Letters 101 to 110: The Correspondence with Augustine

To the truly holy lord, and most blessed Pope Augustine, Jerome sends greeting in the Lord.

1. At the very moment of the departure of our holy son the subdeacon Asterius, a man necessary to me, your beatitude's letter reached me, in which you assure me that you had not sent a book to Rome against my smallness. Nor had I myself heard that this had been done; but copies of a certain letter, as if written to me, reached here through our brother the deacon Sisinnius: in which you exhort me to sing a palinode over a certain chapter of the Apostle, and to imitate Stesichorus, wavering between blame and praise of Helen, so that as he who by detraction had lost his eyes, by praise he might recover them.

I confess simply to your worthiness that, although the style and arguments seemed to me to be yours, nevertheless I thought I ought not rashly to trust the copies of the letter; lest perchance, if I replied, you might justly complain, being wounded, that I ought first to have proved that the discourse was yours, and then have written back. There was added to the delay the long illness of the holy and venerable Paula. For while we sat by her for a long time as she languished, we almost forgot your letter, or that of him who had written under your name, mindful of that verse: Music in mourning is an untimely tale. Therefore, if the letter is yours, write plainly, or send more trustworthy copies: so that without any rancor of spirit we may engage in discussion of the Scriptures, and either correct our own error, or show that we have vainly reproved another.

2. But far be it from me that I should dare touch anything of the books of your beatitude.

For it suffices me to prove my own, and not to carp at those of others. But your prudence knows very well that each man abounds in his own sense, and that it is a mark of childish boasting—what young men used once to be accustomed to do—to seek fame for one's own name by accusing illustrious men. Nor am I so foolish as to think myself injured by the diversity of your explanations: for neither would you be injured, if we should think contrary things. But that is true reproof among friends, if, not seeing our own wallet, we consider, according to Persius, another's pack. It remains that you should love him who loves you; and in the field of the Scriptures, being young, not provoke an old man.

We have had our own times, and have run as far as we were able: now, with you running and traversing long stretches, leisure is owed to us; and at the same time (may I say it with honor and by your leave), lest you seem to have proposed something from the Poets to me alone, remember Dares and Entellus, and the common proverb: that a weary ox plants his foot more firmly. We have dictated these things in sadness: would that we might deserve your embraces, and by mutual exchange either teach something or learn something.

3. Calpurnius, surnamed Lanarius, has sent me his slanders with his customary rashness, which I have learned have reached even Africa through his zeal.

To these I have replied briefly in part, and I have sent you copies of his little book, intending to send, when it is opportune, a fuller work at the first occasion: in which I have taken care not to injure the reputation of Christians in any respect, but only to refute the lie and folly of a raving and ignorant man. Remember me, holy and venerable Pope. See how much I love you, that not even when provoked have I wished to reply, nor would I believe that to be yours which perhaps I would reproach in another. Our common brother greets you humbly.

To the truly holy lord and most blessed Pope Augustine, Jerome sends greeting in Christ.

1. Last year, through our brother the subdeacon Asterius, I had sent a letter to your worthiness, rendering the ready duty of greeting: which I believe was delivered to you. Now too, through my holy brother the deacon Presidius, I beg first that you remember me. Then, that you hold the bearer of the letter commended, and know him to be most closely joined to me, and that in whatever things necessity may demand, you cherish and support him; not that he lacks anything, Christ providing; but because he most eagerly seeks the friendships of good men, and thinks he has obtained the greatest benefit in joining himself to them. Why he has sailed to the West, you will be able to learn from his own narration.

2. We, established in the monastery, are shaken by various waves from this side and that, and endure the troubles of pilgrimage.

But we trust in Him who said: Be of good cheer, I have overcome the world: that, with Him granting and presiding, we may obtain victory against the enemy the devil. I beg you to greet, with my respects, our holy and venerable brother Pope Alypius. The holy brothers, who with us hasten to serve the Lord in the monastery, greet you abundantly. May Christ our Lord, omnipotent, keep you safe and mindful of me, truly holy lord and Pope to be revered.

To the venerable lord, and desirable holy brother, and fellow-presbyter Jerome, Augustine sends greeting in the Lord.

1. From the time I began to write to you, and to long for your writings, no better occasion has ever presented itself to me than that my letter should be carried to you through a servant of God, a most faithful minister, and most dear to me, such as is our son the deacon Cyprian. Through him certainly I hope for your letters, so that in this kind of matter I could not hope for anything more certain. For neither will zeal be lacking to our aforementioned son in seeking a reply, nor grace in deserving it, nor diligence in guarding it, nor eagerness in delivering it, nor faithfulness in restoring it: only, if I in any way deserve it, may the Lord help, and be present to your heart and to my desire, so that no greater will may hinder our brotherly will.

2. Since therefore I have already sent two letters, and have received none of yours afterward, I wished to send the same ones again, believing that they did not arrive. And even if they did arrive, and perhaps your letters to me rather could not arrive at all, send again those very writings which you have already sent, if by chance they have been kept. But if not, again dictate something for me to read, provided only that you do not think it burdensome to reply to these, which I have now long been awaiting.

The first letter also, which I had prepared to send to you while still a presbyter, through a certain brother of ours, Profuturus, who afterward became our colleague, and has now departed from this life—nor was he able at that time himself to deliver it, because as soon as he arranged to set out, he was detained by the burden of the episcopate, and shortly afterward died—this too I have now wished to send, that you may know how long I have burned for conversation with you, and what violence I suffer because the bodily senses of you are so far away from me: through which my soul might approach your soul, my sweetest brother, and one to be honored among the members of the Lord.

3. But in this letter I add this, which we have learned afterward, that Job has been translated by you from the Hebrew, whereas we already had a certain translation of yours of the same Prophet turned from the Greek tongue into Latin: in which, however, you marked with asterisks what is in the Hebrew and lacking in the Greek; and with obelisks, what is found in the Greek and is not in the Hebrew; with such wondrous diligence that in some places we see a star set against each single word, signifying that the same words are in the Hebrew, but are not in the Greek. But in this later translation, which is turned from the Hebrew, the same fidelity of words does not appear.

Nor does it little trouble one who reflects, either why in that first translation such diligence is fixed in placing asterisks, so as to indicate that even the smallest particles of speech are missing from the Greek copies which are in the Hebrew ones; or why in this other, which is from the Hebrew, this has been attended to more carelessly, so that the same particles are not found in their places. I wished to give an example of this for the sake of illustration; but I lacked a copy of the one that is from the Hebrew. Nevertheless, since you outstrip me in intellect, I think you understand well enough, not only what I have said, but even what I meant to say, so that, the reason having been given, you may explain what troubles me.

4. I would indeed prefer that you translate for us rather the Greek canonical Scriptures, which are held with the authority of the Seventy Interpreters.

For it will be a very hard thing if your translation should begin to be read more frequently in many Churches, that the Latin Churches should disagree with the Greek Churches, especially since a contradictor is easily convicted, once the Greek book—that is, of a language very well known—is produced. But whoever is disturbed by something unusual in that which has been translated from the Hebrew, and alleges the charge of falsehood, will scarcely or never arrive at the Hebrew testimonies by which the objection could be defended. But even if one should arrive at them, who could bear that so many Latin and Greek authorities should be condemned? To this is added, that even Hebrews when consulted may answer otherwise; so that you alone would seem necessary, who could even convict them themselves: but yet it would be a marvel if you could find a judge for this.

5. For indeed a certain bishop, our brother, when he had arranged for your translation to be read in the church over which he presides, was troubled by something set down by you far otherwise than had been fixed in the senses and memory of all, and chanted through the succession of so many ages, concerning the Prophet Jonah. So great a tumult arose among the people, especially with the Greeks accusing and inflaming the charge of falsity, that the bishop was compelled (for that city was of such a kind) to demand the testimony of the Jews. Whether from ignorance or malice, they answered that the reading was in the Hebrew codices which both Greeks and Latins had. What more? The man was compelled to correct it as though it were an error, wishing, after great danger, not to be left without a people. Whence it seems to us also that you too could sometimes have been mistaken in some things.

And consider what sort of matter this is, in those writings which cannot be corrected by comparing the testimonies of the customary languages.

6. Accordingly we give no small thanks to God for your work, by which you have translated the Gospel from the Greek: for almost everywhere there is no offense, when we have compared it with the Greek Scripture. Hence if anyone should contentiously favor the old error, upon the manuscripts being produced and compared, he is either most easily instructed or refuted. And if certain very rare passages rightly cause disquiet, who is so hard-hearted as not readily to forgive a labor so useful, for which it does not suffice to render due praise in return? But what seems to you the reason why in many places the authority of the Hebrew manuscripts differs from that of the Greek, which is called the Septuagint, I would wish you to deign to explain.

For that version is of no small weight, which has thus deserved to become renowned, and which the Apostles are shown to have used, not only by the fact itself, but also, as I recall, by your own testimony. And in this respect you will do a very great service, if you render into Latin faithfulness that Greek Scripture which the Seventy wrought: which in different manuscripts is so varied that it can scarcely be tolerated, and is so suspect, lest something else be found in the Greek, that one hesitates to bring forward or prove anything from it. I thought this letter would be brief: but somehow it has become so sweet to me to go on in it, as if I were speaking with you. But I beg you by the Lord, that it may not weary you to answer everything, and to grant me, as far as you are able, your presence.

To the lord truly holy and most blessed Pope Augustine, Jerome, greeting in the Lord.

1. You send me frequent letters, and often press me to reply to a certain Letter of yours, copies of which reached me, as I wrote before, through brother Sysinnius the Deacon, without your signature; and though you first signify that you sent it through brother Profuturus, and secondly through a certain other person: and meanwhile Profuturus was recalled from his journey, and made a Bishop, and swiftly carried off by death: while that other, whose name you withhold, is said to have feared the perils of the sea, and to have changed his plan of sailing.

Since these things are so, I cannot sufficiently wonder how the letter itself is said to be held by very many both at Rome and in Italy, and has not reached me alone, to whom alone it was sent: especially since the same brother Sysinnius, among your other Treatises, said that he found it not in Africa, not with you, but on an island of the Adriatic, nearly five years ago.

2. All suspicion must be removed from friendship. All suspicion must be removed from friendship, and one must speak with a friend as with a second self.

Certain of my familiars and vessels of Christ, of whom there is great abundance at Jerusalem and in the Holy Places, suggested that this was done by you not with a simple mind, but seeking praise and petty rumors and a little glory among the people, so that you might grow at my expense; so that many might learn that you challenge, and I fear; that you write as one learned, and I keep silent as one unlearned; and that at last you had found one who might set silence and a limit upon my garrulity. But that I may confess plainly to your worthiness, I first refused to answer for this reason, that I did not clearly believe the letter to be yours; nor (as the common proverb has it of certain persons) a sword smeared with honey.

Then I was wary of this, lest I should seem to answer insolently a bishop of my own communion; and to find fault with certain things in the letter of one finding fault with me: especially since I judged some things in it to be heretical.

3. Finally, lest you should justly complain, and say: What then? Had you seen my letter, and detected in the signature the marks of a hand known to you, that you should so readily wound a friend, and turn another's malice into an insult against me? Therefore, as I already wrote before, either send the same letter, subscribed with your own hand, or cease to provoke an old man hiding in his cell. But if you wish either to exercise or to display your learning, seek out young men, both unattached and noble, of whom there are said to be very many at Rome, who can and dare engage with you, and in disputation over the holy Scriptures bear the yoke together with a Bishop.

I was once a soldier, now a veteran, and I ought to praise your victories and those of others, not myself fight again with a worn-out body; lest, if you press me too often to write back, I recall that story of how Hannibal, exulting in his youthful vigor, was broken by the patience of Quintus Maximus.

Age bears away all things, the mind too: often I

recall that as a boy I would beguile long days with singing.
Now so many songs are forgotten by me: even the voice itself
flees Moeris now.

And, to speak more from the holy Scriptures, that Barzillai the Gileadite, in passing on to his young son King David's benefits and all his delights, showed that old age ought neither to seek such things, nor to accept them when offered.

4. But as for your swearing that you neither wrote nor sent to Rome a book against me—that you did not write it; but that if perchance certain things are found in your writings which disagree with my view, I was not injured by you, but that what seemed right to you was written by you; I ask that you hear me patiently. You did not write the book—and how then were the writings of your reprehension of me delivered to me through others? Why does Italy possess what you did not write? On what ground do you ask that I write back to things which you deny having written? I am not so dull that, if you held different views, I would think myself injured by you on that account.

But if you censure things I have said directly, and demand an account of my writings, and compel me to correct what I have written, and provoke me to a recantation, and give me back my eyesight, in this friendship is wounded, in this the rights of our bond are violated. Lest we seem to contend childishly, and give our respective partisans or detractors material for strife, I write these things because I desire to love you purely and in a Christian manner, and to keep nothing in my mind that differs from my lips. For it is not fitting that I, who from adolescence up to this age have toiled in a little monastery with holy Brethren, should dare to write anything against a Bishop of my own communion; and against that Bishop whom I began to love before I knew him; who was the first to invite me to friendship; in whom, coming up after me in the learning of the divine Scriptures, I rejoiced.

Therefore either deny the book to be yours, if perchance it is not yours, and cease demanding a reply to what you did not write: or if it is yours, confess it candidly; so that if I write anything in my own defense, the fault be yours, who provoked it, not mine, who was compelled to answer.

5. You add moreover that you are prepared, if anything in your writings has troubled me and I should wish to correct it, to accept this in a brotherly way, and that you would rejoice not only at my goodwill toward you, but you beg that I actually do this very thing. Again I say what I think: you provoke an old man, you goad one who is silent, you seem to be flaunting your learning. It is not fitting for one of my age to be thought ill-disposed toward him to whom I rather owe favor.

And if even in the Gospels and the Prophets perverse men find something on which to base censure, do you wonder if in your books, and especially in the exposition of the Scriptures, which are in places most obscure, certain things should seem to depart from the straight line? And I say this, not because I now judge certain things in your works worthy of censure: for I have never devoted study to reading them, nor do we have a supply of these copies among us, except the books of your Soliloquies, and certain Commentaries on the Psalms, which, if I wished to examine them, I would show—I do not say from myself, who am nothing, but from the interpretations of the ancient Greeks—to differ in certain respects. Farewell, my dearest friend, son in age, father in dignity; and observe this request of mine, that whatever you write to me, you cause to reach me first.

Truly in you the Apostolic and Prophetic word has been fulfilled: Their sound has gone out into all the earth, and their words unto the ends of the world. Who would believe this, that the barbarous tongue of the Getae should seek out the Hebrew Truth; and that, while the Greeks slumber, or rather quarrel, Germany itself should search out the utterances of the Holy Spirit? In truth I have learned that God is no respecter of persons; but in every nation he who fears God and works righteousness is acceptable to him. Hands long calloused from gripping the sword-hilt, and fingers more apt for handling arrows, now soften to the pen and the reed; and warlike breasts are turned into Christian gentleness. Now too we behold the prophecy of Isaiah fulfilled in deed: They shall beat their swords into ploughshares, and their spears into pruning-hooks; and nation shall not lift up sword against nation, neither shall they learn war any more.

Again in the same prophet: The wolf shall feed with the lamb; and the leopard shall lie down with the kid; and the calf and the lion and the bull shall feed together; and a little child shall lead them, and the ox and the bear shall pasture together; and their young ones shall be together; and the lion and the ox shall eat straw; not that simplicity should pass over into savagery, but that savagery should learn simplicity.

2. You ask of me a matter of great labor, and of yet greater ill-will; in which not the writer's talent but his learning is put to the test; so that while I myself desire to judge of others, I offer myself to be judged by all: namely, in the work on the Psalter, according to the arrangement of your little sheet, wherever there is disagreement between the Latins and the Greeks, to indicate what better agrees with the Hebrew.

In which matter I briefly advise this, that you may know that there is one edition, which Origen and Eusebius of Caesarea, and all the expositors of Greece, call Κοινη, that is, the common, and also the Vulgate, and which by very many is now called the Lucianic; and another, that of the Seventy Translators, which is found in the Hexaplar manuscripts, and which has been faithfully rendered by me into the Latin tongue, and is sung at Jerusalem and in the churches of the East. Concerning this matter my holy son Avitus too had often inquired. And since the occasion offered itself of our brother Firmus the Presbyter, who delivered your letter to me, writing to two persons, I answer both in common, and I discharge myself freely with the great interest of friendship, in that the more we pay, the more we owe.

But just as in the New Testament, whenever a question arises among the Latins, and there is variance among the copies, we have recourse to the source of the Greek speech, in which the New Instrument was written: so in the Old Testament, whenever there is a discrepancy between the Greeks and the Latins, we take refuge in the Hebrew truth; that whatever proceeds from the source, this we may seek in the streams. Now this Κοινη, that is, the Common edition, is itself the same as the Septuagint. But this is the difference between the two, that the Κοινη is an old edition corrupted according to places and times, and according to the will of the scribes. But that which is contained in the Hexapla, and which we have translated, is that very translation of the Seventy Translators which is preserved incorrupt and unblemished in the books of the learned. Whatever, therefore, differs from this, there is no doubt but that it likewise disagrees with the authority of the Hebrews.

3. The first question concerned Psalm five: Neither shall the wicked dwell beside you. For which is found in the Greek, oute paroikēsei soi ponēros, or ponēreuomenos, as the Vulgate edition has it. And you wonder why the Latin translator did not render paroikian, that is, sojourning, but instead used habitation, which in Greek is called katoikia. Which indeed he is shown to have done in another place: Woe is me, that my sojourning is prolonged. And again in Psalm fourteen he put habitation for sojourning: Lord, who shall dwell in your tabernacle? And it should be known, that if we wished to say: Lord, who shall sojourn in your tabernacle? Or that from Psalm five: Neither shall the wicked sojourn beside you, it would lose its euphony: and while we pursue the affectation of a literal translation, we lose all the grace of the rendering, and this is the rule of a good translator, that he should express the idioms of another tongue by the propriety of his own tongue.

Which we can show that Tully did in Plato's Protagoras, and in Xenophon's Oeconomicus, and in the oration of Demosthenes against Aeschines; and Plautus, Terence, and Caecilius, most learned men, in translating Greek comedies. Nor should anyone on this account think the Latin tongue too narrow, because it cannot render word for word; since even the Greeks translate very many of our expressions by circumlocution: and the words of the Hebrew strain to express, not by fidelity of translation, but by the properties of their own tongue.

4. From the same Psalm: Direct in my sight your way. For which is found in the Greek, kateuthynon enōpion sou tēn hodon mou, that is, direct in your sight my way. Which neither the Seventy have, nor Aquila, nor Symmachus, nor Theodotion; but only the Κοινη edition. Indeed I have also found it so written in the Hebrew, Oser laphanai darchach. Which all have rendered with a similar sense: Direct in my sight your way.

According to that which is said in the Lord's Prayer: Our Father, who art in heaven, hallowed be your name. Not that at our praying is hallowed what is holy in itself: but that we ask that what is holy by its own nature may be hallowed in us. So too now the Prophet asks that the way of the Lord, which is right in itself, may also become right for himself.

5. Concerning the sixth Psalm: Let all my enemies be ashamed and greatly troubled. And you say that in the Greek, "greatly," is not found. I know it: but this is in the Vulgate edition. However in the Hebrew it has MOD, that is, "greatly"; and all have translated it similarly, σφοδρα.

6. Concerning the seventh Psalm: Judge me, O Lord, according to my justice. In place of which the Greek has, κατα την δικαιοσυνην σου, that is, according to thy justice.

But in this too it is wrong; for in the Hebrew it has SEDECI, which is interpreted "my justice," and not SEDECACH, which sounds "thy justice." But all the Interpreters have translated "my justice," with a like expression. Nor let it seem rash to anyone that he asks to be judged according to his own justice, since the following verse signifies this very thing: And according to my innocence upon me. And this is the beginning of the sixteenth Psalm: Hear, O Lord, my justice. And in the seventeenth also it is said: The Lord will reward me according to my justice, and according to the purity of my hands he will repay me. In the twenty-fifth Psalm too it is written: Prove me, O Lord, and try me: burn my reins and my heart. And in the fourth it is said: When I called, the God of my justice heard me. And in the eighty-fifth: Keep my soul, for I am holy. Jacob too speaks in Genesis: My justice will answer for me tomorrow.

7. Concerning the eighth Psalm: For I shall see thy heavens. And you say that "thy" is not in the Greek. It is true, but in the Hebrew is read SAMACHA, which is interpreted "thy heavens," and it has been added from the edition of Theodotion among the Seventy interpreters under an asterisk: the meaning of which matter I will briefly explain to you. Where something is lacking in the Greek in comparison with the Hebrew Truth, Origen added it from the translation of Theodotion, and placed the sign of the asterisk, that is, a star, which illuminates what before seemed hidden, and brings it into the open; but where what is not in the Hebrew is found in the Greek codices, he set before it the obelus, that is, a lying stroke, which we in Latin can call a "spit"; by which it is shown that what is not found in the authentic books must be slain and pierced through. These signs are found also in the poems of both the Greeks and the Latins.

