of Christ in which age the Iewes conceiue Adam was created and when we read that our Lord and Sauiour rose againe besides many other proofes which I brought out of both TestameÌ„ts wherewith to straÌ„gle the hereticke And from that time Paula did so beginne to detest the man and all them who were of his doctrine that she proclamed them with a loud voice to be the enemyes of our Lord Now these thinges I haue mentioned not that I would briefly confute the heresy which is to be answered in many volumes but to the end I might shew the faith of so great a woman as she was who chose rather to vndergo the continuall emnities of men then to prouoke the wrath of God by entertayning such friendships as were faulty I will therefore say as I began there was nothing more docile then her wit She was slow to speake swift to heare as being mindefull of this precept Hearken O Israel and hold thy peace She had the holy Scriptures without booke And though she loued the historicall part thereof and said that it was the foundation and the ground of truth yet she did much more affect the spirituall meaning of it and by that high sence she secured the edificatioÌ„ of her soule In fine she compelled me that together with her daughter she might read ouer both the old Testament and the new whilest I expounded it Which I denying at the first for modesties sake yet at last in regard of her frequent desires I was content to teach that which I had learnt of my selfe that is to say I learnt it not of presumptioÌ„ which is the worst Master of all others but of the most illustrious men of the Church If at any time I were at a stand did ingenuously confesse myne owne ignorance she would neuer leaue me in peace but by a perpetuall kind of demaund compel me to declare out of many various opinions which seemed the most probable to me I will also speake of another particular which in the eye of enuious persons will seem to haue somewhat of the incredible She had a mind to learne the Hebrew tongue which I had gotten in some measure with much labour and sweat from my very youth and euen yet I do not forsake the study with a kind of indefatigable meditation thereof least I should grow to be forsaken by it And she also hath so obtayned this tongue as that she can read the psalmes in Hebrew and pronounce the language without any accent of the Latin tongue which we also see euen to this day in her holy daughter Eustochium who euer so adhered to her mother and so liued vnder her comaÌ„dments that she neuer lodged nor fed nor went without her nor had one penny in her power but did reioyce to see that little fortune which was left of her Fathers and Mothers patrimony to be bestowed by her Mother vpon poore folkes and she esteemed the duty she ought her parent to be her greatest inheritance and riches I must not passe ouer in silence with how great ioy she did eueÌ„ exult when she heard that her graÌ„dchild the young Paula who was begotten and borne of Leta and Toxotius yea conceiued with a desire and promise from them both of future chastity did sing forth Allelluia with her stammering tongue in her cradle in the middest of other childish toyes did breake forth the names of her grandmother and her aunt by halfe words In this alone she had still a desire concerning her couÌ„try to know that her sonne her daughter in law her grandchild had renounced the world and serued Christ our Lord which in part she hath obtayned for her grand-child is reserued to weare the vayle of Christ. Her daughter in law deliuered her selfe ouer to eternall chastity her sonne in law followes on in faith almes and other good workes and endeauoureth to expresse that at Rome which she hath accomplished at Ierusalem But what do we O my soule why fearest thou to come so farre as her end Already the booke is growne big whilest we feare to come to this last cast as if whilest we conceale it employ our selues vpon her praises we were able to put off her death Hitherto we haue sayled with a fore-wind our sliding ship hath plowed vp the crisping waues of the Sea at ease But now my discourse is falling vpon rockes and I am in such dauÌ„ger of present ship wracke as makes me say Saue vs Master for we perish And againe Rise vp O Lord why doest thou sleep For who can with dry eyes speake of Paula dying She fel into extreame indispositioÌ„ or rather she found what she sought in leauing vs and in being more fully ioyned to our Lord. In which sicknesse the approued dear affection of the daughter Eustochium to her mother was more confirmed in the eyes of al She would be sitting vpon the beds side she would hold the fanne to moue the ayre she would beare vp her head apply the pillow rubbe her feet cherish her stomacke with her hand compose her bed warme water for her bring the bason and preuent all the maydes in those seruices and whatsoeuer any other had done to hold that she her selfe had lost so much of her own reward With what kind of prayers with what kind of â—…tations and groanes would she be shooting her selfe swiftly vp and downe between that caue where our Lord had bene layd her mother lying in her bed that she might not be depriued of such an inestimable conuersation that she might not liue an houre after her that the same Bier might deliuer them both vp to one buriall But O frayle and caduke nature of mortall men for vnlesse the faith of Christ raised vp to heauen and that the eternity of the soule were promised our bodies would be subiect to as meane condition as beasts they of the basest kind The same death seises vpon the iust and wicked man vpon the good and bad the cleane and the vncleane him who sacrifices and him who sacrifices not as the good man so him who sins as him who sweares so him who feares to sweare an oath Both men beasts are dissolued into dust and ashes after the same manner Why do I make any further pause and encrease my sorrow by prolonging it This most wise of woemen found that death was at hand and that some part of her body and of her limmes being already cold there was onely a little warmth of life which weakely breathed in her holy brest yet neuertheles as if she had bene but going to visit her friends take her leaue of strangers â—…he would be whispering out those verses O Lord I haue loued the 〈◊〉 order of thy house the place of the habitation of thy glory And How belouâ—…d are thy tabernacles O God of power my soule hath euen saynted with an amorous kind of desire of entring into the Court of thy house
