[88] The doctrine of the Assumption of the Virgin Mary, gave rise to some curious doubts respecting the authenticity of the Virgin's hair. Ferrand, the Jesuit, states the arguments to the contrary with candor; but replies to them with laudable firmness. The passage is a whimsical specimen of the style and reasoning of the schools:--"Restat posteriore loco de capillis Deiparæ Virginis paucis dicere, enimverò an illi sint jam in terris!--Dubitationem aliquam afferre potest mirabilis ipsius anastasis, et in coelum viventis videntisque assumptio triumphalis.--Quid ita?--quid si intra triduum ad vitam revocata, si coelis triumphantis in morem invecta, si corpore gloriâ circumfuso Christo assidet? _Quidquid Virgineo capiti crinium inerat hand dubiè cælis intulit_, ne quid perfectæ ac numeris omnibus absolutæ ipsius pulchritudini deesse possit. Næ ille in politiori literaturâ imo et in rebus humanis omnino peregrinus sit qui ignoret quantum ad muliebrem formam comæ conferat pulchritudo ... ne singulas Marianæ pulchritudinis dotes persequar, ejus ima cræaries de quâ, agimus tantæ fuit venustatis ut mysticus ipsius Sponsus blandè querulus exclamare cogatur, _vulnerasti cor meum in uno crine colli tui_.... Nænias igitur occinere videtur qui Deiparæ capillos in terris relatos esse memoret atque adeo servari obfirmatè asseveret, cùm illos tantum ad redivivæ Virginis speciem conferre constet.--Non efficiet tamen unquam hæc _Antidicomarianitæ_ fabula, quin credam bene multos ex aureâ Dei Genitricis cæsarie crines, diversis in locis ecclesiisque religiosè servari.... Meæ fidei non unum est argumentum; nam a primâ ætate ad confectam usque, e Marianâ comâ non pancos, ut fit, capillos pecten decussit, nisi si fortè cæsariem B. Virginis impexam semper perstitisse velis, quòd numquam (ut inquit de Christo Diva Brigitta) super eam venit vermis, aut perplexitas, aut immunditium. At sine causâ multiplicari miracula quis æquo animo feret?--Ubi vero Genetrix e vitâ discessit, quàm sollicitè pollinctrices auream illam Marianæ comæ segetem demessuerunt, quàm in sacris suis tunc hierothecia reconderent ad memoriam tantæ Imperatricis, et ad suæ consolationis et pietatis argumentum: quòd si fortè totam funditùsque a pollinctricibus, Deiparæ reverentissimis, demessam cæsariem ferre nec possis nec velis, extremes saltem illius cincinnos attonsos fuisse feres ab piissimis illis fæminis, quibus vel perexiguus Dei Genitricis capillus ingentis thesauri loco futurus etat."--_Disquisitio Reliquiaria_, l. 1. cap. II. [89] _Description Historique de l'Eglise de Notre Dame de Rouen_, p. 83. [90] The event is described in the metrical history of Rouen, composed by a minstrel ycleped _Poirier, the limper_. This little tract is a _chap-book_ at Rouen: most towns, in the north of France and Belgium, possess such chronicle ballads in doggerel rhyme, which are much read, and eke chaunted, by the common people.