Part I, Chapter 14, 1

Of the Mahuzzims, honored by the King who does according to his will.

In scripture we are told of some who trust in God and others who trust in idols, and that God is our refuge, our strength, our defense. In this sense God is the rock of his people, and false Gods are called the rock of those who trust in them, Deut. xxxii. 4, 15, 18, 30, 31, 37. In the same sense the Gods of the King who shall do according to his will are called Mahuzzims, munitions, fortresses, protectors, guardians, or defenders. "In his estate," says¹ Daniel, "he shall honor Mahuzzims; with a God whom his fathers did not know he shall honor them with gold and silver, and with precious stones, and things of value. He shall do this in the strongest holds or temples; and he shall cause them to rule over many, and divide the land among them for a possession." This came to pass by degrees in the following manner.

Gregory Nyssen² tells us that after the persecution of the Emperor Decius, Gregory Bishop of Neocæsarea in Pontus instituted among all people, as an addition or corollary of devotion toward God, that festival days and assemblies should be celebrated to those who had contended for the faith, that is, to the Martyrs. And he adds this reason for the institution: when he observed, says Nyssen, that the simple and unskillful multitude, because of bodily pleasures, remained in the error of idols; that the principal thing among them might be corrected, namely, that instead of their vain worship they might turn their eyes upon God; he permitted that at the memorials of the holy Martyrs they might make merry and delight themselves, and give themselves over to joy. The heathens were delighted with the festivals of their Gods, and unwilling to part with those delights; and therefore Gregory, to make their conversion easier, instituted annual festivals to the Saints and Martyrs. Hence it came to pass that, in getting rid of the festivals of the heathens, the principal festivals of the Christians took their place: as the keeping of Christmas with ivy and feasting, and playing and sports, in place of the Bacchanalia and Saturnalia; the celebrating of May-day with flowers, in place of the Floralia; and the keeping of festivals to the Virgin Mary, John the Baptist, and several of the Apostles, in place of the solemnities at the entrance of the Sun into the signs of the Zodiac in the old Julian Calendar. In the same persecution of Decius, Cyprian ordered the sufferings of the Martyrs in Africa to be registered, in order to celebrate their memories annually with offerings and sacrifices; and Felix Bishop of Rome, a little after, as Platina relates, Martyrum gloria consulens, constituit at quotannis sacrificia eorum nomine celebrarentur, "consulting the glory of the Martyrs, ordained that sacrifices should be celebrated annually in their name." By the pleasures of these festivals the Christians increased much in number, and decreased as much in virtue, until they were purged and made white by the persecution of Dioclesian. This was the first step taken in the Christian religion toward the veneration of the Martyrs: and although it did not yet amount to unlawful worship, it disposed the Christians toward such a further veneration of the dead as in a short time ended in the invocation of Saints.

The next step was the practice of praying at the sepulchres of the Martyrs; this practice began in Dioclesian's persecution. The Council of Eliberis in Spain, celebrated in the third or fourth year of Dioclesian's persecution, A.C. 305, has these Canons. Can. 34. Cereos per diem placuit in Coemeterio non incendi: inquietandi enim spiritus sanctorum non sunt. Qui hæc non observârint, arceantur ab Ecclesiæ communione. Can. 35. Placuit prohiberi ne fæminæ in Coemeterio pervigilent, eò quod sæpe sub obtentu orationis latentèr scelera committant. Soon after that persecution, suppose about the year 314, the Council of Laodicea in Phrygia, which then met for restoring the lapsed discipline of the Church, has the following Canons. Can. 9. "Those of the Church are not allowed to go into the Coemeteries or Martyries, as they are called, of heretics, for the sake of prayer or recovery of health; but such as go, if they are of the faithful, shall be excommunicated for a time." Can. 34. "A Christian must not leave the Martyrs of Christ, and go to false Martyrs, that is, to the Martyrs of the heretics; for these are alien from God: and therefore let those be anathema who go to them." Can. 51. "The birthdays of the Martyrs shall not be celebrated in Lent, but their commemoration shall be made on the Sabbath days and the Lord's days." The Council of Paphlagonia, celebrated in the year 324, made this Canon: "If any man, being arrogant, abominates the congregations of the Martyrs, or the Liturgies performed tin this, or the memories of the Martyrs, let him be anathema." By all which it is manifest that the Christians in the time of Dioclesian's persecution used to pray in the Coemeteries or burying places of the dead, to avoid the danger of the persecution, and for want of Churches, which were all thrown down; and after the persecution was over, continued that practice in honor of the Martyrs, until new Churches could be built; and by long use came to regard it as advantageous to devotion, and for recovering the health of those who were sick. It also appears that in these burying places they commemorated the Martyrs yearly on days dedicated to them, and accounted all these practices pious and religious, and anathematized as arrogant those men who opposed them, or who prayed in the Martyries of the heretics. They also lit torches to the Martyrs in the daytime, as the heathens did to their Gods; which custom, before the end of the fourth century, prevailed much in the West. They sprinkled the worshipers of the Martyrs with holy water, as the heathens did the worshipers of their Gods; and went on pilgrimages to see Jerusalem and other holy places, as if those places conferred sanctity on the visitors. From the custom of praying in the Coemeteries and Martyries came the custom of translating the bodies of the Saints and Martyrs into such Churches as were newly built: the Emperor Constantius began this practice about the year 359, causing the bodies of Andrew the Apostle, Luke and Timothy, to be translated into a new Church at Constantinople; and before this act of Constantius, the Egyptians kept the bodies of their Martyrs and Saints unburied upon beds in their private houses, and told stories of their souls appearing after death and ascending up to heaven, as Athanasius relates in the life of Antony. All which gave occasion to the Emperor Julian, as Cyril relates, to accuse the Christians in this manner: "Your adding to that ancient dead man, Jesus, many new dead men, who can sufficiently abominate? You have filled all places with sepulchres and monuments, although you are nowhere commanded to prostrate yourselves to sepulchres, and to pay them dutiful respect." And a little after: "Since Jesus said that sepulchres are full of filthiness, how do you invoke God upon them?" And in another place he says that if Christians had adhered to the precepts of the Hebrews, they would have worshiped one God instead of many, and not a man, or rather not many unhappy men; and that they adored the wood of the cross, making its images on their foreheads, and before their houses.

