IV. PART II. greatest part of the Christian doctors to adopt CENT. before the time of Constantine, were now confirmed, enlarged, and embellished, in various ways. From hence arose that extravagant veneration for departed saints, and those absurd notions of a certain fire destined to purify separate souls, that now prevailed, and of which the public marks were every where to be seen. Hence also the celibacy of priests, the worship of images and relics, which, in process of time, almost utterly destroyed the Christian religion, or at least eclipsed its lustre, and corrupted its very essence in the most deplorable manner. creaseof su perstition. II. An enormous train of different superstitions The inwere gradually substituted in the place of true religion and genuine piety. This odious revolution was owing to a variety of causes. A ridiculous precipitation in receiving new opinions, a preposterous desire of imitating the Pagan rites, and of blending them with the Christian worship, and that idle propensity, which the generality of mankind have towards a gaudy and ostentatious religion, all contributed to establish the reign of superstition upon the ruins of Christianity. Accordingly, frequent pilgrimages were undertaken to Palestine, and to the tombs of the martyrs, as if there alone the sacred principles of virtue, and the certain hope of salvation were to be acquired [q]. The reins being once let loose to superstition, which knows no bounds, absurd notions, and idle ceremonics multiplied every day. Quantities of dust and earth brought from Pale stine, [9] See Gregor. Nysseni, Orat. ad eos qui Hierosolymam adeunt, tom. iii. opp. p. 568. Hieronymus, Epist. xiii. ad Paulinum de instituto Monachi, tom. i. p. 66. Jac. Godofred. ad Codicem Theodosian. tom. vi. p. 65. Petri Wesselingii. Dissertat. de causis peregrinat. Hierosolymit. quam. Itinerario Burdigalensi præmisit, inter vetera Romanor. Ilineraria, p. 537. CENT. stine, and other places remarkable for their supIV. posed sanctity, were handed about as the most PART II. powerful remedies against the violence of wicked spirits, and were sold and bought every where at enormous prices [r]. The public processions and supplications, by which the Pagans endeavoured to appease their gods, were now adopted into the Christian worship, and celebrated with great pomp and magnificence in several places. The virtues that had formerly been ascribed to the heathen temples, to their lustrations, to the statues of their gods and heroes, were now attributed to Christian churches, to water consecrated by certain forms of prayer, and to the images of holy men. And the same privileges, that the former enjoyed under the darkness of Paganism, were conferred upon the latter under the light of the gospel, or, rather, under that cloud of superstition that was obscuring its glory. It is true, that, as yet, images were not very common; nor were there any statues at all. But it is at the same time, as undoubtedly certain, as it is extravagant and monstrous, that the worship of the martyrs was modelled, by degrees, according to the religious services that were paid to the gods before the coming of Christ [s]. From these facts, which are but small specimens of the state of Christianity at this time, the discerning reader will easily perceive what detriment the church received from the peace and prosperity procured by Constantine, and from the imprudent methods employed to allure the different nations to embrace the gospel. The brevity we have proposed to observe in this history, prevents our entering into an ample detail of the dismal effects [r] Augustinus, De civitate Dei, lib. xxii. cap. viii. sect. 6. [s] For a full account of this matter, see Beausobre, Hist. du Manicheism, tom. ii. p. 642. effects which arose from the progress and the CENT. baneful influence of superstition, now become IV. universal. PART II. III. This, indeed, among other unhappy effects, Hence opened a wide door to the endless frauds of those pious odious impostors, who were so far destitute of all frauds. principle, as to enrich themselves by the ignorance and errors of the people. Rumours were artfully spread abroad of prodigies and miracles to be seen in certain places. (a trick often practised by the heathen priests), and the design of these reports was to draw the populace, in multitudes, to these places, and to impose upon their credulity. These stratagems were generally successful; for the ignorance and slowness of apprehension of the people, to whom every thing that is new and singular appears miraculous, rendered