Letter VII. To Chromatius, Jovinus, and Eusebius.⁹¹⁹¹    Jovinus was archdeacon of Aquileia. All three became bishops—Chromatius of Aquileia, the others of unknown sees.

This letter (written like the preceding in 374 a.d.) is addressed by Jerome to three of his former companions in the religious life. It commends Bonosus (§3), asks guidance for the writer’s sister (§4), and attacks the conduct of Lupicinus, Bishop of Stridon (§5).

1. Those whom mutual affection has joined together, a written page ought not to sunder. I must not, therefore, distribute my words some to one and some to another. For so strong is the love that binds you together that affection unites all three of you in a bond no less close than that which naturally connects two of your number.⁹²⁹²    Chromatius and Eusebius were brothers. Indeed, if the conditions of writing would only admit of it, I should amalgamate your names and express them under a single symbol. The very letter which I have received from you challenges me in each of you to see all three, and in all three to recognize each. When the reverend Evagrius transmitted it to me in the corner of the desert which stretches between the Syrians and the Saracens, my joy was intense. It wholly surpassed the rejoicings felt at Rome when the defeat of Cannæ was retrieved, and Marcellus at Nola cut to pieces the forces of Hannibal. Evagrius frequently comes to see me, and cherishes me in Christ as his own bowels.⁹³⁹³    Philem. 12. Yet as he is separated from me by a long distance, his departure has gener9ally left me as much regret as his arrival has brought me joy.

2. I converse with your letter, I embrace it, it talks to me; it alone of those here speaks Latin. For hereabout you must either learn a barbarous jargon or else hold your tongue. As often as the lines—traced in a well-known hand—bring back to me the faces which I hold so dear, either I am no longer here, or else you are here with me. If you will credit the sincerity of affection, I seem to see you all as I write this.

Now at the outset I should like to ask you one petulant question. Why is it that, when we are separated by so great an interval of land and sea, you have sent me so short a letter? Is it that I have deserved no better treatment, not having first written to you? I cannot believe that paper can have failed you while Egypt continues to supply its wares. Even if a Ptolemy had closed the seas, King Attalus would still have sent you parchments from Pergamum, and so by his skins you could have made up for the want of paper. The very name parchment is derived from a historical incident of the kind which occurred generations ago.⁹⁴⁹⁴    See Pliny, H. N. xiii. 21. What then? Am I to suppose the messenger to have been in haste? No matter how long a letter may be, it can be written in the course of a night. Or had you some business to attend to which prevented you from writing? No claim is prior to that of affection. Two suppositions remain, either that you felt disinclined to write or else that I did not deserve a letter. Of the two I prefer to charge you with sloth than to condemn myself as undeserving. For it is easier to mend neglect than to quicken love.

3. You tell me that Bonosus, like a true son of the Fish, has taken to the water.⁹⁵⁹⁵    The Greek word ΙΧΘΥΣ represented to the early Christians the sentence ᾽Ιησοῦς Χριστὸς Θεοῦ `Υὼς Σωτήρ. Hence the fish became a favorite emblem of Christ. Tertullian connects the symbol with the water of baptism, saying: “We little fishes are born by our Fish, Jesus Christ, in water and can thrive only by continuing in the water.” The allusion in the text is to the baptism of Bonosus. See Schaff, “Ante-Nicene Christianity,” p. 279. As for me who am still foul with my old stains, like the basilisk and the scorpion I haunt the dry places.⁹⁶⁹⁶    Deut. viii. 15. Bonosus has his heel already on the serpent’s head, whilst I am still as food to the same serpent which by divine appointment devours the earth.⁹⁷⁹⁷    Gen. iii. 14. He can scale already that ladder of which the psalms of degrees⁹⁸⁹⁸    Viz., Psa. cxx.–cxxxiv. are a type; whilst I, still weeping on its first step, hardly know whether I shall ever be able to say: “I will lift up mine eyes unto the hills, from whence cometh my help.”⁹⁹⁹⁹    Ps. cxxi. 1. Amid the threatening billows of the world he is sitting in the safe shelter of his island,¹⁰⁰¹⁰⁰    See Letter III. that is, of the church’s pale, and it may be that even now, like John, he is being called to eat God’s book;¹⁰¹¹⁰¹    Rev. x. 9, 10. whilst I, still lying in the sepulchre of my sins and bound with the chains of my iniquities, wait for the Lord’s command in the Gospel: “Jerome, come forth.”¹⁰²¹⁰²    John xi. 43. But Bonosus has done more than this. Like the prophet¹⁰³¹⁰³    Jer. xiii. 4, 5. he has carried his girdle across the Euphrates (for all the devil’s strength is in the loins¹⁰⁴¹⁰⁴    Job xl. 16 (said of Behemoth); cf. Letter XXII. § 11.), and has hidden it there in a hole of the rock. Then, afterwards finding it rent, he has sung: “O Lord, thou hast possessed my reins.¹⁰⁵¹⁰⁵    Ps. cxxxix. 13. Thou hast broken my bonds in sunder. I will offer to thee the sacrifice of thanksgiving.”¹⁰⁶¹⁰⁶    Ps. cxvi. 14, 15, P.B.V. But as for me, Nebuchadnezzar has brought me in chains to Babylon, to the babel that is of a distracted mind. There he has laid upon me the yoke of captivity; there inserting in my nostrils a ring of iron,¹⁰⁷¹⁰⁷    Cf. 2 Kings xix. 28. he has commanded me to sing one of the songs of Zion. To whom I have said, “The Lord looseth the prisoners; the Lord openeth the eyes of the blind.”¹⁰⁸¹⁰⁸    Psa. cxxxvii. 3; cxlvi. 7, 8. To complete my contrast in a single sentence, whilst I pray for mercy Bonosus looks for a crown.

