Letter 872: The spiritual life is a journey with a beginning, a middle, and an end.
One must be neither a braggart nor a flatterer, but, correcting the excess of both vices, must be free-spoken...
AI-assisted translation — This translation was produced with AI assistance and has not been peer-reviewed. See the 19th-century translation or original Latin/Greek below for scholarly use.
Latin / Greek Original
Οὔτε ἀλαζόνα εἶναι χρὴ, οὔτε χόλαχα " ἀλλ᾽ ἀμ- φοτέρων τῶν χαχιῶν () τούτων τὴν ἀμετρίαν χο- λάζοντα, ἐλευθέριον εἶναι, μὴτε εἰς αὐθάδειαν ἀπρχλίνοντα, μῆτε εἰς δουλοπρέπειαν χαταπί- πτοντα. . ΤΠ΄. --- ΤΙΜΟΘΕΩ ΣΧΟΛΑΣΤΙΚΩ. Μάνθανε, ὦ σοφώτατε, καὶ ῥητοριχώτατε, ὅπερ χινδυνεύεις, ὡς ἔοιχεν, ἀγνοεῖν, ὅτι εἰ συμδαίη φί- λοις πρὸς ἀλλήλους διενεχθῆναι, ἣ ἐχθροῖς, οὐχ ὁμοίως διαγωνιοῦνται " ἀλλ᾽ οἱ μὲν ὡς διαλλαγησό- μενοι διοίσονται, οἱ δὲ ὡς: ἀχῆρυχτον ἕξοντες τὸν πόλεμον.
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In answer to a question put by Dardanus, prefect of Gaul, Jerome writes concerning the Promised Land which he identifies not with Canaan but with heaven. He then points out that the present sufferings of the Jews are due altogether to the crime of which they have been guilty in the crucifixion of Christ. The date of the letter is 414 A.D.