nion, must never be ordained to the holy functions; and so strict it was, that if such an one were ordained by mistake, his crimes not being known, when they came afterwards to be known, he was to be deposed by the Nicean canon; but the Neocæsarean admits him to continue in the name, and some part of the office; but not to offer, as they called it, i. e. to consecrate the holy elements; and this they will have to be observed," because (as the words of the Nicene canon are) the holy church does in all things keep to that which is blameless," or without scandal; but as for Heathens, or men-unbaptized, they judged that no sin whatever, committed in that state, was to be an impediment of their promotion after they came to be baptized. In a word, they reckoned that penance, or a long course of repentance, would cure a mortal sin, but so as to leave a scar; but that baptism did perfectly wash off all the stain and discredit of sins committed before it; so that St. Hierom's being ordained Presbyter (as we said bofore he was) by Paulinus, will make an argument that his baptism was after his fornication. But then they that know the canons ran thus, know also that the practice was not always so strict and regular as the canon; but that, on the contrary, these and some other such strict rules, were frequently dispensed with in the case of such men as came afterwards to be of great merit or abilities, which the church could not well want; and that St. Hieron was, without controversy, the most learned and best skilled in interpreting the Scriptures of any man then living; and also was a great favourite of Pope Damasus, whose interest was great in all the church. Besides, an observation which retorts the force of this argument strongly to the other side, is this, That these canons had, in great measure, their force upon St. Hierom; for he not only protested, when he was made Presbyter, as he tells us himself, that if Paulinus, who ordained him, "meant thereby to take him out of his state of Monachism [or penance], that he would not 2 * Epist 61, contra. Errores Joannis Hierosol so accept it;" but also, after he was ordained, refused; out of a deep humility and sense of his sin, to execute the priestly office, at least in the principal parts thereof; of which there are these proofs: 1. That in all his letters and works, one finds no mention or instance of his acting in that office. Of this I am no farther confident, than that, having taken notice as I read, I remember none. 2. That Epiphanius affirms this of him and of Vincentius, another monk that had been ordained. The occasion was this: -Epiphanius had, in a case which he judged to be of necessity, ordained Paulinianus, St. Hierom's younger brother, priest; though the place in which he did it was out of his own diocese. Being blamed for this encroachment by John, Bishop of Jerusalem, he makes this apology:-* " Though no man ought to go beyond his own measure, yet, Christian charity, in which there is no guile, is to be preferred before all. Nor should you consider what is done; but at what time, and in what manner, and for what reasons, aud upon whom the thing was done; for when I saw that there was a great number of holy brethren in the monastery, and the holy Presbyters Hierom and Vincent, by reason of their modesty and humility, would not execute the offices proper for their title, nor labour in that part of the ministry, in which consists the chief salvation of Christians," &c. His being made priest after his sin, is not so great a proof of his baptism coming between, as those severe censures of himself are, that his sin was after his baptism. He that in that age should have spoken of his sins committed before baptism, as he does of his, ↑ "I came into the fields and wilderness that there bewailing; (durescentia peccata) my sins, that lie so hard upon me, I might move the pity of Christ towards me, would have been censured to derogate from that article of the creed, I believe one baptism for the remission of sins;" and he himself says, in other places, "All fornications and * Epist. ad Joann. Hierosol. + Epist. 61. Epist. ad Oceanum de unius Uxoris Viro. lewdnesses of the most scandalous nature, impiety against God, parricide, or incest, &c. are washed away in this Christian fountain or laver." In how different a strain does St. Austin confess his sins! which, though much greater than St. Hierom's, viz. a continued course of fornication with several harlots, yet, because his baptism came after them, he says thus of them :* What praise ought I to give to the Lord that my memory recounts these things, and yet my soul is in no terror for them!" I said he entered into a monk's life young, when I was shewing that it was probable he took the habit at Rome: he himself says so in several places t. On The vulgar reader is not to imagine that this monastic life was then of the same sort with that which is now, for the most part, in use in the church of Rome. the