[4867] 2 Cor. ix. 6.
[4868] Eph. iii. 10.
[4869] Eph. iv. 7.
[4870] Ps. lxxiii. 17.
[4871] See Acts xxvii. 23 and the context.
[4872] Gen. xix. 18-21.
[4873] 1 Sam. xxx. 1 sq.
[4874] S. Luke xiii. 4.
[4875] 1 Cor. xi. 27.
[4876] Mal. iv. 2.
[4877] S. Matt. xxv. 13.
[4878] S. John xix. 6.
[4879] Wisd. vi. 7.
[4880] Ex. xxi. 2.
[4881] Lev. xxv. 13.
[4882] S. Matt. xix. 29; S. Mark x. 30; S. Luke xviii. 30. In S. Matthew some authorities agree with S. Luke in reading "manifold."
[4883] Matt. xi. 11.
[4884] S. Luke xvii. 5.
[4885] Matt. xiv. 31.
[4886] Jer. xxxi. 31.
[4887] Jer. xxxi. 33, 34.
[4888] S. Matt. v. 19.
[4889] S. Luke xiv. 9.
[4890] S. John xiv. 2, 3.
[4891] S. Matt. xx. 23.
[4892] S. John xiv. 3.
[4893] Ps. lxxiii. 26.
[4894] Ez. xliv. 10.
[4895] 1 Cor. vi. 19.
[4896] Correctly, a portion of two, i.e., the portion of a first-born. Deut. xxi. 17.
[4897] S. Luke vii., S. Matt. xxvi., S. Mark xiv., S. John xii.
[4898] S. John xvii. 20, 21.
[4899] 2 Pet. i. 4.
[4900] S. John xvii. 23.
[4901] S. John i. 12, 13.
[4902] S. John vi. 57 sq.
[4903] 1 John iv. 13, 15.
[4904] Gal. iv. 19.
[4905] 1 Cor. xii. 22-24.
[4906] S. Luke xi. 34.
[4907] 1 John v. 16.
[4908] Jer. vii. 16.
[4909] Rom. v. 14.
[4910] Wisd. i. 11.
[4911] Ps. cxvi. 11; Rom. iii. 4.
[4912] Ps. li. 4.
[4913] Ezek. xvi. 62, 63.
[4914] Ezek. xxxvi. 31, 32.
[4915] Letter XXI.
[4916] S. Matt. xx. 26.
[4917] S. Luke vii. 47.
[4918] S. Matt. xxv. 15 sq.
[4919] Phil. iii. 13.
[4920] Josh. ix. 27.
[4921] 2 Sam. xxi. 1.
[4922] S. Luke xii. 47, 48.
[4923] Ps. cxix. in our arrangement of the Psalter. The psalm is divided into twenty-two portions, which begin with the successive letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The following fifteen psalms are called in our Authorized Version, Songs of Degrees (Vulgate, graduum, steps). For the origin of the title, Wordsworth, or Neal and Littledale on Ps. cxx. may be consulted.
[4924] Ps. cxxxiv. 1.
[4925] Numb. xxxiv. 15; Josh. xiv. 3.
[4926] Numb. xviii. 20.
[4927] Lev. xvi. 2; Heb. ix. 7.
[4928] Ex. xxviii. etc.
[4929] Numb. vii. 5.
[4930] Aristippus though the disciple of Socrates, taught that pleasure was the highest good.
[4931] Ps. cxx. 5.
[4932] Is. lxiii. 3.
[4933] S. John xix. 6, 15.
[4934] Jovinianus's doctrine is said to have influenced some who had taken a vow of virginity, to marry.
[4935] Virgil Æn. iv. 172.
[4936] Pythagoras asserted that he had once been the Trojan Euphorbus.
[4937] Is. iii. 16.
[4938] Jer. li. 6; vi. 14.
[4939] Jer. vii. 4; Ps. xiv. 4; liii. 4.
[4940] Jer. xxviii. 13.
[4941] That is, cælebs from cælum.
[4942] Jer. v. 8.
[4943] That is, Jove.
Against Vigilantius.
------------------------
Introduction.
