Even The Aged Verger Who Showed Us The Shrine, Who Was So Frail
And So Old That We Thought He
Might be a ghost escaped from some of the
mediaeval tombs in the neighborhood, never passed that pretty
white-and-
Gold chapel without sticking in his thumb and pulling out a
blessing.
A few feet from this worship-worn stone, a circle drawn on one of the
marble flags marks the spot where Santa Leocadia also appeared to this
same favored Ildefonso and made her compliments on his pamphlet. Was
ever author so happy in his subject and his gentle readers? The good
bishop evidently thought the story of this second apparition might be
considered rather a heavy draught on the credulity of his flock, so he
whipped out a convenient knife and cut off a piece of her saint-ship's
veil, which clinched the narrative and struck doubters dumb. That great
king and crazy relic-hunter, Philip II., saw this rag in his time with
profound emotion, - this tiger heart, who could order the murder of a
thousand innocent beings without a pang.
There is another chapel in this Cathedral which preaches forever its
silent condemnation of Spanish bigotry to deaf ears. This is the
Mozarabic Chapel, sacred to the celebration of the early Christian rite
of Spain. During the three centuries of Moorish domination the
enlightened and magnanimous conquerors guaranteed to those Christians
who remained within their lines the free exercise of all their rights,
including perfect freedom of worship.
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