If you ask, Whence came it that men of sense did not oppose this farce? the answer is obvious, that it was neither safe nor easy to resist the torrent, and that we have not exact accounts of all that passed then in the Christian world. However, we see by some passages in Sulpitius Severus, that he was accused of having inserted a multitude of marvellous lies in his Life of Martin. He defends himself by continuing to act the same part, and by expressing much indignation against those who thus strove to make his work contemptible, and consequently useless. To this we may add, that men of probity in other respects, and fully persuaded of the truth of Christianity (and such I take Martin, Paulinus and Sulpitius to have been) having found in the populace a strong taste for the marvellous, and no capacity to receive better proofs, judged it expedient rather to leave them to their prejudices, and to make use of those prejudices to confirm them in the true faith, than to undertake the vain task of curing them of their superstition, and run the risque of plunging them into vice and unbelief. Therefore they humoured the trick, and complied with the fashion, for the good of those who were thus deceived. Examples of the same kind may be seen at this day, and are so common that it is needless to insist upon them. This seems to be the only way to bring off with some credit the character of the ancients, and particularly of Martin and Sulpitius, who have led me to make these remarks. No person can be more firmly persuaded than I am of the truth of Christianity, and of the miracles by which it was established. But But in our days it is necessary to propound more clearly the true evidences of Christianity, and to reject the false ones, not only because we may do it without endangering those whom we instruct, but because of the pernicious effects which the method used by these fathers hath produced, contrary to their intention, which seems to have been well meant. By the help of these false miracles a thousand false doctrines and mischievous superstitions have been introduced, to the disgrace of Christianity, and to the support of libertines, who reject false and true miracles altogether, because they see both defended with the same zeal by certain persons in certain places. Thus some fall into a blind and stupid credulity, as well disposed to receive Mahometism as Christianity; and others doubt of every thing. To remedy these evils, we must carefully distinguish a well-grounded assent from a boundless facility of admitting every idle tale. If there are amongst us persons who plead for this kind of implicit faith, and if they seem to be sincere, we must pity and forgive them, but not imitate them. If they act by in terested views, which too often is plainly the case, we should strenuously oppose them, and run the risk of incurring insults and censures, more hurtful in reality to those who utter them, than to those at whom they are levelled. I know there are persons so stubborn and wrong-headed, as to maintain that even Pagan priests were men of veracity, and that their miracles and their oracles were not forged; lest, say they, after we have exposed those Pagans as cheats, we should proceed to treat the fathers in the same manner. These men do more disservice to religion than they are aware of; VOL. II. B b but but we must not do the same, either through complaisance to them, or for fear of their calumnies." Sulpitius Severus, says Gennadius, suffered himself in his old age to be seduced by the Pelagians, and said something or other in favour of those heretics, or of their doctrine. But discovering his error, he condemned himself, by way of penance, to a perpetual silence; he never spake a word more. An odd resolution, considering that he was a presbyter, whose office it was to instruct the people! However, we are not obliged to believe Gennadius. "We should be still more assured, says Tillemont, that the church hath ever reverenced the memory of Sulpitius, if we could be certain that he is the person of whom St Gregory of Tours relates two miracles; one that he caused a tree to die and to revive again by his prayers; the other, that a lily, which sprang up on his grave used to blow annually on the day of his death." To confirm the story of the Lily, we may observe that Sulpitius had the same fate with Hyacinthus, in Ovid; and certainly Ovid is a writer of as good authority in such things as Gregory of Tours. Te quoque, Amyclide, posuisset in there Phoebus, Qua licet, æternus tumen es; quotiesque repellit Le Clerc, Bibl. Chois. xx. 325. xii. 608. ment § Bibl. A. & M. xvi. 126. ment is borrowed perhaps from the print made by the horse-hoofs of Castor and Pollux, in one place; and by the feet of Hercules, in another place. Middleton, in his Letter from Rome, observes that in several parts of Italy they shew the marks of hands and feet on rocks and stones, miraculously imprinted by some saint or angel. There is also just the same miracle extant, concerning the footsteps of a god worshipped by the people of Siam, and of another deity adored at Ceylon. Matthew Paris says, that the Dominicans, in the eleventh century, brought from Palæstine a white stone, on which were the marks of Christ's feet t. Sulpitius placed the pictures of Martin and of Paufinus in a church, over the font; and Paulinus sent him these verses to be put under, which are pretty enough: Abluitis quicumque animas et membra lavacris, Cernite propositas ad bona facta vias. Innocentius the First, commonly called Saint Innoent, was pope of Rome. See Du Pin's account of him, from which it appears that he was an usurping, domineering prelate, who encroached upon the rights of bishops and presbyters, and wanted to make the Christian world submit to his insolence. He began a persecution against the Novatians. In his time AlBb 2 laric • Act. Erud. A. D. 1689. p. 48г. Journal to Mount Sinai, published by Bp. Clyton, p. 20. Bibl. Univ. xiv. 457. xxii. 223, Mosheim, p. 386. laric sacked Rome, Rome Christian, which in those days too much imitated Rome Pagan, in superstition, in persecution, and in a depravity of manners. Innocentius was used by those barbarians as he had used the Novatians, and saw his episcopal see ruined *. Celestius, who was bishop of Rome some years afterwards, continued the persecution. "He also took away from the Novatians the churches which they had at Rome, and compelled their bishop Rusticula to assemble secretly with his flock in a private house. For till this time the Novatians had greatly flourished at Rome, where they had many churches, and numerous congregations. But jealousy and envy ruined them also, whilst the Roman, like the Alexandrian prelates, not keeping within the sacerdotal bounds, had been long corrupted, and aimed at a tyrannical dominion. For these causes the Roman bishops would not grant the liberty of assembling publicly even to those who agreed with them in points of faith; and commending them for their orthodox sentiments, stripped them at the same time of their possessions. But the bishops of Constantinople were more moderate, and went not into these excesses, &c. " The Decretals of Pope Innocent are full of episcopal encroachments. A. D. 404. Arsacius, being fourscore years old, was made bishop of Constantinople, in the room of Chrysostom, who was then deposed and banished. The * Socrates, vii. 9. Socrates, vii. 11, Fleury, v. 456. |