that the spirit may be saved." 48 Under the old law he who disobeyed the priests was put outside the camp and stoned by the people, or else he was beheaded and expiated his contempt with his blood. 49 But now the disobedient person is cut down with the spiritual sword, or he is expelled from the Church and torn to pieces by ravening demons. Should the entreaties of your brethren induce you to take orders, I shall rejoice that you are lifted up, and fear lest you may be cast down. You will say: "If a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work." I know that; but you should add what follows: such an one "must be blameless, the husband of one wife, sober, chaste, prudent, well-prepared, given to hospitality, apt to teach, not given to wine, no striker but patient." 50 After fully explaining the qualifications of a bishop the Apostle speaks of ministers of the third degree with equal care. "Likewise must the deacons be chaste," he writes, "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; and then let them minister, being found blameless." 51 Woe to the man who goes in to the supper without a wedding garment. Nothing remains for him but the stern question: "Friend, how camest thou in hither?" And when he is speechless the order will be given to the servants: "Bind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth." 52 Woe to him who, when he has received a talent, has bound it in a napkin; and, whilst others make profits, only preserves what he has received. His angry lord shall rebuke him in a moment. "Thou wicked servant," he will say, "wherefore gavest thou not my money into the bank that at my coming I might have required mine own with usury? 53 That is to say, you should have laid before the altar what you were not able to bear. For whilst you, a slothful trader, keep a penny in your hands, you occupy

49 Deut. 17:5, 12.

48 I Cor. 5:5. 50 I Tim. 3:1-3. Here Jerome has ornatum for the Greek kosmion (otherwise, "orderly") and so still in the Vulgate, translated "of good behaviour" in the Douai Bible, and "well-behaved" by Knox. These seem to go back to the Greek. Labourt renders ornatum here "cultivé"; it can mean, "wellfurnished." For didaktikon, "apt to teach," Jerome has docibilem here, perhaps still understood as "teachable." The Vulgate has doctorem. 51 I Tim. 3:8-10. Here Jerome has pudicos, "chaste," for the Greek, semnous, "grave"; and so also in the Vulgate.

52 Matt. 22:11-13. The Latin here means literally, "Remove him by his hands and feet." "Bind" is not represented.

53 Luke 19:23.

the place of another who might double the money. Wherefore, as he who ministers well purchases to himself a good degree, so he who approaches the cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. 54

9. Not all bishops are bishops indeed. You notice Peter; mark Judas as well. You look up to Stephen; look also on Nicholas, whom in the Apocalypse the Lord abominates, whose wicked and shameful imaginations gave rise to the heresy of the Ophites. 55 "Let a man examine himself and so let him come." 56 For it is not ecclesiastical rank that makes a man a Christian. The centurion Cornelius was still a heathen when the gift of the Holy Spirit was poured out upon him. Daniel was but a child when he judged the elders. 57 Amos was stripping mulberry bushes when, in a moment, he was made a prophet. David was only a shepherd when he was chosen to be king. And the least of his disciples was the one whom Jesus loved the most. My brother, sit down in the lower room, that when one less honourable comes you may be bidden to go up higher. Upon whom does the Lord rest but upon him that is lowly and of a contrite spirit, and that trembleth at his word? To whom God has committed much, of him he will ask the more. "Mighty men shall be mightily tormented." 58 No man need pride himself in the day of judgment on merely physical chastity, for then shall men give account for every idle word, and the reviling of a brother shall be counted as the sin of murder. It is not easy to stand in the place of Paul, or to hold the rank of those who already reign with Christ. There may come an angel to rend the veil of your temple, and to remove your candlestick out of its place. If you intend to build the tower, first count the cost. Salt that has lost its savour is good for nothing but to be cast out and to be trodden under foot of swine. If a monk fall, a priest 59 shall intercede for him; but who shall intercede for a fallen priest?

10. At last my discourse is clear of the reefs; at last this frail bark has passed from the breakers into deep water. I may now spread my sails to the breeze; and, as I leave the rocks of

54 I Tim. 3:13; 1 Cor. 11:27.

55 Rev. 2:6. Nicholas is more usually given as the founder of the Nicolaitans, a Gnostic sect of easy morals. The supposedly similar Ophites were said to worship the serpent.

