Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 12.djvu/818

 RELICS

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RELICS

other matters, we may know a relation without being able to discover the nature of the entities it relates. We may know, for instance, that pressure and temper- ature vary proportionately in a given mass of gas of which the volume is kept constant, without knowing precisely and for certain the ultimate nature of either pressure or temperature. Nevertheless we do know something about them. We know that they exist, that they each have a certain nature, and that it is on account of this nature that the relation between them arises. We cannot know a relation, therefore, without knowing something of the things which it relates, for a relation presupposes its "terms". Hence the universe cannot consist of relations only, but must be composed of things in relation.

Epistemologic.\l .\.xd Metaphysical. — Cairo, The Critical Philosophy of Kant (Glasgow, ISS9) ; Fonsegrive, Essais sur la connaissance (Paris, 1909); Green. Prolegomena to Ethics (3rd ed., Oxford, 1890); Grote, Ezploratio philosophica (Cambridge, 1900); Hamilton, Discussions (London, 1854); Idem. Metaphy- sics (London. 1871); Hegel, Logic, tr. Wallace (2nd ed., Oxford, 1892); Herbart, Metaphysics (Leipzig, 1850); HoBHOUSE, The Theory of Knowledge (London, 1896) ; Mill, Examination of Hamilton (4th ed., London, 1872); Prichard, Kanfs Theory of Knowledge (Oxford, 1910) ; Renouvier, Les dilemmes de la melaph. pure (Paris, 1891); Idem, Le personnalisme (1903); Rat, La Theorie de la physique (Paris, 1907); Rickert, Der Gfgenstand der Erkenntnis (2nd ed., Tiibingen, and Leipzig 1904); Riehl, Der philosoph. Kriticismus (Leipzig, 1SS7); Schiller, Humanism (London. 1903); Idem, Studies in Humanism (1907); Seth. Scottish Philosophy (London, 1885) ; Simmel, Philosophic des Geldes (Leipzig, 1890); Spencer, First Principles (6th ed., London, 1900); Veitch, Knowing and Being (Edinburgh, 1889); Walker, Theories of Knowledge (London, 1910).

PsTCHOLOQiCAL. — Bain, Mental and Moral Science (3rd ed., London, 1884); Hoffding, Outlines of Psychology (London, 1891); Maher. Psychology (6th ed., London, 1905); Wondt, Human and Animal Psychology, tr. (London, 1894); Idem, QrundzUge d, physiologischen Psychologic (5th ed., Leipzig, 1903).

Leslie J. Walker.

Relics. — The word relics comes from the Latin reliquioe (the counterpart of the Greek Xeii/'ora), which already before the propagation of Christianity was used in its modern sense, viz., of some object, notably part of the bodj' or clothes, remaining as a memorial of a departed saint. The veneration of rehcs, in fact, is to some extent a primitive instinct, and it is associated with manj' other religious systems besides that of Christianity. At Athens the supposed remains of CEdipus and Theseus enjoyed an honour which it is very difficult to distinguish from a re- ligious cult (see for all this Pfister, " ReUquienkult in Altertum", I, 1909), while Plutarch gives an account of the translation of the bodies of Demetrius (Demetr., hi) and Phocion (Phoc, xx.x\-ii) which in many de- tails anticipates the Christian practice of the Middle Ages. The bones or ashes of ^Esculapius at Epi- daurus, of Perthccas I at Macedon, and even — if we may trust the statement of the Chronieon Paschale (Dindorf, p. 67) — of the Persian Zoroaster (Zara- thustra), were treated with the deepest veneration. As for the Far East, the famous story of the dis- tribution of the rehcs of Buddha, an incident which is believed to have taken place immediately after his death, seems to have found remarkable confirma- tion in certain modern archajological discoveries. (See "Journ. of R. Asiatic Society", 1909, pp. 1056 sqq.). In any case the extreme development of relic-worship amongst the Buddhists of every sect is a fact beyond dispute.

