his general character will not suffer us to impute 387-395. to him. A translation of the Letter of Epiphanius to John of Jerusalem, on the errors of Origen, had been sent by Jerome to Eusebius of Cremona. A monk, who had access to the apartments of Eusebius, stole his papers; garbled copies of the translation were circulated among the enemies of Jerome, and the latter accused Rufinus of having suborned the monk to commit this injury.

From that moment the most acrimonious correspondence passed between them, and Jerome could seldom write or speak of Rufinus without the utmost virulence. Both were to blame in the contest that arose between them, and in the bitter spirit with which it was carried on, and we cannot but exclaim,- Was this the conduct befitting two persons of such reputed sanctity? Were these the peacemakers and counsellors, worthy of being consulted as oracles, the one on the Mount of Olives, and the other on the spot where Christ was born, and where angels had sung good will to men?'

In the meantime Jerome was continuing his scriptural studies with as much perseverance and ardour, as if nothing had occurred to interrupt his labours, or to unhinge his mind; and his reputation for sanctity was so great, that testimonies of respect were poured in upon him from all parts of Christendom. A singular proof, of the value in

*See Epist. Hieron. ad Pam. 38, aliter 101. Op. Hier. 4. Pars

II. P. 248.

A. D.

387-395.

which his works were held, was given by the arrival of six strangers at Bethlehem, who said they came from Lucrinus, a pious and wealthy Spaniard, who had sent them thither, with the request, that they might be permitted to take copies of all his works. It was about the same period, the beginning of the year 395, that Vigilantius brought a letter from Paulinus of Nola to Jerome. This was the first occasion of a personal acquaintance between the reformer of the Pyrenees, and the monk of Bethlehem, and we may now proceed with the main branch of our subject, the Memorials of Vigilantius.

CHAP. VI.

MEMORIALS OF VIGILANTIUS.

A. D.

364-390.

VIGILANTIUS was born about the year A.D. 364 * in the Gallic village of Calagorris, (now called Houra, according to Vaissette, Vol. I, p. 57, and not Caseres as some have supposed,) situated at the foot of the Pyrenees, on the northern side of the mountains, and belonging to the district of Convenæ,-the present Comminges. The place Birthplace was so called, because the first settlers came from Vigilantius. Calagorris in Spain,† when Pompey dispersed a

* It is not easy to give the exact date of his birth. In a letter to Paulinus Vigilantius is termed 'puer' in the year 394. But he was ordained priest in 394 or 395, and 'puer' may signify a domestic. When the word referred to age, it was used very arbitrarily. Thus Jerome applied it to himself, when he was in his fifteenth, twentyfourth, and thirtieth year.'-See Jerome's Commentaries on Habakkuk iii. Isaiah xv. and Obadiah.

+ Baronius, mistaking the Gallic for the Spanish town, wrote a long note to prove that Vigilantius was a Spaniard. Calagurris sita erat in regione antiquorum Vasconum, et valde credibile, hos Hispanos, relicta patria, quibusdam suis pagis eorum nomina è quibus originem duxerant, imposuisse.'-Pagi. Critica Hist. Chronol. Vol. II. p. 74.

The Gallic Calagorris was near Lugdunum Convenarum. In D'Anville's large Map of Modern France, there is a Chateau Leon,

and origin of

Ꭺ.

364-390. large body of brigands, who infested that part of the country, and compelled them to retire into Gaul. It is probable that the birth-place of Vigilantius had much to do in the formation of his character, and that he was indebted to the spot, where he drew his first breath, for that lofty and independent spirit which he carried with him through life. A mountaineer has many advantages over the inhabitant of a crowded city. He inhales a pure and invigorating air; he has magnificent and inspiring objects perpetually before him he is invited to range amongst solitudes, and to commune with his own heart, amidst those majestic features of nature, which declare the glory of God and the insignificance of man. His daily occupation prepares him for noble pursuits, and when he is cultivating his patch of ground on the edge of a precipice, or leading his flocks and herds to the mountain pasturage, or guiding strangers through the dangers and intricacies of a mountain. pass, he is trained to forethought, and inured to hardship. Even his diversions have the same effect, and throw him constantly on his own resources for whether he pursues the chase to supply his table with food, or to drive the wolf and the bear from the fold, it is a school of discipline, where the best hunter usually becomes the best leader in war, and the wisest sage in counsel. There is another which may have derived its name from the ancient Lugdunum Convenarum. Mr. Faber has suggested that the old term Leonists, as applied to the Waldenses, may have been given to them from Vigilantius the Leonist, who resided some time among their ancestors.'See Faber on Election, p. 441, and Vallenses and Albigenses, p. 279.

and a higher advantage in being born a mountaineer. Mountain tribes are generally the most unwilling to receive either the yoke or the corruptions of the stranger: for the children of the mountain and the field are too familiar with the glorious works of God's hands, to take impressions from the childish baubles that foster idolatry. 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. There are however some considerations which may reconcile us to the place and circumstances of our 'holy presbyter's' birth. Four hundred years, the interval between the time of Pompey and that of Vigilantius, are enough to wipe away any genealogical stain; and if it were not so, Roman and English history at least present sufficient apology for the crime of being derived from such ancestry. Would our most ancient Anglo-Saxon and Anglo-Norman families care for the reproach of having their line traced up to the followers of those pirates and freebooters, Hengist and Rollo? 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. But so far from deriving a stigma from it, to the inn at Calagorris Vigilantius was indebted for the early Christian bias of his mind, and for his first attainments in general knowledge. That inn was placed exactly where a youth of emulous and

A. D.

364-390.