"It is fit we should know, that all the visions which appear at the chapels or tombs of the saints are performed by holy angels, by the permission of GOD; for how else should it be possible, that the resurrection of the bodies being not yet made, but the bodies and the flesh of the saints being as yet dispersed; that those should be seen in shape complete men, and oftentimes appear upon horses armed? And if thou thinkest that thou mayest contradict these things: tell me, how can Paul or Peter, or any other apostle or martyr, being but one, appear oftentimes at the same hour in many places? For neither is an angel able to be at the same instant in divers places; but God only who is uncircumscriptible."

Whereunto we may further add those judicious observations of St. Augustine touching this matter: "If one in his sleep may see me, telling unto him something that is done, or foretelling also something that is to come; when I am altogether ignorant thereof, and have no care at all, not only of what he dreameth, but whether he awaketh I being asleep, or he sleepeth I being awake, or whether both of us at one and the same time do either wake or sleep, when he seeth the dream in which he seeth me: what marvel is it if the dead, not knowing nor per

9 Εἰδέναι μέν τοι προσήκει, ὅτι πᾶσαι αἱ ὀπτασίαι, αἱ γενόμεναι ἐν τοῖς ναοῖς ἢ σοροῖς τῶν ἁγίων, δι ̓ ἁγίων ἀγγέλων ἐπιτελοῦνται, δι' ἐπιτροπῆς θεοῦ. Ἐπεί πῶς δυνατὸν μή πω τῆς ἀναστάσεως τῶν σωμάτων γεγενημένης ἀλλ ̓ ἔτι τῶν ὀστῶν καὶ τῶν σαρκῶν τῶν ἁγίων διασκορπισμένων, εἰδέσθαι τούτους, εἴδει ὁλοκλήρους ἄνδρας, πολλάκις ἐφ ̓ ἵπποις ὀπτανομένους καθοπλισμένους. Εἰ δ ̓ ἀντιλέγειν νομίζεις, εἰπέ μοι σὺ, πῶς εἷς ὑπάρχων Παῦλος, ἡ Πέτρος ἢ ἄλλος ἀπόστολος, ἢ μάρτυς, κατ' αὐτὴν τὴν ὥραν πολλάκις ἐν πολλοῖς τόποις ὀπτάνεται ; οὔτε γὰρ ἄγγελος δύναται ἐν διαφόροις τόποις ἐν αὐτῇ τῇ ῥοπῇ, εἰ μὴ μόνος ὁ ἀπερίγραπτος Otoç. Anastas. Sinait. quæst. 89.

Si ergo me potest aliquis in somnis videre, sibi aliquid quod factum est indicantem, vel etiam quod futurum est prænuntiantem; cum id ego prorsus ignorem, et omnino non curem, non solum quid ille somniet, sed utrum dormiente me vigilet, an vigilante me dormiat, an uno eodemque tempore vigilemus ambo sive dormiamus, quando ille somnium videt et in quo me videt: quid mirum si nescientes mortui, nec ista sentientes, tamen a viventibus videntur in somniis, et aliquid dicunt, quod evigilantes verum esse cognoscant? August. de cura pro mortuis, cap. 10. op. tom. 6. pag. 523.

ceiving these things, are yet seen in dreams by the living, and say somewhat which they being awake may know to be true? But such is man's weakness, that when any one seeth a dead man in his sleep, he thinketh that he doth see his soul; but when he dreameth in like manner of one that is alive, he maketh no doubt, that it is neither his soul nor his body, but a similitude of the man that did appear unto him: as if not the souls but the similitudes of dead men, not knowing it, might not also after the same sort appear." So he telleth of one Eulogius, a rhetorician in Carthage, who lighting upon a certain obscure place in Cicero's rhetorics, which he was the next day to read unto his scholars, was so troubled therewith that at night he could scarce sleep. "Int which night," saith St. Augustine, "I expounded unto him while he was in a dream, that which he did not understand: nay not I, but my image, I not knowing, and so far beyond the sea either doing or dreaming some other thing, The like and nothing at all caring for his cares." he doth also note to happen unto those that are in raptures and ecstasies: "For" upon these also do appear images as well of the living as of the dead: but after they have been restored unto their senses, as many of the dead as they say that they have seen, with them they are truly believed to have been: neither do they mark who hear these things, that the images of some living men, that were absent and ignorant of these things, were in like manner seen by them." And for the confession of the

s Sic autem infirmitas humana sese habet, ut cum mortuum in somnis quisque viderit, ipsius animam se videre arbitretur; cum autem vivum similiter somniaverit, non ejus animam, neque corpus, sed hominis similitudinem sibi apparuisse non dubitet: quasi non possint et mortuorum hominum, eodem modo nescientium, non animæ sed similitudines apparere dormientibus. Aug. de cur. pro mort. cap. 11. op. tom. 6. pag. 533.

