INTRODUCTION Jerome Indisputably Was One of the Most Proli C and Versatile Authors in All of Latin Antiquity. Virtually Every Co

INTRODUCTION

Jerome indisputably was one of the most proli c and versatile authors in all of Latin antiquity.1 Virtually every conceivable prose genre employed by Christians in the rst ve centuries of the church—from the biblical commentary and the theological dialogus to the historical chronicle and the hagiographic vita—is exemplarily represented in his mammoth surviving literary corpus. But it is his correspondence for which he is arguably best known among most specialists and non-specialists alike. In many respects his letters can justi ably be regarded as “the nest of Christian antiquity”.2 To be sure, in the ancient Latin prose epistolographic tradition—broadly con- strued to include not only Christian letter-writers (e.g. Ambrose, Augustine, Paulinus, Sidonius) but also their non-Christian counterparts (e.g. Cicero, Seneca, Pliny, Fronto, Symmachus)—Jerome is a luminary among luminar- ies.3 The present book intensively investigates one of the most remarkable of these literary productions, a treatise cast in epistolary form4 which is des- ignated as Epistula 52 in modern editions of the correspondence. This work represents a major milestone in Jerome’s career as a proponent of ascetic theory and practice for the simple reason that he fully articulates therein his grand ideal of the monastic clergy. This writing also is a precious artifact of social and religious history and has great signi cance in the broader con- text of the period because it marks a serious attempt by a late fourth-century

1 His biography has already been treated extensively in numerous scholarly venues over the years, and so no attempt is made here to duplicate familiar material. For his concise vita, see A. Cain, St. Jerome, Commentary on Galatians (Washington, 2010), 3–14. The standard English-language biography remains J.N.D. Kelly, Jerome: His Life, Writings, and Controversies (London, 1975), but see also S. Rebenich, Jerome (London, 2002), 3–59. In German, Rebenich’s Hieronymus und sein Kreis: prosopographische und sozialgeschichtliche Untersuchungen (Stuttgart, 1992) and Alfons Fürst’s Hieronymus: Askese und Wissenschaft in der Spätantike (Freiburg, 2003) are indispensable treatments. See further the essays in A. Cain and J. Lössl (eds.), Jerome of Stridon: His Life, Writings and Legacy (Aldershot, 2009). 2 Rebenich, Jerome, 79. 3 For a recent study of the correspondence, with references to further bibliography, see A. Cain, The Letters of Jerome: Asceticism, Biblical Exegesis, and the Construction of Christian Authority in Late Antiquity (Oxford, 2009). 4 Cf. H.-I. Marrou, “La technique de l’édition à l’époque patristique,” VChr 3 (1949): 208– 224 (221–222), on “la frontière indécise qui, dans la littérature patristique, sépare lettres et traités”. 2 introduction

Christian author to reconcile the prevailing standards of clerical morality with the values of the emerging western monastic movement. While other contemporary patristic authors such as Gregory of Nazianzus,5 Ambrose,6 and John Chrysostom7 theorized in varying degrees about an ascetic eth- ical mandate for clerical life,8 none did so with as much apophthegmatic poignancy and gusto as Jerome did in the letter to Nepotian.9 Epistula 52 was composed in mid-393,10 some six years after Jerome had begun the process of settling into his monastic establishment at Bethlehem, which he co-founded with his Roman patron Paula in 386.11 He addressed it to Nepotianus (hereafter Nepotian), a young priest serving the church at Altinum, a coastal city in northeastern Italy, in the province of Venetia- Istria. In additon to being a priest Nepotian was a practicing monk, and he had requested guidance from Jerome about how best to integrate his monastic and clerical vocations. He was the nephew of Jerome’s lifelong friend and literary patron Heliodorus, who had been bishop of Altinum since at least 381.12 Nepotian was born into a privileged family in this same city probably in the middle or late 360s, as we may infer from the fact that he

5 See S. Elm, “The Diagnostic Gaze: Gregory of Nazianzus’ Theory of the Ideal Orthodox Priest in his Oration 6 (De Pace) and 2 (Apologia de Fuga sua),” in S. Elm, É. Rebillard, and A. Romano (eds.), Orthodoxie, christianisme, histoire (Rome, 2000), 83–100; A. Louth, “St. Gregory Nazianzen on Bishops and the Episcopate,” in Vescovi e pastori in epoca teodosiana (2 vols., Rome, 1997), 2.81–85. 6 See R. Gryson, Le prêtre selon saint Ambroise (Louvain, 1968), 295–317; D.G. Hunter, Mar- riage, Celibacy, and Heresy in Ancient Christianity (Oxford, 2007), 219–224. See also I. David- son, “Ambrose’s De Ociis and the Intellectual Climate of the Late Fourth Century,” VChr 49 (1995): 313–333; Id., Ambrose, De ociis: Introduction, Text, Translation, and Commentary (Oxford, 2001). 7 See M. Lochbrunner, Über das Priestertum: historische und systematische Untersuchung zum Priesterbild des Johannes Chrysostomus (Bonn, 1993). 8 As noted by R. Greer, “Who Seeks for a Spring in the Mud? Reections on the Ordained Ministry in the Fourth Century,” in R.J. Neuhaus (ed.), Theological Education and Moral Formation (Grand Rapids, 1992), 22–55 (54), in his overview of the primary-source evidence, “the clerical ideal of the fourth century revolves primarily around the character of the priest”. 9 In the commentary Jerome’s vision of the ascetic clergy is frequently compared and contrasted with the visions of Gregory, Ambrose, Chrysostom, and other patristic authors. 10 P. Nautin, “Études de chronologie hiéronymienne (393–397),” REAug 20 (1974): 251–284 (251–253, 277). This dating is accepted by Rebenich, Hieronymus und sein Kreis, 202n382. The letter is dated to 394 by Cavallera, Saint Jérôme, 1.183n2, and Kelly, Jerome, 190n59. 11 This settlement consisted of both a monastery for Jerome’s monks and a convent for Paula’s nuns as well as of a hostelry for Christian pilgrims, hundreds if not thousands of whom passed through Bethlehem on a yearly basis. On this joint monastic venture, see A. Cain, “Jerome’s Epitaphium Paulae: Hagiography, Pilgrimage, and the Cult of Saint Paula,” JECS 18 (2010): 105–139. 12 See on 1.1 Heliodorum.