Blessed Jerome and his age

Chapter 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 The first critical edition of Jerome (at the turn of the Middle Ages and the Modern Age) was made by Erasmus. The latter was the first to establish the falsity of some of the works previously attributed to Jerome. He, considering his publication an important and useful matter for the Catholic Church, asked Pope Leo X for permission to dedicate this work to him. On this occasion, a flattering letter from a humanist to the magnificent pope, written in the most exquisite Latin, is known, “who in his greatness was as superior to mortals as mortals themselves are superior to cattle” - at least that’s what we read in this letter. Here is a review of Jerome: “Blessed Jerome is so much the king of theologians for the West that, perhaps, he alone is worthy of the name of theologian in our country. This does not mean that I condemn others, but even the glorious ones in comparison with him are darkened by his sublimity. Learned Greece itself hardly has anyone with whom it could compare this man, endowed with so many exceptional gifts. How much Roman eloquence he has, what knowledge of languages, what awareness of everything related to history and antiquity. What a faithful memory, what a happy versatility, what a perfect comprehension of mystical writings (Holy Scripture). And above all, what ardor, what amazing inspiration of the divine soul. He alone delights with eloquence, and teaches with learning, and attracts with holiness. And this author, the only one worthy to be read by everyone, is also riddled with errors, and obscured, and disfigured so that even scientists cannot understand him.” This and other reviews of Erasmus, in which he incidentally praised Jerome to the obvious detriment of Augustine, gave rise to a curious exchange of letters between him and Dr. Eck (well known in the Luther case). Eck, offended on behalf of Augustine, as well as generally embarrassed by some of Erasmus’s rash opinions in the field of theology, made the latter a most respectful remontrance [remark - French], where he called him “the sun of Latin orbit” and “the most eloquent of mortals,” but still pointed out that he, Erasmus, was somewhat biased, and that if we compare these two teachers of the Western Church, it would be fairer refrain from preferring one or the other, but reconcile at least, for example, with the opinion of Philelf, who claims that if something single could be created from these two people, then nothing more perfect than this would exist in nature. Erasmus answered at length, but arrogantly. “You do not like,” he wrote, “my opinion - the opinion of a person who so much in the field of theology prefers Jerome to Augustus that he would consider it extremely impudent to compare one with the other ... I think about Augustine as one should think about a holy man full of outstanding talents. I do not darken his glory, as you write, but I do not want the glory of Jerome to be darkened, who is almost insulted when he stands behind someone whom he surpasses in many ways. I ask you, does the one who prefers Christ to him insult Peter?” And further, contemptuously hinting at the bad taste of Augustine’s admirers, he notes: “Every area has its own mob, and the best has always been liked by the few.” However, he condescends to argue. “Let's take a closer look at the issue. No one will deny how important place of birth and upbringing is for a person. Jerome was born in Stridon, a village so close to Italy that the Italians consider him theirs, and raised in Rome, the first city in the world and also the most learned mentors. Augustine is in Africa, a barbaric country where education was far from flourishing, which Augustine himself does not hide in his letters. Jerome, a Christian from Christian parents, had already deeply absorbed the philosophy of Christ. Augustine took up the Epistles of Paul for almost thirty years without any guidance. Jerome, endowed with such abilities, devoted thirty-five years to the study of Holy Scripture, Augustine was immediately made a bishop and was forced to teach what he himself had not yet learned... But even if, if you like, the conditions of their birth, talents, and upbringing were equal, let us still see how much more prepared Jerome set about the task. Don't you think that knowledge of Greek and Hebrew was not of any importance in this case? All philosophy, all theology of that time was exclusively Greek. Augustine did not know Greek... One page of Origen is more edifying for me in the field of Christian philosophy than ten of Augustine. And besides Origen, how many more mentors did Jerome have.” Erasmus's eloquent recommendation in one respect at least deserves our attention. She vouches for the fact that Jerome, as a literary phenomenon, is something outstanding, capable of satisfying a rather demanding taste, something, perhaps, in its own way and for its time, as brilliant as Erasmus was for the era of German humanism. On the other hand (we note by the way), the special partiality of a person like Erasmus, with his shallow soul, wavering faith and dubious morals, could in the eyes of some (which was, for example, with Luther) be reflected as some kind of unfavorable reflex on the very object of worship, on Jerome, since the latter should no longer be considered as a writer, but as one of the most prominent fathers of the church, as a theologian, as a teacher of life and orthodoxy (which Jerome was for a long time and for many). We will see in the future how acquaintance with Jerome can justify this indirect conclusion “from admirer to worshiped,” but for now we will touch upon the biography of the saint in a few words in order to connect with it the image of his era, which for us (together with an attempt to give at least the most general idea of ​​the spiritual appearance of Jerome) will be the most important thing on these pages. Jerome, like Nietzsche, like Copernicus, belongs to the number of historical figures who marked with their appearance some important points of historical development, which the Slavs, if they wish, can consider their own, but whose full affiliation with them is unlikely to ever be established (regarding Copernicus, however, doubts are almost impossible). We cannot join the opinion of Philaret, who, on the basis that Jerome’s contemporary Prosper calls him a Dalmatian (Dalmatus), decides the issue in favor of Slavic origin. This may have been a name for a place rather than a tribe. But the presence of Slavic elements in the hometown of Jerome, which was later razed to the ground by the flood of barbarian migration, is beyond doubt. The very name Stridon is derived from the Slavic roots Sridni, Srida, which may indicate the border position of the town (between Dalmatia and Pannonia). Jerome's year of birth is unknown. Approximately 340 is accepted. Judging by the education that Jerome received, and by the fact that he later ended up with lands in Pannonia, one can think that his parents were rich, at least wealthy. As a young man, he moved to Rome in order to improve himself in the art of oratory - and this migration connected him with the Eternal City with inextricable ties - affection and hatred, temporary persecution and eternal glory. There is no doubt that without this migration we would not have the Jerome we know today. For the talent of the holy satirist, Juvenal of the Catholic Church, the atmosphere of the then Rome was needed in order to manifest itself and develop into the inimitable figure that he is for us as a writer. Born in the wrong era, Jerome with his character would have been “a man out of time,” but in the 4th century he found himself in his place. Therefore, in order to understand at least something in Jerome, you need to know his “environment”, i.e. atmosphere, modernity. In general terms we know this last one: the near twilight of the Middle Ages (the great Gotterdammerung of history); decaying Rome; The sunset of his bloody star, and this comparison by Gogol the professor: “The Empire was like a thousand-year-old oak tree, which amazes with its terrible thickness and whose middle has long since turned to rot and dust.” But in this case, it is necessary to turn to more specialized sources and obtain details, since they precisely determined the direction of Jerome’s activities and writings. We will focus on Ammianus Marcellinus and Augustine. We are especially indebted to Marcellinus for pictures of morals and life of the 4th century. And the first thing that hits us when reading them is some kind of breath over that entire era of savagery and death. In general, the opinion that barbarism was approaching Rome only from the outside turns out to be erroneous upon closer examination. According to some fatal law of change of states, theses and antitheses, Roman society itself, Roman culture began to produce destructive poisons within itself, and spiritual barbarism was already putting its stamp on the entire appearance of Rome. “Few houses, formerly famous for the cares of science, now abound only in the amusements of laziness, filled with the sounds of singing and the ringing of strings. The place of the philosopher was taken by a singer, the place of an orator by a teacher of performing arts, and while libraries are always closed like tombs, only hydraulic organs, huge lyres that look like chariots, and complex instruments for theatrical performances are installed.” The same Marcellinus mentions, among other things, that in his time Juvenal and Marius Maximus enjoyed success even among those who had not read anything else and were afraid “like poison” of any “disciplines.” This attraction to satire, beyond any moralizing considerations, is, perhaps, also one of the characteristic features of decadent eras. Obviously, the causticity of one and the pomposity of the other writer were more understandable, more in keeping with the jaded and dull taste of the age. The great arts of antiquity, like everything else, also fell into decline. When it was necessary to erect a triumphal arch for Constantine the Great, there was not a single artist who would dare to take on this work, and a somewhat unexpected solution was found: they used the Arch of Trajan and a new architectural work arose from the ruins of the previous one, like a pitiful distortion of a high example. To decorate the newly created Constantinople, its creator was forced to export classical marbles from Greece and Asia Minor cities, and the very statue of Constantine at the top of its column was nothing more than an ancient statue of Apollo with a crown of rays on his head. True, the art of ballet flourished, special, so to speak, “mimic” dances flourished, and the famous Wafil, for example, danced “Jupiter with Leda.” The props and mechanics of ballet stood quite high - at least in Jerome we read the following comparison: “What simplicity this is; it’s like dancing while hanging on eggs and ears of corn during theatrical miracles.” Moreover, the East exerted its influence to a greater extent than ever before. New cults came from there, as well as new fashions. Screaming variegation and the coarseness of aesthetic concepts were installed everywhere. We know the success of the appearance of new tunics, on which animals of all kinds were depicted. There was probably something barbaric about these outfits with menageries woven on them. Crowds of eunuchs - this inevitable part of Asian ceremonies - have become necessary in every noble house, and the same historian notes that when the cortege of a rich patrician goes somewhere, she is followed by entire detachments of castrati, old and young, with faded faces, “raising hatred for the memory of Semiramis, who was the first of all to castrate tender youths, as if raping nature and turning it away from the pre-established course.” Regarding Eastern cults, we have, among other things, the testimony of Augustine in his Confessiones. The Roman nobility, in his words, greedily rushed to new, unknown mysteries and eagerly accepted “monsters of all kinds of gods and barking Anubis, which once Against Venus, Minerva and the sea-power Neptune, the Bow was strained, threatening... Now Rome prays to these gods it once defeated.” Along with this, superstitions, magic, and astrology spread. Marcellinus says about his contemporaries: “Many deny the gods in heaven, and they themselves are afraid to leave the house, have breakfast, take a bath, before they can’t figure out where Mercury is, say, or what part of the constellation Cancer the moon covers.” From Augustine, who calls astrologers mathe-matici, we learn that horoscopes were compiled even for animals. In the past, Cicero, indignantly, told in his speeches against Verres how the latter, reclining on a stretcher, forced himself to be carried everywhere, how he, in a home suit and sandals, took part in a naval parade, how the pillow on his camp bed was filled daily with fresh rose petals. All these were traits of unforgivable effeminacy. Now none of this would surprise anyone in Rome. The accusatory Marcellinus gives a sarcastic portrayal of the modern senators. “Some of them, if to inspect an estate or to hunt with the help of someone else’s hands, they have made some non-proximal end, they already think that their campaigns are equal to Alexander’s or Caesar’s... And if, having slipped between the gilded fans, a fly lands on the silk floor of their clothes, or if a sheer ray of the sun penetrates the hole of an umbrella, they complain why they were not born among the Cimmerians.” It is curious that sometimes this effeminacy took on forms that we could not complain about today, but which in that era evoked bitter ridicule from the “old Romans.” “Since in the capital of the world, diseases are rampant more than anywhere else, for the suppression of which any medicine is powerless, a healing remedy has been invented: namely, you need to stop communicating with a friend who has fallen ill with something similar, and in addition to this innocent precaution, another, more effective one is also added: slaves sent to inquire about the health of sick acquaintances are not allowed into the house until they have been to the bathhouse. The infection is so terrible, even seen through the eyes of others.” Along with the growth of this refinement, the mimosa sensitivity of the upper classes, there was their uncontrollable desire for a large life, for easy money, for ephemeral fame, bought by some extraordinary expenses or other eccentricities of the same kind. At the table, as well as in all the everyday life of a wealthy Roman, it was no longer the quality of what was offered to his service and for his pleasure that was valued, but the difficulty and associated high cost of obtaining one or another rare foreign import. It was an age of extravagant gourmetism par excellence. Starting with the Augustans, “for whose table the whole world served, and the seas and lands paid their tribute,” and further, right up to the rich clergy, everyone became sophisticated in their ability to enjoy delicate dishes and obtain gastronomic surprises. In one place, Jerome warns his correspondent: “Let Colchian birds, fat turtle doves, Ionian hazel grouse and all those birds with which the most extensive fortunes fly away be farther from your table.” And in general, the place of grace, sophistication, and beauty of everyday life has been replaced everywhere by expensive and heavy luxury. “The assets of entire estates are strung together on one thread.” However, we will talk about the outfits of Roman women later. The spirit of belligerence gradually disappeared from the Roman legions. Gibbon reports that from the time of Emperor Gratian, the Roman infantry began to complain about the heaviness of their armor, and it ended with helmets and armor being forgotten. Marcellinus’ message is in the same vein: “And it was no longer stone, as before, that was the warrior’s bed, but down jackets and folding beds were needed, bowls were needed that were heavier than military swords, since they were already ashamed to drink from jugs.” With such an army it was impossible to accomplish feats. Moreover, it was impossible to fight with him at all, it was impossible to rely on him due to the extreme decline of discipline - and death, as well as all kinds of misfortunes, became some kind of sad accessory to the Caesar title. The chronicle of the modern reigning houses of the Empire represents pages that are perhaps the most tragic in all of world history. There is something terrifying in this passage from Jerome: “Constantius, the patron of the Arian heresy, preparing to go against the enemy and already ardently rushing towards him, dies in the village of Mopse and leaves power to the enemy with great sorrow. Julian, having betrayed his own soul and exterminated the Christian army, in Media comes to know Christ, whom he had previously denied in Gaul, and wanting to expand the regions of Rome, he loses those already expanded. Jovian, having just tasted the sweetness of rule, dies, suffocating in a fume of coals, showing everyone what human power is. Valentinian, after devastating his homeland and leaving his fatherland unavenged, died of bloody vomiting. His brother Valens, defeated in Thrace in the war with the Goths, had a place of death and burial. Gratian, betrayed by his army and not accepted by the oncoming cities, served as a laughing stock to the enemy, and your walls, Lyon, bear traces of his blood. Valentinian, still just a youth, after flight, after exile, after power restored by such bloodshed, was killed near the city that was responsible for the death of his brother, and his soulless corpse was disgraced by hanging. What more could I say about Procopius, Maximus, Eugenius, who, while they ruled, were the terror of the peoples. “All of them prisoners stood in the face of the victors and (which is the most terrible thing for the once powerful) were struck by the shame of slavery even before the sword of the enemy.” The Roman common people were devoted to drinking and playing dice; the passion for the theater seemed to absorb all other feelings of Roman citizens, and all their leisure time was spent visiting the lists, gladiatorial battles, and even people like Augustine, for example, could not resist the temptation to attend bloody fights of slaves. “And the church, and the house, and the club, and the goal of all desires for them (the Roman mob) is Circus Maximus.” It is curious that, touching on the events in Rome itself in the XIV book of his work, Marcellinus considers it his duty to make the following reservation: “And since I think that some of my readers will be amazed why, when it comes to depicting what is happening in Rome, it is always narrated only about riots, taverns and other unworthy objects of this kind, I will briefly indicate here the reasons why this happens.” In book XXVIII, which, together with XIV, is the most important for us, again speaking about Roman morals, he writes: “All these vices and others, even greater than these, which were not paid attention to for a long time thanks to constant connivance, have now become so rampant that Epimenides of Crete himself, if, resurrected according to the model of fabulous heroes, had come to us from the kingdom of shadows, he alone would not have been able to cleanse Rome." All this, to a certain extent, justifies the words of Jerome about the same Rome: “The city of pomp, debauchery and pleasures”; and in another place: “The city where in the past the scum of the whole world flocked and to which the palm always remained when it came to the reproach of the honest and the defamation of the pure.” Against the background of this shameful old age of a once great people, the wild freshness of the surrounding world stands out even more clearly. Who would have thought that in Europe, during the era of the Ecumenical Councils, there were cannibals? But here’s what Jerome writes: “I myself saw young men (“saw” is omitted from Migne in the text and appears only in the notes. - A.D.) in Gaul of the Atticots, a British tribe that eats human flesh. Finding herds of pigs and other livestock in the forests, they usually cut off the back parts of the shepherds, and also the breasts of women, and consider this the most delicious food.” Besides the performing arts, perhaps only one other thing was valued in Rome at that time, and that was rhetoric. Augustine, in his Confessiones, speaks of the teacher of eloquence, Victorinus, who earned a statue in the Roman Forum, “as a sign of the glorious teaching which is considered the highest among the citizens of this world.” We find even more eloquent (albeit indirect) evidence of the importance that verbal art enjoyed in Rome in Jerome. In the translation of the Chronicle of Eusebius, which will be discussed below, along with the most important events (the chronicle is so compressed that other reigns occupy only a few lines in it), under the 50th year the following is placed: “Palemon of Vicetinsky is considered a famous grammarian in Rome. He was once asked about the difference between gutta and stilla, and answered: “Gutta is a drop that is motionless, and stilla is a drop that falls.” Along with the omission of sometimes the largest events in the Empire, this “opinion” of the grammarian, entered into the annals of world history, speaks unusually convincingly of the exceptional attention paid to representatives of the high ars dicendi. It was this art that Jerome had to study in Rome. But even it bore the features of decline, some strange decadence and was reduced mainly to affectation and dialectical evasion. Only Jerome's outstanding literary talent allowed him to later free himself from the shackles that were imposed on him by school. His early works, where his dependence on the influences of the training of that time are most felt, belong to the weakest in literary terms. But, in any case, the subject of teaching corresponded to his natural inclination, and Jerome was probably one of the best and most diligent students of the then oratorical schools. “As a young man, I burned with an amazing zeal for learning,” the saint wrote. Many, many years later, as a hermit in the Bethlehem cave, he still sometimes saw himself in a dream as a student of “rhetorical wisdom.” “Even now, often, with a bald and gray head, I see myself in a dream with a carefully coiffed hairstyle and with a chosen toga, reciting a controversy before a rhetorician. And when I wake up, I congratulate myself on being free from the danger of verbosity.” In addition, the verbal schools, despite their shortcomings, still somehow protected, “preserved” Latin speech from contamination, from sloppiness - and only this can explain that among the learned commentary on the prophet. In Daniel we suddenly encounter the following in Jerome, for example, a somewhat unexpected retreat. Quoting a line from Ch. 5 of the prophet: Purpura vestietur et torquem auream habebit in collo, he continues: “It is ridiculous, of course, for me, as a grammarian, to argue about the genders of words in the interpretations of the prophets. But since someone who knows nothing, but dares to do anything, reproaches me for why I gave torquem in the feminine gender, I will briefly note that Cicero and Maro use torquem in the feminine gender, and Titus Livia in the masculine gender.” Oratory schools also nourished in their students a reverent respect for the high poetry of the “Golden Age”. Entire poems were learned by heart - and Jerome, for example, had hundreds of poems learned in his youth so firmly in his memory that later, throughout his life, he could use this stock without resorting to references. We, preventing further presentation of the events of Jerome’s life, allow ourselves to say here that if there was one thing that was the main essence of his nature, it was his love of literature. Our entire essay will testify to this. But here too, since we are talking about this, we will make those instructions that can justify our words. Acquaintance with the biography of Jerome suggests that even religion was powerless against this passion of his. The spiritual upheaval that took him from the forum to his cell, wanderings through the deserts of Syria, deprivations of all kinds of childbirth, deliberately imposed on himself - all this could not change only one thing: his love for scriptores antiqui. Among the deprivations, there was only one deprivation he could not endure: to remain without his library. He asked: “What does the Psalter have in common with Horace? At the Gospel with Maron? Cicero and the Apostle?" - and yet: “When many years ago I abandoned my parents, sister, relatives - and what is even more difficult - the habits of rich living for the sake of the Kingdom of Heaven and went to Jerusalem, like a warrior of Christ, I still could not do without the library, which I collected in Rome with great diligence and labor. And I, unfortunate, fasting, intended to read Tullius. After frequent vigils at night, after tears that from the depths of my heart the memory of past sins was torn from me, Plautus took it into his hands. If, having come to my senses, I nevertheless began to read the prophet, I was horrified by the coarseness of the speech, and, not seeing the light with my blind eyes, I thought that it was not the fault of the eyes, but of the sun.” On the basis of his passion for the classics, a well-known event occurred in the life of Jerome - a prophetic vision of the judgment of God. “And so, when the ancient Serpent tempted me in this way,” continues Jerome, “approximately in the middle of Lent, a fever took possession of my body and, without any weakening - which is even incredible - consumed my whole body to such an extent that almost only bones remained. The funeral was already being prepared, and the heat of the vital force barely glowed in only one breast, while the rest of the body was already beginning to cool down - when suddenly, delighted with the spirit, I was drawn before the tribunal of the Judge, where there was so much light, the brilliance of those around Him shone so lightning fast that, falling to the ground, I did not dare to look up. Asked who I was, I said that I was a Christian. But the One who sat answered: “You are lying. You are a Ciceronian, not a Christian. “Where your treasure is, there is your heart,” and I fell silent, and amid the scourgings - because He ordered me to be beaten - I suffered even more in the fire of my conscience.” After vowing not to read any more pagan books, Jerome was brought back to life. But even this intervention of heavenly powers and this oath did not help for long. In his writings, Jerome continued to quote the ancients, and in Bethlehem he later opened a school (according to Rufinus), where, among other things, the classics were taught. When the same Rufinus accused him of perjury, Jerome had to justify himself, not without guile: “I promised not to