Jerome, Saint

JEROME, Saint. - One of the four great Doctors of the Latin Church.

I. LIFE

Son of Eusebius, born at Stridon, a stronghold destroyed by the Goths, on the borders of Dalmatia and Pannonia. The holy Doctor himself transmitted these particulars among his autobiographical notices in ch. 135 of the De viris, written in 392. Those lines concern the family, the date of birth and the place of origin of St. J. and many problems often discussed, most of which, in the absence of the necessary documents, cannot obtain a wholly satisfactory solution. His parents were Catholics and he received a Catholic education. The name of his mother is unknown, only that of a maternal aunt, Castorina, being known, with whom he later had difficulties. He had a fond memory of his grandmother's tenderness; but he left no memory of his mother. The family enjoyed a certain affluence, and, despite the destructions of the Goths, the family property was still in sufficiently good condition that, in 398, J. could hope to derive some profit from its sale. He had a sister who, for a time, caused him worries and whom he recommended to the clergy of Aquileia; and a younger brother, Paulinian, who was later to join him at Bethlehem and practice the monastic life there with him. The date of birth of St. J. is fixed by the Chronicle of Prosper; but it does not agree with the numerous particulars that St. J. himself gives about his early years. It seems rather that his birth should be fixed at c. 347, a date with which all his notices about his early education and his life at Rome agree. As for the exact position of Stridon it is impossible to fix it: no document, apart from the notice that St. J. gives of it, makes mention of this locality. Thus the most disparate and most improbable conjectures have been formulated on this point. One of these, which had won over scholars such as G. Morin and F. Bulić, and which placed Stridon at Grahovopolje in Bosnia, not far from Glamos, near the frontier of present-day Dalmatia, on account of an inscription in which the Stridonians were mentioned, had to be abandoned because it rested on a serious forgery, recognized by the author himself. Following D. Vallarsi, A. Vaccari and F. Cavallera believed they should rather seek ancient Stridon in the surroundings of Aquileia and Haemona, toward which the data of St. J.'s correspondence with his relatives and friends orient them. Morin had accepted this hypothesis but, in the appendix - June 1941, had once again changed his mind and, in an article in Nova et Vetera, had vigorously maintained the groundlessness of this solution, proposing to seek Stridon much farther east, on the line where the itineraries mark two ad fines and more probably where Qrin is presently located. Vaccari seems to have abandoned his former opinion; but Cavallera, without discussing the new hypothesis, attempted to demonstrate, in a recent article, that the arguments invoked for the surroundings of Aquileia retained all their force (La patrie de st Jérôme, in Bulletin de littérature ecclésiastique, 47 [1946], pp. 60-64).

Be that as it may, J. first received, in his father's house, a very careful education, regarding which he recalls the severity of his teacher, a new Orbilius, and the games in the large family house.

GIROLAMO, saint - St. J. leaves Rome and embarks for Jerusalem where he has himself taught the Hebrew language; he comments on the Bible before his disciples: he distributes copies of his translation to some monks who carry them to their monasteries. Miniature from the Bible of Charles the Bald (846-51) Paris, National Library, ms. lat. 1, fol. 3.

When the time came to perfect his education and to foster his tastes for liberal culture, J. was sent to Rome to be trained under the most prominent grammarians and rhetoricians: and he was an assiduous pupil of Donatus. A serious student, he took a deep interest in literature and in all the branches of knowledge cultivated at that time, including law and philosophy. If he did not go deeply into the study of Greek, he nevertheless took care from then on to form a select library. Studying with him were some young men who came from his own regions, such as Bonosus and Rufinus, or of Roman origin such as Pammachius, the future senator and son-in-law of Paula.

According to some testimonies, J. would have led at that time, with the young Romans, a very dissipated and frivolous life. But even more he came under the spell that Christianity exercised over the city, which had seen the martyrdom of St. Peter and St. Paul. On Sundays he frequented the catacombs, together with some friends who shared his Christian ideas, and he soon decided to receive the Baptism which, according to the custom of that time, he had until then deferred.

Having completed the normal cycle of his studies, he left Rome with a childhood friend of his, Bonosus, to go to Trier: his correspondence with Rufinus shows him occupied in transcribing manuscripts of Christian authors for himself and for his friends. At the same time he felt the first impulse toward the monastic vocation.

