Church Fathers: Post-Nicene Fathers Vol 06: 26.01.27 Letters LXX - LXXII

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Church Fathers: Post-Nicene Fathers Vol 06: 26.01.27 Letters LXX - LXXII



TOPIC: Post-Nicene Fathers Vol 06 (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 26.01.27 Letters LXX - LXXII

Other Subjects in this Topic:

Letter LXX. Tomagnus an Orator of Rome.

Jerome thanks Magnus. a Roman orator, for his services in bringing a young man named Sebesius to apologize to him for some fault that he had committed. He then replies to a criticism of Magnus on his fondness, for making quotations from profane writers, a practice which he defends by the example of the fathers of the church and of the inspired penmen of scripture. He ends by hinting that the objection really comes not from Magnus himself but from Rufinus (here nicknamed Calpurnius Lanarius). The date of the letter is 397 a.d.

1. That our friend Sebesius has profited by your advice I have learned less from your letter than from his own penitence. And strange to say the pleasure which he has given me since his rebuke is greater than the pain he caused me from his previous waywardness. There has been indeed a conflict between indulgence in the father, and affection in the son; while the former is anxious to forget the past, the latter is eager to promise dutiful behaviour in the future. Accordingly you and I must equally rejoice, you because you have successfully put a pupil to the test, I because I have received a son again.

2. You ask me at the close of your letter why it is that sometimes in my writings I quote examples from secular literature and thus defile the whiteness of the church with the foulness of heathenism. I will now briefly answer your question. You would never have asked it, had not your mind been wholly taken up with Tully; you would never have asked it had you made it a practice instead of studying Volcatiushyperlink to read the holy scriptures and the commentators upon them. For who is there who does not know that both in Moses and in the prophets there are passages cited from Gentile books and that Solomon proposed questions to the philosophers of Tyre and answered others put to him by them.hyperlink In the commencement of the book of Proverbs he charges us to understand prudent maxims and shrewd adages, parables and obscure discourse, the words of the wise and their dark sayings;hyperlink all of which belong by right to the sphere of the dialectician and the philosopher. The Apostle Paul also, in writing to Titus, has used a line of the poet Epimenides: "The Cretians are always liars, evil beasts, slow bellies."hyperlink Half of which line was afterwards adopted by Callimachus. It is not surprising that a literal rendering of the words into Latin should fail to preserve the metre, seeing that Homer when translated into the same language is scarcely intelligible even in prose. In another epistle Paul quotes a line of Menander: "Evil communications corrupt good manners."hyperlink And when he is arguing with the Athenians upon the Areopagus he calls Aratus as a witness citing from him the words "For we are also his offspring;"hyperlink in Greek tou gar kai\ genoj esmen, the close of a heroic verse. And as if this were not enough, that leader of the Christian army, that unvanquished pleader for the cause of Christ, skilfully turns a chance inscription into a proof of the faith.hyperlink For he had learned from the true David to wrench the sword of the enemy out of his hand and with his own blade to cut off the head of the arrogant Goliath.hyperlink He had read in Deuteronomy the command given by the voice of the Lord that when a captive woman had had her head shaved, her eyebrows and all her hair cut off, and her nails pared, she might then be taken to wife.hyperlink Is it surprising that I too, admiring the fairness of her form and the grace of her eloquence, desire to make that secular wisdom which is my captive and my handmaid, a matron of the true Israel? Or that shaving off and cutting away all in her that is dead whether this be idolatry, pleasure, error, or lust, I take her to myself clean and pure and beget by her servants for the Lord of Sabaoth? My efforts promote the advantage of Christ's family, my so-called defilement with an alien increases the number of my fellow-servants. Hosea took a wife of whoredoms, Gomer the daughter of Diblaim, and this harlot bore him a son called Jezreel or the seed of God.hyperlink Isaiah speaks of a sharp razor which shaves "the head of sinners and the hair of their feet;"hyperlink and Ezekiel shaves his head as a type of that Jerusalem which has been an harlot,hyperlink in sign that whatever in her is devoid of sense and life must be removed.

