tion, and
after her death was buried near the sepulchre of the Holy Virgin St.
Frideswide, Ormaneto should invite the dean of the cathedral to cast
out the carcase from holy ground, and deal with it according to his
discretion."

Catherine Cathie, therefore, was dug up, taken out of her coffin, and
flung into a cesspool at the back of the dean's house, and it was
hoped that by this means the blessed St. Frideswide would be able to
rest again in peace. Human foresight is imperfect; years passed and
times changed; and Elizabeth, when she had the power to command,
directed that the body should be restored to decent burial. The
fragments were recovered with difficulty, and were about to be
replaced in the earth under the floor of the cathedral, when some one
produced the sacred box which contained the remains of St. Frideswide.
Made accessible to the veneration of the faithful by Cardinal Pole,
the relics had been concealed on the return of heresy by some pious
worshipper. They were brought out at the critical moment, and an
instant sense of the fitness of things consigned to the same
resting-place the bones of the wife of Peter Martyr. The married nun
and the virgin saint were buried together, and the dust of the two
still remains under the pavement inextricably blended.[595]

[Footnote 595: Wood's _Annals of the University of
Oxford_.--The story is authentic. The following is
the Roman Catholic version of it:--"Oxonii sepulta
fuerat digna Petro Martyre concubina, parthenonis
et ipsa desertrix sacrilega ut ille coenobii. Ejus
ossa refodi jusserat Maria et sterquilinio ut par
erat condi. Nunc aemulo plane sanctitatis et
virginitatis in Elizabathe ingenio requisita sunt
inter sordes sterquilinii publici quarum foedissima
pars erant, et incredibili studio inventa purgata
lota in thecam eandem reponuntur in qua S.
Frideswidae reliquiae colebantur, et cum his adeo
confusa ut nulla unquam possunt diligentia secerni.
Clauditur loculus et cubitalibus litteris hoc
epitaphio decoratur, 'Hic jacet religio cum
superstitione,' meliore titulo meretrici haeretici
pessimi concubinae; proh nefas! deteriore ancillae