t of this dilemma?(145)

I shall not press them too hard by inquiring how could this head be so
divided and distributed, or how have they procured it from Constantinople?
I shall merely observe, that either St John must have been a miracle, or
that those who possess so many parts of his head are a set of the most
audacious cheats.

What is more than this, they boast at Sienna of possessing an arm of that
saint, which is contrary, as we have already said, to the statements of
all the ancient historians; and yet this fraud is not only suffered, but
even approved of, for in the kingdom of Antichrist nothing is too bad
which can serve to keep people in a state of superstition.

Another fable has been invented respecting St John the Baptist. When his
body was burnt, they say that the finger with which he had pointed out our
Lord Jesus Christ had remained whole and uninjured by the fire. Now this
story may easily be refuted by the ancient historians, because Eusebius
and Theodoret distinctly state that the body had already become a skeleton
when the Pagans burnt it; and they certainly would not have omitted the
relation of such a miracle in their histories if there had been any
foundation for it, having been but too eager to narrate such events even
as are quite frivolous. But supposing that this miracle had really taken
place, let us seek where this finger is now to be found. There is one at
Besancon in the Church of St John the Great, a second at Toulouse, a third
at Lyons, a fourth at Florence, and a fifth at St Jean des Aventures, near
Macon. Now I request my readers to examine this subject, and to judge for
themselves whether they can believe, that whilst St John's finger, which,
according to their own tradition, is the only remainder of his body, is at
Florence, five other fingers can be found in sundry other places, or, in
short, that six are one, and one is six. I speak, however, only of those
that have come to my knowledge; but I make no doubt, if a careful inquiry
were made, that one might discover half a dozen more of St John's fingers,
and many pieces of his head, besides those I have enumerated.(146)

There are many relics of another kind shown as having belonged to St John
the Baptist; as, for instance, one of his shoes is preserved in the Church
of the Carthusians at Paris. It was stolen about twelve years ago; but it
was very soon replaced by that sort of miracle never likely to cease so
long as there are sh