ce. The new capital of the Eastern world, unable to produce any
ancient and domestic trophies, was enriched by the spoils of dependent
provinces. The bodies of St. Andrew, St. Luke, and St. Timothy, had
reposed near three hundred years in the obscure graves, from whence they
were transported, in solemn pomp, to the church of the apostles, which
the magnificence of Constantine had founded on the banks of the Thracian
Bosphorus. About fifty years afterwards, the same banks were honored by
the presence of Samuel, the judge and prophet of the people of Israel.
His ashes, deposited in a golden vase, and covered with a silken veil,
were delivered by the bishops into each other's hands. The relics of
Samuel were received by the people with the same joy and reverence
which they would have shown to the living prophet; the highways,
from Palestine to the gates of Constantinople, were filled with an
uninterrupted procession; and the emperor Arcadius himself, at the head
of the most illustrious members of the clergy and senate, advanced to
meet his extraordinary guest, who had always deserved and claimed the
homage of kings. The example of Rome and Constantinople confirmed the
faith and discipline of the Catholic world. The honors of the saints and
martyrs, after a feeble and ineffectual murmur of profane reason, were
universally established; and in the age of Ambrose and Jerom, something
was still deemed wanting to the sanctity of a Christian church, till
it had been consecrated by some portion of holy relics, which fixed and
inflamed the devotion of the faithful.

In the long period of twelve hundred years, which elapsed between the
reign of Constantine and the reformation of Luther, the worship of
saints and relics corrupted the pure and perfect simplicity of the
Christian model: and some symptoms of degeneracy may be observed even
in the first generations which adopted and cherished this pernicious
innovation.

I. The satisfactory experience, that the relics of saints were more
valuable than gold or precious stones, stimulated the clergy to
multiply the treasures of the church. Without much regard for truth or
probability, they invented names for skeletons, and actions for names.
The fame of the apostles, and of the holy men who had imitated their
virtues, was darkened by religious fiction. To the invincible band of
genuine and primitive martyrs, they added myriads of imaginary heroes,
who had never existed, except in the fanc