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Letter
CXXV. To Rusticus.
Rusticus, a young monk of Toulouse, (to be carefully
distinguished from the recipient of Letter CXXII.) is advised by Jerome
not to become an anchorite but to continue in a community. Rules are
suggested for the monastic life and a vivid picture is drawn of the
difference between a good monk and a bad. Incidentally Jerome indulges
his spleen against his dead opponent Rufinus (§18). The date of
the letter is 411 a.d.
1. No man is happier than the Christian, for to him is
promised the kingdom of heaven. No man struggles harder than he, for he
goes daily in danger of his life. No man is stronger, for he overcomes
the Devil. No man is weaker, for he is overcome by the flesh. Both
pairs of statements can be proved by many examples. For instance, the
robber believes upon the cross and immediately hears the assuring
words: “verily I say unto thee, To-day shalt thou be with me in
paradise:”3397
while Judas
falls from the pinnacle of the apostolate into the abyss of perdition.
Neither the close intercourse of the banquet nor the dipping of the
sop3398
nor the Lord’s gracious kiss3399
can save him from betraying as man Him
whom he had known as the Son of God. Could any one have been viler 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 that Messiah
by the well, whom the Jews failed to recognize in the temple; she
brought salvation to many and, while the apostles were away buying
food, refreshed the Saviour’s hunger and relieved His
weariness.3400
Was ever man wiser than Solomon? Yet
love for women made even him foolish. Salt is good, and every offering
must be sprinkled with it.3401
Wherefore also
the apostle has given commandment: “let your speech be alway with
grace, seasoned with salt.”3402
But
“if the salt have lost his savour,” it is cast out.3403
And so utterly does it lose its value
that it is not even fit for the dunghill,3404
whence believers fetch manure to enrich the barren soil of their
souls.
I begin thus, Rusticus my son, to teach you the greatness of your enterprise and the
loftiness of your ideal; and to shew you that only by trampling under
foot youthful lusts can you hope to climb the heights of true maturity.
For the path along which you walk is a slippery one and the glory of
success is less than the shame of failure.
2. I need not now conduct the stream of my discourse
through the meadows of virtue, nor exert myself to shew to you the
beauty of its several flowers. I need not dilate on the purity of the
lily, the modest blush of the rose, the royal purple of the violet, or
the promise of glowing gems which their various colours hold out. For
through the mercy of God you have already put your hand to the
plough;3405
you have already gone up upon the
housetop like the apostle Peter.3406
Who when he
became hungry among the Jews had his hunger satisfied by the faith of
Cornelius, and stilled the craving caused by their unbelief through the
conversion of the centurion and other Gentiles. By the vessel let down
from heaven to earth, the four corners of which typified the four
gospels, he was taught that all men can be saved. Once more, this fair
white sheet which in his vision was taken up again was a symbol of the
church which carries believers from earth to heaven, an assurance that
the Lord’s promise should be fulfilled: “blessed are the
pure in heart, for they shall see God.”3407
All this means that I take you by the hand and do my
best to impress certain facts upon your mind; that, like a skilled
sailor who has been through many shipwrecks, I am anxious to caution an
inexperienced passenger of the risks before him. For on one side is the
Charybdis of covetousness, “the root of all evil;”3408
and on the other lurks the Scylla of
detraction girt with the railing hounds of which the apostle says:
“if ye bite and devour one another, take heed that ye be not
consumed one of another.”3409
Sometimes,
you must know, the quicksands of vice3410
suck us down as we sail at ease through the calm water; and the desert
of this world is not untenanted by venomous reptiles.
3. Those who navigate the Red Sea—where we must
pray that the true Pharaoh may be drowned with all his host—have
to encounter many difficulties and dangers before they reach the city
of Auxuma.3411
| 3411 An important city
of Abyssinia in Jerome’s day, 120 miles from the Red Sea. It is
now in ruins. | Nomad savages and ferocious wild
beasts haunt the shores on either side. Thus travellers must be always
armed and on the alert, and they must carry with them a whole
year’s provisions. Moreover, so full are the waters of hidden
reefs and impassable shoals that a look-out has constantly to be kept
from the masthead to direct the helmsman how to shape his course. They
may count themselves fortunate if after six months they make the port
of the above-mentioned city. At this point the ocean begins, to cross
which a whole year hardly suffices. Then India is reached and the river
Ganges—called in holy scripture Pison—“which
compasseth the whole land of Havilah”3412
and is said to carry down with
it—from its source in paradise—various dyes and pigments.
