Erasmus' Biographical Masterpiece: Hieronymi Stridonensis Vita

Author(s): John B. Maguire

Source: Renaissance Quarterly, Vol. 26, No. 3 (Autumn, 1973), pp. 265-273
Published by: University of Chicago Press on behalf of the Renaissance Society of America
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/2859756
Accessed: 22-12-2015 15:37 UTC

Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/
info/about/policies/terms.jsp

JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content
in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship.
For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Renaissance Society of America and University of Chicago Press are collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and
extend access to Renaissance Quarterly.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 193.0.65.67 on Tue, 22 Dec 2015 15:37:53 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
RENAISSANCE QUARTERLY
PUBLISHED BY
TheRenaissance Society of America, Inc., 1161 AmsterdamAve., NewYork, N.Y. 10027

Edited by ELIZABETH STORY DONNO and JAMES V. MIROLLO

Associate Editors s. F. JOHNSON C. WILLIAM MILLER MARGARETL. RANALD
CHARLES SEYMOUR, JR. M. A. SHAABER ROBERT E. TAYLOR

Erasmus'Biographical
Masterpiece:
Hieronymi StridonensisVita
by JOHN B. MAGUIRE

RA SM US shared with many Renaissance men a more than pass-

ing interest in biographical writing. He recommended Plutarch's
Lives on several occasions, edited and annotated Suetonius' Lives of the
Twelve Caesars,and more importantly, several times tried his own hand
at life-writing.1 In addition to biographical sketches of his contempo-
raries More, Colet, Vitrier, and Warham, Erasmus wrote lives of Je-
rome, Ambrose, Augustine, Chrysostom, and other early Church
Fathers to serve as introductions to the Froben editions of their works.
The epistolary sketches of More, Colet, and Vitrier are interesting in
their own right and especially in that Erasmus uses a different biographi-
cal approach in each of them, but they are brief and remain essentially
sketches, albeit extremely vivid ones.2 Among the lives of the early
Fathers, that of Jerome is unquestionably preeminent and, ironically,
the only one to be omitted from Leclerc's edition of Erasmus' Opera
1 See The Education a Christian Prince, tr. Lester K. Born
of (NewYork, 1936), p. 200.
Also, in Opus EpistolarumDes. ErasmiRoterodami,eds. P. S. Allen, H. M. Allen, etc. (Ox-
ford, 1906-58), see Erasmus' letters to Valentine Furster (Allen, vi, 481) and to Brixius
(Allen, IX, 108). His edition of Suetonius is C. Suetonii TranquilliXII Caesares. .. Anno-
tata in eundem,et in loca aliquot restitutaper D. ErasmumRoter (Cologne, 1539).
2 The More sketch can be found in Allen, IV, 12-23; those of Colet and Vitrier are in
the same volume, pp. 507-527, and those of Warham in Allen, x, 144-147, and in volume
five, 810oE-812B, of Opera Omnia Desiderii ErasmiRoterodami,ed.J. Leclerc (Leyden, 1703-
06). Erasmus' introductory lives of the Fathers of the Church, with the sole exception of
Jerome's, can all be found in either of the two parts of volume three of the Leclerc work.

[ 265 ]

