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Jerome and the Sham Christians of Rome

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  06 February 2009

John Curran
John Curran
Affiliation:
School of Greek, Roman and Semitic Studies, The Queen's University of Belfast, Belfast, Northern Ireland NT7 iNN
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Extract

This rhetorical question was poseu by Jerome in AD 411 to challenge a young man of good family from Toulouse who was contemplating the responsibilities of monastic life. The old man of Bethlehem wrote on city life with some authority; he had achieved fame and notoriety simultaneously at the court of Pope Damasus in Rome in the 380s.2 And yet, as both men knew well, the moral and physical dangers of the city, the latter resoundingly demonstrated by the Gothic capture of Rome in the previous year, had not prompted the rejection of urban life by western Christians, save by a small and eccentric group of extreme ascetics. Jerome's praise for this group is well known, and his criticism of less committed Christians in Rome is legendary. But when one examines the uniquely vivid testimony of Jerome's letters, one can detect beneath the praise and polemic a vigorous struggle for the support of the city's elite. The social background to the struggle as revealed in Jerome's writings is the subject of this article. What emerges is a complex, contradictory and divided Christian community which Jerome unsuccessfully attempted to influence, a failure that brought final and ignominious exile from Rome.

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Articles
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The Journal of Ecclesiastical History , Volume 48 , Issue 2 , April 1997 , pp. 213 - 229
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Copyright © Cambridge University Press 1997

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References

1 ‘Neque vero peccantium ducaris multitudine et te pereuntium turba sollicitet, ut tacitus cogites: “Quid? Ergo omnes peribunt, qui in urbibus habitant? Ecce illi fruuntur suis rebus, ministrant ecclesiis, adeunt balneas, unguenta non spernunt et tamen in omnium [fi]ore versantur”’: Jerome, ep. cxxv. 17 (CSEL lvi. 136). Where quotations are made from Jerome's works, I provide full CSEL details; cross references will merely indicate the relevant titles. All translations from Jerome, except where indicated, are those of The library of Nicene and post-Nicene Fathers of the Church.

2 For Jerome and city life generally see Antin, P., ‘La ville chez S.Jerome’, Latomus xx (1961), 298–311Google Scholar.

3 ‘Est quidem ibi sancta ecclesia, sunt tropea apostolorum et martyrum, est Christi vera confessio et ab apostolis praedicata fides et gentilitate calcata in sublime se cotidie erigens vocabulum Christianum, sed ipsa ambitio, potentia, magnitudo urbis, videri et videre, salutari et salutare, laudare et detrahere, audire vel proloqui et tantam frequentiam hominum saltim invitum pati a proposito monachorum et quiete aliena sunt’: ep. xlvi. 12 (CSEL liv. 342).

4 Ep. xxii. 8, 13, cf. liv. 7, 9, 10, Note ep. xxii. 32: ‘…cum ad agapen vocaverint, praeco conducitur’.

5 14. 6. 16; 28. 4. 13, 17 (Loeb edition). See Pack, R., ‘The Roman digressions of Ammianus Marcellinus’, Transactions of the American Philological Association, lxxxiv (1953), 181–9CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Matthews, J. F., The Roman empire of Ammianus, London 1989, 414–16Google Scholar.

6 ‘Numquid in lancibus idola caelata descripsi? Numquid inter epulas Christianas virginalibus oculis baccharum satyrorumque conplexus?’: ep. xxvii. 2 (CSEL liv. 225), a striking illustration of Jerome's sensitivity to images in domestic contexts. See Shelton, K. J., The Esquiline treasure, London 1981Google Scholar, for a confusion of symbols on fourth-century vessels.

7 Ep. lxvi. 13.

8 Ep. cviii. 6.

9 Ep. xxii. 17.

10 Deducible from epp. xxii. 17; cvii. 8; cxxviii. 3a. Praise was offered to Asella because she had concealed her identity as she performed acts of devotion: ep. xxiv. 4.

