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Against Vigilantius 1:3JeromeFull 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 Convenae (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 thee 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 aims to Jerusalem, which. Vigilantius urged, had better be spent among the poor in each separate diocese. and the monkish vow of poverty; (4) Me exaggerated estimate of virginity.Letters · letter_058 1:2JeromeIn this his second letter to Paulinus of Nola Jerome dissuades him from making a pilgrimage to the Holy Places, and describes Jerusalem not as it ought to be but as it is. He then gives his friend counsels for his life similar to those which he has previously addressed to Nepotian, praises Paulinus for his Panegyric (now no longer extant) on the Emperor Theodosius, compares his style with those of the great writers of the Latin Church, and concludes with a commendation of his messenger, that Vigilantius who was soon to become the object of his bitterest contempt. Written about the year 395 a.d.Letters · letter_061 1:2JeromeVigilantius on his return to the West after his visit to Jerusalem (whither he had gone as the bearer of letters from Paulinus of Nola-see Letter 58. ) had openly accused Jerome of a leaning to the heresy of Origen. Jerome now writes to him in the most severe tone repudiating the charge of Origenism and fastening upon his opponent those of ignorance and blasphemy. He singles out for especial reprobation Vigilantius's explanation of 'the stone cut out without hands' in Daniel and urges him to repent of his sins in which case he will have as much chance of forgiveness as the devil has according to Origen! The letter is often referred to as showing Jerome's way of dealing with Origen's works. Jerome subsequently wrote a refutation of Vigilantius's work, of all his controversial writings the most violent and the least reasonable. See the translation of it in this volume. See also Letter 109. The date of this letter is 396 a.d.Letters · letter_148 1:2JeromeThis is an interesting letter addressed to a lady of rank, on the principles and methods of a holy life. It is not, however, the work of Jerome, of whose style it shews few traces. It has been ascribed in turn to Paulinus of Nola and Sulpicius Severus.The Lausiac History · Text 71:294Palladius of Galatia286. See also LIV. Besides Palladius, Paulinus of Nola, Ep, 29, is our chief informant about Melania.On the Government of God · Book 7 3:19Salvian the Presbyter6. See Paulinus of Nola Ep. 33. 3. The passage was identified by C. Weyman, "Salvianus und Paulinus von Nola," Historisches Jahrbuch XV (1894), 372-373. This is the only case in which Salvian gives a clue to the personal identity of the rare exceptions he makes to the general vice of prominent men; he could scarcely have chosen a more appropriate one.On the Government of God · Preface to the online edition 1:17Salvian the PresbyterB Brussells, Bibliothèque Royale BR 10615-729 (for De gubernatione , code 10628). The codex contains a great many other works, including poetry and works by Paulinus of Nola.On the Government of God · Translators introduction 8:36Salvian the PresbyterHis knowledge of law was far more detailed, and his writings furnish a valuable commentary on the Roman Codices, which in their turn serve as a check on his statements. Rittershausen concluded that he had had regular legal training; certainly he had a legal mind, and legal phraseology recurs constantly in his |10 discussions. But it seems equally probable, especially if his father held an imperial position, that his juristic knowledge merely represents the attainment of a Roman citizen concerned both in the complex management of a considerable estate and in affairs of government administration. That he belonged to an imperial official family is suggested by his attitude toward lesser officials. For the downtrodden poor his sympathy is great, but for clerks, soldiers and tax collectors, and for the curials who formed the miserable remnant of the local aristocracies, he seems to have felt only scorn and distaste. His aristocratic prejudices were tempered by Christian charity in other cases, but not in his attitude toward these menIt seems probable that he himself was brought up in the orthodox faith; at least he shows little of that bitterness toward pagans and heretics that recent converts are wont to feel. For those who called themselves Christians but continued heathen practices, however, his antipathy was very strong. His wife, Palladia, had been brought up in paganism, but her parents, Hypatius and Quieta, seem to have made no objection to the marriage. Later, however, they were alienated by the decision of Salvian and Palladia to follow a course which was being adopted by many other Christian couples. Unable either to endure Roman society as they found it, or to reform it from within, they determined to give their property to the church, and live no longer as man and wife, but as brother and sister in Christian fellowship. Paulinus of Nola, the one contemporary to whose example Salvian clearly alludes, is the best known of those who sought that peace in Christian poverty which Roman wealth had failed to give. The anger of Ausonius at his friend's course reflects a situation that must have been many times repeated. In this case, however, it culminated in one of the most poignant expressions of friendship that man has ever written. |11On the Government of God · Translators introduction 8:103Salvian the Presbyter16. Paulinus of Nola Carmen XI. 11. 49-68, in CSEL, XXX. 2.Life of St. Severinus · English translation 46:74Eugippius45. That this is here the meaning of aedituus is shown by the Table of Chapters, where it is represented by ostiarius. The office of aedituus in the pagan temple, however, corresponds rather to that of custos in the Christian church (see Chapter I, above), being a position of some dignity. Ausonius, Commemoratio Professorum Burdigalensium, x, 22-30, speaks of Phoebicius, a professor who had been Beleni aedituus. DuCange gives the definition "Aedituus, Ostiarius, gradus ecclesiasticus; cui aedis sacrae custodia incumbit, custos ": an impossible one, since ostiarius and custos are quite different officials. The word never really became naturalized in Christian literature. Paulinus of Nola uses it, it is true ( Epistolae, i, 10; in Migne's Patrologia Latina, vol. lxi, col. 158); but he was a friend and correspondent of Ausonius.Life of St. Severinus · Indices 5:11EugippiusPaulinus of Nola, 51.