1]

[Sidenote: Pretended miracles.]

The devotion of the multitude was wrought to this feverish height by the
prevailing system of the clergy. In that singular polytheism, which had
been grafted on Christianity, nothing was so conspicuous as the belief
of perpetual miracles--if indeed those could properly be termed miracles
which, by their constant recurrence, even upon trifling occasions, might
seem within the ordinary dispensations of Providence. These
superstitions arose in what are called primitive times, and are
certainly no part of popery, if in that word we include any especial
reference to the Roman see. But successive ages of ignorance swelled the
delusion to such an enormous pitch, that it was as difficult to trace,
we may say without exaggeration, the real religion of the Gospel in the
popular belief of the laity, as the real history of Charlemagne in the
romance of Turpin. It must not be supposed that these absurdities were
produced, as well as nourished, by ignorance. In most cases they were
the work of deliberate imposture. Every cathedral or monastery had its
tutelar saint, and every saint his legend, fabricated in order to enrich
the churches under his protection, by exaggerating his virtues, his
miracles, and consequently his power of serving those who paid liberally
for his patronage.[532] Many of those saints were imaginary persons;
sometimes a blundered inscription added a name to the calendar, and
sometimes, it is said, a heathen god was surprised at the company to
which he was introduced, and the rites with which he was honoured.[533]

[Sidenote: Mischiefs arising from this superstition.]

It would not be consonant to the nature of the present work to dwell
upon the erroneousness of this religion; but its effect upon the moral
and intellectual character of mankind was so prominent, that no one can
take a philosophical view of the middle ages without attending more than
is at present fashionable to their ecclesiastical history. That the
exclusive worship of saints, under the guidance of an artful though
illiterate priesthood, degraded the understanding and begot a stupid
credulity and fanaticism, is sufficiently evident. But it was also so
managed as to loosen the bonds of religion and pervert the standard of
morality. If these inhabitants of heaven had been represented as stern
avengers, accepting no slight atonement for heavy offences, and prompt
to interpose their control over natural events f