§ 87 AVOESniP OF KELICS. DOGMA OF THE KESUERECTION. 45\
the Nicene age. With the good intent to promote pjpula. piety by sensible stimulants and tangible supports, they be came promoters of dangerous errors and gross superstition.
To cite some of the most important testimonies :
Gregory Nazi-anzen tbuiks the bodies of the saints can aa well perform miracles, as their spii'its, and that the smallest parts of the body or of the symbols of their passion are as efficacious as the whole body.'
Chrysostom values the dust and ashes of the martyrs more highly than gold or jewels, and ascribes to them the power of healing diseases and putting death to flight.'' In his festal discourse on the translation of the relics of the Egyptian martyrs from Alexandria to Constantinople, he extols the bodies of the saints in eloquent strains as the best ramparts of the city against all visible enemies and invisible demons, mightier than walls, moats, weapons, and armies.*
" Let others," says Ambrose, " heap up silver and gold ; we gather the nails wherewith the martyrs were pierced, and their victorious blood, and the wood of their cross." ^ He himself relates at large, in a letter to his sister, the miraculous discovery of the bones of the twin brothers Gervasius and Protasius, two otherwise wholly unknown and long-forgotten martyrs of the persecution under ISTero or Domitian.* This is ont' of the most notorious relic miracles of the early church. It is attested by the most weighty authorities, by Ambrose and his younger contemporaries, his secretary and biographer Paiili uus, the bishop Paulinus of Nola, and Augustine, who was then in Milan ; it decided the victory of the Nicene orthodoxy over the Arian opposition of the empress Justina; yet is it very difficult to be believed, and seems at least in part to rest on pious frauds.*
' Adv. Julian, t. i. Orat. iii. p. 76 sq.
* Opera, torn. ii. p. 828.
* Horn, in MM. ^gypt. torn. ii. p. 834 sq.
* Exhort, virgin. 1.
* Epist. xxii. Sorori suse, Op. ii. pp. 874-878. Comp. Paulinus, Vit. Ambros. p. Iv. ; Paulinus Nol. Ep. xii. ad Severum ; and Augustine in sundry plac es (see be low).
* Clericus, Moshcim, and Isaac Taylor (vol. ii. p. 242 ff.) do not hesitate U
45b TUIKD PEKIOD. A.D. 311-590.
TIic story is, that when Ambrose, in 386, wished to conso orate the basilica at Milan, he was led by a higher intiiuatioL in a vision to cause the ground before the doors of Sts. Felix and Nabor to be dug up, and there he found two corpses of nncommon size, the heads severed from the bodies (for they died by the sword), the bones perfectly preserved, together with a great quantity of fresh blood.' These were the saints in question. They were exposed for two days to the wondering nniltitude, then borne in solemn procession to the basilica of Ambrose, performing on the way the healing of a blind man, Severus by name, a butcher by trade, and afterward sexton of this church. This, however, was not the only miracle which the bones performed. " The age of miracles returned," says Ambrose. " How many pieces of linen, how many portions of dress, were cast upon the holy i-olics and were recovered with the power of healing from that touch." It is a source of joy^ to all to touch but the extremest portion of the linen that covers them ; and whoso touches is healed. We give thee thanks, O Lord Jesus, that thou hast stirred up the energies of the holy nuirtyrs at this time, wherein thy church has need of stronger detence. Let all learn what combatants I seek, who are able to contend for us, but who do not assail us, who minister good to all, harm to none." In his homily De invcntione SS. Gervasii et Protasii, he vindicates the miracle of the heal-
charge St. Ambrose, the author of the Te Dcim. with fraud in this story. The latter, however, endeavors to save the character ot Ambrose by distinguishing between liuuself and the spirit of his age. "Ambrose," says he (ii. 270), "occupies a high position among the Fathers; and there was a vigor and dignity in his character, as well as a vivid intelligence, which must command respect ; but in proportion as we assio-n praise to the man, individually, we condcnm the system which could so far vitiate a noble mind, and impel one so lofty in temper to act a part which heathen philosophers would utterly have abhorred."
' " Invenimus miras magnitudinis viros duos, ut prisca actas ferebat, ossa omnia iutegra, sanguinis plurimum ! " Did Ambrose really believe that men in the Oret century (prisca sctas) were of greater bodily stature than his contemporaries in the fourth ? But especially absurd is the mass of fresh blood, which then was exported throughout Christendom as a panacea. According to Romish tradition, the blooa of many saints, as of Januarius in Naples, becomes liquid every year. Taylor thinks, the miraculously healed Severus, by trade a butcher, had something to do with thii blood.
• '' Et tactu ipso medicabilia reposcuutur."