ENCYCLICAL LETTER

ON THE
FIFTEENTH CENTENARY

OF THE

DEATH OF ST. JEROME

Spiritus Paraclitus

POPE BENEDICT XV

September 15, 1920

ST. PAUL EDITIONS



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A-DM

Encyclical Letter

of Pope Benedict XV

SPIRITUS PARACLITUS
C

On the Fifteenth Centenary of

the Death of St. Jerome

To All the Patriarchs, Primates, Archbishops,

Bishops and Ordinaries in Union with the

Apostolic See

* Cf. A.A.S., 12 (1920) 385-422.



Reprinted from Rome and the Study of Sacred Scripture with

the kind permission of Abbey Press, St. Meinrad, Indiana, 47577.

Printed by the Daughters of St. Paul

50 St. Paul’s Ave., Boston, MA 02130

The Daughters of St. Paul are an international congregation of

religious women serving the Church with the communications

media.



Since the Holy Spirit, the Comforter, had be-

stowed the Scriptures on the human race for their

instruction in divine things, He also raised up in

successive ages saintly and learned men whose task

it should be to develop that treasure and so provide

for the faithful plenteous “consolation from the Scrip-

tures.
”

1

Foremost among these teachers stands

St. Jerome. Him the Catholic Church acclaims and
reveres as her “greatest Doctor,” divinely given her

for the understanding of the Bible. And now that the

fifteenth centenary of his death is approaching we

would not willingly let pass so favorable an oppor-

tunity of addressing you on the debt we owe him. For

the responsibility of our Apostolic office impels us

to set before you his wonderful example and so pro-

mote the study of Holy Scripture in accordance with

the teaching of our predecessors, Leo XIII and Pius X,

which we desire to apply more precisely still to the

present needs of the Church. For St. Jerome
—

“stren-

uous Catholic, learned in the Scriptures ,”
2

“teacher

of Catholics,”
3 “model of virtue, world’s teacher

”
4

— has by his earnest and illuminative defense of

Catholic doctrine on Holy Scripture left us most

precious instructions. These we propose to set be-

fore you and so promote among the children of the

Church, and especially among the clergy, assiduous

and reverent study of the Bible.

I. LIFE AND LABORS OF ST. JEROME

No need to remind you, venerable brethren, that

Jerome was born in Stridonia, in a town “on the bor-

ders of Dalmatia and Pannonia”;
5

that from his in-

fancy he was brought up a Catholic
;

6

that after his

baptism here in Rome 7 he lived to an advanced age
and devoted all his powers to studying, expounding,

and defending the Bible. At Rome he had learned

3



Latin and Greek, and hardly had he left the school of

rhetoric than he ventured on a commentary on Abdias

the prophet. This “youthful piece of work
”

8

kindled

in him such love of the Bible that he decided— like
the man in the Gospel who found a treasure— to spurn
“any emoluments the world could provide,” 9 and

devote himself wholly to such studies. Nothing could

deter him from this stern resolve. He left home, par-

ents, sister, and relatives; he denied himself the more

delicate food he had been accustomed to, and went to

the East so that he might gather from studious reading

of the Bible the fuller riches of Christ and true knowl-

edge of his Savior .
10

Jerome himself tells us in several

places how assiduously he toiled:

An eager desire to learn obsessed me. But I was

not so foolish as to try and teach myself. At Antioch

I regularly attended the lectures of Apollinarius of

Laodicea; but while I learned much from him about

the Bible, I would never accept his doubtful teach-

ing about its interpretation.
11

From Antioch he betook himself to the desert of

Chalcis, in Syria, to perfect himself in his knowledge

of the Bible, and at the same time to curb “youthful

desires” by means of hard study. Here he engaged a

convert Jew to teach him Hebrew and Chaldaic.

What a toil it was! How difficult I found it! How
often I was on the point of giving it up in despair,

and yet in my eagerness to learn took it up again!
Myself can bear witness of this, and so, too, can those

who had lived with me at the time. Yet I thank God

for the fruit I won from that bitter seed. 12

Lest, however, he should grow idle in this desert

where there were no heretics to vex him, Jerome be-

took himself to Constantinople, where for nearly three

years he studied Holy Scripture under St. Gregory

the Theologian, then Bishop of that See and in the

height of his fame as a teacher. While there he trans-

lated into Latin Origen’s Homilies on the Prophets

and Eusebius’ Chronicle; he also wrote on Isaias’

vision of the seraphim. He then returned to Rome on

ecclesiastical business, and Pope Damasus admitted

him into his court . 13 However, he let nothing distract

4



him from continual occupation with the Bible ,
14

and

the task of copying various manuscripts ,
15

as well as

answering the many questions put to him by students

of both sexes .
16

Pope Damasus had entrusted to him a most labori-

ous task, the correction of the Latin text of the Bible.

So well did Jerome carry this out that even today men

versed in such studies appreciate its value more and

more. But he ever yearned for Palestine, and when

the Pope died he retired to Bethlehem to a monastery

near to the cave where Christ was born. Every moment

he could spare from prayer he gave to biblical studies.

Though my hair was now growing gray and

though I looked more like professor than student,

yet I went to Alexandria to attend Didymus’ lectures.

I owe him much. What I did not know I learned.

What I knew already I did not lose through his dif-

ferent presentation of it. Men thought I had done
with tutors; but when I got back to Jerusalem and

Bethlehem how hard I worked and what a price I

paid for my night-time teacher Baraninus! Like
another Nicodemus he was afraid of the Jews !

17

Nor was Jerome content merely to gather up this

or that teacher’s words; he gathered from all quarters

whatever might prove of use to him in this task. From

the outset he had accumulated the best possible copies

of the Bible and the best commentators on it, but now

he worked on copies from the synagogues and from

the library formed at Caesarea by Origen and Eu-

sebius; he hoped by assiduous comparison of texts

to arrive at greater certainty touching the actual

text and its meaning. With this same purpose he went

all through Palestine. For he was thoroughly con-

vinced of the truth of what he once wrote to Domnio

and Rogatian:

A man will understand the Bible better if he has

seen Judea with his own eyes and discovered its

ancient cities and sites either under the old names

or newer ones. In company with some learned He-

brews I went through the entire land, the names of

whose sites are on every Christian’s lips .
18

5



He nourished his soul unceasingly on this most
pleasant food: he explained St. Paul’s epistles; he

corrected the Latin version of the Old Testament by

the Greek; he translated afresh nearly all the books

of the Old Testament from Hebrew into Latin; day by

day he discussed biblical questions with the brethren

who came to him, and answered letters on biblical

questions which poured in upon him from all sides;

besides all this, he was constantly refuting men who

assailed Catholic doctrine and unity. Indeed, such

was his love for Holy Scripture that he ceased not

from writing or dictating till his hand stiffened in

death and his voice was silent forever. So it was that,

sparing himself neither labor nor watching nor ex-

spense, he continued to extreme old age meditating

day and night beside the crib on the law of the Lord;

of greater profit to the Catholic cause by his life and

example in his solitude than if he had passed his life

at Rome, the capital of the world.

II. ST. JEROME’S TEACHING REGARDING

HOLY SCRIPTURE

1. PLENARY INSPIRATION OF HOLY SCRIPTURE

After this preliminary account of St. Jerome’s

life and labors we may now treat of his teaching on

the divine dignity and absolute truth of Scripture.

You will not find a page in his writings which

does not show clearly that he, in common with the

whole Catholic Church, firmly and consistently held

that the Sacred Books — written as they were under

the inspiration of the Holy Spirit— have God for their

Author, and as such were delivered to the Church.

Thus he asserts that books of the Bible were com-

posed at the inspiration, or suggestion, or even at the

dictation of the Holy Spirit; even that they were writ-

ten and edited by Him. Yet he never questions but

that the individual authors of these books worked in

full freedom under the divine afflatus, each of them

in accordance with his individual nature and character.

Thus he is not merely content to affirm as a general

6



principle — what indeed pertains to all the sacred

writers — that they followed the Spirit of God as they

wrote, in such sort that God is the principal cause of

all that Scripture means and says; but he also ac-

curately describes what pertains to each individual

writer. In each case Jerome shows us how, in compo-

sition, in language, in style and mode of expression,

each of them uses his own gifts and powers; hence he

is able to portray and describe for us their individual

character, almost their very features; this is especial-

ly so in his treatment of the prophets and of St. Paul.

This partnership of God and man in the production of

a work in common Jerome illustrates by the case of

a workman who uses instruments for the production

of his work; for he says that whatsoever the sacred

authors say “is the word of God, and not their own;

and what the Lord says by their mouths He says, as

it were, by means of an instrument.”
19

If we ask how we are to explain this power and

action of God, the principal cause, on the sacred

writers we shall find that St. Jerome in no wise differs

from the common teaching of the Catholic Church.