Here are found rubies and emeralds, glowing pearls and gems of the
first water, such as high born ladies passionately desire. There are
also mountains of gold which however men cannot approach by reason of
the griffins, dragons, and huge monsters which haunt them; for such are
the guardians which avarice needs for its treasures.
4. What, you ask, is the drift of all this? Surely it is
clear enough. For if the merchants of the world undergo such hardships
to win a doubtful and passing gain, and if after seeking it through
many dangers they only keep it at risk of their lives; what should
Christ’s merchant do who “selleth all that he hath”
that he may acquire the “one pearl of great price;” who
with his whole substance buys a field that he may find therein a
treasure which neither thief can dig up nor robber carry away?3413
5. I know that I must offend large numbers who will be
angry with my criticisms as aimed at their own deficiencies. Yet such
anger does but shew an uneasy conscience and they will pass a far
severer sentence on themselves than on me. For I shall not mention
names; or copy the licence of the old comedy3414
| 3414 The Old Comedy at
Athens ridiculed citizens by name. Most of the extant plays of
Aristophanes belong to it. | which criticized individuals. Wise men
and wise women will try to hide or rather to correct whatever they
perceive to be amiss in them; they will be more angry with themselves
than with me, and will not be disposed to heap curses upon the head of
their monitor. For he, although he is liable to the same charges, is
certainly superior in this that he is discontented with his own
faults.
6. I am told that your mother is a religious woman, a
widow of many years’ standing; and that when you were a child she
reared and taught you herself. Afterwards when you had spent some time
in the flourishing schools of Gaul she sent you to Rome, sparing no
expense and consoling herself for your absence by the thought of the
future that lay before you. She hoped to see the exuberance and glitter of your Gallic eloquence toned
down by Roman sobriety, for she saw that you required the rein more
than the spur. So we are told of the greatest orators of Greece that
they seasoned the bombast of Asia with the salt of Athens and pruned
their vines when they grew too fast. For they wished to fill the
wine-press of eloquence not with the tendrils of mere words but with
the rich grape-juice of good sense. Your mother has done the same thing
for you; you should, therefore, look up to her as a parent, love her as
a tender nurse, and venerate her as a saint. You must not imitate those
who leave their own relations and pay court to strange women. Their
infamy is apparent to all, for what they aim at under the pretence of
pure affection3415
is simply
illicit intercourse. I know some women of riper years, indeed a good
many, who, finding pleasure in their young freedmen, make them their
spiritual children and thus, pretending to be mothers to them,
gradually overcome their own sense of shame and allow themselves in the
licence of marriage. Other women desert their maiden sisters and unite
themselves to strange widows. There are some who hate their parents and
have no affection for their kin. Their state of mind is indicated by a
restlessness which disdains excuses; they rend the veil of chastity and
put it aside like a cobweb. Such are the ways of women; not, indeed,
that men are any better. For there are persons to be seen who (for all
their girded loins, sombre garb, and long beards) are inseparable from
women, live under one roof with them, dine in their company, have young
girls to wait upon them, and, save that they do not claim to be called
husbands, are as good as married. Still it is no fault of Christianity
that a hypocrite falls into sin; rather, it is the confusion of the
Gentiles that the churches condemn what is condemned by all good
men.
7. But if for your part you desire to be a monk and not
merely to seem one, be more careful of your soul than of your property;
for in adopting a religious profession you have renounced this once for
all. Let your garments be squalid to shew that your mind is white; and
your tunic coarse to prove that you despise the world. But give not way
to pride lest your dress and language be found at variance. Baths
stimulate the senses and must, therefore, be avoided; for to quench
natural heat is the aim of chilling fasts. Yet even these must be
moderate, for, if they are carried to excess, they weaken the stomach
and by making more food necessary to it promote indigestion, that
fruitful parent of unclean desires. A frugal and temperate diet is good
for both body and soul.