read secular literature in the future - and this related to the future, and did not mean forgetting the past,” but in these justifications there was more lawyerly dexterity learned in his youth than convincingness and sincerity. Moreover, in the same Bethlehem Jerome wrote his “Letter to Magnus, Orator of the City of Rome,” which may be the most eloquent apology of pagan authors ever written in terms of their acceptability and usefulness for Christian writers. “As for the fact that you ask at the end of the letter why in our writings we sometimes offer examples from secular literature and infect the purity of the church with pagan impurities, here is a short answer: you would never have asked this if you had not been completely dominated by Cicero, if you had read the Holy Scripture, if you had looked into its interpreters, forgetting about Volcatius. Who does not know that both Moses and the prophets borrowed from pagan books, and that Solomon proposed questions to the Tyrian philosophers and answered questions from them... The Apostle Paul himself uses the verse of Epimenides when he writes to Titus: “The Cretans are liars, evil beasts, lazy bellies.” This heroic half-verse was subsequently used by Callimachus, and if the Latin meter is not observed in the literal translation, then this is not surprising, since Homer, translated into prose in the same language, barely retains the meaning. In another letter, he also uses the six-foot verse of Menander: “Bad conversations spoil good morals” and among the Athenians in the Areopagus, arguing, he brings Aratus into evidence: “and we are his race,” which in Greek reads τοΰ γάρ και γένος έσμέν and is the completion of the heroic verse. Moreover, the leader of the army of Christ and the invincible orator turns even a random inscription on the altar into an argument of faith, defending the cause of Christ. From David he learned to remove the sword from the hands of the enemy and to cut off the head of the proud Goliath with his own weapon.” Then he gives interesting examples from Christian literary history: “Squadratus, disciple of the apostles and bishop of the Church of Athens, was it not he who gave Adrian, who arrived at the Eleusinian Mysteries, a book in defense of our faith and caused such surprise that his excellent mind calmed the most severe persecution. Aristides the philosopher, a most eloquent man, presented to the same emperor an Apology for Christianity, compiled from the opinions of philosophers. Later, Justin, imitating him, gave Antoninus Pius, his sons and the Senate a book against the pagans, preaching with all freedom the shame of the cross and the resurrection of Christ... Panten, a philosopher of the Stoic sect, in view of his special scientific fame, was sent by Demetrius, Bishop of Alexandria, to India to preach Christ to the Brahmans and philosophers of that tribe... Juvenc the presbyter, at the time Constantine, set out the history of the Lord Savior in verse and was not afraid to subordinate the greatness of the Gospel to the laws of meter,” etc. By the way (let’s make this necessary digression, since otherwise it is completely impossible to understand the exceptional glory that surrounded the name of Jerome among the figures of the Renaissance, among the people of the 15th-16th centuries), one can think that here - in this defense of the ancients, in this admiration for them - lies the reason for the attraction of humanism, in particular such people as Erasmus, to Jerome. The thousand years between both passed almost without a trace, were in some respects erased from the spiritual history of mankind, and the Renaissance (in part) had to pose and defend the same questions that Jerome defended. Humanism (speaking in a broad sense) set as its goal not only the “resurrection of the gods,” as it might seem at first glance, - its goal was broader and higher: it wanted to restore the cultural tradition violated by the barbarian Middle Ages, and attach the first links of its undertaking to the last links (5th century) of the former European (already Christian by that time, but growing on a classical root) enlightenment. At least, German humanism in its best representatives was exactly like this, and, for example, Erasmus, as if even in direct dependence on the example of Jerome, undertakes to correct the New Testament, defends the importance of studying ancient authors for the benefit of the Christian church, insists on the use of the primary sources of the Old Testament and, consequently, on the study of the Hebrew language. The fierce persecution by the monks of the famous humanist for his “Ciceronianism” (even the slogan of persecution remained the same as in the time of Jerome) was perhaps even more fierce than the reproaches to which Jerome was subjected. And shouldn’t some champion of humanistic enlightenment have rejoiced when he found in his fourth-century forerunner such passages, for example: “Holy ignorance is good only for oneself; and since it builds the church with the holiness of life, it also harms it by being unable to resist those who attack it.” Or again: “Why are my enemies tormenting me and these fat pigs grunting against the silent one? After all, for them, all science, moreover, the pinnacle of all wisdom, consists in blaspheming the things of others and proving the unbelief of the ancients even to the point of losing their own faith. My rule is: read the ancients, approve of some, learn what is good in them, and do not deviate from the faith of the Catholic Church.” The last excerpt is such that even from the point of view of language it can be considered an excerpt from some exculpatory message of Erasmus. After all that has been said about the classical predilections of Jerome, the following tirades, somewhat unusual for us, become completely clear in his mouth: “Every activity has its representatives: let the Roman leaders imitate Camillas, Fabricius, Reguli, Scipios, let philosophers take Pythagoras, Socrates, Plato, Aristotle as a model, let poets compete with Homer, Virgil, Menander, Terence, historians - with Thucydides, Sallust, Herodotus, Livy, orators - with Lysias, Gracchi, Demosthenes and Tullius; As for our condition, bishops and presbyters can have as their example the apostles and apostolic men, enjoying honor on an equal basis with whom, let them also try to reproduce their virtues.” The following lines may be even more expressive: “David - our Simonides, Pindar and Alcaeus, also Flaccus, Catullus and Serenus, strums the lyre about Christ and calls the Risen One from the grave with a ten-stringed psalter.” Collombet, in the two-volume work already cited, has an interesting table of compared passages from Plautus and the Bible of Jerome. From them one can see how dependent the latter was on this literature even in his very language. In connection with Jerome's rich literary talent is also his subtle critical sense. His notes on the style of some of the church fathers are always apt and sometimes brilliant. His “Letter on the Best Method of Translation” (including, among other things, the Holy Scriptures) establishes (based on the authority of Cicero, Terence, Horace, Plautus and Caecilius) the principles of this difficult art with all the conviction and understanding of the tasks of literary translation that one can generally desire. He also owns a formula, the assimilation of which would be useful even for literary criticism of our days: “A poet cannot be understood by anyone who does not write poetry himself,” says Jerome, commenting on the words of Fabius (Quintiliana): “It would be happiness for the arts if they were judged only by artists.” Concluding the outline of Jerome’s humanistic views, we cannot help but cite the phrase with which he addresses the monk Rusticus, setting out for the latter, as it were, a short set of rules for monastic desert living. “Let the book not leave your hands or your eyes,” he instructs his younger brother on the difficult task of spiritual self-improvement. Here, in a nutshell, this learned ascetic, for whom the book was a great shrine, the happiness of life and the anchor of salvation, expressed himself with all possible completeness. But on the other hand, in this same conclusion we cannot ignore the fact that Jerome nevertheless protested against the too deep penetration of elements of pagan literature into the everyday life of religious life and Christian theology and, by the way, gave a sharp rebuke to the well-known attempt to make Virgil a pagan prophet who announced the coming of Christ to the Roman world. This is an interesting passage: “I’m not talking about people like me, who accidentally switched from secular literature to St. Scripture and delighting the ears of the people with smooth speech, they consider everything they say to be divine law. They do not even deign to know what the prophets and apostles thought, but simply use inappropriate evidence for their opinions. As if this is not the worst kind of teaching - to distort other people's opinions and rape Scripture that does not correspond to our species. Haven’t we read the centon compiled from Homer and Virgil, and yet we cannot call Maro a Christian before Christ, even if he wrote: Here comes the maiden. The kingdom of Saturn is coming, a new race descends to earth from the high sky, and forces the father to say to his son: My son, my fortress, my only strength... All this is childishness or charlatanism: teaching something about which you are ignorant, or - to put it more strongly - not even knowing that you are ignorant.” After completing his education in Rome, having brought from the capital enough knowledge, secular polish and those memories that are inextricably associated with youth and which in the future were to torment him so much, Jerome set off on a journey along the Rhine and Gaul. Around the same time, his “conversion”, a spiritual turning point that made Jerome a monk, an ascetic, and a teacher of the church, also fell. So, at least, one can interpret his own words: “You yourself know (Lord)... how, after studying in Rome, on the semi-barbarian banks of the Rhine, when he and I (Bonozos, Jerome’s friend - A.D.) shared food and shelter, I was the first to want to honor You.” As already mentioned, he was born into a Christian family, but until then Christianity did not play any role in his life, especially since he was not even baptized (a phenomenon, however, common at a time when baptism was often postponed until late in life, sometimes until death approached. Augustine, for example, having a Christian mother, was baptized only at the age of thirty). This turn in the life of Jerome puts us face to face with the Christianity of that time in Rome and, in general, with the Christianity of that era, which (psychologically) was completely different from the crystallized Christianity of later times, more accessible to our understanding. Then it was still a kind of “werden” and not “sein”, but its study should be all the more interesting for us. In general, this is perhaps one of the most interesting, as well as the most difficult, topics in history: the evolution of mass ideas, analysis of the spiritual atmosphere in which peoples live, the depiction of often some strange symbiosis of ideas, completely opposite in their origin, but somehow getting along in the minds, and, perhaps, getting along only because they are opposite and are made up of memories of the past and aspirations for the future. For Christianity, no Dogmengeschichten will give the concept of this side of it. The decrees of the Councils and the encyclicals of the popes hardly mean much here. Some superstition that lingers in the outback speaks more here than acts of high spiritual council. There is an amazing passage in “The Life of Paul the Hermit,” written by Jerome. St. Anthony of Thebaid, by inspiration from above, goes to look for this Paul, who even earlier than Anthony became a hermit in the same desert and was thus, in some way, the eldest in terms of duration of pious deed. “As soon as dawn broke, the venerable old man, supporting his weak limbs with a staff, decided to go on an unknown path. And noon was already blazing with the scorching sun, but he still did not stop walking, saying: “I believe in my God that He will show me His servant whom He has promised me.” Suddenly he saw a half-horse and half-man, a creature the poets call Hippocentaur. Seeing him, he overshadowed his forehead with the banner of salvation. “Hey,” he said, “in which direction does the servant of God live?” He muttered something barbaric, twisting the words rather than pronouncing them, and tried to express an affectionate greeting with his bristly mouth. Then, with his outstretched right hand, he pointed the way and, rushing at an inspired run across the open plains, disappeared from the eyes of the surprised hermit. We don’t know whether this was an obsession of the devil to frighten him, or whether the desert, fertile in monsters, also gave birth to this beast. And so the amazed Anthony, reasoning with himself about what had happened, walked on. A little time passed, and then he saw among the rocky valley a small man with a hooked nose, horns on his forehead, and a pair of goat legs. At this sight, Anthony, like a good warrior, took up the shield of faith and the armor of hope. Nevertheless, the said animal handed him palm fruits on the road, as if as a pledge of peace. Seeing this, Anthony paused and, asking who he was, received the answer: “I am a mortal, one of the inhabitants of the desert, whom paganism, guided by various errors, honors under the name of Fauns, Satyrs and Incubi. I carry out the instructions of my brothers. We ask you to pray for us to our common Lord, about whom we know that He once came to save the world. Rumors about Him spread throughout the entire universe.” When he said this, the elderly traveler abundantly watered his face with tears, which brought joy from his heart. He rejoiced in the glory of Christ and the death of Satan." For Jerome, “The Life of Paul the Hermit” was not a fairy tale, and he further tries to show (referring to the capture of a similar strange creature during the reign of Constantius) that all this is completely possible. But then what does this story mean? Only one thing is obvious: the gods are not dead yet. They remained - debunked, trembling, sinful, but alive. And they waited for the Last Judgment, as all believers waited for it. “There will be, there will be that day... The world will howl pitifully before the Judge, the Lord. The nations will lacerate their breasts. The once powerful and now defenseless kings will tremble. Venus will appear in court with her offspring. The fiery (possibly “unknown” - ignotus) Jupiter and the stupid Plato with his disciples will be brought. Aristotle’s arguments will lose their force,” etc. Here, in addition to rhetoric, there is also historical reality. And of course, it was even less surprising under such conditions that along with Christianity in everyday life (and even more so than in views) pre-Christian and anti-Christian, so to speak, antiquity coexisted. Augustine (in Confessiones) talks about completely pagan funeral feasts, held on the days of commemoration of the martyrs and which provoked energetic protest from Ambrose in Milan. Or here is Jerome’s message about the “carol” ritual, so far from us in place and time and so close in essence: “In all cities, especially in Egypt and Alexandria, there is an ancient idolatrous custom of gathering tables on the last day of the local year and month, placing on them all kinds of dishes and a cup of wine - as if to commemorate the fertility of the coming year or the past year.” But this complication of Christianity with the rudiments of previous faiths was, however, completely natural. It had little to do with his essence: simply the two worlds of new and old gods lived side by side. But Christianity at that time was complicated (and threatened) by other influences. Perhaps there has never been such an abundance of sects, religious systems and superstitions that suddenly appeared and disappeared without a trace as during that period. The world of the first centuries of Christianity was like some kind of huge flaming hearth, where the raw power of religious passions bubbled and from where heresies were thrown out in explosions one after another, one more monstrous, fantastic and impossible than the other. The fire that started in a corner of Syria spread to Egypt, Byzantium, and the West. As if rewarding itself for a religion that was too earthly, too elementary, with which it lived for so many centuries, humanity rushed to the other extreme - and we see it on the threshold of madness in the manifestations of its religiosity. “Almost four hundred years have passed since the word of Christ shone in the world. Since then, countless heresies have torn His robe. And almost every error was spread in Syriac, Chaldean and Greek." “Armagil, Barbelon, Abraxas, Balsamon and the funny Leusibora, and others are more monsters than names” - all of them were passed on from mouth to mouth, had for thousands of people the authority of the last revelation and (often along with sexual excesses) were relied on as the basis of religions. Heresies took on the character of ecstasy - and it was not for nothing that women played such a huge role in their education. Jerome, who himself knew the power of this principle, lists in one place cases of such participation: “Simon the Magus founded the heresy with the assistance of the harlot Helen, Nicholas of Antioch, the inventor of all sorts of defilements, led round dances of wives. Marcion sent a woman ahead of him to Rome so that she could prepare souls there for his deception. Apelles had Philumena as an accomplice in his teachings. Montanus, a preacher of the unclean spirit, first seduced many churches through Prisca and Maximilla, rich and noble women, with the assistance of gold, then desecrated them with heresy. But I will leave the old ones and move on to a later time. Arius, in order to deceive the universe, first of all deceived Caesar's sister Donatus in Africa in order to pollute some unfortunate people with stinking water, and received funds from Lucilla. In Spain, a blind blind woman, Agapia the woman Elpidias the man, led him into a pit, and he was then followed by Priscillian, the most zealous admirer of the magician Zoroaster. The Montanists were thought to use the blood of a baby in their mysteries, and Jerome wrote to Marcellus: “I am silent about the blasphemous sacraments with which the stories about the infant martyr are associated. I'd like to not believe this. Let everything that concerns blood be false.” In addition to heresies of such an “unbridled” nature, so to speak, in their teachings and ritual, dozens of others arose, but from a different source. To thought raised on dialectical subtleties, on Neoplatonism, the Gospel seemed philosophically poor, at least extremely incomplete as a system, teaching. And contemplative minds took up the task of supplementing, revealing its metaphysical essence. Hence the new “monsters” of the most bizarre teachings, conjectures, sects, and Tertullian’s phrase “philosophers-patriarchs of heretics” (quoted from Jerome XXII, 1148) in general correctly conveys the relationship that existed between philosophy and late Gnosticism. In the time of Jerome, one heresy of this kind was most widespread - namely Origen's (Origen between 185-256 approx.). We also owe to Jerome the preservation of some of its provisions. Here are the most interesting of them: 1) The sun and moon and stars are animate beings, and just as we humans, for our sins, were endowed with a coarse and inert body, so the heavenly bodies took such and such forms in order to shine more or less, and demons also, for great sins, were clothed in an airy body. 2) An angel or a soul or a demon, whom he (Origen) considers to be of the same nature, but of different will, can, due to the degree of negligence and unreason, become cattle and choose, instead of the torment of Gehenna, the position of lower animals, dwell in waters and springs and take the body of one or another fish, so that we should be afraid not only of the meat of four-legged animals, but also of fish. 3) Let the curious reader investigate whether the Father knows himself in the same way as He is known by the Son, knowing that it is written: “The Father who sent Me is greater than I” (John 14:28); he will agree that it is more fair to think that in knowledge the Father is greater than the Son, since He is known more perfectly and purer by Himself than by the Son. 4) And perhaps, just as those who die in this world, after the separation of the soul from the body, according to the difference in their deeds, occupy different places in the underworld, so those who die in heavenly Jerusalem (I will put it this way) descend into the underworld of our world and, according to their merits, occupy different places on earth. 5) We still lack the true Gospel, which we read about as the Eternal Gospel in the Apocalypse of John - of course, “eternal” in comparison with this Gospel of ours, which is temporary and preached in a transitory world and age. And if we are to examine the sufferings of Christ, although it is bold and terrible to seek His torment on the cross in heaven, however, if there are spiritual sins among the powers of heaven, and if we are not ashamed to confess the Cross of the Lord for the sake of resolving what He redeemed with His suffering, why should we be afraid to offer something similar in the places on high after centuries, so that the generations of all places will be saved by His suffering? We would not dwell so long on these errors of one of the greatest philosophical minds of the Christian world, but it was necessary to notice later that it was Origen that Jerome considered “the first after the apostles.” This shows how unstable the dogma of Christianity was, how much “charm” there was for minds in such teachings, when even such people as Jerome, like Augustine (the latter to an even greater extent: until the age of 30 he was almost a Manichaean), went through a fascination with heresies. It seems like some kind of miracle how Christianity could hold out against all these countless doctrines, how it did not get completely lost among them (especially since some heresies, for example, the Arian one, were temporarily stronger than it). And one more detail is curious: almost all heresies, moderate and extreme, orgiastic and rational, all of them arose and spread in the era of illegal Christianity. The period of persecution was at the same time a period of intense religious quest, bold experiments, and grandiose philosophical compositions. With Constantine, with the Edict of Milan, the decline in this regard begins, and the so-called. Christian disputes do not at all carry within themselves that religious inspiration (although party passions there were carried to extremes) that permeated the most absurd sects of the first centuries. To put an end to the peculiarities of Christianity of that era, we also note the existence among the then church of the millenarian or chiliast heresy, mentioned by Jerome. Explaining verse 20 in the 66th chapter of the prophet Isaiah (“And they will present all your brothers from all nations as a gift to the Lord on horses and chariots and on litters and on mules and on swift camels - to My holy mountain, to Jerusalem, says the Lord,” etc. - reading the Russian Bible), Jerome writes: “The Jews and the heirs of the Jews the errors of the Ebionites, who, as a sign of spiritual poverty, took the very name of “poor” (“Ebionites” in Hebrew “poor.” - A.D.) and who are all waiting for the bliss of the thousand-year kingdom on earth - they understand horses, chariots, carts, stretchers, and mules - all of this is understood as it is written. Precisely, when at the end of the world Christ comes to reign in Jerusalem, when the church arises again and the Jewish sacrifices are resumed, the sons of Israel will be gathered from all over the world, not on horses, but on Numidian mules. Which of them will be destined for the highest honors will arrive in carriages from Britain, Spain, Gaul, “from the extreme Morins in the world” (“Aeneid” Verg.) and from where the two-horned Rhine branches its course - they will arrive, met by all the tribes of the earth, prepared for their slavery.” But the misconception about the millennium reigned not only among the Jews. Christians - already on the basis of the Gospel - found it possible to expect the same. “I tell you that from now on I will not drink of the fruit of this vine until the day when I drink new wine with you in the kingdom of My Father - from this place some build a fable about a thousand years, when, as they say, Christ will reign bodily and drink wine, which He has not tasted since that time and will not taste until the end of the world.” In all likelihood, a common cause gave birth to a common dream. Persecuted Jews and persecuted Christians, as if impatient, as if not having the strength to wait for heavenly rewards, already here on earth, wanted to enjoy bliss and a purely earthly triumph, understandable to them and currently so inaccessible. Hence this childhood dream of “new wine” or “new Jerusalem” rising from the ashes. Misfortune seeks final consolation in legend, in poetry, and this is why so many miracles, feats and signs full of mysterious meaning are usually associated with times of disaster. Perhaps this is how a touching legend arose - in connection with the cruel persecution of Decius - about seven sleeping Ephesian youths, who supposedly escaped persecution in a cave, were buried there with stones on the orders of the persecutor, fell asleep for two centuries and were accidentally discovered and awakened approximately in the era we are depicting. A whole series of misunderstandings stemming from their ignorance about the duration of their sleep makes this church story entertaining, like any fantastic fairy tale, but the poetic motif of a long and wonderful sleep through the Koran passed into our literature: its echo - “And the tired traveler grumbled at God” in Pushkin’s “Imitations of the Koran.” By the time of Jerome, all these long years of persecution and the plight of the Christian religion were already far away, but - remarkably - the horror of what they had experienced was so great that three hundred years later believers still thought that the Antichrist would be none other than the newly reborn Nero. “Many of our people believe that, due to the excessiveness of atrocities and crimes, Domitius Nero will be the Antichrist.” But still, the cross triumphed in the end. Now this symbol, which once demanded bloody sacrifices on the part of its adherents, has already received universal recognition, and many Christians, including Jerome himself (as some of his expressions indicate), even painted an image of a cross