dinary events are
not quite so well certified as those of Eginhard; and we have seen
what the value of Eginhard's evidence is when the miraculous is in
question.

* * * * *

I have been careful to explain that the arguments which I have used in
the course of this discussion are not new; that they are historical
and have nothing to do with what is commonly called science; and that
they are all, to the best of my belief, to be found in the works of
theologians of repute.

The position which I have taken up, that the evidence in favour of
such miracles as those recorded by Eginhard, and consequently of
mediaeval demonology, is quite as good as that in favour of such
miracles as the Gadarene, and consequently of Nazarene demonology, is
none of my discovery. Its strength was, wittingly or unwittingly,
suggested, a century and a half ago, by a theological scholar of
eminence; and it has been, if not exactly occupied, yet so fortified
with bastions and redoubts by a living ecclesiastical Vauban, that, in
my judgment, it has been rendered impregnable. In the early part of
the last century, the ecclesiastical mind in this country was much
exercised by the question, not exactly of miracles, the occurrence of
which in biblical times was axiomatic, but by the problem: When did
miracles cease? Anglican divines were quite sure that no miracles had
happened in their day, nor for some time past; they were equally sure
that they happened sixteen or seventeen centuries earlier. And it was
a vital question for them to determine at what point of time, between
this _terminus a quo_ and that _terminus ad quem_, miracles came to an
end.

The Anglicans and the Romanists agreed in the assumption that the
possession of the gift of miracle-working was _prima facie_ evidence
of the soundness of the faith of the miracle-workers. The supposition
that miraculous powers might be wielded by heretics (though it might
be supported by high authority) led to consequences too frightful to
be entertained by people who were busied in building their dogmatic
house on the sands of early Church history. If, as the Romanists
maintained, an unbroken series of genuine miracles adorned the records
of their Church, throughout the whole of its existence, no Anglican
could lightly venture to accuse them of doctrinal corruption. Hence,
the Anglicans, who indulged in such accusations, were bound to prove
the modern, the mediaeval Roma