Then there is the famous story of the "revelation of the bones of St.
Remigius." When Pope Leo IX was on one of his famous tours throughout
Europe preaching the reform movement that culminated in Gregory VII's
papacy, he was to translate the bones of St. Remigius from his old church
to a new crypt. Instead, he detoured the procession and laid the bones on
the high altar. Then he declared before the assembled clergy of France that
the bones would reveal who had bought or sold an ecclesiastical office, who
had a wife and so on. It was said that many of the clergy found that they
were struck dumb when they attempted to lie, others rushed to repent at the
pope's feet, while others quietly left the synod. And thus we are told was
the reform of the church of France accomplished.
John Wickstrom
Kalamazoo College
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