Since the Holy Spirit, the Comforter,
had bestowed the Scriptures on the human race for their instruction in Divine
things, He also raised up in successive ages saintly and learned men whose task
it should be to develop that treasure and so provide for the faithful plenteous
"consolation from the Scriptures."[1] Foremost among these teachers stands St.
Jerome. Him the Catholic Church acclaims and reveres as her "Greatest Doctor,"
divinely given her for the understanding of the Bible. And now that the
fifteenth centenary of his death is approaching we would not willingly let pass
so favorable an opportunity of addressing you on the debt we owe him. For the
responsibility of our Apostolic office impels us to set before you his wonderful
example and so promote the study of Holy Scripture in accordance with the
teaching of our predecessors, Leo XIII and Pius X, which we desire to apply more
precisely still to the present needs of the Church. For St. Jerome - "strenuous
Catholic, learned in the Scriptures,"[2] "teacher of Catholics,"[3] "model of
virtue, world's teacher"[4] - has by his earnest and illuminative defense of
Catholic doctrine on Holy Scripture left us most precious instructions. These we
propose to set before you and so promote among the children of the Church, and
especially among the clergy, assiduous and reverent study of the Bible.
2. No need to remind you, Venerable
Brethren, that Jerome was born in Stridonia, in a town "on the borders of
Dalmatia and Pannonia";[5] that from his infancy he was brought up a
Catholic;[6] that after his baptism here in Rome[7] he lived to an advanced age
and devoted all his powers to studying, expounding, and defending the Bible. At
Rome he had learned Latin and Greek, and hardly had he left the school of
rhetoric than he ventured on a Commentary on Abdias the Prophet. This "youthful
piece of work"[8] kindled in him such love of the Bible that he decided - like
the man in the Gospel who found a treasure - to spurn "any emoluments the world
could provide,"[9] and devote himself wholly to such studies. Nothing could
deter him from this stern resolve. He left home, parents, sister, and relatives;
he denied himself the more delicate food he had been accustomed to, and went to
the East so that he might gather from studious reading of the Bible the fuller
riches of Christ and true knowledge of his Savior.[10] Jerome himself tells us
in several places how assiduously he toiled:
An eager desire to learn obsessed me. But I was not so foolish as to try and
teach myself. At Antioch I regularly attended the lectures of Apollinaris of
Laodicea; but while I learned much from him about the Bible, I would never
accept his doubtful teaching about its interpretation.[11]
3. From Antioch be betook to the desert
of Chalcis, in Syria, to perfect himself in his knowledge of the Bible, and at
the same time to curb "youthful desires" by means of hard study. Here he engaged
a convert Jew to teach him Hebrew and Chaldaic.
What a toil it was! How difficult I found it! How often I was on the point of
giving it up in despair, and yet in my eagerness to learn took it up again!
Myself can bear witness of this, and so, too, can those who had lived with me at
the time. Yet I thank God for the fruit I won from that bitter seed.[12]
4. Lest, however, he should grow idle
in this desert where there were no heretics to vex him, Jerome betook himself to
Constantinople, where for nearly three years he studied Holy Scripture under St.
Gregory the Theologian, then Bishop of that See and in the height of his fame as
a teacher. While there he translated into Latin Origen's Homilies on the
Prophets and Eusebius' Chronicle; he also wrote on Isaias' vision of
the Seraphim. He then returned to Rome on ecclesiastical business, and Pope
Damasus admitted him into his court.[13] However, he let nothing distract him
from continual occupation with the Bible,[14] and the task of copying various
manuscripts,[15] as well as answering the many questions put to him by students
of both sexes.[16]
5. Pope Damasus had entrusted to him a
most laborious task, the correction of the Latin text of the Bible. So well did
Jerome carry this out that even today men versed in such studies appreciate its
value more and more. But he ever yearned for Palestine, and when the Pope died
he retired to Bethlehem to a monastery nigh to the cave where Christ was born.
Every moment he could spare from prayer he gave to Biblical studies.
Though my hair was now growing gray and though I looked more like professor than
student, yet I went to Alexandria to attend Didymus' lectures. I owe him much.
What I did not know I learned. What I knew already I did not lose through his
different presentation of it. Men thought I had done with tutors; but when I got
back to Jerusalem and Bethlehem how hard I worked and what a price I paid for my
night-time teacher Baraninus! Like another Nicodemus he was afraid of the
Jews![17]
6. Nor was Jerome content merely to
gather up this or that teacher's words; he gathered from all quarters whatever
might prove of use to him in this task. From the outset he had accumulated the
best possible copies of the Bible and the best commentators on it, but now he
worked on copies from the synagogues and from the library formed at Caesarea by
Origen and Eusebius; he hoped by assiduous comparison of texts to arrive at
greater certainty touching the actual text and its meaning. With this same
purpose he went all through Palestine. For he was thoroughly convinced of the
truth of what he once wrote to Domnio and Rogatian:
A man will understand the Bible better if he has seen Judaea with his own eyes
and discovered its ancient cities and sites either under the old names or newer
ones. In company with some learned Hebrews I went through the entire land the
names of whose sites are on every Christian's lips.[18]
7. He nourished his soul unceasingly on
this most pleasant food: he explained St. Paul's Epistles; he corrected the
Latin version of the Old Testament by the Greek; he translated afresh nearly all
the books of the Old Testament from Hebrew into Latin; day by day he discussed
Biblical questions with the brethren who came to him, and answered letters on
Biblical questions which poured in upon him from all sides; besides all this, he
was constantly refuting men who assailed Catholic doctrine and unity. Indeed,
such was his love for Holy Scripture that he ceased not from writing or
dictating till his hand stiffened in death and his voice was silent forever. So
it was that, sparing himself neither labor nor watching nor expense, he
continued to extreme old age meditating day and night beside the Crib on the Law
of the Lord; of greater profit to the Catholic cause by his life and example in
his solitude than if he had passed his life at Rome, the capital of the world.
8. After this preliminary account of
St. Jerome's life and labors we may now treat of his teaching on the divine
dignity and absolute truth of Scripture.
You will not find a page in his
writings which does not show clearly that he, in common with the whole Catholic
Church, firmly and consistently held that the Sacred Books - written as they
were under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit - have God for their Author, and
as such were delivered to the Church. Thus he asserts that the Books of the
Bible were composed at the inspiration, or suggestion, or even at the dictation
of the Holy Spirit; even that they were written and edited by Him. Yet he never
questions but that the individual authors of these Books worked in full freedom
under the Divine afflatus, each of them in accordance with his individual nature
and character. Thus he is not merely content to affirm as a general principle -
what indeed pertains to all the sacred writers - that they followed the Spirit
of God as they wrote, in such sort that God is the principal cause of all that
Scripture means and says; but he also accurately describes what pertains to each
individual writer. In each case Jerome shows us how, in composition, in
language, in style and mode of expression, each of them uses his own gifts and
powers; hence he is able to portray and describe for us their individual
character, almost their very features; this is especially so in his treatment of
the Prophets and of St. Paul. This partnership of God and man in the production
of a work in common Jerome illustrates by the case of a workman who uses
instruments for the production of his work; for he says that whatsoever the
sacred authors say "Is the word of God, and not their own; and what the Lord
says by their mouths He says, as it were, by means of an instrument."[19]
9. If we ask how we are to explain this
power and action of God, the principal cause, on the sacred writers we shall
find that St. Jerome in no wise differs from the common teaching of the Catholic
Church. For he holds that God, through His grace, illumines the writer's mind
regarding the particular truth which, "in the person of God," he is to set
before men; he holds, moreover, that God moves the writer's will - nay, even
impels it - to write; finally, that God abides with him unceasingly, in unique
fashion, until his task is accomplished. Whence the Saint infers the supreme
excellence and dignity of Scripture, and declares that knowledge of it is to be
likened to the "treasure"[20] and the "pearl beyond price,"[21] since in them
are to be found the riches of Christ[22] and "silver wherewith to adorn God's
house."[23]
10. Jerome also insists on the
supereminent authority of Scripture. When controversy arose he had recourse to
the Bible as a storehouse of arguments, and he used its testimony as a weapon
for refuting his adversaries' arguments, because he held that the Bible's
witness afforded solid and irrefutable arguments. Thus, when Helvidius denied
the perpetual virginity of the Mother of God, Jerome was content simply to
reply:
Just as we do not deny these things which are written, so do we repudiate things
that are not written. That God was born of a Virgin we believe, because we read
it. That Mary was married after His birth we do not believe because we do not
read it.[24]
11. In the same fashion he undertakes
to defend against Jovinian, with precisely the same weapons, the Catholic
doctrines of the virginal state, of perseverance, of abstinence, and of the
merit of good works:
In refuting his statements I shall rely especially on the testimony of
Scripture, lest he should grumble and complain that he has been vanquished
rather by my eloquence than by the truth.[25]
12. So, too, when defending himself
against the same Helvidius, he says: "He was, you might say, begged to yield to
me, and be led away as a willing and unresisting captive in the bonds of
truth."[26] Again, "We must not follow the errors of our parents, nor of those