on their foreheads for the sake of special zeal for Christ. “Of the ancient Hebrew letters still used by the Samaritans, the last one, “tau,” has the shape of a cross, which is written on the forehead of Christians, and the sign of which is often made with the hand.” After this, the somewhat strange at first glance exclamation of Jerome addressed to Iliodorus becomes clear: “Let the ray of the cross be established on the forehead.” One can guess that this drawing of a cross on the face was the custom of the monastics. At the beginning of the work, we gave a brief outline of Roman society in the 4th century. What could be born from the combination of such a decadent civilization and the teachings of Christ? Was the latter so powerful as to spiritually overcome and internally revive the former? Jerome's writings are valuable in that they answer such questions. This answer is close to negative, and we are even somewhat frightened when we read these materials of the era, this almost indictment against Christianity of that time, written by the hand of a great talent and an ardent believer. When Jerome tells us that a noble Roman woman beats a beggar while distributing alms ["... meanwhile, the old woman, burdened with years and rags, after receiving alms, runs ahead, as is usually done, to get the second coin, and when it comes to her turn, receives a fist and pays with blood for her crime""] - we are not even surprised: it was difficult to lose the “will to power” so quickly people who grew up in the hands of slaves. But then a line of clergy pass before us - sycophants, covetous people, slanderers - and the reader somehow feels uneasy, and he begins to understand why Jerome fled from Rome and called everyone to the monastery, to the desert, to Bethlehem. Let's dwell on these images of him. “There are others - I’m talking about people in my condition - who only seek presbytery and diaconate so that they can see women more freely. Their only concern is that their clothes smell good and that their patent leather shoes don’t pinch their feet. Their curls bear the mark of curling irons, their fingers shine with rings, and to prevent their shoes from being splashed by the street dirt, they walk through it on tiptoe.” Unions of brotherly love, all these “agapies” turned into cohabitation between clergy and matrons, and Jerome asked: “Where did the plague of agapets come into the church, where did the new name for unmarried wives come from, where did the new type of concubines come from?” “The clergy themselves, who should be mentors and an example of severity, kiss the heads of their patronesses and, holding out their hand, so that - without knowing - you would think that they want to bless, accept payment for their greeting,” and the matrons “are called pure and holy, and after a dubious supper they see the apostles in a dream.” “Holy love does not need frequent gifts, handkerchiefs and headbands, clothes that suit the face, dishes shared together, affectionate and sweet notes. My honey, my light, my joy - from all these and similar amorous nonsense, from all these tendernesses and laughter-worthy politenesses, we blush in comedies, we are disgusted by them in secular people - how much more in the mouths of clergy and clergy-monks, whose priesthood is elevated by a vow and, on the contrary, the vow itself - by their priesthood. “It’s a shame to say: idol priests, actors, circus riders and public women can receive inheritances. Only monks and clergy are forbidden to do this, and it was forbidden not by persecutors, but by Christian Caesars. I am not complaining about the law, but I am grieving that we deserve such a law. Cauterization with iron is good, but why would a wound need cauterization? The precautions of the law are strict and prudent, but even in this way greed is not curbed. We resort to letters of trust to circumvent these regulations, and as if the orders of the emperors were higher than the commandments of Christ, we fear the laws and despise the Gospel. Let the mother church be the heir of her flock, her children, whom she gave birth to, nourished and cherished - why do we stand between mother and children? The glory of a bishop is to provide for the poor, but the disgrace of the clergy is to care for their own enrichment. Born in a poor village hut, one who once barely had black bread and millet for food, I now disdain wheat flour and honey, I know the varieties and names of fish, I know on which shore the oysters are collected, by the taste of the birds I guess the provinces (where they came from), and I am delighted by the rarity of the dishes, and lately even their depravity.” “I also hear about the low helpfulness of some towards childless old men and women. They place the potty themselves, sit by the bed and take the cough sputum and gastric eruptions into their own hands. They get scared when the doctor arrives and ask with trembling lips whether the patient is better? And if the old man has become a little more cheerful, they become worried, and - despite the ostentatious joy - inside their spirit is tormented by greed. They are afraid of losing their labors in vain, and they compare the tenacious old man with Methuselah. Oh, what a reward the Lord would have had for them if they had not hoped for payment in the present. With what effort is achieved a perishable inheritance! With less difficulty the pearls of Christ can be purchased.” When you read this entire last passage, it is difficult to rid yourself of the thought that this is not a page from some evil letter-pamphlet of the Reformation, directed against the monks. And again an involuntary comparison comes: the 5th and 15th centuries. The revival, it seemed, affected not only the positive aspects of the resurrected era - and undoubtedly there is something in common in the decline of imperial Rome and papal Rome. The same vices, the same insatiable thirst for gold, the same Horacean virtus post nummos. It’s as if a circle has completed and has come to its beginning. The Middle Ages were centuries of savagery, but also of spiritual simplicity, and their Christianity was, perhaps, higher and more sincere than before them (in the fourth century) and barely there (in the era of humanism). There is only one difference: in the 4th century in this Babylon, as our author more than once calls Rome, there were those ten righteous people for whom Sodom once promised to spare, and Rome was spared, even strengthened (as the center of the religious life of the West); in the 16th century they were not there, and Rome suffered an unprecedented defeat: it was defeated by an “honest German,” a stubborn Augustinian monk. As for these Roman righteous men about whom we just spoke, it is indeed somehow even strange to see among the Christian everyday life of the 4th-5th centuries that we have already depicted such characters as Augustine, his mother - St. Monica, Ambrose of Milan and, finally, those Roman women whom we will meet in the future. The Christian masses were, perhaps, even worse in the 4th century than at any other time. The concepts of theater and church were mixed up among these lovers of spectacles to the point that popular preachers were greeted with applause. And Jerome warns Nepotianus in a letter to him: “When you speak in church, stir up tears among the people, and not a cry of delight.” There, amorous dates were arranged and such unworthy scenes took place that Jerome notes: “It is almost more dangerous for frivolous girls to go to holy places than to public places.”73 He expresses himself even more clearly in the “Book against Vigilantius.” The latter pointed to debauchery during night services in the basilicas of the martyrs. Jerome could only object to the following: “The crimes of young men and bad women, which are often discovered at night, should not be imputed to pious people: it is known that at Easter Matins similar cases repeatedly occurred, and, however, the guilt of a few cannot harm religion itself” (or “worship”). And even then, already in the fourth century, religious deceptions appeared, and in monasteries “some stupid people invent monstrous stories about demons fighting them, so that the inexperienced and simple people would be surprised by them, and they would get profit from it.” “Avoid men whom you see weighed down with chains, who, contrary to the word of the Apostle, have long hair like a woman, a beard of goats, a dirty cloak and bare legs to endure the cold. These are all tools of the devil.” The highest hierarchy was also permeated with a sinful and secular spirit. The very occupation of church positions became a matter of calculation. Spiritual careers were made quickly and unexpectedly. “Yesterday the catechumen - today the pope, yesterday in the amphitheater - today in the church, in the evening at the circus - in the morning at the altar, not long ago the patron of comedians - and now the dedicator of virgins.” It is not for nothing that the cynical Praetextatus, a pagan consul, “used to say in jest to the blessed Pope Damasus: Make me bishop of the city of Rome, and I will immediately become a Christian.” Perhaps something similar actually happened. The just mentioned Damasus gained possession of the papal throne only as a result of several street battles between his supporters and the party of another contender for the papacy, Ursinus, and massacres took place even in the church. Church councils were dominated by unscrupulous deception, forgery, and cunning strategy. Rufinus in his Apology tells how a book was asked from Jerome, to which he referred in his statements at one of the councils, and passages were scraped out and then written again, so that Jerome could be suspected of substituting the text. In the Apology against Rufinus, Jerome says: “Eustathius of Antioch found children without knowing them. Athanasius, bishop of the city of Alexandria, cut off the third hand of Arseny, because he later showed two of them, when he turned out to be alive, despite the lies about his death.” From the comments to this place it is clear that the Arians spread slander against their opponents in order to sully their reputation: they bribed a woman who showed that she had a son with Eustathius, and suspicion of crime was raised against Athanasius. Jerome's "Conversation against the Luciferians" contains a characteristic story of how the Council of Arimin turned into a simple deception on the part of a more clever party, into some kind of unworthy play on words, despite all the solemnity of the oaths and the proclamation of religious symbols. It becomes clear why people like Gregory the Theologian avoided councils - “I avoid councils... there are only fierce disputes and struggles for dominance”... (words of Gregory of Nazianzus). Vl. Soloviev, working on the era of the first Ecumenical Councils, wrote from Trinity to N. Strakhov: Yes, through centuries of frenzied monks, a cruel dispute and the lives of sacred swindlers, my gaze follows, - This harsh verdict, unfortunately, turns out to be fair. Jerome, better than others, realized the depth of the decline of Christian morals in his time, and we find in him a mournful admission that, along with the external successes of the church, there was its moral decline. “When (the Church of Christ) became under the rule of the Caesarian Christians, it became, it is true, stronger in power and wealth, but weaker in virtues.” But be that as it may, paganism was almost over. The churches of the ancient gods stood empty. Great sadness fell upon these remnants of the great past. And one cannot read without secret sadness the jubilant lines of Jerome: “The gilded Capitol is dirty. All the churches of Rome were covered with soot and cobwebs. The city has moved from its foundations, and the people who previously flooded the dilapidated churches are rushing to the tombs of the martyrs.” This transformation of pagan Rome into Christian seems even more unexpected if we remember that so recently there was an attempt to restore the old cult. Jerome still remembered Julian, who was the culprit and the soul of this restoration. “When I was a boy and studying at a grammar school, and when all the cities were again desecrated with the blood of sacrifices, suddenly, in the midst of persecution, the news of the death of Julian was brought. One of the pagans then said wittily: How can Christians say that their God is long-suffering and abundantly merciful? Yes, He is the most angry, the quickest in His vengeance: He could not hesitate even for a short time, so as not to punish the apostate.” But it is not only in this respect that the decisiveness of the coup that took place may surprise us. The success of Christianity in a city like Rome seems to be some kind of historical inexplicability, even more so in view of the internal reasons and the very environment in which the events took place. It would seem that the Roman people themselves, so exclusively materialistic, sober in their views, having cultivated in themselves for centuries the worship of the flesh and strength, that this people could not find anything that corresponded to themselves in the new religion of abstinence and humility. Jerome wrote about Paul: “Revered for fertility... first of all by her husband, then by those close to her, and, finally, by the opinion of the whole city, etc.” - in this “veneration for fertility” a relic of former Roman virtues still seemed to survive, and even just this one detail in the ideas of Roman citizens is enough to see how the spirit of the people was not suitable for assimilating the ethereal perfections of Christianity. It is not for nothing that Jerome waged such a struggle with family feelings: “This battering ram of family love, which shakes faith, must be repelled by the wall of the Gospel.” He felt here the primordial Roman, primordial pagan trait of an earthly, bloody, strong connection, hostile to anyone “not of this world.” And what a strange spectacle was the Rome of that time, standing between two eras - its great pagan past and its unknown Christian future. The bizarre mixture of styles, faiths, and views must have stopped and amazed there at every step: “Who would believe this, that the great-grandson of the consuls, the adornment of the Furian family (we are talking about the noble Roman Pammachia, who converted to Christianity), among the purple in which the senators are clothed, would walk in a dark and poor tunic and would not blush under the gaze of his comrades in rank, but he himself will laugh at those who ridicule him. “There is shame that leads to death, and there is shame that leads to life.” Or another case, even more curious: “Was it possible to think that the pagan pontifex Albinus would have a granddaughter, doomed to God by the mother’s vow; that in the presence of the joyful grandfather, the baby’s unsteady tongue will already pronounce Christ’s “Hallelujah”; that the old man will raise a virgin of God in his womb,” and further about the same Albina, Jerome remarks: “I think if he were a young man, he himself would believe in Christ, having such a relationship.” Erasmus offered another, more witty reading of this quote: “I think that in his place Jupiter himself would have become a Christian.” In general, “paganism, even in Rome, now feels like a desert. Once upon a time, the gods of the peoples were left with owls and eagle owls on empty roofs. The badge of the legions is the sign of the cross. The porphyry of kings and the burning stones of diadems are decorated with the image of the saving tree of the crucifixion. Already the Egyptian Serapis became a Christian (a hint at the defeat of the Serapeum - A.D.). Marne cries, locked in Gaza, and tremblingly awaits every minute of the destruction of the church. Every day we have to receive crowds of monks from India, Persia, and Ethiopia. Arminius folded his quiver. The Huns study the Psalter. Scythian frosts are warmed by the flame of faith. The red-haired and blond army of the Getae carry church tents with them on campaigns, and perhaps that’s why they fight against us with equal success, because they profess the same religion.” And in other places we encounter similar (somewhat exaggerated in their eloquence) testimonies of Jerome about the triumph of Christianity in all countries of the then known world. “About the immortal soul remaining after the destruction of the body, about which Pythagoras raved, about which Democritus did not believe, about which Socrates reasoned in prison for the sake of his consolation - now the Indian, the Persian, the Goth and the Egyptian are philosophizing about this. Wild Besses and crowds of peoples dressed in animal skins, who previously offered human sacrifices at funeral feasts for the dead, have now softened their rough voices to quiet prayers, and the word “Christ” is the common sound of the whole world.” “Who would believe that the barbaric language of the Getae would study the Hebrew texts, and Germany itself, when the Greeks sleep or neglect them, would examine the sayings of the Holy Spirit. A hand that had recently become calloused from the hilt of a sword, and fingers better suited for throwing arrows, had softened for style and a writing cane. Warlike hearts accepted Christian meekness."• The last words are also interesting because of the indirect evidence of the purely civilizing role of Christianity: it everywhere carried with it writing for the peoples who accepted it. The success of Christianity was facilitated, among other things, by the peculiar, somewhat military tactics of other spiritual leaders. Since the time of Theodosius the Great, the intensified destruction of monuments of paganism (and ancient culture - we note by the way) began. Entire pious campaigns were undertaken with the aim of exterminating idolatrous defilement, and the most outstanding feat of vandalism, by a strange accident, fell to the lot of Jerome’s friend. We mean Theophilus, bishop of Alexandria, who destroyed the famous church of Serapis. The Library of Alexandria, the most valuable book depository of antiquity, perished along with it, the only one in terms of its vastness. “We saw bookcases that, after the looting of books, stand empty and remind us of our times and morals,” wrote Orosius. Armed force was not only used against inanimate objects; I had to fight not only idols, but also heretics. The same Theophilus is known for the active and energetic extermination of the Origenists in the Nitrian desert, which he reported to Jerome modestly, but with sufficient expressiveness: “Some worthless and rebellious people, who were eager to initiate and found the heresy of Origen in the monasteries of Nitria, were cut off with a prophetic sickle. Because we remembered the words of the apostle, who said: Rebuke them severely.” After all that has been said, let us return to the Christianity of Jerome himself. As we have already said, after completing his education, he was baptized and went on a trip to the north-west of Europe. Returning from there, he saw a miracle in Verzella (on the Ligurian coast). And it is very characteristic of this saint, who was destined to become a singer of female virtue, that this event, which caused his first literary work, happened to a woman. Innocently convicted of adultery, she was supposed to be executed, but the sword bent in the hands of the executioner from the blows, causing almost no harm to her. Jerome composed a florid and elated narrative about this incident in the form of a letter to his friend Innocent, and this very letter may have been the reason for his soon-to-follow departure, almost his flight from Italy to the East, since the story mentioned in disrespectful terms the consul - the culprit of the execution. At least this is the opinion of Stilting, Zockler and some other researchers. It is also possible that to a certain extent the reason for leaving was the desire of the ardent convert to atone for past sins and to escape the temptations of the metropolis, in particular the capital; The East (the ultimate goal of the trip where, according to the original plan, was Jerusalem) naturally had to attract the attention of the future ascetic. Some indication of such a voluntary decision can be seen in the words of Jerome addressed to Pope Damaz: “And do not think that this was someone’s verdict regarding me (to live in the desert - A.D.), I myself decided to do what I deserved.” There is evidence of the journey itself in the correspondence of Jerome with Rufinus: “After I was torn from your heart by a sudden whirlwind, when the cruel separation, clinging to you with love, was torn away - Here above me there are rains and a stormy sea everywhere, the sea and the vault of heaven... Finally, when Thrace, Pontus, Bithynia, all the way through Galatia and Cappadocia and the land of Cilicia exhausted me with scorching heat, Syria finally appeared to me as the most reliable harbor for a castaway. Here I experienced every kind of illness that can be....” Indeed, in Antioch Jerome fell dangerously ill, and it was during this illness that the vision described above in connection with the presentation of Jerome’s literary tastes fell. Around 374, having left Antioch, he retired to the desert of Chalcis, this “Syrian Thebaid,” and here for approximately four years he devoted himself to “smart work” and Christian asceticism. In the future we will have to touch upon in another connection those mental anguish and the struggle with which this period of Jerome’s life was full, and it is all the easier to understand that the ascetic was in the flower of his youth, with an unquenched interest in existence and unfaded memories of a varied past. But we should not think that in this case we are encountering a rather ordinary “salvation of the soul” through abstinence, vigils and prayers - of course, this was also the case, Jerome passionately indulged in mortification of the flesh, but not only self-flagellation and tears, as one might expect, filled the leisure time of such an anchorite as this recent graduate of oratorical schools. Literary talents and scientific inclinations could not be drowned out by any distance from the world. Violence and oppression are not pleasing to God over free thought - this was clear to Jerome as well as to John Tsamaskin, and he enthusiastically devoted himself to mental work in those forms that most closely corresponded to his talent. We could with greater justification say “talents,” because along with the writer, Jerome also lived as a scientist - strict and selfless. Since it was precisely this last side of his spiritual being that was destined to especially manifest itself during the indicated period of his life, we will allow ourselves to dwell a little on it. The scientist in Jerome was evident in everything, and among other things, in the extreme caution and thoughtfulness with which he was able to approach large and difficult topics on occasion. It is also interesting to encounter in his works a disdain (sometimes somewhat arrogant) for any superficiality, haste to conclusions, and feigned profundity of false scientists. Naturally, he especially had to stand for the need for a strict school for every business, especially for dealing with theological issues. “I am silent about grammarians, rhetoricians, philosophers, geometers, dialecticians, musicians, astrologers, physicians, the knowledge of which is most useful for mortals... I turn to the applied arts, which are carried out not so much with words as with the hand. Farmers, masons, blacksmiths, wood and metal carvers, wool cutters and others who make various utensils and all sorts of little things cannot do what they would like without a mentor. ...the knowledge of medicines is promised to us by doctors, the master takes care of crafts, only the art of writing is such that everyone appropriates it for themselves: Scientists and ignoramuses alike are writing poems today. And a chattering old woman, a crazy old man, an illiterate liar - everyone has a claim to this art, they distort it and teach it before they learn it themselves.” And how typical is at least one of the following phrases, showing how much Jerome understood the value of careful education of thought from its very first steps: “The very sounds of letters and the initial lessons are taught differently by the mouth of a scientist and differently by the mouth of an ignoramus.” Jerome himself knew how and was not ashamed to study, even when for others he had long been a recognized teacher and an indisputable authority in the field of theology. In his declining years, having visited Egypt, he took the opportunity to listen to the lessons of Didymus, as he himself says in one letter: “Already his head was turning gray and would have been more befitting of a teacher than a student, but still he went to Alexandria and listened to Didymus there, and I thank him for a lot.” Of course, for Jerome, with his current mood, the only subject of mental labor could be Holy Scripture. But he approached his pursuit of it in a way that, again, only a scientist could do, for whom the accuracy of first-hand knowledge, according to primary sources, is an organic need of his being. From his youth, from his school years, he knew Greek, which, as is known, is the main language of the Bible in its New Testament part. Now, in the desert of Chalcis, he also began to study the Hebrew language, so that on his own, without fear of reproaches for misunderstanding the translated texts, he could begin to interpret and criticize them. In his time, in addition to such a special purpose, the study of the Hebrew language could also be seen as a way to become acquainted with the beginnings of all knowledge on earth, with the first glimpses of spiritual culture, going back almost to the cradle of humanity in its blissful state. “According to the tradition of all antiquity, the beginning of every language, every speech, everything we say, is the Hebrew language.” And how could one think otherwise, given the situation of historical science at that time, even if the Greek language, the language of ancient Homer, turned out to be dependent (in terms of its alphabet) on Hebrew letters. In his letter to Paul, Jerome cites the Hebrew alphabet and writes the names of the letters with the meaning of these names: “Aleph” - teaching, “Beth” - house, “Gimmel” - abundance, “Delet” - tablets, etc. So, the Greek “alpha”, “beta”, “gamma”, “delta”, etc., having no meaning in the Greek language, became understandable and seemed to be a simple transfer of the sounds of the Hebrew language into Greek. Let us remember what Jerome wrote about “tau” - and then even the very outlines (precisely the ancient ones) of at least some letters among the Jews would turn out to coincide with their Greek form. All this, amazingly, should have connected the entire cycle of ancient culture into one continuity for the people of Jerome’s era, forcing them to hear in the sacred language of Hellas the sounds of