Malchus

ON ST. MALCHUS, MONK AND CONFESSOR, AT MARONIA NEAR ANTIOCH IN SYRIA,

AT THE END OF THE FOURTH CENTURY.

PRELIMINARY COMMENTARY.

Malchus, monk and confessor, at Maronia near Antioch in Syria. (S.)

BY V. D. B.

§ Single. On the cult, biography, times and journeys of St. Malchus.

At the 26th of March our predecessors noted among those Passed Over on this day that in the manuscript Synaxarium of our Chifflet an elogium is read of St. Malchus the monk, The memory of St. Malchus in the Greek and Latin calendars. whose deeds we shall try to illustrate. And in the printed Menaea at the 24th of November the following distich is read Μηναιον του Νοεμβριου, page 182, Venetian edition, 1843.: Οἱ ψυχοπομποὶ συγκατέπτησαν νόες Ψυχὴν ἀπάζαι, Μάλχε, τὴν σὴν Κυρίῳ. Which Siberus Metrical Martyrology of the Greek Church, page 388. renders thus:

The soul-bearing spirits, Malchus, now flying down, Bear thy mind to God.

Before these is set the notice in Greek: "On this same day, the 24th of November, St. Malchus departed in peace." For my part, with Rosweyde Vitae Patrum, page 96., I very much doubt whether these things are to be referred to our Malchus. In very truth the people of Constantinople had his Life translated into Greek, and of no other confessor of the same name; but they read the passage of Theodoret, which we shall give at the end of this Commentary, in which another Malchus appears. And they kept the feasts of most of those who occur in the same place with that Malchus Compare Acta SS., vol. II of January, page 771.: why not likewise of this Malchus? And I doubt the more strongly because they sometimes made memory of our St. Malchus on another day, namely the 26th of March, as we were just saying. At the preceding day, namely the 20th of October, we noted among those Passed Over that we have a manuscript Calendar or martyrology of the Copts, recent however, as having been written at Rome in the seventeenth or the following century, in which on the said day St. Malchus is announced; but at the same time we said that in the more ancient Coptic Calendars that name is wanting, and so it seems to have been taken from the more recent usage of the Latins, and indeed on the day before the genuine day, since this is hindered by the feast of St. Hilarion. Greven at the beginning of the sixteenth century was the first in the auctaria of the Martyrology of Usuard to add the name of Malchus the monk, omitting the title of saint, at the 21st of October: which addition Molanus also received into his former edition of Usuard, but in the later one struck it out. Further, since both guided Cardinal Baronius in writing the Roman Martyrology, so it came about that in this Martyrology we have it at the present day. Nevertheless, in the first edition of the Roman Martyrology, which came out at Rome in the year 1583 from the press of Domenico Basa, and in the second, which saw the light at Venice with Giovanni Varisco and partners, both of which Baronius wished suppressed, and also in the third, which Baronius never saw and which came out in the same year 1584 at Freiburg im Breisgau under the title: Martyrologium Basiliense, according to the Roman, restored to the new reckoning of the Calendar and to the truth of ecclesiastical history, published by order of Jakob Christoph, bishop of Basel; in these, I say, three editions, not at the 21st but at the 18th of October is read: "At Maronia in Syria near Antioch, of St. Malchus the monk"; which words in the following

editions were moved to the 21st of October; where they are still read. But since St. Jerome has nothing about the death of St. Malchus, nor does the day of his death seem to have become known in any way to any writer of menaea or martyrologies (for the synaxarium of Chifflet, not very ancient, need not detain us), it is by no means to be doubted that those who made the addition to Usuard published by Greven and Molanus were led by no other reason than that in the legends of the saints they found the life of St. Malchus joined with the Life of St. Hilarion; namely because both acknowledged the same author Compare Baillet, Vies des Saints, at the 21st of October.. Certainly in our manuscript codex of the Lives of the Fathers, formerly of St. Maximin at Trier, this notice is prefixed: "The Life of Paul the first hermit, the Life of St. Antony, the Life of St. Hilarion, the Life of Malchus the captive monk, the Life of St. Pachomius, the Life of St. Euphraxia and of other fathers are found in the Passionals."

[2] [His Life written in Latin by St. Jerome about the year 390, and in Greek by an anonymous writer:] Further, nothing is more certain than that, as St. Hilarion obtained St. Jerome as biographer, so also did St. Malchus: for the most holy doctor himself discloses this in the book On Illustrious Men; where, reviewing his writings, he says Chapter 135, in Migne, Patrologia, vol. XXIII, col. 717.: "Thirty-four Homilies on Luke: seven Treatises on the Psalms from the tenth to the sixteenth; the Life of Malchus the captive monk and of blessed Hilarion. I have restored the New Testament to the fidelity of the Greek, etc." And indeed, since he speaks of the Life of St. Malchus in the book On Illustrious Men, which he himself said in the letter to Desiderius was written in the fourteenth year of the emperor Theodosius Letter XLVII, number 3, in Migne, Patrologia, vol. XXII, col. 493., it must have been published before the end of the year 392. On the other hand, it came out when (as is said in the Life itself, number 2) Evagrius was already pope or bishop of Antioch; which office he did not take up before the end of the year 388 or 389 Compare Tillemont, Mémoires ecclésiastiques, vol. X, page 234, Paris, 1705.: so that there is no doubt that the Life of St. Malchus was made public between the end of the year 388 and the beginning of 393. Stilting thinks it is to be referred to the year 390 or 391 Acta SS., vol. VIII of September, pages 503 and 674., Vallarsi to 390 In Migne, Patrologia, vol. XXIII, col. 53., rightly contending that the hermit of Bethlehem followed the order of time in reviewing his writings: which is scarcely not certain to me, as I have already noted in the Commentary on St. Hilarion, number 2. The Life of St. Malchus exists translated into Greek, the translator unknown; and Gentian Hervet made it Latin from a Greek codex; which version Lippomano inserted in volume VI of the Lives of the Saints. But since we drink from the fountain, that little stream need not concern us.

[3] what was St. Jerome's aim in writing this life; In the prologue St. Jerome discloses for what reason he took this little work in hand: "I have planned to write," he says, "from the coming of the Saviour to our age, that is, from the apostles to the dregs of our time, how and through whom the Church of Christ was born and grew to maturity, increased by persecutions and was crowned with martyrdoms; and after it came to Christian princes, became greater indeed in power and riches, but less in virtues." But since he had long been silent (which, however, Stilting rightly judges Acta SS., vol. VIII of September, page 503. was done by him only for some months, thinking that he laboured usefully either in correcting sacred scripture or in preparing himself for the version from the Hebrew), since then, as he himself says, he had long been silent, he found his style less apt for writing ecclesiastical history worthily and elegantly. Wherefore he wished first to be exercised in a small work and, as it were, to wipe away a certain rust of the tongue, so that he might come to a broader history. Who would believe that some have taken occasion from this to despise this writing? "The Magdeburg centuriators Century IV, chapter 10.," says Rosweyde Vitae Patrum, page 96., "following Erasmus, would have it that Jerome wrote the Life of Malchus in a more prolix narration, more for the sake of exercising his talent than of explaining the matter as it was. But Alan Cope Dialogue II, chapter 11. rightly catches them by their own words: 'They wonder,' he says, 'that' Jerome 'thought so many crimes of the man should be related before they were condemned.' In which complaint they betray themselves and their cause; and show that they understand well enough that Jerome treated these things seriously and not as a rhetorical exercise. Otherwise, to what purpose that outcry against a rhetorician playing on a feigned argument?" Thus far Alan: who further excellently refutes, in that second dialogue in various chapters, the five crimes which the Magdeburgers object to Malchus. Of these crimes it will be spoken in the annotations on the Life. Nor did Jerome propose to himself only to exercise his style; but he expected some usefulness from his writing. He himself says at the end: "To the chaste I set forth a history of chastity. I exhort virgins to guard chastity. Do you tell it to posterity, that they may know that among swords and among deserts and beasts modesty is never captive, and that a man devoted to Christ can die, not be overcome."

