With regard to the rest of the head, its top, from the forehead to the
back part, was at Rhodes, and I suppose must now be at Malta, at least the
knights boast that the Turks had restored it to them. The back of the head
is at St John’s Church at Nemours, the brains at Nogent le Rotrou, a part
of the head is at St Jean Maximin, a jaw is at Besançon, a portion of a
jaw is at St John of the Lateran, and a part of the ear at St Flour in
Auvergne. All this does not prevent Salvatierra from possessing the
forehead and hair; at Noyon they have a lock of the hair, which is
considered to be very authentic, as well as that at Lucca, and many other
places.
Yet in order to complete this collection, we must go to the monastery of
St Sylvester at Rome, where the whole and real head of St John the Baptist
will be shown to us.
Poets tell us a legend about a king of Spain who had three heads; if our
manufacturers of relics could say the same of St John the Baptist, it
would greatly assist their lies; but as such a fable does not exist, how
are they to get out of this dilemma?(145)
I shall not press them too hard by inquiring how could this head be so
divided and distributed, or how have they procured it from Constantinople?
I shall merely observe, that either St John must have been a miracle, or
that those who possess so many parts of his head are a set of the most
audacious cheats.
What is more than this, they boast at Sienna of possessing an arm of that
saint, which is contrary, as we have already said, to the statements of
all the ancient historians; and yet this fraud is not only suffered, but
even approved of, for in the kingdom of Antichrist nothing is too bad
which can serve to keep people in a state of superstition.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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