(Updated July 15, 2025)
This Author Quote Archive collects pertinent quotes from the Church Father, St. Jerome.
Next to each quote are the Topic Quote Archives in which they are included.
This Quote Archive is being continuously updated as research continues. Quotes marked with “***” have not yet been organized into their respective Topic Quote Archives.
Books
St. Jerome, Illustrious Men (392)
(Ch. 1, 15)
(Ch. 1) Simon Peter the son of John, from the village of Bethsaida in the province of Galilee, brother of Andrew the apostle, and himself chief of the apostles, after having been bishop of the church of Antioch and having preached to the Dispersion—the believers in circumcision, in Pontus, Galatia, Cappadocia, Asia and Bithynia—pushed on to Rome in the second year of Claudius to overthrow [the heretic] Simon Magus, and held the sacerdotal chair there for twenty-five years until the last, that is the fourteenth, year of Nero. At his hands he received the crown of martyrdom being nailed to the cross with his head towards the ground and his feet raised on high, asserting that he was unworthy to be crucified in the same manner as his Lord. He wrote two epistles which are called Catholic, the second of which, on account of its difference from the first in style, is considered by many not to be by him. Then too the Gospel according to Mark, who was his disciple and interpreter, is ascribed to him. On the other hand, the books, of which one is entitled his Acts, another his Gospel, a third his Preaching, a fourth his Revelation, a fifth his “Judgment” are rejected as apocryphal.
Buried at Rome in the Vatican near the triumphal way he is venerated by the whole world…
(Ch. 15) [St. Pope] Clement, of whom the apostle Paul writing to the Philippians says “With Clement and others of my fellow-workers whose names are written in the book of life” (Phil. 4:3), the fourth bishop of Rome after Peter, if indeed the second was Linus and the third Anacletus, although most of the Latins think that Clement was second after the apostle. He wrote, on the part of the church of Rome, an especially valuable Letter to the church of the Corinthians, which in some places is publicly read, and which seems to me to agree in style with the epistle to the Hebrews which passes under the name of Paul but it differs from this same epistle, not only in many of its ideas, but also in respect of the order of words, and its likeness in either respect is not very great. There is also a second Epistle under his name which is rejected by earlier writers, and a Disputation between Peter and Appion written out at length, which Eusebius in the third book of his Church history rejects. He died in the third year of Trajan and a church built at Rome preserves the memory of his name unto this day.
Treatises
St. Jerome, Against the Luciferians (383)
Cyprian of blessed memory tried to avoid broken cisterns and not to drink of strange waters: and therefore, rejecting heretical baptism, he summoned his African synod in opposition to [St. Pope] Stephen, who was the blessed Peter’s twenty-second successor in the see of Rome. They met to discuss this matter; but the attempt failed. At last those very bishops who had together with him determined that heretics must be re-baptized, reverted to the old custom and published a fresh decree.
St. Jerome, Against Helvidius: The Perpetual Virginity of Blessed Mary (c. 383)
(§19) Now that I have cleared the rocks and shoals I must spread sail and make all speed to reach his epilogue. Feeling himself to be a smatterer, he there produces Tertullian as a witness and quotes the words of Victorinus bishop of Petavium. Of Tertullian I say no more than that he did not belong to the Church. But as regards Victorinus, I assert what has already been proved from the Gospel—that he spoke of the brethren of the Lord not as being sons of Mary, but brethren in the sense I have explained, that is to say, brethren in point of kinship not by nature. We are, however, spending our strength on trifles, and, leaving the fountain of truth, are following the tiny streams of opinion. Might I not array against you the whole series of ancient writers? Ignatius, Polycarp, Irenaeus, Justin Martyr, and many other apostolic and eloquent men, who against Ebion, Theodotus of Byzantium, and Valentinus, held these same views, and wrote volumes replete with wisdom. If you had ever read what they wrote, you would be a wiser man. But I think it better to reply briefly to each point than to linger any longer and extend my book to an undue length…
(§21) …We believe that God was born of the Virgin, because we read it. That Mary was married after she brought forth, we do not believe, because we do not read it. Nor do we say this to condemn marriage, for virginity itself is the fruit of marriage; but because when we are dealing with saints we must not judge rashly. If we adopt possibility as the standard of judgment, we might maintain that Joseph had several wives because Abraham had, and so had Jacob, and that the Lord’s brethren were the issue of those wives, an invention which some hold with a rashness which springs from audacity not from piety. You say that Mary did not continue a virgin: I claim still more, that Joseph himself on account of Mary was a virgin, so that from a virgin wedlock a virgin son was born. For if as a holy man he does not come under the imputation of fornication, and it is nowhere written that he had another wife, but was the guardian of Mary whom he was supposed to have to wife rather than her husband, the conclusion is that he who was thought worthy to be called father of the Lord, remained a virgin.