who have gone before us; we have the authority of the Scriptures and God's
teaching to command us."[27] Once more, when showing Fabiola how to deal with
critics, he says:
When you are really instructed in the Divine Scriptures, and have realized that
its laws and testimonies are the bonds of truth, then you can contend with
adversaries; then you will fetter them and lead them bound into captivity; then
of the foes you have made captive you will make freemen of God.[28]
13. Jerome further shows that the
immunity of Scripture from error or deception is necessarily bound up with its
Divine inspiration and supreme authority. He says he had learnt this in the most
celebrated schools, whether of East or West, and that it was taught him as the
doctrine of the Fathers, and generally received. Thus when, at the instance of
Pope Damasus, he had begun correcting the Latin text of the New Testament, and
certain "manikins" had vehemently attacked him for "making corrections in the
Gospels in face of the authority of the Fathers and of general opinion," Jerome
briefly replied that he was not so utterly stupid nor so grossly uneducated as
to imagine that the Lord's words needed any correction or were not divinely
inspired.[29] Similarly, when explaining Ezechiel's first vision as portraying
the Four Gospels, he remarks:
That the entire body and the back were full of eyes will be plain to anybody who
realizes that there is nought in the Gospels which does not shine and illumine
the world by its splendor, so that even things that seem trifling and
unimportant shine with the majesty of the Holy Spirit.[30]
14. What he has said here of the
Gospels he applies in his Commentaries to the rest of the Lord's words; he
regards it as the very rule and foundation of Catholic interpretation; indeed,
for Jerome, a true prophet was to be distinguished from a false by this very
note of truth:[31] "The Lord's words are true; for Him to say it, means that it
is."[32] Again, "Scripture cannot lie";[33] it is wrong to say Scripture lies,
nay, it is impious even to admit the very notion of error where the Bible is
concerned.[34] "The Apostles," he says, "are one thing; other writers" - that
is, profane writers - "are another;"[35] "the former always tell the truth; the
latter - as being mere men - sometimes err,"[36] and though many things are said
in the Bible which seem incredible, yet they are true;[37] in this "word of
truth" you cannot find things or statements which are contradictory, "there is
nothing discordant nor conflicting";[38] consequently, "when Scripture seems to
be in conflict with itself both passages are true despite their diversity."[39]
15. Holding principles like these,
Jerome was compelled, when he discovered apparent discrepancies in the Sacred
Books, to use every endeavor to unravel the difficulty. If he felt that he had
not satisfactorily settled the problem, he would return to it again and again,
not always, indeed, with the happiest results. Yet he would never accuse the
sacred writers of the slightest mistake - "that we leave to impious folk like
Celsus, Porphyry, and Julian."[40] Here he is in full agreement with Augustine,
who wrote to Jerome that to the Sacred Books alone had he been wont to accord
such honor and reverence as firmly to believe that none of their writers had
ever fallen into any error; and that consequently, if in the said books he came
across anything which seemed to run counter to the truth, he did not think that
that was really the case, but either that his copy was defective or that the
translator had made a mistake, or again, that he himself had failed to
understand. He continues:
Nor do I deem that you think otherwise. Indeed, I absolutely decline to think
that you would have people read your own books in the same way as they read
those of the Prophets and Apostles; the idea that these latter could contain any
errors is impious.[41]
16. St. Jerome's teaching on this point
serves to confirm and illustrate what our predecessor of happy memory, Leo XIII,
declared to be the ancient and traditional belief of the Church touching the
absolute immunity of Scripture from error:
So far is it from being the case that error can be compatible with inspiration,
that, on the contrary, it not only of its very nature precludes the presence of
error, but as necessarily excludes it and forbids it as God, the Supreme Truth,
necessarily cannot be the Author of error.
17. Then, after giving the definitions
of the Councils of Florence and Trent, confirmed by the Council of the Vatican,
Pope Leo continues:
Consequently it is not to the point to suggest that the Holy Spirit used men as
His instruments for writing, and that therefore, while no error is referable to
the primary Author, it may well be due to the inspired authors themselves. For
by supernatural power the Holy Spirit so stirred them and moved them to write,
so assisted them as they wrote, that their minds could rightly conceive only
those and all those things which He himself bade them conceive; only such things
could they faithfully commit to writing and aptly express with unerring truth;
else God would not be the Author of the entirety of Sacred Scripture.[42]
18. But although these words of our
predecessor leave no room for doubt or dispute, it grieves us to find that not
only men outside, but even children of the Catholic Church - nay, what is a
peculiar sorrow to us, even clerics and professors of sacred learning - who in
their own conceit either openly repudiate or at least attack in secret the
Church's teaching on this point.
We warmly commend, of course, those
who, with the assistance of critical methods, seek to discover new ways of
explaining the difficulties in Holy Scripture, whether for their own guidance or
to help others. But we remind them that they will only come to miserable grief
if they neglect our predecessor's injunctions and overstep the limits set by the
Fathers.
19. Yet no one can pretend that certain
recent writers really adhere to these limitations. For while conceding that
inspiration extends to every phrase - and, indeed, to every single word of
Scripture - yet, by endeavoring to distinguish between what they style the
primary or religious and the secondary or profane element in the Bible, they
claim that the effect of inspiration - namely, absolute truth and immunity from
error - are to be restricted to that primary or religious element. Their notion
is that only what concerns religion is intended and taught by God in Scripture,
and that all the rest - things concerning "profane knowledge," the garments in
which Divine truth is presented - God merely permits, and even leaves to the
individual author's greater or less knowledge. Small wonder, then, that in their
view a considerable number of things occur in the Bible touching physical
science, history and the like, which cannot be reconciled with modern progress
in science!
20. Some even maintain that these views
do not conflict with what our predecessor laid down since - so they claim - he
said that the sacred writers spoke in accordance with the external - and thus
deceptive - appearance of things in nature. But the Pontiff's own words show
that this is a rash and false deduction. For sound philosophy teaches that the
senses can never be deceived as regards their own proper and immediate object.
Therefore, from the merely external appearance of things - of which, of course,
we have always to take account as Leo XIII, following in the footsteps of St.
Augustine and St. Thomas, most wisely remarks - we can never conclude that there
is any error in Sacred Scripture.
21. Moreover, our predecessor, sweeping
aside all such distinctions between what these critics are pleased to call
primary and secondary elements, says in no ambiguous fashion that "those who
fancy that when it is a question of the truth of certain expressions we have not
got to consider so much what God said as why He said it," are very far indeed
from the truth. He also teaches that Divine inspiration extends to every part of
the Bible without the slightest exception, and that no error can occur in the
inspired text: "It would be wholly impious to limit inspiration to certain
portions only of Scripture or to concede that the sacred authors themselves
could have erred."[43]
22. Those, too, who hold that the
historical portions of Scripture do not rest on the absolute truth of the facts
but merely upon what they are pleased to term their relative truth, namely, what
people then commonly thought, are - no less than are the aforementioned critics
- out of harmony with the Church's teaching, which is endorsed by the testimony
of Jerome and other Fathers. Yet they are not afraid to deduce such views from
the words of Leo XIII on the ground that he allowed that the principles he had
laid down touching the things of nature could be applied to historical things as
well. Hence they maintain that precisely as the sacred writers spoke of physical
things according to appearance, so, too, while ignorant of the facts, they
narrated them in accordance with general opinion or even on baseless evidence;
neither do they tell us the sources whence they derived their knowledge, nor do
they make other peoples' narrative their own. Such views are clearly false, and
constitute a calumny on our predecessor. After all, what analogy is there
between physics and history? For whereas physics is concerned with "sensible
appearances" and must consequently square with phenomena, history on the
contrary, must square with the facts, since history is the written account of
events as they actually occurred. If we were to accept such views, how could we
maintain the truth insisted on throughout Leo XIII's Encyclical - viz. that the
sacred narrative is absolutely free from error?
23. And if Leo XIII does say that we
can apply to history and cognate subjects the same principles which hold good
for science, he yet does not lay this down as a universal law, but simply says
that we can apply a like line of argument when refuting the fallacies of
adversaries and defending the historical truth of Scripture from their assaults.
24. Nor do modern innovators stop here:
they even try to claim St. Jerome as a patron of their views on the ground that
he maintained that historic truth and sequence were not observed in the Bible,
"precisely as things actually took place, but in accordance with what men
thought at that time," and that he even held that this was the true norm for
history.[44] A strange distortion of St. Jerome's words! He does not say that
when giving us an account of events the writer was ignorant of the truth and
simply adopted the false views then current; he merely says that in giving names
to persons or things he followed general custom. Thus the Evangelist calls St.