For he holds that God, through His grace, illumines

the writer’s mind regarding the particular truth which,

“in the person of God,” he is to set before men; he

holds, moreover, that God moves the writer’s will —

no, even impels it— to write; finally, that God abides
with him unceasingly, in unique fashion, until his

task is accomplished. Whence the saint infers the

supreme excellence and dignity of Scripture, and

declares that knowledge of it is to be likened to the

“treasure
” 20

and the “pearl beyond price ,”
21

since

in them are to be found the riches of Christ
22
and

“silver wherewith to adorn God’s house .” 23

2. AUTHORITATIVE CHARACTER OF HOLY SCRIPTURE

Jerome also insists on the supereminent au-

thority of Scripture. When controversy arose he had
recourse to the Bible as a storehouse of arguments,

and he used its testimony as a weapon for refuting

his adversaries’ arguments, because he held that the

Bible’s witness afforded solid and irrefutable argu-

7



ments. Thus, when Helvidius denied the perpetual

virginity of the Mother of God, Jerome was content

simply to reply:

Just as we do not deny these things which are

written, so do we repudiate things that are not

written. That God was born of a Virgin we believe,

because we read it. That Mary was married after His

birth we do not believe because we do not read it. 24

In the same fashion he undertakes to defend

against Jovinian, with precisely the same weapons,

the Catholic doctrines of the virginal state, of per-

severance, of abstinence, and of the. merit of good

works:

In refuting his statements I shall rely especially

on the testimony of Scripture, lest he should grum-

ble and complain that he has been vanquished rather

by my eloquence than by the truth. 25

So, too, when defending himself against the

same Helvidius, he says: “He was, you might say,

begged to yield to me, and be led away as a willing

and unresisting captive in the bonds of truth .”
26

Again, “We must not follow the errors of our parents,

nor of those who have gone before us; we have the

authority of the Scriptures and God’s teaching to

command us .” 27 Once more, when showing Fabiola

how to deal with critics, he says:

When you are really instructed in the Divine

Scriptures, and have realized that its laws and testi-

monies are the bonds of truth, then you can contend

with adversaries; then you will fetter them and lead

them bound into captivity; then of the foes you have

made captive you will make freemen of God.28

3. BIBLICAL INERRANCY

Jerome further shows that the immunity of

Scripture from error or deception is necessarily bound

up with its divine inspiration and supreme authority.

He says he had learned this in the most celebrated

schools, whether of East or West, and that it was

taught him as the doctrine of the Fathers, and generally

received. Thus when, at the instance of Pope Damasus,

8



he had begun correcting the Latin text of the New
Testament, and certain “manikins” had vehemently

attacked him for “making corrections in the Gospels

in face of the authority of the Fathers and of general

opinion,” Jerome briefly replied that he was not

so utterly stupid nor so grossly uneducated as to ima-

gine that the Lord’s words needed any correction or

were not divinely inspired .
29

Similarly, when ex-

plaining Ezechiel’s first vision as portraying the

four Gospels , he remarks:

That the entire body and the back were full of

eyes will be plain to anybody who realizes that there

is nothing in the Gospels which does not shine and

illumine the world by its splendor, so that even

things that seem trifling and unimportant shine with

the majesty of the Holy Spirit .
30

What he has said here of the Gospels he applies

in his Commentaries to the rest of the Lord’s words;

he regards it as the very rule and foundation of Catho-

lic interpretation; indeed, for Jerome, a true prophet

was to be distinguished from a false by this very note

of truth :
31 “The Lord’s words are true; for Him to say

it, means that it is .” 32 Again, “Scripture cannot lie”; 33

it is wrong to say Scripture lies
,

34
no, it is impious

even to admit the very notion of error where the

Bible is concerned .
35 “The apostles,” he says, “are

one thing; other writers” — that is, profane writers —

“are another”; “the former always tell the truth;

the latter— as being mere men — sometimes err,” 36

and though many things are said in the Bible which

seem incredible, yet they are true
;

37
in this “word

truth” you cannot find things or statements which

are contradictory: “There is nothing discordant nor

conflicting”;
38

consequently, “when Scripture seems

to be in conflict with itself both passages are true

despite their diversity .”
39

Holding principles like these, Jerome was com-

pelled, when he discovered apparent discrepancies

in the Sacred Books, to use every endeavor to unravel

the difficulty. If he felt that he had not satisfactorily

settled the problem, he would return to it again and

again, not always, indeed, with the happiest results.

9



Yet he would never accuse the sacred writers of the

slightest mistake
—

“that we leave to impious folk

like Celsus, Porphyry, and Julian .”
40 Here he is in

full agreement with Augustine, who wrote to Jerome

that to the Sacred Books alone had he been wont

to accord such honor and reverence as firmly to

believe that none of their writers had ever fallen

into any error; and that consequently, if in the said

books he came across anything which seemed to run

counter to the truth, he did not think that that was

really the case, but either that his copy was defective

or that the translator had made a mistake, or again,

that he himself had failed to understand. He continues:

Nor do I deem that you think otherwise. Indeed,

I absolutely decline to think that you would have

people read your own books in the same way as they

read those of the prophets and apostles; the idea that

these latter could contain any errors is impious .
41

St. Jerome’s teaching on this point serves to

confirm and illustrate what our predecessor of happy

memory, Leo XIII, declared to be the ancient and

traditional belief of the Church touching the absolute

immunity of Scripture from error:

So far is it from being the case that error can be

compatible with inspiration, that, on the contrary, it

not only of its very nature precludes the presence of

error, but as necessarily excludes it and forbids it

as God, the Supreme Truth, necessarily cannot be

the Author of error.

Then, after giving the definitions of the Councils

of Florence and Trent, confirmed by the Council of

the Vatican, Pope Leo continues:

Consequently it is not to the point to suggest

that the Holy Spirit used men as His instruments

for writing, and that therefore, while no error is

referable to the primary Author, it may well be due

to the inspired authors themselves. For by super-

natural power the Holy Spirit so stirred them and

moved them to write, so assisted them as they wrote,

that their minds could rightly conceive only those

and all those things which He Himself bade them

conceive; only such things could they faithfully

10



commit to writing and aptly express with unerring

truth; else God would not be the Author of the en-

tirety of Sacred Scripture .
42

III. MODERN VIEWS COMPARED WITH ST. JEROME’S

TEACHING

But although these words of our predecessor leave

no room for doubt or dispute, it grieves us to find that

not only men outside, but even children of the Catholic

Church — no, what is a peculiar sorrow to us, even

clerics and professors of sacred learning — who in their

own conceit either openly repudiate or at least attack

in secret the Church’s teaching on this point.

We warmly commend, of course, those who, with
the assistance of critical methods, seek to discover new

ways of explaining the difficulties in Holy Scripture,

whether for their own guidance or to help others. But

we remind them that they will only come to miserable

grief if they neglect our predecessor’s injunctions and

overstep the limits set by the Fathers.

1. NO DISTINCTION OF PRIMARY

AND SECONDARY ELEMENTS

Yet no one can pretend that certain recent writers

really adhere to these limitations. For while conceding

that inspiration extends to every phrase — and, indeed,
to every single word of Scripture — yet, by endeavor-

ing to distinguish between what they style the primary

or religious and the secondary or profane element in

the Bible, they claim that the effect of inspiration —

namely, absolute truth and immunity from error— are
to be restricted to that primary or religious element.

Their notion is that only what concerns religion is in-

tended and taught by God in Scripture, and that all

the rest— things concerning “profane knowledge,” the

garments in which divine truth is presented — God

merely permits, and even leaves to the individual

author’s greater or less knowledge. Small wonder,

then, that in their view a considerable number of

things occur in the Bible touching physical science,

history and the like, which cannot be reconciled with

modern progress in science!

11



Some even maintain that these views do not con-

flict with what our predecessor laid down, since — so
they claim— he said that the sacred writers spoke in
in accordance with the external — and thus deceptive —

appearance of things in nature. But the Pontiff s own

words show that this is a rash and false deduction. For

sound philosophy teaches that the senses can never be

deceived as regards their own proper and immediate

object. Therefore, from the merely external appearance

of things — of which, of course, we have always to take

account, as Leo XIII, following in the footsteps of

St. Augustine and St. Thomas, most wisely remarks —

we can never conclude that there is any error in Sacred

Scripture.

Moreover, our predecessor, sweeping aside all

such distinctions between what these critics are

pleased to call primary and secondary elements, says in

no ambiguous fashion that “those who fancy that when

it is a question of the truth of certain expressions we

have not got to consider so much what God said as

why He said it,” are very far indeed from the truth. He

also teaches that divine inspiration extends to every

part of the Bible without the slightest exception, and

that no error can occur in the inspired text: “It would

be wholly impious to limit inspiration to certain por-

tions only of Scripture or to concede that the sacred

authors themselves could have erred .”
43

2. NO DISTINCTION OF RELATIVE AND ABSOLUTE TRUTH

Those, too, who hold that the historical portions

of Scripture do not rest on the absolute truth of the

facts but merely upon what they are pleased to term

their relative truth, namely, what people then com-

monly thought, are — no less than are the aforemen-

tioned critics — out of harmony with the Church’s

teaching, which is endorsed by the testimony of

Jerome and other Fathers. Yet they are not afraid to

deduce such views from the words of Leo XIII on the

ground that he allowed that the principles he had laid

down touching the things of nature could be applied

to historical things as well. Hence they maintain that

precisely as the sacred writers spoke of physical things

12



according to appearance, so, too, while ignorant of the

facts, they narrated them in accordance with general

opinion or even on baseless evidence; neither do they

tell us the sources whence they derived their knowl-

edge, nor do they make other peoples’ narrative their

own. Such views are clearly false, and constitute a

calumny on our predecessor. After all, what analogy is

there between physics and history? For whereas

physics is concerned with “sensible appearances”

and must consequently square with phenomena, his-

tory, on the contrary, must square with facts, since

history is the written account of events as they actu-

ally occurred. If we were to accept such views, how

could we maintain the truth insisted on throughout

Leo XII I s encyclical — namely, that the sacred nar-

rative is absolutely free from error?

And if Leo XIII does say that we can apply to

history and cognate subjects the same principles which

hold good for science, he yet does not lay this down as

a universal law, but simply says that we can apply a

like line of argument when refuting the fallacies of

adversaries and defending the historical truth of

Scripture from their assaults.

