi in pectore virginali sæcularium negotiorum cura æstuat, statim velum templi scinditur ;  Sponsus consurgit iratus et dicit, « Relinquetur vobis domus vestra deserta. » Like the ark of the covenant Christ’s bride should be overlaid with gold within and without;  she should guard the law of the Lord.  As in the ark there was nothing but the tablets of the covenant, so in you let there be no thought of anything outside.  On that mercy seat (ἱλαστήριον) it is God’s pleasure to sit as once He sat upon the cherubim.  He sends His disciples, that as He rode upon the foal of an ass, so He may ride upon you, setting you free from the cares of this world so that you may leave the bricks and straw of Egypt and follow Him, the true Moses, through the wilderness and enter the land of promise.  Let no one prevent you, neither mother nor sister nor kinswoman nor brother:  the Lord hath need of you.  If they seek to hinder, let them fear the scourges that fell on Pharaoh, who, because he would not let God’s people go to worship Him, suffered what is written in the Scriptures.  Jesus entered into the temple and cast out those things which were not of the temple.  For God is jealous and He does not allow His Father’s house to be made a den of robbers.  In any case, where money is counted, where there are pens of doves for sale, where simplicity is slain, where a virgin’s breast is disturbed by thoughts of worldly business, there at once the veil of the temple is rent and the Bridegroom, rising in anger, says:  “Your house is left unto you desolate.”109
Lege Evangelium et vide quomodo Maria, ad pedes Domini sedens, Marthæ studio præferatur — et certe, Martha sedulo hospitalitatis officio Domino atque discipulis convivium præparabat, « Martha », inquit, « Martha, sollicita es et turbaris circa plurima ;  pauca autem necessaria sunt aut unum.  Maria bonam partem elegit, quæ non auferetur ab ea. »  Esto et tu Maria, cibis præferto doctrinam.  Sorores tuæ cursitent et quærant quomodo Christum hospitem habeant ;  tu insemel, sæculi onere projecto, sede ad pedes Domini et dic, « Inveni eum, quem quærebat anima mea ;  tenebo eum et non dimittam eum », et ille respondeat, « Una est columba mea, perfecta mea ;  una est matri suæ, electa genetrici suæ » — cælesti videlicet Hierusalem. Read the Gospel, and see how Mary sitting at the feet of the Lord is preferred to the busy Martha.  Martha, in her anxious and hospitable zeal, was preparing a meal for the Lord and His disciples:  but Jesus said to her:  “Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things.  But few things are needful or one.  And Mary hath chosen that good part which shall not be taken away from her.”110  Be thou too Mary, and prefer the Lord’s teaching to food.  Let your sisters run to and fro, and seek how they may entertain Christ as a guest.  Do you once for all cast away the burden of this world and sit at the Lord’s feet, and say:  “I have found him whom my soul sought;  I will hold him, I will not let him go.”111  And He will answer:  “My dove, my undefined is but one;  she is the only one of her mother, she is the choice one of her that bare her.”112  And that mother is the Jerusalem that is in heaven.
109.  Mt 23:38.
110.  Lk 10:41.
111.  Cant. 3:4.
112.  Cant. 6:8.
22:25Semper te cubiculi tui secreta custodiant, semper tecum Sponsus ludat intrinsecus.  Oras :  loqueris ad sponsum ;  legis :  ille tibi loquitur, et, quum te somnus oppresserit, veniet post parietem et mittet manum suam per foramen et tanget ventrem tuum, et tremefacta consurges et dices, « Vulnerata caritatis ego sum », et rursus ab eo audies, « Hortus conclusus soror mea sponsa ;  hortus conclusus, fons signatus. »  Cave ne domum exeas, ne velis videre filias regionis alienæ, quamvis fratres habeas patriarchas et Israël parente læteris :  Dina egressa corrumpitur.  Nolo te sponsum quærere per plateas, nolo circumire angulos civitatis.  Dicas licet, « Surgam et circumibo in civitate, in foro et in plateis et quæram quem dilexit anima mea », et interroges, « Nunquid, quem dilexit anima mea, vidistis ? »,  nemo tibi respondere dignabitur.  Sponsus in plateis non potest inveniri — « Arta et angusta via est, quæ ducit ad vitam  » — denique sequitur, « Quæsivi eum et non inveni eum, vocavi eum et non respondit mihi. » Let the seclusion of your own chamber ever guard you;  ever let the Bridegroom sport with you within.  If you pray, you are speaking to your Spouse:  if you read, He is speaking to you.  When sleep falls on you, He will come behind the wall and will put His hand through the hole113 and will touch your flesh.  And you will awake and rise up and cry:  “I am sick with love.”114  And you will hear Him answer:  “A garden enclosed is my sister, my spouse;  a garden shut up, a fountain sealed.”115  Go not from home nor visit the daughters of a strange land, though you have patriarchs for brothers and rejoice in Israel as your father.  Dinah went out and was seduced.116  I would not have you seek the Bridegroom in the public squares;  I would not have you go about the corners of the city.  You may say:  “I will rise now and go about the city:  in the streets and in the broad ways I will seek Him whom my soul loveth.”117  But though you ask the watchmen:  “Saw ye Him whom my soul loveth?”118 no one will deign to answer you.  The Bridegroom cannot be found in the city squares. “Strait and narrow is the way that leadeth unto life.”119  And the Song goes on:  “I sought him but I could not find him:  I called him but he gave me no answer.”120
Atque utinam non invenisse sufficiat.  Vulneraberis, nudaberis et gemebunda narrabis, « Invenerunt me custodes qui circumeunt civitatem ;  percusserunt me, vulneraverunt me, tulerunt theristrum meum a me. »  Si autem hoc exiens patitur illa quæ dixerat, « Ego dormio et cor meum vigilat » et « Fasciculus stactæ fratruelis meus mihi, in medio uberum meorum commorabitur », quid de nobis fiet, quæ adhuc adulescentiæ sumus quæ, sponsa intrante cum sponso, remanemus extrinsecus ?  Zelotypus est Jesus, non vult ab aliis videri faciem tuam.  Excuses licet atque causeris, « Adducto velamine ora contexi, te quæsivi, tibi dixi, ‹ Annuntia mihi, quem dilexit anima mea, ubi pascis, ubi cubas in meridie, nequando fiam sicut cooperta super greges sodalium tuorum › », indignabitur, tumebit, et dicet :  Si non cognoveris temet ipsam, o pulchra in mulieribus, egredere tu in vestigiis gregum et pasce hædos tuos in tabernaculis pastorum. »  « Sis », inquit, « pulchra et inter omnes mulieres species tua diligatur ab sponso, nisi te cognoveris et omni custodia servaveris cor tuum, nisi oculos juvenum fugeris, egredieris de thalamo meo et pasces hædos qui staturi sunt a sinistris. » Would that failure to find Him were all.  You will be wounded and stripped, you will lament and say:  “The watchmen who go about the city found me:  they smote me, they wounded me, they took away my veil from me.”121  If this was the punishment that going forth brought to her who said:  “I sleep but my heart waketh,”122 and “A bundle of myrrh is my cousin unto me;  he shall lie all night between my breasts”;123  if she, I say, suffered so much because she went abroad, what shall be done to us who are but young girls, to us who, when the bride goes in with the Bridegroom, still remain without?  Jesus is jealous:  He does not wish others to see your face.  You may excuse yourself and say:  “I have drawn my veil, I have covered my face, I have sought Thee there, and I have said:  “Tell me, O Thou whom my soul loveth, where Thou feedest Thy flock, where Thou makest it to rest at noon.  For why should I be as one that is veiled beside the flocks of Thy companions ?”124  But He will be wroth and angry, and He will say:  “If thou know not thyself, O thou fairest among women, go thy way forth by the footsteps of the flock and feed thy goats beside the shepherd’s tents.”125  “Though you be fair,” says He, “and though of all faces yours be dearest to the Bridegroom, yet unless you know yourself and keep your heart with all diligence and avoid the eyes of lovers, you will be turned from My bridal-chamber to feed the goats which shall be set on the left hand.”
113.  Cant. 5:4.
114.  Cant. 5:8.
115.  Cant. 4:12.
116.  Gen 34:1ff.
117.  Cant. 3:2.
118.  Cant. 3:3.
119.  Mt 7:14.
120.  Cant. 5:6.
121.  Cant. 5:7.
122.  Cant 5:2.
123.  Cant 1:12.
124.  Cant 1:6.
125.  Cant 1:7.
22:26Itaque, mi Eustochia, filia, domina, conserva, germana (aliud enim ætatis, aliud meriti, illud religionis, hoc caritatis est nomen), audi Esaiam loquentem, « Populus meus, intra in cubicula tua, claude ostium tuum, abscondere pusillum quantulum, donec pertranseat ira Domini. »  Foris vagentur virgines stultæ, tu intrinsecus esto cum Sponso, quia, si ostium clauseris et secundum Evangelii præceptum in occulto oraveris patrem tuum, veniet et pulsabit et dicet, « Ecce ego sto ante januam et pulso.  Si quis mihi aperuerit, intrabo et cenabo cum eo et ipse mecum » ;  et tu statim sollicita respondebis, « Vox fratruelis mei pulsantis :  ‹ aperi mihi, soror mea, proxima mea, columba mea, perfecta mea ›. »  Nec est, quod dicas, « Dispoliavi me tunicam meam, quomodo induar eam ?  Lavi pedes meos, quomodo inquinabo eos ? »  Ilico surge et aperi, ne te remorante pertranseat et postea conqueraris dicens, « Aperui fratrueli meo, fratruelis meus pertransiit. »  Quid enim necesse est, ut cordis tui ostia clausa sint Sponso ?  Aperiantur Christo ;  claudantur diabolo secundum illud, « Si spiritus potestatem habentis ascenderit super te, locum ne dederis ei ».  Danihel in cenaculo suo (neque enim manere poterat in humili) fenestras ad Hierusalem apertas habuit :  et tu habeto fenestras apertas, sed unde lumen introëat, unde videas civitatem Dei.  Ne aperias illas fenestras, de quibus dicitur, « Mors intravit per fenestras vestras. » Therefore, my Eustochium, daughter, lady, fellow-servant, sister — for the first name suits your age, the second your rank, the third our religion, and the last our affection — hear the words of Isaiah:  “Come, my people, enter thou into thy chambers, and shut thy doors about thee:  hide thyself as it were for a little moment, until the indignation of the Lord pass away.”126  Let foolish virgins roam abroad;  do you for your part stay within with the Bridegroom.  If you shut your door, and according to the Gospel precept pray to your Father in secret, He will come and knock, and He will say:  “Behold I stand at the door and knock:  if any man open, I will come in to him and will sup with him, and he with me.”127  And you forthwith will eagerly make reply:  “It is the voice of my beloved that knocketh, saying ‘Open to me, my sister, my nearest, my dove, my undefiled.’” You must not say:  “I have put off my coat;  how shall I put it on?  I have washed my feet;  how shall I defile them?”128  Arise straightway and open lest, if you linger, He pass on and leave you mournfully to cry:  “I opened to my cousin, but my cousin was gone.”129  Why need the door of your heart be closed to the Bridegroom?  Let it be open to Christ but closed to the devil, according to the saying:  “If the spirit of him who hath power rise up against thee, leave not thy place.”130  Daniel in his upper room (for he could not continue [with his prayers] below) had his windows open towards Jerusalem.131  Do you too keep your windows open on the side where light may enter and you may see the City of God.  Open not those other windows of which it is said:  “By your windows death came in.”132 
126.  Isaias 26:20.
127.  Apoc. 3:20.
128.  Cant. 5:3.
129.  Cant. 5:6.
130.  Ecclesiasties 10:4.
131.  Cf. Dan. 6:10.
132.  Jer. 9:21.
22:27Illud quoque tibi vitandum est cautius, ne vanæ gloriæ ardore capiaris.  « Quomodo »,  inquit Jesus, « potestis credere, gloriam ab hominibus accipientes ? »  Vide quale malum sit, quod qui habuerit, non potest credere.  Nos vero dicamus, « Quoniam gloriatio mea es tu », et « Qui gloriatur, in Domino glorietur », et « Si adhuc hominibus placerem, Christi servus non essem », et « Mihi absit gloriari, nisi in cruce Domini mei Jesu Christi, per quem mihi mundus crucifixus est, et ego mundo », et illud :  « In te laudabimur tota die », et « In Domino laudabitur anima mea. » You must also avoid with especial care the traps that are set for you by a desire for vainglory.  Jesus says:  “How can ye believe, ye who receive glory one from another?”133  Consider then how evil that thing must be whose presence forbids belief.  Let us rather say:  “Thou art my glorying,”134 and, “He that glorieth, let him glory in the Lord,”135 and, “If I yet pleased men I should not be the servant of Christ,”136 and, “Far be it from me to glory save in the cross of our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom the world hath been crucified unto me and I unto the world,”137 and again, “In God we boast all the day long;138  my soul shall make her boast in the Lord.”139
Quum facis eleemosynam, Deus solus videat.  Quum jejunas, læta sit facies tua.  Vestis nec satis munda nec sordida et nulla diversitate notabilis, ne ad te obvia prætereuntium turba consistat et digito demonstreris.  Frater est mortuus, sororis est corpusculum deducendum — cave ne, dum hoc sæpius facis, ipsa moriaris.  Ne satis religiosa velis videri nec plus humilis quam necesse est, ne gloriam fugiendo quæras.  Plures enim paupertatis, misericordiæ atque jejunii arbitros declinantes, in hoc ipso placere cupiunt quod placere contemnunt ;  et mirum in modum laus, dum vitatur, appetitur.  Ceteris perturbationibus quibus mens hominis gaudet, ægrescit, sperat et metuit, plures invenio extraneos ;  hoc vitio pauci admodum sunt qui caruerint, et ille est optimus qui, quasi in pulchro corpore, rara nævorum sorde respergitur. When you are giving alms, let God alone see you.  When you are fasting, keep a cheerful face.  Let your dress be neither elegant nor slovenly, and let it not be noticeable by any strangeness that might attract the notice of passers-by and make people point their fingers at you.  If a brother dies or the body of a beloved sister has to be carried to burial, take care that you do not attend such funerals too often, or you may die yourself.  Do not try to seem very devout nor more humble than is necessary.  It is possible to seek glory by avoiding it.  Many men who screen from view their poverty, charity, and fasting, reveal their desire for admiration by the very fact that they spurn it, and, strangely enough, seek praise while avoiding it.  From the other perturbations of the mind, from exultation, despondency, hope and fear I find many free;  but desire for praise is a fault which few escape, and that man is best whose character, like a fair skin, is disfigured by the fewest blemishes.
Neque vero moneo, ne de divitiis glorieris, ne de generis nobilitate te jactes, ne te ceteris præferas :  scio humilitatem tuam, scio te ex affectu dicere, « Domine, non est exaltatum cor meum neque elati sunt oculi mei ».  Novi et apud te et apud matrem tuam, superbiam per quam diabolus cecidit, locum penitus non habere.  Unde et super ea scribere supersedi.  Stultissimum quippe est docere quod noverit ille quem doceas.  Sed ne hoc ipsum tibi jactantiam generet, quod sæculi jactantiam contempsisti, ne cogitatio tacita surrepat ut, quia in auratis vestibus placere desisti, placere coneris in sordibus et, quando in conventu fratrum veneris vel sororum, humili sedeas scabello, te causeris indignam, vocem ex industria quasi confecta jejuniis tenues, et, deficientis imitata gressum, umeris innitaris alterius. I am not going to warn you against boasting of your wealth, or priding yourself on your birth, or setting yourself up as superior to others.  I know your humility.  I know that you can say from your heart:  “Lord, my heart is not haughty nor my eyes lofty.”140  I know that with you, as with your mother, the pride through which the devil fell finds no lodging.  Therefore it would be superfluous to write to you on this subject:  for indeed it is the height of folly to teach a pupil what he already knows.  But beware lest your contempt for the world’s boastfulness breed in you a boastfulness of another kind.  Harbor not the secret thought that as you have ceased to please in cloth of gold you may now try to please in homespun.  When you come into a gathering of brethren and sisters, do not sit in too lowly a place or pretend that you are unworthy of a footstool.  Do not lower your voice on purpose, as though you were worn out by fasting;  nor yet lean upon a friend’s shoulder imitating the gait of one who is completely exhausted.
Sunt quippe nonnullæ exterminantes facies suas ut pareant hominibus jejunare ;  quæ, statim ut aliquem viderint, ingemescunt, demittunt supercilium et operta facie vix unum oculum liberant ad videndum ;  vestis pulla, cingulum sacceum et sordidis manibus pedibusque ;  venter solus, quia videri non potest, æstuat cibo ;  his cottidie psalmus ille cantatur, « Deus dissipavit ossa hominum sibi placentium. »  Aliæ virili habitu, veste mutata, erubescunt feminæ esse, quod natæ sunt, crinem amputant et impudenter erigunt facies eunuchinas.  Sunt, quæ ciliciis vestiuntur et, cucullis fabrefactis ut ad infantiam redeant, imitantur noctuas et bubones. Some women indeed actually disfigure themselves, so as to make it obvious that they have been fasting.  As soon as they catch sight of anyone they drop their eyes and begin sobbing, covering up the face, all but a glimpse of one eye, which they just keep free to watch the effect they make.  They wear a black dress and a girdle of sackcloth;  their feet and hands are unwashed:  their stomach alone — because it cannot be seen — is busy churning food.  Of these the psalm is sung every day:  “The Lord will scatter the bones of them that please themselves.”141  Other women change their garb and put on men’s dress;  they cut their hair short and lift up their chins in shameless fashion;  they blush to be what they were born to be — women, and prefer to look like eunuchs.  Others again dress themselves in goat’s hair, and returning to their childhood’s fashions put on a baby’s hood and make themselves look like so many owls.
133.  Jn 5:44.
134.  Ps 3:4.
135.  2 Cor. 10:17.
136.  Gal. 1:10.
137.  Gal. 6:14.
138.  Ps 43:9
139.  Ps 33:3
140.  Ps 130:1.
141.  Ps 52:6 (Roman Psalter).
22:28Sed ne tantum videar disputare de feminis, viros quoque fuge, quos videris catenatos, quibus feminei contra apostolum crines, hircorum barba, nigrum pallium et nudi in patientiam frigoris pedes.  Hæc omnia argumenta sunt diaboli.  Talem olim Antimum, talem nuper Sofronium Roma congemuit.  Qui postquam nobilium introierint domos et deceperint mulierculas « oneratas peccatis, semper discentes et nunquam ad scientiam veritatis pervenientes », tristitiam simulant et quasi longa jejunia furtivis noctium cibis protrahunt ;  pudet reliqua dicere, ne videar invehi potius quam monere. Women are not the only persons of whom I must warn you.  Avoid those men also whom you see loaded with chains and wearing their hair long like a woman’s, in contravention of the apostle’s precept;142  and with all this a shaggy goat’s beard, a black cloak, and bare feet braving the cold.  All these things are plain signs of the devil.  Antimus143 some time ago was the sort of man I mean, and just lately Sophronius143 has been another for Rome to groan over.  Such men as these make their way into noble houses, and deceive “silly women laden with sins, ever learning and never able to come to the knowledge of the truth.”144  They put on a mournful face and pretend to make long fasts, which for them are rendered easy by secret nocturnal banquets.  I am ashamed to say more, lest I should seem to be using the language of invective rather than of admonition.
Sunt alii — de mei ordinis hominibus loquor — qui ideo ad presbyterium et diaconatum ambiunt, ut mulieres licentius videant.  Omnis his cura de vestibus, si bene oleant, si pes, laxa pelle, non folleat.  Crines calamistri vestigio rotantur, digiti de anulis radiant et, ne plantas umidior via spargat, vix imprimunt summa vestigia.  Tales quum videris, sponsos magis æstimato quam clericos.  Quidam in hoc omne studium vitamque posuerunt, ut matronarum nomina, domos moresque cognoscant. There are other men — I speak of those of my own order — who only seek the office of presbyter and deacon that they may be able to visit women freely.  These fellows think of nothing but dress;  they must be nicely scented, and their shoes must fit without a crease.  Their hair is curled and still shows traces of the tongs;  their fingers glisten with rings;  and if there is wet on the road they walk across on tiptoe so as not to splash their feet.  When you see these gentry, think of them rather as potential bridegrooms than as clergymen.  Indeed some of them devote their whole life and all their energies to finding out about the names, the households, and the characters of married ladies.
E quibus unum, qui hujus artis est princeps, breviter strictimque describam, quo facilius magistro cognito discipulos recognoscas.  Cum sole festinus exsurgit ;  salutandi ei ordo disponitur ;  viarum compendia requiruntur, et pæne usque ad cubilia dormientium senex importunus ingreditur.  Si pulvillum viderit, si mantele elegans, si aliquid domesticæ supellectilis, laudat, miratur, attrectat, et se his indigere conquerens non tam impetrat quam extorquet, quia singulæ metuunt veredarium urbis offendere.  Huic inimica castitas, inimica jejunia ;  prandium nidoribus probat et altilem « geranopepa » ( [< γέρων ὁ πέπων]) quæ vulgo « pipizo » (ποππύζων) nominatur.  Os barbarum et procax et in convicia semper armatum.  Quocunque te verteris, primus in facie est.  Quicquid novum insonuerit, aut auctor aut exaggerator est famæ.  Equi per horarum momenta mutantur tam nitidi, tam feroces, ut illum Thracii regis putes esse germanum. I will give you a brief and summary portrait of the chief practitioner in this line, that from the master’s likeness you may recognize his disciples.  He rises with the sun in haste;  the order of his morning calls is duly arranged;  he takes short cuts, and importunately thrusts his old head almost into the bedchambers of ladies still asleep.  If he sees a cushion, or an elegant table cover, or indeed any article of furniture that he fancies, he begins praising and admiring it and takes it in his hand, and so, lamenting that he has nothing like this, he begs or rather extorts it from the owner, as all the women are afraid to offend the town gossip.  He hates chastity and he hates fasting:  what he likes is a savory lunch — say a plump young bird such as is commonly called a cheeper.  He has a rough and saucy tongue always well equipped with abusive words.  Wherever you betake yourself, he is the first man you see.  Whatever news is noised abroad, he either originates the story or else exaggerates it.  He changes horses every hour;  and his nags are so sleek and spirited that you might take him to be own brother to Diomede of Thrace.145
142.  Cf. 1 Cor 11:14.
143.  Unknown.
144.  2 Tim 3:6f.
145.  Cf. Lucretius, 5:31, and Virgil, Æneid, I:752.  Diomede was a great horseman.
22:29Variis callidus hostis pugnat insidiis.  Sapientior erat coluber omnibus bestiis quas fecerat Dominus Deus super terram.  Unde et apostolus, « Non », inquit, « ignoramus ejus astutias. »  Nec affectatæ sordes nec exquisitæ munditiæ conveniunt Christianis.  Si quid ignoras, si quid de Scripturis dubitas, interroga eum quem vita commendat, excusat ætas, fama non reprobat, qui possit dicere, « Desponsavi enim vos uni viro, virginem castam exhibere Christo. »  Aut si non est qui possit exponere, melius est aliquid nescire securam [scil. virginem], quam cum periculo discere.  Memento quoniam in medio laqueorum ambulas et multæ veteranæ virgines castitatis indubitatam in ipso mortis limine coronam perdidere de manibus. Our cunning enemy fights against us with many varied stratagems. “The serpent was more subtile than any beast of the field which the Lord God had made.”146  So the apostle says:  “We are not ignorant of his devices.”147  Neither an affected shabbiness nor an elaborate elegance of attire becomes a Christian.  If you feel ignorant or have any doubt about some passage in Scripture, ask advice from some man whose life commends him, whose age puts him above suspicion, and whose reputation stands high with all;  one who can say:  “I have espoused you to one husband, a chaste virgin to present to Christ.”148  Or if there is no one at hand able to resolve your difficulty, it is better for an untroubled virgin not to know something than to learn it with danger.  Remember that you walk in the midst of snares, and many veteran virgins, whose chastity never was doubted, on the very threshold of death have let the crown slip from their hands.
Si quæ ancillæ sunt comites propositi tui, ne erigaris adversus eas, ne infleris ut domina.  Unum sponsum habere cœpistis, simul psallitis Christo, simul corpus accipitis, cur mensa diversa sit ?  Provocentur et aliæ.  Honor virginum sit invitatio ceterarum.  Quodsi aliquam senseris infirmiorem in fide, suscipe, consolare, blandire et pudicitiam illius fac lucrum tuum.  Si qua simulat, fugiens servitutem, huic aperte apostolum lege :  « Melius est nubere quam uri. » If any of your handmaids have taken the vow with you, do not lift yourself up against them or pride yourself as being the mistress.  From now you all have one Bridegroom;  you sing psalms together;  together you receive the Body of Christ.  Why then should you separate at meals?  You must challenge other mistresses:  let the respect paid to your virgins be an invitation for the rest to do the same.  If you find one of your girls weak in faith, take her aside, comfort and caress her, make her chastity your treasure.  But if one merely pretends to have a vocation in order to escape from service, read aloud to her the apostle’s words:  “It is better to marry than to burn.”149
Eas autem virgines viduasque quæ, otiosæ et curiosæ, domus circumeunt matronarum, quæ, rubore frontis attrito, parasitos vicere mimorum, quasi quasdam pestes abjice.  « Corrumpunt mores bonos confabulationes pessimæ. »  Nulla illis nisi ventris cura est et quæ ventri proxima.  Istiusmodi hortari solent et dicere, « Mi catella, rebus tuis utere et vive, dum vivis », et « Nunquid filiis tuis servas ? »  Vinosæ atque lascivæ quidvis mali insinuant, ac ferreas quoque mentes ad delicias molliunt, et « quum luxuriatæ fuerint in Christo, nubere volunt habentes damnationem, quia primam fidem irritam fecerunt. » Cast from you like the plague those idle and inquisitive virgins and widows who go about to married women’s houses and surpass the very stage parasites by their unblushing effrontery.  “Evil communications corrupt good manners,”150 and these women care for nothing but their belly and its adjacent members.  Creatures of this sort will give you wheedling advice:  “My pretty pet, make the best of what you have and live your own life.  What is the use of saving for your children?”  Flown with wine and wantonness, they instill all sorts of mischief into a girl’s mind, and tempt even the firmest soul with the soft delights of pleasure.  “And when they have begun to wax wanton against Christ they will marry, having condemnation because they have rejected their first faith.”151
Nec tibi diserta multum velis videri, aut lyricis festiva carminibus metro ludere.  Non delumbem matronarum salivam delicata secteris, quæ nunc strictis dentibus, nunc labiis dissolutis, balbutientem linguam in dimidiata verba moderantur, rusticum putantes omne quod nascitur.  Adeo illis adulterium etiam linguæ placet.  « Quæ enim communicatio luci ad tenebras, qui consensus Christo et Belial ? »  Quid facit cum psalterio Horatius ?  Cum Evangeliis Maro ?  Cum apostolo Cicero ?  Nonne scandalizatur frater, si te viderit in idolio recumbentem ?  Et licet « omnia munda mundis » et « nihil rejiciendum sit quod cum gratiarum actione percipitur », tamen simul bibere non debemus calicem Christi et calicem dæmoniorum.  Referam tibi meæ infelicitatis historiam. Do not seek to appear over-eloquent or compose trifling songs in verse.  Do not in false refinement follow the sickly taste of those married ladies who habitually speak with a lisp and clip all their words, now pressing their teeth together, and now opening their lips wide, fancying that anything produced naturally is countrified.  So much do they like adultery even of the tongue. “What communion hath light with darkness?  What concord hath Christ with Belial?”152  What has Horace to do with the Psalter, Virgil with the Gospels and Cicero with Paul?  Is not a brother made to stumble if he sees you sitting at table in an idol’s temple?  Although “unto the pure all things are pure”153 and « nothing is to be refused if it be received with thanksgiving,”154 still we ought not to drink the cup of Christ and the cup of devils at the same time.  I will tell you the story of my own unhappy experience.
146.  Gen. 3:1.
147.  2 Cor 2:11.
148.  2 Cor 11:2.
149.  1 Cor 7:9.
150.  1 Cor 15:33.
151.  1 Tim 5:11f.
152.  2 Cor 6:14f.
153.  Tit 1:15.
154.  1 Tim 4:4.
22:30Quum ante annos plurimos domo, parentibus, sorore, cognatis et, quod his difficilius est, consuetudine lautioris cibi propter cælorum me regna castrassem et Hierosolymam militaturus pergerem, bibliotheca, quam mihi Romæ summo studio ac labore confeceram, carere non poteram.  Itaque miser ego lecturus Tullium jejunabam ;  post noctium crebras vigilias, post lacrimas quas mihi præteritorum recordatio peccatorum ex imis visceribus eruebat, Plautus sumebatur in manibus.  Si quando, in memet reversus, prophetam legere cœpissem, sermo horrebat incultus et, quia lumen cæcis oculis non videbam, non oculorum putabam culpam esse, sed solis.  Dum ita me antiquus serpens illuderet, in media ferme quadragesima medullis infusa febris corpus invasit exhaustum et sine ulla requie — quod dictu quoque incredibile sit — sic infelicia membra depasta est, ut ossibus vix hærerem. Many years ago for the sake of the kingdom of heaven I castrated myself from home, parents, sister, relations, and, what was harder, from the dainty food to which I had been used.  But even when I was on my way to Jerusalem to fight the good fight there, I could not bring myself to forgo the library which with great care and labor I had got together at Rome.  And so, miserable man that I was, I would fast, only to read Cicero afterwards.  I would spend many nights in vigil, I would shed bitter tears called from my inmost heart by the remembrance of my past sins;  and then I would take up Plautus again.  Whenever I returned to my right senses and began to read the prophets, their language seemed harsh and barbarous.  With my blind eyes I could not see the light:  but I attributed the fault not to my eyes but to the sun.  While the old serpent was thus mocking me, about the middle of Lent a fever attacked my weakened body and spread through my inmost veins.  It may sound incredible, but it consumed my unhappy limbs to the point that I barely stuck to my bones.
Interim parabantur exsequiæ et vitalis animæ calor, toto frigente jam corpore, in solo tantum tepente pectusculo palpitabat, quum subito raptus in spiritu ad tribunal Judicis pertrahor, ubi tantum luminis et tantum erat ex circumstantium claritate fulgoris ut, projectus in terram, sursum aspicere non auderem.  Interrogatus condicionem, Christianum me esse respondi ;  et ille qui residebat, « Mentiris », ait, « Ciceronianus es, non Christianus ;  ubi thesaurus tuus, ibi et cor tuum ».  Ilico obmutui et inter verbera — nam cædi me jusserat — conscientiæ magis igne torquebar, illum mecum versiculum reputans, « In inferno autem quis confitebitur tibi ? »  Clamare tamen cœpi et ejulans dicere, « Miserere mei, Domine, miserere mei » Hæc vox inter flagella resonabat.  Tandem ad præsidentibus genua pro-voluti qui astiterant precabantur ut veniam tribueret adulescentiæ, ut errori locum patientiæ commodaret, exacturus deinde cruciatum si gentilium litterarum libros aliquando legissem.  Ego, qui tanto constrictus articulo vellem etiam majora promittere, dejurare cœpi et nomen ejus obtestans dicere, « Domine, si unquam habuero codices sæculares, si legero, te negavi. » Meantime preparations were made for my funeral:  my whole body grew gradually cold, and life’s vital warmth only lingered faintly in my poor throbbing breast.  Suddenly I was caught up in the spirit and dragged before the Judge’s judgment seat:  and here the light was so dazzling, and the brightness shining from those who stood around so radiant, that I flung myself upon the ground and did not dare to look up.  I was asked to state my condition and replied that I was a Christian.  But He who presided said:  “Thou liest;  thou art a Ciceronian, not a Christian. ‘For where thy treasure is there will thy heart be also’.”155  Straightway I became dumb, and amid the strokes of the whip — for He had ordered me to be scourged — I was even more bitterly tortured by the fire of conscience, considering with myself the verse:  “In the grave who shall give thee thanks?”156  Yet for all that I began to cry out and to bewail myself, saying:  “Have mercy upon me, O Lord, have mercy upon me”: and even amid the noise of the lash my voice made itself heard.  At last the bystanders fell at the knees of Him who presided, and prayed Him to pardon my youth and give me opportunity to repent of my error, on the understanding that the extreme of torture should be inflicted on me if ever I read again the works of Gentile authors.  In the stress of that dread hour I should have been willing to make even larger promises, and taking oath I called upon His name:  “O Lord, if ever again I possess worldly books or read them, I have denied thee.”
In hæc sacramenti verba dimissus, revertor ad superos et mirantibus omnibus oculos aperio, tanto lacrimarum imbre perfusos ut etiam incredulis fidem facerent ex dolore.  Nec vero sopor ille fuerat, aut vana somnia quibus sæpe deludimur.  Teste est tribunal ante quod jacui ;  judicium teste est, quod timui — ita mihi nunquam contingat, talem incidere quæstionem ! — liventes habuisse me scapulas, plagas sensisse post somnum et tanto dehinc studio divina legisse, quanto mortalia ante non legeram. After swearing this oath I was dismissed, and returned to the upper world.  There to the surprise of all I opened my eyes again, and they were so drenched with tears, that my distress convinced even the incredulous.  That this experience was no sleep nor idle dream such as often mocks us, I call to witness the judgment seat before which I fell and the terrible verdict which I feared.  May it never be my lot again to come before such a court as that!  I profess that my shoulders were black and blue, and that I felt the bruises long after I awoke from my sleep.  And I acknowledge that henceforth I read the books of God with a greater zeal than I had ever given before to the books of men.157
155.  Mt 6:21.
156.  Ps 6:6.
157.  This “nightmare” narrative is similar to that of Tutuslymeni in St. Augustine’s Sermo 308:5.  It also bears resemblance to the Tartareus Phlegethon of Virgil’s Æneis, 6:566ff.
22:31Avaritiæ quoque tibi vitandum est malum, non quo aliena non appetas — hoc enim et leges publicæ puniunt —, sed quo tua, quæ sunt aliena, non serves.  « Si in alieno », inquit, « fideles non fuistis, quod vestrum est, quis dabit vobis ? »  Aliena nobis auri argentique sunt pondera ;  nostra possessio spiritalis est, de qua alibi dicitur, « Redemptio viri propriæ divitiæ ».  « Nemo potest duobus dominis servire ;  aut enim unum odiet et alterum amabit, aut unum patietur et alterum contemnet.  Non potestis Deo servire et mammonæ », id est divitiis.  Nam gentili Syrorum lingua « mammona » divitiæ nuncupantur.  Cogitatio victus, spinæ sunt fidei, radix avaritiæ, cura gentilium. You must also avoid the sin of love of money.  Not merely must you refuse to claim what belongs to another, for that is an offence punished by the laws of the State;  you must also give up clinging to your own property, which has now become no longer yours.  The Lord says:  “If ye have not been faithful in that which is another man’s, who shall give you that which is your own?”158  “That which is another man’s” is a mass of gold and silver;  “that which is your own” is the spiritual heritage of which it is said elsewhere:  “The ransom of a man’s life is his riches.”159  “No man can serve two masters, for either he will hate the one and love the other;  or else he will hold to the one and despise the other.  Ye cannot serve God and Mammon.”160  By Mammon understand riches:  for in the heathen tongue of the Syrians riches are so called.  The thorns that choke our faith are the taking thought for our subsistence.  Care for the things of the Gentiles is the root of love of money.
At dices, « Puella sum delicata et quæ meis manibus laborare non possum.  Si ad senectam venero, si ægrotare cœpio, quis mei miserebitur ? »  Audi ad apostolos loquentem Jesum, « Ne cogitetis in corde vestro quid manducetis, neque corpori vestro quid induamini.  Nonne anima plus est quam esca, et corpus plus est quam vestimentum ?  Respicite volatilia cæli, quoniam non serunt neque metunt neque congregant in horrea, et pater vester cælestis pascit illa. »  Si vestis defuerit, lilia proponentur ;  si esuriens, beatos audies pauperes et esurientes ;  si aliquis afflixerit dolor, legito :  « Propter hoc complaceo mihi in infirmitatibus meis », et « Datus est mihi stimulus carnis meæ, angelus Satanæ, qui me colaphizet », ne extollar.  Lætare in omnibus judiciis Dei ;  « Exultaverunt », enim, « filiæ Judæ in omnibus judiciis tuis, Domine. »  Illa tibi semper in ore vox resonet, « Nudus exivi de utero matris meæ, nudus et redeam », et « Nihil intulimus in hunc mundum nec auferre quid possumus. » But you will say:  “I am a delicate girl and I cannot work with my hands.  If I reach old age, if I get sick, who will take pity on me?”  Hear Jesus speaking to the apostles:  “Take no thought what ye shall eat;  nor yet for your body what ye shall put on.  Is not the life more than meat and the body more than raiment?  Behold the fowls of the air;  for they sow not, nor reap nor gather into barns:  yet your heavenly Father feedeth them.”161  If clothing fail you, the lilies shall be put before you.162  If you are hungry, you shall hear how blessed are the poor and hungry among men.  If any pain afflict you, read the words:  “Therefore I take pleasure in my infirmities,”163 and, “There was given to me a thorn in the flesh, the messenger of Satan to buffet me, lest I should be exalted above measure.”164  Rejoice in all God’s judgments;  for does not the psalmist say:  “The daughters of Judah rejoiced because of thy judgments, O Lord”?165  Let the words be ever on your lips:  “Naked came I out of my mother’s womb and naked shall I return thither,”166 and, “We brought nothing into this world, and it is certain we can carry nothing out.”167
158.  Lk 16:12.
159.  Prov 13:8.
160.  Mt 6:24.
161.  Mt 6:26.
162.  Mt 6:28.
163.  2 Cor 12:10.
164.  2 Cor 12:7.
165.  Ps 96:8.
166.  Job 1:21.
167.  1 Tim 6:7.
22:32At nunc plerasque videas armaria stipare vestibus, tunicas mutare cottidie et tamen tineas non posse superare.  Quæ religiosior fuerit, unum exterit vestimentum et, plenis arcis, pannos trahit.  Inficiuntur membranæ colore purpureo, aurum liquescit in litteras, gemmis codices vestiuntur et nudus ante fores earum Christus emoritur.  Quum manum porrexerat, bucinant ;  quum ad agapen vocaverint, præco conducitur.  Vidi nuper — nomina taceo, ne saturam putes — nobilissimam mulierum Romanarum in basilica beati Petri, semiviris antecedentibus, propria manu (quo religiosior putaretur) singulos nummos dispertire pauperibus.  Interea — ut usu nosse perfacile est — anus quædam annis pannisque obsita præcurrit, ut alterum nummum acciperet ;  ad quam, quum ordine pervenisset, pugnus porrigitur pro denario et tanti criminis reus sanguis effunditur. But today you see many women packing their wardrobes with dresses, putting on a fresh frock every day, and even so unable to get the better of the moth.  The more scrupulous sort wear one dress till it is threadbare, but though they go about in rags their boxes are full of clothes.  Parchments are dyed purple, gold is melted for lettering, manuscripts are decked with jewels:  and Christ lies at their door naked and dying.  When they hold a hand out to the needy, they sound the trumpet.  When they invite to a love-feast,168 they hire a crier.  Just lately I saw the greatest lady in Rome — I will not give her name, for this is not a satire — standing in the church of the blessed Peter with her band of eunuchs in front.  She was giving money to the poor with her own hand to increase her reputation for sanctity;  and she gave them each a penny!  At that moment — as you might easily know by experience — an old woman, full of years and rags, ran in front of the line to get a second coin;  but when her turn came she got, not a penny, but the lady’s fist in her face, and her blood, guilty of such a great offense, was shed.
« Radix malorum omnium est avaritia » ;  ideoque et ab apostolo idolorum servitus appellatur.  « Quære primum regnum Dei et hæc omnia apponuntur tibi. »  Non occidet Dominus fame animam justi :  « Juvenior fui et senui et non vidi justum derelictum nec semen ejus quærens panem. »  Elias corvis ministrantibus pascitur ;  vidua Sareptena ipsa cum filiis nocte moritura prophetam pascit esuriens et, mirum in modum capsace completo, qui alendus venerat, alit.  Petrus apostolus, « Argentum », inquit, « et aurum non habeo ;  quod autem habeo, hoc tibi do.  In nomini Domini Jesu Christi surge et ambula. »  At nunc multi, licet sermone taceant, re loquuntur, « Fidem et misericordiam non habeo ;  quod autem habeo, aurum et argentum non do tibi. »  Habentes igitur victum et vestimentum his contenti sumus.  Audi, Jacob in sua oratione quid postulet :  « Si fuerit Dominus Deus mecum et servaverit me in via hac per quam ego iter facio, et dederit mihi panem ad manducandum et vestem ad induendum. »  Tantum necessaria deprecatus est, et post annos viginti dives dominus et ditior pater ad terram revertitur Chanaan.  Infinita de Scripturis exempla suppeditant, quæ et avaritiam doceant esse fugiendam. “The love of money is the root of all evil,”169 and therefore the apostle calls it slavery to idols. “Seek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you.”170  The Lord will never let a righteous soul die of hunger.  The psalmist says:  “I have been young and now am old, yet have I not seen the righteous forsaken nor his seed begging bread.”171  Elijah was fed by ministering ravens.  The widow of Zarephath, herself and her sons within an ace of death that night, went hungry that she might feed the prophet:  by a miracle the flour barrel was filled:  he who had come to be fed supplied food.172  The apostle Peter says:  “Silver and gold have I none, but such as I have give I thee.  In the name of Jesus Christ, rise up and walk.”173  Today many people, though they do not say it in words, by their deeds declare:  “Faith and pity have I none;  but such as I have, gold and silver, these give I thee not.”  Having food and raiment let us be content.  Hear the words of Jacob in his prayer:  “If God will be with me and will keep me in this way that I go, and will give me bread to eat and raiment to put on [then shall the Lord be my God].”174  He prayed only for necessities;  yet twenty years afterwards he returned to the land of Canaan, rich in goods and richer still in children.  Endless are the examples that Scripture supplies teaching us to beware of love of money.
168.  Mt 6:2.  In the early Church the Eucharist was preceded by an ‘agape’ [ἀγάπη], or lovefeast.  All contributed, all sat down together, and the meal ended with a psalm.
169.  1 Tim 6:10.
170.  Mt 6:33.
171.  Ps 36:25.
172.  3 Kings 17:9–16.
173.  Act 3:6.
174.  Gen 28:20 (& 21).
22:33Verum quia nunc e latere de ea dicitur (et suo, si Christus annuerit, volumini reservatur), quid ante non plures annos Nitriæ gestum sit, referam.  Quidam e fratribus parcior magis quam avarior et nesciens triginta argenteis Dominum venditum centum solidos, quos lina texendo quæsierat, moriens dereliquit.  Initum inter monachos consilium — nam in eodem loco circiter quinque milia divisis cellulis habitant — quid facto opus est.  Alii pauperibus distribuendos esse dicebant, alii dandos ecclesiæ, nonnulli parentibus remittendos.  Macarius vero et Pambos et Isidorus et ceteri quos patres vocant, Sancto in eis loquente Spiritu, decreverunt infodiendos esse cum domino suo, dicentes, « Pecunia tua tecum in perditionem. »  Nec hoc crudeliter quisquam factum putet ;  tantus per totam Ægyptum cunctos terror invasit, ut unum solidum dimisisse sit criminis. As I have touched on this subject — if Christ allows, I keep it for a special book — I will relate an incident that occurred not many years ago at Nitria.  A brother, rather thrifty than avaricious, forgetting that the Lord was sold for thirty pieces of silver, left behind him at his death a hundred gold coins which he had earned by weaving linen.  The monks held a council as to what was to be done with it, for there were about five thousand of them in the neighborhood living in separate cells;  some said that the money should be distributed among the poor;  others that it should be given to the Church;  others that it should be sent back to the dead man’s parents.  But Macarius, Pambos, Isidore,175 and the other Fathers, the Holy Spirit speaking by them, decreed that the coins should be buried with their owner, saying:  “Thy money perish with thee.”176  Let no one think their decision too harsh;  for so great a fear has fallen upon all in Egypt that it is now a crime to leave a single gold piece.
175.  Macarius the Egyptian (ca. 300-390) was a camel driver trading in Nitria who became an anchorite priest living in a village, then went to Scetis and settled there.  He is considered one of the greatest of hermits.  Isidore is probably Isidore the Priest, a religious of the desert of Scetis and companion of Macarius.  Pambo of mount Nitria (ca. 303-394) was an illiterate Egyptian peasant.  He joined Amoun (considered, with Antony and Pachomius, the third founder of Egyptian monasticism) in Nitria, was taught the Scriptures, and became both a priest and a monk.
176.  Act 8:20.
22:34Et quoniam monachorum fecimus mentionem et te scio libenter audire quæ sancta sunt, aurem paulisper accommoda.  Tria sunt in Ægypto genera monachorum :  cœnobium, quod illi « sauhes » gentili lingua vocant, nos « in commune viventes  » possumus appellare ;  anchoretæ, qui soli habitant per deserta et ab eo, quod procul ab hominibus recesserint, nuncupantur ;  tertium genus est, quod dicunt « remnuoth », deterrimum atque neglectum et quod in nostra provincia aut solum aut primum est.  Hi bini vel terni nec multo plures simul habitant suo arbitratu ac dicione viventes, et de eo quod laboraverat, in medium partes conferunt ut habeant alimenta communia.  Habitant autem quam plurimum in urbis et castellis, et, quasi ars sit sancta, non vita, quicquid vendiderint, majoris est pretii.  Inter hos sæpe sunt jurgia, quia suo viventes cibo non patiuntur se alicui esse subjectos.  Re vera solent certare jejuniis et rem secreti victoriæ faciunt.  Apud hos affectata sunt omnia :  laxæ manicæ, caligæ follicantes, vestis grossior, crebra suspiria, visitatio virginum, detractatio clericorurn, et si quando festior dies venerit, saturantur ad vomitum. Since I have mentioned the monks, and know that you like to hear about holy things, lend me your ear awhile.  There are in Egypt three classes of monks.  First, there are the cenobites,177 called in their Gentile tongue Sauhes,178 or, as we should say, men living in a community.  Secondly, there are the anchorites,179 who live in the desert as solitaries, so called because they have withdrawn from the society of men.  Thirdly, there is the class called Remnuoth,180 a very inferior and despised kind, though in my own province181 they are the chief if not the only sort of monks.  These men live together in twos and threes, seldom in larger numbers, and live according to their own will and ruling.  A portion of what they make they contribute to a common fund which provides food for all.  In most cases they live in cities or in villages, and anything they sell is very dear, the idea being that their workmanship, not their life, is sanctified.  Quarrels are frequent among them;  for while they supply their own food, they will not brook subordination.  It is true that they compete with one another in fasting, making what should be a private matter an occasion for a triumph.182  Everything with them is done for effect:  loose sleeves, droopy boots, clumsy dress, constant sighing, visiting virgins, disparaging the clergy, and when a feast day comes, they eat so much that they make themselves ill.
177.  From κοινὸς βίος, living a life in common.
178.  An Egyptian word not elsewhere found.
179.  From ἀναχωρεῖν, “to withdraw.”
180.  Monks who lived in groups under no fixed rule.  Cf.  Cassian. Collat. 18:7.
181.  I.e. Pannonia.
182.  According to the Gospel (Mt 6:16-18), fasting should be kept secret by those who practice it.  These monks make of it a contest whose results they make public.
22:35His igitur quasi quibusdam pestibus exterminatis, veniamus ad eos qui plures in commune habitant, id est, quos vocari « cœnobium » diximus.  Prima apud eos confœderatio est obœdire majoribus et, quicquid jusserint, facere.  Divisi sunt per decurias atque centurias, ita ut novem hominibus decimus præsit et rursus decem præpositos sub se centesimus habeat.  Manent separati, sed junctis cellulis.  Usque ad horam nonam quasi justitium est ;  nemo pergit ad alium exceptis his quos decanos diximus ut, si cogitationibus forte quis fluctuat, illius consoletur alloquiis.  Post horam nonam in commune concurritur, psalmi resonant, Scripturæ ex more recitantur et, completis orationibus cunctisque residentibus, medius — quem « patrem » vocant — incipit disputare.  Quo loquente tantum silentium fit, ut nemo ad alium respicere, nemo audeat exscreare.  Dicentis laus in fletu est audientum.  Tacite volvuntur per ora lacrimæ, et ne in singultus quidem erumpit dolor.  Quum vero de regno Christi, de futura beatitudine, de gloria cœperit annuntiare ventura, videas cunctos, moderato suspirio et oculis ad cælum levatis, intra se dicere, « Quis dabit mihi pinnas sicut columbæ, et volabo et requiescam ? » Avoiding these then as though they were the plague, let us come to the more numerous class who live together and are called, as we have said, cenobites.  Among them the first principle of their association is to obey superiors and do whatever they command.  They are divided into sections of ten and a hundred;  each tenth man is over nine others, while the hundredth has ten such officers under him.  They live apart from each other, but in adjoining cells.  There is solitude until three o’clock in the afternoon:  no monk may visit another, except only the deans or leaders of ten, whose business it is to comfort with soothing words any one disturbed by restless thoughts:  until then, there is a cessation of all business.  After three o’clock they meet together to sing psalms and duly read the Scriptures.  When the prayers have ended and all have sat down, one, whom they call Father, stands up in their midst and discourses;  a silence so complete being observed while he is speaking that no one dares to look at his neighbor or to clear his throat.  The highest praise that can be given to the preacher is the weeping of his audience.  But the tears that run down their cheeks are silent, and not even a sob reveals their emotion.  But when he begins to announce the kingdom of Christ, the future happiness and the coming glory you may see everyone with a gentle sigh and lifted gaze saying to himself:  “Oh, that I had the wings of a dove.  For then would I fly away and be at rest.”183
Post hoc, concilium solvitur et unaquæque decuria cum suo parente pergit ad mensas, quibus per singulas hebdomadas vicissim ministrant.  Nullus in cibo strepitus, nemo comedens loquitur.  Vivuntur pane, leguminibus et olere, quæ sale et oleo condiuntur.  Vinum tantum senes accipiunt, quibus et parvulis sæpe fit prandium, ut aliorum fessa sustentetur ætas, aliorum non frangatur incipiens.  Dehinc consurgunt pariter et hymno dicto ad præsæpia redeunt.  Ibi usque ad vesperam cum suis unusquisque loquitur et dicit, « Vidistis illum et illum, quanta in ipso sit gratia, quantum silentium, quam moderatus incessus ? »  Si infirmum viderint, consolantur ;  si in Deo amore ferventem, cohortantur ad studium.  Et quia nocte extra orationes publicas in suo cubili unusquisque vigilat, circumeunt cellulas singulorum etm aure apposita, quid faciant, diligenter explorant.  Quem tardiorem deprehenderint, non increpant, sed dissimulato, quod norunt, eum sæpius visitant et, prius incipientes, provocant magis orare, quam cogunt. After the discourse the meeting breaks up, and each set of ten goes with its Father to its own table;  taking turns to serve, each man for a week at a time.  No noise is made over the food;  no one talks while eating.  The fare consists of bread, pulse and greens, and salt and oil is their only condiment.  The old men alone receive wine, they often having a special meal prepared in company with the children, so that the weariness of age is refreshed and the weakness of childhood is not impaired.  They then rise from table together and after singing a hymn return to their quarters.  There each one talks till evening with his friends thus:  “Have you noticed So-and-so?  What grace he has and what powers of silence!  How soberly he walks!”  If they see that any one is weak, they comfort him:  if he is fervent in love for God, they encourage his zeal.  At night, besides the common prayers, each man keeps vigil in his own chamber;  and so the deans go round to each cell, and putting their ears to the doors carefully ascertain what the inmates are doing.  If they catch a monk in slothfulness, they do not upbraid him:  but, hiding what they know, they visit him more frequently, and by beginning themselves to pray exhort rather than drive him to his devotions.
Opus diei statutum est, quod decano redditum fertur ad Œconomum, qui et ipse per singulos menses Patri omnium cum magno reddit tremore rationem.  A quo etiam cibi, quum facti fuerint, degustantur et, quia non licet dicere cuiquam « Tunicam et sagum textaque juncis strata non habeo », ille ita universa moderatur, ut nemo quid postulet, nemo dehabeat.  Si vero quis cœperit ægrotare, transfertur ad exedram latiorem et tanto senum ministerio confovetur, ut nec delicias urbium nec matris quærat affectum.  Dominicis diebus oratione tantum et lectionibus vacant — quod quidem et omni tempore completis opusculis faciunt.  Cottidie de Scripturis aliquid discitur.  Jejunium totius anni æquale est, excepta Quadragesima, in qua sola conceditur restrictius vivere.  Pentecoste cenæ mutantur in prandia, quo et traditioni ecclesiasticæ satisfiat et ventrem cibo non onerent duplicato.  Tales Philo, Platonici sermonis imitator, tales Josephus, Græcus Livius, in secunda Judaicæ captivitatis historia Essenos refert. Every day has its allotted task:  the work done is handed to a dean and by him brought to the bursar, who once a month with fear and trembling gives an account to the Community Father.  The bursar also tastes the dishes when they are cooked, and as no one is allowed to say:  “I am without a tunic or a cloak or a rush mattress,” he so arranges their entire store that none need ask and none go without.  If any one is taken ill, he is moved to a larger room, and is there so sedulously tended by the older monks, that he misses neither the luxuries of cities nor a mother’s loving care.  Every Lord’s day they give their whole time to prayer and reading:  which indeed are their usual occupations on ordinary days when work is over.  Every day they learn by heart a passage of Scripture.  Fasting is regular throughout the year, but in Lent alone an increase of strictness is permitted.  After Whitsuntide a midday meal takes the place of the evening repast, and thus the tradition of the Church is satisfied and they avoid overloading their stomachs with a double quantity of food.  The Essenes also follow these rules, as we learn from Philo, Plato’s imitator, and from Josephus,184 the Greek Livy, describing the Essenes in the second book of his Jewish Captivity.
183.  Ps 54:7.
184.  Cf.  Josephus, Jewish War, 2:8.
22:36Verum quia nunc de virginibus scribens pæne superflue de monachis disputavi, ad tertium genus veniam, quos anchoretas vocant et qui de cœnobiis exeuntes excepto pane et sale amplius ad deserta nil perferunt.  Hujus vitæ auctor Paulus, illustrator Antonius et, ut ad superiora conscendam, princeps Johannes baptista fuit.  Talem virum Hieremias quoque propheta descripsit dicens, « Bonum est viro, quum portaverit jugum ab adulescentia sua.  Sedebit solus et tacebit, quoniam sustulit super se jugum, dabit percutienti se maxillam, saturabitur improperiis, quia non in sempiternum abjiciet Dominus. »  Horum laborem et conversationem in carne, non carnis, alio tempore, si volueris, explicabo.  Nunc ad propositum redeam, quia de avaritia disserens ad monachos verteram.  Quorum tibi exempla proponens, non dicam aurum et argentum et ceteras opes, sed ipsam terram cælumque despicies et Christo copulata cantabis, « Pars mea Dominus. » However, as I am writing now about virgins, all these details about monks may seem rather superfluous.  I will proceed to the third class, who are called anchorites.  They go out from a monastery and live in the desert, taking nothing with them but bread and salt.  The founder of the system was Paul,185 and Antony186 made it famous:  going back, the first example was given by John the Baptist.  The prophet Jeremiah also describes such a solitary:  “It is good for a man that he bear the yoke from his youth.  He sitteth alone and keepeth silence, because he hath borne it upon him.  He giveth his cheek to him that smiteth him, he is filled full of reproach.  For the Lord will not cast off for ever.”187  The struggles of the anchorites and their life, in the flesh but not of the flesh, I will unfold to you on some other occasion, if you wish.  Let me now return to my subject, for I was speaking of love of money when I digressed to the monks.  With them as examples before you, you will look down not only on gold and silver and worldly possessions, but even on earth itself and the sky.  United to Christ, you will sing:  “The Lord is my portion.”188
185.  I.e., Paul the hermit, whose life Jerome wrote.
186.  St. Antony, born in Egypt ca. 250, after living as a hermit for many years, left his solitude to become the founder of monasticism in northern Egypt.
187.  Lamentations 3:27-31.
188.  Psalms 72:26;  118:57;  141:6.  Cf. also Lamentations 3:24.
22:37Post hæc, quanquam apostolus semper orare nos jubeat et sanctis etiam ipse somnus oratio sit, tamen divisas orandi horas habere debemus, ut si forte aliquo fuerimus opere detenti, ipsum nos ad officium tempus admoneat :  horam tertiam, sextam, nonam, diluculum quoque et vesperam nemo qui nesciat.  Nec cibus a te sumatur nisi oratione præmissa nec recedatur a mensa, nisi referantur gratiæ creatori.  Noctibus bis terque surgendum, revolvenda de Scripturis, quæ memoriter tenemus.  Egredientes hospitium armet oratio, regredientibus de platea oratio occurrat ante quam sessio, nec prius corpusculum requiescat quam anima pascatur.  Ad omnem actum, ad omnem incessum manus pingat crucem. Moreover, although the apostle bids us to pray without ceasing and although to the saints their very sleep is an orison, yet we ought to have fixed hours for prayer, so that if perchance we are occupied with any business the time itself may remind us of our duty.  Every one knows that the set times are the third, the sixth, and the ninth hours, at dawn and at evening.  No food should be taken except after prayer, and before leaving the table thanks should be rendered to our Creator.  We should rise from our bed two or three times in the night, and go over those passages of Scripture which we know by heart.  Let prayer arm us when we leave our lodging:  when we return from the streets let us pray before we sit down, nor give our miserable body rest until our soul is fed.  In everything we do, in every step we take let our hand trace the sign of the Lord’s cross.
Nulli detrahas, nec adversus filium matris tuæ ponas scandalum.  « Tu quæ es, ut alienum servum judices ?  Suo domino stat aut cadit.  Stabit autem ;  potens est enim Deus statuere illum. »  Nec, si biduo jejunaveris, putes te non jejunante meliorem.  Tu jejunas et irasceris, ille comedit et forte blanditur ;  tu vexationem mentis et ventris esuriem rixando digeris, ille moderatius alitur et Deo gratias refert.  Unde cottidie clamat Esaias, « ‹ Non tale jejunium elegi ›, dicit Dominus », et iterum, « In diebus enim jejuniorum invenientur voluntates vestræ et omnes, qui sub potestate vestra eunt, stimulatis.  Si in judiciis et litibus jejunatis et percutitis pugnis humilem, ut quid mihi jejunatis ? »  Quale illud potest esse jejunium cujus iram, non dicam nox occupat, sed luna integra derelinquit ?  Te ipsam considerans noli in alterius ruina, sed in tuo opere gloriari. Speak against no one, and slander not thy mother’s son. “Who art thou that judgest the servant of another?  To his own lord he standeth or falleth;  yea, he shall be made to stand, for the Lord hath power to make him stand.”188  If you have fasted for the space of two days, do not think that you are better than those who have not fasted.  You fast and are angry;  another eats and wears a smiling face.  You work off your irritation and hunger by quarrelling with others;  your neighbor feeds in moderation and gives thanks to God.  Therefore Isaiah proclaims to us every day:  “It is not such a fast that I have chosen, saith the Lord.”189  And again:  “In the day of your fast ye find your own pleasure and oppress all your laborers.  If ye fast for strife and contention and smite the lowly with your fist, the fist of wickedness, how fast ye unto me?”190  What sort of fast can that be when not only does the night fall upon a man’s wrath, but even the full moon leaves it unchanged?  Look to yourself and glory not in the fall of others, but only in your own works.
188.  Rom 14:4.
189.  Is 58:5.
190.  Is 58:3f.
22:38Nec illarum tibi exempla proponas quæ, carnis curam facientes, possessionum reditus et cottidianas domus impensas supputant.  Neque enim undecim apostoli Judæ proditione sunt fracti nec, Phygelo et Alexandro faciente naufragium, ceteri a cursu fidei substiterant.  Nec dicas, « Illa et illa suis rebus fruitur ;  honoratur ab omnibus ;  fratres ad eam conveniunt et sorores :  numquid ideo virgo esse desivit ? »  Primum dubium, an virgo sit talis.  « Non enim, quomodo videt homo, videbit Deus.  Homo videt in facie, Deus videt in corde. »  Dehinc, etiam si corpore virgo est, an spiritu virgo sit, nescio.  Apostolus autem ita virginem definivit :  « Ut sit sancta et corpore et spiritu. »  Ad extremum habeat sibi gloriam suam :  vincat Pauli sententiam ;  deliciis fruatur et vivat !  Nos meliora exempla sectemur. Neither take pattern by those women who have thought for the flesh, and are always reckoning up their income and their daily household expenditure.  For the eleven apostles did not weaken by Judas’ treachery;  and though Phygellus191 and Alexander192 made shipwreck, the rest did not falter in the race of faith.  Nor say:  “So-and-so enjoys her own property;  she is honored by all;  the brethren and the sisters assemble at her house.  Has she ceased to be a virgin for that?”  In the first place, it is doubtful if such an one is a virgin. “For the Lord will not see as man seeth;  for man looketh upon the outward appearance, but the Lord looketh upon the heart.”193  Furthermore, even if she is a virgin in body, I am not sure that she is a virgin in spirit.  The apostle has defined a virgin thus:  “She must be holy both in body and in spirit.”194  In fine, let her keep her own glory to the last.  Let her override Paul’s judgment;  let her enjoy her good things and live!  Let us follow better examples.
Propone tibi beatam Mariam quæ tantæ exstitit puritatis, ut mater esse Domini mereretur.  Ad quam, quum angelus Gabriel in viri specie descendisset, dicens, « Ave, gratia plena, Dominus tecum », consternata respondere non potuit ;  nunquam enim a viro fuit salutata.  Denique nuntium discit et loquitur et, quæ hominem formidarat, cum angelo fabulatur intrepida.  Potes et tu esse mater Domini.  « Accipe tibi tomum magnum, novum, et scribe in eo stilo hominis velociter spolia detrahentis », et, quum accesseris ad prophetissam et conceperis in utero et pepereris filium, dic, « A timore tuo, domine, concepimus et doluimus et peperimus ;  spiritum salvationis tuæ fecimus super terram. »  Tunc et filius tuus tibi respondebit et dicet, « Ecce mater mea et fratres mei. »  Et mirum in modum ille quem in latitudine pectoris tui paulo ante descripseras, quem in novitate cordis stilo volante signaveras, postquam spolia ex hostibus ceperit, postquam denudaverit principatus et potestates, et affixerit eas cruci, conceptus adolescit et, major effectus, sponsam te incipit habere de matre.  Grandis labor, sed grande præmium esse quod martyres, esse quod apostoli, esse quod Christus est. Set before your eyes the blessed Mary, whose purity was such that she earned the reward of being the mother of the Lord.  When the angel Gabriel came down to her in man’s form, and said:  “Hail, thou that art highly favored;  the Lord is with thee,” she was filled with terror and consternation and could not reply;  for she had never been greeted by a man before.  Soon, however, she learned who the messenger was, and spoke to him:  she who had been afraid of a man conversed fearlessly with an angel.  You too may be perhaps the Lord’s mother. “Take thee a great new roll and write in it with the pen of a man who is swiftly carrying off the spoils,”195 and when you have gone to the prophetess, and conceived in your womb and brought forth a son,196 say:  “Lord, we have been with child by thy fear, we have been in pain, we have brought forth thy spirit of thy salvation which we have wrought upon the earth.”197  Then shall your son reply:  “Behold my mother and my brethren.”198  And He whose name just before you had inscribed upon the tablet of your heart, and had written with speedy pen upon its new surface, after He has recovered the spoils from the enemies and has stripped principalities and powers, nailing them to His cross, He having been conceived grows to manhood, and as He becomes older regards you not as His mother but as His bride.  To be as the martyrs, or as the apostles, or as Christ, is a great struggle, but for that struggle there is a great reward.
Quæ quidem universa tunc prosunt, quum in ecclesia fiunt, quum in una domo pascha celebramus, si arcam ingredimur cum Noë, si, pereunte Hierico, Raab justificata nos continet.  Ceterum virgines, quales apud diversas hæreses et quales apud impurissimum Manichæum esse dicuntur, scorta sunt æstimanda, non virgines.  Si enim corporis earum auctor est diabolus, quomodo possunt honorare plasticam hostis sui ?  Sed quia sciunt virginale vocabulum gloriosum, sub ovium pellibus lupos tegunt.  Christum mentitur antichristus et turpitudinem vitæ falso nominis honore convestiunt.  Gaude, soror, gaude, filia, gaude, mi virgo :  quod aliæ simulant, tu vere esse cœpisti. All such efforts are only of avail when they are made within the Church;  when we celebrate the passover in one house;  if we enter the ark with Noah;  if, while Jericho is falling, we shelter beneath the roof of the justified harlot Rahab.  Such virgins as there are said to be among the different kinds of heretics, or with the followers of the filthy Manes,199 must be considered not virgins but prostitutes.  If the devil is the author of their body, how can they honor a thing fashioned by their foe?  It is because they know that the name of virgin brings glory with it that they go about as wolves in sheep’s clothing.  Antichrist pretends to be Christ:  and even so they falsely cloak their shameful lives under an honorable title.  Rejoice, my sister;  rejoice, my daughter;  rejoice, my virgin;  you have begun to be in truth that which these others only feign to be.
191.  2 Tim 1:15.
192.  1 Tim 1:19f.
193.  1 Kings 16:7.
194.  1 Cor 7:34.
195.  Is 8:1.
196.  Isaiah, 8:3:  “and I went unto the prophetess and she conceived and bare a son.”  Jerome, however, puts his own interpretation on the Hebrew, and ‘prophetess’ should here be ‘prophet.’  “As it stands the quotation is meaningless” (Fremantle).
197.  Is 26:18.
198.  Mt 12:49.
199.  Founder of the sect of the Manicheans, who believed that matter as such is essentially evil.
22:39Hæc omnia quæ digessimus, dura videbuntur ei qui non amat Christum.  Qui autem omnem sæculi pompam pro purgamento habuerit et vana duxerit universa sub sole, ut Christum lucrifaciat, qui commortuus est Domino suo et corresurrexit et crucifixit carnem cum vitiis et concupiscentiis, libere proclamabit, « Quis nos separabit a caritate Christi ? Tribulatio ? An angustia ? An persecutio ? An famis ? An nuditas ? An periculum ? An gladius ? »  Et iterum :  « Certus autem sum, quia neque mors neque vita neque angelus neque principatus neque instantia neque futura neque fortitudo neque excelsum neque profundum neque alia creatura poterit nos separare a caritate Dei, quæ est in Christo Jesu Domino nostro. » All the things that I have set out in this letter will seem hard to her who loves not Christ.  But one who regards all the pomp of this world as dross, and holds everything under the sun as vain, if only he may win Christ;  one who has died with his Lord and risen again and crucified the flesh with its weaknesses and lusts;  he will freely cry:  “Who shall separate us from the love of Christ?  Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword?”200  And again:  “I am persuaded that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities nor powers, nor things present, nor things to come, nor height, nor depth, nor any other creature will be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Jesus Christ, our Lord.”
Dei filius pro nostra salute hominis factus est filius, decem mensibus in utero ut nascatur, exspectat, fastidia sustinet, cruentus egeritur, involvitur pannis, blanditiis deridetur et ille, cujus pugillo mundus includitur, præsæpis continetur angustiis.  Taceo, quod usque ad tricesimum annum ignobilis parentum paupertate contentus est :  verberabatur et tacet ;  crucifigitur et pro crucifigentibus deprecatur.  « Quid », igitur, « retribuam Domino pro omnibus, quæ retribuit mihi ?  Calicem salutaris accipiam et nomen Domini invocabo.  Pretiosa in conspectu Domini mors sanctorum ejus. »  Hæc est sola digna retributio, quum sanguis sanguine compensatur et redempti cruore Christi pro redemptore libenter obcumbimus.  Quis sanctorum sine certamine coronatus est ?  Abel justus occiditur ;  Abraham uxorem periclitatur amittere et, ne in immensum volumen extendam, quære et invenies singulos diversa perpessos.  Solus in deliciis Salomon fuit, et forsitan ideo corruit.  « Quem enim diligit Dominus, corripit ;  castigat autem omnem filium quem recipit. »  Nonne melius est brevi tempore dimicare, ferre vallum, arma, cibaria, lassescere sub lorica et postea gaudere victorem, quam impatientia unius horæ servire perpetuo ? For our salvation the Son of God became the Son of Man.  Ten months He awaits birth in the womb, He endures distress, He comes forth covered with blood, He is swathed in napkins, He is comforted with caresses.  Though He holds the world in His closed hand, He is contained by the narrow space of a manger.  I say nothing of the thirty years He lived in obscurity, content with His parents’ poverty.  He was scourged and says not a word.  He is crucified and prays for His crucifiers. “What then shall I render unto the Lord for all His benefits towards me?  I will take the cup of salvation and call upon the name of the Lord.  Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His saints.”201  The only fitting return we can make Him is to pay for blood with blood;  and as we are redeemed by the blood of Christ, to die willingly for our Redeemer.  What saint was ever crowned without a contest?  Righteous Abel is murdered.  Abraham runs the risk of losing his wife.  And, not to enlarge my screed beyond all measure, look for yourself and you will find that all the saints have suffered adversity.  Solomon alone lived in luxury, and that is perhaps the reason why he fell.  “For whom the Lord loveth He chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom He receiveth.”202  Is it not better to fight for a short space, to carry a palisade-stake,203 weapons, rations, to become exhausted beneath a breastplate, and then to know the joy of victory, rather than to become slaves for ever because we could not hold out for a single hour?
200.  Rom 8:35-38.
201.  Ps 115:3-6.
202.  Hebr 12:6.
203.  A Roman soldier carried a stake which he fixed in the ground at the end of the day’s march as part of the rampart round the camp.
22:40Nihil amantibus durum est, nullus difficilis cupienti labor.  Respice, quanta Jacob pro Rachel pacta uxore sustineat.  Et « servivit », inquit Scriptura, « Jacob pro Rachel annis septem.  Et erant in conspectu ejus quasi pauci dies, quia amabat illam. »  Unde et ipse postea memorat, « In die urebar æstu et gelu nocte. »  Amemus et nos Christum, semper ejus quæramus amplexus, et facile videbitur omne difficile.  Brevia putabimus universa quæ longa sunt, et jaculo illius vulnerati per horarum momenta dicimus, « Heu me, quia peregrinatio mea prolongata est. »  « Non sunt », enim, « condignæ passiones hujus mundi ad futuram gloriam, quæ revelabitur in nobis » ;  quia « tribulatio patientiam operatur, patientia probationem, probatio autem spem, spes vero non confundit. » Love finds nothing hard:  no task is difficult if you wish to do it.  Consider all that Jacob bore to win Rachel, his promised bride.  The Scripture tells us:  “Jacob served seven years for Rachel.  And they seemed to him but a few days for the love he had to her.”203  So he himself afterwards says:  “In the day the drought consumed me and the frost by night.”204  Let us also love Christ and ever seek His embraces.  Then everything difficult will seem easy;  all things long we shall think to be short;  and smitten with His javelin we shall say as each hour passes:  “Woe is me that I have prolonged my pilgrimage.”205  “For the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us.”206  “Tribulation worketh patience, and patience experience, and experience hope;  and hope maketh not ashamed.”207
Quando tibi grave videtur esse quod sustines, Pauli secundam ad Corinthios lege :  « In laboribus plurimis, in carceribus abundantius, in plagis supra modum, in mortibus frequenter — a Judæis quinquies quadragenas, una minus, accepi, ter virgis cæsus sum, semel lapidatus sum, ter naufragium feci — nocte et die in profundo maris fui, in itineribus sæpius, periculis fluminum, periculis latronum, periculis ex genere, periculis ex gentibus, periculis in civitate, periculis in deserto, periculis in mare, periculis in falsis fratribus, in laboribus, in miseriis, in vigiliis multis, in fame et siti, in jejuniis plurimis, in frigore et nuditate. » Whenever your lot seems hard, read Paul’s second epistle to the Corinthians:  “In labors more abundant;  in stripes above measure;  in prisons more frequent;  in deaths oft.  Of the Jews five times received I forty stripes save one;  thrice was I beaten with rods;  once was I stoned;  thrice I suffered shipwreck;  a night and a day have I been in the deep;  in journeyings often, in perils of robbers, of torrents, in perils by my countrymen, in perils by the heathen, in perils in the city, in perils in the wilderness, in perils in the sea, in perils among false brethren, in weariness, and painfulness, in watchings often, in hunger and thirst, in fastings often, in cold and nakedness.”208
Quis nostrum saltim minimam portionem de catalogo harum sibi potest vindicare virtutum ?  Utique ille postea confidenter ajebat, « Cursum consummavi, fidem servavi.  Superest mihi corona justitiæ, quam retribuet mihi Dominus. »  Si cibus insulsior fuerit, contristamur et putamus nos Deo præstare beneficium quum aquatius bibimus :  calix frangitur, mensa subvertitur, verbera sonant — et aqua tepidior sanguine vindicatur.  « Regnum cælorum vim patitur et violenti diripiunt illud. »  Nisi vim feceris, cælorum regna non capies.  Nisi pulsaveris importune, panem non accipies sacramenti.  An non tibi videtur esse violenti, quum caro cupit esse quod Deus est, et illuc unde angeli corruerunt, angelos judicatura conscendere ? Who of us can claim for himself even the smallest part of this catalogue of virtues?  Certainly he could afterwards boldly say:  “I have finished my course, I have kept the faith.  Henceforth there is laid up for me a crown of righteousness which the Lord shall give me as a reward.”209  And yet we frown if our food seems to lack savor, and fancy that we are doing God a favor when we put more water in our drink.  If that water is a trifle too warm, the servant must pay for it with his blood:  we smash the cup, knock the table over, and the whip whistles in the air. “The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence and the violent take it by force.”210  Unless you use violence you will never seize the kingdom of heaven.  Unless you knock importunately you will never receive the sacramental bread.  Does it not seem to you to be truly violence when the flesh desires to be as God and to ascend to the place whence angels fell that it may judge angels?211
203.  Gen. 29:20
204.  Gen. 31:40.
205.  Ps. 119:5 (Vulgate).
206.  Rom. 8:18.
207.  Rom. 5:3ff.
208.  2 Cor 11:23-27.
209.  2 Tim 4:7.
210.  Mt. 11:12
211.  1 Cor. 6:3
22:41Egredere, quæso, paulisper e corpore et præsentis laboris ante oculos tuos pinge mercedem, « quam nec oculus vidit nec auris audivit nec in cor hominis ascendit. »  Qualis erit illa dies, quum tibi Maria, mater Domini, choris occurret comitata virgineis quum, post Rubrum Mare et summersum cum suo exercitu Pharaonem, tympanum tenens præcinet responsuris, « Cantemus Domino ;  gloriose enim magnificatus est.  Equum et ascensorem projecit in mare. »  Tunc Thecla in tuos læta volabit amplexus.  Tunc et ipse sponsus occurret et dicet, « Surge, veni, proxima mea, speciosa mea, columba mea, quia ecce hiems transiit, pluvia abiit sibi. »  Tunc angeli mirabuntur et dicent, « Quæ est ista prospiciens quasi diluculum, speciosa ut luna, electa ut sol ? »  Videbunt te filiæ et laudabunt te reginæ, et concubinæ te prædicabunt. Come out, I pray you, awhile from your bodily prison-house, and picture before your eyes the reward of your present labors, a reward “which eye hath not seen, nor ear heard, neither hath it entered into the heart of man.”212  What will be the splendor of that day, when Mary, the mother of the Lord, shall come to meet you, attended by her bands of virgins:  when, the Red Sea past and Pharaoh with his hosts drowned beneath its waves, one, with timbrel in her hand, shall chant to her responsive choir:  “Let us sing unto the Lord, for he hath triumphed gloriously;  the horse and his rider he hath thrown into the sea.”213  Then shall Thecla214 fly rejoicing to your arms.  Then shall your Spouse Himself come to meet you and say:  “Rise up, my love, my fair one, my dove, and come, for lo, the winter is past, the rain is over and gone.”215  Then shall the angels gaze in wonder and cry:  “Who is she that looketh forth as the morning, fair as the moon, clear as the sun?”216  The daughters shall see you and bless you;  yea, the queens shall proclaim and the concubines shall praise you.
Tunc et alius castitatis chorus occurret :  Sarra cum nuptis veniet, filia Phanuelis, Anna cum viduis.  Erunt ut in diversis gregibus, carnis et spiritus, matres tuæ.  Lætabitur illa, quod genuit ;  exultabit ista, quod docuit.  Tunc vere super asinam Dominus ascendet et cælestem ingredietur Hierusalem.  Tunc parvuli de quibus in Esaia Salvator effatur, « Ecce ego et pueri quos mihi dedit Dominus », palmas victoriæ sublevantes consono ore cantabunt, « Osanna in excelsis ;  benedictus qui venit in nomine Domini, osanna in excelsis. »  Tunc centum quadraginta quattuor milia in conspectu throni et seniorum tenebunt citharas et cantabunt canticum novum, et nemo poterit scire canticum illud, nisi numerus definitus :  « Hi sunt, qui se cum mulieribus non coinquinaverunt — virgines enim permanserunt ;  hi sunt, qui sequuntur agnum quocunque vadit. »  Quotienscunque te vana sæculi delectarit ambitio, quotiens in mundo aliquid videris gloriosum, ad paradisum mente transgredere ;  esse incipe quod futura es, et audies a sponso tuo :  « Pone me sicut signaculum in corde tuo, sicut signaculum in brachio tuo », et opere pariter ac mente munita clamabis, « Aqua multa non poterit exstinguere caritatem et flumina non cooperient eam. » And then another chaste band will be there to green you.  Sarah will come with the wedded;  Anna,217 the daughter of Phanuel, with the widows.  In the one company you will see your natural, and in the other your spiritual mother.218  The one will rejoice in having borne you, the other will exult in having taught you.  Then truly will the Lord mount upon His ass and enter the heavenly Jerusalem.  Then the little ones — of whom in Isaiah the Savior says:  “Behold I and the children whom the Lord hath given me”219 — shall lift up palms of victory and with one accord shall sing:  “Hosanna in the highest, blessed is he that cometh in the name of the Lord, hosanna in the highest.”220  Then shall the hundred and forty and four thousand hold their harps before the throne and before the elders and sing the new song.  And no man shall be able to sing that song save the appointed company:  “These are they which were not defiled with women — for they are virgins;  these are they which follow the Lamb whithersoever he goeth.”221  As often as this world’s vain display delights you;  as often as you see in life some empty glory, transport yourself in thought to Paradise and begin to be now what you will be hereafter.  Then will you hear your Spouse say:  “Set me as a seal in thine heart and as a seal upon thine arm.”222  And then, fortified alike in mind and body, you will cry:  “Many waters cannot quench love, neither can the floods drown it.”223
212.  1 Cor 2:9.
213.  Exod. 15:21
214.  A virgin of Iconium said to have been converted by Paul.
215.  Song 2:10
216.  Song 6:9 (slightly altered), 10
217.  Cf. Luke 2:36
218.  I.e., Paula and Marcella, rich patrician women who, widowed, became nuns and devotees of Jerome.
219.  Isaias, 8:18.
220.  Mt 21:9.
221.  Apoc. 14:4
222.  Song 8:6.
223.  Song 8:7.
{ 38 }
Epistula XXXVIII
Ad Marcellam (# 1)
A.D. 384
38:1Abraham temptatur in filio, et fidelior invenitur ;  Joseph in Ægypto venditur ut patrem pascat et fratres ;  Ezechias vicina morte terretur ut, fusus in lacrimis, quindecim annorum spatio proteletur ad vitam ;  Petrus apostolus Domini passione concutitur ut, amarē flens, audiat, « Pasce oves meas » ;  Paulus, lupus rapax et Benjamin adulescentior, in exstasi cæcatur ut videat et, repentino tenebrarum horrore circumdatus, Dominum vocat, quem dudum ut hominem persequebatur. Abraham is tempted in the matter of his son, and is found to be of greater faith.  Joseph is sold in Egypt, and is thereby able to maintain his father and brothers.  Hezekiah is terrified by the near approach of death, but he bursts into tears and his life is extended by the space of fifteen years.  If the faith of the apostle Peter is shaken by Our Lord’s passion, it is that amid his bitter tears he may hear the words:  “Feed my sheep.”  Paul, that ravening wolf, that little Benjamin,1 is blinded in a trance, but as the result he gains clear vision, and from the sudden horror of darkness around him calls upon Him as Lord whom in the past he persecuted as man.
1.  Paul belonged to the tribe of Benjamin, and Benjamin is described as a “ravening wolf”:  cf. Genesis 49:27;  Paul, a Benjamite, acted like a “wolf” in persecuting the Church.
38:2Ita et nunc, mi Marcella, Blæsillam nostram vidimus ardore febrium per triginta ferme dies jugiter æstuasse, ut sciret rejiciendas delicias corporis, quod paulo post vermibus exarandum sit.  Venit et ad hanc Dominus Jesus tetigitque manum ejus et, surgens, ministrat ei.  Redolebat aliquid neglegentiæ et, divitiarum fasciis colligata, in sæculi jacebat sepulcro ;  sed confremuit Jesus et, conturbatus in spiritu, clamavit, dicens, « Blæsilla, exi foras. »  Quæ vocata surrexit et egressa cum Domino vescitur.  Judæi minentur et tumeant, quærant occidere suscitatam, soli apostoli gloriantur.  Scit se vitam suam ei debere, cui credidit ;  scit se ejus amplexare pedes, cujus paulo ante judicium pertimescebat.  Corpus pæne jacebat exanime, et anhelos artus mors vicina quatiebat.  Ubi tunc erant auxilia propinquorum, ubi verba omni inaniora fumo ?  Nihil tibi debet, o ingrata cognatio, quæ mundo periit et Christo revixit.  Qui Christianus est, gaudeat ;  qui irascitur, non esse se indicat Christianum. So now, my dear Marcella, has it been with our beloved Blæsilla.  For nearly thirty days we have seen her tossing continually in a burning fever, that thereby she might learn to cast away all those pamperings of that body into which worms will soon burrow their way.  To her also the Lord Jesus came, and He touched her hand, and behold she rises and ministers unto Him.  Once there was some suspicion of indifference in her conduct:  she was bound fast in the close wrappings of riches, and lay inactive in this world tomb.  But Jesus was troubled in spirit, and raised His voice and cried aloud, saying:  “Blæsilla, come forth.”  At His bidding she arose and came out, and now she feasts with the Lord.  The Jews may swell with threats, and seek to slay her who has been roused to life, while the apostles alone give glory:  Blæsilla knows that she owes her life to Him to whom she entrusted it:  she knows that she now embraces the feet of Him before whose judgment just lately she trembled.  Life had almost forsaken her prostrate body, and the near approach of death shook her panting frame.  Of what avail at that hour was the help that relatives could give, or their words of comfort, emptier than smoke?  She owes nothing to you, thankless kinsmen:  she is dead to the world and lives again to Christ.  Let those who are Christians rejoice:  those who feel resentment show thereby that they are not Christians.
38:3Vidua quæ soluta est vinculo maritali nihil necesse habet nisi perseverare.  At scandalizat quempiam vestis fuscior ;  scandalizet Johannes, quo inter natos mulierum major nullus fuit ;  qui, angelus dictus, ipsum quoque Dominum baptizavit ;  qui, camelorum vestitus tegimine, zona pellicia cingebatur.  Cibi displicent viliores ;  nihil vilius est locustis.  Illæ Christianos oculos potius scandalizent, quæ purpurisso et quibusdam fucis ora oculosque depingunt ;  quarum facies gypseæ et nimio candore deformes idola mentiuntur ;  quibus si forte improvidens lacrimarum stilla eruperit, sulco defluit ;  quas nec numerus annorum potest docere quod vetulæ sunt ;  quæ capillis alienis verticem instruunt et præteritam juventutem in rugis anilibus poliunt ;  quæ denique ante nepotum gregem trementes virgunculæ componuntur.  Erubescat mulier Christiana, si naturæ cogit decorem, si carnis curam facit ad concupiscentiam — in qua qui sunt, secundum apostolum Christo placere non possunt. A widow who is freed from the marital bond has but one duty laid upon her, and that is to continue as a widow.  It may be that some people are offended by her sombre garb:  they would be offended also by John the Baptist, and yet among those born of women there has not been a greater than he.  He was called God’s messenger and baptized the Lord Himself, but he was clothed in camel’s-hair raiment and girded with a girdle of skins.  It may be that some are displeased by a widow’s simple food:  nothing can be more simple than locusts.  Those women rather should offend a Christian’s eyes, who paint their cheeks with rouge and their eyes with belladonna;  whose faces are covered with powder and so disfigured by excessive whiteness that they look like idols;  who find a wet furrow on their skin if perchance a careless tear escape them;  whom no amount of years can convince that they are old;  who heap their heads with borrowed tresses;  who polish up past youthfulness in spite of the wrinkles of age;  who, in fine, behave like trembling schoolgirls before a company of their own grandsons.  A Christian woman should blush to win by force what should be natural beauty, or to rouse men’s desires by bestowing care upon the flesh.  As the apostle says:  “Those that are in the flesh cannot be pleasing to Christ.”2
2.  Rom. 8:8
38:4Vidua nostra ante monilibus ornabatur et die tota, quid sibi deesset, quærebat ad speculum.  Nunc loquitur confidenter, « Nos autem omnes, revelata facie, gloriam Domini speculantes in eandem imaginem transformamur a gloria in gloriam, quasi a Domini spiritu. »  Tunc crines ancillulæ disponebant, et mitellis crispantibus vertex artabatur innoxius ;  nunc neglectum caput scit sibi tantum sufficere, quod velatur.  Illo tempore plumarum quoque dura mollities videbatur, et in exstructis toris jacere vix poterat ;  nunc ad orandum festina consurgit et, modulata voce ceteris « Alleluia » præcipiens, prior incipit laudare Dominum suum.  Flectuntur genua super nudam humum et crebris lacrimis facies psimithio ante sordidata purgatur.  Post orationem psalmi concrepant et lassa cervix, poplites vacillantes, in somnumque vergentes oculi nimio mentis ardore vix impetrant ut quiescant.  Pulla est tunica :  minus, quum humi jacuerit, sordidatur.  Soccus vilior :  amatorum pretium calceorum egentibus largietur.  Cingulum non auro gemmisque distinctum est, sed laneum et tota simplicitate purissimum, et quod possit astringere magis vestimenta quam scindere.  Si huic proposito invidet scorpius et sermone blando de indebita rursum arbore comedere persuadet, illidatur ei pro solea anathema et in suo morienti pulvere dicatur, « Vade retro, Satanas », quod interpretatur « adverse » ;  adversarius quippe Christi est antichristus, cui præcepta displicent Christo. In the past our dear widow used to deck herself with jewels, and spent whole days before her mirror for anything wrong in her appearance.  Now she boldly says:  “We all with unveiled face, beholding as in a glass the glory of the Lord, are changed into the same image, from glory to glory, even as by the spirit of the Lord.”3  In those days lady’s maids used to arrange her hair, and her poor head, which had done no harm, was imprisoned in a head-dress crammed with curls.  Now it is left alone, and knows that it is sufficiently cared for when it is covered by a veil.  At that time the softest down seemed hard to her limbs, and she could scarcely rest upon a pile of cushions.  Now she rises in haste from her bed to pray, and with tuneful voice forestalls her comrades, “Alleluia” — herself ever the first to praise her Lord.  She kneels on the bare ground, and with frequent tears cleanses the face that was once denied with white lead.  After prayer comes the singing of psalms;  her neck grows weary, her knees totter, her eyes drop off to sleep;  but her ardent spirit will hardly give them leave to rest.  Her dress is of dark stuff;  therefore it is scarcely soiled by lying on the ground.  Her slippers are of a cheap sort;  the price of gilded boots will be given as alms to the needy.  Her girdle is not adorned with jewels or gold;  it is made of wool, perfectly simple and clean, and it is intended to keep her dress close rather than to cut her figure into two halves.  If the scorpion, jealous of her resolute purpose, with soft words persuades her to eat again of the forbidden tree, let a curse crush him instead of a boot, and let her say, as he lies dying in the dust that is his due:  “Get thee behind me, Satan.”  The word Satan means “adversary,” since Christ’s adversary is the Antichrist, who finds Christ’s precepts displeasing.
3.  2 Cor 3:18
38:5Oro te :  quid tale unquam, quale apostoli, fecimus, ut merito scandalizentur ;  patrem senem cum navicula et rete dimittunt ;  publicanus a teloneo surgit et sequitur Salvatorem ;  volens discipulus reverti domum et suis ante renuntiare, magistri voce prohibetur ;  sepultura non datur patri et pietatis genus est impium esse pro Domino.  Nos, quia serica veste non utimur, monachi judicamur, quia ebrii non sumus nec cachinno ora dissolvimus, continentes vocantur et tristes.  Si tunica non canduerit, statim illud e trivio, « Impostor et Græcus est ! »  Cavillentur vafriora licet et pingui aqualiculo farsos circumferant homines :  Blæsilla nostra ridebit nec dignabitur loquacium ranarum audire convicia, quum Dominus ejus dictus sit Beelzebub. Pray, have we ever done anything such as the apostles did that men should have reason to be offended with us?  The apostles left their boat and their net and their aged father.  The publican got up from the receipt of custom and followed the Savior.  When a disciple wished to go back home and give a message first to his people, the Master’s voice forbade him.  A father even was refused burial;  for it is a form of duty to be undutiful for the Lord’s sake.  We on the other hand are called monks merely because we do not dress in silk.  We are dubbed “sour puritans,” because we do not get drunk or burst into loud guffaws.  If our tunic is not spotlessly white, the cry goes up from the street:  “Greek charlatan!”
Let men indulge in even sharper witticisms, if they please, and parade before us their fat-paunched friends.  Our dear Blæsilla will laugh at them, and will not deign to listen to the abuse of noisy frogs.  She knows that her Lord was called by men Beelzebub.4
4.  Mt 10:25.
{ 40 }
Epistula XL
Ad Marcellam (# 2) de Onaso5
A.D. 385
40:1Medici quos vocant chirurgicos, crudeles putantur, et miseri sunt.  An non est miseria, alienis dolere vulneribus et mortuas carnes clementi secare ferro ?  …Non horrere curantem quod horret ipse qui patitur, et inimicum putari ?  Ita se natura habet, ut amara sit veritas, blanda vitia æstimentur.  Esaias in exemplum captivitatis futuræ nudus non erubescit incedere ;  Jeremias de media Hierusalem ad Euphraten, fluvium Mesopotamiæ, mittitur ut, inter inimicas gentes ubi est Assyrius et castra sunt Chaldæorum, ponat περίζωμα corrumpendum :  Hiezechiel stercore primum humano, dein bubulo, panem de omni semente conspersum edere jubetur, et uxoris interitum siccis oculis videt ;  Amos de Samaria pellitur :  Cur, quæso ?  Nempe ideo quia chirurgici spiritales, secantes vitia peccatorum, ad pænitentiam cohortabantur.  Paulus apostolus, « Inimicus », inquit, « vobis factus sum, vera dicens. »  Et quia Salvatoris dura videbantur eloquia, plurimi discipulorum retrorsum abierunt. Those medical men whom folk call surgeons are thought to be cruel and really are pitiful.  Is it not a pitiful business to feel the pain of another’s wounds, and to cut dead flesh with the merciful knife?  Is it not pitiful to show no horror at treating a malady which seems horrible even to the patient, and to be considered the sufferer’s enemy?  Man’s nature is such that truth tastes bitter and pleasant vices are esteemed.  Isaiah in token of the coming captivity does not blush to go abroad naked.6  Jeremiah is sent from mid-Jerusalem to Euphrates, the river of Mesopotamia, among hostile nations, the Assyrians and the camp of the Chaldaeans, and bidden there to hide his kilt and let it become rotted.7  Ezekiel is ordered to eat bread made of every kind of grain and mingled first with man’s and then with cow’s dung, and he looks on at his wife’s death with dry eyes.8  Amos is driven forth from Samaria.9  Why was all this, pray?  It was because our spiritual surgeons by cutting into the faults of sinners exhorted men to repentance.  The apostle Paul says:  “I have become your enemy because I tell you the truth.”10  And because the Savior’s words seemed hard, very many of His disciples went away.
5.  This letter is superscribed “To Marcella concerning Onasus,” but most of the fierce invective is addressed personally to Onasus himself, of whom nothing else is known.
6.  Isa. 20:2
7.  Jer 13:7
8.  Ezek 4:9ff. and 24:15ff.
9.  Amos 7:12
10.  Gal 4:16
40:2Unde non mirum est si et nos, vitiis detrahentes, offendimus plurimos.  Disposui nasum secare fœtentem :  timeat, qui strumosus est.  Volo corniculæ detrahere garrienti :  rancidulam se intellegat cornix.  Nunquid unus in orbe Romano est, qui habeat « truncas inhonesto vulnere nares » ?  Nunquid solus Onasus Segestanus cava verba et in vesicarum modum tumentia buccis trutinatur inflatis ?  Dico quosdam scelere, perjurio, falsitate ad dignitatem nescio quam pervenisse :  quid ad te, qui te intellegis innocentem ?  Rideo advocatum qui patrono egeat :  quadrante dignam eloquentiam nare subsanno :  quid ad te, qui disertus es ?  Volo in nummarios invehi sacerdotes :  tu, qui dives es, quid irasceris ?  Claudum cupio suis ignibus ardere Vulcanum :  numquid hospes ejus es aut vicinus, quod a delubris idoli niteris incendium summovere ? So it is not surprising if we too offend very many when we try to strip away their vices.  I am prepared to cut a foul-smelling nose:  those who suffer from a scrofulous tumor may well shake in their shoes.  I intend to rebuke a chattering crow:  the fellow-bird may well see that he too is offensive.  But is there only one man in the whole Roman world who has “a nose lopped short with shameful wound”?11  Is Onasus of Segesta the only person who puffs his cheeks and weighs out words with nothing in them like a bladder full of wind?  I say that certain people have reached a certain position by crime, perjury, and false pretences.  What is that to you, who know yourself to be innocent?  I laugh at the advocate who himself needs a defender;  I sneer scornfully at his eloquence which would be expensive at a penny.  What is that to you, who are a good speaker?  It is my pleasure to attack those priests who think only of money.  Why do you, who are a rich man, become angry?  I would like to burn limping Vulcan in his own furnace.  Are you a friend or a neighbor of his, that you strive to save the idol’s shrine from the flames?
Placet mihi de larvis, de noctua, de bubone, de Niliacis ridere portentis :  quicquid dictum fuerit, in te dictum putas.  In quodcunque vitium stili mei mucro contorquetur, te clamitas designari, conserta manu in jus vocas et satiricum scriptorem in prosa stulte arguis.  An ideo bellus videris, quia fausto vocans nomine ?  Quasi non et lucus ideo dicatur, quod minime luceat, et Pareæ ab eo, quod nequaquam parcant, et « Eumenides » Furiæ, et vulgo Æthiopes vocentur « argentei ».  Quodsi in descriptione fœdorum semper irasceris, jam te cum Persio cantabo formosum :

