The canonizing of saints is another relic of Gentilism:it is neither a misunderstanding of Scripture,nor a new invention of the Roman Church,but a custom as ancient as the Commonwealth of Rome itself.The first that ever was canonized at Rome was Romulus,and that upon the narration of Julius Proculus,that swore before the Senate he spoke with him after his death,and was assured by him he dwelt in heaven,and was there called Quirinus,and would be propitious to the state of their new city:and thereupon the Senate gave public testimony of his sanctity.Julius Caesar,and other emperors after him,had the like testimony;that is,were canonized for saints:for by such testimony is canonization now defined,and is the same with the apotheosis of the heathen.
It is also from the Roman heathen that the popes have received the name and power of Pontifex Maximus.This was the name of him that in the ancient Commonwealth of Rome had the supreme authority under the Senate and people of regulating all ceremonies and doctrines concerning their religion:and when Augustus Caesar changed the state into a monarchy,he took to himself no more but this office,and that of tribune of the people (that is to say,the supreme power both in state and religion);and the succeeding emperors enjoyed the same.But when the Emperor Constantine lived,who was the first that professed and authorized Christian religion,it was consonant to his profession to cause religion to be regulated,under his authority,by the bishop of Rome:though it do not appear they had so soon the name of Pontifex;but rather that the succeeding bishops took it of themselves,to countenance the power they exercised over the bishops of the Roman provinces.For it is not any privilege of St.Peter,but the privilege of the city of Rome,which the emperors were always willing to uphold,that gave them such authority over other bishops;as may be evidently seen by that,that the bishop of Constantinople,when the Emperor made that city the seat of the Empire,pretended to be equal to the bishop of Rome;though at last,not without contention,the Pope carried it,and became the Pontifex Maximus;but in right only of the Emperor,and not without the bounds of the Empire,nor anywhere after the Emperor had lost his power in Rome,though it were the Pope himself that took his power from him.From whence we may by the way observe that there is no place for the superiority of the Pope over other bishops,except in the territories whereof he is himself the civil sovereign;and where the emperor,having sovereign power civil,hath expressly chosen the Pope for the chief pastor under himself of his Christian subjects.
The carrying about of images in procession is another relic of the religion of the Greeks and Romans,for they also carried their idols from place to place,in a kind of chariot,which was peculiarly dedicated to that use,which the Latins called thensa,and vehiculum Deorum;and the image was placed in a frame,or shrine,which they called ferculum.And that which they called pompa is the same that now is named procession;according whereunto,amongst the divine honours which were given to Julius Caesar by the Senate,this was one,that in the pomp,or procession,at the Circaean games,he should have thensam et ferculum,a sacred chariot and a shrine;which was as much as to be carried up and down as a god,just as at this day the popes are carried by Switzers under a canopy.
To these processions also belonged the bearing of burning torches and candles before the images of the gods,both amongst the Greeks and Romans.For afterwards the emperors of Rome received the same honor;as we read of Caligula,that at his reception to the Empire he was carried from Misenum to Rome in the midst of a throng of people,the ways beset with altars,and beasts for sacrifice,and burning torches;and of Caracalla,that was received into Alexandria with incense,and with casting of flowers,and dadouchiais,that is,with torches;for dadochoi were they that amongst the Greeks carried torches lighted in the processions of their gods.And in process of time the devout but ignorant people did many times honour their bishops with the like pomp of wax candles,and the images of our Saviour and the saints,constantly,in the church itself.And thus came in the use of wax candles and was also established by some of the ancient councils.
The heathens had also their aqua lustralis,that is to say,holy water.The Church of Rome imitates them also in their holy days.
They had their bacchanalia,and we have our wakes,answering to them;they their saturnalia,and we our carnivals and Shrove Tuesday's liberty of servants;they their procession of Priapus,we our fetching in,erection,and dancing about Maypoles;and dancing is one kind of worship.They had their procession called Ambarvalia,and we our procession about the fields in the Rogation week.Nor do I think that these are all the ceremonies that have been left in the Church,from the first conversion of the Gentiles,but they are all that I can for the present call to mind.And if a man would well observe that which is delivered in the histories,concerning the religious rites of the Greeks and Romans,I doubt not but he might find many more of these old empty bottles of Gentilism which the doctors of the Roman Church,either by negligence or ambition,have filled up again with the new wine of Christianity,that will not fail in time to break them.