Tag: Jerome Letters

De Solemnitatibus Paschae, “On the Solemnities of Passover” (CPL 2278) – online in English

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I wrote in a previous post about CPL 2278, the anonymous 6th century text De Solemnitatibus Paschae, “On the Solemnities of Passover”, which is also letter 149 of St Jerome, or rather pseudo-Jerome.  Since the existing translation by G.S.M.Walker is hard to access, I have made a translation myself. Here it is:

The files are also at Archive.org here.

As usual, I make this public domain.  Do whatever you like with it, personal, educational or commercial.  And just to make it easier, here’s just the translation without the notes.

It’s a text written during the arguments about whether the Roman or Irish method of calculation should be used for Easter, in the run-up to the Synod of Whitby (664 AD).  The Irish method could potentially cause Easter to coincide with Passover, the 14th of the month.  This left a powerful argument in Roman hands, which the author takes full advantage of.  Now read on!

The Disputation of St. Jerome regarding the Solemnities of Passover / Easter

1. Regarding the solemnities, sabbaths, and new moons, which are commanded to be observed by the Lord in the Law, we are compelled by the authority of your Charity to say what should be rejected according to the letter, and what should be observed spiritually. First we are obliged to respond to those who love the letter and to the adversaries of the truth. Although I could reasonably strike back at them, I prefer to bring them to the recognition of the truth by addressing them in a winning and gentle manner.

In their desire to chew over the bitter bark of the root they are ignoring the fruit, and in admiring golden dust they are despising the finished metal. Because even if they contend that all things should be observed according to the letter of the Law, they cannot be enlightened by the Spirit of Truth because there is a veil placed over the face of Moses.

But even if they have not assented to the truth, let us bear them anyway upon the shoulders of our patience, “ready to give an account of that faith which is in us,” (1 Pet. 3:15), according to the custom of the scape-goat which is sent out to its destruction,(Lev. 16:20-26), and to wash our garments afterwards, so that we may not stay contaminated by the pollution of heretical thinking.

Now at the start of this little book we will follow the example of Jeremiah: we will first uproot and destroy, and then we shall plant and build. (cf. Jer. 1: 10).

2. Regarding the scriptures, we want to show first how these feast days of the Lord, which are commanded to be observed in the Law, must be celebrated, not as a shadow, but as a spiritual observance. And if anyone wants to treat the authority of one as unimportant as myself as of little account, let them listen to the prophets. These looked into the future by providential prophecy and with a clear voice foretold the condemnation of these things in the days of the gospel.

Indeed through them the Lord himself proclaims in advance, “Your feasts, new moons, and sabbaths, my soul hates” (Isaiah 1:13-14), and (in this way) the Lord declares that he did not command these things, when it is clear that He did command these things in the Law. What else is shown by these words, other than that, once Christ the end of the Law has come, He does not command them to be observed according to the letter?

Regarding sacrifices, however, he says through another prophet (Ps. 50:8-9), “I will not reprove you for your sacrifices: your burnt offerings are always in my sight. I will not take calves out of your house, nor goats out of your flocks,” and the rest, as far as, “or shall I drink the blood of goats?” (Ps. 50:13)

The Apostle, filled with the same Spirit, fittingly says in these words, (Col. 2:16-17) “Let no one pass judge you in food or drink or in respect of a festival day or of the new moon or of the sabbaths, which are (just) a shadow of things to come” and the rest. With the utmost clarity he declares in these words that in observing either particular days or foods in the flesh he can find nothing but an empty shadow and a snare of deception.

The Lord Jesus also declared (implicitly) in the gospel that (the commandment about) the sabbath is abolished when he commanded the paralysed man, “Take up your bed” (cf. Mark 2:9; John 5:8), because it is clear that this was forbidden by the Law, namely to carry burdens on the sabbath. He also abolished the feast of Tabernacles when he said, “I do not go up to this festival day” (John 7:8), just as if He had said, “In this observance of this festival, the glory of my honour will not go up.” (cf. John 7: 39)

3. Regarding Passover, however, the greatest sacrament of our salvation, I shall speak a little more fully, although there is not the time to discuss everything.

Firstly, I wish to demonstrate through what regulations and how many it is commanded to observe the Lord’s Passover. Through Moses, the Lord commanded that, on the tenth day of the first month, a lamb, a spotless young lamb, should be set aside and kept until the fourteenth day. On the fourteenth day, in the evening it should be killed by the whole assembly of the children of Israel.

When the Lord himself, the true Lamb, was moving towards the true passover, He observed some of these observances, intending them to continue; but others he changed, preferring them not to continue. While He considered it right to be sacrificed according to the command of the Law in the first month, and made sure that the time of his passion did not in any way precede the fourteenth moon, the gospel reports that he still did some things contrary to the foreshadowing (of the Law), because although He was handed over to the Jews by Judas, he was not taken into custody on the tenth day of the first month, and although He had considered it right to give the sacraments of His body and blood to His disciples during his lifetime, it is revealed that He did this also contrary to the foreshadowing (of the Law), because that lamb, which at passover is ordered to be killed as a foreshadowing of Christ, was commanded to be roasted with fire and eaten by the people, together with its head and feet and entrails, after it was slaughtered.

Now it seems to me that God makes clear that he did this for two intelligible reasons. (Firstly), if he had not changed the (format of) the sacrifice afterwards, when he had eaten passover with his disciples, saying, “This is my body,” (Mt. 26:26) then they would suppose that it should still be observed going forward. The other reason is, I think, this: so that when they saw, prior to the passion, the body of the Lord whole and containing his blood in him, they would believe that they were being refreshed spiritually in the body; and so this should be believed by us now in the same way. And we must also consider this: that it was not on the fourteenth day at evening, as the Law commands, that “the Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world,”(John 1:29) and “Christ our passover was sacrificed,” (1 Cor. 5:7) but on the fifteenth day. From this it is evident that the feast day of the Jews along with its sacrifice was abolished by the Lord.