[4] whence he had learned what he wrote. At the beginning of the same Life the holy biographer makes manifest whence he had learned the deeds of St. Malchus. While as a young man he was staying in Syria, he had gone down to the estate of the pope Evagrius, his friend, which lay at Maronia, about thirty miles from Antioch to the east. There was there a certain old man named Malchus; of whom, since the inhabitants spoke in praise, Jerome, enticed by desire, approached the man and, inquiring rather curiously into the truth of things, received from him these things, which much later he committed to writing. Most certainly Jerome met St. Malchus between the year 374, or rather 375, and 379, in which space of time Stilting shows at length that he lived in the solitude of Maronia Acta SS., vol. VIII of October, page 444 and following, and pages 672 and 673.; more probably and almost certainly at the very beginning, namely at the end of the year 374 or the beginning of 375; he himself suggests this, when he says that he was still a young man, although born about the year 331 Ibid., page 672., and so in at least the forty-third or forty-fourth year of his age; the natural disposition of the human mind also suggests it, by which we long to learn as soon as possible the things around us which seem new or unusual. Add that the blessed man was most eager for the society of men in the desert itself, as is abundantly clear from what he wrote at that time Compare ibid., pages 448 and 449.; so that the blessed man does not seem to have put off long meeting St. Malchus after he first knew of him.

[5] The Life of St. Malchus distributed into definite times. Now let us inquire in some manner or other into the times of the Life of St. Malchus. For this three things must be noted beforehand: the first is that St. Jerome, as we have just seen, called himself a young man when he was in the forty-third or forty-fourth year of his age; but an old man (where at the end he says: "These things I, an old man, have narrated to you") when he was fifty-nine years old. Whence it follows that these words of St. Jerome, "There was there a certain old man named Malchus," can rightly be understood of an age of fifty-eight years. The second is that it is not credible that his parents waited to propose marriage to St. Malchus (which they commended to him more vehemently than was right) until he was more than twenty years old: for the neighbouring Jews scarcely allowed anyone to put off marriage who was in the eighteenth year of his age Compare Dom Calmet, Dictionnaire de la Bible, under Nôces.. The third is that St. Malchus, whom they wished to compel to enter on marriage, made for the solitude when the Romans and Persians were not on good terms. For he could not go to the east, as he himself says, on account of neighbouring Persia, namely because incursions were made from there into the lands of the Romans, and on account of the guard of Roman soldiers, who had a station there to prevent them. But from the year 297, in which the Persians had ceded five provinces to the Romans, for forty continuous years they dealt peaceably with them, and only in the year 337, because the emperor Constantine would not restore those regions to them, did they begin to make incursions into the lands of the Romans [Compare Tillemont, Empereurs, Constantin, article 76, vol. VI, page 106, Brussels edition, 1732.]. Before that time there was no reason why St. Malchus should not go to the east on account of neighbouring Persia. And from this we gather that the blessed man was born about the year 317 and was about fourteen years older than St. Jerome; and then that he fled to the solitude of Chalcis about the year 337. Further, finding monks there, he gave himself up to their mastership. But after many years (perhaps fifteen) a desire came upon him to go to his homeland. Having undertaken this journey, he was intercepted by Saracens in the solitude between Beroea and Edessa, was led captive ten miles beyond the great river and made a shepherd of sheep. Some time after, his head now growing white, he was compelled to accept the wife of another, with whom, however, he lived as a brother with a sister. After a great (interval, of perhaps seven years), while he sat alone in the desert, he meditated flight and at once accomplished it, as happily as perilously, with his companion in captivity. Both came across the desert to the Roman camp, and, presented to the tribune, they disclosed the matter in order; thence they were sent on to Sabinianus, duke of Mesopotamia; which must have been done in the year 359, since he is read in Ammianus Marcellinus Res gestae, book XVIII, chapter 5 and following, book XIX, chapter 3, etc. to have been at that time master of the soldiers in Mesopotamia: for St. Jerome erred when he called him duke of Mesopotamia; which office Cassianus then held Ibid., book XVIII, chapter 7., but never Sabinianus. Immediately after, St. Malchus with his companion was brought to the little village of Maronia; and there, as we have said, they were found by St. Jerome about the year 375. In what year St. Malchus died is not ascertained; but it is probable that in the year 390, about which St. Jerome wrote the Life, he was held dead by the holy biographer: otherwise, why would he have published these things about a living man? Since, however, this is only a probable conjecture, we refer the death of St. Malchus to the end of the fourth century.

[6] Born near Nisibis, having seen in those parts monks living most severely, After we have distributed the deeds of St. Malchus (as far as could be done) into definite times, it remains for us to visit him in the various places which he inhabited. He was a Syrian by nation and tongue, as the biographer reports at number 1; not

however a native of Maronia, as the former had at first thought, but a tenant of a little field near Nisibis, as he himself informed his pious visitor at number 2: so that he had St. James of Nisibis as bishop. The desire for the monastic life could easily have been instilled into him at Nisibis, not only by what he heard of monks placed far off, but also by what he saw with his own eyes round about. For already at the end of the third century the monastic life was in honour in these parts. For, to say nothing of the maidens' convent of St. Febronia, concerning which many things have been examined elsewhere [Historical and canonical examination of the rights and offices of regular and secular clerics, page 36.], St. James himself, who suffered much for the faith of Christ (as Gennadius is authority [On ecclesiastical writers, chapter 1, in Migne, Patrologia, vol. LVIII, col. 1060 and 1061.]) under the emperor Maximian, and died a decrepit old man between the year 350 and 361 [Compare Acta SS., vol. IV of July, page 40; Butler, Vies des saints, at the 11th of July, vol. X, page 71, Louvain edition.], had led the monastic life there in his youth. What institutions were in use there hear from Theodoret, bishop of Cyrrhus and biographer of St. James [Works of Theodoret, translated by Sirmond, vol. III, page 764; Acta SS., vol. IV of July, page 42.]: "Nisibis," he says, "is a city placed on the borders of the kingdom of the Romans and of the Persians, which was formerly tributary to the Romans and obeyed their rule," until Jovian ceded it to the Persians in the year 563 [Compare Tillemont, Mémoires des empereurs, Jovien, article 4, vol. VI, page 239, Brussels edition, 1732.]. "Sprung from this city, the great James embraced the solitary and quiet life, and, occupying the summits of the highest mountains (they call them those of the Kurds Sévestre, Dictionnaire de Patrologie, vol. III, page 639.), he spent his life on them; in spring, summer and autumn seeking the forest and having the sky for a roof; but in winter-time retiring into a cave, which afforded him a little covering. His food was not that which grows and is sown with labour, but that which is produced of its own accord: for gathering the fruits that grew spontaneously from wild trees and the edible things from herbs, and those that are like vegetables, from these he gave his body what was enough to maintain life, altogether refusing the use of fire. The use of wool too he held superfluous, and the roughest hair of goats filled its place, of which both a tunic and a simple cloak were made for him. So afflicting his body, he constantly supplied spiritual nourishment to his soul." This severe institution of eating nothing cooked continued thereafter in the same place in Mesopotamia, as we have from Sozomen Ecclesiastical History, book VI, chapter 31, page 690.: "From here," he says, "we must pass to the Syrians, and to the Persians bordering on the Syrians: who, vying with the monks of the Egyptians, grew into an immense multitude. And among these at that time there were especially illustrious among the people of Nisibis, about the mountain which is called Sigoron, Batthaeus, Eusebius, Burges, Halas and Abbo; and Lazarus, who was a bishop: Abdaleus likewise, and Zeno, and the old man Heliodorus. These, moreover, who had then first introduced this kind of philosophizing, they commonly called Boski, that is, grazers. And they call them so because they have no dwellings, nor eat bread or relish, nor drink wine; but, living on the mountains, they praise God perpetually, giving themselves to prayers and hymns according to the rite of the Church. And when the time for eating has come, each, seizing a sickle and wandering over the mountain, eats herbs like grazing cattle."

