accuracy of his version: “Let him who would challenge aught in this translation,” he says, “ask the Jews.” The result of all this labour was the Latin translation of the Scriptures which, in spite of much opposition from the more conservative party in the church, afterwards became the Vulgate or authorized version; but the Vulgate as we have it now is not exactly Jerome’s Vulgate, for it suffered a good deal from changes made under the influence of the older translations; the text became very corrupt during the middle ages, and in particular all the Apocrypha, except Tobit and Judith, which Jerome translated from the Chaldee, were added from the older versions. (See Bible: O.T. Versions.)
Notwithstanding the labour involved in translating the Scriptures, Jerome found time to do a great deal of literary work, and also to indulge in violent controversy. Earlier in life he had a great admiration for Origen, and translated many of his works, and this lasted after he had settled at Bethlehem, for in 389 he translated Origen’s homilies on Luke; but he came to change his opinion and wrote violently against two admirers of the great Alexandrian scholar, John, bishop of Jerusalem, and his own former friend Rufinus.
At Bethlehem also he found time to finish Didymi de spiritu sancto liber, a translation begun at Rome at the request of Pope Damasus, to denounce the revival of Gnostic heresies by Jovinianus and Vigilantius (Adv. Jovinianum lib. II. and Contra Vigilantium liber), and to repeat his admiration of the hermit life in his Vita S. Hilarionis eremitae, in his Vita Malchi monachi captivi, in his translations of the Rule of St Pachomius (the Benedict of Egypt), and in his S. Pachomii et S. Theodorici epistolae et verba mystica. He also wrote at Bethlehem De viris illustribus sive de scriptoribus ecclesiasticis, a church history in biographies, ending with the life of the author; De nominibus Hebraicis, compiled from Philo and Origen; and De situ et nominibus locorum Hebraicorum.[1] At the same place, too, he wrote Quaestiones Hebraicae on Genesis,[2] and a series of commentaries on Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, the Twelve Minor Prophets, Matthew and the Epistles of St Paul. About 394 Jerome came to know Augustine, for whom he held a high regard. He engaged in the Pelagian controversy with more than even his usual bitterness (Dialogi contra pelagianos); and it is said that the violence of his invective so provoked his opponents that an armed mob attacked the monastery, and that Jerome was forced to flee and to remain in concealment for nearly two years. He returned to Bethlehem in 418, and after a lingering illness died on the 30th of September 420.
Jerome “is one of the few Fathers to whom the title of Saint appears to have been given in recognition of services rendered to the Church rather than for eminent sanctity. He is the great Christian scholar of his age, rather than the profound theologian or the wise guide of souls.” His great work was the Vulgate, but his achievements in other fields would have sufficed to distinguish him. His commentaries are valuable because of his knowledge of Greek and Hebrew, his varied interests, and his comparative freedom from allegory. To him we owe the distinction between canonical and apocryphal writings; in the Prologus Galeatus prefixed to his version of Samuel and Kings, he says that the church reads the Apocrypha “for the edification of the people, not for confirming the authority of ecclesiastical doctrines.” He was a pioneer in the fields of patrology and of biblical archaeology. In controversy he was too fond of mingling personal abuse with legitimate argument, and this weakness mars his letters, which were held in high admiration in the early middle ages, and are valuable for their history of the man and his times. Luther in his Table Talk condemns them as dealing only with fasting, meats, virginity, &c. “If he only had insisted upon the works of faith and performed them! But he teaches nothing either about faith, or love, or hope, or the works of faith.”
Editions of the complete works: Erasmus (9 vols., Basel, 1516–1520); Mar. Victorius, bishop of Rieti (9 vols., Rome, 1565–1572); F. Calixtus and A. Tribbechovius (12 vols., Frankfort and Leipzig, 1684–1690); J. Martianay (5 vols., incomplete Benedictine ed., Paris, 1693–1706); D. Vallarsi (11 vols., Verona, 1734–1742), the best; Migne, Patrol. Ser. Lat. (xxii.–xxix.). The De viris illust. was edited by Herding in 1879. A selection is given in translation by W. H. Fremantle, “Select Library of Nicene and Post Nicene Fathers,” 2nd series, vol. vi. (New York, 1893). Biographies are prefixed to most of the above editions. See also lives by F. Z. Collombet (Paris and Lyons, 1844); O. Zöckler (Gotha, 1865); E. L. Cutts (London, 1878); C. Martin (London, 1888); P. Largent (Paris, 1898); F. W. Farrar, Lives of the Fathers, ii. 150–297 (Edinburgh, 1889). Additional literature is cited in Hauck-Herzog’s Realencyk. für prot. Theol. viii. 42.