8. In the sixteenth: Let thy eyes behold equity. In place of which you said you had read in the Greek: οι οφθαλμοι μου, that is, "my eyes"; but "thy eyes" is more correct, because above he had said: Let my judgment come forth from thy countenance; and let the eyes of God look, in the Prophet who does right, not upon crooked things, but upon right ones. In the same: Keep me as the apple of the eye. And you say it is read in the Greek: Keep me, O Lord; which is found neither in the Hebrew, nor in any interpreter. In the same: Arise, O Lord, disappoint him, and supplant him. In place of which the Greek has, πρόφθασον αὐτοὺς, that is, disappoint them, and supplant them: but it is better if it be read in the singular number, since it is said of the wicked one, of whom it follows immediately, disappoint him and supplant him: deliver my soul from the wicked one. And no one doubts that this signifies the devil.

9. In the seventeenth Psalm: Hail and coals of fire. And you ask why the Greek does not have this verse a second time, with two verses interposed. But it should be known, that it has been added from the Hebrew, and from Theodotion's edition, among the Seventy Interpreters under an asterisk. In the same: Who has made my feet like the feet of harts. In place of which you write that in the Greek is found ὡσεὶ ἐλάφου, that is, "like a hart": singular number for plural. But in the Hebrew the plural number is set, CHAJALOTH, and all the Interpreters have translated it in the plural number. In the same: And thou hast given me the shield of thy salvation. In place of which you said you had read in the Greek, τῆς σωτηρίας μου, that is, "of my salvation." But in the Hebrew JESACHA signifies "of thy salvation," not "of my"; which all the Interpreters have also translated. In the same: Thou hast subdued under me them that rose up against me.

In place of which you say you found more in the Greek: "All that rose up against me"; but "all" has been added. In the same: The Lord liveth, and blessed be my God. And you say that in the Greek "my" is not found. This has been translated from the Hebrew Truth not under an asterisk, but by the Seventy themselves; and all the Interpreters agree in this point. In the same: My deliverer from angry nations. In place of which you say you found in the Greek: From my strong, or powerful, enemies. And since we are devoted to truth alone, if anything has been corrupted either by the haste of the translator or by the fault of the scribes, we ought simply to confess it, and correct it. In the Hebrew there is nothing else but this: My deliverer from my enemies. But the Seventy added "angry." And in place of "nations," both in the Hebrew and in all the Interpreters, "enemies" is set: and I wonder how "enemies" came to be changed into "nations." 10.

In the eighteenth: He hath rejoiced as a giant to run his way. And you say that in the Greek "his" is not present: but we find this added under the "spit," and it is clear that it is not in the Hebrew. 11. In the nineteenth: May he grant thee according to thy heart. And you say that you found in the Greek at this verse the name of the Lord added, which is superfluous: because from what precedes, Ἐπακούσαι σου Κύριος, it is understood, from which the Psalm began: May the Lord hear thee in the day of tribulation; so that here too it may be said under the same sense: May he grant thee according to thy heart, that is, the Lord himself, of whom it was spoken above. In the same: And hear us in the day wherein we shall call upon thee. In place of which you say you read: in whatever day; but the earlier reading agrees with the Hebrew Truth, where it is written BIOM, that is, "in the day." 12.

In the twenty-first: But thou, O Lord, remove not thy help far from me. And you say you found "my"; which is indeed true, and should be so corrected. For we ought not, on any brief matter, in foolish contention, to defend what has been changed by a scribe's error. In the same: All ye the seed of Jacob, magnify him. In place of which the Greek has written, δοξάσατε αὐτὸν, that is, "glorify him." But it should be known that wherever the Greek writes "glorify," the Latin Interpreter has translated "magnify"; according to that which is said in Exodus: Let us sing to the Lord, for he is gloriously magnified; in place of which the Greek writes, "he is glorified": but if this were translated into the Latin tongue, an unseemly translation would result; and we, when we once emended the Psalter, wherever the sense is the same, did not wish to change the custom of the ancient Interpreters, lest we should frighten the reader's zeal with excessive novelty.

13. In the twenty-second: My inebriating cup, how excellent it is! In place of which you say you read in the Greek, "thy cup": but this has prevailed by an error in the Common text. However both the Seventy, and the Hebrew, and all the Interpreters have "my cup," which is said in Hebrew CHOSACH. 14. In the twenty-fourth: Let all them be confounded that act unjust things. And you say that "all" is not in the Greek, and rightly; for neither is it in the Hebrew, but in the Seventy it has been added under the spit. In the same: The innocent and the righteous have adhered to me, because I have waited for thee. And you say you found in the Greek, "O Lord": which is superfluous. 15. In the twenty-sixth: And now behold, he hath lifted up my head. But "behold" is superfluous. In the same: My face hath sought thee. In place of which the Greek reads: "my face hath sought thee": but the former reading is better.

16. In the twenty-seventh: Hear the voice of my supplication. In place of which you said you found: "Hear, O Lord"; but this too has been added. 17. In the twenty-eighth: And in his temple all shall speak his glory. In place of which the Greek has, πᾶς τις. Which if we should wish to translate word for word, "all any one," we fall into an affectation of interpretation, and an absurd translation results. In the same: The Lord maketh the flood to dwell. In place of which you say you read: "The Lord dwelleth upon the flood"; of which the former pertains to grace among believers, the latter to the dwelling-place of him in whom they believe. But because JASAB is an ambiguous word, and can signify either, for it means both "sitting" and "dwelling"; and in this very Psalm it was speaking of the grace of baptism: The voice of the Lord is upon the waters: the Lord is upon many waters.

And: The voice of him that prepareth the harts, and he will reveal the thick woods, and in his temple all shall speak his glory, we wish to understand it of those very ones who glorify the Lord; and we have translated: The Lord maketh the flood to dwell. 18. In the thirtieth: For thou art my protector. Again in this place the name of the Lord has been added; and lest I keep repeating the same thing, you ought to observe that the name "Lord" and "God" is very often added; and that you ought to follow that which we have corrected from the Hebrew and from the Seventy Interpreters. In the same: But I said in the excess of my mind. In place of which it was read in the Latin codices, "in my fear," and we have translated according to the Greek, ἐν τῇ ἐκστάσει μου, that is, "in the excess of my mind"; for otherwise the Latin tongue cannot express ἔκστασις, except as excess of mind.

I have known it to be read otherwise in the Hebrew, "in my stupor and amazement." 19. In the thirty-first: Neither is there deceit in his spirit. In place of which you say you read in the Greek, ἐν τῷ στόματι αὐτοῦ, that is, "in his mouth"; which only Symmachus has set. Otherwise both the Seventy Interpreters, and Theodotion, and the Fifth, and the Sixth Edition, and Aquila, and the Hebrew itself, have "in his spirit," which is said in Hebrew BRUCHO. But if it were "in his mouth," it would be written BAFFIO. In the same: I am converted in my affliction; you suggest that "my" is not in the Greek. This has been added from the Hebrew, and from Theodotion's translation, under an asterisk, and in the Hebrew is read LASADDI. 20. In the thirty-fourth: All my bones shall say, O Lord. In place of which you say you found "O Lord" twice in the Greek. But it should be known that there are many exemplars among the Hebrews which do not have "Lord" even once.

21. In the thirty-sixth: And he shall delight in his way. In the Greek, you say you read "he shall delight exceedingly." This has been added, and is not found in any of the Interpreters. 22. In the thirty-eighth: Surely every man in vain is disquieted. And you say that you did not find "is disquieted" in the Greek. But this too has been added under the spit in the LXX. And from this arises error among you, and among most people, because through the negligence of scribes, the strokes and asterisks being omitted, all distinction is confounded. 23. In the thirty-ninth: And thy law in the midst of my heart. In place of which you say you found in the Greek, "in the midst of my belly," which is also so written in the Hebrew, Batthoch meai. But for the sake of euphony among the Latins, it has been translated "in the heart"; and yet we ought not to suppress what is true. In the same: O Lord, look toward my help.

In place of which you say you found in the Greek, σπεῦσον, that is, "hasten." But among the Seventy is written πρόσχες, that is, "look toward." 24. In the fortieth: And if he came in to see. And you say that "if" is not set in the Greek. Whereas it is most manifestly written both in the Hebrew and in all the Interpreters; and the Seventy have translated, καὶ εἰ εἰσεπορεύετο τοῦ ἰδεῖν. 25. In the forty-first: The help of my countenance, my God. In place of which you say you found, "and my God." But it should be known that this is found twice in that Psalm, and in the first place it is set: the help of my countenance, my God; but in the second, that is, at the end of the same Psalm: The help of my countenance, and my God; in such a way, at least, that the conjunction "and" has been added from the Hebrew, and from Theodotion, under an asterisk. In the same: They that trouble me have reproached me.

In place of which you said you found, οἱ ἐχθροί μου, that is, "my enemies"; whereas among the Seventy it is written, οἱ θλίβοντές με, and among the Hebrews SORARAI, that is, "my enemies" (in the sense of foes). In the same: Hope in God, for I will still confess to him. And you say that "still" is not found in the Greek. This has been added under the asterisk. For so too we find written in the Hebrew, Chi od, which is signified by ἔτι ἔτι, and in Latin is said, "for still." This same thing is to be understood also in the forty-second. 26. In the forty-third: And thou wilt not go forth in our armies. In place of which you say you found in the Greek: "And thou wilt not go forth, O God"; but this is superfluous. In the same: Thou hast made us a byword to the nations.

In place of which the Greek has written, ἐν τοῖς ἔθνεσιν, but if it had been said in Latin, "as a byword among the nations," it would be κακόφωνον, and therefore, without loss of sense, the elegance of the translation has been preserved. Otherwise I have found it so written in the Hebrew: Thou hast made us a proverb among the nations. In the same: Arise, help us. In place of which, according to the usual custom, the name of the Lord has been added in the Greek. 27. In the forty-fourth: Thy arrows are sharp: in place of which you say you read in the Greek: "sharp, O most mighty"; but this is wrong, and has been added from the preceding verse, in which is read: Gird thy sword upon thy thigh, O most mighty. 28. In the forty-seventh: For behold, kings are gathered together. In place of which you say you have read in the Greek: For behold, his kings are gathered together.

That this is superfluous the very text of the reading shows; and in the old codices of the Latins it was written, kings of the earth, which we have removed, because it is found neither in the Hebrew, nor in the Septuagint. In the same: As we have heard, so we have seen. In place of which you say you have found in the Greek: sic et vidimus (so also we have seen), which is superfluous: for in the Hebrew it reads Chen rainu, which is interpreted οὕτως εἴδομεν, that is, so we have seen. In the same: We have received, O God, thy mercy in the midst of thy temple. In place of what we translated from the Hebrew and from the Seventy Interpreters, "of thy temple," you say you have read in the Greek, "of thy people," which is superfluous. In the Hebrew it is written ECHALACH, that is, τοῦ ναοῦ σου, that is, of thy temple, and not AMMACH, which signifies thy people. 29. In the forty-eighth: Man when he was in honour.

In place of which you say you found in the Greek: And man when he was in honour. But it should be known that this little verse occurs twice in this Psalm, and in the earlier occurrence has the word "added," and lacks the conjunction "and" at the end. In the same: And the upright shall have dominion over them. In place of "the upright," you say you have read in the Greek εὐθεῖς, that is, "the straight," but on account of εὐφωνία (euphony) it was so rendered into Latin. Otherwise also in that place where we read written: In the book τοῦ εὐθοῦς, we understand the book of the just, and we ought not to render word for word to such an extent that, while following the syllables, we lose the meaning. In the same: From the hand of hell, when he shall have delivered me.

In place of which you say you have read in the Greek: when he shall have received me: which indeed we too have so translated from the LXX; and I wonder by whom it was corrupted in your codex. 30. In the forty-ninth: Sitting, thou didst speak against thy brother. In place of which you say you have found in the Greek, kata τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ σου κατελάλεις, and you think it not well rendered, because we said, "thou didst speak against thy brother," when we ought to have said, "thou didst detract against thy brother"; which is faulty, and does not stand in our language, as is plain even to the foolish.

Nor are we ignorant that καταλαλία is called "detraction"; which if we wished to render, we could not say, "thou didst detract against thy brother," but "thou didst detract of thy brother." But if we should do this, again the contentious calumniator of words will ask why we did not say kata τοῦ ἀδελφοῦ σου, that is, "against thy brother." These are superfluous matters, and we ought not to torment ourselves over an unpolished rendering of words, when there is no loss in the sense, because each language, as I have said before, speaks according to its own properties. In the same: Lest at any time he seize, and there be none to deliver. And you say you have found in the Greek: And there be none to deliver; which was so rendered by us also, and so it stands in our codices.

And I wonder how you attribute the fault of a sleepy copyist to the interpreter; unless perhaps it was this: Lest at any time he seize, nor be there any to deliver, and he wrote "and" for "nor." In the same: The sacrifice of praise shall honour me. In place of which it is written in Greek, δοξάσει με, that is, "shall glorify me," of which we have also spoken above. In the Gospel, in that place where in Greek we read, Πάτερ δόξασόν με τῇ δόξῃ ᾗ εἶχον παρὰ σοὶ πρὸ τοῦ τὸν cosmos γενέσθαι, in Latin it reads: Father, glorify me: we were unwilling therefore to change what was read by the ancients, because the sense was the same. 31. In the fifty-fourth: I waited for him who made me safe. And you say you have found in the Greek: I waited for God, which is an addition. In the same: From the faintheartedness of spirit.

And you say you have found in the Greek, ἀπὸ ὀλιγοψυχίας, which is properly called "faintheartedness." But it should be known that for ὀλιγοψυχία, Aquila, and Symmachus, and Theodotion, and the Fifth Edition translated, ἀπὸ πνεύματος, that is, "from the spirit"; and in the Hebrew it is written MERUA: and the whole sense is thus read among them: I will hasten, that I may be saved from the spirit of tempest and whirlwind. In the same: For if my enemy had reviled me. In the Greek ὠνείδισεν, that is, "had reproached," is placed. But it is clear that there is no discrepancy in sense between "reviling" and "reproaches." 32. In the fifty-fifth: For many make war against me, from the height of the day I shall fear. And you say you have found in the Greek, "I shall not fear"; which is an addition. And the order is: since many fight against me, therefore I shall fear from the height of the day: that is, not those warring against me, but I shall fear thy exalted light.

In the same: In wrath thou shalt break the peoples. In place of which it is read in Greek ἐν ὀργῇ λαοὺς κατάξεις, that is, "thou shalt break." And among the Latins, in place of what should be, "thou shalt cast down," that is, καταβαλεῖς, an error has wrongly prevailed, κατάξεις, that is, "in wrath thou shalt break the peoples"; for in the Hebrew also it has HORED, that is, καταβίβασον, which we may render, "bring down"; and Symmachus translated κατασπάσαι. 33. In the fifty-eighth: For God is my protector. In place of which it is placed in Greek: My protector art thou. But it should be known that in the Hebrew neither "art" nor "thou" is written; and it is found only among the Septuagint. In the same: My God, his mercy shall prevent me. In place of which it is written in Greek, τὸ ἔλεος αὐτοῦ, that is, "his mercy," which is also truer. But in the Hebrew it is written: My mercy shall prevent me. In the same: God shall show me among my enemies.

In place of which it is placed in Greek, "my God"; but "my" is an addition. In the same: Slay them not, lest at any time my people forget. In place of which it is written in Greek: "thy law"; but in the Septuagint and in the Hebrew it does not have "thy people," but "my people"; and so it was translated by us. In the same: And they shall know that God will have dominion over Jacob, unto the ends of the earth. In place of which it is written in Greek: "And of the ends of the earth"; but the conjunction "and" is added, and the order is: They shall know that the God of Jacob will have dominion unto the ends of the earth. 34. In the fifty-ninth: Who will lead me into Idumea? In place of which the Greek has "or who will lead me"; but this is superfluous. 35. In the sixtieth: For thou, O God, hast heard my prayer.

In place of which it is read in Greek: For thou, O God, hast heard me. Which is not in the Hebrew, nor in the LXX Interpreters, and is added in the Latin. In the same: I will sing to thy name for ever and ever. In place of which in Greek it is "For ever"; and in the Hebrew it has once LAED, that is, "for ever," and not LOLAM, which is "for an age." 36. In the sixty-first: For God is our helper forever. In place of which in Greek it is: God is our helper. Therefore "forever" is marked with an obelus. 37. In the sixty-second: My soul hath thirsted for thee. In place of which in Greek it is: My soul hath thirsted in thee. But in the Hebrew it does not have ATTHA, which signifies "thee" in the sense of "in thee", but LACH, which shows "to thee": which all the Interpreters have also translated. Therefore, according to the property of the language, it was rendered into Latin.

39. In the sixty-third: The arrows of little children have become their wounds. In place of which in Greek: "The arrow of little children"; but if we should so say, it does not sound right in Latin: "The arrow of little children have become their wounds." In place of which it is better in the Hebrew: God shall strike them with a sudden dart, and their wounds shall be inflicted. 39. In the sixty-fourth: Who troublest the depth of the sea, the sound of its waves. In the Greek you write that there is added: "Who shall endure?" which is superfluous; for it is understood: who troublest the depth of the sea, and troublest the sound of its waves. In the same: Thou hast prepared their food, for so is its preparation. And you say that in Greek there is not "its," though in the Hebrew THECHINA plainly signifies "its preparation": "its," that is, of the earth; of which he had said above: Thou hast visited the earth, and hast made it drunk.

40. In the sixty-fifth: I will offer thee holocausts full of marrow, with the incense of rams. In place of which you say you have found: "With the incense and rams"; but wrongly: for in the Hebrew it is written, Em catoroth elim, which is interpreted, μετὰ θυμιάματος κριῶν, that is, with the incense of rams. In the same: Therefore God hath heard. In place of which you say you have found in Greek: "God hath heard me," but this is superfluous. 41. In the sixty-seventh: Rejoice in his sight. In place of which you say you have found in Greek: "And rejoice in his sight." Which was so rendered by us, but by whom it was corrupted in your codex I cannot know. In the same: For they believe not that the Lord dwelleth. In place of which you say you have read in Greek: καὶ γὰρ ἀπειθοῦντες τοῦ κατασκηνῶσαι: which is both false.

For we have translated: For they believing not that the Lord God dwelleth; so that the sense may be, and depend on what precedes: Thou hast ascended on high, thou hast taken captivity captive, thou hast received gifts among men, and even those who did not believe that the Lord could dwell among mortals. In the same: God, blessed be the Lord, day by day. In place of which you say you have found in Greek: "The Lord blessed be God, blessed be the Lord, day by day"; but the above is better and truer. In the same: Thy goings were seen, O God.

In place of which you say it is written in Greek: "Thy goings are seen, O God." In the Hebrew it thus reads Bau alichothach: which Aquila, and Symmachus, and Theodotion translated: "They have seen thy ways, O God," and what follows: "The ways of my God, my king, who is in the sanctuary." Therefore it should be read by us thus: "They have seen thy goings, O God"; and the copyist's error should be left as it is, who put the nominative for the accusative: although I have also found it thus in the Septuagint and in the Hexapla: ἐθεωρήσαν αἱ πορεῖαί σου, ὁ theos: and in place of ἐθεωρήσαν, that is, "they have seen," in many codices it has ἐθεωρήθησαν, "they were seen": which usage has also prevailed.

In the same: The goings of my God, my king, who is in the sanctuary; it is understood, "they have seen the goings of my God, and of my king." But as to what you say, that "my" is not appended to "king," this is a most manifest falsehood, for it is placed twice, both "my God" and "my king," in an affectionate manner; so that he who is the God and king of all becomes his own God in a special way, and king by right of service. Finally, in the Hebrew it is written Heli melchi, which signifies "my God" and "my king." In the same: Kingdoms of the earth, sing to God, sing praise to the Lord. And you say that in this verse it is not written "sing praise to the Lord," since immediately follows: Diapsalma.

Sing praise to God, who ascendeth above the heaven of heavens toward the east; whereas this verse ought rather to have, according to the Hebrew truth: Sing to God, sing praise to the Lord; and that which follows at the beginning of the other verse, "Sing praise to God," is not in the authentic books, but is marked with an obelus. Therefore, read also what is true; lest, while suspecting an addition, you abandon what was written by the Prophet. 42. In the sixty-eighth: I will praise the name of God with a canticle. In place of which you say you have found in Greek, "of my God," but "my" is superfluous. 43. In the seventieth: O God, be not far from me. What you say is placed in Greek, "my God," is superfluous. In the same: O God, thou hast taught me from my youth. And in this too, what you say you have found among the Greeks, "my God," "my" is superfluous. In the same: Until I declare thy arm.

And you say you have found in Greek, "thy wonders," which belongs to the preceding verse, "and hitherto I will declare thy wonders." Rightly, therefore, here it has "arm." 43. In the seventy-first: And all kings shall adore him. That which you say you have found in Greek, "kings of the earth," is superfluous. In the same: Blessed be the Lord God, the God of Israel. You say that in Greek "God" is not found twice: though it is in the Hebrew, and in the Septuagint; and most manifestly the threefold naming of Lord and God is a mystery of the Trinity. In the same: And blessed be the name of his majesty for ever. This therefore which you say you have found in Greek: "For ever and unto the age of the age," you should know was superfluously added by the Greeks, since neither the Hebrew has it, nor the Seventy Interpreters. 45. In the seventy-second: It came forth as it were from fatness.

And you say that you have found among the Greeks, ἐξελεύσεται, that is, "it will come forth," which is false. For even among the Seventy Interpreters it is thus written: ἐξῆλθεν ὡς ἐκ στέατος ἡ ἀδικία αὐτῶν. In the same: How does God know, you say is not present in the Greek as "God"; whereas even among the Seventy it is written, Πῶς ἔγνω ὁ theos, and all the Interpreters have likewise translated from the Hebrew. In the same: I shall understand in their last things. For which you say you have read in the Greek: "and I shall understand"; but here, "and," is a superfluous conjunction. In the same: My flesh has failed, and my heart. For which some hold the wrongly reversed order: My heart has failed, and my flesh. In the same: That I may announce all thy proclamations. For which you say you have read in the Greek, τὰς αἰνέσεις σου, that is, thy praises.

