JERO M E. 
proceeded to Antioch, where his friend Paul in us gave him 
a welcome reception. From Antioch he went to Jerufa- 
lem, where he pretends to have been witnefs to a number 
of miracles, for which neither the Proteftant nor the 
moll refpebtable Catholic ecclefialtical hiitorians confider 
him to be a fufficient voucher. In the following year he 
took a journey into Egypt, where he attended the lectures 
of the learned Didymus, prelident of the celebrated cate¬ 
chetical fchool at Alexandria; and afterwards vifited the 
monafteries in the defert of Nitria. Finding, however, 
the monks zealoufly attached to the principles of Origen, 
his growing hatred to the memory of that great man led 
him loon to take his leave of thofe folitaries, and to return 
into Paleftine. Having fettled at Bethlehem, he was foon 
joined there by Paula, and the other ladies who had fol¬ 
lowed him from Rome, with the resolution of embracing 
the monaftic life ; and the fame of his great piety and 
learning fpeedily attracted to the fame place crowds of both 
fexes, from all parts, to fubmit to his inltruftions in the 
afcetic difcipline. In order that they might be properly 
accommodated, Paula founded at Bethlehem a church, 
and four monafteries, one for men, which was committed 
to the care of Jerome, and three for women, over which 
the herfelf prefided. Jerome was now placed in a fituation 
which entirely accorded with his wifttes ; where, befides 
exerciling great diligence in the government and inftruc- 
tion of his monks, as well as in the pious and literary edu¬ 
cation of numerous young men of rank who were placed 
under his direftion, he purfued his ftudies with aftonifhing 
ardour, and wrote a variety of learned and ufeful works, 
among which were the greateft part of his tranflations and 
expofitions of the Scriptures. In thefe occupations he 
might have peacefully cloffid his days, had not his detel- 
tation of the opinions of Origen induced-him warmly to 
attack thole who maintained and defended them. This 
fpiritof oppofition againft what he conceived to be herefy, 
involved him in acrimonious contefts, which lafted many 
years, with John bilhop of Jerufalem, and Ruftinus of 
Aquileia. With the latter, as we have already feeh, he 
had formerly lived in habits of intimacy and friendlhip; 
but upon the removal of Ruftinus into the neighbourhood 
of Jerufalem, and his enlifting among the Origenilts, the 
union between the two friends was diflblved, and their 
attachment was changed into the moll bitter animoiity. 
Jerome was alfo engaged in controverfies with Pelagius, 
Helvidius, Jovinian, Vigilantius, and others; of which ac¬ 
counts may be feen in all eccleliaftical hiitorians. In the 
year 410, when the Goths ravaged Italy and befieged Rome', 
Jerome afforded an afylum in his monallery to many of 
the fugitives who fled to the Holy Land; but, as he him- 
felf informs us, he carefully excluded from this holpita- 
lity all thofe who were favourers of Origen’s opinions, or 
tinflured in any degree with what he conlidered to be he¬ 
refy. He died at Bethlehem in the year 420, about the 
age of feventy-eight. 
St. Jerome is allowed, by the molt judicious modern 
critics, to have been, on the whole, the molt learned of all 
the Latin fathers. He was well Ikilled in philological 
learning, ecclefialtical and profane hiltory, and philofo- 
phy; and he has adorned his writings with the fineft 
Itrokes of the Greek and Latin poets, hiitorians, orators, 
and philolophers. His ltyle, however, is more declama¬ 
tory than argumentative ; and, while reading him, we are 
led rather to admire his eloquence and ingenuity, than 
the folidity of his judgment, or the perfpicuity and accu¬ 
racy of his reafoning. But what principally difgraces him 
as a writer, is the virulence, acrimony, and total want of 
candour, which appears in his controversial productions. 
