Vigilantius and His Times
William Stephen Gilly
Number of quotes: 68
Book ID: 284 Page: 2/3
Section: 1A
The fourth century was a period of transition, {*} between the ascendancy of heathenism, and that of Christianity, in the Roman Empire: and, in the struggle for ascendancy, a lamentable compromise between right and wrong was often made on the part of proselytizing Christians. Recruits rather than converts were obtained for the ranks of the cross; and the frailties, the passions, and the imaginations of men began, at the expense of conscience and truth, to be enlisted in the service of the Church. Objects of worship were disguised and presented under forms more consonant with heathen, than with Gospel ideas of religion; rites similar to those of ancient mythology were introduced: and a breach was opened to every corruption.
Quote ID: 7192
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 284 Page: 3
Section: 1A,2D3B,4A
In fact, the close of the fourth century is the epoch from which we date the time, when, to use the words of bishop Van Mildert, ‘a system of Paganism was engrafted on Christianity;’ when the simplicity of the Gospel was sacrificed, in a fearful degree, to pious sophistries; and when the forms of the Pantheon were fatally introduced into the Christian sanctuary.{*}[Footnote *] These men, by taking the Greek philosophers to their assistance, in explaining the nature and genius of the Gospel, had unhappily turned religion into an art, and their successors the schoolmen, by framing a body of theology out of them, instead of searching for it from Scriptures, soon after turned into a trade. - Warburton
PJ note: Vigilantius, (fl. c. 400), the presbyter, celebrated as the author of a work no longer extant, against a number of Catholic practices, which called forth one of the most violent of St Jerome’s polemical treatises.
Quote ID: 7193
Time Periods: 345
Book ID: 284 Page: 4
Section: 3D
The chief, among “the wise and prudent” of that day, were falling into errors, which had gradually crept into the Church: and the religion, which was at first commended to the world by the simplicity and unbending holiness of its professors, was now promoted by sophistry and false reasoning. Ambrose, who was then at the height of his reputation in the western Church; and Jerome, who was consulted as an oracle, both in that and in the eastern Church; and, even Augustine himself gave their sanction to practices and opinions, at which “the stones would have cried out,” had all who professed to be guided by the Holy Scriptures, held their peace.
Quote ID: 7194
Time Periods: 45
Book ID: 284 Page: 5
Section: 1A
I. How did Christians get so grievously wrong in the fourth, fifth, and sixth centuries? By a succession of corruptions, and by a gradual departure from the Gospel of Jesus Christ.
Quote ID: 7195
Time Periods: 456
Book ID: 284 Page: 6
Section: 2A3
To collect the relics of the dead, to keep vigils at the tombs of the saints, to burn lights, and to hold assemblies over their ashes, might be very natural means of showing reverence and affection for the departed. But to what gross corruptions did not these things lead?
Quote ID: 7196
Time Periods: 45
Book ID: 284 Page: 6
Section: 2E2
To make vows of perpetual continence, and to drag out a life of self-denial and mortification, may be necessary and praiseworthy upon some occasions, but are celibacy and asceticism to be exalted, as they have been, above all Christian virtues?
Quote ID: 7197
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 284 Page: 7/8/9
Section: 2E1
Such were the doubts and reflections of Vigilantius. His scruples led to serious consideration and enquiry. He passed several years in travelling for the purpose of conferring with the pious and wise of different countries. He expended vast sums of money in the translation and circulation of Scripture. He visited churches, where resistance was made to the corruptions that prevailed in Rome and in the East. He “searched the Scriptures daily, whether those things were so.”. . . .
For this, he was denounced by some of his contemporaries, as an heretic; although he was never known to deny any of the vital truths of the Gospel, or to oppose himself to the apostolical discipline of the Church:
. . . .
He was raised from an humble station, and was introduced to the society of the learned and the good by Sulpicius Severus, and Paulinus of Nola, two of the very best men of the age, whose affection and friendship he never lost. In the first passage, where we find mention made of him by his opponent Jerome, he is called ‘The holy presbyter Vigilantius;’ and yet, when he undertook to protest against practices, which he regarded as superstitious and unscriptural, Jerome assailed him with every expression of contumely and rancour. {*} ‘Base-born tapster,’ ‘Madman,’ ‘Brute,’ Monster,’ ‘Possessed of an unclean spirit,’ these are specimens of the style in which the recluse of Bethlehem inveighed against the witness of Aquitain.
Pg, 127 -2E1- The father of Vigilantius was an inn-keeper, descended from one of those robbers, whom Pompey chased out of Spain. Jerome sneers at this ignoble parentage, and makes the pedigree and birth-place of Vigilantius the subject of his coarse jokes.
. . . .
And as to being born in an humble inn, there is one event, which might have induced a Christian writer to refrain from any expression of contempt on that score.
Quote ID: 7198
Time Periods: ?
Book ID: 284 Page: 137/138
Section: 2E2
But a blight was cast over the well-spent life of Sulpicius when that evil counsellor, Martin of Tours, persuaded him, that all his benevolent and pious actions would not enable him to escape the everlasting fire reserved for the wicked, unless he made for himself a Gehenna and Inferno {*} upon earth, by the practice of the most rigid penances. Under the influence of such baneful advice, Sulpicius began to convert a household of faith into a scene of the grossest superstition. He denied himself the necessaries of life; he exhausted his strength by long fastings and devotional exercises, which lasted through the greater part of the twenty-four hours of every day; he tore his body with scourges, and invented new modes of self-punishment. When these inflictions failed to bring him peace of mind, he redoubled his contributions to charitable purposes, and thought to purchase a sure interest in heaven by alms-deeds which exceeded all that he had done before. But he was still goaded on to make further sacrifices, and was exhorted never to be satisfied with himself until he had sold all and given to the poor. {*}. . . .
This proceeded from want of faith, and he resorted to the extremes of self-denial as a means of making satisfaction for his sins, because he did not place true reliance on, or feel security in his Saviour’s atonement. He did not look to his Redeemer for the full and entire expiation of his sins, but adopted the belief, that the ransom was incomplete without some sufferings of his own, and that the uttermost farthing of his debt to an inexorable God could not be paid, so long as he enjoyed one earthly comfort. {ᾠ}
Quote ID: 7199
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 284 Page: 139/140
Section: 2E2
The letter proceeds to informs us, that the display of grandeur, common in the mansions of persons of his rank, was not to be seen in that of Sulpicius. No festal halls were there, no rich tapestry, no gold and silver plate, but it was filled with multitudes of poor pilgrims, whilst he himself he himself occupied only a small corner of it. He treated his servants as if they were his companions, waiting upon them like a menial, and scarcely letting it appear that he was the head of the family. He considered his house as only lent to him, and endeavored to pay the hire of it to Jesus Christ, by the service he rendered to the poor for his sake. {*}Pastor John notes: John’s note: Wow!
Another letter of Paulinus, written long afterwards, describes the happy household of Sulpicius, made so by the constant amiability of their master; happy in every thing except the consciousness that the head of the family, who treated them more like his nearest relatives than his dependents, was himself tormented by a perpetual distrust of his own spiritual condition.
Pastor John notes: John’s note: Oh no!