And it must be known that in the Hebrew it has written, MALOCHOTHACH, which Aquila rendered ἀγγελίας σου, that is, thy messages; the Seventy, τὰς ἐπαγγελίας σου, that is, thy proclamations, or promises: although both praise and proclamation signify one and the same thing. 46. In the seventy-third: Why, God, hast thou cast us off unto the end. For which it is wrongly read among the Greeks with the order changed: Why hast thou cast off, God. In the same: How great things the enemy hath done wickedly in the Sanctuary. I wonder who, in emending your codex, has perverted it, so as to put "the Saints" for "the Sanctuary," since even in our own codex "in the Sanctuary" is found. In the same: Let us burn up all the feast days of God from the land. For which it is written in the Greek καταπαύσωμεν; and we have translated it thus: Let us cause all the feast days of God to cease from the land.

And I wonder how some rash person thought that our marginal Annotation should be written into the body of the text—which we wrote for the instruction of the reader in this manner: It does not have καταπαύσωμεν, as some think, but κατακαύσωμεν, that is, "let us burn." And since the holy Presbyter Firmus, who was the taskmaster of this work, has reported to me that a question was raised on this point among many, it seems that the matter should be discussed more fully. In the Hebrew it is written Sarphu chol moedau el baares, which Aquila and Symmachus rendered, ἐνεπύρισαν πασάς τάς συναγωγάς τοῦ Θεοῦ, that is, they burned up all the solemnities of God in the land. The Fifth Edition has κατέκαυσαν, that is, "they burned." The Sixth has κατακαύσωμεν, that is, "let us burn"; which it is evident the Seventy also rendered, according to the truth of the Hexapla. Theodotion too rendered ἐμπυρίσωμεν, that is, "let us set on fire." From which it is evident that it should be sung thus, as we have translated it; and yet it must be known what the Hebrew Truth has.

For what the Seventy translated must be sung in the Churches because of its antiquity; and that other reading must be known by the learned for the sake of acquaintance with the Scriptures. Whence, if anything has been added in the margin out of zeal, it ought not to be placed in the body of the text, lest it disturb the earlier translation according to the whim of scribes. In the same: Thou hast broken the heads of the dragons in the waters; thou hast crushed the heads of the dragon. Thus the order of the reading follows, that in the first verse "thou" is not present, but in the second; and "waters" is written in the plural number, not the singular, just as Aquila also rendered the Hebrew word AMMAIM as τῶν ὑδάτων, that is, "of the waters." In the same: Forget not the voices of thy enemies.

For which you say it is written in the Greek τῶν ἱκετῶν σου, that is, "of those who beseech thee." But in the Hebrew is read SORARACH, which Aquila rendered "of thy foes," Symmachus "of those warring against thee": the Seventy and the Sixth Edition rendered it "of thy enemies." And the sense hangs upon what precedes: Be mindful of thy reproaches, of those things which are from the fool all the day: the voices of thy enemies—that is, the voices—Forget not, which blaspheme thee, and detract from thee among thy people. Whence it follows: The pride of them that hate thee ascendeth continually—that is, while thou dost defer punishment, they advance in blasphemies. 47. In the seventy-fourth: We will tell thy wonders. For which it is wrongly read among the Greeks, I will tell all thy wonders. 48. In the seventy-fifth: All the men of riches with their hands.

And not, as you read it, corrupted by I know not whom, "in their hands." In the same: To the terrible one, and to him that taketh away the spirit of Princes. You say that, "to him," is not written in the Greek: this is true; but unless we add "to him," the Latin speech does not sound right. For we cannot rightly say: To the terrible one, and who taketh away the spirit of Princes. 49. In the seventy-sixth: And I meditated by night with my heart, and was exercised, and I raked through my spirit. For which we read in the Hebrew: I remembered my Psalms in the night, I spoke with my heart, and I raked through my spirit. For "exercise," the Seventy translated ἀδολεσχίαν, that is, a certain chanting and meditation; and for what we said, "raked through," they put ἔσκαλλον, which Symmachus rendered ἀνηρεύνον, that is, "I searched through," or "sought"; and the Fifth Edition likewise.

Properly σκαλισμός is used in agriculture, in hoeing, that is, in weeding; and just as there the weeds are sought with the hoe, to be cut away, so he showed, metaphorically, from the hoe, the reworking of his own thoughts. And it must be known that ἔσκαλλον signifies not once, but repeatedly. In the same: From generation to generation. This which you say you have found following in the Greek, "he has fulfilled the word," rightly does not appear in the Latin, because it is found in none of the Interpreters. 50. In the seventy-seventh: And they will tell their children. For which the Greek has ἀπαγγελοῦσιν, which means, "they will announce." But it must be known that in the Hebrew is written IASAPHEPHRU, which Aquila and Symmachus rendered "they will tell." In the same: And he slew their fat ones. So it stands also in the Hebrew, that is BAMASMENEHEM, which Aquila interpreted, ἐν λιπαροῖς αὐτῶν: Symmachus, τοὺς λιπαρωτέρους αὐτῶν: the Seventy, Theodotion, and the Fifth, ἐν τοῖς πίοσιν αὐτῶν. Which some, not understanding, thought was written πλείοσιν instead of πίοσιν.

In the same: They loved him with their mouth, and with their tongue they lied to him. And in the Hebrew it is thus written ICHAZBULO, and all have translated it with a similar word, ἐψεύσαντο αὐτῷ, that is, "they lied to him." But who would want to put "him" for "to him," and corrupt the manuscripts, is not for me to judge. In the same: And he will be merciful to their sins, and will not destroy them. You say that "them" is not present in the Greek, which is true; but we, lest the sense hang unresolved, have completed the Latin speech with its own propriety. But if anyone thinks that διαφθερεῖ does not signify "destruction" but "corruption," let him recall that title, in which it is written, εἰς τὸ τέλος μὴ διαφθείρῃς, that is, "unto the end, destroy not," and not, as many render it κακοζήλως (with bad affectation), "corrupt not." In the same: And he led them into the mountain of his sanctification: this mountain, which his right hand acquired.

For which it is read among the Seventy, ὄρος τοῦτο ἐκτήσατο ἡ δεξιὰ αὐτοῦ: and not as you suppose, ὃ ἐκτήσατο, that is, "which his right hand acquired." Better, therefore, according to the Hebrew propriety, did Symmachus render it: the mountain, which his right hand acquired. In the same: And they turned away, and kept not the covenant, as their fathers did. I know that "covenant" is not in the Hebrew; but since all with one voice have translated ἠσυνθέτησαν, and among the Greeks συνθήκη means "covenant," it is signified by the one word: they did not keep the covenant; although the Seventy put ἠθέτησαν. In the same: In the land, which he founded forever. For which you say it is written: In the land he founded it forever. In the Hebrew it is written as Symmachus rendered, ὡς τὴν γῆν ἣν ἐθεμελίωσεν εἰς τὸν αἰῶνα. But if it is not said of the land that it was founded, but of some other thing which appears to be founded in the land, let them prove from what precedes and follows what sense there is that something not named should appear to be founded in the land.

But if they think the Sanctuary is founded in the land, it ought to have been written: in the land he founded it forever. In the same: And by the understandings of his hands he led them. It does not have ἐν τῇ συνέσει, as you write, in the singular number, but ἐν ταῖς συνέσεσιν, which means "understandings," just as is also found in the Hebrew BATHABUNOTH, which means, "in the understandings." 51. In the seventy-eighth: They have made Jerusalem as the keeping-place of orchards. What in Greek is called εἰς ὀπωροφυλάκιον cannot be translated otherwise than as we have rendered it. It signifies the watchtower which the keepers of crops and orchards are accustomed to have: so that of a most ample city scarcely a small hut has remained. This according to the Greeks. But in the Hebrew it has written LIIN; which Aquila rendered λιθόριον, that is, a heap and pile of stones, such as vineyards and fields are accustomed to be cleared of. 52. In the seventy-ninth: and thou didst plant its roots hence.

And you say that in the Greek, "hence," is not present; and rightly so, for it is not present in our codices either; and I marvel who, among the ignorant, has falsified your books. 53. In the eighty-second: Let us possess by inheritance the sanctuary of God. And you say that in the Greek it is written, κληρονομήσωμεν ἑαυτοῖς, that is, "Let us possess for ourselves." Which is a superfluous question; for when it is said "let us possess," "for ourselves" is also understood. 54. In the eighty-third: My heart, and my flesh have rejoiced in the living God. For which you say it is written in the Greek, "have rejoiced" (plural). In this there is no dispute; for if we read "hath rejoiced" (singular), it is understood both that my heart rejoiced, and that my flesh rejoiced. But if "have rejoiced" (plural), the two rejoiced together, that is, heart and flesh. And I beg you to avoid such inept and superfluous disputes, where there is no change in the sense.

In the same: Blessed is the man, whose help is from thee. In the Greek you say you have found: "to whom his help is from thee"; which because we avoid in the Latin translation, as you say, we are reproved. For to whom is it not evident, that if we should wish to say, "to whom is his help," it would be a most manifest fault; and when "to whom" has preceded, "his" ought not to follow? Unless perhaps we are accused of a fault for having avoided a fault. In the same: In the valley of tears. For which you say it is written in the Greek, κλαυθμῶνος, that is, "of weeping"; but whether we say weeping, or wailing, or lamenting, or tears, the sense is one. And we follow this rule, that where there is no change of sense, we preserve the elegance of Latin speech. 55. In the eighty-fourth: Thou hast blessed, Lord, thy land.

For that which is "thou hast blessed," you say it is written in the Greek εὐδόκησας: and you ask how this word ought to be rendered in Latin. If we contentiously scrutinize words and syllables, we could say: "It was well-pleasing, Lord, thy land"; and while following the words we lose the order of the sense. Or else something must be added, so that the order of speech be preserved, and it must be said: "It hath pleased thee, Lord, thy land." But if we do this, it will again be asked of us why we have added "thee," since it is neither in the Greek nor in the Hebrew. The same rule of translating, therefore, which we have often stated, must be followed: that where there is no loss in the sense, the good sound (εὐφωνία) and propriety of the language into which we translate should be preserved. In the same: Mercy and truth have met one another; and you say that in the Greek, "one another," is not present.

Nor is it in the Hebrew: and among the Seventy it is marked with an obelus; which signs, when through the negligence of scribes they are left out by many as though superfluous, a great error arises in reading. But if "one another" had not been added, it would be believed that mercy and truth met, not each other, but someone else; nor that justice and peace gave a kiss to each other, but to another. 56. In the eighty-fifth: And they have not set thee before their sight; and you say that in your codex, "thee," is not present. Add "thee," and by correcting the scribe's error, you will also correct your own error. In the same: And thou, Lord God, art merciful and gracious. In the Greek you say you have found: "And thou, Lord my God." Which is superfluous: for "my" is neither in the Hebrew nor in the Seventy. 57. In the eighty-eighth: Great, and terrible (horrendus).

For which you say you have found in the Greek, φοβερός, which signifies "fearful," "to be feared," "to be dreaded." I think that "horrendus" signifies the very same thing: not as the common people suppose, "despicable" and "squalid," according to that verse:

A cold horror
Shakes my limbs. And:
Horror everywhere in the mind, at once the very silences terrify. And:
A monstrous horrendous huge thing: and many other things like these.

In the same: Then thou spakest in a vision to thy holy ones. In place of which you say you found in the Greek, "to thy sons." But it should be known that in the Hebrew it has LAASIDACH, which all have translated τοῖς ὁσίοις σου, that is, "to thy holy ones"; and only the Sixth edition translated it "to thy prophets," expressing the sense rather than the word. And in the Κοινή I find only "sons" instead of "holy ones." In the same: But thou hast rejected and looked askance. In place of which you say you found in Greek, ἐξουδένωσας. How great an error the change of one letter has caused you: for we have translated it not as "thou hast looked askance," but as "thou hast despised, and held for nothing." Unless perhaps you think ἐξουδένωσας ought not to be translated "thou hast despised," but rather, according to the most eloquent interpreter of this age, "thou hast annihilated," or "annulled," or "nullified," and whatever other monstrosities of words can be found among the unskilled.

58. In the eighty-ninth: From age to age thou art God. And you say that "God" is not in the Greek. But it is manifest that it is present among them. For both the Hebrew has it, and all the other Interpreters, and the Septuagint likewise translated it, ἀπὸ τοῦ αἰῶνος, καὶ ἕως τοῦ αἰῶνος σὺ εἶ ὁ Θεός, which in Hebrew is said Meolam ad olam ath el. In the same: For meekness has come upon us, and we shall be chastened. You say you found in Greek: "Meekness upon us"; but this too is superfluous. 59. In the ninetieth: He shall say to the Lord, Thou art my protector. And you say that in Greek it does not have "art." I will tell you more: that among the Hebrews it has neither "art" nor "thou"; but among the Septuagint and among the Latins it was placed for euphony and for the sequence of the words. 60. In the ninety-third, Blessed is the man whom thou shalt instruct, O Lord.

You say that "thou" is not in the Greek: and that is true; but among the Latins it is placed for euphony. For if we should say, "Blessed is the man whom thou shalt instruct, O Lord," without "thou," it would not have the elegance of composition. And when "Lord" is said, and an apostrophe is made to the Lord, it does no harm to the sense if "thou" is added. In the same: And in their malice he shall destroy them. You say that the preposition "in" is not in the Greek; but you read, "their malice he shall destroy." But it should be known that in the Hebrew, and in all the interpreters, it is placed thus: "In their malice he shall destroy them." But if we wish to read, "Their malice he shall destroy," then that which follows at the end of the verse in the Septuagint, "them," would be both superfluous and faulty. 61. In the ninety-seventh: He hath remembered his mercy.

In place of which you say you found in Greek: "His mercy to Jacob"; but here "Jacob" is a superfluous name. 62. In the hundredth: My eyes are upon the faithful of the earth, that they may sit with me. In place of which you say you found in Greek, τοῦ συγκαθῆσθαι αὐτοὺς μετ᾽ ἐμοῦ. Who would not flee such an interpretation, which, expressing word for word, would say: "That they themselves might sit with me"? 63. In the hundred and first: I have watched, and am become as a sparrow alone on the roof. And you say you found in Greek ἐπὶ δώματι; which the ancient codices of the Latins translated "in the building." Δῶμα in the eastern provinces means the same thing that among us means "roof"; for in Palestine and Egypt, where the divine Books were either written or translated, they do not have ridged roofs, but Δώματα, which at Rome they call either sun-terraces or balconies; that is, flat roofs, which are supported by cross-beams.

Indeed, Peter also in the Acts of the Apostles, when he went up onto the doma, must be believed to have gone up onto the roof of the building. And when we are commanded to make a parapet for our roof, this is commanded so that we might make certain elevations around the roof, lest there be an easy fall over the edge. And in the Gospel, it says, "What you hear in the ear, you shall proclaim upon the housetops," that is, upon the roofs. And in Isaiah, "What ails you, that you have all gone up onto vain roofs?" and many things of this kind. In the same: I am become like the Νυκτικόραξ in a dwelling. Which is similarly found in Greek: and you ask what Νυκτικόραξ signifies among the Latins. In the Hebrew, in place of "nycticorax" the word BOS is written, which Aquila, and the Septuagint, and Theodotion, and the Fifth Edition translated "nycticorax": Symmachus, "hoopoe"; the Sixth edition, "owl," which we too rather follow.

Finally, where among our people and the Greeks it is read, "I am become like the night-raven in a dwelling," among the Hebrews it says, "I am become like an owl in ruins." Many contentiously think that a horned owl is meant. In the same: From the face of thy wrath and indignation. In place of which you say you found in Greek, "from the face of thy wrath"; whereas it is manifest that among the Hebrews, and among the Septuagint Interpreters, it is thus: ἀπὸ προσώπου τῆς ὀργῆς καὶ τοῦ θυμοῦ σου. In the same: For thy servants have taken pleasure in her stones, and they shall have pity on her earth. In place of "earth," in the Hebrew is placed APAR, which all have translated χοῦν; and it can be interpreted either as "dust" or as "soil," that is, "earth." 64. In the hundred and second: He will not always be angry.

In place of which you say you found in Greek: "Not unto the end." But the Hebrew word NESE is understood as either "perpetual," or "end," or "victory," according to the quality of the places. 65. In the hundred and third: Who makest thy angels spirits. In place of which you say you found in Greek, ὁ ποιῶν τοὺς ἀγγέλους αὐτοῦ, that is, "who makes his angels." From these, ask briefly, how, when the speech is addressed to God, the Prophet should suddenly be changed as though speaking to another; especially since it begins thus: O Lord my God, thou art become exceedingly great: thou hast put on praise and beauty. And: Who coverest the higher parts thereof with waters, that is, of the heavens. Who makest the clouds thy ascent: who walkest upon the wings of the winds; and immediately follows: Who makest thy angels spirits, and thy ministers a burning fire. Who hast founded the earth upon its own stability. And a little after: At thy rebuke they shall flee: at the voice of thy thunder they shall fear.

And: In the place which thou hast founded for them. Who sendest forth springs in the valleys. And that: That thou mayest bring forth bread out of the earth. If therefore all things are addressed to the second person, that is, to God, how is the third person suddenly introduced in one verse, out of order? In the same: At the voice of thy thunder they shall fear. It also has in the Hebrew "thy thunder"; and I wonder how among the Latins it was omitted by the error of scribes. In the same: This great sea, and wide of hands. You say that in Greek "of hands" is not present, and I know it. But from the Hebrew, and from Theodotion's edition, it was added in the Septuagint under an asterisk. Indeed, in the Hebrew it is written thus, Ze haiam gadol varab ida im, which Aquila translated thus, αὐλὴ καὶ πλατεῖα χερσὶν, and all interpreters, αὐτὴ ἡ θάλασσα ἡ μεγάλη καὶ εὐρύχωρος χερσὶν; and this, according to the Hebrew property, is said μεταφορικῶς, because it, as it were, has vast expanses, and receives all things into itself.

In the same: That thou mayest bring forth bread out of the earth. In place of which you say you found, "that he may bring forth"; but one thing cannot be said to him, another concerning him. Either the Prophet was speaking all these things as to God, or he was relating all of them to another concerning Him. But since most things are directed to Him, those things also which are ambiguous ought to be directed to His person. In the same: The house of the heron is leader of them. In place of "heron," which in Hebrew is called ASIDA, Symmachus translated ἰκτῖνα, that is, "kite." Accordingly we too have thus rendered it into Latin: "There the birds shall build their nests: the fir tree is the house of the kite's leading"; namely because they are accustomed always to build their nests in high and lofty trees.

Whence the Sixth edition translated more plainly, "for the kite, for nesting in the cypress." In place of "firs" and "cypresses," in the Hebrew is placed BARUSIM; which signifies firs rather than cypresses. In the same: The rock is a refuge for the hedgehogs. In place of which, in Hebrew is placed SPHANNIM, and all with similar voice translated χοιρογρυλλίοις, except the Septuagint, who translated "hares." But it should be known that this is an animal no larger than a hedgehog, having the likeness of a mouse and of a bear: whence in Palestine it is called ἀρκτομῦς, and there is a great abundance of this kind in those regions, and they are accustomed always to dwell in the caverns of rocks and in pits of the earth. 66. In the hundred and fourth: Their land brought forth frogs. In place of which you say you read in Greek ἐξῆρψεν.

Which can be translated thus: "Their land teemed with frogs"; but even here there is no change of sense: and we, following the ancient translation, since it did no harm, did not wish to change it. In the same: And he broke the wood of their borders. In place of which you say you found in Greek, "every wood." But this too is added and superfluous. In the same: For he remembered his holy word, which he had toward Abraham his servant. In place of which you say you read in Greek, ὃν διέθετο, that is, "which he arranged." For thus it is found both in the Hebrew and among the Septuagint Interpreters: ἐμνήσθη τοῦ λόγου τοῦ ἁγίου αὐτοῦ, τοῦ πρὸς Ἀβραὰμ τὸν δοῦλον αὐτοῦ. Therefore what is said in Greek, ὃν διέθετο, is in this place both superfluous and to be erased. 67. In the hundred and fifth: Give thanks to the Lord, for he is good.

In place of which you say you read in Greek: "for he is χρηστός," that is, "sweet." But it should be known that χρηστός can be rendered both as "good" and as "sweet." Finally, in the Hebrew it is written thus, Cui tob, which all have translated with a like word: "because he is good." From which it is clear that χρηστός is understood as "good." In the same: They remembered not the multitude of thy mercy. You say that in Greek you found: "And they remembered not." The conjunction "and" is superfluous. In the same: And they provoked him going up to the sea, the Red Sea. In place of which you say you found in Greek, παρεπίκραναν, and you think it ought to be translated word for word, "and they embittered." But this interpretation is quite similar to "annullation" or "annihilation." Read Ezekiel, and you will find παραπικρασμός always expressed as "provocation" and "exasperation," where it says, οἶκος παραπικραίνων, that is, "a house exasperating." In the same: And he saw when they were afflicted, and he heard their prayer.