JEROME, JEROME KLAPKA (1859– ), English author,
was born on the 2nd of May 1859. He was educated at the
philological school, Marylebone, London; and was by turns
clerk, schoolmaster and actor, before he settled down to journalism.
He made his reputation as a humorist in 1889 with Idle
Thoughts of an Idle Fellow and Three Men in a Boat, and
from 1892 to 1897 he was co-editor of the Idler with Robert
Barr. At the same time he was also the editor of To-Day. A
one-act play of his, Barbara, was produced at the Globe theatre
in 1886, and was followed by many others, among them Sunset
(1888), Wood Barrow Farm (1891), The Passing of the Third Floor
Back (1907). Among his later books are Letters to Clorinda
(1898), The Second Thoughts of an Idle Fellow (1898), Three Men
on the Bummel (1900), Tommy and Co. (1904), They and I (1909).
JEROME OF PRAGUE (d. 1416), an early Bohemian church-reformer
and friend of John Hus. Jerome’s part in the Hussite
movement was formerly much overrated. Very little is known
of his early years. He is stated to have belonged to a noble
Bohemian family[3]
and to have been a few years younger than
Hus. After beginning his studies at the university of Prague,
where he never attempted to obtain any ecclesiastical office,
Jerome proceeded to Oxford in 1398. There he became greatly
impressed by the writings of Wycliffe, of whose Dialogus and
Trialogus he made copies. Always inclined to a roving life, he
soon proceeded to the university of Paris and afterwards continued
his studies at Cologne and Heidelberg, returning to
Prague in 1407. In 1403 he is stated to have undertaken a
journey to Jerusalem. At Paris his open advocacy of the views
of Wycliffe brought him into conflict with John Gerson, chancellor
of the university. In Prague Jerome soon attracted
attention by his advanced and outspoken opinions. He gave
great offence also by exhibiting a portrait of Wycliffe in his room.
Jerome was soon on terms of friendship with Hus, and took part
in all the controversies of the university. When in 1408 a
French embassy arrived at Kutná Hora, the residence of King
Wenceslaus of Bohemia, and proposed that the papal schism
should be terminated by the refusal of the temporal authorities
further to recognize either of the rival popes, Wenceslaus summoned
to Kutná Hora the members of the university. The
Bohemian magistri spoke strongly in favour of the French proposals,
while the Germans maintained their allegiance to the
Roman pope, Gregory XII. The re-organization of the university
was also discussed, and as Wenceslaus for a time favoured
the Germans, Hus and Jerome, as leaders of the Bohemians,
incurred the anger of the king, who threatened them with death
by fire should they oppose his will.
In 1410 Jerome, who had incurred the hostility of the archbishop of Prague by his speeches in favour of Wycliffe’s teaching, went to Ofen, where King Sigismund of Hungary resided, and, though a layman, preached before the king denouncing strongly the rapacity and immorality of the clergy. Sigismund shortly afterwards received a letter from the archbishop of Prague containing accusations against Jerome. He was imprisoned by order of the king, but does not appear to have been detained long in Hungary. Appearing at Vienna, he was again brought
- ↑ Compare the critical edition of these two works in Lagarde’s Onomastica sacra (Götting. 1870).
- ↑ See Lagarde’s edition appended to his Genesis Graece (Leipzig, 1868).
- ↑ The statement that Jerome’s family name was Faulfiss, is founded on a misunderstood passage of Aeneas Sylvius, Historica Bohemica. Aeneas Sylvius names as one of the early Bohemian reformers a man “genere nobilis, ex domo quam Putridi Piscis vacant.” This was erroneously believed to refer to Jerome.
