horough and marvellous as it had seemed to him at
the time, declared under his hand that 'he was obliged
to confess that God alone had the power to produce an
effect so sudden and extraordinary.'"[51]

Mackay gives the following account of the distribution of relics about
the middle of the nineteenth century: "Europe still swarms with these
religious relics. There is hardly a Roman Catholic Church in Spain,
Portugal, France, or Belgium, without one or more of them. Even the
poorly endowed churches of the villages boast the possession of
miraculous thighbones of the innumerable saints of the Romish
calendar. Aix-la-Chapelle is proud of the veritable _chasse_, or
thighbone of Charlemagne, which cures lameness. Halle has a thighbone
of the Virgin Mary; Spain has seven or eight, all said to be undoubted
relics. Brussels at one time preserved, and perhaps does now, the
teeth of St. Gudule. The faithful who suffered from the toothache, had
only to pray, look at them, and be cured."[52]

The miracles performed at the tomb of the Deacon Paris in the cemetery
of St. Medard are of comparatively recent occurrence, and well
attested. For example, we have the case of "la demoiselle Coirin,"
which, to say the least, is out of the ordinary. "In 1716," says
Dearmer, "this lady, then aged thirty-one, fell from her horse;
paralysis and an ulcer followed; by 1719 the ulcer was in a horrible
condition; in 1720 her mother refused an operation preferring to let
her die in peace. In 1731--after fifteen years of an open breast--she
asked a woman to say a novena at the tomb of Francois de Paris, to
touch the tomb with her shift, and to bring back some earth. This was
done on August 10th; on the 11th she put on the shift and at once felt
improved; on the 12th she touched the wound with the earth and it at
once began to heal. By the end of August the skin was completely
healed up, and on September 24th she went out of doors."[53]

Among the most noted relics at the present time are the Holy Coat of
Treves,[54] the Winding-sheet of Christ at Besancon, and the Santa
Scala at Rome. The last are said to be the steps which Jesus ascended
and descended when he was brought before Pontius Pilate, and are held
in great veneration. It is sacrilegious to walk upon them; the knees
of the faithful alone must touch them, and that only after they have
reverently kissed them. Cures are still performed by all these relics.

The two shrines at present be