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RELICS (Lat, reliquiae, the equivalen...

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Originally appearing in Volume V23, Page 61 of the 1911 Encyclopedia Britannica.
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RELICS (See also:Lat, reliquiae, the See also:equivalent of the See also:English " remains " in the sense of a dead See also:body) , the name given in the See also:Catholic See also:Church to,(I) the bodies of the See also:saints, or portions of them,(2) such See also:objects as the saints made use of during their lives, or as were used at their martyrdom. These objects are held by the Church in religious veneration, and by their means it hopes to obtain divine See also:grace and miraculous benefits (Conc. Trid. sess. 24). These ideas had taken shape, in all essentials, during the See also:early days of the Church, underwent further development in the See also:middle ages, and were maintained by the Catholic Church in the See also:face of the opposition of the Reformers, while all the See also:Protestant Churches rejected them. The origins of the veneration of relics See also:lie in the anxiety for the preservation of the bodies of the martyrs. Nothing is more natural than that the pious solicitude See also:felt by all men for the bodies of their loved ones should in the See also:primitive See also:Christian Churches have been turned most strongly towards the bodies of those who had met with See also:death in confessing their faith. The See also:account given by the church at See also:Smyrna of the death of their See also:bishop See also:Polycarp (155) gives us an insight into these feelings. The church collected and buried the remains of the See also:martyr, who had been burnt, in See also:order duly to celebrate the anniversary of the martyrdom at the See also:place of See also:burial. The See also:possession of the relics seemed to assure the continuation of the See also:common See also:life of the church with their bishop, of the living with the dead (Mart. Polyc. c. 17).

The See also:

custom of which we have here for the first See also:time an account had become universal by the 3rd See also:century. In all parts the Christians assembled on the anniversary of the martyrs' death at their See also:graves, to celebrate the See also:Agape and the See also:Eucharist at this spot. It was a favourite custom to See also:bury the dead near the graves of the martyrs; and it was the highest wish of many to " See also:rest with the saints." It was the body lying in the See also:tomb which was venerated (see Euseb. Hist. eccl. vii. I I, 24; viii. 6, 7). But these customs soon underwent .a further development. About the end of the 3rd and the beginning of the 4th century (See also:Paulinus of See also:Nola, Poem. xix. 14 et seq., See also:xxvii. 443). The objection raised by the Aquitanian See also:presbyter See also:Vigilantius (c. 400) to the belief that the souls of the martyrs to a certain extent clung to their ashes, and heard the prayers of those who approached them, appeared to his contemporaries to be frivolous; and he nowhere met with any support.

The only doubt which was felt was as to whether the bodies of the saints should be divided, and removed from their See also:

original resting-place. Both practices were forbidden by See also:law under the See also:emperor See also:Theodosius I. (See also:Cod. Theodos. ix. 17, 7), and the See also:division of the bodies of martyrs into pieces was prohibited for centuries. Even See also:Pope See also:Gregory I., in a See also:letter to the empress See also:Constantia, disapproved it (Ep. iv. 30). See also:Ambrose of See also:Milan, by the See also:discovery of the relics of Protasius and Gervasius (cf. Ep. 22 and See also:Augustine, Confess. ix. 7), started in the See also:West the See also:long See also:series of discoveries and See also:translations of hitherto unknown relics. His example was followed, to name only the best known instances, by Bishop See also:Theodore of Octodurum (now Martigny in the See also:Vaud), who discovered the relics of the Theban See also:legion which was alleged to have been destroyed by the emperor Maximian on account of its belief in the Christian faith (see Passio Acaun.

Mart. r6), and by Clematius, a See also:

citizen of See also:Cologne, to whom the virgin martyrs of this See also:city revealed themselves (Kraus, Inschriften der Rheinlande, No. 294), after-wards to be known as St See also:Ursula and her eleven thousand virgins. The West was much poorer in relics than the See also:East. See also:Rome, it is true, possessed in the bodies of See also:Peter and See also:Paul a treasure the virtue of which outshone all the sacred treasures of the East. But many other places were entirely wanting in relics. By the discoveries which we have mentioned their number was notably increased. But the longing for these pledges of the divine assistance was insatiable. In order to satisfy it relics were made by placing pieces of See also:cloth on the graves of the saints, which were afterwards taken to their homes and venerated by the pilgrims. The same purpose was served by oil taken from the lamps burning at the graves, See also:flowers from the altars, See also:water from, some See also:holy well, pieces of the garments of saints, See also:earth from See also:Jerusalem, and especially keys which had been laid on the See also:grave of St Peter at Rome. All these things See also:Eusebius of Caesarea (Praep. Ev. xiii.ii), Gregory of Nazianzus were not looked upon as mementoes, but the conviction pre-(Oral. in Cypr. 17), Gregory of Nyssa (Oral. de S.