« Te optent generum rex et regina, puellæ
Te rapiant :  quicquid calcaveris tu, rosa fiat. »

I like to laugh at ghosts, night-birds, hooting owls, and all the portents of Egypt:  anything I say you think is aimed at yourself.  Against whatever vice my pen’s sword-point turns, you cry out loudly that you are its mark, you join issue and call me into court, and foolishly try to prove that I am a writer of satire in prose.  Do you seem to yourself a fine fellow, because you bear the lucky name of Onasus, “the Helpful”?  Have you never heard the saying:  Lucus a non lucendo?  Are not the Fates called the Sparers, because they spare no man?  Are not the Furies called Angels of Mercy?  Do not common people often use the name “silver boys” for negroes?  Still, if my pictures of ugliness make you angry, today I will call you beautiful and sing with Persius:12

“May kings and queens their daughters to you lead
And for your favors as a bridegroom plead.
May girls their eager hands upon you lay
And where you walk red roses deck the way.”

11.  Virgil, Æneid, VI. 497, of Deiphobus.  Nasus = “nose.”  Onasus = Onesimus = “the helpful.”
12.  Persius, Satires, II. 37, altered.
40:3Dabo tamen consilium — quibus absconditis, possis pulchrior apparere :  nasus non videatur in facie, sermo non sonet ad loquendum ;  atque ita et formosus videri potes et disertus. I will give you, however, one piece of advice.  There are some things you must hide, if you are to appear handsome.  Let your nose not be seen upon your face and let your tongue never be heard in conversation.  Then you may possibly be thought both good-looking and eloquent.
{ 43 }
Epistula XLIII
Ad Marcellam (# 3)
A.D. 385
43:1AMBROSIUS, quo chartas, sumptus, notarios ministrante, tam innumerabiles libros vere Adamantius et noster Χαλκέντερος explicavit, in quadam epistula quam ad eundem de Athenis scripserat, refert nunquam se cibos, Origene præsente, sine lectione sumpsisse, nunquam venisse somnium, nisi e fratribus aliquis Sacris Litteris personaret, hoc diebus egisse vel noctibus, ut et lectio orationem susciperet, et oratio lectionem. Ambrose,1 who supplied Origen with parchment, money, and copyists, and thus enabled the truly Hard Man, our Man of Brass,2 to bring out his innumerable books, in a letter written to his friend from Athens, declares that he never took a meal in Origen’s presence without something being read, and that he never fell asleep save to the sound of some confrere’s voice reciting the Scriptures aloud.  Day and night it was their habit to make reading follow upon prayer, and prayer upon reading, without a break.
1.  Not the great Bishop of Milan who lived a century after Origen, but a friend of Origen.
2.  “Chalkenteros,” “the man with entrails of brass,” an epithet usually applied to the Alexandrian scholar Didymus, because of his unwearied industry, is here transferred to Origen, who was sometimes called “Adamantius” (Ἀδᾰμάντιος), probably for the same reason.
43:2Quid nos, ventris animalia, tale unquam fecimus ?  Quos si secunda hora legentes invenerit, oscitamus, manu faciem defricantes continemus stomachum et, quasi post multum laborem, mundialibus rursum negotiis occupamur.  Prætermitto prandia, quibus onerata, mens premitur.  Pudet dicere de frequentia salutandi, qua aut ipsi cottidie ad alios pergimus aut ad nos venientes ceteros exspectamus.  Deinceps itur in verba, sermo teritur, lacerantur absentes, vita aliena describitur et, mordentes invicem, consumimur ab invicem.  Talis nos cibus et occupat et dimittit.  Quum vero amici recesserint, ratiocinia supputamus :  nunc ira personam nobis leonis imponit ;  nunc cura superflua in annos multos duratura præcogitat, nec recordamur Evangelii, dicens, « Stulte, hac nocte repetunt animum tuam a te ;  quæ autem præparasti, cujus erunt ? » Do we, poor creatures of the belly, ever behave like this?  If we spend more than an hour in reading, you will find us yawning and trying to restrain our boredom by rubbing our eyes;  then, as though we had been hard at work, we plunge once more into worldly affairs.  I say nothing of the heavy meals which crush such mental faculties as we possess.  I am ashamed to speak of our numerous calls, going ourselves every day to other people’s houses, or waiting for others to come to us.  The guests arrive and talk begins:  a brisk conversation is engaged:  we tear to pieces those who are not there:  other people’s lives are described in detail:  we bite and are ourselves bitten in turn.  With this fare the company is kept busy, and so at last it disperses.  When our friends have left us, we reckon up our accounts, now frowning over them like angry lions, now with useless care planning schemes for the distant future.  We remember not the words of the Gospel:  “Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee:  then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided?”3
Vestes non ad usum tantum, sed ad delicias conquiruntur.  Ubicunque compendium est, velocior pes, citus sermo, auris attentior ;  si damnum — ut sæpe in re familiari accidere solet — fuerit nuntiatum, vultus mærore deprimitur.  Lætamur ad nummum, obolo contristamur.  Unde, quum in uno homine animorum tam diversa sit facies, propheta Dominum deprecatur, dicens, « Domine, in civitate tua imaginem eorum dissipa. »  Quum enim ad imaginem et similitudinem Dei conditi sumus, e vitio nostro et personas nobis plurimas superinducimus et, quomodo in theatralibus scænis unus atque idem histrio nunc Herculem robustus ostentat, nunc mollis in Venerem frangitur, nunc tremulus in Cybelen, ita et nos qui, si mundi non essemus, odiremur a mundo, tot habemus personarum similitudines quot peccata. We buy clothes, not solely for use, but for display.  When we see a chance of making money, we quicken our steps, we talk fast, we strain our ears.  If we are told that we have lost, as often must happen in business, our face is clouded with sorrow.  A penny makes us merry:  a halfpenny makes us sad.  Therefore, as the phases of one man’s mind are so conflicting, the prophet prays to the Lord, saying:  “O Lord, in thy city scatter their image.”4  For while we were created in God’s image and likeness, by reason of our own perversity we hide ourselves behind changing masks, and as on the stage one and the same actor now figures as a brawny Hercules, and now relaxes into the softness of a Venus or the quivering tone of a Cybele, so we who, if we were not of the world, would be hated by the world, have a counterfeit mask for every sin to which we are inclined.
3.  Luke 12:20
4.  Ps. 72:20.  A.V. has “when thou awakest,” but R.V. gives “in the city” in the margin (= in civitate tua of the Vulgate.  [Ps. 72:20])
43:3Quapropter, quia vitæ multum jam spatium transivimus fluctuando et navis nostra nunc procellarum concussa turbine, nunc scopulorum illisionibus perforata est, quam primum licet, quasi quendam portum, secreta ruris intremus.  Ibi cibarius panis, et holus nostris manibus irrigatum, lac, deliciæ rusticanæ, viles quidem sed innocentes cibos præbeant.  Ita viventes non ab oratione somnus, non saturitas a lectione revocabit.  Si æstas est, secretum arboris umbra præbebit ;  si autumnus, ipsa æris temperies et strata subter folia locum quietis ostendit.  Vere ager floribus depingitur et inter querulas aves psalmi dulcius decantabuntur.  Si frigus fuerit et brumales nives, ligna non coëmam :  calidius vigilabo vel dormiam ;  certe, quod sciam, vilius non algebo.  Habeat sibi Roma suos tumultos, arena sæviat, circus insaniat, theatra luxurient et, quia de nostris dicendum est, matronarum cottidie visitetur senatus :  nobis adhærere Deo bonum est, ponere in Domino spem nostram ut, quum paupertatem istam cælorum regna mutaverint, erumpamus in vocem, « Quid enim mihi restat in cælo et a te quid volui super terram ? »  Quo, scilicet, quum tanta reppererimus in cælo, parva et caduca quæsisse nos doleamus in terra. Therefore, as today we have traversed a great part of life’s journey through rough seas, and as our barque has been now shaken by tempestuous winds, now holed upon rugged rocks, let us take this first chance and make for the haven of a rural retreat.  Let us live there on coarse bread and on the green-stuff that we water with our own hands, and on milk, country delicacies, cheap and harmless.  If thus we spend our days, sleep will not call us away from prayer, nor overfeeding from study.  In summer the shade of a tree will give us privacy.  In autumn the mild air and the leaves beneath our feet point out a place for rest.  In spring the fields are gay with flowers, and the birds’ plaintive notes will make our psalms sound all the sweeter.  When the cold weather comes with winter’s snows, I shall not need to buy wood:  whether I keep vigil or lie asleep, I shall be warmer there, and certainly as far as I know, I will not be cold more cheaply.  Let Rome keep her bustle for herself, the fury of the arena, the madness of the circus, the profligacy of the theatre, and — for I must not forget our Christian friends — the daily meetings of the matrons’ senate.  For us it is good to cleave to God, and to put our hopes in the Lord, so that, when we have exchanged this poor life for the kingdom of heaven, we may cry aloud:  “Whom have I in heaven but thee?  There is none upon earth that I desire beside thee.”5  Assuredly, when we have found such wealth in heaven, we may well grieve to have sought after poor passing pleasures here on earth.
5.  Ps. 72:25
{ 44 }
Epistula XLIV
Ad Marcellam
A.D. 385
44:1UT absentiam corporum spiritus confabulatione solemur, faciat unusquisque quod prævalet.  Vos dona transmittitis, nos epistulas remittimus gratiarum — ita tamen ut, quia velatarum virginum munus est, aliqua in ipsis munusculis esse mysteria demonstremus :  saccus, orationis signum atque jejunii est ;  sellæ, ut foras pedes virgo non moveat ;  cerei ut, accenso lumine, sponsi exspectetur adventus ;  calices mortificationem carnis ostendunt et semper animum ad martyrium præparatum — « Calix », quippe, « Domini inebrians perquam optimus  ».  Quod autem et matronis offertis muscaria parvis animalibus ventilanda, procul ab illis abesse debere luxurias quæ, cito cum isto interituræ mundo, oleum vitæ suavioris exterminant.  Hic typus virginum, hæc figura sit matronarum.  Nobis autem, in perversum licet, munera vestra conveniunt :  sedere aptum est otiosis, in sacco jacere pænitentibus ;  calices habere potantibus, licet et propter nocturnos metus et, animo semper malo conscientiæ formidante, cereos quoque accendisse sit gratum. Let us comfort ourselves for bodily absence by spiritual conversation, each and every one of us doing what we can do best.  You send us gifts, we send you back letters of thanks;  with this addition, as it is an offering to virgins who have taken the veil that we point out to you that there are certain mysteries hidden in those dear presents of yours.  Sackcloth is a sign of prayer and fasting;  chairs warn us that a virgin does not go abroad;  tapers are a reminder to have our lights burning as we await the Bride-groom’s coming;  cups signify mortification of the flesh and readiness for martyrdom — “How excellent is the Lord’s cup that maketh drunk those who partake thereof!”2  Furthermore, when you offer matrons fans to keep off flies, you show them that they must drive away all those wanton pleasures which, with this world, so quickly perish, and which corrupt the oil of our sweeter life.  These are the types and figures that virgins and matrons may find in your gifts.  But they apply to me as well, although in an opposite way.  Sitting on chairs is suitable for those who have no work to do, lying on sackcloth for those who repent of the past, holding cups for those who drink deep.  It may be, however, that I shall be glad to light your tapers, albeit on account of the terrors of the night and due to a disquieting, bad awareness of conscience.
1.  Ps. 23:5 (Gallican psalter)
{ 45 }
Epistula XLV
Ad Assellam1
A.D. 384
45:1SI tibi putem a me gratias referri posse, non sapiam.  Potens est Deus super personam meam sanctæ animæ tuæ restituere, quod meretur.  Ego enim indignus nec æstimare unquam potui, nec optare, ut mihi tantum in Christo largireris affectum.  Et licet me sceleratum quidam putent et omnibus flagitiis obrutum, et pro peccatis meis etiam hæc parva sint ;  tamen tu bene facis, quod e tua mente etiam malos, bonos putas.  Periculosum quippe est de servo alterius judicare, et non facilis venia prava dixisse de rectis.  Veniet, veniet illa dies, et mecum dolebis ardere non paucos. Were I to think that I could ever repay you for your kindness, I should indeed be lacking in wisdom.  God alone is able to give the reward due to your pure spirit.  For I am so unworthy of your great love that I have never been able to estimate its extent, or even to hope that you would bestow it upon me in Christ’s name.  And even though some people regard me as a villain loaded with iniquity, and even though such words are inadequate to my sins, yet you do well who in your own mind think that there is goodness even in bad men.  Indeed it is dangerous to pass sentence on another’s servant,2 and to speak evil of the upright is a thing not lightly to be excused.  Soon, soon the day of judgment will be coming;  and you and I then will see with grief that many are burning in the fire.
1.  This letter was written at Ostia in August A.D. 385, just before Jerome in company with his brother Paulinian and the priest Vincentius left Rome for the East.  Paula and Eustochim followed him soon afterwards, and they all three settled at Bethlehem for the rest of their lives.  Asella was a sister or kinswoman of Marcella’s, but when a mere child of ten had vowed herself to a life of virginity, and when her mother refused to buy her the brown dress worn by those dedicated to the religious life, Jerome tells us how the child sold her gold chain and bought the clothing for herself.  Thenceforward she lived a life of fasting and of prayer, hardly seeing her own sister, only going out to visit the martyrs’ shrines, and making for herself a hermitage in the midst of the busy life of Rome.
2.  cf. Rom. 14:4
45:2Ego prolapsus, ego versipellis et lubricus, ego mendax et Satanæ arte decipiens !  Quid est astutius, hæc vel credidisse vel finxisse de insontibus, an etiam de noxiis credere noluisse ?  Osculabantur mihi quidam manus, et ore vipereo detrahebant ;  dolebant labiis, corde gaudebant :  videbat Dominus et subsannabat eos, et miserum servum suum futuro cum eis judicio reservabat.  Alius incessum meum calumniabatur et risum ;  ille vultui detrahebat ;  hæc in simplicitate aliud suspicetur.  Pæne certe trienno cum eis vixi ;  multa me virginum crebro turba circumdedit ;  divinos libros, ut potui, nonnullis sæpe disserui ;  lectio assiduitatem, assiduitas familiaritatem, familiaritas fiduciam fecerat.  Dicant, quid unquam in me aliter senserint quam Christianum decebat ?  Pecuniam cujus accepi ?  Munera vel parva vel magna non sprevi ?  In manu mea æs alicujus insonuit ?  Obliquus sermo, oculus petulans fuit ?  Nihil mihi aliud objicitur nisi sexus meus, et hoc nunquam objicitur, nisi quum Hierosolyma Paula proficiscitur.  Esto :  crediderunt mentienti ;  cur non credunt neganti ?  Idem est homo ipse qui fuerat :  fatetur insontem, qui dudum noxium loquebatur ;  et certe veritatem magis exprimunt tormenta quam risus, nisi quod facilius creditur, quod aut fictum libenter auditur aut non fictum, ut fingatur, impellitur. I a scandal, I a slippery turncoat, I a liar using Satan’s art to deceive!  Which shows the greater subtlety, I wonder, to believe these charges (perhaps even to invent them about an innocent man), or to say:  “I do not wish to believe them even though he is guilty”?  There were some who kissed my hands and maligned me with snakish tongue:  their lips lamented, their hearts rejoiced.  The Lord saw them and held them in derision, reserving them and His poor servant for common judgment in the future.  One man cavilled at my manner of walking and laughing;  another found in my expression something to dislike;  a third lady would suspect something else in my simplicity.  With such people I have been living for almost three years:  frequently I was surrounded by a throng of virgins:  to some of them I often discoursed on the Scriptures to the best of my ability:  study brought about familiarity, familiarity friendship, friendship confidence.  Let them say if they have ever noticed in my conduct anything unbefitting a Christian.  Have I taken anyone’s money?  Have I not disdained all gifts great or small?  Has the clink of anyone’s coin ever been heard in my hand?  Has my conversation ever been ambiguous, or my eye wanton?  Nothing is laid to my charge except my sex, and that only when Paula is likely to set out for Jerusalem.  Well, then;  they believed him when he lied;  why do they not believe him when he retracts?  He is the very same man as before:  he confesses I am innocent, though in the past he said I was guilty;  and surely torture is more effective than laughter in forcing out the truth, except indeed that people are more ready to believe a tale which, though false, they hear with pleasure, and urge others to invent it if they have not done so already.3
3.  Jerome generated considerable hostility against himself with his exaltation of the monastic as opposed to family life, and this was brought to a head through the case of a gay young widow named Blæsilla.  For nearly two years Paula and Jerome, her spiritual director, had striven to turn her to a more serious way of life, but it was only after a dangerous illness in the summer of 384 that she was converted and threw herself into a life of self-denial and study with the same ardor with which she had previously pursued a life of pleasure.  Her health was delicate and a few months later she died.  The populace ascribed her illness to the fasting and asceticism advocated by Jerome, and clamored for the expulsion of the monk whose austere teaching was held responsible for her death.  Darker accusations still were brought against him, and it was openly declared that the friendship between him and the dead girl’s mother was only the cloak for a more guilty relation.  (Who the accuser was is unknown.  Apparently legal proceedings were taken against him for the slander, and the mention of torture suggests that he was a slave.)  Jerome exposed the lie and the slanderer confessed his falsehood, but no doubt an atmosphere of suspicion remained, and as he now no longer had Pope Damasus’ protection, Jerome decided to leave Rome.  He embarked at Ostia with his brother Paulinian and the priest Vincentius in August 385, and wrote thence a letter of farewell to his women friends and disciples, which he addressed, not to Paula or Marcella, but to the virgin Asella, perhaps because she, absorbed in a life of prayer and contemplation, was unaffected by the atmosphere of slander and suspicion which was surrounding him.
45:3Antequam domum sanctæ Paulæ nossem, totius in me urbis studia consonabant.  Omnium pæne judicio, dignus summo sacerdotio decernebar ;  beatæ memoriæ Damasi os meus sermo erat ;  dicebar sanctus, dicebar humilis et disertus.  Nunquid domum alicujus lascivioris ingressus sum ?  Nunquid me vestes sericæ, nitentes gemmæ, picta facies, auri rapuit ambitio ?  Nulla fuit Romæ alia matronarum, quæ meam posset domare mentem, nisi lugens atque jejunans, squalens sordibus, fletibus pæne cæcata, quam continuis noctibus Domini misericordiam deprecantem sol sæpe deprehendit, cujus canticum psalmi sunt, sermo Evangelium, deliciæ continentia, vita jejunium.  Nulla me alia potuit delectare, nisi illa quam manducantem nunquam vidi ;  postquam eam pro suæ merito sanctitatis venerari, colere, suspicere cœpi, omnes me ilico deseruere virtutes. Before I became acquainted with the household of the saintly Paula, all Rome was enthusiastic about me.  Almost everyone concurred in judging me worthy of the highest office in the Church.  My words were always on the lips of Damasus of blessed memory.  Men called me saintly;  men called me humble and eloquent.  Did I ever enter the house of any woman who was inclined to wantonness?  Was I ever attracted by silk dresses, flashing jewels, painted faces, display of gold?  No other matron in Rome could dominate my mind but one who mourned and fasted, who was squalid with dirt, almost blinded by weeping.  All night long she would beg the Lord for mercy, and often the sun found her still praying.  The psalms were her music, the Gospels her conversation;  continence was her luxury, her life a fast.  No other could give me pleasure but one whom I never saw eating food.  But when, recognizing the holiness of her life, I began to revere, respect, and esteem her, all my good qualities at once forsook me.
45:4O invidia primum mordax tui !  O Satanæ calliditas semper sancta persequens.  Nullæ aliæ Romanæ urbi fabulam præbuerunt nisi Paula et Melanium quæ, contemptis facultatibus pignoribusque desertis, crucem Domini quasi quoddam pietatis levavere vexillum.  Bajas peterent, unguenta eligerent, divitias et viduitatem haberent, materias luxuriæ et libertatis, « domnæ » vocarentur et « sanctæ ».  Nunc in sacco et cinere formosæ volunt videri, et in gehennæ ignis cum jejuniis et pædore descendere. Videlicet non licet eis, applaudente populo, perire cum turbis.  Si gentiles hanc vitam carperent, si Judæi, haberem solacium non placendi eis quibus displicet Christus.  Nunc vero — pro nefas ! — nomine Christianæ, prætermissa domuum suarum cura, et proprii oculi trabe neglecta, in alieno festucam quærunt.  Lacerant sanctum propositum, et remedium pœnæ suæ arbitrantur, si nemo sit sanctus, si omnibus detrahatur, si turba sit pereuntium, multitudo peccantium. O tooth of envy, that dost ever first attack thyself!  O cunning of Satan, that dost always persecute holy things!  The only women to give Rome an opportunity for scandal were Paula and Melanium,4 who, scorning their wealth and deserting their children, lifted up the Lord’s cross and took it as the standard of their faith.  Had they frequented fashionable watering-places and used their own particular scent, had they employed their wealth and widow’s freedom as opportunities for extravagance and self-indulgence, they would have been called “Madam,” and “saint.”  As it is they wish to appear beautiful in sackcloth and ashes, and to go down to the fires of hell with fastings and filth.  Oh, plainly they are not allowed to perish amid the mob’s applause along with the multitude!  If it were Gentiles or Jews who attacked this mode of life, I would have the consolation of not pleasing those whom Christ Himself displeases.  But, as it is, shame upon them, women, nominally Christian, neglecting their own households and disregarding the beam in their own eye, look for a mote in their neighbor’s.  They tear religion to shreds, and think they have found a palliative for their own fate, if they can show that no one is a saint and that everyone has weaknesses, that great is the multitude of the sinners, and mighty the host of those that perish.
4.  Paula, after her daughter Blæsilla had died, in deep depression abandoned her 10- or 11-year-old son Toxotius in Rome and left with Jerome for Palestine.  Thirteen years before, Melania, a wealthy widow of Spanish origin, had left Rome, abandoning here home there and her only child, to travel in the East and establish a convent on the Mount of Olives;  associated with her on her travels and in her life at Jerusalem was Rufinus, the friend of Jerome’s youth, and later his bitter enemy.  Jerome was perhaps at Rome when Melania thus exiled herself, though there is no certain evidence that he knew her or had influenced her conduct, but he no doubt had used this precedent to confirm Paula in her purpose, for in his eyes, as his letters prove, no home ties or duties should prevail once the vocation for the religious life had been felt.  It was the death of her husband and two of her children which had led Melania to leave her home in Rome and her only remaining child and to go on a pilgrimage to the East, where she lived for nearly a quarter of a century.  She revisited Rome in 397 and lived there with her son Publicola and his family for eleven years, ultimately persuading her granddaughter, the younger Melania, and her husband Pinianus to return with her to the East.  (The fact that Melania’s freedman Hylas was one of the band of ascetics with Jerome at Aquileia, and accompanied him to Syria, suggests that he knew Melania when in Rome as a student.)
45:5Tibi placet lavare cottidie, alius has munditias sordes putat ;  tu attagenam ructuas et de comeso acipensere gloriaris, ego faba ventrem impleo ;  te delectant cachinnantium greges, Paulam Melaniumque plangentium ;  tu aliena desideras, illæ contemnunt sua ;  te delibuta melle vina delectant, illæ potant aquam frigidam suaviorem ;  tu te perdere æstimas, quicquid in præsenti non hauseris, comederis, devoraveris ;  et illæ futura desiderant et credunt vera esse, quæ scripta sunt.  Esto :  inepte et aniliter, quibus resurrectio persuasit corporum ;  quid ad te ?  Nobis e contrario tua vita displicet.  Bono tuo crassus sis ;  me macies delectat et pallor.  Tu tales miseros arbitraris ;  nos te miseriorem putamus ;  invicem nobis videmur insani. It is your pleasure to take a bath everyday;  another man thinks such refinement rubbish.  You belch after a meal of wild duck and boast of the sturgeon you devour;  I fill my belly with beans.  You take delight in troops of jesters;  Paula and Melanium prefer those who weep.  You want other people’s goods;  they despise their own.  You like wine mixed with honey;  they have a sweeter drink, cold water.  You consider that you are losing all that you have not at once drained dry, gobbled up, and devoured;  they believe that the Scriptures are true and fix their desires on what is to come.  Well, they are foolish old women to be persuaded of the resurrection of the body!  But what is that to you?  We for our part are not satisfied with your mode of life.  Fatten yourself to your heart’s content:  I prefer a lean body and a pale face.  You think people like us miserable:  we regard you as more miserable still.  Our opinion of you is like your opinion of us, and each in turn thinks the other insane.
45:6Hæc, mi domina Asella, quum jam navem conscenderem, raptim flens dolensque conscripsi, et gratias ago Deo meo quod dignus sum quem mundus oderit.  Ora autem, ut de Babylone Hierosolyma regrediar nec mihi dominetur Nabuchodonosor, sed Jesus, filius Josedech ;  veniat Hesdras, qui interpretatur « adjutor », et reducat me in patriam meam.  Stultus ego, qui volebam canticum Domini in terra aliena et, deserto monte Sion, Ægypti auxilium flagitabam.  Non recordabar Evangelii, quod, qui Hierusalema egreditur, statim incidit in latrones, spoliatur, vulneratur, occiditur.  Sed licet sacerdos decipiat atque levites, Samaritanus ille misericors est, cui quum diceretur, « Samarites es et dæmonium habes », dæmonem renuens, Samariten non se negavit, quia, quem nos « custodem », Hebræi « samariten » vocant.  Maleficum me quidam garriunt :  titulum fidei, servus agnosco ;  magum vocabant et Judæi Dominum meum.  Seductor et apostolus dictus est.  « Temptatio  » me « non apprehendit nisi humana. »  Quotam partem angustiarum perpessus sum, qui cruci milito ?  Infamiam falsi criminis importarunt, sed scio per bonam et malam famam perveniri ad regna cælorum. I write this in haste, dear lady Asella, as I go on board ship, grieving and in tears;  and I thank my God that I am held worthy of the world’s hate.  Pray for me that from Babylon I may return to Jerusalem, and that Joshua, son of Josedech, may have dominion over me rather than Nebuchadnezzar,5 and that Ezra, whose name means “helper,” may come and bring me back to my own country.  Foolish was I, who wished to sing the Lord’s song in a strange land,6 and left Mount Sion to seek the help of Egypt.  I forgot the Gospel story,7 how that he who goes out from Jerusalem immediately falls among robbers, is stripped, wounded, and left for dead.  But though priest and Levite pay no heed, there is the good Samaritan, who, when he was told, “Thou art a Samaritan and hast a devil,” denied having a devil, but did not deny that he was a Samaritan, that name in Hebrew being equivalent to our “guardian.”  There are some men who style me a sorcerer:  I, who am but a servant, recognize the word as a title of faith.  The Jews called my master a magician, and the great apostle was spoken of as a deceiver. “There hath no temptation taken me but such as is common to man.”4  How few troubles have I endured, I who am a soldier of the cross?  Men have laid upon me the disgrace of a false charge, but I know that the road to the kingdom of heaven leads alike through good report and through evil.
5.  Cf. Haggai (vg Aggæus), 1:1, etc.  It means that however ill the Jews had treated him, he would prefer the rule of Jerusalem to that of Babylon.
6.  Ps. 136:4
7.  Luke 10:30ff.  Cf. John 8:48.
8.  1 Cor 10:13
45:7Saluta Paulam et Eustochium — velit nolit mundus, in Christo meæ sunt — saluta matrem Albinam sororesque Marcellas, Marcellinam quoque et sanctam Felicitatem, et dic eis, « ‹ Ante tribunal Christi stabimus › ;  ibi parebit, qua mente quis vixerit. »  Memento mei, exemplum pudicitiæ et virginitatis insigne, fluctusque maris tuis precibus mitiga. Greet Paula and Eustochium for me — whether the world wills it or no, they are mine in Christ — also your mother Albina and your sisters the two Marcellas, together with Marcellina and the saintly Felicitas.  Tell them this:  “‘We shall stand together before Christ’s judgment seat’,9 and there the thoughts of each man’s life shall be revealed.”  Remember me, my glorious pattern of chastity and virginity, and by your prayers appease the sea waves.
9.  Rom. 14:10
{ 52 }
Epistula LII1
Ad Nepotianum Presbyterum
A.D. 394
52:1PETIS, Nepotiane carissime, litteris transmarinis et crebro petis, ut tibi brevi volumine digeram præcepta vivendi et, qua ratione is qui, sæculi militia derelicta, vel monachus cœperit esse vel clericus, rectum Christi tramitem teneat, ne ad diversa vitiorum deverticula rapiatur.  Dum essem adulescens, immo pæne puer, et primos impetus lascivientis ætatis eremi duritia refrenarem, scripsi ad avunculum tuum, sanctum Heliodorum, exhortatoriam epistulam plenam lacrimis querimoniisque et quæ deserti sodalis monstraret affectum.  Sed in illo opere pro ætate tunc lusimus et, calentibus adhuc rhetorum studiis atque doctrinis, quædam scholastico flore depinximus.  Nunc jam cano capite et fronte, ad instar boum pendentibus a mento palearibus :

« Frigidus obsistit circum præcordia sanguis » ;

unde et in alio loco idem poëta canit :

« Omnia fert ætas, animum quoque  » ;

et post modicum :

« Nunc oblita mihi tot carmina, vox quoque Mœrim
Jam fugit
 ».

You ask me, my dearest Nepotian, in your letters from across the sea, and you ask me often, to set out for you in a brief digest some rules of life, showing how one who has renounced service in the world’s army to become a monk or a clergyman may keep to the straight path of Christ and not be led astray into the haunts of vice.  When I was a young man, scarcely more than a boy, and was trying to curb the first tides of youthful wantonness by the hardships of the desert, I wrote a letter of exhortation to your reverend uncle Heliodorus, to show him the feelings of the friend he had deserted by the tears and remonstrances with which it was filled.  In that production I indulged my youthful fancy, and being still fired with enthusiasm for the teaching of the rhetoricians, I decked out some parts of it with the flowery language of the schools.  Today, however, my hair is grey, my forehead furrowed and dewlaps, like those of an ox, hang from my chin.  As the poet says:

The cold blood round my heart now hinders me”;2

and in another passage:

Age carries all things, e’en the mind, away”;3

and a little later:

Those songs are all forgotten, and even his voice
Has left poor Mœris
.”4

1.  This letter, addressed to Nepotian and wirtten in A.D. 394, is really a treatise on the duties of the clergy.  Nepotian was the nephew of Heliodorus, a lifelong friend of Jerome (cf. Letter 14), who had become Bishop of Altinum.  Both Nepotian and Heliodorus had been soldiers before joining the Church.
2.  Virgil, Georgics, 2:484
3.  Virgil, Bucolics, 9:51
4.  Virgil, Bucolics, 9:53;  in the poem (in which Virgil himself is disguisedly referred to under the shepherd’s name Menalcas), whose background is Virgil’s loss of his ancestral land due to confiscation by military authorities, Mœris represents a slave who had administered that estate and is now explaining the loss to the young Lycidas.
52:2Quod ne de gentili tantum litteratura proferre videamur, divinorum voluminum sacramenta cognosce.  David annos natus septuaginta, bellicosus quondam vir, senectute frigente, non poterat calefieri.  Quæritur itaque puella de universis finibus Israël Abišag Šunamitis, quæ cum rege dormiret et senile corpus calefaceret.  Nonne tibi videtur, si occīdentem sequaris litteram, vel figmentum esse de mimo vel Atellanarum ludicra ?  Frigidus senex obvolvitur vestimentis et nisi complexu adulescentiæ non tepescit.  Vivebat adhuc Betšabee, supererat Abigail et reliquæ uxores ejus et concubinæ, quas Scriptura commemorat :  omnes quasi frigidæ repudiantur, in unius tantum grandævus calescit amplexibus.  Abraham multo David senior fuit et tamen, vivente Sarra, aliam non quæsivit uxorem ;  Isaac duplices David annos habuit et cum Rebecca jam vetula nunquam refrixit ;  taceo de prioribus ante diluvium viris, qui post annos nongentos non dico senilibus, sed pæne jam cariosis artubus nequaquam puellares quæsiere complexus.  Certe Moyses, dux Israëlitici populi, centum viginti annos habebat et Sephoram non mutavit. But that I may not seem to quote only from heathen literature, listen to the sacred teaching of God’s Book.  David once had been a man of war, but in his seventieth year old age had chilled him and he could never get warm.  Accordingly they looked for a girl in all the land of Israel and brought in Abishag the Shunamite to sleep with the king and warm his aged limbs.  If you were to follow the letter that killeth, does not this seem to you an incident invented for a farce or a broad jest from an Atellan play?5  The old man’s cold body is wrapped in blankets, but nothing save a young girl’s embrace can warm him.  Bathsheba was still alive and Abigail was also at his service, together with all his other wives and concubines of whom Scripture tells us.  But they are all rejected as lacking heat, and it is in the arms of one girl only that the ancient grows warm again.  Abraham was far older than David, but while Sarah was still living he did not seek another wife.  Isaac had twice David’s years, and yet never felt cold with Rebecca, even when she was an old woman.  I say nothing of the men before the flood, who after nine hundred years must have found their limbs not merely aged but almost rotten with time and still never sought a young girl’s embraces.  Certainly Moses, the leader of the people of Israel, lived to be a hundred and twenty without changing his Sephora.
5.  The Atellan plays were broad farces popular on the Roman stage.
52:3Quæ est igitur ista Šunamitis uxor et virgo, tam fervens ut frigidum calefaceret, tam sancta ut calentem ad libidinem non provocaret ?  Exponat sapientissimus Salomon patris sui delicias, et pacificus bellatoris viri narret amplexus, « Posside sapientiam, posside intelligentiam.  Ne obliviscaris, et ne declinaveris a verbis oris mei, et ne deliqueris eam, et apprehendet te ;  ama illam et servabit te.  Principium sapientiæ :  posside sapientiam et in omni possessione tua posside intelligentiam ;  circumda illam et exaltabit te ;  honora illam et amplexabitur te, ut det capiti tuo coronam gratiarum, corona quoque deliciarum protegat te. » Who then is this Shunamite, this wife and virgin, so fervid as to give heat to the cold, so holy as not to excite to lust the man she had warmed?6  Let Solomon, wisest of men, tell us of his father’s darling, and let the man of peace recount the embraces of the man of war. “Get wisdom, get understanding:  forget it not;  neither decline from the words of my mouth.  Forsake her not and she shall preserve thee:  love her and she shall keep thee.  Wisdom is the principal thing, therefore get wisdom, and with all thy getting get understanding.  Exalt her and she shall promote thee.  She shall bring thee to honor when thou dost embrace her.  She shall give to thine head an ornament of grace:  a crown of glory shall she deliver to thee.”7
Omnes pæne virtutes corporis mutantur in senibus et, increscente sola sapientia, decrescunt ceteræ :  jejunia, chameuniæ χαμευνίαι }, huc illucque discursus, peregrinorum susceptio, defensio pauperum, standi in oratione perseverantia, visitatio languentium, labor manuum, unde præbeantur eleemosynæ, et, ne sermonem longius traham, cuncta quæ per corpus exercentur, fracto corpore, minora fiunt.  Nec hoc dico, quod in juvenibus et adhuc solidioris ætatis — his dumtaxat, qui labore et ardentissimo studio, vitæ quoque sanctimonia et orationis ad Deum frequentia scientiam secuti sunt — frigeat sapientia quæ in plerisque senibus ætate marcescit, sed quod adulescentia multa corporis bella sustineat et inter incentiva vitiorum et carnis titillationes quasi ignis in lignis viridioribus suffocetur et suum non possit explicare fulgorem.  Senectus vero — rursus admoneo — eorum qui adulescentiam suam honestis artibus instruxerunt et in lege Domini meditati sunt die ac nocte, ætate fit doctior, usu tritior, processu temporis sapientior, et veterum studiorum dulcissimos fructos metit. In the case of old men, almost all bodily excellences are changed, and while wisdom alone increases, they decrease.  Fasting, sleeping on the ground, moving to and fro, hospitality to strangers, the defence of the poor, perseverance in standing at prayer, visiting the sick, manual labor to supply money for almsgiving, in fact, not to be tedious, all actions that depend on the body’s agency become less as the body decays.  I do not say that young men or even those of riper vigor — provided that by labor and ardent study, by a holy life and frequent prayer to God they have attained knowledge — lack the warmth of wisdom which in many old men is withered by age;  but I do say that youth has to endure many conflicts with the body, and amid incentives to vice and titillations of the flesh, it is stifled, as a fire is when it is fed with green wood and cannot display its proper brightness.  Old age, however — I repeat my warning —, if men have trained their youth in honorable accomplishments and day and night have meditated on the Lord’s law,8 becomes more learned by time, more subtle by experience, more wise by lapse of years and reaps the sweet fruit of its ancient studies.
Unde et sapiens ille Græciæ quum, expletis centum et septem annis, se mori cerneret, dixisse fertur dolere, quod tunc egrederetur e vita, quando sapere cœpisset.  Plato octogesimo et uno anno scribens est mortuus.  Isocrates nonaginta et novem annos in docendi scribendique labore complevit.  Taceo ceteros philosophos, Pythagoram, Democritum, Xenocratem, Zenonem, Cleanthem, qui jam ætate longæva in sapientiæ studiis floruerunt.  Ad poëtas venio :  Homerum, Hesiodum, Simonidem, Stesichorum, qui grandes natu cygneum nescio quid et solito dulcius vicina morte cecinerunt.  Sophocles, quum propter nimiam senectutem et rei familiaris neglegentiam a filiis accusaretur amentiæ, Œdipi fabulam, quam nuper scripserat, recitavit judicibus et tantum sapientiæ in ætate jam fracta specimen dedit, ut severitatem tribunalium in theatri favorem verteret.  Nec mirum quum etiam Cato, Romani generis disertissimus, censorius jam et senex, Græcas litteras nec erubuerit nec desperaverit discere.  Certe Homerus refert, quod de lingua Nestoris jam vetuli et pæne decrepiti, dulcior melle oratio fluxerit. Therefore it was that the Greek sage,9 when he had reached his hundred and seventh year and saw himself near to death, is said to have expressed his grief at passing away from life just at the moment when he was beginning to have wisdom.  Plato died in his eighty-first year with the pen in his hand;  Isocrates filled ninety-nine years with the labor of teaching and writing.  I say nothing of the other philosophers, Pythagoras, Democritus, Xenocrates, Zeno, Cleanthes, whose long life flourished ever in studies of wisdom.  I come to the poets, Homer, Hesiod, Simonides, Stesichorus, who in their old age, when death drew near, sang a swan’s song sweeter even than their wont.  Sophocles in extreme old age neglected his affairs and was accused by his sons of mental incapacity.  But when he read to the court his recently composed play, Oedipus, and in spite of bodily weakness gave so signal a proof of wisdom, he turned the strict judgment of a tribunal into the enthusiastic applause of a theatre.  Nor need we wonder, seeing that Cato, the most eloquent of the Romans, after he had been censor and was now an old man, did not blush to learn Greek nor despair of acquiring knowledge of that language.  Homer certainly tells us that when Nestor was very old and almost decrepit, speech that was sweeter than honey flowed from his tongue.10
Sed et ipsius « Abišag » nominis sacramentum sapientiam senum indicat ampliorem.  Interpretatur enim « pater meus superfluus  » vel « patris mei rugitus. »  Verbum « superfluum » ambiguum est et in præsenti loco « virtutem » sonat, quod amplior sit in senibus et redundans ac larga sapientia, in alio autem loco « superfluus  » quasi « non necessarius » ponitur.  « Šag » autem, id est « rugitus », proprie nuncupatur quum maris fluctus resonant et, ut ita dicam, de pelago veniens fremitus auditur.  E quo ostenditur abundantissimum et ultra humanam vocem divini sermonis in senibus tonitruum commorari.  Porro « Šunamitis » in lingua nostra « coccinea » dicitur, ut significet calere sapientiam et divina lectione fervere, quod — licet dominici sanguinis indicet sacramentum — tamen et fervorem ostendit sapientiæ.  Unde et obstetrix illa in Genesi coccinum ligat in manu Phares, qui ab eo quod parietem diviserat duos ante populos separantem, « divisoris », id est « Phares », sortitus est nomen.  Et Raab meretrix, in typo ecclesiæ, resticulam mysteria sanguinis continentem ut, Hiericho pereunte, salvaretur, appendit.  Et in alio loco de viris sanctis Scriptura commemorat, « Hi sunt Cinæi qui venerunt de calore domus Rechab. »  Et Dominus noster in Evangelio, « Ignem », inquit, « veni mittere in terram ;  et quam volo, ut ardeat ! »  Qui, in discipulorum corde succensus, cogebat eos dicere, « Nonne cor nostrum erat ardens in nobis, dum loqueretur in via et aperiret nobis Scripturas ? » Even the name Abishag in its mystical interpretation points to the greater wisdom that old men possess.  It can be explained as meaning “my father’s superfluity” or “my father’s roaring.”  The word “superfluity” is ambiguous, and in the present case means “excellence,” inasmuch as in old men wisdom is more copious, redundant, and plentiful.  In other cases, however, superfluous means unnecessary.  As for “shag,” that is, “roaring,” the word is properly used of the sound of sea waves, when, so to speak, we hear the ocean murmuring.  Thereby we see that the thunder of God’s speech lingers in the ears of old men and is more excellent than human voice.  Furthermore, “Shunamite” in our language means scarlet, signifying the warmth of wisdom when it is fired by reading in God’s Book:  it contains a mystical reference to Our Lord’s blood, but it also indicates the fervor of wisdom.  So the midwife11 in Genesis ties a scarlet thread to Phares’ hand, Phares “the divider,” because he divided the wall which till then kept the two peoples apart.  The harlot Rahab also, who typifies the Church, fastened a scarlet cord to her window in mystical reference to His bloodshedding, so that she might be saved from Jericho’s downfall.12  In another passage again the Scripture says of holy men:  “These are the Kenites who came from the warmth of the house of Rechab.”13  Finally, Our Lord says in the Gospel:  “I am come to cast fire upon the earth, and fain am I to see it kindled.”14  That fire, when kindled in the disciples’ hearts, forced them to say:  “Did not our heart burn within us while He talked with us by the way, and while He opened to us the Scriptures?”4
6.  Jerome takes the story of the Shunamite (1 Kgs, 1) as an allegory.
7.  Prov. 4:7ff.
8.  Cf. Ps. 1:2
9.  Theophrastus.  Cf. Cicero, Tusc. Disp. 3:69
10.  Homer, Iliad, 1:248:  ἡδυεπής . . . τοῦ καὶ ἀπο γλώσσης μέλιτος γλυκίων ῥέεν αὐδή (“[Then among them arose Nestor,] sweet of speech, [the clear-voiced orator of the Pylians,] from whose tongue flowed speech sweeter than honey”).
11.  Gen. 38:27
12.  Jos. 2:18-21
13.  1 Paralip. 2:55 (Vulgate)
14.  Luke 12:49 (slightly altered)
52:4Quorsum hæc tam longo repetita principio ?  Ne a me quæras pueriles declamationes, sententiarum flosculos, verborum lenocinia et per fines capitum singulorum acuta quædam breviterque conclusa quæ plausus et clamores excitent audientum.  Amplexetur me modo sapientia et Abišag nostra, quæ nunquam senescit, in meo requiescat sinu.  Impolluta est, virginitatisque perpetuæ ;  et, in similitudinem Mariæ, quum cottidie generet semperque parturiat, incorrupta est.  Hinc reor dixisse et apostolum « spiritu ferventes » ;  et in Evangelio Dominum prædicasse, quod in fine mundi, quando juxta prophetam Zachariam stultus pastor esse cœperit, sapientia decrescente, « refrigescet caritas multorum ».  Audi igitur, ut beatus Cyprianus ait, « non diserta, sed fortia ».  Audi fratrem collegio, patrem senio, qui te ab incunabulis fidei usque ad perfectam ducat ætatem et per singulos gradus vivendi præcepta constituens in te ceteros erudiat.  Scio quidem ab avunculo tuo, beato Heliodoro qui nunc pontifex Christi est, te et didicisse quæ sancta sunt, et cottidie discere, normamque vitæ ejus exemplum habere virtutum.  Sed et nostra, qualiacunque sunt, suscipe, et libellum hunc libello illius copulato ut, quum ille te monachum erudierit, hic clericum doceat esse perfectum. Why all these far-fetched references, you may ask.  I want you not to expect from me any boyish declamation or flowery sentiment.  Here there will be no meretricious writing, no terse pointed epigrams at the end of each paragraph, put in to excite my audience to loud applause.  Let wisdom alone embrace me;  let my Abishag who never grows old nestle in my arms.  She is undefiled and ever virgin:  like Mary every day she brings forth and is always in labor, but still she is stainless.  Hence, methinks, the apostle said:  “Be fervent in spirit”;14  hence also Our Lord in the Gospel declared that at the end of the world — when, according to the prophet Zechariah,15 the shepherd shall begin to grow foolish — with the decay of wisdom, “the love of many shall wax cold.”16  Listen then, as the blessed Cyprian says, to words that are weighty rather than eloquent:  listen to one who is your brother in orders and your father in years, one who can guide you from faith’s cradle to perfect manhood, and by setting forth precepts of life step by step may instruct others in instructing you.  I know that from your uncle, the reverend Heliodorus who is now one of Christ’s bishops, you have already learned and are still daily learning all that is holy and that you have the rule of his life as an example of virtue set before you.  Take then this letter of mine for what it is worth and join my precepts to his, so that the one may train you in a monk’s duties, the other may teach you to be a perfect clergyman.
14.  Rom. 12:11
15.  Zach. 11:15
16.  Mt 24:12
52:5Igitur clericus, qui Christi servit ecclesiæ, interpretetur primum vocabulum suum et, nominis definitione prælata, nitatur esse quod dicitur.  Si enim κλῆρος Græce « sors » Latine appellatur, propterea vocantur clerici, vel quia de sorte sunt Domini vel quia Dominus ipse sors, id est pars, clericorum est.  Qui autem vel ipse pars Domini est vel Dominum partem habet, talem se exhibere debet, ut et possideat Dominum et ipse possideatur a Domino.  Qui Dominum possidet et quum propheta dicit, « Pars mea Dominus », nihil extra Dominum habere potest, quod, si quippiam aliud habuerit præter Dominum, pars ejus non erit Dominus.  Verbi gratia, si aurum, si argentum, si possessiones, si variam supellectilem, cum his partibus Dominus pars ejus fieri non dignatur.  Si autem ego pars Domini sum et « funiculus hereditatis ejus », nec accipio partem inter ceteras tribus, sed quasi levita et sacerdos vivo de decimis et, altari serviens, altaris oblatione sustentor, habens victum et vestitum, his contentus ero et nudam crucem nudus sequar. A clergyman then, who is a servant in Christ’s Church, should first know the meaning of his name;  and when he has that accurately defined, he should then strive to be what he is called.  For since the Greek κλῆρος means “lot” or “portion,” the clergy are so named, either because they are the Lord’s portion, or else because the Lord is theirs.17  Now he who himself is the Lord’s portion, or has the Lord for his portion, must so bear himself as to possess the Lord and be possessed by Him.  He who possesses the Lord and says with the prophet:18  “The Lord is my portion,” can have nothing outside the Lord;  for if he has anything except the Lord, the Lord will not be his portion.  For example, if he has gold and silver, land and inlaid furniture, with portions such as these the Lord will not deign to be his portion.  If I am the Lord’s portion and in the line of His inheritance,19 I receive no portion among the other tribes, but like the Priest and the Levite I live on tithes, and serving the altar am supported by the altar offerings.  Having food and raiment I shall be satisfied with them, and naked shall follow the naked cross.
Obsecro itaque te, « et repetens iterum iterumque monebo », ne officium clericatus genus antiquæ militiæ putes, id est, ne lucra sæculi in Christi quæras militia, ne plus habeas quam quando clericus esse cœpisti, et dicatur tibi, « Cleri eorum non proderunt eis. »  Mensulam tuam pauperes et peregrini et cum illis Christus conviva noverit ;  negotiatorem clericum et ex inope divitem et ex ignobili gloriosum quasi quandem pestem fuge.  « Corrumpunt mores bonos confabulationes pessimæ. »  Tu aurum contemnis, alius diligit ;  tu calcas opes, ille sectatur ;  tibi cordi est silentium, mansuetudo, secretum, illi verbositas, attrita frons, fora placent, et plateæ ac medicorum tabernæ :  in tanta morum discordia quæ potest esse concordia ? So I beseech you and “again and yet again my words repeat,”20 do not think that clerical orders are but a variety of your old military service;  that is, do not look for worldly gain when you are fighting in Christ’s army, lest, having more than when you first became a clergyman, you hear it said of you:  “Their portions (κλῆροι) shall not profit them.”21  Let poor men and strangers be acquainted with your modest table, and with them Christ shall be your guest.  Avoid, as you would the plague, a clergyman who is also a man of business, one who has risen from poverty to wealth, from obscurity to a high position. “Evil communications corrupt good manners.”22  You despise gold;  the other loves it.  You trample money underfoot;  he pursues it.  You delight in silence, peacefulness, solitude;  he prefers talking and effrontery, the markets and the streets and the apothecaries’ shops.  When your ways are so diverse, what unity of heart can there be between you?
Hospitiolum tuum aut raro aut nunquam mulierum pedes ferant.  Omnes puellas et virgines Christi aut æqualiter ignora aut æqualiter dilige.  Ne sub eodem tecto manseris ;  ne in præterita castitate confidas.  Nec David sanctior nec Salomone potes esse sapientior ;  memento semper, quod paradisi colonum de possessione sua mulier ejecerit.  Ægrotanti tibi sanctus quilibet frater assistat et germana vel mater aut probatæ quælibet apud omnes fidei.  Quod si hujuscemodi non fuerint consanguinitatis castimoniæque personæ, multas anus nutrit ecclesia, quæ et officium præbeant et beneficium accipiant ministrando, ut infirmitas quoque tua fructum habeat eleemosynæ.  Scio quosdam convaluisse corpore et animo ægrotare cœpisse.  Periculose tibi ministrat, cujus vultum frequenter attendis.  Si propter officium clericatus aut vidua tibi visitatur aut virgo, nunquam domum solus introëas, talesque habeto socios, quorum contubernio non infameris.  Si lector, si acolythus, si psaltes te sequitur, non ornentur vestibus, sed moribus ;  nec calamistro crispent comas, sed pudicitiam habitu polliceantur. A woman’s foot should seldom or never cross the threshold of your humble lodging.  To all maidens and to all Christ’s virgins show the same disregard or the same affection.  Do not remain under the same roof with them;  do not trust your chastity in the past.  You cannot be a man more saintly than David, or more wise than Solomon.  Remember always that a woman drove the farmer of Paradise from the garden that had been given him.  If you are ill let one of the brethren attend you, or else your sister or your mother or some woman of universally approved faith.  If there are no persons marked out by ties of kinship, or reputation for chastity, the Church maintains many elderly women who by their services can both help you and benefit themselves, so that even your sickness may bear fruit in almsgiving.  I know of some whose bodily recovery coincided with spiritual sickness.  There is danger for you in the ministrations of one whose face you are continually watching.  If in the course of your clerical duties you have to visit a widow or a virgin, never enter the house alone, and let your associates be men whose fellowship brings no disgrace.  If a reader or acolyte or psalm-singer comes with you, let their character, not their dress, be their adornment;  let them not wave their hair with curling tongs but let their outward looks be a guarantee of their chastity.
Solus cum sola secreto et absque arbitro non sedeas.  Si familiarius est aliquid loquendum, habet nutricem, majorem domus virginem, viduam, maritatam ;  non est tam inhumana, ut nullum præter te habeat, cui se audeat credere.  Caveto omnes suspiciones et, quicquid probabiliter fingi potest, ne fingatur, ante devita.  Crebra munuscula — et orariola et fasciolas et vestes ori applicatas, et degustatos cibos blandasque et dulces litterulas — sanctus amor non habet.  « Mel meum, lumen meum, meumque desiderium » et ceteras ineptias amatorum, omnes delicias et lepores et risu dignas urbanitates in comœdiis erubescimus, in sæculi hominibus detestamur ;  quanto magis in clericis et in clericis monachis, quorum et sacerdotium proposito et propositum ornatur sacerdotio !  Nec hoc dico, quod aut in te aut in sanctis viris ista formidem, sed quod in omni proposito, in omni gradu et sexu et boni et mali repperiantur, malorumque condemnatio laus bonorum sit. Never sit alone and without witnesses with a woman in a quiet place.  If there is anything intimate she wants to say, she has a nurse or some elderly virgin at home, some widow or married woman.  She cannot be so cut off from human society as to have no one but yourself to whom she can trust her secret.  Beware of men’s suspicious thoughts, and if a tale can be invented with some probability avoid giving the scandalmonger his opportunity.  Frequent gifts of handkerchiefs and sashes, pressing a woman’s dress to your lips, tasting her food beforehand, writing her fond and flattering billets-doux, of all this a holy love knows nothing. “My honey, my light, my darling” — lovers’ nonsense like this, and all such wanton playfulness and ridiculous courtesy, makes us blush when we hear it on the stage, and seems detestable even on the lips of worldlings.  How much more loathsome is it then in the case of monks and clergymen who adorn the priesthood with their vows and their vows with the priesthood!  I say this not because I fear such errors in you or in any holy man, but because in every order, in every rank and sex, both good and bad people are to be found, and to condemn the bad is to praise the good.
17.  Or because they administer the κλῆρος, the Church estates.  Cf. Fathers of the Church, p. 12.
18.  Ps. 72:26
19.  Deut. 32:9
20.  Virgil, Æneid 3:436
21.  Jer. 12:13 — οἱ κλῆροι αὐτῶν οὐκ ὠφελήσουσιν αὐτούς· {“Their farms will not profit them” (Pietersma and Saunders, in A New English Translation of the Septuagint, 2007)}.  The LXX which Jerome quotes differs from the Vulgate (« [laboraverunt] et non eis proderit ») and the Revised Standard Version (“[They have tired themselves out] but profit nothing”).  There is a play on the two meanings of κλῆροι — “portions” and “clergy.”
22.  1 Cor 15:33
52:6Pudet dicere :  sacerdotes idolorum, mimi, et aurigæ, et scorta hereditates capiunt ;  solis clericis et monachis hoc lege prohibetur, et prohibetur non a persecutoribus, sed a principibus Christianis.  Nec de lege conqueror, sed doleo cur meruerimus hanc legem.  Cauterium bonum est, sed quo mihi vulnus, ut indigeam cauterio ?  Provida severaque legis cautio, et tamen nec sic refrenatur avaritia.  Per fideicommissa legibus illudimus, et quasi majora sint imperatorum scita quam Christi, leges timemus, Evangelia contemnimus.  Sit heres :  sed mater filiorum, id est gregis sui, ecclesia, quæ illos genuit, nutrivit et pavit.  Quid nos inserimus inter matrem et liberos ?  Gloria episcopi est pauperum inopiæ providere, ignominia omnium sacerdotum est propriis studere divitiis.  Natus in paupere domo et in tugurio rusticano, qui vix milio et cibario pane rugientem saturare ventrem poteram, nunc similam et mella fastidio, novi et genera et nomina piscium, in quo litore concha lecta sit calleo, saporibus avium discerno provincias et ciborum me raritas ac novissime damna ipsa delectant. I am ashamed to say it, but priests who serve idols, actors, charioteers, and harlots can all inherit property:  clergymen and monks alone are by law debarred, a law passed not by persecutors but by Christian emperors.23  I do not complain of the enactment, but it grieves me to think that we deserved it.  A cautery is a good thing, but how is it I have a wound that needs a cautery?  The law’s precaution is stern and prudent;  yet even so greed is not checked.  By a fiction of trusteeship24 we elude its provisions, and, as though imperial enactments were of more importance than Christ’s commands, we fear the laws and despise the Gospels.  If there must be an heir, let the Church inherit from the children who are her flock, the Church who bore reared and fed them.  Why do we thrust ourselves in between mother and children?  It is the glory of a bishop to provide means for the poor, but it is a disgrace for any priest to think of wealth for himself.  Though I was born in a humble home beneath the roof of a country cottage and once could scarcely get enough millet and coarse bread to satisfy the howlings of my stomach, yet now I turn up my nose at wheaten flour and honey cakes, I know the various kinds of fish and their different names, I can tell for certain on what coast an oyster has been picked,25 I can distinguish by the taste from what province a bird comes, and it is the rarity of a dish and, in the last stage, the money that is wasted on it that gives me pleasure.
Audio præterea in senes et anus absque liberis quorundam turpe servitium.  Ipsi apponunt mattulam, obsident lectum, et purulentias stomachi et phlegmata pulmonis manu propria suscipiunt.  Pavent ad introitum medici trementibusque labiis ;  an commodius habeant, sciscitantur et, si paululum senex vegetior fuerit, periclitantur ac simulata lætitia mens intrinsecus avara torquetur.  Timent enim ne perdant ministerium, et vivacem senem Mathusalæ annis comparant.  O quanta apud Dominum merces, si in præsenti pretium non speraret !  Quantis sudoribus hereditas cassa expetitur !  Minori labore margaritum Christi emi poterat. I have been told that in some cases disgraceful court is paid to old men and women who have no children.26  These servile flatterers fetch the chamber-pot, sit by the bed, and catch in their own hands ordure and spittle.  They tremble at the doctor’s appearance, and with quivering lips inquire if his patient is better.  If for a little while the old fellow plucks up some strength, they are at their wits’ end, and while they pretend to be glad their greedy soul suffers torments within.  For they are afraid that they may have wasted their attentions, and they compare an old man with a good hold on life to Methuselah.  How great would be their reward with the Lord, if they did not hope for immediate profit.  With what labor do they seek an empty inheritance!  At less trouble they could have bought for themselves the pearl of Christ.
23.  By Valentinian, A.D. 368.
24.  “fiction of trusteeship” = Fideicommissum, legal t.t., a trust, a testamentary declaration, by which a testator confers some inheritance on an heir on the basis of the trust he has in that heir, that the latter will transfer that inheritance to a third party to whom the testator cannot by law give it outright, e.g., to a daughter.  A testamentary bestowal on a third party, the fulfillment of which depends on a direct heir.  (“Cautum erat, laudata Valentiniani Constitutione, ut neque per subjectam personam valerent Clerici aut Monachi aliquid vel donatione vel testamento percipere, et tamen adhuc, quod mirum est, per fideicommissa legibus illudi Hieronymus queritur.”)
25.  Cf. Juvenal 4:140
26.  The orbi and orbæ constantly referred to in Latin literature ;  cf. especially Horace, Satirarum libri, liber II, Satira 5 and Juvenal, 6:39, 12:99.
52:7Divinas Scripturas sæpius lege, immo nunquam de manibus tuis sacra lectio deponatur.  Disce, quod doceas ;  obtine eum, qui secundum doctrinam est, fidelem sermonem ut possis exhortari in doctrina sana et contradicentes revincere.  « Permane in his quæ didicisti et credita sunt tibi, sciens a quo didiceris », « paratus semper ad satisfactionem omni poscenti te rationem de ea, quæ in te est, spe. »  Non confundant opera sermonem tuum ne, quum in ecclesia loqueris, tacitus quilibet respondeat, « Cur ergo hæc ipse non facis ? »  Delicatus magister est, qui pleno ventre de jejuniis disputat ;  accusare avaritiam et latro potest ;  sacerdotis Christi mens osque concordent. Read God’s Book continually;  nay, never let the sacred volume be out of your hand.  Learn, so that you may teach.  Hold fast to the words of faith according to sound doctrine, so that you may be able thereby to exhort and refute the gainsayers. “Continue thou in the things that thou hast learned and hast been assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned them”;27  and “Be ready always to give an answer to every man that asketh you a reason of the hope and faith that are in you.”28  Your deeds must not belie your words, lest, when you are speaking in church, some one may say to himself:  “Why do you not practice what you preach?” It is an effete teacher who, with a full belly, discourses on fasting;  even a robber can possibly accuse others of greed;  but in a priest of Christ mind and mouth should be in harmony.
Esto subjectus pontifici tuo et quasi animæ parentem suspice :  amare filiorum, timere servorum est :  « Et si pater sum », inquit, « ubi est honor meus ? et si Dominus ego sum, ubi est timor meus ? »  Plura tibi in eodem viro observanda sunt nomina :  monachus, pontifex, avunculus.  Sed et episcopi sacerdotes se sciant esse, non dominos :  honorent clericos quasi clericos, ut et ipsis a clericis quasi episcopis deferatur.  Scitum illud est oratoris Domitii, « Ego te », inquit, « habeam ut principem, quum tu me non habeas ut senatorem ? »  Quod Aaron et filios ejus, hoc episcopum et presbyteros, noverimus :  unus Dominus, unum templum, unum sit etiam ministerium. Be obedient to your bishop, and respect him as the father of your soul.  Sons love, slaves fear. “If I be a father,” says the Scripture, “where is mine honor? and if I am a master, where is my fear?”29  In your case one and the same man has many titles to your respect:  he is monk, bishop, uncle.  But even bishops should realize they are priests, not lords;  they should give to clergymen the honor that is their due, so that the clergy may offer them the respect proper to bishops.  The orator Domitius spoke to the point when he said:  “Why should I treat you as leader of the Senate, when you do not treat me as a senator?”30  We should recognize that what Aaron and his sons were, that is what a bishop and his priests are.  There is but one Lord and one Temple;  there should be also but one ministry.
Recordemur semper, quid apostolus Petrus præcipiat sacerdotibus :  « Pascite eum qui in vobis est gregem Domini, providentes non coacto, sed spontanee secundum Deum, neque turpilucri gratia, sed voluntarie, neque ut dominantes in cleris, sed forma facti gregi et ex animo ut, quum apparuerit princeps pastorum, percipiatis immarcescibilem gloriæ coronam. »  Pessimæ consuetudinis est in quisbusdam ecclesiis tacere presbyteros et, præsentibus episcopis, non loqui, quasi aut invideant aut non dignentur audire.  « Et si alii », inquit Paulus apostolus, « fuerit revelatum sedenti, prior tacet.  Potestis enim per singulos prophetare, ut omnes discant et omnes consolentur.  Et spiritus prophetarum prophetis subjectus est :  non enim est dissensionis Deus, sed pacis. »  Gloria patris est filius sapiens ;  gaudeat episcopus judicio suo, quum tales Christo elegerit sacerdotes. Let us always remember the charge which the apostle Peter gives to priests:  “Feed the flock of God which is among you, taking the oversight thereof not by constraint but willingly as God would have you;  not for filthy lucre but of a ready mind;  neither as being lords over God’s heritage but being examples to the flock, and that gladly, that when the chief shepherd shall appear ye may receive a crown of glory that fadeth not away.”31  It is a very bad custom in some churches for priests to be silent and to refrain from speech in the presence of bishops, on the ground that these latter would either be jealous of them or not deign to listen.  The apostle Paul says:  “If anything be revealed to another that sitteth by, let the first hold his peace.  For ye may all prophesy one by one that all may learn and all may be comforted;  and the spirit of the prophets is subject to the prophets.  For God is not the author of dissension but of peace.”32  A wise son is a glory to his father;  and a bishop should rejoice in his own good judgment, when he chooses such to be priests of Christ.
27.  Titus 1:9 ;  2 Tim. 3:14
28.  1 Peter 3:15
29.  Malachi 1:6
30.  Cf. Cicero, De Oratore, 3:1 [§ 4]:  « quum sibi illum consulem esse negaret, cui senator ipse non esset. »
31.  1 Peter 5:2ff.
32.  1 Cor. 14:30-33
52:8Dicente te in ecclesia, non clamor populi, sed gemitus suscitetur ;  lacrimæ auditorum laudes tuæ sint ;  sermo presbyteri Scripturarum lectione condītus sit.  Nolo te declamatorem esse et rabulam garrulumque, sed mysterii peritum et sacramentorum Dei tui eruditissimum.  Verba volvere et celeritate dicendi apud imperitum vulgus admirationem sui facere indoctorum hominum est.  Attrita frons interpretatur sæpe quod nescit et, quum aliis suaserit, sibi quoque usurpat scientiam.  Præceptor quondam meus Gregorius Nazianzenus, rogatus a me ut exponeret quid sibi vellet in Luca « sabbatum δευτερόπρωτον », id est « secundoprimum », eleganter lusit, « Docebo te », inquiens, « super hac re in ecclesia in qua, omni mihi populo acclamante, cogeris invitus scire quod nescis, aut certe, si solus tacueris, solus ab omnibus stultitiæ condemnaberis. » When you are preaching in church try to evoke not applause but lamentation.  Let the tears of your audience be your glory.  A presbyter’s discourse should be seasoned by his reading of Scripture.  Be not a declaimer nor a ranter nor a gabbler, but show yourself skilled in God’s mysteries and well acquainted with the secret meaning of His words.  Only ignorant men like to roll out phrases and to excite the admiration of the unlettered crowd by the quickness of their utterance.  Effrontery often tries to explain things of which it knows nothing and, having persuaded others, claims knowledge for itself.  My former teacher, Gregory of Nazianzus,33 when I asked him to explain the meaning of St. Luke’s phrase δευτερόπρωτον,34 that is, “second first” sabbath, wittily evaded my request. “I will tell you about that in church,” he said, “and there, when all the people applaud me, you will be compelled against your wish to know what you do not know, or else, if you alone remain silent, you will undoubtedly be put down by every one as a fool.”
Nihil tam facile quam vilem plebiculam et indoctam contionem linguæ volubilitate decipere, quæ, quicquid non intellegit, plus miratur.  Marcus Tullius, ad quem pulcherrimum illud elogium est, « Demosthenes tibi præripuit ne esses primus orator, tu illi, ne solus », in oratione pro Quinto Gallio quid de favore vulgi et de imperitis contionatoribus loquatur, attende :  « His autem ludis — loquor enim, quæ sum ipse nuper expertus — unus quidam poëta dominatur, homo perlitteratus, cujus sunt illa convivia poëtarum ac philosophorum, quum facit Euripiden et Menandrum inter se et alio loco Socraten atque Epicurum disserentes, quorum ætates non annis, sed sæculis scimus fuisse disjunctas.  Atque his quantos plausus et clamores movet !  Multos enim condiscipulos habet in theatro, qui simul litteras non didicerunt. » There is nothing so easy as to deceive a cheap mob or an ignorant congregation by voluble talk;  anything such people do not understand they admire all the more.  Listen to Cicero, the man to whom that glorious phrase was addressed:  “Demosthenes snatched from you the glory of being the first of orators;  you have prevented him from being the only one.”  In his speech for Quintus Gallius,35 this is what Cicero says about vulgar enthusiasm and ignorant mob orators:  “At these games — I am telling you of something within my own recent experience — one gentleman, a poet, has been cock of the walk.  He is a very literary fellow and he has written a book Conversations of Poets and Philosophers.  In it he makes Euripides and Menander talk together, and in another passage Socrates and Epicurus, men whose lives we know to be separated not by years but by centuries.  And yet what applause and cheers this stuff evokes!  He has many fellow pupils in the theatre, schoolfellows who went to the same school and learnt nothing.”
33.  The great Cappadochian teacher, born A.D. 330.
34.  Luke 6:1.  Cf. Leviticus 23:15
35.  This speech is not extant.
52:9Vestes pullas æque vita ut candidas ;  ornatus et sanies pari modo fugiendæ, quia alterum delicias, alterum gloriam redolet.  Non absque amictu lineo incedere, sed pretium vestium linearum non habere, laudabile est ;  alioquin ridiculum et plenum dedecoris, referto marsuppio, quod sudarium orariumque non habeas, gloriari.  Sunt qui pauperibus parum tribuunt ut amplius accipiant, et sub prætextu eleemosynæ quærunt divitias — quæ magis venatio appellanda est quam eleemosyna.  Sic bestiæ, sic aves, sic capiuntur et pisces :  modica in hamo esca ponitur, ut matronarum in eo sacculi protrahantur.  Scit episcopus, cui commissa est ecclesia, quem dispensationi pauperum curæque præficiat.  Melius est non habere quod tribuam, quam impudenter petere.  Sed et genus arrogantiæ est clementiorem te videri velle, quam pontifex Christi est.  « Non omnia possumus omnes. »  Alius in ecclesia oculus est, alius lingua, alius manus, alius pes, alius auris, venter et cetera.  Lege Pauli ad Corinthios :  diversa membra unum corpus efficiunt.  Nec rusticus et tantum simplex frater ideo se sanctum putet, si nihil noverit ;  nec peritus et eloquens in lingua æstimet sanctitatem.  Multoque melius est e duobus imperfectis rusticitatem sanctam habere quam eloquentiam peccatricem. Avoid sombre garments as much as bright ones.  Showiness and slovenliness are alike to be shunned:  the one savors of vanity, the other of boastfulness.  Walking around without a linen garment is not praiseworthy, but not having money to buy one, is.  In any case it is absurd and scandalous to boast of having neither napkin nor handkerchief, while having as stuffed purse.  There are some who give a trifle to the poor that they may themselves receive a larger sum, under the cloak of almsgiving seeking their own personal gain.  Such conduct should be called almshunting rather than almsgiving.  Thus it is that birds, beasts, and fishes are caught.  A small piece of bait is put on the hook;  and lo! they draw up a fine lady’s purse.  The bishop, to whose care the church is entrusted, knows whom he should appoint as almoner to the poor.  It is better for me not to have anything to give than to be shameless in begging.  It is a kind of arrogance also to wish to seem more generous than he who is Christ’s bishop. “We cannot all do all things.”36  In the Church one man is the eye, another the tongue, another the hand, another the foot, another the ear, the belly, and so on.  Read Paul’s epistle to the Corinthians,37 and see how one body is made up of different members.  A rough simple brother should not think himself saintly just because he knows nothing;  he who is well educated and eloquent must not imagine that holiness consists in a ready tongue.  Of the two imperfections a holy clumsiness is much better than a sinful eloquence.
36.  Virgil, Bucolics, 8:63
37.  1 Cor., chapter 12
52:10Multi ædificant parietes et columnas ecclesiæ substrahunt :38  marmora nitent, auro splendent lacunaria, gemmis altare distinguitur — et ministrorum Christi nulla electio est.  Neque vero mihi aliquis opponat dives in Judæa templum, mensam, lucernas, turibula, patellas, scyphos, mortariola et cetera ex auro fabre facta.  Tunc hæc probabantur a Domino, quando sacerdotes hostias immolabant et sanguis pecudum erat redemptio peccatorum — quanquam hæc omnia præcesserat in figura.  « Scripta sunt autem » propter nos, « in quos fines sæculorum decurrerunt  » — nunc vero, quum paupertatem domus suæ pauper Dominus dedicarit, cogitemus crucem, et divitias lutum putabimus.  Quid miramur quod Christus vocat iniquum mammonam ?  Quid suspicimus et amamus, quod Petrus se non habere testatur ? Many people build churches now with party walls not pillars to support them:39  slabs of marble shine brightly in them, the ceilings are gay with gold, the altar is adorned with jewels, and no care is shown in choosing Christ’s ministers.  Let no one object against me the richness of the Temple in Judaea, its table, lamps, thuribles, dishes, cups, small mortars, and the rest of its golden ware.  These things were approved by the Lord in the days when priests sacrificed victims, and when the blood of sheep was the redemption of sins.  They were but a figure “written for our admonition upon whom the ends of the world are come.”40  But today, when Our Lord by his poverty has consecrated the poverty of his house, we should think rather of his cross and count riches to be but dirt.  Why do we wonder at the fact that Christ calls mammon iniquitous?41  Why do we respect and love that which Peter proclaims he does not possess?42
Alioquin, si tantum litteram sequimur et in auro atque divitiis simplex nos delectat historia, cum auro observemus et cetera :  ducant pontifices Christi uxores virgines ;  quamvis bonæ mentis sit qui cicatricem habuerit et deformis est, privetur sacerdotio ;  lepra corporis animæ vitiis præferatur ;  crescamus et multiplicemur et repleamus terram ;  nec immolemus agnum nec mysticum pascha celebremus, quia hæc absque templo fieri lege prohibentur ;  figamus septimo mense tabernaculum et sollemne jejunium bucina concrepemus.  Quodsi hæc omnia spiritalibus spiritalia comparantes scientesque cum Paulo, quod lex spiritalis est, et David verba cantantes, « Revela oculos meas et considerabo mirabilia de lege tua », sic intellegamus ut Dominus quoque noster intellexit et interpretatus est sabbatum, aut aurum repudiemus cum ceteris superstitionibus Judæorum aut, si aurum placet, placeant et Judæi, quos cum auro aut probare nobis necesse est aut damnare. Moreover, if we follow only the letter and find pleasure in the bare lists of riches and gold, let us keep to everything else together with the gold:  let Christ’s priests take virgins as wives;  let a man be deprived of his priesthood, however honest he be, if he is scarred or disfigured in any way;43  let bodily leprosy be counted worse than spiritual faults;  let us increase and multiply and replenish the earth;  let us slay no lamb and celebrate no mystic passover, for the law forbids these things where there is no temple;  let us pitch a tent in the seventh month and with a trumpet noise abroad the solemn fast.  But if all these things are spiritual, and we compare them with things spiritual, and know with Paul that the Law is spiritual, and chant David’s words:  “Open thou mine eyes that I may behold wondrous things out of thy law,”44 understanding them as Our Lord understood them when He thus explained the Sabbath;  then we should reject the gold together with the rest of Jewish superstition, or, if we approve of the gold, we should approve of the Jews as well.  The Jews must go with the gold whether we approve or condemn.
38.  substrahunt, Hilberg :  substernunt.
39.  If the text is right, Jerome apparently means that a church should consist of one plain room, with no party walls for separate shrines and no columns.
40.  1 Cor 10:11
41.  Luke 16:9
42.  Acts 3:6
43.  Levit. 21:17ff.
44.  Ps. 118:18
52:11Convivia tibi vitanda sunt sæcularium, et maxime eorum qui honoribus tument.  Turpe est, ante fores sacerdotis Domini crucifixi et pauperis et qui cibo quoque vescebatur alieno, lictores consulum et milites excubare, judicemque provinciæ melius apud te prandere, quam in palatio.  Quodsi obtenderis facere te hæc ut roges pro miseris atque subjectis, judex sæculi plus defert clerico continenti quam diviti, et magis sanctitatem tuam veneratur quam opes.  Aut si talis est qui non audiat clericos nisi inter phialas, libenter carebo hujuscemodi beneficio, et Christum rogabo pro judice, qui magis subvenire potest :  « Melius est enim confidere in Domino quam confidere in homine, melius est sperare in Domino quam sperare in principibus. » Avoid entertaining the worldly at your table, especially those who are swollen with office.  You are the priest of a crucified Lord, one who lived in poverty and on the bread of strangers, and it is a shameful thing for a consul’s attendants and bodyguard to keep watch before your door, and for a provincial judge to have a better luncheon with you than he would get in his palace.  If you allege that you do this in order that you may plead for the unhappy and the oppressed, a worldly judge pays more regard to a self-denying cleric than to a rich one;  he respects your sanctity more than your wealth.  Or if he is the sort of man who only listens to clergymen over the wine bowl, I will gladly forgo any benefit from him, and will address my prayer to Christ who is more able to help than any judge.  For “it is better to trust in the Lord than to put your confidence in men;  it is better to fix your hopes in the Lord than to expect anything from princes.”45
Nunquam vinum redoleas, ne audias illud philosophi :  « Hoc non est osculum porrigere, sed propinare. »  Vinolentos sacerdotes et apostolus damnat et vetus lex prohibet.  Qui altari serviunt, vinum et siceram non bibant.  ‹ Šicera › Hebræo sermone omnis potio nuncupatur quæ inebriare potest, sive illa fermento conficitur sive pomorum suco, aut favi decoquuntur in dulcem et barbaram potionem, aut palmarum fructus exprimantur in liquorem coctisque frugibus aqua pinguior colatur.  Quicquid inebriat et statum mentis evertit, fuge similiter ut vinum.  Nec hoc dico, quod Dei a nobis creatura damnetur, siquidem et Dominus vini potator appellatur et Timotheo dolenti stomachum modica vini sorbitio relaxata est ;  sed modum et ætatis et valetudinis et corporum qualitates exigimus in potando.  Quodsi absque vino ardeo, et ardeo adulescentia, et inflammor calore sanguinis, et suculento validoque sum corpore, libenter carebo poculo in quo suspicio veneni est.  Pulchre dicitur apud Græcos, sed nescio utrum apud nos æque resonet, « Pinguis venter non gignit sensum tenuem. » Never smell of wine, lest the philosopher’s words be said of you:  “This is not a kiss but a wine sip.”  Priests who reek of wine are condemned by the apostle and forbidden by the old Law.  Those who serve the altar must not drink either wine or šekar [> Engl. sherbet], the Law says;46  the word ‘šekar’ in Hebrew means any intoxicating drink, whether it is made from barley, or from fruit juice, or from honey boiled down into a rough sweet liquor, or from pressed dates, or from the thick syrup strained from a decoction of corn.  Anything that intoxicates and disturbs the mind’s balance you must avoid as you avoid wine.  I do not say that we should condemn a thing that God made, since indeed Our Lord was called a wine-bibber, and Timothy was allowed wine in moderation because of his weak stomach;47  but I claim that those who drink wine should have some reason of age or health or some peculiarity of constitution.  If even without wine I am all aglow, if I feel the fire of youth and am inflamed by hot blood, if I am of a strong and lusty habit of body, then I will readily forgo the wine cup, in which I may well suspect that poison lurks.  The Greeks have a pretty proverb48 which perhaps in our language loses some of its force:  “A fat paunch never breeds fine thoughts.”
45.  Ps. 117:8f.
46.  Cf. Levit. 10:9 and Luke 1:15, οἶνον και σίκερα οὐ μὴ πίῃ.
47.  Mt 11:19, 1 Tim 5:23
52:12Tantum tibi jejuniorum impone, quantum ferre potes.  Sint pura, casta, simplicia, moderata, non superstitiosa jejunia.  Quid prodest oleo non vesci, et molestias quasdam difficultatesque ciborum quærere — caricæ, piper, nuces, palmarum fructus, simila, mel, pistacia, tota hortorum cultura vexatur, ut cibario non vescamur pane ?  Audio præterea quosdam contra rerum hominumque naturam aquam non bibere nec vesci pane, sed sorbitiunculas delicatas et contrita holera betarumque sucum non calice sorbere, sed concha.  Pro pudor, non erubescimus istiusmodi ineptiis, nec tædet superstitionis ?!  Insuper etiam famam abstinentiæ in deliciis quærimus.  Fortissimum jejunium est aqua et panis ;  sed quia gloriam non habet, et omnes pane et aqua vivimus, quasi publicum et commune, jejunium non putatur. Impose upon yourself such fasting as you are able to bear.  Let your fasts be pure, chaste, simple, moderate, and free from superstition.  What good is it to abstain from oil and then to seek after food that is troublesome to prepare and difficult to get, dried figs, pepper, nuts, dates, wheaten flour, honey, pistachios?  All the resources of the garden are laid under contribution to avoid eating ordinary bread.  I have heard that some people outrage nature, and neither drink water nor eat bread, but imbibe fancy decoctions of pounded herbs and beet juice, using a shell to drink from in place of a cup.  Shame on us!  We do not blush at such silliness and we feel no disgust at such superstition.  Moreover, by such fancifulness we seek a reputation for abstinence.  The strictest fast is bread and water:  but as that brings no glory with it and bread and water are our usual food, it is reckoned not a fast but an ordinary and common matter.
52:13Cave ne hominum rumusculos aucuperis, ne offensam Dei populorum laude commutes.  « Si adhuc », inquit apostolus, « hominibus placerem, Christi servus non essem » ;  desivit placere hominibus et servus factus est Christi.  Per bonam et malam famam a dextris et a sinistris Christi miles graditur :  nec laude extollitur, nec vituperatione frangitur, non divitiis tumet, non contrahitur paupertate, et læta contemnit et tristia.  Per diem sol non uret eum, neque luna per noctem.  Nolo te orare in angulis platearum, ne rectum iter precum tuarum frangat aura popularis.  Nolo te dilatare fimbrias, et ostentui φυλακτήρια habere pia et, conscientia repugnante, pharisaïca ambitione circumdari.  Melius est hæc in corde portare quam in corpore, Deum habere fautorem, non aspectus hominum.  Vis scire, quales Dominus quærat ornatus ?  Habeto prudentiam, justitiam, temperantiam, fortitudinem.  His plăgis cæli includere, hæc te quadriga velut aurigam Christi ad metam concitum ferat.  Nihil hoc monili pretiosius, nihil hac gemmarum varietate distinctius.  Ex omni parte decoraris, cingeris atque protegeris ;  et ornamento tibi sunt et tutamini :  gemmæ vertuntur in scuta. Beware of angling for compliments, lest you lose God’s favor in exchange for the people’s praise. “If I yet pleased men,” says the apostle, “I should not be the servant of Christ.”48  He ceased to please men and became Christ’s servant.  Through good and bad report on right hand and on left Christ’s soldier marches;  he is not elated by praise nor crushed by abuse;  he is not puffed up by riches nor depressed by poverty;  he despises joy and sorrow alike.  The sun will not burn him by day nor the moon by night.49  Do not pray at the corners of a square, lest the breeze of popular favor interrupt the straight course of your prayers.  Do not broaden your fringes and wear phylacteries for show, or wrap yourself in despite of conscience in Pharisaic ostentation.50  It is better to carry all this in the heart, rather than on the body, to have God’s approval rather than to please the eyes of men.  Would you know what kind of ornaments the Lord requires?  Have prudence, justice, temperance, fortitude.  Let these be your four cardinal points, let them be your four-horse chariot to carry you, Christ’s charioteer, at full speed to your goal.  Nothing is more precious than this necklace, nothing more resplendent than this variety of jewels.  On every side they form a decoration, a girdle, a defence;  they are both an ornament and a protection;  their jewels are turned into shields.
48.  Gal 1:10
49.  Ps. 120:6
50.  Mt 6:5 and 23:5
52:14Cave quoque, ne aut linguam aut aures habeas prurientes.  Id est, ne aut ipse aliis detrahas aut alios audias detrahentes.  « Sedens, » inquit, « adversus fratrem tuum loquebaris, et adversus filium matris tuæ ponebas scandalum ;  hæc fecisti, et tacui.  Existimasti iniquitatem, quod ero tibi similis ;  arguam te et statuam contra faciem tuam. »  Subauditur, « Sermones tuos et cuncta, quæ de aliis es locutus, ut tua sententia judiceris in his ipse deprehensus, quæ in aliis arguebas. »  Neque vero illa justa est excusatio, « Referentibus aliis, injuriam facere non possum. »  Nemo invito auditori libenter refert.  Sagitta in lapide nunquam figitur, interdum resiliens percutit dirigentem.  Discat detractor, dum te viderit non libenter audire, non facile detrahere.  « Cum detractoribus », ait Salomon, « ne miscearis, quoniam repente veniet perditio eorum, et ruinam utriusque quis novit ? »  Tam videlicet ejus, qui detrahit, quam illius qui aurem accommodat detrahenti. Beware also of an itching tongue and ears:  in other words, do not detract from others or listen to detractors. “Thou sittest,” says the Scripture, “and speakest against thy brother;  thou slanderest thine own mother’s son.  These things hast thou done and I kept silence;  thou thoughtest wickedly that I was such an one as thyself, but I will reprove thee, and set the matter before thine eyes.”51  The meaning of the passage is this — “Watch over your talk and over every word you say about others;  by your own sentence you will be judged, and you will yourself be caught committing the faults you blamed in other men.”  It is not a proper excuse to say:  “If other people report something to me I cannot be rude to them.”  No one likes to bring reports to an unwilling listener.  An arrow never lodges in a stone, but it sometimes recoils and wounds the shooter.  Let detractors, seeing your reluctance to listen, learn not to be so ready to detract.  Solomon says:  “Meddle not with them that are given to detraction:  for their calamity shall rise suddenly;  and who knoweth the destruction of them both?”52 — the destruction, that is, both of the detractor and of the person who lends ear to him.
51.  Ps. 49:20f.
52.  Prov. 24:21f. (vg)
52:15Officii tui est visitare languentes, nosse domos, matronas ac liberos earum et nobilium virorum non ignorare secreta.  Officii ergo tui sit non solum oculos castos servare, sed et linguam.  Nunquam de formis mulierum disputes, nec alia domus, quid agatur in alia, per te noverit.  Hippocrates adjurat discipulos, antequam doceat, et in verba sua jurare compellit ;  extorquetque sacramento silentium ;  sermonem, incessum, habitum moresque describit :  quanto magis nos, quibus animarum medicina commissa est, omnium Christianorum domos debemus amare quasi proprias.  Consolatores potius nos in mæroribus suis, quam convivas in prosperis, noverint.  Facile contemnitur clericus qui, sæpe vocatus ad prandium, non recusat. It is part of your duty to visit the sick, to be acquainted with people’s households, with matrons, and with their children, and to be entrusted with the secrets of the great.  Let it therefore be your duty to keep your tongue chaste as well as your eyes.  Never discuss a woman’s looks, nor let one house know what is going on in another.  Hippocrates,53 before he will instruct his pupils, makes them take an oath and compels them to swear obedience to him.  That oath exacts from them silence, and prescribes for them their language, gait, dress, and manners.  How much greater an obligation is laid on us who have been entrusted with the healing of souls!  We ought to love every Christian household as though it were our own.  Let them know us as comforters in their sorrows rather than as guests in their days of prosperity.  A clergyman soon becomes an object of contempt, if, however often he is invited to dinner, he does not refuse.
53.  From The Hippocratic Oath:  “I swear … to hold my teacher in this art equal to my own parents … I will keep pure and holy both my life and my art. … Whatever I shall see and hear in the course of my profession … I will never divulge” (Hippocrates, Collected Works, Edited by W. H. S. Jones, [trans.], Cambridge Harvard University Press, 1868., p. 299).
52:16Nunquam petentes, raro accipiamus rogati.  Nescio quo enim modo etiam ipse qui deprecatur ut tribuat, quum acceperis, viliorem te judicat ;  et, mirum in modum, si rogantem contempseris, plus miratur.  Prædicator continentiæ, nuptias ne conciliet.  Qui apostolum legit, « Superest, ut et qui habent uxores, sic sint quasi non habentes », cur virginem cogit ut nubat ?  Qui de monogamia sacerdos est, quare viduam hortatur, ut δίγαμος sit ?  Procuratores et dispensatores domorum alienarum atque villarum quomodo esse possunt, qui proprias jubentur contemnere facultates ?  Amico quippiam rapere, furtum est ;  ecclesiam fraudare, sacrilegium est.  Accepisse pauperibus erogandum et esurientibus plurimis, vel cautum esse vel timidum, aut — quod apertissimi sceleris est — aliquid inde subtrahere, omnium prædonum crudelitatem superat.  Ego fame torqueor et tu judicas, quantum ventri meo satis sit ?  Aut divide statim quod acceperis, aut, si timidus dispensator es, dimitte largitorem ut sua ipse distribuat.  Nolo sub occasione mea sacculus tuus plenus sit.  Nemo me melius mea servare potest.  Optimus dispensator est, qui sibi nihil reservat. Never asking for gifts, we should seldom accept them even when begged to do so.  Somehow or other the very man who entreats leave to offer you a present holds you the cheaper for accepting it;  if you refuse, it is strange how much more admiration for you he feels.  The preacher of continence must not try to arrange marriages.  The apostle says:  “It remaineth that they who have wives be as though they had none.”54  Why then should a man who reads those words force a virgin into marriage?  A priest is a monogamist:  why should he urge a widow to be a bigamist?55  How can clergymen be agents and stewards of other men’s households in town or country, when they are bidden to disregard even their own interests?  To rob a friend is theft, but to defraud the Church is sacrilege.  When you have received money to be spent on the poor, to be cautious and timid with it while crowds are hungry, or — what is most manifest villainy — to take any of it for yourself, is to surpass the cruelty of the worst robber.  While I am racked with hunger, are you to judge how much will satisfy my cravings?  Either distribute immediately what you have received or, if you are a timid almoner, dismiss the donor to hand out his own gifts.  I do not wish your purse to be full by taking advantage of me.  No one can look after what is mine better than I can.  The best almoner is he who keeps back nothing for himself.
54.  1 Cor 7:29
55.  A “bigamist” in the early Church was one who remarried.
52:17Coëgisti me, Nepotiane carissime, lapidato jam virginitatis libello quem sanctæ Eustochiæ Romæ scripseram, post annos decem rursus Betheem ora reserare et confodiendum me linguis omnium prodere.  Aut enim nihil scribendum fuit, ne hominum judicium subiremus, quod tu facere prohibuisti, aut scribentes nosse cunctorum adversum nos maledicorum tela torquenda.  Quos obsecro, quiescant et desinant maledicere ;  non enim ut adversarii, sed ut amici scripsimus, nec invecti sumus in eos qui peccant, sed, ne peccent, monuimus.  Neque in illos tantum, sed et in nos ipsos severi judices fuimus, volentesque festucam de oculo alterius tollere, nostram prius trabem ejecimus.  Nullum læsi, nullus saltim descriptione signatus est, neminem specialiter meus sermo pulsavit :  generalis de vitiis disputatio est.  Qui mihi irasci voluerit, prius ipse de se, quod talis sit, confitetur. The treatise on virginity which I wrote at Rome to the saintly Eustochium56 was greeted with showers of stones, and you, my dearest Nepotian, have compelled me now ten years later to open my mouth again at Bethlehem, and to expose myself to the stabs of every tongue.  If I were to escape criticism either I had to refrain from writing altogether — which you rendered impossible — or if I wrote I knew that all the shafts of calumny would be hurled against me.  I beg my opponents now to hold their peace and cease from abuse.  I have written not as an adversary but as a friend.  I have not inveighed against sinners, I have only counselled men not to sin.  I have judged myself as strictly as I judge them, and have cast out the beam from my own eye before I tried to remove a mote from my neighbor’s.  I have hurt no one;  at least no one has been marked out for special mention, and my discourse has not attacked individuals but has been a general criticism of weaknesses.  If any one insists on being angry with me, he confesses thereby that in his case the shoe fits.
56.  Cf. Letter 22.
{ 54 }
Epistula LIV
Ad Furiam1 de Viduitate Servanda
A.D. 394
54:1Obsecras litteris et suppliciter deprecaris ut tibi scribam, immo rescribam,2 quomodo vivere debeas et viduitatis coronam, illæso pudicitiæ nomine, conservare.  Gaudet animus, exultant viscera, gestit affectus hoc te cupere esse post virum, quod sanctæ memoriæ mater tua Titiana multo fuit tempore sub marito.  Exauditæ sunt preces et orationes ejus.  Impetravit in unica filia, quod vivens ipsa possederat.  Habes præterea generis tui grande privilegium, quod exinde a Camillo vel nulla vel rara vestræ familiæ scribitur secundos nosse concubitus, ut non tam laudanda sis si vidua perseveres, quam exsecranda si id Christiana non serves, quod per tanta sæcula gentiles feminæ custodierunt. In your letter you beg and beseech me to write — or rather to write by return — and tell you how you ought to live, keeping the crown of widowhood in unsullied chastity.  My heart rejoices, my bowels exult, my every fibre thrills to know that you desire to be after marriage what your mother Titiana of saintly memory was for many a year in marriage.  Her prayers and entreaties have been heard.  In her only daughter she has been granted that which she herself possessed in her lifetime.  Moreover, it is the peculiar glory of your family that from the days of Camillus3 few or none of your women are recorded as having known a second marital relationship.  Therefore you will not be so much deserving of praise if you persist in widowhood, as you would be worthy of execration if you, a Christian, failed to keep a custom which heathen women observed for so many generations.
1.  Furia was one of the many rich and noble ladies who gathered around Jerome while he was living in Rome.  After her first husband’s death she had thought of a second marriage, but abandoned the idea and devoted herself to the care of her young children and aged father.  In this letter, written A.D. 394, Jerome lays down rules for her conduct in widowhood, and commends her to the care of the presbyter Exsuperius, a friend of Jerome who afterwards, in the beginning of the fifth century, became Bishop of Toulouse.  He lived at Rome before his episcopate.  Cf. also Letter 125:20.
2.  rescribam, immo scribam :  Hilberg.
3.  Lucius Furius Camillus, floruit 400 B.C.
54:2Taceo de Paula et Eustochio, stirpis vestræ floribus, ne per occasionem exhortationis tuæ illas laudare videar.  Blæsillamque prætereo, quæ maritum suum, tuum secuta germanum, in brevi vitæ spatio tempora virtutum multa complevit.  Atque utinam præconia feminarum imitarentur viri, et rugosa senectus redderet quod sponte offert adulescentia !  Sciens et videns, in flammam mitto manum :  adducentur supercilia, extendetur brachium, « iratusque Chremes tumido desæviet ore. »  Consurgunt proceres et adversum epistolam meam turba patricia detonabit me magum, me seductorem clamitans in terras ultimas asportandum.  Addant, si volunt, et Samariten, ut Domini mei titulum recognoscam.  Certe filiam a parente non divido nec dico illud de Evangelio, « Sine mortui sepeliant mortuos suos. »  Vivit enim, qui credit in Christo, et, qui in illum credit, debet utique, « quomodo ille ambulavit, et ipse ambulare. » I say nothing of Paula and Eustochium, those fair flowers of your stock, lest I should use the opportunity of exhorting you to praise them.  I pass over Blæsilla also who, following your brother her husband to the grave, fulfilled in her life’s brief span many years of virtue.4  I only wish that men would follow the example that women have publicly given them, and that wrinkled age would render that which youth offers of its own free will.  I am thrusting my hand into the fire knowingly and with my eyes open.  Brows will be knitted, fists shaken against me and “with swelling voice will angry Chremes rage.”5  Our great men rise from their chairs, and in answer to this letter of mine the patrician mob will thunder out:  “Magician!  Seducer!  Transport him to the ends of the earth!”  If they like, they may call me “Samaritan” as well;  for then I shall recognize a name that was given to my Lord.6  Assuredly I do not separate the daughter from her mother nor do I use the words of the Gospel:  “Let the dead bury their dead.”7  For he is alive who believes in Christ, and he who believes in Him ought in any case “himself also so to walk even as He walked.”8
4.  Furia (daughter of Furius and Titiana) was the sister of Furius (d. c. 381), who had married Blæsilla #2 (d. 384), the daughter of Paula (ca. 347-404) and Julius Toxotius (died ca. 379), and granddaughter of Blæsilla #1 and Rogatus.  The latter pair’s daughter and only child, the aforesaid Paula, with her husband Julius Toxotius, had five children:  not only Blæsilla #2, but also Paulina (d. c. 395), Eustochium (d. 418), Rufina (d. 386), and Toxotius (d. c. 403).
5.  Horace, Ars Poëtica, 94;  the Chremes of Terence, Heauton Timoroumenos, Act 5 Scene 5, is angry with his son because of a degrading love affair.
6.  Jn 8:48
7.  Mt 8:22, Lk 9:60
8.  1 Jn 2:6
54:3Facessat invidia quam nomini Christiano maledicorum semper genuinus infigit ut, dum probra metuunt, ad virtutes non provocent.  Exceptis epistulis, ignoramus alterutrum ;  solaque causa pietatis est, ubi carnis nulla notitia est.  « Honora patrem tuum » — sed si te a vero Patre non separat.  Tam diu scito sanguinis copulam, quam diu ille suum noverit Creatorem :  alioquin David tibi protinus canet, « Audi, filia, et vide et inclina aurem tuam et obliviscere populum tuum et domum patris tui ;  et concupiscet rex decorem tuum, quia ipse est Dominus Deus tuus. »  Grande præmium parentis obliti :  « Concupiscet rex decorem tuum. »  Quia audisti, quia vidisti, quia inclinasti aurem tuam et populi tui domusque patris oblita es, idcirco « concupiscet rex decorem tuum  » et dicet tibi, « Tota pulchra es, proxima mea, et macula non est in te. »  Quid pulchrius animā quæ Dei filia nuncupatur et nullos extrinsecus quærit ornatus ?  Credit in Christum et, hac ambitione ditata, pergit ad sponsum, eundem habens Dominum quem et virum. Let there be an end to the envy which the back-tooth of slanderous men is always attributing to the Christian name in order that, while fearing abuses, they might not urge others on to virtue.  Except by letter we know nothing of one another, and where there is no knowledge in the flesh the only motive for friendship is one of piety. “Honor thy father,”9 but only if he does not separate you from your true Father.  Acknowledge the tie of blood, but only so long as he recognizes his Creator.  Otherwise David will at once sing to you:  “Hearken, O daughter, and consider, and incline thine ear;  forget also thine own people and thy father’s house.  So shall the king greatly desire thy beauty for he is thy Lord.”10  Great is the reward for forgetting a parent:  “The king shall desire thy beauty.”  Because you have heard, considered, inclined your ear, and forgotten your people and your father’s house, “the king will desire your beauty” and will say to you:  “Thou art all fair, my love;  there is no spot in thee.”11  What can be fairer than a soul which is called daughter of God and seeks no outward adorning?  She believes in Christ and enriched by this ambition she goes to her Spouse, having her Lord for Bridegroom.
9.  Exodus 20:12
10.  Ps. 44:11f.
11.  Song 4:7
54:4Quid angustiarum habeant nuptiæ, didicisti in ipsis nuptiis, et quasi coturnicum carnibus usque ad nausiam saturata es.  Amarissimam choleram tuæ sensere fauces, egessisti acescentes et morbidos cibos, relevasti æstuantem stomachum :  quid vis rursus ingerere, quod tibi noxium fuit ?  « Canis revertens ad vomitum suum et sus lota ad volutabrum luti. »  Bruta quoque animalia et vagæ aves in easdem pedicas retiaque non incidunt.  An vereris, ne proles Furiana deficiat et e te parens tuus non habeat pusionem qui reptet in pectore et cervices ejus stercore linat ?  Quippini ?  Omnes habent filios quæ habuere matrimonia ?  Et, quibus nati sunt liberi, suo generi responderunt ?  Exhibuit Ciceronis filius patrem in eloquentia ?  Cornelia vestra, pudicitiæ simul et fecunditatis exemplar, Gracchos suos se genuisse lætata est ?  Ridiculum sperare pro certo, quod multos et non habere videas et, quum habuerint, perdidisse.  Cui dimittis tantas divitias ?  Christo, qui mori non potest.  Quem habebis heredem ?  Ipsum, quem et Dominum.  Contristabitur pater, sed lætabitur Christus ;  lugebit familia, sed angeli gratulabuntur.  Faciat pater, quod vult, de substantia sua :  non es ejus cui nata es, sed cui renata, et qui te grandi pretio redemit sanguine suo. The trials of marriage you have learned in the married state:  you have been surfeited to nausea as though with the flesh of quails.12  Your mouth has tasted the bitterest of gall, you have voided the sour unwholesome food, you have relieved a heaving stomach.  Why would you put into it again something which has already proved harmful to you?  “The dog is turned to his own vomit again and the sow that was washed to her wallowing in the mire.”13  Even brute beasts and roving birds do not fall into the same snares or nets twice.  Are you afraid that the line of Camillus will cease to exist and that your father will not have a brat of yours to crawl upon his breast and soil his neck with stool?  Well, do all those who marry have children, and when children are born do they always answer to their family’s fame?  Did Cicero’s son show his father’s eloquence?  Had your own Cornelia,14 pattern alike of chastity and fruitfulness, cause to rejoice in being mother of the Gracchi?  It is absurd to expect as certain the children, which you see many fail to obtain, and many lose after they have got them.  To whom are you going to leave your great wealth?  To Christ who cannot die.  Whom shall you make your heir?  The same who is already your Lord.  Your father will look sad, but Christ will rejoice:  your family will grieve, but the angels will give you their congratulations.  Your father may do what he likes with his own estates:  you are not his to whom you have been born, but His to whom you have been born again, and who has ransomed you at a great price, even with His own blood.
12.  Num. 11:31ff.
13.  2 Pet 2:22
14.  Fremantle thinks this refers to the connection between Furia and Paula’s family, who traced their descent from the Gracchi;  cf. section 54:13, where Eustochium is referred to as Furia’s sister.
54:5Cave nutrices et gerulas et istiusmodi vinosa animalia quæ de corio tuo saturare ventrem suum cupiunt.  Non suadent, quod tibi, sed, quod sibi prosit, et sæpe illud obganniunt:

« Solane perpetua mærens carpere juventa
Nec dulces natos, Veneris nec præmia noris ? »

Ubi pudicitia et sanctitas, ibi frugalitas est ;  ubi frugalitas, ibi damna servorum.  Quicquid non tulerint, sibi ablatum putant, nec considerant, de quanto, sed quantum, accipiant ;  ubicunque viderint Christianum, statim illud e trivio :  ὁ Γραικός, ὁ ἐπιθέτης.  Hi rumores turpissimos serunt et, quod ab ipsis egressum est, ab aliis audisse se simulant, idem auctores et exaggeratores.  Exin fama de mendacio, quæ, quum ad matrones pervenerit et earum linguis fuerit ventilata, provincias penetrat.
Beware of foster-mothers and nurses and other drunken creatures of their kind, who desire to fill their bellies at the expense of your skin.  They advise you for their own benefit, not yours, continually dinning the poet’s lines into your ears:

“And will you ever waste your youth in grief,
Nor children know and the sweet gifts of love?15

Where there is holiness and chastity, there also is frugality.  And where there is frugality, there is the servants’ loss.  What they do not get they think is taken from them, and they consider only their wages, not your income.  Whenever they see a Christian they at once raise the street-cry — “The Greek!  The impostor!” They spread abroad the foulest scandals, pretending they have heard from others what really emanates from themselves and exaggerating the stories which they originate.  Their lies give rise to talk which soon reaches our matrons’ ears, and fanned by their tongues spreads through every province.
Videas plerasque rabido ore sævire et, tincta facie, viperinis orbibus, dentibus pumicatis, carpere Christianos.  Hic aliqua,

« Cui circa humeros hyacinthina læna est,
Rancidulum quiddam balba de nare locuta
Perstrepit ac tenero supplantat verba palato. »

Omnis consonat chorus, et latrant universa subsellia.  Junguntur nostri ordinis, qui et roduntur et rodunt.  Adversum nos loquaces, pro se muti ;  quasi et ipsi aliud sint quam monachi, et non, quicquid in monachos dicitur, redundet in clericos, qui patres sunt monachorum.  Detrimentum pecoris pastoris ignominia est, sicut, e regione, illius monachi vita laudatur qui venerationi habet sacerdotes Christi, et non detrahit gradui per quem factus est Christianus.
You may see many such ladies with painted faces, their eyes like those of vipers and their teeth rubbed with pumice stone, who when they are girding at Christians actually foam at the mouth with mad rage.  One of them,

“A hyacinth colored cloak round her shoulders,
speaking some rancid nonsense through her stammering nose
she yells and stumbles over the words on her oh-so-delicate palate.”16

At that the rest of the band chime in, and the whole company falls a-snarling.  They are backed up by men of my own order who, being themselves a mark for scandal, spread scandal about others;  they are fluent enough in attacking me, but in their own defence they are dumb.  As though, forsooth, they were not monks themselves, and as though all that is said against monks does not reflect on the clergy who are their spiritual fathers!  To hurt the flock is to shame the shepherd.  On the other hand, we must praise the life of a monk who holds Christ’s priests in veneration, and does not carp at the order by whose offices he became a Christian.
15.  Virgil, Æneid, 4:32
16.  Persius, Satires, 1:32ff.
54:6Hæc locutus sum, in Christo filia, non dubitans de proposito tuo (nunquam enim exhortatorias litteras postulares, si ambigeres de bono monogamiæ), sed ut nequitiam servulorum qui te venalem portant et insidias affinium ac pium parentis errorem intellegeres, cui, ut amorem in te tribuam, amoris scientiam non concedo, dicens aliquid cum apostolo, « Confiteor zelum Dei habent, sed non secundum scientiam. »  Imitare potius — crebro enim id repetam — sanctam matrem tuam, cujus ego quotiens recordor, venit in mentem ardor ejus in Christum, pallor e jejuniis, eleemosyna in pauperes, obsequium in servos Dei, humilitas et cordis et vestium atque in cunctis sermo moderatus.  Pater tuus, quem ego honoris causa nomino — non quia consularis et patricius, sed quia Christianus est — impleat nomen suum et lætetur filiam Christo se genuisse, non sæculo ;  quin potius, doleat quod et virginitatem frustra amiseris et fructus perdideris nuptiarum. I have said all this, my daughter in Christ, not because I doubt your steadfastness in your vows, for you would never have requested a letter of advice if you had been uncertain that monogamy was a good thing, but that you may understand the rascality of servants who hold you as something to be sold, the snares laid for you by relatives, and your father’s mistaken kindness.  I allow that your father loves you, but I do not admit that his love is according to knowledge, and I say with the apostle:  “I confess that they have a zeal of God, but not according to knowledge!”17  Take rather for model — I cannot repeat it too often — your saintly mother;  whose ardent love for Christ comes into my mind whenever I remember her, and with it the pallor caused by fasting, the alms she gave to the poor, the respect she showed to God’s servants, the humility of her heart and dress, and the constant restraint she put upon her tongue.  As for your father — I speak of him with all respect, not because he is a patrician and of consular rank, but because he is a Christian — let him fulfil his Christian obligations and rejoice that he has begotten a daughter for Christ and not for the world.  Nay, rather let him grieve that you have lost your virginity in vain, and have failed to reap any of the fruits of marriage.
Ubi est maritus quem tibi dedit ?  Etiamsi amabilis, etiamsi bonus fuisset, mors finisset omnia et copulam carnis solvisset interitus.  Arripe, quæso, occasionem et fac de necessitate virtutem.  Non quæruntur in Christianis initia, sed finis :  Paulus male cœpit, sed bene finivit ;  Judæ laudantur exordia, sed finis proditione damnatur.  Lege Ezechiel :  « Justitia justi non liberabit eum in quacunque die peccaverit ;  et impietas impii non nocebit ei in quacunque die conversus fuerit ab impietate sua. »  Ista est scala Jacob, per quam angeli conscendunt et descendunt, cujus Dominus innititur lapsis,19 porrigens manum, et fessos ascendentium gressus sui contemplatione sustentans.  Sed, sicut non vult mortem peccatoris, tantum ut revertatur et vivat, ita tepidos odit et cito ei nausiam faciunt.  Cui plus dimittitur, plus diligit. Where now is the husband whom he gave you?  Even if he had been lovable and good, death would have ended everything and this decease would have broken the fleshly bond.  Seize the opportunity, I beg, and make a virtue of necessity.  In the case of Christians, we look not to their beginnings but to their end.  Paul began badly but ended well.  Judas is praised in his early days;  his end is condemned by reason of his treachery.  Read Ezekiel:  “The righteousness of the righteous shall not deliver him in the day of his transgression;  as for the wickedness of the wicked, he shall not fall thereby in the day that he turneth from his wickedness.”18  Ours is that Jacob’s ladder, on which the angels go up and down, while the Lord leans over holding out His hand to those who slip and sustaining by the vision of Himself the weary steps of those who ascend.  But even as He wishes not the death of a sinner, but only that he should turn again and live, so He hates the lukewarm and they inspire loathing.  To whom more is forgiven, the same loveth more.
17.  Rom. 10:2
18.  Ezek. 33:12
19.  lassis:  Hilberg.
54:7Meretrix illa in Evangelio baptizata lacrimis suis et crine, qui multos ante deceperat, pedes Domini tergente servata est.  Non habuit crispantes mitras nec stridentes calceolos nec orbes stibio fuliginatos.  Quanto fœdior, tanto pulchrior.  Quid facit in facie Christianæ purpurissus et cerussa ?  Quorum alterum ruborem genarum labiorumque mentitur, alterum candorem oris et colli :  ignes juvenum, fomenta libidinum, impudicæ mentis indicia.  Quomodo flere potest pro peccatis suis, quæ lacrimis cutem nudat et sulcos ducit in facie ?  Ornatus iste non Domini est, velamen istud antichristi est.  Qua fiducia erigit ad cælum vultus, quos conditor non agnoscat ?  Frustra obtenditur adulescentia et ætas puellaris asseritur :  vidua quæ marito placere desivit et juxta apostolum vere vidua est, nihil habet necessarium nisi perseverantiam.  Meminit pristinæ voluptatis ;  scit, quid amiserit, quo delectata sit :  ardentes diaboli sagittæ jejuniorum et vigiliarum frigore restinguendæ sunt.  Aut loquendum nobis est, ut vestiti sumus, aut vestiendum, ut loquimur.  Quid aliud pollicemur et aliud ostendimus ?  Lingua personat castitatem et totum corpus præfert impudicitiam. The harlot in the Gospel found salvation, baptized in her own tears and wiping the Lord’s feet with the hair which had before lured many a lover.  She wore no waving head-dress, no creaking shoes, nor did she darken her eyes with antimony:  the more squalid she was, the more lovely she seemed.  What have rouge and white lead to do on a Christian woman’s face?  The one simulates the natural red of cheeks and lips, the other the whiteness of the face and neck.  They are fires to inflame young men, stimulants of lustful desire, plain evidence of an unchaste mind.  How can a woman weep for her sins when tears lay her skin bare and make furrows on her face?  Such adorning is not of the Lord, it is the mask of Antichrist.  With what confidence can a woman lift to heaven features which her Creator cannot recognize?  It is in vain to make youth an excuse for all this, or to put in the plea of girlish folly.  A widow who has no husband to please, and in the apostle’s words is a widow in deed, needs nothing but perseverance.20  She still remembers the pleasures of the past, she knows the delights that she has lost, and she must quench the fire of the devil’s shafts with the cold streams of fast and vigil.  Either we must speak as we dress, or dress as we speak.  Why do we profess one thing and display another?  The tongue talks of chastity, but the whole body reveals incontinence.
20.  1 Tim 5:5
54:8Hoc quantum ad habitum pertinet et ornatum.  Ceterum vidua, « quæ in deliciis est » — non est meum, sed apostoli — « vivens mortua est. »  Quid sibi vult hoc, quod ait, « Vivens mortua est » ?  Vivere quidem videtur ignorantibus et non esse peccato mortua ;  sed Christo, quem secreta non fallunt, mortua est.  « Anima », enim, quæ peccaverit, « ipsa morietur. »  « Quorundam hominum peccata manifesta sunt, præcedentia ad judicium ;  quosdam autem, et subsequuntur.  Similiter et facta bona, manifesta sunt ;  et quæ aliter se habent, abscondi non possunt. »  Quod dicit, istiusmodi est :  quidam tam libere et palam peccant ut, postquam eos videris, statim intellegas peccatores ;  alios autem, qui callide occultant vitia sua, e sequenti conversatione cognoscimus.  Similiter, et bona apud alios in propatulo sunt ;  in aliis longo usu discimus.  Quid ergo necesse est nos jactare pudicitiam, quæ sine comitibus et appendiculis suis, continentia et parcitate, fidem sui facere non potest ?  Apostolus macerat corpus suum et animæ subjicit imperio ne, quod aliis præcipit, ipse non servet.  Et adulescentula, fervente cibis corpore, de castitate secura est ? So much for dress and adornment.  But a widow “that liveth in pleasure” — the words are not mine, but the apostle’s — “is dead while she liveth.”21  What does it mean, “is dead while she liveth”?  Why, to those who know not the truth she seems to be alive and not to be dead in sin, but to Christ from whom no secrets are hid she is a dead woman. “For the soul that sinneth, it shall die.”22  “Some men’s sins are manifest, going before unto judgment;  and some men also, they follow after.  Likewise also good works are manifest, and they that are otherwise cannot be hid.”23  The words mean this — some men sin with such lack of restraint and concealment that you know them at first sight to be sinners.  But there are others who cunningly conceal their vices, and we only learn of them by subsequent intercourse.  In the same way the good deeds of some men are openly displayed, in the case of others we only become acquainted with them after long intimacy.  Why then must we make a boast of chastity, which cannot be regarded as genuine unless it is supported by its two handmaids and assistants, continence and frugality?  The apostle macerates his body and subjects it to the soul’s control, lest he himself should fail to keep the precept he has given to others.  How then can a young girl be confident of her chastity if her body is all on fire with rich food?
21.  1 Tim 5:6
22.  Ezek 18:20
23.  1 Tim 5:24f.
54:9Neque vero hæc dicens condemno cibos, « quos Deus creavit ad utendum cum gratiarum actione », sed juvenibus et puellis incentiva, esse assero, voluptatum.  Non Ætnæi ignes, non Vulcania tellus, non Vesevus et Olympus tantis ardoribus æstuant, ut juveniles medullæ vino plenæ, dapibus inflammatæ.  Avaritia calcatur a plerisque, et cum marsuppio deponitur ;  maledicam linguam indictum emendat silentium ;  cultus corporis et habitus vestium unius horæ spatio commutatur ;  omnia alia peccata extrinsecus sunt, et, quod a foris est, facile abjicitur ;  sola libido insita a Deo ob liberorum creationem, si fines suos egressa fuerit, redundat in vitium et quadam lege naturæ in coitum gestit erumpere.  Grandis ergo virtutis est et sollicitæ diligentiæ superare, quod natus sis in carne, non carnaliter vivere, tecum pugnare cottidie et inclusum hostem Argi, ut fabulæ ferunt, centum oculis observare.  Hoc est, quod apostolus verbis aliis loquebatur, « Omne peccatum, quod fecerit homo, extra corpus est ;  qui autem fornicatur, in corpus suum peccat. » In saying this I do not condemn food “which God created to be enjoyed with thanksgiving,”24 but I assert that for young men and girls some food is an incentive to sensuality.  Neither Etna’s fire, nor Vulcan’s isle, nor Vesuvius and Olympus, seethe with such burning heat as does the youthful marrow when it is flushed with wine and inflamed by feasting.  Many men trample avarice underfoot and lay it down as easily as their purses.  An enforced silence serves as corrective to a slanderous tongue.  One single hour can change a man’s fashion of dress and outward appearance.  All other sins are outside ourselves, and what is external can easily be cast away.  Carnal desire alone, implanted in men by God for the procreation of children, if it oversteps its due limits, becomes a sin, and by a law of nature burns to force its way to carnal intercourse.  It is a task for pre-eminent virtue and the most watchful care, seeing that you were born in the flesh, not to live the life of the flesh.  You must fight against yourself every day and keep guard against the enemy within you with the hundred eyes of the fabled Argus.  This is what the apostle said in other words:  “Every sin that a man doeth is without the body;  but he that committeth fornication sinneth against his own body.”25
Ajunt medici et qui de humanorum corporum scripsere naturis, præcipueque Galenus in libris quorum titulus est Περὶ Ὑγιεινῶν, puerorum et juvenum ac perfectæ ætatis virorum mulierumque corpora insito calore fervere et noxios esse his ætatibus cibos, qui calorem augeant, sanitatique conducere frigida quæque in esu et potu sumere sicut, e contrario, senibus qui pituita laborent et frigore, calidos cibos et vetera vina prodesse.  Unde et Salvator, « Attendite », inquit, « vobis, ne forte aggraventur corda vestra in crapula et ebrietate et curis hujus vitæ. »  Et apostolus, « Vino, in quo est luxuria. »  Nec mirum hoc figulum sensisse de vasculo, quod ipse fabricatus est, quum etiam comicus cujus finis est humanos mores nosse atque describere, dixit :

« Sine Cerere et Libero friget Venus. »

Physicians and those who have written on the nature of the human frame, especially Galen in his treatise On Health, say that the bodies of young men and of full-grown men and women glow with an innate warmth, and that for persons of these ages all food is harmful which tends to increase that heat, while it is conducive to health for them to eat and drink anything that is cold.  On the other hand they say that for old people who suffer from humors and from chilliness, warm food and old wine are beneficial.  Hence the Savior says:  “Take heed to yourselves lest at any time your hearts be overcharged with surfeiting and drunkenness, and cares of this life.”26  So too the apostle:  “Be not drunk with wine, wherein is excess.”27  No wonder that the potter felt thus about the frail vessel which He had made,28 seeing that even the comic dramatist, whose aim is to know and to describe the ways of men, says: —

