A Treatise on Relics Part 14

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FOOTNOTES

1 An English translation of this Treatise was published under the following t.i.tle:-"A very profitable Treatise, declarynge what great profit might come to all Christendom yf there were a regester made of all the saincts' bodies and other reliques which are as well in Italy as in France, Dutchland, Spaine, and other kingdoms and conntreys. Translated out of the French into English by J. Wythers, London, 1561." 16mo. I have made my translation from the French original, reprinted at Paris in 1822.

2 It is well known that more than half a million of pilgrims went to wors.h.i.+p the holy coat of Treves in 1844, and that many wonderful stories about the cures effected by that relic were related. Several of these stories are not altogether without foundation, because there are many cases where imagination affects the human body in such a powerful manner as to cause or cure various diseases. It was therefore to be expected that individuals suffering from such diseases should be at least temporarily relieved from their ailings by a strong belief in the miraculous powers of the relic. Cases of this kind are always noticed, whilst all those of ineffectual pilgrimage are never mentioned.

3 A translation of this letter was published in the _Allgemeine Zeitung_ of Augsburg.

4 Thus St Anthony of Padua restores, like Mercury, stolen property; St Hubert, like Diana, is the patron of sportsmen; St Cosmas, like Esculapius, that of physicians, &c. In fact, almost every profession and trade, as well as every place, have their especial patron saint, who, like the tutelary divinity of the Pagans, receives particular honours from his or her _proteges_.

5 In his Treatise given below.

6 "Quod legentibus Scriptum, hoc et idiotis, praestat pictura, quia in ipsa ignorantes vident quid sequi debeant, in ipsas legunt qui litteras nesciunt," says St Gregory.-_Maury, Essai sur les Legendes_, &c., p. 104.

7 "Quoniam talis memoria quae imaginibus fovetur, non venit es cordis amore, sed ex visionis necessitate."-_Opus ill.u.s.trissimi Caroli magni contra Synodum pro adorandis imaginibus_, p. 480, (in 18-1549),-a work of which I shall have an opportunity more amply to speak.

8 See his chapter on the "Ill Effects of Solitude on the Imagination"-English translation.

9 Ibid.

10 "Fleury Histoire Eccles.," lib. xxi. chap. 15.

11 The author of this sketch says himself, in a note, "Yet this idolatry is far from having entirely disappeared. Pilgrimages, and a devotion to certain images, but particularly to that of the Virgin, are still continuing," &c. This was said in 1843. I wonder what he will say now, when this idolatry is reappearing, even in those parts of Europe where the Calvinists had, according to his expression, struck at its very root.

12 "Essai sur les Legendes Pieuses du Moyen Age," par Alfred Maury, pp.

111, _et seq._

13 "Chateaubriand Etudes Historiques," vol. ii. p. 101.

14 "Histoire de la Destruction du Paganisme dans l'Empire d'Orient,"

par M. Chastel, Paris, 1850, p. 342 _et seq._

15 "Histoire de la Destruction du Paganisme en Occident," par A.

Beugnot, Member of the French Inst.i.tute, Paris, 1835, 8vo, 2 vols.

_ 16 Translator's Note._-Was not the introduction of pagan rites into the church the indirect way to idolatry alluded to in the text?

_ 17 Author's Note._-The festivals of the martyrs was a very large concession made to the old manners, because all that took place daring those days was not very edifying.

_ 18 Translator's Note._-I shall give in its proper place a more ample account of Vigilantius.

_ 19 Author's Note._-These compromises were temporary, and the church revoked them as soon as she believed that she could do it without inconvenience. She struggled hard against the calends of January, after having for a considerable time suffered these festivities; and when she saw that she could not succeed in abolis.h.i.+ng them, she decided to transport the beginning of the year from the first of January to Easter, in order to break the Pagan customs.

_ 20 Author's Note._-"The Saturnalia, and several other festivals, were celebrated on the calends of January; Christmas was fixed at the same epoch. The Lupercalia, a pretended festival of purification, took place during the calends of February; the Christian purification (Candlemas) was celebrated on the 2d of February. The festival of Augustus, celebrated on the calends of August, was replaced by that of St Peter _in vinculis_, established on the 1st of that month. The inhabitants of the country, ever anxious about the safety of their crops, obstinately retained the celebration of the _Ambarvalia_; St Mamert established in the middle of the fifth century the _Rogations_, which in their form differ very little from the _Ambarvalia_. On comparing the Christian calendar with the Pagan one, it is impossible not to be struck by the great concordance between the two. Now, can we consider this concordance as the effect of chance? It is princ.i.p.ally in the usages peculiar only to some churches that we may trace the spirit of concessions with which Christianity was animated during the first centuries of its establishment. Thus, at Catania, where the Pagans were celebrating the festival of Ceres after harvest, the church of that place consented to delay to that time the festival of the Visitation, which is celebrated everywhere else on the 2d July."-_F. Aprile Cronologia Universale di Sicilia_, p. 601. I would recommend to those who wish to study this subject the work of _Marangoni_, a very interesting work, though its author (whose object was to convince the Protestants who attacked the discipline of the Roman Catholic Church on account of these concessions) tried to break the evident connection which exists between certain Christian and Pagan festivals.

_ 21 Author's Note._-"There are at Rome even now several churches which had formerly been pagan temples, and thirty-nine of them have been built on the foundations of such temples."-_Marangoni_, pp. 236-268.

There is no country in Europe where similar examples are not found.

It is necessary to remark, that all these transformations began at the end of the fifth century.

_ 22 Author's Note._-At Rome four churches have pagan names, viz:-_S.

Maria Sopra Minerva_, _S. Maria Aventina_, _St Lorenzo in Matuta_, and _St Stefano del Cacco_. At Sienna, the temple of Quirinus became the church of _St Quiricus_.

_ 23 Translator's Note._-And still more to their corruption.

_ 24 Translator's Note._-Christ has said, "Come unto me, all ye that labour and are heavy laden, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you, and learn of me; for I am meek and lowly in heart; and ye shall find rest unto your souls. For my yoke is easy, and my burden is light."-Matt. xi. 28-30. I would ask the learned author, whether these words of our Saviour are not sufficiently mild, tender, and consoling, and whether there was any necessity to _consecrate_ some new ideas in order to temper their severity?

_ 25 Author's Note._-Amongst a mult.i.tude of proofs I shall choose only one, in order to show with what facility the wors.h.i.+p of Mary swept away in its progress the remnants of Paganism which were still covering Europe:-Notwithstanding the preaching of St Hilarion, Sicily had remained faithful to the ancient wors.h.i.+p. After the council of Ephesus, we see eight of the finest Pagan temples of that island becoming in a very short time churches dedicated to the Virgin. These temples were, 1. of Minerva, at Syracuse; 2. of Venus and Saturn, at Messina; 3. of Venus Erigone, on the Mount Eryx, believed to have been built by Eneas; 4. of Phalaris, at Agrigent; 5. of Vulcan, near Mount Etna; 6. the Pantheon, at Catania; 7. of Ceres, in the same town; 8. the Sepulchre of Stesichorus.-V. _Aprile Cronologia Universale di Sicilia_. Similar facts may be found in the ecclesiastical annals of every country.