The-papacy-its-history-dogmas-genius-and-prospects-wylie

RISE OF MONKERY. 49sure sign of eminent sanctity.love to God and obedience to his will,Piety no longer consisted inbut in the observanceof the most frivolous ceremonies, to which there attached anextraordinary value and a mysterious influence. To endowa convent or erect a cathedral was among the most illustriousdeeds which one could perform. To possess a fingeror a toe of a saint was a rare privilege ; and the owner of soinestimable a treasure derivedtherefrom unspeakably morebenefit than could possibly accrue from the possession ofany moral or spiritual excellence, however exalted. Relicsso precious were sought forthat set all difficulties at defiance ;with a perseverance and a zealand what was so eagerlysought was in most cases happily found. The caves ofEgypt, the sands of Libya, and the deserts of Syria, wereransacked. The bones of dead men, and, if history may becredited, of the lower animals, were exhumed, were hawkedover Christendom, and purchased at a high rate. Theyw ere w^orn as amulets, or enshrined in cabinets of silver andgold; and, being placed in cathedrals, were exhibited at statedtimes to the devout. To abandon society, with the obligationsit imposes and the duties it exacts, and toconsume lifein the midst of filth, indolence, and vice, was accounted aneffort of uncommon holiness. To shirk the plough and theloom, and mount the wallet of the beggar,—to abscond fromthe ranks of honest industry, and fleece the labouring classesin predatory bands or as single sorners,—was to be heroicallyself-denied and virtuous. Such holy men were rather unpleasantlycommon ; for the west, as formerly the east, nowbegan to swarm with monks and hermits. Such of the pagansophists as lived to witness the rise of this superstition, noless amazed than indignant, pointed the keen shafts of theirpowerful satire against that filthy race, which had renouncedthe beautiful mythology of Greece and the martial gods ofRome, to fall prostrate before the bones and moulderingrelics of the dead.** Gibbon's Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, vol. v. pp. 124-130." Alany of the eminent fathers, both for learning and devotion, madeE