Quote ID: 7200
Time Periods: 45
Book ID: 284 Page: 139
Section: 2E6
footnote * The letter of Paulinus, from which this extract is taken, contains a curious passage relating to the number 300. I transcribe it as a sample of the superstitions of the fourth century.‘It was not with a great number of soldiers, nor with armed legions, that this holy man (Abraham) triumphed over the princes, his enemies, but with only three hundred of his servants, that is to say, by the power of the cross, represented by the Greek letter T, which, in the arithmetic of the language, signified three hundred, and we may add that it was by the same power that the ark or Noah, floating on the waters, a type of Church in the world, was raised three hundred cubits above the earth’
This fanciful and mystic interpretation is ascribed originally to Barnabas. Tertullian, Ambrose, Augustine, and Gregory the Great, and several others, indulged in the same extravagant opinions of the hidden meaning of the Number 300, as represented by the Greek letter T. - See Rosweyd, Notes on the second Epistle of Paulinus.
Quote ID: 7201
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 284 Page: 141/142
Section: 2E2
‘Can that system be right, which perverts the understanding, inflames the imagination, and tortures the body and mind of such a man, as this generous master of mine? The dignified senator is urged to abandon his post of duty: the influential noble, whose pure and blameless life, in the midst of corrupt society, might preach Christianity with persuasive eloquence, and make converts every day, is told to shut himself up in a cell, and to hide his light under a bushel. The professed follower of Him, who promised refreshment and rest unto those, who should adopt his religion, is directed by his ghostly adviser Martin of Tours to place some new yoke upon his neck, heavy to carry, and hard to bear.’The more Vigilantius loved and reverenced Sulpicius, the more dissatisfied would he be, with the system, which never allowed a really pious man to be at rest in his conscience, but filled him with doubts and misgivings, as to the safety of his soul, so long as he indulged in the most innocent earthly enjoyments, and reserved any thing to be called his own out of his princely patrimony.
Quote ID: 7202
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 284 Page: 151
Section: 2E2
footnote *‘The garments of the monks were never changed or washed, but were worn until they dropped to pieces.’ - Hieron. in vita Hilar
Quote ID: 7203
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 284 Page: 151/152/153/154/155
Section: 2E2
Not a living being besides themselves appeared within the cell, and it was some time before Sulpicius could muster resolution to ask the saint with whom he had been holding discourse. At first Martin declined to make any reply, but after some importunity on the part of his interrogator, he consented to satisfy his curiosity, on condition that the secret should be disclosed to others. ‘I will tell you then,’ said the holy man, ‘Agnes and Thecla and Mary {*} have been with me.’ He then described their countenances and appearance of their raiment. He added that the apostles Peter and Paul {ᾠ} often favoured him with their presence, and that angels of light descended from heaven to converse with him; and the powers of darkness assailed him more virulently after these interviews with the glorified of the Lord, ‘Hark they are coming! but be not ye alarmed, I will put them to flight. I will rebuke them, and send them back to their accursed abodes. Belial, {‡} away! I fear the not, foul fiend, depart from me! Moloch, fire-demon, return to thine own place, - they burning breath, and the flames that issue from thy mouth, cannot scorch me! Lucifer thou art fallen, and I will not be carried with thee to the bottomless pit. Away, prince of this world! I am not Balaam, think not that you are to contend for my body, - I am not thy prey.’ Martin’s horrified visitors were half dead with terror, while the saint continued to accost and defy one demon after another by name, as if they were really assailing him, and his action corresponded with his words. His countenance expressed anger and disdain. Sometimes he rushed towards the door, as if he were driving the adversary before him, and then he would stand erect, and wave his hand with a commanding air, as if that movement only was sufficient to rid him of the intruder. This extraordinary scene continued for some time. It then seemed as if he was exposed to the attack of a new enemy, and that the heathen gods {*} were joining in the conflict. ‘Mercury!’ exclaimed the saint, ‘thinkest thou, that I do not know thee under that shape? Thy Proteus form is too familiar to me to be mistaken. Licentious messenger of uncleanness, thou art the most persevering of my foes: but away with thee! I am proof against thy malice. And thou too, once mighty Jove, thinkest thou that thy frowns have any terrors for Martin? They reign is over, thy forked lightenings cannot reach me; thy thunderbolt fall harmless at my feet; way to Pandemonium!’ {ᾠ}Pastor John’s Note: Demons. Madness.
. . . .
Here they passed the night, not in quiet and refreshing sleep, but harassed with dreams, and waking visions, in which they were haunted by the image of Martin, contending with the fiends and false gods, who, according to his disordered imagination, had been arrayed against him. The next day Sulpicius and Vigilantius made acquaintance with some of the monks, who had retired to this place, for the purposes of penitence and devotion. Many of them were men of noble birth, who had abandoned affluence and comfort, to put themselves under the guidance of the Bishop of Tours, and to submit implicitly to his rules.
. . . .
These Cenobites were divided into eight companies of ten each, {*} over whom one presided: for obedience and subjection were the great principles which bound them together. Until certain hours they remained alone, each shut up in his own cell, and none moved out except the chief of each class. At prescribed times they met together. Prayers were offered up, psalms were snug, and scripture was read. When they took their meals, by decades at the same table, not a word was spoken. Their food consisted of bread, vegetables and olives; salt was their only seasoning. After they retired to their solitary chambers or caverns for the night, the priors of each class went their rounds, and made their observations. They listened and inspected, and if the monks performed their devotions carelessly or infrequently, they were reported to Martin, who gently exhorted and rebuked them. Everything in the shape of recreation seemed to be banished from this society of ascetics; but they kept up a perpetual state of excitement by vying with each other who should fast the longest, - who should continue the most perseveringly in a painful posture of supplication, - who should devise a more uncomfortable and new texture of hair-cloth to irritate his skin, -who should relate the most extravagant vision, and who should come nearest to Martin in preternatural performances and pretensions.
Quote ID: 7204
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 284 Page: 156/157
Section: 2E2
The general effect produced upon the fraternity was “to believe a lie,” and to magnify everything into a miracle, until they worked themselves up into a pitch of absolute insanity. If one of them saw a distant object indistinctly in the gloom of the evening, or heard some strange noise amidst the wild roar of the tempest, which swept through the forest, and asked another what it could be, the answer was, “It is an angel of light come to strengthen us in our trials:” or, “It is a spirit of darkness sent to tempt, or to buffet us.” The inducement to exaggerate, to tell a tale of wonder, to see visions, and to dream dreams, became more and ore infectious.
Quote ID: 7205
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 284 Page: 159/160
Section: 2E2
The monk and the chafing-dish, Brictio and the incident which I have just now related, show how much Martin rose above his contemporaries in decorum and benevolence, while he was still far below the Gospel standard of truth and single-mindedness.
Quote ID: 7206
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 284 Page: 161/162
Section: 2E2
After his return home, the image of Martin haunted the sensitive historian: he was pursued by the recollection of the ascetic prelate sleeping on the cold earth, with nothing but ashes strewed beneath him, and covered with sackcloth only; refusing a softer bed, or warmer clothing, even in severe illness; declaring that a Christian ought to die on ashes; {*} feeding on the most unwholesome food, and denying himself every indulgence; praying in the most irksome posture, forcing sleep from his eyes, and exposing himself to the extremes of heat and cold, hunger and thirst.[Footnote *] Epist. Sulp. Sev. ad Bassulam.
