Church Fathers: Post-Nicene Fathers Vol 06: 26.01.45 Letters CXXX Part 1

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Church Fathers: Post-Nicene Fathers Vol 06: 26.01.45 Letters CXXX Part 1



TOPIC: Post-Nicene Fathers Vol 06 (Other Topics in this Collection)
SUBJECT: 26.01.45 Letters CXXX Part 1

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Letter CXXX. To Demetrias.

Jerome writes to Demetrias, a highborn lady of Rome who had recently embraced the vocation of a virgin. After narrating her life's history first at Rome and then in Africa, he goes on to lay down rules and principles to guide her in her new life. These which cover the whole field of ascetic practice and include the duties of study, of prayer, of fasting, of obedience, of giving up money for Christ, and of constant industry, are in substance similar to those which thirty years before Jerome had suggested to Eustochium (Letter XXII.). The tone of the letter is however milder and less fanatical; the asceticism recommended is not so severe; there is less of rhapsody and more of common sense. This letter should also be compared with the letter addressed to Demetrias by Pelagius, which is given in Vol. xi. of Jerome's works (Migne's Patr. Lat. xxx. ed.). The date is 414 a.d.

I. Of all the subjects that I have treated from my youth up until now, either with my own pen or that of my secretaries I have dealt with none more difficult than that which now occupies me. I am going to write to Demetrias a virgin of Christ and a lady whose birth and riches make her second to none in the Roman world. If, therefore, I employ language adequate to describe her virtue, I shall be thought to flatter her; and if I suppress some details on the score that they might appear incredible, my reserve will not do justice to her undoubted merits. What am I to do then? I am unequal to the task before me, yet I cannot venture to decline it. Her grandmother and her mother are both women of mark, and they have alike authority to command, faith to seek and perseverance to obtain that which they require. It is not indeed anything very new or special that they ask of me; my wits have often been exercised upon similar themes. What they wish for is that I should raise my voice and bear witness as strongly as I can to the virtues of one who-in the words of the famous oratorhyperlink -is to be praised less for what she is than for what she gives promise of being. Yet, girl though she is, she has a glowing faith beyond her years, and has started from a point at which others think it a mark of signal virtue to leave off.

2. Let detraction stand aloof and envy give way; let no charge of self seeking be brought against me. I write as a stranger to a stranger, at least so far as the personal appearance is concerned. For the inner man finds itself well known by that knowledge whereby the apostle Paul knew the Colossians and many other believers whom he had never seen. How high an esteem I entertain for this virgin, nay more what a miracle of virtue I think her, you may judge by the fact that being occupied in the explanation of Ezekiel's description of the temple-the hardest piece in the whole range of scripture-and finding myself in that part of the sacred edifice wherein is the Holy of Holies and the altar of incense, I have chosen by way of a brief rest to pass from that altar to this, that upon it I might consecrate to eternal chastity a living offering acceptable to Godhyperlink and free from all stain. I am aware that the bishophyperlink has with words of prayer covered her holy head with the virgin's bridal-veil, reciting the while the solemn sentence of the apostle: "I wish to present you all as a chaste virgin to Christ."hyperlink She stood as a queen at his right hand, her clothing of wrought gold and her raiment of needlework.hyperlink Such was the coat of many colours, that is, formed of many different virtues, which Joseph wore; and similar ones were of old the ordinary dress of king's daughters. Thereuponhyperlink the bride herself rejoices and says: "the king hath brought me into his chambers,"hyperlink and the choir of her companions responds: "the king's daughter is all glorious within."hyperlink Thus she is a professed virgin. Still these words of mine will not be without their use. The speed of racehorses is quickened by the applause of spectators; prize fighters are urged to greater efforts by the cries of their backers; and when armies are drawn up for battle and swords are drawn, the general's speech does much to fire his soldiers' valour. So also is it on the present occasion. The grandmother and the mother have planted, but it is I that water and the Lord that giveth the increase.hyperlink

