Roderick, the last of the Goths : $b A tragic poemSouthey, Robert
General
Roderick, the last of the Goths : $b A tragic poem
Southey, Robert
Roderick, King of the Visigoths, -711? -- Poetry
exhibited this Holy Relic on the day of Santiago, in the year of our
Redeemer 1572, in order that I might bear a more complete relation of the
whole to the King our Lord, I having at that time undertaken this sacred
journey by his command.
“Another chest, with a covering of crimson and brocade, contains a good
quantity of bones, and some pieces of a head; which, although they are
very damp, have a most sweet odour, and this all we who were present
perceived, when they were shown me, and we spoke of it as of a notable
and marvellous thing. The account which they of the church give of this
holy body is, that it is that of St. Serrano, without knowing any thing
more of it. I, considering the great dampness of the sacred bones believe
certainly that it was brought up to the Camara Santa from the church of
Leocadia, which, as it has been seen, is underneath it. And there, in
the altar, the great stone-chest is empty, in which King Alonso el Casto
enclosed many relics, as the Bishop Sampyro writes. For myself I have
always held for certain, that the body of St. Leocadia is that which is
in this rich chest. And in this opinion I am the more confirmed since the
year 1580, when such exquisite diligence has been used by our Spaniards
in the monastery of St. Gisleno, near Mons de Henao in Flanders, to
verify whether the body of St. Leocadia, which they have there, is
that of our Saint. The result has been, that it was ascertained beyond
all doubt to be the same; since an authentic writing was found of the
person who carried it thither by favour of one of our earliest kings,
and he carried it from Oviedo without dispute; because, according to my
researches, it is certain that it was there. Now I affirm, that the king
who gave part left part also; and neither is that which is there so much,
that what we saw at Oviedo might not well have been left, neither is this
so much but that which is at Mons might well have been given.
“In the church below, in a hollow made for this purpose, with grates, and
a gate well ornamented, is one of the vessels which our Redeemer Jesus
Christ filled with miraculous wine at the marriage in Galilee. It is of
white marble, of an ancient fashion, more than three feet high, and two
wide at the mouth, and contains more than six _arrobas_. And forasmuch as
it is in the wall of the church of K. Alonso el Casto, and all the work
about it is very ancient, it may be believed that the said king ordered
it to be placed there.”—_Coronica General de Espana_, l. 13. b. 40.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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