Quote ID: 7207
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 284 Page: 162/163/164
Section: 2E2
The sackcloth and ashes, the exposure to cold, and hunger, and want of sleep, the sufferings imposed by way of penance, and the rejection of necessaries of life, which he saw carried to excess, implied a belief that the sacrifice of Christ was not a sufficient satisfaction for the sins of man; that man must therefore inflict some sufferings upon himself to supply the deficiency, to appease the unpropitiated wrath of God, and in a sense unknown to scripture, “to fill up what is behind the afflictions of Christ.” He perceived also in the second place, that Sulpicius, magnifying the merits of such as could inflict the severest sufferings upon themselves, and elevating them in his own mind to a rank far above any human example of holiness and virtue, yielded a blind faith to all they said and commanded. Hence his credulity on the subject of Martin’s professed miracles, and his obedience to that bishop’s rules of discipline. Because Martin had great powers of endurance, he must therefore be pre-eminently holy: and because he was pre-eminently holy, nothing that he related of his own performances could be considered incredible. Thus Vigilantius saw on one side vain-glorious exaltation, spiritual pride, and pretension to miraculous power; and on the other side, a false humility and prostration of the understanding, both growing out of the same mistaken system of asceticism: a system which underminded the doctrine of Christ’s full and sufficient sacrifice, an assigned and undue value to the inflictions and performances of men like Martin of Tours: and which he probably foresaw would in the end elevate them in the minds of weak brethren, to the mediatorial thrones, and render them little less than objects of divine worship.
Quote ID: 7208
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 284 Page: 165/166
Section: 2E2,4B
In the fourth century, intercourse by letters was not usually carried on by public means of conveyance, as it is now; but epistles were conveyed privately, at such opportunities as the occasional journeys of friends or domestics might offer. The same traveller was frequently the bearer of oral messages, and of written communications to many persons on the whole line of his route; and this gave him admission to houses, and the advantage of an hospitable reception from the beginning to the end of his journey. It was necessarily a confidential trust, and none were likely to be so employed, but those who were in every degree worthy of being admitted to the intimacy of the parties in correspondence.. . . .
It is in this character that Vigilantius next appears before us, in the year 394. He was sent by Sulpicius with a companion into Campania to Paulinus of Nola,...
Pastor John notes:
Quote ID: 7209
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 284 Page: 169/170
Section: 2E5
Paulinus had but lately fixed his residence at Nola, and was now having recourse, in a more marked degree than before, to those beguiling practices, which afterwards became the characteristics of the Latin Church; and proved so fatal in the end to the simplicity of the Gospel. Religious observances, transferred from Pagan altars to Christian shrines, were dignified with the name of honours due to the memory of a departed saint: and as the heroes of old were invoked by the ancestors of Paulinus, so did he himself substitute the name of Felix for that of Hercules or Quirinus, and implore the aid of a dead martyr, when no other name in prayer ought to have been upon his lips, than that of the one Mediator between God and man.2E5
Quote ID: 7210
Time Periods: 345
Book ID: 284 Page: 171
Section: 2E5
‘Shall I not have the pleasure of accompanying you to the shrine of my household saint, and shall we not thank God that we have been restored to each other by the interposition of St. Felix?’ {*}[Footnote *] Epist. Paul. I. ad Sulp.
Quote ID: 7211
Time Periods: 345
Book ID: 284 Page: 173
Section: 2E2
Of all this public homage, rendered to one of the most celebrated fathers of Christian idolatry, Vigilantius was witness. He loved the man, he heard him discourse, as sophists and fanatics can discourse, in honied accents, of the lawfulness of mixing up heathen rites with Christian observances, and yet his mind remained unpolluted.
Quote ID: 7212
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 284 Page: 175
Section: 2E2
Very different was its present appearance from that of the Roman palace, the ancient seat of his ancestors, wherein baths and banqueting halls, and spacious rooms for theatrical entertainments occupied the two stories, which were now converted into small cells and dormitories. One side of the building was set apart for his brother monks, and the other for the accommodation of his visitors, the worldly-minded people, as he called all those who did not adopt his own mode of living.Tugurium, or cottage, was the name he gave to the transformed villa. The ample pleasure-ground had also undergone an entire change; the fountains and statues had disappeared; the flowers, which emitted sweet odours, and shone in brilliant colours, were thought too luxurious for the senses of persons devoted to religion: an orchard, and a cabbage-garden were all that were reserved to regale a fraternity of the elect of God. {ᾠ}
Quote ID: 7213
Time Periods: 45
Book ID: 284 Page: 176
Section: 2E2
They rose at an appointed hour, and celebrated the office of matins at daybreak: at stated times they had daily services in the church, and every evening, vespers were performed with punctual regularity. At midnight there was also a call to prayer, which was obeyed by all who were in health. Paulinus would seldom allow himself to be so unwell as to be absent from the scene of nocturnal devotion.
Quote ID: 7214
Time Periods: 45
Book ID: 284 Page: 180
Section: 2E2
Paulinus proceeds to describe the bearing and appearance of those who reached his standard of excellence, and to compare them with the deportment and garb of such as he disliked. ‘I love to receive the visits of those who serve God as we do, and whose religious character is visible in their pallid faces,.... . . .
. . .but of those, who for the sake of holy deformity, wear their hair short and badly cut, . . . .who live in honourable disregard and neglect of the niceties of life: . . . .who purposely disfigure themselves, and suffer their faces to be haggard, that their hearts may be clean.
. . . .
. . .not from those whose heads reel under the fumes of wine, but of those on whom pious vigils have inflicted holy wounds, and caused a sober intoxication, and who stagger not from repletion, but from inanition. {*}
Quote ID: 7215
Time Periods: 45
Book ID: 284 Page: 183
Section: 2E2
In another letter {ᾠ} Paulinus mentions very pleasantly some instructions which Victor, who had been sent to him from Sulpicius, had given him for living with more simplicity and economy.. . . .
. . .that he never plagued himself about fire-wood, for he took and threw into the fire everything he found about the house, and for that purpose he would make no hesitation in uncovering the roof and tearing up the old planks. {§}
Quote ID: 7216
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 284 Page: 185
Section: 2E2
I have already produced an example of this contagious fanaticism in the case of Sulpicius, when he fancied he saw a demoniac suspended in the air, after he had been listening to some of Martin’s narrations; and now Vigilantius had a second opportunity of observing how a similar delusion affected Paulinus.
Quote ID: 7217
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 284 Page: 204
Section: 2E2
I cannot distinctly make out when Vigilantius was ordained priest. Gennadius, {*} who flourished about a century afterwards,.... . . .
. . .he was banished from Gaul, for writing against the corruptions of the church.
Quote ID: 7218
Time Periods: 45
Book ID: 284 Page: 205
Section: 2C
It was no uncommon thing for a bishop to confer orders on one of the dependents of a man eminent for his sanctity, at the request of the patron. We have an instance of this in one of Paulinus’ letters to Amandus. ‘I commend Marius, the bearer of this epistle, to your notice, and I beg that he may be ordained in your church, according to the tenor of a request which I have already made to my father, the holy bishop. I have affranchised this servant of mine, now our fellow-servant in the Lord, and have given him his liberty for the Lord’s sake.’
Quote ID: 7219
Time Periods: 45
Book ID: 284 Page: 217/218/219
Section: 2A3,2A5
The abuse which Paulinus endeavoured to remove, viz. banqueting in honour of a saint, was very common, (even according to the admission of Tillemont) in the Christian church, towards the close of the fourth century. Ambrose endeavoured to restrain it at Milan. Augustine did all in his power to banish it from his diocese, {ᾠ} and Jerome spoke of it with disgust, complaining that even some of the monastic order would gluttonously feast themselves at festivals, until their stomachs rejected the load of food which they had swallowed.But the misplaced indulgence, which led ecclesiastics of that period to be tender towards forms of heathenism, so long as they were disguised under a Christian mask, prevented their checking the evil with a high hand, and denouncing it with the severe voice of authority. Thus it was tolerated until it became a crying sin. Though it was unusual in those days to have representations of men and animals painted in churches, yet the profanation was introduced at Nola, under the vain hope that pictures would serve as instructors, and teach a purer morality to the peasants who got drunk in hounour of St. Felix.