and his death did agayne open the wound which scarce was skined before But because we are forbidden by the Apostles commandement to be afflicted for such as are departed and to the end that the excessiue force of sorrow may be tempered by the arriuall of a ioyfull newes I also declare it to you to the end that if you know it not you may know it and that if you know it already we may reioyce together at it Your Bonosus or rather myne or that I may say more truly Bonosus who belongs to vs both is now climing vp that ladder which Iacob saw in his sleepe He carryes his Crosse and neither is troubled with that which may succed nor with that which is past He sowes in teares that he may reape in ioy and according to the mistery of Moyses He hangs vp the serpent in the Desert Let all those false Miracles which are founded in lyes whether they be written either in the Greek or Latin tongue giue place to this truth For behould this young man who was brought vp with me in the liberall arts of this world who had plenty of estat honour amongst the men of his owne rācke hauing contemned the delight and comfort of his mother his sisters and his brother who was most dear to him doth now inhabit a certaine Iland which is haūted by nothing but shipwracks and a sea roareing loud about it where the craggy rockes and bare stones and euen silence it selfe giues terrour as if he were some new kind of Inhabitant of Paradice There is no husband man to be found no Moncke no nor ye◅ doth that little Onesimus in whome you know he delighted dearely as in a brother affoard him any society in this so vast solitud◅ of his There doth he all alone or rather not alone but now accompanyed with Christ behould the glory of God which euen the Apostls could not see but in the Desert He lookes not indeed vpon the towring Cittyes of this world but he hath giuen vp his name in the numbring of the new Citty his body is growne horrid with deformed sackcloath but he will so be the better able to meet Christ our Lord in the cloudes It is true that he enioyes no delitious gardens there but yet he drinkes of the very water of life from the side of our Lord. Place him before your eyes most dear friend and let your whole mind and cogitation procure to make him present to you Then may you celebrat his victory when you haue considered the labour of his combat The mad Sea is roaring round about the whole Iland and doth euen rebel againe in regard it is broken backe by those mountaines of wreathed rockes The ground is not there adorned with grasse and there are no fresh fields ouershadowed with delightfull groaues These abrupt rude hills contriue the place into a kind of hideous prison where he all secure as being without any feare and armed by the Apostle from head to foot is now hearkening to God when he reades spirituall things and then speaking to God when he is praying to him and perhaps also he hath some vision after the example of Iohn whilest he is dwelling in the Iland What plots can you thinke the Diuell to be deuising now What snares can you conceaue that he will be laying Will he perhaps being mindfull of his ancient fraude giue him a temptation by hunger But already he hath his answere Man liues not by bread alone Will he perhaps offer wealth or glory But then he shall be tould That such as desire to be rich fall into temptations and traps And All my glory is in Christ. Will he take aduantage of his body which is weakned by fasting and which may be assalted by some disease but he shall be beaten backe by this saying of the Apostle When I am weake then am I strong and strength is perfected in weaknes Will he threaten death but he shall heare Bonosus say I desire to be dissolued and to be with Christ Will he cast fyery darts at him Bonosus will receiue them vpon the target of fayth And that I may proceed no further Satan will impugne him but Christ will defend him Thankes be to the O Lord Iesus that I haue one in thy presence who may pray to the for me Thou knowest for to the all our thoughtes are knowne who searchest the secret of our harts and who sawest thy Prophet shut vp in the sea euen in the belly of that huge beast how Bonosus and I grew vp together from our tender infancy till we were in the flourishing prime of youth and how the same bosome of our nurses the same imbracements of our foster-fathers did carry vs vp and downe the house And how after we had studyed neer to those half barbarours bankes of the Rhine we liued vpon the same food and passed our time in the same house and how I was the first of the two who had a good desire to serue thee Remember I beseech thee how this great warryer of thyne was once but a green souldier in my company I haue the promise of thy Maiesty He who shall teach others and not do thereafter shall be accounted the least in the kingdome of heauen but he who shall both teach and do shall be called the greatest in the kingdome of heauen Let him enioy the crowne of his vertue and let him follow the lambe in his long whit robe for the daily martyrdome which he vndergoes There are many mansions in the Fathers house and one starre differs in clarity from another Impart thou to me that I may lift vp my head amongst the feet of thy Saints that when I may haue had a good desire and he may haue performed the good worke thou mayest pardon me because I was not able to fulfill it and thou mayest giue the reward to him which he deserues Perhaps I haue produced my speech into a greater length then the breuity of an Epistle would permit and this is euer wont to happen when I am to say any thing in praise of our Bonosus But to the end I may returne to that from which I had digressed I beseech you that together with your sight your mind may not consent to loose a friend who is long sought rarely found hardly kept Let any man shine neuer so brightly in gold and let his glittering plate be mustered out in as great pompe as pleaseth him charity cannot be bought nor can there be any price set vpon loue That friēdship which can euer fayle was neuer true Farewell in Christ. Saint Hierome to Asella IF I would imagine my selfe able to giue you such thankes as you deserue I should be deceiued God is able to repay that to your holy soule which you haue merited at my hands but I vnworthy man could neuer conceiue or euen desire that you should impart so great affectiō to me in Christ. And though some hold me to be wicked and euen
widowes and virgins imitate her let marryed woemē reuerence her let such as are faulty feare her and let Priests looke with much respect vpon her Saint Hierome to Marcella by occasion of the sicknes and true conuersion of Blesilla ABRAHAM was tempted concerning his sonne and was found so much the more faithfull Ioseph was sould into Aegypt that he might feed his Father and his brethren Ezechias was frighted by the sight of death at hand that so pouring himselfe forth in teares his life might be prolonged for fifteen years The Apostle Peter was shaken in the Passion of our Lord that weeping bitterly he might heare those wordes Feed my sheepe Paul that rauening wolfe and who withall grew to be a second Beniamin was blinded in an extasis that so he might se afterwards being compassed in by a sudden horrour of darkenes he called vpon God whom he had persecuted long as man And so now O Marcella we haue seem our Blesilla boyle vp for the space of almost thirty dayes in a burning feauer to the end that she might know that the Regalo of that body was to be reiected which soon after was to be fed vpon by worms Our Lord Iesus came also to her and touched her hand and behould she rises vp and doth him seruice She had some little tincture of negligence being tyed vp in the swathing bāds of riches she lay dead in the sepulchre of this world But Iesus groaned deepely and cryed out in spirit saying Come forth Blesilla As soon as she was called she rose and being come forth she eates with our Lord. Let the Iewes threaten and swel let them seeke to kill her who is raised vp to life and let the Apostles onely reioyce at it She knowes that she owes him her life who