Page:1909historyofdec04gibbuoft.djvu/95

 Chap, xxxvii] OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 69 life. Paula yielded to the persuasive eloquence of Jerom; 28 and the profane title of mother-in-law of God 29 tempted that illustrious widow to consecrate the virginity of her daughter Eustochium. By the advice, and in the company, of her spiritual guide, Paula abandoned Rome and her infant son ; retired to the holy village of Bethlem; founded an hospital and four monasteries ; and acquired, by her alms and penance, an eminent and conspicuous station in the Catholic church. Such rare and illustrious penitents were celebrated as the glory and example of their age ; but the monasteries were filled by a crowd of obscure and abject plebeians, 30 who gained in the cloister much more than they had sacrificed in the world. Peasants, slaves, and mechanics might escape from poverty and contempt to a safe and honourable profession, whose apparent hardships are mitigated by custom, by popular ap- plause, and by the secret relaxation of discipline. 31 The subjects of Rome, whose persons and fortunes were made responsible for unequal and exorbitant tributes, retired from the oppression of the Imperial government ; and the pusil- lanimous youth preferred the penance of a monastic, to the dangers of a military, life. The affrighted provincials, of every rank, who fled before the Barbarians, found shelter and subsistence; whole legions were buried in these religious sanctuaries ; and the same cause, which relieved the distress of individuals, impaired the strength and fortitude of the empire. 32 28 Jerorn's devout ladies form a very considerable portion of his works : the particular treatise which he styles the Epitaph of Paula (tom. i. p. 169-192 [ep. 108]) is an elaborate and extravagant panegyric. The exordium is ridiculously turgid : " If all the members of my body were changed into tongues, and if all my limbs resounded with a human voice, yet should I be incapable," &e. 29 Socrus Dei esse coepisti (Jerom, tom. i. p. 140, ad Eustochium). Eufinus (in Hieronym. Op. tom. iv. p. 223), who was justly scandalized, asks his adversary, From what Pagan poet he had stolen an expression so impious and absurd ? 30 Nunc autem veniunt plertimqtie ad hanc professionem servitutis Dei, et ex conditione servili, vel etiam liberati, vel propter hoc a Dominis liberati sive liber - andi ; et ex vita rusticana, et ex opificum exercitatione, et plebeio labore. Augus- tin. de Oper. Monach. c. 22, ap. Thomassin, Discipline de l'Eglise, tom. iii. p. 1094. The Egyptian who blamed Arsenius owned that he led a more comfortable life as a monk than as a shepherd. See Tillemont, Mem. Eccl£s. tom. xiv. p. 679. 31 A Dominican friar (Voyages du P. Labat, tom. i. p. 10) who lodged at Cadiz in a convent of his brethren soon understood that their repose was never inter- rupted by nocturnal devotion ; " quoiqu'on ne laisse pas de sonner pour l'edification du peuple". 32 See a very sensible preface of Lucas Holstenius to the Codex Begularum. The emperors attempted to support the obligation of public and private duties ;