Chapter II. How Greatly the Ministers Have Violated the Faith Due to the Testimony of Miracles

There is scarcely any article of our religion which has not been approved of God by miracles. The miracles which take place in the Church, showing where the true Church is, sufficiently prove all the belief of the Church: for God would never bear witness to a Church which had not the true faith and was erring, idolatrous, and deceiving.

But this supreme goodness does' not stop there; it has confirmed almost all the points of the Catholic faith by illustrious miracles, and we find that, by a special providence of God, he has born witness, in a most remarkable manner and by incontestable miracles, to the truth of what we teach on practically all the points of difference between us and the ministers.

" When Agapitus, the Bishop of the holy Eoman Church," says S. Gregory the Great,* " was going

• Dialog., 1. iii. c. iii.

through Greece to visit the Emperor Justinian, the relatives of a certain dumb and lame man presented him to Agapitus to be healed, affirming that they had a firm confidence that he would be cured, in the power of God, by the authority of Peter." Behold the belief of these good folk; they held that the Pope had succeeded in the authority of Peter and that therefore he also possessed authority in an eminent degree. One of your ministers would have called them superstitious; the Catholic Church would have maintained, as it does now, that their belief was justified. Let us see what testimony Our Lord bore to it. " Upon this," continues St. Gregory, " the venerable man betook himself to prayer, and celebrating holy Mass offered Sacrifice in the sight of the most High. When he had ended and was leaving the altar, he took the hand of the lame man, and before the eyes of the attendant people he raised him from the ground, and gave him to stand by his own feet, and placing the Lord's body in his mouth, that long silent tongue was loosed and spoke. All the people, struck with admiration, began to shed tears of joy, and a great fear and reverence came upon them when they saw what Agapitus was enabled to do, in the power of the Lord, by Peter's assistance." Such are the words of S. Gregory.

What do you say to this? If you asked me who worked this miracle, I reply by the very words of Our Lord.* The, Mind see, the lame walk, the lepers are cleansed, the deaf hear, the dead rise again, to the poor the Gospel is preached. In what faith was it granted? In the faith that the Pope is the successor

• Matt. xi. 5.

ART. VII. 0. II. J The Rule of Faith. 319 of Peter and has his sublime authority. By what acts was it gained? By the most holy sacrifice of the Mass and the real application of the Lord's body to the mouth of the infirm man. In what did the miracle consist? In the communication of a faculty of which the recipient had hitherto been short, in the bestowal of a vital operation, that is, of the hearing, for although it is not said that he was deaf, he was so in reality, because he who is born dumb is always deaf. What other conclusion, then, can we draw except that the, finger of God is here* that God has signed and sealed this our belief as to the succession of the Pope in the authority of Peter, and as to the article of most holy Mass? At what period did this miracle take place? In the period of the most pure and holy Church; for both Calvin and the Lutherans admit that the Church remained pure till after S. Gregory. Who relates the event? A saintly and learned author, as our adversaries themselves confess, for they make him the last good Pope. Where did the miracle occur? Before the eyes of a whole people, who were Greeks and not zealous upholders of the Holy See.

Again, we preach the reality of the Body and Blood of Our Lord in the Sacrament of the altar. He himself has authorised this belief by the miraculous sight of it which he gave to a Jew and a Jewess who were assisting at the Mass of S. Basil; as testifies S. Amphilochius,t who flourished about the year 380, to take another instance, a woman who had made the bread which was to be consecrated, when she saw

• Exod. viii. 19. t VitaS.Basilii. This life is no longer regarded as authentic. [Tr.]

o

S. Gregory the Great coming towards her, holding that which was no longer bread but the most holy Sacrament, and saying: Corpus Domini Nostri Jesu Christi custodial animam, &c., began to smile. S. Gregory asking her why she smiled, she replied that she herself had made the bread which he was calling the Lord's body. S. Gregory obtained by prayer that the Holy Eucharist should appear outwardly what it really was inwardly, whereby this poor woman was brought back to faith and the faith of all was confirmed. The history is given by Paulus Diaconus.*

We teach that Our Lord, really present in the Holy Sacrament, is to be adored there. Gorgonia, sister of S. Gregory Nozianzen, made such adoration and instantaneously grew well of a malady in itself incurable. Thus bears witness her brother himself.t S. Chrysostom relates J two admirable apparitions of bands of angels seen round the altar during the Holy Sacrifice, " their heads bowed as one sees the heads of soldiers bent before their king. And," adds that mouth of gold, " I readily believe it."