3. It is the practice of the rhetoricians to exalt him who is the subject of their praises by referring to his forefathers and the past nobility of his race, so that a fertile root may make up for barren branches and that you may admire in the stem what you have not got in the fruit. Thus I ought now to recall the distinguished names of the Probi and of the Olybrii, and that illustrious Anician house, the representatives of which have seldom or never been unworthy of the consulship. Or I ought to bring forward Olybrius our virgin's father, whose untimely loss Rome has had to mourn. I fear to say more of him, lest I should intensify the pain of your saintly mother, and lest the commemoration of his virtues should become a renewing of her grief. He was a dutiful son, a loveable husband, a kind master, a popular citizen. He was made consul while still a boy;hyperlink but the goodness of his character made him more illustrious as a senator. He was happy in his deathhyperlink for it saved him from seeing the ruin of his country; and happier still in his offspring, for the distinguished name of his great grandmother Demetrias has become yet more distinguished now that his daughter Demetrias has vowed herself to perpetual chastity.

4. But what am I doing? Forgetful of my purpose and filled with admiration for this young man, I have spoken in terms of praise of mere worldly advantages; whereas I should rather have commended our virgin for having rejected all these, and for having determined to regard herself not as a wealthy or a high born lady, but simply as a woman like other women. Her strength of mind almost passes belief. Though she had silks and jewels freely at her disposal, and though she was surrounded by crowds of eunuchs and serving-women, a bustling household of flattering and attentive domestics, and though the daintiest feasts that the abundance of a large house could supply were daily set before her; she preferred to all these severe fasting, rough clothing, and frugal living. For she had read the words of the Lord: "they that wear soft clothing are in kings" houses."hyperlink She was filled with admiration for the manner of life followed by Elijah and by John the Baptist; both of whom confined and mortified their loins with girdles of skin,hyperlink while the second of them is said to have come in the spirit and power of Elijah as the forerunner of the Lord.hyperlink As such he prophesied while still in his mother's womb,hyperlink and before the day of judgment won the commendation of the Judge.hyperlink She admired also the zeal of Anna the daughter of Phanuel, who continued even to extreme old age to serve the Lord in the temple with prayers and fastings.hyperlink When she thought of the four virgins who were the daughters of Philip,hyperlink she longed to join their band and to be numbered with those who by their virginal purity have attained the grace of prophecy. With these and similar meditations she fed her mind, dreading nothing so much as to offend her grandmother and her mother. Although she was encouraged by their example, she was discouraged by their expressed wish and desire; not indeed that they disapproved of her holy purpose, but that the prize was so great that they did not venture to hope for it, or to aspire to it. Thus this poor novice in Christ's service was sorely perplexed. She came to hate all her fine apparel and cried like Esther to the Lord: "Thou knowest that I abhor the sign of my high estate"-that is to say, the diadem which she wore as queen-"and that I abhor it as a menstruous rag."hyperlink Among the holy and highborn ladies who have seen and known her some have been driven by the tempest which has swept over Africa, from the shores of Gaul to a refuge in the holy places. These tell me that secretly night after night, though no one knew of it but the virgins dedicated to God in her mother's and grandmother's retinue, Demetrias, refusing sheets of linen and beds of down, spread a rug of goat's hair upon the ground and watered her face with ceaseless tears. Night after night she cast herself in thought at the Saviour's knees and implored him to accept her choice, to fulfil her aspiration, and to soften the hearts of her grandmother and of her mother.

