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
Here iâ—… thy crib O Christ 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The Magâ—… Presents brought to God 〈◊〉 The holy and blessed Paulâ—… departed this life vpon the seauenth of the Kalends of February on the Tuesday after Sun-set She was buryed on the fifth of the Kalends of the same moneth Hoâ—…rius Augustus being the sixt time Consull and fellow Consull with Aristâ—…ius She lined in her holy purpose fiue yeares at Rome and twenty yeares at Bethleem She had in all fifty 〈◊〉 yeares of age eight moneths and one and twenty daies S. Hierome to Nepotianus of the life which a Priest ought to lead VVhereof I haue omitted the former part or rather Preface which is both very long and but personal and not belonging at all to the chiefe matter in hand which is what liâ—…es Priests aâ—… to leâ—…d HEARKEN as the Blessed Cyprian aduises not to such thinges as are eloquently deliuered but to such as haue strength and truth in them Hearken to him who in function is your brother in age your father who brings you from the swathing clouâ—…es of faith to a perfect age and who setting downe rules throughout all the steps of your life may instruct others also by your meanes I well know that both already you haue learned such thinges as are holy that you are dayly learning them of the Blessed man Heliodorus your vncle who is now a Bishop of Christ and the example of whose vertue may be the very rule of a mans life But yet accept of these our endeauours how poore soeuer they may be ioyne you this booke to his that as he instructed you how you might be a Monke this may teach you how to be a perfect Priest A Priest therfore who serues the Church of Christ let him first interpret that word and when he hath defined the same let him striue to be that very thing which the word signifyes For if the word 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in greeke do signify portion in Latin then it will follow that Priests are called so either because they are of the portion of our Lord or els because our Lord is the portion or part of Priests But he who either is the part of our Lord or who hath our Lord for his pâ—…rt ought to shew himselfe to be such an one as that he possesses our Lord is possessed of our Lord. He who possesses our Lord saith with the Prophet Our Lord is my part can possesse nothing but our Lord and if he will haue any thing besides him our Lord wil not be his part As for example if he will haue gold siluer or choice of costly houshould stuffe our Lord with these Partes will not voutchafe to be his Parte And if I be the parte of our Lord and the bounder wherby his inheritance is measured and do not take a Parte amongst the rest of the Tribes but as a Leuit and Preist do liue of the Tenthes and sâ—…ruing the Altar do liue vpon the oblations of the Altar if I may haue food and cloathing I will be content therewith and being naked I will follow the naked Crosse I beseech you therefore and repeating my suit to you againe and againe I will admonish you that you thinke not the O 〈◊〉 of Priesthood to be a kind of warefare after the old fashion that is to say that you seeke not the commodities of the world in the warfare of Christ that you procure not to be richer then when you began to be a Priest that it be not said of you Their Priestes haue not 〈◊〉 of profit to them For many haue bene richer being Monkes then when they were secular persons and Priests There are some who possesse more riches now in the seruice of Christ being poore then formerly they possessed by their seruice vnder the rich and false diuell and the Church doth euen groane with their being rich whom before the world knew for beggers Let your table be frequented by poore people and Pilgrimes let Christ be a guest with them See you fly as you would do the plague any Priest who is a negociator of affairs and who growes rich of poore and glorious insteed of base Ill speech corrupts good manners You contemne gold an other maÌ„ loues it you tread riches vnder your feet an other man hunts after it you cordially loue silence meekenes recollection but another likes prating and bouldnes and takes no pleasure but in streates market-places fayres and to be sitting in Apothecaryes shoppes In such a difference of manners what agreement can there be Let your house either seldome or neuer be troden vpon by woemens feet and be you either equally ignorant or doe you equally like all the maydes and virgins of Christ. Doe not dwell with them vnder the same roofe and presume not vpon your former chastity You are not holyer then Dauid noâ—… can you be wiser then Salomon Be euer remembring how a woman cast the inhabitant of Paradise out of his possession When you are sicke let some deuout brother of yours assist you and some sister or your mother or some other woman who is of vntouched â—…ame with the world If you haue