3. HISTORICAL TRUTH IN THE BIBLE

Nor do modern innovators stop here: they even try

to claim St. Jerome as a patron of their views on the

ground that he maintained that historic truth and

sequence were not observed in the Bible, “precisely

as things actually took place, but in accordance with

what men thought at that time,” and that he even held

that this was the true norm for history .
44 A strange dis-

tortion of St. Jerome’s words! He does not say that

when giving us an account of events the writer was

ignorant of the truth and simply adopted the false

views then current; he merely says that in giving

names to persons or things he followed general cus-

tom. Thus the Evangelist calls St. Joseph the father

of Jesus, but what he meant by the title “father” here

is abundantly clear from the whole context. For St. Je-

rome, “the true norm of history” is this: when it is

question of such appellatives (as “father,” etc.), and

13



when there is no danger of error, then a writer must

adopt the ordinary forms of speech simply because

such forms of speech are in ordinary use. More than

this: Jerome maintains that belief in the biblical

narrative is as necessary to salvation as is belief in

the doctrines of the Faith; thus in his Commentary on

the Epistle to Philemon he says:

“What I mean is this: Does any man believe in

God the Creator? He cannot do so unless he first be-
lieve that the things written of God’s saints are true.”

He then gives examples from the Old Testament and

adds: “Now unless a man believes all these and other

things too which are written of the saints he cannot

believe in the God of the saints .” 45

Thus St. Jerome is in complete agreement with

St. Augustine, who sums up the general belief of

Christian antiquity when he says:

Holy Scripture is invested with supreme author-

ity by reason of its sure and momentous teachings

regarding the Faith. Whatever, then, it tells us of

Enoch, Elias and Moses — that we believe. We do
not, for instance, believe that God’s Son was born

of the Virgin Mary simply because He could not

otherwise have appeared in the flesh and “walked

among men” — as Faustus would have it— but we be-

lieve it simply because it is written in Scripture;

and unless we believe in Scripture we can neither

be Christians nor be saved.
46

4. NO “TACIT QUOTATIONS”

Then there are other assailants of Holy Scrip-

ture who misuse principles — which are only sound if

kept within due bounds — in order to overturn the

fundamental truth of the Bible and thus destroy

Catholic teaching handed down by the Fathers. If

Jerome were living now, he would sharpen his keenest

controversial weapons against people who set aside

what is the mind and judgment of the Church, and take

too ready a refuge in such notions as “implicit quota-

tions” or “pseudo-historical narratives,” or in “kinds

of literature” in the Bible such as cannot be reconciled

with the entire and perfect truth of God’s word, or who

14



suggest such origins of the Bible as must inevitably

weaken — if not destroy— its authority.

What can we say of men who in expounding the

very Gospels so whittle away the human trust we

should repose in them as to overturn divine faith in

them? They refuse to allow the things which Christ

said or did have come down to us unchanged and

entire through witnesses who carefully committed to

writing what they themselves had seen or heard. They

maintain — and particularly in their treatment of the

Fourth Gospel — that much is due, of course, to the

Evangelists — who, however, added much from their

own imaginations; but much, too, is due to narratives

compiled by the faithful at other periods, the result,

of course, being that the twin streams now flowing in

the same channel cannot be distinguished from one

another. Not thus did Jerome and Augustine and the

other Doctors of the Church understand the historical

trustworthiness of the Gospels; yet of it one wrote:

“He who saw it has borne witness, and his witness is

true; and he knows that he tells the truth, that you also

may believe” (Jn. 19:35). So, too, St. Jerome: after

rebuking the heretical framers of the apocryphal Gos-

pels for “attempting rather to fill up the story than to

tell it truly,”
47
he says of the canonical Scriptures:

“None can doubt but that what is written took place.”
48

Here again he is in fullest harmony with Augustine,

who so beautifully says: “These things are true; they

are faithfully and truthfully written of Christ; so that

whosoever believes His Gospel may be thereby in-

structed in the truth and misled by no lie.”
49

5. MODERN VIEWS INCOMPATIBLE WITH TRADITION
AND WITH CHRIST'S METHOD

All this shows us how earnestly we must strive

to avoid, as children of the Church, this insane free-

dom in ventilating opinions which the Fathers were

careful to shun. This we shall more readily achieve if

you, venerable brethren, will make both clergy and

laity committed to your care by the Holy Spirit realize

that neither Jerome nor the other Fathers of the Church

learned their doctrine touching Holy Scripture save in

15



the school of the Divine Master Himself. We know
what He felt about Holy Scripture: when He said,

“It is written,” and “the Scripture must needs be ful-

filled,” we have therein an argument which admits of

no exception and which should put an end to all con-

troversy.

Yet it is worthwhile dwelling on this point a

little: when Christ preached to the people, whether on

the Mount, by the lakeside, or in the synagogue at

Nazareth, or in His own city of Capharnaum, He took

His points and His arguments from the Bible. From the

same source came His weapons when disputing with

the scribes and Pharisees. Whether teaching or dis-

puting, He quotes from all parts of Scripture and takes

His example from it; He quotes it as an argument

which must be accepted. He refers without any dis-
crimination of sources to the stories of Jonas and the

Ninivites, of the Queen of Sheba and Solomon, of

Elias and Eliseus, of David and of Noe, of Lot and the

Sodomites, and even of Lot’s wife (cf. Matt. 12:3,

39-42; Lk. 17:26-29, 32). How solemn His witness to
the truth of the sacred books: “One jot or one tittle

shall not pass of the Law till all be fulfilled” (Matt.

5:18); and again: “The Scripture cannot be broken”

(Jn. 10:35); and consequently: “He therefore that

shall break one of these least commandments, and

shall so teach men shall be called the least in the king-

dom of heaven” (Matt. 5:19). Before His ascension,

too, when He would steep His apostles in the same

doctrine: “He opened their understanding that they

might understand the Scriptures. And He said to them:

thus it is written, and thus it behooved Christ to suffer,

and to rise again from the dead the third day” (Lk.

24:45).

In a word, then: Jerome’s teaching on the super-

excellence and truth of Scripture is Christ’s teaching.

Wherefore we exhort all the Church’s children, and

especially those whose duty it is to teach in seminaries,

to follow closely in St. Jerome’s footsteps. If they will

but do so, they will learn to prize as he prized the

treasure of the Scriptures, and will derive from them

most abundant and blessed fruit.

16



IV. PRACTICAL COUNSELS

1. ON THE LOVE OF THE BIBLE

Now, if we make use of the “greatest of Doctors”

as our guide and teacher we shall derive from so doing

not only the gains signalized above, but others too,

which cannot be regarded as trifling or few. What

these gains are, venerable brethren, we will set out

briefly. At the outset, then, we are deeply impressed

by the intense love of the Bible which St. Jerome ex-

hibits in his whole life and teaching: both are steeped

in the Spirit of God. This intense love of the Bible

he was ever striving to kindle in the hearts of the faith-

ful, and his words on this subject to the maiden Deme-

trias are really addressed to us all: “Love the Bible and

wisdom will love you; love it and it will preserve you;

honor it and it will embrace you; these are the jewels

which you should wear on your breast and in your

ears .”
50

His unceasing reading of the Bible and his pains-

taking study of each book— nay, of every phrase and

word— gave him a knowledge of the text such as no

other ecclesiastical writer of old possessed. It is due

to this familiarity with the text and to his own acute

judgment that the Vulgate version Jerome -made is,

in the judgment of all capable men, preferable to any

other ancient version, since it appears to give us the

sense of the original more accurately and with greater

elegance than they. The said Vulgate, “approved by so

many centuries of use in the Church” was pronounced

by the Council of Trent “authentic,” and the same

Council insisted that it was to be used in teaching and

in the liturgy .
51

If God in His mercy grants us life, we
sincerely hope to see an amended and faithfully re-

stored edition. We have no doubt that, when this
arduous task— entrusted by our predecessor, Pius X,
to the Benedictine Order— has been completed, it
will prove of great assistance in the study of the Bible.

But to return to St. Jerome’s love of the Bible:

this is so conspicuous in his letters that they almost

seem woven out of Scripture texts; and, as St. Bernard

found no taste in things which did not echo the most

17



sweet name of Jesus, so no literature made any appeal

to Jerome unless it derived its light from Holy Scrip-

ture. Thus he wrote to Paulinus, formerly senator and

even consul and only recently converted to the faith:

If only you had this foundation (knowledge of

Scripture); no, more — if you would let Scripture give
the finishing touches to your work— I should find
nothing more beautiful, more learned, even nothing

more Latin than your volumes.... If you could but

add to your wisdom and eloquence study of and real

acquaintance with Holy Scripture, we should speed-

ily have to acknowledge you a leader among us. 52

2. NEED OF PREPARATION

How we are to seek for this great treasure, given
as it is by our Father in heaven for our solace during

this earthly pilgrimage, St. Jerome’s example shows

us. First, we must be well prepared and must possess

a good will. Thus Jerome himself, immediately on

his baptism, determined to remove whatever might

prove a hindrance to his ambitions in this respect.

Like the man who found a treasure and “for joy thereof

went and sold all that he had and bought that field”

(Mt. 13:14), so did Jerome say farewell to the idle

pleasures of this passing world; he went into the des-

ert, and since he realized what risks he had run in

the past through the allurements of vice, he adopted

a most severe style of life. With all obstacles thus re-

moved he prepared his soul for the knowledge of Jesus

Christ and for putting on Him who was “meek and

humble of heart” (Mt. 11:29). But he went through

what Augustine also experienced when he took up the

study of Scripture. For the latter has told us that to

him, steeped as a youth in Cicero and profane authors,

the Bible seemed unfit to be compared with Cicero.

My swelling pride shrank from its modest garb,
while my gaze could not pierce to what the latter hid.

