Chapter IV: An Inch of Fringe (5)

One of the most Christian and sympathetic authors of France (in a department in which it must be confessed she does not excel—poetry), Alphonse de Lamartine, was both in his youth and in his old age the victim of poverty. Though in his childhood his poverty was not absolutely sordid, like that of many a scholar as talented and even as well born, still it was such that his mother had to exercise the strictest economy on her small property, to help her peasant-servants in many a lowly household task, and was in such straits that the failure or success of her slender vintage was to her the chief event of the year. A noble woman, a Christian Cornelia, she knew how to turn these troubles into lessons for her son; and a more genial, lovable “great man” than Lamartine has seldom claimed our homage, notwithstanding the foibles which necessarily qualify our admiration. Political and diplomatic success gave him far different prospects in middle life. His poems were the first heralds, the joy-bells, of a new school; his name was a talisman. But the shadow of genius—relentless poverty—fell upon him again, and his last days were little better than a pauper’s.

The literary world of Paris presents the acme of this combination—squalor and talent. Dramatists, poets, painters, musicians, the smaller fry of the daily press, the heavier authors of yellow-covered _romans_, all mingled in one inextricable _bohemia_ of distress, of recklessness, of generosity, of self-sacrifice. Good and bad are strangely interwoven; the starving writer stints himself to help the dying artist, or the swaggering playwright repudiates his debts to gamble away in one night the rare remuneration of months of toil; and amid the confusion, the din of this assemblage, amid this fellowship of misery, remains the seemingly eternal truth that the path of scholarship, or even its counterfeit, is _not_ the legitimate path of success.

In France, where the intellect is so fertile that it is almost the only land where literature is a profession, not a pastime, we may turn to one figure more, a sweet and angelic one, very different from the stormy and erratic geniuses among whom we have been wandering—Eugénie de Guérin, the Catholic poetess, the devoted type of sisterly love. She was poor, though not to destitution. The family, once famous among the Languedoc Crusaders, and owning a great feudal estate, had dwindled down to the possession of a patrimony hardly so large and not half so rich as a modern farm. The woman now known throughout Europe and America by her exquisite _Journal_ and _Letters_—the starting-point of a new class of domestic literature—tells us simply and playfully enough in those writings—which during life she never dreamed of giving to the public—of her humble avocations in her father’s household. Now we see her, having cooked the supper with her sister’s aid while the servants were all gone to an instruction for confirmation, sitting by the huge fire in the kitchen, because it was warm there, and making a hearty meal of coarse soup, boiled potatoes, and a cake baked by herself, “with the dogs and cats to wait upon us,” as she says. She did not like these household cares, however; they were a cross to her, and her good sister “Mimi” took much of this cross off her hands. Another day she has been washing, but she consoles herself with the thought of Homer’s Nausicaa washing her brother’s tunics. Once, when she was lifting a heavy cauldron from the kitchen fire, her father tenderly said he did not like to see her doing such work; but she answered with a smile that S. Bonaventure was found washing the dishes after the refectory meal when the Papal deputation came to offer him the cardinal’s hat! So she taught herself to do “disgusting things without feeling disgust; as, for instance, blackening her hands in the kitchen.” Another time she makes a hasty note of her affection for her brother and her unconquerable longing after solitude, but adds that she has no time for it now, “as there are ducks to be plucked, a pie to be prepared, a little carnival-dinner got up; in a word, because the parish priest was coming, and her help was anxiously waited for in the kitchen”; while another day she is mending old house-linen. On the other hand, she was reading S. Augustine, S. Jerome, S. Teresa, Bossuet, Fénélon, Plutarch, books of theology and philosophy, mysticism and morals, the works of great thinkers; she was writing poems of more exquisite purity and wealth of imagery than the famous young brother whom Sainte-Beuve and George Sand declared one of the foremost poets of the day: she was a child in her simplicity, a saint in her abnegation—a woman in a thousand. We have dwelt with the greater emphasis and satisfaction on this last reference for the reason that the modern world, in its haste to find countenance for its license in thought and morals, has brought into prominence only the less worthy specimens of French genius, to the neglect of the many admirable writers who are now for the first time, becoming familiar to English readers.

This strangely mingled thread of life which we have illustrated in these pages has its pathetic as well as its ludicrous aspect. Men are constantly complaining of the “injustice” of God in making inequalities among them; if they looked a little deeper, they would see that what they call inequalities are compensations. The world has to be ballasted like a ship; the heaviest merchandise is not always the most precious, but it is none the less necessary. It would be preposterous to expect _all_ men to be rich, good, and clever; gifts balance each other in God’s plan, and, since men sigh so for riches, the wise Distributor of earthly prizes has answered many men literally, and given them riches alone, leaving their brains a blank. To discuss this vexed question is not, however, our intention; a few examples, such as we have drawn from real life, speak for themselves, and facts are ever more tolerated than disquisitions. We may learn from those facts a new interest in books; we may remember, when we read a new work, that a human being’s life is sewed in with those pages; that what we carelessly toss aside after a moment’s perusal has cost hours of trouble, of research, probably of privation; that the pathos that draws tears from our eyes is often transcribed and softened down from the actual experience of the writer; while the humor we approve of and the piquancy we admire are rather born of bitter defiance against an adverse fate than grown from the natural soil of a healthy sense of fun. A book is often the hot-pressed fruit of an unhappy life rather than the product of elegant leisure, and one cannot help feeling a tender but far from disparaging pity for the thousands of educated men and women whose very talent, in a sense, compels them, through circumstances of privation, to write in haste and anxiety books that are inadequate representatives of that talent.

NEW PUBLICATIONS.

THE S. AUGUSTINE SERIES: I. On the Trinity; II. Harmony of the Evangelists, and the Sermon on the Mount. Edinburgh: T. & T. Clark. (New York: Sold by The Catholic Publication Society.)