See your mother as often as you please but not with
other women, for their faces may dwell in your thoughts and so
A secret wound may fester in your breast.3416
The maidservants who attend upon her you must regard as
so many snares laid to entrap you; for the lower their condition is the
more easy is it for you to effect their ruin. John the Baptist had a
religious mother and his father was a priest.3417
Yet neither his mother’s
affection nor his father’s wealth could induce him to live in his
parents’ house at the risk of his chastity. He lived in the
desert, and seeking Christ with his eyes refused to look at anything
else. His rough garb, his girdle made of skins, his diet of locusts and
wild honey3418
were all alike designed to
encourage virtue and continence. The sons of the prophets, who were the
monks of the Old Testament, built for themselves huts by the waters of
Jordan and forsaking the crowded cities lived in these on pottage and
wild herbs.3419
As long as you are at home make
your cell your paradise,3420
gather there the
varied fruits of scripture, let this be your favourite companion, and
take its precepts to your heart. If your eye offend you or your foot or
your hand, cast them from you.3421
To spare your
soul spare nothing else. The Lord says: “whosoever looketh on a
woman to lust after her hath committed adultery with her already in his
heart.”3422
“Who can
say,” writes the wise man, “I have made my heart
clean?”3423
The stars are
not pure in the Lord’s sight; how much less men whose whole life
is one long temptation.3424
Woe be to us
who commit fornication every time that we cherish lust. “My
sword,” God says, “hath drunk its fill in heaven;”3425
much more then upon the earth with its
crop of thorns and thistles.3426
The chosen
vessel3427
who had Christ’s name ever
on his lips kept under his body and brought it into subjection.3428
Yet even he was hindered by carnal
desire and had to do what he would not. As one suffering violence he
cries: “O wretched man that I am! who shall deliver me from the
body of this death?”3429
Is it likely
then that you can pass without fall or wound, unless you keep your
heart with all diligence,3430
and say with
the Saviour: “my mother and my brethren are these which hear the
word of God and do it.”3431
This may seem
cruelty, but it is really affection. What greater proof, indeed, can there be of
affection than to guard for a holy mother a holy son? She too desired
your eternal welfare and is content to forego seeing you for a time
that she may see you for ever with Christ. She is like Hannah who
brought forth Samuel not for her own solace but for the service of the
tabernacle.3432
The sons of Jonadab, we are told, drank neither wine nor
strong drink and dwelt in tents pitched wherever night overtook them.3433
According to the psalter they were
the first to undergo captivity; for, when the Chaldæans began to
ravage Judah they were compelled to take refuge in cities.3434
| 3434 See Letter
LVIII. § 5 and note there. |
8. Others may think what they like and follow each his
own bent. But to me a town is a prison and solitude paradise. Why do we
long for the bustle of cities, we whose very name speaks of
loneliness?3435
| 3435 An allusion to
the word ‘monachus,’ ‘solitary’ or
‘monk.’ | To fit him for the leadership of
the Jewish people Moses was trained for forty years in the
wilderness;3436
and it was not till after these
that the shepherd of sheep became a shepherd of men. The apostles were
fishers on lake Gennesaret before they became “fishers of
men.”3437
But at the Lord’s call
they forsook all that they had, father, net, and ship, and bore their
cross daily without so much as a rod in their hands.
I say these things that, in case you desire to enter the
ranks of the clergy, you may learn what you must afterwards teach, that
you may offer a reasonable sacrifice3438
to
Christ, that you may not think yourself a finished soldier while still
a raw recruit, or suppose yourself a master while you are as yet only a
learner. It does not become one of my humble abilities to pass judgment
upon the clergy or to speak to the discredit of those who are ministers
in the churches. They have their own rank and station and must keep it.
If ever you become one of them my published letter to Nepotian3439
will teach you the mode of life
suitable to you in that vocation. At present I am dealing with the
forming and training of a monk; of one too who has put the yoke of
Christ upon his neck after receiving a liberal education in his younger
days.
9. The first point to be considered is whether you ought
to live by yourself or in a monastery with others.3440
| 3440 Cf. Letter CXXX.
