Continuing the series of translations of previously untranslated letters of St Jerome, today we have letter 154. We’ve just done 151, 152 and 153. 154 is the final letter in the collection. But we have three more untranslated letters to deal with, none actually from Jerome himself. We will come to these next!
154. TO DONATUS.
To the holy and most worthy lord Donatus, from Jerome.
1. It is written, “Many are the scourges of sinners”, [Ps. 31: 10] which we do testify that we have both deservedly endured and do endure, provided that they lead to our future salvation. But that the hearts of heretics cannot be cleansed, I am a witness, for it has been decreed to me to never believe in their repentance; because they feign charity to this end, to destroy by means of fake friendships those whom they could not kill through enmity. Their hearts are full of poison and, as you have most aptly said, neither can “the Ethiopian change his skin nor the leopard his spots” [Jer. 13:23]. Yet we do believe that, in the mercy of Christ my lord, the holy and venerable bishop Boniface, will root them out, whom in the spirit of Christ we must pardon if, at the outset, he offers charity and tries to save through his own mercifulness and gentleness those who nevertheless can never be healed. I will say frankly what I feel: with these heretics, that saying of David must be applied: “In the morning I put to death all the wicked of the land.” [Ps. 100:8] They must be destroyed, spiritually killed, cut off with the sword of Christ, they who will never receive health through plasters and gentle treatments.
2. The passing of the holy and venerable lady Eustochium has grieved us deeply. You know that she gave up her spirit in the very heat of confession, and she preferred to abandon her family estate and her home and endure honourable exile rather than be stained by communion with heretics.
3. I pray that you will greet my holy son Mercator on my behalf, and that you will admonish him to show the fervour of his faith and to shun those tainted by any suspicion of the Pelagian heresy. I especially beseech you to greet my holy sons Marcus, Januarius, Primus, Restitutus, and Trajan, all my fellow soldiers in the Lord. The ruin of others was for them the cause of their salvation. As for me, worn out by grief and extreme age, and broken down by frequent illnesses, I can scarcely utter these few words.
Here’s the Latin.
CLIV. AD DONATUM.
Domino sancto et multum suscipiendo Donato Hieronymus.
1. Scriptum est: multa flagella peccatorum, quae nos et merito sustinuisse et sustinere testamur, dummodo proficiant in futuram salutem. Haereticorum autem pectora non posse purgari, ego testis sum, cui decretum est numquam paenitentiae eorum credere, ad hoc enim simulant caritatem, ut, quos per inimicitias occidere non potuerunt, per fictas amicitias interficiant. Pectora eorum plena sunt venenis et — secundum quod optime locutus es — nec “Aethiops mutare pellem nec pardus varietates suas.” Tamen credimus in Christi misericordiam quod dominus meus sanctus et venerabilis episcopus Bonifatius eradicet eos, spiritu Christi cui debemus ignoscere, si in principiis suis offert caritatem, et per clementiam suam et mansuetudinem servare conatur, qui tamen numquam curandi sunt. Vere dicam quod sentio: in his haereticis illud exercendum est Daviticum: “in matutinis interficiebam omnes peccatores terrae.” Delendi sunt, spiritaliter occidendi, immo Christi mucrone truncandi, qui non possunt per emplastra et blandas curationes recipere sanitatem.
2. Sanctae et venerabilis dominae Eustochiae nos vehementer dormitio contristavit, quam in ipso confessionis ardore sciatis spiritum reddidisse, libentiusque habuit et rem familiarem et domum suam dimittere et honorata exilia sustinere quam haereticorum communione maculari.
3. Sanctum filium meum Mercatorem ut meo obsequio salutes precor, et moneas, ut ostendat ardorem fidei et detestetur eos, qui suspicione aliqua Pelagianae haereseos maculati sunt. Praecipueque obsecro ut sanctos filios meos Marcum, Januarium, Primum, Restitutum, Traianum, omnes conmilitones in Domino salutes, quorum aliena perditio fuit causa salutis. Ego autem et maerore et longa aetate confectus et frequentibus morbis fractus vix in haec pauca verba prorupi.
Jerome’s violent language in the first paragraph means, not actual execution, but excommunication, severed from the church, and expelled from it: a spiritual death sentence. Since the Catholic Church was the only legal religion, this would also potentially involve his enemies in persecution by the secular authorities. In the same period St Augustine is persecuting the Donatists.
Update: the letters translated here are now collected into a PDF and Word file here.
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