A splendid ecclesiastical ornament is described in the inventory of the royal treasures in the Château de Fontainebleau made in 1560, on the accession of Charles IX. This was of gold and composed of a crucifix with the figures of the Virgin Mary and St. John. It was “enriched with 41 sapphires, 3 pointed diamonds and 12 balas-rubies,” which served to mark the nails in the cross. The weight of the gold was 25 marks 5 ounces, and the value of the entire object, gold and precious stones, is given as 2720 écus, or about $6120. The intrinsic value of the gold alone would be about $4240.[[532]]
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]]
The writer of a Bohemian poem on the legend of St. Catherine’s betrothal to Christ, written about 1355, appears to have been, in one part, inspired by the glowing adornment of the Wenceslaus chapel in the cathedral of St. Veit. The poet gives an enthusiastic description of the gorgeous ornamentation of the mystic, imaginary temple in which the betrothal takes place. The pavement is of aquamarine beryl, the walls are studded with diamonds in golden settings, the framework of the windows is alternately of emerald or of sapphire, and the window-panes are not of stained glass, but of precious or semi-precious stones. Some of these are not ill fitted for this use, the transparency of rubies, amethysts, spinels, jacinths, garnets, and similar stones, admitting quite sufficient light; but others mentioned here, such as turquoises, chalcedonys and jaspers, would permit but a dim ray of light to traverse their opaque or semi-opaque substance. It has been conjectured by some that the poet drew his material from the account of the temple of the Holy Grail in the old German legend, probably through a Bohemian version; but as he omits in his enumeration twelve of the stones given in the Grail legend, and adds a number of others, diamond, turquoise, chalcedony, garnet, etc., this literary source is not fully satisfactory. Rather might it be believed that the splendid decoration of the Wenceslaus chapel and of the Karlstein Castle suggested the vision wrought out by the Bohemian poet, especially as among the stones he mentions which are not in the Grail legend, we have the garnet, so eminently a product of Bohemia.[[536]]
A peculiar and very interesting facetted diamond of 6³⁄₃₂ carats displays alternate black and white facets and presents the appearance of a clearly defined Greek cross in black outline when viewed by transmitted light. The original crystal, which came from Brazil and weighed 10½ carats, was an octahedron and was of a jet black hue. The expectation was that the result of its cutting would be the production of a black brilliant, but when one of the points of the octahedron had been removed to form the table, it became evident that the black tint was only superficial, the body of the crystal being white. This peculiarity was then utilized by leaving some of the natural black faces of the crystal. This diamond was found to be of excessive hardness, rendering the task of cutting it an exceedingly arduous one. It is now in the possession of one of the Royal Household of Siam.[[537]]
Among the Buddhist legends current in India in the seventh century A.D. is one referring to the vases offered by the “four kings of heaven” to the Buddha. They first brought four gold vases, but the Buddha declared that one who had renounced the world could not use such costly vases. Silver vessels were then substituted, and were also refused, as were successively vases made of rock-crystal, lapis lazuli, carnelian, amber, ruby and other precious materials. Finally, four stone vases were proffered. These were of violet color and transparent, but the fact that they were not of precious material rendered them acceptable to the Buddha.[[538]]
The images of Buddha usually bear as adornment a small gem. This is most frequently a moonstone, but occasionally a ruby or some other gem will be used. The reason for this religious use of gems must not be sought only in the idea that precious and costly objects are most fitting as decorations of the sacred images, but it also implies a certain belief in the magic or quasi-sacred character of the gem itself.
The Saddharma-Pundarîka, one of the nine most sacred books of the Buddhists, composed perhaps as early as the beginning of our era, gives the following description of a celestial stûpra, a sort of shrine containing a celestial being:[[539]]