Joseph the father of Jesus, but what he meant by the title "father" here is
abundantly clear from the whole context. For St. Jerome "the true norm of
history" is this: when it is question of such appellatives (as "father," etc),
and when there is no danger or error, then a writer must adopt the ordinary
forms of speech simply because such forms of speech are in ordinary use. More
than this: Jerome maintains that belief in the Biblical narrative is as
necessary to salvation as is belief in the doctrines of the faith; thus in his
Commentary on the Epistle to Philemon he says:
"What I mean is this: Does any man believe in God the Creator? He cannot do so
unless he first believe that the things written of God's Saints are true." He
then gives examples from the Old Testament, and adds: "Now unless a man believes
all these and other things too which are written of the Saints he cannot believe
in the God of the Saints."[45]
25. Thus St. Jerome is in complete
agreement with St. Augustine, who sums up the general belief of Christian
antiquity when he says:
Holy Scripture is invested with supreme authority by reason of its sure and
momentous teachings regarding the faith. Whatever, then, it tells us of Enoch,
Elias and Moses - that we believe. We do not, for instance, believe that God's
Son was born of the Virgin Mary simply because He could not otherwise have
appeared in the flesh and 'walked amongst men' - as Faustus would have it - but
we believe it simply because it is written in Scripture; and unless we believe
in Scripture we can neither be Christians nor be saved.[46]
26. Then there are other assailants of
Holy Scripture who misuse principles - which are only sound, if kept within due
bounds - in order to overturn the fundamental truth of the Bible and thus
destroy Catholic teaching handed down by the Fathers. If Jerome were living now
he would sharpen his keenest controversial weapons against people who set aside
what is the mind and judgment of the Church, and take too ready a refuge in such
notions as "implicit quotations" or "pseudo-historical narratives," or in "kinds
of literature" in the Bible such as cannot be reconciled with the entire and
perfect truth of God's word, or who suggest such origins of the Bible as must
inevitably weaken - if not destroy - its authority.
27. What can we say of men who in
expounding the very Gospels so whittle away the human trust we should repose in
it as to overturn Divine faith in it? They refuse to allow that the things which
Christ said or did have come down to us unchanged and entire through witnesses
who carefully committed to writing what they themselves had seen or heard. They
maintain - and particularly in their treatment of the Fourth Gospel -
that much is due of course to the Evangelists - who, however, added much from
their own imaginations; but much, too, is due to narratives compiled by the
faithful at other periods, the result, of course, being that the twin streams
now flowing in the same channel cannot be distinguished from one another. Not
thus did Jerome and Augustine and the other Doctors of the Church understand the
historical trustworthiness of the Gospels; yet of it one wrote: "He who saw it
has borne witness, and his witness is true; and he knows that he tells the
truth, and you also may believe" (Jn. 19:35). So, too, St. Jerome: after
rebuking the heretical framers of the apocryphal Gospels for "attempting rather
to fill up the story than to tell it truly,"[47] he says of the Canonical
Scriptures: "None can doubt but that what is written took place."[48] Here again
he is in fullest harmony with Augustine, who so beautifully says: "These things
are true; they are faithfully and truthfully written of Christ; so that
whosoever believes His Gospel may be thereby instructed in the truth and misled
by no lie."[49]
28. All this shows us how earnestly we
must strive to avoid, as children of the Church, this insane freedom in
ventilating opinions which the Fathers were careful to shun. This we shall more
readily achieve if you, Venerable Brethren, will make both clergy and laity
committed to your care by the Holy Spirit realize that neither Jerome nor the
other Fathers of the Church learned their doctrine touching Holy Scripture save
in the school of the Divine Master Himself. We know what He felt about Holy
Scripture: when He said, "It is written," and "the Scripture must needs be
fulfilled," we have therein an argument which admits of no exception and which
should put an end to all controversy.
29. Yet it is worthwhile dwelling on
this point a little: when Christ preached to the people, whether on the Mount by
the lakeside, or in the synagogue at Nazareth, or in His own city of Capharnaum,
He took His points and His arguments from the Bible. From the same source came
His weapons when disputing with the Scribes and Pharisees. Whether teaching or
disputing He quotes from all parts of Scripture and takes His example from it;
He quotes it as an argument which must be accepted. He refers without any
discrimination of sources to the stories of Jonas and the Ninivites, of the
Queen of Sheba and Solomon, of Elias and Eliseus, of David and of Noe, of Lot
and the Sodomites, and even of Lot's wife. (cf. Mt. 12:3, 39-42; Lk.
17:26-29, 32). How solemn His witness to the truth of the sacred books: "One
jot, or one tittle shall not pass of the Law till all be fulfilled" (Mt.
5:18); and again: "The Scripture cannot be broken" (Jn. 10:35); and
consequently: "He therefore that shall break one of these least commandments,
and shall so teach men shall be called the least in the kingdom of heaven" (Mt.
5:19). Before His Ascension, too, when He would steep His Apostles in the same
doctrine: "He opened their understanding that they might understand the
Scriptures. And He said to them: thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ
to suffer, and to rise again from the dead the third day" (Lk. 24:45).
30. In a word, then: Jerome's teaching
on the superexcellence and truth of Scripture is Christ's teaching. Wherefore we
exhort all the Church's children, and especially those whose duty it is to teach
in seminaries, to follow closely in St. Jerome's footsteps. If they will but do
so they will learn to prize as he prized the treasure of the Scriptures, and
will derive from them most abundant and blessed fruit.
31. Now, if we make use of the
"Greatest of Doctors" as our guide and teacher we shall derive from so doing not
only the gains signalized above, but others too, which cannot be regarded as
trifling or few. What these gains are, Venerable Brethren, we will set out
briefly. At the outset, then, we are deeply impressed by the intense love of the
Bible which St. Jerome exhibits in his whole life and teaching: both are steeped
in the Spirit of God. This intense love of the Bible he was ever striving to
kindle in the hearts of the faithful, and his words on this subject to the
maiden Demetrias are really addressed to us all: "Love the Bible and wisdom will
love you; love it and it will preserve you; honor it and it will embrace you;
these are the jewels which you should wear on your breast and in your ears."[50]
32. His unceasing reading of the Bible
and his painstaking study of each book - nay, of every phrase and word - gave
him a knowledge of the text such as no other ecclesiastical writer of old
possessed. It is due to this familiarity with the text and to his own acute
judgment that the Vulgate version Jerome made is, in the judgment of all capable
men, preferable to any other ancient version, since it appears to give us the
sense of the original more accurately and with greater elegance than they. The
said Vulgate, "approved by so many centuries of use in the Church" was
pronounced by the Council of Trent "authentic," and the same Council insisted
that it was to be used in teaching and in the liturgy.[51] If God in His mercy
grants us life, we sincerely hope to see an amended and faithfully restored
edition. We have no doubt that when this arduous task - entrusted by our
predecessor, Pius X, to the Benedictine Order - has been completed it will prove
of great assistance in the study of the Bible.
33. But to return to St. Jerome's love
of the Bible: this is so conspicuous in his letters that they almost seem woven
out of Scripture texts; and, as St. Bernard found no taste in things which did
not echo the most sweet Name of Jesus, so no literature made any appeal to
Jerome unless it derived its light from Holy Scripture. Thus he wrote to
Paulinus, formerly senator and even consul, and only recently converted to the
faith:
If only you had this foundation (knowledge of Scripture); nay, more - if you
would let Scripture give the finishing touches to your work - I should find
nothing more beautiful, more learned, even nothing more Latin than your volumes.
. . If you could but add to your wisdom and eloquence study of and real
acquaintance with Holy Scripture, we should speedily have to acknowledge you a
leader amongst us.[52]
34. How we are to seek for this great
treasure, given as it is by our Father in heaven for our solace during this
earthly pilgrimage, St. Jerome's example shows us. First, we must be well
prepared and must possess a good will. Thus Jerome himself, immediately on his
baptism, determined to remove whatever might prove a hindrance to his ambitions
in this respect. Like the men who found a treasure and "for joy thereof went and
sold all that he had and bought that field" (Mt. 13:44), so did Jerome say
farewell to the idle pleasures of this passing world; he went into the desert,
and since he realized what risks he had run in the past through the allurements
of vice, he adopted a most severe style of life. With all obstacles thus removed
he prepared his soul for "the knowledge of Jesus Christ" and for putting on Him
Who was "meek and humble of heart." But he went through what Augustine also
experienced when he took up the study of Scripture. For the latter has told us
how, steeped as a youth in Cicero and profane authors, the Bible seemed to him
unfit to be compared with Cicero.
