Page:Harvard Law Review Volume 8.djvu/99

83 ILLUSTRATIONS OF THE ORIGIN OF CY PRFS. 83 by beggary, on hearing of the approach of the saintly bones, coun- selled together to escape from the territory as quickly as possible, lest the returning saint should cure them, and thus deprive them of their claim on the alms of the charitable. Their fears were well founded; but their means of locomotion were insufficient, for the relics arrived inTouraine before they could get clear of the province, and they were cured in spite of themselves.^ The belief in the genuineness of relics, as in their efficacy, was universal. Besides numerous pieces of the true cross, all authentic, — so numerous that a house or ship of respectable size could have been constructed from them, — we find, among other gifts by testators, Henry VII. devising " the precious relic of one of the legs of St George, set in silver, parcel gilt," etc. ;^ and William Hante, May 9, 1462, bequeathing " one piece of that stone on which the angel Gabriel descended when he saluted the blessed Virgin Mary," as well as " one piece of the bone of St Bartholomew to the church at Waltham, and a piece of the bone of St Nicholas to the church of Augustine Friars."^ The motley crowd which was drawn to any one of the shrines containing these wonder-working relics was often found more numer- ous and variegated than desirable. The sacred spot more often than not resembled a fair or a circus, and the sharper, mountebank, or thief, found a favorable opening for the exercise of his talents; while the jongleur's strains or the performance of miracle play, or morality, entertained the throngs of credulous believers. It was no wonder, therefore, while very illustrative of the times, that when the excellent St. Thierry, former prior of Grammont, was interred^ his sensible successor by mingled adjurations and threats compelled the sacred remains to desist from miracle-working, as sure to bring disorder and disrepute upon the locality which was devoted to monastic repose and the quiet of religious contemplation.^ The supply of relics naturally increased as the demand fot them grew, and multiplication of an individual relic was always possible and sometimes necessary. Thus the accommodating Saint Teliau adjusted happily the conflicting claims of three parishes, each of which insisted on the right to inter him as a native of its district, by simply multiplying himself into three, and in this way giving each church a separate body to bury.^ So we find two bodies of 1 I^a, Hist. Inq. i. 47. * Lea, Hist. Inq. i. 38. 2 March 31, 1509; Nic. Test. Vet. 1. 31. ^ Fuller, Church Hist. i. 64.
 * lb. i. 300.