si i 



ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 



Monastic 



arm*, lot* and fingers, skulls, jaw-bone* and teeth, 

 were brought into Italy. Vcr\ l.irge sums of money 

 were often i>aul tor tluin ; they M <-d in gold, 



Mirrounded ith pncfam stones, :uul worn us amulets 

 ;i!>out tin' neck. In some in-t.niccs, the purchaser docs 

 not :i]>i'i ' to ha\c IHVII extremely nice or scrupuloiM 

 in his cnquirus. It' tin- bone prcsfiiti'd to him was re- 

 ported to li:ivo been dti:* ii)> in .liulea, or it' it only 

 looked like :iii old Ixnic. or was in reality a rotten bone, 

 he seemed conti'iit to buy it. Hence tin- kna\cry <>f 

 tin- ('.recks l.-d them to substitute the remains of other 

 animal- tor those of human brings anil particularly for 

 those of the saints. And he who records the fulness 

 of human credulity, will not fail to state, that many a 

 devotee lias wept over the leg or the spine of a dog or 

 a jackali, and pleased himself at the same time with 

 supposing that he had before him a relic of St Mark, 

 St Bartholomew, or St. Fumes. Sometimes the remains 

 in question were found in consequence of nn immedi- 

 ate revelation from heaven ; a holy monk, or female re- 

 nowned for chastity, being directed to the-placc where 

 they lay dispersed or interred. Many real crosses and 

 fragments of them were obtained ; and, last of all, the 

 thirty pieces of silver with which Judas Iscariot was 

 bribed, and which, by tome confusion among the his- 

 torians, are now called thirty pieces of gold, were dis- 

 covered and known; and, passing through several hands, 

 are still (it seems) jxwsessed by the curious in relics, 

 in different parts of the world. There is one of them 

 " as large as an English noble," which is shewn in the 

 entrance to St Peter's at Rome. " But though the ve- 

 neration for the remains of celebrated persons," observes 

 an elegant writer, " when carried to such an extreme 

 as to IN? converted into a species of religious worship, 

 is certainly culpable ; and though the miracles which 

 were attributed to these remains, must be considered 

 either as delusions of the fancy, or as forgeries of priest- 

 craft ; still we are not to suppose the passion itself, 

 without a foundation in the principles of human na- 

 ture. It is impossible to confine the human affections 

 in their operation : "it is impossible not to connect with 

 the objects of our regard every thing which was origi- 

 nally connected with them. The axe, which termi- 

 nated the existence of the innocent and beautiful Anne 

 Bullen, is still contemplated with some sensations of 

 sympathy ; and were it possible to survey the real cross 

 on which the Saviour of mankind had been suspended, 

 the person who did not consider it as more than an ob- 

 ject of curiosity, must be destitute of all the most ami- 

 able feelings of the human heart." 



Monastic institutions kept pace with the passion for 

 relics. The monk (^r^j) was originally a hermit or 

 anchorite, who withdrew from society, and spent his 

 time in solitary devotion. St Anthony the Egyptian is 

 usually considered as the founder of monachism. Ik- 

 was ignorant in the very highest degree, and boasted 

 of his ignorance; regarding learning as useless at least, 

 if not pernicious. He was u severe ascetic and flagel- 

 lant, lived much with the wild beasts, and supported 

 himself upon fruiu and herbs, the spontaneous produc- 

 tions of the earth. From Egypt ami tin La-t, numa- 

 chism passed over into Greece. The Latins received it 

 from the Greek- : and so highly was it valued in Italy, 

 that in the beginning of the ninth century, multitudes 

 of persons, in all ranks mid bituationx, withdrew from 

 die world, and wasted their days in celibacy and soli- 

 tude. The madness spread from province tu province, 

 and from one country of Europe to another; and even 

 king?, dukes, and great lord* of Uie court, forgot thek 



true dignity as well as their duty to society, and joined EedUd. 

 with the poorest of their subjects or dependents, in all ^ HUtory. 



thr sc\rrilii - <it' the monastic life. *""" "V^" 

 There is reason to bclirvc that monnchism, in its first Propren of 

 institution, was the result of a sincere, though im-ta- 

 ken piety. Like the passion for relies, it unquestion- 

 ably has a foundation in the principles of Imin.-ii 

 tine. Beyond all doubt, it i- wi-c and profitable t > 

 retire occasionally at least from the world, from its bu- 

 siness and its allurements, and tt> prepare r-elves for 



an everlasting tcparation. In process of time, however, 

 it was found convenient and desirable to relax th 

 verity of the primitive institution. The fervour of fa- 

 naticism evaporated; mankind, too. became at length 

 familiar with the tale of voluntary infliction, and wen- 

 less prompt to approve, and less vociferous in their 

 prai.-e ; and the monks, in the course of a few centu- 

 ries, contrived to join abstinence with the gratification 

 of the appetites, to unite society with rctiument, and 

 the appearance of'povertv with the possession of much 

 wealth. The very nature of the monastic institutions 

 afforded a salvo for the conscience. As individuals, the 

 recluses were poor, but ns a community thc\ were Hi; 

 no one could boast of his acquisitions, yet the society 

 grew daily in wealth and splendour. The monasteries 

 were magnificent and commodious; to the eye of a 

 stranger, they would have appeared rather as the pa Lire; 

 of princes, fully stored with all the luxuries of life, 

 than as the cells of the anchorite, or the retreats of pe- 

 nitence. They were often not merely liberally, but 

 profusely endowed. Many large estates had been con- 

 ferred on some of them ; legacies and bequests formed 

 the riches of others. At one time a prince of the blood, 

 having spent a long life in oppression and profligacy, 

 made a liberal gift to some religious house, and con- 

 ceived, that in this way he secured the forgiveness of 

 his sins ; and at another, a rich merchant, able to re- 

 tain his wealth no longer, bestowed a portion of it upon 

 the church. And by the invariable maxim of an artful 

 priesthood, property once given to the church becomes 

 ever after the property of God. It is sacrilege to 

 touch it ; a loud anathema is pronounced against him 

 who shall convert it to any secular use. 



Nothing appears too gross in the eyes of an igno- 

 rant and credulous people. The very dress of the 

 monks was held to bo pnp<sse<l of peculiar and extra- 

 ordinary virtues; and men of rank and eminence, when 

 they found themselves about to die, often directed their 

 servants to clothe them with the monastic vestments, 

 " thinking that the sanctity of the garb would protect 

 them against a condemnatory sentence of the omni- 

 scient Judge." False miracles-, legends, and lies, were 

 produced on every side. The multitude heard and be- 

 lieved. New followers of the apostles and evangelists 

 were found out, each of them with a name and a his- 

 tory attached to it. Egypt and the F.ast, in all their 

 caves and cells, were peopled afresh : and the worthies 

 lately enrolled and held up to the public admiration, 

 were even more powerful than their predecessors, in 

 protracted prayer, in exorcisms, and in their contests 

 with the devil. The expression is somewhat coarse, 

 but it has been justly said, that when the monks want- 

 ed a saint they made one, and when they wanted a 

 miracle they made that too. Indeed it must l>e owned, 

 that on subjects of this kind the g(x>d fathers were of 

 a ready invention ; and their facility in contriving ia 

 equalled by nothing but the prompt acceptance and 

 capacious faith of those who swallowed the impos- 

 ture. 



