The article discusses the widespread claims of churches across the globe holding pieces of the True Cross, especially during the late Middle Ages, where skepticism about these relics grew. Figures like John Calvin humorously claimed that all pieces could fill a ship or even form a forest. However, Charles Rohault de Fleury's research suggested otherwise, revealing that verified fragments constituted less than a tenth of the original volume of the True Cross, highlighting the discrepancies and controversies surrounding these revered relics.
"I have attempted to document every known relic, whether still in existence or remembered in historical records. I have calculated their volumes in cubic millimetres... Yet, all I have gathered is far from equalling even a tenth of the True Cross's estimated original volume."
"By the late Middle Ages, the number of churches claiming to possess a fragment of the True Cross was so vast—both in the East and the West—that doubt became commonplace..."
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