3. Cyprian, a man renowned both for his eloquence and for his martyr's death, was as-sailed-so Firmian tells ushyperlink -for having used in his treatise against Demetrius passages from the Prophets and the Apostles which the latter declared to be fabricated and made up, instead of passages from the philosophers and poets whose authority he, as a heathen, could not well gainsay. Celsushyperlink and Porphyryhyperlink have written against us and have been ably answered, the former by Origen, the latter by Methodius, Eusebius, and Apollinaris.hyperlink Origen wrote a treatise in eight books, the work of Methodiushyperlink extended to ten thousand lines while Eusebiushyperlink and Apollinarishyperlink composed twenty-five and thirty volumes respectively. Read these and you will find that compared with them I am a mere tyro in learning, and that, as my wits have long lain fallow, I can barely recall as in a dream what I have learned as a boy. The emperor Julianhyperlink found time during his Parthian campaign to vomit forth seven books against Christ and, as so often happens in poetic legends, only wounded himself with his own sword. Were I to try to confute him with the doctrines of philosophers and stoics you would doubtless forbid me tostrike a mad dog with the club of Hercules It is true that he presently felt in battle the hand of our Nazarene or, as he used to call him, the Galilaean,hyperlink and that a spear-thrust in the vitals paid him due recompense for his foul calumnies. To prove the antiquity of the Jewish people Josephushyperlink has written two books against Appio a grammarian of Alexandria; and in these he brings forward so many quotations from secular writers as to make me marvel how a Hebrew brought up from his childhood to read the sacred scriptures could also have perused the whole library of the Greeks. Need I speak of Philohyperlink whom critics call the second or the Jewish Plato?

4. Let me now run through the list of our own writers. Did not Quadratushyperlink a disciple of the apostles and bishop of the Athenian church deliver to the Emperor Hadrian (on the occasion of his visit to the Eleusinian mysteries) a treatise in defence of our religion. And so great was the admiration caused in everyone by his eminent ability that it stilled a most severe persecution. The philosopher Aristides,hyperlink a man of great eloquence, presented to the same Emperor an apology for the Christians composed of extracts from philosophic writers. His example was afterwards followed by Justinhyperlink another philosopher who delivered to Antoninus Plus and his sonshyperlink and to the senate a treatise Against the Gentiles, in which he defended the ignominy of the cross and preached the resurrection of Christ with all freedom. Need I speak of Melitohyperlink bishop of Sardis, of Apollinarishyperlink chief-priest of the Church of Hierapolis, of Dionysiushyperlink bishop of the Corinthians, of Tatian,hyperlink of Bardesanes,hyperlink of Irenaeushyperlink successor to the martyr Pothinus;hyperlink all of whom have in many volumes explained the uprisings of the several heresies and tracked them back, each to the philosophic source from which it flows. Pantaenus,hyperlink a philosopher of the Stoic school, was on account of his great reputation for learning sent by Demetrius bishop of Alexandria to India, to preach Christ to the Brahmans and philosophers there. Clement,hyperlink a presbyter of Alexandria, in my judgment the most learned of men, wrote eight books of Miscellanieshyperlink and as many of Outline Sketches,hyperlink a treatise against the Gentiles, and three volumes called the Pedagogue. Is there any want of learning in these, or are they not rather drawn from the very heart of philosophy? Imitating his example Origenhyperlink wrote ten books of Miscellanies, in which he compares together the opinions held respectively by Christians and by philosophers, and confirms all the dogmas of our religion by quotations from Plato and Aristotle, from Numeniushyperlink and Cornutus.hyperlink Miltiadeshyperlink also wrote an excellent treatise against the Gentiles. Moreover Hippolytushyperlink and a Roman senator named Apolloniushyperlink have each compiled apologetic works. The books of Julius Africanushyperlink who wrote a history of his own times are still extant, as also are those of Theodore who was afterwards called Gregory,hyperlink a man endowed with apostolic miracles as well as with apostolic virtues. We still have the works of Dionysiushyperlink bishop of Alexandria, of Anatoliushyperlink chief priest of the church of Laodicea, of the presbyters Pamphilus,hyperlink Pierius,hyperlink Lucian,hyperlink Malchion;hyperlink of Eusebiushyperlink bishop of Csarea, Eustathiushyperlink of Antioch and Athanasiushyperlink of Alexandria; of Eusebiushyperlink of Emisa, of Triphylliushyperlink of Cyprus, of Asteriushyperlink of Scythopolis, of the confessor Serapion,hyperlink of Titushyperlink bishop of Bostra; and of the Cappadocians Basil,hyperlink Gregory,hyperlink and Amphilochius.hyperlink All these writers so frequently interweave in their books the doctrines and maxims of the philosophers that you might easily be at a loss which to admire most, their secular erudition or their knowledge of the scriptures.

