Againſt this theory may be quoted the authority of St. Cyprian, St. Auguſtine, St. Gregory of Tours, Pope Innocent III., Rufinus, Theodoret, and others, who ſay four nails were uſed in the Crucifixion of our Saviour. The battle waged pictorially; but perhaps the earlieſt known repreſentation of the Crucifixion, that found in the Cemetery of St. Julian, Pope, or of St. Valentine in Via Flaminia at Rome, ought to bear moſt weight. Our Saviour is repreſented as being clothed in a long ſleeveleſs robe, which reaches to His ankles; the feet are ſeparate, and are each nailed. It is ſaid that Cimabue was the firſt to paint the feet overlapping, and one nail. His example, however, was much followed, and hence the controverſy. Of theſe nails, univerſal tradition ſays that St. Helena ſent two to her ſon Conſtantine, and, as the Golden Legend has it, “the emperour dyd do ſette them in hys brydel and in hys helme when he wente to batayle.” One can underſtand one of theſe ſacred nails being worn in the Emperour’s helmet as a preſage of victory and as a ſafeguard againſt danger, but the utility of incorporating one of ſuch priceleſs relics in a horſe’s bridle is not ſo eaſy to comprehend; but the fathers of the Church, St. Cyril of Alexandria, St. Ambroſe, Theodoret, and St. Gregory of Tours, recogniſe in it the fulfilment of the prophecy of Zecharius, chap. xiv. 20: “In that day ſhall be upon the bridles of the horſes, HOLINESS UNTO THE LORD.” This bridle, or rather bit, is now ſaid to be in exiſtence in France at Carpentras, department of Vaucluſe. How it got there is not clearly known, but probably it was taken at the time of the Cruſades—as leaden ſeals on which it is engraved exiſt, attached to parchments of the dates 1226 and 1250, and it was mentioned in an inventory of relics in the year 1322. [Illustration: ^1 The iron crown of Lombardy. ^2 The holy bridle at Carpentras. ^3 Nail at Venice. ^4 Nail at Rome in Sta. Maria in Campitelli. ^5 Nail at Arras. ^6 Nail at Colle. ^7 Nail in the Church of the Holy Croſs of Jeruſalem, at Rome. ^8 Portion of nail at Toul. ^9 Nail at Trèves.] I have reproduced it, as well as the Iron Crown of Lombardy and the nails, from M. Rohault de Fleury’s work, and, as will be ſeen, it is undoubtedly of great antiquity, cloſely reſembling the bits of the Romans. According to Boſius, who quotes Gregory Nazianzen, a third nail was thrown by St. Helena into the Adriatic Sea, in order to calm a tempeſt; and the ſame authority ſays that the fourth was depoſited in the head of a ſtatue of Conſtantine, but this militates much againſt the number of holy nails ſaid to be in exiſtence. Calvin notices this, and is down upon it with ſledge-hammer force:—