Ruprecht's hoped
might infuse some religious notions into the wild, ignorant
mountaineers.
First however Christina gladly entered the church. Crowded though it
were, it was calmer than the busy scene without. Faded old tapestry
was decking its walls, representing apparently some subject entirely
alien to St. John or the blessed hermit; Christina rather thought it
was Mars and Venus, but that was all the same to every one else. And
there was a terrible figure of St. John, painted life-like, with a
real hair-cloth round his loins, just opposite to her, on the step of
the Altar; also poor Friedmund's bones, dressed up in a new serge
amice and hood; the stone from Nicaea was in a gilded box, ready in
due time to be kissed; and a preaching friar (not one of the monks of
St. Ruprecht's) was in the midst of a sermon, telling how St. John
presided at the Council of Nicaea till the Emperor Maximius cut off
his head at the instance of Herodius--full justice being done to the
dancing--and that the blood was sprinkled on this very stone,
whereupon our Holy Father the Pope decreed that whoever would kiss
the said stone, and repeat the Credo five times afterwards, should be
capable of receiving an indulgence for 500 years: which indulgence
must however be purchased at the rate of six groschen, to be bestowed
in alms at Rome.
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