. . . .
Such were the expedients of Paulinus to correct an evil, to which he had himself so largely contributed, by instilling into these poor rustics false notions of religion, and by drugging them into a state of feverish excitement; by making them drunk with the expectation of beholding miracles at the dead man’s bidding. It was his fatal dictation and example, which trained baptized Christians to idolatry, by teaching them to invocate and adore a departed saint, and to kneel before his tomb and his relics!
Quote ID: 7220
Time Periods: 24
Book ID: 284 Page: 222/223
Section: 2D3B,2E1
Holy writ declares that the use of false helps in religious services leads to all manner of abominations, that it is a snare, a temptation, and a stumbling-block, that it is the beginning of “fornication against God,” and that it ends in the deceived and deluded transgressors being delivered over to the severest judgments. “The Lord shall smite thee with madness and blindness, and astonishment of heart.” (Deut. xxviii. 28.) Vigilantius saw the literal fulfillment of this curse in the persons of Sulpicius and Paulinus; they both outlived the strength of their faculties and dwindled down to imbeciles; and the church, with the ecclesiastical system to which they belonged, has ended in forcing its members to worship the images, which at first it only commended to notice, as instructive objects, as memorials, and helps to devotion. At first the Latin Church only said to the dumb stone, ‘It shall teach;’ but now its language is, ‘I most firmly assert that the images of Christ, and of the mother of God ever virgin, and also of the other saints, are to be had and retained, and that due honour and veneration are to be given to them.’ {*}We may talk of the authority and the antiquity of the Fathers, but if authority is to be respected, what authority should weigh heavier with us than that of the apostolical age itself?
[Footnote *] Creed of Pope Pius IV.
2E1
PJ note: Pope Pius IV (31 March 1499 – 9 December 1565), born Giovanni Angelo Medici, was Pope from 25 December 1559 to his death in 1565.
Quote ID: 7221
Time Periods: 34
Book ID: 284 Page: 224
Section: 1A,2E1
I beg the reader to remember the anecdote related to Epiphanius, who avowed and justified his hasty destruction of a painted curtain hanging before a shrine, because it was ornamented with a picture of Jesus Christ, or of some saint, he cared not which. ‘I tore it down, and I rent it,’ said he, ‘because it presented to view the image of a man in a Church of Christ, contrary to the authority of Scriptures.’In another passage, speaking of the same profane use of pictures, Epiphanius declared, that it was contrary to the Christian religion: ‘contra religionem nostram.’ {ᾠ} The letter, addressed to John of Jerusalem, from which this account is taken, and in which Epiphanius protested that the use of images and pictures (for he expressly calls the picture of a man an image) is contrary to Scripture, and contrary to the Christian religion, was written in the year 396. It was the epistle of one bishop of the Christian Church to another; and yet at this very period, Paulinus was setting up images and pictures in his Church at Nola, and his authority for the practice has ever since been triumphantly appealed to by the Latin Church.
[Footnote *] Hier. Op. IV. 828.
Quote ID: 7222
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 284 Page: 231
Section: 2E2
Vigilantius, A.D. 396, was the bearer of a letter from Paulinus to Jerome, and this was the introduction which made him personally acquainted with the most extraordinary man of that age. Jerome was the terror of his contemporaries; the man above all others, who, in a mistaken attempt to do his duty to God, failed most signally in his duty towards men, unmindful of the Apostle’s words “If a man say, I love God, and hateth his brother, he is a liar,” {t &c.} The mortification of the flesh had tended to puff up his spirit, and of all the polemical writers of the 4th century, he was the most bitter and severe.
Quote ID: 7223
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 284 Page: 232/233/234
Section: 2E2
The glowing descriptions of Bethlehem and of the holy company of saints assembled there, which had been written by Jerome himself, and under Jerome’s direction by Paula and Eustochium, {*} and others, must have been known to the Gallic traveller, and made his heart warm not only to the place, but to those also who sojourned there. These were represented to be the choicest spirits of the age; the good, the learned, the pious, and the accomplished, who were drawn from all parts of the world in hope of becoming wiser, better, and more devout in Palestine.. . . .
. . .the hallowed localities of Judea were equally and even still more dear to Christians, who longed to be where the patriarchs and apostles had received inspiration from above.
. . . .
‘Their tongues are different, but they have only one form of religion. Here are choirs composed of all nations, and there is no speech nor language, in which the singers do not pour forth their sacred melodies. In the midst of Christianity, there is no assumption of superiority, no supercilious pride which says, “I am more continent than thou.” The only contention is who shall be the humblest. The last is the first. No distinction of dress is seen here; no admiration is expressed; do as you will, you will neither be censured nor praised. The excess of fasting will not raise you in the estimation of others; no deference is paid to exhaustion after long abstinence, {*} and temperate satiety is not condemned. To his own Master every one standeth or falleth: no one judgeth another, lest he be judged of God. The slander and gossip which are common to other countries are totally unknown here. There is no luxury, no indulgence; on the contrary there are so many shrines and oratories, that you cannot offer up your devotions at them all in one day.’ {ᾠ}
This beautiful picture of harmony and peace was drawn about six years before Vigilantius visited Bethlehem; but the visions of Christian loveliness and charity, which had floated before his eyes during his journey, were chased away by his eyes during his journey, were chased away by coming into collision with persons, who tempers had been soured, and whose good dispositions had been perverted by the very expedients adopted as the safeguards of virtue.
Quote ID: 7224
Time Periods: 45
Book ID: 284 Page: 235/236/237/238
Section: 2E2
The aspect of Bethlehem on entering the village was that of holy ground. Every building seemed dedicated to religion, and Vigilantius saw at a glance that it would require many hours to visit the churches, and shrines, and monasteries, which presented themselves before him.{‡} The grove of Adonis and the temple of Venus no longer desecrated this hallowed ground; the cross now stood where emblems of impurity had been erected by the Emperor Hadrian. {*}A narrow bye path leading off from the street, at the spot where the tomb of King Archelaus formerly stood, conducted the traveller to the cell of Jerome; here he found the ascetic clad in a vestment of coarse and sordid, {ᾠ} that its very vileness bore the stamp of spiritual pride, and seemed to say, “Stand off, my wearer is holier than thou.” The face of the monk was pale and haggard. He had been slowly recovering from a severe illness, and was wasted to a shadow. Frequent tears had ploughed his cheeks with deep furrows; {‡} his eyes were sunk in their sockets; all the bones of his face were sharp and projecting. Long fasting habitual mortification, and the chagrin which perpetual disputation occasions, had given an air of gloominess to his countenance, which accorded but ill with his boast, that his cell to him was like an arbour in the garden of Eden. In conformity with his own maxims, that cleanliness of body is uncleanliness of soul, and that an unwashed skin is preferable to frequent ablutions, Jerome’s person exhibited proofs of his utter disregard of Christ’s precept, “but thou, when thou fastest, anoint thine head and wash they face, that thou appear not unto men to fast, but unto they Father which is in secret.” He was discouloured with dust and ashes, and the Pharisee of old was not more ostentatious of his cleanliness than was our recluse of his sordid apparel and dirty exterior.
