{"collection":"chr","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/chr/ecf/206/2060120.htm","path":"chr/ecf/206/2060120.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/chr/ecf/206/2060120.htm","text":"Riparius, a presbyter of Aquitaine had written to inform Jerome that Vigilantius (for whom see Letter LXI.) was preaching in southern Gaul against the worship of relics and the keeping of night vigils; and this apparently with the consent of his bishop. Jerome now replies in a letter more noteworthy for its bitterness than for its logic. Nevertheless he offers to write a full confutation of Vigilantius if Riparius will send him the book containing his heresies. This Riparius subsequently did and then Jerome wrote his treatise Against Vigilantius, the most extreme and least convincing of all his works.\nThe date of the letter is 404 a.d.\n1. Now that I have received a letter from you, if I do not answer it I shall be guilty of pride, and if I do I shall be guilty of rashness. For the matters concerning which you ask my opinion are such that they cannot either be spoken of or listened to without profanity. You tell me that Vigilantius (whose very name Wakeful is a contradiction: he ought rather to be described as Sleepy) has again opened his fetid lips and is pouring forth a torrent of filthy venom upon the relics of the holy martyrs; and that he calls us who cherish them ashmongers and idolaters who pay homage to dead men\u2019s bones. Unhappy wretch! to be wept over by all Christian men, who sees not that in speaking thus he makes himself one with the Samaritans and the Jews who hold dead bodies unclean and regard as defiled even vessels which have been in the same house with them, following the letter that killeth and not the spirit that giveth life. 3018 We, it is true, refuse to worship or adore, I say not the relics of the martyrs, but even the sun and moon, the angels and archangels, the Cherubim and Seraphim and \u201cevery name that is named, not only in this world but also in that which is to come.\u201d 3019 For we may not serve the creature rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever. 3020 Still we honour the relics of the martyrs, that we may adore Him whose martyrs they are. We honour the servants that their honour may be reflected upon their Lord who Himself says:\u2014\u201che that receiveth you receiveth me.\u201d 3021 I ask Vigilantius, Are the relics of Peter and of Paul unclean? Was the body of Moses unclean, of which we are told (according to the correct Hebrew text) that it was buried by the Lord Himself? 3022 And do we, every time that we enter the basilicas of apostles and prophets and martyrs, pay homage to the shrines of idols? Are the tapers which burn before their tombs only the tokens of idolatry? I will go farther still and ask a question which will make this theory recoil upon the head of its inventor and which will either kill or cure that frenzied brain of his, so that simple souls shall be no more subverted by his sacrilegious reasonings. Let him answer me this, Was the Lord\u2019s body unclean when it was placed in the sepulchre? And did the angels clothed in white raiment merely watch over a corpse dead and defiled, that ages afterwards this sleepy fellow might indulge in dreams and vomit forth his filthy surfeit, so as, like the persecutor Julian, either to destroy the basilicas of the saints or to convert them into heathen temples?\n2. I am surprised that the reverend bishop 3023 p. 213 in whose diocese he is said to be a presbyter acquiesces in this his mad preaching, and that he does not rather with apostolic rod, nay with a rod of iron, shatter this useless vessel 3024 and deliver him for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be saved. 3025 He should remember the words that are said: \u201cWhen thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst unto him; and hast been partaker with adulterers;\u201d 3026 and in another place, \u201cI will early destroy all the wicked of the land; that I may cut off all wicked doers from the city of the Lord;\u201d 3027 and again \u201cDo not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? and am not I grieved with those that rise up against thee? I hate them with perfect hatred.\u201d 3028 If the relics of the martyrs are not worthy of honour, how comes it that we read \u201cPrecious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his saints?