world when those gods, whom you worship with impiety, were yet unborn. Tis true God hates evil and loves good. It is not stones and mortar that are his temple, but man himself who bears his resemblance And this temple ought to be adorned, not with gold or the corruptible gifts of precious stones, but with the incorruptible presents of all kinds of virtuous actions." And in another place speaking of the expense the heathens put themselves to in decking their images, he says: "They clothe with veils and precious habits, things that need no covering. They offer them presents of gold and silver, which are as much lost to the givers as to the receivers." Cardinal Baronius, in his martyrology, tells us, that the primitive christians had such horror for the heathen temples that, until the time of Gregory the first, they either demolished them or left them waste. But in this pope's time* and from thenceforth the church made use of them, and assimilated all the pageantry and superstitious ceremony of the heathens, as may be seen by comparing of the Roman pontifical, &c. with the old pagan ritual. I have already given an abstract of the ceremonial practised by the heathens in the consecration * We have under the article of saints and angels, seen this pope's orders to Austin the monk at Canterbury, forbidding to destroy the heathen temples. We find that he has also forbidden the breaking or teating down images in churches or temples. For in his letter to the Bishop of Marseilles, he has the following words as inserted in the canon-law: "Perlatum ad nos fuerat quod, inconsiderato zelo fuccensus, sanctorum imagines, sub hac quasi excusatione ne adorari debuissent, confregeris. Et quidem quia eas adorari vetuisses omnino laudavimus: fregisse vero reprehendimus. Dic frater a quo factum sacerdote aliquando auditum est quod fecisti? Si non aliud vel illud te non debuit revocare, ne despectis alüs fratribus solum te sanctum esse crederes & Sapientem ? aliud est enim picturam adorare, aliud per picturæ historiam quid sit adorandum addiscere.. Nam quod legentibus scriptura, hoc idiotis præstat pictura cernentibus; in ipsa etiam ignorantes vident quid sequi debant; in ipsa legunt qui litteras nesciunt. Unde & præcipue Gentibus pro lectione pictura est." Can. 27. dist. 3. de Consecretione. of their temples or mass houses*. The ceremonies used by the church of Rome are much the same. For the bishop first sprinkles the place, where a church is to be erected, with holy water. Then instead of fillets and garlands, he places twelve crosses on the limits of the place, and puts a lighted taper before each cross. He blesses the first stone and places it himself in the foundation. Next follows the concecration with oil, and at last the sacrifice of the mass as the soul of the whole ceremony. The pagans often undertook long journeys by way of pilgrimage to visit the most celebrated temples of their gods, thinking that the prayers and sacrifices they should offer there, would be more available than what they could do in their own temples at home. Thus, as we gather from St. Luke, people came from all parts of Asia and Europe to visit the temples of Diana at Ephesus. All other famous temples were visited in like manner. Cicero says of the people that flocked into Sicily to visit the temple of Ceres, that they seemed rather going to visit Ceres herself, than her temple. So lavish was the devotion of people in those times, that the riches of the temple ot Apollo at Delphos, for instance, arising from offerings and votive presents, are computed to to have been tantamount to a million of money. All this is practised in the church of Rome. The famous church of Loretto in Italy is alone a sufficient demonstration of it. This church is reckoned the richest in the world, and famous for the santa casa or holy house where the blessed virgin was born, saluted by the angel, and brought up her *That the heathen temples were so many mass-houses is evident from what I have said on the derivation of the word mass, from whence the whole ceremony is to this day called missio, missa, or the mass. Accordingly the Irish have no term in their language for a church but the word templum or temple assimilated. Can. 3. dist. 1. de consecrat, + Act. 19. 