After the sepulchres of Saints and Martyrs were thus converted into places of worship like the heathen temples, and the Churches into sepulchres, and a certain sort of sanctity attributed to the dead bodies of the Saints and Martyrs buried in them, and annual festivals were kept to them with sacrifices offered to God in their name, the next step toward the invocation of Saints was the attributing to their dead bodies, bones and other reliques, a power of working miracles, by means of the separate souls, who were supposed to know what we do or say, and to be able to do us good or hurt, and to work those miracles. This was the very notion the heathens had of the separate souls of their ancient Kings and Heroes, whom they worshiped under the names of Saturn, Rhea, Jupiter, Juno, Mars, Venus, Bacchus, Ceres, Osiris, Isis, Apollo, Diana, and the rest of their Gods. For these Gods, being male and female, husband and wife, son and daughter, brother and sister, are by that revealed to be ancient men and women. Now as the first step toward the invocation of Saints was set on foot by the persecution of Decius, and the second by the persecution of Dioclesian, so this third seems to have been owing to the proceedings of Constantius and Julian the Apostate. When Julian began to restore the worship of the heathen Gods, and to vilify the Saints and Martyrs, the Christians of Syria and Egypt seem to have made a great noise about the miracles done by the reliques of the Christian Saints and Martyrs, in opposition to the powers attributed by Julian and the heathens to their Idols. For Sozomen and Ruffinus tell us that when he opened the heathen Temples, and consulted the Oracle of Apollo Daphnæus in the suburbs of Antioch, and pressed by many sacrifices for an answer, the Oracle at length told him that the bones of the Martyr Babylas which were buried there hindered him from speaking. By which answer we may understand that some Christian had got into the place where the heathen Priests used to speak through a pipe in delivering their Oracles; and before this, Hilary in his book against Constantius, written in the last year of that Emperor, makes the following mention of what was then doing in the East where he was: Sine martyrio persequeris. Plus crudelitati vestræ Nero, Deci, Maximiane, debemus. Diabolum enim per vos vicimus. Sanctus ubique beatorum martyrum sanguis exceptus est, dum in his Dæmones mugiunt, dum ægritudines depelluntur, dum miraculorum opera cernuntur, elevari sine laqueis corpora, & dispensis pede fæminis vestes non defluere in faciem, uri sine ignibus spiritus, confiteri sine interrogantis incremento fidei. And Gregory Nazianzen, in his first Oration against the Emperor Julian then reigning, writes thus: Martyres non extimuisti quibus præclari honores & festa constituta, à quibus Dæmones propelluntur & morbi curantur; quorum sunt apparitiones & prædictiones; quorum vel sola corpora idem possunt quod animæ sanctæ, sive manibus contrectentur, sive honorentur: quorum vel solæ sanguinis guttæ atque exigua passionis signa idem possunt quod corpora. Hæc non colis sed contemnis & aspernaris. These things made the heathens in the reign of the same Emperor demolish the sepulcher of John the Baptist in Phoenicia, and burn his bones; when several Christians, mixing themselves with the heathens, gathered up some of his remains, which were sent to Athanasius, who hid them in the wall of a Church; foreseeing by a prophetic spirit, as Ruffinus tells us, that they might be profitable to future generations.

