here in the 11th and 12th centuries. Towards
the close of the 13th century the point of the lance with other
relics passed into the possession of S. Louis of France: the other
part of the lance still remained at S. John's in Constantinople,
as Buondelmount, who saw it, bears witness. When Mahomet subdued
Costantinople, he preserved all the relics, as Theodore cited by
Benedict XIV relates in his history of the Turks, and his son Bajazet
sent an ambassador with the relics of the lance to Pope Innocent VIII,
in order to induce his Holiness not to protect Zizimus, who disputed
with him the succession to the Turkish throne. The Pope received it
with great reverence, and placed it in the Vatican. As some suspicion
was entertained about the veracity of the Turkish ambassador, Benedict
XIV, as he mentions in his very learned work on the Canonisation
of the Saints, from which I have extracted this account, sent for
an exact cast of the point preserved at Paris, which perfectly
corresponded with the piece preserved in the Vatican; and thus were
confirmed the assertion of the Turk[107].

[Sidenote: 3. _Volto Santo_.]

3. As for the _Volto Santo_, or image of our Saviour it was placed in
an Oratory of the Vatican Basilica by John VII as long ago as 707,
as may be seen in Marlinetti, Dei pregii della Basilica Vat. Who S.
Veronica or Berenice was, who is said to have wiped our Saviour's face
with the handkerchief is another question, as Benedict XIV observes,
to whom and to Marlinetti I shall content myself with referring. It
appears that this ancient likeness of our Saviour was afterwards kept
at S. Spirito: six Roman noblemen had the care of it; and to each of
them was confided on of the six keys, with which it was locked up.
They enjoyed various privileges, and among others, says an ancient MS.
Chronicle quoted by Cancellieri, "havevano questi sei ogni anno, da
Santo Spirito, due vacche in die S. Spiritus le quali se magnavano
li con gran festa". In 1410 the _Volto Santo_ was carried back to S.
Peter's, where it has ever since remained[108].

[Sidenote: Reflections.]

The Council of Trent, in the 25th Session, teaches that veneration and
honour are due to relics of the Saints, and that they and other sacred
monuments are honoured by the faithful not without utility. We all
honour the memorials of the great, of the wise and of the brave; who
has not venerated the oak of a Tasso or the house of a Shakespeare?
While _We_ revere