My swelling pride shrank from its modest garb, while my gaze could not pierce to
what the latter hid. Of a truth Scripture was meant to grow up with the
childlike; but then I could not be childlike; turgid eloquence appealed mightily
to me.[53]
So, too, St. Jerome; even though
withdrawn into the desert he still found such delight in profane literature that
at first he failed to discern the lowly Christ in His lowly Scriptures:
Wretch that I was! I read Cicero even before I broke my fast! And after the long
night-watches, when memory of my past sins wrung tears from my soul, even then I
took up my Plautus! Then perhaps I would come to my senses and would start
reading the Prophets. But their uncouth language made me shiver, and, since
blind eyes do not see the light, I blamed the sun and not my own eyes.[54]
35. But in a brief space Jerome became
so enamored of the "folly of the Cross" that he himself serves as a proof of the
extent to which a humble and devout frame of mind is conducive to the
understanding of Holy Scripture. He realized that "in expounding Scripture we
need God's Holy Spirit";[55] he saw that one cannot otherwise read or understand
it "than the Holy Spirit by Whom it was written demands."[56] Consequently, he
was ever humbly praying for God's assistance and for the light of the Holy
Spirit, and asking his friends to do the same for him. We find him commending to
the Divine assistance and to his brethren's prayers his Commentaries on various
books as he began them, and then rendering God due thanks when completed.
36. As he trusted to God's grace, so
too did he rely upon the authority of his predecessors: "What I have learned I
did not teach myself - a wretchedly presumptous teacher! - but I learned it from
illustrious men in the Church."[57] Again: "In studying Scripture I never
trusted to myself."[58] To Theophilus, Bishop of Alexandria, he imparted the
rule he had laid down for his own student life: "It has always been my custom to
fight for the prerogatives of a Christian, not to overpass the limits set by the
Fathers, always to bear in mind that Roman faith praised by the Apostle."[59]
37. He ever paid submissive homage to
the Church, our supreme teacher through the Roman Pontiffs. Thus, with a view to
putting an end to the controversy raging in the East concerning the mystery of
the Holy Trinity, he submitted the question to the Roman See for settlement, and
wrote from the Syrian desert to Pope Damasus as follows:
I decided, therefore, to consult the Chair of Peter and that Roman faith which
the Apostle praised; I ask for my soul's food from that city wherein I first put
on the garment of Christ. . .I, who follow no other leader save Christ,
associate myself with Your Blessedness, in communion, that is, with the Chair of
Peter. For I know the Church was built upon that Rock. . . I beg you to settle
this dispute. If you desire it I shall not be afraid to say there are Three
Hypostases. If it is your wish let them draw up a Symbol of faith subsequent to
that of Nicaea, and let us orthodox praise God in the same form of words as the
Arians employ.[60]
38. And in his next letter: "Meanwhile
I keep crying out, 'Any man who is joined to Peter's Chair, he is my man'."[61]
Since he had learnt this "rule of faith" from his study of the Bible, he was
able to refute a false interpretation of a Biblical text with the simple remark:
"Yes, but the Church of God does not admit that."[62] When, again, Vigilantius
quoted an Apocryphal book, Jerome was content to reply: "A book I have never so
much as read! For what is the good of soiling one's hands with a book the Church
does not receive?"[63] With his strong insistence on adhering to the integrity
of the faith, it is not to be wondered at that he attacked vehemently those who
left the Church; he promptly regarded them as his own personal enemies. "To put
it briefly," he says, "I have never spared heretics, and have always striven to
regard the Church's enemies as my own."[64] To Rufinus he writes: "There is one
point in which I cannot agree with you: you ask me to spare heretics - or, in
other words - not to prove myself a Catholic."[65] Yet at the same time Jerome
deplored the lamentable state of heretics, and adjured them to return to their
sorrowing Mother, the one source of salvation;[66] he prayed, too, with all
earnestness for the conversion of those "who had quitted the Church and put away
the Holy Spirit's teaching to follow their own notions."[67]
39. Was there ever a time, Venerable
Brethren, when there was greater call than now for us all, lay and cleric alike,
to imbibe the spirit of this "Greatest of Doctors"? For there are many
contumacious folk now who sneer at the authority and government of God, Who has
revealed Himself, and of the Church which teaches. You know - for Leo XIII
warned us - "how insistently men fight against us; You know the arms and arts
they rely upon."[68] It is your duty, then, to train as many really fit
defenders of this holiest of causes as you can. They must be ready to combat not
only those who deny the existence of the Supernatural Order altogether, and are
thus led to deny the existence of any divine revelation or inspiration, but
those, too, who - through an itching desire for novelty - venture to interpret
the sacred books as though they were of purely human origin; Those, too, who
scoff at opinions held of old in the Church, or who, through contempt of its
teaching office, either reck little of, or silently disregard, or at least
obstinately endeavor to adapt to their own views, the Constitutions of the
Apostolic See or the decisions of the Pontifical Biblical Commission.
Would that all Catholics would cling to
St. Jerome's golden rule and obediently listen to their Mother's words, so as
modestly to keep within the bounds marked out by the Fathers and ratified by the
Church.
40. To return, however, to the question
of the formation of Biblical students. We must lay the foundations in piety and
humility of mind; only when we have done that does St. Jerome invite us to study
the Bible. In the first place, he insists, in season and out, on daily reading
of the text. "Provided," he says, "our bodies are not the slaves of sin, wisdom
will come to us; but exercise your mind, feed it daily with Holy Scripture."[69]
And again: "We have got, then, to read Holy Scripture assiduously; we have got
to meditate on the Law of God day and night so that, as expert money-changers,
we may be able to detect false coin from true."[70]
41. For matrons and maidens alike he
lays down the same rule. Thus, writing to the Roman matron Laeta about her
daughter's training, he says:
Every day she should give you a definite account of her Bible-reading . . .For
her the Bible must take the place of silks and jewels . . . Let her learn the
Psalter first, and find her recreation in its songs; let her learn from
Solomon's Proverbs the way of life, from Ecclesiastes how to trample on the
world. In Job she will find an example of patient virtue. Thence let her pass to
the Gospels; they should always be in her hands. She should steep herself in the
Acts and the Epistles. And when she has enriched her soul with these treasures
she should commit to memory the Prophets, the Heptateuch, Kings and Chronicles,
Esdras and Esther: then she can learn the Canticle of Canticles without any
fear."[71]
42. He says the same to Eustochium:
"Read assiduously and learn as much as you can. Let sleep find you holding your
Bible, and when your head nods let it be resting on the sacred page."[72]
When he sent Eustochium the epitaph he
had composed for her mother Paula, he especially praised that holy woman for
having so wholeheartedly devoted herself and her daughter to Bible study that
she knew the Bible through and through, and had committed it to memory. He
continues:
I will tell you another thing about her, though evil-disposed people may cavil
at it: she determined to learn Hebrew, a language which I myself, with immense
labor and toil from my youth upwards, have only partly learned, and which I even
now dare not cease studying lest it should quit me. But Paula learned it, and so
well that she could chant the Psalms in Hebrew, and could speak it, too, without
any trace of a Latin accent. We can see the same thing even now in her daughter
Eustochium.[73]
43. He tells us much the same of
Marcella, who also knew the Bible exceedingly well.[74] And none can fail to see
what profit and sweet tranquillity must result in well-disposed souls from such
devout reading of the Bible. Whosoever comes to it in piety, faith and humility,
and with determination to make progress in it, will assuredly find therein and
will eat the "Bread that cometh down from heaven" (Jn. 6:33); he will, in
his own person, experience the truth of David's words: "The hidden and uncertain
things of Thy Wisdom Thou hast made manifest to me!" (Ps. 50:8), for this
table of the "Divine Word" does really "contain holy teaching, teach the true
faith, and lead us unfalteringly beyond the veil into the Holy of Holies."[75]
Hence, as far as in us lies, we,
Venerable Brethren, shall, with St. Jerome as our guide, never desist from
urging the faithful to read daily the Gospels, the Acts and the Epistles, so as
to gather thence food for their souls.
44. Our thoughts naturally turn just
now to the Society of St. Jerome, which we ourselves were instrumental in
founding; its success has gladdened us, and we trust that the future will see a
great impulse given to it.
The object of this Society is to put
into the hands of as many people as possible the Gospels and Acts, so that every
Christian family may have them and become accustomed to reading them. This we
have much at heart, for we have seen how useful it is. We earnestly hope, then,
that similar Societies will be founded in your dioceses and affiliated to the
parent Society here.
Commendation, too, is due to Catholics
in other countries who have published the entire New Testament, as well as
selected portions of the Old, in neat and simple form so as to popularize their
use. Much again must accrue to the Church of God when numbers of people thus
approach this table of heavenly instruction which the Lord provided through the
ministry of His Prophets, Apostles and Doctors for the entire Christian world.