11 ‘Unde nobis sollicitius providendum, ut sollemnem diem non tam ciborum abundantia quam spiritus exultatione celebremus…’: ep. xxxi. 3 (CSEL liv. 251). See also ep. lii. 5 (to Nepotian).

12 Ep. cvii. 11, cf. xlv. 4 for Christian widows attending the baths. Note again the parallel with Ammianus, 28. 4. 9.

13 ‘Multi aedificant parietes et columnas ecclesiae subtrahunt: marmora nitent, auro splendent lacunaria, gemmis altare distinguitur…cogitemus crucem et divitias lutum putabimus’: ep. lii. 10 (CSEL liv. 431–2).

14 See Ch. Piétri, , ‘Evergétisme et richesses ecclésiastiques dans l'Italie du Ive à la fin du ve siècle: l'exemple romain’, Ktema iii (1978), 317–37Google Scholar.

15 CIL 6. 1712 = ILCV, no. 1850. See Matthews, J. F., ‘The poetess Proba and fourth-century Rome: questions of interpretation’, in Christol, M., Demougin, S., Duval, Y., Lepelley, C. and Piétri, L. (eds), Institutions, société et vie politique dans l'empire romain au IVe siècle. J.-C. (Collections de l'École française de Rome 159), Paris 1992, 277–304Google Scholar at pp. 299ff.

16 ICUR ii. 150, 19, although there is still some discussion over precisely where this inscription belongs: RC i. 490 n. 2. For Longinianus see Chastagnol, A., Les fastes de la préfecture de Rome au bas-empire (études prosopographiques 2), Paris 1962, 255Google Scholar ff.

17 Titulus Vestinae: le Liber pontificalis: texte, introduction et commentaire, ed. Duchesne, L., Paris 1955, i. 220–1Google Scholar; Titulus Johannis et Pauli: ICUR ii. 150, 20 with RC i. 481ff.

18 Ferrua, A., Epigrammata Damasiana, Rome 1942, 3, 4, 4(1)Google Scholar.

19 A topographical dictionary of ancient Rome, ed. Platner, S. B. and Ashby, T., London 1929, 423–4Google Scholar. See also Reekmans, L., ‘Le développement topographique de la région du Vatican à la fin de l'antiquité et au début du moyen age (300–850)’, Mélanges d'archéologie et d'histoire de l'art offerts au Professeur Jacques Lavalleye, Paris 1970, 202Google Scholar.

20 CIL vi. 1184.

21 For a full discussion of this object see Malbon, E. S., The iconography of the sarcophagus of Junius Bassus, Princeton 1990CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

22 ICUR ii. 347f. See also J. F. Matthews, Western aristocracies and imperial court A.D, 364–425, repr. Oxford 1990, 195–7, 400–1. For a translation of the epitaph see Croke, B. and Harries, J. (eds), Religious conflict in fourth-century Rome, Sydney 1982, 117Google Scholar.

23 ‘Vidi nuper–nomina taceo, ne saturam putes – nobilissimam mulierum Romanarum in basilica bead Petri semiuiris antecedentibus propria manu, quo religiosior putaretur, singulos nummos dispertire pauperibus. Interea ut usu nosse perfacile est -anus quaedam annis pannisque obsita praecurrit, ut alterum nummum acciperet; ad quam cum ordine pervenisset, pugnus porrigitur pro denario et tanti criminis reus sanguis effunditur’: ep. xxii. 32 (CSEL liv. 193–4), quoting Terence, Eunuchus 236 (ed. A. Fleckeisen).

