Happy is the soul, happy is the virgin in whose heart there is room for no other love than the love of Christ. For in Himself He is wisdom and chastity, patience and justice and every other virtue. Happy too is she who can recall a man's face without the least sigh of regret, and who has no desire to set eyes on one whom, after she has seen him, she may find herself unwilling to give up. Some there are, however, who by their ill-behaviour bring discredit on the holy profession of virginity and upon the glory of the heavenly and angelic company who have made it. These must be frankly told either to marry if they cannot contain, or to contain if they will not marry. It is also a matter for laughter or rather for tears, that when mistresses walk abroad they are preceded by maids better dressed than themselves; indeed so usual has this become that, if of two women you see one less neat than the other, you take her for the mistress as a matter of course. And yet these maids are professed virgins. Again not a few virgins choose sequestered dwellings where they will not be under the eyes of others, in order that they may live more freely than they otherwise could do. They take baths, do what they please, and try as much as they can to escape notice. We see these things and yet we put up with them; in fact, if we catch sight of the glitter of gold, we are ready to account of them as good works.
20. I end as I began, not content to have given you but a single warning. Love the holy scriptures, and wisdom will love you. Love wisdom, and it will keep you safe. Honour wisdom, and it will embrace you round about. [3771] Let the jewels on your breast and in your ears be the gems of wisdom. Let your tongue know no theme but Christ, let no sound pass your lips that is not holy, and let your words always reproduce that sweetness of which your grandmother and your mother set you the example. Imitate them, for they are models of virtue.
[3615] Cicero in his Dialogue on the Republic. Cf. Or. xxx.
[3616] Rom. xii. 1.
[3617] Pontifex.
[3618] 2 Cor. xi. 2.
[3619] Ps. xlv. 9, 13, 14.
[3620] i.e. After receiving the veil.
[3621] Cant. i. 4.
[3622] Ps. xlv. 13.
[3623] 1 Cor. iii. 6.
[3624] In the year 395 a.d.
[3625] Which took place before the fall of Rome in 410 a.d.
[3626] Matt. xi. 8.
[3627] 2 Kings i. 8; Matt. iii. 4.
[3628] Matt. xi. 14; Luke i. 17.
[3629] Luke i. 41.
[3630] Matt. xi. 7-14. Jerome here borrows a phrase from Cyprian, de Op. et El. xv.
[3631] Luke ii. 36, 37.
[3632] Acts xxi. 9.
[3633] Esther xiv. 16.
[3634] A virgin 13 years old beheaded at Rome under Diocletian after vain efforts first made to overcome her faith by subjecting her to assault and outrage.
[3635] See § 7 for the cruelties of the Count Herælian.
[3636] Quam habitura pronubam?
[3637] Wedding songs so called from the place of their origin, Fescennia in Etruria. See Catullus LXI. for the several customs here mentioned.
[3638] 1 John iv. 18.
[3639] Eph. vi. 14-17.
[3640] Virg., A. ii. 774.
[3641] Over Hannibal, b.c. 216. Jerome is quoting from Cicero, Brutus, III.
[3642] The reference is to the siege of the Capitol by Brennus and the Gauls, b.c. 390.
[3643] See note on Letter LXXIX. § 7.
[3644] i.e. Juliana and Proba, the mother and grandmother of Demetrias.
[3645] Luke xvi. 9.
[3646] i.e. Olybrius, the father of Demetrias.
[3647] Horace, Carm. iii. 3. 7, 8.
[3648] Job i. 16.
[3649] Job vii. 1.
[3650] Matt. iv. 1, sqq.
[3651] Gen. xxii. 1.
[3652] Rom. v. 3-5.
[3653] Rom. viii. 35, 36.
[3654] Isa. xxviii. 9, 10, LXX.
[3655] Rom. viii. 18.
[3656] Heraclian, Count of Africa.
[3657] Honorius.
[3658] i.e. Pluto, king of the lower world.
[3659] Sabinus, the son-in-law of Heraclian.
[3660] Virg., A. x. 79.
[3661] Jerome here apostrophizes Heraclian.
[3662] Alaric the Goth.
[3663] Reading dedignatus for dignatus.
[3664] Virg., A. iii. 435.
[3665] Matt. xiii. 25.
[3666] Cant. iii. 1; i. 7.
[3667] Ps. lxiii. 8.
[3668] Jer. xvii. 16, LXX.
[3669] Nu. xxiii. 21, LXX.
[3670] i.e. The Indian Ocean.
[3671] Matt. viii. 12.
[3672] Joh. viii. 12.
[3673] Matt. v. 25, 26.
[3674] Matt. xii. 36.
[3675] Eccles. x. 4. Jerome takes the ruler' to be the devil.
