Letter 7: This letter (written like the preceding in 374 A.D.) is addressed by Jerome to three of his former companions in the religious life. It commends Bonosus (§3), asks guidance for the writer's sister (§4), and attacks the conduct of Lupicinus, Bishop of Stridon (§5). 1.

To Chromatius, Jovinus, and Eusebius. This letter (written like the preceding in 374 A.D.) is addressed by Jerome to three of his former companions in the religious life. It commends Bonosus (§3), asks guidance for the writer's sister (§4), and attacks the conduct of Lupicinus, Bishop of Stridon (§5). 1. Those whom mutual affection has joined together, a written page ought not to sunder. I must not, therefore, distribute my words some to one and some to another. For so strong is the love that binds you together that affection unites all three of you in a bond no less close than that which naturally connects two of your number. Indeed, if the conditions of writing would only admit of it, I should amalgamate your names and express them under a single symbol. The very letter which I have received from you challenges me in each of you to see all three, and in all three to recognize each. When the reverend Evagrius transmitted it to me in the corner of the desert which stretches between the Syrians and the Saracens, my joy was intense. It wholly surpassed the rejoicings felt at Rome when the defeat of Cannæ was retrieved, and Marcellus at Nola cut to pieces the forces of Hannibal. Evagrius frequently comes to see me, and cherishes me in Christ as his own bowels. Yet as he is separated from me by a long distance, his departure has gener ally left me as much regret as his arrival has brought me joy. 2. I converse with your letter, I embrace it, it talks to me; it alone of those here speaks Latin. For hereabout you must either learn a barbarous jargon or else hold your tongue. As often as the lines — traced in a well-known hand — bring back to me the faces which I hold so dear, either I am no longer here, or else you are here with me. If you will credit the sincerity of affection, I seem to see you all as I write this. Now at the outset I should like to ask you one petulant question. Why is it that, when we are separated by so great an interval of land and sea, you have sent me so short a letter? Is it that I have deserved no better treatment, not having first written to you? I cannot believe that paper can have failed you while Egypt continues to supply its wares. Even if a Ptolemy had closed the seas, King Attalus would still have sent you parchments from Pergamum, and so by his skins you could have made up for the want of paper. The very name parchment is derived from a historical incident of the kind which occurred generations ago. What then? Am I to suppose the messenger to have been in haste? No matter how long a letter may be, it can be written in the course of a night. Or had you some business to attend to which prevented you from writing? No claim is prior to that of affection. Two suppositions remain, either that you felt disinclined to write or else that I did not deserve a letter. Of the two I prefer to charge you with sloth than to condemn myself as undeserving. For it is easier to mend neglect than to quicken love. 3. You tell me that Bonosus, like a true son of the Fish, has taken to the water. As for me who am still foul with my old stains, like the basilisk and the scorpion I haunt the dry places. Deuteronomy 8:15 Bonosus has his heel already on the serpent's head, while I am still as food to the same serpent which by divine appointment devours the earth. Genesis 3:14 He can scale already that ladder of which the psalms of degrees are a type; while I, still weeping on its first step, hardly know whether I shall ever be able to say: I will lift up my eyes unto the hills, from whence comes my help. Amid the threatening billows of the world he is sitting in the safe shelter of his island, that is, of the church's pale, and it may be that even now, like John, he is being called to eat God's book; Revelation 10:9-10 while I, still lying in the sepulchre of my sins and bound with the chains of my iniquities, wait for the Lord's command in the Gospel: Jerome, come forth. John 11:43 But Bonosus has done more than this. Like the prophet Jeremiah 13:4-5 he has carried his girdle