§ 17. | For my part I should like you to have the
society of holy men so as not to be thrown altogether on your
resources. For if you set out upon a road that is new to you without a
guide, you are sure to turn aside immediately either to the right or to
the left, to lay yourself open to the assaults of error, to go too far
or else not far enough, to weary yourself with running too fast or to
loiter by the way and to fall asleep. In loneliness pride quickly
creeps upon a man: if he has fasted for a little while and has seen no
one, he fancies himself a person of some note; forgetting who he is,
whence he comes, and whither he goes, he lets his thoughts riot within
and outwardly indulges in rash speech. Contrary to the apostle’s
wish he judges another man’s servants,3441
puts forth his hand to grasp whatever
his appetite desires, sleeps as long he pleases, fears nobody, does
what he likes, fancies everyone inferior to himself, spends more of his
time in cities than in his cell, and, while with the brothers he
affects to be retiring, rubs shoulders with the crowd in the streets.
What then, you will say? Do I condemn a solitary life? By no means: in
fact I have often commended it. But I wish to see the monastic schools
turn out soldiers who have no fear of the rough training of the desert,
who have exhibited the spectacle of a holy life for a considerable
time, who have made themselves last that they might be first, who have
not been overcome by hunger or satiety, whose joy is in poverty, who
teach virtue by their garb and mien, and who are too conscientious to
invent—as some silly men do—monstrous stories of struggles
with demons, designed to magnify their heroes in the eyes of the crowd
and before all to extort money from it.
10. Quite recently we have seen to our sorrow a fortune
worthy of Crœsus brought to light by a monk’s death, and a
city’s alms, collected for the poor, left by will to his sons and
successors. After sinking to the bottom the iron has once more floated
upon the surface,3442
and men have
again seen among the palm-trees the bitter waters of Marah.3443
In this there is, however, nothing
strange, for the man had for his companion and teacher one who turned
the hunger of the needy into a source of wealth for himself and kept
back sums left to the miserable to his own subsequent misery. Yet their
cry came up to heaven and entering God’s ears overcame His
patience. Wherefore, He sent an angel of woe to say to this new
Carmelite, this second Nabal,3444
“Thou
fool, this night thy soul shall be required of thee: then whose shall
those things be which thou hast provided?”3445
11. If I wish you then not to live with your mother, it
is for the reasons given above, and above all for the two following. If
she offers you delicacies to eat, you will grieve her by refusing them;
and if you take them, you will add fuel to the flame that already burns
within you. Again in a house where
there are so many girls you will see in the daytime sights that will
tempt you at night. Never take your hand or your eyes off your book;
learn the psalms word for word, pray without ceasing,3446
be always on the alert, and let no vain
thoughts lay hold upon you. Direct both body and mind to the Lord,
overcome wrath by patience, love the knowledge of scripture, and you
will no longer love the sins of the flesh. Do not let your mind become
a prey to excitement, for if this effects a lodgment in your breast it
will have dominion over you and will lead you into the great
transgression.3447
Always have
some work on hand, that the devil may find you busy. If apostles who
had the right to live of the Gospel3448
laboured with their own hands that they might be chargeable to no
man,3449
| 3449 1 Thess. ii. 9; 1 Cor. iv. 12. | and bestowed relief upon others whose
carnal things they had a claim to reap as having sown unto them
spiritual things;3450
why do you not
provide a supply to meet your needs? Make creels of reeds or weave
baskets out of pliant osiers. Hoe your ground; mark out your garden
into even plots; and when you have sown your cabbages or set your
plants convey water to them in conduits; that you may see with your own
eyes the lovely vision of the poet:
Art draws fresh water from the hilltop near
Till the stream plashing down among the rocks
Cools the parched meadows and allays their thirst.3451
| 3451 Virg., G. i.
108–10. |
Graft unfruitful stocks with buds and slips that you may shortly be
rewarded for your toil by plucking sweet apples from them. Construct
also hives for bees, for to these the proverbs of Solomon send you,3452
and you may learn from the tiny
creatures how to order a monastery and to discipline a kingdom. Twist
lines too for catching fish, and copy books; that your hand may earn
your food and your mind may be satisfied with reading. For “every
one that is idle is a prey to vain desires.”3453
In Egypt the monasteries make it a rule
to receive none who are not willing to work; for they regard labour as
necessary not only for the support of the body but also for the
salvation of the soul. Do not let your mind stray into harmful
thoughts, or, like Jerusalem in her whoredoms, open its feet to every
chance comer.3454
12. In my youth when the desert walled me in with its
solitude I was still unable to endure the promptings of sin and the
natural heat of my blood; and, although I tried by frequent fasts to
break the force of both, my mind still surged with [evil] thoughts.3455
| 3455 Cf. Letter XXII.
