In the Fourth Century, Jerome was the librarian of the library of Alexandria, Egypt, one of the wonders of the ancient world. Jerome was a priest, a scholar, a doctor of the church and a saint. As a saint he’s considered the patron of libraries and librarians.
His comtemporary, Ambrose, Bishop of Rome, is the first person recorded as reading silently. Augustine, another great Christian scholar, as a young man visited the older Ambrose in Rome. “When he read,” wrote Augustine, “his eyes scanned the page and his heart sought out the meaning, but his voice was silent and his tongue was still. Anyone could approach him freely and guests were not commonly announced, so that often, when we came to visit him, we found him reading like this in silence, for he never read aloud.” Until that point, texts were recorded speech. The few who could read, read aloud. Words were meant to be spoken.
Jerome, also it is believed, kept the words in his head as he read. For this ability to read silently, his ability to read Latin, Greek, and Hebrew and translate among them, together with other formidable intellectual achievements, Jerome was considered the greatest intellect of his time.
Ambrose was known as generous and intellectually flexible. Augustine quoted Ambrose advice to travelers, “When I am at Rome, I fast on a Saturday; when I am at Milan, I do not. Follow the custom of the church where you are.” This has come down to us as, “When in Rome, do as the Romans do.”
Alas, Jerome was not generous and has been described as hard and rigid. In addition, he apparently lacked the patience custom attributes to saints. Jerome was a noted ascetic. No doubt a life of fleshly mortification took its toll on his temper. Jerome is recorded as impatient, acerbic, condescending, and verbally cruel to those he considered fools.
Jerome demanded those around him keep silence. Until that time, a library was a place of conversation and the low murmur of scholars reading aloud to themselves. Jerome appears to have invented the library, “Shhhhhhh.”
When Jerome taught, he demanded his students be still and listen. This is in sharp contrast to the lively discourse and interaction of the School of Athens and method of Socrates.
Since Jerome was considered the world’s greatest scholar, his method was widely imitated. His practice of reading silently spread. His method of having the great man lecture to silently assembled students became the practice of the monasteries which were the Christian centers of learning. The Socratic Method went out of fashion. The Christian monastic practices of teaching and learning continued as the Europeans secularized learning into the university system.
Which means 1700 years later, we still have schools, universities, houses of worship, and business meetings with people sitting silently taking in information from a leader holding forth.
Who will rid me of this annoying priest?