A Sacred Relic.

Evening Star, Issue 7254, 4 July 1887, Page 4

A Sacred Relic.

A correspondent sends to 'Notes and Queries ’ what he believes to be a correct translation of the sentence pronounced by Pontius Pilate on Christ. He says that this curious document was discovered in A.D. 1280, in the city of Aquill, in the Kingdom of Naples, in the course of a search made for the discovery of Roman antiquities, and it remained there until it was found by the Commissaries of Art in the French Army of Italy. Up to the time of the campaign in Southern Italy it was preserved in the sacristry of the Carthusians, near Naples, where it was kept in a box of ebony. Since then the relic has been kept in the Chapelo Caserta, The Carthusians obtained, by petition, leave that the plate might be kept by them as acknowledgment of the sacrifice which they had made for the French Army. The French translation was made literally by members of the Commission of Art. Denon had a fac-simile of the plate engraved, which, on the sale of his cabinet, was bought by Lord Howard for 2,890fr: “ Sentence pronounced by Pontius Pilate, Intendant of Lower Galilee, that Jesvs of Nazareth shall suffer death by the cross. In the seventeenth year of the reign of the Emperor Tiberius, and on the 25th of March, in the most holy city of Jerusalem, during the pontificateof Annasand Caiaphas, Pontius Pilate, Intendant of the province of Lower Galilee, sitting in judgment in the presidential chair of the Praitor, sentences Jesvs of Nazareth to death on a cross, between two robbers, as the numerous testimonies of the people prove that: (1) Jesvs is a misleader. (2) He has excited the people to sedition. (3) He is an enemy to the law. (4) He calls himself the Son of God. (5) He calls himself falsely the King of Israel. He went to the Temple followed by a multitude carrying palms in their hands. It likewise orders the first centurion, Qutrilius Cornelius, to bring him to the place of execution, and forbids all persons, rich or poor, to prevent the execution. The witnesses who have signed the execution against Jesvs are (1) Daniel Robani, a Pharisee; (2) John Zorobabel, (3) Raphael Robani, (4) Capet, Finally he orders that the said Jesvs be taken out of Jerusalem through the gate of Tournea.”