A.D. 381 heretics, pagans, and the dawn of the monotheistic state ( PDFDrive )

come to Bethlehem to work on his translation of the scriptures after his
obsession with sexual asceticism had aroused such distaste that he had been
forced to leave Rome. (He had been secretary there to Pope Damasus in the
380s.) He was known for his vituperative responses to anyone who challenged
his ideas. The more notorious examples of his invective that have survived
include an assault on one Jovinian, who had been unwise enough to argue that
the married state was preferable to the celibate, and on a certain Vigilantius, who
had deplored the credulity with which relics were venerated.
It therefore comes as a surprise that when Epiphanius’ monks were ushered in,
Jerome agreed at once that he would abjure Origen’s works. It was a climbdown
that is hard to explain. Jerome had travelled with Epiphanius to Rome on one
occasion, and there may have been a friendship he did not wish to jeopardise; or
he may have distinguished between Origen’s exegesis, which he himself had
plagiarised, and Origen’s dogma, which he was ready to reject. Yet one feels that
the answer lies somewhere in Jerome’s desperate insecurity and emotional
isolation. He simply could not risk being labelled unorthodox and so was all too
ready to submit to his visitors’ bullying
In September 393, Epiphanius himself arrived in Jerusalem for the so-called
Dedication Festival, which drew in monks and bishops from all over the
Christian world. When John allowed him to preach, the old man launched into
an abusive attack on Origen which was clearly aimed at the Bishop of Jerusalem.
Jerome was also there, and his account describes John and his clergy grinning
like dogs, scratching their heads, nodding to each other and referring to
Epiphanius as a silly old man. 9 Eventually John sent his archdeacon to shut him
up. Epiphanius had gone far beyond the bounds of good behaviour in using a
host cathedral to denounce its bishop. John retaliated a few days later by
preaching a sermon in which he undermined his visitor by setting out his own
Christian faith in such an orthodox fashion that Epiphanius had to accept that
there was nothing heretical in it. This seems to have deflated Epiphanius, and he
sought sanctuary with Jerome before retiring to a monastery at Besanduc, near
his birthplace, that he had founded many years before. His attack on John had
failed, but he had managed to push Jerome and the Bishop of Jerusalem into
opposing camps.
One result was that Jerome’s monastery at Bethlehem refused to have
anything to do with the local clergy who remained loyal to John. At Besanduc,
Epiphanius received a visit from Jerome’s brother Paulinus; astonishingly, he
seized the man and consecrated him as a priest to serve Jerome’s monastery in