5. I will pass on to Latin writers. Can anything be more learned or more pointed than the style of Tertullian?hyperlink His Apology and his books Against the Gentiles contain all the wisdom of the world. Minucius Felixhyperlink a pleader in the Roman courts has ransacked all heathen literature to adorn the pages of his Octavius and of his treatise Against the astrologers (unless indeed this latter is falsely ascribed to him). Arnobiushyperlink has published seven books against the Gentiles, and his pupil Lactantiushyperlink as many, besides two volumes, one on Anger and the other on the creative activity of God. If you read any of these you will find in them an epitome of Cicero's dialogues. The Martyr Victorinushyperlink though as a writer deficient in learning is not deficient in the wish to use what learning he has. Then there is Cyprian.hyperlink With what terseness, with what knowledge of all history, with what splendid rhetoric and argument has he touched the theme that idols are no Gods! Hilaryhyperlink too, a confessor and bishop of my own day, has imitated Quintilian's twelvebooks both in number and in style, and has also shewn his ability as a writer in his short treatise against Dioscorus the physician. In the reign of Constantine the presbyter Juvencushyperlink set forth in verse the story of our Lord and Saviour, and did not shrink from forcing into metre the majestic phrases of the Gospel. Of other writers dead and living I say nothing. Their aim and their ability are evident to all who read them.hyperlink

6. You must not adopt the mistaken opinion, that while in dealing with the Gentiles one may appeal to their literature in all other discussions one ought to ignore it; for almost all the books of all these writers-except those who like Epicurushyperlink are no scholars-are extremely full of erudition and philosophy. I incline indeed to fancy-the thought comes into my head as I dictate-that you yourself know quite well what has always been thepractice of the learned in this matter. I believe that in putting this question to me you are only the mouthpiece of another who by reason of his love for the histories of Sallust might well be called Calpurnius Lanarius.hyperlink Please beg of him not to envy eaters their teeth because he is toothless himself, and not to make light of the eyes of gazelles because he is himself a mole. Here as you see there is abundant material for discussion, but I havealready filled the limits at my disposal.

Letter LXXI. To Lucinius.

Lucinius was a wealthy Spaniard of Btica who in conformity with the ascetic ideas of his time had made a vow of continence with his wife Theodora. Being much interested in the study of scripture he proposed to visit Bethlehem, and in a.d. 397 sent several scribes thither to transcribe for him Jerome's principal writings. To these on their return home Jerome now entrusts the following letter. In it he encourages Lucinius to fulfil his purpose of coming to Bethlehem, describes the books Which he is sending to him, and answers two questions relating to ecclesiastical usage. He also sends him some trilling presents.

Shortly after receiving the letter (written in 398 a.d.) Lucinius died and Jerome wrote to Theodora to console her for her loss (letter LXXV.

