Fig. 304.—Sufferers from St. Vitus’ Dance going on a Pilgrimage to the Church of St. Willibrod, Epternacht, near Luxemburg.—After a Drawing by P. Breughel (Sixteenth Century), in the Gallery of Archduke Albert, at Vienna.
It would take volumes also to describe the numerous pilgrimages in Germany, Poland, Russia, and, above all, in Belgium (Fig. 304). There, as everywhere else, the mother of our Lord always attracted to herself the most profound homage, and bestowed the greatest amount of favours upon the zealous host of her worshippers. But it is worthy of remark that these acts of devotion, so renowned and venerated in the country itself, scarcely ever extended into neighbouring countries. Belgians alone went to worship the image of the Virgin known as Notre-Dame-sous-la-Tour, in the Church of St. Peter, at Louvain, the image of Our Lady of Alzemberg, and the statue of Our Lady of Verviers; and yet the crowd of pilgrims was none the less to Our Lady of Affighem, Our Lady of Chèvremont, Our Lady of Faith, near Dinan, Our Lady of Wavre, Our Lady of Belle-Fontaine, &c.
But for the most frequented pilgrimages we must look to Hungary, where a statue of the Virgin, in limewood, found during the twelfth century on the trunk of an oak, became the famous Our Lady of Maria-Zell, which worked so many miracles throughout the Middle Ages; to Cologne, where the three Magi, beatified by the Church, were venerated; and to Trèves, where, since the fourth century, the jubilee of the Holy Robe of our Lord has been celebrated—a jubilee in which as many as a hundred thousand pilgrims a day formerly took part; and, lastly, we must mention the most renowned of those sanctuaries of Notre-Dame des Neiges (Our Lady of the Snow) which are to be met with on many mountains whose summits are covered with snow—namely, the magnificent Monastery of Einsiedeln, in Switzerland (Canton of Schwitz), which was only an unpretending oratory when Meinrad, prince of the great house of Hohenzollern, founded there the worship of Our Lady of the Hermits.
Fig. 305.—The Crown of Thorns worn by Jesus Christ, preserved at Notre-Dame, Paris.—It is composed of a ring of small reeds tied into a bundle (diameter, 21 centimetres inside); the thorns are no longer visible; it is enshrined in gold, and held together by three acanthus leaves, also in gold.—Drawn from the original by M. Rohault de Fleury.
HERESIES.
The real meaning of the word Heresy.—The Heretics of the Apostolic Days.—Simon the Magician.—Cerinthus.—The Nicolaitans.—The Gnostics.—The Schools of Philosophy of Byzantium, Antioch, and Alexandria.—Julian the Apostate.—The Pelagians and the semi-Pelagians.—Nestorius.—Eutyches.—The Iconoclasts.—Amaury.—Gilbert de la Porrée.—Abelard.—Arnold of Brescia.—The Albigenses.—The Waldenses.—The Flagellants.—Wickliff.—John Huss.—Jerome of Prague.—Luther.—Henry VIII. and the Anglican Church.—Calvin.
