The Treatise on Relics by the great Reformer of Geneva is not so generally
known as it deserves, though at the time of its publication it enjoyed a
considerable popularity.(1) The probable reason of this is: the absurdity
of the relics described in the Treatise has since the Reformation
gradually become so obvious, that their exhibitors make as little noise as
possible about their miraculous wares, whose virtues are no longer
believed except by the most ignorant part of the population of countries
wherein the education of the inferior classes is neglected. And, indeed,
not only Protestants, but many enlightened Roman Catholics believed that
all the miracles of relics, images, and other superstitions with which
Christianity were infected during the times of mediaeval ignorance would be
soon, by the progress of knowledge, consigned for ever to the oblivion of
the dark ages, and only recorded in the history of the aberrations of the
human mind, together with the superstitions of ancient Egypt, Greece, and
Rome. Unfortunately these hopes have not been realised, and are still
remaining amongst the _pia desideria_. The Roman Catholic reaction, which
commenced about half a century ago by works of a philosophical nature,
adapted to the wants of the most intellectual classes of society, has,
emboldened by success, gradually assumed a more and more material
tendency, and at length has begun to manifest itself by such results as
the exhibition of the holy coat at Treves, which produced a great noise
over all Germany,(2) the apparition of the Virgin at La Salette, the
winking Madonna of Rimini, and, what is perhaps more important than all,
the solemn installation of the relics of St Theodosia at Amiens; whilst
works of a description similar to the Life of St Francis of Assisi, by M.
Chavin de Malan, and the Lives of the English Saints, which I have
mentioned on pp. 113 and 115 of my Introduction are produced by writers of
considerable talent and learning. These are significant facts, and prove,
at all events, that in spite of the progress of intellect and knowledge,
which is the boast of our century, we seem to be fast returning to a state
of things similar to the time when Calvin wrote his Treatise. I therefore
believe that its reproduction in a new English translation will not be out
of date.

On the other side, the politico-religious system of aggression followed by
Russia has now taken such a rapid development, that the danger