Of the Mahuzzims, honored by the King who does according to his will.

In scripture we are told that some trust in God and others trust in idols, and that God is our refuge, our strength, and our defense. In this sense God is the rock of his people, and false Gods are called the rock of those who trust in them, Deut. xxxii. 4, 15, 18, 30, 31, 37. In the same sense the Gods of the King who shall do according to his will are called Mahuzzims: munitions, fortresses, protectors, guardians, or defenders. "In his position," says¹ Daniel, "he shall honor Mahuzzims; with a god his fathers did not know he shall honor them with gold and silver, with precious stones, and things of value. He shall do this in the strongest holds or temples; and he shall cause them to rule over many, and divide the land among them as a possession." This is how it came to pass, step by step, in the following manner.

Gregory Nyssen² tells us that after the persecution of the Emperor Decius, Gregory, Bishop of Neocæsarea in Pontus, established among all people, as an addition or consequence of devotion toward God, that festival days and assemblies should be celebrated for those who had contended for the faith, that is, for the Martyrs. And he gives this reason for the institution: when he saw, Nyssen says, that the simple and unskilled multitude, because of bodily pleasures, remained in the error of idols; so that the main thing among them might be corrected, namely that instead of their empty worship they might turn their eyes to God; he allowed that at the memorials of the holy Martyrs they might make merry and enjoy themselves, and give way to joy. The heathens delighted in the festivals of their Gods and were unwilling to give up those pleasures; so Gregory, to make their conversion easier, established annual festivals for the Saints and Martyrs. From this it came about that, in place of the festivals of the heathens, the chief festivals of the Christians took over: such as keeping Christmas with ivy, with feasting, playing, and sports, in place of the Bacchanalia and Saturnalia; celebrating May-day with flowers, in place of the Floralia; and keeping festivals to the Virgin Mary, John the Baptist, and several of the Apostles, in place of the solemnities for the entrance of the Sun into the signs of the Zodiac in the old Julian Calendar. In that same persecution of Decius, Cyprian ordered the accounts of the sufferings of the Martyrs in Africa to be registered, so that their memorials could be celebrated each year with offerings and sacrifices; and Felix, Bishop of Rome, a little later, as Platina relates, "consulting the glory of the Martyrs, ordained that sacrifices should be celebrated each year in their name." By the pleasures of these festivals the Christians grew much in number and fell away just as much in virtue, until they were purged and made white by the persecution of Dioclesian. This was the first step taken in the Christian religion toward the veneration of the Martyrs; and though it did not yet amount to unlawful worship, it prepared the Christians for a further veneration of the dead that in a short time ended in the invocation of Saints.

The next step was the choice to pray at the tombs of the Martyrs; this practice began in Dioclesian's persecution. The Council of Eliberis in Spain, held in the third or fourth year of Dioclesian's persecution, A.C. 305, has these Canons. Can. 34. "It was decided that candles should not be burned in the cemetery by day: for the spirits of the saints are not to be disturbed. Those who do not observe this are to be kept from the communion of the Church." Can. 35. "It was decided to forbid women from keeping watch in the cemetery, because under the cover of prayer they often commit crimes in secret." Right after that persecution, about the year 314, the Council of Laodicea in Phrygia, which then met to restore the broken discipline of the Church, has the following Canons. Can. 9. "Those of the Church are not allowed to go into the cemeteries, or Martyries as they are called, of heretics, for the sake of prayer or recovery of health; but those who go, if they are among the faithful, shall be excommunicated for a time." Can. 34. "A Christian must not leave the Martyrs of Christ and go to false Martyrs, that is, to the Martyrs of the heretics; for these are alien from God; and so let those be anathema who go to them." Can. 51. "The birthdays of the Martyrs shall not be celebrated in Lent, but their commemoration shall be made on the Sabbath days and the Lord's days." The Council of Paphlagonia, held in the year 324, made this Canon: "If any man, being arrogant, hates the gatherings of the Martyrs, or the Liturgies performed in them, or the memorials of the Martyrs, let him be anathema." All of this makes it clear that the Christians in the time of Dioclesian's persecution used to pray in the cemeteries or burying places of the dead, to avoid the danger of the persecution and for want of Churches, which were all thrown down; and after the persecution was over they kept up that practice in honor of the Martyrs until new Churches could be built; and by use they came to value it as helpful to devotion and to the recovery of the sick. It also appears that in these burying places they remembered the Martyrs each year on days set apart for them, and they accounted all these practices pious and religious, and anathematized as arrogant the men who opposed them or prayed in the Martyries of the heretics. They also lit torches to the Martyrs in the daytime, as the heathens did to their Gods; and this custom, before the end of the fourth century, became common in the West. They sprinkled the worshipers of the Martyrs with holy water, as the heathens did the worshipers of their Gods; and they went on pilgrimage to see Jerusalem and other holy places, as if those places conferred sanctity on the visitors. From the custom of praying in the cemeteries and Martyries came the custom of moving the bodies of the Saints and Martyrs into Churches that were newly built: the Emperor Constantius began this practice about the year 359, having the bodies of Andrew the Apostle, Luke, and Timothy moved into a new Church at Constantinople; and before this act of Constantius, the Egyptians kept the bodies of their Martyrs and Saints unburied on beds in their private houses, and told stories of their souls appearing after death and going up to heaven, as Athanasius relates in the life of Antony. All of this gave occasion to the Emperor Julian, as Cyril relates, to accuse the Christians in this way: "Your adding to that old dead man, Jesus, many new dead men, who can sufficiently abominate? You have filled all places with tombs and monuments, even though you are nowhere told to bow down to tombs and to treat them with careful respect." And a little later: "Since Jesus said that tombs are full of filthiness, how do you invoke God upon them?" And in another place he says that if Christians had kept to the precepts of the Hebrews, they would have worshiped one God instead of many, and not a man, or rather not many wretched men; and that they adored the wood of the cross, making its images on their foreheads and in front of their houses.