[7] [he resolves to embrace the monastic life, which he did about the year 337 in the desert of Chalcis:] But lest he should shortly be caught by his parents and brought back home, and also because monks commonly loved to lead their life far from the paternal threshold, St. Malchus did not go to these monks of Mount Sigoron, but deliberated with himself to go far away. He thought first of withdrawing to the east; for not only in the whole of Osrhoene, which extended as far as Assyria or Adiabene Theodoret, Philotheus, chapter 2, Works, vol. III, page 1120, Halle edition., but among the Persians themselves there were then already monks Sozomen, Ecclesiastical History, book VI, chapters 33 and 34, pages 690 and 691.. But he did not carry out this plan on account of neighbouring Persia and the guard of Roman soldiers, which we explained a little before. He turned, therefore, to the west and came to the desert of Chalcis, which is situated between Imma and Beroea, more to the south or noon. Stilting has already commented learnedly on the desert of Chalcis Acta SS., vol. VIII of September, page 448, so that we may be briefer. It lay round about Chalcis, which is now called Kinnesrin by the Arabs and Eski Haleb or Old Aleppo by the Turks [Ritter, Die Erdkunde, Sinai-Halbinsel, Palästina und Syrien, vol. IV, page 1592 and passim.]; in the time of St. Jerome it adjoined the Saracens next to Syria, or drew a vast boundary between Syria and the Saracens; scorched by the heats of the sun, it furnished a horrid dwelling for monks; here one had either to learn a barbarous half-speech (Syriac, namely) or be silent: these things are collected from Jerome himself Acta SS., vol. VIII of September, page 448.. In the same desert was placed Maronia, where St. Jerome found St. Malchus living about the year 375 and where he himself lived; but when St. Malchus first came into these parts, he chose an abode in a place somewhat distant from there. This was situated between Imma and Beroea, more to the south. Further, Imma or Emma or Immestar Socrates, Ecclesiastical History, book VII, chapter 16, page 353., now Imm Ritter, Sinai-Halbinsel, etc., vol. cited, page 1593., was situated according to Socrates Place cited above. between Antioch of Syria and Chalcis, and according to the Peutinger Tables lay 33 Roman miles from Antioch and 20 Roman miles from Chalcis Works of Marcus Welser collected into one, page 763.; and Chalcis from Beroea, according to the Itinerary of Antoninus Simler's edition, page 126., 18 Roman miles, and not Compare Ritter, loc. cit. 29 Roman miles, as is read in the Peutinger Tables Works of Marcus Welser, page 763.. Whence it is clear that the first solitude of St. Malchus was placed within the triangle whose vertices are Imm, Kinnesrin and Aleppo; for Beroea is now called Aleppo. You have this little region described in Ritter [Erdkunde, Sinai-Halbinsel, etc., vol. cited, page 1633 and following, page 1687 and following.].

[8] When St. Malchus came there about the year 337, the monks whom he found there had not yet been living there a long time and lived a hard and difficult life, most useful to themselves and to others. what the condition of the monastic life in Syria then was. Of them Sozomen says Ecclesiastical History, book VI, chapter 34, page 692.: "But Syria, both that which is called Coele" (between Lebanon and Antilebanon near Damascus), "and that which is placed above it, except the city of Antioch, was indeed converted rather late to the religion of Christ; but nevertheless it did not lack ecclesiastical philosophers. Who indeed both were and were seen to be the braver, the more they were hated by the inhabitants of those regions and were assailed by their frequent snares: and they resisted them with manly spirit, not repelling force by force nor avenging themselves, but bearing with an eager spirit the insults and blows inflicted on them by the pagans. Of this kind I have learned were Valentinus, whom some say drew his descent from the city of Emesa, others from Arethusa; and another of the same name as he, Valentinus, and Theodore. These two were sprung from Tittis, which is a village in the territory of the Apameans. Moreover Marosas, sprung from Nechilae, and Bassus, and Basson, and Paul, who was born of the village of Telmisus, who, when he had gathered many in various places and had formed them in fitting manner to the monastic philosophy, at last founded in the place which is called Jugatum a very great and most noble congregation of monks. In which place also he died and was buried, when he had lived very long; since he prolonged his life even to our times, following an excellent and truly divine manner of philosophizing. And almost all the other monks whom we mentioned above lived long as survivors. And to me indeed God seems to have granted them a long space of life in order that religion might receive increase. For they brought over to their religion almost all the Syrians and very many of the Persians and Saracens, and drew them away from the superstitious worship of demons; and when they had begun to give themselves to the pursuits of the monastic philosophy, they made many like themselves." At the end of this Commentary some other names also will come by which the desert of Chalcis was made illustrious in that age. Among these men St. Malchus lived in youth and old age: and indeed the Christian cause in the neighbourhood of Imma was then so uncertain that even long after, namely in the year 415, Honorius for the tenth time and Theodosius for the sixth being consuls, the Jews in that town came to such a pitch of audacity that they beat to death with scourges a Christian boy hung on a cross Socrates, Ecclesiastical History, book VI, chapter 16, page 353..

[9] Returning to his homeland he is led below the river Mygdonius in Mesopotamia; In the midst, then, of a wicked and perverse nation St. Malchus cultivated the monastic philosophy for many years (we have said perhaps fifteen). Then, intending to go on to his homeland, he went to Beroea (Aleppo), and from here held the public road towards Edessa (Orfa). According to the Peutinger Tables Works of Welser, page 763 and following. this was the road: from Beroea one went to Bannos 27 Roman miles; from here to Thiltaurus 15 Roman miles; from here to Bathnae 12 Roman miles; from here to Hierapolis 18 Roman miles; from here to Zeugma 24 Roman miles; from here, according to the Itinerary of Antoninus Simler's edition, pages 124 and 125., a twofold road led to Edessa; the former from Zeugma to Bemmaris 20 Roman miles; from Bemmaris to Edessa 25 Roman miles; but the other from Zeugma to Canaba 25 Roman miles; from Canaba to In Medio 22 Roman miles; from In Medio to Edessa 18 Roman miles. From Hierapolis also one could turn aside to Thilaticomum 21 Roman miles; from here to Bathae (Batnae) 15 Roman miles; from here to Edessa 15 Roman miles Ibid., page 126.. But Ritter, disputing at length on these things, is to be read Erdkunde, Euphrat- und Tigrissystem, vol. I, page 959 and following.. And after St. Malchus had crossed the Euphrates at Zeugma or at another place with his company (caravane caravan we now say), he was intercepted with his companions by Ishmaelites or Saracens: of whose manners we related enough in the Commentary on St. Hilarion. Across the vast solitude on camels

carried, at length, a great river being crossed, which without doubt is the river Mygdonius, they came to the inner solitude in Mesopotamia, as is sufficiently established from the return. There I should believe he lived between the 34th and 36th degrees of latitude, and the 38th and 40th of longitude referred to the meridian circle of Paris, ten miles below the Mygdonius. What he did and suffered there he himself explained sufficiently to St. Jerome. See the Life, numbers 4 and following.

