THE HUGUENOTS IN FRANCE 41 



as the popular education of that day did not include 

 Greek or Hebrew, the Gospels remained safely hidden 

 from the French people. 



Sunerstition flourished in the soil prepared by im- superstition 



, 1 ■ ^ 1- • r~f J Without 



morality and ignorance. The worship of a living God Limit 

 was swallowed up in reverence for the relics of saints 

 and for pictures and statues of them. There seemed to 

 be no limit to the popular credulity, and the grossest de- 

 ceptions aroused no suspicions among the faithful. In 

 one church the hair of the Virgin was to be seen, in an- 

 other the people were accustomed to worship the sword 

 of the archangel Michael, in still another the veritable 

 stones with which St. Stephen was killed were carefully 

 preserved. Indeed there were enough of these stones in 

 the churches of France to furnish sufficient material for 

 a respectable wall, just as there were so many crowns of 

 thorns as to lead one to believe that a whole hedge must 

 have been used in the making of them. St. Dionysius' 

 body lay in state at Eatisbon as well as at Saint Denis, 

 but he was no more fortunate in this respect than the 

 other saints, most of whom could boast of having two or 

 three bodies; and much less so than the apostles, who 

 were all credited with having at least foui- bodies apiece, 

 besides numerous and seemingly unnecessary duplicate 

 finger and toe joints. The extreme to which this wor- 

 ship of relics was carried may be seen from the following 

 partial list of the treasures of the Sainte Chapelle in 

 Paris : the crown of thorns, Aaron's rod that budded, 

 the great crown of St. Louis, the head of the holy lance, 

 one of the nails used in our Lord's crucifixion, the tables 

 of stone, some of the blood of Christ, the purple robe, 

 and the milk of the Holy Virgin. 



But the superstitions fostered by the church were not 

 confined to a belief in marvellous relics. The people Popular 

 were stimulated to fresh zeal and increased contributions ""^ " ' ^ 

 by means of miracles which caused great amazement 

 eveiywhere except in the minds of the ingenious priests 