Of a truth Scripture was meant to grow up with the

childlike; but then I could not be childlike; turgid

eloquence appealed mightily to me.
53

So, too, St. Jerome; even though withdrawn into

the desert he still found such delight in profane lit-

18



erature that at first he failed to discern the lowly

Christ in His lowly Scriptures:

Wretch that I was! I read Cicero even before I

broke my fast! And after the long night-watches,

when memory of my past sins wrung tears from my

soul, even then I took up my Plautus! Then perhaps

I would come to my senses and would start reading

the Prophets. But their uncouth language made me

shiver, and, since blind eyes do not see the light,

I blamed the sun and not my own eyes . 54

But in a brief space Jerome became so enamored

of the “folly of the cross” that he himself serves as

a proof of the extent to which a humble and devout

frame of mind is conducive to the understanding of

Holy Scripture. He realized that “in expounding

Scripture we need God’s Holy Spirit” 55
;
he saw that

one cannot read or understand it otherwise “than the

Holy Spirit by whom it was written demands .” 56

Consequently, he was ever humbly praying for God’s

assistance and for the light of the Holy Spirit, and

asking his friends to do the same for him. We find
him commending to the divine assistance and to his

brethren’s prayers his Commentaries on various books

as he began them, and then rendering God due thanks

when they were completed.

3. NEED OF LIVELY CATHOLIC FAITH

As he trusted to God’s grace, so too did he rely

upon the authority of his predecessors: “What I have

learned I did not teach myself— a wretchedly pre-

sumptuous teacher! -but I learned it from illustrious

men in the Church .” 57 Again: “In studying Scripture

I never trusted in myself.”
58 To Theophilus, Bishop of

Alexandria, he imparted the rule he had laid down

for his own student life: “It has always been my cus-
tom to fight for the prerogatives of a Christian, not

to overpass the limits set by the Fathers, always to

bear in mind that Roman faith praised by the Apos-

tle
.” 59

He ever paid submissive homage to the Church,

our supreme teacher through the Roman Pontiffs.

19



Thus, with a view to putting an end to the controversy

raging in the East concerning the mystery of the

Holy Trinity, he submitted the question to the Roman

See for settlement, and wrote from the Syrian desert

to Pope Damasus as follows:

I decided, therefore, to consult the Chair of

Peter and that Roman faith which the Apostle

praised; I ask for my soul’s food from that city where-
in I first put on the garment of Christ. ... I, who follow

no other leader save Christ, associate myself with

Your Blessedness, in communion, that is, with the

Chair of Peter. For I know the Church was built

upon that Rock.... I beg you to settle this dispute.

If you desire it I shall not be afraid to say there are

Three Hypostases. If it is your wish let them draw

up a Symbol of faith subsequent to that of Nicaea,

and let us orthodox praise God in the same form of

words as the Arians employ .
60

And in his next letter: “Meanwhile I keep crying

out, ‘Any man who is joined to Peter’s Chair, he is

my man.’” 61 Since he had learned this “rule of faith”
from his study of the Bible, he was able to refute a

false interpretation of a biblical text with the simple

remark: “Yes, but the Church of God does not admit

that.”
62 When, again, Vigilantius quoted an apoc-

ryphal book, Jerome was content to reply: “A book

I have never so much as read! For what is the good

of soiling one’s hands with a book the Church does

not receive ?”
63
With his strong insistence on adher-

ing to the integrity of the faith, it is not to be wondered

at that he attacked vehemently those who left the

Church; he promptly regarded them as his own per-

sonal enemies. “To put it briefly,” he says, “I have

never spared heretics, and have always striven to

regard the Church’s enemies as my own .” 64 To Rufinus
he writes: “There is one point in which I cannot

agree with you: you ask me to spare heretics — or, in
other words — not to prove myself a Catholic.” 65 Yet

at the same time Jerome deplored the lamentable

state of heretics and adjured them to return to their

sorrowing Mother, the one source of salvation
66

;
he

prayed, too, with all earnestness for the conversion

20



of those “who had quitted the Church and put away

the Holy Spirit’s teaching to follow their own no-

tions .”
67

Was there ever a time, venerable brethren, when

there was greater call than now for us all, lay and

cleric alike, to imbibe the spirit of this “greatest

of Doctors”? For there are many contumacious folk

now who sneer at the authority and government of

God, who has revealed Himself, and of the Church

which teaches. You know— for Leo XIII warned us
— “how insistently men fight against us; you know

the arms and arts they rely upon .”
68

It is your duty,

then, to train as many really fit defenders of this

holiest of causes as you can. They must be ready to

combat not only those who deny the existence of the

supernatural order altogether, and are thus led to

deny the existence of any divine revelation or in-

spiration, but those, too, who— through an itching

desire for novelty— venture to interpret the sacred

books as though they were of purely human origin;

those, too, who scoff at opinions held of old in the

Church, or who, through contempt of its teaching

office, either reck little of, or silently disregard, or

at least obstinately endeavor to adapt to their own

views, the Constitutions of the Apostolic See or the

decisions of the Pontifical Biblical Commission.

Would that all Catholics would cling to St. Je-
rome’s golden rule and obediently listen to their

Mother’s words, so as modestly to keep within the

bounds marked out by the Fathers and ratified by the

Church.

4. PIETY AND HUMILITY

To return, however, to the question of the forma-

tion of biblical students. We must lay the founda-
tions in piety and humility of mind; only when we

have done that does St. Jerome invite us to study

the Bible. In the first place, he insists, in season

and out, on daily reading of the text. “Provided,”

he says, “our bodies are not the slaves of sin, wis-

dom will come to us; but exercise your mind, feed it

daily with Holy Scripture .”
69 And again: “We have

21



got, then, to read Holy Scripture assiduously; we have

got to meditate on the law of God day and night so

that, as expert money-changers, we may be able to
detect false coin from true /’

70

For matrons and maidens alike he lays down the

same rule. Thus, writing to the Roman matron Laeta

about her daughter’s training, he says:

Every day she should give you a definite ac-

count of her Bible reading.... For her the Bible

must take the place of silks and jewels.... Let her

learn the Psalter first, and find her recreation in its

songs; let her learn from Solomon’s Proverbs the

way of life, from Ecclesiastes how to trample on the

world. In Job she will find an example of patient

virtue. Thence let her pass to the Gospels; they

should always be in her hands. She should steep her-

self in the Acts and the Epistles. And when she has

enriched her soul with these treasures she should

commit to memory the Prophets, the Heptateuch,

Kings and Chronicles, Esdras and Esther; then she

can learn the Canticle of Canticles without any

fear .
71

He says the same to Eustochium: “Read assidu-

ously and learn as much as you can. Let sleep find

you holding your Bible, and when your head nods let

it be resting on the sacred page .”
72

When he sent Eustochium the epitaph he had
composed for her mother Paula, he especially praised

that holy woman for having so wholeheartedly devoted

herself and her daughter to Bible study that she knew

the Bible through and through, and had committed it

to memory. He continues:

I will tell you another thing about her, though

evil-disposed people may cavil at it: she determined

to learn Hebrew, a language which I myself, with

immense labor and toil from my youth upwards,

have only partly learned, and which I even now

dare not cease studying lest it should quit me. But

Paula learned it, and so well that she could chant

the Psalms in Hebrew, and could speak it, too, with-

out any trace of a Latin accent. We can see the same
thing even now in her daughter Eustochium . 73

He tells us much the same of Marcella, who also

knew the Bible exceedingly well .
74 And none can fail

22



to see what profit and sweet tranquility must result

in well-disposed souls from such devout reading of

the Bible. Whosoever comes to it in piety, faith and

humility, and with a determination to make progress

in it, will assuredly find therein and will eat the

“Bread that comes down from heaven” (Jn. 6:33); he

will, in his own person, experience the truth of David’s

words: “The hidden and uncertain things of your

wisdom you have made manifest to me!” (Ps. 50:8),

for this table of the “divine Word” does really “con-

tain holy teaching, teach the true faith, and lead us

unfalteringly beyond the veil into the Holy of Ho-

lies.”
75

Hence, as far as in us lies, we, venerable breth-

ren, shall, with St. Jerome as our guide, never desist

from urging the faithful to read daily the Gospels,

the Acts and the Epistles, so as to gather thence food

for their souls.

5. SOCIETY OF ST. JEROME

Our thoughts naturally turn just now to the

Society of St. Jerome, which we ourselves were

instrumental in founding; its success has gladdened

us, and we trust that the future will see a great im-

pulse given to it.

The object of this Society is to put into the hands

of as many people as possible the Gospels and Acts,

so that every Christian family may have them and

become accustomed to reading them. This we have

much at heart, for we have seen how useful it is.

We earnestly hope, then, that similar societies will
be founded in your dioceses and affiliated to the

parent society here.

Commendation, too, is due to Catholics in other

countries who have published the entire New Testa-
ment, as well as selected portions of the Old, in neat

and simple form so as to popularize their use. Much
again must accrue to the Church of God when numbers
of people thus approach this table of heavenly instruc-

tion which the Lord provided through the ministry of

His prophets, apostles and Doctors for the entire

Christian world.

23



V. THE BIBLE AND PRIESTLY EDUCATION

1. NEED OF BIBLICAL LEARNING

If, then, St. Jerome begs for assiduous reading of

the Bible by the faithful in general, he insists on it

for those who are called to ‘‘bear the yoke of Christ”
and preach His word. His words to Rusticus the monk

apply to all clerics:

So long as you are in your own country regard

your cell as your orchard; there you can gather Scrip-

ture’s various fruits and enjoy the pleasures it af-

fords you. Always have a book in your hands — and

read it; learn the Psalter by heart; pray unceasingly;

watch over your senses lest idle thoughts creep in .
76

Similarly to Nepotian:

Constantly read the Bible; in fact, have it always

in your hands. Learn what you have got to teach.

Get firm hold of that “faithful word that is accord-

ing to doctrine, that you may be able to exhort in

sound doctrine and convince the gainsayers .”
77

When reminding Paulinus of the lessons St. Paul
gave to Timothy and Titus, and which he himself had

derived from the Bible, Jerome says:

A mere holy rusticity only avails the man him-

self; but however much a life so meritorious may

serve to build up the Church of God, it does as much

harm to the Church if it fails to “resist the gain-

sayer.” Malachias the Prophet says, or rather the

Lord says it by Malachias: “Ask for the Law from

the priests.” For it is the priest’s duty to give an

answer when asked about the Law. In Deuteronomy

we read: “Ask your father and he will tell you; ask

the priests and they will tell you . . .

