Page "Jerome" Paragraph 5

Jerome used a quote from Vergil — “ The horror and the silences terrified their souls ” — to describe the horror of hell.

Jerome initially used classical authors to describe Christian concepts such as hell that indicated both his classical education and his deep shame of their associated practices, such as pederasty.

Although initially skeptical of Christianity, he was eventually converted.

After several years in Rome, he travelled with Bonosus to Gaul and settled in Trier where he seems to have first taken up theological studies, and where he copied, for his friend Tyrannius Rufinus, Hilary of Poitiers ' commentary on the Psalms and the treatise De synodis.

Next came a stay of at least several months, or possibly years, with Rufinus at Aquileia, where he made many Christian friends.