this art magic," (p. 339.) The
saint answers, We make an infinite difference between God and the
martyrs: which he had before told him, (l. 6, pp. 201 and 203,) where he
writes, "We neither call the martyrs gods, nor adore them with divine
worship; but with affection and honor reverence them: we pay them the
highest honors, because they contemned their life for the truth," &c.

We have in the second part of the fifth tome several Homilies and
Letters of this saint. It was ordained by the council of Nice that the
bishop of Alexandria, in which city chiefly flourished the sciences of
mathematics and astronomy, should at the end of every year examine
carefully on what day the next Easter was to be kept. They, by custom,
acquainted by a circular letter other bishops near them, and in
particular the bishop of Rome, that he might notify it to all the
prelates of the West. St. Cyril was very exact in this duty. Possevin
says he saw his paschal discourses in the Vatican library, for every
year of hie episcopacy, namely thirty-one, from the year 414. We have
but twenty-nine printed: those for 443 and 444 being wanting. He spoke
them to his own flock, as well as sent them to other bishops; and marks
in each the beginning of Lent, the Monday and Saturday in Holy Week, and
Easter-day, counting Lent exactly of forty days. In these paschal
homilies he exceedingly recommends the advantages of fasting; which he
shows (Hom. 1.) to be the "source of all virtues, the image of an
angelical life, the extinction of lust, and the preparation of a soul to
heavenly communications." He says, "If it seems at first bitter and
laborious, its fruits and reward infinitely compensate the pains; for
more should seem nothing for the purchase of virtue: even in temporal
things, nothing valuable can be obtained without labor and cost. If we
are afraid of fasting here, we shall fall into eternal flames hereafter;
an evil infinitely worse, and quite intolerable." In the following
homilies he extols the absolute necessity of this mortification, to
crucify in us the old man, and punish past irregularities; but shows it
must be accompanied with alms and other good works. In his latter
paschal discourses, and others extant, he explains the mystery of the
Incarnation against Nestorianism and other heresies. The ninth homily is
On the Mystical Supper, or Holy Banquet of the Communion and Sacrifice,
in which "the tremendous mystery is performed, and the Lamb of Go