13 Jerome is perhaps hinting at the opinions of Jovinianus, that there was no other distinction between men than the grand division into righteous and wicked, and drawing from this the inference that whoever had been truly baptized had nothing further to gain by progress in the Christian life.
16 Job xiv. 4, Job xiv. 5, Sept.
19 Job ix. 20, Job ix. 30. Sept.
20 1 John ii. 1, 1 John ii. 2.
28 2 Cor. ii. 10, 2 Cor. ii. 11.
37 Various dates, ranging between a.d. 126 and a.d. 173, are assigned to the origin of Montanism. In addition to the tenet, that the church has no power to remit sin after baptism (though the power was claimed for the Montanistic prophets) and that some sins exclude for ever from the communion of the saints on earth, although the mercy of God may be extended to them hereafter, Montanus held second marriages to be no better than adultery, proscribed military service and secular life in general, denounced profane learning and amusements of every kind, advocated extreme simplicity of female dress, practised frequent and severe fasting, and inculcated the most rigorous asceticism. The sect produced a great effect on the church and lasted until the sixth century. As is well known, Tertullian in middle life lapsed into Montanism, and he was the most distinguished of its champions. Montanism has been described as an anticipation of the mediaeval system of Rome.
38 The founder of the schism which afterwards bore the name of Novatian was Novatus, a presbyter of Carthage who went to Rome (about a.d. 250) and there co-operated with Novatianus, one of the most distinguished of the clergy of that city. The Novatianists, whose doctrines were near akin in many respects to those of Montanists, assumed the name of Cathari, or Puritans.
47 2 Pet. ii. 17, 2 Pet. ii. 18.
54 2 Chron. xxxiii. 12, 2 Chron. xxxiii. 13.
55 2 Kings xxiii. 29 sq. 2 Chron. xxxv. 20 sq.
60 Jerome blends two passages, Is. xiv. 12 (in which the Sept. reading is "that sendest to;" R. V. "didst lay low") and Ezek. xxviii. 13 sq. In the passage from Isaiah the king of Babylon is compared to Lucifer, i.e. the shining one, the morning star, whose movements the Babylonians had been the first to record. See Sayce, Fresh Light from the Ancient Monuments, p. 178, and Cheyne's Isaiah. The subject of Ezekiel's prophecy is the Prince of Tyre.
62 Job xl. 16, Job xl. 21. R. V. "He lieth under the lotus trees, in the covert of the reed and the fen."
63 Job xli. 34. Sept. R. V. "King over the sons of pride."
64 Job xli. 13 sq. R. V. for the latter part of the verse has "Round about his teeth is terror, his strong scales are his pride." Jerome's words are not found in the existing Septuagint.
65 The Septuagint omits much in this portion of the Book of Job.
67 That is, deriving jumenta from juvo. The derivation, however, is from jungo.
70 1 Rom. xiv. 20: 1 Tim. iv. 5.
72 Castum. Another reading is Cossum i.e. wood-worms, which were considered a delicacy in Pontus and Phrygia. The reading Castum is supported by Tert., De Iejun. cap. 16: In nostris xerophagiis blasphemias ingerens. Casto Isidis et Cybeles eos adaequas. Compare Arnob. Bk. V., and Jerome's Letter cvii. ad Laetam c. 10, and below c. 7.
74 That is, of Side in Pamphylia. He lived in the reigns of Hadrian and Antoninus Plus, a.d. 117-161. Only two fragments remain of his Greek poem in forty-two books.
75 He appears to be Flavius the Grammarian to whom reference is made in the Book on Illustrious Men, chap. 80:-Firmianus, quiet Lactantius, Arnobii discipulus, sub Diocletiano principe accitus cure Flavio grammatico, cujus de Medicinalibus versu compositi exstant libri, etc.
76 Born a.d. 23. His Historia Naturalis embraces astronomy, meteorology, geography, mineralogy, zoölogy, and botany and comprises according to the author's own account 20,000 matters of importance drawn from 2,000 volumes.
77 A native of Cilicia, who probably lived in the second century of the Christian era. He was a Greek physician and wrote a treatise on Materia Medica, in 5 books, which is still extant.
82 Matt. x. 9, Matt. xix. 21: Mark vi. 8.
86 That is, the wood-worm just referred to.
87 Pannonia, of which Valens also was a native.
88 This name, which signifies dwellers in caves, was applied by Greek geographers to various peoples, but especially to the uncivilized inhabitants of the west coast of the Red Sea, along the shores of Upper Egypt and Aethiopia. The whole coast was called Troglodytice.
89 In 376 the Goths were driven out of their country by the Huns. They were allowed by Valens to cross the Danube, but war soon broke out and the emperor was defeated with great slaughter on Aug. 9, 378.
90 The Sarmatians dwelt on the N. E. of the Sea of Azov, E. of the river Don.
91 They were located in the S. E. of Germany.
92 The name given to the great confederacy of German peoples who in a.d. 409 traversed Germany and Gaul, and invaded Spain. In 429 they conquered all the Roman dominions in Africa, and in 455 they plundered Rome. Their kingdom was destroyed by Belisarius in 535.
93 A people of Central Asia. Cyrus the Great was slain in an expedition against them.
94 On the Oxus near its entrance into the Caspian Sea.
95 An agricultural people on the W. coast of Pontus.
96 Hyrcania was a province of the Persian Empire, on the S. and S. E. shores of the Caspian or Hyrcanian Sea Jerome draws many of these details from the treatise of Porphyry Peri apoxhj emyuxiwn.
97 Antinous was drowned in the Nile. a.d. 122. The emperor's grief was so great that he enrolled his favourite amongst the gods, caused a temple to be erected to his honour at Mantines, and founded the city of Antinoopolis.
100 An Egyptian perfuming powder.
101 Probably an ointment made from the grape of the wild vine.
102 The celebrated Cynic philosopher. He died at Corinth, at the age of nearly 90, b.c. 323.
103 Academia was a piece of land on the Cephisus about three-quarters of a mile from Athens, originally belonging to the hero Academus. Here was a Gymnasium with plane and olive plantations, etc. Plato had a piece of land in the neighbourhood; here he taught, and after him his followers, who were hence called Academici. Cicero called his villa Academia.