24 Ammianus, 27. 3. 6; Chastagnol, Fastes, no. 67; PLRE i. 978–80.

25 Paulinus, ep. xiii. 11–15 (ed. G. de Hartel). The description of Pammachius is Jerome's: ep. lxvi. 4.

26 The Pelagian controversy had a Roman dimension to its early phase but insufficient traces remain in the sources to reconstruct the important social connections confidently. Augustine, ep. clxvii. 2 (ed. A. Goldbacher), refers to Pelagius' life in Rome, and De Plinval, G., Pélage: ses écrits, sa vie el sa réforme, Lausanne 1943, 51–5Google Scholar, tentatively identifies one of Jerome's opponents as Pelagius: ‘…si c'est de lui qu'il s'agit…’ (p. 54). Certainly the kinds of charges made against him are familiar from elsewhere: ep. 1. 3–5. For the later period of Pelagius' career see Brown, P., ‘The patrons of Pelagius: the Roman aristocracy between east and west’, in his Religion and society in the age of Saint Augustine, London 1972, 208–26Google Scholar.

27 Epp. xli, xlii. Among trustworthy holy men recommended by Jerome: ‘Domnio’ (xlvii. 3); ‘Exuperius’ (liv. 11); ‘Theodore’ (lxxxix).

28 ‘Quidam in hoc omne studium vitamque posuerunt, ut matronarum nomina, domos moresque cognoscant’: ep. xxii. 28 (CSEL liv. 185).

29 Ibid, which also names ‘Antimus’ and ‘Sophronius’ as bogus callers. For imperial suspicion of monks see Codex Theodosianus 16. 3. 1–2 (AD 390, 392).

30 Ep. xxii. 16. Young Ambrose was first introduced to the deference of the world's powerful towards God's elect by watching his own widowed mother kissing the hands of visiting clerics at her Roman palatium: Paulinus, , Vita Ambrosii (ed. Pellegrino, M.), 4Google Scholar.

31 ‘Illae interim, quae sacerdotes suo vident indigere praesidio, eriguntur in superbiam et, quia maritorum expertae dominatum viduitatis praeferunt libertatem, castae vocantur et nonnae et post cenam dubiam apostolos somniant’: ep. xxii. 16 (CSEL liv. 164).

32 Ibid. 14. For the scandal of subintroductae see Clark, E. A., ‘Ascetic renunciation and feminine advancement: a paradox of late antique Christianity’, Anglican Theological Review lxiii (1981), 240–57Google Scholar, repr. in her Ascetic piety and women's faith, New York 1986, 175–208 at p. 183; cf. Codex Theodosianus 16. 2. 44 (dated 8 May 420).

33 Ibid. 16. 2. 20.

34 Cf. ibid. 16. 2. 27 (June 390) and 28 (August 390). Jerome claims, at ep. Hi. 6, that this law was circumvented by a fiction of ‘trusteeship’.

35 ‘Quantum illicitum sit illud, aestimari non potest, ut transeuntes (sive simulent, sive sint monachi, quod se appellant), quorum nee vitam possumus scire nee baptismum quorum fidem incognitam habemus nee probatam, nolint sumptibus adjuvare, sed statim aut diaconos facere, aut presbyteros ordinare festinent, aut, quod est gravius, episcopos constituere non formident. Charius apud illos dari sumptum est transeunti, quam sacerdotium. Non retenti, inde in superbiam exaltantur, inde insuper ad perfidiam cito corruunt; quia fidem veram in ecclesiasticis toto orbe peregrini discere non asseruntur’: PL xiii. 1165–6.

36 Ep. exxvii. 5.

37 Ep. cviii. 6.

38 ‘Officii tui est visitare languentes, nosse domos, matronas ac liberos earum et nobilium virorum non ignorare secreta’: ep. lii. 15 (CSEL liv. 438). Some manuscripts replace ‘non ignorare’ with ‘custodire’.

39 Damasus, : Collectio Avellana i. 9Google Scholar = CSE L xxxv. 4; Jerome, ep. xlv. 2.

40 Historia Lausiaca (ed. Bartelink, G. J. M.) 55. 3Google Scholar.

41 For Firmicus Maternu s see Turcan, R., Firmicus Maternus: l'erreur des réligions païennes, Paris 1982Google Scholar; for Victorinus, Marius, Hadot, P., Marius Victorinus: récherches sur sa vie el ses oevures, Paris 1971Google Scholar; for Proba, , Clark, E. A., ‘Faltonia Betitia Proba and her Virgilian poem: the Christian matron as artist’, in her Ascetic piety, 124–52Google Scholar.

