which had served as the burial-places of the primitive
Christians, although the catacombs have both before and since heen used for other purposes, numerous relics have been taken. Even a- early as 386 Theodosius
ed to pass a law- forbidding the people to dig up the bones of martyrs or traffic in their remains. The superstition grew until, in the 9th century, these
re not only treated with veneration, hut were Bupposed to have the virtue of healing disorders ofbody and mind and defending their possessors against the devices and assaults of the devil. Nor was this efficacy destroyed or lessened when the relic was distributed in fragments. In the llth century relics were tried by lire, and those which did not consume were reckoned genuine, and the rest not. Relic-collecting ha- been carried to great lengths in Europe, the Italian churches especially being full of fictitious relic-. The following i- only a sample of those in the Church of Santa Croce
di ( o rusalemme: three pieces of the true cross, the title placed over the cross; two thorns from the crown of our Lord; the Bponge extended to our Lord with vinegar ami eall; a piece of the veil and hair of the Virgin: a phial full of the blood of Jesus; some of the manna gathered in the desert, etc.
Relics of -aim- wen' regarded a- the palladia of cities, as St. Martin's body was carried out to the gates of Tours in 845 to repel a Biege by the Dane-. St. Wer- burgh's relics were home in procession to quell a fire at Cheatt r. and the canon- i„,re them through the diocese to invite alms for the erection of Salisbury Cathedral. At Lichfield the hells were rung at their departure and return. In the 6th century the custom of swearing upon relics, as later upon the Gospels, began. Relics were, and still arc. preserved on the altars whereon ma— is celebrated, a square hole being made in the middle of the altar large enough to receive the hand, and therein i- deposited t he relic, being tir.-t wrapped in red silk and
enclosed in a leaden box. In Catholic countries these
relics are popularly esteemed the most precious treasures of the churches, and in earlier times they had even a high marketable value, large sums having been often raised by necessitous prince- by the sale fir mortgage of pieces of the "true cios-." etc. Before the Reforma- tion relies were in demand in Scotland, and their sale was a fertile source of revenue to the monk-. They were forbidden to he brought into England by several statutes, and justices were empowered to search houses for them and to deface and destroy them when found. This fully has not been without learned and labored de- fence, antiquity and Scripture both having heen ap- pealed to in its support. Bellarmine cites the following passages: Exod. xiii, 19 ; Deut. xxxiv, 6 ; 2Kingsxiii, 21; xxiii. 16-18; Isa. .\i. L0; .Matt. i\. -Jo 22; Acts v. 12 15; xix, 11, 12. But there is no doubt that the worship of relics is an absurdity, without the una ran tec of Scripture, directly contrary to the practice of the primitive ( Ihurch, and irreconcilable with common-sense. Latin monographs upon relics and relic-worship have been written by Cellarius (Helmst. L656), Jung ( Hanov. 1783), Kortholl (1680), Morellus (Rome, L721 I, Steger (Leips. 1688), Haiti (1655), Kiesling, Rambach (Halle, 1722). See Barnum, Romanism as It Ts; Methodist Quar. Rev. Oct. 1866; Mosheim, Eccles. Hist.; Neander, Uist. of Christian Church.
Relief Syncd (or Church). See Scotland,
CHUKCHES mi .
Religion ( Lat. relego, religo). This word, accord- ing to Cicero {Div. Instit. I I, i- derived from, or rather compounded of. r< and legere, to read over again, to reflect upon or to study the sacred hooks in which re- ligion i- delivered. According; to Laclantius | I h (",ril. I hi, lib. x. i'. 3), it comes from re-ligare, to hind hack. because religion is thai which furnishes the true ground of obligation.
Religion has heen divided into natural and revealed. By natural religion is meant that knowledge, venera- tion, and love of God, anil the practice ol' those duties to him. our fellow-creature-, and ourselves, which are
discoverable by the right exercise of our rational facul- ties, from considering the nature and perfections of God, and our relation to him and to one another. By revealed religion i- understood that discovery which he ha- made to us of his mind and will in the Holy Script- ure-. A- respects natural religion, some doubt wheth- er, properly Bpeaking, there can he any such thing; since, through the fall, fea-on i- BO depraved that man. without revelation, is under the greatest darkness and misery, as may he easily seen bj considering the his- tory of those nations who arc destitute of it. and who are given up to barbarism, ignorance, cruelty, and evils of every kind. So tar as this, however, may hi' ob- served, the light of nature an give us no proper
idea- of ( Sod, nor inform us what worship will be BCCl pt- able to him. It does not tell us how man became a
RELIGION
1029
RELIGION
fallen, sinful creature, as he is, nor how he can be recov- ered. It affords us no intelligence as to the immortality of the soul, the resurrection of the body, and a future state of happiness and misery. The apostle, indeed, ob- serves that the Gentiles have the law written on their hearts, and are a law unto themselves; yet the greatest moralists among them were so blinded as to be guilty of, and actually to countenance, the greatest vices. Such a system, therefore, it is supposed, can hardly be said to be religious which leaves man in such uncertainty, ig- norance, and impiety. See Natural Theology. Re- vealed religion forms the correlate of natural religion, or the religion of reason. It is not the result of human investigation, but being the result of an extraordinary communication from God, is therefore infallible; where- as, on the contrary, all processes of human thought are more or less subjected to error. Hence we can explain why it is that religion gives itself out to be, not a prod- uct of the reason merely, not anything which originated from human inquiry and study, but a result of a divine revelation. The religious feeling is undoubtedly a pro- pension of human nature; yet without a divine revela- tion the mind would sink in dark and perpetual disor- der. Of the whole family of man, existing in all ages, and scattered over every quarter of the globe, there is not one well-authenticated exception to the fact that, moved by an inward impulse, and guided by revelation or tradition, man worships something which he believes to be endowed with the attributes of a superior being. Even the occasional gleamings of truth found in the various idolatrous systems are but the traditions of an- cient revelations, more or less corrupted, which have descended from the first worshippers. Revealed religion comprehends, besides the doctrines of natural religion, many truths which were beyond the reach of human reason, though not contradictory thereto, and for a knowledge of which we are indebted directly to the Old and New Testaments. While other religions had been variously accommodated to the peculiar countries in which they flourished, Christianity was so framed as to be adapted to the whole human family. It is the one thing needful for the elevation of our race, and is des- tined alike to universality and perpetuity.