This content downloaded from 193.0.65.67 on Tue, 22 Dec 2015 15:37:53 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
266 RENAISSANCE QUARTERLY
Omnia.It was made easily available again, however, by Wallace K.
Ferguson in ErasmiOpuscula,A Supplementto the OperaOmnia (The
Hague, 1933). The HieronymiStridonensis Vitais an astonishingpiece of
work for its time and Erasmus one of the few early sixteenth-century
scholarscapableof producing the work which Fergusonrightly terms
'a new departurein the field of Christianbiography.'3Its adherenceto
historicalfact, realisticinsight into the means of both discovering and
presentingcharacter,sophisticateduse of letters and other sources,and
its artisticuse of the rhetoricalbiographicalform make it an important
Erasmianwork.
The contemporariesabout whom Erasmuswrote were all friendsof
his and he could rely on his own personalexperienceswith them and on
the testimony of mutual acquaintances.But Jerome had been dead for
more than a millennium before Erasmusbegan to write, and the sim-
plest facts of his life as well as the essentialcharacterof the saint were
hidden under a welter of legends which had grown up in the long cen-
turiessincehis death.ButJerome, the urbaneif sometimestesty scholar,
editor, and translatorof the Scriptures,was the saintmost congenial to
Erasmus'temperamentand Erasmuswas determinedto presenta true
picture of him to the world. In the midst of his editorialwork on Je-
rome's letters, a task which consumed severalyears of his life, Erasmus
wrote to his friend Ammonius, 'My enthusiasmfor amending and an-
notatingJerome is such that I feel as though inspiredby some god.'4 So
before the Froben edition of the collected works of Jerome was pre-
sentedto the public, Erasmusset himself to write the life of their author
as a prefaceto the OperaHieronymi.In the threeyearsfollowing its first
publication,the life was twice put out as a separatebook and continued
to serveasintroductionto the successiveeditionsof the OperaHieronymi.
The life of Jerome is short by today's standards,only about 15,000
words, but it is long enough for its purpose.Perhapsthe first 135 lines
are the most important,for it is here that Erasmuscriticizesearlierhis-
torical and biographicalwriting and defendsthe principlesthat he will
follow in writing Jerome'slife. He begins with an insistenceon histori-
cal truth above all other values, even beyond the desirefor edification:
3 P. 129. Ferguson'sintroduction,though brief, is very valuableand I am indebtedto
it for severaldetailsconcerningthe Hieronymi... Vita.Peter G. Bietenholz,in his mono-
graphHistoryandBiographyin the Workof Erasmusof Rotterdam (Geneva,1966), treatsall
of Erasmus'biographicalwritings,but his emphasisis considerablydifferentfrom mine,
though there is no disagreementbetween us.
4 Allen, i, 531.

This content downloaded from 193.0.65.67 on Tue, 22 Dec 2015 15:37:53 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 ERASMUS' HIERONYMI STRIDONENSIS VITA 267
I am aware, of course, that many of the ancientsconsideredit justifiableto fabricate
tales for the sake of the common good: that is, either to inculcategood morals, stimu-
late and encourage laggards, give aid to the weak, inspire terror in evil men whom
neither love nor reason can move, or else to illustratethe glory of saintly men by
marvelous tales....
For my part,however, Ijudge it better to describethe saintsjust as they in fact were,
for even their faults become examples of piety for us. Yet if anyone taken up with
fables paints a picture of some holy man prudently, not in terms of sackcloth, ashes,
scourges, fantasticfasts and incredible vigils, but according to the true teachings of
Christ so that he clearly makes known the nature of Christianpiety-if finally he
draws the portrait with some skill I can perhaps tolerate him. Still, no matter how
skillfully the artistpaints the bright splendor of a gem, the imitation can never have
the nature of a realjewel. Truth has a force of its own which artificecan never match.
So why put up with those who degraderatherthan honor the saintswith their absurd,
ignorant, childish, nay, even old-womanish nonsense?5