5. Why do I still delay to relate the sequel? When her wedding day was now close at hand and when a marriage chamber was being got ready for the bride and bridegroom; secretly without any witnesses and with only the night to comfort her, she is said to have nerved herself with such considerations as these: "What ails you, Demetrias? Why are you so fearful of defending your chastity? What you need is freedom and courage. If you are so panic-stricken in time of peace, what would you do if you were called on to undergo martyrdom? If you cannot bear so much as a frown from your own, how would you steel yourself to face the tribunals of persecutors? If men's examples leave you unmoved, at least gather courage and confidence from the blessed martyr Agneshyperlink who vanquished the temptations both of youth and of a despot and by her martyrdom hallowed the very name of chastity. Unhappy girl! you know not, you know not to whom your virginity is due. It is not long since you have trembled in the hands of the barbarians and clung to your grandmother and your mother cowering under their cloaks for safety. You have seen yourself a prisonerhyperlink and your chastity not in your own power. You have shuddered at the fierce looks of your enemies; you have seen with secret agony the virgins of God ravished. Your city, once the capital of the world, is now the grave of the Roman people; and will you on the shores of Libya, yourself an exile, accept an exile for a husband? Where will you find a matron to be present at your bridal?hyperlink Whom will you get to escort you home? No tongue but a harsh Punic one will sing for you the wanton Fescennine verses.hyperlink Away with all hesitations! `Perfect love' of God `casteth out fear.'hyperlink Take to yourself the shield of faith, the breastplate of righteousness, the helmet of salvation,hyperlink and sally forth to battle. The preservation of your chastity involves a martyrdom of its own. Why do you fear your grandmother? Why do you dread your mother? Perhaps they may themselves wish for you a course which they do not think you wish for yourself." When by these and other arguments she had wrought herself to the necessary pitch of resolution, she cast from her as so many hindrances all her ornaments and worldly attire. Her precious necklaces, costly pearls, and glowing gems she put back in their cases. Then dressing herself in a coarse tunic and throwing over herself a still courser cloak she came in at an unlooked for moment, threw herself down suddenly at her grandmother's knees, and with tears and sobs shewed her what she really was. That staid and holy woman was amazed when she beheld her granddaughter in so strange a dress. Her mother was completely overcome for joy. Both women could hardly believe that true which they had longed to be true. Their voices stuck in their throats,hyperlink and, what with blushing and turning pale, with fright and with joy, they were a prey to many conflicting emotions.

6. I must needs give way here and not attempt to describe what defies description. In the effort to explain the greatness of that joy past all belief, the flow of Tully's eloquence would run dry and the bolts poised and hurled by Demosthenes would become spent and fall short. Whatever mind can conceive or speech can interpret of human gladness was seen then. Mother and child, grandmother and granddaughter kissed each other again and again. The two elder women wept copiously for joy, they raised the prostrate girl, they embraced her trembling form. In her purpose they recognized their own mind, and congratulated each other that now a virgin was to make a noble house more noble still by her virginity. She had found they said, a way to benefit her family and to lessen the calamity of the ruin of Rome Good Jesus! What exultation there was all through the house! Many virgins sprouted out at once as shoots from a fruitful stem, and the example set by their patroness and lady was followed by a host both of clients and servants. Virginity was warmly espoused in every house and although those who made profession of it were as regards the flesh of lower rank than Demetrias they sought one reward with her, the reward of chastity. My words are too weak. Every church in Africa danced for joy. The news reached not only the cities, towns, and villages but even the scattered huts. Every island between Africa and Italy was full of it, the glad tidings ran far and wide, disliked by none. Then Italy put off her mourning and the ruined walls of Rome resumed in part their olden splendour; for they believed the full conversion of their fosterchild to be a sign of God's favour towards them. You would fancy that the Goths had been annihilated and that that concourse of deserters and slaves had fallen by a thunderbolt from the Lord on high. There was less elation in Rome when Marcellus won his first success at Nolahyperlink after thousands of Romans had fallen at the Trebia, Lake Thrasymenus, and Cannae. There was less joy among the nobles cooped up in the capitol, on whom the future of Rome depended, when after buying their lives with gold they heard that the Gauls had at length been routed.hyperlink The news penetrated to the coasts of the East, and this triumph of Christian glory was heard of in the remote cities of the interior. What Christian virgin was not proud to have Demetrias as a companion? What mother did not call Juliana's womb blessed? Unbelievers may scoff at the doubtfulness of rewards to come. Meantime, in becoming a virgin you have gained more than you have sacrificed. Had you become a man's bride but one province would have known of you; while as a Christian virgin you are known to the whole world. Mothers who have but little faith in Christ are unhappily wont to dedicate to virginity only deformed and crippled daughters for whom they can find no suitable husbands. Glass beads, as the saying goes, are thought equal to pearls.hyperlink Men who pride themselves on their religion give to their virgin daughters sums scarcely sufficient for their maintenance, and bestow the bulk of their property upon sons and daughters living in the world. Quite recently in this city a rich presbyter left two of his daughters who were professed virgins with a mere pittance, while he provided his other children with ample means for self-indulgence and pleasure. The same thing has been done, I am sorry to say, by many women who have adopted the ascetic life. Would that such instances were rare, but unfortunately they are not. Yet the more frequent they are the more blessed are those who refuse to follow an example which is set them by so many.

