XXII. Ep. Ecc. Smirn. Cyril. lib. nach. c. 28. adv. Vigi religion by the fufferings of the martyrs; if, I fay, they ART. ftudied to gather their bones and afhes together, and bury them decently. They thought it a fign of their being joined with them in one body, to hold their affemblies at Smi the places where they were buried: this might be alfo apud Eufeb. confidered as a motive to encourage others to follow the. 4. c. 15. example that they had given them, even to martyrdom: Jul. Ap. and therefore all the marks of honour were put even upon vi. lib. 10. their bodies that could be thought on, except worthip. Ennap. in After the ages of perfecution were over, a fondnefs of hav. vita deff. ing and keeping their relics began to spread itself in many places. Monks fed that humour by carrying them about. We find in St. Auftin's works, that fuperftition was mak- Aug. de ing a great progrefs in Afric upon thefe heads, of which opere mo he complains frequently. Vigilantius had done it to more purpose in Spain; and did not only complain of the exceffes, but of the thing in itself. St. Jerome fell un- Hieron. mercifully upon him for it, and fets a high value upon lant, to. 2. relics, yet he does not fpeak one word of worshipping them; he denies and difclaims it, and feems only to allow of a great fondnefs for them; and, with most of that age, he was very apt to believe, that miracles were oft wrought by them. When fuperftition is once fuffered to mix with religion, it will be still gaining ground, and it admits of no bounds: fo this matter went on, and new legends were invented; but when the controversy of image-worship began, it followed that as an acceffary. The enfhrining of relics occafioned the moft excellent fort . of images; and they were thought the best preservatives poffible both for foul and body; no prefents grew to be more valued than relics; and it was an eafy thing for the Popes to furnish the world plentifully that way, but chiefly fince the discovery of the catacombs, which has furnished them with ftores not to be exhaufted. The Council of Trent did in this, as in the point of images; it appointed relics to be venerated, but did not determine the degree; fo it left the world in poffeffion of a most exceffive dotage upon them. They are ufed every where by them as facred charms, killed and worshipped, they are served with lights and incenfe. In oppofition to all this, we think, that all decent honours are indeed due to the bodies of the Saints, which were once the temples of the Holy Ghofl: but fince it is faid, 1 Cor. vi. that God took that care of the body of Mofes, fo as to 19. bury it in fuch a manner that no man knew of his fepul- xxxiv. 6. chre, there feems to have been in this a peculiar caution guarding against that fuperftition, which the Jews might Deut. XXII. 2 Kings zviii. 4. ART. very probably have fallen into with relation to his body. And this feems fo clear an indication of the will of God in this matter, that we reckon we are very fafe when we do no further honour to the body of a Saint, than to bury it. And though that Saint had been ever fo eminent, not only for his holinefs, but even for miracles wrought by him, by his fhadow, or even by looking upon him; yet the hiftory of the Brazen Serpent fhews us, that a fondness even on the inftruments, that God made ufe of to work miracles by, degenerates eafily to the fuperftition of burning incenfe to them; but when that appears, it is to be checked, even by breaking that which was fo abused. Hezekiah is commended for breaking in pieces that noble remain of Mofes's time till then preferved; neither its antiquity, nor the fignal miracles once wrought by it, could balance the ill ufe that was then made of it: that good king broke it, for which he might have had a worfe name than an Iconoclast, if he had lived in fome ages. It is true, miracles were of old wrought by Aaron's rod, by Elifha's bones after his death, and the one was preferved, but not worshipped; nor was there any fuperftition that followed on the other. Not a word of this fondness appears in the beginnings of Chriftianity; though it had been an eafy thing at that time to have furnished the world with pieces of our Saviour's garments, hair, or nails; and great ftore might have been had of the Virgin's and the Apoftles' relics: St. Stephen's and St. James's bones might have been then parcelled about: and if that fpirit had then reigned in the Church, which has been in the Roman Church now above a thousand years, we should have heard of the relics that