to that of gilds of help. Its administration has always been in the hands of laymen, and it works through local “conferences” or branches, the general council having been suspended because it declined to accept a cardinal as its official head.
Lives by Maynard (4 vols., Paris, 1860); Bougaud (2 vols., Paris, 1891); E. de Broglie (5th edition, Paris, 1899); Letters (2 vols., Paris, 1882); A. Loth (Paris, 1880); H. Simard (Lyons, 1894).
VINCENT OF LERINS, ST. or Vincentis Lerinensis (d. c. A.D. 450), an ecclesiastical writer of the Western Church of whose personal history hardly anything is known, except that he was a native of Gaul, possibly brother of St Loup, bishop of Troyes, that he became a monk and priest at Lerinum, and that he died in or about 450. Lerinum (Lerins, off Cannes) had been made by Honoratus, afterwards bishop of Aries, the seat of a monastic community which produced a number of eminent churchmen, among them Hilary of Arles. The school did not produce an extensive literature, but it played an important part in resisting an exaggerated Augustinianism by reasserting the freedom of the will and the continued existence of the divine image in human nature after the fall. As regards Vincent he himself tells us that only after long and sad experience of worldly turmoil did he betake himself to the haven of a religious life. In 434, three years after the council of Ephesus, he wrote the Commonitorium adversus profanas omnium haereticorum novitates, in which he ultimately aims at Augustine's doctrine of grace and predestination. In it he discusses the “notes” which distinguish Catholic truth from heresy, and (cap. 2) lays down and applies the famous threefold test of orthodoxy—quod ubique, quod semper, quod ab omnibus creditum est. It is very striking that in his appeal to tradition Vincent assigns no part to the bishops as such—apart from the council; he appeals to the ancient “teachers,” not to any apostolic succession. His “semi-Pelagian” opposition to Augustine is dealt with by Prosper of Aquitania in his Pro Augustini doctrina responsiones ad capitula objectionum Vincentiarnarium. It explains why the Commonitorium has reached us only in a mutilated form.
The Commonitorium has been edited by Baluze (Paris, 1663, 1669 and 1684) and by Klüpfel (Vienna, 1809). It also occurs in vol. I. of Migne's Patrol. Ser. Lat. (1846). A full summary is given in A. Harnack's History of Dogma, iii. 230 ff. See also F. H. Stanton, Place of Authority in Religion, pp. 167 ff.; A. Cooper-Marsdin, The School of Lerins (Rochester, 1905).
VINCENT FERRER, ST (1355-1419), Spanish Dominican preacher, was born of respectable parentage at Valencia on the 23rd of January 1355. In February 1374 he took the Dominican habit, and after spending some years in teaching, and in completing his theological studies, he was licensed to preach. He graduated as doctor of theology at Lerida in 1374, and his sermons in the cathedral of Valencia from 1385 onwards soon became famous. Cardinal Peter de Luna took him with him to Paris in 1391; and on his own election to the pontificate as antipope Benedict XIII. made Ferrer his confessor and master of the sacred palace. Finding, however, the ecclesiastical atmosphere of Avignon an uncongenial one, he in 1397 resumed his work as a preacher, and Spain, France, Italy, Germany and Great Britain and Ireland were successively visited by him; and in every case numerous conversions were the result of his eloquence, which is described as having been singularly powerful and moving. In 1412 he was delegated by his native city to take part in the election of a successor to the vacant crown of Aragon; and in 1416 he received a special invitation to attend the council of Constance, where he supported the cause of the Flagellants (q.v.). He died at Vannes on the 5th of April 1419, and was canonized by Calixtus III. in 1455, his festival (duplex) being observed on the 5th of April.
See A. Sorbelli, Il trattato di S. Vincenzo Ferrer intorno al Grande Scisma d'Occidente (Bologna, 1906).
VINCI, LEONARDO (1690–1730), Italian musical composer, was born at Strongoli in Calabria in 1690 and educated at Naples under Gaetano Greco in the Conservatorio dei Poveri di Gesù Cristo. He became known first by his comic operas in Neapolitan dialect in 1719; he also composed many serious operas. He was received into the Congregation of the Rosary at Formiello in 1728 and died by poisoning in 1730, not 1732, as is generally stated. His comic operas, of which Le Zite 'n Galera (1722) is the best, are full of life and spirit; in his serious operas, of which Didone Abbandonata (Rome, 1728) and Artaserse (Rome, 1730) are the most notable, have an incisive vigour and directness of dramatic expression, deservedly praised by Burney. The well-known air “Vo solcando,” from Artaserse, is a good example of his style.
VINDELICIA, in ancient geography, a country bounded on the S. by Raetia, on the N. by the Danube and the Vallum Hadriani, on the E. by the Oenus (Inn), on the W. by the territory of the Helvetii. It thus corresponded to the N.E. portion of Switzerland, the S.E. of Baden, and the S. of Württemberg and Bavaria. Together with the neighboring tribes it was subjugated by Tiberius in 15 B.C., and towards the end of the 1st century A.D. was made part of Raetia (q.v.). Its chief town was Augusta Vindelicorum (Augsburg). Its inhabitants were probably of Celtic origin (cf. the recurrence of Vind- in other Celtic names—Vindobona, Vindonissa); some authorities, however, regard them as German. According to Dio Cassius (liv. 22) they were an agricultural people, and later writers (e.g. Isidorus, Origines, i. 4), describe the country as very fertile.
VINDHYA, a range of mountains in Central India. It forms a well-marked, though not quite continuous, chain across India, separating the Ganges basin from the Deccan. Starting on the west in Gujarat, the Vindhyas cross Malwa and the central portions of India, until their easternmost spurs abut on the valley of the Ganges at Rajmahal. They thus roughly form the northern side of the triangle, of which the other two sides are the Eastern and Western Ghats. They have an elevation of 1500 to 4500 ft., nowhere exceeding 5000 ft. Geologically they give their name to the “Vindhyan formation,” one of the recognized rock systems of India. In legendary tradition they formed the demarcating line between the Madyadesha or middle land of the Sanskrit invaders and the non-Aryan Deccan, and they are still largely inhabited by aboriginal races such as the Bhils.
VINE. The grape-vine, botanically Vitis, is a genus of about thirty species, widespread in the north temperate zone, but richest in species in North America. The best known and longest cultivated species is the old-world grape-vine, Vitis vinifera; a variety of this, silvestris, occurs wild in the Mediterranean region, spreading eastwards towards the Caucasus and northwards into southern Germany, and may be regarded as the parent of the cultivated vine. It is of interest to note that grape-stones have been found with mummies in Egyptian tombs of not later age than 3000 years. The seeds have the characteristics of those of V. vinifera, but show some very slight variations from the type of seed now prevalent. Among the Greeks in the time of Homer wine was in general use. The cultivation of the vine must also have been introduced into Italy at a very early period. In Virgil's time the varieties in cultivation seem to have been exceedingly numerous; and the varied methods of training and culture now in use in Italy are in many cases identical with those described by Columella and other Roman writers. Grape-stones have been found among the remains of Swiss and Italian lake dwellings of the Bronze period, and others in tufaceous volcanic deposits near Montpellier, not long before the historic era.
The old-world, species is also extensively cultivated in California, but the grape industry of the eastern United States has been developed from native species, chiefly V. Labrusca and V. aestivalis and their hybrids with V. vinifera. Some of the American varieties have been introduced into France and other countries infested with Phylloxera, to serve as stocks on which to graft the better kinds of European vines, because their roots, though perhaps equally subject to the attacks of the insects, do not suffer so much injury from them as the European species.
