nfirmatory of this opinion, or by the authority of
some contemporary writer, and is without such evidence quite
untenable, and nothing better than a mere sophism, I have given this
explanation of the Council of Elvira by a Roman Catholic writer as a
fair specimen of the manner in which all other practices of their
church, derived from Paganism, are defended.

_ 40 Translator's Note._--And yet the same writer has defended this
manner of recruiting the church.--_Vid. supra_, p. 17.

_ 41 Translator's Note_.--And yet this system of concession has been
called by the same author _true wisdom._--_Vid. supra_, p. 18.

_ 42 Translator's Note._--It dated from the time when the Christian
church began to make a compromise with Paganism.

43 Who would defile themselves by the impious superstition of the
idols.

44 An ecclesiastical writer of the fifth century.

_ 45 Translator's Note._--Importing usually into the Christian church
that leaven of Paganism which is mentioned in the text.

_ 46 Translator's Note._--Retaining meanwhile, however, the thing itself.

_ 47 Translator's Note._--It is a great pity that the author leaves us in
the dark about the time when this great improvement in the Roman
Catholic Church to which he alludes took place.

48 St Augustinus relates, in the fourth book of his Confessions, chap,
iii., that he was diverted from the idea of studying astrology by a
pagan physician, who made him understand all the falsehood and
ridicule of that science.

49 A similar custom is still prevalent is Russia. _Vide infra_, "On the
Superstitions of her Church."

_ 50 Author's Note._--In 1215, Buondelmonte was murdered by the Amidei at
the foot of the statue of Mars. This murder produced at Florence a
civil war, which, gradually spreading over all Italy, gave birth to
the factions of the Guelphs and Ghibelines.

51 Basnage, "Histoire de l'Eglise," p. 1174.

52 An interesting account of Vigilantius was published by the Rev. Dr
Gilly, the well-known friend of the Waldensians.

_ 53 Vide supra_, p. 8.

54 Gibbon's "Roman Empire," chap. xlix.

55 The Greeks and Russians worship their images chiefly by kissing
them, and it was probably on this account that it was ordered to
raise them to a height where they could not be reached by the lips