These two volumes continue the series of patristic translations edited so carefully and published in such splendid style by the firm of Clark, at Edinburgh. The publication and perusal of long and entire works of the fathers, especially S. Augustine, must have a most happy effect in promoting the cause of the Catholic faith. We notice with especial pleasure the volume on the Trinity. This is one of the greatest works of S. Augustine. His argument is wonderfully exhaustive and conclusive, wonderfully sublime and devout, wonderfully rich in the exposition of Holy Scripture. It is also very plain and intelligible to a patient and attentive reader when the peculiar difficulties of the Latin style have been overcome. In this translation, the structure and meaning of the sentences and phrases are made very plain, and one reads with a pleasure and facility much enhanced by the clearness and beauty of the page. We recommend this translation to all who wish for a very valuable help to the rendering of S. Augustine in the original, as well as to those who desire to become acquainted with his doctrine, and can only do so through the medium of their own language.

A LIFE OF S. WALBURGE; WITH THE ITINERARY OF S. WILLIBALD. By the Rev. Thomas Meyrick, S.J. London: Burns & Oates. 1873. (New York: Sold by The Catholic Publication Society.)

All who love the mediæval saints, and particularly those of once Catholic England, will find a delicious treat in this simple story. Besides the life and death of S. Walburge, an account is given of

the miraculous oil that “distils from the coffer in which her relics are enclosed in her church of Eichstadt.” Cures are wrought by this oil to-day. We happen to know personally of one—the instant and final cure of a case of S. Vitus’ dance by a drop of the oil received on the patient’s tongue, after a novena and communion in the saint’s honor.

The “Journey of S. Willibald to the Holy Land,” which forms the second half of the little volume, was written at Heidenheim about the year 760. “It is interesting,” says F. Meyrick, “as confirming, by the testimony of an eye-witness a thousand years since, the Catholic traditions of some disputed localities, and as a specimen of a nun’s composition in the VIIIth century.”

THE QUESTION OF ANGLICAN ORDINATIONS DISCUSSED. By E. E. Estcourt, M.A., F.S.A., Canon of S. Chad’s Cathedral, Birmingham. With an Appendix of Original Documents and Fac-similes. London: Burns & Oates. 1873. (New York: Sold by The Catholic Publication Society.)

A controversial work written in a calm and mild tone is sure to claim attention and wise confidence, especially if that work deals with a difficult question, and one involved in much obscurity and uncertainty. Such is the style of the work before us, and such is the character of the question the Rev. Canon Estcourt treats—Anglican Ordinations.

This is truly a masterly work, and the author exhibits throughout that modesty which is the mark of a true scholar. But he does not condescend to his antagonist; he is fully aware that he is at warfare, but at warfare _pro causa veritatis_. He is a brave warrior, and wields a heavy weapon; he studies his foe well before he strikes, but, when he strikes, he strikes in a vital part.

We do not mean to say that he has finished the much-discussed question of Anglican ordinations, or that Anglicans will hereafter have nothing to say. They will always have something to say so long as the Establishment lasts. But we believe there are a large number of Anglicans who are serious and in earnest, and who conscientiously believe they have a priesthood, and it is among them we hope to see this book produce some practical result.

The present work starts out in the introduction with a “statement of the question” it is about to treat of, in which the author says he does not claim to bring forth much in the way of new facts or new principles, but aims rather at a more careful application of principles already laid down, and to show the real influence of the facts alleged by Anglicans (as, for instance, the consecration of Parker), even if true. It then states the Catholic doctrine on the question of holy orders, and finally lays down the principles of evidence to be followed in the investigation of historical facts.

The author commences with the “Origin of the Controversy,” in which, after showing how the seeds of heresy were first planted by Wyckliffe, and spread by the Lollards, and that the heresies on the Continent and in England were all one and the same growth—which Anglicans have so strenuously tried to deny—he exhibits the manner in which the Anglican rite was compiled, and shows that the form of ordination in the Edwardine ordinal was not primitive, but a compilation from the ritual of the Roman Church of the middle ages, there being nothing in it earlier than the IXth century, and most from the XIIIth and XIVth.

He then treats of the validity of the orders given in the new form, as tested by Queen Mary’s reign and the acts of Cardinal Pole, and shows by a number of cases, and a careful analysis of the different classes the Cardinal Legate had to deal with, that both “the Papal brief and the cardinal’s acts furnish the clearest possible evidence that the Holy See regarded the Edwardine ordinations as utterly worthless” (p. 40), and therefore that the Anglican claim of Catholics admitting these ordinations as valid is a false one.

The second, third, and fourth chapters are devoted to the “History of the Controversy.”

First, the mere matter of fact, with regard to those much-contested consecrations, is discussed. As to Barlow, the author, while giving the Anglicans the full benefit of all their documents and proofs of this poor man so involved in mist, shows that his consecration at least cannot be proved.

The author very justly concludes respecting Barlow that while we cannot come to any positive decision, yet, “with so many circumstances of suspicion arising from different quarters, yet pointing the same way, it is impossible to admit the fact of his consecration without more direct proof of it” (p. 81).

Parker’s case is next taken up. Of course, the author discards the Nag’s Head story; and with regard to the mere fact of Parker’s consecration having taken place, he acknowledges it must be admitted. But he shows that such a consecration, from the grave doubts whether Barlow was ever consecrated, and the manner in which ordinations of the Book of Common Prayer of 1552 were treated, was utterly worthless.

After giving the testimony of contemporary Catholics in the matter of Parker’s consecration, he says: “But taking them all together, it must be granted that they admit the fact of the consecration having taken place as alleged, but it is also evident that they imply some serious difficulty respecting it, and apparently touching the persons acting therein; and, further, that this difficulty extended so far as not merely to render the consecration uncanonical, unlawful, and irregular, but also to affect its validity” (p. 126).

Then having shown the practice of the church with those who returned to the true faith, he gives a list of the Anglican ministers who became reconciled to the Catholic Church down to the year 1704, and thus answers by facts the claim set up by Dr. Lee, founded on the alleged refusal of twelve converts to be reordained because they claimed to be true priests.

Next follows a short review of the controversy as carried on so far by both Anglicans and Catholics, after which commences what we consider as really the most important part of the book; for the rest of the work deals entirely with the _validity_ of Anglican ordinations.