But what are we to understand from this: that first they eat the body of the foreshadowing lamb (cf. Exodus 12), and then He refreshed the apostles with the food of his body; and, after the foreshadowing of the Jews, Christ was sacrificed in our passover? This, I think, is in order that the reality would not precede the foreshadowing, but the foreshadowing would precede the reality, because “The spiritual did not come first, but the natural; and after that the spiritual” (1 Cor. 15: 46). For this reason the whole church, the chosen and beloved bride of Christ, anathematises those who, like the Jews, decree that the fourteenth moon is to be celebrated on the passover feast, and the sabbaths and the rest of the shadow observances of this sort. And this only did the Lord deem worthy to observe, so that he decreed without ambiguity that, in the first month AFTER the fourteenth day, the passover festivity should be celebrated, although in this a difference has arisen in the church, some believing that it is sufficient to avoid celebrating passover with the Jews on the fourteenth, while others strongly and cautiously maintain this, that they do not dare to celebrate the sacrifice of the true “Lamb of God, who takes away the sin of the world,” before the fourteenth, according to that legal precept which the Lord, coming to his passion, did not at all despise, but said, “You shall keep it until the fourteenth day,” (Exodus 12:6) which the Church, following the authority of the apostolic see, now especially observes.

But let us turn our attention to the spiritual interpretation because there is not enough time to examine every detail, leaving these things in which it is commanded to eat the body of the passover lamb on the fourteenth day of the month in the month of new things: so that, while new fruits are being born from good works because the words of the Decalogue have been fulfilled by us, as we stand firm in the four-fold perfection of the gospel, we may eat the body of our Lamb in the evening of the world, in which the end of the ages has come, with unshadowed hearts, while the Holy Spirit is illuminating the night.

4. Regarding the Sabbath, for six days we are commanded to work, but on the seventh, that is the Sabbath, we are forbidden all servile work. By the number six the perfection of works is signified, because God made heaven and earth in six days.

On the Sabbath, however, we are forbidden to do any servile work, which is sin, because “whoever commits a sin is a slave to sin;”(John 8:34) so that, when we have completed the perfection of works in the present age without hardening our hearts, we may deserve to arrive at the true rest which is denied to the obstinate. As the Lord says through David, “They shall not enter into my rest.” (Ps.94:11, Heb. 4:3-7)

Regarding Pentecost, from the day after the Sabbath we are commanded by the Law to count seven full weeks until the day after the completion of the seventh week, that is the fiftieth day , on which the first fruits are offered. This numbering of full perfection is made through the number seven, and fifty, and five times ten, which I think signifies this: that through the number fifty, which contains forgiveness in itself, and through charity, which is poured into our hearts by the grace of the sevenfold Spirit coming upon it, we may have the five senses of our body placed under the Law of God, which contains within it the words of the Decalogue; and, as I said, through charity, “which charity covers over a multitude of sins.” (1 Peter 4:8) And so we shall offer a new sacrifice to the Lord in all our dwelling-places, offering up (ourselves) to our great Priest along with our peaceful sacrifices, just as we shall have made peace with the Lord by offering spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ, He who eats the bread of the first-fruits of our land, though leavened, yet consecrated to Himself.

This is our high priest, who, having entered heaven, is able to have compassion upon our weaknesses, (Heb. 4:14-15) and, since we have him as an advocate with the Father (1 John 2:1), He accepts the works which, leavened with the leaven of our frailty, through His compassionate mercy rise up through the upraised hand of prayer , to this priest. They do not bring to God an odour of sweetness, but rather demand His forbearance.

5. Regarding the Feast of Tabernacles. And at the end of the solar year among the Hebrews, i. e. in the seventh month, when the harvest is gathered into barns or storehouses, then it is commanded by Law to celebrate, i.e., on the first day (the feast) of Trumpets (Lev 23:24), and on the tenth day (the feast) of Atonement, days of rest should be celebrated; and from the fifteenth day for seven days, until they end on the eighth, the feast-days of Tabernacles are prescribed. But perhaps by these things it can be signified that we should not cease to learn, because we are consecrated at the end of the age by the triple sacrament of prayer: by the trumpet of proclamation; by the faith of the gospel and by sprinkling with the blood of Jesus Christ in which is the true atonement now that the time of the Law is over; and we, having gathered the “new harvest” of good works, having rested from every evil work, and having received perfection through the grace of the sevenfold spirit, we may deserve to attain the number of the eighth blessing. This, however, there is no doubt that we can achieve through the labours of fasting and prayer, because it is commanded in the Law that the soul should be afflicted.

6. Regarding the New Moons. At the “Neomenia” it is commanded to blow the trumpet, i.e. at the new moon, because he who is enlightened by the moon of knowledge should not cease to preach to others. Paul, enlightened by the brightness of the knowledge of Christ, did not at all disdain to observe this (command), and preached in the synagogues of the Jews.

Regarding the sacrifices, I had intended to say little. Since they contain within them the foreshadowing of the sacrifice of the true high priest, they must also be offered by us to the Lord in a spiritual manner. The calf represents our labour, the sheep innocence, the he-goat the mortification the pleasure of fornication, the she-goat, which feeds on the lofty pasture, the contemplative life, the ram the work of preaching, which brings forth lambs for the good shepherd, the turtledove the chastity of a solitary mind joined to no one but Christ, the dove a more perceptive understanding of the sacraments, the bread the solidity of the commandments, the fine flour the honesty of life, the wine and salt the truth of preaching, the oil the comforts of charity. All these things, whether feasts or sacrifices, the Law commands to be celebrated and offered in one place, because then all things are profitable when they are carried out within the unity of the Church without any error of schism. I, a poor man and a foreigner, did not fear to write these few things, this little writing, leaving many things in darkness, to a rich man and a citizen, because “perfect love casts out fear” (1 John 4:18); believing also this, venerable Father , that obedience with faith is worth more than the power of human intellect.

