§ 131. THE WORSHIP OF RELICS.
the largest number in 1891, when 1,925,130 people passed through the cathedral for this purpose. Many miracles were believed to have been performed.1
The arrival of some of Christ's blood in England, Oct. 13, 1247, was solemnized by royalty and furnishes one of the strange and picturesque religious scenes of English mediaeval history. The detailed description of Matthew Paris speaks of it as "a holy benefit from heaven."2 Its genuineness was vouched for by the Masters of the Templars and the Hospitallers, and by the seals of the patriarch of Jerusalem, and the archbishops and other prelates of the Holy Land. After fasting and keeping watch the night before, the king, Henry III., accompanied by the priests of London in full canonicals and with tapers burning, carried the vase contain ing the holy liquid from St. Paul's to Westminster, and made a circuit of the church, the palace, and the king's own apartments. The king proceeded on foot, holding the sacred vessel above his head. The bishop of Norwich preached a ser mon on the occasion and, at a later date, Robert Grosseteste preached another in which he defended the genuineness of the relic, giving a memorable exhibition of scholastic ingenuit}'.3
The true cross was found more than once and fragments of it were numerous, so numerous that the fiction had to be invented that the true cross had the singular property of multiplying itself indefinitely. A choice must be made between the stories. The lirst Crusaders beheld the cross in Jerusalem. Richard I., during the Third Crusade, was di rected to a piece of it by an aged man, the abbot of St. Elie, who had buried it in the ground and refused to deliver it up to Saladin, even though that prince put him in bonds to force him to do so. Richard and the army kissed it with pious devotion.4 Among the objects which the abbot, Martin, secured in Constantinople were a piece of the true cross and a drop of the Lord's blood. The true cross, how-
1 See Wetzer-Welte, Der hi. Rock, X. 1229 sqq. 2Luard'sed.,IV. 641-643.
3 Luard, VI. 138-144. See Stevenson's Grosseteste, p. 263. * De Vinsauf, Chronicle of Richard's Crusade, LIV.
848 THE MIDDLE AGES. A.D. 1049-1294.
ever, was still entire, and in 1241 it reached Paris. It bad originally been bought by the Venetians from the king of Jerusalem for £20,000, and was purchased from the Emperor Baldwin by Louis IX. The relic was received with great ceremony and carried into the French capital by the king, with feet and head bare, and accompanied by his mother, Blanche, the queen, the king's brothers, and a great concourse of nobles and clergy.1 The crown of thorns was carried in the same procession. At a later time these relics were placed in the new and beautiful chapel which Louis built, a supposed holy coat of Christ, the iron head of the lance which pierced his side, and the sponge offered to him on the cross, together with other relics.
The English chronicler's enthusiasm for this event seems not to have been in the least dampened by the fact that the English abbey of Bromholm also possessed the true cross. It reached England in 1247, through a monk who had found it among the effects of the Emperor Baldwin, after he had fallen in battle. The monk appeared at the convent door with his two children, and carrying the sacred relic under his cloak. Heed was given to his story and he was taken in. Miracles at once began to be performed, even to the cleans ing of lepers and the raising of the dead.2
Some idea of the popular estimate of the value of relics may be had from the story which Csesar of Heisterbach re lates of a certain Bernard who belonged to Csesar's convent.3 Bernard was in the habit of carrying about with him a box containing the relics of St. Peter and St. Paul. Happening to give way to sensual thoughts, the two saints gave him a punch in the side. On Bernard's assuming a proper mental state, the thumping stopped, but as soon as he renewed the unseemly thoughts the thumping began again. Bernard took the hint and finally desisted altogether. Csesar had the satisfaction of knowing that when Bernard had these experiences, he was not yet a monk.
1 Luard's M. Paris, IV. 00 sq. ; De Voragine, VII. 210.
2 Luard's ed., III. 30 sq. 3 DiaL<> yni. 67, Strange's ed., II. 138.