restored it to her She knowes that she now imbraces his feet of whose iudgment she formerly was affrayd Her body lay euen almost without life and approaching death did euen shake her panting limmes Where were then the succours of her friends Where were those words which vse to be more vayne then any smoke She ows nothing to thee O vngratefull kinred of flesh and blood she who is dead to the world who is reuiued to Christ. Let him who is a Christiā reioyce and he who is offended at this declares himselfe not to be a Christian. The widow who is free from the tye of marriage hath no more to do but to perseuer But you will say that some will be scandalized at her browne coat Let them he scādalized also at Iohn thē whome there was none greater amōgst the sonnes of men who being called an Angel baptized our Lord himselfe and was clad with a camels skinne and was girt in by a girdle of haire If meane fare displease them there is nothing meaner then locusts Nay let Christian eyes be scādalized rather at these woemen who paint themselues with red and whose plastered faces being deformed euen with extreme whitenes make them like Idolls from whome if before they be aware any drop of teares breake out it makes ◅ furrow in their cheeks whome euen the number of their years cannot teach them how old they are for they strew their crowne with strange haire and they dresse vp their past youth in wrinckles of their present age and in fine though they trēble with being so old yet in presence of whole troupes of their grand-children they will still be tricked vp like delicate and tender maides Let a Christian woman be ashamed if she would compell Nature to make her handsome if she fullfill the care of her flesh towardes concupiscence for they who rest in that cannot please Christ as the Apostle sayth Our widow formerly would be dressing her selfe with a stiffe kind of care would be inquiring all day long of the glasse what it might be that she wanted And now she confidently sayth But all we contemplating the glory of our Lord with a cleare face are transformed into the same image from glory to glory as by the spirit of our Lord. Then did her maides marshall her haire in order and the crowne of her head which had made no fault was imprisoned by certaine Coronets crisped with irons But now her head is so much neglected as to know that it carryes inough if it be but vayled In those dayes the very softnes of downe would seeme hard and she would scarce be content to ly in beds when they were euen built vp to giue her ease but now she ryses vp full of hast to pray and with her shrill voice snatching the Allelluia out of the others mouthes her selfe is the first to prayse her Lord. Her knees are bent vpon the bare ground and that face which formerly had beene defiled and daub'd with painting is now often washed with teares After prayers they rattle out the Psalmes and her very necke her weake hammes and her eyes pointing towardes sleep can hardly yet through the excessiue ardour of her mind obtaine leaue that they may take rest Her browne coat is least fowled when she lyes vpon the ground She is poorely shod and the price of her former guilded shooes is now bestowed vpon the poore Her girdle is not now distinguished by studdes of gold and precious stone but it is of woll as simple poore as can be made such as indeed may rather tye in her cloathes then gird her body If the serpent enuy this purpose of hers and with faire speech perswade her to eat againe of the forbidden Tree let him be stricken with an Anathema let it be sayd to him as he is dying in his owne dust Goe backe Sathan which by interpretation is aduersary For an aduersary he is of Christ and he is an Antichrist who is displeased with the Precepts of Christ. Tell me I pray you what such thing euer did we as the Apostles did vnder the colour whereof men should be scandalized at vs They forsooke an old Father and their nets and ships The Publican ryses from the custome-house and followes our Sauiour one of the Disciples being desirous to returne home and declare his purpose to his friends is forbidden by the commandment of his Master Euen buriall not giuen to one by his Father and it is a kind of piety to want such piety for the loue of our Lord. Because we weare no silke we are esteemed to be Monkes because we will not be drunke nor dissolue our selues in loud laughter we are called seuer and sad people If our coat be not faire and white we are presently encountred with the by-word of being Impostours and Greekes Let them slander vs with more sly cunning if they will and carry vp downe their fat-backes with their full panches Our Blesilla shall laugh at them nor will she be sory to heare the reproaches of these croaking frogs when her Lord himselfe was called Belzebub Saint Hierome to Pope Damasus BECAVSE the Eastern part of the world being
himselfe to haue a chast hart The starres are not cleane in the sight of our Lord and how much lesse are men cleane whose very life is a temptation Woe be to vs who as often as we haue impure desires so often do we commit fornication My sword sayth he is inebriated in heauen and much more on earth which breedes thornes and brambles That Vessell of election whose mouth did sound forth Christ doth macerate his body and makes it subiect to seruitude and yet he findes that the naturall heat of his flesh doth so resist his mind that he was forced to that to which he had no mind to cry out as suffering violence and to say Miserable man that I am who shall deliuer me from the body of this death And doe you thinke that you can passe through without any fall or wouÌ„d vnlâ—…s you keep your hart with a most straight custody and 〈◊〉 you say with our Sauiour My mother and my brethren 〈◊〉 they who do the will of my Father Such cruelty is piety Oâ—…rather what can sauour of more piety then that a holy Mother should keep her sonne holy She also desires that you may liue and that she may not see you for a tyme to the end that she may euer see you with Christ. Anna brought forth Saâ—…ll not for her selfe but for the Tabernacle The sonnes of Iâ—…nadah who drunke neither wine nor any other thing which could inebriate who dwelt in Tents and had no other places to rest in then where the night layd hol d vpon them are sayd in the Psalme to haue beene the first who sustayned captiuity and were constrayned to enter into Citties by the Army of Calâ—…ans which ouerran Iudea Let others consider what they will resolue for euery man abounds in his owne sense To me a towne is a prison and a solitude is a Paradise Why should we desire the frequent concourse of men in townes who are already sayd to be single Moyses that he might gouerne the people of the Iewes was instructed forty yeares in the Wildernes from being a pastour of sheep he grew to be a pastour of men The Apostles from fishing the lake of Genesereth passed on to fish for men Hauing then their Father their net and their ship they followed our Lord they left all thinges outright they daily carryed their crosse without so much as a sticke in their handes This I haue sayd that if you be tickled with desire of being ordained Priest you first may learne what you are to teach and may offer a reasonable sacrifice to Christ that you esteeme not your selfe to