Diatribe de Prodigiosis Crucibus

Trithemius on the appearance of the Crosses.

The Chronicle of Trithemius testifies to a new prodigy: Crosses appeared upon the linen garments of men, upon the undergarments and shawls of women, upon table cloths and sheets, not only on those things which were used daily, but also upon those which, locked away in chests and repositories, seemed exposed to no influence of the air; and they appeared very often upon altars and the cloths covering them. First seen in the Monastery of Sponheim and the neighboring places, they struck everyone with great fear and horror, for they were born of such a sudden genesis that, in the church, while the Salve Regina was being sung by the monks, up to thirty men who had entered the church without the signs of the Cross departed already marked with innumerable Crosses. Nor did the appearance of the Crosses cease here, for they were subsequently seen in Kreuznach and other surrounding villages, then in Mainz, Bingen, and other towns along the Rhine, and they wonderfully dismayed the minds of mortals. The Crosses were small and of a confused color, as if the cloth had been anointed with a certain fat of a mixed hue, and they could not be erased by any washing; but after the ninth or tenth day