Marx, Jakob. History of the Robe of Jesus Christ, preserved in the Cathedral of Tréves. By J. Marx, Professor in the Great Seminary. To which is added An Account of the Miraculous Cures performed by the said Robe, During its public Exhibition from 18th August, to the 6th October, 1844. Approved by His Lordship, the Bishop of Treves. Translated from the French, with Notes. Philadelphia: James M. Campbell, 1845. First Edition. [12375]
Removed, no wrapper, 7 1/4 x 4 3/4, a bit edge-tattered, 119 pp., faint dampstain to the inner margin of the first few leaves. Good. Pamphlet.
"The exhibition of the holy robe...was a bold attempt to revive the slumbering energies of superstition and fanaticism, and to rivet more securely upon a people, who are awakening to a proper appreciation of the gospel of Christ, the chains which have been forged at Rome, and in which the vassals of the Eternal City have been bound for more than a thousand years...The shameless exhibition of the holy tunic in the nineteenth, like the equally shameless sale of indulgences in the sixteenth century, has caused thousands of honest Germans to hang their heads for very shame, that a religion tolerating, nay, more - even propagating so monstrous a fraud upon human credulity, should constitute the basis for their eternal hope." - p. 3.
The anonymous translator believed that this translation into English of the Roman Catholic history of the holy robe supposedly worn by Jesus Christ at his crucifixion would be enough to disgust the honest Protestant regarding the claims of that religion.
