sonable and reflecting worshipper think of the honesty and veracity of those who tell him, by an inscription engraved in large letters at the east end of this Cathedral, that this "augustissima Basilica" contains the following relics ? "A part of our Lord's cradle, and swaddling clothes. "Item. A part of the towel with which He wiped His Disciples' feet. "Item. A part of the pillar at which He was bound and scourged; four thorns of His Crown; part of the reed with which He was struck; part of the wood of the Cross; one of the nails; part of the Soldier's spear; part of the sponge. "Item. Two teeth of Elisha. "Item. A bit of Moses' rod, &c. But I refrain, such pious frauds as these must mar the effect of the teaching of a Church, and shake men's confidence in her. nately the inscription is in Latin. Fortu Let us hope that the time is not far distant, when the Church of Milan may clear herself from such superstitions, deceits, and corrup tions as these, and may dispense the wholesome food of the Gospel to the people, in this magnificent Minster; and that the Catechetical School of S. Charles Borromeo at Milan may vie in Christian rivalry and religious emulation with that of St. Mark at Alexandria. CHAPTER VII. MILAN TO PAVIA AND GENOA. Monday, May 26.-Left Milan for Pavia and Genoa. The Churches of Pavia are very interesting, especially the Cathedral, and the Church of S. Michael. There is a sombre, severe, and stern aspect in these Churches, which, with their fabrics still unfinished, seems to connect the spectator of the present day with centuries long gone by. The Cathedral contains a beautiful specimen of fourteenth century work, commenced in A.D. 1362, as Cicognara assures us', the altartomb of S. Augustine under a canopy, adorned with more than 200 figures: some of the guidebooks speak of this tomb as containing the remains of the great African Bishop; but it is, I 1 Storia di Scultura, iii. 292. believe, only a cenotaph. However, it is very interesting, as an evidence of the veneration in which the memory of S. Augustine was held in the middle ages: and it is well that the great African Father should be thus honoured in Lombardy, where he spent some of the most eventful years of his life; and that now, when Hippo is in ruins, and there are scarcely any remains of the African Churches, their greatest Bishop and Doctor should be venerated in a Cathedral of Italy, which owes to him so much of its theological learning. Besides, although the remains of S. Augustine are not in this monument, yet there is good reason to believe that they are now at Pavia. S. Augustine died at Hippo, in Africa, Aug. 28, A.D. 430, aged seventy-six years, when that city was besieged by the Vandals. His body was buried at St. Stephen's Church at Hippo; and it was carried thence to Sardinia when Africa was overrun by Vandals and Visigoths, and the orthodox Bishops were banished by them. Some place that translation in A.D. 484; others assign a later date to it. In A.D. 710, Luitprand, King of Lombardy, recovered the remains of the great African Bishop from the hands of the Saracens, who were then masters of Sardinia, and brought them to Pavia. In A.D. 796, Charlemagne commissioned Oldrad, Archbishop of Milan, to examine the records of these translations of the remains; and the facts now stated are grounded on the Archbishop's report. In the year 1695, Oct. 1, some repairs were made in the crypt of the Church of St. Peter "in cœlo aureo" at Pavia, where the remains were believed to be; and a silver chest was found there with an inscription, it is said, in Gothic characters, of the word AGOSTINO. An account is given of this discovery by Father Montfaucon, in his Diarium Italicum, who visited Pavia at that time (p. 26). Mabillon says (Diar. Ital. p. 221), that, when he was here, it was generally believed that the body was beneath the altar of St. Peter's Church. Tillemont, in his Ecclesiastical Memoirs, seems to incline to the opinion that its place |