[3206] Gesta quæ in Alexandro et Scipione legeram. The Latin construction will bear Jerome's meaning, but cannot be exactly or elegantly rendered in English.
41. I come now to your Epilogue, (that is to the revilings which you pour upon me,) in which you exhort me to repentance, and threaten me with destruction unless I am converted, that is, unless I keep silence under your accusations. And this scandal, you say, will recoil upon my own head, because it is I who by replying have provoked you to the madness of writing when you are a man of extreme gentleness and of a meekness worthy of Moses. You declare that you are aware of crimes which I confessed to you alone when you were my most intimate friend, and that you will bring these before the public; that I shall be painted in my own colours; and that I ought to remember that I am lying at your feet, otherwise you might cut off my head with the sword of your mouth. And, after many such things, in which you toss yourself about like a madman, you draw yourself up and say that you wish for peace, but still with the intimation that I am to keep quiet for the future, that is that I am not to write against the heretics, nor to answer any accusation made by you; if I do this, I shall be your good brother and colleague, and a most eloquent person, and your friend and companion; and, what is still more, you will pronounce all the translations I have made from Origen to be orthodox. But, if I utter a word or move a step, I shall at once be unsound and a heretic, and unworthy of all connexion with you. This is the way you trumpet forth my praises, this is the way you exhort me to peace. You do not grant me liberty for a groan or a tear in my grief.
42. It would be possible for me also to paint you in your own colours, and to meet your insanity with a similar rage; to say what I know and add what I do not know; and with a license like yours, or rather fury and madness, to keep up things false and true alike, till I was ashamed to speak and you to hear: and to upbraid you in such a way as would condemn either the accused or the accuser; to force myself on the reader by mere effrontery, make him believe that what I wrote unscrupulously I wrote truly. But far be it from the practice of Christians while offering up their lives to seek the life of others, and to become homicides not with the sword but the will. This may agree with your gentleness and innocence; for you can draw forth from the dung heap within your breast alike the odour of roses and the stench of corpses; and, contrary to the precept of the Prophet, call that bitter which once you had praised as sweet. But it is not necessary for us, in treating of Christian topics, to throw out accusations which ought to be brought before the law courts. You shall hear nothing more from me than the vulgar saying: "When you have said what you like, you shall bear what you do not like." Or if the coarse proverb seems to you too vulgar, and, being a man of culture, you prefer the words of philosophers or poets, take from me the words of Homer. [3207]
"What words thou speakest, thou the like shalt hear."
One thing I should like to learn from one of such eminent sanctity and fastidiousness, (whose holiness is such that in the presence of your very handkerchiefs and aprons the devils cry out); whom do you take for your model in your writings? Has any one of the catholic writers, in a controversy of opinions, imputed moral offences to the man with whom he is arguing? Have your masters taught you to do this? Is this the system in which you have been trained, that, when you cannot answer a man, you should take off his head? that when you cannot silence a man's tongue, you should cut it out? You have nothing much to boast of, for you are doing only what the scorpions and cantharides do. This is what Fulvia [3208] did to Cicero and Herodias to John. They could not bear to hear the truth, and therefore they pierced the tongue that spoke truth with the pin that parted their hair. The duty of dogs is to bark in their masters' service; why may I not bark in the service of Christ? Many have written against Marcion or Valentinus, Arius or Eunomius. By which of them was any accusation brought of immoral conduct? Did they not in each case bring their whole effort to bear upon the refutation of the heresy? It is the machination of the heretics, that is of your masters, when convicted of betrayal of the faith, to betake themselves to evil speaking. So Eustathius [3209] the Bishop of Antioch was made into a father unawares. So Athanasius Bishop of Alexandria cut off a third hand of Arsenius; for, when he appeared [3210] alive after having been supposed to be dead, he was found to have two. Such things also now are falsely charged against the Bishop of the same church, and the true faith is assailed by gold, which constitutes the power of yourself and your friends. But I need not speak of controversy with heretics, who, though they are really without, yet call themselves Christians. How many of our writers have contended with those most impious men, Celsus and Porphyry! but which of them has left the cause he was engaged in to busy himself with the imputation of crime to his adversary, such as ought to be set down not in church-writings but in the calendar of the judge? For what advantage have you gained if you establish a man's criminality but fail in your argument? It is quite unnecessary that in bringing an accusation you should risk your own head. If your object is revenge, you can hire an executioner, and satisfy your desire. You pretend to dread a scandal, and yet you are ready to kill a man who was once your brother, whom you now accuse, and whom you always treat as an enemy. Yet I wonder how a man like you, who knows what he is about, should be so blinded by madness as to wish to confer a benefit upon me by drawing forth my soul out of prison, [3211] and should not suffer it to remain with you in the darkness of this world.
[3207] Iliad. xx. 250.
[3208] Anthony's wife who had Cicero's head brought to her, and bored through the tongue with a golden bodkin.
[3209] Eustathius was deposed at the instigation of Eusebius the Arian bishop of Nicomedia, who brought charges both of Sabellianism and of immorality against him. Socrates, Eccl. Hist. i. 24.