be an old souldier before you haue first carryed armes and that you be not sooner a Master then a scholler It belonges not to my poorenes and small capacity to iudge of Priests or to speake any thing of ill odour concerning such as minister to the Churches Let them hold their degrâ—…e and ranke to which you also arriue that booke which I wrot to Nepotianâ—…s will be able to teach you how you are to liue therein We do now but consider as it were the cradle and coÌ„ditions of that Monke who being instructed from his youth in liberal sciences hath layd the yoke of Christ vpon his neck And first it is to be considered whether you were best liue in the Monastery alone or in the company of others For my part I shall like well that you haue the society of holy men â—…hat you do not teach your selfe nor eÌ„ter vpon that way without a guide which you neuer knew for so you may decline either to one hand or other and be subiect to errour and that you may not walke either faster or slower then is fit least either running you be weary or loytering you be sleepy In solitude pride creeps on a pace and if a man grow to fast a little and then see none but himselfe he will thinke he is some body and forgetting both whence and to what end he came his hart wanders within and his tongue without He iudges the seruant of an other against the Apostles mind he reaches â—…orth his hand as farre as gluttony bids him he sleepes as much as he will he feares no man he doth what he lists he thinkes al men to be his inferiours and is oftener in Citties then in his Cell And yet when he finds himself among others of his owne profession he takes vpon him to be so maydenly as if the crowd of the streetes pressed him to death But what Do we reprehend a solitary life No for we haue often praysed it But we desire that such men may go out from the discipline of Monasteries as the hard lessons of the wildernes may not fright they who haue giuen a long allowable testimony of their conuesation who made themselues the lowest and least of all and so grew to be the greatest who haue not beene vanquished eyther by eating or abstayning who reioyce in pouerty whose habite speech countenance gate is the very doctrine of piety who know not how after the custome of some fonâ—… people to deuise certaine phantasticall battailes of Diuells as if they were fighting against them that so they may grow to be woundred at by the ignorant vulgar and make some commodity thereby We saw lately and we lamented that the goods of Craesus were found vpon the death of a certen man that the almes of the Citty which had beene gathered to the vse of the poore was left by him to his posterity and stocke Then did the iron which had lyen hide in the bottome swimme vpon the top of the water the bitternes of Myâ—…h was seene to be among the palmes Nor is this strange for he had such a companion and such a Master as made his riches grow out of the hungar of poore men and the almes which had beene left to miserable persons he reserued for his owne misery For at last their cry reached to heauen and did so ouercome the most patient eares of God that an Angell Nabal Carmelo was sent who sayd Thou foole this night shall they take thy soule from thee the goodes which thou hast prouided whose shall they be I would not therefore vpon the reasons which I haue declared already that you should dwell with your Mother especially least wheÌ„ she offers you delicate fare you should either make her sad by refusing it or adde oyle to your owne fire if you accept it And least also among those many woemen you should see somewhat by day which you might thinke vpon by night Let your booke be neuer layd out of your handes and from vnder your eyes Learne the Psalter word for word Pray without intermission haue a watchfull mind and such a one as may notlye open to vaine thoughts Let both your body and soule striue towardes our Lord. Ouercome anger with patience loue the knowledge of Scripture and you will not loue the vices of the flesh Let not your mind attend
who liberally affoarded all thinges to sicke folkes and would also giue them flesh to eat whensoeuer her selfe wa◅sicke she gaue her selfe no such liberties and in that seemed vniust that being so full of pitty to others she exercised so much seuerity vpon her selfe There was none of the younger sort healthfull and strong who gaue her selfe to so much abstinence as Paula did with that broken and aged and weake body of hers I confesse that in this poynt she was somewhat too peremptory for she would not spare her selfe nor hearken to any admonition I will tell you what I know by experience In Iuly when the heates were at the highest she fell into a burning feauer and when by the mercy of God she was recouering after she had bene despaired of and the Physitians were perswading her that for the getting of some strēgth she would vse a little wine which was very small least continuing to drinke water she might grow hydropicke when I had priuately desired the blessed Pope Epiphanius to aduise or rather to compell her to drinke wine she as she was discret of a quicke piercing wit did presently find that she was as it were betrayed and smiling declared that that was my doing which was his saying To be short when the blessed Bishop after hauing vsed much perswasion was gone forth I was asking her what he had done she answered I haue gone so farre as that almost I haue perswaded the old man that I might drinke no wine I haue related this particular not that I allow of those burdens which are vndertaken inconsideratly aboue ones strength for the scripture fayth Take not a burdem vpon thee but only to the end that I may proue euen hereby the ardour of her mind and the desires of her faithfull soule And she said My soule thirst towards thee and how plentifully doth my flesh also thirst A hard thing it is to keep the meane in all things And indeed according to that sentence of the Philosopher vertue is in the meane and excesse is reputed vitious which we expresse by one short little sentence Take not too much of any thing She who was so peremptory and strict in the contempt of food was tender in the occasions of her greif and was euen defeated by the death of her friends and especially of her children For in the death both of her husband of her daugters she was euer in danger of her owne life And though she would Signe both her mouth and her brest and procure to mollify a mothers grief by the impression of the Crosse yet she was ouercome by her affection and those bowels of a mother did euen astonish her tender hart and though she were a conquerour in her mind yet she was conquered by the frailty of her body And once vpon such an occasion a sicknesse taking hold of her did possesse her for so long a time that it gaue care to vs daunger to her But she reioyced said Miserable creature that I am who shall free me from the body of this death But here the discreet Reader will say that I writ matter of reproofe rather then praise I take Iesus to witnes whom she serued in deed and whom I serue in desire that I fayne nothing on either side but that I deliuer truthes as one Christian should do of another and that I writ no panegyricke but a story of her and that those thinges which go for vices in her would be vertues