across the Euphrates (for all the devil's strength is in the loins ), and has hidden it there in a hole of the rock. Then, afterwards finding it rent, he has sung: O Lord, you have possessed my reins. You have broken my bonds in sunder. I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving. But as for me, Nebuchadnezzar has brought me in chains to Babylon, to the babel that is of a distracted mind. There he has laid upon me the yoke of captivity; there inserting in my nostrils a ring of iron, 2 Kings 19:28 he has commanded me to sing one of the songs of Zion. To whom I have said, The Lord looses the prisoners; the Lord opens the eyes of the blind. To complete my contrast in a single sentence, while I pray for mercy Bonosus looks for a crown. 4. My sister's conversion is the fruit of the efforts of the saintly Julian. He has planted, it is for you to water, and the Lord will give the increase. 1 Corinthians 3:6 Jesus Christ has given her to me to console me for the wound which the devil has inflicted on her. He has restored her from death to life. But in the words of the pagan poet, for her There is no safety that I do not fear. You know yourselves how slippery is the path of youth — a path on which I have myself fallen, and which you are now traversing not without fear. She, as she enters upon it, must have the advice and the encouragement of all, she must be aided by frequent letters from you, my reverend brothers. And — for charity endures all things, 1 Corinthians 13:7 — I beg you to get from Pope Valerian a letter to confirm her resolution. A girl's courage, as you know, is strengthened when she realizes that persons in high place are interested in her. 5. The fact is that my native land is a prey to barbarism, that in it men's only God is their belly, that they live only for the present, and that the richer a man is the holier he is held to be. Moreover, to use a well-worn proverb, the dish has a cover worthy of it; for Lupicinus is their priest. Like lips like lettuce, as the saying goes — the only one, as Lucilius tells us, at which Crassus ever laughed — the reference being to a donkey eating thistles. What I mean is that an unstable pilot steers a leaking ship, and that the blind is leading the blind straight to the pit. The ruler is like the ruled. 6. I salute your mother and mine with the respect which, as you know, I feel towards her. Associated with you as she is in a holy life, she has the start of you, her holy children, in that she is your mother. Her womb may thus be truly called golden. With her I salute your sisters, who ought all to be welcomed wherever they go, for they have triumphed over their sex and the world, and await the Bridegroom's coming, Matthew 25:4 their lamps replenished with oil. O happy the house which is a home of a widowed Anna, of virgins that are prophetesses, and of twin Samuels bred in the Temple! Fortunate the roof which shelters the martyr-mother of the Maccabees, with her sons around her, each and all wearing the martyr's crown! 2 Maccabbees vii For although you confess Christ every day by keeping His commandments, yet to this private glory you have added the public one of an open confession; for it was through you that the poison of the Arian heresy was formerly banished from your city. You are surprised perhaps at my thus making a fresh beginning quite at the close of my letter. But what am I to do? I cannot refuse expression to my feelings. The brief limits of a letter compel me to be silent; my affection for you urges me to speak. I write in haste, my language is confused and ill-arranged; but love knows nothing of order. About this page Source. Translated by W.H. Fremantle, G. Lewis and W.G. Martley. From Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Second Series, Vol. 6. Edited by Philip Schaff and Henry Wace. (Buffalo, NY: Christian Literature Publishing Co., 1893.) Revised and edited for New Advent by Kevin Knight. <https://www.newadvent.org/fathers/3001007.htm>. Contact information. The editor of New Advent is Kevin Knight. My email address is feedback732 at newadvent.org. (To help fight spam, this address might change occasionally.) Regrettably, I can't reply to every letter, but I greatly appreciate your feedback — especially notifications about typographical errors and inappropriate ads.

