The Two Babylons
Alexander Hislop
Chapter V
Section II
Relic Worship
Nothing is more characteristic of Rome than the
worship of relics. Wherever a chapel is opened, or a temple consecrated, it cannot be
thoroughly complete without some relic or other of he-saint or she-saint to give sanctity
to it. The relics of the saints and rotten bones of the martyrs form a great part of the
wealth of the Church. The grossest impostures have been practised in regard to such
relics; and the most drivelling tales have been told of their wonder-working powers, and
that too by Fathers of high name in the records of Christendom. Even Augustine, with all
his philosophical acuteness and zeal against some forms of false doctrine, was deeply
infected with the grovelling spirit that led to relic worship. Let any one read the stuff
with which he concludes his famous "City of God," and he will in no wise wonder
that Rome has made a saint of him, and set him up for the worship of her devotees. Take
only a specimen or two of the stories with which he bolsters up the prevalent delusions of
his day: "When the Bishop Projectius brought the relics of St. Stephen to the town
called Aquae Tibiltinae, the people came in great crowds to honour them. Amongst these was
a blind woman, who entreated the people to lead her to the bishop who had the HOLY RELICS.
They did so, and the bishop gave her some flowers which he had in his hand. She took them,
and put them to her eyes, and immediately her sight was restored, so that she passed
speedily on before all the others, no longer requiring to be guided." In Augustine's
day, the formal "worship" of the relics was not yet established; but the
martyrs to whom they were supposed to have belonged were already invoked with prayers and
supplications, and that with the high approval of the Bishop of Hippo, as the following
story will abundantly show: Here, in Hippo, says he, there was a poor and holy old man, by
name Florentius, who obtained a living by tailoring. This man once lost his coat, and not
being able to purchase another to replace it, he came to the shrine of the Twenty Martyrs,
in this city, and prayed aloud to them, beseeching that they would enable him to get
another garment. A crowd of silly boys who overheard him, followed him at his departure,
scoffing at him, and asking him whether he had begged fifty pence from the martyrs to buy
a coat. The poor man went silently on towards home, and as he passed near the sea, he saw
a large fish which had been cast up on the sand, and was still panting. The other persons
who were present allowed him to take up this fish, which he brought to one Catosus, a
cook, and a good Christian, who bought it from him for three hundred pence. With this he
meant to purchase wool, which his wife might spin, and make into a garment for him. When
the cook cut up the fish, he found within its belly a ring of gold, which his conscience
persuaded him to give to the poor man from whom he bought the fish. He did so, saying, at
the same time, "Behold how the Twenty Martyrs have clothed you!" *
* De Civitate. The story of the fish and
the ring is an old Egyptian story. (WILKINSON) Catosus, "the good Christian,"
was evidently a tool of the priests, who could afford to give him a ring to put
into the fish's belly. The miracle would draw worshippers to the shrine of the Twenty
Martyrs, and thus bring grist to their mill, and amply repay them.
Thus did the great Augustine inculcate the
worship of dead men, and the honouring of their wonder-working relics. The "silly
children" who "scoffed" at the tailor's prayer seem to have had more sense
than either the "holy old tailor" or the bishop. Now, if men professing
Christianity were thus, in the fifth century, paving the way for the worship of all manner
of rags and rotten bones; in the realms of Heathendom the same worship had flourished for
ages before Christian saints or martyrs had appeared in the world. In Greece, the
superstitious regard to relics, and especially to the bones of the deified heroes, was a
conspicuous part of the popular idolatry. The work of Pausanias, the learned Grecian
antiquary, is full of reference to this superstition. Thus, of the shoulder-blade of
Pelops, we read that, after passing through divers adventures, being appointed by the
oracle of Delphi, as a divine means of delivering the Eleans from a pestilence under which
they suffered, it "was committed," as a sacred relic, "to the custody"
of the man who had fished it out of the sea, and of his posterity after him. The bones of
the Trojan Hector were preserved as a precious deposit at Thebes. "They" [the
Thebans], says Pausanias, "say that his [Hector's] bones were brought hither from
Troy, in consequence of the following oracle: 'Thebans, who inhabit the city of Cadmus, if
you wish to reside in your country, blest with the possession of blameless wealth, bring
the bones of Hector, the son of Priam, into your dominions from Asia, and reverence the
