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$th February, 1883. 



The President, Dr. Cunningham, in the Chair. 



Professor Meissner, Ph.D., read a paper on 

 HEATHEN REMAINS IN CHRISTIAN CHURCHES. 



The early Christians did not all at once renounce all Jewish 

 and heathen customs and beliefs. For a long time the Church 

 celebrated two masses on the first of January, the first the mass 

 for circumcision day, and the second a missa ad prohibendum 

 de idolis. Many heathen temples were converted into Christian 

 churches, and places which were considered holy by the Gentiles 

 were chosen as the sites of churches. Constantine the Great 

 built a church in the plains of Mamre, on a spot holy alike to 

 Jew, Gentile, and Christian. St. Boniface built a chapel out of 

 the oak of Thor, at Hofgeismar. Wittekind, Duke of the Sax- 

 ons, built churches on every spot on which, before his conversion, 

 he had erected idols. The Cathedral of Cordova stands on a 

 spot which has been succesively occupied by a heathen temple, 

 a Christian church, and a mosque. 



Many heathen remains have been found at restorations 

 embedded in the Christian structure. At S. Martin, near 

 Treves, a Roman altar ; at Gersthoven, near Augsburg, two 

 statues of Mercury ; on the Domberg, near Augsburg, sacrificial 

 knives and vessels ; at Compton Dando, Somerset, an altar of 

 Venus is walled into the east end of the parish church ; at the 

 church of S. Mathias, at Treves, an image of Venus or Diana 

 stood for centuries in the porch ; the custom of the people was 