[10] from here in the year 359 he escapes and comes into the parts of Edessa; After a great interval, of perhaps seven years, he slipped away from here in flight with his companion. And when they had come to the river (the Mygdonius, namely), for it was ten miles away, they crossed it on skins, and then went on towards the north. After the third day they were nearly caught by their master, but wonderfully delivered. They then had camels; mounting which, on the tenth day at last they came across the desert to the Roman camp: which camp (if I see anything) must be either those which are situated in the present region of Mardin (formerly Smargdis), or between Amida and Dara, at a distance of three geographical miles from Nisibis Ritter, Euphrat- und Tigrissystem, vol. II, pages 272 and 273., and of which Procopius speaks in these words On the Buildings, book II, chapter 4, page 222, Bonn edition.: "The other forts of the mountains which extend from here (Rhabdium) and the city of Dara as far as Amida (they are Ciphas, Sauras, Smargdis, Lurnes, Hieriphthon, Atachas, Syphris, Riphalthas, Banasymeon, Sinas, Rhasis, Dobanas and others placed there of old), since they had a plainly ridiculous appearance of fortification, Justinian rebuilt solidly, and those which were situated to the south of Amida"; or those which Ammianus Marcellinus Res gestae, book XVIII, chapter 10, page 183. mentions at the year 369, and which were then taken by Sapor, king of the Persians, when from the place Bebase he had turned his route to the right, along the mountains by which Mesopotamia is divided from Armenia, through Horren and Charcha, intending to cross to Amida. These latter Roman forts, then, were placed towards Caurus * of Amida, and one was called Reman and the other Busan; the wealth of many was carried there and kept, as in very lofty and trusty fortifications. But again on all these compare Ritter [Erdkunde, Euphrat- und Tigrissystem, vol. II, page 150 and following, page 379 and following.]. In one of these camps or forts St. Malchus met the tribune; from whom, when he had probably learned that it could not be that he should make for the territory of Nisibis, his homeland, being most exposed to war Compare Ammianus Marcellinus, book XVIII, chapter 6, books XIX and XX., he was sent on with his companion to Sabinianus, who we have already said was not duke of Mesopotamia but master of the soldiers, and who then, for his sloth, "amid the snatching of the moments of common perils, a most choice director of a war of extermination" (so Ammianus deservedly mocks him Ibid., book XVIII, chapter 7.), "among the tombs of Edessa, as if a peace had been established with the dead, fearing nothing, acting more loosely in the manner of a more relaxed life, delighted, in the deepest silence, in the military pyrrhic dance with sounding measures in place of the gestures of actors."

[11] [then he returns to the desert of Chalcis and settles at Maronia, where St. Jerome converses with him.] The camels of St. Malchus and his companion, certainly most useful for war in those arid tracts, Sabinianus bought, paying the price, and he also dismissed both fugitives from Edessa. St. Malchus, therefore, made for his former solitude again; where, when he had found his abbot dead, he turned aside somewhat from this place towards the north and fixed his abode at Maronia. For that his former dwelling was not Maronia he himself indicated to St. Jerome: "And because that abbot of mine had already fallen asleep in the Lord" (behold the reason why he did not inhabit his former abode), "to these places" (namely different from the former) "I restore myself to the monks," that is, I lead the monastic life; "her I hand over to virgins," taking care, namely, that she live the life of virgins in my hut, "loving her as a sister, yet not trusting myself to her as to a sister." And from another source too it can be shown that the Maronia in which St. Malchus passed the last times of his life was different from the former solitude. For Maronia, as St. Jerome has it at the beginning, was a not large little village about thirty miles distant to the east from Antioch, a city of Syria; while the former solitude was situated between Imma and Beroea more to the south, and so was distant from Antioch 40 or 45 Roman miles, since Imma was distant from Antioch (as we have seen) 33 Roman miles: so that the former desert lay to the south-east of Imma, Maronia towards Caurus . Della Valle believed that the old Maronia is represented by the present-day Ma'arra; but others do not agree with him Compare Ritter, Erdkunde, Sinai-Halbinsel, etc., vol. III, part II, page 1569.: so that the place which St. Jerome honoured with the beginnings of his monastic life, and St. Malchus with his last years and most happy death, does not seem to be accurately known to this day.

[12] [He is easily distinguished from many namesakes, even from the Malchus who lived on the neighbouring mountain.] Thus far, as far as was permitted, we have explained the cult, times and journeys of St. Malchus: it remains for us to distinguish him from his namesakes. There are first of all several Saints Malchus of whom there is no doubt at all that they are quite different: namely St. Malchus, martyr at Caesarea, of whom it was spoken in our work at the 28th of March Acta SS., vol. III of March, page 711.; St. Malchus, martyr of Thessalonica, illustrated at the 1st of June Ibid., vol. I of June, page 48.; St. Malchus, martyr of Ephesus, one of the Seven Sleepers, whose Passion was examined at the 27th of July Ibid., vol. VII of July, page 375.; St. Malchus, bishop of Lismore in Ireland, whose deeds were narrated at the 10th of August Ibid., vol. II of August, page 561.; and finally St. Malchus, a Cistercian monk in Ireland, of whom we shall speak at the 3rd of November. For no one will in any way confuse these with today's St. Malchus, the Syrian monk. But it is otherwise with the Malchus whom Theodoret mentions [Ecclesiastical History, book IV, chapter 28 or 26, for me in the Halle edition, vol. III of the Works, part II, page 1008.] and who stayed on the mountain adjacent to Antioch on the Orontes. Baronius judged Ecclesiastical Annals, at the year 370, number 83. this one to be the same as the St. Malchus whose Life St. Jerome wrote; and he drew our Bolland Acta SS., vol. II of January, page 773. into the same opinion. But why did the latter not remember here what Rosweyde had said long before? For he, in the annotations on the Life of St. Malchus, where he had related that the two Malchuses were confused by Baronius, says Vitae Patrum, page 96.: "I do not think so; because the Malchus of Theodoret lived on the mountain which overhangs Antioch; the Malchus of Jerome in the village of Maronia, thirty miles from Antioch." An excellent answer. But lest anyone object that it can be said of a mountain thirty miles distant that it adjoins the city, παρακειμενον, add to Rosweyde's words that Theodoret distinguishes well between the desert of Antioch, in which his Malchus lived, and the desert of Chalcis, in which St. Jerome's Malchus led the philosophic life. For he enumerates there several deserts and assigns to each its illustrious monks. The first is the desert of Chalcis, in which Avitus and Marcianus and Abraames and others scarcely to be numbered, "who in passible bodies meditated a life exempt from perturbation": with these the Malchus of St. Jerome could have associated. The second is the region of Apamea; the third that of Zeugma; the fourth that of Cyrrhus; then he goes on thus about the fifth: "In that of Antioch again Marianus and Eusebius, and Ammianus, Palladius and Symeon, and Abraames, and besides these others preserving the divine image entire. But we have committed to writing the life both of these and of those. Moreover the mountain neighbouring the greatest city shone like a meadow. For on it there shone Peter the Galatian and another of the same name, the Egyptian, and Romanus and Severus and Zeno, Moses also and Malchus, and very many others, unknown indeed to the common people, but not to God." What more distinct could you desire? Finally cast your eyes on the Map which Robinson published in the second volume of his travels; there you will at once see that the mountain of which there is question here stretches to the south of Antioch, while the desert of Chalcis is situated to the south-east * of Antioch, as we have sufficiently declared. In the annotations on the Roman Martyrology: "From him," says Baronius, namely from St. Malchus, whose praises St. Jerome preserved for posterity, "from him is different (although he agrees in many things) that monk whom Sozomen calls Malachion, who lived in the same times, of whom book VI, chapter 32." Certainly they are altogether different from each other: for there is no other likeness between them than that of name and holiness of life: all the rest differ immensely from each other. At Rome, in a certain altar of the church of St. Pancras, relics of St. Malchus were formerly inserted Acta SS., vol. III of May, page 18.; which, if they were ascribed to our St. Malchus, it will certainly have been done by error. There follows now the Life of St. Malchus, which we give according to the editions of Rosweyde, Martianay and Vallarsi.