This second half of the work we look upon as instituting a new era in the controversy. Heretofore, writers have occupied themselves principally with trying to disprove the facts with regard to the Anglican consecrations, and have done very little to prove the invalidity of such consecrations, even if they took place. Canon Estcourt has entered into this very thoroughly, and made it clear.

He commences by an examination of the most ancient forms of ordination, and coming down through the various rites, and giving the teaching of the fathers, shows what the matter and form of ordination most probably consists in. Having established this, he gives the practice of the church in her official decisions in two important cases.

The author has devoted a chapter to the refutation of the story of Pius IV. and Queen Elizabeth, which is the Anglican Nag’s Head, and which we suppose is at least well to have repeated, as there may be some on whom this worn-out fable would still have an influence.

In the concluding chapters, the argument is summed up, and “the inevitable conclusion follows that Anglican ordinations must be considered as altogether invalid, and that there is neither bishop, priest, nor deacon in the Anglican communion. And the reasons for this conclusion may be stated in a summary way as follows:

“1. Because from the year 1554 it has been the unvarying practice of the Catholic Church so to consider and treat them.

“2. Because there are grave doubts whether Barlow, the consecrator of Parker, had ever himself received episcopal consecration; and, in fact, the probabilities of the case incline more strongly against than in favor of it.

“3. Because the Anglican forms of ordination have been altered from the ancient forms, both by way of mutilation and addition, in such a manner as to exclude, on the part of those participating in the acts enjoined, any intention of conferring or receiving a sacrament, or sacramental grace, or a spiritual character, or any sacerdotal or episcopal power.

“4. Because the same forms have been also altered purposely, with the view of excluding the idea of the priest at his ordination receiving power to offer sacrifice.

“5. Because Anglican bishops and priests, at the time of ordination, join in a profession contrary to the Catholic faith in the holy sacrifice, thus assuming on themselves, by their own act, the spirit and erroneous intentions with which the alterations were made.

“6. Because the meaning here attributed to the Anglican forms receives confirmation from the fact of its being doubtful whether the word ‘priest’ in the Anglican forms of ordination means a priest in the sense of the Catholic Church; that is to say, _sacerdos_, ‘a sacrificing priest.’

“7. Because the meaning of the same forms is further illustrated from the ‘Order of Administration of Holy Communion’ in the Book of Common Prayer,

which is found to be contrary to the Catholic faith in the doctrines of the holy sacrifice of the Eucharist and the Real Presence” (pp. 373-4).

Let us leave the author’s last words for those who are serious and in earnest, to meditate upon:

“What, then, Anglicans have to consider, the questions they have to ask themselves, are these: What do they really believe about the grace of holy orders, and even about the grace of the sacraments in general? and next, What are the conditions on which that grace is ordinarily given? And then to look whether those conditions are fulfilled within the Anglican communion. If they would seriously, as in the sight of God, consider these points, we might hope to attain to truth, which is before all things, and after truth to see peace following in her train, and union, not based on vague terms and unharmonious professions, but in ‘one body and one spirit, as called in one hope of our vocation, one Lord, one faith one baptism’” (p. 379).

LECTURES ON CERTAIN PORTIONS OF THE EARLIER OLD TESTAMENT HISTORY. By Philip G. Munro, Priest of the Diocese of Nottingham, and Domestic Chaplain to the Earl of Gainsborough. Vol. I. London: Burns & Oates. 1873. (New York: Sold by The Catholic Publication Society.)

This being but the first volume of a most valuable work, we shall wait for the whole to be completed before writing a lengthy notice. We will only say at present that the solidity of scholarship which the work displays, together with its entertaining style, make it a long-desired aid to the study of the Holy Scriptures on the part of our educated laity.

What we have been most struck with in the present volume is the simple yet masterly proof of a visible church—_i.e._ a teaching authority—having always existed from the time of Adam; as also of the coeval use of place and ritual for the worship of God.

THE PROPHET OF CARMEL. By the Rev. Chas. Garside. London: Burns & Oates. 1873. (New York: Sold by The Catholic Publication Society.)

This is a peculiar work, hardly classifiable under any conventional head in religious literature. It has the charm of refined and elegant diction, joined to the weightier recommendation of practical usefulness. It is a history of the prophet Elias, following the startling yet meagre facts of his life as revealed in the Old Testament, and drawing from them analogies wonderfully suited to our own times, lives, temptations, and hopes. It is not one of the least perfections of that incomparable Book, the Holy Scriptures, that it should apply with such marvellous truth to any time, person, or circumstance; that it should offer as living a counsel, as efficacious a comfort, as dread a warning to every individual man in his own obscure orbit of to-day as it did thousands of years ago to exalted personages in unwonted trials. It is not only the political history of one people; it is the history of the human soul at all times and in all places. Thus, the author has drawn from the mysterious records of Elias—who at first would seem but a colossal saint, utterly removed from any appreciation that would seek to go beyond admiration—parallels between human duties and human weaknesses under the reign of Achab, and the same duties and weaknesses under the rulers of our day. There is something in this book of the alluring style of F. Faber’s religious works, but without that floweriness of speech of which no one was a safe master but that prose-poet himself.

THE VALIANT WOMAN. By Mgr. Landriot. Translated from the French by Helena Lyons. Boston: P. Donahoe. 1873.