Whatever besides this you say you found in Greek is superfluous. 68. In the hundred and sixth: And he turned its storm into a breeze, and its waves were silenced. This, therefore, which in place of this you say you found in Greek: καὶ ἐπετίμησεν τῇ καταιγίδι αὐτῆς, καὶ ἔστη, is superfluous. In the same: And he brought them to the harbor of their will. In place of which you say you found: "to the harbor of his will." But in the Hebrew it does not have EPHSAU, which signifies "of his will," but EPHSAM, which sounds "of their will." 69. In the hundred and seventh: Arise, my glory. That you say is not in the Latin, rightly it is not in this Psalm: because it is found neither among the Hebrews, nor among any of the Interpreters; but it is found in the fifty-sixth Psalm, from which it seems to me to have been transferred by someone into this passage. In the same: Foreigners have become my friends.

In place of which you say you found in Greek ὑπετάγησαν, that is, "have been made subject." But this is written in the fifty-ninth: in the present passage, however, we find thus among all the Translators, ἐμοὶ ἀλλόφυλοι ἐφιλίασαν, that is, "have become friends." Which in Hebrew is said ETHROE. 70. In the hundred and ninth: The Lord shall send forth from Sion the rod of thy power. You say that in the Greek codices you did not read "of thy power," which is manifestly found both in the Hebrew and among the Septuagint Interpreters. In the same: Rule thou in the midst of thy enemies. You say it is read in Greek: "and rule thou." But this is found neither in the Hebrew nor among the Septuagint: and it is superfluous. 71. In the hundred and tenth: I will praise thee, O Lord, with my whole heart. You say you found in Greek: "with my whole heart" with "my" added. But this too is superfluous. 72. In the hundred and thirteenth: But our God is in heaven.

In place of which you say you read in Greek: "in heaven, and in earth." But this too is superfluous. 73. In the hundred and fourteenth: And in my days I will call upon thee. You say that "thee" is not in the Greek; and rightly so: it must be erased from your codices as well. In the same: I will be pleasing to the Lord in the land of the living. In place of which you say you read in Greek: "I will be pleasing in the sight of the Lord." But this is superfluous. 74. In the hundred and seventeenth: And in the name of the Lord, for I have taken vengeance on them. You say that "for" is not found in the Greek codices: but in the Latin it is to be read under an asterisk. 75. In the hundred and eighteenth: And I meditated on thy commandments, which I loved. You say you have read in the Greek, with the addition "vehemently"; but this is superfluous.

In the same: I lifted up my hands to thy commandments, which I loved. You say you have read in the Greek: to thy commandments; but this too is superfluous. In the same: I thought on my ways. You say you have read in the Greek, "thy ways"; but this is superfluous, and it is more correctly read, "my ways." In the same: And I turned my feet back unto thy testimonies. You say you have read in the Greek, "and thou hast turned." But this too is superfluous. In the same: But I with my whole heart will search out thy commandments. You say you have read in the Greek, "with my whole heart, mine"; but here, "mine," is superfluous. In the same: My soul is in my hands always; and I have not forgotten thy law. Instead of which you say you have read in the Greek, My soul is in thy hands always.

But it must be known that both among the Hebrews, and among the Seventy, and all other Interpreters, it is written "in my hands," and not, "in thy hands." Which in Hebrew is called BACHAFFI; and all the Ecclesiastical Interpreters among the Greeks expound this passage thus: and the sense here is, in brief: Daily I am in peril, and as it were carry my own blood in my hands; and yet I do not forget thy law. In the same: Streams of waters my eyes brought down, because they have not kept thy law. Instead of which you say you have read in the Greek: because I have not kept thy law. But this is superfluous, since it is also read thus in the Hebrew: Rivulets of waters were flowing from my eyes, because they have not kept thy law. In the same: My tongue shall pronounce thy word. Instead of "shall pronounce," you have said you read in Greek φθέγξεται: which word, whether you say "shall pronounce," or "shall utter," or "shall speak," signifies the same thing.

In short, we too have thus rendered it from the Hebrew: My tongue shall speak thy speech. 76. In the hundred and nineteenth: O Lord, deliver my soul from wicked lips, from a deceitful tongue. You say you have read in the Greek, "and from a deceitful tongue"; but the "and" here too is superfluous. 77. In the hundred and twenty-sixth, Blessed is the man who shall fill his desire from them. You say that in the Greek "man" is not found; which is most plainly contained both in the Hebrew and in the Seventy Interpreters. 78. In the hundred and twenty-ninth, Because of thy law I have waited for thee, O Lord. You say you have found in the Greek: Because of thy name; and we confess that this is found in many copies so. But since we are zealous for the truth, we ought simply to state what is in the Hebrew.

Instead of "name," or "law," there is found among them THIRA, which Aquila translated as φόβον, fear: Symmachus and Theodotion as νόμον, that is, law, thinking it to be THORA, on account of the similarity of the letters Jod and Vau, which differ only in size. The Fifth Edition rendered it "terror," the Sixth, "word." 79. In the hundred and thirty-first: As he swore unto the Lord, he vowed a vow unto the God of Jacob. Instead of what we translated as "he vowed a vow," you say you read in the Greek ηὔξατο, and you think it should have been translated "he prayed"; but this is wrong, for εὐχή, according to the nature of the contexts, signifies both a prayer and a vow, according to that saying, Render unto the Lord thy vows, that is, τὰς εὐχάς σου. 80. In the hundred and thirty-fifth, Who made the great lights. You say that in the Greek you have found "great, alone"; but this belongs to the preceding verse, where we read, Who alone doeth great wonders.

There, therefore, it should be read, and here, as being superfluous, it should not be written. 81. In the hundred and thirty-seventh: For thou hast magnified thy holy name above all things. You say you found in the Greek, "above all." But in the Septuagint it is read thus, ὅτι ἐμεγάλυνας ἐπὶ πᾶν τὸ ὄνομα τὸ ἅγιόν σου, just as we too have rendered it into Latin. As for the rest, know that among the Hebrews it is thus: For thou hast magnified above every name thy word. But according to the Latin edition the sense here is: For thou hast magnified above every name—that is, whatever in heaven and on earth can be called holy—thy Son. 82. In the hundred and thirty-eighth: For there is no speech in my tongue. Instead of which you say you have read in the Greek, For there is no guile in my tongue; which only the Sixth edition has translated so. As for the rest, both among the Seventy, and among all the Interpreters, and in the Hebrew itself, is found either λαλίαν, or λόγον, that is, speech, or word.

In short, in Hebrew it is called MALA. 83. In the hundred and thirty-ninth: They have stretched cords into a snare. Instead of which you say you have found in the Greek: They have stretched cords, a snare for my feet. But this is superfluous here. In the same, instead of, The righteous shall dwell with thy countenance, you say you have found in the Greek, "And they shall dwell." But here the conjunction "and" is superfluous. 84. In the hundred and fortieth: Our bones are scattered beside hell. Instead of which you say you have read in the Greek, "their bones." But this too is superfluous. 85. In the hundred and forty-sixth: Nor shall he take pleasure in the legs of a man. Instead of "and," you say you have read "of the Lord"; which is not to be found. 86. Now as to what you ask at the end of your note, and what my holy son Avitus frequently urges, namely, how the Greek words should be rendered, I have briefly noted.

Neomenia is the beginning of the month, which, according to the proper usage of the Latin tongue, we may call the Kalends. But since among the Hebrews the month is reckoned according to the course of the moon, and among the Greeks μήνη means "moon," Neomenia is named, as it were, "new moon." Ἔρημος signifies desert, or solitude. Θρόνος, a seat, or throne. Νυκτικόραξ, as we have said, the night-owl. Κυνόμυια is not, as the Latins have translated, "dog-fly," written with the Greek letter υ; but according to the Hebrew sense it ought to be written with the diphthong οι, so that it is Κοινόμυια, that is, "every kind of fly." Aquila translated it πάμμικτον, that is, "the fly of every kind." Λαξευτήριον, moreover, which the Latin translator rendered as "axe," we interpret as a kind of iron tool with which stones are hewn. In short, translating from the Hebrew, we have thus said: And now its carvings together, with axe and chisels, they have scraped away. Λαξευτήριον, therefore, can be called "chisel."

The Apostle Paul, writing to the Corinthians, and instructing the still untutored Church of Christ in sacred discipline, among other precepts set down this also, saying: If any woman hath a husband that believeth not, and he is content to dwell with her, let her not put away her husband. For the unbelieving husband is sanctified by the believing wife, and the unbelieving wife is sanctified by the believing husband; else were your children unclean, but now they are holy. If to anyone hitherto the bonds of discipline seemed too much loosened, and the indulgence of the teacher too rash, let him consider the house of your father, a most distinguished and learned man indeed, but still walking in darkness, and he will understand that the Apostle's counsel has profited so far, that the sweetness of the fruits might compensate for the bitterness of the root, and that lowly shrubs might sweat forth precious balsam. You were born of an unequal marriage: of you and my Toxotius, Paula was begotten.

Who would believe this, that the granddaughter of the Pontiff Albinus should be born from the promise made by her mother; that, while her grandfather was present and rejoicing, the still stammering tongue of the little one should resound with Christ's ALLELUIA, and that the old man should nurture in his own lap a virgin of God? And well and happily have we waited. A holy and faithful household sanctifies one unbeliever. He is already a candidate for the faith, whom a believing throng of children and grandchildren surrounds. I think that even that young man himself, had he had such kindred, could have come to believe in Christ. Though he spit and mock at my letter, and cry out that I am either a fool or a madman, this his own son-in-law also did, before he believed. Christians are made, not born. The Capitol, once gilded, lies squalid. Soot and spiders' webs cover all the temples of Rome.

The city is stirred from its foundations, and the flooding populace runs past the half-ruined shrines to the tombs of the Martyrs. If wisdom does not wring forth faith, let shame at least wring it forth.

2. This, Laeta, my most religious daughter in Christ, has been said, that you may not despair of your parent's salvation, and that with the same faith by which you deserved a daughter, you may also recover a father, and that the whole household may enjoy this blessedness together, knowing that promise of the Lord: The things which are impossible with men are possible with God. Conversion is never too late. The thief passed from the cross to paradise: Nebuchadnezzar, king of Babylon, after the brutalizing of body and heart, and a sojourn among the beasts in the wilderness, regained his human mind.

And, to omit ancient examples, lest to unbelievers they seem too fabulous—a few years ago your kinsman Gracchus, whose name rings with patrician nobility, when he held the Urban Prefecture, did he not overthrow, break, and shake out the cave of Mithras, and all the monstrous images by which the initiates called Raven, Griffin, Soldier, Lion, Persian, Sun, Runner, Father are consecrated: and having sent these on before, as it were, as hostages, obtained baptism in Christ? Even in the City, paganism suffers solitude. The gods of the nations once dwelt with owls and night-birds only on rooftops. The standards of the soldiers are the ensigns of the cross. The purples of kings and the burning gems of diadems are adorned by the picture of the saving gibbet. Already the Egyptian Serapis has become a Christian. Marnas of Gaza mourns shut in, and continually dreads the overthrow of his temple. From India, Persia, Ethiopia, we receive daily crowds of monks.

The Armenian has laid down his quiver, the Huns are learning the Psalter, the frosts of Scythia glow with the warmth of faith: the ruddy and fair-haired army of the Getae carries about the tents of the Churches; and perhaps for this reason they fight against us with equal battle-line, because they trust in an equal religion.

3. I have almost slipped into another subject, and, as the wheel runs on, while I meant to make a pitcher, my hand has fashioned an amphora. For my purpose was, invited by the prayers of the holy Marcella and by yours, to direct my discourse to the mother, that is, to you, and to teach how you ought to bring up our Paula, who was consecrated to Christ before she was born; whom you vowed before you conceived her in the womb. We have seen something in our own times of what belongs to the books of the Prophets: Hannah changed the barrenness of her womb into fruitfulness. You have exchanged a mournful fruitfulness for living children.

I speak with confidence: you who first gave back your firstborn to the Lord shall receive sons. These are the firstborn which are offered in the Law. Thus was Samuel born, thus Samson had his origin, thus John the Baptist, at the entrance of Mary, leapt for joy and played. For he heard the words of the Lord thundering through the mouth of the Virgin, and yearned to burst forth from his mother's womb to meet him. Therefore let her who was born of a promise have an education worthy of her origin from her parents. Samuel is nourished in the Temple, John is prepared in the wilderness. The one is venerable for his sacred hair, drinks no wine or strong drink; while still a little child he converses with the Lord. The other flees the cities, is girded with a leathern girdle, is fed on locusts and wild honey; and, as a type of the penitence he was to preach, is clothed in the skins of that most crooked of animals, the camel.

4. Thus must the soul be trained which is to be a temple of God. Let it learn to hear nothing else, to speak nothing else, save what pertains to the fear of God. Let it not understand base words, let it be ignorant of the songs of the world: while the tongue is yet tender, let it be steeped in sweet Psalms. Let the wanton age of boys be kept far away: let even the maidservants and attendants themselves be barred from worldly companionships, lest what they have learned ill they teach worse. Let letters be made for her either of boxwood or of ivory, and be called by their names. Let her play with them, that even her play may be instruction.

And let her not only keep the order of the letters, and let the memory of the names pass into a song; but let the order itself be frequently disturbed among themselves, and the last mixed with the middle, the middle with the first, so that she may know them not by sound only but also by sight. And when she has begun with trembling hand to draw a stylus in wax, either let her fingers be guided by another's hand placed over them, or let the letters be carved on a tablet, so that the traces, enclosed within the furrows and bounded by the margins, may be drawn along and not be able to wander outside. Let her join syllables for a reward, and let her be enticed by little gifts of the sort that age can delight in. Let her also have companions in her lessons, of whom she may be jealous, and by whose praises she may be stung.

She is not to be scolded if she is slower, but her mind is to be roused by praises, so that she may rejoice when she has won and grieve when she has lost. Above all it must be guarded against that she come to hate her studies, lest the bitterness of them in infancy carry over beyond the tender years. The very names by which she gradually grows accustomed to string words together should not be random, but fixed, and gathered on purpose—namely, of the Prophets and Apostles, and let the whole line of the Patriarchs from Adam descend from Matthew and Luke, so that while she does one thing she may be prepared for a future memory. A teacher of upright age, life, and learning must be chosen, and I do not think a learned man will blush to do, for a kinswoman or a noble maiden, what Aristotle did for the son of Philip—that he himself, condescending to the office of an ordinary schoolmaster, should teach the beginnings of letters.

Things are not to be despised as small, without which great things cannot be established. The very sound of the alphabet and the first instruction in precepts comes forth differently from an educated mouth than from a rustic one. Whence you too must take care that your daughter does not, through the silly endearments of women, grow accustomed to speak half-words, and to play with gold and purple: the one is a hindrance to speech, the other to character; let her not learn in her tender years what she must afterward unlearn. It is written that the mother's speech from infancy contributed much to the eloquence of the Greeks. Hortensius's oratory grew up in his father's bosom. What untrained minds have first imbibed is with difficulty erased. Who could bring back wool dyed purple to its original color? A new earthen vessel long retains both the taste and the smell with which it was first steeped.

Greek history tells that Alexander, the most powerful king and conqueror of the world, could not, either in his manners or in his gait, be rid of the faults with which he had been infected while still a small boy, from his tutor Leonidas. For the imitation of evils is easy, and the vices of those whose virtues you cannot attain you quickly copy. Let the nurse herself not be given to drink, nor wanton, nor a chatterer. Let her have a modest bearer, a grave nurse-attendant. When she sees her grandfather, let her leap onto his breast, hang from his neck, sing ALLELUIA even to one unwilling to hear it. Let her grandmother snatch her up; let her recognize her father by her smiles; let her be lovable to all; and let the whole kindred rejoice that a rose has sprung from them. Let her learn at once that she has another grandmother too, and an aunt, for what emperor, for what army this little recruit is being reared.

Let her long for them, let her threaten you with going away to them.

5. Let her very dress and attire teach her to whom she has been promised. Beware lest you pierce her ears, lest you paint with white lead and rouge a face consecrated to Christ, nor weigh down her neck with gold and pearls, nor load her head with jewels, nor redden her hair, and thereby presage for her something of the fires of Gehenna. Let her have other pearls, by the later sale of which she may purchase that most precious pearl. Praetextata, once a most noble woman, at the bidding of her husband Hymetius, who was the uncle of the virgin Eustochium, changed her dress and adornment, and covered the crime of neglect with worldly fashion, wishing to overcome both the virgin's resolve and the mother's longing. And behold, that same night she saw in her dreams an angel coming with a terrible countenance, threatening punishments, and uttering these words in anger: "Have you dared to prefer your husband's command to Christ?

Have you dared to touch with your sacrilegious hands the head of a virgin of God—hands which shall now wither, that you may feel, in torment, what you have done, and at the end of the fifth month you shall be led down to the world below. But if you persist in the crime, you shall be bereft at once of both husband and children." All things were fulfilled in order, and a swift death sealed the wretched woman's too-late repentance. Thus does Christ avenge the violators of His temple; thus does He defend His jewels and most precious ornaments. And I have related this not because I wish to gloat over the misfortunes of the unhappy, but that I may warn you with how much fear and caution you ought to keep what you have promised to God.

6. Eli the priest offended God on account of the vices of his sons. A man cannot be made bishop who has had sons who are wanton and not submissive.

But on the other hand it is written of woman, that she shall be saved through the bearing of children, if they continue in faith, and charity, and holiness, with modesty. If a grown child, in her own right, is charged to her parents, how much more the nursing and fragile infant, who, according to the sentence of the Lord, does not know her right hand from her left, that is, the difference between good and evil? If you carefully provide that your daughter not be struck by a viper, why do you not take the same care to provide that she not be struck by the hammer of the whole earth; that she not drink from the golden cup of Babylon; that she not go out with Dinah and wish to see the daughters of a foreign land; that she not play with her feet, that she not drag her garments? Poisons are not given except smeared with honey, and vices do not deceive except under the appearance and shadow of virtues.

And how, you will say, are the sins of fathers not visited on children, nor those of children on parents, but the soul that sins, it alone shall die? This is said of those who are able to understand, of whom it is written in the Gospel: "He is of age, let him speak for himself." But he who is a little child, and understands as a little child, until he comes to the years of understanding, and the letter of Pythagoras leads him to the fork in the road—both his good and his evil are charged to his parents. Unless perhaps you think that the children of Christians, if they have not received baptism, are themselves alone guilty of sin, and that the crime is not also charged to those who were unwilling to give it, especially at the time when those who were to receive it could not object—just as, conversely, the salvation of infants is the gain of their elders.

Whether to offer your daughter or not was in your power (although your case is different, since you vowed her before you had even conceived her); but that, having offered her, you should not neglect her, pertains to your own peril. He who offers as a victim a lame and mutilated animal, stained with any filth whatever, is guilty of sacrilege—how much more he who prepares a part of his own body, and the purity of an unblemished soul, for the embraces of the King, shall be punished if he is negligent?

7. After she has begun to grow somewhat older, and to increase, after the example of her Bridegroom, in wisdom, age, and grace with God and men, let her go to the temple of the true Father with her parents; but let her not go out of the temple with them.

Let them seek her along the road of the world, among the crowds and throngs of relatives, and let them find her nowhere else but in the innermost shrine of the Scriptures, questioning the Prophets and Apostles about the spiritual marriage. Let her imitate Mary, whom Gabriel found alone in her chamber, and therefore perhaps she was struck with fear, because she beheld a man such as she was not accustomed to see. Let her emulate her of whom it is said: "All the glory of the king's daughter is within." Let her too speak to her Beloved, wounded by the dart of love: "The king has brought me into his chamber." Let her never go outside, lest those who go about the city find her; lest they strike and wound her, and take away the veil of her modesty, and leave her naked and bleeding; but rather, when someone knocks at her door, let her say: "I am a wall, and my breasts are like a tower. I have washed my feet, I cannot soil them." 8.

Let her not eat in public, that is, at her parents' banquet, lest she see foods that she might desire. And although some think it a greater virtue to despise a pleasure present before one, yet I think it a surer continence not to know what to seek. I once read as a boy in the schools: "You will hardly find fault with what you let become a habit." Let her say even now that she does not drink wine, in which is luxury. Before the years of robust age, abstinence is dangerous and burdensome for the tender. Up to that time, if necessity demands, let her also go to the baths, and use a little wine for her stomach's sake, and be sustained by a dish of meat, lest her feet fail before they begin to run. And this I say by way of indulgence, not by way of command, fearing weakness, not teaching indulgence.

Otherwise, what Jewish superstition partly does in the rejection of certain animals and foods, what the Brahmins of the Indians and the Gymnosophists of the Egyptians observe in living solely on barley-meal and rice and fruit, why should not a virgin of Christ do wholly? If glass is worth so much, why should not a pearl be of greater price? She who was born of promise, let her live as they lived who were begotten of the promise. Let equal grace have equal labor. Let her be deaf to instruments. Let her not know why the flute, the lyre, the cithara were made. 9. Let her render to you daily her assigned portion, gathered from the flowers of the Scriptures. Let her learn the meter of Greek verses. Let Latin learning follow at once: for if the tender mouth is not shaped from the beginning, the tongue is corrupted into a foreign sound, and the native speech is defiled by outside faults. Let her have you as her teacher; let her untrained infancy imitate you.