But these things were requested by you and spoken by me on account of those who, although they appear to be Christians on the surface, are not afraid to tear apart the body of Christ, that is, the Church, with their schisms through the impiety of Jewish thinking. These things we have run through in a brief way, which if they were treated in full, would require a large volume, which cannot be completed at this time, because they require a great period of free time.

Pray for me, venerable Father.

MS Geneva, Bibliotheque de l’Universite 50, fol. 121r top.

From my diary

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I’ve started making a translation of the “letter 149” of Jerome, De solemnitatibus paschae.  I believe that an English translation does exist, by G.S.M. Walker in his Sancti Columbani Opera, Dublin (1957); but it would require a day trip to access this. So I wasn’t going to bother.

Indeed I wasn’t at all keen on working on it – computistical texts are a specialised subject! -,  until I remembered all the Jehovah’s Witness posters on twitter, all calling on Christians to observe Jewish customs.  I’ve had a few brushes with them myself – they don’t seem genuine, but rather like hired bots.

But De Solemnitate is really about the Solemnities, Sabbaths and New Moons of Passover, and so it addresses squarely the question of why Christians do not observe Old Testament ritual, and with quite a few bible references and arguments.  So I have been able to get into it by looking at it this way.  It will take a few days to complete, I expect.  It’s more interesting than I had thought.

Another subject that I have begun to take an interest in is “Eusebius Gallicanus”.  This is a modern name for a Latin sermon collection, of about 76 sermons, which circulated in the 5-6th century.  It’s extant in 140+ manuscripts, so it was clearly popular.  There isn’t even a Wikipedia page about it.

I think that a selection from the collection was published by Buytaert from a Troyes manuscript in the 50s under the name of Eusebius of Emesa.  Unfortunately this volume also is inaccessible, so I can’t be sure.

I recently discovered that the Corpus Christianorum issued an edition in three volumes (CCSL 101, 101A and 101B), and these I was able to lay my hands on.  I don’t yet know whether these sermons are worth exploring very far, but I won’t know until I’ve looked at them.

It’s the dullest days of the year, and it’s very hard to wake up.  On the other hand these dull, rainy days are perfect for staying indoors!

Let’s talk about letter 149 of Jerome, de solemnitatibus paschae – or rather, about CPL 2278, Pseudo-Jerome on Easter

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Among the letters of Saint Jerome in the Patrologia Latina (= PL) edition, vol. 22, columns 1220-1224, there is a curious text with the title “de solemnitatibus paschae”, “On the Easter ceremonies”.  In the CPL it has the number 2278. The heading in the PL reads: “He discusses the feast days of the Hebrews, and teaches that they should not be observed at all after the Gospel”.  The work is addressed to an unnamed “venerabilis papa”.

The PL edition is a reprint of the Domenico Vallarsi edition (1734), vol. 1, col. 1103-1108, who divided it into six chapters.  The PL heading above is taken from Vallarsi, who adds this curious footnote:

“This appears for the first time from MS Vatican 642, folio 89, where it is attributed to Jerome, but falsely, as would appear from simply reading it if we said nothing.  It seems that whoever falsely attributed it to Jerome, also falsely dedicated it to Pope Damasus, as we see in the colophon, since no name is given in the epigraph.  We published it for other reasons, mainly because it was new, with notes about the innumerable errors that we have removed from it, some of which we will only mention as examples in case it is thought that we are marketing our work.”

Perhaps Vallarsi included it mainly in order to get the number of “letters” up to a round 150.  It certainly has nothing whatever to do with St Jerome or his letters, and Vallarsi certainly knew that.

The Latin text was printed again by J.-B. Pitra in 1853 in Spicilegium Solesmense vol. 1, xi-xii, 9-13, this time in 14 chapters, with an additional note on p.565.  Pitra gives the author as “Anonymus”, with an  introductory “argumentum.”  He tells us that he edited the text from manuscripts in Oxford, London and Paris.1.

Unfortunately an over-enthusiastic German scholar named Bruno Krusch published it yet again in 1885 from a manuscript in Paris, this time claiming that it was a letter of St. Columbanus to Pope Gregory the Great.  (Columbanus was indeed interested in Easter material, as his genuine letter 5 indicates.)  The attribution was always entirely speculative, but the subsequent controversy led to Krusch’s text being reprinted in the Monumenta Germaniae Historica edition (1892) as “epistula VI” of Columbanus.  Finally the text was edited critically against a wider set of manuscripts by G. S. M. Walker, Sancti Columbani Opera, Dublin (1957).

The text was printed again in I. Hilberg’s edition of the letters of Jerome (CSEL 56, pp.357-363). [But see the note below]

A German translation exists in A. Strobel, Texte zur Geschichte des frühchristlichen Osterkalenders (1984), pp.69-73.  An English translation may be found in Walker, pp.198-206. [And see note below]

The most useful article on the subject is D. O’Croinin, “The Computistical Works of Columbanus”, in: M. Lapidge (ed.), Columbanus. Studies on the Latin Writings, Woodbridge: Boydell (1977)  p. 264-270, which tells us that there are 7 manuscripts, all containing Irish computistical texts, and inferring (probably rightly) that this is the most likely origin for this work, although in fact the text promotes the Roman, not the Celtic dating of Easter.

Pitra summarised the content as follows:2

I. A few introductory words from the author, why he has set to work, II. He teaches that the feasts and sabbaths of the Law were made obsolete by the Lord, speaking through the prophets, III. and by Christ himself in the gospel.  VI. But some of the paschal feasts are kept, others are changed.  V, VI. For this reason there are many things contrary to the letter of the Law in the true passover of the New Law, namely the living sacrifice of the body and blood of the Lord. VII. For the same reason again those who still observe the fourteenth day of the moon according to the letter have been condemned justly by the church, that is, by the apostolic see; VIII. For spiritually, in the evening of the world, the Lamb must be eaten; IX. And on the seventh day one must abstain from every servile work of sin; X. And the other things must likewise be observed spiritually; namely, at Pentecost, charity; XI. at the feast of Tabernacles, the fear of God’s judgement, with the imminent end of the world at hand; XII and XIII. Various virtues in the various rites and victims of the sacrifices. XIV. The author recommends the little he has written to a certain venerable pope as fair and good.

