ibusque conspurcati. Martyres igitur vocabantur, & ministri
quidem & legati arbitrique precum apud Deos; cum fuerint servilia infida &
flagris pessime subacta, quae cicatrices scelerum ac nequitiae vestigia
corporibus circumferunt; ejusmodi tamen Deos fert tellus_. By these
instances we may understand the invocation of Saints was now of some
standing in _Egypt_, and that it was already generally received and
practised there by the common people.

Thus _Basil_ a Monk, who was made Bishop of _Caesarea_ in the year 369, and
died in the year 378, in his Oration on the Martyr _Mamas_, saith: _Be ye
mindful of the Martyr; as many of you as have enjoyed him in your dreams,
as many as in this place have been assisted by him in prayer, as many of
you as upon invoking him by name have had him present in your works, as
many as he has reduced into the way from wandering, as many as he has
restored to health, as, many as have had their dead children restored by
him to life, as many as have had their lives prolonged by him_: and a
little after, he thus expresses the universality of this superstition in
the regions of _Cappadocia_ and _Bithynia_: _At the memory of the Martyr_,
saith he, _the whole region is moved; at his festival the whole city is
transported with joy. Nor do the kindred of the rich turn aside to the
sepulchres of their ancestors, but all go to the place of devotion._ Again,
in the end of the Homily he prays, that _God would preserve the Church,
thus fortified with the great towers of the Martyrs_: and in his Oration on
the forty Martyrs; _These are they_, saith he, _who obtaining our country,
like certain towers afford us safety against our enemies. Neither are they
shut up in one place only, but being distributed are sent into many
regions, and adorn many countries.--You have often endeavoured, you have
often laboured to find one who might pray for you: here are forty, emitting
one voice of prayer.--He that is in affliction flies to these, he that
rejoices has recourse to these: the first, that he may be freed from evil,
the last that he may continue in happiness. Here a woman praying for her
children is heard; she obtains a safe return for her husband from abroad,
and health for him in his sickness.--O ye common keepers of mankind, the
best companions of our cares, suffragans and coadjutors of our prayers,
most powerful embassadors to God_, &c. By all which it is manifest, that
before the year 378, the Orations and S