cape which Romulus had in this very place, when exposed in his infancy to perish in the Tiber, he was looked upon, as soon as he was deified, as singularly propitious to infants; and from this notion, it became a custom for nurses and mothers to bring their sickly children and present them at the shrine of this little temple, in the confident hope of relief. Hence, when this temple was afterwards converted into a church, care was taken to substitute in the place of the heathen god, a Christian saint, who, like Romulus, had been exposed in his infancy, and preserved by a lucky chance; and who might, therefore, be presumed to be as fond of children, as their old deity had been. Thus the worship paid to Romulus, being now transferred to Theodorus, the old superstition still subsists, and the custom of presenting children at this shrine continues without intermission to the present day.

In consecrating these heathen temples to the Christian worship, that the change might be the less offensive, we have seen it was usual to look for some resemblance of quality and character in the saint who was substituted for the old deity. But more frequently regard has been had rather to a similitude of name between the old and new

idol. Thus, in a place formerly sacred to Apollo, now stands the church of Apollinaris; "built, that the profane name of that deity might be converted into the glorious name of this martyr*:" and where there formerly stood a temple of Mars, they have now erected a church to Martina, with this inscription:

*Rom. Moderna.-Gior. iii. 21.

Martyrii gestans virgo Martina coronam,

Ejecto hinc Martis numine, Templa tenet.

Mars hence expelled; Martina, martyr'd maid,

Claims now the worship, which to him was paid.-MIDDLETON. "At a short distance from the old Lavinium," says Blunt," or Pratica, as it is now called, is a chapel dedicated to S. Anna Petronilla. Here we have, no doubt, a corruption of Anna Perenna, the sister of Dido, who was cast ashore upon the coast of Italy near the Numicus; a point corresponding with the situation of this little church. On that occasion, having accidentally met with Eneas and Achates, and rejected all terms of reconciliation with them, she was warned by the shade of Dido, in a dream, to escape from the treachery of Lavinia. In the sudden consternation excited by this vision, she is said to have precipitated herself into the Numicus, of which she became the protecting nymph-whilst games, described at length in Ovid, were instituted in her hon

This stream's perennial nymph, I steal from view,
Once Anna called, but now Perenna too.-BLunt.

Thus Anna, the sister of the Virgin, has inherited the seat and credit of Anna, the sister of the Queen of Carthage, on condition of adding to her former name that of Petronilla."

VOL. II.

OF THE CONFORMITY BETWEEN THE CATHOLIC AND PAGAN RELIGIOUS CEREMONIES.

Nec diversa tamen: qualem decet esse sororum.-OVID.

So evidently has the Church of Rome borrowed its principal ceremonies from the rituals of paganism, that even the more candid and learned Catholics scruple not to admit it. M. de Marolles informs us how he once surprised an archbishop of France by a frank avowal of it; demonstrating afterwards, by an induction of particulars, the justness of his position*. The learned Du Choul also thus concludes his book on the religion of the old Romans:-" If we consider the case attentively, we shall find very many institutions of our religion to have been borrowed from the ceremonies of the Egyptians and the Gentiles-all which our priests now make use of in our mysteries, by referring to the only true God, Jesus Christ, what the ignorance, false religion, and senseless superstition of the Pagans had applied to their gods, and

* Un jour que j'etois auprès de Mons. de la Feuillade, Archevêque d'Embrun, l'occasion s'étant offerte de luy dire, que beaucoup de ceremonies du paganisme avoient été sanctifiées par la piété de nostre religion, ce qui ne s'étoit point fait sans mystère; je m'apperçus, qu'il s'en étonna un peu: sur quoy je luy demandai audience, &c.—Memoires de Marolles, par. ii. p. 209.

to mortal men after their consecration."-(De Relig. Vet. Rom. ad fin.)

The very first thing a stranger must necessarily notice on entering a Catholic church is the use of incense. This custom, received directly from paganism, cannot fail to recall to mind the old descriptions of the heathen temples and altars, which are seldom mentioned by the ancients without the epithet perfumed or incensed*.

In some of the principal churches, where one sees at one view a great number of altars, all smoking at once with clouds of incense, how natural is it to fancy oneself transported into the temple of some heathen deity, or that of the Paphian Venus described by Virgil:

Ubi templum illi, centumque Sabæo

Thure calent aræ, sertisque recentibus halant.-ÆN. i. 416.

Her hundred altars there with garlands crowned,

And richest incense smoking, breathe around

Sweet odours.-MIDDLETON.

In the old relievos, where any heathen sacrifice is represented, we never fail to observe a boy in sacred habit,

* Τεμενος Βωμος τε θυηεις.—Hom. Il. ψ. 148.

Thuricremis cum dona imponeret aris.-Virg. Æn. iv. 453. Theocrit. Id. . 123. Hom. Il. 0. 48. Virg. Æn. iv. 486.

Sæpe Jovem vidi, cum jam sua mittere vellet

Fulmina, thure dato sustinuisse manum.-Ovid.

"This custom," says Hughes, "is observed, as some say, on account of its grateful odour and utility in a hot climate, or, according to others, to drive away demons and evil spirits:”—

Λυχνων γαρ οσμας ου φιλουσι δαιμονες.

Plat. Com. in Athen. L. x. p. 442.

(which was always white,) attending upon the priest, with a little chest or box in his hands, in which this incense. was kept for the use of the altar:

Da mihi thura, puer, pingues facientia flammas.-OVID. TRIST. V. 5.

In a picture found at Herculaneum*, a boy wearing a white tunic, which descends to his knees, bears in one hand a dish with the offering, and in the other a wreath of flowers, which the priest is about to receive and present to the god.

In the same manner, in the church of Rome, there is always a boy in a surplice, waiting on the priest at the altar, with the sacred utensils, and among the rest the "Thuribulum," or vessel of incense, which, as it is smoking, the priest with many ridiculous motions and crossings waves several times around, and over the altar during the different parts of the service.

"In the Stanza de' Sacrifizii' of the Museum at Naples," observes Blunt, "there is a small bronze image representing a Sacerdotum minister.' He has an upper garment descending to the middle, which answers. exactly to that now worn by the priests, under the name of mozzetta;' whilst beneath and below it is a petticoat, as directly corresponding with their sottana.' It may be remarked, that the cassock of the Protestant church is an imitation of this more ancient article of clerical dress."

* This painting, formerly in the Portici Museum, is now in the Museo Borbonico at Naples.