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| To Riparius.
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Letter CIX.
To Riparius.
Riparius, a presbyter of Aquitaine had written to inform
Jerome that Vigilantius (for whom see Letter LXI.) was preaching in
southern Gaul against the worship of relics and the keeping of night
vigils; and this apparently with the consent of his bishop. Jerome now
replies in a letter more noteworthy for its bitterness than for its
logic. Nevertheless he offers to write a full confutation of
Vigilantius if Riparius will send him the book containing his heresies.
This Riparius subsequently did and then Jerome wrote his treatise
Against Vigilantius, the most extreme and least convincing of
all his works.
The date of the letter is 404 a.d.
1. Now that I have received a letter from you, if I do
not answer it I shall be guilty of pride, and if I do I shall be guilty
of rashness. For the matters concerning which you ask my opinion are
such that they cannot either be spoken of or listened to without
profanity. You tell me that Vigilantius (whose very name Wakeful
is a contradiction: he ought rather to be described as Sleepy)
has again opened his fetid lips and is pouring forth a torrent of
filthy venom upon the relics of the holy martyrs; and that he calls us
who cherish them ashmongers and idolaters who pay homage to dead
men’s bones. Unhappy wretch! to be wept over by all Christian
men, who sees not that in speaking thus he makes himself one with the
Samaritans and the Jews who hold dead bodies unclean and regard as
defiled even vessels which have been in the same house with them,
following the letter that killeth and not the spirit that giveth
life.3018
We, it is true, refuse to worship or
adore, I say not the relics of the martyrs, but even the sun and moon,
the angels and archangels, the Cherubim and Seraphim and “every
name that is named, not only in this world but also in that which is to
come.”3019
For we may not serve the creature
rather than the Creator, who is blessed for ever.3020
Still we honour the relics of the martyrs,
that we may adore Him whose martyrs they are. We honour the servants
that their honour may be reflected upon their Lord who Himself
says:—“he that receiveth you receiveth me.”3021
I ask Vigilantius, Are the relics of Peter
and of Paul unclean? Was the body of Moses unclean, of which we are
told (according to the correct Hebrew text) that it was buried by the
Lord Himself?3022
And do we, every
time that we enter the basilicas of apostles and prophets and martyrs,
pay homage to the shrines of idols? Are the tapers which burn before
their tombs only the tokens of idolatry? I will go farther still and
ask a question which will make this theory recoil upon the head of its
inventor and which will either kill or cure that frenzied brain of his,
so that simple souls shall be no more subverted by his sacrilegious
reasonings. Let him answer me this, Was the Lord’s body unclean
when it was placed in the sepulchre? And did the angels clothed in
white raiment merely watch over a corpse dead and defiled, that ages
afterwards this sleepy fellow might indulge in dreams and vomit forth
his filthy surfeit, so as, like the persecutor Julian, either to
destroy the basilicas of the saints or to convert them into heathen
temples?
2. I am surprised that the reverend bishop3023
| 3023 Probably Exuperius
of Toulouse. | in
whose diocese he is said to be a presbyter acquiesces in this his mad
preaching, and that he does not rather with apostolic rod, nay with a
rod of iron, shatter this useless vessel3024
and deliver him for the destruction of the flesh that the spirit may be
saved.3025
He should remember the words that
are said: “When thou sawest a thief, then thou consentedst unto
him; and hast been partaker with adulterers;”3026
and in another place, “I will early
destroy all the wicked of the land; that I may cut off all wicked doers
from the city of the Lord;”3027
and again
“Do not I hate them, O Lord, that hate thee? and am not I grieved
with those that rise up against thee? I hate them with perfect
hatred.”3028
If the relics
of the martyrs are not worthy of honour, how comes it that we read
“Precious in the sight of the Lord is the death of his
saints?”3029
If dead
men’s bones defile those that touch them, how came it that the
dead Elisha raised another man also dead, and that life came to this
latter from the body of the prophet which according to Vigilantius must
have been unclean? In that case every encampment of the host of Israel
and the people of God was unclean; for they carried the bodies of
Joseph and of the patriarchs with them in the wilderness, and carried
their unclean ashes even into the holy land. In that case Joseph, who
was a type of our Lord and Saviour, was a wicked man; for he carried up
Jacob’s bones with great pomp to Hebron merely to put his unclean
father beside his unclean grandfather and great grandfather, that is,
one dead body along with others. The wretch’s tongue should be
cut out, or he should be put under treatment for insanity. As he does
not know how to speak, he should learn to be silent. I have myself
before now seen the monster, and have done my best to bind the maniac
with texts of scripture, as Hippocrates binds his patients with chains;
but “he went away, he departed, he escaped, he broke
out,”3030
| 3030 Cic. Cat. ii. 1, of
Catiline. | and taking refuge between the
Adriatic and the Alps of King Cotius3031
| 3031 A contemporary and
ally of Augustus. | declaimed
in his turn against me. For all that a fool says must be regarded as
mere noise and mouthing.
