{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/206/2060025.htm","path":"chr/ecf/206/2060025.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/206/2060025.htm","text":"Letter XIV. To Heliodorus, Monk.\nHeliodorus, originally a soldier, but now a presbyter of the Church, had accompanied Jerome to the East, but, not feeling called to the solitary life of the desert, had returned to Aquileia. Here he resumed his clerical duties, and in course of time was raised to the episcopate as bishop of Altinum.\nThe letter was written in the first bitterness of separation and reproaches Heliodorus for having gone back from the perfect way of the ascetic life. The description given of this is highly colored and seems to have produced a great impression in the West. Fabiola was so much enchanted by it that she learned the letter by heart. 174 The date is 373 or 374 a.d.\n1. So conscious are you of the affection which exists between us that you cannot but p. 14 recognize the love and passion with which I strove to prolong our common sojourn in the desert. This very letter\u2014blotted, as you see, with tears\u2014gives evidence of the lamentation and weeping with which I accompanied your departure. With the pretty ways of a child you then softened your refusal by soothing words, and I, being off my guard, knew not what to do. Was I to hold my peace? I could not conceal my eagerness by a show of indifference. Or was I to entreat you yet more earnestly? You would have refused to listen, for your love was not like mine. Despised affection has taken the one course open to it. Unable to keep you when present, it goes in search of you when absent. You asked me yourself, when you were going away, to invite you to the desert when I took up my quarters there, and I for my part promised to do so. Accordingly I invite you now; come, and come quickly. Do not call to mind old ties; the desert is for those who have left all. Nor let the hardships of our former travels deter you. You believe in Christ, believe also in His words: \u201cSeek ye first the kingdom of God and all these things shall be added unto you.\u201d 175 Take neither scrip nor staff. He is rich enough who is poor\u2014with Christ.\n2. But what is this, and why do I foolishly importune you again? Away with entreaties, an end to coaxing words. Offended love does well to be angry. You have spurned my petition; perhaps you will listen to my remonstrance. What keeps you, effeminate soldier, in your father\u2019s house? Where are your ramparts and trenches? When have you spent a winter in the field? Lo, the trumpet sounds from heaven! Lo, the Leader comes with clouds! 176 He is armed to subdue the world, and out of His mouth proceeds a two-edged sword 177 to mow down all that encounters it. But as for you, what will you do? Pass straight from your chamber to the battle-field, and from the cool shade into the burning sun? Nay, a body used to a tunic cannot endure a buckler; a head that has worn a cap refuses a helmet; a hand made tender by disuse is galled by a sword-hilt. 178 Hear the proclamation of your King: \u201cHe that is not with me is against me, and he that gathereth not with me scattereth.\u201d 179 Remember the day on which you enlisted, when, buried with Christ in baptism, you swore fealty to Him, declaring that for His sake you would spare neither father nor mother. Lo, the enemy is striving to slay Christ in your breast. Lo, the ranks of the foe sigh over that bounty which you received when you entered His service. Should your little nephew 180 hang on your neck, pay no regard to him; should your mother with ashes on her hair and garments rent show you the breasts at which she nursed you, heed her not; should your father prostrate himself on the threshold, trample him under foot and go your way. With dry eyes fly to the standard of the cross. In such cases cruelty is the only true affection.\n3. Hereafter there shall come\u2014yes, there shall come\u2014a day when you will return a victor to your true country, and will walk through the heavenly Jerusalem crowned with the crown of valor. Then will you receive the citizenship thereof with Paul. 181 Then will you seek the like privilege for your parents. Then will you intercede for me who have urged you forward on the path of victory.\nI am not ignorant of the fetters which you may plead as hindrances. My breast is not of iron nor my heart of stone. I was not born of flint or suckled by a tigress. 