7. All Christians are loud in their praises of Christ's holy yokefellows,hyperlink because they gave to Demetrias when she professed herself a virgin the money which had been set apart as a dowry for her marriage. They would not wrong her heavenly bridegroom; in fact they wished her to come to Him with all her previous riches, that these might not be wasted on the things of the world, but might relieve the distress of God's servants.

Who would believe it? That Proba, who of all persons of high rank and birth in the Roman world bears the most illustrious name, whose holy life and universal charity have won for her esteem even among the barbarians, who has made nothing of the regular consulships enjoyed by her three sons, Probinus, Olybrius, and Probus,- that Proba, I say, now that Rome has been taken and its contents burned or carried off, is said to be selling what property she has and to be making for herself friends of the mammon of unrighteousness, that these may receive her into everlasting habitations!hyperlink Well may the church's ministers, whatever their degree, and those monks who are only monks in name, blush for shame that they are buying estates, when this noble lady is selling them.

Hardly had she escaped from the hands of the barbarians, hardly had she ceased weeping for the virgins whom they had torn from her arms, when she was overwhelmed by a sudden and unbearable bereavement, one too which she had had no cause to fear, the death of her loving son.hyperlink Yet as one who was to be grandmother to a Christian virgin, she bore up against this death-dealing stroke, strong in hope of the future and proving true of herself the words of the lyric:

"Should the round world in fragments burst, its fall

May strike the just, may slay, but not appal."hyperlink

We read in the book of Job how, while the first messenger of evil was yet speaking, there came also another;hyperlink and in the same book it is written: "is there not a temptation"-or as the Hebrew better gives it-"a warfare to man upon earth?"hyperlink It is for this end that we labour, it is for this end that we risk our lives in the warfare of this world, that we may be crowned in the world to come. That we should believe this to be true of men is nothing wonderful, for even the Lord Himself was tempted,hyperlink and of Abraham the scripture bears witness that God tempted him.hyperlink It is for this reason also that the apostle says: "we glory in tribulations.... knowing that tribulation worketh patience; and patience experience; and experience hope; and hope maketh not ashamed;"hyperlink and in another passage: "Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation or distress or persecution or famine or nakedness or peril or sword? As it is written, For thy sake we are killed all the day long; we are accounted as sheep for the slaughter."hyperlink The prophet Isaiah comforts those in like case in these words: "ye that are weaned from the milk, ye that are drawn from the breasts, look for tribulation upon tribulation, but also for hope upon hope."hyperlink For, as the apostle puts it "the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory which shall be revealed in us."hyperlink Why I have here brought together all these passages the sequel will make plain.

