Letter 72: 1. You are sending me letter upon letter, and often urging me to answer a certain letter of yours, a copy of which, without your signature, had reached me through our brother Sysinnius, deacon, as I have already written, which letter you tell me that you entrusted first to our brother Profuturus, and afterwards to some one else; but that Profutu...

Jerome to Augustine, greetings. I have received — at last, and by a roundabout route — letters that are said to be from you. I say "said to be" because they reached me not through any messenger you sent but through copies that were circulating in Rome and elsewhere before I ever saw them myself. Imagine my surprise at being refuted by a letter I had not yet received. I will be honest with you, brother: this has not disposed me well toward your arguments. When a young bishop writes to correct an old scholar, the courtesy of sending the letter directly — and privately — is not optional. It is the minimum that Christian charity requires. Instead, your letter traveled the Mediterranean, was read in salons and scriptoria, and arrived at my door as public property. Whether this was your intention or a mishap of conveyance, I leave to your conscience. As for the substance of your criticism — your objection to my reading of Galatians 2 — I have no intention of abandoning a position that I share with Origen, with Didymus, with Apollinaris, and with almost every Greek commentator who has ever treated the passage. You propose that Peter genuinely sinned and Paul genuinely rebuked him. Very well. But this interpretation has its own difficulties, which you seem not to have considered. If Peter genuinely sinned after receiving the Holy Spirit at Pentecost — if the rock on which the Church was built could be publicly guilty of hypocrisy in a matter touching the Gospel itself — then what hope is there for the rest of us? The older interpretation preserves the dignity of both apostles. Yours does not. I do not say this to be harsh. You are clearly a man of intelligence and good faith. But intelligence is not a substitute for reading widely, and good faith is not a substitute for knowing what earlier scholars have already said about a passage before publishing your own corrections. Write again if you wish. But send the letter to me, not to the public. Your brother in Christ, Jerome. [Context: Jerome's reply is a masterclass in scholarly combativeness. The letter-delivery mishap was real — Augustine's original letter (Letter 40) was entrusted to a courier named Profuturus who never delivered it, and copies circulated without Augustine's knowledge. Jerome's fury was partly justified and partly a convenient weapon. The exchange would continue for two more decades, eventually producing genuine mutual respect — but not before some of the most pointed correspondence in Christian history.]

From Jerome to Augustine (A.D. 404) To Augustine, My Lord Truly Holy, and Most Blessed Father, Jerome Sends Greeting in the Lord. Chapter 1 1. You are sending me letter upon letter, and often urging me to answer a certain letter of yours, a copy of which, without your signature, had reached me through our brother Sysinnius, deacon, as I have already written, which letter you tell me that you entrusted first to our brother Profuturus, and afterwards to some one else; but that Profuturus was prevented from finishing his intended journey, and having been ordained a bishop, was removed by sudden death; and the second messenger, whose name you do not give, was afraid of the perils of the sea, and gave up the voyage which he had intended. These things being so, I am at a loss to express my surprise that the same letter is reported to be in the possession of most of the Christians in Rome, and throughout Italy, and has come to every one but myself, to whom alone it was ostensibly sent. I wonder at this all the more, because the brother Sysinnius aforesaid tells me that he found it among the rest of your published works, not in Africa, not in your possession, but in an island of the Adriatic some five years ago. 2. True friendship can harbour no suspicion; a friend must speak to his friend as freely as to his second self. Some of my acquaintances, vessels of Christ, of whom there is a very large number in Jerusalem and in the holy places, suggested to me that this had not been done by you in a guileless spirit, but through desire for praise and celebrity, and éclat in the eyes of the people, intending to become famous at my expense; that many might know that you challenged me, and I feared to meet you; that you had written as a man of learning, and I had by silence confessed my ignorance, and had at last found one who knew how to stop my garrulous tongue. I, however, let me say it frankly, refused at first to answer your Excellency, because I did not believe that the letter, or as I may call it (using a proverbial expression), the honeyed sword, was sent from you. Moreover, I was cautious lest I should seem to answer uncourteously a bishop of my own communion, and to censure anything in the letter of one who censured me, especially as I judged some of its statements to be tainted with heresy. Lastly, I was afraid lest you should have reason to remonstrate with me, saying, What! Had you seen the letter to be mine — had you discovered in the signature attached to it the autograph of a hand well known to you, when you so carelessly wounded the feelings of your friend, and reproached me with that which the malice of another had conceived? Chapter 2 3. Wherefore, as I have already written, either send me the identical letter in question subscribed with your own hand, or desist from annoying an