Heretics And Counsel

Ego igitur, ut ante iam scripsi, Christi vestem in Romana urbe suscipiens, nunc barbaro Syriae limite teneor. Et ne putes alterius hanc de me fuisse sententiam, quid mererer, ipse constitui. Verum, ut ait Gentilis Poeta: Caelum non animum mutat, qui trans mare currit, ita me incessabilis inimics post tergum sequutus est, ut maiora in solitudine bella nunc patiar. Hinc enim praesidiis fulta mundi Ariana rabies fremit. Hinc in tres partes scissa Eccleisia ad se rapere me festinat. Monarchorum circa manentium antiqua in me surget auctoritas. Ego interim clamito, si quis cathedrae Petri iungitur, meus est. Meletius, Vitalis, atque Paulinus tibi haerere se dicere, possem credere si hoc unus assereret. Nunc aut duo mentiuntur, aut omnes. Idcirco obtestor Beatitudinem tuam, per crucem Domini, per necessarium fidei nostrae decus, passionem Christi, ut qui Apostolos honore sequeris, sequaris et merito: ita in solio cum duodecim iudicaturus sedeas: ita te alius senem cum Petro cingat: ita municipatum caeli cum Paulo consequaris, ut mihi litteris tuis, apud quem in Syria debeam communicare significes. Noli despicere animam, pro qua Christus mortuus est.   Sanctus Hieronymus, ex Epistola XVI, ad Damasum Papam   Source: Migne PL 22 358-9

I, therefore, as I have already written to you, having received Christ's garb in the city of Rome, am now kept on the barbarous edges of Syria. But do not think a sentence was passed upon me; that which I have merited I decreed for myself. Truly, as the heathen poet says: 'They change not mind but sky who race across the sea,' 1 and so the untiring enemy follows behind me, and greater are the assaults that I suffer in the desert. Here, supported by the protection of the world, the Arian frenzy raves. The Church is rent into three factions, each eager to seize me for its own. The influence of the monks is of long standing, and it is directed against me. I meantime keep crying out: 'He who is bound to the chair of Peter is mine.' Meletius, Vitalis, and Paulinus profess to cleave to you; I could believe if only one of them asserted this. So either two lie, or all of them do. Therefore I implore your blessedness, by our Lord's cross, by the necessary glory of our faith, Christ's passion, as you follow in honour the Apostles, that you may follow in merit: that you may sit enthroned with the twelve to judge, that with Peter you may in old age be girded by another, that you may follow Paul into the heavenly city. Tell me by letter with whom I am to communicate in Syria. Do not despise a soul for whom Christ died. St Jerome, from Letter 16, To Pope Damasus 1 Horace, Epistulae, Book 1, 11.27