according to others only since the reconquest of the holy cross by the emperor Heraclius in C28. The relics were from time to time displayed to the veneration of the be- lieving multitude, carried about in processions, preserved in golden and silver boxes, worn on the neck as amulets against disease and danger of every kind, and considered as possessing miraculous virtue, or more strictly, as instruments through which the saints in heaven, in virtue of their connection with Christ, wrought miracles of healing and even of raising the dead. Their number soon reached the incredible, even from one and the same original ; there were, for example, countless splinters of the pretended cross of Christ from Jerusalem, while the cross itself is said to have remained, by a continued mira- cle, whole and undiminished ! Veneration of the cross and cru- cifix knew no bounds, but can, by no means, be taken as a true measure of the worship of the Crucified ; on the contrary, with the great mass the outward form came into the place of the spiritual intent, and the wooden and silver Christ was very often a poor substitute for the living Christ in the heart.' Relics became a regular article of trade, but gave occasion, also, for very many frauds, which even such credulous and superstitious relic- worshippers as St. Martin of Tours' and Gregory the Great ^ lamented. Theodosius I., as early as 386, ' Festum exaltationis s. crticis, aravpocpaueia. '^ What Luther says of the "juggleries and idolatries " of the cross under the later papacy, which " would rather bear the cross of Christ in silver, than in heart and life," applies, though, of course, with many noble exceptions, even to the period before us. Dr. Herzog, in his Theol. Encyclopaedia, vol. viii. p. 60 f , makes the not unjust remark : " The more the cross came into use in manifold forms and signs, the more the truly evangelical faith ia Christ, the Crucified, disappeared. The more the cross of Christ was outwardly exhibited, the more it became inwardly an offence and folly to men. The Roman Catholic church in this respect resembles those Chris- tians, who talk so much of their spiritual experiences, make so much ado about them that they at last talk themselves out, and produce gUttering nonsense." " Sulpit. Severus, Vita beati Mart. c. 11. * Epist. lib. iv. ep. 30. Gregory here relates that some Greek monks came to Rome to dig up bones near St. Paul's church to sell, as they themselves confessed, 4:56 THIED PEEIOD. A.D, 311-590. prohibited this trade ; and so did many councils ; but without success. On this account the bishops found themselves com- pelled to prove the genuineness of the relics by historical tradi- tion, or visions, or miracles. At first, an opposition arose to this worship of dead men's bones. St. Anthony, the fother of monasticism (f 356), put in his dying protest against it, directing