Letter Cxxviii
LETTER CXXVII AND LETTER CXXVIII
reward hereafter.
This letter to you, revered Marcella, and to you, my daughter Principia, I have dictated in the wakeful hours of one short night.
I have used no charms of eloquence ; my one wish has been to show my gratitude to you both, my one desire to please both God and my readers.
LETTER CXXVIII
To Pacatula Feminine training Written a.o. 413
It is a difficult matter to write to a little girl who will not understand what you say, of whose mind you know nothing, and whose inclinations it would be dangerous to warrant.
To use the words of a famous orator's preface— in her case praise is based on expectation rather than accomplishment.' 1
How can you urge self-control on a child who still craves after cakes, who babbles softly in her mother's arms, and finds honey sweeter than words ?
Can she pay attention to the deep sayings of the apostle, when she takes more pleasure in old wives' tales than in them ?
Can she heed the dark riddles of the prophets when her nurse's frown is sufficient to frighten her?
Can she appreciate the majesty of the Gospel when its lightnings dazzle all men's senses ?
How can I bid her to be obedient to her parents, when she beats her laughing mother with baby hand?
So my little Pacatula must read this letter herself in days to come ; and in the meantime learn her alphabet, spelling, grammar, and syntax.
To get her to
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discat nomina, verba consoeiet, atque, ut voce tinnula ista meditetur, proponatur ei crustula mulsi praemia et, quicquid gustu suave est, quod vernat in floribus, quod rutilat in gemmis, quod blanditur in pupis, acceptura festinet ; interim et tenero temptet pollice fila deducere. rumpat saepe stamina, ut aliquando non rumpat, post laborem lusibus gestiat, de matris pendeat collo, rapiat oscula propinquorum, psalmos mercede decantet, amet, quod cogitur dicere, ut non opus sit, sed delectatio, non necessitas, sed voluntas.
2. Solent quaedam, cum futuram virginem spoponderint, pulla tunica earn induere et furvo operire palliolo, auferre linteamina, nihil in collo, nihil in capite auri sinere re vera bono consilio, ne habere discat in tenero, quod postea deponere conpellatur,
Aliis contra videtur.
' Quid enim,' aiunt, ' si ipsa non habuerit, habentes alias non videbit ?
<3>(Aoko<x/x.ov genus femineum est multasque etiam insignis pudicitiae, quamvis nulli virorum, tamen sibi scimus libenter ornari.
Quin potius habendo satietur et cernat laudari alias, quae ista non habeant.
Meliusque est, ut satiata contemnat, quam non habendo habere desideret.'
Tale quid
LETTER CXXVIII
repeat her lessons in her little shrill voice she must have a prize of a honey cake offered to her.
She will do her work quickly if she is going to receive as reward some sweetmeat, or bright flower, or glittering bauble, or pretty doll.
Meanwhile, too, she must learn to spin, drawing down the threads with tender fingers ; and though at first she may often break the yarn, she will one day cease to do so.
Then, when work is over, she may indulge in play, hanging on her mother's neck and snatching kisses from her relations.
Let her be rewarded for singing the psalms aloud, so that she may love what she is forced to do, and it be not work but pleasure, not a matter of necessity but one of freewill.
Some mothers, when they have vowed a daughter to virginity, are wont to dress her in dark clothes, to wrap her up in a little black cloak, to take away her linen garments, and to let her wear no gold ornaments on her head and neck.
In reality this method is a wise one, for the child does not then become accustomed to things which afterwards she must lay aside.
Other mothers think differently.
' What is the use,' they say, ' of her not having pretty things ?
Will she not see other girls having them ?
The toilette appeals to all women, and we know r that many whose chastity is beyond reproach take pleasure in dressing not for men but for themselves.
Nay rather, let her grow sated with having, and let her see that others are praised, who have not.
And it is better that she should despise through being sated, than that by not having she should want to have.'
' This,' they argue, ' is the plan that the Lord used with the people of Israel.
They craved after the fleshQ 2
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et Israhelitico fecisse dominum populo, lit cupientibus Aegyptias carnes usque ad nausiam et vomitum praeberet examina corturnicum, multosque saeculi prius homines facilius carere experta corporis voluptate quam eos, qui a pueritia libidinem nesciant; ab aliis enim nota calcari, ab aliis ignota appeti, illos vitare paenitendo suavitatis insidias, quas fugerunt, hos carnis inlecebris et dulci titillatione corporis blandientis, dum mella putant venena noxia reperire ; mel enim distillare labiis meretricis mulieris, quod ad tempus inpinguet vescentium fauces et postea amarius felle inveniatur.