Qua nocte somnianti, ego illi quod non intelligebat exposui: imo non ego, sed imago mea nesciente me, et tam longe trans mare aliquid aliud, sive agente, sive somniante, et nihil de illius curis omnino curante. Ibid. pag. 534.

Et his enim apparent imagines vivorum atque mortuorum: sed cum fuerint sensibus redditi, quoscunque mortuos vidisse se dixerint, vere cum eis fuisse creduntur; nec attendunt qui hæc audiunt, similiter ab eis absentium atque nescientium quorundam etiam imagines visas esse vivorum. Ibid. cap. 12. ibid.

devils in parties possessed, he bringeth in a memorable instance, of that which fell out in Milan", at the place of the memorial of the martyrs Protasius and Gervasius. Where the devils did not only make mention of the martyrs that were dead, but also of Ambrose the bishop then living," and besought him that he would spare them: he being otherwise employed, and being utterly ignorant of the thing when it was a doing."

But as St. Augustine doth put us in mind in that discourse, that " men are sometimes led into great errors by deceitful dreams or visions; and that it is just, that they should suffer such things;" so St. Chrysostom giveth a good admonition, that little heed should be taken of the devils saying: "what is it then," saith he, "that the devils do say, I am the soul of such a monk? Surely for this I believe it not, because the devils say it: for they deceive their hearers. And therefore Paul' silenced them, although they spake truth, lest taking occasion from thence, they might mingle false things again with those truths, and get credit to themselves." And touching dreams and apparitions of the dead, he addeth further: "Ifa at this time, the dreams that appear oftentimes in

w Nam Mediolani apud sanctos Protasium et Gervasium martyres, expresso nomine, sicut defunctorum quos eodem modo commemorabant, adhuc vivum dæmones episcopum confitebantur Ambrosium, atque ut sibi parceret obsecrabant; illo aliud agente, atque hoc cum ageretur omnino nesciente. Augúst. de cura pro mortuis, cap. 17. op. tom. 6. pag. 530.

x Aliquando autem fallacibus somniis (al. visis) hi homines in magnos mittuntur errores: quos talia perpeti justum est. Ibid. cap. 10. pag. 523.

* Τὶ οὖν, ὅτι οἱ δαίμονες λέγουσι, τοῦ μοναχοῦ τοῦ δεῖνος ἡ ψυχὴ εἰμί φησι; διὰ γὰρ τοῦτο οὐ πιστεύω, ἐπειδὴ δαίμονες λέγουσιν· ἀπατῶσι γὰρ τοὺς ἀκούοντας· διὰ τοῦτο καὶ ὁ Παῦλος καίτοιγε ἀληθεύοντας ἐπεστόμι σεν αὐτοὺς, ἵνα μὴ πρόφασιν λαβόντες τοῖς ἀληθέσι καὶ ψευδῆ πάλιν ἀναμίξωσι, καὶ ἀξιόπιστοι γένωνται. Chrysost. de Lazaro, conc. 2. op. tom. 1. pag. 728.

2 Acts, chap. 16. ver. 18.

* Εἰ γὰρ νῦν, οὐδενὸς ὄντος τοιούτου, ὄνειροι πολλάκις φανέντες ἐν τύποις τῶν ἀπελθόντων, πολλοὺς ἠπάτησαν καὶ διέφθειραν πολλῷ μᾶλλον, εἰ τοῦτο γεγενημένον ἦν καὶ κεκρατηκὸς ἐν ταῖς τῶν ἀνθρώπων διανοίαις, οἷον ὅτι πολλοὶ τῶν ἀπελθόντων ἐπανῆλθον πάλιν, μυρίους ἂν ὁ μιαρὸς δαίμων ἐκεῖνος δόλους έπλεξε, καὶ πολλὴν ἀπάτην εἰς τὸν βίον εἰσήγαγε. διὰ τοῦτο ἀπέκλεισε τὰς θυρὰς ὁ Θεὸς, καὶ οὐκ ἀφίησι τινα

the shapes of them that have departed this life, have deceived and corrupted many: much more if this were once settled in men's minds, that many of those that are departed did return again unto us; that wicked devil would plot a thousand guiles, and bring in much deceit into our life. And for this cause God hath shut up the doors, and doth not suffer any of the deceased to return back and tell the things that are there; lest he, taking occasion from thence, should bring in all his own devices." It was the complaint of Synesius in his time, that there were "many both private men and priests too, who feigned certain dreams, which they called revelations." And in ancient writings we meet with sundry visions, which if they be truly related, may more justly be suspected to have been illusions of deceitful spirits, than true apparitions of blessed either souls or angels.