in an other I call them vices according to the mind whereof I was and to the desire of all the sisters and brothers who loued her and are looking for her now she is gone But she hath fulfilled her course she hath kept the faith now enioyes the crowne of iustice and followes the lambe wheresoeuer he goes She is now satisfyed to the full because she was hungry she sings thus with ioy As we haue heard so haue we seen it in the Citty of the Lord of power in the Citty of our God O ble◅ed change of things she wept that she might for euer reioyce she despised these leaking cesternes that she might find the fountayne which is our Lord. She wore a haircloath that now she might be apparelled in white roabes say Thou hast torne my sackloath and hast apparelled me with ioy She fed vpon ashes like bread and she mingled her drinke with teares saying My teares were bread to me day and night that she might feed for euer vpon the bread of Angels sing Taste see how sweet our Lord i◅ And My hart hath earnestly vttered a good word I consecrat my workes to the King And she saw those words of Esay or rather the words of our Lord by Esay fulfilled in her selfe Behold they who serue me shall eat but you shall be hungry Behold they who serue me shall drinke but you shall be thirsty Behold they who serue me shall reioyce but you shall be shamefully aflicted Behold they who serue me shall exult but you shal cry out in the sorrow of your harts shall howle through the contrition of your spirit I was saying that she euer fled from those leaking Cesternes that she might find the fountayne which is our Lord might sing with ioy As the hart desires the fountaynes of water so doth mysoule aspire to thee O my God when shal I come appeare before th◅face of God I will therfore briefly touch how she auoyded those durty lakes of the heretikes and esteemed them to be no better ther Pagans A certaine crafty old companion and who in his owne opinion was a shrewd kind of schollar begā without my knowledge to propound certaine questiōs to her and say VVhat sinne hath an Infant committed that he should be possessed by a Diuell It what age shall we be when we are to rise from the dead If in the age when we dye some of vs will need nurses after the resurrection If otherwise it will not be a resurrection of the dead but a transformation of them into others Besides there will either be a diuersity of the Sexes of man and woman or there will be none If there be it will follow that there will be marriage and carnall knowledge yea and generation If there be not then taking away the difference of Sex they will not be the same bodies which rise againe for an earthly habitation doth aggrauate and oppresse the vnderstanding which hath many thinges to thinke of but they shall be spirituall and subtill according to the Apostle The body is sowed carnall and it shall rise spiritual By all which he desired to proue that reasonable soules for certaine vices auntient sinnes were slipped downe into bodies and according to the diuersity and demerit of the same sinnes were to be subiect to such or such a condition so that either he should enioy health of body or riches and nobility of parents or els should fall into sicke
by burning horses came rushing on towards him and as soon as he had called vpon Iesus all that businesse was swallowed vp before his eyes by a sudden gaping of the earth Vpon this he sayd He hath cast the horse and the horseman into the sea and some trust in their chariots and some in their horses but we will be magnifyed in the name of the Lord our God Many were his temptations and many snares were set by the Diuels for him day night all which if I would vndertake to relate I should exceed the measure of one volume How often would naked Woemen appeare to him as he was resting How often would most sumptuous dyet be set before him when he was fasting Sometimes the yelling wolfe and the grinning fox would be leaping ouer him when he was praying and when he was singing some fight of Gladiators would present it selfe and one as if he had bene killed did once fall downe before his feet desiring buriall at his hands He was praying with his head bowed downe to the ground and his mind being once distracted according to humane fraylty he had I know not what other thought when instantly a nimble rider got vpon his backe beating his sides with his heeles and his necke with his whippe and sayd why sleepest thou scornfully laughing at him as he sat did aske him when he was faynting whether he would eat any prouender or no Now from the sixteenth years of his age til the twentyth he declyned the heates and raynes in a poore short little Houel which he had woeuen of reeds and boughes Afterwards he built a little poore Cell for himselfe which is extant to this day It had but the breadth of foure foot and the height of fiue so that it was lower then he in length it was a little longer then the extent of his body so that you would rather haue esteemed it to be a graue then a house He cut his haire once euery yeare and it was at Easter He lay perpetually till his death vpon the bare ground with a matte He neuer washed that sacke-cloath which he had ōce put on affirming that it was idle to looke for neatnes in ◅aircloathes nor did he euer change any coat till it were vtterly worne out The holy scriptures he had without booke and after his prayers and the psalmes he would recite them as in the presence of God And because it would be a long businesse to discouer step by step how he rose vp towards perfection in the seuerall ages of his life I will brieflly first comprehend the history thereof in grosse and so lay it before the eyes of the Reader and then I will in order deliuer a more particular Relation Between the one and twentyth the seauen twentyth yeare of his age he daily tooke for three yeares a little more then half a pint of pulse steeped in cold water and during the other three he tooke dry bread with water and salt From the seauen twentyth to the thirtyth he was sustayned by wild herbes and by the rootes of certaine plantes taken rawe From the one thirtyth to the siue thirtyth he tooke for his dayly food six ounces of barly bread and some kitchin herbes but halfe boyled and without oyle But obseruing that his eyes began already to dazle and that his whole body grew to haue a kind of itch vpon it and to be subiect to an vnnaturall kind of roughnes he added oyle to his former dyet and till the sixtyth yeare of his age he ranne on in this degree of abstinence not once so much as tasting either pulse or fruit or any other thing At last when he found his body to be euen all ouerwrought and conceiued that his death was very neer at hand from the sixty fourth till the eightyth yeare of his age he abstayned euen from bread also with incredible feruour of mind proceeding as if he were but then newly entring into the seruice of God whereas others at that time are wont to be more remisse in their manner of life But hauing fourescore years of age there were made for him certaine little poore broths of flower and herbs which were broken or cut the whole proportion both of meat and drinke scarce arriuing to the waight of foure ounces thus he wēt through the whole order of his life neuer broke his fast till Sun set though