Chapter 5

DEVOTION of Protestants scriptural and reasonable--That of 102 Roman Catholics poetical and affectionate--Religious enthusiasm leads to insanity--Mental devotion as distinguished from physical--Nature of Roman Catholic devotion accounted for by the worship of images--Intercession of saints--Saint Anthony--The illiterate guided by bodily vision rather than spiritual discernment--Horace confirms this--Illustrated by popular errors--Sensual and poetical elements were introduced to devotion by the Greeks--Destruction of images by the Emperor Leo the Iconoclast--Opinion of Pope Leo the Great--Images adorned like human beings perplex the mind between truth and fiction--Familiar examples--Money-contributions for adornment of images--Belief that saints can cure certain complaints--List of those--Saint Anthony of Padua's miracles--The fete of _San Anton Abad_--Virgin Mary, and her innumerable advocations--A list of several--The Rosary--Statues of the Virgin--Immense value of their wardrobes and trinkets--The most ugly of those statues excite most devotion--Virgin of Zaragoza--The heart of Mary--Month of Mary (May)--Kissing images--Anecdote of the Duke of A--- and his courtezan--Habits and promises--Penance