Waking the Dead: Discovering Jerome of Prague ... and his Beard!

Abstract

Visiting a ducal court in Lithuania, Jerome was distinguished by his great bushy beard. According to a court record, he spread many heresies about while wearing a long beard. From a Franciscan prison a letter-writer wondered how the bearded Jerome was doing. An inquisitor read a long indictment wherein he characterized Jerome as "dressed as a layman with a big beard." Responding to a sermon preached against him, Jerome was described as having a pale face, a clear voice, and a large beard. When consigned to the secular authorities for execution, onlookers described him as "a stout, strong man, with a large, thick, black beard." When the pyre was set ablaze one source goes to the bother of noting that Jerome's beard was also on fire. Fifteenth-century depictions of the heretic emphasize the beard. Rediscovering Jerome also includes coming to terms with a beard.