After the tombs of Saints and Martyrs were turned into places of worship like the heathen temples, and the Churches into tombs, and a certain kind of sanctity was attributed to the dead bodies of the Saints and Martyrs buried in them, and annual festivals were kept for them with sacrifices offered to God in their name; the next step toward the invocation of Saints was attributing to their dead bodies, bones, and other relics a power of working miracles, by way of the separate souls, who were thought to know what we do or say, and to be able to do us good or harm, and to work those miracles. This was exactly the idea the heathens had of the separate souls of their old Kings and Heroes, whom they worshiped under the names of Saturn, Rhea, Jupiter, Juno, Mars, Venus, Bacchus, Ceres, Osiris, Isis, Apollo, Diana, and the rest of their Gods. Since these Gods are male and female, husband and wife, son and daughter, brother and sister, they are shown by that to be old men and women. As the first step toward the invocation of Saints was set off by the persecution of Decius, and the second by the persecution of Dioclesian, so this third seems to be owing to the actions of Constantius and Julian the Apostate. When Julian began to restore the worship of the heathen Gods and to belittle the Saints and Martyrs, the Christians of Syria and Egypt seem to have made a great deal of noise about the miracles done by the relics of the Christian Saints and Martyrs, in answer to the powers that Julian and the heathens gave to their Idols. For Sozomen and Ruffinus tell us that when he opened the heathen Temples, and consulted the Oracle of Apollo Daphnæus in the outskirts of Antioch, and pressed for an answer with many sacrifices; the Oracle at last told him that the bones of the Martyr Babylas, which were buried there, kept him from speaking. By this answer we may understand that some Christian had gotten into the place where the heathen Priests used to speak through a pipe when they gave out their Oracles; and before this, Hilary, in his book against Constantius, written in the last year of that Emperor, says the following about what was then being done in the East where he was: "You persecute without any martyrdom. We owe more to your cruelty, Nero, Decius, and Maximian, than to anything else; for by you we have conquered the Devil. The holy blood of the blessed martyrs is received everywhere: while in it Demons roar, while sicknesses are driven away, while works of miracles are seen, bodies raised up without ropes, women with feet suspended whose clothes do not fall down on their faces, spirits burned without fires, and confessions of faith without any prompting from the questioner." And Gregory Nazianzen, in his first Oration against the Emperor Julian, then reigning, writes this: "You did not hold in awe the Martyrs, to whom glorious honors and festivals have been set apart, by whom Demons are driven out and diseases cured; who have appearances and predictions; whose very bodies alone can do what holy souls can do, whether they are handled by hands or honored; whose very drops of blood and small signs of their suffering can do what their bodies do. You do not worship these things but despise and reject them." These things made the heathens, in the reign of that same Emperor, destroy the tomb of John the Baptist in Phoenicia and burn his bones; when several Christians, mixing with the heathens, gathered up some of his remains, which were sent to Athanasius, who hid them in the wall of a Church, foreseeing by a prophetic spirit, as Ruffinus tells us, that they might be useful to future generations.