.

” Daniel, too,

at the close of his glorious vision, declares that “the

just shall shine like stars and they that are learned

as the brightness of the firmament.” What a vast dif-

ference, then, between a righteous rusticity and a

learned righteousness! The former likened to the

stars; the latter to the heavens themselves !
78

He writes ironically to Marcella about the “self-

righteous lack of education” noticeable in some

clerics, who “think that to be without culture and to

be holy are the same thing, and who dub themselves

24



‘disciples of the fishermen’; as though they were

holy simply because ignorant!”
79

Nor is it only the “uncultured” whom Jerome
condemps. Learned clerics sin through ignorance

of the Bible; therefore he demands of them an as-

siduous reading of the text.

2. PONTIFICAL BIBLICAL INSTITUTE

Strive then, venerable brethren, to bring home

to your clerics and priests these teachings of the

sainted commentator. You have to remind them con-

stantly of the demands made by their divine vocation

if they would be worthy of it: “The lips of the priest

shall keep knowledge, and men shall ask the Law

at his mouth, for he is the angel of the Lord of hosts”

(Mai. 2:7). They must realize, then, that they cannot

neglect study of the Bible, and that this can only be

undertaken along the lines laid down by Leo XIII

in his Encyclical Providentissimus Deus.
30 They

cannot do this better than by frequenting the Bibli-

cal Institute established by our predecessor, Pius X,

in accordance with the wishes of Leo XIII. As the

experience of the past ten years has shown, it has

proved a great gain to the Church. Not all, however,

can avail themselves of this. It will be well, then,

venerable brethren, that picked men, both of the

secular and regular clergy, should come to Rome for

biblical study. All will not come with the same object.

Some, in accordance with the real purpose of the In-

stitute, will so devote themselves to biblical study that

“afterwards, both in private and in public, whether

by writing or by teaching, whether as professors in

Catholic schools or by writing in defense of Catholic

truth, they may be able worthily to uphold the cause

of biblical study.”
81

Others, however, already priests,

will obtain here a wider knowledge of the Bible than

they were able to acquire during their theological

course; they will gain, too, an acquaintance with the

great commentators and with biblical history and

geography. Such knowledge will avail them much in

their ministry; they will be “instructed to every good

work” (2 Tm. 3:17).

25



VI. PURPOSE OF BIBLICAL KNOWLEDGE

1. SPIRITUAL PERFECTION

We learn, then, from St. Jerome’s example and
teaching the qualities required in one who would
devote himself to biblical study. But what, in his view,

is the goal of such study? First, that from the Bible’s

pages we learn spiritual perfection. Meditating as he

did day and night on the Law of the Lord and on His

Scriptures, Jerome himself found there the “Bread

that comes down from heaven,” the manna containing

all delights.
82 And we certainly cannot do without that

bread. How can a cleric teach others the way of salva-
tion if through neglect of meditation on God’s word

he fails to teach himself? What confidence can he have

that, when ministering to others, he is really “a leader

of the blind, a light to them that are in darkness, and

instructor of the foolish, having the form of knowledge

and of truth in the law” (Rom. 2:19), if he is unwilling

to study the said Law and thus shuts the door on any
divine illumination on it?.

Alas! many of God’s ministers, through never

looking at their Bible, perish themselves and allow

many others to perish also. “The children have asked

for bread, and there was none to break it unto them”

(Lam. 4:4); and “With desolation is all the land made

desolate, for there is none than meditates in the heart”

(Jer. 12:11).

2. DEFENSE OF CATHOLIC TRUTH

Secondly, it is from the Bible that we gather con-

firmations and illustrations of any particular doctrine

we wish to defend. In this Jerome was marvelously

expert. When disputing with the heretics of his day he

refuted them by singularly apt and weighty arguments

drawn from the Bible. If men of the present age would

but imitate him in this we should see realized what our

predecessor, Leo XIII, in his encyclical, Providentis-

simus Deus, said was so eminently desirable: “The

Bible influencing our theological teaching and indeed

becoming its very soul.”
83

26



Lastly, the real value of the Bible is for our preach-

ing— if the latter is to be fruitful. On this point it is a

pleasure to illustrate from Jerome what we ourselves

said in our encyclical on “preaching the Word of God,”

entitled Humani generis. How insistently Jerome
urges on priests assiduous reading of the Bible if they

would worthily teach and preach! Their words will

have neither value nor weight nor any power to touch

men’s souls save in proportion as they are “informed”

by Holy Scripture: “Let a priest’s speech be seasoned

with the Bible ,”
84

for “the Scriptures are a trumpet

that stirs us with a mighty voice and penetrates to the

soul of them that believe,”
85
and “nothing so strikes

home as an example taken from the Bible .”86

3. RULES OF INTERPRETATION

These mainly concern the exegetes, yet preachers,

too, must always bear them in mind. Jerome’s first

rule is careful study of the actual words so that we may

be perfectly certain what the writer really does say.

He was most careful to consult the original text, to

compare various versions, and, if he discovered any

mistake in them, to explain it and thus make the text

perfectly clear. The precise meaning, too, that attaches

to particular words has to be worked out, for “when

discussing Holy Scripture it is not words we want so

much as the meaning of words .” 87 We do not for a mo-
ment deny that Jerome, in imitation of Latin and Greek

doctors before him, leaned too much, especially at the

outset, towards allegorical interpretations. But his love

of the Bible, his unceasing toil in reading and re-read-

ing it and weighing its meaning, compelled him to an

ever-growing appreciation of its literal sense and to

the formulation of sound principles regarding it. These

we set down here, for they provide a safe path for us

all to follow in getting from the Sacred Books their

full meaning.

In the first place, then, we must study the literal

or historical meaning:

I earnestly warn the prudent reader not to pay

attention to superstitious interpretations such as are

27



given cut and dried according to some interpreter’s

fancy. He should study the beginning, middle, and

end, and so form a connected idea of the whole of

what he finds writtern .
88

Jerome then goes on to say that all interpretation

rests on the literal sense
,

89
and that we are not to think

that there is no literal sense merely because a thing is

said metaphorically, for “the history itself is often

presented in metaphorical dress and described figura-

tively.”
90

Indeed, he himself affords the best refutation

of those who maintain that he says that certain pas-

sages have no historical meaning: “We are not reject-

ing the history, we are merely giving a spiritual

interpretation of it.”
91

Once, however, he has firmly

established the literal or historical meaning, Jerome

goes on to seek out deeper and hidden meanings, so

as to nourish his mind with more delicate food. Thus

he says of the Book of Proverbs — and he makes the

same remark about other parts of the Bible — that we

must not stop at the simple literal sense: “Just as we

have to seek gold in the earth, for the kernel in the

shell, for the chestnut’s hidden fruit beneath its hairy

coverings, so in Holy Scripture we have to dig deep

for its divine meaning.”
92

When teaching Paulinus “how to make true prog-

ress in the Bible,” he says: “Everything we read in

the Sacred Books shines and glitters even in its outer

shell; but the marrow of it is sweeter. If you want the

kernel you must break the shell .”
93

At the same time, he insists that in searching for

this deeper meaning we must proceed in due order,

“lest in our search for spiritual riches we seem to

despise the history as poverty-stricken .”
94

Conse-

quently he repudiates many mystical interpretations

alleged by ancient writers; for he feels that they are

not sufficiently based on the literal meaning:

When all these promises of which the Proph-

ets sang are regarded not merely as empty sounds

or idle tropological expressions, but as established

on earth and having solid historical foundations,

then can we put on them the coping-stone of a spiri-

tual interpretation .
95

28



On this point he makes the wise remark that we

ought not to desert the path mapped out by Christ and

His Apostles, who, while regarding the Old Testament

as preparing for and foreshadowing the New Covenant,
and while consequently explaining various passages in

the former as figurative, yet do not give a figurative

interpretation of all alike. In confirmation of this he

often refers us to St. Paul, who, when “explaining the

mystery of Adam and Eve, did not deny that they were

formed, but on that historical basis erected a spiritual

interpretation, and said: ‘Therefore shall a man leave,’

etc.”
96

4. TRUE PULPIT ORATORY

If only biblical students and preachers would but

follow this example of Christ and His Apostles; if they

would but obey the directions of Leo XIII, and not

neglect “those allegorical or similar explanations

which the Fathers have given, especially when these

are based on the literal sense, and are supported by

weighty authority”
97

;
if they would pass from the lit-

eral to the more profound meaning in temperate fash-

ion, and thus lift themselves to a higher plane, they

would, with St. Jerome, realize how true are St. Paul’s

words: “All Scripture is inspired by God and useful

for teaching, for reproving, for correcting, for instruct-

ing in justice” (2 Tm. 3:16).

They would, too, derive abundant help from the

infinite treasury of facts and ideas in the Bible, and

would thence be able to mould firmly but gently the

lives and characters of the faithful.