Vallarsi’s Vatican manuscript lat. 642 is online these days, and it is easy enough to find folio 89r (although I wish there was a way to link directly to the page).  Here’s the start of the text.  Instead of writing the heading in red, a red line is drawn through it.

On the right is a modern hand:

Vallarsi edited it from this codex as epistle number 149…. and is that perhaps the signature of Angelo Mai himself?!

Update (19/1/26, later):  I’ve just been looking at Strobel’s German translation of the work.  On p.68 he declares:

G. S. M. WALKER has also included an English translation, which differs from ours in places because we are using the text by Hilberg.

O’Cronin also stated that the volume contained an English translation, so it seems clear that it does, and – therefore – that I do not need to make one!  I have updated the post accordingly.

But looking at Strobel’s translation, especially chapters 4, 5 and 6, I can see that each chapter begins with an embedded short title such as “On the Sabbath,” “Concerning Pentecost,” and so on.  These are features of the Vallarsi/PL edition, and are not found in the Latin text printed in the MGH (although they were actually present as rubrics – red headings – in the Cologne manuscript on which it is based!)  So the Hilberg text in the CSEL is not critical, and merely reprints the old Vallarsi/PL text, itself based solely on the Vatican manuscript, and substantially corrected by Vallarsi.  I would suggest that future workers rely on Walker.

Walker’s edition was clearly a critical text, which Strobel describes in the following terms:

He favored C (= I), the source of S (= Y), V (=Ri), and X (= L), together with Pi, an independent tradition, while simultaneously adhering to the edition by W. Gundlach (in M.G.H. Epistolae, Vol. II, 1892, pp. 154ff.) and, through him, in turn, that of Br. Krusch (in: Neues Archiv X, 1884, pp. 84ff.).

It’s not clear to me how he could adhere to the Gundlach/Krusch MGH edition while favouring C.  C is the Cologne manuscript, while the MGH was based on MS P1, MS Paris BNF lat. 16361, p.288 (12th c.).  But then I have not seen Walker’s book.

C, the Cologne manuscript, is formally MS Köln, Dombibl. 83-ii (ca. 805 AD), fol. 201r-203r.  This manuscript, it turns out, is online here!  Fortunately it is only a few pages.

Here’s the top of the final page, complete with rubrics.

Nice to see the source manuscripts!

  1. Online: https://archive.org/details/spicilegiumsoles01pitr/page/n5/mode/2up[↩]
  2. I. Auctor, quam ob rem ad opus se accinxerit paucis praefatus, II. Docet legalia festa ac sabbata a Domino, per prophetas praeloquente, III. Et ab ipsomet Christo in Evangelio antiquari. VI. Paschalia vero, alia custodiri, alia commutari. V, VI. Hinc contra Legis litteram esse plura in vero Nove Legis paschate, vivo utique corporis et sanguinis Domini sacrificio. VII. Hinc iterum ab Ecclesia, id est, a Sede Apostolica, jure damnatos fuisse qui xiv lunam adhucdum ad litteram observant; VIII. Spiritaliter enim, in vespere mundi, Agnum esse comedendum, IX. Et abstinendum in die septimo ab omni peccati opere servili; X. Caeteraque item spiritaliter observanda; scilicet in Pentecoste, charitatem; XI. In festo Tabernaculorum , timorem judicis Dei , instante saeculi consummatione; XII et XIII. Virtutes varias variis in sacrificiorum ritibus et victimis. XIV. Quae pauca scripsit auctor, ea venerabili cuidam pape aequi bonique habenda commendat.[↩]

Links to the Vallarsi edition of the works of St Jerome (1734-1742)

Posted on by Roger Pearse

The standard 18th century edition of the works of St Jerome was that of Dominico Vallarsi – “Sancti Eusebii Hieronymi stridonensis presbyteri operum … / studio ac labore Dominici Vallarsii.”  It appeared at Verona in 11 volumes, beginning in 1734.

Locating all these volumes online is very difficult.  I found the explanation at the Leeds University Special Collections website: “Title varies”!  And so it does.  I was indeed only able to locate the later volumes because of the titles that they give.  For instance there are many copies of volume 8 online, none of which will come up in a Google Books search until you know the real title.

Here are the volumes:

Vol. 1 – https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Sancti_Eusebii_Hieronymi_Stridonensis_Pr/py9oAAAAcAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0

Vol. 2 – https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Opera/rFhKAAAAcAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0

Vol. 3 – https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/_/I0f1ulTpQJcC?hl=en&gbpv=0

Vol. 4 – https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Sancti_Eusebii_Hieronymi_stridonensis_pr/03rqiAIpLX0C?hl=en&gbpv=0

Vol. 5 – https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Sancti_Eusebii_Hieronymi_Stridonensis_Pr/nzBoAAAAcAAJ?hl=en&gbpv=0

Vol. 6 – https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Sancti_Eusebii_Hieronymi_stridonensis_pr/Dtm0nSYl9McC?hl=en&gbpv=0

Vol. 7 – https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Sancti_Eusebii_Hieronymi_operum_tomus_pr/HeXaqtvGUxMC?hl=en&gbpv=0

Vol. 8 (Tomus octavus continens Chronicon Eusebii Pamphili Latine a S. Patre redditum) – https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Sancti_Eusebii_Hieronymi_Operum_tomus_pr/xU3Zb5qWdbgC?hl=en&gbpv=0

Vol. 9 (Bibliothecæ divinæ priorem partem complectens) – https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/SANCTI_EUSEBII_HIERONYMI_STRIDONENSIS_PR.html?id=jLtiAAAAcAAJ&redir_esc=y

Vol. 10 (Bibliothecæ divinæ alteram partem complectens) – https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=ortiAAAAcAAJ

Vol. 11 – https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Sancti_Eusebii_Hieronymi_Stridonensis_Pr/3i1oAAAAcAAJ

Happy viewing.

