Note 211 — I. THE CHURCHES OF THE LYCUS.

Theodoret about a century after the Laodicean Council, commenting on Col. ii. 18, states that this disease (τὸ πάθος) which St Paul denounces ‘long remained in Phrygia and Pisidia.’ ‘For this reason also,’ he adds, ‘a synod convened in Laodicea of Phrygia forbad by a decree the offering prayer to angels; and even to the present time oratories of the holy Michael may be seen among them and their neighbours.’ See also below p. 71, note 219. A curious inscription, found in the theatre at Miletus (Boeckh C. I. 2895), illustrates this tendency. It is an inscription in seven columns, each having a different planetary symbol, and a different permutation of the vowels with the same invocation αγιε . φυλατον . την . πολιν . μιληϲιων . και . πανταϲ . τουϲ . κατοικουνταϲ, while at the common base is written αρχαγγελοι . φυλαϲϲεται . η . πολιϲ . μιληϲιων . και . παντεϲ . οι . κατ... Boeckh writes, ‘Etsi hic titulus Gnosticorum et Basilidianorum commentis prorsus congruus est, tamen potuit ab ethnicis Milesiis scriptus esse; quare nolui eum inter Christianos rejicere, quum præsertim publicæ Milesiorum superstitionis documentum insigne sit.’ The idea of the seven hάγιοι, combined in the one αρχάγγελος, seems certainly to point to Jewish, if not Christian, influences: Rev. i. 4, iii. 1, iv. 5, v. 6.