That he would not have contented himfelf with merely 
pouring abufe and invective on his opponents, had he 
been poflcffed of power, may be fairly concluded from the 
approbation which he exprefled of the perfections prac¬ 
ticed on the adherents to Origen’s opinions in Egypt, by 
Theophilus bifliop of Alexandria, apd his exhortations to 
775 
that prelate to proceed with firmnefs and fpirit in extir¬ 
pating herefy. Of Jerome’s fuperftitious turn of mind, 
his afcetic difcipline, and the enthufiaitic encomiums which 
he lavifhed on the monaftic Hate, afford fufficient evi¬ 
dence ; and of his abundant credulity, bis Lives, dr, as 
Jortin more properly calls them, his Romances, of Paul 
the Hermit, and of Hilarion, furnilh us with linking 
proofs. The author juft mentioned, when adverting to the 
degree of credit to whic^ he is entitled, obferves, that; 
Tillemont has made two extraordinary conceffions con¬ 
cerning him: that he was more difpofed to augment than 
to diminilh miracles-; and that exadtnefs was no part of 
his character. And Dupin acknowledges, that his Life 
of Paul contains things which have little.claim on our be¬ 
lief. But, notwithftandingall Jerome’s defeats and faults, 
he, by his learned labours, has rendered Inch Cervices to 
the caule of revelation, as will hand down his name with 
honour to the latelt pollerity. Without being chargeable 
with vanity, he might bear that teftimony to himfelf 
which Lardner has colledted in his own words from dif¬ 
ferent parts of his writings: That he had been from the 
beginning diligent and inquifitive; that all his days he 
had been employed in the fchools of rhetoricians and phi- 
lofophers, or in reading the Scriptures of the Old and 
New Teftament; that he did not rely upon his own judg-. 
ment and underllanding in interpreting the Scriptures, 
but confulted other commentators, and was willing to im¬ 
prove by their labours; that he never thought himfelf too 
old to learn, but embraced all opportunities of increafing 
in knowledge ; and that he was not employed, as many 
monks were, in making balkets of rallies, and Ikreens of 
palm-leaves, to get a livelihood, but in ftudying the 
Scriptures, and publiftiing correct editions of them. The 
mod ufeful of his productions are, his interpretations of 
the facred Scriptures, and thofe of his letters which con¬ 
tain critical remarks and diflertations on particular texts 
and expreffions in the Bible. They will furniili the rea¬ 
der with more fragments of the ancient Greek tranflators 
ot the Bible than are to be met with in the works of any 
other father; and it is no little recommendation of them, 
that they prefent us with the opinions entertained by the 
Jews of his time of the fignification of many Hebrew words, 
and with the fenfe and meaning which they put upon 
many paffages in the Old Teftament. For a particular 
enumeration of the works attributed to St. Jerome, and 
the marks by which luch as are genuine may be diftin- 
guilhed from the fuppofititious, we refer to Cave or Du¬ 
pin ; obferving only, that the principal of them confift of, 
1. A new Latin verflon of the whole Old Teftament, from 
the Hebrew, accompanied with a corrected edition of the 
ancient Latin verflon of the New Teftament; which met 
at rirll with much oppofition, but was afterwards adopted 
by the catholic church, and is commonly known by the 
name of the Vulgate. 2. Commentaries on molt of the 
books of the Old and New Teftament. 3. A Treatife on 
the Lives and Writings of ecclefialtical Authors. 4. A 
Continuation of the Chronicle of Eufebius, moral, criti¬ 
cal, hiliorical, and mifcellaneous. 5. Letters, &c. The 
fit'll printed edition of them appeared at Bafil, under the 
care of Erafmus, 1516-1326, in 6 vols. folio ; which was 
followed, at different periods, by impreffions at Lyons, 
Rome, Paris, and Antwerp. The molt correit of all the 
editions which have been given is that publilhed at Pa¬ 
ris, by father Martianay, a benedictine monk of the con¬ 
gregation ot St. Maur, 1693-1706, in 5 vols. folio. 
JER'OME, a tort on the fouth tide of the illand of St. 
Domingo, on the lea-tide, and near the road from the city 
of St. Domingo, and in the Canton of Jayna. 
JER'OME of PRAGUE, fo called from the place of 
his birth, in Bohemia. He was neither a monk nor a cler¬ 
gyman, but had a learned education. Having embraced, 
the opinions of John Huls, he began to propagate, them 
in the year 1410. In the mean time tfie council of Nice 
kept a watchful eye over hi in ; and, confideriug- him as a 
dangerous 