were fent about from Jerufalem to all the Churches. But when fuch things might have been had in great abundance, and have been known not to be counterfeits, we hear not a word of them. If a fondnefs for relics had been in the Church upon Chrift's afcenfion, what care would have been taken to have made great collections of them! Kings iii. 21. Then we fee no other care about the body of St. Stephen but to bury it; and not long after that time upon St. Polycarp's martyrdom, when the Jews, who had fet on the profecution against him, fuggefted, that, if the Chriftians could gain his body, they would perhaps forfake Chrift and worship him; they rejected the accufation with horror; for in the epiftle which the Church of Smyrna writ upon his martyrdom, after they mention this infinuation, they have thofe remarkable words, which belong both to this head, and to that which follows it of the 1. iv. c. 15 the invocation and worship of Saints. Thefe men know not ART. that we can neither forfake Chrift, who fuffered for the falva XXII. tion of all that are faved, the innocent for the guilty, nor worship any other; Him truly being the Son of God we Ep. Eufeb. adore: but the martyrs, and difciples, and followers of the Lord, we justly love, for that extraordinary good mind, which they have expreffed toward their King and Mafler, of whose happiness God grant that we may partake, and that we may learn by their examples. The Jews had fo perfuaded the Gentiles of Smyrna of this matter, that they burnt St. Polycarp's body; but the Chriftians gathered up his bones with much refpect, fo that it appeared how they honoured them, though they could not worship them; and they buried them in a convenient place, which they intended to make the place where they should bold, by the blessing of God, the yearly commemoration of that birth-day of his martyrdom, with much joy and gladness, both to honour the memory of those who bad overcome in that glorious engagement, and to inftruct and confirm all others by their example. This is one of the most valuable pieces of true and genuine antiquity; and it fhews us very fully the fenfe of that age both concerning the relics, and the worship of the Saints. In the following ages, we find no characters of any other regard to the bones or bodies of the Saints, but that they buried them very decently, and did annually commemorate their death, calling it their Birth-Day. And it may incline men ftrongly to fufpect the many miracles that were published in the fourth century, as wrought at the tombs, or memories of the martyrs, or by their relics, that we hear of none of those in the former three centuries; for it seems there was more occafion for them during the perfecution, than after it was over; it being much more neceffary then to furnish Chriftians with so ftrong a motive as this must have been, to refift even to blood, when God was pleafed to glorify himself so fignally in bis Saints. This, I fay, forces us to fear, that credulity and imagination, or fomewhat worse, than both these, might have had a large fhare in thofe extraordinary things that are related to us by great men in the fourth century. He must have a great difpofition to believe wonderful things, that can digeft the extraordinary relations that Bafil. in 40 are even in St. Bafil, St. Ambrofe, and St. Auftin; and Martyr. in moft fignally in St. Jerome: for inftance, that after one had Hom. 26, in ftolen Hilarion's body out of Cyprus, and brought it to Pa- Paul. in vita leftine, upon which Conftantia, that went conftantly to his Ambrof. tomb, was ready to have broke her heart; God took fuch Aug. de pity on her, that as the true body wrought great miracles lib. xxii. c. Y 3 Mamar. Civit. Dei, in 8. ART XXIL in Paleftine, fo likewife very great miracles continued fill to be wrought at the tomb, where it was at firft laid. One, in refpect to thofe great men, is tempted to fufped that many things might have been foifted into their writings in the following ages. A great many practices of this kind have been made manifeft beyond contradiction. Whole books have been made to pafs for the writings of fathers, that do evidently bear the marks of a much later date, where the fraud was carried too far not to be discovered. At other times parcels have been laid in among their genuine productions, which cannot be fo eafily distinguished; they not being liable to fo many critical enquiries, as may be made on a larger work. It is a little unaccountable how fo many marvellous things Chryfoft. fhould be published in that age; and yet that St. ChryfofHom. 