to the latter in 384. Jerome resided in a monastery, and at the pope's request began his revision of the old Latin or Italic version of the Bible. He produced the translation of the Psalms called a Psalterium Romanum, and another of the Gospels dedicated to the pope, wrote a commentary on the parable of the prodigal son, a letter on the hierarchy, and a treatise against Helvidius, who denied the perpetual virginity of Mary the mother of Christ. His love of monastic seclusion induced him to win converts by voice and pen to this mode of life. A large number of noble persons, particularly Roman ladies, forsook all worldly pursuits, and placed themselves under his direction. This, and Jerome's denunciation of the worldly lives led by the generality of Roman Christians, made him many enemies, lay and clerical; while his frequent instructions on the Scriptures and Christian virtues to his numerous female converts afforded an opportunity for spreading malignant reports against him. So long as Pope Damasus lived he supported Jerome against his slanderers; but after the election of Siricius, Jerome, taking with him his younger brother Politian, set out once more for the East. In order to find the most perfect models of monastic life, he visited the monasteries of Upper and Lower Egypt, and finally fixed his abode at Bethlehem, the birthplace of Christ. Thither he was soon followed by some of his distinguished Roman converts, who devoted a portion of their wealth to the erection of monasteries. One of these, for men, was placed under Jerome's direction, and to it he soon added a hostelry and hospital for pilgrims, and for the numerous refugees who fled from Rome after its sack by Alaric in 410. There he completed his Latin version of the Scriptures, which became in the western churches what the Septuagint was in the East, and served as a basis for nearly all the earlier translations of the Scriptures subsequently made into the vernacular tongues of Europe. From Bethlehem Jerome also issued treatises against the heretics of his time, such as Jovinian, Vigilantius, and Pelagius. He combated the doctrines of John, bishop of Jerusalem, and of his old friend Rufinus, who was propagating Origenism. In 416 the Pelagians, who were in the ascendancy in Palestine, burned his establishment at Bethlehem, and compelled him to fly for his life. Having remained in concealment for more than two years, he returned to Bethlehem in 418, exhausted by privations, anxiety, and infirmities. He was buried amid the ruins of one of his monasteries; but his remains were afterward taken to Rome, and placed in the basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, near the tomb of Sixtus V. His feast is celebrated on Sept. 30.—The personal character of St. Jerome has been the subject of much censure and much praise. His writings show him to have been a man of ardent nature, invincibly attached to what he conceived to be the truth and the right; but his very impetuosity was apt to hurry him into extremes. He advocated evangelical poverty and self-denial under the form of monasticism among the Roman patricians, as a remedy for the low morality which everywhere prevailed; but no one denounced with greater energy than he both false monks and false penitents. Biblical scholars are unanimous in acknowledging the incomparable services which his labors rendered to the church. His complete works comprise a volume of letters, several biographical series, topographical and grammatical dissertations about Hebrew history and geography, commentaries on the books of the Old and New Testaments, translations of works of several ecclesiastical writers, and finally his Latin version of the Bible. Of all his works this is the most useful and most widely known, though in a corrupted form, under the name of the Latin Vulgate. (See Bible.) We have now the text of the New Testament from MSS. of about the middle of the 6th century, the Codex Amiatinus, edited by Tischendorf in 1853 again in 1855, and the Codex Fuldensis, edited by Ranke in 1868, which rank with the oldest and best Greek MSS. in determining the true reading of the sacred text. The readings of the former in the Old Testament have been added by Heyse and Tischendorf to the Clementine Vulgate Latin, with emendations and various readings by Vercellone (1873). The principal editions of his works are those of Erasmus and Œcolampadius (9 vols. fol., Basel, 1516, reprinted in 1526 and 1537, and at Lyons in 1530); of Marianus Victorinus (9 vols., Rome, 1566-'72; Paris, 1578, 1608, and 1643); of Tribbechovius (12 vols. fol., Frankfort and Leipsic, 1684); of the Benedictines Pouget and Martianay(5 vols., Paris, 1693-1706); and that of Vallarsi and Maffei (11 vols., Verona, 1734-'42; Venice, 1766-'72; reproduced by Migne, Patrologie latine, vols. xxii.-xxx., Paris, 1845-'6). His life has been written by Martianay (Paris, 1706), by Stilting in the Acta Sanctorum for September, and by Alban Butler, "Lives of the Saints," Sept. 30. See also Collombet's Histoire de St. Jéróme (Lyons, 1844), and Zôckler, Hieronymus, sein Leben und Wirken (Gotha, 1865).
JEROME OF PRAGUE, a Bohemian religious reformer, born in Prague about 1375, burned at Constance, May 30, 1416. After graduating at Prague he visited the universities of Cologne, Heidelberg, Paris, and Oxford. Returning to Paris, he preached boldly in favor of reforms in the church, defending his views in a disputation held with Gerson, chancellor of the university. He was employed by Ladislas II. of Poland to organize the university of Cracow. About 1402 he began to disseminate secretly the doctrines of Wycliffe in Bohemia, and in 1408 openly identified his views with those of Huss. He was imprisoned for a time at Vienna, and only released through the earnest entreaty of his Bohemian friends. When Huss was imprisoned at Constance in 1414, Jerome
