the apo stles. one were ordained by mistake, his crimes not being CHAP.III. known; when they came afterward to be known, year after he was to be deposed by the Nicene 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 sius committed before it. So that St. Hierome's being ordained presbyter (as we said before he was) by Paulinus, will make an argument that his baptism was after his fornication. But then they that know that 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 afterward to be of great merit or abilities, which the church could not well want : and that St. Hierome was, without controversy, the most learned and best skilled in interpreting the scripture of any man then living; and also was a great favourite of pope Damasus, whose interest was great in all the church. And besides, an observation which retorts the CHAP.III. force of this argument strongly to the other side, is Year after this; that these canons had in great measure their the apo stles. force upon St. Hierome. 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 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 further 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. Hierome'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 apology1; 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, and upon 'whom, the thing was done. For when I saw that k Epist. 61. contra errores Joannis Hierosol. [This epistle, or treatise, is removed from its place by Vallarsius, and printed with others of similar argument in tom..-See the passage quoted, Op. ii. p. 452. sect. 41.] Epist. ad Joann. Hierosol. 60. [Ep. 51. ed. Vallars.] stles. there was a great number of holy brethren in the CHAP.III. ⚫ monastery; and the holy presbyters Hierome and year after Vincent, by reason of their modesty and humility the apo • 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 their 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 And he himself says in other places o, all ⚫ fornications and lewdnesses of the most scandalous nature, impiety against God, parricide or incest, &c., are washed away in this Christian fountain ' or laver.' • sins.' In how different a strain does St. Austin confess his sins, which, though much greater than St. Hierome's, viz. a continued course of fornication with several harlots, yet because his baptism came after them, he says thus of them P; What praise *ought I to give to the Lord that my memory re⚫counts these things, and yet my soul is in no ⚫ terror for them ? Epist. 61. [see above.] Vallarsius reads adolescentiae.] • Epist. ad Oceanum de unius uxoris viro. [Ep. 69.] * Confess. lib. iii. cap. 7. CHAP.III. V. I said he entered into a monk's life young Year after (when I was shewing that it was probable he took the habit at Rome). He himself says so in several places 9. the apo stles. 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. On 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. Hierome 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, than before: they have as much attendance of servants,' &c. So that we see all monks, good or bad, wore the garments of a monk. 6 6 Yet as commendable as it was in the practice a Epist. 2. [52.] item 62. [82], &c. stles. then; St. Hierome has been under some censure, CHAP.III. for his excessive urging it on people; not only in Year after his own time, but ever since; and not only among the apoprotestants, but among those of the church of Rome that are any thing impartial. highly to be valued for that Mr. Du Pin, who is quality, says of him, * concerning virginity and the monk's life, he often speaks so, as if he would have one think they are necessary for salvations. 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 cepisti. 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-in-law. 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. Hierome 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. VI. But it was not during the times of Damasus, that St. Hierome fell under any censure for this his over-lashing: but afterward, in the times of Siri |