Section 320
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ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY. 289 fey the evangelists, and who obtained deliverance from her afflic tion by our Saviour, was a native of this place, and that her house is shown in the city, and the wonderful monuments of our Saviour's benefit to her are still remaining. At the gates of her house, on an elevated stone, stands a brazen image of a woman on her bended knee, with her hands stretched out before her like one entreating. Opposite to this there is another image of a man, erect, of the same materials, decently clad in a mantle (diplois,) and stretching out his hand to the woman. Before her feet, and on the same pedestal, there is a certain strange plant growing, which rising as high as the hem of the brazen garment, is a kind of antidote to all kinds of diseases. This statue, they say, is a statue of Jesus Christ, and it has remained even until our times ; so that we ourselves saw it whilst tarrying in that city. Nor is it to be wondered at, that those of the Gentiles who were anciently benefited by our Saviour, should have done these things. Since we have also seen representations of the apostles Peter and Paul, and of Christ himself, still preserved in paintings ; as it is probable that, according to a practice among the Gentiles, the ancients were accustomed to pay this kind of honour indis criminately to those who were as saviours or deliverers to them. CHAPTER XIX, The episcopal seat of James. JAMES being the first that received the dignity of the episcopate at Jerusalem, from our Saviour himself, as the sacred Scriptures show that he was generally called the brother of Christ ; this see, which has been preserved until the present times, has ever been held in veneration by the brethren that have followed in the suc cession there, in which they have sufficiently shown what rever ence both the ancients and those of our own times exhibited, and still exhibit, towards holy men on account of their piety. But enough of this. 20