h there were no reasons to believe, but many
to doubt; for whoever admitted the reality of one of these sudaries shown
in so many places, must have considered the rest as wicked impostures set
up to deceive the public by the pretence that they were each the real
sheet in which Christ's body had been wrapped. But it is not only that the
exhibitors of this one and the same relic give each other mutually the
lie, they are (what is far more important) positively contradicted by the
Gospel. The evangelists who speak of all the women who followed our Lord
to the place of crucifixion, make not the least mention of that Veronica
who wiped his face with a kerchief. It was in truth a most marvellous and
remarkable event, worthy of being recorded, that the face of Jesus Christ
was then miraculously imprinted upon the cloth, a much more important
thing to mention than the mere circumstance that certain women had
followed Jesus Christ to the place of crucifixion without meeting with any
miracle; and, indeed, had such a miracle taken place, we might consider
the evangelists wanting in judgment in not relating the most important
facts.

The same observations are applicable to the tale of the sheet in which the
body of our Lord was wrapped. How is it possible that those sacred
historians, who carefully related all the miracles that took place at
Christ's death, should have omitted to mention one so remarkable as the
likeness of the body of our Lord remaining on its wrapping sheet? This
fact undoubtedly deserved to be recorded. St John, in his Gospel, relates
even how St Peter, having entered the sepulchre, saw the linen clothes
lying on one side, and the napkin that was about his head on the other;
but he does not say that there was a miraculous impression of our Lord's
figure upon these clothes, and it is not to be imagined that he would have
omitted to mention such a work of God if there had been any thing of this
kind. Another point to be observed is, that the evangelists do not mention
that either of the disciples or the faithful women who came to the
sepulchre had removed the clothes in question, but, on the contrary, their
account seems to imply that they were left there. Now, the sepulchre was
guarded by soldiers, and consequently the clothes were in their power. Is
it possible that they would have permitted the disciples to take them away
as relics, since these very men had been bribed by the Pharisees to
perjure themselves by s