Jerome, Letter 94 – online in English

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Like the last letter, this is not a letter composed by St Jerome, but an official letter translated by him into Latin and included among his correspondence.

And that’s the lot!  All the letters of Jerome now exist in English.  I will do another post with PDF and .docx versions of these extra letters, and update the spreadsheet with a link to it.  There is also the curious case of the spurious letter 149, for which a translation does exist, and about which I will write next.

Here is letter 94:

94.  Letter of Dionysius, bishop of Lydda, to Theophilus

Dionysius, Bishop of Lydda, to the most blessed Lord Theophilus.

1. Our good God, who is glorified in the councils of the saints, [Ps.88:2] and prepares for Himself friends and prophets in every age, if you look at the state of our generation, has also raised up , O most blessed lord and brother, as a champion for the right faith, that you might both overthrow with apostolic rigor the heretical superstition flowing from the fountain of the pagans, and that you might bring back the human race, which is drawn away by many errors, and the scattered flock of Christ to its shepherd; to He who gave his life for all at the time of his passion, so that we who believe can now say, “Truly God is among us.”[1 Cor.14:25] For who is so foolish or impious as not to confess that you have given the greatest gift to the world, by casting out the most wicked disciples of the blasphemous Origen, lest the Church of Christ be polluted by these? The cancer and incurable leprosy of these have so pervaded the hearts of many that even those who pretend to repent are joining perjury to heresy, and they do not cease to hate us because they are forced to be silent.

2. So be strong and act manfully,[1 Chron. 22:13] O servant of God, and hunt down the fictions of Origen to the very end, so that unwary minds cannot be taken in under the shadow of knowledge by his seductive charms, and a schism made in the body of Christ. For all who understand the things above eagerly proclaim you as Father, a hope, and a crown of the faith, because you have skewered with the sword of the gospel both the teacher of Arius and his disciple. The brothers of my cell in the town greet and the brothers who are with you.

Here’s the Latin:

XCIV. (EPISTULA DIONYSII, LIDDENSIS EPISCOPI, AD THEOPHILUM.)

Domino beatissimo Theophilo Dionysius, Liddensis episcopus.

1. Bonus Deus noster, qui in conciliis sanctorum glorificatur, [Ps. 88:2] et amicos sibi, ac prophetas singulis temporibus praeparat, si ordinem nostrae generationis aspicis, et , Domine frater beatissime, aemulatorem rectae fidei suscitavit, ut et superstitionem haereticam de gentilium fonte manantem apostolico rigore everteres, et humanum genus, quod multis trahitur erroribus, ac dispersum gregem Christi ad suum pastorem reduceres; qui tempore passionis idcirco pro cunctis dedit animam suam, ut nunc possimus credentes dicere: “Vere Deus in nobis est.”[1 Cor. 14:”5] Quis enim ita aut stultus, aut impius est, ut non confiteatur, te maximum orbi dedisse munus, ejectis sceleratissimis blasphemi Origenis discipulis, ne ecclesia Christi ab his polluatur, quorum cancer, et insanabilis lepra sic multorum corda pervasit, ut etiam, qui simulant paenitentiam, haeresi jungant perjurium; et nos, quia tacere coguntur, odire non desinant?

2. Confortare igitur et viriliter age,[1 Paral. 22:13] Dei famule, et usque in finem Origenis figmenta persequere, ne simplicum mentes sub umbra scientiae blandis eius capiantur illecebris, et fiat in corpore Christi scissurae divisio. Omnes enim qui sapiunt, quae sursum sunt, te Patrem, et spem, et coronam fidei alacres profitentur, quod Arii magistrum, et discipulum eius evangelico mucrone confoderis. Fratres cellulae meae oppido et salutant, et fratres qui tecum sunt.

Grim stuff, really.

Update: the letters translated here are now collected into a PDF and Word file here.

Jerome, Letter 93 – online in English

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Continuing the series of translations of previously untranslated letters of St Jerome, today we have letter 93.  This is not a letter composed by St Jerome, but a translation made by him and included with his letters.

There are in fact three such letters, all originally written in Greek, all relating to the synod of Alexandria in 400, when Theophilus the Patriarch of Alexandria got the bishops to condemn Origenism.  Letter 92 was translated in the NPNF series.  This is the letter from the synod.  Letters 93 and 94 seem to be untranslated, and consist of letters of submission from others to the decision.  Clearly Jerome found it useful to circulate the decision.

93.  Response of the synod of Jerusalem to the letter of the superior synod of Theophilus.

Eulogius, John, and the other bishops who were present in Jerusalem on the holy day of the Encaenia,[1] to the noble and honourable and most blessed bishop Theophilus.

You already know, O noble and all-praiseworthy Father, even before our letter, that almost all of Palestine, by the grace of Christ, is free from the scandal of the heretics, except for a few who, acquiescing in the errors of Apollinaris, are reading the harmful writings of their teacher. And if only, through the prayers of the saints, the serpents of the Jews, the incredible foolishness of the Samaritans, and the most open impieties of the pagans would not harass us, the multitude of whom completely close their ears to the truth of our preaching and in the likeness of wolves circle the flock of Christ. And they impose no small watch and labour on us, while we are unwilling to guard the sheep of the Lord, for fear that they are torn to pieces by them![2]