Let her see nothing in you and in her father which, if she does it, would be a sin. Remember, you the parents of a virgin, that she can be taught more by example than by word. Flowers quickly perish; a pestilential breath quickly spoils the violet, the lily, and the crocus. Let her never go out in public without you. Let her not approach the basilicas of the Martyrs and the churches without her mother. Let no young man, no curly-haired youth, smile at her. Let our little maiden so keep the days of vigils and the solemn night-watches, that she does not depart from her mother even by a nail's breadth. I do not wish her to love any one of her little maidservants more, into whose ears she often whispers. Whatever she says to one, let all know. Let her companion please her not one who is adorned and beautiful, who warbles a sweet song with a liquid throat; but one grave, pale, unkempt, somewhat sad.

Let there be set over her a virgin of proven faith and character and modesty, aged in years, who may teach her, and accustom her by example to rise at night for prayers and Psalms; to sing hymns in the morning; at the third, sixth, and ninth hours to stand in the battle-line as a warrior of Christ; and, having lit her little lamp, to render the evening sacrifice. Thus let the day pass, thus let night find her laboring. Let reading follow prayer, and prayer follow reading. The time will seem short which is occupied by so great a variety of works. 10. Let her also learn to work wool, to hold the distaff, to place the basket in her lap, to spin the spindle, to draw out the thread with her thumb. Let her spurn the webs of silkworms, the fleeces of the Chinese, and gold thinning out into thread for a daughter. Let her prepare such garments as drive away the cold, not such as leave bodies bare though clothed.

Let her food be a little vegetable and fine flour, and rarely a little fish. And not to draw out too long the precepts about appetite, of which I have spoken more fully elsewhere, let her eat so that she is always hungry, so that she may immediately after food be able to read and sing psalms. I dislike, especially in tender years, long and immoderate fasts, in which weeks are joined together, and oil in food, and fruit are forbidden. I have learned by experience that a little donkey on the road, when it grows weary, seeks byways. Let the worshippers of Isis and Cybele do that, who with gluttonous abstinence devour Phasian birds and smoking turtle-doves, so as not, forsooth, to defile the gifts of Ceres. Let this be the rule for perpetual fasting, that strength may hold out for the long journey: lest, running too fast at the first milestone, we collapse in the middle of the course.

But, as I wrote before, in Lent the sails of continence must be spread, and all the reins loosed to the hastening horses of the charioteer. Although the condition of secular persons is one thing, that of virgins and monks another. The secular man, in Lent, boils down the gluttony of his belly, and, living on his own juices after the manner of snails, prepares his stomach's pouch for future feasts and fattening. Let the virgin and the monk so release their horses in Lent, that they remember they must always be running. A labor that has an end is greater; one without end is more moderate. For there we catch our breath; here we walk on continually. 11. If ever you go to the suburbs, do not leave your daughter at home; let her not know how to live without you, nor be able to live, and let her be afraid when she is alone. Let her have no conversation with worldly people, no companionship with evil virgins.

Let her not be present at the weddings of servants, nor mingle in the noisy games of the household. I know that some have taught that a virgin of Christ should not bathe with eunuchs, nor with married women: because the former do not lay aside the temper of men, while the latter, with swelling wombs, display an ugly sight. For my part, bathing is altogether displeasing to me in a grown virgin, who ought to blush at herself and not be able to see herself naked. For if she macerates her body with vigils and fasts, and brings it into subjection; if she desires to quench the flame of lust and the incitements of burning youth with the coldness of continence; if she hastens to disfigure her natural beauty with sought-after squalor: why, on the contrary, does she rouse the slumbering fires with the fomentations of the baths?

12. Instead of jewels and silk, let her love the divine Scriptures, in which not gold and the vermiculated painting of Babylonian skins, but a correct and scholarly text should be her delight, in keeping with the faith. Let her first learn the Psalter, and divert herself with these songs, and in the Proverbs of Solomon be instructed unto life. In Ecclesiastes let her grow accustomed to trample underfoot the things of the world. In Job let her pursue examples of virtue and patience. Let her pass on to the Gospels, never to lay them down from her hands. Let her drink in the Acts of the Apostles and the Epistles with the whole desire of her heart. And when she has enriched the storehouse of her breast with these riches, let her commit to memory the Prophets, the Heptateuch, and the books of Kings and Chronicles, and also the volumes of Ezra and Esther.

At the last, let her learn without danger the Song of Songs; lest, if she should read it at the beginning, she be wounded, not understanding, under the carnal words, the marriage-song of spiritual nuptials. Let her beware of all apocryphal writings. And if ever she should wish to read them, not for the truth of doctrines but out of reverence for the signs contained in them, let her know that they are not by those whose titles they bear; and that much that is corrupt is mixed in with them, and that it requires great prudence to seek gold in the mud. Let her always keep in her hand the little works of Cyprian. Let her run without stumbling through the Letters of Athanasius and the books of Hilary. Let her delight in the treatises and the genius of those in whose books the piety of the faith does not waver. Let her read the rest in such a way that she judges rather than follows them.

13. You will answer: How shall I, a woman of the world, in so great a throng of men at Rome, be able to keep all these things? Do not, then, take up a burden which you cannot bear: but after you have weaned her along with Isaac, and clothed her along with Samuel, send her to her grandmother and her aunt. Restore this most precious jewel to Mary's chamber, and place her in the cradle of the infant Jesus. Let her be reared in a monastery, let her be among the choirs of virgins, let her not learn to swear, let her think lying a sacrilege, let her not know the world, let her live as an angel, let her be in the flesh without the flesh, let her think every kind of human being like herself. And, to say nothing else, surely it will free you from the difficulty of watching over her, and the peril of guarding her.

It is better for you to long for her while absent, than to tremble over every single thing—what she is saying, with whom she is speaking, to whom she nods assent, whom she looks at with pleasure. Hand over your little one to Eustochium, whose very sighs even now are a prayer offered for you. Hand her over as a companion in holiness, a future heir. Let her see her, let her love her, let her admire her from her earliest years—she whose speech, and gait, and dress are themselves a teaching in virtue. Let her be in the lap of her grandmother, who may repeat in the granddaughter whatever she has already accomplished in the daughter; who by long practice has learned to nurture, guard, and teach virgins: in whose crown the chastity of a hundredfold number is daily woven. Happy virgin, happy Paula, daughter of Toxotius, who through the virtues of her grandmother and aunt is more noble in holiness than in birth!

Oh, if only it were granted you to see your mother-in-law and your kinswoman, and to behold, in such small bodies, such great souls! Given the chastity implanted in you, I should not doubt that you would surpass your daughter, and would change, by the second law of the Gospel, the first sentence pronounced by God. Truly you would think little of other people's desire for children; rather you would offer yourself the more to God. But since there is a time for embracing, and a time to be far from embraces, and a wife does not have power over her own body, and each one should remain in the calling in which he was called, in the Lord; and he who is under the yoke ought so to run as not to leave his companion behind in the mire—render entirely in your offspring what you have for the time being deferred in yourself.

Hannah, after she had offered in the Tabernacle the son whom she had vowed to God, never took him back: she judged it unfitting that the future prophet should grow up in her house while she still desired to have other children. Accordingly, after she had conceived and given birth, she did not dare to approach the Temple and appear empty before the Lord, until she had first paid what she owed; and having thus offered her sacrifice, she returned home and bore herself five children, because she had already borne her firstborn to God. Do you marvel at the happiness of this holy woman? Imitate her faith. If you send Paula to me, I promise to be both teacher and nurse. I will carry her on my shoulders; old man that I am, I will shape her stammering words, far more gloriously than the Philosopher of the world, who taught not the king of the Macedonians, destined to perish by Babylonian poison, but the handmaid and bride of Christ, to be offered to the heavenly kingdoms.

If all the members of my body were turned into tongues, and every limb resounded with a human voice, I would say nothing worthy of the virtues of the holy and venerable Paula. Noble in birth, but far nobler in holiness; once powerful in riches, but now more distinguished by the poverty of Christ; offspring of the Gracchi, descendant of the Scipios, heir of Paulus, from whom she draws her name, the true and genuine progeny of Martia Papyria, mother of Africanus—she preferred Bethlehem to Rome, and exchanged gleaming, gilded roofs for the vileness of shapeless clay. We do not mourn that we have lost such a one; rather we give thanks that we had her—nay, that we still have her. For unto God all things live; and whoever returns to the Lord is reckoned in the number of the household.

Although the loss of her is really a dwelling in the heavenly home; for as long as she was in the body, she was a pilgrim from the Lord, and always complained with a tearful voice, saying: "Woe is me, that my sojourning is prolonged, I have dwelt among the inhabitants of Cedar, my soul has been long a sojourner." Nor is it any wonder that she lamented dwelling in darkness (for that is what Cedar means), since the world lies in wickedness; and as is its darkness, so is its light; and the light shines in darkness, and the darkness comprehended it not.

Whence also she frequently repeated: "I am a stranger and a pilgrim, as all my fathers were." And again: "I desire to be dissolved and to be with Christ." Whenever she was troubled by the weakness of her poor body (which she had brought on by incredible abstinence and doubled fasts), she kept turning this over on her lips: "I subject my body and bring it into servitude, lest, while preaching to others, I myself should be found reprobate." And: "It is good neither to drink wine nor to eat flesh." And: "I have humbled my soul with fasting." And: "You have turned all my bed in my sickness." And: "I have been tossed about in misery, while a thorn is fixed in me." And amid the goads of pain, which she endured with wondrous patience, she would speak as though she beheld the heavens opened to her: 2.

I call to witness Jesus and His Saints, and her own guardian Angel, who was the keeper and admirable companion of this woman, that I speak nothing out of favor, nothing in the manner of flatterers; but whatever I am about to say, I say as testimony; and it is less than her merits deserve, than what the whole world proclaims: priests admire her, choirs of virgins long for her, throngs of monks and of the poor lament her. Do you wish, reader, to know her virtues briefly? She, though poorer than all, sent away all her own poor richer than herself. Nor is it any wonder that I say this of her neighbors and her little household, whom, both men and women, she had turned from slaves and handmaids into brothers and sisters, since she left the virgin Eustochium, the devoted daughter of Christ, for whose consolation this little book is composed, far removed from noble lineage, rich only in faith and grace.

3. Let us then take up the order of the narrative.

Let others reach further back, and from her very cradle, and (so to speak) from her very rattles, bring forward her mother Blaesilla, and her father Rogatus: of whom the one is the offspring of the Scipios and the Gracchi; the other is said, throughout almost all the Greek lands, even to this day, by pedigree and riches and nobility, to draw his blood from Agamemnon, who destroyed Troy with a ten years' siege. We shall praise nothing except what is her own, and what proceeds from the purest fountain of a holy mind. Although the Lord and Savior teaches in the Gospel, when the Apostles ask what will be given to them who have left all things for His name's sake, that they shall receive a hundredfold in the present time, and in the world to come life everlasting. From which we understand that it is no matter of praise to possess riches, but to despise them for Christ; not to be puffed up with honors, but to think little of them for the faith of God.

Truly what the Savior promised to His servants and handmaids, He has repaid even in this present life. For she who despised the glory of a single city is celebrated in the opinion of the whole world: she who, while living at Rome, was known to no one outside Rome, hidden now in Bethlehem, is admired by both barbarian and Roman lands. For what people's men do not come to the holy places? And who, in the holy places, besides Paula, has found more to be admired among men? She, like the most precious gem among many gems, shines forth, and as the radiance of the sun overwhelms and obscures the small fires of the stars, so she surpassed the virtues and powers of all by her humility, and was the least among all that she might be the greatest of all. And the more she cast herself down, the more she was lifted up by Christ. She hid herself, and yet was not hidden.

By fleeing glory, she earned glory; for glory follows virtue like a shadow, and, forsaking those who court it, pursues those who despise it. But what am I doing, passing over the order of narration, while, held fast in particulars, I fail to keep the rules of composition.

4. Born, then, of such stock, she was joined in marriage to Toxotius, who traces his blood from the most exalted line of Aeneas and the Julii. Whence also his daughter, the virgin of Christ, Eustochium, is called Julia; and he himself

Julius, a name handed down from great Iulus.

And we say these things, not because they are great to those who possess them, but because they are wonderful to those who despise them. Men of the world look up to those who are endowed with these privileges. We praise those who have despised such things for the sake of the Savior; and, wonderful to say, we think little of those who possess them, but proclaim those who have refused to possess them.

Sprung, I say, from such ancestors, and proven in fruitfulness and chastity: first to her husband, then to her relatives, and by the testimony of the whole city, having brought forth five children—Blaesilla, on whose death I consoled her at Rome; Paulina, who left as heir of her purpose and her possessions the holy and admirable man Pammachius, for whom, on the occasion of her death, I composed a little book; Eustochium, who now, among the holy places, is the precious jewel of virginity and of the Church; Rufina, whose untimely death struck grief into her mother's devoted heart; and Toxotius, after whom she ceased to bear children, so that one might understand that she had not wished to serve long the duty of the marriage bed, but had yielded to her husband's desire, who wanted male children.

5. After her husband died, she mourned him so that she nearly died herself; then she turned herself to the service of the Lord in such a way that she seemed to have desired his death.

Why should I recount how nearly all the riches of her ample and noble, and once most wealthy, house were poured out upon the poor? Why tell of her most compassionate spirit toward all, and her kindness which extended even to those she had never seen? What poor man, dying, was not wrapped in her garments? What bedridden invalid was not sustained by her means? Seeking them out most diligently throughout the whole city, she counted it a loss if any weak or hungry person were sustained by another's food rather than her own. She despoiled her children, and, amid the reproaches of her relatives, declared that she was leaving them a greater inheritance—the mercy of Christ.

6. Nor could she long endure the visits and crowded attendance belonging to her exalted worldly rank and most noble family. She grieved at her own honor, and hastened to avoid and flee the mouths of those who praised her.

And when imperial letters had drawn together the bishops of East and West at Rome on account of certain dissensions of the churches, she saw those admirable men, pontiffs of Christ, Paulinus, bishop of the city of Antioch, and Epiphanius of Salamis in Cyprus, which is now called Constantia; of whom she even had Epiphanius as her guest: Paulinus, though lodging in another's house, she possessed as her own by her kindness. Kindled by their virtues, she thought at every moment of leaving her homeland. Mindful neither of house, nor children, nor household, nor possessions, nor anything belonging to this world, she longed—alone, if it may be so said, and unaccompanied—to make her way to the desert of the Antonies and the Pauls. And at last, winter being over, the sea open, and the bishops returning to their own churches, she too sailed with them, in vow and desire alike. Why do I delay further?

She went down to the harbor, accompanied by her brother, kinsfolk, relatives, and—what is greater than these—her children, who longed to conquer their most affectionate mother's devotion by their own. Already the sails were being spread, and by the pull of the oars the ship was being drawn out into the deep. Little Toxotius stretched out suppliant hands on the shore. Ruffina, now of marriageable age, silently besought her with tears to wait for her wedding. And yet she kept her dry eyes turned toward heaven, overcoming her love for her children by her love for God. She did not know herself as a mother, that she might prove herself the handmaid of Christ. Her inward parts were tormented, and she struggled with grief as though she were being torn from her own limbs: in this she was more admirable than all others, that she overcame so great a love. Among the hands of enemies and the harsh necessity of captivity, nothing is more cruel than for parents to be separated from their children.

This, contrary to the laws of nature, her full faith endured—nay, her rejoicing spirit sought after; and, spurning the love of her children by a greater love for God, she found her rest in Eustochium alone, who was the companion both of her purpose and of her voyage. Meanwhile the ship plowed the sea, and while all who sailed with her looked back at the shore, she kept her eyes turned away, lest she see what she could not see without torment. I confess, no one ever so loved her children as she, to whom, before she set out, she gave away all things: disinheriting herself on earth, that she might find an inheritance in heaven.

7. Brought to the island of Pontia, which the exile of Flavia Domitilla, once one of the most illustrious of women, ennobled under the emperor Domitian for the confession of the Christian name; and seeing the little cells in which that woman had endured her long martyrdom, taking to herself the wings of faith, she longed to see Jerusalem and the holy Places.

The winds were slow, and every kind of swiftness seemed sluggish. Entrusting herself between Scylla and Charybdis to the Adriatic sea, she came as though over a still pool to Methone, and there, having refreshed her poor body a little,

And laying her salt-worn limbs upon the shore,
Through Malea and Cythera, and the Cyclades scattered over the sea,
And the straits stirred by frequent lands;

after Rhodes and Lycia, at last she saw Cyprus, where, falling at the feet of the holy and venerable Epiphanius, she was detained by him for ten days: not for rest, as he supposed, but for the work of God, as the outcome proved. For visiting all the monasteries of that region, she left, as far as she was able, refreshments of provisions for the brethren, whom love of the holy man had gathered there from the whole world. From there, by a short crossing, she sailed over to Seleucia, and going up from there to Antioch, detained a little by love for the holy confessor Paulinus, in the middle of winter, glowing with the ardor of faith, a noble woman, who before had been carried in the hands of eunuchs, set out mounted on a small ass.

8. I pass over her journey through Coele-Syria and Phoenicia (for I have not undertaken to write her itinerary): I shall name only those places which are contained in the sacred Volumes.

Leaving Beirut, a Roman colony, and Sidon, an ancient city, on the shore of Sarepta of Elijah she entered the little dwelling, where, having adored the Lord and Savior, through the sands of Tyre, on which Paul fixed his knees, she arrived at Acco, which is now called Ptolemais: and through the plains of Megiddo, which knew the death of Josiah, she entered the land of the Philistines. She marveled at the ruins of Dor, once a most powerful city; and, in turn, at the Tower of Straton, named Caesarea by King Herod (of Ascalon, or the Great) in honor of Caesar Augustus, in Judea, in which she saw the house of Cornelius, now the Church of Christ, and the little shrines of Philip, and the chambers of the four virgin prophetesses. Then Antipatris, a half-ruined little town, which Herod had named after his father; and Lydda, turned into Diospolis, made famous by the resurrection of Dorcas and the healing of Aeneas.

Not far from it, Arimathea, the little village of Joseph who buried the Lord; and Nob, once a city of priests, now a tomb of the slain. Joppa also, the harbor of Jonah's flight; and (to touch a little on the tales of the poets) the place that witnessed Andromeda bound to the rock. And retracing her journey, Nicopolis, formerly called Emmaus, near which the Lord was recognized in the breaking of bread, and she dedicated the house of Cleophas as a Church. And going up from there she came to Beth-horon lower and upper, cities founded by Solomon, but afterward destroyed by various storms of war: looking to the right at Ajalon and Gibeon, where Joshua the son of Nun, fighting against five kings, commanded the sun and the moon; and condemned the Gibeonites, for their tricks and deceits in obtaining a covenant, to be drawers of water and hewers of wood.

In the city of Gibeah, razed to the ground, she paused a little while, recalling its sin, and the concubine cut into pieces, and the three hundred men of the tribe of Benjamin preserved for the sake of the Apostle.

9. Why do I delay long? Leaving on the left the mausoleum of Helena, the queen of Adiabene, who had helped the people with grain in a famine, she entered the city of Jerusalem, of triple name, Jebus, Salem, Jerusalem, which afterward was raised up by Aelius Hadrian from the ruins and ashes of the city into Aelia. And when the proconsul of Palestine, who knew her family very well, having sent officers ahead, had ordered the praetorium to be prepared, she chose a humble little cell instead: and she went about all the places with such ardor and zeal, that unless she hastened on to the rest, she could not be drawn away from the first. And prostrate before the Cross, as though she beheld the Lord hanging there, she worshipped.

Entering the sepulcher of the resurrection, she kissed the stone which the angel had rolled away from the door of the tomb. And the very place of the body where the Lord had lain, as one thirsting for longed-for waters, she licked with faithful mouth. What tears, how many groans, what grief she poured out there, all Jerusalem is witness: the Lord himself, whom she besought, is witness. Departing from there she went up to Sion, which is turned into a citadel, or watchtower. This city David once conquered and rebuilt. Of it as conquered it is written: Woe to you, city of Ariel, that is, lion of God, once most mighty, which David conquered: and of it as rebuilt it is said: Its foundations are on the holy mountains: the Lord loves the gates of Sion above all the tabernacles of Jacob. Not those gates which we see today dissolved into ash and cinder: but the gates against which hell does not prevail, and through which the multitude of believers enters unto Christ.

There was shown to her the pillar sustaining the portico of the Church, stained with the blood of the Lord, to which he is said to have been bound and scourged. There was pointed out the place where the Holy Spirit had descended upon a hundred and twenty believing souls, that the prophecy of Joel might be fulfilled.

10. Then, her small means having been distributed to the poor and her fellow servants, she made her way to Bethlehem, and on the right side of the road stopped at the tomb of Rachel, in which Benjamin—not as his dying mother had called him, Benoni, that is, son of my sorrow, but as his father prophesied in spirit—was brought forth a son of the right hand; and thence entering Bethlehem, and going into the cave of the Savior, after she had seen the sacred lodging of the virgin, and the stable in which the ox recognized its owner and the ass its Lord's manger; that what was written in the same Prophet might be fulfilled:

Blessed is he who sows upon the waters, where the ox and the ass tread, she swore to me, hearing her, that she beheld with the eyes of faith the infant wrapped in swaddling clothes, the Lord crying in the manger, the Magi worshipping, the star shining above, the Virgin mother, the attentive foster-father, the shepherds coming by night to see the Word that was made flesh; and that even then they were dedicating the beginning of the Evangelist John: In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was made flesh; the little children slain, Herod raging, Joseph and Mary fleeing into Egypt: and, with tears mingled with joy, she spoke: Hail, Bethlehem, house of bread, in which was born that Bread which came down from heaven. Hail, Ephrata, most fruitful region, and fruit-bearing, whose fertility is God. Of you Micah once prophesied: And you, Bethlehem, house of Ephrata, are not the least among the thousands of Judah.

