ood
even in comparatively recent times.[169:2]

Pope Gregory the First (550-604), we are told, was wont to bestow, as a
mark of his special favor, presents of keys, in which had been worked up
some filings of Saint Peter's chains, accompanied with a prayer that
what had bound the apostle for martyrdom, might release the recipient
from his sins.

The second Nicene Council (A. D. 787) decreed that no church should be
consecrated unless it enshrined some relics.[170:1]

At the celebrated Benedictine abbey of Monte Cassino, in southern Italy,
which was founded in the year 529, the care of the sick was enjoined as
a pious obligation. There diseases were treated chiefly by means of
prayers and conjurations, and by the exposition and application of
sacred relics, which appealed to the patients' imagination, and thereby,
through suggestion, assisted the healing forces of nature.[170:2]

Thomas Dudley Fosbroke, in "British Monachism," states that among the
early monks of England, medical practice devolved on clerks, on account
of their ability to read Latin treatises on therapeutics.

Until the middle of the fifteenth century, physicians were forbidden to
marry, owing to the prevalent opinion that the father of a family could
not heal so well as a bachelor. The art of writing prescriptions was
made to conform to the dogmas of the existing religion, "for which
reason relics were introduced into the Materia Medica."

The medieval priests and monks, who were actively interested in the
development of medical science, encouraged the therapeutic use of such
relics. Miraculous agencies were the more eagerly sought after on
account of the popular belief in devils and witches as morbiferous
creatures.

The reliquary, or repository for relics, was regarded as the most
precious ornament in the lady's chamber, the knight's armory, the king's
hall of state, and in the apartments of the pope or bishop.[171:1]

Gradually the custom of relic-worship degenerated into idolatry. In the
year 1549 John Calvin published a tract on the subject, wherein he
stated that the great majority of alleged relics were spurious, and that
it could be shown by comparison that each Apostle had more than four
bodies, and that every Saint had two or three at least. The arm of Saint
Anthony, which had been worshipped at Geneva, when removed from its
case, proved to be part of a stag. Among the vast number of precious
relics, presumably false, which were exhib