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also, composed by Nazarius, is silent concerning this prodigy. One of the panegyrists speaks of a bad omen, by which he might mean the cross. See Tillemont H. des Emp. iv. 632. not.

But, after all, it seems rather more natural to interpret ypapur réyovoar of a writing than of a picture. It is an ugly circumstance, and I wish we could get fairly rid of it.

Licinius, if we may believe the writer de Mortibus Persecutorum, was instructed by an angel how to obtain the victory over Maximinus, cap. xlvi. p. 276. This seems to have been a military stratagem of Licinius, to regain the favour of the Christians, and to animate his soldiers.

It hath been controverted whether Licinius ever was a Christian. Cardinal Noris takes the negative, Pagi and Basnage the affirmative. The truth of the case seems to have been, that he pretended for some time to be a Christian, but never was so; and that, finding the Christians to be much more fond of Constantine than of himself, he threw off the mask. See S. Basnage Ann. ii. 667.

When the church under Constantine and his successors enjoyed the protection of the civil powers, the Christians compared their present with their past condition, and called to mind the sufferings of their predecessors, and the patience and fortitude which they had exerted, particularly in the last and severest persecutions. These considerations raised in them an high, and indeed a just veneration for the martyrs: but it did not stop here, it ran into excess, and produced bad effects. Every rumour concerning the behaviour of those saints was received without due examination, the number of the sufferers was augmented, the sufferings

ferings of some of them were exaggerated, and many fictitious miracles were added to the account. Their bodies were discovered by the help of visions and revelations, and were said to emit perfumes, and to work miracles without end. This drew a great resort to their graves, and every one had his story to tell of the benefits which himself or his neighbour had received. To have been suspicious or slow of belief on such occasions would have passed for little better than atheism, and thus the frenzy grew epidemical. In the time of Augustin, many real or pretended monks went strolling about, as hawkers and pedlars, selling the bones, and reliques of martyrs *: August. de Op. Monach. 28.

The fathers of those times, as Athanasius, Gregory Nazianzen, and who not, but particularly Chrysostom with his popular eloquence, contributed to the utmost of their power to encourage the superstitious veneration and invocation of saints, the love of monkery, and the belief of miracles wrought by monks and reliques. Some of these fathers, particularly Gregory, were in other respects valuable men, but this was the distemper of the age, and they were not free from it. See Chrysostom T. i. Orat. 40. p. 485. Ed. Par.

Thence arose religious addresses to the martyrs, who were considered as patrons and intercessors, which tended to lessen the reliance and gratitude due to Christ, and to substitute new expedients in the room of rational piety and strict morality; and those Christians who were conscious of their own defects began to pay immoderate honours to the martyrs,

that

* See a Dissertation of Mabillon, De Cultu Sanctorum ignotorum, in the Act. Erud. 1699. p. 107.

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that by their interest they might obtain remission of
sins. Prudentius, who had a fine genius, and was a
good poet for the time in which he flourished, to a-
tone, as he says, for the follies of his youth, spent his
latter days in defending the catholic faith, and in
composing hymns to the martyrs, and expresses his
hopes that Saint Romanus would do him a consider-
able service at the day of judgment, for the sake of a
poem in which he had celebrated that martyr.
Vellem sinister inter Hodorum greges
Ut sum futurus, eminus dinoscerer,
Atque hoc precante, diceret Rex optimus,
Romanus orat, transfer huc hædum mihi ;
Sit dexter agnus; induatur vellere.

Περὶ Στέφ. 10.

These practices suited the half-converts and nominal Christians, who came over for the loaves, under Christian emperors. The gay and splendid appearance of the church helped to allure them; they found new religious amusements to make up for those which they had quitted, and if they were superstitious before, they might be so still, mutatis mutandis. In the room of gods and goddesses they had saints male and female, lord and lady protectors, to whom they might pay their respects and instead of sleeping in their own temples, they could slumber over the bones of the martyrs, and receive as good information and assistance. If they longed for miracles, portents, prodigies, prophecies, visions, dreams, omens, divinations, amulets, charms, &c. they might be supplied.

Thus the fathers of the fourth century in general. introduced an irregular worship of the saints. I am sorry that I cannot entirely acquit Eusebius this head: He speaks thus in his Præparatio, xiii. 11.

