: Principal relics.]

In the afternoon at Tenebrae, the office, being that of Holy Saturday
anticipated as usual, refers to the repose of the body of our blessed
Lord in the tomb. When it is finished, the Pope wearing his stole,
and the Cardinals having taken off their _cappe_, go to S. Peter's in
procession, accompanied by the Papal _Anticamera segreta_, the guards
and others, to venerate the relics of the Cross, the Lance, and the
_Volto Santo_, which are shewn by the Canons from the gallery above
the statue of S. Veronica [105]. The Pope meantime, and the Cardinals
and others arranged on each side of Him, remain kneeling. The
Pontifical cross is borne as usual before the Pope, when going to S.
Peter's by an _Uditore di Rota_, and when returning to His apartments
by His cross-bearer who is one of His chaplains.

[Sidenote: Grounds of belief in relics.]

Catholics are bound to believe with divine faith only those doctrines,
which the church defines to be doctrines taught by God; and hence with
regard to particular images or relics or miracles, concerning which
Christ has taught nothing, they believe them to be genuine or reject
them, according to the evidence which accompanies them. We shall
therefore briefly examine what evidence there is in favour of the
relics in question.

[Sidenote: 1. Relic of the cross.]

1. The relic of the cross was placed here in 1629 by Urban VIII; but
it was formed of some pieces taken from the churches of S. Anastasia
and S. Croce in Gerusalemme. The Jews were accustomed to bury the
instruments of punishment in or near the place where the persons
executed were buried; but on this subject I must content myself with
referring to Baronius, Calmet, Menochius, Gretser etc. who cite the
Rabbins in proof of this assertion. Now according to the ancient
historians, Eusebius, Sozomen and Socrates: the Emperor Adrian erected
a temple of Venus over the tomb of the God of purity, after he had
covered it with a great quantity of rubbish. Helen the saintly mother
of the emperor Costantine, after many searches (according to Eusebius
in his life of that emperor) at length discovered the sacred tomb, in
which was found, according to Sozomen, the inscription placed over the
cross by Pilate, "Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews"[106]. Near the
tomb in another part of the cave were found three crosses: but here a
difficulty arose on which of these three was our Saviour crucified?
At the suggestion of Mac