3. You may perhaps in your secret thoughts find fault
with me for thus assailing a man behind his back. I will frankly admit
that my indignation overpowers me; I cannot listen with patience to
such sacrilegious opinions. I have read of the javelin of Phinehas,3032
of the harshness of Elijah,3033
of the jealous anger of Simon the
zealot,3034
| 3034 Luke vi. 15: so called probably because he came from
the most fanatical party among the Pharisees. | of the severity of Peter in
putting to death Ananias and Sapphira,3035
and of the firmness of Paul who, when Elymas the sorcerer withstood the
ways of the Lord, doomed him to lifelong blindness.3036
There is no cruelty in regard for
God’s honour. Wherefore also in the Law it is said: “If thy
brother or thy friend or the wife of thy bosom entice thee from the
truth, thine hand shall be upon them and thou shalt shed their blood,3037
and so shalt thou put the evil away
from the midst of Israel.”3038
Once
more I ask, Are the relics of the martyrs unclean? If so, why did the
apostles allow themselves to walk in that funeral procession before the
body—the unclean body—of Stephen? Why did they make great
lamentation over him,3039
that their
grief might be turned into our joy?
You tell me farther that Vigilantius execrates vigils.
In this surely he goes contrary to his name. The Wakeful one wishes to
sleep and will not hearken to the Saviour’s words, “What,
could ye not watch with me one hour? Watch and pray that ye enter not
into temptation: the spirit indeed is willing but the flesh is
weak.”3040
And in another place a prophet sings:
“At midnight I will rise to give thanks unto thee because of thy
righteous judgments.”3041
We read also in
the gospel how the Lord spent whole nights in prayer3042
and how the apostles when they were shut
up in prison kept vigil all night long, singing their psalms until the
earth quaked, and the keeper of the prison believed, and the
magistrates and citizens were filled with terror.3043
Paul says: “continue in prayer and
watch in the same,”3044
and in
another place he speaks of himself as “in watchings
often.”3045
Vigilantius may
sleep if he pleases and may choke in his sleep, destroyed by the
destroyer of Egypt and of the Egyptians. But let us say with David:
“Behold, he that keepeth Israel shall neither slumber nor
sleep.”3046
So will the Holy
One and the Watcher come to us.3047
| 3047 Dan. iv. 13. Jerome gives the Hebrew word for
watcher, viz. ריע | And if
ever by reason of our sins He fall asleep, let us say to Him:
“Awake, why sleepest thou, O Lord;”3048
and when our ship is tossed by the
waves let us rouse Him and say, “Master, save us: we
perish.”3049
4. I would dictate more were it not that the limits of a
letter impose upon me a modest silence. I might have gone on, had you
sent me the books which contain this man’s rhapsodies, for in
that case I should have known what points I had to refute. As it is I
am only beating the air3050
and revealing not
so much his infidelity—for
this is patent to all—as my own faith. But if you wish me to
write against him at greater length, send me those wretched dronings of
his and in my answer he shall hear an echo of John the Baptist’s
words “Now also the axe is laid unto the root of the trees;
therefore every tree which bringeth not forth good fruit is hewn down
and cast into the fire.”3051
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