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Letter
CXXVII. To Principia.
This letter is really a memoir of Marcella (for whom see
note on Letter XXIII.) addressed to her greatest friend. After
describing her history, character, and favourite studies, Jerome goes
on to recount her eminent services in the cause of orthodoxy at a time
when, through the efforts of Rufinus, it seemed likely that Origenism
would prevail at Rome (§§9, 10). He briefly relates the fall
of the city and the horrors consequent upon it (§§12, 13)
which appear to have been the immediate cause of Marcella’s death
(§14). The date of the letter is 412 a.d.
1. You have besought me often and earnestly,
Principia,3522
| 3522 This Roman lady,
like her friend Marcella, took a great interest in the study of
scripture. In Letter LXV. Jerome gives her an explanation of the 45th
Psalm. | virgin of Christ, to dedicate a
letter to the memory of that holy woman Marcella,3523
and to set forth the goodness long
enjoyed by us for others to know and to imitate. I am so anxious myself
to do justice to her merits that it grieves me that you should spur me
on and fancy that your entreaties are needed when I do not yield even
to you in love of her. In putting upon record her signal virtues I
shall receive far more benefit myself than I can possibly confer upon
others. If I have hitherto remained silent and have allowed two years
to go over without making any sign, this has not been owing to a wish
to ignore her as you wrongly suppose, but to an incredible sorrow which
so overcame my mind that I judged it better to remain silent for a
while than to praise her virtues in inadequate language. Neither will I
now follow the rules of rhetoric in eulogizing one so dear to both of
us and to all the saints, Marcella the glory of her native Rome. I will
not set forth her illustrious family and lofty lineage, nor will I
trace her pedigree through a line of consuls and prætorian
prefects. I will praise her for nothing but the virtue which is her own
and which is the more noble, because forsaking both wealth and rank she
has sought the true nobility of poverty and lowliness.
2. Her father’s death left her an orphan, and she
had been married less than seven months when her husband was taken from
her. Then as she was young, and highborn, as well as distinguished for
her beauty—always an attraction to men—and her
self-control, an illustrious consular named Cerealis paid court to her
with great assiduity. Being an old man he offered to make over to her
his fortune so that she might consider herself less his wife than his
daughter. Her mother Albina went out of her way to secure for the young
widow so exalted a protector. But Marcella answered: “had I a
wish to marry and not rather to dedicate myself to perpetual chastity,
I should look for a husband and not for an inheritance;” and when
her suitor argued that sometimes old men live long while young men die
early, she cleverly retorted: “a young man may indeed die early,
but an old man cannot live long.” This decided rejection of
Cerealis convinced others that they had no hope of winning her
hand.
In the gospel according to Luke we read the following
passage: “there was one Anna, a prophetess, the daughter of
Phanuel, of the tribe of Aser: she was of great age, and had lived with
an husband seven years from her virginity; and she was a widow of about
fourscore and four years, which departed not from the temple but served
God with fastings and prayers night and day.”3524
It was no marvel that she won the vision
of the Saviour, whom she sought so earnestly. Let us then compare her
case with that of Marcella and we shall see that the latter has every
way the advantage. Anna lived with her husband seven years; Marcella
seven months. Anna only hoped for Christ; Marcella held Him fast. Anna
confessed him at His birth; Marcella believed in Him crucified. Anna
did not deny the Child; Marcella rejoiced in the Man as king. I do not
wish to draw distinctions between holy women on the score of their
merits, as some persons have made it a custom to do as regards holy men
and leaders of churches; the conclusion at which I aim is that, as both
have one task, so both have one reward.
3. In a
slander-loving community such as Rome, filled as it formerly was with
people from all parts and bearing the palm for wickedness of all kinds,
detraction assailed the upright and strove to defile even the pure and
the clean. In such an atmosphere it is hard to escape from the breath
of calumny. A stainless reputation is difficult nay almost impossible
to attain; the prophet yearns for it but hardly hopes to win it:
“Blessed,” he says, “are the undefiled in the way who
walk in the law of the Lord.”3525
The
undefiled in the way of this world are those whose fair fame no breath
of scandal has ever sullied, and who have earned no reproach at the
hands of their neighbours. It is this which makes the Saviour say in
the gospel: “agree with,” or be complaisant to,
“thine adversary whilst thou art in the way with him.”3526
Who ever heard a slander of Marcella
that deserved the least credit? Or who ever credited such without
making himself guilty of malice and defamation? No; she put the
Gentiles to confusion by shewing them the nature of that Christian
widowhood which her conscience and mien alike set forth. For women of
the world are wont to paint their faces with rouge and white-lead, to
wear robes of shining silk, to adorn themselves with jewels, to put
gold chains round their necks, to pierce their ears and hang in them
the costliest pearls of the Red Sea,3527
| 3527 i.e. the
Indian Ocean. | and to
scent themselves with musk. While they mourn for the husbands they have
lost they rejoice at their own deliverance and freedom to choose fresh
partners—not, as God wills, to obey these3528
but to rule over them.