it were vpon the highest feasts or in his greatest sicknes But now it is time that I returne to speake particularly of thinges in order When he was yet dwelling in his houel hauing eighteen yeares of age there came vpon him certaine murthering theeues either as thinking that he had somewhat which was worth the carrying away or els as houlding that it amounted to be a kind of contempt of them that a solitary youth should presume not to be affrayd of theyr force So as scouring that quarter between the sea and the Fens from the euening to Sūne rising neuer being able to meet with his lodging but once hauing found him in broad day light what wouldest thou do sayd they if now the murthering theeues should come To whom he answered That the naked man feares no theeues Whereupon they sayd yet there is no doubt but thou mayest be killed I may saith he and therefore do I feare no murthering theeues because I am ready to dy But they admiring his constancy and strong faith confessing how they had been wandring by night and that theyr eyes had been blinded from finding him did make him a promise to lead a better life from that tyme forward By this time he had been two and twenty yeares in that desart and was generally knowne by fame and published ouer all the cittyes of Palestine when in the meane while a certaine woman of Eleutheropolis who perceaued her selfe to be neglected by her husband by reason of her barrennes for already she had passed fifteene yeares without yeelding any fruit of mariage was the first who presumed to breake in vpon the Blessed Hilarion And he suspecting no such matter she cast her selfe sodainly downe at his knees and sayd Pardon this bouldnes pardon this necessity of myne VVhy doe you turne away your eyes VVhy fly you from your suiter Looke not on me as a woman but as a miserable creature Yet this sexe brought forth the Sauiour of the world not the whole but the sicke need the Physitian At length he stayed and looking after so long time vpon her he demanded the reason both of her comming of her weeping which as soone as he had vnderstood he cast vp his eyes to heauen bidding her haue fayth and following her with teares he saw her with a sonne at the yeares end This first miracle of his was illustrated by another greater Aristaene the wife of Elpidius who afterward was Captaine of the Guarde a woman of great nobility in her Country and yet more noble among Christians
heard to be crying out from the Citties and Townes there abouts as if they were approaching towardes the shoare He therefore being come to Papho◅ that Citty of Cyprus which hath beene so ennobled by the inuention of Poets and which being fallen by frequent earthquaks doth now by the only appearance of the ruines shew what formerly it had beene liued obscurely within two miles of that place was glad that he might spend those few dayes in peace But twenty dayes more were not fully passed when throughout that whole Iland all those persons who were possessed with vncleane spirits began to cry out that Hilarion the seruant of Christ was come they must hasten towards him This did Salamina this did Curium and Lapetha and this did all those other Cittyes proclaime most of them affirming that indeed they knew Hilarion and that he was the true seruant of God but that they knew not where he kept So that within thirty or few dayes more there came to him two hundred possessed persons as well men as woemen As soone as he saw them he did so grieue that they would not giue him leaue to be quiet and being cruell after a sort in the way of reuenge vpon himselfe he did so whip vp those spirits by the extreame instance of his prayers that some of the possessed were presently deliuered others after two or three dayes and all within the compasse of a weeke Staying therfore there two yeares and euer being in thought how to fly away he sent Hesychius into Palestine to salute his Brethren and to visit the ashes or ruines of his Monastery with order that he should returne the next spring after Now though vpon the former returne of Hesychius thither Hilarion resolued to haue gone againe into Aegypt and namely to certaine places which are called Bucolia because no Christiās were there but it was a fierce and barbarous nation Hesychius did yet persuade him that he should rather procure to find out some more retired place in that very Iland where he was And when after long search in all those partes Hesychius had found one he conducted him twelue miles of from the Sea into the middle of certaine secret craggy mountaines to which a man was hardly able to ascend euen by creeping vpon his handes and knees He entred then and contemplated that so retyred and terrible place enuironed on all sides with trees and hauing store of water descending from the brow of the hill and a little kind of very delightfull garden and great store of fruit-trees the fruit wherof he yet did neuer taste There were also the ruines of a most ancient Temple from whence as himself related and his disciples testify to this present day there was heard the noyse of such an innumerable multitude of Diuels as that a man would euen conceaue it to haue beene some Army He was much delighted with this as finding that he had Antagonists at hand and there he dwelt fifteen yeares and in that last part of his life he was much comforted by the often visits of Hesychius For otherwise by reason of the great difficulty and craggines of the place and the multitude of Ghosts which were vulgarly sayd to be walking there either very few or none had both the power and the courage to go vp thither But yet vpon a certaine day going out of his little gardē he saw a man who had the Palsy in all his limes lying before his dore and he asked Hesychius who that was and how he had beene brought thither The sicke man answered and sayd that formerly he had beene the Steward of a little vilage to the confines whereof that very garden belonged wherein they were But the old man weeping stretching forth his hand to the sicke person who lay before him sayd I require thee in the name of our Lord Iesus Christ that thou ryse and walke An admirable hast was made for the wordes were yet but tumbling out of the speakers mouth and euen very then his limmes being growne strong were able to support him Now as soone as this was heard the difficulty of the place and of the way which was euen almost impenetrable was yet ouercome by the necessityes of men the people round about hauing no care more at heart then to watch that by no meanes he might get away For already there was a rumour spread of him that he could not stay long in a place which yet he was not subiect to as being obnoxious to any leuity or childish humour but to the end that he might fly from honour importunity by that meanes for the thing to which he euer aspired was a remote and poore priuate life But in the eightyth yeare of his age whilest Hesychius was absent he wrote him a short letter with his owne hand in the nature of a kind of VVill bequeathing al his riches to him that is to say his booke of the Ghospels his coate of sacke-cloath his hood and his little cloake for his seruant dyed some few dayes before Now whilest himselfe was sicke there came many deuout persons to him from Paphos and especially because