45. If, then, St. Jerome begs for
assiduous reading of the Bible by the faithful in general, he insists on it for
those who are called to "bear the yoke of Christ" and preach His word. His words
to Rusticus the monk apply to all clerics:
So long as you are in your own country regard you cell as your orchard; there
you can gather Scripture's various fruits and enjoy the pleasures it affords
you. Always have a book in your hands and read it; learn the Psalter by heart;
pray unceasingly; watch over your senses lest idle thoughts creep in.[76]
Similarly to Nepotian:
Constantly read the Bible; in fact, have it always in your hands. Learn what you
have got to teach. Get firm hold of that "faithful word that is according to
doctrine, that you may be able to exhort in sound doctrine and convince the
gainsayers."[77]
When reminding Paulinus of the lessons
St. Paul gave to Timothy and Titus, and which he himself had derived from the
Bible, Jerome says:
A mere holy rusticity only avails the man himself; but however much a life so
meritorious may serve to build up the Church of God, it does as much harm to the
Church if it fails to "resist the gainsayer." Malachias the Prophet says, or
rather the Lord says it by Malachias: "Ask for the Law from the priests." For it
is the priest's duty to give an answer when asked about the Law. In Deuteronomy
we read: "Ask thy father and he will tell thee; ask the priests and they will
tell thee. . ." Daniel, too, at the close of his glorious vision, declares that
"the just shall shine like stars and they that are learned as the brightness of
the firmament." What a vast difference, then, between a righteous rusticity and
a learned righteousness! The former likened to the stars; the latter to the
heavens themselves![78]
He writes ironically to Marcella about
the "self-righteous lack of education" noticeable in some clerics, who "think
that to be without culture and to be holy are the same thing, and who dub
themselves 'disciples of the fisherman'; as though they were holy simply because
ignorant!"[79]
Nor is it only the "uncultured" whom
Jerome condemns. Learned clerics sin through ignorance of the Bible; therefore
he demands of them an assiduous reading of the text.
46. Strive, then, Venerable Brethren,
to bring home to your clerics and priests these teachings of the Sainted
Commentator. You have to remind them constantly of the demands made by their
divine vocation if they would be worthy of it: "The lips of the priest shall
keep knowledge, and men shall ask the Law at his mouth, for he is the Angel of
the Lord of hosts" (Mal. 2:7). They must realize, then, that they cannot
neglect study of the Bible, and that this can only be undertaken along the lines
laid down by Leo XIII in his Encyclical Providentissimus Deus.[80] They
cannot do this better than by frequenting the Biblical Institute established by
our predecessor, Pius X, in accordance with the wishes of Leo XIII. As the
experience of the past ten years has shown, it has proved a great gain to the
Church. Not all, however, can avail themselves of this. It will be well, then,
Venerable Brethren, that picked men, both of the secular and regular clergy,
should come to Rome for Biblical study. All will not come with the same object.
Some, in accordance with the real purpose of the Institute, will so devote
themselves to Biblical study that "afterwards, both in private and in public,
whether by writing or by teaching, whether as professors in Catholic schools or
by writing in defense of Catholic truth, they may be able worthily to uphold the
cause of Biblical study.<<<<<<<<<<" Others, however, already priests, will
obtain here a wider knowledge of the Bible than they were able to acquire during
their theological course; they will gain, too, an acquaintance with the great
commentators and with Biblical history and geography. Such knowledge will avail
them much in their ministry; they will be "instructed to every good work."[81]
47. We learn, then, from St. Jerome's
example and teaching the qualities required in one who would devote himself to
Biblical study. But what, in his view, is the goal of such study? First, that
from the Bible's pages we learn spiritual perfection. Meditating as he did day
and night on the Law of the Lord and on His Scriptures, Jerome himself found
there the "Bread that cometh down from heaven," the manna containing all
delights.[82] And we certainly cannot do without that bread. How can a cleric
teach others the way of salvation if through neglect of meditation on God's word
he fails to teach himself? What confidence can he have that, when ministering to
others, he is really "a leader of the blind, a light to them that are in
darkness, an instructor of the foolish, having the form of knowledge and of
truth in the law," if he is unwilling to study the said Law and thus shuts the
door on any divine illumination on it?
Alas! many of God's ministers, through
never looking at their Bible, perish themselves and allow many others to perish
also. "The children have asked for bread, and there was none to break it unto
them" (Lam. 4:4); and "With desolation is all the land made desolate, for
there is none than meditateth in the heart" (Jer. 12:11).
48. Secondly, it is from the Bible that
we gather confirmations and illustrations of any particular doctrine we wish to
defend. In this Jerome was marvelously expert. When disputing with the heretics
of his day he refuted them by singularly apt and weighty arguments drawn from
the Bible. If men of the present age would but imitate him in this we should see
realized what our predecessor, Leo XIII, in his Encyclical, Providentissimus
Deus, said was so eminently desirable: "The Bible influencing our
theological teaching and indeed becoming its very soul."[83]
49. Lastly, the real value of the Bible
is for our preaching - if the latter is to be fruitful. On this point it is a
pleasure to illustrate from Jerome what we ourselves said in our Encyclical on
"preaching the Word of God," entitled Humani generis. How insistently
Jerome urges on priests assiduous reading of the Bible if they would worthily
teach and preach! Their words will have neither value nor weight nor any power
to touch men's souls save in proportion as they are "informed" by Holy
Scripture: "Let a priest's speech be seasoned with the Bible,"[84] for "the
Scriptures are a trumpet that stirs us with a mighty voice and penetrates to the
soul of them that believe,"[85] and "nothing so strikes home as an example taken
from the Bible."[86]
50. These mainly concern the exegetes,
yet preachers, too, must always bear them in mind. Jerome's first rule is
careful study of the actual words so that we may be perfectly certain what the
writer really does say. He was most careful to consult the original text, to
compare various versions, and, if he discovered any mistake in them, to explain
it and thus make the text perfectly clear. The precise meaning, too, that
attaches to particular words has to be worked out, for "when discussing Holy
Scripture it is not words we want so much as the meaning of words."[87] We do
not for a moment deny that Jerome, in imitation of Latin and Greek doctors
before him, leaned too much, especially at the outset, towards allegorical
interpretations. But his love of the Bible, his unceasing toil in reading and
re-reading it and weighing its meaning, compelled him to an ever-growing
appreciation of its literal sense and to the 88 formulation of sound principles
regarding it. These we set down here, for they provide a safe path for us all to
follow in getting from the Sacred Books their full meaning.
In the first place, then, we must study
the literal or historical meaning:
I earnestly warn the prudent reader not to pay attention to superstitious
interpretations such as are given cut and dried according to some interpreter's
fancy. He should study the beginning, middle, and end, and so form a connected
idea of the whole of what he finds written.[88]
51. Jerome then goes on to say that all
interpretation rests on the literal sense,[89] and that we are not to think that
there is no literal sense merely because a thing is said metaphorically, for
"the history itself is often presented in metaphorical dress and described
figuratively."[90] Indeed, he himself affords the best refutation of those who
maintain that he says that certain passages have no historical meaning: "We are
not rejecting the history, we are merely giving a spiritual interpretation of
it.''[91] Once, however, he has firmly established the literal or historical
meaning, Jerome goes on to seek our deeper and hidden meanings, as to nourish
his mind with more delicate food. Thus he says of the Book of Proverbs - and he
makes the same remark about other parts of the Bible - that we must not stop at
the simple literal sense: "Just as we have to seek gold in the earth, for the
kernel in the shell, for the chestnut's hidden fruit beneath its hairy
coverings, so in Holy Scripture we have to dig deep for its divine meaning."[92]
52. When teaching Paulinus "how to make
true progress in the Bible," he says: "Everything we read in the Sacred Books
shines and glitters even in its outer shell; but the marrow of it is sweeter. If
you want the kernel you must break the shell."[93]
At the same time, he insists that in
searching for this deeper meaning we must proceed in due order, "lest in our
search for spiritual riches we seem to despise the history as
poverty-stricken."[94] Consequently he repudiates many mystical interpretations
alleged by ancient writers; for he feels that they are not sufficiently based on
the literal meaning:
When all these promises of which the Prophets sang are regarded not merely as
empty sounds or idle tropological expressions, but as established on earth and
having solid historical foundations, then, can we put on them the coping-stone
of a spiritual interpretation.[95]
53. On this point he makes the wise
remark that we ought not to desert the path mapped out by Christ and His
Apostles, who, while regarding the Old Testament as preparing for and
foreshadowing the New Covenant, and whilst consequently explaining various
passages in the former as figurative, yet do not give a figurative
interpretation of all alike. In confirmation of this he often refers us to St.
