[26] This church has a remarkable history connected with its foundation. The tradition relates that in the dark ages some sacrilegious soldier had robbed a church in the neighborhood of its holy vessels of gold and silver. In the vessel in the Tabernacle there happened to be a consecrated wafer. The soldier journeyed on to Turin to dispose of his plunder, when, on arriving at the spot on which the church now stands, the wafer is said to have ascended miraculously to some distance above the soldier’s head, while at the same time the mule he rode, being imbued with more religious piety than his master, reverently knelt down on his front legs. The holy wafer was now encircled by a halo of shining light; this, with the kneeling donkey and the soldier raining blows on the pious animal, while he himself was unconscious of the presence of the host above him, attracted the attention of the populace, who apprehended the soldier, on whom the stolen vessels were found. The bishop in his pontificial robes, in solemn procession, received the consecrated wafer, which promptly descended into pious hands. The donkey was adopted by the bishop and the soldier was promptly hanged, in accordance with the general treatment of thieves in those days. The writer has more than once seen a flagstone inclosed within a railing that occupies the central spot of the floor or pavement of the church, it being the identical spot on which the donkey knelt.
[27] Rush’s “Medical Inquiries,” vol. i, page 217.
[28] Fothergill. “Gout in its Protean Aspects,” page 158.
[29] “Philosophy of Magic,” from the French of Eusebe Salverte, vol. ii, page 143.
[30] “Dictionaire des Sciences Médicales.” Cullerier. Article, Phimosis. Vol. xli.
[31] Bergmann has gone into this subject at length, and the writer has drawn freely from his brochure on “Castration and Eunuchism,” reprinted from the “Archivio per le Traditione Populaire” of 1883.
[32] “The Hermit.” By the Rev. Charles Kingsley. See Introduction.
[33] “Dictionaire des Sciences Médicales,” vol. liv, page 570.
[34] Ibid., page 567.
[35] Ibid., page 570.