Page:Dictionary of Greek and Roman Biography and Mythology (1870) - Volume 3.djvu/1272

1260 VIGILIUS. VICTRIX. [Venus.] M. VIGE'LLIUS, a Stoic philosopher, who lived with Panaetius. (Cic. deOrat. iii. 21.) VIGrUUS. Dupin enumerates six ecclesiastics who bore this name. 1. ViGILIUS TrIDENTINUS. 2. ViGILIUS, of Africa, who wrote upon the Apocalypse^ as we learn from Cassiodorus. {Inst. Div. 9.) 3. ViGi- Lius, the Deacon. 4. Vigilius Tapsensis. 5. ViGILIUS, bishop of Brescia. 6. Vigilius, a bishop who signed the acts of the council of Agde. Of these, the first, third, and fourth only deserve particular notice. ViGILIUS, bishop of Trent, hence distinguished by the epithet Tridentinus, flourished towards the close of the fourth century and suffered martyrdom, probably in the second consulship of Stilicho, A. D. 405. This is the Vigilius, who, according to Gen- nadius, addressed to a certain Simplicianus, a letter and a tract containing Gesta sui temporis apzid harbaros martyrum. We cannot doubt that two Epistles still extant under the name of Vigilius Dr Martyrio Sanctorum Sisinii et Socior7im^ one addressed to Simplicianus, bishop of Milan, the other to John, bishop of Constantinople, are the pieces here indicated. They will be found under their best form in the Bihliotheca Patrum of Gal- land, vol. viii. (fol. Venet. 1772), p. 203. (Ambros. Epist. xxiv. ; Gennad. de Viris III. 37 ; Galland, Prolog, vol. viii. c. v. p. x. ; Dupin, Ecclesiastical History of the fifth Century ; Schoenemann, Bih- liotheca Patrum Lat. vol. i. c. 4. § 26 ; Bahr, Geschichte der R'6m. Lit. Suppl. Band. 2te Abtheil. §80.) Vigilius, a deacon who flourished under Arca- dius and Honorius, is mentioned by 'Gennadius and Trithemius, as the compiler of a Regula Mona- chorum^ which is still extant, and will be found, under the title Regulae Orientales ex Patrum Orien- talium Epulis collectae a Vigilio Diacono, in the Codex Regularum, published by L. Holstein, 4to. Rom. 1661, Paris. 4to. 1663, and also in the work of Brockie, fol. Aug. Vind. 1759, vol. i. p. 60. (Schoenemann, Bibliotlieca Patrum Lat. vol. ii. §23.) Vigilius, bishop of Thapsus, in Byzacium, hence, designated Tapsetisis, flourished towards the close of the fifth century when Africa was overrun by the Arian Vandals. Being an orthodox Catholic, he was driven from his see by Hunneric, in A. D. 484, and took refiige at Constantinople, where he composed several works, chiefly of a polemical character. Of those enumerated below, the first has always borne the name of Vigilius, although frequently ascribed to Vigilius of Trent ; the others have been found in MSS., some bearing the name of Athanasius, some of Idacius Clarus, some of Augustine, and it has been conjectured by Dupin that they were originally given to the world under these false colours, either for the sake of avoiding persecution, or in the belief that the arguments would be listened to with more respect, and make a more forcible impression if supposed to proceed from such illustrious fathers. It is manifest that such a proceeding must have given rise to the greatest confusion, and it is now almost impossible to determine with certainty the real history of these tracts. I. Adversus Nesforium et Etdycliem Lihri quinque pro defensione Synodi Chodcedonensis ; the nature and object of this piece are sufficiently indicated VINCENTIUS. by the title. Tt was first printed at Tiibingen, fol. 1528, again at Cologne, 8vo. 1575, and appears under its best form, in the works of Vigilius, as collected by Chifflet, and published at Dijon, 4to. 1664, in the same volume with Victor Vitensis. II. Altercatio suh nomine Athanasii adversus Arium. Two dialogues between Athanasius and Arius before an arbiter named Probus. Often in- cluded in the works of Athanasius. III. Alter- caiiones ires. Three dialogues between Athanasius, Arius, Photius, and Sabellius, apparently a second and enlarged edition of the preceding piece. IV. De Trinitate s. De unita Trinitate Deitatis Libri XII.,ohen included among the works of Athanasius. While Chifllet assigns the whole of these books to Vigilius, some scholars maintain that the first eight belong to Idacius, the ninth, tenth, and eleventh to some unknoVn composer, and the twelfth, which bears the separate title Z)e Trinitate et Spiritu Sancto, to Augustine. V. De Unitate Trinitatis ad Optatum s. Dialogus inter Augustinum et Felicianum A rianum. Generally included in the works of Augustine. VI. De Trinitate adversus Varimadum (or Mari- vadum) Lihri tres. Published under the name of Idacius Clarus. VII. Contra Palladium- Arianum episcopum. Included in many editions of the works of Ambrose, and also of Gregory of Nazianzus. The whole of the six last mentioned treatises will be found in the edition of Chifflet, where the authenticity of each is elaborately discussed, and in the Bihliotheca Patrum Max. fol. Lugd. 1677, vol, viii. p. 743. (Walch, Bihliotheca Putrist. c. x. §104.) [W.R.] VI'LLIA GENS, plebeian, is mentioned as early as b. c. 449 [Villius, No. 1], but the only member of the gens who obtained the consulship was P. Villius Tappulus, who was consul B.C. d9. The Villii were divided into the two families of An- NALis and Tappulus : a few persons of the name are mentioned without any cognomen. VI'LLIUS. 1. P. Villius, one of the tribunes of the plebs elected upon the expulsion of the de- cemvirs in B.C. 449. (Liv. iii. 54.) 2. C. Villius, a friend of Tib. Gracchus, was ; cruelly put to death by the ruling party after the ' murder of Gracchus in b. c. 133. He is said toi have been shut up in a vessel with snakes and! vipers, which was the manner in which parricides | were put to death. (Plut. Tib. Gracch. 20.) VINCE'NTIUS, surnamed LIRINENSIS,.; from the celebrated monastery in the island of j Lerins, where he officiated as a presbyter, was by birth a native of Gaul. We are not acquainted i with any particulars regarding his career, except i that he died in the reign of Theodosius and Valen- tinian, about A. d. 450. His fame rests upon a treatise against heretics, composed, as we are told in the body of the work itself, three years after the council of Ephesus, that is, in a. d. 434. It commonly bears the title Commonitorium pro Catho- licae fidei antiquitate et universitate adversus pro" fanas omnium Haereticorum novitales, but accord- ing to Gennadius, when first published, it did not exhibit the name of the writer, and was designated Peregrini (i. e. the Pilgrim) adversus Haereticos. We are farther told that it was originally divided into two parts, but that the second of these having been stolen from the repositories of the author, he contented himself with briefly recapitulating the substance of what it had contained, and gave his work to the world in one book The great aim of