Paul, who, when "explaining the mystery of Adam and Eve, did not deny that they
were formed, but on that historical basis erected a spiritual interpretation,
and said: 'Therefore shall a man leave,' etc."[96]
54. If only Biblical students and
preachers would but follow this example of Christ and His Apostles; if they
would but obey the directions of Leo XIII, and not neglect "those allegorical or
similar explanations which the Fathers have given, especially when these are
based on the literal sense, and are supported by weighty authority";[97] if they
would pass from the literal to the more profound meaning in temperate fashion,
and thus lift themselves to a higher plane, they would, with St. Jerome, realize
how true are St. Paul's words: "All Scripture is inspired by God and useful for
teaching, for reproving, for correcting, for instructing in justice" (2 Tim.
3: 16).
They would, too, derive abundant help
from the infinite treasury of facts and ideas in the Bible, and would thence be
able to mold firmly but gently the lives and characters of the faithful.
55. As for methods of expounding Holy
Scripture - "for amongst the dispensers of the mysteries of God it is required
that a man be found faithful" - St. Jerome lays down that we have got to keep to
the "true interpretation, and that the real function of a commentator is to set
forth not what he himself would like his author to mean, but what he really does
mean."[98]
And he continues: "It is dangerous to
speak in the Church, lest through some faulty interpretation we make Christ's
Gospel into man's Gospel."[99] And again: "In explaining the Bible we need no
florid oratorical composition, but that learned simplicity which is truth."[100]
This ideal he ever kept before him; he
acknowledges that in his Commentaries he "seeks no praise, but so to set out
what another has well said that it may be understood in the sense in which it
was said."[101] He further demands of an expositor of Scripture a style which,
"while leaving no impression of haziness. . .yet explains things, sets out the
meaning, clears up obscurities, and is not mere verbiage."[102]
56. And here we may set down some
passages from his writings which will serve to show to what an extent he shrank
from that declamatory kind of eloquence which simply aims at winning empty
applause by an equally empty and noisy flow of words. He says to Nepotian:
I do not want you to be a declaimer or a garrulous brawler; rather be skilled in
the Mysteries, learned in the Sacraments of God. To make the populace gape by
spinning words and speaking like a whirlwind is only worthy of empty-headed
men.[103]
And once more:
Students ordained at this time seem not to think how they may get at the real
marrow of Holy Scripture, but how best they may make peoples' ears tingle by
their flowery declamations![104]
Again:
I prefer to say nothing of men who, like myself, have passed from profane
literature to Biblical study, but who, if they happen once to have caught men's
ears by their ornate sermons, straightway begin to fancy that whatsoever they
say is God's law. Apparently they do not think it worth while to discover what
the Prophets and Apostles really meant; they are content to string together
texts made to fit the meaning they want. One would almost fancy that instead of
being a degraded species of oratory, it must be a fine thing to pervert the
meaning of the text and compel the reluctant Scripture to yield the meaning one
wants![105]
57. "As a matter of fact, mere
loquacity would not win any credit unless backed by Scriptural authority, that
is, when men see that the speaker is trying to give his false doctrine Biblical
support" (Tit. 1:10). Moreover, this garrulous eloquence and wordy
rusticity "lacks biting power, has nothing vivid or life-giving in it; it is
flaccid, languid and enervated; it is like boiled herbs and grass, which
speedily dry up and wither away."[106]
On the contrary the Gospel teaching is
straightforward, it is like that "least of all seeds" - the mustard seed - "no
mere vegetable, but something that 'grows into a tree so that the birds of the
air come and dwell in its branches'."[107] The consequence is that everybody
hears gladly this simple and holy fashion of speech, for it is clear and has
real beauty without artificiality:
There are certain eloquent folk who puff out their cheeks and produce a foaming
torrent of words; may they win all the eulogiums they crave for! For myself, I
prefer so to speak that I may be intelligible; when I discuss the Bible I prefer
the Bible's simplicity[108]. . . A cleric's exposition of the Bible should, of
course, have a certain becoming eloquence; but he must keep this in the
background, for he must ever have in view the human race and not the leisurely
philosophical schools with their choice coterie of disciples.[109]
If the younger clergy would but strive
to reduce principles like these to practice, and if their elders would keep such
principles before their eyes, we are well assured that they would prove of very
real assistance to those to whom they minister.
58. It only remains for us, Venerable
Brethren, to refer to those "sweet fruits" which Jerome gathered from "the
bitter seed" of literature. For we confidently hope that his example will fire
both clergy and laity with enthusiasm for the study of the Bible. It will be
better, however, for you to gather from the lips of the saintly hermit rather
than from our words what real spiritual delight he found in the Bible and its
study. Notice, then, in what strain he writes to Paulinus, "my companion,
friend, and fellow mystic": "I beseech you to live amidst these things. To
meditate on them, to know nought else, to have no other interests, this is
really a foretaste of the joys of heaven.'[110]
59. He says much the same to his pupil
Paula:
Tell me whether you know of anything more sacred than this sacred mystery,
anything more delightful than the pleasure found herein? What food, what honey
could be sweeter than to learn of God's Providence, to enter into His shrine and
look into the mind of the Creator, to listen to the Lord's words at which the
wise of this world laugh, but which really are full of spiritual teaching?
Others may have their wealth, may drink out of jeweled cups, be clad in silks,
enjoy popular applause, find it impossible to exhaust their wealth by
dissipating it in pleasures of all kinds; but our delight is to meditate on the
Law of the Lord day and night, to knock at His door when shut, to receive our
food from the Trinity of Persons, and, under the guidance of the Lord, trample
under foot the swelling tumults of this world.[111]
And in his Commentary on the Epistle to
the Ephesians, which he dedicated to Paula and her daughter Eustochium, he says:
"If aught could sustain and support a wise man in this life or help him to
preserve his equanimity amid the conflicts of the world, it is, I reckon,
meditation on and knowledge of the Bible."[112]
60. And so it was with Jerome himself:
afflicted with many mental anxieties and bodily pains, he yet ever enjoyed an
interior peace. Nor was this due simply to some idle pleasure he found in such
studies: it sprang from love of God and it worked itself out in an earnest love
of God's Church - the divinely appointed guardian of God's Word. For in the
Books of both Testaments Jerome saw the Church of God foretold. Did not
practically every one of the illustrious and sainted women who hold a place of
honor in the Old Testament prefigure the Church, God's Spouse? Did not the
priesthood, the sacrifices, the solemnities, nay, nearly everything described in
the Old Testament shadow forth that same Church? How many Psalms and Prophecies
he saw fulfilled in that Church? To him it was clear that the Church's greatest
privileges were set forth by Christ and His Apostles. Small wonder, then, that
growing familiarity with the Bible meant for Jerome growing love of the Spouse
of Christ. We have seen with what reverent yet enthusiastic love he attached
himself to the Roman Church and to the See of Peter, how eagerly he attacked
those who assailed her. So when applauding Augustine, his junior yet his
fellow-soldier, and rejoicing in the fact that they were one in their hatred of
heresy, he hails him with the words:
Well done! You are famous throughout the world. Catholics revere you and point
you out as the establisher of the old-time faith; and - an even greater glory -
all heretics hate you. And they hate me too; unable to slay us with the sword,
they would that wishes could kill.[113]
Sulpicius Severus quotes Postumianus to
the same effect:
His unceasing conflict with wicked men brings on him their hatred. Heretics hate
him, for he never ceases attacking them; clerics hate him, for he assails their
criminal lives. But all good men admire him and love him.[114]
And Jerome had to endure much from
heretics and abandoned men, especially when the Pelagians laid waste the
monastery at Bethlehem. Yet all this he bore with equanimity, like a man who
would not hesitate to die for the faith:
I rejoice when I hear that my children are fighting for Christ. May He in whom
we believe confirm our zeal so that we may gladly shed our blood for His faith.
