Six Months with Jerome

“But on the familiarities that go on between virgins and monks, or even clergy, how true and how courageous his words were! Because of them he is said to be out of favor with certain people whom I would rather not name. For just as our Belgian friend is angry that we were accused of being too fond of eating, so those people too are said to rage when they find it written in that little work: ‘The virgin despises her own unmarried brother and goes looking for a stranger.’” [a]

At this I exclaimed: “You are going too far, my Gallic friend. Be careful that someone who perhaps recognizes himself in these things does not hear what you are saying and begin to have little affection for you, as he has for Jerome. Since you are an educated man, I will not be wrong to warn you with the line of that comic poet who says, ‘Giving way wins friends, while truth breeds hatred.’ Postumianus, go back instead to the account of the East that you began so well.” [b]

He said: “Well, as I had begun to tell you, I stayed six months with Jerome. He carries on unceasing war against the wicked and a constant struggle against the deadly hatred of ungodly men. The heretics hate him because he never stops attacking them; the clergy hate him because he attacks their lives and their crimes. But beyond doubt all good people admire and love him, for those who think he is a heretic are out of their minds. Let me tell the truth on this point: the man’s learning is catholic and his teaching is sound. He is always reading, always at his books with his whole heart. He takes no rest day or night; he is always either reading or writing something. In fact, if I had not been firmly resolved, and had not promised God that I would first visit the desert I had set my mind on, I would have been unwilling to leave so great a man for even the shortest time. So I handed over and entrusted to him all my possessions and my whole household. They had followed me against my wishes and kept me in a state of embarrassment, and once I was in a way freed of this heavy burden and given back my freedom to act, I returned to Alexandria. After visiting the brothers there, I set out from that place for the Upper Thebaid, that is, for the farthest borders of Egypt. For a great many monks were said to live in the wide solitudes of that desert. But it would be tedious if I tried to tell everything I saw there; I will only touch lightly on a few things. [c]