ary, and tears of
St. Peter, were also to be had, carefully enclosed in little caskets,
which the pious might wear in their bosoms. After the tears, the next
most precious relics were drops of the blood of Jesus and the martyrs,
and the milk of the Virgin Mary. Hair and toe-nails were also in great
repute, and were sold at extravagant prices. Thousands of pilgrims
annually visited Palestine in the eleventh and twelfth centuries, to
purchase pretended relics for the home market. The majority of them
had no other means of subsistence than the profits thus obtained. Many
a nail, cut from the filthy foot of some unscrupulous ecclesiastic,
was sold at a diamond's price, within six months after its severance
from its parent toe, upon the supposition that it had once belonged to
a saint or an apostle. Peter's toes were uncommonly prolific, for
there were nails enough in Europe, at the time of the Council of
Clermont, to have filled a sack, all of which were devoutly believed
to have grown on the sacred feet of that great apostle. Some of them
are still shown in the cathedral of Aix-la-Chapelle. The pious come
from a distance of a hundred German miles to feast their eyes upon
them."[28]

While some of these relics enumerated by Mackay seem to be such
apparent frauds that none could credit them, they were surpassed in
audacity by one offered for sale at a monastery in Jerusalem. Here
was presented to the prospective buyers one of the fingers of the Holy
Ghost.[29]

In addition to the popular relics already noted, an extensive and
lucrative trade was carried on in iron filings from the chains with
which, it was claimed, Peter and Paul were bound. These filings were
deemed by Pope Gregory I as efficacious in healing as were the bones
of saints or martyrs.[30]

[Illustration: CURE THROUGH THE INTERCESSION OF A HEALING SAINT]

As an example of healing at shrines in early days, I will reproduce
Bede's description of a cure effected at the tomb of St. Cuthbert in
698. "There was in that same monastery a brother whose name was
Bethwegan, who had for a considerable time waited upon the guests of
the house, and is still living, having the testimony of all the
brothers and strangers resorting thither, of being a man of much piety
and religion, and serving the office put upon him only for the sake of
the heavenly reward. This man, having on a certain day washed the
mantels or garments which he used in the hospital, in the sea, was
re