Jeromehadfaredespeciallypoorlyat thehandsof earlierwriters,and

with someexasperation ErasmusnotesthatevenmenaslearnedasPla-
tinaandVolterra(Raffaelle Maffei)had takenover from earlierbiog-
raphersofJerome the obviouserrorthatthe dyingsainthad entrusted
hiscommentaries to PopeDamasus,in spiteofJerome'sown wordsthat
Damasushadprecededhim to thegrave.Of suchfabricated 'lives'Eras-
muswrites:'Intheseyou will findno learning,no style,no good sense
or care;you will findevenlessoftrustworthiness, theprimaryrequisite
forawriterof history.'6So Erasmus sethimself
to work.'Consequently,
I, thoughunequalto thistaskandunaidedby anyreliablecommentaries,
with whatevertrustworthiness attentivecaremerits,havegatheredto-
gether the life of this holy man from Prosper,Severus,Orosius,even
his calumniator,Rufmus;but most especiallyI soughtJeromein his
very own writings,for who could have known him more faithfully
thanhe did himself?'7
Erasmus'biographicalprinciples,then, conformto the methodof
historicalphilologicalcriticismaccordingto whichhe wrotehis scrip-
turalcommentaries. In replyto the statementthatJeromehad beena
cardinalhe retortsthat sucha title had not even been known at that
earlydate,andthoughJeromereferredto himselfas a priestoften,he
neveronceclaimedthe title of cardinal.Whereinformationis lacking
5 Footnotes five
through twenty all refer to Erasmi Opuscula. Since the translations
given in the text are all my own, this and the following references are to the line numbers
of Erasmus'Latintext. The passagestranslatedhere areto be found in lines 1-8 and65-78.
6 Lines
115-117.
7 Lines 120-127.

This content downloaded from 193.0.65.67 on Tue, 22 Dec 2015 15:37:53 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
268 RENAISSANCE QUARTERLY
or there is insufficientdata on which to base a judgment Erasmusre-
frains from doing so. After giving the known details about Jerome's
backgroundhe adds: 'Beyond thisJerome saysnothing more about his
family, whether it was plebeianor patrician,rich or poor, of the private
or ruling class, although some have pretendedthat he came of a most
noble family so that by the same token they could make him prefect of
the city.'8With cautionErasmuswill sometimesuse expressionssuch as
'It is not fully clear .... But to me it seems more probable ... .'9 It is
Jerome's story and Erasmustells it in Jerome's own words or from his
works as much as possible. 'While still a child, he was sent to Rome as
the best center for both religion and eruditionto study the liberalarts,
as he himself says in the eleventh chapterof his commentary on Eze-
chiel.'10The citations,however, arenot alwaysso specific:'And on this
journey Bonosuswas his companion,ashe himselfdeclareselsewhere.'11
But his more common practiceis to give bothJerome'sown words and
the specific reference: 'Again, in the letter which begins "Non debet
charta,"[Jerome] says the same thing in these words, "You yourselves
know the slipperypath of adolescence,on which I also fell, and which
you traversednot without fear." '12
While it was not alwayspossibleto have exactknowledge aboutvari-
ous facetsofJerome's life, Erasmusdoes not hesitatein his effort to de-
termineaspreciselyaspossiblethe circumstancessurroundingparticular
incidents,the chronologicalsequenceof events, and so forth, even when
he can 'only give my deductionsas a reader.'13In a thirty-line passage
attemptingto identifyJerome'steachersin grammarand rhetoric,Eras-
mus cites five differentworks by Jerome and offers four quotes from
them to substantiatehis deductions.14In a later passage,after quoting
Jerome's account of a trip to the East, Erasmusadds:
Some, perhaps,will think that this has to do withJerome's firstjourney to Syria. To
me it seems more probablethat it refersto his later one. Firstbecause,asJerome him-
self wrote, he was hardly more than a youth at the time of his earlierjourney and it
does not seem likely that an as yet unknown youth would have been received with so
much honor by the most famous bishop of the region. Also, becausethe descriptionof

8 Lines 161-164.
9 Lines 428 and 432.
10 Lines 171-174.
11 Lines 274-275.
12 Lines 1049-52.
13 Lines 223-224.
14 Lines 201-230.

This content downloaded from 193.0.65.67 on Tue, 22 Dec 2015 15:37:53 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 ERASMUS' HIERONYMI STRIDONENSIS VITA 269
thistourthroughSyriaandEgyptcoincideswell with theitineraryof PaulaasJerome
describesit in her epitaph,andit is clearfromJerome'saccountthathe waswith her
on that pilgrimage.15