This collection of discourses, addressed to women on the duties of their daily life by the former Bishop of La Rochelle, now Archbishop of Rheims, is a most valuable work, and contains an epitome of everything woman should do, know, and teach. There can hardly be too much of the same tenor written on this subject, and all that is written should be sown broadcast over Christendom by the best translations. That before our notice seems a very terse one, faithful but not slavish. Indeed, a translator often has it in his power to mar the whole effect of a most important work by dressing it in such unmistakably foreign garb that it becomes unacceptable to the peculiar mind of this or that nationality. Mgr. Landriot’s discourses, though addressed to French women and to _provinciales_, are couched in such broad terms, and inspired

by so comprehensive a spirit, that they are equally applicable to women of all nations, whether in populous cities or retired country towns. The conditions of all classes are also so delicately brought within the circle of his consideration that even poor and obscure women may find in them as effectual guidance as the wife of a cabinet minister or of a financial magnate. True Christianity alone can inspire true cosmopolitanism, and that without violating patriotism. The spirit of petty localism, or, in fact, of any narrow-mindedness on any subject, is foreign to the wise prelate’s mind, and nowhere defaces his writings; yet, at the same time, he knows how to make skilful use of his surroundings, and take illustrations from objects constantly before the eyes of his immediate hearers. In the fourth discourse he expounds the text of Proverbs, “She is like the merchant’s ship, she bringeth her bread from afar” (xxxi. 14); and speaking as the bishop of a seaport town to a community whose interests were probably in many cases connected with the sea, he draws the most original comparisons between an ideal woman and a perfect ship. Masts, helm, rigging, cargo, ballast, compass, chart, crew, etc., nothing is forgotten, and every detail tallies with some spiritual attribute of the life of a holy and “valiant” woman. In another place he compares woman to a bridge, the support and link of many souls, and makes the bold simile very plausible by his well-chosen remarks on the united flexibility and strength required in woman’s character. There is not a point of domestic life which he does not touch upon fearlessly, not a duty he does not point out minutely. Sins of sloth, of vanity, of imprudent speech, of undue susceptibility, are all unmasked; the relations between woman and those who come in contact with her as wife, mother, mistress, or friend are all accurately sketched; her pursuits are regulated, but with no intolerant hand; her sphere mapped out, but with no niggardly restrictions. Country life and occupation are commended as healthful for the body, and leading to peace of mind and soul; good sayings, tersely expressed, are scattered here and there; as, for instance: “Virtue and vice are distinguished by the quantity of the dose; put the right quantity, and you have a virtue; take away that quantity, or exceed it, and you have a vice.” There is in the whole work a tone of moderation singularly adapted to the needs of the day, a shrinking from exaggeration in any form, and a hesitancy in condemning anything the excess of which only can be styled a sin. The lecturer leans for these moderate views on the writings of S. Francis of Sales, that rare director of virtuous women in the world. One very beautiful idea, with which we do not remember ever to have met before in any shape, is that of the “divine magnetism” exercised by Providence, and which turns the bitterest draught of human woe into a delicious nectar for those who trust in God, while “the cup of earthly happiness” held to the lips of the “spoiled child of fortune ... has infused therein a poison to disturb and agitate the inmost depths of his being.”

The picture of the valiant woman of the Proverbs is thus brought before the eyes of women of the XIXth century, not as something magnificently inimitable, as personated by a Judith, a Jael, or an Esther, but as a perfectly attainable state, as exemplified by S. Monica, S. Paula, S. Elizabeth of Hungary. Neither the heroic, the learned, nor the commercial side of life is shut out from them, although the domestic is specially inculcated; and in Mgr. Landriot woman will find a meeter and more dignified champion than in the prophetesses of “woman’s rights.” Our only regret is that such “valiant” and perfect women should be so rare among us. A few such Christian matrons would revolutionize their sex.

RUPERT AUBREY, OF AUBREY CHASE. By the Rev. Thos. Potter. Boston: Patrick Donahoe. 1873.

This a short historical tale of the latter end of the XVIIth century, and is put together from various records of known details of the Titus Oates plot. It was quite another phase of religious persecution from that prevalent a hundred years before under Queen Elizabeth, and Titus Oates, in his hypocrisy and meanness, forms a contrast to the more open though not less cruel inquisitors of Tudor days. The incidents of the story are, as facts, quite imaginary, though fashioned in accordance with probability and the known incidents of similar _real_ vicissitudes; the style is very clear and agreeable, and the personages attractive in character, especially the old soldier and royalist, Sir Aubrey Aubrey. The details of the martyrdom of the saintly Archbishop of Armagh, Oliver Plunket, are beautifully woven in with the lesser but hardly less touching sorrows of the young Rupert, the hero of the tale. The end is bright and hopeful, unlike many of those solemn tragedies in days of old, but just such as is fitted to encourage the minds of our day. There is in the beginning of the book a very pleasant description of an old English village of Yorkshire, and a hint to travellers who, in frantic pursuit of distant pleasure, are whirled past such sylvan retreats on their way to fashionable places of “repose.”

A TREATISE ON THE PARTICULAR EXAMEN OF CONSCIENCE, ACCORDING TO THE METHOD OF S. IGNATIUS. By F. Luis de la Palma, S.J. With a Preface by F. George Porter, S.J. London: Burns & Oates. 1873. (New York: Sold by The Catholic Publication Society.)

It would be almost equal to the attempt “to gild refined gold” to speak approvingly of a work gotten up under the auspices and derived from the sources above indicated.

The Jesuits have always been accorded a practical eminence as father-confessors; and one who is familiar with the _Spiritual Exercises_ of S. Ignatius and the _History of the Sacred Passion_ of F. de la Palma will not doubt that he is, indeed, among the masters of the spiritual life while listening to the counsels contained in the present work.

SKETCHES OF IRISH SOLDIERS IN EVERY LAND. By Col. James E. McGee. New York: James A. McGee. 1873.

The half-historic, half-conversational style in which these sketches are written makes good display of the author’s undoubted powers; and this, too, in spite of some carelessness. With the exception of the unfortunate mention made of the share which Irish gentlemen took in the practice of duelling, the book is excellent reading. The subject is one invested with a sad charm for all who, by blood, or religion, or love of valor, can sympathize with a cruelly oppressed yet warlike and adventurous people. The author gives us only a small fragment of the history of Irish military exploits—“some flowers,” as the preface says, “culled from the immortal garlands with which modern history has enwreathed the brow of Irish valor.” Yet it suffices to produce a vivid impression of how Irishmen have done honor to their own race, and given generous and valuable service to the military enterprises of nearly every civilized nation. We hope that as good a pen and as appreciative a mind will some day give a complete history of the Irishmen who figured conspicuously in our late war. The author, indeed, dedicates his book to the memory of his countrymen “who fought and fell” in that great struggle, and refers specially to some few of them, while turning over to the future historian the task of doing them all full justice.