. . . .
After the first salutations were over, Vigilantius was given to understand that he ought to lose no time in adoring the holy relics, which the highly favoured village offered to his notice, and he observed that the monk scarcely uttered a sentence, or gave him a direction without making the sign of the cross. {*}
Quote ID: 8172
Time Periods: 45
Book ID: 284 Page: 248
Section: 2E2
When Crates, the rich Theban, went to Athens to learn philosophy, he flung away all his gold, because he thought that he could not be rich and virtuous at the same time. Shall we then imagine that we can follow the poor and lowly Jesus, whilst we are encumbered with gold; and and under the pretext of alms-giving shall we cling to our wealth; and shall we think to dispense faithfully what belongs to another, when we cautiously reserve to ourselves our own?’Pastor John notes: John’s Note: Where did this quote come from? Heir. Op. 4. p. 563-6.?
Quote ID: 7225
Time Periods: 0
Book ID: 284 Page: 250
Section: 2E3
Another suspicion also crossed the young Presbyter’s mind, viz. that, after all, Palestine was no longer the holy ground which Jerome himself had represented it to be; that pilgrimages thither were not so very desirable;
Quote ID: 7226
Time Periods: 5
Book ID: 284 Page: 253
Section: 2E2
Vigilantius knew well that Jerome never failed to repeat the appointed hymns or prayers at canonical hours: at daybreak, and evening, as well as at the third, sixth, and ninth hours; that he rose two or three times during the night to pray, and that he would neither touch a morsel of food, nor go out of, nor return into, his cell, without repeating his prayer; {‡} and yet he could not perceive in Jerome either “love, joy, peace, long-suffering, gentleness, or meekness.” These are “the fruits of the Spirit,” and the failure of them, when they were expected to be the production of excessive attention to burdensome Church ordinances, and to stated forms and hours of devotion, which wearied rather than strengthened the soul, exposed the defectiveness of the system.
Quote ID: 7227
Time Periods: 45
Book ID: 284 Page: 254/255
Section: 2E2
Another controversial writer had given offence to our great advocate of continency, by arguing, that the Virgin Mary had borne children to Joseph after the birth of Christ. ‘Blasphemer’ - ‘blinded with fury’ - ‘madman’ - ‘most ignorant and stupid of men’ - ‘detractor and liar’ - ‘doglike calumniator,’ these were a few of the select phrases, which Jerome did not hesitate to apply to him in vindication of the perpetual virginity of the mother of Jesus. {*}[Footnote *] See Liber adversus Helvidium. Hier. Op. 4. p. ii. p. 129.
Quote ID: 7228
Time Periods: 45
Book ID: 284 Page: 255/256
Section: 2E2
He thinks that if such devotion were the devotion of the heart, it would have a corresponding influence on the character and conversation; and when he sees contrary results, he pronounces it to be nothing but that lip-service, which is unacceptable to God; and he judges of its general tendency by the effects produced on the individuals, with whom he is most familiar. It is impossible not to remark, in the history of Vigilantius, that he began to declare himself against the ecclesiastical system, which distinguished this period, very soon after his visit to Jerome, having failed to do so with the same openness and emphasis, during his familiar intercourse with Sulpicius and Paulinus.. . . .
While St. Paul was a Pharisee, and partook of the harshness and bigotry of that sect, he was fierce and unrelenting, but when he embraced the Gospel and understood its true spirit, he became pre-eminent for benevolence. He was gentle among his converts “as a nurse cherisheth her children.” (1 Thess. ii. 7.) He besought them “by the meekness and gentleness of Christ.” How unlike to St. Paul’s was the unhallowed and intemperate zeal of Jerome!
Quote ID: 7229
Time Periods: 45
Book ID: 284 Page: 259/260/261
Section: 2E2
Jerome. There are many mistakes about David in consequence of a misconstruction of Scripture. The history of Abishag, the fair damsel, the young virgin who cherished the king and ministered to him, is totally misunderstood.. . . .
The word Abishag is to be understood sacramentally, and indicates superior wisdom of old men. It signifies that wisdom which is peculiarly great in aged men. {*} It was wisdom which David embraced, and which cherished him, and not literally a fair young damsel.
Pastor John notes: John’s note: Wow!
Christ a virgin and Mary a virgin commended the principle of virginity to both sexes. {*} The Apostles were virgins, or were celibates after marriage. Bishops, priests, and deacons are elected because they are virgins or widowers; or certainly it is understood that after being ordained to the priesthood, they are always to remain celibates. Why are we to deceive ourselves or to be disappointed? if we enjoy the pleasures of matrimony, are we to expect to reap the rewards of continency? {ᾠ}
. . . .
According to my judgment we must follow either Lazarus or the rich man.’ {*} ‘But I do not condemn either nuptials or conjugal union; and that you may know my real opinion, I tell you that I would advise every body to marry, who is afraid to sleep alone.’ {ᾠ}
It was thus that Jerome, aware of the inconsistency of his own reasoning, by perversion or straining of scripture, by a paradox or a sorry joke, attempted to make a good case out of a bad one.
Quote ID: 7230
Time Periods: 45
Book ID: 284 Page: 266/267/268/269/270
Section: 1A,2D3B,3D
Page: 266Unhappily, for the Christian church, while Jerome talked of renouncing heathen literature, he taught and employed those unworthy artifices of rhetoric and disputation, which were learnt in the schools of heathen philosophy, {ᾠ} to the detriment of Christian simplicity and morality. Thus in his Epistle to Pammachius, in defence of his Treatsie against Jovinian, {‡} he appeals to the practice of Socrates, Demosthenes, Cicero, Plato, Theophrastus, Xenophon, Aristotle, and others, all of whom, as he said, at times spoke one thing while they meant another, and proposed things probable rather than true to secure a victory.
4A
. . . .
Page: 267
‘Read St. Paul’s Epistles,’ says he, ‘especially those to the Romans, the Galatians, and the Ephesians, in which he enters with all his energies into a controversy, and you will see what sort of use he makes of the contents or the Old Testament; and with what artifice, and prudence and dissimulation he wields his arguments. {*}
[Footnote *] Quam artifex, quam prudens, quam dissumulator sit ejus quod afit.’ - Hier. Op. 4. pars il. p. 236
In his Commentary {ᾠ} on the Epistle to the Galatians, the unscrupulous monk goes still farther, and argues that St. Paul did not rebuke Peter because he really thought him deserving of reprehension; but by ‘a new mode of controversy,’ {‡} to edify the Gentiles, he pretended to reprove Peter in order that ‘hypocrisy might be corrected by hypocrisy.’ {§}
4A
Pages 268-270:
This unworthy practice has been rightly called ‘Falsitas Dispensativa,’ fraudulent management, or license to conceal the truth, or to use falsehood as circumstances may require; and it has been vindicated and followed by the admirers of patristical antiquity in a manner which shews too plainly, that there is a proneness in the human mind, under fanatical excitement, to ‘believe a lie.’
