HKB
representant, ita ut per imagines, quae osculamur, et coram quibus caput aperimus et procumbimus, Christum adoremus; et sanctos quorum illae similitudinem gerunt veneremur.”—Sessio xxv. de Invocatione Sanc. et Sacr. Imag.
85 The following description of this little idol is given by a well-known French writer of last century:—“This morning, when I was quietly walking along a street towards the capitol, I met with a carriage, in which sat two Franciscan monks, holding on their knee something which I was unable to distinguish. Every body was stopping and bowing in a most respectful manner. I inquired to whom were these salutations directed? ‘To the Bambino,’ I was answered, ‘whom these good fathers are carrying to a prelate, who is very ill, and whom the physicians have given up.’ It was then explained to me what this Bambino is. It is a little statue, meant for Jesus, made of wood, and richly attired. The convent which has the good fortune of being its owner has no other patrimony. As soon as any body is seriously ill, the Bambino is sent for, in a carriage, because he never walks on foot. Two monks take him and place him near the bed of the patient, in whose house they remain, living at his expense, until he dies or recovers.
“The Bambino is always driving about; people sometimes fight at the gate of the convent in order to get him. He is particularly busy during the summer, and his charges are then higher, in proportion to the competition and the heat, which I think is quite right.”—Dupaty, Lettres sur l’Italie, let. xlviii.
The Bambino continues to maintain his credit; and I have read not long ago in the newspapers, that an English lady of rank, who had joined the communion of Rome, was performing the duties of his dry nurse on a festival of her adopted church.
87 “Omnia hæc impia sunt et cultus idolorum, alloqui ipsas statuas aut ossa, aut fingere Deum aut sanctos magis in uno loco, seu ad hanc statuam alligatos esse quam ad alia loca. Nihil differunt invocationes quæ fiunt ad Mariam Aquensem seu Ratisbonensem ab invocationibus ethnicis, quæ flebant ad Dianam Ephesiam, aut ad Junonem Platæensem, aut ad alias statuas.”—Respon. ad Articul. Bavaric, art. 17, p. 381.
88 Middleton’s “Miscellaneous Works,” vol. v., p. 96, edition of 1755.
89 Ibid., p. 97.
90 Hospinian, “De Origine Templ.,” lib. ii. cap. 23; apud Middleton, loco citato.
91 Beugnot, vol. i. p. 231, on the authority of Sosomenes.
92 There are some Protestant writers who attach great value to the apostolic canons, as, for instance, Dr Beveridge, Bishop of St Asaph, who wrote a defence of them.
93 “Institutiones Christianæ,” lib. vi., cap. 2; apud, “Hospinian de Origine Templorum,” lib. ii., cap. 10.
94 This date is a mistake, and I would have taken it for a misprint if the author had not said before, that “Vigilantius attacked the practices of the church in the fourth age.” I have, in speaking of this subject, p. 71, followed the authority of the great historian of the Roman Catholic Church, Fleury, who says that Jerome answered Vigilantius in 404.
96 The appellation of regina cælorum, queen of heaven, is frequently given to the blessed Virgin in Roman Catholic litanies and hymns addressed to her. The queen of heaven mentioned by Jeremiah is supposed to be the same as Astarte, or the Syrian Venus.
97 Herodot., lib. ii., p. 36,—
“Qui grege linigero circumdatus et grege calvo, Plangentis populi currit derisor Anubis.”
Juvenal, vi. 532.