To Chromatius, Jovinus, and Eusebius. This letter (written like the preceding in 374 A.D.) is addressed by Jerome to three of his former companions in the religious life. It commends Bonosus (§3), asks guidance for the writer's sister (§4), and attacks the conduct of Lupicinus, Bishop of Stridon (§5). 1. Those whom mutual affection has joined together, a written page ought not to sunder. I must not, therefore, distribute my words some to one and some to another. For so strong is the love that binds you together that affection unites all three of you in a bond no less close than that which naturally connects two of your number. Indeed, if the conditions of writing would only admit of it, I should amalgamate your names and express them under a single symbol. The very letter which I have received from you challenges me in each of you to see all three, and in all three to recognize each. When the reverend Evagrius transmitted it to me in the corner of the desert which stretches between the Syrians and the Saracens, my joy was intense. It wholly surpassed the rejoicings felt at Rome when the defeat of Cannæ was retrieved, and Marcellus at Nola cut to pieces the forces of Hannibal. Evagrius frequently comes to see me, and cherishes me in Christ as his own bowels. Yet as he is separated from me by a long distance, his departure has gener ally left me as much regret as his arrival has brought me joy. 2. I converse with your letter, I embrace it, it talks to me; it alone of those here speaks Latin. For hereabout you must either learn a barbarous jargon or else hold your tongue. As often as the lines — traced in a well-known hand — bring back to me the faces which I hold so dear, either I am no longer here, or else you are here with me. If you will credit the sincerity of affection, I seem to see you all as I write this. Now at the outset I should like to ask you one petulant question. Why is it that, when we are separated by so great an interval of land and sea, you have sent me so short a letter? Is it that I have deserved no better treatment, not having first written to you? I cannot believe that paper can have failed you while Egypt continues to supply its wares. Even if a Ptolemy had closed the seas, King Attalus would still have sent you parchments from Pergamum, and so by his skins you could have made up for the want of paper. The very name parchment is derived from a historical incident of the kind which occurred generations ago. What then? Am I to suppose the messenger to have been in haste? No matter how long a letter may be, it can be written in the course of a night. Or had you some business to attend to which prevented you from writing? No claim is prior to that of affection. Two suppositions remain, either that you felt disinclined to write or else that I did not deserve a letter. Of the two I prefer to charge you with sloth than to condemn myself as undeserving. For it is easier to mend neglect than to quicken love. 3. You tell me that Bonosus, like a true son of the Fish, has taken to the water. As for me who am still foul with my old stains, like the basilisk and the scorpion I haunt the dry places. Deuteronomy 8:15 Bonosus has his heel already on the serpent's head, while I am still as food to the same serpent which by divine appointment devours the earth. Genesis 3:14 He can scale already that ladder of which the psalms of degrees are a type; while I, still weeping on its first step, hardly know whether I shall ever be able to say: I will lift up my eyes unto the hills, from whence comes my help. Amid the threatening billows of the world he is sitting in the safe shelter of his island, that is, of the church's pale, and it may be that even now, like John, he is being called to eat God's book; Revelation 10:9-10 while I, still lying in the sepulchre of my sins and bound with the chains of my iniquities, wait for the Lord's command in the Gospel: Jerome, come forth. John 11:43 But Bonosus has done more than this. Like the prophet Jeremiah 13:4-5 he has carried his girdle across the Euphrates (for all the devil's strength is in the loins ), and has hidden it there in a hole of the rock. Then, afterwards finding it rent, he has sung: O Lord, you have possessed my reins. You have broken my bonds in sunder. I will offer to you the sacrifice of thanksgiving. But as for me, Nebuchadnezzar has brought me in chains to Babylon, to the babel that is of a distracted mind. There he has laid upon me the yoke of captivity; there inserting in my nostrils a ring of iron, 2 Kings 19:28 he has commanded me to sing one of the songs of Zion. To whom I have said, The Lord looses the prisoners; the Lord opens the eyes of the blind. To complete my contrast in a single sentence, while I pray for mercy Bonosus looks for a crown. 