§ 87. WORSHIP OF EELICS. DOGMA OF THE RESUKKECTION. 453
*mg of the sick by the shadow of Peter;' and the same by handkerchiefs from Paul.'
These examples, as well as the miracle wrought by the bones of Elisha, were cited by Origen, Cyril of Jerusalem, Ambrose, Chrysostom, and other fathers, to vindicate similar and greater miracles in their time. They certainly mark the extreme limit of the miraculous, beyond which it passes into the magical. But in all these cases the living and present j)erson was the vehicle of the healing power; in the second case Luke records merely the popular belief, not the actual healing; and finally neither Christ nor the apostles themselves chose that method, nor in any way sanctioned the superstitions on which it was based. ^ At all events, the New Testament and the literature of the apostolic fathers know nothing of an idolatrous veneration of the cross of Christ or the bones and chattels of the apostles. The living words and acts of Christ and the apostles so completely absorbed attention that we have no authentic accounts of the bodily appearance, the incidental externals, and transient possessions of the founders of the church. Paul would know Christ after the spirit, not after the flesh. Even the burial places of most of the apostles and evangelists are unknown. The traditions of their martyrdom and tlieir remains date from a much later time, and car claim no historical credibility.
The first clear traces of the worship of relics appear in the second century in the church of Antioch, where the bones of the bishop and martyr Ignatius (f 107) were preserved as a priceless treasure ; * and in Smyrna, where the half-burnt bones of Polycarp (f 167) were considered " more precious than the richest jewels and more tried than gold." ' We read similar
' Acts V. 14, 15. ' Acts xix. 11, 12.
* On the contrary, the account of the healing of sick by the handkerchiefs oi Paul is immediately followed by an account of the magical abuse of the name of Jesus, as a warning, Acts xix. 13 If.
* Qriaavpos a.rifn]Tos. Martyr. S. Ignat. cap. vii. (Patrum Apostolic. Opera, ed Dressel, p. 214). The genuineness of the Martyr-Acts of Ignatius, however, is dis puted by many.
* Ta Tiniwrfpa Xi^wv ToAuTfAw' Kai SoKiuccrtpa xitrip xp^if'^^f offTa auToO, Epist
loi THIKU PKKIOD. A.D. 311-590,
things in the Acts of tlio martyrs Perpetua and Cyprian. The author of the Apostolic Constitutions ' exhorts that the relics of the saints, who are with the God of the living and not of the dead, be held in honor, and appeals to the miracle of the bones of Elisha, to the veneration which Joseph showed for the re mains of Jacob, and to the bringing of the bones of Joseph by Moses and Joshua into the promised land." Eusebius states that the episcopal throne of James of Jerusalem was preserved to his time, and was held in great honor.'
Such pious fondness for relics, however, if it is confined within proper limits, is very natural and innocent, and appears even in the Puritans of New England, where the rock in Plymouth, the landing place of the Pilgrim Fathers in 1620, has the attraction of a place of pilgrimage, aiid the chair of the first governor of Massachusetts is scrupulously preserved, and is used at the inauguration of every new president of Harvard University.
But toward the middle of the fourth century the veneration of relics simultaneously with the worship of the saints, assumed a decidedly superstitious and idolatrous character. The earthly remains of the martyrs were discovered commonly by visions and revelations, often not till centuries after their death, then borne in solemn processions to the churches and chapels erected to their memory^ and deposited under the altar ;^ and this event was aimually celebi'ated by a festival.' 'I'he legend of the discovery of the holy cross gave rise to two church festivals: the Feast of the Invention^ of thic Citoss,' on the third of May, which has been observed in the Latin church since the fifth or sixth century ; and tui: Feast of thb
Sccl. Smyrn. de Martyr. S. Polyc. c. 18 (ed. Drcssel, p. 404), and in Eu?eb. H. Ji iv. 15.
^ Const. Apost. lib. vi. c. 30. The sixth book dates from the end of the thirfl c<intury.
' Comp. Gen. 1. 1, 2, 26, 26; Ex. .x.iii. 19; Jos. xxiv. 32; Act-s vii. 16
* Hist. Eoel. vii. 19 and 32.
* With reference to Rev. vi. 9 : " I saw under the altar {unoKaTw rov 3 laiaar^ ui'ou) the souls of tlicm that were sla-n for the word of God," &c.
' Fcsturn irandationii.
* Festarn hivnilionis s. crucu.