ON AN ALABASTER SCULPTURE. 87 



ecclesias vulgo leguntur omittenda non arbitror ' (Ibid. p. 58). 

 From the account of Paulus Diaconus, we gather that as S. 

 Gregory was once giving the Holy Communion, at Mass, to the 

 people, he found that a Roman lady, by her smiling at the words 

 ' the Body of Christ,' applied to the Sacrament, had doubts of 

 transubstantiation. Upon this, the Pontiff withheld the out- 

 stretched particle from this matron, and carried it to the altar, 

 whereon he laid it. Then, begging all the people to join with him 

 in entreating that God would show to the eyes of the flesh what 

 this woman ought to have beheld with the eye of faith, he threw 

 himself upon his knees and prayed. On arising, and lifting up the 

 corporal, or linen cloth which had been spread over the particle of 

 the Sacrament, there was to be seen by everyone present, a part of 

 a human finger trickling with blood. After telling this lady that 

 God, by the power with which He wrought all things out of nothing, 

 changes bread and wine into flesh and blood through the prayers 

 of the Catholic Church, S. Gregory besought that the Sacrament 

 might take its usual shape and look ; which it did, and was then 

 administered to this same woman : — 



'" Mulieri dixit (S. Gregorius Papa) Disce, inquam, veritate vel 

 modo jam credere contestanti : panis, quem ego do, caro mea est ; 

 et sanguis meus vere est potus. Sed praescius conditor noster 

 infirmitatis nostrae, ea potestate qua cuncta fecit ex nihilo, et 

 corpus sibi ex carne beatiosimae Virginis Marise, operante sancto 

 Spiritu, fabricavit, panem et vinum aqua mixtum, manente propria 

 specie, in carnem et sanguinem suum, ad Catholicam precem, ob 

 reperationem nostram, Spiritus sui sanctificatione convertit.' " — 

 ( Vita S. Gregorii Papa, a Paulo Diacono, circa a.d. 757, op. S. 

 Greg. t. iv. p. 10, c. xxiii.) 



" This miracle may often be met with figured in old English 

 Churches, but especially in our Salisbury missals, under the 

 representation of Christ with all the instruments of His Passion 

 about Him, on an altar, whereon He is seen standing three parts 

 out of His grave, crowned with thorns, and showing His wounded 

 hands to Pope S. Gregory and his deacon and sub-deacon, all 

 three kneeling at the foot of the altar; while, amid the crowd 