As for methods of expounding Holy Scripture

-

“for among the dispensers ot the mysteries of God it is

required that a man be found faithful” (1 Cor. 4:2)
— St. Jerome lays down that we have got to keep to
the “true interpretation, and that the real function

of a commentator is to set forth not what he himself

would like his author to mean, but what he really

does mean.”
98

And he continues: “It is dangerous to speak in

the Church, lest through some faulty interpretations

we make Christ’s Gospel into man’s gospel.” 99 And

29



again: “In explaining the Bible we need no florid

oratorical composition, but that learned simplicity

which is truth .”
100

This ideal he ever kept before him; he acknowl-

edges that in his Commentaries he “seeks no praise,

but so to set out what another has well said it may

be understood in the sense in which it was said.”
101

He further demands of an expositor of Scripture a
style which, “while leaving no impression of haziness

...yet explains things, sets out the meaning, clears up

obscurities, and is not mere verbiage .”
102

And here we may set down some passages from

his writings which will serve to show to what an ex-

tent he shrank from that declamatory kind of eloquence

which simply aims at winning empty applause by an

equally empty and noisy flow of words. He says to

Nepotian:

I do not want you to be a declaimer or a gar-

rulous brawler; rather be skilled in the Mysteries,

learned in the Sacraments of God. To make the

populace gape by spinning words and speaking like

a whirlwind is only worthy of empty-headed men . 1 " 3

And once more:

Students ordained at this time seem not to think

how they may get at the real marrow of Holy Scrip-

ture, but how best they may make peoples’ ears

tingle by their flowery declamations !
104

Again:

I prefer to say nothing of men who, like myself,

have passed from profane literature to biblical study,

but who, if they happen once to have caught men’s

ears by their ornate sermons, straightway begin to

fancy that whatsoever they say is God’s law. Ap-

parently they do not think it worthwhile to discover

what the Prophets and Apostles really meant; they

are content to string together texts made to fit

the meaning they want. One would almost fancy that

instead of being a degraded species of oratory, it

must be a fine thing to pervert the meaning of the

text and compel the reluctant Scripture to yield the

meaning one wants !
105

“As a matter of fact, mere loquacity would not win

any credit unless backed by Scriptural authority, that

is, when men see that the speaker is trying to give his

30



false doctrine biblical support
.” 106 Moreover, this

garrulous eloquence and wordly rusticity “lacks biting

power, has nothing vivid or life-giving in it; it is flac-

cid, languid and enervated; it is like boiled herbs and

grass, which speedily dry up and wither away.”

On the contrary the Gospel teaching is straight-

forward, it is like that “least of all seeds” — the mustard

seed
— “no mere vegetable, but something that ‘grows

into a tree so that the birds of the air come and dwell

in its branches
.’” 107 The consequence is that every-

body hears gladly this simple and holy fashion of

speech, for it is clear and has real beauty without arti-

ficiality:

There are certain eloquent folk who puff out

their cheeks and produce a foaming torrent of words;

may they win all the eulogiums they crave for! For

myself, I prefer so to speak that I may be intelligible;

When I discuss the Bible I prefer the Bible’s sim-

plicity....
108 A cleric’s exposition of the Bible should,

of course, have a certain becoming eloquence; but

he must keep this in the background, for he must

ever have in view the human race and not the lei-

surely philosophical schools with their choice cote-

rie of disciples.
109

If the younger clergy would but strive to reduce

principles like these to practice, and if their elders

would keep such principles before their eyes, we are

well assured that they would prove of very real assis-

tance to those to whom they minister.

VI!. FRUITS OF BIBLICAL STUDY

1. THE SOUL’S TRUE DELIGHT

It only remains for us, venerable brethren, to

refer to those “sweet fruits” which Jerome gathered

from “the bitter seed” of literature. For we confidently

hope that his example will fire both clergy and laity

with enthusiasm for the study of the Bible. It will be

better, however, for you to gather from the lips of the

saintly hermit rather than from our words what real

spiritual delight he found in the Bible and its study.

Notice, then, in what strain he writes to Paulinus, “my

companion, friend, and fellow-mystic”: “I beseech

31



you to live amid these things. To meditate on them,

to know nothing else, to have no other interests, this

is really a foretaste of the joys of heaven.”
110

He says much the same to his pupil Paula:

Tell me whether you know of anything more
sacred than this sacred mystery, anything more

delightful than the pleasure found herein? What

food, what honey could be sweeter than to learn of

God’s Providence, to enter into His shrine and look

into the mind of the Creator, to listen to the Lord’s

words at which the wise of this world laugh, but

which really are full of spiritual teaching? Others

may have their wealth, may drink out of jewelled

cups, be clad in silks, enjoy popular applause, find

it impossible to exhaust their wealth by dissipating

it in pleasures of all kinds; but our delight is to med-

itate on the Law of the Lord day and night, to knock

at His door when shut, to receive our food from the

Trinity of Persons, and, under the guidance of the

Lord, trample underfoot the swelling tumults of this

world.
111

And in his Commentary on the Epistle to the

Ephesians, which he dedicated to Paula and her

daughter Eustochium, he says: “If anything could

sustain and support a wise man in this life or help him

to preserve his equanimity amid the conflicts of the

world, it is, I reckon, meditation on and knowledge of

the Bible .”
112

2. ZEAL FOR THE CAUSE OF CHRIST

And so it was with Jerome himself: afflicted with

many mental anxieties and bodily pains, he yet ever

enjoyed an interior peace. Nor was this due simply to

some idle pleasure he found in such studies: it sprang

from love of God and it worked itself out in an earnest

love of God’s Church— the divinely appointed guard-

ian of God’s Word. For in the Books of both Testa-

ments Jerome saw the Church of God foretold. Did not

practically every one of the illustrious and sainted

women who hold a place of honor in the Old Testa-

ment prefigure the Church, God’s Spouse? Did not

the priesthood, the sacrifices, the solemnities, and also,

32



nearly everything deseribed in the Old Testament

shadow forth that same Church? How many Psalms
and Prophecies he saw fulfilled in that Church? To him

it was clear that the Church’s greatest privileges were

set forth by Christ and His Apostles. Small wonder,

then, that growing familiarity with the Bible meant for

Jerome growing love of the Spouse of Christ. We have
seen with what reverent yet enthusiastic love he at-

tached himself to the Roman Church and to the See

of Peter, how eagerly he attacked those who assailed

her. So when applauding Augustine, his junior yet

his fellow-soldier, and rejoicing in the fact that they

were one in their hatred of heresy, he hails him with

the words:

Well done! You are famous throughout the

world. Catholics revere you and point you out as the

establisher of the old-time faith; and — an even

greater glory— all heretics hate you. And they hate

me too; unable to slay us with the sword, they would
that wishes could kill ."

3

Sulpicius'Severus quotes Postumianus to the same

effect:

His unceasing conflict with wicked men brings

on him their hatred. Heretics hate him, for he never

ceases attacking them; clerics hate him, for he assails

their criminal lives. But all good men admire him

and love him . 114

And Jerome had to endure much from heretics

and abandoned men, especially when the Pelagians

laid waste the monastery at Bethlehem. Yet all this

he bore with equanimity, like a man who would not

hesitate to die for the faith:

I rejoice when I hear that my children are fight-
ing for Christ. May He in whom we believe confirm
our zeal so that we may gladly shed our blood for His

faith. Our very home is — as far as worldly belongings

go — completely ruined by the heretics; yet through
Christ’s mercy it is filled with spiritual riches. It is

better to have to be content with dry bread than to

lose one’s faith .
115

And while he never suffered errors to creep in

unnoticed, he likewise never failed to lash with biting

33



tongue any looseness in morals, for he was always

anxious “to present” unto Christ “the Church in all her

glory, not having spot or wrinkle or any such things,

but that she might be holy and without blemish” (Eph.

5:27). How terribly he upbraids men who have de-
graded the dignity of the priesthood! With what vigor

he inveighs against the pagan morals then infecting

Rome! But he rightly felt that nothing could better

avail to stem this flood of vice than the spectacle af-

forded by the real beauty of the Christian life; and

that a love of what is really good is the best antidote

to evil. Hence he urged that young people must be

piously brought up, the married taught a holy integrity

of life, pure souls have the beauty of virginity put

before them, that the sweet austerity of an interior

life should be extolled, and since the primal law of

Christian religion was the combination of toil with

charity, that if this could only be preserved human

society would recover from its disturbed state. Of this

charity he says very beautifully: “The believing soul

is Christ’s true temple. Adorn it, deck it out, offer your

gifts to it, in it receive Christ. Of what profit to have

your walls glittering with jewels while Christ dies of

hunger in poverty?”
116

3. LOVE OF CHRIST

As for toil, his whole life and not merely his

writings afford the best example. Postumianus, who

spent six months with him at Bethlehem, says: “He is

wholly occupied in reading and with books; he rests

neither day or night; he is always either reading or

writing something.”
117

Jerome’s love of the Church,

too, shines out even in his Commentaries wherein

he lets slip no opportunity for praising the Spouse

of Christ:

The choicest things of all the nations have come

and the Lord’s House is filled with glory: that is,

“the Church of the Living God, the pillar and the

ground of truth.” ...With jewels like these is the

Church richer than ever was the synagogue; with

these living stones is the house of God built up

and eternal peace bestowed upon her .
118

34



Come, let us go up to the Mount of the Lord: for

we must needs go up if we would come to Christ and

to the House of the God of Jacob, to the Church

which is “the pillar and ground of truth .”
119

By the Lord’s voice is the Church established

upon the rock, and the king has brought her into

His chamber, to her by secret condescension has He

put forth His hand through the lattices .
120

Again and again, as in the passages just given, does

Jerome celebrate the intimate union between Christ

and His Church. For since the Head can never be

separated from the mystical body, so, too, love of Christ

is ever associated with zeal for His Church; and this

love of Christ must ever be the chiefest and most

agreeable result of a knowledge of Holy Scripture.

So convinced indeed was Jerome that familiarity with

the Bible was the royal road to the knowledge and

love of Christ that he did not hesitate to say: “Igno-

rance of the Bible means ignorance of Christ.”
121 And

“what other life can there be without knowledge of

the Bible, wherein Christ, the life of them that be-

lieve, is set before us ?”
122
Every single page of either

Testament seems to center around Christ; hence

Jerome, commenting on the words of the Apocalypse

about the River and the Tree of Life, says:

One stream flows out from the throne of God,

and that is the grace of the Holy Spirit, and that

grace of the Holy Spirit is in the Holy Scriptures,

that is, in the stream of the Scriptures. Yet has that

stream twin banks, the Old Testament and the New,

and the Tree planted on either side is Christ .
123

Small wonder, then, if in his devout meditations

he applied everything he read in the Bible of Christ:

When I read the Gospel and find there testi-
monies from the Law and from the Prophets, I see
only Christ; I so see Moses and the Prophets that I

understand them of Christ. Then when I come to the

splendor of Christ Himself, and when I gaze at that

glorious sunlight, I care not to look at the lamplight.