* Nord-Est. North-east.

* Sud-Est. South-east.

* Nord-Est, North-east,

* Sud-Est. South-east.

LIFE OF ST. MALCHUS, THE CAPTIVE MONK.

Malchus, monk and confessor, at Maronia near Antioch in Syria. (S.)

BHL Number: 5190

BY ST. JEROME.

PROLOGUE.

[St. Jerome, about to prepare himself for writing an ecclesiastical history, undertook this narration.] Those who are about to fight in a naval battle first, in harbour and on a calm sea, bend the rudders, ply the oars, prepare the iron hands and hooks, and accustom the soldier disposed along the decks to stand firmly with step hanging and footing slipping, so that what they have learned in the image of battle they may not shudder at in the true contest ^b. So I too, who have long been silent ^c (for he made me silent ^d to whom my speech is a torment), wish first to be exercised in a small work, and, as it were, to wipe away a certain rust of the tongue, so that I may come to a broader history. For I have planned to write (if only the Lord shall give me life, and if my detractors shall at least cease to pursue me, fleeing and shut up) from the coming of the Saviour to our age, that is, from the Apostles to the dregs of our time, how and through whom the Church of Christ was born and grew to maturity, increased by persecutions, was crowned with martyrdoms: and after it came to Christian princes, became greater indeed in power and riches, but less in virtues ^e. But these things elsewhere: now let us set forth what is at hand.

"The Life of St. Malchus, the captive monk, written by Dom Jerome the presbyter; which we have subjoined to Dom Hilarion, not because the death of Malchus falls on this day, but on account of the author, to whose Hilarion it has pleased us to join Malchus, since the certain day of his death is unknown." We have said, however, in the Preliminary Commentary, number 1, that Greven and Molanus, without doubt led by the same reason, had already before brought the name of Malchus the monk into the martyrology at this day. "In two Vatican codices, formerly of the queen of Sweden," says Vallarsi, "432 and 500: Here begins the deed of the captive monk, which Jerome the presbyter dictated; in another, 797, absolutely: It is inscribed On the captive monk; and likewise in another, 589: Here begins the history of Malchus the captive monk written by blessed Jerome. To these copies further," adds Vallarsi, "the whole text of the Life is conformed." Thus he: but I should think some account must also be taken of the labours of Martianay, and the greatest of those of the admirable man Rosweyde.

SINGLE CHAPTER.

Asceticism. Captivity. Return.

The author came to know St. Malchus at Maronia near Antioch Maronia ^f is a not large little village about thirty miles distant to the east from Antioch, a city of Syria. This, after many lords or patrons, while I as a young man ^g was staying in Syria, had come down into the possession of the pope Evagrius ^h, my friend, whom I have named now for this reason, to show whence I know what I am about to write. There was then there a certain old man named Malchus, whom we can call in Latin King ⁱ, a Syrian by nation and tongue, and, as I thought, a native of the same place ^k. An old woman too in his company, very decrepit, seemed already very near death: both so zealously religious, and so wearing the threshold of the church, that you would believe them Zachary and Elizabeth of the Gospel, except that John was not in the middle. When I was asking the inhabitants curiously about them, what was the bond of their union, of marriage, of blood, or of the spirit, all with harmonious voice answered that they were holy and pleasing to God, and I know not what wonders. Enticed by which desire, I approached the man, and, inquiring rather curiously ^l into the truth of things, received this from him:

[2] He narrates the beginnings of his monastic life. "I, my son," he said, "a tenant of a little field near Nisibis ^m, was the only child of my parents. When they were forcing me to marriage, as the stock of their race and heir of the family, I answered that I wished rather to be a monk. With how many threats my father, with how many blandishments my mother pursued me to make me betray my chastity, this one thing is an indication, that I fled both home and parents. And since I could not go to the East, on account of neighbouring Persia and the guard of Roman soldiers, I turned my feet to the West, carrying I know not what very little provision for the journey, which would only defend me from want. Why say more? I came at length to the desert of Chalcis, which is situated between Imma and Beroea ⁿ, more to the south. There, finding monks, I gave myself up to their mastership, seeking my food by the labour of my hands and bridling the wantonness of the flesh with fasts.

[3] the journey undertaken to his paternal home; "After many years the thought came upon me to go on to my homeland, and while my mother was still living ^o (for I had already heard that my father was dead) to console her widowhood, and thereafter, having sold the little property, to give part to the poor, with part to build a monastery; (why do I blush to confess my faithlessness?) to keep part for the comfort of my expenses [p]. My abbot began to cry out that it was a temptation of the devil, and that under the occasion of an honest thing lay hidden the snares of the ancient enemy. That this was for the dog to return to his vomit; that so many of the monks had been deceived: that the devil never betrays himself with open face. He set before me very many examples from the scriptures: among them that in the beginning he had supplanted Adam also and Eve by the hope of divinity. And when he could not persuade me, throwing himself at my knees, he besought me not to desert him, not to destroy myself, nor, holding the plough, to look back. Woe is me, wretch! I conquered my admonisher with a most evil victory, thinking that he was seeking not my good but his own comfort. Escorting me, then, from the monastery as if he were carrying out a funeral [q], and at last bidding farewell, he said: 'I see, my son, that you are branded with the brand of Satan: I do not seek causes, I do not receive excuses. The sheep that goes out of the folds is at once exposed to the bites * of the wolf.'

[4] his captivity and shepherd's life: "For those going from Beroea to Edessa [r] there is a solitude near the public road [s], through which the Saracens, with uncertain abodes, always wander hither and thither [t]. Which apprehension gathers a crowd of travellers in those places, that the imminent danger may be avoided by mutual help. There were in my company men, women, old men, youths, little children, about seventy in number. And behold, suddenly Ishmaelites riding horses and camels rush upon us, with long-haired and filleted heads [u], and half-naked body, trailing cloaks and broad shoes [x]: quivers hung from the shoulder: brandishing slack bows, they carried long spears. For they had come not to fight but for plunder. We are seized, scattered, dragged in different directions. I meanwhile, the heir and possessor by a long return home, and repenting too late of my counsel, come by lot into the servitude of one master with another little woman. We are led, nay, carried aloft on camels, and through the vast desert, always fearing a fall, we cling [y] rather than sit. Half-raw flesh was our food, and camels' milk our drink. At length, a great river [z] being crossed, we came to the inner solitude, where, ordered according to the custom of the nation to adore the mistress and the children, we bow our necks. Here, as if shut up in a prison, with changed dress, that is, naked, I learn to walk. For the inclemency of the air [aa] also allowed nothing else to be veiled except the private parts. Sheep to be pastured are handed over to me, and in the comparison of evils I enjoy this comfort, that I see my masters and fellow slaves more rarely. I seemed to myself to have something of holy Jacob; I remembered Moses: who also were once shepherds in the desert. I fed on fresh cheese and milk. I prayed continually; I sang the psalms which I had learned in the monastery; my captivity delighted me; and I gave thanks to the judgment of God that I had found in the desert the monk whom I was about to lose in my homeland.

