Against Vigilantius

Contents

Translation in progress.

1. 1Jerome introduces Vigilantius as a new monster from Gaul who attacks the veneration of martyrs, vigils, and continence, reviving Jovinian's errors.
2. 2Jerome attacks the bishops who side with Vigilantius by ordaining only married men, contrasting the churches of the East, Egypt, and Rome.
3. 3Jerome explains that the presbyters Riparius and Desiderius sent him Vigilantius's books and asked for this reply.
4. 4Jerome mocks Vigilantius's origins and quotes his objections to the veneration of relics and the lighting of candles.
5. 5Jerome denies that Christians adore martyrs and defends the honoring of relics by emperors, bishops, and people, since the saints are alive in God.
6. 6Jerome argues that the martyrs are with Christ and can pray for others, and rejects Vigilantius's appeal to an apocryphal Ezra.
7. 7Jerome defends the lighting of candles at vigils and in honor of martyrs as a sign of joy, not idolatry.
8. 8Jerome appeals to the practice of the Roman bishop and of bishops everywhere, and links Vigilantius with Eunomius and the old heresy that Tertullian answered in the Scorpiace.
9. 9Jerome defends frequent vigils at the martyrs' shrines: abuses by a few do not condemn the practice, any more than at the Easter vigil.
10. 10Jerome answers Vigilantius's dismissal of miracles at the martyrs' shrines and says the demon in him is tormented by the relics.
11. 11Jerome recalls Vigilantius's panic during an earthquake in Palestine.
12. 12Jerome confesses his own fear of entering the martyrs' shrines with a troubled conscience and defends the faith of devout women.
13. 13Jerome defends sending alms to the poor saints of Jerusalem, as Paul did.
14. 14Jerome argues that alms should go especially to the holy poor and that selling all, as Christ counseled, is the higher way.
15. 15Jerome answers the objection that monastic withdrawal leaves the churches unserved: the monk's office is to mourn, and virtue is rare.
16. 16Jerome defends flight to the desert as a means of avoiding temptation.
17. 17Jerome closes, explaining that he wrote in one night and threatening a fuller reply.