“Venus grows cold if Ceres be not there
And Bacchus with her.”29

24.  1 Tim 4:4
25.  1 Cor 6:18
26.  Lk 21:34
27.  Eph 5:18
28.  Rom 9:21.  “Hath not the potter power over the clay, of the same lump to make one vessel unto honor, and another unto dishonor?”
29.  Terence, Eunuchus, 732
54:10Primum igitur, si tamen stomachi firmitas patitur, donec puellares annos transeas, aquam in potum sume, quæ natura frigidissima est aut, si hoc imbecillitas prohibet, audi cum Timotheo :  « Vino modico utere propter stomachum et frequentes tuas infirmitates. »  Deinde in ipsis cibis calida quæque devita ;  non solum de carnibus loquor, super quibus vas electionis profert sententiam, « Bonum est vinum non bibere et carnem non manducare », sed etiam in ipsis leguminibus inflantia quæque et gravia declinanda sunt — nihilque ita scias conducere Christianis adulescentibus ut esum holerum, unde et in alio loco, « Qui infirmus est », ait, « holera manducet » — ardorque corporum frigidioribus epulis temperandus est.  Si autem tres pueri et Daniel leguminibus vescebantur, pueri erant, necdum ad sartaginem venerant in qua rex Babylonius senes judices frixit. In the first place then, if your stomach is strong enough, until you pass out of girlhood drink only water, by nature the coolest of all beverages.  If your health renders this impossible, listen to the advice given to Timothy:  “Use a little wine for thy stomach’s sake and thine often infirmities.”30  Secondly, in the way of food avoid all heating dishes.  I do not speak of meat only — although on it the chosen vessel delivers this judgment:  “It is good neither to eat flesh nor to drink wine”31 — but with vegetables also anything that creates wind or lies heavy on the stomach should be rejected.  You should know that nothing is so good for young Christians as a diet of herbs.  So in another place Paul says:  “Let him who is weak eat herbs.”32  By cold food the heat of the body should be tempered.  Though Daniel and the three children lived on vegetables,33 they were only children and had not reached that frying pan in which the king of Babylon cooked the elders who were judges.34
Nobis non corporum cultus qui in illis — excepto privilegio gratiæ Dei — ex hujuscemodi cibis enituerat, sed animæ vigor quæritur, quæ carnis infirmitate fit fortior.  Inde est, quod nonnulli vitam pudicam appetentium in medio itinere corruunt, dum solam abstinentiam carnium putant et leguminibus onerant stomachum quæ, moderate parceque sumpta, innoxia sunt.  Et ut quod sentio loquar, nihil sic inflammat corpora et titillat membra genitalia nisi indigestus cibus ructusque convulsus.  Malo apud te, filia, verecundia parumper quam causa periclitari.  Quicquid seminarium voluptatum est, venenum puto.  Parcus cibus et semper venter esuriens triduanis jejuniis præferatur, et multo melius est cottidie parum quam raro satis sumere.  Pluvia illa optima est quæ sensim descendit in terras ;  subitus et nimius imber præceps arva subvertit. We do not seek for the physical strength which by a special privilege of God’s grace they gained from this diet;  we aim rather at vigor of soul, which becomes stronger as the flesh grows weaker.  This is the reason why some of those who aspire to a life of chastity fall midway on the road.  They think that they need merely abstain from meat, and they load their stomach with vegetables which are only harmless when taken sparingly and in moderation.  To give you my real opinion, I think that nothing so inflames the body and titillates the organs of generation as undigested food, and convulsive belching.  With you, my daughter, I would rather risk offending your modesty than understate my case.  Regard as poison anything that has within it the seeds of sensual pleasure.  A frugal diet which leaves you always hungry is to be preferred to a three days' fast, and it is much better to go short every day than occasionally to satisfy your appetite to the full.  That rain is best which falls slowly to earth : a sudden and excessive shower which comes tumbling down washes away the soil.
30.  1 Tim 5:23
31.  Rom 14:21
32.  Rom 14:2
33.  Cf. Dan 1:12
34.  There is a tradition that the elders who tempted Susanna were thus burned.
54:11Quando comedis, cogita quod statim tibi orandum, ilico legendum sit.  De Scripturis Sanctis habeto fixum versuum numerum ;  istud pensum Domino tuo redde nec ante quieti membra concedas, quam calathum pectoris tui hoc subtegmine impleveris.  Post Scripturas Sanctas doctorum hominum tractatus lege, eorum dumtaxat, quorum fides nota est.  Non necesse habes aurum in luto quærere :  multis margaritis unam redime margaritam.  Sta juxta Hieremiam in viis pluribus ut ad illam viam, quæ ad patrem ducit, pervenias.  Amorem monilium atque gemmarum sericarumque vestium transfer ad scientiam Scripturarum.  Ingredere terram repromissionis lacte et melle manantem, comede similam et oleum, vestire cum Joseph variis indumentis, perforentur aures tuæ, cum Hierusalem, sermone Dei, ut pretiosa ex illis novarum segetum grana dependeant.  Habes sanctum Exsuperium probatæ ætatis et fidei, qui te monitis suis frequenter instituat. When you are eating, remember that immediately afterwards you will have to pray and read.  Take a fixed number of lines from the Holy Scripture and show them up as your task35 to your Lord;  and do not lie down to rest until you have filled your heart’s basket with this precious yarn.  After the Holy Scriptures, read the treatises that have been written by learned men, provided, of course, that they are persons of known faith.  You need not seek for gold amid the mire:  with many pearls buy the one pearl of price.  As Jeremiah36 says, stand in more ways than one, so that you may come to the way that leads to the Father.  Change your love of necklaces and jewels and silk dresses to a desire for scriptural knowledge.  Enter the land of promise that flows with milk and honey.  Eat wheaten flour and oil, dress like Joseph in coats of many colors, let your ears, like Jerusalem’s,37 be pierced by the word of God, so that the precious grains of new corn may hang from them.  You have in the saintly Exsuperius38 a man of tried years and faith, who can give you constant support with his advice.
35.  Pensum, properly the weight of wool allotted to a servant to be made into yarn:  the day’s task.
36.  Cf. Jerem 6:16
37.  Cf. Ezek 16:12
38.  Exsuperius was bishop of Toulouse in the beginning of the fifth century, and a friend of Jerome.  He lived at Rome before his episcopate.
54:12Fac tibi amicos de iniquo mammona, qui te recipiant in æterna tabernacula.  Illis tribue divitias tuas, qui non Phasides aves sed cibarium panem coëmant, qui famem expellant, qui non augeant luxuriam.  Intellege super egenum et pauperem.  « Omni petenti te da », sed « maxime domesticis fidei » :  nudum vesti, esurientem ciba, ægrotantem visita ;  quotienscunque manum extendis, Christum cogita, cave ne, mendicante Domino tuo, alienas divitias augeas. Make to yourself friends of the mammon of unrighteousness that they may receive you into everlasting habitations.  Give your wealth to those who purchase not pheasants but coarse bread, staying their hunger, not stimulating wantonness.  Consider the poor and needy. “Give to everyone that asketh of thee,” but “especially unto them that are of the household of faith”;39  clothe the naked, feed the hungry, visit the sick;  every time you hold out your hand, think of Christ;  beware lest, when your Lord asks alms, you increase other people’s riches.
39.  Lk 6:30 and Gal 6:10
54:13Juvenum fuge consortia.  Comatulos, comptos atque lascivos domus tuæ tecta non videant.  Cantor pellatur ut noxius ;  fidicinas et psaltrias et istiusmodi chorum diaboli quasi mortifera sirenarum carmina proturba ex ædibus tuis.  Noli ad publicum subinde procedere et, spadonum exercitu præeunte, viduarum circumferri libertate.  Pessimæ consuetudinis est, quum fragilis sexus et imbecilla ætas suo arbitrio abutitur et putat licere, quod libet.  « Omnia  » quidem « licent, sed non omnia expediunt. »  Nec procurator calamistratus nec formosus collactaneus nec candidulus et rubicundus assecula adhæreant lateri tuo :  interdum animus dominarum et ancillarum habitu judicatur.  Sanctarum virginum et viduarum societatem appete, et si sermocinandi cum viris incumbit necessitas, arbitros ne devites, tantaque confabulandi fiducia sit ut, intrante alio, nec paveas nec erubescas.  Speculum mentis est facies, et taciti oculi cordis fatentur arcana.  Vidimus nuper ignominiosum per totum orientem volitasse :  et ætas et cultus et habitus et incessus, indiscreta societas, exquisitæ epulæ, regius apparatus Neronis et Sardanapali nuptias loquebantur.  Aliorum vulnus nostra sit cautio ;  « Pestilente flagellato, stultus sapientior erit. » Avoid the society of young men.  Let your house never see beneath its roof wanton ringlet-haired dandies.  Repel a singer like the plague.  Drive from your dwelling all women who live by playing and singing, the devil’s choir whose songs are as deadly as those of the sirens.  Do not constantly claim a widow’s liberty and appear in the streets with a host of eunuchs walking before your chair.  It is a very bad habit for weak young persons of the frailer sex to abuse their freedom from restraint, and to think that they are allowed to do anything they please. “All things are lawful but all things are not expedient.”40  Let no curled steward or handsome foster-brother or fair ruddy footman stand continually by your side.  Sometimes the character of the mistress is inferred from the dress of her maids.  Seek the company of holy virgins and widows, and if you are obliged to talk with men, do not refuse to have other people present.  Let your conversation be so sure of itself that the entry of a third person will neither make you start nor blush.  The face is the mirror of the mind, and eyes without speaking confess the secrets of the heart.  I have lately seen a scandalous object flitting this way and that through the East.  Her age, her style, her dress, her mien, the indiscriminate company she kept, and the regal pomp of her elaborate dinners, all proclaimed her a fitting bride for Nero or Sardanapalus.  Let us take warning from another’s wound:  “When he that causeth trouble is scourged the fool will be wiser.”41
Sanctus amor impatientiam non habet ;  falsus rumor cito opprimitur, et vita posterior judicat de priori.  Fieri quidem non potest ut, absque morsu hominum, vitæ hujus curricula quis pertranseat, malorumque solacium est bonos carpere, dum peccantium multitudine putant culpam minui peccatorum ;  sed tamen cito ignis stipulæ conquiescit et exundans flamma, deficientibus nutrimentis, paulatim emoritur.  Si anno præterito fama mentita est aut, si certe verum dixit, cesset42 vitium, cessabit et rumor.  Hæc dico, non quo de te sinistrum quid metuam, sed quo, pietatis affectu, etiam quæ tuta sunt pertimescam.  O si videres sororem tuam et illud sacri oris eloquium coram audire contingeret, cerneres in parvo corpusculo ingentes animos, audires totam Veteris et Novi Testamenti supellectilem ex illius corde fervere !  Jejunia pro ludo habet, orationem pro deliciis.  Tenet tympanum in exemplum Mariæ et, Pharaone summerso, virginum choro præcinit, « Cantemus Domino :  gloriose enim magnificatus est, equum et ascensorem dejecit in mare. »  Has docet psaltrias Christo, has fidicianas erudit Salvatori.  Sic dies, sic nox ducitur et, oleo ad lampadas præparato, sponsi exspectatur adventus.  Imitare ergo et tu consanguineam tuam :  habeat Roma, quod angustior urbe Romana possidet Bethleem. A holy love is never impatient:  a false rumor is quickly stifled, and the after life passes judgment on that which has gone before.  It is not possible, indeed, that any one should reach the end of life’s race without suffering from the tooth of calumny:  it is a consolation for the wicked to gird at the good, and they think that a multitude of sinners lessens the guilt of sin.  But, nevertheless, a fire of straw soon dies down, and a spreading flame gradually expires if it has nothing to feed on.  If last year’s rumor was a lie, or if, though it was true, the sin shall now cease, then the scandal will cease also.  I say this, not that I fear anything wrong in your case, but because my fatherly love for you is so great that even safety makes me afraid.  Oh, if you could see your sister43 and be allowed to listen to the eloquence of her holy lips, and behold the mighty spirit that dwells within her small body!  Oh, if you could hear the whole contents of the Old and New Testament come bubbling from her heart!  Fasting is her sport, prayer her favorite pastime.  Like Miriam after the drowning of Pharaoh, she takes up her timbrel and leads the virgin choir:  “Let us sing to the Lord, for He hath triumphed gloriously;  the horse and his rider He hath thrown into the sea.”44  She teaches her companions to be music-girls for Christ, and trains them as lute-players for the Savior.  Thus she passes her days and nights, and with oil ready in her lamp awaits the coming of the Bridegroom.  Take pattern then by your kinswoman.  Let Rome have what Bethlehem, a smaller place than Rome, already possesses.
40.  1 Cor 6:12
41.  Prov 19:25 (Vulgate)
42.  cesset, Hilberg :  cessavit
43.  As above (54:4), where Fremantle sees a connection between Furia and Paula’s family, who traced their descent from the Gracchi, so likewise here, where Eustochium is referred to as Furia’s sister.
44.  Exod 15:21
54:14Habes opes ;  facile tibi est indigentibus victus subsidia ministrare.  Quod luxuriæ parabatur, virtus insumat ;  nulla nuptias contemptura timeat egestatem.  Redime virgines quas in cubiculum Salvatoris inducas ;  suscipe viduas quas inter virginum lilia et martyrum rosas quasi quasdam violas misceas ;  pro corona spinea, in qua mundi Christus delicta portavit, talia serta compone.  Lætetur et adjuvet vir nobilissimus, pater tuus ;  discat a filia, quod didicerat ab uxore.  Jam incanuit caput, tremunt genua, dentes cadunt et frontem obscenam rugis arat, vicina est mors in foribus, designatur rogus prope :  velimus nolimus, senes sumus.  Paret sibi viaticum quod longo itineri necessarium est.  Secum portet quod invitus dimissurus est ;  immo præmittat in cælum, quod, ni caruerit, terra sumptura est. You have money, and can easily supply food to those who want it.  Let virtue take what was meant for extravagance:  no woman who means to scorn marriage need fear poverty.  Ransom45 virgins and lead them into the Savior’s chamber.  Support widows and mingle them like violets with the virgins’ lilies and the martyrs’ roses.  These are the garlands you must make for Christ in place of the crown of thorns in which He bore the sins of the world.  Let your noble father rejoice to help you;  let him learn from his daughter as he once learned from his wife.  His hair is grey, his knees shake, his teeth are falling out, his forehead is disfigured by wrinkles, death stands near at his door, and the pyre is being marked out for him close by.  Whether we like it or not, we are old men now.  Let him provide for himself the provision he needs for his long journey.  Let him take with him that which otherwise he must reluctantly leave behind;  nay, let him send before him to heaven what, if he does not take care, will be appropriated by earth.
45.  At this time, many Romans were being taken captive by invading barbarians and held to ransom.
54:15Solent adulescentiæ viduæ, quarum nonnullæ « abierunt retro Satanam, quum luxuriatæ fuerint in Christo », subantes dicere, « Patrimoniolum meum cottidie perit, majorum hereditas dissipatur, servus contumeliose locutus est, imperium ancilla neglexit.  Quis procedet ad publicum ?  Quis respondebit pro agrorum tributis ?  Parvulos meos quis erudiet ?  Vernulas quis educabit ? »  Et hanc — pro nefas! — causam opponunt matrimonii, quæ vel sola debuit nuptias impedire.  Superducit mater filiis non vitricum, sed hostem, non parentem, sed tyrannum.  Inflammata libidine obliviscitur uteri sui et, inter parvulos suas miserias nescientes, lugens dudum, nova nupta componitur.  Quid obtendis patrimonium, quid superbiam servulorum ?  Confitere turpitudinem.  Nulla idcirco ducit maritum, ut cum marito non dormiat.  Young widows, of whom some “are already turned aside after Satan, when they have begun to wax wanton against Christ,”46 in their lustful moments are wont to say:  “My little estate is wasting every day, the property I have inherited is being scattered, my footman has spoken insultingly to me, my maid pays no attention to my orders.  Who will appear for me in public?  Who will be responsible for my land-tax?  Who will educate my little children and bring up my house-slaves?” Shame on them!  They bring forward as a reason for marriage the very thing which should in itself render marriage impossible.  A mother sets over her children not a stepfather but an enemy, not a parent but a tyrant.  Inflamed by lustfulness she forgets her own offspring, and in the midst of the little ones who know nothing of their sad fate the lately weeping widow arrays herself afresh as a bride.  Why these pretexts of property and arrogant servants?  Confess your vileness.  No woman marries with the idea of not sleeping with a husband.
Aut si certe libido non stimulat, quæ tanta insania est, in morem scortorum prostituere castitatem ut augeantur divitiæ, et propter rem vilem atque perituram, pudicitia, quæ et pretiosa et æterna est, polluatur ?  Si habes liberos, nuptias quid requiris ?  Si non habes, quare expertam non metuis sterilitatem et rem incertam certo præfers pudori ?  Scribuntur tibi nunc sponsales tabulæ ut, post paululum, testamentum facere compellaris.  Simulabitur mariti infirmitas ;  et, quod te morituram facere volet, ipse victurus faciet.  Aut si evenerit ut de secundo marito habeas filios, domestica oritur pugna, intestinum prœlium.  Non licebit tibi amare liberos, nec æquis aspicere oculis, quos genuisti ;  clam porriges cibos.  Invidebit mortuo, et, nisi oderis filios, adhuc eorum amare videberis patrem.  Quodsi de priori uxore habens sobolem te domum introduxerit, etiam si clementissima fueris, omnes comœdiæ et mimographi et communes rhetorum loci in novercam sævissimam declamabunt.  Si privignus languerit et condoluerit caput, infamaberis ut venefica.  Si non dederis cibos, crudelis, si dederis, malefica diceris.  Oro te, quid habent tantum boni secundæ nuptiæ, ut hæc mala valeant compensare ? If you are not spurred on by lust, surely it is the height of madness to prostitute yourself like a harlot merely to increase your wealth, and for a paltry and passing gain to pollute that precious chastity which might endure for ever.  If you have children, why do you want to marry?  If you have none, why do you not fear the barrenness you have already known?  Why do you put an uncertain gain before a certain loss of modesty?  A marriage settlement is made in your favor today, but soon you will be induced to make your will.  Your husband will feign illness, and will do for you what he wants you to do for him:  but he means to go on living, and you are destined for an early grave.  Or if it should happen that you have sons by your second husband, domestic warfare and intestine feuds will be the result.  You will not be allowed to love your own children, or to look kindly on those to whom you gave birth.  You will hand them their food secretly;  for he will be jealous of your dead husband, and unless you hate your sons he will think you still in love with their father.  If he, for his part, has issue by a former wife, when he brings you into his house, then, even though you have a heart of gold, you will be the cruel stepmother, against whom every comedy, every mime-writer, and every dealer in rhetorical commonplaces raises his voice.  If your stepson falls sick or has a headache, you will be maligned as a poisoner.  If you refuse him food, you will be cruel;  if you give it, you will be said to have bewitched him.  What benefit, I pray you, can a second marriage confer sufficient to compensate for these disadvantages?
46.  1 Tim 5:15,11
54:16Volumus scire, quales esse debeant viduæ ?  Legamus Evangelium secundum Lucani, « Et erat », inquit, « Anna prophetissa, filia Phanuel de tribu Aser. »  Anna interpretatur « gratia », Phanuel in lingua nostra resonat « vultum Dei », Aser vel in « beatitudinem » vel in « divitias » vertitur.  Quia ergo ab adulescentia usque ad octoginta quattuor annos viduitatis onus sustinuerat et non recedebat de templo Dei, diebus ac noctibus insistens jejuniis et obsecrationibus, idcirco meruit gratiam spiritalem et nuncupatur filia vultus Dei, et atavis beatitudine divitiisque censetur.  Recordemur viduæ Sareptenæ, quæ et suæ et filiorum saluti Heliæ prætulit famem, et ipsa nocte moritura cum filio superstitem hospitem relinquebat, malens vitam perdere quam eleemosynam, et in pugillo farris seminarium sibi messis dominicæ præparavit.  Farina seritur et olei capsaces nascitur.  In Judæa frumenti est penuria (granum enim tritici ibi mortuum fuerat), et in gentium viduæ olei fluenta manabant.  Legimus Judith — si cui tamen placet volumen recipere — viduam confectam jejuniis et habitu lugubri sorditatam, quæ non lugebat mortuum virum sed, squalore corporis, Sponsi quærebat adventum.  Video armatam gladio manum, cruentam dexteram, recognosco caput Holofernæ de mediis hostibus reportatum.  Vincit viros femina, et castitas truncat libidinem, habituque repente mutato, ad victrices sordes redit, omnibus sæculi cultibus mundiores. Do we wish to know how widows ought to behave?  Let us read the Gospel according to Luke:  “There was one Anna,” he says, “a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel of the tribe of Aser.”47  Anna means “grace,” Phanuel in our language is the “face of God,” Aser is translated either as “blessedness” or “wealth.”  As then she had borne the burden of widowhood from her youth up to the age of eighty-four years, and never left the temple day or night, giving herself to fasting and prayer, therefore she earned spiritual grace and is called daughter of the face of God, and in blessedness and wealth is reckoned with her ancestors.  Let us remember the widow of Zarephath,48 who considered the satisfaction of Elijah’s hunger more important than her own and her children’s lives.  Though she thought that she and her son that very night would die, she meant her guest to survive, preferring to lose life rather than her name for charity.  In her handful of meal she found the seed of the Lord’s harvest.  She sows her meal and, lo! a cruse of oil appears.  In Judaea there was a scarcity of corn, for the grain of wheat had died;  but in the house of a heathen widow streams of oil gushed forth.  We read in the book of Judith, if we may accept that record, of a widow spent with fasting and unkempt in mourner’s dress, who was not so much grieving for her dead husband but in squalor awaiting the advent of the Bridegroom.  I see her hand armed with a sword and stained with blood, I recognize the head of Holofernes carried in triumph from the midst of the enemy.  A woman conquers men, chastity beheads lust, and then suddenly changing her dress she returns again to her victorious squalor, a squalor finer than all the pomp of this world.
47.  Lk 2:36
48.  3 Kings 17:10ff.
54:17Quidam imperite et Debboram inter viduas numerant ducemque Barac arbitrantur Debboræ filium, quum aliud Scriptura commemoret.  Nobis ad hoc nominabitur, quod prophetissa fuerit et in ordine judicum supputetur.  Et quia dicere poterat, « Quam dulcia gutturi meo eloquia tua, super mel et favum ori meo », apis nomen accepit, Scripturarum floribus pasta, Spiritus Sancti odore perfusa, et dulces ambrosiæ sucos prophetali ore componens.  Noëmin (quæ nobiscum sonat παρακεκλημένη, quam interpretari possumus « consolatam »), marito et liberis peregre mortuis, pudicitiam reportavit in patriam et, hoc sustentata viatico, nurum Moabitidem tenuit ut illud Esaiæ vaticinium complerentur :  « Emitte agnum, Domine, dominatorem terræ, de petra deserti. »  Venio ad viduam de Evangelio, viduam pauperculam, omni Israëlitico populo ditiorem, quæ, accipiens granum sinapis et mittens fermentum in farinæ satīs tribus, Patris et Filii confessionem Spiritus Sancti gratia temperavit, et duo minuta misit in gazophylacium — quicquid habere poterat in substantia sua —, universasque divitias in utroque fidei suæ obtulit testamento.  Hæc sunt duo seraphin ter glorificantia Trinitatem et in thesauro Ecclesiæ condita, unde et forcipe utriusque instrumenti ardens carbo comprehensus purgat labia peccatoris. Some people ignorantly count Deborah among the widows, and think that Barak, the leader of the army, was her son.  The Scripture gives a different account.  I will mention her now because she was a prophetess and is reckoned as one of the judges, and also because she could say:  “How sweet are thy words unto my taste!  Yea, sweeter than honey to my mouth.”49  Rightly was she called “the bee,” for she fed on the flowers of the Scriptures, she was steeped in the fragrance of the Holy Spirit, and with prophetic lips she gathered the sweet juices of the nectar.  Naomi, in our language παρακεκλημένη, “she who is consoled,” when her husband and children died in a foreign land, carried her chastity back to her native country, and supported by that provision for her journey, kept with her the Moabite woman who was her son’s wife,50 that in her the prophecy of Isaiah might be fulfilled:  “Send out the lamb, O Lord, to rule over the land from the rock of the desert.”51  I come now to the widow in the Gospel, that poor humble widow who was richer than all the people of Israel.  She had but a grain of mustard seed, but she put her leaven into three measures of flour, and tempering her confession of the Father and Son with the grace of the Holy Spirit, she cast her two mites into the treasury.  All her substance and her entire wealth she offered in the double testament of her faith.  These are the two seraphim which glorify the Trinity with triple song, and are stored among the treasures of the Church.52  Hence, also, the double pincers wherewith the live coal is gripped to purge the sinner’s lips.
49.  Ps 118:103
50.  Ruth 1:6,16
51.  Isaiah 16:1
52.  Isaiah 6:2-8.
54:18Quid vetera repetam et virtutes feminarum de libris proferam, quum possis multas tibi ante oculos proponere in urbe qua vivis, quarum imitari exemplum debeas ?  Et ne videar adulatione per singulas currere, sufficit tibi sancta Marcella quæ, respondens generi suo, aliquid nobis de Evangelio rettulit.  Anna septem annis a virginitate sua vixerat cum marito, ista septem mensibus ;  illa Christi exspectabat adventum, ista tenet, quem illa susceperat ;  illa vagientem canebat ;  ista prædicat triumphantem ;  illa loquebatur de eo omnibus qui exspectabant redemptionem Hierusalem, hæc cum redemptis gentibus clamitat, « Frater non redimit, redimet homo », et de alio psalmo, « Homo natus est in ea et ipse fundavit eam Altissimus. »  Scio me ante hoc ferme biennium edidisse libros contra Jovinianum, quibus venientes e contrario quæstiones, ubi apostolus concedit secunda matrimonia, Scripturarum auctoritate contrivi.  Et non necesse est eadem ex integro scribere, quum possis inde, quæ scripta sunt, mutuari.  Hoc tantum, ne modum egrediar epistulæ, admonitam volo :  cogita te cottidie esse morituram, et nunquam de secundis nuptiis cogitabis. But why should I go back to ancient times and quote instances of female virtue from books?  Before your own eyes in Rome, where you are living now, you have many women whom you might well choose for your model.  I will not take them individually lest I should seem to flatter:  you may be content with one, the saintly Marcella who, while she maintains the glory of her family, has given us an example of the Gospel life.  Anna lived with a husband seven years from her virginity;  Marcella lived seven months.  Anna looked for the coming of Christ;  Marcella holds fast to the Lord whom Anna welcomed.  Anna sang of Him, when He was still a crying infant;  Marcella proclaims His triumph.  Anna spoke of Him to all those who were awaiting the redemption of Jerusalem;  Marcella cries aloud with the nations of the redeemed:  “A brother redeemeth not, yet a man shall redeem,”53 and from another psalm:  “A man was born in her and the Highest Himself hath established her.”54  About two years ago I know that I published a treatise against Jovinian,55 in which I refuted by the authority of the Scriptures the objections based on the apostle’s concession of second marriages.  It is unnecessary to repeat my arguments afresh, for you can borrow them from that book.  That I may not exceed the limits of a letter, I will give you this final piece of advice.  Think every day that you must die, and then you will never think of a second marriage.
53.  Ps 48:8
54.  Ps 86:5
55.  At one time a monk, later an opponent of Christian asceticism.  Pammachius sent a copy of his work to Jerome at Bethlehem and Jerome’s answer to it was written in 393.
{ 60 }
Epistula LX
Ad Heliodorum Epitaphium Nepotiani
A.D. 396
60:1Grandes materias ingenia parva non sufferunt, et in ipso conatu, ultra vires ausa, succumbunt ;  quantoque majus fuerit quod dicendum est, tanto magis obruitur, qui magnitudinem rerum verbis non potest explicare.  Nepotianus meus, tuus, noster, immo Christi — et quia Christi, idcirco plus noster — reliquit senes et desiderii sui jaculo vulneratos intolerabili dolore confecit.  Quem heredem putavimus, funus tenemus.  Cui jam meum sudabit ingenium ?  Cui litterulæ placere gestient ?  Ubi est ille ἐργοδιώκτης noster et cygneo canore vox dulcior ?  Stupet animus, manus tremit, caligant oculi, lingua balbutit.  Quicquid dixero, quia ille non audiet, mutum videtur.  Stilus ipse quasi sentiens, et cera subtristior vel rubigine vel situ obducitur.  Quotienscunque nītor in verba prorumpere, et super tumulum ejus epitaphii hujus flores spargere, totiens complentur oculi et, renovato dolore, totus in funere sum.  Moris quondam fuit, ut super cadavera defunctorum, in contione pro rostris, laudes liberi dicerent, et instar lugubrium carminum ad fletus et gemitus audientium pectora concitarent :  en rerum in nobis ordo mutatus est, et in calamitatem nostram perdidit sua jura natura :  quod exhibere senibus juvenis debuit, hoc juveni exhibemus senes. Small minds cannot deal adequately with great subjects;  if they venture beyond their strength they fail in the attempt;  and the greater the theme, the more completely is he overwhelmed who cannot find words to express its grandeur.  Nepotian who was mine and yours and ours — nay rather, who was Christ’s and because Christ’s therefore all the more ours — has left us in our old age overwhelmed with a grief that is past bearing, our hearts all sore with longing for him still.  We thought of him as our heir, but now we only have his dead body.  For whom now shall my mind exert itself?  Whom shall my poor writings strive to please?  Where is he, the inspirer of my labors, whose voice was sweeter than a swan’s song?  My heart is numbed, my hand trembles, my eyes are misty, my tongue stammers.  All that I say seems voiceless, for he no longer hears.  My very pen is rusty as though it felt his loss, my wax tablet looks dull and is covered over with mould.  Whenever I try to give vent to speech and to scatter the flowers1 of this funeral panegyric on his tomb, my eyes fill with tears, my pain begins again to rankle, and I can think of nothing but his death.  It was the ancient custom for children over the dead bodies of their parents to recite their praises on the platform of a public meeting, and as though by the singing of dirges to stir their audience to sobs and lamentations.  Behold, with us the order of things is changed, and nature has lost her rights in bringing this disaster upon us.  What the young man should have done for his elders, we his elders are doing now for him.
1.  Cf. Virgil, Æneid, 5:79, « purpureosque jacit flores » (on the tomb of Anchises).
60:2Quid igitur faciam ?  Jungam tecum lacrimis ?  Sed apostolus prohibet, Christianorum mortuos dormientes vocans, et Dominus in Evangelio, « Non est », inquit, « mortua puella, sed dormit. »  Lazarus quoque, quia dormierat, suscitatus est.  Læter et gaudeam, quod « raptus sit, ne malitia immutaret mentem ejus », quia placeret Deo anima illius ?  Sed invito et repugnanti per genas lacrimæ fluunt, et inter præcepta virtutum resurrectionisque spem, credulam mentem desiderii frangit affectus.  O mors, quæ fratres dividis et amore sociatos crudelis ac dura dissocias !  « Adduxit urentem ventum Dominus de deserto ascendentem, qui siccavit venas tuas et desolavit fontem tuum. »  Devorasti quidem Jonam, sed et in utero tuo vivus fuit.  Portasti quasi mortuum ut tempestas mundi conquiesceret et Nineve nostra illius præconio salvaretur.  Ille, ille te vicit, ille jugulavit fugitivus propheta qui reliquit domum suam, dedit dilectam animam suam in manus quærentium eam.  Qui per Osee quondam tibi rigidus minabatur, « Ero mors tua, o mors ;  ero morsus tuus, inferne ».  Illius morte tu mortua es ;  illius morte nos vivimus.  Devorasti et devorata es.  Dumque assumpti corporis sollicitaris illecebrā et avidis faucibus prædam putas, interiora tua adunco dente confossa sunt. What shall I do then?  Shall I join my tears to yours?  The apostle forbids, for he calls dead Christians “them which are asleep,”2 and the Lord in the Gospel says:  “The damsel is not dead but sleepeth.”3  Lazarus also, inasmuch as he had but fallen asleep, was raised back to life.  Shall I rather rejoice and be glad, that “speedily he was taken away lest that wickedness should alter his understanding,”4 for his soul was pleasing to the Lord?  Nay, though I struggle and try to fight against them, the tears still run down my cheeks, and in spite of virtue’s teaching and our hope of the resurrection a passion of regret is breaking my fond heart.  O death that partest brothers and dost unknit the close bonds of love, how cruel art thou and how stern!  “The Lord hath fetched a burning wind that cometh up from the wilderness:  which hath dried thy veins and hath made thy fountain desolate.”5  Thou didst swallow our Jonah, O death, but even in thy belly He lived.  Thou didst carry Him as one dead, that the storms of this world might be appeased and our Nineveh saved by His preaching.  He, He was thy conqueror, He it was who slew thee, the fugitive prophet who left His home, gave up His inheritance, and surrendered His dear life into the hands of those that sought it.  He it was who once by the mouth of Hosea uttered against thee the stern threat:  “O death, I will be thy death;  O grave, I will be thy destruction.”6  By His death thou art dead;  by His death we live.  Thou hast swallowed and thou art swallowed up, and while thou wert tempted by the lure of the body they had seized and thought it a prey for thy greedy jaws, lo!  thy inward parts are pierced with the hook’s carved teeth.
2.  1 Thess 4:13
3.  Mk 5:39
4.  Wisdom 4:11
5.  Hosea 13:15
6.  Hosea 13:14
60:3Gratias tibi, Christe Salvator, tua agimus creatura, quod tam potentem adversarium nostrum, dum occideris, occidisti.  Quis ante miserior homine qui, æterno mortis terrore prostratus, vivendi sensum ad hoc tantum acceperat, ut periret ?  « Regnavit », enim, « mors ab Adam usque ad Moysen etiam super eos qui non peccaverunt in similitudinem prævaricationis Adam. »  Si Abraham, Isaac et Jacob in inferno, quis in cælorum regno ?  Si amici tui sub pœna offendentis Adam et, qui non peccaverant, alienis peccatis tenebantur obnoxii, quid de his credendum est, qui dixerunt in cordibus suis, « non est Deus », qui « corrupti et abominabiles facti sunt in voluntatibus suis », qui « declinaverunt, simul inutiles facti sunt ;  non est, qui faciat bonum, non est usque ad unum ? » We Thy creatures render thanks to Thee, O Savior Christ, for that whilst Thou wert slain Thou didst slay our so mighty adversary.  Before Thy coming was there anything more miserable than man, who cowering in eternal fear of death had but received the sense of life that he might perish? “Death reigned from Adam to Moses even over them that had not sinned after the similitude of Adam’s transgression.”7  If Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob be in the tomb, who can be in the kingdom of heaven?  If thy friends who had not sinned 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,”8 men “corrupt and abominable in their self-will, who are gone out of the way, they are become unprofitable;  there is none that doeth good, no, not one”?9
Quodsi Lazarus videtur in sinu Abraham locoque refrigerii, quid simile infernus et regna cælorum ?  Ante Christum, Abraham apud inferos ;  post Christum, latro in paradiso.  Et idcirco in resurrectione ejus multa dormientium corpora surrexerunt et visa sunt in cælesti Hierusalem.  Tuncque completum est illud eloquium, « Surge, qui dormis, et elevare et illuminabit te Christus. »  Johannes Baptista in eremo personat, « Pænitentiam agite ;  appropinquavit enim regnum cælorum. »  A diebus enim Johannis Baptistæ regnum cælorum vim passum est et violenti diripuerunt illud.  Flamma illa romphæa, custos paradisi, et præsidentia foribus cherubin, Christi restincta et reserata sunt sanguine.  Nec mirum hoc nobis in resurrectione promitti, quum omnes qui in carne non secundum carnem vivimus, municipatum habeamus in cælo, et hīc adhuc positis dicatur in terra, « Regnum Dei intra vos est. » Even if Lazarus is seen in Abraham’s bosom and in a place of refreshment, what likeness can there be between the lower regions and the kingdom of heaven?  Before Christ Abraham was in the ground beneath;  after Christ the robber is in Paradise.  And therefore at His resurrection many bodies of those that slept arose and were seen in the heavenly Jerusalem.  Then was fulfilled the saying:  “Awake thou that sleepest, and arise from the dead, and Christ shall give thee light.”10  John the Baptist cries in the desert:  “Repent ye;  for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”11  For from the days of John the Baptist the kingdom of heaven suffered violence and the violent took it by force.  The flaming sword that guarded Paradise, and the cherubim that kept its doors, were alike quenched and unloosed by the blood of Christ.  Nor is it surprising that this is promised us at the resurrection, seeing that all of us, who now in the flesh live not after the manner of the flesh, have our citizenship in heaven, and while we are still here on earth we are told “the kingdom of heaven is within you.”12
7.  Rom 5:14
8.  Ps 13:1
9.  Ps 13:3
10.  Eph 5:14
11.  Mt 3:2
12.  Lk 17:21
60:4Adde quod ante resurrectionem Christi « notus  » tantum erat « in Judæa Deus ;  in Israël magnum nomen ejus », et ipsi qui noverant eum, tamen ad inferos trahebantur.  Ubi tunc totius orbis homines, ab India usque ad Britanniam, a rigida septentrionis plăga usque ad fervores Atlantici oceani, tam innumerabiles populi et tantarum gentium multitudines

« quam variæ linguis, habitu tam vestis et armis ? »

Piscium ritu ac locustarum et velut muscæ et culices conterebantur ;  absque notitia enim creatoris sui, omnis homo pecus est.  Nunc vero passionem Christi et resurrectionem ejus cunctarum gentium voces et litteræ sonant.  Taceo de Hebræis, Græcis et Latinis, quas nationes fidei suæ in crucis titulo Dominus dedicavit.  Immortalem animam et post dissolutionem corporis subsistentem, quod Pythagoras somniavit, Democritus non credidit, in consolationem damnationis suæ Socrates disputavit in carcere, Indus, Persa, Gothus, Ægyptius philosophantur.  Bessorum feritas et pellitorum turba populorum, qui mortuorum quondam inferiis homines immolabant, stridorem suum in dulce crucis fregerunt melos, et totius mundi una vox « Christus » est.

Moreover, before the resurrection of Christ God was “known” only “in Judah and his name was great in Israel,”13 and even those who knew Him were still dragged down to the nether world.  Where at that time were the inhabitants of the whole world from India to Britain, from the ice-bound northern zone to the burning heat of the Atlantic Ocean?  Where were its countless peoples, its thronging tribes

“In dress and arms as varied as in speech”?14

They were but packed together like fishes and locusts, flies and gnats;  for without knowledge of his Creator every man is but a brute.  But today the voices and the writings of all nations proclaim the passion and the resurrection of Christ.  I say nothing of the Hebrews, the Greeks, and the Latins, peoples whom the Lord dedicated to His faith by the inscription on His cross.  That immortality of the soul, and its existence after the dissolution of the body, which Pythagoras dreamed, Democritus would not believe, and Socrates discussed in prison to console himself for his conviction, that is now the common philosophy of Indian and Persian, Egyptian and Goth.  The savage Bessians15 and their host of skin-clad tribes, who used to offer human sacrifice to the dead, have now dissolved their rough discord into the sweet music of the Cross, and the whole world with one voice cries out, “Christ.”
13.  Ps 75:2
14.  Virgil, Æneid, 8:723
15.  A Thracian tribe.
60:5Quid agimus, anima ?  Quo nos vertimus ?  Quid primum assumimus ?  Quid tacemus ?  Exciderunt tibi præcepta rhetorum et, occupata luctu, oppressa lacrimis, præpedita singultibus, dicendi ordinem non tenes !  Ubi illud ab infantia studium litterarum et Anaxagoræ ac Telamonis semper laudata sententia :  « Sciebam me genuisse mortalem » ?  Legimus Crantorem, cujus volumen ad confovendum dolorem suum secutus est Cicero.  Platonis, Diogenis, Clitomachi, Carneadis, Posidonii ad sedandos luctus opuscula percurrimus, qui diversis ætatibus diversorum lamenta vel libris vel epistulis minuere sunt conati ut, etiamsi nostrum areret ingenium, de illorum posset fontibus irrigari :  proponunt innumerabiles viros et maxime Periclen et Xenophontem Socraticum, quorum alter, amissis duobus filiis, coronatus in contione disseruit, alter, quum, sacrificans, filium in bello audisset occisum, deposuisse coronam dicitur et eandem capiti reposuisse, postquam fortiter in acie dimicantem repperit concidisse. What shall we do, O my soul?  Whither shall we turn?  What theme shall we choose first?  What shall we omit?  Have you forgotten the precepts of the rhetoricians, and are you so preoccupied with grief, oppressed with tears, and hindered by sobs that you cannot keep to any ordered narrative?  Where now is that love of literature which you have cherished from childhood?  Where is the saying of Anaxagoras and Telamon which you always used to praise:  “I knew that I was born a mortal”?  I have read Crantor, whose treatise written to comfort his own grief Cicero16 imitated.  I have perused those works of Plato, Diogenes, Clitomachus, Carneades, and Posidonius, in which by book or letter they have tried at different times to lessen the sorrow of various persons and to console their grief.  Therefore, even if my own wits were dry, I could water them from these fountains.  They set before us men without number as examples, and particularly Pericles and Socrates’ pupil Xenophon.  The first, after the loss of his two sons, put on a garland and addressed a public meeting.  The second was offering sacrifice when news came that his son had been killed in battle;  thereupon, we are told, he took off his sacrificial garland, but replaced it when he heard that he had fallen fighting bravely.
Quid memorem Romanos duces quorum virtutibus, quasi quibusdam stellis, Latinæ micant historiæ ?  Pulvillus, Capitolium dedicans, mortuum (ut nuntiabatur) subito filium, se jussit absente sepeliri ;  Lucius Paulus, septem diebus inter duorum exsequias filiorum, triumphans urbem ingressus est.  Prætermitto Maximos, Catones, Gallos, Pisones, Brutos, Scævolas, Metellos, Scauros, Marios, Crassos, Marcellos atque Aufidios, quorum non minor in luctu quam in bellis virtus fuit et quorum orbitates in Consolationis libro Tullius explicavit — ne videar aliena potius quam nostra quæsisse.  Quanquam et hæc in suggilationem nostri breviter dicta sint, si non præstet fides, quod exhibuit infidelitas. Why should I speak of those Roman leaders whose virtues glitter like stars in the pages of Latin history?  Pulvillus was dedicating the Capitol when he was told that his son had suddenly died. “Bury him,” he said, “without me.”  Lucius Paulus in the week that intervened between the funerals of his two sons entered Rome in triumphal procession.  I pass over the Maximi, the Catos, the Galli, the Pisos, the Bruti, the Scaevolas, the Metelli, the Scauri, the Marii, the Crassi, the Marcelli and the Aufidii, men whose courage was as conspicuous in their sorrows as in their wars.  Cicero has dealt with their bereavements in his book On Consolation, and of them I will say no more, lest I should seem to seek examples from strangers rather than from our own community.  And yet even these brief mentions might serve as a mortification to us, if faith were not to give us what unbelief afforded them.
16.  in the now lost De Consolatione.
60:6Igitur ad nostra veniamus.  Non plangam cum Jacob et David filios in Lege morientes, sed cum Christo in Evangelio suscipiam resurgentes.  Judæorum luctus Christianorum gaudium est.  « Ad vesperum demorabitur fletus, et ad matutinum lætitia. »  « Nox præcessit, dies autem appropinquavit. »  Unde et Moyses moriens plangitur, Jesus absque funere et lacrimis in monte sepelitur.  Quicquid de Scripturis super lamentatione dici potest, in eo libro quo Paulam Romæ consolati sumus, breviter explicavimus.  Nunc nobis per aliam semitam ad eundem locum perveniendum est, ne videamur præterita et obsoleta quondam calcare vestigia. Let us come then to our people.  I will not weep with Jacob and David for sons who died under the Law, but with Christ I will welcome those who rise again under the Gospel dispensation.  The Jew’s mourning is the Christian’s joy. “Weeping may endure for a night but joy cometh in the morning.”17  “The night is far spent, the day is at hand.”18  Wherefore even Moses is lamented when he dies;  Joshua is buried on a mountain-top without funeral or tears.  All that can be drawn from the Scriptures on the subject of lamentation I have briefly set out in the letter of consolation which I wrote to Paula at Rome.  Now I must traverse another path to arrive at the same goal, for I would not have people see me treading again an old and used-up track.
17.  Ps 29:6
18.  Rom 13:12
60:7Scimus quidem Nepotianum nostrum esse cum Christo et sanctorum mixtum choris — quod nobiscum eminus rimabatur in terris et æstimatione quærebat, ibi videntem comminus dicere, « Sicut audivimus, ita et vidimus in civitate Domini virtutum, in civitate Dei nostri »,  Sed desiderium absentiæ ejus ferre non possumus, non illius, sed nostram, vicem dolentes.  Quanto ille felicior, tanto nos amplius in dolore, quod tali caremus bono.  Flebant et sorores Lazarum, quem resurrecturum noverant et, ut veros hominis exprimeret affectus, ipse Salvator ploravit, quem suscitaturus erat.  Apostolus quoque ejus, qui dixerat, « Cupio dissolvi et esse cum Christo » et alibi, « Mihi, vivere, Christus est, et mori, lucrum », gratias agit, quod Epaphras de mortis sibi vicinia redditus sit, ne haberet tristitiam super tristitiam — non incredulitatis metu, sed desiderio caritatis.  Quanto magis tu, et avunculus et episcopus — hoc est in carne et in spiritu pater — aves viscera tua et quasi a te divulsa suspiras !  Sed obsecro ut modum adhibeas in dolore, memor illius sententiæ, « Ne quid nimis  », obligatoque parumper vulnere, audias laudes ejus cujus semper virtute lætatus es, nec doleas quod talem amiseris, sed gaudeas quod talem habueris et, sicut hi qui in brevi tabella terrarum sĭtūs pingunt, ita in parvo isto volumine cernas adumbrata — non expressa — signa virtutum, suscipiasque a nobis non vires, sed voluntatem. We know, indeed, that our dear Nepotian is with Christ, and that he has joined the choirs of the saints.  We know that what here with us on earth he groped after at a distance and sought by guess-work, there he sees face to face and can say:  “As we have heard so we have seen in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God.”19  But we cannot bear our regret at his absence, and we grieve not on his account but for ourselves.  The greater his happiness, the deeper our pain in lacking the blessings that he enjoys.  The sisters of Lazarus wept for their brother, although they knew that he would rise again, and the Savior Himself, to show that He possessed true human feelings, mourned for the man He was going to raise.  His apostle also who said:  “I desire to depart and be with Christ,”20 and in another place:  “To me, to live is Christ, and to die is gain,”21 thanks God that Epaphras has been given back to him when he was nigh to death, that he might not have sorrow upon sorrow.  His words were spoken not in unbelieving fear but in loving regret, and how much more keenly must you who were both uncle and bishop, a father both in the flesh and the spirit, yearn for this vital part of yourself and sigh over it, torn, as it were, from your insides.  But I urge you to put a limit to your grief, and to remember the famous maxim, “Nothing too much.”22  Bind up your wound for a little while, and listen to the praises of the man whose virtue always caused you delight.  Do not grieve that you have lost such a paragon, but rather rejoice that he once was yours.  Like those who paint maps on small tables, in this little book you may see indications of his virtues drawn in outline, not depicted in detail.  Accept from me my not my inability, but my goodwill.
19.  Ps 47:9
20.  Phil 1:23
21.  Phil 1:21
22.  The Greek proverb μηδὲν ἄγαν
60:8Præcepta sunt rhetorum ut majores ejus qui laudandus est, et eorum altius gesta, repetantur, sicque ad ipsum per gradus sermo perveniat, quo videlicet avitis paternisque virtutibus illustrior fiat et aut non degenerasse a bonis, aut mediocres ipse ornasse videatur.  Ego carnis bona, quæ semper et ipse contempsit, in animæ laudibus non requiram, nec me jactabo de genere — id est de alienis bonis — quum et Abraham et Isaac, sancti viri, Ismaëlem et Esau peccatores genuerint et e regione Jephte in catalogo justorum apostoli voce numeratus de meretrice sit natus.  « Anima », inquit, « quæ peccaverit, ipsa morietur » ;  ergo et quæ non peccaverit, ipsa vivet.  Nec virtutes nec vitia parentum liberis imputantur ;  ab eo tempore censemur, e quo in Christo renascimur.  Paulus, persecutor ecclesiæ et mane lupus rapax Benjamin, ad vesperam dedit escam, Ananiæ ovi summittens caput.  Igitur et Nepotianus noster quasi infantulus vagiens et rudis puer subito nobis de Jordane nascatur. The rhetoricians’ rule is that you should go back to the ancestors of the man to be praised, and their glorious deeds, and thus by stages come to your hero, making him the more illustrious by the virtues of his forefathers and father, and showing either that he has not degenerated from a worthy stock, or that he has brought honor to a mediocre line.  I for my part in praising Nepotian’s soul shall not trouble about the fleshly advantages which he himself always despised, nor shall I boast of his family, that is, of other people’s merits.  Even such holy men as Abraham and Isaac were the fathers of sinners like Ishmael and Esau, while Jephthah, on the other hand, who is reckoned by the apostle in the roll of the righteous, was the son of a harlot.  The Scripture says:  “The soul that sinneth, it shall die.”23  Therefore, also, the soul that hath not sinned shall live.  Neither the virtues nor the vices of parents should be set to the children’s account.  That reckoning begins with the hour when we are born again in Christ.  Paul, the persecutor of the Church, who in the morning was Benjamin,24 a ravening wolf, in the evening bowed his head and gave food to the sheep Ananias.25  And so let our Nepotianus too, like a crying baby or a young boy, be freshly born to us out of the Jordan.
23.  Ezek 18:4
24.  Paul belonged to the tribe of Benjamin, and Benjamin is described as a ravening wolf, cf. Genesis 49:27.  Paul, a Benjamite, had acted like a wolf in persecuting the Church.
25.  Who baptized Paul, cf. Acts 9:10ff.
60:9Alius forsitan scriberet quod, ob salutem illius, orientem eremumque dimiseris, et me, carissimum sodalem tuum, redeundi spe lactaveris ut primum, si fieri posset, sororem cum parvulo viduam, dein, si consilium illa respueret, saltem nepotem dulcissimum, conservares.  Hic est enim ille de quo tibi quondam vaticinatus sum, « Licet parvulus e collo pendeat nepos. »  Referret, inquam, alius quod, in palatii militia, sub chlamyde et candenti lino, corpus ejus cilicio tritum sit ;  quod, stans ante sæculi potestates, lurida jejuniis ora portaverit ;  quod, adhuc sub alterius indumentis, alteri militarit, et ad hoc habuerit cingulum, ut viduis, pupillis, oppressis, miseris subveniret.  Mihi non placent dilationes istæ imperfectæ servitutis Dei ;  et centurionem Cornelium, ut lego justum, statim audio baptizatum. Another might perhaps describe how for his salvation you left the East and the desert, and how you fed me, your dearest comrade, with hopes of your return;  desiring in the first place, if it were possible, to save your widowed sister and her little son, or, if she rejected your counsels, at least to preserve your dear little nephew.  He is the child of whom I once used the prophetic words, “though your little nephew cling to your neck.”26  Another, I repeat, might tell how, while he was a soldier at court, beneath his military cloak and white linen tunic his skin was chafed by sackcloth;  how, while he stood before the powers of this world, his lips were pale with fasting;  how, while he wore one master’s uniform, he served another;  and how he only wore a sword-belt that he might succor the widow and the fatherless, the wretched and the oppressed.  For my own part I do not like an incomplete or a deferred dedication to God’s service, and when I read of the centurion Cornelius that he was a just man I immediately hear of him as being baptized.27
26.  Cf. Letter 14:2
27.  Acts ch. 10
60:10Verumtamen velut incunabula quædam nascentis fidei comprobemus ut, qui sub alienis signis devotus miles fuit, donandus laurea sit postquam suo regi cœperit militare.  Balteo posito habituque mutato, quicquid castrensis peculii fuit, in pauperes erogavit.  Legerat enim, « Qui vult perfectus esse, vendat omnia quæ habet, et det pauperibus et sequatur me » ;  et iterum, « Non potestis duobus dominis servire, Deo et mammonæ. »  Excepta vili tunica et operimento pari quod, tecto tantum corpore, frigus excluderet, nihil sibi amplius reservavit.  Cultus ipse provinciæ morem sequens, nec munditiis nec sordibus notabilis erat.  Quumque arderet cottidie aut ad Ægypti monasteria pergere aut Mesopotamiæ invisere choros vel certe insularum Dalmatiæ, quæ Altino tantum freto distant, solitudines occupare, avunculum pontificem deserere non audebat, tota in illo cernens exempla virtutum, domique habens, unde disceret.  In uno atque eodem, et imitabatur monachum et episcopum venerabatur.  Non, ut in plerisque accidere solet, assiduitas familiaritatem, familiaritas contemptum illius fecerat, sed ita eum colebat quasi parentem, ita admirabatur quasi cottidie novum cerneret. Still, we may approve of all this as being the cradlings of a new-born faith.  He who has been a loyal soldier under a foreign banner is sure to deserve the laurel when he begins to serve his own king.  When Nepotian laid aside his soldier’s belt and changed his dress, he gave all his army savings to the poor.  For he had read the words:  “If thou wilt be perfect, sell that thou hast, and give to the poor and follow me,”28 and again:  “Ye cannot serve two masters, God and Mammon.”29  He kept nothing for himself except a cheap tunic and like cloak to protect him from the cold.  His dress was of provincial cut, not noticeable either for elegance or for shabbiness.  Every day he burned either to go to the monasteries of Egypt, or to visit the saintly companies of Mesopotamia, or at least to take up his dwelling in the lonely spaces of the Dalmatian islands, separated from Altinum only by a strait.30  But he could not bring himself to desert his episcopal uncle, in whom he saw a pattern of every virtue and from whose lessons he could profit at home.  In one and the same person he had a monk to imitate and a bishop to revere.  With him it was not as so often with many;  intimacy did not breed familiarity, nor familiarity contempt.  He honored his bishop as though he had been his father;  he admired him as though every day he saw in him a new man.
Quid multa ?  Fit clericus et per solitos gradus presbyter ordinatur.  Jesu bone, qui gemitus, qui ejulatus, quæ cibi interdictio, quæ fuga oculorum omnium !  Tum primum et solum avunculo iratus est.  Querebatur se ferre non posse, et juvenalem ætatem incongruam sacerdotio causabatur.  Sed quanto plus repugnabat, tanto magis omnium in se studia concitabat ;  et merebatur negando quod esse nolebat — eoque dignior erat, quod se clamabat indignum.  Vidimus Timotheum nostri temporis, et cānos in Sapientia, electumque a Moysi presbyterum quem ipse sciret esse presbyterum.  Igitur, clericatum non honorem intellegens, sed onus, primam curam habuit ut humilitate superaret invidiam.  Deinde, ut nullam obsceni in se rumoris fabulam daret ut, qui mordebantur ad ætatem ejus, stuperent ad continentiam ;  subvenire pauperibus, visitare languentes, provocare hospitio, lenire blanditiis, « gaudere cum gaudentibus, flere cum flentibus ».  Cæcorum baculus, esurientium cibus, spes miserorum, solamen lugentium fuit.  Ita in singulis virtutibus eminebat, quasi ceteras non haberet. To be brief, Nepotian became a clergyman, and passing through the usual orders was ordained as presbyter.31  Good Jesus!  How he sobbed and groaned!  How he forbade himself food and fled from the eyes of all!  For the first and only time he was angry with his uncle, complaining that he could not bear his burden and alleging that his youth unfitted him for the priesthood.  But the more he resisted, the more he drew to himself the love of all;  his refusal showed him worthy of the rank he did not wish to take;  all the more worthy indeed because he proclaimed his unworthiness.  We too in our day have had a Timothy before our eyes;  we too have seen the grey hairs of which the Book of Wisdom speaks;32  our Moses has chosen a presbyter whom he knew to be a presbyter indeed.  Nepotian regarded the clerical office not as an honor but as a burden.  He made it his first care to silence envy by humility, his second to give no ground for scandal against him and by continence to dumbfound those who railed against his youth.  He helped the poor, visited the sick, challenged others to acts of hospitality, soothed men’s anger with soft words, “rejoiced with those who rejoiced and wept with those who wept.”33  He was a staff to the blind, food to the hungry, hope to the wretched, a consolation to the sorrowful.  Each single virtue was as conspicuous in him as if he possessed no others.
Inter presbyteros et coæquales primus in opere, extremus in ordine.  Quicquid boni fecerat, ad avunculum referebat ;  si quid forte aliter evenerat quam putarat, illum nescire, se errasse dicebat.  In publico episcopum, domi patrem noverat.  Gravitatem morum hilaritate frontis temperabat.  Gaudium risu, non cachinno, intellegeres.  Viduas et virgines Christi honorare ut matres, hortari ut sorores cum omni castitate.  Jam vero, postquam domum se contulerat et, relicto foris clerico, duritiæ se tradiderat monachorum.  Creber in orationibus, vigilans in precando, lacrimas Deo, non hominibus, offerebat ;  jejunia, in aurigæ modum, pro lassitudine et viribus corporis moderabatur. Among his fellow-presbyters and equals in age, he was first in diligence, last in rank.  Any good that he did he ascribed to his uncle;  if the result was different from what he had expected, he would say that his uncle knew nothing of the matter and that it was his own mistake.  In public he recognized him as a bishop, at home he treated him as a father.  The gravity of his character was tempered by the cheerfulness of his looks.  A smile, not a guffaw, was the sign that he felt glad.  Widows and Christ’s virgins he honored as mothers, and exhorted as sisters, with all chastity.  On his return home he left the clergyman outside, and submitted himself to the hard rule of a monk.  Frequent in supplication, wakeful in prayer, he offered his tears not to men but to God.  His fasts he regulated, as a charioteer does his pace, by the weariness or the vigor of his body.
Mensæ avunculi intererat et, sic apposita quæque libabat, ut et superstitionem fugeret et continentiam reservaret.  Sermo ejus et omne convivium de Scripturis aliquid proponere, libenter audire, respondere verecunde, recta suscipere, prava non acriter confutare, disputantem contra se magis docere quam vincere et, ingenuo pudore qui ornabat ætatem, quid cujus esset simpliciter confiteri atque, in hunc modum eruditionis gloriam declinando, eruditissimus habebatur.  « Illud », ajebat, « Tertulliani, istud Cypriani, hoc Lactantii, illud Hilarii est.  Sic Minucius Felix, ita Victorinus, in hunc modum est locutus Arnobius. »  Me quoque, quia pro sodalitate avunculi diligebat, interdum proferebat in medium.  Lectione quoque assidua et meditatione diuturna, pectus suum bibliothecam fecerat Christi. He would sit at his uncle’s table and taste just enough of what was set before him to both avoid superstition and yet keep to his rule of self-restraint.  His chief topic of conversation and his favorite form of entertainment was to bring forward some passage from the Scriptures for discussion;  then he would listen modestly, answer diffidently, support the right, and mildly refute the wrong, instructing his opponent rather than vanquishing him.  With the ingenuous modesty which was one of his youthful charms he would frankly confess the source of each argument he used, and in this way, by disclaiming any reputation for learning, he gradually came to be considered the most learned of us all. “This,” he would say, “is Tertullian’s view and this is Cyprian’s;  this is the opinion of Lactantius and this of Hilary;  such is the doctrine of Minucius Felix, so Victorinus teaches, in this fashion Arnobius speaks.”  Myself too he sometimes quoted, for he loved me because of my association with his uncle.  Indeed, by constant reading and long meditation he had made his mind a library of Christ.
28.  Mt 19:21
29.  Mt 6:24
30.  Altinum, in Venetia, on the border of the lagoons, and opposite Torcello island, to which the episcopal see was transferred in A.D. 635.
31.  A monk — monachus — originally was a solitary living in the desert, but after the time of St. Basil monks were usually organized in communities under a rule, and devoted their time to prayer, meditation and useful work.  If a monk wished to enter the ministry of the Church, he had to be ordained as deacon by a bishop.  He then normally lived in a city and had a cure of souls.
32.  Wisdom 4:8f.  « senectus enim venerabilis est non diuturna, neque annorum numero computata :  cani autem sunt sensus hominis, et ætas senectutis vita immaculata. » (“For venerable old age is not that of long time, nor counted by the number of years:  but the understanding of a man is grey hairs.  And a spotless life is old age.”)
33.  Rom 12:15
60:11Quotiens ille transmarinis epistulis deprecatus est, ut aliquid ad se scriberem !  Quotiens nocturnum de Evangelio petitorem et interpellatricem duri judicis mihi viduam exhibuit !  Quumque ego silentio magis quam litteris denegarem et pudore reticentis pudorem suffunderem postulantis, avunculum mihi opposuit precatorem, qui et liberius pro alio peteret et pro reverentia sacerdotii facilius impetraret.  Feci ergo quod voluit et, brevi libello, amicitias nostras æternæ memoriæ consecravi ;  quo suscepto, Crœsi opes et Darii divitias se vicisse jactabat.  Illum oculis, illum sinu, illum manibus, illum ore retinebat ;  quumque in stratu frequenter evolveret, super pectus soporati, dulcis pagina decidebat. How often did he beg me in his letters from across the sea to write something for him!  How often did he remind me of the man in the Gospel who sought help by night, and of the widow who importuned the harsh judge!  When he found that I did not write and saw himself checked by my silence, and that I overspread the modesty of his request with the modesty of my refusal, he made another move.  He got his uncle to ask on his behalf, knowing that a request for another could be more freely made and that my respect for a bishop would ensure him an easier success.  Accordingly I did what he wished, and in a short treatise34 dedicated our friendships to eternal remembrance, while he on receiving it boasted that he surpassed the wealth of Croesus and the treasures of Darius.  He would always hold my book in his hands, devour it with his eyes, fondle it in his breast, and repeat it with his lips.  In bed he would frequently undo the roll and fall asleep with the dear page upon his heart.
Si vero peregrinorum, si amicorum quispiam venerat, lætabatur super se nostro testimonio ;  et quicquid minus in opusculo erat, distinctione moderata et pronuntiationis varietate pensabat, ut in recitando illo ipse35 vel placere vel displicere cottidie videretur.  Unde hic fervor, nisi ex amore Dei ?  Unde legis Christi indefessa meditatio, nisi e desiderio ejus qui legem dedit ?  Alii nummum addant nummo ;  et, marsuppium suffocantes, matronarum opes vēnentur obsequiis ;  sint ditiores monachi quam fuerant sæculares ;  possideant opes sub Christo paupere, quas sub locuplete diabolo non habuerant ;  et suspiret eos ecclesia divites quos tenuit mundus ante mendicos :  Nepotianus noster, aurum calcans, schedulas consectatur, sed, sicut sui in carne contemptor est, et paupertate incedit ornatior, ita totum ecclesiæ investigat ornatum. If a stranger or a friend came in, he used to take delight in the evidence of my regard for him;  and anything lacking in my poor work was compensated for by careful modulation and varied emphasis, so that, when it was read aloud, it was he himself, not I, who seemed to please or to displease.  Whence could this fervor come save from love of God?  Whence this tireless meditation on the law of Christ save from longing for Him who gave that law?  Let others add shilling to shilling and, stuffing their purses to the brim, hunt with their flattery the wealth of married ladies;  let them be richer as monks than they were as men of the world;  let them possess wealth in the service of a poor Christ such as they never had in the service of a rich devil;  let the Church sigh over the opulence of men who in the world were beggars.  Our dear Nepotian tramples gold underfoot, books are the only things he desires.  But while he despises himself in the flesh and walks abroad in splendid poverty, he yet seeks out everything that may adorn his church.
34.  In Letter 52.
35.  ipso :  Hilberg.
60:12Ad comparationem quidem superiorum modica sunt quæ dicturi sumus, sed et in parvis idem animus ostenditur.  Ut enim creatorem non in cælo tantum miramur et terra, sole et oceano, elephantis, camelis, equis, bobus, pardis, ursis, leonibus, sed et in minutis quoque animalibus, formica, culice, muscis, vermiculis et istius modi genere, quorum magis corpora scimus quam nomina, eandemque in cunctis veneramur sollertiam, ita mens Christo dedita æque et in majoribus et in minoribus intenta est, sciens etiam pro otioso verbo reddendam esse rationem.  Erat ergo sollicitus, si niteret altare, si parietes absque fuligine, si pavimenta tersa, si janitor creber in porta, vela semper in ostiis, si sacrarium mundum, si vasa lucentia ;  et in omnes cærimonias pia sollicitudo disposita non minus, non majus neglegebat officium.  Ubicunque eum in ecclesia quæreres, invenies. In comparison with what I have already said the following details are trivial;  but even in small things the same spirit is revealed.  We admire the Creator, not only as the framer of heaven and earth, of sun and ocean, of elephants, camels, horses, oxen, leopards, bears and lions, but also as the maker of tiny creatures, ants, gnats, flies, worms, and the like, things whose shapes we know better than their names.  And as in all creation we reverence His skill, so the mind that is given to Christ is equally earnest in small things as in great, knowing that an account must be given even for an idle word.  Nepotian therefore took anxious pains to keep the altar bright, to have the walls free from soot and the pavement duly swept.  He saw to it that the doorkeeper was constantly at his post, that the drapes were always hanging at the entrance, that the sanctuary was neat, and the church-vessels brightly polished.  His careful reverence extended to every form of ceremonial, and no duty, small or great, was neglected.  Whenever you looked for him in his church, there you found him.
Nobilem virum Quintum Fabium miratur antiquitas, qui etiam Romanæ scriptor historiæ est, sed magis e pictura quam litteris nomen invenit ;  et Beselehel nostrum, plenum sapientia et spiritu, Dei Scriptura testatur — Hiram quoque, filium mulieris Tyriæ, quod alter tabernaculi, alter templi supellectilem fabricati sunt.  Quomodo enim lætæ segetes et uberes agri interdum culmis aristisque luxuriant, ita præclara ingenia et mens plena virtutibus in variarum artium redundat elegantiam.  Unde apud Græcos philosophus ille laudatur, qui omne quod uteretur, usque ad pallium et anulum, manu sua factum gloriatus est.  Hoc idem possumus et de isto dicere, qui basilicas ecclesiæ et martyrum conciliabula diversis floribus et arborum comis, vītiumque pampinis adumbraret ut, quicquid placebat in ecclesia, tam dispositione quam visu, laborem presbyteri et studium testaretur. In Quintus Fabius36 antiquity admired a man of rank, who not only wrote a history of Rome but won even greater fame from his paintings than from his books.  Our own Bezaleel also and Hiram,37 the son of a Tyrian woman, are spoken of in Scripture as men filled with wisdom and the spirit of God, because one made the furniture of the tabernacle, the other that of the temple.  As rich crops and fertile fields are at times one great luxuriance of stalk and ear, so great talents and minds that are filled with virtue overflow into a variety of elegant accomplishments.  So among the Greeks the great philosopher38 was praised, who boasted that he had made with his own hands everything which he used, including his cloak and his finger-ring.  We can say the same about Nepotian, for he adorned the church-buildings and the assembly-halls of the martyrs with different kinds of flowers and with the foliage of trees and clusters of vine leaves.  Indeed, everything in his church that pleased by its arrangement or its appearance bore witness to the labor and the zeal of its presbyter.
36.  Jerome here confuses C. Fabius Pictor the painter (fl. 300) with his grandson, Quintus the historian.
37.  Exodus 31:2-11 & 3 Kings 7:13f.
38.  Hippias of Elis.
60:13Macte virtute !  Cujus talia principia, qualis finis erit ?  O miserabilis humana condicio et, sine Christo, vanum omne quod vivimus.  Quid te subtrahis, quid tergiversaris, oratio ?  Quasi enim mortem illius differe possimus et vitam facere longiorem, sic timemus ad ultimum pervenire.  « Omnis caro fenum, et omnis gloria ejus, quasi flos feni. »  Ubi nunc decora illa facies, ubi totius corporis dignitas, quo veluti pulchro indumento pulchritudo animæ vestiebatur ?  Marcescebat, pro dolor, flante austro, lilium, et purpura violæ in pallorem sensim migrabat.  Quumque æstuaret febribus et venarum fontes hauriret calor, lasso anhelitu tristem avunculum consolabatur.  Lætus erat vultus et, universis circa plorantibus, solus ipse ridebat.  Projicere pallium, manus extendere, videre quod alii non videbant, et quasi in occursum se erigens salutare venientes :  intellegeres illum non emori, sed migrare, et mutare amicos, non relinquere.  Volvuntur per ora lacrimæ et, obfirmato animo, non queo dolorem dissimulare quem patior.  Quis crederet in tali illum tempore nostræ necessitudinis recordari et, luctante anima, studiorum scire dulcedinem ?  Apprehensa avunculi manu, « Hanc », inquit, « tunicam, qua utebar in ministerio Christi, mitte dilectissimo mihi, ætate patri, fratri collegio, et, quicquid a te nepoti debebatur affectus, in illum transfer, quem mecum pariter diligebas. »  Atque in talia verba defecit — avunculum manu, me recordatione, contrectans. A blessing on such virtue!  Given such beginnings of the man, what sort of ending will there be?  How miserable is the condition of man, how vain is all our life without Christ!  Why do you shrink, O my words, why do you hesitate?  I fear to come to the end, as though I could put off his death and make his life longer. “All flesh is as grass and all the glory of man as the flower of grass.”39  Where now is that comely face, where is that dignified figure, which clothed his fair soul as with a fair garment?  O grief!  The lily withered when the south wind blew, and the violet’s purple slowly faded into paleness.  He burned with fever, the heat draining the fonts of his veins, but gasping and weary he still tried to comfort his uncle’s grief.  His face was bright, and while all around him wept, he alone smiled.40  Suddenly he flung off his cloak and stretched out his hands, seeing something that was not revealed to others’ eyes, and raising himself up as though to meet them he greeted those that were coming to him.  You would have thought that he was starting on a journey, not dying, and that he was exchanging friends, not leaving friends behind.  The tears roll down my face, and though I steel my courage I cannot hide the pain which I suffer.  Who would believe that in such an hour he still remembered our friendship, and that while he was struggling for life he still recalled the delights of study?  Grasping his uncle’s hand he said:  “Send this tunic which I wore in the service of Christ to my beloved friend, my father in age and my brother in office, and any affection due to your nephew transfer to him, who is as dear to you as he is to me.”  With these words he passed away, his uncle’s hand in his, and thoughts of me in his heart.
39.  Isaias 40:6  &  1 Peter 1:24
40.  This passage may have inspired the lines by Sir Willaim Jones (1746-1794), “To a friend on his birthday”:
    “On parents’ knee a naked newborn child
    Weeping thou sat’st, while all around thee smiled;
    So live, that, sinking to thy life’s last sleep,
    Calm thou mayst smile, while all around thee weep.”
(Cf. also Letter 127:14)
60:14Scio quod nolueris amorem in te civium sic probare, et affectum patriæ magis quæsisse in prosperis.  Sed hujuscemodi officium in bonis jucundius est, in malis gratius.  Tota hunc civitas, tota planxit Italia.  Corpus terra suscepit, anima Christo reddita est.  Tu nepotem quærebas, ecclesia sacerdotem.  Præcessit te successor tuus.  Quod tu eras, ille post te, judicio omnium, merebatur.  Atque ita ex una domo duplex pontificatus egressa est dignitas :  dum in altero gratulatio est, quod tenuerit, in altero mæror, quod raptus sit ne teneret.  Platonis sententia est omnem sapienti vitam meditationem esse mortis.  Laudant hoc philosophi et in cælum ferunt, sed multo fortius apostolus, « Cottidie », inquit, « morior per vestram gloriam. »  Aliud est conari, aliud agere ;  aliud vivere moriturum, aliud mori victurum.  Ille moriturus e gloria est ;  iste moritur semper ad gloriam. I know that you did not want to prove your people’s love in such a way, and to have sought your country’s affection under happier circumstances.  But such dutiful attentions as were shown you then, while more pleasant in prosperity, are especially welcome in times of grief.  All Altinum, all Italy wept for your nephew.  The earth received his body, his soul was given back to Christ.  You lost a nephew, the Church a priest.  He who should have followed you went before you.  What you were, he in all men’s judgment deserved to be.  One household has had the honor of producing two bishops, the first congratulated on having held office, the second lamented on being taken away before he could hold it.  There is a saying of Plato that a wise man’s whole life should be a preparation for death.41  Philosophers praise the sentiment and laud it to the skies, but the apostle speaks with a higher courage when he says:  “By my glory in you I die daily.”42  It is one thing to attempt, another to do;  one thing to live so as to die, another to die so as to live.  The sage passes from glory when death comes, the Christian always proceeds to glory when he dies.
Debemus igitur et nos animo præmeditari quod aliquando futuri sumus et quod — velimus nolimus — abesse longius non potest.  Nam si nongentos vitæ excederemus annos, ut ante diluvium vivebat humanum genus, et Mathusalæ nobis tempora donarentur, tamen nihil esset præterita longitudo, quæ esse desisset.  Etenim inter eum qui decem vixit annos et illum qui mille, postquam idem vitæ finis advenerit et irrecusabilis mortis necessitas, transactum omne tantundem est — nisi quod magis senex onustus peccatorum fasce proficiscitur.