Theod. mart.), I vailed that they were informed by a miraculous See also:

power, which See also:Basil of Caesarea (Ep. ii. 197), See also:Chrysostom (See also:Laud. Drosidis), had passed into them through contact with that which was See also:Theodoret of See also:Cyrus (Inps. 67, ir), &c. See also:John of See also:Damascus, the originally sacred (cf. See also:Greg. Tur. De Glor. mart. i. 25; Greg. I. See also:great exponent of See also:dogma in the 8th century, gave expression to the result of a See also:uniform development which had been going on for centuries when he taught that See also:Christ offers the relics to Christians as means of salvation. They must not be looked upon as something that is dead; for through them all See also:good things come to those who pray with faith. Why should it seem impossible to believe in this power of the relics, when water could be made to gush from a See also:rock in the See also:desert?

(De fide orthod. iv. 15). Such was the theory; and the practice was in See also:

harmony with it. Throughout the whole of the Eastern Church the veneration of relics prevailed. Nobody hesitated to See also:divide up the bodies of the saints in order to afford as many portions of them as possible. They were shared among the inhabitants of cities and villages, Theodoret tells us, and cherished by everybody as healers and physicians for both body and soul (Decur.Graec. riff. 8). The transition from the true relic to the hallowed See also:object was especially common. Jerusalem, as early as the time of Eusebius, rejoiced in the possession of the episcopal See also:chair of See also:James the Just (Hist. eccl. vii. 19); and as See also:late as the 4th century was discovered the most important of the relics of Christ, the See also:cross which was alleged to have been His. See also:Cyril of Jerusalem already remarks that the whole See also:world was filled with portions of the See also:wood of the cross (See also:Cat. iv. 1o).

The development which the veneration of relics underwent in the West did not differ essentially from that in the East. Here also the See also:

idea came to prevail that the body of the See also:saint, or a portion of it, was possessed of healing and protective power it became customary for the bodies of the martyrs not to be buried, but preserved for the purpose of veneration. Already individual Christians began to possess themselves of portions of the bodies of martyrs, and to carry them about with them. Both these practices met with See also:criticism and opposition, especially from the leading men of the Church. According to the testimony of See also:Athanasius of See also:Alexandria, the See also:hermit See also:Anthony decided that it should be held to be unlawful and impious to leave the bodies of the martyrs unburied (Vita See also:Ant. 90). In See also:Carthage the See also:archdeacon and later the bishop Caecilianus severely blamed a certain Lucilla for carrying about with her a relic which she used to See also:kiss before receiving the Eucharist (Optatus, De See also:schism. Donat. i. 16). The compiler of the Acta S. Fructuosi, a See also:Spanish ecclesiastic, represents the martyred bishop as himself requesting the burial of his relics. But energetic as the opposition was, it was unsuccessful, and died out.

For in the meantime See also:

opinion as to the efficacy of relics had undergone a transformation, parallel with the growth of the theory, which soon predominated in the Church, that material See also:instruments are the vehicles of divine grace. When the Christians of Smyrna decided that the bones of the martyrs were of more See also:worth than See also:gold or gems, and when See also:Origen (Exh. ad mart. 50) spoke of the See also:precious See also:blood of the martyrs, they were thinking of the See also:act of faith which the martyrs had accomplished by the See also:sacrifice of their life. Now, on the other See also:hand, the relic came to be looked upon as in itself a thing of value as the channel of miraculous divine See also:powers. These ideas are set forth by Cyril of Jerusalem. He taught that a certain power dwelt in the body of the saint, even when the soul had departed from it; just as it was the See also:instrument of the soul during life, so the power passed permanently into it (Cat. xviii. 16). This was coming very near to a belief that objects which the saints had used during their life had also a See also:share in their miraculous powers. And this conclusion Cyril had already come to (loc. cit.). We can see how early this estimate of relics became See also:general from the fact that the former hesitation as to whether they should be venerated as sacred died out during the 4th century. The Fathers of the See also:Greek Church especially were See also:united in recommending the veneration of relics. All the great theologians of the 4th and 5th centuries may be quoted as See also:evidence of this: Ep. iv.

29, No. 30). A dishonest means of satisfying the craving for relics was that of See also:

forging them, and how common this became can be gathered from the many complaints about See also:spurious relics (Snip. Sev. Vita Mart. 8; Aug. De op. mon. 28; Greg. I. Ep. iv. 30, &c.). But in the long run these substitutes for relics did not satisfy the Christians of the West, and, following the example of the Eastern Church, they.' took to dividing the bodies of the saints.

