sure. They brought back witli them Splinters from the pretended holy cross, waters from the Jor- dan, earth from Jerusalem and Bethlehem, and other genuine and spurious relics, to which miraculous virtue was ascribed.^ Several of the most enlightened church fathers, who ap- proved pilgrimages in themselves, felt it necessary to oppose a superstitious estimate of them, and to remind the people that religion might be practised in any place. Gregory of Nyssa shows that pilgTimages are nowhere enjoined in the Scriptures, and are especially unsuitable and dangerous for women, and draws a very unfavorable picture of the immorality prevailing at places of such resort. " Change of place," says he, " brings ' " Religiosa cupiditas est," says Paulinus of Nola, Ep. 36, " loca videre, in qui- bus Christus ingressus et passus est et resurrexit et unde ascendit." ^ Euseb., Vita Const, iii. 41 sq., and De locis Ebr. s. v. Betliabara. ^ Recall the Crimean war of 1854— '56. * Thus Augustine, De civit. Dei, xxii. 8, is already found citing examples of the supernatural virtue of the (erra sancta of Jerusalem. 468 THIRD PERIOD. A.D, 311-590. God no nearer. Where thou art, God will come to thee, if the dwelling of thy soul is prepared for him." ' Jerome describes with great admiration the devout pilgrimage of his friend Paula to the East, and says that he himself, in his Bethlehem, had adored the manger and birthplace of the Redeemer ; ^ but he also very justly declares that Britain is as near heaven as Jerusalem, and that not a journey to Jerusalem, but a holy living there, is the laudable thing." Next to Jerusalem, Bethlehem, and other localities of the Holy Land, Rome was a preeminent place of resort for pilgrims from the West and East, who longed to tread the threshold of the princes of the apostles ij^imina apostolorum). Chrysostom regretted that want of time and health prevented him from kissing the chains of Peter and Paul, which made devils trem- ble and angels rejoice. In Africa, Hippo became a place of pilgrimage on account of the bones of St. Stephen ; in Campania, the grave of St. Fe- lix, at Nola ; in Gaul, the grave of St. Martin of Tours (t397). The last was especially renowned, and was the scene of innu- merable miracles.^ Even the memory of Job drew many pil- grims to Arabia to see the ash heap, and to kiss the earth, where the man of God endured so much.^ In the Roman and Greek churches the practice of pilgrim- age to holy places has maintained itself to the present day. Protestantism has divested the visiting of remarkable places, con- ' Epist. ad Ambrosium et Basilissam. ^ Adv. Ruffinum ultima Kesponsio, c. 22 (0pp. ed. Vail. torn. ii. p. 551), where he boastfully recounts his literary journeys, and says : " Protinus concito gradu Bethlehem meam reversus sum, ubi adoravi prassepe et incunabula Salvatoris." Comp. his Vita Paulse, for