1. Your letter which has suddenly arrived was not expected by me, and coming in an unlooked for way it has helped to rouse me from my torpor by the glad tidings which it conveys. I hasten to embrace with the arms of love one whom my eyes have never seen, and silently say to myself:-`"oh that I had wings like a dove! for then would I flee away and be at rest."'hyperlink Then would I find him "whom my soul loveth."hyperlink In you the Lord's words are now truly fulfilled: "many shall come from the east and west and shall sit down with Abraham."hyperlink In those days the faith of my Lucinius was foreshadowed in Cornelius, "centurion of the band called the Italian band."hyperlink And when the apostle Paul writes to the Romans: "whensoever I take my journey into Spain I will come to you: for I trust to see you in my journey, and to be brought on my way thitherward by you;"hyperlink he shews by the tale of his previous successes what he looked to gain from that province.hyperlink Laying in a short time the foundation of the gospel "from Jerusalem and round about unto Illyricum,"hyperlink he enters Rome in bonds, that he may free those who are in the bonds of error and superstition. Two years he dwells in his own hired househyperlink that he may give to us the house eternal which is spoken of in both the testaments.hyperlink The apostle, the fisher of men,hyperlink has cast forth his net, and, among countless kinds of fish, has landed you like a magnificent gilt-bream. You have left behind you the bitter waves, the salt tides, the mountain-fissures; you have despised Leviathan who reigns in the waters.hyperlink Your aim is to seek the wilderness with Jesus and to sing the prophet's song: "my soul thirsteth for thee, my flesh longeth for thee in a dry and thirsty land where no water is; to see thy power and thy glory, so as I have seen thee in the sanctuary."hyperlink or, as he sings in another place, "lo, then would I wander far off and remain in the wilderness. I would hasten my escape from the windy storm and tempest."hyperlink Since you have left Sodom and are hastening to the mountains, I beseech you with a father's affection not to look behind you. Your hands have grasped the handle of the plough,hyperlink the hem of the Saviour's garment,hyperlink and His locks wet with the dew of night;hyperlink do not let them go. Do not come down from the housetop of virtue to seek for the clothes which you wore of old, nor return home from the field.hyperlink Do not like Lot set your heart on the plain or upon the pleasant gardens;hyperlink for these are watered not, as the holy land, from heaven but by Jordan's muddy stream made salt by contact with the Dead Sea.

2. Many begin but few persevere to the end. "They which run in a race run all, but one receiveth the crown."hyperlink But of us on the other hand it is said: "So run that ye may obtain."hyperlink Our master of the games is not grudging; he does not give the palm to one and disgrace another. His wish is that all his athletes may alike win garlands. My soul rejoices, yet the very greatness of my joy makes me feel sad. Like Ruthhyperlink when I try to speak I burst into tears. Zacchus, the convert of an hour, is accounted worthy to receive the Saviour as his guest.hyperlink Martha and Mary make ready a feast and then welcome the Lord to it.hyperlink A harlot washes His feet with her tears and against His burial anoints His body with the ointment of good works.hyperlink Simon the leper invites the Master with His disciples and is not refused.hyperlink To Abraham it is said: "Get thee out of thy country and from thy kindred and from thy father's house, unto a land that I will shew thee."hyperlink He leaves Chaldaea, he leaves Mesopotamia; he seeks what he knows not, not to lose Him whom he has found. He does not deem it possible to keep both his country and his Lord; even at that early day he is already fulfilling the prophet David's words: "I am a stranger with thee and a sojourner, as all my fathers were."hyperlink He is called "a Hebrew," in Greek perathj, a passer-over, for not content with present excellence but forgetting those things which are behind he reaches forth to that which is before.hyperlink He makes his own the words of the psalmist: "they shall go from strength to strength."hyperlink Thus his name has a mystic meaning and he has opened for you a way to seek not your own things but those of another. You too must leave your home as he did, and must take for your parents, brothers, and relations only those who are linked to you in Christ. "Whosoever," He says, "shall do the will of my father ...the sameis my brother and sister and mother."hyperlink

3. You have with you one who was once your partner in the flesh but is now your partner in the spirit; once your wife but nowyour sister; once a woman but now a man; once an inferior but now an equal.hyperlink Under the same yoke as you she hastens toward thesame heavenly kingdom.

