Tin: 



ENGLISH CYCLOPEDIA. 



ARTS AND SCIENCES. 



RELICS. 



RELIGION. 



RELICS (in Latin, " reliquiae ") is a term used to signify the 

 remains, bones, or garments of departed holy men, which are honoured 

 by the followers of the Church of Rome. During the early ages of the 

 Christian Church, martyrs were held in veneration ; and their relics 

 were treasured up as something sacred. The anniversary of their 

 martyrdom was celebrated by assemblies of the faithful, held round 

 their tomb or on the places where they had perished, and chapels and 

 sanctuaries were raised on the spot. In the 4th and 5th centuries the 

 previous veneration for the saints became a kind of worship ; miracles 

 were said to be performed by fragments of their bones or garments, 

 and pilgrimages were undertaken to obtain these relics. Helena, the 

 mother of Constantino, went to Palestine, and was said to have found 

 the identical cross on which Christ suffered. The employment of 

 image* and that of relics as accessories to church worship seem to have 

 grown up together during that period. Towards the end of the 6th 

 century. Pope Gregory I. displayed a great veneration for relics. There 

 is a letter of his to the empress Constantina, who had asked him for a 

 part of the body x>f St. Paul, in which he excuses himself by saying 

 that it was not the custom of the Romans, and, in general, of the 

 Christians of the West, to touch, much less to remove the bodies of 

 saints ; but that they put a piece of linen called " brandeum " near the 

 holy bodies, which is afterwards withdrawn, and treasured up with due 



r inn in some new church, and as many miracles are wrought by 

 it as if the bodies themselves were there : he adds that they were 

 much suq>rised at the Greeks removing the bones of saints from place 

 to place ; but that in order not to disappoint the piety of the empress, 

 he would send her some filing* of the chains which St. Paul wore on 

 his neck and bands. This letter is quoted by Baronius, Fleury, and 

 liurch historians. From that time the veneration for relics 

 increased, but there was no longer the same scrupulosity about re- 

 moving the relics. Relic worship became during the middle ages a 

 vulgar superstition and disgraceful traffic ; and the abuse has been 

 censured by many sincere Roman Catholics. It was ordered by several 

 synod* that no relics should be exposed to view without the sanction of 

 the local bishop. Pope Innocent III. forbade the sale of relics. The 

 Roman Catholic Church however admits that the relics of saints have 

 performed and may still perform miracles ; and that they are a proper 

 object of veneration. 



'iotheytu &tcrie, par let Pint Richard it tiiravd, articles ' Re- 

 liques ' and 'Saints,' 3rd section, ' Reliques des Saints;' and also 

 Father HononS de Saintc .Marie, IHttertation tur let Reli'jiut ; and the 



, Trait fde$ Saintei Reliqtuy.) 

 HKLIKK. RKI.KVII'M. a burden incident to feudal tenures, 



v sum of money paid to the lord on the admittance of a fresh 

 tenant. It is a relic of that state of things in which the succession 

 was not strictly speaking of right, but at the will of the lord, who 

 required the payment of such an acknowledgment for the concession. 

 It became however so much the custom for the lords to admit the sons 

 or near kindred (heirs, as we now say) to the inheritance of the 

 ancestor, that a custom became established of doing so, and out of the 

 custom grew the right. The money however which had been paid for 

 admission in the former state of things, continued to be paid when the 

 succession of the next heir had become what is called matter of 



Bracton gives what is probably the true etymology of the word. 

 via," say* he, are so called, " quia lirrediU* qu;c jacons fnit per 

 ntecesnoris decessnm rclcvaiur in mauus heredum, et propter fuctam 

 relevati 



ARTS ABD SCI. DIV. VOL. VII. 



RELIEF [ALTO-RILIKVO.] 



RELIGION is a Latin word which, according to the common deri- 

 vation of it (from rcligarc), means a principle which acts as a restraint 

 on the conduct of man. In its more general sense it is used as an 

 abstract term to denote our ideas of the existence and character of a 

 Divine Being, to whose power men are more or less subject. Thus wo 

 speak of a seme of religion and the, duties of religion, and we call a man 

 who regards such subjects as matters of great importance a relii/iomi 

 perton. But as different views have prevailed of the nature of the 

 deity and the relation in which man stands to him, various systems of 

 religious belief have sprung up, and each of these systems is called a 

 . Thus we speak of the Greek, Hindu, Jewish, Christian, and 

 .Woii.-iuimocUui religions. The word is also popularly used to express 

 the attention of individuals to the doctrines and duties of the particular 

 religion which they may have embraced. In this sense it is synony- 

 mous with /< i >'.'/. 



The subjects with which religion has to do are God and man con- 

 sidered in the relation in which they stand to each other. It conse- 

 quently includes all the philosophical questions which can throw light 

 upon that relation ; for example, those which respect the nature of the 

 deity, the notions of infinite space and infinite duration, the existence 

 and offices of spiritual beings, the origin and destiny of the human 

 race and of the world they inhabit, the immateriality and immortality 

 of the human soul ; and also all the practical questions which arise out 

 of that relation, such as the duties which men owe to God and to each 

 other, and the consequences which God may have appointed to follow 

 different courses of action. All impressions, notions, and belief upon 

 these subjects, whether formed into a system or not, constitute what 

 we call religion, as distinguished from theology, which is the science by 

 which these ideas are reduced to a systematic form, their laws investi- 

 gated, and then* origin and results traced out. [THEOLOGY.] 



The sources from which our notions of religion are derived are either 

 the so-called laws of nature and the constitution of the human mind, 

 or direct information given to us upon the subject by the deity him- 

 self, whether such information be embodied in any lasting form, or 

 handed down from one generation to another by oral tradition. Religion 

 derived from the two former sources is called natural religion ; from 

 the last, revealed relii/ion. [REVELATION.] 



The fundamental principle upon which all religion rests is the notion 

 of the existence of a Being whose power over us is absolute, whose 

 nature is perfect in excellence, to whom we owe certain duties, and 

 from whom we have much to hope and fear. The existence of such a 

 Being is proved by the evidences which the objects of nature present 

 of perfect design, of fixed order, of power sufficient to accomplish 

 everything which we can conceive that does not involve a contradiction, 

 and which we therefore conclude to be infinite, and of benevolent pro- 

 vision for the wants of living creatures. Apart from all such evidence, 

 the belief in the divine existence seems to be strongly impressed on 

 the human mind, so strongly indeed, that it is a matter of great doubt 

 whether even professed atheists have been really such. Lastly, this 

 truth may be the subject of revelation; for revelation does not, as 

 may at first sight seem, imply as a fact previously known the existence 

 of the Being from whom it comes. To the first recipients of the revela- 

 tion the very fact of their finding themselves possessed of the 

 knowledge of truths beyond the range of human experience would be 

 a sufficient proof of the existence of a superior Being, from whom they 

 had, in whatever way, obtained such knowledge ; and if. in making 

 known the revelation to the world, these persons should display a 



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