It was this ‘Falsitas Dispensativa,’ which enabled Jerome and his contemporaries to build up that structure called the church of the fourth century, so unlike ‘The holy temple of the Lord fitly framed together on the foundation of the apostles and prophets.’ False miracles, {*p.268} dreams related in terms which led the hearers to suppose they were realities; scriptural verities withheld, under the pretext that they were too strong for weak brethren; church ordinance pronounced to be sacraments, when they were only of human authority; texts of scripture misapplied, wrested and perverted, to suit the occasion; allegories treated as facts; opinions expressed in terms of such ambiguity as would admit of retraction or confirmation, of blowing hot or cold, in the progress of development: these were the artifices and ‘the sleight of men,’ who had a system of their own to uphold, and who forgot that the fabric which has not truth for its basis, cannot be ‘an habitation of God through the Spirit.{*p.269}
Such were the corruptions, and the sad errors of many of the contemporaries of Vigilantius, over which good men mourn, and bad men exult. It is painful to have to record such instances of human infirmity, which are in reality so many proofs of want of faith. Had the fathers of the fourth century trusted more implicitly to the great head of the church to sustain his own cause, with his own right hand, they would not have had recourse to such miserable expedients. And if ‘churchmen’ of the present day would not take such pains to exalt ‘the church of the fathers’ above that of the existing generation, we should not be under the necessity of raking up the sins of past ages.
[Footnote *p.268] How can we rely on any of the patristical miracles, or any testimony of the Fathers as to the miracles of the fourth century, if they felt themselves at liberty to trifle with the truth for the promotion of the Gospel?
[Footnote *p.269] One of the most seductive arguments of infidelity grounds itself on the numerous passages in the works of the Christian Fathers, asserting the lawfulness of deceit for a good purpose. That the Fathers held, almost without exception, that, “Wholly without breach of duty, it is allowed to the teachers and heads of the Christian Church to employ artifices, to intermix falsehoods with truths, and especially to deceive enemies of the faith, provided only they hereby serve the interest of the truth and the advantage of mankind,” is the unwilling confession of Ribof.’ - (Program. de (Economia Partrum.) ‘St. Jerome, as is shown by the citations of this learned theologian, boldly attributes this management, ‘falsitatem dispensativam,’ even to the apostles themselves. But why speak I of the advantage given to the opponents of Christianity? Alas! to this doctrine chiefly, and to the practices derived from it, must we attribute the utter corruption of the religion itself for so many ages, and even now over so large a portion of the civilized world. By a system of accommodating truth to falsehood, the pastors of the church gradually changed the life and light of the Gospel into the very superstitions which they were commissioned to disperse, and thus paganised Christianity, in order to christen paganism. At this very hour Europe groans and bleeds in consequence.’ - Coleridge’s Fifth Essay in “The Friend,” vol.i.
4A
Quote ID: 7231
Time Periods: 45
Book ID: 284 Page: 272
Section: 2D3B,3D
Above all we feel it a sacred duty to show that those times, so far from being ‘the holy and the happy times,’ {*} on which we are to look back with regret, did exhibit a want both of holiness and happiness amid the very scenes, where we are directed to seek for a spiritual paradise: and we are also bound to vindicate the character, and explain the mental progress, of a calumniated professor of Christianity like Vigilantius, who afterwards protested against proceedings, of the evil of which he had been an eye-witness.
Quote ID: 7232
Time Periods: 345
Book ID: 284 Page: 276/277
Section: 2E2
But many things that he witnessed there tended to make him question the wisdom and expediency of a system, which seemed to sour the spirit more and more, to render men and women insensible to all the social duties of life, to extinguish human sympathy, and to harden hearts against natural affection. For example; the praise of Paula, mother of Eustochium, and impiously called by Jerome, the mother-in-law of God, {*} who had shut up her bosom against the feelings of a parent, was a favorite topic with the monks and sisterhood of Bethlehem. Paula had immortalized herself in their eyes, {ᾠ} by saying farewell for ever to her children, without shedding a tear, or betraying the least emotion. The passage in Jerome, which describes this scene, is thought to be one of considerable beauty. It is poetical and dramatic, but the condition of mind which it pourtrays is well described by the apostle, - “without natural affection.”. . . .
He saw in the occurrences which I am about to notice, which were still matters of discussion when he was in palestine, that the professed recluse was the last person to submit to ecclesiastical authority, when it was exercised against his inclination.
Quote ID: 7233
Time Periods: 45
Book ID: 284 Page: 277/278
Section: 2E2
It does not clearly appear whether John, then bishop of Jerusalem, refused to admit Paulinianus to the priesthood; but it is certain that Epiphanius, bishop of Salamis, ordained him, and thus gave offence to the prelate into whose diocese the irregularly-ordained priest was to be intruded. In aggravation of this uncanonical proceeding, Paulinianus himself was unwilling to be thus thrust into the priesthood; he pleaded his unfitness for the sacred office, and when he would have have solemnly repeated his remonstrance at the altar, his mouth was stopped, and after his ordination he was forcibly led to the priest’s stall, and compelled to take his seat there. Here then we have a priest ordained without his own free consent, ordained without a parochial charge, receiving imposition of hands from a bishop who had no authority to ordain him to to a monastery at Bethlehem. Implicated in all these proceedings was Jerome.Pastor John notes:
Quote ID: 7234
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 284 Page: 283
Section: 2E5
Here Jerome expressly repudiates the thought of adoring, that is, of praying to, beatified spirits, be they angels or martyrs. But Paulinus, as I have shown (pp. 79, 83, 87), did pray to a deceased martyr, to St. Felix; and the Roman church has since decided in council that the saints are to be invoked in prayer.
Quote ID: 7241
Time Periods: 3457
Book ID: 284 Page: 284
Section: 2D
The celibacy of the clergy was one of the points contested by Vigilantius, and submitted by the bishop of Thoulouse to the consideration of the Roman pontiff, who expressed himself to this effect, ‘The married priests and deacons who still live with their wives should be deposed from their offices, unless they consent to live in continence for the future.’ {§} Innocent referred to a decretal of Pope Siricius, issued twenty years before, and speaks of those who might yet be in ignorance of the ordinance against married clergy. Thus it is that incidental passages, in the writings and decretals of the fourth and fifth centuries, let out the fact, that the yoke of celibacy was a recent imposition of episcopal authority, and not an enactment of the primitive church.
Quote ID: 7242
Time Periods: 45
Book ID: 284 Page: 290
Section: 5B
The works of Origen contain doctrinal errors, which are summed up under eight heads.1. That the Son of God does not see the Father, and the Holy Ghost does not see the Son.
2. That the souls of men were once angels in heaven, and were committed to mortal bodies, as a punishment for their sins.
3. That Satan and the fallen angels will repent, and will be permitted to reign with the saints in heaven.
4. That Adam and Eve were incorporeal before the fall, and that the skins, wherein they were said to be clothed, were their bodies.
5. That man will not rise in the body.
6. That the paradise on earth was only allegorical of heaven.
7. That the waters above the firmament were angels; and the waters below were evil spirits.
8. That the image of God in man was effaced by sin.
Quote ID: 7235
Time Periods: 23
Book ID: 284 Page: 291
Section: 2E2
The author, whom I have just cited Tillemont, with all his tenderness for Jerome, speaks thus of the quarrel between our monk and his antagonists, “It is provoking that St. Jerome himself acknowledges that he separated himself from the communion of his bishop, without knowing if he were culpable, without any judgment having been pronounced against him, and on a mere suspicion founded on an accusation made by St. Epiphanius, who, however holy he might be, did not always sufficiently consider what he did, and what he said. And he acted afterwards, with regard to St. John Chrysostom, nearly in the same manner in which he had acted towards John of Jerusalem. {*}[Footnote *] Tillemont, tom. xxi. p. 185.