And because Your Holiness has written to us that certain persons have been found in Egypt who want to introduce some pestilential teachings of Origen into the churches and deceive the hearts of the unwary, we have deemed it necessary to signify to Your Holiness that this kind of preaching is foreign to our ears.[3]  For we have never heard anyone teaching that the kingdom of Christ must ever come to an end — far be this teaching from the ears of the faithful, as the angel Gabriel spoke to Mary about He who was about to be born, the Christ, and said, “He will reign over the house of Jacob forever, and of his kingdom there will be no end” (Luke 1:33) —nor that the Devil,[4] released from all the vices of sin, might obtain the dignity which he had before he fell, so that both he and Christ will be brought under the sole rule of God the Father; for those who believe that will go into the darkness which has been prepared for the Devil and his angels; and if there are any who have handed down in their treatises that the Son is truth compared to us, but compared to the Father, is a lie; and who say that, what Peter and Paul are to the Saviour, this is what the Only-begotten Son and Word of God is, compared with the Father; and — to briefly state our opinion, (and it is not necessary to repeat the same again) — whoever preaches these things, which your Beatitude signifies must be condemned, and which are at variance with that faith which our Fathers wrote with pious understanding in the city of Nicaea, let them and their teachings be anathema to the church, along with Apollinaris, who, going against the Holy Scriptures, says that an imperfect man was taken up by our Lord Jesus Christ, and not that the full assumption of him, both of soul and body, was given salvation. For we, following in the footsteps of the Fathers and the learned words of the Scriptures, teach and preach in the churches, and confess, that the Trinity is uncreated, eternal, of a single essence in three subsistences and one Godhead.[5]

But if Your Reverence separates anyone from communion, either on account of their depraved teaching, or for other causes, just as you have deigned to indicate to us, know that they will not be received in our churches until you yourself have granted them pardon for their repentance, if nevertheless they are willing to condemn these perverse things. Greet all who along with you are in the priestly order.

1. Encaenia = the 8-day celebration of the dedication of the Church of the Holy Sepulchre on September 13, 335.

2. The sense is perhaps that the bishops are so busy rooting out heretics, which is what they want to do – or what Theophilus wants them to do – that they cannot protect their congregations from Jews, Samaritans and pagans. Possibly a bit of a jab at Theophilus here.

3. I.e. denying that it is coming from them.

4. Lit. “Zabulus” in Hilberg’s edition, from “diabolus” via “zabolus,” a later Latin spelling. Probably Jerome wrote “diabolus”.

5.  The transmitted text is corrupt at this point. “unius esse” leaves the question of what “unius” describes. The next bit is “in tribus subsistentiis” meaning “in three hypostases” but Latin would later usually use “persona”, with “three persons”. The sentence ends with “odorantes” or “adorantes”. Hilberg prints “odorantes”, and is forced to suppose a lacuna before it, which he marks with “***”.  He resolves the problem by suggesting that it belongs to an otherwise lost sentence. Likewise “adorantes”, “worshipping” looks like a scribe’s guess derived from the impossible “odorantes”.

Vallarsi proposed instead that “substantiae” should be read here, “of a substance/essence”, matching “unius”, which is what I have translated.  Here is the note by Vallarsi:

“Read, at your own risk, “substances”, for what we have left from the Mss. “adorantes.” The similarity of the letters composing each word, which you will more easily see if you describe them in capital letters, as they call them, and perhaps the earlier letters, which were also worn out in the manuscript, have completely deceived the inexperienced copyist. But both the sense, which will by no means be otherwise clear, and the very words “of the one,” which would not have a substantive name to which it refers, and finally “adorantes” itself, which is a certain defect in this place, not only protect our emendation, but also vindicate it.”

The Latin is as follows.  It is the text as given by Hilberg, with the spelling regularised.

XCIII. (RESPONSUM SYNODI HIEROSOLYMITANAE AD SUPERIOREM THEOPHILI SYNODICAM EPISTULAM.)

Domino et honorabili, beatissimo episcopo Theophilo Eulogius, Johannes et caeteri episcopi, qui Hierosolymis in sancta encaeniorum die repperti sunt.

Nosti, Domine cuncta laudabiliter pater, et ante nostras litteras, quod omnis propemodum Palaestina gratia Christi ab haereticorum aliena sit scandalo, praeter paucos, qui Apollinaris erroribus acquiescentes, noxia praeceptoris sui scripta meditantur. Atque utinam sanctorum orationibus, non nos inquietarent Judaici serpentes, et Samaritanorum incredibilis stultitia, atque Gentilium apertissimae impietates, quorum turba quam plurima et ad veritatem praedicationis omnino auribus obturantes, in similitudinem luporum gregem Christi circuientes, non parvas nobis excubias, et laborem incutiunt, dum nolumus oves Domini custodire, ne ab his dilacerentur!

Et quia scripsit nobis Sanctitas tua, repertos quosdam in Aegypto, qui et Origenis dogmatibus pestifera quaedam velint introducere in ecclesiis, et simplicum corda decipere, necessarium duximus significare Sanctitudini tuae, quia istius modi praedicatio a nostris auribus aliena sit. Neque enim audivimus umquam docentes, quod Christi regnum aliquando sit terminandum — absit hoc a fidelium auribus, Gabriel angelo loquente ad Mariam de eo, qui nasciturus est Christus, atque dicente: “Regnabit super domum Jacob in aeternum et regni eius non erit finis.” (Luke 1:33) — neque, quod Zabulus cunctis peccatorum vitiis liberatus dignitatem obtineat, quam habuit, antequam caderet, ita ut et ipse, et Christus sub unum Dei Patris redigantur imperium. Qui enim ita credunt, ituri sunt in tenebras, quae praeparatae sunt Diabolo et angelis eius, et si qui sunt, qui in suis tractatibus tradiderunt, quod Filius nobis sit comparatus veritas, Patri conlatus mendacium, et quod est, inquiunt, Petrus et Paulus, ad Salvatorem, hoc est Unigenitus Filius, et Dei verbum, comparatus Patri et — ut breviter nostram sententiam declaremus, (neque necesse est eadem rursus iterare) — quicumque haec praedicat, quae Beatitudo tua damnanda significat, et quae discordant ab ea fide, quam pio sensu Patres nostri in urbe Nicaena scripserunt, et ipsi et dogmata eorum sint ecclesiae anathema, cum Apollinare, qui contra sanctas scripturas vadens, imperfectum hominem dicit a Domino Jesu Christo nostro esse susceptum, et non plenam assumptionem eius et animae et corporis salutem datam. Nos enim insistentes Patrum vestigiis et scripturarum vocibus eruditi, docemus et praedicamus in ecclesiis, et confitemur, Trinitatem increatam, aeternam, unius esse in tribus subsistentiis, et in una Deitate *** odorantes [adorantes?].

