_Illi ipsi, _milites_, Monachos Canobi quoque collocarunt, ut pro
Diis qui animo cernuntur, servos & quidem flagitiosos divinis honoribus
percolerent, hominum mentibus ad cultum ceremoniasque obligatis. Ii namque
condita & salita eorum capita, qui ob scelerum multitudinem a judicibus
extremo judicio fuerant affecti, pro Divis ostentabant; iis genua
submittebant, eos in Deorum numerum receptabant, ad illorum sepulchra
pulvere sordibusque conspurcati. Martyres igitur vocabantur, & ministri
quidem & legati arbitrique precum apud Deos; cum fuerint servilia infida &
flagris pessime subacta, quae cicatrices scelerum ac nequitiae vestigia
corporibus circumferunt; ejusmodi tamen Deos fert tellus_. By these
instances we may understand the invocation of Saints was now of some
standing in _Egypt_, and that it was already generally received and
practised there by the common people.
Thus _Basil_ a Monk, who was made Bishop of _Caesarea_ in the year 369, and
died in the year 378, in his Oration on the Martyr _Mamas_, saith: _Be ye
mindful of the Martyr; as many of you as have enjoyed him in your dreams,
as many as in this place have been assisted by him in prayer, as many of
you as upon invoking him by name have had him present in your works, as
many as he has reduced into the way from wandering, as many as he has
restored to health, as, many as have had their dead children restored by
him to life, as many as have had their lives prolonged by him_: and a
little after, he thus expresses the universality of this superstition in
the regions of _Cappadocia_ and _Bithynia_: _At the memory of the Martyr_,
saith he, _the whole region is moved; at his festival the whole city is
transported with joy.
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