A. D. 396.

ments when he visited Jerusalem, saving the short sentence which has been preserved in reference to at the end of the uselessness of pilgrimages to the holy city.

Jerusalem

the fourth

century.

But Jerome, in the same year in which Vigilantius gratified his desire of adding one more to the number of pilgrims who crowded to Jerusalem, spoke of it thus: Soldiers and harlots, mimics and buffoons, and everything else that swarms in other cities swarms here. It is full of all sorts of people, and you are so annoyed by multitudes of both sexes, that what you may escape elsewhere, you are forced to endure here.' * I will not pollute my pages with a name which Jerome did not hesitate to apply to Jerusalem.

Who can wonder then, that Vigilantius was first disappointed and afterwards disgusted at Jerusalem; and that he learnt to detest the thought of pilgrimages, on the scene which he saw polluted by vice, though it was said to be the gatheringplace of all who were pre-eminent for piety from every part of the world. 'Hither came converts from the dark mysteries of Druidism, from Gaul and Britain; Armenia, Persia, and India sent

*

'Si crucis et resurrectionis loca non essent in urbe celeberrima, in qua curia, in qua aula militum, in qua scorta, mimi, scurræ, et omnia sunt, quæ solent in cæteris urbibus, vel si Monachorum turbis solummodo frequentaretur, expetendum re vera hujuscemodi cunctis Monachis esset habitaculum. Nunc vero summæ stultitiæ est renunciare sæculo, dimittere patriam, urbes deserere, Monachum profiteri, et inter majores populos peregre vivere, quàm eras victurus in patria. De toto huc orbe concurritur. Plena est civitas universi generis hominum: et tanta utriusque sexus constipatio, ut quod alibi ex parte fugiebas, hic totum sustinere cogaris.'-Hier. Epist. ad Paul. 13 alias 49. Op. 4. p. ii. p. 565.

hither the most ardent of those who had before kissed their hand to the luminaries of heaven; from Ethiopia and Egypt came worshippers, whose hearts it was as hard to change as their colour; Pontus, Cappadocia, Syria, Mesopotamia, and the farthest East poured out the choicest of their population into Jerusalem, there to exhibit piety in its various forms.'* Such was the glowing account given by two of Jerome's disciples. The sad scenes described in the preceding chapter, when John bishop of Jerusalem, and St. Epiphanius inveighed against each other with so much virulence, were exhibited not only within the walls, but within the holiest sanctuaries of the holy city. What reliance then can be placed on the efficacy of pilgrimages to holy places to remove asperities and to soften human hearts, when the very persons whose names are handed down to us, as having been most eminent for their sanctity, railed at each other with more than ordinary bitterness, under the shadow of the awful hills of Calvary and Olivet?

A. D. 396.

troversy,

sequences.

The furious animosities, caused by the fatal The OriOrigenist controversy, were still the subject of genist conangry conversation, when Vigilantius was at Jeru- and its consalem; and he himself could not escape being implicated in the dispute which was then dividing very friends. In fact, Origenism, and the part taken by the Gallic stranger, in the quarrel, which, like an epidemic disorder, infected every one who

*

'Diversarum nobis virtutum specimen ostenderunt.'-Epist. Paul. ad Marcel. Hier. Op. 4. pars ii. p. 551.

U

A. D. 396.

sojourned in Palestine at this period, produced the first estrangement between him and Jerome. It is necessary therefore to give a short account of this controversy. The works of Origen contain doctrinal errors, which are summed up under eight heads.

1. That the Son of God does not see the Father, and the Holy Ghost does not see the Son.

2. That the souls of men were once angels in heaven, and were committed to mortal bodies, as a punishment for their sins.

3. That Satan and the fallen angels will repent, and will be permitted to reign with the saints in heaven.

4. That Adam and Eve were incorporeal before the fall, and that the skins, wherein they were said to be clothed, were their bodies.

5. That man will not rise in the body.

6. That the paradise on earth was only allegorical of heaven.

7. That the waters above the firmament were angels; and the waters below were evil spirits. 8. That the image of God in man was effaced by sin.

About the year 392, John, Bishop of Jerusalem was accused by St. Epiphanius of holding these errors of Origen: and Rufinus of Aquileia and Palladius, both of whom were then residing in Palestine, were also said to maintain the same tenets. Strong party feeling was excited upon the occasion, and men of the highest eminence took one side or the other. Jerome espoused the

cause of Epiphanius, and was most vehement against those who were accused of Origenism, especially against John, whom he contemptuously called haud grandis homunculus,' and Rufinus, who had once been his intimate friend. Angry discussion led to retort and recrimination, and, to use Tillemont's expression, Jerome became the enemy' of Rufinus. One Christian the enemy of another! Could it be so, in that age of saints, to which we are now directed to look for the very perfection of Christian wisdom and virtue? Alas, how frequently is the biographical page of the Fathers of the fourth century stained with similar spots. The author, whom I have just cited, with all his tenderness for Jerome, speaks thus of the quarrel between our monk and his antagonists, "It is provoking that St. Jerome himself acknowledges that he separated himself from the communion of his bishop, without knowing if he were culpable, without any judgment having been pronounced against him, and on a mere suspicion founded on an accusation made by St. Epiphanius, who, however holy he might be, did not always sufficiently consider what he did, and what he said. And he acted afterwards, with regard to St. John Chrysostom, nearly in the same manner in which he had acted towards John of Jerusalem.'*

* Il est fascheux que S. Jerome avoue luy mesme par là qu'il s'estoit séparé de la communion de son Evesque sans savoir s'il estoit coupable, sans qu'il y eust eu aucun jugement rendu contre luy, et sur un simple soupçon fondé sur ce qu'il estoit accusé par Saint Epiphane, qui, quelque saint qu'il fust, n'examinoit pas toujours assez ce qu'il

A. D.

396.

A. D. 396.

Rufinus.

The scandal attached to the Origenist controversy became greater for the reason, that Jerome had formerly laid himself open to the imputation of leaning to some of those opinions which he now assailed with the utmost fury, and Rufinus naturally took advantage of this, and charged his opponent with inconsistency and apostacy.

At the very crisis when the flame, which these disputes had kindled, was burning with undiminished violence,* Vigilantius became personally acquainted with Rufinus, who was then living in Jerusalem with the venerable Melania.

Rufinus, whatever may have been his theological errors and controversial asperity, was, like Jerome himself, a man whose purity of conduct, out of the polemical arena, was never questioned. Even while he and his great rival were raging against each other like two wild beasts, Paulinus spoke of him, as a most learned, pious, and holy man, for whom he entertained the warmest affection.' His erudition, diligence, and zeal in promoting sacred literature, commended him to the respect of his contemporaries; but, unhappily,

faisoit, et ce qu'il disoit: et il agit depuis à l'égard de S. Jean Chrysostome à peu près de la manière qu'il avait agi à l'égard de Jean de Jerusalem.'-Tillemont, tom. xii. p. 185.

* In vain were many attempts made to reconcile the contending parties in this spiritual warfare. Theophilus, Archbishop of Alexandria, sent Isidore, a priest of some celebrity, to act as mediator; and Archelaus ('Comes Christianissimus et disertissimus,' see Hier. Op. 4, 331.) undertook the same office, but ineffectually.

+ Vere sanctum et pie doctum, et ob hoc intimâ mihi affectione conjunctum.-Epist. Paul. 9 aliter 28. Sancto doctissimo viro, et carissimo mihi.'-Ibid. 26 aliter 40.