pion of orthodoxy and virginity.
Many of his writings are in the form of letters to ladies who were his
friends. The one to Eustochium, the daughter of Paula, is the most
striking of all. In this epistle Jerome sets forth the motives which
should actuate those who adopt the monastic life. It also gives us a
vivid picture of Roman society as it then was--the luxury, profligacy,
and hypocrisy prevalent among both men and women. This letter was
written at Rome in the year 384. "I write to you thus, Lady Eustochium
(I am bound to call my Lord's bride 'lady'), to show you by my opening
words that my object is not to praise the virginity which you follow,
and of which you have proved the value, or yet to recount the drawbacks
of marriage, such as pregnancy, the crying of infants, the torture
caused by a rival, the cares of household management, and all those
fancied blessings which death at last cuts short. Not that married women
are as such outside the pale; they have their own place, the marriage
that is honorable and the bed undefiled. My purpose is to show you that
you are fleeing from Sodom and should take warning by Lot's wife." Such
is the tone and tenor of Jerome's correspondence with the women of his
acquaintance. Among many other things, he cautions Eustochium not to
court the society of married ladies, and not to "look too often on the
life which you despised to become a virgin!" Many glimpses are given of
the characteristics of that life which was to be so carefully avoided.
The pride of those who are the wives of men in high position, and also
their delight in troops of callers, are noticed. They are pictured as
they are carried about the streets in gorgeous litters, with rows of
eunuchs walking in front. Their dress is mentioned: red cloaks, robes
inwrought with threads of gold, and creaking shoes. Jerome is even so
unsparing as to refer to those who "paint their eyes and lips with rouge
and cosmetics; whose chalked faces, unnaturally white, are like those of
idols; upon whose cheeks every chance tear leaves a furrow; who fail to
realize that years make them old; who heap their heads with hair not
their own; who smooth their faces, and rub out the wrinkles of age; and
who, in the presence of their grandsons, behave like trembling
school-girls." Some of Jerome's strictures are suggestive of modern
feminine habits. Speaking of Blaesilla, after she had become a widow and
was determined to persevere in that estate, he