L Doctrine Reg.\rdixg Relics. — The teaching of the Catholic Church with regard to the veneration of rehcs is summed up in a decree of the Council of Trent (Sess. XXV), which enjoins on bishops and other pastors to instruct their flocks that "the holy bodies of holy martyrs and of others now living with Christ — which bodies were the living members of Christ and 'the temple of the Holy Ohost' (I Cor., vi, 19) and which are by Him to be raised to eternal life and to be glorified are to be venerated by the faith- ful, for through these (bodies) many benefits are be- stowed by God on men, so that they who affirm that

veneration and honour are not due to the relics of the saints, or that these and other sacred monuments are uselessly honoured bj' the faithful, and that the places dedicated to the memories of the saints are in vain visited with the view of obtaining their aid, are wholly to be condemned, as the Church has already long since condemned, and also now condemns them." Further, the council insists that "in the invocation of saints the veneration of rehcs and the sacred use of images, every superstition shall be removed and all filthy lucre abolished." Again, "the visitation of relics must not be by any perverted into revellings and drunkenness." To secure a proper check upon abuses of this kind, "no new miracles are to be acknowledged or new relics recognized unless the bishop of the diocese has taken cognizance and ap- proved thereof." JSIoreover, the bishop, in all these matters, is directed to obtain accurate information, to take council with theologians and pious men, and in cases of doubt or exceptional difficulty to submit the matter to the sentence of the metropolitan and other bishops of the province, "yet so that nothing new, or that previously has not been usual in the Church, shall be resolved on, without having first consulted the Hoh' See."

The justification of Catholic practice, which is indirectly suggested here by the reference to the bodies of the saints as formerly temples of the Holy Ghost and as destined hereafter to be eternally ' glorified, is further developed in the authoritative "Roman Catechism" drawn up at the instance of the same council. Recalling the marvels witnessed at the tombs of the martyrs, where "the blind and cripples are restored to health, the dead recalled to life, and demons expelled from the bodies of men", the Catechism points out that these are facts which "St. Ambrose and St. Augustine, most unexception- able witnesses, declare in their writings that they have not merely heard and read about, as many did, but have seen with their own eyes", (Ambrose, Epist. xxii, nn. 2 and 17; Augustine, Serm. cclxxxvi, c. v.; "De Civ. Dei", xxii, 8, "Confess.", ix, 7). And from thence, turning to Scriptural analogies, the compilers further argue: "If the clothes, the ker- chiefs (Acts, xix, 12), if the shadow of the saints (Acts, v, 1.5), before they departed from this life, banished diseases and restored strength, who will have the hardihood to deny that God wonderfully works the same by the sacred ashes, the bones, and other relics of the saints? This is the lesson we have to learn from that dead body which, having been accidentally let down into the sepulchre of Eliseus, "when it had touched the bones of the Prophet, in- stantly came to life" (4 Kings, xiii, 21, and cf. Ecclus., xlviii, 14). We may add that this miracle as well as the veneration shown to the bones of Moses (See Ex., xiii, 19 and Jos., x.xiv, 32) only gain ad- ditional force from their apparent contradiction to the ceremonial laws against defilement, of which we read in Num., xix, 11-22. The influence of this Jewish shrinking from contact with the dead so far lingered on that it was found necessary in the "Apos- tolical Constitutions" (vi, 30) to issue a strong warn- ing against it and to argue in favour of the Christian cult of relics.

According to the more common opinion of theolo- gians, relics are to be honoured — St. Thomas, in Summa, III, Q. xxxviii, a. 6, does not seem to con- sider even the word adorare inappropriate — citltu dtdice relative, that is to say with a veneration which is not that of lairia (divine worship) and which though directed primarily to the material objects of the cult — i. e., the bones, ashes, garments, etc. — does not rest in them, but looks beyond to the saints th"y com- memorate as to its formal term. Hauck, Katten- busch, and other non-Catholic writers have striven to show that the utterances of the Council of Trent