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Gibbon, Edward on Images Made Without Hands
Edward Gibbon on Images Made Without Hands from Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire
Before the end of the sixth century these images made without hands were propagated in the camps and cities of the Eastern empire; they were the objects of worship and the instruments of miracles; and in the hour of danger or tumult their venerable presence could revive the hope, rekindle the courage, or repress the fury of the Roman legions. Of these pictures, the far greater part, the transcripts of a human pencil, could only pretend to a secondary likeness and improper title; but there were some of higher descent, who derived their resemblance from an immediate contact with the original...The most ambitious aspired from a filial to a fraternal relation with the image of Edessa.
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