Proba who had seen from the sea the smoke of her native city and had committed her own safety and that of those dear to her to a fragile boat, found the shores of Africa even more cruel than those which she had left. For onehyperlink lay in wait for her of whom it would be hard to say whether he was more covetous or heartless, one who cared for nothing but wine and money, one who under pretence of serving the mildest of emperorshyperlink stood forth as the most savage of all despots. If I may be allowed to quote a fable of the poets, he was like Orcushyperlink in Tartarus. Like him too he had with him a Cerberus,hyperlink not three headed but many headed, ready to seize and rend everything within his reach. He tore betrothed daughters from their mothers'armshyperlink and sold high-born maidens in marriage to those greediest of men, the merchants of Syria. No plea of poverty induced him to spare either ward or widow or virgin dedicated to Christ. Indeed he looked more at the hands than at the faces of those who appealed to him. Such was the dread Charybdis and such the hound-girt Scylla which this lady encountered in fleeing from the barbarians; monsters who neither spared the shipwrecked nor heeded the cry of those made captive. Cruel wretch!hyperlink at least imitate the enemy of the Roman Empire. The Brennus of our dayhyperlink took only what he found, but you seek what you cannot find.

Virtue, indeed, is always exposed to envy, and cavillers may marvel at the secret agreement by which Proba purchased the chastity of her numerous companions. They may allege that the count who could have taken all would not have been satisfiedhyperlink with a part; and that she could not have questioned his claim since in spite of her rank she was but a slave in his despotic hands. I perceive also that I am laying myself open to the attacks of enemies and that I may seem to be flattering a lady of the highest birth and distinction. Yet these men will not be able to accuse me when they learn that hitherto I have said nothing about her. I have never either in the lifetime of her husband or since his decease praised her for the antiquity of her family or for the extent of her wealth and power, subjects which others might perhaps have improved in mercenary speeches. My purpose is to praise the grandmother of my virgin in a style befitting the church, and to thank her for having aided with her goodwill the desire which Demetrias has formed. For the rest my cell, my food and clothing, my advanced years, and my narrow circumstances sufficiently refute the charge of flattery. In What remains of my letter I shall direct all my words to Demetrias herself, whose holiness ennobles her as much as her rank, and of whom it may be said that the higher she climbs the more terrible will be her fall.

For the rest

This one thing, child of God, I lay on thee;

Yea before all, and urge it many times:hyperlink

Love to occupy your mind with the reading of scripture. Do not in the good ground of your breast gather only a crop of darnel and wild oats. Do not let an enemy sow tares among the wheat when the householder is asleephyperlink (that is when the mind which ever cleaves to God is off its guard); but say always with the bride in the song of songs: "By night I sought him whom my soul loveth. Tell me where thou feedest, where thou makest thy flock to rest at noon;"hyperlink and with the psalmist: "my soul followeth hard after thee: thy right hand upholdeth me;"hyperlink and with Jeremiah: "I have not found it hard.... to follow thee,"hyperlink for "there is no grief in Jacob neither is there travail in Israel."hyperlink When you were in the world you loved the things of the world. You rubbed your cheeks with rouge and used whitelead to improve your complexion. You dressed your hair and built up a tower on your head with tresses not your own. I shall say nothing of your costly earrings, your glistening pearls from the depths of the Red Sea,hyperlink your bright green emeralds, your flashing onyxes, your liquid sapphires,-tones which turn the heads of matrons, and make them eager to possess the like. For you have relinquished the world and besides your baptismal vow have taken a new one; you have entered into a compact with your adversary and have said: "I renounce thee, O devil, and thy world and thy pomp and thy works." Observe, therefore, the treaty that you have made, and keep terms with your adversary while you are in the way of this world. Otherwise he may some day deliver you to the judge and prove that you have taken what is his; and then the judge will deliver you to the officer-at once your foe and your avenger-and you will be cast into prison; into that outer darknesshyperlink which surrounds us with the greater horror as it severs us from Christ the one true light.hyperlink And you shall by no means come out thence till you have paid the uttermost farthing,hyperlink that is, till you have expiated your most trifling sins; for we shall give account of every idle word in the day of judgment.hyperlink