42 Ep. xxxiii.

43 Ep. xxvii. 1.

44 In response to a tract written by a monk called ‘Carterius’,: Contra Helvidium (ed. Migne, J. P. = PL xxiii. 193–126) 4, 16Google Scholar.

45 Jerome, ep. xlviii. 18. See Gennadius, , De viris illustribus (ed. Herting, W.) 33Google Scholar, who describes Helvidius' motives as sincerely religious, and also Kelly, J. N. D., Jerome: his life, writings and controversies, London 1975, 104–7Google Scholar.

46 ‘…et virgo, quae non est nupta, cogitat quae sunt Dei… nam quae nupta est, cogitat, quae sunt mundi, quomodo placeat viro’: Contra Helvidium 20; cf. 1 Cor. vii. 32–5.

47 A common theme: see Lizzi, R., ‘Una società esortata all'ascetismo: misure legislative e motivazioni economiche nel IV–V secolo d.c.’, Studi storici i (1989), 129–53Google Scholar.

48 Contra Helvidium 20; Ammianus, 14. 6. 19.

49 ‘Dico quosdam scelere, periurio, falsitate ad dignitatem nescio quam pervenisse: Quid ad te, qui te intellegis innocentem?’: ep. xl. 2 (CSEL liv. 310).

50 ‘Te optent generum rex et regina, puellae te rapiant’. Cf. Perseus, , Satires (ed. Clausen, W. V.) 2. 37–8Google Scholar: ‘Hunc optet generum rex et regina, puellae hunc rapiant.’

51 See Hunter, D. G., ‘Resistance to the virginal ideal in late fourth-century Rome: the case of Jovinian’, Theological Studies xlviii (1987), 45–64CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Kelly, , Jerome, 180Google Scholarff., and the excellent discussion by Brown, P., The body and society, London 1988, 359Google ScholarPubMedff.

52 We are dependent on hostile sources for the substance of Jovinian's ideas: Siricius, ep. vii (PL xiii. 1168–71); Jerome, , Adversus Jovinianum (PL xxiii. 221–352)Google Scholar; Augustine, , De peccatorum mentis et remissione 3. 7Google Scholar (PL xliv. 193–4). See also Valli, F., Gioviniano, Urbino 1953Google Scholar.

53 Adversus Jovinianum 1. 10. Cf. Jerome, ep. xlviii. 5, for his hostility to mixed marriages.

54 Jerome, ep. xlviii. 2.

55 Adversus Jovinianum 1. 9.

56 ‘At nunc pleraeque contemnentes apostoli jussionem, junguntur gentilibus, et templa Christi idolis prostituunt’: ibid. 1. 10 (PL xxiii. 234).

57 Ibid. 1. 11, 13.

58 ‘Angeli de coelis descendunt, et Jovinianus de eorum possessione securus est’: ibid. 2. 27 (PL xxiii. 338).

59 ‘Habes praeterea in exercitu plures succenturiatos, habes scurras et velites in praesidiis, crassos, comptos, nitidos, clamatores… tibi cedunt de via nobiles, tibi osculantur divites caput’: ibid. 2. 37 (PL xxiii. 352).

60 Jerome, ep. xlix. 1–2.

61 Ep. xlix.

62 ‘Norunt litteras, videntur sibi scioli: Possunt me non reprehendre, sed docere’: ep. xlviii (xlix). 3 (CSEL liv. 348).

63 ‘…dum unum latus protego, in altero vulneratus sum atque, ut manifestius loquar, dum contra Jovinianum presso gradu pugno, a Manicheo mea terga confossa sunt’: ep. xlix (xlviii). 2 (CSEL liv. 352). For Manicheism and the debate on sexuality see Hunter, ‘Resistance’.

