612 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



causes seem insufficient ; to Eginhard and his friends the super- 

 natural was the rule, and the sufficiency of natural causes was 

 allowed only when there was nothing to suggest others. 



Moreover, it must be recollected that the possession of miracle- 

 working relics was greatly coveted, not only on high but on very 

 low grounds. To a man like Eginhard, the mere satisfaction of 

 the religious sentiment was obviously a powerful attraction. But, 

 more than this, the possession of such a treasure was an immense 

 practical advantage. If the saints were duly nattered and wor- 

 shiped, 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 Lu- 

 pus, 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 worshipers. The 

 writer shows that he is anything but satisfied with the way in 

 which he has been treated by the blessed martyrs whose remains 

 he has taken such pains to " convey " to Seligenstadt, and to honor 

 there as they would never have been honored in their Roman 

 obscurity : 



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 inter- 

 vention of the martyrs has been utterly disappointed. 



We may admit, then* without impeachment of Eginhard's sin- 

 cerity, or of his honor 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 work-a-day principles of morality were disregarded ; and, a 

 fortiori, anything like proper investigation of the reality of the 

 alleged miracles was thrown to the winds. 



And if this was the condition of mind of such a man as Egin- 

 hard, what is it not legitimate to suppose may have been that of 

 Deacon Deusdona, Lunison, Hunus, and company, thieves and 

 cheats by their own confession ; or of the probably hysterical 

 nun ; or of the professional beggars, for whose incapacity to walk 

 and straighten themselves there is no guarantee but their own ? 

 Who is to make sure that the exorcist of the demon Wiggo was 

 not just such another priest as Hunus ; and is it not at least pos- 

 sible, when Eginhard's servants dreamed night after night in such . 

 a curiously coincident fashion, that a careful inquirer might have 

 found they were very anxious to please their master ? 



Quite apart from deliberate and conscious fraud (which is a 



