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CHAP.

tion of

images into the Christian

hurch.

CHAP. XLIX.

Introduction, worship, and persecution of images -Revolt of Italy and Rome-Temporal dominion of the popes-Conquest of Italy by the Franks-Establishment of images-Character and coronation of Charlemagne-Restoration and decay of the Roman empire in the WestIndependence of Italy-Constitution of the Germanic body.

In the connection of the church and state, I XLIX. have considered the former as subservient only, Introduc. and relative, to the latter; a salutary maxim, if in fact, as well as in narrative, it had ever been held sacred. The oriental philosophy of the gnostics, the dark abyss of predestination and grace, and the strange transformations of the eucharist from the sign to the substance of Christ's body, I have purposely abandoned to the curiosity of speculative divines. But I have reviewed, with diligence and pleasure, the objects of ecclesiastical history, by which the decline and fall of the Roman empire were materially affected, the propagation of Christianity, the constitution of the catholic church, the ruin of paganism, and the sects that arose from the mysterious controversies concerning the Trinity and incarnation. At the head of this

"The learned Seldon has given the history of transubstantiation in a comprehensive and pithy sentence." This opinion is only rhetoric ❝ turned into logic." (His Works, vol. iii, p. 2073, in his Table-talk).

XLIX

class, we may justly rank the worship of images, CHAP. so fiercely disputed in the eighth and ninth centuries; since a question of popular superstition produced the revolt of Italy, the temporal power of the popes, and the restoration of the Roman empire in the West.

The primitive Christians were possessed with an unconquerable repugnance to the use and abuse of images, and this aversion may be ascribed to their descent from the Jews, and their enmity to the Greeks. The Mosaic law had severely proscribed all representations of the Deity; and that precept was firmly established, in the principles and practice of the chosen people. The wit of the Christian apologists was pointed against the foolish idolaters, who bowed before the workmanship of their own hands; the images of brass and marble, which had they been endowed with sense and motion, should have started rather from the pedestal to adore the creative powers of the artist." Perhaps some recent and imperfect converts of the Gnostic tribe might crown the statues of Christ and St. Paul with the profane honours which they paid to those of Aristotle and Pythagoras; but the public religion of the catholics was uniformly simple and spiritual; and

1

Nec intelligunt homines ineptissimi, quôd si sentire simulacra et mo◄ veri possent, adoratura hominem fuissent a quo sunt expolita, (Divin. Institut. l. ii, c. 2). Lactantius is the last, as well as the most eloquent, of the Latin apologists. Their raillery of idols attacks not only the object, but the form and matter.

See Irenæus, Epiphanius and Augustin, (Basnage, Hist. des Eglises Reformées tom. ii, p. 1313). This Gnostic practice has a singu lar affinity with the private worship of Alexander Severus, (Lampridius, c. 29; Lardner, Heathen Testimonies, vol. iii, p. 34).

XLIX.

CHAP. the first notice of the use of pictures is in the censure of the council of Illiberis, three hundred years after the Christian era. Under the successors of Constantine, in the peace and luxury of the triumphant church, the more prudent bishops condescended to indulge a visible superstition, for the benefit of the multitude: and, after the ruin of paganism, they were no longer restrained by the apprehension of an odious parallel. The first introduction of a symbolic worship was in the veneration of the cross, and of relics. The saints and martyrs, whose intercession was implored, were seated on the right hand of God; but the gracious, and often supernatural favours, which in the popular belief were showered round their tomb, conveyed an unquestionable sanction of the devout pilgrims, who visited and touched, and kissed, these lifeless remains, the memorials of their merits and sufferings. But a memorial, more interesting than the scull or the sandals of a departed worthy, is a faithful copy of his person and features delineated by the arts of painting or sculpture. In every age, such copies, so congenial to human feelings, have been cherished by the zeal of private friendship, or public esteem: the images of the Roman emperors were adored with civil and almost religious honours; a reverence less ostentatious, but more sincere, was applied to the statues of sages and patriots; and these profane virtues,

4 See this History, vol. iii, p. 256; vol. iv, p. 100; vol. v, p. 123

XLIX.

these splendid sins,disappeared in the presence CHAP. of the holy men who had died for their celestial and everlasting country. At first the experi- Their ment was made with caution and scruple; and worship. the venerable pictures were discreetly allowed to instruct the ignorant, to awaken the cold, and to gratify the prejudices of the heathen proselytes. By a slow though inevitable progression, the honours of the original were transferred to the copy: the devout Christian prayed before the image of a saint; and the pagan rites of genuflexion, luminaries, and incense, again stole into the catholic church. The scruples of reason or piety were silenced by the strong vidence of visions and miracles; and the pictures, which speak, and move, and bleed, must be endowed with a divine energy, and may be considered as the proper objects of religious adoration. The most audacious pencil might tremble in the rash attempt of defining by forms and colours, the infinite Spirit, the eternal Father, who pervades and sustains the universe. But the superstitious mind was more easily reconciled to paint and to worship the angels, and, above all, the son of God, under the human shape, which, on earth, they have condescended to assume. The second person of the Trinity had been clothed with a real and

• Ου γαρ το Θείον απλών υπαρχον και αληπτον μορφαίς τισι και σχήμασιν απεικαζομεν. 'ετε κηρῷ και ξύλοις την ὑπερυσιον και προαναρχιν εσίαν τιμαν ñμcess diegvœnajev, (Concilium Nicenum, ii, in Collect. Labb. tom. viii, p. 1025, edit Veuct.). 11 seroit peutêtre à-propos de ne point souffri d'images de la Trinité ou de la Divinité; les defenseurs les plus zelés des images ayant condamne celles ci, et le concile de Treut ne parlant que des images de Jesus Christ et des Sain s, (Dupin, Bibliot. Eccles tom. vi, p. 154).

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CHAP. mortal body; but that body had ascended into heaven, and, had not some similitude been presented to the eyes of his disciples, the spiritual worship of Christ might have been obliterated by the visible relics and representations of the saints. A similar indulgence was requisite, and propitious, for the Virgin Mary: the place of her burial was unknown; and the assumption of her soul and body into heaven was adopted by the credulity of the Greeks and Latins. The use, and even the worship, of images, was firmly established before the end of the sixth century; they were fondly cherished by the warm imagination of the Greeks and Asiatics; the Pantheon the Pantheon and Vatican were adorned with the emblems of a new superstition; but this semblance of idolatry was more coldly entertained by the rude barbarians and the Arian clergy of the st. The bolder forms of sculpture, in brass or marble, which peopled the temples of antiquity, were offensive to the fancy or conscience of the Christian Greeks; and a smooth surface of colours has ever been esteemed a more decent and harmless mode of imitation.'

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The merit and effect of a copy depends on its of Edessa. resemblance with the original; but the primitive Christians were ignorant of the genuine features of the Son of God, his mother, and his apostles: the statue of Christ at Paneas in Pale

f This general history of images is drawn from the xxiid book of the Hist. des Eglises Reforinées of Basnange, tom. ii, p. 1310 1337. He was a protestaut, but of a manly spirit; and on this head the protestants are so notoriously in the right, that they can venture to be impartial. See the perplexity of poor friar Pagi, Critica tom. i, p. 42.

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