§ 7. | To subdue its turbulence I betook myself
to a brother3456
| 3456 In Letter XVIII.
§ 10 Jerome speaks of his teacher as one so learned in the Hebrew
language that the very scribes regarded him as a Chaldæan
(i.e., as a graduate of the Babylonian school of Rabbinic
learning). | who before his conversion had been
a Jew and asked him to teach me Hebrew. Thus, after having familiarised
myself with the pointedness of Quintilian, the fluency of Cicero, the
seriousness of Fronto and the gentleness of Pliny, I began to learn my
letters anew and to study to pronounce words both harsh and guttural.
What labour I spent upon this task, what difficulties I went through,
how often I despaired, how often I gave over and then in my eagerness
to learn commenced again, can be attested both by myself the subject of
this misery and by those who then lived with me. But I thank the Lord
that from this seed of learning sown in bitterness I now cull sweet
fruits.
13. I will recount also another thing that I saw in
Egypt. There was in a community a young Greek the flame of whose desire
neither continual fasting nor the severest labour could avail to
quench. He was in great danger of falling, when the father of the
monastery saved him by the following device. He gave orders to one of
the older brothers to pursue him with objurgations and reproaches, and
then after having thus wronged him to be beforehand with him in laying
a complaint against him. When witnesses were called they spoke always
on behalf of the aggressor. On hearing such falsehoods he used to weep
that no one gave credit to the truth; the father alone used cleverly to
put in a word for him that he might not be “swallowed up with
overmuch sorrow.”3457
To make the
story short, a year passed in this way and at the expiration of it the
young man was asked concerning his former evil thoughts and whether
they still troubled him. “Good gracious,” he replied,
“how can I find pleasure in fornication when I am not allowed so
much as to live?” Had he been a solitary hermit, by whose aid
could he have overcome the temptations that assailed him?
14. The world’s philosophers drive out an old
passion by instilling a new one; they hammer out one nail by hammering
in another.3458
It was on this principle that
the seven princes of Persia acted towards king Ahasuerus, for they
subdued his regret for queen Vashti by inducing him to love other
maidens.3459
But whereas they cured one fault
by another fault and one sin by another sin, we must overcome our
faults by learning to love the opposite virtues. “Depart from
evil,” says the psalmist, “and do good; seek peace and
pursue it.”3460
For 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 war. And it is not enough merely to seek it; when we
have found it and when it flees before us we must pursue it with all
our energies. For “it passeth all understanding;”3461
it is the habitation of God. As the
psalmist says, “in peace also is his habitation.”3462
The pursuing of peace is a fine
metaphor and may be compared with the apostle’s words,
“pursuing hospitality.”3463
It is
not enough, he means, for us to invite guests with our lips; we should
be as eager to detain them as though they were robbers carrying off our
savings.
15. No art is ever learned without a master. Even dumb
animals and wild herds follow leaders of their own. Bees have princes,
and cranes fly after one of their number in the shape of a Y.3464
There is but one emperor and each
province has but one judge. Rome was founded by two brothers,3465
| 3465 Romulus and Remus,
the first of whom slew the second. | but, as it could not have two kings at
once, was inaugurated by an act of fratricide. So too Esau and Jacob
strove in Rebekah’s womb.3466
Each
church has a single bishop, a single archpresbyter, a single
archdeacon;3467
| 3467 When Jerome
wrote, these terms had but recently come into use in the West; no
doubt, however, the offices described by them were of older date.