St. Jerome, Against Jovinian (393)
- Mortal Sin: Christians Can Lose Their Salvation | Book 2, §30
- The Papacy and the Invincibility of the Church | Book 1, §26
- The Sacrament of Marriage, Divorce, and Contraception | Book 1, §20
(§20) But I wonder why he set Judah and Tamar before us for an example [Gen. 38], unless perchance even harlots give him pleasure; or Onan who was slain because he grudged his brother seed [Gen. 38:9]. Does he imagine that we approve of any sexual intercourse except for the procreation of children?…
(§26) …But you say, the Church was founded upon Peter [Matt. 16:18]: although elsewhere the same is attributed to all the Apostles, and they all receive the keys of the kingdom of heaven, and the strength of the Church depends upon them all alike, yet one among the twelve is chosen so that when a head has been appointed, there may be no occasion for schism…
Some offenses are light, some heavy. It is one thing to owe ten thousand talents, another to owe a farthing. We shall have to give account of the idle word no less than of adultery; but it is not the same thing to be put to the blush, and to be put upon the rack, to grow red in the face and to ensure lasting torment. Do you think I am merely expressing my own views? Hear what the Apostle John says: “He who knows that his brother sins a sin not unto death, let him ask, and he shall give him life, even to him that sins not unto death. But he that has sinned unto death, who shall pray for him?” (1 John 5:16). You observe that if we entreat for smaller offenses, we obtain pardon: if for greater ones, it is difficult to obtain our request: and that there is a great difference between sins…
(Book 2, §34) ***
If you do away with the gradations of the tabernacle, the temple, the Church, if, to use a common military phrase, all upon the right hand are to be “up to the same standard,” bishops are to no purpose, priests in vain, deacons useless. Why do virgins persevere? Widows toil? Why do married women practice continence? Let us all sin, and when once we have repented, we shall be on the same footing as the apostles.
St. Jerome, Apology Against Rufinus (402)
- The Canon Scripture | Book 2, §33
- Holy Mary, Mother of God | Book 2, §10
- The Sacrament of Holy Orders, and the Authority of the Priesthood | Book 1, Ch. 10
The consciences of a great many persons have been wounded by the book which you have published under the name of the martyr; they give no heed to the authority of the bishops who condemn Origen, since they think that a martyr has praised him. Of what use are the letters of the bishop Theophilus or of the Pope Anastasius, who follow out the heretic in every part of the world, when your book passing under the name of Pamphilus is there to oppose their letters, and the testimony of the martyr can be set against the authority of the Bishops?
As to how a virgin became the mother of God, he [Rufinus] has full knowledge…
What sin have I committed in following the judgment of the churches? But when I repeat what the Jews say against the Story of Susanna [Dan. 13, not in protestant canon] and the Hymn of the Three Children [Dan. 3:29-68, not in protestant canon], and the fables of Bel and the Dragon [Dan. 14, not in protestant canon], which are not contained in the Hebrew Bible, the man who makes this a charge against me proves himself to be a fool and a slanderer; for I explained not what I thought but what they commonly say against us. I did not reply to their opinion in the Preface, because I was studying brevity, and feared that I should seem to be writing not a Preface but a book. I said therefore, “As to which this is not the time to enter into discussion.”
St. Jerome, Against Vigilantius (406)
- The Communion of Saints: Intercession and Relics | §§6, 8
- The Papacy and the Invincibility of the Church | §§1, 8
(§1) …Jovinianus, condemned by the authority of the Church of Rome, amidst pheasants and swine’s flesh, breathed out, or rather belched out his spirit…
(§6) …You say, in your pamphlet, that so long as we are alive we can pray for one another; but once we die, the prayer of no person for another can be heard, and all the more because the martyrs, though they cry for the avenging of their blood [Apoc. 6:10], have never been able to obtain their request. If Apostles and martyrs while still in the body can pray for others, when they ought still to be anxious for themselves, how much more must they do so when once they have won their crowns, overcome, and triumphed? A single man, Moses, oft wins pardon from God for six hundred thousand armed men [Ex. 32:30, et al]; and Stephen, the follower of his Lord and the first Christian martyr, entreats pardon for his persecutors [Acts 7:59-60]; and when once they have entered on their life with Christ, shall they have less power than before?…
(§8) Does the bishop of Rome do wrong when he offers sacrifices to the Lord over the venerable bones of the dead men Peter and Paul, as we should say, but according to you, over a worthless bit of dust, and judges their tombs worthy to be Christ’s altars? And not only is the bishop of one city in error, but the bishops of the whole world, who, despite the tavern-keeper Vigilantius, enter the basilicas of the dead, in which “a worthless bit of dust and ashes lies wrapped up in a cloth,” defiled and defiling all else. Thus, according to you, the sacred buildings are like the sepulchers of the Pharisees, whitened without, while within they have filthy remains, and are full of foul smells and uncleanliness. And then he dares to expectorate his filth upon the subject and to say: “Is it the case that the souls of the martyrs love their ashes, and hover round them, and are always present, lest haply if any one come to pray and they were absent, they could not hear?” Oh, monster, who ought to be banished to the ends of the earth! do you laugh at the relics of the martyrs, and in company with Eunomius, the father of this heresy, slander the Churches of Christ? Are you not afraid of being in such company, and of speaking against us the same things which he utters against the Church?…
Biblical Commentaries
St. Jerome, Commentary on Ecclesiastes
- The Sacrament of Confession | Commentary on 10:11
(Commentary on 10:11)1
If the serpent, the devil, secretly bites anyone, and, unobserved, infects that man with the venom of sin, and if the person who was struck stays quiet and does not repent, and refuses to confess his wound to a brother and a teacher, the brother and teacher, who have the tongue for curing him, will not easily be able to help him. If a sick man is embarrassed to confess a wound to his doctor, medicine does not heal what it is unaware of.