With this object in view they select for their partners
poor men who contented with the mere name of husbands are the more
ready to put up with rivals as they know that, if they so much as
murmur, they will be cast off at once. Our widow’s clothing was
meant to keep out the cold and not to shew her figure. Of gold she
would not wear so much as a seal-ring, choosing to store her money in
the stomachs of the poor rather than to keep it at her own disposal.
She went nowhere without her mother, and would never see without
witnesses such monks and clergy as the needs of a large house required
her to interview. Her train was always composed of virgins and widows,
and these women serious and staid; for, as she well knew, the levity of
the maids speaks ill for the mistress and a woman’s character is
shewn by her choice of companions.3529
| 3529 Cf. Letter LXXIX.
§ 9. |
4. Her delight in the divine scriptures was incredible.
She was for ever singing, “Thy words have I hid in mine heart
that I might not sin against thee,”3530
as well as the words which describe the perfect man, “his delight
is in the law of the Lord; and in his law doth he meditate day and
night.”3531
This meditation
in the law she understood not of a review of the written words as among
the Jews the Pharisees think, but of action according to that saying of
the apostle, “whether, therefore, ye eat or drink or what soever
ye do, do all to the glory of God.”3532
She remembered also the prophet’s
words, “through thy precepts I get understanding,”3533
and felt sure that only when she had
fulfilled these would she be permitted to understand the scriptures. In
this sense we read elsewhere that “Jesus began both to do and
teach.”3534
For teaching
is put to the blush when a man’s conscience rebukes him; and it
is in vain that his tongue preaches poverty or teaches alms-giving if
he is rolling in the riches of Crœsus and if, in spite of his
threadbare cloak, he has silken robes at home to save from the
moth.
Marcella practised fasting, but in moderation. She
abstained from eating flesh, and she knew rather the scent of wine than
its taste; touching it only for her stomach’s sake and for her
often infirmities.3535
She seldom
appeared in public and took care to avoid the houses of great ladies,
that she might not be forced to look upon what she had once for all
renounced. She frequented the basilicas of apostles and martyrs that
she might escape from the throng and give herself to private prayer. So
obedient was she to her mother that for her sake she did things of
which she herself disapproved. For example, when her mother, careless
of her own offspring, was for transferring all her property from her
children and grandchildren to her brother’s family, Marcella
wished the money to be given to the poor instead, and yet could not
bring herself to thwart her parent. Therefore she made over her
ornaments and other effects to persons already rich, content to throw
away her money rather than to sadden her mother’s heart.
5. In those days no highborn lady at Rome had made
profession of the monastic life, or had ventured—so strange and
ignominious and degrading did it then seem—publicly to call
herself a nun. It was from some priests of Alexandria, and from pope
Athanasius, and subsequently from Peter,3536
| 3536 The successor of
Athanasius in the see of Alexandria. | who, to escape the persecution of the
Arian heretics, had all fled for refuge to Rome as the safest haven in
which they could find communion—it was from these that Marcella
heard of the life of the blessed Antony, then still alive, and of the
monasteries in the Thebaid founded
by Pachomius, and of the discipline laid down for virgins and for
widows. Nor was she ashamed to profess a life which she had thus
learned to be pleasing to Christ. Many years after her example was
followed first by Sophronia and then by others, of whom it may be well
said in the words of Ennius:3537
| 3537 A fragment from
the Medea of Ennius relating to the unlucky ship Argo which had brought
Jason to Colchis. Here however the words seem altogether out of place.
Unless, indeed, they are supposed to be spoken by pagans. |
Would that ne’er in Pelion’s woods
Had the axe these pinetrees felled.
My revered friend Paula was blessed with Marcella’s
friendship, and it was in Marcella’s cell that Eustochium, that
paragon of virgins, was gradually trained. Thus it is easy to see of
what type the mistress was who found such pupils.
