accused him in Egypt of being too partial to
Origenes, and the _holy priest_ became an _impertinent_, whose silly
speeches he had observed during their first interview. He made use of
several injurious expressions in speaking of the former object of his
admiration, and which do not well accord with the gravity of his
character, as, for instance, calling him often _Dormitantius_ instead of
_Vigilantius_. His indignation knew no bounds when he heard, in 404, that
Vigilantius, who was then in Gallia, had attacked several practices which
had crept into the church, and he dictated in one single night a vehement
answer to the opinions of Vigilantius, who, according to this writer,
taught as follows:--

That the honours paid to the rotten bones and dust of the saints and
martyrs, by adoring, kissing, wrapping them in silver, and enclosing them
in vessels of gold, placing them in churches, and lighting wax candles
before them, was idolatry.

That the celibacy of the clergy was heresy, and their vows of chastity a
seminary of lewdness.

That to pray for the dead, or desire their prayers, was superstition, and
that we can pray one for another only as long as we are alive.

That the souls of the departed apostles and martyrs were at rest in some
particular place, and could not leave it, in order to be present in
various places, for hearing the prayers addressed to them.

That the sepulchres of the martyrs should not be venerated; that vigils
held in churches should be abolished, with the exception of that at
Easter; that to enter monastic life was to become useless to society, &c.
&c.

The answer of Jerome to the above-mentioned opinions of Vigilantius is a
curious mixture of violence and casuistry. He declared his _quondam_
friend and _holy priest_, Vigilantius, a greater monster than all those
which nature had ever produced, the Centaurs, the Behemoths, the Syrens,
the triple-bodied Gerion of Spain; that he was a most detestable heretic,
venting foul blasphemies against the relics of the martyrs, who were
working miracles everyday. "Go," says he to Vigilantius, "into the
churches of those martyrs, and thou shalt be cleansed from the evil spirit
by which thou art now possessed, and feel thyself burning, not by those
wax candles which offend thee, but by invisible flames, which will force
that demon who talks within thee to confess that he is the same as that
who had personated, perhaps a Mercury, a Bacchus, or some other o