_Fabulantur ~Iudei~ ad eruderandos lapidei celerius habuisse ~Salomonem~ sanguinem vermiculi qui ~Tamir~ dicitur: quo aspersa marmora facile secabantur, quem invenit hoc modo. ¶ Erat ~Salomoni~ strutio habens pullum, et inclusus est pullus sub vase vitreo. Quem cum videret strutio, sed habere nequiret: de deserto tulit vermiculum: cuius sanguine liniuit vitrum, et fractum est._ The same Story with the very same mystical Application of it which is made by our Author, is given by _Peter Berchorius_ in his _Reductorium morale_, who quotes from _Gervase_ of _Tilbury_. This latter Writer, as we learn from _Berchorius_, took the Story from _Peter Comestor_, and being an Englishman, was most probably the immediate Source from which the Author of the Tract before us derived it, especially as _Gervase_ wrote upwards of a Century before _Berchorius_, who died in 1362. The Editor has not had an Opportunity of consulting the Work of _Gervase_ of _Tilbury_, but it is probable that _Berchorius_ has done little more than extract his Words.[105] _De struthione mirabile quid ponit ~Geruasius~, et videtur accipere de Historia Scholastica. Dicunt ~Iudæi~ (ut ait) quod cum ~Salomon~ templum ædificaret, ut lapides citius sculperentur, inclusit pullum struthionis in vase vitreo, quem cum struthio habere nequiret, ad desertum iuit, et exinde vermem qui ~Thamus~ dicitur, apportauit, cuius sanguine vitrum liniuit; fractoque statim vitro, pullum recuperauit. Quo agnito ~Salomon~ de sanguine illorum vermium lapides templi fecit liniri, et sic faciliter potuerunt imprimi vel sculpi. Idem verò ~Geruasius~ dicit ~Romæ~ in quodam antiquo palatio fialam liquore lacteo plenam, esse inuentam, quo liniti lapides facillimè sculpebantur. Talis vermis videtur fuisse ~Christus~. Pullus enim Struthionis, i. homo (qui erat per creationem pullus, et filius Dei Patris) fuerat incarceratus, et carceri culpæ et pœnæ, a mundi principio destinatus. Struthio ergo, i. Deus Pater, a deserto paradisi, vermem, i. Christum hominem factum, adduxit, et ipsum per passionem occidit, vel occidi permisit, et sic cum isto sanguine portas carceris infernalis fregit, et pullum suum hominem liberavit._ Zac. 9. _Tu autem in sanguine testamenti tui eduxisti vinctos tuos de lacu. Igitur quicunque voluerit lapidem, quicunque cor suum durum et lapideum, per contritionem scindere, et per conversationem sculpere decreuerit, adhibeat sanguinem huius vermis, i. dominicæ passionis memoriam, et liquorem lacteum memoriæ suæ benedictæ, et sic nunquam erit ita durum aut obstinatum, quin recipiat contritionis scissuram, et correctionis sculpturam._ Ezech. 36. _Auferam cor lapideum de carne vestra, et dabo vobis cor carneum._ The same Story occurs in some Copies of the _Gesta Romanorum_[106], where the Artifice by which the Worm “_thumare_,” (as it is there called,) was detected, is ascribed to the Emperor _Diocletian_ of _Rome_. See _Swan’s_ Translation of the _Gesta Romanorum_, vol. 1. Introd. p. lxiv.