\u201d 3029 If dead men\u2019s bones defile those that touch them, how came it that the dead Elisha raised another man also dead, and that life came to this latter from the body of the prophet which according to Vigilantius must have been unclean? In that case every encampment of the host of Israel and the people of God was unclean; for they carried the bodies of Joseph and of the patriarchs with them in the wilderness, and carried their unclean ashes even into the holy land. In that case Joseph, who was a type of our Lord and Saviour, was a wicked man; for he carried up Jacob\u2019s bones with great pomp to Hebron merely to put his unclean father beside his unclean grandfather and great grandfather, that is, one dead body along with others. The wretch\u2019s tongue should be cut out, or he should be put under treatment for insanity. As he does not know how to speak, he should learn to be silent. I have myself before now seen the monster, and have done my best to bind the maniac with texts of scripture, as Hippocrates binds his patients with chains; but \u201che went away, he departed, he escaped, he broke out,\u201d 3030 and taking refuge between the Adriatic and the Alps of King Cotius 3031 declaimed in his turn against me. For all that a fool says must be regarded as mere noise and mouthing.\n3. You may perhaps in your secret thoughts find fault with me for thus assailing a man behind his back. I will frankly admit that my indignation overpowers me; I cannot listen with patience to such sacrilegious opinions. I have read of the javelin of Phinehas, 3032 of the harshness of Elijah, 3033 of the jealous anger of Simon the zealot, 3034 of the severity of Peter in putting to death Ananias and Sapphira, 3035 and of the firmness of Paul who, when Elymas the sorcerer withstood the ways of the Lord, doomed him to lifelong blindness. 3036 There is no cruelty in regard for God\u2019s honour. Wherefore also in the Law it is said: \u201cIf thy brother or thy friend or the wife of thy bosom entice thee from the truth, thine hand shall be upon them and thou shalt shed their blood, 3037 and so shalt thou put the evil away from the midst of Israel.\u201d 3038 Once more I ask, Are the relics of the martyrs unclean? If so, why did the apostles allow themselves to walk in that funeral procession before the body\u2014the unclean body\u2014of Stephen? Why did they make great lamentation over him, 3039 that their grief might be turned into our joy?\nYou tell me farther that Vigilantius execrates vigils. In this surely he goes contrary to his name. The Wakeful one wishes to sleep and will not hearken to the Saviour\u2019s words, \u201cWhat, could ye not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that ye enter not into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is weak.\u201d 3040 And in another place a prophet sings: \u201cAt midnight I will rise to give thanks unto thee because of thy righteous judgments.\u201d 3041 We read also in the gospel how the Lord spent whole nights in prayer 3042 and how the apostles when they were shut up in prison kept vigil all night long, singing their psalms until the earth quaked, and the keeper of the prison believed, and the magistrates and citizens were filled with terror. 3043 Paul says: \u201ccontinue in prayer and watch in the same,\u201d 3044 and in another place he speaks of himself as \u201cin watchings often.\u201d 3045 Vigilantius may sleep if he pleases and may choke in his sleep, destroyed by the destroyer of Egypt and of the Egyptians. But let us say with David: \u201cBehold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor sleep.\u201d 3046 So will the Holy One and the Watcher come to us. 3047 And if ever by reason of our sins He fall asleep, let us say to Him: \u201cAwake, why sleepest thou, O Lord;\u201d 3048 and when our ship is tossed by the waves let us rouse Him and say, \u201cMaster, save us: we perish.\u201d 3049\n4. I would dictate more were it not that the limits of a letter impose upon me a modest silence. I might have gone on, had you sent me the books which contain this man\u2019s rhapsodies, for in that case I should have known what points I had to refute. As it is I am only beating the air 3050 and revealing not so p. 214 much his infidelity\u2014for this is patent to all\u2014as my own faith. But if you wish me to write against him at greater length, send me those wretched dronings of his and in my answer he shall hear an echo of John the Baptist\u2019s words \u201cNow also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees; therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down and cast into the fire.\u201d 3051\nProbably Exuperius of Toulouse.\n213:3024 213:3025 213:3026 213:3027 213:3028 213:3029 213:3030 213:3031\nA contemporary and ally of Augustus.\n213:3032 213:3033 213:3034\nLuke vi. 15: so called probably because he came from the most fanatical party among the Pharisees.\n213:3035 213:3036 213:3037 213:3038 213:3039 213:3040 213:3041 213:3042 213:3043 213:3044 213:3045 213:3046 213:3047\nDan. iv. 13. Jerome gives the Hebrew word for watcher, viz. \u05e8\u05d9\u05e2\n213:3048 213:3049 213:3050\nCf. 1 Cor. ix. 26.\n214:3051","title":"Nicene and Post-Nicene Fathers, Ser. II, Vol. VI: The Letters of St. Jerome.: Letter CIX","type":"page"}