handkerchiefs; the one, fent a prefent by himself to Abgarus Prince of Edeffa, who by letter had defired a picture of him; the other, given by, him at the time of his execution, to a Saint, or holy woman, named Veronica, upon a handkerchief, which the had lent him to wipe his face on that occafion: both which handkerchiefs are ftill preserved, as they affirm, and now kept with the utmoft reverence; the first in St. Sylvefter's Church; the fecond in St. Peter's; where, in honour of this facred relique, there is a fine altar built by Pope Urban the VIIIth, with the ftatue of Veronica herself, with the following infcription [e]. SALVATORIS IMAGINEM VERONICA VT LOCI MAIESTAS DECENTER MARMOREVM SIGNVM ET ALTARE ADDIDIT CONDITORIUM There is a prayer in their books of offices, ordered by the rubric, to be addrefled to this facred and miraculous picture, in the following terms. • Conduct us, O thou bleffed figure, to our proper home, where we may behold the pure face of Chrift [f] But notwithstanding the authority of this Pope, and his infcription, tais VERONICA, as one of the r beft authors has fhewn []. like Amphibolus beforcmentioned, was not any real perfon, but the nim: given to the picture itself by the old writers, who mention it; being formed by blundering and confounding the words VERA ICON, or true image, the title infcribed perhaps, or given originally to the handkerchief, by the first contrivers of the impofture. Thefe D 2 [e] Vid. Aringh. Rom. Subterran. Tom. 2. p. 453. Thefe ftories however, as fabulous and childish as they appear to men of fenfe, are yet urged by grave authors in defence of their image-worship, as certain proofs of its divine origin, and fufficient to confound all the impious oppofers of it [4]. I fhall add nothing more on this article, than that whatever worship was paid by the antients to THEIR heroes or inferior deities, the Romanifts now pay the fame to THEIR Saints and Martyrs; as their own infcriptions plainly declare; which, like thofe mentioned above of St. Martina, and the Pantheon, generally fignify that the "honours, which of old had been "impiously given in that place to the falfe God, are "now piously and rightly transferred to the Chri"ftian Saint:" or as one of their celebrated poets expreffes himself in regard to St. George; Ut Martem Latii, fic nos Te, Dive Georgi, Mantuan. As Mars our Fathers once ador'd, fo now And every-where through Italy, one fees their facred inferiptions fpeaking the pure language of Paganifm, and afcribing the fame Powers, Characters, and Attributes, to their Saints, which had formerly been afcribed to the Heathen Gods; as the few here exhibited will evince. [b] Aringh. Rom. fubt. T. 2. 1. 5. c. 4. Rom. Mod. Gior. Rion, di Bor. Popish Popish Infcriptions [i]. MARIA ET FRANCISCE TUTELARES MEI. DIVO EVSTORGIO NVMINI. POLLENTIS. POTENTIS. INVICTI. DIVIS PRAESTITIBVS IVVANTIBVS Boldonius cenfures the author of the laft infcrip tion, for the abfurdity of putting the Saints before As Vid. Boldonii Epigraphica, p. 439. It. p. 348. It. g. 422. It. 649. [k] Gruter. Corp. Infcript. p. 50. It. Cic. Or. pro Lege Man. 15. It. Gxuf. p. 54. — it. p. 50. It. p. 22. It. ib. p. 2. 1 IOVE. As to that celebrated act of Popish Idolatry, the Adoration of the Hoft; I must confefs, Adoration that I cannot find the leaft refemblance of the Hoft. of it in any part of the Pagan worship: and as oft as I have been standing by at Mass, and feen the whole congregation proftrate on the ground, in the humbleft posture of adoring, at the elevation of this confecrated piece of bread; I could not help reflecting on a paffage of Tully, where fpeaking of the abfurdity of the Heathens in the choice of their Gods, " But was any man, fays he, "ever fo mad, as to take that which he feeds upon, "for a God []?" This was an extravagance referved for Popery alone; and what an old Roman could not but think too grofs, even for Egyptian Idolatry to fwallow, is now become the principal part of worship, and the distinguishing Article of Faith, in the Creed of modern Rome. But their temples are not the only places where we fee the proots and overt-acts of their fuperftition : the whole face of the country has the vifible characters of Paganism upon it; and where-ever we look about us, we cannot but find, as St. Paul did in Athens [m], clear evidence of its being poffeffed by a fuperftitious and idolatrous people. Rural Shrines. The old Romans, we know, had their Gods, who prefided peculiarly over the roads, streets, and high-ways, called Viales, Semitales, Compitales: whofe little temples or altars decked with flowers, or whofe ftatues at leaft coarfly carved of wood or stone, were placed at convenient diftances in the public ways, for the benefit of travellers, who used to step afide to pay their devotions to thefe rural Shrines, and beg a profperous journey and fafety in their travels []. Now this custom prevails ftill fo generally in all Popish [1] Cic. de Nat. Deor. 3. m] Act. Apoft. xvii. 17. [] Apulei. Florid. 1. Plaut, Merc. 5. 2. Popish countries, but especially in Italy, that one can fee no other difference between the old and prefent fuperftition, than that of changing the name of the Deity, and chriftening as it were the old Hecate in triviis, by the new name of Maria in trivio; by which title, I have obferved one of their Churches dedicated in this city [o]: and as the Heathens used to paint over the ordinary Statues of their Gods with red or fome fuch gay colour [p] fo I have oft obferved the coarse Images of thefe Saints fo daubed over with a gaudy red, as to refemble exactly the defcription of the God Pan in Virgil, Eclog. X. Sanguineis ebuli baccis minioque rubentem. [The process, as it may be called, of Idol-making, and Idol-worship, is as beautifully fet forth, as finely ridiculed, in the book of Wisdom, chap. xiii. ver. 11. I to 19. "Now a carpenter, [or timber-wright] after "he hath fawn down a tree meet for the purpose, " and taken off all the bark skilfully round about, "and hath wrought it handfomely, and made a 66 veffel thereof fit for the fervice of man's life; and, "after spending the refufe [or chips] of his work to "drefs his meat, hath filled him felt, and taking the 61 very refufe among thofe which ferved to no use, (being a crooked piece of wood, and full of knots) "hath carved it diligently, when he had nothing "elfe to do, and formed it by the skill of his understanding, and fashioned it to the image of a man; or made it like fome vile beaft, laying it over " with vermilion, and with paint, colouring it red, "and covering every spot therein; and when he "had made a convenient room for it, fet it in a "wall, and made it faft with iron; for he provided "for it, that it might not fall, knowing that it was "unable [] Rom. modern. Gior. Rion. di Colonna, c. II. 2.2. |