old man, who seeks retirement in his monastic cell. If you wish to exercise or display your learning, choose as your antagonists, young, eloquent, and illustrious men, of whom it is said that many are found in Rome, who may be neither unable nor afraid to meet you, and to enter the lists with a bishop in debates concerning the Sacred Scriptures. As for me, a soldier once, but a retired veteran now, it becomes me rather to applaud the victories won by you and others, than with my worn-out body to take part in the conflict; beware lest, if you persist in demanding a reply, I call to mind the history of the way in which Quintus Maximus by his patience defeated Hannibal, who was, in the pride of youth, confident of success. Omnia fert ætas, animum quoque. Sæpe ego longos Cantando puerum memini me condere soles; Nunc oblita mihi tot carmina: vox quoque Mœrin Jam fugit ipsa. Or rather, to quote an instance from Scripture: Barzillai of Gilead, when he declined in favour of his youthful son the kindnesses of King David and all the charms of his court, taught us that old age ought neither to desire these things, nor to accept them when offered. 4. As to your calling God to witness that you had not written a book against me, and of course had not sent to Rome what you had never written, adding that, if perchance some things were found in your works in which a different opinion from mine was advanced, no wrong had thereby been done to me, because you had, without any intention of offending me, written only what you believed to be right; I beg you to hear me with patience. You never wrote a book against me: how then has there been brought to me a copy, written by another hand, of a treatise containing a rebuke administered to me by you? How comes Italy to possess a treatise of yours which you did not write? Nay, how can you reasonably ask me to reply to that which you solemnly assure me was never written by you? Nor am I so foolish as to think that I am insulted by you, if in anything your opinion differs from mine. But if, challenging me as it were to single combat, you take exception to my views, and demand a reason for what I have written, and insist upon my correcting what you judge to be an error, and call upon me to recant it in a humble παλινῳδι'α, and speak of your curing me of blindness; in this I maintain that friendship is wounded, and the laws of brotherly union are set at nought. Let not the world see us quarrelling like children, and giving material for angry contention between those who may become our respective supporters or adversaries. I write what I have now written, because I desire to cherish towards you pure and Christian love, and not to hide in my heart anything which does not agree with the utterance of my lips. For it does not become me, who have spent my life from youth until now, sharing the arduous labours of pious brethren in an obscure monastery, to presume to write anything against a bishop of my own communion, especially against one whom I had begun to love before I knew him, who also sought my friendship before I sought his, and whom I rejoiced to see rising as a successor to myself in the careful study of the Scriptures. Wherefore either disown that book, if you are not its author, and give over urging me to reply to that which you never wrote; or if the book is yours, admit it frankly; so that if I write anything in self-defense, the responsibility may lie on you who gave, not on me who am forced to accept, the challenge. Chapter 3 5. You say also, that if there be anything in your writings which has displeased me, and which I would wish to correct, you are ready to receive my criticism as a brother; and you not only assure me that you would rejoice in such proof of my goodwill toward you, but you earnestly ask me to do this. I tell you again, without reserve, what I feel: you are challenging an old man, disturbing the peace of one who asks only to be allowed to be silent, and you seem to desire to display your learning. It is not for one of my years to give the impression of enviously disparaging one whom I ought rather to encourage by approbation. And if the ingenuity of perverse men finds something which they may plausibly censure in the writings even of evangelists and prophets, are you amazed if, in your books, especially in your exposition of passages in Scripture which are exceedingly difficult of interpretation, some things be found which are not perfectly correct? This I say, however, not because I can at this time pronounce anything in your works to merit censure. For, in the first place, I have never read them with attention; and in the second place, we have not beside us a supply of copies of what you have written, excepting the books of Soliloquies and Commentaries on some of the Psalms; which, if I were disposed to criticise them, I could prove to be at variance, I shall not say with my own opinion, for I am nobody, but with the interpretations of the older Greek commentators. Farewell, my very dear friend, my son in years, my father in ecclesiastical dignity; and to this I most particularly request your attention, that henceforth you make sure that I be the first to receive whatever you may write to me.