Thoughthesepointsareperhapstrivialandnot veryhelpfulin coming

to anunderstanding ofJerome'sessentialandparticular characteristicsas
a man,theyarenoteworthyin showingthecriticalmethodandcaution
of Erasmusin tryingto get at therealhistoricalfactsof hissubject'slife.
In otherpassages,Erasmus'siftingof Jerome'swritingsto get to the
man behindthe externalactionsand factualdetailsled to betterbio-
graphicalmatter.
A recurring
criticismofJeromeduringhislifetimeandthereafter was
thathe had all
beenexcessivelysharptowards who disagreed withhim.
FourtimesErasmusbringsup thiscriticismso thathis readercanseeit
in perspective.
He firsttellsusthatHeliodorushadaccompanied Jerome
to the wastelands
of Syria,but left shortlythereafter:
Heliodorusthenchangedhis mindandreturnedhome. Not long afterwards Jerome
wrotehim a letter,filledwith the praisesandadvantages of the solitarylife, but also
with greatcourtesyhe freedhisfriendfromanychargeof inconstancy, blamingonly
his own faultsfor Heliodorus'sdeparture.(I call attentionin passingto this praise-
worthytraitinJerome,whom somepeople,judgingby theirown manners,thinkto
havebeenratherharshanduncivil,whereasno onewaseverkinderormorecourteous
thanhe.) Forhe wrotethedeaconJulius asfollows:'Ourholy brotherHeliodoruswas
hereandwishedto remainwith me, but my sinsdrovehim away.'16

Erasmuslaterexpressesdoubtsaboutthe historicityof a particularly

degradingrumorthatsupposedly hadcirculatedagainstJeromeduring
hislifetime.'Forhe wasnot accustomed to sparehisadversaries to such
a degreethathe wouldfailevento mentionso infamously vile a charge,
one thatso grievouslytouchedhis reputationthatsilencewould little
becomea manof good conscience.'17 ButErasmus is carefulto showus
his subject'sabusivewordson anotheroccasion.Melaniahad accom-
paniedJerometo Bethlehem,but laterreturnedto Rome whereshe
afterwardsidedwith Rufmusin the quarrelbetweenthe two men.
Afterrelatingthesefacts,Erasmusadds:'I am not surewhethershe is
the samepersontowardwhomJeromeshowedhisill-humorby refer-
ringto herin an obscurepassageas the one whosenameis aptlytrans-

15 Lines 751-760.
16 Lines 378-388.
17 Lines 651-656.

This content downloaded from 193.0.65.67 on Tue, 22 Dec 2015 15:37:53 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
270 RENAISSANCE QUARTERLY
latedas "theblackone."'18 A finaltimeErasmusreturnsto the charge
thatJerome'shypersensitivity hadledhim to writeabouthisfoeswith-
out due moderation,and in his defencecites Terence'sdictum:'Had
you beenthereyou wouldfeelotherwise.'Wherepossible,Jeromehad
preferredto use humorratherthanvitriol.He had been sharpin his
wordsto Rufmus,butthelatterhaddeservedevenharshertreatment.In
his disputewithJohn of Jerusalemhe hadwrittenwith due reverence
for the Bishop'soffice.Wherepossible,Jeromehad alwaysconcealed
the name of his adversaries, preferringto use pseudonymswhile still
attacking theirerrors.
In otherways, too, Erasmustriedto showjust what sortof person
Jeromehadbeen.Againstthe claimof pseudo-biographers thatJerome
had alwaysavoidedsinsof the flesh,Erasmusrecallshis subject'sown
wordson thematter.He handlesthissubjectin thetraditional Christian
contextof mortificationof the body andrepentancefor sin, but Eras-
mus'animadversions hererevealhis insightinto humannature.Those
who attemptto saveJerome'sreputationat the expenseof twistinghis
very own words'wouldmakeChristhimselfgreaterif theycould....
It is good to recognizein thesaintsthe scarsof sinssometimescommit-
ted over and over again.For some unknownreasonthe exampleof
thosewho have come to theirsensesagainand returnedto piety has
more of an effect on us.'19
Jerome's method of study, too, gives insight into his personalityas
Erasmusrevealsit. He hesitatednot at all to read even hereticsand pa-
gans, knowing how, in his prudence,to mine gold even from a dung-
hill. In learningHebrew, he employed the most eruditeJews he could
find. If he had studiedwith Bar-haninaonly under cover of darkness,it
was not, asJeromehimself wrote, becausethe Christianwas ashamedto
have a Jewish teacher,but only to save the Jew from the ill-will of his
fellows for aiding a Christian.And Hebrew had been so hardforJerome
that he referredto the hours spent learningit as his sweatshoplabors.
Jerome, then, was a man like other men. He had known weakness,
frailty,sin, and strife.He had traveledthroughmuch of the then-known
world, met and studiedunder and correspondedwith the greatestmen
of his age, fought with some of them, loved others deeply and won
theirlove in return.He had laboredin his studying and writing to serve
God and make betterknown His holy Word. Erasmustriedto gatheras
18 Lines
814-815.
19 Lines 1072-79.