Unde et in domini mel sacrificiis non offerri ceraque contempta, quae mellis hospitium est, oleum accendi in templo Dei, quod de amaritudine exprimitur olivarum, pascha quoque cum amaritudinibus comedi
' azymis sinceritatis et veritatis,' quos qui habuerit, in in saeculo persecutionem sustinebit.
Unde et propheta mystice cantat :
' Solus sedebam, quia amaritudine repletus sum.'
3. Quid igitur ?
Luxuriandum est in adulescentia, ut postea luxuria fortius contemnatur ?
Absit, 5 enim, 'in qua vocatione ' Unusquisque, inquiunt;
' Circumcisus quis, vocatus est, in ea permaneat.
' vocatus est: non adducat praeputium,
id est virgo, hoc est non quaerat pellicias tunicas nuptiarum, quibus Adam eiectus de paradiso virginitatis indutus
1 Proverbs, v. 3.
1 Corinthians, v. 7, 8.
3 Jeremiah, xv. 17 (Septuagint).
1 Corinthians, vii. 24, 18.
Genesis, iii. 21.
LETTER CXXVIII
pots of Egypt, and so He sent them swarms of quails until they gorged themselves and were sick.
Many worldlings who have tried all the pleasures of the senses find it easier to give them up than do those who from youth have known nothing of desire.
The one tread underfoot what they know, the others are attracted by what is unknown.
The one penitently avoid the snares of pleasure from which they have escaped, the others are allured by the delights of the body and the titillation of the flesh until they find that what they thought was honey is really deadly poison.
For we know that " the lips of a strange woman drop as an honeycomb, which for the moment is as oil in the eater's mouth, but is afterwards found more bitter than gall." 1
Therefore it is that honey is never offered in the sacrifices of the Lord, that the wax in which honey is stored is held in contempt, and that oil expressed from the bitter olive is burned in God's temple.
Moreover, the passover is eaten with bitter herbs and with ' the unleavened bread of sincerity and truth.' 2
Those who take thereof shall suffer persecution in this world.
Wherefore the prophet sings symbolically:
" I sat alone, because ' 3
I was filled with bitterness."
Well, is wantonness to be encouraged in youth, so that in later life it may be the more firmly rejected?
'Heaven forbid!' they say, for 'let every man, wherein he is called, therein abide.'
' Is any called being circumcised—that is, a virgin ' 4—that is, let him not seek in marriage the ' coats of skins,' wherewith Adam clothed himself when he was expelled from the paradise of virginity .5
' Is any called in let him not become uncircumcised 47i
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5 hoc est habens uxorem et matrimonio pelle circumdatus : non ' In praeputio quis vocatus est , est. quaerat virginitatis et aeternae pudicitiae nuditatem, quam semel habere desivit, sed utatur vase suo in sanctificatione et pudicitia bibatque de fontibus suis et non quaerat cisternas lupanarium dissipatas, quae purissimas aquas pudicitiae continere non possunt.
Unde et idem Paulus in eodem capitulo de virginitate et nuptiis disputans servos carnis vocat in matrimonio constitutes, liberos eos, qui absque ullo nuptiarum iugo tota domino serviunt libertate.
Quod loquimur, non in universum loquimur, sed in parte tractamus, nec de omnibus, sed de quibusdam dicimus.
Ad utrumque sexum, non solum ad vas infirmius, r.oster sermo dirigitur.
Virgo es : quid te mulieris delectat societas ?
Quid fragilem et sutilem ratem magnis committis fluctibus et grande periculum navigationis incertae securus ascendis ?
Nescis, quid desideres, et tamen sic ei iungeris, quasi aut ante desideraveris aut—ut levissime dicam
—postea desideraturus sis.
' Sed ad ministerium
Elige ergo anum, elige deformem, elige probatae in domino continentiae.
Quid te adulescentia, quid pulchra, quid luxuriosa iste sexus est aptior . delectat?
Uteris balneis, cute nitida, rubicundus incedis, carnibus vesceris, affluis divitiis, pretiosa veste circumdaris et iuxta serpentem mortiferum
1 Thessalonians, iv. 4.
Cf.
1 Corinthians, vii. 22.
LETTER CXXVII1
'—that is, having a wife and covered with the skin of matrimony : let him not seek the nakedness of virginity and of that eternal chastity which he has forfeited once for alh Let him rather possess his vessel in sanctification and honour
; uncircumcision
let him drink from his own fountain and not seek in brothels those broken cisterns which can never contain the pure water of chastity.
