OF THE ROMAN EMPIRE 437 anxious to snatch the prize from the Venetians^ and to vest it with more honour and emohiment in the hands of the most Christian king.^* Yet the negotiation was attended with some dehcacy. In the purchase of reHcs, the saint would have started at the guilt of simony ; but, if the mode of expression were changed, he might lawfully repay the debt, accept the gift, and acknowledge the obligation. His ambassadors, two Domini- cans, were dispatched to Venice, to redeem and receive the holy crown, which had escaped the dangers of the sea and the galleys of Vataces. On opening a wooden box, they recognised the seals of the doge and barons, which were applied on a shrine of silver ; and within this shrine the monument of the Passion was inclosed in a golden vase. The reluctant Venetians yielded to justice and power; the emperor Frederic granted a free and honourable passage ; the court of France advanced as far as Troyes in Champagne, to meet with devotion this inestimable relic ; it was borne in triumph through Paris by the king him- self, barefoot, and in his shirt ; and a free gift of ten thousand marks of silver reconciled Baldwin to his loss. The success of this transaction tempted the Latin emperor to offer with the same generosity the remaining furniture of his chapel ; ^^ a large and authentic portion of the true cross ; the baby-linen of the Son of God ; the lance, the spunge, and the chain, of his Passion ; the rod of Moses ; and part of the scull of St. John the Baptist. For the reception of these spiritual treasures, twenty thousand mai-ks were expended by St. Louis on a stately foun- dation, the holy chapel of Paris, on which the muse of Boileau has bestowed a comic immortality. The truth of such remote and ancient relics, which cannot be proved by any human testimony, must be admitted by those who believe in the miracles which they have performed. About the middle of the last age, an inveterate ulcer was touched and cured by an holy prickle of the holy crown : ^'^ the prodigy is attested by the ^ For the translation of the holy crown, &c. from Constantinople to Paris, see Ducange (Hist, de C. P. 1. iv. c. 11-14, 24, 35), and Fleury (Hist. EccWs. torn, xvii. p. 201-204).
- • Melanges tir^s d'une grande Bibliothfeque, torn, xliii. p. 201-205. The
Lutrin of Boileau exhibits the inside, the soul and manners of the Sainfe Chapelle ; and many facts relative to the institution are collected and explained by his com- mentators, Brossette and de St. Marc. ^ It was performed A.D. 1656, March 24, on the niece of Pascal; and that superior genius, with Arnauld. Nicole, <&€. were on the spot to believe and attest a miracle which confounded the Jesuits, and saved Port Royal (Oeuvres de Ra- pine, tom. vi. p. 176-187, in his eloquent History of Port Royal).
