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Against Vigilantius

12.

I confess my own fear, for possibly it may be thought to spring from superstition. When I have been angry, or have had evil thoughts in my mind, or some phantom of the night has beguiled me, I do not dare to enter the basilicas of the martyrs, I shudder all over in body and soul. You may smile, perhaps, and deride this as on a level with the wild fancies of weak women. If it be so, I am not ashamed of having a faith like that of those who were the first to see the risen Lord; who were sent to the Apostles; who, in the person of the mother of our Lord and Saviour, were commended to the holy Apostles. Belch out your shame, if you will, with men of the world, I will fast with women; yea, with religious men whose looks witness to their chastity, and who, with the cheek pale from prolonged abstinence, show forth the chastity of Christ.

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Contra Vigilantium liber unus

12.

Timebat interdum Hieronymus basilicas intrare martyrum.—Confiteor timorem meum, ne forsitan de superstitione descendat. Quando iratus fuero, et aliquid mali in meo animo cogitavero: et me nocturnum phantasma deluserit, basilicas martyrum intrare non audeo: ita totus et corpore et animo contremisco. Rideas forsitan, et muliercularum deliramenta subsaunes. Non erubesco earum fidem, quae primae viderunt Dominum resurgentem, quae mittuntur ad apostolos, quae in matre Domini Salvatoris, sanctis apostolis commendantur. Tu ructato cum saeculi hominibus, ego jejunabo cum feminis, immo cum religiosis viris, qui pudicitiam vultu praeferunt, et pallida jugi continentia ora portantes, Christi ostendunt verecundiam.