« Optima quæque dies miseris mortalibus ævi
Prima fugit ;  subeunt morbi tristisque senectus,
Et labor et duræ rapit inclementia mortis. »

Nævius poëta « Pati », inquit, « necesse est multa mortalem mala. »  Unde et Niobam, qui multum fleverit in lapidem {— et in diversas bestias conversas alias, et Hecubam in canem —} commutatam finxit antiquitas, et Hesiodus, natales hominum plangens, gaudet in funere.  Prudenterque Ennius :

« Plebes », ait, « in hoc regi antistat loco :  licet
Lacrimare plebi, regi honeste non licet. »

Therefore we too ought to meditate beforehand that at some point we will be there and that, whether we like it or not, it cannot be far off.  Even if we lived for nine hundred years and more, as men did before the flood, even if the age of Methuselah were granted to us, that length of time once passed would be nothing when it had ceased to be.  Between the man who has lived for ten years and the man who has lived for a thousand, there is no difference when once the end of life has come to both alike and death’s inexorable necessity, except that the old man departs more heavily burdened with a bundle of sins.

“O hapless men! the brightest years are first
To fly:  disease and age come on us soon
And trouble and the ruthlessness of death.”43

So the poet Naevius says:  “Mortals perforce must many ills endure.”  Therefore antiquity feigned that Niobe, because of her long weeping, was turned into stone{, and that other women were changed into various kinds of animals, Hecuba, for example, into a dog}.  Hesiod too bewails men’s birthdays and rejoices at their death, and Ennius wisely says:

“In this situation the masses have the advantage over a king,
For they are allowed to weep;  it is not becomingly allowed to a king.”44

Ut regi, sic episcopo, immo minus regi quam episcopo.  Ille enim nolentibus præest, hic volentibus ;  ille terrore subjicit, hic servitute dominatur ;  ille corpora custodit ad mortem, hic animas servat ad vitam.  In te omnium oculi diriguntur, domus tua et conversatio quasi in specula constituta magistra est publicæ disciplinæ.  Quicquid feceris, id sibi omnes faciendum putant.  Cave ne committas quod aut, qui reprehendere volunt, digne lacerasse videantur aut, qui imitari, cogantur delinquere.  Vince quantum potes, immo plus quam potes, mollitiem animi tui, et ubertim fluentes lacrimas reprime ne grandis pietas in nepotem apud incredulas mentes desperatio putetur in Deum.  Desiderandus tibi est quasi absens, non quasi mortuus, ut illum exspectare, non amisisse videaris. As with a king, so with a bishop:  or rather, less so with a king than a bishop.  The king rules over the unwilling, the bishop over the willing.  The king subdues by inspiring fear, the bishop is master because he is servant.  The king guards bodies for future death, the bishop saves souls for eternal life.  The eyes of all men are turned upon you, your house and manner of living are set as it were upon a watch-tower ;  they are the teacher of public indoctrination.  Whatever you do, everyone thinks that he may do also.  Take care not to commit any act which those who wish to reprove you may seem to have censured properly, or which would force those who wish to imitate you to do wrong.  Use all your strength, and even more, to overcome the softness of your heart, and check the copious flood of your tears lest your great love for your nephew be taken by unbelievers as showing despair of God.  You must regret him not as one who is dead, but as one who has gone away.  Let men see that you have not lost him, but are waiting to see him again.
41.  Plato, Phædo, 81a, says of the philosophic life:  ἢ οὺ τοῦτʹ ἂν εἴη μελέτη θανάτου ; (“[Far from it, dear Cebes and Simmias, but the truth is much rather this — if it (the soul) departs pure, dragging with it nothing of the body, because it never willingly associated with the body in life, but avoided it and gathered itself into itself alone, since this has always been its constant study — but this means nothing else than that it pursued philosophy rightly and really practiced being in a state of death:] or is not this the practice of death?”)
42.  Modifying 1 Cor 15:31 into :  νὴ τὴν ὑμετέραν καύχησιν ἣν ἔχω ἐν ὑμῖν {“By your boasting, which I have in you”}.  (1 Cor 15:31 actually reads νὴ τὴν ὑμετέραν καύχησιν, ἀδελφοί, ἣν ἔχω ἐν Χριστῷ Ἰησοῦ τῷ κυρίῳ ἡμῶν {“By your boasting, brothers, which I have in Christ Jesus, our Lord”}.)  But Jerome takes advantage of the Vulgate to play on the phrases per gloriam, e gloria, ad gloriam.
43.  Virgil, Georgics, 3:66-68
44.  Quintus Ennius (Fragmenta Scænica), Tragœdiæ:  Iphigenia (235f.).  Ennius’ plebes is the older (singular) form of what in classical Latin is plebs.
60:15Verum quid ago, medens dolori quem jam reor et tempore et ratione sedatum, ac non potius replico tibi vicinas regum miserias et nostri temporis calamitates, ut non tam plangendus sit qui hac luce caruerit, quam congratulandum ei, quod de tantis malis evaserit ?  Constantius, Arianæ fautor hæreseos, dum contra inimicum paratur et concitus fertur ad pugnam, in Mopsi viculo moriens, magno dolore hosti reliquit imperium.  Julianus, perditor animæ suæ et Christiani jugulator exercitus, Christum sensit in Mēdia, quem primum in Gallia denegarat, dumque Romanos propagare vult fines, perdidit propagatos.  Jovianus, gustatis tantum regalibus bonis, fetore prunarum suffocatus interiit, ostendens omnibus quid sit humana potentia.  Valentinianus, vastato genitali solo et inultam patriam dereliquens, vomitu sanguinis exstinctus est. But what am I doing in thus seeking to heal a pain which I imagine has already been assuaged by time and philosophy?  Why do I not rather unfold to you the miseries of kings45 in our near neighborhood and the disasters that have come upon our age?  He who has escaped from this world’s light is not so much to be lamented as he is to be congratulated on having been saved from such great evils.  Constantius, the patron of the Arian heresy, was making preparations against his enemy and advancing in haste to give him battle, when he died at the village of Mopsus, and to his great grief left the empire to the foe.  Julian {the Apostate}, the betrayer of his own soul, the assassin of a Christian army, felt in Media the power of that Christ whom in Gaul he had denied, and while he was trying to extend the territories of Rome he lost the annexations which had already been made.  Jovian had but just tasted the sweets of kingship when he was suffocated by a coal fire, revealing to all men the true nature of human power.  Valentinian { I } died of a broken blood-vessel, leaving his country unavenged and his native soil devastated.
Hujus germanus, Valens, Gothico bello victus, in Thracia eundem locum et mortis habuit et sepulcri.  Gratianus, ab exercitu suo proditus et ab obviis urbibus non receptus, ludibrio hosti fuit, cruentæque manus vestigia parietes tui, Lugdune, testantur.  Adulescens Valentinianus et pæne puer post fugam, post exilia, post recuperatum multo sanguine imperium, haut procul ab urbe fraternæ mortis conscia, necatus est, et cadaver exanime infamatum suspendio.  Quid loquar de Procopio, Maximo, Eugenio, qui utique, dum rerum potirentur, terrori gentibus erant ?  Omnes capti steterunt ante ora victorum et — quod potentissimis quondam miserrimum est — prius ignominiā servitutis quam hostili mucrone confossi sunt. His brother Valens was defeated in the Gothic war, and in Thrace was buried where he fell.  Gratian, betrayed by his own army and refused admittance by all the cities which he approached, became the laughing-stock of the enemy:  your walls, O Lyons, still bear the mark of that bloody hand.  Valentinian { II } was but a youth, hardly more than a boy, when, after flight and exile and the recovery of his throne amid streams of blood, he was murdered not far from the city which had witnessed his brother’s death, and his dead corpse disgraced by hanging from a gibbet.  Why speak of Procopius, Maximus, and Eugenius, who, while they ruled at any rate, were a terror to the nations?  They all stood as prisoners in the presence of their conquerors, and — fate most wretched for those who had once been supreme! — felt their hearts stabbed by the shame of slavery before they perished by the enemy’s sword.
45.  The Emperors here mentioned followed one another in quick succession.  Constantius died in 361 while marching to Constantinople to resist Julian.  Julian was killed fighint the Persians in 363, and was succeeded by Jovian who only reigned a few months.  His place was taken in the West by Valentinian I (364-375), and in the East by Valens (364-378), while Gratian, who came next, was murdered at Lyons in 383.  Procopius, Maximus and Eugenius were usurpers of short duration, overthrown by Theodosius the Great (379-395).
60:16Dicat aliquis, « Regum talis condicio est :  ‹ Feriuntque summos fulgura montes ›. »  Ad privatas veniam dignitates, nec de his loquar qui excedunt biennium.  Atque, ut ceteros prætermittam, sufficit nobis trium nuper consularium diversos exitus scribere.  Abundantius, egens, Pityunte exulat ;  Rufini caput pilo Constantinopolin gestatum est, et abscissa manus dextera ad dedecus insatiabilis avaritiæ ostiatim stĭpes mendicavit ;  Timasius, præcipitatus repente de Altissimo dignitatis gradu, evasisse se putat, quod Assæ50 vivit inglorius. Some one may say:  “Such is the lot of kings, ‘the lightnings strike the mountain tops’.”46  I will come, then, to persons of private rank, and even in their case I will not go back for more than two years.  Omitting any others, it is sufficient for me to record the diverse ends of three men recently of consular position.  Abundantius47 is now a beggar and lives in exile at Pityus.  The head of Rufinus48 was carried on a pike to Constantinople, and to shame his insatiable greed his severed hand begged for pence from door to door.  Timasius49 was hurled down suddenly from a post of the highest dignity, and thinks it an escape that he now lives in obscurity at Assa.
Non calamitates miserorum, sed fragilem humanæ condicionis narro statum — horret animus temporum nostrorum ruinas prosequi — viginti et eo amplius anni sunt quod, inter Constantinopolin et Alpes Julias, cottidie Romanus sanguis effunditur.  Scythiam, Thraciam, Macedoniam, Thessaliam, Dardaniam, Daciam, Epiros, Dalmatiam, cunctasque Pannonias Gothus, Sarmata, Quadus, Alanus, Hunni, Vandali, Marcomanni vastant, trahunt, rapiunt.  Quot matronæ, quot virgines Dei et ingenua nobiliaque corpora his beluis fuere ludibrio !  Capti episcopi, interfecti presbyteri et diversorum officia clericorum, subversæ ecclesiæ, ad altaria Christi stabulati equi, martyrum effossæ reliquæ :

« ubique luctus, » ubique gemitus « et plurima mortis imago. »

I will say no more of the calamities of individuals;  I come now to the frail fortunes of human life, and my soul shudders to recount the downfall of our age.
For twenty years and more the blood of Romans has every day been shed between Constantinople and the Julian Alps.  Scythia, Thrace, Macedonia, Thessaly, Dardania, Dacia, Epirus, Dalmatia, and all the provinces of Pannonia, have been sacked, pillaged and plundered by Goths and Sarmatians, Quadians and Alans, Huns and Vandals and Marcomanni.  How many matrons, how many of God’s virgins, ladies of gentle birth and high position, have been made the sport of these beasts!  Bishops have been taken prisoners, presbyters and other clergymen of different orders murdered.  Churches have been overthrown, horses stabled at Christ’s altar, the relics of martyrs dug up.

“Sorrow and grief on every side we see
And many a shape of death.”51

Romanus orbis ruit et tamen cervix nostra erecta non flectitur.  Quid putas nunc animi habere Corinthios, Athenienses, Lacedæmonios, Arcadas cunctamque Græciam, quibus imperant barbari ?  Et certe paucas urbes nominavi in quibus olim fuere regna non modica.  Inmunis ab his malis videbatur oriens et tantum nuntiis consternatus :  ecce tibi anno præterito ex ultimis Caucasi rupibus immissi in nos, non Arabiæ, sed septentrionis lupi, tantas brevi provincias percucurrerunt.  Quot monasteria capta, quantæ fluviorum aquæ humano cruore mutatæ sunt !  Obsessa Antiochia et urbes reliquæ, quas Halys, Cydnus, Orontes Eufratesque præterfluunt.  Tracti greges captivorum ;  Arabia, Phœnix, Palæstina, Ægyptus timore captivæ.

« Non mihi si linguæ centum sint oraque centum,
Ferrea vox,
Omnia pœnarum percurrere nomina possim. »

Neque enim historiam proposui scribere, sed nostras breviter flere miserias.  Alioquin, ad hæc merito explicanda, et Thucydides et Sallustius muti sunt.

The Roman world is falling, and yet we hold our heads erect instead of bowing our necks.  What, think you, are the feelings of the Corinthians, the Athenians, the Lacedaemonians, the Arcadians, and all the other Greeks over whom barbarians now are ruling?  I have only mentioned a few cities certainly, but they were once the seats of no small powers.  The East seemed to be immune from these dangers and was only dismayed by the news that reached her.  But lo!“ Last year52 the wolves — not of Arabia, but from the far north — were let loose upon us from the distant crags of Caucasus, and in a short time overran whole provinces.  How many monasteries did they capture, how many rivers were reddened with men’s blood!  They besieged Antioch and all the other cities on the Halys, Cydnus, Orontes, and Euphrates.  They carried off troops of captives.  Arabia, Phoenicia, Palestine and Egypt in their terror felt themselves already enslaved.

“Had I a hundred tongues, a hundred mouths,
A voice of brass, I could not tell the names
Of all those punishments.”53

But I did not propose to write a history:  I only wished briefly to lament our miseries.  In any case, if it came to telling this tale adequately, even Thucydides and Sallust would have no voice.

46.  Horace, Odes, Book II, 10:11
47.  Banished ca. 396 to Pityus on the Black Sea by Eutropius, whom he had helped to raise to power.
48.  Pime Minister of Theodosius I, assassinated by Gainas in the reign of Arcadius.
49.  A general of Theodosius banished by Eutropius.
50.  in Oase :  Hilberg.
51.  Vergil, Æneid, 2:369
52.  A.D. 395.
53.  Vergil, Æneid, 6:625ff.
60:17Felix Nepotianus, qui hæc non videt ;  felix qui ista non audit.  Nos miseri, qui aut patimur aut patientes fratres nostros tanta perspicimus ;  et tamen vivere volumus, eosque qui his carent flendos potius quam beandos putamus.  Olim offensum sentimus, nec placamus Deum.  Nostris peccatis barbari fortes sunt, nostris vitiis Romanus superatur exercitus ;  et quasi non hoc sufficeret, cladibus plus pæne bella civilia quam hostilis mucro consumpsit.  Miseri Israëlitæ, ad quorum comparationem Nabuchodonosor servus Dei scribitur ;  infelices nos, qui tantum displicemus Deo ut, per rabiem barbarorum, illius in nos ira desæviat.  Ezechias egit pænitentiam, et centum octoginta quinque milia Assyriorum ab uno angelo una nocte deleta sunt ;  Josaphat laudes Domino concinebat, et Dominus pro laudante superabat ;  Moyses contra Amalech non gladio, sed oratione, pugnavit.  Si erigi volumus, prosternamur.  Pro pudor, et stolida usque ad incredulitatem mens !  Romanus exercitus, victor orbis et Dominus, ab his vincitur, hos pavet, horum terretur aspectu, qui ingredi non valent, qui, si terram tetigerint, se mortuos arbitrantur, et non intellegimus prophetarum voces, « Fugient mille, uno persequente  ».  Nec amputamus causas morbi ut morbus pariter auferatur, statimque cernamus58 sagittas pilis, tiaras galeis, caballos equis cedere ? Happy is Nepotian, for he does not see these sights nor hear those cries.  We are the unhappy, who either suffer ourselves or see our brothers suffer so much.  And yet we wish to go on living, and think that those who have escaped from these evils are to be lamented rather than counted happy.  For a long time now we have felt that God is offended with us, but we do not try to appease Him.  It is by reason of our sins that the barbarians are strong, it is our vices that bring defeat to the armies of Rome;  and as if this were not enough of carnage, civil wars have spilt almost more blood than the enemy’s sword.  Miserable were the Israelites, in comparison with whom Nebuchadnezzar is called the servant of God:54  unhappy are we, who have so displeased God that His anger vents its fury on us by the barbarians’ mad attacks.  Hezekiah repented, and one hundred and eighty-five thousand Assyrians were destroyed by one angel in a night.55  Jehoshaphat sang the praises of the Lord, and the Lord gave his worshipper the victory.56  Moses fought against Amalek, not with the sword, but with prayer.57  If we wish to be lifted up, let us first prostrate ourselves.  Shame on us who are too stupid for belief!  The soldiers of Rome, who once subdued and ruled the world, now are conquered by these men, tremble and shrink in fear from these who cannot walk on foot and think themselves as good as dead if once they are unhorsed.59  We do not understand the prophet’s words:  “One thousand shall flee at the rebuke of one.”60  We do not cut away the causes of our malady, and thereby remove the malady itself.  Then we would see arrows give way to javelins, caps to helmets, and nags to warhorses.61
54.  Jerem. 27:6
55.  4 Kings 19:35
56.  2 Paral. 20:5-30
57.  Exodus 17:11
58.  cernimus :  Hilberg
59.  I.e., the Huns
60.  Isaiah 30:17
61.  That is to say, the enemy weapons would give way to the Roman.
60:18Excessimus consolandi modum et, dum unius mortem flere prohibemus, totius orbis mortuos planximus.  Xerxes, ille rex potentissimus, qui subvertit montes, maria constravit, quum, de sublimi loco, infinitam hominum multitudinem et innumerabilem vidisset exercitum, flesse dicitur, quod post centum annos nullus eorum quos tunc cernebat superfuturus esset.  O si possemus in talem ascendere speculam de qua universam terram sub nostris pedibus cerneremus !  Jam tibi ostenderem totius mundi ruinas, gentes gentibus et regnis regna collisa ;  alios torqueri, alios necari, alios obrui fluctibus, alios ad servitutem trahi ;  hic nuptias, ibi planctum ;  illos nasci, istos mori ;  alios affluere divitiis, alios mendicare ;  et non Xerxis tantum exercitum, sed totius mundi homines qui nunc vivunt, in brevi spatio defuturos.  Vincitur sermo rei magnitudine, et minus est omne quod dicimus. I have passed beyond the limits of consolation, and in forbidding you to weep for one man’s death I have mourned for the dead of the whole world.  That mighty king Xerxes, who overthrew mountains and turned the sea into solid ground, when from his high place he looked upon his infinite multitudes and his countless host of men, is said to have wept at the thought that not one of those whom he saw would in a hundred years be alive.62  Oh, if we could ascend into such a watch-tower as would give us a view of the whole world spread beneath our feet!  Then I would show you a universe in ruins, peoples warring against peoples, and kingdoms shattered on kingdoms.  You would see some men being tortured, some killed, others drowned at sea, others dragged off to slavery;  here a wedding, there lamentation;  some being born, others dying;  some living in affluence, others begging their bread;  not merely Xerxes’ army, but the inhabitants of the whole world now alive destined soon to pass away.  Words fail, for language is inadequate to the greatness of this theme.
62.  Herodotus 7:45
60:19Redeamus igitur ad nos et, quasi e cælo descendentes, paulisper nostra videamus.  Sentisne — obsecro te — quando infans, quando puer, quando juvenis, quando robustæ ætatis, quando senex factus sis ?  Cottidie morimur, cottidie commutamur et tamen æternos esse nos credimus.  Hŏc ipsum quod dicto, quod scribitur, quod relego, quod emendo, de vita mea trahitur.  Quot puncta notarii, tot meorum damna sunt temporum.  Scribimus atque rescribimus, transeunt maria epistulæ et, findente sulcos carina, per singulos fluctus, ætatis nostræ momenta minuuntur.  Solum habemus lucri quod Christi nobis amore sociamur.  « Caritas patiens est, benigna est ;  caritas non zelatur, non agit perperam, non inflatur, omnia sustinet, omnia credit, omnia sperat, omnia patitur ;  caritas nunquam excidit. »  Hæc semper vivit in pectore ;  ob hanc Nepotianus noster absens præsens est et, per tanta terrarum spatia divisos, utraque complectitur manu.  Habemus mutuæ obsidem caritatis.  Jungamur spiritu, stringamur affectu, et fortitudinem mentis quam beatus papa Chromatius ostendit in dormitione germani, nos imitemur in filio.  Illum nostra pagella decantet, illum cunctæ litteræ sonent.  Quem corpore non valemus, recordatione teneamus et, cum quo loqui non possumus, de eo nunquam loqui desinamus. Let us return then to ourselves, and coming down from the skies consider for a moment our own position.  Are you conscious now, pray, of the time when you were an infant, or of the stages you have passed from boyhood to manhood, from maturity to old age?  Every day we die, every day we are changed, and yet we believe ourselves to be eternal.  This very act of dictation, writing, revising and correction is something taken from my span.  Every stroke of my secretary’s pen is so much loss of life for me.  We write letters and send replies, our messages cross the seas, and as the ship cleaves a furrow through the waves the moments that we have to live grow less.  We have but one profit:  we are joined together by the love of Christ. “Charity suffereth long and is kind;  charity envieth not;  charity vaunteth not itself, is not puffed up;  beareth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things, endureth all things.  Charity never faileth.”63  It lives ever in the heart, and by it our Nepotian is present though absent, and grasps us each by a hand, severed as we are in distant lands.  We have in him a pledge of our mutual love.  Let us join in spirit, let us bind ourselves together in affection’s chains, and let us who have lost a son take pattern by the courage that the blessed Pope Chromatius64 showed when his brother fell asleep.  Let our pages chant his praise, let every letter echo his name.  We cannot have him in the body, but let us hold him fast in remembrance.  We cannot speak with him, but let us never cease to speak of him.
63.  1 Cor 13:4,7f.
64.  Bishop of Aquileja, † ca. 407:  his broher Eusebius was also a bishop.  Cf. Letter 7.  The title “Pope” (πάππας => Latin pāpa), at first applied to the “spiritual father,” who was the means of a man’s conversion, later became restricted first to bishops and abbots, then to the Bishop of Rome and the patriarchs of Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem and Constatinople, and finally after 1073 was claimed exclusively for the Bishop of Rome.
{ 77 }
Epistula LXXVII
Ad Oceanum1 de Morte Fabiolæ
A.D. 399
77:1PLURES anni sunt quod, super dormitione Blæsillæ, Paulam, venerabilem feminam, recenti adhuc vulnere consolatus sum.  Quartæ æstatis circulus volvitur e quo, ad Heliodorum episcopum Nepotiani scribens epitaphium, quicquid habere virium potui in illo tunc dolore consumpsi.  Ante hoc ferme biennium Pammachio meo pro subita peregrinatione Paulinæ brevem epistulam dedi, erubescens ad disertissimum virum plura loqui et ei sua ingerere, ne non tam consolari amicum viderer, quam stulta jactantia docere perfectum.  Nunc mihi, fili Oceane, volenti et ultro appetenti debitum munus imponis quod, pro novitate virtutum, veterem materiam novam faciam.  In illis enim vel parentis affectus vel mæror avunculi vel desiderium mariti temperandum fuit, et pro diversitate personarum diversa de Scripturis adhibenda medicina. Many years have passed since I consoled the venerated Paula, while her wound was still fresh, for the falling asleep of Blæsilla.2  Four summers have rolled by since I wrote to Bishop Heliodorus a funeral panegyric on Nepotian,3 spending all the strength that I possessed in giving expression to my grief.  About two years have elapsed since I sent a brief letter to my dear Pammachius on the sudden passing of his Paulina,4 for I blushed to say more to so learned a man or to repeat to him his own thoughts, lest I should seem, not so much to be comforting a friend, as in foolish ostentation to be instructing one already perfect.  Today, my son Oceanus, the task of duty you impose upon me is one that I gladly accept and would even seek unasked;  for dealing with new virtues I shall make an old subject fresh.  In those other cases I had to assuage a mother’s love, an uncle’s grief, and a husband’s yearning;  and as the persons differed I had to apply from the Scriptures a different remedy.
1.  This letter, addressed to Oceanus and writen in A.D. 399, gives an account of the life of Fabiola, one of the rich Roman matrons who took Jerome as their spiritual guide.  She had married young and unhappily and, after divorcing her first husband, had married again.  It was after her second husband’s death that Fabiola’s conscience troubled her for having contracted her marriage with him, and she turned to the Church and Jerome for guidance.  Strictly speaking, the Church did not recognize such a union, but legally it was valid, and no slur seems to have rested upon her.  She astounded the world of Rome by publicly appearing as a penitent to expiate the sin of this second union.  The date of her actual public penance is uncertain.  Jerome’s account seems to make it clear that it took place before her visit to Palestine in 394, and it is tempting to place it during, or soon after, Jerome’s stay in Rome (382-5) and to ascribe it to his influence.  The description of the penitential ceremony suggests the public act of penance which Bishop Ambrose exacted from the Emperor Theodosius in 392, and it may have been inspired by that.  M. Thierry (Life of Jerome, II, p. 20ff.) thinks it took place after Fabiola’s visit to Palestine and connects it with a letter (55) written by Jerome to the priest Amandus in 394 in answer to a query aout the validity of such a marriage as Fabiola’s.  In any case, and whether receiving absolution before or after she visited the Holy Land, she was staying with Jerome when the Huns invaded Palestine.  She then returned to Rome and devoted her life and fortune to the care of the sick and poor, not only in that city, but throughout Italy.  In conjunction with Pammachius, the widowed husband of the rich Paulina, she established a hostel for travellers at Ostia just before her death.
2.  Letter 39.
3.  Letter 60.
4.  Letter 66.
77:2In præsentiarum tradis mihi Fabiolam, laudem Christianorum, miraculum gentilium, luctum pauperum, solacium monachorum.  Quicquid primum arripuero, sequentium comparatione vilescit.  Jejunium prædicem ?  Prævertunt eleemosynæ.  Humilitatem laudem ?  Major est ardor fidei.  Dicam appetitas sordes et in condemnationem vestium sericarum plebejum cultum et servilia indumenta quæsita ?  Plus est animum deposuisse quam cultum.  Difficilius arrogantia quam auro caremus et gemmis.  His enim abjectis interdum gloriosis tumemus sordibus, et vendibilem paupertatem populari auræ offerimus.  Celata virtus, et in conscientiæ fota secreto, Deum solum judicem respicit. On this occasion you give me as my subject Fabiola, the glory of the Christians, the wonder of the Gentiles, the sorrow of the poor, and the consolation of the monks.  Whatever point I take first pales in comparison with what is to come.  Shall I tell of her fastings?  Her alms are greater still.  Shall I praise her humility?  It is outstripped by the ardor of her faith.  Shall I mention her studied squalor, her plebeian dress, and the slave’s garb she choose in condemnation of silken robes?  It is a greater thing to change one’s disposition than to change one’s dress.  We part with arrogance less easily than with gold and jewels.  Even when these are thrown away, we sometimes pride ourselves on our ostentatious shabbiness and make a bid for popular favor by offering poverty as its price.  A virtue that is concealed and cherished in the inner consciousness looks to God alone as judge.
Unde novis mihi est efferenda præconiis et, ordine rhetorum prætermisso, tota de conversionis ac pænitentiæ incunabulis assumenda.  Alius forsitan scholæ memor Quintum Maximum,

« Unus qui nobis cunctando restituit rem »,

et totam Fabiorum gentem proferret in medium, diceret pugnas, describeret prœlia et per tantæ nobilitatis gradus Fabiolam venisse jactaret ut, quod in virga non poterat, in radicibus demonstrareret.  Ego, deversorii Bethlemitici et præsæpis dominici amator, in quo virgo puerpera Deum fudit infantem, ancillam Christi, non de nobilitate veteris historiæ, sed de ecclesiæ humilitate producam.

So the eulogy I bestow upon her must be altogether new:  I must neglect all the rules of rhetoric and begin my story at the cradle of her conversion and penitence.  Others perhaps might remember their school-days and bring forward Quintus Maximus:

“The man who by delaying saved the state,”5

and with him the whole Fabian family.  They might tell of their conflicts and describe their battles, and boast that Fabiola had come of so noble a line, showing in the root a glory which they could not find in the branch.  I for my part, who am a lover of the inn at Bethlehem, and the Lord’s stable where the Virgin in childbirth brought forth an infant God, I will bring forward a handmaid of Christ who shall rely not on the fame of ancient history but on the humility of the Church.

5.  Ennius and Virgil, Æneid 6:846
77:3Et quia statim in principio quasi scopulus quidam, et procella mihi obtrectatorum ejus, opponitur quod, secundum sortitā matrimonium, prius reliquerit, non laudabo conversam nisi ream absolvero.  Tanta prior maritus vitia habuisse narratur, ut ne scortum quidem et vile mancipium ea sustinere posset.  Quæ si voluero dicere, perdam virtutem feminæ quæ maluit culpam subire discidii quam quandam corporis sui infamare partem et maculas ejus detegere.  Hoc solum proferam, quod verecundæ matronæ et Christianæ satis est.  Præcepit Dominus uxorem non debere dimitti excepta causa fornicationis et, si dimissa fuerit, manere innuptam.  Quicquid viris jubetur, hoc consequenter redundat ad feminas.  Neque enim adultera uxor dimittenda est et vir mœchus tenendus.  Si « qui meretrici jungitur, unum corpus facit », ergo et, quæ scortatori impuroque sociatur, unum cum eo corpus efficitur.  Aliæ sunt leges Cæsarum, aliæ Christi ;  aliud Papinianus, aliud Paulus noster præcipit.  Apud illos in viris pudicitiæ frena laxantur et, solo stupro atque adulterio condemnato, passim per lupanaria et ancillulas libido permittitur, quasi culpam dignitas faciat, non voluptas. As at the very outset there is a rock in the path, and I am faced by the storm of censure that was directed against her for having taken a second husband and abandoned her first, I shall not praise her for her conversion until I have cleared her from this charge.  We are told that her first husband was a man of such heinous vices that even a prostitute or a common slave could not have put up with them.  If I describe them, I shall mar the heroism of the woman, who preferred to bear the blame of separation rather than to defame the man who was one body with her, and thus reveal the stains upon his character.  I will say only that it is a plea sufficient to excuse a chaste matron and a Christian wife.  The Lord ordained that a wife must not be put away except for fornication, and that, if she was put away, she must remain unmarried.  A command that is given to men applies logically also to women.  It cannot be that an adulterous wife should be put away and an unfaithful husband retained.  If “he which is joined to a harlot is one body,”6 she who is joined to a filthy whoremonger is one body with him also.  The laws of Caesar are different from the laws of Christ:  Papinian7 commands one thing, our Paul another.  Among the Romans men’s unchastity goes unchecked;  rape and adultery are condemned, but free permission is given to lust to range the brothels and to have slave girls, as though it were a person’s rank and not the sensual pleasure that constituted the offence.
Apud nos, quod non licet feminis, æque non licet viris, et eadem servitus pari condicione censetur.  Dimisit ergo, ut ajunt, vitiosum ;  dimisit illius et illius criminis noxium ;  dimisit (pæne dixi) quod, clamante vicinia, uxor non sola prodidit.  Sin autem arguitur quare, repudiato marito, non innupta permanserit, facile culpam fatebor, dum tamen referam necessitatem.  « Melius est », inquit apostolus, « nubere quam uri. »  Adulescentia erat, viduitatem suam servare non poterat.  Videbat aliam legem in membris suis repugnantem legi mentis suæ et se vinctam atque captivam ad coitum trahi.  Melius arbitrata est aperte confiteri imbecillitatem suam, et umbram quandam miserabilis subire conjugii, quam, sub gloria univiræ, exercere meretricium.  Idem apostolus vult viduas « adulescentulas nubere, filios procreare, nullam dare occasionem maledicti gratia. »  Et protinus, cur hoc velit, exponit, « Jam enim quædam abierunt retro Satanas. »  Igitur et Fabia, quia persuaserat sibi, et putabat virum jure a se dimissum, nec Evangelii rigorem10 noverat in quo nubendi universa causatio, viventibus viris, feminis Christianis amputatur, dum multa diaboli vitat vulnera, unum incauta vulnus accepit. With us, what is unlawful for women is equally unlawful for men, and as both sexes serve God they are bound by the same conditions.  Fabiola, as men say, put away a vicious husband;  she put away a man who was guilty of this and that crime;  she put him away because — I almost mentioned the scandal which the whole neighborhood proclaimed but which his wife alone refused to reveal.  If she is blamed because after repudiating her husband she did not remain unmarried, I will readily admit her fault, provided that I may put in the plea of necessity. “It is better,” says the apostle, “to marry than to burn.”8  She was a very young woman and she could not remain a widow.  She saw another law in her members warring against the law of her mind, and she felt herself dragged like a chained captive into carnal intercourse.  She thought it better to confess her weakness openly and to accept the dark stain that such a lamentable marriage would bring, rather than to claim to be the wife of one husband and under that disguise to ply the harlot’s trade.  The same apostle expresses his wish that “young widows should marry, bear children, and give no handle to calumny.”  And then at once he gives his reason:  “For some are already turned aside after Satan.”9  Fabiola therefore had convinced herself, and thought that she was justified in putting away her husband.  She did not know the Gospel’s strict ordinance, in which every excuse for remarriage, while their husbands are alive, is cut off for Christian women.  Thus she evaded the other assaults of the devil, but this one wound from him she unwittingly received.
6.  1 Cor 6:16
7.  The great Roman jurist, put to death by Caracalla.
8.  1 Cor 7:9
9.  1 Tim 5:14f.
10.  Rigorem Engelbrecht :  vigorem.
77:4Sed quid ego in abolitis et antiquis moror, quærens excusare culpam cujus pænitentiam ipsa confessa est ?  Quis hoc crederet ut, post mortem secundi viri in semet reversa — quo tempore solent viduæ neglegentes, jugo servitutis excusso, agere se liberius, adire balneas, volitare per plateas, vultus circumferre meretricios —, saccum indueret, errorem publice fateretur et, tota urbe spectante Romana, ante diem Paschæ in basilica quondam Laterani qui Cæsariano truncatus est gladio, staret in ordine pænitentum, episcopo et presbyteris et omni populo collacrimanti sparsum crinem, ora lurida, squalidas manus, sordida colla summitteret ?  Quæ peccata fletus iste non purget ?  Quas inveteratas maculas hæc lamenta non abluant ?  Petrus trinam negationem trina confessione delevit.  Aaron sacrilegium et conflatum ex auro vituli caput fraternæ correxere preces. But why do I linger over the forgotten past, seeking to excuse a fault for which she herself confessed her penitence?  Who would believe that after the death of her second husband, at a time when widows, having shaken off the yoke of slavery, are wont to grow careless and indulge in license, frequenting the public baths, flitting to and fro in the squares, showing their harlot faces everywhere — who, I say, would believe that it was then that she came to herself, put on sackcloth and made public confession of error.  On the eve of passover, in the presence of all Rome, she took her stand among the other penitents in the church of that Lateranus who perished formerly by Caesar’s sword.11  There before bishop, presbyters, and weeping populace she exposed to view her dishevelled hair, wan face, soiled hands, and dust-stained neck.  What sins would not such lamentation purge away?  What stains so deep that these tears would not wash them out?  By a threefold confession Peter annulled his threefold denial.  Aaron did a sacrilegious act by fashioning a calf’s head in gold;  but his brother’s prayers made amends.
David, sancti et mansuetissimi viri, homicidium pariter et adulterium septem dierum emendavit fames.  Jacebat in terra, volutabatur in cinere et, oblitus regiæ potestatis, lumen quærebat in tenebris, illumque tantum respiciens quem offenderat, lacrimabili voce dicebat, « Tibi soli peccavi et malum coram te feci », et « Redde mihi lætitiam salutaris tui et spiritu principali confirma me. »  Atque ita factum est ut, qui me prius docuerat virtutibus suis quomodo stans non caderem, doceret per pænitentiam quomodo cadens resurgerem.  Quid tam impium legimus inter reges quam Achab, de quo Scriptura dicit, « Non fuit alius talis ut Achab qui venumdatus est ut faceret malum in conspectu Domini. »  Hic, quum pro sanguine Nabuthæ correptus fuisset ab Elia et audisset iram Domini per prophetam :  « Occidisti, insuper et possedisti » et « Ecce ego inducam super te mala et demetam posteriora tua », et reliqua :  « Scidit vestimenta sua et operuit cilicio carnem suam jejunavitque in sacco et ambulabat demisso capite.  Tunc factus est sermo Domini ad Eliam Thesbiten, dicens :  ‹ Nonne vidisti humilitatem Achab coram me ?  Quia ergo humilitatus est in timore mei, non inducam malum in diebus ejus. › » David, that saintly and most merciful man, committed both murder and adultery;  but he atoned for it by fasting for seven days.  He lay on the ground, he grovelled in the ashes, he forgot his royal power, he sought for light in the darkness.  He turned his eyes only to Him whom he had offended and cried with a lamentable voice:  “Against thee, thee only have I sinned, and done this evil in thy sight,”12 and, “Restore unto me the joy of thy salvation and uphold me with thy free spirit.”13  So it came about that he who by his virtues taught me first how I might stand and not fall, by his penitence taught me how if I fell I might rise again.  Do we read of any among the kings so wicked as Ahab, of whom the Scripture says:  “Now there was not such another as Achab, who was sold to do evil in the sight of the Lord”?14  But when he was rebuked by Elijah for shedding Naboth’s blood and heard the prophet threaten him with God’s wrath:  “Thou hast killed and taken possession:  behold I will bring evil upon thee and will take away thy posterity,” and so on.  Then:  “he rent his clothes, and put sackcloth upon his flesh and fasted in sackcloth and walked with his head downcast.  Then came the word of the Lord to Elijah the Tishbite, saying:  “Seest thou how Ahab humbleth himself before me?  Because he humbleth himself before me, I will not bring the evil in his days.”
O felix pænitentia, quæ ad se Dei traxit oculos, quæ furentem sententiam Domini confesso errore mutavit !  Hoc idem et Manassen in Paralipomenon et Nineven fecisse legimus in propheta, publicanum quoque in Evangelio, e quibus primus non solum indulgentiam, sed et regnum recipere meruit, alius impendentem Dei fregit iram, tertius pectus verberans pugnis oculos non levabat ad cælum et multo justificatior recessit humili confessione vitiorum quam superba Pharisæus jactatione virtutum.  Non est loci hujus, ut pænitentiam prædicem et, quasi contra Montanum Novatumque scribens, dicam illam hostiam Domini esse placabilem et sacrificium Deo spiritum contribulatum et « Malo pænitentiam peccatoris quam mortem », et « Exsurge, exsurge, Hierusalem », et multa alia quæ prophetarum clangunt tubæ. O happy penitence, which drew God’s eyes to itself, and by a confession of error changed the sentence of the Lord’s wrath!  The same conduct is attributed to Manasseh in the Paralipomena,15 to Nineveh16 in the book of the prophet Jonas, and to the publican in the Gospel.17  The first not only earned God’s pardon but regained his kingdom;  the second broke the force of God’s impending anger;  the third smiting his breast with his fists would not lift his eyes to heaven, and yet by the humble confession of his faults he went away more justified than the Pharisee with his arrogant boasting of his virtues.  This, however, is not the place to preach penitence, or to say of it, as though I were writing against Montanus and Novatus,18 that it is a victim well pleasing to the Lord and that a broken spirit is God’s sacrifice.  Nor will I quote the words:  “I prefer the repentance of a sinner rather than his death,”19 or “Arise, arise, O Jerusalem,”20 or any other of the many sayings which are noised abroad by the trumpets of the prophets.
11.  A Roman senator who conspired against Nero:  the basilica was perhaps S. John Lateran.
12.  Ps 50:6
13.  Ps 50:14
14.  3 Kings 21:25ff.
15.  2 Paral. 33:12
16.  Jonas 3:5-10
17.  Lk 18:13
18.  Founders of heretical sects in the second and third centuries.
19.  Cf. Ezek 18:23ff.
20.  Baruch 5:5
77:5Hoc unum loquar, quod et legentibus utile sit et præsenti causæ conveniat.  Non est confusa Dominum in terris et ille eam non confundetur in cælo.  Aperuit cunctis vulnus suum et decolore in corpore cicatricem flens Roma conspexit.  Dissuta habuit latera, nudum caput, clausum os.  Non est ingressa ecclesiam Domini, sed extra castra cum Maria, sorore Moysi, separata consedit ut, quam sacerdos ejecerat, ipse revocaret.  Descendit de solio deliciarum suarum, accepit molam, fecit farinam et, discalciatis pedibus, transivit fluenta lacrimarum.  Sedit super carbones ignis ;  hi ei fuere in adjutorium.  Faciem per quam secundo viro placuerat, verberabat ;  oderat gemmas, linteamina videre non poterat, ornamenta fugiebat.  Sic dolebat quasi adulterium commisisset, et multis impendiis medicaminum unum vulnus sanare cupiebat. This one thing I will say, for it is both useful to my readers and pertinent to the present case.  Fabiola was not ashamed of the Lord on earth, and He will not be ashamed of her in heaven.  She laid bare her wound to all, and Rome beheld with tears the scar upon her livid body.  She uncovered her limbs, bared her head, and closed her mouth.  She did not enter God’s church but like Miriam, the sister of Moses, sat apart outside the camp, until the priest who had cast her out should call her back again.  She came down from her throne of luxury, she took up the millstone and ground meal, with unshod feet she passed through rivers of tears.  She sat upon coals of fire, and these became her aid.  She beat the face by which she had won her second husband’s love, she abhorred all jewelry, she could not bear even to look upon fine linen, she shrank from all adornment.  She suffered as though she had committed adultery, and strove with many medicinal expenditures to heal the one wound.
77:6Diu morati sumus in pænitentia, in qua velut in vadosis locis resedimus, ut major nobis et absque ullo impedimento se laudum ejus campus aperiret.  Recepta sub oculis omnis ecclesiæ communione, quid fecit ?  Scilicet in die bona malorum oblita est, et post naufragium rursum temptare voluit pericula navigandi ?  Quin potius omnem censum quem habere poterat (erat autem amplissimus et respondens generi ejus) dilapidavit ac vendidit ;  et in pecunia congregatum usibus pauperum præparavit.  Et primo omnium νοσοκομεῖον instituit, in quo ægrotantes colligeret de plateis et consumpta languoribus atque inedia miserorum membra refoveret.  Describam nunc ego diversas hominum calamitates, truncas nares, effossos oculos, semiustos pedes, luridas manus, tumentes alvos, exile femur, crura turgentia et de exesis ac putridis carnibus vermiculos bullientes ? I have lingered long in describing Fabiola’s penitence in which I have been sitting as though in shallow waters, so that a wider and unimpeded field for her praises might open up.  When she was restored to communion before the eyes of the whole church, what did she do?  Did she forget her sorrows in the midst of happiness, and determine after being shipwrecked to face once more the dangers of the main?  Nay, she preferred to break up and sell all that she could lay hands on of her fortune (it was a large one and suitable to her rank);  and when she had turned it into money she disposed of everything for the benefit of the poor.  First of all she founded an infirmary in which she gathered sufferers from the streets, and cared for their poor bodies wasted with disease and hunger.  Need I describe here the diverse troubles from which human beings suffer, the maimed noses, the lost eyes, the scorched feet, the leprous arms, the bulging bellies, the shrunken thighs, the swollen legs, and the half-eaten and rotten flesh swarming with worms?
Quotiens morbo regio et pædore confectos humeris suis portavit ?  Quotiens lavit purulentam vulnerum saniem, quam alius aspicere non audebat ?  Præbebat cibos propria manu, et spirans cadaver sorbitiunculis irrigabat.  Scio multos divites et religiosos ob stomachi angustiam exercere hujuscemodi misericordiam per aliena ministeria et clementes esse pecunia, non manu.  Quos equidem non reprobo et teneritudinem animi nequaquam interpretor infidelitatem ;  sed, sicut imbecillitati stomachi veniam tribuo, sic perfectæ mentis ardorem in cælum laudibus fero.  Magna fides ista contemnit ;  scit quid in Lazaro dives purpuratus aliquando non fecerit, quali superbă mens retributione damnata sit.  Ille quem despicimus, quem videre non possumus, ad cujus intuitum vomitus nobis erumpit, nostri similis est, de eodem nobiscum formatus luto, eisdem compactus elementis. How often did she carry on her own shoulders those wasted by jaundice and putridity!  How often did she wash away the purulent matter from wounds which others could not even endure to look upon!  She gave food with her own hand, and even when a man was but a breathing corpse, she would moisten his lips with drops of water.  I know that many wealthy and devout persons by reason of their weak stomachs carry on this work of mercy by the agency of others, and show mercy with the purse, not with the hand.  I do not blame nor do I by any means construe their lack of fortitude as lack of faith.  But while I excuse their weakness, I extol to the skies the ardent zeal that perfect courage possesses.  A great faith makes light of discomfort:  it knows the retribution that fell upon the rich man clothed in purple, who in his pride refused Lazarus aid.21  The sufferer whom we despise and cannot bear to behold, whose very aspect turns our stomachs, is like us, formed of the same clay, composed of the same elements.
Quicquid patitur, et nos pati possumus.  Vulnera ejus æstimemus propria, et omnis animi in alterum duritia clementi in nosmet ipsos cogitatione frangetur.

« Non, mihi si linguæ centum sint oraque centum,
Ferrea vox,
Omnia pœnarum percurrere nomina possim, »

quæ Fabiola in tanta miserorum refrigeria commutavit, ut multi pauperum sani, languentibus inviderent.  Quamquam illa simili liberalitate erga clericos et monachos ac virgines fuerit — quod monasterium non illius opibus sustentatum est ?  Quem nudum et clinicum non Fabiolæ vestimenta texerunt ?  In quos se indigentium ejus non effudit præceps et festina largitio ?  Angusta misericordiæ Roma fuit ;  peragrabat ergo insulas.  Etruscum mare Volscorumque provinciam et reconditos curvorum litorum sinus in quibus monachorum consistunt chŏri, vel proprio corpore, vel transmissa per fideles ac sanctos viros, munificentiā circuibat.

Whatever he suffers we may possibly suffer also.  Let us regard his wounds as our own, and then all our lack of sympathy for others will be overcome by our pity for ourselves.

“Had I a hundred tongues, a hundred mouths
With voice of brass, I could not tell the names”22

of all the maladies which Fabiola treated.  She was, indeed, such a comforter that many poor people who were well fell to envying the sick.  Not but what she showed the same generosity to the clergy, monks, and virgins.  What monastery was there which her purse did not aid?  What naked or bedridden sufferer did she not supply with clothes?  On what indigent persons did she not pour out her swift and lavish donations?  Rome was not large enough for her compassionate kindness.  She went from island to island, and travelled round the Etruscan Sea, and through the Volscian province, with its lonely curving bays, where bands of monks have taken up their home, bestowing her bounty either in person or by the agency of holy men of the faith.

21.  Luk 16:19-31
22.  Virgil, Æneid, 6:625
77:7Unde repente, et contra opinionem omnium, Hierosolymam navigavit ubi, multorum excepta concursu, nostro parumper usa est hospitio ;  cujus societatis recordans, videor mihi adhuc videre quam vidi.  Jesu bone, quo illa fervore, quo studio intenta erat divinis voluminibus et veluti quandam famem satiare desiderans, per prophetas, Evangelia psalmosque currebat — quæstiones proponens et solutas recondens in scriniolo pectoris sui !  Nec vero satiabatur audiendi cupidine sed, addens scientiam addebat dolorem, et, quasi oleum flammæ adjiceres, majoris ardoris fomenta capiebat.  Quodam die, quum in manibus Moysi Numeros teneremus et me verecunde rogaret, quid sibi vellet nominum tanta congeries, cur singulæ tribus in aliis atque in aliis locis varie jungerentur, quomodo Balaam hariolus sic futura Christi mysteria prophetarit ut nullus propemodum prophetarum tam aperte de eo vaticinatus sit, respondi ut potui, et visus sum interrogationi ejus satisfacere. Then suddenly, and to every one’s surprise, she sailed to Jerusalem, where she was welcomed by a great concourse of people, and for a short time was my guest.  When I remember that meeting, I seem to see her still as I saw her then.  Blessed Jesus, with what fervor and zeal did she study the sacred volumes!  In her eagerness to satisfy her hunger, she ran through the prophets, the gospels and the psalms;  she suggested questions and stored up my answers in her heart’s repository.  Nor did her eagerness to hear ever bring with it satiety;  increasing her knowledge she also increased her sorrow,23 and as though oil were cast upon fire she supplied fuel ever for a more burning zeal.  One day we were occupied with Moses’ Numbers, and she modestly questioned me as to the meaning of its mass of names.  Why was it, she asked, that individual tribes were grouped in so many different ways in different places, and how did it happen that the soothsayer Balaam in prophesying the future mysteries of Christ foretold His coming more plainly than almost any of the prophets.24  I replied as best I could, and I think I satisfied her inquiries.
Revolvens ergo librum, pervenit ad eum locum ubi catalogus describitur omnium mansionum per quas de Ægypto egrediens populus pervenit usque ad fluenta Jordanis.  Quumque causas et rationes quæreret singularum, in quibusdam hæsitavi, in aliis inoffenso cucurri pede, in plerisque simpliciter ignorantiam confessus sum.  Tunc vero magis cœpit urguēre et, quasi mihi non liceret nescire quod nescio, expostulare ac se indignam tantis mysteriis dicere.  Quid plura ?  Extorsit mihi negandi verecundia ut proprium ei opus hujuscemodi disputatiunculæ pollicerer quod — usque in presens tempus, ut nunc intellego, Domini voluntate dilatum — redditur memoriæ illius ut, sacerdotalibus prioris ad se voluminis induta vestibus, per mundi hujus solitudinem gaudeat se ad Terram Repromissionis aliquando venisse. So she unrolled the book further, and came to the passage where the list is given of all the encampments by which the people on leaving Egypt made their way to the river Jordan.  And when she asked me about the causes and methods of the individual encampments, in some cases I hesitated, in others I hurried through without stumbling, in very many I had frankly to confess ignorance.  Thereupon she began to press me harder, expostulating with me as though it were not allowed me to be in ignorance of what I do not know, and declaring that she herself was unworthy of understanding such mysteries.  Why say more?  I was ashamed to refuse her, and she compelled me to promise a special work on this subject for her use.  Up till this moment I have deferred writing it;  but my delay, I now see, was God’s will, and it is now consecrated to her memory.  As a previous treatise25 addressed to her clothed her in priestly vestments, so now she may rejoice that she has passed through the wilderness of this world and come at last to the land of promise.
23.  Ecclesiastes 1:18.
24.  Num 24:17ff.
25.  The first treatise dedicated to Fabiola was on the vestments worn by the Jewish priests, the second on the places passed through by the chosen people on their journey from Egypt to the Promised Land.
77:8Verum, quod cœpimus, persequamur.  Quærentibus nobis dignum tantæ feminæ habitaculum, quum ita solitudinem cuperet ut deversorio Mariæ carere nollet, ecce, subito discurrentibus nuntiis, oriens totus intremuit, ab ultima Mæotide inter glacialem Tanain et Massagetarum immanes populos, ubi Caucasi rupibus feras gentes Alexandri claustra cohibent, erupisse Hunnorum examina, quæ pernicibus equis huc illucque volitantia cædis pariter ac terroris cuncta complerent.  Aberat tunc Romanus exercitus et bellis civilibus in Italia tenebatur.  Hanc gentem Herodotus rĕfert sub Dario, rege Medorum, viginti annis Orientem tenuisse captivum et ab Ægyptiis atque Æthiopibus annuum exegisse vectigal.  Avertat Jesus ab orbe Romano tales ultra bestias !  Insperati ubique aderant et, famam celeritate vincentes, non religioni, non dignitatibus, non ætati, non vagienti miserebantur infantiæ.  Cogebantur mori qui dudum vivere cœperant et, nescientes malum suum, inter hostium manus ac tela ridebant. But let me continue the task I have begun.  While I was seeking a dwelling suitable for so great a lady, whose desire for solitude included an unwillingness not to visit the place where Mary once lodged, suddenly messengers flew this way and that and the whole Eastern world trembled.  We were told that swarms of Huns had poured forth from the distant Sea of Azov, midway between the icy river Tanais and the savage tribes of the Massagetae, where the gates of Alexander26 keep back the barbarians behind the rocky Caucasus.  Flying hither and thither on their swift steeds, said our informants, these invaders were filling the whole world with bloodshed and panic.  At that time the Roman army was absent, being kept in Italy by reason of civil war.  Of this race Herodotus27 tells us that under Darius, king of the Medes, they held the East captive for twenty years, and exacted a yearly tribute from the Egyptians and the Ethiopians.  May Jesus save the Roman world from such wild beasts in the future!  Everywhere their approach was unexpected, they outstripped rumor by their speed, and they spared neither religion nor rank nor age;  nay, even for wailing infants they had no pity.  Children were forced to die, who had only just begun to live, and in ignorance of their fate smiled amid the brandished weapons of the foe.
Consonus inter omnes rumor petere eos Hierosolymam, et ob nimiam auri cupiditatem ad hanc urbem concurrere.  Muri neglecti pacis incuria sarciebantur Antiochiæ ;  Tyrus, se volens a terra abrumpere, insulam quærebat antiquam.  Tunc et nos compulsi sumus parare naves, esse in litore, adventum hostium præcavere et sævientibus ventis magis barbaros metuere quam naufragium — non tam propriæ saluti quam virginum castimoniæ providentes.  Erat in illo tempore quædam apud nos dissensio, et barbarorum pugnam domestica bella superabant.  Nos in Oriente tenuerunt jam fixæ sedes et inveteratum locorum sanctorum desiderium ;  illa, quia tota in sarcinis erat et in omni orbe peregrina, reversa est ad patriam, ut ibi pauper viveret ubi dives fuerat, manens in alieno, quæ multos prius hospites habuit, et — ne sermonem longius traham — in conspectu Romanæ urbis pauperibus erogaret, quod, illa teste, vendiderat. The general report was that they were making for Jerusalem, and that it was their excessive greed for gold that urged them to flock to that city.  The walls of Antioch, neglected in the careless days of peace, were hastily repaired.  Tyre, desirous of cutting herself off from the land, sought again her ancient island.  We too were compelled to prepare ships, and to wait on the seashore as a precaution against the enemy’s arrival;  to fear the barbarians more than shipwreck, however fierce the winds might be;  for we had to think not so much of our own lives as of the chastity of our virgins.  At that time also there was a certain dissension amongst us,28 and our domestic quarrels seemed more important than any fighting with barbarians.  I myself clung to my fixed abode in the East,29 and could not give up my inveterate longing for the Holy Land.  Fabiola, however, who only had her travelling baggage and was a stranger in every land, returned to her native city to live in poverty where she had been rich, to lodge in someone else’s house, she who had once entertained many guests, and — not to prolong my story unduly — in the sight of Rome to distribute to the poor all that, with Rome as witness, she had sold .
26.  The Caspian Gates
27.  Herodotus, 1:104.  He calls them Σκύθαι (“Scythians”).
28.  This “dissension” arose from the revival of Origenism in the East and the attempt to introduce its doctrines in the West;  the theological controversy led to personal quarrels with Jerome’s old friend and fellow-student Rufinus (344-410) of Aquileia, and with John, Bishop of Jerusalem, the bitterness of which was reflected in many references to them in his later letters.  (Origen taught the pre-existence of souls, the final reconciliation of all creatures, including perhaps even the devil (the apokatastasis), and the subordination of God the Son to God the Father.)
29.  At Bethlehem.  Here he had built a monastery of which he was head, a convent over which first Paul and then Eustochium presided, a church where both communities assembled for worship, and a hospice to lodge the pilgrims who came from all parts of the world to that holy ground.  The expenses of these various institutions were borne by Paula unti even her great wealth was exhausted, and then by Jerome himself, who sold the remains of his family property for their support.  Their adminstration must have occupied a portion of his time, but the greater part of his energy was given at Bethlehem, as everywhere, to writing and study.
77:9Nos hoc tantum dolemus, quod pretiosissimum de sanctis locis monile perdidimus.  Recepit Roma quod amiserat, ac procax et maledica lingua gentilium oculorum testimonio confutata est.  Laudent ceteri misericordiam ejus, humilitatem, fidem :  ego ardorem animi plus laudabo.  Librum quo Heliodorum quondam juvenis ad eremum cohortatus sum, tenebat memoriter, et Romana cernens mœnia inclusam se esse plangebat.  Oblita sexus, fragilitatis immemor ac solitudinis tantum cupida ibi erat, ubi animo morabatur.  Non poterat teneri consiliis amicorum :  ita ex urbe quasi de vinculis gestiebat erumpere.  Dispensationem pecuniæ et cautam distributionem genus infidelitatis vocabat.  Non aliis eleemosynam tribuere sed, suis pariter effusis, ipsa pro Christo stipes optabat accipere.  Sic festinabat, sic impatiens erat morarum, ut illam crederes profecturam.  Itaque, dum semper paratur, mors eam invenire non potuit imparatam. This only do I grieve for, that we in the Holy Land lost in her a most precious necklace.  Rome recovered what she had lost, and the shameless tongue of slander was confuted by the testimony of the heathens’ own eyes.  Let others praise her pity, her humility, her faith:  I will rather extol the ardor of her soul.  The treatise30 in which as a young man I urged Heliodorus to be a hermit she knew by heart, and when she looked upon the walls of Rome she complained that she was their prisoner.  Forgetful of her sex, unmindful of her frailty, she craved only for solitude and was in truth where her soul lingered.  Her friends’ advice could not restrain her, so anxious was she to escape from the fetters of Rome.  She said that to weigh out money and distribute it carefully showed a lack of faith.  She desired not to hand over the task of almsgiving to others, but to spend all that she possessed, and then herself to receive a dole in Christ’s name.  In such haste was she, and so impatient of delay, that you might have thought her always on the brink of departure.  So, as she was ever making ready, death could not find her unprepared.
30.  Letter 14.
77:10Inter laudes feminæ subito mihi Pammachius meus exoritur.  Paulina dormit ut ipse vigilet ;  præcedit maritum ut Christo famulum derelinquat.  Hic heres uxoris, et hereditatis alii possessores.  Certabant vir et femina, quis in portu Abrahæ tabernaculum figeret, et hæc erat inter utrumque contentio, quis humanitate superaret.  Vicit uterque et uterque superatus est.  Ambo se victos et victores fatentur dum, quod alter cupiebat, uterque perfecit.  Jungunt opes, sociant voluntates ut, quod æmulatio dissipatura erat, concordia cresceret.  Necdum dictum, jam factum :  emitur hospitium et ad hospitium turba concurrit.  « Non est », enim, « labor in Jacob nec dolor in Israël. »  Adducunt maria, quos in gremio suo terra suscipiat.  Mittit Roma properantes quos navigaturos litus molle confoveat.  Quod Publius semel fecit in insula Melita erga unum apostolum et (ne contradictioni locum tribuam) in una nave, hoc isti et frequenter faciunt et in plures.  Nec solum inopum necessitas sustentatur sed, prona in omnes munificentia, aliquid et habentibus providet.  Xenodochium in portu Romano situm totus pariter mundus audivit.  Sub una æstate didicit Britannia, quod Ægyptus et Parthus agnoverant vere. As I sing her praises, my dear Pammachius suddenly rises before me.  Paulina sleeps that he may keep vigil;  she has gone before her husband, that she may leave him behind to serve Christ.  He was his wife’s heir, but others now possess that inheritance.  A man and a woman contended for the privilege of setting up Abraham’s tent in the harbor of Rome;  and this was the struggle between the two, who should be first in that contest of kindness.  Each won and each lost.  Both confess themselves victors and vanquished, for what each desired they carried out together.  They join purses and combine their plans, that harmony might increase what rivalry would have wasted.  Hardly said, the thing was done;  a hostel was purchased and a crowd flocked to it for hospitality;  for “There is no more travail in Jacob nor distress in Israel.”31  The seas brought in travellers for the land to welcome.  Rome sent others, who hastened to enjoy the comforts of the mild shore before they set sail.  What Publius32 did once in the island of Malta for a single apostle and — not to leave room for contradiction33 — for a single ship, they did many times for many men.  Not only did they relieve the wants of the destitute;  their generosity was at every one’s service and provided even for those who possessed something themselves.  The whole world heard that a Home for Strangers34 had been founded in the port of Rome, and Britain knew in the summer what Egypt and the Parthians had learned in the spring.
31.  Num 23:21
32.  Act 28:7:  “who received us, and lodged us three days courteously.”
33.  Apparently this means “that no one may criticize me as exaggerating.”
34.  The regular name for an inn, ξενοδοχεῖον.
77:11Quod scriptum est, « Timentibus Dominum omnia cooperantur in bonum », in obitu tantæ feminæ vidimus comprobatum.  Quodam præsagio futurorum, ad multos scripserat monachos ut venirent et grave onere laborantem absolverent, faceretque sibi de iniquo mammona amicos qui eam reciperent in æterna tabernacula.  Venerunt ;  amici facti sunt ;  dormivit illa — quod voluit — et, deposita tandem sarcina, levior volavit ad cælos.  Quantum haberet viventis Fabiolæ Roma miraculum, in mortua demonstravit.  Necdum spiritum exhalaverat, necdum debitam Christo reddiderat animam,

« Et jam fama volans, tanti prænuntia luctus »,

totius urbis populos ad exsequias congregabat.
It is written:  “All things work together for good to them that fear God,”35 and in the death of the noble lady the words have been proved true.  She had a presentiment of what was to happen, and had written to several monks, that they might come and relieve her from the heavy burden under which she groaned, and that she might make to herself friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, to receive her into everlasting habitations.36  They came, and were welcomed as friends;  she fell asleep, as she had wished, and having at length rid herself of her burden, soared more lightly to heaven.  How great had been the wonder of Fabiola’s life Rome showed when she was dead.  She had scarcely drawn her last breath and paid the debt of her soul to Christ when,

“Flying rumor, heralding such woe,”37

brought the peoples of the whole city to attend her funeral.
Sonabant psalmi, et aurata tecta templorum, reboans in sublime, ‹ Alleluia › quatiebat.

« Hic juvenum chorus, ille senum, qui carmine laudes
Femineas et facta ferant. »

Non sic Furius de Gallis, non Papirius de Samnitibus, non Scipio de Numantia, non Pompejus de Ponti gentibus triumphavit.  Illi corpora vicere, hæc spiritales nequitias subjugavit.  Audio :  præcedentium turmas et catervatim exsequias ejus multitudinem fluctuantem ;  non plateæ, non porticus, non imminentia desuper tecta capere poterant prospectantes.  Tunc suos in unum populos Roma conspexit :  favebant sibi omnes in gloria pænitentis.  Nec mirum si de ejus salute homines exultarent, de cujus conversione angeli lætabantur in cælo.

Psalms re-echoed loudly and cries of “Alleluia” shook the gilded roofs of the temples.

“Young men and old unite in song to praise
A woman and her fame to heaven raise.”38

Not so gloriously did Furius triumph over the Gauls, Papirius over the Samnites, Scipio over Numantia, or Pompey over the peoples of the Black Sea.  They conquered physical strength, she overcame spiritual iniquities.  I hear it still:  the crowds that went before the bier, the swaying multitude that attended her obsequies in throngs, no streets, no colonnades could contain, no overhanging roofs could hold the eager onlookers.  On that day Rome saw all her peoples gathered together.  Every one flattered himself that he had a share in the glory of her penitence.  No wonder that men exulted in her salvation, seeing that the angels in heaven rejoiced over her conversion.