Full details respecting Vigilantius, against whom this treatise, the result of a single night's labour, is directed, may be found in a work on "Vigilantius and His Times," published in 1844 by Dr. Gilly, canon of Durham. It will perhaps, however, assist the reader if we briefly remark that he was born about 370, at Calagurris, near Convenæ (Comminges), which was a station on the Roman road from Aquitaine to Spain. His father was probably the keeper of the inn, and Vigilantius appears to have been brought up to his father's business. He was of a studious character, and Sulpicius Severus, the ecclesiastical historian, who had estates in those parts, took him into his service, and, possibly, made him manager of his estates. Having been ordained he was introduced to Jerome (then living at Bethlehem, in 395) through Paulinus of Nola, who was the friend of Sulpicius Severus. After staying with Jerome for a considerable time he begged to be dismissed, and left in great haste without giving any reason. Returning to Gaul, he settled in his native country. Jerome hearing that he was spreading reports of him as favouring the views of Origen, and in other ways defaming him and his friends, wrote him a sharp letter of rebuke (Letter LXI.). The work of Vigilantius which drew from Jerome the following treatise was written in the year a.d. 406; not "hastily, under provocation such as he may have felt in leaving Bethlehem." but after the lapse of six or seven years. The points against which he argued as being superstitious are: (1) the reverence paid to the relics of holy men by carrying them round the church in costly vessels or silken wrappings to be kissed, and the prayers offered to the dead; (2) the late watchings at the basilicas of the martyrs, with their attendant scandals, the burning of numerous tapers. alleged miracles, etc.; (3) the sending of alms to Jerusalem, which, Vigilantius urged, had better be spent among the poor in each separate diocese, and the monkish vow of poverty; (4) the exaggerated estimate of virginity.
The bishop of the diocese, Exsuperius of Toulouse, was strongly in favour of the views of Vigilantius, and they began to spread widely. Complaints having reached Jerome through the presbyter Riparius, he at once expressed his indignation, and offered to answer in detail if the work of Vigilantius were sent to him. In 406 he received it through Sisinnius, who was bearing alms to the East. It has been truly said that this treatise has less of reason and more of abuse than any other which Jerome wrote. But in spite of this the author was followed by the chief ecclesiastics of the day, and the practices impugned by Vigilantius prevailed almost unchecked till the sixteenth century.
1. The world has given birth to many monsters; in [4944] Isaiah we read of centaurs and sirens, screech-owls and pelicans. Job, in mystic language, describes Leviathan and Behemoth; Cerberus and the birds of Stymphalus, the Erymanthian boar and the Nemean lion, the Chimæra and the many-headed Hydra, are told of in poetic fables. Virgil describes Cacus. Spain has produced Geryon, with his three bodies. Gaul alone has had no monsters, but has ever been rich in men of courage and great eloquence. All at once Vigilantius, or, more correctly, Dormitantius, has arisen, animated by an unclean spirit, to fight against the Spirit of Christ, and to deny that religious reverence is to be paid to the tombs of the martyrs. Vigils, he says, are to be condemned; Alleluia must never be sung except at Easter; continence is a heresy; chastity a hot-bed of lust. And as Euphorbus is said to have been born again in the person of Pythagoras, so in this fellow the corrupt mind of Jovinianus has arisen; so that in him, no less than in his predecessor, we are bound to meet the snares of the devil. The words may be justly applied to him: [4945] "Seed of evil-doers, prepare thy children for the slaughter because of the sins of thy father." Jovinianus, condemned by the authority of the Church of Rome, amidst pheasants and swine's flesh, breathed out, or rather belched out his spirit. And now this tavern-keeper of Calagurris, who, according to the name of his [4946] native village is a Quintilian, only dumb instead of eloquent, is [4947] mixing water with the wine. According to the trick which he knows of old, he is trying to blend his perfidious poison with the Catholic faith; he assails virginity and hates chastity; he revels with worldlings and declaims against the fasts of the saints; he plays the philosopher over his cups, and soothes himself with the sweet strains of psalmody, while he smacks his lips over his cheese-cakes; nor could he deign to listen to the songs of David and Jeduthun, and Asaph and the sons of Core, except at the banqueting table. This I have poured forth with more grief than amusement, for I cannot restrain myself and turn a deaf ear to the wrongs inflicted on apostles and martyrs.
2. Shameful to relate, there are bishops who are said to be associated with him in his wickedness--if at least they are to be called bishops--who ordain no deacons but such as have been previously married; who credit no celibate with chastity--nay, rather, who show clearly what measure of holiness of life they can claim by indulging in evil suspicions of all men, and, unless the candidates for ordination appear before them with pregnant wives, and infants wailing in the arms of their mothers, will not administer to them Christ's ordinance. What are the Churches of the East to do? What is to become of the Egyptian Churches and those belonging to the Apostolic Seat, which accept for the ministry only men who are virgins, or those who practice continency, or, if married, abandon their conjugal rights? Such is the teaching of Dormitantius, who throws the reins upon the neck of lust, and by his encouragement doubles the natural heat of the flesh, which in youth is mostly at boiling point, or rather slakes it by intercourse with women; so that there is nothing to separate us from swine, nothing wherein we differ from the brute creation, or from horses, respecting which it is written: [4948] "They were toward women like raging horses; everyone neighed after his neighbour's wife." This is that which the Holy Spirit says by the mouth of David: [4949] "Be ye not like horse and mule which have no understanding." And again respecting Dormitantius and his friends: [4950] "Bind the jaws of them who draw not near unto thee with bit and bridle."