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* Τῶν δὲ δὴ ἀποθανόντων ἐπὶ τρατείας, ὃς ἂν εὐδοκιμήσας τελευτήσῃ, αρ' ν πρῶτον μὲν φήσομεν το χρυσό γένους εἶναι; Πᾶν γε μάλιςα.

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μονίους τε καὶ θείους τιθέναι, και τίνι διαφόρῳ, ὅτω καὶ ταύτῃ θησο

μεν ᾗ ἂν ἐξηγῆται. Τί δ ̓ οὐ μελλομεν ; Καὶ τὸν λοιπὸν δὴ χρόνον, ὡς Δαίμονας γεγονότας, οὕτω θεραπεύσομεν τε, καὶ προσκυνήσου μεν αὐτῶν τὰς θήκας. Τὰ αὐτὰ δὲ ταῦτα νομίσμεν, ὅταν τὶς γήρᾳ, ἣ τινι ἄλλῳ τρόπῳ τελευτήσῃ, τῶν ὅσοι ἂν διαφερόντως ἐν τῷ βίῳ ἀγαθοὶ κριθῶσι.” Καὶ ταῦτα δὲ ἁρμώζει ἐπὶ τῇ τῶν θεοφιλῶν τελευτῇ, ὃς σρατιώτας τῆς ἀληθῆς εὐσεβείας οὐκ ἂν ἀμάροις εἰπὼν, παραλαμβάνεσθαι. ὅθεν καὶ ἐπὶ τὰς θήκας αὐτῶν ἔθος ἡμῖν πα ρίεναι, καὶ τὰς εὐχὰς παρὰ ταύταις ποιῆσθαι, τιμᾶν τε τὰς μακαρίας αὐτῶν ψυχάς, ὡς εὐλόγως και τέτων ὑφ ̓ ἡμῶν γιγνομένων. Jam vero (inquit Plato, qui post egregia virtutis exempla, honestam in bello mortem occubuerint, numquid eos in primis ex aureo illo genere fuisse dicemus? Maxime vero. Num etiam Hesiodum audiemus, dum ex eo genere qui vivendi finem fecerint, de illis ita pronunciat,

Sunt alii Heroes casti, terrasque frequentant,

Atque ultro mala depellunt, hominesque tuentur ? Sane audiemus. Consulto itaque Numine, quonam Heroes illos ac Semideos ritu, quove discrimine consecrari oporteat, religiose omnino quicquid responderit, observabimus. Enimvero faciendum id erit. Tum illos deinceps tanquam Heroas venerabimur, eorumque sepulcra sanctiore cultu prosequemur. Eadem porro statuimus, ubi quis post vitam cum excel lentis probitatis opinione traductam, supremum aut se nio, aut alio quovis modo diem obierit. Hæc Plato. Quee

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Praying at the tombs of the martyrs was one of the fooleries which the fathers should have restrained. What an idea did it give, to weak Christians, of the Almighty, who ought to be worshipped in spirit and in truth? As if He could be supposed to shew more favour to a petition, because it was offered up at the place where a good man lay buried?

As the honours paid to the dead and to the reliques of the martyrs were set forward and supported, though not entirely, yet principally by the Consubstantialists, the Arians seem to have been rather less disposed to run into these puerilities. Faustus the Manichæan reproaches the Catholic Christians with their endless superstitions of this kind, and tells them that they were no better than humble imitators of Pagan Idolaters.

What the Pagans said of their gods coming at cer tain times to visit their cities, the Christians afterwards said of their saints. See Valesius on Euseb. p. 445, 6.

Juturna Nympha, quæ juvaret. Itaque multi cegroti propter id nomen, hinc aquam petere solent, says Varro. For the same reason women big with child sacrificed to Egeria, quod eam putarent facile fætum alvo egerere, Festus.

In like manner Christians have adored those saints, whose names resembled their diseases, their wants, their trades, &c. See La Motthe Le Vayer Hexam. Rustique, p. 136, &c. who banters these superstitions of those of his own communion.

The sufferings of the martyrs had another effect upon persons of more zeal than prudence, and of a fervid and fanatical disposition. The times of martyrdom were over, and that sort of courage and con

stancy

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