hich was unknown in his church. The holy woman restrained herself to
carrying thither a basket full of fruits and wine, of which she
partook very soberly with the women who accompanied her, leaving the
rest for the poor. St. Augustine remarks, in the same passage, that
some intemperate Christians abused these offerings by drinking wine to
excess: _Ne ulla occasio se ingurgitandi daretur ebriosis._

St. Augustine,[467] however, by his preaching and remonstrances, did
so much good, that he entirely uprooted this custom, which was common
throughout the African Church, and the abuse of which was too general.
In his books on the City of God,[468] he avows that this usage is
neither general nor approved in the Church, and that those who
practice it content themselves with offering this food upon the tombs
of the martyrs, in order that through their merits these offerings
should be sanctified; after which they carry them away, and make use
of them for their own nourishment and that of the poor: _Quicumque
suas epulas eo deferant, quad quidem a melioribus Christianis non fit,
et in plerisque terrarum nulla talis est consuetudo; tamen quicumque
id faciunt, quas cum appossuerint, orant, et auferunt, ut vescantur
vel ex eis etiam indigentibus largiantur._ It appears, from two
sermons which have been attributed to St. Augustine,[469] that in
former times this custom had crept in at Rome, but did not subsist
there any time, and was blamed and condemned.

Now, if it were true that the dead could eat in their tombs, and that
they had a wish or occasion to eat, as is believed by those of whom
Tertullian speaks, and as it appears may be inferred from the custom
of carrying fruit and wine to be placed on the graves of martyrs and
other Christians, I think even that I have good proof that in certain
places they placed near the bodies of the dead, whether buried in the
cemeteries or the churches, meat, wine, and other liquors. I have in
our study several vases of clay and glass, and even plates, where may
be seen small bones of pig and fowls, all found deep underground in
the church of the Abbey of St. Mansuy, near the town of Toul.

It has been remarked to me that these vestiges found in the ground
were plunged in virgin earth which had never been disturbed, and near
certain vases or urns filled with ashes, and containing some small
bones which the flames could not consume; and as it is known that the
Christians did not burn their dead,