6. in tom, who spent his whole life between two of the publick1 ad Cor. ii. eft fcenes of the world, Antioch and Conftantinople, and was an active and inquifitive man, fhould not so much as have heard of any fuch wonderful ftories; but fhould have taken pains to remove a prejudice out of the minds of his hearers, that might arife from this, that whereas they heard of many miracles that were wrought in the times of the Apostles, none were wrought at that time; upon which, he gives very good reafons why it was fo. His faying fo pofitively, That none were wrought at that time, without fo much as a falvo for what he might have heard from other parts, fhews plainly, that he had not heard of any at all. For he was orator enough to have made even loofer reports look probable. This does very much fhake the credit of thofe amazing relations that we find in St. Jerome, St. Ambrofe, and St. Auftin. It is true, there feems to have been an opinion very generally received both in the Eaft and the Weft, at that time, which muft have very much heightened the growing fuperftition for relics. It was a remnant both of Judaifm and Gentilifm, that the fouls of the martyrs hovered about their tombs, called their memories; and that therefore they might be called upon, and fpoke to there. This appears even in the Council of Elliberis, where the fuperftition of lighting candles about their tombs in day-light is forbidden; the reafon given is, because the fpirits were not to be difquieted. Pafil. in 40 St. Bafil, and the other Fathers, that do fo often mention the going to their memories, do very plainly infinuate their being prefent at them, and hearing themfelves called upon. This may be the reafon why, among all the faints that are fo much magnified in that age, we never find the bleffed Virgin fo much as once mentioned. They knew tyr. not XXII. not where her body was laid, they had no tomb for her, A Rt. no nor any of her relics or utenfils. But upon the occafion of Neftorius's denying her to be the Mother of God, and by carrying the oppofition to that too far, a fuperftition for her was fet on foot, it made a progrefs fufficient to balance the flowness of its beginning; the whole world was then filled with very extravagant devotions for her. lib. 10. nap. in vita The great noife we find concerning relics in the end of the fourth century, has all the characters of novelty poffible in it; for thofe who fpeak of it, do not derive it from former times. One circumftance in this is very remarkable, that neither Trypho, Celfus, Lucian, nor Cecilius, do object to the Chriftians of their time, their fondnefs for dead bodies, or praying about their tombs, which they. might well have alleged in oppofition to what the Chriftians charged them with, if there had been any occafion for it. Whereas this cuftom was no fooner begun, than both, Julian and Eunapius reproach the Chriftians for it. Julian, Ap. Cyr. it is true, fpeaks only of their calling on God over fepul-conchres: Eunapius writ after him; and it feems, in his time, that which Julian fets forth as a calling upon God, Ædeff. was advanced to an invocation of them. He fays, they; beaped together the bones and fkulls of men that had been punished for many crimes, (it was natural enough for a spiteful Heathen to give this reprefentation of their martyrdom,) holding them for Gods: and after fome fcurrilous invectives against them, he adds, they are called Martyrs, and made the minifters and messengers of prayer to the Gods. This feems to be a very evident proof of the novelty of this matter. As for the adoring them, when Vigilantius afked, Why doft thou kifs and adore a little duft put up in fine linen? St. Jerome, though exceffively fond of them, denies this very pofitively, and that in very injurious terms, being offended at the injuftice of the reproach. Yet as long as the bodies of the martyrs were let lie quietly in their memories, the fond opinion of their being prefent, and hearing what was faid to them, made the invocating them look like one man's defiring the affiftance of another good man's prayers; fo that this ftep feemed to have a fair colour. But when their bodies were pulled afunder, and carried up and down, fo that it was believed miracles abounded every where about them; and when their bones and relics grew to increafe and multiply, fo that they had more bones and limbs than God and nature had given them; then new hypothefes were to be found. out to juftify the calling upon them every where, as their relics Y 4 |