3788 Ps. xliv. 21: Heb. iv. 13.
3790 Jerome here addresses Pelagius.
3791 Matt. xiii. 3, Matt. xiii. 11.
3792 Virgil, Georg. ii. 325-327.
3794 He was condemned by a council at Saragossa in 380-381 a.d. and was put to death by Maximus at Treves in 385 a.d. at the instigation of the Spanish bishops. Martin of Tours tried to save his life in vain.
3795 According to Sozomen (H. E. vi. c. 30) Evagrius was in his youth befriended by Gregory of Nyssa, who left him in Constantinople to assist Nectarius in dealing with theological questions. Being in danger, both as to his chastity and as to his personal safety on account, of an acquaintance be had formed with a lady of rank, he withdrew to Jerusalem, where he was nursed through a severe illness by Melanium. The rest of his life he spent as an ascetic in the Egyptian desert. See also Pallad. Hist. Laus., §lxxxvi.
3796 Viz., Melanium, who having sided with Rufinus in his controversy with Jerome, incurred the latter's displeasure. The name means `black.0' See Letter IV.
3797 Viz., Rufinus of Aquileia, Jerome's former friend.
3798 These three were known as `the long brothers.0' Their expulsion from Egypt by Theophilus was one of the causes which led to the downfall of John of Chrysostom.
3799 A contemporary Egyptian monk of great celebrity.
3800 See Letter XCII. and note.
3802 Viz., John of Lycopolis, an Egyptian hermit of the latter half of the fourth century. His reputation for sanctity was only second to that of Antony. The book about monks here spoken of does not occur in the list of the writings of Evagrius in the Dict. of Chr. Biog., taken froth Socrates, Gennadius and Palladius. Rufinus' History of the Monks bears a close affinity to the Historia Lausiaca of Palladius, who was closely allied to Evagrius; and it is possible that Jerome may have attributed Palladius' work to Evagrius. See Prolegomena to Rufinus, and comp. Ruf. Hist. Mon. i. with Pall. Hist. Laus., xliii.
3803 In his references (here and in his comm. on Jeremiah, book iv., ch. 22) to the Gnomes of Sixtus or Xystus, Jerome is both inaccurate and unfair. For Rufinus merely states that the author was traditionally identified with Sixtus, bishop of Rome and martyr; and he does not endorse the statement. In its present forth the book is so strongly Christian in tone and language that it is strange to find it described as Christless and heathen. Of its origin nothing certain is known, but probably it is "the production of an early Christian philosopher working up heathen material with a leaven of the Gospel" (Dict. Chr. Biog. s. v. Xystus).
3804 It is not clear which Sixtus is meant. Sixtus I. is not known to have been a martyr and Sixtus II. can hardly be intended. For though his claim to the title is undisputed he can scarcely have written what Origen already quotes as well known.
3805 Jerome elsewhere twits Rufinus with the same mistake (see Comm. on Jer., book iv., ch. 22). He was not, however, alone in making it, for even Augustine was for a time similarly deceived (see his Retractations, ii. 42).
3806 Cf. Against Rufinus, i. 8, 9. There is now no doubt that Jerome was wrong and Rufinus right as to the authorship of the book. See the article entitled Eusebius in the Dict. of Christian Biog. and the prolegomena to his works as issued in this series.
3807 Ps. xvi. 7 and Origen's Comm. ad loc.
3808 See Against Jovinian, book ii. 1. His second position is that "persons baptized with water and the spirit cannot be tempted of the devil."
3809 Eph. iv. 14; 2 Tim. iii. 6, 2 Tim. iii. 7.
3812 This legendary companion and disciple of Simon Magus is said to have been identified by him with Helen of Troy. According to Justin Martyr she had been a prostitute at Tyre.
3813 Cf. Epiphanius, Adv. Haer. lib. i. tom. ii, p. 76, ed. Migne.
3814 Jerome is alone in speaking of this emissary. It has been suggested that he may have had in mind the gnostic Marcellina, who came to Rome during the episcopate of Anicetus.
3815 Apelles, the most famous of the disciples of Marcion, lived and taught mainly at Rome. Philumena was a clairvoyante whose revelations he regarded as inspired.
3817 Constantia, sister of Constantine the Great.
3818 Lucilla, a wealthy lady of Carthage, having been condemned by its bishop Caecilianus, is said to have procured his deposition by bribing his fellow-bishops.
3819 Agape, a Spanish lady, was a disciple of the gnostic Marcus of Memphis (cf. Letter LXXV. ). She was thus one of the links between the gnosticism of the East and the Priscillianism of Spain. Elpidius was a rhetorician who spread in Spain the Zoroastrian opinions which culminated in Priscillianism.
3820 Of these sisters nothing further is known.
3823 Viz., "A man may be without sin." See for this and the other statements of Pelagius, Aug. de Gestis Pelagii, esp. c. 2 and 6. Jerome's Anti-Pelagian Dialogue takes these words as containing the essence of Pelagianism.
3825 Celestius is meant, after Pelagius the principal champion of free will.
3834 Phil. iii. 12, Phil. iii. 13.
3841 Ps. xciv. 20, LXX and Vulg.
3845 autarkhj, self-determined.
3849 Rom. vii. 22-25. In the Latin as in the Greek one word does duty for `grace0' and `thanks.0'
3852 This is the well known dualism of Manes (Manichaeus), who held that the physical world and the human body are essentially evil.
3856 Rom. ix. 20, Rom. ix. 21.
3857 Mal. i. 2, Mal. i. 3. Rom. ix. 13.
3861 This objection is dealt with at lengths by Augustine (Letter CXI. See Vol. I. Series I. of this Library).