774 j K 11 
whole kingdom. Amos, in particular, was fent from Ju¬ 
dah, to announce the total difperfion of Ifrael; for pro- 
phefying which, Jeroboam obliged him to return to his 
own country. This prince died in the forty-firft year of 
his reign, or the year 783 B. C. See 2 Kings xiv. 
IEROM'ANCY, / [ispo;, Gr. facred, and A 
divination by facrifice. 
JER'OME, a very eminent father of the church, and 
faint, was born at Strido, a town fituated on the confines 
' of Dalmatia and Pannonia, moll probably about the year 
34.2. His father Eufebius, who was a Chriftian, and a 
perfon of .rank and opulence, determined to bellow upon 
him the advantages of an excellent education; for which 
purpofe, after taking care to have him well grounded in 
the elements of learning in his native country, he fent 
him to Rome, where he was placed under the tuition of 
the ablell mailers in all the branches of literature. Jerome 
continued his ftudies at Rome till he was of adult age, 
when he was baptized ; after which he fet out on his tra¬ 
vels to foreign countries for the fake of further improve¬ 
ment. He Ill'll of all vifited every part of Gaul, cultivating 
an acquaintance with the literary charaflers in that country, 
and diligently examining all the libraries wherever he came. 
He made lb long a Hay at Treves, that he had time to 
tranfcribe with his own hand the Commentary of Hilary 
of Poitiers upon the Pfalms, and alfo that author’s large 
work concerning fynods. From Treves he.went to Aqui- 
leia, where he contra&ed an intimate friendlhip with 
Ruffinus, a prelbyter in that city; and returned thence to 
Rome. At this time he appears to have collected a va¬ 
luable library, by which he was defirous of profiting in a 
life of ftudious retirement. For profecuting fuch a de- 
fign he confidered Rome to be-an improper place, on ac¬ 
count of the inceffant buftle and node of that city ; and 
to a fettlement in his natiye country he had llrong objec¬ 
tions, arifing partly from the charafter of the inhabitants, 
whom he reprefents as entirely funk in fenfuality and 
luxury, and partly from the irregular manner in which 
the bifliop Lupicinus conducted himfelf. After consult¬ 
ing, therefore, with his friends, he determined to withdraw 
to°fome diftant fcene ; and accordingly, relinquifhing his 
parents and his worldly profpecls, and referving nothing 
but his books and a fufficient fum of money to defray 
the expences of his journey, he left Italy, and fet out for 
the eaftern part of the world, in company with Evagrius 
a rich citizen of Antioch, and Heliodorus who had been 
his fellow-Iludent. After palling through Dalmatia, 
Thrace, and various provinces of Alia Minor, he arrived 
at Antioch ; whence he foon proceeded to Jerufalem, for 
the purpofe of vifiting the holy places, from motives of 
well-meaning but miltaken piety. After fome Hay at Je¬ 
rufalem he returned to Antioch, where he was attacked 
by a dangerous illnefs, which the liofpitable and friendly 
attention of Evagrius enabled him to furvive. 