MEDITATIONS ON THE MOST BLESSED VIRGIN. By Most Hon. Brother Philippe, Superior General of the Brothers of the Christian Schools. Translated from the French. Baltimore: Kelly, Piet & Co. 1874.

This substantial volume bears the _imprimatur_ of His Grace the Archbishop of Baltimore. And the other approbation, by the Vicar-General of the Right Rev. Bishop of Versailles, says that the writer is officially assured that the work “will prove a new and most precious fountain from which pious souls may be abundantly supplied with the healing waters of devotion to the Mother of God.” From what we have had time to see of the book, we also are convinced that it is a most solid and valuable addition to the best manuals of a devotion which can never be exhausted, but, on the contrary, is destined to increase till He who first came into the world by Mary shall in some sense come again by her.

We therefore welcome this volume very gratefully, and recommend it to our Catholic readers.

ANNOUNCEMENTS.—The Catholic Publication Society has in press, and will publish this fall, _The Life of the Most Rev. M. J. Spalding, D.D._, Archbishop of Baltimore, by Rev. J. L. Spalding, S.T.L. It will make a large 8vo volume of over 500 pages, and will be brought out in good style. Also in press, _The Life and Doctrine of S. Catharine of Genoa_; _The Illustrated Catholic Family Almanac for 1874_; and _Good Things_, a compilation from the _Almanac_ for the last five years, making a handsomely illustrated presentation volume.

FOOTNOTES:

[1] 1 Cor. xiii. 1-3.

[2] We had intended to give a brief outline of what the church has done from time to time for the various forms of human want, but found we could not do so in the present article without departing from the diversified character essential to a magazine. Such a sketch of the efforts made by the church, during her long history, to alleviate physical suffering, and for the moral elevation of the race, would almost be a history of the church itself, inasmuch as the poor have always been her heritage, in accordance with our Lord’s words. To the Catholic reader this would have been unnecessary; and if this reference serves the purpose of inducing the candid non-Catholic to look into the record, a desirable end will have been accomplished.

[3] _Constitution of U. S._, Art. 1, of Amendments.

[4] _Kent_, ii. 24.

[5] _Story on the Constitution_, ii. 661.

[6] _Report of Special Committee_, p. 17.

[7] _Monthly Record_, p. 285.

[8] _Catholic Review_, January 11, 1873.

[9] _Twelfth Annual Report_, p. 12.

[10] See _Half a Century with Juvenile Delinquents_. By the Chaplain of the House of Refuge, Rev Mr. Pierce.

[11] _Nineteenth Annual Report_, p. 12.

[12] _Blackstone’s Com._, part. i, p. 137.

[13] _Sunday Mercury_, June 23, 1872.

[14] _Investigation into the Management of the Providence Reform School_, made by the Board of Aldermen, under the direction of the City Council of the City of Providence, 1869.

[15]

“_Indico legno, lucido e sereno_:”

Whatever kind of richly tinted wood is referred to in this passage, _lucid_ and _serene_ do not seem very descriptive epithets, applied to wood, and it is not much after the manner of Dante to qualify any object with two vague adjectives. As he is presenting an assemblage of the most beautiful and striking colors, and since we do not imagine (as Mr. Ruskin suggests) that by “Indico legno” he could have meant _indigo_, it seems most natural that he should have mentioned _blue_. We have therefore ventured to translate as if the verse were written, “Indico legno, lucido sereno.” In a preceding Canto (V.) the poet has used _sereno_ in the same way, without the article—“_fender sereno_” also in Canto XXIX., v. 53:

“Più chiaro assai che Luna per sereno.”

—_Trans._

[16] A name given in derision to the German nation.

[17] One of the martyrs omitted by Foxe.

[18] _The Fuller Worthies’ Library._ The Complete Poems of Robert Southwell, S.J., for the first time fully collected, and collated with the original and early editions and MSS., and enlarged with hitherto unprinted and inedited poems from MSS. at Stonyhurst College, Lancashire. Edited, with Memorial Introduction and Notes, by the Rev. Alexander H. Grosart, St. George’s, Blackburn, Lancashire. London: Printed for private circulation (156 copies only). 1872.

[19] Turnbull, p. xvi.

[20] _The Condition of Catholics under James I._ Father Gerard’s narrative. London. 1872.

[21] So printed in Strype.

[22] Topcliffe here describes what he facetiously likens to a Tremshemarn trick with great delicacy. It was, in fact, a piece of horrible torture, by which the prisoner was hung up for whole days by the hands so that he could just touch the ground with the tips of his toes.

[23] See _Annals of the Reformation_, Strype, Oxford, 1824 ed., vol. vii. p. 185. If the reader has any curiosity to see more remarkable proof of the infamy of this man, Topcliffe, he may peruse another letter in Strype, vol. vii. p. 53.

[24] He was afterwards condemned and executed as a traitor.

[25] For this and many other cases see, _Martyrs Omitted by Foxe_. London. 1872. Compiled by a member of the English Church. With a preface by the Rev. Frederick George Lee, D.C.L., F.S.A., Vicar of All Saints’, Lambeth.

[26] _Retrospective Review_, vol. iv., 1821, p. 270.

[27] _Specimens of the Early English Poets_, first edition, vol. ii. p. 166.

[28] Vol. i. p. 644, fourth edition.

[29] _Notes of Ben Jonson’s Conversations with William Drummond of Hawthornden_, p. 13.

[30] Here are seven of its seventeen stanzas:

Enough, I reckon wealth;
A mean the surest lot,
That lies too high for base contempt,
Too low for envy’s shot.

My wishes are but few,
All easy to fulfil,
I make the limits of my power
The bounds unto my will.

I feel no care of coyne,
Well-doing is my wealth;
My mind to me an empire is,
While grace affordeth health.

I clip high-climbing thoughts,
The wings of swelling pride;
Their fall is worst, that from the height
Of greatest honors slide.