[3210] At the Synod at Tyre in 335. See Socrates Eccl. Hist. i. 29.
[3211] This expression was used by the Origenists of death. This life was a prison house into which souls had fallen; Jerome imputes this opinion to Rufinus, and Rufinus to him. See Ruf, Apol. i. 26.
43. If you wish me to keep silence, cease from accusing me. Lay down your sword, and I will throw away my shield. To one thing only I cannot consent; that is, to spare the heretics, and not to vindicate my orthodoxy. If that is the cause of discord between us, I can submit to death, but not to silence. It would have been right to go through the whole of the Scriptures for answers to your ravings, and, like David playing on his harp, to take the divine words to calm your raging breast. But I will content myself with a few statements from a single book; I will oppose Wisdom to folly; for I hope if you despise the words of men you will not think lightly of the word of God. Listen, then, to that which Solomon the wise says about you and all who are addicted to evil speaking and contumely:
"Foolish men, while they desire injuries, become impious and hate wisdom. [3212] Devise not evil against thy friend. Be not angry with a man without a cause. The impious exalt contumely. [3213] Remove from thee the evil mouth, keep far from thee the wicked lips, the eyes of him that speaketh evil, the tongue of the unjust, the hands which shed the blood of the just, [3214] the heart that deviseth evil thoughts, and the feet which hasten to do evil. He that resteth upon falsehood feedeth the winds, and followeth the flying birds. For he hath left the ways of his own vineyard, and hath made the wheels of his tillage to err. He walketh through the dry and desert places, and with his hands he gathereth barrenness. [3215] The mouth of the froward is near to destruction, and [3216] he who uttereth evil words is the chief of fools. Every simple man is a soul that is blessed; but a violent man is dishonourable. [3217] By the fault of his lips the sinner falleth into a snare. [3218] All the ways of a fool are right in his own eyes. [3219] The fool showeth his anger on that very day. [3220] Lying lips are an abomination to the Lord. [3221] He that keepeth his lips guardeth his own soul; but he that is rash with his lips shall be a terror to himself. [3222] The evil man in his violence doeth evil things, and the fool spreadeth out his folly. [3223] Seek for wisdom among the evil and thou shalt not find it. [3224] The rash man shall eat of the fruit of his own ways. [3225] The wise man by taking heed avoideth the evil; but the fool is confident, and joins himself to it. [3226] A long-suffering man is strong in his wisdom; the man of little mind is very unwise. [3227] He who oppresseth the poor reproacheth his Maker. [3228] The tongue of the wise knoweth good things, but the mouth of fools speaketh evil. [3229] A quarrelsome man preferreth strife, and every one that lifteth up his heart is unclean before God. [3230] Though hand join with hand unjustly, they shall not be unpunished. [3231] He that loveth life must be sparing to his mouth. [3232] Insolence goeth before bruising, and evil thoughts before a fall. [3233] He who closeth his eyes speaketh perverse things, and provoketh all evil with his lips. [3234] The lips of a fool lead him into evil, and the foolhardy speech calleth down death. The man of evil counsel shall suffer much loss. [3235] Better is a poor man who is just than a rich man that speaketh lies. [3236] It is a glory to a man to turn away from evil words; but he that is foolish bindeth himself therewith. [3237] Love not detraction, lest thou be rooted out. [3238] The bread of lying is sweet to a man, but afterwards his mouth shall be filled with gravel. [3239] He that gaineth treasures with a lying tongue followeth vanity, and shall come into the snares of death. [3240] Say thou nought in the ear of a fool, lest haply the wise mock at thy words. [3241] The bludgeon and the sword and the arrow are hurtful things; [3242] so is the man who beareth false witness against his friend. [3243] As the birds and the sparrows fly away, so the curse shall be vain and shall not overtake him. [3244] Answer not an unwise man according to his lack of wisdom, lest thou become like unto him; but answer a fool according to his folly, lest he appear to himself to be wise. [3245] He who layeth wait for his friends when he is discovered saith, I did it in sport. [3246] A faggot for the coals, and wood for the fire, and a man of evil words for the tumult of strife. [3247] If thine enemy ask thee aught, sparingly but with a loud voice, [3248] consent thou not to him, for there are seven degrees of wickedness in his heart. [3249] The stone is heavy, and the sand hard to be borne; but the anger of a fool is heavier than either; indignation is cruel, anger is sharp, and envy is impatient. [3250] The impious man speaketh against the poor; and he that trusteth in the audacity of his heart is most foolish. [3251] The unwise man putteth forth all his anger, but the wise dealeth it out in parts. [3252] An evil son--his teeth are swords, and his grinders are as harrows, to consume the weak from off the earth, and the poor from among men."
Such are the lessons in which I have been trained and therefore I was unwilling to return bite for bite, and to attack you by way of retaliation; and I thought it better to exorcise the madness of one who was raving, and to pour in the antidote of a single book into his poisoned breast. But I fear I shall have no success, and that I shall be compelled to sing the song of David, and to take his words for my only consolation: [3253]