Biography of Tyrannius Rufinus Tyrannius Rufinus - Roman priest,
writer and theologian After study at Rome, where he met Jerome
(later a saint and one of the doctors of the Western Church),
Rufinus entered a monastery at Aquileia. Jerome often visited
the monastery, and the two became close friends. About 373
Rufinus began to study the writings of Origen, one of the Greek
doctors of the church. In the early 390s Rufinus and Jerome
became involved in a controversy over Origen's teachings, by
this time suspected by orthodox theologians of injecting
heretical elements into theology. In 393 both men were charged
with Origenist leanings, but Rufinus refused to make formal
abjuration of the alleged errors, while Jerome readily did so.
The discord between the men continued during the next year,
abated by 397, and then flared soon afterward into a bitter
quarrel when Rufinus published in Rome a translation of Origen's
De principiis (“On First Principles”) and wrote a preface
representing Jerome to be an admirer of Or