HIERONYMUS DESIDERIO

Jerome to Desiderius. You now ask insistently, my brother Desiderius, that I speak most plainly to you, as it were, about the luminaries that shine throughout the whole firmament of the world—a few of the writers who have been able to bring forth for us, from the obscurities that hinder understanding on account of the carnal mind, many things into the splendor of spiritual contemplation. But I fear that the sentence pronounced against Susanna, daughter of Helchias, by the unjust judgment of the elders may be fulfilled in me, as she says: “I am in straits on every side.” And I likewise am in straits. For if I wish to reprove any of these men, I will stir up adversaries and enmities against myself on every side. But if I do not wish to do so, you will never find what you have asked for. Yet it seems better to condemn the will of one man than to disregard or despise the counsels of many, because each of them has deserved to be praised diligently in the Holy Scriptures, but I will touch upon all briefly and lightly, with all affection, so that I may fulfill both demands peacefully.

Augustine the bishop, flying over the peaks of mountains like an eagle, and not considering what happens at the roots of the mountains, proclaims with clear speech many spaces of the heavens, the positions of the lands, and the circle of the waters. For whoever wishes to climb into a fruitful tree hastens gradually to pluck the higher and larger fruits, but leaves the nearer branches to the little ones. But we, who are little, and weak, and lesser, if we have been able to gather the lower things, it will go well with us. Hilary, bishop of the Romans, light and lamp of the Churches, and a precious stone to which mortals scarcely ascend, speaks all things with beautiful speech and a golden mouth. For even if some things could have fallen by the wayside, yet from him a great harvest in the Scriptures has arisen. Origen Adamantius, thinking of higher and greater things, and not being able to bear his own talent, while he speaks of one thing, entangles himself through another. And when he had thought these things with excessive ardor of mind, he loaded himself with greater burdens, and when he could not proceed thus, he was cast down by a great ruin, so that his ruin prepared teachings through some inept seductions, and led many from the straight path onto another path, and his poison, like tinkling voices and the songs of the Sirens, was able to kill many. The best of all in good things, the worst in evil.

Some things, however, were sown by him along the way; yet many testify that some of his worst disciples published many poisonous things under his name. IV. Eusebius of Caesarea, key of the Scriptures and guardian of the New Testament, is acknowledged by the Greeks as greater than many in his writings. He wrote the Canons of the Four Gospels and eleven books of Ecclesiastical History, which narrate and guard the New Testament, and also a brief chronicle of times. These three are the distinguished works that bear witness in his writings, and we have never found anyone who could have followed in his footsteps before all others. V. Heliodorus the presbyter, looking through a small opening into a very large house, and trying closed doors without having the keys, barely managed to bring a few things to light, but what he was able to narrate, he faithfully told. VI. Ambrose the brother, snatched up by the fin of the deeps and a flier of the air, as long as he enters the deep, seems to pluck fruit from on high. And all his judgments are firm pillars of the faith of the Church and of all virtues.

VII. Dardanus, snatching up many questions through the cleverness of his mind, and not cracking the nut around the kernel, speaks many impossible things about the Scriptures with confidence. VIII. Paulinus thought it good to become a teacher, and he was not first a disciple, and he attempted to make fruit arise and be produced without a root. Therefore his writings need neither a writer nor paper. IX. Pelagius, about whom there is talk among the faithful, about whom also a serious case of his disputation has been announced to me throughout almost the whole world, whom all the Churches marvel at like a wolf from the forest, placing a golden color over black poison, mixed a sweet fountain of first honey with the bitterness of malice. X. Jovinianus, with a cheerful face and a harsh heart, having mixed the sweetest drink with gall, gave many to drink, and, bringing forth contrary opinions through hatred of opportunities for Christians, he constantly afflicts and vexes me (although laborious in all things) with endless questions.

XI. Julius [or Julianus] Africanus, whose footsteps all Eastern and Southern writers diligently and unanimously follow in the weeks of Daniel, constructed all the spans of time with complete expertise and continuous discourse, and no contradiction has ever been given throughout the whole world to anything that was said by him. XII. Favonius, blameworthy to many, attempted to thrust in with harsh and strong judgment all the most difficult things, and just as one who cannot sail against the waves of the sea, or who will not swim against the force of a torrent of water, so all the things he wrote against the Holy Scriptures could not stand; therefore they are like a shadow beside a man. Hilary, from Jerome’s Catalogue, chapter 100. Damasus, from chapter 103. Gregory Nazianzus, from chapter 117.