Omniana/Volume 2/Limbo
236. Limbo.
Fray Luys de Escobar (Las 400, p. 2, ff. 41,) says that the souls which were in limbo, and came out with Christ, did not rise with him; for St. John the Baptist was there, and came out, and yet did not rise from the dead, because his head is upon earth at this day; whereas if the Resurrection had taken effect in him, and he had actually ascended into Heaven with the Messiah, it is perfectly clear that his head could not have been now upon earth as a relic. . . A cogent argument, sans doubt: and yet methinks somebody might have accommodated him with a head till the general Resurrection, without any inconvenience. Fray Luys knew that a leg had been lent in this way, which is surely sufficient authority for such an opinion. The leg in question was taken from a dead negro, who received in exchange the incurable limb of a white cripple: the operation, which far exceeds that of Talicotius, was performed by the Saints Cosmes and Damian, and one of the eight hundred questions propounded to the oracular friar, was concerning the sound leg, to which of the parties it was finally to belong.