8. In speaking thus I do not wish to utter an ill-omened prophecy against you but only to warn you as an apprehensive and prudent monitor who in your case fears even what is safe. What says the scripture? "If the spirit of the ruler rise up against thee, leave not thy place."hyperlink We must always stand under arms and in battle array, ready to engage the foe. When he tries to dislodge us from our position and to make us fall back, we must plant our feet firmly down, and say with the psalmist, "he hath set my feet upon a rock"hyperlink and "the rocks are a refuge for the conies."hyperlink In this latter passage for `conies' many read `hedgehogs.' Now the hedgehog is a small animal, very shy, and covered over with thorny bristles. When Jesus was crowned with thorns and bore our sins and suffered for us, it was to make the roses of virginity and the lilies of chastity grow for us out of the brambles and briers which have formed the lot of women since the day when it was said to Eve, "in sorrow thou shalt bring forth children; and thy desire shall be to thy husband and he shall rule over thee."hyperlink We are told that the bridegroom feeds among the lilies,hyperlink that is, among those who have not defiled their garments, for they have remained virginshyperlink and have hearkened to the precept of the Preacher: "let thy garments be always white."hyperlink As the author and prince of virginity He says boldly of Himself: "I am the rose of Sharon and the lily of the valleys."hyperlink "The rocks" then "are a refuge for the tonics" who when they are persecuted in one city flee into anotherhyperlink and have no fear that the prophetic words "refuge failed me"hyperlink will he fulfilled in their case. "The high hills are a refuge for the wildgoats,"hyperlink and their food are the serpents which a little child draws out of their holes. Meanwhile the leopard lies down with the kid and the lion eats straw like the ox;hyperlink not of course that the ox may learn ferocity from the lion but that the lion may learn docility from the OX.

But let us turn back to the passage first quoted, "If the spirit of the ruler rise up against thee, leave not thy place," a sentence which is followed by these words: "for yielding pacifieth great offences."hyperlink The meaning is, that if the serpent finds his way into your thoughts you must "keep your heart with all diligence"hyperlink and sing with David, "cleanse thou me from secret faults keep back thy servant also from presumptuous sins," and come not to "the great transgression"hyperlink which is sin in act. Rather slay the allurements to vice while they are still only thoughts; and dash the little ones of the daughter of Babylon against the stoneshyperlink where the serpent can leave no trail. Be wary and vow a vow unto the Lord: "let them not have dominion over me: then shall I be upright and I shall be innocent from the great transgression."hyperlink For elsewhere also the scripture testifies, "I will visit the iniquity of the fathers upon the children unto the third and fourth generation."hyperlink That is to say, God will not punish us at once for our thoughts and resolves but will send retribution upon their offspring, that is, upon the evil deeds and habits of sin which arise out of them. As He says by the mouth of Amos: "for three transgressions of such and such a city and for four I will not turn away the punishment thereof."hyperlink

9. I cull these few flowers in passing from the fair field of the holy scriptures. They will suffice to warn you that you must shut the door of your breast and fortify your brow by often making the sign of the cross. Thus alone will the destroyer of Egypt find no place to attack you; thus alone will the first-born of your soul escape the fate of the first-born of the Egyptians;hyperlink thus alone will you be able with the prophet to say: "my heart is fixed, O God, my heart is fixed; I will sing and give praise. Awake up, my glory; awake, psaltery and harp."hyperlink For, sin stricken as she is, even Tyre is bidden to take up her harphyperlink and to do penance; like Peter she is told to wash away the stains of her former foulness with bitter tears. Howbeit, let us know nothing of penitence, lest the thought of it lead us into sin. It is a plank for those who have had the misfortune to be shipwrecked;hyperlink but an inviolate virgin may hope to save the ship itself. For it is one thing to look for what you have cast away, and another to keep what you have never lost. Even the apostle kept under his body and brought it into subjection, lest having preached to others he might himself become a castaway.hyperlink Heated with the violence of sensual passion he made himself the spokesman of the human race: "O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" and again, "I know that in me, that is in my flesh, dwelleth no good thing: for to will is present with me; but how to perform that which is good, I find not. For the good that I would, I do not: but the evil which I would not, that I do;"hyperlink and once more: "they that are in the flesh cannot please God. But ye are not in the flesh, but in the spirit, if so be that the spirit of God dwell in you."hyperlink

