Jerome,

Jerome, ST (EUSEBIUS HIERONYMUS SOPHRONIUS), was born at Stridon, a town whose site is now unknown, on the confines of Dalmatia and Pannonia, at some period between 331 and 345—probably nearer to the latter year. His parents were both Christians. His early education was superintended by his father, after which he studied Greek and Latin rhetoric and philosophy under Ælius Donatus at Rome, where he was also admitted to the rite of baptism. After a residence in Gaul, he seems to have revisited Rome; but in the year 370 he had settled in Aquileia with his friend Rufinus. For some unknown reason he suddenly went hence to the East; and after a dangerous illness at Antioch, which appears to have still further added to the religious fervour of his disposition, he retired, in 374, to the desert of Chalcis, where he spent four years in penitential exercises and in study, especially of the Hebrew language. In 379 he was ordained a priest at Antioch, after which he spent three years in Constantinople in close intimacy with Gregory of Nazianzus; and in 382 he came on a mission connected with the Meletian schism at Antioch to Rome, where he became secretary to the pope Damasus, and where, although already engaged in his great work of the revision of the Latin version of the Bible, he attained to great popularity and influence by his sanctity, learning, and eloquence. Many pious persons placed themselves under his spiritual direction, the most remarkable of whom were the lady Paula and her daughter Eustochion. These ladies followed him to the Holy Land, whither he returned in 385. He permanently fixed his residence at Bethlehem in 386, the lady Paula having founded four convents, three for nuns, and one for monks, the latter of which was governed by Jerome himself. It was in this retreat that Jerome pursued or completed the great literary labours of his life; and it was from these solitudes, all peaceful as they might seem, that he sent forth the fiery and vehement invectives which marked not only his controversy with the heretics Jovinian, Vigilantius, and the Pelagians, but even with his ancient ally, Rufinus, and, although in a minor degree, with St Augustine. His conflict with the Pelagians rendering even his life insecure at Bethlehem, he was compelled to go into concealment for above two years; and soon after his return to Bethlehem in 418 he was seized with a lingering illness, which terminated in his death, September 30, 420. His original works, consisting of letters, treatises, polemical and ascetical, commentaries on Holy Scripture, and his version and revision of former versions of the Bible, were first published by Erasmus, 9 vols. folio (Basel, 1516), and have been several times reprinted. The best editions are that of the Benedictines (5 vols. folio, Paris, 1693–1706) and, still more, that of Vallarsi (11 vols. Verona, 1734–42). St Jerome is universally regarded as the most learned and eloquent of the Latin Fathers. His commentaries on the Bible are especially valuable for the learning which they display; but his opinions are often exaggerated and fanciful, and through his controversial writings there runs a strain of violent invective, which contrasts unfavourably with the tone of his contemporary, St Augustine. See the article VULGATE; also the works by Zöckler (Gotha, 1865), Amedée Thierry (Paris, 1867), Goelzer (Paris, 1886), E. L. Cutts (S.P.C.K. 1878), and Mrs Martin (1888); and the translations by Fremantle (1893).