which was found, according to Sozomen, the inscription placed over the cross by Pilate, “Jesus of Nazareth, King of the Jews"[106].  Near the tomb in another part of the cave were found three crosses:  but here a difficulty arose on which of these three was our Saviour crucified?  At the suggestion of Macarius Bp. of Jerusalem, a woman at the point of death, as Ruffinus, Socrates, Theodoret, Sozomen and Nicephorus relate; or a dead man, according to Paulinus and Severus Sulpicius, was brought to the spot, and restored to health or to life, when placed on one of the three crosses.  If we consider, that it is related in the 2nd book of Kings c, XIII, that when some persons “were burying a man, they cast the body into the sepulchre of Eliseus.  And when it had touched the bones of Eliseus, the man came to life and stood up on his feet,” we may not be unwilling to admit the possibility or probability, that such a miracle may have occurred at the sepulchre of the God of Eliseus.  Besides the authors whom I have mentioned, this history is attested by S. Ambrose, S. Chrysostom, and S. Cyril of Jerusalem.  This great bishop and Eusebius lived at the time when the event is said to have happened:  the other writers lived not long after, and Ruffinus and Theodoret passed part of their lives in Syria.  The same historians mention, that S. Helen divided the Cross into three parts, one she left in Jerusalem, another she sent to Costantine, according to the author of the life of Pope Sylvester published by Pope Damasus towards the close of the 6th cent.; and the 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