10. After you have paid the most careful attention to your thoughts, you must then put on the armour of fasting and sing with David: "I chastened my soul with fasting,"hyperlink and "I have eaten ashes like bread,"hyperlink and "as for me when they troubled me my clothing was sackcloth."hyperlink Eye was expelled from paradise because she had eaten of the forbidden fruit. Elijah on the other hand after forty days of fasting was carried in a fiery chariot into heaven. For forty days and forty nights Moses lived by the intimate converse which he had with God, thus proving in his own case the complete truth of the saying, "man doth not live by bread only but by every word that proceedeth out of the mouth of the Lord."hyperlink The Saviour of the world, who in His virtues and His mode of life has left us an example to follow,hyperlink was, immediately after His baptism, taken up by the spirit that He might contend with the devil,hyperlink and after crushing him and overthrowing him might deliver him to his disciples to trample under foot. For what says the apostle? "God shall bruise Satan under your feet shortly."hyperlink And yet after the Saviour had fasted forty days, it was through food that the old enemy laid a snare for him, saying, "If thou be the Son of God, command that these stones be made bread."hyperlink Under the law, in the seventh month after the blowing of trumpets and on the tenth day of the month, a fast was proclaimed for the whole Jewish people, and that soul was cut off from among his people which on that day preferred self-indulgence to self-denial.hyperlink In Job it is written of behemoth that "his strength is in his loins, and his force is in the navel of his belly."hyperlink Our foe uses the heat of youthful passion to tempt young men and maidens and "sets on fire the wheel of our birth."hyperlink He thus fulfils the words of Hosea, "they are all adulterers, their heart is like an oven;"hyperlink an oven which only God's mercy and severe fasting can extinguish. These are "the fiery darts"hyperlink with which the devil wounds men and sets them on fire, and it was these which the king of Babylon used against the three children. But when he made his fire forty-nine cubits highhyperlink he did but turn to his own ruinhyperlink the seven weeks which the Lord had appointed for a time of salvation.hyperlink And as then a fourth bearing a form like the son of God slackened the terrible heathyperlink and cooled the flames of the blazing fiery furnace, until, menacing as they looked, they became quite harmless, so is it now with the virgin soul. The dew of heaven and severe fasting quench in a girl the flame of passion and enable her soul even in its earthly tenement to live the angelic life. Therefore the chosen vesselhyperlink declares that concerning virgins he has no commandment of the Lord.hyperlink For you must act against nature or rather above nature if you are to forswear your natural function, to cut off your own root, to cull no fruit but that of virginity, to abjure the marriage-bed, to shun intercourse with men, and while in the body to live as though out of it.

Footnotes



3613 Cicero in his Dialogue on the Republic. Cf. Or. xxx.



3614 Rom. xii. 1.



3615 Pontifex.



3616 2 Cor. xi. 2.



3617 Ps. xlv. 9, Ps. xlv. 13, Ps. xlv. 14.



3618 i.e. After receiving the veil.



3619 Cant. i. 4.



3620 Ps. xlv. 13.



3621 1 Cor. iii. 6.



3622 In the year 395 a.d.



3623 Which took place before the fall of Rome in 410 a.d.



3624 Matt. xi. 8.



3625 2 Kings i. 8: Matt. iii. 4.



3626 Matt. xi. 14: Luke i. 17.



3627 Luke i. 41.



3628 Matt. xi. 7-14. Jerome here borrows a phrase from Cyprian, de Op. et El. xv.



3629 Luke ii. 36, Luke ii. 37.



3630 Acts xxi. 9.



3631 Esther xiv. 16.



3632 A virgin 13 years old beheaded at Rome uncier Diocletian after vain efforts first made to overcome her faith by subjecting herto assault and outrage.



