[Sidenote: 3. _Volto Santo_.]
3. As for the _Volto Santo_, or image of our Saviour it was placed in
an Oratory of the Vatican Basilica by John VII as long ago as 707,
as may be seen in Marlinetti, Dei pregii della Basilica Vat. Who S.
Veronica or Berenice was, who is said to have wiped our Saviour's face
with the handkerchief is another question, as Benedict XIV observes,
to whom and to Marlinetti I shall content myself with referring. It
appears that this ancient likeness of our Saviour was afterwards kept
at S. Spirito: six Roman noblemen had the care of it; and to each of
them was confided on of the six keys, with which it was locked up.
They enjoyed various privileges, and among others, says an ancient MS.
Chronicle quoted by Cancellieri, "havevano questi sei ogni anno, da
Santo Spirito, due vacche in die S. Spiritus le quali se magnavano
li con gran festa". In 1410 the _Volto Santo_ was carried back to S.
Peter's, where it has ever since remained[108].
[Sidenote: Reflections.]
The Council of Trent, in the 25th Session, teaches that veneration and
honour are due to relics of the Saints, and that they and other sacred
monuments are honoured by the faithful not without utility. We all
honour the memorials of the great, of the wise and of the brave; who
has not venerated the oak of a Tasso or the house of a Shakespeare?
While _We_ revere the relics of a Borromeo at Milan, of a Francois
de Sales at Annecy, of a Luigi Gonzaga, a Filippo Neri, a Camillo de
Lellis at Rome, others respect the chair and table of Wickliffe at
Lutterworth, or the room of Luther at Eisenach.
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