Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol 5 | Page 2

three hundred
years after the Christian aera. Under the successors of Constantine, in
the peace and luxury of the triumphant church, the more prudent
bishops condescended to indulge a visible superstition, for the benefit
of the multitude; and, after the ruin of Paganism, they were no longer
restrained by the apprehension of an odious parallel. The first
introduction of a symbolic worship was in the veneration of the cross,
and of relics. The saints and martyrs, whose intercession was implored,
were seated on the right hand if God; but the gracious and often
supernatural favors, which, in the popular belief, were showered round
their tomb, conveyed an unquestionable sanction of the devout pilgrims,
who visited, and touched, and kissed these lifeless remains, the
memorials of their merits and sufferings. ^4 But a memorial, more
interesting than the skull or the sandals of a departed worthy, is the
faithful copy of his person and features, delineated by the arts of
painting or sculpture. In every age, such copies, so congenial to human
feelings, have been cherished by the zeal of private friendship, or
public esteem: the images of the Roman emperors were adored with
civil, and almost religious, honors; a reverence less ostentatious, but
more sincere, was applied to the statues of sages and patriots; and these
profane virtues, these splendid sins, disappeared in the presence of the
holy men, who had died for their celestial and everlasting country. At
first, the experiment was made with caution and scruple; and the
venerable pictures were discreetly allowed to instruct the ignorant, to
awaken the cold, and to gratify the prejudices of the heathen proselytes.
By a slow though inevitable progression, the honors of the original
were transferred to the copy: the devout Christian prayed before the
image of a saint; and the Pagan rites of genuflection, luminaries, and
incense, again stole into the Catholic church. The scruples of reason, or
piety, were silenced by the strong evidence of visions and miracles; and
the pictures which speak, and move, and bleed, must be endowed with

a divine energy, and may be considered as the proper objects of
religious adoration. The most audacious pencil might tremble in the
rash attempt of defining, by forms and colors, the infinite Spirit, the
eternal Father, who pervades and sustains the universe. ^5 But the
superstitious mind was more easily reconciled to paint and to worship
the angels, and, above all, the Son of God, under the human shape,
which, on earth, they have condescended to assume. The second person
of the Trinity had been clothed with a real and mortal body; but that
body had ascended into heaven: and, had not some similitude been
presented to the eyes of his disciples, the spiritual worship of Christ
might have been obliterated by the visible relics and representations of
the saints. A similar indulgence was requisite and propitious for the
Virgin Mary: the place of her burial was unknown; and the assumption
of her soul and body into heaven was adopted by the credulity of the
Greeks and Latins. The use, and even the worship, of images was
firmly established before the end of the sixth century: they were fondly
cherished by the warm imagination of the Greeks and Asiatics: the
Pantheon and Vatican were adorned with the emblems of a new
superstition; but this semblance of idolatry was more coldly entertained
by the rude Barbarians and the Arian clergy of the West. The bolder
forms of sculpture, in brass or marble, which peopled the temples of
antiquity, were offensive to the fancy or conscience of the Christian
Greeks: and a smooth surface of colors has ever been esteemed a more
decent and harmless mode of imitation. ^6
[Footnote 2: Nec intelligunt homines ineptissimi, quod si sentire
simulacra et moveri possent, adoratura hominem fuissent a quo sunt
expolita. (Divin. Institut. l. ii. c. 2.) Lactantius is the last, as well as the
most eloquent, of the Latin apologists. Their raillery of idols attacks not
only the object, but the form and matter.]
[Footnote 3: See Irenaeus, Epiphanius, and Augustin, (Basnage, Hist.
des Eglises Reformees, tom. ii. p. 1313.) This Gnostic practice has a
singular affinity with the private worship of Alexander Severus,
(Lampridius, c. 29. Lardner, Heathen Testimonies, vol. iii. p. 34.)]
[Footnote 4: See this History, vol. ii. p. 261; vol. ii. p. 434; vol. iii. p.

158 - 163.]
[Footnote 5: (Concilium Nicenum, ii. in Collect. Labb. tom. viii. p.
1025, edit. Venet.) Il seroit peut-etre a-propos de ne point souffrir
d'images de la Trinite ou de la Divinite; les defenseurs les plus zeles
des images ayant condamne celles-ci, et le concile de Trente ne parlant
que des images de Jesus Christ et des Saints, (Dupin, Bibliot. Eccles.
tom. vi. p. 154.)]
[Footnote 6: This general history of images