Spare diet is my fare,
My clothes more fit than fine;
I know I feed and clothe a foe
That, pampered, would repine.

To rise by others’ fall
I deem a losing gain;
All states with others’ ruins built,
To ruin run amain.

No change of Fortune’s calms
Can cast my comforts down;
When Fortune smiles, I smile to think
How quickly she will frown.

[31] This was a German Reformer who died in 1551. His name was Kuhhorn (Cowshorn), but, after the fashion of that day, he Greekified it into _Bous_ (ox) and _Keras_ (horn): the same as Melanchthon, another German Reformer, changed his name from Schwarzed (black earth).

[32] Abbots were then, as Bishops are now, Members of the House of Lords.

[33] Some of these “foundations” were made up with Secular Priests, who had pensions to say Masses for the souls of the founders.

[34] “Premunire” is a punishment inflicted by Statute, and consists of the offender’s being out of the Queen’s protection, forfeiting his lands and goods, and imprisoned during the pleasure of the Monarch.

[35] “That which is most divine in the heart of man never finds utterance for want of words to express it. The soul is infinite [this is saying too much: it is one thing to be infinite, and another to have a sense of the infinite], and language consists only of a limited number of signs perfected by use as a means of communication among the vulgar.”—Lamartine, _Preface des Premières Meditations_.

[36] As we are not without experience in the management of children, we cannot agree with our contributor in the proposed banishment of the rod from the nursery, however much we may prefer moral suasion when found effectual.—ED. C. W.

[37] Canadian snow-shoes.

[38] Breviary.

[39] The _ex-voto_ spoken of in the beginning of our story represents this scene.

[40] Cap worn by the peasantry.

[41] Luke xvi. 9.

[42] “A great politician is dead!”

[43] “This will be a dangerous spirit.”

[44] _Land of the Veda._ By Rev. Dr. Butler.

[45] _Papers relating to the Foreign Relations of the United States_, transmitted to Congress with the Annual Message of the President, December 4, 1871.

[46] _British Blue-Book._ China, No. 3, 1871.

[47] _Evolution of Life._ By Henry C. Chapman, M.D. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co. 1873.

[48] See _Dublin Review_, July, 1871.

[49] Hugonis Floriacensis _de Regia Potestate_ lib. i. 4 ap. Baluze _Miscell._ ii.

[50] Petr. Blesens, _Epist._ lxxxvi.

[51] _S. Francis de Sales_, Bishop and Prince of Geneva. Rivingtons: London, Oxford, and Cambridge.

[52] “Drink water out of thy own cistern, and the streams of thy own well; let thy fountains be conveyed abroad, and in the streets divide thy waters.”—_Proverbs_ v. 15,16.

[53] The title of his bishopric, by which Francis de Sales was then generally known in Paris.

[54] “_J’ai ajouté beaucoup de petites chosettes_,” he said. “_Petites chosettes_” is almost untranslatable in its deprecating modesty.

[55] In 1656, forty editions had already appeared.

[56] “Il met force sucre et force miel au bord du vase.”

[57] See _Dictionnaire de l’Académie Française. Préface de M. Villemain_. He says: “En 1637, l’Académie avait discuté longtemps sur la méthode à suivre pour dresser un Dictionnaire qui fût comme le trésor et le magasin des termes simples et des phrases reçues. Puis, elle s’était occupée du choix des auteurs qui avaient écrit le plus purement notre langue, et dont les passages seraient insérés dans le Dictionnaire. C’étaient pour la prose”—and he then gives a list of authors, as above indicated.

[58] A translator—a traitor.

[59] Pallavicini, _History of the Council of Trent_, b. vi. ch. xi. No. 4.

[60] See Renan’s _Vie de Jésus_, Introduction; also, Albert Réville, _Revue des Deux Mondes_, for May and June, 1866.

[61] Pallavicini, _History of the Council of Trent_, b. vi. ch. xi. Leplat, _Monum. Conc. Trid._, vol. iii. p. 386 _et seq._

[62] M. de Pressensé means the _deutero-canonical_ books of the Old Testament. _Deutero-canonical_ and _apocryphal_ are by no means synonymous. The authenticity of the deutero-canonical books has been demonstrated sufficiently often within three centuries to prevent a writer, with any respect for himself, from alluding to them as apocryphal.

[63] We wish M. de Pressensé would be kind enough to inform us what Fathers of the IId and IIId centuries have questioned the origin of the Gospel according to S. Matthew. We are well aware that French rationalists have borrowed the German idea of a primitive Gospel, which, perhaps, served as a basis for the other abridgments. The promoters of this system are Eichorn, Eckermann, Gieseler, Credner, and Ewald, in Germany; in France, Messrs. Réville and Renan have lent to it the support of their names. They have endeavored to support it by one or two words of Papias, which by no means prove so strange an assertion. Where are the Fathers of the IId and IIId centuries who had any doubt as to the authenticity of the first Gospel? As to the Epistle to the Hebrews, we wish M. de Pressensé would read a few pages on this question by the Rev. Père Franzelin, in his able treatise, _De Traditione et Scriptura_. He would see how little doubt the Fathers of the first ages had respecting this epistle. Some, on account of the absence of S. Paul’s name, and the difference of style, have doubted it was by the doctor of nations, but all the Fathers, unless we except two or three of the least known, invariably asserted its canonicity. For it is one thing to doubt whether S. Paul was the author of this epistle and another that it is of the number of inspired books.

[64] _Histoire du Concile du Vatican_, p. 283.

[65] Pressensé, _Histoire du Concile du Vatican_, ch. xi.

[66] _Hist. Revelat. Bibl._, Auct. D. Haneberg, p. 774.

[67] Sess. XIV. _De Extr. Unct._, c. i. can. i.

[68] _Défense de la Tradition des SS. Pères.—Instruction sur la Version de Trévoux._

[69] _Myths and Myth-Makers_: Old Tales and Superstitions Interpreted by Comparative Mythology. By John Fiske, M.A., LL.B., Assistant Librarian and Late Lecturer on Philosophy at Harvard University.

[70] Page 122.

[71] Tob. ii. 19.