the even more sacred language of the prophets and the Sinai legislation. And this, by the way, also allows us to explain one phenomenon for which - in our opinion, unfairly - Jerome is attacked by his critics (from Clerk to Zockler). In the “Book of Names” (see below), he explains with Hebrew roots such names as Petrus, Ptolemais, Publius, Priscilla, etc. This, of course, is strange from the point of view of later science, but it was far from a mistake for the author of the “Book” (he, however, himself points out the tension of such interpretations). On the other hand (also a wonderful detail), even people like Augustine considered it possible, for example, to explain the origin of the Hebrew word “Adam” from the initial letters of the Greek names of the four countries of the world. “Augustine explains the Hebrew name with Greek meanings, as if α means άνατολήν (east), δ – δύσιν (west), α – άρκτον (north), μ – μεσημβρίαν (south)” - (Erasmus, Epistolarum libri XXXI Lond. col. 1449). Here, in turn, he only repeated Cyprian, who directly indicated that the letters were taken from the four mentioned stars, and this interpretation of the name of Adam passed in this form even into our apocryphal literature. Jerome devoted himself to his intended study with tenacity and enthusiasm. “How much work it cost me, how many difficulties I overcame, how many times I despaired, gave up, started again in the thirst to learn at last - my conscience is a witness to this - the person who endured all this, as well as the conscience of those who lived with me. But – thanks to God – now I am reaping the sweet fruit of the bitter seeds of science.” Jerome, therefore, had at his disposal, in addition to Latin, two other languages, the most important for theological studies - Hebrew and Greek. This knowledge alone immediately distinguished him from among the church authorities of that time, because among them such philological awareness was a rare phenomenon. (Epiphanius, a learned historian of heresies, is also known as a modern master of languages.) Judging by some phrases, one might think that Jerome also spoke Syriac - “the most eloquent man regarding Syriac speech” calls himself Jerome; however, his other evidence does not confirm this. But Jerome’s life in Chalkis was not, on the other hand, just the armchair retreat of a scientist. He lived by the labor of his hands. “Every day with our own hands and our own sweat we acquire food for ourselves, remembering what the Apostle wrote: He who does not work, let him not eat.”103 So, labor to obtain our daily bread, prayer and academic work - this is what this fruitful life in solitude was like, which the saint regretted more than once later (we will see). The spiritual joys of desert living evoked literary reflection in Jerome. The literary talent inherent in him strongly attracted him to self-discovery, to the constant expression of everything that currently possessed his feelings. It is to this need that we owe, by the way, the enormous and precious collection of Jerome’s letters, which occupy the entire XXII volume of the Patrology and primarily provide us with the information that we share with the reader. That the life of the hermit corresponded to the soul of Jerome is proved, among other things, by the “Letter to the Monk Iliodorus”, which has gained fame, where our ascetic creates a whole hymn to the desert. “O desert, blooming with the flowers of Christ! O solitude, where those stones are born from which the city of the great king is built in the Apocalypse! O solitude, rejoicing in the presence of the Lord." And he calls his friend there: “Let your little grandson hang on your neck, let your mother, disheveled her hair and tearing her clothes, show the breast with which she nourished you, let your father lie on the threshold - hurry, stumbling over your father, fly, without shedding a tear, to the banner of the Cross. In this case, being cruel is also a kind of love.” Above we talked about how the school had an unfavorable effect on Jerome’s literary talent. These short samples can confirm to the reader the truth of our words. Jerome himself later admitted: “But in this letter, we still, in accordance with our age, allowed ourselves to play with words and, not yet cooled down from our passion for rhetoric, decorated something with scholastic flowers.” Even when he made every effort to be natural, Jerome still could not completely achieve this. So, in Chalkis it was written - perhaps as an eloquent encouragement to the feat, by the way, for the author himself - that “Life of Paul the Hermit”, from which we cited a description of Anthony’s meeting with the satyr. Regarding the last work, Jerome’s complaint, which escaped him in the accompanying letter when sending the book to Elder Paul from Concordia, is extremely curious: “We are sending you, that is, to Elder Paul, the oldest Paul. In this work, we worked hard to simplify speech for the sake of its accessibility for ordinary people. But I don’t know why, even a vessel filled with water retains the same smell that it once received from the drink that was originally in it.” However, this smell fully corresponded to the literary tastes of the century, and the letters of the Chalcidian hermit were a great success in Italy. They were read and learned by heart. “She (Fabiola. - A.D.) knew the book by heart with which I once, as a young man, encouraged Iliodor to withdraw monastically from the world.” However, Jerome did not have to enjoy the hospitality of the desert for long. Party enmity penetrated even there, among the hermits, and led to fierce attacks, among other things, on Jerome, whom each side wanted to see as one of its own and at the same time, neither could completely recruit to itself. For the characterization of the century, the very subject of the dispute is significant, generated, like most disputes then in the Christian world, to a certain extent by the temptation of Arius. In Antioch, not counting the purely Arian party, there were three more hostile camps among the faithful themselves, under the leadership of Bishops Paulinus, Meletius and Vitaly. Their differences were determined, firstly, by a greater or lesser connection to the Arian schism, but mainly by dogmatic disagreement on the issue of hypostases. The Paulinians stood for one hypostasis in three persons, while the Meletians recognized the existence of three separate hypostases. A purely verbal misunderstanding, however, led to long-term civil strife and irreconcilable mutual hatred among adherents of both sides. For Jerome, with his aversion to theological casuistry and even his inability to understand the purely sophistic subtleties of which only the Greeks were capable, these troubles turned out to be all the more painful because everyone demanded from him an immediate declaration of his religious solidarity with any of these mutually intolerant dogmas. Almost exposed to violence, he finally decided to resort to the authority of the Roman high priest - and these letters of Jerome to Pope Damasus are extremely interesting as one of the earliest recognitions of the primacy of the Roman throne in the government of the universal church. “While a bad son squandered his father’s property, only you alone keep this heritage intact. Your soil, rich in fertilizer, bears fruit a hundredfold from the purity of the Lord’s seed. Here (in the East) wheat, thrown into furrows, degenerates into tares and oats. Now in the West the sun of truth rises, and in the East this fallen Lucifer erects his throne above the stars. You are the light of the world, you are the salt of the earth, you are vessels of gold and silver: here are clay and wooden vessels that await the iron rod and the eternal flame... I know that on this stone (Peter’s pulpit - A.D.) the church is built; and whoever eats a lamb outside this house is unclean; and if anyone is not in Noah’s ark, he will perish among the stormy waters of the flood.” The words are also striking: “If you command, let a new Symbol be compiled, instead of the Nicene Symbol, let us, the faithful, confess (Christ) in the same words together with the Arians.” It was almost impossible to go further than this in recognizing the decisive voice of the pope. True, Jerome has another passage that destroys all the statements just made: “The church of Rome should not be considered different and the church of the rest of the earth should not be considered different. And Gaul, and Britain, and Africa, and Persia, and the East, and India, and all the barbarian peoples worship Christ alone and observe the same rule of truth. If we talk about authority, then the world is still bigger than Rome. Wherever the bishop is, whether in Rome, Eugubius, Constantinople, Regia, Alexandria, Tanakh, his dignity and the same priesthood are the same. The power of wealth and the humiliation of poverty do not (in some manuscripts there is no negation - A.D.) make a bishop higher or lower. All, however, are apostolic successors.” It is possible that the importance of the passage just cited led to such suspicious discrepancies that are associated with it (see. notes from Migne). Damaz's answer is unknown to us. But whatever he was, Jerome still had to part with his short-term refuge. “They don’t want to give up even a small corner of the desert to me. Every day they ask about faith, as if I were baptized without faith. I confess what they want - this is not enough for them. I subscribe to this - they don’t believe it. They want me to leave here. I'm already ready for this too; they have already taken away part of my soul, my beloved brothers, and they want to leave, they are already leaving here, saying that it is better to live among animals than among such Christians.” And indeed, Jerome fled, finally quoting Virgil's verse: “What savage people. And what barbaric morals are in this country: in the sands we are deprived of even shelter.” Once again we find Jerome in Antioch, where, by the way, he was ordained a presbyter. Regarding this presbytery, it should be noted that, despite his rank, Jerome never celebrated the Eucharist - “due to unworthiness.” This touching detail finds an explanation in the idea of our saint (in this case not shared by the church) that the personal qualities of the clergyman are reflected in the power and reality of the sacrament he performs: “Likewise, the priests who administer the Eucharist and share the blood of the Lord to His people act wickedly, thinking that εύχαρκττίαν is produced by the very word of the clergyman and not by the merits of the sacred persons, o which says: Let not the priest, who has a stain on him, approach the Lord with offerings.” In Antioch, Jerome wrote “Dialogue against the Luciferians,” known for their intransigence towards heretics, even if they wanted to re-enter the fold of the church. Jerome then soon appears in Constantinople, where his mentors and friends were men such as Gregory of Nazianzus (the Theologian) and Gregory of Nyssa. Here Jerome completed one of his extensive works - the translation of the Chronicle of Eusebius from Greek into Latin, which gave his compatriots the opportunity to become acquainted with the chronological summary of general history, which the Romans themselves still did not have. This was not only a translation of most of the work: Jerome made many additions as far as Roman history was concerned, and, finally, the last years and events of the Chronicle (from the time of Constantine the Great) were entirely introduced by him, since the work of Eusebius ended in 325. This semi-independent work of Jerome is of great importance for us, since the Greek text of the Chronicle does not currently exist (although an Armenian translation of the same work by Eusebius was found in the 18th century). Among Jerome's theological works that appeared during the Constantinople period of his life, the translation of Origen's interpretations of the prophets Jeremiah and Ezekiel deserves attention. After the Second Ecumenical Council, which took place in Constantinople in 381, Jerome, on church business, went to Italy, to the city where we saw him as a youth and student. In Rome, rapid popularity and high favor of the pope awaited him. In Rome, he became close to a circle of pious patrician women - and with a description of these relationships, which were extremely important for his entire subsequent fate and activity, we will begin the depiction of the second Roman period of Jerome’s life. Here we are first confronted with a psychological riddle. Jerome protested against the rapprochement of clergy with women. Jerome knew the great temptation of such intimacy. Finally, Jerome was full of passions of all kinds, and the passion of the flesh was far from the last in him, if not the first. Why didn’t he avoid temptations then? What made him become the center of the highest female society in Rome, the abbot of a kind of patrician monastery without a charter, although at the same time with an impeccable lifestyle. Even in the Chalcis desert, Jerome learned what the “hunger of lust” was. We have his fiery page (in a letter to Eustochia): “Oh, how many times have I, having retired into solitude, in this immense desert, which, being burned by the sun, is a terrible abode for monastics, have I seen myself among the pleasures of Rome. I was alone because I was full of bitterness. The ugly limbs frightened away from themselves with their vestments, dirty skin seemed to cover the body of the Ethiopian. Every day there were tears, every day there were groans, and if when sleep overcame those who resisted it, I threw my bones, barely holding together, onto the bare ground. I am silent about food and drink. Even sick monks there drink raw water, and it is considered a luxury to eat something boiled. And here I am, the one who, for the fear of Gehenna, doomed himself to this prison, I, a member of the society of wild animals and scorpions, was often present in the round dances of maidens in my dreams. The face was pale from fasting, and the mind was seething with desires in the chilled body, and in the flesh, which had died even before the man himself, a fire of passions raged. And so, deprived of all help, I threw myself at the feet of Christ, washed them with my tears, wiped them with my hair, and subdued the rebellious flesh by non-eating for whole weeks. I am not ashamed to admit the depth of my misfortune. And I also lament that I am not what I was now. I remember how often I mixed day with night in continuous cries, how I did not stop beating my chest until, by the Lord’s permission, calm came. I was afraid of my cell itself, as an accomplice of my thoughts. And cruelly angry with myself, I went alone into the desert. And when I saw the hollows of the valleys and the cliffs of the rocks, there was the place of my prayer, there was a prison for the punishment of the unfortunate flesh.” It turns out that even the mentioned studies in the Hebrew language were caused in part by the desire to divert his imagination from the visions of temptation. “When I was young and surrounded by the solitude of the desert, I still could not overcome the excitement of vice and the heat of blood, and although I tried to extinguish it with fasting, my spirit was still seething with thoughts. To curb my thoughts, I gave myself to the teaching of one brother, baptized from the Jews, so that after the subtleties of Quintilian, the streams of Cicero’s eloquence, the importance of the Fronto and the calmness of Pliny, I would again take up the alphabet and reflect on aspirated and hissing words.” But Jerome never had to, it seems, defeat himself in this regard. At least, in his writings one senses some kind of secret, dissatisfied cupiditas of sex, and somehow he dwells on them in a completely different way than, for example, Augustine, who fearfully and hastily touched upon obscene details in his writings. In a letter to Presbyter Vitaly on a purely theological question about why, according to the Bible, it turns out that Solomon and Ahaz had been giving birth to children for 11 years, he writes among other things: “I heard - God is my witness, I am not lying - a story about a woman who raised an abandoned child and acted as a nurse for him and slept with him until he was 10 years old. And so it happened that, having drunk more wine than shame allowed, and fueled by lust, she brought the child to intercourse with shameful movements. The intoxication of the first night turned into a habit the second and the following. But less than two months later, the woman’s belly became swollen. What more? By God’s decree it turned out that she who, against nature, took advantage of the boy’s innocence to disgrace God, was herself convicted by the Lord of nature in fulfillment of His word. There is nothing hidden that will not be revealed.” Describing (in the Life of Paul the Hermit) the persecution under Decius and Valerian, Jerome gives the following example of torture: “Another (martyr), blooming with the age of youth, was ordered to be taken to luxurious gardens. And here, between snow-white lilies and blushing roses, where the waters of a stream gently gurgled nearby and the wind rustled slightly in the leaves of the trees, he was laid on a downy bed and, so that he could not get up from it, was all entangled in delicate garlands of flowers (Erasmus gives the reading: “bandages of silk”). And so, when everyone has left, a beautiful harlot comes, begins to hug his neck with tender embraces and, which is even criminal, touches his male part with her hands, so that, having aroused lust, she lies under him as a shameless winner. The warrior of Christ did not know what to do, where to turn. Whoever was not overcome by torment was overcome by voluptuousness. However, inspired from above, he bit off his tongue and spat it in the face of the kisser. And so the power of pain defeated the feeling of passion.” “What are the traditions of the Pharisees, which are currently called δευτερώσεις, and how absurd these fables are, I cannot even express. The size of the message does not allow this, moreover, most of them are so shameful that I would be ashamed to say. I will nevertheless tell you one detail to disgrace the hostile race. They have the most learned people as abbots of their synagogues, and these latter bear upon themselves the fulfillment of a disgusting duty - namely, they must determine the blood of a girl or a menstruating woman, whether it is pure or unclean, and if they cannot do this by eye, they determine by taste” (Letter to Algazia). All this, especially in the first two cases, was written with some obvious desire to evoke a too vivid image of these scenes, and therefore these descriptions themselves can hardly be called chaste. The hidden voluptuousness of the writer himself is felt in them. Jerome says in a letter to Pammachius: “I extol virginity to the skies, not because I have it, but because I am more amazed at what I do not have.” And this is true, and in these words there is an explanation for much of Jerome’s activity and writing. An ardent preacher of abstinence, mortification, virginity, he first of all wants to convince himself, to influence himself, since the carnal side of him is too strong. He was an ascetic, but with blood in his veins, sultry blood. This explains the amazing sharpness of his gaze towards women, his amazing knowledge of female nature, female coquetry, all these little tricks, all kinds of mysteres de la toilette. A. Thierry writes about him: “We would look in vain in antiquity for such observation, aimed at women of high society, at their feelings, habits, home life, and finally, even at their costume.” Thanks to this, we have the opportunity, using Jerome, to recreate quite fully this world of grace and vice in the last days of its existence before the invasion of the barbarians. And some strange feeling comes over a person when reading these trifles, details, all this sweet and sinful niaiserie. It cannot be defined except as a feeling of amazement at the resilience of nature. Centuries have passed, peoples have changed, but here it is: Risit et arguto quiddam promisit ocello remains. “The shiny and black shoe calls to young men with its creaking... The hair either covers the forehead, or goes down to the ears. Meanwhile, sometimes the veil falls off, exposing her white shoulders, and she, as if not wanting to be seen, hastily closes what she opened with intention.” A striped scarf rolled off her shoulders, as if a breeze had blown away. The same gesture of coquetry, repeated with almost unsurpassed precision - and this at a distance of one and a half thousand years! With the male society of Rome described above, it would be difficult to expect special virtues in the female one. And we read in the famous: “Letter to Eustochia on the preservation of virginity”: “It is a shame to say how many virgins fall every day, how many of them the mother church loses from her bosom, how the proud enemy erects his throne above the stars, and hollows out stones and nests snakes in their holes. Look at the many widows who, before marriage, cover their guilty consciences with the garment of lies. And if the size of their belly and the cry of the baby do not give them away, they walk with playful steps with their heads raised. Others take anti-conception drugs and commit murder of a person even before his birth. Those, feeling themselves conceived in iniquity, grab onto poisons to poison the fetus and often die themselves and go to hell, being guilty of three crimes: suicide, infanticide and adultery from Christ... Only thin purple clothes, a barely bandaged head so that the hair falls out, light shoes, a hyacinth cape fluttering behind the shoulders, tied up mittens and a loose gait - that’s it all their virginity.” The entire way of life of the Roman gyneceans passes before us in the works of Jerome. We learn that in the society of that time, blush and whitewash, wigs and wrinkle smoothing were in use. “Even more insulting to Christian vision are those women who paint their faces and eyes with purple and dyes, whose plaster faces, ugly from their extreme whiteness, resemble idols, and from whom, if a drop of tears accidentally escapes, it leaves a furrow on their face. Even counting the years cannot teach them that they are already old, and they arrange a wig on the top of their heads from someone else’s hair, straighten out their wrinkles in order to return to youth, and, imagining themselves as girls, step unsteadily in front of the crowd of their grandchildren.” Red hair, transparent clothes, and mannerisms in pronunciation were considered fashionable. “Do not burden her head with stones, do not dye her hair red, so that something in her does not remind you of the flames of Gehenna.” “Let him make himself such clothes that drive away the cold, and not those that expose the clothed body.” “Petitely, do not follow the perverted taste of matrons, who, now clenching their teeth, now curling their lips, turn their chatter into a whisper, considering everything that is natural vulgar.” That's how women were. We will also learn about those for whom this coquetry was intended. “Let not a curly-haired procurator, nor an actor as effeminate as a woman, nor a devilish singer with the poisonous sweetness of his voice, nor a shaven and groomed young man hang around you.” The very techniques of modern flirting pass before us: “Someone with a small beard will give you his hand, will support your tired one, and, shaking his fingers, will be seduced or seduced,” and then Jerome again warns the girl against “devilish singers”, who probably enjoyed particular success among Roman ladies: “You will have to dine among men and married women - you will see other people’s kisses, shared dishes... Meanwhile, some singer will sing at the table and among the sounds flowing with a sweet melody, not daring to look at other people’s wives, the more often he will look at you, who has no protector. He will speak with gestures and that which he is afraid of. to express in words, express the ardor of his feelings. Near such lures of voluptuousness, even iron souls are conquered by lust. And she is the hungriest among girls, believing everything unknown to be especially sweet.” However, already in Rome, it turns out, there were a kind of “emancipe” of the 5th century: “Some with masculine manners, having changed their clothes, are ashamed to be the women they were born to be, cut off their hair and shamelessly raise their faces like the faces of eunuchs.” One might think that all this tormented Jerome not only with contrition about the threatened virtue of others. Such an atmosphere of sensuality must have excited him himself, disturbed his dormant passions (“even iron souls are conquered by lust”) - and the more temptations there were from those around him, the louder, more persistently, more immoderately (and let us add: more tasteless in literary terms) he praised celibacy, flight into the desert, mortification of the flesh. “I say boldly: although God can do everything, He cannot restore the maiden after a fall.” “The Bride of Christ is the ark of the covenant, gilded within and without, the guardian of the law of the Lord. Just as there was nothing in that except the tablets of the covenant, so let no external thought remain in you. As on the cherubim, the Lord wants to establish himself in this place of purity. He sends his disciples, so that he may sit on you, as on a donkey, and remove you from the worries of this world,” etc. Turning to the mother of the virgin, he says: “She showed you a great benefit: you became the mother-in-law of the Lord.” But even here, sometimes he forgot his role as a preacher, a former metropolitan dandy, a bit of “talent”, a man who, in the heat of the moment, could say that for him giving up the habits of a rich life (in the text it is even more open: the habits of a good table) awoke in him, it was harder than separation from his parents and loved ones - and he wrote to some holy virgin: “And since we began to talk about flowers and lilies, and virginity is constantly is likened to them, then it seems natural to me that in a letter to the flower of Christ I would talk about flowers.” In general, Jerome’s style is his enemy. He, despite his calls for fasting and prayer, betrays his involuntary delight in earthly and sinful beauty, and there is something touching in this struggle of taste and will. “He is joined by his sister: a bouquet of roses and lilies, a combination of ivory and purple.” When one of his female acquaintances sent a basket of cherries, he answered her: “We also received a basket filled with cherries, so beautiful and blushing with such a blush of girlish shame that I was ready to think: maybe they were sent from Lucullus, - after all, he was the first after the conquest of Armenia and Pontus to send this kind of fruit to Rome from Cerasuntum, hence the very name of the tree” (cherry in Latin