Traduction Masquer
Against Vigilantius

1.

The world has given birth to many monsters; in ¹ 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: ²“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 ³ native village is a Quintilian, only dumb instead of eloquent, is ⁴ 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.

Edition Masquer
Contra Vigilantium liber unus

1.

Joviniani damnatio et mors. Errores Vigilantii et blasphemiae.—Multa in orbe monstra generata sunt. Centauros, et sirenas, ululas, et onocrotalos in Isaia (Isai. XIII, et XXXV.) legimus. Job Leviathan et Behemoth mystico sermone describit (Job. III et 40). Cerberum et Stymphalidas, aprumque Erimanthium, et leonem Nemaeum, chimaeram atque hydram multorum capitum narrant fabulae poetarum. Cacum [Al. descripsit] describit Virgilius. (Aeneid. l. VIII). Triformem Geryonem Hispaniae prodiderunt. Sola Gallia monstra non habuit, sed viris semper fortibus, et eloquentissimis abundavit. Exortus est subito Vigilantius, seu verius Dormitantius, qui immundo spiritu pugnet contra Christi spiritum, et Martyrum neget sepulcra veneranda; damnandas [Al. dicit] dicat esse vigilias: numquam nisi in Pascha Alleluia cantandum: continentiam, haeresim; pudicitiam, libidinis seminarium. Et quomodo Euphorbus in Pythagora renatus esse perhibetur, sic in isto Joviniani mens prava surrexit: ut et in illo, et in hoc diaboli respondere cogamur insidiis. Cui jure [Al. dicetur] dicitur: Semen pessimum, para filios tuos occisioni peccatis patris tui (Isa. XIV, sec. LXX, v. 21). Ille Romanae Ecclesiae auctoritate damnatus, inter phasides aves et carnes suillas non tam emisit spiritum, quam eructavit. Iste caupo Calagurritanus, et in perversum propter nomen viculi mutus Quintilianus, miscet aquam vino: et de artificio pristino, suae venena perfidiae Catholicae fidei sociare conatur, impugnare virginitatem, odisse pudicitiam, in convivio saecularium contra sanctorum jejunia proclamare: dum inter phialas philosophatur, et ad placentas liguriens, psalmorum modulatione mulcetur: ut tantum inter epulas, David et Idithun, et Asaph et filiorum Chore cantica audire dignetur. Haec dolentis magis effudi animo quam ridentis, dum me cohibere non possum, et injuriam apostolorum ac martyrum surda nequeo aure transire.