A too careful management of one's income, a too near calculation of one's expenses-these are habits not easily laid aside. Yet to escapethe Egyptian woman Joseph had to leave hisgarment with her.hyperlink And the young man whofollowed Jesus having a linen cloth cast about him, when he was assailed by the servants hadto throw away his earthly covering and to flee naked.hyperlink Elijah also when he was carried upin a chariot of fire to heaven left his mantle of sheepskin on earth.hyperlink Elisha used for sacrifice the oxen and the yokes which hitherto he had employed in his work.hyperlink We read in Ecclesiasticus: "he that toucheth pitch shall be defiled therewith."hyperlink As long as we are occupied with the things of the world, as long as our soul is fettered with possessions andrevenues, we cannot think freely of God. "For what fellowship hath righteousness with unrighteousness? And what communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial? Or what part hath he that believeth with an infidel?"hyperlink "Ye cannot," the Lord says, "serve God and Mammon."hyperlink Now the laying aside of money is for those who are beginners in the way, not for those who are made perfect. Heathens like Antistheneshyperlink and Crateshyperlink the Theban have done as much before now. But to offer one's self to God, this is the mark of Christians and apostles. These like the widow out of their penury cast their two mites into the treasury, and giving all that they have to the Lord are counted worthy to hear his words: "ye also shall sit upon twelve thrones judging the twelve tribes of Israel."hyperlink

4. You can see for yourself why I mention these things; without expressly saying it I am inviting you to take up your abode at the holy places. Your abundance has supported the want of many that some day their riches may abound to supply your want;hyperlink you have made to yourself "friends of the mammon of unrighteousness that they may receive you into everlasting habitations."hyperlink Such conduct deserves praise and merits to be compared with the virtue of apostolic times. Then, as you know, believers sold their possessions and brought the prices of them and laid them down at the apostles' feet:hyperlink a symbolic act designed to shew that men must trample on covetousness. But the Lord yearns for believers' souls more than for their riches. We read in the Proverbs: "the ransom of a man's soul are his own riches."hyperlink We may, indeed, take a man's own riches to be those which do not come from some one else, or from plunder; according to the precept: "honour God with thy just labours."hyperlink But the sense is better if we understand a man's "own riches" to be those hidden treasures which no thief can steal and no robber wrest from him.hyperlink

5. As for my poor works which from no merits of theirs but simply from your own kindness you say that you desire to have; I have given them to your servants to transcribe, I have seen the paper-copies made by them, and I have repeatedly ordered them to correct them by a diligent comparison with the originals. For so many are the pilgrims passing to and fro that I have been unable to read so many volumes. They have found me also troubled by a long illness from which this Lent I am slowly recovering as they are leaving me. If then you find errors or omissions which interfere with the sense, these you must impute not to me but to your own servants; they are due to the ignorance or carelessness of the copyists, who write down not what they find but what they take to be the meaning, and do but expose their own mistakes when they try to correct those of others. It is a false rumour which has reached you to the effect that I have translated the books of Josephushyperlink and the volumes of the holy men Papiashyperlink and Polycarp.hyperlink I have neither the leisure nor the ability to preserve the charm of these masterpieces in another tongue. Of Origenhyperlink and Didymushyperlink I have translated a few things, to set before my countrymen some specimens of Greek teaching. The canon of the Hebrew verityhyperlink -except the octoteuchhyperlink which I have at present in hand-I have placed at the disposal of your slaves and copyists. Doubtless you already possess the version from the septuaginthyperlink which many years ago I diligently revised for the use of students. The new testament I have restored to the authoritative form of the Greek original.hyperlink For as the true text of the old testament can only be tested by a reference to the Hebrew, so the true text of the new requires for its decision an appeal to the Greek.

6. You ask me whether you ought to fast on the Sabbathhyperlink and to receive the eucharist daily according to the custom-as currently reported-of the churches of Rome and Spain.hyperlink Both these points have been treated by the eloquent Hippolytus,hyperlink and several writers have collected passages from different authors bearing upon them. The best advice that I can give you is this. Church-traditions-especially when they do not run counter to the faith-are to be observed in the form in which previous generations have handed them down; and the use of one church is not to be annulled because it is contrary to that of another.hyperlink As regards fasting, I wish that we could practise it without intermission as-according to the Acts of the Apostleshyperlink -Paul did and the believers with him even in the season of Pentecost and on the Lord's Day. They are not to be accused of manichism, for carnal food ought not to be preferred before spiritual. As regards the holy eucharist you may receive it at all timeshyperlink without qualm of conscience or disapproval from me. You may listen to the psalmist's words:-"O taste and see that the Lord is good;"hyperlink you may sing as he does:-"my heart poureth forth a good word."hyperlink But do not mistake my meaning. You are not to fast on feast-days, neither are you to abstain on the week days in Pentecost.hyperlink In such matters each province may follow its own inclinations, and the traditions which have been handed down should be regarded as apostolic laws.

