e in
existence, each having an equal and exclusive right to the spiritual
presence. The doctrine of invocation of departed saints, which assumed
prominence in the fifth century, was greatly strengthened by these
graphic forms. Pagan idolatry had reappeared.

[Sidenote: Simple fetiches replaced by images.]

[Sidenote: Bleeding and winking images.]

At first the simple cross was used as a substitute for the amulets and
charms of remoter times; it constituted a fetich able to expel evil
spirits, even Satan himself. This Being, who had become singularly
debased from what he was in the noble Oriental fictions, was an
imbecile and malicious though not a malignant spirit, affrighted not
only at pieces of wood framed in the shape of a cross, but at the form
of it made by the finger in the air. A subordinate daemon was supposed to
possess every individual at his birth, but he was cast out by baptism.
When, in the course of time, the cross became a crucifix, offering a
representation of the dying Redeemer, it might be supposed to have
gathered increased virtue; and soon, in addition to that adorable form,
were introduced images of the Virgin, the apostles, saints, and martyrs.
The ancient times seemed to have come again, when these pictures were
approached with genuflexions, luminaries, and incense. The doctrine of
the more intelligent was that these were aids to devotion, and that,
among people to whom the art of reading was unknown, they served the
useful purpose of recalling sacred events in a kind of hieroglyphic
manner. But among the vulgar, and monks, and women, they were believed
to be endowed with supernatural power. Of some, the wounds could bleed;
of others, the eyes could wink; of others, the limbs could be raised. In
ancient times, the statues of Minerva could brandish spears, and those
of Venus could weep.

[Sidenote: Idolatry never extinguished in Greece and Italy.]

In truth, the populations of the Greek and Latin countries were no more
than nominally converted and superficially Christianized. The old
traditions and practices had never been forgotten. A tendency to
idolatry seemed to be the necessary incident of the climate. Not without
reason have the apologists of the clergy affirmed that image-worship was
insisted on by the people, and that the Church had to admit ideas that
she had never been able to eradicate. After seven hundred years of
apostolic labour, it was found that the populace of Greece and Ital