not perhapes of your consaguinity who are withal of piety the Church entertaines many old widowes who may performe that duty and receiue some benefit by their seruice that so your sicknes may also inable you to gather their fruit of almes I know of some who haue recouered in body and begun to fall sicke in mind She affoardes you a dangerous kind of seruice vpon whose countenance you are often looking with attention If in regard you are a Priest some Virgin or widow must needes be visited by you yet neuer goe into their house alone Take such company with you as may not defame you by their society If some â—…ector or some Acolytus or some other who hath the Office of singing in the Church follow you let them not be adorned with cloathes but good conditions noâ—… haue they haire curled with irons but promise vertue by the very apparance of their persons Sit neuer with any woman alone in secret and without some witnes or looker on If you be to say any thing in familiar manner the woman hath some aunâ—…ent person belonging to the house or some Virgin or wiâ—…e or widow she is not so inhumane as that she hath none besides you with whome she dares trust her selfe See you be carefull of giuing no ground to suspicions and procure to preuent whatsoeuer may probably be deuised against you A holy affection doth noâ—… admit the vse of frequent Presents handkerchiâ—…es and scarâ—…es and garments which haue bene kissed and meat which hath beene â—…sted to your hand nor â—…he changing of certaine deare delightfull letters These wordes My light my hâ—…ny my desire and all those delicacies and conceits and certaine ciuilities which deserue to be derided and the rest of those â—…oyes of louers we blush at euen in Comedies we detest euen
it be strait it will more easily be able to receaue a Mother and a Brother then a stranger whith whome she cannot certainly remaine chast in one house vnlesse she haue another chamber Let there be in one habitation two woemen two men But if that third party that dry nurse of your old age will not be gone but will needs make a stirre and disquiet the house let the Cart be drawne by two or els let it be drawne by three your brother and your sonne and at least you shall thus allow your sonne both a sister and a Mother Others will call these new commers a sonne in law a Father in law but your sonne may call them a foster-father a Brother I haue dictated this with speed at a short sitting vp being desirous to satisfy the entreaty of him who sought it by way of exercising my selfe after a scholastical maÌ„ner For he knocked at my doore the same day in the morning when he was to take his iourney and I did it also to let my detracters see that I also can vtter whatsoeuer comes into my mouth For which reason I haue taken little out of Scripture nor haue I wouén my discourse with the flowers thereof as I vse to do in my other workes I dictated it ex tempore it flowed from me by the light of my little lampe with so great facility that my tongue outstript the hand of the writers and so as that the volubility of my speech did euen ouer whelme the letters which stole the words out of my mouth This I haue sayd to the end that he who will not pardon my little wit may excuse me in respect of my little tyme. Saint Hierome to Rusticus the Monke to whome he prescribes a forme of liuing NOTHING is more happy then a Christian to whom the kingdome of heauen is promised Nothing is more laborious then he who is daily in hazard of his life Nothing is more strong then he who ouercomes the diuell nothing is more weake then he who is ouercome by the flesh We haue very many examples on both sides The theefe belieues vpon the Crosse and instantly deserues to heare Verely I say to thee this day thou shalt be with me in Paradise Iudas from the high dignity of Apostolate slips downe into the deep darke pit of destruction and could not be drawen backe from betraying him as a man whom he knew to be the sonne of God either by the familiarity of eating at the same table or by the dipping of that morsell of bread or by the dearnes of the kisse which was giuen him What is meaner then that Samaritan woman and yet not onely did she belieue and after the hauing six husbands found one Lord and knew that Messias at the fountayne whoÌ„ the people of the lewes knew not in the Temple but did also become the authour of saluatioÌ„ to many whilst the Apostles were buying meat did refresh him who was hungry and sustayne him who was weary Who was wiser then Salomon yet he was besotted by the loue of woemen Salt is good and no Sacrifice is receiued without the aspersion thereof WhereupoÌ„ the Apostle prescribes thus Let your speech be euer seasoned in grace with salt If that be infatuated it is cast forth so farre doth it loose the dignity of the name it had that it is not of any vse so much as to a dunghill whereby yet when it is good the feildes of