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Benham, William, 1831-1910

"Old St. Paul's Cathedral"

Paul were taken down because they were decayed and dangerous, and
a new cross, with a ball well gilt, was erected; and many relics of
divers saints were for the protection of the aforesaid campanile and
of the whole structure beneath, placed within the cross, with a great
procession, and with due solemnity, by Gilbert the bishop, on the
fourth of the nones of October; in order that the Omnipotent God and
the glorious merits of His saints, whose relics are contained within
the cross, might deign to protect it from all danger of storms. Of
whose pity twenty-seven years and one hundred and fifty days of
indulgence, at any time of the year, are granted to those who assist
in completing the fabric of the aforesaid church."
[Illustration: A BISHOP PLACING RELICS IN AN ALTAR.
_From a Pontifical of the Fourteenth Century. British Museum, Lans._
451.]
[Illustration: A PAPAL LEGATE.
_From the Decretals of Boniface VIII. British Museum_, 23923.]

In the Bodleian Library there is an inventory of these relics, amongst
them part of the wood of the cross, a stone of the Holy Sepulchre, a
stone from the spot of the Ascension, and some bones of the eleven
thousand virgins of Cologne.


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