St. Jerome, Commentary on Isaiah (c. 409)
- Holy Mary, Mother of God | Book 3, Ch. 7, §15
(Book 3, Ch. 7, §15)2
Do not marvel at the novelty of the thing, if a Virgin gives birth to God [Mother of God].
St. Jerome, Commentary on Daniel
- Pagan Attempt to Rebuild Jerusalem Temple Thwarted | Commentary on 11:34
- End Times | Commentary on 11:44-45
(Commentary on 11:34)3
Our writers, however, would have it understood that the small help shall arise under the reign of the Antichrist, for the saints shall gather together to 135 | 136 resist him, and afterwards a great number of the learned shall fall. And this shall take place in order that they may be refined as by fire in the furnace, and that they may be made white and may be chosen out, until the time before determined arrives–for the true victory shall be won at the coming of Christ.
Some of the Jews understand these things as applying to the princes Severus and Antoninus, who esteemed the Jews very highly. But others understand the Emperor Julian as the one referred to; for after they had been oppressed by Gaius Caesar and had steadfastly endured such suffering in the afflictions of their captivity, Julian rose up as one who pretended love for the Jews, promising that he would even offer sacrifice in their temple. They were to enjoy a little help from him, and a great number of the Gentiles were to join themselves to their party, although falsely and insincerely. For it would only be for the sake of their own idolatrous religion that they would pretend friendship to the Jews. And they would do this in order that those who were approved might be made manifest [1 Cor. 11:19]. For the time of their true salvation and help will be the coming of the Christ; for the Jews mistakenly imagine that he (i.e. their Messiah) is yet to come, for they are going to receive the Antichrist (when he comes).
(Commentary on 11:44-45)4
Those of our party, on the other hand, explain the final chapter of this vision [of Daniel] as relating to the Antichrist, and stating that during his war against the Egyptians, Libyans, and Ethiopians, in which he shall smash three of the ten horns, he is going to hear that war has been stirred up against him in the regions of the North and East. Then he shall come with a great host to crush and slay many people, and shall pitch his ten in Apedno near Nicopolis., which was formerly called Emmaus, at the beginning of the mountainous region in the province of Judaea. Finally he shall make his way thence to go up to the Mount of Olives and ascend to the area of Jerusalem; and this is what the Scripture means here: “And when he has pitched his tent…” at the foothills of the mountainous province between two seas. These are, of course, that which is now called the Dead Sea on the east, and the Great Sea on the shore of which lie Caesarea, Joppa, Ashkelon, and Gaza. Then he shall come up to the summit therefor, that is of the mountainous province, or the apex of the Mount of Olives which of course is called famous because our Lord and Savior ascended from it to the Father. And no one shall be able to assist the Antichrist as the Lord vents his fury upon him. Our school of thought insists that Antichrist is going to perish in that spot from which the Lord ascended to heaven.
St. Jerome, Commentary on Matthew (398)
- The Sacrament of Marriage, Divorce, and Contraception | Book 3, Commentary on 19:9
- End Times | Book 4, Commentary on 24:15-18
(Book 3, Commentary on 19:9)5
Therefore, whenever there is fornication and suspicion of fornication, a wife is freely divorced. And since it could have happened that someone brought a false charge against an innocent person, and on account of the second marriage-union hurled a charge at the first wife, it is commanded to divorce the first wife in such a way that he has no second wife while the first one is living. For he says the following: If you divorce your wife not on account of lust, but on account of an injury, why after the experience of the first unhappy marriage do you admit yourself into the danger of a new one? And besides, it could have come to pass that according to the same law, the wife too would have given a bill of divorce to the husband. And so by the same precaution, it is commanded that she not receive a second husband. And since a prostitute and she who had once been an adulteress were not afraid of reproach, the second husband 216 | 217 is commanded that if he marries such a woman, he will be under the charge of adultery.
(Book 4, Commentary on 24:15-18)6
24:15. “Therefore, when you see the abomination of desolation, which was spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing in the holy place, let the reader understand.”
Whenever we are summoned to understanding, what has been said is shown to be mystical. Now, we read it in Daniel in this way: “And for half a week my sacrifice and libations will be removed, and in the Temple there will be an abomination of desolations until the consummation of the time, and the consummation will be given over the devastation” (Dan. 9:27). The apostle also speaks of this, that the man of iniquity and the adversary 271 | 272 is to be lifted up against everything that is called God or that is worshiped. He will dare to stand in the Temple of God and show that he himself is God [2 Thess. 2:3-4] that his coming in accordance with the working of Satan destroys them [2 Thess. 2:8-9], and that it reduces those who received him to a devastation, void of God [Lev. 26:31; Jer. 25:18]. Now this can be interpreted either literally of the Antichrist, or of the image of Caesar that Pilate placed in the Temple, or of the equestrian statue of Hadrian, which stands to the present day in the very location of the holy of holies. According to the old Scripture, an “abomination” is also called an “idol,” and this is why “of desolation” is added, because an idol will be placed in the desolated and destroyed Temple.
24:16-18. “Then let those who are in Judea flee to the mountains, and let the one who is on the housetop not go down to take anything from his house, and let him who is in the field not turn back to take his tunic.”
