VIEUXTEMPS. 131 VIGILIUS. followed, notably those of America (1844-45, 185(i, and 1870). In 1840 he was appointed solo violinist to the Emperor of Russia, and in 1871 was made first professor of the violin, in the place of De Beriot, at the Brussels Conservatory. In 1873j after he sustained a stroke of paralysis, he devoted himself to composition entirely. He died in Algeria. Vieuxtem|)s ranks wilh the greatest violin virtuosi of the world. As a com- poser for the violin he holds a hijjh place. His compositions include solos, duets, <5tudes, varia- tions, fantaisies, transcriptions, and caprices. Consult Kadou.Xj Henri Vieuxtemps, sa vie et ses ceuvres (Paris, 1891). VIGAN, ve'gan. The capital of the Province of llocos 8ur, in Luzon, Philippine Islands, 210 miles northwest of Manila,, near the rij^lit bank of the Abra River and not far from the coast (Map: Philippine Islands, E 2). It has a num- ber of fine public buildings. The surrounding country produces rice, indigo, cotton, sugar cane, and live stock. In the town there are tislieries, brick and tile kilns, and yards for the construc- tion of small coasting vessels. There is an ex- tensive traffic up the Abra River. The town, formerly called Villa Fernadina, has been a bishop's see since 1755. It has a monument erected to the memory of Juan de Salcedo, the conqueror of the province. Its population, in 1900, was 19,000. VIGFUSSON, vlg'fus-son, Gudbrandur( 1827- 89). An Icelandic philologist. He was born in Frakkanes, Iceland, studied at the University of Copenhagen, and in 1864 went to England to com- plete and publish the Icelandic-English diction- ary left unfinished by Richard Cleasby at his death. This was published in 1874, and is Vig- fusson's most important work. It is still the only dictionary of Icelandic which approximates completeness. Its etymologies, however, are fantastic and untrustworthy. Vigfusson became in 1884 professor of the Icelandic language and literature at Oxford. Among his principal works, in addition to his Dictionari). may be mentioned Uw Timatnl i Isleiidiiinasofjum (1S54); Icelandic .S'ar/as (1887) ; and, in cooperation with F. York Powell, an edition of the Sturhinga Saga (1878) : An Icelandic Reader (1879) ; and Corpus I'oeti- eum Borealc (1883). He likewise published edi- tions of the Biskupa.iogur (1856-62) ; Bardersaga Hnwfellsds : Viglundcrsaga ; Fornsogiir (1890); Eyrbyggja {S(yi) ; and'the Fletei/jarhuk (1860- 68). VIGIL (OF. vigilc, vigilie, Fr. vigile, from Lat. cigilia, watch, from vigcre, to be lively; connected with Goth, icakan, OHG. wahhen, Ger. wachen, AS. icacian, icwecan, Eng. ivakc) . In the early Church, the watch kept in a church or cemetery on the night before a feast, the time being occupied in prajer. In the eleventh and twelfth centuries the vigil took the form of a preparatory time of devotion which went before the more solemn festivals of the Church year, and especially Christmas, Easter, Pentecost, and the principal martyrs' days. The observance of vigils is still retained in the Roman Catholic Church, by the use of a special office and in the case of some great festivals by a strict fast. In the English Book of Common Prayer the "vigils or evens' of the chief festivals are retained in the calendar as days of fasting, but they have no spe- cial observance appointed for them. VIGILANCE COMMITTEE. In the United States an unautliorized organization of citizens for the purpose of administering summary justice in the absence of a regular judiciary or when the courts are prevented from exercising their accus- tomed functions. In times of civil .strife or other public emergency, vigilance committees are fre- quently formed for the purpose of ascertaining the loyalty of suspected persons and for enforcing against disloyal ones the punishment fixed by public opinion. Thus, during and immediately preceding the American Revolution, vigilance t^onunittees were formed in many communities to eiiforce the non-importation agreements and to ferret out Tories. These bodies were not very different from the Colonial Committees of Safety and of Correspondence, except that their methods were less open and they were usually self-con- stituted. In the Southern States prior to the Civil War vigilance committees were sometimes formed to enforce the will of the community against abolitionists or other persons suspected of disloyalty to the South, or to prevent the cir- eilation of abolition literature. During the dis- order and confusion of the Reconstruction period similar committees were often formed to warn 'Carpetbaggers,' 'Scalawags,' and obnoxious negro p<diticians. (See Ku-Klux Klan.) The most notable instance of the employment of the vigi- lance committee as a governmental improvisa- tion occurred in California during the years 1848
- ind 1849. Thousands of adventurous characters
had immigrated to this region on account of the discovery of gold, and, as no legal government had yet been organized, the lav.'-abiding citizens sup- plied the deficiency by the organization of vigi- lance committees, which undertook the task of administering justice and punishing criminals. VIGILANTIUS, vij'i-lan'shl-us. A Gallic writer and presbyter of the last years of the fourth century. Born in Calgurris (modern Caz&res), in Western Gaul, he became an inn- keeper, but about 395 he made the acquaintance of Sulpieius Severus, who recommended him to Paulinus of Nola. After Vigilantius's ordina- tion, probably in 395, he went to visit Saint Jerome in Bethlehem, but immediately quarreled with him, attacking his personal beliefs and es- pecially his study of Origen. and in turn lieing sharply assailed by .Jerome's Contra ^'igilantium, a pamphlet from which we gather that the Gallic presbyter, who probably returned to Gaul or to a charge in Barcelona, objected to the worship of relies, to invocation of saints, to celibacy of the clergy, and to monasticism. He resembled Jovinian (q.v.), but was little of a theologian and showed a lack of any grasp of fundamental principles. Consult: Lindner, De Joviniano et Vigilantio (Leipzig, 1840) : and Gilly, Vigilantius and His Times (London, 1844). VIGIL'IXTS, Pope (c.537-555). He was a Roman by birth, of an old senatorial family. He appears first as a deacon in 531 and repre- sented the Papacy at Cons?tantinople during the pontificate of Silverius, to procure whose impris- onment and exile he was sent to Rome by The- odora, wife of the Emperor .Justinian. Vigilius was elected to succeed him by the Roman clergy under the orders of Belisarius, but was not ac-
