Page:The Fall of Constantinople.djvu/388

 370 THE FALL OF CONSTANTINOPLE. name. Bj the side of such relics the further gifts of silk cloths in imperial purple woven with gold, and of a dress set with gold and silver and precious stones, seemed probably poor and almost unworthy of notice.^ Amiens was fortunate to obtain possession of the head of St. John the Baptist, which was sent by Peter the "Walloon.^ Sens was even more successful, and received the crown of thorns worn by the Lord. Gunther tells us how the Abbot Martin, of Pairis in Alsace, transported many relics from Constantinople into that country, the principal one being a large portion of the true cross. Other relics which went to the glorification of this diocese were a trace of the blood of Christ, a further portion of the wood of the true cross, an arm of St. James, and fifty others which are enumerated.' The body of St. Andrew was taken to Amalfi." The sacred tear already mentioned was taken to Selincourt, and the abbot was warned of the ap- proach of the person bringing it by the ringing of the bells, a fact which could only be attributed to miraculous agency.^ It would be tedious and unprofitable to attempt to give a list of other relics which were taken from Constantinople. Some of these found their way to our own countr3^ Two documents, apparently derived from the same source, are in- serted in the chronicles of Panel, or Pudolph, of Coggleshall and Poger of Wendower which have special interest for Eng- lishmen. They give an account of a relic surreptitiously taken away from Constantinople, and are, in fact, the confessions of the author of the theft. The relic was a small cross cut from the wood of the true cross, and the writer had seen it in the hands of Baldwin of Flanders. The writer, having stolen it, took it to jS'orfolk, and subsequently gave it to Bromholm. Tiie gift made what had hitherto been the " poor little house'- ' Anon. Halberstadensis, " Exuv. Sac." i. p. 10. ' Richard of Gerberon, " Exuv. Sac." i. p. 35. 3 Guntherus Parisiensis, " Exuv. Sac." i. p. 123. * Ibid. p. 165. lating to relics sent to the "West. See "Exuv. Sac."
 * Count Riant has collected one hundred and forty-five documents re-