§ 89. PROCESSIONS AND PILGRniAGES. 465
We must moreover remember that the rejection of the Mcene miracles by no means justifies the inference of intentional deception in every case, nor destroys the claim of the great church teachers to our respect. On the contrary, be* tween the proper miracle and fraud there lie many intermediate steps of self deception, clairvoyance, magnetic phenomena and cures, and unusual states of the human soul, which is full of deep mysteries, and stands nearer the invisible spiritworld than the everyday mind of the multitude suspects. Constantino's vision of the cross, for example, may be traced to a proplietic dream ; * and the frustration of the building of the Jewish temple under Julian, to a special providence, or a historical judgment of God.^ The mytho-poetic facult}', too, which freely and unconsciously produces miracles among children, may have been at work among credulous monks in the dreary deserts and magnified an ordinary event into a miracle. In judging of this obscure portion of the history of the church we must, in general, guard ourselves as well against shallow naturalism and skepticism, as against superstitious mysticism, remembering that
" There are more things in heaven and on earth. Than are di-eamed of in our pliilosophy."
§ 89. Processions and Pilgrimages.
Early Latin dissertations on pilgrimages by J. Geetsee, Mamaoht, Lazari, J. H. Heidegger, etc. J. Marx (R. 0.) : Das "Wallfahren in der katholischen Kirche, historisch-kritisch dargestellt. Trier, 1842. Comp. the relevant sections in the church archieologies of Bingham, August:, Blntekim, &c.
Solemn religious peocessions on high festivals and special
tlio3e of Scripture were no longer done, yet he immediately goes on to reckon up a number of miracles which had lately taken place, apparently without exciting much Bijnsalion, and among them seventy formally attested ones, wrought at Hippo alone, within two years, by the relics of St. Stephen (De Civit. Dei, xxii. 8. 1, 20). On the wliole, while I would not deny that miracles may have been wrought after the times of the apostles and their associates, I can find very little satisfaction in the particular instances which are ^ven." On Augustine's theory of miracles, comp. above, § 87 (p. 459 f.), and the treatise of Nitzsch jun. there quoted.
' Comp. above, § 2 (p. 25). ' Comp. above, § 4 (p. 55).
466 THIRD PKKIOD A. 3. 311-590.
occasions had been already customary among the Jews,' and even among the heathen. They arise from the love of human nature for show and display, wliich manifests itself in all conntries in military parades, large funerals, and national festivities.
Tlie oppressed condition of the church until the time of Constantino made such public demonstrations impossible or unadvisable.
In the fourth century, however, we find them in the East and in the West, among orthodox and heretics,'' on days of fasting and prayer, on festivals of thanksgiving, at the burial of the dead, the induction of bishops, the renioval of relics, the consecration of churches, and especially in times of public calamity. The two chief classes are thanksgiving and penitential processions. The latter were also called cross-processions, litanies.'
The processions moved from church to church, and consisted of the clergy, the monks, and the people, alternately saying or singing prayers, psalms, and litanies. In the middle of the line commonly walked the bishop as leader, in surplice, stole, and pluvial, with the mitre on his head, the crozier in his left hand, and with his right hand blessing the people. A copy of the Bible, crucifixes, banners, images and relics, burning tapers or torches, added solemn state to the procession.*
Regular annual processions occurred on Candlemas, and on Palm Sunday. To these was added, after the thirteenth century, the proceission on Corpus Christi, in which the sacrament of the altar is carried about and worshipped.
Pilgrimages are founded in the natural desire to see witli one's own eyes sacred or celebrated places, for the gratification of curiosity, the increase of devotion, and the proving of gratitude.' These also were in use before the Christian era. I'he
' As in the siege of Jeritho, Jos. d. ?. ff. ; at the dedication of Solomon's temple, 1 Kings viii. 1 ff . ; on the entrance of Jesus into Jenisalora, Matt. xxi. 8 ff.
^ The Arians, for example. Comp. Sozom., II. E. viii. 8, where weekly singing processions of the Arians are spoken of
' Litaniae (AiTu^'tiai), supplicationcs, rogationes, (^o/xoKojTiaets, stationes, col Isetffi.
* The antiquity of all these accessory ceremonies cannot be exactly fixed. * " Die Statte, die cin guter Mcnsch betrat, Ist cingcweiht ; nach hundert Jahreu klingt Bein Wort und seine That dcm Enkcl wieder."