4. My sister's conversion is the fruit of the efforts of the saintly Julian. He has planted, it is for you to water, and the Lord will give the increase. 1 Corinthians 3:6 Jesus Christ has given her to me to console me for the wound which the devil has inflicted on her. He has restored her from death to life. But in the words of the pagan poet, for her There is no safety that I do not fear. You know yourselves how slippery is the path of youth — a path on which I have myself fallen, and which you are now traversing not without fear. She, as she enters upon it, must have the advice and the encouragement of all, she must be aided by frequent letters from you, my reverend brothers. And — for charity endures all things, 1 Corinthians 13:7 — I beg you to get from Pope Valerian a letter to confirm her resolution. A girl's courage, as you know, is strengthened when she realizes that persons in high place are interested in her. 5. The fact is that my native land is a prey to barbarism, that in it men's only God is their belly, that they live only for the present, and that the richer a man is the holier he is held to be. Moreover, to use a well-worn proverb, the dish has a cover worthy of it; for Lupicinus is their priest. Like lips like lettuce, as the saying goes — the only one, as Lucilius tells us, at which Crassus ever laughed — the reference being to a donkey eating thistles. What I mean is that an unstable pilot steers a leaking ship, and that the blind is leading the blind straight to the pit. The ruler is like the ruled. 6. I salute your mother and mine with the respect which, as you know, I feel towards her. Associated with you as she is in a holy life, she has the start of you, her holy children, in that she is your mother. Her womb may thus be truly called golden. With her I salute your sisters, who ought all to be welcomed wherever they go, for they have triumphed over their sex and the world, and await the Bridegroom's coming, Matthew 25:4 their lamps replenished with oil. O happy the house which is a home of a widowed Anna, of virgins that are prophetesses, and of twin Samuels bred in the Temple! Fortunate the roof which shelters the martyr-mother of the Maccabees, with her sons around her, each and all wearing the martyr's crown! 2 Maccabbees vii For although you confess Christ every day by keeping His commandments, yet to this private glory you have added the public one of an open confession; for it was through you that the poison of the Arian heresy was formerly banished from your city. You are surprised perhaps at my thus making a fresh beginning quite at the close of my letter. But what am I to do? I cannot refuse expression to my feelings. The brief limits of a letter compel me to be silent; my affection for you urges me to speak. I write in haste, my language is confused and ill-arranged; but love knows nothing of order.

> 7: Ad Chromatium, Iovinum, Eusebium [1.1] Non debet charta dividere, quos amor mutuus copulavit, nec per singulos officia mei sunt partienda sermonis, cum sic invicem vos ametis, ut non minus tres caritas iungat, quam duos natura sociavit. quin potius, si rei condicio pateretur, sub uno litterulae apice nomina indivisa concluderem vestris quoque ita me litteris provocantibus, ut et in uno tres et in tribus unum putarem. [1.2] nam postquam sancto Evagrio transmittente in ea ad me heremi parte delatae sunt, quae inter Syros ac Sarracenos vastum limitem ducit, sic gavisus sum, ut illum diem Romanae felicitatis, quo primum Marcelli apud Nolam proelio post Cannensem pugnam superba Hannibalis agmina conciderunt, ego vicerim. et licet supra dictus frater saepe me visitet atque ita ut sua in Christo viscera foveat, tamen longo a me spatio seiunctus non minus mihi dereliquit abeundo desiderium, quam adtulerat veniendo laetitiam. [2.1] Nunc cum vestris litteris fabulor, illas amplexor, illae mecum loquuntur, illae hic tantum Latine sciunt. hic enim aut barbarus seni sermo discendus est aut tacendum est. quotienscumque carissimos mihi vultus notae manus referunt inpressa vestigia, totiens aut ego hic non sum aut vos hic estis. credite amori vera