[Sidenote: Jerome (Hieronymus).] St. Jerome (Hieronymus) was born about 331 A. D., at Stridon, a town on the borders of Dalmatia and Pannonia, studied at Rome under Donatus, then spent two years at Treves, was afterwards at Aquileia for some time, then sailed to Syria. Here he was ill for a time, and solaced himself by reading the classics, until he was warned by a dream to give up profane literature. He retreated into the wilderness of Chalcis, where he remained five years. In 362 A. D. he returned Rome, where he had great influence for many years, but in 386 he retired to a monastery at Bethlehem. There he remained until his death, in 420 A. D. As a controversial writer St. Jerome had great influence in settling the doctrines of the Catholic church; he also wrote commentaries on various books of the Bible, and numerous letters dealing with religious questions. His translation of the Bible was a masterly performance, and is the basis of the Latin Vulgate, still in use in the Roman Catholic church. He compiled a brief work, _De Viris Illustribus_, in which he gave sketches of the lives of Christian writers, as Suetonius, in his work of the same title, had given the lives of the old Roman authors. The sketches given by Jerome are, however, much briefer than were those of Suetonius. The translation and continuation of the _Chronicle_ of Eusebius has already been mentioned (see page 262). St. Jerome is one of the ablest writers of the early Christian church, and certainly the most learned Christian writer of his time. His style is not exempt from the faults of exaggeration and verbal quibbling common in the writings of the age, but possesses much life and earnestness, and is free from the affectation of classicism, though it shows the effect of his prolonged study of the classics.