[72] Eccl. xvii. 5.

[73] Ibid. xxvi. 3, 16.

[74] Prov. xix. 15.

[75] Levit. xxv. 39, 40, 53.

[76] Numb. xxx. 10.

[77] Deut. xv. 12-14.

[78] Acts. xvi. 14, 15.

[79] Ibid. xvi. 40.

[80] Rom. xvi. 1, 2.

[81] Judith viii. 7.

[82] Prov. xxxi. 10-31.

[83] “Young Adam Cupid, he that shot so trim.”—Modern editions of _Romeo and Juliet_.

[84] White’s _Shakespeare’s Scholar_, 371, 372.

[85] See note 2, as to “Abraham-men,” in _King Lear_, Singer’s Edition, act ii. sc. iii.

[86] _Satires_, b. iii. sat. 5.

[87] Perusing, while this article is in the press, Thackeray’s ingenious story of _Catherine_, we observe that he describes one of his characters (in the year 1705) as wearing “an enormous full-bottomed periwig that cost him sixty pounds.”

[88] Cook’s _Voyages_, vi. 61.

[89] Browne’s _British Pastorals_, b i. s. v.

[90] _Hamlet_ (song), act iv. sc. v.

[91] Fawkes, _Apollonius Rhodius_. The Argonautics, b. iii.

[92] Sir M. Sandys’ _Essays_ (1634), p 16.

[93] Anthon’s _Classical Dictionary_.

[94] Keightley’s _Mythology_, 112.

[95] _Redgauntlet_, i., pp. 219, 220. Ticknor & Co.’s edition.

[96] _Spectator_, 129.

[97] Notes to _Dunciad_, b. i. p. 260. British Poets, Little & Brown’s ed.

[98] “The Fair One with the Golden Locks” was a Christmas piece produced on the stage in London, in 1843. See Planché’s _Recollections_, etc., ii. 67.

[99] In Thackeray’s _Catherine_, already quoted, a character appears with “a little shabby beaver cocked over a large _tow-periwig_.” Still further on he tells us that one of his principal personages “mounted a large chestnut-colored orange-scented pyramid of horse-hair.” Indeed, we have reason to believe that the judges and the bar in England still wear wigs manufactured out of the latter article.

[100] To show, by a further instance, the employment of another article than hair for the manufacture in question some time ago. Thackeray, in his _Book of Snobs_, chapter xxxiv., tells us of a London “coachman in a tight _silk-floss_ wig.”

[101] 2 _Henry VI._, iv. 8.

[102] A sum estimated at about seven million francs of modern money.

[103] Fearless and stainless.

[104] Gilt door.

[105] “A guarded prisoner is not bound by any oath, nor can he be held to any vow made under compulsion.”

[106] For the preceding articles of this series, the reader is referred to THE CATHOLIC WORLD for December, 1868, and June, 1870.

[107] See _Myvyrian_, vol. i. p. 150.

[108] _Trioed inis Prydain_, vol. iii. s. 1.

[109] _Myvyrian._

[110] _De Schismate Donatistarum_, lib. iii. c. 2.

[111] _De Civ. Dei_, lib. xviii. c. 23.

[112] “We read everywhere that this world is a sea.”

[113] Gal. iii.; John xv. 16.

[114] Minucius Felix, _Octav._, c. 9.; Justin, _Dialogicum Tryph._, c. 10; Athenagoras, _Legatio_, c. 3. etc.

[115] In ancient usage, the Holy Eucharist was put into the hands of the Christians.

[116] Maurus Wolter, _The Roman Catacombs, and the Sacraments of the Catholic Church_, p. 28.

[117] Overbeck, _History of Greek Plastic Art_, ii. 29.

[118] “Nihil præter Catholicam fidem, et quidquid Sancta Romana Ecclesia approbat, a me unquam prolatum est, cujus castigationi semper me subjeci, et quoties oportuerit iterum atque iterum me subjicio.... Manifeste apparebit, an ego hæresium, quod absit, an Catholicæ veritatis sim disseminator.”

“No word of mine can be produced against Catholic faith or against whatever is approved by the Catholic Church, to whose correction I have always submitted, and, if need be, again and for ever submit myself.... It will be made manifest whether I have disseminated heresy—far be it from me—or Catholic truth.”

[119] _La Storia di Girolamo Savonarola e de’ suoi Tempi, Narrata da Pasquale Villari con l’Aiuto di Nuovi Documenti. Firenze. 1859._

[120] The original is very picturesque: “A ciò ch’el diavolo non mi salti sopra le spalle.”

[121] He ruled from 1469 to 1492.

[122] “Egli secondò il secolo in tutte le sue tendenze: di corrotto che era, lo fece corrottissimo.” “He helped forward the period in all its tendencies,” says Villari. “From corrupt he made it most corrupt.”

[123] M. Perrens and Dean Milman both express some doubt as to this fact, but we prefer to follow Villari, whose explanation of the matter is satisfactory.

[124] Here are his own words: “E mi rammento come predicando nel Duomo l’anno 1491, ed avendo già composto il mio sermone sopra questi visioni, deliberai di sopprimerle e nell’avvenire astenerme affatto. Iddio mi è testimonio, che tutto il giorno di sabato e l’intera notte sino alla nuove luce, io vegliai; ed ogni altra via, ogni dottrina fuori di quella, mi fu tolta. In sull’alba, essendo per la lunga vigilia stanco ed abbattuto, udii, mentre io pregava, una voce che mi disse: Stolto, non vedi che Iddio vuole che tu sequiti la medesima via? Perchè io feci quel giorno una predica tremenda.”

[125] The original is, “Avendo perduto ogni fiducia degli uomini,” which the English Protestant translator (London, 1871) renders, “He had lost all confidence in the priests.”

[126] We have followed Villari in the account of this interview. M. Perrens questions its authenticity for several very good reasons. If it was a confession, no one would know anything about it. But it is claimed by some that it was merely a consultation on a case of conscience, and that Politian was an _ocular_ though not an _auricular_ witness. If such an interview took place, we should be inclined to admit Villari’s account of it only on the latter hypothesis.