The reasons for this journey to Trier and the duration of his stay are unknown. As early as 373 he was back in Italy and he is found again at Aquileia, in a circle of fervent young men, grouped around the bishop Valerian to lead there, in an expression of J.'s, a heavenly life. But the group, it is not well known for what reason, dispersed a few months later. J. took advantage of this to set out for the East. Through Illyricum, Thrace, Pontus, Cappadocia, Bithynia, Galatia, he reached Antioch in 374. Of this journey he has left some recollection, in particular of his passage through Athens.

At Antioch he was first the guest of Evagrius, whom he had recently met in Italy and who, during a long and serious illness, assisted him with great devotion. It was then that he had that dream in which he was severely punished for his attachment to profane letters and swore never to take an interest in them again. As soon as he could, abandoning his plan to go and visit Jerusalem, he withdrew into the desert east of Antioch, among other monks who set him an example and devoted themselves to exercises of penance and to prayer, troubled at times by memories of his Roman youth. In that period he also began the study of Hebrew, in order to understand Holy Scripture better, even though he encountered great difficulties in it. He lived in that desert for almost two years, happy, it seems, and determined to persevere, when the demon of discord began to blow through the desert. The cause was the question of the Antiochene schism, which was then tearing apart the whole Church of the East. The monks immediately took sides, and each was asked for his preferences and his Creed. G. at first fought too, then, weary of the struggle, wrote to Pope Damasus to learn with whom he ought to communicate. Receiving no reply, he decided abruptly to leave the desert. Evagrius received him again, and since he had himself taken the side of Paulinus against Meletius, he had no great difficulty in making G. take that side as well. Paulinus immediately understood the importance of such an adherence and, to strengthen it, persuaded him to receive the priesthood from his own hands. G. made it a condition that he be left the possibility of practicing the monastic life: that was what he wished to safeguard above all else. At the same time, continuing his scriptural studies, he had occasion to hear some lectures of Apollinaris and to visit the Nazarenes of Beroea, among whom he was able to see their copy of the Hebrew Gospel, and he made his first attempts at composition. Until then he had contented himself with writing, with great care and some affectation, a few letters to his friends in the East and the West. He also attempted a short commentary on Obadiah and perhaps also his Altercatio Luciferiani et Orthodoxi. Nevertheless, the great capital of the East, which Theodosius had restored to free Nicene orthodoxy and in which Gregory Nazianzen was exercising so fruitful and luminous an apostolate, attracted him. He went there, it seems, in 379 and became the assiduous disciple of Gregory, living beside him through the stormy days of the Council of 381, which also gave him the occasion to meet St. Gregory of Nyssa and St. Amphilochius. In their school G. perfected his knowledge of Greek and learned above all to esteem Origen, of whom he began to translate a certain number of homilies on Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Isaiah. Ecclesiastical history also interested him. At the request of his friends Vincent and Gallienus he translated and continued down to his own time the Chronicle of Eusebius, while awaiting the opportunity to carry out (which he never did) the project of writing a History of his own time.

It is not known on what occasion G. made the acquaintance of St. Epiphanius, bishop of Salamis. In

382 Paulinus of Antioch and the latter, desirous of going to Rome, took him with them. G. then felt himself seized again by the charm of the eternal city and let the two friends set out alone in the spring of 383. He had in fact obtained the full confidence of Pope Damasus, who gladly had recourse to his services for his official correspondence and also for the study of Holy Scripture, in which G. already showed himself an incontestable master.

During this Roman sojourn G. applied himself with an ardor that difficulties would only have increased to a double task, tirelessly pursued: the propagation of the monastic life, especially in the feminine circles of the Roman aristocracy, and the study of Holy Scripture in the original Hebrew text. Among the tasks imposed on him by the trusting friendship of the aged Pope Damasus one must also note the revision of the Latin text of the Gospels: G. himself collated the Hebrew text of the Bible with that furnished him by certain manuscripts that served the Jews of Rome. Above all, he had organized in Marcella's house on the Aventine a kind of conference, where he taught the noble lady and her daughters to understand the original text of the psalms, which they thus sang with greater understanding and piety; and he answered orally or in writing the difficulties they encountered in reading the sacred text.

