A Literary Inheritance

Quod autem quaeris in calce epsitolae tuae, cur in opusculis nostris saecularium litterarum interdum ponamus exempla, et candorem Ecclesiae, Ethnicorum sordibus polluamus; breviter responsum habeto. Nunquam hoc quaeres, nisi te totum Tullius possideret; si Scripturas sanctas legeres, si Interpretes earum, omissio Volcatio, evolveres. Quis enim nesciat et in Moyse et in Prophetarum voluminibus quaedam assumpat de Gentilium libris, et Salomonem Philosophis Tyri et nonnulla proposuisse, et aliqua repondisse? Unde in exordio Proverbiorum commonet, ut intelligamus sermones prudentiae, versutiasque verborum, parabolas, et obscurum sermonem, dicta sapientum, et aenigmata, quae proprie dialecticorum et philosophorum sunt. Sed et Paulus Apostolus Epimenidis Poetae abusus versiculo est, scribens ad Titum: Cretenses semper mendacos, malae bestiae, ventres pigria. Cujus heroici hemistichium postea Callimachus usurpavit. Nec mirum si apud Latinos metrum non servet ad verbum expressa translatio, cum Homerus eadem linguam versus in prosam, vix cohaereat. In alia quoque Epistola, Menandri ponit senarium: Corrumpunt mores bonos confabulationes pessimae. Et apud Athenienses in Martis curia disputans, Aratum testem vocat. Ipsius enim et genus sumus, quod Graece dicitur: τοῦ γάρ και γένος ἐσμεν; et est clausula versus heroici. Ac ne parum hoc esset, ductor Christiani exercitus, et orator invictus pro Christo causam agens, etiam inscriptionem fortuitam, arte torquet in argumentum fidei. Didicerat enim a vero David, extorquere de manibus hostium gladium, et Goliae superbissimi caput proprio mucrone truncare. Legerat in Deuteromonio Domini voce praeceptum, mulieris captivae radendum caput, supercilia, omnes pilos, et ungues corporis amputandus, et sic eam habendem in coniugio. Quid ergo mirum, si et ego sapientiam saecularem propter eloquii venustatem, et membrorum pulchritudinem, de ancilla atque captiva Israelitidem facere capio? et si quidquid in ea mortuum est, idololatriae, voluptatis, erroris, libidinum, vel praecidio, vel rado; et mixtus purissimo corpori vernaculos ex ea genero Domino Sabaoth. Labor meus in familiam Christi proficit; stuprum in alienam, auget numerum conservorum. Sanctus Hieronymus, Epistola LXX, Ad Magnum Oratorem Urbis Romae Source: Migne PL 22 665-666

To what you ask at the end of your letter, that is, why it is that in my little works I sometimes place excerpts from secular literature and pollute the whiteness of the Church with the filth of the heathen, let me briefly respond. You would never have asked had not Cicero completely possessed you, if you had read the Scriptures, and turning to the interpreters of them, had ignored Volcatius. Who does not know that both in Moses and in the Prophets there are certain things taken from Gentile books, and that Solomon not only proposed questions to the philosophers of Tyre but even answered them? At the beginning of Proverbs he exhorts us to understand prudent speech and shrewd words, parables and obscure discourse, the words of the wise and their mysteries, all of which are proper to the dialecticians and the philosophers. And the Apostle Paul, writing to Titus, makes use of a line of the poet Epimenides: 'The Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, sluggish in their bellies.'1 A Hemistych of which line was afterwards employed by Callimachus. It is no surprise that a literal rendering of the words into Latin should fail to preserve the metre, since Homer translated into the same tongue is barely coherent even in prose. In another letter Paul includes a line of Menander: 'Evil communications corrupt good manners.' 2 And when disputing with the Athenians on the Areopagus he calls as witness Aratus: 'For we are also his offspring' 1 which in Greek is τοῦ γάρ και γένος ἐσμεν, the close of a heroic verse. And as if this were not enough, that leader of the Christian army, that unconquered orator for the cause of Christ, skilfully turns a chance inscription into an argument of the faith. Indeed he had learned from the true David to wrest the sword of the enemy out of his hand and with that very same blade to cut off the head of the proud Goliath. He had read in Deuteronomy the precept given by the voice of the Lord that when a captive woman had had her head, her eyebrows and all her hair shaved, and her nails pared, she might then be taken in marriage. Is it then to be wondered if I, on account of the charm of the eloquence of the wisdom of the world, desire to make it a captive and a handmaid of Israel? And if whatever in her is dead, such as idolatry, pleasure, error, or lust, has been cut away or shaved off, and having mingled with this handmaid of purest body, I beget by her a generation for the Lord of Sabaoth? My labour profits Christ's family; by breeding with a foreigner the number of my fellow servants is increased. Saint Jerome, from Letter 70, To Magnus an Orator of Rome 1 Titus 1.12 2 1 Cor 15.33 3 Acts 17.28