erva that could
brandish spears, paintings that could blush, images that could sweat,
and endless shrines and sanctuaries at which miracle-cures could be
performed.

As years passed on, the faith described by Tertullian was transmuted
into one more fashionable and more debased. It was incorporated with
the old Greek mythology. Olympus was restored, but the divinities passed
under other names. The more powerful provinces insisted on the adoption
of their time-honored conceptions. Views of the Trinity, in accordance
with Egyptian traditions, were established. Not only was the adoration
of Isis under a new name restored, but even her image, standing on the
crescent moon, reappeared. The well-known effigy of that goddess,
with the infant Horus in her arms, has descended to our days in
the beautiful, artistic creations of the Madonna and Child. Such
restorations of old conceptions under novel forms were everywhere
received with delight. When it was announced to the Ephesians that the
Council of that place, headed by Cyril, had decreed that the Virgin
should be called "the Mother of God," with tears of joy they embraced
the knees of their bishop; it was the old instinct peeping out; their
ancestors would have done the same for Diana.

This attempt to conciliate worldly converts, by adopting their ideas
and practices, did not pass without remonstrance from those whose
intelligence discerned the motive. "You have," says Faustus to
Augustine, "substituted your agapae for the sacrifices of the pagans;
for their idols your martyrs, whom you serve with the very same honors.
You appease the shades of the dead with wine and feasts; you celebrate
the solemn festivities of the Gentiles, their calends, and their
solstices; and, as to their manners, those you have retained without any
alteration. Nothing distinguishes you from the pagans, except that you
hold your assemblies apart from them." Pagan observances were everywhere
introduced. At weddings it was the custom to sing hymns to Venus.

INTRODUCTION OF ROMAN RITES. Let us pause here a moment, and see, in
anticipation, to what a depth of intellectual degradation this policy of
paganization eventually led. Heathen rites were adopted, a pompous
and splendid ritual, gorgeous robes, mitres, tiaras, wax-tapers,
processional services, lustrations, gold and silver vases, were
introduced. The Roman lituus, the chief ensign of the augurs, became the
crozier. Churches were built over the to