Closely connected with saint-worship was the universal use of sacred relics and a belief in their miraculous power. The dominant interest of popular piety circles around the saints and their relics. The relics in the church were the greatest treasure of the community, and the reliquary was the choicest ornament of the private room of the lady, in the knight's armory, in the king's hall, and in the bishop's palace. The use of relics and images developed comparatively early in the life of the Church.[379:2] By the time of Constantine the practice was common and approved by the Fathers. In fact, so wild were the people of the West for relics that imperial law had to prohibit the cutting of the corpses of martyrs into pieces for sale.[380:1] The great Ambrose refused to consecrate a church which had no relics. When the Pantheon was dedicated by Pope Boniface IV. twenty-eight cartloads of bones of martyrs were transferred to that building from the various cemeteries.[380:2] The seventh œcumenical council of Nicæa (787) forbade bishops to dedicate a church without sacred relics under penalty of excommunication. Traffic in relics became a regular business. St. Augustine reproved the wandering monks for selling bogus relics. Gregory the Great refused to send relics of St. Paul to the Empress of Constantinople, yet he very jealously distributed the filings of the chain of St. Peter. The relics increased until western Europe was full of them and every community had miracle-working wonders--the products of excessive piety, fraud, and credulity. All Christians believed in relics for it was an impious thing to doubt. The wood of the true cross "grew into a forest"; the nails were very numerous; at Sens was found the rod of Moses; at Aachen the swaddling clothes of Jesus; at other points a feather plucked from the wing of the angel Gabriel, the tears of Jesus, the milk of the Virgin, the emblems of the Passion, a piece of wood from the temple which St. Peter intended to build on the Mount of Olives; and the bones, hair, teeth, and garments of saints without number. These relics were employed to convert the heathen,[380:3] to heal diseases, to ward off danger,[380:4] to punish the wicked, to protect the innocent, and to bring good luck and general blessing.