![]() Vercellæ then is a Ligurian city near the foothills of the Alps, once a place of importance, but now lying half in ruins with only a few inhabitants. Non moritur, quisquis victurus occiditur. » Præsto jugulum, micantem intrepida excipio mucronem, innocentiam tantum mecum feram. At tu, miserrime homo, si interire festinas, cur duos interimis innocentes ? Equidem et ipsa cupio mori, cupio invisum hoc corpus exuere, sed non quasi adultera. At vero mulier sexo fortior suo, quum eculeus corpus extenderet et sordidas pædore carceris manus post tergum vincula cohiberent, oculis, quos tantum tortor alligare non poterat, suspexit ad cælum et, volutis per ora lacrimis, « Tu », inquit, « testis, domine Jesu, cui occultum nihil est, qui es scrutator renis et cordis, non ideo me negare velle, ne peream. Neque multo post, cum lividas carnes ungula cruenta pulsaret et sulcatis lateribus dolor quæreret veritatem, infelicissimus juvenis volens compendio mortis longos vitare cruciatus, dum in suum mentitur sanguinem, accusavit alienum, solusque omnium miser meritus visus est percuti, quia non reliquit innoxiæ unde posset negare. Hanc quum ex more consularis inviseret, oblatam sibi quandam mulierculam una cum adultero nam id crimen maritus impegerat pnali carceris horrore circumdedit. Igitur Vercellæ Ligurum civitas haud procul a radicibus Alpium sita, olim potens, nunc raro habitatore semiruta. If the surging waves drive me to the desired haven, I shall be considered a skilful steersman: if my unvarnished tale strikes the rocks among the rough windings of my story, you may perhaps find me lacking in ability but you certainly will not be able to challenge my goodwill. ![]() Today I obey your command: love is all-powerful, and with the Holy Spirit guiding my course, I may feel confident that in either case I shall find comfort. You bid me hoist the swelling sails to the mast top, to let the sheets run loose and take the tiller in my hand. « on every side is sky, on every side the sea » 2ĭarkness roughens the waves and in the black night of the stormclouds the billows show white with foam. A novice in shipcraft, I am put on board a vessel heavily laden a poor fellow who has never steered a skiff upon a lake, I am entrusted to the roar of the Euxine Sea. What then shall I do? I cannot fulfill this task, but I do not dare to refuse it. Pareo jam jubenti et, quia caritas omnia potest, Spiritu Sancto cursum prosequente confidam, habiturus in utraque parte solacium : si me ad optatos portus æstus appulerit, gubernator putabor si inter asperos orationis anfractus impolitus sermo substiterit, facultatem forsitan quæras, voluntatem certe flagitare non poteris. Hortaris ut tumida malo vela suspendam, rudentes explicem, clavum regam. Nunc unda tenebris horrescens et cæca nocte nimborum spumei fluctus canescunt. Super onerariam navem rudis vector imponor, et homo qui necdum scalmum in lacu rexi, Euxini Maris credor fragori. Quid igitur faciam ? Quod implere non possum, negare non audeo. A member of Jeromes first band of ascetics in Aquileia he accompanied Jerome to Antioch where he died in 374. ![]() You, on the other hand, declared that in the things of God one ought to consider not the possibility, but the will, and that he who believed in the Word could not find words fail him.ġ. I distrusted my power of achievement, both because all the language of man is inadequate to the praise of heaven, and also because lack of exercise, like rust upon the midn, has dried up any slight power of eloquence that in the past I might have possessed. To that request I gave a modest, and as I now find by trial, a justified, refusal. You have often in the past asked me, my dearest Innocent 1, to relate that miraculous happening which occurred in my lifetime. Quumque ego id verecunde et vere, ut nunc experior, negarem, meque assequi posse diffiderem, sive quia omnis humanus sermo inferior esset laude cælesti, sive quia otium, quasi quædam ingenii robigo, parvulam licet facultatem pristini siccasset eloquii, tu e contrario asserebas in Dei rebus non possibilitatem inspici debere, sed animum, neque eum posse verba deficere qui credidisset in Verbo. Sæpe a me, Innocenti carissime, postulasti ut de ejus miraculo rei quæ in nostram ætatem inciderat, non tacerem. Letter 1Īd Innocentium Presbyterum de Septies Percussa Latin text adapted, with corrections, to orthographic style of 19th century. Saint Jerome - Select Letters Sanctus Eusebius Sophronius Hieronymus (A.D.
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