182 I have passed through troubles like yours myself. Now it is a widowed sister who throws her caressing arms around you. Now it is the slaves, your foster-brothers, who cry, \u201cTo what master are you leaving us?\u201d Now it is a nurse bowed with age, and a body-servant loved only less than a father, who exclaim: \u201cOnly wait till we die and follow us to our graves.\u201d Perhaps, too, an aged mother, with sunken bosom and furrowed brow, recalling the lullaby 183 with which she once soothed you, adds her entreaties to theirs. The learned may call you, if they please,\nThe sole support and pillar of your house. 184\nThe love of God and the fear of hell will easily break such bonds.\nScripture, you will argue, bids us obey our parents. 185 Yes, but whoso loves them more than Christ loses his own soul. 186 The enemy takes sword in hand to slay me, and shall I think of a mother\u2019s tears? Or shall I desert the service of Christ for the sake of a father to whom, if I am Christ\u2019s servant, I owe no rites of burial, 187 albeit if I am Christ\u2019s true servant I owe these to all? Peter with his cowardly advice was an offence to the Lord on the eve of His passion; 188 and to the brethp. 15 ren who strove to restrain him from going up to Jerusalem, Paul\u2019s one answer was: \u201cWhat mean ye to weep and to break my heart? For I am ready not to be bound only, but also to die at Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.\u201d 189 The battering-ram of natural affection which so often shatters faith must recoil powerless from the wall of the Gospel. \u201cMy mother and my brethren are these whosoever do the will of my Father which is in heaven.\u201d 190 If they believe in Christ let them bid me God-speed, for I go to fight in His name. And if they do not believe, \u201clet the dead bury their dead.\u201d 191\n4. But all this, you argue, only touches the case of martyrs. Ah! my brother, you are mistaken, you are mistaken, if you suppose that there is ever a time when the Christian does not suffer persecution. Then are you most hardly beset when you know not that you are beset at all. \u201cOur adversary as a roaring lion walketh about seeking whom he may devour,\u201d 192 and do you think of peace? \u201cHe sitteth in the lurking-places of the villages: in the secret places doth he murder the innocent; his eyes are privily set against the poor. He lieth in wait secretly as a lion in his den; he lieth in wait to catch the poor;\u201d 193 and do you slumber under a shady tree, so as to fall an easy prey? On one side self-indulgence presses me hard; on another covetousness strives to make an inroad; my belly wishes to be a God to me, in place of Christ, 194 and lust would fain drive away the Holy Spirit that dwells in me and defile His temple. 195 I am pursued, I say, by an enemy\nWhose name is Legion and his wiles untold; 196\nand, hapless wretch that I am, how shall I hold myself a victor when I am being led away a captive?\n5. My dear brother, weigh well the various forms of transgression, and think not that the sins which I have mentioned are less flagrant than that of idolatry. Nay, hear the apostle\u2019s view of the matter. \u201cFor this ye know,\u201d he writes, \u201cthat no whore-monger or unclean person, nor covetous man, who is an idolater, hath any inheritance in the kingdom of Christ and of God.\u201d 197 In a general way all that is of the devil savors of enmity to God, and what is of the devil is idolatry, since all idols are subject to him. Yet Paul elsewhere lays down the law in express and unmistakable terms, saying: \u201cMortify your members, which are upon the earth, laying aside fornication, uncleanness, evil concupiscence and covetousness, which are 198 idolatry, for which things\u2019 sake the wrath of God cometh.\u201d 199\nIdolatry is not confined to casting incense upon an altar with finger and thumb, or to pouring libations of wine out of a cup into a bowl. Covetousness is idolatry, or else the selling of the Lord for thirty pieces of silver was a righteous act. 200 Lust involves profanation, or else men may defile with common harlots 201 those members of Christ which should be \u201ca living sacrifice acceptable to God.\u201d 202 Fraud is idolatry, or else they are worthy of imitation who, in the Acts of the Apostles, sold their inheritance, and because they kept back part of the price, perished by an instant doom. 203 Consider well, my brother; nothing is yours to keep. \u201cWhosoever he be of you,\u201d the Lord says, \u201cthat forsaketh not all that he hath, he cannot be my disciple.