V WITNESS TO THE MIRACULOUS 181 



duly flattered and worshipped, there was no 

 telling what benefits might result from their 

 interposition on your behalf. For physical evils, 

 access to the shrine was like the grant of the use 

 of a universal pill and ointment manufactory; 

 and pilgrimages thereto might suffice to cleanse 

 the performers from any amount of sin. A letter 

 to Lupus, subsequently Abbot of Ferrara, written 

 while Eginhard was smarting under the grief 

 caused by the loss of his much -loved wife Imma, 

 affords a striking insight into the current view of 

 the relation between the glorified saints and their 

 worshippers. The writer shows that he is any- 

 thing but satisfied with the way in which he has 

 been treated by the blessed martyrs whose re- 

 mains he has taken such pains to " convey " to 

 Seligenstadt, and to honour there as they would 

 never have been honoured in their Eoman ob- 

 scurity. 



It is an aggravation of my grief and a reopening of my wound, 

 that our vows have been of no avail, and that the faith which 

 we placed in the merits and intervention of the martyrs has 

 been utterly disappointed. 



We may admit, then, without impeachment of 

 Eginhard's sincerity, or of his honour under all 

 ordinary circumstances, that when piety, self- 

 interest, the glory of the Church in general, and 

 that of the church at Seligenstadt in particular, 

 all pulled one way, even the workaday principles 

 of morality were disregarded; and, a fortiori, 