dicenti: et cum has scriberem, vos videbam. [2.2] quibus hoc primum queror, cur tot interiacentibus spatiis maris atque terrarum tam parvam epistulam miseretis, nisi quod ita merui, qui vobis, ut scribitis, ante non scripsi. chartam defuisse non puto Aegypto ministrante commercia. et si aliqui Ptolomaeus maria clausisset, tamen rex Attalus membranas e Pergamo miserat, ut penuria chartae pellibus pensaretur; unde pergamenarum nomen ad hanc usque diem tradente sibi invicem posteritate servatum est. [2.3] quid igitur? arbitrer baiulum festinasse? quamvis longae epistulae una nox sufficit. an vos aliqua occupatione detentos? nulla necessitas maior est caritate. restant duo, ut aut vos piguerit aut ego non meruerim. e quibus malo vos incessere tarditatis, quam me condemnare non meriti. facilius enim neglegentia emendari potest, quam amor nasci. [3.1] Bonosus, ut scribitis, quasi filius ichthyos aquosa petiit, nos pristina contagione sordentes quasi reguli et scorpiones arentia quaeque sectamur. ille iam calcat super colubri caput, nos serpenti terram ex divina sententia comedenti adhuc cibo sumus. ille iam potest summum graduum psalmum scandere, nobis adhuc in primo ascensu flentibus nescio an dicere aliquando contigat: "levavi oculos meos in montes, unde veniat auxilium mihi" [Ps. 120:1]. ille inter minaces saeculi fluctus in tuto insulae, hoc est ecclesiae gremio, sedens ad exemplum Iohannis librum forte iam devorat, ego in scelerum meorum sepulchro iacens et peccatorum vinculis conligatus dominicum de evangelio expecto clamorem: 'Hieronyme, veni foras'. [3.2] Bonosus, inquam, -- quia secundum prophetam omnis diaboli virtus in lumbo est -- trans Euphraten tulit lumbare suum ibi illud in foramine petrae abscondens et postea scissum repperiens cecinit: "domine, tu possedisti renes meos" [Ps. 138:3]; disrupisti vincula mea, tibi sacrificabo hostiam laudis, me verus Nabuchodonosor ad Babylonem, id est confusionem mentis meae, catenatum duxit; ibi mihi captivitatis iugum inposuit, ibi ferri circulum innectens de canticis Sion cantare praecepit. cui ego dixi: "dominus solvit conpeditos, dominus inluminat caecos" [Ps. 145:7-8]; et, ut breviter coeptam dissimilitudinem finiam, ego veniam deprecor, ille expectat coronam. [4.1] Soror mea sancti Iuliani in Christo fructus est: ille plantavit, vos rigate, dominus incrementum dabit. hanc mihi Iesus pro eo vulnere, quod diabolus inflixerat, praestitit vivam reddendo pro mortua. huic ego, ut ait gentilis poeta, omnia etiam tuta timeo [cf. Verg. Aen. 4.298]. scitis ipsi lubricum adulescentiae iter, in quo et ego lapsus sum et vos sine timore transistis. [4.2] hoc illa cum maxime ingrediens omnium fulcienda praeceptis, omnium est sustentanda solaciis, id est crebris vestrae sanctitudinis epistulis roboranda. et quia caritas omnia sustinet, obsecro ut etiam a papa Valeriano ad eam confortandam litteras exigatis. nostis puellares animos his rebus plerumque solidari, si se intellegant curae esse maioribus. [5] In mea enim patria rusticitatis vernacula deus venter est et de die vivitur: sanctior est ille, qui ditior est. accessit huic patellae iuxta tritum populi sermone proverbium dignum operculum. Lupicinus sacerdos -- secundum illud quoque, de quo semel in vita Crassum ait risisse Lucilius [1299 Marx] : "similem habent labra lactucam asino cardus comedente" --, videlicet ut perforatam navem debilis gubernator regat, et caecus caecos ducat in foveam talisque sit rector, quales illi qui reguntur. [6.1] Matrem communem, quae, cum vobis sanctitate societur, in eo vos praevenit, quia tales genuit, cuius vere venter aureus potest dici, eo salutamus honore, quo nostis; una quoque suspiciendas cunctis sorores, quae sexum vicere cum saeculo, quae oleo ad lampadas largiter praeparato sponsi opperiuntur adventum. [6.2] o beata domus, in qua morantur Anna vidua, virgines prophetissae, geminus Samuhel nutritus in templo! o tecta felicia, in quibus cernimus Macchabaeorum martyrum coronis cinctam martyrem matrem! nam licet cotidie Christum confiteamini, dum eius praecepta servatis, tamen ad privatam gloriam publica haec accessit vobis et aperta confessio, quod per vos ab urbe vestra Arriani quondam dogmatis virus exclusum est. [6.3] et miremini forsitan, quod in fine iam epistulae rursus exorsus sim. quid faciam? vocem pectori negare non valeo. epistulae brevitas conpellit tacere, desiderium vestri cogit loqui. praeproperus sermo; confusa turbatur oratio; amor ordinem nescit.