The next step was the affecting to pray at the sepulchres of the Martyrs: which practice began in _Dioclesian_'s persecution. The Council of _Eliberis_ in _Spain_, celebrated in the third or fourth year of _Dioclesian_'s persecution, A.C. 305, hath these Canons. Can. 34. _Cereos per diem placuit in Coemeterio non incendi: inquietandi enim spiritus sanctorum non sunt. Qui haec non observarint, arceantur ab Ecclesiae communione._ Can. 35. _Placuit prohiberi ne faeminae in Coemeterio pervigilent, eo quod saepe sub obtentu orationis latenter scelera committant._ Presently after that persecution, suppose about the year 314, the Council of _Laodicea_ in _Phrygia_, which then met for restoring the lapsed discipline of the Church, has the following Canons. Can. 9. _Those of the Church are not allowed to go into the _Coemeteries_ or _Martyries_, as they are called, of hereticks, for the sake of prayer or recovery of health: but such as go, if they be of the faithful, shall be excommunicated for a time_. Can. 34. _A _Christian_ must not leave the Martyrs of _Christ_, and go to false Martyrs_, that is, to the Martyrs of the hereticks; _for these are alien from God: and therefore let those be anathema who go to them_. Can. 51. _The birth-days of the Martyrs shall not be celebrated in _Lent_, but their commemoration shall be made on the Sabbath-days and Lords days_. The Council of _Paphlagonia_, celebrated in the year 324, made this Canon: _If any man being arrogant, abominates the congregations of the Martyrs, or the Liturgies performed therein, or the memories of the Martyrs, let him be anathema_. By all which it is manifest that the _Christians_ in the time of _Dioclesian_'s persecution used to pray in the _Coemeteries_ or burying-places of the dead; for avoiding the danger of the persecution, and for want of Churches, which were all thrown down: and after the persecution was over, continued that practice in honour of the Martyrs, till new Churches could be built: and by use affected it as advantageous to devotion, and for recovering the health of those that were sick. It also appears that in these burying-places they commemorated the Martyrs yearly upon days dedicated to them, and accounted all these practices pious and religious, and anathematized those men as arrogant who opposed them, or prayed in the _Martyries_ of the hereticks. They also lighted torches to the Martyrs in the day-time, as the heathens did to their Gods; which custom, before the end of the fourth century, prevailed much in the _West_. They sprinkled the worshipers of the Martyrs with holy-water, as the heathens did the worshipers of their Gods; and went in pilgrimage to see _Jerusalem_ and other holy places, as if those places conferred sanctity on the visiters. From the custom of praying in the _Coemeteries_ and _Martyries_, came the custom of translating the bodies of the Saints and Martyrs into such Churches as were new built: the Emperor