The “abomination of desolation” can also be understood of all perverted doctrine. When we see it standing in the holy place, that is, in the Church, and showing itself as God, we should flee from Judea to the mountains; that is, when the letter that kills and Judaic depravity have been abandoned, let us draw near to the eternal mountains from which God illumines marvelously. Let us be on the housetop and in the home where the flaming arrows of the devil cannot reach. Let us not go down and take anything from the house of our former way of life, nor seek the things that are below. Rather, let us sow in the field of the spiritual Scriptures, that we might receive fruit from it.
St. Jerome, Commentary on Titus (c. 387-388)
(Commentary on 3:10-11)7 ***
In these things, one must carefully observe that just as the other vices that are enumerated among the works of the flesh exclude us from the kingdom of God, so also “heresies” 344 | 345 take away the kingdom of God from us. And it does not matter how, only that someone is excluded from the kingdom.
Now what may be rather surprising is what seems to require a reading from the Acts of the Apostles, that our faith in Christ and in the Church’s instruction already then was called a “heresy” by perverse men [Acts 28:21-22]…And although in Miletus the term “heresy” is not mentioned by Paul, nevertheless its works are identified, when he says to the priests of the church, “I know that after my departure fierce wolves will come among you, not sparing the flock; and men from your very midst will arise speaking perverse things, to lead away disciples behind them” (Acts 20:29-30). These things would have been said in passing, when even elsewhere heresy was named. Not it appears that the term itself needs to be very fully displayed.
Heresy is the Greek word for choice, namely, because each one chooses for himself what seems better to him. The philosophers, too, the Stoics, Peripatetics, Academics, and Epicureans, are called heresies of this one or that one. It is superfluous to go into detail and to list Marcion, Valentinus, Apelles, Ebion, Montanus, and Manichaeus, together with their doctrines, since it is very easy for each one to find out for which errors these individuals are regarded. Would that Arius and Eunomius and the author of a new heresy were not so well known. Perhaps they would not have deceived so many!… 345 | 346
But he gives the reasons why after the first and second rebuke he [the heretic] is to be avoided, when he says, “Because his sort are ruined and he sins, since he is self-condemned.” For one who has been rebuked once and twice, when his error has been heard, does not want to be corrected; he thinks the one who corrects him is in error. And instead he prepares himself to fight and wrangle over words. He wants to win over the one by whom he is being taught. For this reason, however, he is said to be “self-condemned.” For the fornicator, adulterer, murderer, and the other vices are expelled from the church by the priests [1 Cor. 5:11-13, 6:9-10]. But heretics pass judgment on themselves, by withdrawing from the church by their own choice. This withdrawal seems to be the condemnation of private conscience. I think that the difference between heresy and schism is that heresy contains perverse doctrine, schism separatism separates from the church on account of episcopal dissension. To be sure this can be understood this way to some extent in the beginning. However that may be, no schism fails to concoct some heresy for itself, so that it may appear to have withdrawn from the church rightly.
Letters
St. Jerome, Letter 14: To Heliodorus, Monk (c. 376)
- Apostolic Succession | §8
- The Papacy and the Invincibility of the Church | §8
- The Sacrament of Holy Orders, and the Authority of the Priesthood | §8
Far be it from me to censure the successors of the apostles, who with holy words consecrate the body of Christ [the Eucharist], and who make us Christians [in baptism]. Having the keys of the kingdom of heaven, they judge men to some extent before the day of judgment, and guard the chastity of the bride of Christ. But, as I have before hinted, the case of monks is different from that of the clergy. The clergy feed Christ’s sheep; I as a monk am fed by them. They live of the altar [1 Cor. 9:13-14]; I, if I bring no gift to it, have the axe laid to my root as to that of a barren tree [Matt. 3:10]. Nor can I plead poverty as an excuse, for the Lord in the gospel has praised an aged widow for casting into the treasury the last two coins that she had [Luke 21:1-4]. I may not sit in the presence of a presbyter [see Letter 146]; he, if I sin, may deliver me to Satan, “for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved” (1 Cor. 5:5). Under the old law he who disobeyed the priests was put outside the camp and stoned by the people, or else he was beheaded and expiated his contempt with his blood [Deut. 17:5, 12]. But now the disobedient person is cut down with the spiritual sword, or he is expelled from the church and torn to pieces by ravening demons.
St. Jerome, Letter 15: To St. Pope Damasus (c. 376/377)
(§1) Since the East, shattered as it is by the long-standing feuds, subsisting between its peoples, is bit by bit tearing into shreds the seamless vest of the Lord, “woven from the top throughout” (John 19:23) since the foxes are destroying the vineyard of Christ (Song. 2:15), and since among the broken cisterns that hold no water it is hard to discover “the sealed fountain” and “the garden enclosed” (Song. 4:12), I think it my duty to consult the chair of Peter, and to turn to a church whose faith has been praised by Paul [Rom. 1:8]. I appeal for spiritual food to the church whence I have received the garb of Christ [baptism; cf. Gal. 3:27]. The wide space of sea and land that lies between us cannot deter me from searching for “the pearl of great price” (Matt. 13:46). “Wheresoever the body is, there will the eagles be gathered together” (Matt. 24:28). Evil children have squandered their patrimony; you alone keep your heritage intact. The fruitful soil of Rome, when it receives the pure seed of the Lord, bears fruit a hundredfold; but here [in the east] the seed corn is choked in the furrows and nothing grows but darnel or oats [Matt. 13:22-23]. In the West the Sun of righteousness [Mal. 4:2] is even now rising; in the East, Lucifer, who fell from heaven [Luke 10:18], has once more set his throne above the stars [Isa. 14:12]. “You are the light of the world” (Matt. 5:14), “you are the salt of the earth” (Matt. 5:13), you are “vessels of gold and of silver.” Here are vessels of wood or of earth [2 Tim. 2:20], which wait for the rod of iron [Apoc. 2:27], and eternal fire.