Our very home is - as far as worldly belongings go - completely ruined by the
heretics; yet through Christ's mercy it is filled with spiritual riches. It is
better to have to be content with dry bread than to lose one's faith.[115]
61. And while he never suffered errors
to creep in unnoticed, he likewise never failed to lash with biting tongue any
looseness in morals, for he was always anxious "to present," unto Christ "the
Church in all her glory, not having spot or wrinkle or any such things, but that
she might be holy and without blemish" (Eph. 5:27). How terribly he
upbraids men who have degraded the dignity of the priesthood! With what vigor he
inveighs against the pagan morals then infecting Rome! But he rightly felt that
nothing could better avail to stem this flood of vice than the spectacle
afforded by the real beauty of the Christian life; and that a love of what is
really good is the best antidote to evil. Hence he urged that young people must
be piously brought up, the married taught a holy integrity of life, pure souls
have the beauty of virginity put before them, that the sweet austerity of an
interior life should be extolled, and since the primal law of Christian religion
was the combination of toil with charity, that if this could only be preserved
human society would recover from its disturbed state. Of this charity he says
very beautifully: "The believing soul is Christ's true temple. Adorn it, deck it
out, offer your gifts to it, in it receive Christ. Of what profit to have your
walls glittering with jewels while Christ dies of hunger in poverty?"[116]
62. As for toil, his whole life and not
merely his writings afford the best example. Postumianus, who spent six months
with him at Bethlehem, says: "He is wholly occupied in reading and with books;
he rests neither day nor night; he is always either reading or writing
something."[117] Jerome's love of the Church, too, shines out even in his
Commentaries wherein he lets slip no opportunity for praising the Spouse of
Christ:
The choicest things of all the nations have come and the Lord's House is filled
with glory: that is, "the Church of the Living God, the pillar and the ground of
truth." . . . With jewels like these is the Church richer than ever was the
synagogue; with these living stones is the House of God built up and eternal
peace bestowed upon her.[118]
Come, let us go up to the Mount of the Lord: for we must needs go up if we would
come to Christ and to the House of the God of Jacob, to the Church which is "the
pillar and ground of truth."[119]
By the Lord's voice is the Church established upon the rock, and her hath the
King brought into His chamber, to her by secret condescension hath He put forth
His hand through the lattices.[120]
63. Again and again, as in the passages
just given, does Jerome celebrate the intimate union between Christ and His
Church. For since the Head can never be separated from the mystical body, so,
too, love of Christ is ever associated with zeal of His Church; and this love of
Christ must ever be the chiefest and most agreeable result of a knowledge of
Holy Scripture. So convinced indeed was Jerome that familiarity with the Bible
was the royal road to the knowledge and love of Christ that he did not hesitate
to say: "Ignorance of the Bible means ignorance of Christ."[121] And "what other
life can there be without knowledge of the Bible wherein Christ, the life of
them that believe, is set before us?'[122] Every single page of either Testament
seems to center around Christ; hence Jerome, commenting on the words of the
Apocalypse about the River and the Tree of Life, says:
One stream flows out from the throne of God, and that is the Grace of the Holy
Spirit, and that grace of the Holy Spirit is in the Holy Scriptures, that is in
the stream of the Scriptures. Yet has that stream twin banks, the Old Testament
and the New, and the Tree planted on either side is Christ.[123]
64. Small wonder, then, if in his
devout meditations he applied everything in the Bible to Christ:
When I read the Gospel and find there testimonies from the Law and from the
Prophets, I see only Christ; I so see Moses and the Prophets and I understand
them of Christ. Then when I come to the splendor of Christ Himself, and when I
gaze at that glorious sunlight, I care not to look at the lamplight. For what
light can a lamp give when lit in the daytime? If the sun shines out, the
lamplight does not show. So, too, when Christ is present the Law and the
Prophets do not show. Not that I would detract from the Law and the Prophets;
rather do I praise them in that they show forth Christ. But I so read the Law
and the Prophets as not to abide in them but from them to pass to Christ.[124]
65. Hence was Jerome wondrously
uplifted to love for and knowledge of Christ through his study of the Bible in
which he discovered the precious pearl of the Gospel: "There is one most
priceless pearl: the knowledge of the Savior, the mystery of His Passion, the
secret of His Resurrection."[125] Burning as he did with the love of Christ we
cannot but marvel that he, poor and lowly with Christ, with soul freed from
earthly cares, sought Christ alone, by His spirit was he led, with Him he lived
in closest intimacy, by imitating Him he would bear about the image of His
sufferings in himself. For him nought more glorious than to suffer with and for
Christ. Hence it was that when on Damasus' death he, wounded and weary from evil
men's assaults, left Rome and wrote just before he embarked:
Though some fancy me a scoundrel and guilty of every crime - and, indeed, this
is a small matter when I think of my sins - yet you do well when from your soul
you reckon evil men good. Thank God I am deemed worthy to be hated by the world.
. . What real sorrows have I to bear - I who fight for the Cross? Men heap false
accusations on me; yet I know that through ill report and good report we win the
kingdom of heaven.[126]
66. In like fashion does he exhort the
maiden Eustochium to courageous and lifelong toil for Christ's sake:
To become what the Martyrs, the Apostles, what even Christ Himself was, means
immense labor - but what a reward! . . . What I have been saying to you will
sound hard to one who does not love Christ. But those who consider worldly pomp
a mere offscouring and all under the sun mere nothingness if only they may win
Christ, those who are dead with Christ, have risen with Him and have crucified
the flesh with its vices and concupiscences - they will echo the words: "Who
shall separate us from the charity of Christ?"[127]
67. Immense, then, was the profit
Jerome derived from reading Scripture; hence came those interior illuminations
whereby he was ever more and more drawn to knowledge and love of Christ; hence,
too, that love of prayer of which he has written so well; hence his wonderful
familiarity with Christ, Whose sweetness drew him so that he ran unfalteringly
along the arduous way of the Cross to the palm of victory. Hence, too, his
ardent love for the Holy Eucharist: "Who is wealthier than he who carries the
Lord's Body in his wicker basket, the Lord's Blood in his crystal vessel?"[128]
Hence, too, his love for Christ's Mother, whose perpetual virginity he had so
keenly defended, whose title as God's Mother and as the greatest example of all
the virtues he constantly set before Christ's spouses for their imitation.[129]
No one, then, can wonder that Jerome should have been so powerfully drawn to
those spots in Palestine which had been consecrated by the presence of our
Redeemer and His Mother. It is easy to recognize the hand of Jerome in the words
written from Bethlehem to Marcella by his disciples, Paula and Eustochium:
What words can serve to describe to you the Savior's cave? As for the manger in
which He lay - well, our silence does it more honor than any poor words of ours.
. . Will the day ever dawn where we can enter His cave to weep at His tomb with
the sister (of Lazarus) and mourn with His Mother; when we can kiss the wood of
His Cross and, with the ascending Lord on Olivet, be uplifted in mind and
spirit?[130]
Filled with memories such as these,
Jerome could, while far away from Rome and leading a life hard for the body but
inexpressibly sweet to the soul, cry out: "Would that Rome had what tiny
Bethlehem possesses!"[131]
68. But we rejoice - and Rome with us -
that the Saint's desire has been fulfilled, though far otherwise than he hoped
for. For whereas David's royal city once gloried in the possession of the relics
of "the Greatest Doctor" reposing in the cave where he dwelt so long, Rome now
possesses them, for they lie in St. Mary Major's beside the Lord's Crib. His
voice is now still, though at one time the whole Catholic world listened to it
when it echoed from the desert; yet Jerome still speaks in his writings, which
"shine like lamps throughout the world."[132] Jerome still calls to us. His
voice rings out, telling us of the super-excellence of Holy Scripture, of its
integral character and historical trustworthiness, telling us, too, of the
pleasant fruits resulting from reading and meditating upon it. His voice summons
all the Church's children to return to a truly Christian standard of life, to
shake themselves free from a pagan type of morality which seems to have sprung
to life again in these days. His voice calls upon us, and especially on Italian
piety and zeal, to restore to the See of Peter divinely established here that
honor and liberty which its Apostolic dignity and duty demand. The voice of
Jerome summons those Christian nations which have unhappily fallen away from
Mother Church to turn once more to her in whom lies all hope of eternal
salvation. Would, too, that the Eastern Churches, so long in opposition to the
See of Peter, would listen to Jerome's voice. When he lived in the East and sat
at the feet of Gregory and Didymus, he said only what the Christians of the East
thought in his time when he declared that "If anyone is outside the Ark of Noe
he will perish in the over-whelming flood."[133] Today this flood seems on the
verge of sweeping away all human institutions - unless God steps in to prevent
it. And surely this calamity must come if men persist in sweeping on one side
God the Creator and Conserver of all things! Surely whatever cuts itself off
from Christ must perish! Yet He Who at His disciples' prayer calmed the raging
sea can restore peace to the tottering fabric of society. May Jerome, who so
loved God's Church and so strenuously defended it against its enemies, win for
us the removal of every element of discord, in accordance with Christ's prayer,
so that there may be "one fold and one shepherd."
69. Delay not, Venerable Brethren, to
impart to your people and clergy what on the fifteenth centenary of the death of
"the Greatest Doctor" we have here set before you. Urge upon all not merely to
embrace under Jerome's guidance Catholic doctrine touching the inspiration of
Scripture, but to hold fast to the principles laid down in the Encyclical
Providentissimus Deus, and in this present Encyclical. Our one desire for
all the Church's children is that, being saturated with the Bible, they may
arrive at the all surpassing knowledge of Jesus Christ. In testimony of which
desire and of our fatherly feeling for you we impart to you and all your flocks
the Apostolic blessing.
Given at St. Peter's, Rome,
September 15, 1920, the seventh year of our Pontificate.
BENEDICT XV
1. Rom. 15:4.
2. Sulpicius Severus, Dial., 1,
7.