Out of you shall come forth to me one who is to be ruler in Israel: and his goings forth are from the beginning, from the days of eternity. Therefore will he give them up until the time when she who is in travail shall bring forth. She shall bring forth, and the remnant of his brethren shall return to the children of Israel. For in you was born the Prince, who was begotten before the morning star: whose birth from the Father exceeds all time. And so long did the origin of the race of David remain in you, until the virgin should bring forth, and the remnant of the people believing in Christ should return to the children of Israel, and freely proclaim: To you it was necessary that the word of God should first be spoken; but since you have rejected it, and judged yourselves unworthy of eternal life, behold, we turn to the Gentiles. For God had said, I am not sent but to the lost sheep of the house of Israel.

And at that time the words of Jacob concerning him were fulfilled: The prince shall not fail out of Judah, nor a leader from between his thighs, until he come to whom it is reserved, and he shall be the expectation of the nations. Well did David swear, well did he make his vows, saying: If I shall enter into the tabernacle of my house, if I shall go up into the bed of my couch: if I shall give sleep to my eyes, and slumber to my eyelids, and rest to my temples, until I find a place for the Lord, a tabernacle for the God of Jacob; and immediately he set forth what he desired, and with prophetic eyes he beheld as still to come him whom we now believe already to have come. Behold, we have heard of him in Ephrata, we have found him in the fields of the wood.

For "Zo," as I have learned from your teaching, in Hebrew speech does not signify Mary the mother of the Lord, that is, "autēn" (her), but himself, that is, "auton" (him). Whence he speaks confidently: We will enter into his tabernacle; we will worship in the place where his feet stood. And I, wretched and a sinner, have I been judged worthy to kiss the manger in which the Lord as a little one cried? To pray in the cave in which the virgin mother brought forth the infant Lord? This is my rest, because it is the country of my Lord. Here will I dwell, because the Savior has chosen it. I have prepared a lamp for my Christ. My soul shall live to him, and my seed shall serve him.

Not far from there she went down to the tower of Ader, that is, of the flock: near which Jacob fed his flocks, and the shepherds keeping watch by night deserved to hear: Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace to men of good will. And while they kept the sheep, they found the Lamb of God with pure and most spotless fleece, which in the dryness of the whole earth was filled with heavenly dew: and whose blood took away the sins of the world, and drove off the destroyer of Egypt from the doorposts.

11. And straightway with quickened step she began to go along the old road that leads to Gaza, unto the power or unto the riches of God; and to turn over in silence within herself, how the Ethiopian eunuch, prefiguring the peoples of the nations, changed his skin; and while he re-read the old instrument, found the fountain of the Gospel. And thence she turned to the right.

From Bethsur she came to Eshcol, which is turned into "cluster." Whence, as a testimony of the most fertile land, and as a type of him who says: I have trodden the winepress alone, and of the nations there was no man with me, the spies carried a cluster of marvelous size. And not long after she entered the little cells of Sarah, seeing the cradle of Isaac, and the traces of the oak of Abraham, under which he saw the day of Christ and rejoiced. And rising up from there, she went up to Hebron, which is Kiriath-arba, that is, the town of the four men, Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, and Adam the great, whom the Hebrews maintain, following the book of Joshua the son of Nun, to be buried there: although many think the fourth to be Caleb, whose memorial is shown on the side. Having viewed these things, she was unwilling to go on to Kiriath-sepher, that is, the bond of letters: because, despising the killing letter, she had found the life-giving spirit.

And she marveled more at the upper and lower waters, which Othniel the son of Kenaz, son of Jephunneh, had received for the southern land and dry possession, and by whose channel he made the dry fields of the former Instrument well-watered; that she might find the redemption of old sins in the waters of baptism. On the next day, the sun already risen, she stood on the brow of Caphar Barucha, that is, the village of blessing: to which place Abraham had followed the Lord. From there, looking down upon the broad wilderness, and the land once of Sodom and Gomorrah, Admah, and Zeboim, she gazed upon the vineyards of balsam at Engaddi, and Segor, the heifer bringing dismay, which before was called Bela; and in Syriac speech is translated Zoar, that is, "small." She remembered the cave of Lot, and, turning to tears, warned her fellow virgins that wine must be shunned, in which is luxury, the work of which are the Moabites and the Ammonites.

12. I dwell long at noon, where the bride found her spouse lying down, and Joseph was made drunk with his brethren. I shall return to Jerusalem, and through Thecua and Amos I shall behold the ruddy Cross of the Mount of Olives, from which the Saviour ascended to the Father. On which mount, in every year, a red heifer was burned for a holocaust to the Lord, and its ashes purified the people of Israel: on which, according to Ezekiel, the Cherubim, departing from the Temple, founded the Church of the Lord. Afterward she entered the sepulchre of Lazarus, saw the hospice of Mary and Martha; and Bethphage, the village of the priestly jaws; and the place in which the colt, wanton offspring of the Gentiles, took upon it the bridle of God, and, spread with the garments of the Apostles, offered its gentle back to be sat upon.

And by the straight road she went down to Jericho, calling to mind him of the Gospel who was wounded, and the mercy of the Samaritan—that is, the guardian—while the priests and Levites, in hardness of heart, passed him by; who, placing the half-dead man upon his own beast, carried him to the stable of the Church. And the place Adomim, which is interpreted "of bloods," because much blood was there shed by the frequent incursions of robbers. And the sycamore tree of Zacchaeus, that is, the good works of penitence, by which he trod under foot his sins, once bloody and harmful through rapine; and beheld the Lord, exalted, from the height of virtues; and near the road the places of the blind, who, having received their light, had prefigured the mysteries of both peoples believing in the Lord. Entering Jericho, she saw the city which Hiel founded upon Abiram his firstborn, and whose gates he set up in Segub, the youngest of his sons.

She gazed upon the camp of Galgala, and the heap of foreskins, and the mystery of the second circumcision; and the twelve stones, which, transferred thither from the bed of the Jordan, had established the foundations of the twelve Apostles; and the fountain of the Law, once most bitter and barren, which the true Elisha seasoned with his own wisdom, and turned to sweetness and fruitfulness. Scarcely had the night passed when, in the most burning heat, she came to the Jordan; she stood on the bank of the river, and, at sunrise, remembered the Sun of righteousness; how in the midst of the river-bed the priests set their feet on dry ground; and how, at the command of Elijah and Elisha, the waters standing apart on either side, the wave gave a path for their journey; and how the Lord cleansed with His own baptism the waters polluted by the flood, and stained by the slaughter of the whole human race.

13. It would be long, were I willing to speak of the valley of Achor, that is, of tumult and disturbances, in which theft and avarice were condemned; and of Bethel, the House of God, in which upon the bare ground, bare and poor, Jacob slept; and, with a stone placed beneath his head—the stone which in Zechariah is described as having seven eyes, and in Isaiah is called the corner-stone—he saw a ladder stretching up to heaven, on which the Lord leaned from above, reaching out His hand to those ascending, and casting down from the heights those who were careless. She also venerated from a distance, on Mount Ephraim, the sepulchres of Joshua the son of Nun, and of Eleazar the son of Aaron the priest: of whom the one was buried in Timnath-serah, on the north side of Mount Gaash; the other in Gibeah, belonging to his son Phinehas: and she marveled not a little that the distributor of the possessions had chosen for himself the mountainous and rugged land.

Why should I tell of Shiloh, where an altar, now in ruins, is still shown today, and where the tribe of Benjamin outran the rape of the Sabine women by Romulus? She crossed Sichem—not, as many read erroneously, Sichar—which is now called Neapolis, and entered the church built on the side of Mount Gerizim around the well of Jacob: upon which the Lord, sitting, thirsty and hungry, was satisfied by the faith of the Samaritan woman; who, having left behind the error of Dositheus, who boasted that he possessed a sixth book in addition to the five volumes of Moses, found the true Messiah, and the true Saviour. And turning aside from there, she saw the sepulchres of the twelve Patriarchs; and Sebaste, that is, Samaria, which in honor of Augustus was named Augusta by Herod in the Greek tongue. There lie buried Elisha and Obadiah the Prophets: and (than whom none greater has arisen among those born of women) John the Baptist.

There, greatly shaken, she trembled at many wonders: for she beheld demons roaring under various torments, and before the tombs of the saints men howling like wolves, barking with the voices of dogs, roaring like lions, hissing like serpents, bellowing like bulls. Others whirled their heads about, and touched the ground behind their backs with the crown of the head, while women hung by the feet without their garments falling over their faces. She pitied them all, and, shedding tears for each one, implored the mercy of Christ. And weak as she was, she climbed the mountain on foot; in whose two caves, in the time of persecution and famine, the prophet Obadiah fed a hundred prophets with bread and water.

From there, with swift journey, she hastened through Nazareth, the nurse of the Lord; Cana and Capernaum, familiar with His signs; the lake of Tiberias, sanctified by the Lord's sailing upon it; the wilderness, in which many thousands of the people were satisfied with a few loaves, and twelve baskets, for the twelve tribes of Israel, were filled from the remains of those who ate. She climbed Mount Tabor, on which the Lord was transfigured. She looked from afar upon the mountains of Hermon and Hermonim, and the wide plains of Galilee, in which Sisera and all his army were laid low, Barak conquering, by the torrent Kishon, which divided the middle of the plain; and the town near Nain was pointed out, in which the widow's son was raised to life. Day would fail me sooner than speech, were I to wish to run through all the places which the venerable Paula, with incredible faith, wandered through.

14. I shall pass over to Egypt; and at Sochoth, and by the fountain of Samson, which he brought forth from the jawbone of an ass, I shall pause a little; and I shall wash my parched lips, that, refreshed, I may see Morasthim, once the tomb of the prophet Micah, now a church. And on either side I shall leave behind the Chorreans and the Gettheans, Maresa, Idumea, and Lachish; and, through the softest sands, which draw away the footsteps of travelers, and the wide waste of the desert, I shall come to the river of Egypt, Sihor, which is interpreted "turbid"; and I shall pass through the five cities of Egypt which speak the language of Canaan; and the land of Goshen, and the plains of Zoan, in which God wrought wonders. And the city No, which afterward became Alexandria; and the town of the Lord, Nitria, in which daily the filth of very many is washed away by the purest nitre of virtues.

When she had seen this, the holy and venerable Bishop Isidore the Confessor came out to meet her, with innumerable throngs of monks, of whom many the priestly and Levitical order had exalted; she rejoiced indeed for the glory of the Lord, but confessed herself unworthy of so great an honor. Why then should I tell of the Macarii, the Arsenii, the Serapions, and the rest of the names of the pillars of Christ? Whose cell did she not enter? At whose feet was she not prostrate? In each one she believed she saw Christ; and whatever she bestowed upon them, she rejoiced that she had bestowed upon the Lord. A wondrous ardor, and a fortitude scarcely credible in a woman. Forgetful of her sex and of bodily frailty, she desired to dwell among so many thousands of monks with her own girls. And perhaps, all receiving her, she would have obtained her wish, had not a greater desire for the holy Places drawn her back.

And because of the most burning heat, arriving from Pelusium at Maiuma by sea, she returned with such speed that you would have thought her a bird. Not long after, though she was to remain forever in holy Bethlehem, she dwelt for three years in a narrow lodging, until she could build cells and monasteries, and establish, near the road, dwellings for the various pilgrims, on the very road on which Mary and Joseph had found no lodging. Thus far let her journey be described, which, accompanied by many virgins and by her daughter, she traversed.

15. Now let her virtue be described more fully, which is peculiarly her own, and in setting it forth, with God as judge and witness, I profess that I add nothing, that I exalt nothing beyond measure, after the manner of eulogists; but rather, lest I exceed the bounds of truth, that I detract much; and lest, among detractors who ever gnaw at me with their native tooth, I should be thought to invent, and to adorn Aesop's crow with borrowed colors.

She who is the first virtue of Christians cast herself down with such humility, that one who had not seen her, and who through the celebrity of her name had longed to see her, would not have believed her to be the person, but rather the lowest of her handmaids. And though she was surrounded by frequent choirs of virgins, in dress and in voice and in bearing and in gait she was the least of all. Never after her husband's death, up to the day of her falling asleep, did she eat with any man, however much she knew him to be holy and established in the pontifical height. She went to the baths only when in danger of her life.

She had no soft bedding, even in the most severe fever, but rested upon the hardest ground, with little haircloth mats spread beneath her—if indeed that can be called rest which she joined almost continuously, day and night, with prayers; fulfilling that word of the Psalter: "Every night I will wash my bed; I will water my couch with my tears." In this you would have believed there were fountains of tears, so did she lament even light sins as though she were guilty of the gravest crimes. And when we frequently admonished her to spare her eyes, and to keep them for the reading of the Gospel, she would say: "This face must be disfigured, which against God's command I so often painted with rouge, and white lead, and antimony. This body must be afflicted, which was given over to many delights. Long laughter must be repaid with perpetual weeping. Soft linens and the most costly silks must be exchanged for the roughness of haircloth.

I who pleased my husband and the world, now desire to please Christ." If, among such and so many virtues, I should wish to praise her chastity, I would seem superfluous: in this, even while she was still of the world, she was an example to all the matrons of Rome; she conducted herself in such a way that no rumor, even of the most slanderous, ever dared to touch her. Nothing was more merciful than her mind, nothing gentler toward the humble. She did not court the powerful; yet she did not scorn with disdain the proud and those seeking a little glory. If she saw a poor man, she supported him; if a rich man, she exhorted him to do good. Her generosity alone exceeded measure. And in giving loans, she also frequently borrowed, so that she might deny alms to none who begged.

I confess my own error: when she was too lavish in giving, I would rebuke her, quoting that word of the Apostle: "Not that others should have relief and you tribulation, but by equality at this time, that your abundance may supply their want, and their abundance may supply your want." And this from the Gospel of the Savior: "He who has two tunics, let him give to him who has none." And I said that provision must be made, lest what she gladly did she might not always be able to do; and many things of this sort, which she would dissolve with wondrous modesty and very sparing speech, calling God to witness that she did all things for His name's sake; and that this too was her vow, that she herself might die a beggar, so that she would not leave even a single coin to her daughter, and that at her own funeral she might be wrapped in a borrowed shroud.

At the end she would add: "If I ask, I shall find many who will give to me; but this beggar, if he does not receive from me what I am able to give him even out of another's goods, and should die, from whom will his soul be required?" I wished her to be more cautious in household matters; but she, more ardent in faith, was joined with her whole soul to the Savior, and poor in spirit she followed the poor Lord, rendering back to Him what she had received, made poor for His sake. In the end she obtained what she desired, and left her daughter with a great debt, which up to now she trusts to repay not by her own strength but by the mercy of Christ.

16. Many matrons are wont to give gifts to their own trumpeters, and, having poured out lavish generosity on a few, withdraw their hand from the rest: from this fault she was entirely free; for she so divided her money among individuals as each one required, not for luxury but for necessity. No one among the poor ever returned from her empty-handed. This she achieved not by the greatness of her riches, but by the prudence of her stewardship, always repeating: "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy." And: "As water extinguishes fire, so almsgiving extinguishes sin." And: "Make to yourselves friends of the mammon of iniquity, that they may receive you into everlasting habitations." And: "Give alms, and behold, all things are clean unto you." And the words of Daniel, admonishing King Nebuchadnezzar to redeem his sins by almsgiving.

She was unwilling to pour out her money on those stones which, together with the earth and the world, are destined to pass away, but rather on the living stones which roll upon the earth, of which, in the Apocalypse of John, the city of the great King is built: which Scripture records are to be turned into sapphire and emerald and jasper, and the other gems.

17. But these things can be common to many, even to a few; and the devil knows they are not placed at the very summit of the virtues. Hence he says to the Lord, after Job's substance was taken away, after his house was overthrown, after his children were slain: "Skin for skin, and all that a man has he will give for his soul.

But stretch forth your hand and touch his bones and his flesh, and see if he will not bless you to your face." We know that many have given alms, but have given nothing of their own body; have stretched out a hand to the needy, but, overcome by the pleasure of the flesh, have whitewashed what was outward while within being full of dead men's bones. Not so Paula, who was of such continence that she almost exceeded due measure, and contracted bodily weakness through excessive fasting and labor. Except on feast days, she scarcely took oil in her food, so that from this alone one may judge what she thought of wine and fish sauce, and fish, and milk, and honey, and eggs, and the rest of what is pleasant to the taste—things in the taking of which some think themselves most abstinent, and if they gorge their belly on these, imagine their chastity secure.

18. Envy indeed always follows virtue, and "lightning strikes the highest mountains".

Nor is it strange that I say this of men, since even our Lord was crucified through the zeal of the Pharisees, and all the saints have had their rivals: in paradise too there was a serpent, through whose envy death entered into the world. The Lord raised up for her an Adad the Idumean, to buffet her, lest she should exalt herself; and He admonished her often, as with a certain thorn in the flesh, lest the greatness of her virtues should carry her too high, and, comparing herself to the vices of other women, she should believe herself established on some lofty height. I used to say that one must yield to envy, and give place to its madness—as Jacob did with his brother Esau, and David with his most obstinate enemy Saul: of whom the one fled into Mesopotamia, the other gave himself up to the Philistines, preferring to be subject to enemies rather than to the envious.

But she would answer: "You would say this justly if the devil did not fight everywhere against the servants and handmaids of God, and did not go before those who flee to every place; if I were not held here by love of the holy places, and could find my Bethlehem in some other part of the world. Why should I not overcome envy by patience? Why not break pride by humility, and to him who strikes one cheek offer the other? As the Apostle Paul says: 'Overcome evil with good.' Did not the Apostles glory when they suffered reproach for the Lord? Did not the Savior Himself humble Himself, taking the form of a servant, and become obedient to the Father even unto death, even the death of the cross, that He might save us by His passion?

Unless Job had striven and conquered in the contest, he would not have received the crown of righteousness, nor heard from the Lord: 'Do you think I have spoken to you otherwise than that you might appear righteous?' Blessed are said in the Gospel to be those who suffer persecution for righteousness' sake.

My conscience knows with security that we do not suffer for our sins; and affliction in this world is the material of rewards." Whenever the enemy grew more insolent, and burst forth even into quarrelsome words, she would chant that verse of the Psalter: "When the sinner stood against me, I was dumb, and humbled myself, and kept silence from good things." And again: "But I, as a deaf man, heard not; and as a dumb man that opens not his mouth." And: "I became as a man that hears not, and that has no reproofs in his mouth." In temptations, she turned over the words of Deuteronomy: "The Lord your God tempts you, to know whether you love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul." In tribulations and distresses, she repeated the sayings of Isaiah: "You who are weaned from the milk, who are drawn from the breast, wait for tribulation upon tribulation, hope upon hope; yet a little while because of the malice of labors, because of the malicious tongue." And she expounded the testimony of Scripture for her own consolation: that it belongs to the weaned, that is, to those who have come to manhood, to endure tribulation upon tribulation, so that they may deserve to receive hope upon hope.

"Knowing that tribulation works patience, and patience, proof; and proof, hope; and hope does not confound." And: "Though our outward man perish, yet the inward man is renewed day by day." And: "Our present light and momentary tribulation works for us an eternal weight of glory, while we look not at the things which are seen, but at the things which are not seen.

For the things which are seen are temporal, but the things which are not seen are eternal." Nor would the time be long, even though it might seem slow to human impatience, before God's help would swiftly follow, as He says: "In an acceptable time I have heard you, and in the day of salvation I have helped you." Nor need one fear deceitful lips and the tongues of the unjust, when we rejoice with the Lord as our helper, and ought to hear Him say through the Prophet: "Fear not the reproach of men, and be not afraid of their revilings; for as a garment the moth shall eat them, and as wool the worm shall devour them." And: "In your patience you shall possess your souls." And: "The sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory that shall be revealed in us." And elsewhere: "That we may endure tribulation upon tribulation, so that we may act patiently in all things that befall us.

For a patient man is very prudent, but he who is fainthearted is exceedingly foolish." 18. In her weaknesses and frequent infirmity, she used to say: "When I am weak, then am I strong. We have this treasure in earthen vessels, until this mortal shall put on immortality, and this corruptible shall be clothed with incorruption." And again: "As the sufferings of Christ abound in us, so through Christ our consolation also abounds." And further: "As you are partakers of the sufferings, so also shall you be of the consolation." In sorrow she sang: "Why are you sad, my soul, and why do you trouble me?

Hope in God, for I will yet confess to Him, who is the salvation of my countenance, and my God." In dangers she would say: "He who wishes to come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross, and follow me." And again: "He who wishes to save his life shall lose it." And: "He who loses his life for my sake shall save it." When losses in her household affairs and the ruin of her whole patrimony were reported to her, she said: "What does it profit a man if he gain the whole world, and suffer the loss of his own soul? Or what shall a man give in exchange for his soul?" And: "Naked I came from my mother's womb, and naked shall I return. As it pleased the Lord, so has it been done; blessed be the name of the Lord." And this: "Love not the world, nor the things that are in the world.