(§2) Yet, though your greatness terrifies me, your kindness attracts me. From the priest I demand the safe-keeping of the victim, from the shepherd the protection due to the sheep. Away with all that is overweening; let the state of Roman majesty withdraw. My words are spoken to the successor of the fisherman [St. Peter], to the disciple of the cross. As I follow no leader save Christ, so I communicate with none but your blessedness, that is with the chair of Peter. For this, I know, is the rock on which the church is built [Matt. 16:18]! This is the house where alone the paschal lamb can be rightly eaten [Ex. 12:22]. This is the ark of Noah, and he who is not found in it shall perish when the flood prevails [Gen. 7:23]…Consequently I here follow the Egyptian confessors [Catholics expelled by Emperor Valens] who share your faith, and anchor my frail craft under the shadow of their great argosies [large ships]. I know nothing of Vitalis; I reject Meletius; I have nothing to do with Paulinus [rival claimants of the see of Antioch]. He that gathers not with you scatters [Matt. 12:30]; he that is not of Christ is of Antichrist.
(§3) Just now, I am sorry to say, those Arians, the Campenses [the party of Meletius in Antioch, who worshipped outside the city], are trying to extort from me, a Roman Christian, their unheard-of formula…And this, too, after the definition of Nicaea and the decree of Alexandria [allowed three hypostases to be interpreted in a Catholic way, but did not encourage it], in which the West has joined. Where, I should like to know, are the apostles of these doctrines? Where is their Paul, their new doctor of the Gentiles?…
(§4) If you think fit enact a decree; and then I shall not hesitate to speak of three hypostases. Order a new creed to supersede the Nicene; and then, whether we are Arians or orthodox, one confession will do for us all…Or, if you think it right that I should speak of three hypostases, explaining what I mean by them, I am ready to submit…
(§5) I implore your blessedness, therefore, by the crucified Savior of the world, and by the consubstantial trinity, to authorize me by letter either to use or to refuse this formula of three hypostases…I beg you also to signify with whom I am to communicate at Antioch. Not, I hope, with the Campenses; for they—with their allies the heretics of Tarsus [likely semi-Arians or Macedonians, led by Silvanus of Tarsus]—only desire communion with you to preach with greater authority their traditional doctrine of three hypostases.
St. Jerome, Letter 16: To St. Pope Damasus (c. 377/78)
The untiring foe follows me closely, and the assaults that I suffer in the desert are severer than ever. For the Arian frenzy raves, and the powers of the world support it. The church is rent into three factions, and each of these is eager to seize me for its own. The influence of the monks is of long standing, and it is directed against me. I meantime keep crying: “He who clings to the chair of Peter is accepted by me.” Meletius, Vitalis, and Paulinus [rival claimants of the see of Antioch] all profess to cleave to you [St. Pope Damasus], and I could believe the assertion if it were made by one of them only. As it is, either two of them or else all three are guilty of falsehood. Therefore I implore your blessedness, by our Lord’s cross and passion, those necessary glories of our faith, as you hold an apostolic office, to give an apostolic decision. Only tell me by letter with whom I am to communicate in Syria, and I will pray for you that you may sit in judgment enthroned with the twelve [Matt. 19:28]; that when you grow old, like Peter, you may be girded not by yourself but by another [John 21:18], and that, like Paul, you may be made a citizen of the heavenly kingdom [Phil. 3:20]. Do not despise a soul for which Christ died.
St. Jerome, Letter 22: To Eustochium (384)
I cannot bring myself to speak of the many virgins who daily fall and are lost to the bosom of the church, their mother: stars over which the proud foe sets up his throne [Isa. 14:13], and rocks hollowed by the serpent that he may dwell in their fissures. You may see many women widows before wedded, who try to conceal their miserable fall by a lying garb. Unless they are betrayed by swelling wombs or by the crying of their infants, they walk abroad with tripping feet and heads in the air. Some go so far as to take potions, that they may insure barrenness, and thus murder human beings almost before their conception. Some, when they find themselves with child through their sin, use drugs to procure abortion, and when (as often happens) they die with their offspring, they enter the lower world laden with the guilt not only of adultery against Christ but also of suicide and child murder.
