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| To Paul, an Old Man of Concordia.
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Letter X. To Paul, an Old Man of Concordia.
Jerome writes to Paul of Concordia, a centenarian
(§2), and the owner of a good theological library (§3), to
lend him some commentaries. In return he sends him his life (newly
written) of Paul the hermit.127
| 127 See the Life of Paul
in this volume. | The date of the
letter is 374 a.d.
1. The shortness of man’s life is the punishment
for man’s sin; and the fact that even on the very threshold of
the light death constantly overtakes the new-born child proves that the
times are continually sinking into deeper depravity. For when the first
tiller of paradise had been entangled by the serpent in his snaky
coils, and had been forced in consequence to migrate earthwards,
although his deathless state was changed for a mortal one, yet the
sentence128
of man’s curse was put off
for nine hundred years, or even more, a period so long that it may be
called a second immortality. Afterwards sin gradually grew more and
more virulent, till the ungodliness of the giants129
brought in its train the shipwreck of the
whole world. Then when the world had been cleansed by the
baptism—if I may so call it—of the deluge, human life was
contracted to a short span. Yet even this we have almost altogether
wasted, so continually do our iniquities fight against the divine
purposes. For how few there are, either who go beyond their hundredth
year, or who, going beyond it, do not regret that they have done so;
according to that which the Scripture witnesses in the book of Psalms:
“the days of our years are threescore years and ten; and if by
reason of strength they be fourscore years, yet is their strength labor
and sorrow.”130
2. Why, say you, these opening reflections so remote and
so far fetched that one might use against them the Horatian
witticism:
Back to the eggs which Leda laid for Zeus,
The bard is fain to trace the war of Troy?131
| 131 Hor. A. P. 147. Zeus
having visited Leda in the form of a swan, she produced two eggs, from
one of which came Castor and Pollux, and from the other Helen, who was
the cause of the Trojan war. |
Simply that I may describe in fitting terms your great
age and hoary head as white as Christ’s.132
For see, the hundredth circling year is already passing over you, and
yet, always keeping the commandments of the Lord, amid the
circumstances of your present life you think over the blessedness of
that which is to come. Your eyes are bright and keen, your steps
steady, your hearing good, your teeth are white, your voice musical,
your flesh firm and full of sap; your ruddy cheeks belie your white
hairs, your strength is not that of your age. Advancing years have not,
as we too often see them do, impaired the tenacity of your memory; the
coldness of your blood has not blunted an intellect at once warm and
wary.133
| 133 A play on words:
callidus, “wary,” is indistinguishable in sound from
calidus, “warm.” | Your face is not wrinkled nor your brow
furrowed. Lastly, no tremors palsy your hand or cause it to travel in
crooked pathways over the wax on which you write. The Lord shows us in
you the bloom of the resurrection that is to be ours; so that whereas
in others who die by inches whilst yet living, we recognize the results
of sin, in your case we ascribe it to righteousness that you still simulate youth
at an age to which it is foreign. And although we see the like haleness
of body in many even of those who are sinners, in their case it is a
grant of the devil to lead them into sin, whilst in yours it is a gift
of God to make you rejoice.
3. Tully in his brilliant speech on behalf of Flaccus134
| 134 The words quoted do
not occur in the extant portion of Cicero’s speech. | describes the learning of the Greeks as
“innate frivolity and accomplished vanity.”
Certainly their ablest literary men used to receive
money for pronouncing eulogies upon their kings or princes. Following
their example, I set a price upon my praise. Nor must you suppose my
demand a small one. You are asked to give me the pearl of the Gospel,135
“the words of the Lord,”
“pure words, even as the silver which from the earth is tried,
and purified seven times in the fire,”136
I
mean the commentaries of Fortunatian137
| 137 For some account of
this writer see Jerome, De V. iii. c. xcvii. |
and—for its account of the persecutors—the History of
Aurelius Victor,138
| 138 A Roman annalist
some of whose works are still extant. He was contemporary with but
probably older than Jerome. | and with these
the Letters of Novatian;139
| 139 A puritan of the
third century who seceded from the Roman church because of the laxity
of its discipline. | so that, learning
the poison set forth by this schismatic, we may the more gladly drink
of the antidote supplied by the holy martyr Cyprian. In the mean time I
have sent to you, that is to say, to Paul the aged, a Paul that is
older still.140
| 140 I.e. the life of
Paul the Hermit, translated in this vol. | I have taken great pains to bring my
language down to the level of the simpler sort. But, somehow or other,
though you fill it with water, the jar retains the odor which it
acquired when first used.141
| 141 Hor. Ep. I. ii. 69; cf.
T. Moore:
“You may break, you may shatter the vase if you
will:
The scent of the roses will hang round it
still.” | If my little gift
should please you, I have others also in store which (if the Holy
Spirit shall breathe favorably), shall sail across the sea to you with
all kinds of eastern merchandise.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
|
