The sons of Geoffroi de Charny, about the year 1388, obtained
permission from the Papal legate to restore this relic of their
father’s to the church of Liré, and the canon exposed it in front of
the pulpit, surrounding it with lighted tapers, but the bishop of
Troyes, Peter d’Arcy, prohibited this exhibition under pain of
excommunication. They afterwards obtained from the king, Charles
VI., an authorization to worship the _holy sudarium_ in the church
of Liré. The bishop upon this repaired to court, and represented to
the king that the worship of the pretended sheet of Jesus Christ was
nothing less than downright idolatry, and he argued so effectually
that Charles revoked the permission by an edict of the 21st August
1389.
Geoffroi de Charny’s sons then appealed to Pope Clemens VII., who
was residing at Avignon, and he granted permission for the holy
sudarium to be exhibited. The bishop of Troyes sent a memorial to
the Pope, explaining the importance attached to this so-called holy
relic. Clemens did not, however, prohibit the sudarium to be shown,
but he forbade its being exhibited as the _real_ sudary of Jesus
Christ. The canons of Liré, therefore, put aside their sudary, but
it reappeared in other places, and after being shown about in
various churches and convents it remained at Chambery in 1432, where
nobody dared to impugn its reality. From that time its fame
increased, and Francis I., king of France, went a pilgrimage on
foot, the whole way from Lyons to Chambery, in order to worship this
linen cloth. In 1578 St Charles Borromeo having announced his
intention of going on foot to Chambery to adore the holy sudary, the
Duke of Savoy, wishing to spare this high-born saint the trouble of
so long a pilgrimage, commanded the relic to be brought to Turin,
where it has since remained, and where the miracles performed by it
and the solemn worship paid to it, may be considered as a proof that
its authenticity is no longer doubted.
There are about six holy sudaries preserved in other churches,
besides the pieces shown elsewhere.
136 Calvin, speaking of the silver pieces for which Judas betrayed our
Lord, does not say where they are shown. Two of them are preserved
in the Church of the Annunciation at Florence, one in the Church of
St John of the Lateran, and another in that of the Holy Cross at
Rome. There is one piece at the Church of the Visitandine Convent at
Aix in Provence besides many other places where they are
displayed.—_Collin de Plancy, Dictionaire des Reliques._
137 The whole skeleton of the animal is preserved at Vicenza, enclosed
in an artificial figure of an ass.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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