The unbelieving reader may perhaps laugh at me for
dwelling so long on the praises of mere women; yet if he will but
remember how holy women followed our Lord and Saviour and ministered to
Him of their substance, and how the three Marys stood before the cross
and especially how Mary Magdalen—called the tower3538
| 3538 Magdala means
‘tower.’ | from the earnestness and glow of her
faith—was privileged to see the rising Christ first of all before
the very apostles, he will convict himself of pride sooner than me of
folly. For we judge of people’s virtue not by their sex but by
their character, and hold those to be worthy of the highest glory who
have renounced both rank and wealth. It was for this reason that Jesus
loved the evangelist John more than the other disciples. For John was
of noble birth3539
and known to
the high priest, yet was so little appalled by the plottings of the
Jews that he introduced Peter into his court,3540
and was the only one of the apostles bold enough to take his stand
before the cross. For it was he who took the Saviour’s parent to
his own home;3541
it was the
virgin son3542
| 3542 Tertullian goes so
far as to call him ‘Christ’s eunuch’ (de Monog. c.
xvii.). | who received the virgin mother as
a legacy from the Lord.
6. Marcella then lived the ascetic life for many years,
and found herself old before she bethought herself that she had once
been young. She often quoted with approval Plato’s saying that
philosophy consists in meditating on death.3543
| 3543 Tota
philosophorum vita commentatio mortis est—Cicero, T. Q. i. 30, 74
(summarizing Plato’s doctrine as given in his Phædo, p.
64). | A truth which our own apostle indorses
when he says: “for your salvation I die daily.”3544
Indeed according to the old copies our
Lord himself says: “whosoever doth not bear His cross daily and
come after me cannot be my disciple.”3545
Ages before, the Holy Spirit had said by the prophet: “for thy
sake are we killed all the day long: we are counted as sheep for the
slaughter.”3546
Many
generations afterwards the words were spoken: “remember the end
and thou shalt never do amiss,”3547
as well as that precept of the eloquent
satirist: “live with death in your mind; time flies; this say of
mine is so much taken from it.”3548
| 3548 Pers. v. 153
Corvington. | Well then, as I was saying, she passed
her days and lived always in the thought that she must die. Her very
clothing was such as to remind her of the tomb, and she presented
herself as a living sacrifice, reasonable and acceptable, unto God.3549
7. When the needs of the Church at length brought me to
Rome3550
in company with the reverend pontiffs,
Paulinus and Epiphanius—the first of whom ruled the church of the
Syrian Antioch while the second presided over that of Salamis in
Cyprus,—I in my modesty was for avoiding the eyes of highborn
ladies, yet she pleaded so earnestly, “both in season and out of
season”3551
as the apostle
says, that at last her perseverance overcame my reluctance. And, as in
those days my name was held in some renown as that of a student of the
scriptures, she never came to see me that she did not ask me some
question concerning them, nor would she at once acquiesce in my
explanations but on the contrary would dispute them; not, however, for
argument’s sake but to learn the answers to those objections
which might, as she saw, be made to my statements. How much virtue and
ability, how much holiness and purity I found in her I am afraid to
say; both lest I may exceed the bounds of men’s belief and lest I
may increase your sorrow by reminding you of the blessings that you
have lost. This much only will I say, that whatever in me was the fruit
of long study and as such made by constant meditation a part of my
nature, this she tasted, this she learned and made her own.
Consequently after my departure from Rome, in case of a dispute arising
as to the testimony of scripture on any subject, recourse was had to
her to settle it. And so wise was she and so well did she understand
what philosophers call τό
πρέπον, that is, the becoming, in
what she did, that when she answered questions she gave her own opinion
not as her own but as from me or some one else, thus admitting that
what she taught she had herself learned from others. For she knew that
the apostle had said: “I suffer not a woman to teach,”3552
and she would not seem to inflict a wrong upon the male sex many of
whom (including sometimes priests) questioned her concerning obscure
and doubtful points.