cerasum). On the one hand, there is a theoretical condemnation of all worries about appearance, all kinds of ablutions and fragrant ointments, the formula: “clean skin indicates a dirty soul,” on the other, a dismissive, disgustingly thrown reference to “smelly armpits” when it was necessary to offend Origenist women. Even when he wanted to write a denunciation, sometimes a graceful image from the pen would destroy the plans of a strict moralist: “She (the wife. - A.D.) flies around the whole house like a swallow - she looks to see if the floors are swept, if the bed is fluffed, if breakfast is prepared, if the dishes are clean,” and the reader says: great! and he no longer cares that this was written in order to depict the hardships of married life, that the author needs to prove the thesis: “If it is good not to touch women (Apostle Paul), then, therefore, it is bad to touch, since the opposite of good is evil,” that caelebs (celibate) comes from coelum (heaven), that the paired animals in the ark were unclean, that, finally, the apostle. Peter had to atone for the dirt of marriage with the blood of martyrdom. Exhorting Eustochia to nightly tears and prayers, Jerome again uses too artistic a comparison for such a holy deed: “Be a cicada at night,” he says. Here we will stop, after all the negative things in our previous presentation, to rest on some positive features of the era. Until now we have seen almost exclusively “depraved Rome.” But there, along with the extreme licentiousness of morals, a different way of being, a different system of life was taking shape, moreover, in a layer of society where this could least of all be expected. The most noble Roman women, the wives and daughters of senators, who traced their genealogies to the Agamemnons, Scipios and Gracchi, formed - mainly around Marcella, a patrician widow who established a family of a pious colony in her house on the Aventine Hill - a close circle of people bound by the interests of faith, social status and partly by ties of kinship. This included Paula, her daughters Eustochia and Blesilla, Leia, Azella, Principia and others. These were not only the most noble, but also the most educated women of their time: “Hearing her speaking Greek, anyone would have thought that she did not know Latin. When she switched to Latin speech, there was no foreign accent at all” (Jerome about Blesilla). These women, accepting Christianity, brought into their new religion all the nobility of their souls, the selflessness of women’s hearts, even some instability and extremes - and wrote several more sublime pages in the annals of Rome: along with the military exploits of their ancestors, they showed the possibility of other, opposite feats of humility, the only ones possible in their dying homeland. The works of Jerome have preserved for us several biographies of these women; we cannot dwell on them in detail, but to completely ignore them would be an unforgivable omission in the sketch of Rome of that era. Not long before this time, “not one of the noble women in Rome knew the vow of monasticism and did not dare, due to the novelty of the matter, to take upon themselves a shameful and low name, as was then considered among the people.” Marcella was the first to do this. Others, not being nuns by name, doomed themselves to a life even more strict than monastic life. “She (Leia. - A.D.) was so humble and so submissive that, once the mistress of very many, now she seemed to be the servant of all. Simple clothes, rough food, untidy head. But in doing all this, she avoided boasting about anything, so as not to receive her reward in the present age.” For many, the spiritual upheaval was accompanied by an even greater change in their way of life: “Those (Paul and Eustochius. - A. D.), who could not bear the dirt of the streets, who traveled in the arms of eunuchs and considered it a difficult task to cross uneven terrain, for whom silk clothes were a burden and the heat of the sun seemed like a fire, those now in dirt and humiliation - and yet stronger than before - either prepare lamps, or light the stove, sweep the floors, peel vegetables, throw bunches of greens into a boiling pot, set the tables, they serve the dishes, pour out the food, run around getting this and that.” “How many times did she carry on her shoulders the sick, stricken with yellow sickness and stinking unbearably! How many purulent wounds were washed that another would not be able to even look at! With her own hands she distributed food and poured drink into the mouths of living corpses... She knew what the rich man had once failed to do to Lazarus, and how his arrogant soul paid for it.” As a result of their prayers, some had elephant skin growing on their knees: “She (Azella. - A.D.) hardened her holy body with incessant prayers, like on the knees of camels.” For the sake of the feat, wives forgot their husbands, the mothers of their children (as Paula later did), and the name that A. Thierry gave to the then extreme zealots of piety: mystiques destructeurs de la famille, can be considered equally witty and fair. Soon after his arrival in Rome, Jerome entered the midst of these women. We repeat, it is difficult to understand what made him do this. After all, he himself wrote in one place in the Life of Hilarion: “They converged; Hilarion) bishops, presbyters, crowds of monks .. clergy, as well as Christian matrons (great temptation!).” If so, why did he expose himself to a similar temptation and gather greges matronarum around himself? Whether this desire to further increase his feat was due to the presence of temptation, or whether Hiero-aim was attracted by his ineradicable sense of grace, and he was sure that the morality of these women was so high that he could not fear a fall - we do not know. But his affection was strong, and, as we shall see, his connections, at least with some of them, withstood all the tests that could be presented in a life as extraordinary as the life of Jerome. Another kind of close friendship connected Jerome with the then Pope Damasus. Of course, those letters cited above, with which the latter addressed him from Chalcis on religious issues, were not without influence on the pope’s feelings for Jerome, but still, the main reason for Damaz’s favor and respect was Jerome’s rare and varied talents. Among the people surrounding the Roman high priest, he alone could work quite independently in the field of exegetical issues, which in most cases required direct acquaintance with the Hebrew text. In addition, Jerome's thorough knowledge of patristic literature (both Latin and Greek) further increased the competence of his judgments in the field of theology. Brilliant literary ability, although not an inevitable condition for the right to act as a church writer, was, in turn, also quite useful. The very choice of Jerome to attend the Council of Rome, for which he appeared again in Italy, spoke of his fame and the widely recognized authority of his judgments. Therefore, it is no wonder that dad brought him closer to himself and often used his services, sometimes, perhaps even as his personal secretary. A similar role of Jerome later gave rise to the legend about his cardinal rank; Damaz often turned (orally and in writing) to Jerome to resolve all sorts of perplexities associated with various places of Holy Scripture, and we have several replies-letters from Jerome, sometimes filled with quite detailed interpretations (“Letter about the Seraphim”, “About the word: Hosanna”, “About two sons”, etc.). Damasus eventually entrusted Jerome with the work that laid by far the most solid foundation for Jerome's lasting fame in the Catholic Church. Namely, the pope asked him to check it with Greek and correct the New Testament, and then revise the entire Bible. This was the first step in the work of a new translation of this latter, in the work of creating a new Vulgate, which was completed only much later - already in the Palestinian seclusion of Jerome. A new translation was necessary for many reasons. The main translations (even the translation of 70 interpreters) were sometimes not entirely perfect: over time, moreover, errors and discrepancies accumulated, and one could be afraid of major church misunderstandings in connection with this instability of the text. “In the Latin and Greek codes, except for a few, we find almost everything perverted,” Jerome wrote about the translations of biblical names, but he also gives interesting examples of much more important translation inaccuracies and contradictions found in the sacred books of his time. “Κοινόμυι is not written, as it should be according to the Latin translation of “dog fly,” through the letter o, but should be written according to the Jewish understanding through the diphthong οι, so that it comes out Κοννόμυϊα, that is, “every kind of flies.” Aquila translated πάμμικτον, that is, “all sorts of flies.” To Pope Damaz, in response to some of his questions about biblical chronology, Jerome wrote: in this regard there is a lot that is insoluble, “and it is written about Methuselah that he lived fourteen years after the flood, but he did not enter the ark with Noah. Hagar also seems to carry Ishmael as a baby on his shoulders, whereas it turns out that he is about 18 years old or more, and it would be funny for such a big young man to sit on his mother’s neck.” In general, in his translations, in his attitude to the text, Jerome showed himself to be unusually free from any narrowness and false reverence: the bold scientific spirit of his judgments, with unshakable faith, represents an almost unique phenomenon in history. This man, who deeply revered the Apostle Paul, at the same time wrote about him: “He could not express in a worthy manner in Greek the greatness of divine thoughts, so he had Titus as a translator.” About the Gospel references to the Old Testament, he notes: “In Matthew, after the 30 pieces of silver were returned by Judas the traitor and the potter’s land was bought with them, it is written: then what was spoken by the prophet Jeremiah was fulfilled when he said: And they took the thirty pieces of silver, the price of the valuable thing which the children of Israel valued, and gave them for the potter’s land, as the Lord said to me (Matthew 27:9). This is not found at all in Jeremiah, but is found in Zechariah in a significantly altered order and expressed in the wrong words.” And a little further: “Mark also quotes the words of the Savior to the Pharisees: Haven’t you read what David did when he had need and was hungry, he and those who were with him; how did he enter the house of God in the presence of Abiathar the high priest and eat the showbread, which no one was allowed to eat except the priests? (Mk 2, 25-26). Let us read Samuel or, as they are generally called, the Book of Kings, and here we will find the name not of Abiathar, but of Ahimelech the High Priest.” Regarding the same biblical chronology, he says in another place: “Reread all the books of the Old and New Testaments - and you will find such a discrepancy in dates between Judah and Israel, that is, between one and the other kingdom, that to dwell on this for a long time would be the work of an idle person rather than an inquisitive one.” Some remarks in the style of Jerome regarding the language of the apostles and errors in the inspired Scripture were later repeated by Erasmus - and he almost paid for it, since the question of his being brought before the Inquisition was next in line. Jerome’s courage and independence of judgment were also not in vain: we see a whole storm of protests that arose around his translations. Jerome defended himself as best he could, and the consciousness of his rightness seemed to further increase the passion and harshness of his tone. “I suddenly heard a rumor that some people scold me incessantly, why in the Gospels, against the opinion of the whole world and contrary to the authority of antiquity, am I trying to correct something. I could rightfully despise them - the lyre does not sound for a donkey - but so as not to reproach us with arrogance, as usual, I will answer them that I have not become so hardened in heart, I do not have so much peasant ignorance (which they alone consider for holiness, assuring that they are disciples of fishermen, as if people can only be righteous because they know nothing) to consider anything from the words of the Lord either subject to correction or not inspired from above. I just wanted to compare the errors of the Latin codes (obvious due to discrepancies) with the Greek originals, from where - as they admit - these codes were translated. And if they do not like the moisture of the purest springs, let them drink from dirty puddles, and put aside the attention with which they examine the seasonings of food and the taste of drinks when it comes to reading the Scriptures. Let them be simple-minded only in this one respect and consider the words of Christ, over which for so many centuries the minds of so many people have been tormented and considered the meaning of each word greater than they could express, to be rustic and simple. Let them accuse the Apostle of ignorance, who - as it is said (Acts 24:26) - was maddened by learning." Along with these works on correcting the Bible, Jerome still found time to translate from Origen (“Homilies on the Song of Songs”) and his follower Didymus (“Book of the Holy Spirit”). In Rome, a polemical work was also written against Helvidius, who made a statement about the later (after the birth of Christ) marital cohabitation of Mary and Joseph (“Book of the Ever-Virginity of Mary”). Helvidius was based on the words of the Gospel (Matthew 1:25): “and she did not know until she gave birth to a son” (donee peperit filium), as well as on well-known references in Scripture about relatives and, in particular, the brothers of the Lord. Jerome’s objection to the last argument is quite convincing: if these were really Christ’s brothers and sisters, he says, then why would He then need to entrust His mother to the disciple John at the moment of death on the cross? As for the very tone of “The Book of Ever-Virginity,” it, unfortunately, is entirely in the spirit of disdainful and intolerant polemics. Jerome’s friendship with pious Roman women also led to the emergence of a fairly significant number of small theological treatises in the form of letters (“To Marcella on the ten names of God,” “To her on the interpsalm,” “On the words Ephud and Ferafin,” “To Paul on the Hebrew alphabet of Psalm 118,” etc.) and then a whole series of simply friendly messages, edifying and at times laudatory. Among letters of this kind, the first place in importance (and size) is undoubtedly occupied by the “Letter to Eustochia on the preservation of virginity.” For us, it was the source of many quotes cited above to characterize the life and morals of Roman society. The reader who takes the trouble to look through the excerpts and notice those of them that fall on the interval 394-425 columns of the XXII volume of the Patrology (the very columns occupied by the “Letter”) will see that in the wealth of material, literary brilliance and tone of flagellating satire in relation to the clergy and monks, this work is something exceptional even among the works of Jerome. It should be noted about these attacks on the clergy that in their extreme they had a success that was somewhat unexpected and probably undesirable for Jerome: the pagans now began to use his testimonies from the “Letter” in order to humiliate religion and denigrate the way of life of Christians. In general, Jerome’s life in the Eternal City seems to be full of tireless mental labor. This work was always usual for Jerome, but now he became, perhaps, even more intense because he was inspired by the attention of understanding and loving people. Often he had to snatch time from sleep in order to work - and from his writings of that time, no, no, and suddenly the reader smells of the deep Roman night, the cell and the smell of the lamp that illuminated so many centuries ago some still fresh page of these eternally living letters. And then you see him himself - tired, but still dictating to his scribe (due to an eye disease, Jerome used the services of tachygraphs). “When, in the time of thieves, as they say, the quick hand of a scribe wrote this under my dictation and I was still thinking about saying a lot - the fourth hour of the night was already approaching the end. Suddenly I felt an acute attack of stomach pain and began to pray that at least during the remaining hours of the night, along with quiet sleep, my illness would leave me.” But in Rome, as partly could already be seen, our ascetic had to experience many difficult moments as a result of surrounding ignorance, envy and bitterness. There were quite a few reasons for this, starting with Jerome’s scholarly and accusatory journalistic activities and ending with his seductive proximity to the houses of Roman matrons. However, as long as Damaz was alive, Jerome was safe. During the first time of his stay in Rome, the theological and ascetic glory of the Chalcidian hermit made many even see him as a possible candidate for the papal throne. “Until I knew the house of St. Paul's, the disposition of almost the entire city centered on me. By almost universal opinion I was considered worthy of the highest priesthood.” But in 384 dad died. By that time, as a result of Jerome’s already mentioned literary performances, his relationship with the Roman clergy had so deteriorated that the question of his election was not raised. The new pope, not being hostile to the harsh accuser, in any case was not one of his patrons. Then anger began to stir more openly. Enemies of all kinds: opponents of his translations of the Holy Scriptures, these “two-legged donkeys,” as he called them, enviers of his influence with the pope, enviers of his role among Roman women - all of them, with united efforts, began to strive to “survive” him from Rome. Jerome himself was partly to blame for this fierce persecution of him. His character, intolerant, bilious and domineering, seemed to be created in order to turn people against him everywhere. “I can bite myself, I can sink my fangs myself when hurt,” wrote Jerome. But this was a bad method of fighting against the whole Rome of ill-wishers. Slander spread gossip about his relationship with Paul and Eustochia. The people hated the monks, in particular Jerome. The latter even almost became a victim of the indignation of the mob during the funeral of Blesilla, Pavla's daughter. When the mother cried inconsolably, walking behind the coffin, the people (we continue with the words of Jerome) “murmured: Isn’t that what we always said? She suffers that her daughter was killed by the fasts, and that even from her second daughter’s marriage she has no grandchildren. When will this hated race of monks be expelled from the city? Why don't they stone them or drown them in the river? The unfortunate woman is deceived by them. That she does not want to be a nun is evident from the way she cries: not a single pagan woman mourned her children like that.” Obviously, the triumph of Christianity in Rome was not yet so unconditional, contrary to the assurances of Jerome. However, as is easy to understand, those who were most embittered against Jerome were those who saw their portraits in his indignant messages and mainly in the “Letter to Eustochius.” “By saying, unfortunate thing, that girls should be with women more often than with men, I hit everyone in the eye. Now everyone is pointing fingers at me." From this period of confused relations, the “Letter to Marcella about Onaz” has come down to us. It is extremely interesting in the sense that on its basis one can establish, as it seems, the existence in Rome of that time of a disease similar to the later syphilis. Onaz was one of Jerome's many inimici at that time. The letter, full of hints and allegories, makes it impossible to understand why Onaz irritated the author. But the most characteristic ridicule is: “I propose to truncate the foul nose - beware, whoever is sick with it.” “Is there really one in Rome who has his nostrils cut off by a shameful wound? (En. book b). “I laugh at penny eloquence with a funny nose.” And the letter ends with the following advice: “However, I will give you advice on what you need to hide so that you can appear more beautiful. Let your nose not be visible on your face, let your speech not sound in conversation: this way you can appear both eloquent and attractive.” Zockler sees in this frequent mention of the nose a hint of the name Onasus, but not to mention a stretch, we cannot allow such an interpretation, if only because the letter already contains a hint in this regard, but a completely different one in meaning. “Or do you think you’re good because you have a happy name?” (Onasus from δνασνς “benefit”, “benefit”, or it means Bonasus - from bonus - as found in some manuscripts.) Be that as it may, the question seems very curious, especially if we take into account the widespread idea of ​​syphilis as an exclusive property of the new centuries. Victory ultimately remained with the opponents, and Jerome decided to leave Rome. He was again drawn to solitude, to a life of simple, peaceful and far from any fame. These dreams of his about serene happiness in the “bosom of rural silence” are touching. They most clearly feel the fatigue from gossip, squabbles and worries of the big city. “Now, when a large expanse of life already lies behind us, traversed in the midst of such unrest, and our ship is shaken by storms and damaged by pitfalls - now, as soon as possible, we, as if to some kind of harbour, decided to retire into the obscurity of rural life. There, black bread, vegetables grown by our hands, and milk, a village delicacy, will provide us with food that is rough - true, but at the same time - innocent. With such a life, neither sleep will distract us from prayer, nor a heavy stomach from reading. If it is summer, the tree shade will provide shelter. If autumn is the softest air and the leaves covering the ground will indicate a place of rest. In spring, the fields will be full of flowers, and psalms will sound sweeter among the voices of birds. When the cold, fog and snow come, I will not buy firewood for myself, I will stay awake, warming myself, or sleep. I probably know that I won’t freeze at all. And here let Rome roar, the arena go wild, the circus go wild, the theaters drown in luxury, and – if we need to talk about our affairs – let the ladies’ senate receive visits every day.” It is remarkable for an admirer of great poets that even this lyrical passage is full of echoes of the famous Beatus ille qui procul negotiis of Horace. For the journey, the already familiar path to the East was chosen. At the last minute of departure, “already boarding the ship, in tears and anguish” (flens dolensque - XXII, 482), Jerome wrote a short letter to Azelle, in which he said goodbye to everyone he loved and honored. The letter ends almost with a cry: “Greet Paul and Eustochia - whether the world wants or not - mine in Christ. Greet Mother Albina and Sister Marcella, greet Marcellina and Saint Felicity, and tell them: we will all be together before the judgment of Christ; it will clearly be there who lived and thought how they lived. Remember me as an example of innocence and the glory of virginity, and tame the waves of the sea with your prayers.” Jerome did not have to part with Pavla and Eustochia for long. True, he left Rome alone, but after a while, leaving his little son at home, Paul and his daughter left after Jerome. In Antioch they met so as not to be separated again. Their further joint path lay to the Holy Places, however, even on the way there they tried not to miss a single more or less important point marked by the Bible. Tire and Sidon, and the fields of the ancient battle of Megiddo - they now saw all this with their own eyes - and what feelings must have been filled at this contemplation of the souls, for which every stone here was a great reality, moreover, a sacred relic! To give an idea of ​​these feelings, we take the liberty of citing a short excerpt from Jerome’s letter. “Will there really not be a day when we will have the opportunity to enter the cave of the Savior? at the tomb of the Lord to cry with his sister, to cry with (His) mother? Kiss the wood of the cross and on the Mount of Olives, together with the ascending Lord, rush after him in spirit and prayers? To see Lazarus in bandages, coming out (from the tomb) and the streams of the Jordan, cleansed by the washing of Christ? Then go to the shepherds' manger and pray at the Mausoleum of David? To see the prophet Amos, still on his rock calling on the shepherd's horn? Hasten to the tents of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob and those glorious women or to the memories of them. See the source in which the eunuch was baptized by Philip. Head to Samaria and venerate the ashes of John the Baptist, Elisha and Obadiah. Visit the caves where many prophets ate during times of famine and persecution. Then we will go to Nazareth and - according to the meaning of its name - we will see the “flower” of Galilee. Not far from there you can see Cana, where the waters are turned into wine. Let's go further to Mount Tabor and see the tabernacles of the Savior - not with Moses and Elijah, as Peter once wished, but with the Father and the Holy Spirit. From there we will reach Lake Gennisareth and see five and four thousand people in the desert being fed with five and seven loaves. The city of Naim will open, at the gates of which the widow’s son was resurrected. Both Hermonim and the stream of Endor, where Sisera was defeated, will be visible. Capernaum also, glorious for the miracles of the Lord, and likewise all of Galilee will be visible to view. And then, accompanied by Christ, through Silas and Bethel and other places where churches are erected everywhere, like some banners of the Lord’s victories, we will return to our cave, we will sing together, weep often, cry incessantly and, struck by the spear of the Savior, we will exclaim in agreement: “Here is He for whom my soul has sought, I hold Him and will not let him go any more” (Song 3:4). At the same time, as characteristically sometimes legends of two orders, hostile to each other in spirit, but still equally close to the heart of humanity, must have been combined in the memories of spectators - (Paul saw) “also Joppa, the port of Jonah, fleeing from the Lord, and - to touch on the fables of the poets - a witness to the suffering of Andromeda, chained to the rock.” Or here is also this description of the same journey from Rome, which we find in Jerome’s “Apology against the Books of Rufinus”: “Safely, accompanied by many saints, I boarded a ship in the Roman harbor. He arrived in Regium, stayed for some time on the Scillian coast, where he brought