the most beautiful, perhaps, of all the poetic scenes which this festival presented was when some of the pilgrims embarked on the Moselle, and floated down that charming river, without sails or oars, with their banners and sacred symbols all displayed, and making the air resound with their hymns.

Soon after passing the monument I came in sight of Treves. The four towers of its Cathedral could be discerned, grouped together in the distance, in the middle of the valley whose fortunate situation and rich fertility was once the boast of the Treviri, and afterward induced the Romans to establish there one of the great centres of their power.

Crossing the bridge, whose piers of basalt bear evidence to the Cyclopean labour of Roman builders, I entered the city, whose crowded streets had an air of life which this decayed town but seldom exhibits. To supply the wants of this new influx of population, booths had been erected in many places. On some of these tradesmen displayed their merchandise, others were devoted to refreshments of all sorts, but the greater part were appropriated to the sale of medallions, rosaries, rings, books, and engravings, all having reference to the Holy Tunic. It may be imagined how difficult it was to obtain a lodging among such a host of strangers; but, having at length succeeded, I sallied forth, and joined the motley crowd which thronged around the Cathedral.

CHAPTER VIII.

History of the Robe of Jesus Christ, preserved in the Cathedral at Treves.

THE Cathedral of Treves claims to have possessed, since the fourth century, the Sacred Robe of Christ, the "inconsutilis tunica Domini," "the coat without seam, woven from the top throughout." Its guardians believe that it was made by the Virgin herself for her divine offspring, according to the custom of the Hebrew women, who used to employ themselves in weaving garments for their husbands and children. Other persons, whose faith or credulity exceeds the ordinary limit, assert that, by a constant miracle, this garment grew with the growth of our Redeemer. He must have worn it, then, not only at his crucifixion, but also during the whole of his life. It was by touching the hem of this robe that the sick were made whole, and from it celestial radiance was diffused when Christ was transfigured upon the high mountain, when "his face did shine as the sun, and his raiment was white as the light."

Among the vast number of relics which are objects of veneration to the Roman Catholic world, it is hardly to be doubted but that some few are, in the strictest sense of the word, authentic. From a natural and praiseworthy sentiment, men love to preserve memorials of those whom fortune or merit

has elevated above their fellows.

The sword of

the hero, the manuscript of the scholar, all the articles of daily use which have passed through their hands, are jealously guarded, and long viewed with interest by posterity. How much more, then, should the disciples of the Greatest among men, the First of all Creation, treasure up with care whatever could remind them of so exalted a personage. That they should have done so is certainly extremely probable; and the reverence with which these memorials were regarded, and their consequent careful preservation, would have naturally increased from age to age, from generation to generation, as the events which they commemorated became more and more remote.

The question of the efficacy of relics is one altogether different. That subject has been long since exhausted, and the opinions which divide the world with respect to it are well known. The Sacred Robe of Treves may be what it is assumed to be, without possessing the smallest real efficacy either to work evident miracles, or to produce a salutary influence upon the heart, or to purify the guilty soul from evil, and absolve it from its just punishment. Let us examine, now, on what foundation the name given to this garment rests.

The clothes worn by the Jews consisted of a mantle, which was nothing more than a large square piece of white or purple cloth thrown over the shoulders, and of a shirt or tunic made of linen or cotton, with long and wide sleeves, which was

worn next to the skin, and descended below the knees. It was often made of a single tissue, without seam; such, as we are informed by St. John, was the tunic, or "coat," as it is translated, of our Lord, and such is the appearance of that which was shown at Treves. At the Crucifixion, "the soldiers, when they had crucified Jesus, took his garments, and made four parts, to every soldier a part; and also his coat: now the coat was without seam, woven from the top throughout. They said, therefore, among themselves, Let us not rend it, but cast lots for it, whose it shall be; that the Scripture might be fulfilled, which saith, They parted my raiment among them, and for my vesture they did cast lots. These things, therefore, the soldiers did."

What

It appears, therefore, that it was the mantle of Jesus which the executioners divided among themselves as it was simply a piece of cloth, the four parts which were thus made could be afterward employed to some good purpose; but the tunic would have been rendered useless by such a proceeding. They therefore cast lots for it. became of it afterward is altogether unknown. The firmest believers in the identity of the Robe at Treves with that which was worn by our Saviour on the day when he sealed his mission with his blood, have here to resort to probabilities. The verse of St. John which follows those I have already cited, states that "there stood by the cross of Jesus his mother and his mother's sister, Mary

the wife of Cleophas, and Mary Magdalene." John himself was also present. What can be more likely, then, say they, than that one of these should have, eagerly and at any price, redeemed from the grasp of a brutal soldier this garment of their Lord. Such a supposition is, in fact, extremely probable, but it is, at the same time, entirely unsusceptible of proof; and the difficulty becomes greater when we learn that an equal obscurity involves the very existence of the Sacred Tunic for the space of 300 years, until the Empress Helena visited Palestine in the year 326, retracing with pious steps the holy places, and searching for relics to quicken the faith of proselytes at home. Her zealous labours were crowned with success. She discovered the place of the Crucifixion, the Holy Sepulchre, the Cross, the Title of the Cross, and the Holy Nails. The Robe without seam, the mystic symbol of the indivisibility of the Church, was among the number of her acquisitions, and upon her return she is said to have presented it to the Church of Treves. This donation is unsupported by any contemporary document, and here, again, probabilities only are adduced to enforce the truth of the tradition. Treves ranked at that time as Queen and mistress of all the churches on this side the Alps," and in its neighbourhood the empress had been born, according to one account, and had certainly passed some years of her life. Moreover, it was near this city that the luminous cross in the heav