[5] marriage proposed by his master, "O, nothing is ever safe with the devil! O his manifold and unspeakable snares! So too did envy find me even in hiding. My master, seeing his flock increase, and detecting nothing of fraud in me (for I knew that the Apostle had commanded that masters should be faithfully served as if God), and wishing to reward me so as to make me more faithful to himself, handed over to me that fellow slave of mine, once a captive. And when I refused, and said that I was a Christian, and that it was not lawful for me to take the wife of a living husband (since her husband, captured with us, had been carried off by another master), that implacable master [bb], turned to fury, began to attack me with drawn sword. And had I not at once, stretching out my arms, laid hold [cc] of the woman, he would there and then have shed my blood.

[6] death attempted upon himself, "Now, then, the night had come, darker than usual, and for me all too early: I lead into a half-ruined cave my new wife: and, sorrow acting as bridesmaid for us, each of us detests the other [dd], and does not confess it. Then truly I felt my captivity, and, prostrating

myself on the ground, I began to bewail the monk whom I was losing, saying: 'Have I, wretch, been preserved for this? Have my crimes brought me to this, that with my head now growing white I, a virgin, should become a husband? What does it profit to have despised parents, homeland, property for the Lord, if I do this, in order not to do which I despised those things; unless perhaps I suffer these things for this reason, because I longed for my homeland? What are we doing, soul? do we perish, or do we conquer? Do we wait for the hand of the Lord, or are we pierced by our own blade? Turn the sword against yourself: your death is more to be feared than that of the body. Preserved chastity too has its martyrdom: let the witness of Christ lie unburied in the desert: I myself will be to myself persecutor and martyr.' Having so spoken, I drew out my sword, gleaming even in the darkness, and, turning the point against myself, I said: 'Farewell, unhappy woman: have me as a martyr rather than as a husband [ee].'

[7] the good counsels of his fellow slave, "Then she, throwing herself at my feet, said: 'I beseech you by Jesus Christ, and I adjure you by the necessity of this hour, not to shed your blood to my charge [ff]. Or if it pleases you to die, turn the blade first against me. Let us rather be joined thus. Even if my husband were to return to me, I should keep the chastity which captivity has taught me: or I should rather perish than lose it. Why do you die, so as not to be joined to me? I should die if you wished to be joined to me. Have me, then, as a consort of chastity, and love the union of the soul rather than of the body. Let our masters hope for a husband, let Christ know a brother. We shall easily convince them of the marriage when they see us love thus.' I confess," he said, "I was astounded, and, admiring the virtue of the woman, I loved my consort the more. Yet never did I gaze on her naked body: never did I touch her flesh, fearing to lose in peace what I had preserved in battle.

[8] help from the example of the ants, "Very many days pass in such a marriage: the nuptials had made us more lovable to our masters. No suspicion of flight: sometimes I was absent for a whole month, the faithful shepherd of the flock, through the solitude. After a great interval, while I sit alone in the desert, and see nothing besides sky and earth, I began silently to turn things over with myself, and among many things to recall also the company of the monks, and above all the face of my father, who had instructed [gg], held and lost me. And thinking thus, I behold a troop of ants seething along a narrow path, carrying loads greater than their bodies. Some were dragging certain seeds of herbs with the pincers of their mouth, others were carrying out earth from their pits and shutting out the channels of waters with embankments. Those, mindful of the coming winter, lest the moistened earth should turn their granaries into grass, were cutting off the tips of the seeds they had brought in. These with solemn mourning were carrying away the bodies of the dead. And what is more wonderful, in so great a column the one going out did not obstruct the one going in: nay rather, if they had seen one that had fallen under its bundle and burden, they helped with shoulders put under it. Why say more? That day afforded me a beautiful spectacle. Whence, remembering Solomon, who sends us to the skill of the ants and rouses sluggish minds by such an example, I began to be weary of captivity, and to seek the little cells of the monastery, and to long for the solicitude [hh] of those ants, where labour is for the common stock, and since nothing is anyone's own, all things are all men's.

[9] flight from servitude, "On my return to our lodging the woman meets me: I could not conceal the sadness of my mind in my face. She asks why I am so dispirited. She hears the causes, urges flight. I ask the pledge of silence, she does not spurn it [ii]: and in continual whispering we waver midway between hope and fear. I had in the flock two he-goats of wonderful size. Having killed them, I make skins, and prepare their flesh as provision for the journey. And at the beginning of evening, our masters thinking that we were lying down in private, we take to the road, carrying the skins and portions of the flesh. And when we had come to the river (for it was ten miles away), having inflated and mounted the skins, we entrust ourselves to the waters, gradually paddling with our feet underneath, so that, the river carrying us downstream and setting us on the other bank much further down than where we had gone in, those following our track might lose it. But meanwhile the flesh, soaked and in part lost, promised scarcely three days' food. We drink to satiety, preparing ourselves for the thirst to come. We run, we always look behind, and we advance more by night [kk] than by day: either on account of the ambushes of the widely roaming Saracens, or on account of the excessive heat of the sun.

[10] dangers from the pursuing master, "I tremble, wretch, even in relating it: although secure in my whole mind, yet I shudder in my whole body. After the third day, with doubtful view, we see far off two men sitting on camels coming at speed [ll]. And at once my mind, presaging evil, began to think that my master was meditating death, to see the sun growing black. And while we fear, and understand that we have been betrayed by our footprints across the sands, a cave is offered on the right, penetrating far under the earth. So, fearing venomous animals (for vipers, basilisks and scorpions, and other things of this kind, avoiding [mm] the heat of the sun, are wont to seek the shade), we entered the cave indeed, but at once at the very entrance we entrust ourselves to a pit on the left, by no means going further, lest, while we flee death, we run into death: and reckoning this with ourselves: If the Lord helps the wretched, we have salvation: if he despises sinners, we have a tomb. What do you think was our spirit, what our terror, when before the cave, not far off, stood our master and a fellow slave, and by the evidence of our footprints had already come to our hiding-place? O death, much heavier awaited than inflicted. Again with fear and labour my tongue stammers, and, as if my master were shouting, I dare not mutter. He sends the slave to drag us out of the cave: he himself holds the camels, and, with drawn sword, awaits our coming.

[11] safety obtained through a lioness; "Meanwhile, the servant having gone in about three or four cubits, we seeing his back from our hiding (for such is the nature of the eyes, that to those entering shadows after the sun all things are blind), his voice sounds through the cave: 'Come out, gallows-birds, come out, you who are to die. Why do you stand? Why do you delay? Come out. The master calls [nn].' He was still speaking, and behold, through the darkness we see that a lioness had attacked the man, and, his throat being choked, was dragging him bloody within. Good Jesus, what terror, what joy was ours then? We were watching, our master not knowing it, our enemy perish. He, when he saw him delaying, suspected that two were resisting one. And, unable to put off his anger, as he was holding his sword, he came to the cave, and, chiding with raging fury the sloth [oo] of his servant, he is seized by the beast before he could reach our hiding-place. Who would ever believe this, that before our face a beast should fight for us? But that fear being removed, a like destruction was before our eyes, except that it was preferable [pp] to endure the rage of a lion than the anger of a man. We tremble within, and, not even daring to move, we awaited the outcome of the matter; amid such great perils, fenced as by a wall only by the consciousness of chastity. The lioness, wary of ambushes and perceiving that she had been seen, in the morning carries out her cub, seized in her jaws [qq], and yields the lodging to us. Yet we do not at once burst out, being not credulous enough: but, waiting long [rr], and thinking of going out, we kept picturing to ourselves an encounter with her.