3. But it is now time for us to adduce his own words and answer him in detail. For, possibly, in his malice, he may choose once more to misrepresent me, and say that I have trumped up a case for the sake of showing off my rhetorical and declamatory powers in combating it, like the letter [4951] which I wrote to Gaul, relating to a mother and daughter who were at variance. This little treatise, which I now dictate, is due to the reverend presbyters Riparius and Desiderius, who write that their parishes have been defiled by being in his neighbourhood, and have sent me, by our brother Sisinnius, the books which he vomited forth in a drunken fit. They also declare that some persons are found who, from their inclination to his vices, assent to his blasphemies. He is a barbarian both in speech and knowledge. His style is rude. He cannot defend even the truth; but, for the sake of laymen, and poor women, laden with sins, ever learning and never coming to a knowledge of the truth, I will spend upon his melancholy trifles a single night's labour, otherwise I shall seem to have treated with contempt the letters of the reverend persons who have entreated me to undertake the task.
4. He certainly well represents his race. Sprung from a set of brigands and persons collected together from all quarters (I mean those whom Cn. Pompey, after the conquest of Spain, when he was hastening to return for his triumph, brought down from the Pyrenees and gathered together into one town, whence the name of the city Convenæ [4952] ), he has carried on their brigand practices by his attack upon the Church of God. Like his ancestors the Vectones, the Arrabaci, and the Celtiberians, he makes his raids upon the churches of Gaul, not carrying the standard of the cross, but, on the contrary, the ensign of the devil. Pompey did just the same in the East. After overcoming the Cilician and Isaurian pirates and brigands, he founded a city, bearing his own name, between Cilicia and Isauria. That city, however, to this day, observes the ordinances of its ancestors, and no Dormitantius has arisen in it; but Gaul supports a native foe, and sees seated in the Church a man who has lost his head and who ought to be put in the strait-jacket which Hippocrates recommended. Among other blasphemies, he may be heard to say, "What need is there for you not only to pay such honour, not to say adoration, to the thing, whatever it may be, which you carry about in a little vessel and worship?" And again, in the same book, "Why do you kiss and adore a bit of powder wrapped up in a cloth?" And again, in the same book, "Under the cloak of religion we see what is all but a heathen ceremony introduced into the churches: while the sun is still shining, heaps of tapers are lighted, and everywhere a paltry bit of powder, wrapped up in a costly cloth, is kissed and worshipped. Great honour do men of this sort pay to the blessed martyrs, who, they think, are to be made glorious by trumpery tapers, when the Lamb who is in the midst of the throne, with all the brightness of His majesty, gives them light?"
5. Madman, who in the world ever adored the martyrs? who ever thought man was God? Did not [4953] Paul and Barnabas, when the people of Lycaonia thought them to be Jupiter and Mercury, and would have offered sacrifices to them, rend their clothes and declare they were men? Not that they were not better than Jupiter and Mercury, who were but men long ago dead, but because, under the mistaken ideas of the Gentiles, the honour due to God was being paid to them. And we read the same respecting Peter, who, when Cornelius wished to adore him, raised him by the hand, and said, [4954] "Stand up, for I also am a man." And have you the audacity to speak of "the mysterious something or other which you carry about in a little vessel and worship?" I want to know what it is that you call "something or other." Tell us more clearly (that there may be no restraint on your blasphemy) what you mean by the phrase "a bit of powder wrapped up in a costly cloth in a tiny vessel." It is nothing less than the relics of the martyrs which he is vexed to see covered with a costly veil, and not bound up with rags or hair-cloth, or thrown on the midden, so that Vigilantius alone in his drunken slumber may be worshipped. Are we, therefore guilty of sacrilege when we enter the basilicas of the Apostles? Was the Emperor Constantius I. guilty of sacrilege when he transferred the sacred relics of Andrew, Luke, and Timothy to Constantinople? In their presence the demons cry out, and the devils who dwell in Vigilantius confess that they feel the influence of the saints. And at the present day is the Emperor Arcadius guilty of sacrilege, who after so long a time has conveyed the bones of the blessed Samuel from Judea to Thrace? Are all the bishops to be considered not only sacrilegious, but silly into the bargain, because they carried that most worthless thing, dust and ashes, wrapped in silk in golden vessel? Are the people of all the Churches fools, because they went to meet the sacred relics, and welcomed them with as much joy as if they beheld a living prophet in the midst of them, so that there was one great swarm of people from Palestine to Chalcedon with one voice re-echoing the praises of Christ? They were forsooth, adoring Samuel and not Christ, whose Levite and prophet Samuel was. You show mistrust because you think only of the dead body, and therefore blaspheme. Read the Gospel-- [4955] "The God of Abraham, the God of Isaac, the God of Jacob: He is not the God of the dead, but of the living." If then they are alive, they are not, to use your expression, kept in honourable confinement.