A. D.

350-400.

And, at length, he openly declared his convictions, and raised his testimony against relic-worship, the invocation of saints, nocturnal services at the sepulchres of the dead, monastic vows, and the obligation of clerical celibacy. 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: and the Gallic witness of the fourth century is now regarded as one famous or infamous in ecclesiastical history, accordingly as Protestants or Roman Catholics pronounce sentence upon him. Vigilantius was an extraordinary example, not only of perseverance in the pursuit of truth, amidst many difficulties, but also of the obloquy and unfair misrepresentations, to which every enquirer is exposed, who ventures to take part against religious error in high places. 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,'

* Hieron. adversus Vigilantium. Opera. Vol. IV. p. 2, 288, 289.

'Monster,'' Possessed of an unclean spirit,' these are specimens of the style in which the recluse of Bethlehem inveighed against the witness of Aquitain.

It will be the object of the following pages to set his character in a true light, and to show what effects were produced in the minds and conduct of sincere Christians, by the opinions, which Vigilantius impugned, and which Jerome advocated.

A. D.

350--400.

The biography of the contemporaries of Vigilantius furnishes us with some striking contrasts: and I hope to bring my readers into familiar acquaintance with eminent men of the fourth century, in various situations of life, whose conduct and character exhibited the results of those erroneous views of Christian faith and duty, which are to be traced to that age. If the leaven of superstition worked perniciously in persons of such unquestionable superiority over most of their time, as those whom I have selected to place in contrast, and in juxta-position with Vigilantius, and whom I have endeavoured to pourtray faithfully,-what must not have been its bitter savour in the ignorant and unwary? Martin of Tours, Martin of the apostle of Gaul, as he has been called, who was a convert to Christianity from the military ranks, fell into the most deplorable fanaticism and aberration of mind. Instead of continuing to fight as the bold soldier of the cross, in the thick of the action, against the world, the flesh, and the devil, Martin slunk into a monastery, pretended to work miracles, and died in a hermit's cowl. Sulpicius Severus.

Tours.

Sulpicius

A. D. 350-400.

Severus, the flower of Aquitain, the man of birth and of letters, the Gallic Sallust, the enquiring historian, became, under the influence of this superstition, the victim of deceivableness, and dwindled down to a fabulist and visionary:* and Paulinus. it hurried Paulinus, who was also a man of letters, and a person of amiable disposition, into the most debasing errors. Had Paulinus remained in the high position in which God placed him, his immense wealth might have been used for the improvement of society at large, by the exercise of judicious liberality and alms-giving, in connexion with ecclesiastical objects of interest. But unfortunately, that good man adopted the profession of voluntary poverty; disregarded the obligations of husband, citizen, and Christian statesman, and frittered away life as a deserter from his post of duty. He grovelled before the image of a favourite saint, until his brain reeled, and he was lost in phantasies. He inflicted severities upon himself, to such a degree, that he fell into a state of incurable bodily and mental debility, and scarcely a trace remained of the once buoyant, energetic, and noble-minded Patrician. Sulpicius and Paulinus were lost to the cause of true religion, when they turned their backs on the social duties of life :

*

I shall show more fully in another place, that, although I agree in much that was written in the British Magazine, (Nos. XLVIII. L. and LII.) under the signature H. against Sulpicius, as the Biographer of St. Martin, yet I am disinclined to charge him with deliberate fraud or falsehood. I think he was one of the deceived, and not himself a deceiver.

A. D. 350-400.

Plan and

object of

this work.

they wanted somebody to give them advice similar to that which John Wesley gave to Hannah More, Live in the world, that is your sphere of action.' The same erroneous views of Christianity transformed the learned and eloquent Jerome, the Jerome. most laborious and accomplished scholar of his time, into an acrimonious, discontented, and railing bigot, who, while he professed mortification and abstinence, and confined himself to the sacred localities of Bethlehem, that he might keep his body in subjection, gave full reins to the passions of hatred, malice, and uncharitableness, and indulged the bitterest resentment, whenever a rival was to be encountered, or an adversary silenced. The effects of a doctrine or of a system can be ascertained by one method only,-by an appeal to facts. It is to facts therefore, to passages in men's lives, that I wish to direct attention: and, if I can shew that, in the case of some very eminent, and very good men of the fourth century, the religious opinions and practices introduced or sanctioned by these persons, spoilt their Christianity, soured their temper, weakened their intellect, disordered their imaginations, and diminished their usefulness; then I have produced facts, the best arguments that can be found, against the system or doctrine which has had the authority of their names. The four worthies of the fourth century, whom I have selected for observation, have been chosen for examples, in biographical view with Vigilantius, because he was brought into immediate connexion with them.

A. D. 350-400.

They were not only his contemporaries, and associates, but they had also much to do in the formation of his character, either directly or indirectly, by drawing his attention to religious opinions and observances, and to schools of theology and Church discipline, in which they were the conspicuous masters.

The very points in relation to which Vigilantius protested, and endeavoured to produce a reformation in the Latin Church, were those which were sanctioned and pressed into notice by Martin, Sulpicius Severus, Paulinus and Jerome. It is necessary therefore, by way of preface to the life of Vigilantius, who may be styled a forerunner of the Reformation,' and one of the earliest of ' our Protestant* forefathers,' to commence with Biographical Sketches of some of those, who are at the head of that genealogical line, which is contradistinguished as Romanism.'

Sulpicius and Paulinus were the patrons and

I use the word Protestant in this place, in the same sense in which Bishop Bull employed it, when speaking of transactions of the eighth century. 'Our Alcuinus, also, the Emperor Charles the Great's tutor, the most learned man of his age, had so fully examined the Nicene Acts, that he wrote a learned discourse about them, and notably refuted them.' He then quotes the testimony of Hoveden, and adds, Whence it appears that the Nicene Acts sent from Constantinople to Charles the Great, were by him, before the Francfort synod, sent to Britain; and being examined and abundantly refuted, and that from the Holy Scriptures, by our most learned Alcuinus, were carried back again together with that refutation of them, to the Emperor Charles, in the name of our Bishops and Princes; so that even then the British Church was Protestant in this article concerning image-worship.'-Corrupt. of the Church of Rome, p. 40-43.

I have taken this passage from an article in the British Magazine, signed E. C. Harrington. No. CXXXV. p. 182.