1164
VITALIS
VITALIUS
for we must suppose that what we pray for isdone, not by Him, but by ourselves. In main-taining free will let us not deny God’s grace ; forif we do so to thank God for bringing us out ofdarkness (Col. i. 12) is a mockery. Men becomeChristians by free will, but, at the same time, byHis grace. Children are redeemed, regenerated,not by their own free will; but this must becalled into action afterwards by agreement withsaving doctrine. The works of unbelievers, e.g.of illustrious Homans, being done without faith,cannot please God however much they may pleasemen. It is the Mediator who enters into thestrong man’s house and binds him. Teaching isnot grace, but grace makes teaching effectual(John vi. 68). We pray for the conversion ofsinners; we pray, not that doctrine may bepreached to them, but that their will may bechanged. The faithful pray that they may per-severe, carrying out the warning of 1 Cor. x. 12.The question as to the removal of Christians inearly life, in order to prevent them from fallinginto sin, must be put aside for the present; ourduty is to walk in true faith now.
Then follow twelve rules or principles opposedto the doctrine of Pelagius, of which the sub-stance may be said to be that grace is given byGod at His pleasure, not on account of man’sdesert whether in the case of children or adults.All, even children, will be judged for theirworks. Those who believe in God do so oftheir own free will. We pray for unbelievers,that they may be brought to believe; we thankGod for those who have been so brought. Insumming up what has been said, Augustinetouches the argument drawn from 1 Tim. ii. 4-, byshowing that some infants die without baptism,and, on the other hand, the one drawn from1 Cor. xv. 22, by showing that those who aresaved are so in accordance with God’s will, butthat against his will none can be saved. Asthose who die in the Lord are blessed, theopinion that men will be judged according totheir hypothetical conduct is absurd. To saythat men believe with their own free will is notto deny free will, whereas those who opposeGod’s grace really do so. How can we thankGod for what He has not done ? or will Vitalisrefuse to allow the church to pray for the con-version of infidels, as the priest does at the altar,or will he blame St. Paul for praying for theJews ? If he allows that prayer to God andthanksgiving are lawful, how can he deny thatGod’s grace precedes man’s will ? (Aug. Ep. 217.)
[H. W. P.]
VITALIS (8), a notary on the Catholic sideat the conference A.D. 411 (Carth. Coll. i. 1.132; ii. 1. iff. 1). [H. W. P.]
VITALIS (9), addressed along with Tojtan-tius (1) by Capreolus. [C. H.]
VITALIS (10), bishop of Truentum or Trontoin Picenum, and, with Misenus, legate of Felix III.in A.D. 483, sent to Constantinople to procurethe deposition of Peter Mongus. Overcome byimprisonment and threats, they were induced togo over to the side of Acacius, to join him in pro-cessions, to communicate with him and the here-tical partisans of Peter Mongus, and to recite thename of the latter in the diptvchs. Theybrought back a letter from Acacius to the pope
in which he praised Peter Mongus. On theirreturn the pope assembled a council at Rome inJuly, a.d. 484, at which they were deposed fromthe episcopate and excluded from communiontill the church of Alexandria should receive aCatholic bishop. Vitalis died excommunicatedbetween a.d. 492 and 495, but at a synod underpope Gelasius in the latter year Misenus was ad-mitted to communion and restored to the episco-pate on abjuring Eutychianism and anathema-tizing its chief supporters. [Felix (3) III. andGelasius (1)] (Felicis III. Epist. 2, 6, 10; Libe-ratus 18, in Migne, Pair. Lat. lviii. 899, 921,936, lxviii. 1028 ; Evag. H. E . iii. 20). [F. D.]
VITALIS (11), third abbat of M. Cassinoafter St. Benedict. (Paulus Diac. Hist. Lang.iv. 18.) [F. D.j
VITALIS (12), addressed as bishop ofRavenna, by Venantius Fortunatus, in twopoems describing the church of St. Andrew andits consecration which Vitalis had built ( Miscell .i. 1, 2, in Migne, Patr. Lat. lxxxviii. 63). As nobishop of Ravenna of this name is otherwiseknown, the editor of Fortunatus conjectures heis the same as Maximianus, who was bishop fromA.D. 546 to a.d. 553, and who restored the churchof St. Andrew (Agnellus, V. S. Maximiani 4, inPatr. Lat. cvi. 608). [F. D.]
VITALIS (13), defensor of the Roman churchat Cagliari in Sardinia. Four letters of Gregorythe Great are addressed to him (lib. ix. ind. ii. 2,64, lib. xi. ind. iv. 23, lib. xiv. ind. vii. 2, inMigne, Patr. Lat. 940, 1000, 1135, 1303). Inthe first the case of Januarius, bishop of Cagliari,is referred to, who was accused of ploughing upthe crops of a neighbour on a Sunday and remov-ing his landmarks, and Vitalis is forbidden totake any commission on the money remitted bythe pope for wheat purchased; in the second, heis forbidden to interfere with the bishop’s juris-diction over his clergy; in the third, he is toldto assist in the purchase of Barbaricine slaves.The Barbaricines were the heathen descendantsof a tribe transported to Sardinia by the Vandals,who lived by brigandage in the mountains nearCagliari. [F. D.]
VITALIUS (Vitalis), the most distin-guished and influential of the disciples ofApollinaris, ordained by him bishop of his schis-matical congregation at Antioch. Vitalius wasa man of the highest character, much revered atAntioch for the sanctity of his life and his manyvirtues. He had been brought up in the ortho-dox faith, and after having spent some years asa layman was ordained presbyter by Meletius(Theod. H. E. v. 4; Soz. H. E. vi. 25). An un-happy jealousy of his fellow presbyter Flavian,whom he thought to be higher in Meletius’sfavour than himself, caused a breach betweenhim and his bishop. Deprived of the whole-some guidance of Meletius, Vitalius fell underthe influence of Apollinaris, whose intimatefriend he became, and embraced his theologicalsystem. Tidings of his unsoundness in the faithhaving reached Rome, Vitalius made a journeythither (which may be placed in 375) to clearhimself of the charges before pope Damasus, andto be received by him into communion. By the useof equivocal terms, and the production of a de-