they had heard he sayd that he was to depart to our Lord and to be freed from the chaines of this body With them there came a certaine Constantia a holy woman whose sonne in law and daughter he had freed from death by anoynting thē with oyle He adiured them all that they would not reserue his body any one minut of an houre after he should be dead but that instantly they should couer him with earth in the same garden all apparelled as he was in a haire-cloath a hood and a country cassocke By that tyme he had but a very little heat which kept his breast luke-warme nor did any thing seeme to remaine in him of a liuing man besides his vnderstanding only his eyes being still open he spake thus Go forth what dost thou feare Go forth O my soule what dost thou doubt It is now vpon the point of threescore and ten yeares since thou seruest Christ and dost thou now feare death As he was speaking these wordes he rendred vp his spirit and instantly being al couered with earth the newes of his buriall was more speedily carryed to the Citty then of his death But as soone as the holy man Hesychius had vnderstood thus much in Palestine he went towardes Cyprus and pretending that he had a mind to take vp his dwelling in the same garden that so he might free the Inhabitants of the Country from the opinion that they had need to keep some strict guard vpon the body he grew able to steale it away after the end of ten moneths with extreame hazard of his life He brought it to Maioma whole troupes of Monckes and euen whole Townes attending it and he buryed it in his ancient Monastery his haire-cloath his hood and his little cloake being vntouched and his whole body was also as entire as if he
had beene thē aliue and it yeilded and odour so very fragrant as if he had beene pretiously imbalmed And now me thinkes that in the last period of this booke I may not conceale the deuotion of that most holy woman Constantia who vpon receauing the newes that the dear body of Hilarion was now carryed away into Palestine did instantly giue vp the ghost approuing euen by death her true loue to that seruant of God For she had beene wont to spend whole nights in watching at his sepulcher and for her better help in prayer to speake to him as with one who were still present with her To this very day you may discerne a wonderfull contention betweene them of Palestine and them of Cyprus the former challenging his body and the later his scirit and yet in both these places great wonders are daily wrought though more in the garden of Cyprus perhaps because his heart was more set vpon that place FINIS THE LIFE OF S. MALCHVS WRITTEN BY S. HIEROME THE ARGVMENT THE life captiuity of MALCHVS who was borne in Maronia a towne of Syria is described by S. Hierome and in the person of MALCHVS he exposes first to the Readers eye a solitary and famous Moncke and then the same as he was vexed and afflicted with temptations THE LIFE THEY who are to fight some sea battell dispose themselues first to stirre their ships in the hauen or at least in a still Sea they stretch their Oares they prepare their iron handes hookes and they frame the souldiers who are ranged out vpon the deckes to stand fast with vse though at the first their paces were vnequall and their steps sliding that so what they haue learned in this picture of fight may make them feare the lesse when they come to a true Sea battell After this very sort I who haue long held my peace for he hath made me silent to whome my speach is a torment desire first to exercise my selfe in some little work and as it were to rub off a kind of rust from my tongue that I may come afterwardes to write a more ample history For I haue resolued if our Lord giue me life if my calumniators will leaue persecuting me at least now that I am fled shut vp from them to write from the coming of our Sauiour till this age that is to say from the Apostles till the dregges of these our present dayes in what manner and by the meanes of what men the Church of Christ was instituted and how it came to growth how it increased by persecution and was crowned by Martyrdomes how afterward when the Empire was put into the hand of Christian Princes it grew greater in wealth and power but lesse in vertue But of these things at some other tyme now let vs declare what we haue in hand There is a little Towne lying towardes the East of Maronia a Citty of Syria vpon the point of thirty miles from Antioch This towne after hauing beene in the handes of many either absolute Lords or Possessours of it otherwise came at last when I being a young man remained in Syria into the hands of Pope Euagrius a neere friend of myne whome therefore I haue named now to shew by what meanes I might come to know that whereof I am about to write In that Towne therefore there was a certaine old man called Malchus whome we in Latin may call King A Syrian he was by natiō and by language and indeed Autochthon There was also in his society a very aged decrepit woman who seemed to be come to the very dores of death They were both so diligently deuout and so did they weare the very threshold of the Church away that you might haue taken them for the Zachary and Elizaheth of the Ghospell saue only that they had no Iohn betweene them Concerning these two I made diligent inquiry of the dwellers there about by what tye of coniunction they were knit of mariage of consanguinity or of spirit Al men made but this one answeare that they were Saints and persons very pleasing to God and they tould I know not what strange thinges of them and so being drawne on with this delight my selfe did set vpon the man and curiously asking him the truth of things he made me this account of himselfe I am sayth he my sonne a husband-man of that tract which belonges to Maronia and I was the only child of my Parents who being willing to make me marry as being the only spring of their stocke and the heire of their family I answeared that I rather chose to be a Moncke By how great threates of my Father and by how faire allurements of my Mother I was persecuted to the end that I might be content to loose my chastity this only consideration may serue to shew that I forsooke my home fled from my Parents And because I could not goe Eastward for that Persia was so neer at hand where there was a guard of Roman souldiers I turned my course toward the West carrying I know not what little thing with me by way of prouision which might only secure me frō the extreamity of want Why should I vse many wordes At length I came to the desart of Chal◅is which lyes somewhat Southward of Imma and Essa and meeting there with certaine Monckes I deliuered my selfe ouer to their discipline getting my liuing by the labour of my handes and restraining the lustfullnes of flesh and blood by fasting After many yeares a desire came into my mind of returning into my country whilest my Mother was yet aliue for by that tyme I had heard of my Fathers death to become a comfort of her widdowhood and that then after this hauing sould the little possession which I was to enioy I might bestow a part vpon the poore a part vpon erecting a Monastery and a part for why should I blush to confesse my little confidence in the prouidēce of God vpon the supply of myne owne expence charge My Abbot began to tell me alowd that it was but a temptation of the Diuell and that the subtile snare of the old enemy did but lurke vnder a specious pretext That this was but to returne as a dogge would do to his vomite that many Monckes had beene thus deceaued that the Diuell is neuer wont to shew his face without a maske He propounded many examples to me out of Scripture and that among the rest how in the beginning of the world Adam and Eue were supplanted by a hope of diuinity And when he could not persuade with me he besought me euen vpon his knees that I would not forsake him nor destroy my selfe nor looke backe ouer the shoulder when I had the plowgh in my hand But woe be to me wretched man I ouercame this Counsellour of myne by a most wicked kinde of victory conceauing indeed that he sought not my good but his owne comfort He went following me therefore out
