[Sidenote:  Vespers.]

Anciently on fasting days nothing was allowed to be eaten till sunset; and Vespers used therefore to be said before dinner:  now that the one meal allowed on such days may be eaten as early as noon, the ancient practice of saying Vespers before dinner is still preserved.  Vespers are therefore sung immediately after the mass of the Presanctified:  they consist of the Our Father and Hail Mary said in secret, of five psalms with their anthems, and the Magnificat with its anthem.  At the verse ‘Christ became obedient unto death’, all kneel down to adore Him, and the Miserere and the usual prayer are recited, but without the solemnity of Tenebrae[104].

[Sidenote:  Tenebrae.]

[Sidenote:  Principal relics.]

In the afternoon at Tenebrae, the office, being that of Holy Saturday anticipated as usual, refers to the repose of the body of our blessed Lord in the tomb.  When it is finished, the Pope wearing his stole, and the Cardinals having taken off their cappe, go to S. Peter’s in procession, accompanied by the Papal Anticamera segreta, the guards and others, to venerate the relics of the Cross, the Lance, and the Volto Santo, which are shewn by the Canons from the gallery above the statue of S. Veronica [105].  The Pope meantime, and the Cardinals and others arranged on each side of Him, remain kneeling.  The Pontifical cross is borne as usual before the Pope, when going to S. Peter’s by an Uditore di Rota, and when returning to His apartments by His cross-bearer who is one of His chaplains.

[Sidenote:  Grounds of belief in relics.]

Catholics are bound to believe with divine faith only those doctrines, which the church defines to be doctrines taught by God; and hence with regard to particular images or relics or miracles, concerning which Christ has taught nothing, they believe them to be genuine or reject them, according to the evidence which accompanies them.  We shall therefore briefly examine what evidence there is in favour of the relics in question.

[Sidenote:  1.  Relic of the cross.]

1.  The relic of the cross was placed here in 1629 by Urban VIII; but it was formed of some pieces taken from the churches of S. Anastasia and S. Croce in Gerusalemme.  The Jews were accustomed to bury the instruments of punishment in or near the place where the persons executed were buried; but on this subject I must content myself with referring to Baronius, Calmet, Menochius, Gretser etc. who cite the Rabbins in proof of this assertion.  Now according to the ancient historians, Eusebius, Sozomen and Socrates:  the Emperor Adrian erected a temple of Venus over the tomb of the God of purity, after he had covered it with a great quantity of rubbish.  Helen the saintly mother of the emperor Costantine, after many searches (according to Eusebius in his life of that emperor) at length discovered the sacred tomb, in