35.  Rom 8:28.  Jerome substitutes “fearing” (timentibus) for Romans’ “loving” (diligentibus).
36.  Luk 16:9
37.  Virgil, Æneid 11:139
38.  Virgil, Æneid 8:287.  Jerome substitutes “womanly, of a woman” (Femineas) for Virgil’s “Herculean, of Hercules” (Herculeas).
77:12Hoc tibi, Fabiola, ingenii mei senile munus, has officiorum inferias, dedi.  Laudavimus virgines, viduas ac maritatas, quarum semper fuere candida vestimenta, quæ « sequuntur Agnum, quocunque vadit ».  Felix præconium quod nullā totius vitæ sorde maculatur !  Procul livor, facessat invidia.  Si pater familias bonus est, quare oculus noster malus ?  Quæ inciderat in latrones, Christi humeris reportata est.  « Multæ mansiones sunt apud patrem. »  « Ubi abundavit peccatum, superabundavit gratia. »  Cui plus dimittitur, plus amat. This,39 the best gift of my aged powers, I present to you, Fabiola, as a funeral offering of respect.  I have praised virgins, widows and married women who have kept their vestments always white, “who follow the Lamb whithersoever He goeth.”40  Blessed indeed is the praise of her whose life has been stained by no foulness.  Let envy hold aloof, let jealousy absent itself.  If the father of the house be good, why should our eye be evil?41  She who fell among thieves has been carried home upon Christ’s shoulders.42  “In our father’s house there are many mansions.”43  “Where sin abounded, grace did more abound.”44  To whom more is forgiven, the same loveth more.45
39.  Letters 77 and 78
40.  Apoc 14:4
41.  Mt 20:15
42.  Lk 10:30, 15:5
43.  Jn 14:2
44.  Rom 5:20
45.  Lk 7:47
{ 107 }
Epistula CVII
Ad Lætam1 de Institutione Filiæ
A.D. 401/2
107:1BEATUS apostolus Paulus, scribens ad Corinthios et rudem Christi ecclesiam, sacris instruens disciplinis, inter cetera mandata hoc quoque posuit, dicens, « Si qua mulier habet virum infidelem et hic consentit habitare cum ea, ne dimittat virum.  Sanctificatus est enim vir infidelis in uxore fideli et sanctificata est mulier infidelis in fratre.  Alioquin filii vestri immundi essent, nunc autem sancti sunt. »  Si cui forte hactenus videbantur nimium disciplinæ vincula laxata et præceps indulgentia præceptoris, consideret domum patris tui, clarissimi quidem et eruditissimi viri — sed adhuc ambulantis in tenebris —, et intelleget consilium apostoli illuc profecisse, ut radicis amaritudinem dulcedo fructuum compensaret, et viles virgulæ balsama pretiosa sudarent :  tu es nata de impari matrimonio ;  de te et Toxotio meo, Paula generata est. The blessed apostle Paul, writing to the Corinthians and instructing Christ’s novice church in the ways of sacred discipline, among his other precepts laid down also the following rule:  “If any woman hath a husband that believeth not, and he consent to dwell with her, let her not put away her husband.  For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the believing wife; and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the believing husband:  otherwise your children should be unclean; but now they are holy.”2  If any one up till now has perchance considered that Paul relaxed the bonds of discipline too much, and in his teaching was over-inclined to indulgence, let him consider the household of your father, who is a man of the highest rank and learning, but still walking in darkness, and he will perceive that the apostle’s counsel has succeeded in making the sweetness of the fruit compensate for the bitterness of the parent tree, and has induced a common bush to exude precious balsam.  You yourself are the child of a mixed marriage;  but now you and my dear Toxotius are Paula’s parents.
Quis hoc crederet, ut Albini pontificis neptis de repromissione matris nasceretur ut, præsente et gaudente avo, parvulæ adhuc lingua balbutiens « Alleluia » resonaret, et virginem Christi in suo gremio nutriret senex ?  Bene et feliciter exspectavimus.  Sancta et fidelis domus unum sanctificat infidelem.  Candidatus est fidei, quem filiorum et nepotum credens turba circumdat.  (Ego puto etiam ipsum Jovem, si habuisset talem cognationem, potuisse in Christum credere.)  Despuat licet et irrideat epistulam meam, et me vel stultum vel insanum clamitet ;  hoc et gener ejus faciebat antequam crederet.  Fiunt, non nascuntur Christiani.  Auratum squalet Capitolium ;  fuligine et aranearum telis omnia Romæ templa cooperta sunt ;  movetur urbs sedibus suis, et inundans populus ante delubra semiruta currit ad martyrum tumulos.  Si non extorquet fidem prudentia, extorqueat saltim verecundia. Who would ever have believed that the granddaughter of the Roman pontiff Albinus would be born in answer to a mother’s vows;  that the grandfather would stand by and rejoice while the baby’s yet stammering tongue cried “Alleluia”;  and that the old man would nurse in his arms one of Christ’s own virgins?  We did well to expect this happy issue.  The one unbeliever is sanctified by a saintly household of believers.  He is a candidate for the faith, who has around him a throng of believing sons and grandsons:  (I, for my part, think that even Jove might well have believed in Christ if he had had kinfolk of this kind).  He may spit in scorn upon this letter, and cry out that I am a fool or a madman;  but his son-in-law did the same before he became a believer.  Christians are not born but made.  The gilded Capitol today looks dingy, all the temples in Rome are covered with soot and cobwebs, the city is shaken to its foundations, and the people hurry past the ruined shrines and pour out to visit the martyrs’ graves.  If knowledge does not compel faith, let shame at least do so.
1.  Læta, to whom this letter was sent in A.D. 403, married Toxotius, son of Paula and Toxotius, “in whose veins ran the noble blood of Æneas” (Letter 108:4).  She herself was the daughter of a pagan, the pontiff Publilius Cejonius Caecina Albinus, and had written to Jerome concerning the education of her child Paula.  The advice given in this letter, that the little girl should be sent to Bethlehem to be educated by her grandmother Paula and her aunt Eustochium, was accepted, and she eventually succeeded Eustochium as head of the nunnery there.
2.  1 Cor 7:13f.
107:2Hoc, Læta, religiosissima in Christo filia, dictum sit, ut non desperes parentis salutem et eadem fide qua meruisti filiam, et patrem recipias, totaque domus beatitudine perfruaris, sciens illud a Domino repromissum :  « Quæ apud homines impossibilia, apud Deum possibilia sunt ».  Nunquam est sera conversio.  Latro de cruce transiit ad paradisum :  Nabuchodonosor, rex Babylonius, post efferationem et cordis et corporis, et beluarum in eremo convīctum, mentem recepit humanam.  Et — ut omittam vetera ne apud incredulos nimis fabulosa videantur — ante paucos annos propinquus vester Gracchus, nobilitatem patriciam nomine sonans, quum præfecturam regeret urbanam, nonne specum Mithræ et omnia portentuosa simulacra quibus Corax, Nymphius,4 Miles, Leo, Perses, Heliodromus, Pater initiantur, subvertit, fregit, excussit et, his quasi obsidibus ante præmissis, impetravit baptismum Christi ? Let this be said, dear Laeta, most dutiful daughter in Christ, so that you may not despair of your father’s salvation.  I hope that the same faith which has gained you a daughter as its reward may also win you your father, and that you may rejoice over blessings bestowed upon your whole household, knowing God’s promise:  “The things which are impossible with men are possible with God.”3  It is never too late to be converted.  The robber passed from the cross to Paradise.  Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, recovered his human understanding after he had been made like an animal in body and heart, and had lived with the beasts in the wilderness.  To pass over incidents in remote antiquity, which to the sceptical may appear too fabulous for belief, did not your kinsman Gracchus whose name recalls his patrician rank, destroy the cave of Mithras a few years ago when he was Prefect of Rome?5  Did he not wreck, break and throw out all the monstrous images there by which worshippers were initiated as Crow, Bridegroom, Soldier, Lion, Perseus, Sun-runner, and Father?6  Did he not send them before himself as hostages, and gain for himself baptism in Christ?
Solitudinem patitur et in urbe gentilitas.  Dii quondam nationum cum bubonibus et noctuis in solis culminibus remanserunt ;  vexilla militum crucis insignia sunt, regum purpuras et ardentes diadematum gemmas patibuli salutaris pictura condecorat.  Jam et Ægyptius Serapis factus est Christianus ;  Marnas Gazæ luget inclusus et eversionem templi jugiter pertremescit.  De India, Perside et Æthiopia monachorum cottidie turbas suscipimus ;  deposuit pharetras Armenius, Hunni discunt psalterium, Scythæ fervent calore fidei ;  Getarum rutulus et flavus exercitus ecclesiarum circumfert tentoria, et ideo forsitan contra nos æqua pugnant acie, quia pari religione confidunt. Even in Rome now heathenism languishes in solitude.  Those who once were the gods of the Gentiles are left beneath their deserted pinnacles to the company of owls and night-birds.  The army standards bear the emblem of the cross.  The purple robes of kings and the jewels that sparkle on their diadems are adorned with the gibbet sign that has brought to us salvation.  Today even the Egyptian Serapis7 has become a Christian:  Marnas8 mourns in his prison at Gaza, and fears continually that his temple will be overthrown.  From India, from Persia and from Ethiopia we welcome crowds of monks every hour.  The Armenians have laid aside their quivers, the Huns are learning the psalter, the frosts of Scythia are warmed by the fire of faith.  The ruddy, flaxen-haired Getae carry tent-churches about with their armies;  and perhaps the reason they fight evenly matched against us is that they believe in the same religion.
3.  Lk 18:27
4.  cryphius :  Hilberg
5.  Probably in 378.
6.  In the mystery religion of Mithraism, initiates passed through several grades, of which these are titles.  The Crow and Lion, for example, dressed in character, and imitated the creatures in their mummery.  These Mithraic names were also the (Persian-Hellenistic) names of constellations and planets, e.g., “Nymphius” = Greek Νύμφη = Latin Virgo.  The corresponding tutelary planet-gods were:  Mercury, Venus, Mars, Jupiter, Moon, Sun and Saturn.  Furius Maccius (or Mæcius) Gracchus was præfectus urbis Romæ 376-7.  It was around the time of Christ that the precession of the equinoxes was discovered, and this was ascribed to Mithras as god of the cosmos.
7.  In A.D. 389 the temple of Serapis at Alexandria was pulled down, and a Christian church built on the site.
8.  The chief Syrian god in Gaza.  Cf. Jerome’s Life of Hilarion, §20:  “Another story relates to Italicus, a citizen of the same town [of Gaza].  He was a Christian and kept horses for the circus to contend against those of the Duumvir of Gaza who was a votary of the idol god Marnas.”
107:3Pæne lapsus sum ad aliam materiam et, currente rota, dum urceum facere cogito, amphoram finxit manus.  Propositum enim mihi erat sanctæ Marcellæ et tuis precibus invitato ad matrem, id est ad te, sermonem dirigere et docere, quomodo instruere Paululam nostram debeas, quæ prius Christo est consecrata quam genita, quam ante votis quam utero suscepisti.  Vidimus aliquid temporibus nostris de prophetalibus libris :  Anna sterilitatem alvi fecunditate mutavit, tu luctuosam fecunditatem vitalibus liberis commutasti.  Fidens loquor accepturam te filios, quæ primum fetum Domino reddidisti.  Ista sunt primogenita, quæ offeruntur in Lege.  Sic natus Samuel ;  sic ortus est Samson ;  sic Johannes propheta ad introitum Mariæ exultavit et lusit.  Audiebat enim per os virginis verba Domini pertonantis, et de utero matris in occursum ejus gestiebat erumpere.  Igitur, quæ de repromissione nata est, dignam habeat ortu suo institutionem parentum.  Samuel nutritur in templo ;  Johannes in solitudine præparatur.  Ille sacro crine venerabilis est, vinum et siceram non bibit, adhuc parvulus cum Deo sermocinatur ;  hic fugit urbes, zona pellicia cingitur, locustis alitur et melle silvestri ;  et in typum pænitentiæ prædicatæ, tortuosissimi animalis vestitur exuviis. I have almost slipped into another subject, and thinking to make a pitcher on my running wheel my hand has moulded a vase.9  It was my intention, in answer to your prayers and those of the saintly Marcella, to direct my discourse to a mother, that is, to you, and to show you how to bring up our little Paula, who was consecrated to Christ before she was born, the child of prayers before the hour of conception.  In our own days we have seen something such as we read of in the prophets:  Hannah exchanged her barrenness for fruitful motherhood, you have exchanged a fertility bound up with sorrow for children who will live for ever.  I tell you confidently that you who have given your first-born to the Lord will receive sons at His hand.  The firstborn are the offerings due under the Law.  Such was the case both with Samuel and with Samson, and so it was that John the Baptist leaped for joy when Mary came in.10  For he heard the thunder of the Lord’s voice on the Virgin’s lips, and was eager to break out from his mother’s womb to meet Him.  Therefore let your child of promise have a training from her parents worthy of her birth.  Samuel was nurtured in the Temple, John was trained in the Wilderness.  The one inspired veneration with his long hair, took neither wine nor strong drink, and even in his childhood talked with God.  The other avoided cities, wore a skin girdle, and fed on locusts and wild honey and, as a symbol of the penitence he preached, he wore the skin of the most twisted of animals.11
9.  Jerome here reverses Horace, Ars Poëtica, 21 :  amphora cœpit institui :  currente rota | cur urceus exit ?  (“A stately vase was begun;  why, then, does this misshapen pot come from the revolving wheel?”  [i.e., what began with great fanfare turned out to be something of little note]).
10.  Lk 1:41
11.  I.e., the camel.
107:4Sic erudienda est anima quæ futura est templum Domini.  Nihil aliud discat audire, nihil loqui, nisi quod ad timorem Dei pertinet.  Turpia verba non intellegat ;  cantica mundi ignoret ;  adhuc tenera lingua psalmis dulcibus imbuatur.  Procul sit ætas lasciva puerorum ;  ipsæ puellæ et pedisequæ a sæcularium consortiis arceantur ne, quod mali didicerint, pejus doceant.  Fiant ei litteræ vel buxeæ vel eburneæ, et suis nominibus appellentur.  Ludat in eis, ut et lusus ejus eruditio sit ;  et non solum ordinem teneat litterarum, ut memoria nominum in canticum transeat, sed ipse inter se crebro ordo turbetur et mediis ultima, primis media misceantur, ut eas non sonu tantum, sed et visu noverit.  Quum vero cœperit trementi manu stilum in cera ducere, vel alterius superposita manu teneri regantur articuli, vel in tabella sculpantur elementa, ut per eosdem sulcos inclusa marginibus trahantur vestigia et foras non queant evagari. Thus must a soul be trained which is to be a temple of God.  It must learn to hear nothing and to say nothing save what pertains to the fear of the Lord.  It must have no comprehension of foul words, no knowledge of worldly songs, and its childish tongue must be imbued with the sweet music of the psalms.  Make sure the lascivious teenage of boys is far off:  let even her maids and attendants hold aloof from association with the worldly, lest they render their evil knowledge worse by teaching it to her.  Have a set of letters made for her, of boxwood or of ivory, and tell her their names.  Let her play with them, making play a road to learning, and let her not only grasp the right order of the letters and remember their names in a simple song, but also frequently upset their order and mix the last letters with the middle ones, the middle with the first.  Thus she will know them all by sight as well as by sound.  When she begins with uncertain hand to use the pen, either let another hand be put over hers to guide her baby fingers, or else have the letters marked on the tablet so that her writing may follow their outlines and keep to their limits without straying away.
Syllabas jungat ad præmium et, quibus illa ætas delectari potest, munusculis invitetur.  Habeat et in discendo socias quibus invideat, quarum laudibus mordeatur.  Non est objurganda si tardior sit, sed laudibus excitandum ingenium, et vicisse se gaudeat et victam doleat.  Cavendum in primis ne oderit studia, ne amaritudo eorum percepta in infantia ultra rudes annos transeat.  Ipsa nomina per quæ consuescet verba contexere non sint fortuita, sed certa et coacervata de industria — prophetarum videlicet atque apostolorum, et omnis ab Adam patriarcharum series de Matheo Lucaque descendat — ut, dum aliud agit, futuræ memoriæ præparetur.

Magister probæ ætatis et vitæ atque eruditionis est eligendus ;  nec, puto, erubescit doctus vir id facere, vel in propinqua vel in nobili virgine, quod Aristoteles fecit in Philippi filio, ut ipse, librariorum vilitate, initia ei traderet litterarum.  Non sunt contemnenda quasi parva, sine quibus magna constare non possunt.  Ipse elementorum sonus, et prima institutio præceptoris, aliter de erudito, aliter de rustico ore profertur.
Offer her prizes for spelling, tempting her with such trifling gifts as please young children.  Let her have companions too in her lessons, so that she may seek to rival them and be stimulated by any praise they win.  You must not scold her if she is somewhat slow;  praise is the best sharpener of wits.  Let her be glad when she is first and sorry when she falls behind.  Above all take care not to make her lessons distasteful;  a childish dislike often lasts longer than childhood.  The very words from which she will get into the way of forming sentences should not be taken at haphazard but be definitely chosen and arranged on purpose.  For example, let her have the names of the prophets and the apostles, and the whole list of patriarchs from Adam downwards, as Matthew and Luke give it so that, while she is doing something else, she will be developed as to her memory.

For teacher you must choose a man of approved years, life and learning.  Even a sage is not ashamed, methinks, to do for a relative or for a high-born virgin what Aristotle did for Philip’s son, when like some humble clerk he taught him his first letters.  Things must not be despised as trifles, if without them great results are impossible.  The very letters themselves, and so the first lesson in them, sound quite differently from the mouth of a learned man, and of a rustic.
Unde et tibi est providendum ne, ineptis blanditiis feminarum, dimidiata dicere filiam verba consuescas, et in auro atque purpura ludere — quorum alterum linguæ, alterum moribus officit ;  ne discat in tenero, quod ei postea dediscendum est.  Gracchorum12 eloquentiæ multum ab infantia sermo matris scribitur contulisse, Hortensii13 oratio in paterno sinu coaluit.  Difficulter eraditur, quod rudes animi perbiberunt.  Lanarum conchylia quis in pristinum candorem revocet ?  Rudis testa diu et saporem retinet et odorem, quo primum imbuta est. And so you must take care not to let women’s silly coaxing get your daughter into the way of cutting her words short, or of disporting herself in gold brocade and fine purple.  The first habit ruins talk, the second character;  and children should never learn what they will afterwards have to unlearn.  We are told that the eloquence of the Gracchi was largely due to the way in which their mother talked to them as children, and it was by sitting on his father’s lap that Hortensius became a great orator.  The first impression made on a young mind is hard to remove.  The shell-dyed wool14 — who can bring back its pristine whiteness?  A new jar keeps for a long time the taste and smell of its original contents.15
Græca narrat historia Alexandrum, potentissimum regem orbisque domitorem, et in moribus et in incessu Leonidis, pædagogi sui, non potuisse carere vitiis, quibus parvulus adhuc fuerat infectus.  Proclivis est enim malorum æmulatio et, quorum virtutes assequi nequeas, cito imitere vitia.  Nutrix ipsa non sit temulenta, non lasciva, non garrula ;  habeat modestam gerulam, nutricium gravem.  Quum avum viderit, in pectus ejus transiliat, e collo pendeat, nolenti « Alleluia » decantet.  Rapiat eam avia, patrem risibus recognoscat, sit omnibus amabilis, et universa propinquitas rosam e se natam gaudeat.  Discat statim quam habeat et alteram aviam, quam amitam, cui imperatori, cui exercitui tiruncula nutriatur.  Illas desideret, ad illas tibi minitetur abscessum. Greek history tells us that the mighty king Alexander, who subdued the whole world, could not rid himself of the tricks of manner and gait which in his childhood he had caught from his governor Leonides.  For it is easy to imitate the bad, and you may soon copy the faults of those to whose virtues you can never attain.  Let Paula’s foster-mother be a person neither drunken nor wanton nor fond of gossip:  let her nurse be a modest woman, her foster-father a respectable man.  When she sees her grandfather, she must leap into his arms, hang on his neck, and sing “Alleluia” whether he likes it or not.  Let her grandmother snatch her away, let her recognize her father with a smile, let her endear herself to all, so that the whole family may rejoice that they have such a rosebud among them.  Let her learn too at once who is her other grandmother and her aunt, who is her captain and for whose army she is being trained as a recruit.  Let her crave their company and threaten you that she will leave you for them.
12.  Graccorum :  Hilberg
13.  Hortensiæ :  Hilberg
14.  Dyed purple with the juice of the murex (purple-fish, a shellfish from which the Tyrian dye was obtained).
15.  Horace, Epistles, Lib. I, 2:70 :  quo semel est imbuta, recens servabit | odorem testa diu.  (“The jar will long retain the odor of that with which, when new, it was once filled.”)
107:5Ipse habitus et vestitus doceat eam, Cui promissa sit.  Cave ne aures perfores, ne cerusa et purpurisso consecrata Christo ora depingas, ne collum margaritis et auro premas, ne caput gemmis oneres, ne capillum irrufes et ei aliquid de gehennæ ignibus auspiceris.  Habeat alias margaritas, quibus postea venditis, emptura est pretiosissimum margaritum.  Prætextata, nobilissima quondam femina, jubente viro Hymetio qui patruus Eustochiæ virginis fuit, habitum ejus cultumque mutavit et neglectum crinem undanti gradu texuit, vincere cupiens et virginis propositum et matris desiderium.  Et ecce tibi eadem nocte cernit in somnis venisse ad se angelum terribili facie minitantem pœnas et hæc verba frangentem :  « Tune ausa es viri imperium præferre Christo ?  Tu caput virginis Dei sacrilegis attrectare manibus ? — quæ jam nunc arescent ut sentias excruciata quid feceris et, finito mense quinto, ad inferna duceris.  Sin autem perseveraveris in scelere, et marito simul orbaberis et filiis. »  Omnia per ordinem expleta sunt et seram miseræ pænitentiam velox signavit interitus.  Sic ulciscitur Christus violatores templi sui ;  sic gemmas et pretiosissima ornamenta defendit.  Et hoc rettuli, non quod insultare velim calamitatibus infelicium, sed ut te moneam, cum quanto metu et cautione servare debeas quod Domino spopondisti. Her very dress and outward appearance should remind her of Him to whom she is promised.  Do not pierce her ears, or paint with white lead and rouge the cheeks that are consecrated to Christ.  Do not load her neck with pearls and gold, do not weigh down her head with jewels, do not dye her hair red and thereby presage for her the fires of hell.  Let her have other pearls which she will sell hereafter and buy the pearl that is of great price.  There was once a lady of rank named Praetextata, who at the bidding of her husband Hymetius, the uncle of Eustochia,16 altered that virgin’s dress and appearance, and had her hair waved, desiring thus to overcome the virgin’s resolution and her mother’s wishes.  But lo! that same night in her dreams she saw an angel, terrible of aspect, standing before her, who threatened her with punishment and broke into speech thus:  “Have you dared to put your husband’s orders before those of Christ?  Have you presumed to lay sacrilegious hands upon the head of God’s virgin?  This very hour those hands will wither so that in pain you may feel what you have done, until at the fifth month’s end you will be carried off to hell.  Moreover, if you persist in your wickedness, you shall lose both your husband and your children.”  All this was duly fulfilled, and a swift death marked the unhappy woman’s late repentance.  So it is that Christ takes vengeance upon the violators of his temple, so he defends his pearls and precious jewels.  I have told you this, not with any wish to exult over the downfall of the wretched, but to remind you with what anxiety and carefulness you must watch over that which you have vowed to the Lord.
16.  The family life of Paula, Læta’s mother-in-law, illustrates the struggle between Christianity and paganism in the Roman society of the day.  Her four daughters were all Christians.  Blesilla, the eldest of them, had married Furius, a son of the devout Titiana, and had been left a widow before she was twenty, but as yet she was indifferent to her religion and enjoyed to the full the life of gay luxury which her wealth and position offered to her.  Julia or Eustochium, the third daughter, had wished from childhood to take the veil and much of her time had been spent with Marcella, whose instruction and example had confirmed her natural bent.  Paula sympathised with this desire, but it was strongly opposed by the child’s uncle Hymetius, her father’s brother.  He had been a favorite of the Emperor Julian and he and his wife Prætextata held fast to the old religion, and their influence and authority kept Paula’s only son, the young Toxotius, at this time a child of nine or ten, from becoming a Christian.  They invited Eustochium to visit them, and by dressing her in fine clothes and giving her a glimpse of the social life in which she would naturally take part, they tried to detach her from opinions which to them seemed fanatical and unnatural.  To modern minds the scheme seems but a natural attempt to let the child — she was only fourteen or fifteen — see something of the world which she was so determined to abjure, but Jerome, writing of the incident twenty years later, exults in its failure and denounced the wickedness of the worldly uncle and aunt, whose death, which occurred soon after, he ascribes to the direct judgment of Heaven for this attempt to turn the young virgin from her chosen path.
107:6Eli sacerdos offendit Dominum ob vitia liberorum ;  episcopus fieri non potest, qui filios habuerit luxuriosos et non subditos.  At e contrario de muliere scribitur, quod « salva fiet per filiorum generationem, si permanserint in fide et caritate et sanctificatione cum pudicitia. »  Si perfecta ætas et sui juris imputatur parentibus, quanto magis lactans et fragilis et quæ juxta sententiam Domini ignorat dexteram aut sinistram, id est boni ac mali nescit differentiam !  Sollicita provides, ne filia percutiatur a vipera ;  cur non eadem cura provideas, ne feriatur a malleo universæ terræ, ne bibat de aureo calice Babylonis, ne egrediatur cum Dina et velit videre filias regionis alienæ, ne ludat pedibus, ne trahat tunicas ?  Venena non dantur nisi melle circumlita, et vitia non decipiunt nisi sub specie umbraque virtutum.  « Et quomodo », inquies, « peccata patrum filiis non redduntur nec filiorum parentibus, sed ‹ anima quæ peccaverit, ipsa morietur › ? » The priest Eli lost God’s favor because of his children’s faults;17  a man cannot be a bishop, if his sons are men of profligate and disorderly life.  On the other hand it is written of the woman:  “She shall be saved in child bearing, if they continue in faith and charity and holiness with chastity.”18  If parents get the credit for their children’s deeds, even when they are of ripe age and their own masters, how much more are they responsible for a frail baby girl, who, as the Lord says, cannot discern between right hand and left, that is, does not know the difference between good and evil.  You take anxious thought to prevent a viper biting your daughter;  why do you not show the same prudent care to save her from the hammer of the whole earth,19 to guard her from drinking of Babylon’s golden cup, from going out with Dinah to see the daughters of a strange land,20 from sporting in the dance, from trailing her robe at her heels?  You smear honey round the cup before you give a drug,21 and vices only deceive when they wear the mien and semblance of virtue.  You will ask:  “how is it that the sins of the fathers are not reckoned against the sons, nor the sins of the sons against the parents, but ‘the soul that sinneth, it shall die’?”22
Hoc de his dicitur qui possunt sapere, de quibus in Evangelio scriptum est, « Ætatem habet, pro se loquatur. »  Qui autem parvulus est et sapit ut parvulus, donec ad annos sapientiæ veniat et Pythagoræ littera eum perducat ad bivium, tam mala ejus quam bona parentibus imputantur ;  nisi forte æstimas Christianorum filios, si baptisma non acceperint, ipsos tantum reos esse peccati, et non scelus referri ad eos qui dare noluerint, maxime eo tempore quo contradicere non poterant qui accepturi erant — sicut, e regione, salus infantium majorum lucrum est.  Offerre necne filiam potestatis tuæ fuit, quanquam alia sit tua condicio, quæ prius eam vovisti quam conceperis ;  ut autem oblatam neglegas, ad periculum tuum pertinet.  Qui claudam et mutilam et qualibet sorde maculatam obtulerit hostiam, sacrilegii reus est ;  quanto magis, qui partem corporis sui et illibatæ animæ puritatem Regiis amplexibus parat, si negligens fuerit, punietur! That passage, I answer, refers to those who have reached the age of discretion, of whom the Gospel says:  “He is of age, let him speak for himself.”23  As for the little child with a child’s understanding, until he comes to years of wisdom and the alphabetic letter of Pythagoras24 confronts him with the two roads, his evil deeds as well as his good are laid to his parents’ account;  unless indeed you imagine that the children of Christians, if they have not received baptism, are themselves alone responsible for their sins and no guilt attaches to those who refused it them at the time when the recipients could not have objected — just as, contrariwise, the salvation of the children is an advantage for the parents.  It rested with you whether you should offer your daughter or not;  although you scarcely had the option, since you offered her before she was conceived.  But now that you have offered her you neglect her at your peril.  He that offers a victim that is lame or maimed or marked with any blemish is considered guilty of sacrilege.  How much greater will be the punishment, if one proves negligent, who makes ready for the King’s embrace a portion of her own body and the purity of the unmutilated soul!
17.  1 Sam 2:12-36, 3:13
18.  1 Tim 3:1-7, 2:15.  Jerome substitutes “chastity” (pudicitia) for (1 Tim 2:15) “sobriety” (sobrietate).
19.  I.e, Babylon.
20.  Gen 34:1
21.  Titus Lucretius Carus, De rerum natura, 1:936ff. :  veluti pueris absinthia tætra medentes | quum dare conantur, prius oras pocula circum | contingunt mellis dulci flavoque liquore (“as with children, when physicians try to administer rank wormwood, they first touch the rim of the cups all about with the sweet yellow fluid of honey”).
22.  Ezek 28:20
23.  Jn 9:21
24.  Pythagoras depicted the Choice of Life under the form of the Greek letter Υ (or Ҷ), which was originally made with one straight stroke on the right, and halfway up a curved branch on the left.  The lower part represents the period of childhood, the branching ways the time when the choice has to be made between good and evil.  The steep path to the right is the path of virtue.
107:7Postquam grandicula esse cœperit et, in exemplum Sponsi sui, crescere sapientia, ætate et gratia apud Deum et homines, pergat cum parentibus ad templum veri Patris, sed cum illis non egrediatur e templo.  Quærant eam in itinere sæculi, inter turbas et frequentiam propinquorum, et nusquam alibi reperiant nisi in adyto Scripturarum, prophetas et apostolos de spiritalibus nuptiis sciscitantem.  Imitetur Mariam, quam Gabriel solam in cubiculo suo repperit et ideo forsitan timore perterrita est, quia virum quem non solebat aspexit.  Æmuletur eam, de qua dicitur, « Omnis gloria filiæ regis ab intus ».  Loquatur et ipsa, electo caritatis jaculo vulnerata, « Introduxit me rex in cubiculum suum ».  Nunquam exeat foras, ne inveniant eam, qui circumeunt civitatem, ne percutiant et vulnerent et, auferentes theristrum pudicitiæ, nudam in sanguine derelinquant ;  quin potius, quum aliquis ostium ejus pulsaverit, dicat, « Ego murus et ubera mea turris.  Lavi pedes meos, non possum inquinare eos. » When Paula begins to be a big girl, and like her Spouse to increase in wisdom and stature and in favor with God and man, let her go with her parents to the temple of her true Father, but let her not come out from the temple with them.  Let them seek her upon the world’s highway, amid crowds and the company of their kinsfolk, but let them find her nowhere save in the shrine of the Scriptures, inquiring there of the prophets and apostles concerning her spiritual nuptials.  Let her take pattern by Mary whom Gabriel found alone in her chamber, Mary who perchance was terrified because she saw a strange man.  Let her seek to rival that one of whom it is said:  “All the glory of the king’s daughter is from within.”25  Wounded with love’s arrow let her too say to her chosen:  “The king hath brought me into his bedchamber.”26  At no time let her go out abroad, lest those that go about the city find her, lest they smite her and wound her and take away the veil of her chastity and leave her naked in her blood.  Nay rather, when one knocketh at her door let her say:  “I am a wall and my breasts are a tower.  I have washed my feet;  how can I defile them?”27
25.  Ps 44:14
26.  Cant. 1:3
27.  Cant. 8:10 & 5:3
107:8Non vescatur in publico, id est in parentum convivio, ne videat cibos quos desideret.  Et licet quidam putent majoris esse virtutis præsentem contemnere voluptatem, tamen ego securioris arbitror continentiæ, nescire quod quæras.  Legi quondam in scholis puer, « Ægre reprehendas quod sinas consuescere. »  Discat jam nunc et vinum non bibere, « in quo est luxuria. »  Ante annos robustæ ætatis, periculosa est teneris gravis abstinentia.  Usque ad id tempus, si necessitas postularit, et balneas adeat et vino modico utatur propter stomachum et carnium edulio sustentetur, ne prius deficiant pedes quam currere incipiant.  Et « hæc dico juxta indulgentiam, non juxta imperium », timens debilitatem, non docens luxuriam.  Alioquin, quod Judaica superstitio e parte facit in ejuratione quorundam animalium atque escarum, quod Indorum Bragmanæ et Ægyptiorum Gymnosophistæ in polentæ et orizæ et pomorum solo observant cibo, cur virgo Christi non faciat in toto ?  Si tanti vitrum, quare non majoris sit pretii margaritum ?  Quæ nata est e repromissione, sic vivat ut illi vixerunt qui de repromissione generati sunt.  Æqua gratia æquum habeat et laborem.  Surda sit ad organa :  tibia, lyra et cithara, cur facta sint, nesciat. She should not take her food in public, that is, at her parents’ guest-table, lest she see there dishes that she will crave for.  And though some people think it shows the higher virtue to despise a pleasure ready to your hand, I for my part judge it part of the surer self-restraint to remain in ignorance of what you would like.  Once when I was a boy at school I read this line:  “You may check only with difficulty what you allow to become habitual.”28  Let her learn even now not to drink wine “wherein is excess.”29  Until they have reached their full strength, however, strict abstinence is dangerous for young children:  so till then, if needs must, let her visit the baths, and take a little wine for the stomach’s sake,30 and have the support of a meat diet, lest her feet fail before the race begins. “I say this by way of indulgence and not by way of command,”31 fearing weakness, not teaching wantonness.  Moreover, what the Jewish superstition does in part, solemnly rejecting certain animals and certain products as food, what the Brahmans in India and the Gymnosophists in Egypt observe on their diet of only barley-porridge, rice, and fruit, why should not Christ’s virgin do altogether?  If a glass bead is worth so much, surely a pearl must have a higher value.  She who has been born of promise must live as those lived before her who were begotten under the same vow.  Let an equal favor bring with it also an equal labor.  Paula must be deaf to all musical instruments, and never even know why the flute, the lyre, and the harp came into existence.
28.  Publilius Syrus, Sententiæ, 180.
29.  Eph 5:18
30.  1 Tim 5:23
31.  1 Cor 7:6
107:9Reddat tibi pensum cottidie Scripturarum.  Certum ediscat Græcorum versuum numerum.  Sequatur statim et Latina eruditio ;  quæ si non ab initio os tenerum composuit, in peregrinum sonum lingua corrumpitur et externis vitiis sermo patrius sordidatur.  Te habeat magistram, te rudis miretur infantia.  Nihil in te et in patre suo videat quod, si fecerit, peccet.  Memento vos parentes virginis et magis eam exemplis docere posse quam voce.  Cito flores pereunt, cito violas et lilia et crocum pestilens aura corrumpit.  Nunquam absque te procedat in publicum, basilicas martyrum et ecclesias sine matre non adeat.  Nullus ei juvenis, nullus cincinnatus arrideat.  Vigiliarum dies et sollemnes pernoctationes sic virguncula nostra celebret, ut ne transversum quidem unguem a matre discedat.  Nolo de ancillulis suis aliquam plus diligat, cujus crebro auribus insusurret.  Quicquid uni loquitur, hoc omnes sciant.  Placeat ei comes non compta atque formosa, quæ liquido gutture carmen dulce moderetur, sed gravis, pallens, sordidata, subtristis.  Præponatur ei probæ fidei et morum ac pudicitiæ virgo veterana, quæ illam doceat et assuescat exemplo ad orationem et psalmos nocte consurgere, mane hymnos canere, tertia, sexta, nona hora quasi bellatricem Christi stare in acie, accensaque lucernula, reddere sacrificium vespertinum.  Sic dies transeat, sic nox inveniat laborantem.  Orationi lectio, lectioni succedat oratio.  Breve videbitur tempus quod tantis operum varietatibus occupatur. Let her every day repeat to you a section of the Scriptures.  She should learn by heart a fixed number of lines in the Greek, but knowledge of the Latin should follow close after.  If the tender lips are not trained from the beginning, the language is spoiled by a foreign accent and our native tongue debased by alien faults.  You must be her teacher, to you her childish ignorance must look for a model.  Let her never see anything in you or her father which she would do wrong to imitate.  Remember that you are a virgin’s parents and that you can teach her better by example than by words.  Flowers quickly fade;  violets, lilies, and saffron are soon withered by a baleful breeze.  Let her never appear in public without you, let her never visit the churches and the martyrs’ shrines except in your company.  Let no youth or curled dandy ogle her.  Let our little virgin never stir a fingernail’s breadth from her mother when she attends a vigil or an all-night service.  I would not let her have a favorite maid into whose ear she might frequently whisper:  what she says to one, all ought to know.  Let her choose as companion not a spruce, handsome girl, able to warble sweet songs in liquid notes, but one grave and pale, carelessly dressed and inclined to melancholy.  Set before her as a pattern some aged virgin of approved faith, character, and chastity, one who may instruct her by word, and by example accustom her to rise from her bed at night for prayer and psalm singing, to chant hymns in the morning, at the third, sixth, and ninth hour, to take her place in the ranks as one of Christ’s amazons, and with kindled lamp to offer the evening sacrifice.  So let the day pass, and so let the night find her still laboring.  Let reading follow prayer and prayer follow reading.  The time will seem short when it is occupied with such a diversity of tasks.
107:10Discat et lanam facere, tenere colum, ponere in gremio calathum, rotare fusum, stamina pollice ducere.  Spernat bombȳcum telas, Serum vellera et aurum in fila lentescens.  Talia vestimenta paret quibus pellatur frigus, non quibus corpora vestita nudentur.  Cibus ejus holusculum sit et simila, raroque pisciculi.  Et ne gulæ præcepta longius traham, de quibus in alio loco plenius sum locutus, sic comedat ut semper esuriat, ut statim post cibum possit legere, orare, psallere.  Displicent mihi in teneris vel maxime ætatibus longa et immoderata jejunia quibus junguntur hebdomades, et oleum in cibo ac poma vitantur.  Experimento didici asellum in via, quum lassus fuerit, deverticula quærere.  Faciant hoc cultores Isidis et Cybelæ, qui gulosa abstinentia Phasides aves et fumantes turtures vorant, ne scilicet Cerealia dona contaminent.  Hoc in perpetuo jejunio præceptum sit, ut longo itineri vires perpetes supparentur, ne in prima mansione currentes corruamus in mediis.  Ceterum, ut ante scripsi, in Quadragesima continentiæ vela pandenda sunt, et tota aurigæ retinacula equis laxanda properantibus — quanquam alia sit condicio sæcularium, alia virginum ac monachorum.  Sæcularis homo in Quadragesima ventris ingluviem decoquit et, in cochlearum morem, suo vīctitans suco, futuris dapibus ac saginæ aqualiculum parat ;  virgo et monachus sic in Quadragesima suos emittant equos ut sibi meminerint semper esse currendum.  Finitus labor major, infinitus moderatior est ;  ibi enim respiramus, hic perpetuo incedimus. Let her learn also to make wool, to hold the distaff, to put the basket in her lap, to turn the spindle, to shape the thread with her thumb.  Let her despise the webs of silkworms, the fleeces of the Chinese, and gold processed into threads.  Let her have clothes which keep out the cold, not expose the limbs they pretend to cover.  Let her food be vegetables and wheaten bread and occasionally a little fish.  I do not wish here to give long rules for eating, since I have treated that subject more fully in another place;  but let her meals always leave her hungry and able at once to begin reading or praying or singing the psalms.  I disapprove, especially with young people, of long and immoderate fasts, when week is added to week and even oil in food and fruit are avoided.  I have learned by experience that the ass on the high road makes for an inn when it is weary.  Leave such things to the worshippers of Isis and Cybele, who in gluttonous abstinence gobble up pheasants and turtle doves all smoking hot, of course to avoid contaminating the gift of Ceres.  If you fast without a break, you must so arrange things that lasting strength matches the long journey:  we must not run well for the first lap and then fall in the middle of the race.  In Lent, however, as I have written previously, the sails of self-denial may be spread wide, and the charioteer may loosen the reins and let his horses go full speed.  Not but what there is one rule for worldlings, and another for virgins and monks.  The worldling in Lent digests away the leftovers in his belly’s maw and, like a snail, lives on his own juice,32 while he gets his belly ready for the rich food and feasts that are to come.  Not so with the monk and virgin:  when they give their steeds the rein in Lent, they must remember that their race lasts for ever.  Limited efforts are greater, unlimited more moderate:  for there we have breathing space, here we never stop.
32.  Cf. Plautus, Captivi, 80f.  « quum caletur, cochleæ in occulto latent, | suo sibi suco vivunt » (“when it is hot, snails lie hidden in secret, and live upon their own juices.”)
107:11Si quando ad suburbana pergis, domi filiam non relinquas ;  nesciat sine te nec possit vivere ;  quum sola fuerit, pertremescat.  Non habeat colloquia sæcularium, non malarum virginum contubernia, non intersit nuptiis servulorum nec familiæ perstrepentis lusibus misceatur.  Scio præcepisse quosdam ne virgo Christi cum eunuchis lavet, ne cum maritis feminis, quia alii non deponant animos virorum, aliæ, tumentibus uteris, præferant fœditatem.  Mihi omnino in adulta virgine lavacra displicent, quæ se ipsam debet erubescere et nudam videre non posse.  Si enim vigiliis et jejuniis macerat corpus suum et in servitutem redigit, si flammam libidinis et incentiva ferventis ætatis exstinguere cupit continentiæ frigore, si appetitis sordibus turpare festinat naturalem pulchritudinem, cur e contrario balnearum fomentis sopitos ignes suscitet ? If ever you visit outside the city, do not leave your daughter behind at Rome.  She should have neither the knowledge nor the power to live without you, and should tremble to be alone.  Let her not converse with worldlings, nor associate with virgins lacking in virtue.  Let her not be present at slaves’ weddings, nor take part in noisy household games.  I know that some people have laid down the rule that a Christian virgin should not bathe along with eunuchs or with married women, inasmuch as eunuchs are still men at heart, and women with swelling bellies present a revolting sight.  For myself I disapprove altogether of baths in the case of a full-grown virgin.  She ought to blush at herself and be unable to look at her own nakedness.  If she mortifies and enslaves her body by vigils and fasting, if she desires to quench the flame of lust and to check the hot desires of youth by a cold chastity, if she hastens to spoil her natural beauty by a deliberate squalor, why should she rouse a sleeping fire by the incentive of baths?33
33.  I.e., the Roman or, as we call them, “Turkish” baths.
107:12Pro gemmis aut serico, divinos codices amet, in quibus non auri et pellis Babyloniæ vermiculata pictura, sed ad fidem placeat emendata et erudita distinctio.  Discat primum Psalterium, his se canticis avocet, et in Proverbiis Salomonis erudiatur ad vitam.  In Ecclesiaste consuescat calcare quæ mundi sunt ;  in Job virtutis et patientiæ exempla sectetur.  Ad Evangelia transeat, nunquam ea positura de manibus ;  Apostolorum Acta et Epistulas tota cordis imbibat voluntate.  Quumque pectoris sui cellarium his opibus locupletarit, mandet memoriæ Prophetas et Heptateuchum et Regum ac Paralipomenon libros, Hesdræque et Hester volumina, ut ultimum sine periculo discat Canticum Canticorum ne, si in exordio legerit, sub carnalibus verbis, spiritalium nuptiarum epithalamium non intellegens, vulneretur.  Caveat omnia apocrypha et, si quando ea non ad signorum veritatem, sed ad signorum reverentiam legere voluerit, sciat non eorum esse quorum titulis prænotantur, multaque his admixta vitiosa, et grandis esse prudentiæ, aurum in luto quærere.  Cypriani opuscula semper in manu teneat, Athanasii epistulas et Hilarii libros inoffenso decurrat pede.  Illorum tractatibus, illorum delectetur ingeniis in quorum libris pietas fidei non vacillat ;  ceteros sic legat, ut magis judicet quam sequatur. Instead of jewels or silk let her love the manuscripts of the Holy Scriptures, which have no vermiculate paintings of gold with Babylonian leather bindings;  but for trustworthiness let her be pleased by flawless and learned legibility.  Let her learn the Psalter first, with these songs let her divert herself, and then let her learn lessons of life in the Proverbs of Solomon.  In reading Ecclesiastes let her become accustomed to tread underfoot the things of this world;  let her follow the examples of virtue and patience that she will find in Job.  Let her then pass on to the Gospels and never again lay them down.  Let her drink in the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles with all the will of her heart.  As soon as she has enriched her mind’s storehouse with these treasures, let her commit to memory the Prophets, the Heptateuch, the books of Kings and the Chronicles, and the rolls of Ezra and Esther.  Then at last she may safely read the Song of Songs:  if she were to read it at the beginning, she might be harmed by not perceiving that it was the song of a spiritual bridal expressed in fleshly language.  Let her avoid all the apocryphal books, and if she ever wishes to read them, not for the truth of their doctrines but out of respect for their wondrous tales, let her realize that they are not really written by those to whom they are ascribed, that there are many faulty elements in them, and that it requires great skill to look for gold in mud.  Let her always keep Cyprian’s works by her, and let her peruse the letters of Athanasius and the treatises of Hilary without fear of stumbling.  Let her delight in the intellectual gifts of those who are such that in their books the reverence of faith definitely does not waver.  If she reads others, let it be as a critic rather than as a disciple.
107:13Respondebis, « Quomodo hæc omnia — mulier sæcularis in tanta frequentia hominum Romæ — custodire potero ? »  Noli ergo subire onus quod ferre non potes sed, postquam ablactaveris eam cum Isaac, et vestieris cum Samuhele, mitte aviæ et amitæ.  Redde pretiosissimam gemmam cubiculo Mariæ, et cunis Jesu vagientis impone.  Nutriatur in monasterio, sit inter virginum choros, jurare non discat, mentiri sacrilegium putet, nesciat sæculum, vivat angelice, sit in carne sine carne, omne hominum genus sui simile putet.  Et, ut cetera taceam, certe te liberet servandi difficultate et custodiæ periculo.  Melius est tibi desiderare absentem quam pavere ad singula, cum quo loquatur, quid loquatur, cui annuat, quem libenter aspiciat.  Trade Eustochio parvulam, cujus nunc et ipse vagitus pro te oratio est, trade comitem, futuram sanctitatis heredem. You will answer:  “How shall I, a woman of the world living in crowded Rome, be able to keep all these injunctions?”  Do not then take up a burden which you cannot bear.  When you have weaned Paula as Isaac was weaned, and when you have clothed her as Samuel was clothed, send her to her grandmother and her aunt.  Set this most precious jewel in Mary’s chamber, and place her on the cradle where Jesus cried.  Let her be reared in a monastery amid bands of virgins, where she will learn never to take an oath, and to regard a lie as sacrilege.  Let her know nothing of the world, but live like the angels;  let her be in the flesh and without the flesh, thinking all mankind to be like herself.  Thus, to say nothing of other things, she will free you from the difficult task of watching over her and from all the responsibility of guardianship.  It is better for you to regret her absence than every moment to be fearing what she is saying, to whom she is talking, to whom she assents and whom she likes to see.  Give the little child to Eustochium, whose very wailings are now a prayer on your behalf;  give her, to be her companion today, to be the inheritor of her sanctity in the years to come.
Illam videat, illam amet, illam « primis miretur ab annis », cujus et sermo et habitus et incessus doctrina virtutum est.  Sit in gremio aviæ quæ repetat in nepte quicquid præmisit in filia, quæ longo usu didicit nutrire, docere, servare virgines, in cujus corona centenarii cottidie numeri castitas texitur.  Felix virgo, felix Paula Toxotii, quæ per aviæ amitæque virtutes nobilior est sanctitate quam genere !  O si tibi contingeret videre socrum et cognatam tuam, et in parvis corpusculis ingentes animos intueri !  Pro insita tibi pudicitia, non ambigerem quin præcederes filiam, et primam Dei sententiam secundā Evangelii lege mutares.  Ne, tu parvi pendĕres aliorum desideria liberorum, et te ipsa magis offerres Deo ! Let her gaze upon and love, let her “from her first years admire”34 one whose words and gait and dress are an education in virtue.  Let her grandmother take her on her lap and repeat to her grandchild the lessons she once taught her daughter.  Long experience has taught her how to rear, instruct, and watch over virgins, and in her crown every day is woven the chastity of the number 100.35  O happy virgin!  O happy Paula, daughter of Toxotius!  By the virtues of her grandmother and her aunt she is nobler in sanctity even than in lineage.  Oh, if you could only see your mother-in-law and your sister, and know the mighty souls that dwell within their feeble bodies!  Then I doubt not that you would obey your innate love of chastity and come to them even before your daughter, exchanging God’s first decree36 for the Gospel’s second dispensation.  Indeed, you would surely count as nothing your desire for other children and would rather offer yourself to God.
Sed quia « tempus est amplexandi et tempus longe fieri a complexibus » et « uxor non habet potestatem corporis sui » et « unusquisque in ea vocatione, qua vocatus est, in ea permaneat » in Domino, et, qui sub jugo est, sic debet currere, ne in luto comitem derelinquat, totum redde in subole, quod in te interim distulisti.  Anna filium quem Deo voverat, postquam obtulit tabernaculo, nunquam recepit, indecens arbitrata ut futurus propheta in hujus domo cresceret, quæ adhuc alios filios habere cupiebat.  Denique, postquam concepit et peperit, non est ausa ad templum accedere et vacua apparere coram Domino, nisi prius redderet quod debebat, talique immolato sacrificio reversa domum, quinque liberos sibi genuit, quia primogenitum Deo peperat.  Miraris felicitatem sanctæ mulieris ?  Imitare fidem.  Ipse, si Paulam miseris, balbutientia senex verba formabo, multo gloriosior mundi philosopho qui non regem Macedonum Babylonio periturum veneno, sed ancillam et sponsam Christi, erudiam, regnis cælestibus offerendam. But inasmuch as “there is a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing,”37 and “the wife hath not power over her own body,”38 and “every man should abide in the same calling wherein he was called”39 in the Lord, and because he who is under the yoke ought so to run as not to leave his companion in the mire, pay back in your children all that you defer paying in your own person.  When Hannah had brought to the tabernacle the son whom she had vowed to God, she never took him back again, thinking it improper that a future prophet should grow up in the house of one who still desired to have other sons.40  In fine, after she had conceived and borne him, she did not venture to visit the temple and appear before God empty-handed, but first paid her debt, and then after offering her great sacrifice returned home, and having borne her first son for God was then given five children for herself.  Do you wonder at the happiness of that holy woman?  Then imitate her faith.  If you will send us Paula, I undertake to be both her tutor and her foster-father.  I will carry her on my shoulders, and my old tongue shall train her stammering lips.  And I shall take more pride in my task than did the worldly philosopher;41  for I shall not be teaching a Macedonian king,42 destined to die by poison in Babylon, but a handmaid and bride of Christ who one day shall be presented to the heavenly throne.
34.  Virgil, Æneid, 8:517
35.  Cf. Jerome’s « Contra Jovinianum », Book 1, chap. 3, where the respective merits of the estates of marriage, widowhood and virginity are compared to the seeds which brought forth thirty, sixty and a hundred fold {« Centesimus numerus, eisdem quidem digitis (sed non eadem manu) quibus in læva nuptæ significantur et viduæ, circulum faciens, exprimit virginitatis coronam »  [“The number of 100, making, with the same fingers (but not the same hand) by which on the left married women and widows are signified, a circle, represents the crown of virginity.”]} .  For this association of 100 with virginity, cf. also Letters 22:15 & 19, and 66:2.
36.  Gen 35:11:  “Be fruitful and multiply” (« cresce et multiplicare »).
37.  Ecclesiastes 3:5
38.  1 Cor 7:4
39.  1 Cor 7:20
40.  1 Kings 1:22
41.  I.e, Aristotle.
42.  I.e., Alexander the Great.
{ 117 }
Epistula CXVII
Ad Matrem et Filiam in Gallia Commorantes
A.D. 405
117:1RETTULIT mihi quidam frater e Gallia se habere sororem virginem matremque viduam quæ in eadem urbe divisis habitarent cellulis ;  et vel ob hospitii solitudinem vel custodiendas facultatulas, præsules sibi quosdam clericos assumpsissent, ut majori dedecore jungerentur alienis quam a se fuerant separatæ.  Quumque ego ingemescerem et multo plura tacendo quam loquendo significarem, « Quæso te », inquit, « corripias eas litteris tuis et ad concordiam revoces, ut mater filiam, filia matrem agnoscat. »  Cui ego, « Optimam », inquam, « mihi injungis provinciam, ut alienus conciliem, quas filius fraterque non potuit — quasi vero episcopalem cathedram teneam et, non clausus cellulā ac procul a turbis remotus, vel præterita plangam vitia vel vitare nitar præsentia.  Sed et incongruum est latēre corpore et lingua per orbem vagari. »  Et ille, « Nimium », ait, « formidolosus.  Ubi illa quondam constantia in qua multo sale urbem defricans Lucilianum quippiam rettulisti ? » A certain brother from Gaul told me the other day that he had a virgin sister and a widowed mother who, though living in the same city, had separate apartments, and had taken to themselves clerical directors, either to prevent their feeling lonely, or else to manage their small properties;  and that by this union with strangers they had caused more scandal even than by living apart.  I groaned to hear his tale, and by silence expressed far more than I could by words.  “Pray,” he continued, “rebuke them in a letter and recall them to harmony, so that the mother may recognize her daughter, and the daughter her mother.”  “This is a fine commission,” I replied, “that you lay upon me, that I a stranger should reconcile those with whom a son and brother has failed.  You talk as though I held a bishop’s chair instead of being confined, far from men’s turmoil, in a tiny cell, where I lament past sins and try to avoid present temptations.  It is inconsistent surely to hide one’s body, and to allow one’s tongue to roam the world.”  Thereupon he answered:  “You are too fearful;  where now is the hardihood wherewith, like Lucilius of old,1 you scoured the city with abundant salt?”
« Hoc est », ajo, « quod me fugat et labra dividere non sinit.  Postquam ergo, arguendo crimina, factus sum criminosus, et juxta tritum vulgi sermone proverbium jurantibus et negantibus cunctis ‹ me aures nec credo habere nec tango ›, ipsique parietes in me maledicta resonarunt, et ‹ psallebant contra me, qui bibebant vinum › — coactus malo, tacere didici, rectius esse arbitrans ponere custodiam ori meo et ostium munitum labiis meis, quam declinare cor in verba malitiæ et, dum carpo vitia, in vitium detractionis incurrere. »  Quod quum dixissem, « Non est », inquit, « detrahere verum dicere ;  nec privata correptio generalem doctrinam facit, quum aut rarus aut nullus sit qui sub hujus culpæ reatum cadat.  Quæso ergo te ne me, tanto itinere vexatum, frustra venisse patiaris.  Scit enim Dominus quod — post visionem sanctorum locorum — hanc vel maxime causam habui ut, tuis litteris, sorori me redderes et matri. »  Et ego, « Jam jam », inquam, « quod vis, faciam.  Nam et epistulæ transmarinæ sunt et, specialiter sermo dictatus, raros potest invenire quos mordeat.  Te autem moneo, ut clam sermonem hunc habeas.  Quumque portaveris pro viatico, si auditus fuerit, lætemur pariter ;  sin autem contemptus — quod et magis reor —, ego verba perdiderim, tu itineris longitudinem. » “ It is just that,” said I, “which deters me and forbids me now to open my lips.  Because I tried to convict crime I have myself been made out a criminal.  It is like the popular proverb:2  as all the world declares on oath that ‘I neither believe I have ears, nor do I touch them.’  The very walls resounded with curses against me and ‘I was the song of drunkards.’3  I have been taught by painful experience to hold my tongue, and now I think it better to set a guard to my mouth, and keep the door of my lips close fastened, rather than to incline my heart to malicious words, and while censuring the faults of others myself to fall into that of detraction.”  To that he said:  “Speaking the truth is not detraction, and a special rebuke is not a general lecture.  There are few persons or none who are guilty of this particular fault.  I beg you therefore not to let me have made this long and painful journey4 in vain.  The Lord knows that after the sight of the holy places my chief motive for coming was to get you to restore me by a letter to my mother and sister.”  “Well, well,” I answered, “I will do as you wish.  My letters will pass across the sea, and a discourse specially composed can seldom offend others.  I warn you, however, to keep what I say private.  Take it as part of your luggage, and if it is listened to, let us rejoice together.  But if it is rejected, as I rather think it will be, I shall have wasted my words and you your long journey.”
1.  Horace, Satires, I, 10:3f.:  « sale multo urbem defricuit » {“[Lucilius] exposed the vices of the city with great wit” or “he lashed the town with abundant humor” — that is, Lucilius’ wit was the “salt” which made the sore places smart}.  Lucilius was a satirist.
2.  This proverb has not been identified, nor has any satisfactory explanation of its nature been given.
3.  Ps 68:13
4.  I.e., the journey from Gaul to Palestine.
117:2Primum scire vos cupio, soror ac filia, me non idcirco scribere, quia aliquid de vobis suspicer sed, ne ceteri suspicentur, vestram orare concordiam.  Alioquin — quod absit ! — si peccati vos æstimarem glutino cohæsisse, nunquam scriberem sciremque me surdis narrare fabulam.  Deinde hoc obsecro ut, si mordacius quippiam scripsero, non tam meæ austeritatis putetis esse, quam morbi.  Putridæ carnes ferro curantur et cauterio ;  venena serpentino pelluntur antidoto.  Quod satis dolet, majori dolore expellitur.  Ad extremum hoc dico quod, etiam si conscientia vulnus non habeat, habet tamen fama ignominiam.  Mater et filia :  nomina pietatis, officiorum vocabula, vincula naturæ, secundaque post Deum fœderatio.  Non est laus, si vos diligitis ;  scelus est, quod odistis.  Dominus Jesus subjectus est parentibus suis :  venerabatur matrem cujus erat ipse pater, colebat nutricium quem nutrierat ;  gestatumque se meminerat alterius utero, alterius bracchiis.  Unde, et in cruce pendens, commendat parentem discipulo, quam nunquam ante crucem dimiserat. In the first place, my sister and daughter, I wish you to know that I am writing not because I suspect anything evil of you, but that I am begging you to live in harmony to prevent other people becoming suspicious.  In any case, if I had thought — far be it from me — that you were caught in the snares of sin, I should never have written, knowing that my tale would be addressed to deaf ears.  In the second place, if I write at all sharply, I beg you to attribute it not to any harshness on my part, but to the malady which I am treating.  When the flesh has mortified, cautery and the knife are the remedies;  for poison snake’s venom is the antidote;  serious pain is cured by greater pain.  Lastly I say this:  even if your own conscience is unhurt, scandal brings disgrace.  Mother and daughter! names of affection, titles of duties, bonds of nature, an alliance second after God, there is no praise if you love;  it is crime that you hate.  Our Lord Jesus was subject to His parents:  He reverenced the mother of whom He was Himself the parent:  He honored the foster-father whom He Himself had fostered:  He remembered that the one had carried Him in her womb, and the other in his arms.  Wherefore also when He was hanging on the cross, He commended to a disciple the mother whom before the cross He had never sent away.
117:3Tu vero, filia — jam enim desino ad matrem loqui, quam forsitan ætas et imbecillitas ac solitudo excusabilem faciunt — tu, inquam, filia, ejus domum angustam judicas, cujus non tibi fuit venter angustus ?  Decem mensibus utero clausa vixisti, et uno die in uno cubiculo cum matre non duras ?  An oculos ejus ferre non potes et, quia omnes motus tuos illa quæ genuit, quæ aluit et ad hanc perduxit ætatem, facilius intellegit, testem domesticam fugis ?  Si virgo es, quid times diligentem custodiam ?  Si corrupta, cur non palam nubis ?  Secunda post naufragium tabula est, quod male cœperis, saltim hōc remedio temperare.  Neque vero hoc dico, quo post peccatum tollam pænitentiam ut, quod male cœpit, male perseveret, sed quod desperem in istiusmodi copula divulsionem.  Alioquin, si ad matrem migraveris post ruinam, facilius poteris cum ea plangere quod per illius absentiam perdidisti.  Quodsi adhuc integra es et non perdidisti, serva ne perdas.  Quid tibi necesse est in ea versari domo in qua necesse habeas cottidie aut perire aut vincere ?  Quisquamne mortalium juxta viperam securus somnos capit ?  Quæ, etsi non percutiat, certe sollicitat.  Securius est perire non posse quam juxta periculum non perisse ;  in altero tranquillitas est, in altero gubernatio, ibi gaudemus, hic evādimus. For the moment I say no more to the mother;  perhaps age, weakness and loneliness make her excusable.  But you, my daughter, you, I say, do you think that her house is too small for you whose womb was not too small?  You lived for ten months in the shelter of your mother’s body;  can you not endure to live with her for one day in one room?  Or is it that you cannot bear her eyes?  Knowing that she who bore you, nursed you and reared you understands all your movements without difficulty, do you shrink from a witness to your home life?  If you are a virgin, why do you fear careful guardianship?  If you have lost your virginity, why do you not marry openly?  Marriage is a raft for the shipwrecked, a remedy that may at least cure a bad beginning.  Nor do I say this because after sin I would abolish repentance, so that what began wrong may go on wrong;  but because with connections of this sort I despair of a break.  In any case, if you return to your mother after your downfall, you will be more easily able in her company to lament that which you lost by separating from her.  If, on the other hand, you are still a pure virgin and have not lost your chastity, guard it lest you lose it now.  Why must you live in a house where you must every day win a battle or be ruined?  Can any one sleep soundly by the side of a viper?  Even if it may not attack, it certainly causes uneasiness.  It is safer to be where you cannot possibly perish, than to graze the peril and just not to perish.  In the first case, calm water;  in the second, skilful steering;  there we are gay, here we just escape.
117:4Sed forte respondeas, « Non bene morata mater est, res sæculi cupit, amat divitias, ignorat jejunium, oculos stibio linit, vult compta procedere et nocet proposito meo nec possum cum hujuscemodi vivere. »  Primum quidem, etiam si talis est ut causaris, majus habebis præmium, si talem non deseras.  Illa te diu portavit, diu aluit et difficiliores infantiæ mores blanda pietate sustinuit.  Lavit pannorum sordes et immundo sæpe fœdata est stercore.  Assedit ægrotanti et, quæ propter te sua fastidia sustinuerat, tua quoque passa est.  Ad hanc perduxit ætatem ;  ut Christum amares, docuit.  Non tibi displiceat ejus conversatio, quæ te Sponso tuo virginem consecravit.  Quodsi ferri non potest et delicias ejus fugis atque, ut vulgo soletis dicere, ‹ sæcularis › est mater, habes alienas virgines, habes sanctum pudicitiæ chorum.  Quid, matrem deserens, eum eligis qui suam forsitan sororem reliquit et matrem ?  Illa difficilis, sed iste facilis ;  illa jurgatrix, iste placabilis.  Quem, quæro, utrum secuta sis an postea inveneris.  Si secuta es, manifestum est, cur matrem reliqueris ;  si postea repperisti, ostendis quid in matris hospitio non potueris invenire. You may perhaps reply:  “My mother has not a good character, she desires the things of this world, she loves riches, she ignores all fasts, she rubs her eyes with antimony, she likes to go out in fine clothes, she is a danger to my vows, I cannot live with a person of her kind.”  To begin with, even if she is the sort of woman you allege, you will have the greater reward if you refuse to desert her with all her faults.  She carried you long, and she nursed you for many months;  her gentle love bore with the peevish ways of your infancy.  She washed your soiled napkins and often dirtied her hands with their nastiness.  She sat by your bed when you were ill and was patient with your sickness, even as she had before endured the sickness of maternity which you caused.  She brought you up to womanhood;  she taught you to love Christ.  The company of one who consecrated you as a virgin to your Spouse ought not to be distasteful to you.  Still, if you cannot put up with her and her fashionable ways, if she is really, as people say, a worldly mother, there are virgins of other families, a holy company of chaste maidens, with whom you might live.  Why, when you desert your mother, do you choose a man who perhaps has left a sister and mother of his own?  She is hard to get on with, you will say, he is easy;  she is fond of quarrels, he is amiable.  Well, I have one question to ask:  did you leave your mother to follow this man or did you come upon him after you had left her?  In the first case, it is plain why you deserted your parent;  in the second, you reveal clearly what it was that you could not find under your mother’s roof.
Durus doctor et meo mucrone me vulnerans, « Qui ambulat », inquit, « simpliciter, ambulat confidenter. »  Tacerem si me remorderet conscientia, et in aliis meum crimen non reprehenderem, nec per trabem oculi mei alterius festucam viderem.  Nunc autem, quum inter fratres procul habitans, eorumque fruens contubernio honeste sub arbitris, et videam raro et videar, impudentissimum est, ejus te verecundiam non sequi, cujus te sequi testeris exemplum.  Quodsi dixeris, « Et mihi sufficit conscientia mea ;  habeo Deum judicem qui meæ vitæ testis est ;  non curo, quid loquantur homines », audi apostolum scribentem, « Providentes bona non solum coram Deo, sed etiam hominibus. »  Si quis te carpit quod sis Christiana, quod virgo, ne cures, quod ideo dimiseris matrem ut in monasterio inter virgines viveres, talis detractio laus tua est.  Ubi non luxuria in puella Dei, sed duritia, carpitur, crudelitas ista pietas est.  Illum enim præfers matri, Quem præferre jubetis et animæ tuæ.  Quem si et ipsa prætulerit, et filiam te sentiet et sororem. A stern teacher, who wounds me with my own scalpel, says:  “He that walketh uprightly walketh surely.”5  If I had a guilty conscience I would hold my tongue, and not blame in others an offence which I myself commit, nor see the mote in my neighbor’s eye through the beam in my own.  But as it is, since I live far away in a community of brothers whose society, as witnesses can testify, I honorably enjoy, rarely seeing or being seen by other men, it would be the height of shamelessness for you not to adopt the modest life of the man whom you profess to have taken as your exemplar.  You may reply:  “For me also my own conscience is sufficient.  God is my judge who is witness of my life.  I care not what men may say.”  Listen then to the apostle’s words:  “Provide things honest not only in the sight of God but also in the sight of men.”6  Heed it not if anyone criticizes you for being a Christian and a virgin, and for having left your mother to live in a monastery with other virgins.  Such censure is your truest praise.  When men blame one of God’s maidens, not for self-indulgence, but for sternness, what they call cruelty is really devotion.  You are preferring to your mother Him whom you are bidden to prefer to your own soul.  And if she herself should ever also thus prefer Him, she will find in you both a daughter and a sister.
5.  Prov. 10:9
6.  Rom 12:17
117:5Quid igitur ?  Scelus est sancti viri habere contubernium ?  Obtorto collo me in jus trahis, ut aut probem quod nolo, aut multorum invidiam subeam.  Sanctus vir nunquam filiam a matre sejungit ;  utramque suspicit, utramque veneratur.  Sit quamlibet sancta filia, mater vidua indicium castitatis est.  Si coævus tuus est ille nescio quis, matrem tuam honoret et suam ;  si senior, te ut filiam diligat et parentis subjiciat disciplinæ.  Non expedit amborum famæ plus te illum amare quam matrem, ne non videatur affectum in te eligere, sed ætatem.  Et hoc dicerem, si fratrem monachum non haberes, si domesticis careres præsidiis ;  nunc vero, pro dolor, inter matrem atque germanum — et matrem viduam fratremque monachum — cur se alienus interserit ?  Bonum quidem est, ut te et filiam noveris et sororem ;  si autem utrumque non potes et mater quasi dura respuitur, saltim frater placeat.  Si frater asperior est, mollior sit illa quæ genuit.  Quid palles ?  Quid æstuas ?  Quid vultum rubore suffundis et frementibus labiis impatientiam pectoris contestans ?  Non superat amorem matris et fratris nisi solus uxoris affectus. “What!” you may say, “is it a crime to live under the same roof with a holy man?” You drag me by the scruff of the neck into court, and give me choice either to approve against my will, or else incur odium from many.  A holy man never separates a daughter from her mother;  he respects them both, he regards both of them with reverence.  However saintly a daughter may be, a widowed mother is a warranty of her chastity.  If this man of yours is of the same age as you are, he should honor your mother as his own;  if he is your elder, he should love you as a daughter and submit you to a mother’s discipline.  It is not expedient, for your reputation or for his, that he should love you more than he loves your mother:  so that he may not seem to make his choice in you not of your affection but of your youth.  And I should still say this, if you had no brother who is a monk, if you lacked protectors at home.  But as things stand, why does a stranger — O grievous thought! — thrust himself in between you and your mother and brother, your mother a widow and your brother a monk?  It would be a good thing for you to know that you are both a daughter and a sister.  But if you cannot do both, and if your palate rejects your mother as being a rough wine, your brother at least should prove satisfactory.  If he should be somewhat harsh, then she who bore you may seem more mellow.  Why do you turn pale?  Why does your bosom heave?  Why do your hot blushes and quivering lips confess your restlessness?  Nothing can overcome a woman’s love for a mother and a brother, except only the passion of a wife.
117:6Audio præterea te suburbana, villarum amœnitates, cum affinibus et cognatis et istiusmodi genus hominibus circumire.  Nec dubito quin vel consobrina vel soror sit, in quarum solacium novi generis ducaris assecula — absit, quippe, ut, quamvis proximi sint et cognati, virorum te suspicer captare consortia.  Obsecro ergo te, virgo, ut mihi respondeas :  sola vadis in comitatu propinquorum, an cum amasio tuo ?  Quamvis sis impudens, sæcularium oculis eum ingerere non audebis.  Si enim hoc feceris, et te et illum familia universa cantabit, vos cunctorum digiti denotabunt, ipsa quoque soror aut affinis sive cognata quæ in adulationem tui sanctum et nonnum coram te vocant, quum se paululum converterit, portentosum ridebit maritum.  Sin autem sola ieris — quod et magis æstimo — utique inter servos adulescentes, inter maritas feminas atque nupturas, inter lascivas puellas et comatos linteatosque juvenes, furvarum vestium puella gradieris.  Dabit tibi barbatulus quilibet manum, sustentabit lassam et, pressis digitis, aut temptabitur aut temptabit. I hear, moreover, that you go the round of suburban retreats and pleasant country houses in company with your relatives and connections by marriage and such like intimate friends.  Nor do I doubt, that there is some female cousin or sister, for whose comfort you may be taken as a new sort of attendant — indeed, far be it from me to suppose, that although they may be members of your own family, you angle for the society of men — and so I pray you, my virgin, tell me this:  do you appear alone in your kinsfolk’s society or do you take your sweetheart with you?  However shameless you may be, you will scarcely dare to flaunt him in the eyes of worldly people.  For if you should do so, your entire family will make a song of you and him;  every finger will be pointed at the pair of you;  even your sister or kinswoman or relative, who in your presence to flatter you calls him a monk and a holy man, will laugh behind his back at your most extraordinary husband.  If, on the other hand, you go out alone — which I rather suppose — you, a girl in your dark clothes, will be one of a party of youthful attendants, married women and women soon to be brides, pleasure-loving damsels, and longhaired, linen-clad young fops.  Some boy with a little beard will give you his arm, and hold you up if you are tired, and as your fingers squeeze he will either be tempted himself or will tempt you.
Erit tibi inter viros matronasque convivium :  exspectabis aliena oscula, prægustatos cibos ;  et, absque scandalo tuo, in aliis sericas vestes auratasque miraberis.  In ipso quoque convivio, ut vescaris carnibus, quasi invita cogeris .  ut vinum bibas, Dei laudabitur creatura .  ut laves balneis, sordibus detrahetur.  Et omnes te — quum aliquid eorum quæ suadent retractans feceris — puram, simplicem, dominam et vere ingenuam conclamabunt.  Personabit interim aliquis cantator ad mensam et, inter psalmos dulci modulatione currentes, quoniam alienas non audebit uxores, te, quæ custodem non habes, sæpius respectabit.  Loquetur nutibus et, quicquid metuet dicere, significabit affectibus.  Inter has et tantas illecebras voluptatum, etiam ferreas mentes libido domat, quæ majorem in virginibus patitur famem, dum dulcius putat omne quod nescit.  Narrant gentilium fabulæ cantibus sirenarum nautas in saxa præcipites, et ad Orphei citharam arbores bestiasque ac silicum dura mollita.  Difficile inter epulas servatur pudicitia.  Nĭtens cutis sordidum ostentat animum. You will sit down to table with married men and women;  you will wait till the others have finished kissing and the dishes have been tasted, and without making any protest will admire the silk dresses and the gold brocade that the others are wearing.  At the dinner itself they will pretend you are unwilling and will force you to partake of the meat;  to get you to drink wine, they will praise it as the gift of the Creator.  To induce you to visit the baths, they will speak of dirt with disgust.  And when you reluctantly do something of what they would have you do, they will cry out in chorus:  “What a frank, innocent girl she is!  What a genuine lady!”  Meanwhile some singer will come into the dining-room, and as he performs a selection of soft flowing airs, he will not dare to look at other men’s wives, but he will very often glance at you, who have no protector.  He will speak by gestures, and a meaning emphasis in his voice will convey what he is afraid to put into words.  Amid such strong allurements to pleasure as these even iron wills are overcome by desire whose hunger, in the case of virgins, is all the stronger because it thinks that anything of which it knows nothing is especially delightful.  Heathen legends tell us that the songs of the sirens drew sailors headlong on to their rocks, and that trees and beasts and hard stones were all softened by the music of Orpheus’ lyre.  At a banquet it is hard to preserve one’s chastity.  A sleek skin is a sure sign of a dirty mind.
117:7Legimus in scholis pueri — et spiritantia in plateis æra conspeximus — aliquem ossibus vix hærentem illicitis arsisse amoribus, et ante vita caruisse quam peste.  Quid tu facies, puella sani corporis, delicata, pinguis, rubens, æstuans inter carnes, inter vina et balneas, juxta maritas, juxta adulescentulos ?  Etsi rogata non dederis, tamen formæ putes testimonium, si rogeris.  Libidinosa mens ardentius honesta persequitur et, quod non licet, dulcius suspicatur.  Vestis ipsa, vilis et pulla, animi tacentis indicium est, si rugam non habeat ;  si per terram, ut altior videaris, trahatur, si de industria dissuta sit tunica ut aliquid intus appareat, operiatque quod fœdum est, et aperiat quod formosum.  Caliga quoque ambulantis nigella ac nĭtens stridore juvenes ad se vocat.  Papillæ fasciolis comprimuntur et crispanti cingulo angustius pectus artatur.  Capilli vel in frontem vel in aures defluunt.  Palliolum interdum cadit ut candidos nudet umeros, et — quasi videri noluerit — celat festina quod volens retraxerat.  Et quando in publico quasi per verecundiam operit faciem, lupanarum arte id solum ostendit, quod ostensum magis placere potest. When I was a boy at school I read of a man — and in the streets I have since seen his living image in bronze — who burned with illicit passion even when his flesh scarcely clung to his bones,7 and who passed away from life with that malady still unhealed.  What then will you do, a healthy young girl, dainty, plump, rosy, all afire amid the fleshpots, amid the wines and baths, side by side with married women, with young men?  Even if you do not give in to their requests, you may think that the asking is evidence of your beauty.  A libertine is all the more ardent when he is pursuing virtue, and thinks that the illicit is especially delightful.  Your very robe, coarse and sombre though it be, betrays your unexpressed desires, if it be without crease ;  if it be trailed upon the ground to make you seem taller, if your vest be slit on purpose to let something be seen within, hiding that which is unsightly and disclosing that which is fair.  As you walk along, your shiny black shoes by their creaking give an invitation to young men.  A corset presses your breasts together, and an encircling brassiere constricts your chest more narrowly.8  Your hair comes down over your forehead or over your ears.  Your shawl sometimes drops, so as to leave your white shoulders bare, and then, as though unwilling to be seen, it hastily hides what it intentionally revealed.  And when in public it hides the face in a pretence of modesty, with a harlot’s skill it shows only those features which give men when shown more pleasure.
7.  Virgil, Eclogues, 3:102 :  vix ossibus hærent (“they [i.e., the sheep in a flock] scarcely stick to their bones” or “they scarcely cling together by their bones”).
8.  Cf. also Publius Ovidius Naso, Ars Amatoria, Book 3, Part 5:  « angustum circa fascia pectus eat » (“Let a close-fitting corset surround your chest” or “let a tight brassiere encircle your bosom”).
117:8Respondebis, « Unde me nosti ?  Et quomodo tam longe in me jactas oculos tuos ? »  Fratris hoc tui mihi narravere lacrimæ et intolerabiles per momenta singultus.  Atque utinam ille mentitus sit, et magis timens hoc quam arguens dixerit !  Sed mihi crede, soror :  nemo mentiens plorat.  Dolet sibi prælatum juvenem — non quidem comatum, non vestium sericarum, sed trossulum et in sordibus delicatum — qui ipse sacculum signet, textrinum teneat, pensa distribuat, regat familiam, emat quicquid de publico necessarium est :  dispensator et dominus et præveniens officula servulorum, quem omnes rodant famuli et, quicquid domina non dederit, illum clamitent subtraxisse.  Querulum servulorum genus est et, quantumcunque dederis, semper eis minus est.  Non enim considerant de quanto, sed quantum detur ;  doloremque suum solis — quod possunt — detractationibus consolantur.  Ille parasitum, iste impostorem, hic heredipetam, alius novo quolibet appellat vocabulo.  Ipsum jactant assĭdēre lectulo, obstetrices adhibere languenti, portare matulam, calefacere lintea, plicare fasciolas.  Facilius mala credunt homines, et quodcunque domi fingitur, rumor in publico fit.  Nec mireris, si ancillæ et servuli de vobis ista confingant, quum mater quoque id ipsum queratur et frater. You will reply:  “From what source do you know all this about me?  How could you ever have set eyes upon me when you live so far away?”  Your brother’s tears told me this and his scarcely endurable outbursts of sobbing.  Would that he may have spoken falsely, would that his words may have been the expression of fears, not of facts!  But believe me, sister;  no one ever weeps when he is lying.  He is indignant that a young man is preferred to himself, not indeed a long-haired fop in silk clothes, but still a coxcomb dainty even in his squalor, a rogue who puts his own seal on your purse, manages the weaving, apportions the wool to be spun, directs the household, and buys all that is needed in the market.  He is both steward and master, and anticipates the servants in all their duties, so that the whole household have their teeth in him and protest that he has filched all that their mistress does not give them.  Servants are always full of complaints, and, however much you give them, it is always too little.  They do not consider how much you have, but only how much they get, and they console their indignation in the only way they can, by finding fault.  One calls him a parasite, another a cheat, another a legacy-hunter, another any fresh name he can invent.  They put it about that he sits at your bedside, fetches nurses when you feel unwell, carries away the badpan, makes warm bandages for you, and folds compresses.  People are only too ready to believe evil, and tales invented within doors soon get noised abroad.  Nor need you wonder that your maids and footmen invent such tales about you both, when even your mother and brother make similar complaints.
117:9Fac igitur, quod moneo, quod precor, ut primum matri, dehinc, si id fieri non potest, saltim fratri reconcilieris.  Aut si ista tam cara nomina hostiliter detestaris, dividere ab eo quem tuis diceris prætulisse.  Si autem et hoc non potes (reverteris enim ad tuos, si illum possis deserere) vel honestius sodali tuo utere.  Separentur domus vestræ dividaturque convivium, ne maledici homines, sub uno tectulo vos manentes, lectulum quoque criminentur habere communem.  Potes et ad necessitates tuas quale voluisti habere solacium et, aliqua ex parte, publica carere infamia — quanquam cavenda sit macula quæ nullo nitro, secundum Hieremiam, nulla fullonum herba lui potest.  Quando vis ut te videat — et inviset — adhibe arbitros amicos, libertos, servulos.  Bona conscientia nullius oculos fugiet.  Intret intrepidus, securus exeat.  Taciti oculi et sermo silens et totius corporis habitus vel trepidationem interdum, vel securitatem, loquuntur. Do, therefore, what I advise and pray you to do.  Be reconciled with your mother:  if that is impossible, at least make peace with your brother.  Or, if you abominate those dear names, separate yourself from the man whom you are said to have preferred to your own people.  If even this you cannot do — for you would return to your own folk if you could bear to leave him — associate with your companion more reputably.  Live in separate houses and take your meals apart;  if you stay under one roof, slanderers will accuse you of sharing one bed together.  You can thus have the help you wished for when you need it, and to a certain degree avoid public disgrace.  Not but what you must ever beware of that stain which Jeremiah9 tells us no nitre or fuller’s soap can wash out.  When you wish him to see you — and he will visit you — have people in the room with you, friends or freedmen or slaves.  A good conscience will shrink from no man’s gaze.  Let him come in without embarrassment and go away without anxiety.  Silent looks, unspoken words, a man’s whole bearing, at times spell uneasiness, at other times security.
Aperi, quæso, aures tuas, et clamorem totius civitatis exaudi.  Jam perdidistis vestra vocabula, et mutuo ex vobis cognomina suscepistis :  tu illius diceris et ille tuus.  Hoc mater audit et frater, paratique sunt et precantur vos sibi dividere, et privatam vestræ conjunctionis infamiam laudem facere communem.  Tu esto cum matre, sit ille cum fratre.  Audentius diliges10 sodalem fratris tui :  honestius amabit mater amicum filii quam filiæ suæ.  Quodsi nolueris, si mea monita, rugata fronte, contempseris, epistula tibi hæc voce libera proclamabit, « Quid alienum servum obsides ?  Quid ministrum Christi tuum famulum facis ?  Respice ad populum, singulorum facies intuere.  Ille in ecclesia legit et te aspiciunt universi — nisi quod pæne licentia conjugali de tua infamia gloriaris, nec jam secreto dedecore potes esse contenta ;  procacitatem libertatem vocas.  ‹ Facies meretricis facta est tibi, nescis erubescere ›. » Pray, open your ears and listen to the outcry of the whole city.  You two have already lost your own names and interchanged them for new ones:  he is known as your man and you as his woman.  Your mother and your brother have heard this talk, and they are ready each to take one of you, begging you thus to turn a private disgrace into a common glory.  You can live with your mother, he with your brother.  You may then more boldly show affection for your brother’s friend:  your mother may with more propriety love her son’s comrade than she could her daughter’s.  But if you still refuse, if with wrinkled brow you reject my warning, then this letter will cry aloud to you with unchecked voice. “Why,” it will say, “do you besiege another’s servant?  Why do you make Christ’s minister your slave?  Look at the people and regard each individual face.  When he is reading in church the whole congregation fix their eyes on you:  but you perhaps with almost a wife’s recklessness glory in your shame, and secret disgrace no longer satisfies you;  you call boldness freedom. ‘You have a whore’s forehead ;  you do not know how to be ashamed’.”11
9.  Jeremias 2:20-22:  “playing the harlot”
10.  diligis:  Hilberg.
11.  Jeremias 3:3
117:10Iterum me malignum, iterum suspiciosum, iterum rumigerulum clamitas.  Egone suspiciosus, egone malevolus, qui, ut in principio epistulæ præfatus sum, ideo scripsi, quia non suspicabar ;  an tu negligens, dissoluta, contemptrix quæ, annis nata viginti et quinque, adulescentem necdum bene barbatulum ita brachiis tuis quasi cassibus inclusisti ?  Optimum revera pædagogum, qui te moneat, qui asperitate frontis exterreat et, quanquam in nullis ætatibus libido sit tuta, tamen vel cano capite ab aperta defendat ignominia !  Veniet, veniet tempus — dies allabitur dum ignoras — et iste formosulus tuus, quia cito senescunt mulieres, maxime quæ juxta viros sunt, vel ditiorem reperiet vel juniorem.  Tunc te pænitebit pertinaciæ, quando et rem et famam amiseris, quando quod male junctum fuerat dividetur bene — nisi forte secura es et, coalescente tanti temporis caritate, discidium non vereris. Again you cry out that I am a malignant, that I am suspicious, that I am a scandal-monger.  Am I truly suspicious or malignant, I who, as I said at the beginning of this letter, only took up my pen because I felt no suspicions of you?  Is it not you rather who are careless, loose and scornful, you who at the age of twenty-five have caught in the snare of your arms a youth whose beard has hardly grown?  A fine instructor in truth he must be, able to advise, by stern looks to frighten, and even by his grey hair to defend you from open shame!  Not but what lust is never safe at any time of life.  The day will surely, surely come — for time glides on while you notice it not — when your handsome youngster will find a richer or a more youthful mistress.  Women soon grow old, especially when they live with a man at their side.  You will be sorry for your decision and regret your obstinacy, on the day when you find property and reputation gone and this unhappy union happily broken — unless perhaps you feel quite at ease, and seeing that your affection has had so long a time to become established, you have no fear of a rupture.
117:11Tu quoque, mater, quæ, propter ætatem, maledicta non metuis, noli sic vindicari ut pecces.  Magis a te discat filia separari, quam tu ab illa disjungi.  Habes filium et filiam et generum — immo, contubernalem filiæ tuæ ;  quid quæris aliena solacia, et ignes jam sopitos suscitas ?  Honestius tibi est saltim culpam filiæ sustentare quam occasionem tuæ quærere.  Sit tecum filius monachus, pietatis viduitatisque præsidium.  Quid tibi alienum hominem in ea præsertim domo quæ filium et filiam capere non potuit ?  Ejus jam ætatis es, ut possis nepotes habere de filia.  Invita ad te utrumque.  Revertatur cum viro, quæ sola exierat — virum dixi, non maritum ;  nemo calumnietur :  sexum significare volui, non conjugium.  Aut, si erubescit et retractat, et domum in qua nata est arbitratur angustam, vos ad ejus hospitiolum pergite.  Quamvis artum sit, facilius potest matrem et fratrem capere quam alienum hominem, cum quo certe in uno cubiculo manere non poterat.  Sint in una domo duæ feminæ, duo masculi.  Sin autem et tertius, ille γηροβοσκός tuus, abire non vult, et seditiones ac turbas concitat — sit biga, sit triga —, frater vester ac filius et sororem illis exhibebit et matrem.  Alii vitricum et generum vocent, ille nutricium appellet et fratrem. As for you, my friend’s mother, your age frees you from any fear of scandal;  but do not think that it gives you liberty to do wrong.  Your daughter should rather learn from you how to separate from a companion than you be taught by her how to break away from a paramour.  You have a son and a daughter and a son-in-law, or rather a man who lives under your daughter’s roof.  Why seek other consolations or try to wake sleeping fires?  It would at least be more respectable for you to endure your daughter’s fault than to seek in it an occasion for wrongdoing on your own part.  Let your son who is a monk live with you and strengthen you in your natural affection and in your vow of widowhood.  Why do you have a stranger in the house that could not hold a son and a daughter?  You are old enough now to have grandchildren by your daughter.  Invite the pair to your home.  Let her return with her man, she who went out alone.  I say “man,” not “husband”;  so no one should contrive misinterpretations;  I merely refer to his sex and not to any conjugal relationship.  If she is ashamed and is reluctant, and thinks the house where she was born is too small for her, then let all of you move to her lodging.  However cramped it may be, it can more easily contain a mother and a brother than it could a strange man, for surely she could not have remained in the same bedroom with him.  Let there be two females and two males in the one house.  But if the third male too, that “nurturer of your old age” refuses to leave you and stirs up quarrels and confusion, be there a team of two, be there a team of three, he who is both brother and son will make clear to the other men a sister and a mother.12  Others may speak of them as stepfather and son-in-law;  your son must call them foster-father and brother.
12.  Jerome insists that the brother should live in the house, preferably with one other man — his sister’s mate — but even if the mother’s male friend remains, the brother must stay;  thus there are either two men or three men in the establishment.  (γηροβοσκός means literally “feeding one’s old parent.”)
117:12Hæc ad brevem lucubratiunculam celeri sermone dictavi, volens desiderio postulantis satisfacere et quasi ad scholasticam materiam me exercens (eadem enim die mane pulsabat ostium, qui profecturus erat), simulque ut ostenderem obtrectatoribus meis quod et ego possim quicquid venerit in buccam dicere.  Unde et de Scripturis pauca perstrinxi ;  nec orationem meam, ut in ceteris libris facere solitus sum, illarum floribus texui.  Extemporalis est dictio, et tantă ad lumen lucernulæ facultate perfusa, ut notariorum manus lingua præcurreret, et signa ac furta verborum, volubilitas sermonis obrueret.  Quod idcirco dixi ut, qui non ignoscit ingenio, ignoscat vel tempori. I dictated this letter, talking quickly, in the space of one short night, wishing to satisfy a friend’s earnest request and to try my hand, as it were, upon a scholastic subject — for that same morning my visitor, who was on the point of departure, knocked at my door — and at the same time, in order to show my detractors that I too can say the first thing that comes into my head.  I therefore introduced few quotations from the Scriptures and did not interweave my discourse with its flowers, as I have done in my other books.  I extemporized as I went, and by the light of one small lamp poured forth my words in such profusion, that my tongue outstripped my secretaries’ pens and my volubility baffled the tricks of their shorthand.  I say this so that those who do not forgive my inability may forgive my lack of time.
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Epistula CXXV
Ad Rusticum Monachum1
A.D. 411
125:1NIHIL Christiano felicius, cui promittuntur regna cælorum ;  nihil laboriosius, qui cottidie de vita periclitatur.  Nihil fortius, qui vincit diabolum ;  nihil imbecillius, qui a carne superatur.  Utriusque rei exempla sunt plurima.  Latro credidit in cruce et statim meretur audire, « Amen, amen dico tibi :  hodie mecum eris in paradiso ».  Judas de apostolatus fastigio in proditionis tartarum labitur, et nec familiaritate convivii nec intinctione buccellæ nec osculi gratia frangitur ne quasi hominem tradat, quem filium Dei noverat.  Quid Samaritana vilius ?  Non solum ipsa credidit et post sex viros unum invenit Dominum, Messiamque cognoscit ad fontem, quem in templo Judæorum populus ignorabat, sed auctor fit multorum salutis et, apostolis ementibus cibos, esurientem reficit lassumque sustentat.  Quid Salomone sapientius ?  Attamen infatuatur amoribus feminarum.  « Bonum est sal  » nullumque sacrificium absque hujus aspersione suscipitur — unde et apostolus præcipit, « Sermo vester sit sale conditus  » — quod, si infatuetur, foras projicitur in tantumque perdit nominis dignitatem, ut ne in sterquilinio quidem utile sit, quo solent credentium arva condiri, et sterile animarum solum pinguescere.  Hæc dicimus ut, primā te, fili Rustice, fronte, doceamus magna cœpisse, excelsa sectari et, adulescentiæ — immo pubertatis — incentiva calcantem, perfectæ quidem ætatis gradum scandere ;  sed lubricum iter est per quod ingrederis, nec tantam sequi gloriam post victoriam, quantam ignominiam post ruinam. Nothing is happier than the Christian, for to him is promised the kingdom of heaven:  nothing is more toil-worn, for every day he goes in danger of his life.  Nothing is stronger than he is, for he triumphs over the devil:  nothing is weaker, for he is conquered by the flesh.  There are many examples of the truth of both statements.  The robber on the cross believed, and it was immediately vouchsafed him to hear the words:  “Verily I say unto thee, today shalt thou be with me in Paradise.”2  Judas on the other hand fell from his high place as apostle into the traitor’s hell, and neither by the close intercourse of the banquet nor by the dipping of the sop nor by the grace of Christ’s kiss was he prevented from betraying as man Him whom he had known as the Son of God.  What could be of less worth than the woman of Samaria?  Yet not only did she herself believe, and after her six husbands find one Lord, not only did she recognize at the well the Messiah whom the Jews failed to recognize in the temple;  she brought salvation to many, and while the apostles were buying food she comforted Him who was hungry and weary.  What could be wiser than Solomon?  Yet he was rendered foolish by his love of women.  “Salt is good,” and no sacrifice is received unless it is sprinkled with it.  Therefore it was that the apostle gave command, “Let your speech be always with grace, seasoned with salt.”3  But if salt has lost its savor, it is cast out,4 and so completely loses its credit that it is not even useful on the dunghill to season believers’ fields and enrich the barren soil of their souls.  I say all this, my son Rusticus, because in the forefront of this treatise I would teach the greatness of your undertaking and the loftiness of your goal.  You must know that only by treading underfoot the allurements of youth and early manhood can you climb to the heights of perfect maturity.  The path you tread is slippery, and the glory of success is less than the disgrace of failure.
1.  Probably Rusticus of Narbonne;  following Jerome’s advice, he entered a monastery, was ordained later and consecrated Bishop of Narbonne 430.
2.  Lk 23:43
3.  Col 4:6
4.  Mt 5:13
125:2Non mihi nunc per virtutum prata ducendus es nec laborandum ut ostendam tibi variorum pulchritudinem florum, quid in se lilia habeant puritatis, quid rosarum verecundia possideat, quid violæ purpura promittat in regno, quid rutilantium spondeat pictura gemmarum.  Jam enim propitio Domino stivam tenes, jam in tectum atque solarium cum Petro apostolo conscendisti qui, esuriens in Judæis, Cornelii saturatur fide, et famem incredulitatis eorum gentium conversione restinguit, atque in vase Evangeliorum quadrangulo quod de cælo descendit ad terras, docetur et discit omnes homines posse salvari.  Rursumque, quod viderat, in specie candidissimi linteaminis in superna transfertur, et credentium turbas de terris in cælum rapit ut pollicitatio Domini compleatur :  « Beati mundo corde, quoniam ipsi Deum videbunt ».  Totum quod, apprehensa manu, insinuare tibi cupio, quod quasi doctus nauta post multa naufragia rudem conor instruere vectorem, illud est, ut in quo litore pudicitiæ pirata sit noveris ;  ubi Charybdis et radix omnium malorum avaritia ;  ubi Scyllæi obtrectatorum canes de quibus apostolus loquitur, « Ne mordentes invicem mutuo consumamini » ;  quomodo, in media tranquillitate securi, Libycis interdum vitiorum Syrtibus obruamur ;  quid venenatorum animantium desertum hujus sæculi nutriat. It is not my task now to lead you through the meadows of virtue, nor need I labor to show you the beauty of their gay blossoms, the purity of the lilies, the modesty of the roses, and the sure promise of the kingdom given by the violet’s purple and the jewelled brilliance of each painted flower.  By God’s favor you have already put your hand to the plough, and have already climbed up to the house-top and the terrace like the apostle Peter, who when he was hungry among the Jews was satisfied by the faith of Cornelius and appeased the cravings caused through their unbelief by the conversion of the Gentiles, being taught by the four-cornered vessel of the Gospels let down from heaven to earth that it was possible for all men to be saved.5  And then, again, the fair white sheet which he saw in his vision was taken up, carrying hosts of believers from earth to heaven, that the promise of the Lord might be fulfilled:  “Blessed are the pure in heart, for they shall see God.”6  In all this I only wish to take you by the hand and convey to you certain knowledge.  Like an experienced sailor who has been in many a shipwreck, I seek to instruct an unskilled steersman, to tell you where to find the pirates who would rob you of chastity, where lies the Charybdis of avarice, root of all evils, where are Scylla’s dogs, those calumniators of whom the apostle says:  “If ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not consumed one of another.”7  I would warn you too that sometimes as we sail at ease in calm weather we may be sucked down by the quicksands of vice, and that many venomous creatures have their home in the desert of this world.
5.  Acts 10:9-16
6.  Mt 5:8
7.  Gal 5:15
125:3Navigantes Rubrum Mare, in quo optandum nobis est ut verus Pharao cum suo mergatur exercitu, multis difficultatibus ac periculis ad urbem Abisamam perveniunt.  Utroque litore gentes vagæ, immo beluæ habitant ferocissimæ.  Semper solliciti, semper armati, totius anni vehunt cibaria.  Latentibus saxis vadisque durissimis plena sunt omnia, ita ut speculator et ductor in summa māli arbore sedeat et inde regendæ et circumflectendæ navis dictata prædicat.  Felix cursus est, si post sex menses supra dictæ urbis portum teneant, a quo se incipit aperire oceanus, per quem vix anno perpetuo ad Indiam pervenitur et ad Gangem fluvium (quem Phison sancta Scriptura cognominat) qui circuit omnem terram Evilat et multa genera pigmentorum de paradisi dicitur fonte evehere.  Ibi nascitur carbunculus et zmaragdus et margarita candentia et uniones, quibus nobilium feminarum ardet ambitio, montesque aurei quos adire, propter dracones et gryphas et immensorum corporum monstra, hominibus impossibile est, ut ostendatur nobis, quales custodes habeat avaritia. Those who navigate the Red Sea, where we must hope that the real Pharaoh may be drowned with all his host, have to face many difficulties and dangers before they reach the city of Abisama.8  Both shores are infested by nomad tribes and savage beasts.  Travellers must be always on the alert, always armed, and they must take a year’s provisions with them.  The sea is full of hidden rocks and dangerous shoals, so that a look-out man on the top of the mast has to call out directions for the ship’s course and steering.  It is a successful trip if the harbor of the above-named city is reached in six months.  At that point begins the ocean, which takes nearly a year to cross before you come to India and the river Ganges — called Phison in the Scriptures — which compasses the whole land of Evilat,9 and is said to carry down from its source in Paradise many kinds of bright pigments.  This land is the home of the carbuncle and the emerald, and those gleaming pearls which our great ladies so ardently desire.  There are also in it mountains of gold which men cannot approach because of the dragons and griffins and other huge monsters, set there to show us what sort of guardians avarice employs.
8.  A city of Arabia Felix
9.  Gen 2:11
125:4Quorsum ista ?  Perspicuum est.  Si negotiatores sæculi tanta sustinent ut ad incertas perveniant periturasque divitias, et servant cum animæ discrimine quæ multis periculis quæsierunt, quid Christi negotiatori non faciendum est qui, venditis omnibus, quærit pretiosissimum margaritum, qui totis substantiæ suis opibus emit agrum in quo reperiat thesaurum quem nec fur effodere nec latro possit auferre ? To what end, you ask, do I say this?  My reason is plain.  If the merchants of this world undergo such pains to arrive at doubtful and passing riches, and after seeking them in the midst of dangers keep them at the risk of their lives, what should not Christ’s merchant do who sells all he has to buy the pearl of great price, and with his whole substance buys a field that he may find therein a treasure which neither thief can dig up nor robber carry away?10
10.  Mt 13:45f. & 6:19
125:5Scio me offensurum esse quam plurimos, qui generalem de vitiis disputationem in suam referant contumeliam et, dum mihi irascuntur, suam indicant conscientiam, multoque pejus de se quam de me judicant.  Ego enim neminem nominabo, nec Veteris Comœdiæ licentia certas personas eligam atque perstringam.  Prudentis viri est ac prudentium feminarum, dissimulare, immo emendare, quod in se intellegant, et indignari sibi magis quam mihi — nec in monitorem maledicta congerere qui, ut eisdem teneatur criminibus, certe in eo melior est, quod sua ei mala non placent. I know that I shall offend a very large number of people, who think that any general discourse on vice is meant as an attack upon themselves.  Their anger against me is evidence of a guilty conscience, and they pass a severer judgment on their own character than on mine.  I shall not mention names nor use the license of the Old Comedy to pick out definite persons for criticism.  A wise man and wise women will either hide or correct any faults they find in themselves, they will be more indignant with themselves than with me, and will not heap curses upon their adviser.  Granted that he is liable to the same charges as they are, in his case his faults give him no pleasure;  and so far at least he is their superior.
125:6Audio religiosam habere te matrem, multorum annorum viduam, quæ aluit, quæ erudivit infantem ;  et post studia Galliarum quæ vel florentissima sunt, misit Romam, non parcens sumptibus et absentiam filii spe sustinens futurorum, ut ubertatem Gallici nitoremque sermonis gravitas Romana condiret ;  nec calcaribus in te sed frenis uteretur — quod et in disertissimis viris Græciæ legimus, qui Asianum tumorem Attico siccabat sale et luxuriantes flagellis vineas falcibus reprimebant, ut eloquentiæ torcularia non verborum pampinis, sed sensuum quasi uvarum expressionibus redundarent.  Hanc tu suscipe ut parentem, ama ut nutricem, venerare ut sanctam.  Nec aliorum imiteris exemplum, qui relinquunt suas et alienas appetunt, quorum dedecus in propatulo est sub nominibus pietatis quærentium suspecta consortia. I hear that your mother is a religious woman who for many years has been a widow, and that when you were a child she reared and taught you herself.  After you had studied in the flourishing academies of Gaul she sent you to Rome, sparing no expense and consoling herself for her son’s absence with bright hopes of his future.  Her idea was that Roman gravity would temper the exuberance and glitter of your Gallic eloquence, and in your case would act as a bit rather than as a spur.  So we read of the greatest Greek orators, that they seasoned the bombast of Asia with Attic salt and pruned their vines severely when the shoots were too luxuriant.  They wished to fill the wine-press of eloquence, not with leaf-clusters of words, but with the rich grape-juice of sound sense.  Respect her then as a parent, love her as a mother, venerate her as a saint.  Do not imitate those who leave their own relatives and run after strange women.  Their infamy is plain;  for under pretext of piety they really seek illicit intercourse.
Novi ego quasdam jam maturioris ætatis et plerasque generis libertini adulescentibus delectari et filios quærere spiritales paulatimque, pudore superato, per ficta matrum nomina erumpere in licentiam maritalem.  Alii sorores virgines deserunt et extraneis viduis copulantur.  Sunt, quæ oderunt suos et non suorum palpantur affectu, quarum impatientia, index animi, nullam recepit excusationem et cassa impudicitiæ velamenta quasi aranearum fila dirumpit.  Videas nonnullos accinctis renibus, pulla tunica, barba prolixa a mulieribus non posse discedere, sub eodem commanere tecto, simul inire convivia, ancillas juvenes habere in ministerio et, præter vocabulum nuptiarum, omnia esse matrimonii.  Nec culpa est nominis Christiani, si simulator religionis in vitio sit, quin immo confusio gentilium, quum ea vident ecclesiis displicere, quæ omnibus bonis non placent. I know some women of ripe age who in many cases take their pleasure with young freedmen, calling them their spiritual children, and gradually so far overcoming any sense of shame as to allow themselves under this pretence of motherhood all the license of marriage.  In other cases men abandon their sisters who are virgins, and unite themselves to widows who are no relations.  There are women who hate their own kin and feel no affection for their family.  Their restlessness reveals their state of mind, for it disdains excuses and rends asunder like cobwebs any veils that might conceal their licentiousness.  You may see some men also with girded loins, sombre tunics and long beards, who yet can never leave women’s society.  They live with them under one roof, they go out to dinner with them, they have young girls to wait upon them, and, save that they are not called husbands, they enjoy all the privileges of marriage.  But it is no fault of Christianity if a hypocrite falls into sin:  rather it is the confusion of the Gentiles when they see that the churches condemn what is condemned by all honest folk.
125:7Tu vero, si monachus esse vis, non videri, habeto curam non rei familiaris, cui renuntiando, hŏc esse cœpisti, sed animæ tuæ.  Sordes vestium candidæ mentis indicio sint, vilis tunica contemptum sæculi probet — ita dumtaxat ne animus tumeat, ne habitus sermoque dissentiat.  Balnearum fomenta non quæras, qui calorem corporis jejuniorum cupis frigore exstinguere.  Quæ et ipsa moderata sint, ne nimia debilitent stomachum et majorem refectionem poscentia erumpant in cruditatem, quæ parens libidinum est.  Modicus et temperatus cibus et carni et animæ utilis est.  Matrem ita vide, ne per illam alias videre cogaris quarum vultus cordi tuo hæreant, « Et tacitum vivat sub pectore vulnus. »  Ancillulas quæ illi in obsequio sunt, tibi scias esse in insidiis, quia, quantum vilior earum condicio, tanto facilior ruina est.  Et Johannes Baptista sanctam matrem habuit pontificisque filius erat — et tamen nec matris affectu nec patris opibus vincebatur ut in domo parentum cum periculo viveret castitatis. If you wish to be, and not merely seem, a monk, have regard not for your property — you began your vows by renouncing it — but for your soul.  Let a squalid garb be the evidence of a clean heart:  let a coarse tunic prove that you despise the world;  provided only that you do not pride yourself on such things nor let your dress and language be at variance.  Avoid hot baths:  your aim is to quench the heat of the body by the help of chilling fasts.  But let your fasts be moderate, since if they are carried to excess they weaken the stomach, and by making more food necessary to make up for it lead to indigestion, which is the parent of lust.  A frugal, temperate diet is good both for body and soul.  See your mother often, but do not be forced to see other women when you visit her.  Their faces may dwell in your heart and so “A secret wound may fester in your breast.”11  You must remember too that the maids who wait upon her are an especial snare;  the lower they are in rank, the easier it is to ruin them.  John the Baptist had a saintly mother and his father was a priest;  but neither his mother’s love nor his father’s wealth could prevail upon him to live in his parents’ house at the risk of his chastity.
Vivebat in eremo et, oculis desiderantibus Christum, nihil aliud dignabatur aspicere.  Vestis aspera, zona pellicia, cibus locustæ melque silvestre, omnia virtuti et continentiæ præparata.  Filii prophetarum — quos monachos in Veteri legimus Testamento — ædificabant sibi casulas propter fluenta Jordanis et, turbis urbium derelictis, polenta et herbis agrestibus victitabant.  Quamdiu in patria tua es, habeto cellulam pro paradiso, varia Scripturarum poma decerpe, his utere deliciis, harum fruere complexu.  Si scandalizat te oculus, pes, manus tua, projice ea.  Nulli parcas, ut soli parcas animæ.  « Qui viderit mulierem ad concupiscendum eam, jam mœchatus est eam in corde suo. »  « Quis gloriabitur castum se habere cor ? »  Astra non sunt munda in conspectu Domini :  quanto magis homines, quorum vita temptatio est !  Væ nobis qui, quotiens concupiscimus, totiens fornicamur.  « Inebriatus est », inquit, « gladius meus in cælo » :  multo amplius in terra, quæ spinas et tribulos generat. He took up his abode in the desert, and desiring only to see Christ refused to look at anything else.  His rough garb, his skin girdle, his diet of locusts and wild honey were all alike meant to ensure virtue and self-restraint.  The sons of the prophets, who are the monks of the Old Testament, built huts for themselves by the stream of Jordan, and leaving the crowded cities lived on barley-groats and wild herbs.  As long as you stay in your native city, regard your cell as Paradise, gather in it the varied fruits of the Scriptures, make them your delight, and rejoice in their embrace.  If your eye or your foot or your hand offend you, cast it off.12  Spare nothing, provided that you spare your soul. “Whosoever looketh on a woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his heart.”13  “Who can boast, ‘I have made my heart clean’”?14  The stars are not pure in God’s sight:  how much less are men, whose life is one long temptation!  Woe to us, who commit fornication whenever we have lustful thoughts!  “My sword,” says the Scripture, “hath drunk its fill in heaven”15:  much more then will it on earth, which produces thorns and thistles.
Vas electionis in cujus Christus ore sonabat, macerat corpus suum et subjicit servituti, et tamen cernit naturalem carnis ardorem suæ repugnare sententiæ, ut, quod non vult, hoc agere compellatur et, quasi vim patiens, vociferatur et dicit, « Miser ego homo ;  quis me liberabit de corpore mortis hujus ? »  Et tu te arbitraris absque lapsu et vulnere posse transire, nisi omni custodia servaveris cor tuum et cum Salvatore dixeris, « Mater mea et fratres mei hi sunt, qui faciunt voluntatem patris mei » ?  Crudelitas ista pietas est ;  immo quid tam pium, quam sanctæ matri sanctum filium custodire ?  Optat et illa te vivere, non videre ad tempus — ut semper cum Christo videat.  Anna Samuhelem non sibi, sed tabernaculo genuit.  Filii Jonadab, qui vinum et siceram non bibebant, qui habitabant in tentoriis, et quas nox compulerat sedes habebant, scribuntur in psalmo quod primi captivitatem sustinuerint quia, exercitu Chaldæorum vastante Judæam, urbes introire compulsi sunt. The chosen vessel, from whose mouth we hear Christ’s own words, keeps his body under and brings it into subjection;  but still he perceives that the natural heat of the body fights against his fixed purpose, and he is compelled to do what he will not.  Like a man suffering violence he cries aloud and says:  “O wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death?”16  And do you think then that you can pass through life without a fall and without a wound, if you do not keep your heart with all diligence and say with the Savior, “My mother and my brethren are these which hear the word of God and do it”?17  Such cruelty as this is really love.  Nay, what greater love can there be than for a holy mother to guard her holy son?  She desires your eternal life:  she is content not to see you for the moment, provided that she may see you for ever with Christ.  She is like Hannah, who brought forth Samuel, not for her own comfort, but for the service of the tabernacle.  The sons of Jonadab drank no wine or strong drink and lived in tents which they pitched whenever night came on.18  Of them the psalm19 says that they were the first to undergo captivity, for when the Chaldean host was devastating Judaea they were compelled to enter cities.
11.  Virgil, Æneid, 4:67
12.  Mt 18:8f.
13.  Mt 5:28
14.  Prov. 20:9
15.  Isaias 34:5
16.  Rom 7:24
17.  Lk 8:21
18.  Jeremias 35:6
19.  The reference is the the heading of Psalm 70, given in the Septuagint:  Τῷ Δαυιδ· υἱῶν Ιωναδαβ καὶ τῶν πρώτων αἰχμαλωτισθέντων.  {“Pertaining to David:  Of the sons of Ionadab and the first of these taken captive.”}
125:8Viderint, quid alii sentiant — unusquisque enim suo sensu ducitur — mihi oppidum carcer est, et solitudo, paradisus.  Quid desideramus urbium frequentiam, qui de singularite censemur ?  Moyses, ut præesset populo Judæorum, quadraginta annis eruditur in eremo ;  pastor ovium, hominum factus est pastor,  Apostoli, de piscatione lacus Genesar, ad piscationem hominum transierunt.  Tunc habebant patrem, rete, naviculam ;  secuti Dominum, protinus omnia reliquerunt, portantes cottidie crucem suam et ne virgam quidem in manu habentes.  Hoc dico ut, etiam si clericatus te titillat desiderium, discas quod possis docere et rationabilem hostiam offeras Christo — ne miles antequam tiro, ne prius magister sis quam discipulus.  Non est humilitatis meæ neque mensuræ judicare de ceteris et, de ministris ecclesiarum, sinistrum quippiam dicere.  Habeant illi ordinem et gradum suum, quem si tenueris, quomodo tibi in eo vivendum sit, editus “ad Nepotianum” liber docere te poterit.  Nunc monachi incunabula moresque discutimus — et ejus monachi qui, liberabilibus studiis eruditus in adulescentia, jugum Christi collo suo imposuit. Let others think as they will — every one follows his own bent — but to me a town is a prison, and the wilderness a paradise.  What do we monks want with crowded cities, we whose very name bespeaks loneliness?20  Moses was trained for forty years in the desert to fit him for the task of leading the Jewish people, and from being a shepherd of sheep he became a shepherd of men.  The apostles left their fishing on Lake Gennesaret to fish for human souls.  Then they had a father, nets, and a little boat:  but they followed the Lord on the spot and abandoned everything, carrying their cross every day, without so much as a stick in their hands.  I say this, so that if you are tickled by a desire to become a clergyman,21 you may learn now what you will then be able to teach others, offering a reasonable sacrifice to Christ.  You must not think yourself an old soldier while you are still a recruit, a master while you are still a pupil.  It would not become my lowly rank to pass judgment on others, or to say anything unfavorable about those who serve in churches.  Let them keep their proper place and station, and if you ever join them, my treatise written for Nepotian22 will show you how you ought to live in that position.  For the moment I am discussing a monk’s early training and character, a monk, moreover, who after a liberal education in his early manhood placed upon his neck the yoke of Christ.
20.  Monachus (< Greek μοναχόςadjective:  “unique, single”;  substantive:  “one who lives alone, solitary”) in Christian usage:  “monk.”
21.  A monk — monachus — originally was a solitary living in the desert, but after the time of St. Basil monks were usually organized in communities under a rule and devoted their time to prayer, mediatation and useful work.  If a monk wished to enter the ministry of the Church, he had to be ordained as a deacon by a bishop.  He then normally lived in a city and had a cure of souls.
22.  Letter 52
125:9Primumque tractandum est, utrum solus an cum aliis in monasterio vivere debeas.  Mihi placet, ut habeas sanctorum contubernium, nec ipse te doceas et absque ductore23 ingrediaris viam quam nunquam ingressus es, statimque in partem tibi alteram declinandum sit et errori pateas, plusque aut minus ambules quam necesse est ut, currens, lasseris, moram faciens, obdormias.  In solitudine cito surrepit superbia et, si parumper jejunaverit hominemque non viderit, putat se alicujus esse momenti ;  oblitusque sui unde, quo, venerit, intus corpore, linguā foris vagatur.  Judicat contra apostoli voluntatem alienos servos ;  quod gula poposcerit, porrigit manus ;  dormit quantum voluerit ;  nullum veretur, omnes se inferiores putat, crebriusque in urbibus quam in cellula est ;  et inter fratres simulat verecundiam, qui platearum turbis colliditur.  Quid igitur ?  Solitariam vitam reprehendimus ?  Minime, quippe quam sæpe laudavimus.  Sed de ludo monasteriorum hujuscemodi volumus egredi milites, quos rudimenta non teneant ;  qui specimen conversationis suæ multo tempore dederint ;  qui omnium fuerunt minimi, ut primi omnium fierent ;  quos nec esuries nec saturitas aliquando superavit ;  qui paupertate lætantur ;  quorum habitus, sermo, vultus, incessus doctrina virtutum est ;  qui nesciunt, secundum quosdam ineptos homines, dæmonum oppugnantium contra se portenta confingere, ut apud imperitos et vulgi homines miraculum sui faciant et exinde sectentur lucra. The first point with which I must deal is whether you ought to live alone or in a monastery with others.  I would prefer you to have the society of holy men and not to be your own teacher.  If you set out on a strange road without a guide you may easily at the start take a wrong turning and make a mistake, going too far or not far enough, running till you weary yourself or delaying your journey for a sleep.  In solitude pride quickly creeps in, and when a man has fasted for a little while and has seen no one, he thinks himself a person of some account.  He forgets who he is, whence he comes, and where he is going, and lets his body run riot within, his tongue abroad.  Contrary to the apostle’s24 wishes, he judges another man’s servants;  he stretches out his hand for anything that his gullet craves;  he does what he pleases and sleeps as long as he pleases;  he fears no one, he thinks all men his inferiors, spends more time in cities than in his cell, and though among the brethren he makes a pretence of modesty, in the crowded squares he ruffles it with the best.  What then, you will say?  Do I disapprove of the solitary life?  Not at all:  I have often commended it.  But I wish to see the soldiers who march out from a monastery-school men who have not been frightened by their early training, who have given proof of a holy life for many months, who have made themselves last that they might be first, who have not been overcome by hunger or satiety, who take pleasure in poverty, whose garb, conversation, looks and gait all teach virtue, and who have no skill — as some foolish fellows have — in inventing monstrous stories of their struggles with demons, tales invented to excite the admiration of the ignorant mob and to extract money from their pockets.
23.  doctore :  Hilberg.
24.  Rom 14:4
125:10Vidimus nuper, et planximus, Crœsi opes unius morte deprehensas, urbisque stipes — quasi in usus pauperum congregatas —, stirpi et posteris derelictas.  Tunc ferrum, quod latebat in profundo, supernatavit aquæ et inter palmarum arbores Merræ amaritudo monstrata est.  Nec mirum :  talem et socium habuit et magistrum qui egentium famem suas fecit esse divitias, et miseris derelicta in suam miseriam tenuit.  Quorum clamor tandem pervenit ad cælum et patientissimas Dei vicit aures, ut missus angelus pessimo Nabal Carmelio diceret, « Stulte, hac nocte auferent animam tuam a te ;  quæ autem præparasti, cujus erunt ? » Just lately, to my sorrow, I saw the fortune of a Croesus revealed at one monk’s death, and beheld a city’s alms — collected ostensibly for benefit of the poor — left by will to his sons and their descendants.  Then the iron which was hidden in the depths floated upon the surface, and amid the palm trees the bitter waters of Marah25 were seen.  Nor need we wonder at his avarice:  his partner and teacher was a man who turned the hunger of the needy into a source of wealth for himself, and to his own wretchedness kept back the legacies that were left to the wretched.  But at last their cries reached heaven and were too much for God’s patient ears, so that he sent an angel to say to this villainous Nabal the Carmelite:”  Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee:  then whose shall those things be which thou hast provided?”26
25.  Exod. 15:23
25.  Lk 12:20
125:11Volo ergo te et, propter causas quas supra exposui, non habitare cum matre, et præcipue ne offerentem delicatos cibos renuendo contristes aut, si acceperis, oleum igni adjicias et inter frequentiam puellarum per diem videas quod noctibus cogites.  Nunquam de manu et oculis tuis recedat liber ;  psalterium discatur ad verbum, oratio sine intermissione, vigil sensus nec vanis cogitationibus patens.  Corpus pariter animusque tendatur ad Dominum.  Iram vince patientia ;  ama scientiam Scripturarum et carnis vitia non amabis.  Nec vacet mens tua variis perturbationibus quæ, si pectori insederint, dominabuntur tui et te deducent ad delictum maximum.  Fac et aliquid operis, ut semper te diabolus inveniat occupatum.  Si apostoli, habentes potestatem de Evangelio vivere, laborabant manibus suis ne quem gravarent, et aliis tribuebant refrigeria, quorum pro spiritalibus debebant metere carnalia, cur tu in usus tuos cessura non præpares ?  For the reasons then which I have given above, I wish you not to live with your mother.  And there are some further considerations.  If she offers you a dainty dish, you would grieve her by refusing it, while if you take it you would be throwing oil on fire.  Moreover, in a house that is full of girls you would see things in the daytime that you would think about in the night.  Always have a book in your hand and before your eyes;  learn the psalms word by word, pray without ceasing, keep your senses on the alert and closed against vain imaginings.  Let your mind and body both strain towards the Lord, overcome wrath by patience;  love the knowledge of the Scriptures and you will not love the sins of the flesh.  Do not let your mind offer a lodging to disturbing thoughts, for if they once find a home in your breast they will become your masters and lead you on into fatal sin.  Engage in some occupation, so that the devil may always find you busy.  If the apostles who had the power to make the Gospel their livelihood still worked with their hands that they might not be a burden on any man,27 and gave relief to others whose carnal possessions they had a right to enjoy in return for their spiritual benefits, why should you not provide for your own future wants?
Vel fiscellam texe junco vel canistrum lentis plecte viminibus ;  sariatur humus, areolæ æquo limite dividantur in quibus, quum holerum jacta fuerint semina vel plantæ per ordinem positæ, aquæ ducantur irriguæ, ut pulcherrimorum versuum spectator assistas :

