JEROME, Sr, in Latin Hieronymus, a celebrated doctor of the church, and the most learned of all the Latin fathers, was the son of Eusebius, and was born at Stridon, a city of the ancient Pannonia, about the year 340. He studied at Rome under Donatus, the learned grammarian. After having received baptism, he proceeded into Gaul,
and there transcribed St Hilary's book De Synodis. He then went into Aquileia, where he contracted a friendship with Heliodorus, who prevailed on him to travel with him into Thrace, Pontus, Bithynia, Galatia, and Cappadocia. In 372 St Jerome retired into a desert in Syria, where he was persecuted by the orthodox of Melitus's party for being a Sabellian, because he made use of the word hypostasias, which had been employed by the council of Rome in 369. This obliged him to go to Jerusalem, where he applied himself to the study of the Hebrew language, in order to acquire a more perfect knowledge of the Holy Scriptures; and about this time he consented to be ordained, on condition that he should not be confined to any particular church. In 381, he went to Constantinople to hear Gregory Nazianzen, and the following year returned to Rome, where he was made secretary to Pope Damasus. He then instructed many Roman ladies in piety and the knowledge of the sciences, which exposed him to the calumnies of those whom he zealously reprov'd for their irregularities; and Pope Siricius not having all the esteem for him to which his learning and virtue justly entitled him, this learned doctor left Rome, and returned to the monastery of Bethlehem, where he employed himself in writing against those whom he called heretics, especially Vigilantius and Jovinian. He had a quarrel with John of Jerusalem and Rufinus about the Origenists. St Jerome was the first who wrote against Pelagius. He died on the 30th of September 420, at about eighty years of age. There have been several editions of his works; the last, which is that of Verona, is in eleven vols. folio. His principal works are, 1. A Latin version of the Holy Scriptures, distinguished by the name of the Vulgate; 2. Commentaries on the Prophets, Ecclesiastes, St Matthew's Gospel, and the Epistles to the Galatians, Ephesians, Titus, and Philemon; 3. Polemical treatises against Montanus, Helvidius, Jovinian, Vigilantius, and Pelagius; 4. Letters; 5. A treatise on the lives and writings of the ecclesiastical authors who had flourished before his time. The style of St Jerome is lively and animated, sometimes rising to the sublime.