He that will advisedly read over Basilius Seleuciensis his narration of the miracles of St. Thecla, for example, must either reject the work as strangely corrupted, or easily be drawn to yield unto that which I have said. For who can digest such relations and observations as these: that they who watch the night that goeth before her festivity, do at that time yearly see her driving a fiery chariot in the air, and removing from Seleucia unto Dalisandus, as a place which she did principally affect, in regard of the commodity and pleasantness of the situation, that both she and other of the saints deceased do "rejoiced much in solitary places, and do ordinarily dwell in them;" that after her death, she should "affect oratory

τῶν ἀπελθόντων ἐπανελθέντα εἰπεῖν τὰ ἐκεῖ, ἵνα μὴ λαβὼν ἀφορμὴν ἐντεῦθεν ἐκεῖνος, τὰ παρ' ἑαυτοῦ πάντα εἰσαγάγῃ. Chrysost. de Lazar. conc. 4. op. tom. 1. pag. 756.

* Συχνοί παρ' ἡμῖν καὶ ἰδιῶται καὶ ἱερεῖς, πλαττόμενοί τινας ὀνείρους, οὓς αὐτοὶ καλοῦσιν ἀποκαλύψεις. Synes. epist. 54.

c Basil. Seleuc. de miraculis S. Thecla, lib. 2. cap. 10.

4 Καί γὰρ τοῦτο μάλιστα τῶν ἁγίων ἴδιον, τὸ ἠρεμίαις τε χαίρειν, καὶ ταύταις ὡς τὰ πολλὰ ἐναυλίζεσθαι. Ibid. cap. 21.

e

Φιλόλογος γὰρ, καὶ φιλόμουσος, καὶ ἀεὶ χαίρουσα τοῖς λογικώτερον εὐφημοῦσιν αὐτὴν. Ib. cap. 24.

and poetry, and be continually delighted with such as did more accurately set forth her praises :" (even as Homer bringeth in Apollo, tickled at the heart with hearing the songs that were made unto him in the camp of the Grecians :) of which he produceth two special instances, the one of Alypius the grammarian, unto whom being forsaken of the physicians, Thecla (he saith) did appear in the night, and demanded of him, what he ailed, and what he would. He to shew his art, and to win the virgin's favour with the aptness of the verse, returneth for an answer unto her that verse, wherewith Homer maketh Achilles to answer his mother Thetis, in the first of the Iliads:

Οἶσθα· τίη ταῦτ ̓ εἰδυίῃ πάντ' ἀγορεύω;

Thou knowest; why should I tell thee that knowest all?

Whereat "thes martyr smiling, and being delighted partly with the man, partly with the verse, and wondering that he had answered so aptly," conveyed a certain round stone unto him, with the touch whereof he was presently set on foot from his long and perilous sickness. For the other instance, the writer reporteth that which happened unto himself: for "the martyr," saith he, "is such a lover of learning, and taketh such a delight in these oratorious praises, that I will tell somewhat of those things. that were done to myself and for myself: which the martyr, who did it, doth know to have been done, and that I lie not." Then he telleth, how having prepared an oration for her anniversary festivity, the day before it should be pronounced, he was taken with such an extreme pain

• Μελπόντες ἑκαέργον· ὁ δέ, φρένα τέρπετ' ἀκούων. Homer. Iliad. a. § Επιμειδιάσασα γοῦν ἡ μάρτυς, καὶ ἡσθεῖσα ἐπί τε τῷ ἀνδρὶ, ἐπὶ τε τῷ ἔπει, θαυμάσασα δὲ καὶ ὡς μάλα ἁρμοδίως ἀπεκρίνατο. Basil. Seleuc. de miraculis S. Thecla, lib. 2. cap. 24.

* Ούτω δὲ φιλόλογός ἐστὶν ἡ μάρτυς, καὶ χαίρει ταῖς διὰ τῶν λόγων ταύταις εὐφημίαις. ἐρῶ τι καὶ τῶν ἐμαυτῷ καὶ ὑπὲρ ἐμοῦ γεγονότων, ὅπερ αὐτὴ ἡ παρασχηκυῖα μοι μάρτυς οἶδεν ὅτι γεγένηται, καὶ οὐ ψεύδομαι. Ibid. cap. 27.