[3676] Ps. xl. 2.
[3677] Ps. civ. 18.
[3678] Gen. iii. 16.
[3679] Cant. ii. 16.
[3680] Rev. xiv. 4.
[3681] Eccles. ix. 8.
[3682] Cant. ii. 1.
[3683] Matt. x. 23.
[3684] Ps. cxlii. 4.
[3685] Ps. civ. 18.
[3686] Isa. xi. 6-8.
[3687] Eccles. x. 4.
[3688] Prov. iv. 23.
[3689] Ps. xix. 12-14.
[3690] Ps. cxxxvii. 9.
[3691] Ps. xix. 13.
[3692] Nu. xiv. 18.
[3693] Amos i. 3.
[3694] Exod. xii. 23, 29.
[3695] Ps. lvii. 7, 8.
[3696] Isa. xxiii. 15, 16.
[3697] See Letter CXXII. § 4.
[3698] 1 Cor. ix. 27.
[3699] Rom. vii. 24, 18, 19.
[3700] Rom. viii. 8, 9.
[3701] Ps. lxix. 10.
[3702] Ps. cii. 9.
[3703] Ps. xxxv. 13, Vulg.
[3704] Deut. viii. 3.
[3705] Joh. xiii. 15; 1 Pet. ii. 21.
[3706] Matt. iv. 1.
[3707] Rom. xvi. 20.
[3708] Matt. iv. 3.
[3709] Lev. xxiii. 27, 29.
[3710] Job xl. 16. Cf. Letter XXII. § 11.
[3711] Jas. iii. 6, R.V. marg.
[3712] Hos. vii. 4, Vulg.
[3713] Eph. vi. 16.
[3714] Song of the Three Holy Children 24.
[3715] Dan. iv. 16, 25, 32.
[3716] Lev. xxv. 8.
[3717] Dan. iii. 25.
[3718] Acts ix. 15.
[3719] 1 Cor. vii. 25.
[3720] See Letter CVIII. § 20.
[3721] Meden 'agan quoted by Terence (Andria, 61).
[3722] Heb. xii. 14, R.V.
[3723] See Jerome's commentary on the parable.
[3724] Matt. xxv. 1-12.
[3725] See Letters XXII., LII., etc.
[3726] Luke ii. 51.
[3727] Sall. Cat. i. 20.
[3728] Heb. xiii. 4.
[3729] 1 Pet. v. 6.
[3730] 1 Pet. v. 5.
[3731] Rom. ix. 16.
[3732] Cf. Letter XXII. § 24.
[3733] The fragment of Lucilius (preserved by Cic. de Fin. V. 30) says nothing of Cato: possibly therefore the text is here corrupt. See for Cato Letter LII. § 3.
[3734] Ps. iv. 4, LXX.
[3735] Eph. iv. 26.
[3736] Eph. v. 5.
[3737] Matt. xix. 16, 21.
[3738] Luke xviii. 22. Cf. Letter CXIX. § 4.
[3739] Acts iv. 34, 35.
[3740] Acts v. 1-10.
[3741] A philosopher of the Neoplatonic school (fl. 232-300 a.d.). Of his books against Christianity only small fragments remain.
[3742] But see Letter LII. § 10.
[3743] Gal. vi. 10.
[3744] See note on Letter XXII. § 37.
[3745] Prov. xiii. 4, LXX. comp. Letter CXXV. § 11.
[3746] Anastasius was pope from 398 to 402 a.d.
[3747] That of the Origenists.
[3748] Rom. i. 8.
[3749] Virg. Ecl. iv. 60.
[3750] Ps. xix. 9.
[3751] Ps. xcii. 15.
[3752] Ps. lxxxiv. 6, R.V.
[3753] Ps. cxix. 67.
[3754] Ps. cxlii. 7.
[3755] John ix. 2.
[3756] A phrase borrowed from Cicero (p. Sext. Rosc.).
[3757] Apparently Letter CXXIV. concerning Origen's book on First Principles.
[3758] Cf. Letter CXXV. § 9.
[3759] Ps. lvii. 4.
[3760] Cf. Letters LIII. § 7, and LXVI. § 9.
[3761] Eph. iv. 14.
[3762] 2 Tim. iii. 7.
[3763] 1 Cor. xv. 33; the words are quoted from a lost comedy of Menander.
[3764] The words are not extant in Petronius but occur in Martial ii. 12. 4.
[3765] i.e. the head of the community.
[3766] Letter XXII. to Eustochium.
[3767] See Letter XXII. § 22 ante.
[3768] Exod. xii. 11.
[3769] Ps. xxvi. 8.
[3770] Ps. xxvii. 4.
[3771] Cf. Letter LII. § 3.