to mind ancient fables - about the swift running of the unfaithful Ulysses, about the songs of the sirens, about the insatiable mouth of Charybdis. When the inhabitants of those places persistently advised me to sail not directly to the feet of Proteus (i.e. to Egypt), but to the port of Iona (according to them, the first route was chosen only by fugitives and people driven by some kind of misfortune, and the second was the usual road for safe travel), then I headed past Malea and Tsilades to Cyprus...” We have already said how whimsically at that time the traditions that came from the most remote regions of the earth and were carried out by such a different structure of historical existence intersected. Paganism and Christianity met and came into contact everywhere with the most everyday and the highest that was in them. The hermit Paul, fleeing persecution, finds a cave and settles in it: this is Christianity. And now paganism is nearby: “Egyptian writings report that in this cave there was a workshop for counterfeit coins at the time when Anthony cohabited with Cleopatra.” Having visited all the sights of Palestine, the travelers went to Egypt, where they were attracted by the famous abodes of Nitrian hermits, and Jerome, in addition, was attracted by the opportunity to see and hear Didymus in Alexandria. The latter was one of the largest exegetical authorities of that time and a miracle in its own way, since (we quote the words of Jerome from the “Book of Famous Men”), “who lost his sight in early childhood and, as a result, did not know the letters himself, showed such an extraordinary phenomenon that he perfectly studied even dialectics and geometry, which most requires sight from the student.” We talked above about the lectures that Jerome listened to from him. The monks of the Nitrian desert met as solemnly as they could the noble Roman guest and the famous writer and theologian. And so great was Pavla’s ascetic enthusiasm that she and her retinue of young girls (she left Rome with several dozen young Roman women who wanted to devote themselves to monastic life) decided to settle among the anchorites of Nitria herself. “Amazing ardor and firmness, hardly possible in a woman! Forgetting gender and bodily weakness, she wanted to live with her girls among so many thousands of monks. And perhaps, with general agreement, she would have fulfilled her intention, if an even greater attraction to holy places had not turned her away from this.” Returning from Egypt to Palestine, they chose Bethlehem as their permanent place of residence. Jerusalem, with all its shrines, could not attract these people who were looking for peace of mind and even purely external silence after Rome: the city of David lived the same seething life of large centers, like the other capitals of dozens of other states that had now merged into a single body of the Roman Empire. “If the places of the Crucifixion and Resurrection were not located in a very crowded city, where there was a curia, and barracks, and public women, and comedians, and jesters and everything in general that usually happens in other cities, or if this city was only visited by crowds of monks, then all the monks, of course, would only have to desire such an abode for themselves. At this time, it would be extremely unreasonable to renounce the world, leave the fatherland, flee cities, recognize oneself as a monk, and at the same time live in an even greater crowd than one would live in one’s homeland. People from all over the world flock here. The city is full of people of all kinds, and there is such oppression of both sexes that here you are forced to endure what you avoided at least partially in another place.” All around Jerusalem, as a strange contrast with its large population, “Burned by God, Verbless, motionless” lay an outcast country, which even at that time was gradually turning into a desert. “We can barely discern traces of ruins on the site of once strong cities. Shiloh, where the tabernacle and the ark of the covenant were, barely reveals the foundation of the altar; Gibeah - the homeland of Saul - was destroyed to the ground; Ramah and Bethoron and other glorious cities built by Solomon have now become small villages.” Even Jerusalem itself in the time of Jerome was no longer the city with which the Jews associated their heroic past. The history of the last centuries of this place, sacred and cursed at the same time, was terrible. Ruined by Titus, finally destroyed and losing its name under Hadrian (it was renamed Aelia Capitolina after the secondary Jewish uprising), Jerusalem had to endure new manifestations of indignation and neglect from the Caesars, zealots of paganism - and this was no longer as the center of the Jewish cult, but as the center of the religious monuments of Christianity. “From the time of Hadrian to Constantine, for almost one hundred and eighty years, the idol of Jupiter was worshiped at the site of the Resurrection, and on the rock where Christ was once crucified, there stood a marble statue of Venus: the persecutors thought that they would destroy our faith in the cross and the resurrection if we desecrated holy places with idols. Even our Bethlehem, the most royal place on earth, where - as the psalmist sings - “Truth has risen above the earth,” - this Bethlehem was overshadowed by the grove of Thamuz, i.e. Adonis, and in the cave where little Christ once wept, the lover of Venus mourned.” Constantine restored their shrines to the Christians in their former purity, but the Jews even in the time of Jerome were just as torn away from their Zion as hundreds of years ago. “But even to this day, the treacherous winegrowers, after the murder of the servants and, finally, the son of God, are forbidden to enter Jerusalem, except for the sake of destruction. And they buy with money so that they will be allowed to mourn the destruction of their kingdom, so that those who once bought the blood of Christ must now buy their tears: weeping itself is not free for them. Look at the anniversary of the capture and destruction of Jerusalem by the Romans, how this mournful people converges, obsolete women and old men in rags, suppressed by the weight of years, flocking together, their bodies and appearance testifying to the wrath of God. A crowd of unfortunates gathers, and at a time when the instrument of his execution is burning on the Church of the Resurrection of Christ and the banner of the cross is shining from Mount Olive (Olive), on the ruins of their church a pitiful tribe is tormenting its chest - pitiful, but not causing regret. Tears are running down their cheeks, their hands are thin and pale, their hair is tangled, and the warrior demands payment so as not to stop them from crying any longer. And who would doubt, seeing this, “in the days of tribulation and distress, in the days of desolation and ruin, in the days of darkness and gloom, in the days of the trumpet and shouting” (Zeph 1, 15-16). Because they also have trumpets in times of mourning, and - according to the prophet - the voice of triumph turned into a groan of sorrow. They cry over the ashes of their sanctuary, over the destroyed altar, over the once strong cities, over the high battlements of the church, from which they once overthrew Jacob, the brother of the Lord.” The biblical ability to create mass scenes of stunning tragedy, as we can see, was not lost by the Jews in the Christian era. For reasons already stated, avoiding Jerusalem, Jerome, Paul and their companions settled in Bethlehem. Here, it seemed, the idyll that Jerome pictured for himself before fleeing Rome was to find its fulfillment. “In this monastery of Christ... everything is simplicity, and except for the singing of psalms, there is always silence. Wherever you turn, the plowman, leaning on the plow, hums “Halleluya”, the reaper, in the sweat of his brow, amuses himself with psalms, and the vinedresser, pruning the vines with a crooked knife, sings something from the prophet David. Such are the poems in this country, such are the love melodies, as they are called, such is the cry of the shepherds and the implements of agriculture.” This lyrical image, of course, did not entirely correspond to reality, rather serving as an exercise in artistic description for the author, but the main element of the deep peace that prevailed in a small Palestinian town was undoubtedly conveyed correctly. In Bethlehem, Paul founded a monastery and a hospice. Jerome took up the continuation of his scientific works, a detailed study of the Hebrew language. As always refined in his speech, he reports this, not without some stylistic grace: “We founded a monastery and an inn in this area, so that by chance Joseph and Mary, having come to Bethlehem, would not again find themselves homeless.” “With what difficulty, at what cost, I got myself Bar-Anina (the name of the rabbi with whom Jerome studied the Hebrew language - A.D.) - a night teacher. He was afraid of his own, and showed me a second Nicodemus.” Here, in Bethlehem, the most important and valuable works of the saint were written. We will dwell on them in more detail, because the Bethlehem period of Jerome’s life is important primarily in relation to spiritual creativity, while the events of external life, as one would naturally expect, are incongruously few with its duration of 35 years. Jerome's first Palestinian works were commentaries on the epistles of St. Paul (Philemon, Galatians, Ephesians and Titus). The second of these comments is interesting in that it almost became the subject of misunderstanding and hostility between Jerome and Augustine. As you know, in the second chapter of the Epistle to the Galatians there is a description of the quarrel between the apostles Peter and Paul due to the fact that the former demanded observance of the Jewish law, among other things, from the believing pagans. Paul accused the senior apostle of hypocrisy, since Peter himself often did not observe this law. Faced with the need to interpret this passage and at the same time wanting to give a less seductive appearance to the whole incident, Jerome explained the dispute of the apostles as a pre-arranged and then deliberately staged scene for the teaching of pagans and Jews. The agreement of the apostles was saved, but the sincerity of their actions suffered. The morally more sensitive Augustine immediately noticed the inappropriateness of such an explanation and wrote to Jerome his objection sincerely and gently. Unfortunately, the letter did not reach its intended destination, meanwhile the copies from it quickly spread to many places and finally fell into the hands of Jerome himself, in a roundabout way. This made the latter assume that Augustine was attacking him without warning, and only after several explanatory and apologetic messages from Augustine did he internally reconcile with him (although he continued to insist on his point of view on a controversial issue). After the aforementioned works on New Testament exegesis, Jerome moved on to work on what he saw as more necessary and where his varied knowledge could find better use. Having completely mastered the Hebrew language by that time, he left the area of ​​the New Testament and devoted himself entirely to the study of issues related to the Old. The difficulty of such an undertaking should only have increased the zeal of the proud scientist. He himself once wrote: “The third (the prophet, namely Ezekiel) has a beginning and an end so dark that Jews are forbidden to read these parts, together with the first chapters of Genesis, until the age of thirty.” Naturally, he should have been flattered by the opportunity to triumph over the darkness of the prophetic word and the mysteries of Moses - and now we see almost a whole 35 years devoted (with interruptions, however) to the translation and explanation of the Old Testament canon. The approach to the work was again remarkable and testified to the innate tact of the scientist. Jerome did not primarily undertake interpretation or commentary - he wrote “The Book of Jewish Names” (in the Bible), “On the Position and Names of Jewish Localities,” and finally, “Jewish Research on the Book of Genesis.” This series of works, despite many imperfections natural for the time, was a phenomenon of incomparable importance in the study of the Bible. In archaeological terms, the second book still has high value, so from the pious journey to St. In some places, Jerome was also able to make a scientific excursion, which enriched him with abundant material for subsequent research in his chosen field. He himself understood the importance of his writings, and not without pride could say in the preface to the treatise “On Jewish Names”: “Now I have in my hands a book of Jewish studies - a completely new work and hitherto unheard of among the Greeks and Latins.” According to the fatal law, like any novelty, these works of Jerome again met with fierce criticism. He was reproached for disrespect for the translation of the LXX, for scholarly conceit - and he again had to declare that he had nothing against the use of old texts recognized by the church. It works only for people with the highest demands for knowledge. “Foreign goods are brought only for amateurs; ordinary people do not buy balsam, pepper and dates,” the saint allegorically explained. And in the consciousness of his offended rightness, he added: “I am not trying to rise high, but in any case I think that I rise above the reptiles.” This was followed by interpretations of the psalms, translations from Origen (Homilies on the Gospel of Luke) and two biographies of the pious monk Malchus and St. Hilarion. At the same time, Jerome found in the Caesarea Library the famous “Hexaples” of Origen, i.e. the Old Testament text of the Bible, rewritten in six (in some parts even more) parallel columns, the first two being occupied by the Hebrew text (translated in one case in Hebrew and in the other in Greek letters), then in the remaining columns there were various translations of the Bible into Greek (including the LXX translation, by the way). This colossal code made it possible to verify every word of any translation with the Hebrew original and, in addition, to be protected (when translating independently) from the risk of making any mistakes. For Jerome, Origen's vault was an incomparable treasure, and he immediately set about using it. Now, one after another, translations of the Psalms, the Book of Kings, Job, the Prophets, then Solomon, Ezra and the Pentateuch appear. The entire translation of the Bible was completed in approximately 15 years and served as the basis for the emergence of the Vulgate - the Bible of the Catholic Church, formed from the mixing over time of Jerome's text with the texts of more ancient Latin translations, so called. Italae. Interspersed with this long-term scholarly work of the saint were commentaries on the Old Testament (namely, the most difficult part to understand - the Prophets) - a work even more ambitious in size and the time required to complete it. Having made an initial test on the lesser prophets, Jerome then confidently took on the most important and at the same time the darkest. He worked on these commentaries for 30 years, and on one of the last (“Commentaries on Jeremiah”) he died. Given the indicated duration and frequent breaks, these works of the saint could not be uniform in terms of perfection in their execution. To a significant extent, Jerome was harmed, in addition to the external reasons mentioned, by the tendency towards allegorical interpretations adopted from the Alexandrian school, but it cannot be denied, however, that in relation to places and authors that required special attention, Jerome showed all the seriousness of an interpreter, approaching them with the due elevation of understanding and fully armed with his knowledge of patristic exegesis. Moreover, the scattered remarks here and there concerning modernity and antiquity give the commentary an interest not only theological, but also historical. Around 393, Jerome wrote one of those books that, along with the processing of the Chronicle of Eusebius, have not yet lost their essential significance. We mean the “Book of Famous Men” - in other words, a chronologically (not strictly) located index of all church writers, starting with the apostles and ending with Jerome himself. It was written with the purpose: “Let Celsus, Porphyry and Julian, the dogs raging against Christ, know, and let their followers know – who think that the church had no philosophers, no speakers and scientists – how many and how great men it was founded, created and adorned, and may they stop accusing our church of ignorance, but rather, be convinced of their own lack of enlightenment.” Despite the haste and brevity of the work, in it - despite the complete originality of the task and the absence of literary precedents, so to speak, (the existing "Ecclesiastical History" of Eusebius could not give Jerome much) - Jerome's awareness of the field of church writing, which by his time had already grown enormously, still stands out. If we take into account that the book was written in conditions that were very unfavorable for reference and research (remoteness from large libraries), then one has to be surprised either at the memory of the saint, or at the vastness of his own book collections. To give an idea of ​​this important source for the history of the church and church writers, we present here an autobiographical chapter from it - Jerome’s listing of his own works. “Chapter CXXXV. Jerome, son of Eusebius, born in the city of Stridon, now destroyed by the Goths, and formerly located on the border between Dalmatia and Pannonia, before the current one, i.e. in the fourteenth year (reign) of Emperor Theodosius, wrote the following: Life of Paul the monk, Book of letters to various persons, Admonition to Iliodorus (about monastic feats), Dispute between Luciferian and Orthodox, Chronicle of universal history, 28 conversations of Origen on Jeremiah and Ezekiel, which I translated from Greek into Latin, O Seraphim, On Hosanna, On the prudent and profligate sons, On three questions concerning the Old Testament, Two homilies on the Song of Songs, Against Helvidius on the perpetual virginity of Mary, To Eustochia on the preservation of virginity, The Book of Letters to Marcella, Consolation in the Death of a Daughter to Paul, Three Books of Commentaries on Paul's Epistle to the Galatians, also Three Books on the Epistle to the Ephesians, One book on the Epistle to Titus, a Book on the Epistle to Philemon, Commentaries on Ecclesiastes, One Book of Jewish Studies on the Book of Genesis, a Book on Places, a Book of Hebrew Names, One Book of Didymus on the Holy Spirit, which he translated into Latin, 39 Homilies on Luke, 7 Treatises on Psalms 10 to 16, Life captive monk Malchus and bl. Hilarion. I checked the New Testament against the Greek and translated the Old from the Hebrew. The exact number of letters to Paul and Eustochia, since they are written daily, is unknown. In addition, I wrote 2 books of commentary on Micah, one book on Sophronius, one book on Nahum, one book on Habakkuk, and one book on Haggai. And much more about the prophetic books that I now have in my hands and that are not yet finished. Also two books against Jovinian and to Pammachius, an Apology (of books against Jovinian) and an Epitaph (of Pammachius’s wife Paula).” It is curious that Jerome’s list of Christian writers includes, among other things, Philo, Josephus and Seneca, the latter because at that time he was considered a secret Christian (there was even forged correspondence between him and the Apostle Paul). Elsewhere Jerome also calls him “our Seneca” (noster Seneca XXIII, 280). The “Two Books against Jovinian” mentioned at the end of the previous excerpt, together with the later “Book against Vigilantius” and “Conversation against the Pelagians,” belong (as their titles already indicate) to the number of polemical works of Jerome. The possibility of the emergence of such teachings as the doctrines of the first two is unusually significant for the 5th century of Christianity. The extreme predominance of ritual even then (as well as a thousand years later) caused a reaction that was completely Protestant in its provisions. Obviously, Christianity already in the 5th century ceased to satisfy the idea of ​​some of worship “in spirit and truth,” and already at that time voices began to be heard against the excessive materialization of the cult. They were not successful because they came from people of little authority and, most importantly, people who recklessly crossed the boundaries of common sense or, at least, necessary restraint in their statements. These symptoms in such an early era are so defined that they do not allow one to doubt the possibility of the reform of Catholicism much earlier than it was actually realized due to the stagnation caused by the appearance of the barbarians on the historical stage. Paradoxical as it may seem, it was these latter who saved Catholicism from decay and made it extremely stable: the struggle for spiritual dominance over the minds of the new flock of savages, sometimes even the struggle for its very existence, forced Catholicism to concentrate terribly in itself, to harden itself, to put forward on its side people of great will and genius. And Catholicism defeated the barbarians (even if sometimes at the cost of concessions), that is, it did what the Roman state itself was powerless to overcome. In this victory there was glory and danger for Catholicism, because, having made him the ruler of the universe, at the same time it filled him with exorbitant pride, and most importantly, he accustomed Catholicism to some calculation of impressing the still crude consciousness of the masses. Culturally, for Europe at one time even this was necessary and salutary, but what could remain in such a religion from the teachings of Christ - we leave it to others to judge. However, let us return to Jovinian and Vigilantius. This is how Jerome sets out the errors of the first: “(He) asserts that virgins, widows and married women, having once been washed in Christ, enjoy equal dignity, if there is no difference in other matters. Tries to prove that those reborn with full faith in baptism cannot be overcome by the devil. It assumes, thirdly, that there is no difference between abstaining from food and receiving it with due thanksgiving. Fourthly - and this is the main thing - it recognizes the equality of reward in heaven for all who have retained their baptism.” Vigilantius’s statements are even more characteristic (we present them in the presentation of Patrology): “He denied: 1) that one should honor the martyrs or their relics, as well as perform services at their burial sites and generally give them any kind of worship customary in Christian churches; 2) with even worse blindness he declared that the merits of the saints do not help us at all and that the inhabitants of heaven have little need for earthly affairs... 3) He called some church institutions superstition and paganism, among other things, the custom of lighting candles during the day during Mass or during the reading of the Gospel, and also did not want “Hallelujah” to be sung, except at Easter; 4) He believed that everyone can keep their wealth to themselves and that renunciation of the world is not anything good; even more, he called monastic poverty and solitude idleness and shameful flight... 