Quote ID: 7236
Time Periods: 45
Book ID: 284 Page: 324
Section: 2E2
Some years before, Ambrose, Bishop of Milan, had complained that the secluded parts of his patriarchate contained clergy who refused on the plea of ancient custom to submit to the yoke of celibacy. {*} The treatise against Vigilantius, written by Jerome in 406, contains this apostrophe, so remarkable for its extravagance and exaggeration.‘Shame upon them! He is said to have bishops the accomplices of his crime, if they can be called bishops who ordain none deacons but such as are married, and who will not give the sacraments of Christ unless they see the wives of the clergy pregnant, or that they have children crying in their mother’s arms.’ {ᾠ}
Quote ID: 7237
Time Periods: 45
Book ID: 284 Page: 325/329/334
Section: 2E2
The advocates of Romish dogmas have often been forward in declaring that the heresies of Vigilantius were the seeds of subalpine nonconformity. In the ninth century it was put on record by Jonas of Orleans and Dungalus, that the false teaching of Vigilantius still found scholars ready to receive it in parts of the subalpine diocese of Claude, Bishop of Turin; {*} and both Jonas and Dungalus attribute the Iconoclastic proceedings of Claude to the example of Vigilantius.. . . .
This then was the exact course that Vigilantius would take in his journey across the Alps to the foot of the Pyrenees, and when he entered the pass he was in the midst of the valleys now called Perosa and Pragelas; and this road led him through places which have long been famous in Waldensian history, viz. Pignerol and Fenestrelle, on the Italian side of the Alps, and Briancon and Embrun, on the French side. Here are those mountain-recesses, where King Cottius found safety, when other chiefs were subdued by the power of pagan Rome; and here are the fastnesses where the people of God have since been sheltered from the tyranny of papal Rome.
. . . .
Whether the Gallic presbyter declaimed there on his way to Aquitain, or in the course of his visits to the Alpine churches at some subsequent period, there is reason to believe that he went among them, expecting to find persons who help opinions similar to his own: and Romish polemics have taken great pains to brand the doctrines since taught in these mountains with the name of the Vigilantian heresy.
But how long he remained in this province, on his way home, is a question to which we have no clue to guide us. We only know that he returned into his own country after the voyage and journey which took place in 397, and then devoted himself to the study of those subjects on which he and Jerome were at variance.
Quote ID: 7238
Time Periods: 457
Book ID: 284 Page: 367/368
Section: 2E2
Many of the laics, who were religiously disposed, but who had no spiritual guidance to keep them in the right way, separated themselves from their domestic and social ties, put away their wives, abandoned their children, and professing a new kind of abstinence, occasioned great scandal to the name of Christianity.
Quote ID: 7239
Time Periods: 45
Book ID: 284 Page: 372
Section: 2D3B,3D
When the destroying armies of the Goths and Vandals were ravaging Christian Europe, and sparing the house neither of God nor man, the enemies of the gospel said, that they were executing the judgments of heaven upon the professors of a false religion.. . . .
Salvian’s argument, therefore, was, that God vindicated his justice in the punishment of unworthy Christians. Mine is, that God at the same time vindicated his mercy, by raising up witnesses of his truth. Among these was Vigilantius, and though we read of him only as one who was held up to hatred for protesting and reasoning against the follies of a system, which produced laxity of morals, and shut up the great majority of professing Christians in ignorance of the pure doctrines of the gospel, yet in spite of the obloquy cast upon him, I believe that he was leading a virtuous and holy life, and that he was not merely remonstrating against error, but was actively promoting godliness.
Quote ID: 7240
Time Periods: 345
Book ID: 284 Page: 387
Section: 2E2
Riparius and Desiderius, two priests, who were officiating in parishes adjoining to that in which Vigilantius was residing, drew up an account of what was going on, and represented that the whole vicinity was in commotion; -that their own people were infected by the mischievous doctrines of the Reformer; - and that there were many who not only favoured him, but agreed with him in what they called his blasphemous declamations against the observances of Church.
Quote ID: 7243
Time Periods: 45
Book ID: 284 Page: 425/426/427
Section: 2E2
But Jerome, instead of setting bounds to his fury, rushed into the very thick of falsehood and calumny, and adopted the same mode of attack which the heathen accusers practised against the early Christians. This has been the artifice of persecutors at all times: they attempt to stifle reformers by making them objects of abhorrence, and by imputing scandalous immorality to them.. . . .
But inasmuch as Jerome did not fortify his charges by one single explanatory testimony, we may pronounce them to be nothing more than the basest slander, and dismiss them with the indignant protest of Tertullian. ‘When others were accused, you demand in corroboration of the acts, the number of the perpetrators, the place, manner, time, accomplice, companions. In our case no precaution of this kind is taken, though it is equally right that whatever is asserted should be thoroughly sifted.’ {*}
. . . .
Two years before, one bishop only is mentioned, as acquiescing in opinion with the reformer on the subject of clerical celibacy and other innovations. That bishop, indeed, was his own diocesan, and very probably the exemplary Exuperius. But now we learn that many more had declared themselves in his favour. . . During the first three centuries no vows of continence had been exacted {ᾠ} as a condition of ordination. The ecclesiastical law, {‡} which constrained bishops, priests, and deacons to surrender their nuptial privileges, was not inserted among the inviolable papal decrees, until after the middle of the fourth century, although it must be admitted that it had previously become a custo? of the church, from the time of Cyprian, to denounce clerical marriages as impure and unholy.
Quote ID: 7244
Time Periods: 45
Book ID: 284 Page: 428/429
Section: 2A6
‘He invaded the churches of Gaul,’ said Jerome, ‘and instead of the standard of the cross he carried the banner of the devil.’ Such is the monk’s language to express our presbyter’s honest attempt to remove superstitious rites and observances-‘the very master-piece of Satan’ -from the church, and to restore the ensign of the gospel of Christ. . .
Quote ID: 7245
Time Periods: 45
Book ID: 284 Page: 429
Section: 2E2
Riparius and Desiderius, despairing of any opposition to him on the part of the Gallic bishops, implored Jerome to take up the matter, and to put down the troublesome reformer. The fact, of calling on a champion in the East to vindicate the cause of the corrupt church against its impugners in the West, is of itself a proof that Vigilantius and his doctrine were in favour from the Pyrenees to the Alps.
Quote ID: 7246
Time Periods: 45
Book ID: 284 Page: 433/434
Section: 2E2
At the end of this paragraph, he argues that the veneration of the relics of Samuel, which had just been translated with so much solemnity by the emperor Arcadius from Palestine to Thrace, was not to be regarded as any adoration of Samuel. Vigilantius, wiser than he, denounced the custom, as one which was sure to lead to the superstition which Jerome disclaimed. The result has proved two things that Vigilantius had the eyes of his understanding opened, to see the tendency of the corruptions of the ecclesiastical system of the fourth century-. . . .
He utterly denied that such was the practice of the church. But the times arrived, first, when a council of the church, the second Council of Nice, ruled, that ‘the bones, ashes, blood, and sepulchres of the martyrs ought to be adored;’ and afterwards, when a council of still greater authority, the Council of Trent, pronounced, that the decrees of the relic-adoring and saint-worshipping synod of Nice were binding on all Christians.
Quote ID: 7247
Time Periods: 47
Book ID: 284 Page: 438
Section: 2E2
Jerome denied that candles were lighted in the day-time, during religious services, for the reasons assigned by Vigilantius: but assuredly the practice was becoming common, {*} and justified the warning voice of Vigilantius, who protested against adopting any customs of the kind in imitation of idolatrous worship.