We teach Transubstantiation; and the narratives cited from S. Amphilochius and from Paulus Diaconus attest that mystery.

We preach that the Holy Eucharist is not only a Sacrament but also a Sacrifice; and S. Augustine, speaking of.a place belonging to Hesperius, in the district of Fussale, which had been made uninhabitable by the violence of evil spirits, says: § " One of the priests went to the spot, offered the Sacrifice of the Body of Christ, beseeching that if possible this vexa-

• Vita S. Oregorii, sec. xxiii. t In Gorgon., sec. xviii.

X Be Sacerdot.y 1. vi. sec. 4. § De Civit. Dei, 1. xxii. c. viii.

tion might cease. By God's mercy it did so at once." What I have related of Agapitus comes in here.

We preach the holy Communion of Saints in the prayer which they make for us and in the honour which we pay them; but when should I stop if I wanted to give you a list of all the miracles which have occurred in support of this belief? Theodoret, in his work Be cur and. Grcec. affect, j discourses at length upon them. S. Gregory Nazianzen narrates an incontestable miracle in the conversion of S. Cyprian by Our Lady.*

We honour their relics; take note how S. Augustine gives a lengthy history of certain miracles effected by the relics of S. Stephen,t and in the same place he describes one which was worked by the relics of S. Gervase at Milan, viz., the cure of a blind man. He gives it again in his '* Confessions/' J and we have it also in S. Ambrose. §

We use the sign of the cross against the devil; and S. Gregory Nazianzen informs us || that Julian the apostate, on an occasion of an idolatrous sacrifice, when the devil appeared to him, made this sign. The devil took to flight. The sorcerer or magician told the apostate that he fled not out of fear but out of disgust; " He had us in abomination, not in dread, said the sorcerer; what is worst triumphs." Eusebius testifies to the wonders worked by this holy sign in the time of Constantino the Great.H

In our churches we have sacred vessels; and S. Chrysostom recounts that Julian, the uncle of the

• In laudem Cypr., sec. xi. t Be Civit. Dei, 1. xxii. c. viii.

X Lib. ix. c. vii, § Serrno vel Epist. de invent. SS. Gerv. et Prot.

II Orat I. contra Jul., sectiS. Iv. Ivi. H Vita Const., 1. ii. cc. vi.-xv. III. X

Emperor Julian, together with a certain treasurer, stole and profaned them.* Julian, however, died shortly after, eaten up by worms; the treasurer burst in two on the spot.

We venerate the sacred chrism with which the baptized are anointed in holy Confirmation; and S. Optatus of Milevis tells that when the phial or ampulla of the holy chrism was cast by the Donatists upon the rocks, " an angelic hand was there to direct it with an invisible upholding; it was thrown down, but it did not suffer from the fall." t

We humbly confess our sins to our ecclesiastical superiors; and S. John Climacus relates that while a certain great sinner was confessing his crimes, there was seen one of grand and terrible aspect, who ruled out the sins from a register as fast as they were confessed; for, says the same Climacus, confession surely delivers from the eternal confusion. J

We have images in our churches; but who knows not the history of the crucifying of an image of Our Lord by the Jews of Berytus in Syria? Not only did blood flow forth, but this blood healed of all maladies those whom it touched. The great S. Athanasius gives the history. §

We have the custom of using holy water and blessing bread; but S. Jerome relates that many employed for healing the sick bread blessed by S. Hilarion; || and S. Gregory the Great says that S. Fortunatus healed a man who had broken his leg by a fall

• I)e S. Bahyla, sec. xvii. t Contra Donat., 1. ii. sec. xix.:|: Scala, grad. iv.

