§ 87. WORSHIP OF liKLICS. DOGMA OF THE RESUEKFCTION. 452
Elevation of the Ckoss,' on the fourteenth of September which hiis been observed in tlie East and the West, according to some since the consecration of the church of the Holy Sepulchre in 335, according to others only since the reconquest of the lioly cross by the emperor Ileraclius in 628. The relics were Irom time to time displayed to the veneration of the believing multitude, carried about in processions, preserved in golden and silver boxes, worn on the neck as amulets against disease and danger of every kind, and considered as possessing miraculous virtue, or more strictly, as instruments through which tlie saints in heaven, in virtue of their connection with Christ, wrought miracles of healing and even of raising the dead. Their number soon reached the incredible, even from one and the same original ; there were, for example, countless splinters of the pretended cross of Christ from Jerusalem, while the cross itself is said to have remained, by a continued miracle, whole and undiminished ! Veneration of the cross and crucifix knew no bounds, but can, by no means, be taken as a true measure of the worship of the Ci-ucified ; on the contrary, with the great mass the outward form came into the place of the spiritual intent, and tlie wooden and silver Christ was very often a poor substitute for the living Christ in the heart.''
Relics became a regular article of trade, but gave occasion, also, for very many frauds, which even such credulous and superstitious relic- worshippers as St. Martin of Tours* and Gregory the Great* lamented. Theodosins I., as early as 386,
' Festum exaliationis ,9. crucis, aTavpo<pave'ta.
" What Luther says of the "juggleries and idolatries " of the cross under the later papacy, which "woiM rather bear the cross of Christ in silver, than in heart and life," applies, though, of course, with many nobie exceptions, even to the period before us. Dr. Herzog, in his Theol. Encyclopedia, vol. viii. p. 60 f , makes the not unjust remark: "The more the cross came into use in manifold forms and signs, the mure the truly evangelical faith in Christ, the Crucified, disappeared. The more the cross of Christ was outwardly exhibited, thi; more it became inwardly an oiTence and folly to men. The Roman CathoUc church in this respect resembles those Christians, who talk so much of their spiritual experiences, make so much ado about them that they at last talk themselves out, and produce glittering nonsense."
■' Sulpit. SeveiuB, Vita beati Mart. c. 11.
* Epist. lib. iv. ep. 30. Gregory here relates that some Greek monks came t« Rome to dig up bones near St. Paul's church to sell, as they themselves confessed
456 THIKP PERIOD. A.D. 311-590.
prohibited this trade ; and so did many councils ; but withoiU success. On this account the bishops found themselves compelled to prove the genuineness of the relics by historical tradi tion, or visions, or miracles.
At first, an opposition arose to this w(jrship of dead men's bones. St. Anthony, the father of monasticism (f 356), put in liis dying protest against it, directing that his body should be buried in an unknown place, Athanasius relates this with approbation,' and he caused several relics which had been given to him to be fastened up, that they might be out of the reach of idolatry." But the opposition soon ceased, or became confined to inferior or heretical authors, like Vigilantius and Eunomius, or to heathen opponents like Porphyry and Julian, Julian charges the Christians, on this point, with apostasy from their own Master, and sarcastically reminds them of His denunciation of the Pharisees, who were like whited sepulchres, beautiful without, but within full of dead men's bones and all uncleanncss.' This opposition, of course, made no impression, and was attributed to sheer impiety. Even heretics and schismatics, with few exceptions, embraced this form of superstition, though the Catholic church denied the genuineness of their relics and the miraculous virtue of them
The most and the best of the church teachers of our period, Hilary, the two Gregories, Basil, Chrysostom, Isidore of Pelusium, Theodoret, Ambrose, Jerome, Augustine, and Leo, even those who combated the worship of images on this point, were carried along by the spirit of the time, and gave the weight of their countenance to the worship of relics, which thus became an essential constituent of the Greek and Roman Catholic religion. Tliey went quite as far as the council of Trent,* wdiich expresses itself more cautiousl}', on the wor ship of relics as well as of saints, than the church fathers of
for holy relics in the East (confessi 8unt, quod ilia ossa ad Graeciam essent tomquaa Sanctorum reliquias portaturi).
' In his Vita Antonii, Opera Athan. ii. 502,
•■' Rufinus, Hist. Eccl. ii. 28.
' Cyrillus Alex. Adv. Jul. 1. x. torn. vL p. 356.
* Sessio x\v. De Invocat. Sanct., etc