the lengths reached
by Christian churches and their followers in some particulars concerning
this rite; this being especially strange when it is considered that the
new creed was the one that abolished the rite and through which the Jews
suffered such cruel and unjust persecutions. The early Christian Church
celebrated and continues to celebrate the Feast of Circumcision, and
history relates some strange events in connection with this
circumcision. Having abolished and repudiated the rite, it would seem
inconsistent that it should celebrate its performance on any occasion
and consider such an event sufficiently memorable that its occurrence
should excite the veneration of the church and be the means of exciting
the pious zeal of the faithful. The strangest events in this connection
are still more mysterious and incomprehensible, if not amusing, the only
excuse for the occurrence being the greedy thirst for relics of any and
all kinds that in the middle ages pervaded Europe.

At some remote period--in the thirteenth or fourteenth century--the
abbey church of Coulombs, in the diocese of Chartres, in France, became
possessed in some miraculous manner of the holy prepuce. This holy
relic had the power of rendering all the sterile women in the
neighborhood fruitful,--a virtue, we are told, which filled the
benevolent monks of the abbey with a pardonable amount of pride. It had
the additional virtue of inducing a subsequent easy delivery, which also
added to the reputation and pardonable vanity of the good monks. This
last virtue, however, we are told, came near causing the loss to the
abbey of this inestimable prize, for, as a French writer observes, a too
great reputation is at times an unlucky possession; at any rate, the
royal spouse of good and valiant King Henry V--he of Agincourt, whom
England waded up to its knees in the sea at Dover to meet on his return
from that campaign--had followed the example of all good dames and was
about to give England an heir. Henry then governed a good part of
France. Having heard of the wonderful efficacy of the relic of Coulombs,
he early one morning threw the good monks into consternation by the
arrival at the convent gate of a duly equipped herald and messenger from
his kingship, asking for the loan of the relic with about as much
ceremony as Mrs. Jones would ask for the loan of a flat-iron or saucepan
from her neighbor, Mrs. Smith. The queen, Catherine of France, was of
their own co