This twofold apostolate, especially that in favor of the monastic life, did not take long to arouse lively opposition, to which G. replied with scathing answers concerning the relaxed life of too many Christians and especially of clerics or of monks and virgins too little faithful to their ideal. His letters of that time bear witness to this, particularly the famous letter XXII to Eustochium, daughter of Paula, one of his most illustrious and faithful adherents. Other letters in the form of funeral eulogies, on Blesilla, another daughter of Paula, on the widow Lea, whose blessed lot he contrasted with that of Praetextatus, to whom the widow had rendered vain honors in paganism after his death, allowed him to renew with his criticisms the replies to the continual attacks of which he was the object, and his intense propaganda for Christian perfection and for scriptural studies. As long as Damasus lived, the favor of the Pontiff sufficed to defend him. Some, indeed, thought of him for the succession. But, when Damasus died on 11 Dec. 384, Siricius was elected pope, and since he did not seem to show any particular esteem for G., the enmities against him had free rein: infamous accusations were made against him, to which he responded victoriously but which inspired in him an insurmountable disgust for staying in that unworthy Babylon. In Aug. 385, venting all his acrimony in a farewell letter to Asella, he embarked definitively for the East, which he was never to leave again.

Having been joined at Salamis in Cyprus by Paula, who had also left Rome for Palestine with her daughter Eustochium, he set out by short stages, through the lauras of Egypt and the biblical cities of Palestine, toward Bethlehem, where the women's monasteries founded by Paula soon rose, along with the house of monks that G. would direct, with the Hospice for pilgrims, where he would exercise the widest hospitality.

He would never leave it again except for some brief journeys within Palestine itself, as, for example, to consult at Caesarea the only copy of the Hexapla compiled by the hand of Origen himself, or to flee the persecution for the Pelagian [controversy] in the spring of 416. But although G. had physically left the West, no one was better informed than he about what was happening there. Numerous are the pilgrims who, on their journey to the Holy Places, make a more or less lengthy stop at Bethlehem. Even more numerous are the letters that G. receives from all the regions of the West, often accompanied by subsidies that enable him to meet the considerable expenses necessary for his works and for this continuous correspondence. A life singularly monotonous in appearance, but abundantly filled with prayer, work, and the exercise of charity. The years pass, all resembling one another and distinguished only by the diversity of the subjects to which he applies his activity, of the enemies of the Faith whom he must combat, and of the bereavements that strike him one after another. G. remains in the breach until the very end, fighting and continuing to urge others, in particular St. Augustine, to resist the enemies of God, when he himself no longer has the strength necessary to fight any longer. On this battlefield, in the midst of the struggle against Pelagianism, in 419-20, God came to gather him to give him eternal reward.

II. WORKS

In the first place among his works stands his correspondence, without doubt the most widely read, together with the Vulgate, of all Jerome's works. In every age it has been preferred by scholars and is a precious source not only for the life and activity of St. J., but also for the history of his time. Increased in 1910 by a few short letters, it comprises 154 of them in the notable critical edition published by I. Hilberg in the CSEL. There are also found in it twenty letters from other correspondents. Most of them have as their subject not only scriptural difficulties, but also the other controversies of the time and the concern for Christian formation or education, and also obituary notices.

His revision of the Gospels is the oldest work of this kind, undertaken, as has been seen, at the request of Pope Damasus. Its value is unanimously recognized, whereas for the rest of the New Testament the Latin text leaves much to be desired. Some dispute its authenticity, which is however generally accepted. What creates difficulty is precisely the negligence with which this work would have been carried out and the fact that J. sharply criticizes certain readings preserved in that text (critical edition by I. Wordsworth and H. G. White, minor, Oxford 1911; maior in fascicles; Gospels, ibid. 1889-98; Epistulae Paulinae, ibid. 1913-1941).

The revision of the ancient Latin version of the Septuagint and in particular of the Psalter. - J. corrected twice the Latin text of the Psalter, above all in order to add the diacritical marks to it. While all are agreed in attributing to him the Psalterium Gallicanum, there is still discussion about the authenticity of the Psalterium Romanum. For the rest of the Old Testament, J. affirms that he translated it all entirely but that he was robbed of it. Of the work there remain the revision of Job and what represents the text of the Septuagint, in his commentary on the major and minor prophets.