of the Monastery as if he had beene carrying me to a graue and giuing me at last a long farewell I shall see thee sayth he o my sonne marked out by the burning iron of Sathan I inquire not after thy reasons nor do I admit of thy excuses the Sheep which goes out of the fould doth instantly lye open to the wolues mouth Vpon the passage from Beria to Essa there is a desert neer the high way where the Saracens are euer wandring vp and downe in their inconstant kind of habitations the feare wherof make trauaillers resolue not to passe that way but in great troupes that so their eminent danger may be auoyded by the mutuall help of one another There were in my company mē and woemen old men young men and children to the number of seauenty in the whole and behould those Ismaeliticall riders of their horses and Camels rushed in vpon vs with their heades full of haire tyed vp with ribandes their bodyes halfe naked wearing but mantles and large hose at their shoulders hung their quiuers and shaking their vnbent bows they carryed also long dartes for they came not with a mind to fight but to driue a prey We were taken we were scattered and all distracted into seueral wayes As for me who had beene the naturall owner of my selfe for a long tyme before by lot I fel vnder the seruitude of the same Maister with a certaine woman We were lead or rather we were carryed loftily away vpon Camels and being alwayes in feare of ruine through out all that vast desert we did rather hang then sit Flesh halfe raw was our meat and the blood of Camels our drinke At length hauing passed ouer a large riuer we came to a more inward desert where being commanded according to the manner of that nation to adore the Lady and her children whose slaues we were we bowed downe our necks But heere being as good as shut in prison and hauing our attyte changed I begun to learne to go naked for the intemperatenes of that ayer permits not any thing to be couered but the secret parts The care of feeding the sheep was turned ouer to me in comparison of a greater misery I might account my selfe to enioy a kind of comfort in that by this meanes I seldom saw either my Lords or my fellow-seruāts me thought I had somewhat in my condition like that of holy Iacob I also remēbred Moyses for both they had sometymes beene shepheardes in the desert I fed vpon greene cheese and milke I prayed continually and sung those psalmes which I had learned in the Monastery I tooke delight in my captiuity I gaue thankes to the iudgments of God for my hauing found that Moncke in the wildernes whome I had lost in myne owne country But o how farre is any thing from being safe from the Diuell O how manifould and vnspeakeable are his snares For euen when I so lay hid his enuy made a shift to find me out My Lord therefore obseruing that his flocke prospered in my hand and not finding any falshoud in me for I knew the Apostle to haue commaunded that we should faythfully serue our Lords as we would do God and he being willing to reward me that thereby he might oblige me to be yet more faythfull to him gaue me that she-fellow-slaue who had formerly been taken captiue with me And when I refused to accept her affirming that I was a Christian and that it was not lawfull for me to take her for a wife who had a husband yet aliue for that husband of hers had also beene taken togeather with vs and carryed away as the slaue of another Lord he grew all fierce and implacable towardes me and euen like a mad man began to runne at me with his naked sword and if instantly I had not stretched forth myne armes and taken hould of the woman he had not fayled to take my life And now that night arriued which came too soone for me and was the darkest that euer I saw I lead this new halfe defiled wife into a caue hauing taken bitter sorrow for the vsher who was to lead vs home from the wedding and both of vs abhorred one another though neither of vs confest so much Then had I indeed a liuely feeling of my bondage and laying my selfe prostrate vpon the ground I began to bewayle the Moncke whome I had lost saying Wretched creature that I am haue I beene kept all this while aliue for this Haue my grieuous sinnes beene able to bring me to so great misery as that hither to being a Virgin yet when now I find my head full of hoary haires I should become a marryed man VVhat auayles it me to haue contemned my Parents my Country and my goodes for the loue of our Lord if now I doe that thing for the auoyding whereof I contemned all the rest vnlesse perhaps all these miseries are come iustly vpon me because I would needes returne to my Country But tel me o my soule what are we doing Shall I perish or shall I ouercom Shall I expect the hand of God or shal I runne my selfe vpon the point of my owne sword Turne thy sword vpon thy selfe the death of thy soule is more to be feared then that of thy body It is a kind of Martyrdome for a man rather to haue suffered death then to haue lost his virginity Let this witnes of Christ remaine vnburyed in the wildernes my selfe will be both the persecutour the martyr Hauing spoken thus I vnsheathed my shining sword in that darke place and turning the point against my selfe I sayd Farewell vnfortunate woman and take me rather as a Martyr then as a marryed man But she casting her selfe downe at my feet spake to me in these wordes I beseech you for the loue of Iesus Christ and I adiure you by the straightes wherein we find our selues in this sad houre do not cast the guilt of shedding your blood vpon me or if there be no remedy but that you will needs dye turne first your sword vpon me and let vs rather be married thus in death then otherwise Although myne owne husband should returne to me I would obserue chastity which I haue beene taught by my captiuity yea I would keep it so as that I would rather wish that I might perish then it VVhy should you dy rather then be marryed to me who would resolue to dy if you should resolue to marry Take me to you as the wife of chastity and esteeme more the coniunction of the soule then of the body Let our Lords conceaue vs to be man and wife but let Christ know vs to be as Brother and Sister VVe shall easily perswade men that we are marryed when they see that we do so entirely loue one another I confesse I was amazed and admiring the vertue of the woman I loued her the better for that kind of wife but yet did I neuer so much as behould her naked body