A Treatise on Relics Part 16

73 "Vie de St Francois Xavier," par le Pere Bouhours, 1716. _Apud_ Maury, p. 22.

74 "Liber Aureus Inscriptus, Liber Conformitatum Vitae Beati ac Seraphici Patris Francisci, ad Vitam Jesu Christi Domini Nostri." It went through several editions.

75 The t.i.tle of this curious work is "Histoire de St Francois d'a.s.sise, par Emile Chavin de Malan." Paris: 1845.

76 "Edinburgh Review," April 1847, p. 295.

77 History of St Waltheof, p. 2 in the 5th vol. of the collection.

78 Ibid., p. 24.

79 Life of St Augustine of Canterbury, Apostle of the English, p. 237, in the 1st volume of the English Saints, mentioned above.

80 There is a German story which is evidently a parody of this legend.

It says that an individual who was pa.s.sionately fond of playing at nine-pins committed a crime for which he was sentenced to be beheaded. He requested, as a favour which was usually granted to culprits before their execution, to indulge once more in his favourite game. This demand being conceded, he began to play with such ardour that he entirely forgot his impending execution. The executioner, who was present, got tired of waiting for the culprit, and seizing a moment when he stretched his neck picking up a ball from the ground, cut off his head. The culprit was, however, so keen in the pursuit of his game, that he seized his own head, and having made with it a successful throw, exclaimed, "Haven't I got all the nine?"

81 An old German ballad gives a fair specimen of the ideas which people entertained of the joys of heaven. It says, amongst other things:-"Wine costs not a penny in the cellar of heaven; angels bake bread and cracknels at the desire of every one; vegetables of every kind abundantly grow in the garden of heaven; pease and carrots grow without being planted; asparagus is as thick as a man's leg, and artichokes as big as a head. When it is a lent day, the fishes arrive in shoals, and St Peter comes with his net to catch them, in order to regale you. St Martha is the cook and St Urban the butler."-See Maury, p. 88.

82 Zimmerman's "Solitude Considered with respect to its Dangerous Influence upon the Mind and Heart." English translation. Ed. 1798, p. 102, _et seq._

_ 83 Vide supra_, p. 17.

84 "Mandat sancta synodus omnibus episcopis et caeteris, ut juxta catholicae et apostolicae ecclesiae usum, a primaevis Christianae religionis temporibus receptum, de legitimo imaginum usu fideles diligenter instruunt, docentes eos, imaginis Christi et Deiparae Virginis, et aliorum sanctorum, in templis praesertim habendas et retinendas, eisque debitum honorem et venerationem impertiendam; non quod credatur inesse aliqua in divinitas, vel virtus, propter quam sint colendae; vel quod ab iis aliquod sit petendum; vel quod fiducia in imaginibus sit figenda, veluti olim fiebat a gentibus, quae in idolis (Psalm cx.x.xv.) spem suam collocabant: sed quoniam honos, qui eis exhibetur, refertur ad prototypae, quae illae representant, ita ut per imagines, quae osculamur, et coram quibus caput aperimus et proc.u.mbimus, Christum adoremus; et sanctos quorum illae similitudinem gerunt veneremur."-Sessio xxv. _de Invocatione Sanc. et Sacr. Imag._

85 The following description of this little idol is given by a well-known French writer of last century:-"This morning, when I was quietly walking along a street towards the capitol, I met with a carriage, in which sat two Franciscan monks, holding on their knee something which I was unable to distinguish. Every body was stopping and bowing in a most respectful manner. I inquired to whom were these salutations directed? 'To the _Bambino_,' I was answered, 'whom these good fathers are carrying to a prelate, who is very ill, and whom the physicians have given up.' It was then explained to me what this _Bambino_ is. It is a little statue, meant for Jesus, made of wood, and richly attired. The convent which has the good fortune of being its owner has no other patrimony. As soon as any body is seriously ill, the _Bambino_ is sent for, in a carriage, because he never walks on foot. Two monks take him and place him near the bed of the patient, in whose house they remain, living at his expense, until he dies or recovers.

"The _Bambino_ is always driving about; people sometimes fight at the gate of the convent in order to get him. He is particularly busy during the summer, and his charges are then higher, in proportion to the compet.i.tion and the heat, which I think is quite right."-_Dupaty, Lettres sur l'Italie_, let. xlviii.

The _Bambino_ continues to maintain his credit; and I have read not long ago in the newspapers, that an English lady of rank, who had joined the communion of Rome, was performing the duties of his dry nurse on a festival of her adopted church.

_ 86 Insolitam imaginem._ I have made use in the text of the English Roman Catholic translation of the canons of the Council of Trent, by the Rev. Mr Waterworth.