5) Finally, he babbled that it was less fitting for clergy than anyone else to live in celibacy, and he so hated abstinence, which he called “heresy,” and virginity, which he said was “the source of lust,” that he even convinced bishops not to trust anyone regarding purity, not to ordain the celibate at all, and to consider those married people who had not yet seen their wives’ swollen bellies unworthy to serve Christ.” One can imagine how Jerome must have reacted to such “theses,” even for women, who allowed marriage for the sole consideration: “A young widow who cannot resist or does not want to, let her give herself rather to her husband than to the devil.” In addition, there was a direct denial of Jerome’s entire feat, all his deprivations, all the victories he gained over himself. There was also - and Jerome could undoubtedly feel this with his mental makeup - an attack on the poetry of Catholicism, on the beauty of its ritual, endured by the taste and inspiration of centuries. It is not surprising, therefore, that Jerome’s responses to Vigilantius and Jovinian are more in the nature of responses to a personal insult (due to the complete lack of restraint of tone) than of a dispassionate theological dispute. In his polemic with Pelagius (“Conversation against the Pelagians”), where the topic itself was incomparably more distant from the idiosyncratic, so to speak, points of Jerome, he is more lenient and calmer. (We were talking about the possibility for a person to be saved through an effort towards the good of his own will, without the participation of grace, which is exactly what Pelagius thought.) The very form of dialogue adopted for the objection already predetermined a more impartial discussion of the issue, although, of course, not without the author’s productive violence against the undesirable party. However, the “Conversation”, given Jerome’s certain innate reluctance to metaphysical or even abstract problems, as well as his noticeable inclination (which found repeated expression in his writings) towards synergistic or semi-Pelagian views, could not be a truly or strongly directed blow. A mind deeper and more interested in questions of Christian philosophy with correspondingly and greater success completed the task of refuting Pelagianism: Augustine opposed the teaching of Pelagius with his doctrine of de gratia et libero arbitrio [of grace and free will] in all its mercilessness and without any concessions. His polemic with Rufinus played a very special role in Jerome’s life. All other cases of Jerome’s literary struggle took place in relation to people either unknown to him personally or known to him very little. Rufinus was his closest friend. In addition, there it was necessary to attack errors that were organically unacceptable for Jerome; here it was necessary to debunk and overthrow the object of his former long and enthusiastic worship (we mean Origen). Extremely scrupulous in regard to being considered impeccably orthodox, Jerome, at the first alarm energetically raised by his friends Epiphanius and Theophilus around the name of Origen (regarding the latter’s unbelief), with some cowardly and insincere haste, began to disavow his former love for the Alexandrian thinker and “cover up the traces” of this love, in any case indelible, like the expressions cited above. In fact, wasn’t it Jerome, above all others, who once promoted this ascetic of church learning, who, according to some testimonies, wrote about 6,000 books? Was it not he himself who defended him from the accusations that Origen had to endure during his lifetime? “Don’t you see that the Greeks and Romans (in fact, the pagan writers of Greece and Rome) are defeated by the works of one? Who could ever read as much as he wrote? And for everything - what a reward! He is condemned by Bishop Demetrius, not counting the priests of Palestine, Arabia, Phenicia and Greece. The city of Rome joins in his condemnation. The Romans are rebuilding the Senate against him - and this is not due to reprehensible novelty, not because of heresy, as mad dogs are now slandering him, but because they could not bear the glory of his eloquence, the glory of his learning, so that when he spoke, everyone seemed dumb.” These statements have now changed to their opposite. “Believe the experienced, I say as a Christian to Christians: his teachings (Origen. - A.D.) are poisonous, alien to the Holy Scriptures, violating the Scriptures.” “Whom Demetrius expelled from the city of Alexandrov in the past, is now pursued throughout the world by Theophilus, who received his name from love for the Lord and was awarded the dedication of the Acts of the Apostles. Where is this writhing serpent now? where is the most poisonous viper, in front - the face of a man, attached to a wolf's body? This language can rightfully be called unworthy. Jerome, however, remembered his past reviews and tried to justify himself in them: “I praised the interpreter, not the dogmatist, the mind, not the faith, the philosopher, not the apostle.” Rufinus's whole misfortune lay in the fact that he remained faithful to the admiration for Origen, which Jerome had previously shared. He even tried, in defending Origen, to refer to his Bethlehem friend’s previous opinions about him. And this was enough for Jerome to raise one of the most bitter quarrels that did not do him any honor. True, both sides brought a lot of injustice into their feud, but in favor of Rufinus, although he defended the heresiarch, his captivating loyalty to his affection, finally, the compulsion of self-defense, spoke in favor of Rufinus, but Jerome seemed to attack more mercilessly, the more unfair he should have felt. Moreover, he transferred his irritation from his direct opponent to Melania (who occupied the same position near Rufinus as Paul did near himself), and now she who had previously been “among Christians the true glory of our time” turned, by the grace of the same author, into “black” - “her black name testifies to the theme of treachery.” (Melania is Greek for “blackness.”) Rufinus in his Apology even says that Jerome scraped out places in his writings where he had previously spoken favorably of this woman. The death of the enemy itself could not, it seemed, appease the anchorite’s embitterment. “The scorpion underground has finally, finally, the many-headed hydra stopped hissing against us,” wrote Jerome after the death of Rufinus. Augustine, a holy soul free from evil passions, watched with some, we would say, even confusion, the ups and downs of the struggle, the growth of the unquenchable flame of rage. “Who now would not fear his friend as a future enemy, if what we mourn could have happened between Jerome and Rufinus. Oh, pitiful and pitiable situation! Oh, the lovers’ false knowledge of their present, when there is no foreknowledge of the future.” Even John Chrysostom had to pay for his soft attitude towards the Origenists. Theophilus, who had his own scores to settle with the bishop of Constantinople, took advantage of this pretext to attack him with obscene abuse. “He said that just as Satan sometimes turned into an angel of light, so John is not what he seems: he called him not only similar to Satan, but the unclean demon himself, spewing out a dirty stream of words” (Fakund about the contents of Theophilus’ letter). Jerome translated this letter from Greek into Latin and even found “beauties of style” in it. In general, the “Apology against the books of Rufinus” and this whole story with Origen’s heresy best prove how vain it was for Jerome to seek peace and oblivion anywhere.” A verse from Horace once quoted by him: Heaven does not change the soul, whoever sent his flight across the sea was justified first of all on himself. In Bethlehem, as in Rome, the element πόλεμος most closely responded to his soul. No wonder Jerome wrote to Augustine: “We, although prisoners in a monastery, are nevertheless shaken by unrest on all sides.” But this passionate soul, which often lost its measure, knew, of course, moments of calm, moments of bright peace and almost tenderness. Jerome primarily owed them to Eustochia and Paul. We have already seen the hermit's testimony of daily correspondence with them. This testimony alone is enough to understand what kind of affection these people must have had for each other, abandoned so far from their homeland and - as they probably felt - irrevocably. For women, every word of the teacher was precious and significant. They lived almost exclusively in the interests of the saint. Just like him, they studied the Hebrew language in order to sing psalms in the original together with him. Naturally, Jerome himself paid them, in turn, with participation and attention. A whole series of his theological works are dedicated to Paul and Eustochia, together or separately. He, it is true, felt some awkwardness in this emphasized affection for women, but on the other hand he could not help but endlessly respect their feat, he could not help but see how completely their souls devoted themselves to the service that they had once taken upon themselves. “Oh, shame! The weaker sex conquers the world, and the strongest is conquered by the world, The woman is the leader in this matter...” And then, in one of the dedications, Jerome writes: “Before I move on to Zephaniah, the ninth in the series of twelve prophets, it seems appropriate to me to answer those who consider me worthy of ridicule for the habit, forgetting their husbands, of primarily writing for you, O Paul and Eustochius! But if they knew that Olda, while the men were silent, prophesied; that Deborah, equally judge and prophetess, defeated the enemies of Israel, while Barak was faint-hearted; that Judith and Esther - in the image of the church - killed their opponents and freed Israel, ready to perish, from danger - they would never mock me behind my back. I am silent about Anna and Elizabeth and about the other holy women, whom, like starry lights, are made invisible by the shining luminary of Mary. I will move on to pagan women so that it can be seen, just as for secular philosophers, the difference in souls, not bodies, matters. Plato includes Aspasia as a participant in his dialogues, Sappho is placed on a par with Pindar and Alcaeus. Themista discusses philosophy among the sages of Greece. Cornelia, mother of the Gracchi, i.e. your relative, all the Roman people were amazed. Carneades, the most eloquent of philosophers, the wittiest of orators, accustomed to winning noisy approval in the academy and among consular senators, was not ashamed to argue about philosophy in a private house, having a matron as an interlocutor. Why mention also the daughter of Cato, the wife of Brutus, whose valor makes us no longer so overly surprised by the firmness of her father and husband? History, both Greek and Roman, is filled with virtues of women that would require entire books. For me, since I have a different task, it will be enough to say here that the risen Christ first of all appeared to women, and they, in turn, were apostolic messengers for the apostolic messengers, so that men may be ashamed for not looking for Him who was already found by the weaker sex.” And indeed all the old relations with the Roman circle of women were maintained in Bethlehem. Paula and Eustochia even thought of persuading Marcella to move to the Holy Land, for which purpose Jerome wrote an admonishing letter to the latter. In all likelihood it was one of Jerome's early Palestinian works, since the bitterness of Roman memories is still heard in it. “Of course, there is a holy church there (in Rome), there are trophies of the apostles and martyrs, there is a true confession of Christ, there is the faith preached by the Apostle and the Christian word, which every day rises higher and higher above trampled paganism. But the very glory, power and vastness of the city, all this “seeing” and “being seen”, “greeting” and “being welcomed”, “praising” and “blaming” or speaking or listening, finally, even against the will of bearing all this multitude of people - all this is so far from the vows and world of the monastic. Either we accept those who visit us - and lose the virtue of silence, or we do not accept - and are accused of pride. Sometimes, in order to respond to a visit in our turn, we rush to the proud portals and, under the abuse and ridicule of the servants, we enter the gilded doors.” The poor monk, even in Palestine, could not forget this contempt for himself on the part of the aristocratic slaves. From all this, Marcella had to be convinced that “this place (Bethlehem. - A.D.) is more sacred than the Tarpeian rock, which shows on itself the sign of the wrath of God, being so often struck by lightning.” But the letter did not have the desired effect. Marcella remained in Rome, although some other women from the society of Paula and Eustochia visited them more than once in Palestine. But the more often letters came from there (from Rome), as well as from almost all ends of the then Roman world. “From the extreme reaches of Gaul, you call upon him who is hiding in the village of Bethlehem to answer questions concerning Holy Scripture.” Of course, many had to answer accordingly. “To confess frankly to your holy soul, I am always asked for so many letters at the only time convenient for sailing to the West, that if I wanted to write everything to everyone, I would never be able to cope with it.” And again I had to work at night, and hurry, and apologize for negligence and brevity. “This one night, when the rope was already untied from the shore and the sailors were shouting on the ship, I dictated hastily, as best as I could remember and kept it in my heart from long reading.” Sometimes the letters were accompanied by touching gifts. “I accepted your hat, small in knitting, but wide in love, to warm my old head and rejoiced over the gift and its giver.” Marcella even remembered to send several fans (muscaria) to brush away annoying insects while working. The letters received by Jerome and the responses to them were usually, as during his Roman stay, of an exegetical and theological nature. But often the questions addressed to him concerned phenomena of a moral order, even simply everyday ones. Many misunderstandings of all kinds, many “incidents of conscience” were proposed for its resolution. Part of the requests that pursue everyday practical goals can include those that deal with directives for the education of young souls, and Jerome’s answers paint a fairly complete picture of the Roman system of primary education. In this regard, “Letter to Leta about raising her daughter” is especially interesting. There, by the way, we read the following advice: “Let letters be made for it from beech or ivory and each named according to its style. Let her play them, so that the game itself becomes learning for her. And let her not only remember the letters in order and sing them from memory, but she should often mix them together, the last with the middle ones, the middle ones with the first, so that she knows them not only by sound, but also by sight. And when she begins to learn to write on wax with style in trembling fingers, let either someone’s experienced hand guide her delicate joints, or the letters themselves will be carved on the board, so that her style will follow these grooves, held by them, and cannot deviate from them. Let her learn to add syllables as a reward and be encouraged by those gifts that are pleasant for her age. Let her have friends in her studies with whom she could compete and whose praises she would envy. You should not scold her if she is lazy, but encourage her mind with approval, so that she rejoices at being a winner and suffers when she is surpassed. First of all, you should be careful not to hate learning, so that the aversion to it, perceived in childhood, does not carry over into adulthood.” At times, in these letters of Jerome dedicated to education, sharp, almost repulsive notes break through (when it comes to the “sore issues” of the writer). And then it seems somewhat strange that even old age, apparently, did not bring anything reconciling into the rebellious soul of the hermit. “May she be deaf to music. Lyre, pipe, cithara - let no one know why they were made.” “Let him not be present at the weddings of slaves, nor take part in the noisy games of servants. I know that some advise that the Virgin of Christ should not bathe with eunuchs, as well as with married women, because they retain masculine thoughts, and these with swollen bellies speak of vile deeds. But I generally don’t like bathing a growing girl, who should be ashamed of herself and not see herself naked.” There is something inexorable, almost evil in these words (even if we keep in mind that the advice concerned a girl destined to later become a nun). And it is all the more characteristic of Jerome that even in this case he makes a concession in relation to literature. “Let him teach Greek poetry. But let this be immediately followed by the study of Latin. Otherwise, if young lips are not first accustomed to it, the pronunciation will be distorted by alien sounds and the language will be clogged with foreign shortcomings.” Jerome, from his cave in Bethlehem, taking care of the correct Latin pronunciation of a girl unknown to him - isn’t this the image of a “stylist to the grave”! From the same Bethlehem correspondence we have another message - “On the education of little Pacatla”, which, after all these bitter sermons, abusive polemics with Jovinian and Vigilantius, barbs at Augustine, suddenly illuminates the face of the saint with such a warm, sunny smile that we, one might say, are almost lost with joy. “It is a difficult thing to write to a little one who does not understand what you are saying to her, whose soul you do not know, about whose inclinations it is risky to guess, since in her, according to the words of the great orator, one can rather praise hope than fulfillment. How can she preach abstinence when she asks for pies; when in her mother's arms she babbles incessantly; when is honey gingerbread more pleasant to her than words? Will she who is occupied with more childish tales listen to the mysteries of the apostle? Will the one who is saddened by the sad face of the nanny feel the riddles of the prophets? Will she understand the greatness of the Gospel, from the lightning of which every mortal mind is darkened? How to exhort the one who beats her laughing mother to obey her parents with a gentle hand? So let our Pacatula receive this letter so that she can read it someday. In the meantime, as soon as she learns the rudiments of the alphabet, let her add syllables, learn names and connect words, and let her be offered cakes, sweets and everything that tastes good as a reward, so that she can read more with her thin voice. She will be diligent in this in order to get some flowers, or trinkets, or her favorite dolls. By the way, let him learn to spin with gentle fingers, let him often tear the threads so as not to break them later; After work, let him have fun with games, hang on his mother’s neck, and kiss his family as he runs. And let her sing psalms for reward, let her love to learn what she must learn, so that it is not a necessity, but entertainment, a matter not of need, but of desire. Some people are in the habit of dooming a girl to eternal virginity by putting mourning dresses on her, covering her with a dark veil, and not allowing her to wear gold on her head or neck. Truly, the reasoning is correct, so that even at a young age she does not become accustomed to what she will be forbidden to do later. But others think differently. Do they say that if she herself does not have it, she will not see others as having it? The female gender loves jewelry. And we know many, even especially chaste ones, who happily dress up - not for any of the men, but for themselves. Let him be satiated with what he has and see how others who do not have it are praised. And it is better if, having been satisfied, he begins to neglect it, than if he does not have it, he strives to have it,” etc. Jerome once taught: “Whether you read, or write, or are awake, or dormant, let love forever sound in your ears like a horn.” If only it would sound more often to him, as in these kind words of a gentle and smiling letter! Jerome's last years were darkened by disasters and unrest of all kinds. Pavla died. This was a hard blow for him. Much time later, when he wanted to write a word of praise to her, he still could not from grief. “No matter how many times I took up the style to write what I promised, my fingers became numb, my hand fell, my feelings became clouded.” Still, Pavla’s tombstone was decorated with Jerome’s Latin hexameters; he, to use his own words in relation to such a case, “sowed the flowers of the epitaph on her coffin.” Do you see this cramped coffin, carved into the depths of the rock? This is Paul's shelter, heir to the canopy of heaven, She who, having left Rome, her fatherland, her blood and her brother, her Son, her wealth, hid in a cave in Bethlehem, - Here is your manger, Christ; here once upon a time the ancient magicians of the Secret Meaning brought gifts to man and God. Now the need began to be felt more and more often in the Bethlehem colony. Pavla's enormous fortune was spent on charity. The maintenance of monasteries and hospices also required a lot of money. After her death, only debts remained. The money received by Jerome from the sale of his own lands in Pannonia also could not last long. Constant anxiety and anticipation of attacks by nomadic robber tribes neighboring Palestine (sometimes actually attacking it, as can be seen from Jerome’s correspondence) further increased the insecurity of existence. I suffered from a loss of strength and was tormented by illness. Jerome wrote to Augustine: “I, once a soldier, and now an invalid, can only praise your victories and the victories of others, and not fight myself, having such a weak body - Time takes away everything, including the very soul. How often – I remember – I amused my childhood days with merry singing. How many of those songs are now forgotten. Even the voice has become unfaithful to Merida......" Added to all this was the general grief of the entire Roman world. The catastrophe of the destruction of the Empire was approaching closer and closer. “He who has to live as long as there are people, Rome - victura dum erunt homines Roma” (Amm. Marc. XIII, 6), “princeps urbium” (Horat. Carm. IV, 3) lived out its last days in agony under the blows of the barbarians. They had long ago peacefully conquered it. They were already in the service of his legions, in high administrative positions, at the head of the army. Jerome in “The Life of Hilarion” mentions a candidate (court position) of Emperor Constantius, “who with his light brown hair and white body indicated his origin.” In the Commentary on Daniel we find the following passage: “The fourth kingdom (in the vision of this prophet), which obviously refers to the Romans, is forged from iron, destroying and subduing everything. But his fingers and feet are only partly iron and partly clay, which is most clearly confirmed in our time. Because, just as before there was nothing stronger and stronger than the Roman power, so at the end of things there is nothing more helpless. Now we cannot do without the support of alien barbarian tribes in internecine wars and against other nations.” Indeed, the Vandal Stilicho was even the supreme commander of the Empire’s military forces. Jerome himself could experience all the inconvenience of the new state of affairs, since this “semi-sovereign ruler” did not like the hints of the learned monk in the just mentioned Commentary, and the hermit risked severely paying for them if the death of Stilicho had not saved him from his powerful enemy. Everywhere, on all the Roman frontiers, from the north and east, these hitherto unknown peoples crowded, thrown from their homes by the recent onslaught of the Huns, and now all the more terrible because, taken out of the inertia of peace, they could flow in any direction, unstoppable and ferocious. By the way, we find a most interesting remark by Jerome about these same Huns: it turns out that these tireless riders, who grew up on horses, almost did not know how to walk. “The Roman army, the ruler and conqueror of the universe, is defeated by those who are afraid and tremble at the sight of those who are unable to walk and consider themselves lost if they touch the ground.” And another detail: “Nowadays most of the Roman world is similar to the Judea of ​​the past. And we think that this happened with the permission of the Lord, who, however, does not avenge his reproach from the Assyrians and Chaldeans, but from wild peoples unknown to us, who have a terrible appearance and voice, and here they are - people with women’s shaved faces - hitting the fleeing bearded men in the rear.” If this applies to the Huns, then, perhaps, here one can see an indirect indication of their Mongol origin: as you know, the yellow tribes are poor in facial hair. In Collombet we read, by the way, a very characteristic historical legend also about the Goths. Their apostle Wulfila translated, as we know, the Bible into Gothic. But - in order not to inflame the already indomitable military passions of his fellow tribesmen - he omitted from the translation all the books of Kings as one of the bloodiest pages of Holy Scripture. The results of the gradual capture of the Roman provinces by barbarians are also described quite vividly by Jerome: “The spirit is afraid to dwell on the horrors of our time. Twenty or more years have passed since Roman blood is shed daily between Constantinople and the Julian Alps. Scythia, Thrace, Macedonia, Thessaly, Dardania, Dacia, Epirus, Dalmatia and all regions of Pannonia are tormented and robbed by the Goths, Sarmatians, Quads, Alans, Huns, Vandals, Marcomanni. How many virgins of God, innocent and noble bodies, served to be desecrated by these beasts! Captured bishops, beaten presbyters and other clergy, destroyed churches, horses standing in the altars of Christ, dug up remains of martyrs. – There is crying and sobbing everywhere and many images of death. “The Roman world is collapsing, but our stubborn neck does not bend.” “Moguntiak (Mainz), a once glorious city, is taken and destroyed, and many thousands of people are killed in the church. The Vangiones are devastated after a long siege. The powerful city of Remov (Rheims), Ambian (Amiens), Attrebates (Arras) and the “extreme in the light of Morina,” Tornak, Nemegues, Argentorat (Strasbourg) already belong to Germany. In Aquitaine, in the province of the Nine Nations, Lugdunum and Narbonne, with the exception of a few cities, everything was devastated. And in addition to the sword from without, hunger ravages them from within. Without tears we cannot remember Toulouse, which, if it has not fallen until now, is only thanks to the holy Bishop Exuperius. Spain itself, just about ready to perish, trembles every day, remembering the Cimbri invasion, and what others once endured, it constantly endures in the throes of fear. I am silent about the rest so as not to seem despairing of God’s mercy. Everything that is ours from the Pontic Sea to the Julian Alps has long ceased to be ours. And for thirty years since the Danube border was broken, there has been a war in the internal regions of the Roman Empire. The tears have dried up a long time ago. Except for a few old people, all those born in siege and captivity could not even desire freedom, which they did not know. Who would believe this, what story would convey it in worthy language? - Rome, in its depths, fights not for glory, but for salvation! And he doesn’t even fight, but buys his life with gold and precious utensils (an allusion to the ransom paid to Alaric. - A.D.). This is happening not through the criminal connivance of the emperors (Arcadia and Honorius - A.D.), who are filled with all piety, but through the villainy of a half-barbarian traitor (Stilicho, by the way, was no longer alive by that time; otherwise Jerome could have paid with his head for this phrase. - A.D.), who armed our enemies against ourselves with our riches. Once upon a time, the Roman Empire suffered from eternal shame that Brennus with his all-ravaging Gauls, after the defeat of the Roman army at Allia, could enter Rome. And no sooner could she wash away the shame from her name than by conquering Gaul, the homeland of the Gauls, and Gallogrecia, in which the victors of East and West were also established, under her rule. Hannibal - this storm that rose from the borders of Spain - devastating Italy, saw the City, but did not dare to besiege it. Pyrrhus was overwhelmed with such reverence for the Roman name that, having destroyed everything, he retreated from its environs: the victor did not dare to look at the City, which he had heard of as the city of kings. And yet, for this wickedness (I won’t say insolence), which went well for Rome, one, an exile of the whole world, paid with his life, having been poisoned in Bithynia, the other, returning to his fatherland, found his death there. And the states of both became tributaries of the Roman people. Now, even if everything ends well, we will not have the opportunity to take away anything from our enemies other than what we lost. Describing the power of Rome, the fiery poet said: “What is great if Rome is not great?” Let us put it in other words: “What will stand if Rome falls?” If I had a hundred tongues, a hundred lips and an iron voice, and then I would not be able to list all the torments of the captives, I would not be able to name all the names of the fallen.” And then Jerome adds: “And even what I just said is already dangerous both for the speaker and for those listening, because even a sigh is not free for us - who do not want, or rather, do not dare to cry because of what we endure.” The last words are wonderful. We have already had occasion to point out how risky the very expression of displeasure at the barbarian rule in Rome was. Further, in the same letter, addressing a woman who was planning to get married, Jerome asks her: “What kind of husband will you take? Is it the one that will flee from the enemy, or will he fight? But you know what follows after both. And instead of the Fescenin songs, the war horn will sound like a wild howl. And