when lighted up by the ardors of his indignant passion, it was, like his own cell, cold, gloomy, and uninviting. The works of Jerome will always maintain for him the esteem of Christendom. There is in them a great deal tha* is baseless, fanciful, and (ui. -si(l( d. but very much that is useful and instruriivc in cxigisis and theology." A still greater, and to us nearer authority. Dr. Schaff {Ch. History, iii, 987 sq.), thus sums up the position and work of Jerome in the Christian Church : " Orthodox in theology and Christology, semi-Pelagian in anthro- pology, Romanizing in the doctrine of the Church and tradition, anti-chiliastic in eschatology, legalistic and ascetic in ethics, a violent fighter of all heresies, a 'fa- natical apologist of all monkish extravagances, Jerome Avas revered throughout the Catholic middle age as the patron saint of Christian and ecclesiastical learning, and, next to Augustine, as maximus doctor ecclesia ; but by his enthusiastic love for the holy Scriptures, his re- course to the original languages, his classic translation of the Bible, and his manifold exegetical merits, he also played materially into the hands of the Reformation, and as a scholar and an author still takes the first raidv, and as an influential theologian the second (after Au- gustine), among the Latin fathers."
Of the various editions of Jerome's works a detail- ed account is given by Schcinemann {Bibliotheca Pa- trum Laiinorum, i, c. 4, § 3). Parts of them were early published, but the first critical edition of his writings collectively was given to the public in 1516. It was superintended by Erasmus, with the assistance of tEcolampadius (Basle, 9 vols. fol. ; reprinted in 1526 and 1537, the last edition being the best; and also at Lyons, 1530, in 8 vols. fob). Another critical edition was prepared by Jlarianus Victorinus (Kome, 1566-72,
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9 vols, fol.; reprinted at Paris, 1578, 1608, 4 vols., and in 1643, 9 vols.). The Protestant Adam Tribbcchoviiis prepared an edition which was pidjlished at Frankfort- on-the-iNIain and at Lcipsic, 1684, 12 vols. foL; then ap- peared the Benedictine edition jirejiared by John ]Mar- tianay and Anton Pouget (Paris, 1693-1706, 5 vols, fol.), which was, however, far inferior to, and was wholly su- perseded by, the last and best of all, prepared by l)o- minicus Vallarsi and Scipio Maffei (Verona, 1734-42, 11 vols, fol.; reprinted, with improvements, Ven. 1766-72). The edition of Migne, Paris (Petit-lMontrouge), 1845- 46, also in 11 vols. (torn, xxii-xxx of the Patrolor/ia Lut.), "notwithstanding the boastful title, is only an uncritical reprint of the edition of Vallarsi, with unes- sential changes in the order of arrangement ; the Vita Hieromjmi and the Testimonia de J/ieroiii/mo being trans- ferred from the eleventh to the first volume, which is more convenient" (Dr. Schaff). The so-called Comes of Hieronymus {Liber Comitis Leclionarius), a work of great value for the history of liturgies, is falsely attrib- uted to Jerome, and belongs to a later period ; likewise his Martijrologium, and some of the epistles.
See Du Vwi, Nouvelle Biblioth.dfs uiiteurs Eccles. iii, 100-140: Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. xii, 1-356 ; :Martianay, La Vie de St. Jerome (Paris, 1706) ; Joh. Stilting, in the Ada Sanctorum, Sept. viii, 418-688 (Antw. 1762) ; But- ler, Lives of the Saints (sub. Sept. 30) ; Vallarsi (in Op. Jlieron. xi, 1-240) ; Schrockh, Kirchengesch. viii, 359 sq., and especially xi, 3-254 ; Neander, Ch. Hist, ii, 682 sq. ; Schaff, Ch. History, ii, § 41 ; iii, § 177: Sebastian Dolci, Miiximus Hieronymus Vitce sucb Scriptor. (Ancon. 1750, 4to) ; Engelstoft, IHeron. Stndonensis, interpires, a-iti- cus, exegeta, apologeta, historicus, doctor, monachus (Havn. 1798) ; Ersch and Gruber's Encijcl. sect, ii, vol. viii: Collombet,//«s^o»-e cZeiS'/.JCT-ome (Lyons, 1844); O. Z()ckler, Hiei'onymus, sein Leben und Wirken. (Gotha, 1865, 8vo) ; Revue des Deux Mondes (1865, July 1). (J. H.W.)
Jerome of Prague, one of the earliest and ablest of the reformers before the lieformation, a brave defend- er of the truth, and a most devoted friend and follower of John Huss, was a descendant of a noble Bohemian family, whose real name was Faidfisch. Of his early history all data are wanting, but he appears to have been born about 1375, as he is known to have been somewhat younger than his friend Huss, who was born in 1300 (comp. Neander, Ch. Hist, v, 246). After stud- ying for several years at the university of his native place, " Jerome, fidl of life and ardor, of an enterprising spirit, not disposed to remain still and quiet a long time in one place," continued his studies at the universities of Paris, Cologne, Heidelberg, and Oxford, from each of which he received the doctorate of divinity (about 1398-1400). Endowed with great natural ability, Je- rome obtained from such an extended course of study advantages which soon gave him great reputation for learning, especially as he was one of the few knights in Bohemia who had manifested any zeal for science and literary culture. But if, by a careful cultivation of his superior natural abilities, he seciu-ed for himself the admiration and homage of the men of letters, it is un- questionable that his attachment to the cause of the great ante-reformer was due, in the main, to his stay at Oxford, where he became acquainted with the writings of Wickliffe (q. v.), and at once enlisted with great en- thusiasm in defence of the doctrines of the English re- former. " Until now," he is reported to have said when he commenced his copy of the Dialogus et Trialogus, "we had nothing but the shell of science; Wickliffe first laid open the kernel." It is thought possible by some that Jerome had read these works before he went to Oxford, and that his esteem for the writer, whom he could conceive onlj' as a man of a noble, acute, and re- markable mind, had attracted him to Oxford (compare Biihringer, Kirche Christi u. d. Zeugen, p. 611) ; but, be this as it may, so much is certain, that, on his return to Prague, Jercme "professed himself an open favorer of