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THE TENTH BOOK 247 by fire. I rebuilt it larger and higher, and dedicated it in the seventeenth year after being ordained ; and in it as I learned from the old priests the reHcs of the blessed Maurice and his companions had been placed by the ancients. I found the very box in the treasury of the church of St. Martin, and in it the relics, greatly decayed, which had been brought because of their miraculous power. And while vigils were being kept in their honor I wished to visit them again by the light of a torch. And I was examining them intently when the keeper of the church said to me: Here is a stone with a cover, but I don't know what it has in it and I haven't been able to learn from my predecessors who have had charge here. Let me bring it and you look carefully to see what it con- tains." I took it and opened it of course, — and found a silver box containing relics of the witnesses of the blessed legion as well as of many saints both martyrs and confessors. We also found other stones hollow like this one, containing relics of the holy apostles and the rest of the martyrs. I wondered at this bounty divinely given and after giving thanks, keeping vigil, and saying mass, I placed them in the cathedral. I placed the relics of the holy martyrs Cosmas and Damian in St. Martin's cell close to the cathedral. I found the walls of the holy church consumed by fire and ordered skilful workmen to repaint and adorn them with their former splendor. I had a baptistery built close by the church, where I placed the relics of the holy martyrs John and Sergius, and in what had been the baptistery I placed the relics of the martyr Benignus. And in many localities in the territory of Tours I dedi- cated churches and oratories and glorified them with relics of the saints, but I think it tiresome to speak of them in order. 1 wrote ten books of Histories, seven of Miracles, one on the Lives of the Fathers ; a commentary in one book on Psalms ; one book also on the Services of the Church. And though I have written these books in a style somewhat rude, I nevertheless con- jure you all, God's bishops who are destined to rule the lowly church of Tours after me, by the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and the judgment day, feared by the guilty, if you will not be condemned with the devil and depart in confusion from the judg- ment, never cause these books to be destroyed or rewritten, selecting some passages and omitting others, but let them all continue in