3633 See §7 for the cruelties of the Count Heraelian.



3634 Quam habitura pronubam?



3635 Wedding songs so called from the place of their origin, Fescennia in Etruria. See Catullus LXI. for the several customs here mentioned.



3636 1 John iv. 18.



3637 Eph. vi. 14-17.



3638 Virg., A. ii. 774.



3639 Over Hannibal, b.c. 216. Jerome is quoting from Cicero, Brutus, III.



3640 The reference is to the siege of the Capitol by Brennus and the Gauls, b.c. 390.



3641 See note on Letter LXXIX.



3642 i.e. Juliana and Proba, the mother and grandmother of Demetrias.



3643 Luke xvi. 9.



3644 i.e. Olybrius, the father of Demetrias.



3645 Horace, Carm. iii. 3. 7, 8.



3646 Job 1. 16.



3647 Job vii. 1.



3648 Matt. iv. 1, sqq.



3649 Gen. xxii. 1.



3650 Rom. v. 3-5.



3651 Rom. viii. 35, Rom. viii. 36.



3652 Isa. xxviii. 9, 10, LXX.



3653 Rom. viii. 18.



3654 Heraclian, Count of Africa.



3655 Honorius.



3656 i.e. Pluto, king of the lower world.



3657 Sabinus, the son-in-law of Heraclian.



3658 Virg., A. x. 79.



3659 Jerome here apostrophizes Heraclian.



3660 Alaric the Goth.



3661 Reading dedignatus for dignatus.



3662 Virg., A. iii. 435.



3663 Matt. xiii. 25.



3664 Cant. iii. 1: Cant. i. 7.



3665 Ps. lxiii. 8.



3666 Jer. xvii. 16, LXX.



3667 Nu. xxiii. 21, LXX.



3668 i.e. The Indian Ocean.



3669 Matt. viii. 12.



3670 Joh. viii. 12.



3671 Matt. v. 25, Matt. v. 26.



3672 Matt. xii. 36.



3673 Eccles. x. 4. Jerome takes `the ruler


0' to be the devil.



3674 Ps. xl. 2.



3675 Ps. civ. 18.



3676 Gen. iii. 16.



3677 Cant. ii. 16.



3678 Rev. xiv. 4.



3679 Eccles. ix. 8.



3680 Cant. ii. 1.



3681 Matt. x. 23.



3682 Ps. cxlii. 4.



3683 Ps. civ. 18.



3684 Isa. xi. 6-8.



3685 Eccles. x. 4.



3686 Prov. iv. 23.



3687 Ps. xix. 12-14.



3688 Ps. cxxxvii. 9.



3689 Ps. xix. 13.



3690 Nu. xiv. 18.



3691 Amos i. 3.



3692 Exod. xii. 23, Exod. xii. 20.



3693 Ps. lvii. 7, Ps. lvii. 8.



3694 Isa. xxiii. 15, Isa. xxiii. 16.



3695 See Letter CXXII.



3696 1 Cor. ix. 27.



3697 Rom. vii. 24, Rom. vii. 18, Rom. vii. 19.



3698 Rom. viii. 8, Rom. viii. 9.



3699 Ps. lxix. 10.



3700 Ps. cii. 9.



3701 Ps. xxxv. 13, Vulg.



3702 Deut. viii. 3.



3703 Joh. xiii. 15: 1 Pet. ii. 21.



3704 Matt. iv. 1.



3705 Rom. xvi. 20.



3706 Matt. iv. 3.



3707 Lev. xxiii. 27, Lev. xxiii. 29.



3708 Job xl. 16. Cf. Letter XXII.



3709 Jas. iii. 6, R.V. marg.



3710 Hos. vii. 4, Vulg.



3711 Eph. vi. 16.



3712 Song of the Three Holy Children, 24.



3713 Dan. iv. 16, Dan. iv. 25, Dan. iv. 32.



3714 Lev. xxv. 8.



3715 Dan. iii. 25.



3716 Acts ix. 15.