Essays, or discourses, vol. 1 (of 4)

by Benito Jerónimo Feijoo

Flevit, et O, dixit, crudeles, parcite, flammæ,

Parcite; sunt isto viscera nostra rogo.

XIII. But what has been the most monstrous in these sort of cases is, that some churches have celebrated, and even worshiped as saints, perverse men, who died separated from the Roman communion. The church of Limogines, addressed for a long time in a direct prayer (which prayer exists at this day in the antient breviary of that church) Eusebius Cæsarius, who lived and died in the Arian heresy, they having, as is most probable, mistaken him at first, for Eusebius Bishop of Cæsarea, in Cappadocia, who was the successor of Saint Basil; whereas the man we have now been mentioning, was Bishop of Cæsarea in Palestine; I am very well aware, some authors assert, that at the council of Nice, he conformed to the Catholic faith, in which he remained steady ever after, but there are so many testimonies to contradict this, and among the rest his own writings, that what is said in his defence seems void of all probability. The church of Turin venerated a thief as a martyr, and erected an altar to him, which St. Martin destroyed, after having convinced them of their error; this is related by Sulpicius in his Life of St. Martin.

SECT. V.

XIV. To excite a total distrust of the Vox Populi, you need only reflect upon the extravagant errors, which in matters of religion, policy, and manners, have been seen, and may still be seen authorized, by the common consent of whole bodies politic. Cicero said, there was no tenet, though ever so wild and absurd, that had not been maintained by some philosopher or other: Nihil tam absurdum dici potest, quod non dicatur ab aliquo philosophorum. (lib. 2. de Divinat.) I will venture with greater reason to affirm, there is no extravagance, however monstrous, which has not been patronized by the uniform consent of some country.

XV. Things which the light of natural reason represents as abominable, have in this, and the other region, passed, and still do pass, as lawful. Lying, perjury, adultery, murder, and robbery: in short, all vices have obtained, and do obtain, the general approbation of some nations. The Herules, an ancient people, whose situation cannot be exactly ascertained, though they dwelt near the borders of the Baltic Sea, were used to put to death all their sick and old people, nor would they suffer the wives to survive their husbands. The Caspians, a people of Scythia, were more barbarous still, for they imprisoned and starved to death, their own parents, when they came to be advanced in years. What abominations were committed by some people of Ethiopia, who, according to Ælian, adopted a dog for their king, and regulated all their actions, by the gestures and motions of that animal; and Pliny instances a people, whom he calls Toembaros, though not of Ethiopia, who obeyed the same master.

Nor are the hearts of mankind in many parts of the world, much mended at this day. There are many places, where they feed on human flesh, and go hunting for men, as they would for wild beasts. The Yagos, a people of the kingdom of Ansicus in Africa, eat, not only the prisoners they take in war, but feed also upon such of their friends as die natural deaths; so that among them, the dead have no other burying place than the stomachs of the living. All the world knows, that in many parts of the East-Indies, they uphold the barbarous custom, of the women burning themselves at the funeral of their husbands, and though they are not by law obliged to do this, the instances of their failing to do it are very rare, because upon their declining it, they would remain infamous, despised, and abhorred by every one. Among the Cafres, all the relations of a person who dies are obliged to cut off the little finger of the left hand, and throw it into the grave of the deceased.

XVII. What shall we say to the countenance, that has been given to Turpitude, by various nations? In Malabar, the women may marry as many husbands as they please. In the Island of Ceylon, when a woman marries, she is common to all the brothers of her husband, and the consorted parties may divorce themselves and contract a fresh alliance whenever they please. In the kingdom of Bengal, all the new-married women, those of the first rank not excepted, before they are allowed to be enjoyed by their husbands, are delivered up to the lust of the bramins or priests. In Mingrelia, a province of Georgia, where the people are Schismatic Christians, among the compound of various errors prevailing there, adultery is considered as a thing indifferent, and it is very rare, that any of their sex are faithful to their consorts; it is true, that the husband in case of catching the wife in the act of adultery, has a right by way of compensation, to demand of her paramour a pig, which is considered as ample amends, and the criminal person is generally invited to partake of it.

SECT. VI.

XVIII. Was I to recite the extravagant superstitions prevailing in various places, the labour would be immense. It is very well known, that the antient Gentiles worshiped the most despicable and vile animals. The goat was the deity of one nation, the tortoise of another, the beetle of another, and the fly of another. Even the Romans, who were esteemed the most polished people in the world, were extremely ridiculous in matters of religion; St. Austin, in many parts of his Treatise, called The City of God, upbraids them with it; and the most remarkable of their absurdities in this respect was, their adopting such an innumerable quantity of deities, to separate and distinct charges; the protection of the harvest, and the grain, belonged to twelve different Gods, each of whom had his particular department. To guard the door of the house, they had no less than three; the God Lorculos had the care of the wood, the Goddess Cordea that of the hinges, and the God Limentius looked after the pediment. St. Austin jocosely remarks to them, that if each individual would appoint a porter, they would find him capable of doing much more than any one of their Gods, for he would be able to execute this whole business, better than three of them, and with greater security. Pliny (who runs into the opposite extreme of denying a Deity or a Providence, or at least of affecting to doubt there is a Supreme Being) in giving an account of the superstitious faith of the Romans, estimates the number of their deities to exceed the number of their people. Quam ob rem major cœlitum populus, etiam quam hominum intelligi potest (Lib. 1. cap. 6.) The computation is not aggravated, as every man according to his fancy, appointed himself Household Gods, to each of whom, he consigned a particular charge, and besides this, worshiped all the established Gods. The multifarious number may be inferred, not only from what St. Austin has told us, but from the same Pliny, who says, they erected temples and altars, to all the diseases and misfortunes, with which mankind are visited: Morbis etiam in genera descriptis, et multis etiam pestibus, dum esse placatas trepido metu capimus. It is certain, that in Rome, there was a Temple erected to Fevers, and another to Ill Luck.