4. My sister’s conversion is the fruit of the efforts of the saintly Julian. He has planted, it is for you to water, and the Lord will give the increase.¹⁰⁹¹⁰⁹    1 Cor. iii. 6. Jesus Christ has given her to me to console me for the wound which the devil has inflicted on her. He has restored her from death to life. But in the words of the pagan poet, for her

There is no safety that I do not fear.¹¹⁰¹¹⁰    Virg. A. iv. 298.

You know yourselves how slippery is the path of youth—a path on which I have myself fallen,¹¹¹¹¹¹    Jerome again refers to his own frailty in Letters XIV. § 6, XVIII. § 11, and XLVIII. § 20. and which you are now traversing not without fear. She, as she enters upon it, must have the advice and the encouragement of all, she must be aided by frequent letters from you, my reverend brothers. And—for “charity endureth all things,”¹¹²¹¹²    1 Cor. xiii. 7.—I beg you to get from Pope¹¹³¹¹³    Papa. The word “pope” was at this time used as a name of respect (“father in God”) for bishops generally. Only by degrees did it come to be restricted to the bishop of Rome. Similarly the word "imperator,” originally applied to any Roman general, came to be used of the Emperor alone. Valerian¹¹⁴¹¹⁴    Bishop of Aquileia. a letter to confirm her resolution. A girl’s courage, as you know, is strength10ened when she realizes that persons in high place are interested in her.

5. The fact is that my native land is a prey to barbarism, that in it men’s only God is their belly,¹¹⁵¹¹⁵    Phi. iii. 19. that they live only for the present, and that the richer a man is the holier he is held to be. Moreover, to use a well-worn proverb, the dish has a cover worthy of it; for Lupicinus is their priest.¹¹⁶¹¹⁶    Sacerdos. In the letters this word generally denotes a bishop. Lupicinus held the see of Stridon. Like lips like lettuce, as the saying goes—the only one, as Lucilius tells us,¹¹⁷¹¹⁷    Cic. de Fin. v. 30. at which Crassus ever laughed—the reference being to a donkey eating thistles. What I mean is that an unstable pilot steers a leaking ship, and that the blind is leading the blind straight to the pit. The ruler is like the ruled.

6. I salute your mother and mine with the respect which, as you know, I feel towards her. Associated with you as she is in a holy life, she has the start of you, her holy children, in that she is your mother. Her womb may thus be truly called golden. With her I salute your sisters, who ought all to be welcomed wherever they go, for they have triumphed over their sex and the world, and await the Bridegroom’s coming,¹¹⁸¹¹⁸    Matt. xxv. 4. their lamps replenished with oil. O happy the house which is a home of a widowed Anna, of virgins that are prophetesses, and of twin Samuels bred in the Temple!¹¹⁹¹¹⁹    Luke ii. 36; Acts xxi. 9; 1 Sam. ii. 18. Fortunate the roof which shelters the martyr-mother of the Maccabees, with her sons around her, each and all wearing the martyr’s crown!¹²⁰¹²⁰    2 Macc. vii. For although you confess Christ every day by keeping His commandments, yet to this private glory you have added the public one of an open confession; for it was through you that the poison of the Arian heresy was formerly banished from your city.

You are surprised perhaps at my thus making a fresh beginning quite at the close of my letter. But what am I to do? I cannot refuse expression to my feelings. The brief limits of a letter compel me to be silent; my affection for you urges me to speak. I write in haste, my language is confused and ill-arranged; but love knows nothing of order.