64 Jerome, ep. xlviii. 18.

65 The important passages in Siricius are epp. vi. 2. 4 (PL xiii. 1165); i. 6. 7 (PL xiii.1137); i. 13. 17 (PL xiii. 1144); cf. Liber pontificalis i. 216, which alleges that Siricius used monasteries as prisons for ascetics. See also RC i. 642f.

66 Paulinus, ep. v. 13–14, with Walsh, P. G., Letters of Saint Paulinus of Nola, Washington 1967, 221Google Scholar with n. 46.

67 See Brown, Body and society, chs xvii, xviii.

68 Asella: ep. xxiv. 2; Eustochium: ep. xxii. 16: ‘Why do you, God' s bridge, hasten to visit the wife of a mere man? Learn in this respect a holy pride [superbia sancta]; know that you are better than they.’

69 Paula: ep. cviii. 15; Blesilla: epp. xxii. 15; xxxix. 3; Lea: epp. xxiii, xxiv.

70 Ep. xxii. 13.

71 ‘Unum miser locutus sum, quod virgines saepius deberent cum mulieribus esse, quam cum masculis: Totius oculos urbis offendi, cunctorum digitis notor’: ep. xxvii. 2 (CSEL liv. 225).

72 ‘…certe, qui religiosiores sibi videntur, parvo sumptu et qui vix alimenta sufficiat virginibus dato omnem censum in utrosque sexus saecularibus liberis largiuntur’: ep. cxxx. 6 (AD 414) (CSEL lvi. 182).

73 The practice of dedicating children as virgins of the church at birth was so established that a major debate took place during the fourth century on the stage at which the (male) children were to be admitted to clerical orders. See Siricius, ep. i. 9. 13 (PL xiii. 1142); Innocent, ep. iii. 6. 10 (PL xx. 492); Zosimus, ep. ix. 1. 2. 3, 5 (PL xx. 669–72). See also RC i. 691f. for the suggestion that the practice actually originated in Milan.

74 De virginitate (ed. Cazzaniga, E.) 1. 11. 58Google Scholar; 1. 12. 62; 1. 12. 63, although Ambrose admits that he knew of no parents who had actually carried out the threat, testimony of strong parental affection.

75 Augustine, ep. iii*. 1. 3 in Sancti Augustini opera, epistulae ex duobus codicibus nuper in lucem prolatate, ed. Divjak, J., Vienna 1981, 22Google Scholar. See also Brown, , Body and society, 261Google Scholar n. 10.

76 Ep. xxiv.

77 Ibid. 3.

78 ‘Patrimoniolum meum cotidie perit, maiorum hereditas dissipatur, servus contumeliose locutus est, imperium ancilla neglexit. Quis procedet ad publicum? Quis respondebit pro agrorum tributis? Parvulos meos quis erudiet? Vernulas quis educabit?’ – et hanc – pro nefas! – causam opponunt matrimonii, quae vel sola debuit nuptias inpedire': ep. liv. 15 (CSEL liv. 481–2).

79 Jerome, ep. cxxvii. 2.

80 For Cerealis see PLRE i. 197–9.

81 Ep. xxxviii. 2.

82 ‘Qui Christianus est, gaudeat; qui irascitur, non esse se indicat Christianum’: ibid. (CSEL liv. 290).

83 ‘Videbatur mihi tunc clamare de caelo “non agnosco vestem; amictus iste non meus, hic ornatus alienus est”’: ep. xxxix. 1 (CSEL liv. 295). Cf. the funeral of Bassus, Junius, Prefect of the City of Rome AD 359: Mélanges d'archéologie el et d'historire l'éecole française de Rome lxxiv (1962), 607Google Scholarff; PLRE i. 155.

