From the following facts an inference may be drawn of the tendency of
the Western church to a system of externals, applying itself solely to
continual discipline and fasting, instead of the improvement of the
heart. For the perusal of the sacred writings and spiritual lessons of
the ancient fathers of the church, was substituted that of legends and
decretals, and the Book of Canons, by which the whole Western church was
governed. Images and relics of the saints acquired an excessive
adoration; and continual discoveries were being made of the bodies of
miracle-working saints. Impostors were to be found, appearing every day
under new names and with fresh miracles, imposing on the credulity of
the public, and amassing wealth by defrauding the pious multitude. Some
of these impostors, too insolent in their practices, were discovered and
punished, whilst others derived from them their whole fortune and
subsistence. It went to such a pass, that an arm of St. Augustine was
found and sold to William, Duke of Aquitaine, for 100 talents. The head
of St. John the Baptist was dug up, and attracted an immense multitude
of spectators, amongst whom was Robert, King of France.[3]

[3] "One head of St. John the Baptist (for there are many, and
John was at last [Greek: ekaton ta kephalas],) was found at the
monastery of St. John of Angeli, at Saintange."--_Jortin's
Remarks on Eccles. Hist._ ann. 1010.

The principal supporters of this religious mania were the Crusaders;
that is to say, those persons who went on a pilgrimage to Jerusalem.
These persons, on their return to their own country, finding all their
substance exhausted, exerted their utmost cunning to regain it;
pretending that they had found some relics of the ancient martyrs or
apostles, or some object relative to the life or death of our Saviour.