1. The world has given birth
to many monsters; in 4944 Isaiah we read of centaurs and
sirens, screech-owls and pelicans. Job, in mystic language, describes Leviathan
and Behemoth; Cerberus and the birds of Stymphalus,
the Erymanthian boar and the Nemean
lion, the Chimæra and the many-headed Hydra, are told
of in poetic fables. Virgil describes Cacus. Spain has
produced Geryon, with his three bodies. Gaul alone has had no monsters, but has ever been rich in
men of courage and great eloquence. All at once Vigilantius,
or, more correctly, Dormitantius, has arisen,
animated by an unclean spirit, to fight against the Spirit of Christ, and to
deny that religious reverence is to be paid to the tombs of the martyrs. Vigils,
he says, are to be condemned; Alleluia must never be sung except at Easter;
continence is a heresy; chastity a hot-bed of lust. And as Euphorbus
is said to have been born again in the person of Pythagoras, so in this fellow
the corrupt mind of Jovinianus has arisen; so that in
him, no less than in his predecessor, we are bound to meet the snares of the
devil. The words may be justly applied to him: 4945 “Seed of evil-doers, prepare thy
children for the slaughter because of the sins of thy father.” Jovinianus, condemned by the authority of the Church of
Rome, amidst pheasants and swine’s flesh, breathed out, or rather belched out
his spirit. And now this tavern-keeper of Calagurris,
who, according to the name of his 4946 native village is a Quintilian, only dumb instead of eloquent, is 4947 mixing water with the wine. According to the trick which he knows of
old, he is trying to blend his perfidious poison with the Catholic faith; he
assails virginity and hates chastity; he revels with worldlings
and declaims against the fasts of the saints; he plays the philosopher over his
cups, and soothes himself with the sweet strains of psalmody, while he smacks
his lips over his cheese-cakes; nor could he deign to listen to the songs of
David and Jeduthun, and Asaph
and the sons of Core, except at the banqueting table. This I have poured forth
with more grief than amusement, for I cannot restrain myself and turn a deaf
ear to the wrongs inflicted on apostles and martyrs.
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