--A. 281. _Ierome_; Hieronymus, usually known as St. Jerome, a celebrated father of the Latin Church; died Sept. 30, 420. In the Wyf of Bathes Prologue (C. T. 6251, Group D, l. 669) we find:-- 'He hadde a book, that gladly, night and day, For his desport he wolde rede alway; He cleped it Valerie and Theofraste, At whiche book he lough alwey ful faste. And eek ther was somtyme a clerk at Rome, A cardinal, that highte Seint Ierome, That made a book agayn Iovinian'; &c. In Tyrwhitt's Introductory discourse, he says of this Prologue--'The greatest part must have been of Chaucer's own invention, though one may plainly see he had been reading the popular invectives against marriage and women in general; such as, the Roman de la Rose; Valerius ad Rufinum _de non ducenda uxore_; and particularly Hieronymus _contra Iovinianum_.' He adds, in a note--'The holy Father, by way of recommending celibacy, has exerted all his learning and eloquence (and he certainly was not deficient in either) to collect together and aggravate whatever he could find to the prejudice of the female sex. Among other things he has inserted his own translation (probably) of a long extract from what he calls "Liber aureolus Theophrasti de nuptiis." 'Next to him in order of time was the treatise entitled _Epistola Valerii ad Rufinum de non ducenda uxore_ (MS. Reg. 12 D. iii.). It has been printed, for the similarity of its contents, I suppose, among the works of St. Jerome, though it is evidently of a much later date.... To these two books _Jean de Meun_ has been obliged for some of the severest strokes in his [part of the] _Roman de la Rose_; and Chaucer has transfused the quintessence of all the three works, upon the subject of Matrimony, into his _Wife of Bathes Prologue_ and _Merchant's Tale_.' Tyrwhitt further observes that the _Epistola Valerii_ was written, according to Tanner, by Walter Map; of this there appears to be no doubt. Lounsbury (Studies, ii. 276) takes _Valerie_ to mean Valerius Maximus, which is here improbable. It is, at first, not very clear why the God of Love is here represented as appealing to books _against_ women; but we are bidden to observe that, even there, good women are incidentally mentioned; see A. 284. Even Valerius praises Lucretia and Penelope. --A. 288. Cf. the long passage in the Franklein's Tale about chaste women; C. T. 11676-11766 (F 1364-1456). It is nearly all taken from Jerome. --A. 305. _Epistels_ rather than _epistelle_ in the singular. The reference is to Ovid's Heroides, which contains twenty-one love-letters. Cf. Chaucer's Introd. to Man of Law, B 55, where he alludes to Ovid's mention of lovers 'in his _Epistelles_.'