Quote ID: 7248
Time Periods: 4
Book ID: 284 Page: 456
Section: 1A
An unbroken line of clergy and doctors of the visible church avowing similar opinions, from generation to generation, has not yet been satisfactorily traced, because when power and literature were in the hands of the dominant but erring church, the voices of remonstants were silenced, and their writings suppressed.
Quote ID: 7249
Time Periods: 12
Book ID: 284 Page: 456/457/458
Section: 1A,2D3B,3D
Until the hidden treasures of manuscript collections are fully brought to light, we must be satisfied with such statements as the following, by a distinguished ecclesiastical scholar, with whom I have the misfortune to differ on some subjects, but whose critical investigations have directed public attention to many points, which might have escaped notice; and have made me, for one, more cautious in the examination and use of authorities than I might otherwise have been.‘I have just said that if any papist should tell me that our religion was not to be found before the time of Calvin and Luther, I should be satisfied to answer him according to his folly; but I would by no means be understood to admit the truth of this statement, for I believe it to be as false as it is foolish; and feel no doubt, that, in the darkest age, there were many true, and accepted, worshippers of God. Not formed into churches, and eminently bearing their testimony in corporate capacities as churches, against the see of Rome, (for then I think we should have heard more about them); but as the sheep of Christ dispersed abroad in the midst of this naughty world - known, perhaps, by this or that name of reproach; or, perhaps, the obscure and unknown, whose names were never written any where but in heaven. I doubt not that there were such, living a life of faith, and prayer, and communion with God; overlooked in the bustle of cities, and the solitude of cottages, and even shut up in what modern systems require us to consider as the strongholds of antichrist, - the cell, and the cloister.
. . . .
● ‘Facts and Documents relating to the Ancient Albigenses and Waldenses,’ by the Rev. S. R. Maitland, page 45. Since this passage was transcribed for the press, I find that it has been the subject of allusion in Mr. Elliott’s ‘Horoe Apocalyptica,’ a work which will deservedly command as much attention as any which has been published during the present century. ‘I fully agree,’ says Mr. Elliott, ‘with the sentiment so beautifully expressed by Mr. Maitland, in his book on the Waldeneses, as to the piety of many tonsured monk, &c., only with this difference, that he would range them among the Witnesses, I among the members of the Church hidden in the wilderness,’ vol. ii. p. 815.
Quote ID: 7250
Time Periods: 345
Book ID: 284 Page: 459
Section: 2E2
* I will state the case of Vigilantius, in the language of a writer who has shown him no favour. ‘He taught that those who reverenced relics were idolaters; that continence and celibacy were wrong, as leading to the worst scandals; that lighting candles in the churches during the day, in honour of martyrs, was wrong, as being a heathen rite; that apostles and martyrs had no presence at their tombs; that it was useless to pray for the dead; that it was better to keep wealth and practise habitual charity, than to strip one’s self of one’s property once for all, and that it was wrong to retire into the desert.’ (See ‘Church of the Fathers,’ p. 288.) The author proceeds to say, - ‘We know what Vigilantius (with Aerius and Jovinian) protested against, but not what he protested for.’
Quote ID: 7251
Time Periods: 45
Book ID: 284 Page: 460
Section: 2E2
The author of Ancient Christianity observes, that Vigilantius does not appear to have understood the secret reasons for the errors he denounced, and that he knew not how to lay the axe to the root of the superstitions of his times, by insisting upon those great principles of Christianity, which when understood, exclude “these follies in a mass.”*Pastor John notes: John’s Note - His works are lost (or destroyed)!! We cannot know.
Quote ID: 7252
Time Periods: 45
Book ID: 284 Page: 462
Section: 2D3B,3D
Because all Christendom was enslaved by the corruptions preached by the more eminent doctors of the church, and ‘the dominant spirit of the times may be estimated by the language of wrath, bitterness, contempt, and abhorrence with which Jerome assailed him’ {ᾠ} - I am using the language of Mr. Milman; for this very reason, I am persuaded that Vigilantius, who spoke and wrote as a believer, not as a scorner, had humbly gone to the divine oracles, and had there inquired of God after the right way, before he presumed to encounter the spirit of his age.
Quote ID: 7253
Time Periods: 345
Book ID: 284 Page: 467
Section: 2D3B,3D
The apostasy of the professing church was in its full career at the latter end of the fourth century -that eventful century, ‘which set in storms,’ ecclesiastical and political. This apostasy was exhibited in the admission of profligate and irreligious persons into the ranks of the cross, who were received on worldly motives because of their wealth of influence, when they were notoriously defective in repentance and faith, and gave no earnest of the conversion of their hearts: in the corruption of the holy sacraments...
Quote ID: 7254
Time Periods: 345
Book ID: 284 Page: 469
Section: 2E2
For this he was denounced as a heretic, ‘whose tongues ought to be cut out, and torn into morsels and shreds.’ And Jerome, not satisfied with this denunciation, urged the bishop of the diocese in which Vigilantius officiated, ‘to dash him in pieces with his apostolic rod, his rod of iron, and to deliver him for the destruction of the flesh, that the spirit might be saved.’ There can be no doubt that Jerome desired to see the secular arm raised against the Gallic reformer, as it had been, a few years before, against the Priscillianists; for, in his letter to Riparius, he quoted several scriptural examples of death inflicted on the sacrilegious, and applied them to the case of Vigilantius.Pastor John notes: John’s note: Good grief!
Quote ID: 7255
Time Periods: 45
Book ID: 284 Page: 469/470
Section: 2E2
The war had begun, between infallible authority and the right of religious inquiry -the exercise of reason, conscience, and faith. The argument rested no longer on the word of God, but on the will of the church, as interpreted by individuals, and on the production of miracles in support of their interpretation. Vigilantius was not to question the propriety of that which a dominant party in the church propounded. He was to be branded as a blasphemer, and to be delivered over to the secular arm for punishment, because he presumed to say that the practices of certain ecclesiastical leaders were more consistent with paganism than the gospel.. . . .
The result of Jerome’s attempt to silence and crush Vigilantius, by slandering him, and calling for his destruction, is not exactly known; for, in fact Jerome’s treatise against him is the last contemporaneous historical notice extant, and his fate is involved in mystery.
Quote ID: 7256
Time Periods: 5
Book ID: 284 Page: 479
Section: 2D3B,3D
In every age there are persons who love to have the pre-eminence, and whose bold, uncompromising tone, whose use of an ecclesiastical shibboleth, whose sophistry, and language of gentleness or severity, as occasion may require, give them an advantage over those who desire to have every religious canon and custom tried by the unerring rule of the scripture. The loud voice of error is always more popular than the still small voice of the truth. Under error and clamour, Vigilantius sunk, but it does not therefore follow that his teaching fell to the ground void, and was of none effect.
Quote ID: 7257
Time Periods: 345
Book ID: 284 Page: 480
Section: 2E2
To all appearance, the remonstrants who agreed with Vigilantius were silenced; and no wonder. Twenty years before, a law had been made by Theodosius the Great, by the advice of his more sober ecclesiastical counsellors, to prevent the exhumation of dead bodies, {ᾠ} and the translation of them from one place to another; and yet the influence of the cinerarii had become so great, that when Vigilantius was protesting against the abuses which grew out of relic-worship, almost the whole Christian population ‘from Palestine to Chalcedon,’ {‡}was engaged in accompanying the supposed remains of Samuel to their new place of deposit.
Quote ID: 7258
Time Periods: 45
End of quotes