OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 211 Jerusalem, and the ecclesiastical minister of the village of Caphargamala, about twenty miles from the city, related a very singular dream, which, to remove his doubts, had been repeated on three successive Saturdays. A venerable figure stood before him, in the silence of the night, with a long beard, a white robe, and a gold rod ; announced himself by the name of Gama- liel, and revealed to the astonished presbyter that his OAvn corpse, with the bodies of his son Abibas, his friend Nicodemus, and the illustrious Stephen, the first martyr of the Christian faith, were secretly buried in the adjacent field. He added, with some impatience, that it was time to release himself and his companions from their obscure prison ; that their appearance would be salutary to a distressed world ; and that they had made choice of Lucian to inform the bishop of Jerusalem of their situation and their wishes. The doubts and difficulties which still retarded this important discovery were successively removed by new visions ; and the ground was opened by the bishop, in the presence of an innumerable multitude. The coffins of Gamaliel, of his son, and of his friend were found in regular order ; but when the fourth coffin, which contained the remains of Stephen, was shown to the light, the earth trembled, and an odour, such as that of paradise, was smelt, which instantly cured the various diseases of seventy-three of the assistants. The companions of Stephen were left in their peaceful residence of Caphargamala ; but the relics of the first martyr were trans- ported in solemn procession to a church constructed in their honour on Mount Sion ; and the minute particles of those relics, a drop of blood,^^ or the scrapings of a bone, were acknowledged in almost every province of the Roman world to possess a divine and miraculous virtue. The grave and learned Augustin,^*^ whose understanding scarcely admits the excuse of credulity, has attested the innumerable prodigies which were performed in Africa by the relics of St Stephen; and this marvellous narrative is inserted in the elaborate work of the City of God, which the Benedictine editors of St. Augustin have given (at the end of the work de Civitate Dei) two several copies, with many various readings. It is the character of falsehood to be loose and inconsistent. The most incredible parts of the legend are smoothed and softened by Tillemont (M^m. Eccl^s. torn. ii. p. 9, &c.). 83 A phial of St. Stephen's blood was annually liquefied at Naples, till he was superseded by St. Januarius(Ruinart. Hist. Persecut. Vandal, p. 529). 86 Augustin composed the two and twenty books de Civitate Dei in the space of thirteen years, A.D. 413-426 (Tillemont, M(5m. Ecclds. torn. xiv. p. 608, &c.). His learning is too often borrowed, and his arguments are too often his own ; but the whole work claims the merit of a magnificent design, vigorously, and not unskil- fully, executed.
