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| To Marcellinus and Anapsychia.
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Letter CXXVI. To Marcellinus and Anapsychia.
Marcellinus, a Roman official of high rank, and
Anapsychia his wife had written to Jerome from Africa to ask him his
opinion on the vexed question of the origin of the soul. Jerome in his
reply briefly enumerates the several views that have been held on the
subject. For fuller information he refers his questioners to his
treatise against Rufinus and also to their bishop Augustin who will, he
says, explain the matter to them by word of mouth. Although it hardly
appears in this letter Jerome is a decided creationist (see his Comm.
on Eccles. xii. 7). But, though he vehemently condemns Rufinus (Ap. ii.
10) for professing ignorance on the subject, he assents (Letter
CXXXIV.) to Augustin (Letter CXXXI.) who similarly professes ignorance
but seems to lean to traducianism. The date of writing is a.d. 412.
To his truly holy lord and lady, his children worthy of
the highest respect and affection, Marcellinus and Anapsychia, Jerome
sends greeting.
1. I have at last received from Africa your joint letter
and no longer regret the effrontery which led me, in spite of your
silence to ply you both with so many missives. I hoped, indeed, by so
doing to gain a reply and to learn of your welfare not indirectly from
others but directly from yourselves. I well remember your little
problem about the nature of the soul; although I ought not to call it
little, seeing that it is one of the greatest with which the church has
to deal. You ask whether it has fallen from heaven, as Pythagoras, all
Platonists, and Origen suppose; or whether it is part of God’s
essence as the Stoics, Manes, and the Spanish Priscillianists hint.
Whether souls created long since are kept in God’s storehouse as
some ecclesiastical writers3513
| 3513 The allusion is
probably to Clement of Alexandria. | foolishly
imagine; or whether they are formed by God and introduced into bodies
day by day according to that saying in the Gospel: “my Father
worketh hitherto and I work;”3514
or whether,
lastly, they are transmitted by propagation. This is the view of
Tertullian, Apollinaris, and most western writers who hold that soul is
derived from soul as body is from body and that the conditions of life
are the same for men and brutes. I have given my opinion on the matter
in my reply to the treatise which Rufinus presented to Anastasius,
bishop of Rome, of holy memory. He strives in this by an evasive and
crafty but sufficiently foolish confession to play with the simplicity
of his hearers, but only succeeds in playing with his own faith or
rather want of it. My book,3515
| 3515 Against
Rufinus, ii. §§ 8–10; iii. §30; in neither
place, however, does Jerome clearly state his own view. | which has been
published a good while, contains an answer to the calumnies which in
his various writings Rufinus has directed against me. Your reverend
father Oceanus3516
| 3516 See Letter LXIX,
introduction. It is doubtful whether Oceanus was in holy orders
although the title ‘father’ seems to imply it. | has, I think, a
copy of it. But if you cannot procure it your bishop Augustine is both
learned and holy. He will teach you by word of mouth and will give you
his opinion, or rather mine, in his own words.
2. I have long wished to attack the prophecies of
Ezekiel and to make good the promises which I have so often given to
curious readers. When, however, I began to dictate I was so confounded
by the havoc wrought in the West and above all by the sack of Rome
that, as the common saying has it, I forgot even my own name. Long did
I remain silent knowing that it was a time to weep.3517
This year I began again and had written
three books of commentary when a sudden incursion of those barbarians
of whom your Virgil speaks3518
| 3518 Virg., A. iv. 43.
It does not appear who these barbarians were. Barce is near Cyrene in
Africa. | as the
“far-wandering men of Barce” (and to whom may be applied
what holy scripture says of Ishmael: “he shall dwell over against
all his brethren”3519
) overran the
borders of Egypt, Palestine, Phenicia, and Syria, and like a raging
torrent carried everything before them. It was with difficulty and only
through Christ’s mercy that we were able to escape from their
hands. But if, as the great orator says, “amid the clash of arms
law ceases to be heard;”3520
| 3520 Cicero, pro Milon.
4. | how much more
truly may it be said that war puts an end to the study of holy
scripture. For this requires plenty of books and silence and careful
copyists and above all freedom from alarm and a sense of security. I
have accordingly only been able to complete two books and these I have
sent to my daughter, Fabiola,3521
| 3521 This Fabiola (who
must be carefully distinguished from the lady so often mentioned by
Jerome) is probably the person to whom Augustine addressed a letter on
communion with the spiritual world. | from whom you can if you like borrow them. For
want of time I have not been able as yet to transcribe the rest. But
when you have read these you will have seen the ante-chamber and will
easily form from this a notion of the whole edifice. I trust in
God’s mercy and believe that, as he has helped me in the
difficult opening chapters of the prophecy, so he will help me in the
chapters towards the close. These describe the wars of Gog and Magog,
and set forth the mode of building, the plan, and the dimensions of the
holy and mysterious temple.
3. Our reverend brother Oceanus to whom you desire an
introduction is a great and good man and so learned in the law of the
Lord that no words of mine are needed to make him able and willing to
instruct you both and to explain to you in conformity with the rules
which govern our common studies, my opinion and his on all questions
arising out of the scriptures. In conclusion, my truly holy lord and
lady, may Christ our God by his almighty power have you in his
safekeeping and cause you to live long and happily. E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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