us any alms, but we shall have to work and labor with our own hand Then the blind man said to the lame, "Get up on my should because I am strong, and you who see well can guide me." did this; but when they wished to escape, the procession overt them; and since, on account of the throng, they were not able to away, they were healed against their will.

2. CONCERNING A MERCHANT TO WHOM A HARLOT SOLD T
ARM OF ST. JOHN THE BAPTIST.

Cæsar of Heisterbach, Dist. VIII, Cap. LIII. (Vol. II, pp. 125-26.)
Not long ago a certain merchant of our country, crossing the s
saw the arm of St. John the Baptist in his hospital, and desired
Knowing that the custodian of the relics was following a certain woma
and knowing that there is nothing which women of that class cann
extort from men, he approached her and said, "If you will procure
me the relics of St. John the Baptist of which your lover has t
charge, I will give you a hundred and forty pounds of silver." S
craving the sum offered, refused to consent to the hospitaler until
obtained the sacred arm. This she immediately delivered to t
merchant and received the promised weight of silver.

Do you perceive how great a mockery? Just as formerly the hea of St. John was delivered by Herod to a lascivious girl as a reward f dancing, and by her was given to an adulterous mother, so at this tin the hospitaler, no less wicked than Herod, gave the arm of the san saint to a base woman as the price of fornication, and by her it w sold to the merchant.

The latter, not consigning it to the ground like Herodias, but wraj ping it in purple, fled almost to the extremities of the earth and arrive at the city of Gröningen, which is situated at the entrance to Frisi There he built a house and, hiding the arm in one of the column began to grow exceedingly wealthy. One day when he was sitting his shop, some one said to him, "The city is burning and the fire now approaching your house." He replied, "I do not fear for m house, I have left a good guardian there." Nevertheless he arose an When he saw the column unmoved he returned t entered his house. his shop. All wondered what was the cause of so great confidence. When questioned about the guardian of his house, he replied ambig uously; but when he realized that his fellow-citizens noted it, fearin

lest they might employ violence against him, he took out the arm and delivered it into the care of a certain hermitess. She, unable to keep the secret, told a man of her charge, and he told the citizens. They immediately took the relics and carried them to the church. When the merchant tearfully requested his relics, they replied harshly. When they asked him of what saint these were the relics, he not wishing to betray the facts said he did not know. Nevertheless in grief he deserted the city and, falling into poverty, he became very ill not long after. When he feared death, he disclosed to his confessor what the relics were and how he had obtained them.

When the citizens learned this, they made a receptacle in the form of an arm, of silver and gilt, adorned with precious stones, and placed the relics in it. I saw the same arm two years ago and it is covered with skin and flesh. I also saw there among the relics a small gold cross of Frederick the Emperor, which had been given to the abovementioned merchant at the same time as the arm.

NOVICE: Since no one of the saints is believed to be greater than St. John the Baptist, why is it that we do not read of any miracle in his life?

MONK: So that God may show that holiness does not consist in miracles, but in right living. For after death he was illustrious by innumerable and great miracles. The aforesaid citizens, in truth, fearing for the relics of St. John, built of planks a very strong little house behind the altar, and by night they had a priest sleep in the top of it. The house was so shaken under him on the first night that he felt no slight horror. In the second night truly it struck him when asleep and hurled him onto the pavement. When one of the rulers of the city fell sick, at his request Theodoric, the priest of the church, carried the arm to his house and unwrapped it. He found the arm, as well as the purple in which it was wrapped, covered with fresh blood, He told me this with his own mouth. A priest cut off a small piece of flesh from the same arm, and when he carried it off secretly in his hand, he felt as much heat from it as if he had been carrying burning coal. Many miracles and healings indeed were wrought in that city by the same relics through the merits of St. John the Baptist.

3. MIRACLES WROUGHT BY BRIDLE FALSELY CALLED A RE Cæsar of Heisterbach, Dist. VIII, Cap. LXX. (Vol. II, p. 140.)

A certain knight loved most ardently the above-mentioned ma St. Thomas of Canterbury, and sought everywhere to obtain some of him. When a certain wily priest, in whose house he was stay heard of this he said to him, "I have by me a bridle which St. Tho used for a long time, and I have often experienced its virtues." the knight heard this, and believed it, he joyfully paid the pries money which the latter demanded and received the bridle with devotion.

V

God truly, to whom nothing is impossible, wishing to reward faith of the knight and for the honor of his martyr, deigned to many miracles through the same bridle. The knight seeing founded a church in honor of the martyr and in it he placed as a the bridle of that most wicked priest.