them easily the dupes of this abominable artifice [t]. Nor was this all; certain tombs were falsely given out for the sepulchres of saints [u] and confessors; the list of the saints was augmented with fictitious names, and even robbers were converted into martyrs [w]. Some buried the bones of dead men in certain retired places, and then affirmed, that they were divinely admonished, by a dream, that the body of some friend of God lay there [x]. Many, especially of the monks, travelled through the different provinces; and not only sold, with the most frontless impudence, their fictitious relics, but also deceived the eyes of the multitude with ludicrous combats with evil spirits or genii [] Henry Dodwell, Dissert. ii. in Irenæum, sect. 56. p. 196. Le Clerc, in his Appendix Augustinian, p. 492. 550. 575. [u] Concil. Carthag. v. Canon. xiv. tom. i. Conciliorum, p. 988. edit. Harduini. [w] Sulpitius Severus, De vita. S. Martini, cap. viii. [x]Augustin. Seromne cccxviii. sect. i. tom. v. opp. p. 886. edit. Antwerp. the holy CENT. genii [y]. A whole volume would be requisite to IV. contain an enumeration of the various frauds which PART II. artful knaves practised, with success, to delude the ignorant, when true religion was almost entirely superseded by horrid superstition. Versions of IV. Many of the learned in this century, unscriptures. dertook translations of the holy scriptures, but few succeeded in this arduous enterprize. Among the many Latin versions of the sacred books, that of Jerome was distinguished by its undoubted superiority [2]. The same ingenious and indefatigable writer, whose skill in the languages was by no means inconsiderable, employed much pains upon the Greek version of the seventy interpreters, in order to give a more correct edition of it than had appeared before his time; and it is said, that Eusebius, Athanasius, and Euthalius, had embarked in an undertaking of the same nature [a]. The number of interpreters was very considerable, among whom Jerome, Hilary, Eusebius, Diodorus of Tarsus, Rufinus, Ephraim the Syrian, Theodore of Heraclea, Chrysostom, Athanasius, and Didymus, are generally esteemed worthy of the first rank. It is however certain, that, even of these first rate commentators, few have discovered a just discernment, or a sound judgment, in their laborious expositions of the sacred writings. Rufinus, Theodore of Heraclea, and Diodore of Tarsus, with some others, have, indeed, followed the natural signification of the words [b]; the rest, after the [y] See Godofred ad cod. Theod. tom. iii. p. 172. Augustin. De opere Monachor. cap. xxviii. sect. 36. p. 364. tom. vi. opp. Hieronym. Epist. ad Rusticum, tom. i. opp. p. 45. [] See Jo. Franc. Buddei Isagoge ad Theologiam, tom. ii. p. 1532. [a] Frickius, De Canone, N. T. p. 18. [6] Simon, Critique de la Bibliotheque des Auteurs Ecclesiast. par. Du Pin. tom. i. p. 51. 90. 129. tom. iv. p. 335; as also IV. the example of Origen, are laborious in the CENT. Christian ed at this V. The doctrines of Christianity had not a bet- The meter fate than the sacred scriptures from whence thod of explaining they are drawn. Origen was the great model the doc whom the most eminent of the Christian doctors trines of followed in their explications of the truths of ity, followthe gospel, which were, of consequence explained, time. according to the rules of the Platonic philosophy, as it was corrected and modified by that learned father for the instruction of the youth. Those who desire a more ample and accurate account of this matter, may consult Gregory Nazianzen Platonics. among the Greeks, and Augustin among the Latins, who were followed, for a long time, as the only patterns worthy of imitation, and who, next to Origen, may be considered as the parents and supporters of the philosophical or scholastic theology. They were both zealous Platonics, and holding, for certain, all the tenets of that Philosopher that were not totally repugnant to the truths of Christianity, they laid them down as fundamental principles, and drew from them a great variety of subtile conclusions, (which neither Christ nor Plato ever thought of.) VOL. I. B.b Frattur too familiar! I do This ke this! also Hist. Critique des principaux Commentateurs du N. T. cap. vi. p. 88, &c. [c] See Gregor. Nazianz. Carmen de Seipso, in Tollius' Insignia Iteneris Italici, p. 27, 57. [d] This may be seen in the six books which Augustin wrote concerning the Christian doctrine, and in the rules of interpretation laid down by Tychonius, which are to be found in the Biblioth. Patr. Maxim. tom. vi. p. 48. |