Therefore Paul again in the same chapter, when he is discussing the question of virginity and marriage, calls those who are married slaves of the flesh, but those who are not under the yoke of wedlock freemen serving the Lord in all liberty . 2
What I am saying now I am not saying as a universal truth ; I am treating of but a part of this subject, and am speaking of some men only, not of all.
Moreover, my words are addressed to both sexes; not merely to the weaker vessel.
You, my brother, are a virgin : why then do you find pleasure in a woman's society?
Why do you risk your frail, patched barque in heavy seas, and lightly face the danger of a hazardous voyage?
You know not what you desire, and yet your union is as close as though you either desired her before or, to put it as lightly as possible, were going to desire her in the future.
' Her sex,' you will say, ' is particularly suitable for household service.'
Choose an old woman, then, chose one who is misshapen, choose one of proved continence in the Lord.
Why should you take pleasure in a young girl, pretty and voluptuous ?
You frequent the baths, you walk abroad with rosy cheeks and sleek skin, you eat meat and you abound in riches, you dress in costly clothes and do you fancy that you can sleep safe beside a
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securum dormire te credis ?
An non habitas in eodem hospitio, in nocte dumtaxat?
Ceterum totos dies in huiusce modi confabulatione consumens quare solus cum sola et non cum arbitris sedes ?
Cum etiarn ipse non pecces, aliis peccare videaris, ut exemplo sis miseris, qui nominis tui auctoritate delinquant.
Tu quoque, virgo vel vidua, cur tarn longo viri sermone retineris ?
Cur cum solo relicta non metuis ?
Saltim alvi te et vesicae cogat necessitas, ut exeas foras, ut deseras in hac re, cum quo licentius quam cum germano, multo verecundius egisti cum marito.
Sed de scripturis sanctis aliquid interrogas : interroga publice ; audiant pedisequae, ' Omne, quod manifestatur, audiant comites tuae. lux est.'
Bonus sermo secreta non quaerit, quin potius delectatur laudibus suis et testimonio plurimorum.
Magister egregius contemnit viros, fratres despicit et in unius mulierculae secreta eruditione desudat.
Declinavi parumper de via occasione aliorum et, dum infantem Pacatulam instituo, immo enutrio, multarum subito male mihi pacatarum bella suscepi.
Revertar ad propositum.
Sexus femineus suo iungatur sexui ; nesciat, immo timeat cum pueris ludere.
Nullum inpudicum verbum noverit et, si forte in tumultu familiae discurrentis aliquid turpe audierit,
1 Ephesians, v. 13.
2 Pacatula, male pacatae ; a play on words.
LETTER CXXVIII
deadly serpent?
Do you say that you do not live in the same house with her, at least at night ?
Well, you spend whole days with her in this sort of conversation.
Why do you sit alone with her and without any witnesses ?
Why, even if you do not sin yourself, do you seem to others to be sinning, leading poor wretches into error by the authority of your name?
You also, my sister, whether you are a virgin or a widow, why do you spend so many hours in talking with a man ?
Why are you not afraid to be left with him alone ?
The needs of nature should at least compel you to go out sometimes and leave him.
You were more modest with your husband, and even with your brother you did not behave with such freedom as this.
You say that you are asking him some question concerning the Holy Scriptures.
Ask it publicly ; let your maidservants and attendants hear it.
' Everything that is made manifest is light .' 1
Honest words seek no quiet retreat ; nay rather, they take pleasure in a crowd of witnesses, and in the praise which they win.
He must be a fine teacher who despises men, scorns his brethren, and labours in secret to instruct one weak woman Other people's conduct has made me wander somewhat from my path, and in instructing, or rather nursing, the baby Pacatula, I have in a moment incurred the enmity of many ladies who will be hard to pacify . 2
I will now return to my subject.
Females should only mix with their own sex they should not know how to play with boys, nay, they should be afraid to do so.
A girl should have no acquaintance with lewd talk, and if amid the noisy bustle of a household she hears an unclean word, she should
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non intellegat.
Matris nutum pro verbis ac monitum pro imperio habeat.
Amet lit parentem, subiciatur ut dominae, timeat ut magistram.
Cum autem virgunculam et rudem edentulam septimus aetatis annus exceperit et coeperit erubescere, scire, quid taceat, dubitare, quid dicat, discat memoriter psalterium et usque ad annos pubertatis libros Salomonis, evangelia, apostolos ac prophetas sui cordis thesaurum faciat.
Nec liberius procedat ad publicum nec semper ecclesiarum quaerat celebritatem.
In cubiculo suo totas delicias habeat.
Numquam iuvenculos, numquam cincinnatos videat vocis dulcedine per aures animam vulnerantes.
Puellarum quoque lascivia repellatur, quae quanto licentius adeunt, tanto difficilius evitantur et, quod didicerunt, secreto docent inclusamque Danaen vulgi sermonibus violant.
