Note 022
The relics of St. Augustin were carried by the
African bishops to their Sardinian exile, (A.D. 500;) and it
was believed, in the viiith century, that Liutprand, king of
the Lombards, transported them (A.D. 721) from Sardinia to
Pavia. In the year 1695, the Augustan friars of that city
found a brick arch, marble coffin, silver case,
silk wrapper, bones, blood, &c., and perhaps an inscription of
Agostino in Gothic letters. But this useful discovery has
been disputed by reason and jealousy, (Baronius, Annal. A.D.
725, No. 2 - 9. Tillemont, Mem. Eccles. tom. xiii. p. 944.
Montfaucon, Diarium Ital. p. 26 - 30. Muratori, Antiq. Ital.
Medii Aevi, tom. v. dissert. lviii. p. 9, who had composed a
separate treatise before the decree of the bishop of Pavia,
and Pope Benedict XIII.)
The History Of The Decline And
Fall Of The Roman Empire
—Fall In The East
—Chapter 41