hero agreeably to the mandate of Jupiter.'" Many other similar instances from the
same author might be adduced. The bones thus carefully kept and reverenced were all
believed to be miracle-working bones. From the earliest periods, the system of Buddhism
has been propped up by relics, that have wrought miracles at least as well vouched as
those wrought by the relics of St. Stephen, or by the "Twenty Martyrs." In the
"Mahawanso," one of the great standards of the Buddhist faith, reference is thus
made to the enshrining of the relics of Buddha: "The vanquisher of foes having
perfected the works to be executed within the relic receptacle, convening an assembly of
the priesthood, thus addressed them: 'The works that were to be executed by me, in the
relic receptacle, are completed. Tomorrow, I shall enshrine the relics. Lords, bear in
mind the relics.'" Who has not heard of the Holy Coat of Treves, and its exhibition
to the people? From the following, the reader will see that there was an exactly similar
exhibition of the Holy Coat of Buddha: "Thereupon (the nephew of the Naga Rajah) by
his supernatural gift, springing up into the air to the height of seven palmyra trees, and
stretching out his arm brought to the spot where he was poised, the Dupathupo (or shrine)
in which the DRESS laid aside by Buddho, as Prince Siddhatto, on his entering the
priesthood, was enshrined...and EXHIBITED IT TO THE PEOPLE." This "Holy
Coat" of Buddha was no doubt as genuine, and as well entitled to worship, as the
"Holy Coat" of Treves. The resemblance does not stop here. It is only a year or
two ago since the Pope presented to his beloved son, Francis Joseph of Austria, a
"TOOTH" of "St. Peter," as a mark of his special favour and regard.
The teeth of Buddha are in equal request among his worshippers. "King of
Devas," said a Buddhist missionary, who was sent to one of the principal courts of
Ceylon to demand a relic or two from the Rajah, "King of Devas, thou possessest the
right canine tooth relic (of Buddha), as well as the right collar bone of the
divine teacher. Lord of Devas, demur not in matter involving the salvation of the land of
Lanka." Then the miraculous efficacy of these relics is shown in the following:
"The Saviour of the world (Buddha) even after he had attained to Parinibanan or final
emancipation (i.e., after his death), by means of a corporeal relic, performed infinite
acts to the utmost perfection, for the spiritual comfort and mundane prosperity of
mankind. While the Vanquisher (Jeyus) yet lived, what must he not have done?" Now, in
the Asiatic Researches, a statement is made in regard to these relics of Buddha,
which marvellously reveals to us the real origin of this Buddhist relic worship. The
statement is this: "The bones or limbs of Buddha were scattered all over the world,
like those of Osiris and Jupiter Zagreus. To collect them was the first duty of his
descendants and followers, and then to entomb them. Out of filial piety, the remembrance
of this mournful search was yearly kept up by a fictitious one, with all possible marks of
grief and sorrow till a priest announced that the sacred relics were at last found. This
is practised to this day by several Tartarian tribes of the religion of Buddha; and the
expression of the bones of the Son of the Spirit of heaven is peculiar to the Chinese and
some tribes in Tartary." Here, then, it is evident that the worship of relics is just
a part of those ceremonies instituted to commemorate the tragic death of Osiris or Nimrod,
who, as the reader may remember, was divided into fourteen pieces, which were sent into so
many different regions infected by his apostacy and false worship, to operate in
terrorem upon all who might seek to follow his example. When the apostates regained
their power, the very first thing they did was to seek for these dismembered relics
of the great ringleader in idolatry, and to entomb them with every mark of devotion. Thus
does Plutarch describe the search: "Being acquainted with this even [viz., the
dismemberment of Osiris], Isis set out once more in search of the scattered members of her
husband's body, using a boat made of the papyrus rush in order more easily to pass through
the lower and fenny parts of the country...And one reason assigned for the different
sepulchres of Osiris shown in Egypt is, that wherever any one of his scattered limbs was
discovered she buried it on the spot; though others suppose that it was owing to an
artifice of the queen, who presented each of those cities with an image of her husband, in
order that, if Typho should overcome Horus in the approaching contest, he might be unable
to find the real sepulchre. Isis succeeded in recovering all the different members, with
the exception of one, which had been devoured by the Lepidotus, the Phagrus, and the
Oxyrhynchus, for which reason these fish are held in abhorrence by the Egyptians. To make
amends, she consecrated the Phallus, and instituted a solemn festival to its memory."
