Page:Omniana 2.djvu/193

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OMNIANA.
183

opening the box there issued out a stench so abominable that it was not to be borne, and the whole Chapel was infected with it. The bishop ordered that the relicaries should be taken out in order that he might carefully examine the cause of so strange an accident; this was done, and they soon discovered the mystery, for they found a case from which this pestilential odour proceeded; there was in it a piece of cloth with this inscription, "Relics of Martin Luther's Breeches,"..which the Lutheran preachers in mockery of our piety, had placed among the sacred relics. These abominable remains of the Heresiarch were burnt by command of the bishop, and then not only did the stink cease, but there issued from the sacred relics a most sweet perfume, which filled the whole chapel."

This story is certainly ben trovato. If the authenticity of the relic had not been established beyond all controversy