84 ‘Non possum sine gemitu eloqui, quod dicturus sum. Cum de media pompa funeris exanimem te referrent, hoc inter se populus mussitabat: “Nonne illud est, quod saepius dicebamus? Dolet filiam ieiuniis interfactam, quod non vel de secundo eius matrimonio tenuerit nepotes…matronam miserabilem seduxerunt, quae quam monacha esse noluerit, hinc probatur, quod nulla gentilium ita suos umquam filios fleverit”’: ep. xxxix. 6 (CSEL liv. 306).

85 ‘…veniam inpetrat peccatorum, quod monui, quod hortatus sum, quod invidiam propinquorum, ut salva esset, excepi’: ibid. 7 (CSEL liv. 308). See Yarborough, A., ‘Christianisation in the fourth century: the example of Roman women’, Church History xlv (1976), 149–65 at p. 155Google Scholar.

86 Ep. xxiv. 3.

87 ‘Expoliabat filios et inter obiurgantes propinquos maiorem se eis hereditatem Christi misericordiam dimittere loquebatur’: ep. cviii. 5 (CSEL lv. 310).

88 ‘Quis hoc crederet, ut consulum pronepos et Furiani germinis decus inter purpuras senatorum furua tunica pullatus incederet’: ep. lxvi. 6 (CSEL liv. 654).

89 I leave out of consideration here the case of Melania the Younger and Pinianus which merits special treatment. See Gorce, D., Sainte Mélanie, Paris 1962Google Scholar.

90 Palladius, , Historia Lausiaca 54Google Scholar. 3; cf. Jerome, ep. xxxix. 4.

91 ‘λλταῖς προσευχαῖς αὐτης ό νεώτερος εἰς ἄκρον παιδείας κα⋯ τρόπων ηλασε καί ϒαμον τόν επίδοξον, και εντος των κοσμικων ξιωμάτων εϒνετο.’: Historia Lausiaca 54. 3.

92 Ibid. 54. 2; 6. See also Paulinus, ep. xxix.

93 The phrase quoted is Jill Harries's: ‘“Treasure in heaven”: property and inheritance among senators of late Rome’, in Craik, E. M. (ed.), Marriage and property, Aberdeen 1984, 54–70 at p. 56Google Scholar.

94 ‘Fateor, nulla sic amavit filios, quibus, antequam proficisceretur, cuncta largita est exheredans se in terra, ut hereditatem inveniret in caelo’: ep. cviii. 6 (CSEL lv. 312). See also Harries, , ‘“Treasure”’, 61Google Scholar.

95 ‘Scilicet, nisi tu semper recrastinans et diem de die trahens caute et pedetemptim tuas possessiunculas vendideris, non habet Christus, unde alat pauperes suos’: ep. liii. 11 (CSEL liv. 465).

96 ‘…munerarius pauperum, egentium candidatus sic festinat ad caelum’: ep. lxvi. 5 (CSEL liv. 653). Cf. Labourt, J., Saint Jérˇme lettres, Paris 1953Google Scholar, iii. 171, 230n.

97 ‘Vicit uterque et uterque superatus est. Ambo se victos et victores fatentur dum, quod alter cupiebat, uterque perfecit. Iungunt opes, sociant voluntates, ut, quod aemulatio dissipatura erat, concordia cresceret’: ep. lxxvii. 10 (CSEL lv. 47).

98 Ep. xlv. 6: ‘infamiam falsi criminis inportarunt’.

99 Translation of Didymus on the Holy Spirit, pref. (PL xxiii. 105).

100 See Kelly, , Jerome, 113–14Google Scholar.

101 Ep. cviii. 20; cf. Vita Olympiadii (ed. Malingrey, A.) 6Google Scholar, for a similar regime in fifth-century Constantinople. See also the important articles by Consolino, F. E., ‘Modelli di comportamento e modi di sanctificazione per l'aristocrazia femminile d'Occidente’, in Giardina, A. (ed.), Società romana impero tardoantico: istituzioni, ceti, economie, Rome-Bari 1986, 273–306Google Scholar, and Clark, E. A., ‘Authority and humility: a conflict of values in fourth-century female monasticism’, in her Ascetic piety, 210Google Scholar ff.