Not only does this show the real origin of relic worship it shows also that the multiplication
of relics can pretend to the most venerable antiquity. If, therefore, Rome can boast that
she has sixteen or twenty holy coats, seven or eight arms of St. Matthew, two or three
heads of St. Peter, this is nothing more than Egypt could do in regard to the relics of
Osiris. Egypt was covered with sepulchres of its martyred god; and many a leg and
arm and skull, all vouched to be genuine, were exhibited in the rival burying-places for
the adoration of the Egyptian faithful. Nay, not only were these Egyptian relics sacred
themselves, they CONSECRATED THE VERY GROUND in which they were entombed. This fact is
brought out by Wilkinson, from a statement of Plutarch: "The Temple of this deity at
Abydos," says he, "was also particularly honoured, and so holy was the place
considered by the Egyptians, that persons living at some distance from it sought, and
perhaps with difficulty obtained, permission to possess a sepulchre within its Necropolis,
in order that, after death, they might repose in GROUND HALLOWED BY THE TOMB of
this great and mysterious deity." If the places where the relics of Osiris were
buried were accounted peculiarly holy, it is easy to see how naturally this would give
rise to the pilgrimages so frequent among the heathen. The reader does not need to
be told what merit Rome attaches to such pilgrimages to the tombs of saints, and
how, in the Middle Ages, one of the most favourite ways of washing away sin was to
undertake a pilgrimage to the shrine of St. Jago di Compostella in Spain, or the Holy
Sepulchre in Jerusalem. Now, in the Scripture there is not the slightest trace of any such
thing as a pilgrimage to the tomb of saint, martyr, prophet, or apostle. The very
way in which the Lord saw fit to dispose of the body of Moses in burying it Himself in the
plains of Moab, so that no man should ever known where his sepulchre was, was evidently
designed to rebuke every such feeling as that from which such pilgrimages arise.
And considering whence Israel had come, the Egyptian ideas with which they were
infected, as shown in the matter of the golden calf, and the high reverence they must have
entertained for Moses, the wisdom of God in so disposing of his body must be apparent. In
the land where Israel had so long sojourned, there were great and pompous pilgrimages
at certain season of the year, and these often attended with gross excesses. Herodotus
tells us, that in his time the multitude who went annually on pilgrimage to Bubastis
amounted to 700,000 individuals, and that then more wine was drunk than at any other time
in the year. Wilkinson thus refers to a similar pilgrimage to Philae: "Besides the
celebration of the great mysteries which took place at Philae, a grand ceremony was
performed at a particular time, when the priests, in solemn procession, visited his tomb,
and crowned it with flowers. Plutarch even pretends that all access to the island was
forbidden at every other period, and that no bird would fly over it, or fish swim near
this CONSECRATED GROUND." This seems not to have been a procession merely of the
priests in the immediate neighbourhood of the tomb, but a truly national pilgrimage;
for, says Diodorus, "the sepulchre of Osiris at Philae is revered by all the priests
throughout Egypt." We have not the same minute information about the relic worship in
Assyria or Babylon; but we have enough to show that, as it was the Babylonian god that was
worshipped in Egypt under the name of Osiris, so in his own country there was the same
superstitious reverence paid to his relics. We have seen already, that when the Babylonian
Zoroaster died, he was said voluntarily to have given his life as a sacrifice, and to have
"charged his countrymen to preserve his remains," assuring them that on
the observance or neglect of this dying command, the fate of their empire would hinge.
And, accordingly, we learn from Ovid, that the "Busta Nini," or "Tomb of
Ninus," long ages thereafter, was one of the monuments of Babylon. Now, in comparing
the death and fabled resurrection of the false Messiah with the death and resurrection of
the true, when he actually appeared, it will be found that there is a very remarkable
contrast. When the false Messiah died, limb was severed from limb, and his bones were
scattered over the country. When the death of the true Messiah took place, Providence so
arranged it that the body should be kept entire, and that the prophetic word should be
exactly fulfilled--"a bone of Him shall not be broken." When, again, the false
Messiah was pretended to have had a resurrection, that resurrection was in a new
body, while the old body, with all its members, was left behind, thereby showing that the
resurrection was nothing but a pretence and a sham. When, however, the true Messiah was
"declared to be the Son of God with power, by the resurrection from the dead,"
the tomb, though jealously watched by the armed unbelieving soldiery of Rome, was found to
be absolutely empty, and no dead body of the Lord was ever afterwards found, or even
pretended to have been found. The resurrection of Christ, therefore, stands on a very
different footing from the resurrection of Osiris. Of the body of Christ, of course, in
the nature of the case, there could be no relics. Rome, however to carry out the
Babylonian system, has supplied the deficiency by means of the relics of the saints; and
now the relics of St. Peter and St. Paul, of St. Thomas A'Beckett and St. Lawrence
O'Toole, occupy the very same place in the worship of the Papacy as the relics of Osiris
in Egypt, or of Zoroaster in Babylon.