For all that is in the world is the desire of the flesh, and the desire of the eyes, and the pride of life, which is not of the Father but of the world. And the world passes away, and its desire." I know that the most severe illnesses of her children, and especially of her Toxotius, whom she loved most dearly, were reported to her. And when she had endured this with virtue, and I, disturbed, said nothing, she burst out into these words: "He who loves son or daughter more than me is not worthy of me." And praying to the Lord, she would say: "Possess, Lord, the children of those who put themselves to death for you, who daily mortify their bodies for your sake." I know of a certain whisperer (a kind of man most pernicious) who reported, as though out of kindness, that because of the excessive fervor of her virtues, she seemed to some to be mad, and that her brain, they said, needed tending.

To him she replied: "We are made a spectacle to the world, both to angels and to men." And: "We are fools for Christ's sake; but the foolishness of God is wiser than men." Whence also the Savior says to the Father: "You know my foolishness." And again: "I have become as a wonder to many, and you are my strong helper. I have become as a beast of burden before you, and I am always with you." Him, too, in the Gospel, His own kinsfolk wished to bind, as if He were out of His mind, and His adversaries reviled Him, saying, "He has a demon, and is a Samaritan." And, "By Beelzebub, the prince of demons, he casts out demons." But let us hear the Apostle exhorting: "This is our glory, the testimony of our conscience, that in holiness and sincerity, and in the grace of God, we have had our conduct in the world." And the Lord saying to the Apostles: "Therefore the world hates you, because you are not of the world.

For if you were of the world, the world would love its own." And she turned her words to the Lord Himself: "You know the secrets of the heart." And: "All these things have come upon us, yet we have not forgotten you, nor have we dealt falsely in your covenant, nor has our heart turned back." And: "For your sake we are put to death all the day long; we are counted as sheep for the slaughter. But the Lord is my helper; I will not fear what man can do to me." For she read: "My son, honor the Lord, and you shall be strengthened, and fear none but the Lord." With these and such testimonies, as with the armor of God, she armed herself against all vices indeed, but especially against raging envy; and by patiently enduring injuries, she softened the fury of a rabid breast.

In the end, up to the day of her death, both her patience and the envy of others were manifest to all—envy which hates its own author, and while it strives to injure its rival, runs riot against itself in its own fury.

19. Let me also speak of the order of the monastery, how she turned the continence of the saints to her own gain. She sowed carnal things, that she might reap spiritual ones; she gave earthly things, that she might take up heavenly ones; she granted things brief, that she might exchange them for things eternal. After the monastery of men, which she had handed over to men to govern, she divided into three companies and monasteries the many virgins whom she had gathered from various provinces, of noble birth as well as of middle and lowest rank—so, however, that though separated in work and in food, they were joined together in psalmody and prayers.

After the ALLELUIA was sung (by which sign they were called to the gathering), no one was permitted to remain seated. But she, first, or among the first to come, awaited the arrival of the others, calling them to labor by shame and example rather than by terror. In the morning, at the third hour, the sixth, the ninth, in the evening, and at midnight, they sang through the Psalter in order. Nor was any of the sisters permitted to be ignorant of the Psalms, or not to learn something daily from the holy Scriptures. Only on the Lord's Day did they go forth to the church, beside which they dwelt. And each company followed its own mother; and returning together thence, they applied themselves to their allotted work, and made garments either for themselves or for the others.

If any were of noble birth, she was not permitted to have a companion from her own household, lest, remembering her former way of life, she should reopen the old error of her wanton childhood, and renew it by frequent conversation. There was one habit for all. They used linen only to wipe their hands. So great was the separation from men that she kept them apart even from eunuchs, lest she give any occasion to the slanderous tongue, which is wont to carp at the saints as a comfort for its own wrongdoing. If any came late to the Psalms, or was more sluggish at work, she approached her in various ways. If she was of an angry temper, with gentleness; if patient, with rebuke—imitating the Apostle's words: "What will you?

Shall I come to you with a rod, or in the spirit of gentleness and meekness?" Apart from food and clothing, she allowed no one to possess anything, in accordance with Paul's word: "Having food and clothing, let us be content with these"—lest the habit of possessing more should give room to avarice, which is satisfied by no wealth, and the more it has, the more it seeks, and is diminished neither by abundance nor by want. Those who quarreled among themselves she reconciled with the gentlest speech. The wanton flesh of the young girls she broke with frequent and repeated fasts, preferring that their stomach should ache rather than their mind.

If she saw any more elegantly adorned, she would rebuke the erring one with a frown of the brow and sadness of countenance, saying: "Cleanliness of body and of dress is uncleanness of soul." And that an ugly or wanton word should never come from a virgin's mouth, for by such signs a lustful mind is shown, and through the outward man the vices of the inward man are made manifest. Whomever she perceived to be talkative, garrulous, and forward, and to delight in quarrels, and, though often admonished, unwilling to change, she made pray among the last, apart from the assembly of the sisters, at the doors of the dining hall, and take food separately, so that shame might correct what rebuke had not corrected. She detested theft as though it were sacrilege. And what among worldly men is thought light, or nothing at all, this she said was the gravest offense in monasteries. Why should I recall her mercy and diligence toward the sick, whom she cherished with wondrous attentions and services?

And while to others who were ill she generously provided everything, even the eating of meat, if ever she herself fell ill, she did not indulge herself, and in this she seemed unequal, that toward others she exercised mercy, but toward herself, harshness.

20. No young girl of sound and vigorous body had given herself over to such continence as she herself, with her broken and aged and weakened little body. I confess, in this matter she was more stubborn, in that she spared herself not at all, and yielded to no one admonishing her. Let me relate what I myself experienced.

In the month of July, in the fiercest heat, she fell into a burning fever, and after all hope had been despaired of, when by God's mercy she had recovered her breath, and the physicians were urging that for the restoring of her body there was need of a little thin and sparing wine, lest by drinking water she should turn into dropsy; and when I secretly asked the blessed Pope Epiphanius to admonish her, nay rather to compel her to drink wine, she, being prudent and of a shrewd wit, at once perceived the trick; and smiling, she let it be known that it was my doing that he said this. What more? When the blessed Pontiff, after many exhortations, had come out, and I asked him what he had accomplished, he answered: I have made so much progress that I, an old man, have almost persuaded myself not to drink wine.

I relate these things, not because I approve of burdens taken up rashly and beyond one's strength, as Scripture warns: Do not lift a burden above yourself; but because I wish, from this perseverance also, to prove the ardor of her mind and the desire of a faithful soul, singing: My soul has thirsted for thee, how manifold is my flesh unto thee. It is difficult to keep the mean in all things. And truly, according to the sentence of the Philosophers, μεσότης ἡ ἀρετὴ, ὑπερβολὴ κακία are reckoned to be: which we can express in one brief little maxim: Nothing too much. She who had such stubbornness in the disdain of food was gentle in mourning, and was broken by the deaths of her own, especially of her children. For both at the passing of her husband and of her daughters she was always in peril.

And when she would sign her mouth and stomach, and strive to soothe a mother's grief by the impress of the cross, she was overcome by affection, and her credulous mind was dismayed by a parent's inward feelings, and, conquering in spirit, she was conquered by the frailty of the body: which, once seized by illness, possessed her for a long time; so that it brought disquiet to us, and peril to herself. In which she rejoiced, recalling at every moment: Wretched man that I am, who shall deliver me from the body of this death? Let the prudent reader say that I am writing blame instead of praise. I call to witness Jesus, whom she served, and whom I desire to serve, that I feign nothing on either side, but as a Christian speaking of a Christian woman, I set forth what is true, that is, I write history, not a panegyric, and that her faults are the virtues of others.

I speak of faults, according to my own mind, and the desire of all the sisters and brothers who love her, and who seek her though absent.

21. But she has fulfilled her course, and kept the faith, and now enjoys the crown of righteousness; and follows the Lamb wherever he goes. She is satisfied, because she hungered, and joyfully sings: As we have heard, so also have we seen, in the city of the Lord of hosts, in the city of our God. O blessed exchange of things: she wept, that she might always laugh. She despised broken cisterns, that she might find the Lord as fountain. She was clothed in sackcloth, that now she might wear white garments, and say: Thou hast torn off my sackcloth, and clothed me with gladness. She ate ashes like bread, and mingled her drink with weeping, saying: My tears have been my bread day and night, that in eternity she might feed on the bread of Angels and sing: Taste and see that the Lord is sweet.

And, My heart hath uttered a good word: I speak my works to the King. And she might see fulfilled in herself the words of Isaiah, nay of the Lord through Isaiah: Behold, they that serve me shall eat, but you shall be hungry. Behold, they that serve me shall drink, but you shall be thirsty. Behold, they that serve me shall rejoice, but you shall be confounded. Behold, they that serve me shall exult with joy, but you shall cry out for sorrow of heart, and shall wail for the breaking of the spirit. I had said that she always fled the broken cisterns, that she might find the Lord as fountain, that she might be able to sing joyfully: As the hart longs for the fountains of waters, so my soul longs after thee, O God. When shall I come and appear before the face of God?

22. Let me touch briefly, then, on how she avoided the muddy pools of the heretics, and held them as of no account, like the Gentiles.

A certain crafty old trickster, and, as he seemed to himself, learned and clever, without my knowing, began to put questions to her, and to say: What has the infant sinned, that it should be seized by a demon? At what age shall we rise again? If at the age at which we die, then nurses will be needed after the resurrection. But if otherwise, there will be no resurrection of the dead at all, but a transformation into other beings. Also, will the diversity of sex, of male and female, exist, or not? If it will, then marriages will follow, and intercourse, but also generation. If it will not, then, the diversity of sex being removed, the same bodies will not rise again: For the earthly habitation weighs down the mind that thinks upon many things; but they will be subtle and spiritual, as the Apostle says: It is sown a natural body, it shall rise a spiritual body.

From all of which he wished to prove that rational creatures had, on account of certain vices and ancient sins, fallen into bodies: and that according to the diversity and merits of their sins they are born under this or that condition, so that some rejoice in health of body, and in the wealth and nobility of their parents, while others, coming into sickly flesh and into the houses of the poor, pay the penalties of former offenses, and are shut up, as it were in a prison, in the present age and in bodies.

When she had heard this, and had reported it to me, pointing out the man, and the necessity was laid upon me of resisting this most wicked viper and deadly beast, of whom the Psalmist makes mention, saying: Deliver not up to beasts the souls that confess to thee: And, Rebuke, O Lord, the beasts of the reed, who, writing iniquity, speak a lie against the Lord, and lift up their mouth on high; I met the man, and by her prayers—she whom he was striving to deceive—I confounded him with a brief question: Whether he believed that there would be a resurrection of the dead, or not? When he answered that he believed it, I added: Will the same bodies rise, or others? When he said, the same, I asked further: In the same sex, or in another? To him keeping silent at the questions, and turning his head this way and that like a serpent, so as not to be struck; I said, since you are silent, I will answer for you, and draw the consequences.

If woman shall not rise as woman, nor man as man, there will be no resurrection of the dead; because sex has members, and members make up the whole body. But if there be neither sex nor members, where will be the resurrection of bodies, which cannot consist without sex and members? Furthermore, if there be no resurrection of bodies, there will be no resurrection of the dead at all. But also as to what you object concerning marriage: that if the same members exist, marriage follows—that is dissolved by the Savior, saying: You err, not knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God: for in the resurrection of the dead they neither marry nor are given in marriage, but shall be as the Angels. Where it is said, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, the diversity of sexes is shown.

For no one says of a stone or a piece of wood, they neither marry nor are given in marriage, since these have no nature of marrying: but this is said of those who could marry, and by the grace and power of Christ do not marry. But if you object, how then shall we be like the Angels, since among the Angels there is no male and female? Listen briefly: The Lord promises us not the substance of the Angels, but their manner of life and blessedness. Just as John the Baptist, before he was beheaded, was called an Angel; and all the Saints and Virgins of God, even in this present age, express in themselves the life of Angels. For when it is said, You shall be like the Angels, a likeness is promised, not a change of nature.

23. And answer at the same time: how do you interpret this, that Thomas felt the hands of the risen Lord, and saw his side pierced by the spear?

And that Peter saw the Lord standing on the shore, and eating a part of a broiled fish, and a honeycomb? He who stood, certainly had feet. He who showed his wounded side, certainly also had a belly and a chest, without which sides do not cohere to belly and chest. He who spoke, spoke with tongue and palate and teeth. For just as a plectrum strikes the strings, so the tongue strikes against the teeth, and renders a vocal sound. He whose hands were touched, consequently had arms also. Since, then, he is said to have had all the members, it is necessary that he had the whole body, which is made up of members: not indeed a female body, but a male one, that is, of the same sex in which he died. But if you object: then shall we too eat after the resurrection? And how did he enter with the doors shut, contrary to the nature of solid and dense bodies?

You will hear: Do not, on account of food, draw the faith of the resurrection into calumny. For he also ordered food to be given to the daughter of the ruler of the synagogue when she was raised. And Lazarus, dead four days, is written to have shared a banquet with him, lest their resurrection be thought a phantasm. But if he entered with the doors shut, and on this account you strive to prove a spiritual and airy body: then also before he suffered, because contrary to the nature of heavier bodies he walked upon the sea, he had a spiritual body. And the Apostle Peter, who himself also walked with hovering step upon the waters, must be believed to have had a spiritual body, since it is rather the power and virtue of God that is shown, when something happens contrary to nature.

And that you may know that in the greatness of the signs, it is not a change of nature but the omnipotence of God that is shown: he who was walking by faith began to sink through unbelief, had not the hand of the Lord lifted him up, saying: O thou of little faith, why didst thou doubt? But I marvel that you harden your brow when the Lord says: Put in thy finger here, and see my hands; and reach hither thy hand, and put it into my side, and be not faithless, but believing. And elsewhere: See my hands and my feet, that it is I myself. Handle and see, for a spirit has not flesh and bones, as you see me have. And when he had said this, he showed them his hands and feet. You hear bones, and flesh, and feet, and hands; and you fashion for me the spheres of the Stoics, and certain airy ravings.

24. Further, if you ask why an infant is seized by a demon, who has no sins: or at what age we are to rise again, since we die at different ages, you will receive an unwelcome answer: The judgments of God are a great abyss. And: O the depth of the riches of the wisdom and knowledge of God, how unsearchable are his judgments, and his ways past finding out. For who has known the mind of the Lord? Or who has been his counselor? But the diversity of ages does not change the truth of bodies. For since our bodies daily flow, and either grow or diminish: shall we then be as many men as we are daily changed? Or was I one person when I was ten years old, another at thirty, another at fifty, another now when my whole head is white?

Therefore, according to the traditions of the Churches, and to the Apostle Paul, this must be answered: that we shall rise into the perfect man, and into the measure of the age of the fullness of Christ, in which measure the Jews suppose Adam was created: and we read that the Lord Savior rose again, and many other things which I brought forward from both Testaments to the suffocation of the heretic.

25. From that day she began so to detest the man, and all who held the same doctrine, that she proclaimed them publicly as enemies of the Lord. And I have said these things, not to refute the heresy briefly—for it must be answered with many volumes—but to show the faith of so great a woman, Who preferred to undergo the perpetual enmity of men, rather than provoke the offense of God by harmful friendships.

26. Let me say then, as I had begun, that nothing was more teachable than her mind.

She was slow to speak, swift to hear: mindful of that precept: Hear, O Israel, and be silent. She held the sacred Scriptures in memory; and though she loved the historical sense, and said that this was the foundation of truth, yet she followed more the spiritual understanding: and with this summit she protected the edification of the soul. Finally she compelled me: that, with her daughter, I should read through the Old and New Testament with her, myself expounding. This, out of modesty, I refused; yet on account of her persistence and frequent requests, I granted that I should teach what I had learned—not from myself, that is, from presumption, the worst of teachers, but from the illustrious men of the Church. Thus, whenever I hesitated, and frankly confessed that I did not know, she was by no means willing to let me rest content; but by continual questioning she compelled me to indicate, out of the many and varied opinions, which seemed to me the more probable.

I will say another thing too, which perhaps will seem incredible to my rivals. The Hebrew language, which I from my youth learned in part with much labor and sweat, and which by unwearied meditation I do not abandon, lest I myself be abandoned by it, she wished to learn, and she attained it: so that she would sing the Psalms in Hebrew, and pronounce the speech without any trace of the Latin tongue. This indeed we see to this day in her holy daughter Eustochium, who has always so clung to her mother, and obeyed her commands, that she never slept without her, never went forth, never took food, without her mother, nor had even a single coin at her own disposal, but rejoiced that both her paternal and maternal little substance was distributed by her mother to the poor, and believed that piety toward a parent was the greatest inheritance and riches.

I ought not to pass over in silence with what great joy she exulted, when she heard that Paula, her granddaughter, born of Laeta and Toxotius—conceived by a vow and a promise of future virginity even before birth—had, in her cradle and with her rattles, in a lisping tongue, sung ALLELUIA; and had broken with half-formed words the names of her grandmother and aunt. In this alone did she have any longing for her homeland: that she might know that her son, daughter-in-law, and granddaughter had renounced the world and were serving Christ. And this she in part obtained. For her granddaughter is reserved for Christ's bridal veil: her daughter-in-law, giving herself to eternal chastity, follows her by works, faith, and alms, and strives at Rome to express what that other had accomplished at Jerusalem.

27. What are we doing, my soul? Why do you fear to come to her death?

Already this book, growing longer, is being forged, while we fear to reach the end, as if, by our keeping silent and remaining occupied in her praises, her death could be deferred. Thus far we have sailed with favoring winds, and the gliding keel has furrowed the rippling surface of the sea. Now our discourse runs upon the rocks, and, with the mountains of the waves swelling, shipwreck threatens both of us alike: so that we are compelled to say: Master, save us, we perish. And that: Arise, why do you sleep, O Lord? For who could, with dry eyes, tell of Paula dying? She fell into a most grievous sickness—or rather, she found what she desired, that she might leave us, and be joined more fully to the Lord. In that illness, the devotion of her daughter Eustochium toward her mother, always proven, was proven even more by all.

She herself sat by the little bed, held the fan, supported her head, placed the pillow beneath her, rubbed her feet, warmed her stomach with her hand, arranged the soft coverlets, tempered the warm water, applied the cloth, forestalled the services of all the maidservants, and thought whatever another had done was taken away from her own reward. With what prayers, with what lamentations and groaning, did she run between her lying mother and the cave of the Lord, lest she be deprived of so great companionship, lest she should live without her presence—that she might be carried on the same bier! But O the fragile and perishable nature of mortals, and unless the faith of Christ raises us to heaven, and the eternity of the soul is promised, we share the same condition of body with beasts and cattle. The same end befalls the just and the impious, the good and the bad, the clean and the unclean, him who sacrifices and him who does not sacrifice. As is the good man, so also is the sinner.

As is he who swears, so also is he who fears an oath. Likewise both men and cattle are dissolved into ashes and dust.

28. Why do I linger long, and, by delaying, make my grief the longer? The wisest of women felt that death was at hand, and, with the rest of her body and limbs growing cold, only the warmth of the soul still fluttering in her sacred breast, nevertheless, as though she were going to her own and leaving strangers, she murmured these verses: Lord, I have loved the beauty of your house, and the place where your glory dwells. And, How beloved are your tabernacles, O Lord of hosts; my soul longs and faints for the courts of the Lord. And, I have chosen to be an outcast in the house of my God, rather than to dwell in the tents of sinners.

And when I asked her why she was silent, why she was unwilling to answer when I called to her, whether she felt any pain, she answered in Greek, that she had no trouble, but perceived everything quiet and tranquil. After this she fell silent, and, with closed eyes, as though already looking down upon mortal things, she kept repeating the same verses until the expiration of her soul, so that we could scarcely hear what she said: and, holding her finger to her mouth, she traced the sign of the cross upon her lips. Her breath failed, and she was gasping toward death; and her soul, eager to break forth, was turning even that very rattle, by which mortal life is ended, into praises of the Lord. There were present the bishops of Jerusalem and of other cities, and priests of lower rank, and an innumerable multitude of Levites. The whole monastery, the choirs of virgins and monks, had filled the place.

And as soon as she heard the Bridegroom calling, Arise, come, my nearest one, my fair one, my dove: For behold, the winter has passed and gone, the rain has departed; she answered joyfully: Flowers have appeared in the land, the time of pruning has come. And I believe to see the goods of the Lord in the land of the living.

29. From then on there was no wailing, no lamentation, as is wont to happen among worldly men, but the swarms of psalms in different tongues resounded. And, borne on the hands of bishops, with them placing their necks beneath the bier; while some prelates carried lamps and candles before her, others led choirs of those chanting psalms, she was laid in the midst of the Church of the Saviour's cave. The whole crowd of the cities of Palestine gathered for her funeral. What cell of a monk hidden in the desert held him back? What secrecy of virgins' chambers concealed them? Whoever did not render the last office to such a woman thought it a sacrilege.

Widows and the poor showed the garments she had given them, as an example of Dorcas. The whole multitude of the needy cried out that they had lost a mother and a nurse. And, what is marvelous, no pallor had changed her face, but such a certain dignity and gravity had filled her countenance, that you would think her not dead, but sleeping. In Greek, Latin, and Syriac speech, the Psalms resounded in order: not only for three days, until she was laid beneath the Church, beside the cave of the Lord, but for a whole week, all who had come gave to her funeral their own tears, as if believing it their own. The venerable virgin, her daughter Eustochium, as though weaned upon her mother, could not be torn away from her parent: she kept kissing her eyes, clinging to her face, embracing her whole body, and wishing to be buried together with her mother.