[12] arrival among the Romans and return to the monastic life. "Under such terror [tt], then, that day too having passed, we go out towards evening, and we saw the camels, which on account of their excessive swiftness they call dromedaries [uu], turning over in their mouth their former food, and, having sent it into the belly, drawing it back again [xx]. Mounting which, and refreshed by new provisions [yy], on the tenth day [zz] at length we came across the desert to the Roman camp [aaa]. And, presented to the tribune, we disclose the matter in order [bbb]: thence sent on to Sabinianus, duke of Mesopotamia, we received the price of the camels. And because that abbot of mine had already fallen asleep in the Lord, brought to these places, I restore myself to the monks, I hand her over to virgins [ccc], loving her as a sister, yet not trusting myself to her as to a sister [ddd]."

[13] Chastity is never captive. These things the old man Malchus related to me as a young man. These things I as an old man have narrated to you, and to the chaste I set forth a history of chastity. I exhort virgins to guard chastity [eee]. Do you tell it to posterity, that they may know that among swords and among deserts and beasts chastity is never captive: and that a man devoted to Christ can die, cannot be overcome [fff].

ANNOTATIONS.

name in Syria perhaps was this, since it was given to the gods also and it was a common pursuit of men to put divine names on themselves.

p. The Cologne edition, Martianay, etc.: "I should establish part for the monastery." Rosweyde: "With part I should build a monastery"; Vallarsi supports it, testifying that he too had read so in the manuscripts. From this and countless other things it is established that monks were not then forbidden their paternal inheritance. This law was introduced by Justinian, the pontiffs protesting against it. Salvian of Marseille severely rebukes parents who excluded their monk sons from inheritance. From this head, then, as from many others, it is manifest that monks by force of their profession were not incapable of ownership in right and in fact. That St. Malchus blames himself for having conceived the intention of reserving something for himself was certainly not contrary to the monastic state as it then flourished; but only to the perfection of this state. Nor does the abbot rebuke him for this, but for going to his paternal home.

q. Rosweyde and the manuscripts seen by Vallarsi have "good"; certainly better than "salvation," as is commonly printed. The good of Malchus is opposed to the comfort of the abbot.

r. "So rightly," says Rosweyde, "the manuscripts. Wrongly the Cologne edition: For those going from Beria or Berrhoea to Essa. Beroea here is a city of Syria. Edessa also here is a city of Syria." The latter is less rightly asserted: Edessa is a city of Mesopotamia; and indeed from the return of St. Malchus from captivity it is manifest that he fell into the hands of the Saracens after he had crossed the Euphrates. Rosweyde's error arose from this, that he believed the great river, of which presently, was the Euphrates, whereas it seems to have been the Mygdonius or Chaboras.

s. "This very broad desert extends," says Rosweyde, "from India as far as Mauretania and the Atlantic Ocean, as Jerome writes on chapter 31 of Isaiah."

t. On the manners of the Saracens see what was said above in the Life of St. Hilarion, page 21.

u. "The old editions," says Rosweyde, "'and with bare heads.' But the manuscript with the Cologne edition well has 'filleted.'" To this very day they have filleted (enveloppes d'un turban wrapped in a turban) and long-haired heads.

x. "So the manuscript of St. Florian," says Rosweyde. "The old editions calligulae. The Cologne edition Martianay and Vallarsi caligae. Isidore, book XIX of the Origins, chapter 34: Caliculae are caligae, so called either from the callus of the feet or because they are tied. For socci are not tied but only slipped on." Of the cloaks there is no difficulty; they are commonly called burnous. I agree with Rosweyde that calliculae should be written; but I should think the learned man errs when he judges that this word pertains to footwear: caligae, namely, caligulae or caliculae, are military shoes, like the shoes of the Capuchins, except that the latter do not have nails: what then would "broad caligae" mean? Calliculae are altogether another thing, namely pieces of cloth or other material, of different colour, cut into circles and sewn on garments, chiefly at the shoulders, but in other places also, often embroidered with the needle and much adorned: so that calliculae are not a different kind of garment, but ornaments of cloaks. Hear Lambeck disputing of them [Notes on the old calendar, in Graevius, Antiquities, vol. VIII, col. 113 and 114.]: "In the same image of the Bucherian edition mentioned above," he says, "all those round ornaments are also omitted which are seen in the clothing of the month of December": (the calendar, namely, which Lambeck had undertaken to explain was adorned with images: which images you have in Graevius Ibid., loc. cit..) "Those ornaments are called in Latin, from the Greek καλλος, which signifies beauty and ornament, calliculae, but in Greek, from their roundness, τροχαδες; they were of purple, gems, gold and silver, and other diverse materials; as may be seen in the ancient Acts of the Passion of the holy martyrs Perpetua and Felicity; where Perpetua herself writes this of herself: The day before we fought, I see in a vision this: that Pomponius the deacon had come to the door of the prison and was knocking vehemently, and I went out to him and opened to him; who was clothed in a white embroidered robe, having MANY CALLICULAE. Likewise a little after: And there came out a certain man of wonderful size, so that he even surpassed the top of the amphitheatre, ungirt, with purple between two stripes through the middle of the breast, having CALLICULAE OF MANY FORMS MADE OF GOLD AND SILVER. And in the ancient Latin-Greek and Greek-Latin Glossaries published by Bonaventura Vulcanius, columns 321 and 640, in place of callicula there is wrongly read Gallicula: Galliculae, Τροχαδες, Τροχας, Galliculae. Calliculae of the same kind are also seen above in the clothing of the month of April" (namely in the Calendar which Lambeck illustrates), "and in book III of these commentaries, in plate VI of the most ancient Greek manuscript codex of Genesis, in the garment of Canaan; plate XVI in the garment of the patriarch Isaac and of a certain other; plate XXV in a woman's garment; plates XXVII and XXVIII in the garment of the patriarch Joseph and of two others; plates XXIX and XXX in the garments of Joseph; plates XXXV and XXXVI in the garments of King Pharaoh and of Joseph; plate XL in the garment of Benjamin; plate XLV in the garments of Joseph, Ephraim and Manasseh; in all which places those calliculae or trochades are represented by round black spots; as also in the equally ancient images of Roma subterranea, and indeed chiefly in plate X of the tombs of the cemetery of St. Callistus the pope and of other holy martyrs, page 331, vol. I, Cologne edition, 1659, in folio." Even now some tribes of the desert have cloaks marked with various kinds of ornaments. — After "Behold suddenly" Vallarsi notes: "One adds: a band of barbarians, and a little after three manuscripts have Gallicae for caligae, another calliculae. See below the Rule of St. Pachomius." There indeed, at number 101, there is talk of a monk having galliculae on his feet. But it is clear enough that only those codices are good in this place in which calliculae is read. For there was no reason why the shoes of the Saracens should be called broad and extolled as a singular thing.

y. So Rosweyde, although commonly: "We hang rather." For Vallarsi himself, although he did not dare to correct in this place, testifies that in all the codices seen by him is read: "We cling rather." That St. Malchus a little above called himself the hereditary possessor by a long postliminy, Rosweyde thinks is to be understood in the proper sense. I should think the holy man wished to signify that, when he wished to enter on his paternal inheritance by right of postliminy, he was by the providence of the divine power restored as if by right of postliminy to the monastic life.

z. We have said once and again that this river is the Mygdonius or Chaboras.

aa. So the editions; from which it does not seem we should depart, although Vallarsi read in three manuscripts: "For the inclemency of the air of that place, besides chastity, nothing else, etc.," and in one "clemency." Of the psalms which, as he relates a little below, he had learned in the monastery, go to the Life of St. Hilarion above, page 34.

bb. Formerly the editions: "again that wild and implacable one." Rosweyde: "that placable master," by an error (unless I am mistaken) of the compositor in place of "implacable." In all the manuscripts Vallarsi read "that implacable master."