This content downloaded from 193.0.65.67 on Tue, 22 Dec 2015 15:37:53 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 ERASMUS' HIERONYMI STRIDONENSIS VITA 271
muchinformationabouthimashe could,to gainasdeepanunderstand-
ing of him aspossible,andto presenthim faithfullyto hisreadersjustas
he hadbeen.But by any standard Jeromehadbeenan unusualperson,
gifted,energetic,passionatelydedicatedto thetruthashe understoodit,
a manwho had accomplished muchin his lifetime.And he was Eras-
mus'favoriteamongthe Fathersof the Church.The Hieronymi Strido-
nensisVitawas not the productof a detached,disinterested observer.
Never is the readerunawareof Erasmus'profoundadmirationfor his
subject.He sideswithJeromeagainstRufmus,answersevery criticism
againsthim thathe can.In one burstof enthusiasm, Erasmuscompares
Jerome with other Fathersof the Church and greatChristianauthors:
'Manylackedskill in language,some purityof doctrine,and others
moralintegrity.Jerome,andonlyJerome,exhibitsallvirtues,so thatif
you considernot one or anotherfacetbut the whole pictureyou will
find,I dareto say,thatnot evenGreececanshowhis equal.Let one be
broughtforth if possible,and I will not hesitateto retractthisjudg-
ment.'20
Erasmus'objectivity, then, was impinged on by his partiality,and his
judgments were not always free of distortion.This is perhapsthe single
weaknessin his life ofJerome. But it is not a distortionof fact in any in-
stance and never is there a shadow of dishonesty.Erasmusis Jerome's
advocate to the world, but he arguesopenly and candidly. Whether a
matterhas to do with some aspectofJerome's character,some incident
in his life, or a criticismof one of his works, Erasmuspresentshis defense
as best he can, trying to persuadethe readerbut never through suppres-
sion of fact or subterfuge of any kind. Erasmus'partiality, though a
weakness according to modern biographicalcriteria,is eminently un-
derstandableand is such that we can live with it not too uncomfortably.
Curiouslyenough, scholarswho have attemptedto outline the devel-
opment of biography in England have all given attention to Erasmus'
sketchesof More, Colet, Vitrier, and Warham and have all neglected
the life of St. Jerome.21But there is reason to believe that sixteenth-
centuryEnglishmenwould have been acquaintedwith and interestedin
Erasmus'Life ofJerome.Throughout the century English theologians

20 Lines 1455-61.
21 See, for instance, Stauffer's English Biography Before 17oo; Marie Schutt's Die
englische Biographik der Tudor Zeit (Hamburg, 1930); or John Francis Weimer's 'Bio-
graphical Writing in Sixteenth Century England (A Catalog Raisonne).' University of
Wisconsin Dissertation, 1954.