belieuers are seasoned and the barren soile of soules is made fruitfull These thinges I say O my sonne Rusticus to the end that at the first entrance I may teach you that you haue begun to do great things that your endeauours are high and now that you haue troden vpon the incentiues or temptations of the sprouting and budding of youth you must clyme vp to the steps of perfect age But the way whereby you go is slippery you will not reapeso much glory by obtayning a victory as ignominy if you be ouercome My busines must not be now to deriue the streame of my discourse through the fieldes of the vertues nor must I labour to shew you the beauty of seuerall flowers and what purity the Lillyes haue what a bashfullnes the Rose possesses what the purple of Violets doth promise in that kingdome and what we may expect from the representation of those glittering gemmes For already by the fauour of God you are holding the plough Already you haue mounted vp the house with the Apostle Peter who thirsting after the Iewes was satisfyed by the fayth of Cornelius killed the hunger which was bred in him through their incredulity by the conuersion of the Gentils and by that foure cornered vessell of the Ghospels which came downe from heauen to earth he was taught and he learned that all kindes of men might be saued And againe that which he saw in the forme of a most pure white sheet is carryed vp on high and carryes vp also with it the troupe of belieuers from earth to heauen that the promise of our Lord may be fullfilled Blessed are the pure of hart for they shall see God All the matter which I desire to infinuate to you is that I like an old sea man being taught by hauing suffered many ship wrackes taking you now by the hand may guide you who are but a new passenger That is to say that you may know vpon what shoare the Pirate of chastity lyes where the Charybdâ—… of auarice is that root of al euill where those barking Dogs of Scylla are whereof the Apostle speakes thus Least biting one another you be consumed by one another and how when we thinke our selues safe in the midest of a calme we are somtymes ouer whelmed by the vnstable quickesandes of vice finally that I may declare to you what venemous beasts are nourished in the desert of this world They who saile in the red Sea wherein it is to be wished by vs that the true Pharaâ—… with his army may be drowned must arriue through many difficulties and dangers at the great Citty Both sides of the shoare are inhabited by wild yea and they most cruell beastes Men are there euer full of care and being well armed do also carry the prouision with them of a whole yeare All places are full of hidden Rockes and hard shallowes in such sort that the skillfull Master must keep himselfe still vpon the top of the Maâ—…t and from thence conuey his directions how the ship is to be conducted and steered And it is a prosperous voyage if after the labour of six moneths they come to the port of that Citty for the place where the Ocean begins to open it selfe and whereby a man doth scarce arriue at the Indies in a whole yeare to the riuer Ganges which the Holy Ghost doth meÌ„tion by the name of Phison and which enuirons by the name of â—…elath and is sayd to produce many
who was to be destroyed by poison but a hand-maid and spouse of Christ our Lord to be prepared for his celestiall kingdome Saint Hierome to Furia about keeping her selfe in state of widdowhood YOV desire me by your letters and you entreat me in a lowly kind of manner to answere you and I will write how you ought to liue and conserue the crowne of widowhood without touch to the reputation of your chastity My mind reioyces my hart exults and the affection of my soule doth euen earne with gladnes to see you desire that after your husbands life which your mother Titiana of holy memory did mainteyne and performe a long time whilest her husband liued Her petition and prayers are heard She obtayned that her only daughter should arriue to that which her selfe when she was aliue did possesse You haue besides a great priuiledge from the house whereof you came in that since Camillus his dayes it is hardly writen that any woman of your family was euer marryed a second tyme. So that you are not so prayse-worthy if you coÌ„tinue a widdow as you will deserue to be detested if you keep not that being a ChristiaÌ„ which PagaÌ„ woemen haue kept for so many ages I say nothing of Paula Eustochium who are the flowers of your stocke least by occasion of exhorting you I may seeme to prayse them I also passe by Blesilla who following your husband and your brother ran through much tyme after the account of vertue in a short space of her life And I wish that men would imitate that for which woemen may be praysed and that wrinkled old age would restore what youth doth offer of his owne accord I do wittingly willingly thrust my hand into the fyre The browes will be