THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH IN THE EPISTLES OF ST. JEROME. By
L. Hughes, M.A., D.D. (S.P.C.K. 4s. 6d.)
This valuable and fascinating book is one which the reader will find it difficult to put down unfinished. The Vulgate is the greatest of the many translations of Scripture ; Jerome was a critic before criticism. But, as a man, he was not amiable. "What a strange Saint! He is always in a passion," said the Cure d'Ars of him : it is difficult to forgive his conduct in the Origenist controversy, his mischievous fanati- cism as a director of women, his bitter and reckless tongue. His letters, of which Mr. Hughes gives us an excellent summary, leave us with a frankly odious impression of the Church of the fourth century ; of the moral degradation of the clergy--of their vices, their worldliness, their greed. Can we wonder that educated and virtuous Pagans looked with amazement at these fruits of Christianity ? What Newman calls "the Church of the Fathers" has been idealized out of recognition. It is scarcely an exaggeration to say that mediaeval and modern Catholicism is a corrected and practicable version of the Christianity of the Nicene age.
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