and which Jerome firmly rejected. He accepted the help of rabbis, given secretly for fear of the
Jews. In defending himself against Christian criticism he said: "Let him who would challenge
aught in this translation ask the Jews." Because of his acceptance of the Hebrew text in the form
which the Jews regarded as correct, his version had, at first, a largely hostile reception; but it
won its way, partly because Saint Augustine on the whole supported it. It was a great
achievement, involving considerable textual criticism.
Jerome was born in 345--five years after Ambrose--not far from Aquileia, at a town called
Stridon, which was destroyed by the Goths in 377. His family were well-to-do, but not rich. In
363 he went to Rome, where he studied rhetoric and sinned. After travelling in Gaul, he settled
in Aquileia, and became an ascetic. The next five years he spent as a hermit in the Syrian
wilderness. "His life while in the desert was one of rigorous penance, of tears and groans
alternating with spiritual ecstasy, and of temptations from haunting memories of Roman life; he
lived in a cell or cavern; he earned his daily bread, and was clad in sackcloth." * After this
period, he travelled to Constantinople, and lived in Rome for three years, where he became the
friend and adviser of Pope Damasus, with whose encouragement he undertook his translation of
the Bible.
Saint Jerome was a man of many quarrels. He quarrelled with Saint Augustine about the
somewhat questionable behaviour of Saint Peter as related by Saint Paul in Galatians II; he
broke with his friend Rufinus over Origen; and he was so vehement against Pelagius that his
monastery was attacked by a Pelagian mob. After the death of Damasus, he seems to have
quarrelled with the new Pope; he had, while in Rome, become acquainted with various ladies
who were both aristocratic and pious, some of whom he persuaded to adopt the ascetic life. The
new Pope, in common with many other people in Rome, disliked this. For this reason among
others, Jerome left Rome for Bethlehem, where he remained from 386 till his death in 420.
Among his distinguished female converts, two were especially notable: the widow Paula and
her daughter Eustochium. Both these ladies accompanied him on his circuitous journey to
Bethlehem. They were of the highest nobility, and one cannot but feel a flavour of
* Select Library of Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Vol. VI, p. 17.