I wanted to continue John's discussion on the ambiguous idea of Marcella as a teacher. In my personal opinion, at least with regards to the didactic aspect, I believe that Jerome believes that he himself is the teacher while Marcella is simply a student who adopts and cherishes his ideals, although I do agree with John that the framing of this concept is ambiguous, perhaps deliberately. While Jerome praises the aspects of Marcella that would make her a good student of the Christian faith (persistence (industria), virtue (virtus), character (ingenium), and purity (puritas), I personally could not find anything in particular in the Latin that depicted her as a teacher in passages 6 and 7 (although I could have missed it). Certainly, she exemplifies the ideas of Jerome's faith and does seem to express her own opinions at times (7.10-11 sic interrogata respondebat ut etiam sua) which may be indicative of teaching, but I think, either for the emphasis on Christian doctrine that he cites as well as the current state of the Church, there is a stronger emphasis on her devoted following of Jerome's ideals.
And I can definitely see how Jerome would have been seen as a cult leader at this point!
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