cc. So the Cologne edition and Vallarsi. Rosweyde: "And had I not, in haste, forestalled him by holding the woman with my arm"; which reading four manuscripts in Vallarsi support. Another there: "Had I not in haste held the woman, I should occupy with my arm." I should not dare to condemn Rosweyde's reading, relying on his own and Vallarsi's codices, especially since Livy, book IV, chapter 50, said: "The law concerning the assessment of fines … they themselves forestalled by proposing."

dd. Rosweyde has "one or the other," with which two manuscripts in Vallarsi agree.

ee. St. Jerome judged that it was permitted to him to inflict death on himself to escape a danger to chastity: "In persecutions," he says [Commentary on Jonah, chapter 1, verse 12, in Migne, Patrologia, vol. XXIV, col. 1129.], "it is not permitted to perish by one's own hand, except where chastity is endangered."

ff. Rosweyde reads: "Your blood into my blood." A good reading perhaps; for Vallarsi notes this: "Again two codices, your blood into my blood; another, with your blood my blood; a fourth has absolutely: your blood, or if to die, etc."

gg. "Martianay, 'and had nourished and lost me. So also, as I was thinking, I behold, etc.,' against the faith of the manuscripts, though the rest were well." So Vallarsi.

hh. The Cologne edition, Martianay, Vallarsi: "likeness." Rosweyde: "solicitude"; with which three manuscripts in Vallarsi agree; of which one: "where the labour is for the common stock."

ii. The Cologne edition, Rosweyde, Martianay and Vallarsi have: "she does not spurn it." Vallarsi, however, adds: "Vettori: she hears the causes: urges flight. I ask silence. She does not spurn it, and in continual whispering." Rosweyde has "susurrio," which he vindicates from the version of Job, chapter 6, as it is read in the ancient Fathers.

kk. Rosweyde, "we are advanced"; Vettori, "we ride forward"; the Cologne edition, Martianay and Vallarsi, "we advance."

ll. We follow the reading of Rosweyde, who defends it thus: "The old edition: Two sitting on camels; the Cologne: two seated upon camels Martianay and Vallarsi have the same. But the reading which I have given is that of the manuscript of St. Florian, and is a locution frequent in the middle age. Jerome himself above in the Life of St. Hilarion, chapter 9: sitting an ass. So there the manuscripts. Aelius Spartianus in the Hadrian: He did not allow horses to be sat in the cities. So Mark chapter 11 of the colt of the ass: Which no man has yet sat. So Ambrose cites it, book IX, chapter 22 on Luke, at the beginning. The Vulgate now, upon which, etc. The same, book IX on Luke: And therefore the colt of the ass is sat." The lexicons will give other examples. But of riding only is "sedere" said actively. Vallarsi saw "concite" in place of "concitos" in the manuscripts.

mm. In two older manuscripts Vallarsi found "the heat of the sun declining."

nn. So Rosweyde. The Cologne edition, Martianay and others: "the master calls, waits patiently." But Vallarsi notes that "these words 'waits patiently' seem wrongly thrust in; certainly," he says, "we have found them in no manuscript."

oo. "The common books 'madness,' the manuscripts refusing. Then Vettori: who are there who would believe this, etc." So Vallarsi.

pp. Vallarsi "preferable" from the manuscripts, the editions "safer"; which, since Rosweyde himself has it, I do not know which is better. Judge the same of "madness," which is read also in Rosweyde.

qq. "Seized in her jaws, her cub: so the old edition," says Rosweyde, "and the manuscripts. The Cologne edition: her cubs, seized in her jaws." Because the ancients reported that the lioness at her first litter bears five cubs and each year one fewer; after one she becomes sterile; hence Rosweyde gathered that St. Jerome perhaps wished to indicate her last litter. "In the morning": so Rosweyde and all of Vallarsi's manuscripts and four of Martianay's, who nevertheless wrote "early" in place of "in the morning." The Cologne edition omits both words. Rosweyde in the annotations on this passage relates more examples of chastity wonderfully defended by beasts.

rr. "One Vatican: but we look long; then all have 'we picture' for 'we kept picturing.'" Vallarsi.

tt. So Rosweyde and one Vatican. The Cologne edition, Martianay and Vallarsi: "the horror therefore being removed"; not a good reading in my judgment; a little before Jerome had already said: "that fear therefore being removed," and certainly within so short a space he would not have said the same thing twice in a little work elaborated with such care. The sense is: When, therefore, we had passed this day too under such terror. One Vatican has: "Under such custody therefore that day too having passed."

uu. Of dromedary camels there was discussion in the Life of St. Hilarion.

xx. For they are of the kind of those which we commonly call ruminants: on which go to the zoographers.

yy. "This," says Rosweyde, "is the true spelling and reading. Certain editions, with an interpretation added, have: and refreshed by new sitarcia, that is, provisions." Rosweyde then adduces many passages in which the word sitarcia occurs. It is compounded from the Greek σιτος and ἀρκεω, provisions to suffice. Vallarsi too has the gloss "that is, provisions," relying on the best codices.

zz. In the commentary on St. Hilarion we said how many leagues' journey is accomplished in a day by those sitting on camels, namely ten at most.

aaa. In the Preliminary Commentary, number 10, we spoke of this camp and here and there of Sabinianus and the whole journey.

bbb. So the editions, and well. Vallarsi, however: "The manuscripts: we disclose the order of the matter, and thence sent on to Sabinianus; formerly it was Sabinus, and in Martianay, perhaps by an error of the compositors, Sabianus." We said in the Preliminary Commentary that Sabinianus was not duke of Mesopotamia (for Cassianus was), but master of the soldiery.

ccc. The Magdeburg centuriators Century IV, col. 1304. and Baillet in the Life of St. Malchus thought that this woman was placed for some time among virgins. But St. Jerome means something altogether different. Go to the Preliminary Commentary, number 11.

ddd. See in Rosweyde other admonitions of St. Jerome on avoiding the company of women.

eee. "The manuscript copies," says Martianay, "retain various readings here. The codex of Pierre Pithou reads in this manner: These things the old man Malchus related to me as a youth. These things I as an old man narrate to you, to the chaste a history of chastity. These things I set forth from the virgins, I exhort to virginity. Do you tell it to posterity, etc. The other codices, of Avignon and Toulouse: These things the old man Malchus related to Jerome as a young man. These things I as an old man have narrated to you, I have set forth to the chaste a history of chastity. I have shown virgins how to guard virginity. Finally I exhort you to tell it to posterity, that, etc." Vallarsi adds: "Two manuscripts: To the chaste I set forth a history of chastity, to virgins of virginity. Do you tell, etc. But what is inserted, I exhort virgins to guard virginity, we have found in one manuscript only."

fff. At the end I subjoin the crimes of which the Magdeburgers condemned St. Malchus: "He did not show obedience to his parents, against the precept of God: Honour thy father and mother. By the precepts of men and the monastic life he worshipped God in vain, Matthew 15. He had it in mind to kill himself, against the commandment of God: Thou shalt not kill. He despised marriage according to the doctrine of demons (1 Timothy 4). He committed theft against the precept of God: Thou shalt not steal." Thus they, turning the evangelical counsels into crimes; but let them read St. Paul, who certainly had the spirit of the Lord, 1 Timothy V, 11. That St. Malchus killed two he-goats to have something to eat on the journey, who would blame except one who would decide that no one may escape from unjust servitude? That he had it in mind to kill himself I do not defend, except that in that age this matter was not so plain. For when it seemed that one must choose between life and chastity, many judged that it was permitted them to give up life voluntarily, lest, even without their own fault, they should be polluted. See above annotation ee.

* otherwise "jaws."