[127] Master of the Hounds.

[128] Pavilion of Stoves.

[129] Comedian.

[130] Tragedian.

[131] 2 Thess. ii. 4.

[132] Job. x. 22.

[133] No. 360 of the journal _Il Precursore_, of Palermo, dared lately to apply to the Sovereign Pontiff Pius IX. the names sacristan-pontiff, blockhead, dullard, swindler, huckster, dotard, and other epithets so coarse that the pen refuses to transcribe them. But the Italian Exchequer, notwithstanding the law which declares the Pope to be as inviolable as the king, found nothing to say against this foul sheet. And the government pretends that the so-called law of guarantees is scrupulously observed by it. We appeal to the common sense, not of Christians, but of persons simply not barbarians like the Hottentots.

[134] Apoc. ii. 16.

[135] “Sunt quatuor persecutiones principales: prima tyrannorum, secunda hæreticorum, tertia falsorum Christianorum, quarta erit ex omnibus conflata, quæ erit Antichristi et suorum complicium. Et hæ designatæ sunt in quatuor bestiis quas vidit Daniel.”—_S. Bonav. in cap._ xvii. _Lucæ._ Again, see _Ugone card. sup. Psal._ liv.

[136] 2 Timothy iii. 1-4.

[137] _Osservatore Romano_, Jan. 8, 1873.

[138] Rev. John Henry Newman.

[139] The opinions of the Abbé Gaume are generally regarded by the most competent judges of matters pertaining to the higher Catholic education as exaggerated. We concur in this judgment, which is, moreover, in accordance with the instructions on this subject emanating from the Holy See. At the same time, we are strongly convinced that there is a very considerable amount of truth in the criticisms of the Abbé Gaume on the actual method of education even in strictly Catholic colleges, and that it needs to be made more Christian.—Ed. C. W.

[140] It may well be doubted whether this was a real advantage.—Ed. C. W.

[141] _Hieronymus Savonarola und seine Zeit. Aus den Quellen dargestellt._ Von A. G. Rudelbach. Hamburg. 1835.

[142] Girolamo Savonarola, aus grösstentheils Handschriftlichen Quelten dargestellt. Von Fr. Karl Meier. Berlin. 1836.

[143] This passage certainly does not prove Savonarola to have been a great philosopher.—Ed. C. W.

[144] Translated in England more than two hundred years ago. _The Truth of the Christian Faith; or, The Triumph of the Cross of Christ._ By Hier. Savonarola. Done into English out of the Author’s own Italian copy, etc. Cambridge John Field, Printer to the University. There is also a modern translation by O’Dell Travers Hill, F.R.G.S., a handsome edition. Hodder & Stoughton, London. 1868.

[145] “Seeing the whole world in confusion; every virtue and every noble habit disappeared; no shining light; none ashamed of their vices.”

[146] A precisely similar vision is described by Christopher Columbus as having appeared to him in America when he was abandoned by all his companions. The letter in which he speaks of this vision is given by the rationalist Libri in his _Histoire des Sciences Mathématiques_, and he justly describes it as one of the most eloquent in Italian literature.

[147] Cicero says: “Fuit jam a Platone accepta philosophandi ratio triplex: una de vita et moribus; altera de natura et rebus occultis; tertia de disserendo, et quid verum, quid falsum, quid rectum in oratione, pravumque, quid consentiens, quid repugnans, judicando” (_Acad._ lib. i. 6). This division is still recognizable in our modern logic, metaphysics, and ethics.

[148] Ex. xviii. 25.

[149] London _Times_, April 19.

[150] London _Spectator_.

[151] _Saturday Review._

[152] London _Spectator_, April 26.

[153] This sentence, we wish to have it distinctly understood, is one which we approve only in the sense that loyalty to the church takes precedence of patriotism, but not that it is indifferent whether a man is a patriot or not, provided he be a good Catholic.—ED. C. W.

[154] “I sleep and my Heart watcheth.”

[155] “I say, my Jesus, thou art _mad_ with love.”—_S. Mary Magdalen of Pazzi._

[156] See THE CATHOLIC WORLD, December, 1868.

[157] _I.e._, _Ill-gotten gain never profits_. “Pol” is a contemptuous name in Brittany for Satan, who is said to have horned hoofs shod with silver, but he has always lost one of his shoes.

[158] The head of Morvan, after the battle, was taken to the monk Witchar, who held on the Breton frontier an abbey, by permission of the Frankish king.

[159] Lez-Breiz was slain A.D. 818. In seven years after that date, Guionfarc’h, another of his family, arose, as a second Lez-Breiz, to resist the encroachments of France, and maintain the independence of Brittany.

[160] Ermold Nigel.

[161] This mystical plant was only to be plucked by the hand: if cut with any blade of steel, misfortune of some kind was always supposed to follow.

[162] Ablutions were anciently made before a repast at the sound of a horn; thus “korna ann dour”—to horn the water.

[163] The balls (six) in the arms of the Medici.

[164] _Discorso circa il Reggimento i Governo degli Stati e Specialmente sopra il Governo di Firenze._

[165] O’Dell Travers Hill, F.R.G.S., author of a biographical sketch of Savonarola, and translator of _The Triumph of the Cross_. London: Hodder and Stoughton. 1858.

[166] The most conclusive proof of the orthodoxy of Savonarola’s doctrine is found in the fact that his works, after a rigorous official scrutiny at Rome, were pronounced free from any error of faith or morals deserving censure.—ED. C. W.

[167] Song of Solomon, i. 6.

[168] This pillar was destined by the first Napoleon for the decoration of the triumphal arch at Milan, the intended monument of his Italian victories. His fall frustrated the design. Many years later, Wordsworth, while descending into Italy by the Simplon Pass, came upon the unfinished mass as it lay half raised from the Alpine quarry, and addressed to it his sublime sonnet beginning:

“Ambition, following down the far-famed slope,”

and proceeding:

“Rest where thy course was stayed by power Divine.”

[169] _Ann._ l. iv. ch. xlvi.