7. You send me two small cloaks and a sheepskin mantle from your wardrobe and ask me to wear them myself or to give them to the poor. In return I send to you and your sisterhyperlink in the Lord four small haircloths suitable to your religious profession and to your daily needs, for they are the mark of poverty and the outward witness of a continual penitence. To these I have added a manuscript containing Isaiah's ten most obscure visions which I have lately elucidated with a critical commentary. When you look upon these trifles call to mind the friend in whom you delight and hasten the voyage which you have for a time deferred. And because "the way of man is not in himself" but it is the Lord that "directeth his steps;"hyperlink if any hindrance should interfere-I hope none may-to prevent you from coming, I pray that distance may not sever those united in affection and that I may find my Lucinius present in absence through an interchange of letters.

Letter LXXII. To Vitalis.

Vitalis had asked Jerome "Is Scripture credible when it tells us that Solomon and Ahaz became fathers at the age of eleven?" The difficulty had previously occurred to Jerome himself (Letter XXXVI. 10, whence perhaps Vitalis took it) and in this letter he suggests several ways in which it may be met. He is quite prepared, if necessary, to accept the alleged fact on the grounds that "there are many things in Scripture which sound incredible and yet are true" and that "nature cannot resist the Lord of nature" (§2). He is disposed, however, to regard the question as trivial and of no importance. The date of the letter is 398 a.d.



Footnotes



2127 Either a teacher of civil law mentioned by Pliny (viii. 40), or else one of the writers of the Augustan History.



2128 The authority for this is Josephus.



2129 Prov. i. 1-6.



2130 Tit. i. 12.



2131 1 Cor. xv. 33. The line is also attributed to Euripides.



2132 Acts xvii. 28.



2133 Acts xvii. 22.



2134 Cf. 1 Sam. xvii. 50, 1 Sam. xvii. 51.



2135 Deut. xxi. 10-13.



2136 Hos. i. 2-4.



2137 Isa. vii. 20.



2138 Ezek. v. 1-5.



2139 i.e. Lactantius, vide Inst. v. 4.



2140 The author of a polemical treatise against Christianity, fragments of which still persuaded in Origen's reply. He was a Platonist.



2141 A neoplatonist writer who flourished in the third century.



2142 See note on Letter XLVIII.



2143 Contemporary with Eusebius the historian. His Symposium still extant proves him to have been a warm admirer of Plato.



2144 The learned bishop of Caesarea (a.d. 260-340). His Church History and other works are translated or described in Vol. i. of this series.



2145 Probably the learned Bishop of Laodicea, whose views were condemned at Constantinople in 381.



2146 Julian was emperor from a.d. 261 to a.d. 263. He reverted from Christianity to paganism and did all in his power to harass the Church.



2147 According to Theodoret (H. E. iii. 25) Julian's last words were "Though hast conquered, O Galilaean."



2148 A Jew born at Jerusalem a.d. 37. His historical works, still extant, are of great value.



2149 See note on Letter XXII.



2150 The author of an apology for the Christians presented to the Emperor Hadrian. Only small fragments of the work are now extant. See for him and Aristides Jerome's Book on Famous Men, in Vol. iii. of this series, c. xix. xx.



2151 Another Athenian apologist contemporary with Quadratus. His Apology has lately been published. Cambridge, Eng., 1891.



2152 Commonly called Justin Martyr. Born in Samaria of Greek parents, he is said to have undergone martyrdom at Rome. Fl. a.d. 140-150.



