approved of their being worshipped. In a little more than a century after, Gregory the second strenuously advocated the worship of them, and was in a continual quarrel with the emperor Leo Isauricus on the subject. It was under the previous pope Constantine, that the controversy first began, with the emperor Philippicus. Hence the heresy of the Iconoclasts, or image-breakers, since the subjects of the emperor pulled these objects down from the churches and destroyed them. For this offence the pope excommunicat❤ ed the emperor, and absolved his subjects from their allegiance. Pope Constantine did the same to Leo Isauricus.

The dispute rather waxed than waned, but idolatry triumphed over common sense and pure religion, and even the second commandment of the decalogue was rendered virtually null and void, and God himself was worshipped by images, under pope Stephen the third. Indeed, for consistency's sake, the papists actually left that commandment out of some copies, and to hide the falsification from the ignorant, and make the number good, split one of the others into two.

In imitation of the heathen practice, Leo the third caused incense to be offered to images.

After many fluctuations in the worship of images in the East, the second council of Nice, in 787, decreed that crucifixes should be made, consisting of any material, and to be dedicated and put up in churches, houses, upon walls, and upon the highways. Images of the Savior, the virgin Mary, the angels, and the saints, were to be made and worshipped. Statues or bas reliefs were not permitted by this council. The Greeks were so enamored with this worship of crucifixes and images, that they regarded the council as a merciful interposition from heaven, and instituted in honor of it an anniversary festival, called the feast of orthodoxy.

The images representing the Deity were disapproved of by this council, but they were in great favor in the West, were sanctioned in the council of Trent, provided they were decently made, and those who held it unlawful to have such images, were expressly condemned at Rome in 1690.

The worship of images in the West was, however, checked by the opposition of Charlemagne, and his successors. They were allowed to be retained for the of ornament and instruction, but not of worship.

purposes

But the greatest foe to this superstitious practice was

Claudius, bishop of Turin, a man of great ability and zeal, who used both his pen and his ecclesiastical authority against images themselves, as well as against their being worshipped; because he found that if they were retained, they would be worshipped by the ignorant common people. About the same time, Agobard, bishop of Lyons, wrote ably against the worship of images, and also against dedicating churches to any but God.

But notwithstanding this opposition of emperors and bishops, both the Gallican and German clergy, as well as other nations, gradually yielded to the idolatry, through the influence of the Roman pontiffs.

In the East, images were not worshipped without interruption after the second council of Nice, but Theodora, governing her son Michael the third, procured their final establishment in 842. But the Greeks never had any images besides those on plain surfaces, or pictures; they never approved of statues.

In relation to this subject, it has been asserted, that christians never worshipped, properly speaking, the images themselves, but only addressed themselves to the saints whom they represented. But that their regards did terminate in the image, as much as if had been the saint himself, is evident from the history of image worship and the acknowledgment of those who practise it. In the eleventh century, it was debated in the Greek church, whether there was an inherent sanctity in images; and though it was determined in a council, that the images of Christ and of the saints did not partake "of the nature of the divine Savior, or of the saints;" yet it was maintained "that they were enriched with a certain communication of divine grace."

The Latin church has by no means been behind that of the Greeks in this respect.

Among acts of worship, they reckon the oblation of incense, and lights; and the reason given by them for all this, is, because the honor of the image, or type, passes to the original, or prototype; so that direct worship was to terminate in the image itself.

Thomas Aquinas, and many others after him, expressly teach that the same acts and degrees of worship which are due to the original, are also due to the image. They think that an image has such a relation to the original, that both ought to be worshipped by the same act; nay that to wor

ship the image with any other kind of act, is to worship it on its own account, which they think is idolatry. On the other hand, those who adhere to the Nicene doctrine say that the image is to be worshipped with an inferior degree of homage; and that otherwise idolatry must follow: so that whichever of the two schemes be adopted, idolatry must be the consequence with some or other of the advocates for this worship.

SECTION III.

OF THE VENERATION FOR RELICS.

A SUPERSTITIOUS respect being paid to martyrs, it was natural that their relics should next be regarded as peculiarly. sacred. But the first and second centuries were untouched by this taint. It began to appear about the time of Constantine. Julian and Eunapius cast it as a reproach at Christians. Chrysostom furthered the superstition by his eloquence. Holy earth from Jerusalem was much valued in the time of Augustine. The trade in bones and relics was brisk in 386, and the piety of many consisted in carrying and keeping them. Laws could not withstand the growing abuse. The bodies of apostles, saints, and martyrs were taken up, and deposited in churches, dedicated to their memory. A memorable instance of this custom occurred in the fourth century, when the bones of the protomartyr Stephen were exhumed their resting-place having been supernaturally made known-and conveyed to Jerusalem.

