The most impressive of the ecclesiastical ornaments in the Spanish churches was the _custodia_, or monstrance, in which the Holy Eucharist was borne through the streets on Corpus Christi day; indeed, only at this time was the custodia publicly shown. It was in fact a large shrine, generally affecting the form of a church tower. The most ancient example now in existence is in the Cathedral of Gerona. It is of gold, is 1.85 m. (over 6 feet) high, and weighs nearly 66 pounds. This work, in which the architectural style is an ornate Gothic, was completed in 1458 by the goldsmith Francisco de Asís Artau. One of the finest specimens, however, was executed by Enrique d’Arphe for Charles V and is in the Cathedral of Toledo. This _custodia_ measures no less than nine feet in height and is three feet wide. Here also the form is that of a Gothic tower; the cross at the apex was made by the goldsmith Lainez, and is adorned with 86 pearls and 4 large emeralds. The shrine itself contains 795 marks’ weight of silver (about 600 pounds), the gold in its composition weighing 57 marks, or about 38 pounds. The Venetian Navagero estimated its worth to be 30,000 ducats.[533] The wife of Marshal Junot, the celebrated Duchesse d’Abrantès, seeks to exonerate her husband and to refute the many charges of spoliation brought against him during and after the French occupation of Spain in 1808 and the succeeding years. For her, Marshal Lannes was a much worse offender, and she asserts that after the siege of Saragossa in 1809, Lannes secured possession of the immensely valuable treasures of the church of Nuestra Señora del Pilar, treasures valued at nearly $1,000,000. On his arrival in Paris, Lannes informed Napoleon that he had brought with him from Spain “a few colored stones of little value,” and was graciously told that he could keep them for himself. The finest jewel of this collection contained 1300 diamonds, nine of which were of great magnitude and value; the jewel was heart-shaped, and had in the centre a dove, typifying the Holy Spirit, with wings extended. It had been given to the church by Doña Barbara de Portugal, Queen of Spain.[534] About the year 1630 there could be seen in Paris a crucifix a foot and a half high, all of a single piece of yellow amber; on either side were the figures of the Virgin Mary and of St. John respectively, each carved in most excellent style. The writer who gives this information, a lineal descendant of Lodowyk van Berghem, commonly regarded as the first diamond-cutter, tells from hearsay evidence of a marvellous emerald which six hundred years before his time, or about 1060, hung suspended from the top of the nave of the Cathedral of Mainz. It was “as large as half-a-melon,” and was of exceeding brilliance.[535]