The National Register.
London, England, 1816-09-09 00:00:00

DEN MARK.

CoPPNTIAGCN, Airs. 24.—From most parts of the kingdom we
hear complaints of the wet weather, which, it is feared, will
injure the harvest. Here. in Copenhagen, it has rained almost
es ery day for this tire or six weeks, hut the weather seems now
Su be getting better.

DISCOVERY OF TIIE HOLY CROSS.

The followinz is a sketch of one of the numerous lc-
gcndtu7 absurdities which, in consequence of the re-esta-
blishment of the Papal hierarchy, are again to be ha-
posed on the credulity of the i;,morant and supersti-
tious.

An article in the French Papers, dated Rome, the 6th

salt. says,
" The festival of the discovery of the Holy Cross has been
celebrated here with all the pump usually observed in the grand
solemnities of the Church. Miring the sacred office a crowded
orchestra performed a piece of music worthy of Angels. The
Dipl tic Roily. a great number of Osrdinals, all the Prelates,
. and a number of Foreigners attended mass. The Royal Family
, of Spain was also present."
The festival here alluded to was instituted in comme-
. moration of the supposed discovery by St. Helena, in the
yeai• 326, of the cross upon which our Saviour actually
suffered. Some of the Catholic fathers relate that her
• saintship, being admonished by divine visions, proceeded
to Jerusalem, where she ordered excavations to be made
amidst the ruins on the spot where the crucifixion was
.ascertained to have taken place. The workmen, after
digging to some depth, found three crosses. This eir-
eumstance occasioned considerable perplexity, as they
were afraid, to use the words of Sulpicius Severus, " lest
through human error they should consecrate the gallows
of one of the thieves instead of the cross of the Lord."
The providential passing of a funeral suggested an expe-
- dieTht for relieving them from this dilemma. Two of the
• armies were applied.to the corpse without producing any
effect, but on its. being touched by the third the dead
body instantly started into life. This latter was, of
• course, denominated the true cross, and was consecrated
with great pomp. Others of the fathers tell us, that
• the• miraule by which it was ascertained was the instan-
t tinieous recovery of a sick female upon her touching it ;
• and St. Ambrose says, that the finders were enabled to
distinguish it from the other two by the inscription on it
• remaining entire. However this may be, Si. Helena
•'is said to have carried a piece of it to her son, Constan-
tine?
the Great. A portion of this fragment was enclosed
in a statue of the Emperor, and the remainder was trans-
mitted to Rome. According to the ancient fathers, Con-
atantine also received two of the nails with which our
Lord was fixed to the cross, one of which he converted
ante a bridle-bit, and with the other he lined his diadem.
St. Gregory of Tours, however, asserts, that four of the
nails were brought to Constantine ; two of them were
superadded to his bridle-bit ; the third decorated his
helmet ; and the fourth was thrown into the Adriatic,
which has ever since been less tempestuous than it had
been in former times. By the latter end of the fourth
century, there was scarcely a church in Christendom hut
had been supplied with pieces of the true cross from Je-
rusalem, though most of them seem to have been subse-
quently lost ; but notwithstanding these incessant spo-
liation', if St. Paulinits of Nola is to be believed, the
crass sustained no diminution, being miraculously endow-
ed with a perpetual power of renovation—" quotidie di-
efidawn surneutilms, et temper totant nenerantibua." Pau-
linus himself had a chip of it seat to him by John, the
Bishop of Jerusalem, by which he extinguished an ex-
, tensive confiagration at Nola, when he found his own
habitation endangered by its progress. St. Louis, whose
festival has just been celebrated with so much eclat at
Paris. had the merit of procuring for the Gallican Church
the crown of thorns, our Saviour's robe, sword, the lance,
the sponge, and a great piece of the true cross, which he
purchased from the Emperor of the Latins. With re-
gard to the Litter article, the President I lei;zult says—
" It is believed that this fragment of the genuine cross
is the same that was brought from Jerusalem by St. he.
lena to her son, Constantine the Great." If this <pi-
nion be correct, the piece that was inclosed in Constan-
tine's statue must have been as miraculously gifted as
that which was left at Jerusalem ; for, us we above stated,
the greater part of what St. Heieua carried off was sent
• t a Rome.

The English Consul, who Was at Gram, in Barbary,
ie buppily safe at Mulaga.
_ _ _

-A iiehres of the i sth7of July from Cape Francois state,
shot two Englishoten hati hanged there by order of
Christi. Ac; but whether on account of smuggling, or for
'tidal other cal Lie, the letter does not Xueution.