Stoicism - College of Stoic Philosophers

SENECA AND ST. PAUL. 167judgment before Nero, or his council, and foundfriends or converts among those of Caesar's household.It seemed natural to suppose that in one or other ofthese waysSeneca's attention was called to theapostle, and that his earnest wish for self-improvementwas rewarded ere he died by a fuller measureof the truth. There is no direct evidence, indeed, ofany contact, except the similarity of thought whichgrows more marked in Seneca's later writings, but thebelief must have been early spread ;and St.Jeromenot merely speaks of him as " our own," a termwhich he might possibly apply to Virgil, or toany other Latin writer, but says that he rankshim in the catalogue of the saints, on the authorityof the well-known correspondence with St.Paul.In the days when Jerome lived, the ascetic spirithad taken strong hold upon the Christian Church ;multitudes were turning from the world which theydespaired of to the calm retirement of the cloister.In Seneca they found a moralist who seemed to thinkas meanly as themselves of the common interests ofthe life of cities ;who tried to wean himself andothers from the " lust of the flesh," and the "lust ofthe eyes," and the " pride of life," by stringent rulesof self-denial, by the exerciseof meditation, and detachmentfrom the busyworld. Here was a fundof sympathy far greater for them than for ourselves,and in their surprise and pleasure at such outwardfeatures of resemblance in the methods of selfdisciplinethey laid probably too little stress on the