Scarcely w'as Jerome’s health re-ellablilhed, before he 
devoted himfelf to the feverities of the monaftic life; 
and, after palfing through different countries, and mak¬ 
ing trial of different fituations for feclufion, with which 
he became fucceflively diffatisfied on account of his diilike 
to the manners of the neighbouring people, he retired 
into the frightful defertsof Syria, which were uninhabited 
excepting by wild bedfts and a few folitary monks. He 
was thirty years of age when he entered on this reclufe 
life ; and, being fupplied by Evagrius with the few necef- 
faries which he wanted, he fpent his whole time in ftudy, 
devotion, and the practice of the moll rigorous aulleri- 
ties. He particularly made it his bufinefs to become in¬ 
timately converfant with the facred Scriptures, and to gain 
that inlight into the oriental languages which was necef- 
fary in order to his underllanding their true fenfe and 
meaning. In thefe employments he fpent four years, with 
fuch intenfenefs of application, and fuch unremitting fe- 
verity of afcetic difcipline, that his health became greatly 
impaired, and he was obliged to quit his folitude, and to 
return to Antioch in order to recruit his ftrength. At 
3 
J E R 
this time the church of Antioch was divided by the con¬ 
tending factions of Meletius, Paulinas, and Vitalis, each 
of. whom affumed the title of bilhop of that city. In thefe 
circumltances, Jerome would not efpoufe the party of ei¬ 
ther of the rivals, till he had afcertained who was ac¬ 
knowledged in that character by the church of Rome, into 
which he had been received by baptifm. For this pur¬ 
pofe he wrote a letter to Damafus, the bilhop of Rome, 
to enquire whom he was to conlider as the lawful bifliop 
of Antioch ; and, having received an anfwer in favour of 
Paulinus, he immediately embraced the interells of that 
prelate. He was ordained a prelbyter by Paulinus in 378, 
when he was about thirty-fix years of age; but he would 
not accept of that office excepting upon the exprefs con¬ 
dition that his fervices ffiould not be confined to any one 
church, and that he ffiould not be drawn from his monaf¬ 
tic ftudious courfe of life. Soon after his ordination he 
went to Bethlehem, which he appears to have fixed upon 
from this time as his. favourite place of final fettlement i 
but his prelenf ftay there was only for a fliort time, as he 
had projefled a vifit to Conltantinople. His delign in 
taking this excurfion was to avail hinfelf of the advice and 
inftruclions of Gregory Nazianzen ; on whom he dili¬ 
gently attended for a confiderable time, whom he calls his 
mailer, and profeffes that from him lie learned the right 
method of expounding the holy Scriptures. 
In the year 382, his friend Paulinus bifnop of Antioch, 
and Epiphanius bifliop of Salamis in the ifland of Cy¬ 
prus, being cited by imperial letters to attend at Rome, 
on the fubjeft of their contelts with other eaftern prelates, 
Jerome attended them to that city, whither the fame of 
his piety and learning had for fome time preceded him. 
Here his merit foon gained him the elleem and confidence 
of Damafus, who made him his fecrctary, and availed 
himfelf of his talents and zeal for the Catholic faith, in 
anfwering the difficult queltions which were propofed to 
him from all parts, and in carrying on his negociations 
for extending the authority of the papal power. He was 
alfo conltituted by Damafus the fpiritual director of thofe 
Roman ladies who had renounced the world,and devoted 
themlelves to the religious life. During his refidence ac 
Rome he lodged in the houfe of a matron of this defcrip- 
tion, named Paula, who was a woman of rank and for¬ 
tune, and afterwards followed him with her daughters into 
the eait. In the employments above-mentioned Jerome 
acquitted himfelf to the fatisfa&ion of the pope ; but not 
without expofing himfelf to the merited cenlures of the 
relations and friends of the weak females, whom he en¬ 
couraged in their fanatical defection of the duties of then- 
proper ftations, and in the mifapplication of their wealth 
to the fupport of ufelefs and pernicious inllitutions. He 
is alfo faid to have created many enemies, by the freedom 
with which he reproved the corrupt manners of the cler¬ 
gy, and the vices of the people. Another circumftance 
which mull have contributed to render his fituation at 
Rome lefs pleafing to him, was his being involved in dis¬ 
putes with the followers of Origen in that city. For, 
though in the earlier part of his life he had tranflated many 
works of Origen into Latin, and frequently commended 
him, calling him the greatell doftor of the churches iince 
the times of the apoftles ; yet now his efteem for him had 
confiderably abated, and he oppofed his peculiar opinions 
as heretical. This exafperated the principal Origenifts 
againll him ; and they are reprefented as having propagated 
Scandalous reports concerning his connection with Paula, 
which we doubt not were without foundation, notwith- 
ilanding his iridifcretion in perfnading her and others of 
her Sex to abandon their domeftic and locial relations. He 
therefore determined to quit Rome, and to return to the 
eaft. After the death of Damafus, Jerome battened to 
execute this determination, and in the year 385 embarked 
on-board a fliip, accompanied by a number of monks, 
and females whom he had perfuaded to embrace the mo¬ 
nadic life. Having in the courfe of His voyage arrived at 
Cyprus, he paid a vilit to Epiphanius; ana afterwards he 
proceeded 