Sit ei magistra comes, paedagoga custos non multo vino dedita, non iuxta apostolum otiosa ac verbosa, sed sobria, gravis, lanifica et ea tantum loquens, quae animum puellarem ad virtutem instituant.
Ut autem aqua in areola digitum sequitur praecedentem, ita aetas mollis et tenera in utramque partem flexibilis est et, quocumque duxeris, trahitur.
Solent lascivi et comptuli iuvenes blandimentis, affabilitate, munusculis aditum sibi per nutrices ad alumnas quaerere et, cum clementer intraverint, de scintillis incendia concitare paulatimque proficere ad
1 Danae was imprisoned by her father to keep her unmarried.
1 Timothy, v. 13.
LETTER CXXVIII
not understand it.
Her mother's nod should be as good as speech, her mother's advice equivalent to a command.
She should love her as her parent, obey her as her mistress, fear her as her teacher.
At first she will be but a shy little maid without all her teeth, but as soon as she has reached her seventh year and has learned to blush, knowing what she should not say, and doubting what she should say, she should commit the psalter to memory, and until she is grown up she should make the books of Solomon, the Gospels, the apostles, and the prophets the treasure of her heart.
She should not appear in public too freely nor always seek a crowded church.
Let her find all her pleasure in her own room.
She must never look at foppish youths or curled coxcombs, who wound the soul through the ears with their honeyed talk.
She must be protected also from the wantonness of other girls.
The more freedom of access such persons have, the more difficult they are to shake off ; the knowledge they have acquired they impart in secret and corrupt a secluded
Danae with vulgar gossip . 1
Let her teacher be her companion, her attendant her guardian, and let her be a woman not given to much wine, one who, as the apostle says, is not idle nor a tattler ,
2 but sober, grave, skilled in spinning, saying only such words as will train a girl's mind in virtue.
For as water follows behind a finger in the garden, so soft and tender youth is pliable for good or evil, and can be drawn wherever you guide it.
Spruce gallants often try the effect of soft words, affable manners, and trifling gifts upon a nurse in order to win access to her charge.
After succeeding in a gentle approach, they blow the spark into a flame and become
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ST. JEROME
inpudentiam et nequaquam posse prohiberi illo in ' Aegre reprehendas, quod sinas consuescere.'
Pudet dicere et tamen dicendum est : nobiles feminae nobiliores habiturae se versiculo conprobato : procos vilissimae condicionis hominibus et servulis copulantur ac sub nomine religionis et umbra continentiae interdum deserunt viros, Helenae sequuntur
Alexandros nec Menelaos pertimescunt.
Videntur haec, planguntur et non vindicantur, quia multitudo peccantium peccandi licentiam subministrat.
5. Pro nefas, orbis terrarum ruit et in nobis peccata non corruunt.
Urbs inclita et Romani imperii caput uno hausta est incendio.
Nulla regio, quae non exules eius habeat.
In cineres ac favillas sacrae quondam ecclesiae conciderunt et tamen studemus avaritiae.
Vivimus quasi altera die morituri et aedificamus quasi semper in hoc victuri saeculo.
Auro parietes, auro laquearia, auro fulgent capita columnarum et nudus atque esuriens ante fores nostras in paupere Christus moritur.
Legimus Aaron pontificem isse obviam furentibus flammis et accenso turibulo Dei iram cohibuisse ; stetit inter mortem et vitam sacerdos maximus nec ultra vestigia eius ignis procedere ausus est.
Moysi loquitur Deus :
' Dimitte me et delebo populum istum.'
Quando dicit ' dimitte me,' ostendit se teneri, ne
Publiiius Syrus, Sent., 180, already quoted, cf. p. 356.
2 2 Numbers, xvi. 46-48.
3 Exodus, xxxii. 10.
LETTER CXXVIII
gradually more and more shameless.
It is then impossible to stop them, and they prove the truth of the line ' You can hardly blame a habit which yourself you have allowed .' 1
I am ashamed to say it, and yet I must ; women of rank who could have suitors of even higher station cohabit with men of the lowest class and even with slaves.
Sometimes in the name of religion and under a cloak of continence they desert their husbands, and like another Helen follow their Paris without any fear of Menelaus.
Such things are seen and lamented, but they are not punished, for the multitude of sinners gives licence to sin.
Shame on us, the world is falling in ruins, but our sins still flourish.
The glorious city that was the head of the Roman Empire has been engulfed in one terrific blaze.
There is no part of the earth where exiles from Rome are not to be found.
Churches once held sacred have fallen into dust and ashes, and still we set our hearts greedily on money.
