To the invincible band of genuine and primitive martyrs, they added myriads of imaginary heroes, who had never existed, except in the fancy of crafty or credulous legendaries; and there is reason to suspect, that Tours might not be the only diocese in which the bones of a malefactor were adored, instead of those of a saint.

[76] A superstitious practice, which tended to increase the temptations of fraud, and credulity, insensibly extinguished the light of history, and of reason, in the Christian world.
[Footnote 75: M.de Beausobre (Hist.

du Manicheisme, tom.ii.p.

648) has applied a worldly sense to the pious observation of the clergy of Smyrna, who carefully preserved the relics of St.Polycarp the martyr.] [Footnote 76: Martin of Tours (see his Life, c.

8, by Sulpicius Severus) extorted this confession from the mouth of the dead man.