56 I Cor. 11:28.

57 Susanna (Daniel 13).

58 Wisdom 6:6.

59 Sacerdos, probably bishop, as Jerome has come round again to think of the successors of the apostles. Vallarsi's text, followed by Fremantle (but corrected above), mentions Peter as well as Paul.

controversy astern, my epilogue will be like the joyful shout of mariners. O desert, bright with the flowers of Christ! O solitude whence come the stones of which, in the Apocalypse, the city of the great king is built! 60 O wilderness, gladdened with God's especial presence! What keeps you in the world, my brother, you who are above the world? 61 How long shall gloomy roofs oppress you? How long shall smoky cities immure you? Believe me, I have more light than you. Sweet it is to lay aside the weight of the body and to soar into the pure bright ether. Do you dread poverty? Christ calls the poor blessed. Does toil frighten you? No athlete is crowned but in the sweat of his brow. Are you anxious as regards food? Faith fears no famine. 62 Do you dread the bare ground for limbs wasted with fasting? The Lord lies there beside you. Do you recoil from an unwashed head and uncombed hair? Christ is your head. Does the boundless solitude of the desert terrify you? In the spirit you may walk always in paradise. Do but turn your thoughts thither and you will be no more in the desert. Is your skin rough and scaly because you no longer bathe? He that is once washed in Christ needeth not to wash again. 63 To all your objections the Apostle gives this one brief answer: "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." 64 You are pampered indeed, dearest brother, if you wish to rejoice with the world here, and to reign with Christ hereafter.

11. It shall come, it shall come, that day when this corruptible shall put on incorruption, and this mortal shall put on immortality. 65 Then shall that servant be blessed whom the Lord shall find watching. 66 Then at the sound of the trumpet the earth and its peoples shall tremble, but you shall rejoice. The world shall lament and groan when the Lord comes to judge it, and the tribes of the earth shall smite the breast. Once mighty kings shall shiver in their nakedness. Then shall Jupiter, with all his progeny, indeed be shown in flames; and Plato, with his disciples, will be but a fool. Aristotle's arguments shall be of no avail. You may be a poor man and country bred, but then you shall exult and laugh, and say:

60 Rev. 21:19, 20.

61 Cf. Cyprian, Ad Donatum, 14, fin.

62 Tert., Idol., 12 (p. 96). The rest of the section is based on Cyprian, Ep. 76:2.

63 John 13:10.

65 I Cor. 15:53.

64 Rom. 8:18.

66 Matt. 24:46.

Behold the crucified, my God, behold my judge. This is he who was once an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and crying in a manger. This is he whose parents were a working man and a woman who worked for wages. This is he, who, carried in his mother's bosom, though he was God, fled into Egypt before the face of man. This is he who was clothed in a scarlet robe and crowned with thorns. This is he who was called a sorcerer and a man with a devil and a Samaritan. Jew, behold the hands which you nailed to the cross. Roman, behold the side which you pierced with the spear. See both of you whether it was this body that the disciples stole secretly and by night, as you said. 67

O my brother, if you are to say these words, if you are to see that triumph, what labour can be hard now?

67 Jerome's peroration is based on the peroration to Tertullian's De Spectaculis (§30).

Letter 15: To Pope Damasus

T

INTRODUCTION

I

HIS LETTER WAS NECESSITATED, OR AT LEAST, elicited, by the Antiochene or Meletian schism. Soon after the Council of Nicaea (325) Eustathius, Bishop of Antioch, a staunch champion of the Nicene faith, had been deposed from his see and banished. The next few bishops were somewhat shaky in their faith, from the strictly Nicene point of view, but they were not condemned and most Antiochene Christians accepted them as their lawful bishops. A small group, faithful to Eustathius, held aloof from them and worshipped apart. Their leader was a presbyter, Paulinus, and in theology and terminology they remained consistently Nicene. Although the western Council of Sardica excommunicated Stephen of Antioch in 342, so that Athanasius, when he visited Antioch in 346, communicated with Paulinus, the official bishops were generally accepted in the East until Eudoxius came out openly on the Arian side, and in an extreme form, and was deposed by the Council of Seleucia in 359. He was succeeded by Meletius, nominally Bishop of Sebaste at the time, though he had never taken possession of his see.

Meletius had an Arian past. He had belonged to the“ homoan" group which was content to say that the Son is like the Father, under which formula they could be as orthodox as they liked, or as Arian. Many of them wanted peace. Meletius was presumably expected to maintain the more or less Arian, but not too sharply defined, tradition of the See of Antioch before Eudoxius. However, he at once proclaimed his orthodoxy, preaching before Constantius on Proverbs 8:22 in a way which moved the Emperor to send him off quickly into exile.