been unfortunately mislaid, having been buried in the neighbourhood
of Noyon; he turned up every available spot of ground around, within
and beneath the church, until he found a skeleton in a tomb, with
some iron nails. This he proclaimed to be the sacred body, for
the legend was that St. Quentin had been martyred by having nails
driven into his head! Although it was quite evident to others that
these were coffin nails, still St. Eloi insisted upon regarding his
discovery as genuine, and they began diligently to dismember the
remains for distribution among the churches. As they were pulling
one of the teeth, a drop of blood was seen to follow it, which
miracle was hailed by St. Eloi as the one proof wanting. Eloi had
the genuine artistic temperament and his religious zeal was much
influenced by his æsthetic nature. He once preached an excellent
sermon, still preserved, against superstition. He inveighed
particularly against the use of charms and incantations. But he had
his own little streak of superstition in spite of the fact that he
fulminated against it. When he had committed some fault, after
confession, he used to hang bags of relics in his room, and watch
them for a sign of forgiveness. When one of these would turn oily,
or begin to affect the surrounding atmosphere peculiarly, he would
consider it a sign of the forgiveness of heaven. It seems to us
to-day as if he might have looked to his own relic bags before
condemning the ignorant.

St. Eloi died in 659, and was himself distributed to the faithful
in quite a wholesale way. One arm is in Paris. He was canonized
both for his holy life and for his great zeal in art. He was buried
in a silver coffin adorned with gold, and his tomb was said to
work miracles like the shrine of Becket. Indeed, Becket himself
was pretty dressy in the matter of jewels; when he travelled to