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| Further Acts of Jugglery on the Part of Marcus.
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Chapter XXXV.—Further Acts of Jugglery on the Part of
Marcus.
And this (Marcus), infusing (the aforesaid)
mixture into a smaller cup, was in the habit of delivering it to a
woman to offer up the Eucharistic prayer, while he himself stood by,
and held (in his hand) another empty (chalice) larger than that.
And after his female dupe had pronounced the sentence of
Consecration,731
| 731 Or,
“had given thanks.” | having received
(the cup from her), he proceeded to infuse (its contents) into the
larger (chalice), and, pouring them frequently from one cup to the
other, was accustomed at the same time to utter the following
invocation: “Grant that the inconceivable and ineffable
Grace which existed prior to the universe, may fill thine inner man,
and make to abound in thee the knowledge of this (grace), as She
disseminates the seed of the mustard-tree upon the good
soil.” And simultaneously pronouncing some such words as
these, and astonishing both his female dupe and those that are present,
he was regarded as one performing a miracle; while the larger was being
filled from the smaller chalice, in such a way as that (the contents),
being superabundant, flowed over. And the contrivance of this
(juggler) we have likewise explained in the aforesaid (fourth) book,
where we have proved that very many drugs, when mingled in this way
with liquid substances, are endued with the quality of yielding
augmentation, more particularly when diluted in wine. Now, when
(one of these impostors) previously smears, in a clandestine manner, an
empty cup with any one of these drugs, and shows it (to the spectators)
as if it contained nothing, by infusing into it (the contents) from the
other cup, and pouring them back again, the drug, as it is of a
flatulent nature, is dissolved732
| 732
ἀναλυομένου:
some read ἀναδυομένου,
which is obviously untenable. |
by being blended with the moist substance. And the effect of this
was, that a superabundance of the mixture ensued, and was so far
augmented, that what was infused was put in motion, such being the
nature of the drug. And if one stow away (the chalice) when it
has been filled, (what has been poured into it) will after no long time
return to its natural dimensions, inasmuch as the potency of the drug
becomes extinct by reason of the continuance of moisture.
Wherefore he was in the habit of hurriedly presenting the cup to those
present, to drink; but they, horrified at the same time, and eager (to
taste the contents of the cup), proceeded to drink (the mixture), as if
it were something divine, and devised by the Deity.733
| 733
[Here was an awful travesty of the heresy of a later day which
introduced “the miracle of Bolsena” and the
Corpus-Christi celebration. See Robertson, Hist.,
vol. iii. p. 604.] | E.C.F. INDEX & SEARCH
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