Vulgate. - Soon, after having settled definitively at Bethlehem, J., while continuing to perfect himself in the knowledge of Hebrew, decided to translate the sacred books from the original text. He began this work in 389 and pursued it tenaciously, amid various occupations, until 405, when he considered it finished, leaving aside Maccabees, Ecclesiasticus, Wisdom, Baruch and various other parts whose canonicity seemed to him debatable. A work full of merit, in general very accurate, which endowed the Latin world with a version of the Bible far superior not only to the one it already possessed, but also to all the other versions taken together, with the exception of that of the Septuagint. Despite some shortcomings, J. knew how to unite the concern for elegance with that of fidelity to the text. His work earned him unfailing encouragements and oppositions, of which certainly not the least was that of St. Augustine himself, very attached to the ancient Vulgate because of his exaggerated pastoral concerns. The work, long disputed, ended by imposing itself unanimously from the 7th century onward and received from the Council of Trent the great honor of becoming the official (authentic) Latin translation. Nevertheless, out of respect for the habits of the Christian people, the translation of the psalms did not replace the Psalterium Gallicanum, which was, moreover, also corrected by J. The Benedictines of the monastery of St. Jerome in Rome, entrusted by the Holy See with publishing the critical edition of the Vulgate, brought out in 1948, with the Liber Verborum dierum, the seventh volume of their edition.

Commentaries on the Old and New Testaments. - It seems that the first literary ambition of St. J. was to translate as many as possible of the works of Origen, whom he then admired passionately, and of other Greek Christian authors, while also exercising himself in composing on his own. Besides the minor works already mentioned, he comments twice on Is. 6; he translates two homilies of Origen on the Canticle, begins in Rome the version of Didymus's treatise on the Holy Spirit. With Ecclesiastes he gives Blesilla lessons in detachment from the world. He turns to the Epistles of St. Paul, and there follows even, more than he should, the Origenian exegesis, especially in his commentary on the Epistle to the Ephesians; he also comments on the Epistle to the Galatians, that to Titus, that to Philemon. Dissatisfied with Ambrose's commentary on St. Luke, he translates 39 homilies of Origen on this Gospel and at the same time composes on his own account, bringing out the rabbinic traditions, the Liber Hebraicarum quaestionum in Genesim. The psalms attract him, and after the Commentarioli which are brief scholia on them, he composes treatises far more extensive and with a more pronounced scientific character. Meanwhile he continues his translation of the Bible from the Hebrew, and an extensive commentary, first on the minor prophets, then on the four major ones (In XVI prophetas), leaving that on Jeremiah unfinished, without it being possible to know, however, whether it was illness that interrupted his work. This is his great exegetical work in which, without realizing it, he follows in the footsteps of Origen whom he now abhors, because of his manner of intensively using the spiritual sense and of continually opposing it to the vilitas litterae, which is however always carefully established. In the meantime, responding to a request of his friend Eusebius of Cremona who was returning to the West, he writes a purely literal commentary, at least in intention, on St. Matthew, a commentary that is still today among his most useful works. The others are stuffed with sacred and profane erudition, with anecdotes, with citations of sacred authors, and interest much more in this respect than for the direct exegesis, which presents, in a tiring monotony, the ordinary themes of spiritual interpretation, finding in the Hebrews and their enemies the symbol of the struggles of Christ and of the Church, of the devil, of the heretics, of the sinners. There also find a place the applications of morality; but they do not have the same interest as the analogous works of Origen, who is incontestably the model followed.

To these studies must be added some less notable works but useful for the introduction to scriptural studies: the Liber interpretationis nominum Hebraicorum, an etymological list of Hebrew proper names which is a source of development of "spiritual exegesis," in the same way as the etymologies with numbers. The usual editions of the Bible until recent times reproduced a list of this kind, a testimony to the importance attributed to it in certain circles. Much more useful is the adaptation that J. gave, adding also something of his own, of Eusebius's Palestinian geography known under the name of Onomasticon or Liber de situ et nominibus locorum Hebraicorum, "a capital work of geography for the 4th century, still today of great help for the knowledge of Palestine in biblical times" (Abel).