« Ecce !  Supercilio clivosi tramitis undam
Elicit, illa cadens raucum per levia murmur
Saxa ciet scatebrisque arentia temperat arva. »

Inserantur infructuosæ arbores vel gemmis vel surculis ut, parvo post tempore, laboris tui dulcia poma decerpas.  Apum fabricare alvearia, ad quas te mittunt Proverbia, et monasteriorum ordinem ac regiam disciplinam in parvis disce corporibus.  Texantur et lina capiendis piscibus ;  scribantur libri, ut et manus operetur cibos et anima lectione saturetur.  « In desideriis est omnis otiosus. »  Ægyptiorum monasteria hanc morem tenent, ut nullum absque opere ac labore suscipiant, non tam propter victūs necessaria quam propter animæ salutem, ne vagetur perniciosis cogitationibus et, instar fornicantis Hierusalem, omni transeunti divaricet pedes suos.

Make creels of reeds or weave baskets of pliant osiers.  Hoe the ground and mark it out into equal plots, and when you have sown cabbage seed or set out plants in rows, bring water down in channels and stand by like the onlooker in the lovely lines:

“Lo, from the channelled slope he brings the stream,
Which falls hoarse murmuring o’er the polished stones
And with its bubbling flood allays the heat
Of sun-scorched fields.”28

Graft barren trees with buds or slips, so that you may, after a little time, pluck sweet fruit as a reward for your labors.  Make hives for bees, to whom the Proverbs of Solomon send you,29 and by watching the tiny creatures learn the ordinance of a monastery and the discipline of a kingdom.  Twist lines too for catching fish, and copy out manuscripts, so that your hand may earn you food and your soul be satisfied with reading. “Every one that is idle is a prey to vain desires.”30  Monasteries in Egypt make it a rule not to take any one who will not work, thinking not so much of the necessities of life as of the safety of men’s souls, lest they should be led astray by dangerous imaginings, and be like Jerusalem in her whoredoms, who spread her legs to every chance comer.31
27.  2 Thess 3:8
28.  Virgil, Georgics 1:108ff.
29.  Proverbs 6:8, where the LXX adds:  ἢ πορεύθητι πρὸς τὴν μέλισσαν καὶ μάθε ὡς ἐργάτις ἐστὶν, κ.τ.λ.  {“Or go to the bee, and learn how industrious she is,” etc.}
30.  Proverbs 13:4 (LXX)
31.  Cf. Ezek. 16:15
125:12Dum essem juvenis et solitudinis me deserta vallarent, incentiva vitiorum ardoremque naturæ ferre non poteram — quæ, quum crebris jejuniis frangerem, mens tamen cogitationibus æstuabat.  Ad quam edomandam cuidam fratri, qui ex Hebræis crediderat, me in disciplinam dedi ut, post Quintiliani acumina Ciceronisque fluvios gravitatemque Frontonis et lenitatem Plinii, alphabetum discerem, stridentia anhelantiaque verba meditarer.  Quid ibi laboris insumpserim, quid sustinuerim difficultatis, quotiens desperaverim quotiensque cessaverim et contentione discendi rursus inceperim, testis est conscientia tam mea qui passus sum, quam eorum qui mecum duxere vitam.  Et gratias ago Domino quod de amaro semine litterarum dulces fructus capio. When I was a young man, though I was protected by the rampart of the lonely desert, I could not endure against the promptings of sin and the ardent heat of my nature.  I tried to crush them by frequent fasting, but my mind was always in a turmoil of imagination.  To subdue it I put myself in the hands of one of the brethren who had been a Hebrew before his conversion, and asked him to teach me his language.  Thus, after having studied the pointed style of Quintilian, the fluency of Cicero, the weightiness of Fronto, and the gentleness of Pliny, I now began to learn the alphabet again and practice harsh and guttural words.  What efforts I spent on that task, what difficulties I had to face, how often I despaired, how often I gave up and then in my eagerness to learn began again, my own knowledge can witness from personal experience and those can testify who were then living with me.  I thank the Lord that from a bitter seed of learning I am now plucking sweet fruits.
125:13Dicam et aliud, quid in Ægyptio viderim.  Græcus adulescens erat in cœnobio, qui nulla continentiæ, nulla operis magnitudine, flammam poterat carnis exstinguere.  Hunc periclitantem pater monasterii hac arte servavit :  imperat cuidam viro gravi ut jurgiis atque conviciis insectaretur hominem et, post irrogatam injuriam, primus veniret ad querimonias.  Vocati testes, pro eo loquebantur qui contumeliam fecerat.  Flere ille contra mendacium :  nullus alius credere veritati.  Solus pater defensionem suam callide opponere, ne « abundantiori tristitia absorberetur frater ».  Quid multa ?  Ita annus ductus est ;  quo expleto, interrogatus adulescens super cogitationibus pristinis, an adhuc molestiæ aliquid sustineret, « Papæ », inquit, « vivere non licet, et fornicari libet ? »  Hic si solus fuisset, quo adjutore superasset ? I will tell you of another thing that I saw in Egypt.  There was a young Greek in a community there, who could not, by any intensity of continence or labor whatsoever quench the fires of the flesh.  In his danger the father of the monastery saved him by the following device.  He instructed a grave elder to pursue the young man with revilings and abuse, and after having thus insulted him to be the first to lay a complaint.  When witnesses were called they always spoke in favor of the aggressor.  The youth could only weep at the false charge, but no one believed the truth.  The father alone would cleverly put in a plea on his behalf, lest “our brother be swallowed up by overmuch sorrow.”32  To cut a long tale short, a whole year passed in this way, and at the end the youth was asked about his former imaginings, whether they still troubled him. “Good heavens,” he replied, “how can I want to fornicate, when I am not allowed even to live?”  If he had been alone, by whose help could he have overcome temptation?
32.  2 Cor 2:7
125:14Philosophi sæculi solent amorem veterem amore novo quasi clavum clavo expellere.  Quod et Asuero septem principes fecere Persarum, ut Vašti reginæ desiderium aliarum puellarum amore compescerent.  Illi vitium vitio peccatumque peccato remediantur, nos amore virtutum vitia superemus.  « Declina », ait, « a malo et fac bonum ;  quærere pacem et persequere eam. »  Nisi oderimus malum, bonum amare non possumus.  Quin potius faciendum est bonum, ut declinemus a malo ;  pax quærenda, ut bella fugiamus.  Nec sufficit eam quærere, nisi inventam fugientemque omni studio persequamur, « quæ exsuperat omnem sensum », in qua habitatio Dei est, dicente propheta, « Et factus est in pace locus ejus », pulchreque persecutio pacis dicitur juxta illud apostoli, « Hospitalitatem persequentes », ut non levi citatoque sermone et (ut ita loquar) summis labiis hospites invitemus, sed toto mentis ardore teneamus, quasi auferentes secum de lucro nostro atque compendio. Worldly philosophers are wont to drive out an old passion by a new one, as you drive out an old nail by hammering in another.  This is what the seven princes of Persia did to Ahasuerus, when they assuaged his regret for queen Vashti by suggesting an amour with other maidens.33  They cure fault by fault and sin by sin:  we must overcome vice by love of virtue.  “Depart from evil,” says the Scripture, “and do good;  seek peace and pursue it.”34  If we do not hate evil we cannot love good.  Nay more, we must do good if we are to depart from evil:  we must seek peace, if we are to avoid wars.  Nor is it enough merely to seek peace;  when we have found it and it flies from us, we must pursue with all our might. “Peace passeth all understanding,”35 and in it is God’s dwelling.  As the prophet says:  “In peace also is His habitation.”36  The pursuing of peace is a fine metaphor, and is like the saying of the apostle, “pursuing hospitality.”37  Our invitation to guests should not be a mere light form of words, spoken, if I may use the phrase, with the surface of the lips;  we should be as eager to detain them as if they were robbers carrying off our savings.
33.  Esther 2:2
34.  Ps 33:14
35.  Phil 4:7
36.  Ps 76:2 (Septuagint 75:3, translating the city-name “Salem” [= Jeru-salem] by its literal meaning of “peace”).
37.  Rom 12:13
125:15Nulla ars absque magistro discitur.  Etiam muta animalia et ferarum greges ductores sequuntur suos.  In apibus principes sunt ;  grues unam sequuntur, ordine litterato.  Imperator unus, judex unus provinciæ.  Roma, ut condita est, duos fratres simul habere reges non potuit, et parricidio dedicatur.  In Rebeccæ utero Esau et Jacob bella gesserunt.  Singuli ecclesiarum episcopi, singuli archipresbyteri, singuli archidiaconi et omnis ordo ecclesiasticus suis rectoribus nītitur.  In navi unus gubernator, in domo unus Dominus ;  in quamvis grandi exercitu unius signum exspectatur.  Et, ne plura replicando fastidium legenti faciam, per hæc omnia ad illud tendit oratio, ut doceam te non tuo arbitrio dimittendum, sed vivere debere in monasterio sub unius disciplina patris consortioque multorum, ut ab alio discas humilitatem, ab alio patientiam. No art is learned without a master.  Even dumb animals and herds of wild beasts follow leaders of their own.  Bees have rulers, and cranes fly behind one of their number in the shape of the letter “V.”  There is one emperor, and one judge for each province.  When Rome was founded it could not have two brothers reigning together, and so it was inaugurated by an act of fratricide.  Esau and Jacob warred against one another in Rebecca’s womb.38  Each church has but one bishop, one arch-presbyter, one archdeacon;  every ecclesiastical order is subjected to its own rulers.  There is one pilot in a ship, one master in a house;  and however large an army may be, the soldiers await one man’s signal.  I will not weary my reader with further repetition, for the purpose of all these examples is simply this.  I want to show you that you had better not be left to your own discretion, but should rather live in a monastery under the control of one father and with many companions.
Hic te silentium, ille doceat mansuetudinem, non facias quod vis, comedas quod juberis ;  habeas quantum acceperis, vestiaris quod acceperis, operis tui pensa persolvas ;  subjiciaris cui non vis, lassus ad stratum venias, ambulansque dormites, necdum expleto somno surgere compellaris ;  dicas psalmum in ordine tuo — in quo non dulcedo vocis sed mentis affectus quæritur, scribente apostolo, « Psallam spiritu, psallam et mente », et « Cantantes in cordibus vestris » ;  legerat enim esse præceptum, « Psallite sapienter ».  Servias fratribus ;  hospitum laves pedes ;  passus injuriam, taceas ;  præpositum monasterii timeas ut Dominum, diligas ut parentem ;  credas tibi salutare, quicquid ille præceperit ;  nec de majoris sententia judices, cujus officii est obœdire et implere quæ jussa sunt, dicente Moyse, « Audi, Israël, et tace ».  Tantis negotiis occupatus, nullis vacabis cogitationibus et, dum ab alio transis ad aliud, opusque succedit operi, illud solum mente retinebis quod agere compelleris. From one of them you may learn humility, from another patience;  this one will teach you silence, that one meekness.  You will not do what you yourself wish;  you will eat what you are ordered;  you will take what you are given;  you will wear the dress allotted to you;  you will perform a set amount of work;  you will be subordinate to some one you do not like;  you will come to bed worn out with weariness and fall asleep as you walk about.  Before you have had your fill of rest, you will be forced to get out of bed and take your turn in psalm-singing, a task where real emotion is a greater requisite than a sweet voice.  The apostle says:  “I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with the understanding also,”39 and, again:  “Make melody in your hearts.”40  He had read the precept:  “Sing ye praises with understanding.”41  You will serve the brethren;  you will wash the feet of guests;  if you suffer wrong you will say nothing;  the superior of the monastery you will fear as a master and love as a father.  Whatever precepts he gives, you will believe to be wholesome for you.  You will not pass judgment upon your elder’s decisions, for it is your duty to be obedient and carry out orders, according to the words of Moses:  “Keep silence and hearken, O Israel.”42  You will be so busy with all these tasks that you will have no time for vain imaginings, and while you pass from one occupation to the next you will only have in mind the work that you are being forced to do.
38.  Gen 25:22
39.  1 Cor 14:15
40.  Eph 5:19
41.  Ps 46:8
42.  Deut 27:9
125:16Vidi ego quosdam qui, postquam renuntiavere sæculo — vestimentis dumtaxat et vocis professione, non rebus — nihil de pristina conversatione mutarunt.  Res familiaris magis aucta quam imminuta est ;  eadem ministeria servulorum, idem apparatus convivii ;  in vitro et patella fictili aurum comeditur, et inter turbas et examina ministrorum nomen sibi vindicant solitarii.  Qui vero pauperes sunt et tenui substantiola videnturque sibi scioli, pomparum ferculis similes procedunt ad publicum, ut caninam exerceant facundiam.  Alii, sublatis in altum humeris et intra se nescio quid cornicantes, stupentibus in terram oculis, tumentia verba trutinantur ut, si præconem addideris, putes incedere præfecturam.  Sunt qui — humore cellularum immoderatisque jejuniis, tædio solitudinis ac nimia lectione, dum diebus ac noctibus auribus suis personant — vertuntur in μελαγχολίαν, et Hippocratis magis fomentis quam nostris monitis indigent. I myself have seen some men who after they had renounced the world — in garb, that is, and in their verbal declarations, but not in reality — changed nothing of their former mode of life.  Their property has increased rather than diminished;  they have the same number of servants to wait upon them and keep the same elaborate table;  though they drink from glass and eat from plates of earthenware, it is gold they swallow, and amidst crowds and droves of servants they claim the name of hermit.  Others, who are poor and of slender means and imagine themselves possessing a smattering of knowledge, pass through the streets like the floats in a procession,43 to practice a cynical eloquence.  Others shrug their shoulders and croak indistinctly to themselves and, with glassy eyes fixed upon the earth, they balance swelling words upon their tongues, so that if you add a crier, you might think it was his excellency the governor who was coming along.  There are some too who — while by reason of damp cells and immoderate fasts, added to the boredom of solitude and excessive study, sounding off to their own ears day and night — fall into melancholic depression, and need Hippocrates’ poultices more than any advice of mine.
Plerique artibus et negotiationibus pristinis carere non possunt, mutatisque nominibus institorum, eadem exercent commercia, non vīctum et vestitum quod apostolus præcipit, sed majora quam sæculi homines emolumenta sectantes.  Et prius quidem ab ædilibus — quos ἀγορανόμους Græci appellant — vendentium coërcebatur rabies, nec erat impune peccatum ;  nunc autem sub religionis titulo exercentur injusta compendia, et honor nominis Christiani fraudem magis facit quam patitur.  Quodque pudet dicere (sed necesse est, ut saltim sic ad nostrum erubescamus dedecus), publice extendentes manus, pannis aurum tegimus ;  et contra omnium opinionem plenis sacculis morimur divites qui quasi pauperes viximus.  Tibi, quum in monasterio fueris, hæc facere non licebit et, inolescente paulatim consuetudine, quod primum cogebaris, velle incipies, et delectabit te labor tuus ;  oblitusque præteritorum, semper priora sectaberis, nequaquam considerans quid alii mali faciant, sed quid boni tu facere debeas. Very many cannot forgo their previous trades and occupations, and though they change its name carry on the same pedlar’s44 traffic as before, seeking for themselves not food and raiment, as the apostle directs,45 but greater profits than men of the world expect.  In the past the mad greed of sellers was checked by the aediles, or as the Greeks call them, market-inspectors, and men could not cheat with impunity:  today under the cloak of religion such men hoard up dishonest profits, and the good name of Christianity does more wrong than it suffers.  I am ashamed to say it, but I must — at least we ought to blush at our disgrace — we hold out our hands in public for alms while we have gold hidden under our rags, and to every one’s surprise after living as poor men we die rich with purses well filled.  In your case, since you will be in a monastery, such conduct will not be allowed;  habits will gradually grow on you, and finally you will do of your own accord what was at first a matter of compulsion;  you will take pleasure in your labors and, forgetting what is behind, you will reach out to that which is before;  you will not think at all of the evil that others do, but only of the good which it is your duty to perform.
43.  Image of the gods were carried on these litters (fercula) in solemn state.
44.  The institores were traveling merchants who dealt largely in female finery.  Cf. Horace, Odes III 6:30;  Epodes 17:20.
45.  1 Tim 6:8
125:17Neque vero peccantium ducaris multitudine et te pereuntium turba sollicitet, ut tacitus cogites :  « Quid ?  Ergo omnes peribunt, qui in urbibus habitant ?  Ecce illi fruuntur suis rebus, ministrant ecclesiis, adeunt balneas, unguenta non spernunt, et tamen in omnium flore versantur. »  Ad quod et ante respondi et nunc breviter respondebo, me in præsenti opusculo non de clericis disputare, sed monachum instituere.  Sancti sunt clerici, et omnium vita laudabilis.  Ita ergo age et vive in monasterio, ut clericus esse merearis, ut adulescentiam tuam nulla sorde commacules, ut ad altare Christi quasi de thalamo virgo procedas, et habeas de foris bonum testimonium, feminæque nomen tuum noverint, vultum nesciant.  Quum ad perfectam ætatem veneris (si tamen vita comes fuerit) et te vel populus vel pontifex civitatis in clerum allegerit, agito quæ clerici sunt, et inter ipsos sectare meliores, quia in omni condicione et gradu optimis mixta sunt pessima. Do not be influenced by the number of those that sin, or disturbed by the host of the perishing, so as to have the unspoken thought:  “What?  Shall all then perish who live in cities?  Behold, they enjoy their property, they serve in the churches, they frequent the baths, they do not disdain unguents, and yet they flourish and are universally respected.”  To such reasonings I have replied before, and will now do so briefly again, merely remarking that in this present short treatise I am not discussing the behavior of the clergy, but laying down rules for a monk.46  The clergy are holy men, and in every case their life is worthy of praise.  Go then and so live in your monastery that you may deserve to be a clergyman, that you may keep your youth free from all stain of defilement, and that you may come forth to Christ’s altar as a virgin steps from her bower;  that you may be well spoken of abroad, and that women may know your reputation but not your looks.  When you come to ripe years, that is, if life be granted you, and have been appointed as a clergyman either by the people or by the bishop of the city, then act as becomes a cleric, and among your colleagues choose the better men as your models, since in every rank and condition of life the very bad is mingled with the very good.
46.  As above (§ 125:8):  A monk — monachus — originally was a solitary living in the desert, but after the time of St. Basil monks were usually organized in communities under a rule and devoted their time to prayer, mediatation and useful work.  If a monk wished to enter the ministry of the Church, he had to be ordained as a deacon by a bishop.  He then normally lived in a city and had a cure of souls.
125:18Ne ad scribendum cito prosilias et levi ducaris insania.  Multo tempore disce quod doceas.  Ne credas laudatoribus tuis ;  immo irrisoribus aurem ne libenter accommodes qui, quum te adulationibus foverint et quodam modo impotem mentis effecerint, si subito respexeris, aut ciconiarum deprehendas post te colla curvari, aut manu auriculas agitari asini, aut æstuantem canis protendi linguam.  Nulli detrahas ;  nec in eo te sanctum putes, si ceteros laceres.  Accusamus sæpe quod facimus et, contra nosmet ipsos diserti, in nostra vitia invehimur, muti de eloquentibus judicantes.  Testudineo Grunnius incedebat ad loquendum gradu et, per intervalla quædam, vix pauca verba capiebat, ut eum putares singultire, non proloqui.  Et tamen, quum, mensa posita, librorum exposuisset struem, adducto supercilio contractisque naribus ac fronte rugata, duobus digitulis concrepabat, hoc signo ad audiendum discipulos provocans.  Tunc nugas meras fundere et adversum singulos declamare ;  criticum diceres esse Longinum, censoremque Romanæ facundiæ — notare quem vellet, et de senatu doctorum excludere.  Hic, bene nummatus, plus placebat in prandiis.  Nec mirum, qui multos inescare solitus erat, factoque cuneo circumstrepentium garrulorum, procedebat in publicum, intus Nero, foris Cato, totus ambiguus, ut e contrariis diversisque naturis unum monstrum novamque bestiam diceres esse compactum juxta illud poëticum :

« Prima leo, postrema draco, media ipsa chimæra ».