27. с son till he was twelve years of age. The Romanists pretend that this house was carried through the air by angels from Galilee to Tersato in Dalmatia, on the east side of the Adriatic sea, in the year 1291; and, in three years and a half afterwards, transported over the gulph of Venice into Italy; and after two or three short removals, was at length fixed in its present situation at Loretto. In it is an image of the blessed virgin placed in a niche with her infant on her right arm and a tripple crown on her head. The whole statue is covered with diamonds and pearls, and round it a sort of rainbow of precious stones of divers colours. All the altars, utensils, and ornaments in the place are immensely rich. The sacristy or treasury is filled with jewels, gold, vessels and ornaments more precious than gold itself, the votive presents of emperors, kings, queens, popes and other persons of both sexes for these many hundred years past; works in silver are not thought worthy to be admitted here. The whole is computed to be worth nine millions of rix-dollars. To this holy house five hundred thousand pilgrims have often resorted in one year between easter and whitsuntide; and during two days in September, at the festival of the virgin's nativity, no less than two hundred thousand have visited Loretto. This prodigious concourse of people was, indeed, before the refor mation; but the usual number now is between forty and fifty thousand. And, as none of these come empty handed, but contribute something to augment the treasure of the holy house, we may easily conclude that its riches are still increasing. The annual revenue of the santa casa in land, &c. is between twenty-seven and thirty thousand crowns, beside presents and votive donations. They count Loretto to be the most sacred place under heaven. The chief business of the inhabitants is making rosaries, images of the Virgin Mary, &c. and these are sold in booths or stands at a cheap rate. Beside the conformity of compartments between the temples of the ancient and modern Romans, all being alike divided into chancels, naves, aisles, galleries, porches, porticos, &c. there is one point which plainly demonstrates that the church of Rome has copied after, and taken her model from the heathens and not from the Jews. It is evident from the eighth chapter of Ezechiel* compared with Exod. xxvii. 9. 16. xxxvi. 33. Levit. xvi. 14. Joseph, lib. 3. Antiq. cap. 5. that the situation of the temple of Jerusalem, was in direct opposition to that of the heathen temples, the door being at the east-end, and the altar at the west, so that, when the priest offered sacrifice at the altar, he always looked towards the west; whereas the door of the heathen was at the westend, and the altar at the east, as we learn from Vitruvius, a famous engineer and projector in Augustus's time, whose words are to the following purpose: "Let those, who pray or offer sacrifice, look towards the rising sun; for it is necessary that the altars and statues of the gods shall stand at the east-end of the temples." This conformity Counsellor du Choul acknowledges in these words. "The ancient Romans offered their sacrifices and performed their devotions with their faces towards the east as we do to this day. This Porphyry shews where he says, that the altars and statues of the gods must always be at the east-end of the temples. And this, I think, he has taken from the architecture of Vitruvius, where he speaks of the situation of the temples of the immortal' gods." Now let any man examine all the churches in christendom and see whether the old heathen 164 plan be not faithfully observed and executed every All those who are acquainted with the classics must own, that the heathens looked fountains as sacred to certain divinities whom they upon wells and called Nymphs, &c. and to whom they offered sacrifices and other devotions as being the patrons and presidents of such places. The same notions and practices have been continued all along to our days, whereof there are several instances in this kingdom. Upon those occasions, it is usual with people to say: 'When is the patron of? let us goto. the patron; we saw an angel descend into the well; we had a great many masses and a sermon at the patron; we performed several rounds upon our knees about the well: we danced at the patron; there were several killed in a quarrel at the patron; several women returned home with child from the patron.' The reason the council of Trent assigns to oblige christians to worship the relics of saints, is, because according to that council, people reap many benefits by it. This was the very notion the old heathens entertained of the bodies and relics, of their heroes. For they looked upon them to be the protectors, and as it were the tutelar gods of the places of their repose. Thus the Egyptians, as St. Epiphanius tells us, performed extraordinary 1 know a priest who built a chapel on the plan of the temple of Jerusalem, with the door at the east-end and the altar at the west. bishop was informed of it, he ordered the whole work to be thrown down When his in order to give it the opposite form. This being not complied with, occasioned an accumulated charge of innovation and heresy against the priest, who, not being able to bear the yoke of popery any longer, manfully shook it off, and openly embraced the protestant religion. + Sanctorum quoque martyrum aliorumque... Sancta Corpora.... a fidelibus veneranda esse, per quæ multa beneficia a Deo hominibus præstantur, eosque qui affi mant Sanctorum reliquiis venerationem atque honorem non deberi.... damuandos esse. Sess. 25 decret. de invocatione Sanctorum. |