your matchmakers may turn into mourners.” Of course, this era was not favorable for personal happiness. It seemed that the hour had come when the prophecy of the most famous Roman poet was to be fulfilled. Let us recall here his prophetic verses: Rome, which managed to resist the blue-eyed horde of the Germans, Before Hannibal, who caused horror in our grandfathers, Now will destroy our family, sworn by brotherly blood - He will give the land again to a wild beast! The barbarian, alas, will defeat us and, having announced Our Rome with the ringing of hooves, will desecrate the ashes of our ancestors; The bones of Quirin, that for centuries knew neither wind nor sun, Oh horror! will be insolently scattered... Or maybe all of you, or the best, are only waiting for the word About how you can stop suffering? Listen to wise advice: just as the Phocians, having cursed the city, abandoned their Father’s fields and houses with all their people, mercilessly abandoning the churches, so that boars and fierce wolves could settle in them, so run you too, wherever your feet take you, wherever the winds drive you across the sea! One day, a wave of barbarians crossed the Caucasus into Asia Minor and almost reached Jerusalem. “Suddenly the whole East began to tremble when rumors spread that from extreme Meotida, between the icy Don and the ferocious tribes of the Massagetae, where the Alexander Gate with the rocks of the Caucasus held back the wild peoples, hordes of Huns had surged, who, flying everywhere on fast horses, filled everything with horror and murder. The Roman army was then absent, being held in Italy by civil wars. Herodotus reports that this tribe, under Darius, king of India, kept the East enslaved for 20 years and received tribute from the Egyptians and Ethiopians for a year... There was a consensus rumor that they were going to Jerusalem because of their greed for gold. The walls, which had been neglected during the peace, were restored again. Antioch was under siege. Tire, wanting to get off the ground, was looking for an ancient island. Then we were forced to prepare ships and live on the shore in anticipation of the arrival of enemies, and, despite the stormy weather, to be more afraid of barbarians than of shipwreck: we were not concerned about our own salvation, but about the purity of virgins."227' And it is so characteristic of Jerome that he immediately adds: “At that time we had disagreements, and domestic wars were superior to battles with barbarians.” As for these disagreements and domestic wars, then Jerome here refers to his fierce dispute with the Bishop of Jerusalem, John, over the same ill-fated Origenian issue. Only through the efforts of Theophilus of Alexandria, the dispute was stopped around the year 400, although its consequences were felt for a long time: it was he who led to the break with Rufinus. The fear of a barbarian invasion of Jerusalem turned out to be in vain, but in 410 news came to Bethlehem about the capture of Rome by Alaric. “A terrible rumor came from the West: Rome is under siege, the salvation of citizens is being bought with gold, then that they are again besieged, having already been robbed, in order to deprive them of their property and life. The voice breaks, and sobbing interferes with the words of the dictator. The city that conquered the entire universe was conquered. Moreover, he died of hunger before being killed by the sword, and there were only a few who could be taken prisoner. The madness of the starving people reached the limit: they tormented each other’s members, the mother did not spare her nursing baby, and her womb again accepted what she had recently given birth to. Moab was taken by night, its wall fell by night.” Jerome somewhat exaggerated the imaginary horrors of the capture of the city. The Goths, for the most part, were already Christians. And Augustine, in the first chapters of De civitate Dei [On the City of God], says that they themselves sometimes took citizens to churches that Alaric declared inviolable. But be that as it may, the fall of Rome was a personal blow for Jerome. There was still a lot left there that was dear to him. His closest Roman friends suffered from the unbridledness of the barbarians while they were the temporary masters of the capital of the world. Marcella almost lost her life in the process. “Amid such confusion, the bloody conqueror entered the house of Marcella. They say that she greeted those who entered fearlessly. They demanded gold from her; She, citing poor clothing, testified that she did not have any buried treasures in the ground. But they did not believe her voluntary poverty. When they beat her with whips and sticks, they say she did not feel any pain.” In any case, neither Marcella nor Pammachius survived the shocks they experienced and soon died. Moreover, it seemed completely impossible that this Rome - “the word of Strength in Greek or Heights in Hebrew” - could ever fall. “The head of the world... has been truncated,” wrote Jerome. For a long time he could not get down to anything. “If, according to the famous orator, the laws are silent during battles, how much less the pursuit of science?” “I wanted to take on the interpretation of Ezekiel and fulfill my repeated promise to zealous readers. But at the very beginning of the dictation, my spirit was so shocked by the devastation of the Western provinces and most of all the city of Rome that, as the proverb goes, I forgot my name from grief. And for a long time I was silent, knowing that the time had come for tears.” The population of Rome, fleeing, rushed to Africa, to Palestine. “Noble women... who were driven from the shores of Gaul through Africa to the most holy places by a fierce storm of enemies” sought salvation in the monasteries of Jerusalem and Bethlehem, when Rome became “the tomb of the Roman people.” But even in search of salvation, sometimes death or shame awaited them. The scoundrel, who was the governor of Africa, sold fugitives from the metropolis into slavery. “Here daughters were torn from the womb of their loved ones, noble maidens were sold for marriage to merchants and Syrians - the most greedy of mortals. There was no mercy for widows, defenseless children, or nuns. Here, look more at the hands than at the faces of those asking.” Probably, this involuntary emigration brought to Palestine those undesirable elements with which Jerome had to meet again at the end of his life and which again had to remind him of the vicious Babylon from which he fled, vainly seeking peace. At least, only in this way (precisely this emigration) can the appearance in Bethlehem of a man like Sabinian be explained. The letter to this “fallen Sabinian” is such a literary chef d’oeuvre of Jerome and at the same time such a “document of the times” that we will allow ourselves to quote it almost in its entirety. This letter does not need any introductory remarks. “...I pray: have mercy on your soul! Believe that there will be God's judgment. Remember which bishop you were ordained by! It is not surprising that, being a holy man himself, he could still have made a mistake in choosing another, since God himself repented for anointing Saul as king and among the twelve apostles there was Judas the traitor, and once upon a time, from the people of your own rank, as is known, came Nicholas of Antioch, the inventor of all sorts of abominations and the Nicolaitan heresy. Now I don’t want to repeat to you what they say about you, how you corrupted many girls, that you disrupted the marriages of noble persons, which were then dissolved at the place of execution, that you, a spendthrift and a wicked man, ran around indecent houses. These are, of course, all serious crimes, but they are light compared to what I have to say. I ask, what kind of crime is this, since fornication and adultery are insignificant in comparison? The most unfortunate of mortals, you - in that cave where the Son of God was born, where Truth rose above the earth and the earth gave its fruit - you enter there to agree on lewdness. And are you not afraid that the Baby will cry in the manger, that the Virgin in labor will see you, that the Mother of the Lord will contemplate you? The angels are shouting, the shepherds are in a hurry, the star is burning above, the wise men are worshiping, Herod is trembling, Jerusalem is in turmoil, and you are sneaking into the Virgin’s bedchamber to deceive the virgin? I am afraid, unfortunate one, and I tremble in spirit and body, wanting to depict your deed before your eyes. During the night vigils, the entire church sounded the name of the Lord Christ, and one spirit united songs in different languages ​​for the glory of God. You, on the threshold of once the manger of the Lord, and now the altar, placed love letters, so that later she, pathetic, bending her knees as if in worship, would find and read them; and then he stood in the choir of psalmists and spoke to her with shameless nods. O wickedness! I can't go on any longer. Sobs break out before words, and the spirit chokes in the throat from indignation and grief. Where is this sea of ​​Tullian’s eloquence? where is the thundering stream of Demosthenes? Now, of course, you will both fall silent, and your tongue will become numb. Something has been found that no amount of eloquence can express. A crime has been discovered that a mime cannot invent, a jester cannot depict, and Atellan cannot tell. There is a custom in the monasteries of Egypt and Syria for a widow or a girl who devotes herself to God and renounces the world and all its joys to provide her hair for circumcision to the mothers of the monasteries, and then they do not walk with their heads uncovered, contrary to the Apostle, but tied and covered. And no one knows this except those who cut their hair and are tonsured, unless perhaps everyone knows it, because it is done by everyone. And for two reasons this turned from habit into a natural need: on the one hand, because the monks do not go to the bathhouse, on the other, because without using oil either for their hair or for food, they could suffer from dirt and small animals that usually get in their hair without caring for it. Let's see what you did in the meantime, valiant husband. In that venerable cave you, as if some kind of pledge of a future marriage, accept this hair and scarves of the unfortunate woman, and you yourself bring her a belt, the emblem of marriage, swearing to her that you will not love anyone in this way. Then you run to the place of the shepherds and, despite the angelic voices sounding from above, you testify to her the truth of your words. I’m not saying anything more about the fact that you kissed her, hugged her. Of course, everything can be believed about you, but reverence for the manger and the place does not allow me to think otherwise than about your fall in mind and desire. Unhappy, was it really true that when you stood in the cave with the girl, your eyes didn’t darken, your tongue didn’t go numb, your arms didn’t drop, your chest didn’t tremble and your legs didn’t refuse to serve? After the Basilica of the Apostle Peter, in which she was illuminated by the veil of Christ, after the sacred rites in the churches of the Cross, Resurrection and Ascension of the Lord, when she again took vows of life in the monastery, do you dare to accept the hair that you put with you at night and which she reaped in the cave of Christ? Then from evening until morning you sit under her window, and - since, due to the height, you could not press against each other - you either accept something from her or send it to her along a string. And what was the vigilance of Madame Abbess, since you could not see the girl anywhere except the church, and if, when this was the desire of both of you, you still had no opportunity to communicate except through the window and at night. The sun, as I learned later, rose to annoy you. Pale, exhausted, tired, in order to avoid any suspicion, you then, as a deacon, read the Gospel of Christ in church. We explained the pallor by fasting, and were surprised at your, contrary to usual, bloodless face, as if it were supposedly exhausted from vigils. You already had a ladder ready to bring the unfortunate woman down. The route had already been planned, the ships had been hired, the day had been agreed upon, and the flight had been discussed in the mind. And so that Angel, the gatekeeper of Mary’s peace, the guardian of the cradle of the Lord and the nurturer of the Infant Christ, in whose face you did all this, he himself betrayed you. Oh, my defiled eyes! oh, a day worthy of every curse, when I read, with my mind darkened, these letters of yours, which I still keep! What obscenities there! what caresses! what rejoicing over the agreed-upon fornication. And the deacon could know this, not to mention write it! Where did you learn this, you pathetic one, who boasted that he was raised in the church? Or, as you swear in those letters, you were never pure, never a deacon. If you want to deny, your hand will testify against you, the letters themselves will cry out. But there is, however, a benefit to your crime: I cannot cite here what you wrote. And so you fall at my feet and beg not to destroy you. And - oh, pathetic! - despising the judgment of God, you fear only me as an avenger! I repent, I have forgiven you. And what else could I, a Christian, do to you? I urged you to repent, put on a hair shirt, sprinkle ashes on your head, seek solitude, live in a monastery and implore God’s mercy with incessant tears, and you, the pillar and foundation of my hope, wounded by the sting of a viper, turned into a bow, directed at me, and you throw arrows of slander at me. I have become your enemy by speaking the truth. I do not grieve over slander - who does not know that your lips praise only criminal things? I grieve that you do not grieve for yourself; that you don’t feel that you are already dead, that, like a gladiator going to his death, you are decorating for your own funeral. You dress in linen, weigh down your fingers with rings, rub powder on your teeth, and comb your sparse hair on your pink skull. The ox's neck, swollen with fat, is thick and does not bend because it was broken for debauchery. Moreover, you perfume yourself with ointments, change baths and fight against growing hair; you walk around the forum and the streets in the form of a polished dandy lover. Your face has become the face of a harlot, and you do not know how to blush. Turn, unfortunate one, to the Lord, and the Lord will turn to you. Repent, so that He too will repent of all the troubles that He has spoken, so that they will fall on you. Why are you, forgetting your wound, trying to dishonor others? Why do you, like someone possessed, torment me with bites when I advise you well... Or perhaps you flatter yourself that you were ordained a deacon by such a bishop? I have already said above: neither a father for his son, nor a son for his father will be punished. “But the soul that has sinned will itself die.” And Samuel had children who left the fear of God and gave themselves over to covetousness and sin. And Eli the high priest was a saint, and his sons, as we read in the Jewish books, committed sexual immorality with women in the tabernacle of God and, like you, shamelessly took advantage of the Divine service for themselves. The more worthy the bishop who ordained you is, the more disgusting you are for deceiving such a man. We are usually the last to know what is bad about our home and are unaware of the vices of our children and wives when our neighbors are buzzing about them. All of Italy knew you. Everyone groaned when they saw you standing before the altar of Christ. And you were not so cunning as to prudently hide your vices. So flaming and lust threw you, voluptuous and thirsty, here and there, that you, as it were, showed some kind of triumph and a victorious crown of vice in committing your fornications. In the end, the flames of shamelessness engulfed you almost under the sword and among the guards of a barbarian, and a barbarian spouse, and a powerful spouse. You were not afraid to commit adultery in that house where the offended husband could avenge himself without trial. You appeared in the gardens, in his suburban villa, and acted so freely and madly. as if, in the absence of her husband, you had her as a wife, and not as a mistress. And then, when she got caught, you ran away. He fled secretly to Rome, hid among the Samnites robbers, and at the first rumor about your husband, who for you was like a new Hannibal descending from the Alps, you only considered yourself safe on the ship. Such was the haste of flight that you considered the storm itself safer than solid ground. And so you finally arrive in Syria, where you promise that you want to go to Jerusalem and devote yourself to serving the Lord. Who would not accept someone who promised to be a monk, especially without knowing your tragedies and reading letters of recommendation from your bishop to other clergy. And you, unfortunate one, turned into an angel of light, and a servant of Satan pretended to be a servant of Truth. In the clothing of a lamb, he hid the wolf within himself, and after committing adultery in relation to a man, he longed to become an adulterer in relation to Christ.” We took the liberty of citing this letter, especially since all our efforts to depict the era could never give the reader what it gives. This letter could have introduced him to Jerome’s style to an extent that individual excerpts cannot imagine. The plot of the letter could be the plot of some “Novel of the Italian Renaissance” - and this should once again confirm our idea that the 5th and 15th centuries have something in common for Rome and can be considered from the prevailing mood as some kind of “dance of death” on the eve of death. Now we only have to add very little so that our essay can be considered complete. It seems to us that after all that has been said, the spiritual appearance of this amazing man, in whom asceticism and subtle tastes, science and poetry, embitterment and tenderness, hatred of the world and admiration for it, should have become at least partly clear to the reader. To complete the information, we point out that Jerome died in 420 and was canonized. His memory in the Eastern Church is celebrated on June 15. For the sake of this same completeness, we will allow ourselves to briefly detain the reader by indicating the attitude that was established towards Jerome during his lifetime and has passed - one way or another changing - throughout history right up to the present day. As for his contemporaries, they were almost unanimously filled with deep admiration for his learning and the high feat of his life. Augustine, Sulpicius Severus, Orosius - they all paid due tribute to his asceticism and his endless diligence for the benefit of the church. Some hostile voices that condemned the character of the saint could not significantly influence the judgment of him throughout Western Christianity. And the further into the depths of the Middle Ages the ship of Catholicism sailed, the more significant and majestic this distant and poetic figure in his biography grew before the eyes of Christians. She must have been very responsive to the Middle Ages with her stern and passionate striving “there,” into the heavenly otherworldly, and the extraordinary nature of life provided food for the religious inspiration of medieval legends to an extent rarely seen in any other saint. And here we really see a whole wreath of legends around this illustrious name. They were also transferred to painting: there, as an inevitable decoration, as necessary attributes when depicting a Chalcidian hermit, all these lions resting at his feet, pheasants flying to him, an indispensable skull and next to it sometimes a rose as a symbol of perishable beauty, a cardinal’s hat and a stone that served him for beating his chest during prayer, and of course - also almost always inevitable - a large open before the saint, were established book. But it was not only the tradition of the church that so lovingly surrounded Jerome with its attention. At the same time, he was accepted almost without any restrictions among its most prominent theological authorities, and, for example, on the question of free will, Catholicism positively preferred him to Augustine as defending a more moderate semi-Pelagian point of view. Columbanus could not without reason therefore write to Pope Gregory the Great: “I confess to you sincerely: anyone who rebels against the authority of Jerome in the Western churches will be rejected as a heretic. These churches agree with him in everything.” Even the most ambiguities, perhaps the mistakes of Jerome, were accepted by the Roman Church and stubbornly held on. In the 29th verse of the 34th chapter of Exodus, Jerome translated: “And Moses knew not that his face was horned” (instead of “shining”), and the Catholic world obediently and literally accepted this expression. Evgubin (in the 16th century) wrote about this: “The Jews laugh and mock us when they see Moses in our churches depicted with horns, as if we revered him for some kind of demon.” (Epistolarum Des. Erasmi libri XXXI. Lond col. 1459). The most famous of these “horned” images is, of course, Michelangelo’s Moses. The Renaissance brought new glory to the name of the saint. The Middle Ages, having sensitively understood and appreciated his life's feat, were not always able to appreciate the treasures of ancient knowledge, the charm of Latin speech that were contained in his works. People like Mirandola and Lorenzo Balla pointed out this side of his creations. We already know about Erasmus’s admiration for Jerome. Even before Erasmus, Reuchlin thought of starting to correct his text (see: Allen. Epistolae Erasmi. T. II, p. 50). In general, among humanists, Jerome was undoubtedly the most revered and most widely read father of the church. It is curious that when Holbein, in his so famous drawings for the “In Praise of Folly,” had to depict the ideal saint (which is discussed in the last pages of the “In Praise”), he took Jerome for this image. Rabelais, although without mentioning the name of this latter, nevertheless honored him with almost plagiarism in his amazing novel. We will cite in parallel this curious passage from Rabelais and the corresponding passages from the “Letter to Paulinus the Presbyter on the Study of St. Scriptures,” we will cite especially because the commentators of the French satirist, as far as we know, say nothing about such borrowing. 1) Sic Pythagoras Memphiticos vates; sic Plato Aegyptum et Architam Tarentinum, eamque oram Italiae, quae quondam Magna Graecia dicebatur, laboriosissime peragravit. 2) Apollonius – sive ille magus, ut vulgus loquitur, sive philosophus, ut Pythagorici tradunt – intravit Persas, tran‑sivit Caucasum, Albanos, Scythas, Massagetas, opulentissima Indiae regna penetravit et ad extremum latissimo Phison amne transmisso pervenit ad Bragmanas, ut Hiarcam in throno sedentem aureo et de Tantali fonte potantem inter paucos discipulos de natura,de moribus, ac de siderum cursu audiret docentem; inde per Elamitas, Babylonios, Chaldaeos, Medos, Assyrios, Parthos, Syros, Phoenices, Arabas Pa‑laestinam reversus Alexandriam perrexit, Aethiopiam adivit, ut gymnosophistas et famosissimam Solis mensam videret Sabulo, invenit ille vir ubique, quod disceret, ut semper proficiens semper se melior fieret. 3) Ad Titum Livium lacteo eloquentiae fonte manantem, de ultimis Hispaniae, Galliarumque finibus quosdam venisse nobiles legimus; et quos ad contemplationem sui Roma non traxerat, unius hominis fama perduxit. Pantagruel, Livre II Chapitre XVIII 1) En Pythagoras, qui visita les vaticinateurs memphiticques; en Platon, qui visita les mages de Egypte et Architas de Tarente. 2) En Apolonius Tyaneus, qui alia jusques au mont Caucase, passa les Scythes, les Massagettes, les Indiens, navigea le grand fleuve Physon jusques es Brachmanes, pour veoir Hiarchas, et en Babyloine, Caldee, Medee, Assyrie, Parthie, Syrie, Phoenice, Arabie, Palestine, Alexandrie, jusques en Ethiopie, pour veoir les gymnosophistes. 3) Pareil exemple avons nous de Tite Live, pour lequel veoir et ouyr plusieurs gens studieux vindrent en Rome des fins limitrophes de France et Hespagne. However, as a reaction to such a passion for Jerome, there soon appeared a sharply negative attitude towards him on the part of Lutheranism. Luther himself, taking Augustine as his spiritual leader, naturally had to oppose this exaltation of Jerome to the detriment of the patron of his order. But even without such considerations, he felt in Jerome a soul infinitely alien to himself (as in Erasmus) - and, naturally, he could only be hostile to him. Back in 1516, he wrote to Spalatin: “I completely disagree with Erasmus, and consider Jerome to be as inferior to Augustine in the interpretation of Scripture as he (Erasmus) considers Augustine to be inferior in everything.” Over the years, his opinions became even harsher. We already know that, due to a strange game of historical accidents, Jerome had to polemicize with Protestantism in the person of his Roman predecessors, Jovinian and Vigilantius, for more than 1000 years. It is not surprising, therefore, if Luther’s “De servo arbitrio” contains, for example, the following expression about our saint: “What can be said more godless, blasphemous, impious than what Jerome repeats: virginity fills heaven, and marriage fills the earth. So, as if the patriarchs and apostles and Christian spouses will not be given heaven, but the Vestal Virgins of the pagans will still have it without Christ?” In the same vein are the aphorisms of his “Table Speeches”: “You can read Jerome for the sake of his stories, because there is not a single word in his writings about the faith of the true religion and the teaching of faith.” Zockler in his book cites a number of other, equally grossly biased judgments about Jerome by followers of militant Protestantism. We do not need to dwell on them, because German religious passions, which subsided over time, again allowed later researchers of Jerome in Germany, if not to accept him unconditionally, then at least to pay tribute to his works and the fervor of his faith. As for Jerome the artist, Jerome the writer, there are still people for whom his books have not lost interest and charm in this regard either. So, in our time, Vernon-Lee (a famous English writer) used the life of “Paul the Hermit” for her short story about Saint Eudemon - and this sufficiently indicates how artistically correct Jerome found some features and provisions in his poetic treatment of the church legend. We would not be equally surprised if we were to encounter a purely literary use of the eerie and dramatic episode with the lioness from “The Life of the Captive Monk Malchus,” or even the borrowing of the entire plot of this small but beautiful story by Jerome.