infuriate brothers in Christ (see notes on pp. 136, 137). The
Theopaschites were a branch of the Eutychian heresy, and the
Monophysites were a cognate sect; from these arose the Acephali,
Anthropomorphites, Barsanuphites, and Esaianists. Not less important
than the heresy of Eutyches was that of Pelagius, a British monk, who
taught that man did not inherit original sin on account of Adam's fall,
but that each was born unspotted into the world, and was capable of
rising to the height of virtue by the exercise of his natural faculties.
The semi-Pelagians held that man could turn to God by his own strength,
but that divine grace was necessary to enable him to persevere.

One heretic of this period deserves a special word of record.
Vigilantius was a Gallic priest, remarkable for his eloquence and
learning, and he devoted himself to an effort to reform the Church in
Spain. "Among other things, he denied that the tombs and the bones of
the martyrs were to be honoured with any sort of homage or worship; and
therefore censured pilgrimages that were made to places that were
reputed holy. He turned into derision the prodigies which were said to
be wrought in the temples consecrated to martyrs, and condemned the
custom of performing vigils in them. He asserted, and indeed with
reason, that the custom of burning tapers at the tombs of the martyrs in
broad day, was imprudently borrowed from the ancient superstition of the
Pagans. He maintained, moreover, that prayers addressed to departed
saints were void of all efficacy; and treated with contempt fastings and
mortifications, the celibacy of the clergy, and the various austerities
of the monastic life. And finally he affirmed that the conduct of those
who, distributing their substance among the indigent, submitted to the
hardships of a voluntary poverty, or sent a part of their treasures to
Jerusalem for devout purposes, had nothing in it acceptable to the
Deity" (p. 129). Under these circumstances we can scarcely wonder that