St. Jerome, Letter 41: To Marcella (385)
(§3) ***
In the first place we differ from the Montanists regarding the rule of faith. We distinguish the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit as three persons, but unite them as one substance. They, on the other hand, following the doctrine of Sabellius, force the Trinity into the narrow limits of a single personality. We, while we do not encourage them, yet allow second marriages, since Paul bids the younger widows to marry [1 Tim. 5:14]. They suppose a repetition of marriage a sin so awful that he who has committed it is to be regarded as an adulterer. We, according to the apostolic tradition (in which the whole world is at one with us), fast through one Lent yearly; whereas they keep three in the year as though three saviors had suffered. I do not mean, of course, that it is unlawful to fast at other times through the year—always excepting Pentecost—only that while in Lent it is a duty of obligation, at other seasons it is a matter of choice. With us, again, the bishops occupy the place of the apostles, but with them a bishop ranks not first but third. For while they put first the patriarchs of Pepusa in Phrygia, and place next to these the ministers called stewards, the bishops are relegated to the third or almost the lowest rank. No doubt their object is to make their religion more pretentious by putting that last which we put first. Again they close the doors of the Church to almost every fault, while we read daily, “I desire the repentance of a sinner rather than his death” (Ezek. 18:23), and “Shall they fall and not arise, says the Lord” (Jer. 8:4), and once more “Return you backsliding children and I will heal your backslidings” (Jer. 3:22). Their strictness does not prevent them from themselves committing grave sins, far from it; but there is this difference between us and them, that, whereas they in their self-righteousness blush to confess their faults, we do penance for ours, and so more readily gain pardon for them.
St. Jerome, Letter 55: To Amandus (396)
You must not speak to me of the violence of a ravisher, a mother’s pleading, a father’s bidding, the influence of relatives, the insolence and the intrigues of servants, household losses. A husband may be an adulterer or a sodomite, he may be stained with every crime and may have been left by his wife because of his sins; yet he is still her husband and, so long as he lives, she may not marry another.
St. Jerome, Letter 71: To Lucinius (398)
(§6) ***
You ask me whether you ought to fast on the Sabbath [Saturday] and to receive the eucharist daily according to the custom—as currently reported—of the churches of Rome and Spain. Both these points have been treated by the eloquent Hippolytus, and several writers have collected passages from different authors bearing upon them. The best advice that I can give you is this. Church-traditions—especially when they do not run counter to the faith—are to be observed in the form in which previous generations have handed them down; and the use of one church is not to be annulled because it is contrary to that of another. As regards fasting, I wish that we could practice it without intermission as—according to the Acts of the Apostles—Paul did and the believers with him even in the season of Pentecost and on the Lord’s Day. They are not to be accused of Manicheism, for carnal food ought not to be preferred before spiritual. As regards the holy eucharist you may receive it at all times without qualm of conscience or disapproval from me. You may listen to the psalmist’s words: “O taste and see that the Lord is good” (Ps. 34:8); you may sing as he does: “my heart pours forth a good word” (Ps. 45:1). But do not mistake my meaning. You are not to fast on feast-days, neither are you to abstain on the week days in Pentecost. In such matters each province may follow its own inclinations, and the traditions which have been handed down should be regarded as apostolic laws.
St. Jerome, Letter 107: To Laeta
(§4) …Accordingly you must see that the child is not led away by the silly coaxing of women to form a habit of shortening long words or of decking herself with gold and purple. Of these habits one will spoil her conversation and the other her character. She must not therefore learn as a child what afterwards she will have to unlearn…
(§5) Let her very dress and garb remind her to Whom she is promised. Do not pierce her ears or paint her face consecrated to Christ with white lead or rouge. Do not hang gold or pearls about her neck or load her head with jewels, or by reddening her hair make it suggest the fires of gehenna. Let her pearls be of another kind and such that she may sell them hereafter and buy in their place the pearl that is “of great price” (Matt. 13:46). In days gone by a lady of rank, Prætextata by name, at the bidding of her husband Hymettius, the uncle of Eustochium, altered that virgin’s dress and appearance and arranged her neglected hair after the manner of the world, desiring to overcome the resolution of the virgin herself and the expressed wishes of her mother. But lo in the same night it befell her that an angel came to her in her dreams. With terrible looks he menaced punishment and broke silence with these words, ‘Have you presumed to put your husband’s commands before those of Christ? Have you presumed to lay sacrilegious hands upon the head of one who is God’s virgin? Those hands shall forthwith wither that you may know by torment what you have done, and at the end of five months you shall be carried off to hell. And farther, if you persist still in your wickedness, you shall be bereaved both of your husband and of your children.’ All of which came to pass in due time, a speedy death marking the penitence too long delayed of the unhappy woman. So terribly does Christ punish those who violate His temple [1 Cor. 3:17], and so jealously does He defend His precious jewels. I have related this story here not from any desire to exult over the misfortunes of the unhappy, but to warn you that you must with much fear and carefulness keep the vow which you have made to God.
St. Jerome, Letter 121: To Algasia
What does what the same Apostle writes to the Thessalonians mean: “Unless a revolt comes first and the man of sin is revealed” and the rest? In the first letter to the Thessalonians, he had written: “About the time and the moment, brothers, you do not need me to write to you; for you yourselves know perfectly that the day of the Lord will come just like a thief in the night. For when they have said: ‘Peace and security,’ then sudden destruction will come upon them just like pain upon a pregnant woman, and they will not escape.”