We live as though we were doomed to death on the morrow, but we build houses as though we were going to live for ever in this world.
Our walls glitter with gold, gold gleams upon our ceilings and upon the capitals of our pillars : yet Christ is dying at our doors in the persons of His poor, naked and hungry.
We read that Aaron the high priest faced the furious flames and with his burning censer stayed
God's wrath.
In the might of his priesthood he stood between life and death, and the fire did not dare to pass his feet . 2
God said to Moses :
' Let me alone and I will consume this people,' 3 showing by the words ' let me alone ' that he can be stayed
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faciat, quod minatus est ; Dei enim potentiam servi preces inpediebant.
Quis, putas, ille sub caelo est, qui nunc irae Dei possit occurrere, qui obviare flammis
' Optabam ego anathema et iuxta apostolum dicere :
' ?
Pereunt cum pastoribus esse pro fratribus meis greges, quia, sicut populus. sic sacerdos.
Moyses 4 Si dimittis populo conpassionis loquebatur affectu : huic, dimitte ; sin autem, dele me de libro tuo.'
Vult perire cum pereuntibus nec propria salute con- ' Gloria ' quippe ' regis multi tudo populi.' tentus est.
His Pacatula est nata temporibus, inter haec crepun.lia primam carpit aetatem ante lacrimas scitura qua.n risum, prius fletum sensura quam gaudium.
Necdum introitus, iam exitus ; talem semper fuisse putat mundum.
Nescit praeterita, fugit praesentia, futura desiderat.
Quae ut tumultuario sermone dictarem et post neces amicorum luctumque perpetuum infanti senex longo postliminio scriberem, tua me, Gaudenti fratri, inpulit caritas ; maluique pirum quam nihil omnino poscenti dare, quia in altero voluntas oppressa luctu, in altero amicitiae dissimulatio est.
1 Romans, ix. 3.
2 Exodus, xxxii. 32.
3 Proverbs, xiv. 28.
4 Pacatula's father.
LETTER CXXVIII
from carrying out his threat ; for the prayers of His servant hindered God's power.
Who, think you, is there now under heaven able to face God's wrath, to meet the flames, and to say with the apostle :
I could wish that I myself were accursed for my brethren '
? 1
Flocks and shepherds perish together, because the priest is now even as the people.
Moses ' Yet now if thou in his compassionate love said: wilt, forgive their sin ; and if not, blot me, I pray thee, out of thy book.' 2
He wished to perish with the perishing, and was not content to win salvation ' in the multitude of people for himself ; for indeed is the king's honour.' 3
Such are the times into which our Pacatula has been born, these are the rattles of her infancy.
She will know of tears before laughter, she will feel sorrow sooner than joy.
Scarcely has she trod the stage before the curtain falls.
She thinks that the world was ever thus, she knows not of the past, she shrinks from the present, she fixes her desires on what is to come.
After mourning incessantly for my dead friends I have at length recovered composure, and my affection for you, brother Gaudentius , 4 has induced me to dictate this rough discourse and in my old age write a letter to an infant.
I preferred to answer your request inadequately rather than not to answer it at all.
As it is, my own inclinations have been paralysed by my grief ; in the other case you might have doubted the sincerity of my friend ship.
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APPENDIX I
ON JEROME'S CORRESPONDENCE
WITH ROMAN WOMEN
Jerome had many friends at Rome whose names occur frequently in his correspondence,1 but some of his most interesting letters are addressed to his women friends in that city.
Of these, those to Marcella are the most numerous,2 and she and her circle had a great influence on the life and work of Jerome from 382 onwards.
1 Among such names are Pope Damasus (Introd., p. viii); the senator Pammachius, a member of the Furian family and a cousin of Marcella, whose friendship with Jerome dated from their student days, when they had together attended the lectures of Victorinus (cf. Letter LXVI1I.
1, and preface to Hosea); Pammachius was an ardent churchman and as much interested in theological controversy as Jerome himself
Oceanus, another layman, was connected with the great Fabian family and was probably also a senator (cf. esp.
Letter LXVII.) ; his friendship with Jerome, like that of two other Roman correspondents, Desiderius and Domnio (Letters
XLVII. and L.), seems to have begun after Jerome's second visit in 382.
2 About one-fifth of Jerome's letters are addressed to women, most of them to Marcella.
Besides the extant letters to her, there was a collection which has been lost.
Jerome says in the catalogue of his works (De viris ill.
135) that he cannot count his letters to Paula and Eustochium, as he wrote every day.
Most of these letters were impersonal and entirely devoted to the interpretation of passages of scripture or points of doctrine.