third she reserved for herself, to Rome. She placed the last mentioned
piece in the Sessorian Basilica, called also the Basilica of Helen,
because erected by her, in the Horti Variani: hence is derived
its title of S. Croce in Gerusalemme. On this subject additional
information may be found in the work of the late Padre De Corrieris,
De Sessorianis praecipius D.N.J.C. reliquiis, in Trombelli De cultu
SSrum and Ben. XIV. De festis. From Santa Croce a piece of the cross
was taken to S. Peter's, and is one of the relics shewn on good
friday. Even in the fourth century S. Cyril of Jerusalem testifies,
that particles of the true cross had been sent to every Christian
country.

[Sidenote: 2. of the lance.]

2. The lance also with which our divine Saviour's side was pierced,
was found by S. Helen, as the Bollandists shew: and it was preserved
in Jerusalem, as S. Gregory of Tours and our venerable Bede observe:
but towards the end of the 6th cent., the iron part of it was
transfered to Costantinople; of this the point was placed in the
imperial palace; the other part in the church of S. Sophia, and
afterwards in that of S. John. William of Tyre and Anna Comnena
mention it as existing there in the 11th and 12th centuries. Towards
the close of the 13th century the point of the lance with other
relics passed into the possession of S. Louis of France: the other
part of the lance still remained at S. John's in Constantinople,
as Buondelmount, who saw it, bears witness. When Mahomet subdued
Costantinople, he preserved all the relics, as Theodore cited by
Benedict XIV relates in his history of the Turks, and his son Bajazet
sent an ambassador with the relics of the lance to Pope Innocent VIII,
in order to induce his Holiness not to protect Zizimus, who disputed