contrary, the first institution and primitive-practice of it was commendable. It is time, and the corruption of the age, and superstitions added to it, and the great revenues that have been settled on the monasteries, that have perverted it. They professed virginity; and they did accordingly, with wonderful hardships of diet, lodging, &c. keep under the body. They sold all they had, and gave it to the poor; they renounced all the affairs of secular life, but at the same time used daily labour for their living; they had not then the fat of the land, nor one politic head, whose interest they were to promote. If any one endeavoured to live at ease, or indulge himself, he was not counted a monk. St. Hierom speaks of some few that he had seen of this sort: I have seen (says he) some that, after they have renounced the world (vestimentis duntaxat) in their garments, or habit only, and, by a verbal profession, not in deeds, have altered nothing of their former way of living; they are richer, rather than poorer, before; they have as much attendance of servants," &c. So that we see all monks, good or bad, wore the garments of a monk. than Confess. 1, 3, c. 7. Yet, as commendable as it was in the practice then, St. Hierom has been under some censure for his excessive urging it on people, not only in his own time, but ever since; and not only among Protestants, but among those of the church of Rome that are any thing impartial. Mr. Du Pin, who is highly to be valued for that quality, says of him, "Concerning virginity and the monks' life, he often speaks so, as if he would have one think that they are necessary for salvation." Where shall one meet, even among the late monks, an expression in praise of this sort of life more exorbitant than one that he has in his letter to Eustochium, a lady that professed that state! -where, addressing himself to Paulla, her mother, he says," Your daughter has procured you a great benefit; you are now become God's mother-in-law,- Socrus Dei esse cæpisti, This is something worse than calling the habit the garments of Christ. He means, that the daughter, by professing a religious virginity, was become the spouse of Christ; and so the mother must be his mother-inlaw; but such allegories, carried too far, border upon impiety. They are not to be so easily pardoned to a man of a cool head; but St. Hierom having had the spleen to a high degree, must be allowed some favour in the censure of his expressions. Those men when they are in, at commending or disparaging any thing, are carried to speak more than they mean at their sedate times. It was not during the times of Damasus, that St. Hierom fell under any censure for this his overlashing; but afterwards, in the times of Siricius [285]. Damasus had been so much of the same temper, that it is likely he approved of him the better for it; and that one reason of his using those high-flown expressions was, to ingratiate himself with him; and we find him, in his writings, during this latter popedom, frequently appealing to the times of Damasus. "I wrote (says he) † while Damasus, of blessed memory, lived, a book + Apol. pro lib. contra Jovin. * Nouv. Bibl. tom. 3, p. 1. against Helvidius, of the perpetual virginity of the blessed Mary; in which I had occasion, for the setting forth the advantage of virginity, to say many things of the inconveniences of marriage. Did that excellent man, and learned in the Scriptures, that virgin-doctor of the church, which is a virgin, find any fault with that discourse? - and in my book to Eustochium, I said some things harder yet concerning marriage; and yet nobody was offended at it; for Damasus, being a lover of chastity, heard my commendations of virginity with a greedy ear." This last is the book which he complains is now (lapidatus) stoned; or, generally condemned. He says also in another place," That Damasus did himself write in commendation of virginity, both in prose and verse." It is the less wonder, that in letters between these two, that did so magnify this state of life, the habit, or garment, by which the continent life of a monk was professed, should be called the garment of Christ. If what I have produced be sufficient to make this probable, then I have cleared St. Hierom's parents of an imputation that has been laid on them, ever since Eras. mus's time, even by learned men; and which St. Hierom himself would have counted a heinous one; for when he declares "how sinful it would be, if any parents that are Christians, should suffer their children to die unbaptized" (as I have shewn † he does) he must judge that his parents had run a very sinful hazard, if they had let him continue so long, and then take so long a journey, before they had procured him baptism; and then also the picture, which they have lately made in the chapel dedicated to this saint, in the church of the Invalids, in France, representing his baptism at adult age, will prove a mistake. * Epist. 2, ad Nepotian. * Part 1, ch. 15. |