These works referring directly or indirectly to Sacred Scripture are not, however, the whole of J.'s literary output. To them must be added the numerous works dictated to him by the necessity of defending the Faith and by polemics. Such are the treatise Contra Luciferianos, the earliest work, it seems, of the genre, whose occasion for being written is unknown: the Liber de perpetua virginitate

Beatae Mariae (384) against Helvidius, where he victoriously refutes the objections sought in the Gospel against the virginity of Mary and where he is the first to affirm the virginity of St. Joseph. From 393 are the books Contra Iovinianum, the most brilliant work of the Jeronimian polemic, but often under the influence of Tertullian, of an excessive crudeness of language and of an exaggerated severity against marriage. Pammachius invited him to give some reassuring explanation on the subject, which G. did quite willingly (letters 48-50), but this did not prevent St. Augustine, in 400-401, from believing himself obliged to give a clarification on the subject in the De bono coniugali. In 396, G. wrote a letter of reproaches to Vigilantius and in 406 an even harsher treatise against the same. But already by this latter date the lively polemic provoked by anti-Origenism had unfolded, and there, not content with fighting Rufinus on his own account, he had also made himself the tireless auxiliary, with his translations and his action, of Theophilus of Alexandria and of St. Epiphanius. Besides numerous letters, he composed the treatise against John of Jerusalem, the reply to the attacks of Rufinus under the name of Apologia and even, at the invitation of Pammachius and of Marcella, the excessively literal translation of Origen's Periarchón, unfortunately lost. Then there was the Pelagian controversy, in which G. had the merit of being one of the first to intervene, first with letter 133 to Tesiphon, then with the Dialogus adversus Pelagianos, where, in his own way, he refutes his adversaries especially with the help of scriptural texts.

G. likewise felt at ease in the field of hagiography, in which he intervened on several occasions and to which the obituaries he composed during his Roman stay are quite logically connected: the funeral eulogies of Nepotian, of Paula, of Fabiola, etc. He also composed the legendary life of St. Paul of Thebes, that of St. Hilarion, and added to these the most graceful account of the hermit Malchus. His taste for the monastic life also led him to translate certain documents of Egyptian origin, of which Boon has recently given a critical edition, under the title Pachomiana latina (Rules of St. Pachomius and of St. Theodore). To these may be added the strange sermons recently rediscovered and published by Morin in vol. III of the Anecdota Maredolana: familiar sermons, addressed to his monks on the duties of the monastic life, which allow one to grasp vividly what transformation the texts underwent when they were intended for the general public.

This whole, without entering into greater particulars, is sufficient to give a broad idea of the formidable work that G. produced in the course of his long career, of this power of work that allowed him to pursue, in his immense and daily correspondence, studies so diverse as to require truly obstinate labor.

III. DOCTRINE

St. J. occupies a wholly particular place in the history of dogma. He never attempted to make a synthesis of Christianity nor to set forth particularly his own points of view in matters of dogma. What characterizes him best is, it seems, the expression, already dear to Origen and which he willingly makes his own, of vir ecclesiasticus, he whose only concern is to remain faithful to the teaching of the Church. He willingly makes use of his freedom in the field of free opinions and, with a touch of pedantry, he also often displays his erudition in this regard, setting out in minute detail the bizarre or unusual opinions that he encounters along his way, without however normally making them his own. But in the field of the revealed he is content to be an echo: he coins admirable formulas to express it, but generally goes no further. He does not seek to set it off by personal reasonings but prefers to let the scriptural texts speak or to find in his extensive sacred and profane erudition complementary testimonies that will bring the weight of their venerable authority in favor of his statements.