For what light can a lamp give when lit in the day-

time? If the sun shines out, the lamplight does not

show. So, too, when Christ is present the Law and
the Prophets do not show. Not that I would detract

from the Law and the Prophets; rather do I praise

35



them in that they show forth Christ. But I so read the

Law and the Prophets as not to abide in them but

from them to pass to Christ .
124

Hence was Jerome wondrously uplifted to love

for and knowledge of Christ through his study of the

Bible, in which he discovered the precious pearl of

the Gospel: “There is one most priceless pearl: the

knowledge of the Savior, the mystery of His Passion,

the secret of His Resurrection .”
125

Burning as he did

with the love of Christ we cannot but marvel that he,

poor and lowly with Christ, with soul freed from earth-

ly cares, sought Christ alone, by His spirit was he led,

with Him he lived in closest intimacy, by imitating

Him he would bear about the image of His sufferings

in himself. For him nought more glorious than to

suffer with and for Christ. Hence it was that when
on Damasus’ death he, wounded and weary from

evil men’s assaults, left Rome and wrote just before

he embarked:

Though some fancy me a scoundrel and guilty
of every crime — and, indeed, this is a small matter

when I think of my sins — yet you do well when from
your soul you reckon evil men good. Thank God I

am deemed worthy to be hated by the world.... What

real sorrows have I to bear— I who fight for the

cross? Men heap false accusations on me; yet I know

that through ill report and good report we win the

kingdom of heaven .
126

In like fashion does he exhort the maiden Eus-

tochium to courageous and lifelong toil for Christ’s

sake:

To become what the martyrs, the apostles,

what even Christ Himself was, means immense la-

bor— but what a reward!... What I have been say-

ing to you will sound hard to one who does not love

Christ. But those who consider worldly pomp a mere

offscouring and all under the sun mere nothingness

if only they may win Christ, those who are dead with

Christ, have risen with Him and have crucified the

flesh with its vices and concupiscences — they will

echo the words: “Who shall separate us from the

charity of Christ?”
127

Immense, then, was the profit Jerome derived

from reading Scripture; hence came those interior

36



illuminations whereby he was ever more and more

drawn to knowledge and love of Christ; hence, too,

that love of prayer of which he has written so well;

hence his wonderful familiarity with Christ, whose

sweetness drew him so that he ran unfalteringly

along the arduous way of the cross to the palm of

victory. Hence, too, his ardent love for the Holy

Eucharist: “Who is wealthier than he who carries

the Lord’s Body in his wicker basket, the Lord’s

Blood in his crystal vessel ?”
128

Hence, too, his love

for Christ’s Mother, whose perpetual virginity he had

so keenly defended, whose title as God’s Mother

and as the greatest example of all the virtues he

constantly set before Christ’s spouses for their imi-

tation .
129 No one, then, can wonder that Jerome

should have been so powerfully drawn to those spots

in Palestine which had been consecrated by the

presence of our Redeemer and His Mother. It is easy

to recognize the hand of Jerome in the words written

from Bethlehem to Marcella by his disciples, Paula

and Eustochium:

What words can serve to describe to you the

Savior’s cave? As for the manger in which He lay

— well, our silence does it more honor than any poor

words of ours.... Will the day ever dawn when we

can enter His cave to weep at His tomb with the

sister (of Lazarus) and mourn with His Mother;

when we can kiss the wood of His Cross and, with

the ascending Lord on Olivet, be uplifted in mind

and spirit?
130

Filled with memories such as these, Jerome could,

while far away from Rome and leading a life hard for

the body but inexpressibly sweet to the soul, cry out:

“Would that Rome had what tiny Bethlehem pos-

sesses !”
131

VIII. ST. JEROME’S INFLUENCE CONTINUES

But we rejoice — and Rome with us — that the

saint’s desire has been fulfilled, though far otherwise

than he hoped for. For whereas David’s royal city

once gloried in the possession of the relics of “the

greatest Doctor” reposing in the cave where he dwelt

37



so long, Rome now possesses them, for they lie in

St. Mary Major’s beside the Lord’s crib. His voice

is now still, though at one time the whole Catholic

world listened to it when it echoed from the desert;

yet Jerome still speaks in his writings, which “shine

like lamps throughout the world.”
132

Jerome still calls

to us. His voice rings out, telling us of the super-ex-

cellence of Holy Scripture, of its integral character and

historical trustworthiness, telling us, too, of the pleas-

ant fruits resulting from reading and meditating upon

it. His voice summons all the Church’s children to

return to a truly Christian standard of life, to shake

themselves free from a pagan type of morality which

seems to have sprung to life again in these days. His

voice calls upon us, and especially on Italian piety

and zeal, to restore to the See of Peter divinely es-

tablished here that honor and liberty which its apos-

tolic dignity and duty demand. The voice of Jerome

summons those Christian nations which have un-

happily fallen away from Mother Church to turn once

more to her in whom lies all hope of eternal salvation.
Would, too, that the Eastern Churches, so long in

opposition to the See of Peter, would listen to Jerome’s

voice. When he lived in the East and sat at the feet of

Gregory and Didymus, he said only what the Chris-

tians of the East thought in his time when he declared

that, “If anyone is outside the Ark of Noe he will perish

in the overwhelming flood.”
133
Today this flood seems

on the verge of sweeping away all human institutions —

unless God steps in to prevent it. And surely this

calamity must come if men persist in sweeping on one

side God the Creator and conserver of all things!

Surely whatever cuts itself off from Christ must per-

ish! Yet He who at His disciples’ prayer calmed the

raging sea can restore peace to the tottering fabric of

society. May Jerome, who so loved God’s Church and

so strenuously defended it against its enemies, win

for us the removal of every element of discord, in ac-

cordance with Christ’s prayer, so that there may be

“one fold and one shepherd.”

Delay not, venerable brethren, to impart to your

people and clergy what on the fifteenth centenary of

38



the death of “the greatest Doctor” we have here set

before you. Urge upon all not merely to embrace under

Jerome’s guidance Catholic doctrine touching the

inspiration of Scripture, but to hold fast to the prin-

ciples laid down in the Encyclical Providentissimus

Deus, and in this present encyclical. Our one desire

for all the Church’s children is that, being saturated

with the Bible, they may arrive at the all-surpassing

knowledge of Jesus Christ. In testimony of which

desire and of our fatherly feeling for you we impart to

you and all your flocks the Apostolic Blessing.

Given at St. Peter’s, Rome, September 15, 1920,

the seventh year of our Pontificate.

BENEDICTUS PP. XV

Documents of Lesser Importance

December 28, 1920. Letter commending the continued

work on the publication of the Cursus Scripturae Sacrae.

A.A.S., 13 (1921) 91.

April 30, 1921. Encyclical Letter, In Praeclara, com-

memorating the sixth centenary of Dante’s death. Dante’s

appreciation of Sacred Scripture. A.A.S., 13 (1921) 212-213.

November 17, 1921. Decree of the Pontifical Biblical

Commission on the addition of variant readings in editions

of the Vulgate. A.A.S., 14 (1922) 27; Ench. Bibl, n. 496.

December 22, 1923. Letter to the Superior of the Sul-

picians concerning the condemnation of the work Manuel

Biblique. A.A.S., 15 (1923) 616-619; Ench. Bibl, nn. 497-504.

May 20, 1923. Interpretation of Canon 1391. A.A.S., 16

(1924) 115.

April 27, 1924. Motu Proprio, Bibliorum scientiam, on

the academic standards for teachers of Sacred Scipture.

A.A.S., 16 (1924) 180-182; Ench. Bibl., nn. 505-512.

February 26, 1927. The Pontifical Biblical Commission

issues regulations for the acquiring of academic degrees in

Sacred Scripture. A.A.S., 19 (1927) 160.

June 15, 1933. Apostolic Constitution, Inter praecipuas,

on the foundation of the Monastery of St. Jerome. A.A.S.,

26 (1934) 85-87.

February 27, 1934. Decision of the Pontifical Biblical

Commission condemning Die Einwancrung Israels in

Kanaan by F. Schmidtke. A.A.S., 26 (1934) 130-131; Ench.
Bibl., nn. 515-519.

April 30, 1934. Decision of the Pontifical Biblical Com-
mission prohibiting the reading of liturgical pericopes

39



(Epistles and Gospels) to the faithful in Church which are

based on the original Greek and Latin text, not on the Vul-

gate. A.A.S., 26 (1934) 315; Ench. BibL, n. 520; cf. A.A.S.,

35 (1943) 270; Ench. BibL, nn. 535-537.

July 16, 1939. Decision of the Pontifical Biblical Com-

mission on the examinations for degrees. A.A.S., 31 (1939)

320; Ench. BibL, n. 521.

Footnotes

1. Rom. 15:4.

2. Sulpicius Severus, Dial., 1, 7.

3. John Cassian, De Incarn., 7, 26.

4. S. Prosper, Carmen de ingratis, 57.

5. S. Jerome, De viris ill., 135.

6. Id., Epist. ad Theophilum, 82, 2, 2.

7. Id., Epist. ad Damasum, 15, 1, 1; Epist. ad eundum, 16, 2, 1.

8. Id., In Abdiam, Prol,

9. Id., In Matt., 13:44.

10. Id., Epist. ad Eustochium, 22, 30, 1.

11. Id., Epist. ad Pammachium et Oceanian, 84, 3, 1.

12. Id., Epist. ad Rusticum, 125, 12.

13. Id., Epist. ad Geruchiam, 123, 9; Epist. ad Principiam,

127, 7, 1.