\u201d 204 Why are you such a half-hearted Christian?\n6. See how Peter left his net; 205 see how the publican rose from the receipt of custom. 206 In a moment he became an apostle. \u201cThe Son of man hath not where to lay his head,\u201d 207 and do you plan wide porticos and spacious halls? If you look to inherit the good things of the world you can no longer be a joint-heir with Christ. 208 You are called a monk, and has the name no meaning? What brings you, a solitary, into the throng of men? The advice that I give is that of no inexperienced mariner who has never lost either ship or cargo, and has never known a gale. Lately shipwrecked as I have been myself, my warnings to other voyagers spring from my own fears. On one side, like Charybdis, self-indulgence sucks into its vortex the soul\u2019s salvation. On the other, like Scylla, lust, with a smile on her girl\u2019s face, lures it on to wreck its chastity. The coast is savage, and the devil with a crew of pirates carries irons to fetter his captives. Be not credulous, be not over-confident. The sea may be as smooth and smiling as a pond, its quiet surface may be scarcely ruffled by a breath of air, yet sometimes its waves are as high as mountains. There is danger in its depths, the foe is lurking there. Ease your sheets, spread p. 16 your sails, fasten the cross as an ensign on your prow. The calm that you speak of is itself a tempest. \u201cWhy so?\u201d you will perhaps argue; \u201care not all my fellow-townsmen Christians?\u201d Your case, I reply, is not that of others. Listen to the words of the Lord: \u201cIf thou wilt be perfect go and sell that thou hast, and give to the poor, and come and follow me.\u201d 209 You have already promised to be perfect. For when you forsook the army and made yourself an eunuch for the kingdom of heaven\u2019s sake, 210 you did so that you might follow the perfect life. Now the perfect servant of Christ has nothing beside Christ. Or if he have anything beside Christ he is not perfect. And if he be not perfect when he has promised God to be so, his profession is a lie. But \u201cthe mouth that lieth slayeth the soul.\u201d 211 To conclude, then, if you are perfect you will not set your heart on your father\u2019s goods; and if you are not perfect you have deceived the Lord. The Gospel thunders forth its divine warning: \u201cYe cannot serve two masters,\u201d 212 and does any one dare to make Christ a liar by serving at once both God and Mammon? Repeatedly does He proclaim, \u201cIf any one will come after me let him deny himself and take up his cross and follow me.\u201d 213 If I load myself with gold can I think that I am following Christ? Surely not. \u201cHe that saith he abideth in Him ought himself also so to walk even as He walked.\u201d 214\n7. I know you will rejoin that you possess nothing. Why, then, if you are so well prepared for battle, do you not take the field? Perhaps you think that you can wage war in your own country, although the Lord could do no signs in His? 215 Why not? you ask. Take the answer which comes to you with his authority: \u201cNo prophet is accepted in his own country.\u201d 216 But, you will say, I do not seek honor; the approval of my conscience is enough for me. Neither did the Lord seek it; for when the multitudes would have made Him a king he fled from them. 217 But where there is no honor there is contempt; and where there is contempt there is frequent rudeness; and where there is rudeness there is vexation; and where there is vexation there is no rest; and where there is no rest the mind is apt to be diverted from its purpose. Again, where, through restlessness, earnestness loses any of its force, it is lessened by what it loses, and that which is lessened cannot be called perfect. The upshot of all which is that a monk cannot be perfect in his own country. Now, not to aim at perfection is itself a sin.\n8. Driven from this line of defence you will appeal to the example of the clergy. These, you will say, remain in their cities, and yet they are surely above criticism. Far be it from me to censure the successors of the apostles, who with holy words consecrate the body of Christ, and who make us Christians. 