THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
ascetics, is addressed by Gregory Nazianzen, by Basil, and by Jerome as intercessors between man and God. Not alone their bones but their graves and their shrines are instruments of blessing; they appear to those who invoke them or are represented by angels who assume their form; and though Augustine issues a warning against the adoration of the dead and argues that the saints are to be reverenced as models, and not worshiped as gods, with him, too, the prayers for the saints at the eucharistic oblations become transformed into an appeal addressed to the saints for their intercession. Julian was in a position to reproach the Christians with having abandoned the service of the gods for that of mere men. In his time every altar had its relics and the sick were laid in the chapels of the saints as formerly they were placed in the temples of ^Esculapius. The opposition of a Eunomius, a Eustathius, or a Yigilantius could not check the rapid increase of the cult. The wearing of relics as amulets became common, the aid of the saints was invoked before the inception of important measures, and formal gratitude was rendered them on the successful completion of an adventure. Particular lands and particular trades and professions adopted their patron saints.
The veneration of the saints was formally sanctioned by the second Nicene Council (787) which distinguished, however, between the proskynesis or douleia, the reverence due to the saints and the
absolute worship, latreia, to be renin the dered to God alone (see Dulia) . In Middle the West, though the Caroline Books Ages. (q.v.) pronounced for the veneration
of the saints, Charlemagne was no friend of the cult in its extreme form, and the Synod of Frankfort in 794 declared against the addition of new names to the list of those venerated. But under Louis the Pious (814-840) the translation of saints became common, and though protests against the abuses connected with the cult are found after 1104 the principle of the practise was not assailed. In the case of a Bernard or Francis of Assisi veneration was paid to a saintly character even in his lifetime. It was the voice of the people that at first bestowed the title of holiness; Ulrich of Augsburg was the first to receive the papal canonization. Scholasticism supplied the dogmatic basis for the worship of saints by describing them as friends of God and intercessors before his throne. The distinction between douleia and latreia was preserved and the saints were divided into six categories, patriarchs and prophets, apostles, martyrs, confessors, virgins, and holy women. Indeed the close of the Middle Ages was marked by the appearance of many new saints, the worship of Anna, the mother of Mary, becoming at that time the basis of a separate cult in Germany.
The Reformation in transforming the ideal of the religious and moral life struck at the roots of saint worship. The certainty of salvation obtained through faith in Christ made the intercession of saints not only superfluous, but derogatory to the character of Christ as the sole advocate. The Augsburg Confession declares itself clearly on the point. The Apology would permit the rendering
of honors to the saints though it finds no Scriptural basis for their invocation, and Luther in the Schmalkald Articles declares definitely against The Refor- the practise. The Council of Trent mation and contented itself writh declaring the After. practise " good and useful," and decisively rejected a proposal looking to its abandonment. In fact, however, saint worship continued to be a very essential part of the religious life of the southern peoples. In the Greek Orthodox Church the saints are invoked " not as gods but as friends of God." Altars are not dedicated to them. In practise the worshiper addresses himself to his name saint after the Virgin, and the feast days of the saints have pushed the Sabbath day into the background. The Russian Church has added manysaints to those it received from the Greek Church, but it knows no actual process of canonization. It considers the most important mark of sanctity to be the delay in, or the total absence of, physical decomposition following death, together with exhibition of miraculous powers. See Canonization; Communion of Saints; and Acta Martyeum and Acta Sanctorum. (N. Bonwetsch.)
Bibliography: The literature of first importance is given in Acta Maetyrum, Acta Sanctorum, which the student can not afford to miss. Further treatises (selected from an immense literature) of a general nature are: C. Cabier, Caracteristiqv.es des saints dans I'art populaire, 2 vols., Paris, 1867; H. Usener, Legenden der heiligen Pelagia, Bonn, 1879; W. H. Anderdon, Evenings with the Saints, London, 1883; G. F. L. Du Broc, Les Saints patrons des corporations, 2 vols., Paris, 1887; H. Samson, Die Schutzheiligen, Paderborn, 1889; idem, Die Heiligen als Kirchenpatrone, ib. 1892; T. Trede, Das Heidentum in der romischen Kirche. Bilder aus dem religibsen und sittlichen Leben Suditaliens, 4 vols., Gotha, 1889-91; S. Biessel, Die Verehrung der Heiligen und ihrer Reliquien in Deutschland, ib. 1890; F. Kattenbusch, Vergleichende Konfessionskunde, i. 456 sqq., Freiburg, 1892; H. R. Percival, The Invocation of Saints, London, 1896; 0. Pfleiderer, Die Attribute der Heiligen, TJlm, 1897; H. Leclercq, Les Martyrs. Recueil de pieces avthentiques sur les martyrs, 3 vols., Paris, 1902-04; E. Hells, Studies in Saintship, London, 1903; H. P. Brewster, Saints and Festivals of the Christian Church, New York, 1904; E. A. Greene, Saints and their Symbols, London, 1904; J. Hahn- Hahn, Die Martyrer, Regensburg, 1904; E. Lucius, Die Anfange des Heiligenkults in der christlichen Kirche, Tubingen, 1904; H. Delehaye, Les Legends hagiographiques, Brussels, 1905; D. H. Kerler, Die Patronate der Heiligen, Ulm, 1905; H. Siebert, Beitrage zur vorreformatorischen Heiligen- und Reliquienverehrung, Freiburg, 1907.
For eastern hagiology consult: A. Ehrhardt, Die Legendensammlungen, Freiburg, 1896; idem, Forschungen zur Hagiographie der griechischen Kirche, in RQS, 1897, pp. 6i sqq.; L. Clugnet, Bibliotheque hagiographique orientale, Paris, 1901 sqq.; G. Rabeau, he Culte des saints dans VAfrique chretienne, ib. 1903. For England: John Wilson. The English Martyrologe, Conteyning a Summary of the Live* of the Saintes of the Three Kingdomes, England, Scot-
land, and Ireland collected into moncths after the Form
of a Callendar according to every Sainte's Festivity, London, 1608; idem, The Roman Martyrologe, according to the Reformed Calendar, ib. 1627; John Bowden, Oratorian Lives of the Saints, 4 vols., ib. 1873-75; T. Walsh, The Church of Erin. Her Saints, 3 parts, New York, 1885; R. Stanton, Menology of England and Wales, London, 1887; F. Heitemeyer, Die Heiligen Deutschlands, Paderborn, 1SSS; John Pinkerton, Vita? antiques sanctorum qui habitaverunt tnea parte Britannia: nunc vocata Scotia vel ejus insulis, ed. » ■ M. Mitcalfe, 2 vols., Paisley, 1890; The Booh of Lisnwre, Oxford, 1890; F. A. Smallpiece, The English Saints of the English Calendar, ib. 1894; F. E. Arnold-Forster, Studies in Church Dedications, or, England's Patron Saints, 3 vols.. London, 1899; W. Fleming, A Complete Calendar of the English Saints, ib. 1902; W. H. Hutton, Influence of Chn*-