291

was a most zealous advocate for all these superstitious rites, undertook the task of refuting Vigilantius, whom he politely stiles " a most blasphemous heretic," comparing him to the Hydra, Cerberus, the Centaurs, &c. and considers him only as the organ of the dæmon. He, however, furnishes us with all the particular articles of his heresy, in the words of Vigilantius himself, which are as follows:

"That the honours paid to the rotten bones and dust of the saints and martyrs, by adoring, kissing, wrapping them up in silk and vessels of gold, lodging them in their churches, and lighting up wax candles before them, after the manner of the heathens, were the ensigns of idolatry. That the celibacy of the clergy was a heresy, and their vows of chastity the seminary of lewdness. That to pray to the dead, or to desire the prayers of the dead was superstitious, for that the souls of the departed saints and martyrs were at rest, in some particular place, whence they could not remove themselves at pleasure, so as to be present every where to the prayers of their votaries. That the sepulchres of the martyrs ought not to be worshipped, nor their fasts and vigils to be observed; and lastly, That the signs and wonders said to be wrought by their reliques and at their sepulchres, served to no good end or purpose of religion."

These were the sacrilegious tenets, as Jerome calls them, which he could not hear with patience, or without the utmost grief, and for which he declares Vigilantius to be a detestable heretic, venting his foul-mouthed blasphemies against the reliques of the martyrs, which were working daily signs and wonders. He bids him go into the churches of those martyrs, and he would be cleansed from the evil spirit which possessed him, and feel himself burnt, not by those wax candles which so much offended him, but by invisible flames which would force that dæ

mon who talked within him, to confess himself to be the same who had personated a Mercury, perhaps, or a Bacchus, or some other of their gods among the heathen." Such is the wild rate, as Dr. Middleton well observes, at which this renowned father raves on through several pages.*

It may probably gratify the reader to see how Jerome refutes the arguments of Vigilantius; and he may take as a specimen the following passage. “If it were such a sacrilege or impiety," says he, "to pay those honours to the reliques of the saints, as Vigilantius contends, then the emperor Constantius must needs be a sacrilegious person, who translated the holy reliques of Andrew, Luke, and Timothy, to Constantinople; then Arcadius Augustus also must be held sacrilegious, who translated the bones of the blessed Samuel from Judea, where they had lain so many ages, into Thrace; then all the bishops were not only sacrilegious but stupid too, who submitted to carry a thing the most contemptible, and nothing but mere dust, in silk and vessels of gold; and lastly, then the people of all the churches must needs be fools, who went out to meet those holy reliques, and received them with as much joy, as if they had seen the prophet himself, living and present among them, for the procession was attended by swarms of people from Palestine even unto Chalcedon, singing with one voice the praises of Christ, who were yet adoring Samuel perhaps, and not Christ, whose prophet and Levite Samuel wast."+

* Postscript to Free Inquiry, p. 131-134.

+ Ubi Supra. p. 137.

I subjoin Mr. Gibbon's account of this singular matter;—even as a specimen of the splendid magnificence of that writer's style, it deserves regard.

“The grateful respect of the Christians for the martyrs of the faith, was exalted, by time and victory, into religious adoration; and the most illustrious of the saints and prophets were deservedly associated to the honours of the martyrs. One hundred and fifty years after the glorious deaths of

Some readers may think the reasoning of Jerome not very conclusive on the question of relics; it is nevertheless certain that his voice prevailed over that of Vigilantius, and that this superstitious practice not only continued but became more and more prevalent and popular. When the tombs of the holy land were exhausted, other tombs and countries supplied the encreasing demand,

