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Article ON THE LEGEND OF THE HOLY OR SAN GRAAL; ← Page 20 of 26 →
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On The Legend Of The Holy Or San Graal;
it under the most heavy penalties ; and if any one , impious enough for doubt , wished to test the substance " by steel , or gem , or coral" or any other real or supposed touchstone , he was punishable by heaAy fines , by imprisonment , and when the scrutiny was strict , even by death . This jealousy of examination may
not , however , have been owing entirely to the sacred character of the Catino . Until Avithin about a century , not a doubt Avas ever entertained but that the relic Avas one vast oriental emerald ; as such , therefore , from its great size , even in a commercial point of view , inestimable ; and a fact mentioned in Genoese history proves this value to have been more than ideal . In 1319 the
town of Genoa AV & S closely pressed by a besieging army of Ghibellines , and in want of funds ; in the emergency , the Cardinal Duque di Fiesco was found Avilhng to advance the sum of 9 , 500 livres , equal , it is said , to 200 marks of gold , taking the sacred relic as a pawn ; which , in so high a dignitary , smacks rather of simony and profanity;—fortunatelthe town
y was pious and rich enough to redeem it , after a seven years ' bondage . Having , however , such a resource against pecuniary embarrassments , it might be not only pious but politic in the venerable fathers of the Ligurian senate to prevent the too prying scrutiny of the curious or the sceptical . Nor Avas it
Avithout reason that they Avere thus cautious ; for , alas ! the talented author of the " Travels of Anarcharsis the Younger , " M . Barthelmy , obtained a sight of the relic , on a journey into Italy in 1755 ; and the sanctified cheat could not longer stand before his scientific eye . In a letter , describing the object to Count Caylus , he mentions , that even the restricted permission
to A iew had enabled him to discern slight air-bubbles in parts of the interior , which unmistakeably proved it but a beautiful piece of glass . The Catino continued notwithstanding an object of great veneration , and the pride of Genoa , to the invasion of Ital y by Buonapartewhose indiscriminate appetite for plunderand
, , desire to heap up in Paris Avhatever had been sanctified in other countries by the respect and observance of ages , caused the sacred relic to be removed to the Louvre ; there , no longer screened by piety or locks from the inquisition of the curious or the scrutiny of the heretic , the doubts as to the material became louderand a scientific investigation was demanded and obtained
, ; but the verdict of the savans composing the commission could only be confirmatory of Barthelmy's opinion , that it was but a green pasta . When Paris , in 1815 , had to disgorge its illgotten plunder , the Sacro Catino Avas reclaimed by Sardinia ; but as if to prove by brittleness that the Paris verdict Avas
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
On The Legend Of The Holy Or San Graal;
it under the most heavy penalties ; and if any one , impious enough for doubt , wished to test the substance " by steel , or gem , or coral" or any other real or supposed touchstone , he was punishable by heaAy fines , by imprisonment , and when the scrutiny was strict , even by death . This jealousy of examination may
not , however , have been owing entirely to the sacred character of the Catino . Until Avithin about a century , not a doubt Avas ever entertained but that the relic Avas one vast oriental emerald ; as such , therefore , from its great size , even in a commercial point of view , inestimable ; and a fact mentioned in Genoese history proves this value to have been more than ideal . In 1319 the
town of Genoa AV & S closely pressed by a besieging army of Ghibellines , and in want of funds ; in the emergency , the Cardinal Duque di Fiesco was found Avilhng to advance the sum of 9 , 500 livres , equal , it is said , to 200 marks of gold , taking the sacred relic as a pawn ; which , in so high a dignitary , smacks rather of simony and profanity;—fortunatelthe town
y was pious and rich enough to redeem it , after a seven years ' bondage . Having , however , such a resource against pecuniary embarrassments , it might be not only pious but politic in the venerable fathers of the Ligurian senate to prevent the too prying scrutiny of the curious or the sceptical . Nor Avas it
Avithout reason that they Avere thus cautious ; for , alas ! the talented author of the " Travels of Anarcharsis the Younger , " M . Barthelmy , obtained a sight of the relic , on a journey into Italy in 1755 ; and the sanctified cheat could not longer stand before his scientific eye . In a letter , describing the object to Count Caylus , he mentions , that even the restricted permission
to A iew had enabled him to discern slight air-bubbles in parts of the interior , which unmistakeably proved it but a beautiful piece of glass . The Catino continued notwithstanding an object of great veneration , and the pride of Genoa , to the invasion of Ital y by Buonapartewhose indiscriminate appetite for plunderand
, , desire to heap up in Paris Avhatever had been sanctified in other countries by the respect and observance of ages , caused the sacred relic to be removed to the Louvre ; there , no longer screened by piety or locks from the inquisition of the curious or the scrutiny of the heretic , the doubts as to the material became louderand a scientific investigation was demanded and obtained
, ; but the verdict of the savans composing the commission could only be confirmatory of Barthelmy's opinion , that it was but a green pasta . When Paris , in 1815 , had to disgorge its illgotten plunder , the Sacro Catino Avas reclaimed by Sardinia ; but as if to prove by brittleness that the Paris verdict Avas