Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 13.djvu/659

 against Helvidius, who maintained that Mary bore chil dren to Joseph. His influence over these ladies alarmed their relations, and excited the suspicions of the regular priesthood and of the populace, but while Pope Damasus lived Jerome remained secure. Damasus died, however, in 384, and was succeeded by Siricius, who did not show much friendship for Jerome. He found it expedient to leave Rome and set out for the East in 385. His letters (especially Ep. 45) are full of outcries against his enemies and of indignant protestations that he had done nothing unbecoming a Christian, that he had taken no money, nor gifts great nor small, that he had no delight in silken attire, sparkling gems, or gold ornaments, that no matron moved him unless by penitence and fasting, &c. His route is given in the third book In Rufinum; he went by Rhegium and Cyprus, where he was entertained by Bishop Epiphanius, to Antioch. There he was joined by two wealthy Roman ladies, Paula, a widow, and Eustochium her daughter, one of Jerome s Hebrew students. They came accompanied by a band of Roman maidens vowed to live a celibate life in a nunnery in Palestine. Accompanied by these ladies Jerome made the tour of Palestine, carefully noting with a scholar s keenness the various places mentioned in Holy Scripture. The results of this journey may be traced in his trans lation with emendations of the book of Eusebius on the situation and names of Hebrew places, written probably three years afterwards, when he had settled down at Bethlehem. From Palestine Jerome and his companions went to Egypt, remaining some time in Alexandria ; and they visited the convents in the Nitrian desert. Jerome s mind was evidently full of anxiety about his translation of the Old Testament, for we find him in his letters recording the conversations he had with learned men about disputed readings and doubtful renderings ; Didymus of Alexandria appears to have been most useful. When they returned to Palestine they all settled at Bethlehem, where Paula built four monasteries, three for nuns and one for monks. She was at the head of the nunneries until her death in 404, when Eustochium succeeded her ; Jerome presided over the fourth monastery. In this monastery at Bethlehem Jerome did most of his literary work and, throwing aside his unfinished plan of a translation from Origen s Hexaplar text, translated the Old Testament directly from the Hebrew, with the aid of Jewish scholars. He men tions a rabbi from Lydda, a rabbi from Tiberias, and above all Rabbi Ben Anina, who came to him by night secretly for fear of the Jews. Jerome was not familiar enough with Hebrew to be able to dispense with such assistance, and he makes the synagogue responsible for the accuracy of his version : &quot; Let him who would challenge aught in this translation,&quot; he says, &quot;ask the Jews.&quot; The result of all this labour was the Latin translation of the Scriptures which, in spite of much opposition from the more conservative party in the church, afterwards became the Vulgate or authorized version ; but the Vulgate as we have it now is not exactly Jerome s Vulgate, for it suffered a good deal from changes made under the influ ence of the older translations ; the text became very corrupt during the Middle Ages, and in particular all the Apocrypha, except Tobit and Judith, which Jerome translated from the Chaldee, were added from the older versions. 1 Notwithstanding the labour involved in translating the Scriptures, Jerome found time to do a great deal of literary work, and also to indulge in violent controversy. Earlier in life he had a great admiration for Origen, and translated many of his works, and this lasted after he had settled at 1 See Vercellone, Varies Le.ctiones Vulgalse, Rome, 1860, 1864 (unfinished). 631 Bethlehem, for ho translated in 389 Origen s homilies on Luke ; but he came to change his opinion and wrote violently against the admirers of the great Alexandrian scholar, Contra Joannem Hierosolymitanum, and Adversus Rufinum Lib. III., for both John, bishop of Jerusalem, and Rufinus, Jerome s old friend, were followers of Origen. At Bethlehem also he found time to finish Didymi de Spiritu Sancto Liber, a translation begun at Borne at the request of Pope Damasus, to denounce the revival of Gnostic heresies by Jovinianus and Vigilantius (Adv. Jomniammi Lib. II, and Contra Viyilantium Liber}, and to repeat his admiration of the hermit life in his Vita S. Hilarionis Eremitds, in his Vita Malchi Monacld Captivi, in his translation of the Bule of St Pachomius (the Benedict of Egypt), and in his Pachomii et 8. Theo- dorici Epistolse, et Verba Mystica. He also wrote at Bethlehem De Viris illustribus sive de Scriptoribus Ucclesiasticis, a church history in biographies, ending with the life of the author ; De Nominibus Hebraids, compiled from Philo and Origen ; and De Situ et Nominibus Locontm Hebraicorum? At the same place, too, he wrote Quscs- tiones Hebraic^ on Genesis, 3 and a series of commentaries on Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, the Twelve Minor Prophets, Matthew, and the Epistles of St Paul. Jerome engaged in the Pelagian controversy with more than even his usual bitterness (Dialogi contra Pelagianos) ; and it is eaid that the violence of his invective so provoked his opponents that an armed mob attacked the monastery, and that Jerome was forced to flee and to remain in conceal ment for nearly two years. He returned to Bethlehem in 418, and after a lingering illness died on September 30, 420. By far the best edition of Jerome s works is that of Vallarsi (Verona, 1734-42), which contains in prefaces and appendices almost all that is known of the great Western scholar. The student mil find the article on &quot;Hieronymus&quot; by Colin in Ersch and Gruber s Encyclopedic very useful, and the English reader will find a suc cinct account of his writings taken from Vallarsi in Smith s Diet. of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology, art. &quot;Hierony mus.&quot; (T. M. L.) JEROME OF PRAGUE (c. 1365-H1G), the friend and disciple of John Huss, derives the surname by which he is best known from his native town, where he was born somewhere between 1360 and 1370. His family name is sometimes, but erroneously, said to have been Faulfisch. After completing his studies in the university of Prague, he proceeded (about 1396) to Oxford, where in course of a residence of some duration he became acquainted with the teaching and writings of Wycliffe, of which he became a zealous disseminator on his return to his native land. In 1398 he took his bachelor s degree at Prague, and then visited Paris, Heidelberg, and Cologne ; at the first- mentioned university he seems to have graduated as master of arts. Returning about 1407 to Prague, he took a prominent part with Huss in the university disputes which led to the withdrawal of the German &quot;nation.&quot; So great did his reputation for learning, energy, and sagacity become that he was employed by Ladislaus IT., king of Poland, in 1410 to assist in placing the university of Cracow upon a proper footing, while by Sigismund, king of Hungary, he was, although not in orders, invited to preach before him at Ofen. His public discourses in Hungary, however, soon brought him under suspicion of Wyclim te heresy, and he found it necessary to fly the country; taking refuge in Vienna, he was there arrested and thrown into prison, but on the intervention of his friends in Prague obtained his release. He now again became closely tisso- 2 Compare tlie critical edition of these two works in Lagarde s Onomastica Sacra, Getting. , 1870. . 3 See Lagarde s edition appended to his Genesis Greece, Leipsic, 1868.