St. Peter and St. Paul, the Vatican and the Ostian road were distinguished by the tombs, or rather by the trophies of those spiritual heroes. In the age which followed the conversion of Constantine, the emperors, the consuls, and the generals of armies, devoutly visited the sepulchres of a tent-maker and a fisherman; and their venerable bones were deposited under the altars of Christ, on which the bishops of the royal city continúally offered the unbloody sacrifice. The new capital of the eastern world, unable to produce any ancient and domestic trophies, was enriched by the spoils of dependant provinces. The bodies of St. Andrew, St. Luke, and St. Timothy, had reposed, near three hundred years, in the obscure graves, from whence they were transported, in solemn pomp, to the church of the apostles, which the magnificence of Constantine had founded on the banks of the Thracian Bosphorus. About fifty years afterwards, the same banks were honoured by the presence of Samuel, the judge and prophet of the people of Israel. His ashes, deposited in a golden vase, and covered with a silken veil, were delivered by the bishops into each other's hands. The relics of Samuel were received by the people, with the same joy and reverence which they would have shewn to the living prophet; the highways,from Palestine to the gates of Constantinople, were filled with an uninterrupted procession; and the emperor Arcadius himself, at the head of the most illustrious members of the clergy and senate, advanced to meet his extraordinary guest, who had always deserved and claimed the homage of kings. The example of Rome and Constantinople confirmed the faith and discipline of the catholic world. The honours of the saints and martyrs, after a feeble and inefféctual murmur of profane reason, were universally established; and in the age of Ambrose and Jerome, something was still deemed wanting to the sanctity of a Christian church, till it had been consecrated by some portion of holy relics, which fixed and inflamed the devotion of the faithful.

"In the long period of twelve hundred years, which elapsed between the reign of Constantine and the reformation of Luther, the worship of saints and relics corrupted the pure and perfect simplicity of the Christian model; and some symptoms of degeneracy may be observed even in the first generations which adopted and cherished this pernicious innovation,

Saints and martyrs were invented for the sake of their bones, and dreams and miracles were employed in the discovery of obscure names and of sacred graves till then unknown to some. To write the life of a saint, to make a pilgrimage to his tomb, to bring home fragments of his bones, of his coffin, or of his clothes, or to erect a church to his memory, were acts not only honourable and meritorious but frequently extremely lucrative. Scarcely any one deemed himself safe, especially on a journey or in times of danger, without some scrap of a relic in his possession. It was necessary to the security of every habitation, and to the comfort of every family, and neither church nor monastery was considered as duly consecrated, till it became the repository of the relics of some reputed saints; and, if his name were renowned, the church was crowded with supplicants for health, children, or prosperity his priests were loaded with presents, and his treasury stored with donations of money and land.

:

Towards the close of the sixth century, the Greek Empress made a pressing application to Pope Gregory I. for the body of the apostle Paul, to be placed in the church at Constantinople which had then recently been erected in honour of that apostle. Gregory wrote to her in reply that she had solicited what he durst not grant; for, said he, "the bodies of the apostles Paul and Peter are so terrible by their miracles, that there is reason to apprehend danger, even in approaching to pray to them. My predecessor wanted to make some alteration on a silver ornament on the body of St. Peter, at the distance of fifteen feet, when an awful vision appeared to him which was followed by his death. I myself wished to repair somewhat about the body of St. Paul, and with a view to that had occasion to dig a little near his sepulchre; when in digging, the superior of the place raising some bones apparently unconnected with the sacred tomb, had a dis

mal vision after it, and suddenly died. In like manner, the workman and the monks, not knowing precisely the grave of Saint Lawrence, accidentally opened it; and having seen the body, though they did not touch it, died in ten days. Wherefore, Madam, the Romans in granting relics, do not touch the saints' bodies: they only put a little linen in a box, which they place near them: after some time they withdraw it, and deposit the box and linen solemnly in the church which they mean to dedicate. This linen performs as many miracles, as if they had transported the real body! In the time of Pope Leo, some Greeks, doubting the virtue of such relics, he took a pair of scissars, as we are assured, and cutting the linen, forthwith the blood flowed from it. He, however, tells the Empress, that he would endeavour to send her a few grains of the chain, which had been on Paul's neck and hands, and which had been found peculiarly efficacious, provided they succeeded, which was not always the case, in filing them off.”*

This may suffice for giving the reader some idea of the deplorable state to which the "holy catholic church" was reduced in the fifth and sixth centuries of the Christian æra-and I therefore quit the subject, to pass on to affairs of a different description.

* Fleury's Eccles. Hist. tom. viii. p. 91–93.

SECTION IV.

THE SUBJECT CONTINUED.

On the death of the emperor Theodosius, the govern ment of the Roman world devolved upon his two sons,