Thus, it is much easier to gather in him, as C. Schulting did in his Confessio Hieronymiana (4 vols., Cologne 1645), abundant elements for a very rich and very orthodox anthology, than to detect somewhat extended demonstrations and detailed expositions of a speculative character even in the scriptural matters that were the object of his ordinary concerns. On the other hand, writing in haste and most often dictating, he was often carried away, under the influence of his immense erudition and his memories, to use formulas and to point out, without the necessary reservations, opinions that left something to be desired. One would run the risk of falsifying his true thought if one gave to these oddities an importance that confessional polemic has often exaggerated. Notwithstanding this, he is very often an excellent interpreter of common thought, e.g., on the authority of Scripture, on its divine origin, on the unity of the Church and on the papal primacy, on the virginity of Mary, on the legitimacy of the cult of the saints and of the usual manifestations of piety and on the excellence of virginity. On the other hand, his thought has often given occasion, in all centuries, for interminable discussions not only concerning the canon of Scripture, where he was in conflict with St. Augustine and the doctrine defined at Trent, but also on the eternal fate of Catholics who died in sin, on the origins of the episcopate, on the power of the keys. On the whole, his works remain an inexhaustible source of information of every kind both for the theologian and for the scholar; above all J. has left to all the incomparable example of a life wholly sanctified by prayer and by assiduous work that neither frequent illnesses nor the most stubborn opposition ever succeeded in interrupting. The harshnesses of a difficult character, but sensitive to the charm of friendship, are a small thing beside these fundamental qualities and the extraordinary services that with his biblical works, and especially with his translation from the Hebrew, J. rendered to the Church.

Recent studies: G. Grützmacher, Hieronymus, 3 vols., Berlin 1901, 1906, 1908; F. Cavallera, St Jérôme, sa vie et son œuvre, part 1, 2 vols., Louvain 1922; A. Penna, S. G., Turin 1949. On the other excellent publications, see the critical and bibliographical notes of Bardenhewer, III, pp. 605-54; Schanz, IV, pp. 439-99; P. Vaccari, S. G., studi e schizzi, Rome 1921. Among the various studies and monographs, besides the Miscellanea Geronimiana, Rome 1921, see L. Sanders, Etudes sur st Jérôme, Brussels 1903; T. Tracinski, Die dogmatischen Schriften des hl. H., Posen 1917; D. Gorce, La «lectio divina», st Jérôme et la lecture sacrée, Paris 1925; J. Forget, s. v. in DThC, VIII, 1 (1924), coll. 894-983; F. Cavallera, s. v. in DBs, IV (1949), coll. 889-97; J. P. O'Connell, The eschatology of st. Jerome, Mundelein 1948; A. Penna, Principi e carattere dell'exegi di s. G., Rome 1959.

Ferdinando Cavallera

IV. LAW

There are numerous passages of juridical content in G.'s work. It is even thought that they find their justification in his intention to pursue a political career. For these reasons too, some writers had attributed to him the Collatio legum Mosaicarum et Romanarum.

In his writings he touches on every field of law, from private law to criminal and procedural law.

The most interesting points, however, are those relating to the law of persons and of the family. Thus we see slavery treated, with a particular inquiry into the well-known question of the servus fugitivus (PL 26, 638 ff.); we see the favor pudicitiae exalted, in connection with Marriage and in contrast both with Roman legislation and with Jewish legislation; thus we encounter the affirmation that Marriage is contracted by the initial consent and is not dissolved except by the death of one of the two spouses (PL 22, 1048-49); some passages deal with the Pauline privilege and with the impediment of disparity of worship (PL 22, 233-34).

But equally important affirmations are found on other subjects: thus the one on the theme of property, that goods are given for the use of all men and that he is iniquitous who does not give fratribus ad intendum quod a Deo pro omnibus est creatum (PL 22, 1019). Special duties of clerics in the use of temporal goods are affirmed, and severe affirmations are found such as this: Negotiatorem clericum et ex inope divitem... quasi quandam pestem fuge (PL 22, 531).

Of particular interest, moreover, are the allusions to the duty of remaining faithful even to simple promises, in contrast to the Roman principle: Nuda pactio obligationem non parit. It has been acutely observed, however, that in comparison with the great number of passages of juridical content, the references to Roman law are not very abundant, even though G. knew it well and it constitutes the framework of his juridical culture; a scarcity of direct references that is an interesting confirmation of that phenomenon called the autonomy of patristics.

V. ICONOGRAPHY

Portrayed for the first time on the diptych of Boethius at Brescia (after 602), St. J. was invested, from the end of the 13th century, with the cardinal's hat, and already in a fresco by Tommaso da Modena (1352) also with the cardinal's robes, beneath which he is then one of the most frequently depicted saints, appearing very often with the lion of the legend as his individual attribute, alone or in the teacher's chair, in the "sacred conversations" or associated with the other Doctors of the Church.