8. I am told that my place with her was immediately
taken by you, that you attached yourself to her, and that, as the
saying goes, you never let even a hair’s-breadth3553
| 3553 Literally
“thickness of a nail.” | come between her and you. You both lived
in the same house and occupied the same room so that every one in the
city knew for certain that you had found a mother in her and she a
daughter in you. In the suburbs you found for yourselves a monastic
seclusion, and chose the country instead of the town because of its
loneliness. For a long time you lived together, and as many ladies
shaped their conduct by your examples, I had the joy of seeing Rome
transformed into another Jerusalem. Monastic establishments for virgins
became numerous, and of hermits there were countless numbers. In fact
so many were the servants of God that monasticism which had before been
a term of reproach became subsequently one of honour. Meantime we
consoled each other for our separation by words of mutual
encouragement, and discharged in the spirit the debt which in the flesh
we could not pay. We always went to meet each other’s letters,
tried to outdo each other in attentions, and anticipated each other in
courteous inquiries. Not much was lost by a separation thus effectually
bridged by a constant correspondence.
9. While Marcella was thus serving the Lord in holy
tranquillity, there arose in these provinces a tornado of heresy which
threw everything into confusion; indeed so great was the fury into
which it lashed itself that it spared neither itself nor anything that
was good. And as if it were too little to have disturbed everything
here, it introduced a ship3554
| 3554 The movement
connected with Rufinus’ translation of Origen’s Περὶ
᾽Αρχῶν. His coming was likened,
in the dream of his friend Macarius (Ruf. Apol. i. 11), to that of a
ship laden with Eastern wares. | freighted with
blasphemies into the port of Rome itself. The dish soon found itself a
cover;3555
| 3555 The same proverb
occurs in Letter VII. § 5. | and the muddy feet of heretics
fouled the clear waters3556
of the faith of
Rome. No wonder that in the streets and in the market places a
soothsayer can strike fools on the back or, catching up his cudgel,
shatter the teeth of such as carp at him; when such venomous and filthy
teaching as this has found at Rome dupes whom it can lead astray. Next
came the scandalous version3557
| 3557 i.e. That
published by Rufinus. See Letter LXXX. | of
Origen’s book On First Principles, and that
‘fortunate’ disciple3558
who would
have been indeed fortunate had he never fallen in with such a master.
Next followed the confutation set forth by my supporters, which
destroyed the case of the Pharisees3559
| 3559 Apparently the
Roman clergy who sided with Rufinus. | and threw
them into confusion. It was then that the holy Marcella, who had long
held back lest she should be thought to act from party motives, threw
herself into the breach. Conscious that the faith of Rome—once
praised by an apostle3560
—was now in
danger, and that this new heresy was drawing to itself not only priests
and monks but also many of the laity besides imposing on the bishop3561
| 3561 Siricius, the
successor of Damasus. He died a.d. 398. | who fancied others as guileless as he was
himself, she publicly withstood its teachers choosing to please God
rather than men.
10. In the gospel the Saviour commends the unjust
steward because, although he defrauded his master, he acted wisely for
his own interests.3562
The heretics in
this instance pursued the same course; for, seeing how great a matter a
little fire had kindled,3563
and that the
flames applied by them to the foundations had by this time reached the
housetops, and that the deception practised on many could no longer be
hid, they asked for and obtained letters of commendation from the
church,3564
| 3564 Rufinus obtained
such letters from Pope Siricius when he left Rome for Aquileia. See
Jer. Apol. iii. 21. | so that it might appear that till
the day of their departure they had continued in full communion with
it. Shortly afterwards3565
the
distinguished Anastasius succeeded to the pontificate; but he was soon
taken away, for it was not fitting that the head of the world should be
struck off3566
| 3566 The allusion is to
the capture of Rome by Alaric in 410 a.d. | during the episcopate of one so
great. He was removed, no doubt, that he might not seek to turn away by
his prayers the sentence of God passed once for all. For the words of
the Lord to Jeremiah concerning Israel applied equally to Rome:
“pray not for this people for their good. When they fast I will
not hear their cry; and when they offer burnt-offering and oblation, I
will not accept them; but I will consume them by the sword and by the
famine and by the pestilence.”3567
You will
say, what has this to do with the praises of Marcella? I reply, She it
was who originated the condemnation of the heretics. She it was who
furnished witnesses first taught by them and then carried away by their
heretical teaching. She it was who showed how large a number they had
deceived and who brought up against them the impious books On First
Principles, books which were passing from hand to hand after being
‘improved’ by the hand of the scorpion.3568
| 3568 Emendata manu
scorpii. The scorpion is Rufinus whom Jerome accused of suppressing the
worst statements of Origen so that the subtler heresy might be
accepted. | She it was lastly who called on the heretics in
letter after letter to appear in their own defence. They did not indeed
venture to come, for they were so conscience-stricken that they let the
case go against them by default rather than face their accusers and be
convicted by them. This glorious victory originated with Marcella, she
was the source and cause of this great blessing. You who shared the
honour with her know that I speak the truth. You know too that out of
many incidents I only mention a few, not to tire out the reader by a
wearisome recapitulation. Were I to say more, ill natured persons might
fancy me, under pretext of commending a woman’s virtues, to be
giving vent to my own rancour. I will pass now to the remainder of my
story.