For he had written to them a little earlier in the letter: “We say this to you in the word of the Lord, that we, who are alive, who remain for the arrival of the Lord, we will not stop those who have fallen asleep, since the Lord himself will come down from heaven with an order and with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead, who are in Christ, will be the first to rise. Then we, who are alive, who remain, at once we will be snatched up with them in the cloud, face to face with God in the air and we will always be thus with the Lord. And so we console one another in these words.”
Hearing this, the Macedonians did not understand whom the apostle calls living with him and who are said to remain, and who would be seized with him into the clouds, face to face with Lord. But they thought that, so long as Paul was still in his body and before he could taste death, Christ would return in his majesty.
Hearing this, the apostle begs them and swears by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ that they should not be agitated so quickly—and neither by the spirit nor by a speech nor by a letter written supposedly by him, as though the day of the Lord was at hand. Moreover, all the volumes of the prophets and the faith in the gospels teach that there are two arrivals of the Lord Savior: in the first, he will come in humility, and in the second, he will come in glory. The Lord himself attests to what must happen before the end of the world and how the antichrist will come, when he says to the apostles: “When you see the abomination of desolation,” which was spoken of by the prophet Daniel, “standing in the holy place—let he who reads understand—then, those who are in Judea, let them flee to the mountains, and the one on the rooftop not descend to take anything from his house.” And likewise: “Then, if anyone says to you, ‘Behold: Christ is here or there,’ do not believe it. For false Christs will rise and false prophets will give both great signs and prodigies, so that even the elect might be led into error, if it is possible. Behold: I have warned you. If therefore anyone says to you: ‘Behold: he is in the desert,’ do not go out there, ‘Behold: he is inside,’ do not believe him. For just as lightning proceeds from the east and appears even in the west, so too will be the arrival of the son of man.” And next: “Then the sign of the son of man will appear in heaven and they will see the son of man coming in the clouds of heaven with great strength and splendor. And he will send his angels with a trumpet blast and with a great voice and they will gather together his elect from the four winds from the farthest part of the heavens to their ends.” And again he speaks to the Jews about the antichrist: “I have come in the name of my father and you have not believed me. If another comes in his name, you will receive him.”
Therefore, either the occasion of a misunderstood letter or a counterfeit revelation, which had deceived them in a dream as they were sleeping, or the suppositions of others interpreting the words of Isaiah and Daniel and the Gospels heralding the antichrist at that time had shaken up and disturbed the minds of the Thessalonians, so that they hoped that Christ in his splendor would come.
The apostle remedies this error [thinking the Antichrist was about to appear] and explains the things which are to be expected before the arrival of the antichrist, so that, when they see that these things have happened, then they will know that the antichrist is about to come, that is, the man of sin and the son of perdition, “who is opposed and is raised above everything that is called God or that is worshiped” and who “sits in the temple of God.” “Unless,” he says, “revolt comes first,” which in Greek is called apostasia, so that all nations, which are subject to the Roman Empire, may withdraw from them—“and he will be revealed”—that is, he will be shown, whom the words of all the prophets announce in advance—“the man of sin”—in whom lies the spring of all sins—“and the son of perdition”—that is, the devil; for he himself is the destruction of everything—“who is opposed” to Christ and for that reason is called the antichrist “and he is raised above all that is called God,” so that he might trample with his foot the gods of all nations or every approved and true religion and “in the temple of God”—or in the temple of Jerusalem, as some think, or in a church, as I think more correctly—“he might sit and show himself,” as if he were Christ and the son of God.
If, he says, the Roman Empire is not devastated and if the antichrist does not come first, Christ will not come, who is going to come to destroy the antichrist. You remember, he says, that these things which now I write in a letter, I said in person when I was with you, and I said to you that Christ will not come unless the antichrist had preceded him. “And now you know what detains him, so that he might be revealed in his time,” that is, you fully know what the reason is that the antichrist does not come in the present time. He does not mean to speak openly of the Roman Empire’s destruction, which its rulers think is eternal. Thus according to the Apocalypse of John, on the forehead of the whore dressed in purple the name of blasphemy is written, that is “To Eternal Rome.” For if openly and brazenly he had said: “The antichrist will not come until the Roman Empire is destroyed,” a reasonable cause for persecution against the church, which was rising at that time, seemed to spring up. What follows: “For already the mystery of iniquity is at work, that only he who now holds may do so, until he is taken out of the way, and then the wicked man will be revealed” has this sense: With the many evils and sins with which Nero, the most defiled of the Caesars, oppresses the world, the arrival of the antichrist is born and what the antichrist will use later is partially completed by Nero, to such an extent that the Roman Empire, which now holds all nations, will withdraw and be taken out of the way. And then the antichrist will come, the spring of iniquity, “whom the Lord Jesus will kill with the breath of his mouth”; that is to say, with divine power and the authority of his splendor, whose role it is to have issued orders, not in the multitude of the host, not in the strength of soldiers, not in the help of angels, but, as soon as Christ comes, the antichrist will be killed. And in the way that shadows are put to flight by the arrival of the sun, so “by the brightness of his arrival” the Lord will destroy and blot out the antichrist, whose works are the works of Satan, and, just as the fullness of divinity was bodily in Christ, thus in the antichrist will be all strength and signs and prodigies, but these will all be deceptions. For just as the magicians, with their own trickeries, opposed the signs of God, which were accomplished through Moses, and Moses’ staff devoured their staffs, so the truth of Christ will devour the deceit of the antichrist; moreover, they who have been prepared for destruction will be seduced by his trickery.