Archpresbyters seem to have been the forerunners of those who are now
called “rural deans.” | and every ecclesiastical order
is subjected to its own rulers. A ship has but one pilot, a house but
one master, and the largest army moves at the command of one man. That
I may not tire you by heaping up instances, my drift is simply this. Do
not rely on your own discretion, but live in a monastery. For there,
while you will be under the control of one father, you will have many
companions; and these will teach you, one humility, another patience, a
third silence, and a fourth meekness. You will do as others wish; you
will eat what you are told to eat; you will wear what clothes are given
you; you will perform the task allotted to you; you will obey one whom
you do not like, you will come to bed tired out; you will go to sleep
on your feet and you will be forced to rise before you have had
sufficient rest. When your turn comes, you will recite the psalms, a
task which requires not a well modulated voice but genuine emotion. The
apostle says: “I will pray with the spirit and I will pray with
the understanding also,”3468
and to the
Ephesians, “make melody in your hearts to the Lord.”3469
For he had read the precept of the
psalmist: “Sing ye praises with understanding.”3470
You will serve the brothers, you will
wash the guests’ feet; if you suffer wrong you will bear it in
silence; the superior of the community you will fear as a master and
love as a father. Whatever he may order you to do you will believe to
be wholesome for you. You will not pass judgment upon those who are
placed over you, for your duty will be to obey them and to do what you
are told, according to the words spoken by Moses: “keep silence
and hearken, O Israel.”3471
You will have
so many tasks to occupy you that you will have no time for [evil]
thoughts; and while you pass from one thing to another and fresh work
follows work done, you will only be able to think of what you have it
in charge at the moment to do.
16. But I myself have seen monks of quite a different
stamp from this, men whose renunciation of the world has consisted in a
change of clothes and a verbal profession, while their real life and
their former habits have remained unchanged. Their property has
increased rather than diminished. They still have the same servants and
keep the same table. Out of cheap glasses and common earthenware they
swallow gold. With servants about them in swarms they claim for
themselves the name of hermits. Others who though poor think themselves
discerning, walk as solemnly as pageants3472
through the streets and do nothing but
snarl3473
| 3473 Caninam
exercent facundiam. The phrase recurs in Letter CXXXIV. § 1. | at every one whom they meet. Others
shrug their shoulders and croak out what is best known to themselves.
While they keep their eyes fixed upon the earth, they balance swelling
words upon their tongues.3474
| 3474 See also
Lactantius, vi. 18. | Only a crier
is wanted to persuade you that it is his excellency the prefect who is
coming along. Some too there are who from the dampness of their cells
and from the severity of their fasts, from their weariness of solitude
and from excessive study have a singing in their ears day and night and
turn melancholy mad so as to need the poultices of Hippocrates3475
more than exhortations from me. Great
numbers are unable to break free from the crafts and trades they have
previously practised. They no longer call themselves dealers but they
carry on the same traffic as before; seeking for themselves not
“food and raiment”3476
as the
apostle directs, but money-profits and these greater than are looked
for by men of the world. In former days the greed of sellers was kept
within bounds by the action of the Ædiles or as the Greeks call
them market-inspectors,3477
and men
could not then cheat with impunity. But now persons who profess
religion are not ashamed to seek unjust profits and the good name of
Christianity is more often a cloak
for fraud than a victim to it. I am ashamed to say it, yet it must be
said—we are at least bound to blush for our infamy—while in
public we hold out our hands for alms we conceal gold beneath our rags;
and to the amazement of every one after living as poor men we die rich
and with our purses well-filled.
But you, since you will not be alone but one of a
community, will have no temptation to act thus. Things at first
compulsory will become habitual. You will set to work unbidden and will
find pleasure in your toil. You will forget things which are behind and
will reach forth to those which are before.3478
You will think less of the evil that
others do than of the good you ought to do.
17. Be not led by the multitude of those who sin,
neither let the host of those who perish tempt you to say secretly:
“What? must all be lost who live in cities? Behold, they continue
to enjoy their property, they serve churches, they frequent baths, they
do not disdain cosmetics, and yet they are universally well-spoken
of.” To this kind of remark I have before replied and now shortly
reply again that the object of this little work is not to discuss the
clergy but to lay down rules for a monk. The clergy are holy men and
their lives are always worthy of praise. Rouse yourself then and so
live in your monastery that you may deserve to be a clergyman, that you
may preserve your youth from defilement, that you may go to
Christ’s altar as a virgin out of her chamber. See that you are
well-reported of without and that women are familiar with your
reputation but not with your appearance. When you come to mature years,
if, that is, you live so long, and when you have been chosen into the
ranks of the clergy either by the people of the city or by its bishop,
act in a way that befits a clergyman, and choose for your models the
best of your brothers. For in every rank and condition of life the bad
are mingled with the good.
