lose his eyes and allow his understanding to be set aside,
may believe that these are the identical stones with which St Stephen
suffered martyrdom, but whoever will exert his reason a little cannot but
laugh at this imposition. The Carmelite monks of Poitiers discovered some
of these stones only fourteen years ago, to which they ascribed the virtue
of assisting women in the pains of travail; but the Dominican monks, from
whom a rib of St Margarita which possessed the same virtue had been
stolen, were very indignant, and raised a great outcry at the deception
practised by the Carmelites, but the latter gained the body by firmly
maintaining their rights.

THE HOLY INNOCENTS.

It was not at first my intention to mention the Holy Innocents, for if I
were to enumerate a whole army of their relics, it might always be said to
me in reply that history is not contradicted by that, as their number has
never been mentioned to us. I shall not dwell, therefore, upon their
multitude, merely observing that they are to be found in every part of the
world. I would ask, however, how it came to pass that their graves were
discovered so long after their massacre, since they were not considered as
saints when their murder by Herod took place? And then, how were these
numerous bodies conveyed to the many places where they are now to be seen?
To these questions but one answer can be given--"All this occurred five or
six hundred years after their death." How can any but idiots believe such
things?

But supposing even that some of their bodies had really been discovered,
how came so large a number of them to be transported to France, Italy, and
Germany, and to be distributed amongst so many towns situated so far
apart? This can only be a _wholesale_ deception.

ST GERVASIUS AND ST PROTASIUS.

The sepulchres of these two saints were discovered at Milan in the time of
St Ambrose, as testified by him. This fact is confirmed also by the
evidence of St Jerome, St Augustine, and several others; consequently
Milan maintains its possession of the real bodies of these saints.
Nevertheless, they are likewise to be seen at Brissach in Germany, and in
the Church of St Peter at Besancon, besides an immense number of different
parts of their bodies scattered throughout the land, so that each of them
must have had at least four bodies.

ST SEBASTIAN.

This saint, from the wonderful power his remains possessed of curing the
plague, was put into requis