knit the arme will be stretched out angry Chremes rage till his face swell The great Lords will staÌ„d vp against this letter the nobility of lower ranke wil thunder crying out that I am a witch I a seducer and fit to be carryed away into the furthest part of the world Let them add if they will that I am also a Samaritan to the end that I may acknowledge the title of my Lord. But the truth is I deuide not the daughter froÌ„ the mother nor doe I bring that of the Ghospell let the dead bury the dead For he liues whosoeuer he be that belieues in Christ But he that belieues in him must also walke as he walked A way with that enuy malignitity which the sharpe tooth of 〈◊〉 tongued men would euer be fasting vpon Christians that whilest they feare reproach they may be vrged to forsake the loue of vertue Except it be by letters we know not one another and then piety is the onely cause where there is no notice of flesh and blood Honour you father if he seperate you not from the true Father So long you must acknowledge the tye of blood as he shall know his Creatour For otherwise Dauid will speake thus to you in playne termes Hearken O daughter see and incline thyne eare and forget thy people and thy fathers house and the King will earnestly desire thy beauty for he is thy Lord. A great reward for hauing forgoten a father The King will earnestly desire thy beauty Because you sawe because you inclined your eare and haue forgotten your people your fathers house therfore the King will earnestly desire your beauty and will say to you Thou art all fayre my friend and there is no spot in thee What is more beautifull then a soule which is called the daughter of God and eares for noe exteriour ornaments She belieues in Christ and being aduanced to this high honour she passes on to her spouse hauing him for her Lord who is her husband What troubles are found in these other marriages you haue found in the marriages themselues and being satisfyed euen to a glut with the flesh of quailes your iawes haue bene filled with extreme bitternes You haue cast vp those sharpe and vnwholosome meates you haue rendred that boyling vnquiet stomacke Why will you cramme you selfe againe with that which did yea hurt like a Dog returning to his voâ—…it and a Sâ—…w made cleane in a wallowing place of durt Euen bruit beastes and wild birdes are not apt to fall againe into the same ginnes and nets Are you perhaps affrayd that the family of your Furia's should faile and that your father should not haue some little child sprunge from your body who may craule vp and downe his brest and bedaube his necke with filth As if all they who were marryed had borne children or they who haue had children had them euer answerable to the stocke whereof they came Belike Cicero'es sonne did resemble his father in eloquence and your auncestour Cornelia who was indeed the example both of chastity and fecundity was glad belike that she brought the Gracchi into the world It is a ridiculous thing to hope for that as a thing certaine which you see that many haue not others haue lost when they had it But to whom shal you resigne so great riches to Christ who cannot dye Whom shall you haue for your heire him who is also your Lord. Your father will be troubled at it but Christ will be glad your family will mourne but the angels will reioyce Let your father do what he will with his estate you belong not â—…o him of whom you were borne but to him by whom you were regenerated who redeemed you with that great price of his owne blood Take heed of those nurses and those woemen who are wont to carry the children in their armes and such venemous creatures as they who desire to seed their bellyes euen out of your very skinne They perswade you not to that which is good for you but for themselues And they are often giuing out those verses VVilt thou alone consume thy youth in vayne And children sweet and loues rewards disdayne But men will say that where the sanctity of chastity is there is frugality where frugality is there are the seruants put to losse They thinke themselues robbed of whatsoeuer they carry not away and they consider but how much and not of how much they receiue it Wheresoeuer they see a Christian they encounter him with that coÌ„mon scorne of being an Impostor Thâ—…se people sow most shamefull rumours and that which came first from themselues they giue out to haue had from others being both the authors and exaggerators of the report A publique â—…ame grows out of a meere lye which being once come to the Matrons eares and hauing bene canuased by their tongues passes on and penetrates euen through whole Prouinces You shall see many of them fall into the very rage of mad people and with a spotted face and vipers eyes and woorm-eaten teeth raile at Christians Heeâ—… one who in some stately purple mantle goes And mumbling out some filthy thing through her fowle nose Trippes vp her