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the greatest assistance to those souls for whom the prayer is offered, while the holy and awe-inspiring sacrifice lies before us."1 Communion in both kinds was the established custom of this age. No one thought, as yet, of depriving the laity of the cup.

The multiplication of costly edifices gave suitable accommodation to the tendencies toward a showy and imposing ritual. A special sanctity was attached to the house of public worship; but eminent teachers took pains to oppose a superstitious veneration of the mere edifice, and emphasized the truth that to the devout Christian every place is holy ground. The same factors entered into the regular Sunday service as in the previous period; namely, the reading of selections from the Scriptures, prayers, the sermon, and the eucharist. The Scripture readings were left quite generally to the choice of the officiating clergy, though a beginning was made

1 Orat. Catech., xxiii. 9. Augustine speaks on the same subject still more explicitly. His language indicates that already at the beginning of the fifth century the foundation was well laid for the doctrine of purgatory. "It cannot be denied," he says, "that the souls of the dead are benefited by the piety of their living friends, who offer the sacrifice of the Mediator, or give alms in the church on their behalf. But these services are of advantage only to those who during their lives have earned such merit that services of this kind can help them. For there is a manner of life which is neither so good as not to require these services after death, nor so bad that such services are of no avail after death; there is, on the other hand, a kind of life so good as not to require them; and again, one so bad that when life is over they render no help. . . . When, then, sacrifices either of the altar or of alms are offered on behalf of all the baptized, they are thank-offerings for the very good, they are propitiatory offerings for the not very bad; and in case of the very bad, even though they do not assist the dead, they are a species of consolation to the living. And where they are profitable, their benefit consists either in obtaining a full remission of sins, or at least in making the condemnation more tolerable." (Enchiridion, chap. cx.)

toward the prescription of a regular series of lessons. The forms of prayer varied, to a considerable extent, in different churches. Socrates indulges the statement that hardly two churches agreed in their ritual respecting prayers.1 Very diverse estimates were passed upon the relative importance of the sermon.

In the West, there was a tendency to give it a subordinate place, especially as compared with the eucharistic service. In the East, the more cultured class, in the fourth and fifth centuries, were inclined to regard the sermon as the principal factor in the service; and their love of fine rhetoric not unfrequently found vent in enthusiastic applause. "The sermons were sometimes, though rarely, read or delivered from memory from beginning to end, sometimes given in accordance with a plan previously prepared, sometimes uttered entirely extempore." 2 Toward the close of the period, the requirement that catechumens and other non-communicants should leave the sanctuary before the celebration of the eucharist was relaxed. The absence of a pagan populace made it appear less necessary to employ precaution against a profanation of the mystery.

II.

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VENERATION OF SAINTS, RELICS, AND IMAGES.

Reverence for the martyrs may be regarded as the starting-point of saint-worship. To the incentive from this source were added the longing after fellowship with the departed, and the bent to polytheism which still clung to the masses that poured into the Church after the conversion of Constantine. Already, at the

1 Hist. Eccl., v. 22.

2 Neander, Kirchengeschichte, iii. 443.

close of the persecutions, honor to the memory of the martyrs was carried to an excess by a fraction of the Church. Very soon after that date, reverence was exaggerated into a species of idolatry; and prayers were addressed to the martyrs on the ground of their exaltation and their effective intercessions with God. Churches and chapels were built over their graves. Rites bearing the semblance of sacrifices to the glorified confessors were sometimes celebrated upon these hallowed spots. Augustine acknowledges the existence of such a custom, but asserts that it was observed only to a limited extent, and seeks to relieve it from any idolatrous intent. "Whatever honors," says he, “the religious may pay in the places of the martyrs, they are but honors rendered to their memories, not sacred rites or sacrifices offered to dead men as to gods. And even such as bring thither food - which, indeed, is not done by the better Christians, and in most places of the world is not done at all-do so that it may be sanctified to them through the merits of the martyrs,-first presenting food and offering prayer, and thereafter taking it away to be eaten, or to be in part bestowed upon the needy." In an epistle to Maximus he writes: "Let me assure you that by the Christian Catholics no deceased person is worshipped."2 And in one of his sermons he declares: "We do not regard the martyrs as gods, or worship them as gods; we do not prepare for them temples or altars or sacrifices." 3 Augustine in this represents the most sober and conservative temper of his age. A statement more in the line of the popular estimate of the martyrs is found with Theodoret, who

1 De Civ. Dei, viii. 27. 2 Epist., xvii. 8 Serm., cclxxiii.

"While

wrote some years later in the fifth century. time," says he, "is wont to waste all other things, it has nevertheless preserved their glory incorrupt. The noble souls of the victors now traverse heaven and are present with angelic choirs. No single tomb conceals the body of each; but cities and villages, sharing their remains, name them saviors and physicians of souls and bodies, and honor them as protectors and guardians of cities, and obtain gifts through their intercession with the Lord of the universe. . . . Shrines of the triumphant martyrs rise to view, shining and conspicuous, excelling in size, distinguished by every kind of ornament, and shedding abroad the gleams of their beauty. We visit these not once or twice or five times a year, but celebrate with frequent assemblies, often even upon each day sing hymns of praise to their God; and those who are in health ask that this may be preserved; those who are suffering from any disease, that they may be delivered from their sickness. Men destitute of children supplicate for these, and barren women pray that they may become mothers. Those who have obtained a gift beseech that it may be kept secure. Those engaging in travel request of these that they will be companions of the way and guides of the journey; those who return safe render thanks, not addressing them as gods, but entreating them as divine men, and requesting them to be intercessors in their behalf. That those who trustingly seek obtain their wishes, their votive offerings openly testify, indicating the cure. For some suspend images of eyes, others of feet, others of hands made of silver and gold." Great diversities, no doubt,

1 Græc. Affect. Curat., Sermo viii.

existed as respects the degree in which individuals were inclined to appeal to such intercessors; but the propriety of such appeal had become a common tenet at the end of the fourth century.

The honors bestowed upon the martyrs naturally came to be extended to others who were regarded as eminent examples of Christian devotion. From generation to generation, new names were added to the list of saintly intercessors. Among those claiming the foremost homage appeared the Virgin Mary. Prior to the closing part of the fourth century, she received only the common veneration accorded to the saints. But after this time, owing, in some degree, to the prominence given to her name in the orthodox shibboleth of the Christological controversies, the tide set strongly in the direction of mariolatry. Before the death of Augustine, two dogmatic principles in favor of the special elevation of Mary had been broached; namely, her perpetual virginity,' and her freedom from actual (not original) sin, though the latter had not been as yet extensively advocated. The practice of dedicating churches and altars to her became popular. “Justinian I., in a law, implored her intercession with God for the restoration of the Roman Empire; and on the dedication of the costly altar of the Church of St. Sophia, he expected all blessings for Church and Empire from her powerful prayers. His general Narses, like the knights of the Middle Ages,

1 To challenge this doctrine, at the end of the fourth century, was to incur bitter hostility, as appears from the fate of Helvidius, Bonosus, and some others.

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