bishop, that a part of the crown of thorns was sent to a king
of France by an emperor of Constantinople, and another part was carried
off in time of war, and so on of every object of the kind, they would
shake their heads, and laugh at us! How are such differences to be
settled? In every doubtful case we can only judge by conjecture, and, in
following this out, the adherents of the Eastern Churches are sure of
success, because their claims are more probable than those of their
opponents. It is indeed a difficult point for the defenders of relics to
settle.

Finally, I beseech and exhort, in the name of God, all my readers to
listen to the truth now clearly displayed before them, and to believe
that, by God's especial providence, those who have endeavoured thus to
lead mankind astray have been rendered so blind and careless as to neglect
a proper concealment of their deceptions, but that, like Midianites having
their eyes put out, they run one against another, for we all know that
they quarrel amongst themselves, and mutually injure each other. Whoever
is not wilfully prejudiced against all reason must certainly be convinced
that the worship of relics, whether true or false, is an abominable
idolatry; yet should not this even be the case with him, he must
nevertheless perceive the evident imposture, and whatever may have been
his former devotion to relics, he must lose all courage in kissing such
objects, and become entirely disgusted with them.

I repeat what I said at the commencement of this treatise, that it would
be most important to abolish from amongst us Christians this pagan
superstition of canonising relics, either of Christ or of his saints, in
order to make idols of them; for this is a defilement and an impurity
which should never be suffered in the Church. We have already proved that
it is so by arguments, and also from the evidence of Scripture. Let those
who are not yet satisfied look to the practices of the ancient fathers,
and conform to their examples. There are many holy patriarchs, many
prophets, many holy kings, and other saints mentioned in the Old
Testament. God ordained at that time the observance of more ceremonies
than are needed now. Even funerals were performed then with more display
than at present, in order to represent symbolically the glorious
resurrection, especially as it had not then been so clearly revealed by
the Word of God as it is to ourselves.

Do we ever read in that book that