And a silent question was able to be raised: “Why did God grant him to have all strength, signs, and prodigies through which even God’s elect could be seduced, if it were possible?” Paul presents this question with a solution, and he dismisses what could be argued before it is argued. The antichrist will do, he says, all these things not by his own strength, but by God’s permission because of the Jews, since it was they who were not willing to receive the love of truth, that is Christ, because the love of God was spread out in the hearts of believers and he himself says: “I am the truth,” about whom it has been written in the psalms: “Truth has arisen from the land.”
Therefore, they who did not receive love and truth so that they, upon receiving the savior, might be saved, God sends to them not a worker, but the work itself, that is, the source of error, so that they may trust in a deception, “because he and his father are deceitful.” And if, accordingly, the antichrist was born from a virgin and had come first into the world, the Jews could have an excuse and say that they thought it was truth and for that reason they took up a deception for truth; but now for this reason they must be judged—rather, without doubt they must be condemned, because having despised truth, that is, Christ, they will later take up a deception, that is, the antichrist.
St. Jerome, Letter 123: To Ageruchia (409)
(§10) | SUCCESSORS | INFALLIBILITY
The story which I am about to relate is an incredible one, yet it is vouched for by many witnesses. A great many years ago when I was helping Damasus bishop of Rome with his ecclesiastical correspondence, and writing his answers to the questions referred to him by the councils of the east and west…
St. Jerome, Letter 146: To Evangelus
(§§1, 2) ***
(§1) …For what function, excepting ordination, belongs to a bishop that does not also belong to a presbyter? It is not the case that there is one church at Rome and another in all the world beside. Gaul and Britain, Africa and Persia, India and the East worship one Christ and observe one rule of truth. If you ask for authority, the world outweighs its capital. Wherever there is a bishop, whether it be at Rome or at Engubium, whether it be at Constantinople or at Rhegium, whether it be at Alexandria or at Zoan, his dignity is one and his priesthood is one. Neither the command of wealth nor the lowliness of poverty makes him more a bishop or less a bishop. All alike are successors of the apostles.
(§2) …Of the names presbyter and bishop the first denotes age, the second rank. In writing both to Titus and to Timothy the apostle speaks of the ordination of bishops and of deacons, but says not a word of the ordination of presbyters; for the fact is that the word bishops includes presbyters also. Again when a man is promoted it is from a lower place to a higher. Either then a presbyter should be ordained a deacon, from the lesser office, that is, to the more important, to prove that a presbyter is inferior to a deacon; or if on the other hand it is the deacon that is ordained presbyter, this latter should recognize that, although he may be less highly paid than a deacon, he is superior to him in virtue of his priesthood. In fact as if to tell us that the traditions handed down by the apostles were taken by them from the Old Testament, bishops, presbyters and deacons occupy in the church the same positions as those which were occupied by Aaron, his sons, and the Levites in the temple.
St. Jerome, Letter to St. Augustine, Letter 75 in St. Augustine, replying to Letters 28, 40, and 71 (404)
These quotations should not be tedious to the reader, but useful both to him and to me, as proving that, even before the Apostle Paul, Peter had come to know that the law was not to be in force after the gospel was given; nay more, that Peter was the prime mover in issuing the decree by which this was affirmed [Council of Jerusalem in Acts 15]. Moreover, Peter was of so great authority, that Paul has recorded in his epistle: “Then, after three years, I went up to Jerusalem to see Peter, and abode with him fifteen days” (Gal. 1:18). In the following context, again, he adds: “Then, fourteen years after, I went up again to Jerusalem with Barnabas, and took Titus with me also. And I went up by revelation, and communicated unto them that gospel which I preach among the Gentiles” (Gal. 2:1-2); proving that he had not had confidence in his preaching of the gospel if he had not been confirmed by the consent of Peter and those who were with him.
Footnotes
- St. Jerome, Richard J. Goodrich and David JD Miller, trans., Ancient Christian Writers, Vol. 66: St. Jerome, Commentary on Ecclesiastes (New York: The Newman Press, 2012), 114. ↩︎
- Jimmy Akins, The Fathers Know Best: Your Essential Guide to the Teachings of the Early Church (San Diego: Catholic Answers Press, 2010), 347. ↩︎
- St. Jerome, Gleason L. Archer, trans., Jerome’s Commentary on Daniel (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2009), 135-36. ↩︎
- St. Jerome, Gleason L. Archer, trans., Jerome’s Commentary on Daniel (Eugene, OR: Wipf & Stock, 2009), 142. ↩︎
- St. Jerome, Thomas P. Scheck, trans., Fathers of the Church, Vol. 117: St. Jerome, Commentary on Matthew (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2008), 216-17. ↩︎
- St. Jerome, Thomas P. Scheck, trans., The Fathers of the Church, Vol. 117: St. Jerome, Commentary on Matthew (Washington, DC: The Catholic University of America Press, 2008), 271-72. ↩︎
- St. Jerome, Thomas P. Scheck, trans., St. Jeromeʼs Commentaries on Galatians, Titus, and Philemon (Notre Dame, IN: Notre Dame University Press, 2010), 344-45, 346. ↩︎
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