§ De passione imag. Dom. Nostri. This ancient work is no longer attributed to S Athanasius. [Tr.] || Vita S. Hil., sec. xxx.

from his horse with a simple sprinkling of holy water.* Enough.

And now, what a contempt it is of these numerous miracles to mock and jeer at all these doctrines and at the Church which teaches them! If you do not value the testimony of antiquity, the testimony of God is greater.^ What will you answer? For my part, I have only written here the first miracles which occurred to me, though I have taken them in the authors who belong to *' the pure Church." If I had cited you the miracles worked in the age of S. Bernard, S. Malachy, S. Bede, S. Francis, your ministers would at once have cried out that they were wonders of antichrist; but since every one admits that antichrist only appeared some time after S. Gregory, and my facts all occurred before or during the time of S. Gregory, no difficulty can be made.

The Arians denied the miracle worked on the blind man who was cured by touching the edge of the cloth which covered the relics of SS. Gervase and Protase, saying that he had not been cured; S. Ambrose replies: | " They deny that the blind man's eyes were opened, but he does not deny his cure. But I ask," he continues a little further on, '' why do they not believe? Do they maintain that no one can be aided by the Martyrs? This is to disbelieve Christ, who said: § Greater things than these shall ye do.'' Further on S. Ambrose says: " They would not envy the works of the Martyrs unless they felt that these had in them the faith which they themselves have not, that faith, confirmed by the traditions

• Dialog., 1. i. c. x. t I. Joan, v. 9,

X Sermo vel Epist. supra cit. § Joan, xiv. 12.

of our elders, which the devils themselves cannot deny, though the Arians deny it. I do not accept the devil's testimony but his admissions." What circumstance is wanting to lift these miracles above suspicion? A part of them consists in the restitution of the essential vital operations, which cannot spring from other than divine power; the time in which they occurred is quite close to that of Our Lord. The Church was all pure and holy; there was no Antichrist in the world, as the ministers admit; the persons at whose intercession they were effected were very holy; the faith confirmed by them was the common and most Catholic faith; the authors who relate them are very safe.

I borrow a passage for this place.* "When we read in Bouchett the miracles worked by the relics of S. Hilary — well, his credit is not so great as to deprive us of the liberty of contradicting him; but to condemn out and out all such histories seems to me singularly impertinent. The great S. Augustine testifies that he saw a blind man recover his sight by the relics of SS. Gervase and Protase at Milan; that a woman at Carthage was cured of a cancer by the sign of the cross made over her by a woman freshly baptized; that Hesperius, one of his friends, had driven away the evil spirits that infested his house with a little earth from the sepulchre of Our Lord, which earth thence transported into the Church had instantaneously cured a paralytic who was there; that in a certain procession a woman who had touched the reliquary of S. Stephen with a bunch of flowers recovered her sight by rubbing her eyes with these

• Montaigne, Essais, 1. i. c. xxvi.

t Miracula S. Hilarii (Vide in Actis SS., die xiii. Januarii).

flowers. S. Augustine adds other miracles and affirms that he himself was present at them. Of what shall we accuse him and the two holy bishops Aurelius and Maximin, to whom he appeals as his guarantees? Of ignorance, simplicity, credulity? of malice and imposture? Is there a man in our age impudent enough to think himself comparable with them, whether in virtue or in learning, judgment, and competence? "

I say the same of the two Saints Gregory whom I have cited, of S. Jerome, S. Chrysostom, Athanasius, Climacus, Optatus, Ambrose, Eusebius. Tell me, for God's sake, is not what they relate quite possible to God? and if it be possible how shall we dare to deny that it has happened, since so many great personages so aver? I have been asked more than once: Is the belief in these histories an article of faith? No, it is not an article of faith, but it is an article of good sense and discretion. It is too evidently a folly and piece of silly arrogance to contradict these ancient and grave witnesses, on the simple ground that what they say does not square with our conceits. Is it for our little brain to place the limits of truth and falsehood, to give the law to being or not being?