This content downloaded from 193.0.65.67 on Tue, 22 Dec 2015 15:37:53 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
272 RENAISSANCE QUARTERLY
showed a continuing interest in Jerome's writings. In Richard Foxe's
revision of the Oxford theological curriculum,undertakenjust a few
years after the Froben OperaHieronymifirst appeared,the scriptural
commentariesof the traditionalmedieval authoritieswere replacedby
those of the Latin and Greek Fathers,including, of course, those of St.
Jerome among the most important.22And the writings of the religious
controversialists,from More at the beginning of the troublesto Hooker
at the end of the century, are interspersedwith frequent and copious
quotationsfrom and referencesto the writings ofJerome.23And Eras-
mus did most of his editorialwork on the OperaHieronymiduring his
stay in England between 1509 and 1514, and was still concerned with it
during his returnvisit to England in the springof 1515. His lettersdur-
ing these years, to English as well as to Continental friends,have fre-
quent allusionsto Jerome and his writings and also to the two English
scholars,Thomas Lupsetand Henry Bullock, who were assistingEras-
mus in his editorial work on Jerome.24When he finally finished the
work, Erasmusdedicated the OperaHieronymi,to which the life was
prefixed, to ArchbishopWarham.Just as soon as Frobenhad sent him
copies of the printedwork, he sent gift copies not only to Warham, but
also to More, Colet, Fisher,and ChristopherUrswyke, and presumably
also to Lupset and Bullock.25 (Bullock, who died less than ten years
later, left a copy of the OperaHieronymiand twenty-three other books
to Queen's College, Cambridge.)26England was thus well aware of
Erasmus'OperaHieronymiwith its introductory Vita.When the work
first appearedin 1516, nothing like the Vitahad yet been done in En-
gland nor would there be anything comparableto it for many years. It
was an example from which biographersin England well might have

22 See James Kelsey McConica, EnglishHumanistsandReformation

Politics (Oxford,
1965), pp. 82-83.
23 Even the most cursorysurvey of Englishreligiouscontroversialwritings of the six-
teenth century will substantiatethis affirmation.McConica, for instance,says that the
tractsof RichardMoryson, one of the propagandistsrecruitedby Cromwell in the mid-
1530's, 'reflect the atmosphereof [Pole's Paduan household] in their citations from
Jerome,Vives, and Erasmus.. .' (p. 172). More, it will be remembered,in his advice to
Henry to consult the writings of the 'old holy doctors' on the matter of the divorce,
listedJeromefirst among them.
24 See especially in Allen, I, 517-518, 525-528, 530-532, 540-541; and in Allen, ii, 27-
29, 68-73, 79-90, 114-117, and 210-221.
25 Allen, I, 354.
26 See D. F. S. Thomson, ErasmusandCambridge
(Toronto, 1963), p. 218.

This content downloaded from 193.0.65.67 on Tue, 22 Dec 2015 15:37:53 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions
 ERASMUS' HIERONYMI STRIDONENSIS VITA 273

learned. As I have shown elsewhere, however,27 only the few Tudor

biographersof Thomas More seem to have learnedErasmus'lessons.
Donald Stauffer,in EnglishBiographyBefore1700, the most compre-
hensive study yet made of early English biography,has stated that the
medievalperiod left two kindsof literarylife-writing to successiveages:
the saint'slife and the royal chronicle.28Yet the analysesof sixteenth-
century hagiographicalwritings given by Stauffer, Schutt, Weimer,
and others show that few of these saints'lives can even be considered
true biography and that fewer still have any intrinsicmerit.29As im-
portantas Erasmus'sketchesof More, Colet, Vitrier, and Warham are,
they are not comparable to his biographical masterpiece, the long-
neglected HieronymiStridonensisVita. If one is to talk seriouslyof the
place of early sixteenth-centurysaints'lives in the development of En-
glish biography,or of Erasmus'contributionsto that development, it is
this work which must be the startingpoint.
LOYOLA UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

27 'The
Development of Sixteenth-CenturyBiography in the Traditionof Erasmus
and Thomas More,' StanfordUniversity Dissertation,1970.
28 Cambridge,Mass., 1930. See the whole first chapter,'The Medieval Period,' pp.
3-33.
29 See, for example,the cited works of Stauffer,Schutt, and Weimer, passim.

This content downloaded from 193.0.65.67 on Tue, 22 Dec 2015 15:37:53 UTC
All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions