9 : " Obsecrandi sunt Angeli pro nobis, qui nobis ad presidium dati sunt." Origen had previously commended the invocation of angels. § 84, THE WORSHIP OF MARTYRS AND SAINTS. 431 tlieologians ; Luke, of painters ; subsequently Pliocas, of sea- men ; Ivo, of jurists; Anthony, a protector against pestilence; Apollonia, against tooth-aches ; &e. These different orders of saints and angels form a heavenly hierarchy, reflected in the ecclesiastical hierarchy on earth. Dionysius the Areopagite, a fantastical Christian Platonist of the fifth century, exhibited the whole relation of man to God on the basis of the hierarchy ; dividing the hierarchy into two branches, heavenly and earthly, and each of these again into several degrees, of which every higher one was the mediator of salvation to the one below it. These are the outlines of the saint-worship of our period. Now to the exposition and estimate of it, and then the proofs. The worship of saints proceeded originally, without doubt, from a pure and truly Christian source, to wit : a very deep and lively sense of the communion of saints, which extends over death and the grave, and embraces even the blessed in heaven. It was closely connected with love to Christ, and with gratitude for everything great and good which he has done through his instruments for the welfare of posterity. The church fulfilled a simple and natural duty of gratitude, when, in the consciousness of unbroken fellowship with the church triumphant, she honored the memory of the martyrs and confessors, who had offered their life for their faith, and had achieved victory for it over all its enemies. She performed a duty of fidelity to her own children, when she held up for ad- miration and imitation the noble virtues and services of their fathers. She honored and glorified Chiist Himself when she surrounded Him with an innumerable comjDany of followers, contemplated the refiection of His glory in them, and sang to His praise in the Ambrosian Te Deum : " The glorious company of the Apostles praise thee ; The goodly fellowship of the Prophets praise thee; The noble army of Martyrs praise thee ; The holy church throughout all the world doth acknowledge thee ; The Father, of an infinite majesty; Thine adorable, true, and only Son ; 4:32 THiED PERIOD. A.D, 311-590. Also the Holy Ghost, the Comforter. Thou art the King of glory, O Christ ; Thou art the everlasting Son of the Father. When thou tookest upon thee to deliver man, thou didst not abhor the Virgin's womb ; ' When thou hadst overcome the sharpness of death, thou didst open the kingdom of heaven to all believers." In the first three centuries the veneration of tlie martyrs in general restricted itself to the thankful remembrance of their virtues and the celebration of the day of their death as the day of their heavenly birtli.^ This celebration usually took place at their graves. So the church of Smyrna annually commem-