18. Do not be carried away by some mad caprice and rush
into authorship. Learn long and carefully what you propose to teach. Do
not credit all that flatterers say to you, or, I should rather say, do
not lend too ready an ear to those who mean to mock you. They will fawn
upon you with fulsome praise and do their best to blind your judgment;
yet if you suddenly look behind you, you will find that they are making
gestures of derision with their hands, either a stork’s neck or
the flapping ears of a donkey or a thirsty dog’s protruding
tongue.3479
Never speak evil of anyone or suppose that you make
yourself better by assailing the reputations of others. The charges we
bring against them often come home to ourselves; we inveigh against
faults which are as much ours as theirs; and so our eloquence ends by
telling against ourselves. It is as though dumb persons were to
criticize orators. When the grunter3480
| 3480 i.e.,
Rufinus who was now dead. The nickname is taken from a burlesque very
popular in Jerome’s day entitled “The Porker’s Last
Will and Testament.” In this the testator’s full name is
set down as Marcus Grunnius Corocotta, i.e., Mark Grunter Hog.
In the beginning of the twelfth book of his commentary on Isaiah Jerome
mentions the “Testament” as being then a popular school
book. | wished to
speak he used to come forward at a snail’s pace3481
| 3481 Plautus,
Aulularia, I. 1. 10. | and to utter a word now and again with
such long pauses between that he seemed less making a speech than
gasping for breath. Then, when he had placed his table and arranged on
it his pile of books, he used to knit his brow, to draw in his
nostrils, to wrinkle his forehead and to snap his fingers, signs meant
to engage the attention of his pupils. Then he would pour forth a
torrent of nonsense and declaim so vehemently against every one that
you would take him for a critic like Longinus3482
| 3482 A Platonist of
the third century after Christ, much celebrated for his learning and
critical skill. “To judge like Longinus” became a synonym
for accurate discrimination. | or fancy him a second Cato the
Censor3483
| 3483 A martinet of
the old school, who did his utmost to oppose what he considered the
luxury of his age. He was censor in 184 b.c. | passing judgment on Roman
eloquence and excluding whom he pleased from the senate of the learned.
As he had plenty of money he made himself still more popular by giving
entertainments. Numbers of persons shared in his hospitality; and thus
it was not surprising that when he went out he was surrounded always by
a buzzing throng. At home he was a monster like Nero, abroad a paragon
like Cato. Made up of different and opposing natures, as a whole he
baffled description. You would say that he was formed of jarring
elements like that unnatural and unheard of monster of which the poet
tells us that it was ‘in front a lion, behind a dragon, in the
middle the goat whose name it bears.’3484
| 3484 Lucr. V. 905,
Munro. The words come first from Homer, Il. vi. 181. |
19. Men such as these you must never look at or
associate with. Nor must you turn aside your heart unto words of evil3485
lest the psalmist say to you:
“Thou sittest and speakest against thy brother; thou slanderest
thine own mother’s son,”3486
and
lest you become as “the sons of men whose teeth are spears and
arrows,”3487
and as the
man whose “words were softer than oil yet were they drawn
swords.”3488
The
Preacher expresses this more clearly still when he says: “Surely
the serpent will bite where there is no enchantment, and the slanderer is no better.”3489
But you will say, ‘I am not
given to detraction, but how can I check others who are?’ If we
put forward such a plea as this it can only be that we may
“practise wicked works with men that work iniquity.”3490
Yet Christ is not deceived by this
device. It is not I but an apostle who says: “Be not deceived;
God is not mocked.”3491
“Man
looketh upon the outward appearance but the Lord looketh upon the
heart.”3492
And in the
proverbs Solomon tells us that as “the north wind driveth away
rain, so doth an angry countenance a backbiting tongue.”3493
It sometimes happens that an arrow
when it is aimed at a hard object rebounds upon the bowman, wounding
the would-be wounder, and thus, the words are fulfilled, “they
were turned aside like a deceitful bow,”3494
and in another passage: “whoso
casteth a stone on high casteth it on his own head.”3495
So when a slanderer sees anger in the
countenance of his hearer who will not hear him but stops his ears that
he may not hear of blood,3496
he becomes
silent on the moment, his face turns pale, his lips stick fast, his
mouth becomes parched. Wherefore the same wise man says: “meddle