The relics were divided and subdivided to meet the constantly increasing demand; oratories and chapels were built where they were deposited; they spread from country to country; and were said to be endued with a miraculous efficacy.

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But Vigilantius, a priest of Barcelona, stood out in bold relief from this superstitious age, and manfully breasted this "We see," says he, torrent of corruptions. a pagan rite introduced into our churches under the pretext of religion, when heaps of wax candles are lighted up in the sun-shine, and people every where kissing and adoring, I know not what contemptible dust, reserved in little vessels, and wrapped up in fine linen. These men do great honor truly to the blessed martyrs, by lighting up paltry candles to those whom the lamb, in the midst of the throne, illuminates with

all the lustre of his majesty." Jerome, who answered Vigilantius, did not deny the practice, or that it was borrowed from the pagans, but he defended it. "That," says he, was only done to idols, and was then to be detested, but this is done to martyrs, and is therefore to be received."

A superstitious respect for relics, especially for the true cross of Christ, had advanced far in the sixth century, and many persons boasted of having in their possession the real wood of that cross. And when image-worship began, that of relics followed, as an accessary. Images with relics enshrined within them were regarded as the best kind, and as a complete preservative for both body and soul. No presents were considered as of more value than relics; and the popes could easily give the world a plentiful supply, after the discovery of the catacombs, a subterranean place, where many of the Romans had buried their dead.

In the ninth century, the demand for relics was so enormous, as to require no little dexterity in the clergy to supply it. As the most valued relics came from the East, the Greeks made a gainful traffic with the Latins for legs, arms, skulls, jaw bones,-many of which had belonged to pagan skeletons, and some were not even human.

We may form some idea of the value that was put upon some relics in that superstitious and ignorant age from the following circumstance, and this is only one instance of great numbers that might be collected from history. Boleslas, a king of Poland, wishing to show his gratitude to Otho the third emperor of Germany, who had erected his duchy into a kingdom, made him a present of an arm of St Adalbert in a silver case. The Emperor was far from slighting the present, but placed it in a new church which he had built at Rome in honor of this Adalbert. He also built a monument in honor of the same saint.

The greatest traffic for relics was during the Crusades, and that many impositions were practised in this business, was evident from the very pretensions themselves; the same thing, for example, the skull of the same person was to be seen in different places, and more wood of the true cross of Christ, than, they say, would make a ship.

A happy method was thought of by Gregory the first, or some other person of that age, to multiply the virtue of

relics, without multiplying the relics themselves: for instead of giving the relic of any saint, he contented himself with putting into a box a piece of cloth which was called brandeum, which had only touched the relics. It is said, that in the time of Pope Leo, some Greeks having doubted whether such relics as these were of any use; the Pope, in order to convince them, took a pair of scissors, and that on cutting one of these cloths, blood came out of it.

We cannot wonder at the great demand for relics, when we consider the virtues that were ascribed to them by the priests and friars who were the venders of them in that ignorant age. They pretended that they had power to fortify against temptations, to increase grace and merit, to fright away devils, to still winds and tempests, to secure from thunder, lightning, blasting, and all sudden casualties and misfortunes; to stop all infectious disorders, and to cure as many others as any mountebank ever pretended to do. Who that had money would choose to be without such powerful preservatives?

The Fathers of the council of Trent appointed relics to be venerated, but, with their usual caution, they did not determine the degree of it. This great abuse was effectually removed in all protestant churches at the reformation. Among the catholics the respect for relics still continues, though, with the general decrease of superstition, this must have abated in some measure. The Holy Land is still a great mart for these commodities. Haselquist says, that the inhabitants of Bethlehem chiefly live by them, making models of the holy sepulchre, crosses, &c. Of these there was so large a stock in Jerusalem, that the procurator told him he had to the amount of fifteen thousand piastres in the magazine of the convent. An incredible quantity of them, he says, goes yearly to the Roman Catholic countries in Europe, but most to Spain and Portugal. Many are bought by the Turks, who come yearly for these commodities.

SECTION IV.

OF THE RESPECT PAID TO THE VIRGIN MARY.

As our Savior became the object of worship before any other man, so his mother soon began to be considered with a singular respect, and to engross much of the devotion of the Christian world.