218 Having the keys of the kingdom of heaven, they judge men to some extent before the day of judgment, and guard the chastity of the bride of Christ. But, as I have before hinted, the case of monks is different from that of the clergy. The clergy feed Christ\u2019s sheep; I as a monk am fed by them. They live of the altar: 219 I, if I bring no gift to it, have the axe laid to my root as to that of a barren tree. 220 Nor can I plead poverty as an excuse, for the Lord in the gospel has praised an aged widow for casting into the treasury the last two coins that she had. 221 I may not sit in the presence of a presbyter; 222 he, if I sin, may deliver me to Satan, \u201cfor the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved.\u201d 223 Under the old law he who disobeyed the priests was put outside the camp and stoned by the people, or else he was beheaded and expiated his contempt with his blood. 224 But now the disobedient person is cut down with the spiritual sword, or he is expelled from the church and torn to pieces by ravening demons. Should the entreaties of your brethren induce you to take orders, I shall rejoice that you are lifted up, and fear lest you may be cast down. You will say: \u201cIf a man desire the office of a bishop, he desireth a good work.\u201d 225 I know that; but you should add what follows: such an one \u201cmust be blameless, the husband of one wife, vigilant, sober, chaste, of good behavior, given to hospitality, apt to teach, not given to wine, no striker but patient.\u201d 226 After fully explaining the qualifications of a bishop the apostle speaks of ministers of the third degree with equal care. \u201cLikewise must the deacons be grave,\u201d he writes, \u201cnot double-tongued, not given to much wine, not greedy of filthy lucre, holding the mystery of the faith in a pure conscience. And let these also first be proved; then, let them minister, being found blameless.\u201d 227 Woe to the man who goes in to the supper without a wedding garment. Nothing remains for p. 17 him but the stern question, \u201cFriend, how camest thou in hither?\u201d And when he is speechless the order will be given, \u201cBind him hand and foot, and take him away, and cast him into outer darkness; there shall be weeping and gnashing of teeth.\u201d 228 Woe to him who, when he has received a talent, has bound it in a napkin; and, whilst others make profits, only preserves what he has received. His angry lord shall rebuke him in a moment. \u201cThou wicked servant,\u201d he will say, \u201cwherefore gavest thou not my money into the bank that at my coming I might have required mine own with usury?\u201d 229 That is to say, you should have laid before the altar what you were not able to bear. For whilst you, a slothful trader, keep a penny in your hands, you occupy the place of another who might double the money. Wherefore, as he who ministers well purchases to himself a good degree, 230 so he who approaches the cup of the Lord unworthily shall be guilty of the body and blood of the Lord. 231\n9. Not all bishops are bishops indeed. You consider Peter; mark Judas as well. You notice Stephen; look also on Nicolas, sentenced in the Apocalypse by the Lord\u2019s own lips, 232 whose shameful imaginations gave rise to the heresy of the Nicolaitans. \u201cLet a man examine himself and so let him come.\u201d 233 For it is not ecclesiastical rank that makes a man a Christian. The centurion Cornelius was still a heathen when he was cleansed by the gift of the Holy Spirit. Daniel was but a child when he judged the elders. 234 Amos was stripping mulberry bushes when, in a moment, he was made a prophet. 235 David was only a shepherd when he was chosen to be king. 236 And the least of His disciples was the one whom Jesus loved the most. My brother, sit down in the lower room, that when one less honorable comes you may be bidden to go up higher. 237 Upon whom does the Lord rest but upon him that is lowly and of a contrite spirit, and that trembleth at His word? 238 To whom God has committed much, of him He will ask the more. 239 \u201cMighty men shall be mightily tormented.\u201d 240 No man need pride himself in the day of judgment on merely physical chastity, for then shall men give account for every idle word, 241 and the reviling of a brother shall be counted as the sin of murder. 242 Paul and Peter now reign with Christ, and it is not easy to take the place of the one or to hold the office of the other. There may come an angel to rend the veil of your temple, 243 and to remove your candlestick out of its place. 244 If you intend to build the tower, first count the cost. 245 Salt that has lost its savor is good for nothing but to be cast out and to be trodden under foot of swine. 246 If a monk fall, a priest shall intercede for him; but who shall intercede for a fallen priest?