Annotation CCXLVI, On the kingdom of the Romans (Daniel 2:40)

Annotatio CCXLVI

”And the fourth kingdom shall be as iron,” etc. — Daniel 2:40

Jerome so expounds this clause in the commentaries on Daniel:¹ “The fourth kingdom, which plainly pertains to the Romans, is the iron which crushes and subdues all things; but its feet, and the toes, [are] partly of iron and partly of clay — which at this time is most manifestly proved: for as in the beginning nothing was stronger and harder than the Roman empire, so in the end of things nothing [is] more feeble, when both in civil wars, and against the diverse nations of other barbarous peoples, we need [outside] aid.” There were not lacking, of old, [those] who accused Jerome on account of these things — that he had treated the majesty of the Roman empire, then defended by a most Christian Emperor, with too little honorific words. To whom he, answering, in the preface of the eleventh [book] of the commentary on Isaiah, thus says: “If, in the exposition of the statue, and of its feet, and the discrepancy of the toes of iron and clay over the Roman kingdom, I interpreted that which perhaps [was] first [strong], then feeble, [as] the Scripture portends — let them not impute [it] to me, but to the Prophet. For neither is it so to be flattered to Princes, that the truth of the holy Scriptures be neglected; nor is a general disputation an injury to one person.” These things the divine Jerome.