3. John Cassian, De Incarn., 7,
26.
4. S. Prosper, Carmen de ingratis,
57
5. S. Jerome, De viris ill.,
135.
6. Id., Epist. ad Theophilum,
82, 2, 2.
7. Id., Epist. ad Damasum,
15, 1, 1; Epist. ad eundum, 16, 2, 1.
8. Id., In Abdiam, Prol.
9. Id., In Matt., 13:44.
10. Id., Epist. ad Eustochium,
22, 30, 1.
11. Id., Epist. ad Pammachium et
Oceanum, 84, 3, 1.
12. Id., Epist. ad Rusticum,
125, 12.
13. Id., Epist. ad Geruchiam,
123, 9; Epist. ad Principiam, 127, 7, 1.
14. Id., Epist. and Principiam,
127, 7, 1.
15. Id., Epist. ad Damasum, 36,
1; Epist. ad Marcellum, 32, 1.
16. Id., Epist. ad Asellam, 45,
2; Epist. ad Marcellinum et Anapsychiam, 126, 3; Epist. ad Principiam,
127, 7.
17. Id., Epist. ad Pammachium et
Oceanum, 84, 3, 1.
18. Id., Ad Domnionem et Rogatianum
in I Paral., Praef.
19. Id., Tract. de Ps., 88.
20. Id., In Matt., 13:44;
Tract. de Ps., 77.
21. Id., In Matt., 13:45.
22. Id., Quaest. in Genesim,
Praef.
23. Id., In Agg., 2:1, In
Gal., 2:10.
24. Id., Adv. Helv., 19.
25. Id., Adv. Iovin., 1, 4.
26. Id., Epist. ad Pammachium,
49, 14, 1.
27. Id., In Jer., 9:12-14.
28. Id., Epist. ad Fabiolam, 78,
30.
29. Id., Epist. ad Marcellam,
27, 1, 1.
30. Id., In Ezech., 1:15-18.
31. Id., In Mich., 2:11; 3:5-8.
32. Id., In Mich., 4:1.
33. Id., In Jer., 31:35.
34. Id., In Nah. 1:9.
35. Id., Epist. ad Pammachium,
57, 7, 4.
36. Id., Epist. Theophilum, 82,
7, 2.
37. Id., Epist. ad Vitalem, 72,
2, 2.
38. Id., Epist. ad Damasum, 18,
7, 4; cf. Epist. Paula et Eustochium ad Marcellam, 46, 6, 2.
39. Id., Epist. ad Damasum, 36,
11, 2.
40. Id., Epist. ad Pammachium,
57, 9, 1.
41. S. Augustine, Ad S. Hieron.,
inter epist. S. Hier., 116, 3.
42. Leo XIII, Providentissimus Deus;
cf. Ench. Bibl., n. 125.
43. Ibid., cf. Ench. Bibl., n.
124.
44. S. Jerome, In Jer.,
23:15-17; In Matt., 14:8; Adv. Helv., 4.
45. Id., In Philem., 4.
46. S. Aug., Contra Faustum, 26,
3, 6.
47. S. Jerome, In Matt., Prol.; cf.
Luke, 1:1.
48. Id., Epist. ad Fabiolam, 78,
1, 1; cf. In Marc., 1:13-31.
49. S. Aug., Contra Faustum, 26,
8.
50. S. Jerome, Epist. ad Demetriadem,
130, 20; cf. Prov. 4:6,8.
51. Conc. Trid., Sess. 4
Decr. de ed. et usu ss. Iibrorum; cf. Ench. Bibl., n. 61.
52. S. Jerome, Epist. ad Paulinum,
58, 9, 2; 11, 2.
53. S. Aug., Confessiones, 3, S;
cf. 8, 12.
54. S. Jerome, Epist. ad Eustochium,
22, 30, 2.
55. Id., In Mich., 1:10-15.
56. Id., In Gal., 5:19-21.
57. Id., Epist. 108 sive Epitaphium
S. Paulae, 26, 2.
58. Id., Ad Domnionem et Rogatianum
in I Paral, Praef.
59. Id., Epist. ad Theophilum,
63, 2.
60. Id., Epist. ad Damasum, 15,
1, 2, 4.
61. Id., Epist ad Damasum, 16,
2, 2.
62. Id., In Dan., 3:37.
63. Id., Adv. Vigil., 6.
64. Id., Dial. contra Pelagianos,
Prol. 2.
65. Id., Contra Ruf., 3, 43.
66. Id., In Mich., I:I0-IS.
67. Id., In Is., 16:1-S.
68. Leo XIII, Providentissimus Deus;
cf. Ench. Bibl., n. 100.
69. S. Jerome, In Tit., 3:9.
70. Id., In Eph., 4:31.
71. Id., Epist. ad Laetam, 107,
9, 12.
72. Id., Epist. ad Eustochium,
22, 17, 2.
73. Id., Epist. 108 sive Epitaphium
S. Paulae, 26.
74. Id., Epist. ad Principiam,
127, 7.
75. Imitatio Christi, 4, 11, 4.
76. S. Jerome, Epist. ad Rusticum,
125, 7, 3.
77. Id., Epist. ad Nepotianum,
52, 7, 1; cf. Tit. 1:9.
78. Id. Epist. ad Paulinum, 53,
3 3.
79. Id. Epsit. as Marcellam, 27,
i, 2.
80. Leo XIII, Providentissimus Deus;
cf. Ench. Bibl., n. 100-132.
81. Pius X, Vinea electa, May 7,
1909; cf. A.A.S., I (1909) 447-451; Ench. Bibl., n. 300.
82. S. Jerome, Tract. de Ps.
147; cf. Ps. 1:2, Wis. 16:20.
83. Leo XIII, Providentissimus Deus;
cf. Ench. Bibl., n. 114.
84. S. Jerome, Epist. ad Nepotianum,
52, 8, 1.
85. Id., In Amos, 3:3-8.
86. Id., In Zach., 9:15.
87. Id., Epist. ad Marcellam,
29, 1, 3.
88. Id., In Matt., 25:13.
89. Cf. Id., In Ezech., 38:1,
41:23, 42:13; In Marc., 1:13-31; Epist. ad Dardanum, 129, 6, 1.
90. Id., In Hab., 3:14.
91. Id., In Marc., 9:1-7; cf.
In Ezech., 40:24-27.
92. Id., In Eccles., 12:9.
93. Id., Epist. ad Paulinum, 58,
9, 1.
94. Id., In Eccles., 2:24-26.
95. Id., In Amos, 9:6.
96. Id., In Isa., 6:1-7.
97. Leo XIII, Providentissimus Deus;
cf. Ench. Bibl., n. 112.
98. S. Jerome, Epist. ad Pammachium,
49, 17, 7.
99. Id., In Gal., 1:11.
100. Id. In Amos, Praef.
101. Id. In Gal., Praef.
102. Id., Epist. ad Damasum, 36,
14, 2; cf. Epist. ad Cyprianum, 140,1,2.
103. Id., Epist. ad Nepotianum,
52, 8, 1.
104. Id., Dialogus contra
Luciferianos, 11.
105. Id., Epist. ad Paulinum,
53, 7, 2.
106. Id., In Tit., 1:10.
107. Id., In Matt., 13:32.
108. Id., Epist. ad Damasum, 36,
14, 2.
109. Id., Epist. ad Pammachium,
48, 4, 3.
110. Id., Epist. ad Paulinum,
53, 10.
111. Id., Epist. ad Paulam, 30,
13.
112. Id., In Eph., Prol.
113. Id., Epist. ad Augustinum,
141, 2; cf. Epist. ad eumdem, 134,1.
114. Postumianus apud Sulp. Sev.,
Dial., 1, 9.
115. S. Jerome, Epist ad Apronium,
139.
116. Id., Epist. ad Paulinum,
58, 7, 1.
117. Postumianus, Dial., 1, 9.
118. S. Jerome, In Agg., 2:1-10.
119. Id., In Mich., 4:1-7.
120. Id., In Matt., Prol.
121. Id., In Isa., Prol.; cf.
Tract. de Ps. 77.
122. Id., Epist. ad Paulam, 30,
7.
123. Id., Tract. de Ps. 1.
124. Id., Tract. in Marc.,
9:1-7.
125. Id., In Matt., 13:45.
126. Id., Epist. ad Asellam, 45,
1, 6.
127. Id., Epist. ad Eustochium,
22, 38.
128. Id., Epist. ad Rusticum,
125, 20, 4.
129. Id., Epist. ad Eustochium,
22, 38, 3.
130. Id., Epist. Paula et Eustochium
ad Marcellam, 46, 11, 13.
131. Id., Epist. ad Furiam, 54,
13, 6.
132. John Cassian, De Incarn.,
7, 26.
133. S. Jerome, Epist ad Damasum,
15, 2, 1.