12 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



sainted personages in the early Church and throughout the mid- 

 dle ages.* 



But miraculous cures were not ascribed to persons merely. 

 Another growth, mainly from germs in our sacred books devel- 

 oped by the early Church, took shape in miracles wrought by 

 streams, by pools of water, and especially by relics. Here, too, 

 the old types persisted, and just as we find holy and healing wells, 

 pools, and streams in all other ancient religions, so we find in the 

 evolution of our own such examples as Naaman the Syrian cured 

 of leprosy by bathing in the river Jordan, the blind man restored 

 to sight by washing in the pool of Siloam, and the healing of 

 those who touched the bones of Elisha, the shadow of St. Peter, or 

 the handkerchief of St. Paul. 



St. Cyril, St. Ambrose, St. Augustine, and other great fathers 

 of the early Church sanctioned the belief that similar efficacy was 

 to be found in the relics of the saints of their time ; hence, St. 

 Ambrose declared that " the precepts of medicine are contrary to 

 celestial science, watching, and prayer " ; and we find this state- 

 ment reiterated from time to time throughout the middle ages. 

 From this idea was evolved that fetichism which we shall see for 

 ages standing in the way of medical science. 



Theology, developed in accordance with this idea, wrapped all 

 scientific effort more and more in an atmosphere of supernatural- 

 ism. The vividness with which the accounts of miracles in the 

 sacred books were realized in the early Church continued the idea 

 of miraculous intervention throughout the middle ages. The 



* For the story of travelers converted into domestic animals, see St. Augustine, De Civ. 

 Dei, liber xviii, chaps, xvii, xviii, in Mique, torn, xli, p. 674. For Gregory of Nazianzen 

 and the similarity of these Christian cures in general character to those wrought in the 

 temples of .Esculapius, see Sprengel, vol. ii, pp. 145, 146. For the miracles wrought at the 

 shrine of St. Edmund, see Samsonis Abbatis Opus de Miraculis Sancti ^Edmundi, in the 

 Master of the Rolls series, passim, but especially chaps, xiv and xix, for miracles of healing 

 wrought on those who drank out of the saint's cup. For the mighty works of St. Dunstan, 

 see the Mirac. Sanct Dunstan, Auctore Eadmero and Auctore Osberno, in the Master of the 

 Eolls series. As to Becket, see the materials for the Life of Thomas a Becket in the same 

 scries, and especially the lists of miracles the mere index of them in the first volume re- 

 quires thirteen octavo pages. For St. Martin of Tours, see the Guizot edition of French 

 Chronicles. For miracle and shrine cures chronicled by Bede, see his Ecclesiastical History, 

 passim, but especially from page 1 10 to page 267. For similarity between the ancient custom 

 of allowing invalids to sleep in the temples of Serapis and the mediseval custom of having 

 them sleep in the church of St. Antony of Padua and other churches, see Meyer, Aberglaube 

 des Mittelalters, Basel, 1S84, chap. iv. For the effect of " the vivid belief in supernatural 

 action which attaches itself to the tombs of the saints," etc., as " a psychic agent of great 

 value," see Littre, Medecine et Medccins, p. 181. For the Jansenist miracles at Paris, see 

 La V6rite des Miracles operes par l'lntercession de M. de Paris, par Montgeron, Utrecht, 

 1737, and especially the cases of Mary Anne Couronneau, Philippe Sergent, and Gautier de 

 Pezenas. For some very thoughtful remarks as to the worthlessness of the testimony to 

 miracles presented during the canonization proceedings at Rome, see Maury, Legendea 

 Pieuses. 