See also:

Medieval relics in the West also were mostly portions of the bodies of saints or of things which they had used during their lives. The veneration of relics also received a strong impulse from the fact that the Church required that a relic should be deposited in every See also:altar. Among the first of those whom we know to have attached importance to the placing of relics in churches is Ambrose of Milan (Ep. 22), and the 7th general See also:council of See also:Nicaea (787) forbade the See also:consecration of churches in which relics were not See also:present, under See also:pain of ex-communication. This has remained See also:part of the law of the See also:Roman Catholic Church. The most famous relics discovered during the middle ages were those of the apostle James at St See also:Jago de Compostella in See also:Spain (see See also:PILGRIMAGE), the bodies of the three See also:kings, which were brought from Milan to Cologne in 1164 by the emperor See also:Frederick I. (Chron. reg. See also:Colon. for the See also:year 1164), the so-called sudarium of St See also:Veronica, which from the 12th century onwards was preserved in the See also:Capella See also:Santa Maria ad praesepe of St Peter's in Rome (see Dobschiitz, Christusbilder, p. 218 sec.), and the seamless robe of Christ, the possession of which See also:lent renown to the See also:cathedral of See also:Trier since the beginning of the r2th century (Gesta Trevir., Mon. Germ. Scr. viii. p. 1.52).

The number of rfiics increased to a fabulous extent during the middle ages. There were churches which possessed hundreds, even thousands, of relics. In the cathedral of See also:

Eichstatt were to be found, as early as 1071, 683 relics (Gundech, See also:Lib. See also:font. Eist., Mon. Germ. Scr. vii. p. 246 seq.); the monastery of Hirschau had 222 in the year 1o91 (De cons. See also:mai. mon., Mon. Germ. Scr. xiv. p. 261); the monastery of Stedernburg 515 in the year 1166 (See also:Ann. Sled. Scr. xvi. p.

212 seq.). But these figures are trifling compared with those at the end of the middle ages. In the year 1520 could be counted 19,013 in the Schlosskirche at See also:

Wittenberg, and 21,483 in the Schlosskirche at See also:Halle in 1521 (Kostlin, See also:Friedrich der W., and See also:die Schlosskirche zu Wittenberg, p. 58 seq.; Redlich, See also:Cardinal Albrecht and das Neue See also:Stilt zu Halle, p. 26o). There were also collections on the same See also:scale belonging to individuals; a patrician of See also:Nuremberg named Muffel was able to gain possession of 308 relics (Chroniken der deutschen Stddte, xi. p. 745). It is curious that while the popular craving for relics had passed all See also:bounds, medieval See also:theology was very cautious in its declarations on the subject of the veneration of relics. See also:Thomas See also:Aquinas based his See also:justification of them on the idea of reverent See also:commemoration; since we venerate the saints, we must also show reverence for their relics, for whoever loves another does See also:honour to that which remains of him after death. On this account it is our See also:duty, in memory of the saints, to pay due honour to their relics and especially to their bodies, which were the temples and dwellings of the Holy See also:Ghost in which He dwelt and worked, and which in the resurrection are to be made like to the body of Christ; and in likewise because See also:God honours them, in that He See also:works wonders in their presence (Summa theol. iii. qu. 25, See also:art. 6).

The great scholastic philosopher abandoned the theory that the relics in themselves are vessels and instruments of the divine grace and miraculous power. But these ideas were revived, on the other hand, by the Catholicism of the See also:

counter-See also:Reformation, which again taught and teaches that God grants many benefits to mankind through the sacred bodies of the martyrs (Conc. Trid. sess. See also:xxv.). The See also:doctrine has adapted itself to the popular belief. (A. H.*) ' See also:RELIEF (through Fr. from Lat. relevare, to lift up), an act of raising or lifting off or up. Apart from the general sense of a mitigation, cessation or removal of pain, sorrow, discomfort, &c., and the See also:artistic use (It. relievo) of the See also:projection of a figure or See also:design in See also:sculpture from the ground on which it is formed, which is treated below, the See also:term "relief" is used in the following senses; it was one of the feudal incidents between See also:lord and See also:vassal, and consisted of a See also:payment to the lord in See also:kind or See also:money made by the See also:heir on the death of the ancestor for the See also:privilege of See also:succession, for, fiefs not being hereditary, the See also:estate had lapsed to the lord; by this payment the heir caducum praedium relevabat (Du Cange, See also:Gloss. s.v. Relevare). The word is also generally used, in law, for any exemption granted by a See also:court from the strict legal consequences of an act, &c., e.g. to a See also:parliamentary See also:candidate from the penal consequences ensuing from breaches of the regulations of the Corrupt and Illegal Practices Acts. Relief is also the term used in English law for the assistance given to the indigent poor by the Poor Law authorities (see PooR LAW).

End of Article: RELICS (Lat, reliquiae, the equivalent of the English " remains " in the sense of a dead body)

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