2153 Marcus Aurelius and Lucius Verus.



2154 Fl. a.d. 170. He composed an Apology addressed to the Emperor Marcus Aurelius.



2155 A highly esteemed writer, from 171 a.d. onwards, who wrote many treatises, amongst which were an apology addressed to Marcus Aurelius, and several works against Montanism.



2156 Fl. a.d. 171, the writer of several pastoral letters to other churches famous in their day but no longer extant.



2157 See note on Letter XLVIII.



2158 Born at Edessa c. 155 a.d. died 223 a.d. A mystical theologian of a gnostic type who held a high position at the court of the Abgars. His writings have perished.



2159 Bishop of Lyons in the latter half of the second century. He was a native of Asia Minor and his younger days had known Polycarp.



2160 Bishop of Lyons, suffered martyrdom under Marcus Aurelius.



2161 A convert from stoicism to Christianity in the latter part of the second century who as the head of the catechetical school at Alexandria was the instructor of Clement.



2162 Head of the catechetical school at Alexandria a.d. 190-203.



2163 strwmateij.



2164 upotupwseij.



2165 See Letter XXXIII. Of Origen's Miscellanies only a few fragments remain. `They appear to have discussed various topics in the light of ancient philosophy and scripture.


0'-Westcott.



2166 A neoplatonic and neopythagorean philosopher who flourished in the age of the Antonines.



2167 A Stoic philosopher, the friend and teacher of the poet Persius. Having criticised Nero's literary style too freely he was banished by that emperor.



2168 An active Christian writer of the reign of Commodus.



2169 Fl. a.d. 200-225, the first antipope. His Refutation of All Heresies is of great interest and value.



2170 Fl. a.d. 186. accused of being a Christian, he delivered in the senate an apology for the faith.



2171 A writer of the third century who compiled a Chronicle of the world's history from the creation to his own day. It has long since perished.



2172 Surnamed Thaumaturgus or Wonderworker. One of Origen's pupils, he wrote a Panegyric (extant) on his master. Fl. 233-270.



2173 Head of the catechetical school, and afterwards bishop, of Alexandria. He died a.d. 265.



2174 Trained in the school of Alexandria and praised by Eusebius for his great learning.



2175 The intimate friend of Eusebius of Caesarea and founder of the famous library in that city.



2176 See note on Letter XLVIII.



2177 A presbyter of Antioch and apparently a pupil of Malchion. He suffered martyrdom at Nicomedia a.d. 311.



2178 A presbyter of Antioch in the reign of Aurelian. He took part in the proceedings against Paul of Samosata.



2179 See note on above.



2180 Bishop of Antioch at the time of the Nicene Council. One of the earliest and most vigorous opponents of Arianism.



2181 Bishop of Alexandria from a.d. 326 to a.d. 373. The great champion of the diversity of Christ again Arius and the followers.



2182 Flor. a.d. 341-359. After studying at Alexandria he lived for some time at Antioch where he took part in an Arian council.



2183 A famous lawyer of Berytus converted to Christianity by Spyridon a bishop in Cyprus.



2184 Bishop of Amasea in Pontus, a constant student of Demosthenes and himself no mean orator.



2185 An Egyptian bishop the friend of Antony and Athanasius. Some of his writings are still extant.



2186 This bishop is best known through the Emperor Julian's vain attempt to expel him from his see.



2187 a.d. 329-379. Bishop of Caesarea in Cappadocia and a strenuous champion of orthodoxy. His works are still extant.



2188 Gregory of Nazianzus. Bishop of Sasima and for a short time of Constantinople (a.d. 379-381).



2189 Flor. a.d. 350-400. Archbishop of Iconium. A friend of Basil and of Gregory Nazianzen.



2190 An African writer who is his last days became a Montanist. Flor. a.d. 175-225.



2191 A Roman lawyer of the second century. His Apology-a Dialogue entitled Octavius-is extant.



2192 Fl. a.d. 300. A professor of rhetoric at Sicca in Africa and a heathen. He composed his apology to prove the reality of his conversion.



2193 An African rhetorician and apologist of the fourth century. His works are extant.



2194 A celebrated man of letters at Rome in the middle of the fourth century, the story of whose conversion is told in Augustine's Confessions (viii. 2-5).



