Jerome (345-420), along with Augustine, Ambrose, and Gregory, was one of the four “Doctors of the Latin Church.” Although he didn’t write original theology like Augustine, nor champion the faith as vigorously as Ambrose, nor organize the church with the zeal of Gregory, Jerome’s influence outlasted theirs, because he was the author of the Vulgate translation of the Latin Bible, the Bible of Western Christendom until the Reformation.
Jerome also had a great interest in the clergy of his day and spent much of his time defining their duties. Following are adapted excerpts from a very long letter he wrote to a novice who had given up the military life for clerical garb. Written in 394, the letter is a systematic treatise on the life a minister should lead. It became very popular among the clergy of that period.
As a clergyman, you must first understand what the name means. When you realize this, you must personify it. Klergos means “inheritance.” The clergy are thus called because the Lord himself is their inheritance. They say with the prophet, “The Lord is my inheritance, my prize. He is my food and drink” (Ps. 16:5) and hold to nothing except the Lord.
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Read the divine Scriptures constantly. Never let the sacred volume be out of your hand. You must first learn what you must teach to others. As Paul said, “Their belief in the truth which they have been taught must be strong and steadfast, so that they will be able to teach it to others and show those who disagree with them where they are wrong” (Titus 1:9). Don’t let your deeds belie your words. Don’t let one of your listeners mentally reply, “Why don’t you practice what you preach! Your stomach is full and you read us a homily on fasting. A robber may as well accuse us of covetousness.” In a clergyman, mouth, mind, and hand should be as one.
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When teaching in church, seek to call forth not plaudits but groans. Don’t be a ranter, one who gabbles without rhyme or reason. Show yourself versed in the mysteries of God. To astonish an unlettered crowd with oratorical skill is a sign of ignorance. Season your speech with frequent reading of Scripture.
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In dress, avoid somber colors as much as bright ones. Showiness and sloppiness alike should be shunned-the one smacks of vanity, the other of pride. To go about in the winter without an overcoat is nothing. What is praiseworthy is to be too poor to buy one. It is indeed disgraceful to boast of having no handkerchief and at the same time carry a well-filled purse.
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The simple brother must not suppose himself a saint just because he knows nothing. And the educated clergyman shouldn’t measure his saintliness by his fluency. But between holy rusticity and sinful eloquence, rusticity is the lesser of two evils.
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Avoid entertaining men of the world, especially those whose honors make them swell with pride. It is a disgrace to you if a judge eats better in your house than he does in his own. If you plead that your reason for courting the high and mighty is to intercede for the unhappy and the oppressed of the world, I reply that a worldly judge will defer more to a self-denying clergyman than a rich one who runs with the high classes. He will pay more regard to your holiness than to your good connections. If the judge is such a man that he will not listen to the clergyman who defends the downtrodden unless his bribe is paid, I say forgo his aid and appeal to Christ, who can help more effectively than any judge. “It is better to take refuge in the Lord than in the mightiest king” (Ps. 118:9).
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Fast only as much as you can bear. Let your diet be pure, simple, moderate, and not superstitious. What good is it to avoid sugar if you seek the most troublesome and out-of-the-way kinds of food, such as dried figs, pepper, nuts, dates, fine flour, honey, and pistachios? There are some, I am told, who reject the simple by neither eating bread nor water, but eat thin decoctions of crushed herbs and beet juice. Shame on us if we do not blush at such folly and superstition! To top it all off, many in the midst of eating such dainties seek a reputation for abstinence! The best fast is bread and water. But because we all live on bread and water, it is reckoned no fast at all but an ordinary and common matter.
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Neither detract from others nor listen to detractors. You must realize that in condemning others of faults you are also condemning yourself, because you are as guilty as they. It is no excuse to say, “If others tell me things, I cannot be rude to them.” No one takes the trouble to speak to an unwilling listener. An arrow does not stick in a stone-it often rebounds and wounds the archer. Let the detractor learn from your unwillingness to listen to him.
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Part of your duty is to visit the sick, learn about the family life of those in your charge, and share the secrets of the men in your congregations. Your goal, then, is to keep your tongue pure as well as your eyes. Never discuss a woman’s figure nor tell one household about what’s going on in another. The physician Hippocrates makes his prospective students take an oath of silence about their patients before he will teach them medicine. How much more reason for us who dispense medicine for the soul to keep silent about the homes and people we visit.
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Never seek gifts and rarely accept them. Somehow the very man who offers you a gift will think less of you if you accept it. However, if you refuse it, he will come to respect you even more.
-Jerome
Copyright © 1984 by the author or Christianity Today/Leadership Journal. Click here for reprint information on Leadership Journal.
