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| To Theophilus.
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Letter
XCIX. To Theophilus.
Jerome forwards to Theophilus a translation of the
latter’s paschal letter for 404 a.d. and
apologizes for his delay in sending it, on the ground that ill-health
and grief for the death of Paula have prevented him from doing literary
work. The date of the letter is 404 a.d.
To the most blessed pope Theophilus, Jerome.
1. From the time that I received the letters of your
holiness together with the paschal treatise2660
until the present day I have been so harassed with sorrow and mourning,
with anxiety, and with the different reports which have come from all
quarters concerning the condition of the church, that I have hardly
been able to turn your volume into Latin. You know the truth of the old
saying, grief chokes utterance; and it is more than ever true when to
sickness of the mind is added sickness of the body. I have now been
five days in bed in a burning fever: consequently it is only by using
the greatest haste that I can dictate this very letter. But I wish to
shew your holiness in a few words what pains I have taken, in
translating your treatise, to transfer the charm of diction which marks
every sentence in the original, and to make the style of the Latin
correspond in some degree with that of the Greek.
2. At the outset you use the language of philosophy;
and, without appearing to particularize, you slay one2661
while you instruct all. In the remaining
sections—a task most difficult of accomplishment—you
combine philosophy and rhetoric and draw together for us Demosthenes
and Plato. What diatribes you have launched against self-indulgence!
What eulogies you have bestowed upon the virtue of continence! With
what secret stores of wisdom you have spoken of the interchange of day
and night, the course of the moon, the laws of the sun, the nature of
our world; always appealing to the authority of scripture lest in a
paschal treatise you should appear to have borrowed anything from
secular sources! To be brief, I am afraid to praise you for these
things lest I should be charged with offering flattery. The book is
excellent both in the philosophical portions and where, without making
personal attacks, you plead the cause which you have espoused.
Wherefore, I beseech you, pardon me my backwardness: I have been so
completely overcome by the falling asleep of the holy and venerable
Paula2662
that except my translation of this book
I have hitherto written nothing bearing on sacred subjects. As you
yourself know, I have suddenly lost the comforter whom I have led about
with me, not—the Lord is my witness—to minister to my own
needs, but for the relief and refreshment of the saints upon whom she
has waited with all diligence. Your holy and estimable daughter
Eustochium (who refuses to be comforted for the loss of her mother),
and with her all the brotherhood humbly salute you. Kindly send me the
books which you say that you have lately written that I may translate
them or, if not that, at least read them. Farewell in Christ.E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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