By the Senate that Rome assembled against Origen, Jerom meant, no doubt, the Bishop and Clergy of that City: and that he made no Account of their Judgment, sufficiently appears from the contemptuous and ironical Manner he speaks of it. However, that Father is brought in by Baronius as an Evidence for Infallibility, on account of the Regard which he afterwards paid to the Judgment of Anastasius, styling it a decisive Sentence. But Jerom had then changed his Opinion; and Anastasius only condemned what he had condemned before; so that from the great Regard which Jerom shewed on that Occasion for the Judgment of Anastasius, Baronius can at most conclude, that he thought the Popes infallible when they agreed with him; for that he thought them fallible when they disagreed with him, is manifest from his not acquiescing in the Judgment of another Pope condemning Origen, when he himself had not yet condemned him.
[1]. Ruff. ad Anast. p. 202.
[2]. Hier. vir. illustr. c. 54. Ruff. l. 2. p. 225.
Anastasius separates
himself from his
Communion.
But this Confession, however orthodox, did not satisfy Anastasius, or rather Jerom and his Friends in Rome. They continued, says Ruffinus, the Persecution which they had so successfully begun, and with their malicious Suggestions prevailed in the End on Anastasius to comply with their unjust Demands[[1363]]; that is, I suppose, to separate himself from his Communion: for Anastasius, in his Answer to a Letter which John Bishop of Jerusalem had writ in favour of Ruffinus, acquaints that Prelate, that he had cut him off from his Communion, and left him to be judged by God and his own Conscience. As to Origen, says he in the same Letter, I knew not before who he was, nor what he had writ. Ruffinus has translated him into our Language; and, in so doing, what else could he have in view but to infect this Church with his pernicious Doctrines? He has expressed his own Sentiments in translating those of his Author; and is therefore no less guilty than Origen himself, whom we have all condemned[[1364]][[N43]].
[N43]. The same Charge lies against Jerom; nay, he was the more guilty of the Two. For he had not only translated many of Origen’s Works, containing Errors no less repugnant to the Catholic Truths than any in the Periarchon, but had besides filled his Comments on the Scripture, especially on the Epistle to the Ephesians, with the worst of Origen’s Errors, viz. with those relating to the Resurrection of the Body, to the Pre-existence of the Souls, and to the Duration of Hell-Torments, as is manifest from the many Passages quoted by Ruffinus out of the Comments of that Father. Jerom found great Fault with Ruffinus, for not confuting the Errors which he translated; concluding from thence, that he held the same Doctrines: and yet he was himself so far from confuting in his Comments any of Origen’s erroneous Opinions, that on the contrary he often delivered them in such manner as made many, and St. Austin among the rest, believe them to be his own[[1]]. Nay, in one Place he seems to own, that he held some of Origin’s Errors[[2]]: but ends what he there writes of him thus; If you believe me, I never was an Origenist; but if you absolutely insist upon my having been one, I now tell you, that I am so no more; and it is to convince you of this, that I am become the Accuser of Origen.
[1]. Hier. ep. 89.
[2]. Hier. ep. 65.