IV. TALES OF CONFESSION.

1. BY CONFESSION A GUILTY PRIEST ESCAPED EXPOSUR Cæsar of Heisterbach, Dist. III, Cap. II. (Vol. I, pp. 112-13.) A certain soldier dwelt in a certain village with whose wife the of the same village committed adultery. The soldier was told tha priest was carrying on an intrigue with his wife. He, since he prudent man and did not readily believe the story, wished t nothing about it to his wife or the priest, but to learn the truth fully. But he was not without some suspicion. There happen be in another village, not far distant from the one in which the s lived, a possessed person, in whom there was such a wicked d that in the presence of bystanders she revealed sins which wer cloaked by a true confession. When the soldier learned this common report he asked the priest, whom he suspected, to go certain meeting with him. And the priest promised.

When they had reached the village where the possessed one wa priest, conscious of his guilt, began to suspect the soldier, becau was not ignorant that one possessed by so wicked a demon dwelt And, fearing for his life if he was betrayed by the demon, fei some necessity, he entered a stable and throwing himself at the f you in the name of the L

hear my confession." The servant greatly terrified raised him up and heard what he had to say. After the confession had been made, the priest asked that a penance should be inflicted upon him; and the servant replied very prudently, saying, "Whatever you would enjoin upon another priest for such a crime, shall be your atonement."

And so going forth now in greater security, the priest came with the soldier to the church. There meeting the possessed one, the soldier asked, "Do you know anything about me?" For he did this on purpose to take away any suspicion that the priest might have. When the demon made some reply to him which I do not know, he added, "What do you know about that master?" The demon replied, "I know nothing about that one." And after he had said this in German, he immediately added in Latin, " He was justified in the stable." No clerk was present at the time.

NOVICE: I am sure that the devil did not speak Latin of his own free will at that time.

MONK: He was not allowed to speak German, lest the knight should understand what he said and learn the truth; and he was not permitted to be silent, in order that he might show to the priest the virtue of confession.

NOVICE: Great is the virtue of confession which blotted out the crime of adultery from the devil's memory and liberated a man from imminent peril.

MONK: I heard also the fruit of this confession. The priest, not unmindful of the benefit conferred upon him, deserted the world and became a monk in a certain monastery of our order. He is believed to be still living, as I have learned from a certain abbot of the Cistercian order.

NOVICE: The prophecy of that impudent demon was the cause of great salvation for him. *

2. THROUGH CONFESSION THE DEVIL'S RECORD BLOTTED OUT. Étienne de Bourbon, No. 176. (pp. 155-156.)

The manifold inconveniences and losses which our enemies suffer from the confession of our sins ought to incite us to confession. It destroys the devil's records. And note how, when a certain clerk was leading a most holy life so that the devil envied him, the devil by

* Cf. Cæsar of Heisterbach, III, 3; Jacques de Vitry, No. 261.

tempting the clerk caused him to fall into grievous sin. When more the devil wished to confound him, and having assumed human f had accused him before his bishop, and a day had been fixed on w the devil was to prove his charges, by bringing before the judg accounts in which were recorded the place, the time, and the per to whose knowledge the clerk had sinned, the latter, seeing tha was in hard straits, confessed all, grieving and purposing not to re to sin. When moreover they were in the presence of the judge the devil said he had much against the clerk which he could prov writing and witnesses, he unrolled his records and found all that been in them erased. He said, "All that I had against this man certainly written here this very day and I do not know who has stroyed it all." Having thus spoken, he vanished. The clerk, n over, narrated all of these things to the bishop, in the secre confession.*

3. THROUGH CONFESSION A FORGOTTEN PRAYER ERAS FROM THE DEVIL'S BOOK.

Étienne de Bourbon, No. 177. (p. 156.)

Also it is related that when a certain holy father was at one engaged with the brethren in some work and had forgotten, on ac of his occupation, to say the none at the right time, he saw the passing before him, bearing on his shoulders a very large book i He adjured the shape of a roll which looked as large as a tower.

in the name of the Lord to drop that book, and when he unrolle book, he found written on one page that he himself had not sai none on the day and at the hour when he ought to have sa Moreover, prostrating himself at once at the feet of his companion confessed his negligence, and immediately looking again in the d roll, he found that what had been written there before was erased thereby he knew the efficacy of confession.

4. A HERETIC HEALED BY CONFESSION RELAPSED AND BURNT

Cæsar of Heisterbach, Dist. III, Cap. XVII. (Vol. I, pp. 133-34.) In the same city, namely Argentina which is Strassburg, ten he When they denied their guilt, they were convict were seized. the ordeal of red-hot iron and were condemned to be burnt.

Cesar of Heisterbach, II, 10; XI, 38; Jacques de Vitry, No. 301.