\n10. At last my discourse is clear of the reefs: at last this frail bark has passed from the breakers into deep water. I may now spread my sails to the breeze; and, as I leave the rocks of controversy astern, my epilogue will be like the joyful shout of mariners. O desert, bright with the flowers of Christ! O solitude whence come the stones of which, in the Apocalypse, the city of the great king is built! 247 O wilderness, gladdened with God\u2019s especial presence! What keeps you in the world, my brother, you who are above the world? 248 How long shall gloomy roofs oppress you? How long shall smoky cities immure you? Believe me, I have more light than you. Sweet it is to lay aside the weight of the body and to soar into the pure bright ether. Do you dread poverty? Christ calls the poor blessed. 249 Does toil frighten you? No athlete is crowned but in the sweat of his brow. Are you anxious as regards food? Faith fears no famine. Do you dread the bare ground for limbs wasted with fasting? The Lord lies there beside you. Do you recoil from an unwashed head and uncombed hair? Christ is your true head. 250 Does the boundless solitude of the desert terrify you? In the spirit you may walk always in paradise. Do but turn your thoughts thither and you will be no more in the desert. Is your skin rough and scaly because you no longer bathe? He that is once washed in Christ needeth not to wash again. 251 To all your objections the apostle gives this one brief answer: \u201cThe sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory\u201d which shall come after them, \u201cwhich shall be revealed in us.\u201d 252 You are too greedy of enjoyment, my brother, if you wish to rejoice with the world here, and to reign with Christ hereafter.\n11. It shall come, it shall come, that day when this corruptible shall put on incorrupp. 18 tion, and this mortal shall put on immortality. 253 Then shall that servant be blessed whom the Lord shall find watching. 254 Then at the sound of the trumpet 255 the earth and its peoples shall tremble, but you shall rejoice. The world shall howl at the Lord who comes to judge it, and the tribes of the earth shall smite the breast. Once mighty kings shall tremble in their nakedness. Venus shall be exposed, and her son too. Jupiter with his fiery bolts will be brought to trial; and Plato, with his disciples, will be but a fool. Aristotle\u2019s arguments shall be of no avail. You may seem a poor man and country bred, but then you shall exult and laugh, and say: Behold my crucified Lord, behold my judge. This is He who was once an infant wrapped in swaddling clothes and crying in a manger. 256 This is He whose parents were a workingman and a working-woman. 257 This is He, who, carried into Egypt in His mother\u2019s bosom, though He was God, fled before the face of man. This is He who was clothed in a scarlet robe and crowned with thorns. 258 This is He who was called a sorcerer and a man with a devil and a Samaritan. 259 Jew, behold the hands which you nailed to the cross. Roman, behold the side which you pierced with the spear. See both of you whether it was this body that the disciples stole secretly and by night. 260 For this you profess to believe.\nMy brother, it is affection which has urged me to speak thus; that you who now find the Christian life so hard may have your reward in that day.\nNepotian, afterwards famous as the recipient of Letter LII., and the subject of Letter LX.\n14:181\nPhi. iii. 20, R.V.\n14:182 14:183 14:184 14:185 14:186 14:187 14:188 15:189 15:190 15:191 15:192 15:193 15:194 15:195 15:196 15:197 15:198\nSo Jerome, although the Vulg. has \u201cis.\u201d\n15:199 15:200 15:201\nPublicarum libidinum victim\u00e6; words borrowed from Tertullian, de C. F. II. 12.\n15:202 15:203\nActs v., Ananias and Sapphira.\n15:204 15:205 15:206 15:207 15:208 16:209 16:210 16:211 16:212 16:213 16:214 16:215 16:216 16:217 16:218 16:219 16:220 16:221 16:222 16:223 16:224\nDeut. 17:5, 12.\n16:225 16:226\n1 Tim. 3:2, 3.\n16:227 17:228 17:229 17:230 17:231 17:232 17:233 17:234 17:235 17:236 17:237 17:238 17:239 17:240 17:241 17:242\nMatt. 5:21, 22.\n17:243 17:244 17:245 17:246 17:247\nRev. 21:19, 20.\n17:248\nFrom Cyprian, Letter I. 14 (to Donatus).\n17:249 17:250\nFrom Cyprian, Letter LXXVII. 2 (to Nemesianus).\n17:251 17:252 18:253 18:254 18:255 18:256 18:257\nFrom Tertullian, de Spect. xxx.\n18:258 18:259 18:260","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Ser. II, Vol. VI: The Letters of St. Jerome.: Letter XIV","type":"page"}