11. The whirlwind3569
| 3569 i.e. the
Origenistic heresy. | passed
from the West into the East and threatened in its passage to shipwreck
many a noble craft. Then were the words of Jesus fulfilled: “when
the son of man cometh, shall he find faith on the earth?”3570
The love of many waxed cold.3571
Yet the few who still loved the true
faith rallied to my side. Men openly sought to take their lives and
every expedient was employed against them. So hotly indeed did the
persecution rage that “Barnabas also was carried away with their
dissimulation;”3572
nay more he
committed murder, if not in actual violence at least in will. Then
behold God blew and the tempest passed away; so that the prediction of
the prophet was fulfilled, “thou takest away their breath, they
die, and return to their dust.3573
In that very
day his thoughts perish,”3574
as also
the gospel-saying, “Thou fool, this night thy soul shall be
required of thee: then whose shall those things be, which thou hast
provided?”3575
12. Whilst these things were happening in Jebus3576
a dreadful rumour came from the West.
Rome had been besieged3577
| 3577 By Alaric the
Goth, 408 a.d. | and its
citizens had been forced to buy their lives with gold. Then thus
despoiled they had been besieged again so as to lose not their
substance only but their lives. My voice sticks in my throat; and, as I
dictate, sobs choke my utterance. The City which had taken the whole
world was itself taken;3578
nay more
famine was beforehand with the sword and but few citizens were left to
be made captives. In their frenzy the starving people had recourse to
hideous food; and tore each other limb from limb that they might have
flesh to eat. Even the mother did not spare the babe at her breast. In
the night was Moab taken, in the night did her wall fall down.3579
“O God, the heathen have come
into thine inheritance; thy holy temple have they defiled; they have
made Jerusalem an orchard.3580
The dead bodies
of thy servants have they given to be meat unto the fowls of the
heaven, the flesh of thy saints unto the beasts of the earth. Their
blood have they shed like water round about Jerusalem; and there was
none to bury them.”3581
Who can set forth the carnage of that night?
What tears are equal to its agony?
Of ancient date a sovran city falls;
And lifeless in its streets and houses lie
Unnumbered bodies of its citizens.
In many a ghastly shape doth death appear.3582
13. Meantime, as was natural in a scene of such
confusion, one of the bloodstained victors found his way into
Marcella’s house. Now be it mine to say what I have heard,3583
to relate what holy men have seen;
for there were some such present and they say that you too were with
her in the hour of danger. When the soldiers entered she is said to
have received them without any look of alarm; and when they asked her
for gold she pointed to her coarse dress to shew them that she had no
buried treasure. However they would not believe in her self-chosen
poverty, but scourged her and beat her with cudgels. She is said to
have felt no pain but to have thrown herself at their feet and to have
pleaded with tears for you, that you might not be taken from her, or
owing to your youth have to endure what she as an old woman had no
occasion to fear. Christ softened their hard hearts and even among
bloodstained swords natural affection asserted its rights. The
barbarians conveyed both you and her to the basilica of the apostle
Paul, that you might find there either a place of safety or, if not
that, at least a tomb. Hereupon Marcella is said to have burst into
great joy and to have thanked God for having kept you unharmed in
answer to her prayer. She said she was thankful too that the taking of
the city had found her poor, not made her so, that she was now in want
of daily bread, that Christ satisfied her needs so that she no longer
felt hunger, that she was able to say in word and in deed: “naked
came I out of my mother’s womb, and naked shall I return thither:
the Lord gave and the Lord hath taken away; blessed be the name of the
Lord.”3584
14. After a few days she fell asleep in the Lord; but to
the last her powers remained unimpaired. You she made the heir of her
poverty, or rather the poor through
you. When she closed her eyes, it was in your arms; when she breathed
her last breath, your lips received it; you shed tears but she smiled
conscious of having led a good life and hoping for her reward
hereafter.
In one short night I have dictated this letter in honour
of you, revered Marcella, and of you, my daughter Principia; not to
shew off my own eloquence but to express my heartfelt gratitude to you
both; my one desire has been to please both God and my readers.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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