2195 Bishop of Carthage. He suffered martyrdom a.d. 358. His works are extant.



2196 Bishop of Poitiers (died a.d. 368). A champion of the orthodox faith against Arianism.



2197 A Spanish Christian of the fourth century. His "Story of the Gospels," a life of Christ in hexameter verse, still exists.



2198 For most of the writers mentioned in this section see also Jerome's Book of Famous Men translated in Vol. iii. of this series.



2199 For an account of Epicurus see Letter V. note. He professed to have read but little.



2200 That Rufinus is the person meant is plain from a reference made to this passage in Apol. adv. Rufinum, i. 30 and also from Letter CII. Jerome is however mistaken in connecting this Calpurnius with Sallust. He is mentioned by Plutarch as a treacherous friend. Sallust does mention a certain Calpurinus Bestia, and Jerome has probably confounded the two.



2201 Ps. lv. 6. PBV.



2202 Cant. iii. 1.



2203 Matt. viii. 11.



2204 Acts x. 1.



2205 Rom. xv. 24.



2206 Italy.



2207 Rom. xv. 19.



2208 Acts xxviii. 30.



2209 Utriusque instrumenti aeternam domum. The `twofold record


0' is that of the old and new testaments both of which speak of the church under the figure of a house. For the term "instrument" see note on Letter



2210 Matt. iv. 19.



2211 Cf. Ps. civ. 26.



2212 Ps. lxiii. 1, Ps. lxiii. 2.



2213 Ps. lv. 7, Ps. lv. 8.



2214 Luke ix. 62.



2215 Matt. ix. 20.



2216 Cant. v. 2.



2217 Matt. xxiv. 17, Matt. xxiv. 18.



2218 Gen. xiii. 10.



2219 Jerome quoting from memory substitutes `crown


0' for `prize.


0'



2220 1 Cor. ix. 24.



2221 Ruth i. 14.



2222 Luke xix. 5.



2223 Joh. xii. 2.



2224 Mark xiv. 8.



2225 Matt. xxvi. 6.



2226 Gen. xii. 1.



2227 Ps. xxxix. 12.



2228 Phil. iii. 13.



2229 Ps. lxxxiv. 7.



2230 Matt. xii. 50.



2231 His wife Theodora.



2232 Gen. xxxix. 12.



2233 Mark xiv. 51, Mark xiv. 52.



2234 2 Kings ii. 11, 2 Kings ii. 13.



2235 1 Kings xix. 21.



2236 Ecclus. xiii. 1.



2237 2 Cor. vi. 14, 2 Cor. vi. 15.



2238 Matt. vi. 24.



2239 A disciple of Socrates, subsequently the founder of the Cynic School. Fl. 366 b.c.



2240 See note on Letter LXVI.



2241 Matt. xix. 28.



2242 2 Cor. viii. 14.



2243 Luke xvi. 9.



2244 Acts iv. 34, Acts iv. 35.



2245 Prov. xiii. 8, LXX.



2246 Prov. iii. 9, LXX.



2247 Cf. Matt. vi. 20.



2248 See note on Letter XXII.



2249 A writer of the sub-apostolic age who had been a disciple of the apostle John. He was bishop of Hierapolis in Phrygia.



2250 Another sub-apostolic writer who was also a disciple of John. He became bishop of Smyrna and underwent martyrdom at the age of 86.



2251 See note on Letter XXXIII.



2252 The blind theologian of Alexandria by whose teaching Jerome had himself profited. See Letter XXXIV.



2253 The old testament as translated direct from the Hebrew.



2254 The first eight books.



2255 This work Jerome accomplished between the years 383 and 390 a.d. Only the Psalter and Job are extant.



2256 This task he undertook at the request of pope Damasus in 383 a.d. See Letter XXVII.



2257 i.e. on Saturday.



2258 At this time the communion was celebrated daily at Constantinople, in Africa, and in Spain. At Rome it was celebrated on every day of the week except Saturday (the Sabbath). See Socrates, H.E. v. 22.