JEROME (saint), c. A.D. 341-430, was born in Stridon in Illyria, between Dalmatia and Pannonia, and died in Bethlehem. He studied under Aelius Donatus, the foremost teacher of his day, and later in Treves, one of the famous centers of learning in the fourth century. In A.D. 342 Pope Damasus urged Jerome to revise the Latin scriptures. While in Rome, Jerome founded the first convent there and presided over it as father confessor. He left Rome in 385 when it was thought that he wanted to be pope after Damasus died in 384. He continued his revision of the scriptures in Bethlehem, and his work formed the basis of the Latin Vulgate. He is one of the four Latin Doctors of the Church, the others being Augustine, Ambrose, and Gregory the Great. In his letters and treatises Jerome appears as an irritable cleric, gifted in the rhetoric of abuse, especially on the subject of heresy. His celebrated treatises are Liber de viris illustribus ecclesiasticis (PL 23: 602-726), which contains a life of Seneca; Epistola adversus Jovinianum (PL 23: 211-338); Apologia adversus libros Rufini (PL 23: 397-472); Dialogos adversus Pelagianos (PL 23: 495-590); a short letter on virginity, Epistola ad Eustochium de virginitate (PL 22: 397-398). Jacobus de Voragine gives a life of Jerome in Legenda aurea CXLVI.

The treatise Epistola adversus Jovinianum, or The Letter Against Jovinian, was an answer to Jovinian's advocacy of marriage for the clergy and his denigration of virginity. It forms part of Jankyn's "Book of Wikked Wyves," WBP 673-675. Alys calls Jerome a cardinal, WBP 674. The illuminator of The Hours of Catherine of Cleves paints Jerome in a cardinal's hat and robes (folio 118). Jerome is the author of a proverb linking the devil with idleness, SNP 6-7. Jehan de Vigny attributes the proverb to Jerome in the introduction to his French translation of Legenda aurea.

The Parson quotes Jerome seven times in his sermon, three of which appear in the probable source for the Tale. On the Judgment, ParsT 159, the Summa casuum poenitentiae, by Raymund de Pennaforte, has a marginal gloss that names Jerome as the source. The Parson remarks, "Jerome says . . .," ParsT 174, where Pennaforte has "Augustine ait. . . ." The quotation on lust, ParsT 345, comes from Jerome, Epistola XXII ad Eustochium de virginitate 7 (PL 23: 398). The quotation from Jerome, ParsT 657, has not been identified, and that in ParsT 933 comes from Cyprian, De habitu virginum xiii (PL 4: 464). The quotation from Jerome on lust in marriage, ParsT 904, appears in Epistola adversus Jovinianum (Letter Against Jovinian) I.49 (PL 23: 293-294). The quotation on the virtues of fasting, ParsT 1047, has not been traced in Jerome's works. It is attributed to him in Pennaforte, Summa casuum poenitentiae. The God of Love mentions Jerome as a writer on chaste women, LGW G 281-287, a reference to Epistola adversus Jovinianum. [Crisippus: Jovinian: Tertulan: Theofraste: Valerie]

Jerome occurs once in final rhyming position, WBP 674; in the prose of The Parson's Tale 159, 174, 657, 904, 1047; and twice in medial positions, LGW G 281, 284.