9t)6 THLKD PERIOD. A.D. 311-590.
iiiany respects the coinmentnries of Pelagius. Anioi.g liii 'loctrinal writiugs his five books On Faith, three On the Holy Ghost, and six On the Sacraments (catechetical sermons on haptism, confirmation, and the eucharist) arc worth}- of men« tion. Among liis ethical writings the work On Duties is the most important. It resembles in form the well-known work of Cicero on the same subject, and reproduces it in a Christian spirit. It is a collection of rules of living for the clergy, and is the first attempt at a Christian doctrine of morals, though without systematic method.' Besides this he com- [)Osed several ascetic essays : Three books on Yirgins ; On Virginity ; On the Institution of the Virgin; On Exhortation to Virginity; On the Fall of a Consecrated Virgin, &c., which contributed much to the spread of celibacy and monastic piety. Of his ninety-one Epistles several are of considerable historical interest.
In his exegesis and in his theology, especially in the doctrine of the incarnation and the Trinity, Ambrose is entirely dependent on the Greek fathers ; most on Basil, whose Hexaemeron he almost slavishly copied. In anthropology he forms the transition from the Oriental doctrine to the system of Augustine, whose teacher and forerunner he was. He is most peculiar in his ethics, which he has set forth in liis three books De Officiis. As a pulpit orator he possessed great dignity, force, and unction, and made a deep impression on Augustine,
Rufinus felt it his duty to defend Ambrose, "qui nou solum Mcdiolanensis ecclesiae, verum etiam omnium ecclesiarura columna quajdam et tunis inexpugnabilis fuit" (Invect. ii. adv. Hieron.). In bis Catalogus vir. illustr. c. 124, Jerome disposes of Ambrose with the following frosty and equivocal notice: " Ambrosius Mcdiolanensis episeopus, usque in ijresentera diem scribit, de quo, quia superest, raeum judicium subtrabam, ne in alterutram partem aut aduhitio in me reprehendatur, aut Veritas." In bis Epistles, however, lie occasionally makes favorable allusion to his ascetic writings which fell in with bis own taste. Augustine, from a sense of gratitude to his spiritual father, always mentions his name with respect. The passages of Augustine on Ambrose are collected in the Solecta veterum testimonia at the beginning of the first tome of the Bened. edition. But the unfavorable notice of Jerome quoted above is omitted there.
' De officiis ministrorum, in three books (in the Bcncd. ed. torn. ii. f. 1-142). Comp. F. Uassi.eu : Ucber das Verhaltniss der heidnischen und christlicheii Ethib auf (Jrunil ciner Vergleichung des ciccronianisclien Buches De officiis mit detc f^leichnamigeu des heiligen Ambrosius, Miiuchen, 181)6.
§ 176. JEROME AS A DIVINE AND SCHOLAR 961
to whose conversion he contributed a considerable share. Many mothers forbade their daughters to hear him lest lie should induce them to lead a life of celibacy.
Ambrose has also a very important place in the history of worship, and did immortal service for tlie music and poetry of the church, as in a former section we have seen.' Here again, as in theology and exegesis, he brought over the treasures of the Greek church into the Latin. The church of Milan uses to this day a peculiar liturgy which is called after him the ritus Amhrosianus.
§ 176. Jerome as a Divine and Scholar.
Comp. the Literature at § 41 ; and especially the excellent monograph (which has since reached us) of Prof. Otto Zockler: Hieronymus. Sein Leben und Wirken aus seinen Schriften dargestellt. Gotha, 1865.
Having already sketched the life and character of Jerome (born about 340, died in 419) in connection with the history of monasticism, we limit ourselves here to his theological and literary labors, in which he did his chief service to the church, and has gained the greatest credit to himself.
Jerome is the most learned, the most eloquent, and the most interesting author among the Latin fathers. He had by nature a burning thirst for knowledge,^ and continued unweariedly teaching, and learning, and writing, to the end of a very long life.'' His was one of those intellectual natures, to which reading and study are as indispensable as daily bread. He
' Paclinus, in Vita Ambr. c. 13, relates: "Hoc in tempore primum antiphonae Lymni ac vigiliaj in ecclesia Mediolanensi celebrari coeperunt. Cuius celebritatia devotio usque in hodiernum diem non solum in eadem ecclesia, verum per omnea pone occidentis provincias manet."
"^ As he himself says, Ep. 84, c. 3 (Opera, ed. Vallarsi, torn. i. 523) : " Dum essem juvenia, miro discendi ferebar ardore, nee juxta quorundam prresumptionem ipse me docui."
^ SuLPicius Severus, who describes from his own observation the learned seclusion of the aged Jerome at Bethlehem, where, however, he was much interrupted and stimulated by the visits of Christians from all parts of the world, says of him, in Dial. i. 4 : '"Totus semper in lectione, totus in libris est; non die, non nocte requiee fit ; aut legit ^liquid semper, aut scribit," &c.