Do not rashly leap into authorship, and be led by light-headed madness.  Spend years in learning what you are to teach.  Do not believe your flatterers, or rather do not lend an ear too readily to mockers;  such men will warm your heart with fulsome praise and make you in a fashion lose control of your mind, but if you turn round quickly you will see them bending stork-necks behind your back, or flapping their hands like a donkey’s ears, or putting out the tongue like a mad dog.47  Never speak evil of any man or think that holiness consists in attacking others.  Often we accuse our neighbor of what we do ourselves, and eloquently inveigh against vices of which we too are guilty, dumb men trying to criticize orators.  When the Grunter48 came forward to address an audience he used to advance first at a turtle’s pace and utter a few words at such long intervals that you might have thought that he was gasping for breath rather than making a speech.  He would put his table in position and arrange on it a pile of books, and then frowning and drawing in his nose and wrinkling his forehead he would call his pupils to attention with a snap of his fingers.  After this prelude he would pour out a flood of nonsense, declaiming against individuals so fiercely that you might imagine him to be a critic like Longinus or the most eloquent of Roman censors, and putting a black mark against any one he pleased to exclude him from the senate of the learned.  He had plenty of money, and was more attractive at his dinner-parties.  And no wonder;  he hooked many with this bait, and gathering a wedge of noisy chatterers about him he would make public progress, a Nero at home, a Cato abroad, a complete puzzle, so that you might call him one monster made up of different and opposing natures, a strange beast like that of which the poet tells us:

“In front a lion, behind a dragon, in the middle a very goat.”49

47.  Closely copied from Aulus Persius Flaccus, Satiræ 1:58-60:  « o Jane, a tergo quem nulla ciconia pinsit, / nec manus auriculas imitari mobilis albas, / nec linguæ, quantum, sitiat canis Apula, tantæ ! »
{l. 58:  O Janus, whom no stork claps at behind thy back,
l. 59:  nor a wagging hand imitates [an ass’s] white ears,
l.60:  nor tongues as big as those an Apulian dog thirsts with
}.
l. 58Jane:  Janus, who sees both ways, is secure from being laughed at behind his back. — ciconia pinsit = pinsendo ludit.  The fingers of the mocker imitate the clapping of the stork’s bill.  Pinsit, ‘pounds,’ because the ciconia levat ac deprimit rostrum dum clangit, Isidor., Orig., 20, 15, 3.  ‘Pecks at’ is not correct;  ‘claps’ is nearer.  What seems to be meant is mock applause.
l. 59auriculas:  The imitation of ass’s ears by the hands belongs to universal culture. — imitari mobilis = ad imitandum m. G., 424, R. 4; A., 57, 8, f. — albas:  on account of the white lining.  Ov., Met., 11:176:  aures —villis albentibus implet.
l. 60linguæ:  The thrusting out of the tongue in derision is as common now as it was then. — canis Apula:  Apulia was the δίψιον Ἀργος {“thirsty Dog”} of Italy.  Siticulosæ Apuliæ, Hor., Epod., 3:16. — tantæ:  So Jahn and Herm.  ‘Tongues big enough to represent the thirst of an Apulian hound’ (Pretor).  Jahn compares for the construction, Luc., 1:259:  quantum rura silent, tanta quies.  Conington considers tantum ‘much neater,’ and makes quantum sitiat = quantum sitiens protendat, ‘a length of tongue protruded like an Apulian dog in the dog-days.“

48.  A character in the mime Porci Testamentum :  here the reference is to Rufinus of Aquileja (344—410), once Jerome’s friend, but afterwards (especially after 397) for theological reasons his bitter enemy.  The break between them was caused by Jerome’s about-face on his enthusiasm for Origen in order to show his orthodoxy after the decline in popularity of Origen’s teachings in the West.  Origen taught the pre-existence of the soul, the denial of the resurrection of the body, the limitation of eternal punishment, and the possibility of salvation even for the devil.  (Cf. Letter 51, Epiphanius to John of Jerusalem, translated by Jerome.)  Origenism was formally condemned as heretical in 400 (cf. Letter 95).
49.  Lucretius, De Rerum Natura 5:905, describing the Chimaera.
125:19Nunquam ergo tales videas nec hujuscemodi hominibus appliceris, ne declines cor tuum in verba malitiæ et audias, « Sedens adversus fratrem tuum, detrahebas, et adversus filium matris tuæ ponebas scandalum », et iterum, « Filii hominum dentes eorum arma et sagittæ », et alibi, « Molliti sunt sermones ejus super oleum, et ipsi sunt jacula », et apertius in Ecclesiaste, « Si mordeat serpens in silentio, sic, qui fratri suo occulte detrahit. »  Sed dicis, « Ipse non detraho, aliis loquentibus facere quid possum ? »  « Ad excusandas excusationes in peccatis » ista prætendimus.  Christus arte non luditur.  Nequaquam mea, sed apostoli sententia est :  « Nolite errare ;  Deus non irridetur. »  Ille in corde, nos videmus in facie.  Salomon loquitur in Proverbiis, « Ventus aquilo dissipat nubes, et vultus tristis linguas detrahentium. » Therefore you must never look at men such as he was, or have any intercourse with fellows of this kind, lest you turn your heart aside unto words of evil and hear the words:  “Sitting thou didst speak against thy brother, and didst lay a scandal against thine own mother’s son,”50 and again:  “The sons of men, whose teeth are weapons and arrows,”51 and in another place:  “His words are smoother than oil, and the same are missiles,”52 and more clearly in Ecclesiastes:  “If a serpent bite in silence, he is nothing better that backbiteth secretly.”53  But you may say:  “I myself am not given to detraction, but if other people say things, what can I do?”  Such a plea is only an excuse to “make excuses in sins.”54  Christ is not deceived by such a trick.  It is not I but the apostle who says:  “Be not deceived;  God is not mocked.”55  God looks upon the heart, we see only the face.  In the Proverbs Solomon says:  “The north wind driveth away rain, as doth a sad countenance a backbiting tongue.”56
Sicut enim sagitta, si mittatur contra duram materiam, nonnumquam in mittentem revertitur et vulnerat vulnerantem illudque completur, « Facti sunt mihi in arcum pravum » et alibi, « Qui mittit in altum lapidem, recidet in caput ejus », ita detractor, quum tristem faciem viderit audientis, immo ne audientis quidem, sed obturantis aures suas, ne audiat judicium sanguinis, ilico conticescit, pallet vultus, hærent labia, saliva siccatur.  Unde idem vir sapiens, « Cum detractoribus », inquit, « non commiscearis, quoniam repente veniet perditio eorum ;  et ruinam utriusque quis novit ? » — tam, scilicet, ejus qui loquitur, quam illius qui audit loquentem.  Veritas angulos non amat nec quærit susurrones.  Timotheo dicitur, « Adversus presbyterum accusationem cito ne receperis.  Peccantem autem coram omnibus argue, ut et ceteri metum habeant. » As an arrow, if it be aimed at a hard substance, sometimes rebounds upon the archer and wounds the wounder — and so the word is fulfilled:  “They were turned aside as a crooked bow,”57 and in another place:  “If one cast a stone on high, it will fall upon his own head”58 — so when a slanderer sees that his hearer is looking surly, and so far from listening is stopping up his ears so that he may not hearken to the blood judgment,59 he for his part at once falls silent, his face turns pale, his lips stick fast, and the moisture dries up within his mouth.  Wherefore the same wise man says:  “Have nothing to do with detracters.  For their destruction shall rise suddenly:  and who knoweth the ruin of both?”60 — that is, the ruin of him who speaks and him who listens.  Truth does not love corners nor does she seek out whisperers.  To Timothy it is said:  “Against a priest receive not an accusation.  Them that sin reprove before all, that the rest also may have fear.”61
Non est facile de perfecta ætate credendum, quam et vita præterita defendit et honorat vocabulum dignitatis, verum, qui homines sumus et interdum contra annorum maturitatem puerorum vitiis labimur, si me vis corrigi deliquentem, aperte increpa, tantum ne occulte mordeas :  « Corripiet me justus in misericordia et increpabit me, oleum autem peccatoris non impinguet caput meum.  Quem enim diligit Dominus, corripit, flagellat autem omnium filium quem recipit. »  Et per Esaiam clamat Deus, « Populus meus, qui beatos vos dicunt, seducunt vos et semitas pedum vestrorum supplantant. »  Quid enim mihi prodest si aliis mala mea referas, si, me nesciente, peccatis meis, immo detractionibus tuis, alium vulneres et, quum certatim omnibus narres, sic singulis loquaris, quasi nulli alteri dixeris ?  Hoc est non me emendare, sed vitio tuo satisfacere.  Præcipit Dominus peccantes in nos argui debere secreto, vel adhibito teste ;  et, si audire noluerint, referri ad ecclesiam, habendosque in malo pertinaces quasi ethnicos et publicanos. When a man is of ripe years you should not readily believe evil of him;  his past life is a defence and so is the honorable title of elder.  Still, as we are but men and sometimes in spite of our mature age fall into the sins of youth, if I do wrong and you wish to correct me, rebuke me openly and do not indulge in secret backbiting.  “The just man shall correct me in mercy, and shall reprove me;  but let not the oil of the sinner anoint my head.”62  “Whom the Lord loveth, he chastiseth;  and he scourgeth every son whom he receiveth.”63  By the mouth of Isaiah God makes proclamation:  “O my people, they who call you happy cause you to err and destroy the way of your paths.”64  What benefit is it to me if you tell other people of my misdeeds, if without my knowledge you hurt another by the story of my sins or rather by your slanders, if while really eager to tell your tale to all you speak to each individual as though he were your only confidant?  Such conduct seeks not my improvement but the satisfaction of your own vice.  The Lord gave commandment that those who sin against us should be arraigned privately or else in the presence of a witness, and that if they refuse to listen they should be brought before the Church, and those who persist in wickedness should be regarded as heathens and publicans.
50.  Ps 49:20
51.  Ps 56:5
52.  Ps 54:22
53.  Ecclesiastes 10:11
54.  Ps 140:4
55.  Gal 6:7
56.  Prov 25:23
57.  Ps 77:57
58.  Ecclesiasticus 27:28
59.  Cf. Isaias, 33:15 (of the righteous man):  qui obterat aures suas ne audiat sanguinem.
60.  Prov 24:21f. (Vulgate)
61.  1 Tim 5:19 (slightly altered)
62.  Ps 140:5f.  “anoint” = LXX λιπανάτω (2nd aorist active imperative 3rd person singular) < λιπαίνω “to oil, anoint;  to make fat, to enrich,” whence the less felicitous Vulgate impinguet (inf. impinguare, 1st conj.) “to make fat, fatten,” intr. “become fat.”
63.  Hebr 12:6
64.  Isaias 3:12 (Septuagint;  modern translation:  “O my people, those who congratulate you mislead you and confuse the path of your feet.”  [A New English Translation of the Septuagint, 2007, p. 828]).  The Vulgate (original and Neo) has, “Popule meus, qui te beatum dicunt, ipsi te decipiunt, et viam gressuum tuorum dissipant.”
125:20Hæc expressius loquor ut adulescentem meum et linguæ et aurium prurigine liberem, ut renatum in Christo sine ruga et macula quasi pudicam virginem exhibeam, sanctamque tam mente quam corpore, ne solo nomine glorietur et absque oleo bonorum operum, exstincta lampade, excludatur a sponso.  Habes ibi sanctum doctissimumque pontificem Proculum, qui viva et præsenti voce nostras scidulas superet cottidianisque tractatibus iter tuum dirigat, nec patiatur te, in partem alteram declinando, viam relinquere regiam per quam Israël, ad terram repromissionis properans, se transiturum esse promittit.  Atque utinam exaudiatur vox ecclesiæ complorantis, « Domine, pacem da nobis ;  omnia enim reddidisti nobis. »  Utinam, quod renuntiamus sæculo, voluntas sit, non necessitas, et paupertas habeat expetita gloriam, non illata cruciatum.  Ceterum, juxta miserias hujus temporis et ubique gladios sævientes, satis dives est qui pane non indiget, nimium potens qui servire non cogitur. I have spoken thus definitely because I wish to free a young friend of mine from an itching tongue and itching ears, so that I may present him born again in Christ without spot or roughness as a chaste virgin, holy both in body and in mind.  I would not have him boast in name alone, or be shut out by the Bridegroom because his lamp has gone out for want of the oil of good works.  You have in your town a saintly and most learned prelate, Proculus,65 and he by the living sound of his voice can do more for you than any pages I can write.  By daily homilies he will keep you in the straight path and not suffer you to turn right or left and leave the king’s highway, whereby Israel undertakes to pass on its hasty journey to the promised land.  May the voice of the Church’s supplication be heard:  “O Lord, give us peace, for thou hast granted us all things.”66  May our renunciation of the world be a matter of free will and not of necessity!  May we seek poverty as a glorious thing, not have it forced upon us as a punishment!  However, in our present miseries, with swords raging fiercely all around us, he is rich enough who is not in actual want of bread, he who is not forced to be a slave is exceedingly powerful.
Sanctus Exsuperius, Tolosæ episcopus, viduæ Sareptensis imitator, esuriens pascit alios ;  et, ore pallente jejuniis, fame torquetur aliena, omnemque substantiam Christi visceribus erogavit.  Nihil illo ditius qui corpus Domini canistro vimineo, sanguinem portat vitro, qui avaritiam projecit e templo, qui, absque funiculo et increpatione, vendentium columbas (id est dona Spiritus Sancti) mensas subvertit mammonæ, et nummulariorum æra dispersit ut domus Dei domus vocaretur orationis et non latronum spelunca.  Hujus e vicino sectare vestigia — et ceterorum qui virtutum illius similes sunt, quos sacerdotium et humiliores facit et pauperiores, aut, si perfecta desideras, exi cum Abraham de patria et de cognatione tua, et perge quo nescis.  Si habes substantiam, vende et da pauperibus ;  si non habes, grandi onere liberatus es ;  nudum Christum nudus sequere.  Durum, grande, difficile, sed magna sunt præmia. Exsuperius,67 the saintly bishop of Toulouse, like the widow of Zarephath feeds others and goes hungry himself.68  His face is pale with fasting, but it is the craving of others that torments him, and he has spent all his substance on those that are Christ’s flesh.  Yet none is richer than he;  for in his wicker basket he carries the body of the Lord and in his glass cup His blood.  He has driven greed from the temple;  without scourge of ropes or chiding words he has overthrown the tables of mammon of those that sell doves, that is, the gifts of the Holy Spirit;  he has scattered the money of the money-changers, so that the house of God might be called a house of prayer and not a den of robbers.  Follow closely in his steps and in those of others like him in virtue, men whom their holy office only makes more humble and more poor.  Or else, if you desire perfection, go out like Abraham from your native city and your kin, and travel whither you know not.  If you have substance, sell it and give it to the poor.  If you have none, you are free from a great burden.  Naked yourself follow a naked Christ.  The task is hard and great and difficult;  but great also are the rewards.
65.  Bishop of Marseilles
66.  Isaias 26:12 (Septuagint).
67.  Bishop of Toulouse in the beginning of the fifth century and a friend of Jerome.  He lived at Rome before his episcopate (Letter 54:11).
68.  3 Kings 17:12
{ 127 }
Epistula CXXVII
Ad Principiam Virginem de Vita Sanctæ Marcellæ1
A.D. 412
127:1SÆPE et multum flagitas, virgo Christi Principia, ut memoriam sanctæ feminæ Marcellæ litteris recolam, et bonum quo diu fruiti sumus, etiam ceteris noscendum imitandumque describam.  Satisque doleo quod hortaris sponte currentem, et me arbitraris indigere precibus, qui ne tibi quidem in ejus dilectione concedam ;  multoque plus accipiam quam tribuam beneficii tantarum recordatione virtutum.  Nam ut hucusque reticerem et biennium præterirem silentio, non fuit dissimulationis, ut male æstimas, sed tristitiæ incredibilis, quæ ita meum oppressit animum ut melius judicarem tacere impræsentiarum quam nihil dignum illius laudibus dicere.  Neque vero Marcellam tuam, immo meam et — ut verius loquar — nostram, omniumque sanctorum et proprie Romanæ urbis inclutum decus, institutis rhetorum prædicabo, ut exponam illustrem familiam, alti sanguinis decus, et stemmata per consules et præfectos prætorio decurrentia.  Nihil in illa laudabo nisi quod proprium est et in eo nobilius, quod, opibus et nobilitate contempta, facta est paupertate et humilitate nobilior. You have often and earnestly begged me, Principia, virgin of Christ, to honor in writing the memory of that saintly woman Marcella, and to set forth the goodness we so long enjoyed for others to know and imitate.  It is, however, something of a grief to me that you should spur a willing horse,2 or that you should think I need your entreaties, seeing that I do not yield even to you in love for her.  In recording her signal virtues I shall indeed receive more benefit myself than I confer upon others.  That I have kept silence up till now, and have allowed two years to pass without speaking, has not been due to any wish to repress my feelings, as you wrongly think, but rather to my incredible grief;  which has so overwhelmed my mind that I judged it better to remain silent for the moment than to produce something unworthy of her fame.  And even now I shall not follow the rules of rhetoric in praising your, mine, or to speak more truly, our Marcella, the glory of all the saints and peculiarly of the city of Rome.  I shall not describe her illustrious household, the splendor of her ancient lineage, and the long series of consuls and praetorian prefects who have been her ancestors.  I shall praise nothing in her save that which is her own, the more noble in that, despising wealth and rank, by poverty and lowliness she has won higher nobility.
1.  This letter is really a memoir of Marcella, the noble lady in whose home on the Aventine Jerome used to meet his female disciples while he was living in Rome.  The chief facts of her life are given here by Jerome, who concludes with an account of the sack of Rome in A.D. 410.  In 408 the Goths, who had been settled in Dalmatia by Theodosius (379-395), taking advantage of Stilicho’s death, marched into Italy under Alaric and forced Rome to pay ransom.  The process was repeated in the next year, and in 410 the city was stormed and sacked, although the Goths, who were Christians, spared the churches.  Soon afterwards Alaric died in South Italy, his sudden end being used as a warning to Attila in 452 by Leo the Great.  Marcella was religious from childhood, but when she grew up she married.  Her husband died after only seven months of marriage, leaving her a childless widow.  She refused all further offers of marriage and, while continuing to transact the necessary business connected with her household and property, she thenceforth tried to lead, though staying at home with her mother, the kind of religious life for which she had always longed.  She wore the plainest of clothes, fasted often and devoted most of her time to prayer and study of the scriptures.  Gradually she collected around herself a number of like-minded women, virgins and widows, who all lived together and looked up to Marcella’s mother Albina as their common mother.  Among these was Marcellina, the sister of Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, who wrote for her his famous treatises on virginity.  Marcella herself died a few days after the Gothic sack of Rome in 410.
2.  “quod hortaris sponte currentem …” — a proverb:  cf. Cicero, Epistula ad Atticum, XIII 45:1:  « Quod me hortaris ut eos dies consumam in philosophia explicanda ;  currentem tu quidem »  {“… the fact that you are urging me to spend those days in explaining philosophy;  indeed, you (are doing so to) a willing one (scil. horse — lit., “a[n already] running one”)….”}.
127:2Orbata patris morte, viro quoque post nuptias septimo mense privata est.  Quumque eam Cerealis, cujus clarum inter consules nomen est, propter ætatem et antiquitatem familiæ et insignem — quod maxime viris placere consuevit — decorem corporis ac insignem temperantiam ambitiosius peteret, suasque longævus polliceretur divitias et non quasi in uxorem sed quasi in filiam vellet donationem transfundere, Albinaque mater tam clarum præsidium viduitati domus ultro appeteret, illa respondit, « Si vellem nubere et non æternæ me cuperem pudicitiæ dedicare, utique maritum quærerem, non hereditatem. »  Illoque mandante, posse et senes diu vivere et juvenes cito mori, eleganter lusit :  « Juvenis quidem potest cito mori, sed senex diu vivere non potest. »  Qua sententia repudiatus exemplo ceteris fuit, ut ejus nuptias desperarent.  Legimus in Evangelio secundum Lucam :  « Et erat Anna prophetissa, filia Phanuhelis, de tribu Aser et hæc provectæ ætatis in diebus plurimis.  Vixeratque cum viro annis septem a virginitate sua et erat vidua annis octoginta quattuor, nec recedebat de templo, jejuniis et obsecrationibus serviens nocte ac die. »  Nec mirum, si videre meruit Salvatorem quem tanto labore quærebat.  Conferamus :  septem annos, septem mensibus ;  sperare Christum et tenere ;  natum confiteri, et in crucifixum credere ;  parvulum non negare, et virum gaudere regnantem.  Non facio ullam inter sanctas feminas differentiam — quod nonnulli inter sanctos viros et ecclesiarum principes stulte facere consuerunt —, sed illo tendit assertio ut, quarum unus labor, unum et præmium sit. On her father’s death she was left an orphan, and she also lost her husband seven months after marriage.  Thereupon Cerealis, a man of high consular rank, paid her assiduous court, attracted by her youth, her ancient family, her outstanding modesty and that extraordinary physical beauty which always finds such favor with men.  Being an old man he promised her all his money, and offered to make over his fortune as though she were his daughter, not his wife.  Her mother Albina was excessively anxious to secure so illustrious a protector for the widowed household, but Marcella’s answer was this:  “If I wished to marry and did not rather desire to dedicate myself to perpetual chastity, I should in any case look for a husband, not an inheritance.”  Cerealis urged that old men might possibly live long and young men die early, but to that she wittily retorted:  “A young man may possibly die early, but an old man cannot possibly live long.”  This definite rejection warned other men that they had no hope of winning her as wife.  In the Gospel according to Luke we read:  “There was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser:  she was far advanced in years, and had seen many days;  and she had lived with an husband seven years from her virginity;  and she was a widow of about fourscore and four years, who departed not from the temple, by fastings and prayers serving night and day.”3  It is not strange that she earned the vision of the Savior whom she sought so earnestly.  Let us now compare the two cases.  Anna was married for seven years, Marcella for seven months.  Anna hoped for Christ, Marcella held Him fast.  Anna confessed Him at his birth, Marcella believed in Him crucified.  Anna did not deny the child, Marcella rejoiced in the man as king.  I am not drawing distinctions of merit between two saintly women, as some people foolishly do between saintly men and heads of churches.  The point of my claim is this;  as these two shared one labor so they will gain one reward.
3.  Lk 2:36f.
127:3Difficile est in maledica civitate, et in urbe in qua orbis quondam populus fuit, palmaque vitiorum si honestis detraherent et pura ac munda macularent, non aliquam sinistri rumoris fabulam trahere.  Unde quasi rem difficillimam ac pæne impossibilem optat propheta, potius quam præsumit, dicens, « Beati immaculati in via, qui ambulant in lege Domini », ‹ immaculatos in via hujus › appellans ‹ sæculi, › quos nulla obscena rumoris aura macularit, qui opprobrium non acceperint adversus proximos suos.  De quibus et Salvator in Evangelio, « Esto », inquit, « benevolus » — sive « bene sentiens » — « de adversario tuo, dum es cum illo in via. »  Quis unquam de hac muliere, quod displiceret, audivit, ut crederet ?  Quis credidit, ut non magis se ipsum malignitatis et infamiæ condemnaret ?  Ab hac primum confusa gentilitas est, dum omnibus patuit quæ esset viduitas Christiana, quam et conscientiā et habitu promittebat. In a slander-loving place, and in a city where the people once was the world, and it was the triumph of vice to disparage virtue and to defile all that is pure and clean, it is difficult not to drag along some fables of calumnious gossips.  Therefore it is for a thing difficult and almost impossible that the prophet hopes rather than thinks to win when he says:  “Blessed are the undefiled in the way who walk in the law of the Lord.”4  He means by the ‘undefiled in this world’s way’ those whom no breath of scandal has sullied and who have incurred no reproach from their neighbors.  So too the Savior in the Gospel says:  “Be amiable toward” or “congenial to, thine adversary whilst thou art in the way with him.”5  Whoever heard anything displeasing about Marcella that deserved belief?  Who that believed such a tale did not rather convict himself of malice and slander?  She put the Gentiles to confusion by showing to all what sort of thing that Christian widowhood is which she revealed in every thought and look.
Illæ enim solent purpurisso et cerussa ora depingere, sericis nĭtēre vestibus, splendere gemmis, aurum portare cervicibus, et auribus perforatis Rubri Maris pretiosissima grana suspendere, fragrare mure, et tandem dominatu virorum se caruisse lætentur, quærantque alios, non quibus, juxta Dei sententiam, serviant, sed quibus imperent.  Unde et pauperes eligunt, ut nomen tantum virorum habere videantur, qui patienter rivales sustineant, si mussitaverint, ilico projiciendi.  Nostra vidua talibus usa est vestibus quibus obstaret frigus, non membra nudaret, aurum usque ad anuli signaculum repudians et magis in ventribus egenorum quam in marsuppiis recondens.  Nusquam sine matre, nullum clericorum et monachorum (quod amplæ domus interdum exigebat necessitas) vidit absque arbitris.  Semper in comitatu suo virgines ac viduas et ipsas graves feminas habuit, sciens e lascivia puellarum sæpe de dominarum moribus judicari et, qualis quæque sit, talium consortio delectari. Gentile widows are wont to paint their faces with rouge and white lead, to glitter in silk dresses, to sparkle with jewels, to wear gold necklaces, to hang from their pierced ears the costliest Red Sea pearls, and to reek of musk.  Rejoicing that they have at length escaped from a husband’s dominion, they look about for a new mate, intending not to yield him obedience as God ordained, but to be his lord and master.  With this object they choose poor men, husbands only in name, who must patiently put up with rivals, and if they murmur can be kicked out on the spot.  Our widow, on the other hand, wore clothes that were meant to keep out the cold, not to reveal her bare limbs.  Even a gold signet ring she rejected, preferring to store her money in the stomachs of the needy rather than hide it in a purse.  Nowhere would she go without her mother, never would she interview without witnesses one of the monks or clergy, which was often necessary for the needs of her large household.  Always her retinue consisted of virgins and widows, and they were all staid women;  for she knew that a saucy maid is a reflection on her mistress’ character, and that women usually prefer the company of people like themselves.
4.  Ps 118:1
5.  Mt 5:25
127:4Divinarum Scripturarum ardor incredibilis, semperque cantabat, « In corde meo abscondi eloquia tua, ut non peccem tibi », et illud de perfecto viro :  « Et in lege Domini voluntas ejus et in lege ejus meditabitur die ac nocte », meditationem legis non replicando, quæ scripta sunt, ut Judæorum æstimant Pharisæi, sed in opere intellegens, juxta illud apostolicum :  « Sive comeditis sive bibitis, sive quid agitis, omnia in gloriam Domini facientes », et prophetæ verba dicentis :  « A mandatis tuis intellexi », ut, postquam mandata complesset, tunc se sciret mereri intellegentiam Scripturarum.  Quod et alibi legimus :  « Quia cœpit Jesus facere et docere. »  Erubescit enim quamvis præclara doctrina quam propria reprehendit conscientia ;  frustraque linguā prædicat paupertatem, et docet eleemosynas, qui Crœsi divitiis tumet, vilique opertus palliolo pugnat contra tineas vestium sericarum. Her ardent love for God’s Scriptures surpasses all belief.  She was for ever singing:  “Thy words have I hid in my heart that I might not sin against thee”;6  and also the passage about the perfect man:  “And his will is in the law of the Lord, and on his law he shall meditate day and night.”7  Meditation in the law meant for her not a mere repetition of the Scriptures, as the Jewish Pharisees think, but a carrying it out in action.  She obeyed the apostle’s command:  “Whether ye eat or drink, or whatsoever else ye do, do all to the glory of God”;8  and also the words of the prophet:  “Through thy precepts I understood.”9  She knew that only when she had fulfilled those precepts would she deserve to understand the Scriptures.  So we read in another place “that Jesus began both to do and teach.”10  However fine a man’s teaching may be, it is put to the blush when his own conscience reproves him;  and it is in vain that his tongue preaches poverty and teaches almsgiving, if he himself is swollen with the wealth of a Croesus, and though he wears a coarse cloak fights to keep the moths from the silken robes in his cupboard.
Moderata jejunia ;  carnium abstinentia ;  vini, odor magis quam gustus, propter stomachum et frequentes infirmitates.  Raro procedebat ad publicum, et maxime nobilium matronarum vitabat domus ne cogeretur videre quod contempserat ;  apostolorum et martyrum basilicas secretis celebrans orationibus, et quæ populorum frequentiam declinarent.  Matri in tantum obœdiens, ut interdum faceret quod nolebat.  Nam quum illa suum diligeret sanguinem et, absque filiis ac nepotibus, vellet in fratris liberos universa conferri, ista pauperes eligebat et tamen matri contraire non poterat — monilia et quicquid supellectilis fuit divitibus peritura concedens, magisque volens pecuniam perdere quam parentis animum contristare. Marcella practiced fasting, but in moderation;  and she abstained from eating meat.  The scent of wine was more familiar to her than the taste, for she drank it only for her stomach’s sake and her frequent infirmities.11  She seldom appeared in public and carefully avoided the houses of ladies of rank, that she might not be forced to see there what she herself had rejected;  but she frequently visited the churches of the apostles and martyrs for quiet prayer, avoiding the people’s throng.  To her mother she was so obedient that occasionally she did for her sake things that went against her own inclination.  For example, Albina was devoted to her own kinsfolk, and wished to leave all her property to her brother’s children, being without sons and grandsons;  Marcella would have preferred to give it to the poor, but still she could not go against her mother, and handed over her necklaces and other effects to people already rich for them to squander.  She chose rather to see money lost than to vex her mother’s feelings.
6.  Ps 118:11
7.  Ps 1:2
8.  1 Cor 10:31
9.  Ps 118:104
10.  Acts 1:1
11.  1 Tim 5:23
127:5Nulla eo tempore nobilium feminarum noverat Romæ propositum monachorum, nec audebat, propter rei novitatem, ignominiosum (ut tunc putabatur) et vile in populis nomen assumere.  Hæc ab Alexandrinis sacerdotibus papaque Athanasio et postea Petro qui, persecutionem Arianæ hæreseos declinantes, quasi ad tutissimum communionis suæ portum, Roman confugerant, vitam beati Antonii adhuc tunc viventis monasteriaque in Thebaide Pachomii et virginum ac viduarum didicit disciplinam, nec erubuit profiteri quod Christo placere cognoverat.  Hanc multos post annos imitata est Sophronia et aliæ quibus rectissime illud Ennianum aptari potest:

« Utinam ne in nemore Pelio. »

At that time no great lady in Rome knew anything of the monastic life, nor ventured to call herself a nun.  The thing itself was strange and the name was commonly accounted ignominious and degrading.  It was from some priests of Alexandria and from Pope Athanasius12 and from Peter afterwards who, to escape the persecution of the Arian heretics, had all fled to Rome as being the safest refuge for their communion, that Marcella was told of the life of the blessed Antony, then still in this world, and of the monasteries founded by Pachomius in the Thebaid, and of the discipline laid down there for virgins and widows.  She was not ashamed to profess a life which she knew was pleasing to Christ.  Many years later her example was followed by Sophronia and by some other ladies, to whom the lines of Ennius may most fitly be applied:

“Would that ne’er in Pelion’s woods!”13

Hujus amicitiis fruita est Paula venerabilis, in hujus nutrita cubiculo Eustochium, virginitatis decus ;  ut facilis æstimatio sit qualis magistra, ubi tales discipulæ.

Rideat forsitan infidelis lector me in muliercularum laudibus immorari — qui, si recordetur sanctas feminas, comites Domini Salvatoris, quæ ministrabant ei de sua substantia, et tres Marias stantes ante crucem, Mariamque proprie Magdalenen, quæ ob sedulitatem et ardorem fidei ‹ turritæ › nomen accepit et prima ante apostolos Christum videre meruit resurgentem, se potius superbiæ, quam nos condemnabit ineptiarum, qui virtutes non sexu sed animo judicamus.  Unde et Jesus Johannem evangelistam amabat plurimum, qui propter generis nobilitatem erat notus Pontifici et Judæorum insidias non timebat, in tantum ut Petrum introduceret in atrium et staret solus apostolorum ante crucem, matremque Salvatoris in sua reciperet, ut hereditatem Virginis Domini Virginem Matrem filius virgo susciperet.

Her friendship was also enjoyed by the revered Paula, and in her cell that paragon of virgins Eustochium was trained.  Such pupils as these make it easy for us to judge the character of their teacher.

Those unbelievers who read me may perhaps smile to find me lingering over the praises of weak women.  But if they will recall how holy women attended Our Lord and Savior and ministered to Him of their substance, and how the three Marys stood before the cross, and particularly how Mary of Magdala,14 called “of the tower” because of her earnestness and ardent faith, was privileged to see the rising Christ first even before the apostles, they will convict themselves of pride rather than me of folly, who judge of virtue not by the sex but by the mind.  Therefore it was that Jesus loved the evangelist John most of all;  for he was of noble birth and known to the high priest, but he feared the Jews’ plottings so little that he brought Peter into the priest’s palace,15 and was the only apostle who stood before the cross and took the Savior’s mother to his own home, a virgin son receiving the Virgin Mother as a legacy from Our Virgin Lord.

12.  For Athanasius, see F.A. Wright, Later Greek Literature, pp. 331-333.  Peter succeeded him at Alexandria.  The title “Pope” (πάππας => Latin pāpa), at first applied to the “spiritual father,” who was the means of a man’s conversion, later became restricted first to bishops and abbots, then to the Bishop of Rome and the patriarchs of Alexandria, Antioch, Jerusalem and Constatinople, and finally after 1073 was claimed exclusively for the Bishop of Rome.
13.  The phrase, used here as an expression of regret for the loss of two noble women, comes from the opening lines of Ennius’ translation from Greek of Euripides’ Medea:
Utinam ne in nemore Pelio securibus
Cæsa accidisset abiegna ad terram trabes,
neve inde navis incohandi exordium
cepisset, quæ nunc nominatur nomine
Argo, quia Argivi in ea delecti viri
vecti petebant pellem inauratam arietis
Colchis, imperio regis Peliæ, per dolum !
Nam nunquam era errans mea domo efferret pedem
Medea animo ægro, amore sævo saucia.
If only the fir trunk had not been cut with axes in the grove of Pelion and fallen to the ground, and from there a start of beginning had not been taken by the ship which is now styled with the name Argo, because picked Argive men travelled in it and sought among the Colchians the golden fleece of the ram by trickery, at the command of Kind Pelias!  For my mistress Medea would never have taken her foot from home, astray with troubled mind, wounded with savage love.
14.  Magdala means “tower”
15.  Jn 18:15f.
127:6Annis igitur plurimis sic suam transegit ætatem, ut ante se vetulam cerneret, quam adulescentulam fuisse meminisset, laudans illud Platonicum, qui philosophiam meditationem mortis esse dixisset.  Unde et noster apostolus, « Cottidie morior per vestram salutem », et Dominus juxta antiqua exemplaria, « Nisi quis tulerit crucem suam cottidie et secutus fuerit me, non potest meus esse discipulus », multoque ante per prophetam Spiritus Sanctus, « Propter te mortificamur tota die, æstimati sumus ut oves occisionis », et post multas ætates illa sententia, « Memento semper diem mortis, et nunquam peccabis », disertissimique præceptum saturici :

« Vive memor leti, fugit hora, hoc, quod loquor, inde est. »

Sic ergo — ut dicere cœperamus — ætatem duxit et vixit, ut semper se crederet esse morituram.  Sic induta est vestibus, ut meminisset sepulcri, offerens hostiam rationabilem, vivam, placentem Deo.

So Marcella lived her life for many years, and found herself old before she ever remembered that once she had been young, approving Plato’s saying, who declared that philosophy is a preparation for death.16  Wherefore our own apostle also says:  “For your salvation I die daily.”17  So Our Lord too, according to the ancient copies, said:  “Whosoever doth not bear his cross daily and come after me cannot be my disciple.”18  Indeed ages ago the Holy Spirit by the mouth of the prophet declared:  “For thy sake are we killed all the day long;  we are counted as sheep for the slaughter.”19  And again after many generations we have the proverb:  “Remember ever the day of death and you will never go wrong.”20  Lastly there is the satirist’s shrewd precept:

“Live thou remembering death, for time flies fast.
This moment’s speech I snatch before ’tis past.”21

Well then, as I began to say, Marcella in all the days of her life remembered that she must die.  Her very dress reminded her of the tomb, and she offered herself as a living sacrifice, reasonable and acceptable unto God.

16.  Plato, Phædo, 67, E:  Τῷ ὄντι ἄρα, ἔφη, ὦ Σιμμία, οἱ ὀρθῶς φιλοσοφοῦντες ἀποθνῄσκειν μελετῶσι, καὶ τὸ τεθνάναι ἥκιστα αὐτοῖς ἀνθρώπων φοβερόν.  {“In fact, then, Simmias,” said he, “true philosophers habituate themselves to dying, and death is less terrible to them than to any other men.”}.
17.  1 Cor 15:31
18.  Lk 14:27
19.  Ps 43:22
20.  Ecclesiasticus 7:40
21.  Aulus Persius Flaccus, Satiræ, 5:153 (More literally:  “Live mindful of death;  the hour flees;  this, which I speak, is from thence” [i.e., the time in which I am now speaking is taken from that same fleeting hour].)
127:7Denique, quum et me Romam cum sanctis pontificibus, Paulino et Epiphanio, ecclesiastica traxisset necessitas (quorum alter Antiochenam Syriæ, alter Salaminiam Cypri rexit ecclesiam) et verecunde nobiliarum feminarum oculos declinarem, ita egit secundum apostolum « importune, opportune », ut pudorem meum sua superaret industria.  Et, quia alicujus tunc nominis æstimabar super studio Scripturarum, nunquam convenit quin de Scripturis aliquid interrogaret, nec statim acquiesceret, sed moveret e contrario quæstiones, non ut contenderet, sed ut quærendo disceret earum solutiones, quas opponi posse intellegebat. Lastly, when the needs of the Church brought me also to Rome22 in company with the holy pontiffs Paulinus and Epiphanius, directors respectively of the churches of Syrian Antioch and of Salamis in Cyprus, I in my modesty was inclined to avoid the gaze of ladies of rank.  But Marcella was so urgent “both out of season and in season,”23 as the apostle says, that her persistence overcame my timidity.  At that time I had some repute as a student of the Scriptures, and so she never met me without asking me some question about them, nor would she rest content at once, but would bring forward points on the other side;  this, however, was not for the sake of argument, but that by questioning she might learn an answer to such objections as she saw might be raised.
Quid in illa virtutum, quid ingenii, quid sanctitatis, quid puritatis invenerim, vereor dicere ne fidem credulitatis excedam et tibi majorem dolorem incutiam recordanti quanto bono carueris.  Hoc solum dicam quod, quicquid in nobis longo fuit studio congregatum et meditatione diuturna quasi in naturam versum, hoc illa libavit, hoc didicit atque possedit, ita ut, post profectionem nostram, si aliquo testimonio Scripturarum esset oborta contentio, ad illam judicem pergeretur.  Et quia valde prudens erat et noverat illud quod appellant philosophi τὸ πρέπον, id est, decere quod facias, sic interrogata respondebat, ut etiam sua non sua diceret, sed vel mea vel cujuslibet alterius, ut et in ipso quod docebat se discipulam fateretur — sciebat enim dictum ab apostolo, « Docere autem mulieri non permitto  » — ne virili sexui et interdum sacerdotibus de obscuris et ambiguis sciscitantibus facere videretur injuriam. What virtue and intellect, what holiness and purity I found in her I am afraid to say, both lest I should exceed the limits of men’s belief, and also that I may not increase the pain of your grief by reminding you of the blessings you have lost.  This only will I say:  all that I had gathered together by long study, and by constant meditation made part of my nature, she first sipped, then learned, and finally took for her own.  Consequently, after my departure from Rome, if any argument arose concerning the testimony of the Scriptures, it was to her verdict that appeal was made.  She was extremely prudent and always followed the rules of what philosophers call τὸ πρέπον, that is, propriety of conduct.  Therefore, even when her answers to questions were her own, she said they came not from her but from me or some one else, admitting herself to be a pupil even when she was teaching — for she knew that the apostle said:  “I do not allow a woman to teach”24 — so that she might not seem to do a wrong to the male sex, and sometimes even to priests, when they asked questions on obscure and doubtful points.
22.  In A.D. 382.
23.  2 Tim 4:2
24.  1 Tim 2:12;  note that πρέπον is the present active participle, neuter nominative/accusative singular of the verb πρέπω (usually impersonal in 3rd person), “to be fitting.”
127:8In nostrum locum statim audivimus te illius adhæsisse consortio, et nunquam ab illa ne transversum quidem unguis, ut dicitur, recessisse ;  eadem domo, eodem cubiculo, uno usam cubili, ut omnibus in urbe clarissima notum fieret, et te matrem et illam filiam repperisse.  Suburbanus ager vobis pro monasterio fuit et rus electum propter solitudinem.  Multoque ita vixisti tempore ut, imitatione vestri et conversatione multarum, gauderemus Romam factam Hierosolymam.  Crebra virginum monasteria, monachorum innumerabilis multitudo, ut pro frequentia servientium Deo, quod prius ignominiæ fuerat, esset postea gloriæ.  Interim absentiam nostri mutuis solabamur alloquiis et, quod carne non poteramus, spiritu reddebamus.  Semper se obviare epistulæ, superare officiis, salutationibus prævenire.  Non multum perdebat quæ jugibus sibi litteris jungebatur. I have heard that you at once took my place as her close companion, and that you never left her side even for a finger’s breadth, as the saying goes.  You lived in the same house, and had the same cell and bed, so that every one in the great city knew that you had found a mother and she a daughter.  A farm near Rome was your monastery, the country being chosen because of its loneliness.  You lived thus together for a long time, and as many other ladies followed your example and joined your company, I had the joy of seeing Rome become another Jerusalem.  Monastic establishments for virgins were founded in many places, and the number of monks in the city surpassed all counting.  Indeed, so great was the crowd of God’s servants that the name, which previously had been a term of reproach, was now one of honor.  Meanwhile we consoled ourselves for our separation by an interchange of conversation, discharging in the spirit the debt that we could not pay in the flesh.  Our letters always crossed, outvied in courtesies, anticipated in greetings.  Separation brought no great loss, since it was bridged by a continual correspondence.
127:9In hac tranquillitate et Domini servitute, hæretica in his provinciis exorta tempestas cuncta turbavit, et in tantam rabiem concitata est ut nec sibi nec ulli bonorum parceret.  Et quasi parum esset hīc universa movisse, navem plenam blasphemiarum Romano intulit portui, invenitque protinus patella operculum, et Romanæ fidei purissimum fontem lutosa cæno permiscuere vestigia.  Nec mirum si, in plateis et in foro rerum venalium, pictus hariolus stultorum verberet nates et, obtorto fuste, dentes mordentium quatiat, quum venenata spurcaque doctrina Romæ invenerit quos induceret.  Tunc librorum περὶ Ἀρχῶν infamis interpretatio ;  tunc discipulus ὄλβιος, vere nominis sui si in talem magistrum non impegisset ;  tunc nostrorum διάπυρος contradictio, et Pharisæorum turbata schola.  Tunc sancta Marcella, quæ diu coniverat ne per æmulationem quippiam facere crederetur, postquam sensit fidem apostolico ore laudatam in plerisque violari, ita ut sacerdotes quoque nonnullos monachorum maximeque sæculi homines in assensum sui traheret hæreticus ac simplicitati illuderet episcopi qui de suo ingenio ceteros æstimabat, publice restitit, malens Deo placere quam hominibus. In the midst of this tranquillity and service rendered to God, there arose in these provinces a tempest25 which threw everything into confusion, and finally swelled to such heights of madness that it spared neither itself nor anything that was good.  As though it were not enough to have disturbed all our community here, it despatched a ship laden with blasphemies to the port of Rome.  There the dish soon found a cover to match it,26 and muddy feet fouled the clear fountain of the Roman faith.  It is not surprising that in the streets and marketplaces of the city a painted quack can strike fools on the buttocks and knock out the teeth of objectors with a blow from his stick, seeing that this poisonous and filthy teaching found dupes at Rome to lead astray.  Then came the disgraceful translation of Origen’s book On First Principles,27 and that disciple28 who might truly have been called “Happy” if he had never run into such a teacher.  Next followed my supporters’ fiery confutation which threw the whole school of the Pharisees into confusion.  Finally our saintly Marcella, who for a long time had closed her eyes to all this lest she should be thought to put herself in rivalry, finding that the faith which the apostle once praised was now being endangered in many people, came forward openly on my side.  As the heretic was drawing to his cause not only priests, monks and above all laity, but was even imposing on the simplicity of the bishop,29 who judged other men by himself, she publicly withstood him, choosing to please God rather than men.
25.  The movement, led by Rufinus and Macarius, to bring Origen’s teaching before the Roman public.  Origen taught the pre-existence of the soul, the denial of the resurrection of the body, the limitation of eternal punishment, and the possibility of salvation even for the devil.  (Cf. Letter 51, Epiphanius to John of Jerusalem, translated by Jerome.)  Origenism was formally condemned as heretical in 400 (cf. Letter 95).
26.  “Like to like,” a favorite proverb with Jerome.  This may also be the predecessor of the German saying „Jedes Töpfchen hat seinen Deckel”  (“Every pot has its lid,” i.e., “there is something/someone to match everyone/everything,” most often said about odd or unexpected pairings of the sexes).
27.  For Origen (A.D. 185—254) and his writings, see F.A. Wright, Later Greek Literature, pp. 317—320.  The De Principiis is the first systematic account of Christian theology and the most profound work of serious philosophy which the third century produced.
28.  Macarius (μακάριος = ὄλβιος, both meaning “happy, fortunate, blest”).  Jerome here, as often, plays upon words.
29.  Pope Siricius.
127:10Laudat Salvator in Evangelio vilicum iniquitatis, quod, contra Dominum quidem, attamen pro se prudenter fecerit.  Cernentes hæretici de parva scintilla maxima incendia concitati, et suppositam dudum flammam jam ad culmina pervenisse, nec posse latēre quod multos deceperat, petunt et impetrant ecclesiasticas epistulas, ut communicantes ecclesiæ discedere viderentur.  Non multum tempus in medio, succedit in pontificatum vir insignis Anastasius quem diu Roma habere non meruit, ne orbis caput sub tali episcopo truncaretur ;  immo idcirco raptus atque translatus est, ne semel latam sententiam precibus suis flectere conaretur, dicente Domino ad Hieremiam, « Ne oraveris pro populo isto neque depreceris in bonum, quia, si jejunaverint, non exaudiam preces eorum et, si obtulerint holocausta et victimas, non suscipiam eas ;  in gladio enim, fame et pestilentia ego consumam eos. » In the Gospel the Savior praises the unjust steward, because, though he cheated his master, he acted wisely for himself.30  The heretics in the same way, seeing that a small spark had kindled a great fire, and that the flames which for a long time had been hidden were now at the housetops, so that the deception practiced on many could no longer be hid, asked for and obtained letters from the church of Rome, that it might seem that they were in full communion until the day of their departure.  Soon after this the great Anastasius31 succeeded to the pontificate;  but Rome was not privileged to have him long, lest the head of the world should be struck off32 while so noble a man was bishop.  He was indeed swiftly removed from this earth that he might not seek by his prayers to avert the sentence which God once for all had passed.  For the Lord said to Jeremiah:  “Pray not for this people for their good.  When they fast I will not hear their cry;  and when they offer burnt-offering and oblation, I will not accept them;  but I will consume them by the sword and by the famine and by the pestilence.”33
Dicas, « Quo hoc ? »  ad laudem Marcellæ.  Damnationis hæreticorum hæc fuit principium :  dum adducit testes qui prius ab eis eruditi, et postea ab hæretico fuerant errore correcti ;  dum ostendit multitudinem deceptorum ;  dum impia περὶ Ἀρχῶν ingerit volumina quæ emendata manu scorpii monstrantur ;  dum, acciti frequentibus litteris hæretici ut se defenderent, venire non ausi sunt, tantaque vis conscientiæ fuit, ut magis absentes damnati quam præsentes coargui maluerint.  Hujus tam gloriosæ victoriæ origo Marcella est, tuque, caput horum et causa bonorum, quæ scis me vera narrare quæ nosti vix de multis pauca dicere, ne legenti fastidium faciat odiosa replicatio, et videar apud malevolos, sub occasione laudis alterius, stomachum meum digerere.  Pergam ad reliqua. You may say:  “What has this to do with the praise of Marcella?”  The answer is that she took the first steps in getting the heretics condemned.  It was she who brought forward as witnesses those who first had been instructed by them and afterwards had seen the error of their heresy.  It was she who revealed the numbers they had deceived, and brandished in their faces the impious books On First Principles, which as emended by that scorpion’s34 hand were then openly on view.  It was she finally who in a succession of letters challenged the heretics to defend themselves;  a challenge which they did not dare to accept, for so strong was their consciousness of sin that they preferred to be condemned in their absence rather than appear and be proved guilty.  For this glorious victory Marcella was responsible;  she with you was the source and cause of this great blessing.  You, who know that my story is true, understand that I am only mentioning a few incidents out of many, lest a tedious repetition should weary the reader.  Moreover, I do not wish malignant people to think that under pretence of praising another I am giving vent to my own rancor.  I will now proceed to the rest of my tale.
30.  Lk 16:8
31.  A.D. 398.
32.  “The head of the world” is Rome, sacked by the Visigoths under Alaric I (Visigothic Ala-reiks, “Ruler of all”) in 410.
33.  Jeremias 14:11f.
34.  I.e., Rufinus.
127:11De occidentis partibus ad orientem turbo transgressus, minitabatur plurimis magna naufragia.  Tunc impletum est, « Putas, veniens filius hominis inveniet fidem super terram ? »  Refrigerata caritate multorum, pauci qui amabant fidei veritatem nostro lateri jungebantur, quorum publice petebatur caput, contra quos omnes opes parabantur, ita ut « Barnabas quoque adduceretur in illam simulationem » — immo apertum parricidium quod non viribus sed voluntate commisit.  Sed ecce universa tempestas, Domino flante, deleta est, et expletum vaticinium prophetale :  « Auferes spiritum eorum et deficient et in pulverem suum revertentur. »  « In illa die peribunt omnes cogitationes eorum ».  Et illud evangelicum :  « Stulte, hac nocte aufertur anima tua abs te ;  quæ autem præparasti, cujus erunt ? » The hurricane passed from the Western world into the East and threatened very many with dire shipwreck.  Then were fulfilled the words,  “Thinkest thou that when the son of man cometh he shall find faith on earth?”35  The love of many grew cold, but a few who loved the truth of faith rallied to my side.  Their lives were openly sought and every means was used to attack them, so that indeed “Barnabas also was carried away with their dissimulation,”36 and committed plain murder,37 in wish at least if not in deed.  But lo! the Lord blew and all the tempest passed away, and the prediction of the prophet was fulfilled:  “Thou takest away their breath, they die, and return to their dust.”38  “In that very day their thoughts perish.”39  With it also the Gospel words were accomplished:  “Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee:  then whose shall those things be, which thou hast provided?”40
35.  Lk 18:8
36.  Gal 2:13
37.  The allusion is perhaps to John of Jerusalem, with whom Jerome was frequently at variance.;  but this is only a conjecture, though a probable one.
38.  Ps 103:29
39.  Ps 145:4
40.  Lk 12:20
127:12Dum hæc aguntur in Jebus, terribilis de occidente rumor affertur :  obsideri Romam et auro salutem civium redimi ;  spoliatosque rursum circumdari ut, post substantiam, vitam quoque amitterent.  Hæret vox et singultus intercipiunt verba dictantis.  Capitur urbs quæ totum cepit orbem, immo fame perit antequam gladio, et vix pauci qui caperentur inventi sunt.  Ad nefandos cibos erupit esurientium rabies ;  et sua invicem membra laniarunt, dum mater non parcit lactanti infantiæ et recipit utero quem paulo ante effuderat.  « Nocte Moab capta est, nocte cecidit murus ejus. »  « Deus, venerunt gentes in hereditatem tuam ;  polluerunt templum sanctum tuum ;  posuerunt Hierusalem in pomorum custodiam ;  posuerunt cadavera servorum tuorum escas volatilibus cæli, carnes sanctorum tuorum bestiis terræ.  Effuderunt sanguinem ipsorum sicut aquam in circuitu Hierusalem, et non erat qui sepeliret. »

« Quis cladem illius noctis, quis funera fando
Explicet aut possit lacrimis æquare dolorem ?
Urbs antiqua ruit multos dominata per annos
Plurima perque vias sparguntur inertia passim
Corpora perque domos, et plurima mortis imago.
 »

While these things were taking place in Jebus,41 a dreadful rumor reached us from the West.  We heard that Rome was besieged, that the citizens were buying their safety with gold, and that when they had been thus despoiled they were again beleaguered, so as to lose not only their substance but their lives.  The speaker’s voice failed and sobs interrupted his utterance.  The city which had taken the whole world was itself taken;  nay, it fell by famine before it fell by the sword, and there were but a few found to be made prisoners.  The rage of hunger had recourse to impious food;  men tore one another’s limbs, and the mother did not spare the baby at her breast, taking again within her body that which her body had just brought forth.  “In the night was Moab taken, in the night did her wall fall down.”42  “O God, the heathen have come into thine inheritance;  thy holy temple have they defiled;  they have made Jerusalem a place to keep fruit.  The dead bodies of thy servants have they given to be meat for the fowls of the heaven, the flesh of thy saints for the beasts of the earth.  Their blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem;  and there was none to bury them.”43

Who can tell that night of havoc, who can shed enough of tears
For those deaths?  The ancient city that for many a hundred years
Ruled the world comes down in ruin:  corpses lie in every street
And men’s eyes in every household death in countless phases meet.
44

41.  The Canaanite name for Jerusalem.
42.  Isaias 15:1
43.  Ps 78:1ff.
44.  Virgil, Æneid, 2:361-5 and 369
127:13Quum interim ut, tanta confusione rerum, Marcellæ quoque domum cruentus victor ingreditur —

« Sit mihi fas audita loqui »,

immo, a sanctis viris visa narrare, qui interfuere præsentes, qui te dicunt in periculo quoque ei fuisse sociatam — intrepido vultu excepisse dicitur introgressos ;  quumque posceretur aurum, et defossas opes vili excusaret tunica, non tamen fecit fidem voluntariæ paupertatis.  Cæsam fustibus flagellisque, ajunt, non sensisse tormenta, sed hoc lacrimis, hoc pedibus eorum egisse prostratam, ne te a suo consortio separarent, ne sustineret adulescentia quod senilis ætas timere non poterat.  Christus dura corda mollivit et inter cruentos gladios invenit locum pietas.  Quumque et illam et te ad beati Pauli basilicam barbari deduxissent ut vel salutem vobis ostenderet vel sepulcrum, in tantam lætitiam dicitur erupisse, ut gratias ageret Deo quod te sibi integram reservasset ;  quod pauperem illam non fecisset captivitas, sed invenisset ;  quod egeret cottidiano cibo ;  quod, saturata Christo, non sentiret esuriem, quod et voce et opere loqueretur, « Nuda exivi de ventre matris meæ, nuda et redeam.  Sicut Domino visum est, ita et factum est.  Sit nomen Domini benedictum. »

Meanwhile, as you might expect in such a turmoil, the blood-stained conquerors burst their way into Marcella’s house.

“Be it mine to say what I have heard,”45

nay, rather to relate what was seen by those holy men who were present at that hour, and found you, Principia, at her side in the time of danger.  They tell me that she confronted the intruders with fearless face, and when they asked her for gold and through her course gown she demonstrated she had no hidden treasures, they would not give credence to her self-chosen poverty, but beat her with sticks and whipped her.  She felt no pain, they say, but, throwing herself in tears at their feet begged them not to take you from her or force your youth to endure the fate which her old age had no occasion to fear.  Christ softened their hard hearts, and even among blood-stained swords a sense of duty found place.  The barbarians escorted both her and you to the church of the apostle Paul, for you to find there either safety or a tomb.  There she burst into cries of joy, thanking God for having kept you unharmed for her. “By heaven’s grace,” she said, “captivity has found me a poor woman, not made me one.  Now I shall go in want of daily bread, but I shall not feel hunger since I am full of Christ and can say in word and deed:  ‘Naked came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither:  the Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away;  blessed be the name of the Lord’.”46

45.  Virgil, Æneid, 6:266
46.  Job 1:21
127:14Post aliquot menses, sana, integra, vegetoque corpusculo, dormivit in Domino et te paupertatulæ suæ — immo per te — pauperes reliquit heredes, claudens oculos in manibus tuis, reddens spiritum in tuis osculis, dum inter lacrimas tuas illa rideret, conscientiā vitæ bonæ et præmiis futurorum.  Hæc tibi, Marcella venerabilis, et hæc tibi, Principia filia, una et brevi lucubratione dictavi, non eloquii venustate, sed voluntate gratissimi in vos animi, et Deo et legentibus placere desiderans. Some months after this she fell asleep in the Lord, sound in mind and not suffering from any malady, with her poor body still active.  She made you the heir of her poverty, or rather she made the poor her heirs through you.  In your arms she closed her eyes, your lips received her last breath;  you were weeping, but she smiled,47 conscious of having lived a good life and hoping for a reward hereafter.  This letter to you, revered Marcella, and to you, my daughter Principia, I have dictated in the wakeful hours of one short night.  I have used no charms of eloquence;  my one wish has been to show my gratitude to you both, my one desire to please both God and my readers.
47.  This passage may have inspired the lines by Sir William Jones (1746-1794) “to a friend on his birthday”:

“On parents’s knee a naked newborn child
Weeping thou sat’st, while all around thee smiled.
So live that, sinking to thy life’s last sleep,
Calm thou may’st smile, while all around thee weep.”

Cf. Letter 40:13.
{ 128 }
Epistula CXXVIII
Ad Pacatulam
A.D. 413
128:1CAUSA difficilis parvulæ scribere, quæ non intellegat quid loquaris, cujus animam nescias, de cujus periculose voluntate promittas ut, secundum præclari oratoris exordium, spes magis in ea laudanda quam res sit.  Quid enim horteris ad continentiam, quæ placentas desiderat, quæ in sinu matris garrula voce balbutit, cui dulciora sunt mella quam verba ?  Audiat profunda apostoli, quæ anilibus magis fabulis delectatur ?  Prophetarum αἰνίγματα sentiat, quam tristior gerulæ vultus exagitat ?  Evangelii intellegat majestatem, ad cujus fulgura omnis mortalium hebebatur sensus ?  Ut parenti subjiciatur, horter, quæ manu tenera ridentem verberat matrem ?  Itaque Pacatula nostra hoc epistolium post lectura suscipiat ;  interim modo litterularum elementa cognoscat, jungat syllabas, discat nomina, verba consociet, atque, ut voce tinnula ista meditetur, proponatur ei crustula mulsi præmia et, quicquid gustu suave est, quod vernat in floribus, quod rutilat in gemmis, quod blanditur in pupis, acceptura festinet ;  interim et tenero temptet pollice fila deducere, rumpat sæpe stamina ut aliquando non rumpat ;  post laborem lusibus gestiat ;  de matris pendeat collo ;  rapiat oscula propinquorum ;  psalmos mercede decantet ;  amet quod cogitur dicere, ut non opus sit, sed delectatio, non necessitas, sed voluntas. It is a difficult matter to write to a little girl who will not understand what you say, of whose mind you know nothing, and whose inclinations it would be dangerous to warrant.  To use the words of a famous orator’s preface — “in her case praise is based on expectation rather than accomplishment.”1  How can you urge self-control on a child who still craves after cakes, who babbles softly in her mother’s arms, and finds honey sweeter than words?  Can she pay attention to the deep sayings of the apostle, when she takes more pleasure in old wives’ tales than in them?  Can she heed the dark riddles of the prophets when her nurse’s frown is sufficient to frighten her?  Can she appreciate the majesty of the Gospel when its lightnings dazzle all men’s senses?  How can I bid her to be obedient to her parents, when she beats her laughing mother with baby hand?  So my little Pacatula must read this letter herself in days to come;  and in the meantime learn her alphabet, spelling, grammar, and syntax.  To get her to repeat her lessons in her little shrill voice she must have a prize of a honey cake offered to her.  She will do her work quickly if she is going to receive as reward some sweetmeat, or bright flower, or glittering bauble, or pretty doll.  Meanwhile, too, she must learn to spin, drawing down the threads with tender fingers;  and though at first she may often break the yarn, she will one day cease to do so.  Then, when work is over, she may indulge in play, hanging on her mother’s neck and snatching kisses from her relations.  Let her be rewarded for singing the psalms aloud, so that she may love what she is forced to do, and it be not work but pleasure, not a matter of necessity but one of freewill.
1.  Cicero, De Republica, Unplaced Fragment 5 :  From Servius, ad Vergilii Æneidem, 6:877:  « Est autem Ciceronis in dialogo :  ‹ Fanni, causa difficilis laudare puerum ;  non enim res laudanda, sed spes est ›. »  {“Fannius, it is a difficult matter to praise a boy;  for praise must then be given to hope, not to achievement.”}
128:2Solent quædam, quum futuram virginem spoponderunt, pulla tunica eam induere et furvo operire palliolo, auferre linteamina, nihil in collo, nihil in capite auri sinere — re vera, bono consilio, ne habere discat in tenero, quod postea deponere compellatur.  Aliis contra videtur.  « Quid enim », ajunt, « si ipsa non habuerit, habentes alias non videbit ?  Φιλόκοσμον genus femineum est, multasque etiam insignis pudicitiæ, quamvis nulli virorum, tamen sibi, scimus libenter ornari.  Quin potius habendo satietur, et cernat laudari alias quæ ista non habeant.  Meliusque est, ut satiata contemnat, quam non habendo habere desideret. » Some mothers, when they have vowed a daughter to virginity, are wont to dress her in dark clothes, to wrap her up in a little black cloak, to take away her linen garments, and to let her wear no gold ornaments on her head and neck.  In reality this method is a wise one, for the child does not then become accustomed to things which afterwards she must lay aside.  Other mothers think differently.  “What is the use,” they say, “of her not having pretty things?  Will she not see other girls having them?  The toilette appeals to all women, and we know that many whose chastity is beyond reproach take pleasure in dressing not for men but for themselves.  Nay rather, let her grow sated with having, and let her see that others are praised, who have not.  And it is better that she should despise through being sated, than that by not having she should want to have.”
Tale quid et Israëlitico fecisse Dominum populo, ut cupientibus Ægyptias carnes usque ad nauseam et vomitum præberet examina corturnicum, multosque sæculi prius homines facilius carere experta corporis voluptate quam eos qui a pueritia libidinem nesciant ;  ab aliis enim nota calcari, ab aliis ignota appeti ;  illos vitare pænitendo suavitatis insidias quas fugerunt, hos carnis illecebris et dulci titillatione corporis blandientis, dum mella putant, venena noxia reperire ;  mel enim destillare labiis meretricis mulieris, quod ad tempus impinguet vescentium fauces, et postea amarius felle inveniatur.  Unde et in Domini mel sacrificiis non offerri, ceraque contempta (quæ mellis hospitium est), oleum accendi in templo Dei, quod de amaritudine exprimitur olivarum, pascha quoque cum amaritudinibus comedi in « azymis sinceritatis et veritatis » quas qui habuerit, in sæculo persecutionem sustinebit.  Unde et propheta mystice cantat, « Solus sedebam, quia amaritudine repletus sum ». “This,” they argue, “is the plan that the Lord used with the people of Israel.  They craved after the flesh-pots of Egypt, and so He sent them swarms of quails until they gorged themselves and were sick.  Many worldlings who have tried all the pleasures of the body find it easier to give them up than do those who from youth have known nothing of desire.  The ones tread underfoot what they know, the others are attracted by what is unknown.  The ones penitently avoid the snares of pleasure from which they have escaped, the others are allured by the temptations of the flesh and the sweet titillation of an alluring body until they find that what they thought was honey is really deadly poison.  For we know that ‘honey drips from the lips of a harlot woman, which for the time being may fatten the gullet of the eaters, and afterward may be found to be more bitter than gall.’2  Therefore it is that honey is never offered in the sacrifices of the Lord, that the wax in which honey is stored is held in contempt, and that oil expressed from the bitter olive is burned in God’s temple.  Moreover, the passover is eaten with bitter herbs and with ‘the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.’3  Those who take thereof shall suffer persecution in this world.  Wherefore the prophet sings symbolically:  ‘I sat alone, because I was filled with bitterness’.”4
2.  Prov. 5:3f.
3.  1 Cor 5:8
4.  Jeremias 15:17 (Septuagint:  κατὰ μόνας ἐκαθήμην, ὅτι πικρίας ἐνεπλήσθην).
128:3Quid igitur ?  Luxuriandum est in adulescentia, ut postea luxuria fortius contemnatur ?  « Absit », inquiunt ;  « Unusquisque », enim, « in qua vocatione vocatus est, in ea permaneat. »  « Circumcisus quis », id est virgo, « vocatus est ;  non adducat præputium », hoc est, non quærat pelliceas tunicas nuptiarum, quibus Adam, ejectus de paradiso virginitatis, indutus est.  « In præputio quis vocatus est », hoc est, habens uxorem et matrimonio pelle circumdatus — non quærat virginitatis et æternæ pudicitiæ nuditatem quam semel habere desivit, sed utatur vase suo in sanctificatione et pudicitia, bibatque de fontibus suis et non quærat cisternas lupanarium dissipatas, quæ purissimas aquas pudicitiæ continere non possunt.  Unde et idem Paulus, in eodem capitulo de virginitate et nuptiis disputans, servos carnis vocat in matrimonio constitutos, liberos eos qui, absque ullo nuptiarum jugo, tota Domino serviunt libertate. Well, is wantonness to be encouraged in youth, so that in later life it may be the more firmly rejected?  “Heaven forbid!” they say, for “let every man, wherein he is called, therein abide.”  “Is any called being circumcised” — that is, a virgin — “let him not become uncircumcised”5 — that is, let him not seek in marriage the “coats of skins,” wherewith Adam clothed himself when he was expelled from the paradise of virginity.6  “Is any called in uncircumcision” — that is, having a wife and covered with the skin of matrimony:  let him not seek the nakedness of virginity and of that eternal chastity which he has forfeited once for all.  Let him rather possess his vessel in sanctification and honor;7  let him drink from his own fountain and not seek in brothels those shattered cisterns which can never contain the pure water of chastity.  Therefore Paul again in the same chapter, when he is discussing the question of virginity and marriage, calls those who are married slaves of the flesh, but those who are not under the yoke of wedlock freemen serving the Lord in all liberty.8
Quod loquimur, non in universum loquimur, sed in parte tractamus, nec de omnibus, sed de quibusdam dicimus.  Ad utrumque sexum, non solum ad vas infirmius, noster sermo diligitur.  Virgo es :  quid te mulieris delectat societas ?  Quid fragilem et sutilem ratem magnis committis fluctibus et grande periculum navigationis incertæ securus ascendis ?  Nescis quid desideres, et tamen sic ei jungeris, quasi aut ante desideraveris aut — ut levissime dicam — postea desideraturus sis.  « Sed ad ministerium iste sexus est aptior ».  Elige ergo anum, elige deformem, elige probatæ in Domino continentiæ.  Quid te adulescentia, quid pulchra, quid luxuriosa delectat ?  Uteris balneis, cute nĭtida, rubicundus incedis, carnibus vesceris, affluis divitiis, pretiosa veste circumdaris — et juxta serpentem mortiferum securum dormire te credis ?  An non habitas in eodem hospitio, in nocte, dumtaxat ? What I am saying now I am not saying as a universal truth;  I am treating of but a part of this subject, and am speaking of some men only, not of all.  Moreover, my words are addressed to both sexes;  not merely to the weaker vessel.  You, my brother, are a virgin:  why then do you find pleasure in a woman’s society?  Why do you risk your frail, patched barque in heavy seas, and lightly face the danger of a hazardous voyage?  You know not what you desire, and yet your union is as close as though you either desired her before or, to put it as lightly as possible, were going to desire her in the future. “Her sex,” you will say, “is particularly suitable for household service.”  Choose an old woman, then, chose one who is misshapen, choose one of proved continence in the Lord.  Why should you take pleasure in a young girl, pretty and voluptuous?  You frequent the baths, you walk abroad with rosy cheeks and sleek skin, you eat meat and you abound in riches, you dress in costly clothes;  and do you fancy that you can sleep safe beside a deadly serpent?  Do you say that you do not live in the same house with her, at least at night?
Ceterum, totos dies in hujuscemodi confabulatione consumens, quare solus cum sola et non cum arbitris sedes ?  Quum etiam ipse non pecces, aliis peccare videatis, ut exemplo sis miseris qui nominis tui auctoritate delinquant.  Tu quoque, virgo vel vidua, cur tam longo viri sermone retineris ?  Cur cum solo relicta non metuis ?  Saltim alvi te et vēsīcæ cogat necessitas ut exeas foras, ut deseras in hac re — cum quo licentius quam cum germano, multo verecundius egisti cum marito.  Sed de Scripturis sanctis aliquid interrogas :  interroga publice ;  audiant pedisequæ, audiant comites tuæ.  « Omne, quod manifestatum lux est. »  Bonus sermo secreta non quærit ;  quin potius delectatur laudibus suis et testimonio plurimorum.  Magister egregius contemnit viros, fratres despicit et in unius mulierculæ secreta eruditione desudat. Well, you spend whole days with her in this sort of conversation.  Why do you sit alone with her and without any witnesses?  Why, even if you do not sin yourself, do you seem to others to be sinning, leading poor wretches into error by the authority of your name?  You also, my sister, whether you are a virgin or a widow, why are you detained so many hours in talking with a man?  Why are you not afraid to be left with him alone?  The needs of bowels and bladder should at least compel you to go out sometimes and leave him.  You were more modest with your husband, and even with your brother you did not behave with such freedom as this.  You say that you are asking him some question concerning the Holy Scriptures.  Ask it publicly;  let your maidservants and attendants hear it. “Everything that is made manifest is light.”9  Honest words seek no quiet retreat;  nay rather, they take pleasure in a crowd of witnesses, and in the praise which they win.  He must be a fine teacher who despises men, scorns his brethren, and labors in secret to instruct one weak woman!
5.  1 Cor 7:24, 18.
6.  Gen 3:21
7.  1 Thess 4:4
8.  Cf. 1 Cor 7:22
9.  Eph 5:13
128:4Declinavi parumper de via, occasione aliorum et, dum infantem Pacatulam instituo, immo enutrio, multarum subito male mihi pacatarum bella suscepi.  Revertar ad propositum.  Sexus femineus suo jungatur sexui ;  nesciat, immo timeat, cum pueris ludere.  Nullum impudicum verbum noverit et, si forte in tumultu familiæ discurrentis aliquid turpe audierit, non intellegat.  Matris nutum pro verbis ac monitum pro imperio habeat.  Amet ut parentem, subjiciatur ut dominæ, timeat ut magistram.  Quum autem virgunculam et rudem edentulam septimus ætatis annus exceperit, et cœperit erubescere, scire quid taceat, dubitare quid dicat, discat memoriter psalterium et usque ad annos pubertatis libros Salomonis, Evangelia, apostolos ac prophetas sui cordis thesaurum faciat.  Nec liberius procedat ad publicum nec semper ecclesiarum quærat celebritatem.  Other people’s conduct has made me wander somewhat from my path, and in instructing, or rather nursing, the baby Pacatula, I have in a moment incurred the enmity of many ladies who will be hard to pacify.10  I will now return to my subject.  Females should only mix with their own sex;  they should not know how to play with boys, nay, they should be afraid to do so.  A girl should have no acquaintance with lewd talk, and if amid the noisy bustle of a household she hears an unclean word, she should not understand it.  Her mother’s nod should be as good as speech, her mother’s advice equivalent to a command.  She should love her as her parent, obey her as her mistress, fear her as her teacher.  At first she will be but a shy little maid without all her teeth, but as soon as she has reached her seventh year and has learned to blush, knowing what she should not say, and doubting what she should say, she should commit the psalter to memory, and until she is grown up she should make the books of Solomon, the Gospels, the apostles, and the prophets the treasure of her heart.  She should not appear in public too freely nor always seek a crowded church.
In cubiculo suo totas delicias habeat.  Nunquam juvenculos, nunquam cincinnatos videat, vocis dulcedine per aures animam vulnerantes.  Puellarum quoque lascivia repellatur, quæ, quanto licentius adeunt, tanto difficilius evitantur et, quod didicerunt, secreto docent inclusamque Danaën vulgi sermonibus violant.  Sit ei magistra comes, pædagoga custos non multo vino dedita, non, juxta apostolum, otiosa ac verbosa, sed sobria, gravis, lanifica et ea tantum loquens, quæ animum puellarum ad virtutem instituant.  Ut autem aqua in areola digitum sequitur præcedentem, ita ætas mollis et tenera in utramque partem flexibilis est et, quocunque duxeris, trahitur. Let her find all her pleasure in her own room.  She must never look at foppish youths or curled coxcombs, who wound the soul through the ears with their honeyed talk.  She must be protected also from the wantonness of other girls.  The more freedom of access such persons have, the more difficult they are to shake off;  the knowledge they have acquired they impart in secret and corrupt a secluded Danaë with vulgar gossip.11  Let her teacher be her companion, her attendant her guardian, and let her be a woman not given to much wine, one who, as the apostle says, is not idle nor a tattler,12 but sober, grave, skilled in spinning, saying only such words as will train a girl’s mind in virtue.  For as water follows behind a finger in a flowerbed, so soft and tender youth is pliable for good or evil, and can be drawn wherever you guide it.
Solent lascivi et comptuli juvenes blandimentis, affabilitate, munusculis aditum sibi per nutrices ad alumnas quærere et, quum clementer intraverint, de scintillis incendia concitare, paulatimque proficere ad impudentiam, et nequaquam posse prohiberi, illo in se versiculo comprobato :

« Ægre reprehendas, quod sinas consuescere. »

Pudet dicere, et tamen dicendum est :  nobiles feminæ, nobiliores habituræ procos, vilissimæ condicionis hominibus et servulis copulantur, ac sub nomine religionis et umbra continentiæ interdum deserunt viros.  Helenæ sequuntur Alexandros, nec Menelaos pertimescunt.  Videntur hæc, planguntur et non vindicantur, quia multitudo peccantium peccandi licentiam sumministrat.

Spruce gallants often try the effect of soft words, affable manners, and trifling gifts upon a nurse in order to win access to her charge.  After succeeding in a gentle approach, they blow the spark into a flame and become gradually more and more shameless.  It is then impossible to stop them, and they prove the truth of the line:

“You can hardly blame a habit which yourself you have allowed.”13

I am ashamed to say it, and yet I must;  women of rank who could have suitors of even higher station cohabit with men of the lowest class and even with slaves.  Sometimes in the name of religion and under a cloak of continence they desert their husbands, and like another Helen follow their Paris without any fear of Menelaus.  Such things are seen and lamented, but they are not punished, for the multitude of sinners gives license to sin.

10.  Pacatula … male pacatæ :  a play on words
11.  Danaë was imprisoned by her father to keep her unmarried.
12.  2 Tim 5:13
13.  Publilius Syrus, Sententiæ 180, already quoted 107:8, note 28.
128:5Pro nefas, orbis terrarum ruit et in nobis peccata non corruunt.  Urbs incluta et Romani imperii caput uno hausta est incendio.  Nulla regio quæ non exules ejus habeat.  In cineres ac favillas sacræ quondam ecclesiæ conciderunt et tamen studemus avaritiæ.  Vivimus quasi altera die morituri et ædificamus quasi semper in hoc vīcturi sæculo.  Auro parietes, auro laquearia, auro fulgent capita columnarum et nudus atque esuriens ante fores nostras in paupere Christus moritur.  Legimus Aaron pontificem isse obviam furentibus flammis et, accenso turibulo, Dei iram cohibuisse ;  stetit inter mortem et vitam sacerdos maximus, nec ultra vestigia ejus ignis procedere ausus est.  Moysi loquitur Deus, « Dimitte me et delebo populum istum. »  Quando dicit « Dimitte me », ostendit se teneri, ne faciat quod minatus est ;  Dei enim potentiam servi preces impediebant.  Quis, putas, ille sub cælo est, qui nunc iræ Dei possit occurrere, qui obviare flammis et, juxta apostolum, dicere, « Optabam ego anathema esse pro fratribus meis » ?  Pereunt cum pastoribus greges, quia sicut populus, sic sacerdos.  Moyses compassionis loquebatur affectu, « Si dimittis populo huic, dimitte ;  sin autem, dele me de libro tuo. »  Vult perire cum pereuntibus nec propria salute contentus est.  « Gloria » quippe « regis multitudo populi. » Shame on us, the world is falling in ruins, but our sins still flourish.  The glorious city that was the head of the Roman Empire has been engulfed in one terrific blaze.  There is no part of the earth where exiles from Rome are not to be found.  Churches once held sacred have fallen into dust and ashes, and still we set our hearts greedily on money.  We live as though we were doomed to death on the morrow, but we build houses as though we were going to live for ever in this world.  Our walls glitter with gold, gold gleams upon our ceilings and upon the capitals of our pillars:  yet Christ is dying at our doors in the persons of His poor, naked and hungry.  We read that Aaron the high priest faced the furious flames and with his burning censer stayed God’s wrath.  In the might of his priesthood he stood between life and death, and the fire did not dare to pass his feet.14  God said to Moses:  “Let me alone and I will consume this people,”15 showing by the words “let me alone” that he can be stayed from carrying out his threat;  for the prayers of His servant hindered God’s power.  Who, think you, is there now under heaven able to face God’s wrath, to meet the flames, and to say with the apostle:  I could wish that I myself were accursed for my brethren”?16  Flocks and shepherds perish together, because the priest is now even as the people.  Moses in his compassionate love said:  “Yet now if thou wilt, forgive their sin;  and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book.”17  He wished to perish with the perishing, and was not content to win salvation for himself;  for indeed “in the multitude of people is the glory of the king.”18
His Pacatula est nata temporibus ;  inter hæc crepundia primam carpit ætatem, ante lacrimas scitura quam risum, prius fletum sensura quam gaudium.  Necdum introitus, jam exitus ;  talem semper fuisse putat mundum.  Nescit præterita, fugit præsentia, futura desiderat.  Quæ, ut tumultuario sermone dictarem et post neces amicorum luctumque perpetuum, infanti senex, longo postliminio, scriberem, tua me, Gaudenti frater, impulit caritas ;  maluique parum quam nihil omnino poscenti dare, quia in altero voluntas oppressa luctu, in altero amicitiæ dissimulatio est. Such are the times into which our Pacatula has been born, these are the rattles of her infancy.  She will know of tears before laughter, she will feel sorrow sooner than joy.  Scarcely has she trod the stage before the curtain falls.  She thinks that the world was ever thus, she knows not of the past, she shrinks from the present, she fixes her desires on what is to come.  After mourning incessantly for my dead friends, my affection for you, brother Gaudentius,19 has, following a long recovery, induced me to dictate this hastily composed discourse and in my old age write a letter to an infant.  I preferred to answer your request inadequately rather than not to answer it at all.  Because in the case of my inadequacy, my will to write has been paralysed by my grief;  in the alternate case, there would have been a disregard of our friendship.
14.  2 Num 16:46ff.
15.  Exodus 32:10
16.  Rom 9:3
17.  Exodus 32:32
18.  Prov 14:28
19.  Pacatula’s father.

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Deus vult ! — Brian Regan ( Inscriptio electronica :   )
Dies immutationis recentissimæ :  die Jovis, 2016 Jan 14