108
device adopted by ecclesiastics, for subduing the turbulentpassions of their ignorant people, and exciting in tbem feelings of respectfor the church, was by making images of the Virgin and of Christ, toweep, and sometimes to sweat blood, &c. These effects being, of course,represented as the result of their impenitence. ‘ The fathers of MonteVaccino made the wooden crucifix sweat that was fastened to the wallof their church ; through which they had a passage for the water to runinto the body of the crucifix, wherein they had drilled several pores, sothat it passed through in little drops.’ De La Mortraye’s Trav. Vol. i, 23.This was a staple trick of heathen priests; hence Statius , in his Thebaid ,B. ix, v. 906, represents the Statue of Diana weeping.
For tears descended from the sculptured stone.
And Lucan,
The face of grief each marble statue wears,
And Parian gods and heroes stand in tears.
In the temple of the great Syrian goddess at Hierapolis , were idolsthat could ‘move, sweat and deliver oracles as if alive.’ a Among an-cient Chemical deceptions, the liquefaction of St. Januarius ’ blood, is stillperformed; and once a year, all Naples is in suspense tili the miracle isaccomplished. We shall have occasion to notice other ingenious ancientdevices for the same purposes of delusion, in the fourth Book , when speak-ing on the application of steam to raise water.
Although the monks present lamentable examples of misdirected talentsand misapplied time, their labors tended to the general progress of re-finement and learniiag. We may regret that unworthy spirits among themabused the superstitions of the times to their own advantage—imitatingthe statesmen and priests of antiquity, in making the oracles declare whatthey wished; still, they were the only lights of the dark ages, and eventheir introduction of images of saints, &c. in place of the pagan idols,contributed in the end to the overthrow of idolatry, and was perhaps theonly condition on which the barbarous people, could be *tnduced to giveup their ancient deities. ‘It can hardlie be credited,’ says Peter Martyr ,‘ with how greate labor and difficultie, man could be brought from the wor-shipping of images.’
Another dass devoted themselves to writing and copying,-that is, to theart of multiplying books; and their industry and skill have never been,and in all human probability, never will be surpassed. The beauty, um-formity and effect of their pages, are equal to those of any printed volume.The richness of the illuminated letters, the fertility of imagination dis-played in their endlessly variegated forms, the brightness of the colorsand gilding, and the minuteness of finish, can only be appreciated bythose who have had opportunities of examining them. We have seensome in which the illustrations equalled the finest paintings in miniature. 1In a literary and useful point of view, the labors of these men are aboveall praise. They were the channels through which many valuable worksof the ancients have been preserved and transmitted to us. And as re-gards the arts, both ornamental and useful, the monks were at one timealmost their only cultivators.
«
a Univer. Hist, i, 373.
b In the Library of John Allan, Esq. of this city.