In addition to this, two particular types of Hieronymite images took shape in the late Middle Ages. The first, which corresponds to the humanistic current and ultimately goes back to the so-called "author portraits" of illuminated codices, represents the Saint in his study, amid his books (paintings by Colantonio in Naples and by Antonello da Messina in London, fresco by D. Ghirlandaio in Ognissanti in Florence; print by Dürer, Hieronymus im Gehäus, paintings by L. Cranach the Elder, etc.); the second, rooted perhaps even more deeply in the spirit of the age, concerns St. J. as a penitent in the desert scourging himself with a stone before a Crucifix. This latter subject too, especially dear to the carvers of the German late Gothic, was treated throughout the Renaissance, with great commitment, by the greatest painters of Italy and of the other regions of Europe. Mention is made only of the works of Cosmè Tura (London), B. Montagna (Milan, Poldi Pezzoli Museum), Leonardo da Vinci (Vatican Picture Gallery), Lorenzo Lotto (Paris and Madrid), Titian (Louvre and Brera), Jacopo Bassano (Venice, Accademia), G. David (Frankfurt and London); and on the other hand the artists of the Baroque age, Caravaggio, Ribera, Rubens, van Dyck, for example, also depicted a variant of the theme, already existing in Flemish Mannerism and in Dürer's painting in Lisbon: St. J. contemplating the skull, symbol of vanity. The narrative cycles of the Saint's legend begin to appear in the miniatures of the Bible of Charles the Bald (Paris) and in those of the Bible known as that of Charles the Fat (Rome, S. Paolo fuori le mura), which lead one to presuppose common models; among the most important later examples are to be remembered the paintings of Carpaccio in the Scuola degli Schiavoni in Venice, the reliefs of Mino da Fiesole in the Museo artistico-industriale in Rome and the frescoes of Domenichino in the atrium of S. Onofrio in Rome (where there is also the celebrated "anti-Ciceronian vision", rarely depicted elsewhere). Among the individual episodes, finally, mention deserves to be made of the last Communion of St. J. (Vatican Picture Gallery, 1614), a masterpiece of Domenichino himself inspired by a composition of A. Carracci.

Kurt Rathe

VI. SOCIETY OF ST. JEROME

Pious society for the diffusion of the Gospels, established in Rome in 1902 as an autonomous body with its own funds and contributions from members, later placed under the authority of the Holy See. It has St. Jerome as its patron. It is composed of 12 resident members and other benefactor and honorary members. At the first meeting, held on 27 April 1902 at the residence of Msgr. G. Della Chiesa (later Benedict XV), there were present Card. M. Mocenni, honorary president, Fathers A. Lepidi, A. Conrado, G. Genocchi, the priest G. Clementi, F. Federici, G. Mercati, and Messrs. E. Puccinelli, G. P. Scotti, B. Nogara. From 1906 the meetings were held at the Secretariat of State of His Holiness. The purpose of the Society of St. Jerome is «the printing and diffusion of the Holy Gospels in the Italian language, and it extends its activity to all the countries in which this language is spoken». The version it disseminates, based on the Vulgate with brief notes, was edited by G. Clementi, G. Mercati and B. Nogara (1902); it was revised (1918) by E. Benedetti and G. Genocchi. A new edition appeared in 1950.

It also publishes the separate Gospels of Matthew and Luke. To the Gospels were added the Acts of the Apostles and a prayer manual with illustrations. Already by 30 Nov. 1902 it had distributed 119,702 copies. The last reprint, the 516th, is from 1944, out of print. Among the various proposals was that of extending the version to the entire New Testament, of paraphrasing the Old Testament and of publishing a life of Jesus. The Society has no commercial aims, but it distributes its publications at prices accessible to all. The supreme pontiffs, especially Pius X and Benedict XV, encouraged and helped it. Pius XII expresses his satisfaction in a letter to Card. F. Tedeschini, protector of the Society of St. Jerome (AAS, 42 [1950], p. 552). - See plate XLVIII.

Bonaventura Mariani