_Jerom_ and _Ruffinus_ had lived several Years in close Friendship, and great Intimacy; but, falling out in the Year 393. their former Friendship was turned at once into an open and avowed Enmity. What gave Occasion to this Breach I shall relate hereafter, and only observe here, that _Jerom_ not only quarreled with _Ruffinus_, but with all the Friends of _Ruffinus_; nay, and with those too, who, professing an equal Friendship for both, would not break with either, or any-ways interfere in the Quarrel. Among these was the celebrated _Roman_ Matron _Melania_, so frequently spoken of, and so highly commended, by _Austin_, by _Paulinus_, and, above all, by _Jerom_ himself, who has filled his Letters with her Praises, proposing her as a true Pattern of every Virtue becoming her Sex. [Sidenote: Jerom _quarrels with all the Friends of_ Ruffinus, _especially with_ Melania.] _Melania_ had retired with _Ruffinus_ to _Jerusalem_, Twenty-seven Years before, and continued there practising, under his Direction, those Works of Charity, which _Jerom_ so often admires and extols. It could not therefore be expected that she should discard the _Partner of her holy Life, and all her good Works_, as _Paulinus_ styles him[1341], the Minute the other was pleased to dislike him, or, indeed, that she should take any Part at all in the Quarrel. And yet, because she prudently declined taking Part, but continued to shew the same Affection and Esteem for _Ruffinus_, which she had done before; _Jerom_, forgetful of the Regard that was due to a Matron of her Birth and Piety, and of the high Encomiums which he had himself bestowed on her, began to inveigh with no less Bitterness against her, than against _Ruffinus_ himself. [Sidenote: _His Conduct towards her._] In one of his Letters, still extant[1342], after finding Fault with one of _Ruffinus_’s Friends, thought to be _John_ Bishop of _Jerusalem_, he adds; “But, after all, he is not so much to blame as his Instructors _Ruffinus_ and _Melania_, who, with a great deal of Trouble and Pains, have taught him to know nothing.” _Ruffinus_ tells us, that _Jerom_, finding that _Melania_, who was a Matron of great Judgment and Penetration, did not approve of his Actions and Conduct, thereupon spitefully erased out of his Chronicle, what he had there written in her Praise[1343]. But he did not, nor was it, perhaps, in his Power to make such an Alteration in all the Copies; for what he is said to have cancelled, is still remaining in all the printed, as well as manuscript Copies of that Work, which have reached our Times. _Melania_ lived Eighteen Years after, steadily pursuing the same Course of Life, for which _Jerom_ had once proposed her as a Pattern to her whole Sex[1344]. She died at _Jerusalem_ in the Year 411. and died poor, having spent an immense Estate in relieving the Needy and Indigent, not only of the Countries where she lived, and through which she passed, but those too of the most distant Provinces of the Empire.