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course Milan protested furiously but it was not until the 20th century
that small portions of them were returned.

Relics also became an important tool in evangelism. As missionar-
ies were sent into di?erent part of the world, along with the scriptures,
liturgical books and holy images, they took with them relics. Saint
Gregory the Great, writing in 601 to the missionary St Mellitus, who
became the ?rst Bishop of London since the Roman period, gave him
instructions on how he was to convert the heathen English:

“The temples of the idols ought not to be destroyed; but let
the idols that are in them be destroyed; let holy water be
made and sprinkled in the said temples, let altars be
erected, and relics placed… And because they have been
used to slaughter many oxen in the sacri?ces to devils, some
solemnity must be exchanged for them on this account, as
that on the day of the dedication, or the nativities of the
holy martyrs, whose relics are there deposited.”16

So the cult of the saints spread, with their relics.
The veneration of relics was endorsed by the Second Council of
Nicea in 787, which ordered that relics must be placed in all churches.
This led to further translations and divisions of relics as the demand
increased.
In Rome itself the reluctance to dig up and move the relics of
saints was eventually overcome, partly by the fact that the rest of the
world was doing it, and partly from the fact that the cemeteries of
Rome, outside the city walls, were no longer secure from invasion.
Many of the relics of martyrs were removed form the insecure cata-
combs and brought into the city to be enshrined in churches17. In many
cases the relics were enshrined beneath the altar, in a crypt or confessio, a
practice which became the norm, so that the Eucharist was always cele-
brated in connection with the remains of saints. This makes the same

16 Bede, History of the English Church and People
17 Freeman, op. cit., p76

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