EPISTOLA 72 Scripta versus a. 403 exeuntem vel 404 ineuntem. Hieronymus expostulat de Augustini epistola per Italiam divulgata, qua taxabatur locus non recte a se expositus in epistola ad Galatas (n. 1), qua quasi provocaret senem latitantem in cellula (n. 2-4), qui nec alios reprehendere nec ipse reprehendi ab aliis vult (n. 5).   Domino vere sancto et beatissimo Papae Augustino, Hieronymus A. nonne epistolam contra Hieronymum vulgavit? 1. 1. Crebras ad me epistolas dirigis, et saepe compellis ut respondeam cuidam epistolae tuae, cuius ad me, ut ante iam scripsi, per Sysinnium diaconum exemplaria pervenerant, absque subscriptione tua, et quae primum per fratrem Profuturum, secundo per quemdam alium te misisse significas; et interim Profuturum retractum de itinere, et episcopum constitutum, veloci morte subtractum; illum cuius nomen retices, maris timuisse discrimina, et navigationis mutasse consilium. Quae cum ita sint, satis mirari nequeo quomodo ipsa epistola et Romae et in Italia haberi a plerisque dicatur, et ad me solum non pervenerit, cui soli missa est; praesertim cum idem frater Sysinnius inter caeteros tractatus tuos dixerit eam se non in Africa, non apud te, sed in insula Adriae, ante hoc ferme quinquennium reperisse. Amicitia neque diffidentiam neque provocationem patitur. 1. 2. De amicitia omnis tollenda suspicio est, et sic eum amico, quasi cum altero se, est loquendum. Nonnulli familiares mei, et vasa Christi, quorum Ierosolymis et in sanctis locis permagna copia est, suggerebant non simplici a te animo factum, sed laudem atque rumusculos et gloriolam populi requirente, ut de nobis cresceres; ut multi cognoscerent te provocare, me timere; te scribere ut doctum, me tacere ut imperitum, et tandem reperisse, qui garrulitati meae modum imponeret. Ego autem, ut simpliciter fatear, Dignationi tuae primum idcirco respondere nolui, quia tuam liquido epistolam non credebam, nec (ut vulgi de quibusdam proverbium est) litum melle gladium. Deinde illud cavebam, ne episcopo communionis meae viderer procaciter respondere, et aliqua in reprehendentis epistola reprehendere; praesertim cum quaedam in illa haeretica iudicarem. A. nolit lacessere senem anachoretam. 2. 3. Ad extremum ne tu iure expostulares et diceres, Quid enim? epistolam meam videras, et notae tibi manus in subscriptione signa deprehenderas, ut tam facile amicum laederes, et alterius malitiam in meam verteres contumeliam? Igitur ut ante iam scripsi, aut mitte eamdem epistolam tua subscriptam manu; aut senem latitantem in cellula lacessere desine. Sin autem tuam vis vel exercere, vel ostentare doctrinam, quaere iuvenes, et disertos, et nobiles, quorum Romae dicuntur esse quam plurimi, qui possint et audeant tecum congredi, et in disputatione sanctarum Scripturarum, iugum cum episcopo ducere. Ego quondam miles, nunc veteranus, et tuas et aliorum debeo laudare victorias, non ipse rursus effeto corpore dimicare 1; ne, si me frequenter ad rescribendum impuleris, illius recorder historiae, quod Annibalem iuveniliter exsultantem, Q. Maximus patientia sua fregerit 2. Omnia fert aetas, animum quoque. Saepe ego longos Cantando puerum memini me condere soles: Nunc oblita mihi tot carmina; vox quoque Moerim Iam fugit ipsa 3. Et, ut magis de Scripturis sanctis loquar, Berzellai ille Galaadites, regis David beneficia omnesque delicias iuveni delegans filio, ostendit senectutem haec appetere non debere, nec oblata suscipere. Amicitia mutua fide nititur. 2. 4. Quod autem iuras te adversum me librum non scripsisse, neque Romam misisse quem non scripseris, sed si forte aliqua in tuis scriptis reperiantur, quae a meo sensu discrepent, non me a te laesum, sed a te scriptum quod tibi rectum videbatur: quaeso ut me patienter audias. Non scripsisti librum; et quomodo mihi reprehensionis a te meae per alios scripta delata sunt? cur habet Italia quod tu non scripsisti? qua ratione poscis ut rescribam ad ea quae scripsisse te denegas? Nec tam hebes sum ut, si diversa senseris, me a te laesum putem. Sed si mea cominus dicta reprehendas, et rationem scriptorum expetas, et quae scripserim emendare compellas, et ad provoces, et oculos mihi reddas; in hoc laeditur amicitia, in hoc necessitudinis iura violantur. Ne videamur certare pueriliter et fautoribus invicem vel detractoribus nostris tribuere materiam contendendi; haec scribo, quia te pure et christiane diligere cupio, nec quidquam in mea mente retinere quod distet a labiis. Non enim convenit ut ab adolescentia usque ad hanc aetatem, in monasteriolo cum sanctis fratribus labore desudans, aliquid contra episcopum communionis meae scribere audeam, et eum episcopum quem ante coepi amare quam nosse, qui me prior ad amicitiam provocavit, quem post me orientem in Scripturarum eruditione laetatus sum. Igitur aut tuum negato librum, si forte non tuus est, et desine flagitare rescriptum ad ea quae non scripsisti; aut si tuus est, ingenue confitere, ut si in defensionem mei aliqua scripsero, in te culpa sit qui provocasti, non in me qui respondere compulsus sum. Nec reprehendere nec reprehendi vult H. 3. 5. Addis praeterea te paratum esse ut, si quid me in tuis scriptis moverit, aut corrigere voluero, fraterne accipias, et non solum mea in te benevolentia gavisurum, sed ut hoc ipsum faciam, deprecaris. Rursum dico quod sentio: provocas senem, tacentem stimulas, videris iactare doctrinam. Non est autem aetatis meae, putari malevolum erga eum cui magis favere debeo. Et si in Evangeliis ac Prophetis perversi homines inveniunt quod nitantur reprehendere, miraris si in tuis libris, et maxime in Scripturarum expositione, quae vel oscurissimae sunt, quaedam a recti linea discrepare videantur? Et hoc dico, non quod in operibus tuis quaedam reprehendenda iam censeam. Neque enim lectioni eorum umquam operam dedi: nec horum exemplariorum apud nos copia est, praeter Soliloquiorum tuorum libros, et quosdam Commentarios in Psalmos; quos si vellem discutere, non dicam a me, qui nihil sum, sed a veterum Graecorum docerem interpretationibus discrepare. Vale, mi amice, carissime, aetate fili, dignitate parens: et hoc a me rogatus observa, ut quidquid mihi scripseris, ad me primum facias pervenire.