Jerome, Saint, Vita Sancti Pauli Eremitae

7. AEtas Pauli et Antonii. — Sed ut ad id redeam unde digressus sum, cum jam centum tre- decim annos beatus Paulus vitam 8 coelestem age. ret in terris, et nonagenarius in alia solitudine Antonius moraretur (ut ipse asserere solebat), haec in mentem ejus cogitatio incidit, nullum ultra- se perfectum 9 monachum [Al. monachorum] in. eremo consedisse. At illi per noctem quiescenti revelatum est esse alium interius [ Al. ulterius et in terris] multo sc meliorem ad quem visendum deberet proficisci. Illico erumpente luce, venerabilis senex infirmos artus baculo regente sustentans, coepit ire velle quo nesciebat. Et jam media dies coquente desuper sole fervebat, nec tamen a coepto itinere abducebatur [Ver. ms. deducebatur] dicens : Credo in Deum meum, quod olim conservum, quem mihi 10 promisit, ostendet. Nec plura his. conspicit [Al. conspicatur. Ver. ms., centauro] hominem equo mistum, cui opinio poctarum Hip- pocentauro 1 vocabulum indidit. Quo viso, salu- taris impressione signi armat frontem : Et heus tu, Inquit, quanam in parte hic servus Dei habitat? At ille barbarum nescio quid infrendens, et fran- gens potius verba quam proloquens, inter horren- tia ora setis 2, blandum quaesivit alloquium. Et (??)exterae protensione manus cupitum indicat iter, et sic patentes 7 campos volucri transmittens fuga, ex oculis mirantis evanuit. Verum haec utrum diabolus ad terrendum cum simulaverit, an (ut solet) eremus monstruosorum animalium ferax, istam quoque gignat bestiam, incertum habemus.

7. The ages of Paul and Antony. — But to return to the point from which I digressed: when the blessed Paul had already been living a heavenly life on earth for a hundred and thirteen years, and Antony, at ninety, was staying in another solitude (as he himself used to assert), this thought came into his mind, that no monk more perfect than himself had settled in the desert. But as he rested at night it was revealed to him that there was another, further in, much better than himself, whom he ought to set out to visit. At once, as the light broke, the venerable old man, supporting his weak limbs with a staff to guide him, began to want to go he knew not where. And already midday was blazing, with the sun scorching from above, and yet he was not drawn away from the journey he had begun, saying: “I trust in my God that he will in time show me the fellow servant whom he promised me.” No more than this [had he said, when] he sees a man mixed with a horse, to whom the poets' fancy gave the name Hippocentaur. At this sight he arms his forehead by marking it with the saving sign, and says: “Hey, you, in what part does the servant of God live here?” But it, grinding out some barbarous sound, and breaking its words rather than speaking them, sought through jaws bristling with hair to address him gently. And by stretching out its right hand it points out the road he wanted, and so, crossing the open plains in swift flight, it vanished from the eyes of the astonished man. But whether the devil feigned this to frighten him, or whether the desert, fertile as it is in monstrous animals, gives birth to this beast too, we hold uncertain.

8. Fauni et Satyri, Satyrus allatus vivus Alexan-driam. — Stupens itaque Antonius, et de eo quod Viderat secum volvens, ulterius progreditur 3 [Ver. ms. regrediebatur]. Nec mora, inter saxosam con- vallem haud grandem homunculum videt, aduncis haribus, fronte cornibus asperata, cujus extrema pars corporis in caprarum pedes desinebat. Ad hoc Antonius spectaculum 4 scutum fidei et loricam spei, ut bonus praeliator, arripuit : nihilominus memoratum animal, palmarum fructus eidem ad viaticum, quasi pacis obsides, offerebat [Al. affe- rebat]. Quo cognito, gradum pressit Antonius, et quisnam esset interrog(??)ns hoc ab eo responsum accepit : « Mortalis ego sum, et unus ex accolis cremi, quos vario delusa errore Gentilitas, Fau- nos, Satyrosque 5, et Incubos vocans 6 colit. Lc- gatione fungor gregis mei. Precamur ut pro nobis communem Dominum depreceris, quem in [Ver. tacet quam in ] salutem mundi olim venisse cogno- vimus; et in universam terram exiit sonus ejus. » Talia eo loquente, longaevus viator ubertim faciem lacrymis rigabat, quas magnitudo laetitiae indices cordis effuderat. Gaudebat quippe de Christi glo- ria, et de interitu Satanae : simulque admirans, quod ejus posset intelligere sermonem, et baculo humum percutiens, aiebat : « Vae tibi, Alexandria, quae pro Deo portenta veneratis. Vae tibi, 8 civitas meretrix, in quam totius orbis daemon a con- fluxere. Quid nunc dictura es? Bestiae Christum loquuntur, et tu pro Deo portenta veneraris 7, » Necdum verba compleverat, et quasi pennigero volatu petulcum animal aufugit. Hoc ne cuiquam ad incredulitatem 8 scrupulum moveat, sub rege Constantio 9, universo mundo teste, defenditur. Nam Alexandriam istiusmodi homo vivus perductus, magnum populo spectaculum praebuit : et postea cadaver exanime, ne calore aestatis dissiparetur, sale infuso [ Ver. ms. infusam et ], Antiochiam ut ab imperatore videretur, allatum est.

8. Fauns and Satyrs; a Satyr brought alive to Alexandria. — So Antony, astonished, and turning over in his mind what he had seen, goes further on. Before long, in a rocky valley, he sees a little man, not large, with hooked nostrils, his forehead rough with horns, the lower part of whose body ended in goats' feet. At this spectacle Antony, like a good warrior, seized the shield of faith and the breastplate of hope; nonetheless the creature I have mentioned offered him fruit of the palm as provisions for the journey, as if hostages of peace. Realising this, Antony checked his step, and, asking who he was, received this answer from him: “I am a mortal, one of the dwellers in the desert, whom the heathen world, deluded by manifold error, worships, calling them Fauns and Satyrs and Incubi. I am acting as envoy of my flock. We ask you to pray for us to our common Lord, who, we have learned, came once for the salvation of the world; and his sound has gone out into all the earth.” As he spoke thus, the aged traveller bathed his face with abundant tears, which the greatness of his joy had poured out as tokens of his heart. For he rejoiced at the glory of Christ and at the downfall of Satan; and at the same time, marvelling that he could understand its speech, and striking the ground with his staff, he said: “Woe to you, Alexandria, who worship monsters in place of God! Woe to you, harlot city, into which the demons of the whole world have flowed together! What will you say now? Beasts speak of Christ, and you worship monsters in place of God.” He had not yet finished his words when the frisking animal fled away as if in winged flight. Lest this stir any scruple of disbelief in anyone, it is vouched for under the emperor Constantius, with the whole world as witness. For a man of this kind was brought alive to Alexandria and provided a great spectacle for the people; and afterwards the lifeless corpse, with salt poured into it so that it should not decay in the summer heat, was carried to Antioch to be seen by the emperor.