archangel says must be true. Therefore, if
anything seem to be wrong, that must be the mistake of the
transmitter; and, in justice to the archangel, it must be suppressed
or set right. This sort of "reconciliation" is not unknown in quite
modern times, and among people who would be very much shocked to be
compared with a "benighted papist" of the ninth century.

The readers of this essay are, I imagine, very largely composed of
people who would be shocked to be regarded as anything but enlightened
Protestants. It is not unlikely that those of them who have
accompanied me thus far may be disposed to say, "Well, this is all
very amusing as a story, but what is the practical interest of it? We
are not likely to believe in the miracles worked by the spolia of SS.
Marcellinus and Petrus, or by those of any other saints in the Roman
Calendar."

The practical interest is this: if you do not believe in these
miracles recounted by a witness whose character and competency are
firmly established, whose sincerity cannot be doubted, and who appeals
to his sovereign and other contemporaries as witnesses of the truth of
what he says, in a document of which a MS. copy exists, probably
dating within a century of the author's death, why do you profess to
believe in stories of a like character, which are found in documents
of the dates and of the authorship of which nothing is certainly
determined, and no known copies of which come within two or three
centuries of the events they record? If it be true that the four
Gospels and the Acts were written by Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John,
all that we know of these persons comes to nothing in comparison with
our knowledge of Eginhard; and not only is there no proof that the
traditional authors of these works wrote them, but very strong reasons
to the contrary may be alleged. If, therefore, you refuse to believe
that "Wiggo" was cast out of the possessed girl on Eginhard's
authority, with what justice can you profess to believe that the
legion of devils were cast out of the man among the tombs of the
Gadarenes? And if, on the other hand, you accept Eginhard's evidence,
why do you laugh at the supposed efficacy of relics and the
saint-worship of the modern Romanists? It cannot be pretended, in the
face of all evidence, that the Jews of the year 30 A.D., or
thereabouts, were less imbued with the belief in the supernatural than
were the Franks of the year 800 A.D. The same influences were at work