Si quos autem tua Reverentia, vel propter dogmatum pravitatem, vel propter alias causas a communione sejungit, sicut nobis indicare dignatus es, scias in nostris ecclesiis non recipiendos, donec tu paenitentiae eorum, si tamen voluerint damnare perversa, veniam dederis. Saluta omnes, qui tecum sunt sacerdotales gradu.

Letter 94 is similar but shorter, and will appear in the next post.

Update: the letters translated here are now collected into a PDF and Word file here.

Jerome, Letter 154, to Donatus – online in English

Posted on by Roger Pearse

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.

Jerome, Letter 153, to Pope Boniface I – online in English

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Continuing the series of translations of previously untranslated letters of St Jerome, today we have letter 153, to Pope Boniface I (418-422).

153. To Boniface.

Jerome, to the most blessed Pope Boniface.

Your Reverence cannot doubt how much joy I have felt [on learning of] your ordination as pontiff, when the holy priest Innocent brought both the news and the letter of your beatitude, since we were once brought together by a shared disposition and began to love each other before we knew each other, and each inward man is so united to another that it is unaware of the failings of the outward man. This [news] alone has mitigated our sorrow for the passing of the holy and venerable virgin of Christ Eustochium, except that, even in this, our sadness is no less because she is deprived with us of so much joy. For with what joy would she have rejoiced, if she had won the right to hear this while in the body; with what prayers and thanksgivings would she have implored the mercy of Christ, had she learned that her holy and venerable parent was the successor of the apostolic see!

The younger Paula, who was brought up in your hands, has been imposed upon our necks like a symbol of the holy and venerable memory of Laeta. Whether we are able to bear this burden is for the Lord to know, whom the future does not deceive; and there is no strength in us except for our holy purpose, which is confirmed, not by the outcome of things but by the longing of the soul. I beseech your Reverence, that you may always consider us as your own, and know that we rejoice especially in the advancement and honour of your Reverence. Certainly the holy and venerable priest Innocent will be able to tell your Beatitude how much joy we have taken even in that very sorrow, and how, if it were possible, we would prefer to adhere to your embraces.

[Again.]

What I write to your Beatitude I write in my own hand. Let the heretics feel that you are an enemy of faithlessness. Let them hate, so that you may be more beloved by Catholics. Be the executor and enforcer of the decision of your predecessors, and don’t allow heretics to be patrons and partners in the episcopal name.

Here’s the Latin:

CLIII. AD BONIFATIUM.

Beatissimo papae Bonifatio Hieronymus.

Quantum gaudii super ordinatione pontificatus tui, sancto Innocentio presbytero et nuntium et litteras tuae beatitudinis perferente, susceperim, ambigere non potest tua reverentia, cum olim mutuo jungamur affectu et ante coeperimus nos amare quam nosse, interiorque homo ita sibi conjunctus sit, ut exterioris hominis damna non sentiat, haec sola res dolorem nostrum super dormitione sanctae ac venerabilis virginis Christi Eustochiae mitigavit, nisi quod et in hoc tristitia non minor sit, quod tanto nobiscum privata sit gaudio, quo enim illa, si hoc in corpore constituta audire meruisset, gestisset gaudio, quibus precibus et gratiarum actione Christi clementiam flagitasset, quod sanctum ac venerabilem parentem suum apostolicae cathedrae successorem esse didicisset! Infans Paula, quae in tuis nutrita est manibus, quasi pignus sanctae ac venerabilis memoriae Laetae nostris est imposita cervicibus. Quod onus utrum ferre valeamus, Domini est scire, quem futura non fallunt, in nobisque nihil opis est praeter sanctam voluntatem, quae non rerum effectu sed desiderio animi conprobatur. Obsecro reverentiam tuam, ut quasi ad tuos semper adscribas et nos proprie super profectu et honore reverentiae (tuae) gaudere cognoscas. Certe sanctus ac venerabilis Innocentius presbyter beatitudini tuae poterit indicare, quantum in ipso maerore gaudii ceperimus et quomodo, si fieri posset, tuis cuperemus haerere complexibus.

[Item.]

Propria manu quod scribo, beatitudini tuae scribo. Sentiant haeretici inimicum te esse perfidiei et oderint, ut a catholicis plus ameris, et executor atque completor sis sententiae praecessorum tuorum nec patiaris in episcopali nomine haereticorum patronos atque consortes.

As stated in the last letter, the death of the powerful Roman noblewoman Eustochium in 419 or 420 left the community in which Jerome lived in a parlous position.  As part of the Origenist disputes, Jerome had quarreled bitterly with the Patriarch of Jerusalem, John II, whose men had sacked the convents of Bethlehem in 417.  This action led to an appeal to Pope Innocent for protection.  Eustochium was now dead.  Another friend, Laeta, was the recipient of letter 107, in 403, about how to raise her daughter, the younger Paula.  Both were now dead, and the younger Paula had become the head of the nunnery.  This letter to Boniface suggests that she had attempted to mend fences with their neighbours, raising the worst fears in Jerome himself.  He must have felt that his life’s work was slipping away.

Update: the letters translated here are now collected into a PDF and Word file here.

Jerome, Letter 152, to Riparius – online in English

Posted on by Roger Pearse

Another previously untranslated letter of St Jerome, to the same as last time.

152. To Riparius.

To the truly holy lord and most worthy and longed-for brother Riparius, from Jerome.