not with them that are given to detraction: for their calamity shall
rise suddenly; and who knoweth the ruin of them both?”3497
of him who speaks, that is, and of him
who hears. Truth does not love corners or seek whisperers. To Timothy
it is said, “Against an elder receive not an accusation suddenly;
but him that sinneth rebuke before all, that others also may
fear.”3498
When a man is advanced in years
you must not be too ready to believe evil of him; his past life is
itself a defence, and so also is his rank as an elder. Still, since we
are but human and sometimes in spite of the ripeness of our years fall
into the sins of youth, if I do wrong and you wish to correct me,
accuse me openly of my fault: do not backbite me secretly. “Let
the righteous smite me, it shall be a kindness, and let him reprove me;
but let not the oil of the sinner enrich my head.”3499
For what says the apostle? “Whom
the Lord loveth, he chasteneth, and scourgeth every son whom he
receiveth.”3500
By the mouth of
Isaiah the Lord speaks thus: “O my people, they who call you
happy cause you to err and destroy the way of your paths.”3501
How do you help me by telling my misdeeds
to others? You may, without my knowing of it, wound some one else by
the narration of my sins or rather of those which you slanderously
attribute to me; and while you are eager to spread the news in all
quarters, you may pretend to confide in each individual as though you
had spoken to no one else. Such a course has for its object not my
correction but the indulgence of your own failing. The Lord gives
commandment that those who sin against us are to be arraigned privately
or else in the presence of a witness, and that if they refuse to hear
reason, the matter is to be laid before the church, and those who
persist in their wickedness are to be regarded as heathen men and
publicans.3502
20. I lay great emphasis on these points that I may
deliver a young man who is dear to me from the itching both of the
tongue and of the ears: that, since he has been born again in Christ, I
may present him without spot or wrinkle3503
as a chaste virgin,3504
chaste in mind as
well as in body; that the virginity of which he boasts may be more than
nominal and that he may not be shut out by the bridegroom because being
unprovided with the oil of good works his lamp has gone out.3505
In Proculus you have a reverend and most
learned prelate,3506
| 3506 He was bishop of
Massilia (Marseilles). | able by the sound
of his voice to do more for you than I with my written sheets and sure
to direct you on your path by daily homilies. He will not suffer you to
turn to the right hand or to the left or to leave the king’s
highway; for to this Israel pledges itself to keep in its hasty passage
to the land of promise.3507
May God hear the
voice of the church’s supplication. “Lord, ordain peace for
us, for thou hast also wrought all our works for us.”3508
May our renunciation of the world be
made freely and not under compulsion! May we seek poverty gladly to win
its glory and not suffer anguish because others lay it upon us! For the
rest amid our present miseries with the sword making havoc around us,
he is rich enough who has bread sufficient for his need, and he is
abundantly powerful who is not reduced to be a slave. Exuperius3509
| 3509 Bishop of Toulouse.
See Letter LIV. 11, and Pref. to Comm. on Zech. | the reverend bishop of Toulouse, imitating
the widow of Zarephath,3510
feeds others
though hungry himself. His face is pale with fasting, yet it is the
cravings of others that torment him most. In fact he has bestowed his
whole substance to meet the needs of Christ’s poor. Yet none is
richer than he, for his wicker basket contains the body of the Lord,
and his plain glass-cup the precious blood. Like his Master he has
banished greed out of the temple; and without either scourge of cords
or words of chiding he has overthrown the chairs of them that sell
doves, that is, the gifts of the Holy Spirit. He has upset the tables of Mammon
and has scattered the money of the money-changers; zealous that the
house of God may be called a house of prayer and not a den of
robbers.3511
In his steps follow closely and in
those of others like him in virtue, whom the priesthood makes poor men
and more than ever humble. Or if you will be perfect, go out with
Abraham from your country and from your kindred, and go whither you
know not.3512
If you have substance, sell it and
give to the poor. If you have none, then are you free from a great
burthen. Destitute yourself, follow a destitute Christ. The task is a
hard one, it is great and difficult; but the reward is also great.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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