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

Bethlehem. This was an outrageous intrusion on John’s prerogatives and John
retaliated by excommunicating the members of Jerome’s community, forbidding
any contact between them and the diocese’s clergy. Epiphanius returned to
Cyprus, from where he wrote a furious letter to John saying he should have been
only too glad to have had extra clergy found for him and demanding that he
repudiate the heretical views of Origen, which he listed in detail. John, realising
by now that he was dealing with someone who was seriously deranged, wisely
refused to reply. Not to be deterred, Epiphanius sent copies of his letter to all the
Palestinian monasteries, urging them to sever their ties with John. Epiphanius
had now succeeded in creating a state of civil war in John’s diocese.
If Epiphanius lacked any sense of judgement, Jerome proved as bad. His
monastery too had received a copy of Epiphanius’ letter to John, which was
written in Greek. One of Jerome’s guests, Eusebius, from Cremona in Italy,
could not speak the language and Jerome offered to provide him with a Latin
translation, in which he embellished the letter to make it sound even more
offensive than it was. Jerome’s abusive comments littered the margins. In a
farcical turn of events, the translated letter then somehow disappeared from
Eusebius’ desk and found its way back to John and Rufinus, who spotted the
embellishments to the translation. Anxious to protect his own reputation in the
west, where he feared he would now be regarded as a heretic, John let his
supporters in Rome know what Jerome had done. Jerome replied with the weak
argument that translators should always seek out the sense of a work rather than
just make a literal translation, and this was no more than he had done.
It was to his credit that John realised that a compromise had to be found. He
suggested that Theophilus, Bishop of Alexandria, should mediate. The first
attempt was disastrous, because Theophilus sent as his representative one
Isidore, a priest who had already written to John and Rufinus supporting their
stand against Jerome. A leaked copy of the letter had reached Jerome, and he
refused to accept its author as a conciliator. Theophilus persisted. A letter John
sent him showed that the bishop was eager to defuse the issue, and a carefully
worded letter sent by Theophilus to Jerome avoided placing any blame on him.
Just as Christ had been humble and the scriptures had preached brotherly love,
so too Jerome should seek peace with his bishop. Jerome’s reply is another
illustration of his intense social isolation. Grateful for the attention, he submitted
to Theophilus’ request. ‘Let him [John] be as he used to be when he loved me of
his own choice... If he shows himself like that, gladly I hold out my hands and
stretch my arms to him. He will have in me a friend and a kinsman, and will find