30. Jesus is my witness, that not even a single coin was left by her to her daughter, but, as I have already said before, a great debt was left behind: and, what is doubly more difficult, an immense multitude of brothers and sisters, whom it is hard to support, and impious to cast off. What is more admirable than this virtue, that a woman of a most noble family, once of great wealth, should with such faith have given away everything, so that she came almost to the last extremity of want? Let others boast of moneys, and of bronze heaped up in God's treasury, and of gifts hanging from golden chains. No one gave more to the poor than she who kept nothing for herself. Now she enjoys riches, and those good things which eye has not seen, nor ear heard, nor have they entered into the heart of man. We grieve for our own turn, and we shall seem rather to envy her glory, if we wish to weep any longer for one who reigns.

31. Be at peace, Eustochium; you have been enriched with a great inheritance. The Lord is your portion: and, that you may rejoice the more, your mother has been crowned with a long martyrdom. For not only is the shedding of blood reckoned as confession; But also the immaculate servitude of a devoted mind is a daily martyrdom. That crown is woven of roses and violets, this one of lilies. Whence also it is written in the Song of Songs: My kinsman is white and ruddy; granting the same rewards to those who conquer, both in peace and in war. Your mother, I say, heard, with Abraham: Go out from your land, and from your kindred, and come into the land which I shall show you. And, through Jeremiah, the Lord commanding: Flee from the midst of Babylon, and save your souls.

And until the day of her death she did not return into Chaldea; nor did she long for the pots of Egypt, and the venomous taste of meats, but, accompanied by choirs of virgins, she was made a citizen of the Saviour, and, ascending from little Bethlehem into the heavenly kingdoms, she says to the true Naomi: Your people are my people, and your God, my God.

32. This book I have dictated to you in two little night-vigils, with the same grief which you also endure. For as often as I wished to set my pen to the paper, and to trace out the promised work, so often did my fingers grow stiff, my hand fall, my sense grow faint. Whence also the unpolished style bears witness to the writer's intention, without any elegance or charm of words.

33. Farewell, O Paula, and aid with your prayers the last old age of your devotee. Your faith and works join you to Christ; being present to him, you will more easily obtain what you ask.

I have raised a monument more lasting than bronze, which no age can destroy. I have engraved an epitaph upon your tomb, which I have appended to this volume, so that wherever our discourse shall reach, the reader may recognize you as praised, and as laid to rest in Bethlehem.

There follows the inscription of the tomb.

She whom Scipio begot, whom the parents of the Pauli brought forth,
Offspring of the Greeks, the renowned progeny of Agamemnon,
Lies in this tomb: men of old called her Paula,
Mother of Eustochium, first of the Roman Senate:
She followed the poverty of Christ, and the fields of Bethlehem.

On the front of the cave.

Do you see the narrow tomb, cut into the rock?
It is the lodging of Paula, who holds the heavenly kingdoms.
Leaving brother, kinsfolk, Rome, and homeland,
Riches, offspring, she is buried in the Bethlehem cave.
Here is your manger, O Christ, and here the Magi, bearing
mystic gifts, gave them to man and to God.

34. The holy and blessed Paula fell asleep on the seventh day before the Kalends of February, the third day of the week after sunset. She was buried on the fifth day before the same Kalends, in the sixth consulship of Honorius Augustus, and that of Aristaenetus. She lived in her holy purpose at Rome five years, at Bethlehem twenty years. She completed the whole span of her life, fifty-six years, eight months, and twenty-one days.

Having first received your letters, not to reply would be pride: to reply, rashness. For you ask concerning things which it is sacrilege both to bring forth and to hear. You say that Vigilantius, who by κατ' ἀντίφρασιν is called by this name (for he would more rightly be called Dormitantius), again opens his foul mouth, and brings forth his most filthy stench against the relics of the holy Martyrs: and that us, who receive them, he calls ash-mongers and idolaters, who worship the bones of dead men. O unhappy man, to be mourned with every countenance of tears, who in saying these things does not understand himself to be a Samaritan and a Jew, who account the bodies of the dead as unclean, and even suspect that the vessels which have been in the same house are polluted: following the killing letter, and not the life-giving spirit.

But we do not, I do not say the relics of the Martyrs, but not even the sun and moon, not Angels, not Archangels, not Cherubim, not Seraphim, and every name that is named both in this age and in the age to come, do we cultivate and adore: lest we should serve the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed forever. But we honor the relics of the Martyrs, that we may adore Him whose Martyrs they are. We honor the servants, that the honor of the servants may redound to the Lord, who says: He who receives you, receives me. Are then the relics of Peter and Paul unclean? Will then the little body of Moses be unclean, which according to the Hebrew Truth was buried by the Lord Himself? And as often as we enter the Basilicas of the Apostles and Prophets, as of all the Martyrs, do we so many times venerate the temples of idols? And are the candles lit before their tombs marks of idolatry?

I will say something further, which will recoil upon the author's head: and may it either heal his insane brain at some time, or destroy it; lest the souls of the simple be overthrown by such great sacrileges. Was then the body of the Lord also, laid in the sepulcher, unclean? And did the Angels, who wore white garments, keep watch over a dead and polluted corpse; so that after many ages Dormitantius might dream, nay rather belch forth, his most unclean drunkenness: and, together with Julian the persecutor, either destroy the Basilicas of the Saints, or turn them into temples?

2. I marvel that the holy Bishop, in whose parish this presbyter is said to be, acquiesces in his madness: and does not, with the Apostolic rod, the rod of iron, break in pieces this useless vessel, and deliver him unto the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit may be saved. Let him remember that saying: If you saw a thief, you ran with him, and you cast in your lot with adulterers.

And in another place: In the morning I put to death all the sinners of the land, that I might destroy out of the city of the Lord all workers of iniquity. And again: Do I not hate them, O Lord, that hate you, and pine away because of your enemies? I hated them with a perfect hatred. If the relics of the Martyrs are not to be honored, how do we read: Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of His Saints? If those who touch their bones are polluted, how did the dead Elisha raise a dead man, and give life to a body which, according to Vigilantius, lay unclean? Were then all the camps of Israel, of that army and people of God, unclean, because they carried the bodies of Joseph and the Patriarchs in the wilderness: and bore unclean ashes to the holy Land?

Was Joseph too, who in a type went before the Lord the Savior, wicked; who with such great zeal carried the bones of Jacob into Hebron; so that he joined an unclean father to his unclean grandfather and great-grandfather, and coupled the dead to the dead? O a tongue to be cut out by physicians, nay rather an insane head to be cured; that he who does not know how to speak may at some time learn to be silent. I have once seen this monstrous portent, and wished to bind the madman, as it were with the chains of Hippocrates, by testimonies of the Scriptures: but he went off, he departed, he escaped, he broke loose; and amid the waves of the Adriatic and the Alps of King Cottius, he cried out declaiming against us. For whatever a lover speaks must be called noise and shouting.

3. Perhaps in silent thought you reproach me, why I inveigh against one absent. I will confess to you my grief. I cannot patiently hear so great a sacrilege.

For I have read of the dagger of Phinees, the austerity of Elijah, the zeal of Simon the Cananite, the severity of Peter slaying Ananias and Sapphira, and the constancy of Paul, who condemned Elymas the magician, resisting the ways of the Lord, with eternal blindness. It is not cruelty, piety for God's sake. Whence also in the Law it is said: If your brother, and friend, and the wife who is in your bosom, should wish to lead you astray from the truth, let your hand be upon them, and you shall shed their blood, and take away the evil from the midst of Israel. Again I say: Are then the relics of the Martyrs unclean? And what did the Apostles suffer, that they should attend the unclean body of Stephen with such great pomp of funeral, and make great lamentation over him; so that their mourning might be turned into our joy?

For as to what you say, that he execrates vigils, this too he does contrary to his own name, so that Vigilantius wishes to sleep, and does not hear the Savior saying: So could you not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray, that you enter not into temptation. The spirit indeed is willing, but the flesh is weak. And in another place the Prophet sings: At midnight I arose to give thanks to you, for the judgments of your justice. We read too in the Gospel that the Lord spent the night in prayer, and that the Apostles, shut up in prison, kept watch all night, so that while they sang psalms the earth was shaken, the keeper of the prison believed, the magistrates and the city were terrified. Paul speaks: Continue in prayer, watching therein. And in another place: In watchings often. Let Vigilantius then sleep, and, sleeping with the Egyptians, be suffocated by the destroyer of Egypt.

Let us say with David: He who keeps Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep; that the Holy One may come to us, and AIR, which is interpreted "watchful." And if at any time on account of our sins He should sleep, let us say to Him: Arise, why do you sleep, O Lord? And let us rouse Him, and, the boat tossing, let us cry out: Master, save us, we perish.

4. I had wished to dictate more, had not the brevity of a letter imposed on us the modesty of silence: and if you had been willing to send us his own little songs, that we might know to what points we ought to reply. But now we have beaten the air, and have disclosed not so much his unbelief, which is plain to all, as our own faith. But if you wish us to write a longer book against him, send me his trifles and follies, that he may hear John the Baptist proclaiming: Now the axe is laid to the root of the trees.

Every tree that does not bring forth good fruit shall be cut down, and cast into the fire.

1. "Although I suppose that before you took up this letter, my letters had already come into your hands, which I sent through the servant of God, our son Cyprian the Deacon, from which you would most certainly recognize that it was my letter, whose copies you have mentioned as having arrived there; whence I now think that, by your rescripts, as if by the heavy and sharp cestus-gloves of Entellus, I, like the bold Dares, have begun to be struck and buffeted about: yet now I will reply to those very letters of yours, which you have deigned to send me by our holy son Asterius, in which I have found much of your most benevolent charity toward me, and again certain indications of some offense of yours at me.

And so, where I was soothed as I read, there immediately I was struck: and this indeed I marvel at most of all, that although you say you did not think copies of my letters should rashly be trusted, lest perchance, if you should reply and I be hurt, I might justly complain that you ought first to have proved that the words were mine, and then written back; yet afterward you bid me, if the letter is mine, write openly, or send more accurate copies, so that without any rancor of feeling we may occupy ourselves in the discussion of the Scriptures. For how can we occupy ourselves in this discussion without rancor, if you are preparing to wound me? Or if you are not preparing to, how could I, not being wounded by you, justly complain that you ought first to have proved the words to be mine, and then written back, that is, and so wounded me? For unless by writing back you had wounded me, I could not justly complain.

Accordingly, since you write back in such a way as to wound, what place is left to us for occupying ourselves in the discussion of the Scriptures without any rancor? For my part, far be it that I should be wounded, if you should wish and be able to demonstrate to me by sure reasoning that from the Apostle's epistle, or anything else of the holy Scriptures, you have understood more truly than I: nay rather, far be it that I should not count it, with thanksgiving, among my gains, if I should be instructed by your teaching, or corrected by your amendment. 2. "Yet you, my dearest brother, unless you thought yourself wounded by my writings, would not think that I could be wounded by your rescripts. For in no way shall I have supposed this of you, which you yourself do not suppose to be so, if nevertheless you write back in such a way as to wound.

Or if, you not writing back in such a manner, I was thought, on account of my excessive folly, to be capable of being wounded, by this very fact you have plainly wounded me, in that you thought thus of me.

But in no way would you rashly believe me to be such a one, whom you have never found to be such, seeing that, even when you knew my style, you were unwilling rashly to trust the copies of my letters. For if you rightly saw that I would justly have complained, had you rashly believed to be my letters what were not mine: how much more justly should I complain, that I myself was rashly thought to be such as he who thought so had never found me to be? By no means, then, would you so far lapse, that, though you were not writing back in a way that would wound me, you would yet reckon me so exceedingly foolish as to be capable of being wounded even by such a rescript of yours. 3. "It remains, then, that you were disposed to wound me by your reply, if you knew by certain proof that those letters were mine.

And thus, since I do not believe that you would think me deserving to be wounded unjustly, it remains for me to acknowledge my sin, in that I first wounded you with those letters, which I cannot deny to be mine. Why then do I strive against the current of the river, and not rather ask pardon? I beseech you, then, by the meekness of Christ, that if I have wounded you, you forgive me, and do not, wounding me in turn, render evil for evil. But you will wound me, if you keep silent to me concerning my error, which perchance you may find in my writings or my sayings. For if you reprove in me things that are not to be reproved, you wound yourself rather than me: which be far from your character and holy purpose, that you should do this with a will to wound, blaming in me with a slanderous tooth something which with a truthful mind you know is not to be blamed.

And therefore either argue with a benevolent heart, even if he whom you think should be argued with lacks fault; or soothe with a father's affection him whom you cannot cast off. For it can happen that something may seem to you other than the truth holds, provided only that what you do is not other than charity holds. For I too will most gratefully accept your most friendly reproof, even if that which can rightly be defended did not deserve to be reproved. Or I shall acknowledge at once both your benevolence and my fault: and, as much as the Lord grants, may I be found in one respect grateful, in another corrected. 4. "What then? Shall I perhaps dread your harsh, but certainly wholesome words, as the cestus-gloves of Entellus? He was struck, not cured, and so was conquered, not healed. But I, if I receive your medicinal correction calmly, shall not grieve.

But if my infirmity, whether human or my own, even when truly reproved, cannot but be somewhat saddened; better is it that the swelling of the head should ache while it is being cured, than that it should be spared, and not healed. For this is what he saw acutely, who said that enemies who chide are often more useful than friends who fear to chide. For the former, while they wrangle, sometimes say true things, which we may correct: but the latter show less justice and freedom than is fitting, while they fear to embitter the sweetness of friendship. Wherefore even if perchance I am, as you seem to think, an ox wearied by the old age of my body, yet not by the vigor of my mind, sweating in fruitful labor on the Lord's threshing floor; behold, I am here, if I have said anything amiss, plant your foot the more firmly. It ought not to be troublesome to me, the weight of your years, provided that the chaff of my fault be ground away.

5. "Furthermore, as to what you set at the end of your letter, I both read and recall it with a sigh of great longing. Would that, you say, I might deserve your embraces; and that by mutual exchange we might either teach something, or learn something. But I say, would that we at least dwelt in neighboring regions of the earth; so that if our conversations could not be joined, our letters at least might be more frequent. But now we are so far apart in the interval of places from our own perceptions, that concerning those words of the Apostle to the Galatians, I recall that I wrote to your holiness while young; and behold, now an old man, I have still not deserved a reply; and copies of my letter would more easily have reached you, I know not by what occasion happening beforehand, than the letter itself, though I took care of it. For the man who had received it at that time neither carried it to you nor brought it back to me.

But so great do matters appear to me in your letters, which have been able to reach our hands, that I would prefer nothing among my studies, if I could, than to cling to your side. Since I cannot do this, I am thinking of sending to you one of our sons in the Lord to be instructed by you, if I shall also deserve a reply from you on this matter. For neither is there in me so much knowledge of the divine Scriptures, nor will there be able to be, as much as I see to be in you. And whatever ability I have in this matter, I spend it as I can upon the people of God. But to devote myself more diligently to studies than what the people need to be instructed in, on account of ecclesiastical occupations, I am altogether unable. 6. "I do not know what slanderous writings under your name reached Africa. We have received, however, what you deigned to send, replying to those slanders.

Having read it through, I confess I grieved much, that among persons so dear and familiar, joined by a bond of friendship most well-known to almost all the Churches, so great an evil of discord had arisen. And indeed how much you moderate yourself, and how much you restrain the stings of your indignation, so as not to return curse for curse, is sufficiently evident in your letters. Yet if I had read those very writings themselves, I would have wasted away with grief, and grown stiff with fear; what would those things which he wrote against you have done to me, had they perchance come into my hands? Woe to the world because of scandals. Behold, it comes to pass, behold, it is utterly fulfilled what the Truth says, Because iniquity has abounded, the charity of many shall grow cold. For to whom now may faithful hearts be safely poured out? Into whose bosom may love throw itself wholly, secure?

What friend, in short, is not to be feared as a future enemy, if this thing which we lament could arise between Jerome and Rufinus? O wretched and pitiable condition. O untrustworthy knowledge of present wills of friends, where there is no foreknowledge of things to come. But why should I think this to be lamented by one about another, when a man is not even known to himself for what is to come? For he knows, however scarcely, perhaps, what he is now; but what he will be afterward, he does not know. 7. "Moreover, not only this knowledge of what each one is, but even foreknowledge of what he is to be—whether it exists in the holy and blessed Angels, and how the devil was once blessed, when he was still a good angel, knowing his own future iniquity and everlasting punishment—I altogether do not see. On which matter, if indeed it is necessary to know it, I should like to hear from you what you think.

See what the lands and seas do, which separate us bodily. If this letter of mine, which you are reading, were I myself, you would already tell me what I have asked: but as it is, when will you write back? When will you send it? When will it arrive? When shall I receive it? And yet would that it might happen at some time, since what we wish to happen so quickly cannot happen so, we bear it with as much patience as we can. Hence I return to those sweetest words of your letter, most full of your holy longing, and I make them in turn my own: Surely we would deserve your embraces; and by mutual exchange we would either teach something, or learn something: if indeed it could in any way be, that I should teach you anything.

8. "But in these words, no longer only yours, but now mine also, where I am delighted and refreshed, and am consoled in no small part even by this very longing of us both, though it hangs suspended and does not attain its object: there again I am pierced by the sharpest goads of grief, when I consider that between you two, to whom God had granted, largely and abundantly, this very thing which each of us desired—that, most closely joined and familiar, you might together taste the honey of the holy Scriptures—such a ruin of bitterness has crept in, to be feared by no one, nowhere, by no man, considering that at that time, when, having already cast off worldly burdens, now unencumbered you were following the Lord, and were seeing together that land in which the Lord, walking with human feet, said, 'My peace I give to you, my peace I leave with you'—could this have happened to you, men mature in age, and dwelling in the eloquence of the Lord?

Truly human life upon earth is a temptation. Woe is me, who cannot find you both together somewhere: perhaps, as I am moved, as I grieve, as I fear, I would fall at your feet, I would weep as much as I were able, I would beg as much as I loved. Now each one of you for himself, now each for the other, and for others, and especially for the weak, for whom Christ died, who look upon you as it were in the theater of this life with great peril to themselves—lest, by writing of one another, you scatter abroad things which, when reconciled, you will not be able to erase, though now you are unwilling to be reconciled; or things which, being reconciled, you would fear to read, lest you quarrel again.

9. "Truly I say to your charity, nothing has made me tremble more than this example, when I read certain things in your letter to me, indications of your indignation—not those about Entellus and the weary ox, where you seemed to me rather to be jesting cheerfully than threatening angrily, but that which it is quite apparent you wrote in earnest, of which I have spoken above, perhaps more than I ought, but not more than I feared, where you said, Lest perchance, being wronged, you should justly complain. I ask you, if it can be done, that between us we seek and discuss something, whereby our hearts may be fed without the bitterness of discord. But if I cannot say what seems to me needing correction in your writings, nor you in mine, without suspicion of envy, or injury to friendship; let us rest from these things, and spare our life and salvation. Let that which puffs up certainly obtain less, provided that which builds up is not offended.

I feel myself to be far from that perfection of which it is written: If anyone does not offend in word, he is a perfect man. But plainly I think, in God's mercy, that I can easily ask pardon from you, if I have offended in anything which you ought to disclose to me; so that when I have heard you, you may gain your brother. For it is not because you cannot do this between me and you on account of the distance of lands, that you ought therefore to allow me to err. Indeed, as to the very matters which we wish to know, if I know, or believe, or think that I hold any truth, in which you think otherwise, I will try, as far as the Lord grants, to assert it without injury to you. But as to what concerns your offense, when I perceive you indignant, I will beg nothing else than pardon.

10. "Nor will I think at all that you could have been angered, unless either I said what I ought not to have said, or did not say it as I ought: because I do not wonder that we know each other less than we are known by our most close and familiar friends. Into whose charity I confess I easily cast myself wholly, especially when wearied by the scandals of the world; and in it I rest without any anxiety. For indeed I feel myself to be there, in him into whom I cast myself securely, and in whom I rest securely. Nor in this security of mine do I fear at all that uncertain morrow of human frailty, over which I groaned above. For when I perceive a man burning with Christian charity, and made a faithful friend to me by that charity, whatever of my counsels and thoughts I entrust to him, I do not entrust to a man, but to Him in whom he abides, that he may be such.

For God is charity; and he who abides in charity abides in God, and God in him: and if he should forsake it, it must needs cause as much sorrow as, while abiding, it had caused joy. Nevertheless, one who from an intimate friend has become an enemy should rather seek, cunningly, what he may feign; let him not find, in his anger, what he may betray. But this each one easily achieves, not by hiding what he has done, but by not doing what he would wish to be hidden. But if the mercy of God grants to the good and pious that, among friends, whoever they may afterward become, they may move about free and secure, not betraying the sins of others entrusted to them, which they fear to have betrayed, let them themselves commit none. For when something false is feigned by a slanderer, either it is not believed at all, or certainly, one's integrity remaining safe, only one's reputation is vexed.

But the evil which is actually committed is an intimate enemy, even if it is not spread abroad by the talkativeness or quarrel of any intimate. Wherefore who among the prudent does not see how tolerably even you bear the now incredible enmities of one once a most dear and intimate friend, with conscience consoling you; and how you reckon whatever he boasts, or whatever is perhaps believed by some, among the weapons of the left hand, with which no less than with those of the right hand one fights against the devil. Yet I should prefer that he be somehow gentler, rather than that you be thus more armed. This is a great and sad marvel, that from such friendships one should come to these enmities. It will be a joyful thing, and much greater, to have returned from such enmities to former concord."