The arrival of the holy and venerable priest Innocent has afforded me much joy, because he both delivered your letter to me, and also he demonstrated with his own words that that you are busy in a zeal of faith. But do not trouble yourself too much about the raging of Julian and his associates along with the rubbish of Pelagius, and the loquacity of Caelestius, one of whom blasphemes with his own verbosity, the other speaks with words begged from others. Nor am I moved by their writings, which I do not know, although I do know that these have indeed a wretched purpose of blasphemy, but lack strength of wisdom and eloquence, and especially they lack knowledge of the holy scriptures (which are the foundation of the faith), the law of the ecclesiastical court, and the authority of the ancients. However if they do write something and it comes into my hands, (not to speak arrogantly, but to be equal to their insanity), I suppose that all their volumes with the same verbosity, over which they have burned the midnight oil, will have to be refuted with perhaps a single session of late-night study and a single dictation. But in urging me to write, you place a heavy burden on a little old donkey. For both sharpness of mind and strength of body have utterly deserted us, which we have lost through the constant weakening caused by illness. May the mercy of Christ our God keep you safe and mindful of me, O truly holy lord and much longed-for brother.

Here’s the Latin:

CLII. AD RIPARIUM.

Domno vere sancto et multum suscipiendo et desiderando fratri Ripario Hieronymus.

Multum mihi gaudii praestitit sancti et venerabilis Innocenti presbyteri adventus, quod et tuas mihi litteras tradidit et te fidei calore ferventem etiam suis sermonibus indicavit. De furore autem Juliani et sociorum eius Pelagiique naeniis, et garrulitate Caelestii magnopere non cures, quorum alter propria verbositate blasphemat, alius emendicatis verbis loquitur, nec eorum scriptis, quae ignoro, moveor, cum sciam voluntatem quidem blasphemiae pessimam, sed vires prudentiae et eloquentiae non habere, praecipueque sanctarum scripturarum notitiam, quae sunt fidei firmamentum, et ius ecclesiastici fori, auctoritasque maiorum; tamen, si scripserint et in meas aliquid pervenerit manus, ut non superbe loquar, sed sim par insaniae eorum, omnia elucubrata volumina eadem verbositate et una forsitan lucubratiuncula et dictatione confutanda reor. Quod autem ad scribendum cohortaris, grave asello vetulo imponis onus; nos enim et acumen ingenii et vires corporis penitus deseruerunt, quas assidua morborum debilitate perdidimus; incolumem te et mei memorem Christi, Dei nostri, tueatur clementia, domne vere sancte et multum desiderande frater.

These two letters to Riparius suggest that the death of Eustochium left Jerome and his community in a parlous position, without the political and financial support of this important noblewoman.

Update: the letters translated here are now collected into a PDF and Word file here.

Jerome, Letter 151, to Riparius – online in English

Posted on by Roger Pearse

I’ve just finished translating this previously untranslated letter, so I thought that I would post the results!  I append the Latin text, which is that of Hilberg in the CSEL, with his weird spelling normalised and a bit of tweaking of the punctuation.  The subject is the Origenist disputes.

151. TO RIPARIUS.
Jerome, to Riparius, truly holy lord, and a brother worthy of all respect.

1. From the reports of the many who come here, I have learned that you have fought bravely against the heretics and that you have triumphed in the battles of the Lord. For not only have they polluted Gaul and Italy with their deceptions and perjuries, but also the most famous city of Palestine, having a patron,** and the partner of his own master, the one whom the Lord Jesus killed with the spirit of his mouth [2 Thess. 2:8] and has left as an example for everyone of how dangerous it is to resist the Catholic faith and to try to overturn the foundations of the Church.

2. But where in the world your holiness may be in the future, or whether you will still dwell in the city, I cannot know, but let us nourish our friendship begun in Christ with frequent letters to each other, so that at least our rare annual correspondence does not cease. For us, the sudden death of the holy and venerable virgin of Christ Eustochium has saddened us greatly and it has almost changed the state of our way of living, because we are also unable to do many things that we would like, and the weakness of old age overcomes the fervour of our spirit.

3. The holy brothers who are with me greet you most warmly. I recommend to your favour my holy son, the deacon Theon, and I ask you to send me familiar writings about your entire way of living and state, and where you plan to live. May the mercy of Christ, our God, keep you safe and mindful of me, O truly holy and worthy brother.

The Origenists had powerful backers in the East, which is no doubt what is meant by the “patron”.

Here’s the Latin:

CLI. AD RIPARIUM.
Domino vere sancto et suscipiendo fratri Ripario Hieronymus.

1. Fortiter te contra haereticos dimicasse et domini vicisse certamina multorum advenientium relatione cognovi. Non solum enim Gallias et Italiam, sed et Palaestinae urbem celeberrimam suis fraudibus perjuriisque maculant, habentes patronum et consortem magistri sui, quem dominus Jesus interfecit spiritu oris sui et omnibus reliquit exemplum, quam periculosum sit catholicae fidei resistere, et ecclesiae cupere fundamenta subvertere.

2. Tua autem sanctitas ubinam sit futura vel utrum adhuc in urbe versetur, scire non possum, ut saltim rara scriptio per annos singulos non pereat, sed coeptas in Christo amicitias mutuis epistulis frequentemus: nos sanctae (ac) venerabilis virginis Christi Eustochiae repentina dormitio admodum contristavit et paene conversationis nostrae mutavit statum, dum quoque, quae volumus, multa non possumus et mentis ardorem superat imbecillitas senectutis.

3. Sancti fratres, qui mecum sunt, plurimum te salutant, sanctum filium meum Theonem diaconem commendo dignationi tuae et quaeso, ut mihi super omni conversatione et statu tuo, vel ubi disponas vivere, familiaria scripta transmittas; incolumem (te) et memorem mei Christi, dei nostri, tueatur clementia, domne vere sancte et suscipiende frater.

On with letter 152, also to Riparius.

Update: the letters translated here are now collected into a PDF and Word file here.