Christ was the only one who remained immaculate after giving birth to a son[1]. But how are we then to understand "he opened the womb?"—this is to be understood, as St. Gregory of Nyssa explains it[2]: "Solus ille haud ante patefactam virginalem speruit vulvam;" that he preserved the virginity of his holy Mother. This is what St. Ambrose likewise says: "Hic (Christus) solus aperuit sibi vulvam"[3]. And treating of the Mysteries against Jovinian, he says: "Why do you seek the order of nature in the body of Christ, when setting aside the order of nature, he was born of a virgin?" Basnage lauds St. Jerome as being of his opinion; but the passage he adduces is not to be found in St. Jerome's writings; besides, St. Jerome[4] says, in his Dialogues: "Christ alone opened the closed doors of the virginal womb, which, nevertheless, remained ever and always closed;" so that the very Fathers Basnage quotes in his favour, most expressly condemn the impious error he attempts to defend.
4. Vigilantius was a native of Comminges, near the foot of the Pyrenees, and of very low origin, having been a tavern-keeper for some time; somehow or other, he found leisure to study, and lead a pious life at the same time, so that he acquired the friendship of St. Paulinus, of Nola, who gave him a letter of recommendation to St. Jerome, and he undertook a journey to the Holy Land. This letter was so far useful to him, that St. Jerome, who knew him to be a man of relaxed morals, did not treat him as his hypocrisy deserved[5]. He had the audacity to treat St. Jerome as a heretic, of the sect of Origen, because he saw him reading Origen's work; but the Saint, in the year 397, wrote to him[6], that he read these works, not to follow all their doctrine, but to take whatever was good out of them, and he exhorts him either to learn or be silent. Some years after, about the year 404, Riparius, a priest, wrote to St. Jerome, that Vigilantius began to dogmatize, speaking against the Relics of Martyrs and Vigils in churches. St. Jerome gave a summary answer, and promised to return again to the subject, and treat it more amply, when he would have read Vigilantius' work[7]; and having soon after seen the production, he gave it a short but strong answer, because the monk Sisinius, who brought it to him, was in a hurry to return to Egypt[8]. The following are the errors of Vigilantius, refuted by St. Jerome. First.—Like Jovinian, he condemned the practice of celibacy. Second.—He condemned the veneration of the relics of the martyrs; and called those who honoured them Cinerists and idolaters. Third.—He said it was a pagan superstition to light candles by day in their honor. Fourth.—He maintained that the faithful after death could no lon-
