JEROME (Lat. Hieronymus, from Gk. lepe5 vamps, Hieronymos), SAINT ( c.3-10-420) . The most learned of the early father.t, of the Latin Church. Ills full name was Sophronius Eusebius Hieronymus, and he was born in Stridon, a town on the border of Dalmatia and Pannonia. Pros per of Aquitania gives 331 as the year of his birth, but that is probably too early. Among his eminent contemporaries were Ambrose and Au gustine. His parents were persons of prominence and of property. Jerome was educated in Rome, under the rhetorician Donates. where his tastes foretold the scholar; he began to gather a library by copying manuscripts for himself. Here also he received baptism. His strictly the ological studies were begun in Treves, and con tinued in Aquileia, where he had Rutinus as a comrade and friend. Traveling in the East, Jerome fell sick (in Syria ), and passed through a religious experience in which he was led to adopt the ascetic life. He saw a vision, and heard a voice saying, "Thou art not a Christian, but a Ciceronian!" This he took as a divine rebuke of his fondness for the classics, and he resolved henceforth to abandon secular literature alto gether. But his writings show that he never really shook off the influence of his classical training. Jerome's hermit life began in 374, in the desert of Chalcis (the Syrian Thebais), where he studied Hebrew with a converted Jew. After visiting Antioch and Constantinople, where he net Gregory of Xazianzus, Jerome spent three years in Rome (382-385), in close assueiation with Pope Damasus, at whose wish he commenced his translation of the Scriptures into Latin. During these years he became acquainted with certain noble Christian ladies, especially Marcella and Paula, who were devoted to the Church and aided it with their wealth. Paula and her daugh ter, Eustochium, accompanied .Jerome to the East, where they settled at Bethlehem (386). here Paula built a monastery for men, over which Jerome presided, and cloisters for women, which were under her own direction. .Jerome spent the remaining thirty-five years of his life here, en gaged in study and writing, in the practice of asceticism, and in theological controversies.
Jerome's life and work illustrate the combi nation and conflict of pagan and ascetic Chris tian ideas, so common in the fourth century. He has been described as a precursor of the Human ists, but this takes into account only one side of his character. Ile was also an exponent of the
monastic idea] and the theological controversial ist, and in the latter character sometimes dis played an extreme asperity. For the history of his age, Jerome's numerous writings are of the highest value. His Latin translation of the Bible, far superior to any of the Latin versions which preceded it, lies at the basis of the Vul gate. (See BIBLE.) He also wrote commentaries cm several hooks of the Bible. His work entitled illustrious Men ("De Viris Illustribus"), written in 392, is a series of 135 short biographies of Christian leaders, beginning with Saint Peter and ending, with Jerome himself. It was largely com piled from the licelesiastieal History of Eusebius. He translated and continued Eusebin•'s ehroniele. (See ELISEBIUS OF C.T.SAREA.) More than a hun dred of his Letters have been preserved, in which many varying topics are discussed in a very in teresting and lively way. This collection was much read throughout the Middle Ages. Among his ascetic treatises the Twenty-seeond Epistle, addressed to Eustochimn, is one of the most fa mous. Other similar treatises are the lives of Paul of Thebes, of Saintlarion, and of Mal chus, and the bitter polemics against jo•inian and Vigilaatills. Jerome became involved in N1:11•11 with his old friend Rutinus—over the theolog,y of Orig•n—with Augustine. and with the Pelagians. The violence of these con troversies has sometimes so repelled his readers that they haNc failed to do justice to Jerome's profound learning and to his great service to the cause of Christian scholarship.
Jerome's works were first edited by Erasmus, (9 vols., Basel, 1516-20). The best edition is by Vallarsi (11 vols.. Nerona, 1734-42: Venice, 1760-72; reprinted by in Poiro/. List., vols.
) . The best edition of the Ile ieis Must rib us is by Richardson. in Trite and n such unycn , vol xiv. (Leipzig, 1896). An Eng lish translation of his principal works is in The Stier, Library of leen(' and Post -.V ieene •a t hers, edited by SeliatI and Waco, vols. iii. and vi. (Ne• York. 1892 et seq.). in general consult : Ebert, a eseh ieh le der Littera I r des it it el a I tees (Leipzig, 1889); Dill, llonora Society in the Last Cent ury of the shin Enn pire (London, 1899) ; (Hover, Life um/ Letters in the Font r t h Cent u ry (Cambridge, 1901); Bardonhewer, Pa t roloyic (Freiburg.. 1901).