87 "Omnia haec impia sunt et cultus idolorum, alloqui ipsas statuas aut ossa, aut fingere Deum aut sanctos magis in uno loco, seu ad hanc statuam alligatos esse quam ad alia loca. Nihil differunt invocationes quae fiunt ad Mariam Aquensem seu Ratisbonensem ab invocationibus ethnicis, quae flebant ad Dianam Ephesiam, aut ad Junonem Plataeensem, aut ad alias statuas."-_Respon. ad Articul.

Bavaric_, art. 17, p. 381.

88 Middleton's "Miscellaneous Works," vol. v., p. 96, edition of 1755.

89 Ibid., p. 97.

90 Hospinian, "De Origine Templ.," lib. ii. cap. 23; _apud_ Middleton, _loco citato_.

91 Beugnot, vol. i. p. 231, on the authority of Sosomenes.

92 There are some Protestant writers who attach great value to the apostolic canons, as, for instance, Dr Beveridge, Bishop of St Asaph, who wrote a defence of them.

93 "Inst.i.tutiones Christianae," lib. vi., cap. 2; apud, "Hospinian de Origine Templorum," lib. ii., cap. 10.

94 This date is a mistake, and I would have taken it for a misprint if the author had not said before, that "Vigilantius attacked the practices of the church in the fourth age." I have, in speaking of this subject, p. 71, followed the authority of the great historian of the Roman Catholic Church, Fleury, who says that Jerome answered Vigilantius in 404.

_ 95 Vid. supra_, p. 14, _et seq._, the opinions of Chateaubriand and Beugnot on the same subject.

96 The appellation of _regina caelorum_, queen of heaven, is frequently given to the blessed Virgin in Roman Catholic litanies and hymns addressed to her. The queen of heaven mentioned by Jeremiah is supposed to be the same as Astarte, or the Syrian Venus.

97 Herodot., lib. ii., p. 36,-

"Qui grege linigero circ.u.mdatus et grege calvo, Plangentis populi currit derisor Anubis."

_Juvenal_, vi. 532.

98 He describes in it the well-known Roman Catholic practice of flagellation or self-whipping, which has been, and is still, done by the priests and votaries of several Pagan deities.

99 "Namque omnia loca quae thuris const.i.terit vapore fuma.s.se, si tamen ea fuisse in jure thurificantium probabitur, fisco nostro adsocianda censemus," &c.-_Vid._ also _supra_, p. 48.

100 I give these numbers on the authority of the Almanac de Gotha.

101 The facts of this curious affair have never been published, but they are preserved in the ecclesiastical archives of Moscow, and a copy of them in the ecclesiastical academy of St Petersburgh.-_Strahl's Beytrage zur Russischen Kirchengeschichte_, p. 239.

102 Hermann Geschichte von Russland, 1853, vol. v., p. 89.

103 Anointment with oil makes a part of the Greek ritual of baptism.

104 These regulations may appear strange in a country like this, but in Russia all the population is divided into various cla.s.ses, and n.o.body can pa.s.s from one of them into another without the authorization of the Government; as, for instance, if a peasant or agriculturist wishes to become a burgher by settling in a town. The peasantry in the Baltic provinces were emanc.i.p.ated under the reign of the Emperor Alexander, but the landowners still maintain a certain authority over them.

105 The Pope, book iv., chap. 1.

106 Bodenstedt's Morning Land; or, Thousand and One Days in the East.

Second Series, vol. i., p. 61, _et seq._, a work which is particularly interesting at the present time.

107 Studien uber Russland, vol. i., p. 101.

108 The Russians of that time were known as slave dealers, according to Benjamin of Tudela, a Jewish traveller of the same period.

109 Travels of Ibn Foslan, German translation, by Frahn, p. 7.

110 "Die Volker des Kaukasus," p. 284.

111 It owned before the confiscation of the church estates more than a hundred thousand male serfs.

112 Studien uber Russland, vol. i. p. 87.

113 Simocatta, _apud_ Basnage, p. 1332.

114 This reform, accomplished in the reign of Alexius, father of Peter the Great, consisted chiefly in the correction of the text of the Slavonic Scriptures and liturgical books, which had been greatly disfigured by the ignorance of successive copyists, and in the prohibition of some superst.i.tious practices, which had usurped an important part in the divine service of the Russian Church. These wise reforms produced, however, a violent opposition, and several millions separated from the established church, and are known, though divided into many sects, under the general appellation of _Raskolniks_, _i.e._, schismatics, whilst they call themselves _Starovertzi_, or those of the old faith, and designate the established church by the name of the Niconian heresy.

115 Leveque, Histoire de Russie revue, par Malte Brun et Depping, tom.

iv. p. 131.

116 The t.i.tle of this book is "Das Merk wurdige Jahr Meines Lebens"-"The Memorable Year of my Life." It has been, I believe, translated into English.