14. Id., Epist. ad Principiam, 127, 7, 1.

15. Id., Epist. ad Damasum, 36, 1; Epist. ad Marcellum, 32, 1.

16. Id., Epist. ad Asellam, 45, 2; Epist. ad Marcellinum et Ana-

psychiam, 126.

17. Id., Epist. ad Pammachium et Oceanum, 84, 3, 1. psychiam,

126, 3; Epist. ad Principiam, 127, 7.

18. Id., Ad Domnionem et Rogatianum in I Paral., Praef

19. Id., Tract, de Ps., 88.

20. Id., In Matt., 13:44; Tract, de Ps., 77.

21. Id., In Matt., 13:45.

22. Id., Quaest. in Genesim, Praef.

23. Id., In Agg., 2:1; cf. In Gal., 2:10.

24. Id., Adv. Helv., 19.

25. Id., Adv. Iovin., 1, 4.

26. Id., Epist. ad Pammachium, 49, 14, 1.

27. Id., In Jer., 9:12-14.

28. Id., Epist. ad Fahiolam, 78, 30.

29. Id., Epist. ad Marcellam, 27, 1, 1.

30. Id., In Ezech., 1:15-18.

31. Id., In Mich., 2:11; 3:5-8.

32. Id., In Mich., 4:1.

33. Id., In Jer., 31:35.

34. Id., In Nah., 1:9.

35. Id., Epist. ad Pammachium, 57, 7, 4.

36. Id., Epist. ad Theophilum, 82, 7, 2.

37. Id., Epist. ad Vitalem, 72, 2, 2.

38. Id., Epist. ad Damasum, 18, 7, 4; cl. Epist. Paula et Eusto-

chium ad Marcellam, 46, 6, 2.



39. Id., Epist. ad Damasum, 36, 11, 2.

40. Id., Epist. ad Pammachiam, 57, 9, 1.

41. S. Augustine, Ad S. Hieron., inter epist. S. Hier., 116, 3.

42. Leo XIII, Providentissimus Deus; cf. supra, p. 24.

43. Ibid., cf. supra, pp. 23-24.

44. S. Jerome, In Jer., 23:15-17; In Matt., 14:8; Adv. Helv., 4.

45. Id., In Philem., 4.

46. S. Aug., Contra Faustum, 26, 3, 6.

47. S. Jerome, In Matt., Prol.; cf. Luke, 1:1.

48. Id., Epist. ad Fabiolam, 78, 1, 1; cf. In Marc., 1:13-31.

49. S. Aug., Contra Faustum, 26, 8.

50. S. Jerome, Epist. ad Demetriadem, 130, 20; cf. Prov. 4:6, 8.

51. Cone. Trid., Sess. 4 Deer, de ed. et usu ss. librorum; cf

Em h. Bibl., n. 61.
52. S. Jerome, Epist. ad Paulinum, 58, 9, 2; 11, 2.

53. S. Aug., Confessiones, 3, 5; cf. 8, 12.

54. S. Jerome, Epist. ad Eustochium, 22, 30, 2.

55. Id., In Mich., 1:10-15.

56. Id., In Gal., 5:19-21.

57. Id., Epist. 108 sive Epitaphium S. Paulae, 26, 2.

58. Id., Ad Domnionem et Rogatianum in I Paral., Praef.

59. Id ., Epist. ad Theophilum, 63, 2.

60. Id., Epist. ad Damasum, 15, 1, 2, 4.

61. Id., Epist. ad Damasum, 16, 2, 2.

62. Id., In Dan., 3:37.

63. Id., Adv. Vigil., 6.

64. Id., Dial, contra Pelagianos, Prol. 2.

65. Id., Contra Ruf., 3, 43.

66. Id., In Mich., 1:10-15.

67. Id., In Isa., 16:1-5.

68. Leo XIII, Providentissimus Deus; cf. supra, p. 10.

69. S. Jerome, In Tit., 3:9.

70. Id., In Eph ., 4:31.

71. Id., Epist. ad Laetam, 107, 9, 12.

72. Id., Epist. ad Eustochium, 22, 17, 2.

73. Id., Epist. 108 sive Epitaphium S. Paulae, 26.

74. Id., Epist. ad Principiam, 127, 7.

75. Imitatio Christi, 4, 11, 4.

76. S. Jerome, Epist. ad Rusticum, 125, 7, 3.

77. Id., Epist. ad Nepotianum, 52, 7, 1; cf. Tit. 1:9.

78. Id., Epist. ad Paulinum, 53, 3, 3.

79. Id., Epist. ad Marcellam, 27, 1, 2.

80. Leo XIII, Providentissimus Deus; supra, p. 10-28.

81. Pius X, Vinea electa. May 7, 1909; cf. A.A.S., 1 (1909) 447-

451; Ench. Bibl, n. 287.

82. S. Jerome, Tract, de Ps. 147; cf. Ps. 1:2; Wis. 16:20.

83. Leo XIII, Providentissimus Deus; cf. supra, p. 17.

84. S. Jerome, Epist. ad Nepotianum, 52, 8, 1.

85. Id., In Amos, 3:3-8.

86. Id., In Zach., 9:15.

87. Id., Epist. ad Marcellam, 29, 1, 3.

88. Id., In Matt., 25:13.

41



89. Cf. Id., In Ezech., 38:1, 41:23, 42:13; In Marc., 1:13-31;

Epist. ad Dardanum, 129, 6, 1.

90. Id., Hub., 3:14.

91. Id., In Marc., 9:1-7; cf. In Ezech., 40:24-27.

92. Id., In Eccles., 12:9.

93. Id., Epist. ad Paulinum, 58, 9, 1.

94. Id., In Eccles., 2:24-26.

95. Id., In Amos, 9:6.

96. Id., In Isa., 6:1-7.

97. Leo XIII, Providentissimus Deus

;

cf. supra, p. 17.

98. S. Jerome, Est. ad Pammachium, 49, 17, 7.

99. Id., In Gal., 1:11.

100. Id., In Amos, Praef.

101. Id., In Gal, Praef.

102. Id., Epist. ad Damasum, 36, 14, 2; cf. Epist. ad Cyprianum,

140, 1, 2.

103. Id., Epist. ad Nepotianum, 52, 8, 1.

104. Id., Dialogus contra Luciferianos, 11.

105. Id., Epist. ad Paulinum, 53, 7, 2.

106. Id., In Tit., 1:10.

107. Id., In Matt., 13:32.

108. Id., Epist. ad Damasum, 36, 14, 2.

109. Id., Epist. ad Pammachium, 48, 4, 3.

110. Id., Epist. ad Paulinum, 53, 10.

111. Id., Epist. ad Paulam, 30, 13.

112. Id., In Eph., Prol.

113. Id., Epist. ad Augustinum, 141, 2; cf. Epist. ad eundem,

134, 1.

114. Postumianus apud Sulp. Sev., Dial., 1, 9.

115. S. Jerome, Epist. ad Apronium, 139.

116. Id., Epist. ad Paulinum, 58, 7, 1.

117. Postumianus, Dial., 1, 9.

118. S. Jerome, In Agg., 2:1-10.

119. Id., In Mich., 4:1-7.

120. Id., In Matt., Prol.

121. Id., In Isa., Prol.; cf. Tract, de Ps. 77.

122. Id., Epist. ad Paulam, 30, 7.

123. Id., Tract, de Ps. 1.

124. Id., Tract, in Marc., 9:1-7.

125. Id., In Matt., 13:45.

126. Id., Epist. ad Asellam, 45, 1, 6.

127. Id., Epist. ad Eustochium, 22, 38.

128. Id., Epist. ad Rusticum, 125, 20, 4.

129. Id., Epist. ad Eustochium, 22, 38, 3.

130. Id., Epist. Paula et Eustochium ad Marcellam, 46, 11, 13.

131. Id., Epist. ad Furiam, 54, 13, 6.

132. John Cassian, De Incarn., 7, 26.

133. S. Jerome, Epist. ad Damasum, 15, 2, 1.

42



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Jersey City, NJ 07304; 201-433-7740

IN CONNECTICUT

202 Fairfield Ave., Bridgeport, CT 06604; 203-335-9913

IN OHIO

2105 Ontario St. (at Prospect Ave.), Cleveland, OH 44115; 216-621-9427

25 E. Eighth Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202; 513-721-4838

IN PENNSYLVANIA

1719 Chestnut Street, Philadelphia, PA 19103; 215-568-2638

IN FLORIDA

2700 Biscayne Blvd., Miami, FL 33137; 305-573-1618

IN LOUISIANA

4403 Veterans Memorial Blvd., Metairie, LA 70002; 504-887-7631;

504-887-0113

1800 South Acadian Thruway, P.O. Box 2028, Baton Rouge, LA 70821

504-343-4057; 504-343-3814

IN MISSOURI

1001 Pine Street (at North 10th), St. Louis, MO 63101; 314-621-0346;
314-231-5522

IN ILLINOIS

172 North Michigan Ave., Chicago, IL 60601; 312-346-4228

IN TEXAS

114 Main Plaza, San Antonio, TX 78205; 512-224-8101

IN CALIFORNIA

1570 Fifth Avenue, San Diego, CA 92101; 714-232-1442

46 Geary Street, San Francisco, CA 94108; 415-781-5180

IN HAWAII

1143 Bishop Street, Honolulu, HI 96813; 808-521-2731

IN ALASKA

750 West 5th Avenue, Anchorage AK 99501
;
907-272-8183

IN CANADA

3022 Dufferin Street, Toronto 395, Ontario, Canada

IN ENGLAND

57, Kensington Church Street, London W. 8, England

IN AUSTRALIA

58 Abbotsford Rd., Homebush, N.S.W., Sydney 2140, Australia



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