the lapping over that
the old phallic worship and idea has made on the new religions. It is
also as interesting to observe how the human mind still leans toward
observances and ideas which are believed to belong to a solely pagan
people. Hargrave Jennings, in a chapter devoted to phallic worship among
the ancient Gauls, gives many interesting and curious examples, the
first example that he notices being that of Saint Foutin (from whom the
very expressive French word "_foutre_" is taken). Foutin was the first
Christian bishop of Lyons, and after his death, so intimately was
priapic worship intermingled with the religion or theology of the Gauls,
that somehow the memory of St. Foutin and the old, dethroned Priapus
became commingled, and finally the former was unconsciously made to take
the place of the latter. St. Foutin was immensely popular. He was
believed to have a wonderful influence in restoring fertility to barren
women and vigor and virility to impotent men. It is related that, in the
church at Varages, in Provence, to such a degree of reputation had the
shrine of this saint risen, it was customary for the afflicted to make a
wax image of their impotent and flaccid organ, which was deposited on
the shrine. On windy days the beadle and sexton were kept busy in
picking up these imitations of decrepit and penitent male members from
the floor, whither the wind wafted them, much to the annoyance and
disturbance of the female portions of the congregation, whose devotions
are said to have been sadly interfered with. At a church in Embrun there
was a large phallus, which was said to be a relic of St. Foutin. The
worshippers were in the habit of offering wine to this deity,--after the
manner of the early Pagans,--the wine being poured over the head of the
organ and caught underneath in a sacred vessel. This was then called
"holy vinegar," and was believed to be an efficacious remedy in cases of
sterility, impotence, or want of virility.

Near the city of Bourges, at Bourg Dieu, there existed, during the Roman
occupation of Gaul, an old priapic statue, which was worshipped by the
surrounding country. The veneration in which it was held and the
miracles with which it was accredited made it impolitic as well as
impossible for the early missionaries and monks to remove it; it would
have created too much opposition. It was therefore allowed to remain,
but gradually changed into a saint,--St. Guerluchon,--which, however,
did not