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Comment
re: #83 ThomasLite
What about the Holy Prepuce? There were a number wandering around in the Middle Ages.
There were similar claims about the head of John the Baptist.
While Erasmus may have been (probably was) joking about pieces of the cross, he no doubt knew of the competing claims by churches with high-class relics. Remember, the Reformation started as an argument about relics. Johann Tetzel was selling indulgences on the border of Luther’s patron, Frederick the Wise, and was cutting into the monies collected by Frederick for indulgences granted by *his* great collection of relics. Luther wasn’t babbling in a vacuum.
