Pontius Pilate at Vienne.
There is a tradition at Vienne, in Provence, that in the reign of the Emperor Tiberius, Pontius Pilate was exiled to that city, where he died not long after of grief and despair for not having prevented the crucifixion of the Saviour, and his body was thrown into the Rhone. There it remained, neither carried away by the force of the current nor consumed by decay, for five hundred years, until the town, being afflicted with the plague, it was revealed to the then archbishop, in a vision, that the calamity was occasioned by Pilate's body, which, unknown to the good people of Vienne, was lying at the foot of a certain tower. The place was accordingly searched, and the body drawn up entire, but nothing could equal its intolerable odor. It was carried to a marsh two leagues from the town and there interred, but for many years after strange noises were reported to issue continually from the place. The sounds were believed to be the groans of Pontius Pilate, and the cries of the devils tormenting him. It was imagined that it was the presence of his body which caused the violent thunder-storms which are so frequent at Vienne; and as the tower where the body was found has been several times struck by lightning, it is called the tower of Mauconseil.
The Sea-woman of Haarlem.
In the "History of the Netherlands" there is the following strange account of the Sea-woman of Haarlem:—
"At that time there was a great tempest at sea, with exceeding high tides, the which did drowne many villages in Friseland and Holland; by which tempest there came a sea-woman swimming in the Zuyderzee betwixt the towns of Campen and Edam, the which passing by the Purmerie, entered into the straight of a broken dyke in the Purmermer, where she remained a long time, and could not find the hole by which she entered, for that the breach had been stopped after that the tempest had ceased. Some country women and their servants who did dayly pass the Pourmery to milk their kine in the next pastures, did often see this woman swimming on the water, whereof at first they were much afraid; but in the end, being accustomed to see it very often, they viewed it neerer, and at last they resolved to take it if they could. Having discovered it, they rowed towards it, and drew it out of the water by force, carrying it into the town of Edam.
"When she had been well washed and cleansed from the sea-moss which was grown about her, she was like unto another woman. She was appareled, and began to accustome herself to ordinary meats like unto any other, yet she sought still means to escape and to get into the water, but she was straightly guarded. They came from farre to see her. Those of Haarlem made great sute to them of Edam to have this woman, by reason of the strangenesse thereof. In the end they obtained her, where she did learn to spin, and lived many years (some say fifteen), and for the reverance which she bore unto the signe of the crosse whereunto she had been accustomed, she was buried in the church-yarde. Many persons worthy of credit have justified in their writings that they had seene her in the said towne of Haarlem."
Legends of Judas Iscariot.
It was believed in Pier della Valle's time that the descendants of Judas Iscariot still existed at Corfu, though the persons who suffered under the imputation stoutly denied it.
When the ceremony of washing the feet is performed in the Greek Church at Smyrna, the bishop represents Christ, and the twelve apostles are acted by as many priests. He who personates Judas must be paid for it, and such is the feeling of the people, that whoever accepts this odious part commonly retains the name of Judas for life.—Hasselquiet, p. 43.
Judas serves in Brazil for a Guy Faux to be carried about by the boys. The Spanish sailors hang him at the yard-arm. The Armenians, who believe hell and limbo to be the same place, say that Judas, after having betrayed the Lord, resolved to hang himself, because he knew Christ was to go to limbo and deliver all the souls which he found there, and therefore he thought to get there in time. But the devil was more cunning than he, and knowing his intention, held him over limbo till the Lord had passed through, and then let him fall plum into hell.—Thevenot.