| Summary: | This is the first full-scale biography of Jerome to appear in English. It describes his education at Rome, his conversion to committed Christianity at Trier, his extraordinary sojourn in the Syrian desert, his debut as an author at Antioch and Constantinople. It depicts him at Rome serving as secretary to Pope Damasus and starting what was to be a life-long career as spiritual counsellor to rich, aristocratic ladies. After his expulsion from Rome in doubtful circumstances, we see him settled for the second half of his life at Bethlehem, establishing religious houses with his patroness Paula, writing with indefatigable energy, and engaging in a series of violent controversies. The analysis of these illustrates his prickly temperament, which brought him into temporary conflict with St. Augustine and ruptured relations with his boyhood friend Rufinus, and also his passionate concern for orthodoxy and hostility to any form of Christianity which fell below the morbidly ascetic ideals he championed. As well as throwing light on Jerome's hyper-sensitive, hag-ridden perrsonality, the narrative gives a vivid impression of the tensions in Christianity at a time when it was becoming the accepted religion of society -- at a time, too, when the Western Empire was beginning to crumble under the impact of barbarian assaults.
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